In a recent interview with Andrew McKaysmith of the Scars And Guitars podcast, TESTAMENT guitarist Eric Peterson opened up about the band’s highly anticipated follow-up to their 2020 album, Titans Of Creation.
”I’m really excited about the new record. Peterson said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “There’s some Gathering[-style] stuff on there, there’s some New Wave Of British Heavy Metal stuff that’s like in A that’s got that typical kind of old — I don’t wanna say SAXON, but some of those cool music that’s in A,”[There’s a] really good ballad. There’s some really crazy black metal stuff on there, but TESTAMENT. Yeah, it’s gonna be a good one.”
However, when asked about the rumored guest appearance by NIGHTWISH vocalist Floor Jansen, Peterson was quick to clarify the situation: “No, that’s not gonna happen. It was something that was being discussed, and I think it got out there before it was agreeable. And I think she got a little upset — from what I was told. I don’t know. This is all hearsay for me. But I think it was too much. And she’s, like, ‘I didn’t even… I mean, I was talking about [doing it], yeah, but I don’t…’ She would’ve been great on this song, by the way. This song would’ve been perfect for her. And then we were, like, ‘Let’s find someone else.’ And I’m, like, ‘If anybody’s gonna do it, it’s gonna be her. And if not…’ Chuck [Billy, TESTAMENT singer] sounds great on his own on it. It’s a ballad. It’s really good. It doesn’t really need another singer, but it could have been cool with Floor.”
“I really like Floor on the live at Wacken 2013 [NIGHTWISH‘s Showtime, Storytime live album], when she came into NIGHTWISH and the end of the tour, they ended it at the Wacken [Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany]. That was my first [introduction to her with NIGHTWISH], ’cause I followed her with the NIGHTWISH stuff, and I was, like, ‘I like NIGHTWISH.’ But when I watched that show, man, she just killed it on those songs. It’s just, like, hair on your arm standing up, like, ‘Wow.'”
Last November, Chuck Billy spoke to Australia’s Jaimunji about the TESTAMENT track that was originally planned as a duet with Jansen.
He said at the time: “She’s a powerhouse of a vocalist. Great voice. And when we wrote the song and the lyrics, first thing I thought was, ‘Okay, this song, it, it needs a strong girl’s voice,’ and, of course, Floor is the first one that came to mind.”
“This song, it’s gonna be pretty epic,” he continued. “We’re gonna put a string section on it, acoustic guitars. It’s gonna have a lot going on, but it’s a really, really beautiful song. It’s really deep. And with Floor, it’s kind of me and her kind of singing the lyrics kind of to each other, and the meaning of the song and what we’re saying, it’s kind of, like, I’ll say my part and she’s answering me through the vocal. So it’s gonna be very strong, very cool. And I can’t wait to hear what she’s gonna do on it… We haven’t sent it to her because we haven’t laid down the acoustic guitars yet for it, but the song’s done. I tracked it all. I tracked her parts. And I wanna wait till she hears it for the first time with the acoustics and get the vibe — I want her to be in the vibe once she gets it… And Alex [Skolnick, TESTAMENT guitarist] has a connection to some guys that are gonna do the strings on it, who played on some huge records, so what we’ve heard so far, it’s pretty cool.”
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