Fresno-Livermore metallers HATEFX, featuring Glen Alvelais (ex-TESTAMENT, FORBIDDEN) and G (ex-DOGMA CHILE) has released a video teaser showcasing the brand new track titled ‘Play It By Fear’, to be featured on the band’s new release, titled Under Destruction, slated for digital release later this fall.
The cover artwork was created by by Chilean/Italian digital artist- photographer Claudio Bergamin, who has previously worked with HALFORD, ARJEN LUCASSEN, RATA BLANCA, CRIMINAL, DOGMA and other bands from Europe and America.
Under Destruction was recorded at Green Bird studios in Fresno, California with remote supervision of Chilean producer Javier Bassino (Estudios Bassino). Javier engineered, mixed and mastered the CD, which marks Alvelais’ recording debut with the band.
The video is being produced by Chilean videographer Juan Pablo Arriagada who had worked with Dogma (Chile) and HateFX before with collaboration from central valley videographer Enik Sleastak
The concept for the video came from actual events that tie in with the lyric content of the song dealing with extortion, manipulation and blackmail and there is a parallel story that describes the key events of the situation.
G (frontman) comments “It was important to have professional actors portray this very graphic storyline that describes how manipulation and extortion can get out of hand, causing emotional and physical distress to those involved and Enik (videographer) did a great job with casting the right team for the job, we are looking forward to share the final version for this concept video. The story blends in great with the music…We have enough material for an extended version that we are thinking of putting together before the release of out next single.”
The band is scheduled to continue playing live in support of this release including a west coast run before the end of the year.
WITCHES MARK, the self-professed “Bringers Of Heavy Metal Death” hailing from Austin, Texas will be appearing at next year’s Ragnarokkr Metal Apocalypse Festival, which takes place April 4th – 5th in Chicago, IL:
“This is one of the premier heavy metal festival’s for the US and we are ready to show Chicago exactly what the ‘Bringers Of Heavy Metal Death’ are made of.”
Witches Mark released their Witching Metal Ritual album through Heaven And Hell Records on July 15th.
Witching Metal Ritual features eight tracks that blend elements of thrash, speed, doom, black, and death while anchoring their overall sound firmly within the framework of traditional heavy metal. Co-produced by the band and Stuart “Batlord” Laurence (AGONY COLUMN, IGNITOR), with mixing and mastering by Brendon Bigelow (Ignitor) Witching Metal Ritual features a stunning post-apocalyptic inspired album cover courtesy of Yannick Bouchard of Illusory Dreams. Fans can also expect a number of exciting guest appearances on Witching Metal Ritual; including Ross “The Boss” Friedman (MANOWAR) Jack Starr (VIRGIN STEELE) Jason McMaster (DANGEROUS TOYS) and Martin Debourge (DAMIEN THORNE).
Witching Metal Ritual is available in Enhanced-CD format, including bonus video content featuring a music video for the album’s title track. The main tracklisting is as follows;
‘Bringers Of Heavy Metal Death’
‘Salem’s Fire’
‘Swarm’
‘Slaves To Their Own Sin’
‘We Die’
‘Cauldron Born’
‘Witching Metal Ritual’
‘Where None Can Follow’
IRON SAVIOR frontman Pier Sielck has checked in with the following update:
“Some news from the Iron Savior camp: final approach for finishing songwriting. Working like a maniac to have all songs ready to record by the end of September. I will take two week break in Andalusia where I hope to catch some nice swell (I’m a pathetic boogie soft boarder, haha). When getting back to Hamburg by mid of Oktober, I’ll start mixing the new STORMWARRIOR right away, followed seamlessly by recording drums with Thomas for Iron Savior. After that all vocals will be nailed to start mixing by early November to deliver everything by the 25th.
Keep your fingers crossed that this really tight and ambitious schedule is working out! Release is scheduled for February 28th, 2014. Felipe Machado is working on the artwork already and I can’t wait for the first draft.
So, that’s it for the moment. All the best to all of you!”
Iron Savior released their latest album, The Landing, on November 18th, 2011 in Europe via AFM Records. The album was released in North America on January 17th, 2012.
The Landing tracklisting:
‘Descending’
‘The Savior’
‘Starlight’
‘March Of Doom’
‘Heavy Metal Never Dies’
‘Moment In Time’
‘Hall Of The Heroes’
‘R. U. Ready’
‘Faster Than All’
‘Before The Pain’
‘No Guts No Glory’
BLACK SABBATH guitar legend Tony Iommi is featured in a new interview with Matt Blackett at Guitar Player magazine. An excerpt is available below:
GW: I read an interview where you said that after the accident either you thought about playing right-handed, or maybe you should have thought about it. I have to say, I think it would have changed the entire music business had you flipped your guitar over and played righty.
Iommi: “I think you’re probably right, because that accident made me develop a style—one that I could play—and by doing that, it created a different sort of sound. I had to make the sound bigger and work on it a bit. I couldn’t just pick up anybody’s guitar and play. I mean, the whole thing really was against me. But that sort of thing makes you work. It makes you develop something, because I really wanted to play, and I wanted to make the sound big. I had to come up with a new way of playing to make it big.”
GW: You guys have always had tempo and groove changes in your tunes, and ‘God Is Dead?’ is a great example of that tradition. What is it that you like about doing that?
Iommi: “I just think it gets to a point in the song where it needs something—either picking the tempo up or slowing it down. If it’s a fast song, maybe a bit that slows down in it, like we did with Ronnie on ‘Die Young.’ It was an up-tempo thing, but then we used a quiet part in it to come down. Again, it’s just down to creating some kind of different mood in the song, and I’ve always liked that.”
Black Sabbath fans who didn’t see the band live on their recent tour will now have the chance to experience them via a new DVD, Black Sabbath: Live…Gathered In Their Masses (Vertigo/Republic).
Due out November 26th, the DVD was recorded in April 29th and May 1st, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia (additional details TBA), when the band – OZZY OSBOURNE (vocals), TONY IOMMI (guitar) and GEEZER BUTLER (bass) – kicked off their world tour in support of their 13 album, which entered the charts at #1 in 13 countries (including their first #1 in the US).
Check out a teaser video below:
Meanwhile, Black Sabbath will head to South America and Mexico in October for a headlining stadium tour (where they’re expected to play to more than 300,000 fans) and then onto Europe in November and December.
Find Black Sabbath’s live itinerary at this location.
The clip below features fan-filmed video of Black Sabbath’s entire August 28th show in Irvine, CA at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre:
The band’s setlist on the night was as follows:
‘War Pigs’
‘Into the Void’
‘Under the Sun’/Every Day Comes and Goes’
‘Snowblind’
‘Age of Reason’
‘Black Sabbath’
‘Behind the Wall of Sleep’
‘N.I.B.’
‘End of the Beginning’
‘Fairies Wear Boots’
‘Methademic’
‘Symptom of the Universe’
‘Rat Salad’
‘Iron Man’
‘God Is Dead?’
‘Children of the Grave’
Black Sabbath will be immortalized in an all-original, terrifying 3D maze, Black Sabbath: 13 3D at Universal Studios Hollywood’s premier Halloween Horror Nights event, beginning September 20th. Check out newly-released back-stage footage from the upcoming event below:
The new maze, based on the darkest lyrics from Black Sabbath’s biggest hit songs and the only attraction at the horror event to incorporate 3D video, will also include scenes inspired by the legendary band’s recently released Billboard #1 album, 13. A nightmarish landscape of doom will engulf guests as they enter Black Sabbath: 13 3D and traverse through horrifying graveyards, disturbing madhouses and bone-chilling battlefields.
“We were all really excited when Universal Studios Hollywood approached us about doing a 3D ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ maze based on our music,” said Black Sabbath’s OZZY OSBOURNE. “I’ve seen the drawings of what it will look like when it’s finished and it looks amazing. I can’t wait to walk through it on opening night in September.”
Guests will come face to face with a heart-stopping Lucifer and his bride, blood-soaked dead bodies and bubbling pools of “radioactive water” while song’s inspired by ‘Luke’s Wall’, ‘Iron Man’, ‘Paranoid’, ‘War Pigs’, ‘Electric Funeral’ and – of course – ‘Black Sabbath’ violently penetrate the confines of the maze at high volume.
“Very few bands can claim to have defined a genre of music but Black Sabbaths’ remarkable influence in the evolution of heavy metal will go down in history,” said John Murdy, Creative Director for Universal Studios Hollywood. “Tony Iommi’s dark, iconic riffs, Ozzy Osbourne’s haunting vocals and Geezer Butler’s foreboding lyrics provide the perfect soundtrack for ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ and endless inspiration for our new haunted attraction Black Sabbath 13 3D.”
Halloween Horror Nights 2013 at Universal Studios Hollywood brings together the sickest minds in horror to immerse guests in the living, breathing, three-dimensional world of the most notorious and terrifying creatures and features a slate of unrivaled film production quality mazes, terror-filled Scare Zones and a fully re-imagined Terror Tram experience, uniquely themed to today’s most definitive horror properties. This year’s haunted attractions will include The Walking Dead: No Safe Haven, based on AMC’s Golden Globe-nominated, Emmy Award-winning show, and Evil Dead: Book of the Dead, inspired by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s chilling remake of the cult classic.
After thirty years and thirteen studio albums, KREATOR is currently enjoying a career high. Having taken their tour showcasing the songs from last year’s acclaimed record Phantom Antichrist across Europe, they are still heating up the festival circuit before heading to China as well as North and South America. They also have a new live CD/DVD called Dying Alive that recently had a royal-like premier at Germany’s historic Lichtburg cinema in Essen, before landing in the top 10 of the German charts upon its release. All befitting for a band that sits on the throne of Teutonic thrash metal.
Boasting a staggering selection of hits from Kreator’s extensive and influential career, Dying Alive was recorded during the last show of their European tour last December in Oberhausen. Despite being show number 45 of the tour, you won’t see any signs of fatigue from these thrash veterans, who execute each song with exceptional proficiency and intensity.
On stage, frontman Mille Petrozza is fierce. An embodiment of sheer aggression, his harsh riffs fuelled by lyrics vehemently expressing his rage at the atrocities and hardships plaguing humanity while standing before the ghastly figure of the Phantom Antichrist; a metaphor for that which manipulates the masses and steals their souls. It’s a very Orwellian view of a world where what was once considered fiction has become a grim reality.
Speaking from his home in Essen, Petrozza says he’s still feeling fresh despite a bevy of press calls. There’s contentment in his voice, one that stems from an evident and deep respect for metal and Kreator fans.
BraveWords: What was it like watching Dying Alive at the very cinema you saw Conan the Barbarian when it first came out?
Petrozza: “Being at one of the biggest and one of the oldest movie theatres in Germany, with a lot of history, and seeing my own DVD there was just mind-blowing.”
BraveWords: It must have been quite a moment. What does it feel like when you experience moments like those?
Petrozza: “I don’t want to let it get to my head. I’m also a fan of this music, I enjoy it. I’m a metal fan. I tend to stick myself outside of the whole picture and see the band as one that can make other people feel something.”
BraveWords: With 24 cameras offering views from the guitars and drum pedals to the audience, Dying Alive is a dizzying array of thrashing heads, flailing limbs and flying beads of sweat, I felt like I was in the mosh pit…
Petrozza: “Good! That’s exactly how the DVD should make you feel, otherwise there’s no use in putting out a live DVD. Of course watching it from your television set in your living room is never the same as being in the concert hall, but we try to get some of that energy across, and we are very satisfied and happy with it.”
BraveWords: You see the sweat start to appear about half way through the show and in no time you are all dripping with it, it’s quite exhausting even to watch, how much does a show like that take out of you physically? It seems like you have to pace yourself like you are running a marathon.
Petrozza: “Yeah definitely (laughs) You have to keep in shape, it’s definitely hard work to perform like that and be able to give 150% of your energy. It’s always a challenge, but it’s a lot of fun as well. There’s a lot of energy and you always get so much back from the audience – you get the excitement and the adrenaline – it doesn’t feel like hard work, but it is, and you can see that on the DVD when we all start to sweat. (laughs)”
BraveWords: And it was show number 45 of the tour! You would think you guys would be exhausted by that stage.
Petrozza: “We were really, really tight by that time – we were very well prepared. And for us to have the show in Oberhausen was like coming back home. There was a little bit of pressure, but in a good way, because we knew there were going to be 24 cameras there that night, and we only had one shot. We did a lot of pre-production to make sure nothing would go wrong, and for that matter I’d say that it came out pretty well.”
BraveWords: One thing I noticed was that aside from the Kreator classics getting a huge response from the audience, the songs you play off Phantom Antichrist also receive a massive reaction. The mosh pit went positively mental during Civilization Collapse.
Petrozza: “Oh yeah! We’re very privileged when it comes to our fans really enjoying our new material as well, not much of a difference between the old songs and the new songs. That’s very rare. I know a lot of bands that have been around for many years and sometimes they get in a situation where the audience only want the old songs, so it’s a big compliment, and it shows that we are doing something right, you know?”
BraveWords: I also enjoyed those sublime moments where the spotlight is on Sami as he plays the melodic solos. It really showcases how successfully Kreator has been able to incorporate melody into its songs. Dave Mustaine of MEGADETH recently said in an interview: “there is a certain pushback from the heavy metal and thrash community when you start getting too melodic.” What are your thoughts on that?
Petrozza: “Depending on the song, I’d say. I mean, if you write mediocre songs, if you write only mid-tempo songs like radio songs, then of course people will push you back – they don’t want to hear it because this music is more than that. They don’t want to hear radio songs with thrash metal sounds – people want to hear thrash metal. They want to hear the energy, they want to hear the excitement, they want to hear a song that goes from 90bpm to 150bpm, tempo changes, twin solos, heavy riffs, stuff that touches people, and of course, if you are a thrash metal band that tries to write radio songs, you have a problem.”
BraveWords: So it’s about focussing on the high velocity of thrash and incorporating a bit of melody into that?
Petrozza: “Exactly, there’s no formula to be honest. We try to combine melody with brutality.”
BraveWords: There’s something certainly menacing and haunting about the enormous figure of the Phantom Antichrist on the backdrop of the stage and you mentioned on the DVD trailer that the way the footage was shot was inspired by the Hammer horror movies. Who is your favourite Christopher Lee character from that era?
Petrozza: “My favourite Christopher Lee character in the Hammer horror movies was definitely Dracula. Count Dracula is one of my earliest memories of watching TV from when it came out in the ’70s, and that character is still very present. When it came to choosing the way we did the colours of the DVD, we wanted something that looked very retro, very Hammer horror-like to make the viewing experience be almost like watching a movie. We’ve done a lot in the past with CDs and DVDs where we’ve tried to distort the picture a bit to give it a ’70s light.”
BraveWords: You’ve said that those who listen to and understand the music of Kreator are special. What makes them so, and is there a common denominator that you have found amongst Kreator fans?
Petrozza: “I think people that listen to Kreator really care about music. Music means more to them than something that just goes on in the background. Many people that listen to us, and many fans I have come across, say that when they listen to our music they do nothing else: they celebrate the music, treat it and keep it like something special. It’s as if it gives them a certain power or has a certain meaning to them. Whether it’s the lyrics, whether it’s the melodies, whether it’s the rhythm or just the whole package, to them it means a lot. I think that makes people special to Kreator.”
BraveWords: It’s very common for metalheads to claim that listening to metal keeps us young. There’s no question that you’re in great shape and you have a great time while you’re up on stage. Is 40 the new 20?
Petrozza: “Definitely! 60 is the new 40 and 40 is the new 20 (laughs) But you have to take care of yourself – you can’t abuse your body as much as you used to anymore, that’s in a physical sense. Psychologically of course we all age, there’s no alternative to it. If you don’t want to get old the only alternative would be to die. For me, I think getting older is a positive thing. I’m more aware of things, I’m more open, I see a lot more than I used to and I’ve filtered out the things that are important to me and really work on things harder than ever.”
Dying Alive is available on DVD/Blu-Ray and features Kreator’s sold-out show at the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen, a behind the scenes documentary and music videos with a running time of 115 minutes. There is also a limited live release available on both CD and vinyl.
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
