Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke to Former Black Sabbath Tony Martin about his upcoming solo album ‘Thorns’ that will be released on January 14, 2022 via Battlegod Productions and Dark Star Records.
Excerpt from Interview On his time in Black Sabbath, “I think the sound guy got paid more than me (laughs). But I can’t complain too much after all Black Sabbath is what got me out into the world and it’s the reason why people know my name, my voice and ultimately it’s the reason why I am here doing ‘Thorns’ now. That voice has carried me from what I developed way back when. Sabbath is important, it’s got a great story and lot’s of great people have been involved in it and I have nothing bad to say about any of them really.”
Jimmy Kay from The Metal Voice recently spoke to singer Snake and Guitarist Chewy from Canadian progressive sci-fi metal innovators VOIVOD about their upcoming studio album Synchro Anarchy, which will be released on February 11 , 2022 via Century Media Records.
Full interview here
How did you go about making the album “This time around we didn’t have anytime (in the studio). But we had a good experience when we did a live stream not too long ago. When we did the live stream recordings we were only the four of us and our producer (Francis Perron) who managed to create a live sound that was perfect. We kind of liked the sound of those live streams so we said maybe it would great for the next record to sound like that, just the four of us, not having multi-layers of stuff. So that is what we did with Syncho Anarchy, we did everything writing and recording in four months. What happened was we had an upcoming tour organized for March 2022 and the record company said it would be great to have something fresh for the tour (new material). So we all sat around the fire by the studio and said to each other can we pull it off can we make a record in 4 months? I said I’m going to give this a try. So we almost killed ourselves on the job. It’s like working under pressure, composing music and lyrics your brain does not go any faster then what it’s supposed to be. ” Snake
What does the music sound like on the new album “We did not have time to sit and think about it and I think we managed to create something special and you can feel the urgency in the music. “Snake “It was so intense to write everything in a short period of time, we didn’t have any perspective writing it. I think it’s a deep album, it’s very honest, it’s dark but I can see some light. There is a depth to it that is different from other albums. There are many different textures on the album, many different dimensions so to speak. I think the album is pretty varied but the core sound of the band is recognizable with the technical, progressive side and sci-fi side” Chewy
Will Voivod be coming out with an autobiography? “It is going to be for the 40th anniversary of the band but i don’t have much detail about it on what’s in it.”
VOIVOD Synchro Anarchy Tracklist: 1. Paranormalium 2. Synchro Anarchy 3. Planet Eaters 4. Mind Clock 5. Sleeves Off 6. Holographic Thinking 7. The World Today 8. Quest For Nothing 9. Memory Failure
VOIVOD is Denis “Snake” Belanger (vocals), Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain (guitar), Dominic “Rocky” Laroche (bass), and Michel “Away” Langevin (drums).
Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to STRYPER‘s Michael Sweet. Sweet spoke about the upcoming Stryper album.
When asked about the upcoming new Stryper album “The options for the new album were to postpone it because of my eye. I have a long road to recovery to be able to see out of this eye so I am going to be wearing a patch for a while. I realized when I started writing the album just two and a half three weeks ago, it’s a lot more difficult to play as well. Your perception and hand placement that falls on the guitar neck and everything is off a little bit. I decided we are not going to put the album off because that just makes no sense for too many people It’s not just me that is involved there are many people that are involved and that is going to alter everyone’s plans and schedules and so I made a decision we are going to push on and do it and we’re doing it. The guys fly out in two weeks and we start rehearsals on the 25th of January. We are going to rehearse two songs and then go and record them, then rehearse two songs and record them, we are doing it a little differently this time. Maybe it will be a little more metal because of the eye patch.
When asked what will the new album sound like? “I always go back to Soldiers Under Command when I do a new album and somehow try to recapture a little bit of that energy and that raw power but I always want to record something new. This album has its own signature on it already I can tell you that. I don’t want to compare it to Guns N’ Roses but it’s got a little bit more of that raw groove oriented but it’s metal all the way. There is no official piano, acoustic ballad on this album.”
When asked how many songs on the album and the lyrical themes? “Eleven songs on this album. The lyrics are already being written in an unusual way and I will leave it at that. There is a little bit of a spin on the lyrics.”
When asked when the time frame will be for the new album “We will turn it in in mid April 2022, if all goes well and if I had to guess the release and I can’t say for sure I would say the end of the year, maybe October, November of 2022.”
Guitarist Dave Carlo from Canada’s Thrash legends Razor joins Jimmy Kay from The Metal Voice along with Youtube’s Big Personality ‘Razorfist’ go live to discuss Dave Carlo’s wife’s struggle to survive against all odds stage four cancer.
Plus Carlos to give an update on the bands upcoming new album, ‘Cycle of Contempt’.
“Hello, I am Dave Carlo. I am fundraising for my beautiful wife Rosanna. Rose is a fantastic wife, an even better mother to our two kids. Our son has autism and a number of extremely difficult challenges in his life. My daughter has Borderline Personality Disorder and OCD and she has attempted suicide three times over the last 5 years, thankfully without success. The last attempt was October 2020 where she jumped off a bridge and broke her back. Even though Rose was undergoing chemo at the time, she was at Patricia’s bedside at the hospital at all hours during that time. Rose’s devotion to her family is heroic.
In June 2020 Rose had a gallbladder attack and was scheduled to have her gallbladder removed. During that surgery they discovered cancer on the exterior of her gallbladder. Normally the prognosis for gallbladder cancer is very poor but because it was found incidentally, it was still at a very early stage. A follow up surgery to remove part of her liver and some regional lymph nodes unfortunately showed some cancer in her lymph nodes. She went through a year of chemo with limited results, and was referred for clinical trials at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto Canada. Unfortunately what appeared to be indifference to the need for Rose to get help in a timely manner led to constant delays and four months without any treatment whatsoever. Now the cancer has progressed from stage 2 to early stage 4 , completely because of the lack of action on the part of the people charged with her care.
Realizing that time was being wasted in a manner far more flippant that you would expect under these circumstances, I reached out to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota in October of 2021. Sending them all pathology slides, images and test reports (with the help of our fantastic GP doctor), we got a team of caregivers and doctors in place at the Mayo Clinic to provide guidance on what we need to do to help Rose.
Rose will likely have to go to Minnesota for treatment, but the costs are very high. The costs already incurred to cover all the reviews and analysis of reports at the Mayo Clinic has added up and will continue to increase as they get involved to help her moving forward. But their input and guidance is absolutely critical at this point to try and save my wife. My kids really need and depend on this wonderful lady (to speak nothing of what she means to me!!). We have reviewed the upcoming financial demands of her treatments and we are asking via fundraiser to try to raise around 50% of what is required. I honestly am a bit embarrassed to have to do this, but with my wife’s life hanging in the balance, I have no choice. I would give my own life to save her if I could.
Rose just turned 61 years old. Her mother is alive and about to turn 88 years old, so if we can get Rose into remission, she has a strong chance of many years ahead of her.
If you are in a position to help and are willing to, we would be beyond grateful. Those of you who know me as a professional musician know I have committed to doing something to give back in any way I can to thank you for your help.
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice spoke to Anthrax bassist Frank Bello about his new Book which includes stories about father’s abandonment, his brothers murder, meeting Gene Simmons during Lick it up, Black Sabbath tour dates (with Glenn Hughes and Ray Gillen), the passing of Metallica’s Cliff Burton and a whole lot more.
Frank Bello memoir, “Fathers, Brothers, And Sons: Surviving Anguish, Abandonment, And Anthrax”, was released on November 2 via Rare Bird, co-written by Frank Bello and Joel McIver. The foreword was written by KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons
Scott Ian wrote two books on Anthrax how is your book different? “Scott Ian wrote two great books on Anthrax, it pretty much told everything about Anthrax and had some great rock and roll stories. For my book I wanted to go inside me. I really wanted to go deep and to let this stuff out because abandonment is a big thing in my life and it affects a lot of people in this world. My dad took off when I was 10 years old. What happens and people will understand who have been abandoned by a parent is it left an emptiness, a feeling of did I do something wrong? What is wrong with me? And you are always searching for the father figure, you want something to give you a backbone. You are always looking for something to make you feel better, so music was my outlet to make me feel better. It was the only thing that really took that anguish away and made me feel better. I am getting great comments and feedback from this book and it is helping others better to understand their situation. If Frank went through this and he can brush himself off then maybe I can do it too and that means a lot to me. I can pay it forward and people are finding this book inspiring. “
Tell us briefly of the murder of your brother’s story which is in the book “Unfortunately on March 25 1996 my brother Anthony was murdered in the Bronx, three gunshots, some guy just took him out. It was a horrible horrible experience as you could imagine for my family but it went deeper with all of us. It took me out of my game. Two weeks after my brothers murder I snapped to the point where I become the hunter, I kind of lost who I was, I saw black. I didn’t care about Anthrax, I didn’t care about family, I just had a goal and it was about revenge. It was bad. I was stocking and I was hunting, thankful I thought of my mom. What am I doing here? Why do I have a gun in my hand? I had my mom in my head thinking what happens if I do this? She loses two sons. I thought of my brother who passed and it kind of pulled me out of it. So I went home and stuck myself in therapy. The witness came to the pre-trial but what we found out later they could not find the witness, it’s a cold case.”
Tell me about sneaking into the studio where Kiss’ Gene Simmons working on the album Lick it up “My friend and I Tom were pretty tenacious about going downtown and meeting these guys (Kiss) my friend Tom had the in at their management about where they were going to be, he had heard they were going to be at Right Track studio in New York and Tommy and I went down there. Tom rings the bell and they let us in (as Fans) I couldn’t believe they let us in? Gene Simmons is there relaxing after a take. Gene kind of understood we were die hard fans, so he says would you like to hear a song? Gene let us into the room where he was mixing the song ‘Young and Wasted’ , we loved every second of it, we went outside screaming how much we loved it. ” (story is explained in detail in the book)
What was touring with Black Sabbath back in the Glenn Hughes Ray Gillen Era “I think it was 6 shows on that tour, it was great because Tony Iommi is the nicest person in the world and of course he is the Riff master, a legend we love him. It was fun thing to be on tour in the big arenas, it didn’t do well on that tour but it was a little taste of what could be for us. We remember seeing Ray Gillen do the sound checks and he would sing amazing, rest his soul.”
Tell me about the passing of Metallica’s Cliff Burton while on tour in the 80’s “There are no words. We were young, touring everyday you get used to the same people hanging out together every day Anthrax and Metallica. I would watch their show every night, I always loved what Cliff Was doing, talking with his bass. Cliff was innovative, he always thought outside the box as a bass player. There was this little saying we had, hey maybe I will see you later. The last vision I have of Cliff was his bus was going and Cliff was walking out the door and I said to him hey Cliff maybe I will see you later? Then he pokes his head from out the bus and says, maybe I will and that is the last vision from him I remember and it still kind of haunts me. A lot of credit to Metallica for brushing themselves off and having to go forward and becoming the biggest band in the world with the spirit of Cliff. “
What about doing a one of show with all three Anthrax singers all eras? ” I never say never”
Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to Jethro Tull‘s leader Ian Anderson. In the interview Anderson spoke about the new album ‘The Zealot Gene’, gave an update on the continuing re-issues of the bands catalog and spoke about meeting Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris and performing with Bruce Dickinson.
The Metal Voice asked Ian Anderson of working and meeting Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris and performing with Bruce Dickinson, Anderson Said, “I probably met Steve Harris briefly on one occasion a little bit more on another occasion. I know he is a rather shy person, he said he never wanted to push himself forward in terms of trying to meet me or talk to me. I think I got in touch with him and asked him if he would do a little throw away intro to a particular track on a live concert tour we did, in terms of being a video. A little video contribution that he offered to introduce a song. He went on, “I think his interest in Jethro Tull is probably based on having gone in a direction kind of beyond the performances that you would associate yourself with Iron Maiden. The first thing Iron Maiden seemed to be linked to Jethro Tull was a song called Cross -Eyed Mary which was on the Aqualung album and they did it on an early record release. I think they did it in the same key as I did but puts it in the impossible key for Bruce Dickinson. Bruce is a tenor and I am a baritone a low baritone. So for him to sing down here, he had to go up an octave but then he was going up really an octave which out it in a very uncomfortable high register that even as young Bruce Dickinson, he was pushing his luck singing it an octave higher, than my original vocal. “
He continued,” I don’t really know these people very well at one occasion Bruce was a guest of mine at Canterbury Cathedral’s performance I did in 2011 and he is a great person to work with, very professional, very straightforward, Easy going guy we learnt his couple of songs and he sang on one of ours. I got an e-mail this morning from Bruce Dickinson, that he sent a couple of days ago about asking me to do some live performance project together at the end of next year. “
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Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
