VIO-LENCE Reunion Will Seemingly Extend Well Into 2020

Vio-Lence

Bay Area thrash metal legends VIO-LENCE are likely to extend its reunion schedule into next year. Rumors have spread that the band, who reunited earlier this month for two gigs in Oakland, will be playing shows with their Bay Area thrash metal pals TESTAMENT and DEATH ANGEL in the future, though it’s not clear if those two bands will be performing together or separately with VIO-LENCE.

The rumors come about a week-and-a-half after the band was interviewed by Mosh Mag, where drummer Perry Strickland talked about what the future holds for VIO-LENCE in the wake of their recent comeback shows. He was quoted as saying, “I think we really just want to play together. Have fun, go back to some really, really old-school basics. Mr. Rockstar over here [Phil Demmel, guitar] has probably done everything on the face of the earth. I’ve had my little stints, and I think, for us, it’s just a matter of getting back to playing, having fun, a lot less stress, throw the stuff up onstage and try to have some fun because some of us who haven’t played in 16 years still make mistakes. [Laughs] Mostly Dean [Dell, bass] and I. It’s just about having fun and laughing it off and trying to get back to having a good time, and we seem to be achieving that. We’re just going to enjoy that, and what happens just happens.”

In the same interview, Strickland, Dell and Demmel discussed about the possibility of a full-time reunion. The latter commented, “My feelings on it is we’re just taking it as it comes.” Dell chimed in, saying, “We’re going to play one show and see how it goes.”

Referring to the sold-out shows in Oakland, Demmel said, “Then it sold out and we said, ‘We’re going to do two.’ [We’ve got a show in] Belgium, we’re headlining a fest in Illinois. We’ve got two shows in New York. We’re doing a couple of shows with SACRED REICH — one in L.A. and one in Phoenix, their hometown. The L.A. show sold out in a day. Pretty insane. I just enjoy playing with these guys and everybody’s telling me, ‘Oh my god. You’re smiling onstage again.’ It’s because I wasn’t allowed to before. That might be an exaggeration.”

Strickland added, “We went through a few stages where it took us a month and a half to feel each other out because we all were treading very lightly with each other to make sure we didn’t fall back on to… The 2000 reunion almost felt like a bad drug habit. It’s, like, ‘Here am I, doing this crap. It’s bad for me and I don’t like it.’ This is definitely not that, because I work 10 hours a day. I’m thinking about practice all day. I’m high on life. I wasn’t before. To work 10 hours a day and think about practice all day, yeah, I’m pretty psyched to go jam. That’s something I haven’t felt in probably 20 years.”

Whether these comments mean that VIO-LENCE will indeed continue their reunion into next year, or they will eventually make a new album, remains to be seen.

The band – who first broke up in 1993 after an eight-year run, which lasted for only three full-length studio albums, including their iconic 1988 debut “Eternal Nightmare” – had previously reunited from 2001 to 2003.

The reunited VIO-LENCE features three-fourths of the “Eternal Nightmare” lineup ‒ vocalist Sean Killian, guitarist Phil Demmel, bassist Deen Dell and drummer Perry Strickland ‒ with guitarist Ray Vegas replacing Robb Flynn, who is now in MACHINE HEAD.