Band:	Testament
Album:	Demonic
Style:	Bay Area thrash metal
Release date:	June 09, 1997
A review by:	omne metallum

01. Demonic Refusal
02. The Burning Times
03. Together As One
04. Jun-Jun
05. John Doe
06. Murky Waters
07. Hatred's Rise
08. Distorted Lives
09. New Eyes Of Old
10. Ten Thousand Thrones
11. Nostrovia

A new low.

One album into their foray into death metal and Testament hit a major stumbling block on their second, namely, the band forget how to write a catchy and interesting song. Demonic is the sound of a band searching for a new identity amongst the ashes that once was the 80's thrash scene, pulling at anything but getting nothing of substance.

Following up on the high that was Low, Testament were well placed to transition to a new sound without losing any momentum and come out, musically at least, as one of the best thrash bands to transition into the 90's, but the band dropped the ball and fumbled along after it until The Gathering, where they were again able to pick it up and run with it. So where does this leave Demonic? It's an album that has forward momentum but much like that fumbled ball, it rarely gets off the ground and drags along until its end, hitting a few bumps that you hope serve as launching points for the album before it meekly returns to its, ahem, lows.

Mixing death metal and groove metal, Testament create what is an interesting idea on paper, but in practice it doesn't work, as both elements end up cancelling each other out and you are left with a sonic aesthetic that does little but swim in middling blandness. Add into this mix that the album is bereft of the quality song writing the band is known for and you end up with an record that excels at being beige. Much of the album is mid paced and overemploys the start-stop structure, to the point that songs do tend to merge to a large extent.

Compounding the poor mix of death and groove metal is the band's playing on the album, which is a largely forgettable and uninteresting affair. While the band are excellent thrash musicians and show signs of promise on Low of being adept at death metal, I can only assume it was the band's understanding of groove metal that sees them trade in their strengths for nothing in return ("John Doe", "The Burning Times"). While the band do sit in the rhythm and use that as a wrecking ball to attack the listener, it itself is in turn impeded by the constant mid pace and stop-starting that is peppered throughout these songs.

This could have been alleviated with solos that could have broken this cycle, but they are at a scarcity that wouldn't be seen until St. Anger. There are moments here and there like in "Jun-Jun", but to call it a solo would be misleading given this is the same band that produced ones like in "Apocalyptic City" and "The Preacher"; they're more little flurries and excursions that go nowhere fast. Billy has a mixed impact on the album; while his low roars are very good and musically can't be faulted, they do tend to lack impact and conciseness to the point that it means that much of his contribution adds to the sense that the album is very samey and beige, with only "New Eyes Of Old" seeing much variation of his vocal stylings.

With all this going against it, Demonic is not a complete write-off, however; there are elements and tracks that do show glimmers of what could have been (given the quality of the band, make that should have been), but for whatever reason aren't followed up on. "Demonic Refusal" is an example of how the groove metal sound could have been incorporated into the mix, with Hoglan's hypnotic rhythms pulsating across the track, with little fills to punctuate moments here and there, while the rest of the band drop their slab of death metal on top. "Hatred's Rise" has nothing immediately obvious to show why it is a good song but somehow it works and makes for an ok listen.

As you may have guessed, it is Hoglan who is the MVP of the record; while the rest of the band struggle to create and perfect a sonic identity on Demonic, Hoglan is easily able to. Oddly enough though, even though he is the best person on the record, it is probably the worst performance of his career. Constrained by the stop starting and mid pace, Hoglan is able to throw in fills and rhythms that give the songs something listenable to anchor your listening experience to, but he is restrained and isn't able to bring his full talents to bear. Given more freedom tempo- and structure-wise, it is not much of a stretch of the imagination to think rhat Hoglan could have done more.

It is with some relief to know that this is the worst Testament would get and that the band would learn from their mistakes, leaving Demonic as an unfortunate aberration and rare moment of heavy criticism for the band.