Release Date November 10th, 2026
Format Book
Genre Thrash Metal
Origin USA
Chuck Billy took the microphone in 1986, when the band was called Legacy. His roar made Testament one of the pillars of Bay Area thrash on "The Legacy", "The New Order" and "Practice What You Preach". He is of Pomo and Mexican descent, and he wove that heritage into songs like "Native Blood", which won Best Music Video at the American Indian Film Festival. It also put him in the Smithsonian National Museum Of The American Indian exhibition "Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians In Popular Culture", and the California State Assembly recognized him for his influence on Native communities. He beat cancer in 2001 and has fronted the band across fourteen studio albums, the latest being "Para Bellum" in 2025.
Dave Erickson co-wrote the book, and Permuted Press is publishing it. It comes in two halves. The first, the Old Testament, goes back to the explosion of Bay Area thrash: the birth of Testament, the feuds, the friendships and the reckless years of turning into a frontman. The second, the New Testament, opens in 2001 with a 38 year old singer floored by a cancer diagnosis.
He reaches for his Native American and Mexican American roots, for spiritual healers and visions, and for a scene that stood behind him at Thrash Of The Titans. That San Francisco benefit turned old rivals into brothers and lit the fuse for the thrash revival. Rob Halford, the Metal God of Judas Priest, writes the foreword. Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God, who wrote his own memoir "Dark Days", closes the book with the afterword.
This is the book a thrash lifer wants from a frontman, blunt and scarred, told by the man who stood in the eye of it. The first half tells the Bay Area years from inside the van, and readers raised on thrash documentaries will run into a handful of tales they have heard before. In the second half the book stops being about metal.
A man faces death with healers, visions and his ancestors at his side, and a scene of brawlers and rivals shows up for one of its own at Thrash Of The Titans. Erickson lets Billy talk like Billy, with no makeup and no sermon, and the two halves lock into one life. With Halford opening the door and Blythe closing it, this belongs on the shelf next to "The New Order" on vinyl.
|8.0
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