Burst Magazine, Issue 7, July 2013

July 2013, Issue 7

tomi

gaspar

noe

L’enfant terrible

joutsen

we wanted to do things in a different way

Biff

byford

full 100% heavy metal

apocalyptica’s

Eicca Toppinen 9 772241 538000

ISSN 2241-5386

07

I prefer and appreciate honest feedback!

David

Bowie

The Man who fell to Earth

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eicca

toppinen

Burst magazine had the amazing chance of chatting with Apocalyptica’s mastermind, Eicca Toppinen about almost everything: Wagner Reloaded, their forthcoming studio album, their upcoming tour with Avanti!Orchestra, their guest musicians and Apocalytica’s career in general.

Read the full story and interview on page 28.

pages 6-23 Article/Tributes

pages 24-53 Interviews

pages 54-60 Album/EP reviews

Karolina Pacan On Voices of The Soul

Hayao Miyazaki

Stathia’s Track page 23

ner r o C p Po page 62

ge Page The Pa Tu rn Th Turn

page 64

page 76

Director’s Cut page 78

Cover photo: Mehmet Turgut Burst { music magazine }

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publisher/editor in chief

Raphael Aretakis

managing editor

Spiros Smyrnis

art advisor

Aikate D.

editors

B|S|Orestis Cristina Alossi Dialekti Angeli Eleni Lampraki Eleni Leonida Helen Marie Joyce Hope Vnz Korina P. Pana Apostolidou Sissy Fanouraki Sobieski Sisters Stathia S. Pedioti

contributing editors

Andy Phelps Dimitris Tsantoulas Giorgos Kotrozinis Gogo Apostolaki Jo Gogou J.Roberto Zenteno Jimenez Kalliope Tsouroupidou Sophie Tsekoura Sotiris Stilianos Vana Valma

editor/proofreading

Marianna Kofinaki Matina Katsarakou

photographers

Apostolis Kalliakmanis B|S|Orestis Eileen Von D Jo Gogou Myrto Cat Raphael Aretakis

int. photographer

Kalliope Tsouroupidou

special guest

Karolina Pacan

Design & Layout

Raphael Aretakis

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Josh Homme Homme is where the heart is... By Helen Marie Joyce

Photo from Matador Records Josh Homme is one of the people in the contemporary music industry that ticks all the boxes in my ‘worthy-of-reverence’ category; he is up there among other musical geniuses in their 40’s of the similar multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter skill set, such as Mike Patton (Faith No More, Tomahawk, Mr Bungle, Fantomas, Peeping Tom, Lovage) and Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Probot, Nirvana) yet he scores higher points in my book for having an integral part in transforming the arid scene of Palm Desert in California into the ‘Palm Desert Scene’. A group of bands from the region, generating a sound known as ‘Desert Rock’, and pioneering further into the music genre by expelling metaphorical Burst { music magazine }

‘stoner’ sandstorms via the band Kyuss, and that was only the beginning in the very early 90’s. From then on, his 26 year long career has been marked with some really epic music; to name them, Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA), ‘The Desert Sessions’, Eagles of Death Metal (EoDM), Them Crooked Vultures (TCV). His musical journey involved the evolution of the Stoner riff-oriented style of Kyuss, refining it, and enhancing it through embedding various other influences along the way, all the while maintaining the subtle balance between producing a pleasing sound with high commercial value, but still exuding a dark and dirty undertow.

He is, undoubtedly, a success story accounted for by three

fundamental ingredients of the success recipe: talent, entrepreneurship, and grounded feet, all the while keeping the momentum of musical development.

The Kyuss era (1987-1995): Too heavy for rockers, too soft for metalheads.

Going back to where it all began for 14 year old Homme, in 1987, when Kyuss’ predecessor Katzenjammer was born. This became Sons of Kyuss, before finally locking down on Kyuss, circa 1991. Twenty two years later, the musical fusion of Homme (guitar) and his original line-up pals John Garcia (vocals), Brandt Bjork (drums) and Chris Cockrell (bass), is considered the corner-stone or the founding father, if you will,

of ‘Stoner Rock’, a genre that that expanded into a philosophy and has influenced (and continues to do so) a plethora of bands all over the globe.

The band formed amidst other bands, at the time in California which aggregately made up the ‘Palm Desert Scene’, the start of a music culture characterized by heavy rock sounds of generally slow to mid-tempo, and with influences ranging from psychedelic and blues, through to heavy metal, and characterized by repetitive riffs and drum beats. Through this scene, Kyuss rose as a pioneer in Stoner Rock taking the Desert Rock sound of the Palm Desert Scene further into the depths of the desert. Homme was a leading part of a cult emerging out of this style of

7 music with local crowds steadily following the group to isolated desert areas of the surrounding towns to perform live gigs on the sand, with the help of gasoline-powered generators. These shows were popularly known as “generator parties” which were important in shaping the band’s integrity.

After an EP release still under the Sons of Kyuss name, and a change-over of bassists now recruiting Nick Oliveri in the place of Cockrell (later to be substituted by Scott Reeder), Kyuss released their first album Wretch (1991) which was slow with sales, but the band’s live appearances and Homme’s playing style which incorporated guitar sound being funneled through a bass amplifier to obtain the typical bass-heavy sound, continued to keep regard for Kyuss high.

Only with their second album Blues for the Red Sun (1992) did Kyuss proudly enter the music industry with a record that was able to truly capture the feel of the band’s live performances in studio. After this album they notably opened for Metallica in Australia. The third Kyuss album Welcome to Sky Valley (1994) was a huge commercial success, is a personal favourite and will never be replaced by any other

album, ever! It combines all the elements of Stoner Rock to perfection and sets the bar very high, even for Kyuss’ own good. The next and final album …And the Circus Leaves Town (1995) was not as well received as the band had hoped, and this was a contributing factor to the band’s decision to dissolve 3 months after its release in 1995.

Following their break-up each member moved on new projects, with Homme forming Queens of the Stone Age in 1996 and beginning to experiment in what became the musical collective ‘The Desert Sessions’ in 1997, leaving Kyuss behind him. Garcia also became involved in other bands such as Slo Burn and Unida among others between a period of 5 years or so, which carry a weight of their own, however could not let go of the force that was, is, Kyuss.

Subsequently former band members, except Homme who later was supported by Reeder, gradually formed ‘Kyuss Lives!’ the resurrected version of Kyuss, less Homme who was never interested in pursuing Kyuss any further than it’s disbandment. Things became nasty as Homme and Reeder filed a suit against the aforementioned who had al-

ready begun a series of tours.

Homme’s view on the matter was that Kyuss is a closed case, whereas the others wanted to pursue. Fans were torn; those craving the Kyuss sound even if it did mean without Homme did not miss a chance to see them live. I being among them, saw Kyuss Lives! three times in 2011 on their EU tour, twice in Athens, Greece and once at the Hellfest in France. I enjoyed them all three times, but my enthusiasm gradually fizzled out knowing all the background and there being no development in the music. They were constant, yet I craved continuity.

By 2012 Kyuss Lives! legally ceases to exist; they are now known as Vista Chino, and the bottom line is, that perhaps Homme’s (arrogant?) refusal to join nor appease the Lives! version was, conceptually and in principle at least, in the right.

Homme on ‘The Desert Sessions’ (1997-present): “…for the sake of music” ‘The Desert Sessions’ are a 1997 Homme-vision, starting out as meetings in a Cali ranch between high-profiling band members at the time such as Monster Magnet, Goatsnake, Earthlings?, Kyuss and Sound-

garden, soon to turn into jamming sessions to become a collective series of collaborations with numerous artists including the following: Ben Shepherd, John McBain, Fred Drake, Brant Bjork, Alfredo Hernandez , Dave Catching, Chris Goss, Pete Stahl, PJ Harvey, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan, Josh Freese, Alain Johannes, Troy Van Leeuwen, Karl Doyle, Dean Ween among others. The Sessions were active until 2003, producing ten volumes of double sided records in total, and as far as Homme is concerned, they will “go on forever”. It is now 10 years since any new material has been recorded; ‘The Desert Sessions’ were a musical luxury which demanded the precious time and input of Homme and his musical familiars and as such, the down time of the sessions has been due to overload in between all the other work Homme, primarily, has been doing. However, they are a perfect example of Homme’s ingenuity, thirst for knowledge through collaboration and experimentation, and musical sportsmanship. Homme has said of the Sessions: “At Desert Sessions, you play for the sake of music… It’s easy to forget that this all starts from playing in your garage and loving it.

Photo by Nora Lezano Burst { music magazine }

8 ” Perhaps soon would be a good time for Homme to gather his rotating crew and head back to the Rancho De La Luna.

The rise of Eagles of Death Metal (1998-present) & Homme’s ‘musical schizophrenia’: “I’m in two bands!”

In 1996 Homme founds Queens of the Stone Age (1996- present) which enjoys his greatest allegiance; that is without a doubt. He is still the only founding and continuing member across the 17 years of the band’s life. QOTSA is the fully formed band that ensued from Kyuss’ ashes, in 1996, originally keeping Oliveri on bass, and is the most notable

by Homme (drums, backing vocals) and Jesse Hughes (vocals, guitar). Paradoxically, the Eagles have nothing to do with the music genre of Death Metal, as the name would suggest, if anything they are far from it; they have an up-beat retro sound, that resembles a fresh on old rock n’ roll by bringing some sexy into it. And for a change, it features Homme on drums and backing as opposed to leading in vocal capacity: interesting choice.

EoDM have three albums which came out with two years apart each: Peace, Love, Death Metal (2004), Death by Sexy in (2006), and Heart On (2008). Tracks from all three have been featured from video

Homme’s as a front man three times under the auspices of the Queens I feel I would remiss if I were not to say that the man has so much charisma, it would be wasted behind a drum set at the back of a stage.

EoDM is still officially active 1998- present, yet Homme’s seems more adamant in words than actions.

Homme about Queens of the Stone Age (1996-present): “heavy enough for the boys and sweet enough for the girls” After Kyuss in 1995, Homme joined Mark Lanegan’s ‘The Screaming Trees’ on tour as rhythm guitarist but never joined the band on record. Yet

dudes sound nothing like queens. They’ve got b*lls!’.

In any case, my first introduction with Homme’s work, circa 2004, came under QOTSA and their second album Songs for the Deaf (2002). Interestingly enough it features Dave Grohl as the guest drummer, instigating the interest of his fan base built on the Foo Fighters and Nirvana name. Homme has widely claimed it was inspired by his driving through the desert of South California.

Yes, I could picture him driving down massive desert road strips, flooring the gas and hand drumming the steering wheel. It was instant attraction. It played it on repeat. I had never heard such balance

Photo from band’s official Facebook page band Homme has created, given its life span and discography. Homme continued with ‘The Desert Sessions’ in the interim, but also went on to form the band Eagles of Death Metal, (EoDM) in 1998. At this point Homme truly has a lot on his plate, however selling nothing short of his vision.

The band’s formation actually stemmed from the ‘The Desert Sessions’ as Volumes 3 & 4 feature three tracks played by the early EoDM although when they were properly re-instated Burst { music magazine }

games such as ‘Guitar Hero’ to commercials and movies. The hype on EoDM remained high despite the fact that Homme was seldom present for the band’s live performances, substituted by Claude Coleman on drums. However, it is said that Hughes has an enthused attitude on stage and is flamboyant in his interaction with the crowd at live performances, but does this make up for Homme’s absence? Not having seen the EoDM, I cannot choose a side. Yet, having seen

he needed an outlet so delved into forming a group to channel his creativity, coming up with Gamma Ray at first which soon became Queens of the Stone Age. The choice of ‘Queens’ instead of ‘Kings’ was purposely done to avoid sounding presumptuous and overly macho. I would say it also reveals some humour and self-sarcasm. Or going further, perhaps it is some sort of reverse psychology; you see the name ‘Queens’, then you hear QOTSA and say: ‘Ha! These

in derangement before, in composition and in execution, with so much power and drive but also measures of dark, canorous composure. It made me listen to their eponymous debut record Queens of the Stone Age (1998), and Rated R (2000), where attraction became addiction. Luckily, the fourth album was soon to be released, Lullabies to Paralyze (2005) followed by a tour the following year to promote the album. I got to see QOTSA three times in 2006, such was

9 my obsession. On one occasion it was Foo Fighters headlining at Hyde Park in London with QOTSA and Motörhead on the bill, and my not at all secret desire was to see Grohl join QOTSA on their set, but I was left with the taste if desire hanging. The Lullabies album was QOTSA at their darkest, most mystic. It could perhaps be considered a concept album with a protagonist fighting his own demons and his oscillating journey, although Homme has said he would not call any QOTSA records ‘concept’ ones in the technical sense, but they rather end up being “a completed thought, or a certain examination”. As such, at times it seems almost occult, incorporating villainous elements, yet maintaining subtle balances that confirm Homme’s statement about QOTSA once again: “heavy…and sweet”.

The fifth album, Era Vulgaris (2007) brings to mind a more sophisticated way of saying the Vulgar Era (in fact it is Latin for ‘Common Era’). It is catchy and generated speculation around the reason behind it, but little did it matter because the content is electrifying. It is very different from the last album, featuring an overall highly electronic feel that makes it seem quite raw and industrial.

It did not ‘haunt’ me as the

Lullabies did, but most tracks were fine enough to keep my interest going until their sixth and most recent release …Like Clockwork (2013), a review of which can be found in this month’s issue, where Homme is not afraid to bare his soul.

The six year gap between the last two QOTSA records show cases of rising of a new band, a by definition super-group.

Homme co-founded the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures (TVC) which perhaps took on the role of QOTSA’s older, grubbier, bully cousin. This is Homme ensuring to keep his fans stoked during the half a decade of silence, with a selftitled album that could easily break some bones.

Homme on Them Crooked Vultures (2009-present): “…it feels like we’re obligated to risk and challenge ourselves.”

The super-group, featuring Homme on lead vocals and guitars, Dave Grohl on drums and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on bass and keyboards.

The combination of Homme and Grohl alone fills fans with great anticipation, and now adding in the catalytic ingredient of a legendary musician such as Jones and the weight that his musical career car-

ries, now that is a touch of gold. TCV has a more brutal sound, Grohl’s drums, referencing back to his contribution to QOTSA’s Songs for the Deaf album, their riffs are not complex yet they have the face-melter factor, reminding us that more times over some, less is more; in comes Jones’ at this point, his input thickening the sound and taking Homme’s characteristic style even further. Three indubitably talented musicians, having a lot of fun and delivering a record that does not beat any previous work off of any favourites list, but for a first album the same year the group came together it is an excellent effort and it raises expectations for the second one which is overdue following the group’s hiatus status at the moment. I have a feeling that three musicians of such caliber will think long and hard before releasing new material, as the result needs to meet the bar they alone set for themselves and that is pretty high given their musical capacities.

Homme and beyond With the release of QOTSA’s sixth album last month, … Like Clockwork, Homme’s self-proclaimed “musical schizophrenia” begins to settle, revealing a more sensitive, mellow

and mature side to the band’s sound. Having been through a rough time recently being hospitalized for a knee injury, and having fathered two children, the latest album is a reflection of this. Homme is a musician that has a unique style, is constantly developing, and does not sell himself short. He is smarter than that. The ‘Ginger Elvis’ is responsible for the ever changing membership in QOTSA particularly, not letting the band brotherhood get in the way of music. If it works no more, it’s dropped.

The most recent example is the firing of Joey Castillo, QOTSA drummer for the past decade, the exact reason has not be divulged but we can assume creative differences, and ergo he is not on the ‘ …Like Clockwork’ album, replaced by Jon Theodore (The Mars Volta).

This is not done without a tear in Homme’s eye. His approach which is direct and with no hard feelings, reinforces his ideology regarding QOTSA: “the idea is that you will never slack on the music and will always humble yourself at the alter of Rock.” Precisely that.

Homme has got Midas’ musical touch, and there is more music from his heart to come, and for us to experience.

Photo by Nora Lezano Burst { music magazine }

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Ian Curtis 1956 - 1980

by Alexia lampropoulou

Love tore him apart

photo by Kevin Cummins It’s been 33 years since Ian Curtis hanged himself outside Manchester; the 23-yearold singer ended his short career but launched a second life as one of rock’s most ambiguous figures. Curtis remains a shadowy performer, a highly emotional and acutely sensitive haunting poet whose lyrics and songs could raise thrills; a man with many personal problems including severe epilepsy and a complicated home life.

Joy Division to gain the attention they deserved from music scene. Since then, Curtis has become an inspiration for plenty of alternative rockers. His band mates who were those that knew him better than anyone else and were close to him, refused to comment anything in the press about that incident and after a while they formed the successful pop group New Order. So Curtis’ story remained shadowy and many queries unanswered.

On May 17th, he had visited his old house in Macclesfield to watch a film by his favourite director, Herzog. In the early hours of Sunday morning, he hung himself. That day Joy Division were supposed to fly to America for their first tour. The thread of his life was cut before his prime, destined to never grow old and thus to permanently inhabit eternity through his music. His death, stigmatized his lyrics and Joy Division’s music.

Even if his death was an unfortunate and traumatized fact for his fans, his suicidal mood was not that much hidden. Curtis and his band prowled in a wonderland of desperation through their songs. They adopted an acute, depressed, sonorous sound with mostly slow rhythms, guitarand-bass-centred melodies, all informed

by Curtis’ deep voice and dark lyrics. The lyrics are vibrant and dramatic. They omit links and open up perspectives; they express an irrational willingness for freedom and change of scenery. The clues were there, at the edge between art and real life.

Eventually, in Curtis’ case art and reality was one.

Before that unfortunate morning, Joy Division’s band was not really famous and few people had heard of Curtis punk band.

Ian’s loss dresses up his lyrics with an emotional veil that speaks to the heart and reveals hidden secrets behind his words.

It’s a paradoxical and unexpected way for Burst { music magazine }

Although, the closest people to Curtis had noticed his violent mood swings and deep

depression and were aware of them, no one seemed to expect this final move, and most of all his band mates. “He must have been a pretty good actor,” says bassist Peter Hook in “Touching From a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division,” a biography

by Curtis’ widow, Deborah. “We didn’t have a bleeding clue what was going on.

You tried to help him with your limited experience, and you did what you could, but as soon as you left him, he went back, you know?” Then again, as Hook admits, he never really listened to the words Curtis sang. Even his wife Deborah stated “It was too incredible to comprehend that he would use such a public method to cry for help,” she writes, somehow believing he wrote his songs from a third-person perspective.

His thoughts and beliefs will stay forever an enigma, a black hole that can never been explored by anyone. As the pop critic- historian Jon Savage said “Did people admire Ian Curtis for the very things that were destroying him?”

When his wife Deborah found his dead body at their home that Sunday morning, Iggy Pop’s record “The Idiot” was spinning on the turntable.

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David Bowie: The Man who fell to Earth A tribute to his acting career by eleni lampraki Burst { music magazine }

13 David Robert Jones, most commonly known as David Bowie, is absolutely one of the most influential musicians of the last five decades. A major figure in artistic matters, he is definitely a guru of the glam rock era with his alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, plus he has also been experimenting through the years with soul, funk, electronica and much more. However, this article is not about the musician Bowie, but for his flagship personality as a movie icon. Bowie has appeared in almost 30 movies from 1969 till today. In some of them he portrayed himself, in some of them he was just a cameo appearance; In any case, some of them became classics and he acclaimed critical and commercial success.

1960s – 1970s: Bowie studied avant-garde theatre and mime under Lindasy Kemp, who gave him his first role in theatrical production “Pierrot in Turquoise” in 1967. Three years later he will reprise the same role in the television adaptation of the play under the title “The Looking Glass Murders”.

His wide screen adventures started two years earlier, in 1969, when he appeared in the short film “The Image”. Bowie plays a ghostly young man, who haunts an artist’s troubled mind. It is one of the few short films ever to receive a certified ‘X’ Rating due to its violent content. In the same year, he appears in “The Virgin Soldiers”, a film adaptation of the homonymous novel. Although Bowie cut his hair short to audition for the role, he can only be briefly seen in a shot.

Then we reach 1976, with “The man who fell to Earth”, probably Bowie’s first major and probably most significant role. In the science fiction film directed by Nicholas Roeg, Bowie plays the role of Thomas Jerome Newton, an extraterrestrial who crash lands on Earth seeking a way to ship water to his planet but ends up stuck here depressive and alcoholic. The film was a both commercial and critical success, and Bowie was generally acclaimed for his performance. Like most of Bowie’s films, “The Man who fell to Earth” had a strong cult following.

Two years after Bowie filmed “Just a Gigolo”, which received negative publicity.

For the record, it’s Marlene Dietrich’s last screen appearance, however the two stars never actually met in person. Dietrich’s scenes were filmed in Paris, while all the other were filmed in Berlin, where the set of the movie is. The film contributed to the interest of the pre-war Berlin at that time and coincided with Bowie’s “Berlin Era”.

1980s: The “Berlin Era” continues in Bowie’s acting career with his appearance on the 1981 classic film “Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo”. Directed by Ulrich Edel, it’s based on the tape recordings of Christiane F., a then 14-year old junkie in

the West Berlin. The film portrays Berlin’s heroin plague and teenage drug addiction of the time. It shocked the audience and soon had a cult following. David Bowie gave the movie a commercial boost, not only by portraying himself, but also by contributing to the film. (In the storyline Bowie was Christiane’s favorite artist, and she tried drugs while she attended a concert of him.)

In the following year, he made only a television film “Baal” starring in the homonymous role and he was the narrator on the

Senjō no Merī Kurisumasu)”, also known as “Furyo”, directed by Nagisa Oshima.

The film deals with the relationships of four men in a Japanese prison war camp during the Second World War, with Bowie portraying a mysterious English captive.

Bowie got the role because Nagisa had seen his outstanding and generally acclaimed performance at the Broadway play “Elephant Man” (he played the part 157 times between 1980 and 1981). Bowie believed that his performance at “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” was one of his

Christmas classic 26-minute animated film “The Snowman”. The film received nominations in 1982 Academy Awards.

1983 was a full movie year for Bowie, due to his participation in three movies, two of which are some kind of classics. The less important one is the comedy film “Yellowbeard”, where, although unaccredited, he plays the role of the Shark. But in the same year he stars at the Japanese “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (Japanese:

best and New York Times critic Janet Maslin wrote a favorable review, saying that he plays like a born film star. In the same year, he also starred in “Hunger”, a cult classic vampire movie. Directed by Tony Scott, with co-stars Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon, the film is about a vampire love triangle, between a powerful vamp, her lover and a doctor who specializes in aging research. Although the movie was heavily criticized for its slow plot and Burst { music magazine }

14 heavy atmosphere, it had (like most Bowie movies) a strong cult following, making it almost a classic vampire movie.

In the next year, he appears in “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean”, a 20-minute short film, shot to promote Bowie’s single “Blue Jean”. He plays a double role, the protagonist Vic and the rock star Screaming Lord Byron. Except from “Blue Jean”, two other Bowie songs are featured in the movie, “Don’t look down”, and “Warszawa”.

Right after, he has a cameo appearance as a British hitman in 1985 comedy – thriller “Into the night”, notable for its numerous cameo appearances, alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and Jeff Goldblum.

It’s in 1986 when David Bowie stars in one of his most wellknown movies. He, alongside the 16 year old then Jennifer Connelly, is the protagonist duet of “Labyrinth”, a fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and produced by George Lucas. Connelly plays teenage Sarah, who tries to save her infant brother Tobby, who was kidnapped by Jareth the Goblin King (Bowie). Her task is to solve the Labyrinth she is in within 13 hours. With the exception of Bowie and Connelly, most of the other film char-

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acters are played by puppets.

Although the film had a notable budget (25 million) it was a box office disappointment.

However, afterwards it became a classic cult one with manga – sequel and probably a graphic novel prequel. Moreover, the character of Jareth was at first expected to be a puppet as well but the director decided that he wanted a big, charismatic star to the play the Goblin King so he decided to pursue a musician for the role; Sting and Michael Jackson were both considered for the part, but ultimately Bowie was the one who got the role. An interesting fact that demonstrates the strong following of the film is that since 1997, an annual twoday masquerade ball called the “The Labyrinth of Jareth” is held in Hollywood, where the attendants are dressed in costumes inspired by the film. In the same era, Bowie takes the leading role in “Absolute Beginners”, a British rock musical on the beginning of the new music generation in London after the jazz period of the 50s and before the Beatles/Rolling Stones years.

And then again in 1988, Bowie takes part in a breakthrough film. It’s Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of

Christ”, where Bowie plays Pontius Pilate. A controversial film, based on the homonymous novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, it depicts Jesus Christ’s life from a more human and less divine perception. The film achieved violent reaction from Christian fundamentalists and it was banned or censored in several countries for many years.

1990s: During the ‘90s, Bowie continues his appearances in film industry but without the success of the previous decade.

In 1991 he stars in the American Comedy “The Linguini Incident” alongside Rosanna Arquette. Bowie and Arquette play a bartender and a waitress respectively, who want to rob their employers. In the following year he plays a small part in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me”, which stood as prequel and sequel to the same name TV series (1990-1991). Bowie, alongside Kiefer Sutherland, Harry Dean Stanton and Jürgen Prochnow, played small parts on the film for almost no money because they were either fans of the series or fans of Lynch’s work in general.

In 1996, David Bowie achieves

probably his most acclaimed performance of the decade.

He portrays Andy Warhol in Julian Schnabel’s biopic film “Basquiat”, based on the life of American post-modernist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (played by Jeffrey Wright).

Although the film was highly criticized for giving a false image to Basquiat, Bowie’s portrayal of Warhol was by far one of the best and most accurate.

Moreover, he was able to borrow Warhol’s actual wig, glasses and jacket from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh for the movie.

Till 1999 we see Bowie playing in two more films, an Italian neo-western “Gunslinger’s Revenge” and an independent British film on street gang fights in Manchester entitled “Everybody Loves Sunshine” (or B.U.S.T.E.D.).

2000s: In 2000s, Bowie has still a few film appearances. He plays the protagonist William Rice, in the 2000 movie, “Mr Rice’s secret” and also has a cameo appearance as himself in Ben Stiller’s “Zoolander”. His last, till now, full-screen appearance is in 2006 Christopher Nolan film, “Prestige”, where he plays Nikola Tesla, a small

15 but very important role. Nolan wanted someone who was not necessarily a film star, but was “extraordinarily charismatic”.

Bowie was his initial thought, and although at first he turned down the part, after a face to face talk with Nolan, he accepted.

He also voiced over the character of Emperor Maltazard in “Arthur and the Invisibles” movie (he was replaced by Lou Reed in the two sequels) and L.R.H. in “SpongeBob Squarepants”. His

last appearance is in a 2009 teen musical comedy “Bandslam”, where he portrays himself once again. More or less, Bowie is always an inspiring and charismatic artist and person, so sooner or later we will either see him on the movie screen as a voice over or a cameo appearance portraying himself, or (and why not?) as a protagonist again.

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3 doors down Written by Cristina Alossi | Photo by Douglas Sonders

3 Doors Down were formed in 1996, during a time when the post grunge scene was blooming. Bands such as Foo fighters, Nickelback and Creed had been combining grunge with musical styles, which were easier to follow by vast audiences through a more “commercial” touch. While on tour in Alabama, the trio (at first) from Escatawpa, Mississipi, Brad Arnold (vocals-drums), Todd Harrell (bass) and Matt Roberts (guitar), came across a building with a sign whose half the letters were already falling apart, reading “Doors Down”. That was how the inspiration for the band’s name came, since 3 Doors Down was a three-member band back then. Later on, Brad, the vocalist, quit the drums and Greg Upchurch of Puddle of mud took his place. A few years later, Todd invited the guitarist and friend Chris Henderson to join in. Well, the trio became a quintet but the name remained the same, since it was already known to the fans.

3 Doors Down are exactly what you call Burst { music magazine }

“pure Americans”, who are proud of their country, since most of their videos have lots of references from their homeland, such as the American flag, praises on the American troops or demonstrating scenes from the typical American everyday life. In January 2000, the band became known since their very first album through the single “Kryptonite” , which was the very first song written by the frontman Brad during a math class at the age of 15. The main question set by the song is if you’re going to be by my side and still call me Superman when I lose my mind because of not doing that well anymore, and it is considered the signature track of 3 Doors Down.

The band’s main features consist of all those elements, which could be associated with a typical commercial American band: Rock ballads with limited outbursts, clean-cut look, steady, clean and smooth vocals, suitable for the likes of any listener/fan, lyrics inspired from the American daily life, love, rejection, boost of morale

and sometimes from politics.

In 2003, the band members established “The Better Life Foundation” (TBLF), aiming to provide a better life to the children around the world. TBLF was developed in order to offer humanitarian assistance to the victims of Catrina and wherever else necessary. A live show and an auction of collectibles is organized on an annual basis, in order to strengthen this Foundation. Huge bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Shinedown, Staind and Hinder have willingly participated in those events.

The better Life Life began with the best standards and the title of the debut album wouldn’t be more fitting to the band members themselves.

The start of 3 Doors Down with the amazing “Kryptonite”, which at once reached the eight place of the Billboard hot 100 wasn’t bad at all...In 2000, the drummer Richard Liles was hired by the band in order to play the drums while Brad perform-

17 ing live on stage instead of being behind the drum set. One year after, Liles left the band. “The better life” was released in February 2000 featuring 4 singles: “Kryptonite”, “Loser”, “Duck and run” and “Be like that”.

Away from the sun Content with their success, but, at the same time, keeping in mind that a huge ego can lead to disaster, like in the story of the flight of Icarus, the band flied as high they could without having been burnt, quite away from the sun. Without a regular drummer, they moved on to the release of their second album “Away from the sun” with the help of the session drummer Josh Freese and with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson as a producer and performer in 3 tracks. For their tour needs, the band hired Daniel Adair as a drummer. “Away from the sun” was released in November 2002 featuring 4 singles “When I’m gone”, “the road I’m in”, “here without you” and self-titled “away from the sun”.

Seventeen days Having only 17 days of R&R till the recording of their new album, due to an extended

“Away from the sun” tour, the band had to get back on track due to the curse of lack of drummer. Daniel Adair, who was with them during the tour, abandons them in order to join the post grunge band Nickelback. Fortunately, Greg Upchurch fills in the empty space at once. Brad’s duet with Bob Seger “Landing in London” was the huge comeback of 3 Doors down after three entire years. “Seventeen days” was released in February 2005, featuring 5 singles “Let me go”, :Behind those eyes”, “Live for today”, “Here by me” and “Landing in London”.

and having enjoyed international fame, 3 Doors Down, obviously more mature and “harder” sound-wise, release their 5th studio album, “Time of my life” in July 2011, featuring 5 singles “When you’re young”, “Every time you go”, “what’s left”, “back to me” and “Time of my life”. Sadly, while the band is preparing for another tour, the guitarist and dear member of the band abandons his post due to health problems. . Matt Roberts’ position is immediately filled by Chet Roberts, who played with the band in the past during a tour in Brazil.

3 Doors Down Finally with a drummer who’s here to stay, 3 Doors Down released their selftitled album, by finally lifting the curse of a missing drummer that had been following them for such a long time and by welcoming their new member. “3 Doors Down” was released in May 2008, featuring 4 singles “It’s not my time”, “Train”, “Let me be myself” and the tribute to the National Guard “Citizen/soldier”.

Greatest Hits The band’s first compilation album is launched in November 2012, also featuring three new songs “One Light”, “There’s a life” and “Goodbyes”; this makes us suspicious that 3 Doors Down faced the final curtain; In any case, by watching the show so far, one would say that it was an interesting one, the band was good and that there was never a dull moment. Maybe the quote of Curt Cobain, the father of grunge “it’s better to burn out than to fade away” found some followers after all!

Time of my life After having lived their best moments

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18

“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”

Terry Pratchet A tribute to Jeff, by Marianna Kofinaki

Jeff Hanneman (1964 - 2013)

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19 Some people walk this earth and bear their mark for all eternity. Regardless of religious beliefs of any kind, one thing is for certain: A man’s work lives on as a heritage to posterity, and thus this man’s never forgotten. Does such a man really ever “die” for real?

The answer is “no”. As long as his name is still spoken and his life’s labor is still cherished and enjoyed by the living, the man is still alive and will always be. To be more particular, music is immortal, and this makes its creator immortal in its turn. Music bears the magic to transform our very souls, which, in its turn, will definitely lead to changing the world, let alone when defining an entire musical genre is exactly the case. Burst Magazine doesn’t mourn f o r Jeff Hanneman’s passing.

We don’t think Jeff would want that in the first place. On the contrary, this article is an attempt of celebrating his life, no matter how soon he’s gone from this mortal world.

Jeffrey John “Jeff” Hanneman (January 31, 1964 – May 2, 2013) was an American guitarist, mainly known as a founding member and the true mastermind behind the American legendary thrashers Slayer, one of the most influential American heavy metal bands of all time, love them or hate them. Steve Huey of Allmusic believes the musical style of Slayer makes the band stronger than the other members of the “Big Four” thrash metal bands Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax, all of which rose to fame during the 1980s.

Slayer was ranked

by MTV as the sixth “greatest metal band of all time”, “Best Live Band”, “Album of the Year” (for Christ

Illusion), and “Band of the Year”. Since their debut album in 1983, the band has released two live albums, one box set, six videos, two extended plays, and eleven studio albums, four of which have been certified gold in the United States. Slayer have received five Grammy nominations, taking home two of them: One in 2007 for the song “Eyes of the Insane”, and one in 2008 for the song “Final Six” (both from 2006’s Christ Illusion).

Slayer has played in countless music festivals worldwide, including Unholy Alliance, Download and Ozzfest.

But how has it all started? Once upon a time in 1981, 17-year old Hanneman is approached by Kerry King, during the latter’s auditioning for a band. After the try-out session, the two guitarists started talking and playing Iron Maiden and Judas Priest songs together. The official birth of Slayer came naturally, easy as breathing, when Hanneman asked King “Why don’t we start our own band?” and King, in his turn, replied “...Fuck yeah!”. B i g things often start with just a few words

while many actions follow, isn’t it? Rumors that the band was originally known as Dragonslayer, after the homonymous movie released in 1981, were officially denied by King, as he stated, “We never were; it’s a myth to this day”. They played their first gig Halloween 1982 at a talent show in Southgate, CA. As most of the thrash acts of that era, Hanneman’s main influences come from punk music and early heavy metal. In Hanneman’s own words, Slayer’s sound is actually a faster and more aggressive approach to punk. That happens to be the exact definition of thrash as a musical genre given by most bands of that day: A dirtier, faster and more powerful interpretation of punk (Thrash Till Death Documentary, 1990). Except for the songwriting part, Jeff’s punk influences were also evident through his placement of a “DK” symbol from the California punk band the Dead Kennedys and the likeness of Johnny Rotten on his guitar. 1984 finds Hanneman, Dave Lombardo and Suicidal Tendencies’ guitarist Rocky George forming brief punk side-project called “Pap Smear” - the band was due to start recording when Hanneman was advised to avoid the side project by Slayer’s producer, Rick Rubin, who is quoted as saying “Ahhhh, don’t do it, man — this is the kind of thing that breaks bands up!” Hanneman took Rubin’s advice, and later used two of the songs on Slayer’s

1996 album Undisputed Attitude.

Let’s heed Rubin’s advice as well and get back to Slayer.

Beyond a shade of doubt, Hanneman’s contribution to the band was immense both lyrics-wise and music-wise. He composed lyrics and music to

every Slayer album, having formed a music and lyric writing partnership with Araya, which sometimes overshadowed King’s creative input. In fact, Jeff is the mastermind behind thrash hymns such as “Raining Blood”, War Ensemble”, “South of Heaven”, “Seasons in the Abyss” and “Angel of Death”, which are played at almost every live Slayer show and result in an audience going absolutely postal. Hanneman’s favorite Slayer album was Reign in Blood, the “heaviest album of all time” according to Kerrang! Magazine, a “genre-definer” by Stylus Magazine and a “stone-cold classic upon its release” by Allmusic.

He had his own signature guitar, the ESP Jeff Hanneman Signature Model, which is now heard in the Great Gig in The Sky. When writing new material, Hanneman often composed riffs at his house, using a 24-track and a drum machine and then by gathering opinions from the other band members; King and Lombardo made suggestions of alterations. The band will play the riff to get the basic song structure, and then figure out where the lyrics and solos go. Plus, they first write the music and then the lyrics. Hanneman stated that writing lyrics and music is a “free for all”; “It’s all just whoever comes up with what. Sometimes I’ll be more on a roll and I’ll have more stuff, same with Kerry — it’s whoever’s hot, really. Anybody can write anything; if it’s good we use it, if not we don’t”.

Who doesn’t recognize Slayer songs?

Of course that’s a rhetorical question: The band ultimately evolved into forming their very own signature musical style: Fast tremolo picking, double bass powerful drumming and aggressive “shouted” vocals. Hanneman’s and King’s dual guitar solos have been called “wildly chaotic” and “twisted genius” and the duo “shows no mercy” when they grab their guitars and plug in their Marshall amps and pump up the volume. Early albums,

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20 such as Hell Awaits and Reign in Blood, featured a “wailing style” and “demented soloing often mimicking the screams of the song’s victims”. South of Heaven featured “more technical” guitar riffs, utilizing the aforementioned signature tremolo picking and down-picked notes, improving musicianship while retaining a melodic sense. No wonder why both Hanneman and King were ranked #10 on Guitar World’s “100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists of All Time.”

What about the drums? Original drummer Dave Lombardo would use two bass drums, instead of the double kick which is used on a single bass drum.

Lombardo’s speed and aggression earned him the title of the “godfather of double bass”

by Drummerworld Magazine. Lombardo stated his reasons for using two bass drums: “When you hit the bass drum the head is still resonating.

When you hit it in the same place right after that you kinda get a ‘slapback’ from the bass drum head hitting the other pedal. You’re not letting them breathe.” When playing the double bass Lombardo uses the “heel-up” technique.

Early Slayer works were praised for their “breakneck speed and instrumental prowess”. Combining the structure of hardcore tempos and speed metal the band released fast, aggressive material. The album Reign in Blood is the band’s fastest, performed at an average of 220 beats per minute. As for the album Diabolus in Musica, it was the band’s first with drop D tuning; God Hates Us All is the first with C# tuning. Allmusic cited the album as “abandoning the extravagances and accessibility of their late-’80s/early-’90s work and returning to perfect the raw approach,” with some fans labeling it nu metal.

Just imagine such a musical landscape combined with controversial lyrics, most of which were penned by Kerry King, bassist/vocalist Tom Araya and Jeff Hanneman himself, mainly inspired by topics such as serial killers, necrophilia, Satanism, religion, anti-religion and warfare. As expected, the continuous album bans, Burst { music magazine }

delays, lawsuits, controversy and criticism from religious groups and the public alike complete the picture. Speaking of the picture, the album artworks couldn’t be inconsistent with the musical and lyrical context described above.

In any case, that’s just one side of the coin: Undoubtedly, Slayer’s music has been highly influential, musically, visually, and lyrically by numerous bands around the world, and it hugely contributed to the genesis of thrash metal itself.

In order to better understand Jeff Hanneman as a personality and some more controversial aspects regarding the

band, his family background is of importance, since it hugely influenced his life and ideas in general, let alone his music.

Hanneman was born January 31, 1964 in Oakland, CA and grew up in Long Beach, CA. Coming from a family, whose members included several war veterans, little Jeff had a father who fought in Normandy during World War II and brothers who served in Vietnam, making warfare a common conversation topic at the dinner table. As you can imagine, such a family loved to watch war films on TV at this time, so Hanneman often joined his brothers in constructing and coloring models of tanks and military

airplanes. In a 2009 interview with Decibel Magazine, he states that although his father is of German descent, he fought for the Allies in World War II. Ultimately, Hanneman’s interest in German war medals and Nazi Germany was more than evident in many of his lyrics.

Those interests in the Nazi party began with medals given to him by his father, including some taken from a dead German soldier. His most prized medal was his Knight’s Cross, which he had bought from a Slayer fan for $1000. While touring with Motörhead, Hanneman discovered that

the band’s frontman Lemmy shared the same interest in such medals, and the two discussed medal designs, weapons and tactics used by the Wehrmacht.

Religious controversy aside, more controversy followed regarding the band’s political beliefs. Throughout their career and in numerous times, the band members were asked about these accusations, and have stated numerous times they do not condone Nazism and are merely interested in the subject. To be more precise, one of the reasons why some people were driven to this assumption was because

the band’s eagle logo bears a certain resemblance to the eagle atop swastika. In addition, Hanneman’s lyrics for the song “Angel of Death” led to more accusations of Slayer being Nazi sympathizers. Hanneman had defended himself with “nothing I put in the lyrics that says necessarily he (Josef Mengele, -writer’s note: the doctor who conducted human experiments on prisoners during WWII at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and was dubbed “The Angel of Death” by inmates, hence the song title) was a bad man, because to me - well, isn’t that obvious? I shouldn’t have to tell you that.”

Furthermore, Slayer’s cover of Minor’ Threat’s “Guilty of Being White” raised questions about a possible message of white supremacy in the band’s music. The controversy surrounding the cover involved the changing of the refrain “guilty of being white” to “guilty of being right”, at the song’s ending. This incensed Minor Threat frontman Ian MacKaye, who stated “that is so offensive to me.” King said it was changed for “tongue-incheek” humor as he thought the allegation of racism at the time was “ridiculous”.

If you ask my honest opinion, how can such allegations be true, since a) Hanneman’s family members fought against the Axis in Normandy and Vietnam respectively and they seem to be stigmatized by such experiences, plus there’s no evidence of severed relationships between Jeff and his family members. b) Lyricswise, no Slayer song has any kind of direct hint, since all of them are merely descriptive and call on listeners to draw their own conclusions on religion, society, war and any other aspect of life inspiring their lyrics and c) Slayer vocalist Tom Araya comes from Chile and is far from “Aryan”. A Nazi sympathizer couldn’t embrace a Latin American as the band’s vocalist. Quoting Jay Greene, “If it matters, it produces controversy”; There’s always good publicity and negative publicity alike when it comes to individuals/groups who create something new. Slayer more than just mattered (and still do) to many people and

21 changed extreme metal music forever…and this gained them both “friends” and “enemies”.

Bu enough of politics; once again, let’s focus on Jeff’s life: Hanneman married Kathryn, whom he had met in the early 1980s. The couple had no children and lived in Los Angeles.

Kathryn stayed at home when Slayer toured; Hanneman claimed to be actually fond of this routine, having stated that when he came home, she was “all brand new again.” That was the reason why Kathryn only toured with the band only twice in a twenty years’ time.

Hanneman was a long-time fan of the Oakland Raiders and seemed to live a “normal” life… except for the drugs: Jeff was a reformed cocaine and pill abuser, much like Slayer vocalist/bassist Tom Araya. They both decided to quit when they realized “this can lead to only death or something, this is going too far.” Ironically enough, often fates plays some wicked game and pills weren’t the reason that led to his demise.

In early 2011, Hanneman contracted necroticizing fasciitis. Reports linked this illness with a spider bite he claimed to have received while in a friend’s hot tub. In light of his illness and Slayer’s upcoming participation in the Australian Soundwave Festival tour, which was set to begin on February 26, 2011, the band made the decision to play the

dates without Hanneman, so on February 16th, 2011 they brought on Gary Holt (guitarist of the band Exodus) to fill in for him. Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O’Brien joined as Slayer’s temporary second guitarist when Holt opted out of the tour to play with Exodus. By 2012, Jeff’s bandmate Tom Araya had announced his recovery from the disease.

However, later in February 2013, Kerry King revealed continuing health problems that hindered Hanneman from working with Slayer.

Hanneman and his family had apparently been unaware of the extent of the condition until shortly before his death.

Hanneman died of liver failure on May 2, 2013, in a local Los Angeles hospital near his home in Southern California’s Inland Empire, at the age of 49. On May 9, 2013, the official cause of death was announced as alcohol-related cirrhosis.

His passing came out as an utter shock to the fans. A memorial was held in Los Angeles on May 23. An hour before the doors of the Hollywood Palladium opened at 3.30pm local time there were already hundreds of people standing in line around three corners of the block that houses the iconic 4000-capacity venue on Sunset Boulevard. Most fans were wearing Slayer t-shirts and occasional shouts of the word ‘Slayer’ peppered the other-

wise sombre line. Police cars and bicycles discreetly cruised the line and officers were seen checking the ID cards of people they found drinking alcohol on the street, then asking them to pour it away. A woman paced the line selling bootleg merchandise for the event.

Once inside, fans were handed an order of service and a memorial lanyard which read ‘Our Brother Jeff Hanneman, May He Rest In Peace (19642013)’. Nick Bowcott of Marshall Amps was in charge of the memorial celebration, taking to a stage which featured the American flag, a painted portrait of Hanneman, floral tributes and a selection of Hanneman’s guitars.

Speakers at the event included Kerry King of Slayer as well as Dino Paredes of American Recordings and Brian Slagel of Metalblade Records.

The crowd regularly chanted Hanneman’s name throughout the service. Reading his notes from his iPhone, Kerry King opened his speech - which included various stories about getting drunk with Hanneman- by thanking fans for attending.

“All you fans, thanks a lot for showing up. It means a lot,” he said. He went on to joke about the significance of the Palladium. “We got a lot of history in this joint,” he commented. “Me and Jeff got banned here for

20 years, so it’s kind of ironic.”

King took a glass of Jagermeister on stage with him to sip during his tribute. “Unlike myself, Jeff Hanneman hated Jagermeister,” he said. “But I had to come up here with something to cheer my friend.”

As for Hanneman’s legacy, he said: “Jeff was my doorway to punk and it really helped Slayer to become the doorway between the metal kids and the punk kids.”Then King added: “Jeff hated being famous, but he loved being on stage.”

In fact, that’s how all we, Slayer fans, will always remember Jeff: Being on stage and having the time of his life: being creative, being happy doing what he did best, making music, writing lyrics, controversial or not. Numerous artists paid (and keep paying) tribute to Jeff after his passing. Somewhere in every country there are aspiring guitarists, who keep a poster of Jeff in their room, trying to become like him. Every time the speakers fill a room with a Slayer song, we, the fans, will always remember him and celebrate his life. To quote The Bard William Shakespeare himself, “Thou know’st ‘tis common; all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity” (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2, Page 3). Jeff definitely passed through eternity through his huge contribution to music and for that we’ll be grateful forever and ever.

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22

April 5: The day Seattle died

by Christina Alossi

It’s already been 11 entire years since the day the body of Alice In Chains’ frontman, one of the most signature voices of the grunge scene, was found dead in his home, two weeks after his passing. All who were –and still are- fanatics of the Seattle grunge scene cannot help but spot the similarities between two of the most important personalities of the 90’s, Kurt Cobain and Layne Staley, who both had a common course with the same outcome based on a bit different story; but first things first.

1.

Both were born in 1967, with just a few-month difference in the state of Washington DC and both were raised by parents who divorced when they both were at a very young age (7 years old). Being social outcasts and getting into drugs came to fill in the gap of the family for both. Their oversensitive side, as well as their passion for music led them both to composing songs and writing lyrics for the bands that became the No1’s of the grunge music scene.

2. They both had blonde hair, light-hued eyes, unique voices, violent outbursts and ‘psychotic’ expressions in their videos (Man on the box-Smells Like Teen Spirit).

3. Their struggle with drugs, as well as their addiction, led them to self-destructive attitudes, with Layne going onstage wearing a skiing mask and people saying that his face is decomposing because of the drugs and with Cobain sitting on a wheelchair, taking the breath away of thousands of fans, after rumor had it that his health was in a very bad state.

4. Their grand finale-final show both participated was “MTV unplugged”, an irony and a coincidence that seems tragic, since both, after the show was over, ‘voluntarily pulled the plug of their very own lives’.

5. They both passed away in Seattle on the very same date (April 5) with an eight-year difference but in -more or less- similar circumstances. Layne was discovered dead by his mother after she called 911, since she hadn’t heard from him in around 2 weeks. Kurt was found by an electrician who got to his place in order to do a job three days after his death. The initial cause of death for both Cobain and Staley was a drug overdose, although in the case of Cobain a shotgun was also found, with which it is believed he ended his life.

6. Many artists rushed to pay their tributes to those two great figures of grunge; for example, Cold’s song “The day Seattle died”.

Staley left but his group continued entering the studio and playing music in his honor, keeping the legend of Alice in Chains alive, something that didn’t happen in the case of Nirvana, who disbanded right after Cobain’s passing. In 2009, after a recommendation from friends and acquaintances of the band, Alice in Chains kept the name and released the album “Black gives way to blue” with William DuVall replacing Layne on the mic, a tribute album to the lost singer, also featuring many songs he wrote before he died. The Seattle scene and grunge alike were officially dead when they lost the signature voice of its second ambassador. The two friends are now somewhere else, creating the new scene with a name which might really kick some serous ass, having a blast together by making a tribute every April 5 to the life down here, singing Would? and Come as you are in unison in the very same way they used to...

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23

Stathia’s Track

by Stathia Pedioti The Show Must Go On - Queen Empty spaces - what are we living for?

Abandoned places - I guess we know the score...

On and on!

Does anybody know what we are looking for?

Another hero - another mindless crime.

Behind the curtain, in the pantomime.

Hold the line!

Does anybody want to take it anymore?

The Show must go on!

The Show must go on!Yeah!

Inside my heart is breaking, My make-up may be flaking, But my smile, still, stays on!

Whatever happens, I’ll leave it all to chance.

Another heartache - another failed romance.

On and on...

Does anybody know what we are living for?

I guess I’m learning I must be warmer now..

I’ll soon be turning, round the corner now.

Outside the dawn is breaking, But inside in the dark I’m aching to be free!

The Show must go on!

The Show must go on! Yeah,yeah!

Ooh! Inside my heart is breaking!

My make-up may be flaking...

But my smile, still, stays on!

Yeah! oh oh oh My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies, Fairy tales of yesterday, will grow but never die, I can fly, my friends!

The Show must go on! Yeah!

The Show must go on!

I’ll face it with a grin!

I’m never giving in!

On with the show!

I’ll top the bill!

I’ll overkill!

I have to find the will to carry on!

On with the show!

On with the show!

The Show must go on.

and The Verdict is...

The only song by Queen, which is undoubtedly speaking about AIDS. It sure has more than one meanings, but it’s quite obvious that this is a song about Freddie and his “illness”.

It questions the meaning of, life when you face the death, where everything seems empty and pointless. But when you are a “hero” -an idol, a person everybody knows- how you should react, even a breath away from an endless sleep? You are not a simple person, you are someone that people admire. So, “the show must go on”... No matter what, you are part of the music industry and your work is the only thing that matters. But after all these thoughts, even if your make up starts to flake (people with AIDS usually hide their illness’ marks behind make up), you always find a reason to smile. In the second verse, Freddie “leaves it all to chance”, still learning what everybody calls “life”, and facing the sunshine he looks back in the “darkness” of his body, looking forward to “be free”.

After that, after this dark, ill body, he sees his soul, colorful as butterflies’ wings, never dying, just getting older. He doesn’t want to “pass”. He screams out that he’ll “top the bill”, “overkill” and generally find the will to carry on. Simple lyrics, yes. Simple meaning?

Maybe. It’s a great parallelism with life generally. We will all die some day. We will all face this fear. The “Show”, the life, must go on.

This is for the ones that are staying back. They “have to” continue with their lives.

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24

burst presents

Eicca Toppinen interview by Korina P. | photos by Mehmet Turgut, Ralf Strathmann and Sony Music

Apocalyptica is not just your run-of-the-mill heavy band; not at all. I would say that Apocalyptica is currently the most promising metal act of the scene. In my opinion they are exactly what we call pioneer musicians. During ‘90’s when other heavy metal bands kept on repeating themselves Apocalyptica brought some fresh air in the scene with their “cello metal”. They are certainly very open minded musicians as they have participated in many and different things. Actually, I think that they do not get any rest at all! They are always up to something new and exciting.

Burst { music magazine }

Burst magazine had the amazing chance of chatting with Apocalyptica’s mastermind, Eicca Toppinen about almost everything: Wagner Reloaded, their forthcoming studio album, their upcoming tour with Avanti!Orchestra, their guest musicians and Apocalytica’s career in general.

Do you want to know if they’re about to hire a permanent singer? Do you want to know in which way Apocalyptica influenced Metallica? Do you want to read what Eicca promised to his fans in all over the world? Then, keep on reading!

25 Hello Eicca! How are you?

Great! What about you?

Fine, fine thank you!

Let’s begin! First of all, I would like to thank you for this amazing chance to talk with you! You will participate in a very special event, Wagner Reloaded, which is going to be a tribute show to Richard Wagner for the commemoration of the 200th anniversary of his birthday. Based on what I read about it, it’s going to be an extraordinary spectacle of dance, acrobatics, theater and audio-visual live performances. If I got it right, the mastermind behind this extraordinary show is the renowned and one and only Gregor Seyffert! Did he invite you to participate in this? Tell us how Apocalyptica got involved with this project.

Gregor asked me to compose the music for this special event. This is a tribute show to Richard Wagner of course but it’s mainly based on new compositions of mine. We started talking about this project with Gregor almost 3 years ago. He used some Apocalyptica tunes on his previous works and he always wanted to work with us. So, he contacted me a couple of years ago and here we are! To be honest, back then, we had no idea on where we could perform such a show and how we could finance this whole project because the production is very expensive. This show tells Wagner’s life story: it starts with his birth and it ends with his death. It displays all the important moments of his life and there are also some details about his personal life and his character and personality. Some very well-known compositions of Wagner’s will be performed live, plus some new compositions of mine will be performed as well! Gregor had some certain things on his mind about the drama, he knew what he wanted to create and he wrote some kind of a script, so I started writing the music based on his script. For me it was more like writing a movie soundtrack without having any movie (laughs)!

So, based on what you just said, you had to rearrange some of Wagner’s masterpieces and also write some new stuff especially for this show, right?

Yes, yes! I wrote 15 new songs for this project and also rearranged some of Wagner’s masterpieces. I think overall 20 songs will be featured in the set list and only 7 of them are Wagner’s original compositions. Most of the songs that are to be performed at this show are new compositions.

totally free hands to create that “something like that” (laughs).

I also added some stuff and I personally think that Wagner’s music is being handled in many different ways in this special show. I think the show will last about one and a half an hour. It’s a long and massive piece of art. You also know the stage of Leipzig Arena is huge, it is like 50 meters long and 10 meters wide.

Yes, yes you are right! It’s a huge arena as far as I know.

All these stuff sound great to me, Eicca! As you said, some very well-known masterpieces of Wagner’s were chosen to be performed in this show. Did Gregor Seyffert choose the final set list? Plus, will there be just one show or will there be a certain number of performances?

And can you tell us how long the show will last?

Yes it’s a huge theater called the Leipzig Arena. The stage is in the center of the hall and actually it goes through the whole hall. It’s also a very long stage; it’s like 50 meters as I said before. But this stage symbolizes Wagner’s path: the performance will start at the end of the stage and, as it progresses, it will move forward through the whole stage. It’s like Wagner’s path of life. As

Gregor picked up the songs and as I said he had already a plan (a script) on his mind.

Of course he gave me some instructions and the necessary information on the composition of the new songs but I had free hands to do and create whatever I wanted. He was more like “this is how this scene will be like and this and that will happen onstage and we need to have something like that here” but he gave me

for the number of performances that you asked me before, as far as I know there will be two performances: One on the 5th of July and one additional performance on the 6th of July.

Very interesting info, Eicca! The show doesn’t focus on individual works or operas, but on the visualization of the unique life and creative path of Richard Wagner, who will be

represented in this way for the first time on stage.

So, is there going to be a certain script written by Gregor for this show? I am asking you this because you mentioned something about a script written by Gregor before. I mean, maybe there will be a standard story or a specific concept in which the music and all the performances will be based on?

It’s more like that: There is a scene that Wagner is being born and other scenes taken from his life. Gregor asked me to write some shamanistic music that Apocalyptica will be playing. For example, there is a certain scene, where Wagner is young and we use some parts from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on this scene. The reason for this is the fact that Wagner was a huge fan of Beethoven when he was younger.

And then other scenes taken from his life with his wives and

kids and every other important moment of Wagner’s life follow.

So, there *is* a certain script which is based on Wagner’s life. Got it (laughs)!

Yes! And also the dark side of Wagner’s personality and art is being displayed. For example the Judaism in Wagner’s music is a part of this darker side.

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26 Also, the “battle” between Wagner and other composers is being described and displayed in the show. Wagner is being displayed like a composer who wanted to protect the German music. There are also very rough scenes in the show.

-You seem to have done a whole study on Richard Wagner! So, you are going to “dive/dig deeper” into Wagner’s life and personality.

You can put it in this way, yes (laughs)!

That sounds awesome!

Apart from Apocalyptica, there will also be an orchestra (MDR Symphony Orchestra), a choir (MDR Choir), Theater Titanik and Berlin Youth Ballet and the renowned conductor Kristjan Järvi. This seems to be a monumental show and it certainly sounds very promising.

How do you feel about working in a team of such famous and distinct “players”? The standards are being set in a very high level, I guess. Does that scare you a little bit? Do you feel honored working with such a group of people or are you more like “I can certainly do it, I am fine, everything is cool”?

(Laughs) I think I am more like “yeah I can do it, no problem” because basically the hardest part of my job is already done. Writing this whole piece has been a massive work for me and I have spent like 5-6 months in order to compose those songs. Let’s say that the hard part has been done and now starts the easy part for me (laughs): the rehearsals and the final performance. It has been great so far and now the part of the team work starts.

Until now, I have been more like a lonely worker and now I am in touch with Sven Helbig, who is the orchestrator and he is now doing the final orchestrations for the choir and the orchestra. We will go to Leipzig in 2 weeks and I am very excited about it. We have a 3-week period of time for our rehearsals. Apocalyptica have a very important role onstage, we act Burst { music magazine }

a lot during the show. We will not just play in the back side of the scene; we are kind of playing the role of Wagner’s mentors in the show. As I said, I am very excited because I will see the whole thing I had for so long in my head and in my demos taking finally shape. I personally think that Gregor is a great guy. His visions are not small, he has great visions.

And if you ask me I believe that we will succeed with this whole project. It will be something really unique and spectacular.

So, I deduce that you did not have any rehearsals with the rest of the team until now?

No, we will meet all together in two weeks. As Apocalyptica we have already rehearsed our parts of course.

Then, you will meet the other members of the team for the first time in two weeks.

I have already met only the conductor and Gregor of course. We will meet everyone in two weeks like you said

(laughs)!

Have you written just music or also some lyrics and dialogues for this special project?

Just music. There are neither lyrics nor dialogues in the whole show. Even the choir parts do not include any lyrics.

As you said, you are done with the writing process.

You are ready to go! Are you satisfied with your deadlines? Have you felt any kind of pressure or stress?

Oh yes I felt a lot of pressure (laughs)! Honestly, sometimes it was working out very easy and smoothly and sometimes it was not. But you know I think this the normal way of creating

something big. It’s like writing and recording an album: you always have that moment of despair when you feel that everything you have written is just bullshit and it will not finally work out. You might have one week and you go to your workplace every day and

write stuff and then you feel that nothing of what you have written is great… And then all of a sudden it works! I think this is something that happens to everybody especially when they create something important and big.

And creating something related to Richard Wagner is quite big I think (laughs).

Yes, that’s true! (laughs) All these sound great and very promising like I said!

Let’s see what will happen in the show (laughs)! So, let’s talk a little bit about Apocalyptica in general.

From the very beginning of Apocalyptica, you guys took up some kind of challenge: your first album was a tribute album to Metallica. Nowadays of course music and especially heavy music has many subgenres but I think back then when Apocalyptica began there were not so many open minded people and fans.

It was something new for the music industry and for the fans. I am a huge Apocalyptica fan and supporter and I can certainly say that you are one of the most challenging bands out there. So, this show is another challenge for you!

I guess Apocalyptica like challenges (laughs)!

You know in fact we really like challenges and we always like to find new things, open new and different paths. Therefore, I was really excited about this project when Gregor contacted me. Even while we have a oneyear break with Apocalyptica it is always good to work on something else, which is a little bit different from our original concept (metal with cellos).

In this way we get fresh and new ideas and also get some new feelings and vibes about the new Apocalyptica studio album. I personally think that it will be very interesting to see what feelings we will have when we will start writing new music in Spetember-October.

It will be very interesting to see what kind of music we will write after participating in this

27 special project. You know, I mean, what we will want to write after this.

So, you will be back in the studio in order to write new songs for an upcoming Apocalyptica album during fall! Well, I can scream now, these are great news (laughs)!

Yes we will be back in the studio to start writing some new stuff during September-October. (laughs)

supportive they have always been to us during all these years. We became friends with them, you know. Back then, when they were recording their S&M album with the orchestra, they invited us to San Francisco to attend the premiere. And that was the moment that we said “ok these guys seem to really like what we do” (laughs)!

If you ask me, I think that Metallica were inspired by you and your first album

deal with such? I guess that participating in a project like “Wagner Reloaded” is not a piece of cake since this is not “music for the masses” like pop music or RnB music or any kind of mainstream music style. Are you ready for the not so supportive or even negative comments?

Yeah, we are always ready for that. I believe that if you afraid of receiving negative feedback you can not really create anything unique. If you

It’s a little bit ridiculous to listen from the public what you want to hear. I prefer and appreciate honest feedback!

And speaking of your history as a band, you opened Metallica’s 30th anniversary week in San Francisco about 2 years ago! As you said what can you do when Metallica invites you to perform at their birthday party? You can only say yes! I guess Metallica are your childhood heroes and idols, aren’t they?

How do you feel when you recall this special moment two years later? I mean, your very first album was a tribute album to Metallica and it seems that Mr. James Hetfield and his gang really appreciate your music and this is not something happening everyday!

Yeah it’s amazing seeing how

in order to create and release S&M. (laughs) Yes that’s what I have heard!

Oh really? (laughs) Actually Michael Kamen had this idea on his mind for quite a long time. However, I heard that Metallica were not really excited about it but after they listened to our tribute album they kind of decided to do it.

That’s awesome Eicca, really awesome! Let me ask you this: Do you care about the public opinion?

I guess apart from the positive and encouraging comments you have also received some rather negative or not so supportive comments. How do you

do something with a full heart and you put faith in it then it’s better off receiving some serious feedback, negative or positive, rather than getting a lame response. It’s a little bit ridiculous to listen from the public what you want to hear.

I prefer and appreciate honest feedback.

I see. That makes sense.

Many people say that metal music is a derivative of classical music. You mix classical music with heavy music in a perfect way. So, do you agree with this?

What is your view on this aspect?

Yes I agree. Many metal, and especially classic and wellknown metal bands, take a lot of elements from classical

music. However, there are also some certain metal subgenres that have nothing to do with classical music. I believe that pop music is based on classical music somehow (laughs).

A new Apocalyptica song was recently revealed; it is entitled Psalm. Are you already writing any new stuff? You said before that you will go back in the studio during this fall. Maybe you have already written some ideas? Or maybe you have already set some deadlines about your upcoming album?

We have not set any deadlines yet and I don’t think we will.

We want to think and talk a little bit about what kind of music we want to write and then we will decide what it will take.

We want to conceive a main idea and then decide on the producer, the plan of the recordings and all that stuff. We try to learn from the past and not to set any too tight deadlines this time. I think that we will have better results if we don’t push things forward in a hard way. Of course we already have some ideas but we haven’t really discussed anything about the new album. I believe that we will discuss a little bit about this issue during the rehearsals of Wagner Reloaded.

Let’s see what the future will bring, it will be exciting! Every band member has been keeping himself busy with different things during our break and I think that each of us is getting some inspiration on creating new things. When we were all together touring all over the world we didn’t really have so much time to explore and do other and different things.

This break is really important for all of us, we needed this break.

And what about the new song Psalm? Will it be featured in the upcoming album?

I don’t think so. It’s just a sideproject thing. But you never know. We have not decided anything yet (laughs).

However even while you are in a break, you will perform the Wagner >>> Burst { music magazine }

28 Reloaded show all together as a band. Even though the other Apocalyptica band members have not composed any music for the show they will be there and you will perform all together.

Yes and it will be fun! (laughs) You have also revealed that you will embark on a European tour alongside the prestigious Finnish Avanti!Orchestra during 2014. How did you come up with this idea? This is another challenge for you I guess (laughs) since this is a huge orchestra as far as I know, so you will have to move from country to country and I guess this is not something easy: Too many people on the stage, logistics and I can easily go on with this and find some more reasons to justify why such a tour is not pretty easy to happen (laughs)!

Let me tell you that the orchestra members will not be too many. We will actually take the most important and essential members of the orchestra in order to add them to Apocalyptica’s sound. We don’t really need a full orchestra. We will have a 25-piece orchestra.

We will not really have a lot of strings or stuff like that. We will use more brass instruments. It will be really cool. I think now it’s the right time to do something exceptional with an orchestra.

So, apart from the Wagner Reloaded show there will be another special event with Apocalyptica: a whole tour with an orchestra!

Yeah, we have to make our lives a little bit more interesting and exciting in a way. For me, as an artist, it’s more interesting and inspiring to do a little bit different projects at the same time than just doing and concentrating on one thing. Also, I think it will be great for our future generally speaking if it happens and the Wagner Reloaded thing turns out great. There will be a possibility to perform it live somewhere else later on.

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Oh really? Is there any possibility for this to happen?

That’s what I hope. That’s my personal wish. And with the Avanti!Orchestra we can do some more shows later. And then of course we will have the new Apocalyptica album.

It will be great if we are able to switch during the touring from the one concept to the other and to have all those 3 different things (Wagner Reloaded, tour along with the Avanti!Orchestra and the recordings of the new Apocalyptica album) all together.

It seems that you will be very busy so I guess the album will come out a little bit later.

I think we will not do any more shows during 2014 because we want to focus on recording of our upcoming album.

After the album release, we will have the regular tours but maybe we could do some more shows with the orchestra and hopefully some shows with the Wagner Reloaded project on top of that. This is the longterm plan I have on my mind for the following years.

I am asking you this question because I have noticed that many times in Apocalyptica’s studio albums you also play the bass and some other instruments.

We always use whatever the music requires. The music dictates, the music we write always tell us what kind of instruments we should use.

Eicca, you are one of Apocalyptica’s main composers. I noticed that Mikko Sirén, who is the latest arrival in the band, is also one of the main composers. Also Perttu Kivilaakso and Paavo Lötjönen write some stuff, too. So, is the songwriting process for Apocalyptica some kind of teamwork?

and then we continue together from that point and develop this song together.

I see. People like labels as we know. Apocalyptica’s label is “cello metal”.

Maybe some other people call you “neoclassical metal” but usually people label you as a “cello metal” band. This is a new subgenre I think (laughs).

Do you like and accept this term?

Cello metal? Yeah, yeah why not (laughs)?

After Reflections Apocalyptica seem to have a very nice tradition in every studio album: featuring some great guest vocalists.

How did this idea come up, guys? Have you ever

So it seems that you already have a timetable in your head.

Yes, kind of. It’s a little loose but there are some major plans and scheduled things for the following years.

Have you ever thought of adding more instruments to your music? In my opinion, Mikko has added many points to Apocalyptica’s heavy sound since his arrival. Have you ever considered of hiring some more musicians as permanent band members?

Not really as permanent members. We must see what kind of music we want to write for our next album as I already said and that will take pretty much time. We will have to figure out and decide if we need any other instruments beside the cellos or not and if so what kind of other instruments we will need. It’s too early to talk about it.

Yes we could say that it’s teamwork but everybody is working alone at first. Sometimes we write together from the very beginning of the writing process but most of the times it’s more like somebody brings a demo of a song in the studio

thought of hiring a certain singer as a permanent member of the band?

That thing you ask me is something that has always been suspended. We always wonder about this. What should we do

29 with the vocals? Anyhow, we always need to have a singer on tour in order to perform the songs. It’s great to work with different people but this also makes our lives very complicated because there are too many record companies and managements involved in every album but let’s see what we are going to do in the next album. From time to time, we discuss about that issue, if we should find a permanent singer for the recordings of an album and also for the tour. This question is always in the air.

And speaking of special guests, I noticed that one specific song (Helden) is a David Bowie cover!

Yeah, David Bowie actually wrote the German lyrics by himself when he was in Berlin and he really liked the version of the song as he told us.

early 2014, because we want to make the plan and the schedule of the new album first and then we will start to plan everything else like a regular tour for this album.

I really hope to see you soon onstage in Greece or maybe in some other Balkan country. However I am not sure if you want to come back to Greece.

We have not come in Greece for a quite long time. Hopefully, we will come back in the next tour.

A few years ago it was arranged for you to appear in a big festival here. If I remember correctly, it was back in 2011 and the event was called Eurock Marathon. Unfortunately,

in the end the event was cancelled though.

nice promise to us Eicca (laughs)!

I remember that show. The organizers could not finally make it happen because of the political and financial crisis which broke out back then in Greece, so the organizers had to cancel the event. It was a pity because I have been waiting impatiently to come back to Greece.

Stay tuned! Right now we have great motivation in the band and I promise you that we will work really hard to create something really unique and very special for our beloved fans. And of course I am speaking about our next studio album, that’s for sure!

Oh, we will be waiting for you then (laughs)!

That sounds totally awesome but I will scream later (laughs). So, Eicca thank you very much once again for this great chat and for your precious time.

Eicca, this is my final question: Do you have any last words for the Apocalyptica fans, maybe some of promise for the future?

I promise to you all that we will be back and we will be stronger and better than ever!

This sounds like a very

Thank you! Have a nice day and see you on the road!

Also, David Lombardo seems to love you guys very much (laughs)!

Yeah we are good friends (laughs).

Even Geno Lenardo and Johnny Andrews wrote some songs for you. Musicians who come from totally different musical backgrounds participate in your music and compositions. It looks like that you have really expanded your musical horizons and boundaries, aren’t you?

Yes, that’s true. It has been very exciting to work with so many and different people.

Yes, this makes sense. I was wondering what are your plans after finishing Wagner Reloaded? You said that you are planning to enter the studio during fall and there is also a tour with Avanti!Orchestra on schedule. Do you have any other plans? You said that you really like to work in different projects at the same time so, that’s why I am asking you this question (laughs). Do you have anything else in mind?

No, not other plans. It’s just the tour with the orchestra in Burst { music magazine }

30

Biff Byford

Biff Byford! What should I write about this man? The frontman of Saxon (N.W.O.B.H.M leaders and one of the most historic heavy metal bands in the galaxy) has still an asskicking voice, despite the fact that is 62 years old. He tours the world like a young man and

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sings like there will be no tomorrow. I had the great honor to speak with the respectful figure of Biff on behalf of Burst Magazine. He lets us know everything about Saxon.

Read that loud and Keep the Faith! by spiros smyrnis

31 Hey it’s Spiros from Greece and Burst Magazine.

The stronger memories from the recordings of “Sacrifice”?

Oh Cool. Hey man!

It was all good really. We just decided to go into our heavy metal roots. Less overproduced techniques, more energy and passion if you know what I mean. I wanted to be in “Sacrifice”, more anthemic melodies; anthemic melodies and more simple things.

Biff, it is such an honor for me to have this conversation with you.

Without bands like Saxon I couldn’t have called myself a heavy metal fan, because heavy metal wouldn’t have existed.

That’s great man! I’m glad to hear that.

Thank you very much So I find you in Slovenia. Am I right?

How you’re doing?

Yeah man! We are here in Slovenia and we just finished the sound-check. We are

looking forward to playing in front of the Slovenian crowd.

Let’s talk about “Sacrifice”, which received very good reviews. The album sounded fresh, even it was your 20th full length album. You proved us all that Saxon still got it. Which is the feedback you got from Sacrifice Album?

I wanted the album to sound absolutely fresh. I wanted “Sacrifice” to be modern that was the reason why I choose Andy Sneap to do the mixing part of the album.

I think that his work helped you to sound as heavy and strong as your fans wanted. How was your collaboration?

It was a very good collaboration you know.

This all thing worked very well and maybe we will work again in another album.

Which is the biggest Sacrifice you have done over the Saxon years?

I think that as musician you do sacrifice quite a lot. Family sacrifices are a very special part in a musician’s lifetime. Being sort of professional at anything, means that you have to sacrifice a lot of things.

The economic crisis affects the music in-

dustry. Many bands decided to found their own labels or self-release their albums in order to lower the cost for the fans too.

How do Saxon deal with that?

We were lucky, because we always had a record company responsible for releasing our albums. It is difficult you know for the bands to put their albums, out there. You can sell things on the internet now. That’s easier. I don’t really know man. I am about to say it again but I think that we’ve been very lucky and we always had a record company. Luckily we haven’t been solo all these years.

Facebook, twitter, youtube, download... New technological terms that musician should handle in order to be updated. Do you think that internet killed the true spirit of heavy metal?

I don’t think so. I think that the internet

helps a lot of bands to sell their albums and make their music more popular, a lot of new bands as well. People have access to the band 24/7 so I think it is a very good thing for the fans. It might be not so good for the record companies, but for the fans it is very important.

On July 7th you are going to play on Rockwave festival in front of the Athenian audience. How do you feel about it?

You know we’ve played many times in Greece. We love playing in Greece and Greek fans are really crazy. The last time we played, we headlined the second stage and I remember that it rained. It was very weird. We are looking forward to Greece.

I know that there will be a lot of people

coming to see us again and we are going to play some songs from our new “Sacrifice” album.

There’s been a special bond between Saxon and Greek fans over the years. What should we expect this time from Saxon? Do you have something special for us?

Full 100% heavy metal music. That’s what we do. We give that percentage and we expect 100% back.

Back in 1986 you played for the first time in Greece. That was the first big metal concert that took place in our country. Do you remember anything from that night?

Yeah I remember it well. We had a problem the day we should have played and we postponed it to the day after, which was crazy.

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32 I think that it is very difficult for a band with 20 albums to make a set list of 15-20 songs?

Yeah, it’s very difficult, very difficult. We had to choose from a 20-albums discography. We had to choose which song to play and which song to leave out. We try to play all the big hits if we can.

You have already announced a North American Tour with Fozzy, as well as the U.K tour with Motorhead on November 2013. Is your life at a different stage?

Definitely. The American Tour was quite big this year and we’re looking forward to that, as well as the tour with our buddies Motorhead. These shows are going to be great parties.

You have an amazing voice. Even though you are not 20 years old, your voice is still ass-kicking. Do you have any secret recipes?

I do a lot of voice-relax. When you are a singer you have to rest your voice every day for a period of time. That’s what you do.

For almost 37 years the name of Sax-

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on has become a synonym to heavy metal. You have gained worldwide recognition, awards, sold millions of albums, played in front of thousands of people. Are there any dreams unfulfilled?

Not really. We are glad that everyone likes the new album and it’s good to play it in front of thousands of people. We are very happy that we managed to fulfill our dreams.

It’s a great movie, that’s for sure, a great documentary, especially for the fans out there, as they can see the Saxon members’ life, among the other stuff.

Which Saxon album would you suggest to a young heavy metal fan listening to?

That’s a tough one. Strong Arm of the Law for sure and probably Sacrifice. Or Denim and Leather, that’s a good one as well.

One of the things I respected most in Saxon is their attitude. I think that you defined the rock n roll living term! What does heavy metal means to you?

Definitely. I would like to thank you very much for this interview. Again, it was a great honor for me. See you on Rockwave Festival! The last words are yours Biff.

You know that Saxon has some characteristics like heavy fuckin’ guitars. In few words what Saxon was all about: They have great riffs, great vocals, great guitar solos and as I said before that what Saxon was all about. Saxon crossed the line between heavy metal and rock and roll, we combine both styles and I think that this is what makes us unique.

Get ready Greece cause the Sacrifice is coming. We’re looking forward to being there and Keep the Faith yeah?!

The “Heavy metal thunder Movie”.

It was released few years ago and it is a collector’s item for all the Saxon fans around the world.

33

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34

burst welcomes

Tomi Joutsen by korina P. | Photos by Terhi Ylimmainen

Tomi Joutsen is a grand front-man. In my opinion, when he entered Amorphis he brought a totally different and fresh air in the band. To be honest, I was not very satisfied by Amorphis’ performance in Greece, back in 2011 and I had some doubts in my mind regarding their future. I guess every band out there has its good and bad moments and Amorphis went back in the studio in order to record one of the very best albums of 2013!

I will not deny that “Circle” totally pleased me (and many other fans if we consider the feedback so far) and it seems that the band Burst { music magazine }

really turned the page and entered a new era in their career. Burst magazine had the very special chance to talk on the phone with Amorphis front-man, Mr Tomi Joutsen, and ask him everything about “Circle” and Amorphis’ course so far. How was Tomi? If one considers the fact that he was a little sick that evening, he was rather talkative and cozy and gave us some very interesting and detailed answers.

Enjoy!

35 Hello Tomi! First of all, I would like to thank you for this interview! How are you?

I am fine! I have the flu, so I am a little bit sick.

This is not that good I guess! (laughs) Yeah yeah! Summer is coming and this is the most important thing you know (laughs). I am really looking forward to summer, it has been a cold and long winter here in Finland! (laughs) (The interview was conducted a couple months ago) Oh this sounds a good plan then! (laughs). I hope that you will be better soon!

thing about the lyrics and the story behind them.

Pekka Kainulainen is here once again. This time the lyrics are not based in Kalevala (Finnish anthem).

You chose to focus on an original concept (The lyrics are telling the story of a man who lives on the fringe of the society. He feels like an outsider from the time he was born but then an accident happens and he connects himself with his inner powers by using the help of a guide who was sent to him from a different time and place.

So, the protagonist grabs the opportunity to change his whole life and future).

what we wanted to say! Pekka Kainulainen wrote this story, it is based on an imaginary story. When we were talking with him about the concept of the album he told us that he adopted lot of facts and things from his own life and reality.

So, in a way it’s a really personal story also! I think Pekka experienced an accident in his own life so he had to stop and think about what is really important in life generally.

to deal with in his/her everyday life and each of us has to take a break and think what is really important to him/her.

You know, stop for a little bit and think about all the choices you have made in your life, good and bad choices. I think the concept deals with big and important things after all.

So the whole concept has to do with the lyricist’s life also?

Exactly. He chose the concept, we gave him free hands in order to work freely as an artist. I have been talking with him so many times so I already knew his views and what he thinks about life and our world gen-

You stated that this is a story of a survival. This story seems to me a little contemporary. I mean, we live in hard times and I am not speaking only for the global economic crisis. People suffer, everyday the percentage of people who commit suicide is growing and many other things like that happen.

So, I was wondering if this whole concept of “Circle” has to do with social questioning from your side. As I said this is a story of a survival, a fighter. Did you want to pass any specific message to your fans?

Like “hey life is hard but still we should find ways to survive and go on!”

That’s a good advice and that’s

sometimes we have to concentrate on life itself, emotions and important people around you.

Yeah, I think so. There is also one message like; when we all live in this materialistic world

Pekka Kainulainen chose the concept, not you, am I right?

Yeah let’s hope that this will happen! (laughs) Well, you just released your new album entitled “Circle”. In my opinion it is a quite different one from your two previous albums (“Skyforger”, “The Beginning Of Times”).

First of all, the title. You stated that the word circle represents integrity. You exact words were: Back in the days, when there was something special to talk about, wise men used to sit in circle. Not everyone was invited to join them. But in this story the protagonist was invited among the wise men’s circle. And “Circle” is a concept album, am I right?

Yeah it is a concept album!

There is sort of a story in which it is based on. Maybe you will find some important people from history or some good or positive messages or even maybe you will discover your own life in a new way.

Like you will see yourself in a new way and there will be more light rather than darkness in your life. And that’s exactly the point where the circle closes in a way. That’s the main thing behind the lyrics, that’s the main idea of the story.

I guess we all heard about the story. You said some-

So, I got the right message! (laughs) Yeah yeah totally! (laughs) I think it’s not like a huge hero story, this is a small story about everyday people. This could happen to any of us you know. But on the other hand this is the most important story and message to pass.

It’s about one man and all the things that anyone could experience in his/her personal life.

It could happen to you! I really like the fact that it’s very easy for anyone to find himself/ herself on this story because each of us has some problems

erally speaking. I was pretty sure that we could support anything he would create and write. We just gave him some advices like “write your own story not a story based on Kalevala”. Also, I think our music has been a source of inspiration for him as we gave him some demos and after that point he started working on these poems (the lyrics).

Why have you chosen someone else to write the lyrics for you, generally speaking? Didn’t it cross your mind to write the lyrics on your own for example?

No. I think none of us would like to write lyrics. I think if you have great quality of Burst { music magazine }

36 music, as we do if you ask me (laughs!), it will be really stupid to spoil the good music with bad lyrics.

Oh I see!

Personally, I tried to write some lyrics when I was younger and I know that I can’t write good lyrics. All the lyrics I wrote back then were totally sh#t you know! (laughs) So, you care enough about your fans and want to have the best possible result!

Yes! When you have great music it’s really important to have great lyrics, too. Also, we have many fans who are into all these old stories from Kalevala and ancient stories generally.

We wanted to continue in the same atmosphere. But we did not want to take a story from the book (Kalevala). However when you read the lyrics of “Circle” you will see that they

Finnish people are just like the protagonist.

elements, some really heavy riffs, growls and stuff like that.

lenge ourselves. All I can say is that it was a great choice.

Let’s dig a little bit more to the album. You got a new producer, Peter Tägtgren from Pain. Until now Marco Hietala used to produce the vocals and Amorphis used to do the rest of the production. Also you stated that he managed to bring the Amorphis’ old-school feeling back to your music and that you have been tired of the whole making process until now. It seems to me that you guys wanted some kind of change in the band. Do you think that you achieved this goal, this change, finally?

In my opinion “Circle” is a much less mainstream album than your previous ones.

Burst: I can hear that you are happy and pleased with the final result! (laughs)

For me it’s really hard to see it in that way.

Of course I am! (laughs)

I don’t know. That was not our target when we started the recording process of the album. All the songs just came out. We wrote and recorded 15 songs. We put in the album only 9 songs so a lot of bonus

It’s much heavier I think.

Oh yeah maybe it is. I don’t know. (laughs) Because we have been working for this album for many months and it’s really hard to say anything about the album. We have been working so many hours to write and record this album so we kind of lose it in a way in the end. We became guests to our own music you know! (laughs) When I listen to the album now I feel that it’s a really solid album, it includes only 9 songs.

Considering the process, you stated that you got tired of the whole process.

It got better now with Peter?

To be honest, we wanted to do things in a different way.

So, this change I was talking about in the previous question finally happened in some certain point?

are in the same level with the lyrics of our previous albums (the lyrics of their previous albums were based on Kalevala). The story is so “Finnish” in a way you know, many Burst { music magazine }

material is coming. I think this album represents Amorphis nowadays and when you listen to the album you can still recognize all the Amorphis elements there: the death metal

I think so. I think we took some kind of risk when we decided to get a new producer for this album. We used to produce our album by ourselves and now we decided that we wanted an extra ear or something new for the band. I think Peter was a great choice. There are many reasons that we picked Peter but for me it was really important that this specific guy comes from the same music scene. Peter has been in the death and heavy metal scene for a quite long time and I think he knows Amorphis as a band really well. He knows what kind of music we want to write and play so, it was really comfortable to work with him.

We also wanted to change the recording studio. It was too easy to work in a studio located in Helsinki (Sonic Pump Studios). So, we wanted a different place to record “Circle” and we also wanted to chal-

Tomi, some years ago I was reading an interview with you. If I remember well you said that it was an honor for you personally to become the new singer of Amorphis because you were a huge Amorphis fan from the first steps of the band. A few years later as an Amorphis fan are you satisfied with the band’s progress through the years? Of course there still dreams and things that you still want to achieve, the musicians should have dreams after all! But when you look behind, are there any things that you regret or want to change? Maybe any wrong decisions?

It’s impossible to say that “I want to change this and this”.

I think my answer to this question is that I don’t want to change anything. I keep trying to act like a total professional all the time. I put lot of time and energy for this band and in everything I have done until now I put my heart and soul to them. Of course there are shows we played here and there that I am not really satisfied with but you can not be the winner every evening! (laughs) As an Amorphis fan I think that you were a great choice for the band back then.

Oh thank you! (laughs) But you know if you are in band for many years you notice many things happening inside and outside the band. I think I will continue with Amorphis for many years because it’s great, just great. I love travelling and I really like the guys I am working with. We are really motivated.

This sounds great! As an Amorphis fan did you enjoy “Circle”. Did you enjoy

37

Burst { music magazine }

38 “Circle”. Did you headbang while you were listening to the album? Were you thrilled? Or maybe impatient?

Yes of course! (laughs) I am just kidding of course. You know, we have all these different elements in this album which are kind of trademarks for the band. I sing in different styles once again. I even put some black metal elements in the vocals but there are also some sensitive melodic vocals too. As I said before, this is a really solid album and personally speaking albums of really long duration are not my cup of tea. I think this is a great album, you can not find any filler songs in “Circle”. I truly believe that fans of the older Amorphis stuff will like this one and on the other hand we also have some new elements too.

I noticed a very nice detail in “Circle”: you used wind instruments. I was wondering if you were influenced by Inka’s or Celtic music in any way.

And whose idea was to use these instruments.

The wind instruments gave a nice twist to our music. The composers of the album used to listen to folk music and generally speaking folk music has

Burst { music magazine }

been a source of inspiration for the band. But I think we are not into the folk metal scene, we are more like a heavy metal band. Of course we have these elements in our music but we also have some other elements too. “Circle” also features church organ, cellos, flute, acoustic guitars and also some female vocals. There are many layers in “Circle”. Of course all these elements are not on the top of the mixing but they still exist.

Oh a church organ, really?

Oh yes! It is here and there in many songs. I think you can hear it in the beginning of the song entitled “A New Day”.

Santeri Kallio (keyboards) recorded lot of stuff with church organ in Helsinki. And in my opinion they sounded awesome! (laughs) And who are the main composers of this album?

Esa Holopainen and Santeri Kallio are the main composers of “Circle”. Also, Tommi Koivusaari wrote one song.

What about the artwork? I was a little surprised and shocked when I firstly saw it to be honest with you.

The feelings among the fans were quite mixed, too. The artwork of “Cir-

cle” is quite different from your previous ones.

Why did you choose Tom Bates? Were there any certain reasons for this choice?

I think the main reason for this choice was the fact that we wanted some changes (as I already said many times –laughs). The artworks for our previous albums were really nice and there was nothing wrong with them but we wanted to have some fresh ideas. I think the music of this album sounds a little bit more organic and we wanted to add also some organic feelings on the artwork. And when I watch this cover it reminds me of a painting or something like that. I really like the colors and the atmosphere that creates.

It’s not a typical heavy metal cover and that’s also really important. I think it represents really well all the feelings and all the mystical things which characterize our music.

Coοl! (laughs) And by the way, do you have any favorite songs from “Circle”?

During this period of time I think my favorite ones are “Nightbird’s Song” and “Enchanted By The Moon”.

So I hope you will play

them live soon enough for us! (laughs) Let’s see! (laughs) So, Tommy do you have any last words? Greece is not included in the first leg of your new European tour but I guess you will come in Greece again. I hope so! (laughs) The last time you visited our country I think you were a little bit sick. But you know you have a good fanbase here! (laughs). So, do you have any promises for the Amorphis’ fans?

I am just so excited for our new album which I wanted so badly to be released. Sometimes an album has been ready half a year ago and you have to wait until it will be released. I mean, you have to wait until the album is out and then you will start really working with it and playing shows.

This makes sense! Well, thank you very much for your time and see you on stage!

Thank you too! *Special thanks to P.S.G. for all the help.

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Burst { music magazine }

40

Henkka

Blacksmith

Burst had the chance for a quick chat over the phone with the bassplayer of COB, to discuss the new album. Enjoy!

by Eleni Leonida Photos by Jarmo Katila Š 2013 www.jarmokatila.fi

Burst { music magazine }

41 I usually ask every artist I interview to introduce themselves. Would you like to?

Sure! I’m Henka and I play the bass for Children of Bodom.

Being a member of COB… What does it means to you?

Wow! It’s a big question. I’ve been with Children of Bodom for fifteen years and that’s all of my work. After all these years, the band is my life.

Does friendship play a significant part in the vitality of the band?

Friendship… Yeah. First, you start playing with your friends and then you become a professional. The goals changed but the spirit remains the same.

Yes, it plays a big role in my opinion.

The new album “Halo Of Blood” will be released in June 07 2013 via Nuclear Blast. Any info on the new album you’d like to share with us? (laughs) Always asking me to describe our music and I could not do it. It has lots of balances and is the most representative album for Children Of Bodom in my opinion. I really like it and I think is my best album of all the others.

Halo of blood… how did you come up with the title?

I don’t really know. I think be-

cause of the lyrics and the general theme of the album.

Working with Mikko Karmila is always a very interesting experience. What can you say about this collaboration?

He is mixing our albums for many years now. He understands us very well and I trusted him very much. It’s always a pleasure to be with him in the studio.

Halo of Blood’s cover art was created by artist Sami Saramäki, known for his work on the classic COB records Follow the Reaper, Are You Dead Yet? and Hate Crew Deathroll. It seems that you guys really like his work. Can we say that he is a member of the band?

Well, I couldn’t take it so far.

He did an amazing work at Follow the Reaper, Are You Dead Yet? and Hate Crew Deathroll. He is very good with a very intriguing point of view.

He catches us quickly and he is very good. He is very co-operative.

The co-operation with Annihilator guitarist Jeff Waters came out as a surprise. How did this happen?

Alexi made a solo for Annihilator album few years ago and it was a surprise because Jeff Waters asked for Alexi a solo.

Then, more solos came. The truth is that I haven’t heard the

solo yet.

An upcoming North American tour alongside Rob Zombie, Mastodon and Amon Amarth was also announced. How do you feel sharing the stage with these bands?

We already know many of these bands, like Amon Amarth and Mastodon. We have never toured together but I am a huge fan of their music.

Playing with them is going to be first of all an honor and secondly lots of fun to hang out with them.

The titles of this new album look very “alive”. In my opinion, they’re very closely linked to strong emotions. Do you think so?

Yes, it’s the truth. This album connects very much with the idea of death and has very emotional parts inside. So, yes, you are right.

What was the main theme of the new album?

The death of a close person or a friend. But some songs speak about respect. The combination of these is the main theme.

Your tour in North America is very long. How much fun will it be? Are you concerned about any difficulties?

Of course and it will be fun and we always enjoy being on stage. Hmm… difficulties…

Yes, I think that it will be be-

cause of the sun. It’s going very warm on stage.

Will the success of the North American tour lead to a possible upcoming European tour?

It’s going to be a full headlining European Tour after the summer starting in October till December. It will be a loooong European tour. (laughs) You are also going to pay us a visit in Greece.

Yes, we are going to have two gigs in Greece and I’m glad, because you Greek people are awesome in a gig. The first will take place on November 15 in Thessaloniki and the other one on November 16 in Athens.

What is the next step of COB? Many many many interviews and a lot of gigs and festivals.

Music is your main activity; do you have any other occupations as well?

Not anymore. For me now is only music, music, music and… music. (laughs) Is there anything you would like to say to your Greek fans?

The previous time we played in Athens was great, full of people and energy. Keep on rocking and see you soon guys.

See you on stage!

Burst { music magazine }

42

Never Let Go is a 5-piece Alternative/Pop Punk band from Mount Juliet, TN, young people with passion for music and distinct talent who have just made their breakthrough in the music world!

They have just recently launched their single ‘The Ones Who Put Me Down’ and their new EP ‘All or Nothing’ on iTunes. Never Let Go found some time in their busy schedule to have a word with Burst Magazine! by hope vnz

How did you guys got together and formed Never Let Go? A little over a year ago 3 of the 5 members of never let go were in a former band called IC3. After deciding to expand the band a 4th member joined the band as the vocalist and rhythm guitarist.

Once the band got several songs written, we decided to add a 5th member (now our lead singer) to the band to create the Never Let Go we are today.

So, you are taking out your first EP, but we already had the chance to get a taste of your music. Tell us more about it.

We have a six song EP to be released soon. The EP will be called “All or nothing” We spent about 5 months writing and working on the new pieces, and spent around 2 months in the studio working on the EP. We plan on creating a part 2 to the EP towards the end of this year.

Can you define us your music style and give us some of your music influences?

Our sound is a pop punk/ punk rock sound. We like to think we have a mix of A day to remember/Fall out boy sound.

Are you touring this period or have you toured before?

How does this experience feel like?

Unfortunately we have not been able to go on tour, but hopefully within the next year we will have our first tour scheduled!

We want to share our music with everyone!

What is your main inspiration when composing your own music? Is there any story behind your songs or you just write whatever comes out of you?

Most of the songs are composed instrumentally first; then we come up with a main topic for the song before we put lyrics to a song; then go off of personal experiences and the band also writes most of the songs as a group so each individuals thoughts and experiences go into each of our songs.

Burst { music magazine }

How can people have access to your music?

We do have our first single on iTunes and our EP will be on there as soon as its released. You can also access our music from our Reverbnation page or on facebook @ www.facebook.com/nlg100 and be able to hear new releases on our twitter account www. twitter.com/neverletgo100

What are your future plans as a band? Any ambitions or dreams you would like to fulfill?

We hope to have a successful EP and collect enough revenue to go back later this year or early next year to create a part 2 to our EP. We would also love get a spot on warped tour in the future.

Some people believe that alternative rock and punk rock is too mainstream, easily composed and can’t be compared to the great 70’s or 80’s music. What do you have to say about that?

Music from that era may have seemed more heartfelt but if you listen to the lyrics of our songs the same meaning comes across.

Also, yes, some punk rock may be mainstream but you’ve got to look deeper than the surface.

You are young musicians who made their dream come true. What advice would you give to other bands and musicians who wish to be recognized by the audience as well?

Never say you can’t and it’s never too late to start! Do what you love to do and don’t let anything stand in your way!

Are you signed in any record label? If not, would you like to be?

We have been contacted several times about record deals but we have not been able to find a company that we think it fits us, but if we had a choice we would love to be signed by Rise records or Victory Records.

43

Greece might have been on the receiving end of some unfortunate events over the last few years. However, this doesn’t hinder its music scene from growing and producing new and fresh music. One of the bands that’s been the “talk of the town” lately is Odysseus Never Came Back. Having been a group for just about three years now, they’ve already had their fair share of success given the young age of both the members and the band itself.

lease with the world-famous produced of their genre Joey Sturgis (Asking Alexandria, Of Mice & Men and many more), which was released earlier this May. They are “notorious” for their energetic live performances which are full of hardcore guitar riffs, melodic and ‘brutal’ vocal lines and electronic beats and synths, all tied up into one memorable live package. All these facts show that the future is only getting brighter and brighter for the young group from Athens, Greece and they have only just begun.

The post-metalcore sextet, with the vital help of their producer since day one, already counts one single re-

by hope vnz

So Odysseus Never Came Back, is there any background story behind the band’s name, or was it just a random choice?

The name was selected by our vocalist, Mpampis, and our former guitarist, Dimitris Bourgiotis during the summer of 2011 while they were on holiday. They were looking for a name that would portray the vanity of the times we live in and just like that “Odysseus Never Came Back” was born, presenting that way that no matter the long journey and the barriers along the way, unfortunately he never managed to return back home.

What was the thing that forced you into music when you were just kids or

teenagers and why did you keep on it?

Since we are a 6-piece band, we could easily tell you six long stories about how everybody got involved into music and why they kept going. For example, some of the band members come from smaller towns from around Greece, where music was the only escape from their daily routine; other band members experienced some tough family situations which resulted in finding “shelter” in music and especially heavier genres of it. To cut a long story short, various factors and personal experiences brought this band together and it’s the band itself and the support and joy we all find in it when we are all together that keeps us going regardless of success or failure.

Your band was formed in 2011, but just a year after, you changed your guitarist and that resulted in redefining your style and genre. Tell us more about it, please.

With our original line-up the band was going very well and we even performed in Schoolwave 2012, which was one of the highlights of this band so far. However, shortly after we got together and discussed what’s next for the band. We all felt that even though the band had potential, it had to have a more defined style and sound, as opposed to the more “mixed” musical style it used to have. In the end, we all agreed that a change both in faces and sound was necessary for us. When the former guitar-

ist, Dimitris , parted ways with the band, it was all in the best of terms; he is still supporting the band, coming to the gigs and hanging out with us and we’ve got to give him credit for being so mature about it and putting the best of the band on top of everything even without him being part of it anymore.

Enre Mayer joined the band as the new guitarist and he, alongside our current producer, Anthony Tsigonias, wanted to direct the band to a new way and sound. Some might criticize it for being more commercial, but nevertheless we all accepted and wanted this change and it came out for the best so far, having released our newest single, “Lotus Isn’t Just A Fruit”, which shows exactly all the changes that this band went through.

Burst { music magazine }

44 A hardcore/metalcore band in Greece is not something you get to find easily, so you are actually walking a path that only a few have walked before.

How do you feel about that?

from abroad, which is ncouraging and keeps us going forward.

Actually, contrary to what most people believe, there are quite a few bands in Greece of this same genre. Of course only very few people know about them, plus some of these bands have had considerable success in this genre but of course all of them were part of the “underground” music scene of Athens mostly; that’s

Like I said, being a six-piece band of people coming from different musical backgrounds and places, it brings in many influences in the group. Genres like rock’n’roll, groove metal, deathcore and metalcore are the main influences and bands such as Guns ‘n’ Roses, Pantera, Suicide Silence, Bring Me The Horizon and Asking

Are there any bands or artists that have affected and influenced you while writing your own music?

take one step at a time and it is still too early for us to consider something like that. However, we are taking steps towards it and we are sure more things are in store for us.

Being in a band and composing your own music not only needs a lot of hard work but also is a result of a tight friendship.

Do you agree with that?

Definitely. We all “chip in” during the composing process.

It usually starts with someone’s idea about some lyrics, or a riff, and then usually a couple of band members take a

we have the chance to create something new from scratch, and to visualize how the song will be in the end and how the band will be after that. It is a liberating process of having all your ideas shaped into a “newborn” song.

Which was the best experience you had together as a band?

Without a doubt, our Schoolwave 2012 performance has been the highlight of this band’s experiences so far. Performing in such a big stage with a very big and active audience was a dream come true for everybody. Having people sing along our songs and covers was giving us the chills, and we wouldn’t change that for the world. So, till our next big stage performance, this is the best experience we’ve had so far as a band.

You have been touring a lot of time in Crete. What was the best part of it?

How did you see the audience respond to your music?

why nothing comes up on the “surface”, where all the mainstream folk/pop/rock Greek music rises.

We are part of this scene and we have a lot of support from Greece as well as a lot of hating coming our way, which is only good for us, so we use that to our advantage too. We were lucky to have performed in Schoolwave 2012 and then toured around Greece with Schoolwave on Tour, which also helped us out a lot in getting our music and “faces” across to many new listeners. Plus, since our latest single release, there has been an increasing interest in our band from media and fans Burst { music magazine }

Alexandria are some of them.

You haven’t signed in any record label. Would you wish to sign with one in the near future?

No, unfortunately we are not signed anywhere. There has been some interest lately and a couple of offers from some minor indie Greek labels but we decided not to continue with it as we thought we would benefit from it and we wanted to continue promoting our music ourselves and aim abroad. Like all bands of whatever genre, we would love to sign to a big label and have the required support to promote our music and create new one as well, but we

more leading role in the composing process but everybody adds his own touch either musically or lyrically. And, for this to happen, a tight friendship and mutual respect for everybody’s opinion is prerequisite of course.

Studio recordings or live performances? Which one do you prefer?

It’s impossible to tell from these two. Obviously live performances are the most intense experiences we have as a band, going crazy on stage and performing our hearts out.

However, the studio recordings are a different chapter of us, also full of emotions as

Honestly, we can’t separate a moment of it being the best cause from start to finish everything was so enjoyable and fun that it’s unreal. The fun we had while traveling, performing, going out was why we keep on doing this. As for the feedback we got, we were quite pleasantly surprised.

Crete’s audience who attended the shows was mostly kids into thrash metal and heavy metal, which are two genres that are not in the best terms with ours.

However, we saw that contrary to what we expected, the young “metal-heads” from Crete were going berserk when we performed, they even knew our songs’ lyrics by heart and they were a very active audience.

This is encouraging, since it shows that younger people don’t get caught in these old stereotypes that older “metalheads” have “established” about hatred between our music genre and theirs and they support the scene regardless of genre restrictions.

In your opinion, what is the best part of being a musician in a band?

45 Having a chance to show the world what you have in mind, in whatever shape or form: Either by performing for them or by having your recorded musical ideas listened. Being in a band is all about being with the most trusted people you have, your band mates and playing your heart out for the people who want to see what you’ve got to offer.

You all have been members of other music projects, most which were entirely different from what you are doing now.

What is the element of Odysseus Never Came Back that makes the band so unique?

These previous projects and side-projects added to the musical identity of the band. Like we already stated, Odysseus Never Came Back, is a group shaped from different life experiences and music back-

grounds and this results in having some very expressive, energetic and memorable live performances, which along with our music, it what makes it unique.

You just released a brand new single called ‘Lotus isn’t just a fruit’, which is available for preview and purchase all over the internet. Where can we find it?

Yeah, it got released on May 4. We are very happy for this song, since it is the first song we released since the line-up change. Our producer, Anthony Tsigonias, is working with producers from abroad for his studio project; he did his little “magic” and managed to have our new song mixed and mastered by the famous producer Joey Sturgis (Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, Attack Attack and others) and the young and accomplished

engineer Nick Scott (The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Miss May I, Crown the Empire and others), with whom he has a business partnership with. The result was amazing for us in every way, and it was a first for Greece to have a song mixed/ mastered by those guys and also the lyric video which Anthony (Tsigonias) did for us, made the song stand out. The track is available for purchase on iTunes, Bandcamp and other online music stores.

‘Lotus isn’t just a fruit’ is just a taste of your entire new album that is set for release in 2013? Tell us more about it.

We are still considering our options. We have a lot of material ready to be recorded and we are either going to be releasing an EP closer the end of this

year or numerous single tracks in different formats such as video clips, live clips and lyric videos. But there are definitely a lot of ideas ready and more things to come, that’s for sure.

Finally, what are your hopes and wishes for the future?

For our band, our hopes are to get our music across to as many people as possible. Not only in Greece but also abroad; we are fortunate to see it happening already and we want to keep doing it. Should they like our music, it will help us to develop as a group and give out more for them. We also hope and wish Greece eventually comes out of this financial recession so that the underground music scene eventually gets its chance to blossom without the financial struggles that unfortunately all the bands are facing right now.

Greek, music portal www.in2music.gr

Facebook facebook.com/in2music.gr

Twitter twitter.com/in2music Burst { music magazine }

46

Some time ago, Agnes Vein released the ultimate doom/black album of the year under the name Soulship, so we contacted the band in order to find out everything about them. Hop in, cause this Soulship has sailed! by spiros smyrnis Please give us a brief bio of the band The band was formed in 2001 with a different drummer (Kostas Tonios), and with that line up, -Sakis, Erikos, Kostas-, we recorded ...of chaos and law...

EP, which was released during the summer of 2003. The next release was “Duality”, our first full length CD in 2010, which was obviously delayed since we had other projects running at the time, plus recruiting new drummer (Foivos) caused an additional delay to the production of the record. From then on, things came to be more stable, as we focused on Agnes Vein, which resulted in “Soulship” 2013.

Which is the story behind the band’s name?

The band’s name is inspired by the name of the woman, who was burned as a witch during the dark ages, and it was presented to us through a painting of the burning “witch”. It was the darkest era of the western man for many reasons, so we decided to “baptize” our band in memory of those people.

Soulship is now available.

Which is the feedback you received so far? Tell us everything we should know about your second album (production, mixing, mastering).

Well yes, people actually say Burst { music magazine }

it’s better than “Duality” in all aspects, something we agree with. Plus, we’re kind of proud for it because we made it ourselves for the most part, which, in its turn, makes us more confident. The recordings took place in our rehearsal studio in Thessalloniki by Manos Georgakopoulos (Universe 217) and Vaggelis Moschos (sound engineer) at January 2012. The mixing took part in Athens at the Universe 217 studio at May 2012, by me and Manos.

The mastering was completed at West Side studios in New York by Alan Douches (Mastodon, Clutch, Converge, Aerosmith etc). And finally we had it printed in Czech republic by Xvinylx Productions.

You lowered the speed and rhythms on Soulship more than before. Did you do that on purpose or did it just happen instinctively?

We tuned a bit lower, ‘cause it suits the vocals better, so i think the speed naturally followed. We heard the songs after demo recordings and then decided on the speed in detail.

However, from the point of the creation of the riff you have a general idea of the aesthetic you need, so speed is a main ingredient.

I think that fifty shades of black will be the appropriate term to describe your second album. What do

you think?

This album is quite dark indeed, though I see it more like the darkness of the night-sky and the light of the universe therefore than despair. Apart from “Eventus” of course, which refers to my experience of junkies when I had been working for the Thessaloniki intercity bus station for 13 years. That’s despair...

We, the vinyl lovers thank you for your decision to release your new album in vinyl only. Why did you choose to do that?

At first it was our love for the vinyl as well, plus the fact that we never had printed on vinyl before. So when it reached our hands and ears. we realized that this is the format our sound refers to. It came out to be the best format for the recording; suddenly all doubts on sound details disappeared.

I’m not saying the record is perfect, but it’s more than pleasing, something that dictates us to how things should be done in the future.

This is the second album, released by Venerate Industries. I guess you are satisfied from this collaboration, is that right?

Yes we have a very good collaboration with the guys at Venerate Industries and it was quite a helping hand this time

as well, making our lives easier with the whole thing. We knew we’d get everything agreed and so we decided to collaborate with them again.

Is it more difficult for a band from Thessaloniki than an Athenian band to stand out from the Greek metal scene?

No, I think it’s all the same now because we’re all in no man’s land, the internet. The whole thing was organized by the internet, we bought our equipment mostly via the internet, so what’s left to compare is the work from each band on all things occurring, the production and promotion, individually.

Speaking about the scene, how do you see the whole thing that is happening in our country affecting the metal and heavy rock scene of today?

I think that the bands take everything more seriously and that I believe has again to do with the internet. That’s because everything’s easier to approach, you have the same opportunities at instruments, you can have your record mixed and mastered wherever you like, and you can promote your band via various sites or webzines or blogs. So now what’s left is hard work and the will to deny comfort for glory hahahaha!!

47

Near mind from ptolemaida, greece, introduce themselves and talk from their hearts about everyone! by Petros Xatzistilianos | photo by tollis stathis

When was the band started and who are your current members?

The band started two years ago in Ptolemaida, Greece.

The original idea was based in Nathan’s (vocals) project.

It was pretty easy, for this whole idea to become a band, since Nathan and the other two fundamental members of the band, Drum Hag (drums) and Constantine (guitar), were friends and played together in other bands in the past. We had a few changes in our line up since we started, but the current and hopefully final line up is Nathan Black (vocals), Constantine Gk (guitar), Drum Hag (drums), Gus Zed (bass) and Mr.P (guitar) What is your music style and what are your influences?

We’d say that we have the Nu metal combined with elements of grunge in our sound but we want the feeling that our music passes to the audience not to be affected, so we don’t want to put a label in our music, we think that the best description is that we play melodic stuff with heavy sound.

What are your releases and what have you done so far as a band?

Our first and only release till now is a 5 song EP which is available only in digital form.

It is self titled “Near Mind”.

Beyond the EP we gave several live shows in Greece such as River Party (youth-stage) and as a support band to Planet of Zeus (greek Stoner band).

What is the idea behind the name Near Mind?

The idea of the name was basically to be a mental unit of measurement, for example, how near is your mind on everything you think or you do or don’t do. We know this sounds completely insane but it’s something “deep” for us and it cannot be explained easily with words, it’s crystal clear in our minds though.

What is Near Mind music about?

Well our music is 100% about feelings. Pain, anger and depression are the main thematology of our music and lyrics.

In a way we think that those feelings and states of mind are underrated, we know this all sounds melodramatic but you know, you must feel pain first to really enjoy happiness.

It’s like trying to reach a dark place inside of you, gather all those pieces together and convert them into music and lyrics. It’s like becoming your own psychotherapist and write your psychoanalysis on a paper, it’s cool, you should try it, eventually you feel free. As you can see we ain’t normal people, we are weird in a way (in many

ways).

What are your next plans?

We are planning to release our first video clip somewhere around June for a new song we’re preparing, which will be included in our second EP, and we’re gonna spend this summer in the studio recording our second EP. This doesn’t mean we won’t give live performances, but our main focus will be on recording our new songs and on having the best possible result.

You know that it’s difficult to stand out between so many bands. What do you think will do the trick?

Our opinion is that if your music sounds good, people will sooner or later recognize that.

We try to make good songs, songs simple and by that we mean “easy” to the ears of the listener, we never tried to approach a specific kind of audience, we try to speak in as many ears as we can, regardless of their music tastes. So if you ask us how we will stand out our answer is through our music, if we make good songs then we might have a chance, if not then... Finally, to be realistic, it’s also a matter of luck, but that comes second, the first thing is to have a good, quality product and in our occasion the ‘product’ is our music.

What’s your opinion about

the social media and how does that affect the music industry?

This of course also has its pros and cons. The good thing is that you can advertise your band for free and get people to listen to your music with one click. Also, it is easier to participate in competitions, band contests and other stuff like that. The bad thing is that you get more quantity than quality.

It’s so easy nowadays to write a song and upload it on YouTube, you just need a webcam, a guitar and voilà! Everyone can check you out singing in your bathroom or whatever.

It’s free, it’s fast and it can be done by anyone. That’s exactly where the problem is, there are so many people who think that they can make music and as a result you hear loads and loads of crap on the internet.

And all this delirium leads us to the biggest problem which is that people finally lose the point. Unfortunately the thing that facebook and other social media have done to music is that it no longer matters if you write a good song or not, the only thing that matters are the ‘likes’ and ‘views’ on facebook and YouTube. And that really does more bad than good to a band, when you have a facebook page with 5000 likes, you expect at least half of those people to come see you at a live concert and that really never happens... So, it’s kind of a virtual reality this whole thing.

Burst { music magazine }

48 What’s your opinion about the Greek rock-metal scene?

Hmmm the Greek rock-metal scene..let’s see, we have, like some bands that are really awesome and some other bands that are average, and of course some other bands that are below average or even worse. The thing with bands in Greece is that if you listen to 100 bands at least 90 of them play stuff you’ve heard again and again and again and in most cases they play it worse than what you’ve already heard. Let’s say you are an average metal listener and you like Metallica, what are the chances for a new band to come out play like Metallica and be better than them, I’m thinking.....zero. We have many bands that don’t offer creativity and their influences are right up your face in their own songs... And I think that happens because in

Burst { music magazine }

Greece most bands have the tendency to play old school music, it’s 2013 and this music is unfortunately really hard to survive because guess what, old school music has already been played by the ‘old school’ bands 10 times better than you ever gonna play it.

What was your best and what was your worst moment as a band?

Our best moment was when we played at the River Party festival, we passed there through a facebook competition and we were so happy that we did that because you know it was the first time for us playing in such a big fest, even though we played at the smaller stage called Youthstage, the joy and the experience was something great. The worst moment was when we decided to part ways with our former members. This is never easy, tell-

ing someone who played music with you, shared the same problems with you that you can’t collaborate with him any more. It’s tough you know, but when it comes to music, as sad as this may sounds, you must look what is better for your band, and if you don’t communicate musically any more, it’s better for both sides to part ways. That’s life, but you never know what tomorrow will bring you, all these things make you stronger and more experienced, in the end the memories stay and we keep only the good memories.

What are your expectations as a band?

We started all this as any other band in the planet to become famous and get tons and tons of pussy. We’re joking of course. we just wanted to have fun and play good music with our friends, and the stuff we write

is a way to let our true feelings out in the open and into the ears of the listener. Even if you only manage to affect one single person with your music it’s a success, you’ve done your part, and with the right amount of luck and good music of course other people will follow. This whole band thing may lead somewhere but may also lead nowhere, but we are sure as hell, that we’re gonna enjoy the ride...

Do you have anything else to add?

Our very special thanks to Burst Magazine and our friend Petros Xatzistilianos for this interview. It’s been a great pleasure talking to you, and we hope burst magazine’s fans will Enjoy what they’ll read.

Thanks again!

Follow your dreams as NEAR as your MIND can get you!

49

Heavy as shit! The perfect way to describe Omega Monolith’s music. The Greek heavy rock duo gave an interview to Burst Magazine so we can learn everything about them.

Read that loud! by spiros smyrnis Firstly give us a brief CV of Omega Monolith We formed at the year of our lord 2012 \m/. We have played together in the past and owned a rehearsal space together.

Omega Monolith was the outcome of all the events that occurred during that period.

We are an instrumental duo (drums – guitar) and we try to see music in a different prospective, at least to us.

Unusual name but identical to your music approach. What is the story behind it?

We can’t agree more that the name is identical to our music!

“Omega Monolith” is a song from the (epic) album Pillars by the band Fleshpress. When the band was formed and we were sure about our music direction, this name came up.

Our search of a name finished before it actually started …

We are used to the power trio term, not so much on the power duo! Can only two people make a band, playing so heavy?

The answer, as you can easily imagine, is YES. Two people can make a heavy band.

We both feel very complete and to be honest much more “free” in terms of composing the music we have in our heads and playing it. We have to mention in this point, that our equipment is a major factor for this outcome. Our rig serves Omega Monolith in the best way. Whoever has seen us play live can verify our saying.

The Black Campaign was released few months ago

and so far the reviews are excellent. Which is the feedback that you got?

First press of “Black Campaign” sold out in less than a month and CTS currently released the second press (in gray cassette) and the copies are running low. We had a really intense feedback for the EP and we like the fact that each listener receives the vibes differently, depending on hers/his music background and preferences.

Tell us about the technical stuff of Black Campaign EP. Oh we like technical stuff!!

Black Campaign was recorded in our own rehearsal studio.

As a band we are lucky enough to own a space with all our stuff there thus we have our sound. In order to capture that, we collaborated with Thanos Bikos who brought all his recording equipment in our basement. Another factor that has contributed very much in the total outcome is that the recording was live and the whole set played in one take.

No overdubs where used, so what you hear is what you will hear live (with more watts of course!).

We used a classic “rock” 4piece drum set, with some real nice big cymbals (that were specially selected after a lot of testing and “hitting”). We also used 2 guitar stacks (with some vintage Sunn tube amps) and 1 bass stack, along with some pedals, of course a nice looper that is crucial to our music and last but not least a special Baritone Fender guitar to provide the needed low end. As you

realize we can write a lot more about this topic, but the above are the main info so a full stop here.

The strange thing with Omega Monolith for me as a listener is the fact that I cannot imagine your music with vocals, while I cannot say the same thing for other instrumental bands. How About you?

Well, we play what we “hear” in our heads! The fact that you can’t imagine our music with vocals means that you feel “complete” with what you hear. That is our purpose when we are composing: to deliver heavy, dark, atmospheric and aggressive music with no loose ends. We are very happy that people seem to agree with you!

Why did you decide to release it on tape/ cassette form and not in CD or vinyl?

The idea of the cassette format came from CTS. In the beginning we weren’t so sure that we wanted to release “Black Campaign” on cassette, but when it all started coming together – the recording & the artwork – we realized that it fitted exactly our expectations for our “coming into the world”. It’s also a tribute to our past in a way, because we were lucky enough to experience the underground scene before internet! Finally, we wanted to keep our options open for a full-length release.

The amazing artwork was made by Viral Graphics.

Ultra cult, yet ultra professional cooperation!

O yes! Dots (lots of them), 0.5

outlines, skulls, tubes, chaotic patterns and a great logo.

What else can you ask? We are really lucky that the mighty duo from Viral Graphics cooperated with us. Great guys with lot of inspiration and great music taste! As said above, the artwork fitted like glove in Black Campaign and without any guidance from our behalf.

Can’t say enough for these guys. On every job, they make us more and more proud to be Greekz.

The EP released by Catch the Soap records, probably the hottest Greek label nowadays. Are satisfied from your cooperation?

Our collaboration with CTS Productions, so far, is smooth.

It’s nice to find an independent label that is so active and delivers what you agree.

I saw you broke down the An Club at the amazing 24/5 gig with 1000 Mods.

Any other upcoming gigs?

We really enjoyed this show at An Club. We had the opportunity to set all our back-line there and were pretty satisfied from the outcome. At the moment we have some proposals but nothing booked yet. (All readers be sure to check our Facebook profile for all the updates and news).

We are also in the process of writing new material. A small part of it was played in our last show. For sure we are running a very inspiring period and we want to take advantage of that.

The last words are yours.

Never disagree with the voices… WE never do!

Burst { music magazine }

50

is back

wastefall

Would you like to introduce yourself?

My name is Kyriakos Papaemmanouil. I live in Athens, where I took up studies on music and film. I am the singer and guitar player in the Greek progressive metal band Wastefall… and I’m well (laughs).

Wastefalll are back with a new EP featuring 5 tracks, which are, in my opinion, the definition of progressive metal. How hard (or easy_ was for you to have such a dynamic comeback?

It’s all about timing and situations. I was in Germany for 4 years and we had already composed some tracks in the previous years. Back then, we had been having problems because of the distance. A few months ago, we met all together again.

We wrote, we composed and we finalized the tracks.

New EP named Meridiem.

How did this come up?

The lyricist of the band is Alex Katsiyiannis, the other guitarist many years now, who has acquired a Ph.D. in Philosophy. He is a poet and he had been writing about social issues. Meridiem means south Burst { music magazine }

in Latin. The album wants to show to the world what exactly is happening to the south these times. It’s based on a general concept and you can focus on every track for more detailed information.

The artwork is very unique.

More info please!

Personally, I used to contribute to the design too. I had -and still have- many artworks like this one. I have shown some of them to the band and we liked the lanterns and the humans, so I just added the compass.

Let’s go back to the album “Self Exile”. Tommy Hansen was the mastermind behind the mastering. Who was to contribute with him?

In the end, you feel really excited, but then you got to focus on your work because you run out of time. Our company, Sensory, signed the contract and so, thanks to them, we had the opportunity to send our songs to Denmark for mastering and mixing.

All songs from the EP are very different; in any case, all of them are very beautifully connected. How did you achieve that?

All of our albums have the

after 5 years of absence. Eleni leonida talks with Kyriakos Papaemmanouil, founding member of the band, about their new ep and the future!

same idiom. I think that the reason why all of the songs connect to each other is because of the instrumentation process. We have our logic on how to play a musical instrument. That’s how we are able to connect different songs from different genres.

I’d also like to say that I observed many elements from classical music, which are evident in the EP. Yes, this is true. I am also a pianist and I have a huge love for classical music. We have the same logic as in the instrumentation. We will be having many instrumental parts in the next album.

Which are the next steps Wastefall are about to take?

First of all, we have to play many gigs and to promote our EP. We think that if everything works well, we will be able to release our full album in early 2014. We are already into writing and composing, so some tracks are already done.

You have also released a new video for the song “Hearts in the Gutter”. Do you want to say something

more about this video?

The name of the song is poetic.

As I already told you, when we write lyrics, we do that in a very poetic manner. The song has the contract already shown: from the factory to the abandoned house, which is the house of a homeless. The factory in the south shows the person’s efforts to succeed and its society and the abandoned house show a person who didn’t make it. The flower in the video represents the purest things, which people used to eradicate from their lives.

Have you encountered any difficulties during shooting the video?

Yes of course. We initially started shooting the video in another place but ended up elsewhere. The first time we visited the place we haven’t encountered any problems, but when we started setting up our equipment, the security of the place told us to pack up our things and go. We didn’t know what to do, so we found the abandoned house. We completed the shooting and we left.

It was very hard, since we had to write a new scenario. The shots in factory, fortunately, went great.

Every band has difficulties

51 Wastefall split up in 2008 and now we can see the same Wastefall, more mature and “wise”, in a new EP. We are not “children” anymore. We know what we want and we are determined to produce the best outcome. We are older now and we know that mistakes are not an option.

About your live performances now…Would you like to share some things with our readers?

Yes, we had a live performance in May 26, 2013 in a Greek Festival called “Metal From Greece” alongside many other Greek bands like Innerwish, Black Nightmare, Sorrowful Angels just to name a few. Of course, many other live performances are to be announced. We also played in Volos and in Kalamata.

What exactly are you expecting from your live shows?

I’m waiting for respect and organization like abroad, since I have played with great names and I know that in Greece there is a completely different mentality. Not in terms of sound, but in terms of respect to each band to the others.

Do you think that there is mutual support and understanding between the Greek bands?

It depends… In my opinion, there is a “stupid” competition between the Greek bands. We have to understand that we do different things with different goals.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much. All the best Burst Magazine!

Feeling Numb?

Coming soon...

Burst { music magazine }

52

Kostas Karavolas of Prejudice reborn on Burst!

by Marianna Kofinaki photo by Myrto Cat

Burst { music magazine }

53 First of all, could you tell us a few things about the band? How did all start?

It all started in 2005 when Tassos and Manolis wanted to participate in a festival in their hometown Galatsi. They needed to compose 2 songs to enter, they decided to give it a shot, so that was the starting point of the band.

How did you come up with the name?

The name has a somewhat ironic meaning. I mean we live in the modern age of information; different cultures are closer than ever due to the use of the internet and the access to quick transportation from one place to another. So you would expect that prejudice would be a less common characteristic nowadays and that people would stop judging each other’s political views, sexual orientation, life choices etc. as a result of this “mix” of cultures and civilizations.

However, this is not the case, and we see day by day that prejudice and hatred are taking over a wide number of people, which ultimately results in dividing even entire countries.

Hence the name of the band “Prejudice Reborn”, as day by day prejudice and is rising and will not go away.

promo video clips O.C.D. (2011) and Beautiful Sadness (2011). Could you share some details on each one of them with our readers?

Weak was the band’s first real attempt to create a studio demo. The line-up was different back then and Tassos wasn’t used to singing. It was self-funded and self- produced and was below their expectations. After a short hiatus to fulfill their military obligations in 2009, Manolis and Tassos decided to find new members for the band. The lineup was constantly changing all those years, so they were really tired and they wanted to find new dedicated bandmates. Tassos filled in the singer’s position and it was at that time when Thodoris and I came in; so here we are 3 years later. We went into the studio in 2010 to record 5 songs, four of which we decided to release as a promo EP. We knew that the album would take a long time to be released, so we needed new material.

What about “Elpis”, your new album?

We can literally find inspiration in all sorts of things: from a chat we might have while eating lunch, something we will see on the news or read on the internet, some old story or legend that is worth telling, you name it! In terms of music, each of us generally tries to listen to as much music as possible from various genres -not necessarily metal- and then merge all our influences to create something that will sound as unique as possible to our ears. If something excites us, then we further work on it and in the end a song may be born.

In my opinion it sounds more mature in both terms of songwriting and production. Is it in par with your expectations?

“Elpis” was composed, written and recorded in a 2-year time span. So it catches a wide spectrum of the band’s sound and dynamics at this point, and I can say that it is representative of what we want to sound like. We wanted a heavy, raw, melodic record and, in my opinion, “Elpis” has the right amount of each of these components. However, we are now in the process of composing new material, and by having composed more than half of the next record, we realize that our sound has evolved, and despite keeping some core characteristics that are present in “Elpis”, it certainly is a little different. We mature as time passes, both as persons and as musicians.

To date Prejudice Reborn have released one selffunded demo called Weak (2008), a promo EP “Rain Must Fall” (2010) and two

Is the album title (“Elpis” means hope in ancient Greek) some kind of message during the hard times we live in?

Which are your main sources of inspiration in terms of music and lyrics?

Yes, actually the name of the album is something we felt is representative of the experience this album offers, and it is related to the ancient Greek myth of Pandora’s Box: According to the story, the gods gave Pandora a box, containing all the plagues and diseases of the human race, and ordered her not to open it. She opened it out of curiosity regardless and all the evil got out of it. When she finally managed to close it, all that was left in it was hope. So the name of the album is about hope that still remains, even after you get hit hard and beat to the ground. That is the message we want this album to pass on to the listener, that no matter how strong the pain, hope will always be there in the end.

What was the feedback received from fans and the press so far?

During the last month that Elpis is out, we have received an extremely positive response from critics, friends and fans alike. Many people had been waiting for this album, and the feedback was positive even months ago, when we had released some of the album’s songs as a promo EP titled “Rain Must Fall”. We also have the full support of our record label B-Otherside and we have been informed that people actually go to the record stores and ask for “Elpis”… So I suppose this *is* good news!

You have already released a video, “Innocence Gone”, which was directed

by Bob Katsionis (Firewind, Outloud). How did this collaboration come to be? More info, please!

We met Bob Katsionis in 2010, when we collaborated with him to shoot our first music video for our song “OCD”. By that time, we had already checked his work for some great metal bands like Rotting Christ and really liked the way he presented the bands in the music videos he directed. So we asked him to shoot “OCD” for us, and he responded with a killer music video, that helped us gain fans and make some noise at that time. So when we planned to shoot another video

for our full length album, Bob was our first option because he can sense what kind of image and aesthetics our band needs, and present it in a music video with a truly unique way. The result of this recent collaboration is the clip for “Innocence Gone”, which in our opinion is a quite unique music video and captures the dark atmosphere the song needs.

Any plans of releasing more videos of songs featured in “Elpis”?

There are some thoughts on one final music video out of “Elpis”, but most likely we will release a new single before our next record is released and shoot a video for that one, maybe within 2013. We will know for sure by the end of summer.

What about any live performances? What’s currently on your schedule?

Currently, we are in the studio composing and rehearsing our new record, so we will not be doing many live shows during summer. However, we are planning some live dates all over Greece by September in order to promote “Elpis”.

We don’t want to rush on this mini-tour, we want to find another good band to play with us and have some shows that will be kickass! So by the time we have everything planned, we will hit the road!

The final words are yours.

What’s your message to the fans?

First of all, we would like to thank Burst Magazine for this interesting interview and of course we would like to thank each and every one who supports Prejudice Reborn in every way, through bad times and good times! See you on the road and keep it heavy! \m/\m/

Burst { music magazine }

ALBUM REVIEWS

54 Airbourne – Black Dog Barking Are You Ready To… ROCK? Three years later, Airbourne are back with another rock ‘n’ roll album yet! It’s summer and this album is the absolute summer soundtrack! “Black Dog Barking” is probably not that different from what you’ve heard before; it sounds like 80’s AC/DC – maybe a bit better and faster than AC/DC – but it’s Rock ‘n’ Roll and I like it!!!

Through its simplicity, in both lyrics and melody, this album manages to cheer you up, make you move, shake every inch of your body and… hair! Airbourne have a genuine love and passion for this music genre and such is demonstrated throughout the entire album. “Live It Up” is definitely the highlight of it: hard attitude and rock music. “Animalize” sounds a bit like Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – tune but, either way, it’s definitely for hard rock partyanimals! Tracks like “No one fits me (better than you)” and “Back in the Game” sound similar to Mötley Crüe, while “Hungry” is a very interesting track with diverse 80’s influences.

All tracks are easily heard; these guys from Australia unquestionably know how to make music for a PARTY! They’ve written songs you can sing along without too much effort with an exceptional mixture of old school riffs and catchy choruses… This is in fact the MUSIC for drinking beers and dancing under the sun or in a night-club!!! Sissy Fanouraki Black Sabbath - 13 Black Sabbath are releasing a new album. How somebody would review it in 300 words? Challenge accepted! Let’s sort things out first. Black Sabbath are the Fathers of us all (I am referring to the metalheads’ crew). Without them there would be no heavy metal, so we have to respect those who created our favorite music. Everyone who tried to play an electric guitar even once in his life has unconsciously ripped off the greatest of the riff-masters, Mr. Tony Iommi. Millions of fans out there would change their whole life only to “wear Ozzy’s boots” just for a single moment. Let’s focus on “13” now. This album won’t change the history of music. Sabbath do not need that. They have already done it with “Black Sabbath”, “Masters of Reality”, “Paranoid” and “Heaven and Hell”.

So what a Sabbath fan needs from the Holy Fathers in 2013? The answer is “an album just like 13“, honoring the name of our Metal ancestors. An album baptized in unholy water, full of riffs and elephant-heavy rhythm section. As for the latter, I have to say that Geezer Butler is the heaviest bass player that ever walked the Earth, let alone Brad Wilk (Rage Against The Machine, Audioslave) who replaced the man with the dinosaur hit, named Bill Ward, and gives an honest and descent performance by creating a stable rhythm section alongside Butler.

The album starts with the cunning “The end is the Beginning” (and me screaming Sabbath Bloody Sabbath). In the next track, Ozzy wanders if God is Dead. If he were, then Sabbath would definitely compose the soundtrack of his memorial service. The introduction of “Zeitgeist” rekindles “Planet Caravan” memories, while “Age of Reason” brings doom and ashes to us all. The band that defined heavy metal does not need any improvisations, just soulful riffs and passionate performances from Ozzy (whose voice is weaker than in Sabbath classics, but still blood-curling). Oh Lord yeah! Spiros Smyrnis Gothminister - Utopia Marilyn Manson, Trent Reznor, Rammstein, Ministry’s Al Jourgensen and Rob Zombie must be proud of their Norwegian industrial brothers Gothminister. Their comeback, two years after the release of their album “Liar”, highlights a new era for the band. After having conquered the German charts, they now seem to be ready to conquer the entire industrial universe…and that’s not utopic thinking, it’s for real.

‘Utopia’, the band’s new album is actually a concept, consisting of studio-recorded and live songs, also featuring a live-film intro and outro (on the limited edition only). So what’s the story? Bjørn Alexander Brem is leading some kind of double life: He’s living the nightmare of being a lawyer during the day and a Gothminister at night. What’s real and what’s not? Impossible to tell…

What we *can* tell for sure is that this real-life nightmare described takes the listener by storm, by means of haunting guitars and background screams, special sound effects and samples, catchy industrial melodies of different tempos and stronger, soaring vocal lines than its predecessors.

The overall impression given is that the level of maturity reached by the band music-wise and lyrics-wise is more than evident from the very first minute you hit the ‘play’ button. The band is proud of balancing all those elements and textures in perfect harmony and the listener is immersed in the world of the children of the night, who are trying to find their real identity during the day…or should I say hide it?

So let me set the record straight. Industrial fans around the world, keep an eye on those guys. They promise to haunt our speakers for good from now on and they are definitely worth it. Instead of a typical epilogue, allow me to quote the lyrics from the album’s homonymous song: “And we, we are making history, The greatest things are yet to be seen, The everlasting search for utopia” Marianna Kofinaki Burst { music magazine }

55 Harasai - Psychotic Kingdom I’ve written it many times that I feel very happy every single time I receive a band’s CD in order to review it. It reminds me of times such as the 1990s and the early 2000s, when terms like download links and torrents were unknown words to me. So I wanna thank the band, which sent us their second album in physical form and also congratulate Harasai for the professional work they did on Psychotic Kingdom. Listening of “Psychotic Kingdom” was the first time I got in touch with Harasai’s material, since I’ve never heard of the band before. The band comes from Germany but they diversified from the classic German metal scenes (Thrash, Teutonic heavy and power metal): Harasai play Melodic Death Metal that brings up memories from the famous Swedish scene.

I am pretty sure that the members of Harasai are hardcore fans of At The Gates, since their influences are more than obvious. Let me set some things straight: Harasai are not a bad At The Gates replica; on the contrary, they filtered the N.W.O.S.D.M references with some Opeth progressive crossings and the brutal vocals outbreaks. The album was recorded and mixed by Sebastian Levermann (Orden Ogan) and mastered by Dennis Koehne (Tiamat, Lacuna Coil). Even from the first note of Resist to Rebuilt the battle between melody and brutality is on.

The melodic riffs alternate with sharp guitar breakdowns, while the growls live in peace with the clean ones on tracks like “Skywards we Fly”. However, my favorite one is “The Art of Sun” taken right back from the Whoracle days of In Flames with a killing chorus and a stream of melodies. The drumming follows the rules of a blast-beat by being fast and repetitive and the vocals sound fierce and furious. A fine example of melodic death metal; especially the fans of the genre must give Harasai a chance.

Spiros Smyrnis

Jex Thoth - Blood Moon Rise When I received the promos of I HATE records.

I shit my pants, ‘cause I found the new album of Jex Thoth, titled Blood Moon Rise among them. Jex Thoth is one of my weak spots. I wanna be honest with you, because their self-titled debut album left me speechless. Most of us have associated the term ‘female fronted metal’ with bands like Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Epica etc, with the more extreme exception of Arch Enemy. Luckily, over the last years, there have been more and more amazing bands with frontwomen that kick some serious asses, escaping from the classic female-fronted metal motive. The Devil’s Blood, Royal Thunder, Jess and the Ancient Ones, Kylesa the Greeks Universe 217 and of course, Jex Thoth, just to name a few.

All of them have a common theme, their doomy approach to heavy metal and hard rock. Jex Thoth in particular are the pioneers of doom rock, accompanied by bands like Orchid etc. After two EP’s, their second full length album is finally out, with the release date set on June 17. “Blood Moon Rise” starts back to where “Jex Thoth” ended. To me this one is more ‘stable’ than their debut, as it has a sense of continuity from the first track to the last one. Jex is the band’s “Lethal Weapon”, since she is the main writer and composer of Jex Thoth.

Once again, she is passionate and soulful, touching the most sensitive yet dark chords of the listener: a doomy princess who will reap your soul, a goddess from the abysmal fields of Hades, a priestess of the underworld. “The places you walk” and “Keep Your Weeds” are hymns that the Devil cursed us to listen to them again and again, while the Magnus Opus of “Psyar” marks our ears once and for all. Jex, I swear eternal faith in you.

Spiros Smyrnis

lower, more sensitive and more mature than any previous album, with Homme taking a risk by wearing his insides out.

The opening track creates anticipation, and I listen with apprehension as I nod my head along to Homme’s velvet voice.

It is an ode to caution: things are not as they appear, so ‘Keep your eyes peeled’.

The second track ‘I sat by the Ocean’ displays a clash of emotions, lyrics laden with betrayal yet the melodies are the most uplifting of the entire record.

Queens Of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork Six years after the last QOTSA album. I was not expecting what I heard on …Like Clockwork. Filled with a thirst for the new sick, sticky riffs, the dark and dirty undertow, and the compelling force of the Queens, I was taken aback by the very first track and the rest followed suit. It is mel-

The next one is almost a lament, primarily voice on piano, with some solos in between verses, making it all the more potent: it describes an emotional drain by ‘The Vampyre of Time and Memory’. ‘If I had a Tail’ has a blues groove to it, praising how those with tails have it simpler in life. Next is the first single release of the album ‘My God is the Sun’, portray-

ing the sun as the ultimate healer and redemption-bringer. ‘Kalopsia’ resembles a ballad more so than any other track. It is hopeful, yet twisted in a way, giving off a pick-yourself-up feeling. Elton John joins QOTSA in ‘Fairweather Friend’; in this track, Sir Elton is sitting behind piano, full of the realization that true friends are few.

‘Smooth Sailing’ is sexy and confident and it’s good old’ Homme, feeling good about the world. ‘I Appear Missing’ is one of the most beautiful tracks melodically and contains the most candid lyrics about being consciously exposed to all of life’s rabbit holes. The closing eponymous track is entirely satisfying in the sense that all the turmoil of the album gets its closure, by shifting through and discerning what is real and what is important.

Helen Marie Joyce

Burst { music magazine }

ALBUM REVIEWS

56 U.D.O. - Steelhammer After the departure of Igor Gianola and Stefan Kaufmann, U.D.O. announced the additions of Kasperi Heikkinen and Andrey Smirnov and released their 14th full-length album “Steelhammer” on May 24th via AFM Records. I must admit that U.D.O. sound different now. I don’t know whether these line-up changes have affected the sound so much, in any case it’s a really good heavy metal album. Until recently (“Rev-Raptor”, “Dominator”), U.D.O. albums were a bit of ‘same old same old’ and Udo Dirkschneider sounded so... boring! As for, the band turned the page and pardon me for saying that, my dear Udo, but this album reminded me of older U.D.O. (“Animal House” 1987) and Accept works. In other words, it’s an amazing U.D.O. comeback!

“Steelhammer”, is dynamite, consisting of furious beats and sharp vocals. Even though I enjoyed the album so much, I must make the following remark: mid-tempo “A Cry Of A Nation” has the similar rhythm riffs as “Man and Machine” (2002) and “Metal Machine” is an already tested and successful recipe! Still, U.D.O. managed to flourish the stereotypical genre lines and write an old school German heavy metal album with speedy melodies with catchy riffs. Udo knows how to create unique heavy metal anthems and “Devil’s Bite” is a great example; it has an oriental blink within the guitar solo. “Death Ride” reminded me of “Fast As A Shark” era with the speedy blasting drums. “Stay True” is heavy and metal so typical U.D.O. but so fuckin’ kick-ass!! “Basta Ya” is yet another heavy metal anthem, where Udo sings in Spanish with the assistance of Victor Garcia Gonzales (Warcry), while “Dust And Rust” is its English version, a bonus track featured in the Japanese edition. “Book of Faith” is one of the most interesting songs ever; it’s mid-tempo with Bond-ish touches, like a movie soundtrack. As for Udo Dirkschneider’s vocals, he can’t hit the same notes as thirty years ago, but even now he remains essentially unchanged!

“Steelhammer” is a great new U.D.O. alavbum and you REALLY need to have it in your collection as a true Accept or U.D.O. fan.

Sissy Fanouraki Once Them Edens – The Year Is One Before listening to this exceptional album, I had the opportunity – and luck – to watch Once Them Edens’ debut live show in Athens, Greece. Now, several days later, I’m sitting in front of an empty word page for hours, trying to find the best words to describe this album. There is a story behind lyrics so let’s start from there: Deep and profound lyrics illustrate a Jester’s everyday life while he humbly presents its art to the crowd but, at the same time, ‘talks’ to God without fear, with words of doubt - “There is no God”. After 47 minutes of a startling amalgamation of a range of melodies, exquisite riffs, harsh vocals and fine percussion, don’t be surprised if you actually see a Jester somewhere near you performing his act! “The Year Is One” sounds experimental with progressive, metal, jazz, psychedelic, avant-garde elements; it’s like a Salvador Dali’s painting, surrealist art with many different styles. It is a solitary, eccentric and melancholic concept debut album with a rather attractive artwork. In other words, it’s a boldly first effort of Ω – who is after all the great mastermind of it – and as a whole, this album is a rejection of the assumption that music has limits…

We’re dealing with a talented young man who has all the potential aptitude to push his ‘art’ further to the world and we wish him the very best! Sissy Fanouraki Orphaned Land – All Is One The very special thing about Orphaned Land’s new album is the fact that they sound as timeless as ever.

This album is a kind of reconstruction of our lives nowadays. It opens with All Is One, which is definitely a start full of hope. Brother, which is the album’s first single, features a divine intro and it is actually based on a biblical story. Through Fire And Water is the most epic song of the album. Fail certainly features some doom elements. Freedom, in which Yossi Sassi fully demonstrates his new “creation”, the distinguishable bouzoukitara, Shama Im, La Benaye and The Simple Man feature more middle-eastern elements. The album closes with Children, a rather doomy and dark track.

The title of the album has been inspired by the fact that their music achieved to unite people of different cultures and religions. Lyrics are written in various languages and more than 40 different musicians have participated in this musical creation. The mixing and the mastering of the album were done by Jens Bogren, while Orphaned Land was in charge of production. The result is at least magnificent. Last but not least, it should be noted that Chen Balbus’ arrival undoubtedly brought some fresh ideas to the band.

Kobi Farhi stated that All Is One is Orphaned Land’s best album and I cannot help but agree with him: All Is One is a masterpiece. I can’t really choose one song over another since the sequence of the album songs matches perfection. Every track is beautifully woven to the next one, resulting in an excellent concept. Orphaned Land’s trademarks are still here. On the flip side, the songs are catchier and not so lengthy. Apart from the brilliant compositions, this album is full of honesty and integrity. Orphaned Land are a brilliant exception to the rule that music industry lacks vision nowadays. Support them! Korina P. Burst { music magazine }

57

Queensrÿche Queensrÿche Queensrÿche have disappointed me over the last years.

They released albums that didn’t honor the name of this legendary heavy metal band, which, along with Dream Theater, defined the term of progressive metal. What hap-

pened with Geoff Tate and the other Queensrÿche members mocked the band’s name. After statements, spits, kicks etc., they decided to split the band in two, so now we have 2 Queensrÿche’s: One with Geoff Tate on vocals and one with the remaining founding Queensrÿche members (Wilton, Jackson, Rockenfield), accompanied by the singer Todd La Torre (ex-Crimson Glory).

The album with Tate is awful, while the album with La Torre is very good. “Queensryche” is probably the best album that has been released under Queensrÿche’s name of since the late ‘90s.

Wilton is finally free to write some great guitar themes like the ones featured in “In This Light” and “Redemption”, while Parker Lundgren (even though the ghost of the great Chris De Garmo walks through the album) is totally integrated in the band.

I think that the lines of “Don’t Look Back” are spot-on for Queensrÿche, as they wanna leave their past behind. The album has a heavy metal approach, with the traditional progressive influences that established Queensrÿche as the pioneers of this genre. La Torre’s passionate performance adds more extra points

to Queensrÿche . His vocal abilities are extraordinary and La Torre is the right man to replace Geoff Tate for sure.

The closing track “Open Road” is a down tempo ballad that balances between Promised Land and Here Now in Frontier albums. “Don’t look Back” is staring at the “Seventh Son of the Seventh Son” Iron Maiden period, just one step before he “Fallout” a melodic song with sharp guitar riffs. “Spore” with the sing-along chorus is my favorite track, the one that makes me bow down to the Queen of the Ryche.

Spiros Smyrnis

Scorpion Child – Scorpion Child I’ve never heard of this band before; shame on me! The fact that Scorpion Child are part of the Nuclear Blast catalogue speaks for itself. For the fans of Graveyard and Rival Sons they blew their label, but that ain’t

right. Well, well the ecstatic debut of Scorpion Child will be among the highlights of 2013, trust me. I really love all that is happening during the last two years. Rival Sons’ “Head Down” Slash’s “Apocalyptic Love”, The Cult’s “Choice of Weapon” and now Scorpion Child’s self titled debut, fill in the gaps: Pure, horny and badass hard rock!

By the first listening I bet my money that this band was coming from the American South.

Singer’s badass accent comes right from Austin Texas, while the five-piece band spits fresh and groovy songs that combine the AC/DC, rock n roll

spirit with the cutting-like-aknife Def Leppard-ish melodies. Only mutes would not scream. “Hey” on “Salvation Slave”. “Liquor” reminds me of the Irish bastards The Answer with its heavy riffs. “Antioch” is the album’s ballad with a chorus that sets the whole place on fire. “Paradigm has a bombastic introduction that is the best way to turn your speakers’ volume up.

Sexy and charming like a thirty year old stripper, “Scorpion Child” is gonna shoot you straight through the heart and fill you up with poison. The lucky ones who got bitten will scream for more when the al-

bum ends with a lost Guns n Roses track, “Red Blood”. I’ve never been so enthusiastic for a newcomer band but Scorpion Child are totally worth it. Guys I am ready to sign a contract with the devil and sell my fucking soul so I can see you live on a stage and scream with my buddies “I live on the mountain and dream of the open sky”. Embrace yourselves and welcome the next best thing in hard rock. Please bite me again Scorpion Child!

Spiros Smyrnis

Tesseract – Altered State The Greek philosopher Aristotles and the alchemists of old believed that four main elements compose the All: Air, Fire, Earth and Water. Aristotles also added aether as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas fire, earth, air and water were earthy and corruptible, since no changes had

been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance.

And now you’ll start wondering: “What does this have to do with Tesseract?” The British progsters assumed the role of the alchemists of today, creating their sophomore album “Altered State” based on their own four main elements: Matter, Mind, Reality and Energy.

Just like Aristotles, I’d add another element to the equation on their behalf: Aether, the material of stars.

In plain English, the album is heavenly, a rare diamond among the many stones, an

opus that proves that even in our time, when many people believe that “everything is said and done in music”, a band can prove them wrong. Yes, the modern “state” of music can be altered-period.

Excellently composed melodies, guitars interwoven with interesting drum themes and the use of saxophone create beautiful musical landscapes, also thanks to the crystal-clear production. The beautiful voice of the band’s new singer, Ashe O’Hara, gives the songs a more sentimental perspective, since he seems to live every single note that comes out of his mouth. As for the lyrics, they’re absolutely no exception to the rule: They’re poetic and

they definitely provide food for thought to the listener, speaking directly to our very souls.

Matter is music, our Mind is on the lyrics, the Reality becomes more beautiful and the listener is filled with positive Energy.

True to their name, Tesseract have created a magical musical prism, consisting of the elements mentioned above. Question is: Can they overcome themselves now that they set their standards so sky-high?

Marianna Kofinaki

Burst { music magazine }

ALBUM REVIEWS

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Talbot - Scaled There was a link on Burst webmail, from where I could listen to “Scaled”, Talbot’s second official album. The phrase “Talbot the heaviest duo on Earth” (and beyond) has been conquering the world actively

Sirenia - Perils Of The Deep Blue Sirenia’s new album was a very pleasant surprise for me. For the record, I have never been a huge fan of Sirenia’s, since their music and art never really worked for me. However, things have changed with their

Blackfield - Blackfield IV 2011. Blackfield release their last album, named, Welcome to My DNA, with Waving keeping the record in a very high level.

Their album, Blackfield(2004),

Burst { music magazine }

since 2008. From Black Keys to the Greek experimental heavy rockers Omega Monolith, I am a big fan of the power duos in music, so Talbot’s note drew my attention. The band from Estonia is one of the hot names in European post-sludge, even though I’ve never heard of them before.

Definitely my fault! Talbot’s second album was released in April 2013 and received much feedback from listeners and reviewers alike. This sentence was included to the bio- abstract that was sent with the

press kit of Scaled and it is totally true.

As soon as I finished the first listening of “Scaled” I contacted the Estonian band in order to send me a copy of “Scaled” in physical form, because I want it in my collection. That’s how much I liked their album: Rock heavy as fuck with an experimental mood and cruel drumming. If I have to describe Talbot’s music, then I’m gonna use the previous sentence, by choosing my words very carefully. Doomy riffs, slow but hefty fill the picture.

Monolithic and primitive the music of Talbot is not radio-

friendly but definitely is intriguing for the listener.

From the epic moments of the 12 minute saga named, “Shadowbird” and the Sabbathesque “Spectral Express” to the badass stoner ballad “Delta”, the duo of Magnus Andre and Jarmo Nuutre delivered us a very interesting album.

Personally I’ve been listening to it over and over during the last weeks and “Scaled” has become one of my favorites, as I felt touched by the distorted melodies and their attitude.

Check them out!

Spiros Smyrnis

latest album.

Well, this is not a much different album from their previous ones but I would say that in Perils Of The Deep Blue, Morten Veland managed to display Sirenia’s signature sound in the best way possible and took their music to a higher level indeed.

Stars and Decadence are all heavy tracks that feature some electro elements and prove how great composer Morten Veland can be. A Blizzard Is Storming closes up the album and leaves us with the best possible impression.

Ducere Me In Lucem is a 3 minute intro, which opens the album in a rather dreamy way.

Seven Widows Weep, which is the first single of the album, is a typical Sirenia song. In my opinion this is the weakest and less interesting song of the en-

tire album. My Destiny Coming To Pass, Cold Caress and Darkling are also rather typical Sirenia songs, however they all feature some quite interesting parts and elements. Ditt Endelikt is a powerful and beautiful song, which also features male vocals by Joakim Næss. Maybe this is the best song that Morten Veland has ever written! Stille Kom Dden, which is by far the most interesting song of the album, certainly reminds me of Tristania’s early days as it is a doom metal track. To my surprise, apart from the harsh vocals, the song also features some clean male vocals performed by Morten.

The Funeral March, Profound

was an extremely successfull project, giving them a very good first step and introducing them to the musical industry.

Blackfield IV. An 11-track album that supports their course so far. To be honest, with all that has come up to now I listened to it thinking,” hmmm, nothing like the 1st one!”

So, starting in 2004 and with their first album widely appreciated they leave things be and reappear 3 years later. It is 2007 and the album Blackfield II is released, well accepted, but nothing more than that.

Why?Although many songs stood out it didn’t touched the audience so much.

Now has come and so does

After a while i shook that feeling off. The way the first song, Pills, starts makes you think something good is about to happen. A worthwhile initial choice. Song No 3 is titled XRay. Before reading aboutu it, I was convinced that I was listening to Anathema. And I nailed that one! Vincent Cavanagh is on vocals. A beautiful coperation and quite a

surprise that reminds of Blackfield’s sweet melancholy (it was their ballads that we loved after all).

No 8, Kissed By The Devil.

Something between Porcupine and Blackfield, wich is not bad at all, thei base remains the same. Bittersweet, it will move you or it will make no difference to you.

Do not get stuck in the past, walk to the future and get your opinion. I did want something a little bit stronger, but the result works fine for me.

Jo Gogou

Morten did the production himself -and it is actually an exceptional one- while Endre Kirkesola did the mixing and the mastering of the album in Dub Studios, Oslo.

Let’s face it: Morten Veland decided that finally the time had come to release Sirenia’s marvelous opus.

Korina P.

59 Huntress - Starbound Beast Huntress is not the typical female fronted band. They play pure heavy metal and they play it really loud.

Even if they do not play symphonic/gothic metal (which is still a very popular subgenre) their art features some elements that certainly make the listener hooked up with their songs: heavy riffs, mind-blowing solos and thundering drums. Plus, they feature some really catchy choruses that get stuck in one’s mind for quite a long time.

Their second studio album has already hit the stores. Starbound Beast starts off in a rather mystical way with Enter The Exosphere. Blood Sisters is maybe the most signature song of the album. And then follows the song which recently became the “talk of the town”: I Want To Fuck You To Death. This is the track that Lemmy Kilmister co-wrote with the band and, let’s face it, there is nothing special about this song. Why so much fuss about it? It should be pointed out the fact that the work in the guitars is more than exquisite (Destroy Your Life, Starbound Beast, Zenith). Oracle is a song referring to the ancient Greek mythology and the oracle of Delphi. Songs like Oracle and Receiver point out Huntress’s trash metal roots. The heavy Spectra Spectral clearly shows that this band has skills. The album closes with the epic Alpha Tauri which is maybe the best track of the album.

Starbound Beast was recorded at Hobby Shop Studios (Los Angeles) and the production was done by Chris “Zeuss” Harris. As for the album artwork, the band decided to collaborate once again with Vance Kelly who also created the artwork of their previous studio album (Spell Eater).

All in all, with Starbound Beast the band continues what they had already started with their debut album. However, their second studio effort shows less nerve and attitude. Korina P.

Charlemagne - The Omens of Death Christopher Lee, the famous actor, released a new heavy metal album on May 27th, the sequel to his 1st album “Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross” released in 2010.

“The Omens of Death” is another concept album based on the true story of Charle-

Leprous - Coal Norwegian progressive metallers Leprous decided to return to the studio in order to record another “diamond”. Let’s face it: Coal is by far one of the very best albums of 2013 yet. And, to be honest, I was not expecting anything less from Leprous than this.

The band spent pretty much time in the studio and I guess this is one of the reasons that explains why they paid attention to every single minor detail of this masterpiece. If you asked me about Leprous’ influences I would give you a whole list to refer to: Pain of Salvation, Pink Floyd. Porcupine Tree, Devin Townsend, Katatonia and so many more. Their music is not for everyone. In any case, what really makes Coal a real masterpiece is the fact that the band succeeded in blending and combining many different elements all together and released an album with a completely seamless flow. I guess in this part Heidi Solberg Tveitan’s and Vegard “Ihsahn” Tveitan’s contribution was valuable, in terms of collaborating with Leprous in the album’s production. Coal was mixed by Jens Bogren and mastered by Tony Lindgren (Fascination Street Studios).

Chronic is the first single of the album and I would personally call it a grandiose dark ballad. The self-titled song is maybe the most signature track of the whole album. The Cloak is a song that will make your heart melt. Einar Solberg’s vocal performance is at least divine and exquisite. And then the most interesting track of the album, The Valley, follows: ambient melodies, ethereal vocals with the bass guitar and the drums in the background; pure perfection. Salt is certainly a complicated composition which brings some kind of sweet melancholy to mind. The album closes in a rather powerful way with Contaminate Me, which is a rather heavy track featuring intense drumming (it reminds of bands like Meshuggah) and of course Ihsahn’s (Emperor) epic vocals.

Highly recommended! Korina P.

magne, the most powerful man in Europe in the 1st century A.D. Christopher Lee has got a diverse acting career, including starring roles as the Dracula himself, a villain in James Bond films (by Ian Fleming), a Sith Lord and a white wizard of Middle Earth. At the age of 91 he is still full of energy! Having a second metal album released. Christopher Lee is considered the eldest heavy metal performer ever!!

The music in the specific album was arranged by Richie Faulkner (Judas Priest) and it features virtuoso guitarist Hedras Ramos (Guitar Idol III Champion). Charlemagne is Christopher Lee’s obsession, since he’s his ancestor; plus he has always spent time developing an academic knowledge of Charlemagne’s words and legacy. The first part “Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross” won the Spirit of Metal Award in Metal Hammer Golden Gods. The second part “Charlemagne: The

Omens of Death” is less symphonic and more…heavy! Although the album was good. I wasn’t impressed by the production. It certainly is a new rock/metal opera experience; lyrics inspired by true events – a true story-tale to be told – with powerful guitar riffs and melodies and catchy drums.

Christopher Lee is the lead vocalist and narrator, accompanied by other vocalists, and depicts Charlemagne as a man driven by his beliefs to save the souls of all nations, who becomes a great killer! With his deep and ‘authoritative’ voice, Lee would effortlessly convince you that he has actually faced hundreds or thousands of enemies. It’s a meaningful concept album with 80’s-90’s metal influences and it’s worth listening to, even for historic reasons only!!!!

Sissy Fanouraki

Burst { music magazine }

ALBUM REVIEWS

60 in many ways and their music is more or less closer to alternative rock genre. This album is full of sharp riffs and also electro and pop/rock elements here and there.

The band was formed back in 2005 in California and this is their second full-length studio album. Victim To Villain was produced, mixed and co-written by Erik Ron.

New Years Day - Victim To Villain New Years Day is a band that I discovered recently. Imagine something between Paramore and My Chemical Romance but in a much heavier version and you got what New Years Day’s music style is like. In any case, their lyrics are darker and blunter

Do Your Worst is the opening track of the album and the first single that came out during late 2012. According to the band this song was one of the first songs that they wrote for the new album and it came together less effortlessly. In Bloody Mary Ashley Costello gives a vocal performance full of attitude. Actually, this girl sings her heart out in the whole album!

Victims, Death Of The Party and Any Last

Words will absolutely blow your mind.

Hello Darkness is an emotional downtempo track with lyrics going straight to the listener’s heart and mind. Angel Eyes is the second single out of the album and features some harsh vocals performed by Chris Motionless. This is a real bombtrack! Tombstone is a beautiful ballad-like interlude which leads to the last track of the album. Last Great Story closes the album in a rather aggressive and very promising way.

Victim To Villain is an album that will certainly make your day, make you dance and maybe scream a little bit! It punches you directly in the face from the beginning till the very end. I am waiting for their next step impatiently, aren’t you?

Korina P.

EP REVIEWS

Mindthreat - Where The Lights Are Dear Support your local bands! Support your local scene! Each time I listen to a new release from a Greek metal band that kicks some serious asses, I speak these very words to my metal folks. You, all the Greek metalheads out there! Do not waste your time trying to find the super ultra-

cult new band from Paraguay and start giving all the Greek bands the attention they deserve. I am sure that you will enjoy the ride, like I did with the new E.P of Mindthreat, titled “Where The Lights Are Dead”. After I received it on my BURST webmail, I listened to it as soon as possible. But firstl, let me give you a short bio of the band: “MindthreaT is a metal band from Athens, Greece consisting of 5 members. The band was formed in 2011 when they released their first promo CD, “Amidst Your Bloodlines””.

In September 2012, the band entered the studio to record a second EP. After many months of continuous hard work, they released “Where The Lights Are Dead” on June 1st. The band proudly won the Wacken Metal Battle Greece in 2012, so as you can understand we have to do with

“Superstition” provides a very good musical outcome in my opinion. The darkwave, electro, industrial music made by the band was always music to my ears, so this comeback, after two years in hiatus, has been a completely awesome move.

The album includes remixes from Siva Six’s songs made by Mani deum, Incubate, Nano effect, Beati Mortui , Hexrx, Killus, Dead for a while, Headshock, Must pain, Christian Cambas and Video Games Orchestra. There are three versions of the well-known “Valley of the Shadows, two Siva Six - Superstition The Belgian Label Group, Alfa Matrix versions of the beautiful “The Two Moons” is behind the release of Siva Six’s new and two versions of “Serpent Whore”. The 15-track ep, titled “Superstition”, on a songs “Superstition” and “Nemesis” are limited edition of 250 copies worldwide. currently among my favorites. I would Burst { music magazine }

some excellent players. The E.P features 4 tracks, all of which are moving from metalcore to deathcore waters, with the last track, Elysia, being the instrumental outro. The melodic lines of guitars mix and match with the singer’s growls.

“Deeper than Scars” is the hit of the E.P with an amazing breakdown and blastbeat drumming that’s gonna lead to some serious headbanging. “Under the Surface” grooved the place up while “Where…” is the storm before the calm of Elyssia. The fans of N.W.O.A.H.M should definitely check them out.

Under the surface and deeper than scars there’s a never- ending place where the lights are dead. A way of reaching Elysia.

Spiros Smyrnis

like to comment that the album has a surprise in it: After “Nemesis”, you are going to listen to a completely different aspect of Siva Six: a song called “I’m a groupie”, featuring Maria Kalapanida behind the mic, accompanied by an acoustic guitar, plus its “sequel” , the song “She’s a groupie” with the same music but this time featuring Z in vocals, which you are free to compare to its previous one.

What I can say about this album? Z and CYRO (Cygnosic) worked miracles again!

Well done, you left us speechless!

Eleni Leonida

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BAND INFOS, MERCHANDISE AND MORE:

W W W . N U C L E A R B L A S T. D E

W W W. FA C E B O O K . C O M / N U C L E A R B L A S T E U R O P E

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er n r o C Pop ogou

By Jo G

Daft Punk

They are back and getting lucky!

The French band Daft Punk caused panic through the release of their new album ‘Random Access Memories’ on May 21, which is the sequel to the album Human After All, released in 2005.

‘Random Access Memories’ features 13 songs, with “Get Lucky” almost on the verge of receiving an award.

But first things first.

The recordings of Random Access Memories kicked off in Paris in 2008, without anything particular to expect.

“After three records, there was a sense of searching for a record we hadn’t done,” Thomas reveals. The duo were dissatisfied with early demos that leaned heavily on electronic equipment, feeling like they were operating on “autopilot,” One thing’s for sure: their vast audience, called Daftworld, had already been anticipating for the record release almost one month before the official date because the band managed to get them excited with that small diamond of the “Get Lucky” intro, the collaboration with Pharrell Williams, in the meantime between shows. Of course the Daftworld was pretty occupied with that, let alone was waiting for any relative update and created material portraying Daft Punk in 80’-ish magazine covers as well as various publications and videoclips. As for the latter, at a huge extent such creation caused confusion to fans in their pursuit of something official.

The French duo, consisting of Thomas Bangalter and GuyManuel de Homem-Christo a.k.a Daft Punk, with the pop-rock dance-floor anthems, reminds us of the golden age of Michael Burst { music magazine }

Jackson in Thriller, as well as the golden age of disco. After 8 years of discography, they once again release their material via Columbia Records.

Rumor has it that several grand names, such as Paul Williams, Feist’s partner Chilly Gonzales, Panda Bear and the disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder have collaborated with the mysterious during the last two years and maybe those songs are to be featured in their forthcoming album.

Anyhow, the luckiest people were the ones who attended the private release-party, which took place in a hotel in Oslo, Norway.

200 lucky guests had the privilege of listening to “Random Access Memories in its entirety.

The Media never cease to publish and follow up on the single’s route to success.

The U.S. and the UK alike consider it as the No1 summer hit!

It has already reached No1 in iTunes in France and UK and No3 in USA. As for USA in particular, the single climbed all the way to No3 during the very second day of its release, alongside Chic’s Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams, skyrocketing in 155,000 copies.

Within 5 weeks, it reached 649.000 in sales in the UK. And not only is this route to success unstoppable, but it was also voted as the best track grossing huge sales in no time, plus countless awards are about to follow.

Feel Lucky?

63

RIHANNA She may change hairstyles, looks and clothes but she’s definitely not intending of changing her man. No matter what has happened with the ex, current and ex again boyfriend, Chris Brown, the artist just cannot leave her teenage love.

Twitter is now on fire, due to the countless photos she offers, without resolve from time to time to her broad audience, as well as due to the comments of her small “diary”.

She leaves nothing out and of course she leaves nothing unanswered when it comes to her own statements.

Maybe this relationship couldn’t bear fruit,

something which, of course, she wanted with all her heart, but she also was one step before kneeling before Brown and begging him to be the father of her child. Everything was going smoothly and things seemed to flow in their relationship until, at some point, the Media were on fire with the couple again.

Maybe singing is her profession, however it is certain that her ingenious game of publicity is her favourite hobby.

First with her comments towards Chris, then with her super sexy photos, someone would say that she has mastered the game of

social media on her fingertips. And of course she’s far from keeping people away with her attitude; on the contrary, she continuously adds more and more figures to the total team of her fans.

Then again, striking a fan during a show led to negative feedback. In several videos, she appears with her security crew under the stage, approaching the fans, and then in some moment is attacking a fan.

Her facial expression is really interesting, since she doesn’t show any sign of guilt.

Shine bright Rihanna!

Britney

Spears ??? and

You definitely know her and her career from her teenage years till today. From ‘Oops (I Did It Again)’, which was the starting point of her musical career, till today, when we find her being a mom and singing Turn It Up. Maybe there has been too much fuss about her name, in any case, not only is she supported by the fans as an artist, but also as a human being. Don’t forget that during the time when her mental health was failing and all the Media started “teasing” her, several fans stood up to her by means of personal videos on youtube and by regular mail alike.

She has never been left alone, which also brought her back to the music industry, which maybe doesn’t always do her good.

What if she grows up? Her innocence and her teenage outlook are still here, in exactly the way we got to know her.

So she’s back directly on the big screen, by lending her voice for the soundtrack “oh la la”, which will also be featured in audio for the movie “The Smurfs 2”.

She seems to be quite excited, since she’s posting info on her twitter account every single day.

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e g a P e h T n Tur

by Hope Vnz

STRENGTH DETERMINATION MERCILESS FOREVER REVENGE RETALIATION and REDEMPTION....or

“Bringing Metal to the Children, the complete Berzerker’s guide to world tour domination”

by Zakk Wylde and Eric Hendrikx

“Nobody can make you fail, they can create more obstacles and force you to have to be more resourceful, but that just means you have to keep working it. Bottom line is that if you fail at something, if you get knocked down, then you gotta get the F**** back and any desire for vengeance you feel has to be channeled through yourself into productive energy...”

Zack Wylde, one of the most wild, controversial, yet respected figure in metal, offers a roadmap to success in the music business, unfolds his life philosophy and provides a survival guide and loads of precious advice to all aspiring musicians to be. A true rock star, a talented musician, an epitome of the metal dream, the Viking of metal takes us on a voyage into music business together with Eric Hendrikx and inspires those ready to dare to follow tales of glory and destruction, of survival and excession.

The book starts with the TRT (the True Rocker Test), which will determine if you are a true lover of metal and should go on reading or you should simply pass the book to anyone eager to take a plunge in this wild world. And then it tells about journeys on the road with some of the most outstanding legends in rock, Lars Ulrich, Chris Jericho, Rob Zombie, Slash, Darrell, Edie van Halen, and, of course, Ozzy. If you are looking for personal details you will be disappointed, the book is less a memoir and more an instruction manual offering tips on how to make it up in music business, how to survive and conquer.

“Metal. Did it come from the bowels of the earth fully formed?

Or was it a gift from the god Odin, handed down from Valhalla, forged into his son Thor’s mighty hammer....Or was Metal birthed across the ocean by led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and driven across the world on the iron-horse track they laid for every Metal band to follow?”, asks the metal warrior himself and contemplates on every detail, telling us what it really takes Burst { music magazine }

to get through shows and touring, “rollin’ through hell and destroying everything in your path.”

Straight, hilarious, sprinkled with the distinctive Wylde-like humor, filled with colorful language, absolutely off the limits, the book reflects the guitarist’s accumulated wisdom and sheds some light on the road to domination in Metal. It is easy-readable, enjoyable, brutally honest, sometimes shocking and vulgar, but also insightful into how to make a dream come true.

‘Strength, Determination, Merciless, Forever, Revenge, Retaliation and Redemption, “work your butt off, on and off stage”, “play music you love and moves you”, never lose faith, believe!’

That is his advice, his philosophy, his life journey. A very interesting book, a real manifesto of Black label Society lifestyle and a genuine advice for anyone who wants to make a living playing in a band.

65

Karolina Pacan Courage & Honor

Someone can say that the world made us to be heartless, cold, ignorant.

I would say that WE actually did that to ourselves. The World is innocent.

We, the humans, we are responsible for what happens.

How did it happen that we forgot what honor is about? How did it happen that we forgot what respect is about?

It’s our fault… we let ourselves to fall in a trap where we believe that everybody are like us, so … why should we change ?

The truth is that many of us just follow the global move, but please... stop!

Start using your brain.

Do realize that your fathers were fighting for your freedom. They had much more courage and determination to make things happen.

They had faith in victory and that everything is possible.

Why don’t we learn from your own history?

You can see that even in very hard times, people were able to fight for their own opinions; soldiers had the strength and love to fight for their freedom.

The ones who resisted the longest, won…so that many of you can live now in a free country.

Adapt that behavior to your own life

and don’t be afraid to make a move to change things.

If you don’t do it, you might regret later. So, raise your head up high and fight for your life and freedom any time that it will be needed.

I do believe that the world has many great people but they just have to leave their safe space and break the glass of fear.

We can change this world in order to be better and safe place but we have to work together.

Have the courage to say ‘’no’’ if you don’t want to do something. People who respect you will accept your decision. People who laugh have never been your friends for real.

Have the same courage as our fathers, have their determination, don’t just sit and wait because nothing will happen by itself.

WE have to provoke changes we want or external changes will make us be what they will decide…

You CAN choose if you really want. Don’t choose to be victim…

Choose to be the winner !!!

Someone once said: “When you want to do something, you find a way. When you don’t want, you find excuses.”

Drop will drill rock not by his strength, but by constant falling ; ) Stay strong and all together, we can build a better world.

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宮崎 駿 Written by B|S|Orestis

Burst { music magazine }

67 I have always been into fantasy. Still am! Whether it was medieval or sci-fi, as long as it is out of this world, it gives me a perspective of the present that really puts a smile on my face.

And because of that I always considered my imagination to be excessive... until I stumbled upon the famous Ghibli Studios, and learned to be limitless!

The first movie I watched from them was “Kaze no Tani no Naushika” or “Nausica of the Valley of the Wind”, and it was then, when I met the brilliance of Hayao Miyazaki, writer and director, back in 1992 when I saw it, though the film was made in 1984.

Studio Ghibli was created from the people who worked for that project. As for me, Mr. Miyazaki and the Studio are one and the same.

Two basic characteristics highlight his films: The first is that you cannot actually define time. It’s either on a before-history past, or a post-apocalyptic future. The whole steam-punk universe I believe came out of those movies, and it is definite that Hayao played a great role in its creation! That has a very close connection to the environmental sensitivity of his as an author, which is very profound in his works. He is combining guns and constructions of full arsenal with windmills, copters and magic crystals, and, while people and creatures fight amongst them, the environment will come to life to devour or deliver them!

The second ‘trademark’ of his is that his main character is, most of the times, a little or young girl, forced to reach her limits in resourcefulness and bravery. His main inspiration is definitely kids (with mainly leaning on the feminine), so he is actually doing what the best storyteller does: making magnificent stories for children … and not only!

He is most known to the world as the creator of “Princess Mononoke”. That movie is a pure masterpiece. Much of the Japanese culture is based on a good taste of hate towards the waste of environmental resources. It was a phenomenal movie at the time it was released, showing a war between Spirit Gods and people, with similar smaller scale conflicts in the relation of the two opposite genre heroes, who are trying to amend the situation.

“We depict hatred, but it is to depict that there are more important things. We depict a curse, to depict the joy of liberation. ” Hayao Miyazaki At some time it is brutal, yet so sensitive to the human spirit, it really touches emotions, as if the narration is by nature itself in an effort to connect with the humans it hosts. The Spirit Princess is one of the best screenplays I have seen.

There is another film of his, the reason I decided to pay my respects to Mr. Miyazaki, and the reason I will never stop watching anime films, always, no matter how many times (Itsumo Nandodemo). I am referring to the best among all that I have seen (and believe me I have seen A LOT), the multi award winning “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi” a.k.a “Spirited Away”. If I was to describe that film I would choose to remain silent… I was totally overwhelmed when I first saw it, and so was my daughter when she did as well! The inspiration is the 10-year old daughter of a friend of his, with the story giving an amazingly magical version of the responsibilities and difficulties a youth must undertake going into puberty in order to achieve independency but also regain connection with their parents. The result is beyond the limits of imagination, and the way the story evolves and comes to conclusion is a testament for the talent of its writer! I have the same feeling every time I watch it and I would be a lesser person if I had never seen it.

Throughout his career Hayao Miyazaki has directed, animated,

written and produced many manga’s, anime series and movies from 1965 till today. He has an exquisite ability of avoiding counterparts in his stories. You will not have a good guy fighting against a bad guy. Both are sides of the same coin, which actually co-exist in them all, even the hero that the viewer attaches to. He always grabs the opportunity to show us nature as a fragile and delicate entity, but with tremendous power to be manifested in anger when existence in compromised.

I totally understand his feministic propaganda through his films.

His heroines are very strong in spirit and brave against the status quo, that in his scripts would appear either as the everyday life or as plain as an oppressive ruler… He has many influences from war-like conditions, having lived the consequences of the 2nd Great War first hand. I would agree to the term ‘pacifist’ that others use for him because of that.

“Personally I am very pessimistic. But when, for instance, one of my staff has a baby you can’t help but bless them for a good future. Because I can’t tell that child: ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have come into this life’. And yet I know the world is heading in a bad direction. So with those conflicting thoughts in mind, I think about what kind of films I should be making.”

Hayao Miyazaki He has admitted that many authors and writers have influenced him, including Ursula le Guin (though there is a gossip story of them disagreeing with the direction and release of “Tales from the Earthsea” by Studio Ghibli), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (the famous ‘Little Prince’ author), Akira Kurosawa as a cinematographer and the great manga artist Osamu Tezuka. On the other hand, he has been an influence for many among the animation industry, especially Disney Animation and Pixar.

Look him up if you are a fable lover, or just an anime fan. This should include watching the “Grave of the fireflies”, “My neighbor Totoro” (Totoro is on the logo of Studio Ghibli and is considered to be Mickey Mouse of the orient!), the “Castle in the Sky” and “Ponyo on the sea by the Cliff”, “The borrower Arriete” and many others (there is an excessive list on WIKI and other internet sources), and I suggest you also look for the upcoming film “Kaguya-hime no Monogatari” (the story of Princess Kaguya), which will hopefully be released in 2013… … And remember, there is nothing to fear in the shadows… It only the ma-kuro kurosuke...!

http://goo.gl/rclo3 http://goo.gl/NUuas http://www.ghibli.jp

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J.R.R. Tolkien This is definitely NOT your run-of-the-mill tribute on the legendary writer, linguistics teacher and poet. This article isn’t your average “books vs. films” comparison either. Oh no: Burst Magazine has attempted to shed some light on some not so well known aspects of Tolkien’s life, in order to demonstrate his huge influence in storytelling, language, music and film in a totally different way.

“Devil is in the details”, as the Americans say. So here we are, stating more than the obvious in order to make this article enjoyable to Tolkien fanatics and to those who’ve now started reading the Epic Fantasy Mastermind’s works. So there you go! by marianna kofinaki & Sissy Fanouraki Burst { music magazine }

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Life

Tolkien was educated at King Edward VI School in Birmingham. He studied linguistics at Exeter College, Oxford, and took his B.A. in 1915.

From a very early age, Tolkien used to make up languages.

From 1915 to 1918 he fought in World War I with the Lancashire Fusiliers. He fought in the Battle of the Somme. He was discharged in 1917 suffering from “trench fever”. It is believed that his experiences during the Battle of Jutland may have been fueled the darker side of his subsequent novels.

The landscapes and Nordic mythology of the Midlands, UK had been the major source of Tolkien’s fertile imagination to write about ‘the Shire’ and ‘hobbits’ in his later book the Hobbit (1937). The Hobbits are just rustic English people, made small in size because it reflects the generally small reach of their imagination not the small reach of their courage or latent power.

The Midlands have also been his source of inspiration in his later work the Lord of The Rings Trilogy. For example, the structure of Isengard was based on the University of Birmingham, the two towers were based on Edgbaston Waterworks tower and Perrott’s Folly, and the Shire was inspired by Sarehole, a small hamlet just outside of Birmingham. Plus, he based the description of Mordor, home to the evil lord Sauron, on the Black Country, a section of Birmingham which was heavily polluted by iron foundries, coal mines and steel mills due to the Industrial Revolution.

The air in it was so dense with smog and dust it was difficult to breathe.

Lord of the Ring-saga’s world and its cast of characters have roots in real-world history and geography, from the world wars that dominated Tolkien’s lifetime to the ancient language and legends of Finland.

The Finnish national epic Kalevala inspired Tolkien and he taught himself the Finnish language so he could read it.

Tolkien retired from professorial duties in 1959, going on to publish an essay and poetry collection, Tree and Leaf, and the fantasy tale Smith of Woot-

ton Major.

Tolkien met actress Ava Gardner and neither of them knew why the other was famous.

Tolkien and his wife, Edith, are buried together in a single grave in the Catholic section of Wolvercote cemetery in the northern suburbs of Oxford.

(The grave is well signposted from the entrance.) The legend on the headstone reads: “Edith Mary Tolkien, Lúthien, 18891971” and “John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, Beren, 1892-1973”.

The character names are those of lovers in Tolkien’s novel, ‘The Silmarillion’.

Tolkien’s son Christopher has edited several works that weren’t completed at the time of his father’s death, including The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin, which were published posthumously. The Art of the Hobbit was published in 2012, celebrating the novel’s 75th anniversary by presenting Tolkien’s original illustrations.

Literary Works and Tolkien’s language

His first scholarly publication was an edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1925).

He also wrote books on Chaucer (1934) and Beowulf (1937).

Tolkien was one of the translators for The Jerusalem Bible.

Tolkien used to discuss parts of his novels with fellow Oxfordian and famous fantasy writer C.S. Lewis during their ‘meetings’. He was trying to create a fantasy world so that he could explain how he had invented certain languages, and in doing so created ‘Middle Earth’.

However among his peers at Oxford his works were not well received as they were not considered ‘scholarly’. It was after Lord of The Rings was published in paperback in the United States in 1965 that he developed his legendary cult following and keen imitators.

Tolkien, as well as C.S. Lewis, have been members of the Oxford literary circle “The Inklings” along with writers Jeremy Dyson, Charles Williams, Messrs Coghill, and Owen Barfield. The Inklings used to meet on Tuesdays for lunch at the ‘Eagle and Child’ pub in Oxford where they would read out pages from their books.

Colleagues urged him to sub-

mit his elvish alphabet for consideration to win a prize established by George Bernard Shaw for the creation of a phonetically consistent alphabet for English. He declined to do so, another example of his reluctance to exploit his creation.

Derived his two main Elvish languages from a fictional root language. High Elvish (or Quenya) was derived from the root using the principles of Finnish phonology and grammar, while Low Elvish (or Sindarin) was derived using the principles of Welsh phonology and grammar.

The Hobbit began as a bedtime story for his children that in his own words “grew in the telling”.

Shortly after the original publication of The Hobbit in 1937, his publisher, Allen & Unwin, tried to license several foreign language versions, included a German version. Before any German publishers would publish it, the Reich government wrote him a letter asking whether or not he was Aryan.

He responded by saying that “I can only assume that you are asking if I am Jewish. I regret to respond that I have no ancestors among that gifted people.” On account of this backhanded reply, The Hobbit was not published in Germany until after 1945.

Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings over a period of about 14 years, which started by him sending his children bits and pieces of the story in his letters.

The original publication of The Lord of the Rings was delayed for two reasons. Tolkien tried to get out of his obligation to his publisher, Allen & Unwin, because another publisher had agreed to his wish to use different colors of ink for different parts of the book. In particular, he wanted the writing on the Ring to be printed in red ink. That deal fell apart, and he went back to Allen & Unwin. The second reason was that he wanted The Silmarillion; which told the history of the Elves and of Aragorn’s race, the Numenoreans; to be published alongside Rings. No publisher would agree to this, so The Silmarillion was not published until after his death.

Tolkien was extremely an-

noyed when ‘The Lord of the Rings’ was published in the mid-50s as three different stories, because he had never intended the tale to become a trilogy.

By 2004 his “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy [1954-1955] had sold more than 100 million copies and is the best-selling fiction book of all time. It is the 3rd best-selling book of all time after “The Bible” [c. 14511455] (more than 6 billion copies) and “Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-Tung” [1966] (900 million copies).

In “The Lord of the Rings”, the wizard Gandalf is revealed to have an Elvish name, Mithrandir. This is an indirect reference to the story’s Christian underpinnings. The name Mithrandir is derived from Mithras, a Pagan god with several parallels to stories of the life of Jesus: he was born on December 25 as the offspring of the Sun, had a Last Supper with his twelve followers, died, was buried under a rock, and reborn. Gandalf, like Mithras and Jesus, dies and is reborn.

Mithras sacrificed a cosmic bull, symbolizing darkness, while Gandalf falls fighting the Balrog. According to the book, the Fellowship that Gandalf leads sets out on December 25.

Said in an interview that the character Faramir was the Lord of the Ring character who was the most like himself.

Won the ‘International Fantasy Award’ in 1957 for his book ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

In 1973 he won the first ‘Gandalf Award’ (named after a character from his books) as Grandmaster (lifetime fantasy achivement). Posthumously he has been awarded the ‘Locus Award’ in 1978 for ‘The Silmarillion’ and the ‘Mythopoeic Award’ in 1981 for ‘Unifinished Tales’. The ‘Balrog Award’ is also named after a character from his books.

In 1999, 250,000 Amazon. com customers voted his The Lord of the Rings (first published 1954) as the “book of the millenium”.

Locus magazine conducted a poll in 1987 from among its readers to vote for the Best Alltime Fantasy Novel. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (1955) and ‘The Hobbit’ (1934) won 1st and 2nd place respectively.

Burst { music magazine }

70 They beat out classics like Alice in Wonderland (1865), Dracula (1897) & The Wizard of Oz (1900).

While writing the Lord of the Rings, he originally intended for Aragorn to marry Éowyn, but later decided to have her marry Faramir and created the Arwen character for Aragorn.

Many of his papers, including original manuscripts and illustrations for “The Hobbit” (1937), “Farmer Giles of Ham” (1949), and “The Lord of the Rings” (1954-1955), were sold to the Raynor Memorial Li-

braries of Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA. The library approached him, Tolkien selected Marquette because he wanted his papers to be kept by a Catholic institution which would be willing to provide for proper care and preservation of the materials. The library periodically puts selected items from the collection on public display. His other papers are at the Bodleian Library of Oxford University.

Tolkien and Film

Tolkien’s reaction to several proposed film productions of his books was that he considered his works to be unstageable; he simply didn’t feel that they could be successfully translated to a dramatic form.

Although he had sold the film rights long before he died, he had no real expectation that “The Lord of the Rings” could be successfully filmed.

Tolkien originally sold the film, stage and merchandise rights of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings to United Artists in 1968, but they never made a film, and in 1976 the Burst { music magazine }

rights were sold to Tolkien Enterprises, a division of the Saul Zaentz Company.

In the early seventies John Boorman was planning a film of The Lord of the Rings, but the plans never went further because of movie studio politics. Some of the work done was resurrected for the classic Excalibur in 1981.

Ralph Bakshi directed an animated movie adaptation of The Lord of the Rings in 1978 (partly made with the rotoscope technique), which covered only the first half of The Lord of the Rings. RankinBass covered the second half with a children’s TV animation The Return of the King (1980); earlier they had made a TV animation of The Hobbit (1977).

Prior to their reunion inside the city of Minas Tirith, his characters Aragorn and Eowyn only have one conversation during the course of The Lord of the Rings, and it takes place shortly before Aragorn takes the Paths of the Dead in The Return of the King. Peter Jackson’s epic film adaptation adds several more scenes between them, beginning in The Two Towers. Although all of these interactions were invented for the movie, all but three of them use dialogue from their one scene together in the book.

The character of Gollum from his epic “Lord of the Rings” trilogy is ranked #10 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

Probably the widest-known Tolkien illustrators of the 1990s and 2000s are John Howe, Alan Lee, and Ted Nasmith — Alan Lee for illustrated editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Ted Nasmith for illustrated editions of The Silmarillion, and John Howe for the cover artwork to several Tolkien publications. Howe and Lee were also involved in the creation of Peter Jackson’s movie trilogy as concept artists — Nasmith was also invited to take part in the films, but was forced to reluctantly decline due to a personal crisis at the time. In 2004, Lee won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for his work on the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

The split of Tolkien’s works be-

tween Tolkien Enterprises and the Tolkien Estate means that none of the Tolkien Enterprises’ products can include source material from outside The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and therefore a film or stage version of The Silmarillion is highly unlikely.

Comparisons have been made to the plot of the science fiction TV show Babylon 5 and Tolkien’s works.

The characters and creatures of Tolkien firstly inspired popular music around the 1960s, while many references to the Lord of the Rings gave insight in rock music, starting with the

boardist Bo Hansson recorded “Music Inspired by ‘Lord of the Rings’”, becoming the first in a series of pop artists to do so for the rock-oriented market.

Many Heavy Metal acts have been influenced by Tolkien.

The German Heavy Metal band Blind Guardian base a lot of their songs on Tolkien’s work, such as Nightfall in Middle-Earth (which is based on the Silmarillion), and other songs: Gandalf’s Rebirth, Lord of the Rings, By the gates of Moria, etc.

The British progressive rock band Barclay James Harvest, popular in the UK during the 1970s and 1980s, recorded a single record under the pseudonymous name of ‘Bombadil’ in 1972 (inspired by the character Tom Bombadil) , and a song under their own name

psychedelic band “Gandalf” and the “Middle Earth” rock club in London.

The first music inspired by Tolkien’s work was written by the English songwriting team of Donald Swann and Michael Flanders, who composed music for poems included in “The Hobbit”, “The Lord of the Rings” and other works. The compositions in question were included by their creators in their 1963 revue “At the Drop of a Hat”. When an interviewer called Swann “elfin”, he said, “Yes, and in the show, I sing in Elvish!” In 1970, Swedish key-

of BJH, titled ‘Galadriel’, featured in their second album ‘Once Again’ (1971). They were very much inspired by Tolkien’s writings, having come from the Saddleworth country in Northern England.

Progressive acts like Rush, Mostly Autumn, Bo Hanson and indie rock band Gatsbys American Dream have composed several songs based on Tolkien’s characters and stories. Camel’s “Nimrodel/ The Procession/The White Rider” is obviously about Gandalf.

Rock legends Led Zeppelin has

Tolkien’s influence on rock and metal music

71 numerous songs inspired by Tolkien’s works (for certain “The Battle of Evermore”, “Misty Mountain Hop” “, and “Ramble On,” with debate about some parts of “Stairway to Heaven”).

Tom Rappset in most of The Verse of the One Ring (“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky...”) to music as “Ring Thing” in Pearls Before Swine’s second album, Balaclava (1968).

Bob Catley, lead singer of the British progsters Magnum, released a solo album titled Middle Earth, themed around The Lord of the Rings.

Cirith Ungol, formed in 1972, were named after the pass through the western mountains of Mordor. The band’s 1st studio album “Frost and Fire” was released in 1981.

The East Texas-based rock band Hobbit has produced multiple albums inspired by Tolkien’s work.

Almost all Summoning’s songs and the entire discography of Battlelore are Tolkienthemed.

Two albums of Progressive Rock/Metal band Glass Hammer were named after Tolkien mythology; “Journey Of The Dunadan “ and “The Middle Earth Album”. A part of the album was recorded “live” at the Prancing Pony Inn. Power metal bands like Epidemia, Nightwish (their song Elvenpath features audio clips from the prologue of Bakshi’s animated The Lord of The Rings), while others feature Tolkien-themed songs.

“This Day We Fight!”, a song by thrashers Megadeth from the album Endgame, was based on Tolkien’s saga.

Amon Amarth, Swedish melodic death metal band, took its name after Amon Amarth, the Sindarin name of Mount Doom (volcano in Middleearth). Although the name is Tolkien-related, the lyrics are mostly inspired by Vikings, Warfare and Norse mythology.

Furthermore, the Italian progressive band Ainur have composed several album inspired

by Silmarillion stories in early 2000s.

Some bands and certain musicians were inspired by Tolk-

ien for their stage names. For example, Progressive rock band Marillion derive their name from The Silmarillion, Gorgoroth take their name from an area of Mordor, Burzum take their name from the Black Speech of Mordor, Cirith Ungol take their name from the pass on the western path of Mordor, the dwelling of the spider Shelob. Lead singer of Dimmu Borgir, Shagrath, also takes his stage name from The Lord of the Rings, after an orc captain. And of course we need to mention German kraut-rock band Amon Duul, who take their name after a hill near Mordor.

Canadian black metal groups such as Lugburz and Nirnaeth Arnoediad were named after places, characters and races stemming from Tolkien’s imagination. There is also the black metal band Northwood Ice Pentagrams, which has composed songs about Melkor and the Nazgul.

Last but not least, Christopher Lee – Sauruman, the White Wizard – who has released two metal albums; Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross (2010) and Charlemagne: The Omens Of Death (2013). Even though both tell the story of Charles the Great, Emperor of Rome we thought it’s worth mentioning!

Tolkien’s influence on gaming

The books have been reproduced in video game form numerous times during the 1980s and 2000s, including Melbourne House’s Lord of the Rings, Shadows of Mordor, War in Middle-earth; Interplay’s Lord of the Rings Vol. 1 and Lord of the Rings Vol. 2.; Electronic Arts’ action platform adaptations of The Two Towers and The Return of the King, real-time strategy games The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middleearth II, and the role-playing game The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age, all based on the Jackson films; and Sierra Entertainment’s action platformer based on The Fellowship of the Ring. There is also a PSP Game titled The Lord of the Rings: Tactics based on

the Jackson films, a MMORPG by Turbine, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. The Two Towers (MUD) is also set in Tolkien’s world.

Games Workshop created a miniature wargame called The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, which, while part of the film trilogy’s merchandise combines elements from both the books and films. Many of Games Workshop’s other battle games that are not directly related to the books have had some key background based on it.

Several other games have been based directly on The Lord of the Rings and related works, including Iron Crown Enterprises’ Middle-earth Role Playing game (1982–1999) and Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (1995–1999), as well as The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (2001) made by Decipher Inc. just to mention a few. All of these predate Jackson’s film trilogy except for Decipher’s card game, which is part of the latter’s merchandise.

Decipher also created the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, a role-playing game based on the Jackson films.

Board games include Risk: Lord of the Rings Trilogy Edition and another simply entitled Lord of the Rings, as well as the Middle Earth Games from Simulations Publications, Inc. containing the games War of the Ring (strategic, covering all three books), Gondor (tactical, covering the siege of Minas Tirith) and Sauron (covering the decisive battle of the Second Age) in 1977. A more recent strategic game covering all three books, called War of the Ring, was released in 2004.

There are also Trivial Pursuit and Monopoly editions based on The Lord of the Rings, as well as a The Lord of the Rings Trivia Game quiz game. Chess sets have also been created with the figures based on people and other characters from The Lord of the Rings.

Dungeons and Dragons and DragonQuest games were greatly influenced by Tolkien.

They feature creatures like Orcs, Trolls, Elves, Dwarves,

Halflings, Ents even though the battles don’t take place in Middle-earth. As far as the Dungeons and Dragons RPG is concerned it had dwarves, hobbits and elves as playable characters. After being sued by Saul Zaentz Company – Tolkien Enterprises – the creators of the game had to replace hobbits with “halflings” and balrogs with “balor-demons”.

In Warcraft II (Blizzard Entertainment, 1995), the most popular fantasy war-game yet, where humans fight against orcs and vice versa, multiple scenarios have been created in reference to Tolkien’s work; The Fall of Minas Tirith (1 player), First Age: Morgoth vs.

Elves (1 player), Gondor and Adjacent Lands (6 players), Hobbit (1 player), Lord of the Rings (1 or 7 players), Lord of the Rings (2 players), The Lord of the Rings (1 player), Lothlorien: The Dreamflower (1 player), Middle Earth (4 players), Middle Earth- War of the Ring (2 players), Midearth (1 player). Midearth (2 players), Minas Tirith (2 players), Mordor (6 players), Numenor (5 players), RingWar (1 player), Second Age: The Last Alliance (3 players), The Siege of Gondor (1 player), Third Age: War of the Ring! (2 players), Tolkien (8 players), Tolkien’s MiddleEarth (6 players), Tolkien’s Middle-earth (1 player), War For The RING (Middle-Earth) (1 player), War in Middle Earth (1 player) Starcraft was another science fiction wargame, for which two Tolkien-inspired scenarios were developed: The Lord of the Rings and War of Wrath.

Many Silmarillion-based scenarios were developed in strategy game Civilization II from 1996 to 1998.

The terms “orc”, “elf” and “dwarf” have been used in a variety of creatures in modern RPG and video games.

For example, Shadowrun and Warhammer 40,000 use these terms, even though there is reference for Orks and not orcs, since Tolkien preferred “-k” in late writings.

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Greek Tolkien Society

By Marianna Kofinaki and Sissy Fanouraki Photos by Jo Gogou

Do you believe in magic? No? Think again: As Stephen King used to say, “books are a uniquely portable magic”. Mr. King is right: Just flipping through the pages of a book and you’re immediately taken to faraway place, anywhere, in any space and time….

Think about it: Authors are magicians indeed: By penning words they create worlds.

There’s a specific author, who not only created “portable magic”, but a totally new world of his own.

Professor J.R.R. Tolkien, the ultimate father of fantasy literature, the Englishman who told the stories of Middle Earth and gave birth to an entire fantasy universe

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of his own. So does magic truly exist? In Tolkien’s own words, human magic “is Art, delivered from many of its human limitations.”

Burst Magazine is proud to present the Greek Tolkien Society, a group of people who strongly believe in the infinite magic of Tolkien’s works. No matter how hard things are in Greece right now due to the severe economic crisis, those people remind us that “There is always hope”, as Aragorn used to say. After all, people dedicated to their dream can always make a difference and that’s magic too.

So, it’s time, Ladies and Gentlemen, to meet Greek Tolkien Society!

73 Greek Tolkien Society... How has it all started and by whom?

Greek Tolkien Society was formed in October 2002 by a group of people who met via the first Greek Tolkien forum www. lordoftherings.gr, a website created by some Tolkien enthusiasts like us. When it all started in mid-2001, many Tolkien fans were brought together. After long hours of discussions and meetings, we finally decided to take it to another level, an official level.

Which are your relations with the other Tolkien Societies around the world?

Before the establishment of Greek Tolkien Society, some of our members were part of the English Tolkien Society. It was through them we managed to participate in “Oxonmoot”, the annual literary memorial of the Professor held in Oxford and we had the great honor of meeting his daughter, Pricilla. After the establishment of Greek Tolkien Society, we were immediately enrolled in the International Tolkien Fellowship, of which we still remain active members. We have participated in many international events, such as the official presentation of Tolkien’s work in the European Parliament, the festive celebration of the 36th anniversary of the historic Swedish association “Forodrim” and the official premiere of the concertante-opera “Hobbit” by the “Tolkien Ensemble” and the symphony orchestra of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, with the participation of the one and only Christopher Lee in Copenhagen. The highlight was our participation in the international event “Tolkien 2005” at Aston University in Birmingham, with a 25-member team, where we presented a treatise on the relationship of Tolkien with Greece and a comparison play between the tragic hero Turin Turambar with Oedipus. We also keep in contact with many European clubs, such as the German, Dutch, Slovak, Hungarian, etc.

“The Prancing Pony”... You borrowed the name of the well-known inn at Bree. Why did you choose this name, due to the fact that the adventure of the Fellowship began there?

Could one say that the Greek Tolkien Society was the starting point for the Greek fans to gather in one place sharing their love for the author?

When it was time for us to choose a name, we tried to find something fitting to our already emerging style. “Prancing Pony” embraces many of our characteristics: It was a friendly shelter for everyone passing by, the place where the representatives of all tribes of Middle-earth exchanged news and opinions on the current events, enjoying delicious food and the warmth of fire.

The Greek Tolkien Society brings together

friends from different parts of the country, of different ages, with different educational levels and different beliefs. We all share our love and interest in the writings of Professor JRR Tolkien and want to express and discuss our points of view.

Bree was the ultimate crossroads and so is our country.

Above all, the “Prancing Pony” was an inn, which means a friendly atmosphere with good food and cold beer. From the very beginning, we have shown our love for sumptuous meals, a practice which is now officially called “hobbiting”, which causes “shock and awe” to our guests from abroad.

Based on the above, how more fitting a name would be?

All Things Tolkien… Why Tolkien is so significant to you?

It’s hard to express in words what Tolkien means to his loyal readers. He’s the man who, by satisfying his own needs (he wanted to write a mythology for his country and complete the languages he created by giving them a matching civilization), managed to write a grand opus, which united millions of people worldwide of different generations. He’s the brilliant academic, who loved languages and ancient traditions of Northern lands; some of his

erary text, by reading it and analyzing it.

This also gives us the inspiration of creating our own things; sketches, poems, short stories based on the main theme of the text. Furthermore, we act a bit “playful” by turning the readings into role-playing, by means of satirizing events or adapting individuals to today. Some of us are particularly fond of the code of chivalry and martial tactics described in Tolkien’s work. All in all, others sew uniforms and banners, others paint coats of arms and others forge their own shields and armor.

Which are the Society’s main activities?

We hold meetings of the members on a monthly basis, in order to be updated on the news of the Greek Tolkien Society and exchange opinions and ideas. These meetings always have a predetermined subject of discussion: a presentation, a view or a topic for conversation. Each year we celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the Greek Tolkien Society and of course Professor Tolkien’s birthday with special events. We love nature and often organize excursions or trips. We visit archaeological sites, museums and exhibitions. We go to cinema too. We participate in various events on fantasy and science fiction. We try to promote and spread the word of the

studies are still published today. He’s the simple, ordinary, sweet teacher, whose ego was not affected by the unexpected success of his literary work, but remained a humble man instead. He continued editing and reviewing his masterpiece until his death. Last but not least, he’s the man who united us, who taught us to appreciate each other and tied us with the unbreakable bond of friendship. For all these things we are more than grateful.

Professor’s works in collaboration with local cultural institutions. This year, we celebrated our 10-year anniversary with a five-day event, featuring an exhibition of photographs and videos, lectures, screenings, as well as a two-day thematic excursion to a mountain lodge with competitions, quizzes and prizes for the winners.

Are there any specific aspects of his work, on which you’re keen on focusing the most?

Our main activity is focusing on the lit-

So far we have approximately 50 registered members, as well as many friends who’re taking part in our events. Our Facebook group has currently over 330

How many members do you have so far?

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74 members.

How can a fan become a member?

How can they contribute to the Society? Are there any specific prerequisites for the contributions in question (e.g. registration, annual fee etc.)?

It’s very easy to become a member. All one needs is to be an adult and to have met us either in person or via the internet (for those living so far away). The only prereq-

their love and respect for the original text, no matter how it is tailored to the average viewer.

What was the impact of the huge commercial success of Tolkien in your Society?

It was a positive impact, I presume. Not in terms of gaining more members, but in terms of Tolkien’s name receiving wider recognition by the vast audience and readers. In a country, which, by tradition is not really accustomed to Fantasy, especially when it comes to older ages, since the younger people have already grown up with RPG and video games, it is very encouraging that more people acknowledge and identify what you stand for. This made our everyday life easier, e.g. when we need to book a venue for an event.

Are you satisfied with your efforts so far in terms of the activities you’re currently involved? Which are the Society’s plans in areas of interest such as events, excursions and trips etc. in the near future?

uisite is the love for Tolkien’s work and the eagerness to participate. The membership fee is 10EUR per semester. The amount in question covers any operating expenses of the Greek Tolkien Society, plus the issue of our fanzine.

The launch of the LOTR & The Hobbit trilogies/movies, in comparison to their former cinematic interpretations, have led to increasing the fame of an author already wellknown. Even more people have shown their interest on the author, people who haven’t read Tolkien’s works so far. What’s your opinion on that aspect?

The general impression of our members is that the movies managed to rekindle people’s interest on Tolkien’s work. Thanks to those movies, many people discovered the books. Even us, the Society members, found one another and created the Society due to the films. We find the movies really good, although we can’t fail but notice the unjustified “diversions” and “Hollywoodlike” interventions on the original text.

However, we are fully aware that picture is a totally different medium than speech and we really appreciate the huge effort and innovation in production of the movies in question, since they demonstrate Burst { music magazine }

When it all started we were in a really romantic mood, without too much to expect.

However, as time went by, we proved to ourselves that not only do we have ideas, but also the will to materialize them and put them to practice. We are really happy with everything we have achieved so far, especially with the organization of the “Cair Andros 2007” an international twoday event, in which many acclaimed Tolkinists from different countries participated. This year, we have already kicked off with two book presentations and lectures.

We will continue with a theatrical reading, a trip to Germany in order to participate in the annual meeting of the German society and special events in order to commemorate our founding anniversary in October.

If you started Greek Tolkien Society today, would you have done any-

thing in a different way?

Probably not, apart from (maybe) a bigger presence in the media, just to make our existence better known. Ten years ago such publicity scared the hell out of us!

Do you think that in Greece there is a significant number of people, who are interested in more specialized aspects on Tolkien, such as, for example, taking up elven languages, making costumes inspired by the author’s world etc.? What’s the feedback such activities have received so far and how much does the Tolkien Society contribute in that aspect?

We wouldn’t consider the number of such people significant; however we’d say it’s adequate. The proof of that can be found in the publication of Quenya teaching manuals by Greek authors and by the participation of several of us in international forums and Tolkien encyclopedias. There are also artists and artisans inspired by the world of Middle-Earth, who create items such as banners and sigils, even uniforms and entire sets of armor. Our Society gladly supports each and any such initiative.

Have you been publishing printed material or any kind of magazine among other things?

We publish our fanzine “News from Bree” twice a year, which is distributed to all members and friends for free. Created by talented writers, designers and editors, “News from Bree” is a valuable source of information on our events and actions.

Which are your plans of incorporating new activities in the Tolkien Society in general?

We are open to new ideas and proposals.

Our main goal is to make Professor Tolkien’s literary work known and to provide a

75 means of expression to his fans. Fortunately, our members have proved to be really imaginative and creative. In any case, any new idea is more than welcome.

Has the economic crisis affected you? If so, to what extent?

Unfortunately, it has. Each one of us has suffered the consequences of the crisis one way or another. Consequently, we have fewer events, we reduced the frequency of issuing our fanzine and we currently put off a major international meeting with many guests. But, there is always hope!

What’s message you’d like to share with our readers?

If you love the work of Tolkien, even if you’re not too familiar with it, come and visit the “Prancing Pony”. You’ll find us at www.tolkien.gr and www.facebook. com/groups/greektolkiensociety.

There you’ll find a friendly atmosphere, vivid discussions, interesting people and beer blessed by Gandalf himself. Don’t stop reading the books!!

Burst { music magazine }

76 Written by Eleni Lampraki

“Before Midnight” is a 2013 romantic drama film, sequel to “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset”. It was directed by Richard Linklater, while the screenplay is written by the two protagonists of the film, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, in collaboration with Linklater.

Written by Aggeliki Rouska

18 years after they firstly met in a train to Vienna and 9 years after their reunion in Paris, we once again follow the love story of Jesse and Celine. Together now for almost a decade, and parents of 7-year-old twin girls Ella and Nina, we see them at the last day of their summer vacation in Messenia, Greece. In the opening scenes, Jesse escorts Hank, his teenage son from his previous marriage, to the airport, so that Hank would fly back to America, where he lives with his mother. Back on the road, with the two girls sound asleep, Jesse and Celine share their first dialogue on screen after several years.

During the movie we learn their back story (the movie can stand autonomously). Yes, Jesse lost that plane he had to catch in the “Before Sunset” finale and yes he divorced and stayed with Celine, first in USA and then in Paris. They never married, Jesse is still a very successful writer and Celine an environmental advocate, but struggles with the decision whether to accept a job in the Government or not. At the same time, Jesse suffers from a

When the first trailer for World War Z came out I was pretty disappointed.

Gazillions poor-CGI zombies were covering the screen and Brad Pitt was running among them.

Then I found out that World War Z is an adaptation of the novel by Max Brooks and I got disappointed even more, since this attempt looked like a guaranteed failure. I came to watch it with the lowest expectations and that was the most reasonable thing to do after the big disappointments I got from Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel (no man for me this summer).

WWZ follows a totally different path from the book with a typical modern zombie story. A virus is spread by an unknown source, transforming humans into merciless violent eating machines.

Our hero, Gerry Lane, former UN agent with military background, is being called to help humanity in this great task of confronting and neutralizing the zombies. A cure must be found and in order for this to happen he has to travel all over the world.

What is most interesting is that this film is taking place in non - American ground. We are watching the destruction of USA, mostly through broadcasted news, but all the action takes place in South Korea, Israel and UK. It was interesting to see postapocalyptic sceneries in different parts of the planet in a Hollywood movie. It is a step don’t you think?

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very bad divorce with his ex-wife and does his best in order to maintain a healthy relationship with his son. Now they are not just the two of them, they have a family and its issues; they have to decide for their future, fending not only for themselves, but for their children as well, and their decision to stay together- which is not a consequence-free one. When it comes to real life, can a romantic love survive?

Older but still attractive, Hawke and Delpy serve their roles with dignity to the films’ and characters’ history and continuity, while they keep terms with the feeling the first movie left to its audience. Once again, the plot of the movie is focused on the couple’s dialogues; however, for the first time, we have some not so brief scenes, in which the two share lines on their relationships with their party. As the characters grow old and mature, their perspectives of life change; Jesse has become more romantic and Celine the cynical one. Once again they talk about human relationships, but in this film they’re focused on the impact of time and daily routine on them. Although a little unfair for Celine’s character, the director doesn’t leave us dissatisfied. I can’t decide on whether this is the best one of the trilogy, but it’s certainly not inferior to the previous ones.

Although this movie tries to be a serious action-drama with subtle criticism on governments, constant brutality on times of crisis, civilization’s narrow-mindedness, it falls into the trap of imitating other zombie films. However, it is something expected since all this “in-your-face humanity” attitude contained in the book has been omitted for the sake of tickets’ sale and profit. If not zombies, then certainly money makes the world go ‘round.

Brad Pitt is there to deliver the task of the main lead, sometimes he is good (but not that good) and sometimes he is funny (but not that funny); all the rest remain a little bit indifferent , apart from the beginning of the film, where we watch a strong scene of pandemic outburst.

WWZ may have an original story (as a book), but it is a pure copycat as a film. It starts with Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead, continues with La Horde, meets for a while 28 Days Later, tries to overcome The Dead, it even follows Outpost and also The Walking Dead lurks somewhere in there. Of course there is this scene, same with Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (maybe a tribute? Who knows?).

So is it a bad movie? No. Is it a good movie? The answer is “no” again. It is a mix, a blockbuster hybrid of zombie flicks. You will watch it easily and maybe find it interesting; however you will get tired being constantly reminded of every other zombie movie you have watched.

Written by Eleni Lampraki

77 An alternative choice offered by Greek theaters this June. “Camille Redouble” is a French film, directed by Noémie Lvovsky, who also holds the protagonist role. The script is co-written by Lvovsky, Maud Ameline, Pierre-Olivier Mattei and Florence Seyvos. Noémie Lvovsky was the winner of the SACD Prize (Directors’ Fortnight) at 2012 Cannes Film Festival for that film.

Written by Aggeliki Rouska

The film takes place in 2008/2009 and 1985. It’s 2008, New Year’s Eve and we meet Camille, a b-role and stunt actress, who after completing her line-less shot, returns home. She seems to have a drinking problem and a miserable daily routine. At home she meets her husband Eric, packing some stuff. From the dialogue we figure out that they are divorcing and he is leaving her for a much younger woman. Both seem unhappy with their relationship situation; Camille stays alone and devastated. Later that night, her daughter convinces her to go to a party, thrown by her childhood friend Josepha, but before that she visits a small jeweler shop in order to fix her clock and get rid of her engagement ring. She is reunited with her classmates but she faints due to much consumption of alcohol a short while af-

I never liked Superman neither enjoyed any of his films. I find the fact that the most powerful man in the universe can only die by a green material from another galaxy boring. How unfair is that to other superheroes? That was always the reason I never fancied the guy with the red cape and red pants. On the other hand, I like Christopher Nolan and I always enjoyed Snyder’s movies. I never had any problem with the excessive use of CGI and action scenes… until now.

Man of Steel is the new outset for a new Superman film series, so everything starts from scratch; and as happened to the recent examples of Batman and Spiderman, the creators tried to give out a darker tone, a more serious view on this new installment.

Planet Krypton is on the brink of destruction; Kal-El is the first natural birth after centuries and General Zod tries to overthrow the government by force in order to save the planet, for the wrong reasons though. What he needs is the Codex which is used for the continuity of the Kryptonian race. Jor-El, father of Kal-El, steals the codex and sends them both to Earth in order to save his son.

As you understand, Kal-El is Clark Kent on Earth, raised by human parents in a farmhouse somewhere in Kansas.

During the entire film Clark Kent/Superman is under an identity crisis. He tries to accept what he is, where he belongs, whether he

ter. The next day, she wakes up in a hospital room, and from the reactions of the nurse she understands that’s in 01/01/1985, she is 16 again and her parents are still alive and worried about their daughter’s behavior. Camille has to go to school again, meets her friends at 16 and also meets Eric, once the love of her life, but also the man who will make her miserable in 25 years. We learn that Camille got pregnant at that age and also that her mother died unexpectedly, so now our heroine will try to stop the love story between her and her future husband, try to save her mother, plus also she has to choose whether to have her own daughter or not.

Well, at least she will figure out that we can’t change fate at some point.

It’s not the first movie about oneself who travels to the past and tries to change what happened due to a fictional reason. Although I found the concept how Camille entered into her past life vague and unclear (the movie implies that it wasn’t a dream), the film holds nicely the strings between comedy and drama, with the typical French humor to take place. And despite the fact that it was a 2-hour movie, I still have some unanswered questions, especially about the character of the Physics teacher, who suddenly believes Camille’s story. Fortunately, the end is relieving and not a simply and silly romantic one (thank God it’s not Hollywood).

“Camille Redouble” is not a masterpiece, but a nice choice for an open-air cinema whatsoever.

will be accepted by humans. During this crisis, Snyder provides beautiful scenes, especially of Kent’s younger years. However, these are only moments. What Snyder tries to build, destroys it with every line and every action scene. Unfortunately, even Henry’s Cavill performance cannot help the situation, as he is being restricted by the writers’ and director’s choices.

The way the invasion of General Zod and his battle with Superman is portrayed does not have any connection with Earth and consequently with the viewers. Humans are caught in the middle of kryptonite differences. Superman is neither their hero nor a savior of Earth. Actually he is the reason why Earth is being attacked. So it’s not convincing when a character exclaims “He saved us!”. Oh, come on…seriously? The film is full of such lines.

They are so many lines that, at some point, it is like watching Brick Tamland in Anchorman saying “I love lamp” (however, in that case, you were laughing).

Leaving all these behind, we face the basic reason that actually diminishes the film: Destruction scenes! They are plenty and they never seem to end. All this indifference towards the main characters resulted in the most empty, boring, useless action scenes; Action scenes without any originality, copies from sci-fi movies from the 90s onwards! So much destruction and so much death and on top of that comes an epic failure on Superman’s character.

Unfortunately, Man of Steel is buried under the tons of CGI wreckage, the remainders of the most uninteresting battle in a superhero film.

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78

Director’s Cut

Written by Spiros Smyrnis Photos from www.tiempodebalas.cl and Olivier Strecker

Gaspar Noe I am pretty sure that most of you didn’t know Gaspar Noé. Probably few cine-philiacs really know the French- Argentinean director. On the other hand I am also pretty sure that most of you have seen or have heard of the notorious rape scene of Monica Belucci on the film “Irreversible”. Gaspar Noé is the man responsible for this film (one of the most controversial ones in the History of European Cinema) among the others. His cinema is characterized as extreme, “transgressive”, improvised, genius, provocative, artistic and violent, while Noé has the “en-

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fant terrible” of the French Cinema trademark for many years. Gaspar Noé is definitely one of the most interesting European filmmakers that appeared on the Seven Art over the last twenty years. All of his films are unique, baptized in sex blood shot in hundreds different camera angles, a fact justified if we consider that his major film references is Stanley Kubrick and the Magnus Cult Opus “Angst of Gerald Kargl. His words, not mine! He is probably the most notorious member of New French Extremity, a term that established the film critic, James Quandt.

79

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80 New French Extremity (or “New French Extremism”) is a term coined by Artforum critic James Quandt for a collection of transgressive films by French directors at the turn of the 21st century. The filmmakers are also discussed by Jonathan Romney of The Independent. Quandt describes the style as follows: “Bava as much as Bataille, Salò no less than Sade seem the determinants of a cinema suddenly determined to break every taboo, to wade in rivers of viscera and spumes of sperm, to fill each frame with flesh, nubile or gnarled, and subject it to all manner of

ropean film Community was shocked after the screening of the film. Philippe Nahon is a horse butcher who lives with his autistic daughter. One day he thought mistakenly that his daughter was raped by a man and decided to take his revenge. We saw his violent outburst, accompanied by rapid editing, strange camera angles and novel film narratives (like on screen textual warnings and epigrams), stunned in our chairs. The film won the prix Tournage at Cannes festival and established Noé as one of the most interesting European filmmakers cases in the early

on. He killed a young man, because he had thought that he killed his daughter. He doesn’t have any money so he was forced to work in a bar that he hates and where he was having an affair with the owner. They decided to move into Lille with her, leaving his daughter in an institution. They don’t talk too much, probably because their relationship is not the classic father-daughter one.

The butcher is in love with his daughter. Moving to Lille with his new wife, hoping he can get her money so he could open a new butcher shop and put his life back on track. He hates

penetration, mutilation, and defilement.” Quandt associates François Ozon, Gaspar Noé, Catherine Breillat, Bruno Dumont, Claire Denis’ Trouble Every Day (2001), Patrice Chéreau’s Intimacy (2001), Bertrand Bonello’s The Pornographer (2001), Marina de Van’s In My Skin (2002), Leos Carax’s Pola X (1999), Philippe Grandrieux’s Sombre (1998) and La vie nouvelle (2002), Jean-Claude Brisseau’s Secret Things (2002), Jacques Nolot’s La Chatte à deux têtes (2002), Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi’s Baisemoi (2000), and Alexandre Aja’s Haute tension (2003) with the label.

90s, with a new totally personal filming style.

his lover, he hates his unborn child, he hates everybody except of his daughter. When his new wife refused to open him a butcher shop he exploded.

His is enraged, out of control.

Without money, without job, without friends, there is no hope. There is no other choice but to name his weapon a friend. He is ready to make the impossible, possible for his little daughter. So as a vigilante he is about to face every enemy, imaginative or real with his gun. Painted in blood, Seul Contre Tous is a descent to the dark depths of the human soul, while the same time is a hymn to love. Love without limits, borders that defeat the society rules and surpasses the relative blood. Butcher makes his own manifesto against society.

“Some pleasures are forbidden because some pricks dressed as priest said so. They are the

Carne is the first film of Gaspar Noé. A middle-length film that forms the prequel of the unforgettable debut full length film “I Stand Alone”. The EuBurst { music magazine }

Seul Contre Tous (I Stand Alone) is probably the best Gaspar Noé film. Both critics and fans claimed that Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and Sam Peckinpa’s “Straw Dogs” were the main sources of inspiration as Noé stated to Indie Wire.com and Brandon Judell. A horse meat butcher’s life and mind begins to breakdown as he lashes out against various factions of society while attempting to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

This is the -two lines- plot that imdb has under the Seul Contre Tous film and it. Words are not enough to describe this masterpiece, as well as the two lines to describe film’s plot.

The butcher played by the main film associate of Noé, Philippe Nahon has just got out of pris-

ones who fucked me in the name of morality. Poor people cannot steal. They can only be cheated and fucked. Each and every day these bastards and their sons, protected by laws which were written by their relatives, they stick their finger in your ass and they want from you to smile.”

Like “Carne” the editing is rapid, while the montage techniques are very fast, almost epileptic. Noé, himself stated at Paul Duane for the issue 70 of Sang des Betes magazine, explaining his peculiar film style: “Sometimes it’s just pixilation, frame-by-frame, done between two shots - you move the camera across the distance between two shots, shooting a frame at a time. Some of them were done in post-production, where you have, like, a medium shot and go into a closeup, I would just make a zoom out of two or three images, as an optical effect. I see astonishing things in the editing on pop videos and experimental movies that you would never find in normal cinema. I shot every scene many different ways, I did single-frame effects during almost every scene, and sometimes I would use them, and sometimes not. It’s on the editing table that you find out what works. The movie wasn’t storyboarded - when you storyboard your scene you can’t invent. I prefer operating the camera by myself, and deciding at the last moment all the images I can bring back.

I couldn’t not operate on my movies, just like I couldn’t not edit. It’s what filmmaking’s about. I could more easily direct a movie I hadn’t written.”

“She was my whole life. I had nothing. I’ve never had anything. Take it easy man! replied the man standing next to him. There are no bad actions in life, only actions. These dialogue between the Butcher from Carne and I Stand Alone and a strange man is the gist of the second Gaspar Noé film, name Irreversible. In addition to the phrase “Le temps detruit tout”, meaning: Time destroys everything. I think that you can understand the whole film by these two specific lines. Irreversible is for me homage to the destroying nature of time.

81 The beginning of the film is the end of the story, the ending of the film is the beginning of the story. Noe’s Camera follow Marcus (Vincent Cassel) and Pierre (Albert Dupontel) entered a gay sex club on a District of Paris. They are both looking for a man, known as “Tenia”. He is the one who raped Marcus’s wife, Alex (Monica Belucci) who was carrying his unborn baby. “Tenia” raped her in a pedestrian underpass, in one of the most disturbing and horrific scenes in the history of cinema, lasting for almost ten minutes. This scene was enough for Noe’s name to be mentioned for ages in the history of cinema, as a provocative bastard who scandalized the Cannes Film

festival. Unfortunately they stigmatized Noe as a man who just wants to provoke the critics, despite that he provokes the viewer’s senses as an artist and a filmmaker should do so.

I think that “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” poster’s slogan fits also on Irreversible. Keep repeating It’s Only A Movie, This is only a movie, as it brings out strange emotions. The viewer feels caged in the screening room, seeking for a way out.

He is imprisoned in the sick world of Gaspar Noe. A world so sick, wandering if it’s real.

So we stepped into “Enter the Void” the third film of Gaspar Noe. It’s good to be mentioned that there was a short film of Noe that released for

“Destricted”, where Noe gave us his film option about sex which was prohibited for people with epileptic seizures, titled “We fuck Alone”. Provocative as the title implies was in full accordinance with Noe’s ideology and personal style. Let’s get back to “Enter the Void” which could have been a delusional video-game.

“An American drug dealer living in Tokyo is betrayed by his best friend and killed in a drug deal gone bad. His soul, observing the repercussions of his death, seeks resurrection.”

As for Imdb this is the plot of the film. We watched the soul of Oscar tripping in the underworld of Tokyo, trying to find one of the sexiest creatures that walked this earth (Paz de

la Huerta). Noe shot in every possible camera angle, manoeuvring his equipment. The unique punk-suicide beauty of De la Huerta helped Noe to create a psychosexual portrait of 2000s fucked up generation, baptized in blood, drawn in fading acid colours. Another magnum opus from Noe, that was criticized as over- stylish.

To me cinema has to be soverstylish (στυλιζαρισμένο), because there is another world hidden in the screening rooms that has to be over-stylish. The cinema world is not real that’s why we love him and not get bored with it. Noe knows that, do you?

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Written by Spiros Smyrnis

Each time I hear of the name ‘Thou Art Lord’, I remember a 16 year-old kid going to school with a bag full of CD’s. I traded them with my buddy Stavros, so that we could record them in cassettes. Most of my CD’s and cassettes are from Hellenic Black Metal groups. We were hardcore fans, defending the true spirit of Hellenic Black Metal. We were trying to keep the faith and I think we did it very well. I have already expressed my admiration and my dedication to the Hellenic Black scene. I’ve done it many times by referring to all the Great bands, who were born and raised in Greece: Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia, Deviser, Order of The Ebon Hand, Kawir, Zemial, Agatus, Macabre Omen, Tatir, Mortify, Medieval Demon, Nekysia ( to name some underground bands too) and … Thou Art Lord.

The last ones, along with Necromantia, are the bands with the higher cult status in the black metal world. Thousands of fans from all over the world pay their respect each time that the name of Thou Art Lord is mentioned. Magus Wampyr Daoloth (Necromantia, Rotting Christ) and Necromayhem (Sakis Tolis from Rotting Christ) formed a project band under the name Thou Art Lord with Gothmog (Terra Tenebrae, Soulskinner) on vocals just to play slay-tanic black metal. Quoting from the band’s bio, you can understand the reasons behind Thou Art Lord’s formation: “The reason was plain and simple: to play fast, loud, extreme sinister music without restrictions and limitations. The whole image and attitude of the band was undoubtedly Satanic in nature, with violent overtones and an inherited rebellion against the ethics and lifestyle of all major religions, including a devious occult connection.”

They released the ultra-classic 7 inch Diabolou Archaies Legeones and the Hellenic Black Metal Monuments Eosforos and Apollyon before a modern turn on DV8 and Orgia Daemonicum albums, which have death metal influences and Seth (Septic Flesh) as a guest member. So here we are again with their new album of Thou Art Lord, which is another Hellenic Black metal monument. I’ve listened to The Regal Pulse of Lucifer many times because I wanna be very careful before I write anything about the new album. Things are very simple: We have to do with a totally back –to the roots release from the Greek black metallers; old-school logo, old-school cover, old-school influences (Venom, Possessed and 80s Slayer).

Old school music, not for sensitive ears, as Thou Art Lord should play! Raw riffs, strong drumming from the drummer of Ravencult and rotten, ripped off vocals from Gothmog. If I have to describe the occult, satanic atmosphere of The Regal Pulse of Lucifer, then I would write down, these two: Fucking Nostalgia: Nostalgia of the true spirit of Black Metal, which is hidden in the depths of our souls and not in overqualified consoles. The solo of Justicia Profana has got stuck in my head from the first time I’ve listened to it. “The regal Pulse of Lucifer” song is a horrific, unholy saga that haunts the listener even by the very first notes. Abyssic melodies meet the mystic keyboards and they were burned up by the luciferian light. Beware! The ravaged riffs of Das Messer are gonna reap your soul, before ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ ΔΑΙΜΟΝΩΝ finds you in the afterlife. Blessed by demons to write hymns for their Lord Thou Art Lord made a blasting return. Do not try to exorcise your demons. Embrace them, while you listen to The Regal Pulse of Lucifer and you may kill them; the black metal album of the year so far.

As they have already mentioned: No plastic, no triggering, just heart and soul! Praise Satan and bang your heads ‘till death!”

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Absinthe Cafe

location: Herakledon 19, Thiseio tel: +302103424224 www.apsenticafe.gr info@apsenticafe.gr

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195 million children worldwide suffer from the effects of malnutrition. In 2011, MSF treated 408,000 children in more than 30 countries.

Copyright: Francesco Zizola

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