Interviews

Interview with ULI JON ROTH: “There are still so many mysteries in the guitar”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on November 28, 2018
Posted in: Interviews. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Interview By Alison Booth

Uli-John-Roth_by_Lee-Millward(2)_aPic By Lee Millward

It is without a doubt that Uli Jon Roth has certainly earned his legendary status – with a career spanning five decades, Uli is set to celebrate his 50th anniversary of performing on stage, since starting out aged 13 in December 1968. His career has been a colourful journey, from the early days of the SCORPIONS to ELECTRIC SUN and a successful solo career, notably an innovator in the music world. Not forgetting Uli‘s creation of the unique and visionary Sky Guitar!

Uli is about to embark on a special six date UK tour, starting 29th November, celebrating his career by playing many favourites from over the years. Check for more information here. Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth recently spoke to Uli about the forthcoming tour and much more besides, for her Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem radio show. The whole show can be heard at this location.

Some excerpts of the in depth chat with Uli can be read below, with the full interview on the audio player.

Discussing the forthcoming 50th anniversary shows, Uli stated:

“I haven’t done such an ambitious programme in many years. I’ve got such a big repertoire from over the years, so I had to think hard about what not to play. There’s certain contenders that are always there like ‘Sails Of Charon’, certain Scorpions tracks, but I haven’t performed any of the Electric Sun stuff in years and that will be very interesting for me because that music is very demanding to play – although it should sound easy when you’re listening to it.

So we’re basically playing a best of Electric Sun, a best of my period with the Scorpions from the seventies, to doing some of my Sky Of Avalon, which is a little bit more adventurous, more melodic symphonic rock I guess. And it’s a long show, it’s a mission, so it’s an evening’s worth. I’m also playing a little acoustic set, just solo on my eight string Flamenco Sky guitar and I’m going to play some new pieces that I’ve written this summer which I love playing. And we’re also playing something that I particularly look forward to – some music of my deceased brother Zeno, who you may know, he died earlier this year unfortunately. He was a great songwriter and great guitar player himself, so we’re going to honour his memory and his legacy by playing two of his best songs.

So that’s basically in a nutshell what we’re going to do.“

Mentioning the fact that there seems to be no sign of Uli slowing down, he remarked:

“No, actually on the contrary. I was just saying to my daughter today that I have so much on my plate sometimes that I wish for longer days! (laughs). I’m a bit of a workaholic and recently it seems to be increasing, don’t ask me why.”

Looking back over his long career, Uli expressed:

“Innovator is probably true because I’m always interested in coming up with new ideas and I prided myself in loving each solo that I’ve recorded on albums, different from the other ones you know – trying to break new ground, technically, musically or whatever. So for me, it’s been largely a journey of discovery and also seeing how far you can push the guitar, unlocking some of those mysteries and there are still so many in the guitar. It feels like sometimes I’ve barely grazed the surface, because each time I pick up a guitar I have new ideas and it feels completely fresh and new, it’s just great.

I think the secret to that is that I play really very rarely, you know, I don’t play very often these days. Lots of the time it’s just on stage so that’s why I guess I don’t get bored and it doesn’t get repetitive to me ever.”

Regarding the future, Uli revealed:

“Next year will be very busy because I’m also working towards some orchestra shows, which is very labour intensive with score writing.  We’ll probably have to spend some time in the studio editing the DVD and making that. I have written by now a considerable amount of new music and to my eternal shame and disgrace, I’ve recorded very little in recent years and I know a new album is long overdue. 

Having said that, it’s not an easy undertaking for me because I’m not so keen on recording studios, because I don’t like the medium as such. I prefer writing music, maybe even writing it down, that as a score I prefer playing it live. But actually making it so that you have an album, you know the final like pinning down the butterfly once and for all. I’ve always had a problem with that you know, so we’ll see. I’ll do my best to come up with a new album.”

50th ANNIVERSARY NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 UK TOUR

WITH SPECIAL GUEST “KALEB MCKANE”

TICKETS: www.seetickets.com, www.ulijonroth.com/tourdates

Corporation, Sheffield                  Thursday 29 November
ULU, London                                   Friday 30 November
Kasbah, Coventry                          Saturday 1 December
Academy 3, Manchester              Sunday 2 December
Òran Mór, Glasgow                      Monday 3 December
The Stables, Milton Keynes        Wednesday 5 December

 

ULI JON ROTH Official Website

ULI JON ROTH Official Facebook Page

 

 

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Interview With WOLFEN RELOADED Singer Christian Freimoser, Talking About Past, Reunion And “Changing Time”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on August 16, 2018
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment
WolfenReloaded-2018-photo-by-TanjaGhirardini

Photo by Tanja Ghirardini

Interview by Tarja Virmakari

“Changing Time”, the brand new album from German rockers WOLFEN RELOADED, is out now and available worldwide via Volcano Records and Nova MD Distribution. After several years of extensive tours and remarkable gigs at the side of Operation: Mindcrime, Thunder and Bonfire, WOLFEN RELOADED comes back to the scenes with a solid new chapter that mixes modern and classic rock influences looking at Queensryche, King`s X and Dokken, and shapes a personal and powerful impact characterized by strong guitars and hitting rhythm section that built a proper wall of sound to support the lead voice of an expert singer, Chris Freimoser.

Just recently Metal Shock Finland‘s Tarja Virmakari had a chance to interview WOLFEN RELOADED‘s frontman and singer Christian “Chris” Freimoser, talking about the band’s past, reunion and new album “Changing Time” and more. Chris also revealed that the band has already started to write new material. Please, join the chat below:

1. Hi Chris and WOLFEN RELOADED, welcome to Metal Shock Finland! How are you doing?

Hi Tarja, I´m doing great ! Thanks a lot for having us on Metal Shock Finland. I can say that also on behalf of my bandmates. I’m really really looking forward to this interview.

2. Let’s start from the past… the original WOLFEN was founded in the mid-eighties, and soon after you became one of the hottest liveacts in the southern bavarian area, until you decided to split up in 1996. What are the craziest memories of those years?

Well, in fact there would be a few stories to tell from those years ! But let me just tell you the most outstanding story. It is not a funny story but in the end it all turned out well so we can look back at it with a laugh. It was 1988 or 1989, just at the time when Wolfi and Tom joined the band. We had been searching a rehearsal room for quite a while and eventually made a found in an old sawmill. It was a perfect and big room. We had just furnished it that day and had rehearsed for the first time. Just the next morning at six o´clock my door bell rang and outside was our former drummer Pete screaming that the sawmill has burned down. So we jumped in the car and drove to the scenery where we found the fire expert doing his work.Everything was gone. So that was a shock but luckily the fire was not our fault. It had started with a short circuit in another room. But as this hasn´t been already enough, it turned out that when I called Tom to inform him about this shit he told me that he had a car accident with total loss right after he left from the rehearsal but also with huge luck. He crashed into the woods right between two trees without beeing hurt. Oh man, what a day. But now to come to an end, it all turned out well and the ensurance company paid for everything we lost.

3. In summer 2009, you Chris, Wolfi Forstner (Guitars) and Thomas Rackl (Bass) decided to restart the band under the name WOLFEN RELOADED PROJECT. Please tell me about this decision to come back with another monicker? Was it easy to come back and find your place again? Did you find the music business the same or totally changed?

You know the thing with the name has a special reason. During the time when we were on hiatus another band called Wolfen from the north of Germany appeared on the scene. They had put out records and stuff so we couldn´t use this name anymore. But coming back with a complete new name after this long period of time didn´t seem to be a good idea. So with the decision to add ” Reloaded” we thought we could still reach our old fans and avoid problems with the other band. According to how it was coming back I can say it was tough. After such a long time you have only very little network left especially when it comes to connections with other bands and promoters clubs etc. So you go very much back to the start. We had to learn that these days it is much harder to put up a show. On the one hand it is much more difficult to attract enough audience because of this countless events that are taking place and on the other hand there are much regulations which makes it much more complicated to organize a show. When I look back, it was so different. Without the internet (yes there was a time without the internet, lol) and the advertising possibilities through modern media we could put up shows with 300 to 500 people as an average only with a few posters. Today these numbers are fantasy. But thats how it is!

4. After some line-up changes, today the band members are: Christian Freimoser (Vocals), Wolfgang Forstner (Guitars), Thomas Rackl (Bass) and Manuel Wimmer (Drums). Please tell me about your band synergy.

We all have kind of the same taste in music. Even Manuel, although he is half the age than Tom, Wolfi and Me, listens also to stuff that we came from! Generally speaking, I guess we complement each other pretty good. Everyone has his part in the band and so far it worked out well to this day.

5. WOLFEN RELOADED stands for modern, slightly progressive rock. What else you can tell me about your music style?

You know we are coming from Bands like Queensryche, Dokken, Van Halen, Whitesnake, Kings X but we are also influenced by current bands like Alter Bridge, Winery Dogs. Our intention was to stick to our roots but in the same way evolve the songs to a modern sound. A lot of Bands from that era when they put out new music sound exactly the same as if it was 1985. That is ok but we didn´t want to sound the same as back in the days. At least we tried, and as far as I can say the feedback we got til this day it seems that we are on the right way.

6. Since your reunion, you have played at numerous events and festivals. What are the highlights, so far?

Yeah there were some really great support shows we had the privilege to play. As to mention the shows we did in 2015 with Geoff Tates’ Operation Mindcrime. We had the honor to open for one of my personal vocal heroes which was an absolute outstanding experience. In his band at that time, we got to know Simon Wright (DIO/ AC DC), Kelly Gray (Queensryche) and John Moyer from the mighty Disturbed. Another highlight was the support shows for the mighty “THUNDER” in 2016 and in 2017 where we got to play a sold out show in Munich. Awesome !!

Wolfen Reloaded - Cover

7. And let’s now talk about the present. Your new album, “Changing Time” came out worldwide on June 22th, 2018 via Volcano Records. What can you tell me about its songwriting process?

Well, since it is a debut album we took what we thought would be the best 9 songs since the reunion and also one track from the early days, “Judgement Day”. Live this song always connected very good to the audience it we thought it had to be on the album. We made some changes in the arrangement and to the sound so it would fit to the other material.

8. The album title “Changing Time”, is not a track from the album, so why this choice? It seems to be like a prophecy…

The title has kind of two meanings. For us as a band it was a “changing time” when our former drummer left the band, an Manuel filled in.  In adition to that somehow as an overall meaning it also stands for the time we are living in right now, where also a kind of change can be felt may it be politically or societywise.

9. Also the album cover art is significant, while speaking about a change. Please tell me the story behind it.

Well, since we wanted to have something that has to do with ”time” we came up with different ideas and honestly it took us a while. One day I found this incredible artwork from this spanish deviant artist in a forum that had done a pretty similar picture to what would become our actual cover. It was exactly what we were looking for. The problem was that she only occured under a pseudonym but somehow I managed to find out her real name and was able to contact her on fb. She was willing to recreate this picture for our needs and did an awesome job. We are more than happy with the cover.

10. How would you describe the album? Is there a concept behind it?

It is not what you would call a concept album but we had the intention to have a common theme with the order of the songs. The album opens with “Amzing” a very positve song then the songs are getting much darker lyrically until the last song which is “New horizon”. This track falls into line with the cover art where you can see this vast horizon in the back and lyricwise concludes with a positve message.

11. How have your fans and audience welcomed this new album?

So far we are very happy with the reactions we got from the fans! We also had a couple of very good album reviews, so we really appreciate that !!

12. Prior to the album release, you revealed two videos from the album: Frozen [music video] and Amazing [lyric video]. Why you chose these two songs?

“Amazing” is the song with the best audience reaction when we play live. So it was inevitable to take it. According to “Frozen”, we thought it would fit best for the official video. This song represents the kind of music we make very good. It has a big chorus and an killer solo with a progressive touch and furthermore the lyrics fitted perfectly to the videoconcept we had. So we are very happy with the outcome.

13. Now that “Changing Time” is out to the masses, how will you support it? a tour, shows, new videos?

With the new album coming out at the end of June it was already a bit late to get booked for shows 2018. But our focus lies on 2019. Hopefully the album does well so this would help.

14. Looking towards the future, do you have already some plans for it?

We already started to write new material. We have no explicit plans for the future. At the moment our goal is to get some cool gigs and have the opportunity to promote the album.

15. Thanking-you for this interview, now the word is yours: what would you like to say to your fans and Metal Shock Finland readers?

Yeah ,me and the guys would like thank you so much Tarja for having us on The Metal Shock Finland Webzine. It was a great pleasure to have the opportunity to talk about Wolfen Reloaded and our new album. And to all you Metal Shock Finland readers we hope you guys like our album. Check it out, it is available on all digital platforms or physically on eBay, Amazon… Hopefully we see you at one of our shows someday. ROCK ON !!! Cheers Chris

Check out the videos:
Frozen [MUSIC VIDEO]

Amazing [LYRIC VIDEO]

More information at:
BAND: https://www.facebook.com/wolfenreloaded
LABEL: http://www.volcanopromotion.com

Interview With Niclas Etelävuori: Talks AMORPHIS, FLAT EARTH and Life

Posted by Stargazer on June 19, 2018
Posted in: Interviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Interview by Mohsen “Stargazer” Fayazi

 

It’s always a pleasure to sit and have a chat with a metal friend, especially having had a chance to work with them. Niclas Etelävuori, an amazing bass player who has been in the heart of the rhythmic part of AMORPHIS music for seventeen years, is now busy with his new band FLAT EARTH. To know more about his past and present, I had an interview with Niclas from which an excerpt can be read below:

Perhaps you agree with me that mankind is a creature of habit and seventeen years is long enough to make it difficult for any person to change or want to try new things. So I asked Niclas how he feels about those years with AMORPHIS now?

– “It was great times, it was a huge part of my life. I mean I don’t know, sometimes you just have to move on. But I have good memories and bad memories, but mostly good memories.”

In April 2017, Niclas announced his departure from AMORPHIS via a post on Facebook, where he mentioned his decision as “the hardest decision he ever made”. I asked him about it and what exactly happened during that time which led him to make that decision;

– “It wasn’t a sudden decision, it’s been growing for many years probably, five or six years but then I don’t know. I felt like things were getting just worse and people didn’t stay to their words and you know, a lot of things didn’t match. So I don’t know, I’d just had enough. We had an agreement that we do changes but it never happened. So I thought ‘this will never happen, I have to do something else’.
That’s basically it in a nutshell. But it’s very complicated and a long story, it would take a week to tell it. There’s some personalities, their egos go before other things.”

FLAT EARTH, why and how was it formed? Niclas responded:

– “After a couple of weeks sitting outside drinking beer, I had to do something. Then I had this one song and my Spanish friend Juan came by and ‘yeah yeah I wanna sing on that one’, so we released this one song in Spanish with him. But I knew I had a lot of songs on my hard drive and some of them were pretty old, so I didn’t even remember what I had done. So it took weeks to listen to all of that.
Then later, I started to look for somebody to play with and then Linde came up through a common friend. I liked his style always and I knew that maybe he wasn’t going to do anything after HIM finished. So then I asked him over and he was right away into it. From there on we start to look for a singer and then I have forced almost Gas to be in the band, but now he’s really into it (laughs). But Gas and I go back, we knew each other almost thirty years now. It’s all good.”

If you know AMORPHIS and if you’ve checked the FLAT EARTH single, ‘Blame’, you will also have noticed the difference in the music. So let’s see what Niclas thinks about it:

– “I feel good about it. Actually now we can do whatever we want. So it would be pointless for me to play the same music that Amorphis is doing. This is our first album and there’s a lot of different music on it already.
I’m very excited when we get to play more and compose the second one.”

I was curious about the band’s name, you might be too. So I asked Niclas and he answered:

– “It was kinda from many coincidences. We had a day planned to set the name for the band at Linde’s house and it was kind of our first get together. And we were to come up with a name and we cooked food and had drinks and stuff. Linde has four hairless cats and one of them passed on as soon as we got the dinner, from a heart attack. In the end we couldn’t come up with a name that day. The next morning, we thought we have to come up with something and we had a couple of names and Flat Earth came up. Then we somehow felt that we had to give tribute to the cat, because he lost his life when we were coming up with the name.
Then we also heard a story that if the earth is flat, then all the cats would shove everything off it, so we had a lot of coincidences.”

You can listen to the whole of this interview on the SoundPlayer below:

FLAT EARTH online:

Interview With WATERCRISIS’ Frontlady Caterina Salzano: “We want to convey a message of the individual’s revenge, a redemption towards himself. Because often, we are our worst enemies.”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on May 23, 2018
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

WaterCrisis

Interview by Tarja Virmakari

Just recently, Volcano Records released “Sleeping Sickness”, the debut album of the young stoner rock band WATERCRISIS, that sounds in a way powerful and delicate. The band that just put out a first EP last year and shared stage with LACUNA COIL last summer, comes to this first full length release with an hypnotic impact leaded by an emotional and violent female voice.

Metal Shock Finland had a chance to interview the band’s frontlady Caterina Salzano, talking about the debut album, the band itself and their message to the world.

1. Hi WaterCrisis, welcome to Metal Shock Finland? How are you doing?

– Hi Metal Shock Finland and readers, we’re doin’ pretty well if you think that we’re playing a lot in this period!

2. First of all, please introduce me your band members and their best and worst habits…

– The band is composed by me, Caterina Salzano (vocals), Antonio Castaldo (bass), Francesco Coppeta (guitar) and Roberto Godas (drums). I’m a really sensitive and deep person but too susceptible sometimes. Antonio Castaldo has a great organisations capacities and he is really enterprising but sometimes it is cranky like a desperate housewife. Francesco is deeply empathicand it is always there for those who need some help but he’s actually very anxious. At last, Roberto! He he has a great willpower and a brilliant mind but sometimes he can be so “zen” to be unnerving.

3. Talking about your music, besides the genre, what is your special touch to it which makes it different than the other stoner rock bands?

– I think our music is really particular because we don’t compose thinking about a specific genre, we totally rely on our sensations that become one thanks to the strong empaty that has grown among us through the years. Anyway, all the member of the band are influenced by the music they listen to, so each of them brings his own taste, influences and ideas. Moreover, tha band’s singer is a woman, which is a really rare thing.

4. From where are coming your musical influences?

– We’re influenced by many different styles and kinds of music. Stoner rock bands, prog, metal, blues, jazz, grunge, doom… In particular, however, we refer to bands like Kyuss, 1000Moods, Black Sabbath that are a huge source of inspiration for us.

5. Your debut EP came out only last year, and last summer you played with LACUNA COIL. For a young band like you, it must have been quite an experience…

– We are young but we are very busy. I believe that satisfactions come from hard work and sacrifice. Our debut EP ‘’WaterCrisis’’ was a rough project that allowed us to start proposing ourselves and getting into situations like that of Lacuna Coil one. That one, has been the first experience on a big stage, with lots of people. It certainly allowed us to test ourselves and to test the audiences’ liking. It was wonderful!

6. How have you found your place, as female singer, in this “male-oriented” rock music world?

-I have always been surrounded by male friends in my life with whom I feel very well. We often do concerts with other groups (all made up of boys) they look at me with skepticism, as if they expected me to go there on stage to sing La Vie En Rose like Edith Piaf but, without too many scenes, when I start singing our songs their faces change and that’s the way I make room for myself between this stinking and prevented metalheads. Prejudices hurts, no?

7. Your voice is described to be “emotional and violent”, is it something you’ve studied for, or does it come out naturally?

– I study singing since many years but nobody has ever taught me how to sing this genre. It was a natural process that was born of itself when we started writing a certain type of music. It ‘s the most sincere way I can express myself as well as a real need now.

COVER-WATERCRISIS-px1000-web-big-

8. Your debut album “Sleeping Sickness” is coming out on May 18th (via Volcano Records), what can you tell me about the song-writing process and topics?

-Every trace of Sleeping Sickness comes from a riff that is developed by each member and to which, according to the mood and the atmosphere created, a text is added.

9. Why you chose “Sleeping Sickness” to title this album?

-We chose “Sleeping Sickness” as title of the album because it well encloses the concept of the album. Each track speaks and analyzes a ”sickness”, with this term we want to analize an uneasiness that the individual must face if he wants to survive, especially those generated by the monsters of his own mind.

10. Concerning the album coverart, what do you want to tell me about the story behind it?

-The album cover art symbolically represents the meaning of the songs. There are three levels: below, there is a host of corpses, defeated by their sickness. Lying on them, there is a demonic woman, seated on a throne, proud to have survived but with a sad look because she is actually chained by a demon bigger than her.

11. How would you describe the album generally? And what could be the message you want to transmit to your audience?

-Sleeping Sickness is an album characterized by suggestive, tensive and enveloping melodies accompanied by obsessive and distorted riffs, that are characteristic of stoner rock. We have sought and tried to reproduced esert, arid, occult scenarios that are well suited to represent the gloomy abysses of a mind that digs into discomfort and tries to express it. The message we want to convey is a message of the individual’s revenge, a redemption towards himself. Because often, we are our worst enemies.

12. Just recently you unleashed the first single/video “Mortal Lien” from the album, it’s a disturbed blues tune with desert and doom reminiscences. Why this choice (as the first single)?

– We choose Mortal Lien as a single of the album because it is one of the tracks that more explicitly speaks of the sense of imprisonment that the individual self-inflicts. Regarding the sound, I think it represents us a lot. It contains different characteristics that are often found in our music. A mix between stoner, doom, blues. Psychedelic and aggression.

13. As said, “Sleeping Sickness” comes out May 18th, so how will you support the album?

– Our label, Volcano Records and Promotion is very important for us, but we need to stay constantly focused. Making our album listen as much as possible. New places and new ears are the best publicity. In addition to radio promotion, reviews and interviews.

14. What are your future plans, dreams and targets to reach?

-Our wish for the future, after the release of our first album, is to carry around as much as possible. In fact, our creative process has never stopped and is an expressive necessity now. We will continue to write and play our songs, which will be the response of the world of music, for those who believe in our project. Obviously, our ambitions go beyond playing in our rooms and we are very projected towards the international market that best suits our genre. In Italy, rock and metal are always niche.

15. Thanking-you for this interview, what is your message to your fans and Metal Shock Finland readers?

Our message to our fans is just THANK YOU for all the support that permittus to believe in something. To Metal Shock Finlandreaders, we want to tell them to LISTEN TO OUR ALBUM and thank you so much for the attention you gave us and thanks to you, Metal Shock Finland for this opportunity. DO IT SLOWLY! -WaterCrisis

More information at:
https://www.facebook.com/WaterCrisis
http://www.volcanopromotion.com

Watch the video for “Mortal Lien” below:

Interview With Olli-Pekka Laine, AMORPHIS: “We’re open minded when it comes to new things”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on May 17, 2018
Posted in: Interviews. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Interview By Alison Booth

Finnish progressive metal giants AMORPHIS are seasoned veterans of the metal music scene, rapidly heading towards their 30 year anniversary. The band’s highly anticipated follow-up to 2015’s “Under The Red Cloud”, their 13th studio album “Queen Of Time”, produced by Jens Bogren will be released on 18th May via Nuclear Blast Records.

Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth caught up with bass player Olli-Pekka Laine, AKA Oppu, to discuss the epic new album and all things AMORPHIS. Look out for a special Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem radio show next week on http://www.totalrock.com starring Oppu and of course new AMORPHIS music! Some excerpts from the chat can be read below, with the full interview on the audio player:

On how the band feel about the forthcoming album release, Oppu stated:

“Well, it’s really exciting, it’s like being in a candy store or something! We’re even more excited than back in the day somehow. It’s like, wonderful – two videos out and one is coming next Friday from another song. And we have already played a couple of songs live in Norway and we will add a few more songs to our live set.”

Discussing “Queen Of Time” and the new areas explored this time around:

“Jens did a great job – he’s an amazing producer and he has great ideas. You can see from him that he kind of hears things in his head, in some weird way.

When it comes to the choirs and strings, that’s something Amorphis has used from Day One – even when we did our first demo, we had a human voice synthesizer on the album on a couple of songs. So in a way it’s not a new thing for us, the new things is that it’s done with a real choir and a real orchestra. We are known for wanting to explore things in our music and this is something totally new for us and yeah, we’re kind of open minded when it comes to new things and this is our way to do it this time.”

Regarding lyricist Pekka Kainulainen and the lyrical content of the songs, Oppu revealed his thoughts:

“I think that I even haven’t met Pekka, though I am his friend on Facebook and Instagram. I think he’s doing a great job, the guys have been working with him with previous albums as well and he is kind of writing the lyrics in the timeless way, that the Kalevala was written back in the days – the book which we have been using in the nineties. It’s kind of a good thing because our music is timeless as well, so the lyrics fit our music really well.

Personally, I kind of like the idea not to explain the lyrics too much, or coming up with certain themes too much because I tend to enjoy to find my own personal interpretations in the lyrics, so it would kind of boost the music. Everyone reads the lyrics in their own way and finds their own meanings.”

Talking about his favourite “Queen Of Time” tracks, Oppu explained:

“Yeah well Daughter Of Hate is great and The Bee, that has grown as one of my favourites and Grain Of Sand, which has a kind of Slayer vibe on it. They were one of the bands which inspired Amorphis in the first place, so it’s nice to have that kind of influence there as well. So maybe those three songs are my favourite and it’s really hard to pick up the top one – it could vary from one day to another.”

Oppu enthused about being back in the band:

“Well it’s great! It’s sort of familiar to be in the band but feel it’s kind of a new band, because it’s much more professional and we have a great background organisation. We have our own stage crew and the playing is much better and also the mood in the band is, I wouldn’t like to use the word ‘mature’, (laughs) but I think I will. We have all matured in a way and the guys are just great.

Everyone has developed in playing very much and for example I have discovered new kinds of music. I’m listening to a lot of jazz nowadays and I’ve played in a stoner rock band, so I play a lot more these days than I used to do. On a personal level, we were good friends, almost brothers, back in the day already and that remains. We had that spiritual connection throughout the years anyway. It kind of felt for me that I’m part of Amorphis even though I wasn’t in the band, so it was kind of a natural thing to enter again.”

On touring and the recent show in Norway:

“Yeah I’m sure we will tour like hell for the couple of next years, so it’s almost 100% certain we will come to the UK as well. We have our first European tour booked for next January.

Well, surprisingly good you know – I saw a few people singing the songs by the heart. It was kind of surprising because I wouldn’t learn any band’s lyrics before the show! But it’s great to see there are hardcore fans who are excited in Amorphis and yeah, they were received really well. We will have our first show in Finland on the 8th of June and we are playing plenty of the new stuff and also some classics.”

Discussing what’s coming up in the future for AMORPHIS, Oppu stated:

“Only gigs coming up, nothing that should be mentioned. There are some surprises which I actually cannot reveal. I’m not saying that they will happen in one year, but maybe next year there will be something special I think.

But for now we will go to tour and we will have our new stage set up. The first tour will be in North America with Dark Tranquillity and Moonspell which will be interesting to experience. We have several visitors on the album, I hope that at least some of them could join us on stage at some stage during the tour. It’s gonna take time because of the conflicting schedules, so let’s see!“

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Interview with Chen Balbus, ORPHANED LAND: “We’re already writing the new album”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on April 25, 2018
Posted in: Interviews. Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

Interview By Alison Booth

Oriental metal trailblazers ORPHANED LAND released their critically acclaimed new album, “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs” at the end of January and have been supporting it with an intensive touring schedule since February. The band have already performed for fans in Europe, Russia and Japan and are set to tour the USA with Faroese metallers TYR in May.

Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth caught up with guitarist Chen Balbus before they departed for the Russian leg of the “Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs” tour. The album and touring was discussed as well as an update on Chen‘s rock ‘n’ roll band THE SECRET SAINTS. Check out some excerpts below, with the full chat on the audio player:

Discussing how the album has been received, Chen stated:

“So far I’m quite proud with the reception of the audience – they loved it when we just released the first single and the second single and the third single. I did not expect that – I thought that people kinda won’t accept it ‘cos they liked the previous members and they were not trusting me and the other guys to bring something that is authentic Orphaned Land. And we pretty much succeeded to do our job and we brought if not the best Orphaned Land album.

So, people love it. People sing it in shows already, I’m proud.”

On the subject of ORPHANED LAND breaking boundaries of racial and religious divide, Chen explained:

“Yeah, pretty much every time we go in concerts we’re asking ‘alright, we’re Orphaned Land from Israel, are there any Muslims, Arabic people in the crowd? Lift your flags, tell us where you’re from’. You just see like, people coming from countries that are pretty much our neighbour countries like Lebanon, Syria, Egypt. All of those countries are like an hour drive from where I live and I can never actually visit there, but I see those guys in other countries. 

So it’s something that our politicians and all those ambassadors could never achieve with all that money they got there and all those fancy talks at the UN and we just did it with goddamn heavy metal! ”

On what’s coming up for the band after the summer, Chen revealed:

“We’re gonna plan the next leg of the European tour, maybe do some new locations, pretty much working on it right now. We’re already actually writing the new album as we speak. We don’t wanna let people wait five years again, so we better start. There are a couple of tracks here and there, like snippets, but we’ll get to there eventually – first we gotta rock the world!”

Due to adverse weather conditions today, ORPHANED LAND‘s official album release show at the Shuni Fortress in Israel has now been rescheduled to 13th June. Check out more information on the band’s official Facebook page.

Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem radio show aired an ORPHANED LAND special this week with the interview and lots of music – if you missed out it will soon be available to listen to again at this location.

Tokyo 2018

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