Testament have a long history in the annals of metal. As one of the original ‘Big 4’ of the Bay Area Thrash scene of the early 80’s they are owed no small amount of respect. Not just for their historical contributions to some long past decade, but for the fact that they remain one of the strongest and hardest working acts of their generation.
When the current core line-up that recrystalised finally around Eric Peterson, Chuck Billy and Alex Skolnick (the latter returning to the fold after a break in the dead years of the 90’s) in 2005, then finally cemented by original bassist Steve Di Giorgio returning in 2014, we’ve seen a solid and consistent output from the band ever since. Either in the studio or on the stage, this is an act that’s hard to beat.
It's always a moment of excitement when a new record lands, and Para Bellum is no different in that respect. Having a cover that evokes their high-water mark Practice What You Preach sets that expectation even higher. What I was not expecting was the eclectic nature of the material therein…
When opening track For The Love Of Pain ripped out of my speakers, nearly taking the cones with it (‘cos I’m an old school analogue guy, and I like my mid-range and bass to rumble, baby) I thought I had maybe downloaded the wrong preview by mistake.
It's always a moment of excitement when a new record lands, and Para Bellum is no different in that respect. Having a cover that evokes their high-water mark Practice What You Preach sets that expectation even higher. What I was not expecting was the eclectic nature of the material therein…
When opening track For The Love Of Pain ripped out of my speakers, nearly taking the cones with it (‘cos I’m an old school analogue guy, and I like my mid-range and bass to rumble, baby) I thought I had maybe downloaded the wrong preview by mistake.
This is an absolutely brutal slab of music, as down and heavy as anything the band have produces, and whilst clearly still Testament, Chuck Billy’s vocals take a way more extreme blackened style that could probably cause a Norwegian church to self-immolate from however many thousands of miles Berkeley in California is. Somewhat taken back by this brutal turn of events, things slip into more familiar territory from then on to reassure the regular listener, but they don’t stand still…
In many ways this album is like a stylistic journey through their entire catalogue both high and, er Low, from their original Thrash heyday (Infanticide A.I. or Shadow People), to the pressure laid on by Atlantic to sound like Metallica in the mid 90’s (Havana Syndrome) there are some really strong moments on here, generally when their heavier tendencies are indulged.
In many ways this album is like a stylistic journey through their entire catalogue both high and, er Low, from their original Thrash heyday (Infanticide A.I. or Shadow People), to the pressure laid on by Atlantic to sound like Metallica in the mid 90’s (Havana Syndrome) there are some really strong moments on here, generally when their heavier tendencies are indulged.
Then there are also moments that made me frustrated as hell. The bizarre High Noon sounds like the sort of thing that would have been used to pad out a B Side when such things existed, and the orchestrated folly of ballad Meant To Be left me cold. It feels like an attempt to recreate the ethos of The Ballad from the Practice album, a track which is a stone-cold classic, but trying to recreate a classic that just happened by accident never works, and neither does this.
Fortunately, the second half of the album stays reliably core Testament, but those jarring moments are hard to forget. Fortunately, the misses are far outnumbered by the palpable hits, and this is Testament after all and it’s always a pleasure to hear new material from the masters.
Fortunately, the second half of the album stays reliably core Testament, but those jarring moments are hard to forget. Fortunately, the misses are far outnumbered by the palpable hits, and this is Testament after all and it’s always a pleasure to hear new material from the masters.
It’s still not going to beat the century’s zenith to date (Dark Roots Of The Earth back in 2012 IMHO), but then that’s a very tall order but it still beats anything from the fallow 90’s hands down. 8/10
Extortionist – Stare Into The Seething Wounds (Unique Leader Records) [Spike]
Stare Into The Seething Wounds is a heavy plunge into the aftermath of trauma, unprocessed scars, raw wounds, and the weight of what happens when pain festers instead of being met.
Extortionist – Stare Into The Seething Wounds (Unique Leader Records) [Spike]
Stare Into The Seething Wounds is a heavy plunge into the aftermath of trauma, unprocessed scars, raw wounds, and the weight of what happens when pain festers instead of being met.
With this record, Extortionist push past just the brutality of their previous deathcore/metalcore work and lean into something darker and more atmospheric, while never losing the intensity that defines them.
Right from Stare Into The Seething Wounds, the title track, you know this is going to be different. It opens with oppressive tone, guitars cutting through like broken glass, vocals that are less performance and more catharsis.
Right from Stare Into The Seething Wounds, the title track, you know this is going to be different. It opens with oppressive tone, guitars cutting through like broken glass, vocals that are less performance and more catharsis.
There’s a sense of exposure, layers of torment that the band are not content to mask. Immediately, you’re aware that every riff, every beat, every note is carrying weight.
Aftermath Of Broken Glass follows, bringing chaos and sharp rhythm. It’s a track built around jagged contrast: moments of crushing heaviness set against atmospheric breathing spaces that let tension build before the pull-back. The Break I Couldn’t Mend is one of the standout ones—it stabs with urgency, the kind of song you can’t half-listen to.
Aftermath Of Broken Glass follows, bringing chaos and sharp rhythm. It’s a track built around jagged contrast: moments of crushing heaviness set against atmospheric breathing spaces that let tension build before the pull-back. The Break I Couldn’t Mend is one of the standout ones—it stabs with urgency, the kind of song you can’t half-listen to.
You’re dragged into the aches it embodies. Starve and Submit To Skin continue the assault, each pushing the dynamics further, with heavier grooves, sharper disruption, and vocal lines that alternate between raw screams and harsh reflection.
Mid-record, Cycle Of Sin hits as a focal point. It’s representative of what this album does best: merging searing instrumental impact with emotional exposure. That track brings both the fury and the ache. No Safety, Dopamine, Lobotomize Me are all tracks that twist that duality even further: aggressive and punishing where needed, but always with a sense of vulnerability lurking beneath, the sort that makes you dread what comes next but can’t look away.
The album doesn’t let up in its closing stretch: Detriment, Low Roads, Invisible Scars (Part II) and finally Do You See It? build a landscape of echoes. The music here pulls back just enough to make the closing feel earned. It’s not relief, but a confrontation with everything that came before. You feel the wounds, visible and invisible, acknowledged at last.
What impresses most is how aware the band seem of space and weight. The atmospheric moments aren’t padding; they frame the heaviness so it hits harder. The harshest riffs feel earned because the listener has had time to absorb the pain behind them.
Mid-record, Cycle Of Sin hits as a focal point. It’s representative of what this album does best: merging searing instrumental impact with emotional exposure. That track brings both the fury and the ache. No Safety, Dopamine, Lobotomize Me are all tracks that twist that duality even further: aggressive and punishing where needed, but always with a sense of vulnerability lurking beneath, the sort that makes you dread what comes next but can’t look away.
The album doesn’t let up in its closing stretch: Detriment, Low Roads, Invisible Scars (Part II) and finally Do You See It? build a landscape of echoes. The music here pulls back just enough to make the closing feel earned. It’s not relief, but a confrontation with everything that came before. You feel the wounds, visible and invisible, acknowledged at last.
What impresses most is how aware the band seem of space and weight. The atmospheric moments aren’t padding; they frame the heaviness so it hits harder. The harshest riffs feel earned because the listener has had time to absorb the pain behind them.
Production complements this with clarity despite the aggression, no moment feels lost in noise, and every growl, every distorted string, has room to breathe in its own terrifying space.
Stare Into The Seething Wounds is not an easy listen. It’s unflinchingly direct, often painful, and always intense. But what it gives back is power, honesty, and sometimes, the catharsis in knowing you’re not alone with the damage. When it ends, it's not a fade, it’s more a scar or a memory of the damage done.
Stare Into The Seething Wounds is not an easy listen. It’s unflinchingly direct, often painful, and always intense. But what it gives back is power, honesty, and sometimes, the catharsis in knowing you’re not alone with the damage. When it ends, it's not a fade, it’s more a scar or a memory of the damage done.
I’m drawn to this more than I expected. Extortionist have created something that survives beyond the rupture it describes. 9/10
Their final statement is Discarding All Adornments (ft. Amelia Baker/Cinder Well). It starts much like the others, gets up to speed but has a different undercurrent to it. The speed is there, the punk stylings are there but it feels as though they have changed their ingredients ever so slightly.
And that is that. 42 minutes of exemplary music that once it starts does not back off in any way. If they can reproduce this level of force, of power live then I’ve got to see it. Brilliant stuff. 8/10
Kris Barras' Hollow Souls - Hollow Souls (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
Having followed the work of Kris Barras since his early days on the British blues rock scene, seeing the ascent of the Torquay born guitarist/singer/songwriter and former Cage Fighter has been something to behold. From his early days in the Kris Barras Band, he's shown a real skill for blues rock inspired by Joe Bonamassa et al.
Terzij De Horde - Our Breath Is Not Ours Alone (Church Road Records) [Mark Young]
Hailing from Utrecht, Terzij De Horde drop a slice of extremity that will satisfy lovers of black metal that attempts to go a bit further than the traditional. Each Breath Is A Flame is their starting point, a burning, rising instrumental driven piece that gives you a little taster for what is to come next as it pounds into the start of Raise Them Towards The Sun.
Hailing from Utrecht, Terzij De Horde drop a slice of extremity that will satisfy lovers of black metal that attempts to go a bit further than the traditional. Each Breath Is A Flame is their starting point, a burning, rising instrumental driven piece that gives you a little taster for what is to come next as it pounds into the start of Raise Them Towards The Sun.
This has the breakneck tempo of black metal whilst having a warmth running through it that is sometimes missing with other bands. There is a definite lean towards a more hardcore/punk execution here, one that means that the traditional black metal approach with regard to speed is adhered to but sounds wider as a result.
Behind this is some of the most propulsive drumming that basically grabs by the scruff of the neck and doesn’t let go. Its something that continues with The Shadows Of Prefiguration and once you get past the realisation that this might be all you are in for, and I mean that as a compliment (because they promise an intense experience), you can just let the rest of it wash over you.
Speed is one thing, but with the heavy support coming from Richard Japenga on drums the rest can experiment with jangling chords, pick slides and mammoth riff breaks. There are parts of this that sound like a mutated flight of the bumblebee, but in any event, its delivered with 100% intensity. The ending shows that there is more to them than just an aural beating, they can take a simple guitar line and make it grow and suddenly 7 minutes have passed.
Of course, having your songs run long like some of them do can be a stretch, I don’t think any band is immune to that and to their credit they attempt to make A Hammer To The Great Matter Of Birth And Death, which clocks in at nearly 8 minutes long keep you engaged.
It could have been trimmed, I’m sure, condensing it into a more palatable effort but I’m saying that as a layman with no idea of what that means to the band. Its length does give them the scope to basically work out/work through the context behind this song, which would have been lost had it been cut back.
The All-Consuming Work Of The Soul’s Foreclosing is shorter, as if the energy expended on A Hammer... means they need to recharge themselves. Or they just wrote a shorter song, whatever it is there is no change in that intensity level that has been on display since the start. The vocals from Joost Vervoort just carry that right amount of weight behind them meaning that they don’t get swamped by the rest of the band.
The All-Consuming Work Of The Soul’s Foreclosing is shorter, as if the energy expended on A Hammer... means they need to recharge themselves. Or they just wrote a shorter song, whatever it is there is no change in that intensity level that has been on display since the start. The vocals from Joost Vervoort just carry that right amount of weight behind them meaning that they don’t get swamped by the rest of the band.
Justice Is Not Enough To Leave The House Of Modernity returns to the longer side of things, starting a little slower for a change before picking up the pace. Its another example of how they can effortlessly marry complete assault with memorable guitar lines and make that run time seem so much shorter. I keep going back to how they maintain that level of energy, they simply don’t let up at all and whilst some might prefer them to pull back, for me keeping these songs on the front foot like they do in the manner they
Their final statement is Discarding All Adornments (ft. Amelia Baker/Cinder Well). It starts much like the others, gets up to speed but has a different undercurrent to it. The speed is there, the punk stylings are there but it feels as though they have changed their ingredients ever so slightly.
At first it’s not something you can readily put your finger on until we get to around 3 or so minutes in. that’s when Amelia comes in, a spoken section over a softened arrangement that plays out, and then they are back. This restrained piece causes a natural break, a natural one that provides an opportunity to regroup and return. It offers a moment of respite, and because its used just once makes this track stand out from the rest.
And that is that. 42 minutes of exemplary music that once it starts does not back off in any way. If they can reproduce this level of force, of power live then I’ve got to see it. Brilliant stuff. 8/10
Kris Barras' Hollow Souls - Hollow Souls (Self Released) [Matt Bladen]
Having followed the work of Kris Barras since his early days on the British blues rock scene, seeing the ascent of the Torquay born guitarist/singer/songwriter and former Cage Fighter has been something to behold. From his early days in the Kris Barras Band, he's shown a real skill for blues rock inspired by Joe Bonamassa et al.
Having duetted with Joey Bones and Billy Gibbons, his star ascended rapidly, being made the frontman of Supersonic Blues Machine helped immensely and his solo band got signed to Earache Records and started to evolve into a full on heavy rock band, with a sound similar to the heavy hitters of the US Radio Rock, this has scene KBB become a go to headliner for Planet Rock festivals and beyond.
However if you though Kris' belly for the blues had gone think again, as during his downtime, he wanted to put together a UK based to jam the blues rock sound that he and long term collaborator Josiah Manning had cut their teeth on. Setting up shop at Manning's studio in Plymouth, they recruited drummer Joe Harris and bassist Leighton Allen, to round out their quartet of Kris on guitar and Josiah on, well, probably everything else.
They also approached former KBB backing singer Phoebe Jane to jam with them and this really was how Hollow Souls was born. The songs were being written for her vocals not for Kris', that blues base coming back through her grit and power, returning Barras and Manning to the blues rock sound I saw preformed at RetroVibe Records in Cardiff back in 2018 (throwing it back)
Hollow Souls is a six track EP which blends the collective skills of the band with some high profile guests including Jared James Nichols on the stomp/clap opener Borderline, The Cold Stares' Chris Stapp on slinky Bad Things and Elles Bailey on the smoky Burn It To The Ground while Jon 'Marv' Harvey of Monster Truck provides the Sammy Hagar-ish croon for the heavy rocking of Shotgun.
Hollow Souls is a six track EP which blends the collective skills of the band with some high profile guests including Jared James Nichols on the stomp/clap opener Borderline, The Cold Stares' Chris Stapp on slinky Bad Things and Elles Bailey on the smoky Burn It To The Ground while Jon 'Marv' Harvey of Monster Truck provides the Sammy Hagar-ish croon for the heavy rocking of Shotgun.
These guest spots continuing the collaborative, organic idea of the band. Essentially Hollow Souls is a jam project that has taken on a life of it's own, a chance for Kris and Josiah to return to the blues rock sound that definitely rocks on I Need Fire but can go tender too with EP closer Chasing Ghosts.
For me it's great to hear Kris going back to the blues with Hollow Souls, keep an eye out for them coming to a town near you soon with Troy Redfern in tow. 8/10
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