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Factoid: Superjoint Ritual will be performing at 7:30 p.m. on July 17, at Mugsy's Entertainment Center. Opening the show are Annihilate The Hero, Slitheryn and Full Blown Chaos. Tickets are on sale at the venue for $17 in advance; $19 the day of the show. For more information on Superjoint Ritual, go to www.superjointritual.com.
While most of America was able to kick back and relax on Independence Day, the heavy metal group Superjoint Ritual was hard at work performing the first gig of its summer tour.
As part of Superjoint Ritual's summer sonic assault, the group is stopping off at Mugsy's Entertainment Center on July 17. Supporting the group on this tour is Full Blown Chaos. The Chicago-based Slitheryn will wrap its coils around the stage for a set, with local metal act Annihilate the Hero also in support.
For the past year or so, Superjoint has been touring extensively with and without supporting acts throughout the country to promote its first album, 2002's "Use Once and Destroy" and eventually a live DVD, "Superjoint Ritual: Live in Dallas 2002." As if those releases weren't enough already, SJR is releasing its second full-length album, "A Lethal Dose of American Hatred" on Sanctuary Records.
With the combination of former Pantera vocalist Philip Anselmo on vocals, Jimmy Bower of Eyehategod and Kevin Bond on guitars, Hank Williams III on bass and Joe Fazzio on drums, it's difficult to foresee any hindrance for the group.
Band front man Anselmo recently spoke with the Daily Egyptian Pulse in regards to the future of the group, and where Superjoint Ritual fits into the grand scheme of modern heavy metal.
Daily Egyptian: When exactly did Superjoint Ritual come into being?
Philip Anselmo: Probably since about '93.
DE: So why is it then that after all this time, that SJR has finally been able to get together and produce material?
PA: Well that's a pretty simple answer. When the band was put together, everybody had prior commitments with their main band. Pantera was my band. Jimmy Bower was heavily, heavily into Eyehategod and they toured quite a bit.
DE: Even though the last Pantera album ["Reinventing The Steel"] and the two Down albums ["NOLA", "A Bustle in Your Hedgerow"] were put out by Elektra, you chose to go with Sanctuary Records to release the Superjoint Ritual material. Why is that?
PA: Because I felt that a label like Elektra wouldn't necessarily know how to present a band like Superjoint. And another thing is putting out too many bands on one label. When you're alone, it's not that great of an idea. You want a label that's going to be able to make you some kind of priority. Obviously, Elektra's priority was Pantera. Fine. I can understand the business end of that. I felt that Superjoint was a band that absolutely should not be ignored. It shouldn't be a "B" or a "C" band. It should definitely be an "A" band.
DE: Were a lot of the lyrics for "A Lethal Dose of American Hatred" already written from back in the day when you guys had first gotten together, or was there some updating?
PA: No, not at all. I've even gone so far as to modernize some of the older lyrical content. On the new album there's probably six or seven new songs. So, it was kind of cool to come with a fresh face.
DE: In previous tours, you guys had headlined with the same secondary act on each of your dates. Last fall, you had High On Fire playing with you. But this spring you're going from city to city with local acts opening for you. What made you decide to do this?
PA: Well, it's just because the new album isn't out yet. We are trying to put together a package together, hopefully soon. We'll see when it happens. There are a lot of possibilities out there. If you wanted to put Superjoint Ritual with one of today's more ticket selling, larger acts, honestly, they'd be terrified of us. And with good reason, they wouldn't want to lose their crowd to us. Because in all honesty, there is no band like Superjoint Ritual at this time.
DE: Once this tour's over with, do you plan on doing more touring?
PA: As far as I know man, we're going to be going month-on, month-off until it's done.
DE: After that tour's done, do you plan on working on another album?
PA: Absolutely. Because there' s no doubt in my mind at all that this next record will bring us to an even higher credential with the audience we want to reach. And then there are the curiosity seekers. But that all gets weeded out. I went through that with Pantera. You know the real motherfers when you see them out there.
DE: On the Superjoint DVD, you said that the heart of true heavy metal lies in the underground. Do you think there are any bands out there touring the circuit that represent old school metal?
PA: No, I don't. I think that you would have to see us, really. There are some bands that do things that are old school, but we base our style around the whole movement.
DE: What made you think that the time for you to present this type of old school metal had come around?
PA: If I could've put out the earlier recordings of Superjoint, I would've. Honestly. It was really a fed-up timing thing. But it does happen to fall at a very weak, vulnerable point in music where everybody's completely confused with new metal. There's an extremely divided opinion on metal. There's a lot to that. I think we're a band that fills that gap beautifully, if not takes over the whole motherfing, godd**n thing of it all. To me, it's that real in my mind. It's that's real in my heart. When things are that real, they usually come together. It's just so over the top.
DE: On this tour, you're playing at some places you've never played before, even with Pantera.
PA: Yeah, like last night [July 5]. St. Petersburg [Fla.]. We had never played there. It was ferocious. I know a lot of people come [to our shows], and there are a lot of young faces in the audience, and they've just been taught the recent ways to behave themselves at concerts. Well once they get a taste of the counter-clockwise pit, the stage diving and the brotherhood, and the old school rules, I'd have to say they're sold for life. The energy is just massive.
DE: When you go to new places like that, do you ever get apprehensive about how the crowd's going to react even though you've been through the routine time and time again?
PA: Well, a little bit of both. I'm apprehensive to the point of, 'Gee, what if no one's heard of us' or 'What if they don't make the show' or something to that effect. It's always packed enough easily. Once we get out on stage, it's second nature to me. So the music's there. It's so f**king powerful. I'm there at 100 percent. When you've got that combination, it's really tough to go wrong.
