ANACRUSIS' KENN NARDI On Reunion, New Album, And The Band's Future

Mark Morton of Heavy Metal Examiner recently conducted an interview with frontman Kenn Nardi of reunited St. Louis-based progressive/melodic thrash metal act ANACRUSIS. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Heavy Metal Examiner: So, it was recently announced that a reactivated ANACRUSIS is playing a festival over in Europe next spring. What spawned the reunion, and what lineup of the band is participating?

Nardi: We've only confirmed the Keep It True 2010 festival at the moment, but we plan on trying to set up a few other shows over the next year or so. It will be the original lineup, consisting of myself, Kevin Heidbreder [guitar], John Emery [bass], and Mike Owen [drums], who was with the band from the beginning through the "Reason" album. Mike just moved back to St. Louis after having spent more than a decade living in San Diego and Las Vegas. He and I began to discuss the possibility of getting together and re-recording some of the old material or writing some new music. At the same time I had been contacted by someone wanting to release our old demo and he got us in touch with a friend who runs the Keep It True festival.

Heavy Metal Examiner: Have the guys kept up with playing over the years, or has it been a struggle to recall and revisit the old material? I guess what fans would really want to know is, can you still scream?

Nardi: Mike had been playing in different bands over the years and Kevin and John had started a '70s and '80s cover band together a few years ago, but I hadn't done more than some occasional recording on my PC over the years. It was a bit of a challenge re-learning some of the old material since the last couple of tours we did were playing mostly songs from the last two albums, which Mike wasn't even on. After a couple of weeks, things began to feel comfortable again and John joined us for a few rehearsals where we played everything as a three-piece. Kevin came down to rehearsal earlier this week to listen in and discuss a few matters and he should be joining us over the next couple of weeks, and yes, I can still scream. Hahaha. As for the setlist at Keep It True, we really want to represent as much of our music as possible, which is tough with four albums in under an hour. At this point we are trying to make a good balanced set of equal material from each album. Even though many people prefer the later albums, there are a lot of die-hard fans who would love to hear some of the earlier material and we don't want to disappoint anyone. One thing we are working on is shortening a few things and maybe doing a couple medley-type arrangements just to fit a few more songs in.

Read the entire interview at Heavy Metal Examiner.

ANACRUSIS recently had its classic 1987 demo, "Annihilation Complete", released via Stormspell Records. This limited-edition CD/DVD package features the full nine-song "Annihilation Complete" demo along with other rare recordings from the band's basement days.

For more information, click here.

"Annihilation Complete" was voted "Best Demo of 1987" by the readers of Metal Forces magazine and was later included in the publication's "Demolition... Scream Your Brains Out!" compilation album. This led to a deal with England-based indie Active Records, for whom ANACRUSIS recorded its first album, "Suffering Hour". A sophomore LP, "Reason", followed in 1990 and was supported by touring with D.R.I. In 1991, ANACRUSIS released "Manic Impressions" through Metal Blade Records and toured with OVERKILL, GALACTIC COWBOYS and MEGADETH. They devoted the next few months to writing new material, and released their final album, "Screams and Whispers", in 1993.

ANACRUSIS' video for the song "Release" (taken from "Screams and Whispers") can be viewed below.