Rob Halford Wants To Release 2wo Material He Did With Trent Reznor

07/17/07 5:00pm

by Sarah Kurchak (CHARTattack)

Metalheads all over the world have already been listening to Halford Metal God Essentials — Volume 1 since last fall, but now they can finally get their hands on a physical copy.

The retrospective of Rob Halford's non-Judas Priest offerings, including material from Fight and Halford, hits store shelves on Tuesday.

The album has been available digitally since October, but Halford says the plan was always to release a physical copy eventually.

"I've been at the forefront of this digital/electronic packaging world for some time now. In fact, one of the first things that we had launched on our website, RobHalford.com, was the last show I did with the Halford band in Anaheim, California. And we put that up on our server and it was really successful.

"So that really was the direction I wanted to pursue with the rest of the material that followed. And then we had a great launch with that through Apple's iTunes. At the same time, we created HalfordMusic.com, which is another download facility. But the fact of the matter is that the bulk of the metal community, as we call it, just love to have the CDs and the DVDs and everything like that. So that's what we're doing right now."

Halford also made sure that diehard fans will get their money's worth on the new release.

"What I'm trying to do for the metalheads that have gotten the downloads already is offer just some really cool-looking packaging ideas, adding extra bonus tracks and a fantastic bonus DVD."

After this release, Halford plans to offer more of his Fight and Halford material, including box sets and a Fight DVD, through his new company, Metal God Entertainment. Due to popular demand, he's also looking into releasing material by 2wo, his project with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor.

"Everyone's asking me about the 2wo. The reason that we really haven't gone there yet is because we're trying to figure out all of the business side of that scenario. When I separated from Sanctuary in London, they gave me the opportunity to buy back all of my Halford solo material. You know, obviously the recordings and the photos and the videos and everything else. So we did a really sweet deal there and then Sony BMG have been really cool about me gaining access to all of the Fight material, because that was originally on Epic. The 2wo project was with Trent Reznor's label, Nothing Records, through Interscope. And I wasn't really sure there would be that much demand for it, but the fact is that everybody keeps asking me about it and I'm really pleased about that.

"'Cause, to some extent, I think that it was overlooked because it wasn't metal as people know me for, but it was a fantastic collaboration with Trent and what I would like for people to hear are the original recordings that Trent first listened to. And then when he became involved with Dave "Rave" Ogilvie from Skinny Puppy in Vancouver, the three of us put our heads together and created that final CD. So I think that it would be great if everybody had an opportunity to listen to the original songs, because they are a lot tougher, you know, they're a lot edgier. They've got more of a rock/metal vibe going to them."

As if the metal god isn't busy enough with those projects, he's also working with Judas Priest to put the final touches on their next album, Nostradamus.

"Oh, it's brilliant!" he exclaims when asked about it. "It's such a joy to be in that world.

"We've never done anything like this before in Judas Priest. It's our first concept album. It's a metal opera telling the story of the life of this man. We're still tracking. It should be out sometime in 2008. But it's just another milestone for Priest. Just when you thought this band has done everything, we come along with something fresh and new and different. There's a tremendous buzz all over the metal world, waiting for that big metal masterpiece to show itself."