According to Metal Journal, ELEGANT WEAPONS bandmates Richie Faulkner (also of JUDAS PRIEST) and Ronnie Romero (also of RAINBOW) joined URIAH HEEP on stage yesterday (Wednesday, June 19) at the Rock Imperium Festival at Parque El Batel in Cartagena, Spain to perform the URIAH HEEP classic “Easy Livin'”. Fan-filmed video of their appearance can be seen below.
ELEGANT WEAPONS features Faulkner on guitar and Romero on vocals, alongside Dave Rimmer (URIAH HEEP) on bass and Christopher Williams (ACCEPT) on drums.
ELEGANT WEAPONS’ debut album, “Horns For A Halo”, was released on May 26, 2023 via Nuclear Blast. The LP was recorded with bassist Rex Brown (PANTERA, DOWN) and drummer Scott Travis (JUDAS PRIEST) and was helmed by acclaimed British producer Andy Sneap, who has previously worked with JUDAS PRIEST, ACCEPT, EXODUS and MEGADETH, among many others.
In a recent interview with Jorge Botas of Portugal’s Metal Global, Faulkner spoke about a possible second album from ELEGANT WEAPONS. He said: “We’ve already started. We’ve recorded drums for the second record. We got together in March, I think, of [2023]; I think it was March — I’m not sure. We got together in the studio and played together to record the drums, get the drums recorded. So it’s been started.”
Asked if the second ELEGANT WEAPONS LP will arrive in 2024 or 2025, Richie said: “I don’t know. Maybe [in 2024]. Back in the day, bands used to release a record every year, sometimes two in a year.
I know we don’t do things under the same cycle anymore. But the ideas are there for the songs. We all were together, and we thought why not get at least the drums going. We got the drums and we got the guitars, and stuff like that, so why not start the process?
“It was important for me, really, when I started the band… It was a band that it wasn’t just a one-record type thing,” Faulkner explained.
“It was a band that plays live and records — hopefully — multiple records and grows and evolves together moving into the future. So the next record is just a part of that sort of process, really.”
Richie went on to say that he plans on focusing on ELEGANT WEAPONS full-time once PRIEST has officially called it a day.
“PRIEST music is gonna be around a lot longer than we are,” he said. “It’s legendary music. They’re genre-defining musicians and it’s a genre-defining band. It will be around for a long time. But none of us gets out of this alive. That’s just the reality of it.
So if one day that call comes in and that’s the last tour or the last album, whatever it is… I mean, I joined the band on what was the farewell tour.
Luckily it wasn’t, and we’re still here 12 years later. [It’s] fantastic. But at the time, I think I would have been silly not to consider what I was gonna do after the band, because of the circumstances of the tour.
It was a farewell tour — it was [supposed to be] the last tour — so what am I gonna do after? So it’s always been in the back of my mind. And this is a band that seems natural to me to continue with if that call ever came in.”
ELEGANT WEAPONS played a number of shows in Europe in June and July 2023, including performances with PANTERA, festival appearances and headlining gigs.
ELEGANT WEAPONS made its first two festival appearances on June 16, 2023 at Hellfest in Clisson, France and on June 18, 2023 at Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium.
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