Artist Interview
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 the early days of Megadeth, right when they were playing their first shows featuring a young guitarist from another band in the Big Four, Slayer's Kerry King. The excerpt features interviews with King, Slayer vocalist-bassist Tom Araya and drummer Dave Lombardo, alongside Megadeth bassist David Ellefson. It also features photography of Megadeth by Bill Hale, who is working on a book titled Megadeth: Another Time, Another Place, which will feature tons of great photos from this time period (for more on the book, scroll to the bottom). So, without further ado, let's get back to business.
While in New York, Metallica kicked Dave Mustaine out of the band, replacing him with Exodus' Kirk Hammett, and sent him back to San Francisco. Not long after, he formed Megadeth. What do you all remember about Megadeth's early days?
DAVE LOMBARDO I remember seeing Megadeth at Slayer's rehearsal in Tom's house before they hit the stage. And I remember Gar Samuelson, the drummer, was amazing. He was really, really good. I thought they were amazing musicians with what they did, with the guitars and the scales and that technical stuff.
Kerry played with Megadeth early on. What were those shows like?
DAVID ELLEFSON He played the first five shows with us as our second guitar player. I think Slayer was a little bit on the fence with what they were doing, what their direction was. Kerry always claimed that he saw Dave play with Metallica at the Whisky [a Go Go venue in Los Angeles] and how it changed his life. Playing with us, Kerry was such a natural fit with Dave's guitar-playing style. He just fundamentally understood how to play those riffs.
Kerry, did you learn a lot from Mustaine about guitar while you were in Megadeth?
KERRY KING Well, if you listen to him, he'll fucking say, "Yeah." [Laughs] As far as he's concerned, he'll tell you he fucking created me. [Laughs]
Listen, I've learned to take Dave with a grain of salt. He means something, and it just comes out different. [Laughs] I think everybody's learned that over the years. I'm sure I did learn stuff from Dave. I was very young. I think he's got a couple years on me. He'd been doing it longer than me.
An early Megadeth show, featuring Kerry King on guitar
What was it like for the rest of Slayer to see Kerry play with Megadeth?
DAVE LOMBARDO It was awkward. It was a little awkward, yeah. But you know, it worked out, and of course the band continued.
TOM ARAYA I guess Dave [Mustaine] was trying to make a supergroup. And I guess Kerry didn't really…I guess their personalities clashed. [Laughs] He did five shows with them and kind of said, "Eh." [Laughs] When he was playing with them, me, Dave [Lombardo], and Jeff were like, "Oh well, I guess we can go on." It wasn't gonna stop us from doing what we were doing. In the end, I like to think Kerry made the right decision. [Laughs]
David, what do you remember about Kerry's decision to stick with Slayer?
ELLEFSON During those first few shows, we did an in-store [appearance] at the Record Vault in San Francisco. All these fans were going up to Kerry going, "Dude, Slayer! Slayer!" And I think Kerry kind of had a second thought, like, Wait a minute, maybe I shouldn't be joining Megadeth, maybe I should go back home and kick my bandmates' asses and get everything in gear.
I think Kerry making that trip with Megadeth up to San Francisco in February 1984, that again changed Kerry's whole perception because he got to be right up in the Bay Area and saw thrash metal, front and center, for what it was. It's funny, 'cause I think he went back home and Slayer wiped the makeup [they wore at the time] off their faces. They definitely got out of L.A. mode and into thrash-metal mode.
To read the rest, get Revolver Presents: The Big Four right here.
Megadeth and Mustaine photos by Bill Hale. For more info on his book, which you can buy here, visit his blog and Facebook group and MySpace page. Also, check out the blog for Hale's Metallica book, Metallica: Club Daze 1982 – 1984.
Dutch tech-metallers Textures will be dropping their fourth album, Dualism (Nuclear Blast), on September 23, but you can get a preview right now by listening to the track "Reaching Home." Drummer Stef Broks also provides his insight into the song below. Don't forget to tell us what you think in the comments section.
REVOLVER What's this song about?
STEF BROKS The song is about finding a way back to innocence. The person speaking in the lyrics is struggling his way through life, passing by melancholic moments of looking back, clear moments of present time, and hopeful moments of looking forward. Home is where this person's longing for; but does home lie in living, in only his thoughts, or in surrendering to passing away?
Which part of it did you come up with first? And what was the inspiration?
Most of the stuff was written by our guitar player Bart Hennephof. Inspired by vast Scandinavian landscapes, he borrowed the Edge's delay pedal to create this hyper catchy riff and melody line. We put the whole frame in a modern metal context et voilà, "Reaching Home" was born!
Was this an easy song to write or record? Why or why not?
While the song is the most catchy one of the whole album, the instrumental background is still kinda tough to play. It's packed with details and accents that avoid the one
—the most dominant factor in pop rhythms. In this way, it's a freaky song without too many people noticing that. [Smiles]
What sort of feedback have you gotten on this song so far?
That this song reminds people of Tool, Depeche Mode, Devin Townsend, U2, and eeeeh…Textures. Although "Reaching Home" sounds like a direct assault to the rock charts, it's still a very Textures song. An eclectic example of what a metal band can offer in 2011.
In honor of the hugely anticipated Big Four concert at Yankee Stadium in New York City on September 14, Revolver and Guitar World are celebrating the Big Four Weeks leading up to the show. Our websites will be giving fans eye-popping exclusives, previously unseen backstage video, excerpts from our interviews with the bands—including those in Revolver's special issue devoted to the Big Four, which you can buy right here—and much, much more. Additionally, Revolver's September/October issue (available here) features collectible trading cards, which you can view here.
A day before Anthrax join the other members of the Big Four—Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeth—onstage at Yankee Stadium on September 14, the group will release its first album in eight years, Worship Music (Megaforce). The first track unleashed online from the record was "Fight'em 'Til You Can't," a song about slaying zombies that represented a chance for Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian to combine his passion for music with his passion for the undead monsters. Ian—who is interviewed in the new issue of Revolver, available on newsstands now and online right here—has long been a zombie enthusiast, and he's even set to play a one the hit TV show The Walking Dead (he's pictured above on set with special effects guru Greg Nicotero). Fittingly, then, we got the axman to reveal his favorite zombie everything.
Night of the Living Dead
"I think I first saw it in the early '70s—I was into horror movies since I was a little kid. You gotta remember, when Night of the Living Dead came out, '68, you didn't have special effects like we came to know later, but the subject matter at the time was extremely graphic. Night of the Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that was too much for people to handle—they couldn't deal with that shit. Looking back now, if you just look at it from a production point of view, yeah, Night of the Living Dead looks extremely tame. But at the same time, think about the subject matter: Here comes the relentless undead who are never gonna stop. That's it—our way of life is over. Even though it doesn't look as gory and as bloody as other movies that came after, it was the first film to really explore that subject matter of a future that is nothing but bleak."
Dawn of the Dead
"I thought the original and the remake were both brilliant. That remake is probably the only remake I've ever seen that not only was worthy but as a standalone was amazing. I loved that the zombies just did what they were used to doing, so the zombies just went to the mall. I dig that social commentary, because I've never been a mall person."
The Walking Dead
"The comic and the TV show. It's the most realistic depiction [of a zombie apocalypse]. The comic book, which I'm a massive fan of, almost moves at a real-life pace. Nobody is safe—there are no real heroes and main characters that just hang around, because it's reality and people are going to die. That's what I love so much about Robert Kirkman's Walking Dead: He's really, really, really put the time and energy and the thought into this. In my mind, it's a true depiction of what it would be like."
The Road
"It isn't a zombie movie, per se, but it really is. There's no undead walking, but it might as well be. That truly is a post-apocalyptic future that I can wrap my brain around, and I feel like that's probably how it would be. No one would even really know—shit is just going to stop. Just imagine for one second if all the power just went off—if the grid turned off, for whatever reason, and nobody knew why, and they couldn't get the power back up. How long would it take for society to just devolve into complete and absolute chaos? Less than a week. There would be riots, and the world would be over in a week, if even that long. The book is an amazing depiction of the bleakest, darkest possible future of this planet—and certainly a possible future that I hope I don't see in my or my child's lifetime. The movie captured the essence of the book, although the book still for me… I can think about it and I'll start to freak out a little bit. Cormac McCarthy's book boiled down to the simplest love between a father and his child and the knowing that this isn't going to last and what am I going to do? There's no hope. There's no happy ending. For me, the book is a masterpiece."
In honor of the hugely anticipated Big Four concert at Yankee Stadium in New York City on September 14, Revolver and Guitar World are celebrating the Big Four Weeks leading up to the show. Our websites will be giving fans eye-popping exclusives, previously unseen backstage video, excerpts from our interviews with the bands—including those in Revolver's special issue devoted to the Big Four, which you can buy right here—and much, much more. Additionally, Revolver's September/October issue (available here) features collectible trading cards, which you can view here.
While making the Big Four issue, we talked to some of the Big Four's most heralded musicians about their favorite songs from the other bands. Today, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine tells us about his favorite Metallica song.
"I had to do a lot of coming to terms with myself in order to listen to Metallica. Before, whenever I heard them, it triggered me in my mind to get up on my soapbox and spit out complaints of what had happened to me. And then once I finally realized, Dave, you're lucky, you're blessed, you're in a great band, you're in another great band. I finally just said, 'You're missing it.'
"And I remember hearing this song when I was talking to Lars once and telling him this is my favorite song off the 'Black Record.' And he goes, 'Really? Fuck, man.' It was 'The Unforgiven.' I liked it because I thought this was really the first time I've ever really heard James sing. He had sung before, and he was a great singer. But that was the first time I ever heard him really, really sing."
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 the early days of Slayer and Metallica, who featured future Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine in their ranks at the time, and features interviews with Mustaine, Metallica's Lars Ulrich, Slayer's Tom Araya, Dave Lombardo, and Kerry King. It also features photography of Metallica by Bill Hale, who recently released a book titled Metallica: Club Dayz 1982 – 1984, which has tons of great photos from this time period (for more on the book, scroll to the bottom). So, without further ado, let's go back to the beginning.
REVOLVER Slayer and Metallica played together early on in Los Angeles, before the guys in Metallica moved to San Francisco. What do you remember about seeing each other?
TOM ARAYA We played with them at a club called the Woodstock in Anaheim in the early '80s. I thought they were awesome. We had gotten ahold of their "Hit the Lights" tape, which was fucking amazing. When I saw them, it was with Ron [McGovney], and Dave Mustaine was playing. I guess we saw the original lineup.
DAVE LOMBARDO From what I remember of that Metallica show, it was brutal. It was metal, like, darker metal than Judas Priest. It had more edge. That's the best way to describe it.
KERRY KING Seeing Dave play in Metallica was why I was a Mustaine fan before I even played in Megadeth. When that happened, I was flattered that he wanted me in the band for a kid my age. I was like, Wow, I must be doing all right if this guy wants me in a band with him.
Lars, what did you think of Slayer?
LARS ULRICH I remember that there was a Deep Purple cover in their repertoire. I think it was "Highway Star," which was pretty cool. It's 1982, you're in L.A., and basically everything that's going on at that time has some form of Mötley Crüe type of vibe.
ARAYA We came up with our brand of music, living in L.A., wanting to be against the metal scene there. 'Cause everyone was looking like girls and we wanted to look like men. [Laughs] We developed a style of music that obviously offended a lot of people in L.A. [Laughs]
ULRICH When we saw the Slayer guys, they were obviously doing something that was even more different than some of the other bands that were left of center. And they just took it faster and harder.
The place we played with them was kind of a local hole in the wall, down there in the Orange County suburbs. Obviously at that time, they weren't "Angel of Death" Slayer yet, but they were on their way, certainly. And you could definitely feel that this was a musical force to be reckoned with.
Metallica moved to San Francisco in 1982 to join up with bassist Cliff Burton. Did you ever run into each other when Slayer gigged up there?
LOMBARDO They came to our show at the Stone [in San Francisco]. I remember Hetfield had a denim jacket or a leather jacket, and it said "Razorback" on it. It was kinda cool. And Lars, we would go out and have sushi and get beers and check out some bands at local venues where we were at.
ULRICH I've got a pretty good memory, but it certainly gets a little spotty. I remember a lot of late nights. There was a lot of just, you know, aggressive fun, drunk energy, and nights out. If Dave remembers eating sushi, then I'll definitely take that. But that one I don't recall. I'm sure we had a good time doing it. It was probably more about the [Japanese alcoholic beverage] sake than the sushi, if you know what I mean.
Dave, what do you remember about writing music with Metallica at the time?
DAVE MUSTAINE I had always called us, as a group, the "Four Horsemen." Before I was in Metallica, I really loved this band called Montrose, and their guitarist was Ronnie Montrose. He went on to form a band called Gamma. One of their records [1980's Gamma 2] had a shark fin cutting through the grass, which I thought was so awesome. Anyway, he had a song on there called "Four Horsemen" that I did with my band Panic, which I was with before Metallica.
So when I joined Metallica, I had the song "Mechanix," which I wrote, and "Four Horsemen" was a suggestion of mine to do 'cause we were doing cover songs. So that had planted the seed with James. And one day when we were coming to rehearsal, Lars had just said something about slowing down my song, "Mechanix." I had just gotten to the studio with Cliff, and we had been listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd, and I was being a jerk, so I played "Sweet Home Alabama" instead of "Mechanix," and that's basically the middle part of what would become Metallica's "Four Horsemen."
To read the rest, get Revolver Presents: The Big Four right here.
Metallica photos by Bill Hale. For more info on his book, which you can buy here, visit his blog and Facebook group. Also, check out the blog for Hale's forthcoming Megadeth book, Megadeth: Another Time, A Different Place.
Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian—whose band recently released a song all about zombies, titled "Fight'em 'Til You Can't" (see the zombie-themed art below)—announced today that he will appear in makeup on the AMC series The Walking Dead. He tweeted, "What have I wanted to do since 1978? Be a ZOMBIE!!! Full story on my day on Walking Dead coming later!!!" Check out his zombie makeup below.
Exodus guitarist Gary Holt recently spoke with Guitar World about filling in for Slayer's Jeff Hanneman, as the latter heals up from his necrotizing fasciitis infection. Read an excerpt below and read the rest here. For more on the Big Four, check revolvermag.com and guitarworld.com regularly as we count down the Big Four Weeks leading up to Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax's concert at Yankee Stadium on September 14.
GUITAR WORLD How were you approached initially about filling in for Jeff? Was your reaction an immediate "yes" or did you take time to think about it?
GARY HOLT Kerry called me right after we returned from the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise and told me what was up and asked if I was down. I said sure, told him I had a gig in Chile with Iron Maiden that I couldn't miss, and they'd have to get someone else for the last few shows, and we went from there. I planned on taking it easy anyway this year, select gigs and song writing. Year's been a bit busier than I thought it was going to be, but it's been awesome.
Were you invited to take part in the Big Four "jam" at the Indio show? If so, was there a reason you didn't take part? Have you taken part in one since?
I could have, but I had my fiancee and two of my daughters there, and I was just kind of hanging with friends and stuff, so I skipped that one, but it was awesome when we did do the jam in the end.
Unless you've been living under a boulder, you know that the Big Four of thrash—Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax—are playing Yankee Stadium in New York City on Wednesday, September 14. It's only the second time these four metal colossuses have shared a stage in the United States.
Since nobody knows whether we'll get another chance to see them onstage again, Revolver and Guitar World are celebrating the event with the Big Four Weeks. For the next month or so, leading up to the show, our websites will be giving fans eye-popping exclusives, previously unseen backstage video, excerpts from our interviews with the bands—including those in Revolver's special issue devoted to the Big Four, which you can buy right here—and much, much more.
To kick things off, Revolver is presenting a first look at the Big Four trading cards we're including in newsstand editions of our September/October issue, which you can buy right here right now and will be available everywhere else on Tuesday, August 16. We've modeled the cards after the Topps baseball cards in 1986—the year that three of the bands released their masterpieces—and the backs feature vital stats, selected discographies, and fun facts sponsored by our friends at Samson, Zoom, and Hartke.
We hope you enjoy them and check back regularly for more cool Big Four–related coverage!
Having been a part of metalcore titans Atreyu for over a decade, Brandon Saller is starting afresh with his new band Hell or Highwater. Stepping out from behind the drum set and claiming center stage, Saller initially began writing material 18 months ago and started out touring with a variety of musicians under the name the Black Cloud Collective. After settling on a fixed lineup, the quintet—which also features guitarists Matt Pauling and Neal Tiemann, bassist Joey Bradford, and drummer Kyle Peek—adopted the name Hell or Highwater, and the band in its current form was born. With self-released debut album, Begin Again, out this week, and the group soon to embark on the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival, Revolver spoke to Saller about Hell or Highwater, recording a track with Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows, and what the future holds for Atreyu.
REVOLVER What prompted you to start Hell or Highwater?
BRANDON SALLER It was just different music and, I mean, I'm the kind of person who likes to just sit down and write music and play music and, you know, for not any specific reason or project or thing. And I was writing songs that I was really liking and they just weren't right for Atreyu. In my head, there was no reason to put those songs to waste, and that journey with them was no reason why I shouldn't go forth and make something of them.
How did the band arrive at its current lineup?
Initially, I just played with kind of random friends across the board, and when it turned into something that I wanted to tour with and everything, I wanted it to be something kind of real. So I just put together kind of a try-out, and it was really just word of mouth through friends and stuff like that. And in doing so, I found the guys I have now. They're all such talented individually, in other bands before, and everyone was kind of coming to the end of a project, so it was kind of perfect the way it all fit in together.
How much of the record is songs you wrote yourself prior to the current band, and how much of it is material you guys wrote together?
Well, I mean quite a bit. Once they came on board, it was amazing how much they kind of put in. On the actual album, I wrote nine songs and then the guys, we all wrote three songs together. Once we kind of made the lineup concrete, I really wanted that. I really wanted the other guys to kind of have a moment on the record and really get a chance to write with them as well.
How would you describe the album musically?
I mean, it's, in essence, an American rock-and-roll record. I don't think that it sounds like anything specific. It's a rock-and-roll record, but I feel like it's just a nice, fresh approach to that, you know. I really wanted the band to sound like a modern take on a classic rock band and even farther back than '70s, '80s, even going as far back as like the '50s, you know what I mean.
What's the significance of the album title, Begin Again?
I feel like, for all of us, all five of us have kind of dropped everything in our life and really just started over with this band and we've put our entire heart and soul and faith in this band because we love it, and it's kind of testament to the fact that you can do that and you can start over and you can change whenever you want, in your life. It's never too late to do that. So I feel like the record, for us, was just a fresh start and hence Begin Again.
And it seems like you're taking a very DIY approach with Hell or Highwater?
Absolutely. You know, all of us have had success in our previous bands and we didn't want to have to just rely on that. We really wanted the band to be known for us, you know, and really people to fall in love with Hell or Highwater, rather than the things we've done in the past.
Do you take listeners' reactions to this record more personally than anything before?
Obviously, it's a special record for me because it is something totally new that I did on my own and it's something that I really built from the ground up. And it's not that I take it personally, but I think I'm just maybe more proud of this than anything else. Just because it's like building a house with your own two hands, you know what I mean. You're going to want to show everyone that house, you're gonna be proud of that house, because every bit of it was made with your two hands and your blood, sweat, and tears. So I feel like I'm just more excited and proud for this record, I think, than anything else.
How are you enjoying being a frontman?
It's a lot of fun, man, I mean, I've always been as active of a drummer as I can be and it's a lot of fun just to kind of be in people's faces now and interact and, you know, get to run around a little bit, have a good time. I feel like I've been let out of my cage.
And you've collaborated with Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows on the track "Go Alone"?
Yeah, yeah, we've been friends for a while. I mean, obviously we're both from Huntington beach and Atreyu and Avenged toured a lot throughout the years, and we've become close the last three or four years. We'd written it together a long, long time ago, so it's nice to finally have that come out, too, because I think a lot of people will dig it.
With so much of your time going into Hell or Highwater, is Atreyu firmly on the back burner right now?
When we decided to go on a break, the idea was go on a break and when, collectively, the five of us feel that the break is over, then the break is over. There wasn't any time limit or "Let's just take two years off" or whatever. It could be a year, it could be five, we don't really know. Which makes it nice because I don't like to half-ass anything in my life so I'm glad that I can put all my attention towards this. JASON LE MIERE
Long Island, New York-based hardcore band are currently in the studio, working on their fourth album with producer Tomas Costanza. Below, guitarist Rick Jimenez catches us up on his band's progress.
REVOLVER How are the songs sounding for your new album?
RICK JIMENEZ These are some phrases that have been thrown around amidst the recording: "That actually sounds like the fucking apocalypse," "That's a barrier-gripping headbang part if there ever was one," "This must be a wrestler's entrance music—the pyro goes perfect right there," and "Kevin from Incendiary is going to stage mosh to this."
Are you trying anything different with your songs this time?
There are so many things on this album that are different for us, from a small thing like an auxiliary percussion track on a song to a very obvious thing like the increased use of two vocal parts. The best part about trying new things was the fact that they all came naturally. There was never a "We should really redefine our sound and start doing this and this in place of this or that now." It was just a matter of how things came out when they were written and being excited to add those new elements both live and on recording.
What have you been listening to while working on this album?
Metallica. They've always been my favorite band. The Metalllica influence on this album is way more apparent than any other album we've done. So many of their albums are still untouchable. It's also awesome that Death Magnetic has become a part of my regular Metallica rotation. I'm not sure what the general consensus is on that album but I think it fucking rules.
What has been your biggest inspiration for the new songs?
Essentially the bands that I loved when I first started playing guitar all reemerged as stronger inspiration with these songs, both guitar-wise and vocally. Megadeth, Slayer, Sepultura, Anthrax, Metallica, etc. Then there is the crossover influence which bridges it all together—bands like Cro-Mags, DRI, Leeway. Not just musically but theoretically, these bands are inspirations because they weren't afraid to take risks and incorporate new things into their sound and not become stagnant, writing the same album and songs over and over just because that's what people may want. We wrote "Polygraph Cheaters" in 2005, and I swear I'm still flattered that people like that song, but what fun would it be for us if we continued to write that same thing over and over again?
What's been the most adventurous thing you've done in the studio so far?
There have been a lot of things, just the sound overall is adventurous for us. The use of dual vocals and the fact that it's not just one dude screaming as hard as he can the entire time is pretty different for us. Making use of choruses and not playing as fast as possible 90% of the time. On the other hand, this record is probably the most aggressive and in your face yet, so go figure.
Tell us about working with Tomas.
We also did [2010's] Weight of the World with him. He's awesome behind the board at capturing the right sounds and bringing out the best in us. As far as ideas towards the songs, I'm essentially the most stubborn bastard in the world and he knows that. He knows when to offer suggestions and when to just let the song ride so I don't give a 20-minute explanation of why certain things are already set a certain way. He's the greatest to work with.
Do you guys have an album title yet?
We are keeping it under wraps for now. But stay tuned because more details are coming soon!