Swedish melodic Metal five piece FULLFORCE are currently recording their second album. The new album will be entitled “Next Level” and will be released worldwide via SPV/Steamhammer in October 2012.
Photo by Gabriel Henningson
Rainer Kalwitz is once again recruited to create and organize the artwork who previously made covers for Praying Mantis, Metal Church plus many more. “Next Level” will be mixed and mastered at ROASTINGHOUSE STUDIOS by Anders “Theo” Theander which is one of Sweden’s leading recording studios.
FULLFORCE introduces new guitar ace Stefan Rosqvist who replaced CJ Grimmark a few months ago. Please feel free to check out a short video showing the new guitarist at work in the studio here:
13 songs to be featured on “Next Level” and the band promises a melodic, heavy album and the band is really excited about the new album and cannot wait to introduce to their fans and the world of metal.
On their brand new album, “Dark Roots Of Earth”, San Francisco Bay Area metal veterans TESTAMENT explored new territory by the inclusion of blast beats. The reason for this has to do with the collaboration between guitarist Eric Peterson, TESTAMENT‘s chief songwriter, and Gene Hoglan, the legendary extreme metal drummer (DETHKLOK, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD, DEATH, DARK ANGEL) who stepped in when Paul Bostaph was unable to continue after four years with the band following a wrist injury.
“In ‘True American Hate’ and ‘Native Blood’, we’re doing blast beats, but we’re not jumping on the bandwagon like the black metal thing or whatever,” Peterson tells Decibel for the magazine’s September 2012 cover story. “I almost think we took blast beats to another level because most blasts are over really aggro riffs and screaming. But if you muted the drums in ‘Native Blood’ and only heard the vocals and guitar and asked somebody, ‘What do you think the drums would do here?’ it wouldn’t be a blast beat; it would be more like [starts humming rhythmic drum patterns]. It wasn’t something I went in wanting to achieve, but there was an opportunity to incorporate it.”
“I basically got a call from Eric about two weeks before they were going to record,” says Hoglan. “Apparently Paul‘s injury was still in recovery and they were like, ‘Can you just come in and do the record?’ This was in summer of 2011, the day before I left for a two-week tour with FEAR FACTORY; they wanted me to come in directly after. Eric sent me the song files and after [the FF tour). I drove up to the Bay Area and we started getting down. We spent a week tweaking the songs and getting the arrangements happening, and by the second week I was tracking. Within two weeks, it was rehearse, record, drum tracks done, there you go!
“They actually asked me about the blast beat while we were rehearsing,” he continues. “There wasn’t a blast beat in the demo track, but Eric was like, ‘Hey, what do you think about a blast there?’ I like being Eric‘s drum machine, learning the crazy beats he wants and adding a few of my own. That’s one of the reasons we [end up) fleshing out all the songs, because I’ll try everything to see what works . It didn’t matter if it worked for me; it was more important that it worked for Eric. Ironically, that’s the type of blast I’m not super-comfortable with: the black metal blast beat. I’m more into a grind beat with the 1-2-3-4-s-6-7-8 on the snare, the pop, pop, pop coming down with the cymbal.”
“It works for certain riffs.’ adds TESTAMENT guitarist Alex Skolnick, “and as long as you’ve got somebody who’s got that as part of their palette and does it well, you might as well utilize that. It was really revelatory and so different for us.”
“I think blast beats would have come with time anyway, and now it was the time,” theorizes bassist Greg Christian. “And with the way Gene does it, with such flair, it doesn’t necessarily have to be in a death metal sort of way. Like, ‘Native Blood’ has it in a really melodic part where it sounds more like IRON MAIDEN on steroids than death metal.”
The entire AMORAL show at Finnish Metal Expo 2012 in Helsinki on february 18 has been posted online. Watch the video below.
Amoral will head out for a month-long European tour this fall. The band will join Ensiferum on their Bearers Of The Sword tour, together with Profane Omen.
For Amoral, the tour is a part of the “Beneath” album cycle, which has already taken the band to China, Japan and USA, in addition to touring their home country Finland.
The upcoming tour is the band’s 5th full-lenght European tour, and will cover England, Ireland and Scandinavia in addition to Central Europe. The 29-date tour is highly anticipated in the Amoral camp, as it’s been almost three years since the previous one.
“We’ve toured Europe with every one of our albums, so it’s nice to keep the tradition going with ‘Beneath’ as well”, comments guitarist Ben Varon. “The Ensiferum/Amoral/Profane Omen -package is a great and versatile mix of Finnish metal. And as the tour itinerary includes new places for us, such as Ireland and Croatia, as well as great venues and cities we’ve visited before, we can’t wait to get going!”
According to the Edmonton Journal, IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson is teaming up with Joe McBryan, owner and operator of Buffalo Airways, who is also a star of the History Television reality-TV show “Ice Pilots NWT”. The singer will get a chance to fly one of Buffalo’s Second World War-era planes, the venerable DC-3, to Yellowknife.
Edmonton Journal‘s Sandra Sperounes and photographer Fish Griwkowsky of FisheyeFoto are tagging along for the ride and will file regular Twitter updates on the adventures.
The “Ice Pilots NWT” series focuses on Yellowknife-based Buffalo Airways, whose future is under the gun from the effect of an “economic downturn, a dwindling supply of specialty aviation gas and the high cost of flying vintage aircraft,” according to the History Channel web site
Dickinson, a commercial airline pilot and established aviation entrepreneur, recently set up Cardiff Aviation Limited to provide specialist aviation technical support services, including training, as well as heavy aircraft maintenance for various jet aircraft types, both narrow and wide body, up to Boeing 767 size. Dickinson and his company are leasing 132,000 square feet of hangar and office space at St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, United Kingdom from the Welsh government.
With the anticipation of KRAMPUS’ first official debut album, Survival of the Fittest, right around the corner, the band’s first official music video for their single “Kronos’ Heritage” has been released. Check out the new video below as well as their album trailer and single “Kronos’ Heritage”.
Their first full-length effort, Survival Of The Fittest, has been produced by KRAMPUS’ charismatic frontman Filippo Gianotti himself at Udine’s legendary Blackmirror Studios and is set for release in late August 2010. Shortly after the release, KRAMPUS will embark on their first extensive European tour, joining Wintersun and Korpiklaani on 2012’s edition of the hugely successful Heidenfest tour.
KRAMPUS’ Declaration:
Krampus, the winter demon, has survived the repression of the modern gods. Born from shame for the mankind decay, under the cold breeze in the shades of the Alps, we join him in his dealing out of the fallible human’s just deserts. Like roots breaking concrete, we shake minds dulled by the weakness of present society. We fight fearlessly for our beliefs, aiming to give back at least some of what has been taken from mother nature. We kindle the embers hidden inside each and every one of you, choked by the lies of nations: Embers of Honour, Pride, Traditions, and Freedom.
What frontman Filippo says about the song:
“Kronos’ heritage Is a question: what are we going to leave to our children if we destroy their world? Too many times we forget that the injuries of this planet will bleed over our children.
There’s an African proverb that says: “this world is not the heritage of our fathers, but a loan of our children.”
The first episode in a new three-part web series from Deanna Adler, the mother of original GUNS N’ ROSES drummer Steven Adler can be seen below. In the clip, she discusses her reasons for writing her long-awaited tell-all book, “Sweet Child Of Mine: How I Lost My Son to Guns N’ Roses” (formerly “No Bed Of Roses”) and how Steven really feels about it.
“Sweet Child Of Mine: How I Lost My Son to Guns N’ Roses” will be released on August 28 via 4th Street Media.
Several excerpts from the book can be found at this location.
Deanna gives an honest and revealing look into a life beset by abuse and betrayal and what it was like raising a child who became a member of one of the greatest rock bands in history, and a heroin addict of equally epic proportions. The book emotionally and enthrallingly details a mother’s love for her infamous son, whose phenomenal success is surpassed only by his astounding capacity for self-destruction.
“Sweet Child Of Mine” is the universal journey of a mother’s devotion to her child, filled with moments of both profound joy and crippling heartache. Deanna takes readers on a roller coaster ride through raising a troubled young boy who ultimately reached the pinnacle of fame and success, only to then be publicly branded a junkie and kicked out of his band in front of a television audience of millions; go on to endure continuing addiction, legal battles, financial ruin, two heart attacks, multiple suicide attempts, a debilitating stroke, and numerous stints in rehab. But it is her courage and indomitable spirit that both educates and inspires, as she is living proof that devotion to family, a sense of humor, and faith in a higher power are the foundations for achieving peace and purpose in life.
Deanna Adler appeared on the second season of “Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew”, on which Steven was a cast member. During the season’s episode five, Dr. Drew, Dr. Sophy and Steven sat down for a meeting with Deanna in a what was described as “a tense whirlwind of accusations, denials and resentment. Steven is so flustered that he storms out of the room, leaving the many issues between he and Deanna unresolved, possibly forever.”
You can see Deanna Adler‘s appearance on “Celebrity Rehab” at this location. (Deanna Adler first appears around the 19-minute mark.)
Having been kicked out of his mother’s house on numerous occasions before he was old enough to vote, Steven Adler reportedly started skipping school and doing drugs when he was 11.
Steven Adler was the drummer for GUNS N’ ROSES from 1985 to 1990. He was eventually fired from the band due to his drug addiction, which caused him to spiral down into depression and more drug use.
Steven Adler‘s autobiography, “My Appetite for Destruction: Sex, and Drugs, and Guns N’ Roses”, came out in July 2010. In the book, Adler tells all, fearlessly addressing his struggles with heroin and crack addiction; his financial ruin after being kicked out of GN’R; his shattered marriage; and the severe health problems that nearly claimed his life on several occasions.
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