CHRIS ADLER Says TESTAMENT Asked Him To Join Them After GENE HOGLAN Quit

Drummer Gene Hoglan left Testament for the second time in his career in 2022. Dave Lombardo joined for about a year, and then current Testament drummer Chris Dovas took his place. But things could've been different.

According to former Lamb Of God drummer Chris Adler in an interview with Blabbermouth, Testament called him up as a potential replacement upon Hoglan leaving. Adler declined, saying in the interview that he's plenty happy doing Firstborne and whatever else he feels like doing these days.

"It still happens, yes. In the past month, I've done maybe three or four for-hire things. I'm able to do those from the studio that I have in my house. I've got a really extensive electronic kit that's hooked up to Toontrack. The last album recording I did with Lamb was the Burn The Priest covers record. Immediately after doing that, ToonTrack came in, and we did a sample pack for 'Drums Of Destruction' for EZDrummer.

"The kit, basically, mimics my acoustic kit very closely. I'm able to do things for hire from here. If I'm into it and it's something interesting, and actually, the more recent ones that I've picked to do were really outside of what I'm known to do, just to challenge myself and do something different.

"I know people are going to expect me to do what I did in Lamb, but I want to challenge myself and do something else. Part of this chapter two is something new. There have been offers, right from the start. I don't think they would mind saying it. I think Gene was leaving Testament, and they got in touch right away. That was right when I decided to start chapter two. There were a lot of things going on. I was in the middle of a terrible divorce; my mom just died. I got diagnosed with an issue that was making things a lot more difficult at the time. It wasn't right for me.

"There are opportunities, but I'm enjoying, right now, saying yes to the ones I like and being able to be comfortable enough to turn some things down."

Adler wouldn't have been a far cry for Testament either, considering he drummed on the Dark Roots of Earth bonus track "A Day in the Death".