Some look to the future with the eyes of optimism, while others see tomorrow through a bleak lens, but wisdom dictates that all should be prepared as time continues its march forward. Bay Area thrash metal veterans Testament’s extensive career speaks loudly to this fact, as their evolutionary trek through the subgenre’s heyday in the ’80s up until the present has been marked by several fits of innovation, stretching the very definition of their adopted style at times.
Yet this highly dynamic career also moved from point to point less out of a desire to conform to the various trends that came and went over the past 40 years and more so out of an earnest desire to avoid standing still, like a soldier always on the move as changing times bombard his surroundings. It is thus fitting that their 14th studio album, Para Bellum, which is Latin for prepare for war, stands as both a culmination of where each respective band member has been, both inside and outside the fold, as well as arguably the most innovative thing to come to light bearing the Testament standard.
Throwing everything at the wall except for the proverbial kitchen sink, this 10-part cautionary tale of future tumult and technology gone awry told via riff and roar all but blurs the lines between a modern expression of the old Bay Area sound and its various extreme and progressive offshoots.
Drummer and recent acquisition Chris Dovas proves a highly auspicious wildcard in the arrangement, unleashing a highly chaotic yet machine precise display from the kit that often veers into black and death metal territory, yet these genre-bending elements meld perfectly with an equally eclectic guitar template painted by co-founder and guitarist Eric Peterson, whom frequently recalls his past studio work with symphonic black metal project Dragonlord.
Steve DiGiorgio brings further elaboration to this highly complex sonic tapestry via his signature fretless bass work, delivering arguably his most prominent and technical work during his tenure with Testament, though one would be remiss in discounting the insane technical lead guitar work thrown into the pot by Alex Skolnick. Chuck Billy navigates this veritable labyrinth of musical twists and turns seamlessly, exploring every guttural and gravely expression in the book of metal vocals and even venturing into cleaner territory not often explored by this franchise born of pure aggression.
In terms of ferocity and production-based luster, Para Bellum fits neatly into the same modern paradigm that has typified Testament’s studio output since 2008’s The Formation Of Damnation, but where prior albums struck with the force of a terrestrial behemoth, this one hits from all angles like the tentacles of a raging leviathan emerging from the stormy sea.
The frenetic thrasher with a tall side order of blast-happy blackened mayhem of an opener, “For The Love Of Pain,” graces the airwaves like a nuclear explosion, enveloped by a maddened guttural barking display out of Chuck Billy, with Peterson frequently chiming in with sepulchral ravings right out of the Shagrath playbook. More compact fits of auditory chaos like “Infanticide A.I.” and the dark and frosty “Witch Hunt” further explore Peterson’s past ventures into black metal territory with occasional tremolo riff and shimmering chord flourishes, complementing an otherwise thrash-based foundation that frequently trades rich harmonized passages with heavy-ended grooves.
Monstrous crushers like the ode of old western duels “High Noon” and the equally violent sonic rollercoaster “Havana Syndrome” also occasionally showcase a blackened aesthetic, though land much closer to standard thrash territory when putting aside DiGiorgio’s flashy interchanges with the rest of the arrangement. Even when forays into death and black metal territory are absent, there is a continually unconventional character to what Testament is dishing out here.
The generally mid-paced stride of “Shadow People” falls fairly close to the modern yet direct character of what occurred on Dark Roots Of Earth and Brotherhood Of The Snake, though things get really frenzied during the blast-happy middle section, and the guitar solo segments feel twice as flashy. “Nature Of The Beast” leans in to the older, NWOBHM-influenced take on thrashing and could almost pass for a nod to Practice What You Preach if it didn’t pack such a massive, 2020s punch; ditto the heavier yet still mostly conventional grooving thrasher “Room 117”.
The grand epic closer of a title anthem “Para Bellum” stands as arguably the most technically complex offering out of this band since their 1983 formation under the moniker Legacy, yet apart from a few blackened odds and ends almost comes off as an extended power/thrash banger complete with a few overt earworm hooks. But the entry that truly goes off into uncharted waters if past precedents under the Testament name are the standard is the grandiose, heavily acoustic power ballad “Meant To Be”, which shares a lot of thematic similarities with something Iced Earth might do, but with the massive scope of something along the lines of thrash metal’s answer to “Stairway To Heaven”.
Para Bellum’s greatest strength could also be seen as its greatest weakness, which is that it succeeds in being just about all things to all people. It’s a lot to take in for even the most seasoned of metal heads with eclectic tastes, as it runs the gamut of just about every subgenre of metal short of doom/sludge in some capacity in just over 50 minutes. But insofar as grower albums that take a few listens to fully process, the payoff is so massive that it can hardly be considered a flaw.
For the average fan of Testament’s brand of thrash, which tended to rub stylistic shoulders with that of Exodus and Metallica in the past, it may come off as jarring when compared against what they’ve put out since the late 2000s, and is about as far removed from their formative late 80s sound as one could get. In a time when the telltale warnings put forth by the Terminator franchise have become even more prominent, Testament has entered the conversation armed with the auditory equivalent of enough firepower to take down Skynet and bring humanity back from the brink.
Release Date: October 17th, 2025 Record Label: Nuclear Blast Records Genre: Thrash Metal
Para Bellum signals Testament charging forward like battle-hardened veterans unleashing a genre-bending onslaught that refuses to stay in one trench. The final impact lands like a steel-plated gauntlet to the skull, solidifying their reign among metal’s most unbreakable titans
