Scandinavian metallers EVIL MASQUERADE released their new album “The Outcast Hall Of Fame” on 19th May via Dark Minstrel Music. The album was produced by Henrik Flyman and mixed and mastered by Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Pretty Maids, Jorn).
The personnel for this album is a little different to previous ones as there are four contributing vocalists, creating a very unique style and sound. We recently caught up with mainman Henrik Flyman to find out more about the album. An excerpt from the interview can be read below and you can hear the full audio on the player:
Discussing the album Henrik stated:
“It’s been going better and better. I think the whole thing with the album and songwriting feels better than ever and it’s probably one of the easiest albums I’ve wrote somehow. There’s eight songs on this album and I wrote maybe ten or twelve and that’s quite unusual. It feels really good I must say.”
Featuring on vocals: • MATS LEVÉN (Candlemass) • RICK ALTZI (Masterplan, At Vance) • APOLLO PAPATHANASIO (Spiritual Beggars) • NICKLAS SONNE (Defecto)
On backing vocals: • YENZ LEONHARDT (Stormwarrior, Lacrimosa)
Performed by the usual suspects: • HENRIK FLYMAN – guitar & vocals • DENNIS BUHL – drums • THOR JEPPESEN – bass • ARTUR MEINILD – keyboard
For more information on EVIL MASQUERADE, visit the band’s official website here and official Facebook page here.
Finland’s progressive metal veterans AMORPHIS are currently storming through Europe on their “Under The Red Cloud” 2016 tour, in support of their 12th album which was released last September.
“Under The Red Cloud” which was produced by the world renowned Jens Bogren, achieved great chart results all around the world, including their first ever entry in United Kingdom and Australia, as well as their highest ever entries in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. AMORPHIS have been busy touring since the release of the album, touring Finland in September and October 2015, before ending the year in style with a run of dates appearing with NIGHTWISH and ARCH ENEMY.
On the last date of the band’s British and Irish dates, at The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham, I caught up with guitarist Tomi Koivusaari for a chat about the tour and album. You can read a few excerpts from the chat and view the video below.
Tomi Koivusaari, AMORPHIS Nottingham 2016
Discussing the reaction of the fans to “Under The Red Cloud”, Tomi said:
“A lot of people have said that it sounds somehow fresh and there’s new elements, but there’s also a lot of stuff from our history as well. We are still very satisfied with it, how it turned out.
On the gigs, it’s nice to see how people are reacting to the new songs. It feels like the new songs are even more popular, at least here in England, than the very old ones.”
On the band’s longstanding collaboration with lyricist Pekka Kainulainen, Tomi stated:
“None of us are into writing lyrics, so we don’t want to ruin the songs with our lousy lyrics (laughs). I think it works to us, this subject, it’s not from Kalevala any more, but the way the stories are written, it’s like based on Kalevala stories and also the same kind of subjects. It would be quite odd if we were singing about fast cars or something!”
Regarding future tour dates, including a first for AMORPHIS to South Africa, Tomi enthused:
“Very excited to go there! This time we will play Cape Town and Johannesburg and having a safari of course, so looking forward. I don’t know what to expect.”
For more information on AMORPHIS and the full tour schedule, check their official website here and official Facebook page at this location.
Where to start when talking about a vocalist and front man who has had the most phenomenal career, starting way back in 1969, before going on to achieve super stardom and success with one of the biggest, best known and loved metal bands on the planet! He is an idol to millions and was rocking and performing before so many bands that are around today. He is looked up to by peers, fans and critics – he is like a walking manual for metal. Of course I can only be talking about the one and only METAL GOD, JUDAS PRIEST‘s Rob Halford!
Rob has one of the most, if not THE most recognisable voice in metal, showing no signs of letting up any time soon, much to the delight of PRIEST fans around the globe. With an impressive seventeen studio albums under their belt, the most recent being “Redeemer Of Souls” released in 2014, JUDAS PRIEST are now set to unleash a new live album “Battle Cry”, on CD, Blu-ray and DVD on 25th March via Epic Records. The album was recorded at the Wacken Open Air festival in 2015, with some bonus clips filmed in Poland.
I was very fortunate to be able to have a chat with Rob about this forthcoming release, as well as PRIEST‘s past work, touring and plenty more. You can read some excerpts from our conversation and listen to the full audio below:
Regarding “Battle Cry”, Rob discussed the whole experience:
“As all of our metal maniacs are aware, we were out for the last eighteen months, one hundred and thirty three shows and umpteen countries, thousands of miles travelling to see all the Priest maniacs around the world on the Redeemer Of Souls tour. Thanks to everybody for supporting the Priest on that release. It was a very important record for Priest because it was our first studio album in quite a while and we were so thrilled with the way it turned out. It becomes extra qualified when your fans get behind you to give you such incredible support, so thank you everybody for doing that.
So along the way we went all over the world and did many, many kinds of shows, different kinds of venues and what we were hoping to get was a festival experience that we could film, consider for release, as we haven’t done anything like that for quite a while. So were were aware there’s the festival in Germany called Wacken, which is the premier European metal festival and we had an opportunity to work something out with all the production that was already in place and to film it all and record it all and really just use the environment and all of the great vibes, the atmosphere that exists in festivals wherever you might go in the world, but this particular one in Wacken.
It’s kinda cool, it’s kinda special in the way it’s put together. So there you go, that’s all we needed to do to plan ahead. We just went out there and did what we always do, played our hearts out everywhere we go and got it all captured live in the flesh, on the DVD, the Blu-ray and the separate audio CD. It’s a celebration of Priest to share with our wonderful fans, just add it to your Priest collection.“
Discussing the “Battle Cry” track list, Rob stated:
“Yeah it gets increasingly difficult you know, with so many albums and hundreds of songs recorded. It’s such a challenge that when we get together and decide what we’re gonna play and write a set list that we all agree on and that really is part of trying to find the balance there and then. Because I’ve got my favourite songs, Glenn’s got his, Richie’s got his, so has Ian and Scott and we try to find a balance. Any show that you go to for any of your favourite bands, it’s largely thought out in terms of dynamics – you know you start out something very strong and recognisable and powerful and then in Priest’s case, you try and take your fans through a little bit of a Dr Who and the TARDIS thing you know, jumping about from this decade to that decade. And you try to do as much as you can in the time that you’ve got to please as many people as you can. That’s very hard, ‘cos we know people go ‘oh they didn’t play so and so’, but it’s just the way it goes.
So here we were, really what was the Redeemer Of Souls tour, that was the release that we were consistently supporting and we weaved songs from that album into material from Painkiller and British Steel and so on and so on and it worked really well. It was a good solid show from a musical point of view.“
On the subject of undertaking such a huge tour in 2015, Rob expressed:
“(Laughs) It got a bit scary at the end when you look at your face in the mirror! You forget about that once the intro tape starts and your fans start roaring, you feel like a million dollars. It was pretty intense, it was a strong tour especially for some gods of our generation. And that’s what I love about metal you know, we’ve said it before – metal’s for everybody from all walks of life, all different generations. We’re still so grateful to have this opportunity all of these years later, to have our glorious fans giving us such overwhelming support. It always comes back to the fans, you can’t do anything without the fans, we can’t thank our fans enough for that.“
I asked Rob how the ever changing world of rock and metal has an impact on him:
“I think it makes you realise your music is immortal, your music is eternal but a different perspective from a physical point of view. Without being morbid, God bless Lemmy, Bowie, all these really amazing important real legends, icons in rock and metal, they’ve left us with all their wonderful music and still remain very influential. What you do really is putting one foot in front of another and it’s also celebrating what they did, what they achieved. I mean, I was always inspired by Lemmy, with what he stood for, just looking at him on stage.
Bowie was one of my all time heroes from a singer’s point of view, but also in the amazing work that he created in his life. And my mate Ronnie, the same deal with Ronnie, all these beautiful people that left us with all of these treasures to really still enjoy and to bounce off, to get ideas and get a rush from. You’ve really got try and get over the hurdle of the sadness and then how great it is that we’ve got the music left to enjoy, to bang our heads to and have good times together with.“
When asked about new material to come from our metal legends, Rob revealed:
“The writing sessions will come first and I think much like any band, you start off the day in a writing session and you’ve got nothing you know. You turn the amps on and you start riffing and jamming and maybe by the end of the day you’ve got something that will turn into a really good piece of music, that’ll potentially last forever. So that creative side of Priest is as strong as it ever was and we’re all very very pumped up and thrilled for the opportunity that’s about to come to us again. There’s a new Priest record on the way and when it’s ready we’ll be letting everyone know it’s on the horizon. I would like to think that by the end of this year we’ll have the bulk of it created, but you can’t say for certain. The thing about Priest is that we treasure everything that we do, we so love being in this band Judas Priest. We can guarantee that we’ll give you a big solid dose of Priest metal!“
Regarding KK Downing‘s recent statement about playing with JUDAS PRIEST again, Rob said:
“It’s funny that is because I think that’s a dream of a lot of people, to imagine Maiden and Sabbath and Priest and Zeppelin. Can you imagine what that would be like at Wembley? Oh my God, it would be mad, it would be like multiple nights! Forget about fifty shows Michael Jackson didn’t do, it would be like a hundred shows at Wembley. It’s great to hear there’s that passion still in KK’s voice for Priest. We go around the world slogging away working really really hard playing the songs that we wrote together and really forging that back catalogue, just putting on incredible shows night after night with so much strength and power and energy. It’s beautiful that Priest still has conviction and still has that desire and passion and love for what we do in metal, so it’s all good vibes.“
Talking about what else Rob has left to achieve, he stated:
“Well I’m still very hungry to do a blues record, I love the blues. Before I joined Priest, in my early years as a musician, I listened to a lot of blues like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, John Lee Hooker, the people that invented it of course. The story goes everything comes from the blues.
I’m just curious to see what my take could be. I’ve no idea – would it be traditional, would it be heavy, a metal blues, what could it be? I think the best thing for me to do would be to do it with people that could direct me, give me some ideas as to where they think this voice, ‘cos it’s all about the voice, could be best utilised. That’s one of the things on the bucket list yeah, doing a blues album.“
Discussing the recently published interview with ACCEPT‘s Mark Tornillo, Rob enthused:
“Yeah great, he’s a brilliant singer, great front man, love that band Accept. It was unusual, a call to have a chit chat from two guys that do the same type of work, it was a lot of fun to do. I think there should be more of that ‘cos we love having chit chats with our friends in the business and with journalists like yourself. When you’ve lived the life there’s a lot of common ground, but it’s also an opportunity to pick up on stories that you probably don’t know about, you know, things you wouldn’t know about if you’re kind of outside what it’s like to be in a band.“
Hot on the heels of their twenty first studio album “Battering Ram”, released in October 2015, NWOBHM legends SAXON announced recently that Demon Records will release of an extraordinary Saxon Box Set, containing vinyl LP’s of the band’s nine studio albums recorded between 1991 and 2009. “Eagles and Dragons” will be released on 18th March.
“Eagles and Dragons” features nine seminal NWOBHM albums which before today, were only released on vinyl in some regions including Germany, Italy and the UK, and in very limited amounts. These new luxury 180 gram vinyl versions, including inner sleeves with all the lyrics, are a must-have for fans and collectors, complete with artwork by Paul Gregory.
Senior Manager Alison Booth recently caught up with SAXON front man and vocalist Biff Byford to discuss the forthcoming release, as well as various other topics including touring. A few excerpts can be read below and the full interview can be heard on the audio player. The interview was also recorded for Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem show on http://www.totalrock.com and will be featured there next week, details will be announced soon on the official Facebook page.
Discussing “Eagles and Dragons” Biff stated:
“It goes through that dodgy early nineties period when the British bands were having a few problems with the grunge explosion happening around them. It goes through that and different member changes, different drummers on there, it’s just a great package really. There’s some absolute gems in there, you can here a band morphing from the late eighties to basically now really. Hopefully people can carry it, it weighs a ton! The artwork looks great on vinyl rather than CD, you see the depth of the painting.”
Moving on to legendary SAXON artist Paul Gregory, Biff enthused:
“The first album we did was Crusader in ’84. He’s done other album covers as well for other bands, but I think the ones he does for us probably connect to his style – more the mythical side and the whole Saxon image goes with what he does really. So from Crusader right up to Lionheart, which is a fantastic cover with the shield and everything. We work together me and Paul, so it’s good to keep a good team together.”
Regarding “Battering Ram” and touring plans for this year, Biff revealed:
“We’re gonna go out and tour again, because obviously with Lemmy dying suddenly we couldn’t finish the Battering Ram tour we were doing with Motörhead and Girlschool. We’re gonna go out in October and finish that tour, I don’t like leaving it unfinished. We’re gonna try and take out Girlschool if they’re up for it, so the fans will have a little bit of the same package.
We’re probably going to go back to America if we can squeeze it in and gonna go to Japan maybe October. We’re touring October to December, so it could be Europe, UK, a bit of America in there. We’re putting it together now, so keep your eyes open!”
On being together for so long and the secret of keeping going, Biff said:
“If you listen to the albums you can see the secret, I mean we’re definitely members of the Never Surrender Club. So yeah, great songs, that’s the secret. And surround yourself with people that are great at doing their job. It hasn’t always been the case with our albums, with producers and things, but I think for at least eight of those albums production is great.”
Pioneers of oriental metal, Tunisian metallers MYRATH, have just unleashed their highly anticipated fourth album “Legacy”. The band are currently supporting New Jersey prog metallersSYMPHONY X on their “Underworld Europe Tour 2016”, along withMELTED SPACE.
MYRATH, Sheffield 2016
On the third date of the UK run, at the Corporation in Sheffield on 15th February, Senior Manager Alison Booth managed to have a quick catch up with vocalist Zaher Zorgatti during the mayhem backstage, before the band had to leave. We discussed how the band are settling into the tour and of course the new album, including the reasons for the long gap since releasing “Tales Of The Sands”. You can read some excerpts from the chat below and listen to the full interview on the audio player:
Discussing the tour, Zaher stated:
“We used to be a cover band of Symphony X, so you can imagine how it’s wonderful to play, to share the stage with them. Finally we did it, so that’s cool and finally we met our fans, our new fans, because there are a lot of people that discovered us through these three concerts and for sure there will be more and more and more and more and more at the next few concerts in Great Britain!”
On “Legacy”, Zaher revealed:
“We compose from the heart, it’s not mechanical. Maybe that’s why it took us many years, because we passed through many difficult moments, like the death of our godfather, Malek’s father. It was a shock, he was such an inspiration for us and he was our manager. I can tell you, without him and without Kevin Codfert our producer, we could do nothing, I would not be talking to you now.
Then came the revolution in Tunisia, so it has negative and positive sides. Then we wrote the album and completed everything in my home town of Sousse in Tunisia. Then we moved to France and recorded in Paris and it was mixed there by Kevin Codfert. He went to Sweden to Jens Bogren, he loved the material, he fell in love with ‘this kebab metal’ [Laughs]”.
We are excited to play the album in complete on a headlining tour. I think we will have another tour, for sure a French tour and then a European tour as a headliner. We will do another tour with a bigger band. We are writing the next album, we already have five songs ready.
The most important things for us is composing and making albums, because we are full of inspiration and full of energy. We’re still young and I think we brought something new to the metal scene that nobody brought before. There are many bands who use these kind of minor scales in their music, just to say ‘this is oriental’, but where I come from this is oriental clichés – everybody does like (sings) Cleopatra or pyramids Hollywood movies.“
Myrath Sheffield 2016
For more information on MYRATH, visit their official Facebook page here and their official website at this location.
Fans of New Jersey progressive metallers SYMPHONY X had a four year long wait between the release of their last album “Iconoclast” and their ninth studio offering. But it was well worth it, when “Underworld” was unleashed in July 2015 to satisfied fans around the world.
The band headed out on their US “Underworld” tour last September and October, before having a break and just recently hitting the UK shores for the first dates on the “Underworld European Tour”. Senior Manager Alison Booth caught up with SYMPHONY X front man Russell Allen before the band’s stellar third performance on this run, at the Corporation, Sheffield on 15th February.
You can watch and listen to the full interview on the video below and a few excerpts can be read here:
Discussing the reaction of fans to “Underworld”, Russell expressed:
“People always compare records, but if you look at the numbers, this is the best selling album that we’ve ever had. We hope that says something because people don’t buy records any more. We’re pretty excited about it,we’re not like a radio band or anything like that, but we got some support this time, especially here in the UK which was great. But that’s not the norm worldwide.
We disappeared for so long and everyone’s so ADD with their cellphones and everything in their face – if you’re not in someone’s face every day they forget about you.”
Russell Allen, Sheffield 2016
On his career and projects, including any forthcoming ones, Russell revealed:
“If anything, maybe Adrenaline Mob if we decide we’re gonna do that again, right now I’m just enjoying my time with Symphony X. All that stuff is a lot of fun for me, I love doing project work, I love being in Trans-Siberian Orchestra ‘cos it’s just different. As I got older I found not that I was getting bored, but there was just too much time in between the releases, a) for me artistically and physically – to be able to do what I do, I gotta keep doing it, ‘a body in motion stays in motion and a body not in motion dies.’ It was a way for me to get out and stay busy, stay working, to provide for my family and also to provide for myself artistically, so I’ve been very hungry.
It’s a shame, I wish Symphony X was more of a touring band but we’ve just never been that. Our fans know that we come around when we come around and that’s the way it is, so you know, you gotta adapt.”
Regarding the change of venue in Paris as the band were scheduled to play Le Bataclan:
“Obviously our hearts go out to the families of all those victims in that attack. It doesn’t really change anything other than the venue at this point. The promoters felt we had to make a change and we agreed, instead of cancelling. It’s not fair to all the other fans out there who don’t want to let this type of thing infringe on their freedom. We being an American band, we kinda have to go. We were the first band that played in Tunisia after the revolution, we’re kinda used to this environment. I’m pretty sure people will be grateful, as we are grateful to be able to to continue making music. Our focus is just to go there, put on a great show and not forget, but get on with life and carry on and make sure these bastards don’t take everything away from us.”
Russell spoke of the plans for SYMPHONY X after the European tour:
“South America has been on the menu for quite a while. We still haven’t seemed to be able to finalise these dates but I just got an email yesterday about it and we’re looking at a string of shows down there. And then after that , I don’t really see too much before the festivals. Unless there’s a run maybe in Australia or Japan or something, I don’t know.”
For the full list of the Underworld European Tour dates, check this location.
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Scandinavian metallers EVIL MASQUERADE released their new album “The Outcast Hall Of Fame” on 19th May via Dark Minstrel Music. The album was produced by Henrik Flyman and mixed and mastered by Tommy Hansen (Helloween, Pretty Maids, Jorn).
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 