Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Testament - Low (1994)

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.