In a recent interview with Terrorizer magazine, Testament lead singer Chuck Billy confirmed the departure of Testament drummer Paul Bostaph.

"We just found our last week Paul Bostaph is not coming back to the band, he's starting his own new project and doing some things on his own," said Billy.

Bostaph was recently unable to work with Testament on the recording of their new album, The Dark Roots of Earth, due to what is described as a "serious injury." Gene Hoglan has since filled in for Bostaph live and in the studio.

Testament will not turn to Hoglan as a full time replacement, however, with Billy saying, "We're actually going to be holding a couple of auditions with probably small group of drummers that we chose — we don't want to have a revolving drum stool, we have a new record we want a permanent drummer."

It would appear the split as it least on good terms, with Billy adding: "We're still buddies. It's just that Paul feels at this point in his career he wants to be in a little more in control of the artistic creation of the songs and with his new project, they are all involved with that process whereas with our group, Eric [Peterson, guitar] is pretty much the main songwriter and that's just the way its been with us for 25 years."

Bostaph first filled in for Testament on drums back in 1993 and has been a full-time member of the band since 2007, playing on the band's 2008 effort, The Formation of Damnation.

Related