Michael Sweet & Ricky Warwick on This Weeks Focus on Metal

Episode 436 - Another State of Ten

Michael Sweet just put out his latest solo release “Ten” via Rat Pak Records. This is probably his heaviest effort yet and loaded with great guest guitar slingers including Jeff Loomis, Gus G, Ethan Brosh, Joel Hoekstra. This week we’ll get the story on that one direct from the man himself. 

After that we sit down with Ricky Warwick to talk through Black Star Riders latest “Another State of Grace”

Get the this episode from the Focus on Metal Site, The Focus on Metal RSS feed, or subscribe on iTunes.

You can hear us every Tuesday night on Pure Rock Radio
and each Wednesday afternoon on Metal World Radio

Visit http://focusonmetal.net/ for information on all the past episodes and to find the links to all our other social media sites.

And as always

Focus On Metal…Everything Else is Insignificant.

RAT PAK RECORDS SET TO RELEASE MICHAEL SWEET "TEN" on OCT 11th.

RAT PAK RECORDS SET TO RELEASE MICHAEL SWEET "TEN"

Building upon the success of his 2016 release One Sided War, Stryper front man Michael Sweet returns with his tenth solo studio release aptly titled, “Ten”. The new album is scheduled for release on October 11th via Rat Pak Recordsand will also be available in Europe via Frontiers Music SRL. Ten features an all star guest lineup that includes appearances by, Jeff Loomis of Arch Enemy, Todd La Torre of Queensryche, Andy James, Tracii Guns of LA Guns, Rich Ward of Fozzy, Joel Hoekstra of Whitesnake, Gus G of Firewind, Howie Simon, Ethan Brosh, Marzi Montazeri, Will Hunt of Evanescence , John O’Boyle, Mike Kerr and Ian Raposa of Firstbourne and more.

On the subject of guest musicians Michael comments, “There is a different player appearing on every song. It started out where I was just going to have a couple of guest appearances on it, then I decided that it would be really interesting to bring in different players for every song. I started putting names out there and reaching out to people, and they started agreeing to do it. And then I had guys reaching out to me."

Regarding the musical direction of the album Michael states, “I’m very excited about this release, there are old-school, straight-ahead metal ideas in the vein of Judas Priest, Dio and Iron Maiden, all the stuff I love listening to!” 

As for the "Ten" album title, Sweet recently stated, "It's called 'Ten' cause it's my tenth album, and because there is a title track on there about the Ten Commandments — a really powerful song. There's real heavy stuff. It starts kind of smacking you in the face and it ends kicking you in the gut."

TRACK LISTING

01 Better Part of Me (featuring Jeff Loomis of Arch Enemy)

02 Lay It Down (featuring Marzi Montazeri)

03 Forget, Forgive (featuring Howie Simon)

04 Now Or Never (featuring Gus G of Firewind)

05 Ten featuring (Rich Ward of Fozzy)

06 Shine (featuring Ethan Brosh)

07 Let It Be Love

08 Never Alone (featuring Joel Hoekstra of Whitesnake)

09 When Love Is Hated (featuring Joel Hoekstra of Whitesnake)

10 Ricochet (featuring Tracii Guns of LA Guns)

BONUS TRACKS

11 With You Till The End (featuring Mike Kerr and Ian Raposa from Firstbourne)

12 Son Of Man (featuring Todd La Torre of Queensryche and Andy James)

Head over to ratpakrecordsamerica.com/michaelsweet to get your preorder bundle