During a recent interview with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai for the new Power Trio album, frontman and namesake Danko Jones discussed another project that has been in the works for years: a cover of the song "Are You Ready" by '80s Toronto cult favousrites, Hateful Snake. 

The song is being made available through UXB Press Canada's release of the new Eve Of Darkness documentary.

Danko: "We recorded this Hateful Snake cover song six years ago. They're from Toronto and the only thing they've ever released was on a Moose Metal compilation, and they have two music videos that got played on Toronto Rocks and, I think, during the early days of MuchMusic. We were making the Fire Music album  in 2015 with Eric Ratz (producer), and Eric and I stated talking about Hateful Snake. We were watching the video on YouTube saying 'We've gotta record this song, we've gotta get all these people on it...!' It was just the two of us going crazy with this idea, and the other guys in the band were going 'What the hell..?' (laughs). But, they were game for it and we recorded it."

"We decided to get some Toronto musicians on the track, and I think Adam Sewell (Def Con Sound System, Monster Voodoo Machine) was the first person I reached out to, and he immediately said 'I'm there.' We got Bernie Carlos from Sye, Liam (Cormier) from Cancer Bats, Priya (Panda) from Diemonds, Rob from Sacrifice, and Brian Simpson, the singer from Hateful Snake. I can't remember how I found him but I managed to track him down. But the feather in the cap for the whole song, though... it's amazing."

"When they played the Hateful Snake video on Toronto Rocks, Daniel Richler (DJ, producer, director) introduced them for Midweek Metal Mania. I tracked him down - he lives in London now - and he just happened to be travelling to Toronto to try out for being one of the Q hosts after Jian Ghomeshi got kicked out. I went to his hotel with a microphone, and I recorded Daniel Richler saying the same thing he did on Midweek Metal Mania in '82 or '83. whenever that was, only he replaced the bands he mentioned back then with the bands that are on the cover song. If you're not from Toronto it's going to be like 'Why did you do this?' (laughs)."

It sat here for six years; Rob and Rich did their solos for it two years ago, so it was unfinished for four and has been done for two. The question was, what were we going to do with it? We couldn't just put it out because there's no context; it just remained a fun thing we did. And then, UXB Press Canada, who did the Tomorrow Is Too Late book on Toronto hardcore, I knew they were working on a metal book for the last couple years (Eve Of Darkness). We said 'Here's the song, you guys can have it.'"

"It's bugged the crap out of me for six years that we coudn't do anything with it, so I'm glad it has a home now."

Players on the cover of Hateful Snake's "Are You Ready" include Rob Urbanati and Rich Jones from Sacrifice on lead guitar, singers (in order of appearance) Brian Simpson (Hateful Snake), Danko Jones, Nick Sewell (Biblical, Mount Cyanide), Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene), Bernie Carlos (Sye), Adam Sewell (Def Con Sound System, Monster Voodoo Machine), Liam Cormier (Cancer Bats) and Priya Panda (Diemonds).

The song will be included with Eve Of Darkness: Toronto Metal In The 1980s Die Hard Edition. Details are available below. Street date is September 25th.

Eve Of Darkness is the definitive account of Toronto’s heavy metal scene, 1980 – 1989. Over 300 large format pages crammed full of photos, anecdotes, flyers, commentary, and more, lavishly produced and designed. An essential grip for anyone interested in metal, underground music, subculture, and Toronto’s unwritten history!

The Die Hard package includes:

• Limited Edition 'Are You Ready' 7” Single - Hateful Snake (1984 original recording) / Danko Jones All-Stars (30th anniversary revisit - including members of Sacrifice, Sye, Diemonds, etc..) – both tracks never before released on vinyl

• Double Sided 14” x 20” Full Colour Poster - Metallica (Concert Hall, January 1985) + Mercyful Fate (Larry’s Hideaway, November 1984) note: poster ships folded to 7x10 with book

• Set of 12 Toronto Heavy Metal trading cards featuring Apple Viper, Banshee, Black Mass, Dark Legion, Death Militia, Herrenvolk, Izod, Kraken, Overlord, Razor, Slaughter and Sye

• 24-page zine of articles & reviews offering a peek at how Toronto’s metal merchants were viewed in real time by critics and journalists from around the world. Undistorted by the passage of time, these pages reveal an enthusiasm as penned by those whose sole motive was to seek out and promote the greatest new bands that the world needed to hear.

• Two 8” x 8” Rock "Mirrors" (Lee Aaron, Sacrifice)

• Metallic Silver Foil Bookmark (Anvil)

• Limited Edition OBI Strip

This deluxe edition is strictly limited and it’s also the only way to guarantee yourself a copy of the limited Hateful Snake/Danko Jones split 7” record and the bonus materia!

Order Eve Of Darkness below

- Canada

- United States, International