Testament - Low (1994)^{Release ID: 1506}

A groovier, heavier Testament, but a slightly disappointing album.

Testament were right up there with my favourite bands in the late 80s. The New Order was awesome, and I even found some enjoyment to be had in albums that others don't appreciate such as The Ritual. But I remember distinctly being quite disappointed with Low and I still feel that way today. Sure, the band added a fair amount of groove and a powerful production to this album and Chuck Billy's vocals have never been this aggressive and awesome, but many of the songs just fail to make their mark on me.

This is all made even more surprising when I consider that the ever-reliable James Murphy took over on guitar (from the also godly Alex Skolnick) for this album. While there are some obvious Murphy leads on a couple of tracks (particularly on Urotsukidoji), for the most part he doesn't really stand up and be counted the way he normally does on that front. This is still a Testament album though, and there are still numerous good tracks such as Low, Hail Mary and the brutal Dog Faced Dogs. But the album falls away towards the end, with none of the last few tracks making any sort of impression. All up, Low is a slightly above average album that should have been more given all the ingredients.

Let's be honest with ourselves, US thrash metal legends Testament had gone off the boil a bit during the first half of the 1990's. While records like 1990's "Souls of Black" & 1992's "The Ritual" where serviceable enough metal albums, they weren't really at the same class as the bands more highly regarded 80's releases so I'd imagine that Testament were feeling a little bit of pressure to revive their heyday. The fact that "The Ritual" also saw them watering their sound down a touch with a stronger heavy metal influence probably didn't help & I feel that Testament's sixth full-length "Low" is probably a bit of a reaction to the negative impressions they would have received from some sections of the thrash metal community as it sees Testament returning with arguably their heaviest release to the time. The success of Pantera & the groove metal genre was clearly not lost on the Californians as "Low" sees Testament dropping most of the more accessible heavy metal leanings of "The Ritual", down-tuning their guitars further than ever before (generally a step or a step & a half) & throwing in deeper, almost death metal growls from time to time. Now, that probably sounds like it should offer me a fair bit of appeal on paper but the reality is that I haven't returned to "Low" since the mid-90's so there's gotta be something in that, right? The decades since have seen me largely forgetting about this record so it's time for a revisit to see where it sits in Testament's prestigious back catalogue to the time.

Let's get one thing straight right from the offset, "Low" is still first & foremost a thrash metal record so I don't think too many diehard fans would have been turned off by the stylistic changes the band had opted for on their sixth full-length. It's just that it "feels" a little more like a groove metal record at times & the reason for that is the extra down-tuning which takes a little bit of the shred out of the more exciting riffs in hope that the extra bottom-end will appeal to the mid-90's market a little more. I'm not sure whether it did or not but I can certainly say that I prefer Testament's thrashier & more electric sound personally. Chuck Billy's attempts at a more guttural delivery aren't too bad though & I know that was something that excited me the first time Ben played me his CD copy of "Low" shortly after release. These stylistic changes see many of the twelve tracks falling into the space between thrash & groove metal which is the reason why many people seem to tag "Low" as such (me included).

The inclusion of a ballad had become somewhat of a formality for Testament over the course of the previous three records & here we see them pulling it off with aplomb as the emotive "Trail of Tears" is one of the clear highlights of the album. It's interesting that Testament had also opted to include two instrumentals here too, both of which see them taking the listener into some fresh stylistic space to varying levels of success. I particularly enjoy the contribution of bass player Greg Christian on those numbers with him showcasing a clear Geezer Butler influence on both occasions. The centrepiece of any Testament album is generally reserved for the lead guitar parts though & "Low" is no exception with hired gun virtuoso James Murphy having filled the vacant position left by wonderful shredder Alex Skolnick & pulling it off with ease too. I've always been a huge fan of Murphy & he delivers one of his more restrained & diverse performances here, giving the song-writing exactly the sort of colour & highlights it required.

The main issue that holds "Low" back from becoming a more significant Testament record than their previous two though, is the lack of any classics in the tracklisting. The song-writing is gernally pretty decent with the band maintaining a level of class & professionalism throughout but there really aren't any songs that can compete with Testament's best work. My favourite numbers are clearly the before-mentioned "Trail of Tears" & the unusual instrumental track "Urotsukidôji" but neither seem to reach above a very solid level. There are also a couple of tracks that do very little for me & could probably have been culled in the obvious groove metal number "Legions (In Hiding)" & the rhythmic "Shades of War", both which are sorely lacking in the hooks department. I've never been the biggest Chuck Billy fan but he's always gonna struggle with his limited vocal prowess when the hooks aren't strong enough to carry him.

At the end of the day though, "Low" is another decent Testament record that should keep fans of the band on the hook. It's unlikely to draw in too much of a new fanbase though in my opinion. I'd suggest that it's a better record than "Souls of Black" was but would probably favour "The Ritual" over it just slightly. There's no question that it's a clear step down from the trio of 1980's albums that came during Testament's peak period though & the days when I would look forward to every new release from the band had clearly sailed past by this point.

For fans of Overkill, Annihilator & Anthrax.

Low remains a bit of a mystery album to me as I write this review. As I stated in the forum thread for this feature release, I instantly recalled (virtually track by track) this album the very instant I began to listen to it. It is not that it is even an album that contains many singles (in fact just Dog Faced Gods) or overly popular tracks in general, so at some point in the 90’s, in the chaos of bought physical copies of albums and an equally large (if not larger) tape collection of what I had recorded from lent or library copies, Low was clearly in rotation for some time.

1994 saw the furthering of the thrash off-shoot that was groove metal. With Machine dropping their debut four months before this Testament release and Pantera delivering the darker and molesting Far Beyond Driven before either of the above, it was a year that saw Testament experimenting also. Just as Anthrax, Sepultura and Prong had done already, Testament allowed elements of groove into their music. Adding in a ballad as well as two instrumental tracks, there is a lot to catch the ear on Low.

Whichever element you target on Low, the fact is that this is a catchy record. It retains those thrashing chops in the riff department and Chuck Billy puts in a sterling performance as we would all expect. However, James Murphy is almost redundant here in terms of obvious contribution and when he does shine it is all too briefly to leave any real sense of a mark on the record. Add to this the fact that Tempesta is all but drowned out in the mix (Dog Faced Gods – are you even present John) and their soon emerges some challenges for me with this record that are only partially resolved with this unexpected nostalgia.

As a ballad, I don’t find Trail of Tears as cringey as some of my peers (I have heard a lot worse) and the instrumentals are entertaining enough but are arranged poorly in the running order as they could be used much better to disrupt some of the average parts of the album. It is good see Greg Christian treading the boards on Urotsukidōji though with his bass being an integral part of the track. Overall though, the fondness I had for Low is not enough to push the ratings into the higher echelons of the scoring spectrum.