Swedish metallers MANIMAL have been on the scene since 2001 and released their first album “The Darkest Room” in 2009, followed by the epic “Trapped In The Shadows” in late 2015, via AFM Records.
MANIMAL are currently on the “Immortals” European tour with Greek power metal giants FIREWIND, along with SCAR OF THE SUN and recently spent a week stunning UK fans with their powerful performances on the six-date run. Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager, Alison Booth, caught up with the whole band before their show in Sheffield at the Corporation on 17th February. A few excerpts from the chat can be read below and the whole interview can be listened to on the audio player.
MANIMAL The Corporation, Sheffield 17/02/2017
Discussing their fans in general, then the UK in particular, MANIMAL stated:
“Our biggest audience is outside Sweden – like Germany, the Netherlands and now in the UK. It’s our first time here and the songs and our performance has been very well received by the audience.
Actually, people here are quite as crazy as in Germany! It’s been really, really good so far – far beyond expectations.”
Vocalist Samuel Nyman, talking about his voice:
“Being on tour like this is great because you get to meet other singers, other musicians. And for me as a singer I can ask these more experienced guys like Henning Basse of Firewind and get some good advice. It’s great to be on tour, not just to promote yourself, also to network and learn from others, because you’ve always got more things to learn.”
On the subject of their next album, the guys revealed:
“We’re halfway through the material for the next album, so we gotta focus on that when we come back from the tour. To finalise the last maybe five or six songs and then record them, have them mixed and have it all delivered to our label, so they can release it next year.”
Samuel Nyman, MANIMAL The Corporation, Sheffield 17/02/2017
For more information on MANIMAL, check out their official Facebook page here and official website at this location.
MANIMAL are:
Samuel Nyman – Vocals Henrik Stenroos – Guitars André Holmqvist- Drums & percussions Kenny Boufadene – Bass
As their fans know very well, metal giants ACCEPT never rest on their laurels! The band are in the middle of recording their highly anticipated next album and are also set to release a brand new live package “Restless And Live” on 13th January via Nuclear Blast. This package will include the entire show ACCEPT played at Bang Your Head Festival 2015 on Blu-ray/DVD plus two live CDs, with different recordings from during the European tour.
Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth, recently celebrated the fourth anniversary of her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem on http://www.totalrock.com. Metal veteran, guitarist Wolf Hoffmann joined the celebrations on the show to chat about the new “Restless And Live” release, the forthcoming new ACCEPT album and much more! The whole radio show will soon be available to hear at this location, but you can hear the chat with Wolf (plus a song in between!) on the audio player below, along with a few excerpts to read:
Discussing “Restless And Live”:
“We wanted to have our own production featured as much as possible for the DVD, we didn’t really know how it was going to turn out. We just watched the footage afterwards and thought ‘wow, it’s awesome!’ looks really good, the edits are really cool, so we decided to release it. We figured it’s a good time for a live DVD.
What I think is important to mention too was that we didn’t just do the cheap way and did the audio CD from the exact same footage as the DVD – no, we used recordings from all over the world and across Europe. There’s a lot of material on the audio CD’s that’s completely different from the DVD part. Andy Sneap mixed them all, it took him forever, it’s a lot of different tracks! ”
Talking about the forthcoming tour with SABATON:
“I think this is gonna be a fun experience for us. It’s one of those things we spontaneously agreed to because it also gave us a chance to leave the studio for a while. We’ve been locked up in the studio working on the new Accept album for some time now. We can actually leave all that, go on the road, have a little bit of fun! It’s not our tour, it’s really Sabaton’s tour – we can just go out there and enjoy playing for a while in front of audiences, then go back to the studio and finish what we started.”
Working with Andy Sneap and the new ACCEPT album:
“This is the fourth time in a row with the same producer, it’s a world record for Accept for sure! Every time we work together it turns out fantastic, we love what the final result is. We have a great working relationship, so why change it if it works, right?“
“The only thing I can tell you is that it feels as Accept as ever. It feels maybe a slightly bit heavier for now, but these things are always hard to say when you’re in the middle of it. Man, it’s gonna sound like Accept as always, there’s not gonna be any weird surprises – we’re not gonna go soft, we’re not gonna go jazz! We’re really just trying to get better at what we already do.
We’re trying our best to get it done in time for next year, July or August. We’ve got a bunch of basic tracks done, a lot of vocals are done, so we’re looking pretty good at this point.”
“Headbangers Symphony” fan reaction:
“I didn’t know how it was going to go, but everybody loves it, it’s amazing! People are much more open minded and into this kinda stuff than I thought they would be.”
On more future classical work:
“There might well be, there’s a time and a place for all that. Right now I’m working on the new Accept album and when that’s done and we’re touring with it, maybe by that time I start thinking about new ideas for another classical project, I’d love to do it. First and foremost I’d like to do some shows with it though, that would be the more immediate thing for me to think about, to perform this stuff live on stage and get some shows under our belt. That would be fantastic and what I’m really looking forward to because this music’s really meant to be played live, I can’t wait for that to happen!
There are some definite plans next year, I can’t tell you yet. I can officially tell you it will happen.”
Wolf Hoffmann will celebrate his birthday on 10th December, so we wish him a very Happy Birthday!
For more information on Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem, visit the official Facebook page here and the official website at this location.
Turkish metallers PITCH BLACK PROCESS are set to release their new album “Derin”on December 3rd via EMP Underground in Turkey on Atlantis Yapım/EMP Label Group and on Ellefson Music Productions/SPV in Europe.
Metal Shock Finland Senior Manager Alison Booth also has a radio show, Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem on TotalRock and this week featured new tracks from “Derin”, along with an interview with vocalist and guitarist Emrah Demirel. The whole show will soon be available to listen to again at this location, but for now the interview with Emrah can be heard on the audio player below:
“Derin” was recorded at Dugout Studios, Uppsala, Sweden – produced by Daniel Bergstrand (In Flames, Meshuggah, Soilwork, Dimmu Borgir, Behemoth) and Pitch Black Process. Mixed by Daniel Bergstrand and mastered by George Nerantzis (Abbath, Dark Funeral, Nightrage) at Dugout Studios. The band recently released a new lyric video for the song ‘Toy Soldier / Oyuncak Asker’:
Stalwarts of the metal scene, ARCH ENEMY, have been working hard as ever touring the world with their highly successful “War Eternal” album, which was released two years ago.
The UK were given just four dates on this run and the band played to packed out and extremely hot and perspiration inducing venues, taking place this last week during our pretty decent summer! I caught up with bass player Sharlee D’Angelo before the band’s appearance at the Corporation in Sheffield and you can check out what he had to say on the audio player below, along with a few excerpts:
Discussing how the band have settled down following line-up changes, Sharlee expressed:
“I think we’re more of a solid unit than we’ve been in a very, very long time. I mean, Angela left because she wasn’t feeling it any more. She’d given it a very, very good part of her life and wanted to move on, so it’s great to have somebody come in who actually wants to give it her all, you know.
And the same thing with Jeff, we’d known Jeff since way back in the nineties and we toured together several times before, so we know him really well. We actually asked him to join about ten years ago, but then he was of course busy with Nevermore. But yeah, so timing was perfect and now it’s great, the overall feeling in the band couldn’t be better!”
Sharlee D’Angelo, ARCH ENEMY Corporation, Sheffield August 2016
Sharlee revealed plans for the next ARCH ENEMY album:
“We’re aiming for a maybe next September release next year, so we are working on songs right now and looking to as soon as this all ends, putting songs together and entering the studio and all of that. But we’ll take our sweet ass time, because if it’s good it’s good, but if it’s not we’ll keep on working. It’s just a matter of putting all the tons of musical ideas that we have into actual songs and it’s anyone’s guess how that’ll go.”
For all the up to date information on ARCH ENEMY, visit their official website here.
Only four months have passed since my first interview with vocalist Ronnie Romero, but so much has happened during that time! Last year, Ronnie (also of LORDS OF BLACK) was announced as the singer for the all new Ritchie Blackmore’s RAINBOW to play three live shows, which as we all know took place last month in Germany and the UK (review here). Ritchie Blackmore‘s return to rock seems to have been a resounding success, so I wanted to find out more from Ronnie and catch up with him and his thoughts, now the shows are completed. Check out a few excerpts written below and listen to the full interview on the audio player.
At the start of our talk, Ronnie updated me on how he feels after finishing three huge shows as a part of RAINBOW:
“I feel like in a dream. It’s hard to assimilate all that has happened in the last few weeks. Not just living this situation with Ritchie and the other band mates in Rainbow, meet the fans so close to the stage and back stage and all the people going to the show. And then all these musicians who I love talk to me and telling me that I made a great job, it’s a dream come true.”
Discussing Ritchie and the band’s rehearsal time, Ronnie expressed:
“It’s amazing to see how he can still play guitar at 71 years old, he’s a legend. Ritchie is a really nice guy inside, he makes me feel very comfortable and all the band members, we have like a little family you know. Ritchie makes me feel very good, not just in rehearsals, on stage and this two weeks of tour.”
Ronnie told me how he feels about his performance with RAINBOW:
“I feel really good with my job. I tried to make justice, not just to the songs, but all the singers. I just try to sing the songs in my own way and my own style and I think the people appreciate that. I’m not just a copy of the other singers, I prefer to sing like Ronnie Romero singing those songs. And I think the people prefer that, I think they don’t like seeing a guy or pay for a ticket to hear a guy try to sing like Ronnie James Dio, it’s not a good idea.”
Looking to the future and if there will be more shows for RAINBOW, Ronnie stated:
“I hope so, I really hope we can do some more shows, maybe next year. I have a really great feeling about the band and Ritchie is really happy with the results, he’s really happy with the audience and maybe we can make some more shows next year. You need to stay tuned!”
For more information about Ronnie, visit his official Facebook page here. The official LORDS OF BLACK page can be found here and the official website at this location.
The official Ritchie Blackmore Facebook page can be found here and website here.
Ritchie Blackmore’s RAINBOW Genting Arena UK 25th June 2016
Years have passed since I last went to a big show at the NEC, Birmingham, (I think it was MEGADETH in ’92), so what a band to make it back there for, arriving for the gig of the century on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon, to see The Man In Black’s return to rock! The area was packed full of happy looking RAINBOW fans wandering around the Resort World complex, eating, drinking and watching Euro 2016 on the big screen outside.
Walking into the Genting Arena, we were faced with a great band playing on a small stage, going by the name of DAYLIGHT ROBBERY, with quite a crowd watching their set. After of course buying TShirts to mark this legendary event, we went to find our seats, on the side block next to left of the stage was a pretty good view. I hadn’t heard of English rockers MOSTLY AUTUMN prior to them being announced as support for this show, but they put on a great performance at what must have been the biggest show they have played. It’s easy to see why they were chosen for this gig, they fitted in very well with the whole theme of the night and went down really well with the packed out arena.
Slightly later than scheduled, at 8.45pm, the lights went down and ‘Land Of Hope And Glory’ then ‘Over The Rainbow’ started blasting over the PA, signalling the entrance of the band and guitar GOD Ritchie Blackmore! So many fans have been waiting for this ‘return to rock’ moment for the last twenty years and they greeted the band and of course main man Ritchie with deafening cheers as they launched straight into ‘Highway Star’, setting the excellent tone for the night.
Ronnie Romero 25th June 2016
I’ve known vocalist Ronnie Romero since the return of RAINBOW was announced last year and his work with his own band LORDS OF BLACK. Ronnie was a great choice to be the new singer, his voice is exceptional and suits all the material, whether it be DEEP PURPLE or RAINBOW. Ronnie is also a commanding front man and interacted well with the crowd throughout the show.
The other musicians supporting Ritchie consisted of Bob Nouveau on bass, David Keith on drums and Jens Johansson on keyboards, along with two backing singers, one being Candice Night. Even though I know all the previous incarnations of RAINBOW well on recordings, I had never seen the band live before and it did not matter one bit to me that there were no other original musicians playing these shows. I feel the band worked extremely well as a unit and though not very animated (except for Ronnie) that was okay, the musicianship shone through. Not sure if it was just me, but I couldn’t really hear the backing vocals much.
After a few DEEP PURPLE tracks, the band launched into ‘Man On The Silver Mountain’, one of my favourites of the show. Of course nobody could or even wants to replace Ronnie James Dio, but I’m sure would he have loved Ronnie Romero’s vocals on this song, absolutely excellent!
Ritchie Blackmore 25th June 2016
Let’s just get this bit out of the way – as we all know, Ritchie is now 71 years old, so of course combined with his recent surgery, has slowed down since the days of RAINBOW past! Personally, for me it was unbelievable to see such a legend up on that stage, it felt like a momentous and historic occasion where every moment had to be savoured. And Ritchie looked in fine shape, he made his Strat sing all night long! (no pun intended ;)). There were some very cool moments – not once, but twice Ritchie suddenly lay down at the front of the stage and passed a drink to a lucky member of the front row and we heard him speak just once, to introduce Ronnie. He really looked to be having a great time throughout, waving his arm sometimes. The only tiny criticism I have (which isn’t really!) is that he didn’t go to the other side of the stage so I could get a decent photo ;).
‘Soldier Of Fortune’ was another shining moment, full of emotion from both Ronnie and Ritchie, with the crowd singing along in fine voice. ‘Difficult To Cure’ was up next, followed by brilliant bass, keyboard and drum solos.
‘Child In Time’, what can I say, it was absolutely outstanding! Ronnie could easily match Ian Gillan’s voice, this song particularly showcased his amazing vocal range and he has one hell of a scream on him!
Last month we had a special tribute week to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the RAINBOW “Rising” album and as I had listened to it so much recently and gathered other artists thoughts on it, it seemed to make it even more special when the drum intro to ‘Stargazer’ kicked in, then that riff! A definite favourite of the whole show, Ronnie delivered the vocals with all of his heart and soul and Ritchie’s slightly changed solo was brilliant. The icing on the cake was to see this classic performed under the 21st century rainbow lighting rig, just stunning!
The night ended all too quickly (unfortunately without ‘Gates Of Babylon’, maybe next time!) with two more DEEP PURPLE classic tracks for the encores, ‘Burn’ and ‘Smoke On The Water’, I’m sure leaving most people feeling the same way as me – we would love to see more from Ritchie Blackmore’s RAINBOW!
Set List:
Recordings – Land Of Hope And Glory
Over The Rainbow
Highway Star
Spotlight Kid
Mistreated
Since You Been Gone
Man On The Silver Mountain
Soldier Of Fortune
Difficult To Cure
Catch The Rainbow
Perfect Strangers
Long Live Rock ‘N’ Roll
Child In Time
Stargazer
Black Night
Encores:
Burn
Smoke On The Water
Show Rating: 10/10
Ritchie Blackmore’s RAINBOW 25th June 2016
Also, you can watch this short video below, conducted by Metal Shock Finland Chief Editor Mohsen Fayazi, to find out my opinion on the show:
Chief Shock Video
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Turkish metallers PITCH BLACK PROCESS are set to release their new album “Derin”on December 3rd via EMP Underground in Turkey on Atlantis Yapım/EMP Label Group and on Ellefson Music Productions/SPV in Europe.
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 