Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Metal Allegiance, Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick.
In this fun chat Alex talks about the upcoming Metal Allegiance show on Jan 25, 2024 at the House of Blues in Anaheim. He also talks about the history of Metal Allegiance and discusses the personalities of the core group and the guests who have participated over the years.
On January 25th 2024, the band will re-assemble at The House Of Blues Anaheim for the bands 10th anniversary celebration (which will also coincide with the return of the Winter NAMM show). The night will be sponsored by Dean Guitars, ddrum and Heavys Headphones, with opening acts being Dieth, Held Hostage and QUOR.
Since the band’s inception in 2014, Metal Allegiance is comprised of the core 4 members of (Mark Menghi – bass, songwriter, Alex Skolnick – guitars, David Ellefson – bass, and Mike Portnoy – drums), and has issued two full-lengths (2015’s self-titled debut and 2018’s Volume II: Power Drunk Majesty) and an EP (2016’s Fallen Heroes).
In addition to Menghi, Portnoy, Skolnick, and Ellefson, the show will feature John Bush (Armored Saint), Chuck Billy (Testament), Troy Sanders (Mastodon), Brann Dailor (Mastodon), Andreas Kisser (Sepultura), Bobby Blitz (Overkill), Gary Holt (Exodus/Slayer), Doc Coyle (Bad Wolves / God Forbid), Hel Pyre (Nervosa) and Chris Poland (ex-Megadeth), among others in addition to their usual unannounced surprise guests.
Members of Metal Allegiance are certainly looking forward to the show.
Finnish atmospheric progressive metal band Alase released a new single Love Crime. This track features a stunning Rioghan as female vocals for this duet where Alase’s mastermind Janne Lunnas handles male vocals. The track is taken from the upcoming Beyond Our Imagination EP which is set to be released on February 23rd 2024 via Inverse Records.
Guitarist Janne Lunnas comments Love Crime: “The upcoming four-track EP “Beyond Our Imagination” had two songs, of which either one would have worked well as a single. However, “Love Crime” was chosen as the single because it presents many new aspects of our music. It was such an honour to have Rioghan Darcy of the band Rioghan as the female voice in this duet. This time I was responsible for the male voice myself.
Love Crime is a story of tormenting love. The song came together pretty quickly as I knew it was a duet and that the other vocalist was Rioghan. That led to me composing what I thought was a bit of “Rioghan-style” stuff, like the electronic drums and synths in the early parts. At that point, I could not guess that I would end up singing the final male parts of the song.
Our lyricist Ninni Swan had a vision of how the music video for Love Crime should look like. Mikko Parkkonen from Aarni Visuals picked up the ideas and created a mystical garden in his studio with very extraordinary plants. Both Alase and Rioghan have worked closely with Aarni Visuals before, so it was clear that the video would be shot at Aarni’s studio in Seinäjoki.”
Beyond Our Imagination Track list:
Broken Pendulum
Love Crime
When?
A Night to Remember
Alase is an atmospheric progressive metal/rock band from Finland. Their music is a melting pot of various genres, but the main focus is on the melody and atmosphere. There are a lot of influences outside metal music as well. Musically, Alase has similarities with bands like Katatonia, A Perfect Circle, The Ocean, Textures and Tesseract, just to name a few. Band’s second album “A Matter of Time” was released in April 2023. A four song EP “Beyond Our Imagination” is to be released in early 2024.
Artwork by Ninni Swan
Current Line-up: Guitars: Janne Lunnas Bass: Ari Miettinen Drums: Ville Aatsinki Lyrics: Ninni Swan
Legendary rock guitarist Steve Hackett is set to release his new studio album ‘The Circus And The Nightwhale’ on 16th February 2024, via InsideOut Music. A rite-of-passage concept album with a young character called Travla at the centre of it, ‘The Circus And The Nightwhale’s’ 13 tracks have an autobiographical angle for the musician who says about his 30th solo release: “I love this album. It says the things I’ve been wanting to say for a very long time.”
Today a brand new track is revealed, titled ‘Wherever You Are’, and you can watch the video now here:
Of the track, Steve comments: “’Wherever You Are’ is a song of love winning through, shattering the chains of the physical world… Light obliterating darkness. A new universe has opened up with the hope that such a strong love could even survive death. The dreams of childhood realised, there is a sense of everything coming around full circle… Even the three part harmony guitar at the end of Genesis’ The Musical Box is revisited in spirit with the joy of celebration during this song.”
The new album is available to pre-order on several different formats, including a Limited CD+Blu-ray mediabook (including 5.1 Surround Sound & 24bit high resolution stereo mixes), Standard CD Jewelcase, Gatefold 180g Vinyl LP & as Digital Album. All feature the stunning cover painting by Denise Marsh. Pre-order now here: https://stevehackett.lnk.to/TheCircusAndTheNightwhale
Steve will celebrate the release of his new album with two HMV in-store events in London & Birmingham, where he will be taking part in a Q&A and signing albums. Find out more details on those here: https://ow.ly/HUaT50Q7paJ
‘The Circus And The Nightwhale’ is Steve’s first new music in over two years. Recorded between tours in 2022 and 2023 at Siren studio in the UK – with guest parts beamed in from Sweden, Austria, the US, Azerbaijan and Denmark, the line-up for ‘The Circus And The Nightwhale’ includes some familiar faces alongside Steve on electric and acoustic guitars, 12-string, mandolin, harmonica, percussion, bass and vocals. Roger King (keyboards, programming and orchestral arrangements), Rob Townsend (sax), Jonas Reingold (bass), Nad Sylvan (vocals), Craig Blundell (drums) and Amanda Lehmann on vocals. Nick D’Virgilio and Hugo Degenhardt return as guests on the drumstool, engineer extraordinaire Benedict Fenner appears on keyboards and Malik Mansurov is back with the tar. Finally, Steve’s brother John Hackett is present once more on flute.
The full track-listing is as follows:
People Of The Smoke
These Passing Clouds
Taking You Down
Found And Lost
Enter The Ring
Get Me Out!
Ghost Moon and Living Love
Circo Inferno
Breakout
All At Sea
Into The Nightwhale
Wherever You Are
White Dove
Summing up ‘The Circus And The Nightwhale’, Steve says: “It’s a lovely journey that starts dirty, scratchy and smoky and becomes heavenly and divine. How can you resist it?”
Steve Hackett & band will tour the world extensively in 2024, including a brand new UK tour ‘Genesis Greats, Lamb Highlights & Solo,’ which will see him return to the legendary Royal Albert Hall. He will also return to North America early this year, with European shows booked in for the Summer.
U.S. Tech-death masters ORIGIN will return to Europe on April 2nd as direct support to Sweden’s legendary black metal group Marduk. The tour will run through May 5th, visiting Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Switzerland and Austria (scroll down for full routing). Doodswens & guests will be opening the bill.
“Memento Mori Tour 2024” Marduk, Origin, Doodswens + guests 02.04.2024 POL Warszawa / Proxima 03.04.2024 POL Kraków / Kwadrat 04.04.2024 CZ Praha / Futurum 05.04.2024 GER Mannheim / MS Connexion Complex 06.04.2024 GER Lichtenfels / Stadthalle 07.04.2024 NED Drachten / Iduna 10.04.2024 NED Alkmaar / Victorie 11.04.2024 NED Helmond / Cacaofabriek 12.04.2024 UK London / Underworld 13.04.2024 IRE Dublin / Opium 14.04.2024 UK Glasgow / Slay 16.04.2024 UK Manchester / Club Academy 17.04.2024 UK Birmingham / The Castle and Falcon 18.04.2024 UK Bristol / The Fleece 19.04.2024 GER Bad Oeynhausen / Alte Druckerei 20.04.2024 GER Oberhausen / Resonanzwerk 21.04.2024 FR Paris / La Machine du Moulin Rouge 23.04.2024 GER Munich / Backstage 24.04.2024 ITA San Dona di Piave / Revolver 25.04.2024 ITA Moncalieri (TI) / Audiodrome 26.04.2024 CH Lucern / Schuur 27.04.2024 ITA Ranica (BG) / Druso 28.04.2024 A Graz / Explosiv 30.04.2024 A Wien / Szene 01.05.2024 CZ Uherske Hradiste / MiR 02.05.2024 GER Leipzig / Hellraiser 03.05.2024 GER Berlin / ORWOhaus 04.05.2024 POL Wrocław / A2 05.05.2024 POL Poznań / Tama
Formed in Kansas (North America) in 1997, ORIGIN is one of the top, most intense and most brutal technical death metal forces to be reckoned with. For more than 20 years, the band have engaged a full-blown sensory assault of tight & taut tech-death, amplified by flashes of grindcore and groove. Their most recent album, the Billboard-charting “Chaosmos”, was released to critical acclaim in 2022 on Agonia records in Europe (and Nuclear Blast Records elsewhere).
ORIGIN emerged on over 100 highly-energetic tours across the globe, including both Americas, Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. In 2007, the bandreached Europe for the first time in career (with Misery Index and Necrophagist), and, since then, reclaimed The Old Continent several times over, with Suffocation, Aborted, Exhumed, Immolation and Rings Of Saturn to name a few. Their 2024 tour marks a triumphant and full-scale return & reunion with Marduk, with whom the band already toured in 2016.
“The music of Origin is a fusion of order and disorder; it’s viewed as a meaningless assemblage of infinite perspectives,” posits guitarist, vocalist and founding member Paul Ryan. Aside from Ryan, the band consists of Mike Flores (bass/backing vocals), John Longstreth (drums) and Jason Keyser (lead vocals).
After a successful return of Milwaukee Metal Festival in 2023, the iconic midwestern, multi-day event is now revealing 11 more bands and daily schedules for the highly anticipated 2024 edition, with more TBA! The festival is now welcoming I AM MORBID, who will be performing the iconic Morbid Angel record, ‘Altars of Madness,’ in its entirety on Sunday, May 19!
In addition, fans can use code DEATH5 to save $5 on single day tickets at therave.com/metalfest.
The daily lineup is now as follows:
Friday, May 17:
Blind Guardian Kamelot Symphony X Destruction Marduk Hammerfall Metal Church Incantation Eternal Champion Profanatica Visigoth UADA Belushi Speed Ball Night Demon Necrofier Hellwitch Silva Ancient Entities Illusion of Fate & more
Saturday, May 18:
Mr. Bungle Testament Hatebreed Katatonia Death to All (Unique set #1) Deicide Possessed The Red Chord Soilent Green (Reunion) Skinless Martyr AD Heathen Devourment Internal Bleeding Cenotaph Cloak Embryonic Autopsy Eyes of the Living & more
Sunday, May 19:
Slaughter To Prevail Avatar In Flames I Am Morbid (‘Altars of Madness’ set) Death to All (Unique Set #2) Lacuna Coil Paleface Swiss Bleed From Within Exhumed It Dies Today Alluvial Casket Robbery Viogression Errors of Humanity Amerakin Overdose Beyond Threshold & more
The festivities will kick off with a pre-party on May 16 while the main festival will run May 17 – 19 at The Rave/Eagles Club in Milwaukee, WI and is promised to have bigger headliners, more food, vendors, live podcasts and other surprises!
The festival returned to prominence in 2023 under the watchful eye of Hatebreed frontman and podcaster Jamey Jasta and Sound Talent Group’s Tim Borror, as well as the team at The Rave / Eagles Club, where so many of the original festivals took place.
Single day tickets and passes are available at Etix.com.
Fans can visit the official Milwaukee Metal Fest site and sign up for the mailing list for first access to information and exclusive content HERE.
Orange County melodic hardcore five-piece IGNITE are starting the new year with “Done Digging the Grave”, a brand new single and video that also offers a first in the band’s long career: a guest vocalist.
“’Done Digging the Grave’ was written about the difficulty to find optimism in a world where the hardest working do not receive the rewards they deserve and where kindness is only celebrated when it benefits us monetarily”, says Nik Hill (guitar), who wrote the lyrics, on the purpose of the song. “Being hopeless together is the best medicine for a world set on keeping us apart. This song’s negative energy burns clean and leaves nothing but positivity in its wake.”
Brett Rasmussen (bass) comments on working with Andrew Neufeld (Comeback Kid/Sights and Sounds): “This song was specifically written with having a guest vocalist in mind. When we heard the vocal tracks that Andrew added to the music we were completely blown away and in love with how the intensity of his screaming fit perfectly into the track next to Eli’s voice. This is the first time IGNITE has ever had a guest vocalist on any song.”
The video was directed by Rob Wallace.
After playing a South American tour at the end of 2023 the band is looking forward to kickstarting the new year with plenty of shows including an Australian and a recently announced European tour that is mainly dedicated to the UK and Spain / Portugal. Brett Rasmussen on the upcoming European tour: “We are very excited to play multiple shows in UK, Spain and France on this upcoming Spring Tour. It’s been a while since we have done a week of UK dates and we are really stoked to get back to Spain and Portugal again!”
IGNITE Spring Europe Tour: 14.03.24 (DE) ESSEN – TUROCK 15.03.24 (UK) LEEDS – BOOM 16.03.24 (UK) GLASGOW – SLAY * 17.03.24 (UK) NEWCASTLE – ANARCHY BREW CO 18.03.24 (UK) MANCHESTER – REBELLION 20.03.24 (UK) LONDON – THE BLACK HEART 21.03.24 (BE) MALLE – KEMPHE ONDESTROOM 22.03.24 (FR) CARQUEFOU – BLACK SHELTER 23.03.24 (ES) BADALONA – ESTRAPERLO 24.03.24 (ES) VALENCIA – 16 TONELADAS ROCK 25.03.24 (ES) MADRID – SALA NAZCA 26.03.24 (PT) LISBON – RCA CLUB 27.03.24 (ES) A CORUNA – SALA PLAYA 28.03.24 (ES) OVIEDO – GONG GALAXY CLUB 29.03.24 (ES) BILBAO – SALA ZORROTZAKO GAZTETEA 30.03.24 (FR) MARSEILLE – LE MOLOTOV 31.03.24 (DE) OBERNDORF AM NECKAR – EASTER CROSS FESTIVAL https://mad-tourbooking.de/ignite-tourdates/
US Dates: 19.01.24 Tempe, AZ – Yucca Trap Room 20.01.24 San Diego, CA – The Holding Company 21.01.24 Murrieta, CA – Solaris Beer & Blending
Australia Tour: 21.02.24 (AUS) Newcastle, NSW – The Newcastle Hotel 22.02.24 (AUS) Canberrga, ACT – The Basement 23.02.24 (AUS) Marrickville, NSW – Marrickville Bowlo 24.02.24 (AUS) Richmond, VIC -The Leadbeater 25.02.24 Fortitude Valley, OLD – Soapbox https://www.thesyndicatetouring.com/#
IGNITE line-up: Brett Rasmussen – bass Kevin Kilkenny – guiat Eli Santana – vocals Nik Hill – guitar Craig Anderson – drums
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
