Does Vinyl Sound Better Than Streaming And CDs? TESTAMENT's CHUCK BILLY Weighs In

In a new interview with Jacob Ridenour of the Wildman Podcast, vocalist Chuck Billy of San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans TESTAMENT addressed how the Internet has not only changed how we consume music but also the music itself, particularly as it relates to vinyl's resurgence in popularity, with some fans craving better sound quality after being served digital mediums like the ultra-compressed MP3 format.

On the topic of how the rise of streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon Music has disrupted the traditional sales model, making it difficult for rock bands to rely heavily on album sales, whether through vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, or even digital downloads,  Chuck said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "There's no Tower Records anymore. Walmart stopped selling CDs. Best Buy stopped selling CDs. Record shops are just a handful of mom-and-pop record stores now, so the physical sales are just kind of gone. There's the specialty stuff that labels put out, 'cause true fans like collectible, special stuff. It's there, but it's not just the physical CD anymore; it's that digital print. But the sad thing is a lot of bands gotta figure out how to either renegotiate and get a better digital rate since things have changed. And once you're stuck in your old contract, you'll kind of wanna change the deal. It's like that credit card that just kind of keeps growing on you, that interest rate."

When Ridenour noted that "vinyl has a different sound than digital", Billy concurred. "Yeah, it does to a certain point," he said. "I would say the earlier records, like our first couple of records, when we were mixing those records, we were actually burning them to vinyl to listen to them, 'cause that's what we were putting out back then. So you were actually mixing records to sound correctly through the turntable, where down the road when bands or labels were just taking CDs, albums made for CD quality, transfer them right to digital without really EQing them properly and making them correctly, don't transfer the same. 'Cause I could hear some records I put on that sound really thin still, that don't have that warm feeling like a record from 1980 or before that has that really warm feeling."

Chuck added: "CDs sound better when you play 'em through a CD player, than digital, like [when] you listen to it off your phone or something. There's something to that, like when I put a CD in, I'd rather listen to that in my vehicles than the digital. Something about — it's made to sound better."

TESTAMENT recently announced the U.S. leg of its "Thrash Of The Titans" world tour. The trek, which will launch in March, unites the band with fellow thrash legends OVERKILL and DESTRUCTION for one of the fiercest tours of the new year.

TESTAMENT's latest album, "Para Bellum", came out in October 2025 via Nuclear Blast. The LP was recorded with Juan Urteaga and mixed for the first time by Jens Bogren. The cover art was once again painted by Eliran Kantor.

When "Para Bellum" was first announced in August, it was accompanied by the official music video for the LP's first single, "Infanticide A.I.", directed by Joey Durango.

A major evolution on "Para Bellum" was the addition of powerhouse drummer Chris Dovas, whose precision, speed, and instinctive dynamics infuse the album with fresh energy. Working closely with TESTAMENT guitarist Eric Peterson throughout the writing process, Dovas helped shape song structures, accelerated the workflow, and injected a level of versatility that amplifies the album's modern edge without straying from the TESTAMENT sound.

A couple of years ago, TESTAMENT entered a new partnership with Nuclear Blast which secured the first six albums of the band's catalog in the United States. Starting in late 2023 the band saw the re-release of the first two albums. In January 2025, the reissue of TESTAMENT's third album, the band's seminal 1989 effort "Practice What You Preach", was made available. The original master of the album was released as a CD, an orange bone swirl LP, a limited-edition orange cassette (700 worldwide) and a limited-edition long box (CD, sticker, and button, limited to 500).