Testament - The New Order review
| Band: | Testament |
| Album: | The New Order |
| Style: | Bay Area thrash metal |
| Release date: | May 05, 1988 |
| Guest review by: | Syk |
01. Eerie Inhabitants
02. The New Order
03. Trial By Fire
04. Into The Pit
05. Hypnosis
06. Disciples Of The Watch
07. The Preacher
08. Nobody's Fault [Aerosmith cover]
09. A Day Of Reckoning
10. Musical Death (A Dirge)
I have scrapped and then returned to this review so many times - the more and more I listen to this album, the more I hear Testament copying themselves and other bands, so this time I'll spare the details and save a few hundred words.
The bulk of what we have here is groove-based thrash; tracks 4 and 7 are the most straight-out speedsters but even then it's only for half the song. The beginnings of tracks 1 3 and 6 are passable Malmsteen-like sections that completely disrupt the thrashmosphere and don't even have much to do with the songs they introduce. On top of that, the band does something similar for the entirety of tracks 5 and 10. What in the name of Zoldon were they thinking? "Let's rip off Ride the Lightning again and end with an evil instrumental!" Nice try, but you FORGOT the EVIL! Bands, producers, and anyone else with influence needs to know that four minutes of depressed guitar noodling is not how you close a thrash album. Bad Testament, bad!
The exceptional song here, in a good way (but not amazing) is their cover of Aerosmith's "Nobody's Fault". It offers a reprieve from the band's samey own songs and works well with Chuck's comparatively harsher vocals. As at least one other reviewer will tell you, the part in the chorus where the delivery speeds up out of nowhere makes for quite good listening. Unfortunately that was creativity on Aerosmith's part rather than Testament's, but in my view their version here improves on one or two vocal melodies and is certainly better than the original. Speaking of vocals, 1988 Chuck Billy is your average thrash crooner à la 80s Hetfield, with a few Belladonna-ish shrieks but don't expect him to stay in key for long at higher registers. Skolnick is the star here with his lead work, Peterson and Clemente are competent but not groundbreaking and the bassist is... well... the bassist. That's the end of that.
The songs on The New Order range from slightly below- to slightly above-average, and for structural reasons this piece isn't worth much more than NZ$10 (about US$7 or ?5, and I'm the kind of guy who never even considers buying used). Save your hard money for the essential early works of Metallica, Anthrax and such, or if you already have those, support someone from the underground. They've gotta be better written than this.
Favourite tracks: "The New Order", "Trial by Fire", "Nobody's Fault"
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 6 |
| Originality: | 5 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by Syk | 10.07.2007
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
8.9
8.9
|
Rating: 8.9 |
Released by the end of the '80s in 1988, when other thrash metal bands' directions began to divert from basic Bay Area Thrashing to different, broader styles (Metallica's change to a more mainstream and arguably progressive style by ...And Justice for All and Slayer's South of Heaven which featured slower music), Testament come with their second studio album still formed of mostly pure thrash metal, with a few groovy tunes here and there. The album is, like any other thrash metal album, full of riffs, catchy songs, speed and interesting lyrical topics. Read more ›› |
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Comments: 40
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| Guib Thrash Talker Posts: 3218  |
Odd, I don't agree with this review on most aspects. Actually, I find The New Order to be a quite solid thrash album. I love ''Disciples Of The Watch'', ''Trial By Fire'', ''The Pit'', Eerie Inhabitants''(...) they're actually some of my favorite Testament's songs. And I was pretty surprised when I read the review. Ok, yes, I can see similiraties with some moments of the album Ride The Lightning, but still far from Metallica... Idk, they got their own touch and the guitar is way, but like way better than metallica (random ex: just the small guitar part at 2:24 of The New Order it always makes me smile, love the sound, and then right after a crazy and original solo. That reaction is pretty rare with Metallica's playing, and the solos are pretty dull in comparison), Anyways. My opinion I won't judge yours, I guess we're all different, gotta respect that.
---- - Headbanging with mostly clogged arteries to that stuff - Guib's List Of Essential Albums - Also Thrash Paradise Thrash Here
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| ThisIsEndgame Posts: 35  |
"The bassist is...Well a bassist" someone obviously doesn't know anything about bass or testaments bassist.
---- \m/ Next thing you know they'll take my thought away! \m/
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6082  |
The review is spot on. Testament released only 1 great album, "The Legacy". On "The New Order" they started copying themselves and never stopped since. Testament is also the most overrated thrash band in history. So much praise for 1 great album and 2 good ones, with a long list shitty releases? Open your ears fanboys. EDIT: now bash me!
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by Daniell on 30.08.2011 at 15:03 Did you copy one of my "rants" on testament from somewhere on the forum?  Oh no you didn't because imo Overkill is the most overrated thrash band in history. All kidding aside, I 100% agree with you. But I think you already knew my thoughts on Testament.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6082 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 30.08.2011 at 15:14 We agree about Testament, but I strongly disagree about Overkill! Taking Over, Years of Decay, Horrorscope, Ironbound - that's 4 great albums as opposed to Testament's one
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by Daniell on 30.08.2011 at 15:39 Taking Over and Feel The Fire are good albums not great for me and the rest is pedestrian middle of the road thrash. And Testament's The Legacy is superior to anything done by Overkill 
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Daniell _爱情_ Elite Posts: 6082 |
Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 30.08.2011 at 15:45 It's unfair to bash Overkill in a Testament thread Anyways, back to Testament, The New Order at least isn't a disaster while, say, Souls of Black is among the most bland, stale and uninspired metal albums ever.
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| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071 |
Written by Daniell on 30.08.2011 at 16:15 True and Practice what You Preach as well and they are the band that wrote the most boring and uninspired and pointless ballad in the history of metal with the "brilliant" title The Ballad.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675  |
Written by Daniell on 30.08.2011 at 15:03 Wow, such a mindless comment isn't worthy of my bashing...  You've made yourself look quite foolish enough without any help from anyone else!  Agree with you about Overkill though....
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 61829  |
Malmsteen and Testament, that swede needs go to long lessons to be able compose such album.
---- 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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