TESTAMENT Heading In A 'More Thrashy', 'Heavier Direction' On Upcoming Album

Kaaos TV conducted an interview with guitarist Eric Peterson of San Francisco Bay Area metallers TESTAMENT before the band's June 20 performance at the Nummirock festival in Finland. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the progress of the songwriting sessions for TESTAMENT's follow-up to 2012's "Dark Roots Of Earth" album:

"We are probably, I would say, about two thirds in writing, on the writing. As soon as we get home from the tour, we're gonna finish up with the writing and hopefully start recording by September. And it should be ready… the record should be done, like, around Halloween, and I think we're gonna wait 'till early 2016 to put it out, so we've got a fresh start, a whole new year.

"There are so many records coming out. I mean, metal… music, in general, with the Internet and everything, happens so quickly. So I think it's better for us to put a record out in a brand new year rather than putting it out at the end of '15. '16 comes and everybody goes, 'Oh, that was last year's record.' But it's only two months old."

On the musical direction of the new TESTAMENT material:

"It's hard to judge it right now, but usually when I'm in the record stage of writing, I usually have maybe, like, a really fast song, a midtempo, maybe a slow song… So far I've got five songs and they're all thrash. So that's kind of where my head's been — more of a 'Gathering' [1999] kind of vibe."

On what it influencing the thrashier sound of the new TESTAMENT music:

"I listen to everything, but I don't particularly listen to a band and get influenced by that. It's very funny… It's almost like jumping around in front of the mirror. We're picturing the audience. 'Cause after all these years of touring and knowing what the audience reacts to, I have that in my mind. And then, also, I'm a metalhead, so I would say it's in my blood. I'm not trying to sound a certain way. It's just… It's coming out. So…"

On how TESTAMENT's new material compares to "Dark Roots Of Earth":

"'Dark Roots Of Earth' was… I think that was kind of like a full circle for TESTAMENT, as far as the sound. It's got a lot of the… more of the newer sound, like 'The Gathering' and 'Low' [1994] and 'The Formation Of Damnation' [2008]; everything kind of mixed together. And having more midtempo songs, like the title track. There's a song called 'Cold Embrace', which is more like a ballad. But the word 'ballad'… It isn't like a pretty song; it's, like, a dark story. So this one, I think, is gonna be a little bit more thrashy… definitely. More of a heavier direction."