Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 31.07.2012 at 16:38
It has nothing to do with it being more melodic. It has to do with shoddy song writing.
The Legacy is actually as melodic is gets when you talk about Testament, it is more melodic than Practice. Practice is less speedy and more mid tempo but that does not mean it is more melodic.

The Legacy does have a lot of melody on it, but it is also far more brutal in places than Practice is even it's fastest heaviest moments. Songs like C.O.T.L.O.D. and First Strike Is Deadly are far more ferocious than anything on Practice... I can see what you're saying, but I do think Practice is overall, a more melodic album.

Written by Angelic Storm on 31.07.2012 at 16:44


The Legacy does have a lot of melody on it, but it is also far more brutal in places than Practice is even it's fastest heaviest moments. Songs like C.O.T.L.O.D. and First Strike Is Deadly are far more ferocious than anything on Practice... I can see what you're saying, but I do think Practice is overall, a more melodic album.

I would say it is the slick lifeless production which gives the impression Practice is more melodic, not the music as such.

Written by Marcel Hubregtse on 31.07.2012 at 16:43
nope it is not. I think you'd better look up condescending in the dictionary (now THAT is condescending hahahaha)

Most people here dissing out 9s and 10s to this work are blinded by the big name, I agree with Troy on that.

Blindly and baselessly criticising those giving the album a high mark, is really no less condescending than those attacking the people giving the album a very low rating. To think otherwise is just hyopcrisy.

Written by Angelic Storm on 31.07.2012 at 16:50
Blindly and baselessly criticising those giving the album a high mark, is really no less condescending than those attacking the people giving the album a very low rating. To think otherwise is just hyopcrisy.

I didn't criticize anyone. I merely pointed out that while everyone here was busy complaining about album scores and vote abusers, this album actually isn't being tanked by a bunch of "trolls", as you put it. (You should read up on that definition as well, seems you abuse that term.) I deleted the one clear-cut vote abuser and this still sits at a low 8. People throwing their fists in the air because this isn't the best album of the year according to the voters on one website are probably the same people who order a burger, eat the entire thing, and then demand a free one because the one they just ate didn't have ketchup on it.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 31.07.2012 at 17:00
I didn't criticize anyone. I merely pointed out that while everyone here was busy complaining about album scores and vote abusers, this album actually isn't being tanked by a bunch of "trolls", as you put it. (You should read up on that definition as well, seems you abuse that term.) I deleted the one clear-cut vote abuser and this still sits at a low 8. People throwing their fists in the air because this isn't the best album of the year according to the voters on one website are probably the same people who order a burger, eat the entire thing, and then demand a free one because the one they just ate didn't have ketchup on it.

Coming from someone who has openly admitted to trolling, and being tolerant of it, I really don't think you're best placed to tell me that I'm "abusing" the term. And many people here have agreed with me when it comes to that issue. Besides, I didn't use the term "a bunch of trolls", so stop putting words in my mouth. I saw that one person had given the album a rating of 1, and two people had given it a rating of 2. I said the people who had rated it that, were likely either trolls or people voting tactically. I fail to see how that translates to saying it was "being tanked by a bunch of trolls". You've blown what I said out of all proportion.

Whilst I agree with your latter point, it's really no better when critical voters bash those who rated the album highly. Usually based on no more than baseless assumptions. Baseless criticsm of high ratings is really just as bad, and no different, to baseless criticsm of low ratings. Either way, it's people getting their knickers in a twist because other people are expressing an opinion different to their own.

Written by Angelic Storm on 31.07.2012 at 17:35
Coming from someone who has openly admitted to trolling, and being tolerant of it, I really don't think you're best placed to tell me that I'm "abusing" the term.

Coming from someone who knows what trolling actually is, I'd like to think I'm actually in a pretty good place to tell you not to abuse the term. Vote abuse isn't a matter of trolling. From Wikipedia: "In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."

Quote:
Besides, I didn't use the term "a bunch of trolls", so stop putting words in my mouth. You've blown what I said out of all proportion.

Excuse me for paraphrasing. You had referred to the vote abusers as potential trolls, thus I made the grievous mistake of saying you were calling them all trolls. Considering you've been doing your own bit of putting words in my mouth, I think a pot-meets-kettle picture would be appropriate here.

Quote:
Either way, it's people getting their knickers in a twist because other people are expressing an opinion different to their own.

Which will always be the case, which is why I choose to have fun with these people rather than being so serious. When everyone starts melting down over what they believe to be a low score, threads instantly become a complete joke. Kind of like this one. People are more worried about where this sits on the top charts or how it aligns with their personal score and nobody cares to talk about the actual music. I'd guess a quarter of the posts on this thread actually do that. The rest involve various forms of whining about that little number to the right of the album art.

*resists urge to give a 1*

Written by Troy Killjoy on 31.07.2012 at 17:46
Coming from someone who knows what trolling actually is, I'd like to think I'm actually in a pretty good place to tell you not to abuse the term. Vote abuse isn't a matter of trolling. From Wikipedia: "In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."

But I'm not abusing the term, I'm quite well aware of the meaning of "troll" that you have just posted. But then, I feel quite sure you were already aware that I knew that. Giving an album an extremely low rating on a public forum purely "for the lulz" is trolling, as I'm sure you already know. Therefore, I wasn't abusing the term. I'll continue this below...

Quote:
Excuse me for paraphrasing. You had referred to the vote abusers as potential trolls, thus I made the grievous mistake of saying you were calling them all trolls. Considering you've been doing your own bit of putting words in my mouth, I think a pot-meets-kettle picture would be appropriate here.

I think the word "potential" really has to be highlighted here, as that was all I was implying. I specifically used the word "either" when I made that comment precisely to try and prevent the type of misinterpretation that you chose to put on the comment. Saying it's possible they were trolls, and saying they definitely were, is hardly the same thing.

Not really... I said you were being condescending by reffering to people rating the album highly as being "blinded by the name". I didn't really put words into your mouth there, that is what you actually said. I fail to see how anyone could see that as anything other than a critical, and negative comment.

Quote:
Which will always be the case, which is why I choose to have fun with these people rather than being so serious. When everyone starts melting down over what they believe to be a low score, threads instantly become a complete joke. Kind of like this one. People are more worried about where this sits on the top charts or how it aligns with their personal score and nobody cares to talk about the actual music. I'd guess a quarter of the posts on this thread actually do that. The rest involve various forms of whining about that little number to the right of the album art.

Again, you are correct, but before Strifeman made that comment, there had been comments made earlier by people expressing disbelief over people giving it a high rating. Why is it the guy who launches attacks on the critical viewpoints gets singled out, when those other comments I mentioned were basically doing the same thing, only in reverse?

I am totally with you when it comes to "nobody cares to talk about the actual music", and I do find that very frustrating in threads like this. It seems that most "album threads" especially by well-known bands, usually descend into the type of silly mud-slinging, that we've seen here. With very little actual discussion of the music going on. I really like my musical discussions here with Marcel, even though he completely disagrees with me about the album, and Testament in general. Because the discussion is about the actual music, rather than focussing purely on the ratings and having a go at that.

Written by Angelic Storm on 31.07.2012 at 18:13
Not really... I said you were being condescending by reffering to people rating the album highly as being "blinded by the name". I didn't really put words into your mouth there, that is what you actually said. I fail to see how anyone could see that as anything other than a critical, and negative comment.

Since the rest of this post is pretty much a agree to disagree type of thing, I'll just respond to this. All I meant by saying they weren't blinded by the name (those who didn't simply give this a 10) is that people have a tendency to score albums higher than they typically would if it were a release from a less popular band. We see this time and time again, with bands like Fear Factory winning the best industrial metal album with what many consider to be one of their worst releases of all time in 2005/2006 whatever. The 8.2 (still a pretty decent score to be honest) here reflects a possible lack of fanboys, but also a more objective overall scoring because people apparently overlooked the Testament name and voted according to what they listened to, not what name was on the disc.

I think it's safe to say no one trolls albums by giving them low ratings. There's no reason to assume otherwise. People bomb albums because they either hate it (or hate its reputation most likely) or want to tactical vote.

Written by Troy Killjoy on 31.07.2012 at 18:18
Since the rest of this post is pretty much a agree to disagree type of thing, I'll just respond to this. All I meant by saying they weren't blinded by the name (those who didn't simply give this a 10) is that people have a tendency to score albums higher than they typically would if it were a release from a less popular band. We see this time and time again, with bands like Fear Factory winning the best industrial metal album with what many consider to be one of their worst releases of all time in 2005/2006 whatever. The 8.2 (still a pretty decent score to be honest) here reflects a possible lack of fanboys, but also a more objective overall scoring because people apparently overlooked the Testament name and voted according to what they listened to, not what name was on the disc.

Well... yes, there are fanboys who will give an album a higher rating purely because of the name of the band attatched to it. I guess the problem is, is that everyone who gives a big name band's album a high rating, are automatically tarred with the "fanboy/girl" brush, even if their rating was reached purely on their genuine affection for the music, and the band name played no part in the decision to award that rating. For example, I had no qualms in being heavily critical of the last Iron Maiden album, yet I love the new Testament (no pun intended! ) album. So I'm not blinded by the name, I just happen to love the music on the album. I realise your comment may not have been meant as a universal put-down of all people who rated the album highly, but for sure, some people do automatically think that anyone who gives high ratings to a big name band's album must be a blind fanboy. And there have been comments made in this thread that prove that to be the case.

8.2 is a decent score, and I do find it ridiculous how anyone could take exception to that. I think the Fear Factory album you're reffering to is "Transgresssion", is that right? I think all that happened there, is there's probably lots of people, for whom FF are the only Industrial metal band they know, so they have to vote for that album, as FF is as far as their knowledge of the industrial genre goes.

Ok, fanboy maybe, hey this is Testament kicking ass with Gene back on drums again.

Musically, my all time favourite Testament release is Demonic, but I'm not too keen on Dark Roots of Earth's artwork itself, but just that. I have bought a copy of the standard CD version, but really this album does have my least favourite Testament artwork on it.

Sure, I get it, but... but it doesn't look "evil" enough for a Testament release, looks a bit more like a pretty boy power metal album cover.

Almost too cute with the little ritual going on in the foreground.

..To set an objective mood around here Imma start being the first and actually change this 10, as much as I actually do think it's a 10. Sorry for flaming up such an argument. Some shit needs to get out of my system sometimes. And it's really only about the memberbase than the staff, because I see how members have changed lately for the sole sake of sounding professional than actually getting down and listening to MUSIC. How their list would look elite and snobby over the big names and "SURPRISE" people by putting small names on the top. How the Charts would go along to their tastes more than how the albums they like are going to be listened to more. It's the irony that everyone's slowly becoming a poseur. WHAT?! POSEUR?! You say. Well yeah. Everyone is posing to listen to "different styles" but in reality they are just bashing those they don't find fitting to their style and brag about "enduring" whole albums and giving multiple listens. Always coming to the albums with negative mindsets because of the 'big name' or "overused" tags like 'another melodeath' and 'plastic revivalist thrash'. Really if this SAME MUSIC was made by some Eastern European obscure stoners everyone's going to be like "OH HAAAAIL!" or "objective".

Metal Storm just wasn't like this. In the past those who liked black and brutal death for example, used to grab the albums from their respective subgenres and rate them on how good they sound, they didn't care what was on the Charts or whether [album] has a higher rating. And then the assigned staff reviewer for this style would be more recommended to review, because he understands the genre more deeply. Troy is always given the atmospheric black stuff, for example. I don't see how objective or how expertise would take its place if you suddenly switch between Troy and let's say Susan and let both of them rate each other's favorite stuff and review it. Problem is, members are all becoming the most elite farts on Earth who know all about any kind of metal. To be honest? I'm not approaching any albums on the Top lists if I find their style from the first two tracks not very appealing, because I WILL misjudge that. And here there's some big loads of misjudgment. And of course you've got 'this band is commercial' cool aura around any elitist who says he doesn't care 'bout big names... dear hells. "Oh my God you rated a big name album a 9? Out of the elite circle!"

Just somehow MS wasn't this way. We used to brag about how acceptive and open-minded we were to various kinds of genres, even Nu, God's sake. Now every 'big name' / 'thrash / heavy' album is blowing out paradigms that say "this is going to be bad", and you have 0 musical taste if you'd like something. "I weep for your ears", meh, I even heard this. Well a jazz fusion enthusiast would and could dare to say the same to any black metal fan around here and he's got his reasons. Does it mean that that's right? No. It's turning into something like non-metalheads rating metal. People who listen to black and stoner all the time, for example, suddenly sounding like experts on thrash. You don't like it anymore. Doesn't mean it sucks.

Actually the pretty new cover artwork reminds me of Magika.

Written by Iron Nostarion on 01.08.2012 at 03:55
Very long post that I'll try to respond to in on-topic fashion.

If someone rates a new Testament album with a 10, that's fine. I have no issues with that whatsoever. The problem is that most of those votes are stigmatized because it's a "big name band" - a popular band with a big following and therefore likely to have a wide audience and loyal fanbase. The kind of loyal fanbase that feels compelled to even go so far as to create multiple accounts on random websites in order to inflate the score of said album simply to see it ascend the relevant top charts, as if it's their duty as a fan.

I'm not saying you or anyone else isn't inherently objective for claiming this to be a masterpiece. Tastes differ. What I think is a 10 you may think is a 5. Not really a big deal.

As for anyone here being elitist... I won't argue that at all. Although by comparison I'd say our community overall isn't terribly ripe with elitism, but there are definitely some of us who may come across as metal elitists in general or an elitist in a specific genre. You get that with all types of music in all types of communities though.

@Troy: Brilliant post.

Wow, what the hell happened here.

Anyways, I was just gonna say I listened to the entire album and found it absolutely boring and I will not be buying the cd.

Well this was entertaining... but i'm a bit disappointed by this album :/
maybe i'll rate it higher if i listen more to it. enjoyable nonetheless

This is just... average. I could barely manage to give it a second listening.

It's too melodic for my taste, and I dislike the clean vocals, I consider the raspy vocals on Formation of Damnation to be a lot more enjoyable. On the plus side, it's a lot better than what Kreator are recording these days (if you like comparisons).

Http://www.blabbermouth.net/showreview.aspx?reviewID=2434

Written by Ksajal on 03.08.2012 at 11:39

This is just... average. I could barely manage to give it a second listening.

It's too melodic for my taste, and I dislike the clean vocals, I consider the raspy vocals on Formation of Damnation to be a lot more enjoyable. On the plus side, it's a lot better than what Kreator are recording these days (if you like comparisons).

I will not say a lot better, i will say that both albuns are enjoyable at this rate, but i think i like Phanom Antichrist a lot more, personaly i think! And yeah, i don't like the clean vocals and the too melodic stuff that they managed to put in this record! But it's not bad at all! If i had to rate this, i'd say "7", maybe less...i don't know!

Native Blood, best song of the year

I love this album, and the previous one too... Testament are back and as good as ever... Alex Skolnick's re-injection has brought life back to these guys.
@Death To Posers i love Native Blood, great lyrics... and a great song.

Another brick in the wall of mediocrity.

I liked this alot more than I thought I would! I still always skip the first track though lol

This is first Testament album I ever heard. Quite average, but I am not their fan... Yeah, I know, there are older albums and they kick ass etc etc.
Native Blood and American Hate are my fav songs, Rise Up is great for heating up crowd, Maiden's Powerslave is also cool, Man Kills Mankind is pretty good track. Others are average, like background noise. I barely perceived them.

Who reads this anyway?

Written by Lustful Maid on 18.08.2012 at 19:18

The End.

..............of Testament's career? or their life?

Whatever mates is ok!!

I think this one is a bit better than the previous Formation Of Damnation, i think it's more consistent and solid...Another example of a band that continues at the best level possible.

Disappointment

It lacks melodies, originality and is not keeping up any speed.

True American Hate is nice. Rise up is ok. the rest is boring.