PHILIP ANSELMO's 'Walk Through Exits Only' Cracks U.S. Top 40

"Walk Through Exits Only", the career-first solo album from Philip Anselmo, legendary frontman of PANTERA and DOWN, sold around 8,700 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 35 on The Billboard 200 chart.

Produced by Anselmo and Michael Thompson, and recorded over the past couple of years at Philip's New Orleans studio, Nodferatu's Lair, with his band THE ILLEGALS — guitarist Marzi Montazeri (ex-SUPERJOINT RITUAL) and drummer José Manuel Gonzales (WARBEAST) — "Walk Through Exits Only" is abrasive, aggressive, anthemic and 100% Anselmo. The album's eight songs are as unstrained as it gets, from "Battalion Of Zero" to "Usurper's Bastard Rant", to the album's title track that goes against the grain and right through the exits. Brash, brutal guitars cut through punishing percussion as Anselmo screams with uncompromising ferocity and uncontainable fire.

"Walk Through Exits Only" track listing:

01. Music Media Is My Whore
02. Battalion Of Zero
03. Betrayed
04. Usurper Bastard's Rant
05. Walk Through Exits Only
06. Bedroom Destroyer
07. Bedridden
08. Irrelevant Walls And Computer Screens

The official video for the song "Bedridden" can now be seen below.

Even though "Walk Through Exits Only" has just been released, Anselmo tells Billboard.com that he is planning on making more new music available before the end of the year.

"I know for a fact I do have two songs that I'll release strictly for the upcoming Housecore Horror (film) festival at the end of October in Austin, Texas," Anselmo says. "Those two songs, I think, musically flow together pretty fuckin' well. They're very sarcastic, very tongue-in-cheek. It's all part of the ol' Philip Anselmo fucked-up world — and I don't mean drunk or wasted. I mean just fuckin' crazy. It's crazy around here!"

According to Anselmo, he worked on an estimated 15-17 songs for "Walk Through Exits Only", which was issued via his own Housecore Records (MRI/Megaforce)

"I could've put on any number (of songs) I wanted, but for me, these eight songs all together, 40-something minutes, that's my idea of a proper listening length," he tells Billboard.com. "When you start to get longer it gets a little redundant and boring, and I didn't want to bore anybody."

The world's proper introduction to PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS came on the "War Of The Gargantuas" split with WARBEAST at the top of 2013. The two songs included on the split — "Conflict" and "Family, Friends, and Associates" — were only a separate and small taste of what was come to come on the full-length though.

"It wasn't about doing a paint-by-numbers thrash or heavy metal record," Anselmo explained about the project. "It's an angry album that only I could do. I don't see anybody else out there screaming about the same shit I'm screaming about. On this album, there isn't any wordplay, there isn't any hidden message, it's all right there in front of you."

"Bedridden" video: