Phil Anselmo says that although he’s recorded an album containing “the darkest, heaviest, most miserable shit” he’s ever written, he’s not sure he’ll ever release it.
The former Pantera frontman recorded the material with his alternative/goth outfit En Minor, who draw on influences such as Sisters Of Mercy, The Cure and Nick Cave’s work with The Birthday Party.
Anselmo tells Damnation Vault: “I will say that the darkest, heaviest, most miserable shit I’ve ever written I have not released and that’s a band called En Minor. I’ve never put it out and I don’t know if I’m getting cold feet or not. It’s not party music, it’s not good time music.
"People are asking me to do gigs with it and I just don’t know if it’s going to translate the way people might envision because they haven’t heard the music – it’s so hard for me to explain it.
“It’s heart-wrenching shit. I don’t know if people should hear it.”
The vocalist adds: “It is, I guess, the truest, darkest record I’ve ever done in my life and I’m just not sure about it. I think the musicianship is great and I love the band I have surrounding me.
“The way I sing on En Minor is completely bass. It’s a comfortable style, it’s a different style than people have heard me attack before. But it is what it is. I don’t know how people would take it.
“It’s recorded, it’s written and eventually I guess people will hear it, I just don’t know when the right time is. I’m sure all the guys in the band are like, ‘Now is the right time, you stupid man,’ but we’ll see.”
He adds: “It’s not heavy metal at all. We have a lead cello player. There are three guitars, a piano player and a keyboard player.”
Anselmo talked with Louder earlier this year about his love of The Cure and their albums Seventeen Seconds and Faith.
In August last year, Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals released a One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest-inspired video for Choosing Mental Illness - a track from their January 2018 album Choosing Mental Illness As A Virtue.
