Eric Peterson — born in the United States in 1964 — is Testament's founding guitarist and principal composer, and the only member present throughout the band's history. The spine of the repertoire is his, from The Legacy (1987) onwards. Peterson writes the riffs that defined Testament within Bay Area thrash: lines of heavy syncopation, minor harmonies and progressions darker than those of contemporary bands — a vocabulary that brought the group close to death metal on records like Low (1994) and Demonic (1997), when American thrash was in retreat and most bands in the genre were trying to adapt to other fashions. That is the decision that defines his importance. Instead of softening the sound or chasing the 1990s market, Peterson hardened the repertoire and steered the band through a difficult decade without disfiguring it — work that let Testament come back in full form with The Formation of Damnation (2008) and remain, ever since, among thrash's central names at festivals worldwide. He also keeps Dragonlord, a symphonic black metal project in which he explores a vocabulary that would not fit in Testament — an extension of his darker writing taken to its limit.
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