Culture
Testament’s Chuck Billy talks about ‘Para Bellum,’ staying inspired, and having the nerve to play soft
By: Nicholas Kobe
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Thrash legends Testament are one of the most essential bands in the genre’s history.
Emerging from the same Bay Area metal scene as Metallica, Death Angel, Overkill, and Exodus, Testament helped define thrash’s blend of classic metal riffing and punk’s speed and social awareness.
The band launched their career with three classic albums: The Legacy, New World Order, and Practice What You Preach — before continuing to push the boundaries of both their sound and the genre itself. That innovation remains evident on the band’s 14th album, Para Bellum, released today via Nuclear Blast Records.
Lead singer Chuck Billy sat down with WOUB’s Nicholas Kobe to talk about the new album. Find a transcript of their conversation, edited for length and clarity, below.
Nicholas Kobe: If you had to describe Testament in one sentence, what would you say?
Chuck Billy: Coming out of a thrash metal upbringing, developing into a variety of metal, and still being inspired by what’s coming on today, but staying true to Testament.
That’s a good way to put it. With the release of Para Bellum, what are you most excited for fans to hear?
Billy: Well, we’ve always tried to raise the bar for ourselves, to do a better record every time. That’s not always easy. We have a mindset that we’re not trying to rehash or revisit the band’s history. Like I said, we’re inspired and influenced by what’s going on around us. And there’s a lot of new music, a lot of new metal. A lot of bands that we inspired are developing their own sounds and styles, which in turn influences us. So, you know, I never know until I hear the whole sequence, but every song just has its own identity, a different feel. Some of them remind me of some ’70s classic rock stuff, even. It’s probably influenced by Chris Dovas, our new drummer, being as young as he is and being brought up through a different generation of metal.
Outside of some of the stuff that Chris brought, were there any specific sub-genres outside of thrash or any newer bands that influenced you in particular?
Billy: I wouldn’t say a particular band, but again, Chris is much younger, so he’s influenced by different bands and has a different catalog of music than the rest of the band. So, of course, Chris is turning us onto what he’s inspired by. There are bands like Lorna Shore and others that are very extreme coming up. I know Chris loved it and turned Eric (Peterson) on to it. Of course, they’re like, “Okay, we’ve got to go write some heavier stuff.” But there wasn’t one band that they tried to grab onto. Eric’s not like that. He doesn’t go buy new current records or magazines, and he doesn’t have SiriusXM. But I think Chris is spending so much time, out of any drummer we ever played with, working with Eric.
Speaking of being inspired, in terms of the lyrics, what was the impetus for Infanticide AI being like the first statement and single for this record?
Billy: Well, that was actually the first song we wrote. So originally Eric was kind of leaning towards that to be the title of the record. Eric works closely with the artist, and we knew we kind of wanted a nuclear mushroom in the picture. That title really didn’t fit the mold of where they’re going art-wise. When Alex (Skolnick) and I wrote Para Bellum, you know, it was about “preparing for war.” A lot of the songs have that theme. I’m inspired by things that were all affecting our lives. The last record had the theme of “World War III.” It’s the closest we ever got; that’s what inspired me. Now that we’re here and watching Russia-Ukraine stuff and the conflicts, it’s so much going on.
AI is a big part of everybody’s life. A few months back, I rode a taxi in San Francisco and Texas that didn’t have a driver. I went to a restaurant, and the busboy was a robot taking the plates off the tables and taking them to the dishwasher. The scary part, I thought, lyric-wise, is that this AI technology is about gathering as much information as you can. So what happens when it gathers so much information that it can almost decide for itself? Or have enough to retain it, where they think they know the answer?
What do you think it is about thrash metal that makes it a genre specifically well-suited to conveying these societal issues?
Billy: I think because when you’re growing up at 15, 16, 17, you’re rebellious. Musically, I always felt that when I was young, I wanted to play music that shocked people.
Do you feel like the stuff Testament is writing has that punch?
Billy: It does, but I think a lot of newer bands are totally intense, but then they have a melodic side, and maybe there’s a message behind it as well. I think there’s so much in the world to talk about, so many topics that, like when we started working on our New World Order record back in ’87, we’re talking about the “New World Order,” and people are like “what?” But we’re writing about astronomical predictions, and here we are 30, 40 years later, and we’re actually living them. So what are these guys writing about? What does the future hold for us that they’re trying to convey to the children that’s coming 20, 30 years down the line?
Just before this record came out, you were touring for 30 years of Practice What You Preach. What was your favorite part about taking that record out on the road, and did the reflection process on that record influence the new album?
Billy: I think it influenced it because every band doesn’t get to play deep cuts. Usually, a band has to pick two or three strong songs off an album, but playing a complete record and seeing the fans who were there, let’s say in ’88 or ’89, might be their first time seeing the band since then. For us as a band, playing those songs was fun; it was great. We have a record called The Ritual, and we’ve strayed away from playing some of that stuff, but we’re definitely going to try to play it again.
Being on that Practice What You Preach Tour, we played The Legacy, Return to Serenity, Trail of Tears, all these songs I strayed away from as a vocalist. Maybe the new metalheads and younger metalheads wouldn’t get it; they weren’t there for it when we were doing it, but they loved to see it. We had so much fun playing it that by the end of the tour, we were owning those songs. Then, to come to do this record and do a song like Meant To Be was a no-brainer. We have enough nerve to do it. We’ve seen what those other songs did.
What’s next for Testament?
Billy: Just to keep writing music at this point. I mean, every band has to survive going on tour, and we tour a lot. But we’re at a point where we’re having fun being inspired and challenged to keep trying to push the envelope. Not all bands get to do that or try to do that. Many bands that are like 40 years old will try to play off their history and their glory days. We don’t do that. We’re looking forward to being inspired by what’s going on now.