For the first time ever, Ultimate Guitar presented some of the members of DOWN with an interview made up entirely of reader's questions. Over 300 questions were submitted over the course of several days and they had the arduous task of picking "the best" questions and then getting Philip Anselmo, Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein to answer them.
Here are a few of the questions, followed some very honest answers:
UG: How did you feel about playing the Pantera songs live on the Metal Masters tour? What is your favorite Pantera song to play? (Maiden95)
Anselmo: I feel great to play 'em live. It's fun; it's great. My favorite? I guess my all-time favorite would be "A New Level".
You've been involved in bands with hardcore/punk influences. What are some of your favorite hardcore/punk albums? (HandsofStone)
Anselmo: 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'.
Pepper Kennan: Hardcore or punk? It would be narrowed down to three records probably: "My War" by Black Flag; "Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing" by Discharge; and Cro-Mags "The Age Of Quarrel". And the Ramones "Road To Ruin".
Kirk, same question.
Anselmo: He don't know punk.
Kirk Windstein: I really don't know punk that well.
Anselmo: I know some sh-t.
Windstein: I'd say "The Age Of Quarrel" and Agnostic Front...
Anselmo: "Victim In Pain."
Windstein: Yeah, "Victim In Pain".
Keenan: It depends which ones made you shift a lot when you were younger. When I heard "Road To Ruin" when I was 13, 14 years old, it changed my life.
Anselmo: Tell me f---in' certain Celtic Frost tunes ain't hardcore?
Keenan: Well sure.
Anselmo: Exactly.
"I have certain values and I guess attitude and with that comes a music that you keep close to your heart."
What album are you most proud of? (red_hot_chili18)
Anselmo: To me the ones I'm proud of it would take too long for me to answer. That's an impossible question.
Back in the day White Zombie benefited from Beavis & Butthead giving them their "seal of approval". Did Crowbar notice any similar boost in sales after their video was shown on that show? (zalant)
Windstein: Umm, it was the biggest selling record that we had. I mean we intentionally sent a package in with a video, t-shirt and a note and everything for Mike Judge. We're like, "Dude, have at it. Make fun of us. We know we're fat and we know we're ugly and we're heavy so have at it. Make fun of us all you want." So it certainly didn't hurt things I should say.
What was the cause for such a dramatic change in your vocal style on the later Pantera albums? (K!!LsWiTcH)
Anselmo: Ohh, I guess I was finding myself more and more and more. I have certain values and I guess attitude and with that comes a music that you keep close to your heart as genres. Emulating and being an extension of those genres, I was a young man so I would say impressionable. It helped me define myself. You take a good listen around today and I don't think it's the earlier Phil Anselmo kids are apin' but it's the more later Pantera kids have been most influenced by.
The entire interview is available HERE!
HERE is an extensive gallery of DOWN's recent concert in New York City!
Recently, DOWN premiered a music video for their NEW song "Witchtripper".
Watch it HERE!
Where to order online:
Down IV Part I the Purple Ep on cd available at amazon.com. Click here.
Down IV Part I the Purple Ep on cd available at bestbuy.com. Click here.
Down IV Part I the Purple Ep and bundles on sale at down-nola.com. Click here.
Starting Sept 18, the full album and individual songs in mp3 format will be available from Amazon.com for download. Click here.
Down IV Part I the Purple Ep is available for pre-order from iTunes. Click here.
Photo by: Zulie Alvarez (
www.zuliephotographierocks.com/)
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