…are writing and finishing that which will be out in the summer/early autumn 2023. Dead Rhetoric: What concerns do you have about the world we live in, and what do you think the average person should concentrate on to make the world a better place? Neuhauser: (laughs) How much time do you have? Just kidding. I have all these experiences on my own, and the most important thing I think needed in the whole world is education. If you have an educated y…
…more polarized. I wish we could concentrate more on seeing eye to eye instead of being the loudest voice. Dead Rhetoric: What would you consider three of the most important albums that helped shape your outlook on the metal genre as a whole? Maijala: I might have to go with Swallow the Sun – New Moon. It’s a huge one for me, and probably for Janne as well. Mieskonen: For me it’s probably Katatonia – The Great Cold Distance. Because I really didn’t…
…oking at songs like “Celestial Squadron”, we knew where to place them. We had a broad sense of the fast songs, taking it down, finding a good balance because we knew we needed some pauses there in the middle. That was the process. Jonas wrote all the lyrics this time, and at the end Olof came in and wrote a forward to the tracks which you can read in the booklet to flesh out the story. That was basically the process. Dead Rhetoric: And when it com…
…people with their general, almost visceral reaction to these songs, and reading the comments online was pretty special. Gruesome is also the kind of band that a lot of people have come up and said, thank you for keeping this sound alive. Gruesome has been very rewarding. Playing with Malevolent Creation was great. I toured with Brett a bunch of times. I’m very humbled, grateful, and fortunate that I have been able to do the things I’ve been able…
…re are so many records that shaped what I wanted to be later on down the road. Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the agenda for Purpendicular over the next twelve months to support Human Mechanic? Are there other bands, projects, etc. that the members of the Purpendicular work on outside of this that have things in the pipeline as well? Walsh: I’m not sure what Herb is doing, Ian has his own studio, so I know he does some session work, bits and pieces here…
…g got serious in 2020 when Covid-19 hit, and we couldn’t play gigs. We already had songs like “Eternal Violence”, “Victim Complex” and “Tyrannicide” that we were playing live back then. Covid hit and it gave us the time we needed to write the rest of the album. The songs came together quite quickly. However, we did hit quite a big obstacle when we had to part ways with our old front man Jimmy. He’d been in the band since 2012 but we realized thing…
…develop new songs for the second album Descending into Xibalba released in 2020 – then play some online festivals with artists like Jinjer, Shokran, and Arise in Stability while reintroducing people to the latest version of that debut album. Killing for Pleasure Forever contains thirteen of those original fifteen tracks, updated with better production values plus the insight/knowledge of the musicians on hand – the current rhythm section getting…
…Uber and stuff like that. It worked for us, and the pandemic happened. We had to adapt, some of that adapting led to us get new members. The old members tried new things with their lives, and it’s totally understandable. During that time, we had to get good at accessing people through the internet. We had done that through Facebook and Instagram, but now Twitch and that good stuff. All the bands that figured that out, they really are benefiting fr…
…onsibilities of what a label does changed from your first go around with Roadracer/Roadrunner? Christian: Massacre was in our top three choices of who we wanted to sign with. When the bid came in, it was a no brainer. Having said that, the duty of what a record label does now compared to what it used to be is vastly different. I think everybody knows that. It’s not easy, there is not a lot of money in this, not a lot of meat on the bones. A lot of…
…etween, we will do that. It was refreshing to go and take that approach. Dead Rhetoric: Do you believe the pandemic had a deeper effect on what you wanted to get across with some of the lyrical content for this record? How important is conveying the right emotions song to song to match the diverse musical content the band puts forth? Craig: Without COVID-19, the music would have been a lot different. The lyrical content would have been a lot diffe…
…he time it works out really great. Dead Rhetoric: In another interview I read of yours online, you mention a love of Ronnie James Dio and that Rainbow Rising is your all-time favorite album. What songs or memories do you have relating to that album, and did you ever get the chance to witness Ronnie live either in his solo band or with Black Sabbath before his passing? Hallström: Yes. My first connection with the album Rainbow Rising I was eleven y…
…, you know how it is. We have a bunch of offers coming in, but most are for 2023 and 2024. We will do live stuff, festival stuff, maybe support slot stuff. I don’t think we will be doing headlining tours immediately because it needs to build up to that for a while. We may start writing the next album pretty soon as well because we finished this record last October. About Lost Sanctuary, it’s been a bit quiet around that. I have this new lineup tha…
…of shows before the pandemic hit. It felt like we were gathering with comrades we already knew. Then we met with Seven Spires, who are really fun and super talented musicians, we had a great time with them. Then our European neighbors from Firewind, we had met at other festivals before. It felt like at the end of the tour that we could all hang out with each other pretty well. Dead Rhetoric: How did it feel to raise over $21,000 through a GoFundM…
…ng, all the various conditions that you can face on the road. It made me road ready, and that was a big moment for me. Another funny moment for me is being in the band Darkology with Michael Harris and the Harris brothers. We recorded in the same studio where Damageplan and King Diamond had recorded. King had just finished tracking the Give Me Your Soul Please album. The engineer asked me if I was ready to do some vocals. He asked me if I wanted t…
…rote the lyrics under the quarantine, police riots, all of that stuff. We had a lot of bad taste in our mouths based on the government, Big Brother. It’s very paranoid and we want everyone to look at themselves and see what a piece of shit they really are (laughs). Sweat: It’s hard to come out and say it. It’s a way to get the paranoia and fear out, living in this age. We feel like it’s some real shit instead of escapism or some fantasy, dopey lov…
…s point in your life, are they key moments where there was a fork in the road, or you had to pivot that launched your musical path and vision so to speak? And conversely, are there any specific mistakes or failures that taught you better lessons for the future? Shapiro: Yeah. The biggest one for us was before we recorded Lost in the Black Divide. Things just weren’t working the way they needed to in my personal life. The band became more of a job….
…n intoxicating blend of traditional, speed, and thrash influences, Evil Invaders has made quite an impression with their sound over the course of their brief career. Shattered Reflection will be another bold step forward as the key third album – the performances, songwriting, and vocal melodies taking things to the next level in terms of expansion while not abandoning the elements that got them a sustained following across the underground. We reac…
…Criss and I were very similar with our influences as rhythm players. I already had that technique in me, I was a schooled player in general for my age and what I could do as a player. Criss Oliva as a lead player, I sat back and absorbed those techniques. He taught me, when I went to play his music as he passed, I was the only person who knew exactly what he was doing. I watched a lot of people cover Savatage. He was my brother, and he was a teach…
…or music in general, and if so what do you talk about? Away: I think if I had to give advice to a starting musician or band, it’s important to find your own signature and not copy too much the bands that you like. Even if you are a part of a movement, it’s important to try to make sure people will recognize you the first couple of bars of a song. That’s the main thing. If you try to copy too much, by the time you write the album and record it to p…
…hen we started writing the album, it was the middle of the pandemic. I already had some idea of what I wanted it to be, but with the pandemic, it became important to write about these things like depression, anxiety, the climate, and the changing of relationships between people, and between people and the environment. That’s basically the concept the album, and one of the reasons why the album is called Quaternary. It’s about humans, how they rela…
…rst dive into heavier music. Dead Rhetoric: Power Paladin originated as Paladin in 2017 before changing monikers. Describe the process of forming the lineup, was it an easy or difficult process being from Iceland, and did you know straight away the type of power metal you wanted to develop or did the style and characteristics take time to gel? Porsteinsson: It was pretty easy to form the band. We’ve all known each other for a long time and have pl…
…vocal melodies – in that sense it has more of a similar approach that we had on the first album. Dead Rhetoric: “Hounds of Tindalos” seems to have the spirit and feel in the main guitar riffs and harmony angles as a tribute to the work of classic Running Wild and other domestic Teutonic acts put through a neoclassical/Shrapnel lens. What can you tell us regarding the development of this song? Muenzner: Yes, that’s true. I’ve always been a big fan…
…could tell that all the bands were happy to be back out. Shepherd: We’re glad you had a nice time, that’s really important to us! Dead Rhetoric: I saw one of the online hangouts yesterday, and I have to ask: you did a workout for a portion of the hangout. What inspired you do to it that way? Shepherd: I think just doing something different. It’s important. Something that has always been prevalent in the rock and metal world is that, “Sex, drugs, a…
…share with others. It’s not always happening in Italy – and that is a bit sad. Dead Rhetoric: That is sad. I remember following Lacuna Coil from the early days and being happy of their US breakthrough – getting massive radio airplay and bigger tours. I don’t think I would be jealous of one band from Italy reaching new heights of popularity, because I would believe it would open doors from other bands from that country… Guaitoli: For instance this…
…w. You need to be seriously good friends or a band like this will crash. Dead Rhetoric: You mentioned in a previous interview online that you handed the music part of the songwriting over to guitarist Fredrik Folkare where you focus on the lyrics. Was that significant in terms of trust, to pass that over as his consistency when it comes to the songwriting has been amazing over the last few albums? Hedlund: Thank you. And this happened at the end o…
…reat question. Number one, and I don’t think this will ever change, was the 2015 headlining show at Wacken Open Air. I played as part of Savatage with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, on the other stage. Both bands are playing the same songs in front of 90,000 metal fans in Germany. It was pretty unforgettable. On stage we had Russell Allen from Symphony X, Jeff Scott Soto, Nathan James from Inglorious, all the guys from Savatage. This was one of the…
…ned to that a lot and still to this day. A lot of classic rock is what my dad had me listening to. A Bob Seger Greatest Hits tape. In terms of songwriting, singing, presentation. Mer de Noms from A Perfect Circle. That and Meteora by Linkin Park, those two were very important for heavier music. They were the bridge to eventually like stuff that is a lot heavier. When I started going to concerts, I was playing in bands. I was in a town in the booni…
…elodic thrash band Paradox. Their second album Heresy hit the streets on Roadrunner and made a decent impact for its tight riffing, solid tempos, and key vocal inflections from guitarist Charly Steinhauer. These musicians took a page from the Bay Area thrash scene like Metallica and Exodus, adding in aspects of Metal Church, Forbidden, and Flotsam and Jetsam as far as hooks, melodies, and harmony elements to their sound. This year Heresy II – End…
…that was free. I did take two guitar lessons a couple of years ago, but I had already been playing guitar for over ten years. I’m 99% self-taught. Dead Rhetoric: Was Malison the first original band you were a part of, or were there other bands that came before this? Lovio: We had a band in high school, but we did mostly covers. That was the first band I decided to write an original song with. We had one original song and like three covers. It wasn…
…grow my voice, and also be able to create a different spin on a song I already love. Dead Rhetoric: The EP is out soon, what is planned for this year into next year? Psarakis: We have been trying hard to get into shows, but Canada is just not there yet. There’s shows in the US, shows in Europe, but Canada just isn’t quite there yet. We are trying, because we didn’t get to tour for Orphans, and not being able to tour for this too would suck. I am h…
