UniverCity Magazine interview with testament

Testament
by Adlin Rosli

Testament’s The Gathering is a milestone in metal history. With a lineup that includes Dave Lombardo on drums, Steve DiGorgio on bass, James Murphy on lead guitar and Testament bedrock members guitarist Eric Peterson and singer Chuck Billy, by lineup alone the album demands respect. Thankfully, the material on The Gathering easily backs up the hype surrounding the album. We recently caught up with Testament’s prime writer of heavy riffs, Eric Peterson, who called us from his home in San Francisco. The man who is responsible for such brutal riffs and songs, such as “The Burning Times”, “Hail Mary,” “The Haunting”, had me expecting to hear in the background of our phone conversation sounds of lost tortured souls roaming around the house and the screeching of metal torture devices. Things one would expect to inspire such a twisted genius! Instead, what was heard as soon as Peterson introduced himself was a cooing baby?
“That’s my son. He’s one. I’m watching him today, on the day I have to do all my interviews. He’s been really good, but now he’s starting to get into that “Hey look at me” phase. It’s all good,” Peterson says. Indeed it is. We then went right down into the interview:

UNIVERCITY: Will we get to hear Junior on the next album?
Eric Peterson: He’ll be on there with some kind of scream or something.

UNIVERCITY: Despite all the hardships the band has had to face with the last couple of albums, label disputes, ex-members suing, distribution gone bankrupt and not making any money off Demonic, you still come back for more. What keeps you going?
EP: Coming from the heart, being genuine. It’s what I really like to play. I’m authentic. I’ve had that same question for a while. What am I going to do when I grow up? When I was reaching thirty, I was wondering that, so I’m doing what I do. It’s what I love. I’m always searching for that perfect heavy metal song.

UNIVERCITY: I recall in the early 90’s, bands like Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth never took you guys seriously.
EP: That’s funny because now we’re way heavier than all of them, except for maybe Slayer. I’ll tell you what that is. Those bands were starting around the same time. Then here we are three years later and we caught right up to them. We felt like a threat to them, which we weren’t. But, with those kinds of bands you start worrying about your place in the domain of the thrash metal circuit. But it was very competive. I remember meeting up with them and being all excited and saying “Hey! Whats up Slayer!” I would feel like a nerd and they would be like, “excuse me?” I’m just a fan of metal and that’s what’s kept me going. I’m just getting better at my craft now?

UNIVERCITY: What was it like working with Dave Lombardo and Steve DiGorgio?
EP: Dave was great. We worked really good. He’s probably the easiest drummer I have ever worked with actually, I think his personality is a lot like mine. I think we connected on that high movements, sometimes you couldn’t say what you wanted to clearly but he would always understand where I was coming from. So that was cool. Steve DiGorgio was a quick learner and a monster bass player. He added a lot to the sound definitely. He helped make the guitars seem heavier.

UNIVERCITY: Testament is really a Chuck and Eric baby, so how much freedom did you actually allow the other musicians as far as bringing your songs to life?
EP: The foundation was already set. The plans were already drawn up but its who your going to get to do what. I’m trying to put it in the perspective of building a house, you can have all the plans but whose going to build it. The plans were all there and it was a matter of who you’re going to hire. Are you going to hire Grady and Samford and Son? Are you going to get the guys from the carpenter channel you know? So me and Chuck had all the ideas, but getting the people that we did to play on it definitely takes it to the next level.

UNIVERCITY: Like on Legions of the dead screaming? I noticed “The Screaming Legions” credit you have on that song.
EP: Oh! That’s the lead! We didn’t know what to call it, so I said lets call it “The Screaming Legions.”

UNIVERCITY: You are credited as the main producer for The Gathering. Whats its mean to you to be involved on both ends of the recording console?
EP: It means no sleep until the record is done. It’s a lot of wear and tear. I would rather get someone to do it. I was pretty much there for everybody, all day.

UNIVERCITY: You recorded in your own studio this time?
EP: Yeah, it was great. We knew where everything was and how to operate everything. Its of course better than working in some rented big studio, you don’t have to deal with that big overhead. It was great, I recorded all my guitar parts myself. I’d get there in the morning. I would put the tape on listen to the drums and the bass, get a vibe, start playing around to warm up, press record and started playing. Its pretty crazy.

UNIVERCITY:How do you feel about where the band is now?
EP: I think Low, Demonic and The Gathering are a whole new era for Testament. It’s kind of the same sound, but all of those records are different. But, they all have that true to the heart heaviness. They are all brutal in their own way. The new one is just a gathering of all those sounds put together. I’m pretty proud of it, with the lineup we have too. It’s just a great gathering of people.