Neil Turbin Talks New DeathRiders Single, ‘Never Surrender’ – Interview
DeathRiders – Story by Anne Erickson, courtesy photo from DeathRiders
Neil Turbin joins Anne Erickson to discuss DeathRiders’ new single, “Never Surrender,” and the group’s upcoming, debut album
Neil Turbin is gearing up to release DeathRiders’ debut album, “The Metal Beast,” and metal fans should expect a mix of everything from power to thrash to neoclassical on the collection. Turbin and DeathRiders recently released the album’s debut single, “Never Surrender,” which features a mix of thrash and melody, with a strong melodic-yet-heavy sound.
Speaking with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio during the below video appearance, Turbin explained that he has a great writing chemistry with DeathRiders guitarist Jonas Hornqvist. The band also brings together bass player Richard Svard and drummer Matt Thompson.
“With Jonas, he’s very thoughtful and very complete in terms of how he writes, so it’s a very full, completed song, usually, from start to finish,” Turbin, who is the original voice of metal band Anthrax, told Audio Ink Radio. “For DeathRiders, I write music, as well, and there are certain songs that are composed by both of us together…and certain songs where he just sent it over, and it was turnkey- it just worked out precisely perfectly from the beginning. Then, there’s ones where I wrote all the music and all the lyrics and everything, so I play guitar in a demo to kind of get it forward. So, there’s a variation.”
Turbin adds that the new album features a variety of songs, with many leaning on thrash, progressive melodic-meets-thrash and neoclassical The new single, “Never Surrender,” is a song that came together naturally and fluidly, so it was an apt pick to release first.
“‘Never Surrender’ was one of these ones that really appealed to me,” Turbin says. “I liked a lot of things about the song, so I naturally felt it was something I could really grasp and write to, and the melody just came really quickly and the lyrical idea.”
The new album is called “The Metal Beast” because that’s a nickname the fans have given Turbin. While there’s no release date set yet for the new album, Turbin says “The Metal Beast” is well on its way.
As for “The Metal Beast” moniker, Turbin says the fans get the credit. “There’s already a metal god, there’s already a god of heavy metal or grandfather of heavy metal and names like that,” Turbin says, “So after people started calling me a beast or metal best, I thought okay, I might as well just go with it.”
“I never really had a proper nickname, and I’m not really sure that’s my nickname, but that’s the energy of where we’ve been headed,” he added. “It’s definitive of the collection of songs and also for DeathRiders. What we do is beasty. We go up there and give it a 1,000% and push hard.”
When switching gears to Anthrax, Turbin, who was the original vocalist for the band, explains his recent involvement in the Anthrax 40th anniversary video series, “Anthrax 40 for 40.”
When asked what he remember from his time with the band, Turbin opened up about some negative treatment, stating, “…What I remember, unfortunately, is that I remember that kind of treatment from certain individuals. And, you know, those individuals also are not in the band right now. So, just to clarify that. There were people in the band now that obviously there was history with but it was also a large portion of people that are not in the band now that also, you know, had that that behavior, and people see a video that’s been edited by the band who’s portraying a certain story, you know? I mean, all I can say is they’ve left chapters out of the Bible.”
He added, “What do you want to believe? You know, I mean. All I know is when I was in the band, there were people in the band that I was in the band with that were not in the story. So, you know, I think it’s about how how it’s being framed by a band that is marketing their products. And I was actually surprised that I was contacted after I hadn’t spoken to the band really in any business level since 1984, ’85, for one meeting to sign some documents type of scenario, but really since August of ’84 at Roseland, that was it. And then I had one communication after that. So I have not had communication, and it’s not because I’m not a communicative type of person. I’ve just read over the years before there was the Internet, just a lot of ugly things that were said and ugly press. So, you know? When I finally stood up for myself and said something in response…”
Watch the full video interview above. In it, Turbin also talks about his future plans with DeathRiders, plus more thoughts on his time with Anthrax and thoughts on Anthrax’s documentary series.
Find more on DeathRiders on Facebook here, and find Turbin on Facebook at Facebook.com/neilturbin.
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