TESTAMENT's CHUCK BILLY On Upcoming Album: 'There's More Blast Beats Going On All Over The Place'

Metal Wani writer William Richards recently conducted an interview with vocalist Chuck Billy of San Francisco Bay Area metallers TESTAMENT. You can now listen to the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether TESTAMENT will perform its recently recorded single, "The Brotherhood Of The Snake", on the upcoming U.S. tour with SLAYER and CARCASS:

"No way! We only have eight songs [to play] on this tour, so… And you don't want… [Before] the single comes out, the last thing you want is people to keep recording it on their phone to pass around; it's the worst awful-sounding recordings of your new stuff. Plus we've gotta hit 'em hard and fast with stuff they know. We've got, like I said, eight songs. I probably won't be talking too much. I'll probably just say 'hello' and 'goodbye' at the end, and just slam through the set, because there's no time."

On the musical direction of the upcoming TESTAMENT album, which will also likely be titled "The Brotherhood Of The Snake":

"Eric [Peterson, TESTAMENT guitarist and main songwriter] just kind of writes as he feels, so, yeah, there is a little bit of everything, but definitely he's got his foot to the pedal a little more on this record. The tempos are a lot faster and there's more blast beats going on all over the place. But, again, there is some other stuff. There's no ballad; I mean, there's nothing that slow, like we did on the last record. But there is some mid… I think one mid-tempo tune. But it ends up thrashing anyhow. Like I said, he has his foot on the gas a little more on this record."

On how the new TESTAMENT material compares to 2012's "Dark Roots Of Earth" album:

"Well, it's definitely not 'Dark Roots'. It's a little more chunkier, but, like I said, it has a lot of blast beats stuff in there, where it gets thrashier. So that's why it's kind of been more of a challenge for me too, 'cause it's something that Eric's doing different that's… It's just not the norm for me to go, 'Oh, okay, that's like this song over here. I'll write this.' It's a challenge, so I enjoy the challenge, and I enjoy the reward once I find the right melody to fit his stuff, 'cause he's all over it."

TESTAMENT's U.S. tour with SLAYER and CARCASS is scheduled to kick off on February 19 in Chicago, Illinois and end on March 26 in Las Vegas, Nevada.