Interview: Brian Fair of Shadows Fall

So what do you do as a band, when you've already accomplished all your goals?

That's the question Massachussets thrashers Shadows Fall are currently faced with, but it's not a bad problem to have, said vocalist Brian Fair.

"When we originally got this band together, we just wanted to play some local shows and then maybe get out and tour a little," he said. "At this point, we've already been to Japan, all around Europe and played Castle Donnington with Iron Maiden. After this, it's all gravy."

The show at Castle Donnington in England, one of heavy metal's most hallowed venues, was the pinnacle of the band's young career so far, said Fair, allowing them to open for two metal legends and putting them in front of tens of thousands of fans.

"It was unreal," Fair said. "To be able to play with a band as amazing as Iron Maiden on their classic home turf was just unreal. Then, the next day Metallica showed up and did a surprise set, so within the same weekend, we covered two metal dreams, which was opening for both Iron Maiden and Metallica."

Next up on the heavy metal hit parade, the prince of (bleeping) darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne, as Shadows Fall is set to rip up the second stage on this summer's Ozzfest tour. Fair said the band has already played with most of the other bands on the second stage, and they're looking forward to seeing old friends like Killswitch Engage, Sworn Enemy and Hotwire. Fair said it's nice to be playing with people you know, but even nicer to be able to bring your music to masses of new people.

"It's cool to be part of something that huge and also to play in front of a lot of people who have never heard of us before," he said. "That's always a fun thing - it's a challenge. If you keep playing to the same kids over and over, you really don't have to try as hard. With this, it's going to be a lot of faces we've never seen, and we just want to go out and try to make as many new fans as possible."

Every year at Ozzfest, there's usually a second-stage band that really breaks out and creates a tremendous buzz among fans. Could it be Shadows Fall this year? Fair hopes so, but he's not going to get cocky.

"We've got a lot of competition on the second stage this year," he said. "There are a lot of great bands, and there are a lot of high energy bands. I think it's going to be non-stop brutality on the second stage."

Whether or not they emerge from Ozzfest the champions of the second stage, a buzz is already building around Shadows Fall. Other musicians constantly cite them as one of the best up-and-coming bands and their videos for "Thoughts Without Words" and "Destroyer of Senses" are mainstays of MTV2's resurrected "Headbanger's Ball" and Much Music's "Uranium." Fair said the renewed interest in metal on television has been a big boost for Shadows Fall and a lot of other bands.

"Even just a few years ago, any band on an independent metal label, if you made a video, the most it was going to end up on was probably a VHS compilation that would get seen by 100 or 200 people," he said. "Now they're actually giving airtime to some of these underground bands, and it's really amazing. We're pretty much a grass roots, word of mouth kind of band, so to have that mass exposure, with that many people we normally wouldn't be able to reach, is a huge help."

But Fair is quick to point out that metal fans can be a finicky bunch and don't buy into a lot of hype. He said the band won't buy into it, either.

"We're trying not to really think about it too much, but to live up to it by playing everywhere we can and as hard as we can every night," he said. "Sometimes the metal kids are looking to knock you off the high horse when you have too much hype going on. We don't want it to be hollow praise. We want it to be because we're out there playing and kicking as much ass as possible."

Tribute: Ozzy Osbourne

For those who only know Ozzy as the doddering, slightly addled father on MTV's "The Osbournes," it may be hard to figure out why legions of hardcore fans are so dedicated to him, why stadiums erupt in chants of "Ozzy, Ozzy" when he takes the stage or why almost every hard rock outfit worth its salt claims him as an influence.

To understand that, you'd have to go back and look at the life and times of the godfather of metal.

The story began in 1970, when a new band and new sound were about to be unleashed on the world. Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album hit record store shelves. The four young men from Birmingham, England, began as a blues band called Earth, but then hit on a brand of music that distilled their industrial roots into pure musical energy.

Though some might argue that heavy metal began with Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, Jimi Hendrix or even the Beatles' "Helter Skelter," when you hear the first three haunting, hollow notes of the song "Black Sabbath" - notes that echo like the tolling of a lone bell over a bleak landscape - you know instantly this is a different beast entirely.

The band was built around the crushing guitar riffs of Tony Iommi. Though not the most technically proficient guitarist, Iommi reigns as undisputed master of the riff. Three decades later, he still owns the copyright on most of the best metal riffs ever written.

Giving the band its personality was a slightly overweight, blond singer named John "Ozzy" Osbourne. His vocals weren't as impressive and versatile as his peer Robert Plant, nor were they as powerful as later metal vocalists like Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford and Ronnie James Dio, who later replaced him in Sabbath. But they were unique, and his mocking voice fit seamlessly into the band's gloomy sound.

Thus began a 10-year run that would shake the music world to its core, giving rise to bands like Metallica, Slayer and Pantera. The influence of Sabbath even echoes in the percussive rhythms of today's hard rock.

But like all good things, Sabbath eventually came to an end (at least for Ozzy.) In a drug-addled confusion at the end of the 1970s, Ozzy and Sabbath parted ways. At the age of 30, most people wrote Ozzy off as a washed-up has-been. They were wrong.

Enter Sharon Arden, daughter of Ozzy's manager, who worked tirelessly to get him signed to a solo deal before becoming Mrs. Osbourne. A shrewd businesswoman, most people speculate that Sharon is the only reason Ozzy has lived to see 54, and certainly the main reason for the singer's success.

In 1980, Ozzy released his solo debut, "Blizzard of Ozz," which would become one of the seminal recordings in heavy metal history and spawn classic songs like "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley." He went on to surpass his former bandmates in Black Sabbath, becoming the epitome of metal, while they faded into obscurity as a revolving door for musicians.

One of the primary reasons for Ozzy's success is the bands that he has built around him over the years. One thing fans count on from Ozzy is great guitar.

He found a soulmate in the early 1980s in Randy Rhoads, a virtuoso guitarist whose untimely death in a 1982 plane crash robbed the world of a promising talent. Rhoads' two albums with the Ozzman, "Blizzard of Ozz" and "Diary of a Madman" remain fan favorites and classics of the genre.

Though Rhoads' death hit Ozzy hard, he soldiered on, lining up flashy guitarist Jake E. Lee for his next two albums, "Bark at the Moon" and "The Ultimate Sin." While Ozzy and Lee produced some great songs, they failed to capture the same magic as the Rhoads albums.

But in 1989, Ozzy found another guitarist to fill the void, a fresh-faced kid named Zakk Wylde. The new guitar hotshot had his own unmistakable style, blending lightning fast licks with ear-piercing harmonic shrieks. His first album with Ozzy, "No Rest for the Wicked," was the fastest and heaviest of Ozzy's solo career, a sharp contrast to the more commercial "Ultimate Sin."

Nearly 15 years later, Wylde isn't so fresh-faced anymore (in fact, he's pretty grungy-looking), but he's still Ozzy's right-hand man. He's been partially responsible for some of Ozzy's greatest musical triumphs, including the critically-acclaimed 1992 release "No More Tears" and the highly underrated 2001 release "Down to Earth."

But there have been a few potholes in the road to success for Ozzy - his arrest for urinating on the Alamo in a drunken stupor, his attempt to choke Sharon in a drug-induced rage, a lawsuit brought by parents who claimed his anti-alcoholism anthem "Suicide Solution" caused their children to kill themselves and, of course, the legendary bat-biting incident.

"No matter what achievements I make in my career, I will always be known as the guy who bit the bat's head off," Ozzy said in a 2001 interview with the Associated Press. "Even the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame considers my career a joke because of it."

Indeed, that could have something to do with the reason Black Sabbath has been passed over for induction time and time again, despite the obvious influence they've had on music. But it's not the Hall of Fame that Ozzy cares about, it's the oceans of chanting fans that pack venues wherever he plays - the fans that have allowed him a 30-plus year career. He's never deserted them, and they've never deserted him.

Evidence of that can be found recently, when his insurance company refused to cover a June 11 show in Toronto, because of the SARS scare. Ozzy played the date anyway.

"I'm not afraid of SARS," he said in an interview with Much Music. "I have a commitment and somebody needs to be there for the fans in Toronto."

Despite the ups and downs of his career, and even a temporary retirement in 1992, Ozzy has made one of his biggest contributions to rock `n' roll in the late 1990s with the launching of his annual Ozzfest tour in 1996. The shows, which pair established, big-name hard rock and metal bands with some of the top up-and-coming groups, have been among the top grossing summer tours every year. Now in its eighth year, Ozzfest has helped launch the careers of some of today's biggest hard rock acts, including System of a Down, Static-X, Powerman 5000 and Disturbed.

Ozzfest also gave the world the moment metal fans had been waiting 20 years for in 1999 and 2001, when the reformed original lineup of Black Sabbath headlined the tour.

All of these things and more have combined to give Ozzy one of the largest, most dedicated followings of any rock band on the planet. But there's an easier way to explain it. Just ask any fan, and they'll give you a much simpler answer - "Ozzy (bleeping) rules." Indeed, he (bleeping) does.

Interviews: Flaw

After a successful run on the second stage of Ozzfest this summer, Flaw is getting back to grass roots. Over the next seven weeks, the band will be hitting smaller venues in places that Ozzfest didn't reach in an effort to expand their fan base.

Singer Chris Volz says Ozzfest was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but he'll be happy to get back to a more intimate setting - not to mention a more normal performance time.

"(Ozzfest) was a rotating schedule, so some days we were literally on stage at like nine in the morning," Volz said. "That was quite strange."

He says Flaw won't miss the big outdoor shows of Ozzfest, though. This tour will give them a chance to connect more closely with fans.

"It's really almost a separate feeling when you play these huge outdoor festivals because the barricades are 15 or 20 feet from the stage," he said. "People don't feel as close to you as they do in a club setting where they're right up against the stage and you can reach out and shake hands, talk to them, show respect in that manner."

Taking care of their fans and earning new ones is what Flaw is all about. Volz says they try to go the extra mile in their live shows, even when that includes hanging around afterwards.

"We have an intense live show," Volz said. "We're really energetic. We go nuts a lot. We really just try to feel what the crowd is feeling. We're also the band that stays after the show and signs autographs until the last person is gone. It's a really emotional thing for us."

It seems to be working. Their major label debut "Through the Eyes" has shipped 300,000 copies in its first year of release, and their latest single "Whole" is still going strong. The diverse collection of songs appears to have a wide appeal. Volz says he hopes there's something on the album everyone can relate to.

"We definitely like diversity in music, and we feel music should imitate life," he said. "Life's never really the same for too long. We think music should follow that same guideline, so it never really gets stale."

Coming out of Louisville, Ky., the band had a few problems getting noticed early on. One thing they needed was a CD to put in press kits and promo packs. That was an issue with the shoestring budget provided by their part-time jobs. A popular music catalog's 30-day money back guarantee provided a unique, if perhaps legally questionable, solution.

"We ordered all of the equipment we needed out of Musician's Friend to record our own album," Volz explained. "They have a 30-day money back guarantee, so we used the stuff for about 26 days and recorded as many songs as we could in that time. Then we sent it back saying we just didn't like the equipment. All we had to do was actually pay for shipping and handling, so we recorded 13 songs for about $69."

Volz and the rest of the band have no regrets about the deception. He says they were hungry to make their mark in the music business, and that was the only way open to them.

"It's borderline fraud, but sometimes it's the only way to get things done," he said. "You've got to do what you've got to do."

With Universal, the band doesn't have that problem. Volz says they'll finish writing for the second Flaw album when this tour is over and go into the studio in January. He hopes to have a new product out by spring 2003. Then they'll hit the road again.

"We're going to stay on the road, keep coming to as many towns as possible and try to stay in everyone's face so that they have a chance to understand exactly what we're trying to do," he said.

Interview: Zakk Wylde

This year, Ozzfest begins and ends with guitarist Zakk Wylde.

His band Black Label Society opens the main stage of the festival, then after a couple of hours to catch his breath and kick back a few beers, he'll join metal godfather Ozzy Osbourne to close the show. Wylde will be joined by Ozzy bassist Robert Trujillo in his double duty.

"Basically, we'll go out to open the main stage with Black Label and beat the living hell out of it," says Wylde. "Then, whatever's left, we'll come back with Ozzy and finish it off. Then we'll go backstage and have a few beers."

That take-no-prisoners attitude is what drives Wylde and Black Label Society, whose previous albums have included "Sonic Brew," "Stronger than Death" and "Alcohol-Fueled Brewtality Live." Their latest, "1919 Eternal," was released in March. The album is not only filled with attitude, but also shows respect for the band's roots.

It begins with the album's title. Originally called "Deathcore War Machine Eternal," Wylde says that title was nixed in the wake of Sept. 11. Instead, Wylde chose to honor his father, a World War II veteran, who was born in 1919.

Wylde says his father embodies the ideals of Black Label Society, which go much deeper than the alcohol-fueled angst of many of the band's songs.

"Thanks for instilling in me everything that you are - strength, determination, perseverance, family and honor," reads the dedication in the album cover. That, says Wylde, is what the band's attitude is all about.

"He's where it all began," Wylde says. "He was on the beach at Normandy on D-Day. He's 82 years old, and he still works five nights a week. He's pretty much the architect of Black Label."

Another man Wylde has a deep respect for is Ozzy, his partner in crime since the late 1980s. While Wylde enjoys singing, as well as the complete control he has over the Black Label Society product, he's not about to relinquish his position with Ozzy.

"You know your role," he says. "It's just like when you go back to your parents' house, you don't kick your feet up on the furniture. This is Ozzy's house."

Though Wylde focuses on different aspects of the music when playing with Ozzy, he has no problem making the switch from his own music to working with Osbourne.

"As far as I'm concerned, it all falls from the same tree," he says. "Have Ozzy sing on a Black Label record, and it's the new Ozzy album."

And is life with the Osbournes as crazy as the MTV series?

"Totally," Wylde says. "There's no acting there. They probably cut out some of the really insane stuff. He could have been a comedian if he hadn't decided to be the greatest frontman of all time."

Aside from his music, Wylde is also pursuing some acting work. He made his debut in last year's "Rock Star," though he admits his role as a guitar player in a rock band wasn't a real stretch.

"They said, `Zakk, just come down, play guitar all day, lift weights, drink beer and fire a 12-gauge shotgun," he says with a laugh. "And I said, `you're going to pay me for this?'"

He's been approached about appearing on the HBO prison drama "Oz." There's nothing definite yet, but Wylde says he'd be interested.

He's also looking into starting his own Black Label micro-brew, which he thinks will go over well with the band's fans. And he's about to begin breeding rottweillers.

Wylde makes it clear that these extracurricular activities will always be secondary to his music - and don't expect that to take a commercial turn any time soon, either.

"I'm really satisfied with what I'm doing," he says. "It's not like I'm selling 15 million copies, but I can make a living at what I'm doing - and I'm making the music I want to make."

When Ozzfest ends next week, Wylde will head out for a short headlining tour with Black Label Society. Beyond that, he says it depends on how Ozzy wants to play it.

"My wife just bought another house, so I'll probably be touring until I'm about 126. They'll just have to stuff me with new organs and send me back out," he jokes. "If Ozz wants to take a break, I'll keep touring with Black Label Society. If he wants to get going on another record, we'll do that. We'll just have to wait and see."

Interview: Mushroomhead

An odd band deserves an odd name. At least that's what Mushroomhead drummer and founding member Skinny thinks. He says fans all have their own unique interpretations of the name, and that's part of the band's mystique.

"That's one of those questions that's got a million different answers," Skinny says. "I always thought it was a cool name for a band. It has a lot of references and doesn't really pinpoint any. It was just one of those names we had, like if someone did something silly, you'd say `nice job, mushroomhead.' I just thought that it would make a great band name, so I used it."

The band, decked out in their trademark masks and makeup, is currently tearing up the second stage of Ozzfest with an odd blend of metal and art rock, laced with just a touch of hip-hop.

Even though Mushroomhead got started in 1992, their image often brings comparisons to one of today's biggest masked bands Slipknot. Skinny says that anyone who looks past the masks and listens to the music will realize there's no relation.

"We've been doing this for so long, and we've gotten comparisons all along," he says. "When we first started we were compared to Mr. Bungle and Gwar, then Manson, now Slipknot and Mudvayne, so we're used to it. People will be shallow, but the one thing I always tell people is don't judge the book by its cover. We're doing our own thing."

Skinny says Mushroomhead first donned the masks because they all belonged to other bands. They wanted to do something new and didn't want people to draw conclusions about what the music should sound like based on who the band members were.

"We put the masks on to hide our identities," he says. "If people didn't know who we were, it put more focus on the music."

Their brand of music is a little different from the current crop of heavy rock acts. Mushroomhead's major label debut "XX" provides new fans a retrospective of the band's 10-year career, pulling together some of their favorite songs from three independently-released albums. While it captures the energy of today's scene, there are also some strange twists and turns.

"We're strange dudes, man," says Skinny. "Ultimately, we don't want to sound like anyone. We want to sound like us. We purposely try to throw monkey wrenches in the machine all the time just to see what happens."

The eight-piece band's creative edge comes from a diverse membership, Skinny says. He thinks having a band twice the size of most other metal acts is a great advantage.

"Having a lot of members is what shapes (our music)," he says. "You get a lot of opinions, you get a lot of input, you get a lot of good ideas - sometimes too many good ideas. That's what makes us us - being able to syphon through all of the ideas and pick the good ones versus the bad ones."

While "XX" showcases diverse sounds, Mushroomhead's Ozzfest set puts the focus squarely on the heavier tunes.

"It's very high energy - screaming," Skinny says. "On Ozzfest, we only get 20 minutes, so we play the hard hitters and just knock 'em out."

He says the fan reaction at Ozzfest has been great so far, and they hope to land a larger slot on the tour next year - hopefully in support of an album of new material in June.

"Ozzfest is definitely a place where we need to be," Skinny says. "Our goals right now are to get in the studio over the winter, record the new record, get back out on the road and try to get on Ozzfest next year."