Facebook: Testament We recently had a lovely chat with Testament vocalist Chuck Billy . With Testament going strong after releasing their latest album, ‘Dark Roots of Earth,’ the band is set to conquer North America very soon through a winter trek with fellow thrash legends Overkill . We spoke with Billy about ‘Dark Roots of Earth,’ how the album compares to their iconic discography, the setlist their fans can expect during the tour with Overkill, his all-time favorite metal musicians + much more. Check out our exclusive interview with Testament’s Chuck Billy: Congratulations on the success of ‘Dark Roots of Earth.’ Both fans and critics seem to love it and it reached No. 12 on the Billboard chart, which was your highest charting position ever. With the record industry in a weakened state across the board, what does that chart position mean to you personally? Well, it’s definitely a big accomplishment for us. You always put your heart and soul into every record you do and I think this record was definitely a special record. We really wrote these songs and chose what we were going to put on the record by what leads us not by what critics and fans were gonna think. When we came up with ‘Cold Embrace’ or even ‘Dark Roots of Earth,’ when we first heard it, it didn’t even cross our minds to think, ‘What is everybody going to think?’ The first thing we thought was, “This feels good, let’s go for it.” I think that’s what this record has above the other ones; the sense of confidence we came into while writing the songs. We took the risks and we’re just happy as a band and what we’ve accomplished. It hit No. 12, after all is said and done, after what we put into it … it was awesome. It’s almost like our gut feeling paid off. We believed in it so much that everybody else did as well. [Laughs] To be considered a ‘true’ thrash band you have to operate in some fairly narrow confines, but you guys have been able to put out albums again and again that sound very fresh and interesting. How do you keep your music sounding so fresh? From when we started to where we are today, there have been a lot of bands that have a little Testament influence and over those years we’ve looked to those newer bands and have really gotten re-influenced off of them with the style and where metal’s gone and without trying to copy. I really wanted to stick to my style of singing and not really jump on what other bands are doing, but musically and production wise it’s just gotten better and better over the years. There are a lot of great sounding records and great sounding bands. The hardest thing is to put out a great record and make it go off the same vibe live; that’s the toughest thing. When I see a band that’s just as good live as they are on the record, I really enjoy it. I think we took a full circle of people getting influenced off of us and we got influenced off them and I think the biggest thing is we still feel young at heart. We don’t feel like we’re a 30-year-old band; not feeling our age, put it that way. [Laughs] Of those newer thrash bands that have inspired you, are there any in particular that inspired you the most for ‘Dark Roots of Earth’? I don’t know about just one band, but there are a lot of bands we talk to all the way from Lamb of God to Shadows Fall . There are bands that I hear a little bit of that early thrash style and you see what they’re accomplishing, Lamb of God and bands like that. It’s all in the riffing and the style, you kind of go, ‘Okay I get it,’ and you apply it to what you’re doing in a small way. A long time has passed since ‘The Legacy’ came out. How would you compare the songwriting and recording process from ‘The Legacy’ to ‘Dark Roots of Earth’? What are the most notable differences? Well, we didn’t know anything about recording records when we did that record [‘The Legacy’], first of all. I mean, I listened to that record and I remember recording that record and the mic techniques we used and stuff … it was almost a joke actually. We were using condenser microphones on clothes hangers. I think back about it just going, “What the hell was that guy doing?” And when I listen to the record that’s why I hear the guitar sounding so small. Things have just changed, we went from two-inch tape down to digital recording. I think there was a point there with digital recording, bands had a problem at first because you couldn’t get that warm, fat sound. Everything on digital boards and digital processing just sounded thinner. I think it took some time for engineers and people to really know what they wanted in a sense and figure out how to make those digital recordings sound fat like they were two-inch tapes. We went through the whole process from when we started to where we are now, and it’s night and day. Now you can make big sounding records through digital processing. The songwriting … I think when Alex [Skolnick] , Greg [Christian] and Louie [Clemente] left the band, it was just me and Eric [Peterson.] We were writing songs that were more riff oriented. The writing technique changed from the way it was before. We were just focused on the songs and the riffs. I think once Alex came back and the reunion happened, it was a matter of getting used to each other and comfortable with each other again. We did the ‘Formation of Damnation’ record, it was the first step of bringing back that old style of writing together again and I think after that record and a bunch of years touring together, this new record was almost natural, just like the was it was [in the past]. We almost forgot about the way we wrote when me and Eric were the songwriters. It was a group effort to where we were thinking, “Okay, we’ve got to write a lead section here for Alex. Maybe we can do duel harmony guitars at the beginning.” The whole thought process was right there where it was at the beginning. I think that’s why a lot people say, “Yeah, I hear some of that early style in there.” Speaking of the members of Testament, I saw you guys last year on tour with Anthrax and you had Gene Hoglan on drums. On this upcoming tour with Overkill can fans expect Gene to grace us with his presence? Yeah, Gene pretty much signed on for the whole record cycle. I know he had Dethklok obligations so he had to miss one year of being on the road with us, but I don’t think Dethklok performs that often so I think he’s all ours right now for the rest of the record cycle. So yeah, he’ll be there. You played your first show in India recently and you’ve now been added to litany of huge, important bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden who’ve gone there. Can you talk a little bit about that experience, playing in India? I really enjoyed it, it was definitely an experience and kind of what I’ve learned by traveling the world is that a metal fan in the Bay Area has the same look and energy as a metal fan in the India: black shirts, long hair, banging their head. I think the experience was exciting for us because we had never been there after 25-30 years. There are a lot of people on the light crew, the sound crew, everybody who worked on the show seemed to be really excited because they’d been Testament fans for a long time and had never seen us. The excitement for them was pretty big, they were all very excited, which makes us even more pumped up like, “Man, we’ve really got to perform well because they’re expecting a lot.” It was pretty cool because we had such a big repertoire of songs to play for them and we played extra songs that we didn’t rehearse, that we just threw in there and pulled off on the fly. It was an awesome festival, I would definitely love to go back there again to experience the culture. We only had a day to really sightsee, so we went around and checked out the temples and microbreweries are a big thing there now so we went and tested the local micro beers. It was a really wild experience driving around the city because they seem to just drive wherever they want to drive … going the wrong way, there’s really no lines of traffic, it’s just kind of a free for all. The greatest thing was watching these families on Mopeds, they have the mother and the father and the kids and the little baby on handlebars, the grandmother sitting side-saddle in the back … they put like five or six people on a Moped in all this crazy traffic. Amongst all that crazy traffic was just people with their kids walking across the street. No one got hit, nobody got hurt, it was just the way it was. That blew me away. Traveling in traffic was just mind-blowing. [Laughs] This year, 2013, marks the 30th year of Testament. Do you have any plans coming up to celebrate this milestone? We keep talking about trying to do a special show or a special major city tour or maybe a different country tour where we play either ‘The Legacy’ front to back or maybe even ‘Dark Roots’ front to back, but it’s all just talk so we’ll see what happens. We have to get our agent on board and promoters on board with the idea, but we definitely want to do something special. I think when we did ‘The Legacy’ and ‘The New Order’ record back to back, we got a great response. The fans really wanted to see something special like that, so we’re definitely open to doing something cool like that. On this upcoming tour with Overkill, another thrash band that had a very strong 2012, what can we expect in terms of your set and how important is it for Testament to perform new songs as opposed to the classics? It’s very important, actually. When we re-formed with the original lineup, our set consisted mostly of the classic stuff because those were the songs that all of us wrote together. They weren’t really on the ‘Low’ record, ‘Demonic’ or ‘Formation’… any of those records. We tended to play more classics, but I think just talking to the band, there seems to be a consistency on what people tell us about how Testament’s sound doesn’t sound like a dated band and that we have a modern sound; that’s a great compliment to us. We don’t want to be a nostalgic band and just play the classics. We want to show who we are today and what we’ve evolved to. If people are saying that we sound more current, then let’s play some more current stuff in our show. On the Anthrax tour, we played a lot of classics. We tried to mix it up with both, but coming out on this Overkill tour we definitely have a new set. We’ve got six or seven new songs in the show, so we’re leaning toward playing the more modern stuff we’re doing. I think new fans to the band who hadn’t been around in the early years, I think they’re going to be happiest hearing the songs they recognize in the records they’ve bought over the last 10 years. When you think of each instrument in a band in the world of thrash, who do you think is the best at playing each instrument? I’d say Kerry King [ Slayer ] is a master rhythm player. If it was up to me, Michael Schenker [Scorpions, UFO] is one of the best lead guitar players. Man, it’s tough between Gene Hoglan and Dave Lombardo [Slayer]. They have to be two of the better drummers I’ve played with. Bass players: Steve DiGiorgio [ Death , Sadus] is probably one of the best bass players I’ve jammed with. Vocalists: I’ve got a top three … I love Ronnie James Dio , Rob Halford [ Judas Priest ] and Bruce Dickinson [ Iron Maiden ]. 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BangerFilms.com Canadian film director Sam Dunn was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. Dunn, who put together and starred in the ‘Metal Evolution’ series on VH1 Classic and is the co-founder of Banger Films, talked all about his effort to raise money in order to film the ‘missing’ episode of the ‘Metal Evolution Series’ which covers a sub-genre very near and dear to him, extreme metal. If you missed Jackie’s show, read the full interview with Sam Dunn: You’ve been very busy with Banger Films which you are the co-founder of — Grammy nominated and ‘Juno’ award winning Banger Films. Congratulations. Thank you, yeah it’s been a busy few years since we last talked, so we got to catch up. Last year Banger films released the biggest ever series on the history of metal and hard rock. It was called ‘Metal Evolution’ and featured over forty years of metal history from early metal and shock rock to thrash and nu-metal. The series followed Sam on an amazing journey, over 30 countries, four continents and you interview 300 of metal’s most respected musicians including the likes of Lars [Ulrich] from Metallica, Alice Cooper, Van Halen, Lamb of God, Slash, Bruce Dickinson who typically is not down for doing interviews so props to you on that and so many more. It’s a huge success on VH1 Classic and it broadcasts all over the world. Despite the success, we the metal fans and Sam, as well, all felt that there was definitely a series that was missing and that is extreme metal. Since the ‘Metal Evolution’ series was pretty comprehensive about the sub-genres of metal, what factors prevented there from being an exteme metal episode? When we initially approached VH1 Classic about doing ‘Metal Evolution,’ they were really excited about the series. They’ve always been supportive of us, three of our four featured documentaries have aired on the network so they’ve always been really good to us. When we pitched the initial series we did have the extreme metal episode in our initial proposal but I guess for their audience I guess they perceived their audience as being more geared towards the older stuff and not necessarily towards the heavier end of the spectrums. So Slash was as heavy as we could go and that was tough for us because we are fans of extreme metal but we were thankful that they could do 11 episodes on metal at all, no one else would really do that these days. So we did the series as you said and it did really well and it even went to number one on VH1 Classic and on Much More here in Canada but we always had this nagging feeling in the back of our brains that’s like, “We really should have done that extreme metal episode.” As it turns out we got hundreds of messages from fans saying, “We wished it was there, too,” so we decided to do something about that and launch this Indiegogo campaign. Anthropologically speaking, how important is extreme metal to heavy metal as a whole, more than some of its other sub-genres. It’s a great question, I think the popular conception is that extreme metal is kind of in this dark, obscure corner that is an irrelevant minority within the history of heavy metal music but that’s just not true. Extreme metal is the sub-genre within metal over the last 20, 30 years now that’s really pushed the genre in new direction. It’s kind of like the kamikaze guy out on the front of the battalion making sure its safe to go over the hill and looking around every corner to see where the genre could go. So we just think when we’re talking about a series that’s about the evolution of metal it seems crazy not to include that genre which really has pushed it forward. More recently I love Keith Kahn-Harris’s phrase; he’s a well-respected academic and writer in metal fan in the UK, he uses the phrase “Motor of Innovation” and I just think that totally captures it. It’s not an obscurity, it’s a style of metal that young fans, frankly are most excited about because metal is all about pushing things to the next level. What an amazing experience it must have been for you to travel the world and interview all the bands that you’ve loved. Did you ever in a million years imagine you would be able to do something like the ‘Metal Evolution’ Series? For Scot [McFadyen] and I — we produced and directed the series together – it was an amazing experience. I think with all the movies we’ve made, we’ve had a lot of success so far and we’ve always felt the comprehensive history of metal needed to be done and back when we did ‘Headbanger’s Journey’ in 2005 and we put together out heavy metal family tree – ever since then we’ve got this amazing response from fans saying, “Can I get a copy of the tree?” or even people critiquing the tree which we actually like which is all a part of the heavy metal culture. To go out and now explore the full history of metal was an amazing experience and I got to meet some incredible musicians that I didn’t get to meet making our previous movie. We’re really proud of it, we hope it stands the test of time as the definitive library of metal until someone – 15, 25 years from now should come around and do another one. [Laughs] But until then I’m happy to have this one out there for everyone. Sam, with several films and a television mini-series under your belt, how has what you envisioned for yourself as a filmmaker and Banger Films as a production company changed since your first film back in 2005? When we started out on the road to make the first film, we really just wanted to make the first in-depth, intelligent film about heavy metal, that was our goal and we were lucky. The film did really well, we realized that there were thousands of people out there whether they were metal fans or just general music fans that felt the same way. So since then we’ve had the opportunity to go on and do ‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666’ and ‘Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage’ and now ‘Metal Evolution’ so it’s been a great experience. I think what we’ve learned at the end of the day is that what’s most important is to tell great stories and now we’ve moved on to a new film we’re working on – the story of Alice Cooper’s career from the beginning of his life right up to his big comeback in the ’80s. I think there is a pretty remarkable story unfolding there, revealing some stuff about Alice and his life that people don’t really know about. We’re also doing a documentary on the cultural history of the Devil – looking at why the Devil has been such a pervasive character in film, literature, TV, music and popular culture over the last several decades. I think that’s a really interesting question that hopefully will get some interest. The Devil has always been kind to us so we’re trying to keep that going – I think what we’ve learned is we start out to make a film about metal and then realize that there’s still a lot of great stories out there to be told not only about hard rock and metal music but maybe some of the darker subject matters of our culture that tends to get ignored. We’re talking about the extreme metal episode that Sam is trying to put together for the continuation of the ‘Metal Evolution’ series, calling it the lost episode. Go to fullmetaljackie.com , I’ve got a link for you to check out the video where Sam is looking to raise funds. I’ll tell you what If there’s one thing metal fans are good at it’s getting together and doing the right thing and anytime anything has come about whether it’s Randy [Blythe] from Lamb of God or any topics – I feel like no matter which sub-genre anybody thinks is better or any opinions they have – metal fans unite. Yeah this is the first time we’ve tried something like this, we’ve always gone the traditional route where we’ve got broadcasters and distributors to finance our work but because our usual sources aren’t really going to get behind this – we’re having to do it a different way. I think that we’ve got a long way to go, it’s a lot of money to raise, we don’t cut any corners. We pride ourselves to taking people to all the important places that are part of metal history, to going to the source, to meeting the people who are part of the story not flying ten people into a room and claiming that’s the comprehensive history of extreme metal. So we’ve got a long way to go but because we’ve had such a great response from the fans, we’re hopeful we can do this all together for the first time. Like you mentioned, this is a sub-genre of metal that means a lot to us as fans and story tellers about heavy metal, not just the folks out there that have watched our movies and supported our work. We’re hoping we can all get together on this one and actually make it happen. The ‘Metal Evolution’ series aired on VH1 classic, super thorough 11 episodes including pre-history of heavy metal and shock rock to grunge and the greatest episode, the thrash metal episode – did you get a lot of compliments on that one? That one I feel like I heard the most chatter – it was not only entertaining but educational. [Laughs] Good, well like yourself, thrash is really close to my heart. That along with the extreme metal stuff that we’re trying to do now was really what excited me when I discovered metal as a teenager and still to this day is what excited me. To go to the Bay area and go to the rehearsal rooms where Exodus and Death Angel and Testament have played for all of these years and get to meet all of these bands it was a great experience. I think thrash is that important mix of the energy and attitude and speed of punk along with the real virtuosity and musicianship that came from bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in the UK and there’s also some interesting turns in that story. An album like ‘The Black Album’ obviously catapulted Metallica into a totally different sphere and you could argue or question rather “Were they still a thrash metal band at that point?” and we wanted to tackle that because I’ll be honest I love those guys and they’re friends of mine but ‘Enter Sandman’ was not my thing. [Laughs] When I turned up at high school and all of a sudden everyone that hated Metallica had Metallica shirts on, it was tough to take but from the perspective at looking at the history of this that was a real important turning point because I think it put a lot of pressure on the other thrash metal bands to produce a song like ‘Nothing Else Matters’ to produce a big hit like ‘Enter Sandman.’ It was great that guys like Gary Holt and Chuck Billy and the guys from Death Angel could really open up about that. We think that the thrash episode probably dug a little deeper than what people expected and that’s what we wanted the series to do. Sam, first and foremost like all of us, you’re a fan and metal fans are intense to say the least. Is it difficult to maintain professionalism when meeting some of your biggest musical heroes? [Laughs] Yeah, ever since I met Bruce Dickinson on the stage at the Hammersmith when we did ‘Headbanger’s Journey’ that was back in 2004 when we shot that interview – that was the beginning of a pretty exciting road. Guys like Dickinson and others were my heroes, they were my idols and they created music that made a huge impact on me and excited me and was music it was challenged by as a musician and it felt like it had so much more depth to it than so much of the other music that was going on back in the ’80s when I was a teenager. It’s been a fantastic experience and I think what’s even more exciting is that most of these guys are very respectful of what we do, know what we do and recognize that I think, we’ve brought a lot to metal and to the vitality of this music. It’s a little easier now to keep my professionalism in tact when I get to meet some of these musicians but I’m still meeting people I’ve always wanted to meet a guy like Arthur Brown in the shock rock episode in ‘Metal Evolution.’ A lot of people don’t know that he was really an early architect of combining spectacle and really over the top performance with rock music long before Alice Cooper and Kiss were doing it. Believe me I’ve had worse jobs, I’ve been a dish pig so I’m loving what we’re doing. Full Metal Jackie will welcome Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel to her show this coming weekend. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com .