Mike Patton and Dave Lombardo’s Dead Cross Unveil First Song Together “Shillelagh”

Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat

As a special St. Patrick’s Day surprise, Dave Lombardo has given metal fans something to bang their heads to while downing pints of green beer. His insanely awesome supergroup that features Mike Patton on vocals, Lombardo on drums, with Justin Pearson of The Locust and Retox and Michael Crain of Retox has released a new song; it is the first from the band to feature Patton on vocals. Dead Cross was announced as new project of Lombardo (who had just ended Philm) with Pearson and Crain back in November. That already-exciting combination of musicians took the most incredible turn for the best, with the jaw-droppingly versatile and highly-accomplished Faith No More vocalist joining the fray in December.

There’s one twist – today is your only chance to listen to the song, according to a tweet from Lombardo:

It’s a locomotive of a song. Instrumentally it is a fast-paced thrash-inspired metal number, with plenty of careening guitar riffs and some fun tempo changes. It’s the vocals that Patton and company provide that really take the song to a new plane of awesome. Patton is all over the place, as per usual, while the rest of the band offers up some “ohhh – oh – ohhhhs” that perfectly complement the lead singer.

This is not the first taste of Dead Cross though – the band did release a single before Patton was announced as the lead singer. That song, “We’ll Sleep When They’re Dead” came in December and has since been removed from the web.