In a new interview with Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program “Wired In The Empire”, POP EVIL frontman Leigh Kakaty was asked which METALLICA album he thinks is better, “Ride The Lightning” or “Master Of Puppets”. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Man, how do you pick between those two. I couldn’t pick, man. As soon as I pick one, then I’m gonna call you back later and be, like, ‘No, no. I choose the other one. I choose the other one.’
“Actually, I’ve just been playing a lot of the METALLICA pinball lately. So I think I’ve listened to more of the new album, to be honest,” he continued. “‘Cause the kids around me are all finding METALLICA for the first time — nieces and nephews — so they’re all playing the newer METALLICA stuff, to be honest.
“And again, it’s hard to pick old-school METALLICA, ’cause I think of where my life was in those times. But [I’d] probably [pick] ‘Master Of Puppets’, man — I’d probably give it the ‘Stranger Things’ advantage. I’m a ‘Stranger Things’ fan too, so I’d probably give it to ‘Master Of Puppets’.
“But, yeah, it’s tough, though,” Leigh added. “I mean, but even telling you that, I’m, like, ‘I shouldn’t have said that. I like ‘Ride The Lightning’ too, man.’ But there’s so many. I mean, METALLICA is almost not a fair question. They’re so iconic. It’s, like, what Bible verse do you like? Are you like Jesus? Do you believe in heaven and hell? I don’t even know — how do you respond to that? They’re so iconic and they’re so big that everyone’s got a story about METALLICA, for sure.
“But ‘Master Of Puppets’ — we’re gonna go with it, though. I’ve gotta pick something. I can’t cop out.”
POP EVIL‘s eighth album, “What Remains”, was released on March 21 via MNRK. Leigh told Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station about the effort: “We feel like it’s one of our favorite albums that we’ve released to date. A lot of personal healing for me, with just stuff I buried, I think, with my career and where we’ve been all these years. So finally listening to my soul, letting that healing come out on this record, it’s just special. And just kind of wanting to challenge people to be positive.
“When you think about the darkest time in someone’s life, you have a choice — you wanna stay depressed, you wanna stay in that dark place or you wanna walk forward and try to be better every day?” he continued. “So this album comes from a dark place. But certainly trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel, trying to still be positive and inspire people to be better, starting with ourselves, is definitely [something] that rings prominent on this album. So [I’m] definitely excited about getting it out there and finally an opportunity for our fans to start making it their own. So I’m stoked about it.”
POP EVIL first rose to international prominence with debut album “Lipstick On The Mirror”, featuring RIAA-certified-gold single “100 In A 55”. After Kakaty famously tore up the band’s major label contract onstage, POP EVIL signed with MNRK Heavy (formerly eOne Music). 2011’s “War Of Angels” debuted in the Top 10 of the Rock Albums chart and produced three Top 10 singles.
The band’s 2013 album “Onyx” put them in the Top 40 of the Billboard 200 for the first time and boasted three consecutive No. 1 rock songs, two RIAA gold singles, and one platinum single “Torn To Pieces”. POP EVIL‘s next release, “Up”, was the No. 1 Independent Album in America and made it to No. 25 on the Billboard 200. It featured several Top 5 rock songs and a chart-topper with “Footsteps”, which also went gold.
POP EVIL‘s 2018 self-titled set included the No. 1 hit and certified-gold single “Waking Lions” and two other Top 10 hits. 2020’s “Versatile”, meanwhile, scored two No. 1 rock songs: “Breathe Again” and “Survivor”. In 2023, the band released its seventh studio album “Skeletons”, which spawned their eighth and ninth No. 1 singles: “Eye Of The Storm” and “Skeletons”.
Source: blabbermouth.net
