Metal Maniacs: What happened to the S.O.D. tribute album?
Scott Ian: The tribute album has a lot to do with why we decided
to make a new record. We went out on tour in 1997, played the
Full Force Festival in Germany where we co-headlined with
Rammstein and returned to the States for 10 dates. It was a lot
of fun. After the shows Billy asked us what we thought about
recording a new album. I said, "There's really no reason to." And
the reason we never recorded [again] was merely a case of "if it
was meant to be, it was meant to be." I always thought if we
would've recorded a second album, it would've been in '87 when
the time was perfect for it. But there was just no way to do it
back then.
MM: Was the band victimized by internal strife?
SI: No. We were just unable to continue. At the time, between
Anthrax and Nuclear Assault, neither Danny or I could've afforded
the time to do it properly. Even after the '97 reunion shows,
none of us had the vibe to make another record. That's when i
said, "What about a tribute record?" What band deserves a tribute
album more than S.O.D.? I can't tell you how many people have
come up to me during the last 14 years and told me how much the
band meant to them. Eddie Vedder [Pearl Jam] cornered me one
night at a party for 25 minutes telling me this story about the
first time he heard Speak English Or Die and how it affected his
life. When word got out about the tribute album, everyone wanted
to be a part of it. We were planning on giving bands a budget to
record, but we started getting tapes unsolicited. The Deftones
sent us "Milk", Impaled Nazarene did "Kill Yourself" and Life Of
Agony recorded "March Of The S.O.D." Sepultura---their last
recording with Max---covered "Douche Crew." But we can't get our
hands on that tape because it was recorded live at the very first
Ozzfest in California and the company that made the recording
went out of business!
MM: So what exactly is the status of the tribute album?
SI: We killed it. We started to speak to labels, but they all
said, "A tribute album is great, but why don't you just record a
new record." We had a serious list of bands that wanted to
contribute, including Marilyn Manson and Pantera, but we realized
that everyone is doing tribute albums. What set S.O.D. apart from
everyone else was that it's a band unto itself. So we didn't
become followers by releasing a tribute. Instead, we decided to
record a couple of songs to see what would happen. If it was
difficult coming up with new material, we would've thrown it out
the window and just played a reunion show every year or two.
MM: So the second S.O.D. album was finally "meant to be."
SI: Me, Danny and Charlie got together at Anthrax's jamming space
in Yonkers and wrote four songs on the first day. Although we
hadn't jammed on new stuff in 13 years, it felt natural.
Dan Lilker: That was May. We really got things together in
November, after the demise of Brutal Truth, and started jamming
every day. We quickly discovered that the chemistry was still
there.
SI: The different roads we've traveled over the years made it
even that much better when we wrote songs this time around. Now
we've come back and written a brutal heavy metal record with all
of the influences we've accumulated during the last 13 years.
MM: Does S.O.D. fit in with today's metal?
SI: No. Just like 1985, when we released Speak English Or Die,
Bigger Than The Devil sounds nothing like anything out there
right now. It's a big mosh of our influences. It's not black or
death metal; it's not hardcore and it's not homeboy metal like
Korn or Limp Bizkit---although there is a song that makes fun of
that called "Latkch." The song is our statement on 1990s homeboy
rap metal.
DL: I prefer to call it the white, suburban homeboy syndrome.
MM: Yet Anthrax in the 1980s was the first metal band to work
with rap artists!
SI: Sometimes i think that if i could've looked in a crystal ball
in 1986 and seen where it all would go, i would've never have
done it. Public Enemy was my favorite rap band from the first
time i heard them. If Anthrax was going to attempt something like
we did, it had to be with Public Enemy. That's why we've never
done anything like that again.
DL: This may sound arrogant, but i think Bigger Than The Devil is
going to do well. There are no "yo's" on the record. People
assume that a lot of the stuff out recently is metal. It bothers
me that some 14 year old kid, thinks metal is all about wearing
pants that are 50 sizes too big and talking using the latest in
ebonics.
SI: I happen to love the Deftones. They're not a "yo" band like
Korn. But i do feel good for any band that is successful. I Would
never take that away from them, because i know how hard it is to
achieve that. I've seen a thousand bands come and go. Regardless
of whether i think a band is great or sucks, I give them credit.
It's not as if Korn came out of nowhere and hit it big overnight.
What they do and how they look is not contrived. They came from
Bakersfield, California and moved to Huntington, New York where
they lived in the rehearsal space owned by a friend of mine. He
was forever trying to get me to come down to the studio and
produce their demos, but i just didn't like it. I kinda kick
myself now because if i would've produced that first Korn record,
I could've made a ton of cash. The media has given a lot of
attention to that style of music, the "new metal," which i think
is something that has already had its day. Rage Against The
Machine is the band who does it best. Nobody else comes close. I
believe the new S.O.D. is the new metal, although it will be much
more underground than the stuff you read about in Rolling Stone
or Spin.
MM: Can you honestly call S.O.D. an underground band? Won't the
new album gain mainstream exposure bacause of its historical
significance and the notoriety of the musicians involved?
SI: Yes. But if no one knew who we were, our music would never
get radio airplay.
MM: How did the deal with Nuclear Blast come about? There were
rumors that the band was going to sign with Roadrunner.
SI: Nuclear Blast was honorable and respectful. They are a real
record label. I've been doing this for a long time and i don't
know who these Roadrunner people thought we were, but i guess
they think we're a new band. Funny, i've had relationships with
some of those people for a long time and all we were asking for
was something fair. We were told they couldn't do it. A week
later, they signed another band, giving them the deal we were
looking for---a band that during their last 20-year existence has
not sold as much as S.O.D. has.
DL: Nuclear Blast just showed more interest in us.
SI: The people who run Nuclear Blast are fans of the band and
bought the first record when it came out. They wanted to be a
part of the new album. They weren't concerned about how much
money we'll bring in during the second quarter of '99. It was
obvious Roadrunner would've treated us as one of the 20 or so
acts they have whereas Nuclear Blast said, "We just signed
Manowar. If we can sign S.O.D., it would be two jewels in our
crown." It's the best metal label in the world.
MM: The lyrics for Bigger Than The Devil seem politically
correct, unlike the lyrics comprising Speak English Or Die. Did
you intentionally tone down Sargent D., who used to be tongue-in-
cheek, offensive and racist?
DL: That was misunderstood by a lot of people.
SI: The character and the lyrics were never racist. We even had
shirts that read "I'm not racist. I hate everyone."
MM: But the title track was about the language barrier you
experienced when you walked into a candy store in Queens, New
York run by immigrants...
SI: It was about a breakdown in communication. It came out of a
frustration of being in situations where you couldn't get
anything done. We're not these jingoistic nationalist Americans
who say, "get out of our country," although it may seem that way
from the lyrics.
MM: That was supposed to be part of the character's personality!
SI: Yes, but who writes the words for the character? It was never
meant to be racist. It was born out of incidents each one of us
in the band experienced. I remember Danny telling me about going
to the Department Of Motor Vehicles and not being able to talk to
a clerk. How does a guy who can't speak English work at the DMV?
DL: It was taking a sentiment of frustration and blowing it up to
exaggerated proportions.
SI: It was all about giving the character a reason to hate. Like
in the new song "Skool Bus," he's against neo-nazi rhetoric,
although when people read the lyric that starts off the song---
"Kill the Niggers, Kill the Jews"---I see their eyes going wide!
MM: What about "Aren't You Hungry," originally recorded by M.O.D.
and re-recorded here?
SI: The lyrics have completely changed.
DL: Back in '85, during the brief illusion of us doing a second
record, we started writing new material. Like "Hate Tank." But
then everything folded. Billy was doing an active band in that
mold so it made sense for him to use that song.
SI: The lyrics to "Aren't You Hungry" have been updated.
Originally, they were a parody of that "We Are The World" shit.
It's now more about American excess. It's taken on more of a
"leave me alone, it's not my problem" vibe.
MM: The Irony behind you doing a track entitled "Celtic Frosted
Flakes" is that Celtic Frost were supposed to perform at S.O.D.'s
1992 reunion show in New York City.
SI: I wasn't aware of that. We thought it was only Agnostic Front
and Morbid Angel on the bill.
MM: Morbid Angel yeah but Agnostic Front was originally scheduled
to play the previous evening and the two shows were combined.
There were kids in that audience wearing face paint, unaware that
Celtic Frost had cancelled. Tom Warrior told me a few weeks after
the show that it was booked without his knowledge and he just
didn't have time to get things together.
SI: I knew nothing about that. I can tell you that when we put
the show together, Agnostic Front and Morbid Angel were on the
bill from the beginning. We were supposed to get up in '86 when
Celtic Frost played the old Ritz in New York City [now Webster
Hall]. A couple of months after Celtic Frost played the Ritz in
December 1985 with Motorhead and Wendy O. Williams, Tom asked us
to get up and play unannounced using their gear. It was going to
be our way of officially saying goodbye. Then someone came up to
Billy and said, "I heard you're going to play three songs
tonight." Word had gotten out, so Billy refused to do it. We're
big oldschool Celtic Frost fans. We had the music for "Celtic
Frosted Flakes" and Billy and I were writing words about the film
Taxi Driver. It was a throwaway song at that point---I liked the
song, but we weren't getting anywhere with the lyrics. So we're
sitting around and---I don't know how the hell it happened---but
Billy started singing "Whatever happened to Celtic Frost? Tom
Warrior is pumping gas and Martin Ain's got a big fat ass." We
went with it over the next week and wrote the lyrics.
MM: Is the title of the new song "Black War" the opposite of
Greenpeace?
SI: That was born out of a bit by [stand-up comedian] George
Carlin where he goes off on the environment talking about
organizations with holier-than-thou attitudes that say anything
we do is going to hurt the earth. Yes, our quality of living
while we're here may suffer, but if Mother Nature really wanted
to and had to, she could shake us off like a bad case of fleas...
a couple of earthquakes and we're gone. I hate anyone who tells
me what i should do. They should just go fuck themselves. Don't
tell me not to eat meat. Don't tell me not to wear fur. Just shut
up and let people do what they want to do.
MM: These overtly politically correct times seem ripe for a band
like S.O.D.
SI: It's frustrating. Everyone is afraid to say or do anything.
S.O.D. is never afraid to say anything and we have a frontman who
certainly is not afraid to speak his mind.
DL: We're all in our mid-30s now, so our rants are more
articulate and humorous.
MM: Now that Brutal Truth has split and Anthrax is on hiatus, is
S.O.D. the priority?
SI: We have a bunch of European festivals booked and we're
heading over to Japan. We're taking it as it comes.
MM: Didn't the last tour come to a screeching halt when Billy
Milano experienced back problems?
SI: Who knows? Billy Milano has retired more times than Suger Ray
Leonard and Michael Jordan combined.
DL: We get asked about Billy's health all over the world and it
gets twisted. In Japan they though Billy was going to retire
because he broke his elbow.
SI: Billy hates touring and he's melodramatic.
MM: Does the current incarnation of S.O.D. intend to exist longer
than just a handful of live appearances?
SI: We hope so. After touring Europe and Japan, we want to tour
the States, but only if it's done correctly. We don't want to go
out on a two-month club tour.
MM: What would be the perfect S.O.D. tour?
SI: Opening for Pantera.
MM: Whenever S.O.D. tours, there's a feeling the band could fly
apart at any second.
SI: It will probably be the same way on this tour.
DL: There is always tension.
MM: S.O.D. originally died leaving a young, good-looking corpse
and now that the band is functioning again, there is always the
danger of it becoming another Kiss. There was excitement when
Kiss reunited, but people seem tired of them.
DL: Nah. Can you think of any other band but us that's gone 14
years between new albums?
SI: Not even Boston took that long. We've become to most
unprolific band in metal. We never broke up and this is not a
reunion.
MM: Wasn't the Ritz performance in 1992 billed as a "one-time
only reunion?"
DL: Yeah, just like Ozzy Osbourne's farewell shows. I was hanging
out in Australia with these guys in Sadistik Exekution,a creative
death metal band who say each show is going to be their last.
When someone asked them about it they said, "Well it was the last
show we did!"
MM: Is it too soon to ask if there will be a third S.O.D. studio
album?
SI: We don't know what will happen. We know the creativity is
there. Once we knew we were going to release a record this year,
my goal was to perform at the Dynamo Festival. That was a way to
really put it back in people's faces. After all, it is the
biggest metal show of the year and there is no better place in
the world for S.O.D. to start it's worldwide [comeback]. If we
didn't have the goal of getting the new album out in time for
Dynamo, we probably would have kept writing. END
