KINGS OF THE WORLD puts the "heavy" back in heavy metal' -Cincinnati Enquirer

Pavement Music proudly announces the release of the new Cd from metal legends CJSS. Kings of the World is the long awaited follow up Cd to the band's 2 classic releases "World Gone Mad" and "Praise the Loud." Those Cds are generally regarded as 2 of the best metal releases of their day.

Guitarist David T. Chastain, vocalist Russell Jinkens, bassist Mike Skimmerhorn and drummer Les Sharp are once again together to release their unique brand of metal once characterized by Kerrang Magazine as "Majestic Metal stuffed to the bursting point with all the guitar heroics you could possibly want, highly sophisticated, very technical and, what's more, they play real songs!" In another review they classified it as "Cultured Metal with an IQ of at least 200!"

Says band leader David T. Chastain, "We did a few reunion shows last year to commemorate the release of 2-4-1 (the rerelease of both of the band's previous Cds on one CD) and the band sounded pretty much like we did in the old days. The crowd response was terrific and most importantly it was a lot of fun. I put out the word to a few of the metal labels that the band was looking for a new recording contract and we were immediately offered up 3 deals within a few weeks. We choose Pavement Music because they seemed most in tune to our history and fan base."

David continues, "I sent Mark Nawara, (owner of Pavement Music) a demo that contained 50 previously unrecorded CJSS songs and he picked the songs that made it onto the Cd. It was a choice we couldn't objectively make."

CJSS had never officially broke up but the members just drifted into their own projects and had not played together since the mid 90s. For awhile, Mike continued recording with the band Chastain. Even though Les and Russell never commercially released new albums they continued to record with numerous projects that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. David T. continued his assault on record buyers worldwide and today has well over 20 titles in his catalog.

Naming a favorite song on Kings of the World for vocalist Russell Jinkens is not an easy choice but finally he states, "If I had to chose one song it would be the title track. It was like when I first heard the music to the song World Gone Mad, the words just seemed to write themselves. Also the Final Frontier really is a high energy song that is also a personal favorite. I really am happy with all the tracks to be truthful."

Guitarist/Producer David T. Chastain adds, "Sonically we tried to get the sound as close to the old Cds as possible. When my band Chastain had a long time between albums and we came out with a new Cd we caught a lot of flack because the new sound was so much different than the old. So CJSS went back to our old amps and way of recording to try to replicate the classic CJSS sound."

Trying to classify CJSS's music has never been easy and drummer Les Sharp puts it this way, "We always had a unique sound so let's just call it CJSS Metal! We are looking forward to hitting the road and doing some shows in support of this Cd."

CJSS and their new release Kings of the World makes a bold statement in reestablishing the band as one of the premier US metal bands. However you classify the music, the bottom line is that it is good to have CJSS back releasing some of the best metal of this or any year!

For further info please contact Pavement Music at 480.783.0288.



CJSS 2000 Photos

CJSS Live Photos 2000

Russell Jinkens Interview 6.15.2000

CJSS 99 Interview!

2-4-1 European Cover Art

CJSS "Embryonic Animation"

David T. Chastain's Kramer Guitar Ad!