PHILIP ANSELMO: Two Solo Tracks To Be Made Available On Split Release With WARBEAST

Two songs from the forthcoming solo album from former PANTERA and current DOWN frontman Philip Anselmo will be made available on a split EP with a pair of previously unreleased tracks from WARBEAST. The effort — which will include the WARBEAST cuts "IT" and "Birth Of A Psycho" — is tentatively due in late September.

Anselmo's debut solo album, "Walk Through Exits Only", is tentatively due in early 2013 via his record label, Housecore Records. The CD features the former PANTERA frontman backed by guitarist Maziar "Marzi" Montazeri (ex-SUPERJOINT RITUAL),drummer José Manuel Gonzales (WARBEAST) and up-and-coming New Orleans bassist Bennett Bartley.

"I wrote every note on the record. I wrote every song," Anselmo recently told the Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station 93X about his upcoming CD. "Truth be told, I am a creative guitar player. I'm not a technically great guitar player. I've written PANTERA riffs, too. I'll write a riff, but when a guy like Dimebag gets ahold of it, it sounds completely different and probably about 99 to 100 percent better."

He added, "I have a fantastic guitar player named Marzi Montazeri, who… Actually, him and Dimebag had known each other since the middle '80s, late '80s, and I've known Marzi almost as long. And really, Dimebag… He was such a killer, killer, amazing player — we all know this — but Dimebag would show so much respect to Marzi. Just to sit there and watch those two guys jam together back in the old days, or just talk guitars… They just had this amazing mutual respect for one another. So Marzi and I have reunited, and he is really an executioner when it comes to right-hand picking, and his left hand blows mine away completely, and he's a great lead player. And the kid who plays drums from WARBEAST, José Manuel Gonzales, he plays drums on my stuff, too. And I've got a local kid playing bass, named Bennett Bartley. And really, man, I orchestrated the whole thing — my words, my songs — but I let Marzi put his fingerprints, so to speak, all over this whole damn thing. Really, man, it's probably — in my estimation — one of the most intense things I've done, ever. What I love about it is you can't slide it into any one particular slot, but it's just as extreme as extreme gets. So I can't wait to catch some feedback on this sucker."

In a recent interview with the Flint, Michigan radio station Banana 101.5 Rocks, Anselmo stated about his solo CD, "I have written over a dozen very extreme songs that I basically put a lot of thought into as far as genres go. Because extreme music comes in all genres in one way or another, but, of course, my heart is in heavy metal, hardcore, etc. I've done hardcore before, I've done heavy metal before, I've done American-branded black metal before. I've done the genre stuff before. I wanted to create something that, in my mind, is fresh and different, and can't be just slid into a slot. So it is an extremely extreme listen, but it's also, in my opinion, a very different listen. So I'm gonna leave where it belongs, genre-wise, up to all the media experts and all the kids out there and all the people out there that might be buying this record just out of curiosity, or if you're a fan and you wanna check it out. But I'll warn you once again: it is an extreme listen with a lot of involvement. Really, man, I couldn't be happier with it, so far."