BURST Magazine Issue 16, April 2014 by BURST Magazine

SupA beginn ern er’s gu atuide to ral

April 2014 Issue 16 | $1.99

Robert Rodriguez -Vol 1Adam Darski

and The Holy Book

Anette Olzon Also Inside

Exposed

...and more

XStorieS Ray

9 772241 538000

ISSN 2241-5386

Sonata Arctica Phase Indica

“When I walk out of the stage I know my name is...”

Eric Burdon

would you kill for a photo? www.argophotography.com

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3 Burst Magazine

pages 6-19 Articles

pages 20-45 Interviews

pages 46-50 Albums Reviews

page 52 Director’s Cut

Eric Burdon If the 1950’s were the infancy of Rock, then the 1960’s were certainly its adolescence. It was a time when the genre grew, diversified and matured. It was what many people refer to as the Golden Age of Rock and the era gave rise to many great musical icons.

page 54 Film Reviews

Read the whole story and interview on page 20

Introducing Knockin’ On

Heaven’s DoorBY helen marie joyce

page 58 TV Series Beginner’s Guide

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publisher

Raphael Aretakis

editor in chief

Spiros Smyrnis

senior editors

Cristina Alossi Sissy Fanouraki Jo Gogou Panagiotis Tsoutsis

editors

Helen Marie Joyce Kostas Krasonis Eleni Lampraki B|S|Orestis Angie Rouska

contributing editors

proofreaders photographers

USA photographer Spanish photographer special guest Design & Layout

Joe Prostredny Giorgos Kotrozinis Paschalis Koutsogiannis Korina P. Mike Ritchie Helen Marie Joyce Matina Katsarakou Apostolis Kalliakmanis B|S|O Jo Gogou Kalliope Tsouroupidou Raphael Aretakis Joe Prostredny Nat Enemede Karolina Pacan Raphael Aretakis

advertising

Eleni Lampraki

art advisor

Aikate D.

2 Ag. Theodoron str, Athens 14451, Greece

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Chapter I. Adam Duce VS Machine Head

A series of unfortunate lawsuits and alleges By Sissy Fanouraki | Photos by Raphael Aretakis

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7 Adam Duce was founding member and bass player of Machine Head ‘til 2012. Adam has been a close friend with former Machine Head guitarist Logan Mader since childhood and met Robb Flynn at the age of 16 through a common friend. With the latter he formed Machine Head in 1991 but things didn’t go as planned… In February 2013, Machine Head announced that the band and Adam Duce parted ways but later, Robb Flynn explained that Adam was fired. It was said that he didn’t completely contribute in the creative process for 2011’s album “Unto the Locust” but he participated in each and every tour until 2012. In an interview Adam Duce admitted that even though he had written quite a few riffs and lyrics for the album, Robb Flynn rejected all of them and that led to further disagreement with the band and consequently became the main reason for the band to fire him. Robb Flynn accused him for lack of interest and his exact words were the following: “We may have fired Adam on 2-11-13, but Adam quit Machine Head well over a decade ago. He just never bothered to tell anyone ... but we all knew it. No matter how un-happy or fed up he got, quitting the band would be seen as ‘losing’ or a ‘failure.’ Truth be told, he was sick of it. Sick of touring, sick of recording, sick of practicing, sick of looking at album artwork, sick of being-on-a-team-butnever-getting-the-ball, sick of yearning-for-the-honeymoon-to-resume when 20 years deep it never does. Sick of never quite hitting the big-time, sick of carving the niche ... sick of caring.” On January 21st, 2014, Adam Duce filed a lawsuit

against Machine Head’s three current members and the band’s manager, alleging trademark infringement, breach of partnership agreement and defamation… He claimed that the main reason for his firing was not his “indifference” but the band members’ greed to get a bigger profit from the new deal with Nuclear Blast Entertainment. He then accused Rob Flynn to have got a much larger portion even though each member owned 25% under the general partnership they had formed. The following are written in the lawsuit “While early on, each of the partners had equal rights in the management and conduct of MH business, Flynn, with the help of Huston, began making unilateral decisions without involving the other partners, essentially usurping control of the partnership. Despite the fact that Huston received 10% of the band’s gross income, he failed to ensure that the members of the band made even close to his 10% cut. After receiving very little compensation despite the millions the band was bringing in, plaintiff requested and reviewed the records from the tours. Plaintiff found that Huston, Flynn, and PFM had squandered money throughout the trip without consulting plaintiff for the vast majority of ‘expenses’.” According to Adam Duce, he states that he still holds interest in the band’s partnership and company, but has not received any distributions from either. He was “simply kicked out of the band” without having any agreement about his share of future royalties. As expected, he seeks damages and punitive damages for trademark infringe-

“We may have fired Adam on 2-11-13, but Adam quit Machine Head well over a decade ago” ment, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of partnership agreement, intentional and negligent interference with prospective economic relations, negligence, defamation and unfair competition, and wants the band enjoined from using the Machine Head marks. I don’t know when or how this is going to end. The band seems to have moved on preparing a new album and Adam Duce tries to make something out of it. It

is sad and ugly when after all these years a band member leaves (even when he/ she is fired from the band). From this court case the only ones that will eventually win something are the attorneys in law. (Don’t miss next issue’s Chapter II. MachineHead Vs Avenged Sevenfold PFM: Provident Financial Management

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BURST WANTS YOU!! Be part of the BURST crew!

We are looking for photojournalists from around the world, able to take quality photos, write live reports and conduct face2face interviews with artists. Send us an email at info@burst-magazine.com Be creative about yourselves and give us a top10 of your best live photos! Burst www.afternoiz.com

Bruce Dickinson:

Living outside of Iron Maiden Personal career Tribute By P. Tsoutsis | Main photo by John McMurtrie

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10 Introduction Bruce Dickinson is well known to the metal community as the voice of Iron Maiden. Nevertheless, his activities don’t end with singing or song-writing in Iron Maiden, but he’s engaged in many more (like fencing or book-writing) that people might not be aware of. The purpose of this article is to sum up some of these activities outside Iron Maiden. The Samson Years Before becoming the lead singer of Iron Maiden, Bruce used to sing in a group named “Samson”. He entered the band under the name Bruce Bruce in late 1979, and during his brief period over there, he recorded three studio albums, including a re-issue of the band’s debut album (“Head On” (1980), “Survivors” (1980 re-issue), “Shock Tactics” (1981)). Although they managed to enter the UK charts, Bruce decided to leave the band in mid 1981. His departure had to do with problems with their management and their record company, but mostly over the fact that his band mates were more interested in women and alcohol rather than in music. Shortly after that, he auditioned as a singer in Iron Maiden and the rest is history. Solo Career His solo career started in 1989, before even leaving Iron Maiden, when he was asked to participate in the soundtrack of the film “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5”, writing the song “Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter”. This song marked his first collaboration with his friend and future Maiden guitarist Janick Gers, with whom he also recorded his debut solo album “Tattooed Millionaire” in 1990. His second solo album was “Balls Burst www.afternoiz.com

to Picasso” (1994), in which he worked with Roy Z and his band “Tribes of Gypsies”. Both albums were more hard-rock oriented than his previous works with Iron Maiden, but the big change in his sound came with the next album “Skunkworks” (1996), where he explored more alternative-rock paths. 1997 marked his return to the heavy metal scene with the critically acclaimed “Accident Of Birth”. In this album he worked for the second time with Roy Z (guitarist/producer), and for the first time with his old friend and colleague in Iron Maiden, Adrian Smith. Using the same musicians, he released “The Chemical Wedding” (1998) which was a concept album, much darker in its theme than his previous works, but still highly praised. After the end of the tour he returned to Iron Maiden (along with Adrian Smith) but kept his solo career active. Between albums and live shows with Iron Maiden, he managed to find some free time to do some touring on his own, promoting some of his own releases that include: a re-issue of his entire back catalogue, remastered and with extra tracks, two live albums, two collections and one studio album. His last studio work to date is 2005’s “Tyranny of Souls”, which is a melodic heavy metal album recorded with the help of Roy Z. Aviation Career Bruce started flying in 1990 mostly as a hobby, but since then he gradually became a very skilled pilot licensed to fly even Boeing 757. His aviation career includes piloting commercial flights for Astraeus airlines (including some high profile ones), marketing director for the same company, and after its bankruptcy in late 2011

he created his own aircraft maintenance company. He has participated in videos regarding aviation procedures and safety regulations, while he was host on a TV documentary about the history of aviation. He has also flown “Ed Force One” during two Iron Maiden’s world tours, the “Somewhere Back in Time World Tour” (200809) and “The Final Frontier World Tour” (2010-11), which was a specially modified Boeing 757, painted with the logo of Iron Maiden, and was adapted to carry the band, the crew and their equipment between countries and shows.

Fencing Career One of Bruce’s many occupations is fencing, which he practiced at school when he was only 13. He participated in many tournaments, and although he had a promising career ahead of him, he stopped fencing in the early 80’s (at the age of 23) due to his engagement in other activities. He started practicing and participating in tournaments again in 1985, during a break between the “Powerslave” tour and the recordings of “Somewhere In Time”, and by 1989 he managed to rank 7th in the UK and he was very close in join-

ing UK’s Fencing Olympic Team. Since then, he keeps practicing in order to stay in shape for the demands of Iron Maiden’s live shows, but also plays in demonstration matches with last example competing against the Olympic medallist Bartosz Piasecki in 2013.

XStorieS Ray John Lennon: by Jo Gogou

The Xray story of a murder

Writer Apart from writing lyrics for his songs, Bruce has also written two books in the early 90s. “The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace” (1990) and its follow up “The Missionary Position” (1992) are about a Scottish aristocrat, with low moral standards. He has also co-written the script of the movie “Chemical Wedding” (2008) which is based on the concept of 1998’s solo album with the same name, and it’s about the incarnation of Aleister Crawley at the present time. Radio Host Bruce used to host two radio shows on BBC radio. The first one was named “Masters Of Rock” (2003-2007) and the second one was “Bruce Dickinson’s Friday Rock Show” (2002-2010). aThe cancellation of the second one had to do with budget cuts on BBC radio, and the last radio show he hosted was on 28 May 2010 paying tribute to Ronnie James Dio who had passed away that period. Epilogue Bruce Dickinson is a man of many talents: amazing singer and song writer, highly skilled pilot, proficient fencer, accomplished business man. Although he is only 55 years old, he has mastered so many things in so very different fields that most people can’t achieve even if they had many lifetimes. //

Monday, December 8th, time 23:00. A shot was heard in the Manhattan neighborhood and a person drops dead with 4 bullets in his back. The victim is 40 years old and his name is John Lennon. He lay dead, bullets in his back and another shell nearby, five shots at total. The murderer was Mark David Chapman, he shot Lennon with a 38mm

gun that he pulled out of his pocket. At the same time he was holding his signed, Lennon album, the “Double Fantasy”. The first bullet missed his head for a few inches and ended up on a window in the building. The ones that followed were the ones that were decisive in his death. Two were found at the left part of

his back and two at his shoulder. Three of the four penetrated him and went out from the other side. Chapman’s aim was not so good, but two were deadly. One hit the left lung and the other the left subclavian artery, the one branching to the aorta. He managed to walk a few meters towards the reception, he said “I’m shot” and then fell down. The doorman didn’t Burst www.afternoiz.com

12 realize that he was in danger right away, as Lennon used to make these kinds of jokes, but when he figured it out he pressed the silent alarm and the police arrived and took him to the Roosevelt Hospital. Unfortunately, when he arrived at the hospital, it was already too late. He was transferred in the ER at 23:15. The cause of death was the significant loss of blood, more than 80%. At the next day, December 9, his wife Yoko Ono stated: “There is no funeral for John. John loved and prayed for the human race. Please do the same for him. Love, Yoko and Sean....” And so it did, instead of a funeral there were ten silent minutes all over the world, at Sunday, December 4th at 14:00. Two days after his death he was cremated in the Ferncliff cemetery at New York. His ashes were scattered in the Strawberry Fields, and Yoko Ono still possesses his blood stained glasses. Some days later, a young man named Chapman, confesses his guilt, it is a second degree murder and is condemned to 20 years of imprisoning. 27 years after his arrest he remains locked-up, as he has been denied release five times. This is how it was stated in a BBC article: 1980: John Lennon shot dead Former Beatle John Lennon has been shot dead by an un-

The 40-year-old was shot several times as he entered the Dakota, his luxury apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, opposite Central Park, at 2300 local time. He was rushed in a police car to St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center, where he died. His wife, Yoko Ono, who is understood to have witnessed the attack, was with him. Shots heard A police spokesman said a suspect was in custody, but he had no other details of the shooting. “This was no robbery,” the spokesman said, adding that Mr Lennon was probably shot by a “deranged” person. Witness reports say at least three shots were fired and others have claimed they heard six. There are also reports Mr Lennon staggered up six steps into the vestibule after he was shot, before collapsing. Jack Douglas, Lennon’s producer, said he and the Lennons had been at a studio called the Record Plant in mid-town earlier in the evening and Lennon left at 2230. Mr Lennon said he planned to have some dinner and then return home, Mr Douglas said. Fans at scene The Lennons are said to have left their limousine on the street and walked up the driveway when the gunman opened fire. It is unclear whether the man

known gunman who opened fire outside the musician’s New York apartment.

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had been lying in wait in the entrance to the building for Mr Lennon, or whether he came up behind him.

Photo by Iain Macmillan © Yoko Ono

Witnesses describe the gunman as a “pudgy kind of man”, 35 to 40 years old with brown hair. Other former band members, Paul McCartney, guitarist George Harrison and drummer Ringo Starr are thought to have been informed of Lennon’s murder. Fans have already begun arriving at the scene, many still unaware Lennon has died. Mr Lennon is survived by his wife, their son Sean, and his son from a previous marriage, Julian. Three months before the murder, a young man named, Mark was in Hawaii planning a man’s end, someone he just saw at the cover of the Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. He had said, among other things, that it just happened to be him and that he already had a list of names like: Johnny Carson, Elizabeth Taylor, George C. Scott, and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. John Lennon was easier to spot for him. Mark Chapman came to New York in October, 1980, to kill Lennon, having his gun on

him. He stayed there for a while, then visited his friend Dana Reeves, in Atlanta, and came back in November. Partly it was the book he was reading, The Catcher in the Rye, partly the movie Ordinary People, well all that combined together, Chapman’s head was affected and spelled, creating images and voices. He went back to Hawaii, close to his wife. She was the first to know his plans, but how could she have taken him seriously? She had the clues right there; Mark never really did hide the gun... The mistake she made was that she never informed the authorities or a psychiatrist. She was reassured thinking that he would see a doctor when he would come back. However things got weirder and darker every day, at one instant he offered cocaine to a taxi driver; that is not even the weirdest part, that scene was actually described in the pages of the book, The Catcher in the Rye. December 7, 1980, a day before the shooting, he meets the singer James Taylor at the 72nd street, near the subway.

13 According to Taylor: “The guy had sort of pinned me to the wall and was glistening with maniacal sweat and talking some freak speak about what he was going to do and his stuff with how John was interested, and he was going to get in touch with John Lennon.” Influences and movies: -The 1951 book The Catcher in the Rye, and the writer Jerome David Salinger deeply affected Chapman. It is a book that sells 250,000 copies every year with total sales of more than 65 million. It has been translated in almost any language. -After 2000, two movies were released about John Lennon. The first was The Killing of John Lennon, out in December 7, 2007 -The next was at March 28, 2008, entitled Chapter 27. The movie goes back to that dreadful day, following Lennon’s steps until the time of the murder, late that night as he was returning home. There are impressive narrations of all that had made contact with him, all those that worked with him and rare archive material; interviews with Yoko Ono, the producer Jack Douglas and all the backstage information. Unknown details about what they were doing at the time, Lennon, as well as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison and many of his fans. A movie made for the passing of 30 years since the murder of John Lennon on December 8, 1980. The afternoon of the same day, the photographer Annie Leibovitz visited Lennon at his apartment at 14:00, to do a photo shooting for the Rolling Stone magazine. Leibovitz had promised John and Ono that their picture would get on the cover, although she wanted him alone initially. What she had stated was: “Nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover”. Of course Lennon insisted otherwise. Leibovitz left at 15:30. That would be their last shooting... After that, Lennon gave an interview (his last one actually) to DJ Dave Sholin, for the radio show RKO Radio Network. At 17:00, Lennon and Ono left their apartment to record the song “Walking on Thin Ice” at the Record Plant Studio. The last steps, the last plans before the bullet.

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Knockin’ On

Heaven’s BY helen Door marie joyce

Fact File Days on Earth: November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970 (aged 27)

Associated Act: Jimi Hendrix, 1966 – 1970. (The Isley Brothers, Little Richard, the Blue Flames, Curtis Knight and the Squires,) the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Band of Gypsys, Cry of Love (Hard// Psychedelic// Blues Rock)

Biggest Influence: Albert King, Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley

Quoted: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.”

Jimi Hendrix has been described as one of the greatest electric guitar players of all time; and not only the few left-handed ones: all of them! An honour (and curse?) which he never really identified with in his short 4 year career, as his demeanour in general was humble and modest. Hendrix’s inherent style was pioneering in that it brought Muddy Waters’ Blues and some folk into Hard Rock, and then added some Psychedelic Soul that made the school that is Hendrix’s music. More often than not, such long instrumental parts set the mood for his coarsely velvet voice. He head-lined the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival, he died under peculiar circumstances at the prime of his age, and left ample unreleased work making him one of the artists with the most posthumous album releases, with the most recent one in 2013: People, Hell and Angels. Jimi’s early days Hendrix was born in Seattle, Washington, to a father who was absent for the first few years of Hendrix’s life due to military engagements, and a mother who struggled taking care of a total of five children, of which Jimi was the eldest. Scarce jobs during the war period meant household incomes were unsustainable so the children were often put up for foster care and/ or adoption, living in constant fear of fraternal separation. Stricken by poverty, they were forced to move abodes on a regular basis, either staying at relatives or cheap hotel rooms.

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Frequent were also the parental drunken feuds of violence which often led to Hendrix reportedly hiding in the closet to escape the storm. During this agitating time of his life, sexual abuse is not ruled out either, as Hendrix himself had later confessed to being a victim by a man in uniform. This instability during his tender childhood years was something that would remain in Hendrix’s soul, as he was characterized as a shy and sensitive boy. When Hendrix was 9, his parents finally divorced, and he and his closest brother Leon went to stay under their father’s custody. His love for music surfaced early; during his years in elementary school in the mid-50s Hendrix was seen walking around with a broom worn as a guitar, so much in that he inspired the school’s social worker to request better funding for musical education, insisting that leaving Hendrix without a guitar could potentially lead to psychological damage. Her request was declined by the board but Hendrix was not without a guitar for too long. Although there was no budget for a guitar, Hendrix found a ukulele in a garbage lot while helping his father on a side job. The instrument only had one string but Hendrix was thrilled to keep it. On his own, by ear, Hendrix began playing Presley’s rendition of

“Hound Dog”, putting in hours at a time with the ukulele. Around the age of 15, in 1958, he got his first acoustic guitar and became obsessed with artists such as Muddy Waters and B.B. King and their Blues’ sound. As soon as he could play the Peter Gunn theme, Hendrix joined his first band, the Velvetones, but the lack of an electric sound hindered his playing from being heard amidst the rest of the band members, and after about 3 months into the group he realized that he truly needed an electric guitar. His enthusiasm got the best of him and he managed to get kicked out between sets for showing off too much on stage. Before his 19th year in 1961, Hendrix, choosing the less of two evils (it was either this, or prison for auto theft) enlisted in military service and stayed there until he was discharged about a year later, after never really cutting the mustard as a soldier; yet there he met bassist Billy Cox who had heard him play and they often jammed together. Cox is the only surviving member of The Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Band of Gypsys. Jimi’s Experience With Cox, Hendrix started the King Kasuals, in 1963, which he quickly outgrew and felt uncomfortable adhering to band politics. He set

15 out as a single artist trying to find where he could fit it, and the following year he landed first prize in the Apollo Theater amateur contest. Following his need for employment he sat in with various bands at the Harlem club circuit before auditioning and being offered guitarist in The Isley Brothers back-up band. For about 8 months with The Isley Brothers, Hendrix became bored playing the same set over and over again. The stage and audience was too small for Hendrix’s talent; it wasn’t a good enough fit. He worked with other artists such as Don Cov-

ay, Little Richard and the Upsetters, Rosa Lee Brooks and Curtis Knight and the Squires providing instrumentation, playing for recording sessions, and/or backing vocals and live appearances where and when he was needed. With Curtis Knight, Hendrix received his first composition credits for two singles in 1966 although this still did not fulfill him. Subsequently he moved to New York in 1966 to a more diverse music scene, which provided him with greater freedom musically. He formed Jimmy James and the Blue Flames that played a

mix of rhythm & blues, rock and blues. They were a cover band mostly, although in jamming occasions Hendrix spilt out music that appeared to be an embryonic version of ‘The Wind Cries Mary’. With the Blue Flames, Jimi was able to develop his musical style, reinforcing it, and reinventing it, as the Flames were the predecessor of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix’s style soon became talk of the town, and the Blue Flames performances became increasingly frequented by talent scouts. Hendrix experimented with electric sound in his own way

being able to famously replicate sounds like missiles and bombs, using amplifier volume levels to distort sound and successfully using guitar amplifier feedback technique to further reinforce the edgy sound. Song Alert! Hendrix’s rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in Woodstock reportedly left the audience in awe by simulating war sounds that he assimilated into the anthem. He also incorporated melodic playing and lyricism and volume distortion, blended expertly to fuse together an electric, fluid Psychedelic Rock sound that was laced with the Blues of his voice and rhythm. Damn! While re-joining Curtis Knight and Squires for a one-off live appearance in New York, he intrigued Rolling Stones Keith Richard’s girlfriend, Linda Keith, who started making manager inquiries on his behalf. British Ex-Animals manager Chas Chandler took him on, and started recruiting musicians who would best enhance Hendrix’s playing. The Jimi Hendrix Experience is born in 1966 with bassist and backing vocalist Noel Redding, and drummer Mitch Mitchell. The newly formed band played a short live performance in Paris in October of that year, and soon the band had a label, Track Records, releasing single “Hey Joe”. Back in London, the Experience appeared live again to an audience of already-made rock stars amidst the crowd, such as Clapton, Lennon, McCartney, and Jagger. The stars couldn’t believe their ears when experiencing the Hendrix phenomenon. “Purple Haze” followed as the second single, in 1967 and then “The Wind Cries Mary” a few months after.

Promotional photo of The Jimi Hendryx Experience

Song Alert! The inspiration for “Purple Haze” was purely imaginary, drawn upon dreams, in this particular case, a dream where Hendrix was “walking under the sea”. There is evidence that the song is partially referenced to Burst www.afternoiz.com

16 a science fiction novel ‘Night of Light’ in which purple haze is a disorientating effect of sunspot activity on the inhabitants of a planet. Hendrix was a self-proclaimed “sci-fi junkie” and read constantly as it aided his own imagination. In this song, we find his unique ‘Octavia’ electronic effect being used for his solo, and use of the “Hendrix chord” (dominant 7 #9). The Jimi Hendrix Experience generated 3 studio albums: Are You Experienced (1967), Axis: Bold as Love (1967), and Electric Ladyland (1968). Between the first and other two albums, The Experience were added to the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, in which performance Hendrix memorably sets his guitar on fire. Of this he has said, “The time I burned my guitar it was like a sacrifice. You sacrifice the things you love. I love my guitar.” The albums showcased a growth in confidence in Hendrix’s music. He became bolder and more ambitious,

bringing innovation into music consistently and expanding the range of electric guitars for all of music-kind after him. When asked about his own musical style he has said it is “Free Feeling: … a mixture of rock, freak-out, rave and blues.” Jimi’s personal demons By 1969 Hendrix was possibly the highest paid rock musician. During recording of the final Experience album, there were reports of recording sessions turning into parties and Hendrix developed a style of working that tired others. He would either be relaxed and leisurely about things, or extremely perfectionist at other times, confusing his colleagues. After the touring for Electric Ladyland was completed, Redding and Hendrix had a fall out, resulting in Redding leaving the band and being replaced by old military service friend, Billy Cox. Manager Chandler was replaced by Michael Jeffery who pushed for further appearances. Headlining of legendary Woodstock festival in 1969, Hendrix had also added three more musicians to the mix, and baptized he sextet as “… nothin’ but a Band of

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Gypsys”, with which he did 3 live performances and a live album. By this point, Hendrix’s balance between drug use, creativity and entrepreneurship had been skewed. On occasions when Hendrix would drink alcohol he would get into raging fits and exhibit rare bursts of physical violence. There are reports of bar sprawls and jealous tantrums. He preferred the use of cannabis, amphetamines, cocaine, heroin, and of course LSD but he was however, naïve and reckless in how he used the drugs. He was arrested in 1969 after heroin and hasish was found in his luggage at Toronto Airport. It was this reason, as well as the ambivalent role of Jeffery in Hendrix’s death that fuels the debate around his accidental (?) death in September 1970. Jeffery was keen on getting Redding back in the game and re-unite the Experience, something which Hendrix did not want. Jeffery fired Mitchell and Cox quit after a mediocre live performance of the BoG, which some believed to have been orchestrated by Jeffery who allegedly gave Hendrix more drugs than usual. When Redding was brought to New York Hendrix would not have him back and so an Experi-

ence re-union was out of the question. Hendrix, Mitchell and Cox became the Cry of Love band, but often tickets and bill boards only mentioned ‘Jimi Hendrix’. Why wouldn’t they? After a brief EU touring period, which was not a constructive period according to Hendrix who felt a creative outlet void, Hendrix made a final performance in London, 48hours after which on September 18, 1970, aged 27, he was pronounced dead. He was found in his sleep, choked in his own vomit, and his blood full of barbiturates, a common celebrity killer., Hendrix’s death shocked the musical world, yet Jimi did not leave his fans disappointed. This prolific genius has a very impressive posthumous discography that spans 12 albums released between 1970 and 2013. And his Club 27 legend lives on.

Enjoy Jimi

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Nergal Dissing Divinity by Mike Ritchie

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Photo by Aleksander Ikaniewicz | bng-studio.pl

19 In 2007, the Polish, BlackDeath Metallers Behemoth played a show in Gdynia Poland. The show was performed the same as every other on the tour except that Nergal (real name Adam Darski until he changed it legally to his stage name) ripped up a bible on stage proclaiming The Holy Book as the book of lies, saying ‘fuck this shit, fuck this hypocrisy.’ He also called the Catholic Church the most murderous cult on the planet. Ryszard Nowak, head of the All-Polish Committee for Defense Against Sects took him to court for ‘offending religious sentiment’, but Darski prevailed when the judge in the lower court ruled that his Bible-destruction was a form of artistic expression consistent with Behemoth’s style. However, he lost his role as a judge on The Voice of Poland after Catholics and moral majorities pressured the Polish TV network airing the show to remove him because of his provocative behavior. They claimed he showed a lack of respect, not only toward religious beliefs, but also for illnesses and the disabled in another performance in October 2011 when he pretended to miraculously heal members of the band Times New Roman in wheelchairs dressed as a priest. After an appeal was sent to the Polish Supreme Court in late 2012, the court ruled against Darski’s favor. The judge in Poland’s Supreme Court found Nergal guilty and a possible sentence of up to two years in jail. The sentencing will be carried out by a lower court. Jacek Potulski, a lawyer for Darski’s told Reuters “(The decision) is negative and restricts the freedom

of speech,” He said he was not giving up and that we were dealing with art, which allows more critical and radical statements. “The Supreme Court said clearly that there are limits for artists which cannot be crossed,” Nowak told Polish television. Darski’s own take “one should respect the court’s verdict.” However, he also added that his country’s mentality “is immature, trying to gag people,” and that he was in court for “the good cause”, namely the right to “freedom of speech.” In October 2012 during a hearing in Poland’s Supreme Court it was concluded that a person may be found guilty of offending religious sensibilities even if the defendant had not “directly” intended to do so. The court had examined the matter in relation to an appeal against the 2011 acquittal of Darski. During the 2011 hearing, Darski’s lawyers had argued successively that the 2007 concert was for a closed group of fans who had not been offended by the musician’s behavior. The court accepted that the singer’s actions were an “artistic” performance, and that the singer had not “directly” meant to offend religious sensibilities. However, the Supreme Court indicated that Darski’s actions had legal ramifications beyond the concert arena concluding “the crime of offending religious sensibilities is committed not only by he who intends to carry it out, but also by he who is aware that his actions may lead to offence being taken”. Freedom of speech is a very new protection in

Poland; censorship was abolished in 1990, while freedom of speech was officially added to the constitution in 1997. Freedom of religion, however, has been guaranteed by law in Poland since 1573 by the Warsaw Confederation. Of course, the same freedom of speech that protects Nergal’s right to criticize the Catholic Church also protects the Catholic Church’s right to criticize Nergal, his on-stage performances, and his negative views on Catholicism. Born and raised Catholic he started playing guitar at eight, founding Behemoth in his teens. He studied history for six years and one year of Latin and is qualified to be a museum curator. From mid-2009 to early 2011, he was in a highly publicized relationship with Dorota Rabczewska aka Doda, a popular Polish pop singer. In March 2011 it was reported the couple had called off the engagement and broken up. In 2012, Darski legally changed his name to Nergal. In August 2010 he was diagnosed with Leukemia and in November found a genetic bone marrow match and underwent transplant surgery. He’s released 10 albums with Behemoth including 2014’s The Satanist.

WordsOf Wisdom by Karolina Pacan

Reflection

My dear Friends and Spartan Warriors, Some People say that you can buy everything with money. I would say... that its not true, you can’t buy real love, friendship, honor, passion, loyalty, empathy etc... So as you can see, money is not so powerful at the end. It’s only up to us, how we view it, how we value it ;) Money can help to secure our lives in a psychical way, when used properly it can bring a lot of good of course. But... money can’t buy you a real friend, I mean a person who without any interest will always be there for you. Money can’t buy you real love, the one that is pure, romantic from an honest heart. Money can’t bring back people who passed away. Money can’t buy you real loyalty, passion, empathy… Real things can be gained only with pure heart.

Behemoth played a pivotal role in establishing the Polish extreme underground in the early 90’s playing traditional black metal with heathen lyrics then in the late nineties changing to more occultlike themes. “Our sounds and words on the album are like a huge phallus that brutally rapes every taboo concept or sanctity.” Nergal says of The Satanist. Burst www.afternoiz.com

Eric Burdon Inside BURST!

This is one of those amazing chances you get to chat with some of the biggest monsters in music history. They will probably not tell you their life story but almost each word that comes from their mouth is a piece of gold. Lets skip the previous and enjoy the one and only Eric Burdon Article by Joe Prostredny Interview by Raphael Aretakis Photos by Marianna Burdon

Burst www.afternoiz.com

22 If the 1950’s were the infancy of Rock, then the 1960’s were certainly its adolescence. It was a time when the genre grew, diversified and matured. It was what many people refer to as the Golden Age of Rock and the era gave rise to many great musical icons. Few of those icons are still as active today as the man known as Eric Burdon. Eric’s career has spanned over 50 years and he has released 28 studio albums to date. In addition to fronting The Animals, and War, he has had a very prolific solo career. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame in 1994 and was hailed by Rolling Stone in 2008 as its 57th greatest singer of all time. He has shared the stage with many other rock legends including Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Chuck Berry, Bruce Springsteen, and Bon Jovi. Eric has, arguably, one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in Rock and artists such as Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, and Bruce Springsteen have all cited Eric as an influence on their own music Eric’s career began as the charismatic frontman of the British band, the Animals in the early 1960s. They were called “The Animals” due to their aggressive and wild stage performances and the name stuck with them. Along with The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the Animals were one of the bands of the infamous “British Invasion” of the Americas in the 1960s. They gave us many great and influential hits including: “House of the Rising Sun”, “Don’t Let Me Burst www.afternoiz.com

Be Misunderstood”, “Don’t Bring Me Down”, and “See See Rider”. Although the original lineup of The Animals did not survive the 60s, Eric has continued to perform with different iterations of The Animals throughout his continuing career, including 2 reunions with the original lineup in 1977 and 1983. In the late 60s and early 70s, Eric fronted a funk rock band

from California called War. War was a groundbreaking band in many respects as it was one of the first interracial bands of the early rock era. During Eric’s time with the band they produced two studio albums and the singles: “Spill the Wine”, “Tobacco Road”, and “They Can’t Take Away Our Music”. Eric left

the band early on, following an asthma attack on stage in 1971 and the band ultimately continued on without him. Eric was reunited with War for the first time in 37 years at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2008, which coincided with the reissue of all of the previous War albums. In 1971, Eric’s solo career began with the formation of the Eric Burdon Band and the

release of his first solo album “Guilty”. Since then, Eric has released numerous solo albums and has continued to tour with many different lineups of his band over the last 4 decades. His most recent album, “’Til Your River Runs Dry”, was released in 2013 and has been hailed as his most personal album to date. In ad-

dition to touring with his own band and with The Animals, Eric performed at Bo Diddley’s memorial service in 2008 and performed on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” in 2013. He also performed with Bruce Springsteen at Cardiff Memorial Stadium in July of 2013, where Springsteen hailed Eric as the person that has had the strongest influence on his own songwriting. In August of 2013, he toured with Pat Benetar and Neil Geraldo. In addition to performing his music, Eric has also acted in several films over the years including: “the 11th Victim” (1979), “Comeback” (1982), “My Brother and I” (1998), and “Snow on New Year’s Eve” (1999). He also made an appearance in the movie “The Doors” in 1991. Eric is also an accomplished artist and author and has published two previous memoirs on his life. In 1986, he released “I Used to be an Animal, But I’m Alright Now” which chronicled his childhood and his early years with The Animals. In 2002, he released “Don’t Let Me be Misunderstood” which chronicles his later musical career. Eric recently signed a deal to release a third memoir on his life and career to be titled “Breathless”. He was quoted as saying: “I live my life breathless… A life of constant motion and excitement”. The release of his third book is anticipated later this year. Given the life that Eric has lived, I’m sure the book with leave us “Breathless” as well!

The Interview >>>

Burst www.afternoiz.com

24 Hello Eric and welcome to BURST. Where do I find you now? At home. How are you health-wise?

doing

Excellent, thanks for asking. Your latest release was “‘Til Your River Runs Dry”. What does this album mean to you? Has your river run dry? My river is far from running dry, but many rivers around the world are running dry. Global warming is a fact and it affects all of us. The main thread in this record is water; too much in some places, too little in others. People are dying of thirst and drowning in floods. Recent disasters from

oil spills to nuclear spills are polluting the source of life on the planet. Through my music, I am trying to bring awareness to such environmental disasters and to awaken people to take action before it’s too late.

musicians and bands. Nowadays, it is said that there is no parthenogenesis in music and in art in general. Do you agree with this statement? Have we reached the era of ‘recycling’?

What’s the feedback you’ve received so far?

The blues and rock and roll have been around for so long now that it’s harder to create something that is completely pure and original. It’s all been done and it’s all out there for everyone to draw from. I’m sure that music will find its way to develop organically in time.

I am really pleased with the warm reception. It didn’t win me a Grammy, however “Til Your River Runs Dry” made lots of year-end best-of lists in publications worldwide. I also had a really successful tour this past year and, to me, this shows that my fans are with me all the way. You were involved in some of the most influential acts in music, affecting generations of future

Have you ever been ‘pushed’ by a record label or a manager to write the music they want and do the things they want? Can Eric Burdon be restrained?

Yes, once. And once is enough. However, there are some unauthorized materials out there that were meant to be demos, which were put out without my permission. That makes me angry because they were never meant to see the light of day. They were works in progress. There was a dramatic increase of drug use during the 60’s and the 70’s. For many, rock music and the uninhibited life of rock stars contributed a lot to that rise. Are drugs and Rock n’ Roll interrelated? The Drug War should be declared against Prescription Drugs. They’re the biggest drug problem in centuries. People have always had things to alter their percep-

“No regrets. I have no regrets...”

Burst www.afternoiz.com

25 tions. I’m not sure I’d assume there was a dramatic rise in drug use in the 60’s or 70’s. It just became more out in the open. If you could say something to young Eric, what would that be? Hang in there. It will all make sense someday. Do you have any regrets for your life choices?

becoming what you are now? I never dreamt that I would have a career for fifty years, doing what I love but when I walk out of the stage I know my name is Eric Burdon. You and Hendrix had a special bond with each other. Please share a story you remember with our readers.

“No regrets. I have no regrets...”

I’m saving my final word on Jimi for the book I’m writing right now, so wait...

During your first steps in music, who influenced/ inspired you the most? Who inspires you now?

You’ve always been a fan of cinema. Are you up to something on that aspect?

Ray Charles, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf, Fats Domino, just to name a few. The same people continue giving me inspiration today.

I’m a big fan of films and always have been.

Did you ever see yourself

What are your plans for the future? To finish my book and probably record another album. I

“I never dreamt that I would have a career for fifty years, doing what I love but when I walk out of the stage I know my name is Eric Burdon.” will be touring heavily during the spring and summer months but after that I think I’m going to pull back from the road for a while. This is a pretty standard question we ask… Who would you like to play music in your funeral? A brass band from New Orleans, The Dirty Dozen.

The last words are yours. Please share a message with our readers. Peace, love and brown rice. It works for Ringo; I hope it works for me! Thank you for your time, and please, keep inspiring us! ‘Til my River Runs Dry, I will do. Take care.

Burst www.afternoiz.com

BURST is against animal cruelty.

“Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well with others.” -César Chávez-

www.argophotography.com

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No animals were harmed in the making of this fur coat

Anette Olzon By Korina P. Photos by Ear Music

Anette Olzon is widely known as the former front lady of the Finnish symphonic masters Nightwish. Also, she is widely known for standing in the empty space of Tarja, left on the stage and dealing with fansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; unfair anger and rage being snapped on her in many and various ways. Anette stood there and fought back as long as she could. In late 2012, Nightwish and Anette parted ways in a rather suspicious and quiet way. For months people around the globe kept on wondering and chatting about this whole issue. Anette finally decided to speak out and tell her side of the story. BURST Magazine had a nice chat with her about everything; Nightwish, her debut solo album, her upcoming plans, her present life and her point of view in various things about the music business nowadays. Anette moves on and speaks out her own truth, do you dare to read?

Burst www.afternoiz.com

28 Hello Anette and welcome on Burst! First of all, I would like to thank you very much for this interview and your time. Let’s begin! Your first solo album “Shine” will be out in late March. It was due to be out in February but there was a change in the release date plans eventually. What should we expect? You already said that “Shine” is a pop-rock or even a pop-metal album. Can you give us some more details on it? Well, “Shine” is definitely a pop album. You can say that it includes some rock or metal moments as well. The description of the album depends on the listener and his/her point of view about music and his/ her tastes mainly. It’s an album which features quite different songs, there are very calm acoustic songs which are like more relaxing and some more guitar-oriented songs. The lyrics are about my life, things I have seen and what has happened to me generally speaking. It’s a bit of a self-biography. So, it’s a very personal album. Yes, exactly. What are the main themes of the songs? You’ve said that most of the material has been written while you were on tour with Nightwish and they actually reflect how you had been feeling back then.

ences like my own experience when I got bullied and when my mum got ill for example. But there are also some positive sides being featured like the title song (“Shine”) which is about how you rise again when you get bullied and how you come back on your feet after a really overwhelming period of time when people are mean to you. As well, there are two love songs which are dedicated to my oldest son and my husband. To answer to your question, nothing has to do with Nightwish on this album. It’s only about my own life. Are you the main composer of the album? Or did you collaborate with other songwriters as well? Also, can you tell us a few things about the musicians who have participated on it? I collaborated with hired studio musicians and I co-wrote the songs with them. I got mainly two guys and we wrote together 9 out of the 10 songs which are included on this album. Their names are Stefan Örn and Johan Glössner. These guys play the songs on this album along with a hired drummer. So, I decided to work with studio musicians. As well, one song of the album was written by Martijn Spierenburg (Within Temptation) and Fredrik Bergh (Bloodbound). I have written all the melodies and all the lyrics and then I got some help from these guys with the music.

So, I suppose that the themes are not about butterflies and flowers for example. (laughs) I mean, I assume that the themes of the songs are not happy or easy.

As you just told me, for this album you worked with some exceptional professionals such as Stefan Örn who is widely known from his participation in Eurovision song contest and Ronny Lahti who has worked with really huge names like Loreen and Roxette. I guess you wanted to work with the very best ones out there, didn’t you?

Even if I wrote the material while I was with Nightwish these songs are still about my life and my own experiences. These songs are not about Nightwish. Of course some of the lyrics are very sad because I sing about life’s tough experi-

Yes, I mean, I wanted to work with people who actually knew how to write songs and I was lucky enough to work with these guys who are really famous songwriters and mixers. Ronny Lahti and Nicklas Flykt are really good mixers. I had a

Yes, that’s true.

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really good team indeed and I am so thankful for that because I think they have done a really good job. This is not only a benefit for you personally but for your fans as well you know! (laughs) Yes! (laughs) You should always try to make your stuff perfect. I think this is a really important thing. That’s exactly how a professional musician should think in my humble opinion Anette. What you just said is so damn right! I know! (laughs) Your upcoming album will be released through EARMusic. Congratulations on that! This is a really big and nice label and I guess it’s really important and essential for you that a label like this has put its trust on you and signed you. How do you feel about this fact? Back in 2009 when I wanted to release this album we were in contact with bigger labels. But it didn’t feel right. I mean, I felt like they didn’t want the same thing with me, we didn’t really agree on how the music should sound like. They wanted to change the sound a lot and I said “no, thanks”. I was feeling a little frustrated because I really wanted to sign with a record label which understands the music I wanted to do as a solo artist and accepts my own vision in a way. EARMusic is such a good label, they are so nice people and they are doing lots of promotion for me. As you said, it’s a really big label, they have a lot of contacts, they know what they are doing. I am really pleased with their work and I am really honored to be a part of their big roster. They have Tarja, Europe, Gamma Ray just to name a few. I am really honored to be featured among these names. And don’t forget to mention Deep Purple, Nazareth, Mike Oldfield who are part of this label as well. I mean “wow”! (laughs)

Yes I know! (laughs) This is such a great label, I am really happy about being part of it. As you just said, EARMusic is Tarja’s label as well. You know, I will confess to you that many fans have been hoping for a collaboration with you and Tarja. I know it sounds strange but it’s true! What do you think about that? Our music is very different, she is doing rock and metal music and I am doing pop/rock music. Our voices are also very different. I guess she has many things to do, she is a busy bee, and of course I have my things to do. We have never met you know. For me it’s not a closed door, if we meet and if we find a song we like there are many possibilities for this to happen. It’s all about finding a suitable song and if it feels meaningful for both of us to do it. I am open to such a thing if she feels like doing it one day. I think it will be fun. This will make your fans and Tarja’s fans really happy, trust me on this! (laughs) And speaking of Tarja, she performed with Floor Jansen a usual Nightwish cover song “Over The Hills And Far Away” in a festival called Metal Female Voices. It was a really cool moment and actually fans could not believe in their own eyes! It kind of proved that any kind of oppose between the two singers does not exist. Have you heard about this exceptional duet? What do you have to say on this? Yes I have seen it and I think it was a good one. I certainly understand why they did it. Maybe they were feeling a bit the need to show that there is nothing wrong between them. I think that it was mainly about Floor, they tried to keep her away from all this drama I had to deal with when I joined the band. I think Tarja has seen that I had taken a lot of hate from her fans. Maybe in this way she tried to show that “this is my friend and I don’t want you to be mean to her”.

29 Maybe this is how Tarja felt to do like. And I think Floor was quite lucky to sing with Tarja because she was the first singer of Nightwish and this was a big honor for her in the way I think about it. It was good for both them.

come from Sweden so we can speak the same language eventually! (laughs) That would be really nice.

Let me just ask you about your plans. Will there be any live shows in order to promote your new album?

Yes. And of course after my experience on the road with a band which was speaking a different language I feel like I want to have some Swedish musicians with me. (laughs) We will see, I haven’t decided yet. Of course I have to ask these guys I have in my mind, if they want to follow me on tour. It’s also important to find some musicians who like to play this kind of music and as I said to like each other, to have some good vibes between us.

Yes, we are trying to schedule a tour at the moment. As soon as I find a nice agent to book me some live shows I will go back on the road. I want this to happen as soon as possible. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed that this will happen pretty soon. Of course I want to play the songs live. That would be amazing. And your fans wait for that moment impatiently, I guess. I hope so! Even as a solo artist you have many people around you to embrace you with love and support you, you have to know that. That’s actually something that I feel and when they listen to my new single “Lies” and the whole album I hope they will understand what kind of music I am doing now and support me. I really believe they will like it because my fans are quite open-minded as far as I know. I think they can listen to some other kind of music apart from heavy music. What can you tell us about the live band? Have you already chosen the musicians that will accompany you on tour? I have some possible musicians in my mind but I have not decided who I will choose in the end. For me this is really essential. It’s not going to be a band, there will be just musicians who will follow me on the road. For me it’s really important to have some nice people around me, some musicians with nice characters and with the same kind of style with me. It will be easier if these musicians will

And it will be easier for the rehearsals to happen as well.

That makes sense. And just let me ask you this, why did you decide to go on as a solo artist? You just said that there will not be a band, there will be only you along with some hired musicians. What made you decide that?

a nice era but now I am more like “bye bye to that” and I keep on looking forward now. Now they have Floor Jansen to sing for them and she is doing a good job so I think they will do their music and I will do my music. Okay, that was an interesting answer Anette! (laughs) You have been an important part of Nightwish’s history. I will not go on and ask you about the recent statements that you and the boys have made. It’s already pretty clear that both sides have a very different version of the story to tell. I will ask you about your feelings now though. You said that you needed to tell the truth in order to move on and find some peace of mind. Did it finally work? I knew that when I would start doing interviews for my solo album of course there would be questions about what hap-

pened with Nightwish. I haven’t spoken for about a year and I thought that if I would be quiet for some more time there would be constantly questions about this issue. “Why did you leave?” and “what really happened with the boys?” and etc. I didn’t want this to happen. I prefer just to come out and say “hey this is what happened and this is how I feel and now I move on”. Maybe then I would stop having all these questions and actually move on. I think it’s good for me personally to talk about it, say my side of the story and eventually leave it behind me. It feels really good to say these things to people, it feels much better to have my own side of story out. I agree with you on that. It actually makes sense. Tarja still gets questions about what happened with her and the band. She was very quiet and sober about everything and I don’t want this to happen to me as well. I spent some nice

This is more like that this is my solo album and I want to feel like I am the one who decides everything now. Of course if there will be some nice gang of musicians after some years and we feel happy about it there will certainly be a band with the usual meaning of this word. At this point, it’s easier to just have some hired musicians. For example, I could easily change musicians if it doesn’t feel right and so on. That’s how I feel. Will you ever perform any Nightwish songs live again? I mean, there are fans who liked you as Nightwish’s front lady and I guess these people would like this to happen. Tarja always includes 1 or 2 Nightwish songs in her setlists. I know there are people who really want this to happen but this is something that I feel like I am not going to do. Not at the moment and I feel like I will not do it in the future either. I think Nightwish is a closed chapter for me. Nightwish was Burst www.afternoiz.com

30 years of my life with Nightwish, now it’s over, they move on, I move on and this is it. It’s better to speak about everything now in order to be able to just move on. I suppose that even after many years you will be questioned about that. I am just letting you know on this! (laughs)

remember these years as good ones for me. I have learned a lot. I have learned many things about myself, the music business, how it feels like to be the singer of a big band, you know all these various things. I still want to remember this whole experience as a nice memory. I think this is a better thing to do instead of thinking about it as a horrible experience! (laughs)

Maybe! (laughs) I will always be a former Nightwish singer and that’s not a problem. I just think that this whole thing was a bit suspicious and after all these things that have been said I think there would be more questions if I haven’t said my side of the story. Also, I would always feel that I had

Yes, it’s better to make peace with the past and try to think about it in a positive way as far as you can do that.

the need to speak and it would be worse if I would speak after some couple of years. It’s better to do it now and then leave it behind me.

things and we were really good friends at some point. I will always cherish those moments.

What kind of memories do you have from your time with Nightwish? You just said that it was a nice chapter of your life. Of course there are really hard things to remember too. If you would have asked me one year ago the same question I would have said really bad things about this whole experience. It’s more like when you are in a relationship and you get angry at each other and you keep on being angry for a while and then you just leave it behind you. For me it’s more like there will always be things that happened during those years, things that have been really stressful and really hard for me but I decided that I want to Burst www.afternoiz.com

Exactly. It was a great experience, it was so much fun as well. It has been a really cool time for me to do all those

What you just said was really nice. Many fans have predicted that you would not be the last singer of this band and you would leave pretty soon not only because of the pressure but also because of the fact that you have a very different type of voice and you were coming from a different musical background. You know, when some songs are written for a certain vocalist it’s pretty hard for the new one to perform them. What you have done was pretty brave. You took everything on your shoulders in a way. How do you feel about this decision of yours now? Was it worth joining this band after all? In some certain point I had

some regrets because as you just said there was so much pressure on me. I jumped in Tarja’s very big shoes and she has been such a nice singer and icon for so many people. As you said, we have totally different voices and vocal styles so it was really hard for me to sing those songs. They were quite high, I had to sing them with my belting voice, I had to take a lot of vocal lessons in the beginning to just be able to sing for that long those high notes. I think I did a good job, of course there were gigs that I was not singing in the best possible way but keep in mind that with Nightwish we had been doing heavy touring and I was getting ill quite many times as we were flying in every corner of the world. I think I did a good job, as good as I could because Nightwish songs are really hard to sing them if you are not a classical trained vocalist. As you said, it’s pretty hard to sing songs that have been written for another singer with such a different type of voice. Maybe my songs will be pretty hard for a different vocalist to sing them, too. That’s how it is and there will always be these kind of things. I don’t regret it now because I think it was meant for me to be in Nightwish for these couple of years and for the guys as well to have me with them. Especially for me, because I learned a lot about my voice, my abilities and what to work on in order to improve and become a better singer. So, while I was doing my solo album I knew my strengths and my weaknesses and what can I do about them. I still think it was good for me to be in the band even if it was really hard too. Also, you have said that you have been under pressure to conform to a certain image. Your own words were “I was not the stereotypical sexy metal chick. I could have made things easier by trying to be but that would have looked stupid”. So, do you think that a good-looking female singer can have a better future and more success in music industry? I think that in any part of the

world anything that has to do with women, especially when it has to do with photos and album covers, it will always be judged in a very different way than men. There could be a man fronting a band looking really horrible, he can be fat, he can have a big belly, he can be old, he can have wrinkles, he can have the ugliest hairstyle on this earth and even no hair at all and still people will love him. But if there is a woman who sings in the front of a band and she is a bit fat at the moment or maybe she just got 5 more kilos more than her regular weight they will see it and they will bash her for it. Even worse if she has wrinkles or she is older. It’s really different to be a female singer from being a male singer. We will always be judged in a very different way. If you look at older bands and older musicians who are in my age or even older they can look quite bad and nobody is complaining about it. If there is a woman who weighs ten more kilos than the regular she will have serious issues to deal with. This is what happened with me, people have already bashed me that I am old, ugly and I have not a good taste of style and stuff like that. Things are like that for sure and this is not only something that happens in the music business. If you want to make things in pop music business, as they do those younger pop singers, you need to be thin, sexy and certainly you have to take your clothes off like Miley Cyrus does. You have to do these things. I think for women overall it is harder to make it. There is much more pressure for us to take our clothes off or to be really thin and sexy and so on. That’s the hard truth. I totally agree with you on that and actually this is something that I have seen with my own eyes in a way. For men, this doesn’t really apply. Actually if men look older and uglier they are being called sexier. As women, it’s harder for us to make it as we get older but for men if they have some wrinkles is more cool and sexy like Sean Connery for example.

31 That’s how it is and the only thing you can do is to try not to listen to these comments, to ignore them and not to care at all about this whole thing. You have to think that no matter how you look you will make it. Of course it will be easier if you fit in these stereotypical looks and you look like very thin, beautiful and young but that’s how it is and we have to deal with it. That’s how world is.

the

whole

Unfortunately, yes. Let’s go back to your upcoming solo album. The cover of “Shine” is a really nice shot that portrays you with your hands wide open in the middle of a forest. The sun shines brightly and the whole image gives a positive and happy vibe. I guess the meaning of this image and the whole idea behind the concept of the cover implies that the dark days are gone for you personally. Can you tell us a few things about this cover? This is exactly the concept of the cover and I am really happy

that you got it! I really wanted to have a totally different style and vision from what has been shown before with Nightwish. I didn’t want any darkness or all these cool metal characteristics and visual elements. I didn’t want any make-up on my eyes, I almost have no make-up on my face, I wanted to have a very pale and natural face because that would be totally different from what I have done before. This is more me. For many years I have played a role in a way that wasn’t Anette all the time. When it comes to how to look and stuff like that, all this dark clothes, styling and all this make-up, this is not how I normally am. Sometimes I have felt that I have tried too much to look cool. For my own thing and project I want to be myself and I am a very positive, bright and happy woman in person. I think this whole concept suits perfectly with the material of the album. Actually, there was another cover photo for this album that I have been thinking of using it but in the end I decided that this one fits better with the album. I think it’s a really nice one. I like this cover very much! (laughs)

Oh, thank (laughs)

you

much!

There will be a video for the song “Lies”. First of all, it seems that the scenery of the video is connected with the scenery of the album’s cover. As well, the video was done by the “master of the metal videos” Mr Patric Ullaeus. How has it been working with him? Actually it was really nice. I have seen some of his work and I liked some of them but I didn’t like everything to be honest. I was a bit like “mmm, okay, who is this guy?” and I told to my manager “are you sure that he can do what I want?” because I didn’t want a rock video or anything like that since I wanted this to be a very natural thing. I was quite skeptical when we met but he was really nice, he is a very positive and easy-going person. Everything worked really fine and when I saw the video I could see that he understood exactly what I wanted. I am really grateful; I think he has done a super nice job. I would like to do more videos with him in the future for sure. He is really good on what he is doing. So, all this skepticism is gone! (laughs)

And maybe a new friendship has just begun! (laughs) Yes that’s actually true! He is a really nice person. And “Lies” will be the first single of your upcoming album if I am not mistaken. Can you share with us any nice details about the video clip and everything? The concept of the video is kind of a wintery one where I mainly walk around in the snow and you can enjoy some nice sceneries from Sweden taken high up from the sky. It has to do with nature and you know, I am singing in it! (laughs) That was a good one! (laughs) Anette this is a question I ask to every artist I speak with so I will ask it to you too. Music industry is in crisis, not only economical one. Many bands disband simply because they can’t make a living anymore, labels go bankrupt and so on. Physical CDs do not sell that much anymore; we live on the mp3 days and digital music has rised up. What is your opinion on this issue?

“I think I did a good job, as good as I could because Nightwish songs are really hard to sing them if you are not a classical trained vocalist”

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32 Of course since I am a musician I feel like it’s pretty hard for us to make a living as you just pointed out. You cannot earn so much from album sales anymore. You need to do a lot of touring to earn some certain and good money; you have to play much more shows nowadays than you had to play in the past years. It’s really frustrating because so many people download music illegally and they never buy any physical album. Personally, I prefer to buy music on I-tunes or listen to some tunes on Spotify legally. It’s harder for us to make it if people don’t actually buy our music. I am bit worried about

it. I think it was nice when you had the physical album and you could get an autograph on it. I think what happened with the CDs is a really sad thing and it will be also sad if the CDs go away totally. I hope this won’t be the case but I think it will happen unfortunately. I am worried as a professional musician because it’s already pretty hard to make a living nowadays. In most of the times you have to get another job and become a part-time musician. That’s another hard truth indeed. Apart from the release of your new solo album, do you have any

other plans for the future generally speaking? I am actually already writing some new songs for my next album. I would like to make a new album quite fast so, I am already thinking about my next album. As well, I would like to tour the world again. That’s the plans I have at the moment. I want to see what will happen with “Shine” firstly! (laughs) If things don’t go well I would have to find a normal job again. That’s how it is. (laughs) I don’t believe this will happen to you. I have a really good vibe about this album Anette! I don’t know

why but I have it! (laughs) I hope so. Let’s see what happens. Well, Anette once again thank you very much for your time. I want you to finish this interview in a rather positive and happy way like you are as a person: by making a wish for the future. Thank you for having me. I wish that all of my fans love my new album. That’s the most important thing, to like my new stuff. That would be really nice.

Have you found jesus?

www.argophotography.com Burst www.afternoiz.com

Sonata Arctica’s

Henrik Klingenberg By P. Tsoutsis Photos by Vesa Ranta

2014 is a special year for Sonata Arctica, since it marks the 15th anniversary from the release of their first album “Ecliptica”. In order to celebrate this occasion they start a new world tour with many surprises, but they also release a brand new album which is called “Pariah’s Child”. According to them, this new album is a step closer to their past. BURST Magazine had the pleasure to interview the band’s keyboardist Henrik Klingenberg who talks about what’s happening to Sonata Arctica this period.

Burst www.afternoiz.com

34 Sonata Arctica returns with a brand new album “Pariah’s Child”. Tell us a few things about the recording. We recorded the album in our new bass player Pasi’s studio (studio57) and for the first time since Reckoning Night (2004) the whole band went into the studio together. For our previous 3 albums we’ve used multiple studios so this was a really nice change. I think we’ll do it in the same way with our next studio album, whenever that is. We did all the recordings ourselves and Pasi mixed the album so it was truly a band effort. I’m of course really happy with how the album turned out and can’t wait to get to play the new stuff live. It’s a true heavy metal album and a good addition to our catalog. Apart from the video clip of “The Wolves Die Young” and the lyric video of “Cloud Factory”, nothing else is known about the other songs. What is the music direction on the new album? This time around we took some elements from the early style of Sonata Arctica and included them with our progressive elements. I would say that this album is heavier and faster than the last one. The wolf as a concept returns on this album. What does this wolf represent for Sonata Arctica? The wolf has been a symbol for the band since the beginning. I think wolves are interesting and a bit mystic as well. For me it symbolises freedom and the wild nature. You have announced a 15th anniversary tour with some surprises. Can you reveal some more details on what kind of surprises people should expect? Maybe the names of some special guests? Burst www.afternoiz.com

We won’t be having any special guests on the 15th anniversary shows, and as far as surprises go, if I told you then it wouldn’t be a surprise anymore would it? Are there any thoughts of recording some of the shows for a future DVD release? We will eventually make another live DVD but for now there are no concrete plans about when or where we will do it. Sonata Arctica have been around for 15 years. What are your dreams/expectations for the next 15 years? I hope that we’ll still be around in 15 years, playing shows and making albums and I think that there’s a good possibility to make that happen as long as we just keep working hard at what we do. On your previous tours you performed some songs acoustically. Have you considered of making an acoustic album? I think that we could do it one day, when the time is right. A lot of our songs work really well as acoustic versions, so I think it would turn out well. Last year Marko Paasikoski was replaced by Pasi Kauppinen on the bass. What really happened? Marko didn’t have the motivation to tour and work as a full time musician. We work a lot and it’s a really hard job so he wanted to do something else with his life. Luckily we all knew Pasi from before so it was really easy just to call him up and have him join the band. In 2012 you released a “Tour Edition” of “Stones Grow Her Name” with bonus tracks. Are there any plans to do the same with “Pariah Child”? Have you recorded any tracks that

were left out? We only recorded one bonus song for Japan in these sessions. We have some unreleased stuff that might come out later this year but not from the Pariah’s Child sessions. Over the years you have made many covers on bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, even Scorpions. What are your influences now days (both musically and lyrically)? Lyrically, you’ll have to ask Tony, I know that he reads a lot and also gets inspired from movies. As far as my musical influences, I’d say that the biggest bands for me are Pantera, Deep Purple and maybe Metallica. The Finnish scene has produced some very popular heavy metal bands like Nightwish, Stratovarious, etc. What is this thing that make the Finish scene so unique? Where we live, it’s dark and cold for the most part of the year so I think that’s one thing that reflects in our music. There have

been great metal bands in Finland since the 80’s but only now in the recent 10-20 years we also have the business side in order so now when a new good band emerges, we can actually make them known to the world. There are not many people that play a keytar. How difficult is to perform live carrying around this kind of instrument? It’s very tricky until you get used to it. I’ve been playing with keytars now for over 10 years so it’s not too hard anymore. I’ve always wanted to ask you. I saw you on the “For the Sake of Revenge” DVD smashing your keytar. What drove you do that? Was it spontaneous? Would you do that again? It seemed like a good idea at the time, I didn’t really analyze it too much, I guess on some level I wanted to pay a tribute to classic rock bands. I would do it again if someone would pay for the keytars....it was a really fun thing to do ;-)

Burst www.afternoiz.com

By Joe Prostredny | Photos by Mikko Harma

Hello Jonsu, Thank you so much for talking to us today!

all these years. You’ve had the same members since you started?

It’s my pleasure!

Yeah! Yeah, we have been together for 12 years. I was in some other groups with Heini before, but with Indica we have always had the same members. It’s actually quite amazing

You and Indica have been together for 12-13 years now, and your membership has been very stable Burst www.afternoiz.com

Indica is a Finnish rock band founded by five talented women, with a similar musical vision back in 2001. Originally signed by Sony Music, they released their first album in 2004. The album rapidly went platinum in their home country and they continued to gain popularity throughout Scandinavia. In 2007 they were invited to tour with Nightwish and their popularity continued to expand around the globe. Indica has been a very prolific band and have

for a band to stay together that long without personnel changes. What about the relationships between the members do you think has kept Indica stabile for so long? I’m sure it must be because we all share the same passion

released seven albums up to now, including “Shine”, which was just released in January. The five members, Jonsu (vocals), Heini (bass), Sirkku (keyboards), Jenny (guitar), and Laura (drums), are currently in rehearsals to start their new tour in support of their new album. I was lucky enough to get an interview with the band’s vocalist, Jonsu, to discuss Indica’s music, their new album, touring, and other crazy stuff. The phone rang... And this is how it went:

towards the music. And you know of course it is like being married to five members, so for sure we have had our ups and downs (laughs), but at the moment there’s great harmony in the band and it’s going really well…. Good!

37 ...but two of our members have babies so we’ve recently had a couple of other people just doing the live shows when they weren’t able to tour with us… but now everyone is back to work. That’s really good to hear! I’ve heard people describe Indica as everything from pop to folk, to rock. I can hear and see elements of all these. Do you have a particular genre that you feel Indica belongs to or do you just make music and not worry about how you’re labelled? Ah, it’s really hard, even for me, to say to what kind of genre we would belong. I remember at first we were categorized as a mystic romantic pop-rock band. You know, the press here in Finland just invented it, but, I don’t care as long as the music touches the people and they get something out of it. They can call it whatever they want (laughs). Indica has been a very prolific band as well. If I’m counting right, you’ve got six albums with a seventh one on the way? Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. You achieved success early with your first album, “Ikuinen Virta” reaching platinum status in Finland. Did you expect success so quickly? Definitely not. I remember when we released our first album we all were thinking like, “Yeah let’s see… if it sells a thousand copies we’ll be really, really happy”. But the success was a big surprise for all of us. In music, success is something you can’t really predict…like sometimes I’ll think we have this really great single, and radio stations won’t play it, and sometimes I think, you know, I’m not sure if this will be successful, and then suddenly it’s a big hit, so… I still don’t… can’t understand how this whole business works! (Laughing)

Well, congratulations on all your success! Well, thank you! All your early albums were in Finnish. It wasn’t until 2010 that you released your first album with English lyrics, A Way Away. What led to the decision to start recording songs in English? Well, when we started with Indica we sang songs in English and in Finnish, but then we had the other record label, back then it was Sony Music. Basically, Sony Music said we had to pick a language and we decided to do it in Finnish. But later, the Nightwish guys asked us to go touring with them to Europe and Scandinavia…so it was natural to do an album in English then, so that people would understand it. I think that the lyrics are a big part of Indica, so for me, and for us, it was important to make the lyrics understandable for all people. How did your fans respond when you put an English album out? You’ve had only Finnish albums for several years, so what was the fans’ response to the change? Oh for sure, most of the European fans were really excited about it, but of course there were Finnish fans also that worried that we would never sing in Finnish again. With the new album “Shine”, we decided to also release the Finnish album “Akvaario” at the same time. I feel that people have really strong opinions; whether they like Indica in Finnish or in English, and you know, some people like it in both languages, so they have the possibility to choose it themselves now. Believe it or not, even though I don’t speak a word of Finnish, I like it in Finnish better... Awww... … because, that way, I can

enjoy the vocals as another instrument if I’m not trying to understand the meaning of the words. I can just listen to the voice and enjoy it for what it is… Yeah, I know! Some bands have been really successful doing that like Sigur Rós. They kind of invented their own language, that nobody understands, and yet they are very popular in Europe…. But now you can get the “Akvaario” album too… (laughs) So, Indica will be releasing “Shine” and “Akvaario” in a couple of weeks. Yeah! In a week… What can you tell us about the albums? I’ve heard the one single, “A Definite Maybe”, but… Well “A Definite Maybe” is definitely the most pop-ish song off the album, so I think, my personal opinion is that it gives a little bit….ahh, maybe I could say a wrong image of the whole album, because you know…I really…I don’t know why the record label wanted to choose it for the first single. Our last album was much darker and now we suddenly (laughs) take the most popish song on the new album and make it the first single. But, overall, “Shine” is lighter, more positive, and has a different energy than “A Way Away”, and of course you can see it from the album booklet already (laughs). Everything is yellow. I think, after doing six pretty blue, or you know, sad albums, we felt that we wanted to create a different kind of energy, to give people more positive energy, do a little bit groovier music and do something a little different. I think this album is closest to the first album that Indica ever released; the “Ikuinen Virta” album. The new album “Shine” has English lyrics, but,

you said earlier, there is also a Finnish language version called “Akvaario. When you did that, how did you do it? Were the lyrics written in Finnish first and translated to English, or vice versa? How did that happen? Well this was a little bit different, because we did the English album first. We were not supposed to release a Finnish album, but then we had some contractual problems and we were not sure if the English album would ever see daylight, because we were not sure if we could get the names under the same contract. So, I was a little bit depressed. I was in Finland and talked to one guy from a Finnish label and told him: “Oh, we have this shitty situation where we don’t know if we can release the album” and he said “Yeah, but, you know, let’s do it in Finnish. You own the songs anyway, even though you can’t get the English album out” (slight laugh). So we started recording the Finnish album and when the Finnish album was done we got all the contracts for the English album made too, so… So now there’s two… Yeah, now there’s two albums. I’ve always wanted to do two albums but, there were different opinions inside the band even, because some of the band members thought you have to choose which language you pick. But I thought, you know, you can have the freedom to have both. Is it difficult to write two versions of the songs? I imagine the language doesn’t translate directly very well. Yeah… Well, I wrote the lyrics of the Finnish album about a year after the English album, and none of those are like really translations….I didn’t see any reason to do translations. In a year I saw so much, you know, life and so much of the Burst www.afternoiz.com

38 world, I wanted to write on different topics. “Akvaario”… now that doesn’t mean “Shine”. It means aquarium or fish tank. So why is the title different?

keep your self-esteem there!

Yeah…..well “Akvaario”…the whole album is about different things than “Shine”. I think this “Aquarium” album is more about love, relationships, and you know…the good things in love and also the awful things of love. It’s also about... the kind of attitude where people need atten-

It will be released in Finland but… you know, it’s possible to order the Finnish album online, so you can order it all over the world.

tion so much and it doesn’t really matter what it costs…. It’s like the whole reality TV thing nowadays… many people want to be celebrities, but you know, I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anybody if they don’t have a good reason to be there. All this social media, the public, it’s not the place to get your self-esteem high, (laughs) if you can even

so many.

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No, it’s certainly not! (laughs) Will “Akvaario” be available outside of Finland? Or only in Finland.

What is your favorite song that you’ve written for Indica? Do you have one? I know there’s been

Well… I think one of my favorites, still, is “Vettä Vasten” from the first Indica album. I think it’s the last song on the first Indica album. I also like a song called “Run Run”, which is on the new Indica album, and also a song called “Hush Now Baby”. Those are some of my favorites, but usually you

know the value of the songs when, you know, some time passes. If you still love them after ten years, then those must be (laughing) one of your favorite songs! One of my favorites is “Valokeilojen Vampyyri”… Ohh! That’s sweet! ... which I believe means Limelight Vampire… or something like that. Yeah, It’s nice that you like

that song because it’s one of the first songs we ever did. I think it’s the first Indica song. Is it really? Because it’s on one of your later albums, isn’t it? That’s true, it’s from our compilation album. But we wanted to put it there because it was a compilation album

and we wanted to put the first song that we ever wrote on it (laughs). So funny. Oh wow! ... I like it; however, as I don’t speak Finnish, I don’t understand the lyrics. What is the song actually about? The song is about an older rock star who’s trying to get a really young girl (laughs). It’s kind of you know…kind of a joke song (laughing). It’s about, you know, how we, how people adore youth and it’s something like “ahhh” (voice simulating

adoration) … the way it’s written (laughs). It kind of tells, you know, the way we were, Heini and I …..We were like... real groupies, before we started Indica (laughing). We loved all the rock bands and we were like, always hanging around (laughing). I’ll have to listen to it again and think about that!

39 Yeah! Indica has a reputation for being a very fun band in concert. You’ve toured very extensively over the years, first in Scandinavia, and later Europe and beyond. I assume a new tour is planned to support the new album, “Shine”? Yeah, we start touring in the spring in Finland and go…well the whole tour depends on how the album sells in different countries and we’ll talk with our agency. We’ll check at first, like, the first couple weeks, how it goes… and then we’ll start planning what we’ll do for the tour. So hopefully, I really hope that we will have a chance to go as many places as possible. For sure I hope that we will go to the USA too. One year ago I was in the US, in L.A. I was composing with some other great writers there, so I wasn’t really doing Indica stuff there at that time. Well I hope you come over! I’d like to see you. Yeah! I’d like to come there, really. Your guitarist, Jenny, took a break from touring last year due to the birth of her child. I assume she will be back on stage with Indica this year? Yeah, everybody is back! We had rehearsals yesterday and the whole group is together again. Babies grow fast! (laughs) Yes (laughs) I know. I have two daughters myself! … What are some of your favorite tour memories? Anything or anyplace that stands out? mmmm…one of my favorite places was Mexico City. We were there about a year ago. There are great fans there and they were waiting for the band in the airport! They gave us so many presents that we couldn’t even carry everything back with us back to Finland. We felt so welcome there and the people were really amazing. It was one of our favorite places for sure, but we had a lot of good times in Europe too! When we were touring with Nightwish we shared the same bus with another band. During the tour we were partying a lot, and one night we forgot Jenny, our guitar player. There was an empty bus and we told her, because she didn’t like to party so much, that she should go to sleep on the empty bus and we’d wake her up when it was time to leave. Well, we totally forgot her there on the empty

bus! She was calling us, and she was furious! She was calling us in the morning, like (in a mean voice) “Where are you?!!” And we totally forgot her (laughing). Oops! Oops! We had to go back! And she wasn’t happy! (laughs) I can imagine! (laughs) What do you and the other members like to do while you are travelling on tour? Is there any opportunity for sightseeing or leisure activities? Or is it all running from one place to the next?

somewhere! We wish you all the best with your new album and good luck on your upcoming tour! Thanks a lot and thanks for the nice questions. Take care and all the best! Thank you! … Kiitos! Kiitos! Bye bye

Well, it depends. Pretty often, we have a day to see the places, and it’s really interesting. Sometimes we go to the basic landmarks like the Eiffel tower and we had wine under the Eiffel tower. And sometimes we go to museums, sometimes to movies, and sometimes we have a chance to go see some other bands, especially at the festivals. We always try to see as many other bands as possible, and sometimes we even go jogging or do some sports (laughs). Other than this one, what is the strangest question you’ve ever been asked in an interview? Well, probably, you know, this one interviewer asked me if I could marry him (laughs). That was quite cute! (laughs). What did you tell him? I said, like, you know…uhh, I can’t say yes straight away because I don’t really know you, so… (laughing) and I still don’t know him very well, so… (laughs). It would be a little bit risky thing to say yes right away… of course, they do it in some cultures, but in the western world I think we are used to having the chance to get to know somebody and make decisions then. So I take it you never married him? (laughs) Well Jonsu, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us today. Is there anything else you want to say to your fans before we go? Well, I just hope they will have an amazing year in 2014 and I hope that “Shine” and “Akvaario” will give them a lot of good energy and support in their lives and all the best! I hope to see them… Burst www.afternoiz.com

Phase Post grunge, Progressive Punk/ Rock, Alternative Rock, Space Rock, Electro, Psychedelic etc etc... you name it! All I can say about this band is that you have to have your ears widely open; too many elements blended together creating thus a “psychedelia” of sounds and the Phase-ship is ready to travel you throughout it... On a warm Friday evening I met online with Thanos Grigoriou who stated the following... By Sissy Fanouraki

“We are constantly subconsciously looking for familiar reference points to instantly compare and report to ourselves on what’s happening... “

Greetings from BURST Magazine! How are you? Greetings there Sissy and thank you for hosting us on BURST. I can say that I am content... It’s not really a proper place and time to complain about my overgrowing disenchantment with humanity (laughter). So, for me Phase is a band from another dimension, for you? It’s a healthy socialization outlet for me personally... A means to travel, experience and learn... A reason to spend more quality time with my friends, make old-new ones in the way... Collectively I perceive it as a group of people that impose their empathic humanitarian values to the flawed system we all constitute... You could say that we are conducting social sciences in a sense... When did the Phase project begin? The first seed were sown back in 2003 or 2004, when the first ideas were gathered and a few faulty line ups... Frankly I had considered Damos for the early Burst www.afternoiz.com

days but it just didn’t work out back then... The first fully functioning instance was only realised by 2008 under which we’ve recorded “In Consequence”. Your Phase-ship carries grunge, progressive, electronic and psychedelic sounds wrapped around profound lyrics. Shall I put it under the general Rock mood or do you prefer another term to describe it? Post grunge, Progressive Punk/ Rock, Alternative Rock, Space Rock, Electro, Psychedelic blah blah blah...You name it! All these messy titles really confuse me to be honest... In the end of the day it’s only rock and roll... Rock in it’s full essence! “In Consequence” was released in 2010, and it was your first full-length album. Now you’re about to release a brand new album, entitled “The Wait” and my question is the following: How did circumstances within these four years influence your sound? Everything has changed and nothing has changed... It’s re-

ally weird... Plus I can’t be an unbiased judge of that since I am attached to our works no matter how old they are... The Phase identity is prevalent in our songs...We have an ideas pool that dates back from 2003ish and it is getting always bigger and bigger... We draw things from there and mix it up with brand new stuff that with a really beautiful collective procedure they become our songs... If we had the luxury to be in the same place altogether with our only concern how to party hard and had people to work on our raw material, not to mention, not having to have some sort of jobs to make a living, we’d make an album per month, but we had to realize the hard way that life is way more complicated than that for the overwhelming majority of us... In the end of the day it’s preferable to be doing it against all odds, for it shows that we really honestly want that. Of course given that it doesn’t hold vanity qualities urging for self-projection, or revenge ones wanting desperately to show our adolescent ‘rivals’ and people in general that we are really something and we do matter... I really can list numerous examples to that extent!

“Static” was and still is my favourite track. Splendid lyrics and music, food for the brain! What was your main source of inspiration for the upcoming album? Thank you so much for your kind words, It’s really one of my favourite songs and it’s really consuming me on stage getting me wrapped up in its dark energy every single time... The sparkle for the upcoming album came while traveling from a country to another to sound-check and get ready for that night... You know when you’re eager to get somewhere and time stretches funnily giving you the impression the way to there is endless while getting back is way-way faster... A line like ‘almost there isn’t close enough’ jumped off my lips and it all started building around it along with some ideas that were shaped with previous conversations I had talked with friends on how people nowadays choose to live in unstable fantasies / possibilities for their future instead of designing and living the present and live for the moment, something that is easily taken amiss by impulsive, capricious sad people that seek

41 for affirmation for their overlooked degradation in everything, art included! You recently released the single “The Amethyst” (and its lyric video). I guess that is a small snippet from the upcoming release. Is your new album a so-called concept album? Indeed, a different mix of “Amethyst” is featuring in “the Wait” album. It is concept in a way under what I’ve said earlier... Everything is connected in the end of the day anyway, don’t you think? Like the Lakota saying... Mitakuye Oyasin!

pleasant position to claim that we don’t have fans with extreme expressions, which is a sign of arrogance, lack of education and inability to assume one’s own responsibilities, but only people who go along with what we are doing and love to check up on us from time to time to see how we are doing! People that we can hang out with, and not people we think we are superior to and want them to worship us... The video’s main thing is alienation, depression, trust issues, personality disorders, identity crisis, and the human condi-

he’s done for the Wait for the first time. Your album cover is a bit abstract, just like your music. Tell us about it. It is exactly like our music to be honest... Like I told you we are more of an acquired taste... People tend to like things they’ve been exposed to and they need to identify with known symbolisms to know if they like something or not... People are searching in their spouses’ characteristics that remind them of their former

“A Void” there to avoid… Tell us about the video and the collaboration with artist Afsoon Shahriari. It’s the biggest affirmation and reality check for us when we have wonderful people like her respecting our output so much... It’s like being lost in the highway and with petrol running low and suddenly seeing a road sign to where you are going and a gas station nearby... We have all these beautiful people that support us, established artists or not... And we are in the

Apart from releasing the album do you have any plans for live shows or tour? There is some small tour being planned for the continental Europe and someone off’s here and there... We’ve learned to hold a small basket after all... We are not disposed to do things we consider as unethical, in order to achieve major contracts of any sort... We are examining the offers we are getting each time and act accordingly! Hopefully in the future we’ll have the chance to expand our reach further, but we are not complaining! We do exactly what we feel to do from the inside!

“Looking back will show what defines you”. Does your past define you as artists or do you focus in the present time and/or future? Well our past formed us to become artists but what will really define us as artists is our future... Our second album will come to support and justify it’s predecessor and so on and so forth... Imagine if Placebo, Nick Cave, Tom Waits or even David Bowie would stay just with their debuts... These people didn’t care much about fashions, well maybe some did, and they ended up making themselves one while they were passing the test of time... Phase is a big conversation... A process and we haven’t rolled out the whole plan yet...

ing it to the wait that makes us (see) who we are... His beloved golden ratio is also used and Newton rings lie here and there... The cover will succeed on what I’ve said earlier with it’s uncanny look... The receiving end will have to convince himself to like it even-though he doesn’t know if he does so, out of context... It’s made from one amazing contemporary artist and the band seems to know what they’re talking about... It’s a pictorial puzzle, isn’t it?

Any final words for our readers and your fans?

tion in the dystopian modern age society in general... It really has endless content and food for thought and discussion in it’s only 5 minutes... Afsoon totally loved our thing and wanted to contribute to it, and so she does ever since she encountered our output... And so did the incredible Alexis Marcou... It was such a pleasant surprise to know that he was familiar with, and loved what we are doing before chance brought us together... Having someone who’s work you admire, admiring you back is a blessing, don’t you think? Speaking of whom, and his beautiful art we have the honour to present what

caregivers and so on... we are constantly subconsciously looking for familiar reference points to instantly compare and report to ourselves on what’s happening... We as artists want to challenge free will and opinion by exposing truths, confronting, exaggerating, creating awkward artistic statements and so many other things... The album cover is a total masterpiece if you are asking me... And it’s our answer to Andy Warhol’s banana or I don’t know what... Technically Alexis called to arms all of his genius and started of the original idea of using Rorschach as basis implying that everybody uses projective identification on art anyway, but connect-

Thank you for the time you’ve spent digging this interview, I hope you’ll invest some more to have a browse on our work and let our music grow inside you... --------------- If you liked this interview and want to learn more about this “psychedelia” then all you have to do is to follow the Phaseship: Phase.gr Phaseship.com facebook.com/phaseband youtube.com/phaseband wikipedia.org/wiki/phase_ (band)

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Meet& GREET

Schooldrivers By Cristina Alossi

How did SD started and how did you decide the name of the band? SD started as a solo project of our singer, Kay Darens, and back then it was Greco-phone and named “Kay and the Schooldrivers”. Following a number of member changes, leading to our current formation, Kay insisted in keeping just the “Schooldrivers” part from the original name and this shaped what we all can call a band. The band’s name occurred after an almost mortal strike by a school bus, some cursing on the driver and lots of laughter after dodging that bullet. What does “spiritual rock n roll” mean and how does that apply to your music? Spiritual R’n’R means something soulful and meaningful derived straight from our hearts. The spiritual part comes in as a way of life, where we all try to make things better by learning each day something new in order to improve ourselves first, before we try to change the world. This is clearly depicted in our music but it requires a careful listener willing to uncover it. You first album is “Theronation”. What does the title mean and how did you came up with it? What kind of audience does it address? Theronation is a word created after one of those long discussions you have with your bandmates while chilling on a couch at the studio. The meaning is altered by the way you pronounce the “thero” part: a nation of spiritual people or a nation of beasts. The original inspiration was the Naiad nymph Theero from Sparta who was the babysitter of war god Ares. Such a contradiction felt quite right to describe the overall feeling of the album. The 1st song Roll The Dice says: “We are on a war now but I needed it…” / “Stand up & fight for anything you’ve wanted, Burst www.afternoiz.com

waited…”. There’s a war going on but it can lead to the peace you are looking for in your life. As for the audience, I could say that everyone will find something to like and get attached to. I don’t like using labels and genre tags so I won’t try to suggest it to a specific audience. It’s good music bro. You have organised 2 big festivals (Life for Life, SGW), should we expect anything like those in the future? Sure thing ;) Live For Life was a great experience and in the way we see things, making more events like that happen, is a great buff for the whole scene. Plus we liked the fact that 23 bands put their egos aside in order to help a fellow musician fighting for his life. Starting from a notion this led to a mentality that was transformed into real actions that actually changed the reality for the bands and for the person that was suffering: that’s what spiritual R’n’R is all about. You played in a TV show on MTV, “The Band Project”. How did you set it up? Tell us a few things about your experience. Well... Being the 1st band to star on the 1st rockumentary series of MTV in Greece is still one of our biggest achievements so far and we feel very grateful for that. MTV is the channel every musician in the world would love to see his name related to, and The Band Project was an experience that at least made us fearless in front of a camera. Plus we became close friends with the other band playing Ainigma. Other than that the production and the overall outcome shown to the public could be much better but it’s a hell of a

story to cover in just a paragraph. Just for the curious out there let’s just say that the original series never reached broadcast. Are there any bands/artists that you would like to play live with? I don’t believe there is any musician who wouldn’t love to share the stage with one of his idols. Since I don’t have any specific in mind I’d say we’d love to play with RHCP or BON JOVI and to prove that we were finalists for the support act back when they visited Greece. Both times. Which was the first and the last album that all of you sat and listened to as a band? For sure the last one was Theronation. The day the test press of the vinyl came home we borrowed a MK2 + 2 high fidelity speakers and we just sat to listen carefully of what we had accomplished. As for the first well it’s been a long time. Can’t recall but guess it was something pretty nice ranging from Tool’s Lateralus to Dreamtheater’s Metropolis II :) Tell us your future plans. Will there be a video clip for this new album? Oh yes!!! Anyone can go and check a video we did on Enjoy that actually served as the winner video for a successful Indiegogo campaign to fund our album. Till the end of March “Ol’ Johnny” will be hitting your screen. It will be a 3D animation clip directed by Mike Agoulas which took over a year to complete and the story is based on the lyrics and a very dark concept behind them. After that: a 2D animation hybrid video will be coming end of April on “Gotta Give” by Cubic

Media and we are also setting up an actual videoclip with the live band on another song from the album maybe Saturday which is already somewhat of a hit? We don’t know. Hope you’ll love them as we do:) How important is your stage performance in you live shows for you? Do you perform a specific show, use extreme makeup or projections? Well for good and for bad, an image equals a thousand words. For example, on a loud downbeat after a quick short pause if you feel like jumping, you should better do so. It amplifies the effect of the note you hit. Extreme make up for now is used only on our drummer (his head is quite a canvas :p) and the rest of us have a few symbolic markings. For videodelics and other projection stuff we have plans to incorporate them in our shows but we’re not there yet. If anyone out there is interested in helping us out with that then we’d be more than happy to cooperate with him/her. Misfits: you are in the middle of a storm, lightning strikes you and you get superpowers. Which one would you like to get and what would you do with it? I always liked the idea of being able to fly. So come on powergiving lightning and strike me please!!! First of all I would take a long walk, sorry I meant flight: p Don’t know if I would try to be a superhero but u never know. I play a paladin so I might: p And after all, think of stage performance if your bandmates could fly with you... Epic!

Photo by Yiannis Margetousakis

BURST is against animal cruelty.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Know that the same spark of life that is within you, is within all of our animal friends, the desire to live is the same within all of us...â&#x20AC;? -Rai Aren, Secret of the Sands-

www.argophotography.com No animals were harmed in the making of this fur coat Burst www.afternoiz.com

Meet& GREET Deathvalves By Spiros Smyrnis Hello guys and welcome to Burst! Could you please introduce yourselves to our readers and give us a small bio of the band? Hello and thanks for the interview. Well, Deathvalves formed back in 2006, we have two full length albums and at this time we’re working on our third one. Deathvalves seem to be a quite strange and extraordinary name for a band. What does it mean and why did you choose such a name for your band? Do you consider that this name describes your sound and if so, in which ways? The name means something unrestrained and wild and also undefined. It is undefined like the kind of music we play. Moreover Deathvalves isn’t even a word so if you Google it you’ll find only us, hehe! You have released two studio albums, one in 2007 and

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another one in 2012. Do you have any further plans about a third full-length album? And if so, can you tell us anything about it, any specific details? Yes, we have already started working on this, it will be complete in late 2014. It’s too soon to talk about this but the first samples are much heavier than our previous albums. Who are the main composers of your material? Do you write music all together for example? Guitarist/Vocalist T. Sydrome brings almost ready songs, we just jam on these a little and there you are, a ready song. You describe your sound as “hard rock” and “alternative heavy metal”. It is actually pretty hard to just put a label on a band and on the sound generally speaking. My question is, do you have any certain bands that you consider as your main influence? Yes we agree that it is pretty hard to describe our music so we just label it as “Hard Rock”. Over the years our influence stems from our old favorite hard rock heavy metal bands but also from new sounds because we are open to listen to new music all the time. We always try to build our own style. While I was checking your official website I noticed that both of your two studio al-

bums are free for download there. This fact actually impressed me since music is art, is not supposed to be a free product since the professional musicians need to raise some money in order to pay their bills and get their food like every common worker does. So, how did you come up with this idea? Music is free from us as long as we can do this, money from albums, as we know, never goes to the band’s pocket, we have the album free for download but we sell our albums at our concerts just for those who really want to support an artist. I noticed as well, that you have done some cover versions on very well-known tracks such as “Ace Of Spades”, “I Wanna Be Somebody”, “Green Machine”. The fans are kind of divided on the issue of cover songs (generally speaking): some of them like them and some of them hate them and prefer to listen to the original track. For example, many fans bitch about the cover bands and they claim that the musicians should write and perform their own material. What is your opinion on this? We are not a cover or a tribute band, we have our own stuff, two albums!!! We are not huge fans of the cover thing, we decided to make those covers just because they are favorite songs for us. We have also played them live and if

you notice it is not a re-performing of the songs, is a cover. Recently you played as a support act on Glowsun’s show. Congrats on that! Do you have any further tour plans or any other live show scheduled? That was a cool show, we are also proud that we supported some great bands such as Deus Ex Machina and Nightstalker. We’re going to Athens for the first time at April 12th at Bat City Club, don’t miss it! You come from a small Greek town, Karditsa. Do you consider this as a good or bad thing for your career? I mean, most of the big live shows and festivals happen in Athens so, would you ever consider of moving to a different city/country in order to have more and better chances in the music business? Neither good nor bad, just harder to get into things if you know what I mean. We keep trying and fighting for it, never surrender! The last words are yours. You can make a wish or a promise to the fans. Thank you very much for your time! Thanks a lot for the interview. Check and download for free our music from www.deathvalves. com. Thanks for the support… long live rock ‘n’ roll!!!

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MUSIC REVIEWS

Lacuna Coil

Broken Crown Halo

When Lacuna Coil started recording their seventh studio album, Cristina Scabbia declared that it would be a mixture of all the older and newer elements of their sound. Broken Crown Halo is a combination of what Lacuna Coil is all about. The album starts off with the smash hit, Nothing Stands In Our Way and goes on with Zombies which features a rather lengthy guitar solo, something that is not very typical for a Lacuna Coil song. The band got inspired by old Italian horror movies and soundtracks, so I suppose this is one of the main reasons that Andrea’s vocals sound more aggressive than ever before. Hostage To The Light features Cristina’s ethereal vocals and is the best possible example on how Lacuna Coil sound in 2014. On Victims, a song which obviously refers to wars and eternal hate between different nations, Cristina delivers a very interesting vocal performance. On the other hand, on Die And Rise, a quite cheesy track, Andrea plays the main role on the vocal parts. The tracklist continues with I Forgive (But I Won’t Forget Your Name) which is another radio-friendly track and right at this point this album starts to sound more interesting and coherent in a way. Cybersleep is a wonderful down-tempo song featuring Cristina’s emotional and dreamy vocals. Infection, a nice and quite surprising song, follows. I Burn In You proves in the best way that Lacuna Coil are fond of oriental and Middle East-related elements and although this track may not become a hit but it’s certainly one of the best songs on this album. In The End I Feel Alive is a heavy anthem full of modern elements and effects. One Cold Day is a perfect outro track as it leaves the listener with a nostalgic and smooth feeling. To sum up, Broken Crown Halo is not another stiff heavy-like album; bass’s volume lowers down, the keys are back and the final result is smoother and more natural. Not bad at all! Korina P. Burst www.afternoiz.com

Photo by Ear Music

Speedblow

Bigelf

Sonata Arctica

“Speedblow came into being in March 2009 by John T and Costas P. Elements such as devotion and stubbornness (in the good way), melody, heaviness, energy, groove, originality (as far as possible, given the times we live in) and above all, the will to work as much as needed to reach the bands goals and meet its expectations, combine the founding stone of the band. Speedblow plays heavy metal music with influences from the heavy rock and doom genres, with a strong presence of melody, harmony and rhythm. “ The band’s bio of their official facebook page is the best way to introduce Speedblow to someone who’s never heard of them before.

Is it possible to have a pure 70’s psychedelic prog rock album released in 2014? We’re talking about Bigelf, a band that puts together Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen and Black Sabbath and numerous sci-fi themes… Bigelf’s new album is exactly like a very powerful whirlpool; it combines a nostalgic 70’s essence with prog mood, spacey keys and lots of Sabbath-ish riffs. It’s an album that you should listen to very carefully to have an opinion of your own. One of my favourite tracks is “Alien Frequency”… in this track you can actually imagine Mike Portnoy’s face while hitting the drums and it begins with a question about origins of men “What if you could meet your maker, what would you have to say?”. Another highlight in this album is the track “The Professor & the Madman” with some great funky riffs. I love this album in its entity.

I may not be their number one fan, but I’ve always liked the music of Sonata Arctica; and that is melodic power metal. In the last couple of albums though, the band explored different sounds, leading them to hard rock paths, and by this way disappointing some old fans.

Behold the Darkness

After 2-3 listenings of “Behold the Darkness” I sat down to write the album’s review. There was one word appropriate for this review. Guitars! Oh my fucking god, those guitars! John T and Costas P (they also play together on Black Soul Horde) are one of the best guitar duets out there and you should be listening to them. “Behold of Darkness” which is released via Trailblazer Records (Lucky Funeral, Automaton, Need) absorbs the Pentagram riff spirit, along with the dirtiness of Crowbar and Down. Heavy as shit, it can stand near to The Sword’s masterpieces as it is guitar-based while “The Cleansing” is one of the best songs I’ve listened to in 2014. Embrace the darkness, embrace Speedblow. Honor your heavy roots! P.S The Vance Kelly (Down, Huntress) front cover is A-M-AZ-I-N-G Spiros Smyrnis

Into the Maelstrom

“Into the Maelstrom” is a music story even though it’s not a concept album. It takes you back in time but at the same time it’s a glimpse at the future. Mike Portnoy’s performance is exceptional; his flamboyant beats and blasts are always there, sometimes hidden sometimes out in the open. Damon Fox’s unique vocals brought to my mind some of David Bowie’s space-ish vocals. I guess Bigelf managed to create solid songs, that will last in time. If you’re a fan of Bigelf you won’t be disappointed at all and you my friends, who don’t have a clue, if you somehow can listen to prog rock then you should definitely listen to this brilliant release! Sissy Fanouraki

Pariahs Chid

Their new album “Pariah’s Child”, marks the return of the band into more traditional sounds. One can see it, only by looking at the cover of the first single “The Wolves Die Young”. The old logo is back, while the band’s “mascot” the wolf, that was absent from their last releases, returns in both the cover and the lyrics. The album has some good ideas, including some catchy melodies like the one in “Cloud Factory”, or keyboard-leading songs like “Take One Breath”, but the grand moment of the album is the tenminute-long “Larger Than Life”. The orchestration, the chorus, the vocals, and the succession of quick and slow parts bring to mind a different era of the band. Although they make an attempt to return to more familiar sounds, there are songs like “Half A Marathon Man”, or the ‘theatrical’ “X Marks The Spot”, that are too hard rock for this album. These songs, without being bad, sound out of place and as a result and they ruin its cohesion. In conclusion, “Pariah’s Child” is a decent album with some good songs that remind oldschool Sonata Arctica, but there are also songs that should probably have been included in some of their previous two releases. Many fans would probably

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48 wanted more from them, since they have proved in the past that they are capable of doing a lot more. P.Tsoutsis

AmongRuins

Bring Out Your Dead

Bewized

Undead Legacy Bewized, a Groove Metal / Metalcore band from Thessaloniki, Greece, was formed in 2007. So far the band has released a demo EP “Carved Upon Your Bones” (2008), the debut album “The Scorch of Rage” (2010) and the 2nd full-length album “Undead Legacy”. Some described it as a collection of diverse sounds but for me is a metalcore album that combines melodic and groove parts; I could depict it as nu metal with many melodic death elements, after all it’s core to the bone! The overall effort nicely brings together growling and clean vocals. It’s not a breathtaking album but at least it never was an album in which you skip some tracks. You listen to it from the beginning to the end. Some tracks are speedy, heavy, full of riffs and growls, while others are “lighter” with cleaner vocals and less beats and blasts. It was a rather interesting overall effort and a lot better than the debut album. Nevertheless, I think Bewized have tons of more ‘core to offer. Lyric-wise the band moves around Greek mythology and that’s something worth being mentioned, as most of metal-core bands don’t often bother to write lyrics based on history or a book… For instance “Heart Bled Dry” featuring Bjorn “Speed” Strid (Soilwork), talks about the flight of Daedalus and his son Icarus to escape from the Labyrinth (and the mighty Minotaur). So, thumbs up for Bewized choice to bring “mythology“ one step further! Listening to Bewized’s new album you may feel like the band is still searching for its sound… That is not the case. Bewized are wise enough to combine so many seemingly incomparable sounds and elements in such way to result with a rather remarkable outcome. Sissy Fanouraki Burst www.afternoiz.com

What happens when the former members of a symphonic metal band join their forces with aggression and deathcore riffs? Well, AmongRuins happen! The ex-members of Bare Infinity formed a new extreme project and on October 17th, 2013 AmongRuins released its debut album “Bring out your Dead” via Noisehead Records. For approximately 40 minutes you’ll bang – trust me you will – your head and fists in the air while hammering your feet to the ground. Extreme death metal sounds with core-ish riffs and aggressive growling. Sverd’s brutal vocals, deathcore rhythmic riffs and the drum blasts are just enough… Even though I expected a slightly ‘better’ production, I wasn’t disappointed by the overall effort of AmongRuins. On the contrary, I found the band’s debut album a powerful start. “Home of the Silent” is one of my favourite tracks where the dominant elements are the harsh vocals and of course the drum blasts! AmongRuins certainly raised the bar and the only thing we expect from this band is more core riffs, more growls, and more aggression! Sissy Fanouraki

W.E.B.

For Bidens This is the 3rd studio album for the Greek dark metallers W.E.B. and in my opinion it’s the band’s best release EVER! The album came out after 6 years - since “Jesus Heist” - but this “hiatus” was totally worth it. “For Bidens” is a blend of diverse dark sounds; gothic, extreme and industrial enriched with some black and atmospheric elements. However you cannot put its sound under a specific label and that’s the greatest achievement of all; blending different sound thus creating your own unique signature. Blastbeats, heavy riffs, industrial and electronic elements,

choruses, classical instruments all pointing in one direction, that of an amazingly amalgamation of elements to form a unique abstract dark impression. The album title has two meanings; “Biden”, as used in the ancient English language to describe the creatures of the night, those with two sharp teeth; “For Bidens” is an album for vampires. On the other hand it’s a pun as it sounds like the word forbidden… It’s a concept album, talking about all forms of vampirism and W.E.B. are quite bold musically speaking. They manage to unfold a story throughout the album without getting tiring; on the contrary each track is more interesting and powerful than the previous creating thus a sole dark atmosphere. As an overall effort “For Bidens” is astonishing! I could easily put this release among the best of the year… Sissy Fanouraki

Schooldrivers Theronation

When you have grown up in the “Mtv alternative nation” generation and the bands that popped up when you pushed the buttons of your remote control were Soundgarden, Nirvana, Foo fighters, Offspring and Red hot chilli peppers; and when you yearned for the Mtv unplugged and special countdown that came once a year, then the Schooldrivers will remind you of your youth. They will drive you to a journey back to where rock was the essence, music was as important as lyrics and the rhythm made your heart beat and it filled cassettes and later on CDs. A modern rock explosion with elements from the past that keeps you put from track No 1. Energy, passion, strength combined with dirty guitars and rhythmical drums- all in harmony with the keys of the unique female presence of the band. Smart lyrics, grunge, alternative and mainstream affected that make you notice certain tracks from the very first hearing. The hit, “Ol’ Johnny” has catchy lyrics, the explosive “Roll the dice” that creates dynamic images from the very beginning. A hymn for Saturday that gives a Faith-no-more nostalgic view, the song “Easy”; the amazing riff in the “Make my day”; “Gotta give” and “Burn it down” that for many reasons I cannot yet explain are some of the tracks that caught my attention and made me say, “oh well, repeat”! Schooldrivers are not a stable band that just had to make a debut album. Studying their background I found out that they have been around for a while, forming their sound, looking for what calms their soul and what their audience needs. Theronation is an album that will make you -from the first time you listen to it- see that it is a very well executed effort from a Greek band that could as easily play to the American Mtv after the “The enemy within”. Cristina Alossi

Crystal Tears

Foster the people

Kylie Minogue

Stop looking around and focus on Crystal Tears’ new release! “Hellmade” is the third release of the Power Metallers, featuring a new vocalist, Søren Adamsen (ex-Artillery) released on March 28th, 2014 via Massacre Records. The album features 11 tracks and it was produced by R.D Liapakis (Mystic Prophesy/ Devils Train). From the very first moment you realize two things…

Foster the People present their second album; they gave it the title, “Supermodel”. It has got them good critiques from the media and the fans. They are still on the indie-pop, slightly electro- alternative style and you can trace these elements in this album too. It howlds many future hits, like: The Truth, Fire Escape (with a very 60’s –70’s feeling) and the Are you want you want to be? The good thing is that there is no specific loop or attitude to each song, yet each is unique and allows the listener to feel, and their mood to go through many stages. Good shifts from one genre to another, not tiring or sounding “wrong”.

K.M.’s album is up-coming with 15 new tracks. Renewed, holding an 80’s spirit and a happy beat in its songs, it reminds me of spring. “Kiss me once” or “kiss me like the first time” as it could be titled, has a sense of the Kylie we met her years ago, and that is a good thing. From Sexy Love to Sexercize and les sex -puns mostly and toying around with the audiences mood - don’t forget that Kylie was once ranked as the sexiest woman, something she reminds us strongly in this album as well. Everything is combined nicely, sensational vibes, music elements from the past and new ideas.

Hellmade

Firstly, the amazing, crystal clear production and secondly tracks that make your head bang! “Destination Zero” is the opening track and I think it’s the album’s hit; Laki Ragaza’s solo alongside the collaboration of R.D.Liapakis and the extreme vocals of Patrick Gardberg. Nowadays it is difficult to listen to an album without skipping a track, just because it’s boring or less interesting than others, and of course sometimes you feel you don’t have to listen to the same tracks again to get to the point… Fortunately Crystal Tears’ new release is not in this category… Well, it’s certainly HELL-made, even though it was recorded in an actual studio, and its title was wisely chosen. With that excellent new release Crystal Tears have raised the bar! Classic heavy riffs, hell-made vocals, and rhythmic blasts made my head bang, so, I can’t (and I won’t) separate one track from another as I equally liked them all; some for the immense double bass drumming others for the strong or speedy heavy riffs. The radio-friendly tracks “Out Of The Shadows” and the hard ballad “Ever Alone” are among those tracks that are stuck in my head! I choose to put this album in my CD collection as this is pure HEAVY METAL! Petros Chatzistilianos

Supermodel

If vintage was a term in music, that would be my word of choice. Solid material, spread and shared just as it should be. Jo Gogou

Unbreakable

Smash Into Pieces “Unbreakable”, that is the name of the new album of SMASH INTO PIECES that was released in March and it is their debut album. No matter how many times I listened to them, or how many times I pressed pause or stop, that many and more I also pressed the Play- repeat button. Not because I wasn’t sure about what I was listening to, but because of certain circumstances. Someone could call this fate or luck, since every time I listened to them, I just loved them even more. It was the first time I listened to the Swedish S.i.P and I have to

Kiss Me Once (Special Edition)

For me it is a great reinvention of the 80’s, a time coming back in music and fashion. I recommend the: Mr. President, Kiss me once, Sleeping with the Enemy. Jo Gogou admit that I was really enthusiastic about how good they sound and of their very professional and careful job they have done. It is an album full of feelings, alternations and intention; a recipe to success by itself. The good ingredients, the rhythm, the brutal vocals needed and the riffs kept me going again and again. I consider it an album that fully covers what you would like to hear, without leaving you “empty” at any time. They move along the Alternativerock paths and they can only be praised about the way they handle and get through this album. Chris Adam Hedman Sörbye is on the vocals. Although he sounds special, I have to say that it rings a bell (Chad Kroeger- Nickelback). Not an imitation of course, only a sound that reminds me of something else. I could not pick a specific song, all I can say is that you must listen to it no matter what! Jo Gogou

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HIT&RUN

OT It’sN all Greek to me

by Spiros Smyrnis

Phase

In Consequence

It’s Not Greek to Me started as a way to express my admiration of Greek musicians and bands that covered the rock/ metal community! I have already written 35 articles and I am happy that I have material for hundreds more. This is the exact same introduction I used for last month’s “It’s Not Greek to Me”, trying to write about the new masterpiece of Need titled “Orvam, A song for home”. So I decided to keep this as an introduction to the upcoming “It’s Not Greek to Me” tributes.

Τank Trap

Bite the Bullet EP

Destiny Heroes The Monster I Became

On the April of Burst Magazine I’m gonna share with you some words about Phase’s debut album, In Consequence. “The trip began on a midsummer day of 2008 when the party started collecting experiences and ideas which they are continuously filtering reaching to today’s form; having Phase delivering this tight alloy of music, the press tends to call psychedelic / alternative / progressive rock. Apart from their own, on and off their country’s borders, unquestionably successful shows, they’ve played in concerts and festivals on the side of contemporary, established artists close to their idiom like Danny Cavanagh (Anathema), Anneke Van Griesbergen (The Gathering), Sivert Hoyem (Madrugada), Jeff Martin (The Tea Party) and numerous others.” Quoting from the official facebook page of Phase you could have some info about the band’s brief music journey. A journey where “In Consequence” should be the main stop for all of you! The band is influenced by the prog-rock monsters such as Camel and Rush but they do not copy them! If you think of Phase as a replica band better look for someone else! As Greeks, it is impossible not to be influenced by Aphrodite’s Child like the “Inside” intro indicates. Then we have “The Smile” with the groovy introduction, followed by bombastic drumming and the first Alice In Chains grungy references. Perdition with its distorting electronic theme brings up an industrial air, Nine Inch Nails atmosphere and traditional melodies from Anatolia. In Consequence step to Transcendence and Ibidem where Phase calms down a little and at the same time by presenting us a very interesting range of riffs and vocals. Prog to the bone, as a good friend noticed In Consequence is definitely an album that grows on you. Each and every time I listen to it, I discover something new, so I have to congratulate the band for their efforts as In Consequence is a detailed, flawless work. Time, music, space in a never-ending journey. Do not be afraid to stand with them. Do not be afraid to embrace their music! Burst www.afternoiz.com

Hark

Crystalline

Τhe Graviators Motherload

Jagged Vision Harvest Earth

A rock band from Kent, London sent us the digital form of their latest EP, named Bite the Bullet. Tank Trap thy name and bluesy hard rock is thy game! There are some people calling them grunge but they are closer to Alice In Chains (who are not Grunge) than Nirvana, Temple of the Dog etc. I was air-guitaring on “Stand Up” so I guess they’re good! Badass catchy riffs and a street rock voice promise you having a great time by listening to them. Cheers!

Destiny Heroes claimed that they were influenced by bands like Paramore, Green Day and Blink 182. I won’t lie! This is a bad start! I hate this radio-friendly I’d like to be punk rock bands. However Destiny Heroes’ music isn’t that bad after all. They focus on sing-along choruses, easy to remember and they have a straighter rock approach than the bands we mentioned above. Bob Katsionis (Firewind, Outloud) has done a nice job producing but if Destiny Heroes wanna make the next big step then they have to improve singer’s accent.

BURST we have a problem! Hark’s new album blew my stereo’s speakers away! It’s my fault though. I have to take them more seriously! I knew that Hark’s members used to play for Taint. I also knew that great, Great Neil Fallon wouldn’t feature on a song that didn’t kick some serious ass. Like angry Red Fang and dirty Scissorfight, Hark spit tons of groove, while their riffs can only be characterized as elephant footsteps. “Crystalline” has already been checked for my favorite list of 2014. Sludgy and vicious straight to the fucking point! And the point is heavy rock motherfuckers! P.S The artwork is amazing. Sometimes the front cover of an album, speaks for the music the band plays. For example if you see the front cover of the third official album by The Graviators, titled Motherload then you will be pretty sure that doom metal is their game! I guess right. Stoner doom with psychedelic riffs and Pentagram influences. The Holy Spirit of Black Sabbath runs the whole album, while the 70s vintage feeling is blowing in the wind. Satanic solos and unholy voices featuring down tempo fuzzy rhythms. Order the Lp version of Motherload! Check!

Jagged Vision are coming from the proud land of Norway and they sent us a digital copy of Harvest Earth to review. The first time I’ve listened to the album, Kvelertak influences were up in the air. Luckily Jagged Vision is not a Kvelertak band clone and they have some very interesting ideas. From stoner (their grooviest moments) to hardcore (their harsher ones) Jagged Vision spit catchy riffs and cutting-throat vocals. I will give them an extra credit because they have a sound like reference on their facebook page to the cult stonerheads Doomriders . Groove it all the way baby!

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Directorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cut

Robert Rodriguez -Vol 1By Spiros smyrnis

Burst www.afternoiz.com

53 I’d been to the cinema few days ago with some really good friends of mine. Among other things our film chit chat focused on which movies we really enjoyed on 2013. The chit chat became a long conversation as you may understand and one of the most interesting topics of this conversation was the cult movies we enjoyed last year. We all mentioned Machete Kills as one of the cult-ier movies of the year. This was the exact time I’ve figured out that we have to make a director’s cut tribute article to the cult father of our generation, Senior Robert Rodriguez, on the upcoming Burst Issue. The buddy of Quentin Tarantino is not just another American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. Rodríguez was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of MexicanAmerican parents Rebecca (née Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman.[6][7] He began his interest in film at the age of 11 when his father bought one of the first VCRs, which came with a camera. While attending St. Anthony High School, he was commissioned to videotape the school’s football games. According to his sister he was fired soon after for shooting them with a cinematic style, getting shots of parents’ reactions and the ball traveling through the air instead of shooting the whole play. There he met Carlos Gallardo; they both shot films on video throughout high school and college. After graduating Rodriguez went to the College of Communication at the University of Texas where he also developed a love of cartooning. Did you get bored with the Wikipedia trivia of his life? Me too! Let’s focus on his film career which we are interested in, or addicted to. Yeah addicted! That’s much better! At the early age of 25 he finished his first film in Spanish the ultra cult revenge story of El Mariachi, with which Rodriguez gained international recognition as long as the Audience Award on Sundance Festival 1993. The film cost only 7000 dollars, so all of you complaining that you didn’t have enough millions to make a movie, pay attention! Rodriguez didn’t have them either. What did he have instead? Three words. Passion, love and guts! El Mariachi just wants to play his guitar and carry on the

family tradition. Unfortunately, the town he tries to find work in has another visitor...a killer who carries his guns in a guitar case. The drug lord and his henchmen mistake El Mariachi for the killer, Azul, and chase him around town trying to kill him and get his guitar case. (This is the plot summary by Josh Pasnak, for chainsaw@intouch.bc.ca) Rodriguez managed to take an unbelievable performance by Carlos Gallardo. Dirty, cult and controversial El Mariachi is a movie about a vigilante who never dreams of being a vigilante. El Mariachi is the beginning of a promising career. El Mariachi is the first film by Robert Rodriguez. The second Rodriguez film helped the filmmaker to see his career take off after the screening of it. “Desperado” is the sequel of “Ell MariachI”. It is also the story of a gunslinger is embroiled in a war with a local drug runner. Antonio Banderas is El Mariachi in his most significant role of his career, while Salma Hayek is as sexy as in

From Dusk till Dawn appearance, for which we can write down some things later. ”An itinerant musician, looking for work, gets mistaken for a hitman and thereby entangled in a web of love, corruption, and death. This time, he is out to avenge the murder of his lover and the maiming of his fretting hand, which occurred at the end of the earlier movie” quoting from Tad Biddern and imdb. Rodriguez reveals his Sam Peckinpa, Alex Cox and John Woo’s influences in a badass movie that stares spaghetti westerns in one eye and the 70s Independent American Cinema in the other. Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi and the one, the only, the might Quentin Tarantino have some unmemorable cameos sharing some amazing lines with us.

Rodriguez made a great duo with Banderas, that’s why they worked again on “The Misbehavers” segment of Four Rooms film where Rodriquez and Tarantino co-operated with Alison Anders and Alexandre Rockwell but to be honest most people remember this film because of Tim Roth’s performance and Quentin’s Tarantino segment. So let’s get to my favorite Rodriguez film, From Dusk till dawn. It was a love at first sight. I was fifteen years old when I rented a copy of From Dusk till Dawn. It was around the same period that I was aware of Pulp Fiction and Tarantino’s persona so I couldn’t resist. The Creators of Pulp Fiction and Desperado (Tarantino wrote the screenplay and Rodriguez directed) came this wild and wicked action thriller about two brothers on a desperate crime spree! Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney (Yeah ladies the same time he was starring in E.R) are brothers and two deranged convicts who kidnap a preacher (Harvey Keitel) and his two kids

(Juliette Lewis plays the daughter). They took them to Mexico! Why? Just to find Mexicans. Despite them they also found Vampira Salma Hayek, who gave the sexiest dance in film history after Marilyn’s Monroe moves on Some Like it Hot. Once they arrived at the club Salma Hayek dances, they find that the club is anything but safe for criminals. Brothers team up with their hostages just to slaughter the goddamn vampires. Tom Savini as Sex Machine, Cheech Marin in a three role and Fred Williamson as Frost give an extra cult status to this masterpiece while ZZTOP made a hell of a song and video to promote the film! As high as cult-o-meter can go! So we reached “Faculty” Rodri-

guez’ effort to make a teen spacethriller film, where students suspect that their teachers are aliens after bizarre occurances, which introduces us Elijah Wood in a small role, while Robert Patrick, Famke Janssen, Salma Hayek, Piper Laurie and Mr Jon Stewart are some of the teachers. To me this is the weaker and less funny film of Rodriguez but lots of his fans claimed to see The Faculty as his most underrated film in his careers. Though, I think you know what Clint Eastwood used to say about opinions. Robert Rodriguez has never grown up. He is just a kid who loves cinema and filmmaking! So the first two parts of Spy Kids trilogy, come as a tribute to his childhood, I guess. Rodriguez gathered his friends Antonio Banderas, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo along with Carla Gugino, Robert Patrick, Tony Shalhoub (Detective Monk) and Teri Hatcher, having Richard Linklater (the director of Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight) as a special

guest in the first film, which is closer to a sci-fi tv comedy show, to be honest. Other than the first film Rodriguez made a sequel, Spy Kids, starring again Banderas and Gugino with Steve Buschemi in the role of Romero. The Cortez siblings set out for a mysterious island, where they encounter a genetic scientist and a set of rival spy kids. We explored the further adventures of Cortez family which were funny and dangerous just like the ones in the first film. This is the end of Robert Rodriguez’ vol 1 Directors cut. In the May issue we will come back with more blood, sexy girls, amazing lines and sick humor. Stay tuned on BURST Magazine!

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Her (2013)

By Eleni Lampraki

“Her” is a 2013 romantic – science fiction film, directed and produced by Spike Jonse, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, Rooney Mara and Scarlett Johansson’s voice in Samantha. An all-star cast as it seems, with Phoenix making a major comeback in his acting career, surrounded by Amy Adams (2013 was absolutely her year, give the Oscar to the girl, for God’s sake) and Rooney Mara Hollywood’s next best thing, while Scarlett Johansson’s voice fits perfectly to the mysterious intelligent operating system (OS). Spike Jonse received three Golden Globe and five Academy Award nominations, winning both Golden Globe and Academy Award for “Best Screenplay” and “Best Writing (Original Screenplay”). The film received general critical acclaim, and the commercial round is still going on, with more than positive results. Presumably, one of the most interesting films, and of course one of the best of 2013. In 2025, a blond and blue eyed Joaquin Phoenix, like a Russian spy of the 1970’s, is Theodore Twombly, a professional writer in a greeting card company; he and his colleagues write letters, cartes-postales etc, instead of the original people who don’t bother or for personal reasons, can’t write them. Although a talented and skilled writer, capable of very sentimental products, he lives a lonely life, trying to surpass his marriage failure and divorce, with his childhood friend and Burst www.afternoiz.com

future wife, Catherine (Rooney Mara), with the compassion of his best friend Amy (Amy Adams). In an effort to trick his loneliness, he activates an evolving operating system with artificial intelligence, programmed to keep company to his owner and modified due to his owner’s personality and characteristics. His OS, chosen by him to have a female voice, turns out to be Samantha, a smart, sweet, funny, comprehensive and curious about life OS, who soon becomes Theodore’s best company. Samantha’s development allows her to have feelings, and become curious about life, while she starts an erotic relationship with Theodore. But her abilities are limitless, so how is all this going to work out? Clever, sweet, enjoyable movie, than can easily be seen as the “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” of the 2010’s. Hymn to hipster aesthetic with pale and sepia camera filters, old and out of current fashion clothes and furniture set in a minimal futuristic set, indie and melancholic music, it’s just a film of our era, which will be loved from all the alternative and demanding audiences around the world. With a pinch of kitch and the required noguilt sex scenes, includes the science fictional part and the much loved theme of a human and computer relationship with Simone influences, to its most true, both simple and complicated and beautiful nature. Absolutely, you will love it.

Winter’s Tale (2014)

By Angie Rouska

“Winter’s Tale” is a 2014 American fiction and drama film starring Colin Farrell, Jennifer Connelly, Russel Crowe and directed by Akiva Goldsman. Based on the 1983 novel with the same name, it narrates the story of Peter Lake, a thief, starting from 1895 till today, and his adventure through time in order to fulfill his destiny. In 1985, a young couple of immigrants (Peter’s parents) are refused to enter Ellis Island, due to tuberculosis while we hear that each man on earth has come as a miracle bearer for another. The couple decides to put their infant son in a model ship boat, called “City of Justice” and let him float in Manhattan. Thirty years later, Peter Lake has become a thief, running through the cities of New York, in order to escape from his former boss, Pearly Soames. At the same time, in a mansion nearby young and fiery red haired Beverly Penn, is just a step before death, due to tuberculosis as well. When Peter is magically saved by a white horse, his guardian angel, his path crosses with Beverly’s and they fall in love at first sight. Supposing that Beverly is Peter’s “miracle”, Pearly tries to stop it and kills them, in order to prevent universe balance to slip into the Good. When Beverly suddenly dies, and after a long fight with Pearly, Peter falls from Brooklyn Bridge and

wanders as an amnesiac around New York for almost a century. Back in our time, he meets Abby, another red haired sick girl and her mother Virginia, who help him restore his memories. But Pearly is still chasing him and it’s about time for Peter the miracle to happen in order to fulfill his destiny. I don’t know if it’s that I haven’t read the book that makes me skeptical about this film. Love, destiny, magic and supernatural, all in one piece. A flying Pegasus, an Edwardian New York, reminding me very much of “Gangs of New York”, while the fallen angel Colin Farrell is a kind of new Bruno Ganz in “Wings of Desire”. Angels and demons, the true nature of destiny, the uniqueness and at the same time the participation in the whole universe plan are the general themes, and I don’t know if there should be something else below, but in the movie there is not. Schematic storyline with cliché meanings, made me wonder what was the exact point of the film, and if it has omitted something from the book’s nature. Mr. Goldsman has given us some excellent scripts from his previous movies as a writer (not all the time but who can forget the Academy Award script of “ A Beautiful Mind”), so probably we will see something different in the future.

Do you dare? Snowpiercer (2013)

By Eleni Lampraki

Still of John Hurt in Snowpiercer (2013)

It’s been a long time since we have seen an action film –without any superheroes- being so fulfilling, entertaining and exciting. But Snowpiercer is a lot more than this; with a promising cast and a solid story, the film delivers not only on the basic elements of an action/sci-fi movie, cgi effects and action sequences, but also on the drama aspect and on the depiction of human society in a micro-scaled environment. Based on Le Transperceneige, the graphic novel by Jean-Marc Rochette, Snowpiercer is the first English-language film by director Bong Joon – ho (Mother/Madeo). Park Chan-wook’s company Moho Films and he are also producing, making the outcome as perfect as it can be. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth which becomes frozen after the failure of an experiment that was supposed to protect the planet from the climatic changes. A new ice age prevails with the lucky ones, meaning the only survivors, living in the Snowpiercer: “a train that travels around the globe and is powered by a sacred perpetual-motion engine”. There is a hierarchy in this train with each carriage having a specific purpose in people’s lives; a class pyramid, starting from the lowest one, the “free load”-ers that live in miserable conditions, rising to the elites of that society, ending up at the one and only sacred machine and her creator. A cycle of life structured with strict balances by Mr. Wilford. The “free load”, or “the shoe”, as it was precisely placed by Tilda Swinton’s character, revolts in order to reach the first carriage and

the engine for a better life, for revenge, for a cause. During this revolution the human demise and society decay is becoming more intense. Amidst this disappointing view on humanity, there is a superb cast, starring Chris Evans who gives a wonderful performance, totally different from the superhero in spandex we were used to. Of course next to him is Kang-ho Song, famous for his roles in The Good the Bad and the Weird, Lady Vengeance, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Memories of a Murder and others (personal note: must-see all of them); there is not much to say about this talented actor. Speaking of talented actors, you will also see John Hurt, Ed Harris and Tilda Swinton portraying a really cranky character. Bong has done a magnificent work, not only by bringing together actors from different backgrounds but also by combining different cultures and their film industries’ elements. There are moments of originality and suspense while the film flows smoothly. Snowpiercer is not an ordinary Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster. Actually it throws a tombstone over these kinds of movies, proving that a blockbuster can be intellectual, multi-dimensional with many interpretations. It makes you think and question the world you are living in. Not many will like it, most probably because they will expect something different than this and won’t try to understand it. As long as you are prepared to watch a film that does not follow the usual patterns then you will surely place it among the best viewings of the year. Burst www.afternoiz.com

Catwoman (2004)

By Kostas Krasonis

W OR ST MO V I E S EV ER

Sometimes movie fans and more specifically superhero movie fans have the luck to see a comicbook character come to life on the big screen in the best way possible. Such was the case of Michelle Pfeifer portraying Selena Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman in the 1992 Batman film: Batman Returns. Pfeifer set the bar very high, in that she set the standards for great performances in such roles.

That standard was tarnished in the 2004 movie titled after the same character. Halle Berry was offered the leading role one year after winning an Oscar for Best Actress in “Monster’s Ball”. Unfortunately her performance had no resemblance to Pfeifer’s. Like cheap cinemax, the goal of the film was to show Berry in the least amount of clothes possible and nothing more. In this re-imagining of Catwoman, Berry’s character is named Patience Phillips and is a shy graphics designer working for Sharon Stone’s cosmetics company. When she discovered that a face cream is toxic, she’s being chased to her death by the company’s security. But then a CGI cat appears and breathes life into her. The re-incarnated Patience cuts her hair short, fashions some leather lingerie out of an old coat and jumps around on her house’s furniture. She also plays a little basketball with the lead detective on her case and is mentored by a crazy cat lady who lives in a neighboring house, with some 20 cats, who also gives her some catnip to sniff. She occasionally steals jewellery, whipping the security guards, and then promiscuously walks on the city’s rooftops. After a series of remorse, Catwoman decides to return the stolen possessions and focus on finding out who’s behind her death and the faulty face crème. She eventually stumbles on the true mastermind of it all, Sharon Stone. Being the head of

the company (actually the head of the company is her husband, the French guy from the Matrix, who she had killed at one point in the movie) Stone knows that the crème they produce destroys the skin but only if you stop using it. If you don’t, it turns your skin into marble(!). This results in a lengthy catfight between Stone and Berry with the latter slapping the hell out of Stone and her being true to her surname, feeling nothing because she had been using the crème for months! The fight ends with Stone falling to her death after realizing her skin is vulnerable because Berry scratched it. Go figure. This film is considered by many as one of the worst movies ever made. It won the Golden Rasberry Award of 2005 for Worst Film uncontested. One interesting piece of trivia though is that Halle Berry, being a cool cat, went to the Razzie ceremony and accepted the award for worst actress (with her Academy Award for Best Actress in the other hand) giving a hilarious speech thanking all the people, cast and crew, lawyers and managers, writers and producers, for helping her win the Razzie! Catwoman was a disaster and it’s a shame that the title role is based on a comic-book character with incredible depth and seriousness, not just a beautiful woman in tight leather. Let’s just hope that in future productions Catwoman will be treated with the respect she deserves.

BURST is against animal cruelty.

“Auschwitz begins wherever someone looks at a slaughterhouse and thinks: they’re only animals.” -Theodor W. Adorno-

www.argophotography.com No animals were harmed in the making of this fur coat

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Fighting the Paranormal A beginner’s Guide to

Supernatural

The Show Supernatural first aired in 2005 and consists of 9 seasons. The show belongs to the horror genre, it centres on two brothers, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) Winchester and follows their hunt of supernatural things like: demons, spirits, ghosts, poltergeists, vampires, shape-shifters, leviathans, reapers even creatures with demigod powers. They often get help from other hunters, or even demons with hidden agendas. Over the years it managed to create a huge fan-base and it has received many awards and nominations. It’s no wonder that it has already been renewed for a 10th season. Burst www.afternoiz.com

The Road So far...

Psychological Profile: Dean Winchester

It all started when the two brothers were very young. Dean, just 4 years old at the time, helped carry his infant brother out of their burning house. The fire was set by a demon and at the same fire their mother had died. Since then, the two brothers follow their father John (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in his search for this demon. As he grows older, Sam decides to have a normal life beyond hunting and goes to college. When their father goes missing during a hunt, he reunites with Dean in order to find him. The two brothers continue the “family business” even after their father’s death, and they are joined by an old friend of his, Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver), who’s also a hunter and who often helps them though his extensive knowledge of the supernatural. The techniques they use during a hunt vary in every case but the most common weapons is salt and silver in various forms, like rock-salt bullets or silver knives. In season 4, Angels are introduced in the show, who try to stop the upcoming Apocalypse. The Winchesters team up with an Angel called Castiel (Misha Collins) who joins their quest to stop demons from destroying the seals that will open the gates of hell. Destruction of 66 seals will free Lucifer into earth and start the Apocalypse. Apart from Castiel, the two brothers get frequent help from a powerful demon named Crowley (Mark Sheppard), who helps them for his own reasons. Over the years many concepts from the Bible or myths from various traditions have been implemented in the show like Prophets, Leviathans or the Purgatory, while season 9 finds the Winchester brothers in the middle of a civil war between Angels.

Trivia Apart from the original music score, the show is very popular for the use of rock songs on its soundtrack. Many songs from bands like AC/ DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, Asia, Def Lepard, Rolling Stones and many more, enhance the rock feeling of the show. Each season finale starts with a recap of the entire season, called “The Road So Far”, with Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son” playing over it, while each new season starts with the “The Road So Far” recap of the previous one, with various songs playing over it like AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” (Season 3), “Thunderstruck” (Season 5) and Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath” (Season 8). Throughout the show the two brothers often use aliases when impersonating FBI agents or other government officials, with these aliases coming from musicians or films. Sam and Dean have been introduced as: Agents Ford and Agent Hamill (Star Wars reference), Father Simmons and Father Frehley (Kiss), Agents Angus and Young (AC/DC), while Dean has also been introduced as Dr. James Hetfield, Agent John Bonham, Agent Ulrich or Agent Ian Anderson. It has been revealed that the 20th episode of the 9th season will act as a pilot for a potential spin-off series the producers have in mind.

Dean is the older of the two brothers by four years. He learnt how to hunt ghost and demons through his father, and always followed his orders verbatim with military discipline, often replying to him with a “Yes Sir”. After his father’s death he feels obligated to continue the “family business” for many reasons. Firstly he wants to hunt down the demon responsible for killing his mother, secondly he feels the need to help people, and finally because hunting is the only thing he knows and he’s good at. Regarding his personal life, he tried to have a normal life with an old girlfriend and her son, after his brother’s disappearance and while he was presumed dead (after the events at the end of the 5th season). Unfortunately the dream didn’t last for long, since things from his earlier life came to hunt his loved ones. In many ways Dean is the

complete opposite of his brother. Unlike Sam who’s more into healthy eating, Dean prefers junk food, with bacon-cheeseburger being his favourite. Many times, even during a hunt, he manages to find some time to get acquainted with the local female population, while his brother prefers doing research. He is highly proficient in the use of guns and knives, and has an extensive knowledge of cars, keeping his father’s 1967 Chevrolet Impala in good condition. He also listens to rock music, having a big collection of tapes in his car. His relationship with his brother is a complicated one, since he has made many questionable decisions in order to protect him, and many times he has been confronted by him over these decisions. There have been periods when the two brothers have been apart, but in the end they manage to get along again, since they are family. Burst www.afternoiz.com

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Burst www.afternoiz.com

photography: ARGO / design: