For the uninitiated, Saigon Kick was a band that could have and should have made it big. By no means did they take the world by storm with the release of their self-titled debut in 1991, but anyone with an open mind fortunate to stumble across it was instantly hooked. A rabid cross between The Sex Pistols and The Beatles, with occasional stomps through the Orient, a truckload of attitude and tongue planted firmly in cheek as required, Saigon Kick sounded like no other artist on the scene. They quickly became a cult favourite. It was their second album – The Lizard, issued in 1992 – that put the band on the map, but for all the wrong reasons if you talk to vocalist Matt Kramer. When he quit in 1993 while recording their third album, Water, it was essentially the beginning of the end. The band went on to record three more studio albums with guitarist/co-founder Jason Bieler up front, but they were never able to recapture the magic of Saigon Kick’s early years.

Kramer has gone on record as saying that he and Bieler don’t see eye-to-eye on certain issues, making a reunion nearly impossible. An attempt was made in 1997, but things crashed and burned after only two shows. A follow-up tour in 2000 – without Bieler – held promise for some kind of future, but nothing materialized. Then, in 2009, word came down the band would get back together at the Rock Gone Wild Festival in Algona, Iowa. And once again, things fizzled out before they got off the ground.

“We were supposed to do the gig, but it went belly up,” Kramer explains. “The organizers went bankrupt before the show went down. It would have been a great show. We had Tony Sales from Tin Machine to play bass, we were looking at a couple different cats for guitar, so it would have been a really cool line-up. Sadly, it didn’t go through, but on that note maybe I can give you some interesting stuff that might have happened on the Saigon Kick road (laughs).”

“Interesting” doesn’t even come close, and Kramer’s revelation solves the mystery behind an official “coming soon” Saigon Kick website that’s been up for a while, and active Facebook and Twitter accounts.

“We actually almost got together a couple years ago, and I don’t think anybody’s really talked about it publicly. I actually spoke to Bieler on the phone and we didn’t try to kill each other (laughs). It was a very gentlemanly conversation. I went in with my concerns, and I went in saying that I would like an equal share, of course, all the way down the line, even if I wasn’t in the band. We couldn’t come to an agreement on that, but that’s what I’m looking for. That’s the only way I can build up the brand again, because it isn’t doing very much right now. I’m always the singer of Saigon Kick, I don’t have to go out there in order to be the singer of Saigon Kick, but everybody seems to want to get out there. Can we come to terms? That, unfortunately, is the political bullshit of the matter, which definitely sucks because it would be cool to get back out there and rock again. I’m certainly in vocal shape, because I’m training singers now. My voice has never been better; it’s way better now that when Saigon Kick was active because I train every day. The band would definitely tear it up.”

“It almost happened, and I keep getting emails asking about us getting back together,” he adds. “It’s just that those conditions have to be met. I’m a founding member of Saigon Kick and I was the lead vocalist, and unfortunately my laid back approach tends to get me stepped on once in a while. In this case I have to stand firm.”

Hypothetically speaking – meaning the fans and media hacks should note that absolutely nothing has been confirmed regarding a reunion – if Saigon Kick did get back together, would Kramer be willing to sing ‘Love Is On The Way’ live? He believes the song’s hit status was the baseball bat that broke the band’s knees, and it’s still a mainstream favourite. His disdain for the track isn’t surprising when you consider Kramer’s preferred tooth and nail approach, which was over-the-top enough to make an impression on a young Brian Warner, who now calls being Marilyn Manson his day job.

“‘Love Is On The Way’ is now a classic song whether I like it or not,” says Kramer, “and as much as it killed the band for me at 24 years old, at this point it is without a doubt doing the most to keep the band alive. So yes, I would sing it and try to do a good job doing so for the millions of people that have heard it and like the song.”

As for the Saigon Kick albums he wasn’t involved in – the anemic Water, the much improved Devil In The Details, and the instantly forgettable Bastards record – don’t hold your breath…

“Definitely not! Killer albums or not, remember that I left Saigon Kick singing the Water album at the microphone in Sweden. The point isn’t if it was great material or not, which is left to whom might like or dislike it. Basically, that sound was Jason hijacking the band in his own direction; that should have been a solo album. You see, I hated a lot of the songs off of The Lizard and they should never have been brought into the band. I absolutely blame that direction for the band’s downfall. We were a true edgy art rock band that could have had a many decade career had we kept it on its true course. That’s all history now. A lot of that (Water) material was songs left over that I wouldn’t sing then and would never ever sing now.”

Oddly enough, the day before this story went to print, a thread appeared on Saigon Kick’s official Facebook page asking fans what the ideal reunion line-up would be if it came to pass. One individual offered the simple “No Kramer, no deal….” which seemed to be the general consensus. Judging by how the band’s fortunes flagged upon his departure, without Kramer there really is no Saigon Kick.

During an interview with yours truly in 2005 for his documentary Waking Up Dead, original drummer Phil Varone summed up Kramer’s appeal as a frontman. Mr. Warner, credit where its due, please…

“Let me tell you, for the record, Matt Kramer is by far one of the greatest talents that needs to be seen. People have seen him to an extent with Saigon Kick, but as far as the masses are concerned he should have the success that Marilyn Manson has, because Manson gears his shows and his life just like Matt did in the early days. Manson was at our house every fucking day. Brian is a great guy and a brilliant mind, and that’s why he succeeded. But, I also feel that Matt has that mind as well, but never got the respect he should have.”

Kramer’s new book, A Book Of Poems From The Smallest Of Towns, is now available via www.mattkramer.net. Watch for an exclusive interview with Kramer about the book, coming soon. In the meantime, check out BW&BK’s 2007 feature with Kramer on his first poetry book, An American Profit, here.

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In a show of diva-esque conceit, I can lay claim to having locked on Lacuna Coil long before they were a big deal in Europe and less than a footnote on the North American metal scene. We go back to 1998 and the release of their self-titled EP, a venture that attracted the attention of anyone in tune with the likes of The Gathering and Theatre Of Tragedy, both of whom were in their heyday. The band did their Italian heritage proud, displaying the characteristic energy of a traditionally passionate people, excited at the prospect of being able to chase their dreams at a professional level. The band is older and wiser now, but there’s no lack of enthusiasm when discussing their newest work, Dark Adrenaline. Sure, it may be tempered somewhat by a sense of responsibility for the career they’ve created, but there’s still a sense of “I can’t believe this is my life…” in the air as vocalist Cristina Scabbia delves into the new record.

“That’s very true,” she says. “That was true especially in the very beginning, when things are happening and you don’t really know how it works. That’s when every little thing gets you excited. The things that get us excited now are different. We’ve grown up, we have a lot more experience; we’re not virgins in the music business anymore (laughs).”

Up until recently, Cristina was known as the face of Lacuna Coil as well as one of the voices. Understandable given her striking good looks, but in the years following the band’s 2002 breakthrough that focus grew to a potentially unhealthy level. Essentially, Lacuna Coil were on their way to being another Hottest Chick In Metal band. Cristina agrees with the suggestion that the image had started to overshadow the music, which is why there’s been a significant move away from putting her in the spotlight.

“We did that on purpose because we always try to experiment with things, and we were probably one of the very few real metal bands to play the sexy card and the fashion card in pictures. I have a lot of fun at photo sessions playing with different images, but at a certain point we said ‘You know what? People need to realize that Lacuna Coil is about teamwork.” It might be easier for a label to work with solo pictures because the female singer appeals more to people, but we needed to promote the fact and make it clear that this is a band. It’s not Cristina and some session people. We agreed to do a lot more band photos, and there were times when I refused to take any solo shots. It was like, ‘What’s the point in doing that?’”

“It’s not bad in the sense that it’s still promotion, like it or not. It really depends on the band. Some bands like to have all the attention put on the woman, and that’s good for them. Every band has a different career and a different point of view.”

Go to this location for the complete story.

For information on Lacuna Coil go to this location. Click here to check out ‘Trip The Darkness’, the first single from Dark Adrenaline.

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During a recent interview for the as-yet-untitled follow-up to his HDK album from 2009, System Overload, former After Forever guitarist Sander Gommans discussed his involvement on the new metal solo album from singer/songwriter and Avantasia / HDK vocalist Amanda Somerville. Gommans enjoys being his own boss, but he freely admits the creative process for the Trillium debut, Alloy, made him realize that even the master of the universe has to take the back seat once in a while.

“In the beginning it was hard for me because normally you wrote something for somebody and let it go, but since Amanda and I are partners, I didn’t let it go that easily. I wanted to make the best out of it, and I wanted Amanda to make the best choices. I helped her out with some of the administrative stuff and I wrote a few songs, but it was really Amanda’s project and I had to get used to her big involvement. Not so much in the writing of my songs, but in the vocal arrangements and lyrics. She had a really good idea of how the album should sound and what she wanted, and I kept telling her ‘It’s not metal enough… it needs to be more metal.’ And she would tell me, ‘This is my project, I want to have it exactly the way I want to have it…’ (laughs).”

“She made the choices in the creative aspects of the album, and now that it’s out, it’s about surprising to me how cool it is. It offers so much more than the average metal band, and it has so much more to it that you can really see what a talented person Amanda is when it comes to having her own vision. In my arrogance, I found out that I should stop being arrogant and shut up sometimes (laughs).”

Somerville went on record in a recent interview that she occasionally had to remind Gommans and long time friend and producer Sascha Paeth who was boss in the Trillium realm.

“Oh yes,” Gommans agrees. “When you work with Sascha and with me, you’re working with guys that are used to making decisions. We both had a different opinion, and the end result is the way Amanda wanted it, which is really cool. I’m really proud of her for pulling it off like that.”

Since putting Trillium to bed, Gommans has devoted his time to writing and assembling the follow-up to the HDK’s System Overload. At this point he’s unsure as to whether the new outing will be issued under the HDK moniker, but the project is on its way to being finished regardless.

“I hope to finish the album by the end of March, but I haven’t decided on who’s going to mix and master it, so it might take a little bit longer. I’m not in a hurry. I’ve started a new business here in Reuver (Holland), which is going to take a lot of time, and as we speak I’m building a studio in the high school where I work in order to have the students record stuff themselves, so it’s going to be a challenge to get all this stuff done. But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the year is that rushing yourself doesn’t help you at all. The good thing about having a project is that there’s no rush to get it done. When you get enthusiastic about a project, of course you want to have it out as soon as possible, but I also want it to be the best it can be. The one thing that is for sure is that this is a project, not a new life in a live band. My focus is still on writing music.”

Check out my interview with Amanda Somerville about Trillium here. In addition, an interview with Gommans from April 2011 is available here.

- Sander Gommans photo by Carl Begai. All rights reserved.

Check out the official video for the Trillium song ‘Coward’ here.

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As most people know, Woods Of Ypres frontman and founder David Gold was killed in a car accident on December 21st, 2011. It’s a tragic loss for his family, friends, any anyone that was a fan of his music.

I’ve posted a tribute to David, who was a good friend. It can be found here.

David’s family is selling the remaining Woods merchandise on hand, with all proceeds going directly to fund his funeral costs. Items remaining are as follows:

- Woods 1
- Woods 2
- Woods 3
- Independent Nature (Best Of Woods 1-3)
- signed Allure vinyl
- signed Home vinyl
- poster

Send your order along with your shipping address to David’s PayPal address at davidypresgold@gmail.com. Note that his sister Marie is in charge of all orders, so this is 100% legitimate.

Anvil bassist Glenn Five recently announced he was leaving the band after 16 years of service. In the grand scheme of things Glenn was, unfortunately, overshadowed by frontman Lips and drummer Robb Reiner. Not really a surprise, though, given that the dynamic duo launched the band long before he came on board. My BW&BK colleague Aaron Small spoke with Glenn in an exclusive interview following the announcement; an excerpt is available below:

Glenn: “As far as my status in the band, I had no say in any of the business side of things. It’s easy to understand. Lips and Robb had been there since day one and I joined a band that already had a past and a history. So yes, they called the shots when it came to band decisions. I was cool with that. I knew the deal when I joined the band. However after almost 16 years in the band it became more difficult to accept them not taking any of my suggestions or ideas seriously. I really wanted to take Anvil in a much more professional direction but the guys are very stuck in their ways and resistant to change. The truth is, sadly, that Lips and Robb have always considered me as little more than just their bass player. The other guy in their band. It was the two of them and me, not the three of us. In fact, I was often reminded by Robb that Anvil was and always will be just Lips and Robb. I know Lips also shared this sentiment , but if anything he tried to protect me from the fact that he and Robb were on their own mission and I was just a player in their play. Hey, to me that meant to just enjoy the ride and not have any of the pressures. Not a bad deal at all.”

Click here for the complete interview.

Toronto’s Modified have finally released their first full length album. Eleven songs in total, it features five new tracks including a cover of the Kate Bush hit ‘Running Up That Hill’, and the five songs that appeared on the band’s debut EP, Cruel Temptation. The old tracks have been remastered with a truckload of bottom end, giving them a healthy boost and much heavier feel. New tracks ‘Running From Myself’, ‘Die To Resist’ and ‘Hollow’ are stellar and heavier than expected. And, with all the comparisons vocalist Tricia Stanley gets to Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia, it’s worth noting that Modified’s cover of ‘Running Up That Hill’ trashes the Coil’s new cover of R.E.M.’s ‘Losing My Religion’ in a big way.

Check out audio samples and order the album from iTunes and CDBaby.com.

And finally, word has come down that Devin Townsend will be releasing a Strapping Young Lad vinyl LP box set in late 2012 / early 2013. Details are sketchy at the moment, but it has been confirmed that all five SYL studio albums – Heavy As A Real Heavy Thing, City, Strapping Young Lad, Alien, and The New Black – will get the vinyl treatment along with an LP dedicated to the band’s non-album material. The seventh record will, according to Blood Music, feature “other special, newly-created gifts (yet to be announced).” More details will be revealed as I get ‘em.

Townsend is currently raising the bar on multi-tasking with new material for his Epicloud project on the go, plus a new Ziltoid The Omiscient record, and editing / mastering material for his Live in London DVD set.

Stay tuned for more…

This interview never would have come to pass if it wasn’t for a tip from ex-Megadeth guitarist Jeff Young, who suggested checking out an indie band called Six Hour Sundown on YouTube during a weekly round of “Look what I found…” They came across as a better than average ‘80s-flavoured hair band for the modern day (minus the poofy hair), and the singer was a familiar face. Quick online investigation confirmed that it was indeed Lauren Harris front and center, but Six Hour Sundown’s appearance in the ring has been so low key that most of the initial attention received is the result of genuine curiosity rather than Iron Maiden family tree hype.

“It has been rather low key,” Harris agrees, “because we were doing the Maiden thing through 2008 and 2009, and there was a lot of hype around it at the time. I haven’t really been in the spotlight for the last couple years, and I’ve started up a new band using a new name rather than using my own name again. I’ve started from scratch, really.”

Most people would agree that dropping her own name in favour of Six Hour Sundown can only benefit Harris in the end. The move was made, she says, when her touring band fell apart.

“The first album was a solo thing, but when I was on the road with the guys it turned into more of a band. It was only natural for that to happen since we spent so much time together, and we really were like a family. You hear about some bands that just don’t get on, they’re not like real friends, but we were friends. But, because of other circumstances, it couldn’t continue. Randy (Gregg/bass) was in New York and we couldn’t keep flying him over to the UK because money was an issue. And with Richie (Faulkner/guitars), well, he went off and joined Judas Priest (laughs). Tommy (McWilliams/drums) left a while back because he was never going to do the drumming originally; he was part of the producing side of things, and he became our drummer because we needed one. It just became a long term thing. When Olly (Smith/drums) got involved he became part of the family, so Six Hour Sundown is me and Olly continuing on with a new band (also featuring Tom Gentry, James Bennett and Mitch Witham) which we started when Richie left in February 2011.”

Some people might consider Harris’ debut a case of taking the easy way through the front door. Now, however, she can be held accountable – for better or worse – for everything that goes down from here on out.

“I’m happy for it to be my fault now, to be honest (laughs). I guess with the first album, because we were put out with Maiden and Within Temptation and bands like that, I kind of felt because of the type of music I was doing that I probably would have done better if I’d gone out with someone more mainstream. That’s why it was a bit of a battle. I’m a bit uncomfortable with playing some of the songs on Calm Before The Storm to those audiences anyway, really. With Six Hour Sundown, it’s completely me, where I co-wrote every track on the album and it’s the direction I want to be going in.”

“When I think about it now, I can’t believe how much we actually got away with,” she adds. “I really can’t. Richie and I and our label were talking about it before he left the band; we were listening to the album and said we couldn’t believe it. And some of it we didn’t get away with because people did give us a lot of stick for it, which was fair enough.”

At this point, a release date for Six Hour Sundown’s debut has yet to be finalized, but they’re hoping to have something out before summer in order to take advantage of the festival circuit. Smart money has the band issuing a second single in early 2012 to keep the buzz going; momentum that will likely grow thanks to Faulkner’s presence on the new album. Like it or not, he’s a selling point for anyone who considers him a worthy replacement for Judas Priest’s K.K. Downing.

“Yeah, it will be a selling point, which is great. We obviously didn’t know what was going to happen when we recorded the album, because we recorded it last January and Richie left the band in February to join Priest. We were saying ‘Oh my God…’ because we’d just paid for the recording and thought we might have to do it all over again. We decided no, we can’t go back and re-record everything because it would destroy us financially. But, we’re very happy for Richie because Priest is a great opportunity for him.”

As opportunities go, supporting Iron Maiden in any capacity ranks near the top of the heap, and Harris doesn’t downplay the significance of that achievement. For a young artist presenting music better suited at the time to an Avril Lavigne-oriented crowd, it sometimes amounted to a hazing at the School Of Rock, and Harris learned a great deal from the experience.

“Something like that does teach you a lot. Over that two or three year period I grew so much as a performer. I learned how to deal with things like people giving me the finger and spitting at me… I learned to deal with any situation. When I first started to read comments on YouTube or on forums where people were completely slagging me off, it really upset me like it would with anybody. But towards the end of that period and now, I don’t give a shit what anybody thinks. I’ve done it all. I’ve been in a total male environment as well, which was really difficult to start off with because I had to prove myself, and some men don’t want to give you, as a woman on stage, the time of day.”

Go to this location for the complete interview.

- Photos by John McMurtrie

Check out Six Hour Sundown here.

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“Take these words home and think them through,
‘Cuz the next song I write might be about you.”
Project Wyze – ‘Only Time Will Tell’

Nobody in their right mind wants the publicity Tiefdruck Musik label boss Daniel Heerdmann is getting these days. Granted, it’s small scale recognition that likely won’t make it to a CNN news reel, but his so-called business practices have been yanked out into the open by My Ruin. A tale of band vs label conflict turning ugly is hardly unique, but My Ruin’s recent test of will is one for the books; or in this case, an album. Their new outing, A Southern Revelation, is a response to a record deal gone painfully awry, which saw the band’s 2010 album Ghosts And Good Stories die a premature death at the hands of Tiefdruck Musik. Not ones to go meekly into the night, vocalist/founder Tairrie B. Murphy and guitarist-turned-multi-intrumentalist/husband Mick Murphy chose to call Heerdmann out directly in response, first in a press release, and then in the lyrics on the new album. The attack is direct and leaves no question as to who’s leaving the ring with a bloody nose, metaphors be damned, and Tairrie is quite content being the one doing the damage.

Tairrie: “At this point I really don’t give a fuck. This man conned us; he snowed us big time. Calling him ‘The Soulless Beast’… it’s really true. He led us to believe that he was going to do all these things for us. When he approached us about the record deal – and we had a lot of conversations with him on Skype – he was cool. He told us that the reason we weren’t bigger is because nobody had ever promoted us properly because they didn’t know what to do with the band, but he could do the job. We were thinking ‘Wow, this guy really gets it.’ He told me that he’d been a fan since my Manhole days, that he saw me on tour supporting Fear Factory on the Demanufacture tour in 1996. I felt that we had a connection with this guy, which was amazing.”

“We got the deal going, and it was almost like a friend thing with this guy. We announced the signing while we were in the studio recording Ghosts And Good Stories, and soon after we got this really weird email from an old friend, Shaun Glass from Soil, who is now with Dirge Within. He told us we had to be really fucking careful because Daniel Heerdmann is a lying sack of shit. We wanted to know where that was coming from, and we told Shaun we were going to confront Daniel about it. I’m very open and forward when I want to know something.”

“So, I went to Daniel right after that and told him what Shaun had said, and Daniel had a comeback for everything, which was fine. At this point we’d signed the deal; what were we going to do? Daniel tried to really explain himself, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt because God knows people have had run-ins with My Ruin. There have been altercations, and I know some people out there talk shit about me and my husband. It did worry me a little in the back of my mind, but we decided to walk our own path, and as we got deeper into the record Daniel became even more supportive. He wanted to hear what we were doing and how the songs were coming along, and we’d never had that experience before. It was great. But, as soon as we got done with the record and we delivered it – and it was something we were so proud of – this guy did the Jeckyll and Hyde thing overnight.”

Unfortunately, with My Ruin located in California and Tiefdruck in Germany, the Murphys were severely limited with regards to action that could be taken to somehow save Ghosts And Good Stories. The label had essentially stolen the band’s music and nothing could be done face-to-face to rectify the situation, which could and likely would have made a difference.

Tairrie: “It was so bizarre. We didn’t know what to make of it. Our lawyer had to get involved, and it got to the point where Daniel started saying derogatory, misogynistic, horrific things about me to my attorney. And my attorney was copying us in on these emails. All the promises… we were working up to having this European tour booked, Daniel and his company said they wanted to book it for us, do the logistics for us, and they didn’t do any of it. It was all a lie, and they basically told our attorney it was never going to happen, that they had never planned on doing it. We had something like 300 tickets pre-sale for London at that point, and they were never going to go through with it.”

“It started spinning out of control with this man, to the point that my old self really would have gone at him, telling him to fuck off. I didn’t do that, I let my attorney handle it, and I cut off all contact with him. And this clown says to my attorney, ‘They deleted me on Facebook…’ It was like, ‘Really?! You asshole, you deleted our tour!”

Mick: “We were three or four weeks away from a European tour and a show at the Whiskey (in Los Angeles), we were flying in our drummer Matt LeChevalier from France, we were waiting for all this stuff, and we were basically in limbo.”

Tairrie: “Money transfers… Daniel bold faced lied to us saying that he did it, and then later ‘I never did it, I was never gonna do it.’”

Mick: “It was truly insane. So, we had to cancel Matt’s trip from France, cancel the tour, cancel on the Whiskey, and it was horrible. We were so let down and angry and betrayed that we eventually said ‘We’ve gotta write a record about this.’”

Keeping the nightmare scenario in mind, it’s surprising to find that A Southern Revelation isn’t a screaming, skin-flaying shitstorm of violence. On the contrary, it’s a step away from the grit metal approach of Ghosts And Good Stories, instead featuring a foundation rooted in hard-edge Southern rock. My Ruin hasn’t toned down their trademark attitude by any means, and there’s nothing soft or sellout about A Southern Revelation, but it’s definitely a different animal from its predecessor.

Mick: “I think this one stomps a little bit harder than Ghosts And Good Stories. I joke around with Tairrie about this – and in no way and I putting My Ruin in the same league as KISS – but I think Ghosts is like our Destroyer and A Southern Revelation is our Rock N’ Roll Over (laughs). All the music was written in LA because we had downtime, but I wrote differently this time. I just started playing guitar like the old days. I plugged into a practice amp and just started playing riffs and made little changes that way, instead of doing it in front of a big recording rig with guitar, bass and drums, trying to get a song done in a few hours. I took more time and wrote like a guitar player first. I think that changed the vibe a little, too. I’m really proud of the guitar on this record.”

Tairrie: “We weren’t really prepared to write another record. This thing sort of came to us naturally. We were sitting at home with a cancelled tour, pissed off and angry, unable to vent our frustration, and Mick started writing music. Me, not really paying attention to what he was doing, I was kind of writing my own letters to Daniel in a way that I may send some day. I was working out my thoughts on what I wanted to say to this guy, and I suddenly realized that I was writing lyrics. Next thing you know I had the song ‘Reckoning’. Mick told me he’d been working on new music, and things started to come together and fall into place as if they were meant to be.”

“For me ‘The Soulless Beast’, ‘Middle Finger’ and ‘Tennessee Elegy’ are the meat of the album for me lyrically. They encompass the theme of the album. ‘Soulless Beast’ was a song I worked on when we were in LA, and I wrote it several times because I couldn’t get it where I wanted it. In the beginning I wanted to write it like a biblical parable, but I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with it. It wasn’t until we got to Tennessee, and it’s the funniest thing because we were staying with Mick’s family, and his mother pulled out her bible and some religious books for inspiration. I started to read the Book Of Revelation, and I hadn’t read it in a really long time. It was like I was having my own revelation. This is our seventh album, and the number seven figures very prominently in there. The Book Of Daniel is part of it, and it was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!” It started unfolding itself and I started thinking about how the Beast is the abomination that causes desolation, which is what we were dealing with. So, the Book Of Revelation took center stage for me.”

Mick: “It’s like we’re starting our second decade reborn and even more focused, with our own definitive style.”

Tairrie: “The other thing I really love about this album is that it’s got a very heavy spoken vibe. I’ve been doing spoken work for many, many years and I’ve incorporated it on a lot of our albums, but I wanted to get a bit heavier with that on this record. I didn’t want to make it a full-on screaming record. I think ‘Soulless Beast’ really comes through with that style in there, breathing the vibe and energy of The Lvrs project we do in there, which I really like.”

“I think that Ghosts And Good Stories and A Southern Revelation is our best work as artists to date. If anyone is discovering us right now, this is the time to do it because you can really get to know who we are.”

A Southern Revelation was recorded over Christmas 2010 during the Murphy’s holiday visit to Mick’s family in Knoxville, Tennessee. With no plans to record and no budget, they were invited by Mick’s friend of 20+ years and co-producer, Joel Stooksbury, to use his home studio to lay down the tracks. It was a gift they couldn’t refuse, just as A Southern Revelation is a gift to the My Ruin fans as a free download. Another surprising and risky move by Mr. and Mrs. Murphy.

Tairrie: “Basically – and I hate to say that this is the sad fact of it – a lot of people think that because we’re in magazines that Mick and Tairrie are rolling in dough. Fans don’t understand a lot of the business behind the scenes. They see you in a magazine or on tour, and they think you’re doing so well. We’re a do-it-yourself band and we always have been, so no matter what labels we’ve been on or what management we’ve had, in the end we’ve done it ourselves because no one seems to do their jobs when it comes to us. With Ghosts And Good Stories, that thing got out there and had so many downloads via torrent sites, and I couldn’t believe it. I was thinking that if that many people bought our record we’d be really successful. It blew my mind. So, when this whole thing with Daniel came about, we decided that we weren’t giving this man another record. No way in hell.”

“As we were making the new album we came to the conclusion that the biggest ‘Fuck you’ would be if we gave this record away for free. It didn’t cost us anything to make except time, and we wanted everyone to hear it. We wanted everyone to know what he did to us. And maybe this album will open the door for us, because we’re able to say ‘You’ve never heard of us, but here’s our new record. Download it, check us out and you’ll see we’re not a goth band (laughs), maybe you’ll like us.’”

Mick: “The way the industry has been going, the physical CD format is dying out in many ways. Most people download their music now. Physical record sales for a band our size, there isn’t much of a profit for the band. Why not give it away, and that might lead to more shows. We’d like to gig more.”

My Ruin have been in the trenches long enough to have earned a loyal fanbase, however, so although A Southern Revelation is free to all comers, they’ve received donations from those that believe the band deserves to profit (for a change) for their efforts.

Tairrie: “After we announced that the record was going to be free, we were bombarded with emails from people saying ‘I’ll pay for the record. Is there a place where I can donate money to you, because you’ve been through so much.’ We didn’t really think of that before they mentioned it, so we talked to some people about it, and now it’s possible for the fans to donate money for the record on the My Ruin website. We’re very appreciative of it, because we do everything ourselves.”

And that do-it-yourself drive is what keeps My Ruin kicking and screaming for more. At the very least, A Southern Revelation proves that so long as My Ruin have their pride, their friends, and the fans, the leeches within the music industry can’t bring them down.

Tairrie: “Some people say ‘When are My Ruin gonna give it up?’ Why do we have to give it up? I’ve been in this business for a long time and I’ve seen a lot of bands come and go. In the Manhole days there weren’t a lot of women around doing what I did. I’ve definitely watched the change. I feel like a veteran in this, and in many ways I feel like a woman that opened the door and kicked down some barriers for other women to come in, grab a microphone, and scream on it this way. I didn’t even know what I was doing when I started out. I was a fucking rapper, for God’s sake (laughs).”

“I remember sitting backstage at a Pantera show once, and I was watching a lot of the girls walking around back there. They’re all dressed sleazy and I’m listening to the talk about who in the band they were going to have sex with. I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t wanna fuck Phil, I wanna be Phil.’ I didn’t want that, I wanted to be that. That’s when I knew I wanted to be out there screaming and bloodletting and having those emotions. It wasn’t about that other shit and it never has been. It’s never been about money or those other rock n’ roll things for me or Mick.”

Ultimately, it’s about the love of music, which explains why Tairrie and Mick chose to put the nail gun away and end things on a positive note. Namely, a cover of the Van Halen classic, ‘Mean Street’.

Tairrie: “I love the fact that we have the ’70s Southern roots with Mick, and with me, in the early days I was going to Black Flag shows, NWA shows, I went to see the Go-Gos, so we have this melting pot of ideas. I did listen to KISS back in the day, and that classic rock is where we come together. We decided to cover Van Halen on the new album because we really loved doing the AC/DC thing (‘Have A Drink On Me’) and got a great response.”

Mick: “Fair Warning is one of the biggest records in my life. It’s almost underrated in Van Halen’s catalogue, but it’s a thick, chunky, mean record.”

Tairrie: “I think it definitely encompassed our feelings when we were making this record. We also felt at home, in a way, doing up the song like that.”

Mick: “Yeah, My Ruin lives on Mean Street (laughs).”

- A Southern Revelation is available for free download here.

Live photos and Blasphemous Girl pic by Maggie Young. Used with kind permission.

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I don’t have much use for God these days.

With that in mind, when December 25th, 2011 rolled around I decided that I wouldn’t be celebrating the birth of some overblown, fictitious, omnipotent phantom as I gave gifts to my loved ones, turned the music up louder than usual, and drank more than I should have. Hell no. I chose instead to celebrate the life of my friend, David Gold.

David was taken from us on December 21st, 2011. He was 31 years old.

He was the voice and mind behind the band Woods Of Ypres. Not to discount or dumb down the invaluable contributions of the band members that worked with him over the years, but thanks to David’s efforts – seemingly superhuman and borderline insane at times – his music touched people around the world. He put Canada on the map amongst doom metal fans, and for anyone fortunate enough to lock into Woods Of Ypres, the name joined the likes of Rush, Annihilator, Voivod and Strapping Young Lad as a band to be revered when discussing metal spawned on Canuck soil.

I was introduced to David via a suspicious package that arrived on my doorstep in 2002. Living in Germany as BW&BK’s European correspondent, packages in the mail are nothing new, but a parcel sent from Toronto that I didn’t request or wasn’t warned about beforehand was odd. The name on the return address rang a bell, but I couldn’t place it. Inside was the first Woods Of Ypres CD with a hand-written note from David, introducing himself and the band, asking me to take a listen and offer my thoughts.

To this day I have no idea how he got my address, but I’m grateful to whoever gave it to him.

We stayed in touch from that point on, and I did my best to push the band on people whom I figured would enjoy the music. I admired David’s drive and his belief in what he was doing, and I was convinced he deserved a record deal. I was happy to pass his albums to my label contacts in Europe, and I was always surprised when they turned down the opportunity to add Woods Of Ypres to their respective rosters. There must have been moments in David’s career when he felt like packing it in thanks to music executives turning him a blind eye, but music was his life whether they liked it or not. He forged on and the metal world was better for it.

In 2007 I learned just how deeply serious David was about Woods Of Ypres. He sent the promo CD of Woods III: Deepest Roots And Darkest Blues, asking me if he could send “a few” copies of the album my way when it was finished to pass around to the labels. The album blew me away, so of course I agreed to it (although I would have done so even if it had sucked). A few weeks later 10 copies arrived at the German Customs office; it was an out-of-pocket expense for him, and it wasn’t cheap. I received a terse letter in the mail telling me to pick up my package, and don’t forget my receipt for the purchase or I’d be paying through the nose to get it. In the end I sweet-talked the Customs official into giving me the box of goodies tax free, and when I offered him a copy of the albums as a thank you, I could tell he was tempted to say yes. Alas, accepting a Canadian post-transaction “bribe” wasn’t permitted. David got a good laugh out of that.

Woods III also figures prominently in my life for having brought me together with former Woods Of Ypres keyboardist Jessica Rose and her husband, Kyle. Based on David being a mutual friend, I invited them to stay with me while on a trip through Europe without having met them before, and I’m happy to say they still figure prominently in my life. They’re great people, which doesn’t surprise me given the company David kept. In fact, it was Jessica that informed me during that first encounter – and David later confirmed it – that the original artwork for Woods III looked too penis-like to be taken seriously and had to be renovated accordingly.

David and I spoke a couple times in the time between Woods III and Woods IV: The Green Album, emailed back and forth quite a bit while he was in Korea. We discussed his work with the band Necramyth and his plans for The Green Album. A package with big bag of Korean green tea showed up unexpectedly one day, simply because I’d mentioned I drank the stuff like it was going out of style, and he was living in a region where they harvested it. It was a gesture of friendship, no expectation behind it.

He often joked that Canada Post hated him because he would show up with dozens of packages at one time to be sent out, whether it was merchandise going out to the fans or material being sent to the press. Often, it was both. When I received what David mailed out as a “standard” promo package for The Green Album, I had a better understanding of Canada Post’s desire to ban him from all of their locations. It was a monster, and when I was finally able to extricate its insides after battling the miles of industrial strength tape sealing it shut, it was a Woods Of Ypres Christmas: copies of the new album (complete with the Necramyth album), Korean beer and ramen noodles, patches, buttons, stickers, a metal Woods thermos (green, naturally), and a bottle of Korean soju (that remains unopened on my bar). All of it sent to the press on his own dime, bagged and tagged on his own time (and, I imagine, the help of friends and family) as a “thank you” for efforts on Woods Of Ypres’ behalf past, present and future.

The last time I saw David was August 2010 in Toronto. We took in a sushi lunch on the Danforth and talked about all things Woods, everything metal, musician-sized Sapporo beer (the mega-king cans), Sault Ste Marie, and because we were both shameless fanboys of the band, the unique origin of his Headstones ring.

And the beard. I’ve been losing my hair for 20 years, and he was able to shave and grow a beard to ZZ Top proportions in 10 days. I had to respect that, too.

I look around my apartment and David is all around me. It’s not just swag on the shelves, it’s not just a logo slapped onto the drink fridge and my guitar amp, it’s not just another metal shirt or yet another Woods Of Ypres CD to add to the collection. These seemingly insignificant things are reminders of someone who was passionate about his music and worked his proverbial fingers to the bone to bring it to the people that gave a damn, constantly earning more fans along the way. Writing and recording albums with no guarantee of outside help, selling merchandise and organizing tours through Canada and the US, putting his trust in the fans, the kindness of strangers and fast food joints while doing those tours, working on outside projects like Necramyth, L’Anguisette, Thrawsunblat or The Northern Ontario Black Metal Preservation Society, and David did it all for the love of music.

And regardless of how dark the music was, no matter how bleak of a picture he may have painted with his lyrics, David met the challenges of the life he chose head on and pushed back twice as hard. He has a loving family, a host of real world friends, and a worldwide fanbase to prove it.

Sitting down to write this, I was shocked to realize just how long David and I had been in contact. Almost 10 years. Only days before he was taken from us, we had been working out days and times to discuss the new Woods Of Ypres album, Woods V: Grey Skies And Electric Light. I still can’t believe he’s gone.

I was listening to the new album constantly weeks before David passed away, and I suppose there’s some small comfort in hearing him in the office every day.

On the new song ‘Adora Vivos’, David sings “We shouldn’t worship the dead.” Perhaps not, but I will always hold him in higher regard than any religious figure, suit-and-tie executive, or gazillion-selling musician.

You were one of a kind.

You were an inspiration.

I am proud to call you my friend.

- The Lost CBC TV Report (2003)
- ‘A Meeting Place And Time’
- ‘Your Ontario Town (Is A Burial Ground)’
- 2010 Tour Vlog #1
- ‘Wet Leather’
- ‘You Were The Light’
- 2010 Tour Vlog #2
- ‘Adora Vivos’
- ‘Finality’

In Memoriam photo © 2012 by Carl Begai

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Ten years ago, if you’d told Obsession vocalist Michael Vescera he’d be in a band with Impellitteri guitarist Chris Impellitteri, ex-Whitesnake / ex-Ozzy Osbourne bassist Rudy Sarzo, and Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis, he likely wouldn’t have ruled out the possibility. With a career spanning 25 years that includes albums and tours with Loudness, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Helloween guitarist Roland Grapow, working with a line-up of all-star musicians would probably be viewed by Vescera as par for the course provided the planets aligned in his favour. Had you told him that he’d do so looking like something out of a Saturday morning cartoon, he would have laughed in your face. And yet, these days Vescera finds himself fronting just such a band and having a truckload of fun doing so.

“When I was younger I wanted to be a member of KISS,” he laughs, “and now I’m at least getting to play dress-up for the stage.”

Animetal USA owes its existence to a concept established in Japan well over a decade ago. The original Animetal – fronted by Anthem vocalist Eizo Sakamoto and ex-Volcano guitarist She-ja – was launched in 1996, taking famous Japanese anime theme songs dating back to the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s and turning them into metal anthems. Their debut album, Animetal Marathon, went on to sell 300,000 units in Japan. Animetal released seven albums along with several compilations before going on indefinite hiatus in 2006, and according to Japan-based Area51 guitarist Yoichiro Ishino the band received more attention from the anime scene than metal fans. As a result, Animetal charted several times, even hitting the Top 10.

“We appreciate the legacy of the original Animetal and what they accomplished,” says Vescera, well aware of the origin story. “We’re really just looking forward to the future with Animetal USA and hoping to bring it to the rest of the world, not just Japan. In most of the press we did in Japan, they truly appreciate us bringing Japanese culture and music to rest of the world. We’re all hoping for a long run with this.”

From what Vescera says of Animetal USA’s appearance on the Japanese scene, fans of the original Animetal have fully embraced the new incarnation of the band.

“We were over in Japan doing promo and the album came out two days before we played the Loud Park festival, and itwas insane. We were the first band to go on, and I was told we had something like 11,000 people there at 10:30 in the morning, which is some kind of record. The crowd went crazy, they sang all the choruses… we were shocked by the response. I think we sold something like 500 CDs that day at the festival. It was nuts.”

“It’s great,” Vescera adds. “I mean, I’ll be honest, it beats playing to a club of 200 or 300 people. Being able to play live at all is cool, but to have the opportunity to do something at this level again is amazing.”

As for how Vescera was singled out for the job, a previous project made him an obvious choice for the people in charge of the Animetal franchise.

“The label contacted me over a year-and-a-half ago to do a guest vocal on a tribute album to a band called Siam Shade. Sebastian Bach was on it, so was Eric Martin from Mr. Big, John Corabi, Mark Slaughter… guys that are popular in Japan. I sang on one song (‘Get A Life’) and Sony Japan loved it. I guess that was the song that took off and helped the record sell a shitload of copies, and as a result they wanted to do something with me. They had a bunch of ideas for a project, and after getting me on board they went to Rudy, then they approached Chris and Scott.”

“The way they originally approached me with it and what it actually became are a little different (laughs). The extent they went to with it was crazy. I was blown away when they brought in the full costumes; they spent a fortune on these things. It’s all really top notch. And the thing about it is we’re not trying to be KISS, we’re doing the anime superhero thing. Everybody in the band really loves the whole idea of Animetal USA. It makes us look good (laughs).”

It also takes balls the size of a house to risk being stamped as sellouts thanks to the band’s cartoon image, especially given the respective and respected histories of each Animetal USA band member.

“Exactly. The way we look at it now is that if we’re going to look somewhat ridiculous, let’s go out there and be completely ridiculous (laughs). And for better or worse people are talking about us. The music delivers, though, so we’ve never been worried about that aspect of it. We think of Animetal USA as more of a Broadway show, with the theatrics and all that. It is what it is, and we’re going to make it as ridiculous as we can, but also as cool as possible.”

“Ridiculous” is in the eye of the beholder, of course. Vescera’s experience fronting Loudness from ’89 – ’91 gave him valuable insight into Japanese culture.

“It helps a bit,” he says of his Loudness-acquired viewpoint. “The Japanese have the whole Manga culture, the cartoons and the comic books, and it’s not like in North America or Europe. A lot of that stuff in Japan is tailored to adults, so they never really outgrow it. I understood that going in to do this because I was so exposed to the Japanese culture, and that was a big help, actually. It’s shocking how huge anime is in Japan. There are comic stores that have three or four floors of Manga books, and they’re usually mobbed with people.”

Scott Travis’ involvement in the project is particularly surprising given his day job with Judas Priest…

“I’d never heard of him before this,” Vescera laughs, deadpanning. “Scott was interested in the project because he wasn’t doing anything with Priest at that time. When we approached him, he was looking to do something in the future because there was no telling what their schedule was going to be like. He’s out with Priest now, of course, so Jon Dette (Killing Machine / ex-Slayer) has been sitting in for him, but this really wasn’t a hard sell on any of us. As I said, we were all shocked by the extent of the costumes and the make-up, but the Japanese research this stuff and they know if it’s going to work or not in that market.”

Whether or not Travis will continue with Animetal USA is up in the air given his commitments to Judas Priest, who show no sign of slowing down despite the ongoing talk of a final album and tour.

“We’re not sure about Scott because of his commitments to Priest. We may have to have Jon Dette do this next record with us. Scott is still involved and he still wants to be involved; it’s just impossible for him right now. He’s a big part of Animetal USA, but the Priest thing has just taken off. I’m really happy for him. It’s funny because my kids were watching American Idol and I was in kitchen or something, and I heard ‘You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’’ I was thinking ‘Is that Priest on TV?!’ I thought it was a commercial or something. I go in the other room and it was ‘Holy shit! There’s our drummer!’ (laughs). It was awesome.”

Unlike all-star projects assembled by well-meaning label people, Animetal USA wasn’t pieced together via the internet and made to look like a band. According to Vescera there was plenty of personal interaction with Impellitteri, Sarzo and Travis during the making of the album.

“We did it both ways. With me living in Nashville we had to do some things over the phone and the internet, but we did get together and tried to make the album as a band. I’m waiting for the details, but I’m due to fly out to L.A. to work with Chris on pre-production for the next one. We’ve picked the songs we’re going to do; it’s just a matter of arranging them. We want this to be a real band. We like each other and we get along, and we kill live, so it’s all good.”

Keeping in mind that Animetal USA is based on an existing model with a huge catalogue, the songs featured on the debut were metalized years before Vescera and his bandmates came into the picture. It was a question choosing which tracks to record, giving the band a signature sound, and rewriting the lyrics in English.

“We went back and forth with the label on that,” Vescera says of choosing the songs to be recorded. “They delivered a bunch of songs that they liked and we decided which ones we were going to do. Marty Friedman (ex-Megadeth) actually arranged a lot of the songs on the album. He lives in Japan, he understands the culture, he’s into the anime, so he was involved quite a bit in arranging the original demos. When Chris got the tracks we made our own arrangements from Marty’s original work.”

“I wrote the lyrics. When they first gave me the demos I worked from the translations of the original Japanese text and came up with some cool rock lyrics that kept the meaning of the song. The label wasn’t convinced and told me the lyrics had to be even closer to the originals. I had to go back and rewrite everything. So, they told me which Japanese words had specific meanings and therefore had to stay in the English version of the song. Then we had to go through publishing to get approval because the original songs are huge in Japan.”

Meaning that Vescera was resigned to penning lyrics that he normally wouldn’t sing. All in the name of cartoon culture.

“It’s a little funny. People have asked me about that before and I tell them it’s the first time I’ve ever written lyrics about a high school baseball player (laughs). It is a little odd, especially because I come from doing darker stuff like the new Obsession record. But, even as I’m getting that done I’m singing about a rocket punch, a battleship, black castles…”

Animetal USA also keeps alive the original Animetal tradition of inserting snippets of classic metal anthems into their song arrangements. The debut album offers up several of these surprises in the form of tidbits of Rush, Accept and Iron Maiden thrown into the mix.

“That was the label’s idea,” says Vescera. “They thought it would be a great idea and they were right; the kids go apeshit when we play that stuff. There were other bits and pieces that we wanted to put on the album, but we couldn’t get clearance on them. We actually had ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’ at the front of one song, but it just wouldn’t work so we had to pull it out. We also had a piece of ‘Paranoid’ in there but we had to pull it. There was a lot more than that, so maybe they’ll make the second record.”

A second record that, if all goes well, will see Animetal USA hit the touring circuit outside Japan. The success of the debut pretty much guarantees the follow-up will go over a storm.

“They definitely want to build this up and into the rest of the world. There’s been some talk about us doing some international anime conventions in the States, France, South America, all over the place. We wouldn’t mind touring as long as it makes sense. We were thinking about doing some of the European metal festivals next year, but we decided to hold off and let this build a little bit more. We’re actually going in to start another record. The record company wants us to do headlining shows, so we really need the material to cover it.”

Check out Part 2 of the interview with Vescera here.

All photos used with excluisve permission of Masumi Kojima and Sony Music Japan.

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In January 2010, Fozzy – the side-project turned full scale war machine featuring Stuck Mojo guitarist/vocalist Rich Ward and vocalist/wrestling star Chris Jericho – released their fourth studio album, Chasing The Grail. Amongst the guest musicians that appeared on the record was Annihilator guitarist Jeff Waters, who laid down solos for the tracks ‘Martyr No More’ and ‘God Pounds His Nails’. Waters is no stranger to lending out his talents to projects he feels are worthy of time spent, and although it’s a no-brainer finding Ward and Jericho on that list, it’s still a big deal when Waters agrees to enter the picture and add his brand of shred to the canvas.

“That was the coup of ages, man,” laughs Ward. “I asked Chris if he was okay with having a guest guitar player or two on the album. We did it on the previous one (All That Remains from 2005), and it was cool having Marty Friedman (ex-Megadeth) and Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society) come in and lay down their stuff. For me as a fan of those guys it was just cool. Chris asked me who I had in mind for Chasing The Grail, and I gave him three or four names. He balked on all of them except for Waters (laughs), and he suggested that instead of having a bunch of guest guitarists, that we have just one killer guitar player come in and tear it up. I’m not lacking confidence in my lead playing, but I know who I am as a lead player, and I ain’t Jeff Waters (laughs).”

“I never even saw Jeff during the sessions,” Ward reveals. “I just set him up with a file of the songs and talked him through where the solo breaks were and what I was thinking, but I didn’t have any specific ideas. I just told him to go crazy, and when he sent the files back…. (laughs)… it was the most amazing, crazy, kung-fu guitar shred I’d ever heard (laughs). It reminded me of standing in a room, screaming at the top of your lungs and tearing shit up. That’s the way Jeff plays.”

“The only reason we got him was because he and Chris are friends. I’d met Jeff before and we get along great, but that relationship is through Chris. They’re both Canadian, and Chris is a huge Annihilator fan, so I’m just the lucky recipient of that relationship.”

- Jeff Waters photo by Carl Begai. All rights reserved.

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I recently caught up with Obsession vocalist Michael Vescera to discuss his latest career move as the frontman of the Japanese anime-inspired band, Animetal USA. We quite naturally touched on his stint with Loudness from ’89 – ’91, when guitarist Akira Takasaki fired original singer Minoru Niihara in the interest of gaining attention on the North American market. The change didn’t go over well with the majority of Loudness fans, and it was dubbed a failed experiment by some, but Vescera is still regarded as an important part of the band’s history. That said, when Loudness toured the US in May / June 2011 – with Niihara up front – the internet was abuzz with claims that Vescera would join the band on stage when they hit Nashville. The May 23rd gig came and went, but there was no follow-up on YouTube or anywhere else to suggest the highly anticipated reunion ever took place or had even been planned. Until now…

“That was absolutely true,” Vescera confirms. “We’ve been talking quite a bit, actually, me and the Loudness guys. I see their manager George (Azuma) quite often; when he’s in Nashville we hang out. When Munetaka (Higuchi/drums) died in 2008 (following an eight month battle with liver cancer) I issued a statement and Akira contacted me. We’ve been talking back and forth for a few years, and Akira’s mentioned a couple times that he’d like to do something again. So, when they were touring the States this summer they called me from San Francisco and mentioned they were coming to Nashville; would I come out and perform a couple songs with them? I told them I’d love to. I even talked to Minoru, who was totally into the idea. But, the night before the show we had tornados come through and they did so much fucking damage. I think the guys were in Chicago, and they couldn’t risk the possibility of driving through that, so they had to cancel the show.”

“The gig was at the Mercy Lounge, and everyone was going to come out to see them. The guys from Cinderella, Slaughter… basically anyone who was in a metal band in Nashville was going to come out. It was so sad that they had to smoke it. So yeah, it was definitely a true story.”

Chances are Vescera will reunite with his former bandmates at some point, albeit briefly. Niihara is still going strong as Loudness’ singer, and Vescera has made Animetal USA his top priority.

“We’ve talked about possibly doing a one-off Budokan show; maybe do my era of Loudness stuff, have Minoru do his stuff, and film it for a DVD. Nothing’s planned, but we’ve reconnected and we’re good friends again, which is awesome. Loudness is a great band and I’d love to do something with them again, even if it’s just a one-time, small scale thing.”

“I wish I could have hung out with the Loudness guys when I was in Japan for Loud Park with Animetal USA (in October 2011), but the record company had us running ragged. Non-stop promo with TV and magazines, video… it was nuts. There was very little sleep involved (laughs). But yeah, there’s talk of us doing something again, which would be totally cool.”

Vescera is also in the process of getting Obsession squared away with a new studio album, the follow-up to their 2006 comeback Carnival Of Lies that has been in the works for a couple years.

“I’ve actually locked up a deal with a Swedish label a while back, so they’ve been waiting for this thing. It was held up because the Animetal USA thing came along and just took off. I’m into the mixing of the album right now, so it should be delivered in a few weeks. It’s up to the labels as to when they get it out there. It’s a cross between Carnival Of Lies and the early Obsession stuff. I think it’s geared more towards the older sound, the straightforward metal like the Marshall Law album (’84), but you can hear some of the Carnival sound in there, too.”

Animetal USA is Vescera’s bread-and-butter for the time being, which is a no-brainer given that he’s sharing the spotlight and the stage with Impellitteri guitarist Chris Impellitteri, Whitesnake / ex-Ozzy Osbourne bassist Rudy Sarzo, and Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis. He insists, however, that he’ll be able to give Obsession the time and energy they deserve when the time comes.

“When we signed the deal for Animetal USA they told us that they want us to do other things,” Vescera reveals. “We weren’t being locked into only doing Animetal USA, but at the same time they wanted it to be a priority so that when they need us we’ll be there. They’re really cool with it, so if I tell them I have something else going on they’re fine with it. There’s plenty of time for me to do the Obsession thing, so that’s how I’m going to keep it.”

A full blown discussion about the success of Animetal USA will be published soon, but Vescera comments on what has been one hell of an adventure thus far.

“It happened fast,” he laughs. “We started making the record, and of course there were complications with the producers we were using, so we had to take the record from them and take another path with the whole thing. So, it took longer than it was supposed to but it was still very quick. The Japanese don’t mess around, man. If they’re doing something, they want it yesterday (laughs).”

- Photos by Jerry Angelica Photography. Used with kind permission.

Check out audio of Vescera performing ‘Soldier Of Fortune’ live with Loudness here.

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