DOWN Guitarist On Upcoming Album: These Are 'Angry, Frustrated Songs'

DOWN guitarist Pepper Keenan recently spoke to Chris Harris of MTV.com about the making of the New Orleans group's third full-length album, tentatively titled "Down III". Producer Warren Riker (CROWBAR, SUBLIME) has already signed on to helm the effort, for which the band has composed 18 tracks so far.

"[Frontman] Phil's [Anselmo, ex-PANTERA] really good at [lyrics]," Keenan said. "Several songs address [Hurricane] Katrina's aftermath and how life changes on you, man. We've got a lot of ammunition for this one, I'll put it that way — a lot of things have not necessarily gone right for everybody these last couple of years. Everybody's just trying to stay positive. We're not writing Christian songs. These are still angry, frustrated songs."

One new track addresses the death of Anselmo's former PANTERA cohort, "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, who was gunned down in 2004 while performing with DAMAGEPLAN in Columbus, Ohio. The guitarist was shot five times at point-blank range and died onstage.

"[Phil]'s got a lot of demons he needs to get off his chest," said Keenan. "This is gonna be a hard record for us to make because there's just a lot of emotional things going on. I think we'll all be better after we get this thing done. But Phil's got one beautiful song about Dime that really surprised me. When I heard it, I was pretty watery-eyed. Those [PANTERA days] were beautiful days for him. The whole song is pretty intense, and it's actually a heavy song. That's the wild thing about it — it's not a ballad or anything."

DOWN plans to begin recording the album February 15. They'll take about a month off, first to tour Canada with HEAVEN AND HELL, then to play four headlining gigs between March 30 (Worcester, Massachusetts) and April 2 (Washington, D.C.).

After the tour wraps, DOWN will return to the studio to track the remainder of "Down III", which the guitarist said could be out by summer's end. "Once we get in the studio, we shouldn't be more than six, seven weeks," he said. "We've already spent all the time [writing it] — we're just getting ready to bang the sh-- out."

Read the entire interview at MTV.com.