err... hold on a sec...

All's good tho! Gotta have that inter-generational exchange for a healthy creative process and even health in general!

Album Rating: 2.0

>To me it's clear that for this album they definitely took inspiration from Havok



thats one way to explain why its sterile as fuck

Vektor, Havok etc weren’t around when Formation of Damnation was released, and this one has so may similarities with their come back release, ergo I don’t see how Testament could be influenced by those outfits.

Album Rating: 2.0

vektor formed in 2004 and had a decent demo out by 2006



havok who gives a toss they blow chunks

Decent is not enough, an outfit should be Metallica at least to influence a band like Testament, which has its own traits to begin with.

@parksungjoon

thats one way to explain why its sterile as fuck

Album Rating: 2.0

>"sterility" is not something I'd ever associate with Testament, tbh.



im sure theyre grateful to have people like you buying their stuff

What a weird thing to say, honestly. I'm neither a fanboy, nor a "loyal customer", nor on their payroll. I just said that I enjoyed this album of theirs moreso than their other post-revival works, and that I disagree with your assessment of them sounding "sterile". God forbid I can have an opinion! :O

PLUS, Testament is definitely NOT among my top-favorite thrash bands anyway... Just what's the problem? :O

ok this is really weird... Since the first time I heard the instrumental outro Catacombs, I've had the feeling that I've heard the exact same tune before... Yes, I know that it's very generic in nature and there's probably many other similar-sounding themes out there, but I can swear it's the exact same one.

It finally hit me: It's from one of the Serious Sam games. 99.9% sure. Might look later to find out precisely which one.

Hoglan has amicably split with the band, imho they should get Bostaph back, if he wants to as well, that is.

a dozen other metal bands probably require his services

i would associate sterility with most andy sneap produced albums and this is one of them
formation was the only one that didn't sound like it was designed to make you go "look!! thrash!!" and has songs with riffs that local thrash band #7 hadn't already done

i getcha, but otoh Formation also had the feel and attitude of "Oh, we're back! Look how hard we're trying! Look what we can do!! Wooow, we're so raw, heavy and powerful !!!"

Album Rating: 3.0

Formation is my favourite post New Order.

""sterility" is not something I'd ever associate with either Testament"

Practice What You Preach though.

ahahah, I think I can get what you're saying, actually... : D

Well, I see your point, BUT... if you think about it, that type of sound was actually a relative novelty for the genre at the time.
It would only acquire the epithet "sterile" through its prolific, but meaningless abuse and overuse in the subsequent years and decades to come.

I actually love PWYP, one of the reasons being precisely that the mixing/mastering actually sounds very experimental and forward-thinking for its time and the particular subgenre.

Of course, throughout the years, it got old and was misused by many bands/albums. That's not Testament's fault tho.

"It would only acquire the epithet "sterile" through its prolific, but meaningless abuse and overuse in the subsequent years and decades to come."

The overuse of similar production jobs certainly didn't help but on its own merits, one could still define it as sterile and lifeless quite easily. If you compare this to By Inheritance or Rust in Peace or Twisted into Form, one could easily arrive to this same conclusion. The actual album itself is rather dull too so it's even worse.

meh, idk... Ultimately it's to each his own. I like both the album and its production, or at least LIKED them when I was last actively listening to Testament back in like 2014 or so. Could be my perspective will change on a re-listen in the present.
I generally agree with your classification of the sound, but not with the judgmentalness towards it.

regarding the mention of Rust in Peace... It being one of my favorite albums ever (if not THE #1 album), I actually have exactly one criticism of it, namely the production (both the original AND the remix/remaster). To me it was evident that Mustaine was aiming for that sound that had made Metallica big with AJFA 2 years prior. It's an OK sound for metallica, but not for Megadeth. It doesn't serve the album that well.

i think one thing that holds this album back is actually gene hoglan's drums, weirdly. i think compared to paul bostaph his style feels more rigid and doesn't suit the overall writing style as well

there's a risk when you have a collection of very skilled musicians like hoglan, skolnick and di giorgio that they excessively "restrain" their playing to serve a greater whole, but in doing so it loses the character of the performances they're best known for

^ which album are we talking about, exactly? We mentioned quite a few in the previous comments, I lost track of whether we're discussing Titans at all still... xD

regarding your point, I can see what you mean, but imho the bigger problem always occurs when the opposite happens: Rather than restraining themselves to fit into the collective, they overplay / try to outplay each other and it's a mess.
Probably the best example of this is Maiden with Bruce. Damn... Dickinson'll never let it go that it'll always be Harris who's the creative force behind the band, will he? :S