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Yeah, they're a friggin' great band. Chuck Billy has a great voice. Early on he could do the yells, screams, and whines like that and later on when he went heavier with his band he sounds like a damn demon. The playing is really tight, too from the Scholnik days of big time solos. They've also had some tremendous drummers, Hoglan, Lombardo, Tempesta, Bostaph. All around a great band start to finish.
Metalheads should be discussing a Big 5, in my opinion.
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Right on. The vocals are amazing (especially on "sewn shut eyes", which is when he's doing the whole heavier "demon" thing you're talking about), as are the guitars... but the drumming, man, I swear, you hit it right on when you said they've had some amazing drummers, because they seem to know exactly what to do and when to do it... and it's never background filler, it never stays the same for long, it's all fills, rolls and fast paced action. You're literally immersed and stuff to listen to, and that's really what metal, or at least real metal, the innovative metal, is all about.
None of this aesthetic stuff, trying to sound like something in particular, they're throwing in stuff that sounds good to them, to make a song that has meaning. I don't mean to be stereotypical here but there's something really special about a band that's really way better than all the others, that doesn't try to be like anyone but themselves, that not many people know about today... I nod my head to the rythem that bit harder when it's coming from a band like that.
This is why I've actually stopped listening to emo completely, as I was just realising more and more as the days passed that the bands on my playlist had barely any interesting or new ideas between them. Don't get me wrong I know all about working within conventions and how music is a contradiction in those terms, but I just wasn't getting the same feeling with that music that I was and still am getting with metal like Testament.
So yeah... there's hope for this thread yet if we can get a few more people talking about this stuff.