Former MEGADETH guitarist Chris Poland has confirmed to Sofa King Cool that the song “Liar” from the band’s 1988 album “So Far, So Good… So What?” was written by Dave Mustaine about him. He said: “Oh, yeah. Obviously, Dave was very upset with me when I left the band — when he fired me, basically.”< Asked if he was angry when he first heard he was the lyrical inspiration for the song, Poland said: "No, man. It's like the pot calling the kettle black, man. When you point your finger, man, there's three pointing back at you. I just rolled my eyes and was, like, 'Really?'" Poland was a member of MEGADETH from 1984 to 1987, during which time he performed on the band's classic albums "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!" and "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" He is also a featured soloist on the group's 2004 album, "The System Has Failed". Back in 2004, Poland and/or his management and attorney filed a lawsuit against Mustaine regarding the use of the three "Rust In Peace" demos on the album's reissue without Chris's permission. According to MEGADETH's webmaster, Mustaine included the demos because he thought Chris would be "thankful for the promotion, the tipping of the hat, and showing the fans how Marty [Friedman, MEGADETH's guitarist during some of the post-Poland years] had actually been influenced by some of Chris's solo selections for those songs." Chris also allegedly tried to sue Dave for defamation of character because Dave called him a "thief," but Chris's attorney "dropped that after he found out that Chris had actually taken the band's gear and sold it for drugs," according to MEGADETH's webmaster. "Remember, there is a confession in the VH1 'Behind the Music' on MEGADETH," the webmaster said. Chris eventually settled for $9,500 and thereby ended a professional relationship with Dave and MEGADETH. In a September 2020 interview with Darren Paltrowitz (host of the "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" podcast), Mustaine singled out Poland, saying: "Chris Poland, as much as I don't really like the guy, he was a great guitar player, and I wanted to give him a shot when we did the 2004 reissues for 'Peace Sells' and 'Rust In Peace', and I wanted to put that song out on the 'Rust In Peace' reissue. He got involved in a nuisance lawsuit, I think it was, and we just ended our friendship. And I thought, 'God, that was such a waste.' "There was a little teeny mountain that was right out by where we live, and I said I could have just as soon bought that piece of dirt there than sell Chris's friendship, and I'm so bummed that this happened," Mustaine added. "'Cause I thought it would have been terrific to have him on the record. [When] people say, 'Hey, this sounds like Marty Friedman.' No, Marty Friedman sounded like this, because Chris played it first." Poland previously discussed the legal issues surrounding the 2004 reissue of "Rust In Peace" in a 2018 interview with the As The Story Grows podcast. He said: "When I did 'The System Has Failed', [Dave] was working on adding the demos to a re-release of 'Rust In Peace'. And I wasn't going to get paid, but I didn't realize that until it came out. I was like, 'Wait a minute — I'm not getting paid for this.' And I tried to call Dave at least a dozen times, and I never heard back from him. Then I called Dave's manager a dozen times, and he wouldn't get back to me. The last time I called him, I said, 'Hey, man. If you don't call me back, I'm going to call [my lawyer], and we're going to have to get into it.' [The manager] calls me back and totally insults me, saying, 'You played a couple solos. So what?' And I'm like, 'What do you mean, 'So what?'' 'Well, Dave thought that you would do it for the fans.' I said, 'Okay. Is everybody else that played on that demo doing it for the fans? Are they getting paid?' He said, 'Chris, that's not the point.' I said, 'Listen, man, we have to do something here. I'm not just going to walk away. I love the fans, but I'm just not going to do it. If everybody else is getting a performance royalty for this, I want one.' I want everybody to know that it wasn't a nuisance suit, it wasn't anything like that. I made every attempt to work it out, and they just ignored me." For the past couple of decades, Poland's main musical focus has been the fusion band OHM:, which has released several full-length studio albums to date.

Hear Spanish doom collective PYLAR drop a droning 16-minute masterpiece from full-length Abymos
The post Track Premiere: PYLAR – ‘La Caída’ appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

The 6-string foil for Grace VanderWaal and Mayer Hawthorne was mesmerized by the guitar god’s dexterous orchestration and explains why the song is great for teaching solo-guitar compositions.

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station, Mike Mangini was asked if he was friends with the members of DREAM THEATER before joining the band in late 2010 through a widely publicized audition following the departure of Mike Portnoy. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I was not friends but was an acquaintance. Let me backtrack. I recorded with [DREAM THEATER singer] James LaBrie [years before I joined the band]. ‘Cause what happened was EXTREME and DREAM THEATER did a show together in ’95 in Europe and we became friends. James actually approached me in ’95, saying, ‘Man, I’d like to work with you in the future.’ And I’m, like, ‘Yeah.’ And so he got a solo album deal and, sure enough, he called me and I ended up recording with him. So I got to know him a little it. We weren’t hanging out and all that stuff. So when you say ‘friends,’ it’s different. And no, I really didn’t know anybody.

“One gets a gig because I showed up and I didn’t… The fact is I didn’t make any mistakes; I played everything correctly,” he added. “Not even a single one — nothing. Nothing was off. And that kind of got me the job. I was prepared.”

Mangini beat out six other of the world’s top drummers — Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer and Derek Roddy — for the gig, a three-day process that was filmed for a documentary-style reality show called “The Spirit Carries On”.

“It was interesting early on what commentary came across my view by people bringing it to me,” Mike told WRIF. “It’s not like I go look for this stuff. But it’s, like, ‘Oh, someone says you got the gig ’cause you lived close by.’ Well, living close by has nothing to do with picking up a pair of sticks and playing music. ‘Oh, well you were friends with them more than the other guys.’ No, I actually wasn’t. And in fact, I recorded for James LaBrie but in fact, James LaBrie brought his current drummer up to the audition, not me. So that’s not gonna work either. ‘Well…’ It’s always after the word ‘well.’ ‘Well, you got the gig ’cause this…’ My response to anyone would be, well, it’s not ‘well.’ It’s not well at all to say those things; those are all false. I got it because I showed up and made zero mistakes — none; nothing. I don’t even know how I did it. So I’m not pumping my own balloon up here; I don’t even know how I did it.”

He continued: “This had nothing to do with the documentary. I mean, the documentary showed very little. But you didn’t see me make a single mistake anywhere, did you? Because I didn’t. And I didn’t make one in three hours, and that is an absolute bottom-line fact. And so maybe that was it. I don’t know. I don’t know who did what or whatever. I know a lot of my heart was into it, and that has a lot to do with tone and playing and all that too. It just worked. And everyone else that auditioned was amazing. And they’re all my buddies.

“I could sit here all day and tell people all the wonderful things that every one of those drummers does that I don’t do like they do… Each person is very powerful and unique that was there. It’s just for me, all I can tell you is I knew what they were gonna play before they played it with pattern recognition.”

Mangini made his name in the hard rock world in the mid-1990s when he played with EXTREME, before landing the gig with guitar legend Steve Vai in 1996. Nearly a decade later, Mangini took up a full-time teaching position at the world-renowned Berklee College Of Music.

DREAM THEATER’s latest album, “A View From The Top Of The World”, came out in October.

This week Demo:listen watches you rot with Portland grinding death gore-tet Dripping Decay.
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