By Jim Barber
If you like your metal music bombastic, brilliantly composed, featuring top flight shredding, a pounding rhythmic charge that will rattle your bones, melodies that will stick in your soul for months, and banshee-like screams that can melt glass, you might be a redneck … sorry, you might be a fan of American metal super-trio Death Dealer.
Comprised of the iron-welded excellence of industry veterans Sean Peck [Cage, The Three Tremors], Stu Marshall [Empires of Eden, Night Legion] and the legendary co-founder of both The Dictators and Manowar, Ross ‘The Boss’ Friedman, Death Dealer released their fourth pulse-pounding album, Reign of Steel on Massacre Records at the end of January to both critical and popular acclaim. Completing the musical lineup for the record are fellow experienced metallers Mike LePond on bass and drummer Steve Bolognese.
A work that was actually composed and recorded during the global COVID pandemic, the album release was preceded by the issuance of three incendiary, cinematic videos for the singles ‘Blast The Highway,’ ‘Bloodbath,’ and ‘We Three Kings,’ which are just the tip of the terrifically balls-to-the-wall approach that has reaffirmed Death Dealer as a bastion of true metal mayhem since the titanic trio came together for their first album, War Master, in 2013. That was quickly followed by the crushing power of Hallowed Ground in 2015, and Conquered Lands in 2020.
The heavy metal world has become one in which there seems to be new, hyphenated variations and genres, and variations on genres and even more sub-genres, creating an ever-increasing level of confusion for many fans. Death Dealer, in the humble opinion of this scribe, keeps it pretty simple. Their style, their sound, their motif and approach is as straightforward heavy metal as one can get. If anything, adding the epithet ‘classic’ also fits, as the sound, while featuring modern production, contemporary lyrical content and tone, owes much to the classic sounds of Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, all of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) acts as well as the sound pioneered by Friedman in Manowar.
“I always say it’s Judas Priest on steroids. That’s how I usually frame it. The thing that I’ve always done with all the bands I’ve been in is to create the kind of music that first inspired me. Look, I love thrash, but I was heavily influenced by bands like Ratt, [Canada’s] Helix, Black ‘N Blue, WASP, Dokken, Keel – very hooky stuff. So I am looking for a hook and no matter how radical the song is, even like ‘Bloodbath’ on this new record, which is super thrashy, I’m always looking for at least some sort of hook, and I’m looking for that super crescendo where that magical pre-chorus explodes into the chorus. To me, that’s the sweet spot right there,” Peck said from his home/business in San Diego, where he not only works on music, but is the proprietor of an online/eBay comic book store, Hell Destroyer Comics.
“That’s how I approach songs. And then you want to flash your crazy supersonic screams and your insane riffs and shredding, but it still has to be a good song. Anyone can shred. Anyone can sing high, but it’s gotta be a good song to really stand the test of time, which I think this album is. I mean, I told you how the album has been recorded and done for four years and I’ve leaked it out to several friends. So they’ve been listening to this album for four years and they’re like, ‘dude, I still listen to this thing once or twice a week because you can play it the whole way through and it’s so good.’”
Jokingly calling he and Marshall the ‘Lennon and McCartney’ of Death Dealer, Peck talked about the process that’s developed between the two metal music veterans for composing tracks over the years.
“Stu and I are really the primary writers. Ross has written several songs for Death Dealer on the earlier albums, but now he just kind of does the leads and looks down upon us with approval from his lofty throne of rock and roll royalty. Actually he does throw his two cents worth in from time to time, because he’s been around and he knows what he’s doing. I think it’s a good thing to be part of a writing team. I also have that with Hank Sherman of Mercyful Fate. With Stu, he sends me a riff and he’s got lyrics back to him pretty quick. With the two of us, you don’t have to sit and wait and wonder if the other guy is actually going to do something. So, that creates a fast and effective writing experience and makes it fun too, because it’s ridiculous how quick I’ll sometimes get a mix back from him after sending along my vocals,” Peck explained.
“In terms of the songs on this album, ‘Riding On The Wings,’ which is that real catchy song we just put out as a single, I had that chorus for a while on one of my phones. So I sent that to Stu and that became the song pretty quick. I write a lot of riffs by humming them, and make them kind of conform to what I’m mouthing in the song. That’s part of it. And Stu is like a riff machine. He can come up with so many riff ideas really quickly, and because he’s a producer too, I get him sending me riffs with drums and bass fully coming at me. But then a lot of times we’ll also sit together on the Zoom or the Skype back in the day, and he’ll have his guitar with him and we’ll go back and forth, and it’s more of a live collaboration in the moment. It’s like being in a jam room together, and that’s how a lot of the songs get written too.”
As the primary lyricist, Peck does have a lot of say in terms of the overall tone, and emotional and thematic connective tissue between the songs on each album. And although far from being a concept album, Reign of Steel still has a number of things that give the album a sense of uniformity of spirit from top to bottom.
“Obviously, [Cage albums] Hell Destroyer {2007] and the Ancient Evil [2015] records are both full-on concept records, so I’ve done that before. But each song I write is kind of a little bit of a story in itself. The cover art for the Hallowed Ground album for Death Dealer was a cover for a book that I wrote, which was started off as a song I had begun writing called ‘Seven Skulls.’ And then as I was writing the lyrics to the song, I came up with this whole idea, and backstory and everything and I just switched from the lyric writing headspace and ended up writing like a 120-page short story in three days. I just blasted it out. So I was going to publish that and at the same time, we were in a crunch to get the album cover done. The label rejected the original cover that we submitted and I said, ‘well, I’ve got this thing.’ So they took my book cover, used it for Death Dealer’s Hallowed Ground album [released in 2015.] And meanwhile, that song, ‘Seven Skulls’ is a song on the Denner/Sherman Satan’s Tomb EP. But as I said, each song that I’m writing is like a little mini-story most of the time, but they are connected in terms of the same musicians playing, and the same overall emotional vibe, I think,” he explained, as he discussed how the song ‘Blast The Highway’ came about.
“That was the first single that we released. You know, when I was younger I used to drive my Pontiac Trans Am, speeding down the highway drinking a six pack of beer, smoking weed, cranking Helix, you know. So it’s not politically correct, but it was a simpler time back then. That’s the kind of thing we kind of aspired to do. When Stu showed me the riff it just had the feel of a good metal driving song, it just had that kind of vibe. So I just went with it because I felt the album needed a good old-fashioned driving down the highways song. We did ‘The Devil’s Mile’ on the first Death Dealer album, which was like a drive fast, kick ass song. It’s not too deep as far as the lyrics go, but it’s classic heavy metal. Like Priest’s ‘Heading Out To the Highway,’ – that sort of vibe.”
Peck said he likes to write escapist stories as opposed to overt political commentary, and ‘Devil’s Triangle’ is a good, old-fashioned story song about supernatural mysteries and conspiracy theories.
“I’ve already written about every possible conspiracy theory there is, except the Yeti. I actually have the title ‘The Scream of the Yeti’ so I need to finish that one before I die and get that one out of my system. But I’ve done everything else: the Bohemian Grove, I’ve done UFOs. I haven’t done the Loch Ness Monster, I mean Judas Priest beat me to that one [‘Lochness’ from their 2005 Angel of Retribution album], so you know, why not the Bermuda Triangle? That song ended up coming together really good. People are really gravitating towards that one a little bit, and we’re going to have a video out for that one soon. It’s a really cool video that centers around the lore of Flight 19, the group of American fighter planes that disappeared [in December 1945]. I took it a little bit farther and kind of tell the story of what actually happened the whole way through.”
Leaping into the arms of fantasy songwriting, Peck said ‘Dragon of Algorath’ actually began as a phrase and accompanying riff from Marshall.
“So Stu had that title. That was his reference title to one of the songs we were working on, and he’s got some of the best reference titles ever. Something like, ‘Burnt by the Solar Radiation’ will be the title of a riff that he sends me. I rarely use them, but they’ve all been f***ing great. But we used this one, although I don’t even know where he f***ing came up with Algorath. I have no idea what it is. I think he said he just made it up. And that’s the one that has my big scream in it. And with it, I’m issuing a challenge. I am throwing down the gauntlet for a scream battle to any singer out there that wants to attempt it. I don’t even know if Ripper [former Judas Priest, Iced Earth and current K.K.’s Priest vocalist Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens] could match this one. I will tell you though, that he is a far better singer that me, but I don’t think that particular trick he could match. Even Rob Halford, and he’s the greatest ever. But with the technique I use, I can just hold the note for so long, he might not even be able to do that one,” he said.
“However high you can sing, it’s still got to sound good. If it doesn’t sound good, a super loud, super long scream is pretty worthless except as a fun little stunt. And it takes work. As I said before, we did most of this album during COVID, and I was actually at my mom’s and that’s where I did a lot of the vocals. For the scream I have on [Reign of Steel opening track] ‘Assemble’ I just could not get the right tone on that. It was driving me nuts. I had the whole rest of the song done, and I’d kind of given up and was just going to leave it as it was. But then one day, I was in my mom’s living room, I woke up first thing in the morning without saying a word, walked into the living room and then did the ‘Assemble’ scream and it was the perfect tone I wanted. I was like, ‘f*** yeah!’ So you never know with the voice. It’s always, always tricky.”
Another stand-out track on Reign of Steel, at least in the opinion of this listener, is ‘Sleeping Prophet,’ a hauntingly masterful work of eerie metal storytelling. Interestingly, Peck doesn’t seem to share the same level of affection for the piece.
“That is so funny to me because I thought that was, like, the worst song on the record, but everyone loves ‘Sleeping Prophet.’ So you never know what’s going to hit who. It’s a good track, don’t get me wrong, I just wasn’t super crazy about it. It’s another conspiracy type piece, the story of Edgar Cayce, which is one of the most fascinating stories in American history [an early 20th century self-proclaimed clairvoyant, pseudoscientist, and all-around whack job]. I did my research. I did a pretty deep dive in order to write the song. People thought he had super powers and he did some pretty amazing things. It’s crazy what he did and what he said. So I did the best I could with the song, but everyone seems to like it. All the reviews are talking about it, which is kind of a pleasant surprise.”
Just as this article was about to be published online, word came that Ross ‘The Boss’ had been diagnosed with ALS, a debilitating, degenerative disease that has, essentially, meant the end to Friedman’s touring career.
Through Massacre Records, Death Dealer issued the following statement:
“We are devastated by the news that our brother, Ross the Boss, has been diagnosed with ALS. From the very first day this band came together, we have operated as more than musicians, we are a brotherhood. That bond, that loyalty, and that respect for one another will never change. This diagnosis, however, inevitably changes the road ahead for Death Dealer in terms of new music and live performances. Ross is not someone who can be replaced, nor would we ever try. His contribution to heavy metal is monumental, timeless, and deeply woven into the fabric of this genre. His legacy stands on its own and will continue to inspire generations. Right now, our focus is not on stages or studios, but on standing beside our brother as he faces this battle with the strength and courage that has always defined him. We ask the metal community to keep Ross in your thoughts and to honour him the way he has always honoured the music, with passion, loyalty, and heart. We stand with Ross. Always.”
During our interview, Peck talked glowingly about the experience of working alongside an artist of such renown and respect within the heavy metal world.
“At first, to be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of Manowar, even though Manowar had been courting Cage back in the early 2000s. I wish I had recording of me and [Manowar vocalist] Joey DiMaio’s great screaming matches. They were the stuff of legend because I didn’t give a shit about Manowar and everyone else was kissing their ass. But later I got to discover the magic of Ross. Sometimes he would just go on an improv role and the melodies that would just come out of this dude’s frickin’ spirit through the guitar were incredible. And they were on the spot. I said to him one time, ‘how long did you work on that? Did you already have that?’ And he was like, ‘no I just played what I felt in the moment.’ And I was thinking, ‘holy hell, he’s really magic. He’s a real-life magician with his fingers and that guitar in his hands. So I learned to not just appreciate but come to understand why that dude is so awesome. Like, he should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, all day long. Someone needs to educate the Hall of Fame about this guy,” he said.
Peck said that there is a fifth Death Dealer album which has been fully written, but as the statement above says, there’s no guarantee that it will ever be recorded because of Friedman’s health situation. His other main musical project, Cage, which releases music on his own Steel Cartel label also has another album recorded and ready to be released.
“It’s been a long time since the last Cage record [2015’s Ancient Evil] but basically that’s because the Three Tremors records were all pretty much Cage records,” he said of the self-titled release in 2019, and Guardians of the Void which came out in 2021, both of which feature Peck sharing songwriting and lead vocals with the aforementioned ‘Ripper’ Owens and Harry ‘The Tyrant’ Conklin of Jag Panzer and Satan’s Host.
“The new Cage record is called Tyrant of the Dead, and we’re talking to several labels right now, and have four offers to release and distribute it. It’s either going to come out later this year or early next year. It was originally going to be called Dungeon Crawler and I did this whole thing where it’s like a Dungeons and Dragons game map when you open up the vinyl, with other maps you can pull out. I wrote this whole adventure game, all the rules. You’re taking the band through a dungeon adventure. It was completely finished and then I decided I wasn’t going to put the record out and totally scrapped the idea. Which is a shame. But the new album cover art and everything looks great. I think it’s a great record.”
For more information, visit the band’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at bigjim1428@hotmail.com.
