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testament
Will at Elbriot (2016)
Will at Elbriot (2016)
General information
origin Berkeley , United States
Genre (s) Thrash metal
founding 1983 as Legacy
1986 renamed to Testament
Website www.testamentlegions.com
Founding members
Derrik Ramirez (vocals: until 1983, guitar: until 1986, bass: 1997)
Electric guitar
 Eric Peterson
Electric bass
 Greg Christian (until 1996, 2004-2014)
Mike Ronchette (until 1983)
Current occupation
singing
 Chuck Billy (since 1986)
guitar
 Eric Peterson
guitar
 Alex Skolnick (1986–1993, 2001, since 2005)
bass
 Steve DiGiorgio (1998-2004, since 2014)
Drums
 Gene Hoglan (1997, since 2011)
former members
singing
 Steve Souza (1983-1986, 2001)
guitar
 Glen Alvelais (live guitar: 1993, 1997–1998, studio guitar: 1997)
guitar
 James Murphy (1994-1996, 1998-1999)
guitar
 Steve Smyth (guitar: 1999–2004, live guitar: 2004)
guitar
 Mike Chlasciak (Live: Guitar: 2002, Guitar: 2004–2005)
Drums
 Louie Clemente (1983-1993, live drums: 2005)
Drums
 Paul Bostaph (live drums: 2007, drums: 1993, 2004, 2007-2011)
Drums
 John Tempesta (1994, 2001, 2005, live drums: 2011)
Drums
 Chris Accounts (1996)
Drums
 Dave Lombardo (1998-1999)
Drums
 John Allen (2003-2004)
Live support
guitar
 Glen Drover (2008, 2010)
Electric bass
 Jack Gibson (2013)
Drums
 Jon Dette (1994-1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2005)
Drums
 Steve Jacobs (1997, 1999)
Drums
 Asgeir Mickelson (2003)
Drums
 Nicolas Barker (2007)
Drums
 Mark Hernandez (2012)

Testament is one of the oldest thrash metal bands that emerged from the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1980s .

Band history

The band was originally founded in 1983 by Eric Peterson ( guitar ), Derrick Ramirez (first vocals and guitar; later bass on Demonic ) and Mike Ronchette ( drums ) as Legacy . The line-up was joined in the same year by Steve Souza , who replaced Ramirez on vocals, as well as Greg Christian on bass and Louie Clemente , who replaced Ronchette on drums. Ramirez was later replaced on guitar by Alex Skolnick . Souza, who switched to Exodus , was replaced on vocals by Chuck Billy in 1986 . In 1987 the band released the debut album The Legacy , now under the name Testament. In 1988, The New Order was followed by a second album, which was able to place in the charts for the first time. Practice What You Preach in 1989 contained The Ballad for the first time, a semi-ballad that was often played on music television. In 1990 the band released Souls of Black and played together with Slayer , Megadeth and Suicidal Tendencies in Europe on the Clash-of-the-Titans tour and in the USA with Megadeth on the Judas Priests - Painkiller tour.

Alex Skolnick live (2007)

In the course of the following years, the music of Testament became more melodic and slower, except for The Ritual from 1992 it was hardly possible to speak of Thrash Metal and after the release of this album Alex Skolnick left the band to devote himself entirely to jazz . After separating from Skolnick and Louie Clemente to handle the harder style of previous albums again and moved it to new extremes by both low in 1994 and, in particular Demonic and The Gathering significant death metal Bonds in vocals and riffing contained . It was not for nothing that James Murphy (Ex- Death / - Obituary / - Cancer ), one of the most renowned death metal guitarists, was added. In the meantime, ex-Exodus drummer John Tempesta had also taken over the drums, but left the band after the recordings for Low to join White Zombie .

The band moved through a series of fixed and temporary line-ups over the years, some of which changed several times during touring. For Demonic (1997) Gene Hoglan (formerly Death , Dark-Angel , Strapping Young Lad , Devin Townsend ) and for The Gathering (1999 ) one of the most famous Metal with Dave Lombardo ( Slayer , Grip Inc. , Fantômas , John Zorn ) -Drummer. For First Strike Still Deadly , a compilation of classic, newly recorded Testament pieces, John Tempesta briefly returned alongside Alex Skolnick on guitar . Later Jon Allen ( Sadus ) and Paul Bostaph (Ex- Forbidden , -Slayer, and -Exodus), who had also previously appeared on the live EP Return to the Apocalyptic City (1993), took over the drums. Bostaph returned again in 2007. Other drummers in the band's history are Jon Dette (at times Slayer, Evildead ), Steve Jacobs (ex-Forbidden), who has been part of the live line-up over the years, and Chris Kontos (ex- Machine Head ). After Skolnick's departure, Steve Smyth (Ex- Vicious-Rumors ) and Metal Mike Chlasciak ( Halford , Painmuseum ) played guitar for a few years, and Steve DiGiorgio (Ex-Death / -Sadus / - Iced- ) played bass after Greg Christian's departure . Earth ).

After death- front man Chuck Schuldiner (1967-2001) was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1999 , in 2001 Chuck Billy was diagnosed with a rare tumor in the chest area. Around the same time, ex-guitarist James Murphy became known to have cancer . Thereupon friends Testament, the thrash-of-the-Titans - charity concert organized in favor of Chuck Billy, renowned for the many 1980s Bay Area thrash bands and bands of the New York Thrash scene in San Francisco performed and sometimes even reunited for this concert. Billy has now fully recovered.

After these numerous line-up changes, the band decided, like Anthrax, to reunite in their classic lineup and go on tour . At the end of April 2008, The Formation of Damnation was released nine years after the last studio album. According to official information on their Facebook page, the band was back in the studio on June 20, 2011. On July 27, 2012, the band released their tenth studio album, Dark Roots of Earth .

Since then, the band has been on various tours with the same line-up, until Greg Christian was temporarily represented during the tour by Jack Gibson from Exodus in November 2013 and replaced by former long-term bassist Steve DiGiorgio in January 2014. In October 2016, the eleventh studio album Brotherhood of the Snake was released .

In 2019 the band performed at Summer Breeze and announced a tour and a new album for 2020. Titans of Creation was released in April 2020 .

Discography

Studio albums

year Title
music label 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1987 The Legacy
Megaforce Records 		- - - - -
First published: April 21, 1987
1988 The New Order
Megaforce Records 		DE49 (3 weeks)
DE 		- - UK81 (1 week)
UK 		US136 (14 weeks)
US
First published: May 5, 1988
1989 Practice What You Preach
Megaforce Records 		DE29 (12 weeks)
DE 		- - UK40 (2 weeks)
UK 		US77 (12 weeks)
US
First published: August 4, 1989
1990 Souls of Black
Megaforce Records 		- - - UK35 (2 weeks)
UK 		US73 (8 weeks)
US
First published: October 9, 1990
1992 The Ritual
Megaforce Records 		DE73 (8 weeks)
DE 		- - UK48 (1 week)
UK 		US55 (9 weeks)
US
First published: May 12, 1992
1994 Low
Megaforce Records 		- - CH39 (1 week)
CH 		- US122 (2 weeks)
US
First published: September 30, 1994
1997 Demonic
Music for Nations 		- - - - -
First published: June 24, 1997
1999 The Gathering
USG 		DE48 (2 weeks)
DE 		- - - -
First published: June 8, 1999
2008 The Formation of Damnation
Nuclear Blast 		DE15 (4 weeks)
DE 		AT23 (3 weeks)
AT 		CH33 (2 weeks)
CH 		- US59 (4 weeks)
US
First published: April 25, 2008
2012 Dark Roots of Earth
Nuclear Blast 		DE4 (5 weeks)
DE 		AT21 (3 weeks)
AT 		CH10 (5 weeks)
CH 		UK57 (1 week)
UK 		US12 (4 weeks)
US
First published: July 27, 2012
2016 Brotherhood of the Snake
Nuclear Blast 		DE11 (3 weeks)
DE 		AT23 (1 week)
AT 		CH16 (3 weeks)
CH 		UK43 (1 week)
UK 		US20 (2 weeks)
US
First published: October 28, 2016
2020 Titans of Creation
Nuclear Blast 		DE3 (7 weeks)
DE 		AT25 (1 week)
AT 		CH7 (5 weeks)
CH 		- US96 (... weeks)
Template: chart table / maintenance / provisional / 2020US
First release: April 3, 2020
# 2 of the German vinyl charts

Live albums

year Title
music label 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
2013 Dark Roots of Thrash
Nuclear Blast 		DE52 (1 week)
DE 		- - - -
First published: October 11, 2013

More live albums

  • 1987: Live at Eindhoven
  • 1993: Return to the Apocalyptic City
  • 1995: Live at the Fillmore
  • 2005: Live in London

Compilations

  • 1996: The Best of Testament
  • 1997: Signs of Chaos
  • 2000: The Very Best of Testament
  • 2001: First Strike Still Deadly
  • 2007: The Spitfire Collection

Video albums

Demos (as legacy)

  • 1985: Demo: 1

Web links

Commons : Testament (volume)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/testament-bassist-leaves-tour-exodus-jack-gibson-steps-in/
  2. ↑ www.metalupdate.com: Interview with Chuck Billy
  3. ↑ Running Order 2019. In: Summer Breeze Open Air. Accessed August 15, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
  5. ^ Testament - Titans of Creation (Vinyl). GfK Entertainment , accessed June 30, 2020 .
testament
John Allen • Glen Alvelais • Nick Barker • Paul Bostaph  • Mike Chlasciak • Greg Christian • Louie Clemente • Jon Dette  • Dave Lombardo  • James Murphy  • Derrick Ramirez • Steve Souza  • Steve Smyth • John Tempesta


Studio albums

The Legacy  (1987) • The New Order  (1988) • Practice What You Preach  (1989) • Souls of Black  (1990) • The Ritual  (1992) • Low  (1994) • Demonic  (1997) • The Gathering  (1999) • The Formation of Damnation  (2008) • Dark Roots of Earth  (2012) • Brotherhood of the Snake  (2016) • Titans of Creation  (2020)

Live albums

Live at Eindhoven (1987) • Return to the Apocalyptic City (1993) • Live at the Fillmore (1995) • Live in London  (2005) • Dark Roots of Thrash (2013)

Compilation albums

The Best of Testament (1996) • Signs of Chaos (1997) • The Very Best of Testament (2001) • First Strike Still Deadly (2001) • Days of Darkness (2004) • The Spitfire Collection (2007)