METAL ALLEGIANCE // Have A Little Faith In Bass

We pledge allegiance to heavy metal, for heavy metal is the law that keeps us all united free. David Ellefson is more devout than most.

David Ellefson, one of the two founding Megadaves of Megadeth (he’s referred to as ‘Junior’ being, well, three years younger than Mr. Dave Mustaine) found himself in the unenviable position of being another bass player in full-fledged metal experience, Metal Allegiance. Their second album, Volume II: Power Drunk Majesty has obliterated any talk of it being a cash-grab supergroup. It’s a band proper, headed by none other than drum god Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater, Winery Dogs), thrash legend Alex Skolnick (Testament) and upstart bass whiz Mark Menghi. It’s a level-headed, and realistic (as opposed to the high fantasy of Manowar or Doro) culmination of what we all love about metal: hard driving riffs, neck-breaking leads, and vocals ranging from the divine to devilish. Talking about the devil, is that okay, David? As he reveals to Hysteria, David is a man of faith in the Word, a moderating force amid rock ‘n’ roll ego and excess.

Hysteria: This second album is again, a who’s who of vocalists: John Bush (Armored Saint, ex-Anthrax), Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder), Johan Hegg (Amon Amarth), that’s not even half of them! Who gets to decide who gets what and where…and how?

David: Well, the core four of Mike Portnoy, Mark Menghi, Alex Skolnick and David Ellefson, we are the band. We steer the ship. So when we write the material, the songs seem to kind of call out to who the guests should be, be it singers, guitar players, whatever. From there then we start making the call and reaching out to the other participants. In most cases we have lyrics and melodies and sort of a general idea of what we want.

Like this song that became Voodoo of The Godsend, was a track the we did not have any melody or lyrics for. When we reached out to Max Cavalera to participate on that track, you know he just does what Max does. Which is just be friggen awesome! He did what he did and it’s perfect, it sounds like a Soulfly record. And at the same time you know we’ll take something like Bound by Silence, and John Bush was like “look, I’m good just singing exactly what you want me to sing, I don’t have to involve in the creative part, I’ll just participate.” It turned out great.

Do you interact with the artists in person? Too impractical?

It was a variety of different things. John Bush has access to an amazing facility because, he and his wife live in LA. John is a very experienced vocalist, so we were able to send him the material over the phone and give some sort of direction and guidance. With Bobby Blitz (Overkill), you know Mark Menghi and Bobby worked really close in Mother of Sin, Bobby felt like he needed to sort of personalise it a little bit. He lives in East Coast where Menghi, Skolnick and Portnoy live, so a lot of the recording was actually done back there in the New York area, which allowed one of us to be there with them at least. Max did his track right near me, because he lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

I love my life. There is no one else’s life I’d rather have. I’m just very content and happy with what I’ve been blessed with.
[DAVID]

If you want rage-to-order, you hire Max Cavalera. As for the core four, two of them are bass players: yourself and Mark. What is that sort of like?

We figured out on the first record, we started writing with Portnoy, Skolnick and myself. We just started throwing ideas back and forth at each other. The roles started to define themselves. Portnoy is an amazing arranger, Alex and I would throw riffs back and forth, Alex was really good at taking my ideas you know and warping them in a way that he felt comfortable, as a guitar player. I play a lot of guitar, but admittedly I’m a bass player. So that dynamic worked really well. I think it was day two or three of the sessions on the first album when Menghi came over to Portnoy’s house and started to throw a few ideas over to us. It really glued together, this kind of vibe, like this almost kind of a vintage Black Sabbath vibe on a couple things. We were like, “Wow.” We didn’t really even know his skill level as a writer or bass player, we just realised he really has some cool composition skill that is very different to our own. He’s younger than us, and that was pretty cool because he saw things with a little bit of a younger view.

I wasn’t available over Christmas/New Years and Mark was, so we have these two separate writing sessions for the two bass players to write independently, so it kind of just naturally scheduled itself.

Talk more about the name Power Drunk Majesty. Bound By Silence was inspired by a conversation with a Vietnam veteran; does the album deal with themes like politics and power?

It’s actually the lyrics that I wrote. Initially when I heard that track and that song came from the Menghi, Portnoy, Skolnick initial writing session. We circulated the track around to each other just so we could listen. One of the first things I start doing is, I start thinking about lyrics. So I wrote the lyrics in its entirety, or I wrote a lyric in its entirety called Power Drunk Majesty and it was an election year in the United States… and I’ll say no more. [Laughs]

There was some fire for my inspiration and then, Mark and I usually start collaborating on lyrics, we found from the first record that he and I are pretty good at collaborating and putting lyrics together. I sent that over to him and he loved it he goes, “Ah, this is awesome!”

We essentially took kind if a general spirit, some for the original words I had and that began part one. Then for part two once we got all four involved, we really developed that whole second part based on the theme of part one. So it was, the beauty of it is how collaborative we are you know and just really, you know that “no” is never an option.

As some people know, you’re a Christian pastor in Arizona. I read your book, My Life With Deth, and saw you dressed up in all white robes and my eyes popped out like a cartoon cat. So do you still have your Ministry? Flock? I’m not down with the lingo, I must admit.

My daily discipline is being in the Word and thats just something I do. It’s sort of my true design of my life. Even as a kid, I was always my happiest when I was into the Word, and I got away from it for a bunch of years and I came back to it in more recent years. But yeah it’s funny, the photo in the book, there was part in my life where I was torn and so as my kid was young, my family was very young, I got invited to be a part of the Ministry thing. It was a moment in my life where I was able to take my experience in rock and roll and offer something else in a way, in a very different venue obviously, in a church to just try and contribute something to them. At all stages of my life it had been rock and roll. I grew up a rock and roll kid, I love rock and roll music, and it’s what I played as my business throughout my whole life. It was a good inspiration for my kids. I’m glad I raised them, you know there is a proverb that says “raise your children in the instruction of the Lord,” you know when you stray there is something to come back to.

I’m glad we did that, because we all have period in our lives where we go on sort of an exploration to find something. I know I did, you know when Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath were coming out we all went, “these lyrics are awesome.” Our generation kind of searched for the meaning of life through Ronnie James Dio lyrics.

Understandable. He’s a sort of a god unto himself. But you grew up in rural Minnesota, was that a religious household?

No, I didn’t have a hardcore religious upbringing at all. We worked on a farm, worked six days a week, and on Sunday morning, we went to church. The rest of the day we chilled, we rested, kind of a biblical principle. That said, I did not have this big sort of born again experience, it just naturally developed over time. I grew up, I had a family, and as I started to realise there is more to life than just me. I have other people too, and I’m responsible for them. That brought me back around, to take some time to develop my faith studies and implement that into other areas of my life. I’m glad I did. I love my life. There is no one else’s life I’d rather have. I’m just very content and happy with what I’ve been blessed with. I think that’s one of the, one of the great pay-offs is not only your own personal peace, but to know that you’ve got a life that can be useful to others and that you can help them. That’s kind of the antithesis of rock ‘n’ roll, where you’re always chasing the spotlight, where it’s all about “me.”