Metal Asylum has issued an interview with guitarist "Metal" Mike Chlasciak (HALFORD, PAINMUSEUM, SEBASTIAN BACH), in which he discusses the latest Sebastian Bach CD, Angel Down, and his contributions, plus gives updates on the next Halford CD, and Painmuseum’s status.

The following is an excerpt from the interview, conducted by Rich Catino:

Q: Do you play most of the guitars on Sebastian Bach’s latest solo album Angel Down?

A: "Well this was the situation with Sebastian and these songs for Angel Down. Many of them had already been written several years ago with people who were playing with Sebastian at the time. A lot of band member changes happened and he has been trying to put this record together for several years now. And it probably didn’t happen because of that and when it comes down to it he is really concerned about the end product. Some songs were written by me, some by former guitarist Ralf Santolla, some by Johnny Cromatic, some by Roy Z, and at one point he wanted each guy to play on their own song and that’s kind of what he did for Bring Em Bach Alive. But we convinced him that if he did that again the record would be choppy and like a compilation album and the smartest thing to do was to put a unit of guys together who were gonna stick around kick ass and appear on the record.

And I really didn’t want to do just like two songs because my name was going to be attached to the record. So I played on every song on the album and the only guitar player who did play on the album from point A to point B. And then Johnny Cromatic did a good chunk of the playing and did some solos and Roy Z also did some playing too.

You know Roy Z produces the record and always brings in some songs that he thinks may balance out the album. He kind of lets the artist do what they do and then he puts the final touch with his ideas. And in the end who better to have the touch to make the final decision about the product than the artist himself. You know with Bobby Jarzombek (drums), me and Roy its such a family anyway you know, I did a lot with that CD. And I think its pretty safe to say the people are digging it."

Q: Has any work been done on the next Halford album?

A: Yeah there has but you know Rob has returned to Priest and that is where his focus is at the moment. And I know Priest is extremely important to Rob - as it should be, so Halford activities do happen pretty regularly but because out of respect to Judas Priest everything takes place at the proper time. We have been working on a record a kind of medium pace but you know its cool because it gives us time to make the best record we can. We recorded a decent amount of stuff and we will see when the time is right to finish it."

Q: And how involved are you with the songs for Halford as far as the songwriting and playing?

A: "Oh yeah of course just as I was from day one when we are putting the Resurrection record together. For Rob it has always been about two guitar players coming up with riffs and once the skeletons of the songs are down he comes in with lyrics and melodies and inputs thoughts on arrangements and maybe restructuring some of the riffs.

So for the new album it is working the same way with me and Roy Z writing the bulk of the guitar riffs and then we have Bobby Jarzombek on drums and bass player Mike Davis from LA we get together and jam on the stuff and demo it. Then Roy will take the stuff and get it to Rob wherever he catches him or he may join us if scheduling allows, and we will get vocal ideas. But I do feel even though it is obviously the Halford band, I am close to the Halford band it was what gave me my first real shot."

Read the full interview at Metal Asylum.