{"id":8320,"date":"2012-11-12T00:00:41","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T00:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=8320"},"modified":"2013-07-20T11:55:10","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T11:55:10","slug":"feature-fozzy-11-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-fozzy-11-12\/","title":{"rendered":"FOZZY – Skin And Bones (November 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

FOZZY – Skin And Bones<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nNovember 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fozzy (l-r): Frank Fontsere, Rich Ward, Chris Jericho, Billy Grey and Paul Di Leo<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nOn January 18th, 2012, American heavy metal quintet Fozzy revealed the fact that they had inked a global album contract with Century Media Records. Previous Fozzy studio full-lengths to date include the self-titled Fozzy<\/em> (October 2000, Megaforce), Happenstance<\/em> (July 2002, Megaforce), All That Remains<\/em> (January 2005), and Chasing The Grail<\/em> (January 2010, Riot! Entertainment), the four releases roughly spanning a ten-year period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the roster Century Media has, they have a huge roster,\u201d enthuses Chris Jericho, vocalist and co-founder of Fozzy. \u201cAn amazing roster with so many cool bands, from Lacuna Coil to In Flames to Iced Earth. It\u2019s a very, very strong label; there are a lot of cool bands on there. We just thought it would be a perfect fit. Rich worked with Century Media for years with Stuck Mojo, and always had great reports about them and all the work they did. Robert Kampf (founder of Century Media) is a great guy as are all who work for him, and they really get the band. That\u2019s the most important thing. Whenever you have a record label who stands behind the band and gets behind the band, that\u2019s all you can ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fozzy has never experienced such label support, the mainman feels. \u201cThis is the first time we\u2019ve ever had that,\u201d he reckons. \u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling.\u201d <\/p>\n

August 2012 platter Sin And Bones<\/em><\/a> \u2013 the group\u2019s fifth overall \u2013 marks the inauguration of Century Media\u2019s involvement with Fozzy. \u201cFor the record we decided we wanted to really focus on what we particularly do best, which is creating heavy music with very melodic choruses, and a lot of harmonies,\u201d Chris discloses. \u201cAlmost like if Metallica and Journey had a bastard child, it would be Fozzy. We started doing that on our last record Chasing The Grail<\/em>, so we really wanted to focus in on that and make even more of a statement about what we do. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat down, and started working on the album basically. We wanted to make a very cohesive record where all the songs share a certain vibe and share a certain tone, where song one all the way through to song ten would take you on a little bit of a journey. That\u2019s exactly what we did. Every band always says their newest record is the best thing they\u2019ve ever done, but we really thought that. Once the record came out and we saw that it was the fastest selling record that we\u2019ve ever had, the highest charting record that we\u2019ve ever had, we saw that people felt the same way that we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The frontman considers Sin And Bones<\/em> a companion piece to Chasing The Grail<\/em>. \u201cIf you listen to both of those records together, you get a real direct feeling of who Fozzy actually is,\u201d he critiques. \u201cBoth of those records are filled with great tunes, and they both have some diversity to them. I think they\u2019re both great albums. I just think that Sin And Bones<\/em> is a little more streamlined. I think the vocals on Sin And Bones<\/em> are some of the best I\u2019ve ever done. I think they\u2019re both great records in the same way that Ride The Lightning<\/em> (July 1984) and Master Of Puppets<\/em> (March 1986) were both great records (and Metallica\u2019s second and third albums). They\u2019re both great in different ways, depending on what you like best. I like Sin And Bones<\/em> better, but I love Chasing The Grail<\/em> too.\u201d<\/p>\n

In cutting vocals for the record, Chris \u201cjust focused more on being Chris Jericho. I think I\u2019ve got to the point now where you hear my voice you can tell whose it is. There\u2019s a little bit of a distinctive tone to it, a distinctive quality to it. Songs like \u2018Inside Head My Head\u2019 and \u2018A Passed Life\u2019 really stretched me as a singer. I\u2019ve never really sang like that before; I think it just turned out awesome. I love listening to those songs because they\u2019re completely different from anything I\u2019ve done before, and then yet sound really, really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Topics like real life issues, fantasy, TV, movies, and history encompass Sin And Bones<\/em>\u2019 lyrical content. \u201cYou\u2019d have to look through the lyrics to see what\u2019s on there, but I take my inspiration from a lot of different places,\u201d the singer muses. \u201cYou just never know what\u2019s gonna inspire you to write. There are a lot of different things on there that stand out to me for different reasons, and in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lead cut \u2018Sandpaper\u2019 includes guest vocalist M. Shadows, a founding member of American heavy metal assortment Avenged Sevenfold. \u201cHe\u2019s a friend of mine,\u201d Chris shares. \u201cWe did the Uproar tour last year, and Avenged Sevenfold headlined that tour. We just got really close, and realised we were kindred spirits. He was a Fozzy fan, and obviously I\u2019m an Avenged fan. When I had the vocal idea for the lines \u2018A Cat-scratch, a whiplash, a witch-hunt in black\u2019<\/em>, I gave him a call. Not only did he lay down a great vocal but he helped with the arrangement of it too, which was really cool. He came through in spades vocally and arrangement-wise. Professionally and friendship-wise it was really an honour to have him involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Evil Dead<\/em>-inspired music video was filmed to compliment \u2018Sandpaper\u2019. \u201cI just thought it would be a cool scenario for a video,\u201d the lyricist remembers. \u201cWe tried to think of a way we could have M. Shadows involved, even though he sings on the record but isn\u2019t in the band. At first he wasn\u2019t gonna be in the video, so I thought about some kind of a possession, a spirit, or something. That\u2019s how it all came to be. We\u2019re just huge fans of Evil Dead<\/em>. We used a great cabin in the woods, told the director what we wanted to do, and that was basically it man. We just thought it was a cool idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

1981 horror movie The Evil Dead<\/em> is be subject to a remake, scheduled to be released in 2013. \u201cRemakes are weird,\u201d Chris contends. \u201cMost of the time they\u2019re bad, but once in awhile you get a good one. I think the Dawn Of The Dead<\/em> remake they did a few years ago (2004) was amazing, and then there\u2019s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre<\/em> (2003) and The Amityville Horror<\/em> (2005). Those were all kind of crap, but I saw the trailer for it and it looks pretty intense. I\u2019ll give it a try, but it\u2019s gonna be hard to capture the magic of the original because the original was obviously low-budget, and there was just something magical about it. I guess we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guitarist Rich Ward supplies growls to \u2018Blood Happens\u2019. \u201cThat\u2019s been a Rich Ward trademark for many years,\u201d the vocalist supplements.<\/p>\n

A fortunate accident spawned the title track. \u201cWhen we were over in Europe, Rich was texting somebody about how he hadn\u2019t been eating much and that he was turning into skin and bones,\u201d Chris reveals. \u201cWhen he put that into the phone, the auto-correct changed it to \u2018…sin and bones\u2019. That was basically it. He showed it to me, and I said \u2018That\u2019s awesome.\u2019 It was a total fluke that \u2018\u2026 sin and bones\u2019 came into our heads, but once it did we knew that it was a great song title and a great album title. I wrote a song inspired by that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A Passed Life\u2019 signals a change of pace on Sin And Bones<\/em>. \u201cThat was interesting,\u201d the mainman recalls. \u201cRich just called me one day and said that he had a song with the vibe of \u2018Diary Of A Madman\u2019 (from Ozzy Osbourne\u2019s November 1981 full-length of the same name), so I started writing some vocals and some lyrics. I actually sang the exact lyrics to the melody line of \u2018Diary Of A Madman\u2019 to help me write them, to help me get the vibe that he wanted. It then all started coming together. It sounds like a combination of The Doors meets early Iron Maiden, Paul Di\u2019Anno-era Iron Maiden. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt really gives you a certain vibe, and a feel. It\u2019s almost like you\u2019re driving down a California highway with the top down. It really gives you a visual image when you listen to that song, and that\u2019s why I love it. I think the vocals on that are probably my best on the record. I\u2019d never really sang like that before, and just the whole vibe of the song and how it builds at the end… I think over the next few years, that\u2019s gonna be the one song that we\u2019ll go back to to say \u2018That song is great.\u2019 When you first hear it, it\u2019s a grower. You have to listen to it two or three times to really appreciate it, but once you do. I think the vibe of it just really, really goes beyond all the other stuff that we have on the record. I love that. You can listen to this record and hear different things the more you listen to it. All the best records are like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mot\u00f6rhead guitarist Phil Campbell provides a guest solo on \u2018She\u2019s My Addiction\u2019. \u201cPhil\u2019s been a big Fozzy fan for years,\u201d Chris explains. \u201cHe played a gig with us at the Whisky A-Go-Go (in Hollywood, California) back in 2011 (January 13th). He came down to jam with us, and it was great. We had a great show, a great time. He kept calling me, saying \u2018We\u2019ve gotta do something on your next Fozzy record.\u2019 I was like \u2018Okay, sure.\u2019 Whenever Phil Campbell calls to play on your record, it\u2019s not really much of a stretch to say \u2018Okay.\u2019 It was just a matter of finding the right place for him and the right song. It\u2019s more \u2018What do we need to make this song a better song?,\u2019 and then who can do that job best. <\/p>\n

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Fozzy (l-r): Frank Fontsere, Paul Di Leo, Chris Jericho, Rich Ward and Billy Grey<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u201cThat\u2019s what we did with M. Shadows, and that\u2019s what we did with Jeff Waters (Annihilator guitarist \/ founder) when he played with us on Chasing The Grail<\/em> \u2013 his fast solos were definitely the best for that (\u2018Martyr No More\u2019 and \u2018God Pounds His Nails\u2019). It was the same when we had Zakk Wylde play with us on All That Remains<\/em> (on \u2018Wanderlust\u2019), and Marty Friedman (\u2018Born Of Anger\u2019), and all those guys. We love having guests; we\u2019ve had guests on every single Fozzy record ever. It just depends on what we wanna do, and who the right person is for the job I guess. \u2018She\u2019s My Addiction\u2019 was the perfect song for him, because it\u2019s very Mot\u00f6rhead in a lot of ways. It was very cool to have him involved; he\u2019s just a great guy, and always a blast to talk to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Treading the path outlined by Chasing The Grail<\/em> composition \u2018Wormwood\u2019, \u2018Storm The Beaches\u2019 rounds out Sin And Bones<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved long songs,\u201d the frontman beams. \u201cOne of my favourite things about music is when you get a really good epic, like some of the songs Helloween and Dream Theater have written. I\u2019ve always loved long songs on a record. We did \u2018Wormwood\u2019 on the last record, which was a really cool subject to write about. I came up with the song title \u2018Storm The Beaches\u2019. I thought it would be pretty cool to write a song based on D-day, almost like the opening of Saving Private Ryan<\/em> (1998). I really wanted to capture that vibe on a song, and nobody ever, ever has. Iron Maiden had a song called \u2018The Longest Day\u2019 (on August 2006\u2019s A Matter Of Life And Death<\/em>), but it didn\u2019t really describe D-day \u2013 it was vaguely about it. I wanted to write a song that had actual detail though. <\/p>\n

\u201cI found this letter that a kid had written home to his mother, a kid who had survived D-day. He had lived through D-day, and survived it. He wrote this letter to his mother describing that day, and I just constructed the lyrics based on that. I also did some research. When you\u2019re writing about personal angst and all that kind of stuff, I really wanted to understand what that stuff was before I wrote about it. I happened to give myself a little bit of history lesson as well. I think the lyrics were very visual though; if you close your eyes and listen to the lyrics, you can actually see what\u2019s going on. The music that Rich then wrote for it fitted perfectly. It was really one of my favourite songs from Sin And Bones<\/em> to write and record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris is of the Christian faith, though Christian-oriented lyrics aren\u2019t included on Fozzy\u2019s fifth jaunt. \u201cThere were Christian-based lyrics on the last record, like \u2018God Pounds His Nails\u2019 and \u2018Wormwood\u2019,\u201d he ponders. \u201cWith this one, I don\u2019t think there really is. There are always positive lyrics as far as being a Christian goes. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve ever really had out and out Christian lyrics, but there were some songs that were Christian-based. On this record there wasn\u2019t really a Christian lyric at all though, off the top of my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Dark Passenger\u2019 references Jesus, but only in passing. \u201cThat\u2019s about a serial killer,\u201d the singer notes. \u201c\u2018Jesus is my co-pilot \/ That\u2019s just what they say \/ But it\u2019s not the saviour \/ Who guides me every day\u2019. He\u2019s a serial killer, so there aren\u2019t really church lyrics on that one (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

An interpretation of Black Sabbath<\/a> number \u2018Fairies Wear Boots\u2019 (originally from September 1970\u2019s Paranoid<\/em><\/a>) was recorded as a bonus tune. \u201cWe had to do some B-sides, and originally we were gonna do four covers,\u201d Chris divulges. \u201cWe discussed about The Kinks\u2019 \u2018Destroyer\u2019 (originally from August 1981\u2019s Give The People What They Want<\/em>). We discussed Sabbath… I can\u2019t remember what the other one was… We were actually talking about the Skrillex song \u2018Cinema\u2019 (remixed by Skrillex, and originally by Benny Benassi), which we thought would make a really cool metal song. We were just discussing different ideas and different songs. <\/p>\n

\u201cRich kept writing cool songs though, so we did three originals instead. We had to do one B-side. I said \u2018Let\u2019s do a Sabbath song\u2019 because I thought that would be fun to do, and no-one\u2019s ever done a cover of \u2018Fairies Wears Boots\u2019. That\u2019s another reason why we wanted to do it. Like I said, there has never been a cover of \u2018Fairies Wear Boots\u2019 ever. I\u2019ve always loved \u2018Fairies Wears Boots\u2019. I love Sabbath and I love Ozzy, but most particularly we love the version that was on Speak Of The Devil<\/em> (November 1982), Ozzy\u2019s live album that had Brad Gillis, Rudy Sarzo and Tommy Aldridge on it. That\u2019s the version that we covered. It\u2019s a little longer at the beginning, and Paul\u2019s bass line (Paul Di Leo) is more Rudy Sarzo than Geezer Butler. <\/p>\n

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\u201cSo yeah, we kind of did an Ozzy Osbourne band, Speak Of The Devil<\/em> version of \u2018Fairies Wear Boots\u2019 rather than the Black Sabbath version. It\u2019s fairly subtle, but for those of you who know that record you\u2019ll know exactly what I\u2019m talking about. It\u2019s just a great song. It\u2019s funny because on the last couple of records some people have said that Jericho sounds like Ozzy when he sings, that I sound like Ozzy. I thought \u2018I\u2019ve never tried to sound like Ozzy. What would happen if I actually did an Ozzy song, and tried to sound like him? How would it sound?\u2019 It\u2019s hilarious. It\u2019s like Ozzy Junior came into the studio to sing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI never said \u2018Wow, I sound like Ozzy\u2019 but talking about \u2018Under Blackened Skies\u2019 (from Chasing The Grail<\/em>), people have said that I sounded a little like Ozzy. I think maybe people might hear it a little bit in certain words, but I thought \u2018What if I actually try to sound exactly like Ozzy? The same intonation? The same tone?\u2019 \u2018\u2026 Late last night\u2019<\/em> (imitates Ozzy\u2019s voice), like really go into that sort of thing? It was fun; it was fun to do. It was fun to imitate Ozzy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Destroyer\u2019 and \u2018Cinema\u2019 aren\u2019t earmarked to be future covers, however. \u201cWe\u2019ll probably always do a cover, but we\u2019ve moved on from The Kinks,\u201d the composer submits. \u201cWe\u2019ve definitely moved on from Skrillex. We\u2019ve already discussed one that we wanna do for the next record, but your mind changes a lot. It\u2019s always good to do a cover as your first song back to the studio as a singer, because it gives you something to warm up with. I hadn\u2019t been in the studio for a year and a half to two years or whatever it was, and the first song that I sang on Sin And Bones<\/em> was \u2018Fairies Wear Boots\u2019. It was really to warm up.\u201d<\/p>\n

From November 27th until December 6th, Fozzy will tour across the United Kingdom. Repeatedly during interviews, Chris has praised the band\u2019s UK fanbase. \u201cI always say that the UK is like our second home, and it really is,\u201d he compliments. \u201cThat was the first country that ever really embraced Fozzy, and I remember the first ever gig we played there was at Rock City in Nottingham. We played there in February of 04 maybe? I remember going to the venue, and I couldn\u2019t believe how many people were there. It was just jam-packed, sold out or whatever, and I couldn\u2019t believe it. I thought \u2018Why? Why is this happening?\u2019 I didn\u2019t know that we had that sort of a following there. That\u2019s why we like playing there; they like what they like, and there are really no trends. It\u2019s just people like the music, or they don\u2019t. You can hear that at the festivals; there are such eclectic line-ups every year, and people go to see as many bands as possible no matter what style. At those gigs I started to really appreciate the fact that we had a great fanbase, and we just kept going back over and over. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember our last record label SPV… One time we played a show at the Astoria in London. It was like our third tour for All That Remains<\/em>, and the record exec was like \u2018Why are you guys here again?\u2019 We said \u2018Because people are coming to see us.\u2019 There was no help from the record company. It was like \u2018Fuck you. We\u2019re here because our fans want us here,\u2019 and that wasn\u2019t the end of it. We\u2019ve had so many great shows over the years. We played Download in June, and it was probably one of my favourite shows that we\u2019ve ever played. It was probably one of the biggest crowds that we\u2019ve ever had, which was insane considering that the band before us (Page 44) had like 500 people. I thought \u2018Alright. It\u2019s gonna be one of those days\u2019. I go to the dressing room, and then when I came back out there were 25-30,000 people there on a Saturday afternoon in the mud. They were all looking for us, and they found us. It was really cool to know that people felt about us that way, and we feel the same way. That\u2019s why we\u2019re excited to come back. We need to come back as soon as possible to continue this amazing momentum we have from Download.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sin And Bones<\/em> was released internationally (excluding North America) on August 13th, 2012 and subsequently in North America on the 14th, all via Century Media Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in November 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOZZY – Skin And Bones Anthony Morgan November 2012 Fozzy (l-r): Frank Fontsere, Rich Ward, Chris Jericho, Billy Grey and Paul Di Leo On January 18th, 2012, American heavy metal quintet Fozzy revealed the fact that they had inked a global album contract with Century Media Records. Previous Fozzy studio full-lengths to date include the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[320],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fozzy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8320"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8367,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8320\/revisions\/8367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}