During the 1990s, guitarist Duane Denison spent most of his time with the Chicago-based Jesus Lizard and their peculiar brand of intelli-punk. Now he's got a new project named Tomahawk [ tickets ], whose self-titled debut surfaced on Halloween on Mike Patton's Ipecac label.

Patton--the Mr. Bungle [ tickets ]/ex-Faith No More frontman--sings on the album, which, in addition to Denison, also features Melvins [ tickets ] bassist Kevin Rutmanis and Helmet drummer John Stanier.

Upon first listen, Tomahawk seems a tad more commercially palatable than anything Lizard, Melvin or Bungle. "Well, we're not necessarily trying to make it commercial," Denison said. "I wanted this to be a rock band, first and foremost, right from the start. I made that clear to everyone. The stuff Mike's been doing lately--Fantomas, Bungle and other side projects, some of which are fairly extreme--this is a lot more accessible than that stuff. But it's not particularly radio-friendly or easy listening, by any means.

"There's a lot of atmospherics with Tomahawk, and cinematic stuff. It's not just a wall-to-wall hard rock or noise album. There's quite a bit of textural things, and a bit of electronics and sampling done as well."

While the music of Tomahawk is pretty much Denison's baby, everyone got a chance to participate in some long-distance collaboration during the writing process. "I had almost all of the album together by the time we started working," Denison said. "What I did have, I was sending tapes back and forth to people. And, like, Mike would add a vocal or electronic stuff and send it back, and then we'd talk about it. Eventually, one by one, everyone came [to visit me in] Nashville and just got together for a few days at a time to work with me. So by the time we all got together to rehearse for the album, all the songs were pretty much in place. It was just a question of tweaking the final arrangements and then making decisions about mixing."

The group originated when Denison met Patton at a 1999 Mr. Bungle show in Nashville. "I was playing with Hank Williams III at the time," Denison explains, "and the bass player from the band was friends with Mike and some of the other [Mr. Bungle] members, because he was from California. So he said, 'Come on, let's go see this band, Mr. Bungle.' I had never listened to them, to be honest. I had heard them do other stuff that was sort of related to weird things, like John Zorn or stuff like that. So I went to the show and thought it was great. It blew me away. They were wearing the beach shirts--it was after they released 'California.' I got to meet Mike afterwards, and that's kind of how this whole thing got started."

Though there's punk and extreme-metal testosterone coursing through the group, there certainly isn't any lack of musical IQ. In fact, Denison studied with legendary classical-guitar virtuoso Christopher Parkening, and even earned a degree in classical guitar from Eastern Michigan University.

"I had masterclasses with [Parkening] in Montana in the late '70s. I was good back then. [laughs] And, you know, a masterclass, you pay money to go up in front of an auditorium full of people and play--you're not allowed to warm-up, it's a performance--you get up there and play in front of the 'master,' and the audience critiques you. Then you go back the next day and work on it and do the same thing again. The first year, I didn't do so well. I was scolded and humiliated in front of an auditorium full of people, for days at a time. I made it my goal in life to come back and avenge myself, so I literally practiced for five hours a day for two years and came back and did better. And then I quit playing classical guitar and got into punk rock."