PHILIP ANSELMO On His Upcoming Solo Album: 'I Was Very Selfish About This Thing'

Metal Insider recently conducted an interview with Philip Anselmo (DOWN, PANTERA) and Bruce Corbitt (RIGOR MORTIS, WARBEAST) about "War Of The Gargantuas", a split EP featuring two previously unreleased WARBEAST songs and our first taste of Anselmo's solo material. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal Insider: I know you both have a long history together, but how did the idea of doing this split actually come together?

Philip: I guess when WARBEAST was down here actually tracking [their new album] "Destroy", or maybe it was before that. It was always an idea, something that we wanted to do. After I recorded the bulk of my solo stuff, it was something I had brought up to Bruce. And actually, this is a long time coming now that I'm really remembering because the two songs that WARBEAST has on the split (a song called "Birth Of A Psycho" and also "IT") were recorded…geez, what three years ago, Bruce?

Bruce: Over two years, yeah. I was going to mention that Philip sometimes gets these ideas way in advance. And at first he didn't remember it, but this was some idea he came up with like two and a half years ago, for us to record a couple of songs because he was writing his new material at the time. And the idea was "Let's do a split down the road. We don't know when it'll be." Here it is, over two years later and it's happening, but it's good that we planned ahead.

Metal Insider: Philip, I know you've been working your solo debut, "Walk Through Exits Only", for a while now. Can you give us a breakdown of how the actual process of recording and writing occurred?

Philip: Well, I was writing songs and I've been doing DOWN for a long time. When it comes to DOWN, there's no real surprises for any of us in the band. When we step into a room and the core members are there, what we write is going to sound like DOWN. I'm one who has always adventured in music, because music is a very vast place. And there's an extreme love in my heart for I guess what would be called extreme music, or heavy metal in general. So I wanted to basically just get this mad nagging out of my system, these songs, whatever they were going to turn out like. I think that coupled with figuring that I wrote all of these songs in my bedroom and whatnot, I didn't have a band, I didn't have anything going except for a bunch of riffs and ideas. And Bruce, believe it or not, suggested that I use the drummer from WARBEAST, who is affectionately known as "Blue." So Blue came aboard and I really helped shape things with him, and he really played his heart out for me, he did a great job. And I always had a guitar player in mind, and that's Marzi [Montazeri], an incredible guitar player I've known since the '80s. He was the guy I knew would be the "executor" as far as my ideas on guitar. I'm not a great guitar player by any means, but I'm creative. I write riffs aplenty. So I am a riffster, but once again I can't play and sing live at the same time. I just don't have the knack or talent for it. I feel pretty constrained with an instrument in my hand onstage. So I really need a guitar player so I can be myself up there with a microphone. And I guess all the other pieces are coming together slowly as far as members or who might do or play what. So it's still a work in progress, but the record is finished. It just needs to be mixed now, so we're in the mixing phase of that. I should start getting some mixes maybe even as early as late tonight [November 30]. It's something I can't wait for you experts out there to consume and figure it out. I'm not going to name it, I'm not going to say, "It's great!" I'm not going to say it's one thing or another. I'm going to let people decide for themselves, but it is a record that I guess I needed to do.

Metal Insider: I know that this all came out of you working by yourself. But rather than billing it as "PHILIP ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS," did you ever think about essentially creating a new moniker or band name for this project?

Philip: That would, once again, be a whole other thing people would have to get into. And honestly, I was very selfish about this thing. I wanted the songs the way I wanted them, and the musicians were going to do it or they weren't going to do it. And luckily, they did it. So I'm the boss here as far as that solo stuff goes. And like I said, it's best to call it me so people know it's fucking me. Music fans are smart, and they delve into who actually played what in the band. So that will all come later. When guitar players are really digging what Marzi does, then he'll get love for sure. And Blue, like I said, really plays his ass off, so he'll get extra love as well. So I'm not worried about that at all.

Read the entire interview from Metal Insider.

"War Of The Gargantuas" will be released on January 8, 2013 via Housecore Records.

PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS is:

Philip H. Anselmo (DOWN, PANTERA) - Vocals
Marzi Montazeri (ex-SUPERJOINT RITUAL) - Guitar
Bennett Bartley - Bass
José Manuel Gonzales (WARBEAST) - Drums

Head to www.thehousecorestore.com and pre-order the "War Of The Gargantuas" split EP in four different bundle pack options.

All bundles come with a personalized, autographed gift from Anselmo. Also, CDs and vinyl LPs with the bundles are Housecore roster titles.

1) $20 - pre-order"War Of The Gargantuas" and get three CDs of your choice
2) $30 - pre-order"War Of The Gargantuas" and get two vinyl LPs of your choice
3) $32 - pre-order"War Of The Gargantuas" and get three CDs of your choice, one Housecore patch and one Housecore T-shirt
4) $42 - pre-order"War Of The Gargantuas" and get two vinyl LPs of your choice, one Housecore patch and one Housecore T-shirt