TESTAMENT Place Your Order
Alex Skolnick’s mom, an author of child-development tests, would have never guessed that her pride and joy would have broken with the family academic tradition to earn his living playing in one of the Bay Area’s most prominent proto-fascist metal outfits.
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TESTAMENT Place Your Order
Mike Gitter
Alex Skolnick’s mom, an author of child-development tests, would have never guessed that her pride and joy would have broken with the family academic tradition to earn his living playing in one of the Bay Area’s most prominent proto-fascist metal outfits. “I get a kick out of the fact that these books are being written by someone who’s shocked at what their son does for a living,” says the 19-year-old Skolnick.
When the then-16-year-old Alex hooked up with Testament in 1984, little did Ma and Pa Skolnick suspect that Alex would be ditching college for a career in six-string thrash, metal dexterity. Testament have come far from thrashing Metallica/Exodus-derivative origins. Initially formed by Derrick Ramirez, cousin of rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, in 1983 the early days of Legacy were reflective of the conveniently dubbed ‘‘South Bay sound” epitomized by Metallica and chord-muting kin. With the addition of vocalist Chuck Billy in mid-1986 (taking the spot of Steve "Zetro” Sousa who went on to take the frontman’s position in Exodus, Legacy changed their name to Testament and signed with Megaforce, who soon released The Legacy, a collection of three years worth of Legacy/Testament faves.
“The only way we can survive... is to keep... growing with the music.” —Skolnick
“A lot of the first album was written before the current lineup happened,” says Skolnick, “and songs like ‘Raging Waters’ and ‘Curse Of The Legions Of Death’ are a good example of what we were like early on. With our new album, The New Order, you can tell how we’re moving on. The only way we can survive and keep ourselves happy is to keep expanding and growing with the music.”
With The New Order, Testament are clearly breaking away from the onedimensional thrash constraints that so typified their debut of last year. Instead of forsaking speed and power for more marketable heavy ballds a la Metallica’s “Fade to Black,” Alex and his droogs (rounded out by drummer Louie Clemente and bassist Greg Christian) focus on a heavier, stylistically more powerful barrage. Like one-time pure thrashers Metallica and Anthrax, Testament are surviving where many speedfor-speed’s sake outfits failed long ago.
“I feel like we just got started ” —Skolnick
“When we were in Europe, a lot of the thrashier magazines and journalists and even some bands were discouraging us from growing with our sound. They’re not into bands growing and wanted us to stay where we are. I even told a couple people that they were complete idiots for expecting the new album to sound like our first album. People should take the albums for what they’re worth and the period of the band they reflect.”
The New Order? Well, post-Joy Divisionists relax, it’s more than doubtful that Testament are headed toward the extremes of British synth-pop. Skolnick explains: “The title has a lot of double meanings. A lot of bands write about being hot for love or making out in the basement. We wanted to write about more serious stuff like, what would happen if the problems of today don’t get solved? Who would take over? The story that goes along with the song is about that very idea. Also, that song is about us today, not just Testament but the metal scene in general. Metal is here to stay whether people like it or not. We’re coming out of the sewers like C.H.U.D. or The Blob or something like that and moving right onto the charts, so people like George Michael will look and go ‘What!?! Who are these guys?’ ”
Quite literally growing up while playing guitar for Testament, Skolnick hasn’t exactly had a lot of time to be a “normal” teenager. “Growing up fast has been my biggest non-musical influence,” he reveals. “You learn so much, and through music at least you havfe some way of telling people what you’re thinking about and going through. I try to put everything I want to get off my chest into my guitar playing. It’s funny, I never felt understood .by anyone until I joined this band. The band were the first people to take me seriously.”
While beginning to make their climb toward the top of power-metal heap, Skolnick remains humble. Contemporaries of hometown pals Metallica, how far is monumental success for Testament? “I think we’re just beginning to show our potential,” muses the young guitarist. “So many people come up to us and tell us that we’ve made it but I think we have a long way to go. I feel like we just got started.”
