Death Dealer (US)
No Dollar Sign Between Us And The Music

04.01.2026

Even though the name Death Dealer may not be instantly familiar to every metalhead on this planet, most of them should know the people behind this band. Guitar player Ross The Boss was the original member of Manowar and did quite a few great albums as a solo artist, singer Sean Peck earned his stripes in Denner / Shermann, The Three Tremors and his own band Cage, and the other guitarist Stu Marshall has been working tirelessly with a handful of Australia-based bands, including Dungeon, Night Legion and Arkenstone and all-star-collaborative project Empires Of Eden. Death Dealer as an entity have been together for 15 years and released three solid heavy metal albums, but it is their upcoming fourth full-length, aptly titled “Reign Of Steel”, that is expected to upscale their status in the international metal community. Shortly before the album release (due January 23 via Massacre Records), we got Stu to brief us on the key facts related to Death Dealer and their new LP, and as long as we hadn’t interviewed the man for as long as 15 years, we couldn’t but ask him about recent developments in some of his other bands.

It’s been more than five years since the release of your previous album, “Conquered Lands”. Why did it take you so long to release “Reign Of Steel”?

The album has been done for some time. This album was finished about four years ago. We spent three years writing and recording it, and after the big COVID thing we got to a point when… I always felt this was our most important album, I held off and held off until we had the right climate to release this album properly. There’s nothing worse for an artist than releasing an album at the wrong time and having it just disappear, which has happened – COVID killed so many bands that released an album just before or just after it. I felt so strongly about this album that I wanted to release it at the right time. We needed to have the right label, we had to have the right relationship, and the industry had to recover itself. I fought very hard to make sure that the timing was right, so that’s the reason for the delay.

As far as I understand, you are the only member in Death Dealer who lives in Australia, and the rest of the band are based in the United States. How do you work on songs – do you do it remotely, or are you able to visit the rest of the band and see them in person from time to time?

A little bit of both. Much of the writing is done between myself, Sean and Ross the Boss. For many years I’ve been recording – just like you’re seeing me here and now (via Zoom – ed.). We spend hours this way, creatively, offering ideas back and forth. I have a full studio here, I have all the guitars which you can view, they’re here, so we do a lot of this remotely. I’ve been doing that for a long time with my Empires of Eden project, so it’s become very normal for me, because I live on the bottom of the world. We were able to pull it together that way, and then I was in America last year, and I got to see the boys as well. Essentially, we can use technology to work creatively like this.

This question may sound too much like coming from a crazy fan, but still - how does it feel playing guitar in a band together with Ross The Boss?

It’s my dream, full stop. I don’t know if you know this story, but this might be interesting for your readers. When I first started Death Dealer with Sean, I was in Sean’s house in San Diego in California, and we were talking about this dream of doing a band, because we had such a great writing relationship. He said to me, “Who would you dream of playing with?”, and I said, “There are two people – one is K.K. Downing, and the other one is Ross The Boss”. Sean looked at me – we were having a few cocktails, you know – and he said, “Dude, I know Ross”. My jaw hit the ground. I’m a huge Manowar fan, your readers can’t see this but behind me there are a lot of Manowar things on the wall. (laughs) He called Ross immediately, he called New York, and posed the idea of what we were doing to Ross. Ross said yes immediately, it was great that we had this happening. What’s it like? Every day’s a dream, but I’ve become friends with Ross over 15 years, we’re very close as buddies, we talk every other week, and it’s certainly moved away from fandom at the start, now we’re good friends. In short, a dream come true, but he’s a good friend and a great human being.

Coming back to the new album - could you say a few words about the song “Bloodbath”? It’s quite different from the rest of the album…

First and foremost, I’m a metal fan. I love speed, death, thrash, I love bands like Possessed, Venom, and also oldschool thrash like Destruction. We’re all big fans of fast powerful thrash metal. We’ve had some extreme songs before on a couple of albums, and Sean is an incredibly aggressive vocalist. I came up with the idea for “Bloodbath”, and when I heard what Sean did with the demo, this just felt right for the album. When you’re composing an album, you wanna make it exciting for people as well. It’s an honest statement, I love 80’s thrash, and it was a perfect song for the album.

You mention in a press release that the album features “probably the longest continuous scream ever recorded”… 

The funny thing is that Sean is an incredible vocalist. When you think of long screams, let’s talk Helloween’s “I Want Out” – the end scream of that is one of the great long screams of power metal. Our long scream is on track 8 of the album, the song called “Dragon Of Algorath”. Sean sent me back the recording, and he just kept screaming. It was one take, there’s no edits, and right at the end of this incredibly long scream he just goes up again! When people hear it, please know this is a single take vocal, this is not edited together, there’s no studio trickery, it’s just Sean’s pure power. He has a really unique attack, it’s very him.

Why did you decide to name the album “Reign Of Steel”? I would say it’s very polarizing – some people would go, “Yeah, so very metal, I love it”, while others would say, “It’s too much of Manowar once again”…

Sean came up with the title. I originally wanted to call it “Reign Of The Night”, because we have a song called “Reign Of The Night”. I think we have… The first thing is we have Ross the Boss in the band, which will be my endless dream, there’s no question about that, we have a singer like Sean Peck, and Death Dealer is unapologetically in-your-face power metal in every sense, it’s just all we do. Sean came up with the title “Reign Of Steel”, and we don’t have a song called “Reign Of Steel”, and I thought it was a kind of weird thing at first, but then it made sense. This is our fourth full-length studio album, we’ve been doing it for a while, and every album we’ve put out has been unapologetically metal. I’m not gonna shy away from the fact that we don’t do funny, we’re not funny people, we do heavy metal, and we’re very proud of that. When Sean came up with “Reign Of Steel” as the title, it just made sense to me, because the album essentially feels like a reign of steel. Zero apology from any of us – we just wanted to create an honest heartfelt heavy metal album the best way we can make it. There’s no dollar sign between us and the music. It’s just about getting into the heads of heavy metal lovers and showing our influences, but also creating Death Dealer music the best way we can.

Death Dealer is now your third band on Massacre Records. Why did you go with Massacre for Death Dealer, not with Steel Cartel as on the albums before?

Steel Cartel Records was created by Sean in a period when labels weren’t signing a lot of new metal bands, and Sean did a great job with that label. But I’ve had a long relationship with Thomas (Hertler) and the guys at Massacre, they’ve been very good to me. This deal did take a lot of time to get right, but in the end, they’re handing Death Dealer as a flagship band. We took our time releasing it, we could have released it three years ago, but we really wanted to handle it the right way, so it’s been a long process, but it’s the right time for this album.

Death Dealer hasn’t played live since 2015. Is there a chance that this may change at some point in the future?

Yeah, we’re looking at dates now for 2026, taking about it to some promoters. Everything is really about… To some people, we’re a new band, and this will be the first time some people have heard the band, which I’m super excited about. That’s why this album has taken as long as it has, because we’re so proud of it, and we’re looking at 2026… We’re in December 2025, and for some of the festivals in 2026 we’re a little late to the game, but I’d love nothing more… Some of my greatest days have been in Russia, St. Petersburg and Moscow are two of the greatest shows of my life, and if there’s ever an opportunity that we can get back to Europe, that is exactly where it will be. The second that we can get there, and a promoter will take it, there’s no question about it.

As long as “Reign Of Steel” has been finished for quite a while, have you started writing new material for Death Dealer? Is there a chance to see another Death Dealer record in the not-so-distant future?

The material is very strong for album five, and it will happen. It’s just about timing. We’re just releasing this album now, we wanna focus on it properly. But I can promise you there will be another album for sure, we have so much material. In fact we had so much material when we were writing this album, we really had a hard time selecting the best tracks, and the reason why we’re so excited about it is that we had almost 19 songs that we wanted to release and we had to cut it down to 10. (laughs) We really poured over the order of the album and the tracklisting. Death Dealer is not going away any time soon.

When people talk about Death Dealer or write about the band in magazines, they often use the word “supergroup”. But what would it take for the supergroup to become superstars, to reach the level of, say, Judas Priest or Manowar? Do you have any kind of plan to take the band further and higher than it is today?

I love this question! We would love nothing more than to be on the road all year round. I think if compared to bands like Priest that have this enormous legacy, 50 years of legacy, we’re still relatively new. And let’s face it, maybe the last two albums have picked more interest than the first album. What would it take – that’s something I can’t answer, but my bags are packed, my friend. I’d be playing Europe tomorrow. It’s really just about navigating the new world that we’re living, which is a digital world, but I think live music is coming back and touring is coming back. We’re seeing all the time that bands are touring, and then they’re cancelling tours, because of funding and things like that. But we’re optimistic, the new album is coming out, and it's really about people getting behind it. Once they’re behind it, it means the band will be there.

You mentioned that COVID changed the rules of the game for many bands, and Death Dealer in particular, and you mentioned that many bands didn’t make it through COVID. How did you survive? What kept you going through all that bullshit, pardon my language?

No, it is total bullshit, and it’s something that people don’t want to hear about anymore, and I totally get that. What is important to say is that expenses for touring almost tripled. It’s hard for people to comprehend, but in the past you could go out and do a tour for X amount of dollars, and now you’ve got to go out and do it at three times the cost. This is what really impacted bands. In our case, we’ve just never stopped doing what we love doing. I handle a lot on the production side of it, that’s saved a lot of money for the band, and we’ve got great mixing engineers. Chris Themelco is a good name to mention, he mixed and mastered this album. We do a lot of work internally, and nothing’s ever gonna stop Death Dealer, except for something horrible happening. Luckily for us, we can scale this up or scale it back, but Death Dealer will always exist.

You also brough back Empires Of Eden last year after a break of nine years. What was the problem with “Guardians Of Time”, was it also ready long before it got released, or were you just taking your time to work on it?

That’s a great question. After the fourth album (“Architect Of Hope”, 2015) my press agent said to me that Empires Of Eden had run its course. It had been signed at all these different labels, smaller labels, and it never really took off. You know, you’ve got Udo Dirkschneider on it, you’ve got Ralf Scheepers from Primal Fear, you’ve got Mike Vescera from Loudness, all these great names, but it never really took off, it was a difficult thing, and so I decided back in 2015-2016 to kind of retire it off. But when I was talking to Thomas from Massacre, he was telling me what a great fan he was of the albums. I said to him, “Man, I’ve never stopped writing. I have heaps of songs”. And he said, “I’m interested in releasing it again”. So we got together and released “Guardians Of Time” a year ago now, with Rob Rock, Jeff Martin from Racer X – there are some great vocalists on that album. I’m working on the next album again, and through Massacre we’re looking at a special boxset. I’m just about to release all the four albums, remixed and remastered, digitally, there will be a digital release in December. They sound incredible now. Empires Of Eden’s been a labor of love, a personal project that may not have had all the money in the past to get it right. Now is the time, the skills are increased, the sound is incredible, and that is coming out. I’m very pleased to see that in the right hands, and Massacre have been doing an incredible job. They’re doing really good things there.

On this latest album, the song I love most of all is the one you did with Rob Rock, the title track. Is there any chance of you and him doing anything else together?

Yeah, it’s possible. Only a few months ago I was in Japan, and Impellitteri was touring with Rob, and I was able to meet up with him. We’ve been working in a studio situation remotely, and we had a great affection for each other, we got along very well. He’s a sweet guy, I love his voice, I write for his voice, and it was great to reach out from the other way to catch up and talk to him. There’s definitely a possibility in the future to do more work together if he’s available. I’m a huge Impellitteri fan, and I love his work on the “Project: Driver” album he did in ’88 with Tony Macalpine, it’s a landmark record. He’s a fantastic singer, and it’s the second time I worked with him – he sang on the third Empires Of Eden album called “Channeling The Infinite” (2012). To work with him again was just fantastic.

Have you discussed with Thomas bringing Empires Of Eden to the live stage as well?

I haven’t discussed it yet. I’d love to do it like an Avantasia type of thing. I think we have to see whether the albums are properly received under a proper label. I think Empires Of Eden is still pretty much an underground movement that not many people know about, so your help and the press is very valued in making this happen. I’d love nothing more than to go out with Rob, Mike Vescera, he’s is a fantastic singer and a good friend, Sean obviously, he sings on a couple of songs, and we wrote some songs… The sky is the limit, it’s just about getting together and seeing how this new digital release works.

The singer that appears on every Empires Of Eden album, Louie Gorgiewski, also used to sing for you in Night Legion, but not anymore. What happened to Louie? 

Louie is one of my oldest friends and one of the great vocalists. Louie didn’t really want to do the live thing, and I respect that, he was very honest about that. Night Legion is a live band, we play live in Australia, it was actually formed so I could have a band with my best friends to play shows with. It worked out really well, we wrote a great album (“Fight Or Fall”, 2023), we did a couple of shows, and I think he’ll be the first to tell you his heart wasn’t into doing live performances, he’s mentioned that to me. He’s still an incredible vocalist and a very good friend, we talk every couple of weeks. The latest Night Legion album we’re working on will be with Vo Simpson, the original vocalist. We reconnected with Vo, we’ve been doing some shows with him, we played the Ross the Boss tour here in Australia last year, and the new album will be with Vo. 

Does Louie still sing in Arkenstone? And will there be anything else from Arkenstone?

That’s a great question. I don’t know what’s gonna happen with Arkenstone. We’ve released a four-track EP (“Ascension Of The Fallen”, 2021) with view to do more, but the timing wasn’t right for that project, which is a shame because the material was really strong. We’ll just have to see what the future holds with that. I’d love to work with Louie again, we talk every other week, and I’ve got nothing but affection for the guy.

I sometimes hear from people about different musicians – “oh, he plays in three different bands at the same time, that’s too much, he needs to focus on one thing to make it really big”. How would you comment on that?

(laughs) I don’t know if I could focus on just one thing at a time. I’m just always writing. There’s always singers that wanna sing the songs. The great thing about what I’m doing is I don’t think that I confuse people. It’s all heavy metal. There’s just too much music to contain, so I don’t have an answer for that. It’s just constantly pouring out of me in the studio, there are singers that wanna sing it, and there are people that wanna hear it.

What is the current situation with heavy metal in Australia? Do you think it’s OK, or do you think it should be better? Has anything changed in the past few years?

I think it’s getting stronger. We’ve got some festivals out here, and some really high quality bands, world-class bands. For example, Parkway Drive are Australian, they’re a little more metalcore I guess, and bands like Vanishing Point and Black Majesty are still going. Things are really strong here. It’s still a small market, bands seem to be coming out and touring, Evergrey are here soon, Onslaught just did a tour out here, and the list goes on. Things are good.

You mentioned earlier in our conversation that you visited and played in Moscow and St. Petersburg. When and how did it happen?

Death Dealer played St. Petersburg and Moscow some 11 years ago now. We were there with a touring band called Metal All-Stars which was Max Cavalera, Zakk Wylde, Joey Belladonna, etc. We were their backing band and had a great time. It’s something that I will never forget, we loved it. I feel so sad it’s so difficult for bands to get there, because metal fans love the stuff. It was a great experience. 

Special thanks to Barbara Francone (Neecee Agency) for arranging this interview

Death Dealer on the Internet: http://www.deathdealermetal.com/ 

Roman Patrashov 
December 2, 2025
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