Reviews list for Testament - The Gathering (1999)

Considering all the classic 80’s Thrash bands that collapsed into chaos and failure during the 90’s, Testament stood their ground much better than most. Many consider the preceding “Demonic” one of the only missteps in their discography (and not a severe one at that), but I still see it as quite a strong album. Not only that, it was a necessary step towards this album – “The Gathering.”

The Gathering takes the experimentation with Death Metal from Demonic and and avoids the monotonous limit in style. Instead, we have a great variety of Thrash, Groove, and Death Metal, each taking center stage on certain songs while falling back on others. Thanks to the consistency in quality from song to song, the willingness to change up in style makes the album sound fresh and filled with vitality. The drumming in particular here is very strong (wasn’t until after writing this I found out it was Dave Lombardo!), and Chuck’s vocal variety is on point.

Unfortunately, it drags a bit in the second half. I much prefer Testament when they’re playing faster and heavier (such as on the opener or the insane “Legions of the Dead”), but they falter to slower grooves too often for my taste. “Careful What You Wish For” and “Allegiance” are examples of the band on low gear and not sounding particularly dark, either (their version of stadium anthems? No thanks). This is alleviated with the closing track, a fantastic burst of energy, darkness, and aggression that closes the album out perfectly.

I’d say this is probably the band’s best since Souls of Black, though I wouldn’t peg it as a mid-career masterpiece like many seem to.

Loosely speaking, there's probably nobody else in thrash with a vocal style that is vaguely similar to the gruff utterances of Chuck Billy. His voice is unique and powerful and really gives a perfect edge to any metal music really. I have often thought he would suit a more aggressive style of thrash than what Testament plays. From the opening track of this album his vocals are the commanding force over what is otherwise a very average sounding track in D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate). It is not until the thrashing frenzy of Down for Life that the vocals and frantic riffing marry perfectly to make for one of the best tracks on this record. The track sounds full of energy, certainly in comparison to the stuttering nature of the opening track. The only thing the track is missing is some wild solo to polish it off fully.

The promisingly titled Eyes of Wrath fades up slowly to an atmospheric start before becoming another strongly written thrash attack. The track does meander a little though which is a shame but even its quieter moments don't ruin the mood too much. We do get a weird, almost psychedelic solo to end the track this time which adds an air of mystery to things and sets up the equally mysterious sounding True Believer.

The album seems to be going from strength and builds in stature with each track, the groovy 3 Days In Darkness progresses things superbly with its catchy tones and memorable structure. Legions of the Dead is a bit of a short, sharp shock to the flow of the album but doesn't make too rude an intrusion on proceedings.   The steady and again catchy riffs of Careful What You Wish For has an almost nu-metal undertone to it and is the first track that really doesn't fit into the development of the album from track two onwards.

Riding The Snake puts things back on track to some degree but this is were the weakness of the album starts to show.  I think it runs out of pace just after halfway through, notwithstanding that there's still some great moments left to come, but as a whole album I think it starts to feel like it should be almost over by this point like there's obviously very little left in the legs but somehow it keeps going for eleven tracks (twelve on some versions).