Metal Allegiance is an American heavy metal supergroup, formed in Long Island, New York, in 2014 by bassist and songwriter Mark Menghi. Shortly after, he recruited bassist David Ellefson from Megadeth, guitarist Alex Skolnick from Testament, and drummer Mike Portnoy, formerly of Dream Theater. Though the group does not have an official lead singer, they usually hire guest musicians to contribute vocals and/or guitar parts to their studio recordings and live shows, including Andreas Kisser of Sepultura and Mark Osegueda of Death Angel. To date, Metal Allegiance has released two studio albums and one EP.
Metal Allegiance was formed by bassist/songwriter/producer Mark Menghi in Long Island in July 2014. Mark shortly after recruited, bassist David Ellefson (Megadeth) and drummer Mike Portnoy (The Winery Dogs, Sons of Apollo, Flying Colors and formerly Dream Theater) to perform on Motörhead's Motörboat Cruise for their first ever live appearance as Metal Allegiance, which was described as "a celebration of heavy metal, powered by the almost tribal bond shared between the extreme music community's most revered trailblazers, armed with a list of contributors onstage (and off) that read like a Wikipedia entry on the genre itself." All of the band members were longtime friends and had jammed together occasionally, including events such as the Shiprocked Cruise and NAMM; this eventually led to recording an album. It was on the Motörboat Cruise where they enlisted guitarist Alex Skolnick (Testament) as the final piece to the "Core 4."
The result, the eponymous Metal Allegiance, was released on September 17, 2015, and included a number of guests, including vocals by Phil Anselmo, Randy Blythe, Troy Sanders, Chuck Billy, Mark Osegueda, Cristina Scabbia, Matt Heafy, Doug Pinnick, Jamey Jasta, Chris Jericho, Tim "Ripper" Owens, Alissa White-Gluz and Steve "Zetro" Souza, guitar by Heafy, Gary Holt, Phil Demmel, Andreas Kisser, Misha "Bulb" Mansoor, Ben Weinman, Charlie Benante and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, and bass by Rex Brown. It was between a span of 9 months (December 2014 to September 2015) where Menghi, Ellefson, Skolnick and Portnoy wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered their debut album while having over two dozen special guests appear on it plus signing a global record deal with Nuclear Blast Entertainment under the careful eye of AR legend Monte Conner. Metal Allegiance received positive reviews worldwide, and performed well on the charts, entering number 143 on the Billboard 200, and number 27 on the Top Rock Albums chart. The band promoted the album by touring at various venues within the United States along with performing at many festivals and one-off appearances like Loud Park Festival in Japan and Bloodstock Festival in the United Kingdom amongst others.
Track list:
- Gift of Pain 05:51
- Let Darkness Fall 07:00
- Dying Song 06:35
- Can't Kill the Devil 04:55
- Scars 05:29
- Destination: Nowhere 05:57
- Wait Until Tomorrow 06:15
- Triangulum (I. Creation/II. Evolution/III. Destruction) 07:44
- Pledge of Allegiance 06:17
Total time: 56:03
