Photo by Fred Kowalo

When Testament vocalist Chuck Billy talks of the band’s 14th studio album Para Bellum, there’s an excitement in his voice not often heard from someone who’s spent four decades in the same field.

But few bands remain relevant after that long, and fewer can evolve with the times while never compromising themselves in the process. Yet with their latest studio release, Testament again manage to show why they are one of the most underrated metal bands of all time.

“If you're a new fan or never heard of us and you heard this record, you wouldn't say, ‘Man, that's a 40 year old band,’” Billy says about Para Bellum.

“Now if you're a 40 year old fan, you might go, ‘Wow, they're getting kind of creative now!’

Testament is a rare band that seems to age less with each passing year.

Like a well-maintained muscle car, its frame and some original components always remain, but other parts have been upgraded, changed-out or replaced. Occasionally some new bells and whistles are added, but the engine is always taken care of; which is why it growls and roars with life to this day. This iteration sees mainstays Billy, guitarists Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnic once again reunited with fretless bass wonder Steve DiGiorgio.

What’s most impressive is how they’ve fed off the bands they’ve inspired. As metal has gotten heavier, so too has Testament. The extreme metal bands of the 90s and the New Wave of American Heavy Metal bands of the 2000s that grew up listening to The New Order and Practice What You Preach, themselves gave Testament ideas on where to take metal.

“I think this record definitely has taken a full circle,” Billy says. “There's so many new bands over the years coming up and creating their own styles and sounds. And of course we love it, but we can't go, ‘Let's do that!’ or ‘Let's try to sound like that.’ So we always take the influence and inspiration of what's going on.’”

This couldn’t be better exemplified by new drummer Chris Dovas, and it’s fitting his are the first sounds you hear on the record. A 26-year-old graduate of Berklee College of Music, Billy is effusive not only in his praise for Dovas’ work ethic and technical skills, but also his writing chemistry with guitarist Eric Peterson and how his youth has injected Testament with inspiration.

“He was raised with a different style of metal than we were,” Billy says. “I think he's bringing that newer style of drumming to what Eric had. Chris put in a lot of time with Eric, probably the most any drummer has. They struck a good nerve on this record and found a really good balance. Moving one foot forward to where we fit today in the modern music scene, showing that we're not afraid to take chances and get experimental without losing who we are.”

“Eric's a pretty demanding guy when it comes to Testament songs as far as the drums and the accents and the punches and stuff like that. Having a drummer with the capabilities like Chris, it was like just having this new, modern, do-anything drum machine,” Billy says with a chuckle. “I know those guys sat around drinking and jamming and writing, (and they) came up with a lot of stuff.

“Put it this way: they had such a great time writing they already have two songs for the next record.”

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In addition to Dovas’ influence on the new songs, Testament have constantly refined their writing and recording process through trial and error and listening to their guts on what sounds right and doesn’t.

“On Brotherhood of the Snake, it was a pain in the butt trying to get that record written for a few years because I always challenged Eric's riffs,” Billy says. “It just took too much process. So when we did Titans [of Creation], I didn't want to go through that. I told Eric, ‘Just write and give me the music, and I'm just going to do my best with what you're giving me.’ And by doing that, it actually challenged me as a vocalist and made me go to some uncomfortable spots to try to find my way through the song.”

So for Para Bellum, he again left the music to Peterson and Dovas in their brainmeld sessions.

“When I first heard a lot of riffs, I was like, ‘Wow, there's a lot going on here and it's very diverse and different.’ But again, I was ready for the challenge, you know?”

While Billy’s voice grows in menace and nastiness with each passing record, Para Bellum allowed him to find subtler ways of approaching songs. At first he questioned that decision, but after living with the vocal takes for a while all of those doubts went away.

“We approached every song individually, and I tried to sing heavier and harder on some of the stuff, but it just didn't feel right,” he says. “Songs like ‘Room 117’ and 'Nature of the Beast’ I really pull back the voice.

“Over 40 years I've developed my own style, but I don't have a lot of note range. I can't hit all these different keys, but I try to do things timing wise and not follow a bouncing ball. A lot of vocals follow the beat, which I really try to find my way around it, so I have my own space. I think that's what I've really found and developed with Eric as a writer.”

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Billy even credits Dovas’ home studio and expertise with Pro Tools for helping coax out extra ideas for the record.

Para Bellum kicks off with Dovas’ machine gun rolls on “For the Love of Pain” before immediately launching into an unrelenting assault of technical, groove-laden metal. Peterson’s black metal voice is on full display, dueling with Billy’s gutterals to give the track an extra dose of nastiness.

“I wrote that song with Steve [Zetro] Souza,” Billy says. “I went into the studio to record it, and (the vocals) just didn't feel right. About a week or two before that, Chris actually wrote lyrics and sang the demo to that song with his lyrics, just for fun. When I didn't like what me and Zet did, I said, put up Chris's demo, let's have a listen to that. Pull up those lyrics. Let me try it my way, and let me do it like that.”

What he sent back to Peterson and Dovas inspired them to accentuate Billy’s vocals with Eric’s extreme voice.

Along with longtime lyrical collaborator Del James, Billy’s lyrics touch on everything from silent weapons, casinos and haunted hotel rooms to the ramifications of the spread of artificial intelligences and the January 6 insurrection.

The record’s second single “Shadow People” feels like it wouldn’t be out of place on Souls of Black or The Ritual.

Then there’s the seven-and-a-half-minute power ballad “Meant to Be,” developed from a creative session between Peterson and Skolnick in New York. At first Peterson wouldn’t let Billy hear the song in its early stages. He only described the budding song with one word: “epic.”

“Eric went to Alex's place in New York to work and sit down and write some riffs, which he's never done,” Billy says. “So when I finally got the song, it was just this beautiful piece. It really put me back in the mindset of a ‘Return to Serenity.’ It just had that true Testament classic sound and feel, but it was modern.

“Once I nailed down my parts and where I needed to sing and not sing, it worked out very well. I really used a really soft texture, lighter voice, and layering of some voices, and some whispers and different things. Again, it's still trying to find new things to do and what works and what doesn't. I think that's really made a lot of this record. It gives it some diversity.”

Playing the ballads from their catalogue on recent tours gave them the confidence to pursue

The song develops from an acoustic opening into a grandiose chorus section with instrumentation, before giving Skolnic and Peterson a chance to end in a swirl of guitar melodies. Meanwhile, Billy’s emotional and heartfelt lyrics provide listeners with a dual-meaning.

“I think if people first hear it, you're gonna think this is two people singing their love to each other,” he says. “I wrote it for people to maybe interpret it like that, but if you really listen to the lyrics it's about humanity, our relationship with the planet Earth and what we're doing with it. But in the end, no matter what damage we do, mankind is meant to be here. We're going to survive it, and we're going to get through it.”

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Nowadays, making records is what really powers Chuck Billy’s passion for the band he’s fronted for most of his life. And the experience of creating Para Bellum was so enjoyable, he’d have no qualms making another record just like it.

“At this point in our career, making music is where it's at,” he says. “That's the fun part. Now I look forward to writing. What can we do or what can we keep doing? Or even if it's just another extension of this record, I would still be happy just writing another ten songs that sound like they’d be on this record, I'd be cool.

“I think this is the way we should just keep doing it. We're getting challenged. We're pushing ourselves. We're actually a band that's been around 40 years still finding new things to try and new things to develop. Especially being influenced by what's going on and what's current. I think we got a little bit of the best of everything on this record, but also just having a guy like Chris really push the envelope for us, you know?”

Testament don’t plan to wait very long to get back to writing the next chapter of their legacy. When they finish Europe’s “Thrash of the Titans” tour with Obituary, Destruction and Nervosa at the end of October, they’re getting right back at it.

“When we get home, Eric and Chris are getting back together to keep writing,” Billy says. “ We're shooting to do another record next year. That's the goal.”

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Para Bellum, the new album from Testament is now available via Nuclear Blast. Get the album - HERE