CD Review: Testament - Dark Roots of the Earth
Nuclear Blast
All Access Review: A-
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| Testament - Dark Roots of the Earth 2012 |
Forget the kerfuffle over Testament’s use of blast beats on Dark Roots of the Earth. Such concerns
are small potatoes when measured against the enormity of the Bay Area bashers’
latest sonic blitzkrieg on a metal community still dazed by the fire-bombing
wrought by Formation of Damnation,
unleashed by Testament in 2008. Utilizing a drumming technique associated more
with death metal than thrash on “Native Blood” and the unremittingly hostile “True
American Hate” – both of these clean-running machines riddled by head-spinning fusillade
of fiery riffs and saber-rattling twin-guitar leads – Testament willingly
violates a long-held taboo to forge steely, sharp broadswords of battle-scarred
aural barbarism that could cut through armor as if it were butter.
Recorded and engineered by Andy Sneap, who seemingly can do
no wrong lately, Dark Roots of the Earth, out now on Nuclear Blast, is a somewhat less ferocious animal than its predecessor, despite its
full-bodied, high-impact sound. That’s only because Testament chooses to
occasionally indulge its more refined progressive inclinations on such complex,
tempo-shifting pieces as the tightly-woven, seven-minute descent into madness
that is “Throne of Thrones.” The lengthy melodic ballad in “Cold Embrace” –
veering cringingly close to power-balladry – cycles through a hoary underworld
of intricate acoustic passages and gentle tendrils of electric-guitar arpeggios
before periods of crushing heaviness swoop in to lay waste to anything
resembling song structure, while the title track initiates a deliciously slow,
tantalizing burn that eventually becomes a bonfire.
Not to worry, Testament hasn’t turned into Rush, as the
clawing, growling riffage and monstrous brutality of “Rise Up” so violently attests.
As defiant as ever, powerhouse singer Chuck Billy seems to detonate land mines every
time he opens that raging mouth of his to speak gruffly of war, freedom, death
and the end of days – not to mention the oppressed Native American experience
that Billy confronts head on in the explosive, deliriously infectious “Native
Blood.” Always mindful of maintaining an exhilarating pace and planting hooks
with the teeth of bear traps – always biting right through the bone –
guitarists Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson fluidly wield their axes with
impressive precision, rich tonality and diabolically diverse dynamics on such
rugged earth-movers as “A Day in the Death” and “Man Kills Mankind.” Sneap and
Testament take all of those elements, including the blizzard of beats pouring
out of Gene Hoglan’s drums and the thick, gripping bass undertow of Greg
Christian, and shape tracks into chugging, monolithic thrash-metal war ships.
This is not your father’s thrash, the raw and sometimes hairy
character of old-school recordings sanded smooth on Dark Roots of the Earth. Incredibly detailed, the album’s rigorous
attention paid to raising dark melodies and the complex, artistic soloing of
Skolnick and Peterson – apparently born of jazz and King Crimson studies – out of
the usual Testament tumult strengthens and boosts the force with which
Testament attacks. Experiencing almost every song on Dark Roots of the Earth is like getting gored by a bull and then
shot by a hunting rifle. Physically, it slams into the body and boggles the
senses. Having medical personnel nearby ready to lend aid might not be a bad
idea.
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Peter Lindblad
