“Before we did the [2015 self-titled] album, years before, this thing started back in 2011 as a live thing first,” he says. “It started small – the very first one took place around the Big Four show in California, the spring of 2011. It was just the four of us: myself, Charlie Benante and Frank Bello from Anthrax, and David Ellefson from Megadeth, and it started as a clinic.”
From those modest beginnings, the project quickly expanded into the monster conglomeration it is today. “We did it about six months later when the Big Four played in New York,” Portnoy says, “and that time we were joined by Kerry King from Slayer, Phil Anselmo from Pantera and Scott Ian from Anthrax, so it grew from four people to seven people. Then we did it a few more times over the years, and it grew into ten people, then 12 people, and it just kept growing and growing and growing.”
That journey has brought Metal Allegiance to late 2015, having morphed from a fun clinic and live-oriented project paying tribute to some of the members’ favourite classic bands, to a full-blown original group that has just released its debut record.
“It was always just a thing where we would play covers – bands like Sabbath and Motörhead and AC/DC, and Maiden and Priest,” says Portnoy. “That’s how it started. Finally, last year, we were doing it on the Motörboat [Motörhead’s heavy metal cruise ship], and we had this idea – ‘Hey, what if we got together and did an album of original material?’ So now we have it broken down to a core band – myself, David Ellefson and Alex Skolnick [Testament], along with Mark Menghi, who is the business guy behind it all. So that’s how the album came about, where we had about two dozen special guests, and there you go.”
And in even more exciting news for Aussie classic metal fans, Metal Allegiance have been booked to play the Soundwave tour early next year, which will be – surprisingly, given the bands he’s played in over the years – Portnoy’s first-ever appearance on the festival lineup.
“Man, I am so stoked,” he says. “I have been wanting to play Soundwave my whole career. Every year it comes and goes, and I’m in six different bands at the moment. I kept waiting for at least one of my bands to get invited, and it’s finally happened for Metal Allegiance. So I’m really, really glad to be making it back out there again, and finally to play Soundwave for the first time.”
Since Portnoy left perhaps the biggest progressive metal band of all time, Dream Theater, back in 2010, he has experienced massive demand for his services, and he is now in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose from some of the world’s best players to collaborate with.
“I have to respect the people I’m working with, first and foremost,” he says. “At this stage in my life, after 25 years in Dream Theater, I’m fortunate to be in a situation where I don’t really have to do anything. I can choose the things that I want to do, and people I want to work with.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
