It's been four years since the metal world last received a new album from thrash icons Testament. The follow-up to 2012's Dark Roots of Earth will be released in the fall, titled The Brotherhood of the Snake. The stunning album art can be seen below and frontman Chuck Billy has shed some light on the music, indicating the payoff will have been worth the wait.

"It was a long time, about a year and a half process," the singer began in an ARTE Concert interview at this year's Wacken Open Air festival (video above). Between Eric [Peterson, guitar] creating the music and me creating the lyrics or the melodies, there's a lot of times where I was frustrated with him, or he was frustrated with me. It was probably the most difficult record we've ever done," he continued.

Adding more to this sentiment, Billy continued, "But I think, at the end of the day, it's one of the most creative ones, actually. Maybe it was because we had so much time with it. Like they say — anything comes that is good isn't easy. That's how it works. I'm proud of it. Me and Eric, we've had our battles for a year and a half. But at the end of the day, we're high-fiving. It's all good."

Discussing the album with Metal Maniac, Peterson offered a look into the title track's themes, stating, "It’s basically about a lot of the early secret societies that started taking over power, trying to control the society and spawned off into illuminatis and stuff like that. A lot of human control and religions and the similarities between religions and alien beings and stuff like that.”

The Brotherhood of the Snake will be released on Oct. 28 through Nuclear Blast.

Testament, The Brotherhood of the Snake Album Art

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