Alison Fensterstock from Bestofneworleans.com is reporting:

Heavy metal stars Pepper Keenan and Phil Anselmo and their band DOWN just completed a tour opening for METALLICA at the New Orleans Arena. Along with Mike IX Williams, they are three of the city's best-known musicians - outside of New Orleans.

"You know, I can remember being nominated four different times, back when I was in PANTERA, for Grammys," Anselmo says. "And they'd have on the news all the local New Orleans stars who were nominated. My name was never up there. And nothing against them - the HARRY CONNICKS and THE AARON NEVILLES. I even went to Lakeview high school with Harry Connick, and summer camp. But Pantera, we sold more records than them. So I always took it with a grain of salt."

In the early '90s, he and Keenan were both living outside New Orleans and playing in hugely successful bands: Anselmo in the metal megamonster Pantera and Keenan in CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, a North Carolina-based band. Though they visited New Orleans often and remained a part of the fast-growing scene, they then - and now - received very little notice from the city's music industry.

"They acted like we had leprosy," Keenan says.

The three rockers don't seem to hold a grudge. In fact, with cash and name recognition to work with, they're more dedicated to the city's underground music scene than ever. Now that he's back in New Orleans, Anselmo is, along with Williams, focusing his energy on Housecore Records, an indie label on which he hopes to recreate the honest, DIY energy of two decades ago.

In the late '80s and early '90s, New Orleans' underground punk and metal scene was thriving. Artists like Keenan, Williams and Anselmo emerged from a close-knit crowd of tape traders and zine makers, and they became international celebrities, selling millions of records and influencing generations of new bands claiming New Orleans metal as an inspiration.

The idea for Housecore dates back to his Pantera days, when Anselmo was shuttling back and forth between New Orleans and the band's Texas base. His Lakeview house became a regular stomping ground for local musicians who hung out, played together and formed bands.

"A good majority of bands would hang out there," he says. "We were making so much music coming out of that house, it was unnatural. It was just an idea at first, because I was so busy touring and whatnot with Pantera; it was a hard thing to organize and make a realistic approach to attack it. So my God, 20 years later-plus, it's finally a reality."

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