Artist Interview

If you've ever wanted to know how to play Slayer's "Die by the Sword," a song on their 1983 debut, Show No Mercy, visit GuitarWorld.com. As part of our Big Four Weeks buildup to the big show at Yankee Stadium on September 14, Guitar World and Revolver are posting exclusive content each weekday. Check back often for more!

Metal-electronica crossover group Design the Skyline released their debut, Nevaeh (Victory), earlier this month. Now they're debuting the video for the song "Break Free From Your Life." Frontman Eric Azure fills us in on the video below. Let us know what you think of it.

REVOLVER What was the recording process of the song like?
ERIC AZURE This was a collaborative effort. We definitely wanted to expand our songs and go  into more of a poppy sound. This was about not putting any limits on yourself or anything around you, not letting negative things bring you down.

How did the concept of the music video come to be?
Believe it or not, we were inspired by Linkin Park and Justin Timberlake videos, specifically. This video turned out exactly how we wanted it to. It matches the music really well which is what we were going for. The crazy colors and shapes converts all of our energies to a visual picture. For this video, we wanted to go all out - we wanted more effects to make it as abstract and intangible as possible.

What appealed to you about the director of the music video?
Scott Hansen was really great; he did other Victory bands which is what drew us to him in the first place. He had some really cool ideas. We wanted to do something futuristic and modern. I think that really comes through with this video.

What do you want people who watch this video to walk away knowing about Design the Skyline?
We want people to know that we're really open-minded artists that don't have any limits, musically or otherwise. The message of this song is a good one. We want it to inspire people in the end.

The Big Four of thrash—Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax—are set to play New York City's Yankee Stadium on September 14. It will be the second time ever that all four groups have shared a stage in the United States. To mark this occasion, Revolver and Guitar World are celebrating the event with the Big Four Weeks leading up to the event. For the next month or so, leading up to the show, our websites will be giving fans eye-popping exclusives (like the Big Four trading cards from the September/October issue), previously unseen backstage video, and excerpts from our interviews with the bands on a regular basis.

This installment comes from our sister publication, Guitar World. Today, they have revealed that the cover of their next issue will be the Big Four, whom they photographed in Milan, Italy. Check out a video teaser here.

The Big Four of thrash—Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax—are set to play New York City's Yankee Stadium on September 14. It will be the second time ever that all four groups have shared a stage in the United States. To mark this occasion, Revolver and Guitar World are celebrating the event with the Big Four Weeks leading up to the event. For the next month or so, leading up to the show, our websites will be giving fans eye-popping exclusives (like the Big Four trading cards from the September/October issue, which we unveiled last week), previously unseen backstage video, and excerpts from our interviews with the bands on a regular basis.

This installment is an excerpt from Revolver's special issue devoted to the Big Four, which you can buy right here. This section recounts how it came to be that all of the bands perform "Am I Evil?" onstage together at Big Four concerts, beginning at their Sofia, Bulgaria, gig last year. It features interviews with Metallica's Lars Ulrich, Anthrax's Scott Ian and Charlie Benante, Slayer's Dave Lombardo, and Megadeth's David Ellefson. So, without further ado, here is the inside story.

REVOLVER Famously, most of you got up onstage and jammed on Diamond Head's "Am I Evil?" last year in Sofia, Bulgaria. How did that come together?
LARS ULRICH I think that we felt we should try and see if we can get everyone together. Also, there was the whole worldwide satellite thing. It seemed like an obvious place to share, there was just such a good vibe going on. We wanted to let the fans get a chance all over the world to share in that good vibe.

SCOTT IAN I think I was sitting in a bar with [Slipknot and Stone Sour vocalist] Corey Taylor somewhere a night or two before we actually did it, and I got a text from Kirk [Hammett, Metallica guitarist] saying, "Hey, in Bulgaria we're thinking about doing 'Am I Evil?' with everybody, so let your guys know." And I wrote him back, "Yeah, of course. We're in."

ULRICH The reason we picked "Am I Evil?" is because obviously playing a Metallica song would've seemed a little selfish. All of the musicians would certainly share that thread in Diamond Head in terms of influence. It's probably difficult to find a band that's more responsible for, or at least indirectly responsible, for thrash metal. And "Am I Evil?" is just a great, anthem-like song that also has the quality of not being super complicated. So it just seemed like the right kind of vibe to share with everybody for five minutes that wasn't necessarily going to send people back to the rehearsal room for days on end. [Megadeth frontman Dave] Mustaine and a bunch of these guys obviously knew the riff, too, and it just seemed like a logical choice.

CHARLIE BENANTE The first message I got about it was—I think Kirk sent it to me—"You're gonna play guitar." That was the first message I got. And it was like, Fucking killer. That would be great. And I think other people thought, How is the drummer gonna be playing guitar when the other drummers are doing nothing? So all of a sudden a snare drum got put in my lap. And I was like, OK, I'm OK with that, too.

DAVE LOMBARDO I love jamming. I do it all the time at home in Hollywood. So I had a blast doing it, I wasn't going to turn down this opportunity when all my other friends were up there. It was like, All right, let's go.

What do you remember about rehearsing the song?
DAVID ELLEFSON It was great. As soon as I walked into the rehearsal room, [Metallica bassist] Robert Trujillo was like, "Hey, Junior, glad you're here." And he hands me the bass. He was like, "Here, you jam." And I was like, OK, I guess I'm the bass player in this little endeavor right now. So I played, and that was fun for me to sit there and be that guy. Lars was the drummer of course, and so we were kinda hanging by each other, because he and I have gotten along really well over the years. And I look and I see [Megadeth guitarist Chris] Broderick, [Metallica vocalist-guitarist James] Hetfield, Mustaine, Scott Ian, [Anthrax frontman] Joey Belladonna, and everybody standing there. And it was one of those classic moments. I remember as I kid, I would flip through a guitar magazine and see a classic photo of Jimmy Page, Paul McCartney, and, like, Keith Richards all being in the same room together. To me, that was our moment. It was just these guys who have never all stood in a room together before. And especially with their guitars on, creatively working on something together.

And I gotta say, James Hetfield was a really gracious host. He made it relaxed and fun and it was cool because we were essentially being invited into the Metallica secret chambers. [Laughs] They made it very relaxing and very easy and very fun.

ULRICH I might have been the tardy one. Everyone was kind of standing around, looking at each other. And I was like, "OK, let's play something." So we started playing [Judas Priest's] "Breaking the Law." We just loosened up and started having fun.

ELLEFSON The funny thing was, everyone had been practicing all day. It's just one simple riff, and we've got everybody backstage at rehearsal set up in our dressing room as well. So Scott and Charlie and Frank and everybody is coming into our tent, and we're back there jamming and rehearsing and working on stuff as well. It was one of those things where everybody wanted it to be just note perfect. Everybody out of passion was just like, I want this to be the greatest thing ever.

Photos by Andrew Stuart

The Swedish extreme metallers in Arch Enemy released their eighth full-length on May 30. Now they're premiering their video for "Bloodstained Cross" right here on revolvermag.com. Let us know what you think of it in the comments!

ARCH ENEMY Tour Dates

Sept. 08 – Baltimore, MD – Rams Head
Sept. 09 – New York, NY – Best Buy Theater
Sept. 10 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium
Sept. 12 – Quebec City, QC – Imperial
Sept. 13 – Montreal, QC – Metropolis
Sept. 14 – Toronto, ON - Phoenix
Sept. 17 – Winnipeg, MB – The Garrick Center
Sept. 19 – Calgary, AB - MacEwan Hall
Sept. 20 – Edmonton, AB – Edmonton Events Centre
Sept. 22 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
Sept. 23 – Seattle, WA - Showbox
Sept. 24 – Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory
Sept. 26 – San Francisco, CA – Regency Center
Sept. 27 – Los Angeles, CA – Nokia Theatre
Sept. 29 – Phoenix, AZ – The Marquee
Sept. 30 – Albuquerque, NM - The Sunshine Theater
Oct. 01 – Denver, CO – The Gothic Theatre
Oct. 03 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
Oct. 04 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues

As we reported last week, Samson, Hartke, Zoom and Best Buy Music Gear are bringing a Metal Masters Clinic to the Best Buy Theater in New York City's Times Square on Monday, September 12.

But what we didn't mention—until now—is that Anthrax will be performing a free show at the clinic.

The clinic, which is free and starts at 5 p.m., will also feature the individual input of Charlie Benante and Frank Bello of Anthrax, David Ellefson of Megadeth, Kerry King of Slayer and drummer Mike Portnoy.

There are two ways to get in:

01. Wristbands will be available on a first come, first served basis on the day of the clinic only outside Best Buy Theater, which is at 1515 Broadway, West 44th Street. A minimum of 500 wristbands—with a limit of one per person—will be given out. All attendees should get in line early!

02. You can preorder Worship Music, the new album by Anthrax at Bestbuy.com, right here. Then go to freesecretshow.com and enter your Best Buy 12-digit order number to get your free ticket to the show. The Anthrax show starts at 8 p.m. Bring your ticket, your Bestbuy.com receipt and your photo ID to get into the show.

If you don't live in NYC, don't panic! You can watch the clinic—and the entire Anthrax performance—live, right here on revolvermag.com starting 5:30 p.m. (with a repeat showing of the clinic at 7:30) September 12. Then watch Anthrax at 9 p.m.! Be sure to tune in!

Keep up with more Big Four news at our RevolverMag.com and GuitarWorld.com.

With heavy-metal trailblazers Anthrax, Charlie Benante has revolutionized the art of drumming, blowing minds with his super-fast double-kick technique and popularizing the blast beat in thrash and beyond. A drum hero to many, Benante has his own idols and influences, of course, so when we talked to him recently, we asked him to pick his five favorite drummers.

Before answering, he clarified, "They don't have to be in one field — it could be from anywhere, right?" As such, his answers may surprise you.

photograph by Fin Costello/Redferns

Neil Peart, Rush

The first drummer that, still to this day, I get inspiration would probably be Neil Peart. I mean, what other drummer writes drum fills that people play air drums to, you know what I mean? He's still one of my favorites. 

Lars Ulrich, Metallica

Some of these Big 4 drummers have a place here, too, 'cause we all were coming up together in this whole movement, this whole thrash movement — me, Lars and Dave. And I think the three drummers always had something that was different from the other. I love the way Lars would think in a song ...

Ringo Starr, The Beatles

The first drummer I ever heard was Ringo. And Ringo's one of those drummers that, Ringo started off as a fucking killer drummer — I mean, he just had that swing, everything. Later on the Beatles' albums, he kind of lost it a bit for me. He just kind of become very lazy. But those first few Beatles records, man, where he would just rock it. He's fucking awesome.

The Big Four of thrash—Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax—are set to play New York City's Yankee Stadium on September 14. It will be the second time ever that all four groups have shared a stage in the United States. To mark this occasion, Revolver and Guitar World are celebrating the event with the Big Four Weeks leading up to the event. For the next month or so, leading up to the show, our websites will be giving fans eye-popping exclusives (like the Big Four trading cards from the September/October issue, which we unveiled last week), previously unseen backstage video, and excerpts from our interviews with the bands on a regular basis.

This installment is an excerpt from Revolver's special issue devoted to the Big Four, which you can buy right here. This section recounts how Metallica burst into superstardom and what continued to unite the four bands after that. The excerpt features interviews with Anthrax's Charlie Benantie, Slayer's Kerry King and Tom Araya, and Metallica's Lars Ulrich. So, without further ado, here is the inside story.

REVOLVER Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax toured together on the Clash of the Titans tour in 1991. Up until last year, that was the closest people got to seeing the Big Four together.
CHARLIE BENANTE Throughout the '80s, the Big Four title remained with all the bands. And then somewhere in the '90s, one of the Big Four became huge. There was really no more Big Four. It was like your older brother went to college and became Bill Gates. [Laughs] "Make sure you write sometimes please." And that was it. No longer was there really the Big Four. Metallica was this thing unto itself. They were this huge entity.

When you have a record like the "Black Album," when something is like Back in Black or Dark Side of the Moon, that's it. That's it, you know, goodbye. You don't need anything else. You're set. So while all of us still had success, you know, I guess that time was done.

KERRY KING I think we rose to prominence at the same time. And three of us were on Clash of the Titans—Metallica didn't need us. They don't need us now. I think it's just the cool factor of the four bands going together. It's real similar to '91, when we did Clash of the Titans, 'cause I remember the three of us joined together, and I knew Metallica wouldn't be a part of it 'cause they didn't need us. They're on the "Black Record," man, they were jettisoning themselves to superstardom. And now, they're still superstars and the three of us can band together like we did on the first U.S. run, but I think the cool factor of all four being together is the enticing thing.

What is it that you feel unifies the bands as the Big Four? Just growing up together at the same time?
LARS ULRICH Growing up together­—that's a lot. [Laughs] That's a lot to begin with. I think that obviously. Also, it never really dawned upon me, and I think it was Mustaine who said at some point last year that it may just be that these four bands are four of the biggest of the latter-day hard-rock bands coming out of America. In terms of the real hard-rock stuff. I never really thought of it as an American thing, but I think he's right about that.

KING Yeah, I remember Mustaine saying something like, "We're the four biggest metal bands from the U.S." I never even considered that. And I went, Wow, that's pretty cool. I'd throw Pantera in there, too. But just even to be in that statement, I kind of read it and went, No shit.

We're pretty unassuming guys, the crew I roll with. We don't think of our legacy. I only think about stuff like this when journalists and people bring it up. And it's the same kind of thing, when Dave made that statement. It was like, Wow, I never thought of that. It's really cool.

TOM ARAYA One thing that unifies us is we're a lot like our fans. As people, we're fans of the music as it is. I know I'm in Slayer, but I'm a big fan of the band Slayer. Whenever we work on new material I always have to take a step back and listen to it as a fan and go, like, Wow this is fucking awesome. [Laughs] That's something that we've always done. It would be safe to assume that all four bands do that. That they sit there and they listen, and they think, OK, you know, I'm a fan. You have to like what you do, and if you're a true fan, you're always gonna be on the mark 'cause you're a fan just like all your fans.

ULRICH Obviously, we all come in one way or another from the same musical seeds, the generation before us—the Judas Priests, and the Iron Maidens, and the Motörheads, and the Saxons and so on. They were a group of bands. We were the next round of bands that certainly had one thing in common: that we were all influenced and inspired by the Judas Priests, the Iron Maidens, the Motörheads, the Saxons, the Diamond Heads, the list goes on obviously. So that's all. And obviously we had a lot of crossover. We were playing shows with Slayer back in '82 in L.A. Megadeth came out of the whole thing that happened with Metallica in '83, and Anthrax kind of became our partners in crime and our brothers in arms when we were out in New York. We all came from the same seeds.

To read the rest, get Revolver Presents: The Big Four right here.

Ian, Mustaine, and Araya Pic: Neil Zlozower
Slayer in 1990: M. Temme

With their debut album, God Is War (Southern Lord), All Pigs Must Die have tossed a Molotov cocktail into the musical landscape. Though the band includes members of Converge, Bloodhorse, and the Hope Conspiracy, this isn't just another supergroup, but is rather a distillation of all the things that make metal and hardcore scary. The new record is nine tracks of unstoppable rage that absolutely crushes its extreme-music competitors. Revolver sat down with vocalist Kevin Baker (also of Hope Con) to discuss his intimidating new band.

REVOLVER How did All Pigs Must Die come together?
KEVIN BAKER We've been in bands together, or whatever bands we were in have been on the road together, for years now. In 2009, Matt [Woods, of Bloodhorse] wanted to create a heavy band that embodied everything good about heavy music from an uncompromising standpoint, so we got together, put down five tracks, and recorded them. All on our own, too.

Did you guys set out with a specific sound in mind?
A lot of it was going back to the things that we've liked since we were teenagers that have stood the test of time. There's plenty of shit that you loved at some point that you listen to now, 10 or 15 years later, and think, Holy shit, that's terrible! We looked at the music that, to this day, still makes the hair on the back of our necks stand up—early Integrity, early Slayer, the first four Bathory records, Samhain, early hardcore bands like Void, Negative Approach, Discharge, the Exploited. These are the bands we really love musically, and we wanted to go in that direction and make something nasty, and to make it for ourselves, and self-finance the whole thing. So going into it, there was definitely a conscious decision of what it was supposed to be like.

The band has a really venomous tone to it but remains huge and powerful—is it hard to find a balance between big and raw?
I can't speak for the rest of the band in terms of gear and set-up and all that, but as a writer and a lyricist, I wanted to write something that wasn't happy, but that wasn't negative for the sake of being negative. It's not corny. The songs aren't about raping a corpse. We're coming from a very negative place about things that happen every day in this world, and we're trying to make it as dark as possible. We want to fuse all of our influences, but sound like us, not like a cover band. I want people to hear our influences, but not just hear those bands. I want it to be distinct.

What can you do in this band that you can't do in Hope Conspiracy?
I think the lyrics here are really blunt, and they match the tone of the music really well. The Hope Conspiracy comes from a bit more personal place. I touch on similar issues in both, but lyrically, here I'm much more focused in man's inhumanity towards man, and the idea of mankind devouring itself and destroying everything around it, the environment, the world.

The title of the album, God Is War, is a pretty blunt and brutal.
Again, we wanted to focus on man's inhumanity—not that everyone's a bad person, there's good and bad in everyone, just that the whole history of mankind is based on cruelty. The title itself actually came from the book Blood Meridian by Cormack McCarthy. One of the characters in the book, the Judge, who represents humanity's darker side, talks about how war is God, so we flipped it around. We thought it really worked well with our concept behind this band.

How was recording with producer—and Converge guitarist—Kurt Ballou?
We work with Kurt exclusively. He's the best in the business as far as we're concerned. For underground, heavy music, you can't beat Godcity [Studios] and you can't beat Kurt. He knows what you're going for, and he knows how to get you there. He knows what the end result is supposed to be.

With God Is War hot on the heels of your self-titled EP, it seems like you guys are making a strong push to just get music recorded and put it out there.
Everyone has commitments outside of this. We're doing this because we love to do it. There's no pressure…we never really intended to sign any record deals with anybody. We just wanted to make this music. The one label we did consider was, of course, Southern Lord, which is why it was cool that they came across the EP and loved it. We never aimed to be a big band. We just wanted to put this music out, play a show here or there when we could. The most important thing with this band is the writing, first and foremost, before playing out. That's why we started doing this—being able to write on a consistent basis and being able to record on a consistent basis. We love playing out, we really do, but we'd always much rather write and record new music. So we'll see. Hopefully this time next year, we'll have another record.

Tell me about the art for both your releases. It's incredibly striking.
Florian Bertmer did the art. He's a good friend of ours. We've known him for years. We have a circle of people surrounding this band: Kurt's one of them, and so is Florian. When the time came to do art for the band, we immediately thought to ask him. He has a real talent at creating art that represents actual music, and I think he did that very well with our art. I've bought albums based on what they look like before, so I think it's really important for a band to have artwork and graphics that stand out and also communicate the music. For both of our records, I think he really nailed it. CHRIS KROVATIN

Photo by Greg Anderson