Testament - Titans of Creation (2020)^{Release ID: 17903}

Sometimes albums just slip by you, don’t they? Whilst I would not class myself as an avid fan of Testament exactly, I do have a few of their albums and made a purchase of Formation of Damnation on vinyl in the last twelve months. Yet somehow Titans of Creation slipped by me unnoticed. I could say “more or less” unnoticed because now I have gone back to my catalogue Excel spreadsheet I can see that I rated this record at three out of five, which could suggest an average album, or (given that I never transferred that rating onto Metal Academy) more likely that it was a holding score until I could find time to give the record a critical listen. News today that a new album is in the offing, in a year that has little in the way of quality releases stacking up in The Pit clan, brought this album from five years ago back onto my radar.

The fact is, Titans of Creation is a great thrash metal record. I would go as far as to say Testament’s best since 2008’s Formation… album that I enjoyed so much I made a physical purchase of it. Following the mediocre Dark Roots of Earth and the flat sounding Brotherhood of the Snake, Titans… is a much more dynamic sounding record. Opening strongly with the racing ‘Children of the Next Level’ I immediately sensed that the band indeed had upped their game to the next level in a literal sense. The guitars and vocals especially sound like they have a burning hunger to them, the lead work is nothing short of exceptional at times which is something that has been missing for too long on Testament records. ‘Dreamer Deceiver’ is brilliant in this regard and it is a toss up between this track and ‘False Prophet’ for which is my standout moment on the record.

Inevitably almost, with twelve tracks in play, there are some blunted moments where the razor-sharp nature of what we have heard overall gets the edge taken off it. After a solid first half of the record, things do get a little patchy thereafter, but they never go into full on filler mode thankfully. Whilst it may not always translate into fluid thrashing music, the energy levels behind it rarely abate and that is so refreshing to hear from a band at this stage of their career. The outro to the record seems particularly pointless in the grand scheme of things but I still find it forgivable if a few less-than-ideal moments slip through due to clear overexuberance on the bands part. If they can carry this enthusiasm through into Para Bellum later this week then I personally be a very happy chappy.

As I continue to test out my strength in The Pit, I decided to check out another Testament album, their latest one, at least until their next album that will possibly continue the 4-year intervals between releases. The quality is still in a decent strong level as in the other Testament album I've review, The Formation of Damnation. There are quite some good things to enjoy in album #13, Titans of Creation...

Adding to the "13" superstition, the album was released during the dark terrors of COVID, and in the weeks surrounding the album's release, vocalist Chuck Billy and bassist Steve Di Giorgio were both tested positive for the virus. Fortunately, they recovered. And the positive reception this 12-track album claimed is a good light in the darkness.

Opening up "Children of the Next Level" is what to expect in this awesome song and the rest of the album, thrash aggression with some melody. Kicking up the heavy drums is "WWIII". What's also interesting in that song in the main riff. "Dream Deceiver" has a catchy chorus. Moving forward, "Night of the Witch" displays a bit of rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson's Ihsahn-like screamed vocals that he adopted from his other band Dragonlord.

Opening the next composition "City of Angels" is some prominent thick bass that thrashes along with the rhythm guitar. Then we get ahead to "Ishtar’s Gate", which has an Egyptian-like vibe in the music. Next tune "Symptoms" has some cool riffing melody in the intro, which then leads to heavier patterns. While they're worth moshing along to, they're a little too predictable and at fault. "False Prophet" is where is the earlier glory of this album seems to be fading out. The heaviness is still around, but at that point, it's getting more predictable and listeners would want something to really spice it up.

"The Healers" returns to the death/thrash glory that has swept the American nation in the late 80s, even having unexpected tremolos. "Code of Hammurabi" with more of the prominent bass playing a riff that is then played by the guitars, lead straight into typical thrash. The album's last full song, "Curse of Osiris" is filled with the pure heaviness of thrash that shall ignite speedy mosh-pits. You can't forget the black metal-ish parts with more of Peterson's vocals. "Catacombs" is an OK sign-off outro.

In the chaos of a deadly disease, Titans of Creation proves that no matter how old the members are, they're as strong as they were when they were young. For 4 decades, one of the most well-known American thrash bands besides the Big 4 continue their roots and reinvent themselves with more of the heavy riff complexity from the guitar duo of Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick. The drumming by Gene Hoglan has more progressive diversity. Listeners might argue that this album is twice as long as a thrash release should be, with only the singles being good. I still find good unique work in a few other songs, not just the singles, though some improvement could've been in order....

Favorites: "Children of the Next Level", "WWIII", "Night of the Witch", "City of Angels", "The Healers", "Curse of Osiris"

I have made the controversial claim in the last few years across multiple platforms that Testament have been making better thrash metal albums in the 21st century than all of their contemporaries in the big four. I don't think anyone will argue that statement with Metallica, but I've seen many people argue Megadeth and Slayer. Fewer people argue for Anthrax, even though I believe that they are closest. I really enjoyed Brotherhood of the Snake from 2016 and with this new album, Titans of Creation... well, it certainly sounds like a Testament album. Which is a good thing, since the album is well produced, has some pretty good hooks on tracks like "Dream Deceiver", "Ishtar's Gate" and "Code of Hammurabi", and the bass actually plays a presence on many of these tunes. Granted, I do believe that the rhythm guitar does take too much presence in the mix, frequently drowning out the low end. And Chuck Billy's vocals are sounding more like Mudvayne's Chad Grey than ever before (take that for what you will).

This album does run long (seems to be a theme with recent thrash metal albums) and at certain moments it can be quite redundant. But overall, I found this album quite enjoyable. It isn't as memorable as Brotherhood of the Snake was, but when comparing to other recent thrash albums from Death Angel and Sepultura, this is still solid. I struggled on this rating, but I feel confident that this album is on the cusp of greatness, but falters due to heightened expectations.

I'm gonna go against perceived wisdom here and say that I really enjoyed this thirteenth and latest album from the Bay Area veteran thrashers. When their contemporaries have basically thrown the towel in and either called it a day or pretty much dispensed with thrash metal altogether, Testament are still going strong and tearing out riffs like they're going out of style. Those riffs are groove-laden, medium pacers for the most part, but they're still great and couple that with the album's real strengths, the mesmerising and incendiary solos and Chuck Billy's still unbelievably vibrant vocals and you have a winner in my book. Sure, it's too long, a lot of the lyrics are hokey nonesense and there's a song about nuclear war (how much more 1980's can you get), but I just spent all morning listening to this, nodding my head, tapping my feet and with a big smile on my face, despite being in pandemic lockdown.