Under The Black Sun Festival, set to take place on June 29th – July 1st, is still busy to enlarge the billing for it’s anniversary edition in 2017. Recently CRYFEMAL, STREAMS OF BLOOD and HETROERTZEN were confirmed, now another underground hilight is ready: MONARQUE from Canada will enter the stage at the woods outside from Berlin next year.
The current billing for Under The Black Sun 2017 looks like this:
CRYFEMAL
DARKENED NOCTURN SLAUGHTERCULT
HETROERTZEN
INFERNO
KULT
NOCTURNAL DEPRESSION
STREAMS OF BLOOD
THE RUINS OF BEVERAST
A KILLERS CONFESSION, the new project of former Mushroomhead vocalist Waylon Reavis, has released a 1:30 studio teaser of their debut single “A Killer’s Confession” on REVERBNATION. The single, which will be released on Halloween, comes from the debut full-length, “Unbroken”, being released in early 2017 on (Megadeth bassist David Ellefson’s) EMP Label Group.
Due to overwhelming fan interest, AKC has also announced an “Early Bird” CD and LP Pre-order, available now from empmerch.com.
From Waylon Reavis Facebook: “We got SO many of you blowing us up in comments and messages this week asking if you can pre-order #UNBROKEN, or how to support it being made, that we talked to EMP (Label Group), and decided to launch a special early bird pre-order that is available NOW! So RIGHT NOW you can pre-order CD or LP versions of #UNBROKEN, and get the “A Killer’s Confession” single on 10/29, 2 days before it hits online retailers. Thank you so much for your support, it means the World to us. #AKC #UNBROKEN.”
REAVIS livestreamed on FACEBOOK live from Third Sky Studios in Richmond, KY this weekend, and gave fans a preview of the track and announced the single and pre-order. It was also announced that album art for UNBROKEN is being done by legendary horror artist “Mister Sam” Shearon, responsible for artwork for Rob Zombie, Fear Factory, Rammstein, Iron Maiden, Arise In Chaos, Clive Barker (Books of Blood, Hellraiser), IDW Publishing (KISS, MARS ATTACKS, THE X-FILES, JUDGE DREDD) and more.
UNBROKEN is being Co-Produced by Reavis and EMP’s Thom Hazaert, with Engineer/Mixer Richard Easterling (American Head Charge, Doll Skin, Emperors and Elephants) at Richmond, KY’s THIRD SKY STUDIO, responsible for recent releases from American Head Charge (Tango Umbrella), Doll Skin (Furious Fixation), Tantric, and more.
REAVIS was co-vocalist for MUSHROOMHEAD from 2004 to 2015, and appears on the albums Savior Sorrow (2006), Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children (2010), and The Righteous & The Butterfly (2014), as well as other projects including TENAFLY VIPER, which also featured former Chimaira bassist Jim LaMarca.
TRIUMPH guitarist RIK EMMET & RESolution9 have teamed up with Metal Shock Finland to premiere for Finland the band’s official lyric video “Human Race”, taken from their electrifying new album “RES 9”, coming out worldwide on November 11th, via Mascot Label Group. The album features contributions from RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson, DREAM THEATER vocalist James LaBrie, and Rik Emmett’s onetime TRIUMPH bandmates, bassist Mike Levine and drummer Gil Moore.
Comments Tarja Virmakari, Metal Shock Finland‘s CEO/Founder/President:
“Metal Shock Finland has a huge pleasure to premiere for Finland this awesome pearl of classic rock, “Human Race”! Each note and riff tell about the high class style and skill to dominate the genre. If this is what the “RES 9″ album is about, I’m surely looking forward to enjoy it fully!”
Watch the video here:
“This album represents a journey through my life,” Emmett observes, “and the idea behind a lot of these songs is me trying to figure out who I am, and why I’m doing what I’m doing. There’s a common thread of positivity here that ties into the records I was making 30 years ago. What did I learn from making them? You’ll hear all of that echoed in the grooves of this album.”
Indeed, the scope of the 11 deeply heartfelt songs on RES 9 covers a lot of exciting aural ground, from the out-of-the-gate gallop of “Human Race” (which also features a driving 12-string contribution from Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson) to the testifying tones of “My Cathedral” to the whispering blues of “The Ghost of Shadow Town,” not to mention the cutting-heads guitar duels on “End of the Line” and the touching album-closing bonus track “Grand Parade,” which reunites Emmett with his onetime Triumph bandmates, bassist Mike Levine and drummer Gil Moore. The RESolution9 band itself is comprised of Rik’s touring quartet, with Dave Dunlop on guitar, Steve Skingley on bass and keyboards, and Paul DeLong on drums. Dunlop and Skingley also co-produced RES 9 with Emmett.
Emmett is a strong believer in teamwork, and to him, the overall vibe of RES 9 is clearly reflected in the brotherhood and camaraderie shared amongst all the artists who made this special music together. “You can’t accomplish this kind of project 100 percent by yourself,” Emmett believes. “It takes a lot of things working together to make something like this happen. I come back to the old saying that goes, ‘Success has many fathers, and failure is an orphan.’ I knew that I had to spread it all around. It’s important I keep the guys in my band pretty happy.”
Lead track “Human Race” masterfully sets the positivity table for what’s to come. “I’ve been around the block a few times, and one of the things I like about the lyrics in ‘Human Race’ is when we get to the last verse where it says, ‘I am still this guy. I still live this.’ That’s very true,” Emmett acknowledges. “There’s also a line in there about raising a joyful noise — and I still want to do that too.”
Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson added some period-perfect 12-string guitar alongside Emmett and Dunlop to buttress the impact of “Human Race,” and he says he found it quite an honor to play with and for his lifelong friend. “When Rik asked me to play on his new album, I didn’t hesitate for a second,” Lifeson reports. “He’s the consummate musician, a wonderful guitarist, and a terrific person, and it’s always my pleasure to work with him any chance I can get. There is a rock purity in his songwriting and performance, and it’s just so much fun to get together and throw ideas around. He’s always so up and open for anything — even a notoriously uncooperative Rickenbacker 12-string!” Dunlop points out the way RESolution9 meshed with Lifeson “stands as a great example of the collective efforts of the brotherhood.”
Another one of RES 9’s honored guests, Dream Theater vocalist James LaBrie, lent his own considerable talents to a pair of tracks, “I Sing” and “End of the Line” (the latter of which also features Lifeson taking the third guitar solo), and he jumped at the chance to record with his fellow Canadian. “I’ve been extremely blessed and fortunate to meet so many great musicians and beautiful people throughout my career, and to have the opportunity to collaborate and record with some of them is really icing on the cake,” LaBrie notes. “What a thrill it was to record with Rik, who is such an incredible musician and overall down-to-earth cool guy.” About the slow-build manifesto of “I Sing,” Skingley enthuses, “James sang his ass off on that song!” Adds Dunlop, “I enjoyed tracking the guitars on ‘I Sing’ the most because I got to go crazy with several layers of guitars — and I also got to channel [Pink Floyd’s] David Gilmour on the outro.”
A fair amount of the album was recorded and mixed at Mississauga, Ontario’s MetalWorks Studios, a location where Emmett, Levine, and Moore (who owns the studio) recorded many of Triumph’s greatest works — and it’s also where the trio convened to tackle “Grand Parade.” Clarifies Emmett, “The Triumph song is a bonus track. That’s the best way to position it. It’s like ‘Suitcase Blues’ [the last track on Triumph’s 1979 million-seller, Just a Game] — or ‘Her Majesty’ at the end of Abbey Road!”
Having Triumph involved on RES 9 to some degree was always on the table. “I play ‘Suitcase Blues’ as the last song of the night in the encore for my acoustic shows. I dedicate it to Mike and Gil and the fact that they gave me the latitude to do the crazy things that I do,” Emmett laughs. “As I was developing the lyrics for ‘Grand Parade,’ I started thinking, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if I could get Mike and Gil to play on it? Wouldn’t that just bring everything full circle?’ One thing led to another, and there we were, recording in MetalWorks. Things just lined up perfectly.”
Levine had a great time in the studio with his former bandmates. “We rocked it up a bit, and Gil made the drums heavier than they were on the demo,” the bassist notes. “Once I paid deeper attention to the lyrics, I really got into the ‘let’s wrap up this late night’ kind of feel to it. I think it turned out really fantastic. I told Rik I felt it was a really cool tune, one that was very personal for all of us. I’m really, really proud of it, and it was great to work with both Rik and Gil on it. It was really neat.”
Moore wholly enjoyed the “Grand Parade” experience. “It was really a pleasure to have Rik and his band at MetalWorks, and getting to see him there every day was just like the old days,” the drummer recounts. “I always liked how Rik was able to bring another dimension and another color palette to what we were doing, and I like the spacious bass and drum tracks we did together. That’s what’s always been in my wheelhouse, as far as my playing is concerned. I’m really happy with how this song turned out. I hope we get to do it again.”
Emmett’s ultimate goal for RES 9 is to connect with as many people as possible. “The context of this entire album for me was, ‘Wow, somebody tossed me a lifeline,’” he concludes. “I still want to make positive music and offer people something that’s motivating and inspiring — and I want to do it for myself too. I need music, and music can provide that lifeline for me.” Mission accomplished: “I’ve got a thirst for life,” as Emmett sings on “Human Race.”
And you’ll find that thirst being quenched quite handily in the very heartbeats that percolate within all 11 tracks of RES 9. Drink up.
Rik Emmett with Alex Lifeson, James LaBrie, Gil Moore, Dave Dunlop and Steve Skingley – Photo by Mark Weiss
“RES 9” Tracklist:
Stand Still
Human Race (feat. Alex Lifeson)
I Sing (feat. James LaBrie)
My Cathedral
The Ghost of Shadow Town
When You Were My Baby
Sweet Tooth
Heads Up
Rest of My Life
End of the Line
(feat. Alex Lifeson & James LaBrie)
Grand Parade
(feat. Gil Moore & Mike Levine) [bonus track]
Rik Emmett & RESolution9 is:
Rik Emmett – Guitar & Vocals
Dave Dunlop – Guitar
Steve Skingley – Bass & Keyboards
Paul DeLong – Drums
Masterminds and epic creators of the symphonic metal scene, EPICA, have worked hard to pump the blood in the heart of metal music once more and are set to see the release of their newest album on September 30th. “The Holographic Principle” is another epical masterpiece from the band, which is a crossover between symphonic, progressive, power and thrash metal, as well as modern production meets old school elements.
The band will also hit the road and skies to support this album with a huge tour around the world. I recently had a chance to have an interview with guitar player and growl screamer, Mark Jansen, where we could talk about EPICA, “The Holographic Principle”, science fiction movies and much more. You can check out what he had to say on the audio player below, along with a few excerpts:
“The Holographic Principle” will be the band’s seventh studio album, which will be released via Nuclear Blast. But how is Mark feeling about the forthcoming album release?:
“I’m really excited and I cannot wait any more, because it was already finished by the end of May and then you have to do all the promo activities and also the video clip shoots and the label needs time for the preparation of the album.
And now finally we’re almost there, it’s just a matter of two weeks now, so getting really excited.”
EPICA‘s new album won’t only be a sacred number in their brilliant discography, but a record “bigger” and more complex than previous ones. I asked Mark about the difficulties during writing and producing this album, he answered:
“I must say everything went extremely smooth, so we had no real big things. The only thing that happened was basically in the end of the recordings when we were going to mix the album, we sent all the material to our mixer Jacob Hansen and we already prepared him that it would be quite some work, because we recorded so many instruments. Some songs were about a thousand tracks for just one song. So, we wrote him be prepared and start in time as it’s going to be a lot of work and he got the material and he was instantly sick one week! (laughs)
So, we were all the time on schedule, then maybe he got a very big shock when he received all that material and then he thought ‘shit I cannot handle this, I’m sick!’ But after one week he was recovered and he started to work and basically we managed to finish the album in time. We had some listening sessions that were not with the full album, but I think everything happens for a reason and the album turned out with different songs than we initially thought. So we are happy now with the songs we have on the album, this is the way it’s meant to be I think.”
Just like any other great album, this one is also accompanied with wonderful artwork, full of eye catching details and regarding that, Mark stated:
“It’s Stefan Heilemann, it’s a guy that we work already with for four albums now and he’s always amazing us with his work. He gets the lyrics upfront with a brief description of what the lyrics are about and then he starts working. With The Quantum Enigma already he came up with great artwork, this time with The Holographic Principle it took him a bit longer because he was looking how to start. But once he was on the right track, he started working for one week nonstop and presented us with this great piece of art.
You can find many nice little details and that’s the good thing about covers, when there are some details that you only notice when you look long enough at it and there’s a few of them on this cover as well.”
EPICA‘s tour for supporting “The Holographic Principle” will start soon and it is going to be a big tour around the world. From Brazil to the UK and from New York to their homeland, the Netherlands they are going to travel far and beyond to celebrate another year of being together. The journey will be long and probably with some difficulties which obviously won’t be unfamiliar to the band, but I asked Mark about it and he answered: “It’s sometimes hard, but it’s the way you look at it – there’s hard things with every job in life and easy things. The hardest thing for being on the road is the flights, because that’s very tiring and you have to go through security every time and it’s a hassle, it’s a pain in the ass, it’s stressy. It’s also boring because you have to wait often very long. But the good side of touring is that you get to see so many places in the world, you meet many different people, you play live shows, that’s last but not least.
That’s what makes it worth it, when you play the music in front of your fans and you see the happiness on their faces – that makes up for all the troubles facing travelling.”
The first edition of METAL ON THE HILL was a huge success! Perfect weather conditions, 1700 celebrating fans and highly motivated top acts have placed METAL ON THE HILL firmly on the international festival map.
The city of Graz was a perfect host to the metal community from all around the world. NAPALM RECORDS and it’s own booking department NAPALM EVENTS have awakened all of Austria from its slumber, as Graz hasn`t seen a rock and metal-only festival in ages! In cooperation with “Spielstätten Graz” METAL ON THE HILL Festival takes further steps and has already been confirmed for the next round in 2017 – both days on Kasemattenbühne at the picturesque “Schloßberg”.
The dates for Metal On The Hill 2017 are already fixed, as well as the first confirmed bands.
Save the dates: On August 11th and 12th 2017 international top acts will again make Schlossberg Graz erupt!
METAL ON THE HILL proudly presents the first line-up announcements:
Headliners BLIND GUARDIAN and PARADISE LOST will find their way to Graz for each a very special and exclusive Austrian show in 2017! Scottish Pirate Metal outfit ALESTORM, and Pagan giants ARKONA will also all play exclusive Austrian shows. Popular Symphonic Metal acts SERENITY and VISIONS OF ATLANTIS will deliver the finest symphonic bombast on top of that bill! More acts will be announced shortly! Stay tuned for many more exciting news to come!
Directly beneath the highest point of Styria`s capital – the plateau of the Schloßberg – lies Graz` most popular open air event location: the Schloßberg stage Kasematten. A stage plus a vast auditorium in the old fortress walls was erected in the 1930s – an absolute trademark of the city! Especially during summer nights and open air events the place is brimming with darkly romantic atmosphere. A sliding roof protects the audience from any unruly weather to the unforgettable majestic, stately backdrop that is fiercely guarded by the festival mascot – the Styrian Panther. This venue is definitely Graz` most unique event location Catch a glimpse of the stunning location here.
One of the most distinctive metal bands in the past 20 years and sometimes hailed as the saviours of heavy metal, HAMMERFALL recently announced the release of their upcoming album “Built To Last”, set to be released on November 4th on Napalm Records.
In the wake of what will be the band’s 10th studio effort, HAMMERFALL will embark on another celebrated tour over Europe, beginning on January 12th 2017 in Bremen, Germany. Now the band announced special guests GLORYHAMMER to be joining HAMMERFALL on their extensive European Tour, and the support will come from LANCER!
”We got exactly the support bands we wanted”, says guitarist Oscar Dronjak. ”There is no doubt in my mind that Lancer will be thoroughly enjoyed by all our fans, and Gloryhammer’s mighty and epic music will be the perfect lead-in to the HammerFall show that will follow. The World Wide (r)Evolution was a resounding success on every level with half of the shows sold out, and we can’t wait to get back on stage again to have a gigantic heavy metal party every night with all our Templar friends!”
Known for their energetic and engaging live shows, HAMMERFALL have been masters of ground-breaking metal anthems since the start of their remarkable career. With an extensive world tour taking place over the past 2 years, the band is now gearing up for another run following the release of their upcoming album “Built To Last”.
Catch HAMMERFALL live, when they return to Europe on the following dates, presented by Metal Hammer, EMP, Musix and Metal.de. With special guests GLORYHAMMER and LANCER:
Built To Tour 2017 12.01.17 DE – Bremen / Aladin 13.01.17 DE – Oberhausen / Turbinenhalle 1 14.01.17 DE – Bamberg / Brose Arena 16.01.17 NL – Utrecht / Tivoli Vredenburg 17.01.17 BE – Antwerp / Trix 18.01.17 DE – Fulda / Wartenberg Oval 20.01.17 DE – Langen/Frankfurt / Stadthalle 21.01.17 CH – Pratteln / Z7 22.01.17 CH – Pratteln / Z7 25.01.17 DE – Saarbrücken / Garage 26.01.17 DE – Filderstadt / Filharmonie 27.01.17 DE – München / Backstage 28.01.17 DE – Kaufbeuren / AllKart Halle 29.01.17 IT – Mailand / Live Club 31.01.17 HU – Budapest / Barba Negra 01.02.17 AT – Wien / Arena 02.02.17 AT – Graz / Orpheum 03.02.17 CZ – Zlin / Hala Euronics 04.02.17 PL – Warsaw / Progresja 06.02.17 DE – Berlin / Huxley´s Neue Welt 07.02.17 DE – Hamburg / Große Freiheit 36 08.02.17 DK- Copenhagen / Amager Bio
