Brutal!!
This album is a headbangers gem!!! It features the return of Alex Skolnic and Greg Christian, whose guitar and bass work make this album soar with feroricity!! I've been a Testament fan since the 1989 Practice What You Preach album, and these guys never cease to amaze me. This band has been loyal to it's fans, and has never sold out!! If nothing else each album they come out with keeps getting heavier, and better!! Metallica should take some hints from these guys! This album reminds me of earlier work such as Pwyp and the New Order, and recent work such as The 1999 album The Gathering. Chuck Billy's voice never sounded better, and it's a good thing he won his battle with cancer. This is a brutal thrash metal album not for the faint of heart. The track that stands out for me is The Evil Has Landed, which tells of the horrifying events of 9\11. This album is highly recommended for fans of thrash metal. Thanks Teastament for keeping real metal alive!!

Please break up
I like a lot of people out there have been a Testamant fan since The Legacy came out.
Every disc they did was great right up until Demonic.
This disc has no point of existing.
There is no variety among the songs. One reviewer stated, if you liked the sound of the first four albums, that sound is long gone. How true, and how sad.
What a pity that so many bands that were once great are STILL trying to reinvent themselves. Don't they get it? We started listening to you because of the way you USED to sound.
Nine years for this???
I listened to it once and into the garbage it went.

Whats old is new again.
I won't go into great detail except to say this disc is perfection. It is like seeing an old friend again from the first to last song. Fans know the story behind Chuck Billy and his ailments and it is amazing he still keeps on today. To have Skolnick back in the band makes this even more of a treat. Like Chucks other project, Dublin Death Patrol, this is pure Bay-area sound like it was and should be. The new cookie cutter metal bands of today (Lamb of God, Hatebreed, Killswitch and the other 10,000 that sound JUST LIKE THEM!) need to look at these icons and see how it is supposed to be done. Tried and true, the sound remains the same when it comes to Testament. Sample the title track and see for yourself...this IS the mandatory CD release for 2008 for any purveyor of metal.

To those of you too young to know
This is Testament. Formed in 1983 with Steve Souza singing originally known as The Legacy. Since the birth of American thrash back in the 80's Testament has been cranking out metal that was fast, intense and heavy yet melodic. 25 years later We are blessed with this masterpiece of an album. From the very get-go this album gets in the mood to rock. With crushing metal anthems like "More Than Meets the Eye" we see a brand new old band resurge with awesome crafted guitar riffs that seem to punch the ear drums as if to say, "Don't call it a comeback!" Alex Scholnick and Eric Petereson's chops cannot be matched by many. They shine on this album as if they never missed a beat. "The Evil Has Landed' displays a sort of Practice What you Preach era. One of my favorite solos is on this song. The title track is probably the most intense song I've heard since "Of Dog Faced Gods" off Low. Killer breakdown and double-bass by Bostaph(a far better drummer than Tempesta). Do yourself a favor and don't drive listening to "The Persecuted Won't Forget". Your bound to want to get a speeding ticket and possibly a bad case of road rage. "F.E.A.R. is one the most old-school songs I've heard them do in years. Sounds like maybe something off of The New Order. Very 80's type rock chorus with a fat solo break and dueling leads. All in all kiddies this band help influence and pave the way for bands like Shadows Fall, Avenged Sevenfold, The Absence,Trivium. So put this record and school yourself with some old-school metal

The Gospel Of The New Testament
Yes, all metal folks know the story now: Testament have returned nine years later with 95% of the original band and have put together an album leaning more towards their classic thrash sound. Sounds wonderful, eh? How could it not? Practically all online reviews of this album have been positive, and I do have to say I agree. While it may not kick you in the teeth the way The New Order did when you heard it so many years ago, it's refreshing and feels like a visit from old friends. This is a good thing coz this new album and reformation could have gone horribly wrong.
Yes, Testament have dug back into their classic thrash days for this album's sound(they even use the old band logo again). However it's not simply a halfassed retread of their glory days, but rather some good new songs in the old style that actually work. They didn't abandon what they did on The Gathering, there are still touches of that sprinkled all throughout the album too. Formation of Damnation is a bit more of a midpaced album with only a few speedy tunes. Usually this kind of thing worries me, but I found that I enjoyed pretty much all of it(I think there's only one song I don't care all that much for). I only have one small complaint about this album, and it's certainly not something to dissuade someone from getting it. That would be that most of the songs deal with the Bush Administration or war in the Middle East. These kinds of lyrics do absolutely nothing for me. I have seen and heard enough about the war and I have my own opinions about it, and I tend to listen to music to escape from things I read in the paper and see on CNN all the time. So, I really couldn't care less about the lyrics here. But hey, it's their songs and their album, so I figure they could write about damn near anything they want to, right?
All in all, I've been enjoying this cd quite a bit. It's a wonderful example of how a band like Testament simply doesn't peter out of existence because it's not the 80s thrash heyday anymore. If anything, their age and experience show that they are masters of their craft and they love what they do. You know time has gone by when you notice in the band's "Thank Yous" that most of them thank their wives and children. Personally I think that's a great thing being a family man myself now. Just goes to show that you're never too old to rock and roll. Formation of Damnation is definitely worth a listen, especially to the younger bands who should get a taste of how the big boys play.