✦✦✧✧ I prefer my Testament without blast beats, as it turns out. Don’t get me wrong: in terms of composition, you can still hear the Eric Peterson of it all. And the band is definitely shredding, including new drummer Chris Dovas. But the band feels to me like they’re trying to be too many things at once, and not all of their experiments pan out.

✦✦✦✧ If you’ve been waiting for Testicle to do something utterly different for once… well, you’re gonna have to keep waiting. Otherwise, this is finely crafted thrash, of course!

✦✦✦✧ At first blush, this latest missive from Testicle is a slightly more polished retread of familiar Bay Area thrash territory. But it doesn’t take long into the first listen to realize that this is actually the sound of a band reinvigorated. Definitely the best thing that Testament has done in years (although the transition from Killer to Filler after track 6 could not be more obvious; skip that shit, unless you really, really want to voluntarily listen to a tune called “Canna-Business”).