MetalSucks

As one of the chief riff providers for swaggercore titans Every Time I Die, Andy Williams takes pride in making the discordant into catchy. For a perfect example of this, look no further than the band’s latest (MetalSucks-approved) album, New Junk Aesthetic. Distilling the band’s decade-plus essence into a tight half hour, it’s a satisfying mix of thunderous heaviness and easily the most appealing material the band have put to tape. But while he’s often overshadowed by vocalist Keith Buckley’s relentless wiseassery, it’s his and Jordan Buckley’s Skynard-by-way-of-Dillinger-Escape-Plan guitar work that make the band stand out and ultimately worthwhile.

A self-described “chatty Cathy,” Andy Williams was remarkably frank and refreshingly earnest in a recent interview with MetalSucks on the eve of the release of New Junk Aesthetic. Among other things, he discussed why he can listen to the new album and none of the band’s other material, his thoughts on the new Converge record, the changing landscape of the scene he came up in, and life over at ETID’s new label, Epitaph.

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Former 18 Visions frontman and Deciblog favorite James Hart is almost finished with his solo debut, slated for a release later this year in Island Records. According to an update from James, uber-mixer-extraordinaire Chris Lord Alge has done his magic on the album’s 12 tracks and mastering should occur in the next week or two. When we interviewed James back in October, he informed us that Zac Maloy (The Nixons) produced the record, and Daniel Adair (Nickelback… really?) played drums. When asked about the sound of the new material, James said “It’s going to be a rock record. It’s traditional tuning unlike the 18V stuff. I feel like I am a better vocalist now and have more range with the guitars tuned up rather than down to drop B which is where 18V was. The only song I’d really be able to compare it to from 18V would be “Last Night” from the self-titled album. I really wanted to stay clear of 18V’s sound.”

Someone ought to give James the memo that there might be a vacancy in Velvet Revolver. Who knows, he may yet be able to live out his life-long Scott Weiland fantasy — there’s still time, James!

-VN

When we interviewed ex-Eighteen Visions singer James Hart a few weeks ago about his new solo project and record deal with Island, Hart mentioned that he was considering Nickelback’s Daniel Adair to play drums on the record. According to a blog on James Hart’s MySpace page, Adair is confirmed as the drummer, and studio-bassist extraordinaire Chris Chaney (Jane’s Addiction, Rob Zombie, Tommy Lee, Alanis Morisette, Avril Lavigne, Daughtry, etc) will handle the low end. As of an Oct. 21 blog post, tracking for bass and drums is complete.

According to an Oct. 10 blog post:

Neal Tiemann (who has played on all the demos and even written a few licks) will be taking care of all guitar work on the album. Neal is one of the great young unknown talents in the music world. His name will ring more than a few bells in days to come.

The Oct 21 blog post also mentions that Hart has “also got another special guest player on his way down right now to leave some personal touch and flare on a song or 2.” So it still comes as somewhat of a surprise that an unsourced report on Blabbermouth announced today that none other than Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold will play guitar on Hart’s album. Presumably this is the special guest player. Avenged and Eighteen Visions go way back — A7X used to open for 18V in their early Orange County days and have done several tours together.

I just got a big boner for this album.

-VN

Last week MetalSucks had the privilege of sitting down with Ex-Eighteen Visions frontman James Hart. After Eighteen Visions called it quits back in April, singer James Hart released some new rough tracks via his MySpace page in July. At that point we contacted James about doing an interview, to which he replied he’d love to but would be more interested in a few months once the ball got rolling. When the news was announced last week that Hart signed a deal with Island Records we contacted him again, and true to his word he agreed to do the interview. James told us all about his new record deal, the new material, the progression from Eighteen Visions, his thoughts on the current state of the record business, and his love for Bon Jovi.

Click through to read the full interview.

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