Review by Felix on August 13, 2023.

Looking back, I sometimes wonder why I kept buying a new Testament album over and over again. I guess some highlights from their early period had made me blind and so I gave them another chance whenever they had published a new album, although I knew all about the shortcomings of Practice What You Preach or Souls Of Black, to mention their weakest moments. Low is another full-length of the pioneers that falls under the category “ambivalent”. Some tracks are total rubbish, for example the wanna-be emotional ballad 'Trail Of Tears' with its kitschy lines, its soulful vocals and its boring predictability. The instrumental which finishes the album marks another low point (ha, almost a pun). Due to the fact that I originate from the country of the Scorpions, I ask: is there anybody (out) there who thinks such a piece with nothing but floppy guitar lines and playful drums enriches a metal album?

These pieces suck completely, but this would be acceptable if the ten remaining tracks would be two handfuls of killers. But far from it. Songs like 'Shades Of War' or 'P.C.' suffer from vapid, faceless and meaningless guitars. The vocal lines of 'Shades Of War' also sound amateurish and so the song goes down the drain, even if we take into consideration that it partly creates an oppressive atmosphere. 'P.C.' drags itself to the finish without creating just one exciting moment. And, masochists listen closely, there is more bullshit to discover. The quasi-instrumental on position nine offers pretty unusual yet unfortunately rather nerve-shattering tones. 'Low' (the song) wallows in its own mediocrity and falls short of the expectations I have whenever it comes to an opening title track. The very voluminous yet somewhat noisy production does not make things better.

Anyway, you do not just find trace elements of death metal here, but also moments and even songs of high quality. The pretty furious and flattening, alarming and straight 'Ride' is a hidden champion at the end of the tracklist. It gives the album one iota of dynamism that it so desperately needs. 'Legions (In Hiding)' holds some cool lines, a catchy chorus and a powerful instrumental part that make me forget its somewhat brittle mid-tempo. 'Hail Mary' shines in particular with a glorious opening riff. Especially these songs prevent Low from turning into a full-blown disaster.

Summing up, to me it looks like that Testament chased the trend without knowing it exactly. That’s why they connected a pretty non-authentic death thrasher like 'Dog Faced Gods' with the aforementioned ballads. This was actually beneath their dignity, but as we know, unfortunately not an isolated case in their career. Admittedly, sometimes they were still capable of brilliant deeds, but the discipline and the notes for a consistently good record were lost on them. In short: their evolution from high to low was regrettable.

Rating: 5.8 out of 10

Review by Luka on October 14, 2001.

Testament was a band I always avoided for the very reason of always being unoriginal and creating such generic metal songs with boring song-structures, and if you didn’t realize it before, this album will make it painfully clear. Throughout the whole thing I sat there, just waiting for one original song segment that would give this album some personality, something of its own, but that moment never came, from first track to the last, "Low" offered nothing but one mediocre song after another written obediently by the rules of the boring, repetitive rock-and-roll song structure.

There are but two exceptions to the comment I made about "mediocre" songs: 'Legions' and 'Dog Faced Gods'. These two songs, while still employing the repulsive aspect of unoriginality are actually really good. The first endows some very impressive riffs and heaviness while the latter conjures a mysterious ancient Egyptian sound and feeling, and both songs have Chuck Billy experimenting with death metal vocals! I’ve no clue why, but these two songs are the only ones he does them on.

Another track that could be considered a hair above the rest is 'All I Could Bleed', but this is about it. I don’t know what Testament were trying to create with this album or who they were trying to impress but they certainly didn’t do anything about either of these. This sounds like a quickly-written, little-cared-for, mass-produced average album that Testament hoped only their pretty clean reputation would sell. Well, this album has given their reputation a very greasy-filth shit-stain in my book. It’s because of this album I was even known to quote the strong words "Testament sucks". Well, they don’t suck, but this waste of plastic called an album certainly does. Their worst album ever, I’m disappointed.

Bottom Line: I curse the day I bought this album, don’t make the same mistake!

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Originality: 1
Musicianship: 7
Atmosphere: 4
Production: 7
Overall: 3

Rating: 4.4 out of 10