TESTAMENT guitarist Eric Peterson has been given the green light to drive again by his doctor following his long recovery from a triple-fracture leg surgery. On tour in June, he fell down a flight of stairs resulting in the fracture that put him in the hospital in Vienna for 12 days. He spent the rest of the summer and part of the fall recouperating and in physical therapy.

Now that he is mobile, he can drive the hour plus journey to the TESTAMENT recording studio, Driftwood Studios, and get back to working on the recording. He is in the studio 2 to 3 days a week with Chuck Billy (vocals) and Paul Bostaph (drums) jamming on the songs as Chuck continues to work up more melody and lyric ideas.

In preparation for their follow up to The Gathering, Eric and Chuck upgraded their hide-away studio to include a state-of-the-art Digi-Design Pro Tools HD hard disk recording system. Chuck is quoted as saying, “We wanted to [and did] get all the bells and whistles plug-ins and hardware necessary to deliver a killer album.” Currently, long-time friend, and acclaimed recording engineer and ProTools pro, Vinne Wojno, is helping TESTAMENT test drive their newly installed system.

Last week they added a newly constructed raised platform for the drumkit to better anchor a biting edge on the drum tones. Wojno set up the drum micing for Dave Lombardo (ex-TESTAMENT) on The Gathering and likes the new upgraded set up.

Recording legend has it that in order to get drum ideas out of Eric Peterson’s head and onto the tracks, Dave Lombardo had to duck tape his sticks into his hands for one of the more blistering outings on The Gathering. Paul Bostaph, a metal drum legend in his own right steps “into the pit” for this new record and brings his own formidable double-kick talents to the mix.