Three of heavy metal’s most powerful and prolific voices have come together to form a powerhouse new band, one that is already generating great acclaim from audiences, and also great anticipation in the forthcoming release of their debut album.
Based on the Three Tenors operatic agglomeration more than two decades ago, featuring three of the top voices in that genre – Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, the three vocalist/songwriters forming Three Tremors wanted to form a band that would blow fans away based on excellent songwriting, strong, bold vocals, and an infectious intensity in live scenarios.
It was an idea begun in the imagination of current Cage and former Death Dealer frontman/songwriter Sean Peck, which saw him recruit pals Harry ‘The Tyrant’ Conklin (Jag Panzer, Titan Force) and Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens (Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Dio Disciples) to see what sort of musical magic they could make together. Their self titled debut album, Three Tremors, is set to be released worldwide on Jan. 18. Two videos from the album. When the Last Scream Fades, and Invaders from the Sky have already caused a positive stir in the heavy metal press and within the genre’s rabid fan base.
During a recent tour of Europe, the band, which is essentially all five members of Cage, including Peck, joined by Conklin and Owens, played to sold out houses of enthusiastic fans, most of whom had never heard the music before. The strong response emboldened the trio and convinced them that they were onto something unique and special.
“During the first tour earlier in the year in Europe there were two kinds of people who came up to us after the show. One was the guy who would say, ‘you know, we were really skeptical; we thought this was going to be a bunch of old shit but, f*** , you proved us wrong. Wow it was great.’ Or it would be a 40-year-old dude with a battle vest with a million patches on it who’d say, ‘I have seen over 1,000 shows in heavy metal and this was f***ing amazing.’ We were approached by the harshest of critics and they appreciated what a unique and powerful heavy metal experience it was. And it’s really satisfying to hear that, because this was conceptualized to be total bad ass. When we started playing, the three of us together, it even exceeded my sky high expectations of how bloody ruthless it would be,” said Peck.
“And one of the things we got from some of the early reviews was that Three Tremors makes people feel like they are back in high school again and first getting into heavy metal and being so pumped on the music at that time. And that’s really cool to hear from people, because I remember how I felt when I was in high school and metal was just this awesome new thing to me.
“Some people want to call what we do old school, some people want to call it a 1980s throwback, I don’t give a shit. This is the kind of metal that I love and we’re not trying to be something we’re not. We just want to be f***ing amazing at this. And having experienced the feedback live already as to what the fans thought of the songs gives me all the confidence in the world knowing that this record is badass. I am really proud of it.”
And Peck should be since he is truly the driving force behind the creation of Three Tremors, as well as its primary creative force, having written the bulk of the material on the 12 incendiary tracks for the album. Peck said he was looking to revive an idea or rumour that had been floating around the heavy metal world more than two decades ago, wherein a metal version of the Three Tenors would be developed, and the names bandied about at the time included Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford of Judas Priest and Geoff Tate who was still with Queensryche at the time. It never came to fruition, but the idea caught the imagination of a young Sean Peck and finally bore fruit last year.
“With my first band, Cage, we have always tried to innovate in the ideas department of heavy metal, because if you try to innovate too much with the music part of heavy metal, you lose the essence of it. So, I am always trying to come up with new and creative ideas for the presentation of the theme of the album or the stage show. With the old urban legend of the Three Tremors, about five years ago I was thinking about it and how the world was deprived of something that would have been just magically insane, and it was a shame that it was never going to take place. Part of the reason, so I heard from people who were on the inside, was that it was just too hard to accomplish. I looked at is as a challenge and thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool if we kind of fulfilled the heavy metal prophecy’ so to speak,” said Peck.
“I reached out to Ripper and then later I was with Harry in Germany and brought it up and they agreed to do it. Then I got with the guys in Cage and said, ‘oh shit, these guys have agreed to so it, now we have to actually pull it together.’ The thing that took the longest is we wanted to make sure we had really killer songs, so we took our time writing just some great heavy metal songs. You can have all the greatest singers and guitar players in the world, but if the songs suck, it doesn’t mean shit. Let’s do what they say can’t be done.
“And the cool thing is that it’s not a project, man. It’s a band, that’s the thing. When we talked to Ripper and Harry, we wanted to make sure they knew this thing is going to be a band, it’s not just some internet album. And they were excited about that.”
Peck said initially he was going for an approach that was more involved, and would not only have three vocalists, but instrumentalists from different bands across the metal world, all of whom would also contribute to the writing. Seeing that would be a logistical nightmare, he stuck with the approach that Three Tremors would be a seven-piece band, that had three lead singers.
“I pulled back thinking it would be much easier to keep it in house. And also, I am really confident in the songwriting that we have with the Cage guys [Dave Garcia, Casey Trask, Alex Pickard and Sean Elg]. As well, when you’re preparing for live shows, you’ve got five of the seven pieces here in one location. And the results have been fantastic,” he explained.
“The fact is that we already have an insane chemistry within Cage, we are battle tested and just a lethal musical unit. When we add the other two guys, Harry and Tim realized we’ve already got our shit down. When they came in, we had already been rehearsing the entire live set with just me, so it was on fire from the start. Once we got Tim and Harry melded in, so to speak, it was f***ing awesome from Jump Street. It wasn’t just a bunch of loosey-goosey interchangeable pieces, it was a unit. We wanted to exceed the expectations and that’s what we feel we have done. We have played the entire album live at 17 shows so far and people had no idea what the songs were, but they were just loving them.
“It was important to exceed expectations of what the blueprint of this looks like and being a band and not a studio or internet project where it’s like, ‘here’s the album, but they’re never going to play live.’ It may be a cool album, but if you don’t play live, who cares. But we had so much fun on tour already and had such a great response that we’re already talking about the second album, and we’re going to be touring Australia, Japan, South America and all over the place when the record comes out. So, this is a real thing. I think it gives more validity to it when it’s an actual live band, versus just a supergroup in the studio.”
It didn’t take long for the three frontmen to gel as a unit onstage, with each demonstrating the showmanship and vocal prowess that has led them to being so well respected within the metal genre. With each one putting their egos to the side, they developed a rapport on stage, and backed by Cage, enthralled and energized not only the audiences, but all seven guys on stage night after night.
“We only had two practices and I didn’t think that was enough for all the shit we were trying to do to make it a tight group and a tight performance. But I watched the videos of the first three shows, and they were actually great. And as the tour went along, we kind of made adjustments to the point where some nights one guy will take a different line on a song. There’s been a little bit of adlibbing going on, which has made it a lot of fun. Now that we know the songs, we just pop in and out when we feel like, and it’s kind of cool that way because every night is a little bit different,” Peck said, explaining that all three vocalists perform on each track, sometimes solo, sometimes in unison.
“Tim has experience doing the multiple singer thing, but I Harry and I had never really done it. So, we had a place where Tim was in the middle and Harry was stage right and I am stage left. On the European tour there were a couple of stages that were small, but we made it work. We are getting it down tighter where it’s more like a Las Vegas performance where we have our certain moves together, and that’s really coming together too, where it’s becoming a really tight show. But yet, it’s a heavy metal thing so there is a lot of freelancing too.”
Besides the dozen tracks from the album, there would be the odd surprise song from each singer’s own pedigree in the sets, including a couple of Judas Priest songs that would have the crowd apoplectic with enthusiasm.
“When Tim does Burn in Hell from the Jugulator album the crowd is going f***ing nuts because they know the song. After a few more songs from the album, I come out and do Hell Destroyer from Cage, and I was really stoked at how great the crowd reaction was for that, because I am obviously the least known of the guys. I was just trying not to embarrass myself, so to speak,” Peck said.
“And then Harry comes up and does Black from Jag Panzer and then we say good night, walk off the stage. For the encore the drummer [Elg] starts to play the opening drum part from Priest’s Painkiller and the three of us run back on stage and of course the place is going ape shit. And you have never heard Painkiller like this before – our version is unbelievable. And then we did The Sentinel from Judas Priest and we end it with two original songs. So, we learned how to give each other a little bit of the spotlight. It was really well balanced how we put it all together.
“Those two dudes are a couple of the greatest vocalists in music – period. I don’t care what genre you’re talking about; those two guys are friggin’ amazing. I have my moments where I am amazing, but those guys – let’s just say I am trying my best to keep up with them because they are unbelievable. And the whole thing was just fun, for everybody. There wasn’t a lot of stress, no one is trying to be perfect. It someone would mess up a song we would look at each other and start laughing. That whole first tour was just known for laughs, man. It was a big friggin’ riot the whole time. And that makes us excited to get together and rock again, which we’re going to be doing in February in the United States.”
For more information on the band, upcoming tour dates and the debut album, visit www.thethreetremors.com, www.facebook.com/thethreetremors, or their Twitter and Instagram accounts.
- 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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