What Makes A Band 'Heavy Metal'? FOZZY's CHRIS JERICHO And RICH WARD Weigh In

April 8, 2015

VH1 Classic's centerpiece in original programming, "That Metal Show", recently got up close and personal with Rich Ward and Chris Jericho of FOZZY. Watch the clip below.

Asked what makes a band "heavy metal," Ward said: "I think 'heavy' is a way that you carry yourself. I think heavy metal is something that is hard to necessarily say, 'That's it,' but you know it when you see it."

Jericho offered: "I think it's attitude; I really do. I think if you're talking about how this band plays nothing but blast beats, I've seen heavier bands that play nothing but slow parts. Like I said, 'Black Sabbath' by BLACK SABBATH, the heaviest song of all time, if I just played that drum beat by my own, you'd go, 'What is that? The waltz? What is this?' That's heavy. To me, it's attitude. It's the way it's played. It's the way you feel when you're on stage. And heavy metal is rebellion and it's freedom. It makes you feel like you can take on the world."

Asked what music means to them, Jericho said: "Music is freedom to me. Music is… You know, I have a lot of tattoos on my arm of different bands. It's not for the bands themselves, it's for how I feel when I listen to the bands. When I say it's freedom, if you're having a shitty day, if you're having a bad day, and you put on a song that makes you feel good, takes you back to a good time in your life, it always brightens your day. It takes you to a different place. It takes you back to the past."

Said Ward: "For me, it was just kind of a way out, to be something and to try to figure out a path to know what club I was gonna be in. Do you know what I mean?! It's like we all… humanity, we always put ourselves in tribes and cliques and stuff, and music was a place where I felt at home."

FOZZY's latest album, "Do You Wanna Start A War", sold around 5,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 54 on the Billboard 200 chart. The CD was released on July 22, 2014 via Century Media.

Find more on Fozzy

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).