CHUCK BILLY Says Forthcoming TESTAMENT Album 'Is Definitely A Thrash Record'

Vocalist Chuck Billy of San Francisco Bay Area metal veterans TESTAMENT was interviewed on the March 27-29 edition of Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show. You can now listen to the chat using the Podbean widget below. A couple of excerpts follow.

Full Metal Jackie: Chuck, how are you progressing with the new album and how much do TESTAMENT songs generally change over the course of the creative process?

Chuck: They are constantly changing. They all just start with parts and ideas and hooks, and they keep developing. I think right now we are at a stage where me and Eric [Peterson, guitar] have done a lot of demoing, just us two, and when we get out on the road for the next two or three months together, we'll have a lot of time just to kind of work out what we've done on demoing, and hopefully by the time we get back in June or July, we'll hopefully be ready to get into the studio. So this is nice [that] we get to go out and go on tour, but we are actually looking forward to getting together and working on some new material together.

Full Metal Jackie: The last two TESTAMENT albums have been exceptional. What keeps your band at that level of quality and consistency?

Chuck: I don't know. I think we definitely just kind of write by what's inspiring us at the time. I think a lot of it… Eric pretty much leads the charge with anything that we write. So, depending on what Eric is kind of feeling… I think definitely the new record is definitely gonna be stepping back at some more of the thrash-style roots, and there is definitely a lot more blast beats in here, and it is definitely a thrash record. So it's good that we are taking it back to that. I think it's kind of leaning maybe toward that "The Gathering" kind of vibe.

Full Metal Jackie: You and Eric Peterson have been the nucleus of TESTAMENT for a long time. Musically and personally, how do you complement each other?

Chuck: Well, at this point, when we write, we kind of know our limits with each other. You know, vocally, with me, and we kind of just know… It's a natural feeling. It's so weird, 'cause when I write with other people, it's definitely not the same. So there is something special when I write with Eric, 'cause it just… I don't know… It fits like a glove, I guess, [if] I can use that phrase, but we have always had that chemistry.

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