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8.0
- Band:
Testament - Duration: 00:50:24
- Available from: 10/10/2025
- Label:
-
Nuclear blast
Streaming not yet available
When it comes to Big 4, requests for updating or expansion of its components rain constantly dramatically. And one of the bands punctually called into question by the insiders, or by the hungry consumers of Thrash Metal, unjustly excluded from the special category, and therefore worthy of entering to be part of it, has a specific name.
We are obviously talking about the testaments, absolute masters of the genre, again in action with their fourteenth record chapter: “Para Bellum” comes out in the first half of October, and will be celebrated properly with a European tour (which began to tell the truth in these days) in the company of Obitogy, Destruction and nervous that will also touch our country – and able to have already recorded a corrosive '.
But let's go back to “Para Bellum”, a more than apt title given the period – we would say almost obvious, unfortunately. Beyond the interstation and its majestic cover – the tastes are tastes, and to us the umpteenth work of Elirane Kantor Garba a lot – we address the main interest, as rightly it is to its musical content.
In this sense, the group led by Chuck Billy was back from the last “Titans of Creation”, published five years Orsono, whose defect, net of stylistic perfection (trademark of the band, on this it does not rain), was the lack of a real hit that would be pressing in the head, which would allow us to whistle the riff, or the refrain.
And instead, ascertained, for the umpteenth time, the sublime technical preparation of all the interpreters, a certain sound addiction had taken over, labeling “Titans” as a good album and nothing more. An epithet, if we want to tread the hand, which we could also rent to other records of the recent past, which, while raasing the compositional impeccability, have not been able to obtain the 'disc brand to remember'.
The doubt towards “Para Bellum” was therefore legitimate: aware that we would have found ourselves in front of a new lesson in style, would the testments have been able to offer us something more enjoyment? Well, after countless plays, the answer is fortunately positive.
Experience at the service of fun: this is the feeling that reigns around the ten songs contained in the new album, for a total of fifty minutes absolutely smooth. By bringing together the multiple facets of their sound in one fell swoop, for over thirty -five years now, Chuck Billy and companions have simply produced a record where passion rhymes with accessibility and headbanging.
There is a little bit of everything, in “Para Bellum”, including some goodies (the hits we were talking about a little while ago) that will allow them to stay in your ears for some time, without ending up on the fearsome shelf once the first two/three stereophonic passages ended.
The first bang, needless to say, comes at the opening. If you've ever wondered how a Black Metal song signed by Testament would play, “For the Love of Pain” is the ideal answer to your question. Chuck's Growls, Eric's Scream, the surgical and graceful work of the new drummer Chris Novas (also author of the text), the Riffs of Peterson (Rieti) and Skolnick, complete with mosquito picking, inlaid a left and melancholy melody, they will make you stand your hair. But are they really the testaments? Yes. An unexpected song that makes the idea of how the San Francisco band has decided to displace and range, going beyond the classic minced song. Mastodontic Open, who slams us in the face of the furious mole of energy of the twenty -seven year old Novas, who definitely press the foot on the accelerator, for the happiness of Peterson himself.
The second reason that will lead you to appreciate even more “para bellum” is titled instead “Meant to be”. Already in the past, the Testaments had written Ballad: from “The Legacy” to “Return to Serenity” until the recent “Cold Embrace” – all worthy, for heaven's sake, however this time the hand of Skolnick has literally hit the mark, building a simply perfect song. Among the mystical passages of an acoustic guitar, the clean and harmonious voice of the Indian leader Billy and the most rocky and rhythmic detachments, here is the artistic touch that is not expected, with the insert of arches orchestrated by the cello Dave Eggar to make even more sublime – and why not? – The song radio. It grows with the passing of the minutes, acquiring strength and emotion before the definitive explosion in the refrain; If you are particularly sensitive we suggest a pack of paper tissues.
Between the two songs, instead we find the individuals who anticipated the release of the new album: first the stormy “Infanticide ai” which, without the video in support, is more usable and above all even more incisive; So the classic “Shadow People” whose only flaw is to remain permanently on the war foot without ever officially going down on the pitch, thus leaving a pinch of bitter in the mouth … in the listener's ears.
We were talking about varieties, and we have a further testimony with “High Noon”, characterized by an almost blues incede which alternate with bombastic Death accelerations, marked by Chuck's UCOLA, in this case even more cavernous.
Following, bringing us directly back to the always acclaimed “The Gathering”, here is “Witch Hunt” (written by Chuck together with his friend Steve “Zetro” Sousa), a passage from the double identity (violent and deadly the first part, the second is more airy), on which the new entry into formation (Novas) is once again enhanced, hurling like a train against his Drumkit. A sort of “for the love of pain” part two, less melodic but certainly more destructive.
The tension accumulated by the two pieces fades thanks to a hat -trick where the thrash class of the American band finds more malleable routes to shake the spine of the metallaro on duty: the rockent “Nature of the Beast” (pointing the finger towards the gambling with a nice reference to the Ace Spades of the Motörhead) anticipates the deep “room 117” Track (good) from Megadeth, thus allowing “Havana Syndrome” to close a slot of songs where the skill of the five musicians shows off their most melodic and catchy side.
To close the title-track thinks about it, perhaps slightly less inspired by our opinion than the traces that preceded it, but equally bombastic: the preparations for the war have however found the decisive piece.
Awarded by a production that benefited from all the instrumentation of the case (therefore without plastic sounds), the new work of the Testaments reappears a group in full form, which has certainly played on the decades of experience, adding that pinch of melodic cunning useful to make a powerful disc “para bellum” with a very pleasant listening.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
