{"id":6089,"date":"2017-03-23T10:37:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T17:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/?p=6089"},"modified":"2017-03-23T10:37:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T17:37:42","slug":"testament-vocalist-discusses-tour-preparations-training-methods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/2017\/03\/23\/testament-vocalist-discusses-tour-preparations-training-methods\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintaining The Stronghold: Testament Vocalist Discusses Tour Preparations, Training Methods & more"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Bansal<\/strong><\/p>\n

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San Francisco Bay Area thrash stalwarts Testament\u00a0have not put a foot wrong in the last ten years, releasing a triad of highly impressive albums ‘The Formation of Damnation’ (2008), ‘The Dark Roots of Earth’ (2012), and most recently, ‘Brotherhood of the Snake’ in 2016. Besides the strong new material, their live show has also maintained and enhanced their reputation and legacy. Testament are now gearing up for an extensive North American headline tour, the first in support of the latest album, with support acts Sepultura, Prong and Infernal Tenebra. Vocalist Chuck Billy recently spoke to Metal Assault about preparations for the tour, live shows, his training methods, weed smoking, and more. Enjoy the conversation below, and catch Testament on tour this Spring!<\/p>\n

Chuck, it’s good to have you again on Metal Assault. You guys are starting a North American headline tour pretty soon in early April. How’s the preparation going these days?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s going good! We finished our Japan tour a few weeks ago, so everybody is kind of home and relaxed. We start rehearsals within a few days, and we feel good! On this tour I think we’re definitely going to increase the songs off of ‘Brotherhood of the Snake’, get may be four to five songs in the set, which is actually quite a lot for a new record. We’re looking forward to it. We haven’t toured with Sepultura before, we’ve played some shows with Prong and always talked about doing a tour together. So, I think it’s going to be a really fun and good tour!<\/p>\n

Right, and yeah I was just about to ask you if you had any past touring experiences with Sepultura and Prong. I’m sure you’ve crossed paths on festivals and stuff like that, and I guess it was just a matter of time before you actually did a full tour together.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, it’s definitely going to be unique, and I know Sepultura have a new album out that’s really good. This lineup is\u00a0going to be good for the fans, for sure!<\/p>\n

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Absolutely. And as you mentioned,\u00a0your new album ‘Brotherhood of the Snake’ came out late last year and you’re playing quite a few songs off of it this time. Even your other recent albums, ‘The Formation of Damnation’ onwards, have been really good. It must be a good feeling to not have to rely on just your classic material, as some bands have to.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh yeah, some bands do survive on the classic stuff, but it’s fortunate for us that we have written more current-feeling stuff for the newer fans, and even from the older fans we’ve gotten a lot of good responses for the recent records because we are staying true to what we do, and we make the fans feel that and they appreciate it.<\/p>\n

You have done some touring for this album since its release, although mostly overseas. Whatever songs you have played from it so far, what have you felt on stage compared to songs from the other albums?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, I think considering that they are new songs, it was quite surprising. We did the Amon Amarth tour in Europe, and the day the record came out, we already had three songs in the set, but it was amazing and we were blown away because the crowd knew all the words for ‘Brotherhood of the Snake’ and they were singing it. They were also singing ‘Stronghold’, and we were like, wow! The record had just come out but the response from people knowing all the words already was a good feeling. It was an unusual feeling too because they really grabbed this record pretty fast.<\/p>\n

That’s great to hear, man. So, on this next tour, how long of a set are you looking to compile?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’re going to be playing for an hour-and-a-half. It’s a four-band bill, so most venues now have an 11 o’ clock curfew during the week. Shows have to get started early. We could play two hours and we might stretch it, but we’ll see. I think we’re shooting for 90 minutes per show right now, which is probably about 15-16 songs.<\/p>\n