Testament singer Chuck Billy spoke to “The Cassius Morris Present” about the progress of the songwriting classes for the band’s follow-up to 2020’s “Titans Of Creation” album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.Net): “Eric [Peterson, TESTAMENT guitarist], truly, in the course of COVID, has been stockpiling riffs, so there’ll be a new Testament album faster than later on. Especially since Dave [Lombardo, drums] is again. I assume Dave, when we wrote ‘The Gathering’ [1999] with him, him and Eric just jammed. Eric applied to truly function out the drums on a drum machine and then give it to a drummer to variety of interpret it and make it [their] have, where by when we wrote that file with Dave, Dave was just, like, ‘Just enjoy, dude. Just jam.’ So Eric obtained to concentration on the riffs and playing, and they created some seriously great music. So I hope that which is the case now with Dave all over that Eric just starts jamming and Dave starts producing with him.”
When host Cassius Morris questioned Billy to explain no matter if a several new Testament tunes are currently in the functions, Chuck replied: “Not yet, but Eric‘s acquired riffs — he is acquired the riffs prepared to go. And I am positive once we get on the street, we have soundchecks that’s when Eric will form of introduce a riff and see what Dave does or a drummer does. At a soundcheck, he’ll just start off playing a thing, and maybe something will come of it. Or [we’ll go], ‘Oh, that’s fantastic. Let us history that real fast.'”
An unique member of thrash steel legends SLAYER, Lombardo was the guest drummer on the aforementioned “The Accumulating” album, which also marked the to start with time Testomony worked with then-up-and-coming British producer/engineer Andy Sneap.
Final month, Lombardo instructed SiriusXM‘s Liquid Metal that he attained out to the Testament camp the identical day that the band announced it was splitting with its longtime drummer Gene Hoglan.
“I was continue to asleep, and my spouse, she just said, ‘Hey, Gene just remaining Testomony,'” Dave recalled. “And she’s been generally telling me, ‘Man, I can not hold out for you men to get collectively for that ‘Gathering’ reunion.’ ‘Cause we experienced been conversing about this two and a 50 percent, a few years ago — before the pandemic. And so I quickly — I failed to even get my other eye open and I was texting Chuck. I explained, ‘Hey, male, what is likely on?’ I will not know just what I talked about in my textual content, but it was extremely simple, ‘Hey, what is taking place?’ And he instantly called me back again. And I remember Tiffany [Chuck‘s wife] was on the mobile phone Chuck was on the cellphone. We have been, like, ‘Hey.’ It was a fantastic arrive-together minute, like, ‘Hey, right here we go. This is the moment we’ve been waiting around for.'”
Dave went on to say that the timing was appropriate for his return to Testomony.
“‘The Gathering’ reunion didn’t have to take place putting Gene out, separating Gene and stating, ‘Gene, we’re gonna go with Dave for a even though now.’ Nothing like that took place,” he reported. “This took place organically. And it occurred at a time the place my other bands, two of the bands that I have, MR. BUNGLE and Useless CROSS, [Mike] Patton sings in them and he is making an attempt to get healthy and is taking a very little hiatus. And SUICIDAL TENDENCIES has not been touring considerably these days. So that leaves me with a ton of minor odd jobs below and there that I do the job on in my cost-free time. So it just felt like the proper moment.
“I know it can be deceiving simply because I am in so lots of various bands, but there is 24 hours in a day and I only slumber 8 hours, or 7 to eight hrs, so that leaves me 16 other hrs,” he spelled out. “And I really don’t take Saturdays and Sundays off. So it was a no-brainer.”
Chuck stated that he was astonished to listen to from Dave so speedily just after Testament designed the news of its break up with Gene public.
“Appropriate when it occurred, it was in minutes after the announcement,” Billy recalled. “And Dave isn’t going to bear in mind, but [his text message to me was] simply ‘Lombardo?’ That was the textual content. I am, like, ‘You’re shitting me. Tiffany, Lombardo just wrote me, ‘Lombardo?” I identified as him right away. I claimed, ‘Hey, dude, what is taking place?’ He was, like, ‘Dude, I heard the news.’ I’m, like, ‘Dude, I would have identified as you suitable away, but I just assumed it was sort of far-fetched for you to sort of jam since I know you’re almost certainly really active with all the other jobs heading on.’ And he was, like, ‘No. I have acquired a large opening and I might really like to get back again.’ And we talked about ‘The Gathering’, accomplishing that again. And below we are — it could be a truth to get to engage in ‘The Gathering’ like we spoke of.”
“The Accumulating” was commonly considered to be an enhancement in excess of 1997’s “Demonic”, an album that observed Billy make use of a more guttural style of vocals and was launched at a time when thrash functions as Testomony had fallen out of favor.
Hoglan originally performed drums on “Demonic”, but failed to stick all over prolonged enough to do any touring with the band. He formally joined Testament in 2011 and performed on the group’s last 3 albums: 2012’s “Darkish Roots Of Earth”, 2016’s “Brotherhood Of The Snake” and “Titans Of Creation”.
Testament, EXODUS and Death ANGEL played the sole 2021 date of “The Bay Strikes Back Tour” past November at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. The gig took put less than two months immediately after the three bands shared the phase at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento.
“The Bay Strikes Back again Tour” was originally scheduled to kick off on October 6 at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California and make stops in Austin, New York, and Detroit in advance of concluding in Oakland. The tour has considering that been rescheduled to choose position in April and May well 2022.
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