Testament has been working hard for almost thirty years. With
the release of their latest album "The Formation of Damnation," a
new found glory followed. The band is currently on tour with four
original members and one who has been around long enough to be
called original. I caught up with guitarist Eric Peterson on their
stop in New Orleans where we talked about their trials,
tribulations, and excitations.
Buick Mckane: Welcome to New Orleans. You released your 9th
studio album last year “The Formation of Damnation,” and its very
popular. Hugely successful. It ended up on the Billboard chart. Do
you think that’s because there’s so many original members right
now?
Eric Peterson: I think that’s a big part of it. It’s a
culmination of a lot of stuff. We’ve been working really hard on
it. When Greg, Alex, and Louie left, Chuck and I took the band in a
heavier direction. When Alex and Greg were in the band, we were on
the album called “The Ritual,” which was still Testament, but with
a more commercial sound. There was no more double bass, there was
no more thrash. There was no death-stuff. I took the reins at that
point. I said, ”You know what? Everyone says we’re done. This is
our last record on Atlantic. I don’t care. I’m going to do what I
want to do.” One of the tracks on that record was “Dog Faced Gods,”
and that was leaning in towards death metal. Chuck always had this
[roar]-type voice, but he never used it. In the set, he always had
this regular singing voice and at the end of the line he would go
[roar]. So I told him,” I wrote these lyrics and you have to sing
it like [roar.] At first he did it, and we were like “Whoa.” He had
a really unique sound. And from there we took this band into a
heavier direction. We did “Low,” we did “Demonic.” We toured from
August to December non-stop. And it was a hard time because it was
throughout the Grunge era. We were playing smaller clubs again. But
we built our popularity through the underground again. There were
all the people that didn’t like us anymore, but we were getting new
fans. All the fans from the first two records were interested. And
then “The Gathering came out with James Murphy, Dave Lombardo on
drums. There were very different people in the band, but they
brought new life. Especially Dave Lombardo. I’m a big Slayer fan,
so getting someone who did the “Reign in Blood” record. I’m
thinking in my head,” I have the Dave Lombardo drum machine. I can
have him do whatever I want. Well, not anything. But he’s playing
on my record, probably for one record only. He’s a hired gun, so
I’m going to get him to play my favorite beats he’s done . And that
record came out amazing. That’s still my favorite record. And a lot
of Testament fans really like “The Gathering.” It’s a very special
record. We called it “The Gathering” because it was a gathering of
all these different musicians. Steve DiGiorgio is more like a
Journey bass man. Dave Lombardo, of course, and James Murphy from
Death and Obituary, and myself and Chuck. I think with that record
we started really getting ourselves back on the map. And getting
popular again. But it took ten years to put out this new record
“The Formation of Damnation.” We had so many hurdles. But, going
back to your first question, it’s a combination of everything;
Chuck’s illness, broke my leg, the studio got robbed and then
getting those guys back. They came out to see us play in New
Jersey, and it was a sold-out show. They got on stage and jammed
with us. The crowd went nuts, they kept chanting “Skolnick,
Skolnick.” He said,” I’ve been playing jazz, and I love what I’m
doing, but I really miss this. Jazz fans don’t do that.” That was
the planting of the seed I think. We ended up doing a reunion tour
in Europe for ten shows, and it just took off from there.
Buick: Do you feel that the lineup is strong now since you’ve
been through so much?
Eric: Yeah, of all the lineups, this is the strongest one. It’s
the original guys. Paul is not original, but he’s O.G. in a way
because he started off at the same club, he played the same type of
music; he was in a band called Forbidden. Back then, there was no
rivalry of bands, everyone was like a big family. Rather than him
being from England or Germany or being ten years older or younger,
he was right in there with us. So in a way he’s very O.G.
Buick: And yall have been around for so long; 26 years. That’s
older than many of your fans. It seems like yall hate not touring
or doing shows. You’ve been on the road for so long.
Eric: That’s just lately. We used to be more like Weekend
Warriors. We just told ourselves we’re not going to take it that
seriously. We’ve been trying so hard, we’ve had our ups and downs.
We got really close to going to that next level, then not going
there. One of the reasons we didn’t go there is because of the
whole grunge scene. That was such a weird phenomenon. All of the
sudden, heavy metal is not cool anymore, like overnight. It was
really weird. But what it did was weed out the weak. The stronger
bands could defend themselves. You either jumped on the bandwagon
or you got heavier, and we got heavier. But just lately we’ve been
touring a lot. It gets really hard, especially having families.
You’re out there for an hour and a half. The rest of the time
you’re away from home. I trip out sometimes and wish I could be
home. But, overall, it’s great.
Buick: You’re heading to Europe soon for all of the festivals.
Are they a lot of fun?
Eric: Festivals are great fun. They’re very well organized.
There’s a lot of great bands, a lot of people, a lot of sunburned
drunk people. That’s the only time I drink beer, when I’m in
Germany.
Buick: I really like what you did on this tour with getting
close to your fans. You have meet-and-greet packages, sound check
access and fans can vote for which setlist they want.
Eric: Yeah, I think that’s really cool. Set C has been the
dominant set. We haven’t really had to switch our set up. It got
close a couple times where “The New Order” almost won. We pretty
much play the first two records and a lot of the new stuff like
“The Gathering” and “The Formation of Damnation.” And then we do a
lot of title tracks. But the first two and the last two are the
ones we play a lot. It just goes over great.
Buick: You went on tour with Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell and
Motorhead. What was that like being with such famous bands?
Eric: Metal Masters? That was a lot of fun. What a bill to be
on! For us, we were very overwhelmed. It was Judas Priest, who’s
one of my favorite bands, Heaven and Hell, Black Sabbath, another
one of my favorite bands; Motorhead wasn’t my favorite band, but
the records I did have of theirs I listened to a lot. I still
respect the hell out of them. They were a big influence on me, just
for the whole punk attitude and the fastness. Lemmy is awesome and
Phil is amazing. When they asked us to do it, I said,” Holy shit.”
There are so many bands out there. I think it was a good pick
though. There are some bands that are new and popular, but they’re
not masters of metal. We’ve been doing this for a long time. Am I a
master of metal? No. But I think I’m a pretty big part of the blue
print now.
Buick: I think it’s testament to you credibility that they asked
you to be on the tour. I think you are a master of metal because
you’ve been doing this for almost thirty years, you’re fan base has
grown and you’re still touring.
Eric: There are a lot of people who are coming to the shows that
have never seen us before, and they say that they’ve heard of us
but never bought our records. I think a tour like that helped us.
It wasn’t a bug profit tour for us, it wasn’t our show. We went on
at 5 o’clock, it was half-full when we went on. By the time we were
done, it was packed. But what was really cool on that tour was when
we got to California, which was the last four shows, it was packed
when we got on. So, I think the word got around. Towards the end of
the tour, the audience kept getting bigger and bigger.
Buick: Is there anything you would like to say?
Eric: I’ve got a signature guitar out now. Go to
deanguitars.com. What’s cool about it is that it’s an old-school
model. I didn’t try to put out this new model or anything. It’s the
old-school flying V with triple binding. It’s got EMG pickups,
pearl block inlays. It’s black, and it has our old skull logo. It
plays great. It’s a great price. If you like Flying V’s, check it
out.
Buick: Which guitar do you usually play?
Eric: That one. I have a lot of guitars. I really like Les
Pauls. The way the neck feels on it is amazing. My guitar’s neck is
shaved down and has more of a v-shape. It’s easier to hold. It’s
killer. Life is hard. Testament is harder.