As a member of thrash titans Testament and leader of his own jazz trio, Alex Skolnick is one of the busiest players in music. Having recently spoken to him about both, he's back with eonmusic to talk this time about Metal Allegiance; the all-star collective that has been coming together at regular intervals for over a decade. "It's just a different experience. It doesn't happen that often, so you don't get burned out on it", he says as we sit down for a chat over Zoom. Talking their latest collaboration with a member of Alice in Chains, NAMM 2026, and how he almost landed himself an unlikely gig with one of post-Grunge's most successful acts, we sat down with shredder's shredder. Pocket full of Kryptonite; Eamon O'Neill.
Photo; Darren McLoughlin
Hi Alex, 2025 was a monster year for you, with your trio's album coming out, as well as a Testament album.
Yeah, and I also had a film score come out. The film is finished. It's doing film festivals right now, but, yeah, it was a very productive year for sure. I'm still catching my breath.
Is this early part of the year a good time for you to let your hair down? I mean, we're obviously going to get to Metal Allegiance and NAMM, but is it good to get a breather?
There really wasn't much of a breather. By the first week of January I was off to tour with my trio and did about nine shows, and then straight to NAMM, and I played with several different groups around NAMM, and then had rehearsals, and I just got back last week. So this this month, February, is a little more open, but I'm just now kind of starting to feel normal again.
You seem to be someone who actually enjoys the NAMM show. I've spoken to some new people, and they're like; "no, it's too much!"
I do. I've learned to enjoy it. I used to get overwhelmed by it because it does take a lot of energy, and it can be overwhelming. You know, it's very noisy, it's very crowded, and most people who are there are affected by the noise and the crowds, and many of them feel like the people you were describing, so you pick up on that too. But having done it for a number of years, I've learned how to go into it, I know what my limits are. I know to take breaks, and I know to have snacks and get a certain amount of rest.
That sounds like a sensible approach.
I don't usually do the crazy hotel parties that happen at night. That's a big thing too. A lot of people, I think, get sucked up into that whole social scene and get hungover the next day. I have a good time and all, but I'm at the hotel if I'm playing. I actually played with my trio [jazz band the Alex Skolnick Trio] and Chad Wackerman [jazz fusion drummer] at the Marriott, and that was a lot of fun, and that was a semi-late night, and a few cocktails, but I didn't go crazy. The other nights I was pretty much taking it easy unless I was playing. So, yeah, you learn how to pace yourself and learn how to have a good time with it.
Of course NAMM Show brings the annual Metal Allegiance gig, and 2026 was no different; that gig seems to be a lot of fun for you.
Yeah, absolutely. The Metal Allegiance show, it's almost a festival within a single gig, because you have so many people from so many different bands and everybody's having a good time. It doesn't come with the pressure of having to carry a whole concert as one band; every song practically is a different line up, and it's fun. There's a lot of overlap with the line ups, but it's just a different experience. It doesn't happen that often, so you don't get burned out on it. It's not the same show night after night because it's very occasional, so it always feels fresh and exciting.
Speaking of fresh and exciting, Metal Allegiance released a new single, 'Black Horizon' with William DuVall on vocals, which has to be the heaviest song he has ever sang on, and that's saying something when he works with Jerry Cantrell!
Yeah, well, I think Alice in Chains and Jerry Cantrell have a very specific sound, and William, he's embedded in that now after so many years, but you can take his voice and put it in a slightly different context, and it works really well. I mean, one of the reasons why I think he came to mind for that song is there's a slight Alice in Chains vibe at times - not the whole time, but just enough so that it would work - but at the same time, it goes to these whole other places that you would not expect his voice to go, and it goes there beautifully.
His melodies and his singing style really translate well, and it's one of the strongest songs I've heard from Metal Allegiance.
Yeah, I think so too, and to be honest, these were parts that we weren't sure about at one time, partly because we were overwhelmed. We've had so many singers, especially when you put the two records together, it's a crazy amount of voices and a crazy amount of parts, and I think we maybe got a little bit overshadowed with all that music, and in retrospect, those parts that maybe didn't seem as exciting. Hearing them recently and hearing them fresh, I think we got new appreciation for the music, and then putting his voice there just made such a difference, and it must be said, what he did with it just blew us all away. I mean, he not only came up with melodies that sounded great that we wouldn't have thought of, but the whole lyrical concept and the development of it, and going places over the music where we couldn't have imagined it going. There's parts where it just builds and you would think maybe the vocals should take a rest where other singers might just leave it blank, but he took it to places and it just works so well. So we're all very grateful and very excited by this song.
Yeah, and I also had a film score come out. The film is finished. It's doing film festivals right now, but, yeah, it was a very productive year for sure. I'm still catching my breath.
Is this early part of the year a good time for you to let your hair down? I mean, we're obviously going to get to Metal Allegiance and NAMM, but is it good to get a breather?
There really wasn't much of a breather. By the first week of January I was off to tour with my trio and did about nine shows, and then straight to NAMM, and I played with several different groups around NAMM, and then had rehearsals, and I just got back last week. So this this month, February, is a little more open, but I'm just now kind of starting to feel normal again.
You seem to be someone who actually enjoys the NAMM show. I've spoken to some new people, and they're like; "no, it's too much!"
I do. I've learned to enjoy it. I used to get overwhelmed by it because it does take a lot of energy, and it can be overwhelming. You know, it's very noisy, it's very crowded, and most people who are there are affected by the noise and the crowds, and many of them feel like the people you were describing, so you pick up on that too. But having done it for a number of years, I've learned how to go into it, I know what my limits are. I know to take breaks, and I know to have snacks and get a certain amount of rest.
That sounds like a sensible approach.
I don't usually do the crazy hotel parties that happen at night. That's a big thing too. A lot of people, I think, get sucked up into that whole social scene and get hungover the next day. I have a good time and all, but I'm at the hotel if I'm playing. I actually played with my trio [jazz band the Alex Skolnick Trio] and Chad Wackerman [jazz fusion drummer] at the Marriott, and that was a lot of fun, and that was a semi-late night, and a few cocktails, but I didn't go crazy. The other nights I was pretty much taking it easy unless I was playing. So, yeah, you learn how to pace yourself and learn how to have a good time with it.
Of course NAMM Show brings the annual Metal Allegiance gig, and 2026 was no different; that gig seems to be a lot of fun for you.
Yeah, absolutely. The Metal Allegiance show, it's almost a festival within a single gig, because you have so many people from so many different bands and everybody's having a good time. It doesn't come with the pressure of having to carry a whole concert as one band; every song practically is a different line up, and it's fun. There's a lot of overlap with the line ups, but it's just a different experience. It doesn't happen that often, so you don't get burned out on it. It's not the same show night after night because it's very occasional, so it always feels fresh and exciting.
Speaking of fresh and exciting, Metal Allegiance released a new single, 'Black Horizon' with William DuVall on vocals, which has to be the heaviest song he has ever sang on, and that's saying something when he works with Jerry Cantrell!
Yeah, well, I think Alice in Chains and Jerry Cantrell have a very specific sound, and William, he's embedded in that now after so many years, but you can take his voice and put it in a slightly different context, and it works really well. I mean, one of the reasons why I think he came to mind for that song is there's a slight Alice in Chains vibe at times - not the whole time, but just enough so that it would work - but at the same time, it goes to these whole other places that you would not expect his voice to go, and it goes there beautifully.
His melodies and his singing style really translate well, and it's one of the strongest songs I've heard from Metal Allegiance.
Yeah, I think so too, and to be honest, these were parts that we weren't sure about at one time, partly because we were overwhelmed. We've had so many singers, especially when you put the two records together, it's a crazy amount of voices and a crazy amount of parts, and I think we maybe got a little bit overshadowed with all that music, and in retrospect, those parts that maybe didn't seem as exciting. Hearing them recently and hearing them fresh, I think we got new appreciation for the music, and then putting his voice there just made such a difference, and it must be said, what he did with it just blew us all away. I mean, he not only came up with melodies that sounded great that we wouldn't have thought of, but the whole lyrical concept and the development of it, and going places over the music where we couldn't have imagined it going. There's parts where it just builds and you would think maybe the vocals should take a rest where other singers might just leave it blank, but he took it to places and it just works so well. So we're all very grateful and very excited by this song.
Were you a fan of what he did with Alice in Chains? I remember when I first heard 'Black Gives Way to Blue', I was blown away, and that doesn't always work; you don't always get a Brian Johnson coming in after an iconic singer.
Yeah, absolutely. That is one of those rare examples where, yeah, Brian Johnson; that's a perfect example; where somebody comes in and starts a new chapter and it works, and it builds off the other chapter, and they can go back and do the other songs that the original guy did and it works as well. I saw the band on a tour. They were at Madison Square Garden with Mastodon, and it was amazing, and, yeah, I remember there was a huge buzz about it, like; "hey, they're back! You've got to hear what these guys are doing!"
I guess there's a little overlap there with the Clash of the Titans tour the back in the '90s, where Alice in Chains opened that tour, and so did Testament.
Yeah they did it in the US, so never on the same bill as Testament as Testament had played on that tour in Europe. In a way they were like the link between late '80s metal and what you might think of as '90s music, and '90s hard rock. You know, it wasn't considered as different as you might think reading about it in the magazines and the press. They were part of the Seattle scene, the Grunge scene, whatever, but, yeah, all the metalheads I knew were big fans of the band, and you talked to those guys, and those guys loved metal bands as well. They just sort of took it in this other direction.
Obviously, Mike Portnoy is playing drums on the song, and there's a kind of a simile with yourself in that people always wanted to see you back in Testament, and Mike Portnoy...
Yeah, I know where you're going with it.
Yeah, people always wanted to see him back in Dream Theater; have you ever discussed that with Mike?
I haven't, no. I should talk to him about it. I'm happy for him. It does feel like, as an outsider, he's home, he's where he should be. And I understand people having those perceptions. I was lucky that it worked out where, with Testament, there was enough growth and maturity to sort of; "alright, let's give this another shot, let's try a fresh slate", and it worked. All these naysayers said, you know; "oh, he's plays jazz now, he's not even going to last one record"; I've been there over twice as long as I was there the first time around. So it's so funny, but back to the original point, I do understand that, and it's great when that can work out. It doesn't always work out. As a Kiss fan, I was heartbroken that at least Ace, but hopefully Ace and Peter, I thought they they'd find their way back to the band somehow, and it never happened. Michael Schenker and UFO, I wish that could have happened, so very often, it doesn't work out, so it's great when it does.
I'm glad you touched on Kiss because I know you were a massive fan growing up, and at the start of Testament's career, you got to share the stage with Kiss, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest etc; what was that like for you, playing alongside your heroes?
Yeah, it was a combination of things. I had very mixed emotions about it, because yeah, on the one hand, these were heroes of mine growing up, but even before the '90s alternative revolution or whatever you want to call it, I felt like things were changing, and I just felt like there was less interest in these bands from consumers on a big scale like there had been. It was kind of sad to see that because when I was growing up, when I was a little kid, you know, 10 years old, Kiss were, as Tom Morello said; they were our Beatles, our Rolling Stones; that's what they were for us. And they were the biggest thing in the world by the time the Beatles had broken up. But the Stones always stayed huge, and I thought that would be the case with a lot of these bands. But by the time we were on a festival stage with Kiss, there's only Gene and Paul were left from the original line-up. They were doing music that's just... I don't know if they'd done like; 'Let's Put the X in Sex' yet, but just a lot of music that's just like; "well guys, no, this isn't the Kiss that I I knew". So seeing them in that setting, yeah, it was strange.
And then Judas Priest, by the time we played with them, they had done 'Turbo', and now they sort of made up for it with 'Painkiller' right? So I guess you could call it a redemption tour.
They had also used a drum machine on 'Ram it Down', which came in-between, so you're right, on the redeeming arc.
Yes, and it was great [the redemption], and the music was great, so it was different than Kiss, but you could also sense that a lot of the momentum was lost. Like, I had discovered them on 'Screaming for Vengeance', and then was checking out the back catalogue; 'Unleashed in the East'; "wow, oh my god!", all this great stuff, and it just seemed like; "wow, they're just going to go forward and keep building", and then a lot of the momentum was lost. And then we're supporting them in these arenas, but when you're the opening act on a three-band bill in an arena, very often people are still filing in while you're playing and you're lucky if you have a decent crowd by the time you finish, but there were even shows where Judas Priest played and people were still filing in, and then it wasn't that full. So in a way, as exciting as it was to play with them, it was also just a kind of bit of a reality check.
I think by that stage, on one hand, glam and hair metal was the dominant genre, and on the other, thrash was on the rise too; was it exciting to be part of something that was seen as galvanising, and the kind of the rougher edge of metal?
Oh, absolutely! Absolutely it felt exciting to be part of a new thing. We were coming off of, like, power metal, and we loved Iron Maiden, we loved Ozzy and the Scorpions, and as a pre-teen or mid-teen, before I joined the band, I kind of thought that's the direction I was going in. I also loved all those guitar players, especially Randy Rhoads and Vivian Campbell and Van Halen, even though the vocals were very, you know, showbiz and, yeah, pop, glam, whatever, some of the music was heavy. Every metal head will tell you how much they loved Van Halen; Pantera swore by Van Halen, so all of that was a big part of it. But then with thrash, yeah, it just felt like this was sort of a whole new movement.
We touched on the impact of Grunge earlier, but I wanted to ask about the Metallica effect. Testament's 1992 album 'The Ritual' was a lot more polished than previous releases; was there an influence of the label going; "we want this to be more commercial"?
I think that there were always hints like; "if you guys gave us a more catchy song we could do a lot with that", but in the case of that record, I just think it was time for something different. You know, we'd done so much music that had similar tempos, and they were great, but there was a common thread with so much of it. If I could do it over, I would have added in at least one song that could have sounded like one of the earlier records, because I think that sort of created this reaction that; "this records too slow!" I think if we had one song from one of the other records, like, you know, just a burning tempo, I think it would have been smart. But we wanted to try something different, and everybody was on board. It's not like, you know, there were these rumours, like, I pushed that; I pushed for musicianship. I wanted high quality solos. I felt like there's no reason our solos can't be appreciated the way the L.A. bands solos are appreciated; "just give me some stuff to play over where I can really stretch out". and, you know, 'Electric Crown' and 'Return to Serenity', I hear about kids learning those solos to this day and they seem to have had a big impact on people, and I'm glad we did it. And the songs too, I think pretty much on all the record the song writing is great. Eric's got some great riffs there. But yeah, we should have had one, thrown a bone to the earlier stuff.
Yeah, absolutely. That is one of those rare examples where, yeah, Brian Johnson; that's a perfect example; where somebody comes in and starts a new chapter and it works, and it builds off the other chapter, and they can go back and do the other songs that the original guy did and it works as well. I saw the band on a tour. They were at Madison Square Garden with Mastodon, and it was amazing, and, yeah, I remember there was a huge buzz about it, like; "hey, they're back! You've got to hear what these guys are doing!"
I guess there's a little overlap there with the Clash of the Titans tour the back in the '90s, where Alice in Chains opened that tour, and so did Testament.
Yeah they did it in the US, so never on the same bill as Testament as Testament had played on that tour in Europe. In a way they were like the link between late '80s metal and what you might think of as '90s music, and '90s hard rock. You know, it wasn't considered as different as you might think reading about it in the magazines and the press. They were part of the Seattle scene, the Grunge scene, whatever, but, yeah, all the metalheads I knew were big fans of the band, and you talked to those guys, and those guys loved metal bands as well. They just sort of took it in this other direction.
Obviously, Mike Portnoy is playing drums on the song, and there's a kind of a simile with yourself in that people always wanted to see you back in Testament, and Mike Portnoy...
Yeah, I know where you're going with it.
Yeah, people always wanted to see him back in Dream Theater; have you ever discussed that with Mike?
I haven't, no. I should talk to him about it. I'm happy for him. It does feel like, as an outsider, he's home, he's where he should be. And I understand people having those perceptions. I was lucky that it worked out where, with Testament, there was enough growth and maturity to sort of; "alright, let's give this another shot, let's try a fresh slate", and it worked. All these naysayers said, you know; "oh, he's plays jazz now, he's not even going to last one record"; I've been there over twice as long as I was there the first time around. So it's so funny, but back to the original point, I do understand that, and it's great when that can work out. It doesn't always work out. As a Kiss fan, I was heartbroken that at least Ace, but hopefully Ace and Peter, I thought they they'd find their way back to the band somehow, and it never happened. Michael Schenker and UFO, I wish that could have happened, so very often, it doesn't work out, so it's great when it does.
I'm glad you touched on Kiss because I know you were a massive fan growing up, and at the start of Testament's career, you got to share the stage with Kiss, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest etc; what was that like for you, playing alongside your heroes?
Yeah, it was a combination of things. I had very mixed emotions about it, because yeah, on the one hand, these were heroes of mine growing up, but even before the '90s alternative revolution or whatever you want to call it, I felt like things were changing, and I just felt like there was less interest in these bands from consumers on a big scale like there had been. It was kind of sad to see that because when I was growing up, when I was a little kid, you know, 10 years old, Kiss were, as Tom Morello said; they were our Beatles, our Rolling Stones; that's what they were for us. And they were the biggest thing in the world by the time the Beatles had broken up. But the Stones always stayed huge, and I thought that would be the case with a lot of these bands. But by the time we were on a festival stage with Kiss, there's only Gene and Paul were left from the original line-up. They were doing music that's just... I don't know if they'd done like; 'Let's Put the X in Sex' yet, but just a lot of music that's just like; "well guys, no, this isn't the Kiss that I I knew". So seeing them in that setting, yeah, it was strange.
And then Judas Priest, by the time we played with them, they had done 'Turbo', and now they sort of made up for it with 'Painkiller' right? So I guess you could call it a redemption tour.
They had also used a drum machine on 'Ram it Down', which came in-between, so you're right, on the redeeming arc.
Yes, and it was great [the redemption], and the music was great, so it was different than Kiss, but you could also sense that a lot of the momentum was lost. Like, I had discovered them on 'Screaming for Vengeance', and then was checking out the back catalogue; 'Unleashed in the East'; "wow, oh my god!", all this great stuff, and it just seemed like; "wow, they're just going to go forward and keep building", and then a lot of the momentum was lost. And then we're supporting them in these arenas, but when you're the opening act on a three-band bill in an arena, very often people are still filing in while you're playing and you're lucky if you have a decent crowd by the time you finish, but there were even shows where Judas Priest played and people were still filing in, and then it wasn't that full. So in a way, as exciting as it was to play with them, it was also just a kind of bit of a reality check.
I think by that stage, on one hand, glam and hair metal was the dominant genre, and on the other, thrash was on the rise too; was it exciting to be part of something that was seen as galvanising, and the kind of the rougher edge of metal?
Oh, absolutely! Absolutely it felt exciting to be part of a new thing. We were coming off of, like, power metal, and we loved Iron Maiden, we loved Ozzy and the Scorpions, and as a pre-teen or mid-teen, before I joined the band, I kind of thought that's the direction I was going in. I also loved all those guitar players, especially Randy Rhoads and Vivian Campbell and Van Halen, even though the vocals were very, you know, showbiz and, yeah, pop, glam, whatever, some of the music was heavy. Every metal head will tell you how much they loved Van Halen; Pantera swore by Van Halen, so all of that was a big part of it. But then with thrash, yeah, it just felt like this was sort of a whole new movement.
We touched on the impact of Grunge earlier, but I wanted to ask about the Metallica effect. Testament's 1992 album 'The Ritual' was a lot more polished than previous releases; was there an influence of the label going; "we want this to be more commercial"?
I think that there were always hints like; "if you guys gave us a more catchy song we could do a lot with that", but in the case of that record, I just think it was time for something different. You know, we'd done so much music that had similar tempos, and they were great, but there was a common thread with so much of it. If I could do it over, I would have added in at least one song that could have sounded like one of the earlier records, because I think that sort of created this reaction that; "this records too slow!" I think if we had one song from one of the other records, like, you know, just a burning tempo, I think it would have been smart. But we wanted to try something different, and everybody was on board. It's not like, you know, there were these rumours, like, I pushed that; I pushed for musicianship. I wanted high quality solos. I felt like there's no reason our solos can't be appreciated the way the L.A. bands solos are appreciated; "just give me some stuff to play over where I can really stretch out". and, you know, 'Electric Crown' and 'Return to Serenity', I hear about kids learning those solos to this day and they seem to have had a big impact on people, and I'm glad we did it. And the songs too, I think pretty much on all the record the song writing is great. Eric's got some great riffs there. But yeah, we should have had one, thrown a bone to the earlier stuff.
In past interviews we've discussed your time with Ozzy Osbourne, and how Megadeth approached you, but has anyone else ever came to you over the year; Dio, Kiss or whomever?
No, believe it or not, I haven't. I think part of it might have to do with the fact that when you do thrash music, you're sort of put in this box, and that's one of the reasons I worked so hard to be able to be an improvising musician and work with the types of musicians I work with now; like with my trio, the Stuart Hamm band. This the last show I did around NAMM was a quartet; this organist, Brian Charette, the bassist was Tim Lefebvre - he was David Bowie's last bassist, and Gary Novak on drums, who's played for everyone from like Chick Corea to pop stars like Alanis Morissette. I always thought there's no reason I couldn't play with musicians like that, but I think with the bands you're talking, I would guess there was, you know; "oh, he's a thrash guy".
Ozzy didn't see you as a just a thrash guy though.
Yeah, the Ozzy camp was appreciative of what I do, and they were open to it. Credit to Sharon and company for that, even though it wasn't a longer term arrangement. It's funny, one other band - and I've talked about this before - but one other audition situation that came up that was nothing like any of the bands you've listed, but like a '90s alt jam band called The Spin Doctors.
You auditioned for The Spin Doctors?! Oh yeah, they parted ways with their guitar player after the second album.
Yes. So I was one of a few guys that they talked to and jammed with, and It would be a bit of an odd fit, I admit.
So you played 'Little Miss Can't Be Wrong' and 'Two Princes'?
Yeah, we definitely did 'Two Princes'. I don't remember the others. It was only a few songs.
What gear did you use for that? You weren't breaking out the 'Souls of Black' Ibanez to play with the Spin Doctors, right?
No, but I don't remember what I used. That's a good question. I had a few different Ibanezes over the years. I, at one point had a Satriani Ibanez, and I might have used that, but I'm not sure, or maybe the one that I use in the 'Practice What You Preach' video, the Maxus, which is kind of Strat-like, but yeah, it was one of the Ibanezes for sure.
What an experience. You were obviously open to trying something new.
Yeah, absolutely. I was open to anything.
No, believe it or not, I haven't. I think part of it might have to do with the fact that when you do thrash music, you're sort of put in this box, and that's one of the reasons I worked so hard to be able to be an improvising musician and work with the types of musicians I work with now; like with my trio, the Stuart Hamm band. This the last show I did around NAMM was a quartet; this organist, Brian Charette, the bassist was Tim Lefebvre - he was David Bowie's last bassist, and Gary Novak on drums, who's played for everyone from like Chick Corea to pop stars like Alanis Morissette. I always thought there's no reason I couldn't play with musicians like that, but I think with the bands you're talking, I would guess there was, you know; "oh, he's a thrash guy".
Ozzy didn't see you as a just a thrash guy though.
Yeah, the Ozzy camp was appreciative of what I do, and they were open to it. Credit to Sharon and company for that, even though it wasn't a longer term arrangement. It's funny, one other band - and I've talked about this before - but one other audition situation that came up that was nothing like any of the bands you've listed, but like a '90s alt jam band called The Spin Doctors.
You auditioned for The Spin Doctors?! Oh yeah, they parted ways with their guitar player after the second album.
Yes. So I was one of a few guys that they talked to and jammed with, and It would be a bit of an odd fit, I admit.
So you played 'Little Miss Can't Be Wrong' and 'Two Princes'?
Yeah, we definitely did 'Two Princes'. I don't remember the others. It was only a few songs.
What gear did you use for that? You weren't breaking out the 'Souls of Black' Ibanez to play with the Spin Doctors, right?
No, but I don't remember what I used. That's a good question. I had a few different Ibanezes over the years. I, at one point had a Satriani Ibanez, and I might have used that, but I'm not sure, or maybe the one that I use in the 'Practice What You Preach' video, the Maxus, which is kind of Strat-like, but yeah, it was one of the Ibanezes for sure.
What an experience. You were obviously open to trying something new.
Yeah, absolutely. I was open to anything.
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