The Gathering (Testament album)
The Gathering is the eighth studio album by American thrash metal band Testament, released on June 8, 1999. It was their first album for Spitfire Records and the first with new members Steve Di Giorgio on bass and Dave Lombardo on drums, making it Lombardo’s only Testament release. Co-produced by Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson, with Phil Arnold credited on the 2008 reissue, The Gathering moves further into death metal while bringing back a strong thrash edge, and many fans see it as a return to Testament’s form.
The album has eleven tracks in its original release, including "D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)", "Riding the Snake", and "Legions of the Dead". It was engineered and mixed by Andy Sneap, the first of five Testament albums he worked on.
After the release, Testament toured the Riding the Snake World Tour with Steve Smyth on guitar and Jon Allen on drums. The tour ended in 2001 when vocalist Chuck Billy was diagnosed with cancer, delaying new studio material until 2008’s The Formation of Damnation; they did release First Strike Still Deadly in 2001, a collection of re-recorded material.
Dave McKean created the cover art for The Gathering. The album reached No. 48 on the German charts. The 2008 Prosthetic Records reissue added an instrumental bonus track, "Hammer of the Gods" (not on the original U.S. release), bringing the total to 12 tracks on that edition.
In 2021, Metal Hammer named The Gathering one of the 20 best metal albums of 1999.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 22:00 (CET).