Album review: Testament – Para Bellum

By DAN SOUTHALL

THEY open their latest album with what has to be one of their heaviest tracks ever – and this isn’t just another thrashy Testament song. “For The Love Of Pain” takes a modern blackened/death style approach with the strong pipes of Chuck Billy setting a crushing scene that blasts past with arms flailing and tremolo guitar picking to make any Scandinavian band proud.

Apparently with no time to waste, the thrashing continues headlong into “Infanticide A.I.”, dropping the blackened aspect of the opening track and replacing it with even more bloody thrashing, blasting through in a relatively short three-minute time span.

As if to show every facet of the band as quickly as possible, the slow reversal into slower thrash continues until the album bottoms out early with the ballad “Meant To Be”. The acoustic guitars are a nice touch after the circle-pitting madness that is the opening of the album. But Testament were never really built to play this slow and it shows. Or, at least, it sticks out rather ominously here.

Luckily for the fans of heavy and fast, the good ship Testament quickly frees itself from the slow current and accelerates headlong into chaos once more as tracks like “Witch Hunt” or “Havana Syndrome” tear past, separated by more melodic but thrashy numbers that feel like leftovers from a mid-nineties Megadeth album.

The pacing of Para Bellum is one of the best that Testament has managed. Tracks are generally in and out quickly with the longer heavier numbers swirling and misdirecting enough that they are over in the bang of your head and you’re already another two songs down the playlist.  

This is not a record to convince new listeners. Para Bellum is a high water mark, a document that shows every facet of what Testament has ever recorded. A sort of Best Of – but of all new tracks.

Get Parra Bellum on CD and vinyl