Singer Patrick Mulock - who once fronted Eidolon with former Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover and ex-Megadeth/King Diamond guitarist Glen Drover - along with two of his former bandmates in Rampage (guitarist Tyson Emanuel and drummer Chris Lewis) make up the Mississauga-based Phear. Guitarist Graham Stirrett and bassist Chris Boshis round out the line-up. BraveWords scribe Carl Begai recently spoke with the group about their origins and their new album, Insanitarium. An excerpt from the in-depth conversation is available below.

On approaching guest artists including Glen Drover (Megadeth, King Diamond, Eidolon), Bjorn "Speed" Strid (Soilwork) and Jon Howard (Threat Signal) to appear on Insanitarium: 

Patrick: "The songs were written without guests in mind. That idea came later. Over the years, we have made a lot of friends. It was nice to include them in this project. In the end, it added to the songs and the overall album."
Graham: "It just kind of happened. It's nice to have guests from time to time. It also opens you up to more fans." 

Tyson: "It helps to open us up to a different audience and I love how the guests blended their approach to our core sound."

Chris L.: "I love what our guests did on this album. They’ve all added to the overall Phear sound. Kelly Kereliuk laid down some killer guitar solos, Basia Lyjak sang her ass off on ‘Heaven’, Jon Howard added his amazing vocal growls all over the album, and Bjorn Strid’s vocals on ‘Delusions’ are simply killer. Some of the guest musicians were people that we already knew, while others we approached after the majority of the song was recorded. An example of this is ‘Heaven’. Omar Ales is an old friend of ours and a gifted keyboardist.  We had no intention originally of having keys on the track, but Pat thought that it might add a lot to the song so we approached Omar and he was more than happy to help out.  I love what he did on this song, along with Basia on vocals. As for Glen Drover, we recorded the drum tracks for three of the songs at his studio so we felt comfortable asking him to add a guitar solo to the song 'Sea Of Lies'."

On giving the guest performers creative freedom:

Tyson: "When you work with professionals, it’s always best to get out of their way. That’s why you invite them into the fold; to expand upon our dynamics."

Patrick: "As far as telling them what to do....no way! When talent like that wants to add their signature, just let them go! I provided the words, where to sing and that was pretty much it." 

p>Phear released their debut album, Insanitarium on May 22 via Amazon, iTunes, and CD Baby. Check out their new performance video for the song "Heaven" below:

Insanitarium consists of 12 songs (+1 bonus instrumental track) and features the following guest musicans - Glen Drover (Megadeth, King Diamond, Eidolon), Bjorn "Speed" Strid (Soilwork), Stan Miczek (Harem Scarem, Honeymoon Suite, Sass Jordan), Jon Howard (Threat Signal), Travis Montgomery (Threat Signal), Kelly Kereliuk (Prismind), Rick Reid (Eclipse Eternal, Rampage), Omar Ales (Harem Scarem), Mark Ferreira, and Basia Lyjak.

Check out the artwork and tracklisting below:

Insanitarium tracklisting:

“Regan’s Dream”
“Don’t Scream”
“Fallen”
“Heaven”
“Delusions”
“Proud”
“The Drowning Man”
“Until You Die”
“Motive’s Unknown”
“Bloodline”
“In The Name Of"
“Sea of Lies”
“Snap”

Phear have also debuted the video for “Don’t Scream” below:

"Reagan's Dream"featuring Jon Howard from Threat Signal:

Visit Phear on Facebook here.