“Dark Roots of Earth” is Testament’s second record since Chuck
Billy’s recovery and is definitely the best! While “The Formation of Damnation”
successfully blended the old-school Testament approach with the brutality of
“The Gathering”, it was a very hit-or-miss record. Some songs rivaled the
greatness of the 80’s, while others fell very far short. By contrast, “Dark
Roots of Earth” is consistently great. Even though it is longer, having only 9
songs meant the band could put more effort into each of those tracks. One other notable
aspect of this album is that it rarely utilizes Chuck’s death metal vocals. As
great as he is with those gutturals, this is a welcome change because it helps
this record feel like it’s from the 80’s.
Things kick off with “Rise Up”, which is a track made for
playing live. It’s almost as if they jammed this in front of a crowd to create
the chorus: “When I say rise up/You say war/Rise up... war!”. I never imagined
something like this being so effective on the record, but it works perfectly. There
aren’t any other obvious moments made for playing live, but that doesn’t mean
other songs aren’t catchy. Both singles (“Native Blood” and “True American
Hate”) have infectious choruses that are enhanced by Chuck Billy’s godly
singing. These two choruses also showcase the talent of Gene Hoglan; he
effortlessly throws in blast beats, which were pretty much non-existent on previous
Testament records. In fact, Hoglan should join Testament. Their drumming
has never been terribly impressive and it’s immediately obvious on this album
just how skillful he is. Seeing the band live really proved just how easy this
material seems to be for him. In addition to Hoglan’s drumming, lead guitarist
Alex Skolnick has made a huge comeback on this record. His playing on “The Formation
of Damnation” was not as mind-blowing as I expected, but he delivers a great
performance here. He does plenty of shredding, but luckily there are also
melodic bits scattered throughout the songs.
If there is one slight downside to this album, it would
definitely be “Cold Embrace”. Testament has shown that they can do ballads well
in the past, and this is a great track too, but it is clearly influenced by
Metallica, almost to the point of me hearing James’ voice instead of Chuck’s.
With lyrics like “The sun will never shine on you/Daylight blinds your way/The
sun will never shine through you/Now accept this cold embrace”, you’d almost
think this was a preview of a new Metallica single. Even with this comparison,
the song is actually enjoyable, and a nice break from the constant thrashing of
the rest of the album. Luckily, the album picks up with the last couple of
tracks, especially the killer “Last Stand For Independence”. The opening riff
of this song has a feel similar to the intro of “The Four Horsemen”. This
Metallica comparison, however, is more in style than actual sound. This was
definitely a great choice to end the album.
Though “The Formation of Damnation” was an enjoyable comeback
record, this is a true return to form for Testament. “Dark Roots of Earth”
matches and even beats some of the early Testament albums in terms of quality
and consistency. Gene Hoglan rounds out a killer lineup of musicians, and it
seems like Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick have been gelling as songwriters together.
This is one album you don’t want to miss and is sure to break my top 10 for
2012!
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Highlights
"Native Blood"
"True American Hate"
"Last Stand For Indepence"
Final Rating
4.4/5 or 88%.
Written by Scott