A PERFECT CIRCLE’S BILLY HOWERDEL RETURNS WITH ASHES DIVIDE

I don’t know what the consensus is on A Perfect Circle these days, now that they’ve been gone a few years; personally, I loved them (okay, maybe not eMotion, but definitely their first two albums). Were they as good as Tool? Of course not (who is, really?). But they were fuckin’ great, and the two times I got to catch them live, they killed.

So I’m glad to hear that APC mastermind Billy Howerdel has a new solo project, Ashes Divide, and that they’ve signed to Island Records, who will release their debut album sometime in March. Howerdel, you may recall, was once a guitar tech to the stars (he’d done work for Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, of course, and was working on GN’R’s Chinese Democracy right before APC took off) who practically won the lottery when Maynard James Keenan heard some of his demos and decided to front his band.

Of course, now Howerdel has to crawl out from beneath Keenan’s shadow, which is no easy task; I don’t know how many APC fans will follow Howerdel now that he’s flying solo, but if Howerdel continues to demonstrate the same killer songwriting skills he showed on the APC albums, hopefully the listeners will come.

Added bonus: Josh Freese – drummer for APC and just about everyone else at some point or another – is on the album. I’m incredibly curious about this one.

-AR