San Francisco Bay Space steel veterans TESTAMENT will launch their new album, “Para Bellum”, on October 10 through Nuclear Blast. The LP stands as each a battle cry and an remark of humanity’s uneasy alliance with its personal creations. As expertise accelerates and disconnection grows, “Para Bellum” sees TESTAMENT reflecting the fashionable chaos via music that’s pressing, sharp, and unflinchingly human.
Right now, TESTAMENT ship one in all their most intense songs they’ve written so far, “Infanticide A.I.” Lead by the blinding pace of their new drummer Chris Dovas, the band reveals off its musical expertise far past their anticipated norms. Watch the music video for “Infanticide A.I.”, directed by Joey Durango, under.
TESTAMENT singer Chuck Billy feedback: “The brand new album ‘Para Bellum’ consists of some quick, heavy and melodic tunes. As soon as once more [TESTAMENT guitarist Eric] Peterson has discovered a method to preserve the track writing contemporary and trendy sounding. It’s gonna be exhausting to decide on what songs to play reside trigger to many to select from.”
Peterson states: “It has been 5 years since our final report ‘Titans Of Creation’ was launched. Since then, all of us waited to get again to it and all of us did in an enormous approach! Now our lengthy over due new report ‘Para Bellum’ is upon us and about to be launched in October. We’re tremendous stoked and excited to launch new blood and fury to you all! With our first single ‘Infanticide A.I.’ we’re popping out swinging! However with new velocities of fury, whereas sustaining a steadiness that all of us love and know from a TESTAMENT monitor. Get pleasure from!”
With each technology comes an important conflict. It could take years to totally reveal itself, however the seasoned warrior is aware of preparation is all the things. Now in 2025, Bay Space thrash steel icons TESTAMENT return with their fourteenth studio album, “Para Bellum”. Taken from the Latin phrase “Si vis pacem, para bellum” — “If you would like peace, put together for conflict” — the album stands as each a battle cry and an remark of humanity’s uneasy alliance with its personal creations. As expertise accelerates and disconnection grows, “Para Bellum” sees TESTAMENT reflecting the fashionable chaos via music that is pressing, sharp, and unflinchingly human.
True to TESTAMENT‘s legacy, “Para Bellum” is a masterclass in dynamic thrash songwriting, guided by founding guitarist Eric Peterson and vocalist Chuck Billy, who proceed to steer the band with imaginative and prescient and power. Every monitor on the album stands by itself — distinct in construction, key, and environment — however when taken collectively, they create a report that flows seamlessly, puzzle-like, via eras and types. From the haunting, groove-laden “Shadow Folks” to the whiplash depth of “Infanticide A.I.”, the band explores themes each timeless and rapid: expertise’s encroachment, supernatural dread, generational collapse, and duels worthy of a standoff in “The Gathering”-esque “Excessive Midday”.
“Who’s the quickest?” Billy jokes, “It appears like there’s about to be a draw.” Songs shift effortlessly from pummeling thrash to eerie darkness, with Chuck stretching his voice throughout clear chants, guttural roars, and whispers of doom, all in excellent sync with the temper of every piece.
To the delight of many life-long TESTAMENT followers, this report additionally sees the inclusion of a ballad for the primary time in a few years. Exactly formulated to weave effortlessly with the album, “Meant To Be” incorporates a world of selection inside itself; “I like how the track takes off on the finish and simply would not look again,” explains Peterson. “It is completely different, however it suits. It is like a breath of contemporary air.” This additionally marks one other novel second for the band utilizing true, orchestrated strings carried out by world famend cellist Dave Eggar.
A significant evolution on “Para Bellum” is the addition of powerhouse drummer Chris Dovas, whose precision, pace, and instinctive dynamics infuse the album with contemporary vitality. Working carefully with Peterson all through the writing course of, Dovas helped form track buildings, accelerated the workflow, and injected a stage of versatility that amplifies the album’s trendy edge with out straying from the TESTAMENT sound. “He is so impressed and fast to throw concepts again,” says Peterson, who additionally embraced his personal black steel influences extra closely this time, each vocally and within the guitar work. Tracks like “Infanticide A.I.” and “For The Love Of Ache” replicate this genre-blending method — tight thrash foundations with ripples of black steel environment. “Eric and I’ve loads of comparable influences,” explains Dovas, “We labored actually carefully on this album and had a good time.”
Alongside Peterson, Alex Skolnick‘s guitar work stays each razor-sharp and exploratory. “This album captures many various sides of the band via the years, together with some contemporary new sounds,” Skolnick notes. “There’s somewhat one thing for everybody. You’ll not be disenchanted.” Rounding out the rhythm part is the inimitable Steve DiGiorgio, whose strolling bass traces add a novel low-ness, and technical depth, locking in flawlessly with Dovas‘s expressive drumming. In the meantime, Chuck leads the lyrical imaginative and prescient with contributions from longtime collaborator Del James and different pals, weaving a mixture of supernatural mythos, sociopolitical commentary, and apocalyptic dread.
Recorded with Juan Urteaga and blended for the primary time by Jens Bogren, “Para Bellum” is extraordinarily polished and working at full throttle. The duvet artwork, as soon as once more painted by Eliran Kantor, captures the album’s essence: a serene angel made from missiles, an explosion turned halo, surrounded by shovel-bearing cultists with books strapped to their faces. It is a visible metaphor for blind perception and self-destruction — created, notably, by hand — in an period flooded by A.I.-generated imagery.
In its opening notes, “Para Bellum” nods to the previous by resurrecting a misplaced bridge from “The Legacy” — a full-circle second that anchors the album’s expansive sonic journey. And because it ends, it does so peacefully, with a second of classical-esque finger choosing lengthy utilized by Peterson to heat up his fingers earlier than battle. From first observe to final breath, “Para Bellum” is an album by warriors — crafted in chaos, and constructed to outlast the wars to return!
“Para Bellum” monitor itemizing:
01. For The Love Of Ache
02. Infanticide A.I.
03. Shadow Folks
04. Meant To Be
05. Excessive Midday
06. Witch Hunt
07. Nature Of The Beast
08. Room 117
09. Havana Syndrome
10. Para Bellum
Photograph credit score: Fred Kowalo
