Veering slightly away from the more traditional thrash song structures of 2020’s ‘Titans of Creation’, Testament kicks off ‘Para Bellum’ with a more progressive and extreme aesthetic. The angry “Love of Pain” blends a hodgepodge of manic death and black metal styles into the band’s core of tried-and-true thrash. Employing Chuck Billy’s late-career death-metal-indebted growl to great effect, the song rides Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick’s staccato riffing to a sinister crawl before erupting into unhinged tremolo picking. The song zips by with an urgency that doesn’t have time for guitar solos, and by the time the bass-led riffage of its triumphant send-off sinks in, it becomes abundantly clear that the Testament of 2025 are not content to rest on their laurels.

Speaking of bass, the muscular low end of the mix highlights the tight interplay between bassist extraordinaire Steve Di Giorgio and newcomer Chris Dovas (formerly of Seven Spires). Replacing Gene Hoglan is no easy task, but Dovas steps up to the challenge with aplomb. Justin Shturtz’s mix is modern but not ear-fatiguing, and apart from synthetic strings on the old-school ballad “Meant to Be,” it’s kept pretty simple—in the best possible way.

While the aforementioned “Meant to Be” won’t replace “Fade to Black” as your favorite thrash ballad anytime soon, it’s a great tune that unfolds in classic style and is easily better than “The Unforgiven 2, 3, 4, ad infinitum.” Lovely acoustic guitar interplay builds Billy’s tale of lost love to a bittersweet chorus. His aged rasp breathes extra life into a song that is admittedly a little by-the-numbers, but I’ll be damned if they’re not great numbers. Billy has always been one of the great metal singers—a singular and imposing figure in the thrash world. His urgent clean singing has always been the yin to his authoritative and angry guttural yang, and that’s on full display here. Like many of his peers, he’s lost a bit of his upper register over the years, but has made up for it with an increased focus on a gut-punching howl that’s no less effective.

In 2023, Eric Peterson described the direction of the record as a combination of “thrash, NWOBHM, thrash black [and] heavy hard rock blues.” This is an apt description. The bluesy riffs of the vitriolic “High Noon” make the easy analogy of a society’s obsession with violence to a gunslinger, and the band sells the crap out of it. “Witch Hunt” whizzes by with the speed of a thrash-powered ’80s muscle car before opening up to frantic midsection madness featuring a melodic vocal part that wouldn’t be out of place on a late-period Peter Dolving-led The Haunted record, before Skolnick—Testament’s secret weapon—unleashes a top-notch blues-inflected solo that has all the subtlety of a child with a drum.

Standout track “Room 117,” presumably about Washington State resident Andrey Shevelyov, who made news in 2024 for choosing to live on the street rather than take antipsychotic medication, is a heavy metal banger that has all the hallmarks of a song that would have seen some crossover MTV success back in the day. On it, a deftly executed groove is accentuated by moody minor-key riffing and a terrific, melodic vocal turn by Billy. Instrumentally, the dark and shadowy ascending riff of the verse, offset by the halftime chorus and stuttering riffage and sepulchral textures of the middle eight, creates a claustrophobic feel that perfectly matches the lyrics.

The title track, whose lyrics play on the Roman adage “Si vis pacem, para bellum,” which translates to “If you want peace, prepare for war,” closes out the record on an epic note. The song prepares for war via an extended intro featuring a military drumbeat accentuated by Skolnick’s Eastern-tinged flights of fancy, before erupting into a modern metal cacophony of enraged vocals, virtuosic leads, and an almost “sing-songy” chorus over blast beats.

‘Para Bellum’, the title of Testament’s restless new record, translates from Latin to “Prepare for War.” The Bay Area lifers bare their teeth and do just that on their fiery new LP.