It should have been the Big Five

Thrash pioneers Testament didn't get the break they deserved. Their first album, The Legacy, arrived on the heels of the greatest movement in metal history, and despite their accomplished and enviable career, the Bay-area thrash icons are overshadowed by Slayer, Anthrax, Metallica and Megadeth. Their fate is not unlike Stone Temple Pilots, who could trump most current rock bands but were bested in their heyday by Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. However, in 2008 Testament are a thriving, boundary-pushing outfit that's more capable of putting out a really heavy record than most of their peers or followers. Case in point: The Formation of Damnation.


Testament attempt to ease the shock of how great their comeback actually is by kicking off the album with a suspense-building, minute-long intro, but seconds into 'More than Meets the Eye' it's clear that Testament are not playing the part of the 20something thrash band, releasing toothless alternative-inspired metal or spitting out tolerable/inferior remakes of their glory years. On Formation of Damnation, Testament sound contemporary without leaping on to any bandwagon, recalling Lamb of God's metalcore more than Slayer's thrash. Guitar wizard Alex Skolnick, appearing on his first Testament record since the Bush Sr. era, sounds eager to rock out and newly adventurous, turning in hooks and solos with the fluidity of his surprisingly excellent jazz trio on 'Henchman Ride' and 'The Persecuted Won't Forget.' The entire band sounds like they've spent the last ten years developing their chops while the world fanned Testament's flames--the furious 9/11 rant 'The Evil had Landed' is a strong reminder of the state of the country shortly before the President erased all reason to sympathize with us, and 'Dangers of the Faithless' and 'Killing Season' are stimulating (if not too original) takes on the US political situation.


Singer Chuck Billy, a true attestation of "What doesn't kill you...," performs more forcefully than ever in Testament's career, mastering death growls and singing (!) more than most singers who attempt either can. Somehow, he never gets devoured by former Slayer drum virtuoso Paul Bostaph, who's more at home propelling Skolnick's leads than he was saving Dave Lombardo's seat. It's no hyperbole to say that Formation of Damnation is one of the best albums of Testament's career--less "welcome back" and more "where did these guys come from?" Not band for the thrash metal Eric Burdon & the Animals.

The Sword and the Stoned

The Sword's new album, Gods of the Earth, is sort of a bizarro world version of the Genghis Tron album I reviewed last month. Pretty devoid of originality, the album saves itself by rocking out consistently on every track.


Gods of the Earth borrows heavily from Black Sabbath, Kyuss and High on Fire, fusing the best elements of all three without ever getting better than any of them. Granted, few bands in history are better than those three, and Gods of the Earth a good alternative for anyone who vainly craves new music from Sabbath or Kyuss. Following up their acclaimed (and very similar) debut, the Austin quartet are already on the AC/DC route of never straying from what they do best. Their songs are loud and catchy, like a punchier, post-punk Hawkwind, and the melodies are consistently solid. Instrumental opener 'The Sundering' recalls Tolkien-esque scenery, and follow-up 'The Frost-Giant's Daughter' would sound right at home on the Heavy Metal soundtrack. That sets the stage for a whole album of tuneful, solid and highly derivative stoner metal with lyrics cribbed from Magic cards.

Bassist Bryan Richie (no, not that bassist Brian Ritchie) gets buried in the mix, perhaps in an attempt to recall old-school Sabbath and Stooges production, and most of the music is overwhelmed by singer/guitarist J.D. Cronise's leads and drummer Travis Wingo's crash cymbal. Cronise's vocals also get steamrolled, making the case that Gods of the Earth is best as background music--sure, the hooks are most important, but remember that the two aforementioned influences had Ozzy Osbourne and Iggy Pop leading them. 'Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians' is as much fun as it sounds, the stoner beast 'Maiden, Mother & Crone' hits like something Dave Wyndorf would be proud of, and the series of riffs that the band connected for the seven-and-a-half minute 'The White Sea' prove that there's no shortage of good ideas spilling from Cronise's axe. Like their name, The Sword are generic but kind of awesome. Hopefully they'll become a band you'd pay to see headline on their next album.

Barack out with more political metal

Max and Igor (now Iggor?) Cavalera are making music together for the first time since Sepultura's 1996 pinnacle Roots. Not coincidentally, that was also the last incredible album released by either party (check out Soulfly or Max-less Sepultura if you don't believe me). Still, it doesn't look like their new project, Cavalera Conspiracy, is going to make anyone forget the greatest South American band in metal history.


However, it gives us another good excuse to revisit one of the greatest political bands in history.



Sepultura started in the mid-'80s as a no-fi death metal act, but before long they freed themselves from conventionality with increasingly challenging music. The band incorporated tribal-sounding percussion, thrash metal riffing, call and response vocals and third world instruments into their sound, all of which (besides thrash riffs) were nearly unheard of in any previous form of metal. As they were pushing the sonic envelope, Sepultura also wrote increasingly political songs, and by 1989's Beneath the Remains they were as lyrically confrontational as Al Jourgensen or Dave Mustaine.

Sepultura's lyrics are not great. It's obvious that English is not the band's first language, and while their choruses are never too cringe-worthy to scream along too, they read sort of embarrassingly in the liner notes.

"Obscured by the sun
Apocalyptic clash
Cities fall in ruin
Why must we die?" --from 'Arise'

Bob Dylan, they ain't. But in context, it's as compelling as the best Public Enemy records.



Much credit is due to Max Cavalera, one of the most powerful barkers in metal history. As guttural as his singing is, his words are almost always audible, and his yell is more affecting than anyone this side of Kurt Cobain. When the producers of the movie The Scorpion King needed someone to voice the title character's earth-shaking, battle-scene war cries, they wisely enlisted Max Cavalera.



Even when not appearing in a high-budget, CGI-heavy Hollywood movie, Max Cavalera sounds like he's leading an army. Sepultura's music sounds like the work of thousands, especially on their must-own release Chaos A.D. Taking on everything from Biotech corporations invading Brazil to the military police behind the Carandiru Massacre, Sepultura brought South American crises into the international eye on top of some really awesome music. Staples like 'Territory' and 'Refuse/Resist' are good enough to incite riots.





But without lyrics, current events or even plugged-in instruments, Sepultura were still a great political metal band. I can't get enough of 'Kaiowas,' their tribute to a Brazilian Indigenous tribe that partook in mass suicides to avoid enslavement from the Brazilian government.



I have no idea what 'Ratamahatta' is about, but I'm posting the video anyway because it rules.



I'm glad that the Cavaleras are back together, but I'm hoping that they'll reunite with Paulo Jr. and Andreas Kisser and tour. If there's anyone who can make great art out of global turmoil, it's these guys.

The First Great Metal Record of 2008

Swedish metal gods Meshuggah come up with album sleeves and titles that would make Neil Peart ralph, and yet they're one of the most exciting, challenging and inventive bands in metal right now. On obZen, their sixth full-length album, Meshuggah are also one of the best metal bands in the world, and the current front-runners for metal album of the year.

obZen has been described as one of Meshuggah's more accessible efforts, which is like calling a Slayer album slow. Being Slayer, it's still going to out-thrash all emulators, and an accessible Meshuggah record absolutely over-brutalizes anything that's been released since the last Dillinger Escape Plan record. Plus, unlike the melodic forays on In Flames' recent A Sense of Purpose, obZen is easier on the ears than Meshuggah's past few releases because it's louder and faster. On the one-track I EP and the concept album Catch-33, Meshuggah shied away from their thrash metal roots in to pursue the wildest tempo changes and song structures that they could think of. They pressed their musicianship and technical skills to the top of a genre that's famous for great chops, but Meshuggah also forfeited some of their capacity for rocking out. On obZen, they've managed to keep the progressive and jazz fusion elements that endeared them to music theory kids everywhere while thrashing out hooks in a way that they haven't since 1995's Destroy Erase Improve.

Within seconds of the opener 'Combustion,' drummer Thomas Haake annihilates his snare with a series of eighth notes that sound like they're going to destroy the kit half a minute into the album. Having used a drum machine on the past few Meshuggah records, Haake sounds stronger and hungrier than ever before, and his heavy bass drum and cymbals action recalls John Henry pummeling the steam drill. Lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal offers more riffage per song than most bands get out in their entire careers, and even the (usually brief) slowed-down, quieter measures sound like they're about to destroy you. The first single, 'Bleed,' defies it's conventional title with a barrage of polyrhythms and double-bass action that the band will probably be kicking themselves for when they have to play it live every night. Did I mention it's also catchy as hell? Jens Kidman, who screams Haake's dystopian lyrics into a new realm of death-grunt incoherence, doesn't have it any easier, but he screams over some of the most idiosyncratic melodies in metal music without losing his voice or falling off-time. Few can claim to GRAAAAAGGGGGHHH so impeccably.


The overdubs and arena-rock worthy hooks on the title track resemble a death-metal Siamese Dream, and the distorted bass-slaps on 'Lethargica' and 'Pineal Gland Optics' could make for some groovin' stoner rock were they not played at a volume that could drown out a close-range detonation test. But Meshuggah also show focus and restraint, never letting the solos go on too long and never sacrificing a good song for the good of their technical skills. The multi-layed, nearly ten-minute closer, 'Dancers to a Discordant System,' is more infectious and aggressive than anything by American math-metal acts like Fall of Troy and Between the Buried and Me, and it's possibly the album's melodic track. With obZen, Meshuggah bests their contemporaries and makes it seem like a day's work.

Meshuggah - Bleed