Riot Fest 2017 - Saturday
Justin with Dead Cross at Riot Fest 2017 (more by James Richards IV)

Justin Pearson talks new project with Dave Lombardo, Satanic Temple co-founder & more

Former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo recently revealed in a Rolling Stone interview about quarantine life that he’s been working on a new album by a new project with his Dead Cross bandmate Justin Pearson (also of The Locust, Retox, and more) called Satanic Planet. The project also features Justin’s Planet B bandmate Luke Henshaw, and Lucien Greaves, founder of The Satanic Temple, who Justin and Luke had on their Cult & Culture podcast last year.

We were intrigued, so we reached out to Justin to find out more, and among other things, he mentioned that the project also features contributions from Cattle Decapitation frontman Travis Ryan and from Jung Sing (who was in All Leather with Justin and also Silent, Maniqui Lazer, and more). Here’s our chat with him:

Dave seemed to imply it’s a full-length album and that he’s working on it now?

Yeah. We had the bulk of the album done and wanted to see if he’d play on one specific track, and maybe a second. We sent files and then, one track turned into one, then two, then three, and now the entire album, which is awesome. I love the dude and what he is contributing to each track.

Are you all in the process of recording it and sending each other files while quarantined, and if so, any comment on how this is all working out given the circumstances?

Yeah. Lucien came to San Diego, shortly after Luke and I went to Salem to record the Cult and Culture Podcast to start working on this album. We all had no idea what would be the output and to all of our surprise, it’s have drastically exceeded our expectations. Then of course, the pandemic hit us, tours were cancelled, as well as the rest of what we knew as normal life had shifted drastically. Once we hit up Dave to play on the album, I think considering circumstances, we roped him into playing on the whole thing and becoming a member of the project. Jokingly, it’s been a while since Dave has worked with Satan. I think it was 2009, when he recorded the last time with Slayer. Anyhow, Dave has a home studio and Luke and I have been working at Luke’s studio here in San Diego, wile Lucien has been hunkering down in Salem working on things from his part of the continent.

Also, how would you describe the sound of it, to what extent is Lucien involved, and any idea of a timeframe for releasing it?

Well, I wouldn’t describe the sound. As I do with most of the stuff I am part if, I just say it’s “annoying”, which it mostly is, and it’s meant to be. I’m also trying to coin that as an actual genre of music, for all the weird shit that can’t be easily placed in a box for marketing purposes. As for Lucien’s involvement, he does all of the lyric writing and a good amount of the vocals. But back to what it sounds like… it’s basically pretty fucked sounding, in the realm of industrial music, but really disjointed, uneasy, It’s supposed to sound like what one would assume a satanic record would sound like. As for a release date, we still need to finish up the album. We are planning on starting to mix it soon, and then hopefully find a label to release it. With who is involved in the project, and our friends who have contributed to the tracks such as Travis Ryan and Jung Sing, I think it will be well received as bizarre as it is turning out. I really look forward to the world hearing it.

There you have it, annoying! We look forward to hearing it too — stay tuned.

Before Dave Lombardo’s involvement was made public, Satanic Planet released the song “999,” of which Lucien told Revolver, “‘999’ is the ominous rolling thunder on the blackened horizon harkening the coming apocalyptic storm of anti-theocratic revolution and a new Satanic era soundtracked by Satanic Planet.” Listen:

In related news, Retox have released their cover of “Garbageman” from Three One G’s upcoming Cramps tribute album and you can stream that below. Also, the Kickstarter for the Justin Pearson documentary recently exceeded its goal, so hopefully more news on that will come soon too.