TESTAMENT's ALEX SKOLNICK: I'm 'Troubled By The Outsized Role That Religion Plays In Our Society'

In a new interview with Kati Rausch of Music Interview Corner, TESTAMENT guitarist Alex Skolnick was asked about a t-shirt he wore several years ago which had the text on the front that read "On the back of this shirt is a list of scientific discoveries that were later proven wrong by religion", while the back of the shirt showed an empty list 1.-10. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I know maybe it's a little provocative, but I like the shirt and I believe in what it says. I also have good friends who are religious, and I wouldn't wanna challenge their religion, but I have mixed feelings about it, because I feel like believing in something that is unproven and not…"

Addressing his views on religion, Alex continued: "I think it causes more problems than it solves. I think it's okay to have your beliefs, but there are things you know will happen, or that you can say with certainty it's gonna happen, and then there are things that you can imagine are true. And, yeah, I always liked the story of [English astronomer, mathematician and physicist] Halley, the scientist. [Edmond] Halley calculated the [return of the] comet [in 1758], and he said, 'There's gonna be a comet.' And they all thought he was crazy. And he said, 'Oh, well, here's why.' And he had mathematical calculations. And sure enough, he said, 'Okay, at this time there's gonna be [a comet],' and there was the comet. And he could have said, 'You know what? I am God and I'm gonna make this happen.' And he didn't. He could have started an organization and he could have gotten a lot of money… But he didn't. And I respect that."

Referencing the fact that scientists, at the height of the pandemic, often found their mission to understand and contain COVID-19 blocked by their inability to convince a significant chunk of the public to believe them, Skolnick added: "I know we're in a time where there's a lot of questioning of scientists, and how could they get things so wrong during the pandemic? But at least scientists, for the most part, the good ones, they admit that they're wrong. 'Oh, we got this wrong, and we have to change…' Unfortunately, with religion, they rarely admit to things being wrong.

"A lot of terrible things happen with religion, and a lot of the heavy metal songs have been written about it," Alex concluded. "We're certainly not the first [band to sing about it] — not that we have a lot of songs about that, but that's just something, yeah, in real life, I'm just, yeah, sometimes troubled by the outsized role that religion plays in our society."

Skolnick joined TESTAMENT in 1985 at the age of 16 and stayed with the band for eight years before leaving in 1993 and going on to study at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

In addition to playing with ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO and TESTAMENT, he has worked as a sideman with such artists as vocalist Ishtar of the French band ALABINA and Jewish folk singer Debbie Friedman. He has also guested on an album from RODRIGO Y GABRIELA.

Six years ago, the ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO — comprised of Skolnick, drummer Matt Zebroski and bassist Nathan Peck — released "Conundrum", its first album since 2011.

TESTAMENT's latest album, "Titans Of Creation", came out in April 2020 via Nuclear Blast. A follow-up effort is tentatively due in 2025.