In a recent interview with Paul Salfen of AMFM Magazine, TESTAMENT vocalist Chuck Billy discussed the progress of the recording sessions for the band’s forthcoming studio album.
“We’re almost done recording right now,” Chuck said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “We finished, I’d say, three quarters of the recording before we left for Europe. And we have a three-week break now. And Steve‘s [DiGiorgio, TESTAMENT bassist] in the studio finishing bass and Eric‘s [Peterson, TESTAMENT guitarist] finishing up some of the rhythm guitars, but out of the 11 songs, I already tracked eight of ’em.
“So I just have a couple more songs to sing. We have another break after this U.S. tour in November. We’ll finish up all the backing vocals and anything that needs to be — after getting to live with it, which is something nice. We never really get to live with the music after recording. ‘It’s recorded. Here it is. Let’s go. It’s done, written in stone.’ Which is nice, is now we really get to live with it out on the road and talk about it together and say, ‘Hey, what if we did this or what if we tried that?’ And we’ve already came up with so much alternative stuff to try now. Like this week, Friday, I go in and I’m gonna try some new things on some vocal verses. We’re talking about tones of guitars and bringing in some string sections.”
He continued: “On this record, I don’t wanna say the word ‘ballad’, but we wrote a slower song like we had back in the ’80s and ’90s that we wrote on this record. And it’s really awesome, really good. We’re gonna bring in a guest vocalist, Floor Jansen from NIGHTWISH. She’s gonna sing on it with me. And we’re gonna put in some string section into the song.
“We’re not afraid to take those chances where a lot of bands criticize you, like, ‘Oh, we don’t write ballads. ‘What are you doing that [for]?’ But you know what? At this point in our lives and career, we’re writing to make us happy first and foremost and what feels good, what feels right, and this song just felt right right now to kind of do this again.”
TESTAMENT‘s latest studio album, Titans of Creation, was released in April 2020 via Nuclear Blast Records.
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