TESTAMENT: Tour Dates Announced

Veteran San Francisco Bay Area metallers TESTAMENT have scheduled the following dates:

Mar. 30 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent (w/ LAAZ ROCKIT, SADUS)
Apr. 05 - Sayerville, NJ - Starland Ballroom
Apr. 06 - New York, NY - BB King Blues Club & Grill
Apr. 10 - Santa Ana, CA - The Coach House (w/ DEATH ANGEL, LAAZ ROCKIT)
Apr. 11 - Las Vegas, NV - The Canyon Club (w/ DEATH ANGEL, LAAZ ROCKIT)
Apr. 12 - Hollywood, CA - The Key Club (w/ DEATH ANGEL, LAAZ ROCKIT)
May 03 - Mokena, IL - The Pearl Room / Chicago Powerfest
May 30 - Cluj-Napoca, Romania - Maximum Rockfest
May 31 - Belgrade, Serbia - Legacy Festival
Jun. 05 - Solvesborg, Sweden - Sweden Rock Festival
Jun. 06 - Tampere, Finland - Sauna Open Air Fest
Jun. 07 - Athens, Greece - Gagarin 205
Jun. 08 - Thessaloniki, Greece - Hydrogios
Jun. 20 - Clisson, France - Hellfest
Jun. 21 - Istanbul, Turkey - Festival Valley
Jun. 22 - Prague, Czech Republic - Retro Music hall
Jun. 23 - Ostrava, Czech Republic - TBA
Jun. 27 - Grandola, Portugal - Festival Metal GDL
Jun. 28 - Bologna, Italy - Gods of Metal

TESTAMENT guitarist Eric Peterson recently spoke to Decibel magazine about the group's forthcoming album, "The Formation of Damnation", due in North America on April 29 via Nuclear Blast Records.

The band recorded the effort in part with producer Andy Sneap (MACHINE HEAD, EXODUS, ARCH ENEMY, NEVERMORE) at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California.

"The album is very traditional-sounding," Peterson told Decibel. "The ideology of what we're doing is like 'The Legacy' [1987]. But the musicianship's a lot better, so it's like 'The Gathering' [1999]. As most bands record their first, second and third albums, they're developing, developing, developing… until they've got their sound. Then they get worse. As a rule, you get good when you're starving and start slipping as soon as you're eating well. We never really made it to the big time. But, then again, we didn't fail. Because we've always been on that borderline, we've never had to make the kinds of compromises that end up killing so many bands. As we see it, we're better off doing what we do best, especially since things seem to have turned full circle. Kids even have long hair again."

TESTAMENT recently recruited Paul Bostaph (SLAYER, EXODUS, FORBIDDEN, SYSTEMATIC) to play the drums on new CD. The group was previously rehearsing and writing new material with British drummer Nick Barker (CRADLE OF FILTH, DIMMU BORGIR),but Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and international work visa issues have prevented Barker from continuing to be involved in the project.

Bostaph, who was a member of TESTAMENT for a brief period starting around February 2004, had previously played several live dates with the group in 1992 and appeared on the band's 1993 live EP, "Return to the Apocalyptic City". He also toured with TESTAMENT in 2006.