Interview with EDGEND: The Sharpest Point Of The Blade!

Israeli EDGEND was formed in 2005 as a heavy power metal band with a neo classical touch and symphonic composing. The name ‘EDGEND’ is a combination between the words Edge End meaning the sharpest point of the blade. Metal Shock Finland‘s Kostya Aronberg had a chance to interview EDGEND‘s bassist, Ben…

1. Hi Ben, welcome to metalshockfinland. How are you?

Hey Kostya, doing great thanks! Currently working with the guys on our 2nd album.
2. The band Edgend was established in 2005 and plays heavy power metal in which one can find quite a bit of symphonic composing, please tell us about band formation.

Well Edgend was formed in 2005 but had a lot of member changes until we started working on our debut album “A New Identity” which was released on October 2009. This album represents everything we hoped and wished for the band’s 1st album at that time. I can even say that our next album is going to be with more extreme ideas and we are sure that our fans will be excited about it as already we are.

3. Which music bands influenced you as a musician and your style the most?

My major two influences were always Jaco Pastorius and Dream Theater. They have been given me a major impact on my musical point of view.

4. Last year you were touring with Evergrey around Europe. How did you meet those guys and how did you get along?

Well we had been their opening act at the end of 2007 when they visit Tel-Aviv so our good connection with Tom and the guys started there. Later on Evergrey was planning a 2nd 2010 European tour and contact our label for joining this tour. This was our first option visiting Europe so of course we agreed and the rest is history. We started the tour at its 2nd day in Poland and went on to Slovakia, Austria, Italy and France.
The guys were truely great and we are really looking forward meeting these guys again sometime.

5. Your vocalist Rami Salmon is one of the most popular vocalists of Israel metal stage and performs in other 3 bands as well. How did you meet him and how were you able to “force” him to enter your band?

Rami Salmon is truely an amazing vocalist no doubt about that. It all started when Sharon H. that was familiar with his work, made the first connection and asked Rami to join us on our opening act for Evergrey’s show. After that successful show, we asked him again if he would like to hear so more of our new material and maybe record our 1st album. We got along so well and the new songs were great so we join forces to record “A New Identity”.

6. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but Maor Appelbaum seemed to have mastered you album? This person used to work with such stars as Yngwie Malmsteen and Rob Halford.

Maor appelbaum is an old friend of ours from back in the days when he used to live in Israel and helped us with our early recordings. When the album was finished, there was no doubt that Maor will be the one to do the mastering for us. He made a really nice work and I recommend him to all.

7. What do you think about modern metal stage of Israel? What are your plans for the future?

The Israeli modern metal stage has really expand in the last few years thanks to the Internet – every week we hear of a new band with a well produced record and these days Israeli bands are touring overseas more than ever. In the last 3 years we had a lot of great International bands touring Israel such as Metallica, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Nevermore, Sabaton, Nightwish, Steve Vai, Marty Friedman and much more.
Our future plans with Edgend are first of all to complete our 2nd studio album and release it by the beginning of 2012. Besides that we hope to return to Europe someday and who knows, maybe even in more countries such as the US, Japan, Canada etc.