This year’s HAMMERFEST IX took place from March 23-26th at Pwllheli, Gwynedd, North Wales. Cycle 3 of HRH United involved a huge variety of bands such as ALESTORM, HAMMERFALL, GRAND MAGUS, VENOM INC, NAPALM DEATH, ARMORED SAINT, DESTRUCTION, EVIL SCARECROW and many more!
David Pearce caught up with all members of UK metallers KINASIS after their Hammerfest performance to discuss the show and what they have been doing since the release of their last album, “Divine Self Intervention”. The full interview can be heard on the audio player below:
This year’s HAMMERFEST IX took place from March 23-26th at Pwllheli, Gwynedd, North Wales. Cycle 3 of HRH United involved a huge variety of bands such as ALESTORM, HAMMERFALL, GRAND MAGUS, VENOM INC, NAPALM DEATH, ARMORED SAINT, DESTRUCTION, EVIL SCARECROW and many more!
Heavy metal pirates ALESTORM are back with their fifth full length album “No Grave But The Sea”, which will be released on May 26th 2017 via Napalm Records. David Pearce caught up with bass player Gareth Murdock and drummer Peter Alcorn before the band’s Hammerfest performance. The full audio interview is available on the player below:
The end of an extended period of silence from Norwegian symphonic black metal icons DIMMU BORGIR, is now upon us! The band is ready to unleash the brand new opus, “Forces Of The Northern Night” on 28th April via Nuclear Blast. On this new soundtrack of the apocalypse, you can witness two different live shows: The concert in Oslo, showing DIMMU BORGIR on stage with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and a bombastic choir, as well as the entire performance at Wacken Open Air with almost 100 musicians in action.
Silenoz 2017
Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth recently spoke to DIMMU BORGIR songwriter and guitarist Silenoz about the forthcoming release, as well as discovering updates about the new studio album. Check out some of what Silenoz revealed below, along with the full interview on the audio player:
On the release of “Forces Of The Northern Night”:
“It feels of course great to finally have this monumental documentation about our career out, after so many years. The two biggest shows you know.”
Discussing the process leading up to the live recordings, Silenoz told me:
“Well, it started back in 2009 actually, when we were writing for the Abrahadabra album. We were thinking about utilising an orchestra for that recording and the timing just happened that the orchestra approached us about doing a possible collaboration, a show. And we were really enthused about it. Because usually it’s the other way round, that the band goes to an orchestra, but it was the other way round.
So, we felt really good about that and came to the conclusion that they are going to record with us on the album at the time and then we were gonna start planning a huge orchestra show in Oslo. And it just took off from there really. A huge challenge for us, a huge challenge for them. But I think we have had this in the back of our mind for many years, that if this type of opportunity would arise, we would jump at it. Even if we had orchestras on our previous albums, that’s been in a studio setting – it’s a different thing to actually perform live on stage with a full orchestra and choir. That was kinda like a dream come true.”
Talking about when the orchestra approached DIMMU BORGIR, Silenoz stated:
“Yeah, that’s of course a huge thumbs up in my book, because that means that our type of music actually goes across other borders and reaches into the more conservative parts of the music business. So really, a sense of accomplishment on that one.”
About other projects, Silenoz said:
“I got Insidious Disease on the side and we just finished mastering the new album in January, so hopefully I get to have that out later this year at some point. Shagrath of course has been doing Chrome Division on and off too, but it’s also very important to stress the fact that these two things on the side has never been in front of what we do for Dimmu. Dimmu has always been the main priority and even if we kept pretty quiet the last few years, we’ve been working on and off with new material all the time. So we feel that once we come back with the new album, it needs to be something that beats the previous album, otherwise there’s no point in making a new one.”
On the subject of the new album, Silenoz revealed:
“We’re in the middle of it at the moment, but I would say it has even more variation than any of our previous albums. It’s more epic and symphonic, it’s more brutal, it’s more black metal, it’s more primitive. It includes everything that we are known for and what’s even better about it is that it has just come so easy. the challenge for us is always to shave off the stuff we think is not good enough. So coming up with material is never any problem, it’s just to figure out which parts to use for songs.
If we keep somewhat to the schedule that we have in mind, I would personally estimate late summer, early fall release if everything goes as planned. But it also comes down to timing and what the label thinks is smart strategically. This time we have gone to Fascination Street Studios in Sweden with Jens Bogren. We felt it was time to do something more organic for this type of record and to see what we could get out of his production skills, because we have always been fans of his mixes.
We’ve also grown tired of all the digital type of sounding albums that comes out here and there all the time. So we wanna go back to the roots in the sense that a drum kit should sound like a drum kit and a guitar should sound like a guitar and vice versa, you get my points. That’s what we wanted to do this time.
It sucks to be sitting on this for another few months before people get to hear it, but I think once the fans sit down and actually listen to this album for real, they will understand that okay, yeah it sucked waiting for this for so many years but it was definitely worth the wait.”
While highly acclaimed AYREON with their mastermind ARJEN LUCASSEN’s ‘Forever/Planet Y’ saga seemed to have reached its conclusion with the album “01011001”, it’s clear that ARJEN LUCASSEN’s creative muses had other plans. The new AYREON album “The Source” revisits the “Forever” saga, adding a whole new chapter to Lucassen’s impressive body of work. With its top-flight cast of singers and musicians, compelling songs, overwhelming sound, and intriguing story, “The Source” offers everything that has gained Lucassen dedicated fans worldwide since he laid the foundations of AYREON back in the mid 90’s.
Last time Metal Shock Finland talked with Arjen Lucassen in 2014, for the “Theory of Everything” album, and just a couple of days ago, Tarja Virmakari had a huge honor to interview Arjen again, talking this time about his new masterpiece “The Source”, in detail, which comes out on april 28th via Mascot Label group/Music Theories Recordings. Arjen revealed also some details about AYREON‘s three special shows, taking place on September 15th, 16th and 17th at Poppodium 013 in Tilburg, Netherlands. To know more about “The Source” and else, please join the chat below. Enjoy!
The international status of AYREON enables ARJEN LUCASSEN to write his characters with some of the most respected singers in rock in mind. The special guests of “The Source” are: James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Tommy Giles Rogers (Between the Buried and Me), Simone Simons (Epica), Mike Mills (Toehider), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus), Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia), Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind), Zaher Zorgati (Myrath), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot) and Russell Allen (Symphony X). Special contributions were offered by guitarists Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big), Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats, Asia, Steven Wilson), Marcel Coenen and keyboard player Mark Kelly (Marillion).
On February 23rd, Metal Shock Finland had a pleasure to premiere, for Finnish territory, the latest lyric video “Everybody Dies”, taken from AYREON‘s new masterpiece “The Source”, check it out below.
Metal Shock Finland‘s Tarja Virmakari commented the video: “Year after year, Arjen is regenerating the meaning of musical freedom, offering the high class experience which takes you to an enjoyable journey, again and again! It’s nearly impossible to describe the emotions with words, so join the voyage and let the tunes to guide your senses!”
“The Source” album saw Lucassen’s creative process take an unusual twist. Normally, finding and assembling the album artwork comes very late in the process, long after the music is finished. But to gain inspiration he began looking for artwork very early on, after writing just the first few songs.
“While Googling I found the website of the French artist Yann Souetre. Right from the start I was fascinated by his imagery. It was industrial and futuristic at the same time. I was particularly captivated and inspired by a portrait of a woman under water, hooked up to various tubes. Not long after that I had an overall theme, a story line, and a visual aesthetic for the album. I contacted Yann, and after we agreed that his artwork would be available for the album, I continued composing songs with confidence and a clear vision.”
2017 will be a particularly exciting year for Ayreon fans thanks to a unique chance to actually see Ayreon live. Limited to three exclusive performances, “The Ayreon Universe” will take place in September (15th, 16th and 17th at Poppodium 013 in Tilburg, Netherlands). This unprecedented live event features the best of twenty years of Ayreon music, brought to life by a top cast of musicians such as Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Threshold), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot), Jonas Renkse (Katatonia), Anneke van Giersbergen and various others. The reclusive Arjen Lucassen himself is also expected to make a rare appearance on stage. The tickets for all concerts – 9000 in total – sold out within a day, proving once again that the Ayreon magic is still very much alive and kicking.
Alex Skolnick is world renowned for being guitarist of thrash titans TESTAMENT over many years. Not one to sit back on his laurels, Alex has also explored many other avenues throughout his musical career, taking part in projects with a selection of varying artists, become a writer and he also formed his own band, the ALEX SKOLNICK TRIO (AST), creating a music fusion of jazz combined with rock and metal elements.
On the road promoting their first live album “Live Unbound”, with Nathan Peck on bass and Matt Zebroski on drums, the AST has just completed a run of UK dates of the ‘Europe Unbound’ Tour. MSF Senior Manager Alison Booth had a chat with Alex prior to the show at Real Time Live in Chesterfield on 2nd March. Some excerpts can be read below, as well as the interview being available on the video, though as the sound is not very loud, the audio is available as well.
Discussing “Live Unbound”, Alex stated:
“There were two main motivations behind this album – one, that it was time to do a new album, but it’s also been hard to get into the studio, largely because of scheduling.
I had these new songs and knew I wanted to do them, but we’ve never done a live record with the Trio. Some of the songs, we’ve been playing for a while, I’ve known these guys over ten years. The songs develop live and I think releasing them now, recorded live, it’s almost like releasing new songs because they’re so road tested and we’ve developed these really cool improvisations that weren’t there when we first recorded the music.”
On cover songs, Alex explained:
“First and foremost I have to like them, but also we haven’t done any new covers in a while. We’re much more interested in original music, but when we were doing them and we still love to play them live, it was a matter of tunes that would work. There has to be a really good melody. Most of the jazz repertoire is built on standard tunes, a lot of them were old show tunes, they had these amazing melodies. And metal is not exactly known for its vocal melody, it’s more about the riff. But I think part of what we do is prove there are amazing melodies, so the first song that we started covering was a song by the Scorpions and the Scorpions are a great example of amazing melodies. The first song we did was ‘No One Like You’ and then we later ended up ‘Still Loving You’, which is our favourite one to play.”
Alex Skolnick Chesterfield, England March 2017
Explaining about freedom of limitations in AST:
“It just feels good and it feels very honest. If you see me playing with Testament or Metal Allegiance I can’t fake it, I’m having a great time. But I also a long time ago, still in my teens, decided that I still wanted to develop as a musician, I don’t want my growth to be stunted. As much as I was a fan of Van Halen, I was also a fan of Jeff Beck and the musicians that Jeff Beck was a fan of, like John McLaughlin and Charles Mingus who’s a giant of the jazz world, so I wanted to know more about that music. And the more I learned, I put so much into guitar technique and being able to shred and play fast and know the music theory, it just seemed a shame to really like this music, whether it was by Mingus or Miles Davis and not being able to play it. I didn’t know it would take years! [laughs]
That’s why I was on a hiatus from performing heavy rock shows for a long time, I didn’t know if I was going to do it again. I figured I probably would, but only if I could get to the point where I felt I had the other side developed.”
Talking about if he will stay with TESTAMENT, Alex expressed:
“[Laughs] I have to be careful how I answer this! There are certain websites that I’m not gonna name, instead of reporting on my tour, you know something really newsworthy, it’s like ‘ok let’s find something he says in an interview and try to make it controversial’, it’s so silly, I’ll just say I didn’t expect to be here this long. When I came back to the band in 2005, honestly at that time I didn’t even know we were going to do a record, but we did the Formation Of Damnation record and the next thing we know, we’re touring with Motörhead, Heaven And Hell and Judas Priest. That was an amzing tour, the Metal Masters tour.
I’ve been here now longer than I was the first time, it’s going really well. Here’s where it gets to be a slippery slope – I’m not sure I want to be an ageing metal guy. I’m still in the decade of relative youth, I’m not in my fifties, I’m in my forties, which is longer than I thought I’d be playing this music. It’s such youth music, you can’t say never but I feel like I don’t wanna be one of those guys going forever in between taking Geritol. But who knows, right now it’s working.”
Alex Skolnick Trio Chesterfield, March 2017
For more information on AST and the rest of the tour dates, visit the official Facebook page here and Alex‘s official website here.
Greek power metal giants FIREWIND recently unleashed their highly anticipated new album “Immortals”, their first in five years on their longstanding label, Century Media Records. The new material has been going down a storm with fans on the current European tour promoting “Immortals” and Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth had a quick catch up with guitar maestro GUS G. before the band’s performance in Sheffield, on 17th February.
Check out a few excerpts of the chat below, with the full audio on the player (background noise courtesy of a fan heater!):
Discussing “Immortals” and and the fan reaction, Gus stated:
“We’re surprised ‘cos we brought a lot of the new CD’s with us for our merch, but apparently everybody already has the CD and they already know the lyrics and they’ve already been singing along, which is pretty amazing! It’s refreshing you know. I think we came up with the right kind of album. From the feedback I got I think that’s what a lot of our fans have been waiting for, I think this is how the band should be sounding today honestly. It’s pretty clear to me what the sound and direction should be like and the good thing with this album is that it doesn’t only have the right sound, but it also has the right message. I’m just glad it made a lot of our fans happy.“
GUS G. The Corporation, Sheffield February 2017
Being back on the road with FIREWIND:
“Yeah it’s cool, it’s good! It’s a good vibe with the guys always. We haven’t done this for a while, we did a few gigs last year to warm things up. This is like our first club tour in five years, it’s exciting to do this again.”
On Henning Basse now being permanent vocalist for FIREWIND, Gus enthused:
“He really fits with what we’re doing right now. He’s one of the best of this genre right now in Europe for sure. As you know, you saw my solo band two years ago and he was singing there with me. That’s when we reconnected again and he was still looking for a band to join full time and we were looking for a singer. We started talking about it on that tour and one thing led to another and here we are!”
Talking about future FIREWIND shows, Gus revealed:
“Russia’s a place we always wanted to play, so it finally happens now, we also have some shows in Cyprus and Greece in March. Depending on how it goes we’re looking at doing some other territories – we’d love to go to South America, we’ve never been there. It would be the first time if it happens, so it’s in the talks right now. I’m not sure if it’s gonna happen but we would love to go there.”
Visit the official FIREWIND Facebook page here and the official band website with the rest of the “Immortals” tour dates at this location.
GUS G. FIREWIND Sheffield 2017
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
