Review by Ben for Testament - Low (1994)

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.