Weapons Of Anew To Open For Metal Allegiance at The Belasco Theater

Weapons Of Anew To Open For Metal Allegiance at The Belasco Theater

Weapons Of Anew is ready to rock and rage your world in a epic way, and they will be unleashing their sonic artillery at The Belasco Theater in Downtown Los Angeles opening for the one and only Metal Allegiance.  Featuring former Axiom and HavocHate guitarist Freddy Ordine and former Spread Eagle vocalist Ray West, Weapons Of Anew will be performing songs from their debut album The Collision Between Love And Hate in the City of Angels.Highwire Daze Online recently caught up with Ray West to find out a whole lot more about the dynamic Weapons Of Anew and what to expect from their opening set with Metal Allegiance and beyond…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Weapons Of Anew, and how long the band has been together.
They call me Ray West , and I am the singing, and dancing monkey for Weapons Of Anew…  If my memory serves me correctly, I believe we formed WOA in 2015, or 16…

Where is the band based out of and what is the music scene like there?
WOA is based out of sheer debauchery, and mayhem and the scene is part porno and sheer joy. . lmao.  I’m just kidding, in all seriousness, WOA is based out of both New Jersey & N.Y.C., so I guess we are a Northeast based band. LOL

New Jersey has an active live hard rock/metal, music scene, whereas New York City is more of a Indie/ alternative based scene.. We lean more towards NJ.

How did you wind up being involved with Weapons Of A New?
I connected with Chris Manfre first. If memory serves me correctly, he had messaged me on Facebook , then we had some back and forth text. then he gave me Freddy’s cell number . Freddy and I had about a three-hour conversation, he invited me over to the band house, then Chris, Freddy, Reno and myself proceeded to instantly bust each other’s balls, and form a mutual admiration society, all while being stone sober …

Is there any overall story or concept behind the album title The Collision Between Love And Hate?
One day we were having a conversation about the true meaning of the song Kill Shot, and the phrase “the Collision Of Love and Hate” came into being. The guys thought it would make for a cool title for the album, and I think they were right. I hope I answered that question properly, because I have been known to ramble mindlessly. LOL

Also, to me that’s what daily life is, a collision between love and hate…. please feel free to select with whatever answer you like..

Select two songs from The Collision Between Love And Hate and what inspired the lyrics?
Moment – those lyrics were inspired by loss, and raw pain, and the fight to free myself from that kind of pain…

Sundown – we all like to step out into the night, and have ourselves a good time. In that time you can choose the Dance with the Devil, or not, but he is there ….

To be honest I normally don’t like explaining what lyrics mean, or where they come from. Sometimes things just happen in the moment, you write them down, and you hope people can interpret them as best as they can… it’s been my experience that most times, hard rock fans find different meanings to the same lyrics.

Who produced The Collision Between Love And Hate and what was it like working with them?
James Murphy produced The Collision Of Love and Hate.  I’m gonna be honest with you. At first James and I collided quite a bit, because we come from very, very different backgrounds, but then we found that we had a lot in common. I have to explain here.  We were both thrown into a very high pressure, high stress situation, and we got it done ..

What are you looking forward to the most about your upcoming show with Metal Allegiance?
First , playing for a Metal Allegiance audience, is a very pure rock and roll experience.  Those fans really appreciate good metal/Hard Rock music … we played with Metal Allegiance in New York, and the experience was absolutely brilliant. They are all very good souls…”

BUT.. I think I’m honestly looking forward to drinking the Metal Allegiance beer (Lager of Sin) that they make. (Alex promised me he’d hook me up). I mean come on, having your own beer, that’s pretty damn impressive…

When you’re the opening act, you have to work really hard to make people sway in your direction , so it’s always a challenge, but I look forward to it

What could one expect from a live Weapons Of A New show?
Profanity, blood, sweat, murder, tears of joy, cool tattoos. Reno being Reno , hellacious grooves, lots of swagger, and some spit! There’s lots more, but it would take me pages n pages to name everything…

What’s up next for Weapons Of Anew beyond the Metal Allegiance shows?
Touring, writing and recording new material, and maybe a cooking show.. we could call it “The Collision of Lunch and Cake…“

Any final words of wisdom?
Yes, don’t do as I do , just do as I say!

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions!
It was my pleasure, let’s do this again, and I’ll try to seem more intelligent….

Weapons Of Anew is:
Ray West – Vocals
Freddy Ordine -Guitars
Chris Manfre – Drums
Stefan Reno Cutrupi – Bass

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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