Welcome to Dave's On Tour!

Tell me about Beyond The Flesh, your sound and your bandmates.

(Rick) We formed in 2000 as a five-piece band. After our first singer left, Justin took over vocals. The current Beyond The Flesh lineup is Justin Leary on vocals/guitar, Rick Flanagan on lead guitar, Brian Gawaski on bass guitar, and Senen Solis is our drummer. Our sound is melodic death thrash. We draw a lot of influence from bands like Death and Carcass. That's what separates us from all the groups influenced by the Swedish metal bands. We want to touch on all styles of metal: black metal, death metal and power metal. We're really riff orientated with very high standards for the riffs we write.

Tell me about your band's current CD, "What The Mind Perceives," which Screaming Ferret Wreckords is re-releasing. When? Its musical direction? Where we can buy it?

(Justin) It's being released in the States on March 29, worldwide a couple of days before or after. It's a lot more thrash metal than death metal.There are death orientated riffs, even a whole song that's death metal. It's a step above our first release. We've matured, there's tighter vocals with different vocal styles, and more melody to our riffs. Major chain stores in the Northeast will be carrying it.

Tell me about your band's touring plans for 2005.

(Rick) We have no touring plans, yet the label is showing interest in getting us out on the road. We are booked for the "Louder, Harder, Faster" festival in Pennsylvania. We are opening for Sepulutera, God Forbid and Nuclear Assault. We are really excited about that one. Hopefully, by the summer we'll be on a tour.

(Justin) Our label is talking about pushing and developing us, instead of just releasing the CD and moving on. They've got more money under their belt and more drive. The tour might be a do-it-yourself deal with more Screaming Ferret bands. Hopefully, we'll get out on the road opening on a sweet package deal.

What does Beyond The Flesh have in store for your fans in the next 12 months?

(Rick) It's the biggest year yet for Beyond The Flesh, and we're gonna try to turn some heads. You should be able to catch us on the road, in places we weren't able to go as an independent band. We want to spread the real metal.

(Justin) We've written eleven new songs for a future release. It'll depend on the label, maybe our next CD will be out mid-2006. We've taken it in the right direction, and it doesn't sound like our current album. You can tell it's Beyond The Flesh, but it's tighter and more precise. We've gone in directions that we haven't touched on before. There's slower, doomier stuff and then some of the fastest songs we've written to date. WE play some of the new songs live and our fans are giving us a good reaction. I'm sure they are looking forward to the new release. The new songs are different, they are not cookie-cutter Beyond The Flesh songs. We're trying to take it into a new direction.

(Rick) We want to distance ourselves from mainstream, melodic metal stuff that is getting so trendy and popular. We want to stick true to the real metal. Once all the other stuff blows over, we still want to have the hardcore underground heavy metal following. We want to stick with them and keep it fresh.

(Justin) Beyond The Flesh does not want to be the "flavor of the month." We want to write songs that appeal to people, but not make trendy radio songs. We're trying to set ourselves apart and still be listenable, getting more technical in our writing. But not to the point of being too complicated to understand. We want to write songs that people can bang their head to and still be humming when the song is done.

Feel free to promote anything else you'd like that applies to your band.

(Justin) www.beyondtheflesh.net There are five songs you can listen to. Two from our first release, two from this Screaming Ferret release, and a one-off release we did in our home studio. There are some video clips. We'd love to do a DVD, but we're not ready for that yet.

(Rick) There's shirts and hats too, we have quality merch. "Only the best from the Flesh."

Please share your thoughts on Dimebag Darrell.

(Rick) Pantera was the biggest metal band of the 90's when we first started getting into metal. They made us want to play metal. To this day, Pantera is a band I listen to on a normal basis. I couldn't believe the news, it was like a family member died. I never met him, I only saw him in concert. Dime was a great guitar player who inspired two generations of guitarists. Pantera kept metal alive in the 90's.