Editor's note: Testament comes to town for a concert Monday at the Pipeline Cafe. Here's a look at its debut album.

CD: "The Legacy" by Testament; Atlantic Records.

Released: 1987.

Style: Thrash metal.

My take: Loved in the underground metal scene, Testament is one of the best-known thrash-metal bands to never have major success. In its career, it gained a huge, loyal fan base, but platinum success always escaped it because of inner problems and bad business decisions.

Even now, Testament remains one of the more important, accessible bands of the metal boom of the 1980s, captained by bands such as Megadeth, Slayer and (pre-sellout) Metallica. Its debut album, ironically titled "The Legacy," established it as a promising thrash-metal act, with its heavy instrumentals and lyrics dealing with subjects such as the occult and nuclear war.

With nine tracks spanning 38 minutes and some-odd seconds, "The Legacy" is a good showcase of a passionate metal band and a good manifestation of its visions and talents, if not a little unorganized. With the exceptions of "C.O.T.L.O.D." ("Curses of the Legions of Death") and "First Strike is Deadly," all songs surpass the four-minute mark, epics by thrash-metal standards. Music played as fast and hard as on some of the tracks on this album sometimes results in a lack of melody — and songs that are thrashing for the sake of thrashing.

Still, the vision and vividness of the lyrics are hard to ignore. Throughout the album, songs are about deadly journeys to far-off, dangerous places or the utter destruction of the world. A good example of this can be found in the last (also the longest) track, titled "Apocalyptic City," which runs 5:48. A snippet of the lyrics reads, "Burn, ignite the population/Burn, causing mass cremation/Burn, feel no shame or pity/Burn, apocalyptic city." When not singing of destruction of the masses or the occult, Testament shows its personality in other ways, such as in "Over the Wall," which is about escaping a hellish situation. ("I need to get ahold of myself/I stare at the wall/For the right time has come/Escape must occur on this night.")

Adding to the positives of the record is the excellent production by Alex Perialas, a well-respected producer in the metal circle. Here he tones down the bass to emphasize the guitars.

Unfortunately for Testament, it was not able to adapt to the times and change its music accordingly, hence its near-disappearance at the beginning of the '90s. However, the band remained very popular in the underground scene, allowing it to continue recording well into the 2000s.

Young metal fans will want to pick up "The Legacy" as an example of the genre's roots, while older fans will want to add this to their collection because it's an essential album for metal fans.

Jeremy Castillo is a student at Windward Community College and the editor of the college's newspaper, Ka 'Ohana.

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