LoudGuitars.com has recently conducted a video interview with Guitarists MARTY FRIEDMAN (ex-MEGADETH) and YOSSI SASSI (ORPHANED LAND) on their European tour this October. Check the videos below.
Marty Friedman
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Source: Bravewords.com
Guitarist MARTY FRIEDMAN (ex-MEGADETH) performed at Divan du Monde in Paris, France on October 15th with France’s Stéphan Forté (ADAGIO) and Israel’s Yossi Sassi (ORPHANED LAND). Footage from the gig is available below:
The tour schedule is now as follows:
October
23 – Montpellier, France – Secret Place
24 – Toulon, France – Le Vox
25 – Prato, Italy – Keller Platz
26 – Milan, Italy – Carlito’s Way
Source: Blabbermouth.net
Video footage of former Marty Friedman‘s October 10 performance at de Boerderij in Zoetermeer, The Netherlands during the “Guitar Universe 2012″ European tour with Israel’s Yossi Sassi (ORPHANED LAND) and France’s Stéphan Forté (ADAGIO) can be seen below.
After reissuing three acclaimed recent studio albums by Friedman over the summer, Prosthetic Records is excited to now introduce North American audiences to the former MEGADETH and CACOPHONY axeman’s two “Tokyo Jukebox” albums. Released in Japan in 2009 and 2011, respectively, “Tokyo Jukebox” and “Tokyo Jukebox 2″ — the ninth and eleventh chapters in Friedman‘s influential solo discography — will make their U.S. debuts on November 20 as a limited-edition, specially priced 2CD release featuring artwork exclusive to this pressing and new liner notes by Friedman himself. The double album is now available for pre-order.
Soon after leaving MEGADETH following a 10-year run in which the iconic band sold some 10 million albums worldwide, Friedman — perhaps the most revered lead guitarist in thrash metal history — moved to Japan, where over the past decade he became a household name. Between his solo releases and collaborations with Japanese stars, he has played on and written numerous Top 10 hits (including two No. 1s); he has also made hundreds of appearances on mainstream Japanese television and performed at legendary venues such as Budokan and the Tokyo Dome.
“Tokyo Jukebox” and “Tokyo Jukebox 2″ feature energetic instrumental covers of Japanese pop (J-Pop) songs that can be enjoyed by anyone with a sweet tooth for melody, and capture Friedman‘s passion for the music of his adopted home country — although, as he warns in the liner notes for this release, “I took the liberty of destroying and reconstructing them my own way.” In the below video (which has been posted at Prosthetic‘s newly-launched Friedman mini-site, where additional “Tokyo Jukebox”-related videos will be unveiled in the coming weeks), Friedman further describes the collection, calling it some of the heaviest and best work of his career.
Featuring Jeremy Colson (STEVE VAI, BILLY IDOL) on drums, “Tokyo Jukebox” features reconstructed covers of J-Pop and J-Rock hits selected by readers of Japan’s top entertainment magazine. “Tokyo Jukebox 2″, meanwhile, was recorded in Los Angeles at The Village (AEROSMITH, KISS), and features guest performances by Jason Bittner (SHADOWS FALL) and Keshav Dhar (SKYHARBOR). The albums feature tracks originally performed by acclaimed Japanese acts such as MR. CHILDREN, SMAP, PERFUME and MAXIMUM THE HORMONE.
Source: Bravewords.com
After reissuing three recent studio albums by legendary hard rock/heavy metal guitarist MARTY FRIEDMAN over the summer, Prosthetic Records will now introduce North American audiences to the former MEGADETH and CACOPHONY guitarist’s two Tokyo Jukebox albums. Released in Japan in 2009 and 2011, respectively, Tokyo Jukebox Vols. 1 & 2 – the 9th and 11th chapters in Friedman’s influential solo discography – will make their North American debuts on November 20th as a limited-edition, specially-priced 2CD release featuring artwork exclusive to this pressing and new liner notes by Friedman himself. The double-album is now available for pre-order.
Soon after leaving Megadeth following a 10-year run in which the iconic band sold some 10 million albums worldwide, Friedman – perhaps the most revered lead guitarist in thrash metal history – moved to Japan, where over the past decade he became a household name. Between his solo releases and collaborations with Japanese stars, he has played on and written numerous Top 10 hits (including two #1′s); he has also made hundreds of appearances on mainstream Japanese television and performed at legendary venues such as Budokan and the Tokyo Dome.
Tokyo Jukebox Vols. 1 & 2 feature energetic instrumental covers of Japanese pop (J-pop) songs that can be enjoyed by anyone with a sweet tooth for melody, and capture Friedman’s passion for the music of his adopted home country – although, as he warns in the liner notes for this release, “I took the liberty of destroying and reconstructing them my own way.”
In the below video (which has been posted at Prosthetic’s newly-launched Friedman mini-site, where additional Tokyo Jukebox-related videos will be unveiled in the coming weeks), Friedman further describes the collection, calling it some of the heaviest and best work of his career:
Featuring Jeremy Colson (STEVE VAI, BILLY IDOL) on drums, the self-produced and self-arranged Tokyo Jukebox features reconstructed covers of J-pop and J-Rock hits selected by readers of Japan’s top entertainment magazine. Tokyo Jukebox 2, meanwhile, was recorded in Los Angeles at The Village (AEROSMITH, KISS), and features guest performances by Jason Bittner (SHADOWS FALL) and Keshav Dhar (SKYHARBOR). The albums feature tracks originally performed by acclaimed Japanese acts such as MR. CHILDREN, SMAP, PERFUME and MAXIMUM THE HORMONE.
Friedman recently announced a string of European tour dates with YOSSI SASSI and STEPHAN FORTE as support. Tickets for the six upcoming shows are on sale now at this location.
The complete tour schedule is as follows:
October
9 – Colmar, France – Le Grillen
10 – Zoetermeer, Holland – Boerderij
12 – London, UK – Underworld
13 – Dublin, Ireland – The Village
15 – Paris, France – Divan du Monde
16 – Nantes, France – Le Ferrailleur
17 – Bilbao, Spain – Kafe Antzokia
19 – Lisbon, Portugal – Side B
20 – Madrid, Spain – Ramdall
21 – Barcelona, Spain – Salamandra
22 – Toulouse, France – Connexion Live
23 – Montpellier, France – Secret Place
24 – Toulon, France – Le Vox
25 – Prato, Italy – Keller Platz
26 – Milan, Italy – Carlito’s Way
Friedman issued the following message regarding the tour:
“Yossi and I became friends on my 2011 solo tour, we came up with the idea of putting together a concert tour with decidedly unique and exotic guitarists, each from a different part of the world with their own ethnic sound and approach to their music. I didn`t know just how cool Middle Eastern flavors could mix with amazing rock guitar playing until I heard Yossi Sassi, I was quite impressed. Stephan Forte will give you an idea what an absolute guitar wizard from France sounds like. The tour will happen in October and everyone is in for a once in a lifetime collection of artists from separate corners of the world, and a truly inspiring treat.”
Former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman will embark on the “Guitar Universe 2012″ European tour in October. Support on the trek will come from Israel’s Yossi Sassi (ORPHANED LAND) and France’s Stéphan Forté (ADAGIO).
Commented Marty: “Yossi and I became friends on my 2011 solo tour. We came up with the idea of putting together a concert tour with decidedly unique and exotic guitarists, each from a different part of the world with their own ethnic sound and approach to their music.
“I didn’t know just how cool Middle Eastern flavors could mix with amazing rock guitar playing until I heard Yossi Sassi. I was quite impressed.
“Stéphan Forté will give you an idea what an absolute guitar wizard from France sounds like.
“The tour will happen in October and everyone is in for a once-in-a-lifetime collection of artists from separate corners of the world, and a truly inspiring treat.”
The dates are as follows:
Oct. 09 – Colmar, France – Le Grillen
Oct. 10 – Zoetermeer, Holland – Boerderij
Oct. 12 – London, UK – Underworld
Oct. 13 – Dublin, Ireland – The Village
Oct. 15 – Paris, France – Divan du Monde
Oct. 16 – Nantes, France – Le Ferrailleur
Oct. 17 – Bilbao, Spain – Kafe Antzokia
Oct. 19 – Lisbon, Portugal – Side B
Oct. 20 – Madrid, Spain – Ramdall
Oct. 21 – Barcelona, Spain – Salamandra
Oct. 22 – Toulouse, France – Connexion Live
Oct. 23 – Montpellier, France – Secret Place
Oct. 24 – Toulon, France – Le Vox
Oct. 25 – Prato, Italy – Keller Platz
Oct. 26 – Milan, Italy – Carlito’s Way
As previously reported, three recent albums by Marty Friedman — whose groundbreaking work with MEGADETH and CACOPHONY continues to receive international acclaim to this day — will be released in North America by Prosthetic Records on August 14. Two of the titles — 2010′s “Bad D.N.A.” and 2008′s “Future Addict” — have until this year only been available in Japan, where Friedman now lives, while 2006′s acclaimed “Loudspeaker”, originally released Stateside by Shrapnel Records, will be made available domestically once again. You can head over to the Prosthetic store now to pre-order a bundle consisting of all three titles.
Friedman rose to prominence when he co-founded the revolutionary guitar band CACOPHONY with his friend Jason Becker. From there, he joined metal legends MEGADETH in 1990, who would soon go on to write and record the thrash metal classic “Rust In Peace”. Throughout his decade-long stint with the iconic group, during which the band sold 10 million albums worldwide, aside from lending his unmistakable “exotic” sound to the band, Friedman co-wrote the music to several notable songs, including the title track to the multi-platinum “Countdown To Extinction”, “Youthanasia”‘s fierce opening statement “Reckoning Day” and “Cryptic Writings”‘ haunting “Trust”.
During his tenures with MEGADETH and CACOPHONY, Friedman recorded four solo albums for the seminal guitar label Shrapnel Records. He continued making solo albums after he left MEGADETH in 2000, releasing seven — including “Music For Speeding”, which was released in the U.S. by Steve Vai‘s Favored Nations in 2003 and supported by an American tour alongside Chris Poland and Alex Skolnick — over the past decade alone. Until now, most of those releases have been unavailable outside of Japan, where Friedman moved in 2003.
In Japan, Friedman became an enigma of sorts: Armed with a fluency in the Japanese language, he left a platinum-selling American band to start from nearly zero to pursue his longtime dream of becoming a unique part of the Japanese domestic music world. That mission was accomplished, for between his solo releases and works with Japanese musicians, Friedman has performed at the largest venues in Asia, including three shows at Budokan, and played on and wrote several Japanese Top 10 hits, including a #1 single in 2011 and a #3 single in 2012.
At the same time, Friedman also became a popular Japanese television personality who not only hosted several programs, but was even featured in national ad campaigns for Fanta and Sumitomo Bank. He estimates he has made well over 400 network TV appearances in Japan, including three televised sold-out solo performances with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Although Friedman has focused on his Japanese music career for the past several years, he has recently remained active in the international metal scene by guesting on albums by the likes of Jeff Loomis, SKYHARBOR and FIREWIND; by voicing the character of “Mr. Gojira” on Cartoon Network‘s “Metalocalypse”; and through periodic tours outside of Japan, including a 22-country European trek with his solo band last year.
Yossi Sassi will release his debut solo album, “Melting Clocks”, in the U.S. and Canada via End Of The Light Records, with distribution through DisManic and eOne Distribution.
“Melting Clocks” was released in other parts of the world in March via Verycords. The CD, which was produced and composed by Sassi, features guest appearances by several known musicians, including former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman.
Familiar to numerous music fans all over the world by his unique trademarked signature sound, Sassi blends east with west, rock with world music, melodic tunes with progressive passages, and traditional folk instruments with roaring electric riffs.
With over 20 years of experience as a producer, composer/arranger and founding member of ORPHANED LAND, Yossi continues to soar to new horizons.
Yossi is known for being the constant explorer of sound and musical boundaries, driving inspiration from different cultures around the world. Yossi plays 17 (!) different types of guitars and traditional instruments, and has been invited to play live and share the stage with artists such as METALLICA, Marty Friedman, Steven Wilson, Yehuda Poliker and many others.
Yossi has cooperated and recorded with artists from Kuwait to Portugal. He is a veteran performing artist, with hundreds of global shows and major festivals in his record.
“The Shadows Compendium”, the first instrumental solo album from Stéphan Forté, was released in North America on February 28 via Listenable Records. The CD, which came out in Europe in November, was mixed by Kevin Codfert at XFade studio in Paris, France. Stéphan and Kevin previously worked together on the production of ADAGIO‘s fourth album, “Archangels In Black”.
“The Shadows Compendium” features several other guests, such as Jeff Loomis, Glen Drover, Daniele Gottardo and Derek Taylor.
Stéphan previously stated about “The Shadows Compendium”, “When I decided to record this album, it was obvious that I wanted to work with Kevin again. We both know each other so well that sometimes we don’t even need to talk while mixing. Kev knows perfectly what I want and I am 100 percent happy with the mix he did on this album. It has been a real work in common since not only he mixed it, but also did the drums programming and, of course, played all the keyboards and piano. On the bass, same thing — it was clear that Franck [Hermanny] would do the bass. He is one of the most skilled bass player I know in metal, he is in ADAGIO with me since day one and just like Kevin, he’s one of my best friends, so it could not have been done differently!”
Source: Blabbermouth.net
Aniruddh “Andrew” Bansal of Metal Assault recently conducted an interview with former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Metal Assault: First of all, let’s talk about the North American release of three of your albums, out of which “Future Addict” and “Bad D.N.A.” are being released Stateside for the first time ever. Why did it take you so long to decide on a North America release for these albums? Were you just waiting for the right record deal?
Marty: As much as I wanted everyone in the U.S. to hear my latest music, I was in no rush to release them just for the sake of releasing them. It had to be done by a company who understands my music and sees potential in it that I might not see myself. The fine people at Prosthetic blew me away with their enthusiasm towards these records, so I was happy to have them do the releases.
Metal Assault: Of late, the general opinion amongst your fans has been, “MARTY FRIEDMAN cares only about his Japanese fan base. He doesn’t think about other fans anymore.” Do you hope that these releases would finally put an end to this misconception?
Marty: That would be nice. I have the same amount of love for any fan of my music, wherever they are. When I came to Japan, things went a whole lot better for me than I ever would have expected. I got year-long TV commitments and some big projects, so there wound up being no time left over to make the rest of the world a priority anymore. I would make an effort once in a while and do short tours and events outside of Japan, and the fans there were just fantastic. I had an awesome time. Those shows planted the seed for me to seriously do more stuff outside of Japan.
Metal Assault: It’s well known that you’re a mainstream musician in Japan. But when you first moved there, how much time did it take you to achieve that level of recognition?
Marty: I was very lucky to start touring and recording almost immediately with a J-Pop legend, Aikawa Nanase. That opened some doors to a lot of new things musically, but doing TV really took me into the mainstream more than anything. I hadn’t planned on that.
Metal Assault: Musicians in metal bands mostly stay away from the mainstream styles of music, but you’re an exception to that, as you are getting to experience the mainstream in Japan. When that first happened, did it change your perception about music and make you relatively open-minded as compared to the average metal guitarist?
Marty: If I’m anything at all, I’m open minded, even to a fault, if that is possible. Sometimes in the metal world, people pride themselves on being underground, I get it, and that’s fine, but I’m not like that at all, and I don’t care about any movement. My goal is to make music I love, as best as I can, and to have as many people enjoy it as possible.
Read the entire interview from Metal Assault.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
Christian metallers TOURNIQUET will release a new album, “Antiseptic Bloodbath”, this summer via Pathogenic Records. The CD will feature guest guitar solos by Marty Friedman (ex-MEGADETH), Karl Sanders (NILE), Pat Travers, Bruce Franklin (TROUBLE) and Santiago Dobles (AGHORA).
A teaser trailer for the CD can be seen below. Also available is the album’s cover artwork, which was created by Travis Smith of Seempieces (OPETH, DEVIN TOWNSEND, NEVERMORE, ICED EARTH, DEATH, AMORPHIS).
Commented TOURNIQUET: “The title track, ‘Antiseptic Bloodbath’, speaks of the way our society prefers to sanitize brutality. We can have our tidy Christian faith, or continue with no faith at all, as long as we don’t consider the painful bloody price that was paid for us.
“We use animals for our food, profit, and amusement, but would rather not know about the needless, often systematic suffering that is inflicted on them by a callous and greedy humanity. ‘Don’t upset my comfort zone — brutal truth, leave me alone.’ The great news is that we have the ability to choose. This album encourages us to make good and humane choices in our daily lives that reflect these images.”
TOURNIQUET‘s last studio release, 2003′s “Where Moth and Rust Destroy” (Metal Blade), featured special guest appearances by guitarists Marty Friedman (ex-MEGADETH) and Bruce Franklin (TROUBLE).
Source: Blabbermouth.net
Niclas Müller-Hansen of Sweden’s Metalshrine recently conducted an interview with former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Metalshrine: Have you stayed in touch with [MEGADETH mainman] Dave Mustaine and the other guys through the years?
Friedman: Not all that much. Not really that much, but not zero. We’ve been in touch a few times and it’s very friendly and I have no problem in the world with them and wish them nothing but success and hopefully they feel the same.
Metalshrine: Have you listened to any of the stuff they did after you left?
Friedman: Actually, I heard the one record they made right after I left and that’s the last most recent thing I heard of theirs. That’s about it, really.
Metalshrine: I read that one of the reasons that you left was that MEGADETH wasn’t aggressive enough. Is that true?
Friedman: Oh yes, that’s totally true. Totally, totally true. At the time when I left it was the beginning of 2000, but I actually told the guys that I was gonna leave in the middle of ’99, but that’s another story. I left in 2000 and at that time every other band was just about a thousand times more aggressive than we were. At the time you had, I guess, KORN and MARILYN MANSON and even LIMP BIZKIT had stuff that was deeply heavy and our stuff just sounded thin and small and to my ear it just sounded really dated and very old-fashioned and traditional. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of those things and in fact a lot of people who are into heavy metal really like that traditional sound and don’t want it to change, so that’s a very valid point and I understand it, especially since I’ve been a RAMONES fan since I was a baby. When they changed just the slightest thing, I got all crazy, so I understand that, but with a name like MEGADETH and all the other bands are just blowing you away with this big deep heavy sound that is way scarier and way harder and more aggressive than a band called MEGADETH, it was not turning me on anymore. I was like, “Let’s do one thing or the other! Let’s either get friggin’ heavier or let’s just be a little bit more marketable, because right now, we’re kind of an underground band and we shouldn’t be. We’ve got so much great potential within the four members of the band that we shouldn’t be an underground traditional metal band.” That’s not where I wanted to go, but maybe that’s where they wanted to go. It was just a completely musical decision why I left the band and it had absolutely nothing to do with any personal problems. I was just seeing all these other bands and I love aggressive music, but it’s gotta be really fucking aggressive. I hear stuff now like DECAPITATED and stuff like that. I would’ve wanted to play stuff more in that vein than what we were doing. I thought, maybe our first couple of records when I joined the band were kind of aggressive for that time, but there was so much stuff after it that I would say was trumping us in that department. I know music’s not a competition and I wasn’t competing, but I just thought that other bands were doing what I thought we should do better. I don’t know why we were always in the mid-tempo kind of ’80s thrash metal zone and we were all beyond that, but that’s really what I meant back then and I totally meant it.
Metalshrine: About doing something different, did you listen to METALLICA‘s “Lulu” project?
Friedman: Ahhh, I think I heard one song where Lou Reed is, like, talking or something. I didn’t listen to it thinking that I was gonna be asked about it, I just remember, “What’s this?” Was he rapping or was it spoken-word?
Metalshrine: Yeah, I guess it’s more like spoken-word throughout the album.
Friedman: Yeah, I don’t know. I have no idea.
Metalshrine: But as a musician, could you see yourself doing something that’s totally different from what you’ve done before in a way to push things forward?
Friedman: I absolutely believe it and I absolutely get it and I understand it. The thing with METALLICA is that they’re such a great band and they’ve got so much great stuff already in their history, that they could just like fart on a record and people would at least wanna see why they’re doing it, you know. They’ve got so much great stuff and they’re allowed to be experimental if they want. I have a lot of weird trippy stuff that I haven’t released that maybe if I was in a band like METALLICA, I would have the opportunity to release it, but I kinda keep my stuff a little bit more to how I’d like to represent myself, but I think all musicians have a lot of experimental stuff and that’s how you grow. I give them total props and total credit for always being experimental and that’s why they’re always one step ahead of the curve in the world of heavy metal and that’s why they’re like THE ROLLING STONES of heavy metal. They’ve always continued to reinvent themselves while keeping that great sound, but I can’t really speak for that whole “Lulu” album. I don’t think they’re gonna lose fans with it, but they have fans of their old stuff who are not gonna like it as much most likely, but if they like it, that’s all that matters. It really is. Especially when you have a history of success behind you. It takes balls to do something that you know your hardcore fans are not gonna like. It’s easy to preach to the converted. It’s easy to do that and it’s fun to do it because everyone’s gonna love you and it’s great, but it takes balls to take a risk and even more balls to do it in public and release it so I give them credit.
Read the entire interview from Metalshrine. Source: Blabbermouth.net
According to an update at his official website, former MEGADETH guitarist MARTY FRIEDMAN’s two most recent albums, BAD D.N.A. and Tokyo Jukebox 2 will be released in Europe as a deluxe two-disc set.
The site adds: “The set will feature an all new design and booklet as well as a bonus track (not available elsewhere), the Guitar Karaoke Version of the song, ‘Bad D.N.A.’, so for the first time you can hear in detail everything that is going on underneath Marty’s lead guitar, and add some yourself if you are so inclined. This is the first ‘backing track’ Marty has released outside of Japan.”
The European release will be through Verycords, a French label with distribution by Warner Bros. The release dates are May 7th in France and the UK and May 11th in the rest of Europe.
Source: Bravewords
Familiar to numerous music fans by his unique trademark sound signature, YOSSI SASSI (distributed by Verycords/Warner Music) blends East with West, Rock with World music, melodic tunes with progressive passages, and traditional folk instruments with roaring electric riffs. With over 20 years as Producer, Composer/Arranger and Founding member of “Orphaned Land” (Century Media USA / EMI), the worldwide pioneers of middle-eastern metal, Yossi Sassi, Orphaned Land’s guitarist and composer, continues to soar to new horizons. His debut solo album, “Melting Clocks”, came out on february 2012, featuring world-known musicians such as Marty Friedman.
Recently MSFinland‘s Kostya Aronberg had a chance to interview Yossi…
1. Hey, Yossi. Welcome to Metal Shock Finland.
Kiitos!
2. Many people know you as the guitarist of Orphaned land. Can you tell us about how you actually joined the band, and the years before Orphaned Land became such a success?
I am a founding member of “Orphaned Land”, actually before it was even called this name, almost 21 years ago we set sails to pioneer middle-eastern metal. I was a teenager with a roaring guitar and an endless appetite for riffs. the rest is history.
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