Experienced Californian musician Charles Billy, better known as Chuck Billy, is a true Thrash Metal icon. Owner of a unique (and aggressive) voice, Chuck has been, since 1987, the lead singer of Testament, an influential group that is highly respected in the world of heavy music.
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Although he recorded all of Testament’s studio albums (14 in total, including the re-recordings collection “First Strike Still Deadly”), Chuck is not the quintet’s original vocalist. The first human being who sang in Testament was Steve “Zetro” Souza (member of Exodus), at the time when the band was called Legacy.
“It was Steve who recommended me for the role. He was hanging out with my younger brother at the time, so he spent a lot of time at our house. My brother and I had a band at the time called Rampage, although we liked Punk more than Metal. We played stuff by The Plasmatics and Dead Kennedys, oblivious to the fact that a new era in heavy music was really emerging”, recalled Chuck, in an interview with Metal Hammer in 2007, which was republished in May 2024.
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“Anyway, one day Steve told me he was leaving Legacy to join another band and asked if I wanted to replace him. I was up for it, so he told me he wanted to be part of the band. I was up for it. to that, so he gave me Eric’s number [Peterson, guitarrista] and I called him.”
Well, Chuck called Eric and started writing his story in the Testament (and Thrash Metal) book.
“I called Eric and went to audition. The band clearly liked what I did and called me back for a second audition. Then it was just a matter of letting their label hear me and getting their approval.”
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The record label mentioned by Chuck is Megaforce Records, which was founded by Jon Zazula and revealed names like Metallica and Anthrax.
“Jonny wanted to hear what I could do. So we went to a local studio and recorded a three-track demo. We did ‘Over The Wall’, ‘Burnt Offerings’ and ‘Raging Waters’, we sent the tape to Jonny and I was inside”, said the (literally) great vocalist.
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Ultimately, Chuck Billy became the lead singer of Testament, a position he still holds today, almost 40 years later. Currently, he and his work partners are recording the band’s next studio work, which has no scheduled release date.
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