…ing mistakes if I am too well-prepared. Rather than worrying about the reel-to-reel aspect that happened in the 70’s, you can click, edit, and some engineers will say, ‘sing this word again- okay’ until you go crazy. You lose momentum, you lose feeling, you don’t want to be in the room. Then you get angry. Herb knows me in and out. He will work with me even if I don’t have lyrics ready, but a melody in my head. Another engineer would tell me to go…
…ularly, we can’t just drive to the next city in a few hours. Sydney is a 12-hour drive from Brisbane and Perth is a 5-hour flight! Rising costs is what I’d like to change, and I think everyone would agree! Dead Rhetoric: What sort of hobbies, passions, and interests do the members of Asylum like to engage in outside of your musical endeavors when you have the free time to do so? Armstrong: For me personally, I’m a big fan of cars. I love going to…
…ic business or the record labels. Saying that, I am going back to my twenty-year-old version where I had a lot of projects. Was it smart? At that age, it was fun to make music, and it was labels issues if there were too many in a year. I didn’t care about the promo or the career, I just wanted to make music. I’m closing that circle now. Seeing what the pandemic caused, I didn’t think the music business could have that kind of a shutdown. Now it di…
…ost in Eternity” which comes from the Megadeth mold. By the time the Maiden-esque spider web-filled musical movements penetrate closer “The Death Scythe”, most listeners will leave battered and bruised at the vicious, aggressive nature that takes place next to these highly catchy riffs, swinging rhythm section mechanics, and impassioned scream/growl switch offs. Normally revisiting older material is seen as a cash grab – in the case of Death Scyth…
…, and the second and third albums were written all the way through in a two- or three-year period. After that, I heard a lot of bands doing the same kind of style, taking the same concepts and executing them literally with riffs and atmospheric leads going over the top of them. I’m starting to see it be repetitive, and I already wrote two albums of this stuff. I had this feeling I needed to do something different with different concepts and differ…
…s possible too. I would be the guy in the past that would write the fifteen-minute-long song, so it’s been refreshing to work with these guys and write shorter songs in a compact format. Dead Rhetoric: Where did you want to come across with the lyrical content for this album? Do you believe the band places equal importance on the words, the melodies, and the vocal delivery as the musical components? Schultz: Yeah, definitely. That’s kind of the fu…
…ing is still identical for him, which is fantastic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHM6f1B63og https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK-SnqXK-EM Nordic Union on Facebook…
…n a while, not since King Diamond back in 1990. There is a lot of ground for us to turn, we have plenty to do and hopefully we get a chance to do it all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFX8GnZPUEk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTr1qRnyQxo Toxik on Facebook…
…ting this book, how do you feel about the differences between the John Arch-era and the Ray Alder-era for Fates Warning? Wagner: I explained in the intro that I was incensed about Arch leaving, and I got a letter back from Jim that was a little less touchy feely than the first one. We will find the right guy. The moment I heard Alder, I loved it. I never had any prejudice, I guess. The moment I heard “Silent Cries” on a specialty metal show before…
…the doom, death, and extreme metal platforms, do you take things on a song-by-song basis to fit the needs of each track? Suvanto: Certainly. I can point out the melodies. Jasse is a master in creating them and while some bands have a certain type of feeling in their style, Tomb of Finland has the richness of melodies. Kangasharju: Mikko has the brutal riffs and Jasse finished them with beautiful melodies, and that is topped masterfully with Olli’…
…w I feel we have a plan, and the stuff you will hear from here on out is next level. We are super excited about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOc0p-Vltjg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si5gfLpmU6E Farewell to Fear on Facebook…
…and that we have never toured with before. Something a little more extravagant where we are not the headliner. Try to promote the album as best as I can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHaRpej_kp4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IlDMePA2L0 Origin on Facebook…
…tus free reign to create what he wanted based on the music or was it a back-and-forth collaboration to get to this final product? Kolesne: We sent him some of the lyrics and some of the songs. The first concept that he ended up sending us back is the cover art for the album. He captured exactly what we were looking for. The concept with the warrior, the battle, the gladiator, has a lot to do with the lyrics and the music. For him, he is such an am…
…nto we’ve got these already established stars, let’s put them with these up-and-coming stars. Now we have established stars, and these other established stars, let’s put them together. I would enjoy more of building new talent. They built MJF up, and now he’s not in the company anymore. They gave him a live mic, nail your own coffin. Here’s rope, hang yourself with it. I’ve been young and made stupid comments, I can look at that and learn. This is…
…moved the same bill from year to year. And those bands are touring on three-year-old albums. The floodgates will open. There will be so many new albums, it’s really hard to get festival dates this year. We have a few- we have Hellfest coming up for Witchery. But then getting on tours, it’s the same thing with festival slots. So many bigger name bands are going on tour, and we have less clubs today than before, they had to close, less places to pla…
…hows now in the summer. We have to produce some new songs and see where things can take us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3q6AjgeMis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZUAA0Q-FrA Battering Ram on Facebook…
…e, making it our own version. Rather than taking a song and making it a one-to-one copy with a modern sound thing. With Mystic, he did a whole cover album with Elton John songs, Donna Summer songs, it’s almost become a thing people expect from him as well. The other side of that, when you go into record, especially when it’s a new lineup, things can be intense and hectic. I love as a producer starting a session with a cover song, because it gives…
…As for Exit Eden, we are going to release a brand-new record next year, and I hope we will have a chance to talk about it when it will be the right time for it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RH8rVt4Z8k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9wwC93Lzuw Visions of Atlantis on Facebook…
…e if you get the LP. Most people when they see the cover, they get a twelve-by-twelve cover – but when you open up the LP, it wraps in the back as well as the inside. It’s one big painting, we wanted to tell the story of these guys entering the mouth of the cave, traversing the river and what they find at the end is this monster. Dead Rhetoric: That must offer great possibilities when it comes to different visuals for merchandise, people wanting t…
…are talking about some different chances to play shows with Fallen Sanctuary in early 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JbKdfeOLLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqcD-fra9Mo Fallen Sanctuary on Facebook…
…completely jetlagged, and we did some sessions that lasted sometimes twenty-five to twenty-six hours in a row. That was a crazy adventure. It was well-received and that is a jewel in my crown of my career that went down. Another really important moment for me was joining Gus G with Firewind, doing all that touring and playing all those festivals. That really got me ready to do what I am doing now with Civil War. I got used to the big stages, touri…
…lots of things going on. You should stay tuned! (laughs). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8jDfAgBq7k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xkt-XA07hw Maniac Abductor official website…
…out and support the bands – Spotify doesn’t pay the bills. See the bands, buy the t-shirts. It’s going to be an excitement – a reuniting with your family. I went to a show recently with Sorcerer – with Stefan and being at a live show – the whole vibe made me happy. A pandemic will not kill rock and roll. Dead Rhetoric: How did you gain the opportunity to be a part of the new Zero Hour album Agenda 21 – featuring original members Erik Rosvold and…
…cusing on the touring – we have a big festival we will be playing in Canada. Once the album comes out, hopefully there will be a buzz and more touring offers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2foaESiNWYQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxilXfuwpWY Sadistic Ritual on Facebook…
…ype heavy stuff, but we also want to show off the fact that we can do three- and four-part vocal harmonies to write a hell of a melody. Dead Rhetoric: The Sun Will Always Set is the group’s third studio album. Where do you see the major differences in this set of material in comparison to the previous two albums Recurring Themes from 2012 and Triumphia in 2016? Piccoli: Maturity. I think, yeah, I’m not really sure how to say it. Refining the direc…
…n the best possible spots based on their range and abilities, or is a trial-and-error process worked through to get to the final results? Aday: Again, it’s what just really works best. Jim and I love singing together. We don’t really compete for parts, or nobody is really puffing their chests up. What works best for the song, we will sing things together or sometimes Jim will say, I should sing that line, and I’ll say I want to hear him sing it. I…
…o slippery. I had never encountered that before. Weather is changing, the climate is changing. That’s something I remember happening on the last American tour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqOvc6dClaQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SChcPwjiWY Udo Dirkschneider on Facebook…
…th behind the performances – now I can sing live without worrying for forty-five minutes in a performance, from an overall health, wellness, and self-esteem perspective is really great. Dead Rhetoric: What can you tell us in regard to the simplified art you chose for this record? Shapiro: We talked to a lot of artists and had a lot of different ideas. They were a little bit more complex than what we ended up with. At the end of the day, one of my…
…dy know this is a must buy – hopefully the younger generation understands the importance of Satan to keeping heavy metal as a genre alive and shimmering. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1wH80v9wXw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJwXL7xfGJo Satan on Facebook…
…ple of leftover songs – we have a long song that never fit, we are very much looking forward to where we can go next. We want to make things even better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4dfWfN8–U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Saty8_Wls Hallas on Facebook…
