Testament
The Ritual

3.0
good

Review

by PsychicChris USER (563 Reviews)
July 11th, 2022 | 23 replies

Release Date: 1992 | Tracklist

Review Summary: An unfortunate missed opportunity

Having shown signs of slipping relevance with Souls of Black, Testament seemed to be playing a desperate game of catchup when it came to 1992’s The Ritual. While the commercial breakthroughs of The Black Album and Countdown to Extinction signaled yet another shakeup in the thrash world, this could’ve potentially played to the band’s fluid dynamics and underlying hard rock sensibilities. But with this being the last album to ever feature the classic lineup, guitarist Alex Skolnick leaving for thirteen years and drummer Louie Clemente never returning to the studio at all, the writing seemed to be on the wall.

Rather than using a more accessible template as a means of exercising their natural strengths, the band members only seemed to water themselves down even further. Some of that could be attributed to yet another weird production job, which turns the rhythm guitars into an overbearing and near unintelligible wall of mush and completely undermines the rhythm section. The vocals also take a hit as the focus on cleaner melodies comes at the expense of Chuck Billy’s broader range, making for one of his blandest performances. Ironically enough, Skolnick may have the best luck as his leads are some of his most exotic since the days of The New Order.

It doesn’t help that the pacing absolutely drags throughout and the filler that started cropping up on Souls of Black has only intensified here. In addition to the fifty-five minutes runtime being longer than any album before it, songs like “Deadline” and “As the Seasons Grey” lack energy as the more mid-tempo tracks sound lifeless while the more upbeat moments miss the spark to truly make them stand out. Even the good tracks come with their own caveats as “So Many Lies” and “Troubled Dreams” have their otherwise catchy hooks bogged down by slow rhythms and the seven-minute title track gets a little too caught up in its atmospheric meanderings.

But like the previous album, there are also a couple tracks that provide the album’s saving graces. “Electric Crown” is easily the strongest song on here as its breezy pace greatly juxtaposes the tracks that follow it, and the infectious vocal lines ensure that the melodicism is used to its best effect here. I also enjoy “Return to Serenity” a lot as the bleak yet dreamy guitars and echoing vocals convey the romantic escapist lyrics with much more sincerity than their last couple ballads.

Overall, The Ritual isn’t a terrible album so much as an unfortunate missed opportunity. This sort of palatable hard rock could’ve been right in Testament’s wheelhouse with proper adjustments taken but the group ultimately lacks the charisma that such a style calls for while the limp musicianship and sluggish pacing drag things down even further. One can imagine this having been a much more successful venture had the group stuck to their usual forty-minute runtime and written more songs like “Electric Crown” and “Return to Serenity,” but this lineup losing steam was likely inevitable either way. Things just couldn’t get any lower than here…

…or could they?

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