Testament - The Legacy (1987)

I've admitted it before and I can say it again - Testament was one of those bands I missed in my early youthful metal days. A shame too, especially since I knew the name and saw their CDs all the time, I just, ya know never bought any of their albums until I was in my early twenties. The bands debut, 'The Legacy' happened to be the first and its still my favorite from the band too.

Testament like a lot of bay area thrashers (and thrashers in general) have a mostly solid, but still varied musical career, which was massive in the late 80's but started to wane in the early 90's when thrash metal died. Most of the songs are fast, aggressive and full of technical flair, which was typical of the genre, but Testament steps it up on this one. Lead guitarist Alex Skolnick was just twenty at the time and his shredding is absolute class, with a charge of impressive catchy riffs and pummeling solos few could top this guy at the time. His axe slashing partner, Eric Peterson turns in an equally powerful performance, bassist Greg Christian does his part as well, though his lines are mostly lost in the very quiet production and you really only hear them if you have the album playing at exceedingly high volumes, while Louie Clemente pounds the drums flawlessly with bursts of double bass, interesting fills and some small solos too. Vocalist Chuck Billy attacks with a hostile angry voice, maniacal screams and some decent clearly sung parts too. Oh, and lets not forget them awesome gang shouts too!

As I mentioned earlier most of the album is fast paced and the band really shines on songs like, 'Over the Wall,' 'C.O.T.L.O.D.' & 'First Strike Is Deadly,' especially that solo, goddamn! This is one of those total riot albums, head banging, fist pumping and thrashin' like mad! 'The Haunting' is a bit slower, 'Apocalyptic City' has a slow but awesome intro which eventually breaks full force and 'Alone In The Dark' is sort of commercial and catchy sounding, but still a great song. Notably this album was also released on Atlantic Records, which means along with Metallica they were one of the first thrash bands to sign to a major label.

Its debatable for some whether or not this is Testament's gem, especially since they'd get more diverse and eventually cross over to playing death metal in the late 90's, but for me this straight forward release called, 'The Legacy' is Testament's finest statement.