The Metal Voice‘s Jimmy Kay from checked in with Firewind‘s Guitarist Gus G and Singer Herbie Langhans in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the Corona Theater March 31, 2022. Watch the interview below.
Gus Told The Metal Voice how the Firewind was added at the last moment to the tour and almost did not make it he said, “We were added on the tour only one and half months ago. We are actually replacing a band called Battle Beast, they couldn’t make it and we got the call. I have known Herman Li (Dragonforce guitarist) since the early days, our bands pretty much started at the same time more or less. We have been friends forever. We even did a tour with Drgaonforce back in 2006, Europe and the UK. He (Herman) reached out and said can you do this? Do you think you have time? Do you think you have time with such short notice? We talked internally with the band, we called a lawyer. Do we have time to get Visas’? It’s a long process for that but somehow we expedited it. I mean Herbie, he literally got his Visa on Friday night and on Saturday morning we flew to Denver. There was a plan B for me to do some instrumental stuff until Herbie would get on the next flight, for the following week. I would have done maybe some solo shows.”
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke to Nazareth’s Bassist co-founder Pete Agnew about the bands upcoming new album ‘Surviving The Law’ to be released April 15 2022 via Frontiers
Pete Agnew spoke about touring with Nazareth on the Black Sabbath Born Again tour and the ‘Stonehenge props’ Mishaps. Plus Agnew talks recalls some Axl Rose and Guns N’ Roses stories.
When asked about the new album ‘Surviving The Law’ and comparing it to the last album and their classic 70’s albums
“It’s a different band now for a start. Tattooed on My Brain was the first album that we did with this line up with a new singer, that was the first time. This time we are a bit more used to each other. We were stuck in the pandemic plague, so everybody was writing an awful lot more songs than we normally would, But it all worked out very well. In terms of material, the content of the album I think this one is a little more darker, I think it’s a bit more heavier than Tattooed on My Brain. There is definitely a different mood on this album and I think it follows ‘Tattooed on My Brain’ well.”
When asked about touring with Black Sabbath on their Born Again tour, the Stonehenge props and the show delays in Montreal Canada, 1983
“Do you remember that stupid stage set (Stonehenge props) that Black Sabbath had? Has anyone seen Spinal Tap? That is were it was taken from. They built that Stonehenge thing and it took them about a day, two days to put that up before we could go onstage. Their crew was working on it banging away. Our guys couldn’t get in there to organize our equipment because of the nonsense that was going on with Black Sabbath’s work crew. In fact it was so funny because half of the crew got fired that night and then they never used the set again the whole tour. That was hilarious, it was complete mayhem backstage onstage. At one point they were discussing that we were not going to go on because it was going to take that long to get them on (Black Sabbath) but there would have been complaints because we did sell quite a few tickets ourselves. That is why you were waiting, waiting for them to build that stupid stage. We just did the four shows in Canada at the beginning and then we left to go to America.”
When asked about the time by Axl Rose wanted Nazareth to play at his wedding “It was Dan (Dan McCafferty) it wasn’t Nazareth. It was for Dan to sing ‘Love hurts’ Axl was getting married to an Everly Brothers daughter ( Erin Everly). It was mentioned they would have liked Dan to do it but we were touring, it just wasn’t possible and he would have went. Dan would have went along and sung. I think possibly the song outlasted the marriage .In the early days Guns N Roses used to come and see us before they were huge.”
Bruce Dickinson to continue working on solo album after his spoken word tour. Dickinson said this during the question-and-answer portion of his March 23, 2022 spoken-word show at MTelus in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. As reported by The Metal Voice video below.
During the Q and A he said, “It’s been something like 14 years since the last solo album. So the problem is when I did the last chunk of writing for the solo album before the Book of Souls Tour, obviously. In 2015 we made the album (Iron Maiden Book of Souls). 2016 I had Cancer, 2017 we played catch up to all the stuff we did before. Then 2018-2019. Then this stupid pandemic decided to ruin it up, so there was nothing we could do then. So now we are revisiting it and when I get done with these spoken word shows I’m going back to LA and we are working on it three weeks and then I’m working with Maiden. Roy Z will be working on the instrumental parts. The eventually hopefully this year or next year we should have it finished. When it goes out that is another question.”
Bruce will hit the road with Iron Maiden for a new North American “Legacy Of The Beast” tour in September 2022.
Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to CEO and founder of Metal Blade Records Brian Slagel. In the interview Slagel spoke about the upcoming re-release of Metal Massacre Vol 1 on April 22, 2022 for the 40 year anniversary and provides an update on King Diamond plus a whole lot more.
When asked about which version of Metal Massacre Vol 1 will be released “It’s kind of the two versions combined into one basically, I’ve always wanted to do this. I thought it was going to be a nightmare to put together because back in the day we just did a 5 year licenses for the songs and we lost the rights for 35 years and I thought I don’t know if everybody wants to do it again. It took me two hours and I reached out to every band and they immediately said yes no problem we are in. It’s got every song that was ever on the original Metal Massacre Vol 1, both Steeler and Ratt. Metallica they used the second pressing (second song) the one without Lloyd Grant on it. We are only doing it on Vinyl cause I wanted to keep it to close to its roots cause all we did was vinyl 40 years ago and we are only doing 7000 (copies) of them. I wanted to make it really special and limited. “
When asked about how he included Metallica’s original song ‘Hit the lights’ on the original Metal Massacre Vol 1 compilation “The Michael Schenker group played a venue called the Country Club in Reseda, Los Angeles, California on December of 1980. Which I found out later everybody from Metallica to Armored Saint were there. All the bands were at that show even though no one knew each other. So I was there with my good friend John Kornarens who basically helped me with the fanzine and the compilation album. So after the show John sees a kid in the parking lot wearing a Saxon European T shirt. Now in 1980 nobody in L.A. knew who Saxon was let alone would be wearing a European T-shirt. So John runs up to the kid and says where did you get that shirt? And the kid (Lars) said I just moved here from Denmark two weeks ago I didn’t think anyone knew who Saxon was and John said no no we are totally into it, my friend Brian and I are really into it so you got to meet him. So a couple days later I don’t remember if it was his house or my house but Lars, John and I got all together and started going crazy over the NWOBHM. Lars moving here from Denmark didn’t think he would know anybody, he didn’t think he would find any friends who were into the scene, so we all became friends because of that. So fast forward to a year and a half later so I am putting together this compilation album (Metal Massacre) and Lars called me up and said hey if I put together a band can I be on the record? I said sure we need bands on the record why not. So I guess the story was he and James (Hetfield) recorded everything and then Lloyd Grant played the lead and that was the original ‘Hit The Lights’. So they brought me a cassette tape at the very last minute, it almost didn’t make it on the record. Lars was probably an hour away from not getting it on time. So they brought a cassette and it cost $50 dollars to bump it up to Quarter inch tape and none of us had the money. Luckily John Kornarens had 50 bucks so he paid the 50 bucks and Metallica ended up on the record. And I didn’t hear it (the Song) until later, the recording wasn’t great but the song was pretty decent.”
When asked about any updates on a new King Diamond album “I had a really good conversation with King Diamond the other day, and he’s working on both King Diamond and Mercyful Fate. I might have heard a demo or two that sounded really, really good. I don’t know when either of these records are gonna come out, cause King likes to do things at his own speed but I was very happy with what I’ve heard so far. So hopefully everybody will be pretty happy. But there will be a new King Diamond record, I’m hoping, in 2023. And there will also be a new Mercyful Fate record sometime soon.”
At the brink of the 80’s, LA was cementing itself as the rock ‘n’ roll nucleus of the United States. A longtime fan of the local rock scene, Slagel spent many nights inside LA’s locales seeking out the most authentic, heaviest, unique bands to hit the West Coast. Alongside friend John Kornarens, the two split the Metal Massacre project in half – Slagel responsible for artwork and mastering facilities, while Kornarens secured a studio to make the record. “We were using the Yellow Pages a lot, total amateurs navigating the record like a high school project,” adds Kornarens. And that compilation was the foundation of Slagel’s METAL BLADE RECORDS, one of the premiere heavy metal record labels of all-time.
This year Metal Blade Records is celebrating their 40th Anniversary! To celebrate such a huge accomplishment they will be releasing a limited-edition vinyl “Metal Massacre,” out April 22nd.
Metal Massacre Volume 1 Track Listing 2022 Re-Issue: SIDE ONE: 1 – STEELER – “COLD DAY IN HELL” 2 – BITCH – “LIVE FOR THE WHIP” 3 – MALICE – “CAPTIVE OF LIGHT” 4 – RATT – “TELL THE WORLD” 5 – AVATAR – “OCTAVE”
SIDE TWO: 1 – BLACK ‘N BLUE – “CHAINS AROUND HEAVEN” 2 – CIRITH UNGOL – “DEATH OF THE SUN” 3 – DEMON FLIGHT – “DEAD OF THE NIGHT” 4 – PANDEMONIUM – “FIGHTING BACKWARDS” 5 – MALICE – “KICK YOU DOWN” 6 – METALLICA – “HIT THE LIGHTS”
Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from The Metal Voice spoke to lead singer Rick Hughes of Canada’s SWORD. Hughes spoke about the timeline of the upcoming Sword studio album release timeline and also spoke about opening for Metallica on the Master of Puppets tour and how Metallica were big fans of the band.
About the new Sword Album studio album Hughes said, ” First and foremost I want to apologize to the fans that have waited a very very long time. Listen you have waited 30 years for this the album it is ready, it’s been ready for two years. We were supposed to release it before, in 2020. When March 2020 happened we had a band meeting and we said let’s wait (until pandemic is over). Now we are almost ready, I have the date, they didn’t (record label) give me the ok to announce yet but it’s coming out this year. I won’t tell you the date but I will tell you this it will be Fall 2022. The album is incredible from beginning to end everything about this album is good.”
On Nov 24 2021 the band announced on their Facebook page the new Sword album will be released on Massacre Records.
Canadian Sword released their first new single “In Kommand”, off the new album exclusively on Bandcamp. “In Kommand” features the band’s classic lineup, including vocalist Rick Hughes, guitarist Mike Plant, bassist Mike LaRock, and drummer Dan Hughes. Sword’s first new song in over 30 years, with a long-awaited third studio album to follow.
Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice, recently interviewed drummer Gil Moore of Canada’s rock trio legends Triumph. Moore discussed the first-ever feature documentary about the band’s dramatic career, “Triumph: Rock & Roll Machine”, which was made available last month for streaming in Canada, only on Crave and to premiere on CTV March 12 , 2022 at 8pm EST.
Gil Moore was asked if the Documentary would be released on DVD he said,” there is going to be a DVD for sure, I know they started working on the packaging and the artwork. Bonus material I am not sure, again that is the film companies decision, so whatever decide but certainly the band is not against it. I think they are targeting it for late summer early fall for the DVD release and that will be available everywhere worldwide.”
Moore also spoke about the upcoming premiere on CTV Canada as well as distribution in the USA he said, “Just to clear the fog a little bit on the distribution, which is something the band obviously doesn’t control. The deal up here in Canada right now is this Saturday night, the movie’s gonna play on the CTV network, coast to coast, in prime time, 8 p.m., at whatever your local CTV affiliate is, wherever you are. As far as it streaming on Crave, it is continuing to stream on Crave and will be there for years. And film festival-wise, we also, after the Toronto International Film Festival, the film premiered at the Philadelphia Film Festival. We’re now scheduled for the Sarasota Film Festival as well; I don’t have a date on that. But I think there’s gonna be some announcements coming up fairly soon about U.S. distribution as well.”
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
