Testament – Souls Of Black
The Line Up
Chuck Billy – vocals
Alex Skolnick – lead guitar
Eric Peterson – rhyhtm guitar
Greg Christian – bass
Louie Clemente – drums
Beginning Of The End
An intro of acoustic guitars, complex and fast acoustics but not a melodic. This is a bad ¨song¨ to kick of this album with and is also to short to be worth rating.
Face In The Sky
A fast song, the song gets catchy when the singing starts, good vocals and a great solo. The song is not a stand out song but it sounds very good. 4/5
Falling Fast
Starts off with a heavy intro and has a heavy sound all way through the song. Great vocals but the lyrics is not as good, Chuck mixes his vocals with a little growling here and there. A very good song. 5/5
Souls Of Black
Thunder and weather effects opens the song and Greg fills in with an ominous bassline which will be the main riff in this song. The song has a bumpy feeling to it but the song is not catchy and may be boring to listen to. 3.5/5
Abscence Of Light
The intro sounds wierd and so does song sounds like, the lyrics makes sense somehow but the song structure is odd. The song does not kick off until the solo part, not a great song but the solo is always worth listening to. 3/5
Love To Hate
A fast song with a catchy riff, song more like hard rock than metal except in the verse when the classic intensive thrash-drumming plays its part. I think that this is one of the albums stand out songs. 5/5
Malpratice
Starts with an instrumental intro with all members and the intro sounds oddly familiar to Megadeth’s ¨Five Magics¨. The song is fast and catchy and has great vocals and the albums greatest solos. After two minutes the soloing starts and I love it, heavy fast riffing and awesome solos on top of that. The albums best track. 5/5
One Man’s Fate
Greg plays a single stringed bassintro and the rest of the band kicks in. The song is a bit melodic and Chuck adds a bit more feeling to his vocals. Moderate pace and good vocals makes this song a very good song. 4/5
The Legacy
A ballad, a wonderful ballad. Starts with slow melodic acoustics and the vocals of Chuck is great. Instrumentaly great but it seems like it is almost to much solos in the song. This may not be their best ballad but this one is really good. 5/5
Seven Days Of May
A heavy intro starts up the song and the song sounds angry and pissed off. The song is fast but the lyrical part is bad at some times. But the song is a good to end the album, but I think that the intro to the whole album should be the last track. 4.5/5
Pros
Great solos
Good vocals
The album cover and the album title makes a good combination
Cons
The guitars sounds to scratchy
The basslines fades away because of the guitars
This is also one of Testment’s greatest albums but the album is missing a few things that would have improved most of the songs. The guitars sounds almost to much and it may be a bit boring to listen to this album to much. I would recommend this album to Testament fans and also to people who likes metal and hard rock. Final rating: 4/5
