Testament-Demonic

Prosthetic
1997/2007 Re-issue


It doesn’t seem that long since this first came out, but I guess it has been more than a decade now so it’s get a re-issue. Plus hearing this one helps to get me in the mood and my mouth watering for the new release “The formation of Damnation” which will be out next month. By 1994 Testament were an established veteran act, but the star had fallen some and speed metal's popularity had dipped tremendously. So Testament switched things up and added elements of death metal and released "Low" which was far and away their most aggressive and heaviest album at the time. Fast forward a few years and some line-up changes were made as Gene Hoglan (Dark Angel, Death, Strapping Young Lad) Glen Alvelas and Derek Ramirez were brought to complete the line-up. The infusion of death metal continued on "Demonic", but to a slightly lesser extent than on "Low". There is more of a groove on this album and perhaps a stronger focus on the heaviness as opposed to speed. However, it's just as aggressive and brutal, but they are more patients about building up the songs here. They took a very control oriented approach as they pull and guide us through what they have in store. It's an album where the band just shows all kinds of confidence in what they are doing. The music benefits from this approach because it is an extremely tight mountain of an album that grabs you and drags you along for the ride. Nice re-issue from Prosthetic and this one has a different cover from the original.