In a new interview with eonmusic, Alex Skolnick talked about being in the ‘core four’ of Metal Allegiance, along with Mike Portnoy, David Ellefson and Mark Menghi.
When asked if he was directly involved in the choosing of the members that get to play, the guitarist responded, “Yeah, absolutely it has. As far as the live shows, I would definitely defer to Mark. Mark is the main guy, but he will ask us; ‘what about this person?'”
“The final say, we all agree on it,” he continued. “It’s something I fell into. It was really Mark’s baby, so to speak. Mike Portnoy was the first partner with him on it, and then Ellefson, I guess, around the same time, and then they needed a guitar, and it wouldn’t have made sense to have like a John Petrucci or a Chris Broderick or somebody who’s in a band with any of those guys because then you’ve got a portion of that band, so it had to be somebody from a different band, so I kind of lucked into it.”
Metal Allegiance is currently working on new music. “Yes. We’ve been talking about it for some time,” said Skolnick in another interview with RadioBypass. “It’s always easier said than done, given everybody’s schedules, but we’re continuing to talk about it and I’m pretty sure that [2025] is the year we will get started on it.”
“So I don’t know what it’s gonna look like, I don’t know how it’s going to compare to the past albums. Maybe we’ll get our feet wet with an EP or a single — who knows? — but either way, we’re gonna get started and see how it goes, probably later this [coming] year,” the rocker added.
Metal Allegiance has released two albums so far: their 2015 self-titled debut and ‘Volume II: Power Drunk Majesty.’
