The Berkeley, California-based thrash metal band Testament is an American institution. Originally forming in 1983, the current Legacy lineup consists of rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, lead singer Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, bassist Steve Di Giorgio, and drummer Dave Lombardo. Peterson is the last surviving founding member of Testament, however one of the band’s composers, Skolnick, who left in 1992 and did not return until 2005, has now returned. In 1986, Billy replaced founding vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza, who had replaced Paul Baloff in Exodus, and thus began his tenure with Testament. He and Peterson are the only continuous members of Testament, with Peterson being the only one to feature on every studio album.

Considered one of the “big six” bands (together with Exodus, Death Angel, Lz Rockit, Forbidden, and Vio-lence) that helped define the thrash metal sound of the 1980s in the San Francisco Bay Area, The band formed in 1983. Testament is widely recognized as a pioneering band of the second wave of thrash metal, which emerged in the late ’80s, and a cultural phenomenon in its own right. [7][8] Along with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill, and Death Angel, they are often considered one of the “big eight” of thrash metal. Since the inception of the SoundScan system, the band has sold over 1.4 million records in the United States. and more than 14 million copies sold throughout the globe. As of now, Testament has produced three DVDs, twelve singles, four live albums, five compilation albums, and thirteen studio albums (one of which is a collection of re-recorded songs).

After signing to Atlantic Records in 1986 under the name Legacy, the band changed its name to Testament and released its self-titled debut album in 1987. The following year, they released The New Order, which also received widespread critical acclaim and was widely covered in the press, particularly in heavy metal music magazines. Testament’s third album, Practice What You Preach (1989), was their first to break into the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 list, marking the beginning of the band’s mainstream success. [19] A series of critically and commercially acclaimed albums were produced in the early to mid-1990s. These included Souls of Black (1990), The Ritual (1992), and Low (1994). [19] Testament, who had been experimenting with a groove/death metal-influenced sound by the time Atlantic dismissed them in 1995, kept recording and performing until their extended sabbatical in 2001, when Billy was stricken with cancer. His disease had gone into remission by 2005, and he and Testament were back at it, recording the live album Live in London with the original lineup from The Legacy. Since then, Testament’s fame has skyrocketed; the band has released four albums in the Top 100 on the Billboard 200 (2008’s The Formation of Damnation, 2012’s Dark Roots of Earth, 2016’s Brotherhood of the Snake, and 2020’s Titans of Creation), and they have been on the road nonstop since. The band’s fourteenth studio album is now under production, with a release date set for 2023.