On April 21, 1987, Testament released their debut album, The Legacy . Many fans still consider this the band's best album, and it's not hard to see why. Unlike many thrash metal bands of the time, Testament's sound was firmly established on their first record. Every track on The Legacy showcases a band confident in their ability to play and compose.
In the year of its release, some of the best thrash metal albums in the world had already been released, such as Master of Puppets , Reign in Blood , and Pleasure to Kill , so Testament had enormous competition to match. With the release of The Legacy , they did exactly that, and began a winning streak of albums that is still ongoing.
The story of Testament originally began with the band The Legacy , formed by Eric Peterson on guitar and his cousin Derrick Ramirez , also on guitar and vocals. After a series of changes, the first stable lineup of Legacy consisted of some of the best musicians in the Bay Area: Eric, vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza , bassist Greg Christian , drummer Louie Clemente , and the young guitar prodigy, Alex Skolnick . After recording some songs, Zetro was recruited to sing in Exodus Chuck Billy for the position . With that, the band changed its name to Testament, signed with Megaforce Records, and finally released its debut album.
The album itself was composed almost entirely of songs written during the Testament era as The Legacy. Six of the album's nine songs list Zetro as one of the composers, and "COTLOD" even has Derrick Ramirez listed as a writer. This isn't too hard to hear on the album. Chuck's voice was much higher on The Legacy than on subsequent albums, likely because he followed vocal melodies written by Zetro.
The only song Chuck had the chance to contribute to was “Do or Die,” but the other eight tracks were absolutely excellent nonetheless and remain among the best songs Testament ever released. Alex Perialas did a good job, giving Alex and Eric a huge guitar sound and bringing Chuck’s vocals to the forefront of the mix. Louie’s kick drum received a rather weak sound in return, and Greg’s bass was much less audible than it should have been. Greg later had the opportunity to showcase his immense talent on Testament’s next album, The New Order (1988), but for now, he could barely be heard.
“Over the Wall” remains one of the best opening tracks any thrash metal album of the era ever had, and immediately established Testament's strengths. Eric's twisting and meandering riffs became a signature of the band, and the song's unpredictable structure was also a feature of many of the other tracks on The Legacy . While other bands would be satisfied with just the riffs and melodies that opened “Raging Waters,” Testament would take an insane break like the one at the 2:47 mark and launch the listener into a furious headbanging frenzy. Testament's songs were never very progressive, but they added more variety and interesting riffs to four-minute songs than most bands could create for an album.
Beyond the classic songs that populate The Legacy , perhaps the most remarkable element of this album is Alex Skolnick. Despite being only eighteen years old at the time of The Legacy , Alex immediately established himself as the greatest thrash metal soloist. His solos had the capacity to be festivals of fragmentation, but often featured classically influenced melodies. James Hetfield ( Metallica ) may have had the most influential right hand in thrash, and Gary Holt and Lee Altus ( Exodus ) may be the best musicians in the genre, but there is still no soloist today who can equal Alex Skolnick. His playing on The Legacy was simply excellent and took these already phenomenal songs to a whole new level.
It's difficult to choose the highlights from an album so full of incredible songs. "Over the Wall" and "Alone in the Dark" are the only songs from The Legacy that have a guaranteed place in a Testament live show, but the rarely played songs from this album are equally great. "The Haunting" and "Burnt Offers" are still going strong, and "Do or Die" remains one of Testament's most underrated tracks. Eric himself even admitted that the song contains some of his most challenging rhythm guitar work. "Raging Waters" also stands out, along with the fiery "Apocalyptic City".
The Legacy marked the beginning of an absolutely incredible career in heavy metal that continues to this day. Testament may have been plagued by lineup changes, bad record deals, and even cancer, but they continued to write some of the best thrash music for many years. The band may have surpassed themselves a few times on subsequent albums, but The Legacy remains a landmark of thrash metal and one of the greatest treasures of the Bay Area.
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