Para Bellum
The title of Testament’s 14th studio album is a reference to the immortal Latin phrase attributed to the 4th-century Roman writer Vegetius: *Si vis pacem, para bellum* (if you want peace, prepare for war). As such, the veteran Bay Area thrashers delve into all manner of bellicose topics, from AI aggression (“Infanticide A.I.”) and invisible weapons (“Havana Syndrome”) to Wild West gunslingers (“High Noon”) and the January 6 insurrection (the title track). With a jolt of youthful energy from new 27-year-old drummer Chris Dovas, Testament OGs Chuck Billy (vocals), Eric Peterson (guitars), Alex Skolnick (guitars), and long-serving bassist Steve Di Giorgio revisited their roots via musical references to their 1987 debut, *The Legacy*, and their first ballad (“Meant to Be”) in many years. Even the cover image, by Israeli artist Eliran Kantor, is a reference to the band’s early days as Legacy, before they changed their name to Testament. “Our very first Legacy poster had this demon guy pushing two missile launchers with a giant explosion,” Billy tells Apple Music. “We were like, ‘Let’s bring that back.’” Below, the singer comments on each track. **“For the Love of Pain”** “That was the last song we wrote for the record. Chris wrote some lyrics and then I put my spin on it and sent it back. Then Eric took it even further and added some black metal vocals and some more lyrics. It’s odd that it was the last one we wrote but ended up being the first one on the record, but it just comes out smashing you in the face right away, a heavy song right at the top.” **“Infanticide A.I.”** “AI is everywhere these days. I rode in taxis in San Francisco and Texas without drivers, which is so weird. I even went to a restaurant where there was a robot clearing the tables and taking the dishes back to the dishwasher. But I used the song as a message to beware because AI is something that just keeps collecting data. It’s going to come to a point where it’s going to have an opinion and make its own decisions. If it’s during a time of war, is it just going to start popping off nuclear warheads? Who’s stopping it? Who’s controlling it?” **“Shadow People”** “I saw this show on TV about people who are frozen in bed because of a nightmare, or they see dark shadows in the room and things moving in the dark, but they can’t scream or move. I looked into it more and found something where they compare it to alien abductions involving the man in the black hat, who’s a common figure in alien abduction stories. So I put both of those ideas together in this song.” **“Meant to Be”** “It’s been a long while since we’ve done something like this. When I first heard it, I was just stoked, because it really did take me back to ‘Return to Serenity’ or something like that. The riff and the tone and the parts that Alex and those guys came up with, it really is epic. Then I got kind of scared, because it’s like eight minutes long. That’s a lot of words, a lot of singing. But once I found my way through it, it took on a life of its own and set it up for Alex and Eric to have this really cool lead guitar journey towards the end of the song. Lyrically, people might think it’s a love song, but it’s about the planet and how mankind keeps abusing it.” **“High Noon”** “That was a fun one. I don’t know why, but I just had an idea in my head about a gunslinger. The pace of the song brought out this whole storyline of a duel on a dirty street and hanging out in a saloon with hookers, drinking whiskey. Eric wasn’t sure about the idea at first, but it grew on him over time. And it just makes for something differently lyrically, musically, and vocally.” **“Witch Hunt”** “The day Steve Souza told me he was out of Exodus, I said, ‘I’m coming over. We’re writing some songs.’ I originally wrote lyrics for ‘High Noon’ and ‘For the Love of Pain’ with Steve as well, but they didn’t work in the studio. With this song, it stuck. Eric had a working title of ‘Witch Hunt’ for this, so we combined the idea of a political witch hunt with an actual witch hunt and the burning of witches.” **“Nature of the Beast”** “Another oddball track here. When I first heard it, it didn’t really sound metal to me. I love Thin Lizzy, and I love the dueling guitar parts they came up with, but I didn’t feel it was right for the record. But when we started compiling all the songs for the album, we had enough death stuff and enough fast stuff. The intro on this has a Motörhead feeling, and the overall vibe is classic rock, so I kind of took that approach vocally. I pulled my voice back a bit so I’m not pushing it as much. Lyrically, it’s about going to Vegas, gambling, and putting everything on the line.” **“Room 117”** “I’ve been writing songs with Del James for almost 30 years now, and we co-wrote the lyrics to this one. This was another song that didn’t fit the metal mold to me, but I wasn’t going to throw it away. I had a melody, but I didn’t have any words yet. At the time, Del’s mom was in the hospital, and he was spending a lot of time there. Room 117 was her room number, and she never left that room. He lost his mom there. One day he texted me some words he wrote about that and said, ‘If you can use it, go for it. If not, I’m just sharing it with you.’ So I took some of his stuff and combined it with some of my stuff, and it fit the melody I had in my head perfectly.” **“Havana Syndrome”** “Since we were talking about war and weaponry on ‘Infanticide A.I.,’ another thing that came up was Havana syndrome, which is \[believed to be\] the result of an invisible weapon used on the US consulate, sound waves that were targeting US ambassadors and causing dizziness and headaches and balance problems—really screwing them up. I guess this is a weapon that’s also being used to defend against pirates. They hit their boats with these sound waves and the pirates get dizzy and start throwing up and then they take off.” **“Para Bellum”** “Me and Alex wrote this one. We knocked it out in about two hours. In the process of writing the lyrics together, I found that weird little hook of the lyric to throw off the timing of the chorus just enough to make a vocal hook without changing the riff. The song was inspired by the January 6 insurrection, which basically makes it another war song. And then of course this became the title of the album and the idea behind the cover art, with the angel with missile wings. It all fit together perfectly.”
Tim Bolitho-Jones reviews the fourteenth album by Testament. Read his review of Para Bellum here on Distorted Sound!
A review of Para Bellum by Testament, available worldwide October 10th via Nuclear Blast.
Testament - Para Bellum review: A musical resurgence nearly thirty years in.