Former ANTHRAX Guitarist Talks RED LAMB In 'Maximum Threshold' Interview (Audio)

Former ANTHRAX and current RED LAMB guitarist Dan Spitz was interviewed on the latest edition of the "Maximum Threshold" show. You can now listen to the interview in its entirety using the audio player below.

RED LAMB's self-titled debut album was released in February via iTunes. The 12-song effort was co-produced by Dave Mustaine (MEGADETH) and Spitz and is described in a press release as "explosive hard rock, pop punk, alternative rock, with a taste of thrash." The CD was mixed by Grammy-nominated producer Johnny K (DISTURBED, 3 DOORS DOWN, DROWNING POOL, MEGADETH) and it features cover artwork by John Lorenzi, who worked on the last three MEGADETH studio albums — 2007's "United Abominations", 2009's "Endgame" and 2011's "TH1RT3EN" — as well as the band's 2007 box set, "Warchest". Grammy Award winner Chris Vrenna (NINE INCH NAILS, MARILYN MANSON) handled all synths and additional programming on the entire CD.

RED LAMB features Spitz (lead guitar, guitar, bass guitar, programming, background vocals, engineering, co-producer),Patrick Johansson (drums; YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, W.A.S.P.) and Don Chaffin (vocals and video productions).

"Red Lamb" track listing:

01. Watchman
02. The Cage
03. Get Up
04. Runaway Train
05. Angels Of War
06. Puzzle Box
07. Keep Pushing Me
08. Warpaint
09. One Shell (In The Chamber)
10. Standby Passenger
11. Temptation
12. Don't Threaten To Love Me

"The Cage" video can be seen below.

In a recent interview with Metal Insider, Spitz stated about Mustaine's involvement with RED LAMB, "Dave heard what used to be my project [DEUXMONKEY] before RED LAMB and we were just cruising into the studio in one of his crazy cars, I think it was an Aston Martin or something. And he just fell in love with the music, and as a friend offered, 'Can I take this from you and kind of help?' At that point in time, I was wearing 50 hats, so it became quite difficult. It was just a blessing for Dave to say, 'Yeah, absolutely!' and that's where we started. His credit is he's a co-producer; we worked together on taking that material that was already recorded. All the music was done by me and recorded and we edited the music and moved verses and choruses around, shortening songs and got rid of the seven-minute solo if there was one. [laughs] . . . Dave worked with Donnie consistently day in day out on all the vocals. . . And previous to that, via electronic means, meaning e-mail and so forth, me and Dave took all the lyrics that I had written for the CD and we dissected those the same way we dissected the music. And Dave co-wrote every song on the album with me as far as the lyrics go and so that's his role in it. He's the co-writer on every song. So it's a wonderful collaboration."

In a December 2010 interview, Mustaine revealed that he helped fine-tune the songs on RED LAMB's debut album after hearing some of the material in its early stages of development.

"[Dan] was working on a little side project, and I'd heard it a while ago and it kind of went by in passing 'cause he was just starting it," Mustaine said. "And I heard it about three weeks ago; he was almost done. And I said, 'Man, I love this record.' I said, 'And do you think it's done?' And he goes, 'Yeah.' And he goes, 'Why? What do you think?' And I said, 'Well, I would kind of do this and that.' And he goes, 'Really? Go ahead.' And I went, 'Really?' So I rolled up my sleeves and I completely dedicated myself to Danny's record for the last three weeks, working tirelessly in my studio on this record with him. And it's that good. I heard it and I just went, 'Oh my God!' It's like a cross between, say, DISTURBED, SOUNDGARDEN and RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE kind of thing. Little bit of some smatterings of ANTHRAX because of the speed stuff, but it's much more modern and much more heavy sounding."

Interview (audio):

"The Cage" video: