It’s difficult to believe that an all-star collaboration like Metal Allegiance – one that features some of the biggest names in heavy music history – had relatively humble beginnings.

The core of the project alone features members of Anthrax, Megadeth and Dream Theater, let alone some of the other artists who have contributed along the way. But according to former Dream Theater drumming extraordinaire Mike Portnoy – speaking from “somewhere in Oklahoma” on tour with one of his many other projects, The Winery Dogs – this is absolutely the case.

“Before we did the [2015 self-titled] album, years before, this thing started back in 2011 as a live thing first,” he says. “It started small – the very first one took place around the Big Four show in California, the spring of 2011. It was just the four of us: myself, Charlie Benante and Frank Bello from Anthrax, and David Ellefson from Megadeth, and it started as a clinic.”

From those modest beginnings, the project quickly expanded into the monster conglomeration it is today. “We did it about six months later when the Big Four played in New York,” Portnoy continues, “and that time we were joined by Kerry King from Slayer, Phil Anselmo from Pantera and Scott Ian from Anthrax, so it grew from four people to seven people. Then we did it a few more times over the years, and it grew into ten people, then 12 people, and it just kept growing and growing and growing.”

That journey has brought Metal Allegiance to late 2015, having morphed from a fun clinic and live-orientated project paying tribute to some of the members’ favourite classic bands, to a full-blown original group that has just released its debut record.

“It was always just a thing where we would play covers – bands like Sabbath and Motörhead and AC/DC and Maiden and Priest,” says Portnoy. “That’s how it started. Finally, last year, we were doing it on the Motörboat [Motörhead’s heavy metal cruise ship], and we had this idea – ‘Hey, what if we got together and did an album of original material?’ So now we have it broken down to a core band – myself, David Ellefson and Alex Skolnick [Testament], along with Mark Menghi, who is the business guy behind it all. So that’s how the album came about, where we had about two dozen special guests, and there you go!”

And in even more exciting news for Aussie classic metal fans, Metal Allegiance have been booked to play the Soundwave tour early next year, which will be – surprisingly, given the bands he’s played in over the years – Portnoy’s first-ever appearance on the festival lineup.

“Man, I am so stoked,” he says. “I have been wanting to play Soundwave my whole career. Every year it comes and goes, and I’m in six different bands at the moment! I kept waiting for at least one of my bands to get invited, and it’s finally happened for Metal Allegiance. So I’m really, really glad to be making it back out there again, and finally to play Soundwave for the first time.”

Since Portnoy left perhaps the biggest progressive metal band of all time, Dream Theater, back in 2010, he has experienced massive demand for his services, and he is now in the enviable position where he can pick and choose from some of the world’s best players to collaborate with.

“I have to respect the people I’m working with, first and foremost,” he says. “At this stage in my life, after 25 years in Dream Theater, I’m fortunate to be in a situation where I don’t really have to do anything. I can choose the things that I want to do, and people I want to work with.

“The people I’m working with now are people I admire and respect – everyone from Billy Sheehan and Richie Kotzen in The Winery Dogs, to all the guys I’m working with in Metal Allegiance. I get to play with Steve Morse, touring with Twisted Sister; it’s all musicians and bands that I admire and respect. And I thank God for that.”

He also sees it as the fulfilling of his adolescent fantasies. “It just comes down to the fact that I’m still a music fan. I’m still that 13-year-old kid sitting in his room listening to KISS records; I’m still that same person. I’m fortunate to play with a bunch of people I respect and admire, but I work as hard as I do because I’m still a music fan and I want to do lots of different things. I want to do a prog thing, I want to do a metal thing, I want to do a classic rock thing – I just have this musical itch that I have to constantly scratch,” he laughs.

As far as the Metal Allegiance project is concerned, its very nature means it’s difficult to make future plans, so Portnoy and co. must play things purely by ear.

“Because there’s so many people involved, it’s hard for us to do a traditional tour,” he says. “So we can really only function when opportunities like Soundwave come around – festivals or one-off shows or events where you can try to nail a bunch of us down at one place at one time. So we’ll just continue to do things like that.”

Soundwave Festival 2016 takes place onSunday January 24 at Sydney Olympic Park.Metal Allegiance’s self-tittled release isout now through Nuclear Blast.

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