BassPlayer 2017-03

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Fretless Metal Master
Steve DiGiorgio
Embraces Frets On
Testament’s Latest
According to Steve DiGiorgio, recording Testament’s
latest metal masterstroke, Brotherhood of the Snake, was a quick studio session,
but it wasn’t the easiest. “There was some suffering,” he reveals. “I don’t
mean that in too profound of a way—some of the guys wanted to work on
it and live with it, but there just wasn’t any time. Some people are used to
taking their time and trying unlimited ideas, and they were a little out of
their element. It caused a lot of tension.”
Along with the addition of DiGiorgio—who re-joined in 2013—that tension
translates into Testament’s most muscular-sounding effort in years.
Ripping heads off straight out of the gate on the opening title track, and
following through with tunes like “The Pale King” and “Seven Seals,”
Testament’s no-holds-barred brand of classic, old-school thrash runs rampant
throughout Brotherhood of the Snake. And DiGiorgio is clearly in his element:
His fierce, fluid playing and gutsy tone tie together the bombastic elements
of the band’s virtuosic lineup (Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson on guitars,
Gene Hoglan on drums, and lead singer Chuck Billy) in a supremely tight and
unified way. It is the result of DiGiorgio’s conscious effort to set aside his
own personal sound in favor of what he dubs the “Testament bass sound.”
DiGiorgio’s fretless skill set has been influencing players ever since his
Sadus demos started getting passed around in the late ’80s amongst burgeoning
yet soon-to-be famous bassists like Cannibal Corpse’s Alex Webster.
Steve helped define the death metal genre with the landmark Death albums
Human [1991, Combat] and Individual Thought Patterns [1993, Combat] as
well as Control Denied’s The Fragile Art of Existence [1999, Nuclear Blast],
and he has remained extreme metal’s go-to fretless bassist ever since. But
By Freddy Villano
Photograph by MARTINE PETRA
bassplayer.com / march2017 37