Testament's new album inspired by aliens and secret societies

A promotional photo of Testament — Testament

Testament frontman Chuck Billy says the concept of the band’s upcoming new album was inspired by alien sightings and a shady secret society.

The band release their 11th album Brotherhood Of The Snake on October 28 via Nuclear Blast Records and they previously issued a lyric video for the title track. It’s the follow-up to 2012’s Dark Roots Of Earth.

Billy tells Wall Of Sound: “This is a total different flavour conceptually to the last album. Some of our earlier pieces have been more personal stuff and in this we have a story and we have developed our imagery around it.

“So Brotherhood Of The Snake came about as I was fascinated with alien sightings from around the world over thousands of years and it makes you think if there is something out there, it opens your mind.

“That kind of opened up an initial door and then there was an article online that I read about the Brotherhood Of The Snake. This was a secret society that wanted to take down all religion.

“They were of the belief of having an alien king, and that humans were slaves to this alien king who used our minerals and gold that we mined. This was a good platform that created the story and all of themes of religion and power.”

Meanwhile, Testament have also released a trailer for the album in which Billy also discusses the concept for Brotherhood Of The Snake. It can be viewed below.

Testament have a number of tour dates still to come in 2016.

Testament Brotherhood Of The Snake tracklist

Brotherhood Of The Snake
The Pale King
Stronghold
Seven Seals
Born In A Rut
Centuries Of Suffering
Black Jack
Neptune’s Spear
Canna-Business
The Number Game

Testament tour dates 2016

Oct 28: Oberhausen Turbinenhalle, Germany
Oct 29: Hamburg Alsterdorfer Sporthalle, Germany
Oct 30: Forest National, Belgium
Oct 31: Manchester Academy, UK
Nov 01: Glasgow O2 ABC, UK
Nov 02: Dublin Vicar Street, UK
Nov 04: London Roundhouse, UK
Nov 05: Birmingham O2 Academy, UK
Nov 06: Tilburg O13, Netherlands
Nov 07: Paris Casino de Paris, France
Nov 09: Bilbao Santana 27, Spain
Nov 10: Porto Coliseu, Portugal
Nov 12: Madrid La Riviera, Spain
Nov 13: Lyon Transbordeur, France
Nov 15: Lausanne Metropole, Switzerland
Nov 16: Zurich Komplex 457, Switzerland
Nov 17: Offenbach Stadthalle, Germany
Nov 18: Ludwigsburg MHP Arena, Germany
Nov 19: Munich Zenith, Germany
Nov 21: Milan Alcatraz, Italy
Nov 22: Vienna Gasometer, Austria
Nov 23: Leipzig Haus Auensee, Germany
Nov 25: Prague Forum Karlin, Czech Republic
Nov 26: Geiselwind Eventhall, Germany
Nov 27: Berlin Columbiahalle, Germany
Nov 29: Athens Gagarin 205, Germany
Nov 30: Thessalonika Principle Club Theatre, Greece

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.