One of rock's most seminal live bands can now be seen in a completely new way, anywhere, anytime on the iPhone. Based on the award-winning photography book, Led Zeppelin: Live Dreams is now an app with interactive features and additional materials that could only be presented in an app. It is currently made available by Strategic Marketing and Management, LLC, exclusively through iTunes.
In 1993, critically acclaimed rock photographer Laurance Ratner released his lavish work, "Led Zeppelin Live Dreams". Based on his personal experiences at 22 LED ZEPPELIN concerts, this museum-quality coffee table book was itself a work of art, with a hand-made slipcase and silver sculpture on the cover. It was released in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the formation of LED ZEPPELIN in 1968. Unfortunately, the limited availability and high price tag kept it out of reach for the majority of LED ZEPPELIN fans worldwide. Now, almost two decades later, thanks to technology, Live Dreams is back and available to LED ZEPPELIN fans as an iPhone app.
The multi-media aspects of Live Dreams take the viewer/listener inside the experience of being at LED ZEPPELIN's legendary performances. The flow of the photography and text work together to make for a truly experiential journey all its own; the viewer/reader actually gets the feeling of Ratner's personal experience of witnessing the majesty of ZEPPELIN at their peak between 1972 and 1977.
The Live Dreams app features over 14,000 words of text and over 300 images; many that have never been released before, with interactive menus that allow various ways to experience the work. "Bookmarks" and "Favorites" functions allow the user to create their own mini-versions of the work and enjoy them in a slideshow format or to send copies of their favorite photos to their friends. Mini-episodes, called "Cornerstones," recreate special segments of a live LED ZEPPELIN performance as it actually happened, and allows the viewer to utilize their iPod music library so they can enjoy their favorite versions of LED ZEPPELIN songs while perusing the visual counterpart. Tales of Ratner's LED ZEPPELIN touring experiences, called "The Journeys," are told in vivid detail via both audio clips and text. There is also direct access to the online "Live Dreams Gallery" where limited edition archival prints may be purchased.
The opening splash screen with the original book's silver sculpture introduces the app's Main Menu. The navigation to the various sections is designed from the true fan's perspective for maximum attention to detail of LED ZEPPELIN iconography.
The app begins with the "Complete Experience." This section of the app basically includes everything the app offers; beginning with discussion about the app itself, the cover art, a Foreword and Introduction, and then the photos, various text passages and historical details about the actual shows.
One of the photo galleries is called the "Outtakes." These are photos that weren't part of the original book but that Ratner feels still have something special to say. It includes ultra-rare shots from two historical 1969 shows in Chicago. All of the photo galleries allow you to view thumbnail images for even more choices in navigation.
Ratner's LED ZEPPELIN experiences weren't limited to shooting concerts. In "The Journeys," he chronicles travels and adventures that were connected in various ways to the concerts. His writing has drawn considerable recognition and awards. David Letterman himself called "Live Dreams" "THE LED ZEPPELIN book" and USA Today proclaimed it "The ideal companion to their music."
"Live Dreams" was chosen for a special display on the Miller Genuine Draft-sponsored, multi-million-dollar LED ZEPPELIN memorabilia museum truck on the Jimmy Page and Robert Plant 1995 North American Tour.
"Live Dreams" was also presented with a special award "Recognizing Exceptional Creativity and Excellence in Design and Production" at the 1996 Music Journalism Awards, and was the subject of a mini-documentary on VH1 and featured on MTV News 12 times.
"Live Dreams" is an app that provides hours of pure enjoyment for the diehard LED ZEPPELIN fan, as well as lovers of great rock photography.
Pricing and Availability: Led Zeppelin: Live Dreams 1.1 is $3.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Music category.
In the 40th anniversary year of LED ZEPPELIN's seminal album "Led Zeppelin IV", CCEntertainment and Tim Woods are proud to present the epic concert event Whole Lotta Love: Led Zeppelin Celebration, touring Australia this September.
Featuring some of the country's finest rock artists, Whole Lotta Love is a passionate evocation of the music of LED ZEPPELIN, recreating the pure excitement and energy of one of the most influential bands the world has ever seen.
In 2011, the show boasts a spectacular lineup of guest vocalists including international rock legend and THE TEA PARTY frontman Jeff Martin, Steve Balbi (NOISEWORKS), Simon Meli (SWAY,THE WIDOWBIRDS, OOHLALA), Zkye (*not performing in Perth) and Natasha Stuart. They will be joined by a powerhouse eight-piece band, led by musical and artistic director Joseph Calderazzo (guitar).
Performing all of the classics from "Led Zeppelin IV", including "Stairway To Heaven", "Black Dog", "Rock And Roll", "When The Levee Breaks" and "Battle Of Evermore", as well as a collection of many other hits and rarities from the band's entire twelve-year career, Whole Lotta Love is a concert experience that "matches anything in this vein presented anywhere in the world." (Michael Smith, Drum Media)
Now in its ninth consecutive, sold-out year, Whole Lotta Love has packed some of the country's most prestigious live music venues, including Sydney's Enmore Theatre, and each year continues to win over a whole new wave of audiences.
The continued success and longevity of Whole Lotta Love is owed as much to the unwavering devotion of fans to the music as it is to the dedication of the performers, and the direction of Joseph Calderazzo, to creating an authentic LED ZEPPELIN concert experience.
The dates are as follows:
Sep. 15 - Sydney, AUS @ Enmore Theatre
Sep. 17 - Melbourne, AUS @ Palais Theatre.
Sep. 22 - Brisbane, AUS @ QPAC Concert Hall
Sep. 24 - Perth, AUS @ Burswood Theatre
Jim Sullivan of BostonHerald.com recently conducted an interview with DEEP PURPLE bassist Roger Glover. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
BostonHerald.com: DEEP PURPLE has done concerts with orchestras several times. What's this one about?
Glover: Yes, we've dabbled with orchestras before, and we were one of the first bands to do it. It was actually something Jon wrote, ("Concerto for Group and Orchestra" in 1969) and nothing to do with rock music. It was really a symphonic piece. We've also done our music with a bit of backing, which is a cruel way of saying what we're going to do this tour. But it's a bit more than that.
BostonHerald.com: Is it at all like METALLICA's "Symphony & Metallica" live CD?
Glover: Every time you mention rock bands and orchestras everyone says, "Oh, like METALLICA," which sticks in my throat a little bit. Nothing against METALLICA, but bands have been doing it way before METALLICA.
BostonHerald.com: How do you explain it then?
Glover: It's a DEEP PURPLE gig. There's no concession to the fact there's an orchestra there, and it's not really even an orchestra. It's some strings, some horns and it's as much jazz as it is orchestral-classical stuff. It's a rock concert with added heft. We don't quite know how it's going to sound.
BostonHerald.com: What does being called a classic rock band mean?
Glover: We're stuck in the States with that classic rock tag, so it's very difficult to get an audience of younger than about 40. It's a label. I think it hurts us, because we're not getting through to the younger audiences we get through to in the rest of the world. We've been big in France the last seven years and play big venues, which are always packed with teenagers and they have a ball. You go to America and play a shed somewhere and people are sitting down eating their popcorn, don't want to get up and barely want to clap.
BostonHerald.com: Do you have new material in the works?
Glover: We do actually. We had a writing session in March. We did manage to get together and agree to do an album. People were saying the business has changed, people don't buy albums anymore. I'm not of that belief. We're an album band. We were born and should die that way. An album is almost like a school report of a particular era, a great tradition
AC/DC's Brian Johnson isn't a big fan of religion
When he was young, Brian Johnson sang in a church choir. But in an interview with Pop Eater – an AOL blog – the 63-year-old AC/DC lead singer, whose band has sold 200 million albums worldwide, said religion wasn't his motivating factor.
"I did, me darling, and do you know why I did that?" Johnson said when the interviewer pointed out that people might be surprised to hear he sang in a church choir. "Was it religion? No, it was two shillings and sixpence a week!"
Johnson has a new book out called Rockers and Rollers: A Full-Throttle Memoir in which he touches on his thoughts about God. The topic of religion and his thoughts about God came up again during his Pop Eater interview.
"Well I don't believe in religion, let's put it that way," Johnson said. "I believe all religions are bad. I think they're a waste of time. Jesus was a clever man. He wasn't the son of God. We all know that he was a very clever, wonderful man and he said, 'Church is in here, meaning you are your own church.'"
Christian leaders were quick to respond to such claims.
"Viewing Jesus this way is not an option," said Drew Dixon, who serves as the pastor to families of New Covenant Baptist Church in Albertville, Alabama, in addition to writing for ChristAndPopCulture.com.
"C S Lewis said you must view Jesus as liar, lunatic or Lord. There aren't any other options. You can't say Jesus was a clever man but not the Son of God because Jesus claimed to be the Son of God."
Allen Palmeri, author of The Cyberspace Letters, a novel that touches on the influences of culture, also commented, "The highway to hell is paved both with good intentions and with bad philosophy like this."
Palmeri, also associate editor of Baptist news journal Pathway, continued: "Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. He is the alpha, which correlates with the Bible book of Genesis, and the omega, which lines up with the Bible book of Revelation. He's also the author of Brian Johnson's musical talent. When one day he comes to the end of his showmanship on earth, he will have to face the fact that Jesus is the door to God the Father, who is there."
Palmeri said he hopes Johnson deals with that fact sooner.
One Christian mother, named Shona, wondered about the ramifications of Johnson's comments.
"I think Johnson's lack of understanding and characterisation of Jesus and the fact that 'you are your own church' plays to his crowd," said Shona, the mother of two college-age sons. "However, for the young and impressionable who like AC/DC, it could affect their view of Christianity."
Johnson continued with his thoughts about the afterlife.
"If you're a good man you become contented, if you're a good person your dying breath is one of contentment that lasts for eternity and if you're a bad man and you've lived a bad life, you've done some wicked and evil things just for the heck of it, well that will hit you on your last breath of life, that's hell."
Dixon pointed out a problem with Johnson's statement that he says is pervasive in our culture.
"He's created a theology of comfort – a theology that suits him and the life he wants to lead," Dixon said, adding how clear Scripture is about the reality of hell being a place of torment. "But you can't do that."
The first-ever Latin American AC/DC tribute festival will be held in Lima, Peru on June 25 at the Estadio Monumental.
A group of die-hard Peruvian fans are organizing this eight-hour party which will feature international tribute bands such as HIGHWAY TO HELL (U.K./USA; well known by IRON MAIDEN fans for opening the last MCBRAIN DAMAGE tour in 2006 and is one of the only AC/DC tributes to share the stage with Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams in 2007), plus AC/DSHE (California, USA), LIVE WIRE (New York, USA) as well as local hotshots CRAZY DIZZY (Peru).
The show will be produced with cutting-edge technology and will include special effects such as a five-meter Hell's Bells replica, an inflatable real-size Rosie, a dozen Angus clones as well as spectacular fireworks.
The AC/DC Tribute Fest Peru is the kick-off for a grass-root campaign to bring AC/DC to Lima, Peru on their next world tour.
Peru was not part of the Black Ice tour despite a huge local AC/DC fan base, which is desperate to see their idols live in action.
More than 10,000 fans are expected to pay their tribute to the greatest rock and roll band ever. During the festival, fans will be able to sign a giant Peruvian flag to salute the band and express their desire for an AC/DC concert in Peru. This flag will serve as tangible proof of Peruvian fan enthusiasm as well as a warm and passionate invitation to Angus & Co. to come and perform in Peru.
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/soulflypremiere/acdcperu.jpg
British heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST kicked off their "Epitaph" world tour earlier tonight (Tuesday, June 7) at 013 in Tilburg, Holland. The show marked the band's first-ever concert with the band's latest addition, 31-year-old guitarist Richie Faulkner (LAUREN HARRIS, DIRTY DEEDS), who replaced Kenneth "K.K." Downing in April.
PRIEST's setlist was as follows:
01. Rapid Fire
02. Metal Gods
03. Heading Out To The Highway
04. Judas Rising
05. Starbreaker
06. Victim of Changes
07. Never Satisfied
08. Diamonds And Rust (JOAN BAEZ cover) (acoustic)
09. Prophecy
10. Night Crawler
11. Turbo Lover
12. Beyond the Realms of Death
13. The Sentinel
14. Blood Red Skies
15. The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown) (FLEETWOOD MAC cover)
16. Breaking the Law
17. Painkiller
Encore:
18. The Hellion
19. Electric Eye
20. Hell Bent for Leather
21. You've Got Another Thing Comin'
Check out photos of the concert at TheMetalCircus.com.
JUDAS PRIEST will launch the U.S. leg of its farewell world tour on October 12 in San Antonio and the band promises that it will go out with a bang. Singer Rob Halford said, "We're pulling out all the stops. We've built a brand new stage set, we've got all the effects that people love us for — the lasers, the fire, the bombs, the smoke, new costumes, and the bike. It's just a full-on metal extravaganza."
Guitarist Glenn Tipton added that the group will play something from each of its albums, including a few numbers that have never been performed live before. As for whether this is really the end of JUDAS PRIEST's touring days, Tipton added, "If somebody came along and said, 'Would you do a small string of dates,' we wouldn't automatically say no to that. But in general, this is probably the last chance you'll get to see PRIEST live."
On August 25, British metal legends JUDAS PRIEST will release the "Single Cuts" box set containing the band's complete U.K. CBS/Columbia singles. "Single Cuts" is testament to PRIEST's enduring influence and through the singles tells the story of one of the biggest metal bands of all time. Presented in a deluxe, numbered box, "Single Cuts" boasts a massive 52 tracks across 20 CDs, featuring original singles artwork and labels plus booklet including sleeve notes and photos.
The track listing:
* 1977
"Diamonds and Rust"
"Dissident Aggressor"
* 1978
"Better By You, Better By Me"
"Invader"
* 1978
"Evening Star"
"Starbreaker"
* 1978
"Before The Dawn"
"Rock Forever"
* 1979
"Take On The World"
"Starbreaker (Live)"
"White Heat Red Hot (Live)"
* 1979
"Evening Star"
"Beyond The Realms Of Death"
"The Green Manalishi"
* 1980
"Living After Midnight"
"Delivering The Goods (Live)"
"Evil Fantasies (Live)"
* 1980
"Breaking The Law"
"Metal Gods"
* 1980
"United"
"Grinder"
* 1981
"Don"t Go"
"Solar Angels"
* 1981
"Hot Rockin'"
"Breaking The Law (Live)"
"Steeler"
"You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise"
* 1982
"You've Got Another Thing Comin'"
"Exciter (Live)"
* 1982 - "(Take These) Chains"
"Judas Priest Audio File"
* 1984
"Freewheel Burning"
"Breaking The Law (Live)"
"You've Got Another Thing Comin'"
* 1984
"Some Heads Are Gonna Roll"
"The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)"
"Jawbreaker"
* 1986
"Turbo Lover"
"Hot For Love"
* 1986
"Locked In"
"Reckless"
"Desert Plains (Live)"
"Freewheel Burning (Live)"
* 1990
"Painkiller"
"United"
"Better By You, Better Than Me"
* 1991
"A Touch Of Evil"
"Between The Hammer And The Anvil"
"You've Got Another Thing Comin' (Live)"
* 1992
"Night Crawler"
"Breaking The Law"
"Living After Midnight"
JUDAS PRIEST will also issue "The Classic Albums Collection", a box set featuring remastered versions of all 17 of the band's albums, including the two Gull Records releases.
Because of undisclosed "personal reasons," the previously announced ROB ZOMBIE concerts at The Olympia Theatre in Dublin on June 28 and Ulster Hall in Belfast on June 29 have been canceled.
Full ticket refunds for the cancelled concert dates are now available from the point of purchase.
Promoters MCD and Rob Zombie wish to apologize for any inconvenience caused.
Rob Zombie recently welcomed ex-MARILYN MANSON drummer Ginger Fish into the current lineup of his band, replacing Joey Jordison, who is leaving to return to SLIPKNOT. The Pulse Of Radio asked Zombie if he could hear a difference in the group's sound with the new man on the kit. "It's hard to describe how they're different," he said. "I mean, you know, Joey's a very, like, more of a power drummer I would say, you know, just a more bombastic sort of drummer, and Ginger's more of a, kind of like a groove-style drummer. It's kind of funny 'cause as with anything, either style seems to work really well with our music, so it's good."
Fish played his first shows with Zombie back in February while Jordison was touring Europe with his side band MURDERDOLLS. Jordison rejoined Zombie's band for some headlining U.K. dates before departing again.
Fans will get to see Fish on the road with Zombie this summer, when Zombie co-headlines a string of North American dates with SLAYER. The trek begins on July 20 in Reading, Pennsylvania, finishing up on August 6 in Seattle.
Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced legendary heavy metal band MEGADETH recorded a customized soundtrack for the company's forthcoming action-adventure franchise NeverDead. "Never Dead", the official song sharing Konami's video game title, will appear on MEGADETH's 13th album, which the band is currently recording.
"The members of MEGADETH are speed-metal music pioneers with a world renowned reputation for producing song catalogs with original and progressive lyrics," said Shinji Hirano, President of Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "The NeverDead soundtrack is an example of pure imagination and it fully captures the essence of our game. We're proud to have such a distinctive band associated with our title."
MEGADETH has sold over 25 million albums worldwide, with five consecutive albums being certified platinum or multi-platinum in the United States and has garnered nine Grammy nominations under its belt.
"'Never Dead' was written specifically for the game, and the song's lyrics and concept fit perfectly with its transcendental nature," said Madelyn Scarpulla, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Creative Services for Roadrunner Records. "MEGADETH and Roadrunner are both looking forward to the mutually beneficial marketing partnership we have established with Konami with the launch of NeverDead and MEGADETH's new album coming this fall."
NeverDead, currently in production, is a third-person action game set in a futuristic world where humans are battling supernatural enemies across a dark post-apocalyptic metropolis. In the game, players will assume the role of a demonic hero agent named Bryce who, assisted by his female lead Arcadia, must undertake a series of missions to combat a demonic plague. NeverDead is expected to release later this year for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
MEGADETH previously wrote the song "Gears Of War" for the 2006 Xbox 360 game of the same name. The track was also included on the band's "United Abominations" album.
Leander Games recently secured the exclusive worldwide rights to develop MEGADETH-branded games for both the online and landbased industry.
"Worship Music", the long-awaited new studio album from ANTHRAX, one of the four original architects of speed and thrash-metal, has been confirmed for a September 13 release date on Megaforce Records (one day earlier internationally via Nuclear Blast Records), it is announced today. Appropriately, "Worship Music" will street the day before the band's triumphant return to their native New York to play at Yankee Stadium as part of the "Big Four" concert extravaganza.
Not only is "Worship Music" ANTHRAX's first studio release in eight years, but the album marks the return of vocalist Joey Belladonna, whose last studio work with the band was 1990's "Persistence of Time". Belladonna is now firmly back in the ANTHRAX lineup with drummer Charlie Benante, guitarists Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano, and bassist Frank Bello.
"Getting Joey back in as our full-time, permanent singer solidified us as a unit like we hadn't been in years," said Ian. "All of us were on the same page creatively, working together, writing together, and becoming a band again."
"I get goosebumps listening to the new music," Benante admitted. "Scott and Rob's guitars are absolutely on fire, Frankie kicks butt on bass, and hearing Joey sing, well, the band sounds like ANTHRAX — Joey's back and it's great."
Added Ian, "This record is filled with not just four years of our lives, but with our lifetime in the band. It encompasses it all, and when I listen to the record, I can hear all the energy and love and hate and pain and laughter that went into this."
The 11-track "Worship Music" was produced by ANTHRAX, Rob Caggiano and Jay Ruston and recorded over a four-year period at studios in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Belladonna's return to the band prompted some of the songs originally recorded to be re-crafted with fresh lyrics or tweaked to better suit his overall vibe and energy. Some of the songs were completely replaced with brand-new songs and, of course, all have Belladonna's inimitable vocal stamp on them.
"We had the unusual luxury of hindsight with this album," Ian explained. "We were able to live with the songs we originally recorded, look back on them and see what we really loved about them and what we could make better."
"I'm very happy with the record, it sounds like ANTHRAX," said Belladonna. "There are some interesting twists and turns on it, and plenty of tunes for fans to get their fingers on. I felt very comfortable working with Jay Ruston, and I think everyone brought to the table what they needed to. Now it's time for the fans to listen and get what they've been waiting for. I'll tell you, I'm really excited."
"Worship Music" is loaded with stand-out tracks. While "Judas Priest" is a nod to the huge influence that band has had on the members of ANTHRAX and metal heads everywhere. "I'm Alive" is beautiful and grand with a build that demands audience participation. "Crawl" is dark and moody, and filled with a lot of the emotion and stress the band was feeling when it was written. "Fight 'em 'til You Can't" is a song about killing zombies, and who doesn't love a good zombie song? It's the one new track that ANTHRAX has played live since they started touring with Belladonna a year ago, and has been getting tremendous audience response. The song "Earth on Hell" is classic ANTHRAX thrash. "The Devil You Know" is best-described as "an AC/DC groove filtered through an ANTHRAX lens," while "In The End" is epic-sounding and ANTHRAX's way of remembering the late Ronnie James Dio and Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott.
"'In The End' does have a melancholy feel," confessed Benante,"and when we play it live, Ronnie and Dimebag will be right there with us on stage."
And just where did the title "Worship Music" come from? "One night, many years ago, I fell asleep with the TV on," explained Benante. "About four or five in the morning, I woke up, picked up the remote and pulled up the digital program guide. There was a show on called 'Worship Music', and I thought 'what a great title for an album.' Most heavy metal fans worship their favorite bands, metal heads are so loyal to metal, going to a concert is like going to a house of worship. 'Worship Music' said it all."
When ANTHRAX first started "Worship Music", they had no idea if the music would ever see the light of day, but they carried on because making music is what they do, it's in their blood. According to Ian, "It took everything in us as people to make this record and it shows. We went back to square one and did it for the same reason we did it back then, because we worshipped music and we still do. Music is something worth worshipping."
ANTHRAX will support "Worship Music" with a massive world tour. Dates will be announced shortly.
There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the forthcoming Queensrÿche album, particularly in light of some comments that drummer Scott Rockenfield made to A.D.D. in August 2010 about being inspired by the likes of Lady Gaga. A.D.D. took a first listen to the album last night, and it's certainly not a dancey pop record nor an out and out metal record. Chaos is a melodic hard rock outing with some pop influences counterbalanced with aggressive metal cuts like "Retail Therapy" and "The Lie". The trippy closing cut "Big Noize" definitely has Pink Floyd shadings to it. Interestingly enough, one of the songs that Rockenfield composed music for, "At The Edge," is among the heaviest tracks on the album and is most like old school Queensrÿche. The album has some catchy parts on it and some moments that are less immediately accessible, but since we've only given the album one full listen, we'll reserve judgment until we delve deeper
into it. Either way, we predict a strong debate will erupt among hardcore fans about this latest release.
At the end of May, an animated Rockenfield checked in with A.D.D. to discuss what fans can expect from the forthcoming studio album Dedicated To Chaos (due out June 28th) and the group's upcoming 30th anniversary tour, which begins with some U.K. dates opening for Judas Priest before coming to the States in late July.
What can you tell us about Dedicated To Chaos. Is the title a play on Rage For Order?
I personally think that it does play [on that]. In a nutshell, I'll give you the story of what and why it is. We started working on this thing a year ago, and Geoff [Tate] had this concept for chaos. Our career has been 30 years [long], and it's basically been chaos. We've done a lot of different things, we've had ups and downs, etc. etc., so he threw out that idea and asked us to chew on some music that might reflect this broad picture. We started throwing some stuff around, and I think in doing that we started to define it as a Rage/Empire thing for us. We didn't go, "Let's do a real thick concept record," like we did with American Soldier or some of our other albums. We focused on songs and the [current] delivery method being single song downloads. We decided to do a strong record of tunes, kind of like what Empire would then become, and mixed it in with being modern in the Rage For Order concept. Once again, this is my definition of
how I proceeded to write material for the record. I wanted to combine those two eras for us because I'm really into them, the Rage but now. I compose and do all sorts of industrial stuff in these movies and other things, so I wanted to add that to what we did. For me, it defines those two eras for us, but in kind of a modern way. Geoff just took all the music that we kept feeding to him, and what he was interested in he would sing on. We wrote write a shitload of stuff and gave it to him, and what inspired him was what we started defining as the songs for the record. We ended up with a record with 16 tracks [12 made the cut], and we're going to promote this as the Dedicated To Chaos tour. But it's also our 30th anniversary this year, so that's also our big plug. It's also why I'm excited that we married some of our past with the present.
For you, which songs walk that line between past and present really well on this album?
They all kind of do. There are definitely a couple that I really enjoy because of how they were done and where they came from. One of them is called "At The Edge," and it's a real dark, heavy rock track. I composed the music and gave it to Geoff, and it ended up becoming a really strong piece on the record. It didn't really change much, and it's got a lot of great elements from the Rage era. I never really can find stuff that stands out because they all kind of stand out. Once again, it's another body of work, and in all honestly, it gives us an excuse to go out on tour. New record, it's all fun, we love making music, and then playing is where our nuts and bolts come from, financially and for the satisfaction of our fans. Touring is our thing. This'll be a great thing for us to leverage to go out with Roadrunner being supportive of us, to play a show for everybody and anybody in the world that we can get to. It'll just be fun, man.
Thirty years now, it just keeps going.
"Listen, if I played drums on a Gaga song, it would fucking shred. I would love to do that, although I don't think that would ever happen."
What kind of reaction did you get to the Cabaret tour last year? I heard mixed things from people. Some of them were confused by it.
There was no middle ground or gray area. You probably loved it or you probably hated it, and we saw all of that on the Blabbermouth sites of the world. Needless to say, that was another Queensrÿche experiment that we always do. We weren't going out to promote a new record, but we didn't just want to sit and make a record because to be honest, we get bored. We like to keep the movement going, and we like to see our fans. The invention of Cabaret was [that] Geoff loves to act. He really likes getting up and having a purpose on stage rather than just getting up and doing a light show and a rock set. He wanted to do something different. So he pitched that to us, and it became what it was. It was an opportunity for our families to get involved; our wives were onstage with us as part of the troupe, so it gave us excuses and covered the expenses of having them travel with us. That was nice for my wife and I, plus I could stare at her every night not
wearing any clothes.
Wasn't it weird to think that your fans were watching that, too?
That's where I think some fans liked that or didn't like that. Generally I'm blessed because I think my wife looks nice, and other people have commented the same, so it didn't bother me. We do things for us. If people enjoy it and want to come and see it, that's awesome, but in the end we all do it for us because we're the ones that have to live with it. We don't enjoy it when we're doing it for the wrong reason, I suppose. I don't think anything we ever do damages us, it's just different, that's all.
How will the 30th anniversary tour work in with the approach of the new album?
We're deep into rehearsals. The tour starts in late July here in the U.S. Our plan is to go out as the 30th anniversary concept, so we're basically going to play stuff off of every record, then we're going to add some of the new stuff in because it's the current thing. We're going to try to present an event. I can't explain most of it because we are still designing a lot of stuff, but hopefully it'll be a multimedia event that can even include some of the audience in somehow. I'm deep in most of the technology, so until I can define it I can't really tell you what's going to happen yet.
"I don't think anything we ever do damages us, it's just different, that's all."
When we spoke last summer, you were tossing out influences like Lady Gaga in a production sense as opposed to a musical sense. Some fans were not sure what to make of those comments. Could you clarify them now?
I remember when we talked about that, and I've gotten flak for those comments ever since I made them because unfortunately people didn't read it correctly or maybe I didn't explain myself correctly. I listen to a lot of that stuff, and still do, because I have kids that are teenagers, and that's all they like to listen to. I can't change the radio in the car when I'm driving because they won't let me, so I get to know it. In all honestly, I enjoy all of it. I like the Katy Perry stuff and can't stop getting out of my head, so there must be something to be said for some of that music. I've had to get to know and love it, and I think in doing that I've analyzed it on a deeper level: "Why is this so popular besides the fact that they're young and women?" Could that help my career for another 10 years if I could figure out why these kids like this stuff? Can I somehow be a part of that in the Queensrÿche thing, for example, but
still keep it Queensrÿche? I definitely don't want people think that we are making a Queensrÿche/Lady Gaga record, but in terms of production value and the delivery method of how she does certain things, or how somebody current like that does stuff, I think it's cool. Listen, if I played drums on a Gaga song, it would fucking shred. I would love to do that, although I don't think that would ever happen.
[continued below]
Queensrÿche circa 2011, Scott Rockenfield at front.
We made a metal record. It's definitely a heavy, dark Dedicated To Chaos type of record that is unlike anything out there. You're just inspired by things in life and use those inspirations in your own way. One of the songs I wrote on the record is called "Around The World" and was completely inspired by Moby, of all people, who I was deep into that week for some reason. I was listening to a bunch of Moby stuff on my iPod. I like him. I think he's an interesting guy who does his own thing, which I really find intriguing because I'm kind of a loner sometimes in my own world as well. So I analyzed a lot of what he was doing, and I wrote a song that was completely inspired by him. I think it became one of the strongest tunes on the record that people are going to be able to grasp onto. But when you listen to what I did, you'll think, "This was inspired by Moby?" People will probably be shocked, but it actually was. In a nutshell,
Queensrÿche listens to everything. All of us have different tastes, and when we get together and add that to make the songs, all those influences end up inside the songs in some ghostly fashion.
VH1 has once again partnered with Dr. Drew Pinsky for a fifth season of the hit reality series "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew". Similar to the first four cycles, the fifth season will follow the real-life experiences of celebrity patients undergoing detoxification and treatment at The Pasadena Recovery Center. This season will follow Michael Lohan (celebrity dad), Sean Young ("Blade Runner"), Dwight "Doc" Gooden (baseball star), Amy Fisher (Long Island Lolita), Steven Adler (GUNS N' ROSES), Bai Ling ("The Crow"), Jessica "Sugar" Kiper ("Survivor"), and Jeremy Jackson ("Baywatch") on their quest for sobriety. "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew" is set to premiere Sunday, June 26 at 9 p.m. on VH1.
In the fifth installment of the "Celebrity Rehab" franchise, Dr. Drew takes viewers behind the closed doors of rehab and inside the often misunderstood treatment process. From heartbreak to hope we follow Dr. Drew and his patients on their difficult and deeply emotional journey to sobriety. An often raw and unflinching look at the many faces of addiction, Dr. Drew shows us that rehab is not a glamorous spa vacation for celebrities as portrayed in the media but a profound life changing process that offers hope for a better life.
Dr. Drew is the host of the nationally syndicated late night radio show "Loveline" as well as a respected practicing MD, board certified in internal and addiction medicine, who is staff at Huntington Hospital and assistant clinical professor of KECK USC School of Medicine. He is the author of the New York Times best seller "The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Seducing America" (HarperCollins) and "Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Again" (HarperCollins). Dr. Drew co-authored the first academic study on celebrities and narcissism that was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Elsevier) in September 2006, and is the first systematic, empirical scholarly study of celebrity personality. Dr. Drew hosted VH1's "Sober House" and "Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew" and can be seen on MTV's "Teen Mom" and "16 & Pregnant". Additionally, Dr. Drew is hosting a new prime time show on HLN called "Dr. Drew" and will also be hosting a daytime
syndicated talk show "Dr. Drew's Lifechangers" on the CW network coming fall 2011.
Also returning for their fifth seasons to assist Dr. Drew are counselor Bob Forrest and resident technician Shelly Sprague. Joining the cast this season is Dr. John R. Sharp, M.D. Dr. Sharp is a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School, and the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. His expertise is in the integrated treatment of depression and bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, attention deficit disorder, and addiction. Dr. Sharp has been recognized as Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and of The Academy of Psychosomatic. He maintains an active private practice in Boston and Los Angeles. Also joining the cast this season is Jennifer Gimenez as a resident technician. Jennifer was previously seen on "Sober House" as the house manager.
Full episodes and extra scenes from "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew" will be available at CelebRehab.VH1.com and on VH1 Mobile each week following the show's on-air premiere.
Angela Villand of Guitar International recently conducted an interview with SEVENDUST guitarist John Connolly. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
Guitar International: Let's talk about Dimebag Darrell (PANTERA). It's pretty clear to anyone who knows you, knows that Dime's influence on you is solid. Not to mention the impact your friendship with him has had on both your life and your musicianship. It's unmistakable, undeniable.
John Connolly: Without him, I don't know what I would sound like. For me, it all started with METALLICA and James Hetfield, but I was more of a drummer during that stretch. I really hadn't focused on the guitar part of it, even though James is, by far, one of the baddest rhythm players on the planet. PANTERA was the band that just hit me in the side of the face and I went "What…the…fuck…was…that!?" I'd never heard anything like it. People talk about like when NIRVANA came along and reinvented music. Well, METALLICA invented the style and PANTERA came along and gave it some "swagger." It was different. It was the same, but a totally different approach with everything that he did. He claimed he hit bad notes all the time but you'd never know it because of a lot of the rules that he'd go by, like "If you fuck up once, fuck up four times in a row so that everyone thinks that you meant to do it." I'd say "Alright cool, so when I hit that bad note, I'm
supposed to remember the bad note?" And he'd say, "Yeah just keep murdering the bad note." [Laughs] I never saw the guy stagger. I never saw him drop the note. I never saw him look out of his element or uncomfortable. It never looked like he really had to concentrate on anything that he was doing. Even though; he'd actually sometimes have to get the guitar up on his knee or he'd have to lean down on the wedge or and kind of kneel into the wedge to get to some of the positions he was getting to. It was effortless for him. It was something that was so natural. He had such a precise thing about it. I mean, for all those guys that played so fast, he seemed to have that top gear and it was just some of the best stuff that I've heard. He had such a blues mentality but he was a shredder. He took a lot of his stuff from Eddie Van Halen, and I do too. I get a lot more of my Eddie through Dime than I realize.
Guitar International: Have you or the band thought about writing a tribute to Dimebag?
John Connolly: The funny thing is that "Hero" was that song. It was on the record right after that happened. We called it "Hero". It wasn't specifically about Dimebag. It was more of a working title, because when we did the music that's what inspired us. As far as a lyrical thing, I'm sure at some point and time it'll come to that. I guess part of us is still in that denial factor that we really don't ever want to let it go in the first place. It's been years. It's been a long time since it happened. I don't know. When a guy that big goes like that… [Pauses]…. Randy Rhoads died in an airplane with somebody who was probably doing something stupid. Dime was just jamming up there on stage, throwing down, which ironically was probably the way he would've wanted to go. The last thing he remembered was a ripping solo from the first song of the show, so he definitely went out the right way.
Guitar International: Dimebag story time!
John Connolly: I think I've got more than my share. [Laughs] There are so many good stories. Probably the most memorable was the time he had me both throwing up and pissing at the bar in the Ice Palace in the Amphitheater in Dallas. That was pretty cool. [Laughs] Me and Dave Williams from DROWNING POOL had been drinking all day. We finally hooked up with him at the bar and it was on. Let's just say …we don't remember much. Dave woke up in a pile of puke in the front grass. He was in the yard! He never made it in the house. It was one of those nights. Probably the coolest though, for us as a band, and for me personally, was actually getting to jam "Walk" with jim in Dallas. That was probably the coolest. I've got a couple of pictures from that show in my home studio. Some fans had taken pics of that out at the show. They came down to the bus and gave me the pictures and I've got 'em up on the wall at the house. It's cool, them and me and everyone up
there jamming. That was probably one of the coolest times hanging with Dime. They had this band that they were kind of "backing" called GASOLINE. They did, I guess, four or five Texas dates with us, and was off (the road) 'cause they were off forever before they got the DAMAGEPLAN thing going. They'd just hop on the bus and ride around and follow the tour for three or four days and we'd ended in Dallas. The whole time we were talking…and we were doing "Walk" every night up on stage and Dime said "I gotta get up there and do it with ya'll!" But he wanted to do it right, you know, on one of his guitars; that made sense to him, so he could actually do the solo and do everything. So we said "Alright, we'll do it in Dallas." So Dime and Rex came up there, Vinnie (Paul) was back there on the drums. It was cool, just getting to hang with those guys and actually getting to jam one of our favorite songs from them.
Guitar International: SEVENDUST doesn't sound like anything else, and the way you play your guitar is very unique. It's at the chore of what the SEVENDUST sound is and always will be. You don't follow the same "rules" as other musicians either.
John Connolly: First of all, we're tuned down to drop-tuning, which means all bets are off on the bottom string. Second of all, we're tuned down to B, so if someone says play a D chord, I know where the D chord is if you want that note. It's not gonna look like a D (when you see me play it) because that's not where the "shape" is (on the scale). I kind of live in a different place on the guitar. I work more in patterns and rough shapes. I know a major scale and I probably know a minor scale. Other than that, I'm a little lost. I gotta hunt and peck some things. I guess that's the difference. I come from a drummer's point of view and that part of the music. It's not that I don't want to learn it, but it's just been something that I kind of get the grasp of it. I don't want to know too many of the rules. I've always been like that, even back when I was in college. Rules in music suck. Some of the coolest things that I think don't make any sense. If I find
something that sounds cool, sometimes I play something and it's not even in the same key as the rest of the song but it sounds killer. I don't like getting hemmed in by the rules, because if I don't know that they don't "make sense" and they sound good, then I'm gonna use it. [Laughing] I don't want to know all of the boundaries and what I'm not supposed to do.
Canadian thrash metal veterans ANNIHILATOR have tapped CRYPTOPSY drummer Flo Mounier for their summer festival and headline shows.
Commented ANNIHILATOR mainman/guitarist Jeff Waters : "Just returned home from a weekend jam with Flo in Quebec. [He is a] fantastic drummer and an honor for us as musicians to play with such a high-calibre drummer. While he certainly meets the high standards we set for ANNIHILATOR's drumming (Mike Mangini [STEVE VAI, DREAM THEATER], Randy Black [PRIMAL FEAR]), he brings in his own style, along with some serious mega-speed that will certainly keep us on our toes!"
Added Mounier: "It is a great pleasure and honor to be performing with the legendary ANNIHILATOR!!! I grew up listening to this Canadian tech/thrash metal band and I do consider this a terrific opportunity and a personal challenge."
ANNIHILATOR will perform at the 2011 edition of the Festival d'Été de Québec (Quebec City International Summer Festival) on July 10 at the Imperial Theater. This will mark the band's exclusive Canadian appearance this summer, a first for Quebec City and the first show in 18 years that ANNIHILATOR has played in North America.
Despite ANNIHILATOR's lengthy absence from North American stages, the band has been a success around the globe since its 1989's debut release, "Alice In Hell". With 13 studio CDs, millions of records sold and dozens of world tours under their belt, the members of ANNIHILATOR are fired up to show metalheads in Canada why ANNIHILATOR has earned a reputation as one of the best live international acts out there today.
Bassist/co-vocalist Evan Seinfeld has left seminal New York City hardcore/metal band BIOHAZARD.
"We have a long history together, but it's time for a change," said guitarist/co-founder Bobby Hambel. "We wish Evan well."
Scott Roberts, who played on the band's 2005 "Means To An End" album and has been part of the BIOHAZARD extended family since, will step in for Seinfeld when BIOHAZARD plays the U.K.'s Download festival on June 12, and again on June 13 at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards in London. Hambel, guitarist/vocalist Billy Graziadei and drummer Danny Schuler will begin scouting for a permanent replacement when they return to the U.S.
Working with producer Toby Wright, BIOHAZARD has just completed its first new studio album in six years and the first with the original lineup since 1994's "State of The World Address". The LP will be released this fall, and will be followed by an extensive world tour, with concerts planned in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
"We had a great time recording this album and we're psyched about it," said Graziadei. "We're really looking forward to having everyone hear it and to get back on the road to rip it up!"
"I think it's one of the best albums we've ever done," echoed Schuler, "so we're ready to see what the future holds."
In a May 2011 interview with "The Big Rock Show", Graziadei stated about BIOHAZARD's long-awaited tenth studio album, "I think the reason we ended up kicking out a record of this stature is probably because we went on tour and played live first. There was no other reason — it wasn't business, it wasn't money; there's not much money in this genre of music, especially with our career. It was more so to get a chance to rewrite history.
"People kind of wrote BIOHAZARD off. And one thing for me, personally, was I always wished that we could have gotten back together with Bobby and we never did. So that was important for us. And that brought us back into that live element of the band. It's like we never stopped; we got on stage together and it was like we were 19 again. And we rocked it; it was awesome. That live energy made it so we were able to go back and be on the right foot going into the studio to make a record."
"I think that we had some records that defined us in the past, and this record is gonna be the record that will rewrite history for BIOHAZARD in a lot of ways. It's the meat and potatoes of BIOHAZARD, but there's a growth… we stepped up in the songwriting… kind of what we have experienced over the years into BIOHAZARD without changing the sound of BIOHAZARD. It was difficult to continue to be satisfied as a musician and as an artist but yet remain true to what we have inside, and that transcribes in the writing. You still hear the passion, the angst and the energy that I felt and I hear when I listen to 'Urban Discipline' and some of our early records. But it's just a step forward in a good way."
On the songwriting process for the new CD:
"What we did is we went into the studio and we were in the studio for a couple of weeks and we kicked out 12 songs, and we were like, 'Cool. Fucking awesome. This is gonna be easy. We know BIOHAZARD; we could do this with our eyes closed. And then we stepped back and we listened to everything, and we were like… I said to Danny, 'It's cool, and there's really cool moments and I love a lot of the stuff, but if we take our time and we are brutally honest with each other and we go in and throw out anything that's crap, anything that's not 100 percent that we all four of us feel 100 percent about, we're gonna make a record that's gonna be a timely record; people are gonna appreciate that as the heart and soul of BIOHAZARD.'
"It was easy for us to go in and just kick out a bunch of cool, groovy riffs, but we threw those songs out, kept a couple of things here and there. It took a lot longer, but we made a record that is gonna be timely in our career, not a record that is just gonna be, 'Oh, cool, it's an excuse to tour.' I think that in the past, sometimes we kind of settled on that for many reasons. But this record was more important to us than anything that's going on in our lives — we all put our lives on hold and really took our time in being brutally honest with each other and made a great record."
"It doesn't really matter where the song starts from — it could be three of us sitting in a room, it could be two of us, one of us coming in with a demo, or someone could just have a riff — but wherever the song is born from, lyrically or musically, we all put it through what we call the "meatgrinder.' We all put in our ideas — 'What about this? What about that?' — and we jam on the song and sometimes rip it apart, and sometimes it doesn't need much work. But it's the individual input that makes it BIOHAZARD. Pretty much any of us could write a solo record, but it's the input of the other guys that makes what I write BIOHAZARD and vice versa for those guys."
On collaborating with producer Toby Wright, who has previously worked with KORN, SLAYER, MÖTLEY CRÜE, KISS, FEAR FACTORY, IN FLAMES, STONE SOUR and OZZY OSBOURNE, among others:
"Toby was great; he's a great dude, and I'm looking forward to working with him again. He brought something to the table that no other producer has brought before. He stayed with us through thick and thin; no producer we've ever worked with has stayed with us for a year. And Toby, he was focused. He didn't write anything, he didn't do anything other than just say, 'No, do it again.' He helped us kind of organize everything and even though I'm a producer outside of BIOHAZARD and I have a studio here in L.A., it's different when you produce your own band; you can't do that. You have to have an objective person — an outsider and someone everyone respects that isn't really tied to what you're doing emotionally. So having Toby around, he was there every during the writing [process] and rehearsals, and it was great. It was the first time in our career that we had that much attention [from a producer]. But it was weird — it was kind of like having somebody
there for support but without interjecting any ideas that would cloud up who you are. When we got into the studio, he stepped up on a different tip as far as a producer goes, and I learned a lot from him as a producer and as a musician; he really helped me individually — from singing and playing guitar to the way he recorded us. He's a [good] communicator of ideas; [he would say] 'I want it to sound like this,' and he helped attain that. So it was great. We had a couple of disasters [that happened during the recording process], but that's life."
Swedish all-girl hard rock band CRUCIFIED BARBARA will enter the studio this summer to begin recording its third full-length album for a late 2011 release. Helming the new CD will be producer Chips Kiesbye, who has previously worked with HELLACOPTERS, SAHARA HOTNIGHTS, MILLENCOLIN, NOMADS, WILMER X and BONAFIDE, among others.
In other news, CRUCIFIED BARBARA will play at several festivals this summer, including Hellfest in France, Norway Rock in Norway and the Stockholm Pride Festival in Sweden.
CRUCIFIED BARBARA's second full-length album, "Til Death Do Us Party", was released in February 2009. The CD was produced by Mats Levén (THERION, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, KRUX, TREAT, AT VANCE, ABSTRAKT ALGEBRA) and features guest appearances by guitarist Phil Campbell (MOTÖRHEAD) and Mats Levén.
Good Fight Music has just released a second free sampler via Amazon.com featuring songs from THE CHARIOT, MADBALL and THIS OR THE APOCALYPSE, among others.
Obtaining the new sampler is easy. Just head over to Amazon.com and download eight free tracks by your favorite Good Fight Music artists. But hurry, this is a limited time offer!
Track listing:
01. THE CHARIOT - "Robert Rios"
02. MADBALL - "Invigorate"
03. THE CONTORTIONIST - "Contact"
04. CONDITIONS - "The End of Progression"
05. THIS OR THE APOCALYPSE - "The Incoherent"
06. FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND - "Front Row Seats...."
07. WHILE SHE SLEEPS - "My Conscience, Your Freedom"
08. S.O.S. - "Keep Me Outside" (brand new, unreleased track)
The new sampler includes a special, previously unreleased track from S.O.S., to be included on the band's new EP, "I Owe You Nothing", which is due on June 21. This song will not be available anywhere else until the album is released.
THE CHARIOT, MADBALL, THE CONTORTIONIST, CONDITIONS, THIS OR THE APOCALYPSE and WHILE SHE SLEEPS all released albums through Good Fight Music in 2010, many of which garnered Billboard-charting positions. Each of these bands continues to tour into 2011 in support of these excellent releases, all the while gearing up for secondary releases with the label.
FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND released its newest album, "Welcome Home Armageddon", on Good Fight Music in March 2011.
MONSTRO, the new Atlanta, Georgia-based band featuring former BLOODSIMPLE bassist Kyle Sanders, ex-BLOODSIMPLE drummer Bevan Davies, ex-TORCHE guitarist Juan Montoya and guitarist/vocalist Charlie Suarez, will release its self-titled debut album on September 6 via Vagrant Records. The CD was recorded over a 14-day period earlier this spring at a studio in Atlanta with producer (and ALICE IN CHAINS vocalist) William DuVall.
"We didn't waste a moment [in the studio], and it worked like a band is supposed to work," said Sanders.
"The album gets spacey, dreamy, and tripped-out, and then it gets straight-up heavy. I want it to be some kind of escape for people and for them to walk away from it happy and feeling completed in some way."
Fans can catch MONSTRO live on tour this fall when they support KYUSS LIVES! and THE SWORD on one of the most highly anticipated rock tours of the season. The tour begins in Toronto, Ontario on September 16 and includes stops in major cities across the U.S. before wrapping up in Pomona, California at the Fox Theater on October 8.
In a May 2010 interview with AOL's Noisecreep, Sanders stated that MONSTRO "brings in a whole new world of elements. There's plenty of heaviness, but also deep psychedelic, almost trance-like moments, with a dark, soulful side vocally," while Davies revealed the band's songs are "more musically driven than vocally, and we are not ashamed to indulge ourselves on our instruments. I feel like our songs are more like mini-journeys and less like hooks and catch phrases."
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/monstroband.
DRAGGING THE CASKET, the solo project of guitarist L-G Hakamo (formerly L-G Jonasson) of the Swedish death/thrash outfit ARISE, has released its debut album, "The Undead".
The CD is available for streaming and free download in various formats and with complete cover artwork directly from the project's web site.
"The Undead" track listing:
01. Impaled By Death
02. Sickened
03. Buried
04. Empty Casket
05. Let Them Swing
06. We Are The Ones
07. Cease To Exist
Commented L-G: "I basically got tired of getting fucked over by record labels, spending a fortune on studio time and compromising about the direction of songs. I wanted to try how good it could sound if I did everything myself. Realizing my weaknesses in the vocal department, I managed to team up with a great guy named Jonatan Storm, who delivered all the vocal recordings really fast. I owe him big time for this!"
After 24 years away from the metal scene, legendary Spanish metallers BANZAI played a comeback headlining show in front of 22,000 fans on Saturday, June 4 in Madrid.
BANZAI was one of the respected metal bands in Spain back in the '80s and 24 years they have returned with the same basic formation: Jose Antonio Manzano (also in MANZANO, EMERGENCY and NIAGARA), Salvador Domiguez (Miguel Ríos' guitarist) and David Biosca.
BANZAI's show in Madrid was recorded for a double CD and DVD, which will include bonus features.
Italian gothic metal band THEATRES DES VAMPIRES recorded all the shows on its recent European tour with HD cameras and professional digital audio equipment. At the moment Fabian Varesi from THEATRES DES VAMPIRES and Christian Ice from Temple of Noise studio are working together to finalize a new DVD and live CD. This new release will be produced by Aural Music/Dreamcell11 in a deluxe artbook that will contain both the live DVD and the live CD plus some brand-new unreleased songs and an exclusive roadbook of 50-plus pages. The live DVD will include the whole concert in Moscow at Plan B club, pro-recorded with multi-angle HD cameras. As a special bonus, the DVD will contain a long and exclusive backstage documentary of the whole 2011 European tour. The audio CD will have the great quality of the latest TdV productions.
According to the band, "[This is] the FIRST time ever that THEATRES DES VAMPIRES have released a live DVD recorded by a great staff with high professional equipment. As you will remember, the last DVD live from THEATRES DES VAMPIRES, 'The Addiction Tour 2006', was made using low-fi clips made by fans of the band. This time the result will be terrific, a 'must-have' for each THEATRES DES VAMPIRES fan."
"Moonlight Waltz Tour 2011" will be released this winter on Aural Music/Dreamcell11.
Video footage of THEATRES DES VAMPIRES performing on March 19, 2011 at Wings Club in Bucharest, Romania can be viewed below (courtesy of www.bloodbath.ro).
THEATRES DES VAMPIRES released its new album, "Moonlight Waltz", on January 14 via Aural Music/Soulfood. According to a press release, the CD contains "13 tracks of pure vampirism, romantic lyrics, lyrical voices, strong orchestration, powerfull guitars and powerfull drumming. All the elements that you loved in THEATRES DES VAMPIRES are back in this new production. [The album features] a new modern sound and a super-modern production that took six months of work in the studio for recording and mixing it, offering you the best experience of vampirism as always, with the enchanting vocals of the mistress of your nightmare: Countess Sonya Scarlet."
THEATRES DES VAMPIRES is:
Sonya Scarlet: Vocals
Fabian Varesi: Keyboards
Zimon Lijoi: Bass
Gabriel Valerio: Drums
Stephan Benfante: Guitar
"The Beginning Of Times", the new album from Finnish melancholic dark rock/metal icons AMORPHIS, entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 16 — the best chart position ever scored by an AMORPHIS album in that country.
As previously reported, "The Beginning Of Times" landed at position No. 1 on the Finnish chart.
Released on May 27 via Nuclear Blast Records, "The Beginning Of Times" is described as "the most challenging AMORPHIS album so far in terms of both music and lyrics." Its central character is the iconic hero of Finnish mythology, Väinämöinen, whose tale has been masterfully retold by lyricist Pekka Kainulainen.
"The Beginning Of Times" was produced by the band; vocals were recorded under the guidance of Marco Hietala (NIGHTWISH, TAROT) in his home studio in Kuopio. Like its predecessors, the album was mixed by Mikko Karmila. Its cover artwork shows Travis Smith's magnificent interpretation of the mythological birth of the world from a goldeneye's egg.
"The Beginning Of Times" track listing:
01. Battle For Light
02. Mermaid
03. My Enemy
04. You I Need
05. Song Of The Sage
06. Three Words
07. Reformation
08. Soothsayer
09. On A Stranded Shore
10. Escape
11. Crack In A Stone
12. Beginning Of Time
13. Heart's Song (digipack bonus track)
Decibel magazine conducted an extensive interview with MORBID ANGEL members David Vincent (bass, vocals) and Trey Azagthoth (guitar) for the cover story of its July 2011 issue. A few excerpts from the article follow below.
On drummer Pete Sandoval's current status after undergoing extensive back surgery to repair a prolapsed disc:
David Vincent: "The doctors told him he would probably feel better in six months, but that didn't happen. It's not even about the pain going away — playing drums is not a relaxing job. I think right now he's able to get up, pop a couple of pain pills and go about his day — go to the store, do a few things around the house, light stuff like that. It's an entirely different thing for him to be able to sit behind his kit, and we understand that. Nobody's rooting for him more than we are, but I'd like to see a little more improvement than what I've seen."
"[Current MORBID ANGEL drummer] Tim [Yeung] brings a lot to the table. I like him personally, and he's a damn good player. He's not Pete, though. There's only one Pete, and obviously I'm not happy that Pete has had some of the physical challenges that he's had. Obviously Pete's not happy about it either. But it's out of my control and it's out of Pete's control, too. We want him to have a speedy recovery, and anything I can do to help him is on my list of important things."
On the six songs Trey wrote for MORBID ANGEL's new album, "Illud Divinum Insanus", which will be released on June 7 (one day earlier internationally) via Season of Mist:
Trey Azagthoth: "I did some that could be considered more traditional, and then I did some real exploratory-type stuff. As far as the traditional, I'd have to say the inspiration came from vintage big-band swing, but done in a more extreme fashion. It's swing, but at a high tempo. Even the stuff that has blast beats and real fast double-bass, the way the melody plays off the beat, it has a swing to it. But that's really not that new for us, because even songs like 'Blasphemy' [from 'Altars Of Madness'], that was one pretty much a waltz, but with blast beats. Even 'Rebel Lands', from 'Blessed Are The Sick', had a swing to it. So, that's not new for us, but I maybe found a different way to do it with these new songs."
"I did three songs ['Too Extreme!', 'Destructos Vs. The Earth/Attack' and 'Profundis - Mea Culpa'] that were definitely a whole new approach. One was based on industrial hardcore, one was based on speedcore and one was based on terrorcore, which are inspirations I've been getting into lately as far as electronic music. I've been exploring that stuff for quite a while now because I'm always trying to find new flavors, new movements, new patterns. I like to keep it fresh, because that's what keeps it exciting to me as an artist. So, on those particular songs, the guitars are acting more like what synthesizers would do in electronic music, but it's guitars with interesting effects."
On leftover new MORBID ANGEL material that hasn't been released yet:
Trey Azagthoth: "We're gonna throw those out later this year or at the beginning of next year, but they're also inspired by electronic music. I have one inspired by blackbeat music, and that could later be remixed by a producer who does, say, dubstep, or whatever's gonna fit best. I'm basically just trying to explore music and push boundaries and create something new, which is something that we've been doing anyway."
On whether they are concerned that MORBID ANGEL fans might not necessarily be psyched about "Illud Divinum Insanus"'s techno-industrial sensibilities:
Trey Azagthoth: "I'm not worried about it at all because I don't do it for others' approval. And I think all the real fans of this band understand that already. We don't check into the scene to see what scene people accept or don't accept. Me and David did an interview when 'Altars' came out where I said the same thing: We don't check into the latest book of cool to figure out where we're gonna go with our stuff. We look inside ourselves, and I think that's what fans of the band have come to expect. And I think they appreciate that, because they know it's as real as it gets."
David Vincent: "When we first came out with 'Blessed Are The Sick', people thought it was really different. It took them a long time to embrace it. And that's fine. After everyone bagged on that record for two years and subsequently started sounding like that, we got signed to Warner and everybody's immediate comments were, 'Sellout!' But then 'Covenant' was the fastest, angriest record we had done. So, we challenge ourselves musically and we challenge our listeners. There are plenty of bands that have a really simple, easy formula, and you can predict exactly what you're gonna get on every record. We've never been that way, and there's no reason to start now."
"The way we go about doing what we're doing now is no different than the way we went about doing 'Altars Of Madness'. We played the shit out of our instruments, tapped into our creativity, and delivered. And that's exactly what we did on the new record. We could've gone back through our catalog and said, 'OK, this song and this song did really well for us.' And then we could've just rewritten them. But we didn't do any of that — nothing like it. We grew once again. It's not that big of a change, but people are gonna hear things they're not used to hearing. And like I said, it's still very extreme."
Decibel magazine's entire cover story on MORBID ANGEL can be found in the July issue, which is available on newsstands now.
Terry Butler (DEATH, MASSACRE, SIX FEET UNDER, DENIAL FIEND, OBITUARY) and Rick Rozz (MANTAS, DEATH, MASSACRE, M INC.) will celebrate the 20th anniversary of MASSACRE's classic "From Beyond" album by embarking on a European tour later this year.
Commented Butler in a statement released to BLABBERMOUTH.NET: "Rick and I are very excited about bringing MASSACRE to Europe. We want to give the fans (new and old) a chance to hear MASSACRE again. This is not a 'farewell tour' or a 'reunion tour.'"
Added Rozz: "I would just like to say I am involved in this tribute to MASSACRE, a band that I spent many years of my life in, in a few different ways, and have written many songs for. I now have been invited by Terry Butler to be involved in this tribute. This is not, and there never will be, a reunion. This, to me, is a few friends, new and old, paying tribute to part of Terry Butler and my past, so let's have some fun, and put these 20-plus-year-old tracks in overdrive, This will be the most powerful/heavy/brutal MASSACRE live gig in the history of the band, in my opinion."
The rest of the touring band's lineup, exact cities/dates and opening bands will be announced soon.
The Norwegian foreign ministry has begun training aspiring diplomats in "TNBM – True Norwegian Black Metal" – after foreign service missions reported a rise in enquiries about the musical genre from around the world. Indeed, the popularity and scale of the black metal phenomenon were demonstrated recently as one of the style's foremost proponents, Dimmu Borgir, took the stage in Oslo with an orchestra and choir in a collaboration that has gained widespread media attention.
The head of the foreign ministry's centre of excellence, Kjersti Sommerset, told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv that "we now have 106 foreign service missions and they get many enquiries from people who want information about Norwegian black metal as a phenomenon. In the training program, we have a large cultural program in order to give the trainees a good understanding of Norwegian culture and the cultural industry."
Black metal "is clearly a part of this," Sommerset added.
'Global awakening'
Author Håvard Rem, the author of a leading book on TNBM called Innfødte skrik ("Native calls"), described the phenomenon to Dagens Næringsliv as "a global awakening that gets the children of the '68ers to search for their roots from pre-colonial and pre-Christian times."
Rem suggests that "young people all over the world identify with this search," and explained that where young Norwegian boys might find "Norse religion and Odin" in their cultural roots, "in Asia, Vedic metal has arisen with TNBM as its inspiration." Rem supports efforts to train budding diplomats in the subtleties of black metal, stating that "for people under 40, it is this that they connect to Norway" and that "even if one does not like the music, it quickly becomes a topic for discussion."
Rem's own lectures to the foreign ministry trainees also include information about a dark period in black metal history during the 1990s, when a number of murders, acts of violence and incidents of church-burning occurred that put the movement under the spotlight. "You have to realize that this is the history, but it was 20 years ago and, today, Norwegian bands are acceptable," Rem told Dagens Næringsliv. He stressed that the past problems of Norwegian black metal were not necessarily relevant to selling the genre today, stating that "one can talk about Norwegian salmon without talking about salmon lice, and Ibsen was seen as destructive in his day."
Aspiring foreign policy professionals themselves are reportedly keen on the move. Silje Bryne, who will work in the Norwegian mission in Paris next year, told Dagens Næringsliv that she feels she "will have a very big use for this" in the future. "I see the value in not just talking about Ibsen and fjords when one talks about Norway, but also about the export product that is black metal." Bryne added that having "such a strong brand that means that we stand out among the Nordic countries is worth its weight in gold, it's black gold."
'Goosebumps all over'
Meanwhile, in Oslo, leading black metal band Dimmu Borgir has received much attention for its most recent concert in Oslo, for which the band took the stage with Norwegian Broadcasting's Kringkastingsorkestret (the Norwegian Radio Orchestra) and Schola Cantorum, a chamber choir associated with the Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo. In total, 96 musicians graced the stage at Oslo Spektrum and gave the 3,500 audience members an enhanced experience of the symphonic black metal sound, with Dimmu Borgir playing a number of songs from classic albums such as Death Cult Armageddon and Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia.
Many commentators were impressed by the spectacle but noted that the different sounds often cancelled one another out. Nonetheless, newspaper Aftenposten commented that "when it works, you get goosebumps all over."
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