Sacrament News + a new band arise...

Interested to hear Greg, lots of names I don't know.

average joe wrote:“These are the singers that will be heard on the next Testimony of Apocalypse album.”

Darren Johnson
Greg Minier
Jonathan Johnson
Brian Lyda
Corey Weaver
Derek Corzine
Juan Marrero
Ville Herranen

There may be a possibility of one more. We shall see.”

 This one more is a friend of mine here in Brazil, he's called Anderson Lima

Hey all -   just wanted to drop my response in here as well.  Basically just answering a few questions I saw in other threads.  I love that you all can discuss what you want freely in a space like this.  Don't want to "cramp the style" ...like "oh shoot, the band members are reading this"     Hopefully this clears up any confusion about what is going on with the upcoming album.


Just to address a few of the questions I've seen:

In efforts to provide the most brutal (and meaningful) album, we starting working with a few different singers to see who/what might work out.  After hearing just a few of the ideas (which were all amazing) we decided to do a multi-singer album.  This was not a "hired gun" situation.  The singers just wanted to help out to create something truly special.  When are you going to find an album with Darren Johnson, Greg Minier and then someone lesser known like Lex's friend, Anderson... all on the same album ???

Paul and I wrote all the music and arrangements.  All of the vocalists had full creative freedom to express how they wanted to perform in their given song(s) and wrote their own lyrics.  The guest musicians (some to be announced later) also were able to express their musical talents with full freedom. 

While Paul is the only original member from Sacrament - this band is not and never was supposed to be Sacrament.  Obviously the name comes from the first album and that was because Mike and Paul worked on that album together, and the only full length album featuring Mike as a vocalist. There was automatically going to be expectations to shake off some rust and bring back the Sacrament sound... which, at times, was present on the first album.  However, the expectations of Mike 1990 and Mike 2022 to sound the same would have been quite the feat!  Do we blame people for wanting a revival of Sacrament ... of course not.  Sacrament was awesome!  Incorporating more progressive styles while also keeping some old school death & thrash metal influences has been the result.

When Mike told us he was unable to record the 2nd album we all discussed the name and decided to keep it.  Why not?  Its a great name!  We weren't going to change the name for 1 album and then change back to TOA if Mike was able to return.

With Derek Corzine mixing (and playing bass) coupled with Rob Colwell (from Bombworks) mastering there is no doubt the production is going to be an upgrade as many of you have already heard on the singles.

Music evolves and we are thrilled to share the growth with everyone.   God Bless-  Nick (TOA)

TOATestimony wrote:Hey all -   just wanted to drop my response in here as well.  Basically just answering a few questions I saw in other threads.  I love that you all can discuss what you want freely in a space like this.  Don't want to "cramp the style" ...like "oh shoot, the band members are reading this"     Hopefully this clears up any confusion about what is going on with the upcoming album.


Just to address a few of the questions I've seen:

In efforts to provide the most brutal (and meaningful) album, we starting working with a few different singers to see who/what might work out.  After hearing just a few of the ideas (which were all amazing) we decided to do a multi-singer album.  This was not a "hired gun" situation.  The singers just wanted to help out to create something truly special.  When are you going to find an album with Darren Johnson, Greg Minier and then someone lesser known like Lex's friend, Anderson... all on the same album ???

Paul and I wrote all the music and arrangements.  All of the vocalists had full creative freedom to express how they wanted to perform in their given song(s) and wrote their own lyrics.  The guest musicians (some to be announced later) also were able to express their musical talents with full freedom. 

While Paul is the only original member from Sacrament - this band is not and never was supposed to be Sacrament.  Obviously the name comes from the first album and that was because Mike and Paul worked on that album together, and the only full length album featuring Mike as a vocalist. There was automatically going to be expectations to shake off some rust and bring back the Sacrament sound... which, at times, was present on the first album.  However, the expectations of Mike 1990 and Mike 2022 to sound the same would have been quite the feat!  Do we blame people for wanting a revival of Sacrament ... of course not.  Sacrament was awesome!  Incorporating more progressive styles while also keeping some old school death & thrash metal influences has been the result.

When Mike told us he was unable to record the 2nd album we all discussed the name and decided to keep it.  Why not?  Its a great name!  We weren't going to change the name for 1 album and then change back to TOA if Mike was able to return.

With Derek Corzine mixing (and playing bass) coupled with Rob Colwell (from Bombworks) mastering there is no doubt the production is going to be an upgrade as many of you have already heard on the singles.

Music evolves and we are thrilled to share the growth with everyone.   God Bless-  Nick (TOA)

Great in seecyou here again and very glad in know that you like the job of my friend enough to put him on the álbum. He deserve a lot!

I appreciate the reply from an actual member of the band. It keeps the guessing and misunderstandings to a minimum. 

But I do wonder if they will continue to use the multi singer situation or eventually return to having an official singer again. 

As we don’t know the reason Mike said he couldn’t record the second album… I hope he is doing okay. Private matters usual stay private. That said, maybe there’s a chance he’ll return again with a renewed voice that blows people away!

I also like the idea of guys like Greg Minier and Darren Johnson participating on this album. They both were in bands I liked a lot as a teenager. I’m assuming they both will do vocals on their respective songs. But will they also play their guitar and bass? Especially Greg! He is obviously known for his guitar skills.

I wonder if Ted Kirkpatrick’s “Tourniquet Ark” album inspired the idea for TOA to use multiple vocalists?