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California isn't just about daytime drama starlets, upscale call girls, big-budget movies, pompousness, and a thousand other clichés. California also means the cradle and home of good music. It was in this state, so far from the dreariness of New York, that two fundamental genres like hardcore punk and Bay Area thrash metal were born.
In the early '80s, middle-class kids like Milo Auckerman, Jello Biafra, and Henry Rollins picked up guitars and started playing almost as a game, managing to represent and portray a society that was more or less sick through their lyrics.
It was indeed from various bands like Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, and company that a few years later, thanks to people like Metallica, thrash metal emerged and developed—a swarm of bands from around San Francisco began to speed up and intensify the classic Maiden-like sound.
And so we come to Testament. They formed in 1983 under the moniker The Legacy, but later on, due to various issues, the name was changed shortly afterward to its current one. After an initial demo, they released their first full-length album "The Legacy" and a year later, it was 1988, this bomb of pure thrash metal known as "The New Order".
Nobody likes coming in second. Successful losers have never been well-liked. But it doesn't matter if Testament is not part of the iron trio of Metallica-Slayer-Megadeth, and it doesn't matter if they didn't invent the genre. As many would say: it's easy to claim to be a thrasher and then just know Metallica and a few songs by Mustaine and company. Here Billy's band and associates fall into that small number of bands in the musical style previously mentioned that any true scholar of the genre cannot overlook and must listen to.
Only barely touched by the success of 'Tallica, the four from San Francisco definitely have a valid attitude that almost anyone can confirm. Now let’s talk about the album.
Here's the platter's synthesis: drumming at a thousand miles per hour throughout the entire album, sharp guitars in great form, bass eagerly prominent, and the tribal chief charisma of Native American Mr. Chuck Billy behind the microphone. The band most comparable to them in terms of aggression and vocal style is undoubtedly Slayer, vintage 1986. To be honest, we are very close to Araya and company, rather than to the more melodic Metallica and Megadeth. So forget about mid-album ballads and slow tempos.
An eerie atmosphere, thunderstorm and thunder, acoustic guitars, an intro reminiscent of "Raining in blood" sets the scene for the opener "Eerie Inhabitans" with a simple chorus.
Orgasm levels are reached with the next three tracks. The blistering title track that doesn't give you a moment of respite, not even in the short refrain. And then gentlemen, two masterpieces follow, two thrash gems with a double H: the spectacular "Trial By Fire", one of the best Testament tracks ever, opening with a delicate arpeggio and a small clean solo, followed by an excellent refined bass line by Christian that towers over the guitars, before Chuck takes command and makes the track literally explode.
But the most aggressive track on the album, lasting only 2 minutes and 46 seconds, is the surprising "Into The Pit", proving that when Testament goes for ferocity, they are not second even to Slayer. This latter track is the perfect example of a song of the genre and personally how I wish every song of the band was. That means no niceties, no good manners, no warnings, just pure adrenaline. This one seems to pick up where the splendid and furious "Over The Wall" left off, arguably the best thrash song of all time in my opinion.
On the same level is the blown-up and angry "Disciples Of The Watch". The two instrumentals demonstrate the great class of the two axemen Peterson and Skolnick, evoking magical and enchanting atmospheres where acoustic guitars are used, serving also to give a moment of respite. The interplays between the two six-string guitars are appreciable, but with all the sympathy I can have for Billy and company, a certain constellation in the distance continues to shine with its own light and reigns supreme (cit. Orion).
It's a shame that a few tracks, like "A Day Of Reckoning" and "The Preacher", fall flat. Meanwhile, overall the cover of Aerosmith's "Nobody's Fault" is good, marking the only stylistic change on the album since it's a solid hard-rock piece where rhythmic intensity drops.
If you want to listen to a record full of pathos and pure energy or simply delve into the band with one of its flagship albums, "The New Order" comes highly recommended for metalheads and non-metalheads alike.
Testament do it better.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Eerie Inhabitants (04:46)
A world of chaos
A world of fear
A world of anger and corruption
When all is lost
and millions starve
Is this humanity's destruction?
LIFE! A game that people play
CRYOUT! Will they see another day?
No one to help us,
the children pray
Nobody listens to their CRYING
This great depression
when will it end?
To live like this is worse than dying
LIFE! A game that people play
CRYOUT! Will they see another day?
Your destiny is over
your fate has declined
Refuse to discover
what so many could find
Death's endless toil
as I long for rest
Life's now forsaken
condemned to repress!
No sign of heaven
No sign of hell
Just the sign of pain and sorrow
This generation inhabits all
To form an order for tomorrow
LIFE! A game that people play
CRYOUT! Will they see another day?
02 The New Order (04:19)
Takers of humanity, elders paranoid
the time is now
give up this world you once destroyed
society versus the underground
their battles fough and lost
the time has come
to rule the world at any cost
For the past it's to late
cause the world can't control fate
shadows cast loud and clear
tell the world the new order's here
Cities turn to battlefields
a deadly spell is cast
corpses falling one by one
until the last
The preacher speaks of prophecy
so many years before
no one escapes their punishment
the gods of war
For the past it's to late
cause the world can't control fate
shadows cast loud and clear
tell the world the new order's here
Death is like an empty space
feel no thoughts of fear
the future cries
as mother nature sheds a tear
the world becomes a prisoner
a victim of its crime
the human race is now a race
against time
For the past it's to late
cause the world can't control fate
shadows cast loud and clear
tell the world the new order's here
03 Trial by Fire (04:01)
Accuse you of a crime
sentenced to endless time
the price you have to pay
won't get away!
sworn in by the stand
your rights are gone
the system's banned
they think you are a liar
a trial by fire
Hey!
this is what the people say
A new way
A trial by fire!
Locked in an empty cell
your life becomes a living hell
the river of fire flows
time only knows!
trapped by flames of fury
ordered unto by the jury
death is their desire
thrown in the fire!
Hey!
this is what the people say
A new way
A trial by fire!
Quiver the fiery light
cringing as your soul ignites
the book of law's been thrown away
starting today!
The system before the war
is gone for now and evermore
there is no sentence higher
A trial by Fire!
Hey!
this is what the people say
A new way
A trial by fire!
04 Into the Pit (02:41)
Deep in the pit and lying alone
Where death has reared itself a throne
We're all the good,the bad
The worst and the best
And where they land is their eternal rest
Foul plays of passion
At twilight's dim
In joy of woe of good and sin
Winds of storm and fates overcast
Darkly my presence is now your past
Join the insanity
Or die as you fall
Into the pit
The mass production
And the killing of all
Into the pit
The future screams for help
Are fading away
Into the pit
The world tomorrow
Will it die for today?
Into the pit
So in the sad,silent watches of night
The lonely pathway envisions my sight
Echoes of laughter
And boundless cries
So here I wander under infinite skies
Join the insanity
Or die as you fall
Into the pit
The mass production
And the killing of all
Into the pit
The future screams for help
Are fading away
Into the pit
The world tomorrow
Will it die for today?
Into the pit
06 Disciples of the Watch (04:52)
Cast to the fire
Banned by the light
Worship and listen to me
Condemned in his mind
In his evil place
Your fate is all that you'll see
I am the one
To show you the path
Salvation is in the fields
Listen up children and follow me
Or I'll let you pay
The price of malachi!
Disciples of the watch
Obey!
Or I'll burn you to that cross
Holding the mass
The demon is cast
To resurrect your soul
Calling to him
Is like an evil sin
A prophet is what they're told
Taking the land under command
Killing friend or foe
Feel the might of his evil wrath
Desecrate your soul
Disciples of the watch
Obey!
Or I'll burn you to that cross
Cast to the fire
Banned by the light
Worship and listen to me
Condemned in his mind
In his evil place
Your fate is all that you'll see
I am the one
To show you the path
Salvation is in the fields
Listen up children and follow me
Or I'll let you pay
The price of malachi!
Disciples of the watch
Obey!
Or I'll burn you to that cross
07 The Preacher (03:32)
The preacher!
In days of old
When the books were untold
Speak of a world crushed by sin
"The people will mourn
Of a war to be born"
Nobody would listen to him
Think back in time
When the future you find
Is so faint that it's too hard to see
Don't disavow his word
For the truth must be heard
Cause the preacher tells visions he sees
In 1906
Like the future predicts
The city will crumble to the bay
Then what's in store
When the worlds go to war?
Peace will have come another day
Then came the one
In the year of '41
Warfare would light up the sky
He beckoned the call
Of the future for all
Blinded by what's in his eyes
Don't follow the preacher!
Preach!
In days of old
When the books were untold
Speak of a world crushed by sin
"The people will mourn
Of a war to be born"
Nobody would listen to him
Think back in time
When the future you find
Is so faint that it's too hard to see
Don't disavow his word
For the truth must be heard
Cause the preacher tells visions he sees
Listen to these words I preach
(Don't follow the preacher!)
Catastrophic lessons they shall teach
Listen to these words I preach
(Don't follow the preacher!)
Catastrophic lessons they shall teach
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