The Legacy

The Legacy is the debut studio album by American thrash metal band Testament. It was released on April 21, 1987. Background Prior to the album's recording in January 1987, Testament was known as Legacy. Their lineup consisted of singer Steve "Zetro" Souza, guitarists Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson, bassist Greg Christian and drummer Louie Clemente. Singer Chuck Billy was a member of another local band named Guilt. He had performed with Legacy on a few occasions and was asked to become the new singer after Souza left to join Exodus. About a month prior to the release of The Legacy, the band changed their name to Testament after finding out that there was an RnB hotel cover band named Legacy. The Testament name was suggested by Billy Milano (from S.O.D. and M.O.D.), who was a friend of the band in the early days. This was the only Testament album to feature songwriting contributions from Souza, who was credited as the co-writer of all the songs, except for "C.O.T.L.O.D." and "Do or Die", which were co-written by original Legacy singer Derrick Ramirez and Billy respectively. The closing track, "Apocalyptic City", was written by Skolnick and Peterson.