Album Review: TRIVIUM What The Dead Men Say (4/24)

In case you've been under a rock for the past 20 years or you are just new to Metal, Trivium is an American heavy metal band from Florida founded by Matt Heafy (lead vocals, rhythm guitar). They released their debut album Ember to Inferno in 2003. But it was 2005's Ascendancy that received critical acclaim and has been featured in several "best of" lists. It also marked the first Trivium album with guitarist Corey Beaulieu and bassist Paolo Gregoletto who have been Heafy's partners to this day. On the other hand, it's been a revolving door for drummers since the departure of founding member Travis Smith in 2009. But now the band seem to have settled with Alex Bent who already recorded The Sin and the Sentence (2017).

In the early 2000's Trivium was seen as the "next Metallica" but while very successful (over one million albums sold and a 2019 Grammy for the song "Betrayer") that was an obvious exaggeration. To their credit, Matt, Corey and Paolo never settled for a simplistic sound and refused to repeat themselves. All eight albums have been quite different from each other exploring different metal genres and styles such as metalcore, thrash metal, traditional metal and even power metal. Unfortunately the quality hasn't been consistent. All in all, those experiments and ups-and-downs have slowed the band's to growth. I personally came to know Trivium because they play summer festivals very often. I have seen them live 9 times (7 in festivals)! I really like their music but more on a "best of" manner rather than whole albums. With that said, obviously Ascendancy is brilliant and the latest album was very good. So let's see what they are bringing to us 3 years later.

Trivium's ninth studio album, What the Dead Men Say, was released on April 24, 2020. I won't make any suspense, this is Trivium's best album since Ascendancy. It could've been a self titled disc because it captures the essence of the band. All the previous albums and experiences led them to this point and the best of each previous eight albums are concisely put together here. The album is not long and every song has its place, no fat to be cut. Additionally the most impressive quality is that the different sounds and styles are merged into one cohesive identity and not a song by song display of styles. In many ways I believe Trivium found their sound. No formulas, no pre-conceptions, just four guys making the music they love.

The 2-min instrumental "IX" effectively opens the album with a guitar based build-up seamlessly leading into the single and title track. This song already makes a statement as it starts with great drum fills and guitars riffs. Then Matt screams "go" on the best Tomas Lindberg's style. The title track heavy, fast paced but also catchy. And the bridge and instrumental interlude are just great, they give some progressiveness to a under 5 minutes long song. "The Catastrophist" which was the first single is a six and half minute roller-coaster with fantastic melodies, but boy it gets heavy in the middle section! Technically What the Dead Men Say is also a step up for Trivium, the guitarwork is the best they ever produced. Matt continues to perfect his singing and I'm sure the vast majority of fans got goosebumps listening to the most aggressive screams we have heard in long time. I mean my favorite song "Amongst The Shadows And The Stones" is heavy as hell and could easily be part of Ascendancy. The rhythmic session with Alex and Paolo do a great job laying the underlying foundation and still get some moments to shine for example the bass on "Scattering The Ashes" and drums on "Catastrophist". Now I do have one small problem with the album, ans this is me being picky, but the song "Scattering The Ashes" is a bit too soft and the singing during the chorus kind of annoys me (e.g. So toniiiiiiighttttt ). But the rest of the song is not too bad. The rest of the album maintains the same quality and trademarks already discussed. Those 47 minutes fly by with a well crafted flow and production wise it ticks like a clock.

Nine albums in, Trivium has put it all together and created a masterpiece of modern metal. What The Dead Men Say transcends genres and perfectly combines the different sounds the band has explored over the last 20 years. It's the heaviest album they've made in more than a decade but it's also melodic progressive and diverse. As I said, in many ways I believe Trivium found their sound. No formulas, no pre-conceptions, just four guys making the music they love. And I expect many of us also will. 

SCORE: 87/100
Genre: Thrash Metalcore
Released by Roadrunner Records on April 24th, 2020

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Rating System
96 - 100 Perfect
88 - 95 Excellent
84 - 87 Great
80 - 83 Very Good
75 - 79 Good
69 - 74 Mixed
58 - 68 Bad

Album Review: KATATONIA City Burials (4/24)

Katatonia are a Swedish metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse (vocals) and Anders Nyström (guitar). They released their debut Dance of December Souls in 1993. After many line-up changes, today the other current members are bassist Niklas Sandin, drummer Daniel Moilanen and most recent recruit, guitarist Roger Öjersson. For nearly 30 years the band has been bringing melancholic progressive rock/metal to the fans. Katatonia came a long way from the humble beginnings when they already sounded melancholic but much more death/black metal than today's atmospheric Gothic/Doom sound. I've been a fan of the band since 2012's Dead End Kings which left a lasting great impression. The following and latest album 2016's The Fall of Hearts was also generally well received by critics and fans.

Now City Burials, the eleventh studio album, comes on the hills of those latest successful aforementioned albums . Jonas Renkse has written the vast majority of music and all of the lyrics. The album displays 49 minutes of sorrowful melodies, fantastic instrumentation and arrangements. The 11 tracks are generally shorter and more direct than in previous albums. The opener "Heart Set To Divide" already sets the tone. After a slow tempo, beautiful and melancholic intro with vocal harmonies over keys, the drums and guitars kick in with just enough energy to get us pumped without compromising the sorrowful vibe. And that's the feeling throughout the album: Peaks and valleys of more upbeat moments followed by typical Katatonia melancholy. This time around, Renkse also looked to recapture their old school heavy metal roots. The best example is the single and second track "Behind The Blood". Take it as a compliment, it captures a similar vibe that we hear on latest Ghost albums. Not a surprise since their roots are the same. This track is one of my favorites from the album. It's up tempo, features a guitar solo as intro (not very common these days) before dropping into a heavy metal riff and a catchy melody and chorus. Instant classic. While never reaching the same parallel to classic metal as this track, still there are other moments of more up tempo songs such as "Rein", the super catchy and third single "The Winter Of Our Passing", "City Glaciers" , "Flicker" and "Neon Epitaph".

But of course it gets also very slow and gloomy. "Untrodden" being my favorite within this side of the album. The remaining songs didn't work well for me. "Vanishers" (featuring a guest vocal from Anni Bernhard from Full Of Keys) is my least favorite as it gets way too soft. The single "Lacquer" with a electronic beat is a bit too pop. And the short "Lachesis", while OK, doesn't add much. 

Katatonia is not the band you think first when you think guitar solos, but Roger Öjersson delivers some amazing ones, my favorite being on "Untrodden". He laid down couple of solos on the previous record , but this is his first record with the band for the entire production process and the result is outstanding. And it's only the solos, the riffs and guitarwork is overall very interesting. The riffs on the bridges on "Neon Epitaph" as an example. A very nice return is of Frank Default who performed keyboards, strings and loops on the Katatonia albums "Dead End Kings" and "Night Is The New Day". His return brought back a new layer to City Burials arrangements.

While I enjoyed the album , I couldn't find an overall direction and coherence. Which path will they take forward? A popier sound? classic rock? or will they re-focus on the doom and gloom realm?

Katatonia built on their foundation but also added some interesting elements leading to great songs such as "Behind The Blood", "Heart Set To Divide" and "Untrodden". City Burials is not perfect but still a very good album with moments of high-level song writing and melancholic catchiness. The production and delivery are excellent, it sounds beautiful. A suitable soundtrack for 2020.

SCORE: 80/100
Genre: Gothic Metal
Released by Peaceville Records on April 24th, 2020

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Rating System
96 - 100 Perfect
88 - 95 Excellent
84 - 87 Great
80 - 83 Very Good
75 - 79 Good
69 - 74 Mixed
58 - 68 Bad

Album Review: THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER Verminous (4/17)

The Black Dahlia Murder is an American death metal band from Michigan, formed in 2001. Their name is derived from the 1947 unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short, often referred to as Black Dahlia. The band currently comprises the co-founders vocalist Trevor Strnad and rhythm guitarist Brian Eschbach, more recently added to the line-up bassist Max Lavelle, drummer Alan Cassidy, and lead guitarist Brandon Ellis. I've became a fan of the band with the release of 2013's Everblack. An album that's a bit long but features some great songs. The two albums that followed are also very good. SO for the forth time in a row I've been looking forward to this one since 2017's Nightbringers.

As with the last two albums, Verminous is a straightforward metal album. It features 36 min of melo death metal in 10 songs, track 9 being an interlude into the closer "Dawn of Rats". All the other proper songs fluctuate around the 4-min mark. The album opens with the title track and first single, a a song that exemplifies their sound as we came to know it. From the get go we can hear that the production is one of the highlights. From the sample with water drops to how the two guitars are mixed, this album sounds quite amazing. I suggest to use headphones to catch all the nuances between the two guitars. The drumming doesn't take the central scene, but it's of high proficiency, several drum fills are excellent e.g. "Godlessly" or "How Very Dead". It's not a very bass oriented mix but you can still hear it when paying attention e.g. "Removal of the Oaken Stake". On this track, another Black Dahlia Murder trademark can be highlighted: the guitarwork. It is as always an impressive part of their sound that inexplicably continues to merge Death Metal with Malmsteen.

Soon enough as you listen to Verminous, one thing is clear it's less tech or brutal Death Metal influenced and more traditional metal and thrash metal influenced with hints of Black Metal. One of my personal favorites and a great example of it is the song "The Wereworm's Feast" which sounds a lot like Kreator. The mix of chugging guitars with melodic riffs and even Trevor's voice, they all combine to give this experience. Trevor is a very versatile extreme metal singer, this time around he relies much more on higher pitched vocals. But he also explores different styles like in the mentioned song or in "Godlessly".  Another big highlight for me is "The Leather Apron's Scorn". It's build on this really nice groove and delivers a big chorus. The chugging guitars give more space for the bass ti shine. It's just all around a anthemic track. Finally you gotta love this fantastic artwork, so detailed and as with the last few albums, s dominant color given this horror film vibe. Within the genre of melodic death metal, there's not much to complain here. But purists may twitch there noses to the more traditional metal influences, but for me that's a big plus.

The most diverse and dynamic Black Dahlia Murder's album still screams their trademark sound but it also pushes the band's sound forward. As it is short with very distinct songs, you can listen through it in one go and not getting lost while enjoying every minute of it. Fans of not only Death Metal but also traditional/thrash metal will dig this. 9 albums in 17 years is no small accomplishment, but delivering high quality and evolving music while doing so is another level of achievement.

SCORE: 81/100
Genre: Death Metal
Released by Metal Blade Records on April 17th, 2020

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Rating System
96 - 100 Perfect
88 - 95 Excellent
84 - 87 Great
80 - 83 Very Good
75 - 79 Good
69 - 74 Mixed
58 - 68 Bad

Album Review: JOE SATRIANI Shapeshifting (4/10)

Shapeshifting is the seventeenth studio album by guitarist Joe Satriani. I've been a fan since I first started to learn guitar back in 1989 or so. Therefore Surfing with the Alien was a fresh new album and became one of the most important album of my life. All of that to say that I have a long history with Satriani's music and I own all of his albums. The only problem with that is that while biased and familiar with every album, I can also get too critical.

The last two albums Shockwave Supernova (2015) and What Happens Next (2018) were very good. The latter was a back to basics rock album featuring Glenn Hughes on bass and Chad Smith on the drums. Shapeshifting is different beast. The album is fun, light mood and displaying a soft rock / pop vibe. It's only 46 minutes long with 13 relatively short tracks. This time around Joe chose to work with experienced and talented session musicians who are mostly linked to pop music. Chris Chaney on bass (who had previously worked with Joe and is a member of  Jane's Addiction) and Kenny Aronoff on the drums. There is also the addition of Eric Caudieux on keyboards and Lisa Coleman (piano on "Waiting").

As suggested by the album title, each song on Shapeshifting brings a different music style. But it's not a chaotic album, Joe's melodies and harmonies and a great rhythmic session created a cohesive feeling. Actually, Chris and Kenny had a material impact in the album's sound. So much so that the opening title track starts with a drum fill and a bass riff. This song and the album overall feature a very engaging groove from Chris and Kenny. It also means that Joe didn't lay too many layers of guitars giving the bass and drums a huge space to shine. Notice that in the title track the rhythm guitar only starts halfway through the solo. This leads us to enjoy a very refined bass sound full of cool bass lines.

There are two big highlights for me in this album. "Big Distortion", yes, it’s big and if it had vocals it would be an AOR song. The other one is "Nineteen Eighty", a self explanatory song title, even though the main riff reminds us of AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" which is actually from 1990. But it has that Surfing With the Alien vibe I can't get enough from. For that reason and for being full of energy it’s my favorite track on the album. Good choice for a video single. There are a lot of ballads in the album. The short bluesy one "All for Love" is nice but leave me with the feeling that we heard that many times before. Another ballad is "Teardrops" but here I do appreciate the homage to the self titled album, not sure if intentional but it does bring me back.  The piano is a nice touch in "Waiting".

There are also some interesting curved balls. "Ali Farka, Dick Dale, an Alien and Me" is a callback to the early 2000's Engines of Creation era. A lot of samples and an overall spacial sound are extensively used. Not my favorite Satriani era though. Another interesting song is "Here the Blue River" in which we do hear something different, as it is a reggae tune. Also the final track is somewhat different as we don't hear Joe's playing acoustic guitars too often, nice final touch.

As I said, I could get a bit too critical and I can't help myself being a bit disappointed. I don't know but I was expecting even more variability from an album name Shapeshifting. A more progressive track? Maybe one with singing? or with the harmonica? Perhaps a cover song? While I have enjoyed the latest albums, I think it's time for Joe to spice things up, experiment more and do something  boundary pushing, way more different than the last three records. With that said, when I put the album in isolation without comparing to the previous releases, it is a good album. It's fun to listen, brings up some memories and there are a few tunes here that will greatly enhance the live set-list.

SCORE: 78/100
Genre: Instrumental Rock
Released by Sony Music on April 10th, 2020

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Rating System
96 - 100 Perfect
88 - 95 Excellent
84 - 87 Great
80 - 83 Very Good
75 - 79 Good
69 - 74 Mixed
58 - 68 Bad

Album Review: NIGHTWISH HUMAN. :II: NATURE. (4/10)

Nightwish was formed in 1996 by lead songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former lead singer Tarja Turunen. From their first album Angels Fall First onward Nightwish gradually grew to become one of the most successful Finnish bands ever. The first era of Nightwish ended with an open letter in which the band fired their formidable frontwoman Tarja Turunen. At the time is was difficult to imagine Nightwish without her. But while her replacement Anett Olzon never completely filled Tarja's shoes, the music writing from Tuomas Holopainen  grew exponentially in quality to create magnificent epic symphonic metal music. In 2012, the band split up with the singer before they announced Floor Jansen as new vocalist. The live  DVD and CD  Showtime, Storytime was the first Nightwish production to feature Floor on vocals. I remember being mesmerized by her performance. While she can be operatic, she can also be a very powerful metal singer. the combination is bombastic. Additionally she has amazing stage presence, making her the perfect choice for such a huge band. The first studio album with Floor 2015's Endless Forms Most Beautiful is (was?) my favorite Nightwish album. So I've been looking forward to this follow-up five years later.

HUMAN. :II: NATURE. released on April 10, 2020 through Nuclear Blast is the band's first double album with 81 minutes of music. The first disc features 9 songs in 50 min. Disc 2 contains the 30-min long "All the Works of Nature Which Adorn the World" broken into 8 parts. The new adventure starts with the track "Music", a beautiful symphonic and cinematic intro in itself that lasts about 3 minutes gets the song started slowly. The build up continues as Floor Jansen enters which culminates with a bombastic and catchy chorus. It's a powerful progressively heavy start. But the best is yet to come, the single "Noise" maintain the bombastic catchiness but dial up in aggressiveness and heaviness. Guitarist Emppu Vuorinen leaves his metallic mark with some very cool guitar riffs and chugging which create a fascinating contrast with the symphonic arrangements. I also love the aggressive guitars on "Pan", another heavy song on the album. "How's the Heart?" brings the mid-tempo and the more pop side of the band. It's still a very good song, Tuomas knows how to write catchy tracks.

But HUMAN. :II: NATURE. is not just another Nightwish album, they were able to take their past elements and maintain a characteristic sound but also move beyond to add new elements and surprises. Tuomas found a balance between composing those huge symphonic arrangements without getting us overwhelmed by them. He also crafted different songs tailored to the different singers. "Harvest", which reminds me a lot of Kansas, is certainly a different track that adds to the versatility of the album. Floor only sings backing vocals and Troy Donockley is the lead singer on this folky inspired track. There are some stunning strings arrangements nicely mixed with Troy's Uilleann pipers. "Endlessness" which closes CD1 nicely provides a progressive melancholic track in just seven minutes. Here we finally get bassist Marko Hietala to share his distinctive pipes with us. With that said, when it comes to the vocals, frontwoman Floor Jansen absolutely shines like the star she is. Her versatility is again impressive, from the operatic ending of  the huge "Shoemaker" to the metal drive on "Tribal" she has it all and anything else in between. Finally, we cannot talk about this album and not mention Kai Hahto, who has been playing with Nightwish since the summer of 2014, but only became a permanent band member in mid-2019. He brought some new blood and enthusiasm to this album. The drumming is great, not only the musicianship but also the production, they sound big throughout the album but specially on "Procession" and "Tribal".

We also have 30 minutes of music on CD2. Now here is the tricky part. I see it more like a bonus disc, it's basically a movie score and it sounds beautiful. But still I have to penalize the album for it because I know that most of the times I will listen to the first disc only.

In sum, symphonic metal with female vocals can be a bit of a cliche and by far not my favorite metal genre, but Nightwish with the current lineup has reached a complete new level of music writing, arrangement, musicianship and delivery. This is an amazing record for any metal fan, old and new, there's a bit of everything in HUMAN. :II: NATURE and it's a serious contender to album of the year. Thanks Tuomas and band for such an entertaining album in days like these.

On a side note, on an earlier post I discussed how the COVID-19 crisis is changing the music industry. Nightwish has released all songs as lyric videos and also made the album booklet available for download. I thought those were pretty cool initiatives.

SCORE: 87/100
Genre: Symphonic Metal
Released by Nuclear Blast Records on April 10th, 2020

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Rating System
96 - 100 Perfect
88 - 95 Excellent
84 - 87 Great
80 - 83 Very Good
75 - 79 Good
69 - 74 Mixed
58 - 68 Bad

What can we all learn from how the music industry is dealing with the COVID-19 crisis?

On February 16th I went to what could be my last concert of 2020. While I was already being careful with washing hands and all of that, I wouldn't miss a show I was so much looking forward to. The Bay Strikes Back concert tour featured Bay Area thrash metal bands Testament, Exodus and Death Angel. Interestingly enough, three musicians from those bands are currently recovering from COVID-19. Financially those guys were quite lucky as only two concerts of this leg were cancelled. A few weeks later, Saxon played in Antwerp on March 4th and I already didn't go fearing the escalation of the coronavirus infections. It was one of the last metal shows in the region. It's hard to believe how much has changed since that day. On March 14th Belgium went into soft lock-down and we may not have a concert for a long time.

Together with commercial aerospace and Air & Travel, the music business which is a passion of mine is one of the most severely hit sectors by the COVID-19 crisis. I'd strongly assume at similar levels as all non-online entertainment businesses (movies, theaters, live sports, etc).

It's not like the music is business has being sailing calm waters. "Digital is changing the music business" is a jargon going around for years now, and while that's of course true, a lot is still the same. Bands are still relying on Record Labels and the same old cycle of recording, releasing a new album of 8 to 15 songs every 2 to 5 years, touring and selling merch is pretty much the same. Bands and labels are still recording and releasing music videos (just like in the 80's but for YouTube instead of MTV), and, despite the streaming platforms with playlists and YouTube, they still release compilation albums and live albums/DVDs. There's more touring and merch line extensions, I agree. For example, in my own experience, it's impossible to go to all concerts that I'd like to go in my reasonable driving distance range. There's just too many. During the summer, if it wasn't for the skyrocketing prices, I could go to a festival almost every weekend. And the merch? Remember when Kiss was the only band to have all sorts of crazy merchandise? Now a days for example, I lost count how many of my favorite bands have launched an alcoholic beverage.

As I said, the music business has been changing but a lot of the basics are the same and the changes are slow. But as they say "necessity is the mother of invention" and the COVID-19 situation has forced the whole industry to quickly find new ways to operate. Physical sales decline speed will increase sharply with closed stores and amazon halting distribution of physical music media. Album releases are being delayed. Moreover the economic recession will reduce available income for non essential items. Not a bright future for physical music media which has been already on a decline for years. This could be the final push for CDs to virtually disappear.

To make it all even more difficult, the complete shut down of the live-music side of the business is what will hit all the music professionals (venues, promoters, staging companies and food/ merchandise vendors) and bands the hardest. The live-music sector will contract by 50% in 2020 by some estimations, I believe it will be much more than that because we won't have concerts for more than 50% of the year. If they return at all before the year end. I already mentioned the huge explosion of summer festivals in the last 15 years or so, well, those international gatherings of more than 30,000 people are at high risk of not happening anywhere in the world for the whole summer. Coachella was moved to October (I doubt they will pull even that off). Glastonbury festival was canceled on March 18th, Download on March 26th and COPENHELL on April 7th (to name a few). I suspect many more (if not all) are still to come. Even if "only" half of the festivals are cancelled, then bands will be forced to cancel the tour as it won't be worth the cost to play for half (and possibly empty) of the venues.

The lasting impacts of all of this for us music lovers and professionals is very difficult to predict. On the bright side, I want to be back to the innovation at higher speed that this huge crisis is bringing to us. Labels and artists are finding new ways to promote music, connect with fans and generate revenue. I read that some labels immediately put their teams together and started brainstorming ideas on how to deal with this situation. Apparently hundreds of ideas were generated, and we already see several being implemented by labels and bands in record speed. Let's look at some of those.

Live Streaming & Recorded Videos

Days after the first lockdowns, we started seeing online festivals happening and several bands releasing recorded shootings from the last few months. Norwegian Black Metal masters Enslaved performed their music live at Verftet Online Music Festival. They are accepting donations via Ticketmaster. Melodic  Death Metal bands Insomnium and Omnium Gatherum announce co-headline Live Stream Concert. The price for the Stream is 8,90€. It's the first time I've heard of an online streaming ticket. When coronavirus forced their show to be canceled, growing hardcore act Code Orange turned to Twitch: 13,000 Fans watched live. We are also seeing bands jamming virtually together. Sammy & The Circle jammed from their homes the iconic The Who song "Won't Get Fooled Again" on YouTube. The UK Power Metallers DragonForce, which I luckily saw live in February, had to cancel their North America Tour. They innovated by launching a songwriting livestream on Twitch! Cattle Decapitation recorded and released the "Bring Back The Plague" music video filmed on their mobile phones while social distancing at their respective homes. The drummer didn't even had a drum kit. It's not only fun, but coincidentally the song title couldn't be more perfect. Spoiler alert: it features toilet papers.

Special Merch Offerings

E-commerce is still functioning for the most part, so bands immediately tap into that as a revenue source. I have already ordered two T-shirts from canceled tours. Gruesome have merchandise available in Europe, with "Canceled due to Coronavirus" back prints. As they posted "any purchase really helps us out, and you get a sick new shirt in the process!". Many more (if not all) bands are selling their merch that was going to be in the stand during the canceled shows. Thrash metal legends from Brazil, Sepultura are streaming Q&A sessions with band members on Twitch. Moreover they cleverly related their new album title Quadra to isolation using #StayInYourQUADRA. Consequently they also released specially designed T-Shirts with this theme. Another band that related their music to the COVID-19 crisis was Pantera. A Limited Edition Social Distancing T-shirt was created to support the MusiCares Covid-19 Relief Fund. The t-shirt based on the cover of the band's album Vulgar Display Of Power. It also features the "Walk" song lyrics "Be yourself, by yourself, stay away from me" pretty clever, right?

Singles & New Music 

While probably recording studios will also suffer as people can't travel. We could see an explosion of new music in early to mid 2021 as artists are sitting at home and possibly many are writing new music. With today's tools, many could also be recording demos and having virtual writing and even recording sessions with band mates. For example, Abigail Williams, an American extreme metal band, which have just released an album last year posted the following: "In light of worldwide touring cancellations and our day jobs on hold, we said fuck it and wrote a new album". On the short term bands could take this opportunity to release singles and keep their names active in the customers' minds. The mighty Kreator from Germany and the American Lamb of God were planning a co-headlining tour. Meanwhile, they will release a split new single. Kreator song lyrics message "we have to stick together in this more and more divided world".

Using technology, creativity and trying new things, bands and labels are being forced to innovate in order to survive. Regardless of the restrictions they still need to promote music, connect with fans and generate revenue. This is one example of an industry transformation being accelerated, but many more, if not all, will emerge from this crisis differently. Use your time at home and think how your business will change and how you can make a difference to stay ahead of the curve.

Album Review: TESTAMENT Titans Of Creation (4/3)

As was one of the first thrash metal bands to emerge from the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980's, Testament needs no introduction. But a short recap is always useful. In 1986, they released their first studio album, The Legacy. The band has had numerous lineup changes, leaving Guitarist Eric Peterson and lead vocalist Chuck Billy as the only members to appear on all of Testament's studio albums. IN addition to the duo, the band's current all-star lineup comprises guitarist Alex Skolnick, drummer Gene Hoglan, and bassist Steve Di Giorgio. The albums The New Order (1988) and Practice What You Preach (1989) are absolute thrash metal classics and that's when I got into this band. During the 90's I lost touch with the band but in 1999 Testament  released their magnificent The Gathering and I was fully on board again. The band has since released an excellent album after the next.

Following 2016's Brotherhood of the Snake with the same lineup, Titans of Creation is the thirteenth studio album. It's a natural follow-up, in general terms they kept the essence of their sound: Fast tempo, heavy thrash riffs, melodic and yet powerful singing, twin guitars, amazing guitar solos, and a suburb rhythmic session. But Testament also dared to experiment a little bit here and there touching a progressive path which gives this album a strong sense of engagement even when it is a bit too long (12 songs in 1 hour). The album features some of their longest songs ever, the progressive-ish "City Of Angels" being the longest on the record with almost 7 minutes. The first single "Night Of The Witch" is one of the best tracks where they explored a sound that reminds a lot of King Diamond. I also love the nice touch of Peterson singing the bridge in contrast with Billy's deep guttural voice. But there's plenty of traditional thrash metal. For example the opener "Children Of The Next Level" and "Dream Deceiver" are super melodic thrash anthem, old school style. And also "WW III" and "False Prophet" which are aggressive tracks that bring me back to The Gathering.

And what to say about the guitarwork? Well, Peterson and Skolnick outdone themselves again. The whole record is full of great riffs and solos, but if I'd highlight one song it would be "Symptoms". From the one minute intro, to the riffs during the verses and the guitar solo, it's a thrash guitar lesson. Another nice touch is "The Healers" which features a guitar picking pattern Black Metal style combined with more traditional metal riffs. Now let's talk bass. Di Giorgio's bass sound is just one of the best I've heard in a thrash album. While you can hear it during the whole album, it never gets too loud or distinctive. Check out the songs "City Of Angels" and its sludgieness and "Ishtars Gate" for example. The latter is actually one of the tracks displaying some experiments and a slightly different approach to the singing and guitar riffs. The almost Renaissance style of painting on the cover gives the album a distinctive touch in line with its music.

My only complain is just the length, the last third of the album looses me a bit. But the good thing is that the shortest and thrash song on the album "Curse Of Osiris" picks things up at the very end. Here Peterson is back with some more vocal contributions and Gene Hoglan displays all of his might behind the kit!

Testament did it again! Their 4th excellent album in a row shows no signs of those thrash veterans getting tired. More impressively they were able to do so by expanding their sound without loosing their identity and thrash roots. This is a mandatory album for any thrash metal fan.

SCORE: 84/100
Genre: Thrash Metal
Released by Nuclear Blast Records on April 3rd, 2020

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Rating System
96 - 100 Perfect
88 - 95 Excellent
84 - 87 Great
80 - 83 Very Good
75 - 79 Good
69 - 74 Mixed
58 - 68 Bad