Page 38 - RockRevoltMagazine-FebruaryMarch2016

those seven shows turned into a month. I was checking out the recent song,
After that, the offers kept coming in –
we were just like, “Whoa!” We were
literally going to do seven shows and
then call it a day. Alex (Skolnick) and
Lou (Clemente) were down for it, so
it was just, “Let’s get out and do this
and have some fun.” We put out “Live
in London,” and if you look at it, it
looks like our first show or whatever.
“Dark Roots of Thrash” is probably
7-8 years of touring, and it shows – it’s
like two different bands. The set was
pretty diverse, and we were warmed
up – it was like the halfway mark in a
tour, so it wasn’t like the first show of
a tour and everyone is stepping on
each other’s toes. We knew what
we were doing, and that’s why that
one came out as good as it did.
For this run, Eric, are you going
to have Alex Bent playing drums
again?
Alex Bent right now is sort of my
“ghost drummer.” He’s helping
me write pretty much the whole
record so far. I teach it to Gene,
because Gene’s schedule is pretty
crazy. Gene is our tour drummer
and did the last record with us. I
could definitely see Alex doing
some stuff with us in the future,
for sure. He lives pretty close to
me, which is a plus.
I ask because I got to see him live
with Battlecross last year - he’s a
monster.
Yeah, I found him through some
friends in the scene like Sean Glass,
because I was looking for a drummer
for Dragonlord. Sean was like, “When’s
the new Dragonlord coming out?” It
was so out-of-the-blue – like “how’d
you know I was going to make a new
record?” Sean introduced me to Alex.
It’s funny, because Sean is on the East
Coast, and here I have this other guy
right in my own backyard. But, yeah,
it became a really cool relationship
– Alex kicked ass on the Dragonlord
record, and I was like, “Man, I want
to work with this guy.” So, I’ve been
working with Alex since about 2012.
Dragonlord stuff I invited her up, and
“Winter Sun,” you did with Canadian we ended up re-doing the keyboard
vocalist Leah (McHenry). What a and choir stuff – now it sounds more
cool departure from Testament that human. She did all the female choir
was! Very atmospheric, symphonic- stuff on the new Dragonlord record,
sounding stuff. How did that and we also do a duet on the record.
collaboration come about? It’s the first time, I think, for black
metal to have – I don’t want to call it
I’ve known Leah since about 2005. I was a ballad, but it’s a slower, darker song.
going up to Vancouver a lot, because I
was working on this Dragonlord stuff From that, it was, “Hey, let’s do
with a friend of mine who worked at something again.” I had this riff laying
Lion’s Gate, he was doing some editing around, and it reminded me of the
for me. I was jamming with him and holidays. This was September, and I
some other friends, and Leah was thought if we jump on it now we can
one of them. That project really didn’t get something done for the winter. I
go anywhere, but it was a lot of fun
sent it to her, and within a day,
– so I kept in contact with Leah. We she sent some piano stuff and
always talked about doing something just took it a step further than
together. She’s a unique musician – how I had it. It had a vocal
very inspiring, and like me, she’s very pattern which followed the
much into the medieval/Celtic, kind of melody, and then it morphed
old-world stuff that’s pretty cool. She into where we had a chorus.
kind of went off on her won and did We did it through WhatsApp,
some stuff, and invited me in 2011 to it’s all through the Internet
play on this track she had. I thought I because she’s in Vancouver
was just going to play some riffs on it, and I’m in Sacramento – it
but she was like, “No – sing.” was a lot of fun. We did it in
To me, she’s like the singer’s singer, a week. It took on a life of its
and it ended up being a song called own through this one riff.
“Dreamland,” and it came out really There’s not much to it, it’s got
cool. The production’s not the best, this chorus and main melody.
but it was definitely promising for We just did this for free – put
future stuff to come up. When I did the it out there for people. Metal
Maria (Adrenaline PR) helped
us get the word out there, and
so far it’s gotten 15,000 hits on
YouTube for the lyrical video
within the first week. We’re planning
on writing maybe ten more songs like
that, and it’ll be something to come
out in the Fall, I think.
It’s a very cool twist for people that
might only know you from Testament
or Dragonlord.
It’s very refined. It’s not crazy, but it’s
still heavy enough for metal. At the
same time, I could play this for my
mom’s friends and she’d be like, “Oh!”
(laughs).
I was always curious, Eric, about that
period of Testament from say, 1994-
2000. That was a very strange time for
metal, but you guys soldiered through