Testament: Para Bellum
Bay Area thrash legends Testament return with their 14th album in Nuclear Blast Records, titled Para Bellum. Along with new drummer Chris Dovas in tow, the band has created a monster of an album here that touches on all sorts of metal styles, as they look to push the boundaries of conventional thrash. In doing so, they've hit on their more melodic early '90s style, their dip into extreme metal later in that decade moving into the 2000's, as well as their more muscular, technical thrash side of more recent years.
The ferocious opener "For the Love of Pain" dips into thrash, melodic death metal, and black metal, with Chuck Billy's guttural roar and growls colliding with Eric Peterson's shrieking black metal rasps (think Eric's side project Dragonlord) for a truly pummeling start to the album. There's even some fun Gojira-style pick scrapes in a few spots. "Infanticide A.I." conveys the danger of artificial intelligence and too much technology, and it's a banger of raging thrash metal with plenty of crushing riffs and blazing leads from Alex Skolnick and Peterson. "Shadow People" is old school Testament for those who love the '80s albums, while "Meant to Be" is a power ballad, kind of like a second cousin to Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters"...well done, and quite memorable, but almost feels out of place here. "High Noon" sees Chuck return with some more death metal roars, and he and Eric once again inject some extreme metal ferocity to the manic "Witch Hunt". The rest of the way feels almost slightly anti-climactic after the juggernaut first half of the album, but it's still full of old school Testament thrashers, like "Nature of the Beast", "Havana Syndrome", and the crushing closer that is the title track.
In a year that has seen lots of quality heavy metal releases, Para Bellum is clearly among the best. It's not a perfect album, and though it dips slightly in the second half, what's truly outstanding here is truly great.
Track Listing
1)For the Love of Pain
2)Infanticide A.I.
3)Shadow People
4)Meant to Be
5)High Noon
6)Witch Hunt
7)Nature of the Beast
8)Room 117
9)Havana Syndrome
10)Para Bellum
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