The first two tracks, “Children of the Next Level” and “WWIII,” reference, respectively, the Heaven’s Gate cult and nuclear war, two ideas that seem as if they came out of a suggestion box that the group hadn’t checked since 1997. Testament have never been songwriting masters, largely erring toward the concise and anthemic over the more elaborate rants of thrash’s more verbose scribes, but even so, the songs here feel retrograde in a way the band’s other albums don’t. The lyrical inanity of that track is, sadly, common for much of the album. “Code of Hammurabi,” an otherwise forgettable track with a generic riff and goofy lyrics about ancient Babylonian law, even opens with a wah-wah pedal bass solo that morphs seamlessly into the bassline. He’s practically a third guitarist on “Symptoms,” curling around the dense riff as Hoglan weaves snares and cymbals over a restrained kick drum base. DiGiorgio’s bass regularly rises to the surface of “City of Angels” for bright fills before it sinks back to wind around the descending riff. This gives Testament what is surely the best rhythm section in metal, and their own mastery of split-second changes and intricate timekeeping allows for some incredible contrasts. Peterson and Skolnick’s unpredictable interplay is further bolstered by the band apparently solidifying Steve DiGiorgio and Gene Hoglan, perhaps the most traveled journeymen in extreme metal, as permanent members. Check out the sudden tempo slowdown in the otherwise trad metal lead on “Ishtar’s Gate,” or the jutting, borderline anti-solo of “The Healers.” Solos can be arpeggio fests, yes, but there are also sudden, angular turns that sound closer in spirit to a hesher Allan Holdsworth than the squealing runs of a Marty Friedman. “Curse of Osiris,” on the other hand, hedges closer to the hardcore punk roots of thrash, all buzzsaw sprinting that then revs up even further into the tremolo picking of black metal. On “Dream Deceiver,” Skolnick and rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson create a stop-start curlicue of a riff as heavy as it is surprisingly supple before things transition to mid-tempo groove metal. The compositions stand on a knife’s edge between rampaging energy and the noodlier, more technical side of thrash. The good news is that Testament remain some of the finest riffers in thrash, balancing muscular charges with the knottier jazz elements that Alex Skolnick brings as a lead guitarist. Titans of Creation, the group’s 13th album, finds them well settled into their role as elder statesmen of thrash’s second-stringers, albeit for the first time sounding perhaps a bit too rested on their laurels. Since their reinvigorating 1999 classic, The Gathering, Testament have largely kept to a consistent level of thrashing excellence, obviously never rising to the peaks of a Metallica but also never having to claw back from critical and fan backlash. And when the Big Four embraced more mainstream trends during the alternative era, Testament only got heavier and faster, embracing traces of death and black metal. Even their relatively raw debut, 1987’s The Legacy, displayed a melodicism that would not creep into the likes of Metallica and Megadeth’s records until the dawn of the next decade. Testament never quite fit in with their peers.
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