CHUCK BILLY On Next TESTAMENT Album: 'We Have To Get It Done And Record It Before July'

In a new interview with Michael Spedden of the 97 Underground radio station, TESTAMENT singer Chuck Billy spoke about the band's recording and touring plans for the coming months, including a visit to the European continent in the summer. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That's the norm. We usually go to Europe every summer. So right now we're on kind of a time restraint because we're working on a new record. We're writing it right now. And we have to get it done and record it before we leave in July. That's our goal. So right now we're working hard on that. So there's only a few shows before July, which is these two one-offs, the special shows we're gonna do in Connecticut and West Virginia; one's at the Foxwoods and one's at Hollywood Casino. And those shows we're gonna play [TESTAMENT's first two albums] 'The Legacy' and 'The New Order' in their entirety, because in March we're gonna re-release those on Nuclear Blast Records. So, we really wanna take time off, get a break from writing a record — come out, celebrate these early records with us — and then get right back in the studio and finish recording. So, we're looking forward to it. Going out and playing live is what we do. We love it. So to take a break and go do some fun stuff like this, we're looking forward to it."

Earlier in the month, TESTAMENT guitarist Alex Skolnick told Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2020's "Titans Of Creation" album: "Well, we got delayed a little bit by the fact that 2020 basically didn't exist [due to the coronavirus pandemic]. It's a year that went away. And then there was so much touring to make up for. And for about a year of that, we had Dave Lombardo [ex-SLAYER] on drums, which was fantastic. And he's become a great friend and a great musician, but he's also spread very thin in many different bands. And now we have Chris Dovas [playing drums with us]. And he's a guy old enough to be any of our sons. But he is just unbelievable. He really brings the right energy. I mean, he brings the energy that the music had in the early days. So, yeah, we've been working with him on new material. I know Eric's [Peterson, TESTAMENT guitarist] been getting together with him. Eric has been on the East Coast a couple of times and we've gotten together and hashed out material. So between their sessions and my sessions and the recordings that we have, there's a lot of sketches that are done on digital audio workstations. There's a lot — there's a lot of stuff. I made a list and there's almost a couple of dozen sketches that just need to be consolidated and arranged. [We have to] find the best parts, develop them a little more, add vocals, but it's definitely well on its way."

Skolnick went on to say that there is no set timetable for the release of the next TESTAMENT album. "You can't rush it," he explained. "I think this band learned very early on, you can't rush it. Like the times in the past that the band sort of rushed to put out a recording, it never felt completely satisfactory. So sometimes it takes longer than it should, but you can always count on a good result."

Last August, Dovas was asked by Pod Scum if it was "unnerving" to step into a group whose list of previous drummers includes such heavyweights as Lombardo and Gene Hoglan. He responded: "It was, especially at first because I knew that a lot of eyes were on me, and also I looked up to the band since I was a kid. Especially Lombardo and Gene — those are two of my favorite drummers right there. So to be put in that situation of taking over for them, I felt like I had a lot of responsibility and a lot of… I felt like I had something to prove a little bit, and I'm still practicing a lot and I just wanna do the best that I can do. Right now I'm not really nervous anymore because I've done two full tours with them now and we're working on the [new TESTAMENT] album and the friendship has been developing now and we all get along super well. They've welcomed me with open arms and it's been great and the fans have been great. I've been putting hours and hours of practice into it to make sure that I can do the best that I could do. And I look up to Dave and I look up to Gene as well, so, yeah, I just wanna play the songs well live and keep making the band sound good."

Asked what his role has been so far in the creative process for TESTAMENT's next album, Chris said: "I don't know exactly what I'm allowed and what I'm not allowed to share yet, but what you've seen publicly, though, right now is that Eric and I have been working on a lot of stuff together. And so it's been really cool to get into their brains, in a way, and how they write stuff. I'm used to people sending me tracks with scratch MIDI drums or programmed drums or something, and I've gotta put my drums to them and then hop on a Zoom call and we can edit things and move stuff around. But with them, Eric and I, he set a timer at one point for, like, 20 minutes and we would just jam random ideas. And then sometimes we'd make mistakes and stuff and that would be cool, and we could take that… It's very organic, though, and it's very involved, I guess. It's a different way of writing and I'm super excited to be a part of that method of writing. And I could see why they're so successful for all these years, now finally being a part of this current writing cycle, I guess."

In July 2023, Peterson said that he and Dovas had spent a few days working on material for TESTAMENT's next studio album. Eric shared a few photos on his Instagram and wrote in an accompanying message: "Had a very productive week with the kid! Mr. @chrisdovas and I worked up new 7 jam ideas ranging from thrash to nwobhm mixed in w/ black thrash to dark heavy hard rock blues…let's see what happens! super stoked so far!"

Dovas shared the same pictures on his social media and he added: "New TESTAMENT material in the works! Eric and I have been working hard all week on new ideas. Stoked so far!"

In a 2023 interview with Loud TV, Peterson said that the new TESTAMENT material is shaping up to be "fucking killer." He added: "I'm a fan. For me, I wouldn't release anything unless I'm a fan of what I'm doing. I have to get goosebumps. When I hear it, I'm, like, 'Yeah.' And then, of course, I play it for friends. A few of them go, 'Ehh.' But most of them go, 'Fuuuck!' Except Chuck — Chuck goes, 'Eh.' And then four years later, [he goes], 'That's the best song ever. Write more shit like that.' I'm, like, 'Yeah, but four years ago you said that sucked.'"

Peterson was also full of praise for Dovas, who officially joined the band last year as the replacement for Lombardo. Eric said: "When we were auditioning for new drummers, his video tape was the number one for me. And then, of course, Dave Lombardo called us, so we just kind of pushed everything aside; we said, 'Okay, we'll try Dave.' And when Dave was, like, 'Oh, I've got this show coming up. I've got this show coming up,' I went back to my [videos], [and I said], 'Oh, yeah, this guy.' I remember the other guys going, 'Let's call Paul Bostaph.' 'Let's call John Tempesta.' And, of course, they would probably do it, but with the stipulation of, like, 'I can only do this date,' 'I can only do this date.' I called Chris. He was, like, 'I'm in. I'll do everything.' And so we tried him, and were just, like, 'What?!' Perfect tempo. Everything correct — bam, bam. Very polite. Really nice guy. I can't say enough good things about him. He's just a really good drummer. He's 24; he's my son's age. Young blood back in TESTAMENT. For me, too, he loves black metal, so he was, like, [into] blast beats. But he also graduated from a school called Berklee. So jazz… He's very fluent. He's not, like, 'Oh, I only know blast beats.' He knows blues… TESTAMENT's really diverse — we have ballads, we have rock songs, we have blast beats. That's just it — when he came to visit me before this tour, we were rehearsing for the tour but we would go back to my house at night, do some Jager really late at night and just start jamming at my house. And the next morning we were, like, 'Woah!' Really cool shit. So I'm excited for the next record. It's gonna be killer."

Lombardo, who was the guest drummer on TESTAMENT's 1999 studio album "The Gathering", formally joined the long-running San Francisco Bay Area act in early 2022. The former SLAYER drummer is currently a member of the MISFITS, MR. BUNGLE, EMPIRE STATE BASTARD and SATANIC PLANET, among others. He also played with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES from 2016 up until 2020.

Prior to joining TESTAMENT as a full-time member, Dovas previously filled in for Lombardo on the first six dates of TESTAMENT's summer/fall 2022 leg of "The Bay Strikes Back Tour". Lombardo was unable to make those gigs due to a scheduling conflict with the MISFITS.