BBM reports that

TESTAMENT's classic late '80s/early '90s period has been well documented over the years by several compilations. However, the group's latter era has thus far slipped through the cracks as far as compilations go. On February 13, this will change, as "The Spitfire Collection" will be issued.

Consisting of tracks from such Spitfire/Testament titles as "The Gathering", "Demonic", "Live at the Fillmore", "First Strike Still Deadly" and "Live in London", the 14-track set chronicles an era that ultimately saw the original TESTAMENT reunite for a successful 2005 tour.

As a result, "The Spitfire Collection" features both live versions of such TESTAMENT classics as "Practice What You Preach", "Over the Wall", and "Souls of Black", as well as such oft-overlooked studio tracks as "Careful What You Wish For" and "The Burning Times".

With such bands as METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX introducing the world to thrash metal during the 1980s, TESTAMENT was one of the few second wave thrash bands to make a strong impression on the charts — resulting in such renowned releases as 1988's "New Order", 1989's "Practice What You Preach", 1990's "Souls of Black", and 1992's "The Ritual".

01. The New Order
02. Souls of Black
03. Practice What You Preach
04. Hatred's Rise
05. The Burning Times
06. John Doe
07. Careful What You Wish For
08. Down for Life
09. Riding the Snake
10. Over the Wall
11. The Preacher
12. Into the Pit
13. Trial by Fire
14. Disciples of the Watch

Source BBM

Tony Mills, TNT vocalist, has issued the following updates:

"So, the second half of pre-production has begun in Spain, with the band and producer booked to re-commence recording at Studio Studio on February 1.

"I think, as a band, we are all very confident now that the album is going the right way with strong tracks and solid steel production to take us through 2007 and into much live work throughout the year."

The upcoming CD, which was recorded in part in Toten, Norway with producer H.P. Gundersen, will contain the cuts "Something Special", "I Cant Go on with This Feeling", "Golden Opportunity", "Fountain of Love" and "Are You Blind", among others.

Source TNT

Rock Eyez, Brian Rademacher recently conducted interview with Jon Oliva (Savatage, Jon Oliva's Pain). Few excerpts are follows:

Rock Eyez: We just did an interview with Zak Stevens [former SAVATAGE and current CIRCLE II CIRCLE singer], and a question I asked him was that if he could change anything during his music career, what that would be? His answer was the passing of your brother, Criss. How does that make you feel?

Jon Oliva: That would be the same thing for me. It had a serious effect on all of us.

Rock Eyez: Tell me what the differences are between his two releases and those from SAVATAGE, since they sound familiar.

Jon Oliva: My last two releases with SAVATAGE are really not different, other than different people playing instruments. Songwriting is the same, except I'm writing the lyrics instead of Paul [O'Neill], and basically any song that I've done could be on a SAVATAGE record. I wrote all the songs for SAVATAGE, so obviously there will always be that similarity between what I do. That's OK — it doesn't bother me. It's just a different phase of what I'm doing. It all stems from the same thing.

Rock Eyez: Tell us about the SAVATAGE anniversary tour?

Jon Oliva: It's not going to be a tour. We're going to do something, not sure what yet. Maybe an album, might do a live thing, film it, and release it as a DVD. There are a couple other options but we haven't decided yet what we'll do. It's just time to find the time do it since we are always busy. We are going to do something once we have the time to do it the right way.

Rock Eyez: What's your feeling about YouTube, the service that allows you to see a full concert or clips from your concerts without permission from the artist?

Jon Oliva: Yeah, (laughing). I don't know. It's good and it's bad, it's exposure. It's just as with anything-there's good and bad in everything. The internet is great in getting your message out and getting people involved in your websites and reaching a lot of people. The thing that is bad is that people can get your records for nothing and we are making records to make a living. It's like owning a grocery store, people would come in and take the milk without paying, and eventually it's going to cause a problem. It is what it is; it's the world today so you just gotta deal with it. I think it hurt the record companies the most because they're not selling half the records that they used to sell because people are just downloading them for nothing. It's taken the special-ness out of going out and buying someone's own album. An album to me is the lyrics and the artwork and if you don't have the lyrics and the artwork, it's not like having the real record. I personally never downloaded a song for free in my life because I personally think it's not right. That's just me.

Source Rock Eyez