Interviews

Audio Interview With VADER: Piotr “Peter” Wiwczarek Talks “Tibi Et Igni”, “BLITZ!”, Touring And “Wojna Totalna”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 28, 2014

Posted in: Int. News, Interviews. Tagged: Blitz, Go To Hell, Piotr "Peter" Wiwczarek, TIBI ET IGNI, Vader, Wojna Totalna. 6 Comments

Photo by Kobaru

Interview by Tarja Virmakari

Polish death metal legends VADER surely need no further introductions to our death metal readers. Following their 7″ EP “Go To Hell” a month prior, their 10th masterpiece, “Tibi Et Igni” was released on May 30, 2014 via Nuclear Blast.

One Sunday November evening, Tarja Virmakari and VADER‘s legendary frontman Piotr “Peter” Wiwczarek “met” via webcam and had a long and interesting “friend-to-friend” chat, talking widely about “Tibi Et Igni”, its background and the album’s deeper significance. It’s not just a damn good VADER album; “Tibi Et Igni” is a concept which leads the listener to the universe of fire in its entirety. Also discussed were VADER’s busy touring schedules; “Blitz!”; the recently released VADER-biography, “Wojna Totalna” (“Total War”); and upcoming videos and plans in the band’s camp. To hear all about this and much more, please join the conversation below.

More information at:
http://www.facebook.com/vader – http://www.vader.pl – http://www.facebook.com/vaderempirewebstore

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Face-To-Face Interview With IN FLAMES/ENGEL: Niclas Engelin Talks “Siren Charms”, Touring And “Raven Kings”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 26, 2014

Posted in: Interviews, News. Tagged: "Siren Charms", “Raven Kings”, Engel, In Flames, Niclas Engelin. Leave a comment

NiclasEngelin-Tarja2

Interview by Tarja Virmakari

Swedish metal icons IN FLAMES performed recently in Milan – Italy, and what could be a better chance to have a pleasant chat talking about the band’s latest album “Siren Charms” which came out on September 9, via Sony/RED. Tarja Virmakari sat down on the stairs with the band’s guitarist Niclas Engelin (IN FLAMES, DRÖMRIKET, PASSENGER, GARDENIAN), in between the football and dinner time. The topics were mostly of Siren Charms, but as ENGEL‘s new album is released today (November 26th, via GAIN Production), Tarja couldn’t resist and ask also about Raven Kings. To know more about what Niclas told Tarja, join the conversation below.

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IN FLAMES – Rusted Nail

ENGEL – Salvation

More information at https://www.facebook.com/inflames – https://www.facebook.com/Engel.Propaganda

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Artwork by: Joachim Luetke

Face-To-Face Interview With MANILLA ROAD: Talking About Past, Present And About New Album Arriving In Early 2015

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 24, 2014

Posted in: Int. News, Interviews. Tagged: MANILLA ROAD. 1 Comment

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Interview by Tarja Virmakari

American Legendary Epic Heavy Metallers MANILLA ROAD, formed in 1977 by lead guitarist Mark “The Shark” Shelton, performed this past July at Truemetal-Festival in Milan, Italy. Tarja Virmakari had a chance to sit down with the whole band backstage, talking about the past, present and future. During this long and relaxed chat, Mark, Bryan, Joshua and Neudi spoke widely about what has happened in recent years; about touring, they unveiled also that the new album (Editor’s note: entitled “The Blessed Curse”) will come out in January/February 2015. For details on this and much more, please join the conversation below:

To read the interview in Italian, on Truemetal.it, go HERE.

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More information at https://www.facebook.com/ManillaRoadOfficial

Audio Interview With AT THE GATES: Tomas Lindberg Talks About “At War With Reality” And “Magic Realism”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 21, 2014

Posted in: Interviews, News. Tagged: At The Gates, At War With Reality, Tomas Lindberg. Leave a comment

At The Gates

Interview by Tarja Virmakari

Gothenburg based Swedes AT THE GATES who formed in 1990, are one of the most important bands in the history of death metal. But, with that sort of reputation comes expectation and pressure. Especially when you are dealing with the band’s first new studio album since 1995. Indeed, after several reunions in the last almost 25 years, AT THE GATES have “blown up the bank” with their new and fifth album “At War With Reality”, released on October 27, via Century Media Records.

Just a couple of weeks before the release, Tarja Virmakari had a long and interesting chat with the band’s frontman and vocalist Tomas Lindberg, who is considered one of The Greatest Metal Frontmen of All Time. Tarja and Tomas spoke at length about the new album, choosing a couple of songs to review in detail. Tomas also revealed many interesting details about the main concept… “At War With Reality” is all about Magic Realism… if you want to know more about it, and other topics, please join the conversation below.

More information at
http://www.atthegates.se – http://www.facebook.com/AtTheGatesOfficial – http://www.youtube.com/atthegatesofficial – https://twitter.com/AtthegatesGBG

At The Gates

Interview With Josh Middleton, SYLOSIS: “We’re staying true to what we do… the closing track is like a ’70’s prog rock song”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on November 19, 2014

Posted in: Interviews. Tagged: BLACKDIAMOND, Josh Middleton, Sylosis. 1 Comment

Interview By Ali Blackdiamond

English progressive thrash metallers SYLOSIS are busy preparing for the release of their fourth album “Dormant Heart”, which is the much anticipated follow up to 2o12’s “Monolith”. The new album is set to be unleashed worldwide on January 12th 2015 via Nuclear Blast Records. The band have been through a recent change with the exit of their longstanding drummer Rob Callard and the addition of new member Ali Richardson.

So, there was plenty to discuss during my recent chat with front man and guitarist Josh Middleton, regarding the new album and much more. You can read some excerpts and listen to the full chat on the audio player below.

Josh Middleton Sylosis

Discussing “Dormant Heart”, Josh explained how the band are feeling:

“Yeah very excited! It’s been a long time coming in terms of when we started recording, which was back in March. Obviously all the music was written before March, so we’ve been sat on it for quite some time, so we’re excited to finally be able to let people hear it. It’s a bit darker and a bit heavier. I was always a big fan of Pantera growing up and they, to me just kept getting heavier and heavier. It was so exciting to get their album home and be reassured that they’re not gonna sell out writing cheesy pop metal ballads and stuff. In the same way we’re staying true to what we do and just put out the heaviest album that we can.

But at the same time it’s a lot darker, there’s a bit more atmosphere in there and at the same time it is a bit more varied. It’s not all really fast, there’s a bit more groove. There’s a bit more melody in there and the closing track is probably one of the most melodic things we’ve done – sort of like a ’70’s prog rock song.”

On the subject of touring, Josh disclosed:

“We’re trying to do as much touring as possible, nothing’s quite set in stone yet. So we’ll try and do something in the UK and Europe first and then probably go back to America. I think we’re gonna go to Japan, I’d love to go back to Australia but we’re not sure yet. We won’t be touring till February or March. ”

Sylosis

Audio Interview With ENTOMBED A.D.: L.G. Petrov Talks About Returning With “Back To The Front”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on November 9, 2014

Posted in: Interviews, News. Tagged: Back To The Front, ENTOMBED A.D., L.G. Petrov. Leave a comment

Entombed AD

Interview by Tarja Virmakari

Swedish death metal legends ENTOMBED A.D. have returned, after 7 years of silence, with their new exciting and in-your-face album “Back To The Front”, released on August 4th, 2014 via Century Media Records. The album doesn’t leave any doubt, that these guys have delivered, once again, a kick-ass album to bring forward their message of anger and frustration from the long silence. Today ENTOMBED A.D. are stronger than ever and ready to take back the stages, and give to their fans what they have awaited all these years… ENTOMBED A.D. are “Back To The Front”!

Some weeks before the album release, Tarja Virmakari had a chance to interview (for Truemetal.it) L.G. Petrov, the only original member from the legendary formation. The main topic, of course, was the upcoming album, L.G. told Tarja in detail about the new album and how the songs were formed, plus the studio sessions. L.G. also revealed that the band is already thinking about the next album and are already working on the new riffs. To know more about this and much more, please join the conversation below.