A brand new Testament track, entitled "More Than Meets The Eye", has been posted on the group's MySpace page. The song comes off the veteran San Francisco Bay Area metallers' forthcoming album, "The Formation of Damnation", due in North America on April 29 via Nuclear Blast Records.
The band recorded the effort in part with producer Andy Sneap (Machine Head, Exodus, Arch Enemy, Nevermore) at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California.
"The Formation of Damnation" track listing:
01. For The Glory Of
02. More Than Meets The Eye
03. The Evil Has Landed
04. Formation Of Damnation
05. Dangers of The Faithless
06. The Persecuted Won't Forget
07. Henchman
08. Killing Season
09. Afterlife
10. F.E.A.R.
11. Leave Me Forever
"The album is very traditional-sounding," guitarist Eric Peterson recently told Decibel magazine. "The ideology of what we're doing is like 'The Legacy' [1987]. But the musicianship's a lot better, so it's like 'The Gathering' [1999]. As most bands record their first, second and third albums, they're developing, developing, developing… until they've got their sound. Then they get worse. As a rule, you get good when you're starving and start slipping as soon as you're eating well. We never really made it to the big time. But, then again, we didn't fail. Because we've always been on that borderline, we've never had to make the kinds of compromises that end up killing so many bands. As we see it, we're better off doing what we do best, especially since things seem to have turned full circle. Kids even have long hair again."
Testament recently recruited Paul Bostaph (Slayer, Exodus, Forbidden, Systematic) to play the drums on new CD. The group was previously rehearsing and writing new material with British drummer Nick Barker (Cradle Of Filth, Dimmu Borgir), but Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and international work visa issues have prevented Barker from continuing to be involved in the project.
Bostaph, who was a member of Testament for a brief period starting around February 2004, had previously played several live dates with the group in 1992 and appeared on the band's 1993 live EP, "Return to the Apocalyptic City". He also toured with Testament in 2006.
Testament has been confirmed as the headliner of the second annual Seattle Shredfest, set to take place Saturday, May 17 at Studio Seven in Seattle, Washington. Also scheduled to appear are Subjekt2change, Die By Day, Culling The Weak and Funeral Age.
Prosthetic Records will re-release Testament's "First Strike Still Deadly" album on March 18. Originally issued in 2001 on Spitfire Records, the updated version features new artwork.
"First Strike Still Deadly" is a compilation of early tracks re-recorded in 2001 by Chuck Billy (vocals), Alex Skolnick (guitar), Eric Peterson (guitar), Steve DiGiorgio (bass) and John Tempesta (drums) to give the songs a "modern, updated" feel. Also making an appearance on "First Strike Still Deadly" is the group's original vocalist — in the days when Testament was known as Legacy — Steve Souza (Exodus, Dublin Death Patrol), on "Alone In The Dark" and "Reign Of Terror".
Thanks for the report to Blabbermouth.net.
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