OMEN is back for the better with the "Eternal Black Dawn" album ! Back to
the roots of pure epic heavy metal... The new cd is the album which was awaited
after "The Curse". .. Kenny Powell speaks ! This interview was done at the
beginning of October, and sadly, former vocalist J.D. Kimball passed away
a few days later... The Metal world has lost another talented musician...
R.I.P. J.D.
Hello Kenny. At first, do you remember how did you discover metal music
? Which bands were you into ?
When I was a kid, I started liking the more extreme
stuff like Black Sabbath etc.
When did you start to play guitar ? Were you in other bands before SAVAGE
GRACE ?
Yea, I had screwed around with a little guitar in
high school, it was a good way to get Pussy ! I had several cover and original
bands back in Oklahoma before I moved to L.A. and joined Savage Grace.
You joined SAVAGE GRACE in ’83, played on “The Dominatress” mlp and toured
with them. What are your memories of this experience ?
It was a great learning experience, I was a song
writer though and after they turned down the songs "Battle Cry" and "Die
by the Blade" for the next S.G. record I decided it was time to move on.
Did you know J.D., Steve and Jody before forming OMEN ? How did you meet
them ?
Steve, Jody and myself moved from Oklahoma together,
we had been working on songs with another friend of mine, Roger Sisson who
was the bass player and singer. But he backed out of going to California
at the last minute.
The first vinyl apparition of OMEN was the song “Torture Me” on Metal
Massacre 5. Was it the first OMEN song you wrote ? Was this track responsible
for the deal with Metal Blade ?
No, about half of Battle Cry was written when we
cut "Torture Me". We needed to get something out so we went in and recorded
it. It was supposed to be on the record, but Brian Slagel didn’t think it
turned out good enough. So we left it off, weird how it is. Always brought
up these days, so now it finally made it on to the record in the box set!
In ’84, OMEN has entered heavy metal history with the “Battle Cry” lp.
It is forever in my top ten best heavy metal albums of all times. Great and
memorable epic metal. Are you proud of this album ? Do you think it is the
classic OMEN album ? What are your thoughts about “Battle Cry” ?
Are you crazy! Of course I think it is an epic record!
I would consider it one of the best Indy metal records ever made. It had
super energy that only happens, maybe once in a life time. It was done in
4 or 5 days on a $7000 budget! Very raw, but very powerful.
If I’m right, you did a “Battle Cry” mini-tour, opening for LIZZY BORDEN,
METAL CHURCH and EXODUS. How was it ? It also seems that it was the first
and last time you wore the armor stuff on stage…
We did allot of mini tours back then, there was
no tour support to do something big, so we would do these little 4 or 5 show
tours, sometimes sleeping in the equipment truck and taking showers at fans
homes. As far as the Armour, I was not very comfortable wearing it on stage,
we were playing in the S.F. bay area and people kept saying that we looked
like Motley Crue. I said fuck this, I am not wearing this any more! That
kind of forced everyone else to take it off too.
The “Warning Of Danger” lp was released in ’85. It sounds more melodic,
less straight and heavy, but still an excellent album in the OMEN style.
Was this album received as good as the debut one ? What are your feelings
about this album ?
I really liked "Warning...", it was less hurried
and more polished. I think that it sold well after a while. I think that
it took a little time to grow on people. After all "Battle Cry" has turned
in to a hard record to follow up! I am very proud of "Warning..." though,
I think it stands up after all of these years.
Did you tour for “Warning Of Danger” ? With which bands ?
Some of the tours that you mentioned were after
"Warning..." came out. We did not do much touring when Battle cry came out.
Mostly playing around Southern Calif.
“The Curse” came out in ’86. It delivers great epic metal like OMEN know
to play the best, and it’s heavier than the previous album. I think the response
was good for this lp, wasn’t it ? And how did the tour happen ?
"The Curse" was awesome, it was the only record
that I have worked on were we had a decent budget. It was well received ,
especially in the U.S. It was by far our best selling record. The fucked
up thing is that we never even toured for the record. This was at a time
when Metal Blade was signing allot of new acts and we kept getting pushed
to the side so one of their new bands could tour. We were supposed to go
to Europe two different times, once with Fates Warning and once with Lizzy
Borden and were pulled off for someone else both times! It is a real shame,
because that record was good enough to take the band to the upper level of
metal and we never got a chance to even try!
In ’87, there was the release of the “Nightmares” mlp, with the devastating
“Nightmares” track, a live cover of AC/DC and songs taken from the albums.
Was the reason of this mlp the departure of J.D. ? How did you find Coburn
Pharr ?
The reason for "Nightmares" was that we decided
to try and tour own our own, without help of the label and we needed a new
record in the stores to tour behind, J.D. was still in the band, but his
drinking was really starting to cause problems and was effecting our
live shows. We started on a major headlining tour and he was arrested two
times in the first three shows. Coburn was a room mate of Steve and mine
and was already aware of what was going on with J.D. he flew out and finished
the tour and we decided to keep him in the band.
“Escape To Nowhere” was out in ’88 and it was different… There are some
songs I like, I think “Thorn In Your Flesh” is really a killer one… Another
surprise was the cover of “Radar Love”, but by the way, it was really better
than the one by WHITE LION… What is the story for this album ? Do you like
the lp ? Was it the album you wanted to record ?
"Escape..." was not anything like the record that
we wanted to make. In fact the next record was supposed to be called “Era
of Crisis “and was faster and heavier than “The Curse”. We went out to New
York and worked with a producer for the first time. He ended up dropping
or slowing down every song on the record. It was not a good experience for
me. And probably was the reason that the band did not last much longer with
that line up.
You toured in the USA for the album, but OMEN never came in Europe in
the eighties. Was it lack of promotion, lack of money or lack of chance ?
I pretty much covered this in the earlier question.
OMEN disbanded in ’89. The same year, there was a cd best of called “Teeth
Of The Hydra”. Was it your idea or was it Metal Blade taking cash ?
Definitely Metal blade taking the cash! I did not
even know about the record until I saw it in a record store in Dallas! I
was pretty much in shock, I was not even contacted to see which songs that
I thought were the “best of Omen”.
What have you done between ’89 and ’97 ? Did you leave music or did you
play in other bands ?
I moved to Texas and formed a band called Step Child,
it was more of a straight ahead hard rock band. We had allot of regional
success and I actually made money from the band. We released one CD on our
own that sold well. In the end I really missed playing the old style that
I had played in Omen and the band broke up because I was writing more and
more songs that sounded like Omen and the singer wanted to go more in a commercial
vein.
OMEN was back in ’97, with only you as original member, and with the “Re-opening
The Gates” cd. To be honest with you, I have not liked at all this album,
and I think it is not OMEN. How do you see this album in the OMEN story ?
The "Reopening..." record was a big mistake to be
honest. I was not aware of the huge following that Omen still had in Europe.
We thought that if we did something that did not sound more like the new
metal that was big in the U.S. at the time people would say that we were
dinosaurs. I should of just played from the heart, every time I don’t, it
ends up being a mistake!
You played in some countries of Europe for the tour. I guess the old songs
were better received than the new ones ?
Yea, they let us know that they did not like the
new sound real quick. Luckily, we were playing mostly early Omen songs in
the set any way. The tour actually went well and we learned a valuable lesson
in how not to fuck with a good thing!
In 2001, in the mags or on the internet, there were talks about OMEN returning
to epic metal, and also about you tried to find J.D., did you also try to
find Jody and Steve ? Are you still in contact from times to times with the
other original OMEN members ?
We knew right away that we were going to go back
to the original Omen sound with the next record. It is a much more natural
writing style for me anyway. I never tried to contact J.D. I don’t
need that kind of headache again. I do talk with Steve every once in awhile
, he is no longer in music. No one has heard from J.D. in over 10 years ,our
publishing company can’t even find him to give him his royalty checks!
Finally, it is another line-up. Are you satisfied with this line-up ?
Is it a solid one ?
Yes, I am satisfied with the line up. It is very
odd to me how people call this a new line-up. It is a new singer ,but I have
been playing with Andy the bass player for 12 years and Rick Murray has been
in the line up since I re-formed Omen in 1996. The “new” line up has been
together longer that the original line up!
The release of the new album “Eternal Black Dawn” is announced for October
in Europe by Mausoleum. Can you tell about this new cd, the songs, how will
it sound…
Well, I can’t believe that you have not heard the
new record since it has been out for a month in Europe! It sounds to me like
the follow up to the Curse that I have been waiting 15 years to make!
You did one concert in Athens, Greece in 2002. How was it ? I guess the
response of the greek audience was very good ?
That is an understatement! We did two shows that
were sold out. The audience response was unbelievable. We can not wait to
get back there and play again. The same was true at the Keep it True festival
in Germany this summer. We are working on a full European tour right now
and have already signed on to play the “Bang Your Head” festival next summer.
See you in the arena!
Thank you Kenny for taking time to answer. I wish you all the best for
the new album and the tour… If you want to add something, feel free...
(Well, I guess he had nothing to add... but
you can visit the OMEN website
... - Patrick)
interview by Patrick Lefevre
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