TESTAMENT's New Album To Be Mastered This Week; Fall 2025 Release Expected

In a new interview with The Mixtape podcast, guitarist Eric Peterson of San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans TESTAMENT confirmed that he and his bandmates have completed mixing their upcoming studio album with Swedish producer Jens Bogren, who had previously worked with OPETH, KREATOR, PARADISE LOST, SOILWORK and AMON AMARTH, among others. The LP will mark TESTAMENT's follow-up to 2020's "Titans Of Creation", which was co-produced by Juan Urteaga, who previously worked with TESTAMENT on "Dark Roots Of Earth" (2012) and "Brotherhood Of The Snake" (2016).

Eric said about TESTAMENT's upcoming effort (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We just finished mixing last Friday, and we're gonna be mastering it this week. [We're] in the middle of okaying art for the album. Everything needs to be turned in before we leave [for our tour of] Australia. A busy week coming up, but I'm excited because it's all done. We're just putting it all together, getting ready to send it in to the label, and then, yeah, it's gonna be coming out in the fall. And it came out really good. Jens Bogren mixed it, and I'm really, really happy with it."

Asked how he stays motivated and engaged in the songwriting recording process after so many years, Peterson said: "It's a good question. Obviously, we've slowed down as far as the timing on how we put records out. [There's] a lot more going on in our lives. We tour a lot more places. New blood in the band, I think. So this time around, [TESTAMENT drummer] Chris [Dovas] is with us. But, yeah, it feels good right now. Everybody's happy. We get on really well. That's a good thing, especially in the writing area. So I foresee some really good couple of new TESTAMENT records coming out — this one, and we're already working on the new one, which is unheard of for us. Usually we start writing a couple of years later after we put out a record, but we've kept the writing going. It's just a lot of fun jamming."

Regarding how the TESTAMENT creative and songwriting process has changed over the years, Eric said: "Yeah, so like I was saying, just with this new lineup — it's not a new lineup, but we have a new drummer — it all starts with me, with riffs, and a drummer, I think. And it was just a lot of fun. And we're already working on new stuff for a record after the one that you haven't even heard yet. So it's cool. And then we know if there's downtime, we're, like, 'Let's jam.' So I think when we're done in '26, maybe early '27 with this record, [we'll be, like], 'Okay, now what do you got? Now we're gonna write again.' 'Cause we're getting older. I don't think we have enough time to wait five years. We'll be in our seventies or something. I'm trying to take advantage of knowing that I'm into it now and that we've got a got a good thing going. Just don't waste it."

When Bogren's name was first publicly floated last September in connection with TESTAMENT's upcoming album, Peterson told Brutal Planet Magazine. "[Jens is] a producer from Sweden, and he's done — God, he's done KREATOR, he's doing the new BEHEMOTH, he's done IN FLAMES, ARCH ENEMY. A lot of European bands. We usually work with Andy Sneap, but he's [the touring guitarist] in JUDAS PRIEST and he's just, like, 'Bro, I need some time off.' It's a good switch, though. I think Jens will do a good job. And yeah, there's a lot of crazy stuff on this record. I'm excited for everybody to hear it."

Last August, TESTAMENT singer Chuck Billy told Oran O'Beirne of Overdrive.ie about the music direction of the follow-up to "Titans Of Creation": "We always try to outdo ourselves or make a better record or write better songs. It's always a challenge for ourselves, and I think this time we really took a long time to create the record. We kind of got everybody in the same room to really go through the songs and kind of put their two cents in to the arrangements. I think by having [our new drummer] Chris [Dovas] — he's a younger drummer, a really great drummer — but I think he brought you know a new fire to Eric in the writing process. And I believe because we're going on 37 years of making records, it's kind of full circle right now. We're kind of inspired by new generation, I guess, of music and metal. And Chris is a big part of that. He's a big fan of that. So I think he inspired Eric just to write some really aggressive, fast, creative riffs. And it really inspired me to really push myself to try to do a little more screaming, death vocals, melodic stuff. We even went as far as writing — I don't wanna say 'ballad', but it's something really catchy that's really slow that's something we haven't done in over 30 years. So I think just the overall songs and the confidence in the writing this time really is gonna stand out on this record."

When O'Beirne noted that TESTAMENT continues to "raise the bar" with each successive release, Billy concurred. "It's true," he said. "I think since 2000, 'The Gathering' record is where I think TESTAMENT kind of had a new life, I'd say the second life TESTAMENT. And then I became ill. And then after that, I didn't think I was actually gonna be playing music anymore. I just wasn't the same person. I'd look in the mirror and I didn't see the same guy. And after I beat it and survived it, I kind of thought, 'Okay, now it's time to continue on with life.' And then shortly after that we had the original[-lineup] reunion. And I think that's kind of what really set off the new life of TESTAMENT, because we were writing music, jamming with the guys who started it from the beginning and kind of taking the attitude, like, 'We're gonna finish this together, what we started.' But over time, Louie [Clemente, former TESTAMENT drummer] had to drop out 'cause of health reasons; he couldn't hold the sticks like he used to. So he had to drop out. And then shortly after that Greg [Christian, former TESTAMENT bassist] dropped out. But from then on, I think we've just kind of been writing for ourselves, maybe not really caring what necessarily the press thought. You always wanna impress the fans, but we were really writing to make us happy."

Earlier last August, TESTAMENT guitarist Alex Skolnick told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about the band's upcoming LP: "Well, I think everybody knows we went through a couple different drummers the past couple years, I know it's very 'Spinal Tap'… Life imitating art. There were scheduling conflicts with Gene Hoglan. Then we got Dave Lombardo, who was amazing, but when it came to going all in on a next record, Dave was overbooked. And we needed somebody [who could step in]. And we've got a new drummer. His name's Chris Dovas. He wasn't even born when the first TESTAMENT record came out. But I've gotta say he is lighting fires. He's lit a fire under everybody and just great to play with. He nails everybody's parts from before, but he has his own style. And I'm excited about the next record."

In June 2024, Chuck told Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone about the lyrical themes covered in the new TESTAMENT songs: "[It's] not as focused [on], like, the aliens, creating mankind and that kind of stuff, but there is some of that. There's a lot. Each song definitely has its own identity lyrically. And again, we're writing stuff that is real, that happens with the environment; we're singing about that again. A.I., we're singing stuff about that. That's a big thing. So, there's always an inspiration for songs. I think it's a little easier. There's so much going on in our world to write about now. It's a crazy world today, so there's a lot of stuff to talk about. And I like singing about what's real and what's going on instead of some fantasy lyrics, because, for me, I think when I sing 'em, I have more conviction, I believe in 'em a little more. And maybe it's easier for me to remember the lyrics live. [Laughs]"

Naming specific tracks, Chuck said: "There's a song, 'Havana Syndrome', which is about the Havana Syndrome. People, look that up. There's 'Infanticide A.I.', which is another song going A.I. direction. And there's actually a slower song. We haven't done a slower song. I'm not gonna say 'ballad', but I'm gonna say a slower song that has a lot of groove and soul, called 'Meant To Be'. And it's like a classic TESTAMENT-type ballad, I guess, if you wanna use that word. But we've got a little bit of everything, but, again, I think it's really sticking to TESTAMENT, having to have some melodic stuff, even though there's some really brutal lyrics and real brutal, more of a death voice. I still put the hook in with more of a melodic hook or something. It's still classic TESTAMENT. If you listen to it, you'll go, 'That's TESTAMENT, but a little more octane to it.'"

Also in June, Chuck told Canada's The Metal Voice that he writes most of TESTAMENT's lyrics with Del James. "Del, he works with GUNS N' ROSES," Chuck said. "He's been working with them and wrote with them a long time ago. I think he had big hits like 'November Rain' with them. And we've been working [together] for over 20 years. So I always go down and work with him because I come up with a lot of the ideas and concepts, but he really interprets and gets the right words, how to say what I'm thinking. And we work fast. When we get together, we'll knock out like two songs in a day. So we don't mess around. We get there, say hello to each other, we sit down and we go right to work. It's about what we do."

In August 2023, Dovas was asked by Pod Scum if it was "unnerving" to step into a group whose list of previous drummers includes such heavyweights as Lombardo and Hoglan. He responded: "It was, especially at first because I knew that a lot of eyes were on me, and also I looked up to the band since I was a kid. Especially Lombardo and Gene — those are two of my favorite drummers right there. So to be put in that situation of taking over for them, I felt like I had a lot of responsibility and a lot of… I felt like I had something to prove a little bit, and I'm still practicing a lot and I just wanna do the best that I can do. Right now I'm not really nervous anymore because I've done two full tours with them now and we're working on the [new TESTAMENT] album and the friendship has been developing now and we all get along super well. They've welcomed me with open arms and it's been great and the fans have been great. I've been putting hours and hours of practice into it to make sure that I can do the best that I could do. And I look up to Dave and I look up to Gene as well, so, yeah, I just wanna play the songs well live and keep making the band sound good."

Prior to joining TESTAMENT as a full-time member, Dovas filled in for Lombardo on the first six dates of TESTAMENT's summer/fall 2022 leg of "The Bay Strikes Back Tour".

Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral (courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records)