Page 39 - RockRevoltMagazine-FebruaryMarch2016

it with some great albums - notably, “Demonic,” which may be the heaviest thing the band has ever done,
yet was a very different type of record for Testament. I remember playing the hell out of that record at
college radio, and you guys even played a small club here in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on that tour. What are
your thoughts on that time, and that album in particular?

That record was a lot of fun. At that point, I think I threw my guitar against the wall and said, “Fuck this!”
I think I quit my own band – it was a really weird time. It was me, Chuck, and Greg – we were the last
people left and it was just falling apart. WE were going to do this new band with Chris Kontos, coming out
of Machine Head, with one of his friends on bass. It was going to be a four-piece, and we were going to be
called DFG – Dog Faced Gods, or ICU – Intensive Crushing Unit, these were all Chris Kontos’ ideas. It kind
of stems from that – we had some songs like “Distorted Lives,” “Together As One,” and taking the Testament
name out of the equation, it opened up new ideas. There were
no boundaries, we didn’t think like, “That’s not what Testament
would do.” That fell apart, and that’s really how we got Gene
in – we told Gene it was going to be a new project. We were
excited that we were going to do something new, but at the end
of the day, when we got a record deal, before we inked it, we
thought, “This could be a new chapter in Testament.”

I’m glad we kept it under the Testament banner, because it was
like another side to us. Like you said, college radio and the
500 and under seat clubs – we went out and did that and really
made a name for ourselves. That’s when grunge was at its peak,
and we really just went underground with that record and built
ourselves up again, rather than put out another “Souls of Black,”
or “Low,” or anything in that realm. We just kind of exploded
as a new band again with that sound. That evolved into “The
Gathering,” which was geared more towards our old stuff, and I think we found our niche. That’s kind of
where we’re at – like melodic death metal, in a way. The “Demonic” record just crushes. People like Alex
Bent who are younger – he always says, “How come you guys don’t play anything off ‘Demonic’ like ‘Burning
Times?’” I’m like, “I know” (laughs). 