Brotherhood of the Snake

The possibility of the appearance of the eleventh album was first mentioned a week before the release of Dark Roots of Earth , when vocalist Chuck Billy said that there would no longer be long breaks between albums, and that the band would work hard and perform live for two years or something In addition, they will try to release the album as soon as they can ^[10] . Eric Peterson added: “Now there is definitely some kind of politics in the group. I think if the record will be sold well - and I think it will be - Testament will release a new one. There are people in the group who are, well, not 100% here, unless things are going well. It is quite cruel, but as for me, I am in any case in business. I founded the group. This is what I do. I think that, you know, if there are darker times for Testament, this lineup is unlikely to continue ^[11] . ”Testament spent most of the 2012 and 2013 tour supporting the album, performing with Anthrax and Death Angel . ^[12] They also were headliners on a US tour with Overkill , Flotsam and Jetsam, and 4ARM support. ^[13] In 2013, the group also released a live DVD and a double album Dark Roots of Thrash , which features a sold-out at Paramount in Huntington, New York, in February 2013. ^[14]

When Billy was asked in September 2013 if Testament had any ideas for the next album, he said that Testament would start writing and recording the album from January to April 2014 to release it later that year. He added that the group was in the “right direction” with Dark Roots of Earth , and added: “I think the old saying,“ if it's not broken, don't fix it, ”is appropriate, so we will probably stick to the same formula and ideas. I think there is not a single Testament album that sounds the same, so who knows which songs we will write next year ... I don't know ^[15] . " However, these plans failed because bassist Greg Christian left the group a second time, citing differences with the group and money issues ^{[16] [17] [18]} . He was replaced by Steve DiGiorgio ^[19] , who had already played in Testament from 1998 to 2004. When asked about Testament's plans to start recording a new album in April 2015, Peterson said that his “main goal” was “to return home [from the tour] in June, finish it and get into the studio by September ^[20] ”. Billy added that the band’s goal was to complete the album for Thanksgiving ^[21] .

In May 2016, Billy confirmed the title of the album, The Brotherhood of the Snake, which was recorded at that time, and he hoped that it would be completed before their UK tour in June 2016 ^[22] . Peterson said that the album was supposed to be "released at the end of June, and it will probably be delivered to the record company by the end of the summer just during a really big tour in Europe ^[23] ." Responding to the musical style of the upcoming album, Peterson says: “He’s different. He will be more thrash . I mean, the material will be one of the fastest that we played. We usually have one or two thrash songs, a few mid-tempo songs, then one slow, heavy, and high-tempo songs. Half of the new material is thrash, which we have never done before. ”He also described the album as“ their own Reign in Blood ” ^[24] .

Billy said that the texts are inspired by the theories of ancient astronauts , mainly the transfer of " Ancient Aliens ". The title of the album is dedicated to the ancient secret society. ^[25]

On August 4, 2016, Testament began an eight-day countdown to the release of the album cover ^[26] ; the list of compositions was published later that month ^[27] . The first single, “Brotherhood of the Snake,” was released on September 2, 2016, and on the same day an official video was released with lyrics to this song ^[28] . The second single, "Stronghold", was released on October 12, 2016. The official video for the song “The Pale King” was released on October 31, 2016 ^[29] .

The album received mostly positive reviews from critics. AllMusic's Tom Jurek rated the album 3.5 out of 5: “The album offers an excellent sound portrait of Testament, doing what they do best - aggressive, heavy-rim, straight-to-the-face-thrash. There is an interesting concept here, but this is more of a pokrekovy audition, which complements the massive whole ^[30] . ”

• Chuck billy vocals
• Alex Skolnik - Guitar
• Eric Peterson - Guitar
• Steve Digorgio - bass guitar
• Gene Hoglan - Percussion