Testament - Titans Of Creation review
| Band: | Testament |
| Album: | Titans Of Creation |
| Style: | Bay Area thrash metal |
| Release date: | April 03, 2020 |
| A review by: | nikarg |
01. Children Of The Next Level
02. WWIII
03. Dream Deceiver
04. Night Of The Witch
05. City Of Angels
06. Ishtar's Gate
07. Symptoms
08. False Prophet
09. The Healers
10. Code Of Hammurabi
11. Curse Of Osiris
12. Catacombs
In a recent interview, Chuck Billy asked himself: "Why do we even make records anymore when all people seem to want are singles? Thanks to the internet, many people will only download one or two of their favorite tracks". I say, let's change the question a little bit: "Why do bands release LPs when they only have enough good songs for an EP?" With that in mind, let's see how Titans Of Creation fares.
Well, in a few words, if you are a fan of the type of thrash the band has been playing throughout the new millennium, this must be just another one of those albums that people like to call 'solid' or 'good' even. Is it though?
Titans Of Creation opens with "Children Of The Next Level", an aggressive track with cool guitar harmonies and interesting riffing, which forms a great one-two with its successor, "WWIII", a nuclear bombing thrasher with a couple of excellent breakdowns. "Night Of The Witch" is another good track that features a demolishing groove underneath the lyrics "all night, they cast a spell by the light of the moon" and scary blackened vocals by Eric Peterson in the chorus but it also manifests one of the flaws of Titans Of Creation; it is too long for no reason, just like the one that follows, "City Of Angels", which is a filler track anyway. The oriental take of "Ishtar's Gate" and "Code Of Hammurabi" and especially the melodic groove of "Symptoms" are enjoyable but the album sort of just goes by in a monotonous fashion and, if you don't pay attention, it doesn't make the impact it should.
Listening to Titans Of Creation with headphones gives the opportunity to fully appreciate the impressive abilities of both DiGiorgio and Hoglan; this rhythm section is any thrasher's wet dream - in my opinion, probably the best rhythm section thrash has ever seen - and they both fucking slay on this album. The mix helps distinguish the fantastic work of the bass and the drums, despite being a tad too loud. You will also notice how exquisite the solos are, Alex Skolnick has really outdone himself on this one and his solos save many of the songs from total mediocrity. I mean, check out how he uses Chuck Billy's take on Scorpions' "He's A Woman, She's A Man" in the chorus of "Dream Deceiver", and incorporates its hard rocking vibe in the last seconds of his solo. Pure class, this guy.
I have given many chances to Titans Of Creation, because I love thrash and I am a huge fan of Testament's first three records and of The Gathering. However, this album does what nine out of ten thrash albums do nowadays (and have always done, even during the '80s); it gets tired and tiring easily. And with so much talent between the musicians, it's a shame. After a few songs, the riffs sound derivative, as if there is an algorithm used to generate them. The band even had the chance to end on a high note with "Curse Of Osiris", but they chose the "Catacombs" outro (which sounds more like an intro) to close Titans Of Creation, stretching the runtime of an album, which was already way too long, even further. Thrash records were never meant to be clocking in at just under an hour.
I am sure many will disagree with this review and with the final rating, especially those of you who like Testament's output since The Formation Of Damnation. Good, I am happy for you because you will find this one to be great, but I can't see myself revisiting it much, if at all, like I haven't done with any of their previous three albums with the exception of Dark Roots Of Earth.
Having listened to this a double-digit number of times, I can only remember a single-digit number of riffs. Unless I have early onset Alzheimer's, this is not a good thing.
Check it out and see if you can remember more.
* Testament were on tour when the COVID-19 virus emerged and vocalist Chuck Billy, his wife Tiffany, and several crew members have been confirmed to have contracted the virus. We hope they have a speedy recovery.
 | Written on 02.04.2020 by Only way to feel the noise is when it's good and loud! |
Comments
Comments: 29
Visited by: 403 users
| musclassia Staff Posts: 7627  |
I will give it a listen, because I haven't minded some of their more recent stuff and I really enjoyed their show last month. However, the new songs they played that night seemed pretty forgettable so not expecting much from this. And yeah, wishing them all swift recoveries - sounds like Chuck's over the worst of it by a recent post I saw, hope that remains the case.
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| AndreaAdAstraHhdesig Posts: 2 |
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7348  |
Written by AndreaAdAstraHhdesig on 02.04.2020 at 20:14 First comment since 2013. I am honoured! I cannot believe all the extremely favourable reviews and, quite honestly, they all look like copy-paste stuff. It's as if they are deliberately trying to suck up to Nuclear Blast. I noticed the same thing with the latest My Dying Bride album.
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| UPDIRNS Posts: 366 |
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6101  |
A very accurate review. Testament haven't released a really great album since "The Legacy"... Surely, "New Order" and "The Gathering" are quite good, but that's basically it. This is the weakest legendary thrash metal band in existence. Also, I saw them live 6 weeks ago - they were great.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7348 |
Written by Daniell on 03.04.2020 at 00:39 Thanks Daniell. You actually give me the opportunity to share the intro I initially wrote for this review: Four years after Brotherhood Of The Snake we have a new album by Testament, aka the band many people mention as the one that should have taken Anthrax's place in the Big Four. If you belong in the above group of people, I've got news for you: Testament could never be part of the Big Four because they were blatantly copying the biggest band of the Big Four. And despite the fact that their first three albums are top quality thrash, they couldn't belong in that group when their sound was so obviously borrowed from Metallica. Furthermore, there is also a very good reason why those four particular bands were the most popular at the time - and thus were named the "Big Four" - and the reason is that they simply were the best. Deal with it. If there was one band that deserved to be mentioned in the same sentence with any of those four in that group, it was only Overkill. But they were from New Jersey. I don't regret ditching the above paragraph because a) the Big Four issue has been discussed to death, b) the text comes across as quite opinionated and a bit like "come my grandchildren, let's sit in front of the fireplace and I'll tell you one or two things about thrash". I do stand by the truth in it though. And I agree with you, they are great live and the weakest legendary thrash band in existence. They are amazing musicians, I wish they could write better songs.
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62014  |
I agree whit polish guy, its been long band had good album out, but last and this is not bad, but I like whole albun, i listen from 1 to last song, to me albums are important thing, it was finish kaaos tv who asked such quastion like years ago Why band out out albums, all likes Spotify single. Well there are chosen few who likes real cd
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7348 |
Written by Bad English on 03.04.2020 at 17:04 I am an album guy too. That's how I learned to appreciate music and I don't intend to change. Three or four good songs don't make for an overall good album, and if the rest of it is skippable I'll just skip the entire thing and not buy it or even bother to listen to those three or four tracks that are good. I can live with one or two fillers on a record but that's just about it. There is so much good music around us, it is completely pointless to me to pay any attention to half-assed efforts.
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| RaduP CertifiedHipster Staff Posts: 9028  |
Written by nikarg on 03.04.2020 at 17:35 Written by nikarg on 03.04.2020 at 17:35 Hmmmm
---- Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking One day there will be no heart at all?
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| Deviant Posts: 46  |
Written by RaduP on 03.04.2020 at 18:04 Indeed...
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| Maco Pvt Funderground Posts: 3593  |
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7348 |
Written by RaduP on 03.04.2020 at 18:04 Yeah, I hate it when I have to make exceptions for reviewing purposes.
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| Cynic Metalhead Ambrish Saxena Posts: 7561  |
Great review. Finished my 1st sitting, and I got the feeling it's the worst mixing of B side of "Dark Roots of Earth". At least, half of the time I thought I'm genuinely listening to Dark Roots like "WWIII" resembles "True American Hate" or punches in Dream Deceiver reminds me of "Native Blood". As nik said, it's a worth of EP. Quote: And this. Perhaps one of the best rhythmic sections ever to be heard in their records.
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| Aries Rising Posts: 569  |
Written by Cynic Metalhead on 04.04.2020 at 00:23 I dunno, while Hoglan is the better drummer, I still think Dave's performance on The Gathering was the high water mark for the band.
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| Aries Rising Posts: 569 |
Another review I read put it succinctly: "Titans of Creation is essentially one half of a very good Testament album, rounded out with an okay other half." There are some good songs but the album overall needs to be shortened.
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| Nejde Posts: 1695  |
Written by nikarg on 02.04.2020 at 21:30 Sadly the record companies have many music journalists and reviewers in their pockets. Give a favourable review and you keep getting press releases and do interviews with the bands, a bad review and you're out in the cold. That is why Metalstorm is and always will be my go to website for news, reviews and such. There's no ass kissing here. Just honesty be it good or bad. I also like that you can have your own opinion without getting a hate storm like in a Youtube comments section if you disagree with others. And none of the mods here act high and mighty. Everyone seems so down to earth and that goes for regular users too btw. We're all here to share our knowledge, admiration and love for metal with each other and everyone keeps it friendly. Finally, great review and this doesn't make me change my opinion about Testament. Never been a big fan and this seems to be another generic album just like the last 5-6 Megadeth albums. Might dive in to their older stuff though 
---- Liebe ist für alle da.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7348 |
Written by Nejde on 04.04.2020 at 13:10 Thank you. We may have shit taste in music but we definitely don't suck up to anyone and whatever you read is honest assessment. It may be wrong, but it is honest. I have had this album for three weeks. I took it with me while running, while working out, driving my car or in the tube commuting to and from work, I listened to it while cooking or while... you get the point. I was leaving it for a few days and picking it up again. It never made a more-than-average impression. The 6 is mainly for the amazing musicianship.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7348 |
Written by Aries Rising on 04.04.2020 at 06:36 I googled the quoted sentence and found the review, it was posted a day before this one. What AMG's Steel Druhm and I have in common is that we got to know Testament in their heyday and our perception of the band and its music is different. I am not saying it is better or worse than everyone else's, just different. I see reviewers giving out 8s and 9s and 10s for this album and I am wondering what would they rate The Legacy and The New Order? 25?
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| Aries Rising Posts: 569 |
Written by nikarg on 05.04.2020 at 02:03 I've noticed that as a trend, a lot of bands are getting good scores more for who they are instead of what they are capable of producing. I mean great brands should be held to a higher standard right? The measuring stick for Testament is The Legacy, The New Order and The Gathering, does Titans come close to those? No, so it shouldn't be rated as highly as those. Another trend I that I really dislike, and Testament seems to have fallen into with the last few records, is the act of putting music out just to have new music available. Bands just do this so they can go tour again with a few new songs to justify going and seeing them play live. The fact that bands don't make bank like they did in the 60s-90s from albums and all other revenue streams makes a lot of bands play it safe once they reach a certain level of success. It's honestly starting to turn me off from music to a degree.
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| Aries Rising Posts: 569 |
Written by Nejde on 04.04.2020 at 13:10 Sadly it's like that in all mediums now. Video games, movies, music, all of them. If you say something negative about ANYTHING, you lose access and that can be a death sentence to a journalist or even a "successful" amateur reviewer.
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| AndreaAdAstraHhdesig Posts: 2 |
Written by nikarg on 02.04.2020 at 21:30 reading metalstorm since 2013, true.... quarantine makes changes ;-) Latest MDB is quite forgettable, NB don't push too much on the artist, i think, to be honest....are the band themself that have a lack of creativity. think about Sepultura, nile, possessed or so on... NB but good stuff (IMHO)... maybe this is the last testament for testamen...
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| Reznor Posts: 1 |
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| Răzvan Posts: 40  |
I'm one of those who like Testament's more recent output, even though for me the high-water mark was The Gathering, so I guess it's not surprising that I'm also enjoying this latest album. However I understand some will mark this record down because it sounds let's say too "typical" of modern thrash albums. Then again for me Testament is like an old comfy pair of slippers - they may not be as fresh as they once were, maybe a little ragged around the edges, but I know exactly what I'm getting into and that they will fit me perfectly.
---- My subjectivity is better than yours.
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| Stormm Posts: 168  |
Written by Răzvan on 19.04.2020 at 13:01 Exactly. Sometimes metal fans are too harsh because of their expectations. Sometimes they're condemning new records because it's not what they were expecting or because it's nothing new and revolutionary in some sense. But anyone who will look in the past on progressive years of Testament (mostly 1992-1999) cannot be expecting some more of that progressive direction today. But they're still making solid music.
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| Marthyria Posts: 3 |
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| Metren Dreadrealm Posts: 1410  |
7/10 for me. With the opening tracks and that production I was ready to love this album, but it does get weaker towards the end and indeed also overstays its welcome. Nice review!
---- My one-man project's Bandcamp with free downloads: https://dreadrealm.bandcamp.com/
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| sacha Posts: 21 |
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7348 |
Written by sacha on 07.07.2020 at 12:49 I am obviously in complete agreement. If you actually decide to bother finding where each riff was used initially, please let us know. I started doing the same for the latest Rotting Christ album but got very annoyed halfway and stopped. Welcome to Metal Storm, by the way
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