Category Archives: Philip H Anselmo

Philip honored with the Musical Artist of the Year award at the 2015 President’s Arts Awards

Article originally posted here on nola.com

Creative pursuits of three President’s Arts Awards honorees focus on words.

Words – whether written in the stanzas, used to document historical facts or added to music to create a song – feature prominently in the creative pursuits of three President’s Arts Awards winners.

Phil Anselmo, former lead singer of the heavy metal band Pantera, fancies himself “a wordsmith to a certain degree, so I’m always learning and expanding my lyrical repertoire,” he said.

“Normally, like most bands, the music comes first, then the lyrics. But I’m always jotting down one-liners, or merely words that I may incorporate later,” the 46-year old added. “A lyric can inspire a riff, or a piece of music, so to collect as much phonetic info as possible is important. There is rhythm in everyday conversation, and I’m a believer in the fact that all rhythms in music haven’t been investigated. That’s what makes creating innovative music a blast.”

The New Orleans native grew up in a house filled with music that he adored “from as early as I can remember,” he said. He listened to the musical artists of the time, such as The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, as well as radio hits, such as Dr. John’s “Right Place/Wrong Time.”

But when it came to creating his own music, Anselmo said “I followed my heart, and the style of heavy metal and hardcore music appealed to me as a style and expression that would best fit me.”

Anselmo’s noteworthy music career has included leading “Pantera to Grammy Award nominations, sales of 20 million albums worldwide, legions of diehard fans, and an indisputable heavy metal legacy,” according his biography.

Anselmo then formed the band Down, which had a gold-selling debut and three more critically acclaimed releases, most recently, 2012’s “Down IV Part I – The Purple EP.” Then to switch things up, Anselmo formed The Illegals and debuted the album, “Walk Through Exits Only,” in 2013.

That album was released by his own label, Housecore Records, based in Covington. The label, which has recorded dozens of albums for national and international bands, began “as a way of life in the early ’90s when I bought my first house in Lakeview,” Anselmo said. “Being a musician, I have had many musician friends, and back in the day when jam sessions were a way of life when I was home from long, grueling tours, we’d kind of shun traditional studios, opting for home recordings on my four-track. That’s where the term Housecore came from– creating music at home and recording it at home. There’s a unique feel to it.”

While he’s toured all over the world, Anselmo has called St. Tammany Parish home for the past 15 years. “I love it for many reasons; I have 17 acres of beautiful land, many animals and fantastic neighbors that put up with the racket and noise that comes out of my studio,” he joked. “I take pride in this little community, and support its growth with all my heart. People are friendly, restaurants are plentiful and fantastic, and downtown Covington is quaint and wonderful.”

About being named Musical Artist of the Year, Anselmo said “to be recognized within the community I’m a part of is perhaps one of the greatest accolades ever.

“I want to thank all who recognized me and Housecore Records as this year’s best constituent,” he added. “And I hope our local music scene grows more and more, and I hope I can help facilitate a place for the cream of the crop to thrive.”

For more information on New Orleans and New Orleans culture including past articles on Philip and his bands, check out nola.com


Remembering Corey Mitchell (Co-founder of the Housecore Horror Film Festival) and how you can help his kids.

Last week the Housecore Horror Film Festival’s co-founder and friend of Philip’s, Corey Mitchell, passed away. Earpslitcompund.com has put together some great memories of Corey by people who knew him personally and professionally. Donations to the daughters he left behind can also now be made via PayPal. Click here for details! Thank you.…

Noisey concludes their 7 episode series “NOLA: Life, Death, & Heavy Blues from the Bayou” They examining the people & culture that fostered bands like DOWN, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore and many others.

Noisey is proud to present NOLA: Life, Death and Heavy Blues from the Bayou, a seven-part series examining the people and the culture that helped foster bands like DOWN, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore and many others. From the crawfish-littered tables of the secluded Anselmo compound to a fishing boat with Eyehategod in the swamps, we’ll discuss the bands, Hurricane Katrina, drugs, suicide, murder, and records that helped shape the New Orleans sound known the world over.

PART 1:

PART 2:

PART 3:

PART 4:

PART 5:

PART 6:

PART 7:

Subscribe to Noisey here now: http://bit.ly/VErZkw

NOLA-POSTER

Noisey is proud to present NOLA: Life, Death and Heavy Blues from the Bayou, a seven-part series examining the people and the culture that helped foster bands like DOWN, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore and many others. From the crawfish-littered tables of the secluded Anselmo compound to a fishing boat with Eyehategod in the swamps, we’ll discuss the bands, Hurricane Katrina, drugs, suicide, murder, and records that helped shape the New Orleans sound known the world over.

Produced & Directed by: Jimmy Hubbard and Fred Pessaro
Executive Producer: Trevor Silmser
Supervising Producer: Andy Capper
Associate Producer: Allen Otto
Editor: Matthew Caron
Hosts: Fred Pessaro and Jake Boyle
Sound: Dan Cain
Camera:Dan Cain and Jimmy Hubbard
**
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Talking Metal Episode 500 Featuring Philip Anselmo. Philip says his book will be more upbeat than Rex’s, and touches on how serious Pantera jams with Kerry King became.

The segment with Philip begins at 43:00

Some excerpts of the interview:

Speaking to the “Talking Metal” podcast, Anselmo said about “Mouth For War”: “I have definitely postponed this book thing for quite a while. And, really, it’s a tough process to do, and it really takes a lot of heads-down work to do this, and I’ve been so incredibly busy with my first love in my life, which is music. I’m not a book writer — I’m a songwriter, I’m a live performer, and that’s what I love and that’s what I’ve been doing. But having said that, I think eventually I’ll get around to doing it and writing it.

“I think my biggest aim is to be more, I guess, upbeat about things than perhaps Rex’s came across. Because there was a lot more good than there was bad — up to a certain point.

Talking Metal’s Mark Strigl:”Rex Brown spends half of page 58 of his book talking about Pantera’s relationship with Slayer back in the Power Metal era. He ends that part of that page by saying, in reference to Kerry and Philip’s friendship, ‘At one point I even thought that Kerry wanted to join the fucking band. That’s how intense it was.Talk about Kerry King. He seems to be somebody who had some influence on what you guys did with Pantera. Do you remember meeting him for the first time?

Philip Anselmo: Absolutely, yeah. Pantera, before we were signed, would play every weekend in the DFW area or Shreveport Louisiana or whatever along those circuits and we had a weekend booked playing a club in Dallas, and, which really consisted of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Slayer were playing right down the street on, I believe the beginning of the South of Heaven tour and hey were playing on a Saturday night, they got in town on a Friday and my boxing coach used to be a radio DJ and he called my house and said hey man I got Tom Araya in here, do you want to talk to him, do you want to meet him and I’m like ‘”definitely.” So I talked to Tom on the phone briefly for a moment. Then sure enough he brought Tom, Kerry and Jeff, rest in peace, out to the show that night on Friday and we met all those guys and they got up on stage and did a couple songs with us. We knew Reign in Blood and oh gosh, one other song, umm, like I said my memory is pathetic. Kerry and I hit it off and we exchanged phone numbers and really he kept in touch quite a bit and it was awesome especially for a kid, like I was at the time, who really, for me, the greatest bands from California, especially at the time were Black Flag and Slayer. So definitely at the time, Slayer was the be-all end-all for me. To befriend a guy like Kerry King was a huge thing. Kerry would call all the time and when he would have downtime, or off time from the road, he would fly in and come hang out with us and this was around the time where I was beating my head against the wall desperately trying to turn the guys in Pantera on to heavier music and Slayer was the paramount band that I was saying please give them a chance and sure enough Dimebag and I would listen to Hell Awaits and he started to get it and feel it but there was one specific time when Kerry King called me and he says “hey” and I said “yes” and he said “I’m coming down.” And I said “ok” and he said “but this time I don’t want them mess around” and I said “what you mean by that?” and he said “I want to jam.” I said “well, let me ask the rest of the guys and see what we can do.” So he flew in early in the week so we can work out in an entire set and I think, a matter fact I will go on record and say I positively know that Dimebag and Kerry King sitting down with each other opened up Dimebag’s eyes and really eventually the rest of the guys eyes to the power of the thrash rift and the magic of it and really influenced us to push our own music over the edge and all props to Kerry King there. That night was an awesome night, a matter of fact it was two nights in a row. We did Slayer songs, Kerry King did old Pantera songs with us. We did Judas Priest songs and it was fun and it was a blast and I can’t go into how much of change the direction of Pantera.

Mark Strigl: When you say he did old Pantera songs with you are you talking about stuff that was on the Power Metal record?

Philip Anselmo: Absolutely. He played the song Power Metal with us which is a very intricate rift in itself and we even modified the song to where there was a breakdown part where Dime and Kerry went into this creepy Slayer-esque anti-melodic harmony part guitar thing and it was very spontaneous but still cool as hell.

Mark Strigl: When he came down to jam with you guys, was he just trying to help you guys out? Or was he interested working with you guys on some level?

Philip Anselmo: “Ooo…. I shouldn’t probably talk about this but … I do think… I’ll put it like this, he was having fun. I don’t think he was trying to help us as much as have fun himself and jamming with Dimebag because I know Dimebag blew his mind as a guitar player and really… He loved… I guess his love of Judas Priest and where my vocal range was at the time. He loved it and I think it was a nice departure for him to come down and jam with us so I’ll just say he’s having fun BUT… I could say more but I won’t.”

Metal Grasshopper Episode 2 “The Awakening”

Philip has teamed with friend and comedian Dave Hill to bring you “Metal Grasshopper”. Episode 2 “The Awakening”: Metal god Philip H. Anselmo reluctantly agrees to share his heavy metal wisdom with delusional manchild Dave Hill. Training and hilarity ensues.

Stay tuned for more! Also check out www.davehillonline.com

NOLA: Life, Death, & Heavy Blues from the Bayou – Episode 2

Noisey is proud to present NOLA: Life, Death and Heavy Blues from the Bayou, a seven-part series examining the people and the culture that helped foster bands like DOWN, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore and many others. From the crawfish-littered tables of the secluded Anselmo compound to a fishing boat with Eyehategod in the swamps, we’ll discuss the bands, Hurricane Katrina, drugs, suicide, murder, and records that helped shape the New Orleans sound known the world over.

PART 2:

Subscribe to Noisey here now: http://bit.ly/VErZkw

NOLA-POSTER

Noisey is proud to present NOLA: Life, Death and Heavy Blues from the Bayou, a seven-part series examining the people and the culture that helped foster bands like DOWN, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore and many others. From the crawfish-littered tables of the secluded Anselmo compound to a fishing boat with Eyehategod in the swamps, we’ll discuss the bands, Hurricane Katrina, drugs, suicide, murder, and records that helped shape the New Orleans sound known the world over.

Produced & Directed by: Jimmy Hubbard and Fred Pessaro
Executive Producer: Trevor Silmser
Supervising Producer: Andy Capper
Associate Producer: Allen Otto
Editor: Matthew Caron
Hosts: Fred Pessaro and Jake Boyle
Sound: Dan Cain
Camera:Dan Cain and Jimmy Hubbard
**
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NOLA: Life, Death, & Heavy Blues from the Bayou – Episode 1 (Some Pantera history covered)

Noisey is proud to present NOLA: Life, Death and Heavy Blues from the Bayou, a seven-part series examining the people and the culture that helped foster bands like DOWN, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore and many others. From the crawfish-littered tables of the secluded Anselmo compound to a fishing boat with Eyehategod in the swamps, we’ll discuss the bands, Hurricane Katrina, drugs, suicide, murder, and records that helped shape the New Orleans sound known the world over.

PART 1:

Subscribe to Noisey here now: http://bit.ly/VErZkw

NOLA-POSTER

Noisey is proud to present NOLA: Life, Death and Heavy Blues from the Bayou, a seven-part series examining the people and the culture that helped foster bands like DOWN, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore and many others. From the crawfish-littered tables of the secluded Anselmo compound to a fishing boat with Eyehategod in the swamps, we’ll discuss the bands, Hurricane Katrina, drugs, suicide, murder, and records that helped shape the New Orleans sound known the world over.

Produced & Directed by: Jimmy Hubbard and Fred Pessaro
Executive Producer: Trevor Silmser
Supervising Producer: Andy Capper
Associate Producer: Allen Otto
Editor: Matthew Caron
Hosts: Fred Pessaro and Jake Boyle
Sound: Dan Cain
Camera:Dan Cain and Jimmy Hubbard
**
Subscribe to Noisey on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/noisey
Videos, daily editorial and more: http://www.noisey.com
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DOWN, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Corrosion of Conformity, Goatwhore, and Acid Bath star in ‘NOLA: Life, Death And Heavy Blues From The Bayou’

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Starring: Members of DOWN, Pantera, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Corrosion of Conformity, Goatwhore, and Acid Bath amongst others, including Philip H Anselmo, Mike “IX” Williams, Jimmy Bower, Kirk Windstein, Pepper Keenan, and Sammy Duet.
NOLA-POSTER

Noisey is proud to present NOLA: Life, Death and Heavy Blues from the Bayou, a seven-part series examining the people and the culture that helped foster bands like DOWN, Eyehategod, Crowbar, Goatwhore and many others. From the crawfish-littered tables of the secluded Anselmo compound to a fishing boat with Eyehategod in the swamps, we’ll discuss the bands, Hurricane Katrina, drugs, suicide, murder, and records that helped shape the New Orleans sound known the world over.

Produced & Directed by: Jimmy Hubbard and Fred Pessaro
Executive Producer: Trevor Silmser
Supervising Producer: Andy Capper
Associate Producer: Allen Otto
Editor: Matthew Caron
Hosts: Fred Pessaro and Jake Boyle
Sound: Dan Cain
Camera:Dan Cain and Jimmy Hubbard
**
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“Discs of Doom!” Philip shares with Metal Hammer his favorite, most memorable, forgettable, pivotal albums and more!

From Metal Hammer:

Metal Hammer: The Album I First Bought Was…

Philip H Anselmo: “I think it was Kiss Alive! It’s very underrated. When people listen to Kiss’s body of work and reflect on their 40-plus years, it can be a little embarrassing, but honestly that first live recording is a very powerful rock album that should not be overlooked.”

Metal Hammer: The Album I Wish I’d Made Is…

Philip H Anselmo: Slayer – Hell Awaits “When Hell Awaits came out, the sound and production of metal was going through many changes. Besides Trouble, the first band that really stepped it up for crunch was Metallica with Kill ’Em All. That’s fine and all – it’s a classic record – but I’m a sucker for odes to Old Nick, so I’ll take Hell Awaits for its creativity and absolute disdain for all things Christian.”

To find out what Philip had to say about;
The Best Album Artwork Is…
No One Will Believe I Own A Copy Of…
The Album I Want To Be Remembered For Is…
The Album I Break The Speed Limit To Is…
The Album That Should Not Be Is…
The First Album I Had Sex To Was…
The Album I Want Played At My Funeral Is…
A Kid Asks Me What Metal Is, I Hand Them A Copy Of…

Click here:
http://metalhammer.teamrock.com/features/2014-09-01/discs-of-doom-philip-h-anselmo


New interview with Rex, new lyric video from Hellyeah for “Moth”, new pro-shot live video of Down doing “We Knew Him Well”.

Madcap Music Review’s John Golden interviews Rex Brown and Johnny Kelly of Kill Devil Hill.

Check out the lyric video for “Moth” by HELLYEAH off the new album ‘Blood for Blood’! Get ‘BLOOD FOR BLOOD’

Down “We Knew Him Well” Filmed on location by Mike Holderbeast and the Cement Level Crew: William Holderby Sr.,Caro Bab, Robert Major and Ryan..Audio recorded and mastered by Steven W. Richardson..Special thanks to Mr. Bruce Corbitt.