Former Exodus singer Rob Dukes has teamed up with former Hades members Dan Lorenzo and Jimmy Schulman and former Overkill drummer Ron Lipnicki in a project that has yet to be named.
Lorenzo stated, “Ron’s first recording was Hades DamNation CD in 2001. About a year after that Hades stopped recording when Ron got cancer. When Ron was undergoing chemo he told me he wanted to record some old KISS songs just for fun. That became the impetus for me to actually record three solo CDs in 2003 and 2004. A few years later I introduced Ron to Overkill’s Bobby Blitz at my Super Bowl party. Blitz and I did The Cursed Room Full of Sinners together and Ron went on to tour and record with Overkill for a decade.”
Lipnicki followed, “I’ve loved KISS since I was a kid. They are the reason I cut my mom’s broomstick into drumsticks and started bashing garbage cans. When I was sick Dan, Jimmy and all the Hades guys would come over to my place and we would hang out and listen to KISS and Sabbath and Dan got me a ton of cool music from Metal Blade Records. We always talked about recording some of our favorite KISS tunes. It was very uplifting when going through something like that (cancer) and it does keep you young.” Regarding his recent departure from Overkill, Lipnicki went on to say, “I left Overkill due to work. It was tough to juggle a day job and travel all the time. I had some great times and made some great music with the guys. They taught me so much. I’m forever grateful. I have enough stories to last a lifetime.”
Dukes fronted Bay Area thrash legends Exodus for nine years until they reunited with Steve Souza in 2014. “Dan Lorenzo and me became friends about 10 years ago. I always knew who he was from his playing in Hades. We got together with Mark Strigl and John Ostronomy and Ron from Overkill and played a cover of Snowblind by Sabbath for Talking Metal (see below). It was fun. So we reconnected and talked about doing some more songs. We both love doing cover songs. So we decided to do a few more and then work on some original stuff which we started and as we go along we track songs we like. Dan’s a huge KISS fan so that was what he picked to play, and I picked another Sabbath tune and we are having fun. The original stuff is really cool. I’ve been working on new Generation Kill music and it’s nice to take a break from that and play a few covers. I got together with the Exodus guys awhile back and played a show in San Francisco and it was cool to sit and talk. We buried some bad feelings and moved on, it was a love fest. And the show was awesome.”
Lorenzo continued, “After Blitz and I did The Cursed release I really didn’t play much music for the next ten years until I stumbled upon the song The Opposition by the band Ancient VVisdom. Long story short, I started writing with Ancient VVisdom vocalist Nathan Opposition who lives in Cleveland. We had two short rehearsals in Nathan’s basement and ended up getting signed by the Italian doom metal label Argonauta Records for our band called Vessel Of Light. Vessel Of Light just finished recording our 2nd album for Argonauta and I really fell in love with recording music again. After Nathan and I finished our new Woodshed album I asked Ron and Jimmy if they wanted to jam some Vessel Of Light songs in NYC. Whenever Ron, Jimmy and I jam we always end up playing old Kiss songs. So we recently booked some recording time at JROD Productions in New York. We recorded KISS’ God of Thunder and Calling Dr. Love. I sang Calling Dr. Love and I asked Rob Dukes if he wanted to sing God of Thunder and maybe try to write some original music together. As of now we are writing originals as well as recording some old Black Sabbath and KISS songs just for fun.”
God of Thunder with Dukes, Lorenzo, Lipnicki and Schulman can be
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We used to do those Kiss flash bombs in my friend’s basement; he had this big house with plenty of room in the basement..lol… funny because his name is Doug too…I hope you win your bowling tournament Mr. Doug R. 🙂 And Cheers to Rattlehead and everyone else too.