Premier Guitar met with Eric Peterson, Alex Skolnick and Steve DiGiorgio of San Francisco Bay Area metallers TESTAMENT before the band’s April 22 concert at the Cannery Ballroom in Nashville, Nashville to get the scoop on what gear they rely on for maximum oomph and practicality. Check out the report below.

A new TESTAMENT studio album is currently being written for a tentative early 2016 release.

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 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.”

Fonte: Blabbermouth.net