Eric Peterson
‘The Great American Riffmeister’

by Matthew Hoffman
Staff Writer

Eric Peterson was born on May 14, 1964, The Year of the Dragon! He was raised in the beautiful and secluded community of Lafayette, situated 14 miles Northeast of Oakland, Calif. From early junior high school age, Peterson knew he wanted to be a rock star, and his 8th grade yearbook actually has that listed as his career goal! Peterson had a love of harder music than his more casual mellow friends. He liked Rocks and Draw The Line by Aerosmith while his friends liked Foreigner.

Crazy about the hard rock and metal movements, Peterson sought out a professional guitarist as a teacher. The man he chose was the 67-year-old William Tapia, a world famous guitarist who had played with Desi Arnaz’s band (I Love Lucy). Young Eric brought his Draw The Line songbook for Aerosmith to his lessons and was excited to learn. Despite his respect for Mr. Tapia he was disenchanted as Tapia tried to teach him to play the rock song in an almost jazz/big band fashion, not the way they were actually meant to be played. Tapia would smack his hands and say, “No, this is how I want you to play it.” Five lessons or so later, and Peterson had had enough and decided to teach himself. He would stay up late on Saturday Nights watching all the great acts on “Don Kershner's Rock Concert” or “Saturday Night Live” and try and to reproduce the riffs from the powerful songs of Black Sabbath or Kiss.

Even “Austin City Limits,” a country show that showed him more and more guitar techniques and rhythms from acts like Neil Diamond or ZZ Top. He also bought lots of records and tried to play along to the songs spending hours lifting the needle on the albums and trying to place it in the perfect spot. Peterson eventually frequented several concerts like “Unleashed In The East“ Judas Priest tour of 1979 and rushed home to try and play some of the amazing riffs he heard. He always loved the riffs and rhythms, never really trying to play the leads or solos. Never learning how to read music, Peterson just had a great feel for reproducing the rhythms he heard. All throughout high school he wanted to be a musician and once he became better he started playing in front of a mirror at home and dabbled in writing some of his own stuff. He dreamed of being in the front lines of rock and eventually liberating people with his music. Another moment of significance was when he saw Metallica opening up for Love Rocket and became even more motivated. The music he had been writing was much like what he heard minus having a drummer.

Just after high school while working in a restaurant as a busboy, Peterson brought in a tape of Motley Crue and lied to the waitress that that was his band. When he saw how excited and impressed they all were, he decided he needed to get serious about his playing to be become good enough to create his own band. Soon thereafter he was at a park and saw this dude that looked much like him. Peterson describes Clemente as “wearing a jean jacket with a huge Iron Maiden patch on the back and Motorhead and Venom patches on the front, probably trying to buy pot.” An appearance like this was very rare for the community Peterson lived in. This man was Louie Clemente and within a week along with Derek Ramirez they were writing and trying to create their own music together. They formed a death metal style band called Legacy. The band grew and added Greg Christian on bass and Zett (Steve Souza) on vocals and they became more of speed metal outfit. When Alex Skolnick joined the band on lead guitar it became even more melodic and musical. As the well-told story goes, within a few years the band turned to the colossal Chuck Billy to replace the departed Steve Souza who left for Exodus and the legendary line-up was complete.

Peterson soon became the unspoken “leader” of the band and a major creative force in the songwriting process as well. Along with spectacular young Alex Skolnick on lead guitar, Peterson created a signature sound for Testament and wrote one classic after another. The common denominator was the amazing rhythms of the songs as cuts like “Over The Wall,” ‘Into The Pit,” “Disciples Of The Watch” and “The Preacher” became just a few of the band’s unforgettable tunes. During those years Peterson only played a handful of solos as Skolnick was rising into a shred legend. Undeterred, Peterson continued to relish being able to create newer better and more unique riffs that would eventually take their place in the main rhythms of the songs. He was able to take those riffs and ideas by Skolnick and blend them into a solid mix of rising action then eventually a climax to the songs that fans would love. A signature word would be spoken like “Preach” or “Watch” and Alex would tear into another blazing solo. How did Peterson help create one hit after another? He actually envisioned pure aggression and metal fans rocking out for inspiration. By seeing the end product, Peterson saw his way to writing uncompromisingly outstanding metal songs.

The perfect example for this is “Into The Pit” one of the best mosh pit thrash metal songs of all time. Peterson also took joy in writing many of the bands slower ballads like “Trail Of Tears” and “The Ballad”, showing a very talented and creative side for someone who never really had any formal training. Another huge accomplishment for the band is that the band really never changed their core sound with the times in an effort to be more and more popular (Unlike another particular Bay Area band). In doing this, they created solid albums but maintained a throng of extremely loyal fans that still love them 20 years later. Peterson along with Billy kept the band together for second decade when in 1992 Clemente and Skolnick walked away. Christian eventually left too, but nothing could ever stop the inexhaustible Peterson from driving forward. He helped recruit some of the most talented metal musicians of his day like drummer John Tempesta, guitarists James Murphy, Steve Smythe, Glen Alvelais and bassist Steve DiGiorgio to continue on with killer albums like Low, Live at The Fillmore and eventually their hardest to date Demonic.

Several moments stuck out to Peterson making him realize he had “made it” so to speak. One was touring with Judas Priest on their Painkiller tour for 48 dates, as well as the “Clash Of The Titans” giant tour with Slayer, Megadeth and Suicidal Tendencies. Another cool moment was when all the members of the band bought brand new Chevy Camaros. The young busboy joker’s band had become just as big and much better then the one on the tape he played for the pretty waitresses!
After watching pretty much the whole band leave to pursue other types of projects for 10+ years, Peterson went for his own passion, black metal. He refers to this as “Dark Atmospheric Metal.” What the world received was the dominating instant black metal powerhouse Dragonlord. In 2001 he released Rapture, which although not promoted very well, received much critical acclaim. Many reviews immediately threw Dragonlord into the league of black metal giants Dimmu Borgir and Cradle Of Filth. Some said it was Dimmu Borgir on steroids! Peterson was the lead guitarist and the vocalist on the album as well. Talk about a coming out party! Still many saw this as just a side project.

That all changed when this year Peterson released the band’s second album Black Wings of Destiny. This record is on a whole new level. It is simply one of the best albums of the year! What’s different? Peterson went to Europe to record in the Famous Studio Fredman with producer Fredrik Nordstrom in Gothenburg, Sweden. This European influence expanded his creative “dark” horizons. He also showed on the new album a significantly better depth of vocal talent. Many areas can be pointed to concerning this, but the best two are on “Emerald” and “Black Funeral,” both outstanding remakes of classic songs. On the Thin Lizzy classic “Emerald,” Peterson’s voice is amazing as he sings this rock ditty in a respectful yet slightly more powerful way. The songs lyrics start out “ Down from the glen came the marching men, with their shield and their swords”, and you wonder who the hell is singing, as Peterson’s command is uncanny. On “Black Funeral,” Dragonlord’s black metal version of the Mercyful Fate song, Peterson dominates again. This time he uses a death metal growl vocal to sing, “She was the victim of my coven.” This launches the song into a powerful slow drawn out riff that may be the best of the whole year in metal! He also allowed for a lot more contribution from band mate axe wielder Steve Smythe. Smyth has several solos on the album and they contrast Peterson’s solo work perfectly. Peterson described himself as playing leads in the vein of Michael Shenker, ones that are both very melodic and layered. The use of keys in combination with guitar leads is also excellently done like on “Curse Of Woe” and the drums of Jon Allen kick even more ass on this effort. Peterson even brought back early Testament rocker Derrick Ramirez on bass to round out the dark sound. With this effort I can guarantee you one thing — call it a side project now and Peterson will stomp your ass.

2005 also saw another huge accomplishment for Peterson, the entire original line-up of Testament re-united and toured briefly. Fans all over the globe were amazed to see Skolnick, Clemente, Tempesta, Christian, Billy and Peterson together again and playing all the old classics. The band released Live In London from their England portion of the tour and its one of the best live DVD/CD’s I have ever heard. With all the musical diversity these boys have gotten themselves involved with these past 13 years, they sound better then ever. It was great seeing Peterson bickering with Clemente over a cigarette for 10 minutes at a reunion event in Pennsylvania this summer, and made me realize that even a dozen years later they are still those crazy idiot roommates in the Seen Between The Lines VHS tape released 13 years ago. Peterson says he has been writing a lot these past years and has a lot of material for a new Testament album. The public is clamoring for the band to stay united long enough to get together to create another original member gem for their metal thirsty fans. Alex Skolnick also said has a few riffs as well so hopefully we will see a kick ass new Testament record in 2006!

As far as achievements and awards, Peterson is most proud of the two BAMMY Awards (Bay Area) he won for Souls Of Black and The Ritual. His favorite “riff” ever written is the main rhythm on “Over The Wall,” a tremendous metal song with many tempo changes and several types of leads and solos. As for personal future goals in music Peterson wants to become a “tasty soloist” and has been working these past five years on several specific pieces. After the next Testament record, he hopes to make an instrumental guitar album filled with “killer themes” and based around classical and blues guitar style mixed with metal. Does anyone have any doubt that record will be amazing? That actually was a rhetorical question, as everything Peterson has touched for the last 20 years has turned to heavy metal “Gold.”

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