TESTAMENT new album

TESTAMENT – Ticking Like A Time Bomb




Words by Aaron Small

Photos by Dean Karr


While drought is still plaguing farmers and their crops across North
America, the dry spell for TESTAMENT fans has ended! The four-year wait
for new material - the last being 2008’s The Formation Of Damnation -
has come to an end with the release of the brilliant new album, Dark
Roots Of Earth, available now via Nuclear Blast.





First single and video ‘Native Blood’ features vocalist and proud
Pomo Native American Chuck Billy bellowing the line “This white man’s
world won’t tell me what to do.” Rather scathing don’t you think? “Yeah,
it’s definitely a strong line,” admits Chuck. “It’s a rebellious song.
The way I wrote it is for Native Americans; but it’s really for any
indigenous group in the world, just having their voice and opinion
heard.”


Equally as powerful is the song title ‘True American Hate’. “That
one was basically right after 9/11. On the news I was seeing parents –
fathers with their children on the streets, waving guns and burning
American flags,” recalls Billy. “That image burned in my mind; how can
an adult teach their young kids so much hate? How is that child going to
be at a later age? When you’re that young, you’re pretty influenced. I
know that because my father was a huge Oakland Raiders fan, and was a
huge San Francisco 49er hater. So we were raised as love Raiders, hate
49ers. So I had that influence all my life growing up. Now that I’m an
adult, I still don’t like the 49ers; but probably because of that
reason. It made me think of that same kind of influence – they’re out
there teaching their kids by burning flags. What’s that generation going
to be like in 15 or 20 years when they’re adults? Who knows, maybe
they’ll be in power? A major world war, I don’t know? But it made me
think, how can someone teach such young minds such hatred?”


Leading up to the release of Dark Roots Of Earth, Testament’s label
Nuclear Blast posted several “making of” videos on YouTube; one of the
clips features Chuck admitting that he used outside writers for help on
the lyrics for this album. “I’ve been working with Del James for over 15
years; he used to be the chief editor of RIP Magazine back in the ‘80s.
We became really good friends, and he wrote some GUNS N’ ROSES songs as
well. So we started working together cause he was wanting to write some
more metal stuff. And there’s Steve Souza who sang for EXODUS, he’s a
friend of mine and also sings in DUBLIN DEATH PATROL (which Chuck is a
part of). He was helping me write songs too. That’s always the part for
me, as a vocalist, I really want it to be the best I can do. I had my
ideas about what I wanted to convey, but Del was really good at putting
it to paper for me.”





The fans are excited, as is the rest of Testament, to have Gene
Hoglan – whose resume includes: DARK ANGEL, DEATH, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD,
OLD MAN’S CHILD, DETHKLOK, FEAR FACTORY and many more; as well as
Testament’s 1997 album Demonic – back on drums. “Oh yeah, very much so,”
exclaims Chuck. “When we found out Paul (Bostaph) wasn’t going to be
returning, right away we said we needed to do the record. So we actually
called three drummers. First we called Dave Lombardo (who played on
1999’s The Gathering), he was down but he was doing a SLAYER record and
we just couldn’t wait. We called Chris Adler (from LAMB OF GOD), and
that same day Gene got back to us saying he was available. So Gene flew
up a couple days later, learned the songs in a week and recorded them in
two weeks. In three weeks’ time, he came and did the record.”


Although Chris Adler didn’t join Testament, he can be heard playing
on ‘A Day In The Death’ – exclusive to the iTunes version. How different
does Adler’s version sound compared to Hoglan’s, which is on the main
album? “It’s definitely different; Gene did some different beats in it.
We didn’t tell Chris what to do, we just said go for it, so it wouldn’t
turn out like Gene’s version.”


Gene Hoglan is undoubtedly a drum wizard, but again in those Nuclear
Blast “making of” videos, you really see Testament guitarist Eric
Peterson giving Gene a lot of direction, and coaching him as to how he
wants the drum parts to sound. “Definitely, cause Eric wrote a lot of
the songs and he did it on a drum machine. Eric’s the kind of guy who
doesn’t waste riffs or ideas; so once he’s locked on something, it’s
hard to get him off of it. When he has the drum rolls, the fills, and
the cymbal catches, he really accents his guitars with that. So of
course he’s telling Gene exactly what he wanted, and let Gene take it
from there.”


Will Testament pepper their live set with more material from Demonic
because Gene is back in the band? “Actually no, we didn’t really think
about that. With the new record, The Formation and The Gathering,
there’s plenty of material there that we really would like to play. It’s
probably the first time we actually have four songs off a new record in
the set: ‘Rise Up’, ‘Native Blood’, ‘Dark Roots Of Earth’ and ‘True
American Hate’” – the first four songs off the new album. “Yeah, it’s
weird how that worked out.”





The Formation Of Damnation and Dark Roots Of Earth complement each
other quite well. It’s definitely not part one and part two, but they
both firmly belong to the new, modern era of Testament. “Yeah, I think
so too,” agrees Chuck. “It definitely doesn’t sound like a band that’s
been around almost 30 years.” Despite the periods of inactivity and
unstable lineups, Testament has a rabid fan base globally. “I think
having Alex (Skolnick – guitar), Greg (Christian – bass), and even Louie
(Clemente – drums) back in ’05 when we had the original band was
definitely a new start and almost like a blessing. We could just take
the opportunity to finish what we started together.”


Initial listen to ‘Cold Embrace’ (from Dark Roots Of Earth) is
somewhat surprising as ‘Return To Serenity’ (from The Ritual, released
in 1992), is the ultimate Testament ballad. What prompted a revisit to
the slower song format? “We weren’t consciously thinking about doing
that when Eric (Peterson, guitarist) came in with the riff. It just had a
lot of emotion in it. We knew it had been a long time since we’d done
it (release a ballad). We really didn’t think about everybody critiquing
or criticizing it, we just said we’re feeling it, we’re digging it;
let’s go for it. For me, it’s one of my favourite solo parts on the
record.”


A deluxe version of Dark Roots Of Earth is available featuring a
wealth of bonus material, including three cover songs: QUEEN’s ‘Animal Magnetism‘Dragon
Attack’, ’ by SCORPIONS, and IRON MAIDEN’s
‘Powerslave’. Chuck explains why Testament chose those particular tunes,
what they mean to him, and how he approached them. “We actually first
started out by sending an email to everybody in the band, asking them to
come up with songs we could make our own. Once Eric got the list, he
was pretty focused on wanting to do Scorpions, cause we’re all fans of
that. He wasn’t sure about ‘Dragon Attack’, at first he didn’t really
want to do it and didn’t get it. But I said, ‘imagine MINISTRY doing
it,’ and he got it. We made it guitar driven, the way we did it. The
Maiden song was actually a surprise to me! The covers were the last
tracks to do and it was like wow, I’ve got to do Bruce (Dickinson);
it’ll be a challenge. At first I was a little nervous, but once I
started I got comfortable and just went with it.”





Production-wise, The Formation Of Damnation saw Chuck and Eric at
the helm, with Andy Sneap (ARCH ENEMY, MEGADETH, CRADLE OF FILTH) mixing
and engineering. On Dark Roots Of Earth, Andy is wearing the producer’s
hat as well. Chuck reveals the reasoning behind bestowing that
additional responsibility upon Sneap. “This time, instead of doing all
the recording ourselves, we had Andy come out to do everything: drums,
bass, guitars, vocals. This is the first record probably that I really
took direction from a producer. In the past, I always knew best and it
was going to be my way. On this record I wanted the vocals to be the
best they could be, so I would try every possibility. Andy actually had
me hitting notes I probably wouldn’t have chose myself; like ‘Cold
Embrace’, that’s a different tone for me vocally. I wouldn’t have got
there if it wasn’t for Andy. And Juan Urteaga (HEATHEN, VILE, SADUS)
helped us; he did some tracks with me as well. They both gave me some
good guidance with it, and now looking back, I’m glad I did; cause I
would have done it different. It’s definitely different singing live
than in the studio, and I’m glad Andy pushed me to do that. When we went
into the record, I knew that I wanted to sing with a little more
melody, instead of going for the death voice.”


Also included with the deluxe version of Dark Roots Of Earth is a
DVD featuring live footage of four classic Testament Tracks. “We did it
at the last show at The Avalon (in San Jose, CA), right after the last
leg of the ANTHRAX tour. It’s: ‘Disciples Of The Watch’, ‘Practice What
You Preach’, ‘Into The Pit’, and ‘Over The Wall’. It was just something
extra; we wanted to film the last show with Gene there. We weren’t
really planning to put it on the bonus stuff, but we had it available,
so hey, why not?”


Momentarily stepping outside his role in Testament, Chuck will serve
as Master of Ceremonies for Slaughter By The Water 3, aboard the
decommissioned USS Hornet on August 25th in Alameda, California. “We
were trying to play that, but it’s too close to where we’re playing in
Sacramento (on September 14th). But I still wanted to really support it
and be there, so I volunteered to MC it. I just jumped on board; it’s
going to be fun. We’re taking blanket donations for the Pine Ridge
Indians, and one stage is going to be bicycle powered. It’s going to be a
cool event.” If people stop riding the stationery bikes, the lights go
out and the amps won’t work. “Yep, exactly; they’re going to have to
pedal hard to keep the music going. It’ll be people constantly rotating
to keep it going.”


Currently Testament has tour dates booked until early October. Chuck
alludes to the band’s plans past that date. “We’re looking at possibly
going back to Europe in November / December. There’s a few things
planned that we’re kind of just laying out what’s going to happen. We’re
planning January and February in America – don’t want to say much yet
about that ‘til we finalize it. We’re going to be pretty busy, hopefully
for the next year or two. We missed going to Europe for the last three
years for the festivals, so hopefully next year we can hit all of those
over there.”