This Audition Video Helped Chris Dovas Become Testament’s New Drummer

At the start of 2023, Testament still had Dave Lombardo as their drummer and had a whole mess of live commitments lined up. Then they suddenly didn’t have Lombardo in the mix and they had to find a replacement.

Then in April, guitarist Eric Peterson gave props to Seven Spires drummer Chris Dovas, who’d originally been tasked with filling in for Lombardo when he was unable to play the first six dates of the band’s last summer/fall leg of “The Bay Strikes Back Tour.” Eventually, he was hired full-time once the ex-Slayer drummer departed. Now these days, he’s Testament’s full-time drummer, causing some in the band to say Dovas is the band’s new drummer that’s “heavier and more precise than ever before.”

But how does one even get to that point? Well, earlier this week Dovas posted his audition video, where he showed a raw performance of “D.N.R.” from Testament’s classic album The Gathering. Filming in what looks like a barely finished basement.

According to Dovas, he did the whole audition in one take without any of the additional tricks like quantization and editing. And by what you can see in the clip below, the dude played the hell out of “D.N.R.”

Oh and if you want to see Testament and Dovas in action, you should make your way out to the very first Metal Injection Fest this September. For more information, as well as the full list of bands ready to melt your face right off your head, be sure to check this out right now!