Press for Warrel Dane’s excellent solo album, Praises to the War Machine has been so far-reaching and ubiquitous, that every possible question surrounding the album has been asked. At least in this writer’s eyes. Backed by the very capable Peter Wichers (ex Soilwork) and drummer Dirk Verbeuren, Dane’s first solo album ranks as one of 2008’s better albums and contains some of Dane’s most chilling work to do date, especially in the form of “Your Chosen Misery,” “Brother” and “Messanger.” Dane’s voice is in top form and the basic, melodic songs composed by Wichers are arguably a better fit than some Nevermore compositions.
With that mind, we felt it was necessary to hit Dane up from a different angle and pick his brain on his 80’s metal past - a period that included a stint with cult legends Sanctuary, a band hand-picked by Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine to ride the crest of the thrash movement. Along the way, Dane learned some valuable lessons in the industry, having weathered the storm that was grunge in the early 90’s. More importantly, Dane was also able to jumpstart a pure metal band (Nevermore) in a city that clearly wanted nothing to do with the music Nevermore was creating.
Dane has always been a good interview, and luckily he was up to task of discussing almost every aspect of his pre-solo album career with Blistering, including his resemblance to one Doro Pesch, his first (and only) encounter with Guns ‘N’ Roses’ Slash, and his pick for President…
Blistering.com: Describe the 80’s glam metal scene in Seattle. Was there even a scene?
Warrel Dane: When Alice in Chains first started, they were definitely all glammed-up. There’s some incriminating photos of those guys floating around and I remember when they were touring with Megadeth and Dave Mustaine got a hold of those pictures when they were hair-sprayed and ratted-up, so he found them pretty amusing. I think there was a glam scene, but it was more hard rock. It was there for a little while; it didn’t last long.
Blistering.com: While on the subject, how exactly long was your hair?
Dane: I got mistaken for Doro a few times. Sanctuary did a tour with Megadeth and Warlock and I got mistaken for Doro for sure. If you’re going to get mistaken for a woman, I guess it’s good to be mistaken for her. She’s up there and she looks amazing. I don’t know what the hell she’s doing - I know she doesn’t party – maybe that’s why she still looks so good. She looks the same as she did 20 years ago. I don’t know what her secret is, but she should share it with somebody. [laughs]
Blistering.com: When you first signed to Epic, did they try and push an image upon you?
Dane: Well, when we started out with the first record, Mustaine had a lot to do with our dress code back then. We had the stretch jeans and the high-top shoes, which was the uniform back then, and gosh, some of those old pictures I just cringe. As far from the label, they didn’t give us any pressure to look or sound a certain a way until the whole grunge thing hit. We did the second record (Into the Mirror Black) and when Nevermore started, Jim and I were still under contract with Epic. They (Epic) strung Nevermore along for a couple of years before we signed to Century Media. We actually had to send them a letter telling them to exercise their option or release us from the contract.
It’s really weird because a lot of people think Sanctuary was dropped from Epic, but we really weren’t. We did get the speech, “Maybe we were expecting something a little grungier,” and we got that a couple of times and I think that’s what led them to be disinterested. Just because you’re from Seattle doesn’t mean you have to play that kind of music. It came and went, but metal may have waned a bit in popularity here and there, but it never went away. I think Epic was confused as to why a prog/thrash band couldn’t make grunge… that’s retarded.
Blistering.com: Any good Mustaine stories?
Dane: We just had a lot of fun back then. I respect that guy immensely. He gave me my start in the music industry with Sanctuary. He really supported us and I probably wouldn’t be talking to you if it weren’t from him. I just have a mad amount of respect for that guy. There are so many stories, it’s impossible to relate all of them, but we had a really, really good time with them.
We were all pretty young back then. He was going through some well-documented personal issues, but the cool thing was, when Nevermore was at the first Gigantour (in 2005), it was first Jim and I had seen him in years and we were able to re-connect with him. No matter what his personal beliefs are…they’re polar opposites of mine, but we still get along. And if you don’t like what he says, don’t listen to him.
Blistering.com: People still seem to go nuts over “Battle Angels,” which is a good song, but don’t you think “Die For My Sins” is better?
Dane: I can’t pick a favorite. They’re both my kids in a certain way. People always do ask for “Battle Angels.” Nevermore got it so many times in the beginning of the band it always went over like crazy. Most of the guys in Nevermore weren’t in Sanctuary, but I think they wanted to focus on Nevermore songs instead, but people were always asking for those Sanctuary songs. Even now, we’ll be at shows and see kids 14-15 years old, obviously wearing their parents worn-out Sanctuary t-shirts. It’s cool that it has translated to another generation.
Blistering.com: Do you have the rights to those albums or are they forever out of print?
Dane: You know what, when Nevermore started to gain popularity, Epic reissued both of them. I think you can still get them. I haven’t really tried, but I’m sure they’re still available. We still get very small royalty checks, so they’re selling somewhere. [laughs]
Blistering.com: Your advances had to be pretty large back then, so it must be taking you a while to pay them back.
Dane: Uh…yeah. [laughs] Neither one of those records recouped. Back in those days, you had the huge advances with the label throwing money at us, plus we had Megadeth’s management and Mustaine on our side. We were so green… we didn’t know it was a mistake to take so much money up front. We didn’t have anything to show for it back then. We took some bad advice back then and it wasn’t from Dave, it was from the management side.
Blistering.com: Were band tensions strained going into the second album?
Dane: Not really, we were really tight all the way up until the grunge thing. The problem with that band was that a couple of guys got really affected by the grunge explosion and they wanted to go in that direction. This was towards the end of the band. We were divided into two camps: one was “Stick to your guns,” the other was “Change and conform to the trends.” I wasn’t having that. Any fan of Sanctuary would have seen it as a complete sell-out and that’s what it would have been.
There were a couple of songs that made me just really angry when I heard some of the riffs, which sounded like sub-standard Alice In Chains. To me, they’re the best band from the whole thing – they’re the most metal. Still, I never wanted to go in that direction. It would have been dishonest to the fans and that’s totally what led to the breakup of Sanctuary.
