In the list of legendary metal bands that rose and in 80's, Liege Lord are at the top, a fantastic combination of talented musicians, that managed to create in a relatively short period of time, three classic metal albums.
More recently the band did a triumphant comeback show at Wacken festival, and to find out what's up with them these days, we spoke with Paul Nelson:
Hi Paul, What up with Liege Lord these days, is the band active?
Joe Comeau and I have been I constant contact since our reunion show at the Wacken festival in Germany several years ago. We have been receiving many tour offers We’’ just have to see how thing develop the two of us seem to be the only one’s left keeping Liege Lords legacy alive. Any info can been found at the bands official website:
www.liegelord.com.
Did you do any shows since your Wacken reunion show?
No shows since then Joe as you know was the lead singer for Annihilator at that time and I was recording all over the place we did find time to promote Metal blade re-releases of Burn to my Touch and Master Control.. Liege Lord continues to receive offers to perform at just about every top metal Festival and as schedules permit will work on making those shows happen. As a side note after our performance I did an interview which I hear ended up with some cool live footage of us performing that show on a Wacken 2000 Video documentary along with Gamma Ray, Rhapsody, and Stratovarious and many others called Metal Assault Wacken 2000-Special Report which is out now on video and DVD distributed by Nuclear Blast/Warner in Germany so fans should pick that one up.
How was the Wacken experience for you?
It was absolutely great!!! We had never performed for our many German fans and this was a true thrill .
How did the whole reunion idea start out?
Joe Comeau had been doing some shows with Overkill in Germany and was approached by the Wacken promoter and the rest is history
A bit about the band's history, how did you guys start out?
Liege Lord released 3 albums Freedoms Rise on Black Dragon Records and when I joined Brian Slagel of Metal Blade signed us and we released Burn to my Touch and Master Control. These were exciting times, we toured extensively all over the US with Anvil, and Candlemas sharing the stage with such acts as Anthrax, Overkill, Exodus, Flotsam, Megadeth ,Talas, Death, Raven, Hades, Fates Warning, and the list went on and on. To our surprise all of our catalogue was re-released due the bands cult status over the years finding us now in music history books as being one of the founders of the music style now termed Power Metal.
During that time you were hailed as one of metal most promising guitar players, how did that feel?
It was and still is a great honor.
Why did the band break-up?
Well, what happened was that we did our last big tour with Anvil and then we did a shorter tour up and down the East Coast of the United States with Candlemass. It was their first tour. It was musical differences at the time. You had Chilli Peppers, Fishbone and Matt and Tony were getting heavy into the early Chilli Peppers, even before the more commercial stuff, so it was kinda swaying the direction of the band. I was still into like Maiden, Priest and that heavy sound and they were more into I don’t know what. I'd say it was musical differences and it was the end of that era. We got home from the last tour with Anvil and as I said we rehearsed on an unbelievable regular schedule, the every other day for hours and hours. And when we got back from the last tour and we called each other if we want to rehearse? And it was like “No, not today” and it just kinda faded away. And there was no announcement and there was no nothing. Also one of the big things was Metal Blade. We really wanted to get signed with a major label. I mean Metal Blade was great, but we only had a single album deal at the time with them. And right before that tour that we set up on our own with Anvil they offered us what was called a seven album deal, which was the deal that Lizzy (Borden) got...
LIEGE LORD 1990 L-R
Tony Truglio, Frank Cortese, Joe Comeau, Paul Nelson, Matt Vinci
I understand since then you've worked as a session guitarist and wrote music for different things, can you give a few examples of your work?
Writing and playing the guitar music for the WWF's XFL (Extreme football League) was a blast having your music blasted in every major football stadium in the USA and televised to over 13 million the first night alone on NBC, TNN, and UPN in the US really helps one get excited about TV and Film scoring. I've done many commercials here and in Europe and enjoy that aspect of music very much. I do want to continue to record solo albums and keep up with the clinics, touring, and guest spot recording.
How did you move from being a metal player, into a much more versatile musician, dealing in so many different genres?
Before Metal I went to Berklee School of music and also studied with Steve Vai, Steve Khan and Mike Stern. Most importantly I studied the teaching of a guitarist Linc Chamberlain
What kind of heavier projects did you play for in the last few years?
Joe Comeau and I were asked to take part in 2 tributes for Century Media so we recorded the song "Too Scared too Run" for their Uriah Heep Tribute and "Dungeons are Calling" for their Savatage tribute due out soon world wide. It was great to work in the studio with Joe again the tracks came out really well. I also have a track on Jason Becker Vol ll CD there are a whole lot of albums and things are in the works.
Do you still listen to metal, and if so, what recent bands did you find interesting?
Oh yes! There are too many to single out.
Can you tell us about your new solo album, Look?
Well, it's actually this project was something I've wanted to do for quite some time now even as far back as my days with Metal blade records. It's an instrumental recording in the vein of what might be called Progressive or Rock-Fusion. It has allowed me to break the confines of just performing short solos and melodies in a vocal song format. Instrumental records allow musicians to stretch, plus I have been a tremendous fan of the whole '70’s era: Jeff Beck, Holdsworth, Tommy Bolin etc. I am pleasantly surprised by all the good press, airplay and sales. The fact that my fans who knew me from my heavier side still allowed me to stretch musically without cutting my head off has helped. I mean, I do my own thing anyway but it's great when you have the support.You can pick up my "LOOK" CD through all major music chains or by visiting www.paulnelsonguitar.com
What did you think about the recent re-releases of Liege Lord's classic album?
I think it’s a great thing we post a lot of work into those CDs and it’s nice to see that it was appreciated.
What are your plans for the near future?
I’m currently working with guitar legend Johnny Winter in support of his recent Grammy nominated release “I’m a Bluesman” Virgin/EMI which I wrote and performed on and much much more. Thanks for the great interview Paul Nelson
That's it, thanks for taking the time doing the interview!
Alon Miasnikov
