"Coming off their previous album “The Ritual”, Testament began to feel the winds of change as it were. The first strike was the departure of lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, who decided that he wanted to experience other sides of music than just the thrash metal scene he had been a part of for almost a decade. Not long after, drummer Louie Clemente also left the band. This left holes in the framework that had to be filled. The first addition was guitarist James Murphy who had played with Death, Cancer and Obituary (and yes, those are band names not just a really bad run with his health), and drummer John Tempesta, who had played on the previous three albums for Exodus and with other solid work on his resume.

These two additions, along with what was happening around them in the music world, set up and interesting writing session when they converged to begin preparing for the new album. And while those thrash roots would remain on the music on this album, there is a more diverse sound once again bleeding through into their music. But while it had been an advancing maturity in the music that had been heard on the last two albums in particular, here there influences of the growing onset of alternative metal, but even more so of a death metal and groove metal combination".

On this episode we are going to talk about “Low” by Testament, the band’s 6th studio album released 30 years ago this week, on today’s episode where ‘we fuel the fire for war, it’s man against mankind’ on Music from a Lifetime.

"“Son of the Morning Star” follows and channels “How the Gods Kill” from the previous album, with its slow heartfelt beginning before breaking into the heavy blanketed second half of the song with John’s striking solo leading it out. “I Don’t Mind the Pain” moves back into a mid-tempo pace drawn along by Glenn’s vocals leading the atmosphere of the song. “Stalker Song” is another beauty, moving in and out of that slow maudlin tempo again, the great combining of guitar and bass here with the perfect input of drums helps give Glenn a terrific base on which to croon at his best throughout.

“Let it Be Captured” backs back into the low-tempo track, which is interesting because of the fact that, inspired by accusations that their songs contained hidden Satanic messages, the guitar tracks for "Cantspeak" are those of "Let It Be Captured" played in reverse. John Christ explained in an interview how Eerie Von had the idea of playing one of our songs backwards, but in the end, they became so obsessed that they were trying to play "Let It Be Captured" backwards, which ended up creating a whole new song, "Cantspeak". Well, that’s one way to do it!"

On this episode we are going to talk about “Danzig 4” by Danzig, the band’s 4th studio album released 30 years ago this week, on today’s episode where ‘til the coin that I pass to the ferryman’s grasp lets me leave my pain behind’ on Music from a Lifetime.

"On “6:00”, James LaBrie opens the album and comes in hard and positive with his vocals from the outset, setting the album off on a great note, with John Petrucci’s crawling guitar riff and Kevin Moore’s seamless keyboards linking everything throughout. “Caught in a Web” carries on with the heavier tones, dominated by LaBrie’s awesome vocal track and Petrucci’s heavy riff, with positive lyrics about deciding to live life the way you want to, and not feel as though you are trapped in the titled web. “Innocence Faded” follows and draws on similar themes from the opening track. “6.00” has lyrics written by Moore, while “Innocence Faded” is written by Petrucci, and those themes, of a relationship beginning to deteriorate from two different perspectives, is closer to home than anyone knew at the time. Lines such as “Beginnings get complicated the farther we progress, opinions are complicated, immune to openness” speak for themselves".

On this episode we are going to talk about “Awake” by Dream Theater, the band’s 3rd studio album released 30 years ago this week, on today’s episode where ‘echoes that deafen the mind will bury my voice in their wake’ on Music from a Lifetime.