“Tasmanian Devils” TABERAH begun their life in 2004 and soon became a force to be reckoned with on the live scene from 2006 onwards. In 2011 they were handpicked by Lemmy Kilmister from MOTORHEAD as the opening act on the Sydney leg of their Australian tour.
The band released their debut album “The Light Of Which I Dream” in 2011 and are currently working on their second, “MMXII.” METAL SHOCK FINLAND‘s Blackdiamond recently caught up with guitarist and vocalist Jonathon Barwick, read the interview below:
Hi Jonathon and welcome to Metal Shock Finland! How are you today?
Quite well thank you Ali!
To begin with, can you tell me about the band’s name, as it’s an unusual one, does it have some particular meaning?
It’s Hebrew for ‘ablaze’ – I went looking in the bible, not for all life’s answers, for a band name and found one.
What is happening with the band right now?
We just signed on with a new manager – Axel from a company called Rock n Growl Promotions in Germany. We’re stoked to be working with him and we’re keen to see what he can bring to the table.
You released your debut album “The Light Of Which I Dream” in 2011, how was it received by fans and critics?
Well we obviously did something right because people either LOVE it or HATE it. That’s the way things have always been for us. It’s quite a common thing for a new band in Tasmania to openly trash talk us, it’s all a big ‘joke’ when we see them in person of course.. It’s great! Like I said, we must be doing something right.
You worked with Stu Marshall recently (EMPIRES OF EDEN) from Frontier Studios, what was the reason for this decision?
‘The Light’ sounded great, but to compete with the market you NEED to get your stuff mastered properly – we had neither the funds nor contacts to get The Light mastered – luckily for us Stu LOVED the first album and offered to help in anyway he could with the 2nd.
You’re often labelled as a ‘Power Metal’ band, and it seems you guys aren’t fond of that description?
It’s not that we’re offended – we are all big fans of a few power metal bands. But to label us as that will most likely leave people disappointed when they hear us haha. I’m vocally more influenced by Bon Scott, Mick Jagger and Lemmy as opposed to the big range type guys – so my singing is a bit rough around the edges and really does not compare to the likes of Queensryche or Edguy. So here it is Finland – we are a heavy metal band with a heart of rock n roll.
Photo by Pfeiffers-Photography
The band’s influences are cited as IRON MAIDEN, BLACK SABBATH, THIN LIZZY and QUEEN, lots of British rock and metal, what is it that you all love so much about these and to what extent have they influenced you?
You forgot our biggest influence which is AC/DC! We love them because they are the best. Pure and simple. The lifestyle these bands portray is what we’re all about. Musically we learnt (from them) to keep it simple and have plenty of hooks and always keep your integrity in everything you do.
Can you tell me what TABERAH’s upcoming plans are over the next few months, and longer term, do you have any plans to visit Europe?
We can’t wait to get to Europe! It’s a promised land. The last place on Earth that a band like us can make a good living! Haha but for now we’re working with Axel to get our album to the right ears and we’re saving for maybe some festival runs in Europe 2014.
What is your opinion about today’s rock and metal scene, especially in Australia?
There’s some great bands down here, and some promoters doing great things. But it’s hard when you have concert goers saying “ah I was gonna come but it was raining” haha or a promoter telling you that not enough people came so only the soundman gets paid tonight. It’s a good thing Taberah love music because sometimes music doesn’t love Taberah hahaha, we always have fun though, there’s always a bar open late with good laughs inside or a pool to jump into naked from the 2nd floor – we’re never bored on tour haha.
If you could choose any stage in the world to play a show on, where would it be and why?
Glasgow Apollo – because AC/DC did
Wembley – because Queen did
Hammersmith Odeon – because Motorhead did.
As your final message, what would you like to say to the Metal Shock Finland readers?
Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out Darker Half, Soulforge, Rampage, Lord, Electrik Dynamite and Megahera if you want some quality heavy music in your ears!
MEMBERS OF GOD were born in Italy in April 2009 from an idea of Enzo Donnarumma. The sound that the project aimed to achieve mixes prog- symphonic metal elements with highly researched orchestral lines, quoting also the Jewish folk music scene. Even more sophisticated is the meaning inside the ideology and the texts, strictly linked with Christian metal. Through a passionate theological study, the singer Donnarumma shared with the Pinto brothers the idea of Christ speaking through metal. The band’s current album release is entitled “Ten Talking Words.”
METAL SHOCK FINLAND‘s Ali Blackdiamond recently caught up with the band to find out more:
Hi and welcome to Metal Shock Finland, how are you today?
Hi, we’re really fine thanks. It’s a pleasure and a honor for us to be received on Metal Shock Finland.
For people who do not know MEMBERS OF GOD, can you please tell them about yourselves and your music?
Mmm, sometimes when it’s so easy it’s so hard. Well, it’s better to start with the easy things: we’re musician, we do music for passion, fun and work. Everyone of us started his own musical journey in different ways but in the end we came up loving the same music : Rock and Metal, the progressive side above all. So we do what we love, we play Progressive Metal, with a huge symphonic side, and we added the traditional Jewish Folk music. Our prog is not to be intended as the fast and virtuoso stuff, although we really appreciate it, but as a way of writing and doing music. Yes, we do have strange time signature and fast solos, but the more progressive work is done with melodies, with arrangements, with the lyricism, with the sound. And of course with the lyrics and the themes, and we’re going talk about that.
This is the list of us and our role:
Jesus of Nazareth: Singer and Acoustic Guitars Myriamor: Singer and backing vocals Alex “Uriel” Pinto: Lead Guitars and choirs Gianluca “Jahn” Pinto: Bass Roberto Pinto: Keyboards and Synths Pasquale D’Angioilllo: Drums and Percussion
The hard things : well, we’re musicians, everybody knows that “it’s a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll”
The idealogy of the band is a little more unusual in the world of metal, can you tell me about the process that led to the formation of MEMBERS OF GOD and why you chose Christian metal as your genre?
The project began to take life when Enzo, our singer, felt the need and the duty to share his Faith with everyone, using a very strong way of communication : Metal music. We can say we met on the internet, than we met physically and he proposed us his project. We soon fell in love with the demos and we started to work together really fast. Of course we needed a drummer, because the founding members are the signer, the guitarist, the bassist and the keyboardist (interesting things : guitarist Alex and bassist Jahn are brothers, and keyboardist Rob is their cousin), and so we starting to search for a Drum man.
We didn’t really choose Christian Metal, it was simply the natural outcome of our wish to share our thoughts, our belief. And we want to spend few words about that: It’s not an easy theme to talk about it. But we don’t really feel like prophets or big connoisseur of theological knowledge. Our approach is humble but we feel the duty to give back to Christ’s Words his authentic polemic and provocative essence and soul. His Words has been adapted to a gooder ideology of some religious cults that took His Words to an impractical moralism that will offend Himself.
We dare to say that Christ is Metal, that His message of sweetness/violence is still so much modern, and we believe that who denies His Word didn’t really have the opportunity to know it. We really believe to the promises and the message of the Word of God, we believe that Heaven is here, now. This doesn’t mean, as a lot of people thinks and cults professes, that we reject the good things of life : we love Metal, we love freedom, we love wine, we love tears and joy and every good thing life give us. We’re learning to love how to “give” for the love of it.
This is basically what is in and behind Ten Talking Words, our debut concept album.
How much research goes into the content of your songs and how do you go about writing your material?
There’s a lot of research, but at the same time the contents are spontaneous, because it is just what we are, as person, as Christians, as musicians. Our writing is meticulous in the orchestral arrangements, is violent in the timing, with hard metal riffs. It is sweet in the melodies, sometimes rude. But the most important aspect of our writing is that it comes up after the words. Music for the words, just like Monteverdi said. We internalize the stories, the lyrics, and we just give musical life to them. It may sounds factitious but to us it is just so spontaneous. Anyway we also work on single ideas, but we don’t really say our songs can be attributed to a single member. Our songs are the songs of Members of God.
The band’s influences are quite main stream in the genre of metal, for example: Alice Cooper, Deep Purple and Nightwish. As your music is so different, to what extent do those musicians influence you as a band?
Deep Purple really doesn’t appear in our music, but we mention them for the respect we have for their music and their role in Rock Music.
Alice Cooper is a great musician, who give an huge attention to the live aspect: he is not only a musician, but a phenomenal actor and frontman, his live are just spectacular and emotional.
Nightwish are a symphonic metal band. Although our orchestral lines are so different compared to their we know they did and do a great job in the metal scenes. Purist may be annoyed reading these lines, but to us they are a strong and really good band.
And hey, we have a female singer (Miryamor) who loves, as we love too, the voice of Tarja Turunen, ex Nightwish singer.
Your debut album “Ten Talking Words” was released last year, what kind of reaction has it received so far?
A really good reaction. We’ve honestly expected a good reaction, because of the love, passion Faith and work we put in Ten Talking Words, but it goes even better, we’re proud of it. But what we’re happy for is that a lot of people not only liked our music, but started to get into our message, that is what we’re playing for. Of course as a band we need time, more experience, more live shows, more fans, more persons who wants to change their lives, but we believe this is going to come if we follow His path and will.
Can you tell me more about the songs on the album and do you have a favourite?
Our concept album is made of 17 songs, 7 of which are intros, outro, interludes and preludes.
Ten songs, Ten Talking Words, Ten Commandments. Our songs are not long as most of progressive metal songs. We had our space and time for instrumental craziness and solos, but we tried not to lost the sense, the message into infinite notes and long stuff (still long life to Dream Theater, one of our biggest influence with Shadow Gallery).
We fuse Prog Metal aspects with Classical Elements, quoting the Jewish Folk Music, with the use of ethnic instruments of that area. You can really hear all of that in “Don’t Murder”, that is not our favourite song (we can’t choose a single one, it is all a single thing), but it is the song that sums up all the aspects of what Members of God are.
What was the hardest moment in the band’s history, and how was it resolved?
The research of a drummer. We could spend so many words about that that a book will not be enough. We changed more than ten drummers, for various motivations. How do we resolve that? It’s pretty easy : With Faith.
You describe your live shows as “fusing the energy of metal with intense and significant representation of iconographic and mystical items, in a very original way.” Can you tell the readers about the MEMBERS OF GOD live experience?
What we want to do, what we propose is a Metal concert in every aspects, but also a theatrical shows. People need to listen but also to see, and we give them what we thing they need. Just thinks about Alice Cooper, or Rammstein, they do great live shows. They involve people on every side. Our live are theatrical not only to look cool, but to give strength to our message, to let people see that Faith is not suffer and reject of life, but joy, energy, passion, love.
Do you have any plans to play shows in Finland?
Actually we don’t, but it will great and we’re looking forward to it. Sure Members of God will be in Finland, and we’re expecting you to be in the first lines just under the stage!
What are your aims for the band over the next 10 years and what is next for MEMBERS OF GOD?
This is a good question. People singing your songs while you’re playing for them, people enjoying your music, people sharing Christ’s Words and Message, people feeling happy to believe, to live this wonderful life, this divine gift. That is what we expect.
We’re now working on a second album, and we can’t wait to get in the studio for the recordings. We have a lot of material and stuff for the next album. We’re also programming a live tour, just stay tuned for our news.
Please feel free to leave a final message for your fans and the METAL SHOCK FINLAND readers.
Of course we want to thank our followers, who’re giving great moments to us.
We want to thank Metal Shock Finland for the space, the time and the cordiality showed us.
Thanks to the over 30 000 people (monthly) all around the world who read about us on Metal Shock Finland.
And thanks to God, for His immense Love.
Greetings from Italy,
Members of God.
Thanks for your time!
Check out the new video for “It’s Saturday” below:
Ali Blackdiamond of Bloodstock Radio conducted an interview last night with guitarist Mark Jansen of Dutch symphonic metallers EPICA for her “Metal Mayhem” show. You can listen to the chat using in the SoundCloud player below.
Regarding EPICA‘s U.K. tour, which starts today (December 11) in Nottingham, Mark said: “My feeling is it’s about time we return again. The last time we were there was already two years ago. We had lots of fans asking, ‘When are you coming back?’ I’m really looking forward to it. There are more dates this time. I have no idea what to expect, but the pre-sales look pretty good! What I like most about touring is the sightseeing part, meeting new people and the new cultures and of course the live show and interaction with the fans.”
Mark had the following to say about EPICA‘s upcoming tenth-anniversary show, “Retrospect”, which will take place in March 2013 in Eindhoven, Holland: “We’re hoping to record a DVD out of it, but [we're] not sure yet. Now it’s all progressed and we have enough to invest for the show. We sold lots of tickets. It’ll be a big production and we have a great live engineer who plans to make it a very special event out of this. If he can realize what he has in mind, it will be something we’ve never done before.”
Blackdiamond‘s “Metal Mayhem” airs every Tuesday between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. (noon) on www.bloodstockradio.com.
“Retrospect” will be EPICA‘s most ambitious project to date, joined by a 70-piece symphonic orchestra and choir, international guests and lots of special effects.
Specially for this show, EPICA will be joined by the Hungarian Extended Remenyi Ede Chamber Orchestra and Choir of Miskolc National Theatre, the same orchestra and choir with whom EPICA recorded the highly acclaimed live album “The Classical Conspiracy”. This anniversary show will be a “Retrospect” on EPICA‘s career and will contain all trademark elements you can expect from EPICA.
EPICA‘s fifth full-length album, “Requiem For The Indifferent”, sold 4,800 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 104 on The Billboard 200 chart.
“Requiem For The Indifferent” was released on March 9 in Europe and four days later in North America via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD was recorded at Gate Studio in Wolfsburg, Germany under the watchful eye of Sascha Paeth.
Steve ‘Dobby’ Dawson is the legendary ex-SAXON bass player, one of the originators of the Yorkshire band who rose to fame during the NWOBHM period. He has since formed OLIVER DAWSON SAXON with Graham Oliver and earlier this year they released their album ‘Motorbiker’ through Angel Air Records.
I recently had a chat with Steve, where he discussed everything from the band, touring tales and snow, to his and Graham’s new book, soon to be released – ‘Saxon, Drugs And Rock ‘N’ Roll – The Real Spinal Tap.’
Steve Dawson Oliver Dawson Saxon 2011
You can listen to the full interview on the player below. Here are a couple of excerpts from our chat:
When discussing new material and releases, Steve had this to say:
‘Myself, Graham, Haydn Conway, Pete Gill and Ted Bullet made a record called ‘Victim You‘ under the name ‘SON OF A BITCH‘. It has just been re-mastered and re-packaged and will be released on Angel Air Records on Monday 17th September. There may be a follow up too.’
Talking about music being available on the internet, Steve expressed:
‘The internet has been good and bad for rock music. It’s great to get your music out there, you don’t have to ask anybody, any band can record some music and put it out there. The only bad side has been pirating CD’s and DVD’s – it’s ok if you’re the one bootlegging it, but if you’re the person who created it, you’re not getting any money to create another one. Now Pirate Bay has gone it might get better for bands like us. We don’t spend our money on drugs, champagne or hookers, we actually put money into making more music.’
Today 29th August our beloved Senior Manager/Utilifest Manager Ali Blackdiamond celebrates her birthday, and our Staff wants to wish her a marvellous day! Some of our Staff-members have a personal message for you, Ali…
Tarja Virmakari, Founder, President and CEO: Ali, my friend, I’m so honored to have you in our team! You are a natural talent and full of energy and inspiration, our real sunshine! Go for it Girl, and have a huge big slice of Bday cake also for me . Enjoy your day, you deserve it! Have a Happy Birthday! Cheers! xx
Mohsen Fayyazi, Editor-In-Chief: Talented indeed, Blackdiamond is one our best staff and I’m proud of knowing her. Long live Ali Blackdiamond!
Dylan Raine, MSF Review Manager: Ali, your fighting force and commitment is an inspiration to us all. Happy Birthday.
Diane Parkes: Happy Birthday Ali…..my dear Mum was SO right about you and how special you would become in my life….because you are a very special person smile xx … believe me guys Ali WILL know what that means lol
David Pearce: Happy Birthday Ali, you are an inspiration to me & everyone you meet. You are so caring and such lovely person i hope you have the greatest birthday ever today.
The scene was set, I was in position at the front of the crowd on the blisteringly hot Friday afternoon of Bloodstock 2012. I wanted to ensure the best possible view of the stage for my first live experience of the powerful American metallers and what a metal onslaught it turned out to be!
ICED EARTH certainly drew a big crowd for 3.15pm, demonstrating their popularity among the UK crowd. Drummer Brent Smedley was first onstage and began pounding his bass drum and getting the crowd clapping as the other members joined him.
Vocalist Stu Block announced how happy he was to be at Bloodstock, his first European festival and was ecstatic to be ‘popping his festival cherry’ with us! Stu gave several speeches throughout the set with an enthusiastic response from the crowd. He is certainly a great choice as the new ICED EARTH front man: he has a great stage presence, is an expert in working the crowd and above all, has one awesome metal voice!
Luke Appleton looked to have settled extremely well into his role as bass player, as though he has always been there, looking very happy to be so.
The band were all dressed in the traditional ‘metal’ style, with their customised jeans and cut off denims complete with back patches, very cool!
So, to the music! From the first song ‘Dystopia‘ from the latest album of the same name, the band played a storming set in the hour they had, including such classics as ‘My Own Saviour,’ and the very emotional ’Watching Over Me ‘ ( Something Wicked This way Comes, 1998) and ‘Damien‘ (The Horror Show, 2001). ‘Watching Over Me‘ was particularly poignant with Stu explaining that Jon had written it for his friend who passed away, the emotion was palpable and there was a huge response afterwards from the crowd.
One of Stu’s rousing speeches took place before ‘Anthem‘ (Dystopia, 2011): ‘Now let’s talk about the human spirit, there’s a lot of it in this room. On this new album we were talking about a lot of the negative things happening in the world today, like politicians stealing the fuckin’ money right out of our back pockets, cancer killing our loved ones. But no matter what shit we have to go through, our human spirit will prevail, no matter what they throw at us, can I have a fuckin’ hell yeah?!‘ And he certainly got one!
Nobody could miss Jon Schaffer’s commanding presence with his trademark bandana in place, providing the solid guitar sound and backing vocals along with the riffs of Troy Steele. Pounding away with amazing precision and speed on the twin bass drums was Brent Smedley. Newcomer Luke Appleton did an amazing job on bass and Stu Block’s vocal style is diverse with screams to rival (dare I say ‘maybe better than’ these days?!) metal god Rob Halford. Those notes he hit were amazing!
I could see the harmony between every member of the band, there were lots of smiles between them as they gave us a fantastic metal performance. Their enjoyment was plain to see and transferred to the atmosphere in the crowd, everyone was having a great time during the one hour long set. The band were as slick as a well oiled metal machine and it was the best show of the day for me, I can’t wait until the next time!
Setlist
Dystopia
Burning Times
Angel’s Holocaust
Slave To The Dark
Watching Over Me
V
My Own Saviour
Anthem
Boiling Point
Damien
Iced Earth
Stu Block, Iced Earth Bloodstock Open Air, 10/08/12
Jon Schaffer, Iced Earth Bloodstock Open Air, 10/08/12
Metal Scent are from Israel and were formed about 7 years ago. Their third album ‘Homemade’ was released in October 2011 and is their first album to include all original material.
They have progressed a lot with this album as their first one in 2005 consisted of Middle Eastern hit songs recomposed into metal versions. The second album consisted of American hit songs from the 1960′s rearranged into metal versions with Middle Eastern influences.
The band launch into the first track ‘Never Too Late’ with their melodic power metal style and Rami’s strong vocals are striking alongside the catchy riffs, which keep going at a fast pace throughout the song. It’s a great rock song and made me want to listen to more.
‘Hold On’ is one of the best tracks for me – the song delivers a very catchy hook and there is a great chugging riff throughout. The drumming provides a solid heavy beat and there is a great melodic guitar solo. Again the powerful vocals with a raw edge complete the song, making what I feel to be the most commercially viable song on the album.
‘Silks Of White’ is the fifth track of the album which starts with a nice heavy riff, then Rami’s rocking vocals kick in. The song has a Middle Eastern atmosphere in places which bring a nice different feel to it. Shahar’s solid thumping bass line is strong and there is some great double bass drumming from Ronen.
‘Riders Of The Night’ evokes a classic ’90′s power metal vibe for me, it’s a really catchy song to sing along to! Rami’s powerful metal vocals rage throughout this melodic song.
The last track of this fifteen song album is ‘Time Has Come’ which has a very familiar intro to it. It’s a very anthemic feel good ‘lighters in the air’ type song and one which a lot of people would do well to take note of the uplifting lyrics – ‘ Why can’t we all live together, live in peace and harmony’. There is some nice melodic acoustic guitar included and the song clearly demonstates the range of Rami’s vocal abilities. I really like this song with its happy and relaxed feel.
On the whole, ‘Homemade’ is a great melodic album with a lot of strengths and positive points and one I wouldn’t tire of listening to. I feel it is slightly long with 15 tracks and some songs are a little similar to each other, but having said that it is a very enjoyable album that rocks!
. Enjoy your day, you deserve it! Have a Happy Birthday! Cheers! 
