BEYOND FEAR, the new band featuring former JUDAS PRIEST and ICED EARTH frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens, is working on its long-awaited sophomore album. Owens has thus far laid down vocals on three songs at Empire Studios in Cleveland, Ohio for the CD, which he says will be “a bit heavier” than BEYOND FEAR‘s 2006 self-titled debut album.

BEYOND FEAR‘s current lineup is as follows:

* Tim “Ripper” Owens (JUDAS PRIEST, ICED EARTH, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, DIO DISCIPLES) – Vocals
* John Comprix (RINGWORM, LAW OF DESTRUCTION) – Guitar
* Matt Sorg (RINGWORM) – Guitar
* Eric Elkins (CRYPTKICKER, ALL YOU FEAR) – Drums
* Ed Stephens – Bass

The recording sessions for BEYOND FEAR‘s new album are being funded entirely by Owens, who is seeking a new label home for the effort following the band’s split with Steamhammer/SPV.

In a 2006 interview with About.com Metal Metal, Owens stated about the formation of BEYOND FEAR: “[The other members] are local guys, friends of mine. We’ve always played and jammed together. [Former BEYOND FEAR] bass player [Dennis Hayes] was in WINTERS BANE with me, so we go back a ways. John, the guitar player, and I go back a ways, too. We knew each other and I knew it was the perfect fit for us.”

He added: “I started writing songs a few years [before the release of the debut album]. Not everything was written together. I probably wrote six or seven songs myself and then got together with John and we wrote the other ones. I’m not sure even when the first one was written. I’d write a song and then seven months later write another one whenever I had the time to sit down. It was an odd writing process, and I think that’s what gives the [first CD] so much substance and so many layers to it because it was written at different times.”