Before any Superstar appears on the stage and heads down the ramp, they are preceded by the familiar sounds of their entrance theme. Throughout the years, several WWE Superstars have become synonymous with their entrance themes. When the ominous gong sounds, you know Undertaker is on his way. When the first chords of Real American blare over arena loudspeakers, you know Hulkamania is still running wild. And when "It's time to play the Game" plays, you know Triple H is ready to wreak havoc. Big Show is no different. When his song, Crank It Up, hits, you know the largest athlete in the world is on his way to the ring. So, when Brand New Sin had the opportunity to record a remake of Big Show's popular entrance theme for the new Wreckless Intent album which hits stores May 23, it was a dream come true for the band.

"It's kind of surreal still. It hasn't sunk in. Every time Hulk Hogan came out, you'd hear Real American. It's become a way of introducing a wrestler before the wrestler's even seen," said the band's lead vocalist, Joe Altier. "And it's really cool how WWE has incorporated all styles of music as a way to promote their wrestlers and their brand of wrestling."

Wreckless Intent features 15 tracks including several original songs, but Brand New Sin drew the task of remaking Big Show's current song.

"They wanted to take the song that was there for arrangement and style, but to add a little bit of Brand New Sin to it," said Altier. "So, we tuned the guitars down even more, made it more sludgy, slowed it down a little bit. We made it really heavy and bluesy -- interjecting ourselves into it and giving our take on the song."

Altier and the rest of Brand New Sin (Kevin Dean -- drums, Kris Weichmann -- guitar, Kenny Dunham -- guitar and Chuck Kahl -- bass) are big wrestling fans, so they were very excited to work on Big Show's song.

"Big Show is the biggest wrestler in the world. I've never met a guy that makes me look small. I'm a 240 pound guy, and he made me look small," said Altier. "We just thought of the way he comes to the ring. It's not fast paced. When he walks, the earth is shaking. So, we wanted to portray that in the new version of his song. When he's stepping it's like the whole foundation is shaking, so that was the basis of what we were looking for."

After recording the song, Altier said that Brand New Sin had the opportunity to meet with Big Show and talk about the new song.

"We went to RAW a couple of weeks after doing the song. We went in and had kind of a meet and greet with Big Show and hung around. They gave us front row seats that night and got us on TV. It was a bunch of late-20's, 30-year-old guys jumping around looking like five-year-olds," said Altier. "I hope he digs it. We were definitely talking about it that day. He said he was getting bored with his theme song. He told us the kind of music he grew up listening to -- AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Metallica. Those are all the bands that influenced our band. So, we thought he would dig what we did. We kind of gave it a facelift in his favor."

Brand New Sin has been together for about five years now and have put out two albums already. In fact, the band is currently working on a third with Century Media Records. As you can hear on Wreckless Intent, the band has a very unique sound.

"When we started out, we were trying to find a little niche. We didn't want to sound like everybody else. We wanted to try to go back to an older style of rock n' roll and hard rock -- a style that seems to be missing nowadays," said Altier. "People have said before that we're too rock for metal and too metal for rock, so we kind of land in the middle where there's about four or five bands doing this style like Black Label Society and Corrosion of Conformity. We've been blessed to be able to tour with Motorhead, Black Label Society and Saliva who're also part of this album, as well as our good friends in Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage. So, it's kind of cool to not only be on this disk, but to be on it with some friends of ours. We've all been battling throughout the years to make names for ourselves, so it's cool to all be involved together."

In fact, it was while Brand New Sin was opening on tour for Motorhead that WWE noticed the band.

"We were opening for Motorhead last Spring, and Triple H and Stephanie (McMahon) happened to be at the show. They dug what we did, so of course we loaded them up with CDs and T-shirts," said Altier. "We were on tour this Fall with Black Label Society, and our manager got a call from Concrete Marketing saying that WWE was interested in using us for the new compilation. So, of course, us being huge wrestling fans, we said let's do this. The combination of all these things led us to where we are."

After going through the process of remaking Big Show's entrance theme song, Brand New Sin would be more than willing to work on future WWE projects. Altier said that they have another favorite Superstar they'd like to work with.

"I think we'd work with just about anybody, but I was talking to Kenny when we were watching RAW, and we said we'd really love to do something for Kane. Just because of his whole persona, I think we could do something really cool for him. So, if WWE wants to use us, we're here for them," he said.

Kane's new movie, See No Evil, opens Friday, May 19, and Altier said that band is anxiously awaiting its release.

"We're definitely going to see that. I think he'll translate well to the big screen. He's been doing this a long time. Wrestling is about not only being a great athlete and being in great shape, but you have to be able to connect with the fans, which he does," said Altier. "And that's why I think wrestlers usually translate pretty well into movies. The Rock has definitely shown that the wrestlers are more than just guys that can deliver a bodyslam. It makes the wrestling genre something special and unique."

Related Links:
Crank It Up sample
www.brandnewsin.com