Without a single doubt the Metal Female Voices Fest in Belgium is THE place to be if you are into female fronted bands. October 19th – 21st will see the 10th edition of the festival, so please check out what our friends from MFVF have to say: “The Metal Female Voices Fest 10th Anniversary will take place in Wieze-Belgium in October 2012. Already a decade for this very special and unique Metal festival dedicated to fronted female singers! Don’t miss it and be there to support your favourite bands such as LACUNA COIL, ARCH ENEMY, Epica, Delain, Arkona, Diabulus In Musica, Xandria and many more!”
After getting warmed at the Anniversary Party October 19th fans can look forward to LACUNA COIL and ARCH ENEMY headlining the 1st official festival day. Front women Cristina Scabbia and Angela Gossow couldn’t be more excited about performing with many likeminded ladies:
Cristina Scabbia, LACUNA COIL: “If you can put together good music, passion, heaviness, epicness and loads of beautiful ladies on stage… What would you possibly want more from a festival? The Metal Female Voices Fest is all this and I’m very excited to be back on that stage. We are going to let you sing and jump, to headbang and cry… And most of all, to have a great time with you all. See you there!”
Angela Gossow, ARCH ENEMY: “It’s gonna be fun to rock the stage with my sisters in metal at the MFVF 10th anniversary! It’s a great festival with a fantastic audience and as always put together with much love and dedication. We are more than happy to return and throw some pure fucking khaos into the mix!”
Dutch female-fronted symphonic metallers DELAIN have issued the following update:
“Recently there have been some developments at the guitar department of DELAIN. Our band demands a huge amount of time and energy from our band members. Since our guitar player Timo [Somers] has a lot of musical activities besides DELAIN, we want to give him the time and space to pursue this as well. Until now, that was not possible, but recently we received a huge reinforcement in the band. Guitarist Bas Maas is joining in our group to relieve Timo for some shows this year. Some of you may know Bas from DORO or his previous band AFTER FOREVER. We want to give Bas a warm welcome in DELAIN. He will join us at our European tour, and a couple shows this spring. See you all on the road!”
DELAIN‘s third album, “We Are The Others”, will be released later in the year via Roadrunner Records. Described as “the band’s most powerful, most atmospheric and intoxicating album to date,” the CD was helmed by producer Jacob Hellner — renowned for his work with RAMMSTEIN, CLAWFINGER and APOCALYPTICA — while the vocals were tracked with the Epicentre team of Fredrik Thomander and Anders Wikström (SCORPIONS, BACKYARD BABIES).
A new video interview with DELAIN frontwoman Charlotte Wessels about “We Are The Others” can be seen below (courtesy of U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine).
DELAIN previously stated about “We Are The Others”: “As you might expect from us, this album again offers some interesting collaborations, both in musical and visual terms.
“This record features none less than FEAR FACTORY shouter Burton C. Bell as a guest singer, and visual artist Glenn Arthur provided the cover artwork [see below].
“We met Burton at the Wacken Open Air festival a year ago and stayed in touch afterwards. When we were working on [the song] ‘Where Is The Blood’, we didn’t hesitate to contact him for cooperation. He’s done such an amazing job on the song turning the song into a most violent duet; his exceptional, raw voice fits perfectly to this song!
“The cover artwork was created by Glenn Arthur, a California-based visual artist whose work is inspired by art nouveau design and steampunk imagery. Charlotte [Wessels, vocals] is a big admirer of Glenn‘s work and she dedicated multiple blogs to his art.
“For the artwork of ‘We Are The Others’, we gave Glenn the lyrics to the song as inspiration.
“We’re incredibly happy with how the cover turned out.”
Added Charlotte: “From the first time I saw [Glenn‘s] work, I’ve been imagining it as cover artwork; something in the way his work is both esthetically very delicate, but always with a dark undertone, fits our music very well.”
“We Are The Others” track listing:
01. Mother Machine
02. Electricity
03. We Are The Others
04. Milk And Honey
05. Hit Me With Your Best Shot
06. I Want You
07. Where Is The Blood (feat. Burton C. Bell)
08. Generation Me
09. Babylon
10. Are You Done With Me
11. Get The Devil Out Of Me
12. Not Enough
At first glance, some songtitles on “We Are The Others” may sound mysterious and conspiratorial, but there is a very serious background: The lyrics to the title track were inspired by the hate crime against a British girl named Sophie Lancaster in 2007. She and her boyfriend were beaten comatose by a gang of youths, because of their goth looks, and Sophie later died from her injuries. This tragedy sent shockwaves throughout the world.
Commented Charlotte: “Sophie‘s story hit close to home for us, being part of a subculture ourselves but it’s in no way an individual case; people are discriminated against — all the time, to the point of violence — based on their cultural or ethnic background everywhere.
“‘We Are The Others’ is our own ‘outsiders anthem’ for everybody who, deliberately or not, diverts from the norm. Whether it’s by looking different, acting different, or choosing a different path in life then is expected from you.”
DELAIN will embark on a European headlining tour in April with support from TRILLIUM, the metal project masterminded by American singer/songwriter Amanda Somerville.
Dutch rockers HANGOVER HERO – featuring Ronald Landa (ex-DELAIN), Ad Sluijter (ex-EPICA), Andre Borgman (ex-AFTER FOREVER) and Mats van der Valk (AUTUMN) – released their debut album on November 11th. Check out the teaser trailer below:
Following is the band’s official bio:
Pure. Honest. Accessible. Uncomplicated. Feelgood. ROCK! In capitals! Plug, play, rock the place. That is Hangover Hero, the new Dutch sensation that has its roots in the metal scene, but opted to trade the doom and gloom for a good ol’ American rock sound.
The driving force behind Hangover Hero is guitar player and front man Ronald Landa, formerly of Delain. His band mates all come from similar female fronted rock bands. Former Epica axeman Ad Sluijter joined Landa quickly, along with former After Forever drummer Andre Borgman. Mats van der Valk (Autumn) completed the foursome and handles bass duties.
“We all just love honest, riff heavy, guitar driven rock music and we had discussed forming a band earlier, when our respective bands played together on festivals and such. It’s a small world, you continually bump into each other in backstage area’s around the world. But it was all of our other bands that actually kept us from doing something else”, says Landa. Back in 2009 he quit Delain, to pursue his other musical ambitions. By that time Sluijter also had become available and things moved quickly.
Armed with a batch of songs the then still nameless foursome headed to Germany, to record a demo with producer and longtime friend Sascha Paeth at the infamous Gate Studio. Paeth is known for his work in the metal world and originally the idea was to have him function as an objective bystander to bounce ideas off. In the end he became so involved in the project, he is now the unofficial fifth member of the band. In fact, he’s the one that gave Hangover Hero its name. “Before entering the studio, we kinda had a rough night at the hotel bar”, laughs Landa. “The next morning we all were all extremely hung over, yet we worked our asses off as we were dedicated to record the best versions possible of our songs. Sascha kept making fun of us and did not stop calling us his ‘Hangover Heroes’. At that point, we did not think much of it, but on the ay home it seemed to stick. Especially the contradiction between the hangover and the heroes was something we liked. In the end we felt a singular term would be even more powerful, so we settled for Hangover Hero.”
The steady rocking debut album will see the light of day in the fall of 2011. Musically the album will land right in between the two demo songs that hit the internet; Play In A Band and Mr. Perfect. “Those two tracks are the extremes in our catalog thus far”, states Landa. “Play In A Band is by far our most poppy song, whereas we don’t get any darker than on Mr. Perfect. The rest of our repertoire is characterized by a tough, optimistic, feel-good rock sound. Not the kind of music one would expect from a Dutch band, but it is music we love and are passionate about. There are way too few rock songs that cheer you up when you’re feeling down, that are optimistic and energizing. Our album will be a soundtrack to many a road trip. One hand on the wheel, one foot on the gas and the other hand turns up the volume to eleven. You’ll be there before you know it.”
Hangover Hero will showcase the new material during a one-off gig in Utrecht, The Netherlands in May. Directly after the gig, the band will head back to the Gate Studio to finish the recording of their yet untitled debut, which fill be finished over the summer. Around that time the band plans on hitting the road. “We all have seen the biggest stages and the largest crowds around the globe. Yet nothing beats the feeling of being in a tiny, sweaty club, playing to win over new fans. So we are definitely looking forward to ‘starting over’ in a way and win over the crowds with an exciting evening of rousing ROCK!”
Go to the official Hangover Hero website here and check them out on Facebook
Source: Bravewords
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
