Sam Walters
Sam is featured on the song:
Sam Walters is frontman ofNew York City's Driven Mad, who have established themselves across the US northeast heavy music scene with their genre-pushing progressive thrash and frenetic live shows. Debuting in late 2012, the band has released two EPs, broken local attendance records as a headliner, and appeared with numerous national acts including Overkill, DRI, and Prong. Driven Mad have also been embraced by New York's Hispanic metal community. Driven Mad's music incorporates elements of speed metal, melodeath, and classic metal.
While having a cappuccino on a terrace in Belgium in May 2018, Christopher Amott suggested Sam Walters as a singer on the song Kill Kill Kill. At the time Sam and Chris played together in a heavy metal band in New York. After watching Sam in action on a YouTube video with his band Driven Mad, I was convinced Sam was the man. Sam has a unique skill set, with Rob Halford type of screams, deep grunts, a dark melodic 'Danzig' type of voice and a very energetic performance. Just different from the regular type of thrash singer I could have asked for the Kill Kill Kill song. As Sam once said about his live performances: "As a frontman, my ethic comes from guys like Bruce Dickinson, who were engaging and put out tremendous energy. If a pit doesn't erupt, we failed".
The only direction I gave Sam was the song title "Kill Kill Kill", other than that Sam wrote the lyrics and the melody, and then recorded his parts in a studio in New York City. He did a fantastic job, screaming his lungs into oblivion. According to Sam, after the recordings, he was coughing up blood and couldn't drink his coffee for a week.
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Here's the video that got me going for Sam. This is with his band Driven Mad