Swedish metallers MANIMAL have been on the scene since 2001 and released their first album “The Darkest Room” in 2009, followed by the epic “Trapped In The Shadows” in late 2015, via AFM Records.
MANIMAL are currently on the “Immortals” European tour with Greek power metal giants FIREWIND, along with SCAR OF THE SUN and recently spent a week stunning UK fans with their powerful performances on the six-date run. Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager, Alison Booth, caught up with the whole band before their show in Sheffield at the Corporation on 17th February. A few excerpts from the chat can be read below and the whole interview can be listened to on the audio player.
MANIMAL The Corporation, Sheffield 17/02/2017
Discussing their fans in general, then the UK in particular, MANIMAL stated:
“Our biggest audience is outside Sweden – like Germany, the Netherlands and now in the UK. It’s our first time here and the songs and our performance has been very well received by the audience.
Actually, people here are quite as crazy as in Germany! It’s been really, really good so far – far beyond expectations.”
Vocalist Samuel Nyman, talking about his voice:
“Being on tour like this is great because you get to meet other singers, other musicians. And for me as a singer I can ask these more experienced guys like Henning Basse of Firewind and get some good advice. It’s great to be on tour, not just to promote yourself, also to network and learn from others, because you’ve always got more things to learn.”
On the subject of their next album, the guys revealed:
“We’re halfway through the material for the next album, so we gotta focus on that when we come back from the tour. To finalise the last maybe five or six songs and then record them, have them mixed and have it all delivered to our label, so they can release it next year.”
Samuel Nyman, MANIMAL The Corporation, Sheffield 17/02/2017
For more information on MANIMAL, check out their official Facebook page here and official website at this location.
MANIMAL are:
Samuel Nyman – Vocals Henrik Stenroos – Guitars André Holmqvist- Drums & percussions Kenny Boufadene – Bass
Finnish metallers, BATTLEBEAST, are set to release their 4th studio album, “Bringer Of Pain”, on February 17th through Nuclear Blast Records. I recently had an interview with Noora Louhimo, to speak about their forthcoming album, tour and more news from the band. Several excerpts of this interview can be read below:
To start the chat, I asked Noora how she is feeling about this album:
“Very relieved because we got it done in time and it turned out pretty good, so we are very happy. We hope that everybody is gonna like it, or most of the people are gonna like it, so that we can continue doing this as a job.”
The music style of the band in “Bringer Of Pain” seems to be changed, it sounds more like a pop/rock/metal album than a heavy/power metal one. So I asked her if it was because of the change in the line up, she stated:
“I don’t know about that, but in Battle Beast it has always been that we have various kinds of songs and when Anton was aboard, he did ‘Touch In The Night’ and that wasn’t such a heavy metal song.
In Battle Beast, the thing is to do different kinds of music and not to get stuck in some certain kind of heavy metal style.”
I was interested to know about her personal influences as a vocalist as indeed it is her voice and style of singing that makes this album sounds more like metal music;
“I have a lot of different influences – my first idol was Whitney Houston. For example, Janis Joplin was the reason I found the rasp in my voice and Bruce Dickinson is the reason I wanna do best as a performer on stage. And Ronnie James Dio, his way of interpreting songs is a very good example for me.”
We continued to talk about this album and I asked Noora who is really the bringer of pain?
“Bringer Of Pain is actually a character in the song. I actually created a new fantasy world called Glow It was the easiest song that was born, that is the best situation for songwriting. The character is a female kind of warlord and heiress of the kingdom of the …. and her story will definitely continue on the next album.”
Today, almost everybody is talking about Donald Trump, his comments, decisions …etc. So before finishing this interview I asked Noora‘s opinion about him, her answer as you can read below made me think and become worried, if these new policies of the U.S.A government are going to affect the work of artists around the world who think different;
“Well actually, what I’ve decided, I can’t comment because that can affect the band in a negative way, so I can’t comment about politics or whatever. I’m a very open person and I hope that people are treated equally, no matter the gender or the religion or your skin colour and that is my point of view.”
As the final question, I asked Noora if she has ever felt any discrimination during her career as a female vocalist,
“No, I’ve always been taken very well and people have been very respectful and people have liked that I’m a female singer in a heavy metal band.”
You can listen to the whole of this interview on the audio player below:
The release of a new album by legendary New Jersey thrashers, OVERKILL, was a good reason to have a chat with the band’s frontman Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth to speak about “The Grinding Wheel” plus more news from the band. Several excerpts of this interview can be read below:
It’s always cool to start the chat about “Chaly” if you are talking with an OVERKILL member or a die hard fan. So after asking how Chaly was today, we started to have a chat about the idea: “When Overkill started we were obviously a cover band, playing stuff we like – everything from Motorhead to NWOBHM to some punk rock. And one of the newcomers on the scene back then that was making the biggest splash, was Iron Maiden and they had Eddie.
We were an unsigned cover band, we said that ‘they have Eddie, we need something like Eddie’. I remember D.D. drawing on a cocktail napkin, it looked like Popeye’s head with two wings on it. It was an awful rendition that actually made it to a few tshirts at the beginning, then we finally had an artist do it… Eddie came first, so I would think Eddie would be the father.”
If “The Grinding Wheel” is not their best album then it is definitely one of the band’s top three. It is one of those albums which I am not getting tired of listening to. OVERKILL‘s thrash style of music mixed with some elements of old school heavy metal, made this album stunning! So I asked Bobby where this came from?
“I think the idea first and foremost that should be understood is that Overkill never forget where we come from. Just even having that talk of Chaly versus Eddie, we understand that we came from a certain era and that era was a combination of things. That era was rock ‘n’ roll, NWOBHM, traditional heavy metal and punk rock. And it became other things over the years – it became groove, it became hardcore, so all these elements were added to it. And I think that what we do, we use the elements where we come from, knowing what we want and putting it through a kind of Overkill machine. So then at the end of the experience or process, it comes out with the Overkill brand.
At the end of the day when the mix is done, it says Overkill and I think that’s always our goal, to put our stamp on our performances.”
OVERKILL is mentioned as the Mötorhead of thrash metal, I agree with that. I asked Bobby how he feels about that and also what influences Mötorhead had on their band?
“You can just look at the name of the band and say that we were influenced greatly by Motorhead. This was a band that we were actually covering, when Chaly started taking shape for us in the early days.
So Motorhead has been there for us as an influence or a love from the beginning. And I can probably say to this day that I’m still a Motorheadbanger. It’s what it was all about for us with one of our favourite bands. So I think that the influence is the rock ‘n’ roll influence that Overkill has, I think thrash is heavy metal with energy, but rock ‘n’ roll is not far away from it. I think it’s one of the characteristics that we’ve carried for many years.”
I changed the subject and brought “The Big Four” into our conversation, asking Bobby how he feels about his band not being classed as one of them and what were the facts behind the forming of The Big Four?
“Who? (laughs) I’m sorry I just like doing that. That’s my answer! First and foremost I think it’s necessary to be concerned with your own house as opposed to what other people do. I think for sure they’re a great complement to the metal community and it shows the power of being able to play the size of venues that they do. They reinvented music on a heavy level by showing that a band out of San Francisco could make this happen at this large scale.
When you talk numbers, numbers make the world go around, numbers put food on your table and numbers put the Big 4 in arenas. For me, it’s not a concern. To even be asked the question from you is quite a compliment, but this is quite simply an accounting issue. He who sells the most gets to be in the Big 4.”
I asked “Blitz” about his favourite singles and albums but he preferred to speak about his favourite singers:
“These are guys that I like for different reasons. I was always a huge fan of Freddie Mercury and probably that record would be Sheer Heart Attack. I think he is the full package with regard to presentation, songwriting and singing talent.
Other singers, let me see, Iggy Pop – but that’s more of a pop approach to things.
I was a big fan of Dee Snider, the reason is that I always thought he did more with less.
Rob Halford – to this day, this many years into it, I have a note that I use, a real high pitched scream. I always think when I’m doing it, if only I could do it as clear as Halford. To some degree he still inspires me this many years later.”
Back to “The Grinding Wheel“, Andy Sneap who seems to be one of the busiest people in this industry, was part of the production personnel on this album. So I asked Bobby‘s opinion on working with him:
“One of the things about Andy – he’s got a state of the art feel to understanding this type of music. I think he works within a template of how he does things. What I like about him is that he thinks out of the bounds, for instance, what I mean is making each band sound like that band. He’s got to give them individuality within that template.”
You can listen to the whole of this interview on the audio player below:
As their fans know very well, metal giants ACCEPT never rest on their laurels! The band are in the middle of recording their highly anticipated next album and are also set to release a brand new live package “Restless And Live” on 13th January via Nuclear Blast. This package will include the entire show ACCEPT played at Bang Your Head Festival 2015 on Blu-ray/DVD plus two live CDs, with different recordings from during the European tour.
Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth, recently celebrated the fourth anniversary of her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem on http://www.totalrock.com. Metal veteran, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann joined the celebrations on the show to chat about the new “Restless And Live” release, the forthcoming new ACCEPT album and much more! The whole radio show will soon be available to hear at this location, but you can hear the chat with Wolf (plus a song in between!) on the audio player below, along with a few excerpts to read:
Discussing “Restless And Live”:
“We wanted to have our own production featured as much as possible for the DVD, we didn’t really know how it was going to turn out. We just watched the footage afterwards and thought ‘wow, it’s awesome!’ looks really good, the edits are really cool, so we decided to release it. We figured it’s a good time for a live DVD.
What I think is important to mention too was that we didn’t just do the cheap way and did the audio CD from the exact same footage as the DVD – no, we used recordings from all over the world and across Europe. There’s a lot of material on the audio CD’s that’s completely different from the DVD part. Andy Sneap mixed them all, it took him forever, it’s a lot of different tracks! ”
Talking about the forthcoming tour with SABATON:
“I think this is gonna be a fun experience for us. It’s one of those things we spontaneously agreed to because it also gave us a chance to leave the studio for a while. We’ve been locked up in the studio working on the new Accept album for some time now. We can actually leave all that, go on the road, have a little bit of fun! It’s not our tour, it’s really Sabaton’s tour – we can just go out there and enjoy playing for a while in front of audiences, then go back to the studio and finish what we started.”
Working with Andy Sneap and the new ACCEPT album:
“This is the fourth time in a row with the same producer, it’s a world record for Accept for sure! Every time we work together it turns out fantastic, we love what the final result is. We have a great working relationship, so why change it if it works, right?“
“The only thing I can tell you is that it feels as Accept as ever. It feels maybe a slightly bit heavier for now, but these things are always hard to say when you’re in the middle of it. Man, it’s gonna sound like Accept as always, there’s not gonna be any weird surprises – we’re not gonna go soft, we’re not gonna go jazz! We’re really just trying to get better at what we already do.
We’re trying our best to get it done in time for next year, July or August. We’ve got a bunch of basic tracks done, a lot of vocals are done, so we’re looking pretty good at this point.”
“Headbangers Symphony” fan reaction:
“I didn’t know how it was going to go, but everybody loves it, it’s amazing! People are much more open minded and into this kinda stuff than I thought they would be.”
On more future classical work:
“There might well be, there’s a time and a place for all that. Right now I’m working on the new Accept album and when that’s done and we’re touring with it, maybe by that time I start thinking about new ideas for another classical project, I’d love to do it. First and foremost I’d like to do some shows with it though, that would be the more immediate thing for me to think about, to perform this stuff live on stage and get some shows under our belt. That would be fantastic and what I’m really looking forward to because this music’s really meant to be played live, I can’t wait for that to happen!
There are some definite plans next year, I can’t tell you yet. I can officially tell you it will happen.”
Wolf Hoffmann will celebrate his birthday on 10th December, so we wish him a very Happy Birthday!
For more information on Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem, visit the official Facebook page here and the official website at this location.
Turkish metallers PITCH BLACK PROCESS are set to release their new album “Derin”on December 3rd via EMP Underground in Turkey on Atlantis Yapım/EMP Label Group and on Ellefson Music Productions/SPV in Europe.
Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth also has a radio show, Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem on TotalRock and this week featured new tracks from “Derin”, along with an interview with vocalist and guitarist Emrah Demirel. The whole show will soon be available to listen to again at this location, but for now the interview with Emrah can be heard on the audio player below:
“Derin” was recorded at Dugout Studios, Uppsala, Sweden – produced by Daniel Bergstrand (In Flames, Meshuggah, Soilwork, Dimmu Borgir, Behemoth) and Pitch Black Process. Mixed by Daniel Bergstrand and mastered by George Nerantzis (Abbath, Dark Funeral, Nightrage) at Dugout Studios. The band recently released a new lyric video for the song ‘Toy Soldier / Oyuncak Asker’:
CADAVERIA was formed in 2001 with the intent to create a virtual space where to freely express themselves as musicians and extreme artists. CADAVERIA style, labelled Horror Metal by critics, can be well identified with a personal mix of Black, Death and Gothic Metal. The lyrics, scheming, hermetic and introspective, mirror the dark soul and the vexed personality are of the singer Cadaveria. Their latest full-length effort “Silence” came out in November 2014, via Scarlet Records. On September 2nd was released “Mondoscuro” EP, via Black Tears, co-starring CADAVERIA and Necrodeath, both as distinct bands and as authors of new songs, composed and played together.
Just recently Tarja Virmakari had a chance to interview CADAVERIA Herself, talking about “Mondoscuro” in detail, among other topics were HipstApocalypse game, ALPHA OMEGA Management, and more. Please, join the chat below.
Hi Cadaveria, we know each others for years, so it’s my double pleasure to interview you today! How are you doing?
The pleasure is mine Tarja. I’m fine thanks and I hope the same with you. Hail to all the readers too.
Lets start from your latest effort, “Mondoscuro”, the EP co-starring CADAVERIA and NECRODEATH. I know you are long time friends with Necrodeath members, and also because Flegias and GL make part of CADAVERIA. But please tell me how did you come up to this idea for this special EP release?
Well CADAVERIA and Necrodeath have their own history and identity. Their paths never crossed except for the fact we share two band members and for the rare occasions I joined them on stage for a couple of songs during their live shows. There was a time when both bands members were part of other musical projects (Raza de Odio, DyNAbyte, Mastercastle to name few) and I dreamt to play a special gig putting all those bands in the bill. But it remained just a dream… till last year, when the vision of a cooperation between us started to take shape. Flegias came up with some ideas, taking inspiration from Mondocane, a slip of Necrodeath and Schizo released in 1990 as “Mondocane Project One”, and from the recent Bulldozer/Death SS split. In the beginning we thought to release two cover songs only, but gradually the contents of this cooperation became more complex and finally we composed also two tracks together and we covered each other too. Basically what had started by joke turned into a very demanding record.
“Mondoscuro” contains six tracks: two brand new and co-written songs, two covers (one of The Beatles and one of Type O Negative) and two unusual “exchange of roles”, seeing CADAVERIA reinterpreting a classic by NECRODEATH and NECRODEATH performing a CADAVERIA hit. Brilliant idea! What else you want to tell me about it and how it evolved?
As said the EP grew up day by day. We decided to cover each other hits (Mater Tenebrarum and Spell), then to make a new composition together and to add two more covers of other bands. At a certain point the tracklist was supposed to be of five songs, then Peso, Pier and GL came up with a new track asking me to write the lyrics for it. This is how “Rise Above” song was born. It’s the brand new track from Mondoscuro, together with “Dominion of Pain”. About the covers: each band chose a track that was somehow representative and important for us. You know Helter Skelter is considered the very first heavy metal track of the music history and Peso is a great follower of The Beatles and of Ringo Starr in particular. His way of playing and conceiving the drumming has completely revolutionized the music world. On the other hand CADAVERIA is covering Christian Woman by Type O Negative: I grew up listening to Bloody Kisses album, we liked the idea of paying tribute to the great and genial Peter Steele and I was glad (and crazy enough) to accept the challenge to perform a song written by and performed by a man, in a very low tune which is not exactly in my cords. Recordings took place in two different studios and I’m very satisfied of the result in terms of sound and production. Two bands have maintained their identity but the EP sounds homogeneous, ‘cause the studios cooperated to give Mondoscuro a unique soul.
“Mondoscuro” has the participation of Lindsay Schoolcraft from CRADLE OF FILTH, as special guest on vocals. How you came up to this choice?
CADAVERIA version of Mater Tenebraum ends with Dario Argento’s Inferno movie theme, originally written by Keith Emerson. So there is a cover into the cover and both songs deal with the Three Mothers alchemy subject. Last November we were handling the issue to find a soprano to perform this song’s outro and in the same period it happened that we played some shows with Cradle of Filth. We met Lindsay and we noticed her skills while she was playing live. This is how we decided she could be the right person. The night after, in the backstage, we let her listen to the raw track offering her to participate. She was enthusiastic so at the end of the tour we finalized this cooperation.
Please tell me about the idea behind of the impressive cover-art, which was designed by Italian-Venezuelan digital artist Paolo Perrotta Mazza.
The cover too has a long story. This time I’ll try to make it short: we had different ideas, we asked some artists to produce some sketches but none of them satisfied us totally. In the end, after a long internet research, we found out Paolo Perrotta Mazza and we were caught by his explicit style. His humility and availability convinced us to get his designs. The main idea was to represent a demonic world symbolized by the belly of a pregnant nun. The final version of the artwork goes further: it’s the birth moment but it is also a miscarriage and the mother is dying as well. Life and death united. Terrible like the Mondo movie series the EP title refers to. It is unclear whether the baby was killed by her mother, scared by the obscure world he would have gone to live. Fans are free to interpret it as they prefer.
Do you think that we can expect from you, in the future, same kind of co-starring albums, with Necrodeath or others?
No. Mondoscuro was born and died in the same moment. It will remain a unique chapter in the bands’ history. Destined to become a rarity for our fans.
Now lets go back to the past, just shortly: you formed CADAVERIA in 2001 together with Flegias (after your depature from OPERA IX). Your debut album “The Shadows’ Madame” came out in 2002, followed by “Far Away from Conformity” (2004), “In Your Blood” (2007), “Horror Metal” (2012) and your latest full-length “Silence” in 2014. Each of these albums are masterpiece of its time, and strictly connected to the evolution of your musical journey and stage image, merging to your main image of “Horror Metal”. Is this something that comes naturally from your DNA or a leading thread you wanted to gain?
When Flegias and I left our previous band we intended to form a band where to freely express ourselves. This is the spirit that has always guided us, in the name of passion for music, freedom, independence and experimentation. We don’t follow any trend, our style is hard to classify and I’m aware of the fact our five full length albums are different from each other and contain influences coming from black metal and gothic metal passing through death, thrash and, sometimes, doom metal. The only path we follow is to be faithful to who we are, to what we feel and like to play. So everything comes naturally and yes every record mirrors a specific phase of our life and career. That’s why I cannot tell you how next CADAVERIA album will sound like. I want it to be heavy and articulate, for instance it could be a concept album, but truly I don’t know what planet we will land to.
Please tell me about the songwriting process in generally, and the influences you take the topics from?
For the first three albums, besides writing lyrics, I contributed to the music by working in close contact with the guitarist Frank Booth. In 2009 guitarist Dick Laurent joined the band and he is now the main responsible for the music. He lives far from the rest of the band so usually he sends us new riffs via email and then we meet to define the songs’ structure and to merge the lyrics with the music. The lyric writing process is always on the way, since I’m used to write down things coming to my mind in every moment. When we are approaching a new album I reorganize these notes in a proper lyric, then I match it with the music in terms of atmosphere, tone, melody. Life inspires me, that is from the books I read, movies I watch up to the experiences I live. “Silence” album lyrics were very intimate, like a collection of my personal thoughts about death, existence, joy, love, pain, the preciousness of time and the use we make of it during our life. It was very therapeutic to write that album and it is like I ended a path or I closed a circle. In the future I would like to write stories not necessary connected to my inner side.
Cadaveria, How did you find the music? What are your first memories, and what was the point you knew it would be the life-long relationship?
There have always been music in my family: my father was used to listen to classical music, my sister was into Pink Floyd, The Eagles, The Police stuff. When I was eight I started making my choices and I liked rock music, some strange Italian artist like Camerini, Cattaneo, Bertè and later the New Wave of the Eighties. Heavy Metal came more or less in 1989. I like to sing since I was a child but it was in 1990 that I approached a microphone for the first time. It was by joke, to spend time differently and have fun. One year later it became something more serious but I never imagined it would be part of my life for so long.
What are your greatest memories, so far?
My best memories deal with the good feeling I have each time I sing, or when we release a new album or when I’m on stage. In all these years I’ve lived a lot of great moments (inside the band and with fans) and satisfactions. For example the fact of being so loved in Mexico and to have played there many times is something I’m proud of. And I feel so moved when people write me on how our music helped them in some way, in those moments you understand that everything is real and you are useful to someone (who, in the most cases, live on the other side of the Earth). You know, first we make music for ourselves. I feel blessed and honored to have the opportunity to share CADAVERIA music with so many great people, who appreciate what we do. I have to say we are very well supported by our fans, who still prefer to buy a physical copy of our albums instead of listening to the music from youtube. This is such a miracle nowadays.
Earlier this year you entered the roster of ALPHA OMEGA Management. What can you tell us about this collaboration?
I have always been the manager of myself and I still manage almost everything in the band, from the music to the booking, from the artwork to the website. But I’m glad to finally have got a professional partner that is helping us spreading the word. I already knew some people from Alpha Omega before they founded the Agency, so I know their experience and I’m sure I can trust them. I’m thankful for what they are doing for us in term of promotion, both Italian and US team are kind and smart and I’m looking forward to cooperating more tightly with them in the future, when a new CADAVERIA album will be released.
In March was announced your partecipation at HipstApocalypse game as one of the main characters, so please tell us more about this experience.
I’m truly excited to be part of this and I’m honoured to have inspired Gallab Entertainment, the company that is developing HipstApocalypse game, to create a character in my likeness. The game deals with the heavy metal history and I’m in good company there, with Lemmy and tons of hipster zombies! The team is finalizing the game and in the next months the first open beta will be released. They are waiting for the completion of the comic strip that is closely linked to the game.
What will happen next in the CADAVERIA -camp?
A vinyl version of Mondoscuro will be released in limited edition by the end of 2016 via Sleaszy Rider Records. In Spring 2017, for the same label, we will re-release our second album Far Away From Conformity from 2004 and we will be on stage again for some promotional shows. In Summer we will start working on the next full length…
What is your message to your fans and Metal Shock Finland readers?
Remember to dare, always, and to be yourself and never give up. Keep on following CADAVERIA and spreading the word. Thanks everybody for the support! Memento audere semper.
Mondoscuro Tracklist:
1 – Mater Tenebrarum
2 – Spell
3 – Dominion of Pain
4 – Rise Above
5 – Christian Woman (Type O Negative cover)
6 – Helter Skelter (The Beatles cover).
Check the trailer with the tracks preview here:
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
Turkish metallers PITCH BLACK PROCESS are set to release their new album “Derin”on December 3rd via EMP Underground in Turkey on Atlantis Yapım/EMP Label Group and on Ellefson Music Productions/SPV in Europe.
