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Testament: The ritual
30/08/11 || Smalley
1992’s “The ritual” is a divisive one alright; coming right in middle of the massive half-thrash wave that “The black album” unleashed upon the world, some consider it a sell-out record that conformed to the zeitgeist of those metal times, and was yet another decline for the band in the course of their post-“The new order” records (even though TNO itself is actually pretty vanilla). On the other hand, some can appreciate it as a catchy, mostly consistent, toned-down-thrash album, a group that I include myself among. “The ritual” isn’t a great album, nor Testament’s best, and you probably won’t listen to it ad nauseum, but for the limited goals that it sets for itself, it’s actually pretty satisfying, and could do with a lil’ more love than it currently gets.
After a completely needless thirty-second intro of Skolnick wanking on his guitar in “Signs of chaos” (bands, if you’re gonna have intro tracks, make sure they’re interesting), “Electric crown” kicks in with Eric Peterson’s catchy, effective, mid-tempo, not-quite-shredding riffing, in a very nice opener (“Signs” don’t count). It’s nothing incredible, but “crown” still contains entertaining, well-paced, well-orchestrated songwriting overall, so I still have to say it’s more than satisfactory in the end.
From there, the slower, more punishing pace of “So many lies”, the insistent grooves of “Let go of my world” & “Deadline”, and the successfully melancholic-without-being-sell-out metal ballad “Return to serenity” round up “The ritual” as a pretty good record overall. Test does a surprisingly good job here of changing up their sound without resorting to the shiny production or overly-commercialized songwriting of “The black album”, making “The ritual” feel like more of a genuine career change that they did for themselves instead of a way to appeal to the arena-metal crowd (or even to non-metalheads), and sell more records as a result.
It’s a nice way of them retaining some of old-school thrash’s anti-establishment attitude without actually keeping the old-school thrash tempos. Not to imply that everything here is a hit; album closer “Troubled dreams” is bit of a dud, and while everything else is solid, I’m not in the mood to listen to certain tracks as much as I am for the very best here.
Still, “The ritual” remains a worthwhile, under-appreciated entry in the band’s body of work, and while I can understand why some don’t like it, anyone who says it’s the weaker record when put next to the cruddy-sounding “Souls of black” , the clunky “Low”, or the snore-inducing “Formation of damnation” is off his damn rocker. While there are few real surprises in store here, and it isn’t the best of those old-school thrash bands’ transitions into slower tempos, I still say that for the potential enjoyment it could give you, “The ritual” is more than worth a shot.
- Information
- Released: 1992
- Label: Atlantic
- Website: www.testamentlegions.com
- Band
- Chuck Billy: vocals
- Eric Peterson: guitars
- Alex Skolnick: guitars
- Greg Christian: bass
- Louie Clemente: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Signs Of Chaos
- 02. Electric Crown
- 03. So Many Lies
- 04. Let Go of My World
- 05. The Ritual
- 06. Deadline
- 07. As The Seasons Grey
- 08. Agony
- 09. The Sermon
- 10. Return To Serenity
- 11. Troubled Dreams
