They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Well, American Mafia was born out such necessity. In may 2009, the band holy water released "The collected sessions" (Perris) placing their previously unreleased, but much sought-after music in a legitimate ‘Archive.’ the cd received rave reviews:
"The collected sessions" was originally supposed to be a teaser while Holy Water got busy recording a new album featuring many of the songs they’d written over the years, but never properly recorded. But when original Holy Water vocalist David Knight sadly committed suicide in early 2014, guitarist Tom Jude (ex-Doro Pesch) and bassist Freddy Villano (ex-Quiet riot / Widowmaker) were faced with a dilemma: abandon the project, due to the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of replacing knight, or forge ahead. the duo opted to move forward and "The collected sessions" became holy water’s swan song, rather than teaser.
In 2016, Jude and Villano, along with vocalist Don Chaffin and drummer Bobby Marks, assembled to record a five-song EP follow-up to "Rock n' roll hit machine," aptly titled, "Made in New York".