Gundriver isn’t a short-lived project made to follow trends. On the contrary, Gundriver arrives with a clear mission: to deliver uncompromising, riff-driven metal performed by musicians who have spent decades mastering their craft. The band’s upcoming album, “Give War a Chance”, is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated metal releases of 2026, combining modern aggression with classic metal power! Led by guitarist and founder Tom Potter, Gundriver recently strengthened their ranks with the addition of acclaimed vocalist Ronnie Romero, whose powerful voice joins the talents of bassist Rev Jones (Micheal Schenker Group) and drummer Alex Rivas (Tempting Fate). It was inevitable that Myth of Rock would catch up with Gundriver and Tom Potter to talk about the band, their upcoming album and everything else happening in their world.
by Dimitris Zacharopoulos
Gundriver has assembled a line-up featuring musicians with impressive backgrounds. How did this project originally come together?
In 2012, Alex Rivas and I had been kicking around the idea of starting a band while we were in Hollywood. I gave him a call one day, when I was overseas working in Afghanistan and told him I had some song ideas and asked if he wanted to get something going – so that’s how Gundriver was born. We had an album written in short order and ended up out on tour 13 months later opening for Michael Schenker, so it was a pretty quick flash to bang as they say.
What was the initial vision behind Gundriver, and how close is the band today to what you first imagined?
The initial vision was to stay the hell away from the wrong side of Hollywood – so, we’ve stuck to a vision that allowed us to write freely with no outside interference and you can hear it in the tunes. I’ve used the Jimmy Page model by producing from within the band to protect the band members’ input and prevent outside interference. The ideas you’re hearing were written by the guys playing the music – period, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Metal isn’t supposed to be smoothly or slickly produced, it’s supposed to sound like it’s about to explode and these tracks have the raw energy that I always loved to about metal albums growing up. So, the vision hasn’t really changed – we simply wanted to write the best music we were capable of.
Some weeks ago, you announced that Ronnie Romero has joined Gundriver. How did this happen?
Ronnie is featured on this album and did a world class job with the vocals. Ronnie and I were introduced through mutual contacts in the rock and metal community. We had been looking for a vocalist who could bring both power and versatility to the material we were writing for Gundriver, and Ronnie immediately stood out as a great fit. After sharing some songs and discussing the vision for the project, he connected with the music and expressed interest in getting involved. Once we started working together, it became clear that his voice and experience added a new dimension to the album.
Your upcoming album is titled “Give War a Chance”. What is the meaning behind the title, and what themes are explored throughout the record?
I was in the American Army for 20+ years, and I saw this on a bumper sticker one day driving into work and began laughing – immediately I told myself, “That’s a great album title!” It’s obviously a play on the hippie mantra of ‘give peace a chance’ and is intentionally provocative. It’s not about glorifying war; but in all reality, you can’t have peace without the people who are ready and willing to fight for it. The album explores themes of sacrifice, resilience, loss, and personal struggle. Some songs are inspired by military experiences and history, while others focus on the battles we all fight in everyday life.
Who did the production of the new album? The mixing and the mastering?
I produced the album with Charlie Waymire mixing and Ernesto Homeyer mastering. I will be completely honest with you in that production is much easier with strong songwriters and all of us write well together in this group.
How would you describe the musical direction of the new album compared to the bands and projects you’ve been involved with in the past?
Gundriver’s current incarnation has that special little spark that you always hear some of the best bands reference, it was evident when we started writing this album that there was something special with these songs.
What were the main influences that shaped the sound of this album?
We didn’t lean on any influences specifically when writing – we simply started writing. Obviously, you’re going to hear a flavor of any number of the great metal bands throughout any of our work, but that’s a subconscious versus intentional thing. We didn’t have a singer at the beginning of pre-production for this album, so Alex and I just started laying down riffs and song sections. As we began looking for a singer, it forced us to tighten up the arrangements so the tunes were ready for a vocalist.
What did Ronnie bring to the songs, when he joined the band?
Ronnie Romero is among the best rock and metal vocalists in the world and after having seen him touring with Michael Schenker, he was on the top of my list of vocalists to work with. His voice brings an enormous amount of character to these tunes, a truly great vocalist.
Can you tell us about the songwriting process? Did the music come first, or were some songs built around lyrical concepts?
I write often – generally, an idea will hit me while playing guitar already and I’ll simply record the riff and sit and listen for where the next section could go. After I get a rough idea down – or at least a couple song sections, I’ll run it by Alex (drums) and that’s when the riff or idea will begin to develop into a more robust song style arrangement. A real drummer is so much better than drum loops as you’re generally not going to be limited to a specific time signature or feel. When the vocals came in, obviously the lyrical contact shaped the feel of the tune – I think they married up perfectly.
“One Man Army” is the first single from the album. Why was this track chosen to introduce the new album to the world?
We all like this tune, and the radio folks agree with us => so that’s how it became our lead single! “One Man Army” came to me as I was driving down the road in Virginia – it was a unique experience in that I felt like the song was floating in the air and I could kind of hear it and feel it. I rushed home and recorded what you’re hearing in about an hour – our writing partner Serouj knocked out the lyrics in a day or so and sent it back. I thought the vocal line was brilliant, so here we are!
You mentioned that the songs of the new album are “nasty” and exactly what you envisioned. What elements make this album stand out from other modern metal releases?
The songs are recorded as written, and metal has something special about it in that the songs are intentionally rough, a metal album is supposed to sound so full of energy that it’s barely hanging together, we have that with these tunes. There’s even some mistakes in there – I left them in there because that’s exactly what AI wouldn’t do! I mentioned earlier ‘slick production’ – I hate that for this type of music, ‘slick’ production belongs in less genuine styles of music – this is real, and we wanted it to sound real. Rev Jones (Bass) and Alex Rivas (Drums) have a thunderous drum/bass interplay that gave me a great foundation to work off of – I was so stoked when I heard how some of these tunes came out. “New Wave of Destruction” which is our second single from this album is just a heavy riff with hints of doom and groove metal and it sounds monstrous.
How do you balance classic metal influences with a modern sound?
It’s a simple as just being yourself – it’s much easier to be play something the way you would want to play it versus how you ‘think’ someone else might play it. I really enjoy writing songs and seeing where they go – occasionally you’ll write something that might have hints of a classic style (Metallica, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Sabbath etc.) and that’s cool as long as it wasn’t engineered to be that way.
Was there a specific song on “Give War a Chance” that became the defining track of the album for the band? Which was the most challenging track to record and perform on the new album?
“Among the Humble” is probably one of the cooler ‘defining’ tracks on the album, its got this cool gallop feel to it that bounces between the drums and guitar riff with this super awesome vocal line and some high notes from Ronnie. Ironically enough, we didn’t have too many challenges when recording, I mean we were focused and prepared. I remember watching Alex tracking drums in Hollywood and being shocked at how he was making quick work of his drum tracks. Overall, for all of us the focus was the songs, and we gave them the time and space to exist (big ideas can’t live in small spaces).
The album title and band name both suggest an aggressive attitude. How important is intensity and confrontation in Gundriver’s identity?
Metal bands are supposed to be intense musically, and the confrontation can be with your biggest enemy/ally – yourself. The term “Gundriver” refers to attack helicopter pilots – a nickname that existed before I joined the US Army and flew Apaches, it may date back to the Vietnam era. We put an Apache on the cover of the album as a tip of the hat to the attack community so that people knew where the name came from.
What was the most memorable moment during the recording sessions for this album?
When Alex was prepping to track one of the tunes he said “in this section here, you’re a beat off” – I responded “you’re a beat off!” and our engineer Charlie Waymire just started laughing, I’m not sure if it was more Dethklok or Spinal Tap – maybe somewhere in between.
With such experienced musicians involved, were there any creative disagreements, and if so, how were they resolved?
The way we run things, all ideas are welcome and the best one wins. If we think a song should go in two directions, we can make two different versions of it – fighting is largely useless and prevents progress – if you have an idea, record it and away we go. George Patton said “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”.
With members having backgrounds in Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group, Tempting Fate and many other projects, what strengths does each musician bring to Gundriver?
Rev Jones is worth his weight in gold – his bass tone has this unique feel where it seems to compliment every other member of the band – and he’s full of great ideas. Alex and I wrote 90% of this album just bouncing ideas off each other and recording them – Alex is a great songwriter, some of the things I’m doing with a guitar lick or riff he suggested as we were putting this stuff together. Ronnie’s a world class vocalist and truly great showman – his voice added a lot of character to the tracks and it’s great to hear him soar over these tunes.
Do you already have plans for live performances, and what can fans expect from a Gundriver show?
We’re working that now, and when we can line up our schedules to support touring, we’ll publish those dates. When you see us live, you’re going to get what’s on the record in a live format – no autotune, no backing tracks, just us playing these tunes the way they were meant to be heard.
What are your goals and ambitions for the band’s future?
World domination.
If you could describe “Give War a Chance” in just three words, what would they be and why?
Power, courage, resolve. The songs are strong and we’re glad we got it to the point where we could share them with the world. When we started writing this album, we didn’t even have a singer – we just started out writing the tunes “If you build it, they will come” (field of dreams reference) and Resolve – it took us two years to find a singer to write with (Serouj Guidanian) as well as our final tracking vocals Ronnie Romero, but we decided come hell or highwater, this album was getting done and out to the world.
