On The Tour Bus With TESTAMENT (Video)

Digital Tour Bus, which gives fans “an all-access pass” to the tour buses that their favorite bands travel in, has posted its latest “Bus Invaders” episode, focusing on San Francisco Bay Area thrashers TESTAMENT. The six-minute clip can be seen below.

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.

Speaking about the progress of the songwriting sessions for TESTAMENT‘s follow-up to 2012’s “Dark Roots Of Earth”, guitarist Eric Peterson told “Robb’s Metalworks”: “I would say, musically, [we have] probably, like, a little bit over half [the record written] — maybe a little bit more. Chuck‘s [Billy, vocals] catching up [on writing vocal lines and lyrics]. And the first batch of songs are just, like, all thrash. And I usually only write a couple of thrash ones, and then I focus on midtempo or just real heavy. But, for some reason, they just all came out super fast. And they’re all different, too, so I think, actually, they’ll all be keepers.”

On the topic of when TESTAMENT plans to begin recording the new album, Peterson said: “My main goal is to get home [from tour] in June, finish it up and get in the studio by September.” As for the CD’s possible release date, he said: “Well, you know, it’s tough to have it out later in the year, because if you put it out past October, people will say, ‘Oh, that’s last year’s record, and it’s only been out for a couple of months. So I would lean more towards early ’16. And that’s right around the corner. We will serve no wine before its time. So it’s gotta be right.”

“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).