Bringing together a quartet of musicians whose pedigree is as diverse and prolific as it is impressive, A New Revenge is a conglomeration of hard rock and metal talent that coalesced over a number of months as a group of musical pals touring the highways and byways of central and eastern Europe playing cover music. They had so much fun in one another’s company they decided to record an album of their own and give the project its own moniker.
The result of this meeting of the musical minds is the group A New Revenge, which is set to issue forth its debut album. Enemies & Lovers on March 29, through Golden Robot Records.
It is truly an assemblage of talent of pretty darn epic proportions, as it features the vocal talents of Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, formerly of Judas Priest, Iced Earth and a plethora of other top metal appearances, including alongside the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen, more recently Dio Disciples and The Three Tremors. On guitar and leading the creative charge for the band is current Night Ranger axe slinger Keri Kelli, who earned his rock and roll stripes playing alongside the likes of Slash, Vince Neil, Alice Cooper and more. They brought in long-time Scorpions drummer and current bandleader of a reformed Kingdom Come, James Kottak. Last, but certainly not least, legendary bassist Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy, Whitesnake, Blue Oyster Cult, The Guess Who) laid down thunderous and dextrous tracks in his inimitable style for Enemies & Lovers.
Amazingly, A New Revenge (Golden Robot Records) is just one of three bands/projects for which Owens has provided lead vocals releasing albums almost simultaneously. He was one third of the recent Three Tremors project (Steel Cartel Records), alongside Harry Conklin and Sean Peck that released their debut self-titled album in late January. He is also part of Spirits of Fire (Frontiers Music), a classic metal band that released its self-titled debut album on Feb. 22. What this proves is that not only does Ripper Owens possess one of the most dynamic and versatile voices in all of hard rock and metal, but certainly one of the most in demand set of pipes. Three records out at the same time is a remarkable achievement, regardless of the circumstances that led to this abundance of music.
“Some people think that maybe I sat there and recorded them all at the same time or back to back. But they were recorded a year apart from one another. It’s just the way things worked out with the labels that they kind of released them all around the same time, which I don’t know whether that’s good or bad. I would rather they had been spread out a little bit because it makes it easier for me to promote them. But, hey, at least I am putting stuff out,” Owens explained.
“The good thing is all three records are different. It’s not like I made three carbon copy albums. A New Revenge was sitting there ready to go for a while, so I am glad it’s finally getting out there on March 29 because I absolutely loved making that album. It’s one of the favourite records I have ever been involved with. It’s the kind of album where you can just drive down the road and crank it up. The choruses are catchy and there’s great playing. It’s just great stuff.”
And Owens got involved through a bit of a circuitous path. Originally, he joined Kelli and Kottak as part of an all-star cover band that we eventually dubbed Project Rock, playing primarily throughout Russia and eastern Europe.
“At one point Keri said he would like to do some originals. And Keri is a workaholic, his mind is always going. After we got a break in touring, he started sending me song ideas and we started writing them together and it was just awesome. We put a lot of work and effort into songs that would eventually end up on the A New Revenge album. So, Keri was sending me these ideas and I would put melodies and vocals on them. James was on the road a lot with the Scorpions at the time, and we would just add drums in later. And Keri mixed these demos so well that they ended up being as good as the finished music that a lot of other people put out,” he said.
“We eventually got two or three together and actually performed them when we went back to Europe and Russia with Project Rock. We have another bonus song called Moscow With Love that we wrote for them and it was actually played on the radio over there – just the demo. Here’s To Us was another one we played over there, and I think we also played The Distance Between, and those last two made it onto Enemies & Lovers.”
Owens said there was musical magic right off the hop between he and Kelli, which manifested itself throughout the writing process as they crafted songs quickly, deftly and with great effect, as the final product for A New Revenge demonstrates.
“Keri did a lot of the lyrics as well. He would send me some ideas and I might change them and put my ideas down, but sometimes I didn’t have to. Keri was definitely the driving force behind this, but then eventually we just started switching off, doing different things for each song. Keri had such great ideas that he would come up with and I would run with it, maybe tweaking a couple of things, maybe do different lyrics here and there. There was a lot of really good back and forth, but a lot of it was also just Keri starting us off with some great ideas,” Owens opined.
“Then there were a couple of songs that we would finish up and think it was pretty good, but then come back a week later and say, ‘yeah, I think we’re going to do a different version of it.’ I think Glorious was one of those. It was a whole different song at first, with totally different melodies, but when we revisited it, we decided to change everything up. But it worked out great.
“Here’s To Us was a real anthem song. It’s one of those songs where you’re yelling out the chorus at a show with a beer in your hand. There are so many great choruses on this record; things are driven from the choruses on a lot of the songs. Sometimes when you’re recording an album you don’t know if its going to be good live or not. This one felt live. Even though I didn’t go to L.A. to record my parts, I did most of the stuff in my own studio, the music tracks were so good that it felt live during playback as I was recording vocals. When I was singing, I was singing it as if we were on stage and when the choruses came through, I knew that, man, this is going to be good stuff live. People can sing along with it, and I think that’s the key element to this record.”
What Owens liked about the partnership was that it was a bit of a departure from the heavier material that he was used to in Three Tremors and back in the day when he was fronting first Judas Priest and then Iced Earth. He said that Kelli brought more of a gritty, 1970s groove and 1980s hair metal swagger to the mix, based on time he had spent working with Slash, Alice Cooper, the late Jani Lane of Warrant and more recently as part of Night Ranger.
“Keri is from the Orange County scene and to my ear there is a distinctive kind of thing that came out of that area back in the day. In metal there are often geographical influences: there was the Florida scene back in the day from Savatage and later death metal. Then there was the Seattle scene, or different parts of Europe like Germany or Norway – these markets all have different influences,” he said.
“I could tell from Keri’s writing where he was from and who he had been with, particularly his time with Slash’s Snakepit. That kind of hard rock that’s over the top, and the hair metal vibe from back in the day – that’s where Keri is from. I can really hear the Orange County, Guns ‘N Roses, Slash influence in his playing. And I love it because I am not going to sing that style. My influence is still going to be me vocally, which is more of a Ronnie James Dio style than anything on this record. So, I just sang like me to Keri’s music and I think that’s really a key to what makes this A New Revenge record special.”
Owens tours predominantly with his solo band, which performs songs gleaned from throughout his lengthy and diverse pedigree, including numerous songs from Judas Priest and Iced Earth, as well as tunes from his many other projects. He said he will also be touring as often as possible with Three Tremors and hopes A New Revenge can get out on the road at some point in 2019.
“I would very much like to tour this band. I think Rudy has pretty much said that he doesn’t have time for it any more, and understandably so because it took so long to come out. Everybody went off and did other things and Rudy is pretty committed to The Guess Who as well. We had Phil Soussan in the video for The Way, but he is also busy with lots of things, including Last In Line. But I don’t think it’s going to be an issue to find a top-notch bass player to add to our thing. The meat and potatoes of this band is really who is writing it and creating it and that was basically Keri, me and James,” he said.
“I would love to get it together and I think we probably will at some point. Keri is so busy with Night Ranger and I am going to be busy with the Dio hologram thing and touring with that, which is a new entity. And I am touring with The Three Tremors – so we’re all busy, but we will definitely try to get time for all the projects that we do including A New Revenge.”
On top of all this, as mentioned just above, Owens will be performing a handful of shows on the Dio hologram tour, which features members of the Dio Disciples band playing live to previously recorded live vocal track synched to a hologram of legendary metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio. Throughout the show, guest vocalists come on stage to also sing songs from the prodigious Dio repertoire, with Owens being a regular.
“I am looking forward to doing that for the fact that I was a good friend of Ronnie and he was my idol and it’s something that hasn’t really been done before. And I also want to do it because it’s a very unique and different thing. I don’t have to do it, because I can tour solo and do lots of other things, but man I love singing Ronnie’s material with this band. And I love watching the hologram and listening to Ronnie’s actual voice with the band again,” he said.
“So, they will do it with the hologram for two or three songs and then I will come out and do some songs with the band and then Oni Logan [ex-Lynch Mob] will sing as well, then we’ll go off stage and they will go into Ronnie talking and doing another song with the hologram. Doing it this way, it mixes it up a bit and makes it a really interesting experience for everybody. They don’t have to sit with the hologram for an hour and a half, they can have some interaction with us. I only do a few shows with the hologram. I was with Dio Disciples when they started and stayed with them for a while, but I quit a few years back because I was just too busy with solo stuff. I love celebrating Ronnie, but I just had to do some other stuff. Last year I went back to do some shows with them because I just love being with the guys and love celebrating those songs. We all love doing it so much, and it really is an emotional roller coaster. And every time we go out there, we know we are doing it for the right reasons, and that’s what makes it more enjoyable to do, because we know we’re not out there doing it for any other reason that to celebrate Ronnie.”
Besides solo work, The Three Tremors, A New Revenge and Spirits of Fire, Owens also recently laid down vocal tracks for Christian metal band Tourniquet and did some recording with former Megadeth guitarist [and Canadian] Glen Drover, among other session work, including for Syracuse rock band Held Hostage.
For more information on Owens’ various activities and projects, as well as tour dates, visit https://timripperowens.com. For more information about A New Revenge, visit the bands social media contacts or www.anewrevenge.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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