“He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.” ~Raymond Hull
So have you ever reached that point where you know how to do something, and in order to do it right; the way you see it in your mind, you just have to say “Screw it, I’m going to have to do this alone so I can get it done the right way, my way.”
thats exactly the point Sal Abruscato reached around January 2009 when he embarked on creating “A Pale Horse Named Death” A new band composed, written and recorded by Sal along with guitarist Matt Brown. APHND was a no intentions, just pure dedication to ones creative nerve project that brings back heavy rock music they way it should be played!
Johnny Kelly, drummer for Seventh Void got us in touch with Sal and we managed to co-ordinate some time for a call to talk about his new album “And Hell will Follow Me”, which is just tearing it up on the scene today. The album is filled with heavy, melodic trance, rock that just rolls from one song to the next, filled with intense drum beats and complex, tight guitar riffs. Finally an album you can set in your play list and enjoy all the tracks.
I know you guys are all familiar with Sal’s music, as the original drummer for Type O Negative and then for Life of Agony, Sal has been tearing it up on the heavy rock scene for years. There was a time when Sal just had to step away from music for a bit, the whole “trying to collaborate with others that had different visions” was clouding his mind. In 2008 Life of Agony had just come to realize that was pretty much it. Sal still struggling with wanting to get the music in his head out just decided to go for it. “Imagine your a painter and your doing your thing on canvas, but someone keeps tapping you on the shoulder suggesting you should put this here, or change that, or use this color instead. It was making me crazy, I finally decided I was sick of people telling me what to do, or how to do something. I then just went for it, with no expectations, I was doing this for me. This album is just as pure as it can be, a reflection of things I feel, or situations I’ve witnessed, experienced, things that happen in life that everyone can relate to, that maybe not everyone talks about”. “It’s rock the way I like it, heavy, and dark”. After composing each song and writing them Sal teamed up with guitarist Matt Brown and the 2 guys then recorded, engineered the entire album. “It took balls for me to finally step away from the drum set to set out and play all the instruments, I had done some melody back-up vocals, but I knew I needed to be the one laying down the vox, I guess I reached that point in my life where I wanted to challenge myself and keep it genuine.” Genuine is an accurate way to describe this album. Sal and Matt had no goals with this album but were curios to see how people would react to it and it’s been full on ever since. SPV released the album in June 2011 and a tour was set up. ‘Europe has always been a great place to tour with this genre of music, the fans are just so open to it.” Sal told me the band has some North East tour dates coming up November and December and a 5 week tour of Europe coming in January. The Live line up consists of Sal on Vox and guitar, Matt Brown of Seventh Void on Guitar, Bobby Hambel from Biohazard on Guitar, Johnny Kelly from Type O, and Seventh Void on Drums and Eric Morgan on Bass. Yeah, from that line up you can tell these live shows kick ass. Sal told me that jammin’ with these guys is just awesome, the chemistry is there, nothing is forced and they find themselves just totally into it and having a killer time.
Touring these days is a little different for Sal, who says it’s not about sex, drugs and rock-n-roll anymore, “Well it’s always about rock-n-roll, but now at this age, it’s more about taking care of yourself, making sure you get enough sleep, don’t loose your voice and always worrying about making sure your family back home is ok and taken care of.” When he is back home, he’s balancing some work to take care of the family and enjoying doing things around the house that need maintained. “I enjoy working with my hands, I got that from my father, who always showed me how to do things, he was a hands on kind of guy, and shared those lessons with me. I enjoy doing some fab work and even had a hand in a building a bobber out of a friends shop, Mayhem Cycles. That bike was featured in the book “Art of the Bobber” and took 2nd place at a 2006 Easyriders show in Ct., I eventually sold that bike to Bobby from Biohazard”
We spoke a little more about the new album and how humbly thrilled Sal is at the reception it’s getting. “People are digging in and it’s blowin’ me away, this project was something I did for myself and I’m genuinely happy at how well the fans have taken to it” We also talked about the website which is totally interactive and very “today”. Sal told me they even won some award from some computer geek magazine for how integrated it is.
All of us here at Cycle Source are diggin’ the album and really hoping the North East tour will have a stop that is close enough for us to make, I personally, defiantly need to see these guys live. Check out the website and see if there will be any dates close to you, go see the show and go get the album, no doubt you will enjoy. www.apalehorsenameddeath.com
