As Anselmo states in the video below (via Blabbermouth), he’s finished recording the vocals for the as-of-yet untitled first EP. According to guitarist Kirk Windstein in an interview with Radio Metal, the plan is to release four over the next couple of years. The first one, in Anselmo’s own words, will likely be out “early next year.” Watch the update below:

Down’s full performance at the SWU Festival from last month can be seen here. We also remind you of the couple of exclusive interviews we’ve done with Anselmo in the past: one where he speaks about his intense post-surgery recovery, and another where he discusses all the problems New Orleans went through.

[Not to mention that time he gave Antiquiet a little shout-out.]

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the second act on the bill, played to a crowd a still-growing crowd under a rain that was just starting to downpour, and would continue throughout the entire day. It’s a shame that the band didn’t communicate that well with the crowd, and waited until the second-to-last song to say more than a few words. Regardless of that, the set was well-received (show starts 11 minutes into the video):

Much more energetic were Phil Anselmo’s Down. On their first tour through the country, the band played their first album NOLA in its near entirety. Towards the end of the set (at the 44:00 mark), Anselmo asked the crowd, “what do you want to hear?”, and received chants for a Pantera song, and was surprised by a fan with the band’s name tattooed wide across his chest – Pantera’s Walk followed. Watch the entire setbelow:

Later that night, Stone Temple Pilots did a pretty good job of causing temporary amnesia to those unfortunate enough to have heard Scott Weiland’s Christmas album. The frontman, sporting a suit, caused a good impression, and there were no hints of a backing track. Unfortunately, their delay to get onstage meant that a few songs had to be cut, playing 20 minutes below their allotted time:

Alice In Chains, on the other hand, arrived with no delays whatsoever and performed a nearly flawless set, returning to Brazil after almost 20 years of absence.

For just over 90 minutes, their set spanned across every landmark in the band’s career, even including a few rarities and the highlights from their last LP Black Gives Way To Blue. Any lingering and long-overstayed skepticism regarding “new” singer William Duvall (who’s been with the band for years now) was promptly shredded:

To close out the festival, Faith No More played the final gig of their South American tour – happening one year after the announcement that their successful reunion was “over.” The setlist wasn’t significantly different from the ones performed back in 2009, but the performance was relentlessly powerful, and Mike Patton’s vocals remain as spot-on as usual. Highlights included a version of Just a Man with a choir, which can be seen at the 58:10 mark, and their supposedly new song, at the 1:07:00 mark (also, the actual concert starts 3 minutes into the video):

Other broadcast concerts from that night included what might be Sonic Youth’s final performance (as the band have announced tha there are no future plans following the divorce of bandmembers Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon), as well Primus and Megadeth. More than enough music to kill a few afternoons in the cubicle hells of reality’s work week.

Photos: Fabricio Vianna

Keenan (who lives in New Orleans) helped in adding some weight to the already ridiculously heavy Gun. Watch it below:

Soundgarden’s first album in 15 years will reportedly be out next spring, and the band will tour Australia in early 2012. As for Down, the band plans start releasing a series of EPs sometime next year, and we’ll be catching the band on their South American tour next month.

After dominating the metal/hardcore scene over two decades with enough projects to rival Mike Patton, Anselmo’s taking his new role as label head as serious as a heart attack – but don’t head down this path looking for the Pantera of 2010.

Standing as the definitive collection of Anselmo’s side projects from past to present, Housecore Records represents a genre-defying collection of artists that stretch far beyond the influence of the CEO’s musical legacy. Setting the stage for 2010 to be its breakout year, with releases from new artists like haarp and Sursiks, the looming likelihood of the first new Eyehategod album in a decade and a brand new project written and fronted by Anselmo. He’ll also be releasing the soundtrack for the cult horror film The Manson Family.

We tracked down Philip H. Anselmo in his home in the oil-slicked town of New Orleans, Louisiana to dig deeper into Housecore and find out what tricks he’s got up his sleeve for the near future, as well as some exciting new updates on Eyehategod’s plans for a new record.

Antiquiet: Where are you right now?

Phil Anselmo: Down in Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans. It’s like fuckin’ Cambodia here, just fuckin’ miserable hot outside.

Antiquiet: How’s the reaction to the oil nightmare down there?

Phil Anselmo: Dude I can’t begin to even fuckin’ touch that shit. I mean, economically and as a community it’s just fuckin’ terrible, man. Miserable. Nothin’ good comin’ out of this.

Antiquiet: People are still pointing fingers while we still can’t kill the thing a month and change into it.

Phil Anselmo: Exactly. The responsible parties are pointing fingers at each other, and it’s so fuckin’ bureaucratic and retarded, in all honesty. There ain’t nobody who wants to stand up and say ‘Hey, okay, it’s my fault on this one. Bad on me. We’re poisoning the earth for fuckin’ real right now, and we can’t do a fuckin’ thing about it after we promised we would.’ How can you promise anybody that after you drill a mile into the fucking earth through the ocean that one fuckin’ day it’s not gonna fuck up?

Antiquiet: While they’re trying to politicize it and minimize the impact, we’re seeing pictures of oil washing up on shores in Alaska from a much smaller spill that happened in 1985. The shit doesn’t just naturally go away.

Phil Anselmo: Makin’ the earth angry. It’s already a fuckin’ planet that changes every few thousand fuckin’ years. You’re just poking a beehive with a stick now. (Phil starts pissing) It hasn’t even begun to really bear down and affect the people, the economic scenario, not to mention the long-term impact on everything. Two years from now, then we’ll be able to ask, ‘how’s New Orleans looking?’ in a real negative light, cause believe me brother, it’ll be there. This shit ain’t going away. It’s fucked – everything but our insanely great football team.

Antiquiet: With Housecore, you made a point of saying you don’t want your acts to rush through an album’s recording and then regretting their decisions later. The whole ‘we shall sell no wine before its time’ concept. On the flipside of that, have you been able to lock Eyehategod back in to commit for studio time yet? I know they’re on tour right now…

Phil Anselmo: Get ready for this, hold your hat, I have a fucking update. I called Jimmy Bower last week, and he sounded very very agitated. Busy. So I asked him, ‘what’s the deal, man? Did I wake you up?’ He said ‘no. I’m trying, dude.’ And I said ‘trying? Trying to do what?’ And he said ‘I’m going for it, man. I’m writing some riffs, man, for Eyehategod.’ And I said ‘Well congratulations Mr. Fucking Bower.’

Apparently later that day they jammed, so all of this is a step in the right fucking direction.

Antiquiet: Fantastic news.

Phil Anselmo: Yeah, man. They’re very visible right now, so it’s like come on. Let’s have some new stuff.

Antiquiet: This seems more for the passion projects, a place for artists and the fans to find the real shit without the cellophane and disappointment. Are you still cutting your own throats on costs?

Phil Anselmo: Honestly, I’m not really worried about it. My concern is getting the music out that I’ve done, all these fucking years, to the kids that deserve it, that want it, that need to hear it and want to hold the product in their hands. And also the bands that I feel people should hear. There’s a million record labels out there, but I know that I can get a product into a fucking store. And that makes me feel fuckin’ good. So as far as recoup or anything like that, we’ll see. Is there an ultimate plan? Well, we’re working towards that ultimate plan of showcasing bands and bringing something really fresh and new. Hopefully blow some ideas open for a whole lot of people, because like you said, the first impression someone would feel about me having a record label would be that I’m putting out death metal, hardcore type stuff. That’s not my gig, man. I like music of all sorts and genres, man. If I happen to stumble across something, or know something that is a must, like the Sursiks and so on, it needs to be heard.

I don’t expect anyone to take my word for a band. A band’s gonna speak for themselves. As far as the fans go, or people that buy music, honestly, believe me, I’m very well aware that some people are going to love it and some will hate it. But such is life, such is the way of music and tastes. I can’t force anyone to like something, that’s not my fuckin’ deal. These are bands that do something for me musically, and bands that I believe are ready for that next step.

Antiquiet: There’s a flipside to the ultimate access that the internet provides, in that all the bands vying for your attention & cash becomes a sludge of white noise. It can be hard to figure out what to gravitate to, and it’s a new dawning for tastemakers. Now more than ever, people are looking for a name they can trust to point them in the right direction, a lighthouse in the fog. You’re filling a serious void by being that voice.

Phil Anselmo: Yeah, I definitely agree with you man. I think that’s a great way to put it, and I appreciate that. It’s certainly over-saturated out there.

Antiquiet: Speaking of projects nobody’s heard, is there anything you’ve done musically in the past that’s unreleased for whatever reason, that you wish you could just throw out there?

Phil Anselmo: Yeah, man. (chuckles) There’s a few things I’ve done that maybe when I’m 79, if I make it that fuckin’ far, I’ll just stick it out there ’cause I won’t give a shit anymore. But yeah, I wish I could put out all the Biker that I did back in the day. Biker was a funny fuckin’ thing, man. But the masters are so old. Really, really fuckin’ old. Some of it’s inaudible, in some points sections are taped over out of drunken madness… ‘Oh, listen to this…’  You’re drunk, you hit record instead of play, that kind of shit. It’s not completely intact, but yeah, that’s one of ‘em.

Then there’s a bunch of stuff where it’s a matter of time. You’ve gotta dedicate yourself. When it’s Warbeast time, you gotta be 100% Warbeast. When it’s haarp time, you’ve gotta be 1,000% haarp. So there’s a lot of stuff that gets caught in the peripheral that by all means I’m dying to get out to people. But it’s like oh shit, it’s been a fucking year and I haven’t touched this thing because I’ve been fighting tooth and fuckin’ nail for all these other acts. But I’m always there, workin’ the levers on some other project to fuck shit up.

Read more from our interview at CraveOnline.

Find out more at TheHousecoreRecords.com

Photo: Haretz

Cultural and musical distinction certainly play a deciding role in ranking, as well as the respect to album format and the places these collections actually take us as listeners. But ultimately, arbitrary Darwinism aside, the deciding factor was how well these albums will hold up a decade from now.

We slaved over this bitch for over a month and a half, arguing the conflicting merits and power points of more than a hundred albums before boiling the list down to 50. So what if the new decade’s already begun? Taking ten whole years into account, we’re giving ourselves a pass on these extra five days.

1. Songs For The Deaf
Queens Of The Stone Age (2002)

Johnny: It’s an extremely rare occurrence that one album will completely vaporize your concept of cool. This goliathan rhythmic melting-pot is the Rock equivalent of a trip out to the desert under a full moon with a lot of firepower, high-powered narcotics, great friends and a muscle car with a big-ass engine. It’s equal parts danger, mystery, fun and a mindblowing collection of talent providing a massive dose of steroids to the Queens sound. The result was something we’d been waiting for, whether we knew it or not; that first sign of a next evolutionary step in Rock music, like the Appetites and Neverminds that came before it.

Dave Grohl made his first high-profile return to the drums here since the shotgun demise of Nirvana, providing the core piston charge in the engine that roars to life in the record’s first moments and sets the relentless pace of the entire album. He’s the determined rhythmic core, matching both raw power and the rooster strut so integral to the Sounds of Homme. Mark Lanegan, lone-wolf man of many projects, contributes his whiskey-soaked, gravel-rubbed throat to the proceedings, a haunting and hypnotically smooth low-end weaving seamlessly with Josh Homme’s familiar tenor. Coupled with former bassist Nick Oliveri’s final shreiking spaz-freak appearance on record with Queens, Songs For The Deaf is that rare moment when the stars align and everything fits perfectly into place, creating a new standard.

2. Binaural
Pearl Jam (2000)

Johnny: The delicate, introspective beauty of 1998’s Yield was traded for a driving return to motivated purpose and statement on Binaural, whether through sardonic apologies to imperialistic invaders, tales of impending heartbreak and lost loved ones or any of the other narrative themes explored on this complex, confident album. Buoyed by the stomping force of Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, invigorated survivalism is the main course on this 13-track banquet.

Skwerl: My personal favorite Pearl Jam album, Binaural remains, at least in my opinion, their strongest release since their classic 1993 sophomore album Vs.

3. Robot Hive/Exodus
Clutch (2005)

Johnny: I will forever equate this album with driving through the hills of northern California with Skwerl, as the sun cracked the horizon, 5th-gear roaring to a court appearance 400 miles from home to avoid pissing off Johnny Law any more than I needed to or already had (for a while, anyway). It was a nails-on-chalkboard jittery nervefest, one of those mornings, usually inspired by near-certain incarceration or otherwise devastating consequence, when you’re suddenly overtly aware and hyperbolically juiced about the glorious beauty of freedom and nature. In those hysterical, unreasonably giddy moments, this is the most perfect album a man can lay ears on.

With each passing listen, the Robot Hive title rings more and more true; the guitars buzz and reverberate like a mechanical beehive, a slick titanium beast of Pure Rock Fury with Neil Fallon at the helm, gnashing teeth and stomping army of giants in his throat like a baptist evangelical preacher on a mean one. Metaphorical brilliance laced with the most clever couplets and double-entendres this side of Use Your Illusion only begin to explain Fallon’s lyrical prowess, but it’s the unyielding collective sweet-spot groove the entire band clicks into that makes this one special.

4. Elephant
The White Stripes (2003)

Johnny: Jack White made me believe in the surviving soul of Rock N’ Roll, and Elephant was the catalyst. Darker, more aggressive and focused than its three predecessors, Elephant eliminated the concept that the White Stripes were a gimmick act in candy cane colors, and exposed the broader scope of White’s creative vision and vehement rejection of modern Rock trends, even (or especially) in the face of inevitable superstardom.

The band played Coachella three weeks after the album was released, and Jack’s furious passion, mixed with an entirely unique minimalist style and staggering improvisational ability, resulted in an utterly devastating set that quite literally eliminated everything I thought I knew about a man expressing himself through a guitar, amp and microphone. The electricity of certainty that Jack had hit an unstoppable stride was thick in the air, and Elephant is the reason. It’s the sound of a legend coming into full bloom.

Skwerl: Before 2003, The White Stripes could be written off as a cute indie rock band, at least at a casual glance. Even when Seven Nation Army hit the airwaves, Jack White’s genius was largely unrecognized in a herd of three-chord garage rockers with simple, catchy rock candy radio singles. However, Elephant would be no forgettable Rocket To Russia knockoff. On Elephant, White revealed himself to be a ridiculously talented and inspired guitarist, a brilliant songwriter, an energetic and committed artist, and a powerful force of nature.

5. The Black Album
Jay-Z (2003)

Johnny: An instant rap classic, The Black Album was supposedly Jay’s big kiss-off, a pre-retirement overdose of smash hooks by a melting pot of producers from the Neptunes to Rick Rubin. It was the first album white people could blast from their cars un-self-consciously since Stankonia, and several singles infiltrated mainstream radio markets as a result. Without getting caught up in beefs or top-heavy Blueprint expectations, The Black Album was a sleek, powerfully confident album that was easy to digest, but not because it dumbed down to the mainstream; the songs were just that good, the hooks were that infectious.

6. The Hazards Of Love
The Decemberists (2009)

Johnny: An epic concept album that’s arguably the most committed – and best – since Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Hazards Of Love offers a complex narrative featuring formidable guest vocalists playing parts including a jealous forest queen, a malicious shape-shifter, a child-killing rogue, and two ill-fated lovers. It’s grand, visionary and bursting with vibrant color.

Skwerl: I’ve already heaped over a thousand words of praise upon this album on Antiquiet. As it sits in our top ten best records of the entire decade, the only thing left for me to do is ask a nagging question: Why aren’t more albums crafted with this level of care, creativity, and inspiration? It’s beautiful, a masterpiece. As is the album that preceded, The Crane Wife.

7. A New Morning, Changing Weather
The (International) Noise Conspiracy (2001)

Johnny: I can’t help but feel like this album would resonate more loudly in America if it were released today, with raging sociopolitical discontent from coast to coast and shameless greed ruling the day. Noise Conspiracy rage against the machine with more than singular hatred for the establishment; they always seemed driven by, and in search of, the passionate humanity behind the bars of complacency and adapted mass passivity.

Skwerl: From the ashes of Refused, the best hardcore punk band of all time, rose The (International) Noise Conspiracy, one of the best rock bands working today. I’ve only ever seen one band put in more effort than Dennis Lyxzén and company onstage (I digress, but that was funk/jazz band Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe if you’re curious). Their shows are among the most commanding I’ve ever witnessed, and 2001’s A New Morning, Changing Weather is their most incendiary call for nothing less than revolution on every front.

8. Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures (2009)

Johnny: Our #1 album pick for 2009 is an undeniable classic right out of the gate. As I said before, this one is special – a very rare melding of classic, psychedelic blues-rock authenticity and passionate groove-junkie sorcery. It’s not safe, it’s not slight, and the riff and tempo changes demand constant engagement. Trap doors are a vital component to the songs, with the sweet spots setting in unannounced as the polyrhythms shift, the clouds part and a motherfucker of a riff suddenly lifts off, taking you in entirely unexpected and adrenaline-surging directions.

Skwerl: I have to admit that I was a bit of a naysayer when it came to this album’s placement. I can’t deny the quality of the songs, or of the album’s production, or of the extraordinarily high standards for songwriting and playing the band seems to have held themselves to with this album. My reluctance came entirely from the nagging feeling that as good as it is, these guys can probably do even better. Thirteen of the best rock songs constructed in its decade are obviously enough to get an album into our hall of fame. But I can’t wait until the next one, when the band finds itself a little more free of its self-imposed pressures, gets comfortable in its crooked feathers, and sits us all down for a story.

9. White Pony
Deftones (2000)

Johnny: Every time I hear this album, something new leaps out to make me love it that much more. Most recently, it was Scott Weiland’s backing vocals on Rx Queen, a guest appearance I hadn’t noticed before. Brooding, sexy and rhythmically gravitational, White Pony is a perfect rainstorm album – it doesn’t punch you in the face so much as hold you under the rushing, freezing waters until your face is numb and you can barely breathe.

Skwerl: In terms of quality, Deftones always stood far and away from the rest of the “nü-metal” bands they were lumped together with in the shameful first half of last decade. One of the first great albums of the 00s, and thus one of the oldest albums on this list, White Pony doesn’t just hold up after so long, it’s shockingly relevant, and somehow still seems as daring as it did ten years ago.

10. Diorama
Silverchair (2002)

Skwerl: Until I start hearing the name Silverchair more often than Coldplay, I don’t think I’ll be ready to stop talking about how far this band has come since their 1992 debut as teenage grunge rockers. Diorama took the band in a new, extremely ambitious direction. With the help of producer David Bottrill and composer Van Dyke Parks, Silverchair incorporated rich layers of string and horn ensembles into songs written primarily on piano, which collectively represented a watershed development of the band’s songwriting. Like most of the albums in our top ten, Diorama is an adventure, an exhilarating journey from start to finish, and it remains one of the most elegant rock albums of its time.

11. Bronx III
The Bronx (2008)

Johnny: The attitude, the familiar LA flare, the balls-out pure rock fury – that doesn’t happen by accident. It requires a special blend of players who know what the fuck they’re doing and where they’re from. And if the fissure-torn shithole that is Los Angeles had to exist for the Bronx to come together and rock the fuck out, so be it. I say fair trade.

Occasionally this band reminds me of what Mötley Crüe might’ve sounded something like if they were born a decade or so later, rocked a little harder and didn’t fuck themselves to high hell with drugs and ride rock’s lowest lyrical common denominator (girls) into the abyss of self-karaoke.

This record is special, and not in a cheap, gimmicky way that signifies a “new direction” or particular selling-point theme. It simply belongs to the rare strain of smashing rock beast that leaves no room for pissing contests, no room for improvement. It simply fucking crushes, start to finish.

12. Kid A
Radiohead (2000)

Johnny: On the crest of the new century, Radiohead delivered a small taste of the digital revolution we’d envisioned the 21st century being like when we were children, but never saw materialize. From the very first moments of Everything In Its Right Place, the sounds of ethereal, melancholy electronica wash in like a digital flood, painting an entirely new picture from the biggest band in the world and completely reshaping the landscape of modern alternative music in the process.

I first listened to this album while tripping (hard) on mushrooms, standing alone on the ocean cliffs in La Jolla, CA in the middle of the night under a full moon. I remember thinking, in my twirling kaleidoscope mind, that this album was going to change things. I envisioned a new mainstream acceptance of computer rock, coupled with a horrific underbelly of feeble, whiny blip-riders and over-privileged white kids slowing down cheap eurotrash beats and employing various unconventionals to create utterly forgettable bullshit that people would flock to in search of the next big alt-rock sensation. That’s why assholes like Animal Collective sit smugly on the shoulders of unqualified hitmakers such as Pitchfork and the like. I may have been tripping, but I was right.

13. Fire
Electric Six (2003)

Johnny: Certain albums add color to your musical palette that you hadn’t even known were missing. Hilarious, infectiously danceable and endlessly fun, Fire is an ecstasy disco dance-a-thon with laughing gas pumped through the vents and blasts of pyromaniac joy shooting from selectively-placed cannons. It’s a high-strut party frenzy without the slightest hint of self-consciousness, and it’s brilliant.

Skwerl: Not since The Chronic had an album been so densely packed with single-worthy bangers. Every track is exactly as badass as its name, highlights including Dance Commander, I Invented The Night, I’m The Bomb, and of course the band’s most well-known hits, Danger! High Voltage and Gay Bar. This band came out of nowhere (well, actually, Detroit) and hit us like a ton of lubed-up gerbils covered in rhinestones. Their body of work is truly one of “modern” rock’s great treasures.

14. Consolers Of The Lonely
The Raconteurs (2008)

Skwerl: In The Raconteurs (or the Saboteurs, as they are called in Australia), sass virtuoso and finally properly respected White Stripes frontman Jack White was paired with an under-recognized songwriter named Brendan Benson in a full band (rounded out by Jack L.J. Lawrence and Patrick Keeler). On paper, it seemed certain to trump the Stripes’ formula on every front and bring to the field a new great American rock and roll band. While the debut album had many great songs, their second effort, Consolers Of The Lonely, revealed the band’s full potential. The class of songwriting on Consolers is superior to that of any other album from any of White’s other projects, as venerated as some may be. And with a four piece band of deeply experienced, talented musicians working in perfect harmony, the richly layered compositions are realized with chilling elegance.

Fernando: The thing I like the most about this album is how it seems to be aimed directly at the people who criticized their first album. Sure, the Racs were a great live band on their first year, but the album just wasn’t very strong. Consolers, on the other hand, is exquisitely produced where their debut felt like a jam session; it’s one our-long where their debut was half of that; it sees the band delight itself in complex tempo changes where their debut was content with its straightforward pop-rock songs. Basically, this the release where you see The Raconteurs as they really are: a strong rock band with two great composers and a solid rhythm session, a band that moves forward in leaps, and one that doesn’t give a shit about comparisons with The White Stripes.

Johnny: This album is brilliant, and Skwerl and Fernando both summed up my feelings about it, so rather than jerk you off with words I’ll just list my three favorite tracks: Many Shades Of Black, Top Yourself and Salute Your Solution.

15. Howl
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (2005)

Skwerl: There’s not exactly any shortage of classic blues rock revival bands. While there are surely nice things to say about many of them, very few possess enough original artistic character to rise above the pop gimmicks and well-worn chord progressions and create something truly special; songs that couldn’t have been written by the guys in the next garage or rehearsal space. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is one of these rare acts, and Howl is the album that established it beyond a reasonable doubt. There’s not a single bad cut out of fourteen, and even the six outtakes released as the Howl Sessions is a solid EP on its own.

16. Deltron 3030
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien (2000)

Johnny: Deltron 3030 is easily Del’s most colorful and ambitious effort. Released in 2000, the record is listed as a supergroup collaboration, but for all intents and purposes it’s still Del’s show. The guests on the album, from Sean Lennon and Prince Paul to Brad Roberts, are mainly present to provide atmospherics and flesh out the concept. Producer Dan The Automator sets the stage by laying on the density, creating an eerie tapestry of sounds, with Kid Koala providing the follow-up gloss on the tables.

The album’s a narrative of the futuristic date in the title, and Del paints himself as a savior superhero named Deltron Zero. Dystopian hero fantasies aren’t your typical hip-hop fodder, but It’s a bizarrely fun, loose-concept album that’s officially described as a “fight against an oppressive government and powerful corporations, while also battling to be the Galactic Rhyme Federation Champion.” See, I told you he wasn’t your average rapper.

17. Amnesiac
Radiohead (2001)

Johnny: Released less than a year after Kid A and sounding like a direct extension of it (rightfully so; they were recorded in the same sessions), Amnesiac was the second part of Radiohead’s revolutionary one-two punch of electronic-tinged classical ambient rock. It found each member of the band playing much more flexible roles than they had in the past, resulting in something entirely unfamiliar.

As guitarist Ed O’Brien told the Chicago Tribune back in 2001, “Suddenly we were presented with the opportunity and the freedom to approach the music the way Massive Attack does: as a collective, working on sounds, rather than with each person in the band playing a prescribed role. It was quite hard work for us to adjust to the fact that some of us might not necessarily be playing our usual instrument on a track, or even playing any instrument at all. Once you get over your insecurities, then it’s great.”

Fernando: I like to compare Radiohead albums to Beatles albums. Rubber Soul/The Bends: where everyone realized that there’s more qualities to them than being a simple rock band; Revolver/OK Computer: expands the horizons of rock music with its fantastic new way to look at it from different perspectives – some still think it’s their best album; Sgt. Pepper’s/Kid A: the album that blew everyone’s minds with how different it sounded from everything out there, and how it flows perfectly; Magical Mystery Tour/Amnesiac: kind of a sequel to the earth-shattering album that came out only months before, and therefore kind of hard to judge – sure the entire package is not QUITE as brilliant, but you can pick songs here and there that are even better than anything on the first piece (Strawberry Fields Forever/Pyramid Song, anyone?). So yeah, it ain’t Kid A, but I’ll take You And Whose Army? over half of that album.

18. From Beale Street To Oblivion
Clutch (2007)

Johnny: Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Vamonos, vamonos! “An electric blues frenzy with razor-sharp wit” sums this one up. If you aren’t familiar with Maryland’s finest stomp-rock prophets, you’re missing out. They’re a hearty backhand slap in the face of all the corner-cutting bullshit anger-rock that infiltrates the airwaves and bro-systems of the Midwest, a working man’s band in the prime of their careers and artistic high-stride.

Skwerl: In a perfectly fair world, all five Clutch albums released this decade would have places in this list. High ones. And of course, then it would have to be a top 200 given all of the other great albums released, and it would never get finished before the end of 2010. So rather than lose sight of it all, we decided to focus on the most flawless of classics. Yet while Robot Hive/Exodus earned our #3 spot, we couldn’t agree to ignore the fact that its follow-up, Beale Street, is in its own right a masterpiece of professional, confident, soul and spirits-soaked Rock N’ Roll.

19. Amputechture
The Mars Volta (2006)

Johnny: Sixth-dimension latin-funk math rockers founded by vocalist/lyricist Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist/composer Omar Rodríguez-López, collectively known as The Mars Volta, are a group far outside the outer limits of whatever confines the traditional prog-rock framework might call for. They also happen to be one of the most complex and fiercely talented bands modern music has ever seen. Amputechture finds the band at its uncompromising finest, all over the map in a kaleidoscopic blast of psychedelia and otherworldly sonic tapestries.

Fernando: Its big moments are separated by brilliant, straight-forward songs, in a way that you never get tired of all the progressive…ness, with such wonderful ballads as Asilos Magdalena and Vermicide. Tetragammaton is the heavy epic with lots of complicated guitar solos; Meccamputechture just grooves like a motherfucker; Viscera Eyes starts out like a simple song but ends in a complex manner; Day Of The Baphomets is brilliantly eclectic, with epic call-and-response bits between guitars and horns, percussion solos, and several different sections intertwining each other, at times heavy, at times grooving, at times downright apocalyptic, but never, ever letting go of its intensity.

20. Year Zero
Nine Inch Nails (2007)

Johnny: Pulverizing, sarcastic and aggressive for more than the sake of self-destruction, Year Zero was Trent Reznor’s first full immersion into political rock. A high-concept blast of Orwellian rejection without sludging through preachy, literal lyricism, it’s the sound of visionary fine-tuning and a statement of kinetic awareness, of hijacking the machine and turning the guns around in full-throttled aggressive survivalism in the modern age.

Fernando: With the combination of super-strong instrumental opener Hyperpower!, the apocalyptic sounds of The Beginning of the End and the unbelievably mean irony towards global warming on Survivalism, my head was blown wide open. I grew up on classic rock. The most electronic I ever got was Radiohead – and still, not much of it. When I listened to the double-strike of Me, I’m Not and Vessel, and found myself liking it for some reason that was beyond my comprehension, it was a profound experience, one that got me much closer to what my real taste in music was, free of prejudices.

22. Coral Fang
The Distillers (2003)

23. Rated R
Queens Of The Stone Age (2000)

24. The Blueprint 2: The Gift & The Curse
Jay-Z (2002)

25. Extraordinary Machine
Fiona Apple (2005)

26. Comfort Eagle
Cake (2001)

27. Talkie Walkie
Air (2004)

28. 10,000 Days
Tool (2006)

29. Late Registration
Kanye West (2005)

30. Rubber Factory
The Black Keys (2004)

31. Relationship Of Command
At The Drive-In (2000)

32. 100th Window
Massive Attack (2003)

33. Us
Brother Ali (2009)

34. Tomahawk
Tomahawk (2001)

35. Horehound
The Dead Weather (2009)

36. Blazing Arrow
Blackalicious (2002)

37. American III: Solitary Man
Johnny Cash (2000)

38. Mama’s Gun
Erykah Badu (2000)

39. Real Gone
Tom Waits (2004)

40. Down III: Over The Under
Down (2007)

41. Lover’s Rock
Sade (2000)

42. Saturnalia
The Gutter Twins (2008)

43. The Satanic Satanist
Portugal. The Man (2009)

44. Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea
PJ Harvey (2000)

45. Stankonia
Outkast (2000)

46. The Bedlam In Goliath
The Mars Volta (2008)

47. Demon Days
Gorillaz (2005)

48. The Con
Tegan & Sara (2007)

49. Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike
Gogol Bordello (2005)

50 How I Do
Res (2001)

Phil Anselmo, of course, is the lead singer of Down, and he’s also the lead singer for about a dozen other bands, from Arson Anthem to Christ Inversion, but most notably Superjoint Ritual. He was the lead singer for Pantera (but not anymore), but our answer covered that as well, just in case. We said: “Superjoint Ritual, Pantera, etc etc…” That was tweet #3171486544. Live Nation ignored it, and awarded the tickets to @JorgeinOntario, with tweet #3171504522, who simply said “Pantera!”

Now we’ve got nothing against Jorge at all. Quite the contrary. We don’t know him, but if he’s a Down fan, we like him categorically. And to be honest, I can’t even go to the Down show. But I wanted to win them and give them away to one of you guys.

So basically, Live Nation fucked one of you out of a pair of Down tickets today. Go raise some hell.

The band’s effectiveness may be, at least in part, thanks to the fact that Anselmo has been through more shit than just about any other musician I can think of. The story starts familiar enough; Anselmo was born to an alcoholic, abusive father in a rather dangerous part of New Orleans. At fourteen, he accidentally burned his family’s house down. Hey, we’ve all been there, right? Well how many of you have been dead? Phil has, thanks to a heroin overdose in Dallas in 1996. Meanwhile, three discs in his lower back had ruptured from years of irresponsible show antics. He defiantly kept this news to himself out of stupid pride, and rather than subject himself to barbaric, debilitating surgery that would have involved splitting his belly wide open, removing all of his guts, and operating on his lower spine from the front- replacing missing bone and cartilage with chunks of his own hip- He continued to perform. As bone scraped bone and nerve damage worsened, Anselmo soldiered on quietly for ten years, with the aid of a back brace and prescription methadone, eventually replaced with a muscle relaxant called Soma, that, as Phil said, “makes you retarded.”

In 2004, Anselmo’s longtime friend and Pantera bandmate “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott was killed; shot three times at point-blank range in the head onstage while performing with Damageplan, while a very public, very verbal dispute raged on in the magazines between Anselmo and the Abbotts. And then Hurricane Katrina wiped Anselmo’s hometown off the map.

Philip Anselmo, like many musicians, is as talented as he is troubled. While he insists on being the indestructible machine all men should aspire to be, as fans we’ve been sincerely concerned for his well being, especially after seeing some of his recent interviews. However, when the man called- on time- Thursday, to chat with us during some downtime on Down’s tour with Metallica, we found him to be a personable, genuinely down to earth dude, and he helped us set the record straight and put some things in perspective.

Antiquiet: So where you at? Houston?

Phil Anselmo: Yeah… Sitting in Houston.

Antiquiet: How’s everything going?

Phil Anselmo: Good. it’s different [here], the stage setup is very different… It’s circular… so you know, everybody’s split up. but the tour is going very well.

Antiquiet: You’re finishing it up right? Got three more dates?

Phil Anselmo: Houston, Little Rock, and New Orleans, yup.

Antiquiet: I don’t mean to dredge up old bullshit, but I want to talk about something you’ve encountered firsthand. When you had that beef with Dime and Vin, us fans got the word through fuckin’ Metal Hammer and the music journalists, who of course tend to… you know, pull the juicy quotes out, to keep the circus going, to get attention, to sell magazines.

So let’s say things were different and the journalists minded other business, and you guys had space to work it out on your own. Do you think things might have turned out differently?

Phil Anselmo: Well… it’s kind of a moot point here. But if you’re talking in… imaginary terms, if you’re talking what ifs, theoretically, yeah. Rex and I actually talk about it a lot and we know… Pantera could have kept going.

The interview that sparked off everybody’s imagination… Little to everyone’s knowledge, the guy who asked me that- it was supposed to be off the record- he asked me straight out what would happen if [we] got into a fight- a physical thing. First of all, that never would have happened. Second of all, theoretically, once again- obviously, I would have the advantage over them. So I put it in a [certain] way, like a million motherfuckers do every day- boxers, et cetera- you know, they say they’re going to do terrible, horrible things to each other, and then after everything clears, they shake hands and hug each other and it’s done.

But if things are put as an absolute, and it’s just black and white, it’s just read and it’s taken that way, and it’s very unfortunate that it was. Because, as I’ve said before, Pantera was a mighty force man.

Antiquiet: Damn right.

Phil Anselmo: And not only do I miss those days, and Dimebag and Vinnie, and the whole crew, and the whole vibe, and the pride that was behind it, and the validity that was behind it- as I’ve said before, Rex and I… We always said that we would have all of us gotten into one room and argued and screamed… And a lot of it would have been my fault, but at the time I was a wounded duck. I needed back surgery so bad, it was pathetic. And I’ve uh… I’ve made some bad choices.

Antiquiet: I’ve gotten into beefs with my friends and shit, people I grew up with, and it’s one thing to have it out with people you love-

Phil Anselmo: Yeah, but not in front of the entire world.

Antiquiet: Yeah, see that’s what I’m trying to get at man. ‘Cause I figure when you’re talking through other people, when the whole world is watching, and putting their two cents in, it’s gotta make it harder to keep shit together.

Phil Anselmo: Well yeah, it does. But… (long pause) It’s done with, and that’s over.

Antiquiet: Alright. So, speaking of the media and magazines… Maybe you don’t give a shit about this, but Rolling Stone just published their list of the top 100 singers of all time. I was pissed to not see Layne Stayley on there at all.

Phil Anselmo: Now, let’s get it straight, today’s top 100?

Antiquiet: It was of all time, and I mean it had a lot of people who- I love, but- who weren’t as great vocally as some folks who got left off…

Phil Anselmo: I didn’t make it on the list did I?

Antiquiet: (laughing) No, and I mean that pissed me off too, but I know you were a big fan of Layne’s… And Mike Patton wasn’t on there-

Phil Anselmo: That’s ridiculous.

Antiquiet: Ann Wilson wasn’t on there…

Phil Anselmo: Ha! Well you know, that’s just one magazine’s opinion, and you know, let ‘em take it and run with it. But you know, it’s an absolute fuckin’ blasphemy that Layne Stayley didn’t make it, and Ann Wilson, and Nancy Wilson as well, are amazing singers. Was David Bowie on the list?

Antiquiet: Yeah, Bowie was on there…

Phil Anselmo: Of all time? …Was Nina Simone on there?

Antiquiet: Yeah… They got her. Aretha Franklin was number one.

Phil Anselmo: Aretha Franklin number one? I don’t know about that.

Antiquiet: So man, I’ve gotta ask you about something. We’ve seen some interviews with you recently, that honestly made us worry about you. Sometimes you seem out of it, and some of the fans are saying you’re back on the drugs, some are saying it’s medication. So do you just want to set the record straight?

Phil Anselmo: I never heard that I was back on drugs, that’s fuckin’ ridiculous. That’s fuckin’ stupid. But fuck everybody, really. I’m livin’ my life, I’m doing exactly what the fuck I want to do… I’m not out to fuckin’ impress, I don’t give a shit man. And people- I mean look, I’ve been… gay, my neck’s been broken from stage diving, I’ve been everything- a satanist, a white supremacist…

Antiquiet: (laughing) Yeah, I know man. Well, I ask ’cause I worry. As a fan. I don’t wanna see you go anywhere, I want my fuckin’ kids to see you live one day.

Phil Anselmo: I’m fuckin’ stronger than fuckin’ most fuckin’ men my age. And I don’t even drink.

It’s just… after back surgery, you never know, one day is a good day, shit- you can have a good week- and then, there’ll be a weather change or some shit like that, and you might go through some pain. Pain, pain, you know it’s… Me and pain are intimate. But through physical therapy, and yoga, and pilates, and all this shit [I've learned how to] make the pain at least tolerable. You stretch that fuckin’ shit out man. You get up off your ass and fuckin’ get up and- every day- set thirty minutes aside, and fuckin’ stretch that shit out and it changes the whole fuckin’ day.

Antiquiet: You getting by without painkillers? Or do they still have you on that brutal Soma shit?

Phil Anselmo: I’m on one drug, and it’s called Lyrica. And what that does is it’s an anti-seizure medicine. And a lot of people are on this drug who have sciatic pain, or pain like I have- which is sciatic, but it’s from after the surgery, sometimes when the nerves reconnect, they reconnect wrong. And that was my case pretty much.

It’s three times a day, and I’m sick of that shit too. I’m tired of all this crap. But it does help, it quells the pain, just a little. You can always feel it though, there’s numbness in my left foot since the surgery. But the stretching and all gets the blood circulating, and blood circulation an incredibly important fuckin’ thing.

I also box like ten rounds a day when I’m at home, hitting the bag, and just working on things. So… You can’t do that sorta thing loaded, or back on the drugs or junk or whatever. So let all the fuckin’ naysayers fuckin’ take a walk in my fuckin’ shoes. They can be sweating and saying I give up, after ten minutes of my workout.

Things are so much better though. I could tell- directly after surgery I could tell- that the doctor had fixed what was killing me for so long. He fixed it. Three ruptured discs, you know? So anyway, I sit here with titanium in my back, telling you that the more work you put in, the better you’ll feel. However, it’s still, three years later, a day to day thing. It really is. You know, a turn of the weather, or a drop in pressure, God knows. You know… It is what it is though.

Antiquiet: So with Housecore Records, are you using the internet in your strategies?

Phil Anselmo: Yeah, yeah yeah… We have to. It’s taking over, you know? Music in itself, the business of music is really really different. And you know, with the economy the way it is, money’s tight for everybody. But shit, we’ve got some really great bands, and some great New Orleans bands that are jumping on board like Crowbar and Eyehategod, and some new bands like Haarp, and… man, Evil Army from Memphis Tennessee, they’re fucking ripping. They’ll be coming out with a full-length hopefully pretty soon.

Antiquiet: Is Housecore doing well, are you breaking even, staying up?

Phil Anselmo: Really, we’re slicing our own throats. But I know what it’s like to be trapped in… any type of record deal that has you sign a seven album deal or a six album deal, and it’s exclusive, and they own every fucking song that you write. You don’t have a goddamn (laughing) you know, you don’t own your songs. And all that shit’s bullshit. And Housecore remedies all that. We’re really for the bands. It’s for the artist. We’re more [benefactors] honestly.

Antiquiet: What are your Housecore bands up to?

Phil Anselmo: Arson Anthem would be fun to tour with if I had the time… And maybe I will have the time eventually, in the next year or so. But… The first Christ Inversion [album] came out recently, on October 28th. See, stuff like that, that was done in ‘94. That was like in between Pantera tours, and I could never release that, but now I can… And Christ Inversion had done two albums, so the second album will probably be released next year sometime, after a lot of remastering. And also, we’re putting out Soilent Green with Glenn Rambo, the original singer. I saved all the demos, and rebooted ‘em up… and it’s absolutely listenable.

Antiquiet: Oh yeah, I love them, I had no idea they had hooked up with you guys…

Phil Anselmo: They’re a Metal Blade band- today they are- but we got the okay from the coolest guy on earth, Mr. Slagel, and he doesn’t have a problem with it. It’s a good idea, and the rest of the guys in the band want to do it, so it’s cool.

Antiquiet: How does the band feel about people who download your records?

Phil Anselmo: Ahh, you know. It’s today’s way. And it’s miserable, and it sucks. And it’s really not… (long pause) I don’t know, in life, I don’t know what’s fair or not.

Antiquiet: Well, I mean to me, these are the kids that fifteen years ago would have been trading tapes out in the parking lot before the show.

Phil Anselmo: Oh, I’ve done all that. Shit, I was doing that. I still fuckin’ tape trade. Me and Fenriz [of Darkthrone] send each other shit, you know, all the way from Norway to America. He sends me all kinds of shit… Anyway, to me, you know, I used to go, if I had money, to buy the vinyl, instead of anything.

Antiquiet: Yeah, I still buy vinyl.

Phil Anselmo: I’ve got every fuckin’ thrash motherfuckin’ record, whether on tape, or on vinyl, or on whatever. And not just thrash, but everything… from god knows when, 60s, 50s, to some of the present.

Antiquiet: You give a shit about politics at all? [I ask this as Phil starts taking a piss.]

Phil Anselmo: Slightly. I’ve got my own mindset. I’ve got my own beliefs… There’s a lot of people who are on the same page politically, and it’s very clear, a lot of the changes that need to be made. But honestly… I hate to use the words too late when it comes to a lot of things… But you know, this is not every school, this is not every city-

[At this point, Rex walks in and asks a question. Philip tells him he's "doing an interview, taking a piss," and then, unfortunately, loses his train of thought. So there's a pause while the tape rolls on piss hitting porcelain. Katie Couric, eat your heart out.]

There’s a lot of people on the same page. So we all need to network together, to speak our ideas, and have a voice. A prominent voice, and a face, that says, to our President- look, this is fucked, this is wrong, this is fucked, this is wrong. We can do things better, this way. And it’s a number of topics that would just take too long to get into at this point in time…

Antiquiet: This new guy we got says he’s going to listen to us, and hear our voice. Do you believe it?

Phil Anselmo: No. I don’t. I don’t really believe anything until I hear it and see it. And, this guy is brand new, and you know… There’s an air of him… being a breath of fresh air, something different, something new. But honestly, I believe intently in the fact they just put up- whoever wins the election is just a [talking head] and there’s a big brother behind the scenes, people who are definitely on an agenda, that some of us can see, and some of us can’t.

Antiquiet: Do you feel the the government was responsible for the Katrina disaster?

Phil Anselmo: As far as the repair, and as far as afterwards- yeah, fuckin’ a- the aftermath? I don’t blame them for Katrina, but I blame them for not taking care of their fuckin’ own people, their own fucking country, when they spend billions on other countries. Come now. Katrina took out fuckin’ three states man. Not just New Orleans.

Antiquiet: Jim Van Bebber and Mike King filmed a bunch of shit on Down’s tour through Europe.

Phil Anselmo: Yeah, we’re slicing this, slicing that as it goes… It’ll come out for sure. The uniqueness of it is the fact that we had gotten back together… I was six months out of back surgery… Which is pretty outrageous, and that’ll show you how hard I fuckin’ did work… And you know, it was our first time ever in Europe. And in Europe… people just… They’re very hip motherfuckers over in Europe.

Antiquiet: They love their metal.

Phil Anselmo: They love metal. They do, and music in general- they’re very knowledgeable. And we have a rabid following there. I think my voice has definitely improved since then- it was our first tour back and I was still breaking in the chops if you know what I’m saying… But it was very significant, so that will be the angle on it, figuring it’s two fuckin’ years old… But It’ll be fun, because it’s a Jim Van Bebber film.

Antiquiet: Name a band people should know about. We’ll look ‘em up, and we’ll cover ‘em, because Philip Anselmo said to.

Phil Anselmo: Evil Army man. I think they’re fucking deadly. They did a self-titled record that I think you can still get somehow… We’re desperate to re-release it and eventually, perhaps we might. Either way, we’re getting them in the fucking studio, and they’re cutting a full length. It’s so fucking vicious man. They’re young as fuck, their guitar player’s great, and he sings as well. It’s… Christ, like, Kill ‘Em All meets the first DRI… I don’t know man.

Antiquiet: Down’s fans… are fuckin’ hardcore man. On the band’s MySpace, every single one of ‘em in your bigass top friends area are sporting a fuckin’ Down shirt, or a Down tattoo, or both, in their profile pic. That’s pretty impressive.

Phil Anselmo: Yeah, I appreciate it man, and they are- fuckin’ hardcore, you know, no matter where we go. Music today is what it is, and kids are going to- and when I say kids, I mean fifteen years old to fuckin’ fifty- when Down plays shows, that’s exactly our fucking age bracket breakdown man- and you know man, that’s a great thing that we’re touching the spectrum that we are, of ages.

Antiquiet: Well what’s cool is… You know, a lot of bands have got other bands in those spots, or their Hollywood friends, and with you guys, they’re all real fans, real people.

Phil Anselmo: Aw man, yeah, and that’s- I mean I never never never played up to that rock star bullshit man. I know all about the ladder man, you know? You reach the top of that motherfucker, great. Don’t fuckin’ flaunt your- You know, look at my clothes man, I’ve got t-shirts that kids threw up onstage that I still wear.

Photos by The MetalList

Down’s latest album, Over The Under, is in stores now. A deluxe edition with a behind-the-scenes DVD is available exclusively at Best Buy. The band plays the last show of the tour with Metallica tonight in New Orleans. More albums and tours are sure to follow, and we’ll surely be there for them.

It gets funnier every time I watch it. notice where the video edits occur; you can see that there are chunks of Phil rambling that had to be clipped out… I can only imagine what was left on the cutting room floor.

If I had to guess, I’d say he’s piss drunk, and fresh off a prescription meds buffet.
But goddamn, do I love Phil Anselmo.