TESTAMENT's ERIC PETERSON Says GENE HOGLAN Is 'Like A Human Drum Machine'

TESTAMENT guitarist Eric Peterson spoke to Midlands Metalheads Radio about the songwriting process for the band's upcoming album, "Titans Of Creation", which will be released on April 3 via Nuclear Blast. The long-awaited follow-up to 2016 album "Brotherhood Of The Snake" was produced by singer Chuck Billy and Peterson while Juan Urteaga of Trident Studios handled co-producing, recording and engineering. Andy Sneap was responsible for the mixing and mastering of the album. Eliran Kantor stepped up once again to create a new masterpiece of artwork for the cover of this release.

Eric said (hear audio below): "It's been a long haul, but for me, since I write most of the material, having different drummers in the band [over the years] and different styles, getting Gene [Hoglan] in the band, who is kind of like a human drum machine — I mean, he can pretty much play anything. So my imagination is kind of limitless as far as what I can picture [the drum patterns being behind the] guitar. And a lot of the times, too, I play a riff, he's worked with me so long now, he knows exactly in the ballpark of what beat is gonna go where. So it's a lot of fun. But I guess, for the most part, [we're] just having fun playing this kind of music. And we don't write a record every year anymore — it's more like every two, three years — so when we do write a record, it seems to be a lot of fun."

Hoglan previously stated about how he approaches his drumming with TESTAMENT: "With TESTAMENT, I try to be as 'Gene Hoglan' as I can be. I definitely want the drums to sound like what Eric's looking for and I'm always trying to capture and enhance his vision. So I don't mind when I get songs really demoed out. Cool, lemme learn what you put on the demo and lemme Gene-ize it and we'll take it from there. Touring with TESTAMENT is very enjoyable. It's a well-oiled, solid metal machine that knows what it's doing."

Last year, Billy told the WSOU radio station that the new TESTAMENT album would "definitely" contain "some different elements. I think Eric definitely stepped back into little of his — I don't know — maybe, MERCYFUL FATE shoes," he said. "There's a lot of MERCYFUL FATE kind of stuff. Eric does some black metal stuff. There's some blast beats, which he's kind of mixed in there, which that's not the norm for us. So it's a little different again. I think all the songs definitely have their own identity and stand on their own."

TESTAMENT recently teamed up with EXODUS and DEATH ANGEL for "The Bay Strikes Back 2020" European tour.