4 out of 5
This is Testament's first album in 9 years, and unlike a lot of their 80s thrashgenetor peers' recent output (....cough....Metallica ....cough.....), this record is nearly unequivically awesome. While I can't really speak for a lot of Testament's material (call me guilty of being a n00b, but I really only just started listening to them), this record is chock full of thoroughly solid melodic thrash underlying singer Chuck Billy's monstrous bellow, which at times calls to mind (modern touchstone here) Randy Blythe of Lamb of God or John Pettibone from Himsa - who Billy likely influenced when they were still little metalheads - but with a little more slice and a lot less bludgeon.
"Dangers of the Faithless" and "Persecuted Won't Forget" are songs that are bound to (at least in my mind), draw comparisons such as "James Hetfield singing for Megadeth," and, for anyone who ever loved both bands (and didn't take sides in the fight that ensued after Megadeth's Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica for being a drunken a$$h*l& before their first record ever came out), that couldn't be a more exciting thing, even if Testament stand completely on their own.
I hate to end on that, so let me say this: with as popular as thrash seems to be these days (both the goofy, party-hearty brand as well as the overtly-outraged "deep" brand), this record deserves to be at the forefront, and not just because these guys are the elder statesmen in a genre whose speed and trappings tend to favor the young (have you ever seen a chubby biker-looking dude with long, thinning hair wearing tight jeans?). It's also because The Formation of Damnation is a fast, brutal, and catchy record that is above all good.
=james
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