Artist Interview
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Rob Zombie has revealed that he is crowdfunding his new horror movie, '31,' and will be offering a bunch of cool prizes to those who contribute, including autographed posters, a lifetime laminate to see Zombie live, and a gig as an extra in '31.' The rocker and filmmaker will also hand out exclusive props from his movies, including masks from 'Halloween' and big cemetery crosses from 'House of 1000 Corpses.'
Zombie is looking to raise $2 million to finance the film via his new website RZ-31 over the next two months. "People have come up to me over the years and asked, 'How can I get these props?' 'How can I come to the set?'" Zombie explains. "So I realized a crowdfunding campaign is not a guy on a street corner with a hat asking for money."
'31' will tells the story of five people kidnapped in the five days leading up to Halloween. They find themselves in Murder World where they are forced to play a game called "31" in which the kidnapped person must face off against members of a group of clowns called "the heads" in a fight to the death.
Zombie also revealed that he plans to complete his next album before the end of the year. "Yeah, I'm in the studio right now," he says. "I got off tour a few days ago, and right now I'm already working on the new album, which we'll have finished this year. I want to have it done before the movie starts. I don't want to come back to the record after the movie. It's too long of a break. We have a ton of stuff written and, little by little, we're finishing them up. We're more than half done at this point.
You can read the complete story here.
MORE ZOMBIE: Check out our gallery of Rob Zombie rocking live at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, courtesy of photographer Rob Fenn.
John 5 and Rob Zombie live at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. Photos by Rob Fenn.
John 5 is one busy dude. In between touring with Rob Zombie, making a new Zombie record, and scoring Zombie's latest film, '31,' he has found time to craft his eighth solo album, 'Careful with That Axe,' which will be out August 12 via 60 Cycle Hum. The guitarist–who has also known for playing with Marilyn Manson, David Lee Roth and others—recently chatted with Revolver about each of those projects, as well as serial killers and playing guitar in the bathroom.
REVOLVER Your new solo record, 'Careful with That Axe,' is almost out. How do you feel now that it's done?
JOHN 5 It's really exciting for me because this is what I think music is really about. I fund this whole thing by myself and I don't do it for money, it's just for the love of the guitar. I think people really understand that. I've been doing instrumental records now for a long time and built up this little fan base which is worldwide and it's incredible how big it's gotten. People really enjoy these records. Even the title, 'Careful with That Axe,' when you get a guitar when you're a little kid, you don't know where that guitar is going to take you—if it's going to bring you happiness or sadness, success or poverty. I'm going to be doing three live streaming concerts—one for America/Canada, one for Europe, and one for the Pacific Rim. That's going to be in October and I'm going to play the record live with the band. It's going to be cool. The guys from 'The Tonight Show,' the Jay Leno one, are putting it together. I'll have someone host it. People will be able to call in.
Can you tell me about that single, "This Is My Rifle?"
That is the beginning of the record and introducing when I was a kid like, "OK, this is my guitar and I love it and I sleep with it. I play it all the time and it's my whole life." That's where "This Is My Rifle" comes from. It is performed live, which is really cool, because a lot of people go into the studio and overdub and blah blah blah. I do it for the love of the guitar and hopefully to inspire people to play because that's what happened to me—I was inspired by these players and it was such an epiphany for me. It ended up ruling my life and I have such an obsession with it. There are so many other styles of music on this record that people will enjoy—there's bluegrass, Western swing, and flamenco. If this was the last instrumental record I was ever going to make, I'm so proud of this record.
In the past, you had themed song titles after serial killers—is that on here, too?
There is. Like I was saying with the title, you never know where this guitar is going to take you, so the song titles, "Villisca," "Portrait of Sidney Sloan," and "The Dream Slayer"—these are all references to axe murderers. "El Cucuy," the Spanish-style one, means boogeyman in Spanish. There's not one title or one song that's just thrown in there. Everything has a lot of thought to it—even the intro, "We Need to Have a Talk About John," because I would just sit in my room and play guitar and watch movies when I was a little kid. My parents got so worried about it and they would talk to me and tell me to go outside and play, which is fine because I would do the same thing as a parent if my kid just sat in a room all day. If you really get into certain records, then they have a certain meaning to them because you really let it get into your life and starts meaning a lot more.
How much do you play a day?
Well, here's the best example—if I wasn't talking to you right now, I'd be playing guitar. I play every chance I get—even if I go to the bathroom. I play all the time, all the time. The reason why is it's very comforting to me. I don't do any drugs or drink so it's kind of like having your blanket with you.
Considering how much music you've created, how do you continuously find inspiration?
Yeah, I always look for inspiration. If I find something that's inspiring, I'm so excited because it is very hard to find something inspiring. I can get inspired, like anyone, from movies or music or TV or a certain way people think. I've always liked people that were obsessive with something. I love watching documentaries on people like clean-freaks because it's just so interesting to me for some reason. [Laughs] Sounds weird, but it's the truth.
And you're doing the score for Rob's next horror film, right?
Yeah. His next movie is called '31' and I'm actually doing the score with Rob, which is exciting. I did the last score to 'Lords of Salem' and it's a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot of work so it's going to be really fun. We're also working on a new record. All of this going on and I feel like I have to take a nap or something.
Besides the obvious, what's the difference between writing a record and writing a film score?
It's so challenging because what it basically is, is music that people are not going to listen to. Because it cannot distract the person from watching the movie, because you have to watch the movie. If something distracts you and you're listening to the music and your brain stops concentrating on the movie, you're not doing the right job. I always say it has to be music that people don't listen to. Sometimes it's not even in a key signature or a time signature, but other times you write these beautiful classical pieces with strings, oboes, bassoons, and bassinets. But a very memorable theme is so imperative. It's so challenging. I think on the last movie, there was 63 pieces of music from 'Lords of Salem.' That's a lot of work. That's like doing six records. It's very intense work, that's for sure.
Is it hard working on so many projects at once?
You know, it's hard doing all this. Actually, because it's getting so busy I had a talk with my wife. She's a hairstylist in Beverly Hills and she doesn't really need to work but she loves it. But we've finally come to the understanding she's going to come with me when I have to do a record or do a score because I'm so busy. But I am very thankful and fortunate to be this busy because when I was a kid, and this is the truth, I never ever dreamt of doing anything like I'm doing now. All I wanted was be a session guitar player—play on some records and TV shows and make enough money to live comfortably. That's it. I never dreamt I'd be doing interviews or playing big concerts or having anyone know my name. So it's too far beyond my dreams. So I'm very happy, lucky and fortunate.
"It's been so much fun—we're in great spirits," says Andy Biersack, frontman of the Black Veil Brides. "I know everyone says that they're having a great time—but genuinely, I'm enjoying my life more than I ever have."
When Revolver reached the vocalist for this in-studio report, the band was wrapping up the last few days of recording in Vancouver with famed mega-producer Bob Rock—you know, the guy who oversaw albums like Metallica's "Black Album" and Mötley Crüe's 'Dr. Feelgood.' While Biersack couldn't have been more ecstatic about working with Rock and about his group's new material, he revealed that his current "great spirits" follow what was a dark period in his life between the making of 2013's 'Wretched and Divine' and now. We caught up with Biersack to talk about that, the forthcoming fourth BVB album, "being a militant asshole," and the misconceptions surrounding his band.
REVOLVER What's it like working with Bob Rock?
ANDY BIERSACK The star-struck nature—especially when you're a kid who loves hard rock and metal—when you meet him, there is the initial, "Oh shit. This is Bob Rock." It is the greatest thing we've gotten to experience, which is honorably so rare for the people you look up to—but he's really an awesome person, a joy to work with, and incredibly talented. The biggest thing I can say going away from this record is I've learned more about the process of writing and creating songs and the importance of the elements of songs more so than any other record we've done. I couldn't really put an amount of the value of knowledge that I now have in terms of musical creation, songwriting, and nuances of songwriting.
Bob produced both Metallica's "Black Album" and Mötley Crüe's 'Dr. Feelgood'—which do you like more?
For me, I would probably say the "Black Album" just because the lyrical content tends to skew more towards things I'm interested in. Not to say Nikki [Sixx] is not a great writer, and I'm obviously hugely influenced by Mötley Crüe on many levels, but maybe as an adult now what speaks to me a little bit more now is the "Black Album." If you asked me that question when I was 6 years old, it might be different. It's like picking between your children, but it's two of the biggest rock records of our time.
You said the lyrical content of the "Black Album" interests you more, and speaking of that, how would you describe the lyrical content on the new Black Veil Brides album?
Very angry. I feel like in a lot of ways I had a lot of aggression towards the state of how we were perceived. Obviously some people will see, "Oh, he's the guy who yells at awards shows" or whatever. But in a lot of ways, we had made this record [Wretched and Divine] so large in scale and had this grand story and we did the film. There was a certain level of frustration when you feel you do this thing so large and great, but there were so many people who just refused to listen to the songs, like, "They're a faggy makeup band." I think on some level, when I was younger that used to affect me. In a way, I enjoyed looking back on those feelings because I don't really care anymore. I can't write about things in the moment anyway, but in a way I wanted to re-tap into those aggressive feelings. I think if anything thematically there is a lot more angst on this record in general. I'm shooting from the hip a lot more on this one. There's no grand story and the metaphors aren't as strong. So it's a return to form—more like our first album, lyrically.
So it sounds like the new one is not a concept album like the last one?
There are a few elements of the story that we wanted to tie up from the 'Wretched and Divine' story, but I think it's more hinted at than anything else. There's certainly a theme because we're very theatrical but it is not a straight concept album with a story running throughout. I think the theme of that album is retribution.
With 'Wretched and Divine' being such a big concept record, was it exhausting and did you want to kind of chill out a little after that experience, or do you plan to do more?
No, I think we plan to do more. The one specific thing not being done is a film. But the one thing we did not get to do on the last record is we didn't get to represent a lot of the songs on the record visually in the way that we wanted to. So with us not doing a film, we can invest more time and larger budget into music videos. The plan is to release a few up front and we started pre-production for a lot of the video ideas. I think people will be excited because we're doing a short film prior to the first video coming out that will tie up a lot of the loose ends from the movie.
You said you wrote angry songs for this new record but when we first got on the phone you said you're in a very happy time in your life—what happened to get from point A to B?
I would say when we made the previous record, it was emotionally the hardest period in my life for no other reason than my own misgivings and self-destructive tendencies and I got into a weird funk. It wasn't one thing that spurred it—just sometimes you go through a weird period. When making the movie, it was a very strange time for me. I was so happy about making the album and the process of the concept, but I was not a happy person. I think the band would attest to that and I imagine it was not easy to work with me. I was not being a team player. I was very much, "This is what we're going to wear and sound like." There was not a lot of band voting going on. So with this record, I really wanted to make a concerted effort to bring back the elements of being in a band and being a good friend to my bandmates. It's not easy to admit to everyone when you fucked up. Months prior to making this album, I really wanted to go to everybody and apologize for anything I had done in being a militant asshole—for the lack of a better term. It really brought the vibe back and the experience and nurturing from Bob. We're getting along better as a band now as friends than we have in five or six years. It really does feel like a rebirth.
How did the band react to your change?
Great. You know, I can say I've made a big change but if I don't physically and emotionally live that out and become a better person for my bandmates and family, it's nothing. I don't want to paint myself as some villain—I was never a bad guy doing horrible things, but I got too caught up in wanting a very specific thing to happen to the band. Ultimately, I had to find the ability in myself to get over that and stop being so stringent and learn to laugh a little bit more.
So with the band as a collective unit, what did you create musically?
With the songs being more directed at a personal more angst feel, I think things are definitely heavier. Everybody says this is their heaviest and most melodic but it truly is for us. The feeling was, let's really do something aggressive. We felt that way as a reaction from our own work. When we made 'Wretched and Divine' and as much as I love it, it's a pretty sparkly record—it's a record that could be done as a play because it's very theatrical with no grit. Like many artists, we don't want to redo what we did. We're savvier musicians than we were five or six years ago. We were writing songs together as opposed to fragmented in the studio. So we really wrote songs together, making decisions collectively with Bob there, and went back to a much more grittier and heavier sound.
Did you invite some friends to guest on tracks as you have in the past?
No. [Laughs] We debated back and forward, but the lyrical content is too personal. I would not want someone else necessarily singing these words. That might sound selfish, but this is from our band and we want to deliver it to our audience. I want people to sing along, but this needed to be done as a band as opposed to the last record.
Does your gothic side-project Andy Black influence the writing at all?
Yes and no—maybe emotionally. Coming out of 'Wretched and Divine,' I was still wanting to explore the more theatrical elements of songwriting. That led to Andy Black. I never have written songs like this and I wanted to do it for fun. I didn't think anything would come of that. In doing that, I had emphasized that element of myself and I got out that pop. Going into the Black Veil album, I felt aggressive again. That's not to say there aren't ballads—there are a few songs with instrumentation, we had a full orchestra in the studio. But I was ready to make heavy stuff again and I got the rest out of my system. Now that we've wrapped it up, I feel like I got the release I wanted.
Can you divulge any titles of songs yet?
Well, no. [Laughs]
You've alluded to your controversial Revolver Golden Gods acceptance speech earlier, and in that case, your very devoted fan base came to the band's defense. With this new release, do you want to win over new fans or even care to?
At this point in my career, I've had so many conversations about being divisive and polarizing or whatever buzzword the writer wants to use, and it's really developed this element that isn't there. When I walk around on the street and someone comes up to me, I have just as many full grown men with large beards in Slipknot shirts saying he likes my band as much as I do girls with bright pink hair. In the real world, the polarization doesn't exist. In releasing an album, I only hope that it's great and I think that it is. It's not about pandering. It's not like it will break my heart if people don't think it's great but, "Boy wouldn't it be great if people were with me on how much I loved this thing!" You want to do good by your fan base and people that have supported you, and that's No. 1 for us on an emotional level. I'm not writing songs for someone else—I'm writing songs with the hope someone can get behind my feeling. It's a dangerous game to write a song for a person you don't know. It feels disingenuous. I see so many bands, particularly in the last couple of years, that are trying really hard to write for a person that they've never met. I get the idea behind it and the idea of helping people, but I feel you help people more by exposing yourself.
Besides the idea of Black Veil Brides as this particularly polarizing entity, what were other misconceptions about the band?
This is our first record where people are excited. In previous albums, we were treated like it was surprising that a group of birthday clowns were able to put together a record. We're not for everybody, I get that. There's much more of a buzz about this record and when you work your ass off you want people to be excited. I've always said I'd rather have people paint us as polarizing because they feel something about us emotionally rather than be lukewarm. I want to be in a world where people think something about Black Veil Brides than be the band everyone is just OK with—because there're plenty of those.
Today, the all-new August/September 2014 issue of Revolver, hit newsstands everywhere!
Interview by Dan Epstein
REVOLVER The new album, 'The Hunting Party,' seems like it will translate very well to your live show.
CHESTER BENNINGTON What's cool about this record is that, I know for us, we have a lot of singles that have done really well, but when you put them in the set, like "Shadow of the Day" and "Iridescent," "Powerless"… we love those songs and they're great songs, but you put 'em in the set and it's like [mimics sound of a balloon slowly losing air], and then you're working the rest of the set to get the energy back up for the finale. [Laughs] But now, over the last couple of records, we're like, "Let's write songs that will be fun to play live and that are good songs!" So between 'Living Things 'and 'The Hunting Party,' we've just replaced the whole lull. It's gone! Now we're doing fun things like medleys, where we're mixing together a few of those tracks, rather than bringing the show down for 15 minutes, it's like, let's do that in five. We're able to have a lot more fun with our music now, because we have a lot more stuff.
'The Hunting Party' has a renewed aggression to it. Why go so heavy, and so guitar- and riff-focused?
SHINODA If you've listened to our last few records, you know that the guitar has kind of taken a backseat in a lot of ways. There's two reasons for that—1) I'm playing all of that guitar, and 2) Brad [Delson, Linkin Park guitarist] was just not wanting to play. He wanted to do other things and write songs in a different way. He played a little bit of guitar, but not anything focal or featured. I went to him and said, "Look, this is what we need to do. I think it's important, and here's a million reasons why." I've known him since we were like 12 or 13, and he walked around with a Metallica shirt every day. I said, "Think about what you liked when you were 15 years old—and think about what you did not like, what you wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. Would that kid back then like what you do now? Are you making music that would make that kid want to become a guitar player, or even want to listen to your music?" My favorite groups were the ones that my parents wouldn't buy me, or wouldn't let me listen to—and if I heard the football team and cheerleaders listening to it, I'd probably disown that group or that rapper or whatever. And if the band became too popular, I wouldn't listen to them. When we're young, we define ourselves by the music we listen to and what we wear—the stuff we can face out to the rest of the world and say, "This is what I'm about." But once it becomes mainstreamy or waters itself down, you want to move on to something that's more underground or more cutting edge. Not everyone is like that, but I know that Brad was that way, and I know that I was that way. I wouldn't be caught dead listening to pop music.
BENNINGTON I would have killed anyone who put on any kind of pop in my presence.
SHINODA I was getting into Corrosion of Conformity, S.O.D. and M.O.D. back in those days.
BENNINGTON Bands like the Refreshments and the Rembrandts, that music fucking angers me to this day. And the same thing is happening now, where there's all this stuff that feels like the soundtrack to 'Friends' or 'The Wizards of Waverly Place.'
SHINODA When I listen to rock radio these days, I feel like I'm listening to a lot of stuff that sits somewhere between a car commercial and Nick Jr. — it's so safe, and so OK to listen to with mommy and daddy. And there's all this faceless indie stuff that's like a mash-up between M-83 and Phoenix… Ever since that first MGMT record came out, people have been trying to do that same thing over and over again. Even MGMT was like, "Fuck that—we're not gonna touch that shit any more!" [Laughs]
BENNINGTON And seriously, guys—chill the fuck out with the goddamn reverb, already. I'm not fucking kidding. I'm going to take it away from all of them!
SHINODA When you show me that you know how to use that, I'll let you have it back. [Laughs]
How did you go about getting Brad on board with the new album's direction? He told me that he was inspired more by the Refused, rather than getting in touch with his inner Metallica fan.
SHINODA That was the next conversation. This album is not about bringing back the aesthetic of hard rock—I don't want to call up those guitar tones and drum sounds. The idea is to bring back the ethos of this stuff. It was more about finding the bands and the sounds and the moments in time where certain bands and records were particularly important to us. I remember when the Refused record came out, we were just so excited about that album! For me and Dave, the At the Drive-In record 'Relationship of Command,' huge record for us—we were just so obsessed with that record.
BENNINGTON It blew my mind, still does.
SHINODA But that record was not one of Brad's favorites. So it was this whole thing of finding the stuff that pushed the right buttons. And it was also about deciding what's outside the boundaries, what's not OK for this record.
BENNINGTON For me, heavy music is the easiest to write to, because that's what I grew up on. I'm not a real big metal fan—I was never into Iron Maiden. Metallica was about as far as I went, but that's because Metallica is really a punk band who can play their instruments really well. And we all don't like the kind of country-metal sounds… But I know what I like about the heavy stuff that I like, and if it sounds kind of metal then I know what kind of vocal I want to put over the top of it to make it a little more raw. Strangely enough, I didn't really sing on this record, except for "Final Masquerade" and "Until It's Gone." The rest of it is just me yelling at everyone. To me, they're more like shouting on key. Even though there's a melody on "Wasteland," I think of it more like shouting than singing. But we do put a lot of rhythm in, a lot of melody, and a lot of dynamics.
This is the first Linkin Park album to feature guest musicians, including three guys very familiar to Revolver readers: Daron Malakian of System of a Down, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, and Page Hamilton of Helmet. Why bring them in?
SHINODA The timeline of getting a band off the ground is so much longer and harder than the trajectory of being a rapper or a DJ—mostly because those things are usually envisioned and executed by one person or a couple of individuals. With a band, you have to have at least three or four individuals who are all proficient at their instruments, who are all talented to some degree, and who all have the same vision—it all has to line up, right? And then at some point, you make it big, and you're so protective—every rock band is so protective of their fan base and their aesthetic and their name, that they don't want to work with any other group. They won't even tour with certain people. And we're the same way! One day I was like, "We all need to stop it, because everyone else is getting over themselves and going out and crossing genres—it's not only beneficial for all the artists who are doing it, but it's beneficial for music in general." And that opened the door to the idea of working with other people.
Talk to me specifically about "All for Nothing," which features Page Hamilton.
SHINODA That was one of the ones that was pretty much done. I laid down a chorus vocal myself, and I listened to it the next day when I came into the studio, I was like, "Fuck, this really sounds like Helmet!"
BENNINGTON That's the first thing I said when I heard the new chorus. We'd been kicking a couple of choruses around, but they never really lived up to the song's potential. Then he played me the new chorus melody, and I was like, "That's really fucking cool, dude—and the coolest part is that it doesn't even sound like you! It sounds like fucking Helmet!"
SHINODA And when's the last time I sang and it sounded like Helmet? [Laughs]
BENNINGTON And that's when we were like, "Well, maybe we should go straight to the source!" You kind of have to let the song tell you what the song wants, and I think this song was telling us to call Page.
Besides the guests, this is also the first Linkin Park album that you guys produced yourselves.
BENNINGTON I've always known that we could make good records on our own, without a producer. There's a real special relationship that we have when we're creating a record. There's a submissive element to being in this band. I mean, I write a lot of songs, too, and come up with demos and things. Sometimes Mike will say, "I like that one," or he'll say, "I think that's cool, mess with it for awhile"—and three years later, I'll come up with something and he'll be like, "Now it's right!" It takes me longer. But I'm cool with Mike and Brad going, "Check this out! Check this out! Check this out!" I can just do what I do best.
It's like basketball—someone's setting you up for the shot.
SHINODA I love the basketball analogy, actually. On any team, you've got players who get the credit for doing X, Y, Z. In the studio, Brad and I are the ones really pushing stuff forward, but everybody writes songs and makes demos. We democratically vote on which demos we want to work on, and they usually end up being mostly my demos.
BENNINGTON I think it's really important for young musicians to understand that this is the type of shit that usually breaks bands up. I have an artistic ego that needs to be heard—only I beat the fuck out of that thing, put it in the closet, and abandon the house! [Laughs] There are bands that break up over this stuff—like, look at Creedence Clearwater Revival. We all go through this process where everyone gets hurt at one point or another, and we all work through that, and it takes a really long time—and then we all end up picking his songs. [Laughs] So at that point, I just go, "I'm going to make the best version of his song possible!"
SHINODA And by the way, not all of my songs are good songs!
BENNINGTON Just most of them! [Laughs]
SHINODA I'm throwing away my songs, too! If you think about it, though, we worked on this record with Page and Daron and Tom—and in all three cases, we sat and talked to them about their process and our process. We were sitting there to write some stuff together, so we were like, "How do you do that?" Everybody does it differently, and I think fans would be surprised at how different it can be. But we had those conversations with guys who've been in bands that have had difficulty in the chemistry department, or with people just butting heads about stuff. And I think it made all of us so appreciative of the fact that our guys… When we've got a problem—and believe me, we do—stuff's always coming up for any band—we can look in each other's face and say, "This is a problem, let's fix it." We like what we do as a band, and we don't want to be bummed out about any facet of it. If something's not great, then let's make it great… I love to tell people that I'm so proud of the guys, their performances on this record in particular.
Hard rockers Alice in Chains are featured in an upcoming episode of 'Guitar Center Sessions' that will air on DIRECTV's Audience (channel 239) Sunday, August 3, at 8pm. In anticipation, the band has teamed up with Revolver to premiere an interview clip with vocalist-guitarist William DuVall and drummer Sean Kinney in which they talk about Alice in Chains' remarkable resurrection and the second chapter of their career. Check out the clip below and let us know what you think in the comments.
For more on 'Guitar Center Sessions' visit the series' website.
Wovenwar—featuring former members of As I Lay Dying and current Oh, Sleeper vocalist Shane Blay—will release their new self-titled album on August 5 via Metal Blade Records. In anticipation, the band has teamed up with Revolver to premiere a new song, "Profane." Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments!
The group is currently out on the road with Black Label Society.
To pre-order 'Wovenwar,' head to the Metal Blade webstore. For more information on Wovenwar, follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
By Richard Bienstock
It's been 16 years since Godsmack released their self-titled debut, and in that time they've become one of the biggest bands in hard rock, with a slew of hard-charging hit singles like "Whatever," "Straight Out of Line," and "Crying Like a Bitch," and millions of albums sold. Their new release, '1000hp,' which introduces a wider range of textures and colors into the band's trademark aggro-rock sound, looks to continue their long-running success. Lead singer Sully Erna recently took some time to talk to Revolver about his favorite tracks off '1000hp.'
MORE GODSMACK: Read our review of '1000hp.'
"1000hp"
"This was one of those songs that kind of wrote itself. One day in the studio we were breaking for dinner and a friend of ours went out to get some food for everybody. Kind of kidding around, I said, 'I'm going to write a song before he gets back.' And Tony [Rombola, guitar] goes, 'Well, you better make it a really fast riff because he'll be back in 15 minutes!' And I'm telling you, this song was done, front to back, in maybe an hour and a half. As far as the lyrics, when I came up with the chorus and the 'Turn that shit up louder' line, I started thinking, What if this was a song about us? Next year will be 20 years since we became a band, and there's a real history there. I guess it takes a lot to see that sometimes, because you still see yourself as a fan growing up and listening to the Aerosmiths and the Rushs and all the bands you loved. But, wow, man, 20 years. It felt like enough time had passed that it was okay to have a song like this."
"Something Different"
"It's my favorite piece on the record. As a matter of fact, it's my favorite song I've ever written in my life so far, maybe with the exception of the one I wrote for my daughter on [Erna's 2010 solo album] Avalon. And what's funny is that this was the last song we did for the album. But from the moment I started playing it, I knew there was something magical there. I'm putting all my money on this one being the biggest single from the record."
"Nothing Comes Easy"
"I like this one a lot. There are a couple songs on the record that feel like they have some art to them and are just a little bit different. You go, 'Fuck, this doesn't feel like Godsmack but it is Godsmack.' And I think this song has that. 'Generation Day' is another. There's a cool, kinda artsy feel, but it's done in a way where there's still a lot of power and strength."
MORE GODSMACK: Read our review of '1000hp.'
Twenty-four years ago on this day, July 24, Pantera released their fifth album, Cowboys from Hell. This landmark album contained now-classic songs such as "Primal Concrete Sledge," "Cemetery Gates," "Domination," "Psycho Holiday," and the ripping title-track. Here, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil and David Vincent of Morbid Angel talk about their favorite tracks off the album.
MORE PANTERA: Read our story on the making of 'Cowboys from Hell,' featuring interviews with Phil Anselmo, Rex Brown, and Vinnie Paul.
Rob Halford, Judas Priest
"Cowboys from Hell"
"It was the first song I ever heard from them and it struck a chord. I saw the video on MuchMusic TV in Canada when priest were in full production rehearsals for the Painkiller tour up there. I felt the same way when I heard "Man in a Box" by Alice in Chains: I thought, Here we go. This is a band that is going to change the music landscape around the world. And they did. The complete vibe from the way they sounded, looked, and performed was extraordinary and unique. A new style of metal was created by Pantera."
David Vincent, Morbid Angel
"Cowboys from Hell"
"I was at Morrisound Studios in Tampa working on [Morbid Angel's] 'Blessed Are the Sick' and someone brought 'Cowboys from Hell' into the control room and said, 'You guys gotta check this out!' So my first listen was a double-barrel full-blown studio-control-room listen—awesome! The guitar sound and the groove hit me right int he gut first listen. It has a lot of personality and I knew the band was destined for big success. Dime's signature riffing and Phil's ability to push extreme vocals into t he mainstream have earned them a permanent spot on the high court of metal!"
Cristina Scabbia, Lacuna Coil
"Cemetery Gates"
"'Cemetery Gates' shows that metal bands can be fantastic in writing 'ballad-like' songs. I love the combination between the heavier parts and the dramatic sense of depth in the slower part. I first heard the song in a metal pub in Milan, my hometown, years ago, and it still has an impact on me. It reminds me when I was hanging out with my old friends. Music is always an excellent way to bring back memories. Plus, Pantera are definitely one of the bands that influenced Lacuna Coil. We've been lucky enough to play with them all in their other bands—Superjoint Ritual, Down, Hellyeah—and they're very cool people, too. Much, much respect to Pantera."
As 1989 came to a close, after releasing four albums on their own Metal Magic label over the preceding seven years, Pantera signed to Acto Records. The first order of business was to put the band — who had previously self-produced all of their recordings — in the studio with a "name" producer. Seattle-based Terry Date, who had already worked with Soundgarden and Overkill, got the nod. "Pantera's manager, Walter O'Brien, called me up and goes, 'I've got this band. They could be the next Metallica,'" Date recalls. "And I was like, 'OK, that's the 12th time I've heard that this week...' I heard the demo, and it was really good, but it wasn't until I met them that I realized that this was something special."
Date flew down to Texas to meet the band, and drove with them in their van to a gig in the Dallas area. "In their words, they were a little tentative [about me]. Because they were Southerners and here's this Northerner coming down," Date remembers. "We drove up to where the show was, and they had a hotel room there. When we pulled into that hotel, Phil grabbed me, and he said, 'Come into the bathroom.' I was a little concerned at first. [Laughs] But he sits down in a chair, and he gives me a razor and some shaving cream, and he says, 'Shave my head.'"
The head shaving went off without incident, and Date was quickly accepted into the band's inner circle. "At first, it was kind of weird, man," Paul admits. "Terry was a real quiet and shy guy. Really conservative. He had his little baseball hat on, glasses, he kind of looked more like a golfer than a rock and roller, and we're, like, these wild and crazy fucking Texans fucking drinking and going fucking crazy. But we got to know each other and he loosened up. All of sudden you could tell that he was really, really into what he was doing. From that point on, we really grew a tight bond and trusted each other." Thus began a valuable creative partnership that would last until the end of Pantera.
"Terry was pretty much what a producer needs to be," Brown says. "He'd just get in there and capture the moment and really get the feel of the track. He made sure we all got along, made sure that we had beer, made sure that everything was cohesive." "Vinnie was a great engineer from the time I met him — he just didn't know it," Date explains. "He needed someone like me, who'd had that experience, to confirm it for him. He and I worked together very closely on the making of those records. Dime didn't care that much about the technology, but he had a very clear idea of what he wanted to hear."
With Date at the helm, Pantera made their first great record, 1990's Cowboys From Hell. Though in retrospect the band was still transitioning between their hair-metal past and the self-described "power groove" sound of their future, there was no denying the fist-to-the-gut magnificence of songs like the title track, "Domination," and "Primal Concrete Sledge." The crushing latter tune, in particular, signaled the increasing heavy direction that the band would take. "'Primal Concrete Sledge' was the last song we did, and we actually wrote that in the studio," Paul says. "So I came up with this crazy drum part and we went from there." "That was like the bridge to Vulgar Display of Power," Brown explains. "Vinnie just hammered this pattern out, and each one of the drums was tuned differently. So we tried to figure out what to play over it. We ended up dropping [the tuning for] this thing down and then it just flew out of the fucking seat of our pants. It was groundbreaking."
The badass new Pantera demanded a fittingly badass new logo, and it was introduced to the world on the Cowboys album cover. "I remember we wanted something very macho and tough, but not going the Spinal Tap route," says Bob Defrin, who art-directed the cover, as well as Vulgar Display of Power's. "So I said, 'Why don't we keep it very plain and use a condensed sans serif typeface with a big "P" at one end and a big "A" at the other?' And they loved it. And I said, 'Well, that was an easy one.'"
Converting fans to the Pantera cause would not be so easy. Since their brutal sound and shit-kicking image didn't exactly conform to the MTV or radio standards of the day, the band was forced to make its case to the world one gig at a time. "That's when the hard work started," says Brown. "We played everywhere from Providence, Rhode Island, to Tijuana and back."
Along the way, the band left a wake of booze-fueled destruction. "We had a lot of fun," Paul admits, "wrecked a lot of hotel rooms, and drank a lot of booze and it's amazing we lived through it. "One time in Houston, Dime thought it would be funny to throw a sofa chair out the window into the swimming pool. And this was off of the 20th floor. We sent [Pantera roadie and videographer] Bobby Tongs down to get it, and he walks right through the lobby with this thing soaking wet. Well, it doesn't take two minutes for security to figure out where he was going 'cause he left a trail of water. And they came up and the room was trashed. We got kicked out real fast." "We always got along well until somebody would get too drunk," Brown recalls. "I don't know how many times I pulled Philip off Dime. They used to go at it in a brotherly love kind of way. Dime would always bust Phil's nuts about something, and then Philip would pin him on the ground and start choking him or slapping him around a little bit. He wouldn't ever punch him. But I'd have a to run from across the room and dive my scrawny 150-pound ass onto Phil to get him off Dime."
As they raged both onstage and off, Pantera were, slowly but surely, winning over fans, including one particularly powerful advocate: Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford. "When we played a small club in Toronto called Rock and Roll Heaven, Rob Halford came to the show," Anselmo remembers, "and I said, 'You gotta get up and jam with us.' He said, 'Do you know any Priest songs?' And I said, 'That's like asking if we know what fucking Dixie Beer is.' So he got up there with us and next thing you know, we get invited to open for Judas Priest in Europe."
"I used to watch every show," Halford says of the tour with Pantera, "and the first reaction fans gave them was, Who the hell is this? And it was like, Oh my fucking God, what's going on in front of my eyes? They would just win an audience over in 30, 40 minutes. From playing fresh, new music that nobody had heard before. The communication was instant with that band. So there it was. So by the time we'd done the European tour, and they went back to the States, 'Cowboys' was shooting up the charts. And that was it, they were off and running."
Today, Alter Bridge have teamed with Revolver to premiere the official music video for their song "Cry of Achilles" off the group's latest album, 'Fortress.' The cool animated clip was directed by SiLee films via Genero. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.
Alter Bridge will be touring the U.S. in October—dates are listed under the video.
Alter Bridge U.S. tour dates:
10/4 — Louisville, Ky. — Louder Than Life Festival
10/7 — Bethlehem, Pa. — Sands Bethlehem Event Center
10/9 — Worcester, Mass. — The Palladium
10/10 — Sayreville, N.J. — Starland Ballroom
10/12 — Huntington, N.Y. — The Paramount
10/13 — Lancaster, Pa. — Freedom Hall / Lancaster County Convention Center
10/15 — Northfield, Ohio — Hard Rock Live
10/16 — St. Louis, Mo. — The Pageant
10/20 — Denver, Colo. — Paramount Theatre
10/22 — Seattle, Wash. — Showbox SODO
10/23 — Spokane, Wash. — Knitting Factory
10/25 — San Francisco, Calif. — Warfield
10/26 — Los Angeles, Calif. — Wiltern