In a new interview with “That Jamieson Show”, TESTAMENT frontman Chuck Billy was asked if there are plans for the band to take part in any virtual performances amid the coronavirus pandemic. He responded (see video below): “Our problem is Alex [Skolnick, guitar] is in New York, Gene [Hoglan, drums] is down south [in San Diego], so just getting together, first of all, is probably gonna be difficult. We wanna do something together — kind of like METALLICA did; you get together and you jam. I think that would just be, for us, not only soothing to our soul, getting together and playing music again, but just hanging out with each other instead of doing it through Zoom or something like that. So we have some plans to do that.
“When the [latest TESTAMENT] record [‘Titans Of Creation’] came out [in April], we just finished the European tour and had plans for America and everything, and everything just kind of shut down,” he continued. “And for a moment, we were asked if we wanna stall the record. There was so much going on, and we thought people need something new right now, something positive, so we decided let’s release the record; the campaign was going. And so, of course, we had plans that were all canceled, ’cause we had a full year and a half of touring in the books that now has been rescheduled, and now, as it looks, kind of moved a year later, which is cool. So agents are starting to build tours. I just heard NAMM [for 2021] is canceled, so I would imagine early [next] year, maybe some shows ain’t happening; I don’t know yet. But we’re working on it. And I really miss it. I can’t wait to get out there.”
Billy recently told “Riff Crew” that TESTAMENT would consider working on another album while waiting for the pandemic to subside. “Well, if it is truly, as someone says, a two-year period, of course, we’re gonna go write another record, and when it all settles, we’ll have two records,” he said. “And if it had to be that long, then, yeah, we would probably consider just writing another record. But we’re looking at it as it’s gonna be a year out now, so we’re gonna try to think of some clever stuff or some other things. I don’t wanna spoil it yet, but we’ve been talking about something. Once we get back out there, kind of as a relaunch of the record, a reintroduction, we’ve got something kind of cool we’re working on. I don’t wanna spoil it yet, but we’re putting our heads together trying to come up with ideas. But as far as touring goes out there again, yeah, we’re gonna have to start really thinking what to do. We’re actually launching our own merch again and going back old school, stuffing envelopes ourselves. What else are we gonna do? We’ll sit at home, send the merch here, we’ll take orders and stuff envelopes. So we’re doing everything we can.”
“Titans Of Creation” was produced by guitarist Eric Peterson and Billy, while Juan Urteaga of Trident Studios handled co-producing, recording and engineering. Andy Sneap was responsible for the mixing and mastering of the album. Eliran Kantor stepped up once again to create new artwork for the cover of this release.
TESTAMENT recently completed “The Bay Strikes Back 2020” European tour with EXODUS and DEATH ANGEL.
