Greek Symphonic Dark Metallers W.E.B.– who just recently toured with Moonspell in Russia – are extremely thrilled to announce that they will join IRON MAIDEN (alongside VOLBEAT) at Rockwave Festival, taking place on July 20th at Terra Vibe Park (Malakasa, Greece)! Facebook Event page, here.
Next W.E.B. Shows:
June 1 – Thessaloniki, GR – Principal w/ Cradle of Filth
June 2 – Athens, GR – Gagarin 205 w/ Cradle of Filth
July 20 – Malakasa, GR – Terra Vibe Park w/ Iron Maiden at Rockwave Festival
As previously announced, W.E.B. revealed their new bass player and backing vocalist, Hel Pyre (AfterBlood, TV WAR co-hostess, live appearances with King Diamond, Hel Pyre Darkworks).
W.E.B. is a Dark / Black / Death / Goth Metal band based in the ashes of Athens – Greece. The Fall of 2002AD was the time that the idea of W.E.B. was born and started to take a lifeform shape from an embryonic state to a music challenge expressing darkness and death through adrenaline and poetry. An expression both straight but at the same time theatrical. W.E.B. is here to move you, provoke you, and invite you to the journey through ravendark starless nights with a fire made of Metal music. Their fourth album, “Tartarus” came out on November 10th (2017) via Apathia Records, which is probably the band’s most diverse album, so far! “Tartarus” focuses on a deeper inclusion of orchestrations, making it sound more epic, while keeping the band’s very own Dark Metal genre. The album also features a noticeable guest apparition by Sotiris Vayenas (Septic Flesh) on the ninth track “Thanatos Part I – Golgotha”.
Jimmy Kay from The Metal Voice recently interviewed Michael Schenker singer Doogie White (Yngwie Malmsteen, Tank, Rainbow). Doogie spoke about the new album by Michael Schenker Fest, Resurrection, his audition with Iron Maiden in 1993 and his time in Rainbow and Yngwie Malmsteen.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about his time in Yngwie Malmsteen and the songs he enjoyed recording
“With Yngwie it was different cause I had no heart and soul really in it, it was more about the performances live because Yngwie wrote everything. He gave me all the lines and everything to do. I liked ‘Razor Eater’, I like ‘Rise up’ very much cause it had the energy live.”
When asked about the concept of the Michael Schenker Fest on record and on tour
“It was an exciting album to do it’s an exciting concept I think it was very brave of Michael Schenker to put something like this together and to be invited to enter the party . There is lots of friendly competition between the singers although they won’t admit it. Everybody has raised the game, everybody is at the top of their game and it’s a great live rock and roll show and that makes it exciting for the audience. Some people have the new album cause it only came out the day we started so it’s gradually picking up momentum.”
When asked about his 1993 Audition with Iron Maiden to replace Bruce Dickinson
“I had sent a tape in to Iron Maiden. Dickie Dell who was the production manager was at my door and he said what are you doing, I said I am going to Scotland, he said no you are not you have an audition with Iron Maiden Monday. So Dickie Bell gave me a cassette and a letter with the lyrics I think it had about 18 songs on it, mostly from the albums ‘A Real Live One’ and ‘A Real Dead One’. Dickie picked me up and dropped me off at Steve Harris’ place. ”
“The band was set up in a circle with Nicko Mcbrain in back of me and we ran through the songs and had a cup of tea and I had a chat with Steve and I went away and that was it. We played tracks like , Be quick or Be dead, From here to Eternity, The Evil that men do and then the classics like Run to the Hills. Steve had a definite idea on where he wanted to take the band, Steve called me up a couple of weeks later and said we are giving the job to Blaze. Blaze is great he is the hardest working man in Rock and Roll and he always delivers. Steve wanted something different for the band. the easy route for Steve would have been to go get a clone from a tribute band but Steve didn’t he took a brave step and they did two great albums. but really normal services have been resumed. Even if i got the gig it would have ended up the same.”
Issue #4 of the newly launched UK based “Rock Candy Magazine” features an exclusive candid interview with former IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dennis Stratton in which he reveals how the band’s debut could have ended up sounding like QUEEN.
Exclusive Issue # 4 Dennis Stratton article preview:
Guitarist Dennis Stratton has told Rock Candy Magazine that the first Iron Maiden album could easily have been a much more sophisticated recording than the warts ‘n’ all, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal classic we all know and love. And Stratton also reveals that it was only the band’s manager, Rod Smallwood, who put a stop to the plan.
Released in April of 1980, ‘Iron Maiden’ became a benchmark recording for a new style of metal that was harder, leaner and faster than the music being made by the stadium filling rockers of the ‘70s. Songs like ‘Phantom Of The Opera’, ‘Running Free’ and the title track have since achieved legendary status. But guitarist Stratton, now performing with Lionheart, told Rock Candy that it could all have been very different.
“I took ‘Phantom of The Opera’, which was always a great song at its core, and added a load of harmony guitars and falsetto vocals to our basic recording,” he explains. “The engineer helped me layer the sounds, adding track after track, and when we played it back it sounded like Queen. I thought it was fantastic. But when we were listening back to the track Rod Smallwood came up behind me in the control room. I didn’t know he was there and at the end of the song he said, ‘You can get rid of all that. It sounds like fucking Queen.’ So it never made the cut. I’d still love to do a big, massive production of that song one day. I know it would be great.”
Stratton was a member of Maiden for less than a year, but he nonetheless made a vital contribution to that classic first album.
“Rod didn’t like the music I was listening to,” says Stratton. “I’d be in my hotel room on tour listening to some David Coverdale or a bit of Eagles or some George Benson and Rod would go potty. He said, ‘If anyone heard you listening to that kind of music…’ But how can you listen to Motörhead 24 hours a day? You’d be deaf!”
Read the whole of this revealing article in Issue 4 of Rock Candy Mag, available for purchase online at the following location: https://www.rockcandymag.com/
Issue 4 features dozens of major features and interviews with legendary and obscure acts, including:
METALLICA
BLACKFOOT
MAGNUM
TRIUMPH
BUDGIE
BRITNY FOX
GUNS N ROSES
VIXEN
BRET MICHAELS
THOR.
JOHN WAITE
U.F.O.
TED NUGENT
ROSE TATTOO
EUROPE
SLAYER
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to former Iron Maiden Drummer Doug Sampson who appeared on Iron Maidens, The Soundhouse Tapes E.P. as well as the Metal for Muthas compilation in 1980.
Watch the interview here:
Currently Doug Sampson is drumming for the band reformed NWOBHM band Airforce and have a new EP out called The Blackbox Recordings EP Part 1
Sampson spoke about his pre-Iron Maiden days in Smiler with Steve Harris, his memories of recording The Soundhouse tapes with Iron Maiden and his reformed band Airforce and the release of their new album The Blackbox recordings E.P. Part 1
When asked when if there were any songs from ‘Smiler’ days (Steve Harris and his former band) that appeared on the first two Iron Maiden Albums
“The only song that I could remember Steve coming up with is ‘Innocent Exile’ I can’t remember anything else, we actually played that with ‘Smiler’. ”
When asked about Paul Di’anno’s audition for Iron Maiden
“We were knocked out by Paul Dianno’s audition. From that minute he auditioned he was the vocalist for Iron Maiden. we heard a phenomenal voice one that really suited the band at that particular time, this was a different league, Dianno took it to another level. And Paul got the job obviously.”
When asked about his memories of the recording of Iron Maiden The SoundhouseTapes E.P.
“I don’t think we did any gigs at that point. Steve Harris said we really need to get a demo together. We would all pay and chip in and we would go to this place called Spaceward Studios, on New Years Eve. It was great it was the first time me and Steve Harris had been to a studio. Dave had done a bit of recoding before. ”
“More than anything I can remember doing Strange World my personal memories of that was just so haunting it just took on a different feel, it was quite eerie. When I hear it now it still brings back memories of that recording session.”
When asked about his memories of the recordings of Sanctuary and Wrathchild on the 1980 Metal for Muthas compilation
“That was the first time we went to the EMI studio for us to do them and that was a different league as well, this was not a demo this was done in a proper studio.That was quite a jump from what we have been doing. I remember we stayed there right ot the early hours of the morning, me Paul and Dave just crashed out in the corridor at the studio and slept on the floor and I think the executives couldn’t believe what they were seeing.”
When asked about the writing sessions of the songs Running Free and Remember Tomorrow
“I would say Running Free was the one, the only one that I had a major input on because I was messing around in the studio, in the rehearsal room, doing glam rock. Sort of mad Sweet Style beats and I was playing this beat, generally messing about. Then Steve came in and started putting a bass line to it. It just started off as a joke. Then Dave came in and hang on here I think we got a song here. Got the structure of the song down. Paul went off he had some ideas, I could remember him just sitting outside on some steps jotting some words down and he came back and we said we got a song here.
Remember Tomorrow just evolved in the studio, we all started playing and Steve had an idea and just jammed away until it manifested itself.”
When asked how he parted ways with Iron Maiden
“We were doing more and more gigs living in back of a Lorrie called the Green Goddess. Coming off stage soaking wet getting in the back of the Lorrie, freezing cold in a sleeping bag in the end it got to a stage where it was beginning to affect my health I had a virus and the more gigs we were doing the worse it was getting. I said to Steve i don’t know If I can carry on and do this and I said I think it’s time I went.”
When asked about his reformed band Airforce and their new E.P.
“Last year we decided to get together again. we just released the new album called The Blackbox recordings Part 1, we have three tracks, two new tracks and one that has been around for a few years called ‘Heroes’, it really goes down well live. We still have three main members but we’ve got a new vocalist now, that’s got a completely different edge, he is more of a metal singer. Next few weeks we are going back into the studio to record The Blackbox Recordings part 2 and we hope to have an album before or after Christmas to add all six numbers from the first two Eps and more new songs.”
When asked if he would even consider working again with Paul Di’anno or any other former Iron Maiden members (24:15)
“It’s funny you should ask because their maybe a possibility that we actually do something with Paul Dianno. Hopefully, that would be a great great honour to do something with Paul Dianno. Nothing confirmed yet. That might be something in the future, fingers crossed. Dianno is the man, there is no two ways about it, hopefully everything will work out I really really hope so.”
On September 7th, the former GUNS N’ ROSES guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal performed Paul McCartney, IRON MAIDEN, KISS and GUNS N’ ROSES classics on his solo acoustic concert at the Twice Café in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, Japan.
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke with former IRON MAIDEN Singers Paul Di’Anno who announced his new band ANGELS OF CHAOZ. Di’Anno gave The Metal Voice an update about his current health situation and spoke in detail about a Battlezone Reunion and the songs on the first IRON MAIDEN album, Killers album and Maiden Japan.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about an update on his current health situation
“I have had some problems with my legs over the years, wear and tear jumping around like a loony on stage and my knees started to give out. What happened is the fluid in the right knee started to get infected and went into my chest and I did a couple of shows in the wheel chair I went back to Argentina and did some shows and I had a bit of a fall. By the time I got back to England I went to see the surgeon for my knee, I got home dropped my luggage and then I went off to the hospital, I came back in the afternoon and then I collapsed. I was dying of an abscess basically. I was lucky enough I had my phone with me and I called up the ambulance and they took me off to the hospital and I was there for 8 months. When they saw me the Doctor said we don’t think you are going to make it through the night, they didn’t tell me that until a couple of days after that. A huge big abscess on my chest in my clavicle eating my bone and breast bone away. The abscess was the size of a rugby ball, it was huge, they shrunk it with about 40 pills a day for 8 months in the hospital I couldn’t move. They are saying it’s from the fluid on the knee but it could have been something else i picked up traveling in South America, India like what happened to Steve Grimmett.(Grim Reaper).”
“It’s all clear now but the thing is I got to make certain that I do the operation on my knees so it’s all delaying everything. So now I’m trying to get my knees fixed. I have a special designer knee being built for me at the very cheap sum of 86,000 pounds, I got to pay for that and then I found out from my dentist the other day all the pills I am taking is making all my gums shrink and now I’m going to lose all my teeth as well if I’m not carefull. They are going to try and take my right knee out completely towards the next few months obviously the best surgeon in the country he’s booked up with other patients I’ve got to wait for him.They let me out of the hospital after 8 months just before Christmas last year and I went into a care home which was a f****** nightmare, the home was where people would go to die, a bunch of 80 and 90 year olds I was the youngest one there and most of them had dementia.”
When asked about why his former band Architects of Chaoz decided to go on without him
“I was so sick and they decided that they want to carry on without me and I said that’s ok you can do that. I wrote all the lyrics in Architects of Chaoz and I got the name of the band, so F*** You. So we got a new band now called The Angles of Chaoz , F*** You.. I’m a bit too stressed out to write at the moment. I asked the boys in Argentina to start getting a few tracks out to give me something to do,so I can start writing to it, there is a few bits and pieces going on. When we do work we work quickly, I’ve got a lot of lyrical content in me, rest assured, a lot of anger, frustration and being pissed off I’m not going to have a problem with that . Also I will be going to Russia about Christmas time doing something with an orchestra.”
When asked if he would do a Iron Maiden show with all three Iron Maiden singers on the bill
“Yes, if something good would come out of it of course I would, yeah. It would be great to see all the guys again”
When asked if he would ever do a resurrect his old band Batttlezone
“We are in talks at the moment, that’s no secret, me Steve Hopgood are up for it, Graham Bath is up for it been trying to get a hold of John Wiggins he has not been forthcoming at the moment but my old Bass Player Colin Riggs will be involved as the Bass player . It’s still Battlezone but different genres of it. ”
Di’anno also spoke in detail about the songs on the first Iron Maiden album, Killers album and Maiden Japan
The former IRON MAIDEN singer originally formed ARCHITECTS OF CHAOZ a couple of years ago with musicians from his longtime German touring backing group THE PHANTOMZ. AOC’s debut album, “The League Of Shadows”, was subsequently recorded and released in 2015
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