SNOWY SHAW has announced his unique & interesting album release & concept in the works, entitled “Shawsome! – The Snowy Shaw Collection Vol I.”
He shared:
“Shawsome! The Snowy Shaw Collection Vol I.
…is a handpicked small selection of guest-star appearances, session work and various other one-off projects that I’ve done over the years. Carefully put together to create a good blend and collective overview of my work. Either as vocalist, drummer, bassist, guitarist, songwriter, arranger, producer or some kind of combination of the aforementioned.
(Note: I have purpously left out stuff where I ”only” play the drums… like I did with King Diamond, Mercyful Fate and Sabaton as well on numerous other recordings) Yep, I originally started out a drummer 45 years ago,.. but needless to say there’s been a helluva lot of water under the bridge since then, and a thousand bands and projects.. (almost)
Why the Hell am I doing this? Well, at some point it was brought to my attention that I do appear on albums and recordings (more or less unknown and underground and with numerous bands & artists from all over the world) In all honesty, after all the years some of them had completely slipped my mind, which is a damn shame. But then I figured, if I can’t even remember them myself – Then what about my fans & followers?
Wouldn’t it be a great idea to make it available somehow and collect it all under the same roof, so to speak. On a limited edition compilation CD, or series of them.
Fuck Yeah! That’s an awesome idea! No, that is a Shawsome! idea. Said and done, I got to it and started pulling all the strings (I’ll spare you all the boring details such as legal rights with record companies, managers, publicists, artists etc.) But to my great surprise they were all very accommodating and helpful and by their kind permission allowing me free reins.
Expect the unexpected – You’re in for one helluva ride!”
“Shawsome! – The Snowy Shaw Collection Vol I.” will be released as a limited edition for fans and collectors. Pre-orders are live now via https://www.snowyshaw.net, but the official release is not until July 25th. Vol 1 (of 3 in total) NOTE! Physical only.
BraveWords Records has acquired the SNOWY SHAW catalog for digital release on Bandcamp. All of the SNOWY SHAW releases are now available to stream or download on Bandcamp at https://bravewordsrecords.bandcamp.com.
“What can I say? Other that I’m very happy to have all my various albums (digitally) on BraveWords Records Bandcamp among so many other great and legendary metal bands & artists. Thanx-A-Bunch!” – Snowy Shaw
“I’ve followed Snowy’s career since I discovered him via his work with King Diamond… over the years he has become a great friend and he is a super-talented musician. I think there is so much to offer within these catalog albums that fans of all his various bands and projects will have a field day with! We are very pleased to be working with him!” – Giles Lavery, A&R BraveWords Records
Publicly & professionally this blonde baby-boy was born 1989 in Los Angeles where and when he was recruited as new drummer for pioneering Danish musician King Diamond, The previous 20 years was spent in Gothenburg, Sweden where the suburban kid grows up with a passion and devotion for heavy music horror & superhero comics and playing the drums. Fast forward some odd 20 years and the multi talented man-boy with a D.I.Y attitude have had a rich and adventurous career working with countless bands and projects such as: Therion, Notre Dame, Mercyful Fate, illwill, Dream Evil, Dimmu Borgir, Sabaton, Memento Mori, XXX among many others. Which leads us right up until present time, and the rest is as they say; His-Story… and to be written!
Multi Instrumentalist SNOWY SHAW teams up with MAGNUS DAUN (Mad Architect) to form new project “GOD”, and offers a “self interview” to best describe the new project!
GOD: Official release on all streaming platforms: Friday 17th October.
Preview Trailer:
Snowy interviews himself!… Taking the concept of the split personality between whom an artist is on and off stage, or in and out of the studio to another level, Snowy Shaw has provided the following “self interview” to best describe the new project, which is available on all streaming platforms this Friday the 17th October.
“GOD” by Magnus Daun & Snowy Shaw.
What can be said about this debuting new release?
“If you like real heavy kick ass rock n’ roll or just love brutal fucking true metal that makes you wanna bang your head bloody against a brick wall. – Well, then I suspect this kind of music might not be for you.
OK, nicely put. So what the hell is this thing then. Emo, Indie-pop, Skate-Punk or what?
No, well this dark, cinematic and epic filmscore music project is not so much a band as a collaboration between two individual composers & musicians. For lack of better comparison, imagine if Danny Elfman and Ennio Morricone would team up to create grand dramatic music for a big Hollywood movie, that never existed,.. yet! Something like that, although I’m certainly not saying we’re in the same league as these masters but instead of coming up with yet another band name or do another Mad Architect album we opted to approach this new concept a little differently and use our own names with highlighted focus on the song title and concept at hand, meanwhile us the creators are subordinated.
Mad Architect? please tell me a little more about that band.
Yeah, well me and Magnus have a recorded history under the moniker of Mad Architect, with whom we put out 2 albums some odd 10 years ago. From the get go it was always more of a studio project, than a live act from when I was first contacted via email to do guest vocals on one single track, which I agreed to. Then later came the request to do yet another song, which I thought a bit strange but as it turned out, they had no singer and there was no “they” at all. In reality it was just Magnus hiring people to record his songs, more or less. And I ended up doing all the vocals. The first album recording took place around the time I was out touring the world with Sabaton during 2012-2013 and I tracked the vocals either in my own home studio whenever I had a short break in touring or in the tourbus or backstage somewhere with my laptop, a microphone and a simple recording device. Modern technology is pretty fantastic isn’t it? Pretty damn bizarre actually. So it was a rather strange birth one might say. As a matter of fact I had never met or even talked to the guy (Magnus) over the phone until after the first album had been out for months. Take into consideration that this although we both live in the same city (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Hahaha! That’s hilarious! And that’s when you decided to team up?
Like I said, it wasn’t so much of a band as Magnus´solo album with the difference that, especially on the second album I ended up doing about 95% of all the work. This because all the other musicians had somehow dropped off once the debut was released, and neither him nor I managed to find proper replacements for each position respectively based on his so-called demos, of chorus drenched incoherent instrumental guitar backgrounds. So in the end I figured the only way to make this project to work at all, is if I take charge of the situation and handle the rest of the instruments. Really insane when you think about it. Allow me to be a little witty here, Magnus sure is the “Mad Architect”.
If what you’re saying is correct then it’s more like your solo album isn’t it?
Naw, in a way I guess you could say that it was but that’s not the point and I don’t wanna take credit for it because I was hired to do a job and I did my very best and all in my power to make this thing fly and live up to my quality standards given what I had to work with. We’re talking writing, arranging, producing, recording, mixing, designing, promoting etc. And that on top of all vocals and playing the drums and bass etc. Magnus is a great guy and I don’t wanna make it sound like he’s totally incompetent or anything. I saw a guy whose dream & ambition was to make his own music & band although at the time….he didn’t necessarily possess the right kind of skills, competence nor experience required to do so. Very much like myself in my younger days, so I could relate and felt compassionate for him. However, what matters is that I was able to fill in the gaps and help out fulfilling his dream, and I was happy to oblige. (and of course be richly compensated for my work.)
Nice of you to help out this young kid though
I never said he was young. He’s 3 years older than me I think.
Anyway, if you’d ask me if I would willingly do it all again under those circumstances and conditions the answer would be a loud and definitive No, not in this lifetime. Which is also why it has taken over 10 years. Whenever approached I have repeatedly explained to Magnus that I was super adamant towards the whole idea and that I simply can’t nor won’t work or operate under such conditions again. I don’t really wanna use the derogatory phrase “You can’t polish turds” but then again I can’t think of a better more suitable term. If it’s ever gonna happen it has to be under the right circumstances.
So how did this new thing come about then, what made you change your mind?
He learned his lesson and got his shit together, let’s say. Earlier this year Magnus released short pieces of new atmospheric instrumental music under his own name which I thought was a 100 times better than anything I had previously heard from him, and I was really impressed and uttered – Wow! Now we’re talking! This I really, really like. This has harmonic substance and something to build on with a distinct theme which offers tons more possibilities.
Truth be told, I applaud him for having really have made a quantum leap in improvement over the decade that has now passed. I’m mighty impressed with his newfound technical skills and understanding. I dare say that the biggest difference was that now he had composed it all using keyboards with great sounds which was a huge improvement as opposed to all the generic guitar riffing and directionless set of chords that he used to present in the past.
This was more bombastic symphonic filmscore music, just the way that I love it and I immediately got all these images in my head and envisioned how we could arrange it with voices and menacing dark narration, chimes, marching snares, strings, heavy downtuned distorded bass and shit. And I also added heavy mean guitars to the mix for effect, and personally I think it turned out fantastic.
Maybe it’s just me who’ve been doing this for too long and have become jaded and disillusioned but to be perfectly honest with you, I haven’t been inspired or influenced by metal or rock bands since I was a teenager. More than anything I’m drawn towards composers like John Barry (James Bond) Danny Elfman, John Carpenter, Vangelis among others. I’m not an adept consumer but that’s the kind of music that triggers me, and over the years I’ve often found out in retrospect that ‘s the kind of music that subconsciuosly influenced me.
So is this a one off thing or can we expect a full length album any time soon?
Hell yeah! We just signed a massive 4 album recording deal with Universal Studios worldwide.
By mid November we’ll be recording our new material with New York philharmonic orchestra for an upcoming 2026 blockbuster Hollywood movie and,… No, I’m just kiddin’, obviously.
First of all, it’s 2025 and the album format is obsolete and dead for starters, not just physical but overall, which is deeply tragic and immensely sad I think. The world in general is fucked, and not just the music industry and the movie industry but every-fucking-thing that we know of and everything that we all grew up loving is all dead and gone. But yes, let’s try to be a little positive here shall we. We’ll surely be putting out more new music. When and if we feel like it. That’s really all that matters at the end of the day, isn’t it?
Shocking News! Legendary Metal musician SNOWY SHAW was allegedly disqualified in this year’s Grande Finale of The Eurovision Song Contest where he performed his song “Lullaby” at St. Jakobshalle Arena in Basel, Switzerland.
“This is a scandal and a disgrace to the good entertainment quality standards of the Eurovision commitée and administration” says Broadcasting producer Michael DuBoir, and continues “None of the vulgar display with blood and nudity were part of the rehearsal earlier during the day. It’s totally unacceptable and violates the community guidelines.
Local news have tried getting in contact with Snowy Shaw to comment on the dramatic incident but have so far not been able to get through to him, and his manager says he’s inaccessible and nowhere to be found.
“When Snowy Shaw – the legendary shock metal artist & multi-instrumentalist, tonight competed in the Eurovision song contest with his song “Lullaby”, things got out of control, which led to his number being disqualified. Snowy who has a background in the more extreme metal scene with bands such as King Diamond, Dimmu Borgir, Notre Dame, Sabaton, Mercyful Fate etc must have misunderstood the format of this feelgood family event when including vulgar indecent exposure, nudity and blood, lots of blood!
“Lullaby”, the song itself is both dark and gothic yet melodic and very catchy and the stage act scenario started out beautifully and fairytale-eque where King Snowy sits on his throne surrounded by a posse of promiscuous black-clad women dressed as witches and sexy female vampires. So far so good. Then suddenly all hell breaks loose! Somehow one can’t help thinking of Quentin Tarantino’s epic movie “From Dusk Till Dawn”, which certainly is not a bad thing. Snowy is (in-)famous for his strong integrity, not following rules and doing things his own way, no matter the cost.
Be it – having his number banned and disqualified in the Eurovision Song contest – for life.
Multi-instrumentalist SNOWY SHAW has released a new lyric video for “If I Was King For A Day” (featuring Andy LaRocque & Hal Patino). Watch it below.
Adds Snowy:
Are you familiar with the old proverb and expression ‘If Only I Was King For A Day’?… No? … Keep reading.
Here’s the back story that spurred the creation of this very song. Back in 2017 I wrote a song for my first namesake solo album ‘White Is The New Black‘ called ‘Family Feud‘ that has 3 verses and I had the idea of having King Diamond, Messiah and myself ‘brotherly’ sharing the vocals with one verse each and sing the rest together. King really liked the song and said he’d love to do it but the timing wasn’t ideal for him at that point and said he’d love to do something together later on. So instead I released it with me doing all voices and instruments myself, and then an alternative version that featured guest stars Joakim Brodén of Sabaton, Jake E of Amaranthe and Niklas Isfelt of Dream Evil sharing the vocals.
A few years later during the dark pandemic year of 2021 I was making this very special concept where I recorded and released one single per month digitally, that would later be collected on an album titled “This Is Heavy Metal, Plain & Simple”.
For the making of this album I’d invite a huge array of guests consisting of my teenage heroes, former bandmates and friends. Needless to say, King Diamond was at the very top of on my wish-list alongside Ken Hensley & Dan McCafferty (who both sadly passed away before their participation)
I presented a song for King but also this time around he had to decline due to the fact that (like he explained) he hadn’t released any new KD album in 15 years at that point and the record company would probably kill him if he appeared on someone elses. Fair enough, a fully understandable point and I just dropped the whole idea.
A while later I was watching some old movie one night when I heard the phrase uttered ‘If only I was king for a day’. Wow! That’s a cool phrase I thought to myself and instantly my little grey cells started working… what if… ?
So based on that title alone I wrote the song & lyrics as a tribute with what I considered a funny twist… To my ears it came out sounding a bit like the era around Fatal Portrait/Abigail, and since I had guests
for all other tracks on this special album concept why make an exception here? I figured what could possibly be more perfect than to have both Andy and Michael Denner for a trade off guest solo appearance on this song?
I approached them both and introduced my idea with a rough mix of my recording and they both agreed to do it.
Andy delivered his trademark solo contribution in no time (no brainer really as he’s the owner of Sonic Train Studios) it was however a little more tricky with Denner who at the time had no recording options or for that matter not a lot of time at his disposal and I was on a tight deadline, so sadly in the end he had no choice but to opt out and I ended up using the guide leads I had quickly recorded just to examplify the trade off parts. I still wanted more involvement from the King/Mercyful camp so I got hold of my good friend Hal Patino to re-record the bass guitar for it, which he gladly and rapidly did – Happy Ending & Happy Halloween!
Multi-instrumentalist SNOWY SHAW has released his own version of the classic David Bowie movie theme “Cat People (Putting Out The Fire)” – Available now on all streaming platforms.
“I intend to sporadically put out a number of covers in the near future. Songs that might raise a few eyebrows within the metal community but that I’ve always loved and dreamt of putting my very own treatment and touch to”
Snowy adds: “Unquestionably, my biggest passion in life is to write songs and to create these little fantasy worlds from my own vivid imagination. That being said, it doesn’t stop me from enjoying doing the occasional cover song and giving it a shiny new metallic costume. Then we’re mainly talking songs that weren’t originally associated with metal or rock even, as my personal music taste has always been very wide and diverse. ‘A good song is a good song’ regardless of genre. That’s always been my opinion.
For longer than I can remember I always wanted to make my very own version of this Bowie filmscore song by the same title. The reason it happened now is just a strange coincidence as I was recently producing an American band that’s somewhat crossover and hard to catagorize or put in any particular music genre. Hence I asked whether they would consider adding a suitable cover that might help give this unestablished band a much needed push and sense of direction. They suggested Alanis Morrisette while the other name that came up was David Bowie. What era? I asked, as Bowie, this musical genius/chameleon has literally defied any genre categorization throughout his impressive career. In passing I also mentioned how I’ve always dreamt of covering Cat People, to which they asked if I could record a quick demo of my arrangement, A few days later I presented my version and they were so blown away they suggested I oughta put it out myself. So I’d spend time finishing it and now here it is.
This is just one of many of these type of ‘odd and unpredictable’ cover songs that I’ve started recording or dreamt of doing at some point but I have never really found the right kind of context for it…let alone, the right timing… still haven’t to be perfectly honest, but now I’ve reached a point in life where I’m thinking – So what? Fuck it! What am I waiting for? Just do it! basically”
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
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 