John Berry, Ex Jacobs Dream, Presents His New Band | Iron Angel Prepares To Hit The Road
Surely fans of traditional Heavy Metal will remember Jacobs Dream, that good American band that between early 2000 and 2016 released several albums of great quality, among which we highlight that first album simply called Jacobs Dream and their second work, “Theater Of War”.
Well, after many years and although the band still exists, John Berry, who was the original guitarist of the band, has decided to step aside and return to face a new project. This is how he explains it to us, “I left Jacobs Dream about 3 years ago. I didnt really plan on leaving but after the last show we played it seemed like something had changed. They didnt seem to have the passion for playing live anymore. We were playing fewer and fewer shows every year and that really bothered me. So as I was driving home that night after the last show I pondered what I could do to get the band back on track. The only practical solution I cam to was to leave. It just wasnt the band it used to be anymore.”; however, with respect to Jacobs Dream, John explains that “Im still in contact with a few of the guys and they have given free reign to their new guitarist to write some new songs. Ive heard some of the demos. It’s very different from anything Jacobs Dream has done before. Im sure many fans will be pleased that David Taylor has returned to the vocals and is writing the lyrics. So although they arent playing shows they are active in the sense of writing new material.But theres no telling when they might release it.”
Concerning the new project Iron Angel, John tells us about the beginning of this new band,”When I left the band I was working on a project with all 3 singers who have recorded with the band. David Taylor, Chaz Bond and Kevin Wright. We were rerecording some classic Jacobs Dream songs in acoustic styles and just rerecording some of them to make them sound the way we wished we had back then. It had some new songs featuring all 3 singers as well. But when I left I guess they scrapped that whole idea for some reason.”; continuing with the narration, the now ex-guitarist of Jacobs Dream tells that “About a year after I left Jacobs Dream, Chaz Bond asked me if I wanted to jam try writing some songs with him and some friends of his who were Jacobs Dream fans. Chaz and I had been trying to collaborate on some projects for years but none produced any fruit. So I agreed to get together with Chaz and his friends and we played a few Jacobs Dream songs and talked and all seemed well but after 2 or 3 jams Chaz and his friends seemed to lose interest. I would have just let it go at that but about the same time some old friends of mind came around and wanted to jam some old jd songs with me. So we got together and there was some strong creative chemistry that I havent seen in a long time.”
Apparently, that was the beginning of this new metal adventure of John Berry called Iron Angel, a name that apparently was already in his mind for a long, long time and he explains it this way, “We chose the name Iron Angel because that was the original name of Jacobs Dream before we changed the name when we got signed to Metal Blade records.
I always loved the name Iron Angel but when we found out there was another German band with the same name we figured we might have a problem. So I did some research and the German Iron Angel is no longer active and the official name of my new band is Iron Angel.us. That should resolve any possible issues.”
Iron Angel, is formed by John Berry himself on guitar, Desi Steinbrook on guitar, Terry Ferguson on vocals, Ezekial Taylor on bass and Majarak Ruggels on drums. A classic line-up, doing traditional Heavy Metal as all of us old Metal fans like it. In that sense, in case there were any doubts, John tells us where Iron Angel’s style comes from, “Desi,Terry and I are children of the 80s and love the great Metal bands of that era. We play some covers like UFO and Krokus and some of the best of Jacobs Dream songs and a few new original songs. We are working on a demo that we hope to have released this year.”
If it’s about ’80s Heavy Metal, welcome, and of course, for any news about Iron Angel or just to follow them on the social network Facebook, their coordinates are https://www.facebook.com/share/16GiWMJK7f/
