TESTAMENT Hopes To Release New Studio Album In 2019

TESTAMENT guitarist Eric Peterson has confirmed to RockSverige that he has commenced the songwriting process for the follow-up to 2016's "Brotherhood Of The Snake" album. "It's kind of like the same thing we did last time," he said. "I'm librarying riffs right now and getting ideas. Some of the ideas are on my phone, some are on my Logic [Apple's recording studio software] and a lot of my ideas I have in my notes. I usually always go, 'Oh, I'll remember that,' and then the next day I go, 'Fuck! What the hell was that?' What I do now is if I have an idea, I'll just get my phone out and hit the voice memo and I'll write down what I thought and e-mail it. It seems to work pretty well, because when I go back to it a month later, it's, like, 'All right. That's where it was.' I'll look at my notes, and I hear, like, one little piece of a note somewhere. That's happened to me my whole life. There are so many riffs that have gone through my fingers that would've taken us to another level, but I forgot. I don't know that for sure, but I remember that they were really good. I used to have dreams of a song, with singing and everything, and when I wake up, I remember it, but then I get up and make coffee and it starts fading and it's, like, 'Oh, shit!'"

Peterson expressed hope that TESTAMENT's next album could arrive in 2019. "This is [assuming] that we don't take every tour that comes our way, and Chuck [Billy, TESTAMENT singer] seems to be on that page," he said. "Our plan was to end in August 2018 and maybe get into the studio by the end of 2018 and put the record out in 2019. But, you know, SLAYER's announced [their farewell tour] and they want us to be a part of it. I would imagine, if that stuff happens, then things will get pushed back a little bit, but the initial plan is to have it out in 2019. [We're] ready for summer to do all the A markets for festivals and stuff. This summer we're not doing a lot of festivals; we're actually talking about bowing out of a couple to make other things happen with the SLAYER farewell thing."

According to Peterson, fans shouldn't expect to see TESTAMENT follow SLAYER's lead and announce a final tour anytime soon. "I don't think we're in that position to say goodbye yet," he said. "Who knows whats gonna happen? SLAYER's in a different predictament, but they're not that much older than us. Of course, they're a lot more successfull and they can bow out gracefully. When it does come, we'll probably do something like that. Tour the world for a year and a half, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I would imagine it's more near than far away. [Laughs] I think we have a couple of records in us."

TESTAMENT will support SLAYER on the first two legs of the Tom Araya-fronted outfit's last-ever North American run of dates. Also scheduled appear on the bill are LAMB OF GOD, ANTHRAX and BEHEMOTH (with NAPALM DEATH replacing BEHEMOTH for the second leg).

TESTAMENT is continuing to tour in support of "Brotherhood Of The Snake", which was released in October 2016 via Nuclear Blast.