HELLYEAH - "BELOW THE BELT" LIVE DVD
CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW!
FIRST LIVE DVD BY HELLYEAH OUT NOW!
CHECK OUT THE TRAILERS:
TRAILER #1 TRAILER #2 TRAILER #3
On November 13th Epic Records released BELOW THE BELT, the highly anticipated live DVD from hard rock supergroup HELLYEAH. Capturing footage from the day the band formed, BELOW THE BELT includes performance footage from the very making of the album, first studio sessions, coverage of their world tour, personal interviews, as well as a few surprises.CLICK HERE TO BUY NOW!
FIRST LIVE DVD BY HELLYEAH OUT NOW!
CHECK OUT THE TRAILERS:
TRAILER #1 TRAILER #2 TRAILER #3
This unique DVD, produced by HELLYEAH and Ryan Ziemba and filmed by close friends offers fans a special two-hour long view into the band’s life on the road. BELOW THE BELT features footage from multiple live performances, music videos, as well as personal interviews with all band members as they chat about life both before and after the formation of HELLYEAH. Other highlights include snippets of the band’s very first recording sessions at Dimebag’s legendary Chasin’ Jason studio in Dallas, TX, coverage from HELLYEAH’S April 10, 2006 album release party held in Dallas, TX as well as backstage footage from the band’s world tour.
Join the HELLYEAH Street Team to enter the contest below and win Family Values Tour tickets and other HELLYEAH swag!
CLICK HERE to watch their behind the scenes video.
The album is available now!CLICK HERE to order!
You can also download/stream the album from: iTunes | Napster | Real | Rhapsody | Connect | Walmart
HELLYEAH IS
Chad Gray – vocals
Gregg Tribbett – guitar
Tom Maxwell – guitar
Vinnie Paul – drums
Bob Zilla - bass
HELLYEAH. Four musicians, three bands = creative collision of sonic proportions.
Pantera and Damageplan double-kick maestro, drummer Vinnie Paul, singer and lyricist Chad Gray and guitarist Greg Tribbett (both from Mudvayne) along with guitarist Tom Maxwell (Nothingface) have combined forces to stop you in your tracks …and listen to theirs. HELLYEAH’s self-titled debut features the best elements of these bands – vocals that veer maniacally between singer and song, surging, southern metal guitar groove, throbbing bass lines and hammering, ground-shaking beats, all with a feel and flavor that’s both contemporary and timeless.
While HELLYEAH didn’t officially become a band until 2006, Gray and Maxwell actually started working together four years ago, after their two bands went on tour together. When they got back from the road, Gray flew from Illinois to Nothingface’s practice space in Baltimore, Maryland to spend a couple days hanging out and writing songs. The jam produced the volcanic “Waging War,” which appears on HELLYEAH. Before the musicians could reconvene to work on more material, Gray got consumed with working on Mudvayne’s Lost and Found. When Mudvayne finished touring for the album, he contacted Montano again
and said he was ready to roll, and so was Tribbett, who was brought in
as the second guitarist.
“When Greg said he wanted to do it, Chad got really excited and we all started taking it more seriously,” Maxwell says. “We had another drummer in mind at first, but that didn’t work out, so we said, ‘Fuck it, let’s call Vinnie,’ who was an old friend.”
At first, Paul turned down the invitation. He was busy working on his own record company, Big Vin Records and wasn’t ready to join a new band. But the more he thought about the group, the more enticed he became.
HELLYEAH was the first project exciting enough to have Vinnie pick up a set of sticks after a two-year hiatus from music. “Everybody had a killer attitude and any of the hardships and usual rock n’ roll bullshit I’d been through with Pantera and Damageplan didn’t exist with these guys,” Paul says. “Everybody was in the right frame of mind and we all wanted to go out and kick some ass.”
continued
HELLYEAH 2
“Doing this felt so right and so good,” Gray says. “We all just wanted to throw down and do something that came from the heart and was all for fun and for the love of making music.”
The musicians decided to get together in the summer of ‘05 and agreed to meet in Texas. “Chasin’ Jason” studio was in Dimebag Darrell’s house, where Pantera, Damageplan and Rebel Meets Rebel had all recorded. “There was an amazing energy to that studio because a lot of really great music came out of there,” Gray says.
How else can HELLYEAH’s incredible productivity be explained? In their first seven-day session, the band wrote a song a day. The next two sessions were equally productive, filled with spontaneity and chemistry that ignited like a fire on gasoline. “We wrote everything on the spot because that’s how Dime and I would do things,” Paul says. “That way, we don’t miss a single moment. If something’s magic, it’s there on tape. Each song started with either a drumbeat or a guitar riff that Tom or Greg had, and we went from there.”
As the band finished the songs, Gray would tape the tunes, then run upstairs to work on lyrics. Frequently, he’d write until four or five in the morning, then return when his band mates were in the studio the next
day to hear the rhythm and melody for the next new song. “We were on a
pretty limited schedule,” explains Gray. “We were also on a roll, so we
didn’t want to stop.”
The love for music and hunger for living life on the edge shines throughout HELLYEAH. The songs are rebellious, aggressive and sonically diverse. The title track roars of feedback, kiss-my-ass vocals and take-no-prisoners beats. “Matter of Time” delivers a lethal combination of infectious grooves and deliberate brutality while “Goddamn” features nose-diving guitars, a shuddering down-tuned rhythm and caustic climaxing vocals.
Taking the music 180 degrees in the opposite direction, there’s “Thank You,” a tribute to fallen heroes that’s driven by a marching beat, delicate arpeggios and an unforgettable chorus; the evocative instrumental “In the Mood” leading into the seductive bump-and-grind of “Star,” and the infectious country-blues-ballad and second single, “Alcohaulin’ Ass.”
The latter came to life after what seemed like hours of Tribbett daring Gray to help him write a country song. Then, when their co-producer
continued
HELLYEAH 3
Sterling Winfield took a 20-minute beer run, the singer relented. “I said,
‘Alright then, play something. I can’t write a country song if you’re not playing anything,” recalls Gray. “So, Greg starts playing this riff and I just start singing, ‘a little bit of sunshine/ a little bit of booze/ a little bit of me and a little bit of you.’ Then we get to the chorus, and we had been talking about maybe calling the band Alcohol, so I said, ‘Dude, how about saying “Alcohaulin,” like haulin’ ass or something?’ By the time Sterling returned, we had written all the lyrics and music and played it through three times.”
The band weeded through dozens of possible names, then chose HELLYEAH because they felt it represented the no-holds-barred spirit of the project. “It’s a total attitude thing,” explains Paul. “I don’t know if they were joking the first time they mentioned it, but it’s a common expression that we use a million times a day. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that’s totally the tone of the band.”
While Gray’s lyrics on HELLYEAH cover a variety of themes and topics, including the rigors of being in a band (“You Wouldn’t Know”), exploitation (“Waging War”), it’s the title track and “Alcohaulin Ass” that demand attention and repetition. Both lend themselves to observations
on living life and the armor created to continue moving forward – with an attitude.
“My only real goal was to change up how I do things in Mudvayne,” Gray says. “I wanted this to have its own life, so I wrote whatever was on my mind at any moment in time.”
The band's self-titled CD, HELLYEAH, hit the streets Tuesday, April 10 and had the highest debut chart position for a new hard rock artist. HELLYEAH entered Billboard’s Top 200 charts at #9 and Billboard’s Rock Chart at #3, tying Korn for the highest chart position for a hard rock artist in 2007. The CD has shattered sales expectations at retailers and have been complemented by covers, lead features and reviews in magazines such as Revolver, DRUM, Crave, Guitar World, Ruin and Billboard who claimed, " ....(HELLYEAH) rocks with—...fierce headbanging fury. But it does much more than just turn the amps up to 11 to unleash the beast. Tight, sinewy grooves and gear-shifting dynamics fill most of these 12 tracks. ...." and the OC Register who called it "one of the best metal discs, so far, of 2007.”
“You Wouldn’t Know,” the first single and accompanying video from
continued
HELLYEAH 4
HELLYEAH shot inside the Top 10 on the Active Rock radio charts in ten weeks.
In May of ’07, the band hit the road on their first U.S. headline “Fire It Up” tour with new bassist Bob Zilla, most recently in Damageplan (with Vinnie). International dates have included UK’s “Download” Festival and a headline tour in Australia along with this summer’s stateside “Family Values” tour, followed by dates throughout the remainder of 2007.
“Being on that stage together and really throwing it out there,” says Maxwell. “It’s like running with the bulls, man.”
HELLYEAH. ‘Nuff said.
Click here to watch HELLYEAH’s video for "You Wouldn't Know!"
