SOILWORK drumming phenom DIRK VERBEUREN is currently making his incredible drum skills available for session work and premium lessons throughout the rest of 2015. Verbeuren is no stranger to session work, as he’s graced our ears countless times through his endeavors with such artists as SOILWORK, DEVIN TOWNSEND, SATYRICON, JEFF LOOMIS, FREDRIK THORDENDAL, ABORTED, SCARVE, SYBREED, and more.
Dirk Verbeuren is a renowned studio drummer with a remarkable ear for music and 20 years of experience. He owns and operates Die Crawling Studio, a state-of-the-art facility allowing him to track drums in a fully professional and highly efficient manner using the latest Toontrack Music products. Endorsed by brands such as Tama, Meinl and Evans, Verbeuren is also fully equipped to record at the studio of your choice. Interested bands or artists may contact Verbeuren directly at DieCrawling@gmail.com.
Just recently Tarja Virmakari met Dirk via webcam, talking in detail about Dirk’s drum lessons and session work, and of course SOILWORK and their latest live DVD/BluRay “Live In The Heart Of Helsinki”, released on March 16th via Nuclear Blast. Among the discussed topics was also “What makes a drummer a good drummer?” If you want to discover more about what Dirk told Tarja, please join the chat below.
Hi, I am Mohsen Fayazi, Chief Editor of Metal Shock Finland. As you may know we truly love Heavy Metal Music at our tiny but magical home, Metal Shock Finland. But love is just like other verbs in words and actions in the real world and I believe it means nothing when it is not demonstrated by some particular behaviour, it needs appreciation, remembering, sacrifice…etc. To appreciate our beloved ones, we pay tribute to the people who helped and improved this amazing industry of true forthright music.
Martin Popoff is a Canadian rocker and metalhead, well-known from writing thousands of articles and more than 40 books, all about rock and metal music. To know Martin and his work I recently conducted a series of interviews with him and now you can check out the first part here on Metal Shock Finland. These interviews are a part of tribute week to Martin Popoff.
I knew that Martin was working on new book, so I used this to begin our chat. However, we talked about it later too as you will see in the other parts of this series. I like chatty people and I love to encourage my guests to talk about their likes and what they think is important as a whole and with Martin, it was not difficult at all. “I am working on a book called ‘Who Invented Heavy Metal’ and it’s a very big book, it’s coming in at about a hundred and twenty thousands words,” stated Martin Popoff on his newest book. “I am doing it in my timeline with quotes format that I have done with the ‘Hair Metal Coffee Table’ book and I also use that format for books on Ozzy Osbourne and Iron Maiden.” Then Martin told me that it was a kind of battle between Black Sabbath and Deep Purple to be the right answer to the question. I have found it interesting.
We previously agreed on Facebook to begin this series of interviews about Martin’s Collector’s Guide book series. Martin told me the story about his first book, ‘Riff Kills Man!: 25 Years Of Recorded Hard Rock and Heavy Metal’ in 1993, the days before the reign of the internet. He reviewed all the heavy metal albums which he could have done in those days, but in 1997 he came back to that book, extended it and added many more reviews, then published it under the name ‘The Collector’s Guide To Heavy Metal’. Later, in the internet age, when Martin found that he could access more and even older albums, he decided to categorise the albums in different decades, which I believe was a good and reasonable decision. But I was curious to hear his opinion on which of those decades was the best. “For heavy metal music, the way we know it, I think the golden period really was the ’80’s” Martin answered me. “When we had the NWOBHM, the birth of Thrash, Hair Metal and almost every band from the ’70’s was still participating in the ’80’s and making pretty good albums.”
Collector’s Guide Publishing seemed to serve Martin well, “Those guys were great, It was a blast working with them.” Martin commented on working with them and he continues about his experience – “Those are tricky hard layout jobs, there’s hundred of thousands of words there, they were great and I am still buddies with them. Rob Godwin over there is a legend, he’s done so many cool things in his life and he is such a deep music fan himself. Those books sold really well, they were good at their job. I am happy with what they did.”
We also talked about the designing matters of his books, metal in the ’70’s, ’90’s, the damage that Grunge did to heavy metal and many things more. So if you are interested to hear them all just click on the ‘Play’ button below and enjoy.
The pioneers of power metal HELLOWEEN are marking a huge milestone of their career in 2015 – it is three decades since their first release back in 1985, with the EP “Helloween”.
Of course, as with any band who has been around for that length of time, there have been changes in line-up, but the current one is pretty solid, proved by the last ten years together.
With such classics under their belts as “Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I” and “Part II”, to the more recent “Straight Out Of Hell”, HELLOWEEN have always created the music they wanted, on their terms, whether it be longer concept type tracks or fun crowd pleasing songs, along with tackling some serious issues as well. Even if power metal isn’t your favourite genre, there’s no denying the constant quality and energy this band produce!
As HELLOWEEN prepare to release their 15th studio album “My God-Given Right” on 29th May in Europe via Nuclear Blast Records, Blackdiamond had an entertaining and informative chat with frontman Andi Deris.
“Time flies you could say, 30 years is unbelievable! On the other hand, we’re still here and nearly having the third generation of fans in the audience, which is great. But at the same time it gives us lots of responsibility when it comes to new albums, to try and combine all the guys. You can’t be everyone’s darling, that’s quite clear. Nevertheless, we tried for the 30th anniversary – we tried to do an album which kind of leads you through three decades of Helloween metal and I think we succeeded.
Our producer Charlie did a great job on this one too because we wanted to have a little bit of a touch of the ’80’s, still being 2015.”
Andi revealed the story behind the title track ‘My God-Given Right’:
“‘My God-Given Right’ was actually from my father telling me on finishing school and I did not know what to do with my life. You have a big question mark over your head, what should you do? I definitely had that dream of making music like so many kids have, but I was very fortunate to have a father who completely backed me up. He said ‘you’re my only son – if I see you happy, you make me happy and it’s your God-given right to do what you want with your life, or at least give it a try. And whatever you do, I’m behind you.’
And my own son last year was more or less asking me the same question, so it went back to the days with my father. I told my son what his Grandfather told me and I thought it’s a beautiful title for a song.”
To gain more of an insight into some of the songs on the forthcoming album and possible hints about more touring in the UK as well as other countries, listen to the full chat on the audio player below:
Check out the official HELLOWEEN website at this location.
Swedish melodic death metallers ENGEL, who recently toured Europe with AMARATHE and SANTA CRUZ, released their highly anticipated fourth album “Raven Kings” in November 2014, via GAIN Production. The album was produced by the band’s founders Marcus Sunesson and Niclas Engelin and was mixed by Jacob Hansen (Volbeat).
ENGEL emerged on to the world stage with the release of the critically acclaimed debut album “Absolute Design” in 2007. Confronted with high expectations and certainly a force to be reckoned with in their own right, Engel have established themselves as one of the most stunningly impressive and stylish acts in their genre.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Tarja Virmakari met ENGEL in Milan at the Live Club, during their tour with AMARANTHE. Tarja and the guys talked in detail about the band’s latest album “Raven Kings” and touring in Japan and Europe, but also about the new album that ENGEL is currently working on. To discover more about all the discussed topics, please join the chat below.
Tarja with Marcus, Steve and Oscar at Live Club
ENGEL lineup 2015:
Guitarists Marcus Sunesson (THE CROWN) and Niclas Engelin (IN FLAMES, DRÖMRIKET, PASSENGER, GARDENIAN), vocalist Mikael Sehlin (DEGRADEAD), bassist Steve Drennan (LOCUS) and drummer Oscar Nilsson.
Interview By Blackdiamond Progressive death metallers VOICE OF THE SOUL started life in Kuwait in 2007, now based in Lebanon and Dubai. Their first EP “Winds Of Apprehension” was released in 2009, followed by “Eyes Of Deceit” in 2010, before going on to release their most successful EP “Into Oblivion” in 2011.
VOICE OF THE SOUL recorded their debut full length album “Catacombs” in April 2014 at Haven Studios with Hadi Sarieddine from BENEVOLENT. The album was released last September in the UAE and at the end of March 2015 in Europe.
Blackdiamond caught up with vocalist and guitarist Kareem Chehayeb to discuss the new release and other topics, including the metal scene in the Middle East. On this subject Kareem stated:
“I think it’s getting better overall. Dubai is having a lot of club shows and a lot of bands are starting to look at Dubai as a place to hit before continuing on to Asia. So we’ve seen bands like Obscura and Krisiun. I think in terms of pulling off these big fest shows it has to be the legendary bands, like the Big Four kind of bands, Sabbath and so on.Lebanon has a big history with the scene and local shows with hundreds of people. But there’s a bit of government corruption despite it being a semi-democracy – the police break into clubs and cause some problems. It’s easy to mess around with such a small group like metal fans, as opposed to the electronic scene which is funded by big nightclubs and sponsors. But bands still play here, there was a bit of a slump but I think it’s going up right now. But I think it depends on the political climate.” You can listen to the full interview on the audio player below:
For more information on VOICE OF THE SOUL, visit their official Facebook page at this location and Bandcamp here.
NADER SADEK is an Egyptian-American death metal band, created and named after the artist with the same name. Known for his stage masks and costumes design for Mayhem and Sunn O))), he decided to create a band and started to write lyrics. So, after months of songwriting, he released in 2011 the first album “In The Flesh” along with members of Aura Noir, Morbid Angel, Mayhem and Cryptopsy. In 2014, together with members of Cryptopsy, Aura Noir, Sepultura, Cattle Decapitation and Decapitated, Nader Sadek released a new EP called “The Malefic: Chapter III”.
One of Metal Shock Finland‘s readers, Carla Predan had a chance to do her first-ever interview with Nader Sadek himself, talking about his music, art, latest project “The Malefic: Chapter III” and his upcoming EP.
Hello Nader, how are you doing?
NS: I’m great, thanks. Looking forward for my next projects and next year.
You are known as a visual artist, when did you start doing this and why do you make music?
NS: I started drawing as a child, some people noticed it and encouraged me to continue. Eventually, growing up I realized that life is an art, we are all artists, one way or another, just because someone can draw, play the guitar or sculpt, that’s not that makes an artist and to me making art is mental process, the ideas and chasing to realize and materialize into reality. And so with this philosophy I decided to tackle everything, I was ambitious to experiment with every medium out there. I like music a lot so naturally I was drawn into producing something into that field.
You do masks and you also made the stage costumes and masks for Attila Csihar of Mayhem and for Sunn O))). What material you are using to create them and are there any other artists you made such pieces for?
NS: It’s made of silicone, a two part chemical compound, it’s what I use for most objects I create, whether sculpture or masks/costumes and yeah I made for a few artists, one of them is David Nesselhauf, also a band I made the video for and I made the masks for, I made also for the super-star Andrew W.K, he is a big fan of Attila Csihar and he loved my work so he asked me to make one for him as well.
Let’s talk about music, in 2011 you released the album “In The Flesh”, who are the musicians you collaborated with for this album?
NS: Everytime I do something it involves many people, most of them are people I worked from the beginning, Attila Csihar, Tony Norman and Destructhor.
Was it a success?
NS: Most people seemed to like it more than I expected so I guess yeah.
Last year saw you released a new EP “The Malefic:Chapter III”. How did the recordings go? Did you record it with the same line up as your first album?
NS: Not really, I decided to stay with 3 of them from the previous album and the process was very different.
How was the songwriting process for this EP? Was it you who wrote the songs?
NS: I together with Rune Eriksen (ex-Mayhem, Aura Noir) and Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy). I wrote the very first riffs on the record on Deformation By Incison song, I wrote all the lyrics and phrasing too. Originally I had a different idea for vocals, but this turned out great, but I had something else in my mind, especially I liked using Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation) for the voice effect, he adds so much with his unreal lows screams, but for his lows I find them unemotional and kind of flat. I made the phrasing so that it suits my taste exactly which is an attempt to be catchy, but also make an effort to not be as repetitive music and make it being boring. It was quiet a challenge because I was doing it for the first time.
Can you tell me about your influences? What inspires you?
NS: As far as art is inspiration, my favorite is Gustave Dore, it’s pretty breathtaking but as far as outside I guess my life is so fucked up sometimes that it makes me do some things to move on and that’s the inspiration, enough.
And music-wise?
NS: Well at the moment I am not listening to music, I’m concentrating on our next record and I don’t like hearing things, even new ones. I’ll listen whatever a friend played, it helps me get motivated to search a library in my mind.
Have you started already to record some new stuff?
NS: Yes, the new EP is near completion and the next one is about to be recorded.
What is the theme of the new EP and who designed the artwork for it?
NS: I made the painting for the cover. The theme that is told throughout the three chapters of The Malefic and this is the end of the chapter.
Between heaven and hell, it’s about souls being trapped and a man’s mission is to free them but ends tragically for everyone. I don’t want to spoil it, I think people will enjoy reading the illustrated book which will be along with the 3 chapters of the story.
Do you see a bright future with your band in metal scenes, especially in death metal?
NS: I see a bright future for this project, yeah, but it’s not a band actually, it’s just a collection of musicians to create an album. It has never had such ’’solid” members.
And to close this interview, a message to your fans?
NS: Thanks to everyone who has been following me into this crazy journey.
Thank you Nader for your time, wish you all the best!!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Martin Popoff is a Canadian rocker and metalhead, well-known from writing thousands of articles and more than 40 books, all about rock and metal music. To know Martin and his work I recently conducted a series of interviews with him and now you can check out the first part here on Metal Shock Finland. These interviews are a part of tribute week to Martin Popoff.
The pioneers of power metal HELLOWEEN are marking a huge milestone of their career in 2015 – it is three decades since their first release back in 1985, with the EP “Helloween”.
For more information on VOICE OF THE SOUL, visit their official Facebook page at 
Click image to watch the video
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