DEADLAND RITUAL Feat. GEEZER BUTLER, MATT SORUM, STEVE STEVENS: First U.S. Show Announced

DEADLAND RITUAL, the new band featuring bassist Geezer Butler (BLACK SABBATH),guitarist Steve Stevens (BILLY IDOL, VINCE NEIL),drummer Matt Sorum (GUNS N' ROSES, VELVET REVOLVER) and singer Franky Perez (APOCALYPTICA),will make its U.S. live debut on May 28 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, California. A European tour will follow in June.

DEADLAND RITUAL promises the live shows will be something special, mixing the original material with deeper cuts from the bandmemebers' collective past. "Not the typical songs you would expect," according to Sorum.

Geezer said that he initially had no plans to join another band after SABBATH completed its "The End" farewell tour.

"Well, I retired after the last SABBATH show," he told "Trunk Nation LA Invasion: Live From The Rainbow Bar & Grill" on SiriusXM. "I just traveled and did everything that I wanted to do when I was retired for a year. And then I got fed up watching the TV every day. And I started writing stuff again, 'cause that's what you do. I've been doing it for 50 years, so it's in your blood. You can't just stop, especially when it's your hobby as well. And I just got back into writing stuff. I was planning on doing another solo album, a GZR thing. And I got a few songs together for that. And then Matt got in touch with me about DEADLAND RITUAL."

Asked what appealed to him about being in a band again, Geezer said: "It's what I've known since I started when I was 16; I was in a band. When you're doing solo stuff, it's just you writing stuff. There's nobody to bounce off, and I really missed that. It's good to have people saying, 'That's good. That'll work.' Or, 'That's not so good.' And I missed having that. The guitarist that I worked with in GZR, he's just moved to the East Coast and he's got other things on his plate at the moment. With DEADLAND RITUAL, everybody's local, so it's easy to get together. And you don't have to plan months in advance to do an album or write songs. If I feel like writing a song today, I call up Steve, go around to Steve's house, and we try something."

DEADLAND RITUAL recently released its first song, "Down In Flames". The track, which was produced by Greg Fidelman (METALLICA, SLIPKNOT),was made available via Sonik Riot Records/AWAL powered by Kobalt.

According to Matt, DEADLAND RITUAL now has "a whole bunch of songs we're stacking up. And we're working towards a record down the line a little bit. We've got about three [tracks] in the can right now," he said. "We've been working with Greg Fidelman, who just did miraculous things for METALLICA on their new record. And I told Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] it's one of my favorite records they've done in years. And he comes from the Rick Rubin camp. And he did the last SABBATH record as well — he engineered that record — and the new SLIPKNOT stuff. So he was a perfect fit. He was amazing to work with. So we loved that process. And I think the tracks sound awesome."