Wow! Jason Newsted Prepares Two Heavy Metal Projects

JAKARTA - Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted is working on two heavy metal projects.

Newsted worked with his bluegrass projects, Jason Newsted and Chophouse Band, for several decades, and has recently begun to incorporate more metal influences into the band.

Now, Newsted is firmly stepping back in the heavy direction, as he explained in an interview with Gator 98.7FM.

“So the past few weeks I've been auditioning guitar players for a heavy metal project. I went back to playing bass and singing with metal drummers — double bass — you know, getting loud again. I'm putting together two new projects now - but loud," Newsted told Consequence of Sound.

In addition to this new project, Newsted says he's currently working on the Chophouse Band's first album.

“I spent six months last year putting together The Chophouse Band Volume 1 album,” he says.

“The Chophouse Band has been making music together since 1992. So this is our first album in 30 years. I spend a lot of time on it. As soon as I got the hang of it, I got back to the heavy stuff again."

Previously, Newsted said that the new Chophouse Band album is "as heavy a place as anything else I've been in — Voivod, Ozzy, Metallica, Newsted's band, all of that stuff."

Newsted was a member of Metallica from 1986-2001, playing bass on their albums … And Justice For All (1988), Metallica (1991), Load (1996), and Reload (1997). He then left to focus on other projects.