Wednesday, 16. May 2012
An Evening With The Avett Brothers
Event on 2012-09-30 19:30:00
The Avett Brothers
There is no harmony like brotherly harmony. Something indelible in the weave of voices and play of sensibilities is stamped into the fraternal DNA and also stems from a lifetime of shared experiences. You can hear it in classic brother acts across the musical spectrum, from the Louvin Brothers to the Everly Brothers and on down the decades through the Wilson brothers (Beach Boys), the Davies brothers (Kinks), the Allman Brothers and even the Brothers Gibb (a.k.a., the Bee Gees). You can clearly hear fraternal magic at work in the songs of Scott and Seth Avett, better known as the Avett Brothers, as well. That magic is abundantly evident on I and Love and You, the Avett Brothers' big-label debut. Its 13 songs are delivered in a style that defies pigeonholing but might be described as a rootsy amalgam of folk, country, bluegrass, rock and pop – even a jab of punk-style dynamics here and there. Drawn by the naked honesty of their songs and the rousing intensity of their live shows, legendary producer and talent scout Rick Rubin signed the Avett Brothers – consisting of siblings Scott and Seth, plus bassist Bob Crawford – to his American Recordings label in 2008. "As soon as I heard the depth in their singing and songwriting, I was in for the ride," says Rubin, who has worked with some of the most talented mavericks in the business, including Johnny Cash, Tom Petty and The Dixie Chicks. "The Avetts' songs have such a sincere emotional resonance. The purity of the messages stops you in your tracks. It's unusual to hear such open-hearted personal sentiment from young artists today." For their own part, the Avett Brothers instantly felt at home in the studio with Rubin. "While growing up, his work influenced us in some weird way to do what we do, and it influenced our sound quite a bit, too. I mean, from the Beastie Boys to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Johnny Cash, we explored all those records he did in depth. We felt comfortable working with someone we had faith in based on his credentials and track record. We wouldn't be that way for anybody, we really wouldn't." By the time Rubin found them, the Avett Brothers had compiled their own impressive track record. They'd already issued five full length albums and two EPs, on their manager's Ramseur Records label. They debuted in 2001 with a self-titled six-song EP and then issued a full-fledged album, Country Was, a year later. The heart of their catalog is the albums that followed: Mignonette (2004), Four Thieves Gone (2006) and Emotionalism (2007), which offered a generous 49 songs among them. The Avett Brothers' latest release, an EP called The Gleam II, reached #82 on Billboard's Top Albums chart in 2008 – quite a showing for an independent CD with minimal marketing and publicity. Over the years, the Avett Brothers built up a sizable following based on their rowdy, infectious stage shows. In concert, the high-flying ensemble tears through tunes with unbridled energy, popping banjo and guitar strings right and left while inciting stomping singalongs among audiences that appear to know every word. At times they would seemingly create their own subgenre onstage – "punkgrass," for lack of a better word. This much is for certain: the Avett Brothers are a grassroots phenomenon, built from the ground up. I and Love and You marks the point at which they're poised, with perfect timing, to break through to a broader audience. I and Love and You was rehearsed and recorded at the Document Room, located high on a hillside in Malibu, California. After cutting discs at various spots around their native North Carolina for eight years, the Avett Brothers were ready to take on the challenge of making an album at a top-of-the-line studio on the far side of the continent. The brothers were hardly unfamiliar with the Golden State, as they'd been visiting family in the Sacramento area since childhood and had gigged around California in recent years. But working with Rick Rubin in Malibu represented a giant step forward. "A benefit of making the record in California is that it switched everything up," says Seth. "It helped put us in the mind set that we're starting a new chapter. We're looking to make a record in a different way than we have in the past, and we want to be open to these new methods. There's no better way to try something new than to work in a place you've never been." The results speak for themselves. From the 17 songs they cut with Rubin, 13 made the final cut. Rubin sequenced I and Love and You – the only time the Avetts have delegated that task to someone else. "This is the first time we have not been critical of the song sequence," Scott noted approvingly. In fact, the Avett Brothers are rightfully proud of I and Love and You in every aspect. It is, they feel, an album they've been building toward. "Years ago, Seth had told me that he someday wanted to make a record where everything was as crisp and clear and well-produced as it could possibly be," recalls bassist Crawford. "And with the help of Rick Rubin and [engineer] Ryan Hewitt, we've done that." "It's how I've always wanted our band to sound," affirms Seth. "What I like is an absolute presentation of clarity. It's not that I want to be glossy, and I don't know that we ever could be glossy in the way that some pop artists are. But I love music you can grasp hold of because there's no mistaking what the person is saying and presenting, and I feel like we've come the closest to that on I and Love and You." Themes that recur on the album have to do with commitment, maturity, and moving forward through life with a positive outlook. I and Love and You has little to do with the ephemeral world of latter-day pop, even if several songs (notably "Kick Drum Heart" and "Slight Figure of Speech") are tuneful and catchy enough to merit radio play. The Avett Brothers mean to create music of substance for the long haul. Seth Avett is just under thirty years of age while Scott is slightly over. A lot of what they've been writing about lately has to do with transitioning from youth to adulthood. You can hear this clearly on such songs as "The Perfect Space" and "Head Full of Doubt, Road Full of Promise," thoughtful disquisitions that serve as the album's thematic centerpieces. "It's hard to tell where some of these songs are coming from and they can have many meanings," Seth allows, "but I think on the whole the album makes some comment on the fact that we are young men, but that youth is fleeting and it goes by very quickly. When you're moving out of your twenties and into this time when you're hoping to build something, it's a beautiful thing and a scary thing. It still feels like things are up in the air like they were in your twenties when everything was up in the air and you didn't know what the hell was going to happen and who you were going to be. But during that time you start gaining the tools you're going to use in the rest of your life." The Avett Brothers have spent much of the past decade nurturing their skill as songwriters, along with their proficiency as vocalists and musicians. Although Seth and Scott are principally identified with acoustic guitar and banjo, respectively, from their live shows, both brothers also play piano, drums and most anything else with strings. (The brothers possess formidable artistic skills, too, and their sketches and paintings adorn their albums.) Clearly, however, songs are the center of the Avett Brothers' universe. The brothers turn out songs in profusion. They write them individually, and they write them together. Each might write an entire song, or credit might be split down the middle or any conceivably fractional way. There is no set method to their songwriting. The point is, Seth and Scott generate songs constantly, because that's what they feel that they were born to do. "There's not an option," explains Seth. "It feels like a living thing, and if we want to keep it alive, we have to nourish it. There are so many things we have to consider now – the stage show, business issues, our relationship to different people and our fans – but at the heart of it is the songwriting and the connection we have with ourselves and others through that writing. It's an essential and imperative element to our existence." "On top of all that, it's just exciting," Seth continues. "Scott and I and Bob get these new songs going, and that is our lifeblood. It's obvious we've got to keep rolling with it. Whether the records come out or don't come out, and whether there's a market or not a market, the important thing is that we're writing songs. They're not just for a release date; they're for posterity." The Avett Brothers formed in 2001 in Charlotte, North Carolina when banjoist Scott Avett and guitarist Seth Avett joined forces with standup bass player Bob Crawford. At the time, the brothers fronted a neo-punk band called Nemo. They enjoyed blowing it out on electric instruments but eventually began feeling the tug of the acoustic music they'd heard growing up. They were raised in the textile town of Concord, about a half-hour north of Charlotte. Their dad, Jim Avett, had a box of eight-track tapes that Scott and Seth picked through, listened to and digested. It included albums by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Jim's own folksy duo, Common Decency. Other roots musicians from the folk and country realms filtered into their subconscious, too. Thus, in 2001, the brothers launched an acoustic side band, called Nemo Back Porch Project, for which they added upright bassist Crawford. He recalls the initial meeting with Scott and Seth: "They were wanting to do some of the music they were raised on via their dad, which was old songs by Rambling Jack Elliott, Kris Kristofferson, Hank Williams and Tom T. Hall. I met up with them on a Sunday night in an empty parking lot. I got out my bass, and these two guys showed up in a gold Ford Taurus station wagon wearing flannel shirts and cutoff pants. They were total grunge kids. We sat in the parking lot, just the three of us, and played 'Going Down the Road Feelin' Bad' and 'More Pretty Girls Than One.' Then they showed me an original song called 'Kind of in Love,' and it was very interesting. It wasn't like any of those traditional songs. Different chord structure, with all these minor substitution chords. I was like, 'This is really unique.'" From there, Nemo's acoustic sideshow blossomed into the main attraction, and the Avett Brothers were born out of it. Still and all, while they built up a loyal following around their home state in places like Charlotte, Greenville and Chapel Hill, they weren't exactly setting the woods on fire beyond those pockets of regional fandom, and Scott and Bob forged ahead with plans to attend graduate school in the fall of 2002. However, there was one unfinished piece of business in Crawford's mind. "I said, Listen guys, I've always wanted to go on the road with a band,'" Crawford recalls. "'If I book a tour, will you guys go? Can we just go on the road for a couple weeks this summer?' And they were like, 'People have said things like this to us before, but if you do it, we'll do it.'" And so Crawford got on the Internet and booked a month-long 21-city tour. They camped out or slept in the truck when they couldn't find a floor to sleep on, subsisted on peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and returned home with ,000 and a flock of new fans in 21 cities. The Avett Brothers were off and running, and grad school got shelved. Live shows remain the Avett Brothers' calling card. In the spring of this year, they opened selected dates for the Dave Matthews Band. On their own, they've filled a 7,000-seat venue in Cary, North Carolina, and sold out two nights at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon – one of their strongholds. In June 2009, they performed back-to-back sellouts at New York's Fillmore East. With I and Love and You, they've also taken a giant step forward on the recording front. Whereas they'd previously opted for a first-take freshness, now they wanted to proceed at a more deliberate pace, taking advantage of the options that Rubin's wisdom, a bigger budget, a better studio and more time allowed them. In short, while they'd always tried to bottle their live magic in the studio, this time they set about making a more nuanced and well-crafted record. "We were totally up for spending more time on it," says Scott. "As time goes on, you become more critical about your work. And the more critical you become, the more willing you are to explore the options. We did a lot of revising and reworking in the studio. For instance, it was like 'Let's try drums in this part.' 'No, that won't sound good.' 'Well, how do you know, we haven't tried it?' 'Okay, you're right, let's try it.' There was a lot more of that going on.'" In harnessing the tools available to them in the service of the strongest set of songs they've written so far, the Avett Brothers have surpassed themselves on I and Love and You. There's really no great secret or magic formula for what they've achieved here. It comes down to honoring inspiration with an awful lot of hard work. "The brothers have an incredibly strong work ethic," affirms Rick Rubin, "and they continually worked at honing their craft. Hearing brothers who have sung their whole lives together – singing the truth – was a revelation each new day." "We know what we're worth, and we've been campaigning for a long time to be heard," notes Scott without false modesty. "Rick is helping that by sitting up and saying, 'Let me work with you.' We can tip our hats and pat ourselves on the back momentarily and say, 'Good job guys, we have been heard by somebody who's been heard by a lot of people, and he's let us in his camp.' I really look at it as a positive thing and a good milestone. And when it comes time for the next step, we'll do our best again and keep moving." "We'll just keep writing our songs and making our records, and how it goes is how it goes," concludes Seth. "We're trying our hardest and having some fun doing it, and that's all it needs to be."
at The Lawn at White River State Park
801 West Washington Street
Indianapolis, United States
Rockstar Mayhem Energy Festival, Slipknot, Slayer, Anthrax
Event on 2012-07-04 13:30:00
Slipknot
This highly provocative, Des Moines, Iowa, USA-based alternative metal outfit, whose shock rock values are masked by their anonymous stage wear of matching jump suits and horror masks, was founded by Shawn Crahan (percussion) and Paul Grey (bass). The early line-up of Slipknot released the independently recorded and distributed Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat in 1996. Although the band was struggling to make ends meet, their big break arrived when they were signed to leading metal label Roadrunner Records. The band, comprising nine members, subsequently adopted a lucky number to wear on their jump suits. Alongside Crahan (number 6) and Grey (number 2), was number 8 Corey Taylor (vocals), number 7 Mick Thompson (guitar), number 5 Craig Jones (samples), number 4 James Root (guitar), number 3 Chris Fehn (percussion), number 1 Joey Jordison (drums), and number 0 Sid Wilson (DJ). They recorded their self-titled second album at Indigo Ranch Studios in Los Angeles, California. The production work of Ross Robinson was a marked improvement on their messy debut, but failed to disguise the sub-Korn metal of tracks such as "Eyeless" and "Wait And Bleed". The bestselling Iowa confirmed Slipknot's remarkable popularity on the contemporary metal scene, with the band inspiring rabid devotion from their predominantly teenage fanbase (affectionately known as "maggots"). During a hiatus in band activities during 2002, various members of Slipknot embarked on outside projects, including Taylor and Root's Stone Sour, and Jordison's Murderdolls.
Slayer
"We definitely made our own road and there's not too many people driving down our road. Nobody's doing it." Coming from anyone else, this might sound like an idle boast. When guitarist Kerry King of Slayer says it; it's a simple statement of fact. Almost 20 years after Slayer first started blending the heavy riffs of metal with the anger and violence of punk, the next chapter in the Slayer story will be written with the release of GOD HATES US ALL. It's been three years since Slayer last released a record, 1998's DIABOLUS IN MUSICA, but it's not like the guys have been lounging around poolside, sipping mai-tais and waiting for the royalty checks to roll in. "We started working on this record after we got done with a long touring cycle, but prior to Ozzfest '99," says guitarist Jeff Hanneman. "And like every three or four months, something would come up to sidetrack us so we couldn't finish it. We'd have to take a break and learn stuff for Ozzfest and come back, work for a few months, go in and do a WCW song for a month ('Here Comes The Pain'), go out on the Tattoo the Earth tour, last summer. Then we'd work for a few more months until we were asked to do a song — "Bloodline" for the 'Dracula 2000' soundtrack, and that was the last break. Then we got our shit together, went up to Vancouver and made a record." Recorded at The Warehouse, a Vancouver studio owned by Bryan Adams, certain alterations had to be made in converting Slayer's new environs from a studio owned by a lightweight Canadian pop singer to something suitable for four men recording a 12-14-song album titled GOD HATES US ALL. Slight alterations, like a chalked-out crime-scene-style drawing of a body on the floor. Candles. Dimmed lights. Incense. Porn-covered walls. All the little amenities that make a house a home. "We had two banner flags that were of middle fingers," says singer/bassist Tom Araya. "As you walked into the first door of the studio, there was a Misfits' skull that said, Eat a bag. The next door you opened, there was a white flag with a middle finger pointed up right in your face. You'd open the door to the mixing room, there's another middle finger. That was basically the attitude of Slayer in the studio. We had a red devil head on one of the speakers. We had a skull on another. That_s the kind of shit we put up. Spooky stuff that makes you feel at home." Slayer picked Matt Hyde to produce GOD HATES US ALL, after his stellar work on "Bloodline" for the 'Dracula 2000' soundtrack. "He had a handle on every aspect of the recording. He likes the band, he likes the music," says King. "He knew what we were trying to achieve, rather than just us telling him. He knew what was going on. I tell people he's God, might as well bring in the cross and nail him up to it because he's the fucking best." As intense a record as Slayer has recorded, God Hates Us All found King and Hanneman stripping the songwriting down to the essentials, trimming the fat and keeping the fury. "I didn't write the usual Dungeons and Dragons shit, looking in the synonym finder for words I have no idea what they mean anyway, " King says by way of explanation. "This is a lot more how I talk, a lot more street. A lot of the topics are things people can relate to and they_ll hear the street-style version, so I think they_ll get more out of it." You'd have to be deaf, dumb or dead to miss the message of songs like "Threshold" or "Exile", which crackle with the unchecked wrath Slayer, fans have come to count on. "Threshold" is about reaching your limit in any given aspect, with a person in a situation where you're about to break. You're about to blow-up," says King. 'Exile' is pretty much about a person–everybody's got one–who is like the anti-them — you just hate with every ounce of your fucking being. It_s called "Exile" because you want them away from you. You want to kill yourself so you don't have to deal with them anymore." King and Hanneman toyed with new guitar tunings on the album, taking the plunge down to Drop B a couple times and hauling out a seven-string axe for the first time in Slayer history. "A lot of people you see in Guitar World say, "I'm not Steve Vai, I have no reason to play a seven-string," says King. "That's like telling a drummer to play a single kick drum, trying to tell him he doesn't need a double-bass kick. It doesn't make sense. Or they cop out saying, 'I'm not that good.' You don't have to be good to make up a seven-string riff." Slayer records begin with the drums, and Paul Bostaph, timekeeper for half of Slayer's nearly 20 years as a band, says there's a simple rule he follows in setting the brutal pace. "Rick Rubin once said the perfect take is the one that felt like it was going to fall apart but never did. I thought that was one of the wisest things I've ever heard and I always try to go for that." During breaks from recording, Slayer hits the town, patronizing local bars like the Shark Club and the Cobalt Club and watching nearly every hockey game the hometown Vancouver Canucks played. Singer Tom Araya spent his off-hours reading true crime novels with cheery titles along the lines of "Happy Like Murderers'" to help him inhabit the minds of murderous priests ("God Send Death") and a fallen angel pushing drugs ("Cast Down"). "I use those books to spark my imagination, to go into the role playing that I need in order to sound convincing. I need to sing and make it sound like I'm actually going to do these things I'm saying. They help out a lot with the screaming." Let other bands break-up, try to "find their sound" or record albums with symphonies. In the fickle, ever-changing world of music, Slayer remains a sure thing. "I think I'm a fan first and foremost," says King. "The difference between me and the people watching our show is that I learned how to play guitar. For some reason, I know how to make up riffs for Slayer and I get the opportunity to do that, so I'm like the superfan. It's what I'm into. If I was going to start a new band today, I'd want it to be just like this one."
Anthrax
Anthrax is Joey Belladonna – vocals Charlie Benante – drums Frank Bello – bass Rob Caggiano – guitars Scott Ian – guitars TV has soap operas, literature has Shakespeare, and metal – well, metal has Anthrax, that fire-breathing, thrash-spitting, multi-headed beast of a band that – 30 years since the day Scott Ian and then-bassist Danny Lilker searched a biology textbook for the disease that would become their moniker – smiles back at you with a monstrous, upturned middle finger and refuses to fucking die. But then, if you have an inkling about heavy metal, you'll have heard of their meteoric rise in the 80s alongside the likes of Slayer, Megadeth, and a little band that once crashed on Anthrax's studio floor known as Metallica. You'll know all about their game-changing, crossover hit with Public Enemy on Bring The Noise in 1991. You'll have listened to generations of bands that owe everything to their signature stomp and crushing riffs. And in more recent times, you'll have witnessed an almost irrational will to survive in defiance of monumental odds. And that, true believers, is the story of one of the most doggedly heroic bands in metaldom on the cusp of their greatest release to date. The road has not been easy. Rewind to 2005. Hot on the heels of 2003's rapturously received We've Come For You All, a unanimously praised, end-to-end scorcher spearheaded by vocalist John Bush, Anthrax shocked the metal world with the announcement that singer Joey Belladonna would be re-joining the band for a classic, 80s-era reunion that would sweep them around the world on a wave of head-banging nostalgia, but more importantly, reconnecting the band as friends and as the brutal thrash machine that gave the world Among The Living. Once that tour finished, Anthrax returned to discover that John Bush had moved on, and they would need to recruit yet another singer for the recording of their follow-up to WCFYA, the album that would become Worship Music, their tenth studio album. The band worked with one singer for a period of time, but in 2009, they were still without the right vocalist. "There was no way I was going to let anything derail my life's work," says Scott Ian. "We've been through more drama than most bands experience in a lifetime. Granted, we didn't have to deal with somebody dying or some tragic situation but at the same time we really did face an uncertain future. For lack of a better way to explain it, I am a tenacious prick, and if I want something to happen I will make it so. It's always been like that. It touches on the 30th anniversary. I think back to July 18, 1981. Danny Lilker and I were friends and I always said to him, 'when White Heat [Lilker's band at the time] break up, we're forming Anthrax,' and he was like, 'we're not breaking up.' I've always been like that, and with such an amazing record to put out, there's no way I was going to let anything screw that up." Refusing to accept their predicament, the remaining members rallied themselves in a spine-tingling gesture of conviction and self-belief for what would become the single greatest metal event of the 21st century, the first-ever performance of The Big 4. According to Charlie Benante, getting the band's proverbial excrement together for that gig was just the motivation that Anthrax needed to spit out the blood and get back on their feet. "The genesis of this whole Big 4 idea – and you could say the idea of getting Joey back in the band full time – was at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," Benante continues. "It was me, Lars, and Scott talking at the bar, bullshitting, and Lars just blurted it out. It was such a surreal moment, we weren't sure if he was taking the piss out of us and all of a sudden it just happened. It made us really say 'we need to step this up and get this thing going.' It was because of that that we were pushed into this direction. Metallica gave us the kick in the ass that we needed." "Joey was the band's vocalist from '85 to '92, the time period when 'The Big Four' started," added Scott, "so we felt he had to be the guy to represent us on these Big Four shows, and he had to be the guy on the new record." Rob Caggiano picks up the story – "So Charlie called Joey, they started talking and Joey expressed an interest. Then we all met with him in New York and while the vibe was really good, none of us really knew what to expect. Then we did the first Big 4 show with Joey, I think that's when we all knew that this was right. The vibe was amazing, he sounds better than he's ever sounded, including the reunion tour." Reuniting with Joey Belladonna for a whirlwind, globe-stomping tour that would see Anthrax playing shoulder to shoulder with Slayer, Megadeth and old pals Metallica, the explosive success of The Big 4 would suddenly beg the question of what would happen next, and more to the point: who would sing on Worship Music, and how would Anthrax approach the follow-up to We've Come For You All? It wasn't easy, but – from the ferocious attack of "Earth on Hell" to the red-blooded might of "Fight'em 'Til You Can't," the results have been nothing less than horn-conjuring. "The majority of this record was about 55% done before we even had a singer in mind," explains Charlie. "It was me, Scott and Frankie in our rehearsal room, the same way we wrote Spreading the Disease – with no singer in mind. But I'll never forget the day I first heard Joey singing, I got goosebumps, I got excited – all I could think of in my mind was 'how will he sing this song' and it was just amazing to me. Every time I heard the next song I would be like, 'this rules.'" "The process leading up to it was painful but I think being in Anthrax is painful," says bassist Frank Bello with a laugh. "I think everything happens for a reason and to listen to this record now, this is the reason it had to happen that way, and I am loving Joey's voice. I'm listening and I'm thinking 'you know I can't tell you when he sang better.' I'm not gonna kiss his ass that much but I really think the guy just doesn't age. He weirds me out because he just goes out there and sings like a bird, amazingly, with power. He came into a hard situation. He really rose to it. When Joey came in it was like the icing on the cake for me. " Joey agrees: "It's not easy to throw someone in there and try to wash away what you've done and how you've done it," says Joey. "I feel honored, but I also feel like I've done a lot to be there, I wasn't just saying 'oh I've got a chance again.' I just thought I'd be who I was without being like 'can I be like someone else?' I just went in and sang with the best intentions. I just did whatever came from my heart to the best of my abilities, and it worked." And that is an understatement. Co-produced by Rob Caggiano and Jay Ruston (both Grammy-nominated producers), the album takes its name from one of Charlie's late-night bouts of insomnia where, while flipping through TV channels he stumbled upon a religious-themed infomercial entitled "Worship Music." A fitting sentiment for an undeniable masterwork of skewering melodies powered by herculean riffage and a tunefulness that bespeaks Anthrax's utter supremacy as songwriters. From the haunting, ethereal tones of "Worship" – an atmospheric piece composed by Charlie himself – to the punch-in-the-face assault of opening track "Earth On Hell," the results are positively badass. But that isn't to say Worship Music is without its deeper subtexts. "The song "In the End" has a melancholy feel to it," says Charlie. "It has nothing to do with the band, but two people who had a lot to do with our band, Dimebag and Ronnie James Dio. They were both heroes and huge influences on us. Darrell played on the last three Anthrax records, a sixth member if you will, and Ronnie was always a champion for us, taking us on tour, just being so amazing to us always. It had to be made, and it was very cathartic." "It's just an epic piece of music," adds Scott. "Of course in the back of my mind I was thinking, 'if somehow I could get this in the lyrics without it being completely cornball, that song would just lend itself to expressing the feelings and emotions about how we felt about what those guys meant to us — Did we ever tell you how much we loved you tearing my head off tearing my face off ripping my heart out." I meant that in a good way. The first time I ever heard Ronnie James Dio, my world was fucked forever." Of course, Worship Music also features a far more obvious musical tribute about Anthrax's greatest inspiration, Judas Priest, mysteriously entitled… "Judas Priest." "We wrote it right at the time the announcement came that they were retiring," says Scott. "I just got so bummed out about it, almost the same way I felt with Ronnie dying or Darrell getting killed, it was a similar emotion, like: 'is this what it's like now, I'm just going to see my heroes go?' It kind of depressed me. The thought of a world without Judas Priest is just weird, so I remember talking to Charlie and we agreed we should just write a song called 'Judas Priest.' It was such an overtly, metal song, and that in of itself is the tribute." Alongside the colossal crescendo of "Crawl" and the irresistible catchiness of "The Devil You Know," Worship Music is a record of mass destruction to be released upon the world, and to the delight of fans everywhere it already began when, in July, the Anthrax.com was updated with new artwork by universally acclaimed comic artist Alex Ross and an offering of "Fight'em 'Til You Can't" as a free download that swept across the internet like a thrash metal hurricane. "Basically, we made our fans wait so long so it was like 'why make our fans pay for it?" says Charlie. "They've waited so long, so here's a gift.'" "'Fight'em 'Til You Can't' is about humans fighting the Cylons," adds Scott, referring to the title's relationship to a famous line in the recently re-imagined space epic "Battlestar Galactica." "My take is more Zombie-oriented than Cylon oriented, but I think you could absolutely read it as Anthrax fighting until we can't. I'm sure that was in the back of my mind. As much as I like the idea of it just being a fun-filled Zombie killing romp, that emotional thread pretty much runs through everything I'm doing lyrically, you can't keep me down, I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do." Given that this year Anthrax celebrates its 30th anniversary of fighting the good fight, Scott's sentiment is a poignant one. So how does it feel to be releasing a new record over three decades since you began? "It freaks me out actually, that that much time has gone by," says Charlie. "In my mind I still feel like the same person from back then, but if we were to do this ten years ago, I would be more concerned about staying relevant and this time I could care less about staying relevant. It's about doing what I think our fans enjoy. "I truly can't put it into any kind of context because we're just so busy, you know? We're sitting here with this setup of a record in the middle of playing shows with so much going on, so I guess I could say nothing is changed, things are exactly the same as when we're working toward the next thing and that's maybe somehow some way we've always been able to move forward, always looking forward and never stopping – it's never been that way with Anthrax, even just this constant struggle to find band members who would commit to rehearsing for four nights a week and having to fire them, it was constantly moving forward until we recorded Fistful of Metal, well we've gotta go on tour and sell t-shirts, and we've gotta get rid of Neil Turbin, and then we found Joey… In 2011 my day is still filled with what's happening with Anthrax, and I love this new record and how it represents our whole career in Anthrax. I can't wait for people to hear it." ***** Over the past 30 years, Anthrax has achieved sales in excess of 10-million. The band has also received multiple Gold and Platinum albums, multiple Grammy nominations, and a host of other accolades from the media, industry and fans.
at Idaho Center
16200 Idaho Center Boulevard
Nampa, United States
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Secret Fish Bait Formulas Revealed.
Make Your Own Fish Bait To Catch More & Bigger Trout, Catfish, And Carp.
Secret Fish Bait Formulas Revealed.
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