In a brand new interview with CrypticRock.com, vocalist Chuck Billy of San Francisco Bay Area metallers TESTAMENT spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2012's "Dark Roots Of Earth"."We are actually working on the new record, so Eric [Peterson, guitar] and I have been doing a lot of the work ourselves. "This [U.S.] tour [with EXODUS] will actually be the first tour where we are all together in one place for an extended period of time. This will be a chance to not only talk about the music and mess around with new ideas, I have been thinking that being on the road and playing all the songs from our beginning may allow us to channel those songs toward something new, be inspired, and get ourselves into the right mentality to work together as a unit."He continued: "We are more than halfway done with the new songs, but we keep tweaking it. "I think that when we all get together and play it, it will start molding into something workable, maybe even change a bit. "Eric really does not write a lot of extra songs; he focuses on exactly what we need to work on for the record and they have to mesh together. We get started and get the work done. I think that is the beauty of our records. They are recognizable as TESTAMENT but they do not all sound the same. There is no rehashed material, and it is good to keep it fresh with every new record."Asked what has been the key to TESTAMENT surviving all the lineup changes over the years, Chuck said: "I think that it has to be the music that has kept us together. "Eric is the leader in the writing department. Most of the songs are written by him, and I think that we have worked together so long that we know where we are going to go with writing together. That is also what has kept a lot of fans tuned in, in my opinion."The familiarity of our working together has been obvious in the writing and delivery of the music. We have a certain style and have grown as songwriters over the years. We are staying on track with what we started with years ago. "Steve DiGiorgio is joining us on bass again and it really is a good time for him to come back."TESTAMENT kicked off the "Dark Roots Of Thrash II" tour with EXODUS and SHATTERED SUN on April 1 at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco. "Dark Roots Of Thrash", a DVD/2CD release documenting TESTAMENT's sold-out headlining performance at the Paramount in Huntington, New York in February 2013, was made available on October 18, 2013 (Europe) and October 29, 2013 (North America) via Nuclear Blast Records. "Dark Roots Of Thrash" was produced by Get Hammered Productions, directed by Tommy Jones (DEATH ANGEL, KATAKLYSM, SOILWORK) and mixed by Juan Urteaga (VILE, EXODUS, SADUS, MACHINE HEAD).
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