{"id":49263,"date":"2016-10-28T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=49263"},"modified":"2016-11-20T16:07:21","modified_gmt":"2016-11-20T16:07:21","slug":"feature-testament-10-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-testament-10-16\/","title":{"rendered":"TESTAMENT – Ruling The Den (October 2016) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

TESTAMENT – Ruling The Den<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nOctober 2016<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Testament (l-r): Alex Skolnick, Eric Peterson, Chuck Billy, Gene Hoglan and Steve DiGiorgio<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n


\nBay Area, California-based thrash metal outfit Testament began to map October 2016 full-length studio album Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em><\/a> \u2013 their 11th, overall \u2013 as far back as November 2014, having hoped to begin songwriting sessions earlier that year and issue said platter several months later. Testament\u2019s projected timescale for the affair would not come to pass, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was quite a long process,\u201d observes Chuck Billy, vocalist of Testament. \u201cIt was probably a two-year… Over a two-year process. When we started writing the record I believe in around November 2014, we thought we were gonna attempt to start writing the record, and things just got postponed. Eric did a Dragonlord record for about six months, so then we got together, and started writing the record. It just got dragged out over a long period, and of course we took a couple of tours along the way as well. When we got home from the Slayer tour in March 2016 though, we knew that if we wanted to get a record out this year, we had to have it recorded by June 15th by the time we left for Europe. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we went into the studio, we didn\u2019t have a demo done, and we hadn\u2019t rehearsed the songs as a band yet \u2013 usually, we do that. Since the songs weren\u2019t coming together as fast as we thought and hoped, we thought if we don\u2019t have a record out, it\u2019s really gonna screw us up. We looked at Gene\u2019s schedule (Hoglan, drums) and saw that Gene had a couple of weeks open in May, so we decided to go ahead and just book the studio, unprepared or not. We went in, and I think there was probably a lot of emotion going into the record; maybe a little anger, frustration, and just being a little scared that we were going in too soon and jumping the gun \u2013 trying to rush this, thinking \u2018Is this gonna be a mistake?\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, a lot was going into this record; a lot of emotion writing it, getting to record it… Everything all above. Everything finally settled down after we tracked all of the record, and a lot of the parts we created in the studio on the spot. Once it was done, we started mixing it and hearing the songs really start coming together. We realised that this was turning out to be a really good record. The songs were turning out to be really strong, so at that point, we kind of knew that this was a good record. I think we topped the last record we did, because you\u2019re always trying to outdo yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ambition to improve upon previous Testament records causes pressure all round. \u201cIt does,\u201d the frontman agrees. \u201cIt all started with The Gathering<\/em> record (June 1999). That was such a turning point for the band that when we did that record, we were very proud. We were like \u2018How are we gonna outdo this?\u2019 There\u2019s always that thought. You just take the songs as they come. I think in our case, from The Gathering<\/em> to where we are today, we had the original line-up come back in 2005, and we\u2019re working harder and touring harder as a band since 2005. So, I think it\u2019s a whole different band than it was then. I think that the music and songwriting has definitely matured, and I think there\u2019s maybe a little more confidence going into the songwriting process. I think we\u2019re pretty comfortable as a band, who we are, and our place in this metal community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The songwriting partnership of Chuck and guitarist Eric Peterson largely authored compositions for Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em>, axeman Alex Skolnick absent from the process. \u201cNot at all,\u201d he confirms. \u201cIt was just Eric and myself, and Gene came up a couple of times to jam with us. That was really in the early stages of just trying to come up with some riffs and ideas, but most of it was Eric. Eric put together all of the drums and all of the guitars and I put together all of the vocals, so a lot of this record was me and Eric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> did not experience a smooth birth, which caused anger and frustration among the pair. \u201cIt was two years and I was just getting frustrated, like \u2018Why can\u2019t you give me the songs? Why can\u2019t we finish them? Why don\u2019t we have the demo done?,\u2019\u201d the singer reveals. \u201cThere were just all these unanswered questions, and it just made for really tense situations between me and Eric, and without exploding on him and destroying the band. It was pretty heavy, but I think everything that we maybe had to go through on this record was the reason we had to do it. I don\u2019t think maybe we would\u2019ve got out the record that we did if there wasn\u2019t something driving us, and making it easy. <\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Chuck Billy<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
Pic: Andrada Mihailescu<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIf it was easy, I think we would try to put out a record every year (laughs). It\u2019s not that easy, though. When we write, we don\u2019t write extra songs. We write for this record only, because we don\u2019t want to put out a record two, three, or four years later that is the same songs that we created in the same mood four years ago. So, we don\u2019t write extra songs. Everything we write is new for the record that we\u2019re doing at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albeit not experiencing a smooth birth, Chuck naturally views Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> in a favourable light. \u201cI think it\u2019s definitely some of our best work,\u201d he endorses. \u201cI\u2019d say as far as maybe songwriting, the lyrics, the production, everything is a step up from everything we\u2019ve done I think. Again though, a lot of that is based on just what we went through to do this record. We were trying to make a schedule but we just couldn\u2019t meet the deadlines, and so everybody\u2019s emotions were just so like \u2018Shit… What\u2019s wrong? How come we can\u2019t do it?\u2019 You\u2019re nervous that if you put out a bad record that it\u2019s gonna be a hard hole to dig yourselves out of, so you always have that thought in your mind too. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, this one definitely stands out, because it has all of the elements that we\u2019ve done from records in the past up to this point. There\u2019s a lot of thrash and blast elements \u2013 the drums on this one \u2013 which we put a little more into the Testament songs these days, but I think it\u2019s just the attitude of this record. All in all, every song from the start of the record to the end, it\u2019s steamrolling. There\u2019s no ballads, no slowdown. Everything\u2019s kind of pretty thrashy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A \u201cthrashy\u201d jaunt from the Californian collective, it would be fair to say Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> is among the heavier records in the Testament catalogue. \u201cI would say that Demonic<\/em> (June 1997) is probably our heaviest in the catalogue (laughs), but I would say for us \u2013 as far as just the songs, the feeling, the production \u2013 we\u2019re really happy with the way you can hear all of the instruments; the bass and everything, and all of Gene\u2019s cymbal hits,\u201d the mainman ponders. \u201cEverything is there, and it makes for an enjoyable listen. When you hear great songs from bands but it doesn\u2019t sound well and it\u2019s not soothing to the ear, it\u2019s hard to replay. When you\u2019ve got stuff that\u2019s soothing though, those are the records that they tend to put on more often because they\u2019re just soothing, and you know that they\u2019re soothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a May 2016 interview<\/a> with Metal Forces<\/em>, Eric Peterson musically compared Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> to the likes of Demonic<\/em> and The Gathering<\/em>, but felt that Chuck\u2019s vocals were more in the vein of July 2012 predecessor Dark Roots Of Earth<\/em><\/a>. \u201cI tried to take an approach this time…,\u201d he begins. \u201cBecause when I get a song and I hear it, I go by instinct. Whenever we have a fast thrash song, my first instinct is to just sing fast with it, and I didn\u2019t want to try to just do the typical thing that I would do. I kind of really said \u2018Okay, I know what I will do and I can always do that, but why don\u2019t I try to find something different?\u2019 With the thrash songs, I always tried to change the pace of the lyrics so it\u2019s not following the bouncing ball, and I think I did that on this record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyrically, Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> strays away from more recent Testament fare. \u201cThe title song is called \u2018Brotherhood Of The Snake\u2019, and it\u2019s about secret societies,\u201d the wordsmith explains. \u201cThe Brotherhood Of The Snake was a secret society formed over 6,000 years ago, and they were basically on a crusade out to put down all other religions. Basically, their belief was that there was an alien or god \u2013 Anu \u2013 who created mankind to serve as slaves on Earth to mine for its gold and minerals. So, that\u2019s kind of what started the idea; the process of the songwriting, and the idea of aliens. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a fascination with me. I was watching some shows about aliens and how they were documented in different cultures around the world thousands of years ago \u2013 these modern alien beings with long arms and big heads, and these flying objects across the sky \u2013 so it made me kind of think \u2018Wow, man. There\u2019s something to this. How can this be documented? There\u2019s gotta be something to it.\u2019 So, that kind of started the idea of the concept. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith this record, Eric wanted to keep away from the lyrics being so personal. I\u2019ve been pretty personal with my lyrics over the last couple of records, so with this one, he said \u2018Can we not be personal, and try to come up with an image, a concept, an idea to build off of where we can have maybe some cool lyrics and some cool songs?\u2019 So, that\u2019s kind of what started it. Once we ran with The Brotherhood Of The Snake and a secret society, it was kind of right up Testament\u2019s alley \u2013 what we have written about and stuff in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> covers lyrical topics such as \u201caliens, religion, and the creation of man,\u201d Chuck lists. \u201c\u2018The Pale King\u2019 we have on there, \u2018Seven Seals\u2019, \u2018Centuries Of Suffering\u2019. It\u2019s all based on the planet earth, and what we have done. It\u2019s another part of it, talking about the concept of possible aliens creating us on earth. It makes you think that maybe we\u2019ve been wiping ourselves out for hundreds of thousands of years, trying over and over until we get it right (laughs). Maybe where we\u2019re at today is the closest to getting it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
Testament (l-r): Gene Hoglan, Alex Skolnick (kneeling), Chuck Billy, Eric Peterson
(kneeling) and Steve DiGiorgio<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Nevertheless, Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> is not a concept album. \u201cIt\u2019s not a concept record, no,\u201d the performer clarifies. \u201cIt was just something to grab onto, an idea that wasn\u2019t real. I\u2019ve been writing around my father\u2019s death, and just real things \u2013 cancer. Real things that we just didn\u2019t wanna do. We wanted to build something, and I think The Brotherhood Of The Snake was the perfect thing to start the concept of… Not the concept, but start the pattern of songs to write about and link together. After about five or six tracks though, we couldn\u2019t keep writing about that because it\u2019s not a concept record. So, songs like \u2018Neptune\u2019s Spear\u2019, or \u2018Black Jack\u2019, or \u2018The Number Game\u2019 and \u2018Canna-Business\u2019… Songs like that aren\u2019t necessarily about secret societies and stuff. Those are different ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> continues Chuck\u2019s longterm lyrical partnerships with the likes of Exodus frontman Steve \u2018Zetro\u2019 Souza and Guns N\u2019 Roses associate Del James. \u201cZetro and Del James are guys that I\u2019ve been working with for a long time,\u201d he remarks. \u201cUsually, I\u2019ve got the music, the riff, and I\u2019ll start with that. I\u2019ll study it and listen to it for a while, and then when I\u2019m ready \u2013 once I get the pattern and the idea, and maybe even a concept \u2013 that\u2019s when I\u2019ll call Del or Zet and say \u2018Let\u2019s get together. I\u2019ve got something going.\u2019 We work fast; if Zet comes over, we know that we\u2019re gonna write one song or maybe even two songs that day because we work pretty quick together. On this record, he was involved with five songs; \u2018The Number Game\u2019, \u2018Canna-Business\u2019, \u2018Black Jack\u2019, \u2018Centuries Of Suffering\u2019, and… I\u2019ve forgotten what other song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helming recording sessions was Juan Urteaga. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working with Juan Urteaga for the last three or four records, and live records for a while,\u201d the vocalist informs. \u201cHe\u2019s a local engineer that we\u2019ve been working with. He\u2019s got a studio (Trident) in town close to home, but I think after enough working together, we felt pretty confident in using him to track the whole record \u2013 drums, vocals and everything. Yeah, I\u2019d go in and sing a song a day. When I\u2019d go in, I\u2019d try to complete a song, and then I\u2019d listen to it, come back, tweak it, and try to wrap it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> boasts bass parts from founding Sadus and erstwhile Death member Steve DiGiorgio, the second Testament proper to do so \u2013 the first being The Gathering<\/em>. \u201cIt was awesome,\u201d Chuck enthuses. \u201cStevie D, he\u2019s the man. It\u2019s good to have him back in the band. Steve adds not only being a great musician and bass player, but he adds another element of just personality. He\u2019s quite a character, and keeps a nice humour on the road. Everything seems to be… I think Steve came back in just right almost where he left off. It\u2019s like he didn\u2019t skip a beat, so I\u2019m glad he\u2019s back. I think he\u2019s glad he\u2019s back, and it\u2019s amazing what he did on the record, too \u2013 his bass tone, and everything he played.\u201d<\/p>\n

The departure of previous bassist Greg Christian was confirmed on January 13th, 2014, with Steve\u2019s return announced that very same day. Needing a fresh rhythmist so to speak, Steve happened to be Testament\u2019s sole choice for the position. \u201cThe only,\u201d the frontman underlines. \u201cHe was the only person. When we did the reunion, we did the reunion thinking it was just maybe gonna be a couple of shows, but that turned into seven years. We really didn\u2019t say \u2018Oh, hey. Steve… By the way, there is no more Testament. You\u2019re not in it \u2013 we\u2019re doing this now.\u2019 We never sat down, and talked about it. We just took a break. I got sick with cancer, and then I came out of the cancer. We had our reunion, so we never really got back together The Gathering<\/em> line-up after my illness. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt really ended kind of weird, because there was really no discussion about it. So, when it was time for him to come back, it was almost as if there wasn\u2019t a discussion either. It was like \u2018Okay. Do you wanna play bass?\u2019 \u2018Sure, cool.\u2019 \u2018We\u2019re going to Australia\u2019 (laughs). And that was it. We were off and going, and he fit right in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Circumstances surrounding the departure of Greg Christian seem murky. \u201cI have no idea,\u201d Chuck comments. \u201cHe quit the band. He left the band. He wasn\u2019t happy with his situation in the band, and he decided to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greg has cited financial differences as being among the reasons for his departure, with the singer and Eric earning significantly more. \u201cOf course,\u201d he concurs. \u201cMe and Eric own the band. Greg doesn\u2019t own the band. Greg left the band for nine years and wanted to come back in the band and be an equal partner, and that\u2019s not what the deal was. Greg came back as a reunion bass player, and that turned into seven years of doing a reunion. There were never talks about \u2018Hey, come on back and let\u2019s be equal partners like we were when we started this band.\u2019 That\u2019s not what was gonna happen. I think he expected that, and we agreed to disagree. <\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWhile they were off doing whatever they did in life, me and Eric held down the forte for all of those years, and they were tough years. Those were in the 90s, when it was very tough for heavy metal. We weren\u2019t making any money. Yeah, we felt strong that \u2018No. If it was you Greg, or if it was Steve, or if it was any other bass player, here\u2019s what we\u2019re gonna pay you to play bass in Testament. You can do whatever you wanna do.\u2019 Like Gene, Steve and Alex; whenever they\u2019re not in Testament, they\u2019re doing other projects. We don\u2019t hold them up; we don\u2019t say \u2018You\u2019re in Testament. You can\u2019t do anything else.\u2019 Greg felt what he felt and decided he didn\u2019t wanna do it, so he left. I think maybe he regrets it, and he\u2019s talking out because of that. That\u2019s all I can think (laughs). He got to travel and play music around the world, and didn\u2019t have to get a job. I thought it was pretty good (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning to the topic of Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em>, cover artwork duties were handled by Eliran Kantor once again. \u201cThat\u2019s more Eric\u2019s department,\u201d Chuck admits. \u201cEric is more involved in the artwork. Eliran\u2019s has worked with us on… I don\u2019t know… Three, four, or five covers? Something like that? When we started working with him, he was a guy who came through pretty quick with his ideas and art. We liked that, and his work is amazing. When you take your album cover and use it as a backdrop… He\u2019s created some really nice visual backdrops for us. It\u2019s something that I think we\u2019re really comfortable with. Any time we do a record or T-shirts even, posters, we\u2019ll go to Eliran and ask him to whip something up for us because he\u2019s pretty fast and he understands. He kind of knows now what we like and don\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brotherhood Of The Snake<\/em> was released on October 28th, 2016 via Nuclear Blast. All promotional photographs by Gene Ambo.<\/p>\n

Interview published in October 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TESTAMENT – Ruling The Den Anthony Morgan October 2016 Testament (l-r): Alex Skolnick, Eric Peterson, Chuck Billy, Gene Hoglan and Steve DiGiorgio Bay Area, California-based thrash metal outfit Testament began to map October 2016 full-length studio album Brotherhood Of The Snake \u2013 their 11th, overall \u2013 as far back as November 2014, having hoped to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-testament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49263"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50445,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49263\/revisions\/50445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}