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Souls of Black

Souls of Black
Studio album by
Testament
ReleasedOctober 9, 1990
RecordedJune 1990
StudioFantasy Studios, Berkeley, California
GenreThrash metal
Length39:07
Label
ProducerMichael Rosen, Testament
Testament chronology
Practice What You Preach
(1989) 		Souls of Black
(1990) 		The Ritual
(1992)
Singles from Souls of Black
  1. "Souls of Black"
    Released: 1990
  2. "The Legacy"
    Released: 1990

Souls of Black is the fourth studio album by American thrash metal band Testament. It was released on October 9, 1990.

Production and musical style

While Souls of Black saw Testament staying true to their thrash sound, it saw several changes in style to rather diverse styles of metal, continuing the melding of technical and progressive influences that began on its predecessor Practice What You Preach, and preceding the traditional heavy metal sound heard in its subsequent album, The Ritual. The songs on the album are musically re-worked and lyrically re-written songs that had been demoed in the late 1980s, but never officially released.[1] Souls of Black sees Testament continuing in a vein similar to that of Practice What You Preach, with its lyrics dealing with society, politics, religion, suicide, megalomania and warfare. Like Practice What You Preach, this album was recorded at Fantasy Studios, but also marked the band's first album to be produced by a different producer, with Michael Rosen replacing Alex Perialas, who handled this role on the band's previous three albums.

One of the main reasons behind the making of Souls of Black was so that Testament could participate in the European Clash of the Titans tour with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies, which began just prior to the album's release. Guitarist Eric Peterson explained to Guitar World magazine, "We kind of rushed out Souls of Black just to get on the bill, because we didn't want to miss the tour and our label said we had to have an album out. We had done some touring with Slayer that year, and we did shows with Megadeth two or three years prior to that."[2] Along with Megadeth, they also opened for Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour in the United States.

Reception and legacy

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal4/10[4]
Entertainment WeeklyB+[5]

Reviews for Souls of Black have generally been mixed. AllMusic's Alex Henderson awards it two-and-a-half stars out of five, saying "Testament sounds very much like it did on its three previous albums and is as heavy as ever", while he added that Souls of Black "isn't in a class with The New Order, but is nonetheless a welcome addition to Testament's generally rewarding catalog."[3]

The album entered the Billboard 200 album charts on November 3, 1990, peaking at number 73 (Testament's highest chart position by this point) and remaining on the chart for eight weeks.[6][7] Souls of Black is also seen as an influential guitar album, being ranked number nine on Guitar World magazine's top ten list of guitar albums of 1990.[8]

Testament has rarely played any songs from Souls of Black live since at least 1991; out of the album's ten songs, "Face in the Sky", "Falling Fast", "Souls of Black", "Absence of Light", "Malpractice" and "The Legacy" were showcased during its accompanying tour. The title track is the only song from this album that Testament has performed live frequently, while "The Legacy" was last played in 2011 and the other four songs ("Beginning of the End", "Love to Hate", "One Man's Fate" and "Seven Days of May") have never been played live.[9]

Track listing

No.TitleLyricsMusicLength
1."Beginning of the End" (Instrumental) Eric Peterson0:36
2."Face in the Sky"Chuck BillyPeterson, Alex Skolnick3:53
3."Falling Fast"BillyPeterson, Louie Clemente4:05
4."Souls of Black"BillyPeterson, Skolnick, Clemente3:22
5."Absence of Light"Billy, SkolnickPeterson, Billy3:55
6."Love to Hate"Peterson, Clemente, BillyPeterson, Skolnick3:40
7."Malpractice"Skolnick, BillySkolnick, Peterson4:43
8."One Man's Fate"BillyPeterson, Clemente4:49
9."The Legacy"Skolnick, Billy, PetersonPeterson, Clemente, Skolnick5:30
10."Seven Days of May"Skolnick, BillyPeterson, Skolnick4:41
Total length:39:07

A re-recorded version of the title track appeared on the 2008 video game Rock Band 2.

Personnel

Testament

Additional musicians

  • Mark Walters, Steve Quartarola and Bogdan Jablonski – additional backing vocals

Production

  • Michael Rosen – producer, engineer
  • Testament – producers
  • Vincent Wojno – assistant engineer
  • Tom Coyne – mastering at Hit Factory, New York City
  • William Benson – front cover painting

Charts

Chart (1990) Peak
position
Japanese Albums (Oricon)[10] 70
UK Albums (OCC)[11] 35
US Billboard 200[12] 73

References

  1. ^ Rivadavia, Eduardo. "Testament - Biography & History". Allmusic. Retrieved January 20, 2017.
  2. ^ "Clash of the Titans Tour: Iron Giants". Guitar World. April 13, 2010. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
  3. ^ a b Henderson, Alex. "Souls of Black - Testament". AllMusic. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  4. ^ Popoff, Martin (2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 444. ISBN 978-1-894959-62-9.
  5. ^ Garza, Janiss (December 21, 1990). "Souls of Black Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
  6. ^ "Souls of Black - Testament". Billboard. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
  7. ^ "Testament Album & Song Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
  8. ^ Grassi, Tony. "Photo Gallery: The Top 10 Guitar Albums of 1990". GuitarWorld.com. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
  9. ^ "Testament Tour Statistics". setlist.fm. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  10. ^ Oricon Album Chart Book: Complete Edition 1970–2005 (in Japanese). Roppongi, Tokyo: Oricon Entertainment. 2006. ISBN 4-87131-077-9.
  11. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  12. ^ "Testament Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
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