Folk metal band Helsott will release their new album Slaves And Gods on October 12, which closes out with a pretty killer version of Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down A Dream." We're stoked to premiere the song and video today, of which Helsott vocalist Eric Dow has quite a bit to say.
"Tom Petty was and will forever be an American songwriting hero. He was one of my all-time favorites and I was lucky enough to see him live several times. We were working on Slaves and Gods when he passed away. I had just seen him at the Hollywood Bowl for what would become his final run of shows and I was very inspired. We decided very quickly that we were going to cover a song and put it on the new record. We chose "Runnin’ Down A Dream" because we felt we related most with those lyrics and the song rocks! I felt like instead of acoustic guitar accompanying us we would ask Lethien from Elvenking to throw down some violin. He did a great job. In the spirit of the album and having so many guest musicians on it we had a local artist named Hunter Havokk, do the guitar and bass. We really liked the outcome so we decided to do a tribute video and release it on the anniversary of Tom Petty’s passing."
"Since Tom Petty made shit happen with little to no money we decided to approach this video in a very DIY manner. We had a GoPro and our friend Frank to film us. I did all the editing and I am no means a video guy. We were just 3 guys having fun in the spirit of Tom Petty. We wanted to do a storyline that was believable but still lucid enough to still be a dream. I could very easily see one of us having a dream where Cooper was playing a pink Jr. drum kit in the back of our trailer. Then our van breaks down and we do whatever we can to pass the time, but it’s okay because a Jedi will come and fix the van."
Slaves And Gods will feature guest spots from Arkona's Masha Scream and Lazer, Trollfest's Dr. Leif Kjonnsfleis and Trollmannen, Elvenking's Damna and Lethien, and Heidevolk's Kevin Storm. The album was mixed and mastered by J-F Dagenais (Kataklysm, Misery Index, Despised Icon), was given artwork by Felipe Machado Franco (Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Rhapsody of Fire), and can be pre-ordered here.
