Too many projects?
Blabbermouth printed an interview with Alex Skolnick and he mentioned that there are plans to record a Testament album early in the year. They have been touring here and there for the last couple of years, but have not done an album in a long time. I liked the band back in the day and might be interested in a new album, but this brought a concern with me. Skolnick talked about all these projects he is doing and that's great at all. Yet, I think a lot of metal musicians whose prime was years ago are involved in multiple projects at the same time now. I appreciate that and understand that they get to do what they want and they do what they can to make money. However, I can't help but feel like these people with all these projects don't give their all to any one project. Maybe I am being selfish here, but I would rather see an artist concentrate on doing one great album instead of playing decent on three separate projects. Perhaps I am being skeptical, but I am taking into consideration the lack of great reunion or comeback albums in recent years as well and the number of artists who seem to talk more about their tour plans than about their new album.
What do you think?
What do you think?
posted by Metal Mark at
8:10 AM
5 Comments:
i wouldn't worry too much about Skolnick's distractions, you can count on Eric Peterson to be handling the bulk of the riff writing. Skolnick will step in towards the end and stamp some (not-so-metal-tone) leads over them.
sure Testament are loooooooooong overdue for a new album and yeah, that's likely due to Eric immitating Dimmu with his Dragonlord project. I'm sure the time away from Testament will have done him alot of good though.
maybe they're good at multi-tasking - - I'm a onethingatatime kind of person though, so I know what you mean.
vimfuego-I don't mean just Testament so much because the only album I was disappointed in from them was The new order. It just seems like the new releases from a lot of older bands tend to just be reasons to tour rather than the band really concentrating on making a good album.
Ommywatch-Some artists can do that, but some people just seem to be spreading themselves thin.
I share your conern, but the side projects also keep a lot of them fresh. Think about the amazing number of side projects the guys from Dream Theater have done, yet they continue to turn out some of the best hard prog rock ever.
-- david
I have multiple comments to this:
First, Testament are indeed working on a new project. When I interviewed Eric Peterson, we talked about Dragonlord and Testament in equal measures and he mentioned he was going into the studio with them.
Next, I will say that I am not terribly worried about Testament's capacity to write a good album at this stage in their career. The Gathering is perhaps the second-best Testament album ever done behind The Legacy, and Low was a very strong album. Demonic is the fastest and most brutal album they've done. Consider Chuck Billy to have a huge influence in this too.
Next, you're right; Alex is all over the place with Testament, his trio, the TSO gig...I took my wife up to meet Alex and Chris Caffery when they did a meet and greet since I'd interviewed both...Chris remembered me, Alex not so much, but they both treated her nice and gave me guitar picks...I know Alex freelances himself to various symphonies in NYC and stuff like that as well
The spreading yourself too thin notion is valid, Mark. I've said this about Jack Frost. He seems like a nice guy and I may be interviewing him, but I am largely disappointed in his solo album and I never was altogether impressed by Seven Witches, though I interviewd their current singer Alan Tecchio. I forget where else Frost appears lately, but after the solo album, I made the opinion that Frost is spreading himself too thin and is making average if not less-than-average music as a result
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