NEIL TURBIN, the original screamin’ demon of thrash, vocalist for DEATHRIDERS and BLEED THE HUNGER and original vocalist for Big 4 thrash band ANTHRAX… but not only, he is also the co-organiser, together with Von Badsville, for the annual NAMM Metal Jam 2015 concert. The 8th edition will be held next week, on Wednesday, January, 21, 2014 at The Slidebar, Fullerton, CA.
DEAN SWETT is the Manager and President at The international Booking Agency and Management Company “Paramour Group”, Boutique Int’l Agency and Management Co localed in the US.
Dean Swett
NAMM Metal Jam 2015 is a Benefit concert for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund and Dick Wagner’s Rockers For St. Jude. Check out the latest NAMM Metal Jam 2015 update HERE.
Just two days before Christmas, Tarja Virmakari, had a long chat with NEIL TURBIN and DEAN SWETT talking mainly about upcoming NAMM Metal Jam 2015 and the charity work behind it in detail, Neil’s memories of RONNIE JAMES DIO, but also about ANTHRAX, DEATHRIDERS and BLEED THE HUNGER and what’s going on and coming up in the future. To find out about this and more, please join the chat below.
NAMM Metal Jam (Neil And Michael’s Metal) Jam is not affiliated with any other company, name, event or likeness. This benefit concert for charities Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund and Dick Wagner’s Rockers For St. Jude is not affiliated with any other company, name, event or likeness.
For more than 20 years, HENNING BASSE has been one of the most successful singers in the Rock/Metal scene. He has sung for the most influential bands in the business and toured around the globe several times. He sang amongst others for bands like BRAINSTORM, FIREWIND, HELLOWEEN, GAMMA RAY, ULI JON ROTH and is known to most as the frontman of the highly acclaimed Power Metal band METALIUM and the Progressive Power Metal Band SONS OF SEASONS. Henning is currently a member of Mark Jansen‘s band MAYAN who released their second album “Antagonise” in early 2014.
Just recently Tarja Virmakari had a chance to interview Henning, in between his busy schedule, talking about his most memorable co-operations, about MaYan, his impressive voice, work as a vocal coach. Henning also confirmed the rumours of touring this February/March with Gus G. …to know more about this and much more, please sit down and go on reading.
Hi Henning, welcome to Metal Shock Finland. Before we go to the questions, please introduce yourself, using only 3 words…
Self-employed surviving powerhouse 😉
For more than 20 years, you have worked with so many bands and artists, mentioning them all, would be nearly impossible and the list extremely long… but please tell me, What are your greatest memories and greatest band-collaborations, so far?
I got great memories with Metalium during the “ successful years, when youre regonizing the first fans in several countries like Spain screaming those lyrics out and you’re only standing there with goosebumbs all over and realising “wow they got that record”…
Meanwhile happened alot in my life.. but lets say with Lingua Mortis Orchestra feat. Rage. Our first rehersal and first show in front of thousands of people was something unique too.. cause since then it was one my childhood dreams to work and sing with an orchestra. Working with Uli Jon roth during our USA tour was something too I might never forget.
Currently you are the member of Epica – Mark Jansen’s symphonic death metal act MaYan, formed 2012 (full member since 2013), which released the second album “Antagonise” in early 2014, via Nuclear Blast. Please tell me how you got together with the band?
We`d been touring with my Ex band Sons of Seasons back in 2009 with Epica all over Europe. And it seemed very familiar hanging out, and our keyboard player Oliver Palotai is married to Simone Simmons and we were all hanging out.. Mark Jansen came up to me after asking if I would be interested in joining a new idea of writing songs. And it came up fast cause they wrote a pre production I gt to know.. it was really refreshing and even inspiring cause I never sang in something like Mayan is about.
After the album release MAYAN has played in some festivals, but not touring, is it due to other engagements? And will we see you touring with Mayan in the near future?
Never say never.. sure it is complicated to raise up touring and stuff when you got other engagements.
How Antagonise has been welcomed by fans and critics?
Since the release very positive. Antagonise sets the trademarks of this band. I guess we found our kinda style.
And what will happen next in the Mayan camp?
I guess writing for the next record and we need to talk about options regarding the touring..
You work also as a vocal coach and Producer over 10 years and you’re running your own vocal studio in Lüneburg… so, if I one day would come over to your studio wanting to learn to sing death metal, how would you start to train my voice?
I am definitly not the person for teaching how to do Death Metal grunts.. 😉
Are you still training your own voice, or has it reached its perfection?
You never never stop learning …and I am far away from perfection, I even don’t want to have perfection, there has to be an instinctively point, mixed with control regarding singing technic and emotions… you need to be the person who’s selling the song right away to the crowd, within seconds you need to be able to come up with your inner feelings, emotions in a authenticly way. BUT WITH CONTROL.
What are your personal influences and favorite bands?
Beethoven, Queen, David Bowie, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, several songs from different artists (Not only metal) to me it’s about melodys and the song has to be “strong”
Nature, Silence ,the special moment when you feel the magic..
Talking about songwriting, what is your method? I mean how a new song sees a daylight? What are your favorite topics and themes?
You could have a few chords on the piano, or on several guitar parts, put on the drum computer and try to built a reasonable song: first it’s the music.. even my people in the band do send me sometimes the finished music and I put some nice singing melodys on it with “pseudo” english.. to form phrases first.. sometimes it happens by accident, some words are cool or fitting the music then we just stick to it. Last thing is to built the real lyrics on it. It’s such a priviledge to do a pre production cause you can see your music growing better.
Talking about your instrument, your impressional voice, I read that you started at a very young age at the children’s choir of Lüneburg, later on you had professional training for classical singing. what other “ingredients” your voice has?
Patience and training I would say … 😉 it is what it is: if you tread your “instrument” and muscles well with all positive and healthy stuff it will lasts forever to stay in shape. Regarding the sound of it .. I think all life experiences good and bad: the voice sucks it, in somehow you can hear the soul of a singer if he’s able to release his rich colours and his versatilitys..
What would you like to tell me about the Metalium and Sons Of Season years?
It was a good learning process the years in Metalium I would say. Even I am also grateful for people around the globe which are Metalium fans. Still I recieve so many positive vibes and mails. But in the end it was good we ended up. There were line up changes and even the writing wasn’t really good anymore for a long time. No inspiration.
Meanwhile I started together with Oliver Palotai Sons of Seasons. I cannot thank Oliver enough for giving me the chance to write interesting and very inspiring songs back then. We had a blast creating those 2 albums. And it was good that my friend Pepe Pierez joined that band. Sons of Seasons gaved me the chance to sing differently than I did and to find my inner freedom when it comes to singing limits.
Rumours have come to my ears, saying that you’ll be touring with Gus G. in February/March… so please, tell me more about this.
True! We will tour all over Europe, looking forward to this. Gus asked me if I would join. We are friends since 2007, after our first worldtour we stayed in contact. We`re promoting his Solorecord, it’s a pure masterpiece.
In these 20 years you’ve done more than many of us put together, but I’m sure you’ve still so many plans and dreams to make come true, would you like to reveal me some of them?
To be honest:
1. to be happy (and that is meant to be staying healthy and to earn money with making music on a monthly base)
2. to have just 1 band and maybe a side thing.. since 2013 I am working on so many things to stay alive. 😉 sometimes it is not easy to manage things.. but I need to do this.
Now a hypothetical question: If you should form a new band, from the past and present musicians… so, you in voice, who would play with you and what genre you would be playing?
I would love to have nice and down to earth people in the band, I am sick of ego shit… it’s not easy to combine my wish with musicly abilitys sometimes.. but I also know alot of very good and very known people in the business who managed to be down to earth and cool, even not so known people.. there are alot maybe too much to mention.. but I would say I would put both hands into the fire for my friend Pepe Pierez. Known people like Gus G (Ozzy Osbourne) or Chris Caffery (Savatage, TSO) Michael Ehre from Gamma Ray. Victor Smolski, Uli Kusch, just to mention a few.
Henning, I thank-you for this intervew and all what you wanted to share with me. Now the word is yours, what are your greetings to your fans and to our readers?
Keep visiting my Facebook page for upcoming news and leave some nice comments there.. looking forward to see you of course in my future shows, stay healthy and keep the faith!
The fantastic news is that even younger metallers have not forgotten traditional metal music and what we know as old school. Recently, a 13 year old guitar player gained the attention of the media and fans on social networks, especially after the legendary Jason Becker shared a video of him and defended him against ‘trolls’ comments.
Thayer Aletheia-Zomlefer is a 13 year old boy who proved the point once again that “passion and hard work can make the impossible possible.” He plays guitar like many of us cannot, he enjoys playing metal like he is walking through his dreams.
Thayer had a chance to play guitar in front of one of the best guitar players in the whole of human history, the amazing Jason Becker. The video of that event was shared and re-shared many times on Facebook. A point about Thayer that makes me excited and happy is that he told me that he will be loyal to old school metal and this is fantastic, especially when I see younger people mostly attending to a modern version of music. I, Mohsen Fayyazi, am so glad to have had a chance to interview a 13 year old magician, Thayer Aletheia-Zomlefer from the USA.
Hello Thayer, I am very pleased you accepted to be our guest and welcome to Metal Shock Finland. How are you rocking today?
Hi, Thanks I am fine.
To begin with, would you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a little about your life?
I am a 13 year old guitarist from Phoenix, Arizona in the U.S, I am with the School of Rock and perform in their elite house band, the Sugar Skulls. I was recently invited by Robert M. Knight to join the Brotherhood of the Guitar, which is a real honor. I play all types of music but prefer shred. I also play drums, piano and bass.
Thayer, you jammed for the legendary Jason Becker at his home. Playing guitar in front of one of the best guitarists on Earth must be a little bit difficult and stressful. Can you tell us more about those moments and if you have any memories you would like to share here?
It was definitely overwhelming at first! The videos that were posted on Facebook were shot in the first portion of the day when I was still very nervous. As the night progressed and I got to know Jason better, I became much more comfortable and played much better and more naturally. Jason and his family were so welcoming and encouraging! I was upset because I couldn’t bring my guitar on the plane and when I met Jason, he immediately said “My first rule is…you get to play any guitar you want!” Jason kept suggesting different guitars for me to try. It was a dream come true!
I had a lot of very specific technical questions about Jason’s songs and he was really great about answering all of them. It was pretty amazing how he could remember all of the little details of his songs from the ’80’s. It was an incredible experience. I felt like I knew Jason through his music and in person he surpassed even my highest expectations.
I’d like to know how this meeting happened, would you tell us about how you managed to arrange visiting Jason?
Jason Becker has been my hero and a great inspiration to me. My mother bid on an online auction to get a limited edition framed signed poster from the Not Dead Yet Festival 3, a tribute concert for Jason. The Becker family offers cool items on eBay for auction http://www.ebay.com/usr/beckteam. We were really lucky to win the auction and I got to meet Jason when I went to pick it up! We became friends through that meeting. One of the best compliments I’ve ever received was Jason’s parents telling me that I remind them of Jason when he was my age.
OK, now let’s talk about Thayer Aletheia-Zomlefer, when and how did you start playing guitar? I believe you had good support from your family?
I started by taking piano lessons when I was five. I really wanted to play the guitar but my parents thought that piano would be a good foundation for me and the piano training did help to develop my musical ear at a young age. I used to play Guitar Hero a lot and I loved playing the faster, more intricate songs. This is what first introduced me to the world of shredding. When I was 8, my parents finally let me take guitar lessons and perform in a kids’ rock band program. The first song I learned was “Crazy Train.” I had played “Crazy Train” so many times on Guitar Hero that it came naturally to me on the real guitar.
Except for Jason Becker, which other guitarists do you like and learn from?
Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Bumblefoot, Marty Friedman, Vinnie Moore, Guthrie Govan, Michael Angelo Batio, Eddie Van Halen, John Petrucci, Greg Howe, , George Lynch, Tony MacAlpine
Can you tell us about your future plans, for example how you see yourself ten years from now?
In the immediate future, I am really excited about a shred band that I’m forming with some friends. I’d also really love to go to the NAMM show in California next year and maybe get to perform there. In ten years, I hope to be a professional musician. I really hope to be in a band and to be playing the kind of music that I love. I want to help to keep shred alive!
Regarding becoming a professional musician, could you tell me more about the type of music you would like to play?
I would like to play 80’s style neoclassical metal. I’d like for it to sound somewhat like Cacophony and Yngwie Malmsteen combined with the riffage of Eddie Van Halen and George Lynch.
When you form a band, do you envisage your music to be more modern style or leaning towards old school?
When I envision my ideal band, it is definitely Old School. I would love to get a sound similar to the one Jason has on “It’s Showtime.” I have always loved that sound! I would also like to incorporate my own personal nuances into my songs. 80’s metal and classical music are two of my favorite musical forms, so 80’s neoclassical shred is the perfect style of music for me. I also really like ragtime music, and I’ve been trying to find a way to incorporate it into my guitar playing. My brother has been working on playing “The Great Crush Collision” by Scott Joplin on the piano and I’ve been trying to transpose it to guitar to create ragtime shred.
Thank you Thayer for giving me your time. Do you have a message for our readers?
If your readers want to check out more of my music I have a YouTube channel: tazshredder. My advice to guitarists is to always strive to improve your technique because when you apply it to songwriting the emotional aspect will come naturally. Thanks so much to Metal Shock Finland for your previous article about Jason Becker defending me against internet trolls and for your continued support!
Minnesota metallers THEE MASSACRE formed towards the end of 2013, releasing their debut EP “Horror” on Halloween 2014. The horror metal band built up their fan base rapidly and have performed on the Metal Alliance and Summer Slaughter tours. They are now working on their first full length album.
I caught up with vocalist Eric McMahon and guitarist D.J. Gunnarson to discuss what’s happening with the band and what to expect from the new album. You can read an excerpt from the chat and listen in full via the audio player below.
Talking about the forthcoming album Eric and D.J. revealed:
“It’s almost written, it’s coming along nicely. We’re going to stay in a secluded cabin out in the woods by Ed Gein’s land – to give it that spooky vibe, scariness. We lock ourselves away, no cellphones, nothing crazy for ten days and just really focus on putting the finishing touches on the record.
We can really focus on being in that kind of environment that makes us uncomfortable, it’ll maybe add a little ‘uncomfortableness’ to the music.”
For more information on THEE MASSACRE visit their official Facebook page at this location.
Fresh from the critically acclaimed debut album “All Hell Breaks Loose” in 2013, BLACK STAR RIDERS are set to release a new studio album, “The Killer Instinct” on February 20th (EU), 23rd (UK) and 24th (US), 2015 through Nuclear Blast. The band toured 2013’s “All Hell Breaks Loose” for a year – playing across the globe. October 2014 saw them gather in Nashville, TN and enter the studio with heralded producer Nick Raskulinecz (RUSH, FOO FIGHTERS, ALICE IN CHAINS, MASTODON) to start recording the follow up. The result is “The Killer Instinct”. Ricky Warwick explains, “Life’s not fair, never has been, never will. Sometimes you have to live with a killer instinct just to survive in the ongoing pursuit of happiness. Because nobody can do for you what you should be doing for yourself.”
During her pre-Christmas holidays in Helsinki, Tarja Virmakari had a chance to meet with BLACK STAR RIDERS vocalist Ricky Warwick and guitarist Damon Johnson, on their promo tour. Besides the new album in detail, Ricky, Damon and Tarja talked about the great THIN LIZZY heritage which follows the band with honour, looking however towards to 2015, with new tours and new frontiers and an album entitled “The Killer Instinct”, confirming BLACK STAR RIDERS‘ position in the Metal Universe. Out of curiosity, Ricky was asked about his many tattoos, and he replied… To know about this and much more, please join the chat below.
BLACK STAR RIDERS – ‘The Killer Instinct’, Official Lyric Video
Guitarist Henrik Flyman created Danish metal band EVIL MASQUERADE ten years ago. The band have since released six albums, the first one being “Welcome To The Show” in 2004. They have been through some testing line-up changes, but kept going, producing top quality metal throughout their career. Reaching a pinnacle of ten years in a band’s career is no mean feat these days, so to celebrate this milestone, the band have released a special compilation album entitled “10 Years In The Dark”.
I caught up with Henrik recently to find out more about the new album. You can read an excerpt from our conversation and listen to the full chat on the audio player below:
Discussing the process which lead to releasing “10 Years In The Dark”, Henrik expressed:
“We’ve been around for ten years and we’re not quitting at all, so instead of leaving that for the future when this band will end (hopefully never), instead of waiting for that, tell the people thank you for being around. It’s actually ten years, so it’s worth celebrating!
The compilation idea came very naturally because we haven’t done one before. But now with six albums out and from “Pentagram” a lot of people started to join us and a lot of them aren’t that familiar with the early stuff. So, for newcomers to get a glimpse of the band and also for long time fans, we did a re-master of the old material.”
Henrik revealed his plans for the future:
“History tells me I should not be too certain about how the future should be, but the only thing I can guarantee is that there will come a new album from Evil Masquerade, it will probably come next year and it will sound really, really good!”
Check out the official EVIL MASQUERADE Facebook page here and the official website here.
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Hello Thayer, I am very pleased you accepted to be our guest and welcome to Metal Shock Finland. How are you rocking today?
Thayer, you jammed for the legendary Jason Becker at his home. Playing guitar in front of one of the best guitarists on Earth must be a little bit difficult and stressful. Can you tell us more about those moments and if you have any memories you would like to share here?
OK, now let’s talk about Thayer Aletheia-Zomlefer, when and how did you start playing guitar? I believe you had good support from your family?
Minnesota metallers THEE MASSACRE formed towards the end of 2013, releasing their debut EP “Horror” on Halloween 2014. The horror metal band built up their fan base rapidly and have performed on the Metal Alliance and Summer Slaughter tours. They are now working on their first full length album.
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 