Testament - The Formation of Damnation

I must admit Testament wasn't really on my play list until 1999's The Gathering, but since then I've collected all the albums and they have some pretty good stuff that i kind of missed out on earlier on.

Now on to the review of their latest effort "The Formation of Damnation" I've read some really impressive reviews about this album, I've had it for a while and I've given it a pretty good listening. Musically it is a fantastic album, great for putting on full blast in your muscle car while you tear around the neighbourhood chasing lepers! It's non relenting Thrash, heavy, fast, cool riffs, great drumming, it's everything I personally would wish for in an album... but... Just listening to it, sitting down listening, concentrating on it. There's something wrong, I can always enjoy the first half of the album but after that it tends to drop away a bit. Don't get me wrong, it's a solid effort and Testament have stuck with a formula that works which is good and it's well worth the money, but I read those reviews and maybe i expected better, there's no 'Alone in the dark' or 'DNR' type songs that will stand out.

7/10