The new album of the German Heavy Metal Maniacs of WARDRESS turns on the home stretch and will be released on March 17 via Black Sunset/MDD!
“Metal til the End” is not only the motto, but also the album title! 8 songs of classic metal, which you can hear the preference for NWOBHM and which are fresh, dynamic and timeless at the same time, the guys have put together under the wings of Rolf Munkes in the Empire Studio in Bensheim.
A first sample will be available soon, in advance a look at the cover artwork. “Metal til the End” will be released on CD and vinyl. Stay tuned!
Probably THE finest 1990’s example of power/doom metal, this album has been lost in the sands of time until now: ABSTRAKT ALGEBRA‘s self-titled debut.
The brainchild of CANDLEMASS mastermind Leif Edling, would, in any other era, have taken the world by storm, but with the music press and radio obsessed with stuff like Nirvana and their ilk, it was near impossible to get coverage for an album even as strong as this debut. Leif had come up with a collection of songs that although had an undeniably link to his main band Candlemass, also gone in a more modern direction. Hard to classify and compare to other releases at the time, Abstrakt Algebra had a brilliant production and incredible riffs that were way ahead of it’s time. Featuring Mats Levén on vocals as well as Leif himself on bass, the bands lineup was completed by guitarists Mike Wead (King Diamond) and Simon Johansson (Wolf) and drummer Jejo Perkovic.
The re-issue has been remastered by Patrick W. Engel and packaged in a Digipack.
The mystical world of AVALAND return in 2023 with the fantasy symphonic power metal band’s sophomore full-length “The Legend of the Storyteller” due out on March 31st, 2023 via Rockshots Records following their 2021 debut “Theater of Sorcery”.
Compared to its predecessor, “The Legend Of The Storyteller” is heavier and is a much more epic power metal record full of anthems upon anthems for fans to chant to as they are taken on a journey over twelve theatric tracks. The record also hears double vocal duties from Adrien G. Gzagg and Jeff Kanji along with album guests that include Zak Stevens (ex-Savatage/TSO), Madie (ex-Nightmare/Faith In Agony), Pierre “Cara” Carabalona (Eltharia), Ivan Castelli (Lionsoul), Angèle Macabiès, Jens Ludwig (Edguy) and Bruno Ramos (Sortilège/ex-Manigance).
Lead by Adrien G. Gzagg (Autor/Composer/Lead Singer/Synths and Orchestrations), the album’s storyline is aprequel to the band’s first album “Theater of Sorcery” as he explains further:
“This album, as the first one, is a journey, a trip out of our world, into the universe of Avaland. We enjoy seeing Avaland as a great saga, as a movie, or series. We feel like listening to Avaland is like watching Game Of Thrones, The Lord Of The Rings, or reading comics, it’s an escape from everyday life. For this album, we took a lot of inspiration from Game Of Thrones and Arthurian Myths. We love fantasy and mythologies and we also find ourselves having a great fascination for alchemy and esoterism. Time is also a great subject, it’s mystical… in fact, time will be at the center of this saga. This new opus is showing a heavier and darker atmosphere of Avaland’s theatrical universe. Are you ready to be part of “The Legend Of The Storyteller”?”
Avaland‘s first single in support of “The Legend Of The Storyteller” is entitled “Crimson Tyranny” (feat. Cara, Madie & Zak Stevens).
“This song is the first one I composed for this album. It defines the atmosphere for this new album: darker than “Theater Of Sorcery”, but also more epic, especially with its mighty chorus (with some Blind Guardian influences). It’s a mind-sticking song, beware of this infernal hook “Crimson! Tyranny!”. The title of the song is a tribute to “In the Court of the Crimson King” by King Crimson.” adds Adrien G. Gzagg.
Track Listing: 1. The Vision – 2:03 2. Crimson Tyranny – 6:45 3. Insurrection – 4:42 4. To Be The King – 4:34 5. Secret Night – 3:24 6. Kingslayer – 4:10 7. The Gift – 4:48 8. Out Of The Fog – 5:11 9. Betrayers – 5:23 10. Madness Of The Wise – 5:27 11. You’ll Be The Legend – 5:17 12. Lies – 10:29 (Bonus Track – La Folie Du Sage) Album Length: 1:02:19
Avaland is: Adrien G. Gzagg (Autor/Composer/Lead Singer/Synths and Orchestrations) Jeff Kanji (Lead Singer/Additional Voices and Guitars) Lucas Martinez (Guitars) Camille Souffron (Bass) Leo Mouchonay (Drums)
Canada ‘s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Anthrax’s singer Joey Belladonna as well as his wife and partner Krista Belladonna. Joey Belladonna spoke about his Journey tribute band ‘Beyond Frontiers’ as well as some key historic moments in Anthrax over the years. Plus we did into the couples relationship.
When asked about his Journey tribute band “Great tight band, those guys love doing it too so it helps when you get people that are really into it. It’s just part of what I like to do. It looks like I’m trying to do something while everybody’s doing stuff (In Anthrax) but no I just want to keep doing it. I don’t plan to just do it for the heck of it, we have shows coming up in fact in March. The book is open basically and whatever comes up we’re just we’re ready to take on. I want it to grow, I want it to be a normal thing for everyone. “
When asked if he would consider doing other tributes, like Dio? “We’ll put it together too, we’re not ready to get into that just yet. “
When asked about the early days with Anthrax, when he auditioned “I knew nothing about them (Anthrax), nothing about that music and it worked out great. Obviously I was a little intimidated to join because I didn’t even know if the music was really my style but I saw through it enough. It (Audition) was like let’s get the mic set up, if you want to warm up, let’s get some levels on your mic. I said the hell with it I’m gonna just bust out some shit. I just did some Journey stuff. I don’t even remember, I think Lights maybe or oh Sherry little bits of pieces of stuff I don’t think I did whole Tunes but then at that point they’re like okay now this isn’t what we expected.”
When touching upon the times he was let go from Anthrax and then brought back to the band “I continue to be as humble as possible and move forward, which that’s we all want to do. Some people are like what are you nuts? You’ve been in relationships, it’s kind of the same idea, I mean you can either be on the same page or you can be a little deviant and send it off course and expect a lot more from someone that you’re not doing your part. And what are the reasons? There’s a lot to it too. Sometimes there’s just no reason for and what do you get from it? And then you got to backtrack and then you gotta pick it up, again twice. I mean I’m happy for the fans, I just think people need to see it the way it was. There was nothing wrong with it, in my eyes. I think everything we were doing even to the last minute before I was gone, Persistence (In Time Album) was great stuff. “
When asked his opinion on when Anthrax first started integrating rap into their songs, ‘I’m the Man’ and ‘Bring the noise’ “I had no clue what was going on. I remember walking in the room and there was kind of a heated moment about certain things about that and when I heard them working on it I thought I walked into the wrong room. I honestly did, I had no idea what was going on. I mean obviously these things move and they go and they they do whatever they need to do and I’m I’m happy to be a part of all of it. I had the experience and it has been great. I love playing drums on some of the stuff and as I love jamming with Public Enemy. I love listening to their stories about how they come together and play. It’s super cool and you can’t you can’t deny the fans having so much fun with that stuff. ”
When asked if he felt out of place on the Bring the noise video with Anthrax/Public Enemy “Just don’t give me something I can do, I’m not going to stand around and get some drinks while everybody’s shooting a video, give me some turntables.”
TEMPT have released a new video for their cover of Queen’s, We Will Rock You that captures performances on their European tour at iconic festivals such as Hellfest, Download, Rock Im Park/Am Ring, Graspop and support dates for Iron Maiden, Shinedown, Tremonti and Theory. The band reworked the largely unknown “fast version” of the song as the encore for their set on the tour.
The video and single release were inspired by the incredible response the band received from European music fans. “The entire tour, fans were just going all out and giving us so much support,” said Tempt’s lead singer, Zach Allen. At our first festival show at Rock Im Park the fans were going off and when we got to the chorus of We Will Rock You, we could hear them singing it back to us. At that point we decided we would end every show with it.” The video captures not only the breakthrough performances of the band but also celebrates the festivals and most importantly the fans reaction to the band through the use of crew and fan filmed footage, photographs and social media posts.
“I had heard the so called fast version many years ago growing up on a bootleg and Queen apparently used to open and close shows with it but it is relatively unknown even to hard core music fans so it was always fun when we would start the song and watch as Zach began to sing the lyrics and then we would slowly see the recognition sweep through the crowd until they were all singing We Will, We Will Rock You!”, said Tempt lead guitarist Harrison Marcello. “One thing I’ll never forget is being onstage at Download and looking across at our bassist, Chris then down at my guitar and then looking up and Zach was gone. He was off the stage amongst thousands of fans crowd surfing.”
The band will be launching a number of social media initiatives in support of the video and single including appearances by special guest guitarists and fan participation.
Tempt have a huge 2023 coming up with multiple single releases from their new record produced by Grammy Award winner, Chris Lord-Alge (Green Day, Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Muse), a tour of the United States followed by the full album release.
ABOUT TEMPT Tempt are lead vocalist Zach Allen, guitarist Harrison Marcello, bassist Chris Gooden and drummer Nick Burrows. “Living Dangerous feat Dorothy” is out now on Better Noise.
Tempt recently completed a tour of Europe playing major rock festivals including Download, Hellfest, Rock am Ring/Park and Graspop as well as dates supporting, Iron Maiden, Shinedown, Tremonti and Theory Of A Deadman. TEMPT were discovered by journalist Malcolm Dome and manager Andy Gould (Rob Zombie, Linkin Park) and agent Steve Strange (Coldplay, Eminem). Tempt’s last single, “Living Dangerous feat Dorothy” is an infectious rock anthem that’s charismatic, commanding and timeless. The track features acclaimed singer Dorothy Martin from US rock act Dorothy and was produced and mixed by legendary Grammy Award winner, Chris Lord-Alge (U2, Green Day, and My Chemical Romance). The track will be featured on the band’s forthcoming debut album.
Five-piece midwest rockers FIGHT THE FADE announces their Monster Remixes EP, is available for pre-order from FiXT.
Running the gamut of genres including but not limited to dance, bass, dubstep, EDM, Trap, Drum & Bass, The EP features the top five winning remixes from YS, HiME, Misfit, Looxiphase, and HARD BOX.
Dropping with the pre-order announcement is the remix from first-place winner YS. Taking the original metalcore single and flipping it on its head, YS adds elegant piano overtones with distorted rhythms, and drums, turning the original into a dance, bassline, and garage remix with an overall introspective and bittersweet atmosphere.
Known for pulling together influences from rock, metal, and electronic music, Fight the Fade has forged an unmistakable sonic identity that wraps heartfelt lyrical themes within a robust production style and delivers them with nuanced and diverse writing approaches. The band’s work ethic and innovative blend of genres led them to an album deal with independent electronic rock label FiXT in late 2020, with Fight the Fade releasing singles throughout 2021, leading to a full-length album APOPHYSITIS released in July 2022.
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