FOZZY Guitarist Talks About Forthcoming Album

STUCK MOJO/FOZZY guitarist Rich Ward recently spoke to Metal As Fuck about the forthcoming FOZZY album, "Chasing the Grail", tentatively due in early 2010 via Australia's Riot! Entertainment. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the CD's title:

"It's about the search for something we all ultimately want in life — which is purpose. The grander answers; not stuff like, how am I gonna make it this month? How am I gonna pay my rent? How am I going to get my kids to soccer practice on time? It's a look at the grander scheme of things. It's asking, what am I supposed to do?

"A lot of people go to prayer or meditation or whatever their comfort zones are when they look for those sorts of things. But then there are people that do not. They go through their whole life not caring about those sorts of things. They never have those moments of introspection asking, 'Why am I here? What am I supposed to do? What talents and skills and gifts do I have and how do I focus those to be the best that I can be?' That's what the song is about, the quest for that. We thought it was a great constant theme for the album."

On the new album's musical direction:

"It's not easy to write songs like [the new track 'New Day's Dawn', which is said to feature orchestral strings and gothic vocal touches]. It's easy to write the big riffs, you know, the faster, huge grooves and stuff. That's what I'm good at. Chris [Jericho, vocals] is great at the aggressive, 'yeah yeah yeah!' kind of vocals. You really try to write a little bit outside of your comfort zone because it's nice to mix it up a bit. I mean, you don't want to do a whole album like that because as a fan, it's always nice to have your comfort stuff; something familiar — like mac 'n' cheese. But once in a while, as a side item, you want to try something new and interesting. I mean, if you put out the same album as before, fans have a tendency to say, 'This isn't anything new,' while if you do something completely different, fans are upset about that too. There's a fine line you have to walk between deviating from the course and staying on it."

"There's plenty of heavy stuff. The album is much heavier. It's a much more aggressive album.

"You can't second-guess things. You write songs. We don't have meetings. We don't ask ourselves, 'Should this song go on the album?' We just write the album. It is what it is. It's like an extension of ourselves. There's never a meeting with management or the record company or whatever; these are the songs. And like anyone, you hope that your fan base and the press love it because it's always nice to get confirmation that you're doing things that people gave you the thumbs up on."

Read the entire interview at Metal As Fuck.

"Chasing The Grail" track listing:

01. Under Blackened Skies
02. Martyr No More
03. Watch Me Shine
04. Broken Soul
05. Let The Madness Begin
06. Paraskavedekatriaphobia (Friday The 13th)
07. God Pounds His Nails
08. Pray For Blood
09. Grail
10. Revival
11. New Day's Dawn
12. Wormwood

An audio sample of the demo version of the song "Martyr No More" is available for streaming as part of the new FOZZY podcast, which can be found on the band's MySpace page.