Testament
Souls Of Black

THE REVIEW

After "Practice What You Preach," 1990 sees the release of yet another work by TestAmenT, an album (as the majestic "chief" Chuck Billy says) written in five weeks, recorded in six, and completed in a total of twelve: here we are in front of "Souls Of Black," the fourth effort of the Californian quintet.

Precisely the rush may be the cause of the awful mixing; in fact, we find a production akin to "Scream Bloody Gore" (if not even worse) where the guitars sound like chainsaws, and unfortunately this lowers the value of this album, which could have been judged better than what the critics have attributed to it.
Unlike the first three works, not only the axe-men Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick participate in the songwriting, but all the members of the group, which is a good thing as it gives a touch of originality to the album. The tempos indeed slow down, but it remains firmly anchored to the old TestAmenT style.

The acoustic instrumental Beginning Of The End with its almost Spanish rhythm kicks off the party and quickly catapults us to Face In The Sky, which stands out as one of the best tracks on the record.
Now it's time to move on to Falling Fast where we can appreciate the skill of the excellent Alex Skolnick as he shows off all his talent in this CD as well.
The hypnotic bass by Greg Christian introduces the title track, which only confirms the good form of the five.
After the excellent opening quartet, we encounter a period of stall with more or less convincing songs, leading to track number 9 that simply cannot be left unmentioned. We are talking about the poignant The Legacy, in my opinion, their best ballad ever, whose intro alone is worth the purchase of this album.
It concludes in great style with Seven Days Of May, characterized by lyrics clearly inspired by social themes such as the situation of Native American communities in the United States, for which Billy (of clearly Native American origins) has been advocating for some time...

Certainly not TestAmenT's best work but undoubtedly the last noteworthy work (at least until "The Gathering") from one of the bands that helped make thrash metal great...