TESTAMENT Bassist On New Album: 'It's Coming To Be, And It's Heavy As S**t'

June 24, 2011

San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans TESTAMENT last week entered the studio with British producer Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, ARCH ENEMY, NEVERMORE, MACHINE HEAD) to begin pre-production on their new album for a late 2011 release.

Due to a "serious injury," drummer Paul Bostaph is unable to take part in the new CD recordings but will rejoin TESTAMENT for future touring activities. Playing drums on the follow-up to 2008's "The Formation Of Damnation" will be Gene "The Atomic Clock" Hoglan (ex-DARK ANGEL, ex-STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, FEAR FACTORY, DETHKLOK),with LAMB OF GOD's Chris Adler set to make a special guest appearance on a couple of bonus tracks.

In a new online posting, TESTAMENT bassist Greg Christian states, "Eric [Peterson, guitar], Gene, Andy and I have been in the studio jammin' on the new songs since last week and today is the last day of pre-production. Gene starts recording the drum tracks tomorrow. It's coming to be, and it's heavy as shit."

Hoglan previously played drums on TESTAMENT's 1997 album, "Demonic", but didn't stick around long enough to do any touring with the band.

Regarding the musical direction of the new TESTAMENT material, the band's vocalist, Chuck Billy, stated in a 2010 interview, "The new album will most likely be a culmination of 'The Gathering' [1999] and 'The Formation of Damnation', but we're definitely not going to forget who we are or our roots. I think we've found a comfortable spot in our writing style."

Back On Black, which specializes in vinyl editions of classic metal albums and is dedicated to providing top-quality releases for record collectors and metal fans worldwide, will re-release TESTAMENT's first four albums "The Legacy", "The New Order", "Practice What You Preach" and "Souls Of Black" on June 27 on deluxe limited-edition180-gram vinyl:

* "The Legacy" (originally released in 1987) (purple vinyl)
* "The New Order" (originally released in 1988) (clear vinyl)
* "Practice What You Preach" (originally released in 1989) (white vinyl)
* "Souls Of Black" (originally released in 1990) (blue vinyl)

For more information, go to this location.

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