Brian May is the latest name attached to William Shatner's forthcoming heavy metal album, joining a guest list that already includes JUDAS PRIEST's Rob Halford, SLAYER and MISFITS drummer Dave Lombardo, and DISTURBED bassist John Moyer.
May will contribute his instantly identifiable guitar sound and, unusually for a guest spot, is also mixing the track he plays on.
There is a neat symmetry to the pairing beyond the music. May was still a student when he was invited to join the team at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, and turned it down rather than leave the band he had just formed with Roger Taylor — the band that became QUEEN. He came back to it eventually, taking a PhD in astrophysics in 2007, working as a science team collaborator on NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, and co-founding the Asteroid Day awareness campaign. Both men have asteroids named after them: 52665 Brianmay and 31556 Shatner.
Behind the desk, the album is being driven by a production team led by Adam Hamilton (L.A. GUNS, BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE) and Cleopatra Records president Brian Perera, with additional production from Derek Hughes of NUCLEAR MESSIAH, Marcus Nand and Jürgen Engler of DIE KRUPPS.
Shatner is 95, and the pitch from his camp is that this is a full-scale artistic statement rather than a novelty. Whether or not you buy the framing, the cast list is not a novelty cast. Halford and Lombardo between them account for a substantial share of what heavy metal sounds like, and the record has been assembled to span several generations of it.
The album title, release date and remaining guest appearances are still unannounced. Shatner plays Riot Fest this month.
This is the fourth update on the project we have covered this year: the album was first announced in January with 35 hand-picked musicians attached, with Zakk Wylde and Mike Inez named in February, the record described as nearly finished in March, and Halford and Lombardo confirmed in April.