For some reason I wasn’t following Testament since 2016, when Brotherhood Of The Snake was released. Since then Titans Of The Creation was released at the worst possible time and… Well, you know this better than me, I’m sure. Anyway, it’s 2025 and the new album named Para Bellum. A proper name for our times.
“As technology accelerates and disconnection grows, Para Bellum sees Testament reflecting the modern chaos through music that’s urgent, sharp, and unflinchingly human,” states the press release and there is no arguing with that: everything, from the diversity of music and lyrics to the album’s cover from Eliran Kantor shows it was made by human, not some A.I. The distaste for technology can be easily seen in the first single “Infanticide A.I.”, where Chuck Billy snarls “Dire warning, we have lost control” and “Every human will be replaced”, while the other band provides crushing riffs and a short solo. This track also shows the work of the newest band member, Chris Dovas from Seven Spires; his insane drumming with lots of blast beasts fits the band impeccably.
While the first single was a promising, fast paced thrash metal, which every fan was eager to, the album contains some surprises. Diversity of music, remember? Para Bellum starts with “For The Love Of Pain”: fast-paced, aggressive opener with great thrash metal riff (you would headbang like a maniac) and mighty drumming with endless double pedal. But somewhere in the middle the tempo gets slower and we get a bunch of black metal. This genre blending comes form Eric Peterson and Chris: “Eric and I have a lot of similar influences,” explains Dovas, “We worked really closely on this album and had a great time.”
After two impetuous song, Testament takes foot off the accelerator, giving us “Shadow People”. When Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson play groove-laden riffs, Steve DiGiorgio with Chris provide a might rhythm-section, while Chuck snarls some horror stories. However, even here black metal patterns appear, right before the short, melodic solo.
Now, the most surprising, unexpected, unforeseen song in this album is the ballad “Meant To Be”. Yes, ballad. Acoustic guitars, catchy melody, orchestrated strings performed by Dave Eggar, classic seven-minutes old-school ballad. As long as I remember, this is not Testament‘s first ballad but the last one was released 13 years ago on Dark Roots Of Earth, so no wonder it became a big surprise for everyone. Another surprising song here is “Nature Of The Beast”: it starts with NWOBHM riff, continues with dueling guitars and typical harmonies. It’s a good song and I really enjoyed it but it was a bit strange to hear song like this on Testament album.
“High Noon”, thrashy and groovy at the same time, brings heaviness back to the table among with wild west-gunslinger-saloon lyrics. “Witch Hunt” is more thrash-death with another bunch of black metal tremolo somewhere in the middle. “Room 117”, in its turn, tries to bring back thrash metal vibes (I hear some Megadeth here more than Testament) and has a sad story behind the lyrics. “Havana Syndrome” continues the thrash metal line and musically sounds much better, than a previous one, especially tremolos and solos.
Finally, the closing track, self-titled “Para Bellum” brings back the Testament fully: fierce drums and bass, aggressive riffs and Chuck’s growls. Every single note in this song is great, breakdown is huge, proper solo is fast and melodic. That’s exactly what fans expected from the band.
However, with all these unexpected songs, the question arises: is this really Testament‘s album? Well, yes, definitely. Actually, two years ago Eric Peterson said that the new record will be a combination of “thrash, NWOBHM, thrash black [and] heavy hard rock blues.” Personally, I enjoyed this album and its variety but I can understand some people that were not so pleased with plenty of genres presented here. Maybe it was too much this time or something, I don’t know. But what I do know for sure is that’s enjoyable album and I will definitely get back to it more than once.
Para Bellum was released on October, 10th via Nuclear Blast Records.
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