In these interesting times, when life puts a forced pause on us, most of all we need to lift our spirits, to feel alive. “Life Motion” is the fifth studio album of “Intelligent Music Project”. And this time in the band led by Milen Vrabevski, MD (author and producer) there are big world names – the drummer and co-producer of the release Simon Phillips, as well as the vocalists John Payne (ex-Asia) and Richard Grisman (River Hounds). Ronnie Romero, a singer who became famous for joining Rainbow in 2015, made his debut in it. And when we add respected Bulgarian musicians to this stellar team, it becomes quite clear that high class is being pursued at IMP.
“Epidemic, crisis, contagion.” Not a day goes by without hearing these words for more than a month. Indeed, the current situation is a test for everyone, but it also brings some positives – such as the opportunity to spend more time on (rediscovering) art.
Milen Vrabevski, MD
Milen Vrabevski, MD says: “I would like my children to grow up with the ideas I share in my albums, and instead of teaching them lectures about those ideas, I use the language of music, which is very universal and easy to understand.”
Legendary drummer Simon Phillips (Toto, Protocol, Mike Oldfield, The Who) gave two solos for the songs “Reflecting” and “Rising” on “Life Motion,” with music co-producers Dr. Vrabevski, Simon Phillips and Ivo Stefanov.
Intelligent Music Project IV “Sorcery Inside” is another entirely Bulgarian music project of the creator of “Intelligent Music Project” – Milen Vrabevski, MD. It includes legendary musicians such as Simon Phillips (Toto), Carl Sentans (Nazareth), Richard Grisman (River Hounds), John Payne (ex-Asia) and Joseph Williams (Toto), who have left their incomparable handwriting on the 12 compositions by Milen Vrabevski, MD.
Simon Phillips participated in the recordings not only on drums, but also as a music co-producer, together with Milen and Ivo Stefanov. The recordings were made in the fall of 2018 at Brotheryn Studios, California, by Simon Phillips and Ernest Tibbs (drums and percussion), Jesse Siebenberg (guitars, vocals) and Dave Palmer (pianos).
“Indeed, the cast of the Intelligent Music Project resembles an ensemble of the elder statesmen of rock, featuring a collection of decorated artists like Toto drummer Simon Phillips and Asia lead vocalist John Payne. The evident talent of each individual member of the band shines through at various points during the album Throughout it all, the production stands out for its silky smoothness, stitching together each aspect of the band’s throwback sound with commendable dexterity. ‘Sorcery Inside’ clearly attempts to be a modern-day alternative rock album, at times trading the traditional electrical-guitar driven sound for more experimental substitutes.” – The Stanford Daily
The European tour of Intelligent Music Project and Milen Vrabevski, MD with the participation of Simon Phillips (Toto), Ronnie Romero (Rainbow) and Richard Grisman (River Hounds) started on February 21 from Bulgaria. The first concert of the tour was held in Varna, followed by Plovdiv and Sofia, and the tickets completely sold out. As part of Dr. Milen Vrabevski’s Intelligent Music Project, Phillips, Romero and Grisman presented their latest albums, “Sorcery Inside,” as well as the album “Life Motion.” The star trio were joined by some of the best Bulgarian musicians in the person of Stoyan Yankulov – Stundzhi, Biser Ivanov, Bobi Kosatkata, Ivo Stefanov, Ivaylo Zvezdomirov, Slavin Slavchev, Lina Nikol, Samuel Eftimov.
Watch Intelligent Music Project’s first online concert, here.
“Working on this project with Milen Vrabevski was so much fun and I find his enthusiasm for music is so uplifting.” – Simon Phillips
“The chemistry and magic is bound to happen when you have great players and great songs.” – John Payne
“Working with Milen was pretty exciting, he is a great professional and composer and I will be back for the next album for sure!” – Ronnie Romero
VANDENBERG is back! Or should we say: Vandenberg are back? The man himself, Adrian Vandenberg has never really been away, but the band that carries his proud name has returned, after an absence that lasted for more than three decades Vandenberg is very much alive again in a young, fresh and all-revised 2020 version.
Photo: Alex Solca
Adrian Vandenberg can already look back on a rich career. He played in Whitesnake for over 13 years, having been part of this seminal band’s most legendary line-up. He was the driving force behind Manic Eden and more recently, Vandenberg’s Moonkings, but equally proud he looks back on Vandenberg, the Dutch band that put him on the map, internationally: “So many people still come up to me and speak about those glory days and the albums I’ve made with that band.”
All these compliments have inspired Adrian to bring Vandenberg back to life, albeit in an all new line-up. Together with renowned producer Bob Marlette (Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath), he is currently putting the finishing touches to a new album that will be in stores, later this year. A first taste of what is to come can be heard online as of today; Burning Heart, which you can check out here:
A brand new version of the classic hit, sung by none other than Ronnie Romero, who first came to prominence when Ritchie Blackmore recruited him for a Rainbow tour in 2016.
Romero’s impressive vocals can be heard on all songs on the upcoming Vandenberg album and he will also be part of the touring band. Together with Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Osbourne, Whitesnake) on bass and Brian Tichy (Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, Foreigner) on drums, the band have recorded nine all new, original songs. Backed by Koen Herfst (crowned as the best drummer of the Benelux, six times in a row) and Randy van der Elsen on bass (Tank) the band plan to hit the road, soon. Says Adrian: “First get the album done and then I want to get out there and play. We want to play this music to audiences all over the world.”
About his decision to relaunch the band Vandenberg, Adrian says: “Going with the band name Vandenberg was a logical decision. Rock fans would know right away what they are dealing with. I felt that I wasn’t done with the style of music I wrote for my band Vandenberg at the time and wanted to pick up the thread where I left it when I joined Whitesnake. But to me that would only make sense if I’d come up with a brand new, testosterone driven version of Vandenberg with a kick ass, world class line-up. Vandenberg 2020 on steroids. So that’s exactly what we did. BAM! Here I go again.”
Vocalist Ronnie Romero adds: “To me it’s kind of a dream come true. I’ve followed Adrian´s career since for years and he always was one of my favourite guitar players, so to work with him is nothing but amazing to me. Adrian is an exceptional musician, and it’s really easy to work with him, the energy when we work together was fantastic, we had great times at the studio with our producer Bob Marlette, very exciting time.”
Bob Marlette is equally enthusiastic: “Working with Adrian has been a real pleasure. The man is working around the clock and his well of new riffs and melodies never seems to dry. With a powerful singer such as Ronnie Romero behind the microphone, I was some true magic expecting to happen and let me tell you… it has.”
In short, these guys mean business. 35 years may have passed since the final studio album ‘Alibi’, Vandenberg 2020 sounds just as fresh, relevant and at least as HEAVY as back in the day. Fun times will revive with a brand new album, and an agenda filling up quickly with festivals and other touring plans. Or as the man himself, Adrian Vandenberg puts it: “Fasten your seatbelts, Vandenberg is here to stay.”
AFM Records are excited to present the new video single “Fiesta Y Copas” from the German Metal veterans SINNER, features a guest appearance by Ronnie Romero (Rainbow). Watch the video below.
The new outstanding album “Santa Muerte”, released by AFM Records on September 13th, 2019, is the seventeenth studio album in their more than 35-years of band history.
But let’s begin with the most obvious innovation: Santa Muerte features a permanent second voice, alongside frontman Mat, for the first time. This voice is female, hails from Venice and answers to the name of Giorgia Colleluori. Mat: “I’d first noticed Georgia in her own band, Eternal Idol, that’s why we enlisted her as a background vocalist for ‘Rock meets Classic’. During that tour it transpired that Georgia would fit in really well with Sinner. So we asked her to join us on stage for three classics during a number of shows in Australia, Japan and Germany. The audience’s reactions were awesome, so we decided to ask her to join the band on a permanent basis.” Colleluori’s vocal range has lent a whole new dimension to Sinner’s current songs in particular – according to Mat – “a dimension that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve by myself.”
The second innovation: in Ricky Warwick (Thin Lizzy, Black Star Riders) and Ronnie Romero (Ritchie Blackmore´s Rainbow), Santa Muerte features two of the currently most charismatic vocalists of the international rock scene as guests. “I met Ricky in connection with Rock meets Classic, too,” explains Mat. “We frequently sat on the tour bus together, talked for hours and have become real friends. Ricky is very similar to me, down to earth, honest, a little rough.” Warwick’s unique voice can be heard on ‘What Went Wrong’, a straightforward rock number with an Irish-inspired Thin Lizzy flair. Ronnie Romero on the other hand, whose voice features on ‘Fiesta Y Copas’, came to Sinner’s attention in 2015 for the first time at a major festival in Italy, where Mat’s power metal act Primal Fear and Romero’s Spanish band Lords Of Black played on the same stage. Other guests on Santa Muerte are Swedish guitarist/co-songwriter Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Allen/Lande) on ‘Death Letter’ and background vocalist Sascha Krebs, who already contributed fantastic choir parts to (almost) all songs on Sinner’s previous release Tequila.
You’ve already guessed it: Sinner have delivered another outstanding album, recorded by a line-up consisting of excellent artists, such as guitarist/co-composer Tom Naumann and Alex Scholpp as well as drummer and new addition Markus Kullmann (ex-Voodoo Circle). Santa Muerte was produced by Mat Sinner and co-produced by Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69, Unisonic, Gus G.), who also recorded and mixed the new album. Following the first single ‘Fiesta Y Copas’ (including video), Sinner are set to release two additional singles plus video clips: ‘Last Exit Hell’ will be out on 16th August, followed by ‘Death Letter’ on 6th September. Any other questions will be answered by Sinner in full volume from September 2019 on Santa Muerte or at the release shows. TRACKLIST
1. Shine On
2. Fiesta Y Copas
3. Santa Muerte
4. Last Exit Hell
5. What Went Wrong
6. Lucky 13
7. Death Letter
8. Craving
9. The Wolf
10. Misty Mountain
11. The Ballad Of Jack
12. Stormy Night TOUR DATES
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to legendary guitarist Michael Schenker. Schenker spoke about his upcoming new Michael Schenker Fest studio album the musical direction and guests, the second leg of the tour that is beginning in April 2019, the sad passing of his drummer Ted Mckenna and comments on his and his brother Rudolf relationship.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about the sad passing of drummer Ted Mckenna
“Our dear friend and great drummer Robert McKenna had passed away on the 19th of January this year. So as you know we were in the middle of recording our second album and getting ready for the tour. I mean, it was as unbelievable shock for us. It just shows you, you never know what’s gonna happen next, it’s just unbelievable but I’m sure he is watching and wants us to carry on rocking. I went to his funeral on the 19th of February, very sad, great loss, thank you for everything Ted. So now we have drummer Simon Phillips who helped us and recorded ten songs off our new album and Bodo Schopf will also be joining us on tour as a permanent drummer. We might even end up playing with two drummers in the future at some places maybe. Simon did a fantastic job on the new album which will be released on the 23rd of August and Bodo also played 3 songs on the album and did a fantastic job. ”
When asked about the musical direction of the new album and if it is completed
“I actually have just got the master right now, so basically if I approve the master today and if I don’t make any corrections it’s done. After the first album Graham Bonnet said I want to write my own lyrics and do my own vocals and so he did and he did a fantastic job, incredible. That alone gives the album a kind of new flavor. Robin McAuley will do his own songs and of course Gary Barden will too. It’s a continuation of the first album. ”
When asked if there will be any news guests on the new album
“Yes, I don’t know how much I can say but on the 23rd of August we have some really cool surprises coming up. On Michael Voss wrote 4 song that was supposed to be used as the all singer songs but only used three, he then had this idea to have Ronnie Romero to sing on the 4th song, who he worked with before and who sings for Ritchie Blackmore and it turned out fantastic, incredibles. It’s Called, We Are The Voice.’ I also wanted to put a Japanese guitarist on our Japanese album bonus track for Japan. So I chose the guitarist of Loudness Akira Takasaki he is jamming on one part of the song. ”
When asked what would it take to make peace with his brother Rudolf
“It has nothing do with peace Rudolf is dangerous for me I have to stay away from him, it’s the only thing I can do, he’s a bully and he takes advantage of his little brother.
What do you do if you have a bully on your back? The best you can do is stay away I have no bad feelings or anything for Rudolf god bless him do what you do. I don’t need to put myself into a vulnerable situation and that’s what I would do if I would connect with him, it would just be the more of the same bullshit, more off the same ripoff, He’s a charming person he achieves everything with charm but I’m an artist so whatever. So the best thing for me is to leave him alone and I am better off. ”
MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP vocalists Gary Barden and Graham Bonnet, Doogie White, plus Robin McAuley of the MCAULEY SCHENKER GROUP
MICHAEL SCHENKER FEST will kick off its U.S. tour on April 15 at the Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California. The trek will include performances in Vancouver, Chicago, and New York before concluding on May 18 in Austin.
The revamped version of RAINBOW recently entered the studio to record band’s first new music in more than two decades, according to Blabbermouth.net.
Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore stepped away from his Renaissance-inspired brand of music with BLACKMORE’S NIGHT last year to perform a handful of shows with a brand-new lineup of the band he had formed after quitting DEEP PURPLE.
Although Ritchie initially said that he had no plans to make a new RAINBOW album — explaining in early 2016 that he wanted to “just get back to playing the old songs one more time” — he appears to have changed his mind. He told Japan’s Burrn! magazine for its May 2017 issue that the current incarnation of RAINBOW — which includes singer Ronnie Romero, originally from Chile but now settled in Madrid, Spain — is in the process of recording two tracks. “I wrote one new song, and also recorded one of the old ones,” he said, according to The Highway Star. “Ronnie, who is in Madrid now, added his vocals and sent it back. Rather than make an album, we may release as singles.”
Blackmore was also full of praise for Romero, who spends some of his time fronting the Spanish metal band LORDS OF BLACK and is a member of a new project called THE FERRYMEN. “When I heard him, he seemed like the right guy to sing the [Ronnie James] Dio-era songs of RAINBOW,” Ritchie said. “He is versatile, he can sing like Freddie Mercury or Ronnie James Dio or Graham Bonnet.
“The reason I did not ask [former RAINBOW singer] Joe Lynn Turner [to get involved in the RAINBOW comeback] is because I thought European fans wanted to hear the Dio lineup of RAINBOW.
“I was very surprised that tickets [to the first RAINBOW comeback shows] sold out in 15 minutes. It was nice to know so many people wanted to hear RAINBOW at this time.”
Joe Lynn Turner last year slammed Blackmore for the guitarist’s decision to go out and perform classic DEEP PURPLE and RAINBOW material with a new group musicians instead of reforming RAINBOW with a more “authentic” lineup.
Less critical of the new RAINBOW lineup was former DEEP PURPLE bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, who admitted to Metal Express Radio earlier this year that he had watched some YouTube clips of the new RAINBOW lineup performing in 2016. “Singing Ronnie‘s [James Dio] songs needs a special kind of singer and I think the young chap did a reasonably good job and I think Ritchie may well have found the guy for him,” Hughes said of Romero. “He was certainly a good fit for RAINBOW.”
In addition to Romero, Blackmore was joined at last year’s RAINBOW gigs by STRATOVARIUS keyboardist Jens Johansson, BLACKMORE’S NIGHT drummer David Keith, bassist Bob Nouveau (a.k.a. Robert “Bob” Curiano, ex-BLACKMORE’S NIGHT), and backing singers Candice Night and Lady Lynn.
The two shows RAINBOW played in Germany last June were caught on camera to produce “Memories In Rock – Live In Germany”, which was released in November via Eagle Rock Entertainment on DVD+2CD, Blu-ray+2CD, and digital formats.
After Ritchie left DEEP PURPLE for the final time in 1993, he reformed RAINBOW for one album (1995’s “Stranger In Us All”) and one tour, ending things in Denmark in 1997.
Frontiers Music Srl is truly excited to present THE FERRYMEN’s self-titled debut album, set for release on June 2, 2017!
THE FERRYMEN is a brand new project featuring guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Magnus Karlsson’s Free Fall) and vocalist Ronnie Romero (Lords Of Black, Rainbow), together with drummer Mike Terrana (Rage, AXEL RUDI PELL, MasterPlan, and more).
Watch the band’s official EPK here:
The songs were written by Karlsson in Sweden during the summer of 2016. Once Romero was sent the music via their main bands’ shared label home Frontiers, he immediately wanted to be part of the project. Terrana was the last piece of the puzzle and he recorded his drums in Italy, where he currently resides.
The resulting album is a shot of adrenaline for all lovers of melodic metal! Musically, you can expect maximum melodic metal fusing the songwriting and epic structures of the great ALLEN/LANDE records (for which Magnus Karlsson was the main architect of the first three widely praised releases) with the Ronnie James Dio-esque vocal approach of Romero. (Let’s not forget that Romero was hand-picked by Deep Purple (1968-1976) and Rainbow’s legendary guitarist Richie Blackmore to be the lead vocalist for Rainbow’s recent reunion shows, so the Dio comparison is more than accurate!)
Tells Magnus, “When I wrote this record, having Ronnie singing, I had no limits in mind with the lyrics. Ronnie could sing everything and I am also very proud of the songs!”
“I am used to working with Lords of Black in a certain straight style,” adds Ronnie Romero, “but, this record was very different and it was very exciting for me!”
“Overall, I think it is one of the coolest and grooviest records I’ve ever done,” concludes Mike Terrana, a drummer with more than 100 records under his belt!
With stunning artwork courtesy of Stan W. Decker and an outstanding mix courtesy of Simone Mularoni (of Italian prog metal masters DGM), THE FERRYMEN is an album which will take the metal world by storm in 2017!
THE FERRYMEN tracklisting:
End Of The Road
Ferryman
Fool You All
Still Standing Up
Cry Wolf
One Heart
Darkest Hour
How The Story Ends
Enter Your Dream
Eyes On The Sky
Eternal Night
Welcome To My Show
THE FERRYMEN are:
Ronnie Romero – vocals
Magnus Karlsson – guitars, bass, keyboards
Mike Terrana – drums
