Exclusive: SACRED REICH Frontman Discusses 20th Anniversary Tour, Future Plans

The original lineup of the long-defunct Arizona thrashers SACRED REICH — Phil Rind (bass, vocals),Wiley Arnett (lead guitar),Jason Rainey (rhythm guitar) and Greg Hall (drums) — will reunite for several shows in Europe next summer, including an appearance at the Wacken Open Air festival on August 4, 2007. Rind agreed to answer the following questions for BLABBERMOUTH.NET:

Q: You mentioned the band was getting back together to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Was there any particular event that triggered this whole thing? Has it been in the works for a long time?

Phil Rind: We've been putting together the re-release for a while and going through the old stuff, music, videos, photos etc. It's been fun to get together and do some SACRED REICH-related things. The re-issue is going to come out next year and it's going to be the 20th anniversary of the band. We thought it would be fun to do some shows. Metal Blade gave me a few people to contact and they were interested in doing some shows. The whole thing, from the idea untill today, took less than two weeks to put together. We're excited to play a big show like Wacken and it will be great to be back in London, Antwerp and Eindhoven where we have a lot of friends and great memories. It will be a lot of fun.

Q: Are there plans for any other dates besides these European shows? U.S. warm-up dates, tour, etc.

Phil Rind: We'll probably do two warm up shows before we go, most likely Phoenix and Tuscon. Other than that nothing is planned.

Q: What is the status of those reissues/box set that you guys were working on?

Phil Rind: Paul Stottler is completing new artwork, and we pretty much have everything put together. It will be "Ignorance" and "Surf Nicaragua" with some extra tracks. We recorded "Rapid Fire", my favorite JUDAS PRIEST song off "British Steel", with Rob Halford singing. That was kick ass! It's never been released. We've got some other covers and our original demo, "Draining You of Life", because I know you love it so much, Borivoj, and you probably wore out your casette copy. So it will be two discs and a DVD. The DVD will have a video for "Ignorance" (for your information, Don King and Dana Wells were cameramen!) with an interview done in 1987. Also included will be the Dynamo Open Air show from 1989 when we were on tour in Europe with FORBIDDEN. That was one of the most memorable shows we've ever done. It was the first big outdoor show we ever did. It was a special day. We've also put in a little film our friend Eric Braverman did called "Just Say Sacred". He was out on the road with us for some California shows when we were toured with SEPULTURA, NAPALM DEATH and SICK OF IT ALL. It's got some funny fan stuff on there. It makes me laugh. Right now it will be released in Europe only, probably in May or June. We're wrestling with old record company to try to get the U.S. rights back to our stuff. Isn't that a bitch?! Hopefully it will work out and we can put the record out in the U.S. as well. We hope so. The whole reason we were going to do a reissue is because we think it's bullshit that if you want to get a SACRED REICH record that's been out of print, it can cost upwards of thirty dollars on eBay for a used copy. I think it's a rip-off and if people still want to get the records we'd like to make them available for less money.

Q: Is there any possibility whatsoever of new material being written/recorded?

Phil Rind: I was at Wiley's house the other day working on a new song. I don't know if anything will come of it though. I don't know if it's any good.

Q: What the hell have you guys been doing for the past 10 years?

Phil Rind: Getting on with the rest of our lives. Sub-atomic particle studies. Writing a thesis on the relative and ultimate realities in Buddhism compared to Immanuel Kant's philisophical view of the universe. Making babies. Searching for a unified string theory. Tracking bigfoot. Driving around. Watching two elctions being stolen. Tossing pizza. Quantifying the economical and social impact of deficit spending at unprecedented levels. Watching the stars. Burying friends. Making up for lost time. Wiley's been jamming with his band THE HUMAN CONDITION.

SACRED REICH's schedule is shaping up as follows:

Jul. 29 - Underworld – London, UK
Aug. 01 - Hof Ter Loo – Antwerp, BEL
Aug. 02 - Dynamo Club – Eindhoven, NETH
Aug. 04 - Wacken Open Air – Wacken, GER