Earlier today the world got to know the sad news about the passing of Chris Tsangarides, aged 61. The Metal Voice‘s Jimmy Kay along with Alan Dixon pay tribute to one of Rock and Metal’s best producer and good friend. Watch Chris’ last video interview with The Metal Voice’ as he talks about his recording days with Anvil, Judas Priest Painkiller, Thin Lizzy and the Tragically Hip. As well as tribute to CT by reading posts and comments
Watch here:
His daughter, Anastasia Tsangarides posted online:
It is with complete and utter sadness that I need to tell you all that our beloved father and my mums best friend Chris Tsangarides passed away peacefully last night after another brave battle with pneumonia as well as heart failure. We really are appreciating your messages of love and kindness but we are struggling to reply to them. With all our love and thanks from us all. Jane, Theo, Louis, Paris, Samantha and Casey. We’re gonna miss you everyday of our lives xxxxxxxxx
Former ANTHRAX Vocalist Neil Turbin (Deathriders) talks Fistful of Metal 34 year anniversary with stories from the making of the album and how ex Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz hair caught on fire during that time.
Neil Turbin told The Metal Voice, “We went to have a drink at the bar when the whole band was up there to celebrate and say hey here we are we are in the studio together. The bartender was really cool he poured everyone a shot on him and it was like flaming 1/51 shots and when we went to do the shots Dan Spitz hair caught on fire, his eyebrow was on fire. So I threw water at his face and then I started swatting his hair and eventually the flames went out, but my hands started burning, that’s some of the memories recording the first album.”
Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke with STRYPER front man Michael Sweet. Sweet spoke about the New Stryper album, a new song called Take it to the Cross that will feature Death Metal growls, new bassist Perry Richardson faith and the shooting of the upcoming Stryper Documentary
Watch the interview here:
When asked if he would consider doing a project with Dave Mustaine from Megadeth
“You got to talk to Dave about that. I mentioned it to Dave in multiple texts, let’s write, let’s co-write let’s do this let’s do that and he always invites me out to his place in Nashville. Dave has always been very gracious and I have never been able to get to Nashville or at least in the past few years to plan out an actual session with Dave to write. But Dave and I at some point I hope will collaborate and do something together. I love Dave I respect him I think he is a brilliant mind, brilliant musician and he is a friend of mine.”
When asked if being a Christan was part of the job description in hiring Perry Richardson
“It’s a valid question, to answer your question, NO and it might make people gasp, it might shock people, it might even lose a few fans by hearing Michael Sweet saying that. What is at the top of the priority list is that they are good people, that they are clean and sober and that they are really good musicians and for Stryper a really important piece is that they can sing. we are a vocal band. It’s not easy to find somebody that can sing and that can play and that is a great person. ”
“The Christan thing is that doesn’t always make you a great person. Some of the biggest idiots I know claim to be Christian and then vice versa. Is it something that would be really great to see and have of course, it’s funny cause Perry has said that he is a Christian. But we didn’t go there.”
When asked if Perry Richardson played bass on the New Stryper Album
“The situation with the new Stryper album Perry had a schedule to fulfill and we were on schedule to make the new album so there wasn’t anyway he could play on the album, so next time around we will see. So for the new album we hired called John O’ Boyle who played bass on my last two solo albums, his performances will speak for themselves.”
When asked about the musical direction of the new Stryper album
“The new album comes out in late April 2018. I can tell you this this is Stryper’s best album. There is a song that is close to Yahweh (song from Fallen album ) and it’s really different it will surprise a lot of people. The title of the album is very controversial and very shocking, it holds its own and perhaps surpasses To Hell with the Devil in terms of that catch phrase. There is a song called ‘Take it to the Cross and we brought in Matt Bachand who plays guitar in ‘Shadows Fall’ and also plays Bass in ‘Act of Defiance’. And Matt has a great growl voice. So we brought him in on ‘Take it to the Cross’ (new song) and on the chorus you will hear Matt growl and at the end of the song you will hear Matt growl.People are going to hear that and say that”s no way Stryper! More in line with Thrash, Death Metal but not over the top. People are going to hear it and say WHAT THE HELL? ”
When asked about the Stryper Documentary
“We started shooting it while making the album and we are going to continue filming and shooting throughout this year on tour and interviewing lots of people, from Pastors who have changed their lives who were alcoholics and drug addicts, to celebrities who grew up listening to Stryper, people unexpected. We are trying to show the side of the affect Stryper has had on people’s lives and of course the music, tons of home video footage too.”
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to LOUDNESS singer Minoru Niihara (with a Japanese translator), the interview is conducted in both English and Japanese.
Minoru Niihara Talked about the bands new album Rise to Glory, how he was let go from Loudness in the 80’s and the bands return
Watch the interview here:
When asked about the musical direction of their New Album ‘Rise to Glory’ compared to their last Album
“The musical direction of the new album is more about the vocal melodies of the songs. For the last album the band approached a heavier sound, whereas this album it’s much more vocal oriented and melodic.”
When asked if he wrote all the English lyrics himself on the album
“I had three co-writers for the album and initially I would write lyrics in Japanese and then would turn those into English lyrics with the three co-writers,”
When asked about the bonus CD that will accompany the new album
“It was a co-idea with the record company and the band. The band re-recorded songs from the first three albums, the band was curious to know how the music would sound if they re-recorded the songs, it was a bit of a challenge and also the band wanted a younger generation of fans who weren’t born when those albums came out to listen to the earlier tracks.”
When asked the challenges in the 1980’s in singing and recording in English and not knowing how to speak the language
“I nearly became paranoid when the band toured America or Europe for the first time but I realized that being a rock musician you don’t really need to be able to speak the language and I had an American girlfriend, so I caught onto the English language very early on. ”
“I wrote the original lyrics so I knew what I was singing on the albums. Singing in English would take a long time because there are pronunciations in the English language which are not existent in the Japanese language. So it took a long time but the people around me were very patient so everything worked out ok. I would have a guide vocal sung by English speaking singers and I would study them and managed to handle the English vocals.”
When asked about how he felt like when he was fired from the band and replaced by American singer Michael Vescera during the recording of Soldier of Fortune.
“At the start of making the album of Soldier of Fortune 1989 I was told that the band would be recruiting a new vocalist so I was sacked from the band and hurt. I feel that one of the reason was that the prior album Hurricane Eyes did not sell as many as the band expected, so the band needed a new kick in the butt. It was a huge shock for me and I wept and I needed ten years to recover from the shock.”
I feel that Soldier of Fortune is a good album, it’s a very high quality album from a listeners point of view. I almost feels sorry for Michael Vescera because he gets compared with me. Mike did a good job
When asked about how the band reunited later on
The reunion started from a phone call from Akira Takasaki and the idea was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Loudness with a reunion of the original line-up. The original reunion was suppose to be one year since the tour and the shows were so well received they decided to continue
When asked if Loudness will tour in the USA and Canada
“The band was not allowed entry into the USA this year but keep your fingers crossed and if the visa are cleared they are many offers from many festivals.”
LOUDNESS will release their new album, “Rise To Glory”, on January 26, 2018 via earMUSIC (world excluding Japan). The follow-up to 2014’s “The Sun Will Rise Again”
“Rise To Glory” track listing:
01. Soul On Fire
02. I’m Still Alive
03. Go For Broke
04. Until I See The Light
05. The Voice
06. Massive Tornado
07. Kama Sutra (instrumental)
08. No Limits
09. Bad Loser
10. Rise To Glory
11. Rain
12. Who And For Whom
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to DREAM THEATER‘s Keyboardist Jordan Rudess. Rudess spoke about his classical training as a child, his induction into the Hall of Heavy Metal History, how he joined Dream Theater, their latest album The Astonishing, the departure of Mike Portnoy and the bands future plans.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about his induction into the Hall of Heavy Metal History in 2018
“It’s very exciting, awesome, how flattering. You go about you life you do your thing, you do your best and now and then somebody wants to give you a little bit of an honour for something. It’s all really nice. Especially in the music business where it’s very much about the community and all the different people you know and make music with. So I am very honored by that it’s cool.”
When asked about the polarization of their fan to their latest album The Astonishing
“I think that musically there is so much in it. I think what polarized people the most actually is the nature of the story. A kind of story that was a little difficult for some people to deal with, kind of a Game of Thrones ish, Lord of the rings ish, Maybe it was a little lite for our more Metal fans. ”
When ask how his role changed in Dream Theater when drummer Mike Portnoy left the band
“Mike is so talented in so many different things, he had his finger on a lot of the pulses of what was making the band work even though there is so much capability in the band between all the guys. Still losing Mike everyone had to rise to the occasion if you will. From a strictly music situation I was already writing a lot of the music of course John Petrucci was writing so much of the music that was not the biggest challenge at all. The bigger challenge was understanding how we were going to operate this machine and deal with the fact that Mike was such a big presence that the fans certainly needed to be really conscious of that so we could keep our business intact. ”
“Mike in so many ways was a lovable character that when he left it was like the foundation of the earth was changing. I remember sitting on my steps at my studio and not understand this change. But it all worked out we kind of came into our own and I walk on stage every night and I have an incredible relationship, especially musically with drummer Mike Mangini, we bond in a way that’s really fun and really cool and I feel like Dream Theater is in a really strong position.”
When asked about the future plans for Dream Theater, possible new album
“We have been on the road for almost two years and now we are going to take a break and go to the studio and make a new album around May and see what happens.”
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to KING DIAMOND‘s guitarist Andy LaRocque. Larocque who gave an update on the progress of the bands new live DVD and writing of the new King Diamond Album.
Watch the interview here:
LaRocque also gave his thoughts of the recordings of such metal classics as Fatal Portrait, Abigail, Them and Conspiracy as well as talked about the departure of former Mercyful Fate members Michael Denner and Tim Hansen from King Diamond band after Abigail. As well as how he first joined the King Diamond band.
When asked about the released date and progress of new Abigail Live tour DVD
“We are going to release this new Live King Diamond DVD next year we are still working on that, there are a lot of files to go through, lots of scenes angles and stuff of the shows that we are going to release so, there is a lot of work to do. I can’t really say too much about it, I’m not the only guy in charge we’ve got the video producer. We also have our live engineer in charge who has been setting everything up to get the real live feel of it. The video producer sent me some files that I have to check out make sure everything is in sync back and forth, we are still working on it . I see the light at the tunnel coming because we are getting close with the first show, which is Philadelphia. The only thing we can do is like work on it until it gets good cause this is our first DVD ever released and we want it to be representable for what we are doing. The footage we are going to use is the last few years lives shows and there is going to be some side footage too I believe but I’m not sure exactly what but mainly from the Abigail performances we did in the last couple of years. I hope its going to be released next spring, if everything goes the way we want it. ”
When asked about the progress of New King Diamond Album
“Well we have some ideas and we are going to start seriously sitting down and start with new riffs and start to write songs as soon as possible, I would say starting around New Years writing songs. That’s the only thing I can say. There will be a new album of course it’s just that since 2012 we have been really busy doing the live shows which has been really important for us. Before 2012 we really didn’t do any festivals at all maybe one or two in our whole career so that was a new thing for us. Planing all the shows we have been doing in the past few years has taken a lot of time of course so we really haven’t had time to sit down and just make a good album plus all the other things we have been doing like remasters and now the DVD. So soon as things get less hectic we are going to start writing the album. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a concept album. The album is probably going to be a good mix of everything, probably classic King Diamond album with a good sound. I will be partly be producing it, me and King and then we will see what’s happening depending on what way we are going to go with . Whenever it’s done its going to be released. We got some great ideas for it that’s all can say right now.”
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Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
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