…love musicianship-filled power metal with plenty of muscle, might, and versatility would be well-advised to dig deep into this album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML_VEULePzs Shadowdance on Facebook…
…speedy tempo shift midway through sends shivers as guitarists R. Amun and C.W. Wolfgang use fiery fingers to dazzle the aural landscape in burning hot intensity. CD owners will get two bonus tracks, “Liars In Wait” and “Death Forever”, the latter another killer throwback to the days of early Exciter or Metallica as the thrash/speed metal foundation beyond the shouted gang chorus should cause pit mania everywhere. The combination of influences keep…
…as dead as possible so Avinash could add reverb and atmospherics in the mix. There is very little money that has gone into this project – we have spent money on PR and artwork to getting vinyl pressed. Everything else has been completely self-sufficient. If we could have chosen to go to a nice studio, I’m sure we would have, but it was money that we did not have to spare. Dead Rhetoric: Speaking of the artwork, how did that come about? Did you wo…
…seven years – at a time when many artists are putting out albums on a three-to-five-year clip. A transitional record of sorts, David recruited an all-Italian lineup to write and record this material – a testament to his current adopted home in Italy. The outcome is a much more primal offering, leaning into heavier, dynamic directions that prove he’s not content to be a one-trick pony in this style. The opening strains of “Enemy Is Me” alert the li…
…s meet next to powerhouse vocalists, rock solid bassists, and versatile drummers – the results in this genre benefit all the astute listeners willing to heed the call. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7OHT-ZNkuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeTVKNg_tvs Firewind official website Firewind on Facebook…
…othing short of spectacular. Like I said at the beginning of this writing, this is not just a new album release…this is an EVENT. Standout Tracks: All of Them https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm5Z-ciozcc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SywCGhiwNyw Job For a Cowboy on Facebook…
…rt of? Kakko: Of course, as a singer I need to start with my core in health. Exercise, it’s not just in the chest, only before the tour. It has to be done all the time; you have to maintain yourself. If you let yourself go around Christmas, you need to start picking up more as you age. It doesn’t get easier taking care of all that. It’s a lot of work, staying in shape. When you go on tour, you can feel it. If it’s harder than it’s supposed to be,…
…l that contains the right balance of musicianship-enhanced passages beyond proper hooks that seep into your brain for months on end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBhn0695Smo Saffire on Facebook…
…rath for the next two years. I started to compose the next album after Karma already. I expect that we can organize a tour soon. The band is my priority. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV8Bqkzuu-s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgWE3GUlOmc Myrath on Facebook…
…Dead Rhetoric: Do you believe it’s harder for people to engage in more face-to-face communication, versus the use technology to communicate? Melissourgos: I’m an old school person. I prefer talking to someone straight in their face. I will give you a small example. I didn’t used to have my own Facebook account until a year ago. I just use it for the promotional stuff of the band, and maybe talking with friends or people that are not living that cl…
…final vocals. One of them came back, it was “Tear Them Down”, and the riff.. it wasn’t something talked about or discussed. I’ve had instances like that working with producers, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Where you have to go back because he was playing the riff in D and it’s supposed to start in G and drops to D and gets that lift where the payoff is from. I’m not super anal about this stuff – but I wrote it a certain way. That…
…? Scissorhands: What helps out the most is not putting the band into any boxes. It helps a lot because it doesn’t restrain you from trying new things. When I say that, I say it with a lot of kindness and respect to those who do follow certain rules when it comes to the style or their genre of music that they want to stay in. I believe that Infected Rain has proven, throughout the years and starting with our first album, that we are not afraid to h…
…ig to gig. Suddenly, reality happened as we lost the first bass player Bene. M. back in 2020, and we did a European tour in 2020 with another bass player. Right after that tour, the pandemic hit. Suddenly these young kids going from just caring about the band, and being on the road, we were now stuck at home with a break. That was a game changer for us. I wouldn’t say it was all bad. It came at the right time for us honestly to reflect on what we…
…ve become integral to the band, key inspirations, challenges, and what’s next. Dead Rhetoric: We’re now at the release of what feels like – to me at least – your third album A Giant Bound to Fall. It stands out as the band’s most varied and dynamic release thus far. The songwriting is creative, bold, and flows so naturally. In what ways do you believe the band has advanced as songwriters since Come the Tide, and what did you set out to do differen…
…s that melodic hard rock throwback knowledge template that put Dokken and W.A.S.P. on the map. The hook-oriented main chord/riff choices align to the ideals of classic heavy metal – Rodriquez as well as second guitarist Daniel Dobbs delivering tough as steel passages beyond fleet of finger, adrenaline-laced breaks. Be it more mid-tempo in the highway spirit mold for “Night Stalker” or frenzied with the right street attack on “Tortured By Reality”,…
…real of openings to groovier, chunky riffs and scathing roars at it’s climax. Certainly one could make comparisons to that of Spiritbox or maybe even Bad Omens, but it seems unfair given the band’s newness. With an EP on the horizon, look for Gore. to really rise through the ranks, given the poignant explosiveness of their sound and excellent combination of potent songwriting dynamics. (Gore. on Facebook/Gore. on Instagram) https://www.youtube.com…
…e diverse. Dead Rhetoric: Talk about the collaboration with Annisokay on “H.A.T.E.” I think it’s a really cool combination compared to having just one person guest on a song. Golinski: It’s totally different than what you normally see, and that was the point. We wanted to bring both styles of both bands together in one song. We wanted to take the brutalness of Any Given Day and the quieter parts of a chorus from Annisokay, and we think it fit perf…
…ley, bassist Sangvis Aestvs of tech-death band Concealment, and drummer MCMXII. Together, their aim is to craft disconcerting, cloudily dissonant death metal that disturbs while it annihilates. Considering a member comes from the aforementioned Wells Valley – who released a killer record in Achamoth a few months ago – our confidence and expectation is relatively high due to their dark, virulent stylings. Our hopes, thankfully, have not been dashed…
…each track to take the potent instrumentation to the next level. Femmes Fatales should be just what Exit Eden needs to stand tall above their symphonic peers in this year to come. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5p917OyAnI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Y0jm2LFRk Exit Eden official website Exit Eden on Facebook Exit Eden on Instagram…
…ith Exit Eden? Brunner: First of all, it has a real nostalgic feeling to me. Exit Eden was the first, really successful project I have done. It was eight years ago – I had my own rock band with no label and I was playing bars and pubs. That’s what I was doing before stepping into the professional metal world. This is something I hang onto because it means a lot to me because it showed me my path and where I wanted to be. I wanted Exit Eden to cont…
…nally. The longest cut “Eye of the Storm” finishes the record, an almost six-minute adventure into some low-tuned modern progressive metal action, the bass/guitar synchronization set to stun mode. Cedric probably has more appeal with axe maestros than the general public for Inner Kingdom – but there are plenty of metalheads that will enjoy this instrumental outing, and it should be interesting to hear what the follow-up outing explores. https://ww…
…l can be many things, but Afsky makes it with unmatched disconsolate sorrow. 9. Blut Aus Nord – Disharmonium – Nahab (Debemur Morti Productions) The ever efficient Blut Aus Nord returns with the second installment of the Disharmonium trilogy, Disharmonium – Nahab. This was all while Vindsval worked on two other projects in Eitrin and Ershetu, and though those two projects released stellar works in their own right, his avant-garde atmospheres were…
…t heard of. That list goes on, we were listening to Roxy Blue the other day. XYZ is another band I like, awesome stuff. Dead Rhetoric: How do you see the next twelve months or so looking for Striker in terms of promotion for the new record? Cleary: I am currently working on a new music video right now, for “Give It All”. We will keep releasing videos, we will get together to figure out an idea and then go do it. We are definitely subscribing to th…
…er musical activities, side projects, etc.) over the next twelve months or so? Bell: Simple: release album, play shows, rock n’ roll. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0e25WROlmc Hyloxalus on Facebook…
…he nail there. It was a time when the world was still recovering from COVID-19. We had to get the vaccination cards, fill out the paperwork to make sure we could enter the European Union, the countries there. It wasn’t fully recovered yet, and that was only a year and a half ago. It was so refreshing to see the crowds in Europe coming and joining us. We were told because the venues were reopening, there were so many concerts and festivals, be awar…
…ts or Chris Black-related output over the next year or so? Black: It’s a mix. This year has been good for me, getting back to feeling more like myself in terms of the level of productivity. My desire to be out there, and to be in here doing music – I had a period of a couple of years that were very low, let’s say. It’s not super fun to talk about, but I had very depressed creativity. It didn’t come gushing back all at once, slowly it’s been restor…
…asking him, and then Domo told us he had this amazing guy to record the sax. We said, ‘who’, and he said Gavin (laughs). That’s cool. Guest appearances for us. Nowadays, there are a lot of middle or smaller bands who have lots of guests by other say bigger metal guitarists, they are paying for that. John: Yeah, you hear that with tier two or tier three guitarists or sometimes even singers. Let’s get someone that knows of 1985 or lived that period…
…y sing and scream and growl! Haha! Mortician: My gear includes an ESP Ltd EX-400 guitar and a quite simple board with a Boss HM-2 and a Boss SD-1; an explosive chainsaw duo to play this kind of music. Simonelli: I personally use my trusty Warwick Pro-M to write my bass lines. I’m not a huge fan of bass pedals. My sound mainly comes by setting a Hartke or a Trace Elliot head in the right way. The rest is up to my hands. Dead Rhetoric: I’m curious a…
…re nothing is repeating. You get this world, then the next, and then the next. I think everyone sees it differently, and I don’t want to tell people what they should be thinking about listening to it, but there’s a place where it starts from this melancholic area, then there is almost this world of dreamy ‘through an old projector’ escapism. It’s warm, there’s this sort of artificial sunlight that you are under. Then you are pulled back to the rea…
…play in front of that, it was cool. Totally crazy. It was fun to shoot “S.E.X.” – we had a lot of friends come be in the video. It was nice to see all of these women being a part of this. All of the women had our own little moment – mine was with the car, Noelle was with the candles, Kris was surrounded by other women. It was a fun, hard working but great moment. Dead Rhetoric: How did the sax solo for “Love = Love” come about? As it makes sense t…
