…ead, and Mega Drive are all some of the forefathers for this movement, side-by-side with the mighty Gost. Having been plying his trade for over a decade now, he’s a producer who doesn’t hesitate to take risks with his music, incorporating many fresh elements with each subsequent release. As previously stated, this was our first time seeing Gost, having sadly narrowly missed other opportunities to catch a live set. Gost’s stage presence has changed…
…chorus on the extremely infectious opener “Cassiopeia” or the playful, semi-progressive “Orion’s Belt” for her stunning, multi-octave confidence that brings goose bump moments. The move up to Frontiers Music as well as mixing / mastering duties under the watchful hands/ears of Jacob Hansen pushes Everdawn into hopefully bigger pastures through Venera. While many accept European/ South American artists better in the symphonic, power-laden metal rea…
…for Dead Rhetoric in our interview, you mentioned in closing that the full-length album that you were writing with Hyloxalus, briefly stating ‘it gets weirder’. Now that Make Me the Heart of the Black Hole has been written and recorded, could you expand upon that statement and where you see this set of material pushing the boundaries or parameters for the band in terms of substance and style? Mike Bell: I had just written the music for our song “…
…his bass tracks down before moving to Florida and before Alan became a full-time member of the band. Alan has been playing live for some time now with us. We are starting the pre-production for the next album, and you will definitely hear Alan’s bass on the recordings soon. As far as the chemistry, we couldn’t be happier although we are losing an important bass player with Mike. Alan made sure we didn’t have any setbacks, and we are looking forwar…
…lodic hard rock from the US scene as well. What in your eyes makes for the best Hitten material in terms of songwriting – do you find that how a track may start in the formative stages goes through many revisions and tweaks to get to the final outcome? Panza: Especially nowadays, I wasn’t there in the beginning. I know what Dani will say, because I didn’t say when you are younger you just put out a riff, it’s so good, we got it! Next song… and the…
…n by the Scream’s most recent EP stands as being just as ferocious and left-of-center as ever. Absolutely jarring transitions that jump from blastbeat-ridded gurgling and frantic riffs to soaring, pop-drenched melodic moments, but there’s nothing quite like them. 14. Beyond the Black – Beyond the Black (Nuclear Blast) A self-titled album that seems to re-assert a more symphonic sound than the more experimental Horizons, Beyond the Black play to th…
…ies to the fullest. Cool to see, as Tampa’s metal community is truly one-of-a-kind, and one we’re proud to be a small part of. Immolation continues to be one of the leaders in death metal, and their continued run of high quality albums and live performance continue to cement their legendary status. A lot of the old guard haven’t been able to keep turning heads like Immolation does, and from our perspective, there’s zero chance of a decline in sigh…
…ric: What is the biggest challenge at this point when it comes to your songwriting- coming up with strong melodies and lyrics, or more of the music so you don’t repeat yourselves? Winterwild: I guess for me it’s always been lyrics that are the hardest thing. We usually start with the guitars, coming up with riffs, and then put it together in the rehearsal room. The melodies, I will always come up with some okay melodies, but the lyrics often I str…
…ablish their own take on things? The best work seems to occur when the four-piece lock into some mid-tempo headbanging tracks – using acceleration techniques more as a coloring tool – “Turned to Stone” and the title track probably the favorites of the bunch. When servicing the needs of a song best, less can indeed be more – even in a long-running genre like thrash. Crossfire needs to understand when the fat needs to be trimmed to streamline the ma…
…rm. There’s an old cliché among musicians that you have your whole life to write your first album, but you don’t have the same time to write your second album. It’s a very different game, and the response to that first album weighed into that second album process. In the case of High Spirits, if I’m being totally honest, when we were making Another Night, I expected the reaction to be that the demos were better. That High Spirits was going to be a…
…re layered with thick rhythm guitar crunchiness, beefed up with the octopus-like drumming of Sam Jakubec. There’s plenty of moving parts, both from the hyper fast and aggressive, to the loftily emotive. Lovers of melodic death metal akin to Be’Lakor will enjoy the varied progressive approach to song structures, from the luscious leads of “Retribution” to the more twisted brutality-laden, yet optimistic, tapestry that is “Hatch.” Dyssebeia dive dee…
…You only need a fraction of the money to record an album now. We can still write good, high-quality albums. Joe: When we were young, a lot of the bands we were into weren’t as successful. When we were listening to bands like Flotsam & Jetsam, we could see all the pitfalls where things were messed up. We also had very real expectations. We knew that many of these bands were working difficult jobs. The best thing about being in a band is the friends…
…it’s been very surprising indeed, because the band formed just one year-and-a-half ago! We got a bunch of songs, we recorded them, and that’s it! We choose the more catchy and straight in your face; it’s a demo, so you don’t need to be so bothered after all! I didn’t expect such a thing! Consider that we’ll have our first album out soon, and we re-recorded “Krushing All Altars,” “Sepulchrist,” and the title track with something new! Also, the cove…
…it takes a few years just to ‘do the thing.’ Then you come back and start writing. The first record took us about five years to write, and by no means was this a quick process but it ended up taking a similar amount of time for a very ambitious record. A good chunk of which occurred during the pandemic and the lockdown. So it took quite a long time, and there are certain things that we are aware of that we want to streamline into a more efficient…
…sed in the Netherlands, and they are all based in Brazil. It’s a twelve-and-a-half-hour flight to get there. The culture difference is huge. We had different visions of how business should be dealt with. That’s normal, and that’s okay when you have different backgrounds. You have different ways of dealing with the business. I also felt it wasn’t my calling to be full-time in a death metal band. I really enjoyed my time in Crypta, they are very har…
…nged. The songwriting process was quite different. We just did all the songwriting online, and changing the guitar parts and Miika’s vocal parts when we could. We only went to a real studio to record the drums. Kokko: When the musical side was finished, I would throw around vocal ideas these little demos. Then I would write lyrics throughout, I thought about telling a story this time throughout the album. That was different, because on Final Day i…
…love his vocals on the track, it’s brighter with more major chords, it’s a fast-paced song. I like the contrast between our vocals, he is up here in this register with the raspy stuff and I’m a little lower, we go back and forth in the song. Tuomas – we always wanted him to be on one of our albums, and this time the stars aligned. Having him on the ending ballad, it reminds me of some of his older material. I really like hearing his vocals on the…
…sic Riot – especially prevalent in tracks like “Apocalypse” and the harmony-fueled “Return of the Souls”. Most listeners will find it very difficult not to whirl in hair whipping, headbanging magnificence to the opening track “Land of the Rising Sun” – vocalist Taka soaring to the heavens while injecting her Dickinson-esque inflections as the use of reverb/delay is adequate without overpower her delivery. Many of the main musical components aren’t…
…Soren based on your previous work, and where do you see his role as the co-songwriter, guitarist, and producer? Catton: Oh yeah, for sure. Knowing him beforehand made the process so much easier. We had the same wavelength, same inspirations music-wise. This album will hopefully be able to help put me on the map in the melodic hard rock, 80’s-genre. It died down in the 90’s, but in the last decade or so it’s been growing back with some of these ba…
…ed with one another and the stage. That was the starting point for the full-blown writing process. As far as where Cycles of Pain sits in the discography. I think it’s very symbolic that it’s the tenth studio album that we’ve put out. It’s a marriage of the past and future of Angra. It’s always a balance between what we were and what we will be. We are always changing and evolving, while at the same time maintaining our roots, our main elements th…
…of Flyleaf and Ben Kasica of Skillet. So in the future, I would love to co-write with John Cooper. I’m a huge fan of his, and I’d love him to sing on a song. I would also love Lacey Sturm (Flyleaf) to sing on an Ignescent song. I think that would be so cool! For me that would be awesome. Also, Amy Lee of Evanscence – I love her and their music. Those would definitely be top three for me to collaborate with. Jinjer would be really cool too! Dead R…
…d and put into some sort of viable time capsule, whether that’s as a behind-the-scenes documentary or as bonus material for the aforementioned reissues. Maybe just some fun content for our sites. I’ve also always wanted to do an acoustic album. There’s something so challenging yet rewarding about stripping away the layers and effects and finding out how your songs fare around a fire or in a more intimate setting. I think it would be fun to do an a…
…t is one of my favorite bands, ever. Black Majesty, I remember as a fifteen-year-old going to a local gig when Silent Company the album came out. Very strong scene here in Australia. Dead Rhetoric: How do you feel about the state of heavy metal currently? What excites you most about the bands, the fans, the venues, the festivals – and what changes (if any) would you like to see implemented for the greater good of all parties involved? Batres: I th…
…table.” Operating with some monstrously downtuned chugging riffs, that rage-infused attitude is very apparent as you groove through the track, which only relents slightly for a catchier clean vocal chorus from Nana. “Stir Up” follows suit with some rather upbeat riffing and electronics, instantly grabbing your ear with the cleaner vocals and seemingly built for the live show ‘whoas.’ But fear not, ‘the angriest band in Japan’ isn’t going soft on y…
…Dead Rhetoric: What types of goals/ambitions do Temple Balls set on a short-term versus long-term basis? Are you hopeful to make the band a full-time career endeavor, or do you realize as musicians that you may have to balance regular jobs with these musical activities? Vuorela: So far it is like that. It’s a struggle, working on the day jobs and getting the most out of the band. We are focused on the band as things mature, our aim is to make a li…
…s, and the stage is where they shine brightest. Like in my recent PassCode write-up, the level of dance synchronization, when seen in person up close, is nothing less than breathtaking. With five idols on stage, there’s plenty to witness as they move across the stage, rhymically coordinating their movements and vocal parts. With a varied setlist going into some heavier, rock/metal grooves, upbeat fun songs, and just a hint of slower cuts, it’s fas…
…anted to keep. We didn’t want to copy and paste these artists into an eight-minute-long song, we wanted to have our own song. If you have such a song which is like an opera, one song like this it’s not easy to bring this to a video version because of the rules in music – most songs are shorter these days. We have to keep up the interest in a video, so the problem is then to keep it interesting within a time limit. I did the lyrics of this song, it…
…ntial in what we tried to do. Dead Rhetoric: Discuss your approach to lyric-writing, particularly with songs that hit a more personal side of you. How do you keep things personal, but to the point where people can still connect with it? Boster: I think that a lot of it is just leaning on my guys a bit and ask them if it’s something that seems too specific – can someone relate to it? I don’t want to make it all about me; it is my story but I want t…
…member. With Joakim, we didn’t work as much with him. It wasn’t like a back-and-forth thing. With Jani, he’s really great at taking the artwork and designing the whole album around it. We know 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…
…d in its main parts, the symphonic/galloping keyboards allowing Giacomo to service the song in a circular, bluesy manner. Given the appeal for commercial-oriented melodic heavy metal these days, there will be a place for Raining Nails in that mix based on the diversity, experience, and understanding of the key components at play through Human Deeds. While not exactly breaking the mold, they certainly have the talent and songwriting skills to go pl…
