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

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.