…er. Even in our day to day, we become more hardened in what we believe is true or not true and you can start to develop this idea of ‘its me against the world.’ If that’s the case, then maybe I need to do something radical. You can go into some really dark places. But if you start to see ‘oh wow these people are dealing with some sort of depression, or this other country or even 30 mins away from me.’ You can start to see the connecting threads th…
…– knowing throughout these tracks where to go full force on proper Celtic runs that easily cement themselves into the brain on first (through subsequent) playbacks. Check out his supreme tactful ways on the instrumental “Turadh” on through to his interplay next to the charging double kick / power metal rhythm guitar foundation for “Rob Roy” – offering that additional hook support that will engage followers when airing these cuts live. Thankfully…
…eived regarding your musical career? Anubis: Be authentic. Listen to your true self. Listen to what your truth really is and what you want to be as a musician. Be honest with yourself. In this creative world, we as musicians tend to want to please others a lot. Don’t become something that just the audience wants to see – as that’s not being authentic to yourself. That would be lying to yourself. This is not living a true life – it’s living what ot…
…t. Dead Rhetoric: What are some of the biggest concerns you have about the world that we live in currently? If you could help the average person live a better life, what sorts of ideas or thoughts would you like to get across that could be beneficial? Kokko: That’s a big question! (laughs). You can listen to the album, we talk about concerns like warmongers, and what’s happening in Europe now. Religious freedom, there is crazy stuff happening. How…
…ere, and we haven’t toured here yet. Getting our foot in the door with our market, getting on tours is super tough. It’s an over-saturated market, there are so many bands fighting for all the same slots on some of these tours. Hopefully with this album this will help us get some momentum. Next year, and the next couple of years we can do some North American touring and another European tour, some festivals in Europe. That’s the aspect that’s reall…
…black metal elements forming the skeleton that holds everything together structurally. What’s glaringly obvious is that one won’t come across an album that is this intentionally different often, and the creative risks taken most certainly pay off. There’s plenty to digest within Xibalba – from the folk characteristics, various vocal cadences, and film score level vivacity, to the downright nasty and direct black metal onslaughts. This won’t hit wi…
…oint where I can share a stage with some of the legends of the heavy metal world and really share my song with many, many people.” Himari has her eyes set on a few bands she’d love to share the stage with, both at home in Japan as well as internationally. “I’ve been saying this since I started the project but I would love to play with Rammstein. I love them. Speaking of female vocalists, I’d also love to play with Myrkur. I love her music. I also…
…nd’s arsenal – but it’s evident throughout that the addictive guitar riffs/runs plus singalong choruses should hammer home the universal appeal for those who love classic heavy metal. The dual guitar attack as well as proficient bass spots create a magnitude of memories around influences like Mercyful Fate, Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, all the way into classic Riot – especially prevalent in tracks like “Apocalypse” and the harmony-fueled “Return of t…
…first time. Dead Rhetoric: What worries or concerns do you have about the world that we live in currently? If you had unlimited time, resources, finances, and energy, what are one or two key areas that you think need to be addressed to make the world a better place? Lur: Unfortunately, I think too many things should change. I strongly hate guns, and if there was any way I could take them all down I really would do it. They only bring pain and dea…
…ries playing music that I have from the last decade, most of those are the live shows. For sure, in the studio, it’s a lot of fun. You’ve got the time to play with the details that maybe get lost live. When you are in the studio for a couple of weeks, it’s a lot of fun to play around with the songs and see what works. With the knowledge that what you are doing now is going to be printed on vinyl and CD and that’s forever, these songs. That’s both…
…e melodies becomes even more apparent, even as a song that gives Nagisa’s drumming some quality front and center time along with upping the electronic elements. The final two songs lean more in a melodic direction overall, but still emphasize those super catchy moments that TRiDENT utilize so well. Particularly with closer “Neo Future,” which acts as a really highlight for Asaka, leveraging a strong chorus to back up the mid-tempo melodic flourish…
…lance an ideal set list in live situations, thoughts on the music industry today, the importance of Sepultura’s impact on proving the vitality of heavy music from Brazil for worldwide appeal, and future plans. Dead Rhetoric: Cycles of Pain is the latest Angra studio album. What can you tell regarding the songwriting and recording process for this effort – and where do you feel this record sits in the discography of the band? Felipe Andreoli: Well,…
…n when you hear the main hooks and higher melodies of “Angel Rising”, the drumming from Pae steady with interesting power moves which line up to the energetic guitar runs. The longest track “Twilight of the Black Rose” concludes the record, a six-minute plus outing that contains a calmer intro, choir/ orchestration components, dazzling neoclassical keyboard/guitar break tradeoffs and some operatic melodies to showcases the multi-genre influences a…
…aspect either, as “Eye For An Eye” contains plenty of twin guitar harmony runs against some slower, crushing riffs that could cause massive carnage in pits the world over. Consistently taking that next step in establishing their own brand of melodic thrash/death with progressive tendencies, Hyperia through The Serpent’s Cycle should continue to make a bigger footprint beyond Canadian borders into international acclaim and appeal. Bang thy heads,…
…y beautiful and monstrous album made by two of the most prolific and soul-crushing bands today. My only slight gripe about this record is that we didn’t get a Dylan Walker-Domenic Palermo vocal match-up. I wouldn’t miss a potentially harmonic pairing of Full of Hell’s Gollum shrieks and Nothing’s depressed whispers for the world. Here’s hoping that both bands have more to say together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVNXSuIhs4w https://www.youtub…
…are your plans for 2024? Benson: One of our songs is going to radio in February, and we are playing at Happens in Las Vegas in the end of February. We have tours coming up – we will be playing on the main stage at Lifest in Wisconsin, and also at Loud & Proud Festival in Germany next September. There is also City on the Hill. Some of it is on the website, and the rest will be updated soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19hkaOe6UR8&pp=ygUJaWduZX…
…This album began back in 2019, the year after our previous record Goodbye Cruel World came out. At the time… there had an always been an empty checkmark next to concept album in our list of things that we’ve done over the years, but we did not set out to do a concept album. Some of the songs in the early going started to take on more of a fantasy realm vibe. It was definitely an organic progression. The first song was done, and it was more of a st…
…arena these days. Are you impressed with how bands like Orbit Culture are breaking worldwide? Batres: For sure, and I think it’s related to the internet, streaming. A lot of bands still release stuff independently in Australia, because they don’t have the ability to tour as often. There are so many great bands out here, some you may never hear in your life because they are local. It’s impressive, I grew up with bands like Dungeon and Mortal Sin,…
…hrashier tempos once again take over, with galloping riffs and assaulting drums hitting that abrasive yet hooky combo that the band deploys so well. Scattered was an excellent first taste of Gungire, and Surge proves that a quick second helping is just as satisfying. Gungire have all the mechanics in place to secure themselves as a thunderous international act when it comes to the metalcore/modern metal scene, so one has to hope that the solid qua…
…ders here, but all of the music is played through the speakers. There’s no live instrumentation, just the five vocalists on stage (unlike PassCode, who had a full live band backing them). Naysayers will be naysayers, but with this type of music, the vocals are the forefront, so it really makes little difference if the music behind them is played live or not. It can be an added bonus, but entirely unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. II did f…
…y frontload a record with immediate numbers designed to capture the lion’s share of listeners, then evolve with more dramatic material to deliver maximum value in terms of dynamics. Elm Street instead decide to push an eleven-minute epic as the opener with “Seven Sirens”, a breathtaking number that starts off in more of a clean, ballad-like atmosphere before kicking into gear. Encompassing aspects of “In My Darkest Hour” / Megadeth, classic Iron M…
…driving chord progressions that whip hair in the wind on a hot summer day cruising at max speeds, a rock solid bass/drum foundation that sticks those hooks into the ground, topped off by a charismatic vocalist who reaches for the stars while having sinister attitude / personality in lower registers, the gang-unison background vocals hammering home key lines for future audience magnification. Initial passes get toes tapping, hands clapping, and air…
…ing to Japan, finally coming back to the US with the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. We will also do a headline tour with Serenity across Europe in February of 2024. People are very thankful, even though humans will forget things pretty fast. The life situation with COVID-19 is there – we as musicians are looking forward to being on tour after an album release again, instead of can we do this, can we not? We also got used to getting older, losing two…
…, Gates to Hell, and Omerta. Then we are on the Headbangers Boat – it’s a cruise. I’ve never been on a cruise so it will be interesting. We are on that for five days. Then the rest of the tour with Boundaries, Foreign Hands, and Roman Candle starts in Tampa. Then we are covering the rest of the US and it takes us into December. Then we are going to rest, because we have a lot planned for 2024! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRLTXZBgzlI&pp=ygUKZHl…
…ow he’s always going to do a killer job, so why mess with a good thing? I trust him, he’s a cool guy. Ronnie has always been there from the beginning. We trust that he will come up with a great sound, he’s so easy to work with. He keeps raising the bar with his mix. With Simon and Mike, they’ve been involved with the drum recordings for the last three albums. Brilliant musicians, both of them. With their skills and knowledge, they can come up with…
…ou”, where Marika’s smooth register that contains gothic/operatic aspects truly gets the spotlight, the organ/acoustic foundation as well as restrained rhythm section parts assuring a pleasant outcome. Never forgetting the driving power chords that made 80’s hard rock/metal so quintessential, “Refuge” possesses a bit of that early Dokken/Skid Row street cred in its main parts, the symphonic/galloping keyboards allowing Giacomo to service the song…
…you still need to be able to turn out albums to be considered relevant in today’s world. It used to be every three or four years was normal, but now it feels like you have to put out a new album every year to a year and a half, which I think is unsustainable. Emotionally, mentally, and no longer authentic. I hope that the trend isn’t super great, because your favorite musicians won’t be doing this for very much longer. Also, what’s been really co…
…r, the support bands we would meet last song on the set with this song or “Breaking the Law”. We did a “Breaking the Law” duet already, it was with Udo Dirkschneider on my album Classic Diamonds, he thought it would be awesome. He had a wish as well – I said what is it? There was a song he always wanted to do with me for many, many years. He said, “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. I said, wow, that’s totally unusual. It was the last song we recorded,…
…gave it out, there would be many Cirith Ungol’s sprouting out all over the world. (laughs). How can the world handle that? One theme that runs through all our albums is we always wanted to play heavy music. I know I’m the driving force behind that, but the other guys in the band feel the same way. And our goal is to create each album to be heavier than the album before it. Have we succeeded? Who knows, but that’s what we are trying to do. Dead Rhe…
…ame thing on Carved Into Stone where Alexei (Rodriguez) is another killer drummer, he came in, we did intense pre-production, live jamming the stuff out. That was another thing I enjoyed – Evetts got into everyone’s face about the spots. As far as the general outcome with where the rhythm section lies, I give a lot of credit to Steve Evetts, he molds everyone into shape on that. Dead Rhetoric: You shot a proper video for “The Descent” – filmed by…
