Search - Testament :: Very Best of

An excellent overview of the classic years of a most underra

Kevin H. Dudley | Roanoke, VA (USA) | 08/23/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Some of you might have noticed that prior to the release of this new Testament collection in 2001 that Atlantic had already issued its own best of Testament colletion a few years earlier entitled "Signs of Chaos: The best of Testament". But that earlier release was just a contractual obligation to fulfill their contract with Atlantic. Also, the majority of Testament's back catalog has been in dire need of being severely remastered and Atlantic didn't even take the time to remaster the tracks it chose on the earlier collection Signs of Chaos.



The only complaint I have about this collection is that it doesn't contain anything from the 1990 album Souls of Black. While that album got hammered by a lot of critics and fans alike, the band has over the last few tours realized that there are indeed fans that like that much maligned album. There was room left on here to at least put the title track on here but I guess at the time this CD was made (2001) Testament was still trying to distance themselves from that album as it almost killed them career wise when it originally came out.



This new & band endorsed collection called simply "The Very Best of Testament" was issued by Rhino under license from Atlantic. But the best part is that all of the tracks on this one have been remastered (YAY!) and sound better than ever.



Basically, this covers their "classic" years mostly from 1987 to 1994.



Here are what tracks are included from what album on this release:



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THE LEGACY (1987): The Haunting, Burnt Offerings, First Strike is Deadly



THE NEW ORDER (1988): The New Order, Into the Pit, Disciples of the Watch



PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH (1989): Practice What You Preach, Greenhouse Effect



THE RITUAL (1992): Signs of Chaos, Electric Crown, So Many Lies, The Ritual, Return to Serenity



RETURN TO THE APOCALYPTIC CITY (1993): Over the Wall (live)



LOW (1994): Dog Faced Gods

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Like I mentioned before, there are no tracks from the album Souls in Black on here and it only goes up through one track from 1994's "Low". 1997's "Demonic" and 1999's "The Gathering" aren't represented here (likely since they weren't Atlantic releases as Testament got dropped by that label after 1994's Low)



Co-founding guitarist Eric Peterson (who along with vocalist Chuck Billy is the only other original member who has been with the band the entire time) gives some excellent liner notes about each track on here and Rhino also give a brief but excellent history of Testament and their place in the late 80's Bay Area thrash metal scene that produced so much memorable & underrated music.



The CD runs just a little over 71 minutes which is a bit disappointing as that left room for at least one more track is they had wanted to put one more on this. (I would have liked to have seen the track Apocalyptic City from their first CD The Legacy but then again, any greatest hits type CD is going to be incomplete in varied ways in the eyes of different fans).



Considering that this CD covers pretty much the Testament stuff that matters the most (though overlooking Souls of Black wasn't good), I highly recommened it to people who are wanting to re-discover the once great Bay Area thrash scene as evidenced by the great material here by Testament.



The tracks are remastered so you don't have to crank the hell out of your stereo which is nice. The production is the same, but with the remastering the songs sound punchier and clearer with the bass guitar in particular coming through more than on the original releases from 1987 through 1989.



Highly recommended to all metal fans until someone goes back and remasters the entire early Testament catalog."

Testament - The only true Thrash band left today.

Lars | Copenhagen, Denmark | 01/20/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's unfair to make a greatest hits with Testament. Such an album should be a boxset with all their records in. Testament is true to the thrash metal genre all the way, and have through their latest albums actually gone more thrash than anybody's ever been. This piece of art is a must for all true metal fans."