Chuck Billy- Testament 'We've Evolved Into Much More Than A Thrash Band'
I had the absolute pleasure of grabbing 20 minutes of time with Testament frontman Chuck Billy to talk about their upcoming album Para Bellum.
After reintroducing myself and chatting about the birthday he celebrated in Perth, I asked Chuck whether he got used to celebrating birthdays and anniversaries on the road.
"I mean, you get used to it and, you know, wishing the wife was there or something to celebrate it. But those are the things you can't control. You know, I mean, I could always say, don't tour around that, but I don't mind celebrating with different friends all around the world… There's time to celebrate when I get home."
Although the band was only just here in June with a new album out I asked Chuck if there was a chance we’d see them again soon.
"I hope the promoters bring us back there again. I know AJ (AJ Maddah Phoenix Touring), he says it might be too soon, but he said maybe 2027, but who knows? Maybe there's a response that people want us to come back because of this record. I know this is a record that we're geared up to play a lot of songs off of. We're already got three in the can that we're bringing over to Europe to start putting in the show. And yeah, we look forward to it. The songs are just really made well, I think, for the live situation."
Speaking of songs, the opening track has Chuck delivering a very modern metal vocal performance, with his usual gruff vocals going to the next level. I asked him where that came from.
"Yeah that one I will give it to Chris Dovas (drums) because he's much younger. He's 27, so he's obviously raised with a different generation of metal. So I think maybe he brings that a little bit to the writing process with Eric. So it was feeling fresh, and we're feeling inspired by a lot of bands and what's going on right now with new upcoming bands. But it's not like we could love them and go, "oh, it's great. We can't copy them", but we could definitely be inspired and influenced. So I think a little of that to this record, because Chris was bringing some new bands we're listening to and going, "Wow, OK, maybe we can put a little bit of that into the Testament' and we did it. I think Eric Peterson (guitar) and Chris they worked very hard put in a lot of time writing it."
Even though Testament have been a big influence on not just the trash scene but metal in general, they are still taking influence and picking up bits and pieces from other bands.
"Definitely picking up from inspired by that, but also just the way this record came out. I didn't like interrupt the writing process. Usually in the past, I'd say, "Oh, hey, that's a first riff or that's the chorus. Oh, I don't wanna sing over that riff." I didn't do none of that. I said just write and give me it. So the riffs, I was surprised cause sometimes I was like, "That really doesn't sound like a metal riff". You know, is that gonna be on the new Testament? But in the end it we used it and it worked and it pushed me to an uncomfortable place vocally. But also inspired me to try new things and not be afraid to give it a shot and tried some different textures and some different layers. Once I listened to all the record as a whole wow, I hear four or five different textures of my voice I'm using and especially on some choruses or somewhere I layer a speaking voice, a low tone voice and then a high whisper and then the power voice and it just made this good blend. This is something I found and I'm like whoa!"
"We didn't rehearse this after we wrote the songs, we just went in and sang them for the first time and really relied on my gut instinct and your first reaction to something is usually the correct one. I think that's the case here with the way we wrote and put this together is that everything was the first inspiration. I gave it to Eric, and they had to kind of grow on them a little bit because of course they're thinking something power, power, power. But it's like they all don't have to be power, you know? I think we've evolved much more than a thrash band. We're much more evolved."
Speaking of textures, I mentioned to Chuck their setlist on the last Australian tour had a bunch of slower tracks, some they hadn’t played either in a long time of ever before.
"Yeah. And I think we got enough nerve because for 25 or 30 years, we'd never played 'Return to Serenity' or 'The Ballad' or 'Trail Of Tears'. We would say, "No, fans probably don't want to hear that. Just see these new young fans coming to see us. They don't want to hear that they want to rage". But we did it, and it was funny, once we start playing those songs, all of a sudden, here's the camera. I was like, "Oh, shit they want to capture this and they enjoyed it". We just seen and heard the feedback from fans going, "Thank you for playing that. I've been waiting 30, 40 years for you guys to play that song." So now we have a little more confidence in that. I think a song like 'Meant to Be', we're prepared just ready to deliver that."
I commented to Chuck I thought 'Meant to Be' is probably the strongest track on the whole album.
"It has a lot of emotion and I think Alex and Eric's guitar playing on it's amazing. I knew it was gonna be special because Eric wrote it with Alex in New York and he wouldn't play it for me, he just said it's gonna be epic. I said that's a strong word; epic, give it to me! So once I got it, Iwas like "You're right it is kind of epic and eight minutes that's gonna be a lot of words man". I found my spot and they found their guitar lead spots and it just worked out really well. And then on top of David Eggers putting some cello on it. He did an amazing job without like any instruction. He just took it and did what he did and he just bends these notes in there and just really makes his part stand on its own too."
On that I asked if this was the first Testament song that's ever had a cello or a classical instrument on it.
"Yeah, first time ever. But there was room for it, when we were listening back, it was such an open song. I could hear strings. I could hear something else just for another layer of this song and it worked. It's great."
Mentioning how the world is a pretty dark place at the moment and how like previous albums that’s shaped the writing.
"Yeah. I mean, I think we like to talk about and write about reality and things that are happening in our lives that we all have to deal with. Unfortunately, war and loss of lives is what's going on. And I never thought in my lifetime that I would see something like that, between Russia and Ukraine. And it almost makes me sad to feel like, man, I'm here in California, the sunshine's beautiful no worries. And man, the children, everybody's suffering and just having a rough time. Nobody's helping, you know, it's like, what's going on here, man? Our world's crazy right now and so there was always something to write about.
"The common theme kind of was always about war and weapons and survival, standing up for the fight. So that's a lot of the songs really inspired. And I think because it's just not a thrashing heavy pound you into the ground, it's got a lot of catchy hooks and catchy riffs. I think it's one of the records that's probably got the most catchy vocal hooks. I think we've kind of captured on any records."
Off the strength of the album I asked Chuck if he thought this current iteration of Testament was the best one yet.
"I would say yes. And again, I'll give it to Eric because everybody has things going on in their lives. And I know Eric, I don't know if he’ll be upset I said this, but he had a rough marriage, and lived in a bad marriage for a long time and just couldn't get out of it. When he finally got a divorce, got that behind him, had the house to himself and Chris staying with him. Now that we're having some fun and now I'm not thinking about all that now, it shows in the music that he created because he didn't have this cloud over him and had other things in the world going on in his life. So I think a little of that, I think that's why when we finish this tour, they're going to get back right at it, keep writing some more songs."
I mentioned the band have a habit of making us wait between albums.
"We're going to hit you again next year … hopefully, we want to, that's our goal. Like I said, Eric, in November, December, they're going to keep writing. We've got two songs written and they're going to keep writing just to put another ten together. And hopefully, depending on how often we're touring, we want to get in there and maybe write it and record it by the end of the year early the following year. "
With Para Bellum the thirteenth album, I asked the age old question of where do they start when putting a live set list together.
"We try to cover a lot of ground because I think over the last four or five years, we focused on the current records and put a couple of classic stuff in there, but a lot of the current stuff. Maybe not in Australia, but we've done that around the world in America and Europe. Let's play some different songs. Let's dig down in there, like some of the stuff on Practice (What You Preach) or even like The Ritual so we're trying to find stuff that. It's tough when you got that many songs but and we don't we forget about some of them you know and then we sit in the studio go what are we gonna do? We try it but you know it's what actually feels good you know yeah and last year we celebrated the Practise What You Preach record and played a lot of that. That was fun so we carry on some of that still because we had such a good time doing it."
I asked if when going back to play songs they haven’t played in a long time or ever if they need to relearn their own songs.
"At the beginning, yeah. We gotta relearn them, but we know immediately what's gonna work live or not. And I think that's what it comes down to. And sometimes you realise these are good songs and we never gave them a chance live, you know, but now's the time to try it because each record probably has two, three really strong tracks and you try to focus. Those are the ones you got to get out to the people, play them live. But there's so many deep cuts that are just as good that maybe we overlooked, you know, so it's fun to go back and find them and bring them back out….
… and the beauty is when we do these two-hour sets or a little longer than that, that's when we have those opportunities to really pull out some stuff. Go play in festivals and stuff like that you get... 45 minutes or an hour or 70 minutes, you know, you try to cram in the best of the best. Where when we have our own headline show, that's when we can dig in deep and play what you want.
And I've seen the reaction of fans saying "I've never heard that song live from you guys. Thank you for playing. I've been waiting for my lifetime."
Time was not on our side and 20 minutes flew by. We ended the call with me promising to get in the ear of the promoter and see if we can get the Bay Area legends back down under soon. All I can say on that front is watch this space.
Interview by Gareth Williams @garethwos
Para Bellum is out on the 10thof October, find more HERE!
Testament Para Bellum tracklisting
1. For the Love of Pain
2. Infanticide A.I.
3. Shadow People
4. Meant to Be
5. High Noon
6. Witch Hunt
7. Nature of the Beast
8. Room 117
9. Havana Syndrome
10. Para Bellum
