Maxmas - Volume II

Christmas albums tend to be schmaltzy overblown affairs by aging artists looking to cash in on their demographically-changing audience as they move from the hipster stage to developing families. Scott Weiland’s latest bizarre big-band/lounge Holiday embarrassment is just another in a long line of overt money grabs by rockers as they struggle for relevance in the fluid and fickle morass of pop music popularity. Christmas albums are for guys like Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond, right? (Yes, he did release one and yes, I did see The Jazz Singer, thank you.)

Well, thank sweet Zombie Jesus that the Madison Area Christmas Compilation Vol. 2 (abbreviated M.A.Xmas) is the antidote to that kind of thing. 

Anthrax

Metallica, Slayer, and Megadeath. Imagine sharing the stage with these three metal icons for some of the most killer metal shows of all time. Amazing right? It’s all in a day’s work for guitarist Rob Caggiano and the boys in Anthrax. The legendary metal band was part of one of the most incredible lineups and concerts metal has ever seen. Out on the road in support of their latest album “Worship Music,” Anthrax is hotter than ever and is out to prove it to each and every metalhead. Rob was nice enough to talk to Maximum Ink’s Aaron Manogue about the new record, the Big Four show for the ages at Yankee Stadium, his experiences in producing and how Anthrax has transcended the ages to stay on top, where they belong.

Maximum Ink: You started tracking the record about four years ago in 2007and it was released in 2011. That’s quite a long time for a record to be built. How did the album change over the years from when it first started?
Rob Caggiano: Well, like you said, we started in 2007 and we got pretty far. We got all the way up to the mixing stage but unfortunately the lineup wasn’t exactly stable at the time and things got a little crazy. We basically had to put the record on ice for a while until we figured out what we were doing and who was going to be singing for the band. Fast forward a few years and Joey Belladonna comes back for these Big Four shows and one thing led to another and he finally felt comfortable enough to want to sing on the record. So we went and opened the books again, so to speak, worked on what we had and made the changes to what we needed to fix. One of the cool things that resulted in having this much time with the songs is we basically pushed these songs as far as we could push them. You know what I mean? It wasn’t trying to beat the gun or whatever or be on schedule. It was kind of like, let’s take these songs and make them as good as they can possible be and that’s what we did.

Hank 3

Shelton Hank Williams is the closest thing that country music has to a crown prince. The son of Bocephus himself, Hank Jr. (The Artist Formerly Known as the “Are You Ready For Some Football?” guy), and the grandson of one of the most popular country artists of all time, Hank3has charted a path entirely his own. Starting his career drumming for punk bands in the early 90’s, he’s spent his music career freely ignoring the genre lines of metal (he was in two bands with PANTERA’s Phil Anselmo, ARSON ANTHEM and SUPERJOINT RITUAL), cow-punk (he calls it “hellbilly” with his DAMN BAND), and punk (leading the band ASSJACK) After years of fighting with the Nashville country music system (just listen to “Dick in Dixie” or “Trashville” for his opinions on the current state of country music) as well as his record labels, Hank has just released three(!) new albums on his own, Hank3 label. Ghost to a Ghost/Guttertown is a double country-tinged album, Attention Deficit Domination is doom metal, and 3 Bar Ranch Cattle Callin’ is a mashup of speed metal and spoken word by cattle auctioneers that has to be heard to be believed!

The The Devil Wears Prada

It seems like America has a strange obsession with zombies in the past few years. More and more zombie movies and shows are coming out, but one has to ask themselves, “Why?” Because they’re awesome! Nothing is scarier than total zombie apocalypse, where your friends and family are turned into the undead and you’re forced to kill or be killed and do what you can to survive. The Devil Wears Prada recognized this and have created a kick ass zombie game with their music in it. It’s called Zombie Slay and it’s exactly what you imagine, as they put it, “Slayin’ zombies and head banging at the same time!”

Maximum Ink: Where did you guys come up with the badass idea for the game?
The Devil Wears Prada: The band wanted to do an extension of the Zombie EP. We wanted to give our fans something different than just a re-release. We met up with ECHO interaction group and developed the idea of Zombie Slay. It is a prequel first person swipe/shoot game to the Zombie EP Comic Book.

Wayne Static

There have been very few voices and guitar riffs that have been as noticeable as Wayne Static’s signature metal howl and “evil disco” sound in the past few decades. He has mashed and molded a unique combination of hardcore metal with industrial sounds dashed with a side of disco to form a brand that has sold thousands worldwide. Now that Static-X is on an indefinite hiatus, Wayne is back at it, doing it solo but still bringing the signature sound to rape and pillage your ear drums. Maximum Ink’s Aaron Manogue sat down with Wayne Static to talk about his new solo album Pighammer, his favorite music he listens to and his pyshco dog Brutus that would protect his wife and himself, in case of a zombie apocalypse.

Maximum Ink: Talk to me a little bit about where the name Pighammer came from for your latest solo album?
Wayne Static: It’s kind of just a word that popped in my head years ago and I’ve wanted to use for something for a long time. I finally figured out we’d call the solo record Pighammer and me and my wife had a good time thinking of what Pighammer means. At first, we were going to say it was a sexual position, but we thought that might be too much for the kids. So we came up with this whole story about the mad plastic surgeon with this big hammer tool that he uses to change women into pigs. That kind of went along with the whole lyrical theme of the record too, which is transformation.

Brian “Head” Welch

Everyone has heard the story of talented musicians falling to the temptations of drugs and alcohol, and seeing some of the best musicians of our time falling too early. This was the case for one of the past decades biggest metal guitarists of our time. The only difference here is that this extremely talented musician was fortunate enough to get the help he needed, and get back to writing music before it was too late. Brian “Head” Welch, former guitarist and co-founder of the legendary band Korn, is back at it with new music. And for anyone who has ever had an addiction of any type, his story is one to admire. Not only is he back, he is back and hotter than ever with a new single titled “Paralyzed” out and an EP due out in early 2012. Maximum Ink’s Aaron Manogue spoke with Welch about his new EP, how finding Christianity has affected his music and if he’d ever consider rejoining Korn.

Maximum Ink: Tell me about your first single off of your upcoming 2012 EP, “Paralyzed.” Where did it come from and what is it about?
Brian “Head” Welch: Jason Rauch, who’s producing it and who co-wrote it, and he came to me with the idea and kind of the rhythm. Then I just added my stuff on it and then we just hooked back up. I remember when we were in the studio and he’s like “Alright, we need to do the middle section now.” So I suggested splitting up so we went to different rooms, because we were in his studio. We went to different rooms and I came back like a minute and a half later and he goes, “You got it, huh?” and I just said “Yup!” So it was really simple just like that and trust me they’re not all like that.