Testament
Snake Charmers

13.07.2016

Testament is definitely one of the most well known thrash metal bands in the world with 30 years of music and many releases behind and one of the few that have never released a bad album, being thrash metal to the bone. Now it also boasts metal veterans like drummer Gene “The Atomic Clock” Hoglan and bassist Steve Digiorgio of Death and Sadus fame making the current Testament line-up a killer one. The band will hit the stage in Russia with shows in Moscow and St. Petersburg in mid-July, so it was a nice occasion to talk with frontman Chuck Billy about the upcoming album ,“The Brotherhood Of The Snake”, the ups and downs of the band’s career, the 30th anniversary that’s coming soon, and the end of the world.

Soon you’re playing a show in Russia. What are you waiting for from this concert? What do you particularly like about the Russian audience and playing here?

Russian fans are always wild for the metal. We haven’t been in Russia a lot and it seems that every time we get there we don’t have the time to see the country as much. Hopefully we get a day at least for sightseeing. The show is always great, you know. It’s always difficult for us to come from America to go there, but since we’re on a European tour we made it very convenient so we’re looking forward to it. We have a very heavy set that we’re gonna be playing so we are excited.

Is it a long European tour?

It was, we’ve just got back from Europe last week. We have ten days off here at home and then we’re going back, we leave on Monday. We’ll be back there for a little over three weeks and then we come home again for ten days and then we go back for like another ten days. So there are three trips to Europe this summer.

It might be difficult to be a rock musician nowadays with all these flights. What songs will we be able to at your Russian shows?

We’re playing songs that we haven’t played for a while… Like “Legions Of The Dead” we’re playing. Some classics like “Over The Wall”, “Into The Pit”, “Disciples Of The Watch”… And of course some stuff from “The Gathering” (1999) like “D.N.R.”, “3 Days In Darkness”. You know, “Native Blood”, “Dark Roots Of Earth”, “The New Order”. We’ve got a good variety of a little bit of everything in Testament’s history.

You won’t play any new songs during this tour, will you?

No, not yet, because the records is not out yet. And we don’t want the world to see our new songs on people’s telephones. Because people record the shows on their phones and then it goes on the Internet and it sounds like crap. We’d rather wait till people hear our music the right way.

Don’t you like to tease the fans with new material? Before this Internet era did you play any new songs on tour before the records was actually released?

We were doing that maybe in the Bay Area in our home town to try the songs out but not on tours. We wait until the record has to be out to be played on tour.

Have you ever thought of playing any of your albums live from the first to last song? Maybe “The Legacy” (1987) since it turns 30 years old soon.

Yes, we’ve done “The Legacy” and “The New Order” (1988) back to back before on tour and on certain shows so we’ve already did that and what I’d like to do is to play newer records. I mean I’d love to play “The Gathering” entirely or “Dark Roots Of Earth” (2012) … Or even “The Formation Of Damnation” (2008). All of these I would love to do the whole record.

Are there any plans of doing so?

We haven’t talked about that yet. We have a 30 years anniversary coming next year so we wanna do something special but we haven’t figured it out yet.

Are you going to do anything special for the fans on this occasion?

As far as an album product we would love to do “The Legacy” and “New Order” and try to remix them or remaster them, maybe repackage them into something special. Maybe even go back as far as doing some interviews to talk about these records and those times and doing narration over that, you know. A history of Testament.

Maybe we may talk about your newest album that is going to be released soon – “The Brotherhood Of The Snake”. Tell us about it – what does the album sound like, are you satisfied with it and is there any concept behind it?

Yes, there’s definitely a concept. We’re very happy with the final product and the songs. The concept in “The Brotherhood Of The Snake” is… If you Google that and read the story… it is based on the Sumerian race of aliens that use the planet Earth to send people here to mine for gold. And it’s more like a prison, really, the planet Earth. This  is a kind of fascinating story for us… You know, I was born Catholic in my family but now I’m grown up and I see that I’m fascinated by the connection in all the religions how they… you know… Thousands of years ago they all documented in the writings on the walls or whatever, talking about flying spacecraft or certain beings that look like aliens… It always fascinated me like – wow, all that people have the same sighting and vision and the same stories in all the different religions. It kind of opens your eyes a little more like the world is maybe bigger than just us and maybe there is other life up there and other civilizations. So, for the record, “The Brotherhood Of The Snake”, we started writing songs having to deal with Sumerian race taking over our planet, you know.

This may be the metaphor for the current situation in the world.

Yeah, I think so. We brought songs… the song called “The Book Of Seven Seals” which is based on the Book Of Revelations Once the seals are broken the end of the world is gonna happen. We live in such a crazy world today and the weather is changing, the summer’s not the same, the winter’s not the same. Everything that we heard about is happening and gonna happen.

In your opinion as a musician what would the end of the world be?

It’s gonna take the whole planet of people to kind of save the planet. I don’t know if it’s too late – global warming, destroying of the oceans… You know, there’s so much that’s happening in our world and planet. I don’t know if it’s reversible or if everybody can make a difference now.

Okay, let’s talk about music again. Since it’s only you and guitarist Eric Peterson have recorded every Testament album what’s your favorite one?

It’s hard to say but I think that from “The Gathering” till today are my favorite records. It’s because as far as the production and also the style are concerned, we developed our feeling of what is good for Testament. More of thrash, bringing elements of modern metal like more thrash beats, still with the thrash style vocals. So I think the current record is where Testament feels comfortable style-wise.

What you particularly like about thrash metal? In the 90s you merged the sound of Testament with something more death-metal on “Low” (1994) and “Demonic” (1997). They were really heavy but then you returned to a more classical sound.

It’s definitely a feeling and a vibe. When you’re playing fast and you have a melody that works over something fast and it feels good then it feels good to me. The “Demonic” and “Low” records were records that we were… Then it was the end of our record contract, and the band was breaking up so I think we were more angry at the world, at the music world. So we wrote a bit more angry songs at that point. I think once we got out of that and over that we kind of got to what we were, to what Testament was about, about thrash and the feeling of thrash and having melodies because that’s what for me as a singer always was important.

Speaking about melodies. I’ve heard that your band before Testament was a bit of melodic rock, right?

Yeah.

How did it happen that you joined a more extreme metal band like Testament? It was called Legacy at that time, yes?

Yeah, but that’s when the Bay Area metal scene started growing with Metallica and Exodus in the beginning. Before that in 1983-1984 I was into a different style of music. I went to school and was taking vocal lessons and… I was learning how to be melodic and sing. At that time to me thrash wasn’t about melody and signing, it was about power and energy and signing fast so it was a whole new world for me.

Can you name any new bands that are actually that thrash metal that it should be?

There are enough younger and newer bands that play fast and thrash metal, you know. Municipal Waste… Even Lamb Of God, at some point they are really thrash metal too.

But maybe there are some bands that you particularly like, that you’ve heard them and said – wow, they are really thrashy.

There’s a lot. I think there’s more bands now and I listen to serious radio and always hear new bands and like, “Wow, they’re fast, they’re playing thrash and the vocals are right out of the thrash alley”. There’s a lot of new younger bands that are coming out that style.

You’re a big supporter of native Americans and you wrote some songs for Testament on the subject like the recent one “Native Blood”. Are you going to continue addressing this theme in your music?

I will and I’ll probably continue. We didn’t do it on this record… just this record had a different life and a different direction as far as the subject matter.

You also sing for Dublin Death Patrol, right? As far as I’ve heard the band is on hold now, but are there any plans for reviving the band?

No. I mean when we did Dublin Death Patrol it was supposed to be just for fun, and in the end we ended up having two records. You know, we never planned on recording a record. All the guys in the band have families and day jobs so there’s never really gonna be the time for anybody to tour or play shows with that band. It’s just about having fun and making music. So, if anything, you know… who knows if we’d like get together and play a show and maybe write some music but there’s no talk of it and there’re no plans of that.

Do you have plans of releasing a solo album? Maybe in the future. Or you are quite satisfied working with Testament?

Yeah, I’m still satisfied with Testament but I’d still like to do a solo record as well. Something that I can create and pick the type of songs.

What would it be like?

I’m not sure but I’d definitely like to do it not like Testament.

Recently you have released you own vaporizer pen “The Chief”. What do you think of such collaborations between musicians and different brands making this type of maybe merch for the fans? I think many of those who bought your pen were fans of Testament.

Well, the vaporizer pen I did doesn’t have anything to do with Testament. That’s my business on the side. It has no connection with Testament. And there’re people who buy it that don’t even know Testament. They buy it because the like using vaporizers.

Since you released that type of thing are you a big supporter of healthy way of life?

Yeah, I am. I’m not drinking alcohol or smoking weed right now. And I try to exercise, me and my wife, everyday. You know, we’re not getting any younger. You have to take care of yourself now as you get older.

Do other Testament members follow your healthy way of living?

Alex (Skolnik, guitarist) does. Alex runs and stays fit and watches his diet as well. The other guys not so much.

You said that Testament was about to split in the 90’s but then released those angry albums like “Low” and “Demonic”. Why didn’t you choose another band to join but you stayed in Testament and somehow revived it?

Well, me and Eric kept going. We ended our contract with Atlantic Records, so me and Eric started a record company called Burnt Offerings. And we decided we’re gonna put out the music ourselves and would find the labels to distribute it. So that’s what we did since 1994, I believe, somewhere around there. And it was the best thing ever. You know, we signed a couple of records deals before “The Gathering” in the early days and those companies went bankrupt. Since we owned the masters we got to take our masters and take them with us, take them to another record company. Me and Eric started that, we decided that we gonna stay together and keep Testament. We worked so hard at it, you know, all these years.

I see. And what band would you love to sing for if not speaking about Testament?

I think singing for Metallica would be fun. (laughs)

I think so. It's time for us to stop now. To round it off, could you tell anything to your Russian fans that are waiting to see you live on stage. In two weeks.

Yeah. We have a really good set, we have a heavy set for you. We’ve been on tour so we’re very tight right now as a band. So I think it’s gonna be good shows.

Testament on the Internet: http://www.testamentlegions.com

Special thanks to Natalia Shinyayeva (Club Yotaspace) for arranging this interview

Petr Fateyev
July 9, 2016
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