PHIL ANSELMO – Talks About Early Days In DFW/NOLA Scenes And WARBEAST!

“Having grown up seeing RIGOR MORTIS and GAMMACIDE live, collecting their demos and knowing the guys in these bands during my younger, more impressionable years left a resounding imprint on me.

“People know that I was born in New Orleans, but I moved to the DFW area to join PANTERA when I was 17, so I had the privilege of being a part of, and living somewhat vicariously through both local scenes. And the magic of that was how different sounding both scenes were, and how absolutely awesome it was to watch the emergence of the two of them. Having the best of those two extreme worlds not only influenced me as a musician, but it made me fan of both scenes, for life!

“RIGOR vocalist and great friend of mine, Bruce W. Corbitt, kept in touch with my crazy ass (and he put up with my barrage of phone calls as well!) since RIGOR did a three-date headlining tour with my hardcore band ARSON ANTHEM a couple years back. He told me then he’d been jamming with Scott Shelby and Rick Perry (former GAMMACIDE guitarists). I knew those cats were badasses. I could practically already hear the music in my head! I begged him to send me some of their music, it fucking blew my expectations away and the rest is modern history…

“Look, I know thrash metal, period. And I damn-well know the old ‘DFW thrash’ sound. More importantly, I know WARBEAST. I’ve had the privilege of working with them closely.

“When you listen, Bruce is Bruce, but his performance on the latest WARBEAST LP, ‘Krush The Enemy’, is the best he’s ever been. His powerful voice is a commanding fucking presence. His enthusiasm is warranted, because the band is beyond great — and his rejuvenated attitude and spit, fit perfectly with their multi-influenced brand of pure Texas thrash.

“The guitarists (Rick and Scott) are absolutely motherfucking relentless. Their use of chugging power riffs, mixed with classic progressions and twisting harmonies are executed flawlessly.

“In my opinion, every song is a detailed riffing masterpiece that puts me directly back to the mid-’80s. Except better!!! Jose Manuel Gonzales (better known as Blue) plays the ever-loving shit out of the drums. He’s a young gun with metronome timing, relentless double kicks and he doesn’t play ‘speed’ for the sake of speed, but he easily can when it’s called for.

“Bass players ALWAYS get credited LAST. It could be easy to overlook ‘How Awful About’ (HAA!) Alan, bassist in WARBEAST, but that would be undermining the impossible.

“HAA plays traditional thrash bass. His playing is as solid as a vice grip. But what sets him apart is his intensity. To see him live is to see a man with freakishly insane eyes, pounding down-picking style on his instrument with controlled, vicious, pure-strength. And that’s another subject entirely…

“These cats pull it off live big time… every note, every word, every rhythmic entrapment is part-for-part perfection with stage presence to boot. Truly, badass…

“When I listen to modern-day thrash, after two or three songs, I pretty much know what I’m getting thereafter. There’s no way in hell ANYONE can say that about WARBEAST. No fucking way. Without bowing down to the doldrums of an obvious ‘technical metal’ band nor to today’s EXODUS worship, every song is its own SONG; riff-delirium, thunderous cadences and classic thrash vocals delivered in TRUE, classic thrash style.

“WARBEAST are a great band… and will prove to be major players in the very near future…you can bet your ass on that.”

http://www.philanselmo.com/
http://www.myspace.com/texasmetalalliance