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Rating: Let's face it... Testament has lost their tranquility for years... Perhaps for too long... Perhaps for so long that anyone else would have given up... Any other band would have gotten tired and said "thanks, it was nice, goodbye".
With line-up changes more frequent than autumn rains, second thoughts, illnesses that have debilitated various members for several periods (and still do), dubious stylistic directions and criticized but courageous attempts at musical evolution, they haven't had a moment of calm since 1990. Saying that the nineties were difficult years for Testament is an understatement. Indeed, it seems that in the previous eighties they left behind that personal balance and musical freedom that had influenced and characterized thrash masterpieces like 'The Legacy', 'The New Order'. Moving into the nineties, almost as if they were victims of an "anticipated millennium-bug" (and certainly not helped by the dark period that metal in general and thrash specifically were going through), that balance broke definitively and left the band adrift in the sea of "accessible experiments" (see 'The Ritual'). However, they resisted and tried, for better or worse, to search in every direction for that lost balance. They looked towards melody ('Soul Of Black' and the aforementioned 'The Ritual') but didn't find it, so after changing several members (among whom was the great Skolnick), they decided to aim towards a sonic extremism and the result was the successful 'Low', which marked a decisive return to the aggressive sounds of their beginnings with a modern twist and a curious peek towards extremism on the verge of Death Metal.
It almost seemed as if the search was over, that the balance had returned (thanks to the entry of virtuoso guitarist James Murphy and dynamic drummer John Tempesta), and even the fans, disappointed by previous works, seemed to have proclaimed a miraculous resurrection. But misfortune was lurking around the corner. The umpteenth instability, the umpteenth loss of tranquility (which led to the departure, for artistic reasons and personal divergences, of Murphy, Tempesta, his replacement Dette, and founding member Christian [bass]), led to an unprecedented crisis that resulted in the band's disbandment in 1996.
But the spirit of the band did not yield... after a hiatus with Dog Faced Gods, Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson rolled up their spikes... em... their sleeves and reformed the band by calling to their court the talented Glen Alvelais (guitar), Derrick Ramirez (bass, former guitarist in their early days), and his majesty Gene Hoglan on the drums. The result of this was 'Demonic'.
Born out of frustration, anger, and suffering, "Demonic" presents itself as the most brutal and insane work of the band, where the discontent and disillusionment towards the past is fully perceived alongside a morbid awareness of the will for rebirth. Gray, painful, and unhealthy atmospheres, with a more resigned than threatening nature (almost disappointed, as if to say: "you made us angry and now we punish you!") maliciously combine with fiery and deliberately violent passages, symptoms of a dominant aggressive discontent.
Musically uncompromising, the album is the not entirely natural continuation of what the band had done with the previous 'Low'. It continues, by intensifying the approximation to Death Metal sounds hinted at in that work, further weighing down the sound to create an impenetrable sonic wall. The tempos slow down to a density never before experienced by the band, and almost all the tracks present themselves as massive and brutal mid-tempos distinguished by a heavy work of rhythm guitar and an incredible and dominant use of growl vocals by Chuck Billy. In a "demonic" mix of styles, the absolutely Thrash vein that Testament manages to infuse into each track stands out, blending everything with the more "square" American Death and with a minimal (and unintended) nod towards European Melodic-Death.
The perhaps excessive homogeneity of the compositions may be the only weak point of 'Demonic', making a track-by-track description of the work almost unnecessary as it presents itself as tense and appreciable in every part. Nevertheless, worth highlighting are "Demonic Refusal" with its apocalyptic pace, the paranoid "John Doe", the incredible assault of "Murky Waters", and the desperate "New Eyes of Old" (while "Hatred's Ride" seems the ideal link between 'Low' and this album).
The technical performance of the various elements is, as usual, precise but, the most attentive will notice how Gene Hoglan, although certainly contributing to hardening the sound, is not at his best, giving us a drum work neither praiseworthy nor blameworthy.
Ultimately, I consider this album a transitional record in Testament's career, necessary for the birth of the masterpiece that is the subsequent 'The Gathering', and absolutely successful. It may not be the band's best record, it may not be an innovator or an absolute masterpiece, but it stands as one of Testament's most spontaneous and heartfelt albums, an unknowing offspring of the moment's desperation and veiled with a "drama" never present before and never to be repeated again.
The sound of anger, for a band to which fortune has often turned its back... But, as Signorelli used to say, perhaps it's the curse of being metalheads to the core... "we reach for the stars, but always and inevitably remain with our feet planted in the mud".
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Demonic Refusal (05:21)
You take my hand and sympathize
You felt the flesh, you realized
You took my will, now I'm deprived
Save myself, just save myself
I... can not be taken unto
All that I have can not be taken
She has ways mischievous
Takes your soul in pact
Demonic chants of Manatu
Save your soul, just save your soul
I... can not be taken unto
All that I feel can not be taken
A strong will is my defense
For the future and past
I... feel what I feel
I... seen what I've seen
I... have what I have
What I have is from me
Yeah he feeds on innocence
Dreams the taste of war
Smells the fear that he has dreamt
Wake yourself, just wake yourself
I... can not be taken until
All that I have can not be taken
The tarot cards on the table
They showed the future and past
I... feel what I feel
I... seen what I've seen
I... have what I have
What I have is from me
I... am a prisoner of fate
I'm refusing all hate
I... will cast it away
I... will not be a slave
You take my hand and sympathize
You felt the flesh, you felt the flesh
You took my will, now I'm deprived
Save myself, just save myself
I... can not be taken until
All that I have can not be taken
The tarot cards on the table
They showed the future and past
I... feel what I feel
I... seen what I've seen
I... have what I have
What I have is from me
I... In through out death I shall be
I... In through out death I shall be
04 Jun-Jun (03:43)
CAST BEFORE MY EYES DECEIVE ME
A VISION OF MY LIFE
CANNOT SEEM TO HELP MYSELF
THE HELPLESS WON'T SURVIVE
FREE US FROM THE BEDS OF HELL
HEAVENS OVERTHROWN
THE RULER OF THE REAALM IS SEEN
IN EVIL AND OF SORROW
BLESSED IS THE STRENGTH OF MAN
INBEDED LIFE ENTOMBED
FEEDING OFF THE SICKENED HAND
OF MAN AND HIS ABUSE
HELP YOU, HELP ME
SAVE US, AND EVERYBODY!
I FIRST STARTED THINKING I WAS INSANE
TRYED TO TALK BUT COULD NOT REALLY SAY
I TURNED MY PLEASURE INTO THE PAIN
LET REALITY SLIP AWAY!
I HAVE TO FACE MY PUNISHMENT
MY SINS I WILL REPENT!
AS I LOOK TO THE HEAVENS ABOVE
REACH FOR THE SKY TO BE TOUCHED BY THE LOVE!
05 John Doe (03:11)
He died on thorazine
Lost life and any hopes
Laid him down on a bed of steel
Laid downtown at the city morgue
John Doe... a man haunted by his past
John Doe... his lost soul will never rest
He was raised as an orphan
Abuse victim as a child
Dreaming haunting memories
Made John Doe take his own life
John Doe... a man haunted by his past
John Doe... realize that you're dead
He who is victimized can never grasp
Never ever knowing what is love...
He was a bitter man an only son
Never ever knowing what is... love... no love
Take heed to my warning
Even though I might be wrong
Fulfill life full of love
Or you'll end up just like John
John Doe... a man haunted by his past
John Doe... his lost soul will never rest
John Doe... a man haunted by his past
John Doe... realize that you're dead
John Doe... John
John Doe... John
07 Hatred's Rise (03:15)
Slashing through the fight
Before him dressed
In the armor of the dead
Crossed fists
Can't deny
The swift sword
Getting closer to their lair
Follow me and I'll give you a king
Singing over talking
Fight with me and kill for your king
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
Waiting
For tonight
The ax swings
Into battle on the wall
Striking
Blows from life
For my king
Deathly victim of the blade
Stabbing and slashing
When night falls
They all must die...
Beating and bashing
With blood lust
From hatred's rise
The high priest
Blessed the blood shed
Of defeat
The smell of death roams
Through the air
Rising
Flames of war
Shine through the night
Until the dawn the troopers storm
Stabbing and slashing
The nights gone
No one alive...
Beating and bashing
With blood lust
From hatred's rise
10 Ten Thousand Thrones (04:37)
Cast away by darkness
It's time to let you know
Voices of many soldiers
Arise ten thousand thrones
They're just turned away, they're told that they're OK
The spread of chemical warfare
Destroyed the human race
Life is darkening, sickening
Endless conscious slumber ten thousand thrones
Paralyzed, depression
Schizophrenic minds
New born retardation
A war they're born to fight
Life is darkening, sickening
Endless conscious slumber ten thousand thrones
Cancerous tumor invading the mind
Leaving behind
Ashes are burning that fall from the sky
Politically devine
Honor the code and defending the line
Pretentious lies
The fighting of war is shattering lives
The death of mankind
Why have we forgotten
A war the holocaust
What is the solution
Ten thousand lives were lost
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