While recording the new album "Hammer Damage", the mighty OMEN release through No Remorse Records "Into The Arena", a compilation of live recordings with the original line up and previously rare and unreleased demo recordings. Kenny Powell took a break of the hard studio work and shared with us some thoughts and memories from the OMEN history.
Bow down to the Axeman!
OMEN were formed in Henryetta, Oklahoma
in the beginning of the 80s. Then you moved to Los Angeles with Steve Wittig
and Jody Henry. What can you recall from your first years in L.A. and how did
you join Savage Grace?
That is
pretty close to the truth, that line up in Oklahoma was never called OMEN,
though several of the songs on “Battle Cry” were based on songs we were working
on. There was another member, Roger Sisson on bass and vocals, he was my life
long best friend and we learned to play together. He was going to make the move
to L.A. with us, but his wife threatened to divorce him at the last minute and
he did not go. She divorced him any way a couple of years later and I know he
regretted not going for years, it really sucked because when we got to L.A. I
could not find a bass player worth a fuck or a singer. After a year of trying
to find members, I was asked to join Savage Grace. I agreed to do two records
with them, but I was always going back to my own band and everyone knew that.
It was a good experience for me and I meet a lot of people in the music
business through them, including Brian Slagel.
During that time, you met Brian Slagel
from Metal Blade Records and when you parted ways with Savage Grace, Metal
Blade decided to work together with OMEN. Why did you part ways with Savage
Grace and how did the co-operation with Metal Blade started?
I had
made friends with Brian while we were recording the Savage Grace EP. That was
before the Evil Music business corrupted everyone and he was a big fan of the
two songs I had written for Savage Grace record, “Battle Cry” and “Die by the
Blade”. At the last minute the guys in S.G. informed me that my songs would not
be on the record, and that was the escape route for me to leave. I called Brian
and asked him if he would be interested in signing my project when everything
was in place. He immediately told me I had a record deal to get a band
together.
How did you find J.D. Kimball and what
J.D. stands for? What kind of person was he?
Three classic records followed. Three
landmarks for Heavy Metal music. “Battle Cry” (1984), “Warning Of Danger”
(1985) and “The Curse” (1986). What can you recall from the recording sessions
of these albums and what was your writing procedure during composing?
Those
records happened very quickly. There was great energy and we worked very hard,
rehearsing almost every night. Jody was living with me and after borrowing a bass from Brian East and pounding
him every day to switch from guitar to
bass we were constantly writing songs. “Battle
Cry” was recorded in 7 or 8 days and the band had only been together for a few
weeks. Many of the song ideas had been around for a couple of years so it was
not hard to get them in order. We took a little longer with “Warning of Danger”
but it was also recorded in only a couple of weeks. “The Curse” was our first
time to get a decent budget and take a little time to record. The writing
process has always been pretty much the same for OMEN, I usually have my ideas
for the music worked out in my head, and sometimes vocal ideas and at least
some of the lyrics. Jody was always good for some great bass intros or some
times a partial song idea that I would help him finish. As time went on I just
let J.D. take over writing most of the lyrics and he would come to rehearsal
after we had the music all worked out which worked out great. Unfortunately by
“The Curse” problems were creeping in, Jody and J.D. were not getting along and
some personal demons were starting to creep in with J.D. That later ended in
him having to leave the band.
How were things in your live shows? Did
you give headline gigs in small venues? Did you play with big names of that
time?
How were things in Heavy Metal scene of
L.A. during that time?
There
were times when I thought it was great and going out to the clubs to see other
bands when we were not playing was a great event, a lot of comradeship
in the scene between musicians, especially with some of the Metal Blade
bands. But it quickly changed when things got bigger, friends that I thought
were close changed and suddenly it was only business and backstabbing and lies.
I had enough of it by 1989 and left for Texas. I miss some of the real friends
I made there, like Bill Metoyer, but honestly I am much happier being in Europe
these days. The fans and bands seem real and honest over there and really into
the music not to hang out and look cool. The music is what counts to me.
“Nightmares” EP followed in 1987 and OMEN
appeared somehow more thrash-y in new songs like “Nightmares” and “Shock
Treatment”. Meanwhile and during the 1987 shows, you were playing some
unreleased songs like “Vicious Attack”, “The Jacket” and “Era Of Crisis”,
destined for an album that was never released. Instead of that, Kimball left
the band and in 1988 you released “Escape To Nowhere” with different music direction.
Can you explain us how were things in the band that year? What happened to
these songs, why did Kimball part ways with OMEN?
I have
always been a little of a closet thrasher so that was easy to work into some
song ideas for “Nightmares”, some day I will probably do a full out thrash song
on an OMEN record, but Epic Power Metal is what I have in my heart, I like to
think that we helped to invent that genre of music. The songs you are referring
to, were written after J.D. left the band, and where going to be on what turned
out to be “Escape to Nowhere”. It was originally going to be titled “Era of
Crisis” which ironically is the song I have been working on for the past three
weeks! An updated version will be on the “Hammer Damage” record. Finally twenty
five years later it will see the light of day!
As far
as J.D. leaving the band it was a situation that was impossible to continue. I
always thought that we would get back together at some point. I loved his
song-writing and we made some epic music together. It is a complete shame that
it ended the way it did. He never got to see Europe and what he helped to accomplish.
Who was responsible for the change of
your music direction in “Escape To Nowhere” (a good album in my opinion), who
introduced you the singer Coburn Pharr
and producer Paul O’Neill?
After that what happened and OMEN
disappeared? Did you play live gigs to support this release and how were things
between you and Metal blade that time?
The
funny thing is that we toured more for that record than all of the other ones
combined! “Thorn in your Flesh” was a radio hit in several cities for months
and we did probably forty headlining shows, tour bus for the first time, we
actually made money for a change. There was no support from the record company,
they hated the record, and the crazy thing was that was a song that kept being
thrown off the record and I fought to keep it on. It was not even finished,
like about half of the songs on that album. Metal Blade pulled the budget after
they heard some of the songs. Thank God for Paul O' Neill, who pulled money from his own
pocket to pay for mixing the record. In the end
though it was time to put OMEN on hold for a
while, I was the only original member left after all of the touring, I did not want to do another record with Metal Blade, and
there were three or four records left on the contract, so I just ended
everything and asked to be released from the contract, which they did after a
few months. It was a very depressing time for me, I realized that no matter how hard I worked at it, I could not control the actions of
everyone else and that not everyone had the same
passion for the band that I did. Serious
reality check!
What have you done until the release of
“Reopening The Gates” in 1997 and how did you come up with that album?
I was
not going to have another band, too much Pain! I was thinking of producing
other bands and writing songs for other artists, so I left L.A. for Dallas, TX
to work for a music store chain called Guitar Center. Of course I went to see a
band one night, I think it was Steve Stevens of Billy Idol, and I fucking knew
I should be playing. I formed a band called Step Child with current OMEN bass
player Andy Haas, I wanted to do something more for fun and not something to be
so passionate about, it was lighter music, still metal by most people
standards, but certainly not OMEN. It started to take off and we did a record
and started playing all of the time, it was turning into a real band, had to
quit my job etc. It just kind of hit me one day, if I will be serious for
something it will have to be OMEN. I really did not know that OMEN had so many
people that still loved the music, my son wanted to be involved, which I
thought was great, but his heart was more new (at that time) U.S metal, so it
kind of went in a little different direction. My heart was old school epic, but
I did not want to be a dinosaur either. We did our first Euro tour ever, and
every night it was one less new song, two more old songs in the set. Fucking awesome
I thought, people really do care about what we did those first three or four
years, I am not insane, this really was something special, something to be
proud of.
When did you find out about Kimball’s
passing?
I
received an e-mail from his brother, maybe one or two days after he passed. I
had been trying to find him for a couple of years, I wanted him to go to Europe
and see what he had accomplished, I wanted to write new songs together and
release an album. He had just kind of disappeared and no one that I knew could
find him. His brother told me that John had been following OMEN on the
internet, and wanted him to contact me after his passing, that he thought it
was great that I had kept it going and that being in OMEN was something he was
very proud of. Apparently he had been sick for some years, and I wish that he
would have contacted me, I would have done what ever possible to get some last
songs with him before it was to late. The “Into the Arena” project was something
that I wanted to do to honor him. Unfortunately there were very few live
recordings of OMEN With J.D. and they are probably sitting in the Metal Blade
vaults. Steve Wittig found a cassette tape of the monitor mix from a show in
San Antonio Texas from around 1986 and sent me a copy. It was in horrible
condition, out of phase, some gaps in the songs where the monitor guy was
cutting it off and on, but all I had of him live. I worked on this for over a
year, finding a little slice to move in from another part of the song to fill
the hole, recording it over and over again to pick out music or voice, so I
could up the E.Q. So as to hear everything. There are no overdubs of new music,
everything is from that shitty cassette and am very proud to have brought it
back to life so fans can hear it after all of these years. And by the way, the
new OMEN record that will be out soon “Hammer Damage” that was the name of a
certain garage band all those years ago, it will be my final recorded tribute
to Mr. Kimball, but I know he will be with us in spirit every time we all sing
along to songs like “Teeth of the Hydra” or “In The Arena”.
Your latest studio album (until now,
August 2012) is “Eternal Black Dawn”. Give us all the info about its release
and the years that followed with all the live shows around the globe, South America, Germany,
Greece
and festivals like Keep It True and Up The Hammers.
I feel
that “Eternal Black Dawn” was an important step in getting OMEN back on track.
I did all of the recording myself at the OMEN studio and it was a great learning
experience. It took Kevin a while to get into the OMEN style, but I felt like
he did a good job, I just kept sending him back home with the first three
records until it clicked. It open a lot of doors for the band and I was hoping
to keep that line up for the next record. But as I have found out from the
past, not everyone shares the passion. Rick and Andy were the first to leave,
Rick to start his own business, Andy had Three kids to raise, Kevin stayed on
for a lot of the tours, but when we started to work on the new album, it was
apparent that his priority was his own band. I can relate to that, I did the
same with Savage Grace, and I just did not want to work around his busy
schedule. I wanted the new OMEN record to be the number one priority. All in
all, EBD was a good experience for me.
“Eternal Black Dawn” singer Kevin Goocher
left the band, George Call from ASKA came, you gave lot of live shows together
and I really liked his voice, and now a new singer is in the band, Matt Story.
How did you meet Matt and what the future holds for OMEN.
To set
the record straight, two people have left Omen on their own, Rick Murray, and
Andy Haas. Andy is back in the band, his kids are old enough now to not need
constant attention. I hate changing members worse than anything else in the
world, especially singers, which I seem to have bad luck with. I don't like to
air dirty laundry, I don't find it productive. If you want to be in OMEN, I
expect only one thing, if you commit to something then I expect that you will
do everything in your power to live up to those commitments. This is my life now,
I have dedicated myself to OMEN for as long as I can physically continue to do
it. As I have said, I know that everyone is not as committed as I am, I do not
expect that. With the exception of the last three members, I hold no ill will
towards anyone, but time and again people made commitments, that ended up
costing me, or I should say my wife, who bust's her ass for me to be able to do
this, thousands of dollars, damaged my reputation, which is the most important
to me, because anyone that knows me, knows that if I say I will do it, I will
do it or I will die trying. I tried everything in my power to get the last
singer on the new album, but after three years of trying, I got a half ass
effort on one song, and the excuses that, “don't really want to do this,
because it does not matter what I do, people will say it is not as good as J.D.
lets just keep touring with the old songs”. I don't need that, I still have a
lot of gas in my tank, and I will never stop playing those songs, I love them.
I am super happy with what Matt has done on the new record. He actually listens
to what I have to say and I hope he is the last singer in OMEN, but I know the
facts, you don't make any money in this band, people have families, travelling
is a bitch and not for pussies, I always tell everyone, it is 23 hours of hell
for one hour of glory, you better be willing to pay that price or you will not
last long. For me, it's well worth it, and would not want to do anything else
with my life.
Which are the mistakes of your past, that
knowing them now, you would change?
You can
not change the past, you can only hope to learn from it.
And which are the best moments in OMEN
history?
Those
are still to come!
This interview is also published in the limited to 100 copies
"Into The Arena" box set - 2012
Since we're not making a living on our music it's not a problem. We have
been lucky to land deals with record labels and play a lot of cool shows, and I
think those two things are of great importance to stay on the scene. We don't
have any hopes of riches or fame (that would be pure stupidity) and we
appreciate every opportunity we're given. As long as we feel we have something
to give to the doom metal scene, and the fans want us, we will keep composing
the best we can. 
