{"id":89583,"date":"2022-01-29T10:17:17","date_gmt":"2022-01-29T15:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/?p=89583"},"modified":"2022-01-29T10:17:24","modified_gmt":"2022-01-29T15:17:24","slug":"former-megadeth-members-unite-to-honor-the-legacy-of-drummer-gar-samuelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/?p=89583","title":{"rendered":"Former MEGADETH Members Unite to Honor the Legacy of Drummer GAR SAMUELSON"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Bassist&nbsp;<strong>David Ellefson<\/strong>&nbsp;and guitarist&nbsp;<strong>Chris Poland<\/strong>&nbsp;have come together to record one final song posthumously with their friend and former&nbsp;<strong>MEGADETH<\/strong>&nbsp;drummer&nbsp;<strong>Gar Samuelson<\/strong>. The new track&nbsp;<strong>&#8220;The Raven&#8221;<\/strong>&nbsp;is the latest single from&nbsp;<strong>Fatal Opera<\/strong>, part of a new twelve-song collection of demo material compiled as the group\u2019s final release, entitled&nbsp;<strong><em>FATAL OPERA 3<\/em><\/strong>, out now on&nbsp;<strong>Combat Records \u00ae<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>You can view the lyric video for &#8220;The Raven&#8221; here:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;The Raven&quot; (Ft. David Ellefson, Chris Poland &amp; Gar Samuelson) by FATAL OPERA.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vJ1SxXqZriE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>FATAL OPERA 3<\/em>&nbsp;can be streamed here:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: FATAL OPERA 3\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/4jOX9voVjVxg6PNPTPda7G?utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>FATAL OPERA:<\/strong>&nbsp;Following his departure from&nbsp;<strong>Megadeth<\/strong>&nbsp;in 1987, Gar Samuelson assembled his new band&nbsp;<strong>Fatal Opera<\/strong>, along with his brother Stew on guitar. Gar went on to produce the group\u2019s debut album in 1994, which also featured&nbsp;<strong>Dave Inman<\/strong>&nbsp;on vocals,&nbsp;<strong>Travis Karcher<\/strong>&nbsp;on bass and&nbsp;<strong>Billy Brehme<\/strong>&nbsp;on guitar. The group\u2019s second album&nbsp;<strong><em>Eleventh Hour<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;was released in 1997 and introduced&nbsp;<strong>Andy Freeman<\/strong>&nbsp;on vocals, reaching top 10 on European charts while the group continued building a loyal fan base touring across the USA that year. Sadly, in1999 Gar became ill and passed away, at which point the group disbanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Then, in 2018 Andy and Stew set out to remix the&nbsp;<em>Eleventh Hour<\/em>&nbsp;LP and in the process discovered a collection of demos with Gar which were intended to become the band\u2019s third album before his passing. Although the demo tapes were damaged after many years of neglect, Freeman labored to revive the tracks with some songs lost forever. However, he was able to complete 12 tracks, inviting Ellefson &amp; Poland to participate on &#8220;The Raven&#8221; as a way to conclude the legacy of Gar and Fatal Opera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Chris Poland<\/strong>&nbsp;recalls,&nbsp;<em>\u201cBack in the day, long before Megadeth, Gar and his brother Stew were the heart and soul of a heavy instrumental jazz\/rock project called&nbsp;<strong>THE NEW YORKERS<\/strong>. I played guitar with them and Robbie \u201cPag\u201d Pagliari played fretless bass. It was everything we could do just to keep up! Stew\u2019s right hand was a machine. Flawless. And Gar was right there with him always pushing things to the next level. And again, these two brothers were the heart and soul of&nbsp;<strong>Fatal Opera<\/strong>. It was a privilege to be a part of this release, and playing on \u2018The Raven\u2019 with David Ellefson made it that much more special. Gar was a true artist. Be it his amazing drumming, his painting or his wood sculpture pipe (he made by hand). Gar was one of a kind. And here Gar, Stew and crew push the limits of experimental metal. These songs are complex yet accessible. Music with a dark side that draws you into their world and keeps you wondering &#8216;what\u2019s next!&#8217;\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;<strong>Chris Poland<\/strong>&nbsp;also added additional guitar work to the track&nbsp;<strong>&#8220;Mask of Time&#8221;<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>David Ellefson<\/strong>&nbsp;adds,<em>\u201cThis is a really cool moment for Chris and me to musically reunite with our friend Gar, now almost 35 years after our last studio session together, which was the 1987 re-recording of &#8216;These Boots Are Made for Walkin\u2019 for the&nbsp;<strong>Dudes<\/strong>&nbsp;movie soundtrack, compiled by director Penelope Spheeris. Gar was always such a free spirit with his music, no click tracks or digital reinvention for him. And, he seldom played the same thing twice, quite unusual for heavy metal! He just went for it with real gusto and that became the hallmark of his sound.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">He continues,&nbsp;<em>&#8220;When I was laying down the bass track for &#8216;The Raven&#8217; it reminded me once again of Gar\u2019s spontaneity in the studio, as if we were recording live in the same room together. I\u2019m super happy these tracks were brought to life so we could have one last go around with Gar behind the kit. It\u2019s a reminder that he truly was one of the greats!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Combat Records \u00ae<\/strong>&nbsp;is the label which was home to many iconic thrash &amp; metal albums in the 1980s &amp; 90s and was relaunched by Ellefson &amp; Co. in 2017. It was also home to&nbsp;<strong>Gar Samuelson\u2019s<\/strong>&nbsp;first full length record with&nbsp;<strong>Megadeth<\/strong>, their eponymous debut&nbsp;<strong><em>Killing is My Business\u2026and Business is Good<\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;(1985). Ellefson states,&nbsp;<em>\u201cAs a label, we are proud to release these final tracks from Gar. He was a masterful drummer who made an incredible impact on fans and musicians everywhere. I think it&#8217;s appropriate that Combat would be home to his first and now final recordings.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><em>Fatal Opera 3<\/em>&nbsp;Line-up:<\/strong><br \/>Andy Freeman \u2013 Vocals, Keyboard, Guitar<br \/>Stew Samuelson \u2013 Guitar<br \/>Billy Brehme \u2013 Guitar<br \/>Travis Karcher \u2013 Bass<br \/>Gar Samuelson \u2013 Drums<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bassist&nbsp;David Ellefson&nbsp;and guitarist&nbsp;Chris Poland&nbsp;have come together to record one final song posthumously with their friend&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89585,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89583\/revisions\/89585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/89584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themetalden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}