FC Metal Recordings is proud to announce the signing of Peru’s leading heavy metal band, ANCESTRAL DAWN.
FC Metal Recordings will be releasing the band’s debut album, “Souldance”, on March 17, 2017.
A definite contender for metal album of the year, ANCESTRAL DAWN’s “Souldance” mixes ancient South American instruments, international world class guests, and Inca culture-based storytelling into a powerful and unique Metal Opera.
Joining the band as characters throughout the adventure are vocalists Fabio Lione (Rhapsody/Angra), Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Rick Altzi (Masterplan/At Vance), Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen), Amanda Somerville (Avantasia/Kiske Somerville), Jonas Heidgert (Dragonland/Destiny), and Nathalie Markoch. Roland Grapow (Masterplan/Ex-Hellowen) also features as a guest soloist.
Highlights include the 1st single & video, “StormHaze” featuring Ralf Scheepers. It can be viewed here:
ANCESTRAL DAWN was created in 2013 by bassist Jorge Higginson, who quickly teamed up with Jorge Segersbol (vocals). That year, they released their first single, “Rise of the Ancestor”, featuring singer Jonas Heidgert from the Swedish band, Dragonland. The single had an excellent reception among the fans, and it was a way to recruit and define the current lineup, which is completed by Devadip Chunga (Drums), Bryan Bello (Keyboards) and Josué Castro (Guitar).
Rich’s Rapidfire Recommendations – bite-sized metal morsels to let you know about albums that have grabbed Rich Davenport by the ears, that we hope you’ll enjoy too! ROCK ON!
Band: LEVEL 10 Album: Chapter One Release date: January 27th, 2015 Label: Frontiers Music
Track listing:
Cry No More; Soul Of A Warrior; When The Nighttime Comes; One Way Street; Blasphemy; Last Man On Earth; In For The Kill; Voice Of The Wilderness; All Hope Is Gone; Demonized; The Soul Is Eternal; Forevermore.
LEVEL 10 – CHAPTER ONE. Level 10 is another collaborative project between two Frontiers Records artists, this time fusing the considerable musical might of Mat Sinner (Sinner, Primal Fear) and Russell Allen (Symphony X, Adrenaline Mob) with the aim of melding the contemporary edge of Adrenaline Mob with European Power Metal. And the star billing doesn’t end there –Sinner has assembled an illustrious cast of Metal mates to add further weight to the proceedings, with a band featuring Randy Black (ex Primal Fear,) and Alex Beyrodt (on guitar) , Roland Grapow (ex Helloween, Masterplan) and Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline, Voodoo Circle), and songwriting contributions from Magnus Karlsson, Ralf Scheepers and Amanda Somerville. Mat’s role as co-ordinator for the annual Rock Meets Classic event, and experience as producer of countless albums over the years, would appear to have given him the skills necessary to bring together such an extensive pool of players and writers, not all located on the same continent, and get the best out of them, forging a cohesive overall sound for the project, which is no mean feat. Across the course of twelve top-drawer songs, Russell Allen’s forceful vocals soar over a barrage of classic Heavy Metal with a 21st century production punch.
If you can imagine the vibe of early Dio with a twist of Tony Martin-era Sabbath, shot through with the musical personalities of the collective Level 10 wrecking crew, you’ll have a ballpark idea of the territory that “Chapter One” inhabits. One of the Metal highlights of the year so far for me!
LEVEL 10– An International All-Star Metal Line Up including vocalist Russell Allen; Bassist Mat Sinner; Guitarist Roland Grapow and Alex Beyrodt; Drummer Randy Black and Keyboardist Alessandro Del Vecchio – are set to release their debut album “Chapter One”, via Frontiers Music Srl, in the EU on January 23rd and in North America on January 27th. The album features 12 songs performed in a true Metal style, with a distinctly contemporary edge.
MelodicRock.com is now streaming the samples of all songs of “Chapter One”, at this location.
LEVEL 10 was born out of a collaboration between American powerhouse singer Russell Allen (SYMPHONY X, ADRENALINE MOB, ALLEN LANDE) and the iconic German producer/bassist Mat Sinner (PRIMAL FEAR, SINNER). The pair met a few times during the years and swore to each other to find the time to work together. That occasion finally came about when Frontiers President, Serafino Perugino managed to connect with the two and get them committed to the creation of a new Metal album which could meld the more contemporary and aggro sound of Adrenaline Mob with the more traditional European Power Metal assault of Primal Fear.
Sinner quickly put together a killer lineup for the album, including his Primal Fear cohorts Randy Black (on drums) and Alex Beyrodt (on guitar) and called Roland Grapow (ex-Helloween) and Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline, Voodoo Circle) to complete the lineup on lead guitar and keyboards respectively. On the songwriting side – besides the band members – the album also sees contributions from Magnus Karlsson, Carsten Schulz, Sander Gommans and Amanda Somerville.
While the actual recording took a long time due to the “day job” commitments from the various musicians involved in this release, the result is an outstanding and super heavy – yet infectiously melodic – album! With Allen’s over-the-top vocals and a powerful lineup second to none, the resulting album is – from start to finish a true delight for all heavy metal fans!
“The target was to write and record a traditional and powerful heavy rock album with some of the best players in this genre” says Sinner. “The result is just amazing. Russell’s voice is in a fantastic shape, kick ass songs and I’m really proud of the album!”.
Russell Allen concludes: “When Mat and I met many moons ago we became fast friends. He’s a great talent and a great guy. We had talked about working together in some way and it took shape in the form of level 10. I’m very excited for the world to finally hear this great record!”
A trailer for LEVEL 10 is available here:
Track listing:
Cry No More; Soul Of A Warrior; When The Nighttime Comes; One Way Street; Blasphemy; Last Man On Earth; In For The Kill; Voice Of The Wilderness; All Hope Is Gone; Demonized; The Soul Is Eternal; Forevermore.
LEVEL 10 are:
Russell Allen – Lead & Backing Vocals
Mat Sinner – Bass & Backing Vocals
Roland Grapow – Guitars
Alex Beyrodt – Guitars
Randy Black – Drums & Percussion
Alessandro Del Vecchio – Keyboards
Czech metallers SEBASTIEN have released a brand new live-video from this year’s MASTERS OF ROCK festival, on “Ronnie James Dio Stage”. It’s an exclusive version of one of BLACK SABBATH highlights, “Headless Cross”, can be seen below, which was performed with an unforgettable line-up:
Tony Martin (ex-BLACK SABBATH) – vocal Roland Grapow (MASTERPLAN, ex-HELLOWEEN) – guitar, backing vocal George Rain (SEBASTIEN) – guitar Petri Kallio (SEBASTIEN) – bass Pavel Dvořák (SEBASTIEN, WARHAWK) – keyboards Martin ‘Marthus’ Skaroupka (CRADLE OF FILTH, MASTERPLAN) – drums
…the mix and mastering of the live recording was made by Roland Grapow himself in GRAPOW STUDIOS! That’s also where final mixing-works of SEBASTIEN’s second album,
“Dark Chambers of Déja vu”, are made nowadays. The long promised new album – including some great guest-appearances – is going to be released in 2015…
LEVEL 10 – An International All-Star Metal Line Up including vocalist Russell Allen; Bassist Mat Sinner; Guitarist Roland Grapow and Alex Beyrodt; Drummer Randy Black and Keyboardist Alessandro Del Vecchio – are set to release their debut album “Chapter One”, via Frontiers Music Srl, in the EU on January 23rd and in North America on January 27th. The album features 12 songs performed in a true Metal style, with a distinctly contemporary edge.
LEVEL 10 was born out of a collaboration between American powerhouse singer Russell Allen (SYMPHONY X, ADRENALINE MOB, ALLEN LANDE) and the iconic German producer/bassist Mat Sinner (PRIMAL FEAR, SINNER). The pair met a few times during the years and swore to each other to find the time to work together. That occasion finally came about when Frontiers President, Serafino Perugino managed to connect with the two and get them committed to the creation of a new Metal album which could meld the more contemporary and aggro sound of Adrenaline Mob with the more traditional European Power Metal assault of Primal Fear.
Sinner quickly put together a killer lineup for the album, including his Primal Fear cohorts Randy Black (on drums) and Alex Beyrodt (on guitar) and called Roland Grapow (ex-Helloween) and Alessandro Del Vecchio (Hardline, Voodoo Circle) to complete the lineup on lead guitar and keyboards respectively. On the songwriting side – besides the band members – the album also sees contributions from Magnus Karlsson, Carsten Schulz, Sander Gommans and Amanda Somerville.
While the actual recording took a long time due to the “day job” commitments from the various musicians involved in this release, the result is an outstanding and super heavy – yet infectiously melodic – album! With Allen’s over-the-top vocals and a powerful lineup second to none, the resulting album is – from start to finish a true delight for all heavy metal fans!
Russell Allen and Mat Sinner
“The target was to write and record a traditional and powerful heavy rock album with some of the best players in this genre” says Sinner. “The result is just amazing. Russell’s voice is in a fantastic shape, kick ass songs and I’m really proud of the album!”.
Russell Allen concludes: “When Mat and I met many moons ago we became fast friends. He’s a great talent and a great guy. We had talked about working together in some way and it took shape in the form of level 10. I’m very excited for the world to finally hear this great record!”
A trailer for LEVEL 10 is available here:
Track listing:
Cry No More; Soul Of A Warrior; When The Nighttime Comes; One Way Street; Blasphemy; Last Man On Earth; In For The Kill; Voice Of The Wilderness; All Hope Is Gone; Demonized; The Soul Is Eternal; Forevermore.
LEVEL 10
Russell Allen – Lead & Backing Vocals
Mat Sinner – Bass & Backing Vocals
Roland Grapow – Guitars
Alex Beyrodt – Guitars
Randy Black – Drums & Percussion
Alessandro Del Vecchio – Keyboards
Fan-filmed video footage of MASTERPLAN‘s July 13 performance at the Masters Of Rock festival in Vizovice, Czech Republic can be seen below.
MASTERPLAN‘s new album, “Novum Initium”, was released in Europe on June 14 and in North America on June 18 via AFM Records.
“Novum Initium” track listing:
01. Per Aspera Ad Astra
02. The Game
03. Keep Your Dream Alive
04. Black Night Of Magic
05. Betrayal
06. No Escape
07. Pray On My Soul
08. Earth Is Going Down
09. Return From Avalon
10. Through Your Eyes
11. Novum Initium
12. 1492 (digipack bonus track)
13. Fear The Silence (digipack bonus track)
A photo of MASTERPLAN‘s new lineup can be seen below. Joining guitarist Roland Grapow (ex-HELLOWEEN) are drummer Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka (CRADLE OF FILTH), vocalist Rick Altzi (AT VANCE, SANDALINAS, THUNDERSTONE), who replaces Jorn Lande, and bassist Jari Kainulainen (STRATOVARIUS, SYMFONIA, DEVIL’S TRAIN).
In a recent interview with Metal Shock Finland, Grapow stated about the band’s new CD: “We are not leaving the MASTERPLAN path too much, but everything we have — the melodic part and a little bit progressive — I would say we’re a little bit more powerful and I’m also mixing the album this time. I want to get a little bit more modern, as the sound we have was created ten years ago. We’re still having the typical sound with melodies, but the drummer is amazing and plays a lot of crazy shit!”
Speaking to Myglobalmind, Grapow said about MASTERPLAN‘s numerous personnel shuffles: “I think that it’s basically hard to explain why we always had singer changes. When we started MASTERPLAN with Jorn [Lande], a lot of people had warned me to be careful saying that he was very difficult. That he was never happy or satisfied with things. I think that the only thing that he really was concentrated on was trading on a solo career called JORN. Everything else for him was just a side project; he never saw MASTERPLAN as his main band. It was especially bad for me as I had put so much love, work and so much feeling for this band. I had given everything to make the band big. Jorn never did anything for us for this band. He never even said anything great about MASTERPLAN. That is not nice; you need a really good team behind you which loves this work. It’s the same as a company — if someone is not dedicated totally 100%, it doesn’t matter what a great voice he has. You stay on the same level, but now with a totally different lineup, we have a really big chance of getting further now. We can play live again, and have already played a couple of shows. There are a lot of shows booked, including some festivals, and we are planning a tour in October. That just wasn’t happening for about six years, which was quite terrible, to be honest.”
MASTERPLAN‘s new lineup:
Rick Altzi – vocals Roland Grapow – guitars Axel Mackenrott – keyboards Jari Kainulainen – bass Martin “Marthus” Skaroupka – drums
Band: LEVEL 10
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 