Thursday, Feb. 10, 2011

Can we get a HELLYEAH?

Vinnie Paul, of Hellyeah. Courtesy photo.

 

Roughly three years ago, drummer Vinnie Paul began making music for a new project called Hellyeah, that also included singer Chad Grey and guitarist Greg Tribbett of Mudvayne and guitarist Tom Maxwell of Nothingface.

At the time, Paul was making no predictions about his future or if the Hellyeah project would even get off the ground. This was with good reason.

Paul had been away from music since the tragic end of his band, Damageplan, in December 2004. That night during a show in Columbus, Ohio Paul watched as his brother, guitarist Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott was shot to death by a fan who was angry about the breakup of Pantera, the pre-Damageplan group that elevated Paul and his brother to fame.

And even if Grey and Maxwell were fired up about trying to launch Hellyeah with Paul, the fact of the matter was the musicians had never gigged together when they convened to try to make music and didn't know if the band would fly.

But now, Paul isn't cautious about his hopes for his life in music and Hellyeah, which performs Friday at the House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach as part of The Jagermeister Music Tour.

"Given the tragedy and the loss that I had been through, I never thought I'd play music again," he said in a recent phone interview. "It was a huge stepping stone for me in my life to do this, and for these guys to come in and to work with me, and all of us bond and be able to do this and for it to be successful was a huge thing. It was something that was very important and I'm very thankful for, and I'm going to always give a thousand percent to this. I love it. I hope this is the last band I'm ever in. I hope it lasts a long time. And we all feel that way about it. We really enjoy playing together. We really like each other. We really care about each other. I think that comes through in the music, too."

As Paul's quote suggests, Hellyeah succeeded not only in making a CD, a 2007 self-titled release, the band toured extensively and saw the "Hellyeah" CD catch on commercially and sell more than 400,000 copies.

Now the band, which also includes former Damageplan bassist Bob Zilla, is back with a new CD, "Stampede," and Paul thinks Hellyeah is better than ever and looking at a bright future. The reason is that in recording the first album and then touring behind the CD, Hellyeah became more than a collection of notable metal musicians. It became a band.

"I think when we first wrote the record, it was almost like an experiment," Paul said. "We all had just become acquainted with each other and we really put a lot of trust in each other and we went for it and we managed to make a great record. Then being on tour gave us the opportunity to really get to know each other that much better and really develop our skills as a band. I think it really made us tighter, stronger, and a ferocious fighting machine out on the road."

"When we got back together to write this record ("Stampede"), we had a lot more confidence and we all kind of knew what the band was about and where we were headed, and everything just came out really nice and easy," Paul said. "We knew immediately if it was made for Hellyeah or not. So we really didn't end up with any filler stuff."

"Stampede" was recorded at Paul's recently built home studio in Arlington, Texas. It was done in two stages, and essentially finished in December.

The drummer sees some slight contrasts between "Stampede" and the first CD on a musical level.

"I think 'Stampede' is probably just a little more groove oriented," Paul said. "The first one was probably a little more in the metal vein. This one is probably a little bit more in the rock 'n' roll vein. But it is as heavy, if not heavier, at times than the first record, and then it's a little more Southern than the first record. It's a very, very diverse record. It covers everything from really, really fast stuff, to just really slow melodic, slamming, heavy stuff. That's one thing that we always prided ourselves on is being a really, really diverse band and not pigeonholing ourselves into a corner as having to be one complete style or another or anything like that."

Hellyeah has been touring since summer, including a stint on the Uproar Festival, which also features headliner Disturbed, Stone Sour and Avenged Sevenfold among other bands, before hooking up with Buckcherry on the Jagermeiester junket. Paul sounds ready for more roadwork after this run of dates.

"We feel like our strongest asset is our live show. We love playing live, and it's something we all really missed," Paul said. "We plan on keeping this thing on the road for two years solid."