The Formation Of Damnation

Testament | Format: MP3 Music

Product Details

• Original Release Date: April 29, 2008
• Label: Nuclear Blast GmbH
• Copyright: (c) 2008 Nuclear Blast GmbH
• Total Length: 49:33
• Genres:
  • Hard Rock & Metal > Thrash & Speed Metal
  • Rock
• ASIN: B00171WXY2
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,037 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)
  • #45 in MP3 Downloads > MP3 Albums > Hard Rock & Metal > Thrash & Speed Metal

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Eric/Chuck, the Page/Plant of Thrash April 30, 2008

By say 10

Format:Audio CD

With The Formation of Damnation, Testament delivers the thrash album of the year, hands down. Eric Peterson and Chuck Billy are rejoined by Alex Skolnick, Greg Christian and drummer Paul Bostaph to bring us the metal. Along side Slayer and Exodus, no other band has been as consistent and downright dedicated to give the fans what they want. Eric and Chuck, the heart and soul of this band, and as sadly underrated as they are portrayed, completely shine here. Old school, new school, it doesn't matter. Coming up with an album of this magnitude, takes some skill. And how Eric comes up with some of his riffs(heavy and hooky) is just amazing. Chuck, considering the past couple of years have been pretty rough, turns in an amazing performance as well. Its also really good to have Alex and Greg back in the fold. Having said that, both seem to have a renewed spirit on this one, considering Alex has not been on an album of new material since The Ritual in '92 and Greg since Low in'94. And finally, they could not have picked a better replacement than Paul Bostaph. Considered by many as just a fill in, he owns the drums here, and fits the band like a glove. I received my copy a day early, which was an additional bonus to my already anticipated excitement. In conclusion, I was eagerly awaiting this release and it lived up to my expectations ten fold. Thrash metal fans, check it out, raise the horns, and bang til your dead.

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid release that will please long time fans. April 29, 2008

By Kevin H. Dudley

Format:Audio CD

For once it's refreshing to see a band's promise about a forthcoming release actually live up to how they hype that it will sound like.

Testament's 1st album of all new material in 9 years was billed by the band of having the songwriting style of their classic 80's material while featuring the much more aggressive playing style/production of 1999's The Gathering (which is still a most amazing album.) Well, that's what we got with The Formation of Damnation.

To be honest, this isn't as great of an album as The Gathering was, and this is coming from a long time fan who has been listening to the band since 1987. I still greatly appreciate their classic material but I felt that with The Gathering the band really reached their apex (depsite the fact that Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson were the only 2 original members left in the group by that point). But The Formation of Damnation is still a very good release that will please long time fans (of Bay Area thrash in particular) while not being quite as earth shattering as it needed to be to convert current audiences into new fans.

Song wise the album isn't as thrashy or as brutal as the Gathering with maybe the exception of the crushing title track. Writing wise a lot of this sounds like The New Order and Practice What you Preach styles with a more brutal guitar/drum attack. Chuck Billy still occasionally dips into his 90's death metal growl at times, but he doesn't do it nearly as much as he did during that period. He sings here much more in his older style and while his range isn't what it used to be he still turns in a tremendous performance. Returning original lead guitarist Alex Skolnick does his usual brilliant guitar work and drummer Paul Bostaph (who played on their Return to Apocalyptic City E.P.) does his always solid and fantastic drum work. Original bass player Greg Christian returns and I was a bit disappointed by how root oriented his playing was on this album, but it still does fit, just don't expect some of his memorable bass lines from yesteryear (with the exception being the final track Leave Me Forever which features a fantastic bass line throughout and was co-written by Greg Christian ironically enough). Eric Peterson still remains one of the most criminally underrated rhythm guitarists (who also can rip great leads) in all of metal and his riff work here is great as always.

Seeing as this is basically a new fresh start for this band, it should be interesting to see how they are able to build on this release as while not being their best work is still much better than a lot of people are probably expecting out of it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars For The Album, Not For The Tour Edition March 6, 2010

By Michael

Format:Audio CD

When The Formation Of Damnation first came out in '08, I was very excited. It showed the Testament that fans of The Legacy, The New Order, and Practice What You Preach really wanted to hear. Not saying that fans didn't want to hear another Gathering sounding album or that it was a bad album. I loved The Gathering. But Alex Skolnick was back in the band, and his presence was heard on Formation. It was like old and new. Now we have the tour edition, and I must say....don't waste your time if you already own the album. They basically took the standard cd (original artwork and all), put a cardboard sleeve over it, and put a bonus cd inside the sleeve. Now, I'll admit that Metal Blade did the exact same thing with Unearth's The March, and I bought into that. But at least it had a bonus dvd with a lot more cool stuff than what you'd get here. What you get with this edition of Formation is a bonus cd with three live tracks, and as a cd enhancement (for those that don't know, there's a logo that says enhanced cd on some cd's you buy. That means you put the cd in your computer for additional content like video content and such.), the music video for "More Than Meets The Eye," and the video footage of the same three songs you hear on the same disc. I was at least expecting a bonus dvd of some sort, like the one that came with the import version of the album that has the making of it. That would have been better, or if it was a full live concert dvd or cd, that would have been great too. Anyway, I'm a big fan of the album, not this edition though. If you don't already have the cd, go ahead and get it. If you do, don't bother upgrading to this version.