SHADOWS FALL's JASON BITTNER Says He 'Hated' METALLICA And SLAYER When He First Heard Their Music

In a new interview with RichardMetalFan, SHADOWS FALL drummer Jason Bittner, who has also played with FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, OVERKILL and ANTHRAX, was asked to name the bands that first got him into metal. He responded in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "The band that got me into heavy metal, technically, is IRON MAIDEN. MAIDEN's my favorite metal band of all time. That was the first band I saw of that genre in 1980, the day that MTV came on the air. [Editor's note: MTV was officially launched on August 1, 1981.] I was 10 years old, and I was, like, 'What in God's name is this?' And that just sent me on my trajectory, MAIDEN and JUDAS PRIEST. But then once — uh, when did I get [METALLICA's] 'Ride The Lightning'? I wanna say, I think '84, a friend of mine let me borrow a record. He's, like, 'Oh, you've gotta check out this band.' And I'm, like, 'Who's METAL-LICA?' And he goes, 'No, it's pronounced METALLICA, man.' I'm, like, 'All right, cool. METALLICA. And I took it home and I hated it. I was like, 'God, what the hell is this?' 'Cause I was used to Bruce Dickinson and [Rob] Halford, and all of a sudden [I heard] James Hetfield, and I'm, like, 'What on earth is this?' I taped the album just in case I might like it one day, and I gave the record back to my friend. And a week later, I'm doing my paper route and I was humming [a riff]. I'm, like, 'What is this that I'm singing to myself?' And it was the riff from 'Fight Fire With Fire'. And I'm, like, 'Oh, that's that METALLICA band. I didn't think I liked that.' And that started that.

"A lot of the heavier bands, even bands I've been in, when I've heard the first time, I didn't care for," Jason admitted. "Like SLAYER — [I] hated SLAYER at first. I'm, like, 'No way I'm gonna like this.' SLAYER is my favorite thrash band of all time. ANTHRAX and MEGADETH were the only two that when I first listened, I wasn't, like, 'Aargh.' Like ANTHRAX, I was just, like, 'Holy shit.' That was the — no pun intended — the 'be all, end all' for me right there, because [ANTHRAX drummer] Charlie [Benante] was one step beyond [SLAYER drummer Dave] Lombardo for me at that point, because Lombardo was feet, but Charlie was the whole fucking package.

"So I was introduced to METALLICA first, then MEGADETH second, because there was a kid I went to school with and he was, like, 'Hey, there's this dude that was in METALLICA before Kirk Hammett.' Because I didn't know anything existed — I didn't know about the 'No Life 'Til Leather' demos and I didn't know about anything pre-'Kill 'Em All'. So I was, like, 'Kirk Hammett's the guitar player.' He was, like, 'Nah, this dude was in the band before him. And he's got this other band. And it's called MEGADETH.' And I was, like, 'Oh, all right.' And the first thing I heard was 'Killing Is My Business', but that was so raw at the time, I was, like, 'All right, it's kind of cool. It's fast and stuff.' But once 'Peace Sells' came out, I was, like, 'Oh, all right. Now I get it.' The production was way better [and] everything else that that came along with that.' Maybe a year after that or within that year, I got into SLAYER. A friend of mine had 'Show No Mercy' and he had let me hear that. And I wasn't really that impressed, but then 'Reign In Blood' came out maybe a couple of weeks after he let me borrow 'Show No Mercy'. And I bought that. I bought that, went on a spring break vacation my sophomore year of high school to Florida with my mom. And all I did was just I had 'Reign In Blood' in my Walkman — that's dating it, because it was 1985 [laughs] — in my Walkman on auto reverse. And that album was only 32 minutes long. I listened to that record just incessantly for a week straight and just the whole entire time going, 'Oh, I can't wait to get to my drums. I wanna play these songs,' because in my head, I knew all the drum parts, knew everything. I had no fucking clue how hard thrash metal drumming was and playing that fast was because, like I said, I was in the MAIDEN-JUDAS PRIEST camp still. Jumping on the kit and trying to play 'Angel Of Death' at 15 years old. I was, like, 'Oh my God. This is a lot harder than it sounds.' So it was SLAYER, then ANTHRAX, and it was basically through the 'Big Four' [of 1980s thrash metal]. And then everything else under the sun.

"Over the course of my life, I've tended to like the B- and C-level bands a lot, as in favorites, over some of the bigger bands," Bittner revealed. "I mean, for example, if you asked me, 'If you could only pick one, if it was either MEGADETH or FLOTSAM, what would you pick?' I'd pick FLOTSAM. If you could only listen to one and you're not allowed to listen to the other one again, I would pick FLOTSAM. And not because I was in the band. That was a love of that band for decades before I was even in it. Another one is WRATHCHILD AMERICA — one of my absolutely all-time favorite bands.

"So that was the trajectory into that," Jason added. "And then in the '90s… I've always been, and I've always said this, I've always been a thrash metal drummer. I'm not an extreme metal drummer. I like that stuff, but I can't blast that 240, 260 that stuff. It's out of my wheelhouse; it's not what I do. But I like a lot of those drummers and went through that whole phase in the mid-'90s immersed into DEATH and MORBID ANGEL and that stuff and listening to Pete Sandoval and Sean Reinert and Gene Hogan. So, my influences go across the board, really. And let's not forget VAN HALEN either."

Earlier in the month, SHADOWS FALL released a new single, "In The Grey". The track marked the band's first new piece of music in more than 12 years.

"In The Grey" was made available via SHADOWS FALL's new record label home, MNRK Heavy.