KK DOWNING, RIPPER OWENS AND LES BINKS FEATURE IN PAUL CROOK'S ALL-STAR INTERACTIVE BAND DEVILSTAR


18th April 2018



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Paul Crook

Anthrax, Sebastian Bach and Meat Loaf producer/guitarist Paul Crook and executive producer John Madera have formed DevilStar, an all-star hard rock and Heavy Metal group billed as "the world's first interactive band".

The first DevilStar release will be a cover of the Judas Priest classic 'Beyond The Realms Of Death', which will be available on streaming and digital platforms on June 1st and will feature performances by three Priest alumni – guitarist KK Downing, vocalist Tim 'Ripper' Owens and drummer Les Binks – in addition to Crook and bassist Joey Vera of Armored Saint and Fates Warning.

The song, which marks KK's first collaboration with Les Binks, who co-wrote the song with Rob Halford, since 1979, was chosen to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Priest's iconic album 'Stained Class'.

Subsequent DevilStar single releases will be a mix of covers and original material and will feature other notable hard rock/Metal names, with Crook handling production and mixing in addition to playing guitar.

While several tracks have already been recorded for release in the coming months, fans are invited to email devilstarmusic@gmail.com to propose potential 'dream team' line-ups and/or suggest cover songs to tackle in the future.

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Crook first rose to prominence as Anthrax lead guitarist in the mid-1990s, performing on and touring in support of the 'Stomp 442' and 'Volume 8: The Threat Is Real' albums, the latter of which he also co-produced.

In 1999, Crook began a five-year stint as lead guitarist for former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach and in 2004 he was personally chosen and trained by Queen guitarist Brian May to handle his guitar parts for their musical production of 'We Will Rock You', which performed for a year on the Las Vegas strip at the Paris Casino Hotel.

For the last fifteen years, he has served as lead guitarist of Meat Loaf's Neverland Express and in that time he has performed on four Meat Loaf studio albums and three live albums/DVDs, including 'Bat Out Of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose' and 'Bat Out Of Hell: Live With The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra'. He also produced Meat Loaf's two most recent studio albums, 'Hell In A Handbasket' and 'Braver Than We Are'.

Crook has also collaborated with artists ranging from Glenn Hughes to M.O.D. and tells us:

"John and I are proud to partner our DevilStar brand with M-Theory Audio and Marco Barbieri. There is no one better suited to help us share our passion for Heavy Metal with the world than Marco."

Label president Marco Barbieri adds:

"I've heard the magnificent cover of 'Beyond The Realms Of Death' and I'm excited by the possibilities teaming up with DevilStar. Paul has tremendous talents and experience and John is quite the ambitious visionary, and together we're going to have a lot of fun bringing you some great collaborations and future recordings."