INTRUDER
JOHN PIERONI
Intruder is an American thrash metalband from Nashville, Tennessee. They released three full length-albums and one EP between 1987-1991. Their debut album Live to Die was released in 1987 on the Metal Works label. The band then signed up to Metal Blade Records and A higher form of Killing was released in 1989. The following year an EP called Escape from Pain was released. In 1991 Intruder released their last album called Psycho Savant but they disbanded the following year. Since then, the band has reunited several times to play live shows. I have spoken with drummer John Pieroni.
I was jamming with a couple of guys, David Louden on guitar and vocals and Dave Hackely on bass. Playing covers and trying to write some originals. David decided he just wanted to sing and brought in Arthur Vinett, and that's when the nucleus of what was to be INTRUDER was born. Lots of personnel changes, even through the Transgresser years. But when the band became me, Arthur, Jimmy and Todd, that was the lineup that would record and slam through the Metal Blade years.
You originally called the band Transgresser, why did you change it to intruder?
The band was originally called AVATAR when we formed the nucleus of what was to be INTRUDER. That lasted for only a few months as we all agreed that the name was way too generic. I came up with the name Transgresser and we all thought, yeah that sounds metal and aggressive and your parents will hate it..ha! We played under that moniker for a few years, even up to recording LIVE TO DIE. The problem was we were always getting perceived as a Black Metal band and being asked if we were Satanists, blah, blah, blah. This was the era of VENOM and other 'Satanic' bands. As we had absolutely nothing in common with that type of music, we decided to change the name before the first LP came out.
That was an interesting album as we were still transitioning from playing straight ahead metal to a much more aggressive Speed Metal style. I think it holds up really well. The production from Tom Harding was spot on. We had been playing for almost four years so we were pretty solid when it came time to record. It certainly was the most fun to record as it was our first time, and everyone remembers there first time, right?
The actually contacted us. Live To Die was doing really well for being on such a small label (Iron Works) and was selling a ton of records in Japan. They signed us on the strength of that record alone - they had never even seen up play! And I think they liked the novelty of a Heavy Metal band from the capital of Country Music.
After signing to Metal Blade, we were all on cloud 9. I mean, being from Nashville, Tennessee we had everything going against us and we beat all the odds. We went in to the studio with the intention of ripping of the heads of every listener. It's interesting to hear how different it was from LIVE TO DIE. Our style changed dramatically after we all listened to Slayer's REIGN IN BLOOD. That record's influence is all over A Higher Form Of Killing. In retrospect, I honestly have a hard time listening to it as we really rushed the recording and Greg had recently joined the band and had never recorded in this level of studio recording. I think the songs are great and some of my best lyrics are on there; it just could have been played better. But all bands pick apart their recordings and for some fans, A Higher Form Of Killing is their favorite, so who am I to disagree :)
Things started of great with Metal Blade but as years went by we felt that we were not being supported as well as other bands on the roster such as Armored Saint and Fates Warning. There was some bad blood between us for some time but that is nothing new between bands and their labels. They had the last word as we were dropped in the middle of the Psycho Savant tour. Yes, DURING the tour! Our management said they had never seen or heard of that ever. But that's all water under the bridge now.
Amazing! We had used Tom Harding for our previous three releases but we felt that we needed a change only because we were not at a place we felt we should be at. We knew we wanted Bill because of his killer work with other bands at the time such as Slayer and Sacred Reich and we thought it would help us reach the next level. He had a lot of great ideas and really got where we were coming from. There's a reason he was sought ought so much and still is today!
That had a lot to do with it. We also were completely burned out as a band. Intense internal friction and shitty management that really turned everyone against each other didn't help, either. As Grunge came in and wiped out all the metal bands, I guess the timing worked out OK.
As a matter of fact, we are working on that right now. I know it's been a trend lately for bands to re-record their music for a 'Best Of'. We thought it would be a great way to go back and relive the songs once again with today's production values. The tracks are sounding amazing and everyone is playing at the best they ever have. The release will also have a new tune as well. We are looking to have it out late Summer.
Hey! 'Proper' is not metal!! I kid, I kid... It has always been hard to get everyone together for gigs and whatnot. Greg has his band, Arthur has played and toured as a session guy in other bands and with the obligatory wives and kids, it just gets harder and harder every year to get together. We are actually going to play some reunion shows in the fall and then we are thinking of 'retiring' from playing live. We still talk of doing a brand new studio release. We shall see.
Involved 100 percent. I dug up all the alternate photos and did the song-by-song liner notes. Jürgen and I wanted to really give the fans of Live to Die something special.
Why did they change the artwork?
Intruder Live 1989That was my idea. As it was going to be title 'Live To Die...Relived' we though having a new cover as a cool idea. Of course, we wanted to keep the same theme. A good friend of mine, Keith Tucker, painted it. He loved getting the decomposed flesh on the corpse as accurate as possible ;)
LOL..you got that right. Very difficult. We had the usual ridiculous question asked all the time. We had to tell them, yeah, we just got running water in the house and all the woman look like Daisy Duke. But in all seriousness, it really opened up people eyes to how killer the metal scene was here in Nashville. And after all, we changed the name to Thrashville, so there you go.
I am a Network Manager for SESAC, a music performing rights organization. Been there for 21 years.
Intruder 1988 - Rex Arthur Vinett, Jimmy Hamilton, John Pieroni, Greg Messick & Todd Nelson.
It would have to be the first tour we did with Helstar supporting our first release, 'A Higher From Of Killing.' That rush from being signed to a major metal label and doing our first North American tour was never duplicated.
Oh the stories we could tell from the first tour. Helstar had already been on major tours and at the beginning of the tour they were pretty reserved, but we were like kids in a candy store and all the candy was free. I remember on one particular crazy night at a hotel, Helstar's road manager walked in as were trashing the place (it was my birthday, after all) and yelled, 'What are you, The Who?', and Arthur immediately yelled back, 'No, we're The What!'. Even Helstar thought we were crazy. James and the guys were awesome.
Just thanks to all who enjoy Intruder music and the fact that people are interested after 30 years in what we have to say is amazing! Metal fans are the best fans in the world - metal on!!
Thanks
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