Demonic

All right, we all know that the 90's had its way with everyone from the old metal days. With 1992's moody and atmospheric the Ritual and 1994's thoroughly enjoyable Low, Testament fared a lot better than most--Metallica and Slayer brutally raped themselves in '96, Megadeth sucked off a pack of rapacious wolves with Cryptic Writings before offering themselves as human toilets on Risk, not to mention the lesser molestations of Anthrax, Overkill, and Stryper. Pantera, on the other hand, were so grimy and drunk that the predators dared not come any closer and get violated themselves--no, their tendencies corrupted the elders. But 1997 saw Testament roofie themselves into musical date rape, as evidenced by the grungy look of the band photo on this album. Such were the 90's...

It's weird how normally powerhouse vocalist Chuck Billy can almost exclusively use his death growl fpr this album and yet sound utterly emasculated. One of my friend's made the observation that it sounds like Chuck is holding back or hiding something with these brutal vocals. Perhaps he wasn't yet ready to show on the doll where the 90's had touched him...hell, Chuck's powerful clean vocals only finally show up in third song, "Together as One," although it's nothing really special to write home about.

Most of the material is mid-paced, groovy, and heavy, but oddly without much power--an astonishing feat, because despite having Gene Hoglan on drums, Demonic rarely sounds dynamic. Then again, Testament never sounded dangerous, except for the Legacy and a few parts on the New Order, but this whole album is dumbed down, tuned down, and slowed down. It's as if these guys tried to cover Far Beyond Driven as a Testament album and inject just a touch of Alice in Chains' melodic sensibilities (ironically, something that worked remarkably well on the univerally panned The Ritual, but not so here). "John Doe," while having some decent vocal melodies and swinging groove also features the most 90's of mid-sections that borrows heavily from the aforementioned bands--just cringeworthy. "New Eyes of Old" has the only ripper of a solo and some good vocal harmonies that are unfortunately so clumsily combined with death growls so as to taint what would otherwise be a pretty good tune with farts and snores.

There are three pretty badass tunes on here that successfully meld the groovy death metal with a few of Testament's classic elements. "Hatred's Rise" is probably the best song on here, with the heavy riffs and catchy vocal melodies, although "The Burning Times" has creepy Mercyful Fate-esque single note melodies combined with a driving groove. "Ten Thousand Thrones" is darkly melodic to start off, with a nice mix of death metal and melodic vocals, and actual heaviness.

There's an extensive use of wah pedal, and though I don't know who played the solos, they're pretty dumbed down--something I could kind of forgive from Eric Peterson, as he's the only guitarist listed on this album. Whereas Jerry Cantrell is a genius at using minimal ideas, the solos on Demonic come across as uninspired filler. Those little harmonic squeals on "Murky Waters" sound awkward as hell, like a 40 year old showing up at a teenager kegger rager, and "Distorted Lives" has a weak ass jump-da-fuq-up groove in it with those squeals, all it makes me want to do is shake my head.

Demonic is somewhat successful at capturing the heavy parts of the 90's and keeping it sounding very much like Testament. The problem is that it also sounds like Testament had smoked the best hash Oakland had to offer while navigating an identity crisis. It tries too hard to be cool, hip, and heavy, but completely failing to hit any of its targets. But hey, at least it's better than Practice What You Preach!

Here we are, Testament's big failure. Whether or not you like this attempt to balance trend-following with a "no compromise" extreme metal attitude really depends on a lot of things. If you're only here for the thrash and feel that Practice What You Preach was plagued only by it's comparative "sluggishness", then you probably aren't going to like Demonic either. The same goes for those who don't enjoy Low for its groove-metal attempts at being accessible. If you just like stuff that goes hard and isn't painfully boring, then you may very well like this.

Released in 1997, Demonic actually feels like a pretty natural follow up for an album like Low. While the aforementioned took the legitimately somewhat radio-friendly nature of The Ritual and infused it with the groove stylings that were popular at the time, Demonic actually kicks things up several notches, while largely ignoring the rapid pacing of the band's roots. With speed mostly being a non-factor, Demonic sits in the margin between the commercialism of groove metal, and the extremity of death metal.

In terms of the songwriting and instrumentalism, this album is a far cry from something like The Legion. However, I don't think it's bad. While the new style is pretty unpopular with fans, the band still do it quite well, and you can tell they're pretty accomplished musicians at this point. The simplistic down tuned grooves found on the previous album dominate this release, which is fine by me. Chuck Billy's new growling style has come into full fruition here, and there's really nothing bad about it. He doesn't sound like Chris Barnes from Cannibal Corpse, but he's definitely doing his own pitch-conscious version of a death growl here.

Demonic is pretty much an abandonment of everything we knew Testament to be, but it impressed me quite a bit. While it's probably one of their least "quality" albums, I find it just as enjoyable as a lot of their other material, and believe it to be criminally overlooked.

It was a close call that the production of "Demonic" would not have come officially. After the release of "Low", on which Eric Peterson's group turned towards more modern and heavier sounds, the line-up from that album fell apart very quickly and the promotion of the album - compared to previous albums - failed in every possible way. So the band was really close to split-up. Luckily, Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson didn't give up, and along with bassist Derrick Ramirez (an old friend from the Legacy days) and ultra-talented drummer Gene Hoglan, they continued the band's activity and released "Demonic" - their seventh longplay. One of the most unusual in the Testament discography.

To put it simply, "Demonic" expands themes known from "Low", albeit in a much more radical form, where death metal inclinations accompany the vast majority of the album. Admittedly, it still doesn't resemble the traditional view of death metal with intense blasting that this genre is often associated with, and the groove metal influences remained quite clear, especially in terms of some slightly squeaky riffs, but the band perfectly turned up the dose of heaviness and general fleshy sound. Actually, Testament didn't sound as heavy on any of their albums as on "Demonic" - neither before nor later! The whole thing overwhelms with its greasy sound to such an extent that the initial contact with this disc may suggest contact with...quite inaccessible material, devoid of hits like previous albums and forcefully brutalized.

Fortunately, "Demonic" is a slightly a different kettle of fish - instantly breaking the above, wrong assumptions. The songs on it are slow, focused on a walking-like rhythm, occasionally accelerating to typical thrash metal paces (basically...only in "Murky Waters"). What's more, Billy's grizzly growling predominates in them, the whole album contains much less melodiousness (in contrast, it mainly appears in "Hatreds Rise", "John Doe" and "New Eyes Of Old") and solos, and about the ballad fragments even you can forget here. However, it all makes sense. The music is interested in its overwhelming climate here, the riffs are varied and not devoid of the earlier, characteristic power, occasional, lighter moments do not break the coherence with the more brutal face, while the much more extensive and technical drumming of Gene Hoglan significantly refreshes the group's style after the simpler drumming of his predecessors. Basically, the only thing that can be faulted here is the end of the album, which is not as expressive as the first six tracks. In addition, the Americans again decided on a not necessary outro - this time in the form of "Nostrovia".

After the rather poorly promoted "Low", Eric Peterson's band created a new line-up and continued their earlier changes towards more modernity and brutality. On "Demonic", the band decided to follow this direction even more boldly, adding heaviness to the sound and reducing the song's catchiness. As a result, they created one of the least typical and most brutal albums that landed under the name of Testament. Maybe not perfect and at last worse than "Low", but certainly very intriguing.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

In a discography like Testament’s where opinions vary so dramatically on just about every album, it’s almost amusing how their seventh full-length is near universally regarded as their rock bottom. It certainly features their shakiest lineup yet as only Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson remained from Low, having recruited one-time Legacy vocalist Derrick Ramirez for bass duties and drummer Gene Hoglan in his first stint with the band. There isn’t even a fully committed lead guitarist on board as Forbidden’s Glen Alvelais only plays as a guest on “New Eyes of Old,” leaving Peterson to attempt to cover as many fronts as possible on his own.

For what it’s worth, Demonic feels like a logical enough progression from its predecessor in terms of style. The production maintains the same balance between clarity and molten power, the vocals concentrate much more on gruff grunts with the cleans only popping up sparingly for more abstract phrasing, and the guitars take on a much blunter character with more emphasis on stop-start chugs and dissonant squealing leads. There’s a sense that the musicians are essentially doubling down on the groove and death metal elements which enriched Low, leaving behind all traces of their thrash roots beyond the very occasional bursts of speed.

Unfortunately, the void opened by missing that thrash influence doesn’t seem to have been filled by anything substantial. One can hear plenty of unorthodox melody patterns and off-the-wall song structures, but there doesn’t seem to be any real sense of direction. There’s certainly promise in the warped textures of songs like “Jun-Jun” and “Hatred’s Rise,” but they end up getting lost in the shuffle and the overall pacing drags despite running at a lean forty minutes long. Albums like Souls of Black and The Ritual were at least trying to bring memorable songs despite their rather limp presentations, but Demonic seems more interested in just being weird for the sake of weird.

Thankfully even an album like this manages to squeeze in at least one great staple song with the opening “Demonic Refusal.” The track’s upbeat hustle is more rooted in industrial than thrash, but the rhythms are tight, and the vocal lines are catchy despite an exclusively growled delivery. It may not be an essential staple but it’s a bit of dumb fun that even seems to predict Slipknot in a way. “The Burning Times” and “Murky Waters” operate in a similar fashion with enjoyable enough results but don’t quite muster the same enthusiasm for me.

As much as Testament deserves props for innovating their sound in an era where their peers had either gone soft, dumbed themselves down, or disbanded completely, Demonic is ultimately a messy listen. It’s certainly intriguing to see the band completely give way to those contemporary elements but they’re ultimately let down by haphazard songwriting and lacking overall purpose. Perhaps the template could’ve worked with an album full of “Demonic Refusals,” but it likely would’ve amounted to a dunderheaded nu metal album rather than anything that could live up to Low’s second wind. When it comes to checking out Testament’s death groove trilogy, it’s better off to skip this one and just go straight for The Gathering.

Although Demonic is considered the black sheep of Testament’s discography, I felt rather optimistic about it since I always enjoyed “Demonic Refusal” and “The Burning Times”, which are great songs in my opinion. However, after listening to the whole album five times, I have begun to abhor this album just as much as many other Testament fans who have listened to it. I didn’t think that I would hate this album as much as I do, but my god is it appalling to listen to!

Testament’s Demonic is an abysmally put-together album in which there is nothing more than a bunch of unremarkable down-tuned chugging, horribly bland groove-influenced thrash metal that is insulting to the ear, and croaks from Chuck Billy that sound like a toad or pig with throat cancer. It’s like Pantera on crack! Although these aspects of the album are well-executed in tracks such as “Demonic Refusal”, “The Burning Times”, and “Jun-Jun”, which are all wonderfully head-bangable tracks (in my opinion), a disgustingly cluttered result is produced in every other track. I mean, Metallica’s St. Anger doesn’t have good music either (although I still love it), but at least it’s psychologically compelling. This album, though, is horribly boring to listen to (except for the tracks mentioned above) and has little to no redeeming qualities about it; it’s that fucking awful! Although it is by no means the worst album I’ve heard, it’s atrocious, to say the least.

However, this doesn’t mean that Demonic didn’t have any potential to be a phenomenal album. Chuck Billy and the other members most certainly had excellent ideas, and if executed properly, this album would have been a wonderful, death-metal influenced thrash/groove metal masterpiece. I could especially see the potential in tracks such as “Murky Waters”, which is a rather catchy track that, if better-composed, would have a stronger overall impact on the listener. Notwithstanding, they executed their ideas poorly and ended up producing an album that is torturous to listen to.

Overall, Testament’s Demonic is not an album I would recommend since listening to it is a disappointing experience, even if one were to listen to it just once. Although “Demonic Refusal”, “The Burning Times”, and “Jun-Jun” are great tracks that are the only real highlights of the album, though particularly “The Burning Times” (albeit not necessarily an absolute masterpiece by any means), all of the other tracks are the epitome of ear torture. I would only recommend this album to those who want to torment themselves with a miserably composed atrocity of an album; otherwise, I recommend that everyone reading this review avoid the hell out of this album. I pretty much listened to it and tortured my eardrums so that no one else has to.

The album is definitely a major departure from Testament's more traditional sound and although I will say I'm glad that they returned to it later down the line, this album still kicks a lot of ass. I think the greatest example of this departure done right is the title track "Demonic Refusal" (well, sort-of-title track at least). Although the riffing in it is quite simple, it does the job and definitely gets my head banging so hard I could cave someone's skull in if I hit them accidentally while listening to it, and it serves as the "face" of the album in more ways than one. It definitely sets the tone of the album, and lets you know in the first 30 seconds that this is not going to be what you are used to. Tracks like "Hatred's Rise", "Together as One", "John Doe" and maybe "The Burning Times" (the opening riff on this one is absolutely amazing) are the songs that shine the most on this album. The rest range from okay to mediocre honestly. I won't really discuss the album cover as it has no bearing to the music and we all agree it's atrocious, but I will say the recent redesign it got does it more justice. But it is still something we love to hate.

Stylistically, I'd say this album is pretty much deathrash; not quite thrash, not quite death metal. I would have preferred more clean vocals mixed in here, because even though Chuck is good at the growling, he is great at the classics. The songs are generally mid-tempo, which isn't necessarily bad but it generally feels like they miss that technicality/moderate progressiveness their music had up until that point. Maybe they were experimenting more with sound rather than riffs so they decided to keep it simpler?

As others have mentioned, the album is definitely a lot more heavy-sounding than their others, but one consistent thing I can see is that everyone generally agrees on is that the production quality is top-notch. You can hear pretty much every instrument clearly, without any of them "invading" the other's territory. I enjoyed certain sounds they panned in other directions etc, particularly the bit in "Hatred's Rise" where Chuck whispers "Hatred was a man out to seek vengeance for the death of his father, for he is the one bears the mark of the great warrior king and no one can stop him". Panning it more to the side (if you re listening to it on headphones of course) gives you the feeling someone was whispering something to you in a dark alley, something he shouldn't be telling you in the first place.

However, even though I'd undoubtedly say "Demonic Refusal" and "Hatred's Rise" are the best songs on the album, I will also say this: if someone wants heavier music, there's a lot of it out there. As well as more interesting. And even better records by the same fucking band. However, I see this more as an exploration of the band's sound, with bits of this experiment appearing here and there, particularly in Chuck's vocals even today, and I think the band is all the better for going through this. One could even say that this album was like Testament's version of "St. Anger". Definitely not the best that the band ever put out, not even close, but I firmly believe it has aged better than most give it credit for, and with a surprisingly iconic sound among the rest of their material at that.

Kill me now. About 1/3 of Testament’s catalogue sucks, and this is the worse of them all. Demonic Refusal (stupid fucking title) starts off with a boring intro and.. pig squeals??? Yeah, Chuck, slam called, they want their unlistenable vocal technique back. This guy can sing, and he choses to go oink oink? Listen to First Strike is Deadly, or Alone in the Dark, or Perilous Nation, that’s proof that Chuck Billy can sing. But Demonic Refusal? Pfffffft, get that bullshit out of my face. The riffs are a snoorefest, the drums are repetitive and sound like cardboard, and once again, where’s the bass? Still can’t find it, we gotta go search for the bass boys, right after we find who the fuck asked for this dumpster fire.

The vocals are morbidly bad, it’s something I’d expect to hear on a Rammstein record. I will give it this, the production is a step-up from Low, but that doesn’t matter when you don’t want to hear the tracks in the first place. The Burning Times is a dragging, dilapidated mess, Jun-Jun has an alright riff, just a shame the entire song is that one riff for 4 minutes. John Doe is the same as Jun-Jun but slower, and ironically shorter, it’s all a terrible mess. Murky Waters is not sludgy in a heavy or fun way either, and the lyrics are so edgy that if you took the logo off of this, you’d think it’s a Slipknot album, the album cover even looks like their drummer (no, not that one, nope, not that one either. That’s the one! The one that hits barrels every now and then).

Ten Thousand Thrones is more of the same, I’m trying to talk about the music but there just isn’t much here to talk about, the entire album is just caveman drums that are mixed too loudly, and droning guitars that barely produce coherent ostinatos, buried under Billy’s atrocious guttural whimpers. The album is finally put to sleep with Nostrovia, which is doom-meets-industrial. It’s not that bad actually, although the best thing about Nostrovia is that it’s the end of the album. God, what a fucking pile. It’s alright lads, only one more dumpster fire until we finally get to the good shit.

Please take pity on me, because I have listened to “Demonic”, the black sheep of Testament’s discography. An average of 38% after ten reviews speaks volumes, doesn’t it? Especially when taking into account that some appreciated review writers have a tendency to an inflationary scoring system, at least from my pessimistic German view. But frankly speaking, “Demonic” did not really annoy me. It’s different, it does not trigger an overload of emotions and one can start a discussion about the credibility of a band that suddenly discovers its affinity for death metal aesthetics. Moreover, I agree that some songs don’t work, for example the completely useless “New Eyes of Old”. Nevertheless, my personal nadir of Testament’s catalogue is another album – and “Souls of Black” has really cemented its position at the end of the ranking.

Of course, the full-length breaks with the more or less traditional, technically oriented approach of the formation and it is easier to like “Demonic” if one does not belong to the group of people who wants music where the technical skills of the guitarists are oozing out of every riff, line and solo. The stomping quasi title track, simultaneously the opener, tells a totally different tale. It sounds clumsy and one-dimensional – but it also has a resilient bridge and it does not lack coherence. I also understand that some people spit on the vocals of Chuck Billy, because his mostly monotonous growling is an insult to his real potential. On the other hand, it doesn’t bother me and if you want to record an album at the interface of thrash and death metal, this kind of vocals is not inadequate.

The songs themselves come and go without having an enormous impact. Maybe it’s an irony of fate that they are – despite their generally vehement design – pretty harmless and lukewarm instead of “demonic”. However, the opener is okay and the same goes for songs like “Murky Waters” (great beginning thanks to a cool riff, speedy verses). The mid-paced “Hatreds Rise” is almost a little jewel with a more or less “normally” singing Chuck and, by the way, this song is not too far away from the typical Testament material. Additionally, the number of flops is not higher than on many other outputs of the legendary yet only rarely outstanding five-piece. So I see no reason to throw the album in the bin – and I rather forgive metal bands a flawed heavy than a flawed shallow or commercial album.

Do I need to say something about the production? Don’t think so, because Testament had always the financial opportunities to forge an appropriate sound and at least in this regard, “Demonic” marks no exception. In a nutshell, the here reviewed work did not deliver what we expected back in 1997 and its self-chosen simplicity lays itself open for understandable criticism. Anyway, it is no absolute stinker from my perspective.

Unlike thrash, groove, or even extreme metal bands that transitioned to nu/alternative metal and hell, even grungy; bands like Machine Head, Fear Factory, Sepultura and Soulfly, and even Slayer‘s Diabolus in Musica, Testament is the contrary to that. Mostly releasing thrash metal records and then transitioning to groove metal, Demonic is their death metal introduction, though this album is still groovy. Maybe death metal was at its height that Testament “joined the trend” in an act of desperation. Hiring the extreme metal man-machine in Gene Hoglan for the drum work, but surprisingly enough, they sort of rehired one of the original Testament members back when they were Legacy. Derrick Ramirez was one of the very first members of the band, and the band recruited him back for this album. Nowadays, he’s in a symphonic thrash/black metal band Dragonlord with Eric Peterson.

The general compositions are these: generic, underwhelming and forgettable riffs, bad thrash metal blast beats and dull drumming overall, weak, unrecognizable, plainly stupid and uninspiring vocal performance. And the bass strongly lacks. This has got to be Chuck’s worst performance in his career. You can’t even recognize it’s him, and the so-called clean vocals don’t resemble him either. You can render this as either a non Testament album, NOT Testament whatsoever, or a band that tries to copy Testament (in the most nonsensical way). As for the sound, these years in death metal (at least traditionally) didn’t really produce the best records. Malevolent Creation became more groove in their death metal sound, while Bolt Thrower almost went on the same path, and that’s what Demonic stains from.

I’m just going to get to the bottom of it: John Doe and Distorted Lives are the only songs here that have potential, while the two songs in between them are particularly the ones worth checking out. Murky Waters is mostly catchy, heavy, slow, and powerful, and I believe it delivered. As for Hatred’s Rise, I can’t be the only one thinks it sounds like the band’s Scorpions cover of Sails of Charon, right?! That’s hitting a new low right there... but I liked it more than said cover, as odd as it sounds.

For two reasons, I have to give Demonic some credit. Seeing that they had been tampering with different ideas for a few years now, this is by far the biggest step out of line that Testament would ever take. Not only was it ballsy, but it was an evolutionary step. Perhaps not the best form of the band we ever got, but what matters is that it changed the formula, and introduced the death metal vocals. And whether you like it or not, it would use that on every album following it at some point. The other is a bit more personal, and that's that it was a bit of a gateway for me to tolerate the death metal growl.

But as much as the vocals may incorporate death metal, that's not what Demonic is all about, despite popular belief. The riffing is anything but that. For the most part, the riffs extract from the ingredients that made up its predecessor, Low. The start/stop rhythm patterns are everywhere, the wailing leads make no attempts at being subtle, and there's an overall stomping nature. And of course, you can still pick up some of the classic sounding Chuck Billy vocalizations, just perhaps smeared far more. See "John Doe," as the singing is very grunt-like and drawn out far more than what Testament fans are used to.

So what's the outcome here? An effort with groovy instrumentation, growling vocals, and occasional traces of classic Testament. As much as that may send the message, there's no escaping the awkwardness that it can create, nor some monotony. For the most part, this is a disc that has its moments, much like The Ritual, only on the opposite end of the spectrum. "The Burning Times" is an incredible song, and it used to scare the shit out of my fifteen-year old self. They really knew how to invoke the feeling of fear with the layering and execution of that one. "Murky Waters" is another one similar to that. "Jun-Jun" and "Together As One" are also quite fun, the latter being a stellar example of vocal layering. It's bridge sequence preceding the solo is also solid.

The conclusion I've come to over the years is that Demonic is top heavy, and for every stronger song, there's a bad or boring one that goes nowhere. In my personal words, I like to refer to it as Testament's Risk. A universally hated album that went just a bit too far out of line, is weirdly executed, but still has gems that I hold dear.

Testament's stylistic shift leading up to and during the '90s was not unheard of for a thrash band from the previous decade. They progressively sanded down the edges of their sound to make something safe and accessible, only to then go for a groovier heavy metal style. This was the trend in their sound up until Demonic, an album that aesthetically is an unexpected departure for bands of their type but musically isn't too far removed from what they were doing up to this point, having merely been given a new coat of extreme paint. It was a much maligned shift by the band and today Demonic is largely forgotten, down there with the likes of Stomp 442 and other such rubbish from veteran thrash bands. This isn't quite as bad as its reputation suggests but by no means is it good.

Demonic is often referred to as Testament's death metal album, which isn't wrong but that only partially describes the music here. For the most part, this is a very groove-infused, mid-tempo form of death metal. If one were to peer behind the surface and look at the riffs being played, the chugs and grooves used here aren't too dissimilar to many groove metal bands of the era. Groovy death metal isn't a problem of course, slams have been in death metal for some time now and slower, more hardcore-leaning bands like Jungle Rot can be a lot of fun. Where Testament go wrong is that from listening to this, it becomes clear that the band only had one objective with the music: to be as heavy as possible.

This single-minded focus is the ultimate downfall of the album, as in their quest to be heavy Testament has written 11 turgid, one-dimensional songs that aren't engaging or enjoyable to listen to at all. The one thing the band gets right is the production; everything sounds punchy and the album has a lot of low end, and the guitars and drums are suitably heavy and loud for this sort of thing. Beyond that though there's not much else to like here. The riffs here are mostly tedious and dull, getting repetitive soon after the band start playing them, which is a problem as they tend to ride out these grooves for most of the song and even if they don't a similarly boring groove will take its place. Another problem is that the riffs here aren't dumb enough to be memorable (such as Six Feet Under's 'Lycanthropy', and yes I did just use that band as a positive example) nor are they interesting and energetic enough to drive a song forward. They're all very similar-sounding too, as there's not much in the way of a distinct sense of melody to any of them and they are mostly mid-tempo. The vocals are similarly one dimensional; Chuck delivers a very monotone and unchanging death growl that isn't that deep or powerful. He stands out in the music for not being nearly as extreme-sounding as the instrumentation, and is not at all a captivating or commanding frontman here.

The music isn't without its positives though; 'Hatreds Rise' is a bit of a throwback to the sound before this album, with some decent riffs that have a more pronounced sense of melody to them and a more standard, gritty performance from Chuck. 'Demonic Refusal' has that cheesy but lovable '10, 9, 8, 7, 666' countdown intro and a very good breakdown section, and the first droning groove introduced in 'The Burning Times' is genuinely interesting and fun, which is a rarity here. Unfortunately, the rest of the material is plain dull, and while there is the initial shock and novelty of hearing something this heavy from a thrash band it does not stay interesting for most of the 41 minutes the album takes up. The music here is low-effort, repetitive and unvaried, and the few ideas the band throws up (constant grooving, constant growling) aren't done that well to begin with. It is heavy perhaps, but there's more extreme music out there if that's what the listener is after. Demonic is a one-trick pony with a really uninteresting trick, and it is a criminally boring and tedious work that is a waste of time to listen to.

Almost universally reviled as the nadir of its existence, I have to say that Testament's seventh album Demonic might be the recipient of some arbitrarily overinflated argument and hatred. It's not a good album, mind you, easily the worst of their career, but it's wrought from a few 'what if' scenarios that might have worked well enough if implemented alongside stronger songwriting. As it stands, there are a handful of songs here I enjoy, and the rest are vapidly uninteresting; and yet, if we take this into perspective, and compare it to West Coast tripe like Cryptic Writings or ReLoad released in the same year, it practically becomes a manifest for good taste. Whatever its crimes, Demonic still sounds reasonably like Testament, rather than a new band entirely, compromised for ticket sales or radio exposure.

Demonic is the group's 'death metal' album, by which I mean it's not actually death metal, but possessive of guttural vocals. Chuck Billy introduced this style on songs like "Dog Faced Gods" on the previous album, so it's not as if they were unprecedented or surprising, but the fact that he uses them as the rule and not the exception might have evoked some dissatisfaction in those fans enamored with his more muscular take on the Hetfield style. In other words, you won't find much melody here aside from some chorus lines in "New Eyes of Old" or "Ten Thousand Thrones", and it might prove a deal breaker. While broadly guttural and abusive, Billy has a tendency to veer towards the monotonous with too many repetitions in this voice, and without might, memorable riffs to support him in this venture, the transition to the growls is not so successful. That said, the bigger problem for me on this album is the lack of truly great songs. The riffs feel more saturated with industrial nonchalance, and lack that ominous, larger than life impression I use to take from their classic 80s works. About 50% of the chugging note progressions on this album are dull as watching the text scroll by on your local town Cablevision channel.

It's not without a few positives. For one, the revolving door of the band's roster had spun once more, with percussion god Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Death) replacing John Tempesta's short-lived position as he flew off to a greener pasture (White Zombie); and you can tell, because while they're hardly the most complex or exciting beats and fills he's laid out for an album, they handle each leaden groove meticulously. Greg Christian had also disappeared, but they kept his bass slot 'in the family' by drafting up Derrick Ramirez (who had played with the band in their earlier incarnation Legacy). A few of the songs are actually quite decent, in particular "Demonic Refusal", with its faux-Satanic reverse countdown intro and incredible breakdown grooves. Both the chorus and the later rolling double-bass sequence in the bridge are incredibly slammable and entertaining, and it's no wonder such a strategy became mandatory for just about every metalcore act you could shake a Vegan jerky at over the ensuing decade. You can feel this song right down in the center of your stomach, where it repeatedly clocks you with combination punches, and the other highlights of the record, like the cheesy "Jun-Jun" succeed largely because they are similar in nature.

Unfortunately, Demonic is not a single or an EP, but a 41 minute full-blown album, and there are painfully few moments of it that earn their keep. If you're just seeking something caustic, unfeeling and pummeling like a giant that drags its knuckles through a mountain pass, then this might fit the bill for a few listens. It's heavy for heavy's sake, and it's chugga chugga bruise bruise all night long. The 'death metal' elements that so many credit to this record are primarily in the vocals, a few of the breakdowns, and an occasional spike of tremolo picked evil (as in "Murky Waters"), but they're not necessarily the dominant aesthetic, which is instead a sort of fist-balled brute-thrash made for pit fightin'. If your life consists of 'mosh first, metal second'; that is to say, windmill kicks and shoving girls and other man-children around to sate the blood lust you can't express at your warehouse or mall job, then I think you might likely consider this the 'greatest' of Testament. Otherwise, it's a crushing average, not nearly so inspiring as any of the albums that came before or after, with a well of cute gimmicks that runs dry all too quickly.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Middle of the nineties was a very hard time for Testament. After changing the label, after some musicians departures (Murphy, Tempesta, Dette, Christian, Kontos), after some ideas to create another band (called Dog Faced Dogs), Billy and Peterson, two main persons in the band, overcame the difficulties luckily and created seventh album in Testament career. As a diehard thrash supporter of this band I was very curious all the situation with the band, my worship to the first albums was (and is) unlimited, so I decided to give them a chance without any problems. And just like in the case of previous album “Low”, the same was with the first seconds of “Demonic”. However my shock and astonishment were much bigger. And nothing is changed till nowadays.

So, let’s leave the worst front cover in Testament life, and let’s dive into the opening song “Demonic Refusal” ... yes, it takes me to completely different metal land. After several seconds of sinister introduction, new Testament shows his face. How does it look like? The song is very heavy, strong yet slow and monumental with rather simple groups of riffs and lack of traditional solo leads. Simply: I can’t write that Testament plays pure thrash metal! But can I write ‘an act of bravery’ in this case? I’ll try to answer later. The next element: Billy doesn’t use his clean vocals, only growls. And this is almost (because “Murky Waters” song is faster) complete synopsis of the album. Of course I find here also clean vocals which are really great here, as well as successful guitar leads. The best example is “Together As One”, the third song, where Billy uses both vocals. In turn “Jun-Jun” has great riffs with very interesting solos, just like preceding song. The next “John Doe” is probably the best song on “Demonic”: with only clean vocals and cool chorus. Although it is maintained in the album vein, there is something enticing. After three exciting quick minutes “John Doe” gives a place “Murky Waters”. Aforementioned song is the fastest, brutal and full of ravager growls. This song has also three minutes (of pure devastation I must admit) and “Hatreds Rise” enters the stage. In one word, this is killer: amazing riffs, many tempo changes and superb solo leads (especially the second one kills!). And maybe next three songs don’t keep this superb level of “Hatreds Rise”, I think they just good songs. Good songs for “Demonic” of course… Unfortunately my overall impression is disturbed by the last “Nostrovia”, one and a half minute outro that completely doesn’t fit here. It is much better to finish the album after “Ten Thousand Thrones”.

That’s true that “Demonic” is very controversial album, leaving the world of pure thrash and showing to the fans a deep bow to the modern sounds of death metal can be read as a real betrayal. And I can understand such persons, but… I can see another good aspect of this album as well. Comparing to the other thrash bands, Testament is the only one which encouraged to record so heavy and almost death album (and this is ‘bravery’ I mentioned just above …). Although I consider their two first albums as a base of thrash and metal music in general, I find here many memorable moments (especially “John Doe” and “Hatreds Rise” songs). “Demonic” defends staunchly its metal walls, although many years passed. It still spits the metal venom, their mix of death and thrash causes severe injuries of the senses. In spite of lack of speedy tunes (with one exception), Billy and company show a real brutality with demoniacal and monumental atmosphere. Vocals again on top notch level, but this is not a surprise. Even we can forget about many guitar leads, Peterson played some really good riffs. So, what can I advise to the other listeners? Nothing, but who really cares??? “Demonic” is completely different album when I compare even to “Low”, it is a good omen or introduction for the next ripper from the band. “The Legacy” golden times are gone, that’s obvious, but Billy/Peterson show swinging steps to cross over the hard reality. And I am with them.

When this album came out, Testament should have been sued for falsely impersonating a death metal band. Sign me up as a petitioner for a class action suit against this fallacy from a band that was already an overrated American thrash outfit. Of all the death metal albums out there, why would anyone want to settle for this? You mine as well just listen to Dethklok if this is what satisfies you. By the way Gene Hoglan, I will get to you in a minute, you’re not off the hook yet, bud.

With Demonic, one nagging thought of mine is that Testament also confuses groove metal with what they think they’re supposed to be sounding like. Eric Peterson’s riffs try to be dark and catchy instead of any real time signatures or solos that might go towards thrash style. Together as One is a perfect song to demonstrate in where the groove metal confusion comes into play. But even when trying to go all Exhorder on us with a song like that, they still fall short. Jun-Jun is another track that suffers the same misdirection. The rough rambling groove laden riffs try to sound like the ones in Slaughter in the Vatican and they are lame.

Any song called John Doe must sound as lame and boring as its title. And those vocals! Talk about more groove metal suckitude of the throat. But let me back up to Chuck Billy’s main vocal style with an example from the first song of Demonic Refusal (oooohh so evil!). The song just chugs with a mid paced rhythm and down-tuned guitars. Chuck’s vocals come in at about the minute mark with mid to high death metal growls. Ok, now skip to the song Murky Waters. You will hear basically the same formula in the opening chords as the first song. Those growls sound like lobotomized Glen Benton. And then everything just speeds on up to utter predictability.

Hatreds Rise is the worst song on this album. It goes right back to the post-thrash sound that curses this album with failure. It sounds like Prong and Machine Head and is just as shitty as a result. Listening to Distorted Lives will make you wonder why a thrash band would even want to sound so watered down. It’s worse than half-thrash. The band loads every full-bass stack and all the mids west of the Mendoza line and it sounds like a stone wall of disinterest. Alex Skolnick’s presence is sorely missed but I am glad he didn’t play on here.

Gene Hoglan’s drumming is that what you would expect of a journeyman smash-for-hire: a predictable and boring display of hits and whipping on slower speed. Ok, he doesn’t do a horrible job but it’s not exactly a bang up job either. On this album, he definitely sounds like he took this gig for the paycheck. To his credit, he’s the one who is setting the pace for this whole thing; not the bassist as you would be lead to believe despite Derrick Ramirez’s forefront presence.

New Eyes of Old starts out somewhat promising for about the first 30 seconds and devolves into complete shit. Chuck does more death-y growls underpinned by bad groove metal laden singing kind of like White Zombie or some shit. The only kind of good track is Nostrovia which is thankfully at the end of this mishap. It’s not very long and it is more of an instrumental than anything else. It’s actually an end song that is filler but when the filler is better than the other songs, you know the album sucks, believe me.

Demonic in a lot of ways represents everything that sucked about thrash metal bands in the mid to late 1990’s; revolving line-ups, ill-advised switching of styles and overproduced catchiness that might disguise itself as progressive but with the opposite effect. This album by Testament should be forgotten unless you have a bad taste for a washed up thrash bands with bad ideas.

This is where Testament got fed up and went death metal, supposedly. Maybe this is what death metal sounds like to Testament fans. To me (a death metal fan) it sounds pretty much like Testament, only slowed down, tuned down, and with less melody. And that's what it is. There's also much more vocal melody than you'd hear from almost any death metal album, but it's delivered in a very gruff voice, without much range, although the majority is straight cookie monster singing.

It also tends to be more rhythmic and groovy, which may deter thrashers on principle alone. The rhythms are too involved for it to come across like nu-metal; it might be more accurate to call it “churning” than “groovy.” Another sticking point is that there is very little soloing, which doesn't seem very remarkable or objectionable to me, but disciples of the old-school metal sound demand solos or else a written apology. I don't miss it and James Murphy isn't a favorite of mine anyhow.

The songs tend start off in the album's typical groove/churn mode, then go into a big breakdown, then come back to the main idea. Opening track “Demonic Refusal” does it best, with a totally monstrous breakdown that makes me think of Metallica's “One” right before the ending solo kicks off. “Murky Waters” does variation of the formula, starting off with a faster, thrashier riff and then going into a slow-motion watery breakdown.

This is my favorite Testament album, although that is admittedly much more an indication of my quirks as a listener than its relationship with the rest of their catalog. It's hard to say if this album would be better or worse known if it was put out by a different band that wasn't expected to sound a certain way. Nor recommended either for Testament fans or death metal fans, but still, recommended.

This is often mistaken for Death Metal, which it is not. This album is about as groove as it gets. Just because Billy uses growling vocals doesn't make it death metal. This album also isn't very good either. On their previous album, Testament incorporated more groove into their sound with the arrival of guitarist James Murphy. While he would not appear on here his style of playing influenced what Testament would later become. On 'Low', there was a fine mix of groove and thrash, with neither really taking over as being dominant. 'Demonic', however, takes the newly found groove of 'Low' and makes it fill up the whole album, with nary a thrash or even fast paced riff at all.

The riffs that are on here are, for lack of a better word, shit. They consist of badly done, downtuned groove riffs that for the most part are unimaginative and even painful to listen to at times. It's not that I hate groove, it's just that it is hard to use it correctly without overusing it or boring the listener. Of all the riffs on offer only one or two of them have any speed to them, with the vast majority being mid to slow paced. There are some claims of Death Metal riffs, and while there are a few they sound like your generic Morbid Angel clone slowed down. If this is not bad enough, there is the grand, mind blowing total of one (1) solo on the album in Hatreds Rise, and even that is too slow to be properly considered a solo as opposed to 'some instrumental section'. Some people may say that they are not necessary, but when the songs consist of badly done groove riffs at least one per song would be good.

Chuck Billy growls pretty much the whole time. His vocals are competant, but nothing special and they just sound like every other Death Metal band out there. When he does do clean vocals they are poorly pulled off and just plain laughable, as he is trying to sound 'tough' or something like that. This is another disappointment, considering that his vocal performances on earlier albums at least had some aggression to them and he could sing properly. He wasn't bad on 'Low' either, and sounded nowhere near as bad as on here, so I don't know where the drop in quality came from.

There are a few shining beacons in this sea of shit, however. Gene Hoglan provides spot on drumming (one wouldn't expect any less) with some great double bass peppered with some fills here and there. 'Demonic Refusal', 'The Burning Times', 'Hatreds Rise' and 'Murky Waters' all have somewhat decent riffing and the latter has pretty much the only riffs on the album which are faster than mid paced. They all would be the worst songs on 'Low' had they been on it, but on here they hold up well to the rest of the album. Finally, the production job is alright, and you can hear all the instruments clearly.

In conclusion, this album marks the low point of Testament's career being worse than 'Practice What You Preach' and 'The Ritual'. Thankfully they would improve on the following album and stop with the sound displayed on this album. Not recommended to anyone except avid Testament fans or people who really like groove metal.

Contrary to popular belief, this is not Testament. Or at least this shouldnt be Testament. Sure, there's some parts that blow you up into a kajillion pieces. But almost everytime, it seems like there's something missing. Maybe it's the lack of solos, or the lack of pulsing speed and dexterity. I mean the friggin riffs are very simple. The only song that gets away with this and sound fucking heavy as hell would be lead track Demonic Refusal. From a death metal perspective, it fucking kicks ass. From a Testament, or even thrash perspective, it's odd. I mean the band was never a blast beat kind of band. But the song still delivers, even without any kind of lead.

But what sucks the most is that almost every song consists of Chuck Billy using growls instead of his more popular snarling voice. Plus he has a pretty clean singing voice. It's not here. And the few songs with the snarling vocals sound a little too grungy and still kinda suck.

Nothing gets your heart pumping to point of uncontrollably going insane. This is not the First Strike Still Deadly rerelease of the first 2 albums. There, the drums were as tight as your pants when a girl's feeling you up, and the guitars and vocals were crisp and above standard. Here, the guitars are choppy (not as much as The Gathering) and just plain boring. That and leads dont seem be anywhere in sight. I would absolutely HATE this band if they kept this up album to album. Luckily, if the new album features what FSSD feature, then there shouldnt be much of a problem.

Bottom line, i would still say get this if your a Testament fan, or a death metal fan. There are some decent songs, but you wont stay interested for very long...