Testament "Souls of Black"

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

Souls of Black preceded several changes in style to rather diverse styles of metal, including the traditional heavy metal sound heard in its succeeding 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. 

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." 

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.

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." 

The album entered the Billboard 200 album charts on November 3, 1990, peaking at number 73 and remaining on the chart for eight weeks. 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. 

Track listing

1. "Beginning of the End" (Instrumental) Eric Peterson 0:36
2. "Face in the Sky" Chuck Billy Peterson, Alex Skolnick 3:53
3. "Falling Fast" Billy Peterson, Louie Clemente 4:05
4. "Souls of Black" Billy Peterson, Skolnick, Clemente 3:22
5. "Absence of Light" Billy, Skolnick Peterson, Billy 3:55
6. "Love to Hate" Peterson, Clemente, Billy Peterson, Skolnick 3:40
7. "Malpractice" Skolnick, Billy Skolnick, Peterson 4:43
8. "One Man's Fate" Billy Peterson, Clemente 4:49
9. "The Legacy" Skolnick, Billy, Peterson, Clemente, Skolnick 5:30
10. "Seven Days of May" Skolnick, Billy Peterson, Skolnick 4:41

Trivia:

- According to Chuck Billy this album was written and recorded in a hurry so that Testament could be part of the European Clash of the Titans (tour) with Megadeth, Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies.

- The album was released on the same day as Slayer's Seasons in the Abyss.

Produced by Michael Rosen and Testament. 

Recorded and mixed at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California. 

Mastered at Hit Factory, New York City.