Guitar legend Marty Friedman (ex-Megadeth) is featured in a new interview with Jamie Ludwig at Noisey. An excerpt is available below:

Noisey: Take me back to the tail end of your time in Megadeth. It’s a difficult thing to reinvent yourself. Once the transition was over and you were in Japan, how did you go about establishing a new life in a completely different culture?

Marty Friedman: "It wasn’t really that difficult. Quite the opposite. On paper, it sounds weird to leave a multi-platinum band and start from ground zero, but I just knew I could reach my potential so much more by being in Japan. It was really the best decision I’ve ever made. As a musician, or anything where you’re making decisions on your own personal tastes and your creativity, you know where you need to be to make those things happen. If you’re a French chef and you’re in Boise, Idaho, you’re in the wrong place.

I looked at the Top 10 in Japan and I’d like nine of the songs, and I looked at the Top 10 in America and I’d maybe like one of them. So, I’m a musician—where should I be? It was that simple. What was happening in America, musically, wasn’t nearly as appealing as what was happening every day in Japan. I was missing out."

Noisey: I read an interview where you said the concept of genre as it exists for American audiences is something that doesn’t really apply in Japan. Can you tell me a little more about that?

Marty Friedman: "That’s really important. Growing up and playing music in America, you know how it is... if you play heavy metal, you’re not necessarily going to make a lot of friends playing R&B.; If you play hip-hop, you’re not going to make a lot of friends playing country. The borders are very strictly drawn and there’s not a lot of mixing. It’s 'heavy metal or die,' or 'country music or die.' The fans of all this music like to have an open mind, but I think people are afraid to share that information in front of their friends. They might act like they’re totally into metal all the time, but when they get home they listen to something else by themselves. In Japan there’s much less stigma about that. It’s better suited for me and my taste, particularly."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Friedman has released a sneak preview of the new track "Hyper Doom", the song that kicks off the concert performances on his current European tour with Gus G. The song appears on the new album Inferno, due out May 23rd in Germany/Austria/Switzerland, May 26th in the UK/Europe, May 27th in North America via Prosthetic Records (except in Japan, where the album will be released by Universal Music on May 21st).

Friedman recently released a lyric video for the track "Sociopaths", featured on Inferno. The album - recorded primarily in Los Angeles with engineer Chris Rakestraw (Danzig, Children Of Bodom) and mixed by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Amon Amarth) - features what Friedman recently told Guitar World is "the most intense writing and playing I can do".

The album also includes notable guest appearances by several artists influenced by Friedman, including flamenco/metal acoustic guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela, Children of Bodom front man Alexi Laiho, Skyhardbor mastermind Keshav Dhar and Revocation guitar whiz David Davidson, as well as Friedman's first songwriting collaboration with Jason Becker since the pair played together in Cacophany, the pioneering duo of guitar mayhem.

In addition, Inferno breaks all genre rules and creates new ones with an exhilarating and musically daring mash-up with Jørgen Munkeby of Shining, as well as two tracks featuring vocals by rock guru Danko Jones. Overall, Inferno is by far Friedman's most thrilling and adventurous effort to date.

Tracklisting:

"Inferno"
"Resin"
"Wicked Panacea" (feat. Rodrigo y Gabriela)

"Steroidhead" (feat. Keshav Dhar)

"I Can"t Relax" (feat. Danko Jones)

"Meat Hook" (feat. Jørgen Munkeby)

"Hyper Doom"
"Sociopaths" (feat. David Davidson)

"Lycanthrope" (feat. Alexi Laiho & Danko Jones)

"Undertow"

"Horrors" (co-written by Jason Becker)

"Inferno" -reprise-

"Sociopaths" lyric video:

"Meat Hook":

"Inferno" video:

"Steroidhead'":

Tour dates:

May

12 - Munich, Germany - Backstage
13 - Colmar, France - Grillen
15 - Essen, Germany - Turock
16 - Zoetermeer, Netherlands - De Boerderij
17 - Hasselt, Belgium - Muziekodroom
18 - Uden, Netherlands - De Pul
20 - Savigny Le Temple, France - L’impriente
21 - London, UK - O2 Academy Islington
22 - Nuneaton, UK - Queens Hall