Brotherhood of the Snake marks the return of thrash titans Testament four years after the acclaimed Dark Roots of Earth, with what could possibly be their most vicious and aggressive offering yet. We’ve talked with singer Chuck Billy about what seemed to be a gruelling writing and recording process with a lot of firsts for the band, secret societies and the world domination plans that inspired the theme of the record and also something about a special new release coming in the future for long time fans…
Brotherhood of the Snake is coming out on the 28th of October. So, after four years in the making and now that it’s nearly out there, how do you feel about this record in comparison to Testament’s previous releases?
I feel really good about it! I think that especially with everything that we just went through to get this record done, to get to the point where it’s at right now…we’re very excited! The writing and creative process took us a couple of years and there were a lot of emotions for me especially, in trying to get this record finished with Eric (Peterson). I had a lot of anger and probably frustration, a lot of emotions going into the making of this record, just because we went into the recording studio with no demos or no rehearsals, so that was a first, but we had no choice because we wanted to get the record out this year. We’ve been writing for too long, we’ve been writing for two years, so by the time we’ve got to the studio I was frustrated, I didn’t rehearse, I was a little nervous, you have all those thoughts in your head and so… It was quite an unusual process to do this record, but I think that in the end, because you’re always trying to outdo yourself, that’s what we needed to go through to get this record to be special. It’s hard to keep topping yourself you know? [laughs]…and I think that in order for us to accomplish that we had to go through a struggle to get this out.
Dark Roots had some slower moments like Cold Embrace, but there’s nothing resembling a ballad to be found here, just pure all out aggression. Eric was quoted as saying that this was your band’s Reign in Blood. Did you set as your primary mission to make this your most aggressive album so far?
Well, we knew going into the record that we wanted to write a faster record. I don’t know if faster means more aggressive, but we definitely decided that we wanted the record to be fast-paced. We knew going into it, that’s what we wanted and I think… Shit… Eric did that! Every song here is damn near thrash!
I’ve heard the first song that kicked off that process was the title track. It was the first song you guys’ve written…
Yeah, “Brotherhood of the Snake”! We were actually going to do a lyric video first, so we went and recorded that one song, because we were thinking about trying to have another producer. We tried Randy Staub, who’s well known now for having recorded with Avril Lavigne and Nickelback and bands like that, so we were kind of curious. What would somebody with an ear like that could do with a Testament song? So we started to work with him to do a single and a video release, and as we were starting, we’ve been sending the song to Andy Sneap and he had been kind of coaching us, telling Randy what to do to get the mix that we would be happy with. Once we finally got the mix, we realised that we needed to use Andy in the mixing because he was the one who kept telling us how to get us to sound like this, so we thought…let’s just do it with Andy! So we went back and used Andy Sneap again on this one, so we knew that first song, once it came out, we kind of knew and felt the energy of the record, what it had to be. That was a scary point because we didn’t have any of the other songs done. We were like “Man, this song is killer but the other ones are not there yet!” so it got a little scary…
This was the first time Testament did this then, because in the other records you used to write all songs in advance, and this was the first time going into the studio with only a few ones…
In the past we always used to do a demo for the record first, and we would also rehearse with the band together. We didn’t get to do that on this record, there was just no time, the songs were finished to start playing together.
So, you and Eric wrote all the record…
Yes.
I know that Gene (Hoglan) has a very busy schedule and Steve DiGiorgio just came back to being in Testament, but in the case of Alex (Skolnick), why wasn’t he more involved in the writing process this time?
He was busy! He was off touring just like Steve and Gene, so you know, like I’ve said, it was a two year process and we asked everybody if they had any riffs or songs to get things going and we just never received anything. We received a couple of things from Alex but it wasn’t really in the vein of what we were going for, I think…
Talking about the album’s theme, there’s a connection between the alien world and religion. The title track, “The Pale King” and “Seven Seals” are songs that seem to be linked to each another. Can you talk us about the concept behind The Brotherhood of the Snake and how you came up with that idea?
Well, it originally started with Eric asking if we could write some songs that weren’t as personal. The last couple of records we were writing really personal songs and (he asked) if we could come up with something cool and a visual and write some cool stories and lyrics. I’ve said ”Well ok…let me think about it!”, and at the time I was fascinated by this program called “Ancient Aliens” where it shows documenting different cultures around the world thousands of years ago. These alien beings with big heads and long arms and flying objects across the sky, and I was fascinated. How was this documented in all these different places so long ago? You know…people seeing the same thing! Maybe the didn’t see it! So…it was that, and then I ran across the Brotherhood of the Snake story on the Internet. I was looking into secret societies and The Brotherhood of the Snake popped out. It turns out that they were the first secret society over six-thousand years ago who basically believed that an alien king created mankind to serve on Earth as slaves and mine for the gold and minerals. Right there I thought ”Ok…we’ve got the aliens and now the Brotherhood of the Snake, the aliens enslaving mankind and the Earth…“, so it all kind of tied together! It set the pace of where we were going to start, where we were going to go and it led to some cool visuals right away. When I’ve sent Eric the story, I think he mentioned that it would be a cool title for the record, so we were off running with that. It kind of kickstarted the whole songwriting and the direction of this record.
“It was quite an unusual process to do this record, but I think that in the end, because you’re always trying to outdo yourself, that’s what we needed to go through to get this record to be special.”
Talking about Steve DiGiorgio’s return to Testament. He’s always been a member of the band throughout the times, having played live and recorded with you guys previously. He’s almost like a member of the family. How did you felt playing with him again after all these years?
He was the first guy that, as soon as it was all happening (Greg Christian’s exit) we called Steve and told him “Hey, we need a bass player…we’ll be going to Australia next year…”, so that was his first trip with us. It was great and it was a whole new breath of fresh air, you know? Steve brings a different energy personally and live! He’s a monster bass player, quite a character and it was kinda good. He shook up things a little and it was good to have him back.
About your singing style on Brotherhood of the Snake, it looks like you kinda mixed up all the aggression you had from The Gathering with a little bit of your older melodic style in the vein of Practice What You Preach…
Yeah, I think you’re right, but I also think it sounds a little different because Practice What You Preach and all those records had a different guitar tone, so my singing was much higher, but now we tune lower and it’s more comfortable for me. I’ve used that same approach but it’s more in a comfortable voice for me now. I lived with these songs for so long that I think I’ve heard them in a certain way and I wasn’t sure if (that style) it was going to work or not. I could always go to the death voice if I wanted to, but it seemed to work right away. It seemed to be the right choice!
Talking about some of the songs on the record, “Canna Business” is probably one of the biggest shout outs to the legal marijuana industry in metal music. Where did the idea came to write about this?
Well, seeing where the US is coming for legalising cannabis, especially for medical reasons, you know, it’s just something that it’s relevant and does need to be talked about, because I see how good it did for Colorado. They brought over two hundred million dollars in tax money to the state and everybody else kind of caught on. The ideal is for there to be less drug dealers for marijuana and stuff like that.
Speaking of another tune, not directly tied to the concept of the record, “The Number Game”, the final track, I’ve heard it was written with Zetro from Exodus…
Yeah! Zetro actually helped me to write four or five songs on this album. I write with Zet and Del James, they’re the two writers I actually write with. He (Zetro) helped me write “Black Jack”, among a few others. We started writing songs together for Dublin Death Patrol. We’ve realised that we wrote songs pretty quick, so I brought him (Zetro). He was the original singer of the band, he knows this band well, so he was the perfect fit to write with!
Since we’re discussing some of the new album’s tracks, what would you say is your favourite?
It’s gonna be “Seven Seals” for me. That was one of the last songs I wrote on the spot. I was introduced to the song while I was actually in the studio. I didn’t know there was this extra song! Once I realised it, I went. “Ok, shit, I’ve gotta write another song…” I’ve listened to it for a couple days and nothing really hit me at all. I’ve took it home one night and then I found the pattern, it came to me. I just started writing it that night, came back (to the studio) to sing it the next day and it came out killer! So I was like, wow…that one came together pretty fast! Last week I didn’t even heard the song and now at the end of the week it’s sounding great! [laughs] You know… When you do have songs that come together like that, that does make them special! I can’t wait to do it live. It’s one of the songs that’ll be fun and comfortable to do live as well!
Early on we were talking about how hard the creation process was for this record. Would you say that this was Testament’s most difficult record to make so far?
For sure! Totally the most difficult! We’ve learned to do things a certain way for so many years and all of a sudden, to be forced to do something different that was uncomfortable was very hard, so it was indeed the most unusual record to write, but in the end, I think it made for the most unique songs that Eric has written for a long while, because a lot of the songs don’t take the shape of verse, chorus, mirror the first chorus again and go back to that…There’s a lot of riffs that keep going on through the songs, with a lot of different things, and I think that’s what keeps the record moving! Whatever process happened in this record, I think we needed to go through that to make this a special record for us, especially with as many records as we’ve done, you know? Things happen for a reason, believe it or not, and I think we had to go through that to do this, to get to this point.
“Whatever process happened in this record, I think we needed to go through that to make this a special record for us, especially with as many records as we’ve done. Things happen for a reason, believe it or not, and I think we had to go through that to do this, to get to this point.”
There’s a new DVD coming up to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Legacy, your debut record. What can the fans expect of this release?
Well, it’s still all being put together now, but we did some documenting video footage of everybody involved back in that time, before I was even involved! We’ve got the original drummer, the original guitar player, Zetro, the first original manager, the first producer and Johnny and Marsha (Zazula) from Megaforce Records, among others.
Is the DVD going to include any kind of live concert from that era?
Yeah! There’ll be something there as well in the packaging. We’ll pick out some shows of that line-up, of The Legacy record.
Do you think we’ll have the chance to see something pre-Testament, in the Legacy days?
I don’t know, but that would be cool! I don’t know who has the footage of Zetro singing. I’m sure there is and that would be actually good to have. We have to do some research to find out!
Do you still remember being asked to front the band after Zetro left the first time? How did you felt about that back then when you were starting out and what are your fondest memories from that period?
Well, it was a learning period for me. I mean…Zetro told me about the audition and I went and auditioned and I really didn’t understand that style of music yet, about singing in that different style. It was something new and I’ve learned a three song demo, went there, did the audition and got the gig! I was thrown into a learning Thrash Metal factory for the next six months before we went to do the record. Eric really coached me along the way, that whole way learning all those songs. It all happened so fast within those first four years of our career… We did a record every year, went on tour, got a record out, went on another tour, got a record out…We kept touring and writing songs fast! Over forty songs in four years! Went on tours every year, so…those were really good times for us. In our second year, “The New Order” record coming out in ’88, going on to Germany and filling in for Megadeth on a Monsters of Rock show of a hundred and ten thousand people with Iron Maiden, Kiss, Van Halen, David Lee Roth…Playing with your heroes that young was really special! Really really cool! Those are still some of my fondest memories.
And here we are 30 years later. Everyone who’s a fan will know that not everytime was easy, especially for you, but you guys managed to come through it all. Above all, what would you say is the secret of Testament’s longevity?
I really don’t know, but I think we were fortunate. I think we were lucky to connect with each other in the Thrash of the Titans when I had cancer and I think that maybe opened the door that led us to the reunion (of the original line-up) that led us to where we are today. So, things again happen for a reason!
You guys are heading out now on tour with Amon Amarth and Grand Magus on Europe for the next few months. After that tour where are Testament going next?
After that we’ll take the Christmas and New Year’s off, and then we’re gonna do a tour in America. We’ll go to Japan and Australia probably, then do another American tour and go over to Europe in the summer, stopping in the UK for a headlining tour after doing the summer festivals.
And then you’ll start working on a new record again?
We’re starting to work on it now! [laughs]
I’ve read something about Eric already having five songs ready…
Well, that’s what he says, but we’ll see!
Thank you for the time you took to do this interview Chuck. Do you have any last words for your fans?
We’re just excited to get on the road to support this record! It was a gruelling process to get to it, but worth every minute of it, and I think the fans are going to enjoy the result!