Florida’s known for many things besides heat, Disney World, rappers and of course the head banging, growling birthplace of death metal. The movement began in the ‘80s with Father Chuck alongside the darkness of Deicide, Obituary and Morbid Angel among several other blasphemers. Previously, no death metal project or sound has had any close, relatable proximity to ‘80s glam metal, (talk about blasphemy), until now.
Guitarist Tommy Krash has amassed a new collection of music released as two EP’s and an upcoming CD next month. He brings a unique set of credentials to the music he calls the Leviathan Project including touring with Britny Fox and recording an acoustic set of tunes.
The project has its claws scratched into the death metal scene with guitarist Bobby Koelble who played on Death’s Symbolic record. Vocals are done by the roaring, ripping Tim Owens, the only other guy capable of handling Judas Priest tunes in the real thing. With bass by producer Matt Nardo.
Death metal godfathers Death and ‘80s glam metal outfit Britny Fox seem as polar opposite partners as one could get on the metal spectrum whether by music, wardrobe or hair. This seems to be a clever marketing point and push to raise curious eyes for these bizarre bedfellows. So far the unique name-dropping has worked, getting Leviathan Project attention. “It’s funny, our publicist Chip wrote it that way,” guitarist/creator Krash says. “When I started looking for a deal to put this out, I didn’t mention I was in Britny Fox. I guess it catches people’s attention.”
Krash wasn’t around in Britny’s MTV heyday with original singer Dean Davidson. Though years later he did tour and work on some acoustic tracks. His contributions to Britny were quite minimal he says modestly on a live avenue compared to Koelble’s contributions to Death.
He did some recording in 2007. “Their original guitar player didn’t wanna go out and tour anymore. We started recording some acoustic songs and never got them finished before the tour. I eventually went back and finished them myself years later.”
The band’s first Headbangers Ball appearance was “Long Way to Love” before going ‘educational’ with “Girlschool,” known for featuring young video vixen Kim Anderson and becoming an instant favorite of teens around the world.
It’s been years since Krash watched the video though a detail many potentially missed at the time was the janitor sporting a Freddy Krueger-like hat at the beginning. It was 1988 with Krueger surviving the Dream Warriors, about to do nocturnal battle with The Dream Master. “I never noticed that as many times as I’ve seen that video, interesting point. It’s been years since I’ve seen it. I’ll have to check that out.” Fox deserves credit for making Britny a household name with teen’s way before the rise of that not so innocent school girl.
The first EP It’s Their World is streaming digital and available as a limited edition cassette series. It’s a different route to take for the oldschool tape traders and MTV generation. “I wanted to do something a little more exciting than just streaming and throw it out there amongst thousands of other bands. I wanted to try something that would set us apart a little bit.”
For those who grew up during the pre-CD, Walkman era, who used pencils to tighten the cassette tape as much as to write, it’s a flashback to that era. “It’s more of a collection thing. Walmart sells cassettes players and blank cassettes, so who knows and they still sell pencils.”
The cover art was created by English artist Les Edwards. “He’s pretty well established. He’s illustrated enormous amounts of science fiction books and movie posters, you name it. I looked at a couple different pieces from him and that one connected with me. It kinda looks metal but kinda doesn’t, so it kind of keep’s you guessing, like what the heck is this. I thought it was an interesting piece and we were able to license it from him for digital and a different piece on the cassette. So the cassette’s even more of a collector’s item.”
It doesn’t necessarily represent the sound of the music and for Krash that’s a good thing, starting conversations about it. “Otherwise if people looked at your art say nothing and walk away we haven’t done our job.”
Six songs comprise It’s Their World, with the second EP Edge of Time, just released, then an album in August. The second EP is digital then the CD. “At this time there’s no talk of vinyl so I think we’re gonna get CD and streaming on that one.”
Both EP’s are half instrumentals, half songs with lyrics. “It was to set the tone of the whole piece and the mood. You can listen to the songs with Tim singing or if you wanna sit down and listen to the entire piece of music. That was the emphasis on that. The second EP follows the same pace. The instrumentals still face in that atmospheric, black metal sometimes new age vibe. It was done on purpose since it’s all done by us, everything done for a reason.”
First instrumental “Deserted” is real abrasive with a wacken whip- sounding snare drum. “That’s cool. Everyone gets something different out of the music. They hear it different ways, we all look at artwork from a different perspective. I welcome that. It hopefully sets the mood and breaks into song “Leviathan” and goes from there.”
“Leviathan” carries a certain serpentine slither feel to the ear, “That’s funny. Tim’s vocals on this thing at times have been described as serpent. He’s choosing unique tones in his voice on this project. We did one song to start with, for me to see if he’d work with this project, if Bobby’s guitar style worked and if we all worked together. It worked so well, I haven’t stopped writing and sending these guys songs to do.”
“Solitude” carries us like a cosmic space race. “I’m very influenced by atmospheric music, the whole theme of outer space, not necessarily science fiction but space. That’s cool it comes across.”
Tim wrote lyrics and melody to “It’s Their World,” a song in a similar vein to Priest’s “Abductors,” about other planetary life. “I like you guys to interpret it and see what you think. Nothing more I’d hate then to tell you what that song’s about then develop your own vision of it.”
“In Time” has a very dramatic, narrative sound like guitars telling the story of a great aftermath of some major event or happening. “It’s nice you hear it that way. Like any good story you want a beginning, middle and end. When I sequenced the music for this, it was somewhat my intent. To put the listener through a journey if that’s possible. So yeah, it’s cool, nice pick up.”
Krash did lyrics for the others. “My bass player Matt Nardo finished them up, putting them on the melodies. When we send it to Tim he does his thing, his ripper thing. He Ripperize’s it.”
With Ripper presumably about to become VERY busy with KK’s Priest a live Leviathan show is on the long-term backburner but is possible down the road. A setlist with material from Death, Britny Fox, Priest and Rippers projects would be a novel selling point itself. “There’s definitely a chance of a show here or there and maybe if a festival’s offered. Tim’s got a big commitment to KK and probably a long list of other live opportunities before that. There might be a Britny Fox song from their third album we could pull out that’s kinda heavy. It’d be a lot of fun.”
To hear the reaction of “Painkiller,” “Girlschool,” and “Pull the Plug,” in any order would be worth admission alone. “Yeah, I don’t think we’ll get Ripper singing “Girlschool.” It’d be fun. We’ll see what happens with KK’s Priest. I imagine if all goes well he’ll be out for a very long time with that.”
For fans that don’t know, Fox got heavy on third album Bite Down Hard with singer Tommy Paris helming the charge. “Listen to the first song, you’ll go holy crap.” Krash compared Paris’s voice to Rob Halford.
Krash’s said he’s in normal contact with members of Britny and feels the general consensus is, they want to do it with the original singer or not at all. Though he’d be willing to do a one-off show at some point but thinks fans want to see Fox with the original singer.
Krash says it’s a full time job doing what he does with lots of material coming out. The CD will have 13 tracks with 2 or 3 bonus demo versions. “It’ll be a mix, incorporating some of the stuff from our EP’s and some new stuff. So there’s quite a bit on there. I haven’t sequenced or looked at it in detail. Next month I need to start getting it together. No covers, all original.”
There are a few lyric videos on YouTube and some behind the scenes recording the music, online. On the website there’s liner notes to the cassette. If you listen to it digitally you can still go on our website and see who wrote and played what. Stuff like that.”
While Krash’s happy many of the ‘80s glam bands are still active, if social media and cell phones had existed back then, it might’ve been a similar result. “Maybe some band will put out a video of all fan shot footage as a video. It’s great promotion if you’re a great band live and not if you have a bad night and everyone hears about it, which you’re allowed to do. It’s just the way it is.”
Krash also teaches high school kids digital art keeping his music separate. The parents could probably tell them some Britny Fox or Priest stories. “I like to keep the focus on the students and not myself.” The parents might try and get interviews themselves, if they knew.
Fortunately Krash wasn’t affected by the pandemic. “I wasn’t hit at all, I’m very fortunate with that. It was normal business for me, allowing me to focus on this music and be able to tap Tim to contribute his talent to the music. He probably would’ve been on tour.”
Krash is content creating his own music without guest appearances though there’s a few bands he’d love to work with. “There’s a band called Samael from Switzerland. That would be really cool, to be in the studio with them, maybe do something.
Both EP’s are now available with the full length coming next month. Ripper gave him multiple takes to work with. “He sends me enough to choose from a production stand point to work the songs. I’ll start with a straight heavy strong vocal and verse low, tuck the lower vocal in the bottom end of it. Add some of his screams in the song. He gives me a lot to work with, the guys a true professional. It’s what he does and loves doing it. I’m sure he thanks his lucky stars that people want him to do things.”
The farther and deeper you go into the depths of the Atlantic, who knows what creatures you might find, Leviathan or other.
To check out all things Leviathan-related go to:
www.facebook.com/leviathanprojectband
https://twitter.com/LeviathanProje2
