Thrash drumming legend Dave Lombardo (PHILM, ex-SLAYER) was recently in Northern Ireland for a drum clinic. My Global Mind caught up with him for an interview, you can read some excerpts below:
Musically then, outside of the clinics are you working on anything specific at the moment?
Dave ”Yes at the moment I just finished recording and producing the new Philm album which is the second release. We haven’t nailed down a record company and we are probably thinking about releasing it independently. I hope to find a good record company and put it out.”
Looking back over your extensive musical career, what have been the particular high and low points?
Dave ”Well it fluctuates, up and down you know. A low point was probably January of last year when ever they went down, you know with Slayer. It was leading up to that you know unfortunately. Well not really leading up to it because my bags were ready and packed to go.”
Still must be difficult for you on a personal level? As they were your friends, and people that you had grown up with.
Dave ”Yeah, it’s strange. It’s unfortunate as well because I realize now that they weren’t really my friends. They were just business partners. I lived and hung out with them, as if they were friends. Wow these guys are watching out for me-and it didn’t quite turn out that way.”
How do you feel one year on? Has your attitude to the situation mellowed, or…..?
Dave ”Yeah I have, I am more like-oh well, shit happens. Move on, you know”
To read the complete interview, go to this location.
Former SLAYER and current PHILM drummer Dave Lombardo perfomed an amazing piece of music by Christopher Young called “Ghost Rider” with the Golden State Pops Orchestra at the haunted Warner Grand Theatre in Los Angeles on October 19. It was an evening of horror movie scores performed with the chills and intensity only a 75-piece orchestra can convey.
Video footage of the “Ghost Rider” performance can be seen below.
Metal Shock Finland‘s Utilifest Mediapartner BRUTAL ASSAULT FESTIVAL 2013 has checked in with the following update:
We are sad to announce that both KILLING JOKE (serious family problems) and D.R.I. (injured guitarist) have been forced to cancel their performance at BA festival. But we are also happy to announce that famous drummer Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and his band PHILM have been confirmed as a new act for this year’s edition. Other newly confirmed bands are Swedish death metallers VORMITORY and Ukrainian nihilistic black metal band BALANCE INTERRUPTION.
Tickets information:
For those who want to enjoy a single day with music and atmosphere at BA Festival we will offer one-day tickets for each day of the festival (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday). The price of one-day ticket will be approx. 47 Eur (1200 CZK) and you can buy them directly at the festival’s main box office only.
Recently BRUTAL ASSAULT posted online the festival teaser, check it out below.
BRUTAL ASSAULT FESTIVAL 2013, which is in its eighteenth year, will take place in the Czech Republic from 7-10 August. The festival will be held inside the Old Army Fortress in Josefov (approx. 130 km from Prague). The unique atmosphere and history of the Fortress is an integral part of the festival’s image and provides the festival-goers an unusual experience.
For more news about BRUTAL ASSAULT, check out this location
Dave Lombardo (SLAYER, PHILM) took part in a special drum clinic on May 1 at the Barby Club (Kibutz Galoyot St. 52) in Tel Aviv, Israel. Video footage of his appearance can be seen in two parts below.
PHILM, the Los Angeles-based experimental post-hardcore triumvirate featuring Lombardo, guitarist/vocalist Gerry Nestler (CIVIL DEFIANCE), and bassist Pancho Tomaselli (WAR), released its debut album, “Harmonic”, on May 15, 2012 via Ipecac Recordings.
Lombardo sat out SLAYER‘s recent Australian tour due to a contract dispute with the other members of the group. Filling in for him was Jon Dette (TESTAMENT, ANTHRAX). Dave has since been replaced in the band by Paul Bostaph, who was SLAYER‘s drummer from 1992 until 2001 and recorded four albums with the group.
EXODUS/GENERATION KILL frontman Rob Dukes joined PHILM on stage last night (Sunday, September 9) at Dingbatz in Clifton, New Jersey to perform a cover version of BLACK SABBATH‘s “Symptom Of The Universe”. Video footage of his appearance can be seen below.
PHILM is the Los Angeles-based experimental post-hardcore triumvirate featuring drummer Dave Lombardo (SLAYER), guitarist/vocalist Gerry Nestler (CIVIL DEFIANCE), and bassist Pancho Tomaselli (WAR).
The band’s debut album, “Harmonic”, was released on May 15 via Ipecac Recordings.
“When people hear about my involvement in PHILM, they automatically assume that it will compare to SLAYER’s sound,” explained Lombardo. “They couldn’t be more different. I have scaled down my drum set to a four-piece, reminiscent of the drummers from the late ’60s that influenced me. Each song is unique in itself, I like to refer to it as ‘rhythmic emotion.’ It’s almost like taking all the heavy songs of the ’60s and bringing that era to a modern plateau, then blending them with the modern trance and psychedelic sounds of today.”
“We decided to record ‘Harmonic’ in the intimate setting of a home, with various vintage recording equipment,” added Lombardo on the band’s debut album. “The music was written collectively in an improvisational manner, unlike the majority of recordings I’ve done before. This was very important given this is my first recording where I’m carrying the title of producer and performer. The album achieves a dense, unholy convergence of tones and discords. We also touch on haunting, desolate, ambient sounds. Our music tends to be written in a manner where we never know the outcome until we listen back to what we recorded. A harmonic journey.”
PHILM — the Los Angeles-based experimental post-hardcore triumvirate featuring drummer Dave Lombardo (SLAYER), guitarist/vocalist Gerry Nestler (CIVIL DEFIANCE), and bassist Pancho Tomaselli (WAR) — will take part in an online chat via Yowie on Tuesday, May 1 at 1 p.m. PT. More information is available at this location.
PHILM will release its debut album, “Harmonic”, on May 15 via Ipecac Recordings.
“Harmonic” track listing:
01. Vitriolize
02. Mitch
03. Hun
04. Area
05. Way Down
06. Harmonic
07. Exuberance
08. Sex Amp
09. Amoniac
10. Held in Light
11. Dome
12. Killion
13. Mezzanine
14. Mild
15. Meditation
The song “Area” is now available for streaming using the <>SoundCloud player below (courtesy of Terrorizer magazine).
“When people hear about my involvement in PHILM, they automatically assume that it will compare to SLAYER’s sound,” explains Lombardo. “They couldn’t be more different. I have scaled down my drum set to a four-piece, reminiscent of the drummers from the late ’60s that influenced me. Each song is unique in itself, I like to refer to it as ‘rhythmic emotion.’ It’s almost like taking all the heavy songs of the ’60s and bringing that era to a modern plateau, then blending them with the modern trance and psychedelic sounds of today.”
“We decided to record Harmonic in the intimate setting of a home, with various vintage recording equipment,” says Lombardo on the band’s debut album. “The music was written collectively in an improvisational manner, unlike the majority of recordings I’ve done before. This was very important given this is my first recording where I’m carrying the title of producer and performer. The album achieves a dense, unholy convergence of tones and discords. We also touch on haunting, desolate, ambient sounds. Our music tends to be written in a manner where we never know the outcome until we listen back to what we recorded. A harmonic journey.”
While there are elements of metal detected throughout PHILM‘s sound, the band manages to also incorporate such other styles as jazz, ambient, hardcore punk, experimental, and funk into its unpredictable, cacophony-heavy style. An obvious reason for this multi-genre amalgamation can be directly linked to the gentlemen that play alongside Lombardo in PHILM — Tomaselli is a longtime member of funk rockers WAR, and Nestler fronts prog metallists CIVIL DEFIANCE. Add it all up, and you get the wonderful world of PHILM.
In an interview with AOL‘s Noisecreep, Nestler stated about PHILM‘s formation, “Dave and I first got together in 1997 to start an original band. We later regrouped between SLAYER‘s scheduled tour dates in late 2009, playing some upstairs jams at the Rainbow in Hollywood. We then decided to restart our band. Pancho had met Dave a few years back at one Dave‘s drum clinics and we decided to invite him in.”
Regarding PHILM‘s sound, Nestler said, “The music of PHILM is channeled through the many different influences of drum and bass, expressionism, and underground that ranges via ancient and indigenous to street. There are many different things that Dave and I have been into that have contributed to the vision of PHILM. Pancho‘s highly skilled bass playing, chordal color and shape have helped expand the overall sound instrumentation and groove. Dave Lombardo‘s drumming goes without comparison, except that it might be said, to quote Pancho that ‘it’s like playing with the seven, not four, horses of the Apocalypse behind you.'”
PHILM officially took form in late 2010 with a handful of tour dates and an early four-song demo that quickly began to make the rounds of in-the-know music critics. Noisecreep said the band “has crafted a crunchy, thrashy, yet thoroughly unclassifiable sound” and the OC Weekly said of the trio: “PHILM‘s ability to melt down metal influences and mix them with the elements of funk, ambient jazz and punk… is potent and has left audiences wondering how so much noise could emanating from just three musicians.”
Ipecac Recordings is the brainchild of Greg Werckman (former label manager for the legendary punk label Alternative Tentacles) and FAITH NO MORE singer Mike Patton, who played with Lombardo in the eclectic supergroup FANTÔMAS.
Video footage of PHILM performing on May 29, 2011 at the Roxy in West Hollywood, California can be viewed below (courtesy of Metal Assault).
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