JAG PANZER
JAG PANZER “A Hallowed Tradition”
By Theron Moore
I’ve been a JAG PANZER fan since the mid 80’s when I discovered their records at a great independent record store in the area I grew up in. Speaking to guitarist Mark Briody has become a special milestone attained in my rock writing career. This September I’ll be heading to Blades Of Steel Fest in Madison, Wisconsin to catch JAG PANZER live, a true bucket list moment I can finally check off.
JAG PANZER have been around since ’81 and show no signs of slowing down. They’ve consistently put out solid heavy metal without giving into trends or fads. Their mix of power metal and NWOBHM sound has placed them at the top of the traditional metal genre today. Their new record, “The Hallowed,” is right up there with the best music they’ve made in their 42 year career.
WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: So far, the reaction to the new record has been great.
MARK BRIODY: Yeah, it’s been pretty good. You’re never 100% positive but this is better than usual, it’s been a very good response to it, I’m really pleased.
WC: Let’s go back to the very beginning. What was it that got you interested in heavy metal and hard rock? Was it a concert or something you saw on TV?
MB: Actually, my first concerts weren’t metal but they really got me interested in live music. I was about 10 and my older sister was dating someone who worked in concert promotions so she took me to see Harry Chapin and a few weeks later she took me to see PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC. I couldn’t believe, I mean, both shows were very different but they both had the audience in their hand, it was amazing.
And Harry Chapin, it was just him and an acoustic guitar and he’s got everyone on their feet. And Parliament was just this wild, crazy show and you know, I just thought it was the coolest thing I ever saw. And then my sister’s next boyfriend said, “Hey Mark, have you ever heard of this band DEEP PURPLE?” I said “No” and he said, “let me show this album “Machine Head”.” And it was the coolest thing ever, I thought this is the kind of music I love, right here. So I saved my allowance and bought “Machine Head” and then the first RAINBOW album with Dio on it and that became my favorite for years. Then I expanded into bands like UFO and I had to have more and that led to the NWOBHM and it was all about getting my hands on as much metal as I could.
WC: What was your first metal concert you went to by yourself?
MB: Oh man, let me think for a minute…probably UFO. I would’ve been 15 or 16, it was a big festival at the football stadium and TED NUGENT and HEART were the headliners and I really wanted to see UFO, I just thought they were amazing. I’d consider UFO my first metal show, then BLACK SABBATH on the “Heaven and Hell” tour, DEF LEPPARD, that was a good show.
WC: Is that what made you want to pick up a guitar and play or was it something else?
MB: Well, three of us in the band have known each other since we were six years old: bass player, singer, and I. Harry, our singer, called me up once, I was probably 14, and he said, “I bought an electric guitar…” and I couldn’t believe it. So I ran up to his house and he was playing some power chords and it just sounded so cool, then he starting playing some KISS songs and I about lost my mind. It was just fantastic, so I had to get one too. I scraped together 15 bucks; my dad took me to the pawn shop. I found one for $25, my dad talked him down to 15, so I just played that nonstop.
Harry and I started talking about starting a band, we knew a guy from the neighborhood who could drum, he appeared on our first records. We needed a bass player so we went to our buddy John’s house, who was a great trombonist since he was a little kid, and we told him that we were going to form a band and if he wanted to be our bass player and he said yeah, so it was off to the music store to get a bass, and he got one that day, with a book, on how to play it. So we started off like that.
WC: How did the initial record deal happen? Did you have a demo, a manager, how did that happen?
MB: It’s funny, we’ve never had a manager. We have people, we have an agent, we have business managers, never a manager. As a band we were so into writing original songs, it was a lot of fun, and we saw them getting better and better. For example, we did a song called “Tower Of Darkness” and thought that was pretty cool. At the time I bought a metal fanzine called “Heavy Metal Times” and at the time I’d buy any publication if it had to do with metal, and I’m reading it and I notice one of the writers was in our town.
I get out the phone book, find his name, and call him! I told him we were a metal band here in town and could we play him our tape? So we went to his house and played him our tape and he was blown away by it. So he was on his way to LA to cover some metal shows and took our tape and dropped it off at some labels while he was out there and believe it or not, we started getting offers which was shocking and very cool.
WC: Aside from the new album, what’s your favorite JAG PANZER record and why?
MB: Probably “Thane To The Throne.” That’s also a concept record and that led us to doing other records like it. I approached the songwriting very differently, I took the approach of, “How would somebody score a film to this scene?” Once I had that in my head it became, “How do I translate this into heavy metal?” So, all in all, it was a lot of fun and everybody worked really hard on it. “Thane To The Throne” was the inspiration to wanting to do another concept record.
WC: Have concept records always fascinated you?
MB: I think so, going all the way back to RUSH’s “2112.” It was something I wanted to do going all the way back to being a kid but I didn’t want to do one until I became a better musician and we could really do a real concept record justice. The spectacle of it, the marketing, the attention to every little detail, that got me. I used to listen to Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” all the time and every single detail of the music and the song dynamics, and the artwork, it was just incredible. And as I was growing up albums like PINK FLOYDs “The Wall” came out which I thought was just an amazing record, it just floored me. and “Tommy” by THE WHO, so yeah, I had already totally bought into the idea of doing a concept album. I just wanted to wait till it was the right time to do one.
WC: Which leads us into the question of your new record, how did the background, characters, and story for “The Hallowed” come about?
MB: We decided from the very beginning we were going to make a concept record but we didn’t start with the story, we wanted to give everyone a few weeks to bring ideas to the table. It was myself and our drummer that decided to want to do something post-apocalyptic but make it a classic adventure story that involved a journey, something like “Jason And The Argonauts” and other classic films I grew up with, I loved that idea, I was totally in on that.
We presented a rough outline to our singer and he just took the ball and ran with it. He fleshed everything out and had “here’s this scene” and “here’s this scene” and matched the songs to the story and just did a wonderful job doing it. We have a band chat room and that’s where a lot of people were very excited about the idea or the concept behind the record and wanted to know more about what was going on in each particular scene and that’s when it hit us that we were on to something and that’s how the comic came about, which was crazy expensive to do, but it put the whole story right out there to see. I figured we could do the comic and break even, financially, and we’re really close to doing that.
WC: What’s everyone’s background with sci-fi and fantasy? I think you once told me that as a kid you played Dungeons & Dragons for a short time.
MB: Yeah, I loved Dungeons & Dragons, played it every day for like three years. Harry, our singer, he’s a book reader. I’m more of a movie guy, and I’ve been big into science fiction going all the back to “Forbidden Planet,” loved “Dawn Of The Dead,” all the Dario Argento films. Yeah, I’m really a horror – sci-fi movie fanatic. The other guys in the band lean more into literature but it’s our collective background which really plays into the band’s creative side.
WC: The record itself would make a great RPG or even a good, solid low budget movie.
MB: I’m open to both, very much, I just don’t have the skillset to do either. If it were to come to fruition I’d be more than happy to chip in to get either one made. I’m open to ideas on either one, putting that out there.
WC: Any plans to tour this record?
MB: We’ve got the European festival dates this summer with Wacken, Alcatraz, Headbanger’s Open Air. We have the single U.S. date in September in Wisconsin, we have a tour planned in January of 2024, I’m not sure if it’s South America or Japan, in terms of U.S. dates, maybe spring of next year?
