PHILIP ANSELMO Working On 'Aggressive-As-A-Motherf**ker' Solo Project

Metal Insider recently conducted an interview with Philip Anselmo (DOWN, PANTERA, SUPERJOINT RITUAL). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal Insider: What is your musical output other than DOWN right now? Are you in any other side projects?

Anselmo: I did do ARSON ANTHEM, the second ARSON ANTHEM [album], which is due out later this year. 17 songs, 30 minutes, brilliant. So I guess to answer your question, if any show dates come up and there was a bit of free time and really gotta look at the other members of the band once again as Mike Williams from EYEHATEGOD, who’re playing their asses off. Hank III, who just put out his record, he's touring all the fucking time. So it's like you wait around and if that comes up, great. I would do some ARSON ANTHEM shows, however, I will not lie, I have been writing my own stuff. I play guitar, I play the bass, and I sing. I just got this drummer and he's fucking aggressive and fucking heavy. Unlike every other one of my side bands, this does not sound like any other fucking band I've been in before.

Metal Insider: Is it a conscious effort to not repeat yourself?

Anselmo: If you're gonna do another band, if you're gonna write more music, why would you want that band to sound like another band that you were in? It's boring. So yeah, this shit's way different, but really needed. I tell you what, it's not any polished product at all. Matter of fact, I'm just scribbling lyrics here and there. Musically though, where it really starts, whether it be rhythmic, fucking words or sentences in my head that inspire riffs or parts, I think it's a bit of a departure from your average cut-and-paste heavy metal. I'm not necessarily going for any tradition. In other words, I'm not gonna go fast for the sake of going fast, I'm not gonna play slow for the sake of playing slow. It's groove-oriented, sure, but it's not the P word — PANTERA. It's aggressive as a motherfucker, and that's all I can really say at this point.

Metal Insider: You did bring up the P word. You have the "Cowboys From Hell" 20th anniversary coming out. How involved were you with the reissue?

Anselmo: I was pretty involved, man. There were always questions as to artwork and they asked me to do some kind of write up stuff, memory lane type stuff for the record. Everything that was passed my way had to be approved by Rex [Brown] and Vince [Paul Abbott] as well. In a vicarious way, I'm working with Vinnie Paul again, which makes me feel kinda good. So I had a hand in all of this.

Metal Insider: I remember reading, a while ago, that DOWN was starting to jam again and work on the next record. What's the status of that? Are you guys doing anything?

Anselmo: Well, we're always in touch. Put it this way, CROWBAR just got home from Europe. Jimmy and Mike and them — EYEHATEGOD— got back about two weeks ago. We toured the last DOWN record for about two years and everybody needs that little decompression time and also to give some love to some of the other bands that we were always in. Either way, to answer your question, we got two shows. Matter of fact, we go to Europe next week. We play in Switzerland and we open for AC/DC in Bucharest in Romania. Then we have another show in July, which I think is in the U.K. I think the general consensus between everybody is we're gonna wait until the end of the year and then put our heads together because we already talked about a few things. Like Pepper and I, about two weeks ago, sat down and looked at a lot of the material that we do have and we've got songs. We've got some killer fucking songs so either way I would think end of the year or some shit like that.

Metal Insider: The last thing I want to ask you is about New Orleans. How is it down there?

Anselmo: Well, it's about to be fucking down the shitter again with this fucking oil spill. It's not just New Orleans. I have to hand it to the whole Gulf Coast once again. But this time it's man-made. With Katrina, the city still isn't 100% after that. That's out of my hands right this second. The point being, this oil spill looks to be a whole lot worse, really, in the long run because of the industry — the fishing industry, the seafood industry — the country counts on for fucking real seafood instead of China's imported seafood. You know, we're fucked. A manmade disaster. When they tell you — and they being the government or some high ranking official that has no fucking business dealing with someone like us — I mean, I can't talk for you, but I'm not a suit and tie guy, you know. I'm not. I don't get you. If you're up there talking with all of this fantastic vocabulary and then this fucking goddamn big suit and shit like that you are not relating to me or my fucking people. You're on the other side of the fucking fence. So when one stupid motherfucker like that tells a body of people there's no way that this particular oil drilling situation can fuck up, it's a fucking lie. What's gonna happen when the earth shifts? What's gonna happen when the tide comes and another Katrina happens and it went through and barreled through the fucking goddamn pipeline that's a mile deep into the earth? They're liars. It was dug, therefore it was motherfucking bound for a fuckup. Nothing lasts forever. I didn't make that saying up, but whoever fucking said it first, they are right. This is a man-made fuckup and man will have to fucking deal with it. Like with Detroit, when the auto industry fucking went under and all the jobs were fucking lost and shit like that. Dude, it's gonna be like that here. What's the president gonna do but sit up in his house? Not a motherfucking thing.

Read the entire interview from Metal Insider.

The entire 29-minute chat can be streamed using the audio player below.

Photo below courtesy of Down-Nola.com