The Who's 1969 rock opera Tommy has been revived in countless iterations over the past four decades: from a movie to a Broadway musical to a symphony and even a ballet. This summer, Who frontman Roger Daltrey is going on a 45-date world tour with the goal of bringing the rock opera back to its roots. "My Tommy is much more like the original conception," he tells Rolling Stone. "It's more like the Who were on record than we ever were on stage. It's interesting to hear it in its pure form with all the backing vocals and other instruments. There's also quite a few songs from the album that the Who never even played. I'm doing the whole thing."
Daltrey first got the idea to stage Tommy earlier this year when booking acts for his annual Teenage Cancer Trust charity shows at the Royal Albert Hall. He had a hole in the schedule, so he decided to fill it himself by performing Tommy. "It was all flying by the seat of our pants," he says. "I really enjoyed singing it and exploring the musicality of it, though it was really nerve-wracking because we only had one warm-up show. It went fantastically though. If I can enjoy doing it with that pressure as much as I did, then I'm sure that I'm going to enjoy this tour."
His aim is to approach the material from a new perspective. "My narrative has more to do with the listener listening to the album," Daltrey says. "I've always felt that my perspective of Tommy has always been from inside it – not from outside. I think that the secret of the success of those albums in those days was the fact that the listener was getting their their own subjective view of what it was about. There is was a little bit of them in 'see me, feel me, touch me, heal me.' Indeed, I feel like there's a bit of everybody going through that in all stages of their life. With this show, I'm trying to take you on a spiritual journey."
To help realize his vision, Daltrey commissioned local college students to create visuals that will be projected on screens during the show. "I wanted to get Tommy for today," he says. "Not the Sixties and Seventies. It's very, very different. I'm completely knocked out by what they have done with it. It's very difficult to explain what exactly it is, but it's a lot of beautiful animation and a lot of really, really avant-garde ideas. It's wonderful to look at."
At the end of the show, Daltrey plans on performing other songs from the Who's vast catalog, including rarities like like "Goin' Mobile" and "Blue Red & Grey." "We also do a lot of of hits from the Sixties that the Who had to stop doing in the Seventies because, overnight, John [Entwistle] lost his angel quality voice," he says. "Even in those other incarnations of the Who – which were really more Pete's design than mine - we've never had the backing vocals particularly like the sound of The Who."
The band is led by Townshend's brother Simon, who has toured with the Who since they reformed in 1996. "It must have been so hard for him living in the shadow of Pete," says Daltrey. "I've watched him developed as a solo artist. He's go so much confidence now and is so talented. Any other musician with that much talent deserves a great platform to play on . . . I've always wanted him in every band that I've ever had. It's just the quality of his voice that's achieved when it blends with mine. There's really something special going on there."
The Tommy tour kicks off July 3rd in Wolverhampton, England and wraps up November 2nd in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Robert Plant's journey through the territories that have most acutely informed and inspired his music is perhaps one of the most multi-faceted of any artist from his generation. In a remarkable career that has spanned five decades, Plant has travelled from gold-maned god of hard rock to balladeering country troubadour, a process of reinvention guided by an ever-expanding musical palette and tireless searches through global song. His fantastic voyage has essayed the plantations of Mississippi, the deserts and townships of Africa and the settlements of the Appalachians.
Due on August 23, "Robert Plant's Blue Note" follows Robert's incredible and ongoing tour of musical styles and acts as travelogue in its unique approach to documenting and reviewing a career that has been built on endless fascination, consistent experimentation and a unique talent that makes the incorporation of his discoveries into a popular contemporary form seem almost effortless.
"Robert Plant's Blue Note" (order link) features rare footage, performance archive, recorded interviews, contributions from his closest collaborators, expert critique from the finest music writers, plus location film, news reports seldom seen photographs and a host of other features.
Orion Books has announced that the photographic documentary compiled by official IRON MAIDEN photographer John McMurtrie entitled "On Board Flight 666" will be published in the U.K. on October 20.
John's unrestricted access has allowed him to capture exclusive images and moments both onstage and off, in over 300 photographs accompanied by his personal insights and anecdotes in more than 250 glossy pages of photographs
"On Board Flight 666" charts the extraordinary journey of IRON MAIDEN in their specially customized Boeing 757, piloted by lead singer and airline captain Bruce Dickinson. Travelling across five continents, twice around the globe to undertake two world tours, John's pictorial odyssey maps their progress from Ed Force One's historic take-off in January 2008 on the groundbreaking "Somewhere Back In Time Tour" through to 2010/11's "The Final Frontier" world tour in support of the band's fifteenth studio album to date, "The Final Frontier" (August 2010), which reached No. 1 in at least 28 countries.
With a personal foreword by Bruce Dickinson, "Onboard Flight 666" takes you up close with IRON MAIDEN as they circumnavigate the planet to play to their loyal legion of fans giving an inside look into what makes this band so special and so adventurous in their unique touring plans.
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/soulflypremiere/onboard.jpg
A farewell tour that isn't, the shock departure of a founder member and the perils of dry ice. Ian Harvey talks to Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill ahead of the band's Wolverhampton Civic gig next month.
Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill - photograph by Odd Inge Rand
Judas Priest bassist Ian Hill - photograph by Odd Inge Rand
The delicate tones of John Williams playing the classical guitar are coming down the phone line as I wait to be put through to Ian Hill in his hotel room in Italy.
Perhaps he should have a word with the hotel management and get some Priest installed instead, I say when I finally get connected. Perhaps Living After Midnight, Breaking the Law or Turbo Lover?
"Yeah, I'll have a word with them downstairs," laughs Hill, the only remaining founder member of the self-styled Metal Gods who formed in the Black Country 41 years ago.
"It's nice to hear a familiar accent," he adds as we introduce ourselves – me in Wolverhampton, Hill in Milan, where the band is appearing that night at the Gods Of Metal festival as part of its Epitaph world tour.
That tour includes a headlining appearance at the High Voltage festival in London on Saturday July 23, 2011, and, closer to home, a rare appearance at Wolverhampton Civic Hall two days earlier as a warm-up.
But it's a tour that has not been without controversy and confusion, first of all when it was announced as a "farewell" tour, when it isn't, and secondly when founding member and guitarist Ken "KK" Downing then announced he was quitting the band, to retire and concentrate on his golf course business in Bridgnorth and citing diference with some members of the band and its management.
Staffordshire-based Hill, now 60, and Downing have known each other since they went to the same Black Country primary school, and the bassist admits the news came as a terrible shock.
"It came as bombshell to all of us," he says.
"I think Ken had just had enough. He'd got a lot on his plate with his golf course and I think he couldn't spend the time away. This tour's going to be, by the time it's wrapped up, the best part of two years.
"It's a long, long time to be away from things and I just think Ken couldn't handle the time away.
"I'll always be a friend of Ken's and I'm sure he'll always be a friend of mine. Still waters run deep and we've been together as colleagues and friends since we were about five years old. We went through school and everything together."
Judas Priest released their first single, Rocka Rolla, in 1974, with members drawn from Walsall, West Bromwich and Blackheath.
They went on to score a battery of worldwide hits and their 1980 album, British Steel, is considered one of the all-time great heavy metal recordings.
Judas Priest's new guitarist Richie Faulkner
Judas Priest's new guitarist Richie Faulkner
The line-up is Hill, singer Rob Halford, guitarist Glenn Tipton, drummer Scott Travis and new kid on the block Richie Faulkner, drafted in to replace Downing.
Hill says: "All due respect to Ken, he gave us a long enough time to find someone to replace him. We found an excellent guitarist as you'll see when we come to the Civic.
"We actually asked another guitarist if he wanted the job but his schedule wouldn't allow it. He'd already committed himself to something else, and he said 'You should try this lad'.
"He's 31 . . . a nipper! We got to meet him, checked him out on the 'tube'. Interview sounds a bit formal, we just went over and had a chat with him, played a few licks over at Glenn's and we knew we'd got our man.
"He's turned out really well. He's a tremendous talent, a great guitarist and a really nice bloke as well. We dropped very, very lucky with him."
We then get on to the matter of the confusion surrounding the Epitaph tour announcement back in December last year, when they appeared to be calling time on the band. In fact Judas Priest are to continue and a recording and performing band but say that this will be their last full scale, world-wide jaunt.
"Yeah, there was a bit of confusion with ourselves to be honest!" says Hill.
"It's the intensive touring. This tour is going to be the best part of two years by the time it's all wrapped up . . . if it's ever wrapped up – it's open-ended at the moment. As long as people want to hear us we'll keep on going.
"But it was never going to be the end of the band. We always thought that we'd continue playing, at festivals somewhere or some special gigs somewhere. But touring for two years . . . you have to wonder how many more two-years-worth of touring we've got left in us."
Is the band concerned about the physical demands of a two-year tour?
"Well, we thought that before we started this tour but to be honest we're handling it quite well! We all thought that we'd be lagging a bit but we're not. Maybe it's having some young blood in the band as well. It's a fresh incentive and it picks everybody up a bit."
The band is particularly looking forward to reacquainting itself with the Civic after a gap of quite some years and squeezing in the whole gargantuan Judas Priest stage show.
Hill says: "We've been doing the NEC recently, which is great, but the thing is with us doing High Voltage, I'd imagine a lot of the fans are going down there, so the local promoter has probably thought, well let's stick them in the smaller venue. You know, fill the small one rather than having the larger one half-empty because everyone's going to see them down in London.
"But the Civic is a great atmosphere. It's very intimate with the fans. We've probably played there about a dozen times over the years. It's home from home really."
Does he have any particular memories of playing the Civic?
"Oh yeah, falling over and ripping my trousers!" he laughs.
The new Judas priest line-up
The new Judas priest line-up
"We'd got this stage set with ramps up either side of the drum riser and all the way around the back and we thought it'd be a great idea to have dry ice. But nobody told us about the condensation with the dry ice, so we all started by the drum kit, walked down into the dry ice and I just went arse over face!"
And having sold millions of albums and played at the American leg of Live Aid are there any particular highlights which spring to mind?
"There are loads and loads of highlights but I tell you what," says Hill, casting his mind back to 1974, "nothing beats seeing your first album on the shelf.
"We worked long and hard to get that first album there. It was produced terribly and it sounded awful but it's all we had and it was on the shelf next to all your favourite bands.
"And just seeing it there, you knew you'd arrived, that you'd made your mark and you'd made something that was never going to go away. You'd got your legacy really from that point onwards."
Although Dave Ellefson is a founding member of Megadeth, he and frontman Dave Mustaine had a falling out in 2002 that actually disbanded the group for a time. When Megadeth re-formed shortly after, Ellefson was not in the line-up. Early last year, the Daves (Ellefson and Mustaine) patched up their differences and Ellefson was back in the band as bassist, weeks before the band would embark on the Rust In Peace tour and subsequent dates with The Big Four in Europe. (Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax are dubbed 'The Big Four' bands that came out of the 1980's thrash metal movement).
With both Megadeth and Slayer headlining this years Mayhem Festival, and Megadeth performing at Heavy TO (with Slayer and Anthrax), Toronto area fans can see the band up close and personal. Anyone who has seen The Big 4 DVD, or the recently released Rust In Peace DVD, already know that the band are performing at the top of their game at the moment. Don't wuss-out and miss what will surely be one of the best two days of live music this year at Heavy TO!!!
Dave Ellefson was good enough to give me twenty minutes of his time to chat about being back in Megadeth. The gist of our conversation follows the links below.
Watch for Megadeth at Heavy TO this summer in Toronto, and on the Mayhem Festival in North America for the rest of this Summer. Megadeth play the Heavy TO festival in Toronto on July 23rd.
Heavy T.O.
Tickets: http://www.heavyto.com/tickets
Line Up: http://lineup.heavyto.com/
www.megadeth.com
www.myspace.com/megadeth
Mike: Hey, Dave. Where are you at right now?
Dave: Hey, Mike. I'm in California, heading in to do some album photos tomorrow. Then we're heading over to Europe next week to get going again.
Mike: Crazy. I'm going to Europe tomorrow.
Dave: Oh, cool. Right on.
Mike: Going to see the Graspop Metal Meeting.
Dave: Nice. You going to hang in there for some of the Sonisphere shows, or are you just there for a few days?
Mike: Just for Graspop and a few days in Amsterdam. Knebworth Sonisphere was tempting, man. Reeeeally tempting. And with Heavy TO coming up right here in Toronto, I'm going to get to see a pretty awesome metal festival right in my backyard, so to speak.
Dave: Cool man. True enough.
Mike: 2010 was an interesting year for thrash metal - your return to Megadeth, along with the first run of dates with Anthrax, Slayer and Metallica. It felt like a real group hug year from the outside looking in.
Dave: Yeah, it was a good time to come back. There were discussions we'd been having for a while on our side, and it all just lined right up for us. And you're right - 2010 really was a monumental year, not just for Megadeth, but for the entire genre. For us to be able to do the Rust In Peace tour was amazing. We'd never done a themed album tour like that before, so to do one of those and be able to film that for the Rust In Peace live DVD and, of course, then rolling right into The Big Four shows and live DVD with that as well. It was really just a real true homecoming on all fronts for all of us.
Mike: Your departure and return to Megadeth must carry a bit of baggage with it. Was it weird coming back to the band, or was it business as usual for everyone involved from day one.
Dave: You know what? I think on my side of it I mentally tried to not go back to where the baggage was. I mean, you can't change anything from the past. All you can do is hopefully learn from it and you move forward. I think that to not have learned from your past is probably the worst mistake you could ever make in your life (Laughs) because none of us are perfect. And certainly in rock and roll bands you are all very close to each other because of the creative aspect of making music. Then there is the business side of it. The time you spend in the yellow submarine and the iron lung – the airplanes and tour buses and backstages (Laughs) it's those close confines where you seem to sacrifice a little bit of your personal space for the betterment of the group.
And I think that one of the things that was nice in my time away from Megadeth was getting to develop other sides of my life. When I came back I felt like I'd got to spread my wings a bit, and then come back to the band willing to make some personal sacrifices again. In a group setting, the individual thrives only if the group thrives. Getting that team mentality going again has been something that I have quite honestly really enjoyed over the past year.
Mike: That's really cool. You know, I chatted with Dave Lombardo last year - the last night of Canadian Carnage, actually - and his feelings were very similar to yours on returning to the fold with Slayer. He said he came back with new perspective.
Dave: Yeah, you know, I think that some people are out of groups for a little while and often they wind up never to be heard from again. On my side, it was actually quite liberating to be out of the confines of the band, only because we'd done it for so many years, you know? All human beings need to have a bit of 'me time'. I think even for Dave, you know? He got to have Megadeth as his own for three albums before I came back, so he got to have that experience… I think for both of us, we were both very thankful for each other and I think for both of us, we really enjoy being Megadeth together again now.
Mike: Do you find that you approach your playing differently in any way now that you are back with the band in earnest?
Dave: Absolutely, very much so. You know, in my time away I did so many different music related projects – bands that I formed and bands that I was asked to join – a ton of session work, along with a lot of my own writing. So one of the things I realized in 2002 was I was kind of dated stylistically in my playing and my song-writing, and by hooking up with some younger guys in some different settings and writing for younger bands and being a part of that, it really opened my eyes to some things - how guys tune their guitars for instance. These guys weren't tuning their guitars in standard A4 tuning anymore, and to a large degree that really was a game changer. It was like someone threw a whole bunch of new paint into my easel for me to paint some new pictures with.
Mike: Was the decision to play Rust In Peace in entirety last year partially due to your return to Megadeth?
Dave: Actually, that was announced before I was going to come back, and in some ways it may have been the final nudge to make it all happen.
(Laughter)
When I first had the press release for that come through my email, I was in New York and it come through my BlackBerry forwarded to me from my publicist, and I gotta be honest with you here, my heart sank. I just remember thinking, "Man, I should be there for that", you know? That album was a monumental thing for us and I really felt like I should be a part of it. And as things turned out, within a couple of weeks from reading that email, there I was playing Rust In Peace with Megadeth. (Laughs) It's funny how much better I seem to play Rust In Peace now as compared to twenty years ago. I think my experience as a player and a recording artist and a live performing bassist have matured, and with the new line-up in Megadeth, as well. Shawn Drover is a fantastic drummer. He has a really good feel to how he plays. He intrinsically understands all of the fundamentals of Megadeth's music as he grew up listening to our records. He seems to just 'get
it' from all sides, and as a rhythm section that really made Rust In Peace a really enjoyable tour last year.
Mike: You know, from a technical standpoint, this is most obvious on The Big 4 Bulgaria Blu-ray. All of the performances are wonderful to watch, but the Megadeth performance captured on that Blu-ray is flawless, Dave. It's a real showpiece for the band, I'm sure.
Dave: (Laughs) I appreciate that, thanks. I mean, that's one of the things that I notice coming back to Megadeth. There was an incredible work ethic from the band right through to the crews. Everybody was really into it. Chris Broderick plays his guitar for eight hours, and THEN he goes and lives his life. That's how he is every single day. (Laughs) It's amazing; that's why he's such a fantastic guitar player. We would sometimes run through the entire set backstage before we would go onstage to play it for an audience. Our approach was like a marathon runner… if you are required to run ten miles, then you had better be able to run twelve. You need the extra gas in the tank to be able to run that ten miles efficiently.
Mike: That makes sense. How are Shaun and Chris to write with? This will be your first studio work with them both, correct?
Dave: It's really been good, actually. It's a much different process than I've ever done before with Megadeth, but it's a collaborative environment I've done with other bands, so I am certainly comfortable with it. It's really gone well, honestly. Johnny K is a fantastic producer – I'm really happy we were able to get him involved. He and Dave seem to have a good working relationship. Kind of like we came off of Rust in Peace and went right into Countdown To Extinction, that's kind of how I feel about the new album. We came off the Rust In Peace 20th Anniversary and went right into what could theoretically be our next Countdown to Extinction, just twenty years later.
Mike: I realized today that I have primarily only ever seen Megadeth live with you in the band, Dave. I think I saw one live date with James (LoMenzo) in 2007 on a Gigantour. Four other live dates have all been with you. I kind of floundered with Megadeth after you left and have found myself re-invested after seeing Rust In Peace performed live twice last year. I'm looking forward to seeing you again this summer at Heavy TO and hearing some of the new stuff.
Dave: Well, thank you, I appreciate that. There is something about the true nature of a live recording, when the guys who were there putting it all together – writing and recording and producing it all – when they are the ones back there on stage playing it again. Certainly for Megadeth, with Dave and I being the consistent factor for the first almost twenty years of the band, that became a big hook to our legacy. It's funny that when I came back, that very first rehearsal we played, 'Symphony Of Destruction' was our first song that day – and as soon as we played it, my bass with Dave's guitar… it INSTANTLY sounded like vintage Megadeth.
Mike: One of the things I think Megadeth has always been able to boast is a technical proficiency few other bands can touch. I'm sure most musicians would trip over some of the bars of music in Megadeth material. It must be challenging to reproduce some Megadeth material live on stage.
Dave: Yeah, it is. It's interesting because I grew up playing like that. I met Dave as he was first composing, and some of that stuff at first was some really slow and heavy riffs. Then the material got sped up very quickly and we seemed to start writing more and more progressively from there. I had a moment early on there where I was really glad I'd learned to play bass the way that I did, you know? Even in our original line-up with Gar Samuelson and Chris Poland, they originally came from a jazz-fusion-rock background kind of a Mahavishnu Orchestra meets The Who sound… they were a little bit older than me and Dave, and they had some different life experiences behind them coming into the band.
But when you fused me and Dave, the metal guys, with those two guys… we had a completely unique sound. It was interesting because everyone around us had this much heavier (pauses) 'metal' sound… like an eighties metal sound. Sometimes I would be kind of envious of it, too. I would hear Anthrax records and they would have these great drum tones and these thick guitars, and obviously Metallica records… Metallica records would always have great drum tone with a lot of bottom end and slick guitar tones. It took us several records to completely haul our tone in. We played our stuff differently than the other guys, you know? Out of The Big Four, every one of us has a very unique sound, and I think that's so cool about what we are doing as The Big Four on tour now – we have such a unique individuality - each one of our styles, the way we write music and the way we play. These things are likely all elements we struggled with in the early days,
trying to hone our sound, and it really became the basis of our individuality.
Mike: Any Megadeth live show is going to be jam packed with blistering guitar work. Does it get harder as you get older to play this fast? It's not like Megadeth have many ballads. There's no breather during 'Honky Tonk Woman' for you guys, right?
(Laughs)
Dave: I'd say to a large degree that the Megadeth stuff requires not only musical prowess and the technical efficiency to perform it; it also requires an overall health and wellness maintenance - and stamina. And if you don't have that, I don't know how anyone could possibly play the material. Basically you can't be out smokin' and drinkin' and burning the candle at both ends every day (Laughs) you'd never be able to pull it off. And that's kind of cool, you know? Obviously we have our history of running and gunning in our wilder younger days… the truth of it is certainly by Rust In Peace, things really turned around to the point where we became a very physically, healthy, high-stamina kind of band. Playing Megadeth music is more like an athletic event.
Mike: I'm guessing you've been playing music for over thirty years now, Dave. Megadeth is certainly pushing close to being thirty now. When you reflect on your career in music, what things sit with you as milestones?
Dave: As far as the Megadeth stuff?
Mike: Not necessarily. Just in general, when you reflect on your career to date in music, what makes you smile?
Dave: I think for me, probably the beginning. The starting of a band is always a fun process. It's a blank canvass, and you can really do anything that you want to do. I think one of the fun things in Megadeth is that Dave always had a very clear vision right from the very beginning of what he wanted it to be and what he wanted it to sound like. He is also a guy who is very good about following his intuitions as things changed. Often times being the leader of a band isn't about being the boss, it's about being able to make quick decisions as new things come your way. That overall mindset has been a fun thing to be a part of in Megadeth.
For me and my time away from the band, I think the fact that I didn't just limit myself to only playing on heavy metal records was probably one of my most liberating experiences. It allowed me to really flourish and develop as a musician so that when I did come back to Megadeth I essentially came back as a much better musician.
Mike: Having a Jackson Dave Ellefson signature bass HAS to vindicate your musical pursuits a bit, right?
Dave: Yes. It's funny, because in our genre - what we play and what we wear - it's all part of the lifestyle of a band. That's really what bands represent. Bands are a lot more than just the songs and the music they play, they represent a lifestyle. So for me, the Jackson bass thing… for them to reach out to me and for us to have such a great partnership again like we did so many years ago is a cool thing. When someone wants to put your name on their instrument because they know they can then sell them, it's not only a great honour, but for me it's really about me coming back and the fans going, "This is the return to the glory days that we liked, and Dave Ellefson within Megadeth".
Mike: You penned a book called Making Music Your Business: A Guide for Young Musicians in the late 1990s. How relevant do you think that book is now? Would you ever consider updating it for this generation of musicians, even if it was something done electronically?
Dave: You know, it's interesting that you say that because I have been asked to write something updated, maybe like a Volume Two or something, and there is some stuff in it (Volume One) for sure that might be considered out-dated now. The music industry has changed so much now. If anything, what I could do is develop more about the last 15 years. One of the last chapters that I wrote was on the internet. (Note: Ellefson's book was published in 1997) It's funny that that is now one of the main ways for a band to reach their audience. It's funny that I ended with that in the book, because that would essentially be the beginning of the next volume.
(Laughs)
The internet ultimately changed all of the rules in that book. That's why I started to do a lot of stuff just on YouTube. It's so time consuming to actually sit down and write a book and get it published. And as fast are things are changing, the information in the book might just be irrelevant by the time it's published. I started Dave Ellefson's Rock Shop on YouTube as a way to just sit in front of the camera and very quickly get some ideas and concepts out there which essentially represents a revision of the book in a lot of ways.
Mike: Cool man. I think I have now absorbed enough of your time this afternoon. I appreciate your candor, and I look forward to seeing you in Toronto at Heavy TO in about a month.
Dave: Cool. Thanks, Mike.
Black Label Society's The Song Remains Not The Same is not so much an unplugged album as it is a reworking of songs from the band's last album, Order Of The Black. Zakk Wylde has completely redone songs like "Riders Of The Damned" and "Darkest Days" while covering songs like Black Sabbath's "Junior's Eyes," Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home," and Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water." The Song Remains Not the Same — the title is, of course, an homage to his favorite band, Led Zeppelin — features Zakk's acoustic playing, a feature he brought to the fore years ago on his Book Of Shadows album.
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Mr. Wylde spoke about the new record, his new book, being a Trekkie, and getting the crap beat out of him by two folk singers.
UG: Zakk Wylde as author—who would have believed it? How does it feel to put book author on your resume?
Zakk Wylde: Great. It's about all the comedy and all the bullsh-t artists and every day you've got another story. You know what I mean? It's a never-ending tsunami of stupidity, dude. The running joke is, I'd just say if I'm a welder, I went to school for it and I have a license to do welding and if I'm a scuba diver, I can scuba dive and weld. And somebody went to UCLA Medical and that's the reason why you're a doctor or a psychiatrist—you have a degree and you actually have a license because you went there to do it.
Any knucklehead can be a musician, right?
The music industry or any entertainment business? There is no qualifications—none. When you're gonna sign Soundgarden you don't go, "Wait, hold on a second. Did Chris Cornell go to Berklee or MI?" It's like, "No, well, forget him—we ain't signin' him." You know what I'm saying? You don't need a degree to get into the music business. It's just like a car salesman—you've just gotta be a big bullsh-t artist and that's about it. You've got a piece of junk Volkswagen bug that's been bashed around but you can bullsh-t so good, he goes off the parking lot thinking he's got a $180,000 Merdedes. The music business, bro, you know what I mean?
You appeared with James Durbin on American Idol doing Sammy Hagar's "Heavy Metal." How did that happen?
It's awesome now that my kids actually talk to me and my wife actually makes me coffee in the morning and my Rottweilers don't bite me anymore. So, thank you American Idol!
Now you're a bigtime rock and roller, huh?
Well, I'm somebody now [laughs]. The whole thing is, Steve, it's like 20+ years with the Boss with Ozz and then 13 years in Black Label—three minutes on American Idol and now my kids like me and people know who I am. It's hysterical.
You played on the Jasta track, "The Fearless Must Endure."
Yeah, Jamey just gave me a call and was like, "Zakk, I've got something—could you throw a solo down?" I said, "Yeah, no problem, man." It was just like with Chad and the guys in Nickelback called me up and Chad goes, "Zakk, I got a bunch of friends, The Darkest Days, they're buddies of mine and I'm workin' with 'em and producin' em. Dude, I got a tune and I was just thinkin', 'Man, it would be killer to have Zakk play a solo it.'" So I said, "Yeah, no problem, dude." Basically I'm friends with all the guys.
Now we move onto The Song Remains Not the Same. People think of you as this monster metal player but your gentler acoustic side has always peeked through. Going as far back as the Book of Shadows album.
Well, it even goes back to "Mama, I'm Coming Home."
If Book of Shadows had really taken off, could you have seen yourself doing more of the acoustic rock thing ala Neil Young?
That's the beautiful thing about Black Label and the Stones and Zeppelin. I remember reading this thing with Keith Richards who was busted for pissin' in Hyde Park or something like that. He goes, "Oh, we're the Rolling Stones and we'll piss wherever we want to piss." Musically with the Zep and the Stones, musically they'll piss wherever they want to piss. "We're Led Zeppelin, dude." It's like, "You can't do 'The Crunge.'" It's like, "Really? You don't think so? Watch!" You know what I mean? What didn't Zeppelin do musically? They were all over the map but it sounded like Zeppelin at the end of the day and the same thing with the Stones. The Stones do "Wild Horses" and then they'll do "Street Fighting Man" or they'll do anything—whatever they want to do like "Waitin' On A Friend" and then they'll do "Satisfaction" or "Gimme Shelter" or somethin'.
You love the acoustic side as much as the electric side?
The thing is I love the mellow stuff as well. 'Cause somebody was like, "Oh, well you can't do that" and I was like, "Dude, Guns N' Roses could do 'Welcome To the Jungle' and then knock out 'Patience.'" My whole thing is if it's a good song, it's a good song—it really doesn't matter. I mean put it this way—everybody talks about Sabbath being heavy and this and that. I said, "The one most important ingredient that everyone is forgettin' here is that they're actually good songs. Yeah, they're heavy and it's dark but they are good songs and great melodies and great performances by the band." It's a lethal combination so, you know, gimme a break, man.
Of all the Sabbath songs you could have covered, what made you choose "Junior's Eyes"?
I've always loved that song and I always loved that album [Never Say Die]; when I was a kid, I had that album and played it all the time. But I remember it definitely sounded different than the other Sabbath records. I go, "Man, I always loved that album, Ozzy." He goes [Zakk does a perfect impersonation of Ozzy's semi-unintelligible English drawl], "Oh, yeah, Zakk, Never Say Die," he goes, "That was the end of it for me." He just goes, "Yeah, that album didn't even go tin" [heavy laughter] I said, "Well I bought a couple copies." He goes, "Well you're probably the only one." He's hysterical.
Never Say Die was a really good record.
Yeah, "Never Say Die" was a killer song and there's a whole bunch of killer songs on that record so I like it. But the whole thing is I was just sittin' down jammin' out on the piano and I think I had it in the truck and was listenin' to Never Say Die in the truck and listenin' to "Junior's Eyes." I actually recorded it and it was right around like Father's Day and I sent it to Ozz because that song is about him and his dad. Yeah, but I sent that to Ozz and he was like, "Oh, Zakk, it came out cool, man."
"To get into the music business you've just gotta be a big bullsh-t artist and that's about it."
Ozzy dug it?
Yeah. He was like, "Oh, dude, it almost sounds like a gospel thing in the beginning." And I said, "Oh, yeah, thanks Ozz." I dig taking like a cover song and Black Labelizing it.
You Black Labelized the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song, "Helpless." Your voice sounds really good on this one.
Thanks, brother. The cool thing is and the way I always look at singing is you can use your voice like different guitars. I use a Danelectro on the Black Label, Jimmy Page-type stuff and then obviously the Les Paul is slammin' for other things and when I use my Juniors with the P90 pickups is a different sound. Then the acoustic is a different sound or if you go to pick up a slide it does something different. The voice is kind of the same thing—you can do different things with it, which is always a cool thing. I remember the first time I heard Guns N' Roses, I was like, "What? Do they got like three different singers in this band?" with Axl's other 48 personalities. But I mean I was blown away. I was like, "That's really one singer? They only have one singer?" And it's just like, "Yeah, it's this guy Axl" or whatever. I was like, "Dude, he's awesome." [Zakk sings verse from "It's So Easy"] "I've seen your sister
in her Sunday dress" and he's got the low voice and the high voice and the middle voice and I was like, "Dude, it sounds incredible."
You've created the Zakk Wylde choir with all the background vocals as well?
Yeah, 'cause I love doin' the harmonies anyways. I'm a huge Eagles fan and everything like that too; I'm insane when it comes to the Eagles' harmonies. I think J.D. did some singin' on that with me as well.
Are you more of an Eagles harmonies fan than what Crosby, Stills & Nash do harmony-wise?
I love Crosby, Stills & Nash as well. Actually I was just watching Jimmy Fallon last night and they go, "Ladies and gentleman: Neil Young." And it's Jimmy sittin' there with a hat on and an acoustic and a harmonica just like Neil and he starts singin' some cheesy song [Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A."]. Graham Nash and David Crosby walk out and the spotlight comes on them and they start singing the cheesiest lyrics but these amazing harmonies. It was freakin' hysterical, man. But none of them broke out and started laughin', which made it even funnier. You know what I mean? They're damn sickass harmonies as well. That's what I always said with Alice [In Chains]. With Jerry [Cantrell] and company it's like Sabbath riffs on steroids-meets Crosby, Stills & Nash with all the harmonies they had. That's what makes Alice so unique.
As a matter of fact, Buffalo Springfield have reformed with Neil, Stephen Stills and Richie Furay.
Oh, they are? Yeah, well I mean it's cool the guys still get together and knock that stuff out.
Your version of "Bridge Over Trouble Water" was a tremendous version. You were a fan of Simon & Garfunkel back in the day with songs like "America" and "At the Zoo"?
Yeah, I remember growing up and hearing those songs all the time and you still hear those songs nowadays. 'Cause I heard it on the radio and go, "Dude, that song just kicks ass." I heard it on the radio and then we got back to the Vatican [Zakk's home studio] and I just got a copy of it on iTunes and I just started learnin' the song.
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" is one of the most ridiculously incredible songs ever written.
Somebody asked me, they go, "Zakk, were you afraid of covering a classic like 'Bridge Over Troubled Water"? I go, "Umm, yes, it's funny that you do mention that. I was actually terrified." And he was like, "Really?" And I go, "Yes. It was just brought to my attention by my buddy Eric [Hendrikx] who is in the mixed martial arts field who said, 'Paul Simon's style of Jeet Kune Do would be a rival for the deadly venom of Black Label.'" So you know what? I'm just kinda scared if I run into a back alley with Paul Simon and if my Five Deadly Venom Black Label style of Kung Fu will be able to match the Jeet Kune Do of Paul Simon [manic laughter].
You'll have to come at Paul Simon as the Overlord [Zakk's riotously funny character in the "Overlord" video].
Exactly, dude [more laughing].
So you heard "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and sat down at the piano and learned the chords and the voices?
I just sat down and learned it; you just start hearin' it and find out what key it's in.
Your interpretation of the song was pretty much like the original with keyboards and strings—you didn't want to add any guitars?
Just because I'm like a guitar hero guy, at the end of the day nothin' for nothin' but there's more to me than just playin' solos. Let's put it this way—if I heard the Eagles doin' a cover of it, does Joe Walsh have to put slide guitar on "Bridge Over Troubled Water"? [laughs]
You did Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home." You were a fan?
Uh, yeah, without a doubt—it's Eric and anything Clapton did. I always loved that record.
Did you like Stevie Winwood more in Blind Faith or Traffic?
I think the Traffic stuff is cool, too, but Stevie Winwood has a great voice. If it's a killer song, it's a killer song no matter what's going on—until I get hold of it and ruin it!
On "Can't Find My Way Home" you replace Clapton's acoustic fingerpicking parts with piano.
Like I said, Black Labelizing it and doing a different version of it. Otherwise what's the point in doing it if you're gonna do it exactly the same. I was sittin' down playing the piano and singing it and said, "Let's just do it on the piano." Then I put the electric solo at the end.
The key line in that song is "I'm wasted and I can't find my way home," which would have referred to you two years ago.
Hey, man, I'm so wasted I'm high on life!
You do that cool guitar instrumental of "The First Noel."
We ended up doing that for St. Jude's Hospital who was giving away all the money during Christmastime. And then the rest of our Black Label family were saying, "Dude, where can I find that damn song?" So everyone kept asking about it so I just said, "Stick it on the record so they can get it."
Can we expect a Zakk Wylde Sings the Christmas Classics album come this holiday season?
Oh, yes, why not?
What you call Black Labelizing is really virtual rewrites of the songs from Order Of the Black?
The songs are similar. You can't call the record Unplugged because the only song that's like that is "Overlord" because it's like an acoustic version of the same type of riff and the melody and everything like that. But I mean "Parade Of the Dead," the only thing it has in common with that is the melody and the lyrics but as far as the music goes, it's completely different. Then you've got "Riders Of the Damned" and the only thing that thing has in common with the original is the title and the lyrics—the melody is different and the music's completely different. It's a whole nother song.
You recorded everything at home at the Bunker?
At the Black Vatican, yeah; that's what it is. It's killer. Whenever we get ideas, I call Adam [Hamilton, engineer] up and then Adam will come down and engineer whatever we're recording.
"I dig taking like a cover song and Black Labelizing it."
You recorded "Iron Man" with William Shatner for his Searching For Major Tom album. What was that like?
We had Father Shatner and we beamed him aboard the Black Vatican and we had him come over there. One of the guys that was working on it, I knew him years ago and he said, "Zakk, I'm workin' with William Shatner. Would you want to do this thing with 'Iron Man'?" I said, "Yeah, of course, dude." William Shatner was part of my childhood growing up. I used to go to the Star Trek conventions and all this other stuff so we were talkin' about that when he was there and everything and he was just laughing. A super cool guy. You know what's so crazy? I'm thinking like he's Jimmy Page's age, 67 or 68, a couple years older than Ozz. Dude, he's 80 years old and when you see him he's walkin' fine and he looks like he's about 58 years old. A really super cool guy. I'm fortunate that I met like all my heroes and I caught 'em all on a good day.
Who are some of your heroes that you met?
Everybody: Ozz, Tony Iommi, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant. Playing with Geezer and Bill Ward was amazing. Everybody I've ever met, they're all iconic legendary guys and all really super nice. Gregg Allman. Everybody I've met have been really super cool guys. I filled in for Dickie Betts. It's out there: Zakk Goes Wild With the Allman Brothers. You can pick that thing up on a bootleg.
You never met Randy Rhoads?
No, when Randy passed away I was 15; I don't even know if I was 15, I might have been 13 or 14 years old. Because Randy passed away in '82 and I was, yeah, 15 years old then. But I never got a chance to see Randy either because we got our tickets for Madison Square Garden and Randy was on his way up and he was probably 10 shows away. I saw Ozz play with Bernie Torme before Brad Gillis came in and he opened up with "Over the Mountain" and we were like, "Oh, my god, this is the test, man!" Because it had the rippin' solo and everything like that. But actually J.D. saw it too and J.D. and me are huge Randy disciples and stuff like that. J.D. was saying, "Man, I wish I could get a bootleg of that show" 'cause I remember that Bernie did a great job on Randy's stuff.
Had you started playing guitar when you saw the show?
I just started playing the guitar so I couldn't play the solo to "Flying High" or any of the solos yet. But we were all high fiving each other and saying how it sounded like the record and going, "This is the greatest."
How difficult were Randy's solos to learn?
Like anything, once you start dialing your technique in, it makes it easier to play other people's hard stuff or whatever. You just keep getting technically better. But it was Randy's composition because it goes beyond how hard certain solos are to play; obviously certain solos are gonna be harder to play than other ones technically. But they were all songs within a song and that's what makes 'em so brilliant.
You appear on the Thirty Years After the Blizzard DVD blazing through some of Randy's licks.
Nothin' for nothin', the best thing for Randy was hookin' up with Ozzy. Me and J.D. were talkin' about it. "Where is he putting 'Diary Of a Madman" on a Quiet Riot record? Where is he putting 'Revelation' on a Quiet Riot record? Or 'Over the Mountain' or 'Goodbye to Romance'?" To me, we were trying to figure out what Quiet Riot sounded like and I actually heard a song. You know who they sound like? Sweet. Remember that band? I listened to those Quiet Riot records and go, "It doesn't like sound Queen" but you hear influences. And you know what was so funny was you listen to all of that and Zeppelin was at the height of their massiveness and Randy wasn't into Zeppelin at all. No Zeppelin anywhere or Sabbath. Randy even said it. He goes, "'I never liked Black Sabbath.'" He loved Alice Cooper and Leslie West. I remember reading that in Guitar Player magazine that he loved Leslie West and he mentioned Steve Lukather
and he mentioned Earl Klugh. He was talking about Eddie and said, "'Man, I really dig Eddie Van Halen. I really love his playing'" and stuff like that. He mentioned Leslie West and he goes, "'Man, it just sounds so mean and nasty the way he played the blues.'"
You bring up the point that no one ever seems to mention—that Randy really flourished once he joined Ozzy's band. In Quiet Riot, to be honest, Randy was just another good guitar player floating around Los Angeles.
Neal Zlozower [famous rock photographer] had seen him and he goes, "'I know you love Randy and he's your guy but I saw him back in the day with Quiet Riot and it was just like, ehhh.'" Just like pretty much what you're saying.
Exactly.
Because Eddie Van Halen was just destroying everybody. Then Neal took those classic pictures of Randy sitting on the couch with all his guitars, and he said, "'Zakk, when I took those pictures when they played the Inglewood Forum [17,000-seat arena], I went, 'What did they do? Just lock him in a room for like 12 hours and make him play guitar?'" He goes, "'Zakk, it didn't even sound like the same guitar player.'" And nuttin' for nuttin' but you listen to those Quiet Riot records and then you listen to Diary and Blizzard? It's like, "Ahh, get outta here—this isn't the same guitar player."
Randy changed dramatically when he started working with Ozzy.
When you listen to Randy's live solo, it has snippets of all his unique traits that he had in his playing. I'm talking about the actual live solo in "Suicide Solution." Me and J.D. were listening to it and I was like, "Dude, it's all in there." Just snippets of the diminished stuff; him muting with the scales; him with the legato and classical stuff. Just in that short little guitar solo; it's amazing.
You really liked Randy's live sound?
I thought it was better than the Blizzard Of Ozz sound; I think the live sound was way better. Because the chorus that he had on his guitar just sounded huge, massive and warm. I think the actual production overall was better on the Diary Of a Madman album. Mind you it was the second album. It's like when I listen to Black Label records, I know for a fact that this last album we did production-wise and fidelity-wise is the best sounding record I've ever done. Because I listen to all of 'em back to back and it's like when you listen to Zeppelin records. They all have their own unique character but definitely Zeppelin IV [is the one]. If you were gonna say to Jimmy, "You can only leave one record for people to know what you did on this planet," you've gotta leave that one because the production is beyond phenomenal; the songwriting is amazing; and the stars aligned when they did that album. That's their Sgt. Pepper's, you know what I
mean? With Metallica, it's the Black album; with Guns, it's Appetite; and with AC/DC, it's Back In Black. The production and the writing is amazing. It's a marriage of all the things that make it great.
"The whole thing is, it's like 20+ years with Ozz and then 13 years in Black Label—three minutes on American Idol and now my kids like me and people know who I am."
Diary Of A Madman was the high point of that Ozzy/Randy collaboration.
Randy's tone on "Flying High Again" and "Over the Mountain" [was amazing]. I know the albums were recorded real close together but maybe it's the way Max Norman mixed it. But to me, I think it's a better-sounding record overall.
If you had to leave one record behind, which one would it be?
It would have to be the new one: Order Of the Black. 'Cause it's got "Chupacabra," the little solo piece; we got the mellow stuff on there and then you've got the heavy stuff. So, yeah, I'd have to go with the last album.
So it all comes down to the music.
All the bands we were talking about, our favorite bands—the Beatles, the Stones, Zeppelin, Sabbath—it's all down to their tunes. Hands down.
Even in the '80s when you had that explosion of guitar players, those bands still had some good songs.
As phenomenal as the guitar playing was in the '80s with Warren DeMartini, Vivian Campbell, Yngwie, and Jake E. Lee, when Ratt came out with "Round and Round" and "Way Cool Jr.," their thing was songs. And in the '90s when Alice In Chains came out, Jerry was such a phenomenal songwriter, it didn't matter how heavy Alice was, there were great songs there. It doesn't matter if Jerry's not playing as fast as John McLaughlin on steroids or Paco; that's not what it's about. Jerry's strength is his songwriting so it always comes down to the songs. With Nirvana, it was all the tunes. Curt would have been the first one to say, "Zakk, I can't play a Randy solo. Did I miss the boat on that?" And I woulda been, "I completely missed the boat on the whole punk rock, Black Flag thing" because I was into Eddie and Randy, Al DiMeola, McLaughlin, Paco, Frank Marino, Robin Trower and all that other stuff.
Are there any new guitar players that you dig?
Put it this way, the guys in Five Finger Death Punch obviously practice and know how to play the guitar. When the guys in Shadows Fall came out, they practiced.
Do those bands have great songs?
The whole thing is, as far as technicians and everything like that, me and Dime were sitting there one day at the Ozzfest. And he was going, "Zakk, we had Eddie and Randy. I guess it's a sad state of affairs if these kids look up to you and me then we've failed miserably! [lots of laughing] I go, "Dime, I think it's safe to say we're the only clowns up here that can actually get from the low E to the high E and back." But then again at that point, being technically proficient kind of went out the window for a little while. As far as I'm concerned, I always said, "Good guitar playing will never go out of style." Randy Rhoads will never go out of style; Eddie Van Halen will never go out of style. It will never happen. It's like a t-shirt and jeans—it just won't go out of style.
We're still talking about Randy Rhoads all these years later—who are the current guitar players we'll be talking about in 30 years time?
What I think is gonna be the real interesting thing is because of the Guitar Hero game. I remember somebody baggin' on it and I go, "Let me tell you something—that's probably the best thing to happen to the guitar since 'Eruption.'" I go, "You'll see, the next Jimmy Page or Hendrix or Eddie Van Halen or Dimebag is gonna come flyin' out of that game. Some kid is gonna go, 'Yeah, I used to play that game when I was a kid and it was a lot of fun and now you know what? I wanna get a real guitar.'" I can't wait to hear that.
You can see monster players all the time on Youtube.
I remember Steve Lukather was saying, "Zakk, nowadays it's awesome. Back then nobody could figure out how to play 'Eruption.' People were going, 'What the hell is he doing?' Now you can go on YouTube and learn how to play 'Over the Mountain' or something." We had to learn that by puttin' the needle on the record and keep constantly going back and something has to be said for that, too. Then you're really discovering different things and unlocking stuff and you're like one of those guys who goes out and discovers artifacts and stuff like that because you're constantly digging and digging and digging away. Somebody asked me, "Do you advise taking guitar lessons?" I go, "Well, dude, it's just like drivin' a car—if you can get somebody to show you how to drive a stick shift, why wouldn't you?" I remember when I used to have buddies and they'd go, "Oh, I slaved my Marshall into that" and I go, "What is that?
Slave your amp into something?" To me it just seemed like you had to go to NASA to learn how to do all this stuff. But if you can show somebody the beginning tips to get you started, it's like learning how to ride a bike and having training wheels so you can get your balance.
Everything else is good with you? You healthy and clean?
Well, now that I've started drinking again, I just got locked up the other night! It started getting too boring around here.
Normal doesn't work for you for too long, huh?
Yeah, the heroin wasn't working.
What your fans are waiting for is to see you as Zakk E. Stylze, the kung fu Overlord in a feature length film. That would be the funniest movie ever made.
We'll film the fight at the Coliseum between me and Paul Simon because Paul Simon is pissed at the way I performed "Bridge Over Troubled Water." He feels it's inadequate and it's a horrible representation of the song and he'll kick my ass!
"Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't", a brand new song from ANTHRAX, can be streamed using the SoundCloud player below. The track is also available for free download at
http://media.nuclearblast.de/download/gratisdownload/index.php?link_kampagne=Anthrax-fightemtillyoucant
Commented the band: "To all of our friends around the world — ANTHRAX fans are the most loyal fans ever. You've been waiting a long, long time for us to release new music. With Joey [Belladonna, vocals] back in the band, we know that the anticipation is really high, and we love you for that. So, as a way for us to say THANK YOU, we decided to make our brand-new track, 'Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't', available as a free download, giving all of you a taste of what's to come on our first new studio album in eight years, 'Worship Music', that will be out September 13. Thank you for sticking with us my friends and now join us on this zombie killing thrill ride we call 'Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't'."
Regarding the "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't" single artwork (which can be seen below), ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante said, "The cover art was done by Alex Ross. He is the greatest, in my eyes. His attention to detail is one of the things I love about him. I wanted to show the members of the band fighting their Zombie Doppleganger, I really think this is one of my favorite covers. Look for a t-shirt and single later on."
"Worship Music" will be released on September 13 through Megaforce Records (one day earlier internationally via Nuclear Blast Records), it is announced today. Appropriately, "Worship Music" will street the day before the band's triumphant return to their native New York to play at Yankee Stadium as part of the "Big Four" concert extravaganza.
Not only is "Worship Music" ANTHRAX's first studio release in eight years, but the album marks the return of vocalist Joey Belladonna, whose last studio work with the band was 1990's "Persistence of Time". Belladonna is now firmly back in the ANTHRAX lineup with drummer Charlie Benante, guitarists Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano, and bassist Frank Bello.
"Getting Joey back in as our full-time, permanent singer solidified us as a unit like we hadn't been in years," said Ian. "All of us were on the same page creatively, working together, writing together, and becoming a band again."
"I get goosebumps listening to the new music," Benante admitted. "Scott and Rob's guitars are absolutely on fire, Frankie kicks butt on bass, and hearing Joey sing, well, the band sounds like ANTHRAX — Joey's back and it's great."
Added Ian, "This record is filled with not just four years of our lives, but with our lifetime in the band. It encompasses it all, and when I listen to the record, I can hear all the energy and love and hate and pain and laughter that went into this."
The 11-track "Worship Music" was produced by ANTHRAX, Rob Caggiano and Jay Ruston and recorded over a four-year period at studios in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Belladonna's return to the band prompted some of the songs originally recorded to be re-crafted with fresh lyrics or tweaked to better suit his overall vibe and energy. Some of the songs were completely replaced with brand-new songs and, of course, all have Belladonna's inimitable vocal stamp on them.
"We had the unusual luxury of hindsight with this album," Ian explained. "We were able to live with the songs we originally recorded, look back on them and see what we really loved about them and what we could make better."
"I'm very happy with the record, it sounds like ANTHRAX," said Belladonna. "There are some interesting twists and turns on it, and plenty of tunes for fans to get their fingers on. I felt very comfortable working with Jay Ruston, and I think everyone brought to the table what they needed to. Now it's time for the fans to listen and get what they've been waiting for. I'll tell you, I'm really excited."
"Worship Music" is loaded with stand-out tracks. While "Judas Priest" is a nod to the huge influence that band has had on the members of ANTHRAX and metal heads everywhere. "I'm Alive" is beautiful and grand with a build that demands audience participation. "Crawl" is dark and moody, and filled with a lot of the emotion and stress the band was feeling when it was written. "Fight 'em 'til You Can't" is a song about killing zombies, and who doesn't love a good zombie song? It's the one new track that ANTHRAX has played live since they started touring with Belladonna a year ago, and has been getting tremendous audience response. The song "Earth on Hell" is classic ANTHRAX thrash. "The Devil You Know" is best-described as "an AC/DC groove filtered through an ANTHRAX lens," while "In The End" is epic-sounding and ANTHRAX's way of remembering the late Ronnie James Dio and Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott.
"'In The End' does have a melancholy feel," confessed Benante,"and when we play it live, Ronnie and Dimebag will be right there with us on stage."
And just where did the title "Worship Music" come from? "One night, many years ago, I fell asleep with the TV on," explained Benante. "About four or five in the morning, I woke up, picked up the remote and pulled up the digital program guide. There was a show on called 'Worship Music', and I thought 'what a great title for an album.' Most heavy metal fans worship their favorite bands, metal heads are so loyal to metal, going to a concert is like going to a house of worship. 'Worship Music' said it all."
When ANTHRAX first started "Worship Music", they had no idea if the music would ever see the light of day, but they carried on because making music is what they do, it's in their blood. According to Ian, "It took everything in us as people to make this record and it shows. We went back to square one and did it for the same reason we did it back then, because we worshipped music and we still do. Music is something worth worshipping."
ANTHRAX will support "Worship Music" with a massive world tour. Dates will be announced shortly.
California rockers TESLA will release "Twisted Wires And The Acoustic Sessions" in Europe on July 25 via Scarlet Records. The CD, which will be released in North America on July 12, will feature six songs that were recorded back in 2005 at bassist Brian Wheat's J Street Recorders studio — which also serve as the last recordings with original member Tommy Skeoch — and six newly recorded tracks, including acoustic remakes of songs from TESLA's entire catalog and two brand new songs, "Second Street" and "Better Off Without You".
TESLA released a live album, "Alive In Europe!", in Europe on April 23, 2010 via Frontiers Records.
TESLA's latest studio album, "Forever More", sold more than 16,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 33 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was released on October 7, 2008 on Tesla Electric Company Recordings. The European version of the album, which was made available on November 7 via Frontiers Records, contains two bonus tracks not found on the American version.
For "Forever More", TESLA reunited with producer Terry Thomas, who was behind the boards for the band's 1994 gold-certified "Bust A Nut" album, and engineered by Michael Rosen who worked with TESLA on "Into The Now".
Wendy Dio, the wife/manager of legendary heavy metal singer Ronnie James Dio, recently told Goldmine magazine that "musically speaking, my least favorite album [for the DIO band] was 'Angry Machines' [1996], because I felt that Ronnie had taken a turn that he was being pushed into, to become more industrial. His fans didn't like it that much, and I'm glad he decided to change and go back to the usual way of writing."
Ex-DIO guitarist Tracy "G" Grijalva — who played on "Angry Machines" and 1993's "Strange Highways" — responded to Wendy's comments with the following statement sent to the Russian Dio Fan Club:
''If Wendy did not like me or Ronnie did not like me or the fans or the labels or whoever — I can't do anything about it If it's me personally or my guitar playing or whatever that she disliked — I can't change any of that either. Then again, I have to admit that this is correct in how she feels about that time. It is all fine with me.
"Although she did say she did not like the 'Angry Machines' album or the direction we were going, that's not entirely my fault because her husband had the final say about the recording process Some fans feel the same way also but some do not. So if she, or anybody [else], did not like what we did at that time, that's OK with me. I can't change anything, and even if I could, I wouldn't do it, because that's exactly how Ronnie and I felt at that time.
"I just want her to know that I have nothing bad to say about that time or anybody that was there.
"I am sorry this stuff makes some people angry and frustrated, but I am sure there are lots of fans out there who like what i did and I just want to thank them for their support. I will always respect and remember Ronnie and Wendy but I am going to keep on rocking my way. I do not intend to please everybody."
Tracy left DIO in 1999 after he claimed he was "asked to play in a dual-guitar situation" in Ronnie's band. According to a posting on Tracy's web site, DIO was "looking for more of a Ritchie Blackmore style . . . and wanted [Tracy] to step back and just play rhythm guitar. That's when [Tracy] knew it was time to leave, freeing him to more diligently pursue his home studio projects."
Drummer Mike Portnoy (ADRENALINE MOB, DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD) will take part in an in-store meet-and-greet Sunday, July 10 at Daddy's Music in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Proceeds will go to the Red Cross for the victims of the 2011 Massachusetts tornado.. Everyone attending is being asked to make a $10 donation at the door.
Sunday, July 10 at 5:00 p.m.
Daddy's Music
935 Riverdale St.
West Springfield MA
413-737-4443
ADRENALINE MOB — the new band featuring Portnoy, SYMPHONY X frontman Russell Allen, guitar virtuoso Mike Orlando (SONIC STOMP), bassist Paul DiLeo and STUCK MOJO/FOZZY axeman Rich Ward — will make its live debut tonight (Friday, June 24) at The Hiro Ballroom (16th Street and 9th Avenue) in New York City. The group will play songs from its upcoming CD as well as a few classic covers.
San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal veterans TESTAMENT last week entered the studio with British producer Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, ARCH ENEMY, NEVERMORE, MACHINE HEAD) to begin pre-production on their new album for a late 2011 release.
Due to a "serious injury," drummer Paul Bostaph is unable to take part in the new CD recordings but will rejoin TESTAMENT for future touring activities. Playing drums on the follow-up to 2008's "The Formation Of Damnation" will be Gene "The Atomic Clock" Hoglan (ex-DARK ANGEL, ex-STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, FEAR FACTORY, DETHKLOK), with LAMB OF GOD's Chris Adler set to make a special guest appearance on a couple of bonus tracks.
In a new online posting, TESTAMENT bassist Greg Christian states, "Eric [Peterson, guitar], Gene, Andy and I have been in the studio jammin' on the new songs since last week and today is the last day of pre-production. Gene starts recording the drum tracks tomorrow. It's coming to be, and it's heavy as shit."
Hoglan previously played drums on TESTAMENT's 1997 album, "Demonic", but didn't stick around long enough to do any touring with the band.
Regarding the musical direction of the new TESTAMENT material, the band's vocalist, Chuck Billy, stated in a 2010 interview, "The new album will most likely be a culmination of 'The Gathering' [1999] and 'The Formation of Damnation', but we're definitely not going to forget who we are or our roots. I think we've found a comfortable spot in our writing style."
Back On Black, which specializes in vinyl editions of classic metal albums and is dedicated to providing top-quality releases for record collectors and metal fans worldwide, will re-release TESTAMENT's first four albums — "The Legacy", "The New Order", "Practice What You Preach" and "Souls Of Black" — on June 27 on deluxe limited-edition180-gram vinyl:
* "The Legacy" (originally released in 1987) (purple vinyl)
* "The New Order" (originally released in 1988) (clear vinyl)
* "Practice What You Preach" (originally released in 1989) (white vinyl)
* "Souls Of Black" (originally released in 1990) (blue vinyl)
During a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, former VAN HALEN and current CHICKENFOOT bassist Michael Anthony was asked for his thoughts on his old group's upcoming album, which is tentatively due this fall.
"Well, you know what?! As far as people saying, 'Do you miss VAN HALEN?' or any of that kind of stuff, I've totally moved on. Man, I am just in my total happy place right now. . . Yeah, I'm curious to see what they come out with, but there's no type of competitive type thing." He added, "It's funny, I go online, and see what the fans are saying, you know, 'Oh my God, it's gonna be VAN HALEN against CHICKENFOOT this year, both things coming out, and what's going to be better?' and blah blah blah. If they out put out a great album, that's great. I just know that ours is great, and I'm really proud of it."
Anthony hasn't spoken to any of the members of VAN HALEN since the end of the band's 2004 tour. He said earlier this year, "The tour did not end as harmoniously as we would have liked it to and it probably should have gone on longer than it did." Still, Anthony wouldn't be against having his band CHICKENFOOT open for VAN HALEN should they go on tour — "I got no problem with that," he said.
Anthony last year said that Eddie and Alex Van Halen hold a grudge against him for maintaining a friendship with Sammy Hagar. Anthony recalled to Mojo, that the problems started between him and the band when in the late '90s, VAN HALEN once again tried unsuccessfully to bring David Lee Roth back into the fold. With VAN HALEN seemingly on hiatus, Hagar had called Anthony to see if he was interested in hooking up with him and Neal Schon in their side project PLANET US.
Anthony explained, "Some VAN HALEN fans say I left the band to hook up with Sammy, but I never said, 'I quit.' There was nothing going on in the VAN HALEN camp, but Eddie kinda backed me up against a wall. . . Eddie felt that I was a traitor. I helped hook Sammy back up with them for the 2004 reunion tour, but Eddie didn't want me to be a part of that originally, so I took a big pay cut. I'm not crying, I didn't need the money. I did that because I wanted to play for the fans. I signed away any legal rights I had with the name, the trademark or whatever. I did it because if that was the last time VAN HALEN would ever be on stage, I wanted to be part of it."
He went on to say, "The major reason why I'm not in VAN HALEN (now) is because I became friends with Sammy again. The Van Halen brothers never got over that. If they hold a grudge, they hold it forever."
During VAN HALEN's August 2007 press conference announcing their reunion tour with David Lee Roth and Eddie's son Wolfgang Van Halen on bass, Roth skirted over the issue of why a then-16 year old kid was playing bass instead of Anthony. "Michael Anthony is part of this band's history, " he said. "There's a lot of great alumni who have been through this band. I'm shocked that any of us are still vertical after 30 years. And as far as why Wolf is in the band, may I speak for you, Ed? I understand how he wanted to play with the boy because he's amazing." Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach will release his new solo album, "Kicking & Screaming", on September 27 via Frontiers Records. The CD was produced by Bob Marlette (BLACK SABBATH, SHINEDOWN, ATREYU, FILTER) and features young virtuosic guitarist Nick Sterling and drum pro Bobby Jarzombek (HALFORD, RIOT, ICED EARTH). The follow-up to 2007's "Angel Down" was mastered at Precision Mastering in Los Angeles
with Tom Baker.
In a brand new posting on Facebook, Bach writes, "Wow, I am SO BLOWN AWAY by the amazing artwork of Richard Villa! I have just approved the album cover of 'Kicking & Screaming' and I am happy to say I have seen the wildest album cover this year... and it's ours, haha!!
"I am so proud of the music on this CD and now I can say I'm equally proud of the cover art.
"So many covers these days are just a headshot and a logo, zzzzzz. The album cover is a lost art and I am so glad Richard Villa knows how to create art that is as heavy as rock 'n' roll can be!! Can't wait for all of you to see it!"
Sebastian previously stated that the "Kicking & Screaming" cover would feature "the hottest model in the land" — presumably referring to his new girlfriend, 25-year-old model Minnie Gupta — "and reflect the lyrics as well as the brutality of the music. It's gonna be rock 'n' roll to the 9th degree — very heavy, cool, trippy and nightmare-ish."
Bach stated about his new solo material, "This CD will follow along the lines of 'Skid Row', 'Slave To The Grind', 'Subhuman Race' and 'Angel Down'. If you like rockin' guitar riffs, high-energy songs and performances, deadly drums of doom, and ear-shattering screams, we got your rock right here!" He also described the songs as "heavy, interesting, classic sounding, modern sounding, completely rock 'n' roll — just how we like it!"
Bach and his crew have been keeping busy playing selected tour dates nationwide, including recent appearances at major festivals M3 and Rocklahoma, and will continue to tour throughout the summer. Fans can expect Bach classics, as well as a sneak preview of material from the forthcoming album.
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Italian rock/metal band LACUNA COIL has set "Dark Adrenaline" as the title of its new album, due in October via Century Media Records. The follow-up to 2009's "Shallow Life" is once again being helmed by producer Don Gilmore (PEARL JAM, LINKIN PARK, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE), with the band this time choosing to record in its native Italy to help focus on the more personal nature of the new material.
"This time around music has been our refuge from some of the darkest days of our life and that's why the new songs have such a variety of feelings... some stuff is pretty angry, probably the heaviest we've ever written, some other songs are intense, loaded with velvet dark emotions and there's even a little space for some light at the end of the tunnel," says LACUNA COIL's male vocalist Andrea Ferro.
"People are asking me if we're going back to our roots or if we're taking another step forward in a new direction... Well, to be honest I just feel that this is 100 percent a LACUNA COIL record and that is what really matters to me. I just love the songs and we felt a big wave of inspiration. The energy with Don in the studio is sky-high and we're ready to kick some ass."
"Collectively, we did so much in between 'Shallow Life' and this one," adds LACUNA COIL's female vocalist Cristina Scabbia. "We have lots of different experiences between us. We've been loved and hurt, we grew up, we shrunk inside a little keeping ourselves together and our roots watered and are alive. I still can't believe that the energy in between us is getting better and better, but I guess that's what being a real family means."
Regarding the musical direction of the new songs, Ferro stated last month, "Some stuff is . . . probably the heaviest we have ever written. But then we have some cool songs with a dark, 'old-school' vibe, and then some other rocking songs which are a bit more modern and anthemic sounding." Scabbia added, "I just want you all to listen to it 'cause I think the old fans will be pleased as well as the new one fans. The collection of songs is the perfect balance between an older and a newer style of rock metal — with a heavy punch and melancholic shadows."
Once LACUNA COIL completes the recording sessions for the new album, the band will spend the summer performing at a select number of European festivals, including Greenfield, Graspop Metal Meeting and Sonisphere in Spain.
When asked how the new material is sounding, Cristina said in a 2010 interview with Kerrang! magazine, "It's still a rock sound. I like the direction we took on 'Shallow Life' and this is going to be in that vein. I still love metal to death, but at this point I like rock more. I like being able to bring different things that are not necessarily from metal to the album because I like the contamination between sounds. I like that music is always evolving and that you can be free to take sounds and mix them together."
Regarding whether there are any other surprises in store, Cristina said, "At this stage I actually don't know. We don't plan that, because in some ways I like to stay with that classic sound and in some other ways I like to do something completely different and surprise people. I've learned over the years that you cannot make everyone happy. If you stay classic, there will be some who say you're not innovative, and if you're innovative, people will complain that you sold out or you went off the rails. I can honestly say I don't care anymore. We want to be free to do whatever we want. We love rock and roll and we love metal, but we don't want to put any limitations on what we might make."
Devin Townsend is a changed man. He's productive as ever, but he looks at things from a new perspective since he quit drinking and doing drugs. For me this became very clear when I saw him performing at the Vera in Groningen. He was actually having a good time on stage and the overall vibe was really positive. This is quite a profound change compared to this Strapping Young Lad stage antics when he cursed and insulted his audience like there was no tomorrow. This and his revealing thoughts on his transformation musically put in words through his Ki, Addicted, Deconstruction and Ghost albums form the backbone of this very honest and often very personal interview..
The difference between the way you behave on stage in during your Strapping Young Lad period and the way you're performing tonight's show couldn't be bigger. You actually seemed to enjoy yourself. What happened?
Yes, back then I really disliked being on stage and in a way I was really afraid of everybody. When you're afraid of something you get really agressive toward it. All of a sudden I got to a point where I started to have kids and stopped doing a lot of my bad habbits. You either confront that or you spend your whole life being terrified.
The last time we did an interview we talked about how much you missed your family while being on the road and you kept on going essentially against your will..
I'm still missing them while I'm out there touring, but I came to the conclusion that with drugs and alcohol there was nothing to look forward to. I used to be like "let's get the show over with, so we can smoke that bag of weed", but without those influences the best part of the day is the show itself. It took me a couple of years to analyse why I did the things I was doing and the type of music I created and I came to the conclusion that I'm very fortunate that I'm able to do the things I want to do and that I've managed to establish some kind of a fanbase. After years of sort of necgleting that I came to realise it's an honour to have such a thing. There are a lot of people who would love to be in the situation we're in, so not making the most of that at this point wouldn't only be a slap in their face but also a slap in the face to the people who supported us for the past twenty years.
I think many people appreciate your music, because it's sincere and genuine. How important is it for you to be honest in the music you create?
It's the only thing that is important, even though it's bad for business. The way I write is I pick up a guitar, let it all out and make it as good as it can possibly be. But I remember when I was doing Ki, Ghost or even Deconstruction it came out exactly as I wanted, but I knew for a fact it would bother people. I was concerned that some parts of my audience would see it as an insult if I wouldn't deliver the kind of music they wished me to create or that they would see it as a deliberate attempt to make them angry, because I'm doing something different. That's absolutely not the case. To be completely straight up with you I write what I write and it's coming out the way it's coming out and I'm trying to capture that the best I can. Sometimes it comes better out than other times, but it's always completely honest.
You've expressed yourself musically in many different ways and you've been doing this for at least twenty years. Don't you think you've earned the right to create the music you feel like creating?
I certainly hope so or at least I'm hoping I'm getting to that point soon. When I go out there playing it's so far from what I really want to do. I want it to be theatrical and to play big shows, but I want to have accoustic moments too, where it's like one person and a guitar with no production and then to have a massive production with choirs and all. At this moment we're back in a van again, making enough money to keep us on the road. As akward as those moments seem to be it's a good opportunity to experiment with some things. On the last tour I was really afraid to change the setlist. I had this sequence of songs that really did something towards the end of the show and I love that. The problem is that I have so many records under my belt and if I keep repeating myself; people who want to hear a lot of that get bored, you know? So for tonight's show I decided to change the setlist completely, so the flow was completely wrong, but it
gives me the chance to see how certain songs work together. For instance the Deconstruction stuff is dark, but it's theatrical dark, but not nihilistic like the stuff I did with Strapping Young Lad. What I hope to do is to go on stage and tell some kind of story and lead it to a dark place and have the music illustrate that. When that story comes to a happy part we'll have happy music to back that up and mellow stuff for the mellower moments and so on. It's like some kind of epiphany, right?
Talking about Deconstruction it reminds me a lot of your Strapping Young Lad material, however without all the negativy and nihilism. Your new material is still heavy, weird and outlandish, but it's executed in a very focussed and controlled way….
Thank you, it does exactly represent my current state of mind. Sometimes when people are negative towards the record for the very things it's about it becomes difficult for me to discuss it, right? The problem of this record is that it's a stream of conciousness and all the lyrics wander and that's exactly what it's supposed to do. The whole four record project is suppossed to in a vague way to represent the transition of one way of thinking and creating to another and hopefully those four records represent the way that change came about.
So which of the four records represents your current state of being?
Ghost, 100 percent and it has been for many years. The point of Deconstruction is that the main character that the lyrics revolve around, at the end of the story has an epiphany that the thing he was focussing so heavily on adds nothing to his life and when he's standing back and reviews it all it's all so confusing and so much work that the quest he was on is in the end entirly futile. This realisation makes the character re-evaluate what's really important to him. The character is obviously me, so for me what is really important the thirty something age I am right now is – I don't drink, I don't do drugs and I'm a vegitarian, so I'm a boring dude, right? What I did today I walked around, rented a bike and rode around the city and I loved it. It was awesome.
In what way does your current sobriety influence your music and your creativity?
That's a good question. In the past what drugs and drinking did for me was made me focus on things that weren't imaginary but more stuff under the surface so to speak. I don't have any moral agenda, but from my experience people who normally wouldn't be interested in conspiracy theories, alien agendas or religion start focussing on those sorts of things after using mariuana or other types of drugs. I don't deny there are things under the surface, but what is really important for me is to get from point A to point B and these things under the surface has no real bearing on that. The more I focussed on those under the surface things the less I was able to cope with normal interactions. Relationships that were based on things I said I was going to do, being irresponsible in times when you need to be there, that kind of stuff. I find that with music it was very much the same. Back then I was smoking a lot of pot and doing a lot of acid I found that
my music was all about those kind of philosophical and existential dramas, which exist absolutely, but I guess that's the whole idea behind Deconstruction as well, those kind of dramas rarely if ever get resolved. In many ways it's a rabbit hole of intellectual masturbation as far as I'm concerned. When you dig so deep in a topic like infinity, it's infinite as far as you want to go, but by the very nature of it you won't go very far. To summerize it it all my views on music is what is it that I feel and how can I represent that sound without spending a lot of time thinking about the songs and how this and that will work and simply do it. That's probably new for me in terms of how I write music, right?
What makes you tick when it comes to writing music and being creative?
Creative freedom, productivity and I like collages. I like taking parts of my world, visiual or sonic and put them in one place and collectively they represent a certain place in time for me. With Ki I was spending a lot of time in the woods in Canada and I tried to include that kind of visiual aspect on that album.
Personally I very much like your Ki and Ghost albums, because they show a musical side of you which hasn't seen the light of day up until now..
Yes, but I needed to flank those albums with Addicted and Deconstruction in a way to have a certain kind of closure for a period in my life that didn't want to go away. It's like people want me to do Terria again or Strapping Young Lad again, right? Well, that's not what I'm going to do. What I needed to do was to make those two records flanked by Ki and Ghost, which represents a certain period of my life, but lyrically it's about why those periods no longer a part of my emotional landscape, right? Not entirely, I did feel a connection when I wrote the music and the lyrics, but Addicted was a concious representation of that part in my carreer. With Deconstruction I wanted to address the Strapping Young Lad element, especially the Alien period, which got the best of me. I wanted to make a record that said several things. One I wanted to make something that's more complicated and deeper, production-wise than Alien, without that getting the best
of me, which I did. Number two, I wanted to make something which was along that line without the self destructive and nihilistic tendency to it.
That's what I like about Deconstruction. It's basically Strapping Young Lad with a positive spin to it..
100 percent! I think it was also good for me that make that kind of record to say to the people who expect me to do another S.Y.L record after all that I've gone through, if I was to make a heavy record with this frame of mind without a lot of sacrifice, this is what it would sound like. A lot of people say: "This is not what we want" and I say: "Absolutely, this is what I've been saying for the past five years. If I was to make a heavy metal record it wouldn't be something you'd expect to like or hear.
In all honesty I think Alien was your ultimate musical statement as far as Strapping Young Lad goes, but the The New Black, the final S.Y.L record was basically a weird collection of leftover songs thrown together in order to forefill your contract with Century Media. What are your thoughts on that?
I agree with you there. There's one song on that record I really like and that's Almost Again, because it has a different kind of vibe. What The New Black was supposed to represent for me that after Alien I realised I've gone too far and as result of that I compromised certain elements of my psyche that was difficult for me to reconcile. The New Black is still very much a Strapping Young Lad record, but from a musical perspective I totally agree with you. At the same time it was important for me to do that record to to conclude S.Y.L without having the notion of having one more record to do. The vibe on The New Black was this kind of jokingly take on why I have decided to change. In my mind it's still very much a S.Y.L record meant as a final middle finger and the fact that it's thrown together that worked in an artistic way, but musically it's a compromised record. I would argue though that allthough Alien is the most over-the-op record the
ultimate S.Y.L statement for me is City. At the time City was exactly the same what I did with Ki and Ghost. At the time it was how I am and what I wanted to do and when I was doing Ki it was the same exact thing. When I did the selftitled S.Y.L album, Alien and The New Black I had to put myself in a state of mind that wasn't natural in order to recreate something that was natural.
I'm still kind of baffled by the change from your larger-than-life S.Y.L on stage persona and black humour to your current down to earth attitude and your postive outlook on things.
Remember you saying that honesty was the thing you like about my records? When I started to realise that S.Y.L was more becoming an act that I was getting better and better at doing it became very difficult for me to have normal interactions with people because there was an expectation of how I would behave, but as of now when I perform it's an blown-up version of who I am, but there's no big difference between the person that's talking to you now and the guy that's playing the music on stage. Nothing that I would say on stage I wouldn't say in normal life, you know? That's the main difference. With Strapping the way I was raised sarcasm was a very important part of the family dynamic and after I got older I started to realise that if you're trained from a young age not to be angry, sarcasm and humor are good outlets to vent your anger. For me it was important to acknowledge that was very gratifying to be that vicious to the audience. Doing
drugs, eating spicy food or sexual misconduct it's the same impulse of instant satisfaction. That was the image people got from me in my Strapping days and the interaction with people after the show was based on that image. Nowadays it's more like what you see is what you get, like the normal informal dude I am right now.
As a final question, what's next on your list now you've finished your tour-de-force four record project?
I'm writing a bunch of very different material right know and I'm experimenting with three of four different projects and I'm trying to gaze which project make the people around the happiest. There's a ton of touring and I'm working on a Ziltoid TV show, which I'm really excited about. He's going to interview people and he has absolutely no problems with saying things I do have problems with. Besides that I've been reading a lot and going to the beach, having picknicks and I'm building furniture. I like quiet things and I'm learning to allow myself to have those moments without the need of being productive.
Ray and Alternative Matter would like to extend a special thanks to Paul Collins and Kim Schepers for their kindness and hospitality.
Relapse Records has announced the signing of Finnish death/doom bringers HOODED MENACE.
HOODED MENACE, which takes influence from CANDLEMASS, CATHEDRAL, PARADISE LOST, ASPHYX, and BLACK SABBATH, previously released two full-length albums as well as split releases with COFFINS, ASPHYX, ILSA, and more. The band played its first U.S. live shows this past spring at Maryland Deathfest (Baltimore), Chaos In Tejas (Austin), and Doom In June (Las Vegas) festivals.
Commented HOODED MENACE guitarist Lasse Pyykko: "We're very excited about signing with Relapse Records! This seems like a logical next step for the band. Of course, we are still going to release seven-inch singles and such with smaller labels, too, because we love doing that. As for the full-length album, now we're going have all the support, promotion, and distribution we could possibly hope at this stage.
"It's pretty amazing to be part of the label with such a long and remarkable history.
"Relapse has released many albums that we are big fans of.
"We are stoked about leaving our heavily and deeply stamped mark to that long, significant list of great music."
HOODED MENACE has confirmed a handful of Finnish tour dates, including an appearances at the Ilosaarirock and Tuska festivals in July. The band will also open for doom legends SAINT VITUS in Helsinki on August 27.
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Finnish metallers GHOST BRIGADE will release their third album, "Until Fear No Longer Defines Us", on August 19 in Europe and August 23 in North America via Season Of Mist.
The track listing for the CD is as follows:
01. In The Woods
02. Clawmaster
03. Chamber
04. Traces Of Liberty
05. Divine Act Of Lunacy
06. Grain
07. Breakwater
08. Cult Of Decay
09. Torn
10. Soulcarvers
"Until Fear No Longer Defines Us" will be released as a CD digipak limited to the first pressing, a double gatefold coloured vinyl with digital download card, and a collector's box with CD digipak, regular or unisex t-shirt, leather bracelet, postcard hand-signed by all band members and metal button badges. All of the above is available for pre-order from Season of Mist's e-shop.
The band is currently collaborating with French artist Fursy Teyssier on a video for the song "Clawmaster".
"I remember GHOST BRIGADE contacting me two years ago, asking for a music video," Fursy states. "Unfortunately I wasn't able to do it so we forgot the idea. Now this music video is back on the table and I'm very, very excited to start the production. I have experience in short films, but I never did any music video, so that will be a pretty new and unknown experience to me, and I'm extremely glad that it'll be together with GHOST BRIGADE. I loved their 'Isolation Songs' album, and now I'm listening to 'Until Fear No Longer Defines Us' every day. Great album, and I'm very proud they trust in my work... Those two months producing a six-and-a-half-minute music video will be intense to me…"
GHOST BRIGADE's sophomore CD, 2009's "Isolation Songs", entered the official chart in Finland at position No. 22.
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Jon Wiederhorn of Guitar World recently conducted an interview with guitarists Mark Heylmun and Chris Garza of California deathcore masters SUICIDE SILENCE. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Guitar World: When did you start working on songs for [the new SUICIDE SILENCE album] "The Black Crown"?
Mark Heylmun: For me, it really started in December 2009 when we were on tour with MEGADETH. That's when I started really thinking about riffs and how I was picturing the record. Even though it wasn't even started, I thought about how it would be when it was finished and what we were gonna do to start writing. I suggested to the guys that we go up to a cabin and rent it for a couple weeks and be away from everything and get all of our idea on the table whether they're good or bad and see where everyone's head is at. And that happened between December of 2009 and February 2010
Chris Garza: We were all pretty fresh. I didn't have any riffs. We would just jam all day. A lot of it turned out to not even make the record, we were just jamming to get the juices flowing.
Mark Heylmun: Yeah, at the time I didn't have even 30 seconds or a minute of actual music. It was more the idea of how the songs would be and how the structures would be and how we were gonna grow from the last record. I had some riffs I thought were cool. We wrote a couple songs but none of 'em made the final product. It was more of a thing to get back in the groove of writing, since we hadn't written anything together in a year and a half. And it was also the first time we were writing with our new bass player [Dan Kenny]. So we just went in and jammed to see what came out spontaneously which is the way we wrote the first two records.
Guitar World: Were there different influences at play this time?
Mark Heylmun: Well, we weren't afraid to show where we have come from so you can see the influence of KORN, and things like SUFFOCATION, MORBID ANGEL and PANTERA. And even the lead playing that I do, there are slight little slivers that come through that are kind of like OPETH — just things we would have been more afraid to do previously.
Guitar World: Were you guys all getting along during the writing and recording of "The Black Crown"?
Mark Heylmun: We always get along to an extent. Whether or not we're extremely mad at each other we can still be rational and talk to each other about it. But I don't think any of us really like to be mad at each other. We don't like to let it get out of hand like it sometimes does.
Guitar World: So, can we still call SUICIDE SILENCE a deathcore band?
Mark Heylmun: It doesn't matter to me anymore what people call us. It kind of was weird at first just 'cause it doesn't sound cool and where we come from isn't just straight death metal and hardcore. We will outlast the deathcore genre just as KORN and DEFTONES and SLIPKNOT have outlasted the nu-metal genre.
Trevor Peres (OBITUARY), Terry Butler (MASSACRE, DEATH, SIX FEET UNDER, OBITUARY), Rick Rozz (MASSACRE, DEATH, M INC.) and Pat O'Brien (CANNIBAL CORPSE) will take part in a meet-and-greet on Saturday, July 9 at Rock N Roll Heaven in Clearwater, Florida. Also performing live at the event will be Ben Meyer of the legendary Florida metal band NASTY SAVAGE.
For more information, see the poster below.
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Finnish black metallers CAVUS have commenced work on the material for their sophomore album, tentatively due in the fall of 2012 via Listenable Records.
After sharing the stage with such acts as MAYHEM, BEHEXEN and SÓLSTAFIR and spending time on the road in Europe with GORGOROTH on the "Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt" tour, CAVUS will begin pre-production on the follow-up to 2010's "Fester And Putrefy" after performing at this summer's Tuska and Nummirock festivals in Finland.
CAVUS vocalist W described the new songs as "more of everything."
The band is planning to embark on two more European tours before the release of the as-yet-untitled effort.
Formed in 2008 in Porvoo, CAVUS "set out to pillage and desecrate everything in its path with a sinister blend of crushingly heavy, old-school black metal with baritone guitars and juggernautic basses along with raw-to-the-bone vocals that earned the group great recognition," according to a press release. "No keyboards, no fairies, no bullshit. This is straight-up rawness and CAVUS will spread like a virulent plague among legions worldwide."
Italian brutal/symphonic horde FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE will release its second full-length album, "Agony", on August 9 via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD's intricate cover design was handled by Marco Hasmann, who previously worked with the band on the "Mafia" and "Oracles" releases.
Commented the group: "The album cover is about the eternal struggle of mankind; we're condemned to live facing our evil side, which dwells in every one of us. We are like tied to the ground, forced in chains that can't be broken, so the man in the cover is representing all humanity and its eternal agony, knowing that it's almost impossible to liberate ourselves from the obscurity of our nature. Unless we decide to admit to ourselves who we are and face our doom, that would be the only way to free our kind and rise to an higher conscience, someday."
With only two releases, "Oracles" (2009) and the "Mafia" EP (2010), and a successful U.S. debut tour alongside SUFFOCATION and THE FACELESS under its belt, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE has already become one of the most talked about bands in the underground. Their unique blend of technical death metal with symphonic elements has quickly made them a favorite with fans and critics alike.
"We're really excited to start working with such a renowned and professional label [as Nuclear Blast]," commented guitarist/vocalist Tommaso Riccardi. "It's a great chance for the band to express itself in the best way, counting on this kind of support. For us it's like a brand new start. We surely can improve our work, touring much more and finally reaching every continent as we always wanted to do. Many tours are already planned or on the way to being organized. We'll start with North America and Europe and then Asia/Oceania, South Africa and maybe in Central/South America. We can't wait to hit U.S. again this July-August with the 'Summer Slaughter Tour' 2011. It's an honor for us to be on this tour and a great opportunity to play live some new tunes!"
FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE is:
Tommaso Riccardi - Lead Vocals, Guitars
Paolo Rossi - Vocals, Bass
Cristiano Trionfera - Vocals, Guitars
Francesco Paoli - Drums, Guitars and Vocals
Francesco Ferrini - Piano, Orchestra
FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE's last full-length CD, "Oracles", was recorded in May 2008 at 16th Cellar Studio.
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/fleshgodapocalypse.
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Drummer Henrik "Morris" Schönström of Swedish technical death metallers SPAWN OF POSSESSION has entered Pama Studios in Kristianopel, Sweden with engineer Magnus "Mankan" Sedenberg to begin recording the band's new album for a fall release via Relapse Records. The CD will contain nine tracks plus an instrumental intro.
SPAWN OF POSSESSION (Jonas Bryssling: guitar, Dennis Röndum: vocals, Erlend Casperson: bass, Henrik Schönström: drums, Christian Münzner: guitar) formed in 1997 and has previously released two full-length albums. The band's latest CD, "Noctambulant" (2006, Neurotic Records), received international critical acclaim for its blend of musical chops and unfettered extremity.
Death metal psychopaths ABORTED have entered Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark with producer Jacob Hansen (INVOCATOR, HATESPHERE, VOLBEAT) to begin recording their seventh full-length album, "Global Flatline", for a late 2011 release via Century Media Records. 15 tracks of "the most brutal and intense material the band has written to date" are laid down for the effort, with 12 tracks set to appear on the regular CD and the rest to be used as bonus material.
The first in a series of video clips featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the recording process can be seen below.
The artwork for "Global Flatline" will once again be handled by Justin Osbourne who previously worked with the band on its 2010 EP, "Coronary Reconstruction".
Since 2011 marks the ten-year anniversary of ABORTED's "Engineering The Dead" record, the band decided to re-record two tracks from the album as part of the bonus material for "Global Flatline".
Commented ABORTED vocalist and founder Sven de Caluwé: "We are thrilled to be finally recording 'Global Flatline' and have the material out there. It is exciting in many ways, one being that this might be one of the most important records in ABORTED's career. We really took our time in composing the most heavy and uncompromising material the band has written to date. Some of the material is faster than ever, some of the material is slower than ever, some old-school and some new-school, inspired by all eras of ABORTED, yet still sounding unique on its own. Writing this record definitely took us back to the roots of why we started playing this kind of music in the first place, the passion and adrenaline you get from playing extreme metal. Obviously it just isn't a carbon copy of 'Goremageddon' or 'Engineering The Dead' or anything: there are plenty of new elements as well since we never believe in writing the same record. Those who checked out 'Coronary
Reconstruction' have had a small taste of what's to come and we can guarantee you won't be disappointed with 'Global Flatline'! We are also very excited to be working again with Jacob Hansen, the man who produced 'Goremageddon' and 'The Haematobic' EP and it was always a pleasure to work with him then, so this should be a blast."
ABORTED current lineup features Sven De Caluwé (also of SYSTEM DIVIDE) on vocals, Dirk Verbeuren (SOILWORK) on drums (studio only), Eran Segal (ex-THEY SWARM/WHORECORE) and Ken Sorceron (ABIGAIL WILLIAMS) on guitar and Jb Van De Wal on bass.
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