The music that Chris Poland put out while he was playing the guitar for thrashers Megadeth has become iconic. A little lesser known is that he released a solo album in the time after the departure.This text tells the story of that time. It is a long read but all worth it - it's sort of mini-biography and holds many details unknown to me so far.
The very end of the text reveals that a brand new solo record will see the light of day in 2020. Let's have our fingers crossed that everything will turn out well until then.
Says Poland, “I was out of Megadeth, and went through rehab and had gotten clean. I had no gear, and I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to ever play guitar again. Friends started bringing me gear; guitars, amps, pedals, telling me, “you have to play again.” So, I started playing. Andy Sommers, Megadeth’s agent, heard I was clean and doing well, and the Circle Jerks needed a bassist, so I toured with them for over a year, playing bass. And while I was doing that, I was in the back of a 16-passenger van, writing the songs that would become Return to Metalopolis.”
“I didn’t have a drummer, so I asked my brother Mark to play on it. I said, “We’re gonna make a record, and I need you to play drums.” He agreed, and we started doing demos. Janie Hoffman shopped it and we got a really good deal with Capitol Records, but shortly after we did the deal, for whatever reason, we get a call from the A&R guy who says they can’t do the deal on Capitol, but they offered me a deal on Enigma. So that’s where it came out.”
Poland continues, “I just feel like it’s timeless. I don’t listen to it and think that it’s some dated 80’s bullshit. It’s not like that for me. Of course, I’m super close to it, and I love it, but I really feel like it has held up well.”
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| The cover of Chris Poland's "Return To Metalopolis". |
The Return to Metalopolis reissue will be released on November 22nd on double CD, and digital, and in December on limited edition double LP, and Cassette, remastered with bonus material, including live tracks that originally appeared on the out of print 2007 release Return to Metalopolis Live, plus 3 brand new tracks recorded in 2019, featuring the rhythm section of Carlos Cruz and Chase Bryant of Warbringer.
Pre-order now at the following location:
http://empmerch.com/?submit=&s=chris+poland&post_type=product
Note of the author of the blog: The link seems to be down at the moment. Not sure what's happening there but no other link is available right now. As soon as I have more info I'll add it here.
Update 10/30/19: The page is back online again.
After over a decade with Metal on the backburner, despite guest appearances with Lamb of God, Tourniquet, Redemption, and more, with Poland focusing his energy on playing and recording with his Jazz fusion trio OHM, which also featured late former Megadeth drummer Nick Menza, and the Chris Poland Resistance, another fusion project being released by the eclectic Modern Jazz-centric Ropeadope Records, Poland has also announced work on the long-awaited follow up to METALOPOLIS, to be released in 2020 on COMBAT.
“I never really got away from Metal, I’ve always been a Rock guy. And even the stuff we do with Ohm is really heavy and dynamic. But when I started playing with Nick (Menza) he really put a fire under my ass to write new, heavy music. I was over at his house every night after work, my wife told me I was having a “bro-mance”, but I couldn’t stop writing songs. Nick and I had hooked up with James Lomenzo (ex-Megadeth, White Lion), and we were actually going to start a band together, which didn’t work out, but I had literally hours and hours of ideas for songs that me and Nick were going to do together when he passed away. Now I’m working on putting them all together for a new solo release that will also come out on Combat.”
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