Josh Rundquist (a.k.a. That Drummer Guy) conducted an interview with drummer Jon Larsen of Danish metal rock ‘n’ rollers VOLBEAT before the band’s June 26 concert at The Myth in Maplewood, Minnesota with ICED EARTH and HELLYEAH. You can now watch the chat below.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
Vocalist/guitarist Michael Poulsen of Danish metal rock ‘n’ rollers VOLBEAT has issued the following update:
“At this year’s Sweden Rock Festival, I had one of the best experiences and I’m still very much up in the air about it; it was a great emotional ride. King Diamond gave me an amazing opportunity, to go on stage with him and sing ‘Come To The Sabbath’.
“The show was fantastic and King sounded better than ever. I have been a huge KING DIAMOND / MERCYFUL FATE fan since my school days in Denmark. He was the first frontman in a metal band that I really became a fan of. At a very early age, I was already on my knees for Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi. But when the Danish newspapers started to write about KING DIAMOND and his new record, ‘Them’, I knew that I was about to discover something unique and special.
“A few minutes after reading the newspapers, I jumped on my bike and headed to my local record shop. 15 minutes later, I was holding the record in my hands and a new young KING DIAMOND fan was born and I have been following him and buying all his records since.
“I remember asking my dad if I could have some money for a KING DIAMOND concert ticket, he said, ‘Sure, but how will you earn the money for the train ticket and merchandise?’ he asked smiling. I responded I would figure it out, smiling.
“I ended up selling my BMX Raleigh bicycle, my dad got a little pissed about that in the beginning, but he ended up thinking that was real dedication and a good smart move from my side, because now he also had to buy me a new bike so I could get to school.
“Even my first tattoo was a MERCYFUL FATE cover (‘Don’t Break The Oath’). I was still in school and not old enough to get a tattoo, and I was begging the local tattoo artist to give me this tattoo. In the end, he said, ‘Okay I’ll do it if you. Come NOW, but don’t tell anyone.’ I said, ‘I cannot do it now because I’m about to have my exam in school in less than an hour.’ He didn’t care, so I said, ‘Fuck school, I’m on my way.’ I didn’t take my exam, but I got something that was so much more important to me, my first tattoo.
“The first time I met King in person was around 1996 or 1997, at that time, I had released my first two metal records and some demos with my previous band, DOMINUS. As an eager fan, I was telling him how much he inspired me. And now here in 2012 he still inspires me a lot in VOLBEAT.
“King has been to a few VOLBEAT shows in the U.S. to check us out and hang out and also to say hello to his good friend, Hank Shermann (MERCYFUL FATE), who is currently helping VOLBEAT on our U.S. tour, which also is a great compliment for me and VOLBEAT.
“If you, as a reader, haven’t met King in person, then let me tell you about him, he’s the most dedicated man to his music and one of the nicest guys in this scene I have ever met. I am proud to calling him my friend.
“The King is back!”
Check out video footage of Poulsen‘s performance with KING DIAMOND below.
Musician Photo Journal conducted an interview with vocalist/guitarist Michael Poulsen of Danish metal rock ‘n’ rollers VOLBEAT before the band’s June 23 concert in Clifton Park, New York with HELLYEAH and ICED EARTH. You can now watch the chat below.
In a recent interview with Lithium Magazine, Poulsen stated about the current tour with HELLYEAH and ICED EARTH, “This lineup, I’m really digging it. I’m very proud of it, because when we decided to do this run, our touring management sent out e-mails to different booking agencies saying that this VOLBEAT run was going to happen, and that [we] were looking for support bands. There were some really great names on that list. I was surprised because many of the names on the list that came back could easily do their own run, you know? That was a huge compliment. When I saw ICED EARTH and HELLYEAH were on the list, I went, ‘What!?’ I’m a huge ICED EARTH fan. I’m really good friends with Jon Schaffer. For some time now we’ve been talking about doing something together, but I wanted to bring ICED EARTH to Europe. We play arenas in Europe and it would be cool to have ICED EARTH with us there. ICED EARTH can headline themselves in America, and do well… do really well. So I was feeling, ‘You guys don’t have to support us.’ The same thing goes for HELLYEAH. They’ve got something cooking now, and they, of course, have Vinnie Paul. They’re our good friends as well and they do good albums. The whole thing was that we’re friends with those guys. I think they all felt like, ‘We didn’t care if it was a supporting show. We just want to play with you guys. It’s a great package.’ We’d been talking about doing this, but every time I brought it up I was talking about Europe. Now that they want to do it in the USA, it’s a compliment to us that they want to do it together. We’re very, very thankful for that. It’s going to be great — great to be among bands that you like and that you like personally. It’s friends, and it’s really nice.”
VOLBEAT recently parted ways with guitarist Thomas Bredahl, who had been a member of the band since 2006. He has since been replaced on the road by MERCYFUL FATE‘s Hank Shermann
VOLBEAT last year released “Live From Beyond Hell/Above Heaven” via Vertigo/Universal on double DVD, Blu-ray, limited double DVD + audio CD, CD, digital download and VOD.
Source: Blabbermouth.net
On June 18, Mike Bax of Lithium Magazine conducted an interview with vocalist/guitarist Michael Poulsen of Danish metal rock ‘n’ rollers VOLBEAT. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Lithium Magazine: [You have a] nice touring lineup [this time with HELLYEAH and ICED EARTH] — diversified.
Poulsen: Totally. This lineup, I’m really digging it. I’m very proud of it, because when we decided to do this run, our touring management sent out e-mails to different booking agencies saying that this VOLBEAT run was going to happen, and that [we] were looking for support bands. There were some really great names on that list. I was surprised because many of the names on the list that came back could easily do their own run, you know? That was a huge compliment. When I saw ICED EARTH and HELLYEAH were on the list, I went, “What!?” I’m a huge ICED EARTH fan. I’m really good friends with Jon Schaffer. For some time now we’ve been talking about doing something together, but I wanted to bring ICED EARTH to Europe. We play arenas in Europe and it would be cool to have ICED EARTH with us there. ICED EARTH can headline themselves in America, and do well… do really well. So I was feeling, “You guys don’t have to support us.” The same thing goes for HELLYEAH. They’ve got something cooking now, and they, of course, have Vinnie Paul. They’re our good friends as well and they do good albums. The whole thing was that we’re friends with those guys. I think they all felt like, “We didn’t care if it was a supporting show. We just want to play with you guys. It’s a great package.” We’d been talking about doing this, but every time I brought it up I was talking about Europe. Now that they want to do it in the USA, it’s a compliment to us that they want to do it together. We’re very, very thankful for that. It’s going to be great — great to be among bands that you like and that you like personally. It’s friends, and it’s really nice.
Lithium Magazine: Like many people in North America, I was introduced to VOLBEAT at a METALLICA show.
Poulsen: Oh yeah, that’s where it actually started because not many people knew who we were at that certain time. There was some underground buzz going on, but after those shows with METALLICA, that’s when people starting talking like, “Wow, that opening band was actually pretty good.” So they started coming to the VOLBEAT shows when we started headlining and they’d say, “The first time I saw you was at METALLICA.” That’s the biggest promotional tour and band that you can go out with; the biggest heavy rock band in the world. They’re great guys. We still are very inspired by those guys. For us, it was good to be part of that package. A lot of guys came back to us and said that they first saw us at a METALLICA show.
Lithium Magazine: What I wanted to know was whether Hank [Shermann of MERCYFUL FATE] was going to play with you on this tour or not?
Poulsen: Oh, yes, Hank is with us. He’s been playing with us since Gigantour. We’d just gotten home and we had only been home for a few weeks. There was not time to find a new guitar player. We have only been hiring Hank as a stand-in guitar player because he’s busy with his own thing.
Lithium Magazine: Are you working on some new stuff?
Poulsen: Yeah, yeah. That’s actually why I have this amp over there (indicates towards an amp, recorder and guitar to our left). Because when I’m not doing the interviews or whatever, I’m actually composing and writing. So there is some stuff stored in that amp there, so there is a lot of writing backstage. When I come home I’ll put it all together. Now and then we jam a little bit during sound checks. We definitely have a lot of new material that we’re working on. When this tour is over we have a festival show in Germany. When that is over we will use a half year to write the songs, finish the songs and then get into the studio and hopefully early next year there will be a new album.
Read the entire interview from Lithium Magazine. Source: Blabbermouth.net
This evening (June 9th) KING DIAMOND made his return to the live stage (after recovering from open-heart triple-bypass surgery in November 2010) at the Sweden Rock Festival 2012 being held this weekend in Sölvesborg. His career-encompassing set-list featured guest appearances from MERCYFUL FATE’s Hank Shermann and Michael Denner, MOTÖRHEAD’s Mikkey Dee and VOLBEAT’s Michael Poulsen.
King Diamond performed the following set-list:
‘The Candle’
‘Welcome Home’
Matt Thompson drum solo
‘Voodoo’
‘At The Graves’
‘Up From The Grave’
‘Let It Be Done’
‘Dreams’
‘Sleepless Nights’
La Rocque plus Mike Wead solo
‘Shapes Of Black’
‘Come To The Sabbath’ (with Mercyful Fate’s Hank Shermann and Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen)
‘Eye Of The Witch’
Encores:
‘The Family Ghost’
‘Halloween’ (with Mercyful Fate’s Michael Denner and Motörhead’s Mikkey Dee)
‘Black Horsemen’
Stay tuned for live footage to appear online. Check out press conference footage below:
Source: Bravewords.com
Jeremy Lafrentz of Backstage Entertainment conducted an interview with vocalist/guitarist Michael Poulsen and drummer Jon Larsen of Danish metal rock ‘n’ rollers VOLBEAT at this year’s Lazerfest on May 13 at the Central Iowa Expo in Boone, Iowa. You can now watch the chat below.
VOLBEAT will embark on a North American tour in June with support from ICED EARTH and HELLYEAH. Source: Blabbermouth.net
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 