Wade Black is the quintessential metal journeyman. If you have spent any time in the trenches of US power metal or the more aggressive corners of the genre, you have heard his pipes. He has fronted the likes of Lucian Blaque, Crimson Glory, Seven Witches and Leatherwolf. He is the guy you call when you need a vocalist who can shatter glass and maintain a melodic centre.
His latest venture, *Chalice of Sin*, hit the shelves June 18 via Frontiers Music. It is an 11-song collection that leans heavily into the classic, melodic metal aesthetic. But it does so with the kind of grit you only get from a guy who has spent decades on the road. Listening to the title track through a decent pair of monitors, you can hear the mileage in the best way possible. It is polished, sure, but Black brings a certain North American aggression to the glossy Italian production.
I sat down to talk with Black about the new record and his place in the current metal ecosystem. We started with the genesis of this specific project. It turns out, it was a fairly organic transition from demo tapes to a full-blown label deal.
"Well, I had some music that I was working on and I had sent it to Serafino from Frontiers Records," Black says. "He loved it so I sent him a couple more songs and he loved those. He turned me on to the meeting with Alessandro and you know, off we go."
The Alessandro in question is Alessandro Del Vecchio, the house producer and songwriter for Frontiers who seems to have his hands on every major melodic rock release coming out of Europe. For some, the "Frontiers sound" can feel a bit like a factory line. But for a veteran like Black, it provides a stable, high-quality platform that many indie labels simply cannot match.
"It’s huge! The amount of work that they put out is absolutely amazing," Black says of the label's productivity. "Working with Alessandro and everybody that I work with at Frontiers, it’s just been incredible. I mean, these people are the juggernauts, you know? I think that’s what it takes in order to make it in the business right now, you’ve got to keep putting out product, and you’ve got to keep up with the times."
And he is right. In an era where the attention span of the average listener is shorter than a grindcore song, consistency is the only currency that matters. You cannot just disappear for five years and expect a throne to be waiting for you. You have to stay in the conversation.
Assembling a band for a studio project is a different beast than building a local garage outfit. When you are dealing with a label based in Italy and a vocalist in Florida, the logistics require a certain level of trust in the producer’s Rolodex.
"Alessandro and I had talked back and forth and he had a couple people that he was interested in getting for the project and I was up for the challenge to listen to them and find out what they played and how they were as musicians and the outcome was incredible of the entire thing," Black says.
The result is a tight, cohesive unit that sounds like they have been in the same room, even if the reality of modern recording involves more Dropbox links than tour buses. But the studio is only half the battle. For a record like *Chalice of Sin* to truly breathe, it needs to hit the stage.
"We are actually talking with a management company right now that wants to pick us up, and wants to start working with Frontiers that looks very promising," Black says regarding the potential for live dates. "With everything going on, we want to get out there and we want to play, we want to tour, we want to do what we do. All the cards are on the table right now and everything’s looking really good for the future."
The songwriting on the record has a distinct flavour. It is heavy, but there is a symphonic undercurrent that feels very much like the current European trend. It is a departure from the more straightforward US metal style Black has explored in the past.
"I had some songs that I demoed first to Serafino and then Alessandro and I started trading back and forth songs and it was just absolutely amazing," Black says. "How quickly this material was written, it almost wrote itself, but working with talent like this it’s kind of hard to get steered wrong. It’s just absolutely amazing, the Frontiers trip and everything. I think every 10 years I do something that’s really good. It’s funny how it’s working out."
That "10-year rule" is an interesting bit of self-reflection. It suggests a musician who is aware of his own peaks and valleys. If *Chalice of Sin* is the 2021 peak, it is a high one. The title track in particular has a grandiosity that screams Del Vecchio’s involvement.
"Absolutely, he’s such a huge influence on the whole thing on the music writing, as the producer, as everything else," Black says. "He’s just absolutely amazing to work with and he just gets the job done, there’s really nothing else to say, he’s just in the game."
I’m reading my name with Robin McAuley and Michael Sweet from Stryper and this and that. This is something very special that happens a couple of times in a lifetime, so I’m so proud and humbled to be in this spot right now.
If there is a critique to be made, it is that the symphonic elements occasionally threaten to swallow the raw power of the guitars. But Black’s voice is the anchor. He has a way of cutting through the MIDI strings and layers of keyboards with a vocal tone that is purely analog.
The recording process itself was a product of the times. We are long past the days of bands living in a castle for six months to record an album. Black stayed in the Sunshine State while the music took shape across the Atlantic.
"We actually did it here at my home in Florida and it’s just interesting how it ends up working out," Black says. "Like I said, we started trading back songs and everything just gelled together so good. We just ended up coming up with something that was really good and we felt comfortable with and when everybody heard it, we were just like, wow, we’ve really got something special here."
This project exists alongside his other band, War of Thrones. To the untrained ear, it is all "metal," but the nuances in how a singer approaches different sub-genres are significant.
"The European influence that’s within the music gives a different kind of feeling to it of how you actually approach it vocal wise," Black says. "I would say my other band, War of Thrones, is a little bit heavier so I approach it a little bit different. With this album maybe a little bit of clean vocals, maybe a little bit of a gruffy kind of vocals, mix it up a little bit and make it interesting for the listener."
Black’s vocal journey did not start in a club or a rehearsal space. It started much earlier, rooted in the discipline of formal training.
"I’ve been singing ever since I was about four or five years old," Black says. "When I was in fourth grade, I end up taking singing lessons and actually joining a choir so it’s been a lifelong journey."
That choir background is the secret weapon of many great metal singers. It teaches you how to breathe, how to project and how to preserve your instrument. You do not survive decades of screaming without a foundation in technique. His influences, however, are the gods of the arena.
"Rob Halford, all of the typical people that you’re going to hear. I love Lou Gramm, Ian Gillan, and stuff of that nature," Black says. "I guess in the end what you end up creating, you’re giving accolades to the people that have already done it before, and so you get these different influences within it. It’s just interesting how it ends up all coming together."
The Halford comparison is the one that sticks. Like the Metal God, Black has a range that defies the natural aging process of the vocal cords.
"I’m probably right around four," Black says when asked about his octave range. "The higher range is kind of weird once it gets up so high, you know your natural range only goes so high so really it’s all you can do."
He is being modest. A four-octave range in metal is the difference between a singer and a legend. It is a physical feat, like a sprinter hitting a specific time. He spends his downtime passing that knowledge on to the next generation of bangers.
"Yes, I still do and I still teach anybody that’s interested in learning how to sing," Black says of his vocal coaching. "I think it’s such a beautiful thing to be able to bring that out of yourself in order to do that. I’m more of a smooth vocalist but I’ve been kind of dabbling a little bit into a heavier, maybe gruffer kind of sound for a little bit different dynamics. But, just natural tone and everything that you have is really something special."
This release coincides with the 25th anniversary of Frontiers Records. For a label to survive a quarter-century in the current climate is a minor miracle. For Black, it is a chance to finally move from being a "hired gun" to an owner of his own destiny.
"Absolutely, are you kidding me? This is the best time within my life, within my career!" Black says with genuine heat. "Since I’ve been in the music business, I’ve always been the fill-in guy. With all the other bands that I’ve ever been in, this is the first chance for me as a venture, not so much a solo artist but just being on my own terms, I own it, I wrote it, along with my partner Rich Marks."
There is a sense of pride here that was perhaps missing in his previous stints. When you are the "new guy" in an established band like Crimson Glory, you are always walking in someone else’s shadow. With *Chalice of Sin*, he is the architect.
"It’s just absolutely thrilling at this particular time to be there and congratulations to Frontiers Records for 25 years," Black says. "That’s a long time and look at the entire roster of bands that these guys have on their label. I’m reading my name with Robin McAuley and Michael Sweet from Stryper and this and that. This is something very special that happens a couple of times in a lifetime, so I’m so proud and humbled to be in this spot right now."
The momentum is not slowing down. There are already plans for a follow-up, and his other project, War of Thrones, is also back in the lab.
"We’re actually going to work on the follow up. I don’t know whether it’s going to be this year, maybe the latter part September, October. We might end up starting throwing some ideas around about the next record," Black says. "But like I said, we’re working with a management company that we’re about ready to sign with over in Europe and we are absolutely enthralled and excited to get back to playing, touring and doing what we love to do. This is our life, this is what we do, you know? To take that away from us is like taking candy from a baby."
The War of Thrones sophomore record is also a priority. That band has been a slow burn, a decade-long search for the right chemistry.
"That’s absolutely correct. This record is incredible," Black says. "We have had this band together for 10 or 15 years where we’ve been trying to get the right people within the band, the personnel is always important. It’s kind of like a marriage, you’ve got to know and get everybody’s traits and what they do and their peeves and everything. It’s always hard but like I said before, my writing partner Rich Marks and I are feverishly always trying to create and break out of that mold. I don’t want to try to create a record that’s already been done before, I want to make it exciting, I want to make it new. I want to make it to where when you hear it, you’re like wow, that’s good stuff."
The marketing machine for *Chalice of Sin* is already in high gear. The music videos have a high-contrast, cinematic quality that matches the symphonic weight of the audio.
"Yes sir, it’s out everywhere. I was actually on YouTube today looking at a couple of things and Japan and South America, Frontiers is pulling no stops there, they’re going full bore," Black says.
The visual component for the title track, shot in stark black and white, caught many fans by surprise with its professional sheen.
"It’s so good to work with such professional people that when you finally see the final product, you are just totally shocked. It’s like WOW! You don’t have to go back and forth, you don’t have to say you need to fix this and fix that. The first time run through is just brilliant, it’s absolutely brilliant," Black says.
And that is the Wade Black story in a nutshell. He has spent years fixing other people's problems and filling their shoes. Now, with a powerhouse label and a producer who understands his range, he is finally standing on his own. It might have taken a few decades, but the view from the centre stage looks pretty good.
