DRAGONHAMMER‘s banner will soon return to hoist itself into the epic skies of the European Power Metal scene.
The historic Power Metal band, returning from the two highly acclaimed albums “The X Experiment” and “Obscurity”, as well as numerous dates that have seen them on the most important European stages, has renewed the partnership that linked them to My Kingdom Music and together, on November 4th, they will present the new album titled “Second Life”, a work that without any doubt is more powerful, more epic and technically as sublime as its predecessors were.
The album will also be the opportunity to present the new singer Mattia Fagiolo who, after the separation from the historic frontman Max Aguzzi, then replaced for a few years for the live sessions by Luca Micioni, is ready to bring with his energy new vital life to the essence of DRAGONHAMMER, as well as Alessandro Mancini on guitars and Marco Berrettoni on drums already present in the last live shows. The line-up is completed by the historic bassist and founder of the band, Gae Amodio, Giulio Cattivera on keyboards and Flavio Cicconi on guitar.
This is a comment by Giulio Cattivera on behalf of the band who explains what is behind “Second Life” and what is expected for the near future: “Second Life” opens a new chapter for the band. It is the story of the evolution of DragonhammeR’s way of working and making music, renewed in sound and formation. Among the novelties of this work, the addition of new vocal elements, more symphonic keyboards and more modern and powerful guitars stand out. An album that opens up new visions for the future and wants to be the starting point of this new identity”.
Denmark’s premier roots-rockers THORBJØRN RISAGER & THE BLACK TORNADO have released “Fire Inside,” the roof-raising second single off their new album Navigation Blues, out September 30th via Provogue / Mascot Label Group. According to Thorbjørn, the song was inspired by one of the band’s biggest influences: the legendary rock band ZZ Top. “The song was written right after Dusty Hill died last year, and I felt the urge to make a homage to ZZ Top, which is one of my all-time favorite bands,” he recalls. “I can’t tell how many times we’ve ended up in a very loud hotel room afterparty after a concert with ZZ Top ‘Tres Hombres’ on volume 11 and a bunch of cold beers!”
Watch the lyric video for “Fire Inside,” and pre-order the album HERE
Over the past twenty years, Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado has blazed a trail across Scandinavia, Europe, Canada, the US and Asia. They’ve been captivating crowds with their dynamic stage presence and a sound that fuses soul, Chicago blues, boogie and rock ‘n’ roll with a voice where Ray Charles, Van Morrison and Billy Gibbons meet in the middle. They’ve brought dancing shoes to Europe’s largest festival stages and low-light noir-ish blues to Jazz clubs around the globe.
About to release their eighth studio album, the multi-award-winning band has opened for Bonnie Raitt and the Tedeschi Trucks Band, and Risager himself has been sharing the stage with legends such as Buddy Guy, Doyle Bramhall II and Robben Ford.
Growing up in the small town of Jyllinge, about 30km from Denmark’s capital city, Copenhagen. Risager would sit in the fishing village’s harbour, looking out where the sunset met the distant hamlet horizon. Staring out into the expanse of clouds and the undisturbed landscape opposite as the breeze ambles past, blowing on the fjord, which hides Viking stories of times past, watching the sun go down – he would sit, think, reflect and wonder about the world beyond.
Having formed in Copenhagen, the band are real road warriors, spending 9-10 months a year touring, but it’s something that they’ve never taken for granted. “Every concert is a unique experience. You just look at the audience’s smiles and reactions, and you know that what you’re doing makes sense.”
Their prolific travels around the globe have swept up fans across every corner, including non-other than Elwood Blues himself, Dan Aykroyd! Who hailed their “Hot rhythm and blues”, saying Risager has “got a great voice, great delivery and feels the blues. The songs are original, but sound like they come from a Stax recording session circa 1965.”
Navigation Blues opens with the title track, a sepia-tinged pre-war blues stomp that sees Risager yearn, “Truckloads of darkness here, and my matches are soaking wet…will this black night ever end.” Offsetting this is the rolling rhythms and searing guitar licks of “Watch The Sun Go Down” – a ZZ Top-styled southern rocker that soundtracks a glorious dusk desert sunset with a fizzing coolness that puts its foot on the pedal and rides off into a Tarantino horizon.
Two decades on the road have given the band an incredible ability to know what makes people move – in both feet and heart. On Navigation Blues, they use this skill with complete precision, whether it be the front-porch blues of “The Way You Make Me Feel” to roof-raising rockers such as “Fire Inside” or “Headed for the Stars” to the gentle ache of “Blue Lullaby” and “Heart Crash.” But their showmanistic sense of adventure is never far away, which can be seen on the rock ‘n’ roller “Hoodoo Lover” or the boogie of “Taking the Good With the Bad.”
From the humble beginnings staring out from that harbour in Jyllinge to the bars of Copenhagen and now, regularly selling out 1000 capacity venues in their native Denmark, Sweden, Germany and beyond. International awards, National TV performances and praise lavished on them from a Hollywood legend – Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado feel like they are only just getting started.
“We built it up from the ground the old-fashioned way,” he reflects. “If you wanna make a living out of playing the blues, it’s not enough to play only in one country, so we’re thrilled to be able to play all over.”
At twenty years in, the band are in white-hot form and will be showcasing their new material across Europe for the rest of 2022. “Playing live in front of an audience makes you feel alive. That’s the best way to describe it, I think. It’s good to feel alive,” he smiles.
The Black Tornado Band Thorbjørn Risager Vocal, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar Emil Balsgaard Piano, Organ, Wurlitzer, Clavinet, Farfisa Joachim Svensmark Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Synthesizer, Piano, Viola, Drums, Percussion, Glockenspiel, Mandolin Kasper Wagner Alto Sax, Tenor Sax, Baritone Sax, Flutes, Clarinet Hans Nybo Tenor Sax, Bass Clarinet Peter W Kehl Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Trombone, Perc Søren Bøjgaard Bass, Moog Bass, Baritone Guitar, Synthesizer, Piano, Percussion Martin Seidelin Drums, Percussion
Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from The Metal Voice spoke to legendary guitarist of AcceptWolf Hoffmann about the bands tour plans, new music, the status of their documentary and the possibility of ever doing an Accept Fest
When asked about North American Tour “I’m currently in Europe as we have we all have been here for the whole summer because it’s summer festival season here and we played more shows than I can remember ever playing. I mean we usually do festivals for a few weeks here and there but it’s been almost three months for us now because I think there was all this pent up demand because of the pandemic. So this summer has been busier than ever it’s been awesome. So now we’re getting ready to do this U.S. tour which is coming up soon. It’s actually the first full-blown U.S tour for Accept in a decade, it’s time I don’t know.”
When asked was it a good idea to release their last studio album ‘To Mean to die’ during the pandemic “It went really y well, I have to say people love the album and I think that we’re very grateful that we didn’t hold back until times got back to normal. People got to enjoy the album and the fan reaction was fantastic. We sold really well, of course nobody knows what it would have been like had we had the tour to support the album.”
When asked about the upcoming set list “We incorporate a whole lot more songs than I had anticipated at some of these festival shows that we did. We played like five new songs and they all had a great reaction from the fans because normally a lot of times when we have a new album we play only two songs sometimes three but there’s so much good stuff on this album, so much good live songs, that it’s really fun to do and people really appreciate it. I do put the setlist together every night but we do make stuff up sometimes last minute. I make a small adjustment and we also like to mix it up sometimes more than we’ve ever done before. A lot of times in the past we arrived at what seemed to be the perfect set list and we kind of kept it as is. Lately we all said why don’t we just mix it up a little because it’s also fun for us and if somebody comes to more than one show they get a slightly different set list. I can tell you this some songs we will always play like ‘Princess of the dawn’ , ‘Fast as a shark’, ‘Metal heart’, ‘Balls to the wall’.”
When asked if he ever heard the AC/DC original Demo of the song ‘I’m A Rebel’ which was given to Accept to record for their second album “I have yeah and Bon Scott singing on it from what I remember. It’s unreleased and they probably will keep it in the archive or their vault or whatever forever I can tell you why it will be unreleased because it was a demo. Apparently AC/DC did not like the song enough or they didn’t want to record it properly they just had the demo and said, we are not going to do properly record it. So that’s how we ended up with the song. I thought their version was fabulous. I thought it was much better than our version, sorry. I remember that was clearly Bon Scott on it, kind of a rough demo. I believe it was recorded in Hamburg at a demo studio or maybe not. I know that Alex Young (who wrote the song) lived in Hamburg at the time or at least he had a really close connection to our publisher that’s how we ended up with a song. They said we’ve got these unreleased songs and I think the song would be great for you guys and we actually met him (Alex Young).”
When asked if they would even do a tour playing a whole classic album from start to finish “I’m not a huge fan of all these anniversary things because it always reeks a little bit of desperation, like I don’t have a new album we’ve got nothing else to say, so we celebrate something that happened 40 years ago. Maybe if we’ve come to the point where we don’t have a current album and it happens to be anniversary? I don’t want to really get caught up in that too much and as far as like playing an album in the entirety we’ve done that once or twice but an album is an album and it has a certain running order and the show has a different running order to me and it’s not necessarily the best live show. But it doesn’t say we don’t want to do it, actually we committed to do to that in Japan but that show never happened. We were supposed to play the entirety of ‘Metal heart’ and ‘Balls to the wall’ in two different shows in Japan as a special thing. We rehearsed for it but then pandemic uh put a stop to it it never happened. “
When asked if he would ever consider doing an Accept Festival brining back the former members, like Schenker Fest “I mean anything is possible but at this point no interest, no thanks. I learned to say never say never because one day you might look like a fool otherwise.”
When asked if you have been inspired to get ideas ideas down for a new album “I tell you what is inspiring, it is to be out on stage and to see the reaction of fans. When you ask me was I creative during this pandemic time, no. I wasn’t, I kind of fell into a slump. I’m totally honest I didn’t know when life would resume and I didn’t know when the tour would actually happen that we had planned and there were so many unknowns and so I didn’t feel inspired. But now that I’m back out on the road and we’re on stage every night and I’m fired up and I actually wrote a bunch of stuff already sitting in hotel rooms and such. That’s when I get creative. Time just flew by doing this pandemic and I wasn’t really creative at all. I wish I would have been but you can’t force it.”
When asked about the status of the Accept Documentary “I don’t know where it stands, I need to check but I think it came to a halt because there wasn’t enough stuff (video footage) that that we could find. We wanted some fan footage but there really isn’t much fan footage yeah it’s kind of disappointing in a way.”
“Too Mean To Die – Tour North America 2022” dates w/ Accept
Sept. 29 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl Oct. 1 – Houston, TX – The Concert Pub North Oct. 2 – Fort Worth, TX – Rail Club Oct. 4 – San Antonio, TX – The Espee Pavilion Oct. 5 – El Paso, TX – Rockhouse Oct. 7 – San Luis Obispo, CA – The Coach House Oct. 8 – West Hollywood, CA – Whisky A Go-Go Oct. 9 – Las Vegas – Vamp’d Oct. 11 – Denver, CO – The Venue Oct. 13 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave Ballroom Oct. 14 – St. Charles, IL – The Arcada Theater Oct. 15 – Westland, MI – The Token Oct. 16 – Toronto, ON – The Phoenix Theater Oct. 18 – Vineland, NJ – Landis Theater Oct. 20 – Jim Thorpe, PA – Penns Peak Oct. 21 – Patchogue, NY – Stereo Garden Oct. 22 – Peekskill, NY – Paramount Theater Oct. 23 – Teaneck, NJ – Debonair Music Hall Oct. 25 – New York City, NY – The Gramercy Oct. 26 – Derry, NH – Tupelo Music Hall Oct. 27 – Harrisburg, PA – XL Live Oct. 29 – Columbus, OH – King Of Clubs
UK’s Punk Rockers LADY RAGE have just premiered their powerful video for their brand new single ‘Bit By Bit‘ via Backseat Mafia!
Lead vocalist Siren Sycho states: “We are the heaviest sound in high heels & we are back with our brand new single ‘Bit By Bit’. It’s about hitting your lowest after being at your highest & fighting whichever of life’s many battles you can identify with right now.”
Backseat Mafia adds: “Dripping with attitude the band go all out dropping a powerful slice of punk rock with a forceful vocal performance from Siren Sycho. The rest of the band turns it up to 11 with the loose and scratchy guitar, heavy pounding bass and the drums demolishing everything else, Bit By Bit packs a powerful punch to the head and is begging to be screamed off a live stage.“
“Irrepressible” is a word that springs to mind when describing Norway’s Psychedelic Prog Folk Rockers TUSMØRKE, who will be back in October of this year with “Intetnett”, which will be their third, and quite possibly, final, album directed towards a younger audience.
But whether their albums are aimed at children or adults, TUSMØRKE are never content to just entertain, something they do consummately well, they also want to remind their audience of old, long-forgotten histories, and on “Intetnett” this is exactly what they do, with a fascinating mix of subjects ranging from artificial intelligence, to advancements in technology, to the Singularity, and, of course, ancient Mesopotamian gods.
“Intetnett” tells the story of two evil scientists who plant a self-teaching system onto the computers of an unsuspecting school. The system is called Intetnett, and, via the use of electronic impulses, it takes control of an ant colony living in the school kitchen. Needless to say, it also soon takes over the minds of pupils and teachers alike. The minds of everyone, that is, except for a technophobic Norwegian teacher, a substitute teacher without login info, and a small group of pupils.
With the world slowly slipping into a totalitarian nightmare where no one thinks for themselves, no one dreams anymore, and human culture itself is in peril, there is someone who is missing the humans! Down in the deepest depths, the old Mesopotamian gods are fading due to the lack of human attention, and they want to help humankind to regain its freedom. But the only thing that can stop Intetnett is technology from a bygone era – in other words, Magic! Thus the Norwegian teacher, the substitute and the children are given instructions on how to summon a Golem, a creature of legend that will be able to confront, and hopefully defeat, Intetnett, thereby pulling the plug on the dangerous computers.
And, as an introduction to the album, Karisma Records have today released the track “Den nye tida”, which can be downloaded or streamed from a variety of services via https://orcd.co/tusmorke_den-nye-tida
“Intetnett”, which Karisma Records will release on the 7th October, is actually comprised of two original musicals “Intetnett” and “Når Enden er Golem”, which were written for, and first performed at, the Aktivitetsskolen Nordstrand in 2017/2018.
With artwork by the legendary Norwegian artist Thore Hansen, “Intetnett” features a whopping total of 21 tracks and will be available in CD, Digital, and Limited Edition White Vinyl formats, the latter of which will come with a 12-page lyric booklet.
TUSMØRKE’s lineup on “Intetnett” includes Benediktator (bass, vocals, guitars, synths, percussion, whistling), Krizla (flute, vocals, piano, synths, percussion) and HlewagastiR (drums). It was recorded at Det Ytre Rommet, Holy Space! and the Nordstrand Skole.
THE DEAD DAISIES cast a spell with their third single ‘Hypnotize Yourself’ from their upcoming new album ‘Radiance’.
After captivating audiences on their EU Summer Tour playing to tens of thousands of people across the European Union, the band perform their last show tonight at the Time To Rock Festival in Sweden.
Energized and fully pumped, The Dead Daisies are eager to kick off their next round of dates in the USA this September.
“The four chords that created early British Rock music, are here in one of my fave songs. Back to the roots, primal, sassy, organic & soulful.., ‘Hypnotize Yourself.” – Glenn Hughes
This track has a heavy, mesmerizing chorus, laced with Glenn’s soaring vocals, Doug and David’s duelling crushing guitars and Brian’s powerhouse heavy hitting drums.
“Our new single, is out! It’s got some hills and valleys in it, a big groove, hooky chorus and lots of rock energy! Looking forward to playing it live soon! Hope ya’ll dig it!” – Brian Tichy
“Let’s crank it up and ‘Hypnotize Yourself’ with our new single. Straight up heavy Rock!!” – Doug Aldrich
Make sure you don’t miss Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Country Communion), Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, Dio) Brian Tichy (Whitesnake, Foreigner), and David Lowy (MINK, Red Phoenix), when they come to a town near you in the US fall.
07 – The Landis Theater Vineland NJ 10 – Blue Ridge Rock Festival Danville VA 11 – State Theatre Falls Church VA 14 – Eastside Bowl Nashville TN 15 – Arcada Theatre St Charles IL 18 – The Vermont Hollywood Los Angeles CA 21 – Goldfield Trading Post Roseville CA 23 – Bossanova Ballroom Portland OR 24 – The Crocodile Seattle WA
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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
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 