Any Testament fans out there?

[ColinMmmmm]

Hey all - I've been listening to a lot of Testament recently - I'm loving the tune "D.N.R." from the album "The Gathering" which is actually a pretty recent album, considering Testament has been around for ages. Any other awesome tunes? I'm into the faster stuff, and dreaming of one day being able to play it.

[ShredNotDead]

I personally think that all of Testament's stuff is great, however if you are a new fan you may be in for a bit of "culture shock" Anything post 1992/1993 after Alex Skolnick left the band is very different than the earlier material. As far as studio records go 97's "Demonic" and 99's "The Gathering" are great records, the only downside is that "Demonic" has a sort of campy, "cookie monster" vocal theme throughout. "The Gathering", however, is one of the best thrash metal records ever made. As far as old material I would suggest checking out the following CD's: "The Ritual", "Souls of Black", New Order", and "Practice What You Preach". There is not a bad song on any of these records IMO.

[John01W]

The New Order is Skolnick's best guitar work to date IMO.... Some really crazy guitar work on there..some old Yngwie level shredding on there, not to mention some downright soulful leads. Not to mention pretty much every song on there really kicks ass. To me that's THE Testament album and one of the best metal albums out there.

Fav songs...Musical Death, Trial By Fire, Into The Pit, The Preacher, The New Order, Deciples of the Watch, ..every song off that album is great. Every metal collection should have The New Order in it.

Practice what you preach is good too, though I like the mood and songwriting and playing TNO a bit better. The TONE on Practice(the mp-1) is really awesome though, killer playing.

Bottom line...The New Order....get it and enjoy.

[winger]

I'm a disciple too.;-)

[taracatac]

First Strike Still Deadly - They re-recorded a bunch of stuff off The Legacy and The New Order. It sounds much better, as the original production was poor. I have been a fan since they started in the 80s, but I did not like any thing post Practice, until Low came out with James Murphy on lead guitar. Excellent album. There are plans for a new album with Skolnick.

[UsrName]

I just got The Legacy CD again after about 15 years. I like the songs on this one the best and Skolnick is amazing of course. Very tasteful shredder. I'll have to check out the other albums again to refresh my memory. I also heard about a new album with Skolnick as well. I'll definitely go see them if/when they go on tour. Thrash baby!

[Reaper]

I dig a fair bit of their material, but I don't think their songwriting's quite as strong as the others in their genre. They've got a few really good tracks, but I usually find myself skipping over the rest quite a bit.

Having seen Skolnick in concert (with Trans-Siberian Orchestra), I have to say he's an extremely underrated guitarist.

[NEWYEARKID]

Theres a great cd of Testament live with James Murphy on guitar with most of their classic songs as well as the more recent Live in London DVD with Skolnick.

[ShredNotDead]

That would be "Live at the Fillmore".

[ColinMmmmm]

Have you guys seen the "Live in London" DVD - I didn't know the name of the guitarist when I first saw it, but apparently it's Skolnick. But yeah - I was sooooo impressed with his solos - tasteful, fast and with a ton of attitude. Fantastic I say. Check it out. And my other favourite tune is "Over the wall" from First Strike Still Deadly.

[buddroyce]

The Gathering was a great album. I remember hanging out with the guys when they were touring for the gathering in Toronto at the El Macombo. I recall buying tickets for the show at ticketmaster with three of my friends and one of them asked the guy, "how many people bought tickets to the show?", the guy just sold us four tickets and said.. "uhmm.. four??". Our tickets were sequenced 005-008 and we seriously thought that we'd be like the only guys at the show with maybe 4 others. (Total people in the crowd that night was maybe 30-40). It was a shame that James Murphy didn't go on the road with them, none the less it was still cool to hang with the guys backstage.

+1 for First Strike Still Deadly.. awesome album

[LonePhantom]

I love The Gathering, such a good album. Skolnick Testament absolutely slays too. Just been listening to them lately and they blow me away.