During DOWN’s recent stop in Toronto, freshly tattooed guitarist Kirk Windstein invited Brave Words scribe Aaron Small onto the tour bus for a beer and the following exclusive update:

Bassist Rex Brown – Diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, he underwent surgery, during which his gall bladder, along with some polyps were removed. “He’s doing much better. He’s gaining a little weight back. Rex is one of my best friends in the world. I love him to death. He’ll be all right. Everybody’s not Lemmy (from MOTÖRHEAD). I tell him that sometimes. It got to the point where his body just started giving out from 25 years on the road – drinking every day and what not. Most people do it on the weekend. Add that up to every day for 25 years and that’s what happens. By no means is he out of the band. Fortunately for us, my friend Danny (Theriot) who I played with in VICTORIAN BLITZ, my first metal band in the early ‘80s, helped us out. Obviously I prefer Rex to be there. But in a weird way, it is nice, 25 years later, to put my head on Danny’s shoulder while I’m doing a lead, ‘cause we used to do it when we were kids. But, I would prefer to put my head on Rex’s shoulder.”

KINGDOM OF SORROW – “Put it this way, I’m working so hard that on my off day in Hartford, I went to the studio with Jasta (from HATEBREED) and did Kingdom Of Sorrow demos. It’s not Hatebreed meets Crowbar any more. To me, it’s sounding like TROUBLE and PENTAGRAM. It’s more mid-tempo. Jamey gave me a 15-song demo of shit he wrote by himself and I… he calls it ‘Kirk-ifying it’. I hear it and change a chord or a tag; it works very well. I’m hoping to record it literally on January 2nd (2010). Fly up to Connecticut right after New Year’s and knock it out in two and a half or three weeks.”

CROWBAR – “The back catalog will be reissued through Phil (Anselmo)’s label, Housecore Records, on vinyl and CD. We’re going to do it in chronological order. So Obedience will be the first re-release. We already recorded a live record and we’re putting out a new studio record through Housecore. Then the reissues; there’ll be a t-shirt for each release that has the cover on it. The first one should be the live record, which should come out first quarter (2010). Recorded in Lafayette, Louisiana, we opened up with ‘Waiting In Silence’ and went into ‘I Have Failed’. I hadn’t played those in at least ten years. I’ve got a great bunch of guys (Tommy Buckley – drums, Matt Brunson – guitar, Rex Brown – bass) in Crowbar now, so I asked them what they wanted to play? I re-learnt it and we did it. Matt came up with a title for the live one – Obedience Through Volume (instead of Obedience Through Suffering). I think we may call it that. And we’re doing a box set through Housecore. We’re doing a SLUGS demo, five songs. That’s the first one we did with No Quarter. It was Jimmy (Bower), Big Todd, Kevin Noonan and me. I want to make it good; possibly a fleur-de-lie shaped box, something different.”

DOWN – “The DVD (Diary Of A Mad Band) is coming out next year. Pepper (Keenan) put 95% of that thing together. He did a hell of a job! It’s a movie. It’s a documentary on a band that got back together in 2006 – post Katrina – to say, let’s make this our real band. For the next album, something’s going to happen. We may get symbols like LED ZEPPELIN. We have enough shit already demoed. If we recorded that, it’d be an album. Phil’s been writing a bunch of heavy stuff.”

KISS – The new album, Sonic Boom, is a little over a week away. “I haven’t heard it yet but we have the same manager and he said there’s four or five really good songs. I bought Psycho Circus. I head the song on the radio and I love the song. The rest of the album is the worst hunk of shit I’ve ever heard in my life – Gene I love you. I know you’re Jewish. I still love you. But, it’s not good. In fact, me and my girlfriend at the time each bought a copy. I kept mine, just ‘cause it’s KISS. If Gene farts, I’ll buy it. We returned hers and I got High ‘n’ Dry by DEF LEPPARD. It’s a much stronger album Gene. I still love you. I’ve got two KISS tattoos. Everybody makes fun of KISS, but at one point in time – they got it! ‘Watching You’ is one of the heaviest riffs ever. Kiss – Alive I is a masterpiece! That’s my childhood. Those are my favourite songs ever. I’ve bought Kiss – Alive I probably five times. I wore the grooves out on the record. I can’t say the same about The Elder. For lack of a better term, they got led astray a bit.”