Last month, former Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo announced that he'd completed a new solo album with his backing band the Illegals, due out sometime next year. Now, he's shedding light on the new record: Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue, the follow-up to Philip H. Anselmo & the Illegals' 2013 debut Walk Through Exist Only, hits shelves January 26th via the vocalist's Housecore Records label. Anselmo also unveiled the album's first single: a searing, black metal-tinged behemoth called "Choosing Mental Illness." Stream it now, and scroll down to check out the album's artwork and track-listing.
"Our new album Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue is going to get hated; it's going to get loved," Anselmo says bluntly of the LP. "Like every record, I've ever done, I put zero expectations upon my peers, critics, or the general fucking public."
"If you take one thing away from it, let it be this," he continued, "Do not bog yourself down to one brand, character, or whatever. Have the guts to spread your wings and fucking flourish. I can promise you this is a beginning. As my music trickles out over the next two years, it's going to be quite the roller-coaster ride. This new Illegals is just the tip of the whole fucking avalanche."
Anselmo's new track with the Illegals (whose current lineup comprises guitarists Mike DeLeon and Stephen "Schteve" Taylor, drummer José Manuel "Blue" Gonzalez and bassist Walter Howard) arrives on the heels of Scour, the self-titled debut EP from the groove-rocker's extreme metal "supergroup" featuring members of Pig Destroyer, Cattle Decapitation, Misery Index and others. Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue isn't the only new release Anselmo's got planned: next year, he'll release the inaugural LP from his new, Eighties-inspired side project, En Minor.
Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals - Choosing Mental Illness as a Virtue track listing:
1. "Little Fucking Heroes"
2. "Utopian"
3. "Choosing Mental Illness"
4. "The Ignorant Point"
5. "Individual"
6. "Delinquent"
7. "Photographic Taunts"
8. "Finger Me"
9. "Invalid Colubrine Frauds"
10. "Mixed Lunatic Results"
Want more Anselmo? Watch him join Rex Brown and Anthrax for a medley of Pantera's "This Love" and Slayer's "Raining Blood" at Revolver's 2013 Golden Gods awards show below:
