…life, I have family considerations as well – I am a caregiver for my mother-in-law. We want to get out there live. It just requires a little more finesse, a little more planning. We want to get to Europe, the UK, perform live at some of these festivals. We are itching for that, and we can plan around that anchor date to plan some club dates. Dead Rhetoric: What would you consider three to five of the most important albums that shaped your outlook…
…ond half of the record. Excelling just as much at the prototypical Teutonic-oriented power-oriented “The Scarlet Banners” as they do a poignant, emotional ballad such as “Just One Look”, the attention to those smaller details from different voices, harmonies, piano use, and heightening tension in the orchestral/keyboard parts keep listeners returning for multiple playbacks – positive signs of an impactful record. Favorite songs change by the day –…
…kay. Dead Rhetoric: Did you enjoy the special camera angles – a lot of back-and-forth action as well as reverse and upside-down things going on? Wagner: Yeah, it fits a bit to the tempo of the song. There is some fantastic camera action that the director of the video did there. Dead Rhetoric: After numerous cancellations, Rage will finally be going on a co-headlining tour across Europe this fall with Brainstorm. How will it feel for the band (and…
…/ distress, as the group handle the production in house thanks to the long-running professional studio V.O. owns through Little Creek Studio – capturing a thick wall of sound bursting at the seams. Highlights include the subtle, darker touches for “Ghosts of Black Holes” plus the twin harmony guitar twists and doomy/Crowbar-ish nature to “Egoist”, choosing to speed up the tempo in spots creating this dynamic stomp when returning to the main crush…
…I kept practicing at least three or four hours a day. I was just about semi-professional, I joined a little blues band called Double Trouble, we went around Dublin, Ireland but you couldn’t go any further. I accidentally fell into being a vocalist. I had this fantasy that I wanted to be up front. One night I was doing a cover gig, we were covering Queen, Bad Company, all these bands. We had a new singer, but we didn’t know he had lit a joint. Duri…
…ks, and memorable moments for appeal in those invested in the catalogs of these musicians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_z0rCIvZjU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=067e-cLzUPM Allen/Olzon on Facebook…
…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…
…r the course of their decade-plus activity. Eternal Steel is the third full-length, an eleven-track exercise in ferocity, where attitude reigns supreme, exhibiting intensity on multiple levels as well as proving that heaviness can take on numerous forms, shapes, and transitions to successfully penetrate the aural landscape. The chugging, churning riff machine guitarists Tom Reyes and Chris Burgess deliver track to track is the stuff that pins ears…
…rger during “The Intervening Abyss of Untold Aeons” that add depth to the Gorguts meets Death-like proceedings. Two special guests well-known in the death/extreme metal community lend their vocal talent to the finale “Re-Crucified” – the late Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder) and George ‘Corpsegrinder’ Fisher (Cannibal Corpse) – the stop/ start measures super tight while the tremolo / triplet picking plus slower, left-field instrumental meas…
…ase? Arruda: It first started in 2006, I joined around 2007. We did a three-song demo, it was pretty raw. When I re-read some reviews on it, it had a little bit more of a black metal vibe to it. Then we did our second three-song demo in 2008, and we sent those out for reviews. We got more into the metalcore scene. When we did Imperium, we were all young guys. The other band members are eight years younger than I am, so they were into that metalcor…
…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…
…play at some of the major festivals next summer. We will see what happens. We want to start writing another record as soon as possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcPCQeOx-9s Vlad in Tears on Facebook…
…, 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…
…at we are doing, it will be the most intense and longest tour that we have ever done. We are looking forward to that, and to similar tours in the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XEF1DmxEjA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJCL6LINqs8 Brymir on Facebook…
…the face. Sort of like what the hell have you done to this band? More like organization-wise. He’s young, he’s 30 years old. He came in and stirred things up. Did some really amazing things, structured things up. Started taking care of the social media, he did wonders, and that’s exactly what we need. I’m not stubborn, I’m not going to be that guy that’s like ‘who do you think you are, I’ve been in this band for twenty years!’ No Bastian, you are…
…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…
…urselves – punching people in the face with our music, straightforward back-to-back. Dead Rhetoric: What do you consider some of the biggest challenges that Horizon Ignited currently faces to establish yourselves even more when climbing up the ranks to develop more of a foothold against the thousands of other bands fighting for attention and staying power in the scene? Mäkinen: I think we are doing good with the music. That’s the main product of t…
…r in the scene – as this is high quality material that will not be forgotten anytime soon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzwngku30wg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Yp-A6QjNs Idol Throne on Facebook…
…– which is where we stand with their latest album Humanarchy. Another nine-song outing that contains sturdy riffing, stellar lead breaks, fine/versatile vocal delivery and melodies, conveying everything from thrash and power to heavy metal and doom, adding a bit of robust groove to the proceedings. We reached out to guitarist Chris Vowden once again for a delightful conversation regarding the work behind the album, their attention to detail when…
…y not yet decided but we are working on it. As soon as this album gets released, things will become clearer to us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tu-HLpwUmM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4bj3LM3G5A H.E.A.T. on Facebook…
…se some, only to displease others – but don’t discount their ability to craft some memorable tracks in the process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOc0p-Vltjg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si5gfLpmU6E Farewell To Fear on Facebook…
…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…
…ous, commercially-driven opener “I’m A Loser” or lay back in the epic seven-minute, Black Sabbath-like arrangement “Tortured Soul”. Guest lead breaks come into play with axe slingers like Joe Satriani, Bumblefoot, Tracii Guns, Mike Flyntz, Paul Gilbert, Herman Frank, and Joe Stump all adding their stamp on the record – but this truly feels like a cohesive project where these mature musicians channel a love of old school hard rock/metal into a seri…
…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…
…How does the process work from inspiration to final outcome – is it a back-and-forth engagement from the band to artist, and do you feel this still has great importance in building the brand of the band before people press play on the music? Souza: I think so. I will answer the last part first. I think it’s important to have artwork distinctive of each other record to record. Where it can become common – sometimes I talk about the Wretched albums…
…display. Keyboard splashes supplement the vibrant main licks and steady mid-tempo guitar action of J-P Alanen and Petri Aho, who choose to express themselves in a vein for the title track and “Kissed by the Flame” right out of the Accept/Pretty Maids playbook, spinning in a little AOR-ish textures during the verses. The main vocals from Taage Laiho allow the band to stand out amongst the competition – he has a smooth confidence in lower ranges plu…
…ared to say mainland Europe, Canada, South America and the Far East. When it’s a labor of love, quality will shine bright like a diamond as it does here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFj36wTqaCY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duXGBnv1au0 Worwyk on Facebook…
…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…
…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…
