I've established my opinion on Testament's "The Legacy" to be a thrash classic, and easily one of my top thrash albums of all time. Testament could have done what bands do here and there, to never re-capture the thrashy glory of their first album, but I'll cut the crap and say now that instead Testament went above and beyond to record and release "The New Order" a year after "The Legacy".
I started my serious listening to Testament years ago by picking up "The Legacy" and "The New Order". I've mentioned in a previous update that, over the course of a while of not visiting Last.fm but still using the "scrobbler", Testament became my #1 band on the site. Sure enough, it was none other than "The New Order" that became my #1 album. It would hold the place until Megadeth's "Rust in Peace" overtook it after Megadeth's classic had grown on me at a scary rate. To this day "The New Order" is my #2 most played album.
While "The Legacy" would probably be my 3rd favorite thrash album of all time, "The New Order" would be none other than my 2nd favorite, only after Megadeth's "Rust in Peace", which I believe to be the greatest metal album of all time. When #1 is "Rust in Peace", #2 can still be damn great. There are only two full tracks that aren't on the same level as the greatest this album has to offer, but believe me when I say that when this album shines, it can thrash your neck off. It can entice you to attempt to air guitar to the great Alex Skolnick's masterfully crafted guitar solos. It can have you sitting there nodding, or even just listening, but it will demand your attention as you are assaulted by memorable riff after memorable solo after memorable riff. When there are breaks, they are used to build up to even more thrashy goodness to come. Despite the one or two tracks that aren't quite at that level, this is nothing short of Testament's masterpiece. Yes, it even outdoes "The Legacy".
TRACK-BY-TRACK FOLLOWS
"The New Order" begins with "Eerie Inhabitants"'... well... eerie intro. They do something here that they did a few times on "The Legacy", that being a melodic (though in this case complex) lead over the clean rhythm. After the intro subsides, at about 1:10 we're taken into another Testament melodic-thrashfest. The first verse flows well into the chorus, which is short but crushingly strong, with gang-shouted vocals and an evil-sounding chord progression. At 2:50 the clean guitars return, and I'm reminded of one of this lineup of Testament's greatest strengths: Alex Skolnick's solos. As the distorted rhythm guitars return, Skolnick goes into a full-on shredfest. Like "The Legacy", the production here is very 80s-raw, but it barely gets in the way of this entire album at all. By the time "Eerie Inhabitants" closes, you have an idea of the epicness of what we're getting into here. 9.5/10
You're given less than a second to breathe before the crushingly heavy intro of the title track of "The New Order" begins. Skolnick's intro lead gives a feeling of chaos before the song breaks into a thrash beat and continues to build on itself until the drums pause at 0:45 and then quickly come back in with one of Testament's most head-banging and memorable riffs they've ever composed, despite its relative simplicity. Halfway into the song, after head-banging verses and thrashing choruses, we're brought to a bridge, which quickly breaks into another huge head-banger. There's a guitar harmony at 2:30 that leads into another epic Skolnick solo which, like many of his leads, builds on itself and progresses very smoothly with the rhythm section. After Skolnick's solo, we're brought back to the thrashing chorus riff, and then transition back to the song's signature head-banging riff for a last verse. The only "thing" about this song besides the production is the sort of sudden ending after a last chorus, but, hell, I can't think of anything better to end it with. Huge thrashterpiece of a song here. Not much more to say on this one. 10/10
After the bar is raised by the title track of "The New Order", we have another clean intro in "Trial by Fire". Sure enough, there's a melodic lead over this clean part. These clean intros appear pretty often over the course of this album, and their frequency may take away from the experience for some, although I don't really see it as a problem. Anyway, "Trial by Fire" transitions suddenly from the intro lead into what's pretty much the main riff. Somewhat predictable so far, but this song pauses the guitars at around 1:06 to let Greg Christian rock this really cool bass line over the beat. Guitars are used sparsely but effectively over the parts of this bass-y verse. While simple, the chorus can easily get one singing along. Skolnick's solo in this song definitely fits despite being a bit less memorable than many of his other leads. This is a pretty catchy song. Not as crushing as "The New Order" but still good stuff. 8.5/10
Following the catchy "Trial by Fire" is Testament staple "Into the Pit". This song starts with a cool harmony, and at about 0:22 the song erupts into thrashy goodness and doesn't really relent. Skolnick's shredfest solo in this song enters very effectively after the lengthy shout-along chorus. This is definitely the thrashiest song on the album - they probably meant it to be that - and is also the shortest non-interlude track. Quite memorable. 9/10
After "Into the Pit" is, actually, an instrumental track that - for me, at least - builds up to the following song. This instrumental - "Hypnosis" - is basically a melodic lead over a eerie clean rhythm, the likes of which we've seen before with Testament, albeit not in the form of its own song. For what it is, this track is pretty effective, although obviously it would never stand on its own. Hard to rate because of its nature... eh, I'll just say rating pretty much N/A.
Even if "Hypnosis" served as an intro to the following track, Testament classic "Disciples of the Watch", this recording of the song has its own intro that steadily grows until breaking for what is perhaps the most crushing riff on this entire album. Yes, even moreso than the main riff on the title track. This one, like that on the title track, is pretty simple, but, again, is just downright crushing. The verses thrash like hell, and the shout-along chorus, while sort of short by nature, is equally powerful. After a chorus, the song goes into a break that again prominently features Greg Christian's bass. The band steadily builds up to open up for one of Alex Skolnick's most epic solos, and arguably the best on the album. This is a hell of a solo; it's a shredfest, but it dynamically builds on itself until climaxing with a memorable tapping lick and coming to an abrupt but somewhat fitting end. After the solo, the song goes back to thrashing like mad. "Disciples" ties with the title track as my personal favorite song on the album, and, again, features one of Skolnick's most epic solos. 10/10
Following "Disciples of the Watch" is "The Preacher". At 0:15 we hear a lead lick, building up to Chuck Billy shouting the song title and then exploding into yet another thrashfest. The intro repeats about halfway in to give way to another Skolnick melodic-shred-fest which ends repeating the lead theme heard throughout the song. The song ends with a shout-along outro. Very strong. 8.75/10
After "The Preacher" is the, in my opinion, slightly-out-of-place cover of Aerosmith's "Nobody's Fault". I'll say here that this is one of two full tracks that don't really live up to the rest of this thrashterpiece of an album, but this isn't bad. I can't say anything comparing it to Aerosmith's original because I just don't remember the original as well (if only because of how much I've listened through this album), but, again, this isn't bad, just, well, different from the rest of the album. 7.75/10
After the Aerosmith cover is the other weaker link on "The New Order", this being "A Day of Reckoning." The opening main riff doesn't feel all that right to me, and is catchy in a very evil way. In fact, most of the riffs in this song just lack that epic, crushing feel of many of the other riffs on this album. I have to say that this is probably my least favorite song on either of Testament's first two albums. Because of the quality of these albums, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, if that fucking intro riff would get out of my head. At least the solo, as usual, is good. This isn't really unpleasant to listen to but doesn't nearly live up to other epics on this album. 6.75/10
Though "A Day of Reckoning" sort of brought down what "The New Order" had going, there's more in store in this album in the form of the closing instrumental, "Musical Death (A Dirge)". This song has a clean rhythm guitar part in the background, but this is somehow somewhat different than Testament's other clean intros - part of which pertaining to the fact that this is not an intro. Somewhat predictably, a melodic electric lead comes in over the clean rhythm. There's a point at 1:13 when something about said lead just feels right. At about 1:25 drums come in, and the lead changes a bit but retains its melody and feel over the clean rhythm. At 2:12 a surprising, melodic acoustic guitar solo actually comes in. Suddenly, as if to bring the album to an epic close, the clean guitar stops and a climactic mini-lead comes in over distorted rhythm. The clean guitars then return and the solo continues. The song fades out to the eerie clean rhythm alone. This is something of an odd close to such an album, but it works quite well. 8/10. Sadly this doesn't make up for "A Day of Reckoning" when it comes to closing the album, actually leaving something to be desired from this album, but it's easy to look back at the first, well, seven tracks and remember the epic thrash-times had.
END TRACK-BY-TRACK
If I were a metalhead (or, alive) in the late 1980s, I might have doubted Testament's ability to one-up "The Legacy". After listening through the first few tracks on "The New Order", however, all doubts would have been erased. Although the album closes with the somewhat weak "A Day of Reckoning" and the good-but-different "Musical Death", the first seven tracks alone would have made this one of the best thrash albums of all time. Throwing on a few not-bad-but-not-as-good tracks barely brings down "The New Order". The name of the album and even the album art even sort of make sense; this is thrash powerful enough to take over the planet!.. if it weren't for... uh... never mind. 9.75/10. Despite the semi-filler song that "The Legacy" did not have the likes of, the crushing, epic power of this albums' best tracks brings it over even its predecessor, along with most other thrash albums ever released.
Note: If you're just getting into Testament, you may be tempted to start with 2001's compilation of re-recordings from "The Legacy" and "The New Order", titled "First Strike Still Deadly"; my opinion is that you don't. While the production on the re-recordings is slightly better, somehow it's not as crushing as the production on 1999's "The Gathering", and in some places just feels kind of weird. "First Strike Still Deadly" isn't bad but definitely has a different feel than Testament's first two albums. I listen to the re-recordings sometimes when I want something downtuned and heavy, but most of the time I will just go back to "The Legacy" and "The New Order" themselves.
Thanks for reading!
TL;DR:
Rating: 9.75/10
Highlights: The New Order, Disciples of the Watch, Trial by Fire, Eerie Inhabitants, Into the Pit, The Preacher, pretty much all of Alex Skolnick's guitar solos
Low Point: A Day of Reckoning
Recommend: Buy if you love thrash; Buy if you love metal and can stand raw production; Try otherwise; Try over 2001's "First Strike Still Deadly"
