Known for his groundbreaking musicianship and energetic showmanship, Marzi Montazeri AKA “The High Priest Of Distortion” is a guitarist, producer, and songwriter from Houston, Texas. Currently the guitarist for Heavy As Texas, Marzi has been the man behind the axe for Superjoint Ritual and more recently in 2010, he rejoined with Philip Anselmo to work on Anselmo’s first solo project, Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals. In 2015, Montazeri and Washburn Parallax Guitars united to co-design his own signature electric guitar series called “The Priestess”. Montazeri’s collaborations as a guest artist include Prong, Doug Pinnick (Razr 13), Defiatory, and the Judas Priest tribute record ‘Hell Bent Forever’, also featuring the vocalist on this album, Tim “Ripper” Owens. It was through this tribute how he came to know Mr. Owens. “A while ago I was asked to play a couple of solos on the tribute album ‘Hell Bent Forever’ and the track was, “Exciter”” recalls Marzi of first meeting Owens. “When I arrived, Tim was walking out of the vocal booth for the evening. I was blown away by his performance and personality. He’s a super cool and funny dude. So when it came to this EP where I knew I wanted a powerful metal vocalist, I just made a call to him and here we are with some original music.” Tim Owens is a Grammy-nominated American hard rock singer who first gained attention as the vocalist for Judas Priest (1996-2003) and then Iced Earth and Yngwie Malmsteen. Owens currently tours the world as a solo artist and performs as the lead singer of Charred Walls Of The Damned. Also worth noting, the movie Rockstar (featuring Mark Walhberg) was loosely based on Owens’ time in Judas Priest. In 2001, Marzi released his first solo effort ‘The Need’ and after 16 years, he has come back with what could be some of his best solo work yet with ‘The Uprising’. Continue reading
