Burst Magazine, Issue 6, June 2013

June 2013, Issue 6

Cristina

Scabbia 22nd Wave Gotik Treffen

Europe’s dark souls have found their home

Rockwave festival the timeline of a Rock journey

Michael

Jackson One man, One idol One Legend

Emir

9 772241 538000

06 ISSN 2241-5386

if you stop dreaming big you’d better go home

Kusturica Cinema Balkan

2

Burst { music magazine }

3 Burst Magazine

Cristina

Scabbia

Burst Magazine had the amazing chance to have a chat with Lacuna Coil’s frontlady, Cristina Scabbia. Of course I had a million different things in my mind to ask her about but her time is quite precious, as we all know. Actually, personally for me

pages 6-27 Article/Tributes

pages 28-46

this interview was like a “dream come true” because I admire

Interviews

Cristina Scabbia, both as a human being and as a personality.

pages 48-55

Read the full story and interview on page 28.

Album/EP reviews

pages 56-57 Pop Corner

Karolina Pacan On Voices of The Soul

Neil Gaiman “The Sandman”

ge Page The Pa Tu rn Th Turn

ner r o C p Po

Director’s Cut

Cover photo by Katja Kuhl Burst { music magazine }

4

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

Join us Do you want to be part of the Burst crew?

We are looking for live reporters, columnists, news writers and photographers from around the world.

Contact us now at info@burstzine.com

Advertise Send your request to our advertising department at advertising@burstzine.com and we will work out the best deal for you and your needs.

Connect www.burstzine.com www.issuu.com/burstmagazine www.facebook.com/burstmag www.twitter.com/burstzine www.youtube.com/burstgr burstmag.tumblr.com Email us: info@burstzine.com Landline: +30 211 800 1916 Mobile: +30 697 915 7815

Purchace Online www.scribd.com/burstzine

Burst { music magazine }

5

www.argophotography.com Burst { music magazine }

6

Burst { music magazine }

7 The Clutch phenomenon started striking us since the Pure rock fury album. Their quick, aggressive rhythm, the exploding vocals and lyrics about beer, the South, trucks and women have replaced their initial political concept and have established them as a stoner rock phenomenon to the public. Neil Fallon raises his fist and his points his right forefinger spilling out his rage. The veins at his throat seem ready to burst. Clutch leads the stoner, blues and hard rock scene for almost 23 years now. They have ten studio albums, five live ones, ten singles and six music video-clips. Beards, plaid shirts, tattoos, beanies, skateboard shoes and a lot of bad attitude are only some of their characteristics. The band has the same line up since 1990, with Neil Fallon in vocals and lyrics, Tim Sult in guitar, Dan Maines in the base and Jean-Paul Gaster at the drums.

In 2004 they aroused everybody with the album Blast Tyrand and the song “The mob goes wild”, bringing into our lives the madness and “dirt” of the South. Their fashion expanded quickly as “Regulator” followed and everybody wet around with Clutch’s t-shirts, beards and plaid shirts. It all had already begun and “Burning beard” completed it.

In 2007 everyone talked about them and the album “Electric worry” met huge success, convincing even the most demanding ears. The Clutch phenomenon was up for good and all eyes were turned in Maryland and to the musical quotes of the South. At exactly that moment did we meet the weird cousins from the west, who came bringing 50.000 nonstop Watts, electrifying the atmosphere and giving Clutch to the audience, live and with different set lists for each concert. Four years later, the clutch was pulled and at high speed it attacked music with the “Earth rocker”. A very welcomed album that satisfied our thirst for pure rock fury, defusing, a sense of musical wholeness and longing for their next live show. A show, that we expect to see, holding a Clutch beer from their merchandise and with the profits going for a good cause. (Like they did for the family of the late Chi Cheng of the Deftones.).

Once more, hurray to the Clutch!!

If you haven’t heard anything from the Clutch yet, I suggest that you get their discography and listen to these: From the album, Transnational speedway League: Anthems, anecdotes and undeniable truths: Listen to the first one “A shotgun named Marcus” as well as the “Binge and purge” (the reason for the parental advisory note at their cover). From Pure rock fury, the entitled and the “Carefull with that mic”.

By the Blast tyrant, even though you should listen to it all, you can pick“Profits of doom”, “the mob goes wild”, “The regulator” and the “Ghost”. By Robot Hive/Exodus definitely listen to the “Burning beard”, “Mice and Gods” and “10001110101”.

In From Beale street to oblivion certainly pick the “Power player”, “You can’t stop progress”, “The devil & me”, “Electric worry”, “Opposum minister”, “Black umbrella” and “Mr. shiny cadillackness”, well, yes, almost all of the album!! In Strange Cousins from West the “50,000 unstoppable watts” and “Abraham Lincoln” stand out for me. And last but not least the amazing Earth rocker that can be listened to in one take! If you insist on picking then listen to “Earth rocker”, “Mr. freedom”, D.C. Sound attack!”, “Undo the breach”, “Gone cold”.

pull the clutch

BY Christina Alossi

Burst { music magazine }

8

Goran BregoviC

By Sobieski Sisters

The first time we attended a Goran Bregovic concert what came to our minds was the Dionysian Mysteries; the rites in ancient Greece during of wich people were overcoming themselves and were living a totally ecstatic experience. Almost the same thing happens when you listen to his music, you can’t help but to go out of yourself and yield to a big, crazy, colourful, passionate party! The now 63-yearold Serbo-Croatian musician managed to -successfully- write 3 different stories in one life and contributed more than anyone else in spreading the gypsy culture and music through his fascinating balkan sounds.

Most of us are familiar with Goran Bregovic’s folk music style but this starts from a certain point in his entire music career.

Many people would drop their jaw knowing that he started as a rock musician – as a matter of fact he was member of Yugoslavia’s most popular band, Bijelo Dugme!

Goran’s attraction to music manifested itself from the very early years, when young Goran was signed in a music school and started playing the violin. Anyway, his attendance was short-lived as he was kicked out of the school during the second grade, considering him untalented. Refusing to give up, Bregovic acquired his first guitar and as soon as he entered high school he made his first music steps playing the bass guitar in school bands “Izohipse” and “Bestije”. Two years before his adulthood his mother moved to another place, leaving him no other option than to earn his own bread, doing various jobs like selling newspapers or helping in construction sites while he was playing folk music in a bistro.

Things started getting more interesting Burst { music magazine }

after Goran turned 18, when Željko Bebek saw him playing with his school band and invited him to join his band Kodeski, a cover band whose members would later participate in Bijelo Dugme. The band moved in Naples for some months and played in a strip club. These years were, according to Bregovic, the most intense for him as, fascinated by late 60s rock bands like Cream, they adapted their music in this kind of sounds. Also Goran turned from bass to lead guitar. In the end of 1970 they returned to Sarajevo.

Next year Goran decided to start his university studies in philosophy and sociology but soon he quit and -thank God- he followed his inclination to music. Along with an ex band mate Zoran Redžić they formed the band Jutro that, after some line up changes, resulted in Bijelo Dugme.

This band was a big chapter in Bregovic’s life and his first big scale success that skyrocketed him to fame. Bijelo Dugme were active for 15 years (1974-1989) and by introducing a new sound that combined hard rock with folk music, which was labeled as “shepherd’s rock” became the most famous band that ever existed in SFR Yugoslavia. Bregovic was the lead guitarist and the most involved member in music composing. The band was very active both creatively and in the live acts,they recorded nine studio and four live albums.

At the end of the 80s the band’s inactivity signaled their unofficial disbandment and after 1991 that Yugoslav Wars broke out it became certain that they wouldn’t resume their career as a band and the members would take separate ways.

Bijelo Dugme’s end signaled Goran Bregovic’s explosive entry in the land of folk

journey to the “ OurBalkans begins music that made him known worldwide for what he knows to do best: making uplifting music, based on Balkan Gypsy rhythms and brass instruments. Although he has no gypsy roots himself he was really passionate about their music and culture and “wanted to remind people of what Gypsy culture has given the world”.

This turn started when famous Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica asked Bregovic to write music for his 1988 film Time of the Gypsies. His first attempt in film music composing exceeded all expectations.

Fitting the theme of the movie, he made music based on traditional Roma sounds and used Roma musicians and singers and that’s what makes it so original. Following the storyline and different life stages, the music varies from festive, vibrant and cheerful to more dramatic and melancholic melodies that –especially when combined with images- triggers powerful emotions and touches your soul. Have you heard the traditional folk Roma song Ederlezi, that Bregovic covered for the Time of the Gypsies, you know what we’re talking about. Listening to it, you experience so many emotions that every note gives you goosebumps and leaves you in awe.

The outcome of the collaboration was outstanding and director and composer kept on working together. Bregovic wrote the soundtrack for 1993 Arizona Dream, where some of the songs like In the Deathcar or Money were performed by Iggy Pop and was totally different than his previous work. This time inspired by native American ,desert and nature sounds he made a composition that gives you a dreamy, wandering feeling. Next comes soundtrack of Underground, in 1995, which returns to more Balkan sounds and includes some of

9 his most characteristic tracks like the rollicking song Kalashnikov, Mesecina or nostalgic and melodic Ausencia (which is performed by popular singer Cesária Évora). Apart from Kusturica’s films, that are his most acclaimed works as a film music composer and brought him worldwide fame , he made soundtracks for eight more movies like La reine Margot and I giorni dell’abbandono “I’m not really a good movie composer. I was just lucky to work on a few movies which were good” he once claimed in an interview but we believe that most of the people who has heard his work think otherwise as some of his compositions are masterpieces!

Apart from composing for films he released a number of albums governed by his now established Balkan style, where he co operated with acknowledged singers from Greece, Poland and Turkey. His latest project that turned out to be his big passion is the Weddings and Funerals Orchestra which for fifteen years now is per-

forming all over the world and spreading the Goran Bregovic spirit! The idea was born when Goran adapted some of the songs he wrote for movies in a stage version, in order to be able to be performed live by an orchestra. He composed some new songs and gathered talented musicians from different areas of the Balkans and it all started. Brass band, traditional percussion, Bulgarian and Roma singers are only a part of his ensemble. They recorded very successful albums but their most active field is concerts.

When we’re talking about Goran Bregovic ‘s concerts we are not refering to a typical live but to a big party-actually the craziest and wildest party you’ll ever be in! It reminds you of wedding orchestras where all musicians sit side by side and play as one. Bregovic doesn’t pursue a special highlighted spot. He’s just sitting In the middle, between all the other musicians playing his guitar and sometimes singing . “I’m an old-fashioned live musician, not

a TV guy” Bregovic once stated and this is more than obvious. His top priority is fun: when the audience and the orchestra is having fun he is enjoying himself too!

You can say it by the way that he keeps smiling throughout the entire concert. His performances have a unique vibe. You get astonished by the different variations of moods during the concert, one moment you’re getting wild and dance vigorously to crazy-ecstatic merry tunes and the other you just stand still and speechless by the grandeur and beauty of his more downbeat songs.

We could fill pages trying to express how it feels to be a part of Bregovic’s live audience or to put into words all the different feelings and thoughts that his music is waking. But the special thing with Bregovic’s music is that it can’t be described, just experienced. So just get in the Goran Bregovic world and feel the magic and madness!

Burst { music magazine }

10 Eric Clapton is number two in “Rolling Stone’s” list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”. He is the only threetime inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall

and a man, who was not able to marry her and went crazy.

Derek and the Dominos were formed

by Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle and Jim Gordon. The Layla LP was recorded by a five-piece version of the group, thanks to the unWho is Layla?

by Stathia Pedioti foreseen inclusion of guiof Fame. He’s not just a guitarist. He’s a tarist Duane Allman of The Allman Brothmusician, singer and songwriter, but most ers Band. Was it an “unlucky” group? importantly -he’s a human. He was influenced and influential.

Clapton was devastated ‘cause of the news of Hendrix’s death. The day before, he had He was influenced by B.B.King, Freddie bought a left-handed Fender Stratocaster King, Albert King, Buddy Guy and Hubert for Jimi’s upcoming birthday. The album Sumlin. But according to his words, his Layla received lukewarm reviews, Allman single most important influence was Rob- had returned to the Allmand Brothers ert Johnson, for whom he said he was “... Band, so they did a US Tour without him... the most important blues musician who It was just the beginning of a chain of bad ever lived. He was true, absolutely, to his “news” that were about to happen. own vision, and as deep as I have gotten into the music over the last 30 years, I While working in their second album, have never found anything more deeply Clapton left the group. After that things soulful than Robert Johnson. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice, really...it seemed to echo something I had always felt.” (Discovering Robert Johnson)

Eric Clapton

He is said to be one of the most influential and important guitarists of all time. Those who were influenced by him were, among others, Slash, Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eddie Van Halen, Tony Iommi, Orianthi, John Mayer, Joe Satriani etc...

In his early career, with the band Yardbirds, he got the nickname “Slowhand”, explaining to his official biographer Ray Coleman, that, “My nickname of ‘Slowhand’ came from Giorgio Gomelsky. He coined it as a good pun. He kept saying I was a fast player, so he put together the slow handclap phrase into Slowhand as a play on words” In July ‘66, after he had left the Bluesbreakers, Clapton was invited by Ginger Baker to play in his newly formed band, Cream. By early ‘67, fans portrayed him as the best British guitarist, however he found himself rivaled by the emergence of Jimi Hendrix.

So who is Layla?

“Layla” is one of Clapton’s most recognizable songs, from the “Derek and the Dominos” era. But who was Layla? Which is the relationship between Slowhand and Persian literature?

Ian Dallas gave Clapton a copy of The Story of Layla and Majnun, by Nizami Ganjavi -a classical Persian poet. The song was inspired by this story. A story which narrates a “Virgin Love” between a woman Burst { music magazine }

became a little sad.

Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident (1971). Radle died in May ‘80 from the effects of alcohol and narcotics. A tragic footnote for a member of the band was the fate of drummer Jim Gordon. He was an undiagnosed schizophrenic and during an episode he murdered his mother. Today, Gordon’s in a mental institution.

Clapton and Whitlock appeared together again in 2003, during a show.

Drugs, music, the loss of his own son and numerous collaborations that could’ve become true... Eric Clapton has a huge story behind him and you don’t know which “tale” to narrate and which one to leave out. This artist has written history in an -imaginary- “Book of Music” and he continues doing it. He sure is one of the most important musicians and his music doesn’t lie, she doesn’t lie, she doesn’t lie...

11 Guns ‘n Roses is a band known, among other things, for their insatiable Appetite for Destruction. It’s a group whom members have played a neuralgic role in many feuds and rivalries which led even to the band’s own dissolution.

Guns ‘n Roses VS The World Let’s try and delineate some of the most destructive feuds between the members of the group and some other artists. Axl Rose wasn’t the only Guns ‘n Roses member partial to fights. At the 1989 MTV Video

Dawson’s 27th birthday party. The singer claims that his nightclub brawl with the fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, began when Rose tried to move Hilfiger’s girlfriend’s drink. “I moved his girlfriend’s drink so it wouldn’t spill... it was the most surreal thing, I think, that’s ever happened to me in my life... he just kept smacking me” as he told KROQ-FM (via USA Today). According to Hilfiger “Axl pushed me, and I said, ‘That was so rude’.

He had a huge ring on. He wears all this jewelry. I’m thinking, if I get hit, it’s over.

constant tardiness. “Once I quit drugs, I couldn’t help looking around and asking myself ‘Is this all there is?’. I was just tired of it; I needed to get out... When you’re fucked up, you’re more likely to put up with things you wouldn’t normally put up with”.

Clearly, the biggest feud Axl has been in is with Guns ‘n Roses former guitarist, Slash. In October 1996 the lead guitarist left the band. Slash has explained that the departure of the fellow band mates

Guns ‘n Roses APPETITE FOR SELF-DESTRUCTION

by Dialekti Angeli Music Awards, the former guitarist Izzy Stradlin found himself on the end of a punch from Motley Crue’s vocalist Vince Neil. Stradlin was hitting on Neil’s wife and when the news was delivered to the singer, he took a swing at Stradlin and connected. A feud between Axl and Neil broke out after Neil attacked former Guns ‘n Roses rhythm guitarist. Axl even challenged Neil to fisticuffs, though such a fight never occurred.

Back in August 1992, Metallica was playing at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

During the song Fade to Black there was a mishap with the pyrotechnics which burned James Hetfield, who was rushed to the hospital. After that, Guns ‘N Roses took the stage. Due to some problems with the monitors, Axl became furious and left the stage after less than an hour. Afterwards, riots broke out all over Montreal.

As a result tension grew between James and Axl. During an interview in Rolling Stone, Hetfiled said: “They’re a different type of band - and I use the word band loosely. It’s a guy and some other guys”.

Axl retorted by claiming that James was racist.

If we know one thing about Axl Rose it’s that the frontman loves himself a good physical confrontation. At the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain’s wife, asked Rose, as a joke, if he wanted to be Frances Bean’s (their daughter’s) godfather. As Cobain tells it, Axl declared “You better keep your wife shut, or I’m gonna take you to the pavement”. The whole incident took place while Cobain was holding his baby daughter in his arms.

It seems that destruction follows in the wake of Guns ‘n Roses frontman Axl Rose even when he’s simply trying to be a gentleman. In 2006, Rose was set to play a surprise acoustic show at Rosario

No teeth, no eye. So I hit him before he hit me. It was self-protection”.

It’s hard enough for an opening band to deal with the impatient audience on a big tour. Now imagine how it feels like to get dissed publicly by the headliner. That’s exactly the situation in which Jesse Hughes, the leader of the Eagles of Death Metal, found himself in after the first show of a planned tour with G’nR. During that show, Axl didn’t hesitate to call the Eagles “Pigeons of Shit Metal”. After hearing that, Tommy Stinson who was the one who had suggested the Eagles for the opening act and was the bass player of Guns ‘n Roses by then, threatened to leave the band. He didn’t. However, the Eagles of Death Metal were fired from the tour.

Guns ‘n Roses VS Self Apart from the rivalries with numerous artists, the band itself faced a lot of problems and inside feuds which ended up to its own dissolution. As various members of the Guns ‘n Roses began to encounter serious problems with drugs, namely heroin, Axl Rose decided to give the band an onstage ultimatum in the 1989 opening show with the Rolling Stones. Rose declared that if certain members of the band didn’t stop “dancing with Mr. Brownstone”, he would quit the band. The drummer, Steven Adler, was unable to kick his habit and ended up fired .... twice! After he had been fired in the first place, he came back in 1990 to record the “Use your illusion” double album. Yet, when he entered the studio to record the Civil War, he was unable to perform, due to previous heroin use. After 20-30 failed takes in the studio, Adler was fired once again and replaced by Matt Sorum.

In 1991, the guitarist Izzy Stradlin left the band, because he was disillusioned with incidents like the St. Louis riot and Axl’s

Izzy Stradlin and Steven Adler, as well as Rose’s habit of being late for shows, were the main reasons for his decision. Later, in an interview in 2004 he claimed that it was a very difficult decision to make. “It was a hard band to quit. But if I hadn’t, I’d be in the very same rut that Axl’s stuck in right now, which is going nowhere. I couldn’t sit still that way”. Some say that Slash quit the band because he got upset when Rose replaced his guitar track with that of his childhood friend, Paul Tobias, in a cover of the Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil for the soundtrack of the movie “Interview with the Vampire”. In February of 2011, Slash went on record and stated that if Axl were to call him an apologize, all would be forgiven and he’d reunite and reform Guns ‘n Roses. Axl refuses to the day.

In August of 1997, the bass player Duff McKagan quit after 12 years with the band, leaving Axl Rose the only original member of the Guns ‘n Roses. In a 1999 interview, he explained that he was tired of the band run entirely by Rose: “I went out for diner with Axl and I told him, ‘Enough is enough. This band is a dictatorship and I don’t see myself playing in those conditions. Find someone else’”.

Even after all those years, the former band mates don’t seem to be able to overcome their personal rivalries and share the stage for some minutes, not even for a celebratory performance. In the 2012 Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame, Axl Rose, refused to appear on stage with the rest of his former band mates and explained the reasons for this decision in a lengthy open letter. Izzy Stradlin also declined the invitation in a milder way though. That left Slash, McKagan and Adler (plus Matt Sorum), to deliver the speeches and perform on stage.

Burst { music magazine }

Michael Jackson

12

Burst { music magazine }

One man One idol One Legend

By Jo Gogou

All photos are property of their rightful owners.

13 Michael Joseph Jackson. Born in August 1958 among other six boys. He will become the absolute star, shining for all his life. He was from Gary, Indiana and his Afro-American parents were addicted to music. He was, and still is an idol, in music, ideology, freedom and equality. A huge suporter of many charity organizations, he shared an unbelievable love for children. His color raised rumors and for many reasins he was misunderstood.

Ben, my real world.

His mother was Katherine Esther Scruse, a pious Jehova’s Witness and his father was Joseph Walter “Joe” Jackson, a worker at the still mills in the morning and a member of an R&B band, The Falcons, at night.They were a family with many members, ten childern; one of those, Brandon, was lost when Marlon was born. So, the Jackson siblings consisted of 3 girls : Rebbie (Maureen Reillette), La Toya, and Janet and 6 boys : Jackie (Sigmund Jackie Jackson), Tito (Toriano Adaryll Tito Jackson), Jermaine (Jermaine La Jaune Jackson), Marlon (Marlon David Jackson), Randy, Michael (Michael Joseph Jackson).

Family problems appeared since almost the begining of his childhood. Those remained secret, even from the tabloids.

The father, Joseph, trying to pursue his own dream for a musical career, creates the Jackson Brothers and later on the Jackson Five. A band made only from the boys of the family. In 1964, Michael and Marlon were embodied in the Jackson Brothers, along with Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine.

Back then, they were sort of a mascot, children prodigies that attracted the crowd. That was very successful and their family and especially their manager and father gained a lot through them.

At the same year and named The Jackson 5, a great musical journey began, managed by their father of course. A tough negotiator at work and inside the family. Through Michael ‘s interviews, we now know that he was many times abused verbally and physically by his father. “if you didn’t do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you”, was something he used to say to the little Michael and his siblings. And all that by holding his belt at his hands and with his exhausted children crying.

Chasing the dream, he carried his band in

Midwest from 1966 to 1968, taking place as “chitlin’ circuit” members, a club of Afro-American artists. They were the opening act in places unsuitable for children, like strip clubs. This torture ended in 1966, when they won a local competition with a cover of “I Got You (I Feel Good)

by James Brown. Michael sang. This was the first time his father regarded him as an artist and as profitable material. The shows were less then, but still the tiredness remained.

In 1967, they recorded their first album, including Big Boy, while one year later they started recording new stuff for Motown Records. The Rolling Stone magazine described Michael as a prodigy child, pointing out that we were not going to forget him. Next was the Billboard 100. From

follow; his music, his fashion choices, his white glove and red jacket and all the way to his dancing.

The early 80s were his perfect time.

“Beat It,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller” were thriving into the musical industry and remained at the top of the charts. He and Janet were on MTV too, with “Black or White” and “Scream”, welcoming the 90s.

All around the world concerts, albums, successes and a life full of children and childish dreams.

In 2000 his name appears again in the Guinness Book of Records, thus recognizing him 39 charity works in the name of children and poverty. Sensitive enough, possibly by his own childish wounds by his father and the childhood he never really had, something he had lost since the age of 5. Everybody saw he had still the heart of a child, a fact that soon alterd completely the Neverland mansion. A mansion specially designed for children, especially the ones that faced serious health issues.

The name of the mansion may have been taken from the Peter Pan story (we all were children once in Neverland anyway) but many people did not respect that fact. In 1993, ο Jackson was accused for sexual abuse to a child, the 13 year old Jordan Chandler .

1972 until 1975 the: “I Want You Back”, “ABC”, “The Love You Save”, and “I’ll Be There” were number one! Between 1972 and 1975, Michael had already released his 4th solo studio album with Got to Be There and Ben. The last one was about Michael’s only friend, a mouse; others suggest it talks about himself. In addition he creates his own path, at least he tries among the family issues.

More or less that was how his life was, lost and hidden, having a child’s heart... and soon he was to be called the king of Pop! One of his achievements was his place in the Guinness World Records. Many great artists and people from the music business have characterized him as number one and he managed to create a new sound, that many of his colleagues tried to

The Chandler family accused him and blackmailed him for a lot of money. Dr. Chandler used to state: “If I go through with this, I win big-time.

There’s no way I lose. I will get everything I want and they will be destroyed forever ...

Michael’s career will be over”.

And so he did, creating the big question that followed Jacko to his death: was it true or not?

Fans and family gathered to his side, whilst courts and the publicity brought by this went on and on. The trial ended with a great amount of money in Chandler’s wallet ($22 million) and with his reputation spoiled. In an interview for Oprah Winfrey, he stated that his only relation to the child was a friendly one. Connecting it all to his own childhood (and talking about his father for the very first time) he said that all he wanted for children was to have fun and play. He visited this child quite soon and there were never an issue. He never really looked through the whole thing, only remained shocked and watched the events unroll.

That’s one of the secrets he took to his Burst { music magazine }

14

Burst { music magazine }

15 grave, like what exactly happened to the wedding of the daughter of Elvis Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, in 1994. An acquaintance he had since he was 7 and a friendship that got even closer since 1992. Daily phone contacts and a new born relationship.

Some say that it was all an act to cover up his accusations, because it all lasted only for a couple of years. Others believe that the were sexually active in that wedding.

“If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.

In a Lisa Marie interview for Oprah, she said that he had proposed through the phone: “If I asked you to marry me, would you do it?”

The answer was yes, since she never believed what anyone said about him. “I believed he didn’t do anything wrong and that he was wrongly accused and yes I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it.

The phenomenon and the health strike “Jackson is the biggest thing since The Beatles. He is the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley. He just may be the most popular black singer ever” Jay Cocks.

January 1984: Michael accepts a job offer, an advertisement for Pepsi Cola. During the shooting the first accident happens, he caught fire from the sparklers. His compensation for the burn he got, $1.5 million, was given as a donation to Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, that is now named “Michael Jackson Burn Center”. His head faced 2nd degree burns and then he had his second rhinoplasty.

A plastic surgery for his face, and that was only the beginning.

side his own castle, the Neverland.

The pain from the surgeries and the burns soon brought him to the medicine relief.

Some considered him a drug addict, something he and doctors never agreed with.

Up to then he had the surgeries, medicine and a heart problem that appeared before his loss.

In May 1984, he was a guest to the White House, by the President, Ronald Reagan, who awarded him for his contribution to charity and his help to the drug and alcohol addicts.He was in the front line since he won 8 Grammys during that year. He continued with he tour for the Thriller album and the profits (around $8 million) again are donated in charity organizations.

1985: He writes the song “We Are the World” with Lionel Richie, to support the poor in America and Africa. It was one of the most commercially successful songs, selling more than 30 million albums. Most of the profits were given to the needed in 1986. The very same year he won 4 Grammy awards (one of them was the Song of the Year award). Initially the American association did not want to include that song, because it was made with a different purpose. But they did include it due to the production and M.J’s work.

He cooperated with many names that were unforgettable, like: Freddie MercuryState Of Shock, Mick Jagger,Diana RossMuscles,Donna Summer, Barry Gibb - All In Your Name, 50 Cent-Monster, Scream

- Janet Jackson,I Just Can’t Stop Loving You -Siedah Garrett, Dirty Diana -Slash, Whatever Happens - Santana, Thriller -Vincent Price, Beat It - Eddie Van Halen, Say, Say, Say - Paul McCartney (The Girl Is Mine), Eddie Murphy-What’s Up WIth You ?,Just Good Friends -Stevie Wonder, Beat It - Fergie, Kris Kros, Hold My Hand - Akon, I can’t make it another day- Lenny Kravitz, Rebbie Jackson- Centipede and one that remained unfinished with Chris Brown.

Many did covers of his songs, like: Fergie, Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal”,Celine Dion “Bad”,Fall Out Boy “Beat It”,Amy Winehouse & Charlotte Church “Beat It” ,Mariah Carey “I’ll Be There”,Coldplay “Billie Jean”,Glee “P.Y.T.”,Bruno Mars “Dirty Diana”, Prince “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”,Donna Summer, Esperanza Spading, Westlife, Luis Fonsi, Alexander Rybak, Amadou and Mariam, Will Smith, Willow Smith, Jaden Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Natasha Bedingfield, Wyclef Jean, Toby Keith, and Lang Lang “Man In The Mirror”,Raintime, Jameson,Northern Kings ,Alien Ant Farm,Raunchy, Bobaflex,Vijay Iyer, Babyface & Stevie Wonder, SWV, Gretchen Parlato, Stanley Jordan,BLACK street, Isaac Hayes,Troop e.t.c.

Numerous were the artist and the songs, not as big as him and his time though.

Friends, co-producers and artists that shared his sensitivity and love embraced him and stood by him during the hardships of his life. The rape accusations, the scandals.

In the shooting for the Thriller video clip was said that he got a second burn. The plastic surgeries he had shocked the musical scene, his face seemed to get more and more distorted. Again, rumors were spread that he despised his color and tried new techniques. From an Afro-American skin he got the skin of a white person and for the time being that was troubling. The racism was less than any other time and his actions were questionable. According to him he had a rare disease called vitiligo where the skin color turns from dark to lighter. Because the disease was not known, none believed then. In 1993 he explained what it was and the symptoms through yet another Oprah interview, inBurst { music magazine }

16 Until the end Years later, he decides to have children of his own, through failed or paid (as many claim) marriages. White children that never stayed with their own mothers, but only with him. The reporters are after him again. Every step he makes is thousand of dollars for the media. The next scandal is about to burst. He was in Berlin, in Adlon Hotel with the youngest member of his family. Fans and the press are begging to see him and the baby. How innocent was he? The balcony door opened and he was holding the 9 month old Prince. The way he held him raised the rumors that he tried to kill his own child. All the media told different stories, beautiful lies to be sold.

“Got caught up in the moment...would

Burst { music magazine }

never intentionally endanger the lives of my children.”

A video from that interview was revealed only after his death. Up to then he fought for the custody of his children. That was what was really going to kill him. Threats, lies and news for him selling like crazy.

Even 50 years later.

He was all ready for his last concert and a documentary, titled This is it.. It would be his last one in July 13 in 02 arena.

June 2009 the 25th... The media announced his sudden death. None knew more till then. In his house in Holmby Hills of Los Angeles, his fans gather with tears in their eyes. They can’t, they will not believe the news.

“It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home. However, the cause of his death

is unknown until results of the autopsy are known”, Jermaine The news were titled “Dead inside his own home” and all the cameras were turned there. The image was him being transferred to the ambulance. His heart stopped and so did the ones of millions of his fans.

Cause of death: heart attack, medicine or something else?

It is something we can never really know, like with many artist that passed away like him. New evidence always seem to come up out of the blue. Associates in murder or silent friends? We will never know that about his doctors.

The irony? His funeral was held in one of the biggest stadiums with many people there. Artists and friends all got rich for one more time in Jacko’s name.

17

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

Burst { music magazine }

18

Burst { music magazine }

19

22nd Wave Gotik Treffen, @ Leipzig. Germany Europe’s dark souls have found their home.

Photos and article by Kalliope Tsouroupidou

The much-anticipated annual apotheosis of the dark & artistic subcultures as they have been forged over the years is finally here. 361 long days and nights after the 21st Wave Gotik Treffen was held at this very location (Leipzig, Germany), as it has been every year since 1992, and the dark souls of Europe (and not only) have once again been summoned for its 22nd birthday. Everything is in place to celebrate the gothic style as it manifests itself through dressmaking, make-up artistry, jewelry making, activities, music, performing and every kind of artistic expression within

population over these 4 days in various ways. Transportation, primarily achieved through the tram and bus networks, was ample and run often enough allowing you to linger a bit longer at an event of your liking. This festival *is* about meeting and hanging out, after all. Additional tram services had supplemented the existing ones, and tweaked routes had been put in place to cater for the high level of mobility expected at all hours of the day and night, due to the dispersed venue locations.

As for the local shop owners, they were

On top of the headlining concerts that take over every evening, there’s a plethora of

those boundaries, and beyond.

The city’s mayor had announced that, since the 20K visitor mark was hit last year, there would a cap placed for the festival’s 2013 attendance. Accommodation options had already been exhausted months in advance, and with over 21,000 visitors eventually expected the city felt like bursting at the seams. Whether you wanted to get by on the cheap with a 12-people dorm, set up your tent at Agra’s camp-site, splash out on a pricey hotel room, couch-surf on a stranger’s fold-out couch or rent an entire apartment…unless you’d arranged for it in advance, it was impossible to get a last-minute deal. “No Vacancies”: simple as.

prepared too. All florals and pastels had been exiled from their shop fronts, only to be replaced by anything black or light absorbing this year’s fashion lines had to offer. On the side, enough stock of black nail polish, feathers, strong hold hairspray and fishnets was kept. Just in case of a last minute emergency, when a nail had chipped or the artificial mohawk was losing its edge.

other events to keep you occupied during daytime hours as well. Autograph-signing sessions, merchandise sales, outdoor picnics, pagan fairs, brunches, cemetery explorations, art exhibitions, film screenings and club nights featuring well-known DJ’s of the chosen genres, are only a few of the options to chose from if you get tired of the loud concerts and would like to enjoy a moment of tranquility.

Lo and behold, contrary to the known notion of German advance planning and efficiency, some technical sound issues were reported on day 1 (Friday) at the Agra site.

But those appeared to be resolved in time for the rest of the gigs that were to follow and all run smoothly.

On an organizational level, however, everything had been planned and set up to accommodate the influx of the city’s

With multiple venues booked around the city, it is generally hard to not find something that suits every visitor: from the

And it is all neatly listed in a folded A2 sheet of paper, in double sided pint, organized in alphabetical order by venue and date, which you are given once you pick up your 4-day pass & wristband.

Easy to go through, as you can see who’s playing, where, what time and how to get there. It certainly saves you from the horror of melting within your latex gear and your 3-storey platform boots if you had to walk from A to B.

naturalist Parkbühne stage, set up right in the middle of Clara-Zetkin Park, to the more industrial feel of Agra Hall or the Roman Pantheon-inspired Kuppelhalle with its renaissance style drapes. It’s all there; take your pick. Running around like a headless chicken, from one venue to the next, could sure end up being a full body workout though, especially when strapped in multi-layered, heavy outfits and all the paraphernalia that tends to go with them.

Burst { music magazine }

20 As the festival has grown over the years, it has attracted very high levels of creativity amongst the performers but also amongst the attendees. For example, taking a look through the Victorian picnic held on the Friday afternoon, and you will see no two similar outfits. The grassy area of the park turns into a black pool of flamboyant garments, elaborate make-up and skillfully put-together gadgets. Even though genders per se are sometimes strictly outlined and accurately displayed, gender roles are often re-defined, while the combination manifested through the androgynous or cross-dressing practices pushes both to new limits. Wide-spread tattoos, extreme hairdo’s, multi-layer piercing, men in corsets, women in suits and chains, it’s all vividly represented to satisfy all manners of voyeurism. You can easily see more of it on what easily wins the title of the “runway catwalk”: the strip of walkway right by the Agra Hall that every visitor would have to cross, from the ticket checkpoint till they reach the concert hall itself. With sufficient paving that is used for (rather uncomfortable) seating, you will see them all parading down that alley in all their glory, sooner or later.

An equally impressive stage act was held on the final evening (Monday) at Agra,

by Patenbrigade Wolff. “Attention, heavy objects may be extrapolated towards the audience during this performance…” notes were posted all over the Agra Hall as an advance warning to (un)suspecting fans. And for sure, it was probably one of the most inventive and creative shows of the entire festival, with an industrial/EMB band that broke away from the pretty standard show of two or three blokes enthroned behind their synths, in a stage otherwise filled with… nothing.

With the number of attending bands easily hitting 3 digits, the festival covers the entire spectrum of “dark” music, no matter where it comes from. Death & Symphonic metal, Neofolk, Gothic metal, Pagan, Industrial or Dark Electro, this year’s event has something for every taste to offer. Several big names of this section f the music industry made the A-list of performers, such as IAMX, Suicide Commando, VNV Nation and Crematory. As for many, smaller caliber bands, they also left their mark, representing a wide variety of ethnicities in an otherwise predominantly German territory. IANVA from Italy, Daemonia Nymphe from Greece, Dordeduh from Romania, The Birthday Massacre from Canada, Finnish Ensiferum, She Past Away from Turkey, were only a few amongst many, who proudly performed and put themselves out there in front smaller or bigger crowds.

So, plan ahead and mark your diaries for next year’s “Phingsten” bank holiday weekend, since this is the long weekend when Wave Gotik Treffen always takes place, allowing for an extended break… into the “black”. Till then, start working on your outfits, as the nights grow dark… and full of terrors.

Overall, one of the most notable performances would have undoubtedly been that of German Metal band Xandria, whose presence on stage was purely overwhelming. By far they were the one band that appeared to be enjoying themselves performing live as much as the crowd was enjoying watching them, despite their audience digits not being the highest in the festival.

Interaction with the crowd is one thing, doing a good job on the vocal and instrumental front is another. But for the band members to casually interact with each other on stage in such a close-knit and improvisational way, effortlessly proving to the masses that they’re also having fun while at it, is not often seen at live festivals of such scale.

Burst { music magazine }

But as all good things come to an end, so did Treffen. Getting out of Leipzig is as easy as getting in. Check flights for either the local airport of Leipzig/Halle, or other major transit hubs like Dresden, Frankfurt, Berlin…even Prague. From there, an extensive German train network will take you to your final destination. And if shared-economy is more like your scene, don’t be shy to check the carpooling options (http://www.carpooling.com/ or http://www.blablacar. com/ just to name a few). Some dark souls are bound to be happy to car-share with you for a fraction of the train ticket price.

21

Burst { music magazine }

22

d n a s r a e y 16 g n i t n u co the timeline of a Rock journey

By Eleni Leonida and Gogo Apostolaki

Burst { music magazine }

23 It all began in 1996, when music fans in Greece had expressed the need of creating a pop-rock music institution. Since then, DiDi Music and Big Star Promotion along with many other companies have already organized 15 festivals and this year is going to be the 16th.

There weren’t many festivals in Greece and it’s a tough one to be able to create a festival and to maintain a high level of quality. In Greece many festivals rise and fall within a year, but Rockwave remains one of the most attractive and famous festivals in the Balkans too. Rockwave is member of YOUROPE, the Official European Union of the biggest festivals, with the most stringent inclusion criteria, approved by the Brussels. Rockwave supports the entire Greek Music scene and there is no day of the festival that a Greek band isn’t appearing. The organizers must concider the geographical location and the weather conditions which makes it even harder to create such an event. Also, the production has to take an entertainment license. After Rockwave moved to Malakasa things became easier, because inside the Malakasa Terravibe Park everyone could camp for the days of the festival. In my opinion, the most difficult part of creating a festival is to book the artists. Also and due to the current economical conditions, it is harsh to convince people to give money for entertainment. However and after all these years, people from the entire world come to Greece to see the event. It has hosted great names and faced huge success for many years now. Rockwave achieved what other festivals couldn’t: it linked together the music of all worlds in Greece and we must be proud of this.

ave) The history of Rock(w Line up 1996 It took place in Piraeus Port, Dock 3. It was called the “Rock Of Gods” and was a 3-dayfestival (12-13-14 July). There were some issues with the security at the dock and also Mo atorhead canceled their appearance. Saxon replaced them with a huge success.

1997 The 2nd Festival took place in “Apollonas” Stadium in 1997 and was again a 3-dayevent (9-10-11 July). This festival had a mannerism, because of two reasons.

The first reason is because is was the first time that it was called “Rockwave Festival” and the second because of its musical content; the first day of the festival was full of very well-known Greek-speaking bands and artists.

1998 This years festival took place in Freatidas Beach, in Piraeus and it was a 4-day-festival (13-16 July). Again the first day was filled with Greek-speaking bands and artists.

Poster

1st day: Slayer, Saxon, Blind Guardian, Rage, Nightfall.

Guests: Fatal Morgana 2nd day: Violent Femmes, Jesus and Mary Chain, Bad Religion, Paradise lost, Dead Moon,Bokomolech.

3rd day: Iggy Pop, Moby, Stereo Nova, In Trance ‘95, Oh! My Garden.

Line up 1st day: Panos and Harris Katsimixas, “Pix Lax”, Sotiria Leonardou, Ypogeia Reumata, Manolis Famelos and “oi Podilates”. Guests: Tsopana Rave 2nd day: British Sisters of Mercy, New Model Army, Diafana Krina, Flowers of Romance and Love in Sadness.

3rd day: Megadeth, Bruce Dickinson, Grip Inc., Dark Nova.

Line up

Poster

Poster

1st day: Pix Lax, Natasha Atlas, Ypogeia Revmata, Theodosia Tsatsou, George Dimitriadis & Oi Mikroi Iroes, Petros Theotokatos, Valia Kalda 2nd day: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds,Trypes, Moby, Cornershop, Endelechia, Ellinistan.

3rd day: Portishead & the DJ Andy Smith, Spiritualized, Asian Dub Foundation, Konstantinos Vita, Active Member,Psofioi Korioi.

Burst { music magazine }

24

1999 Now it was the turn for the Athletic Centre Agios Kosmas to host the event. It was also a 4-day festival from 12 to 15 of July.

2000 The 5th festival took place in Tritsis Park in Ilion. It was a 3-day-festival (12-13-14 of July). “The Flamming Lips” had to cancel their show and so did Iron Maiden due to Janick Gers’ accident at a previous show.

2001 The 6th festival happened in the Athens Olympic Velodrome (Athens Olympic Sports Complex) in 1-2-3 of July. The second day of the festival was canceled by the Greek authorities, due to safety reasons.

Burst { music magazine }

Line up

Poster

1st day: Manowar, Mercyful Fate, Sodom. Immortal, Nightfall, Exhumation, Horrified.

2nd day: Blur, Placebo, Deus, Mercury Rev, Purple Overdose, Oneiropagida, Michalis Delta.

3rd day: Garbage, Patti Smith, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Bokomolech, Make Believe, Closer.

4th day: The Prodigy, Terror X Crew (who were chosen from the Prodigy to open their concert), The Afghan Whigs, Bloodhound Gang, Queens of the Stone Age, The Earthbound.

Line up

Poster

1st day: Oasis, Moby, Muse, Closer.

2nd day: Trypes, Supergrass, Apollo 440, Gomez, Gallon Drunk.

3rd day: Dream Theatre, In Flames, Septic Flesh, On Thorns I Lay.

Line up 1st day: Judas Priest, Megadeth, Cradle of Filth, Savatage, Rotting Christ, Less Than Human.

2nd day: Canceled 3rd day: Placebo, PJ Harvey, Grandaddy, JJ72, Ash.

Poster

2004 This festival was the first to take place in the locality of Malakasa, an hour from Athens, where it has remained up to now. It lasted for five days (18-22 July).

2005 The TerraVibe Park in Malakasa is the venue and it happened in 24-25-26 June and 8-9 July.

2006 It took place in 10-11-12 of July again at Terra Vibe Park. Wasp canceled the show because of an illness of Blackie Lawless.

2007 Continuing its established tradition in Malakasa the 10th Festival lasted for 3 days (29th June, 1st and 3rd of July). Stone Sour were replaced by My Dying Bride due to a last minute cancelation..

Line up 1st day: Peter Gabriel, Estoudiantina Neas Ionias plus special guests.

2nd day: WASP, Gamma Ray (they replaced RunningWild), Soulfly, Dark Tranquility, Firewind.

3rd day: Judas Preist, Nightwish, Queensryche, Nightfall.

4th day: Pixies, Mogwai, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Ill NiĎ o, Raining Pleasure.

5th day: Placebo, Him, Starsailor, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Film.

Line up

Poster

25

Poster

1st day: Marilyn Manson, Garbage,Matisse.

2nd day: Wastefall, Black Label Society, Velvet Revolver, Black Sabbath.

3rd day: Moby, Sonic Youth, Secret Machines, British Sea Power, Sigmatropic.

4th day: Slayer, Accept, Candlemass, Dismember, Order of the Ebon Hand.

5th day: Twisted Sister, Dio, Anthrax, Katatonia, Zyklon, Olethrio Rigma.

Line up

Poster

1st day: Guns and Roses, Star Star.

2nd day: Mecano, Green on, Red Editors, The Dandy Warhols, Franz Ferdinand.

3rd day: Twisted Sister, Celtic Frost, Crimson Glory, Moonspell.

Line up

Poster

1st day: Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation, Chris Cornell, Europe, Redrum.

2nd day: Heaven and Hell, Dream Theater, Iced Earth, Anathema, Kinetic.

3rd day: Metallica, Mastodon, My Dying Bride, Dirt Spawn Disease.

Burst { music magazine }

26

2008 It happened in 8, 9 and 10 of July.

A lot of changes happened that year. Firstly, two stages were created in the Terra Vibe Park, instead of the one stage of the previous years. The names of the two stages are: “Terra” stage and “Vibe” stage. Also, they divided the “Terra” concert area into gates PL1 and PL2 and lowered the high price of the tickets.

2009 It was a 4-day Festival from 27 to 30 of June. Sunday 28th June and Monday 29th of June were cancelled due to bad weather.

2010 Years have passed and Rockwave is longed by many fans. It happened in 7, 10 and 11 of July.

Only one stage was open this year.

2011 It is the 14th Rockwave that takes place in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd of July.

Burst { music magazine }

Line up

Poster

1st day: Terra stage: The Offspring, Siouxsie Sioux, Deus, The Gossip, Abbie Gale Vibe Stage: Marky Ramone, Flogging Molly, Personality Crisis, Viper Vikings, Pshychograndmamas 2nd day: Terra stage: Judas Priest, Within Temptation, Cavalera Conspiracy, Opeth, Morbid Angel Vibe Stage: Carcass, Innerwish 3rd day: Terra stage: Manu Chao & the Radio Bemba Sound System, Patti Smith, Locomondo.

Vibe Stage:No Profile, Looming Titties, SkaBangies, Rosebleed, Los Moujeros, Sobber, Musica Ficta

Line up

Poster

1st day: Terra stage: Placebo, Moby, Gogol Bordello, Aviv Geffen, Cabaret Balcan Vibe Stage: Foals, Expatriate, Sunny Side of the Razor, Raintear 2nd day: Terra stage: Slipknot, Mastodon, Down, Kylesa,Torche Vibe Stage: Saxon, Lita Ford, Eden Demise, God.Fear.None

Line up

Poster

1st day: The Black Eyed Peas, Faithless, Konstantinos Vita.

2nd day: Fatboy Slim, The Ting Tings, DJ Shadow, White Lies, Garcia plays Kyuss 3rd day: Massive Attack, Ska-P, Gogol Bordello, Giannis Aggelakas, Martina Topley-Bird.

Line up 1st day: Editors, Cake, The Stranglers, Sivert Hoyem, Pavlos Pavlidis & B-Movies, The Inspector Cluzo, Vassilikos.

2nd day: Yiannis Aggelakas 3, Psarantonis, Lykoi Live, Psarogiorgis, Ntinos Sadikis and his band, Lost Bodies, Vlastura, Lozios, Anakatosia, Polyfoniko Schima “Dioni”.

3rd day: The Prodigy, Gogol Bordello, Kyuss Lives!, Monster Magnet, Flogging Molly, Therapy?, Marky Ramones Blitzkrieg, Viza and Dept.

Poster

2012 Last year the festival was on 30 of June to 2 of July.

Line up

Poster

27

1st day: The Locos, The Last Drive, Nashville Pussy,Nightstalker.

2nd day: Ozzy Osbourne & friends, Machine Head, Paradise Lost, Unisonic, Planet Of Zeus, Lucky Funeral.

3rd day: The Prodigy, Iggy and the Stooges, Everlast, Gad, Monovine.

In a few weeks the 16th Rockwave Festival is going to take place in Terra Vibe in 7th, 8th and 9th of July. Still, a few names are yet to be announced. In July 7 we expect to see Ska-P, Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg, 1000MODS and in Vibe Stage Saxon. next day at Terra Stage, Lana Del Rey, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Subways and Gautier are going to keep us company and in Vibe Stage Iced Earth, Suicidal Tendencies and At The Gates. Last but not least, on the final day, Terra Stage will be hosting Dead Can Dance, Monophonics, Craig Walker and Opera Chaotique and Vibe Stage will welcome Septicflesh, Chaostar, Acid Death and Tardive Dyskinesia.

Many styles, influences, music and fun have distinguished it all these years, always with respect to the audience and to the musicians. Let’s hope the best for the 16th Festival and celebrate summer in the best way we can.

Find all the info you need on Rockwave festival by scanning the following qr code using your smartphone. Enjoy and drive safe!

Burst { music magazine }

28

burst presents

Cristina Scabbia interview by Korina P. | photos by rudy de doncker and katja kuhl

Burst { music magazine }

29 Burst Magazine had the amazing chance to have a chat with Lacuna Coil’s frontlady, Cristina Scabbia. Of course I had a million different things in my mind to ask her about but her time is quite precious, as we all know. Actually, personally for me this interview was like a “dream come true” because I admire Cristina Scabbia, both as a human being and as a personality. Have you ever felt that sometimes some very specific artists touch your heart and mind in a totally different and very special way? This is exactly the case of me and Lacuna Coil’s albums and performances. After all, we all have some idols, haven’t we? Some really special people who feel our “pain” in some strange way and we feel like there is a special bond between us. This is exactly how I have been feeling about Lacuna Coil’s music through the years.

I guess the majority of the metal fans know her as the female singer of Lacuna Coil but this does not really apply in my case. Cristina Scabbia actually does more things than just going on stage and rocking out. If you check her personal pages and websites more carefully, you will get what I really mean. She is actually one of the very few famous musicians who really give a damn about their fans and people around them and in my opinion this is the kind of people that we should all call artists.

Cristina Scabbia is not actually “just another female singer in the metal scene”. No. Neither she is not a model or another metal bimbo “who just wears her fancy clothes on stage and rock out”. If you have seen Lacuna Coil performing live you can really understand that. Actually, I can not recall any other singer I have seen performing live and putting such a powerful and touching at the same time show. She is a totally gifted performer.

We talked about many and various issues and I can assure you that you will read some very honest, brave and a little edgy answers. Because this how Cristina is: a totally courageous, brave, sincere, heartfelt and straightforward person. I always had this strange feeling that with every performance, with every guest appearance, with every single lyric and song she wants to pass a message to us all. Especially after this interview was over, I am now positive that Cristina Scabbia wants to pass a message through her work and art indeed. What is this message?

Keep on reading and you will find out!

Hello Cristina! First of all, I want to thank you very much for this interview. So, my first question is: You just came back from the recent Lacuna Coil US tour (you were headliners if I am not mistaken). How was it? I have seen your comments on your personal Facebook page and you seemed rather thrilled about it. I guess US is not like Europe! I mean, it’s a huge country with countless cities however my US friends have told me that the metalheads over there are not so “hardcore” or supportive like we are in Europe. They actually have told me that metal music is not so popular over there like it is in Europe. Pop, RnB and pop music seem to be kind of more popular over there. So, what is your personal experience from US? Hello all! First of all I would like to thank you for this opportunity; it’s always nice to talk with my Greek friends.

We were headliners only in the South American shows of this long period on the road. It has been such a long tour, three months straight on the road! For the rest of the tour, we were the support act for Sevendust’s shows in the first leg of the tour and also for Sevendust’s and Coal Chamber’s shows in the third leg of the

tour. I absolutely had a blast! It has been an amazing experience and I am really, really glad we did this tour. You know, almost every show had been sold out! As for your question about the US crowd, the American audiences are amazing and always ready to party. We met a lot of Coilers and won over new fans. I don’t really know about your friends’ opinion but to me the US metal scene looks very much alive and vivid.

All these sound great to me Cristina!

It seems that you had so much fun on the road. Well, you guys released your latest video for the song End of Time a few months ago. It was weird that many people “complained” about the fact that only you and Andrea (Ferro) appeared in the video.

Personally, if you ask me, it did not seem weird to me at all! You are the singers of the band so it seems quite natural to be the “center of attention” in some way. What kind of feedback have you guys received in the end? I have also read some very positive comments for the video though.

Let’s put it this way: there will always be some very happy fans and some very unhappy fans about what we do as artists.

This is a part of it all and we already know

it. To be totally honest with you, we don’t really care about criticism as we always decide to go on our way, take our own decisions which are based on our own tastes. In the case of the video for the song End of time, there were many and various reasons that explain why it was only me and Andrea on it. Just to name few of them: we had to change many costumes and it was much easier and quicker to happen only with two people rather than with 6! Also, some Lacuna Coil members could not make it and be there that specific day and we could only shot that day because everything was happening in between tours. There are always a lot of logistics problems that we have to figure out and people who are not in the band can not possibly know or even imagine. However, I am glad that most of our fans loved it! I think it is a really classy video and one of the finest and most professional works we have ever done in a video ever.

In the video (End of Time) there was once again the concept with the white and black colors (I noticed that the same concept was displayed in the video for the song Trip to Darkness and also in the short films that accompanied Dark Adrenaline). Is this some kind of specific concept or an idea or did it just happen randomly?

Burst { music magazine }

30 Hmmm no, not really. There are a lot of gold and brown colors, too. This time we really wanted to have nice and beautiful “images” in the video. We wanted people to watch the video and feel like they are watching something beautiful visually.

There is not really any “story” that comes along with the video. I think we wanted this video to be something like a “trip” for the viewer. I think there is a nice romantic and creepy at the same time vibe in it and I like this very much. Maybe it is more like a cool anecdote or something like that? You know, the white dress I am wearing in this specific video was actually the wedding dress of one of the girls that were part of the crew for this video!

End of Time is a ballad. First of all, is this the third single out of Dark Adrenaline? And what really made you pick this track?

Within Me was another Lacuna Coil single and it was a ballad track, too. But most of the times you have picked heavier tracks to release them as singles. Were there any certain reasons that made you pick this certain track?

demos and as you mentioned in the previous question you are already working on a new album. Great news by the way! Can you share anything about the new album? I guess you are not permitted to share many details yet but still maybe you could share a small detail with us (laughs).

Yes, a new album is on the way and I am very excited about this! I can’t really say a lot yet like you said. We are still writing stuff, collecting stuff and recording demos. It is too early to tell you anything about how the new album will be. We usually change a lot of things during the recording process, you know. I am quite sure that the album will include once again everything we are known for: dark heavy vibes with lots of melodies. But we will really know some more details about it in the

End Of Time has not really been released as a single, we just shot a video for it and as a result a lot of people assumed that this would be our next single.

I guess in the end all the “singles” a band releases are mainly fans’ most beloved tracks. Artists choose to release a track as a single guided by what people like the most. What you said is true; we usually focus on heavier stuff and pick them up to be released as singles. Plus, “Within Me” was taken from an album that came out some years ago, so yeah, it was about time for us to shot a video for another ballad track (laughs).

Is another single from Dark Adrenaline set for release as far as you know?

I highly doubt it because we are already focusing on the songwriting process for a new Lacuna Coil album, which is planned to be released in 2014. However, if I could choose another song to be released as a single out of Dark Adrenaline, I would certainly pick up “Intoxicated”. I would love to shoot a video for this song, I really like it.

Oh! “Intoxicated” is my favorite track from Dark Adrenaline, how cool is that (laughs)? Cristina, you wrote on Facebook that you were listening to some new Lacuna Coil Burst { music magazine }

next month. Let me tell you a small “secret”: we never really know anything until the last day in the studio comes (laughs).

This sounds promising (laughs). To be totally honest with you Cristina, Karmacode and Shallow Life did not really work for me. Lacuna Coil along with The Gathering, Within Temptation and After Forever are my most beloved female-fronted metal bands. I have been listening to your music since I was a kid.

These two albums seemed very weak to my ears in a way and maybe I had very high expectations from

the band back then. This is how it works for each of us, I guess. Everyone has their personal tastes and favorites. Sometimes your favorite band leaves you speechless and some other times you are kind of disappointed. Like you said before you can not really have each and every one of us satisfied every time.

But then Dark Adrenaline came out and it really left me with the best impression! I felt like “ok Lacuna Coil are totally back on track. Do you feel like this album (Dark Adrenaline) is stronger and heavier than the previous ones?

I am convinced that every person likes some albums better than other albums. I guess the main reason for this is the fact that we all feel attached to some certain periods of our lives and those specific periods are usually connected with the music we were listening back then. For example, nowadays I often find myself listening to albums that I absolutely loved when I was younger. I guess the same applies to every listener.

And it is kind of weird to find out that in some cases the album production was horrible (this makes sense, it was different times), the singing was out of tune and so on.

Regardless, I still love these albums because they keep bringing back a lot of memories at least personally to me. I believe the core of the band has never changed and we never went “out of track”. Instead, we always did what we felt without caring of what people were expecting from us. I think it is really important to be honest in your art. It depends on each of us personally to like or dislike an album and we already know that every time we put out an album. Some people will like it, while some other people will not like it. It is as simple as that! But I have to agree with you that Dark Adrenaline is one of our best albums (laughs).

Dark Adrenaline received very positive feedback. Are you excited/ thrilled or do you prefer to be down to earth and stay calm? I guess this fact (e.g. the positive feedback) set higher standards for your next album; it is like the expectations are raised even more. Do you feel like that Cristina?

As I said, we never cared about what people expect from us. We follow our hearts.

We don’t like to repeat ourselves over and over again in order to just make sure that fans will buy a record that sounds like the one we did before. We evolve as personalities through the years, so does our music.

31 We get new experiences in our lives, new listening habits and as a result we create new things and we have new ideas. All these stuff affect our music and certainly help us evolve as artists. The most important thing for us is to really like what we compose (instead of creating copies of ourselves).

I was more than thrilled to see you play live some of your oldest songs (e.g. songs from Unleashed Memories –the best Lacuna Coil album in my humble opinion by the way- In A Reverie and even from your EP’s era). I have seen many Lacuna Coil fans asking you to do this through the years (I was one of them actually). What made you finally decide this?

We decided to do it mostly for our old school fans, as a “thank you” for sticking with us through all these years. I have to say that the majority of people know the songs from our Comalies era on, but it is always great to see “that sparkle” in the eyes of those who discover our older songs for the first time. It is also nice for us to remember where we came from.

Let’s go back to your latest studio album. Don Gilmore did the production once again. It seems that you really appreciate his work, don’t you?

Plus, he also participated in the songwriting process if I am not mistaken. How did this feel like, writing songs along with another guy who is not a Lacuna Coil band member?

We worked with him again because we liked him and we really liked the way he works. He is a great guy and he has worked with so many musicians, he has a lot of experience. Basically, he listened to what we wrote and helped us to make

the structure of the songs more fluent and more “straight to the point”. He was making suggestions, he never insisted on doing anything we didn’t like ourselves.

I think I personally learned a lot from him and I believe every producer is like a teacher. It has been great working with him. It’s kind of funny because back then some people thought that the evolution of our sound was due to the fact that Don became our new producer. Well, after listening to Dark Adrenaline let’s say that they completely changed their minds. It is still us, it has always been us. We are responsible for everything.

I see. Plus, you stated many times that while you had been writing the songs for Dark Adrenaline you were kind of living in “dark days”, since some Lacuna Coil band members had been experiencing bad things in their personal lives back then. Do you think that the writing process was kind of a “personal healing process” for you all? If I got it right, it was more like expressing your feelings about all these negative events, facing your own demons and finally winning over them in some way?

Writing a song is always kind of a healing process for me, whether I do it during the time I experience a bad moment in my life or after the moment has been gone and I am over it. I don’t really like to talk and write about happy things that happen in my life because I simply enjoy them the moment/while they happen. When something bad happens to you, you need your personal time to heal, to get over it and the best way to achieve that is to talk about it, to try to see the sparkle of light at the end of the tunnel and try to get to it. You also need some time to think for a while. So yes, definitely Dark Adrenaline helped us out on this healing process after the not so

happy moments that we experienced.

In Karmacode you did a cover version of “Enjoy the Silence”. Another cover track appeared in your latest album (Losing My Religion by REM). Maybe there will be a cover track in the following Lacuna Coil album, too. Do you have already something in mind?

We don’t know yet. It does not always happen automatically you know. If we find a song that we would like to rearrange, we will go for it and do it. There are not any options at the moment but we will see what the future will bring.

You and Andrea (Ferro) are the band’s singers. Your parts are quite equal in every album. But it seems that the girl (you) is getting more attention than Andrea. I can recall a comment you wrote once and it was like “We are a duet. It is not just me.

There is another singer in the band too you know”. It seems that you are getting very annoyed and pissed when people write comments like “Who is this guy next to Cristina?”.

We all know that women are always getting more attention than men. Things are like that in every aspect of our society and we can’t fight over the fact that it happens in the music industry too. I am very happy and proud of being a female but I pushed down a lot the “very feminine” side of me during the last years. I wanted to be considered as “one of the guys” in some way.

Our stage outfits actually reflect this fact: we are an army. I am in a band, I am with the band, and I want to keep it this way.

What you just said really made me think of this: All these years I have noticed that in female fronted metal

Burst { music magazine }

32 bands the girl gets all the attention.

In a band with a male vocalist the fans would not really care about his clothes or hairstyle. But when you, for example, hit the stage you have to be stylish and elegant in some way. I still remember the times when Anneke (Van Giersbergen) was on stage and she was wearing just a tracksuit! Good times if you ask me. It was all about the performance, not the make-up, not the clothes, not the hairstyle. How do you personally feel about this?

Whatever you wear, even if it is stylish or not, it can be misunderstood. I do not always wear cool clothes but I don’t really care about what people say about me or about my image. I am still the same person, Cristina, whether I wear a super classy dress or a gym suit and I really want them all out there to know that. I take a lot of pictures with my fans after our shows and I post a lot of pictures of myself without any make-up on my social networks because I simply want to show you guys that you don’t need to be fancy all the time. What more do you have to show to the world apart from your nice appearance? This is all that matters. Sure, it is ok to take care of yourself and your appearance but it is unhealthy to be obsessed by/ with it.

Cristina you have achieved something very important: you are keeping your personal life a “secret”.

People like to talk and they also like gossip. Let’s face it: there is a public interest in famous people’s private lives. It is not about keeping secrets, it’s a matter of limits and knowing them. People (fans, journalists and even labels) have to respect your decisions and your private life. I guess it’s quite hard for you to make people see and understand these limits and I guess there were times when people have crossed these limits, am I right?

It is actually not difficult at all! It is all about not exposing your private life in the media. It is as easy as that (laughs).

I have seen that many times you write that you miss your home while you are on the road. Have you ever thought of giving up or maybe changing profession? Time goes by and sometimes we human beings are feeling that we did enough in our lives and maybe it’s time to take some rest. Have you ever felt like that?

When I am on the road I always have the feeling that I am missing a lot of stuff that happen at home. Luckily, I have an amazing family, amazing friends and an amazBurst { music magazine }

ing partner who is totally aware of what I am going through, so things are getting kind of easier for me. I am not saying that it is always easy but I love what I do, I love singing and travelling and even if I am getting tired sometimes, I could not imagine myself doing something completely different than this.

You have toured with many huge bands, have played in countless festivals and have collaborated with many other well-known artists: Are you satisfied with everything you have done until now or do you still have important goals you have to reach in order to reach fulfillment?

We always have some small career goals that we try to reach step by step. If you ask me, there is always something to learn and improve. If you stop dreaming big you’d better go home.

Speaking of big dreams, do you have any idols? And I don’t mean only artists. Are there any certain people you admire and why?

I would not really call them “idols”. Certainly I can recall some artists and people I truly respect. Still, I really look up to my parents in terms of love and respect.

Cristina, can you recall any special moment/gift/word from a fan that really moved you, something that you still think about before going to bed in the night, something really special?

I got so many gifts during all these years.

I keep every little gift, every little note close to my heart. I can not pick out any of them. I do not consider any of them as better than the others because every fan put lots of love in it, whether it is a painting or a handmade letter. I have to tell you that I have a soft spot for messages from kids, though.

Beautiful words Cristina! This is so nice of you! Also, I was wondering about this: Lacuna Coil is Italy’s most well-known metal band right now. Do you feel proud about this? I have read many interviews of yours and I got that you totally love your country and you feel really proud about Italy’s history through the years. Do you feel that you have made Italian people proud in some way?

I am absolutely proud of my country! We are doing our best to bring the Italian flag everywhere you know (laughs)! Ok, now seriously speaking, I am happy that we set up an example for other Italian bands to follow. I strongly believe that we have opened lots of “doors” for other musicians and bands.

Could you tell us about Lacuna Coil’s current plans? What’s next?

You have just completed your tour and I guess you are kind of tired.

Will you guys take any rest, maybe some vacations for you all are already planned, like taking a break or something? Or going straight back to the studio and working on your next album?

We actually have lots of plans right now.

Apart from the songwriting process for our new album, which is in progress, we are also planning a UK tour along with Paradise Lost, scheduled to kick off in October/November. As for my personal plans, I am going to share the stage with them (Paradise Lost) in Metal Hammer’s Awards ceremony, which will take place in London on June 17th. Also, I will record a few songs along with a special artist but I cannot really announce anything about it yet. As well, there will be some guest appearances in the Rezophonic project in order to help more African people build wells, schools, water cisterns and lots of other stuff. We never stop. I definitely never stop!

Cristina, do you have any last words for your fans and readers?

I wish them all the best in their lives and for their dreams that they are trying to make them come true. I want to thank them for their support from the bottom of my heart. I can’t wait to come to Greece again. It has been too long already and I think it’s time to party together again, soon! Rock on and much love to all!

Thank you, too Cristina. Take care and we can’t wait to see you again on the road soon! *A very special thanks to Mr. Adam Sewell from Riot Rock Management and of course to Mrs. Cristina Scabbia for giving to us some of her precious time. Grazie Mille!!!

33

Burst { music magazine }

34

Young, fresh and punk!

by Hope VNZ

Scan to watch the brand new video of Emily’s army on “war” coming right from their upcoming release “Lost At Seventeen”.

Release date, June 11th 2013,

by Rise Records Burst { music magazine }

Emily’s Army is a young, up-andcoming, successful, underground punk rock band, which consists of four 17-year-olds, still in high school but already making themselves noticeable in the world of music and definitely starting leaving a trace with their fresh sound: Max Becker (bass player and singer), Cole Becker (guitarist and singer), Travis Neumann (lead guitarist), and Joey Armstrong (drummer). And as they say “they compare themselves to them”.

35 You are currently on tour. Could you share with us your experiences so far?

We’re not on tour yet, we start touring on June 15th with the rest of the Vans Warped tour in Seattle! Taking into account our experiences from last year, we think it should be a blast once again.

You just launched a brand new Music Video for the song ‘ ’, featured in your new album Lost at Seventeen.

Please tell us more about it.

I think it’s one of the most meaningful songs on the album. There’s not much to analyze about the song because it reads what he feels right into your ear. “I’m not anti-American, I’m not anti-war. I’m anti-hoarding, I’m anti-more.” Everyone thinks about national struggles, but Cole thinks about global struggles. He always blows us away with the lyrics he writes.

The video was super fun to shoot because it was just a bunch of our friends gathered around having a fun time making a video, nothing too special, and yet we still got the point across!

Your new album is set for release in June 2013. What are you guys up to?

We’ve been promoting as much as possible, and it’s been different because I’m off at college so we’ve had to rely more on social media than in the past.

You have gained so many fans over the last few years; does this affect your private life?

Yes it does. We try to keep things as normal as possible when we’re not out touring or playing shows, but sometimes the two lifestyles mix together! Sometimes we get recognized and it totally surprises the hell out of us. Luckily, our friends and family are behind us 100% so our private lives aren’t negatively affected.

Do your main influences in music come from your family or there are any additional sources of inspiration?

Some people say that punk musicians are illiterate and they write their music by instinct, since the riffs are easy and not technically complex. What do you have to say to them?

I think all of that is true except for the illiterate part. So I mostly agree with them, but they’re not listening to what punk music has to say. Those people who judge punk look at the hair, black clothes, and studded boots and they immediately judge the music. Yes, it’s instinctive, which means the music is based off of emotion, which means people can relate. It’s brilliant.

Your music reflects not only the enthusiasm and the curiosity of being a teenager and having your whole life ahead of you but also some political meanings such as the lyrics in the song “I Am The President”, in which vocalist proclaims “Democrats, Republicans... It’s all the same, I’ve had enough of it.” So you are not just another teenage band, you want to send a message too, am I right?

Of course we want to send a message. People should listen to opinions from all age groups; it could provide them with new insight. We’re sitting here in this generation, waiting to come of age. We think to ourselves, how the hell are we supposed to jump right into this mess and be expected to fix it? Things are going to be very hard for our generation and generations to come. So yes, we want to send a message.

We live in an age of total indifference and lack of moral values. Do you believe there is still hope of changing the world?

There are moral values if you look closely.

I think there is hope to change the world but what I think is most important is for people to look at everything that’s good

in their life. If you dwell on the bad and the sad, things will just get worse. Start small and start slow, and just be happy. Be grateful to be alive! It gets better! That’s what is going to change the world.

The band is interested in raising awareness for Cystic Fibrosis research. Why this particular disease?

Our cousin Emily has cystic fibrosis. We named the band after her and her foundation to help support the cause to eliminate CF. Billie Joe is your producer. How do you feel about having such a great musician as a mentor? After all you can be 100 % sure your producer is interested in you and your music and not only in profit?

It feels great. I mean he’s Joey’s dad, we’ve known him as sort of an uncle for most of our lives and it’s such a rad experience to hear his insight. We loved working with him.

How do you see yourselves in 10 years from now?

We take things one step at a time. Sure, it would be rad to be playing in front of huge audiences and making a living for ourselves but we don’t want to jinx it.

You are a band, which consists of talented young members who are making their dream come true.

What is your advice to all of the new bands who aspire to be noticed by the audience?

If you look like you’re having fun on stage, people will have fun and notice you.

There are plenty of other factors. Sure, we get loads of influence through family but also through the different musicians we’ve met throughout our lives; whether they’d be a bluegrass banjo player or a Greek taverna musician we’ve gained influence from all of them.

Music is your God, I believe; In your opinion, how powerful can music be proven?

There are few other forms of communication that can reach such large audiences.

Music has the potential to create peace or hysteria, the point is that it has the power to do either…

Burst { music magazine }

36

Todd La Torre

Burst { music magazine }

The voice of Queensryche on burst

by Marianna Kofinaki

37 Greetings from Greece!

Thank you so much for your time!

Vocalist of Crimson Glory and Queensryche included, what’s your relationship with metal music?

Could you tell our readers some things about yourself?

Well I started getting into metal music around the age of 12 or 13. I started playing guitar at the age of 10 and seriously started to learn to play drums around the age of 13. I always enjoyed singing but never took it seriously or even thinking about it professionally until 2009. I have always been a heavy metal drummer in various bands throughout my life.

Which are your major influences that determine your musical style? Any favorite bands in particular?

I always enjoyed the power metal in particular and some of my influences have been Iron Maiden, Ronnie James Dio, Stryper, and obviously Queensryche. I was also a big fan of the singer-songwriter era of the 70’s love bands like Heart, Steely Dan, Billy Joel, and also like the soulful sounds of Terence Trent d’Arby.

What made you want to become a musician?

I guess I just always loved the feeling that music gave me and allowed me to feel things that only music to provide as a listener and a performer.

As far as I know, you have also played the drums in various bands in Florida and you’ve also taken up guitar from a very young age. Can you tell us some more about it?

I played in a commercial metal band throughout my teens and early twenties and then also played in a three piece cover band just to keep my drumming skills up.

When did you find out you want to be a vocalist and why?

Like I said, I always enjoyed singing but never sang for any

band until I joined Crimson Glory in 2010. When I joined Crimson Glory it just sort of happened like fate and so I am continuing to try to become a better vocalist all the time.

the best job that I could.

Have you taken up singing lessons or are you more self-taught? Do you think that singing lessons are essential?

Well I basically left a Crimson Glory due to the band’s inactivity. We were working on a new concept album and things were going very well but after some time the correspondence seemed to fade. Weeks turned into months and it was just something I was not willing to continue to wait for. I wish all the guys the best and they’re really great people so there are certainly no hard feelings.

I am not a formally trained vocalist and have taught myself what I know so far. I do think that anyone including myself could benefit from: a good vocal coach as there are many things to be practiced as games, such as breathing techniques and learning how and where the sound actually resonates in the body. I don’t think that the work is ever done.

What’s your opinion on the metal scene of today?

Are there any new bands you’re particularly fond of?

There are so many subgenres of metal. So many different styles have been incorporated into metal but much of the heavy metal sounds that I grew up loving are not as present in the mainstream metal of today. I find that the bands, who are less known at least within the United States have those elements. There are so many new bands that are being discovered and it’s great to see that metal is still thriving very well.

Can you share with us the way you joined Crimson Glory? How does it feel being compared with legendary singer Midnight?

I was introduced to Crimson Glory from my friend Matt Laporte, who played guitar in John Oliva’s Pain. I was asked to be a guest vocalist for a concert the band performed in memory of the fallen singer Midnight.

I feel I was able to capture some of those qualities that Midnight had but I would never truly compare myself to him because he was so unique and special in his own way. I was just so very honored to be accepted by those fans and I did

What let to your leaving the band? Could you shed some more light on this matter?

What’s the story behind your joining Queensryche?

The short version is that I was asked to join in a side project with those guys in the band under the name Rising West.

It was just a way for the guys to continue to play and potentially earn supplemental income while Geoff was supporting his solo album. As you are aware of the events that unfolded that led to his firing, things just evolved into what is now the current lineup of Queensryche.

Any favorite moments with each band? Could you share them with us?

Well a funny story regarding Crimson Glory is that we were traveling to Europe and my guitar player Ben had a box full of masks from the old Transcendence tour. Somehow he was picked out of line and when he was questioned about some things they opened the box he was carrying and saw the masks. Obviously that did not look good and was suspicious to them so they did not have allowed him on the plane to go to Europe until the next day. We all got a good laugh out of that one and so did Ben after the irritation of being held back from that flight wore off (laughs).

will follow with Queensryche.

It is a great album and we are all very proud of it. It was just the band members that wrote the music so it is a very honest organic representation of the creative elements among each of us.

Any tour plans? Any plans on visiting Greece? You know, you have a huge fan base here.

Plans are always being made and are in the works for shows throughout Europe. We’d love to play in Greece; it’s a place we all very much enjoy.

How does it feel being on stage?

Being on stage is a very comfortable place for me. I have been performing at least as a drummer on stage since I was 14 years old. Being out front is different of course but the stage and being with the band makes me feel right at home.

Do you think the social media and the new technologies have influenced the music industry in a positive or in a negative way? Have those new technologies affected your music and how?

Obviously the technology available has made it much easier for musicians to record their own music and promote it online. The downside to today’s technology is that there is so much downloading music got the artists suffer monetarily because of the decline in album sales. Bands have to primarily rely on income from touring and merchandise.

Any message to Greek fans in particular?

We know that the Greek fans are some of the most passionate fans in the world. We all say thank you for your continued interest and support.

Which are your current plans? Tell us some more things about the new Queensryche album.

The current plans are the new album release entering that Burst { music magazine }

38

Valor is one of the best Greek epic metal bands. “Yonder Answer�, their latest album found us speaking with Vaggelis (vocals) in order to know everything there is about the band. by spiros smyrnis

Burst { music magazine }

39 Give us a small bio on Valor. What’s the band’s story so far?

The band was formed in the beginning of 2002 by our guitarist Spyros Soldatos, bass player Chris Remoundos and vocalist Vaggelis Krouskas. ValoR existed and named at once during our first steps. Meanwhile the drummer Thodoris Andritsos joins the band later in the summer of 2003. At last Valor members come together, so in June 2004 the mini-CD called “The Nameless One” is released, leaving its trace to the heavy metal scene.

Four years later, in 2008 our first full length CD comes out self-financed, just like “The Nameless One”. Both CD’s are distributed via Eat Metal Records and two new members Thanasis Lois on Keybords and guitarist Vasilis Kourkoutas join the band to complete the final formation later in the same year.

Both members fit in at once to create the unique final portrait of the band. Our forthcoming CD embraces all members of the band, all the ideas and inspirations, all song compositions working as a team.

The third release distributed by Pitch Black Records called “The Yonder Answer” is officially released on 5th of March 2013. Our producer Kostas Rigopoulos is an experienced sound engineer, putting all his knowledge to this CD meanwhile Fascination Street Studios from Sweden collaborates on the final stem-Mastering.

Since the time of its creation, the band performs live in numerous shows.

Throughout the years Valor had the honor to perform next to historical band names from all over the world and today we declare that we are ready to play whenever invited across the borders.

los and Hideout studio in Greece for the track arrangements recording and mixing. A great part of feedback is rightfully theirs, together with others involved in different aspects, such as artwork made

by Nick Deligaris. All played an important and equal role for the excellent feedback we got. We feel blessed for having such collaborations.

Let’s stay on the lyrics. Which are your sources of inspiration?

Our source of inspiration ranges from heroic fantasy, a book or a movie up to daily things that worry us, especially in difficult periods of time like nowadays. You can see that our first CD’s were mostly inspired by classic epic metal themes while the latest (the trilogy in Destiny’s path and The Answer Yonder) has to do more with aspects of human nature.

Are you satisfied by your label Pitch Black Records?

As I mentioned above, we are fully satisfied with our label as they have done an excellent job so far in terms of promotion globally, to all kinds of magazines, webzines etc Pitch Black Records showed us its great potential and professionalism.

Self financed, self released. Is this the only option for an underground metal band nowadays?

Depending on the demands, nowadays the band can get all the information and technical equipment to work on their own and therefore to get a decent result for an “underground” release. The underground scene nowadays is rather different than it used to be. An “underground” band needs to be more than decent and the demands How would you characterize the are much higher by the audience than it musical style of Valor? was in the past. For me there is no such

a term as “underground” in year 2013.

Valor can be characterized as a power There is no room for low sound quality remetal band with an epic feeling, a marleases, a fact that may cost a band in terms riage of traditional yet modern song of song writing and composing…! Results compositions. The music diversity of this come after a lot of time spent, money and album comes from combining each memmental persistence. So, for a young band ber’s music influences, leading towards a that is actually forced to self-finance and unique and characteristic song outcome. self-release its work I believe there is no other option.

Chapter: The Yonder Answer.

Which is the feedback you received Greece has a tradition in epic metso far? al. Which bands would you recommend to a new epic metal listener?

The feedback is very encouraging. Many countries worldwide rated “The Yonder There are numerous epic metal bands Answer” with excellent reviews and comhere in Greece and this happens because ments. Pitch Black Records spread the of the respect that Greek musicians have news on this release very rapidly and in to the 80’s epic metal bands as well as the a very well-focused manner. We are very great history that Greeks carry thoughtout happy and proud to be a part of Pitch the ages.

Black family. Credits should also go to Fascinations Street Records from Sweden Some bands a new metal listener must for their excellent work on sound track know is Reflection, Wrathblade, Crush, mastering and finally to Kostas RigopouNorthwind and many others, which is

easy to find out through the internet.

Cd or Vinyl? Pros and cons?

Definitely vinyl, as we grew up in its era.

Analog sound is unbeatable and adds a lot to the magic to the music, from the huge covers (piece of art) to the side-turning of the vinyl itself. Digital media on the other hand offer a lot of functionality and can fit everywhere, from YouTube to iPod. Our music is released on cd at the moment but if things keep on going as well as they seem, then probably releasing a vinyl later on would be great news for us and all those fans who have this exceptional relationship with the vinyl release.

Which is the gig that you will never forget?

This was definitely the new album’s reby Spiros Smyrnisright lease liveInterview and the party that followed after at Bat City in Athens, performing a full set list of 21 tracks. Absolutely amazing feelings full of Valor vibes. The place was crowded and there was some serious connection between the band and the fans going on. We enjoyed it so much that we already miss it....!

Any tour plans in the upcoming future?

On the 5th of March our new album was officially released and after a lot of effort and we are now more than ready to perform anywhere we are invited. Fans that they might have the chance to see us will notice how much effort we have spent on this. At the moment we are planning our future live appearances focusing mainly abroad. Though, we are very open to any proposals once ready to perform anywhere in Greece or Europe introducing our music to all heavy metal fans. The feeling of sharing our potential on stage is entirely priceless for us and all proposals are taken seriously and more than welcome.

The last words are yours, man.

Finally, I would like to thank all the friend and fans supporting us until now. Those who follow us so far have proved their value and their valor as true metal fans of our band. It is priceless to realize as a band that people across the world appreciate what we do. Nowadays, it’s really hard for Bands like Valor, to be given the opportunity, in order to make good Records and undoubtedly it’s even tougher to survive among all these “Music Industry Bands”.

Each one of our fans is a very important reason for us to keep on moving forward.

You Guys, take care and …hold the banners high….

Burst { music magazine }

40

nekkar It was another Sunday afternoon hanging out in Exarcheia square. This time I had company. Yiannis (guitars, vocals), Kostis (guitars) and Efthimis (drums) are just the three members of the quintet called Nekkar, which just released an ass-kicking self tilted debut album. We had an over thirty-minute chat, discussing if it’s possible to play doom/black with a saxophone, Sakis Tolis, the Greek underground metal scene, personal failures and many more.

“The failure in university unites us as a band”.

Interview by spiros smyrnis, photo by mariza papadhmitriou

Burst { music magazine }

41 Give us a brief bio of Nekkar.

Nekkar started in 2011 by Giannis(Guitars/Vocals), Kostis(Guitars) and Thomas(Saxophone). We began writing our own material and experimenting with our sound, making saxophone a main instrument in our compositions. The lineup was concluded in 2012, with the addition of Efthimis(Drums) and Nodas(Bass), who both significantly contributed to the direction of our sound.

What does Nekkar mean?

Nekkar is a star on the constellation of Boötes. It caught our attention and we decided upon it.

Which are your influences musically and lyrically? Any favorite bands?

Our music is mainly influenced by the Doom and Black Metal scene, by bands such as My Dying Bride, Celtic Frost, Primordial, Rotting Christ, Agalloch and many others. Our lyrics vary, ranging from fictional stories to more esoteric, personal themes.

on Uncomfortable Silence through George Emmanouel. We thought his voice fitted perfectly in this particular song, giving it an old school touch and we are very satisfied with the outcome!

I’m with you on that. I think that Sakis’ voice fits this track perfectly.

You have a saxophonist as a full time member! How did this happen?

Thomas was a saxophonist before the band, so it was decided to have saxophone in our music since the very beginning.

Saxophone has a very special sound for a brass instrument. It’s unusual for a metal band to have a saxophonist as a full time member. Usually the saxophone was used in avant-garde parts, or jazz improvisations.

music with people who may are interested in and may like it.

Which are the difficulties a newcomer band has to overcome in order to release an album?

Mostly financial problems, since you have to do it yourself. But if you love what you do, you will find a way. And of course DIY brings back great pleasure. The main problems occur in terms of distribution, because it’s easier for a band to let someone else handle this stuff. The ideal scenery is to close us in a room leaving us making music, nothing else; but you have to cope with reality, which unfortunately is far more different than that.

How about Nekkar on stage?

I guess it is difficult to combine the saxophone with the doom/black

We hadn’t given the shows we wanted so far, but we hope that this is going to

melodies. Or it is not?

change since the new album release.

How does the audience react when they see a doom/black metal band with a saxophone?

Tell us everything we need to know about your debut self-titled album, which was released on April 25th.

It was recorded in the summer of 2012 at Esoteron Studio by George Emmanouel, who also mixed it. It took us a month to record it. The mastering was done at Basement Studios by Chris Tsoukalas. The album features six songs, one of which is an instrumental. Our sound is mainly Doom Metal but with various other influences. At first it was already out in digital form from our bandcamp page and now it was released in physical form on April 25th, in 500 hand-numbered copies. The artwork was also done by us, trying to depict our music in the best way possible.

I was really impressed by the front cover of your debut album. Who created it?

Nodas took a picture in Preveza, at the lighthouse of Mitikas, and we edited it a little bit on Photoshop. As for the band logo, we made it ourselves.

I love this DIY mentality that your band has!

Thank you.

Sakis Tolis made a guest vocal appearance on Uncomfortable Silence song. More info please!

We had the honor to feature Sakis Tolis

No, it wasn’t that difficult, maybe only in the beginning. We treat saxophone as a lead instrument and there is always a place for melody.

Your album is available for free downloading via bandcamp. Why did you choose to do that?

At first they are curious, but most of them really enjoy it.

How do you perceive the Greek metal scene?

We wanted to spread our music as much as possible, since we are a new band. It’s available for free downloading, recently open for donations as well, in order to reach everyone that wants it. We have our debut in physical form too available for 3 euros.

We are a new band, so we cannot speak on behalf of the Greek metal scene. As fans though, we have to say that our scene is one of the best in the world, taking big steps over the last years.

The price is among the lowest I’ve ever heard of.

Thanks for the interview! Check out our music and we hope to see you in a live show. Thanks to everyone that supports us and praise the Goat...

We did that because we don’t want to make money out of it. We just wanna share our

The last words are yours!

Burst { music magazine }

42

bursting with

secret illusion by hope vnz

Burst { music magazine }

43 Let’s start with your name, Secret Illusion. Is there secret meaning behind it or is it just a hint on the illusionary world of music?

I don’t think there is a special meaning behind the name…In the beginning I wanted to call the band “Illusion”, because after all, it was a musician’s dream or hope for something more, which could actually remain just an illusion and nothing more!

However, the name was taken so we wanted one more word in front and a friend of the band came up with the word “Secret”, we liked it and the rest is history!!

You are a power metal band in Greece. How tough is it for you to survive musically?

It’s really hard! There are few “euro-power” metal bands in Greece. After all these years, as a power metal fan, I think people don’t appreciate this genre a lot and I cannot see the reason why, to tell you the truth.

Which are the bands and the musicians you admire and take inspiration from?

Bands like Stratovarius, Royal Hunt, Kamelot were -and still are- a huge inspiration for us, also old bands like Deep Purple, Rainbow etc. My personal favorites for sure are Ritchie Blackmore & Timo Tolkki but I also have a huge connection and love for classical music and composers like Vivaldi, Mozart, Bach etc Could you present your members and say a few things about each one of you? Filippos Papakyriakou (Guitars), Chris Stratigos (Drums), Gus

Dibelas (Keyboards), Dimitris Giannakopoulos (Vocals), Makis Petritsis (Bass).

The band was formed by Chris and me back in 2007, with Makis being the newest member. Most of the composing/lyrics “job” belongs to me. Dimitris is the second singer till now after me and Chris. Gus is the oldest member of the band and the main co-composer of some of our songs.

Power metal is characterized by its technical difficulty and the use of a lot of musical effects; does this make things more difficult when writing your music?

I think the only thing that someone needs

in order to compose a power metal track, is an open heart and a real sense of melody. Even the simplest tune in the world could become an excellent power metal song! All you have to do is to listen to your heart, not to your mind, and that’s the tricky part… To catch a melody and put it down is easy, but to make it work, you need balance! Technique is also necessary though, so you have to find the right formula for both!

Your new EP, ‘Point of no Return’ was released recently. Could you tell us more about your experience in the studio?

Getting in the studio and preparing something new is always an interesting process! This process for us started with “Point of no Return” a few months ago, which was something like an experiment.

Still we have some work to do, until we are able to present the new SI album! We have worked REALLY hard and maybe it’s a little bit early to say but I believe it will be the best Secret Illusion release so far!!

How important is it for you to get across your music and touch the hearts of your audience?

This is the only goal of a power metal band if it wants to be successful! If you cannot achieve that, then the story is over! As I said before though, that’s the tricky part; being able to touch the heart of the audience is something you either do have or you don’t. You cannot learn it on the way!

What is more fascinating for you, touring or recording music?

Touring, for sure! That’s the exciting part

for a musician and the final goal of the recording process, to bring the music on stage and listen what the audience has to say about it.

Have you thought of trying your luck outside the Greek music scene and how difficult is it for a band coming from a country with not much tradition in power metal?

I think that, at least for one night, every musician dreamt of trying his luck outside his country. It’s a beautiful dream and very difficult to achieve at the same time.

To make it worldwide, you need luck, talent, money, ambition and will from all the members of the band and so much more…

I prefer taking it step by step; who really

knows what will happen in the future!

You are to support Stratovarius on the 28 of June. I am sure you are more than excited! How does it feel knowing you will share the stage with such a grand band?

Even now that so many things have changed, it’s still a great honor playing alongside Stratovarius and musicians like Jens Johansson and Timo Kotipelto!!

Many years now we wanted to have such an opportunity, so we will give our 100% to give the best SI performance so far!!

A lot of young people dream of a career in music, what is your advice to them?

Hard work, it’s the only thing that a musician has to do. All the rest will come.

The world of music is full of magic, but it is also a difficult path full of unexpected difficulties and setbacks; how do you deal with it?

So is life. If you cannot handle all these situations, you definitely won’t make it, first of all as an individual. As for me, I try to deal with difficulties, find solutions and keep a safe distance from all that’s going on around me.

Which are your plans after supporting Stratovarius? Touring, live shows or maybe a new CD? As I said before, our second album is almost complete. After the release, we are certainly planning on doing a Greek tour and if we have the chance to play outside Greece, we’ll go after it for sure.

I tend to always ask bands on their opinion on the Internet, and if Youtube and the internet in general does more good than harm to the music today. In a way music is more accessible, however artists are more vulnerable, I believe.

It’s not so romantic anymore, that’s all.

Some people like it that way…I don’t!

When I was a child, CDs, LP’s or tapes were collection items and music had a warm part in our lives. Now it’s a lot different but you are right: music is more accessible and that helps underground bands like us a lot.

One last question, if there was a genie which could grant you just one wish, what would Secret Illusions ask for?

Music is in our hands and in our hearts… so I would say, less misery around us. If the people stop being so miserable and selfish, maybe there is a way out!

Burst { music magazine }

Immensity

44

Doom or be doomed? That is the question.

The Greek Doom Metal scene is full of great bands, one of which is Immensity. Burst Magazine spoke with Yannis, their drummer, who shed some light on everything we should know about them. Doom and respect guys!

By Spiros Smyrnis

Hey Yannis! First of all introduce us Immensity!

Hello to you too…Thank you for your time. Immensity is a melodic Doom/Death metal band, with several Progressive elements. The whole idea of the band was captured by Andreas and it took form to a proper band in 2009 with the entrance of Leonidas; some songs were already there even in a primal state, the rest of us joined in a bit later, so...Immensity as a full band is: Andreas (guitars, keys), Leonidas (vocals, lyrics), Christos (guitars), Giorgos (bass), Yiannis (drums) and we will soon let you know about our new keyboard player!

Which are the influences of Immensity, musically, literally, lyrically?

I think the influential canvas of the band (and any band) is (should be...) quite big... it comes from books, movies, reality, inner thoughts, emotions, adherences to anything...of course we have some musical spotlights, for instance old British Doom/ Death metal, US Progressive metal, 70’s Progressive...Lyrics are Leonidas’ work. They’re described in a very (in my opinion) interesting way driven by inner thoughts and emotions basically...

You have released a 2-song demo, “The Lonely Aquarelle”. Which is the feedback you received so far?

Quite encouraging and interesting reviews, not only like “guys, you rock” but true words, people who really lisBurst { music magazine }

ten and try to find the essence of these two songs; of course it’s a promo, currently all our anticipation is gathered for a full length release...

Who did the amazing front cover? More info please!

The cover is Andreas’ brother, Alexandros’ work. He is a painter and a graphic designer and he did this after reading carefully the lyrics and having the first musical elements and references...he did a great job, and we think he is the right “man for the job” for Immensity’s artwork..

“Clandestine Cut Of The Year - Metal Storm Awards 2012” A great achievement!

Congratulations!

How do you feel about it?

So honored indeed...But we try not to draw or fall into too much attention. Yes by all means we express our gratitude, our respect, we thank the guys a lot, but we have to keep up with our “plan”…And that is to create music above all...

I read on your official Facebook page that you are currently in the pre-production stage of your debut full length album. Is that right? Can you shed some more light on that?

Yes, we are done with all the songwriting, and now we’re focusing on the final touches and orchestration, to keep only the right stuff. We rehearse a lot but we bind together as people and musicians (something very important) too. We have not yet an official title (5 songs and perhaps bonus material) but we think we have taken a

step further musically from our 2012 release. By this coming October we should be in the recording studio, Kimonas Zeliotis will be our sound engineer and co-producer (who also worked on “The Lonely Aquarelle”), we can’t wait to get things started!

Your demo is available for free downloading through your official Facebook and Bandcamp pages. Why do you choose to do it that way?

Simply because we truly believe that art should be free, at least we give this opportunity to the people who choose to listen to Immensity. Of course we also have the demo in a ”Physical Format” only for promotion unfortunately (so don’t start asking hehehe), but we prefer our music to be heard from as many people as possible and if they’re willing to support the band there are many ways of doing it...That’s the 21th century way...Good or bad, I don’t know..That needs a long discussion.

What about Immensity on stage? Any upcoming shows in the near future?

Of course, we’re making plans for several shows in Greece (for a start...). We will conquer the rest of the world with small steps, hehehehe. Seriously, we are open for anything, anywhere...

Immensity’s members have a long-time experience in the Greek Heavy Metal scene. Does this make your life easier as a band?

“Easier” is not the exact word

in this case. Yes, some of us have experience in some issues, and we always advise the younger ones...It is helpful, so we can avoid bizarre situations that build the “scene extravaganza”. If you know what I mean, we try to keep Immensity outside of the clown parade, Leonidas (ex Fatal Morgana, Equal Vector, Agnosia) and myself (Yiannis, drums, Decemberance, Daylight Misery) are used to the “hard way” of achieving things due to the small or big experience we have all these years...so, not “easier”, but “useful” is a more suitable word I’d say...

What do you think of the Hellenic Doom scene? Do we have a scene here?

I can tell you in all honesty we as a Hellenic scene in fact do have a growing doom metal circle, even though personally i consider myself apart from any “scene”. We do have many doom bands, full of talent, and brilliant perspective...If we all focus on our music and our art, eventually the “scene” will expand...If we truly focus and get along that is not being miserable and envious about anything or anyone if you know what I mean!

The last words are yours man! Τhank you so much for your time and the opportunity to introduce Immensity to your readers... We’ll keep you posted if anything new comes up, believe me it won’t take that long anymore !

Doom and Respect...!!!!

Immensity

45

Burst { music magazine }

46

Well Planne d Attack Who says Italy can’t punk!!

By Hope VNZ

What can you tell us about your new album?

Our album, which is actually an EP, will be released around April and it’s basically a blend of pop-punk and easycore.

We’re still working on a couple of songs that sound very good in our opinion. We can’t wait the let the people hear the whole EP. What is the best part of being in a Pop Punk band?

The best part of being in a Pop-Punk band it is that even though it’s quite easy to play, it’s a kind of music that allows you to express yourself in every situation. You can write songs about every topic, like about happy moments, about friends and family but also about hard feelings. Beside the writing part, playing Pop-Punk it’s always fun!

What are your main music influences?

Our main influences are bands like Blink-182, The Story So Far, Hit The Lights and Fall Out Boy. We have many good Pop-Punk bands in Italy, like A Memorable Day, Now.Here and Notimefor, so we also get influenced by them.

How did the band form?

How many years have you Burst { music magazine }

been playing together?

We all used to play in different bands before, but we wanted to try something different so despite the distance between our respective hometowns we decided to form Well Planned Attack. It was not an easy decision because not being able to meet often really slows down everything, but we believed in this a lot, so here we are!

What is your biggest ambition as a band?

We plan to win a few Grammy’s and we’re pretty sure our EP will go platinum! Ahah The target we have is to make our music heard to as many people as we can, with the help of the internet but also with touring as much as we can with other band with which we share music genere and passion. The biggest satisfaction for a musician is to see its music going all around the world.

What is the best part of sharing your music with your audience?

We love to read the comments that the people leave us on facebook, Twitter or Youtube.

It’s amazing how people from countries that are so far from ours listen to our music and say they love it. For example, when a kids from USA write

us that they love our songs it’s almost unbelievable, they have plenty of awesome Pop-Punk bands over there, but they love a small Pop-Punk band from Italy, it’s just awesome.

These are the things that make us go on and put all out efforts in what we do.

How does the element ‘punk’ define the style of a band? What is ‘punk’ to you?

Pop-Punk doesn’t really have a lot to do with Punk. We consider punk the energy while playing, not being obsessed by the precision and caring more about having fun and making good music rather than look good, but we think that it’s something that can be associated to every good band, regardless the genre they play.

Are you signed in any Record Label? If not are you interested in signing in one?

We’re not signed to any Record Label at the moment.

We’re talking with a few but we’ll sign only if we find a label that is really willing to help us. Nowadays the music scene allows you to be heard everywhere also without being signed, so we’re definitely not obsessed with finding a label.

What is the best moment you have experienced as a band so far?

Shooting our first video for “I Feel Like Viktor Navorski” was definitely an awesome experience. We spent a whole day together with our friend at Farø Productions and we really like how the video turned out. Anyway, we are sure that when we’ll start to tour this spring we will have a lot of great moments.

What was your main inspiration while composing your new album?

What inspires us the most when writing are just the things happening in our life.

We’re all in our 20’s so we passed the teenage phase and we start to cope with things a bit less simple than the ones you have to deal with in high school. For example, our new single I Feel Like Viktor Navorski is about feeling stuck in a place that you don’t feel like yours and not being able to move on, but we think that everyone can relate the lyrics to his/her situation when listening to our music, like we do when listening to the bands we like.

We want to thank Burst Magazine for the interview, we hope to play in Greece someday!

47

Burst { music magazine }

ALBUM REVIEWS

48 Battle Beast – Battle Beast Battle Beast come from Finland. However this band has nothing to do with other Finnish metal bands like Nightwish or Apocalyptica or Amorphis! Battle Beast play pure and loud heavy metal.

The band won the Wacken Open Air Metal Battle contest in 2010 and this is how everything started. In late 2011 they inked a deal with Nuclear Blast records and released their first studio album Steel which received mostly positive reviews. During 2012 they toured in Europe along with Nightwish and Sonata Arctica.

On August 2012 Nitte Valo (vocals) left the band due to personal issues and she was replaced by Noora Louhimo. And now, thankfully, the beasts are back in the studio to give us away a great new studio album full of epic heavy metal tunes. Battle Beast features 13 tracks plus one bonus track and it is a totally mind-blowing album. To be totally honest, Noora’s vocal performances reminded me a lot of the “immortal heavy metal lord” named Ronnie James Dio and trust me, I am not exaggerating! There are some cheesy moments but this is not a drawback at all in my opinion. In Black Ninja Noora totally nails it and even Doro Pesch would envy her performance! Epic lyrics, cinematic sound effects and intros, heavy and catchy solos here and there: this is a studio album full of metal anthems that will make you headbang like crazy! Battle Beast features a rather dreamy folkish intro (The Golden Age) and also some real highlight tracks like Out In The Streets, Over The To, Let It Roar, Fight Kill Die. The album was produced and mixed by the band members themselves at JKB Studios (Helsinki) and the mastering was done by Mika Jussila at Finnvox Studios. Also, the artwork of the album was done by Claudio Bergamin. So, let it roar! Korina P. Kylesa - Ultraviolet Kylesa is a special band for me. The first time I heard of them was back in 2006, during the release of their third album, “Time Will Fuse Its Worth”. Since then I could call myself a Kylesa fan and of course an admirer of Laura Pleasants! So the band with the two drummers is back. After the tasty package of From the Vaults pt1 (including unreleased tracks and alternate versions of their old songs) finally Ultraviolet is about to be released by Season of Mist. On “From the Vaults” review I wrote that the song I enjoyed the most was “End Truth”. To me, the song was a hint of their upcoming album and thank God I was right!

The group from Savannah, Georgia is one of the best sludge metal bands out there. “Static Tension” and “Spiral Shadow” established them as one of the most influential bands in sludge, due to their signature ultra-groovy sound. Philip Cope (guitars, vocals) and the goddess Laura Pleasants (guitars, vocals) are the main composers and the leaders of Kylesa, the masterminds behind their musical direction. The new album has a post-rock approach, with the speed being a little bit lower and the vocals being less angry. The most characteristic songs of the album are “Drifting” and “Quicksand”.

The fact that the band has two drummers makes Kylesa sound massive and heavy, even in their more down-tempo moments. Laura’s whispers are magnificent, while the guitar themes should be taught on seminars. My only objection is that the production could be “clearer”, since sometimes sound-wise the outcome of Ultraviolet is a bit confusing. In any case, if a record features tracks like “Slow Tide” and “Vulture’s Landing” then you can forgive everything. Psychedelic, heavy, tripped in drones and noises Ultraviolet is gonna make you feel the burning touch of a sun. Spiros Smyrnis Spiritual Beggars - Earth Blues Spiritual Beggars was one my favorite bands till “Demons” was released, the last album with the great “JB” (Grand Magus) on vocals. If someone had the guts and the attitude to replace the one and only Spice, JB would be the ideal man for the job. Unfortunately JB and Spiritual Beggars didn’t cross paths again and Apollo Papathanasio (ex- Firewind, Time Requiem) assumed the difficult task of replacing JB. To me the voice of Apollo doesn’t fit with feeling created by Spiritual Beggars’ music. “Return to Zero” album was a bit of a disappointment, definitely the worst album the band has ever released under the name of Spiritual Beggars.

So, as you may understand I must admit I was very curious and suspicious about the next step of Spiritual Beggars with Apollo on vocals. Luckily, “Earth Blues” surprised me. Far better than “Return to Zero”, the eighth official album of Spiritual Beggars Laughs in the Face of the Enemy like it was written in “Kingmaker” song and gives us away a bunch of great hard rock songs. As for those waiting for the new Ad Astra album, you guys are gonna be disappointed. Michael Amott and his gang filtered all the classic Gods of Rock stuff we love, like Rainbow Riffs, Black Sabbath basslines, Thin Lizzy spirit and Rory Gallagher’ s bad pennies.

However, all the classic hard rock fans will enjoy this album, trust me. Using the ingredients I mentioned above Earth Blues is a tasty, spicy plate a classic hard rock lover couldn’t resist to taste. “Rain keeps on falling, wishing I was dead” sings Apollo on the “Dead End Town” hit, while “Freedom Song” fights with “Too Old to Die Young” for the best “Earth Blues” song title. Once more, Michael Amott delivers guitar lessons, associated by incredible players like Sharlee D’ Angelo on bass Per Wiberg on keyboards and Ludwig Witt on drums. Spiros Smyrnis Burst { music magazine }

49 Summoning - Old Mornings Dawn Leaving work after a stressful Monday, I decided to chill a bit after I got back home. The sounds of ‘Old Mornings Dawn’ filled my ears while I got myself some coffee. Then magic happened: I forgot my worries, my stress and my concerns and I was teleported from the busy city to a mystical realm far away in Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

The Austrian band has always had that effect on me. Silenius and his crew must have been blessed by the Elves in creating music, which is mystical, atmospheric, dark and dreamy all at the same time. Darkness and light- the magical rhythm of the flute and the folk, medieval atmosphere of the Land of The Elves gives its place to the darkness of Mordor created by their music. Growls, dark riffs, melancholic melodies and choir vocals fill your ears, while you find yourself sitting by the campfire alongside your companions and listening to stories of old of heroic ages past.

So here comes the hard part: Which are my fave tracks featured in the album? Honestly, the answer is that I cannot choose one song over the other, since all the songs and melodies are magically bound to each other and, trust me, you don’t want to press the pause/stop button until this masterpiece reaches its end.

Like The Hobbit and the Fellowship of The Ring, I don’t want this adventure to end: In a mystical land of ‘Evernight’, a ‘Flammifer’ lights up an ‘Old Mornings Dawn’. The ‘White Tower’ is near, while ‘Caradhras’ beckons. No matter how many times spent ‘of Pale White Morns and Darkened Eves’, ‘The Wandering Fire’ lights the way to ‘Earthshine’.

Beautiful musical landscapes, dreamy lyrics and a crystal-clear production, plus an album cover more than fitting to the atmosphere created, in other words PURE MAGIC. Marianna Kofinaki

Arrayan Path - IV Stigmata Arrayan Path is probably the best epic power metal band, you have never listened to. Fortunately over the last years the band has gained some of the recognition she deserves. Especially the “Ira Imperium” album, which was released in 2011 and it was the best epic album, released that year. Arryan Path returns with their fourth official album released from the loving cult label of Pitch Black Records. Vagelis Maranis was the man responsible for the album’s production, mixing and mastering and he did a great job like the one he did in the previous albums.

The album is called “IV Stigmata” and they featuring two members of Armageddon, Jimmy Mavrommatis (vocals) and Kikis Apostolou (guitars) as well as the guitarist of the mighty Deceptor, Alexis Kleidaras. IV Stigmata is a concept album, dealing with the touchy subject of religion, something easy to understand even from the song titles like “The Bible Bleeds”, “Judas Iscariot” and “Cursed Canaan”. The band of Cyprus has clearly a darker approach in their new album. “IV Stigmata” sounds a bit more rough and raspy than its predecessors. The first notes of “Clepsydra” present us the classic Arrayan Path style, where streams of melodies were floating into your speakers.

Progressive metal elements are translucent on Stigmata like every other work of the Cyprian band combined with atmospheric parts, which are more obvious on “Storyteller” and “Midnight and the First-born Massacre” tracks. The characteristic amazing vocals of Nicholas Leptos (probably among the best singers out there) are still the burning hit of Arrayan Path and are gonna leave you speechless, trust me. Pharaoh’s Wish is the best heavy metal song I’ve listened to in 2013, while the whole album spits flaming riffs, passion and heavy metal knowledge. These guys worked really hard and “ IVStigmata” is the proof that their time hadn’t been wasted. Spiros Smyrnis

Emily’s Army - Lost at Seventeen Lost at Seventeen is the 2nd album released by the teenage pop punk band, Emily’s Army, launched by Rise Records in June 2013.

that the energy and the power of these four 17-year-old crew is certainly remarkable! The most noticeable thing about this album is that ‘Emily’s Army’ has managed to keep the main element of punk, with creating their own signature sound at the same time. The band has come out with a completely fresh sound we’ve never heard before and can easily be counted as equal to old-school punk that we are more used to. Brilliantly energetic and very promising, ‘Lost at Seventeen’‘s music and lyrics certainly ring a bell from the very first time you give them a listen! With their excellent drum crescendos, guitars and basslines and also the singer’s characteristic voice they give a very unique outcome.

Although during the last years punk is said to be dying since young musicians haven’t come up with anything new, I must admit

The tracklist consists of songs defining the curiosity and the search for adventure that define teenagers; these feelings

are best expressed in songs such as ‘Lost at Seventeen’ and ‘Avenue’. Moreover, the band also seems to be interested in politics, expressed in songs such as ‘I am the president’.

‘Lost at Seventeen’ breaks down the myth that punk is characterized by its lack of seriousness and technique. It is obvious that these four guys have a great musical background and education. To conclude, Emily’s Army gives us the hope that new teenage bands are not all about imitating and producing what we’ve seen a million times on the music scene. ‘Emily’s Army’ is something entirely new and different!

A fire-jam of songs and an album you are very likely going to love- trust me!

Hope VNZ

Burst { music magazine }

ALBUM REVIEWS

50 Lacrimas Profundere Antiadore To be completely honest Lacrimas Profundere’s gothic rock never really impressed me although used to be a huge fan of the gothic rock/metal scene.

However, things have changed with their latest studio album entitled Antiadore.

Antiadore opens with My Release In Pain, which is one of the best tracks of the album. From the very beginning, what will follow becomes clear: Agony, pain, darkness, despair are once again the main themes of the lyrics. What I’m not is certainly a heavy song and All For Nothing adds a nice touch of gloomy melancholy. Dead To Me features one of the catchiest choruses I have listened to lately and Rob Vitacca literally “spits out” every single word. And then, all of a sudden, Abandon comes. What a mind-blowing intro! Still In Need, Head Held High and My Chest are beautiful ballads with rather sharp and heartbreaking lyrics.

Remembrance Song is another “on your face” track. The album closes in a quite nostalgic way with A Sigh.

Antiadore was recorded and produced by Corni Bartels. The mixing and mastering of the album was done by Tue Madsen, a small but important detail, which maybe explains why this album takes the band to a much higher level. As for the pre-production, it was done by Hiili Hiilesmaa who has collaborated with many wellknown metal bands.

To sum up, Lacrimas Profundere made a difference, at least to my ears. Antiadore includes some very catchy choruses and I even noticed some quite doomy riffs and elements in specific parts of the album. Also, I was astonished by the guitars in the whole album, great work! Undoubtedly, Lacrimas Profundere took their compositions and performance to a higher level. This album does not contain any filler tracks, it’s quite solid. Long live goth n’ roll! Korina P.

Soulsteal - Answers to Everything Soulsteal come from Cyprus. Within a small period of time, they managed to be considered as a strong name in the Cypriot metal scene as well as in the general atmospheric dark death/doom genre. Their first EP was released in 2009 (Mirror is a Lonely Place), while the one presented here is their first full-length album, self-released in 2011. Having remained active in live shows (supporting Moonspell in their concert in Cyprus), they are now creating a new album, while, in the meantime, they also managed to win the first place as the top band in the Records poll competition held by Earache!

Music-wise, Soulsteal combine the death/doom style of the (early) Anathema and My Dying Bride, with a melodic dark/industrial background, using the (well-pattented in the idiom) blend of brutal and clean vocals. The song structures in general follow similar patterns, with the characteristic doomy riffs, followed by bridges with ambient guitar arps and industrial sounds and atmospheric choruses with melodic, trippy vocal lines. As for the riffs in particular, they sound mostly “generic” and give the impression that they fill the song structures instead of offering the “rotten” and atmospheric vibe which is so characteristic in this style.

In fact, the melodic choruses are where Soulsteal shine though, with influences from the art of Katatonia (albums like “Discouraged Ones”) with a fix of the polished sound of Crematory. The songs I enjoyed the most and sound more complete are “Judicial” with its nice groovy theme and “A word Prior To Your Conviction” (with its Septicflesh-esque lead melody and the proper use of electronic elements). In general, the result is satisfactory and I believe that if the band puts an extra effort in the variety and structure of the songs and manages to filter its influences in a more personal, organic sound, it can certainly reach a higher level in the future...Experiment on and expand your boundaries!

Lampros Marantos

tures an all star line-up: Mikko Hӓrkin, Jens Johansson and Derek Sherinian on keyboards, Alex Holzwarth on drums and Timo Tolkki on guitars and bass. Furthermore, the guest vocalists are many and it seems that Timo chose the very best ones: Elize Ryd, Michael Kiske, Russel Allen, Rob Rock, Sharon Den Adel and Tony Kakko. What more could we ask for?

Timo Tolkki’s Avalon – The Land Of New Hope Timo Tolkki is a rather busy guy. Back in 2011 he declared his retirement from music industry but it seems that music is his biggest passion so he came back with a brand new project named Avalon. Avalon is actually a promising and ambitious metal opera project and it certainly feaBurst { music magazine }

The Land Of New Hope features 10 tracks and it’s actually a concept album: the Earth falls apart and the few survivors are trying to reach a special place to live called The Land Of New Hope. The production was done by Timo Tolkki himself and he did an excellent job! Also, the album features many high-quality performances something that was expected. Avalanche Anthem opens the album in a very powerful, dreamy and quite promising at the same

time way (it features some excellent backing operatic vocals by Magdalena Lee). In The Name Of Rose features a fantastic and full of passion vocal performance. I’ll Sing You Home features a hearty Gary Moore style guitar solo. Also, Shine is doubtless one of the best and most catchy tracks of this album. However the very best track of the album is the last one (The Land Of New Hope) in which Michael Kiske gives a breathtaking performance.

Overall, The Land Of New Hope is a very good power metal album and a great comeback for Timo Tolkki, However, I strongly believe that he could do much better. I guess this is only the beginning as this is the first album in a trilogy. Let’s wait and see! Korina P.

51 I got my hands on Duality, Agnes Vein’s debut album, a doom masterpiece heavy as shit, which sank me in the depths of their unique musical universe. So three years later I pre-ordered the vinyl plus T-shirt edition of their second album, under the name Soulship. Firstly I screamed Hell Yeah because they decided to release it from Venerate Industries in vinyl, plus, because Soulship is the successor of Duality I personally expected.

Agnes Vein - Soulship Agnes Vein was a witch burned in the Dark Ages. As for Agnes Vein the band, they were formed in 2001 in Thessaloniki, Greece. Agnes Vein is a heavy post/black/ doom/metal trio consisting of members of the cult rockers National Pornografik.

We had enough with the fuckin’ introductions. It was the crucial year of 2010 when

If I had the chance to use a title in this review, I’d put “Fifty shades of black”. I think that this one to perfectly describe my feelings after having listened to “Soulship” several times. Fuzzy, with millions of souls locked in an old dying ship, the new album lowers the speed of Duality, using brute, cruel drum hits and low-pitched guitars that create a suffocating environment. our blood”. Rabble of Heaven are from Iran and they play an amalgam of groovy metal and hardcore. The fact that the band is from a country, where it is far more difficult to be a metal musician, makes me even happier. It proves their love and dedication to heavy metal and that means a lot to me.

Rabble of Heaven - It’s time to pay your blood I am 27 years old now; after all these years I have been into music and especially in rock/heavy metal, I think I can officially call myself a music maniac. I have a huge smile on my face, since I heard of Rabble of Heaven’s album, titled “It’s time to pay

This is Rabble of Heaven’s second album. Since the front cover might confuse you like me, you have to remember that, just like a book, an album should not be judged by its cover. Rabble of Heaven do not play a traditional heavy /thrash metal as I initially expected. They have a modern sound that bears many similarities with the N.W.O.A.H.M ( New wave of American Heavy Metal) basics instead. Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage and In Flames (in turn”, a very powerful song with clear sound of the guitar and the drums. Then, there is the song “To Them”, the video clip of the album, with this special sound and the great start with the base in the lead role. The third song is “When Witches Dance”, a song with very clear vocals and quick riffs, also the back vocals from Iliana Tsakiraki (ex-Meden Agan) gives a very medieval style.

The Silent Wedding – Living Experiments Debut album from the Greek Melodic Heavy Metal band “The Silent Wedding” called “Living Experiments”.

The album starts with the song “The Re-

The forth is the song “A Cry From Within”, the ballad of the album, a duet with Marios and Iliana, with power metal elements and great melody and rhythm. Then, “The Tale of Strahd” , a heavy metal song with clear guitars and vocals. The song “I Am You” makes you think and it is more like

Slow and heavy like the muddy footsteps of an elephant, the second album of Agnes Vein is doomier than everything they have ever written before.

“March of the Netherworld” is a post black metal saga that grabs you by the neck, while “Eventus” and “Bloodfiend” are pure black metal hymns, furious yet inspired, such as those that the Greek Metal scene is able to compose. Another chapter in the wonderfully paranoid story of Agnes Vein: a difficult listening that requires the listener’s attention, “Soulship” is worth every minute spent on listening to this album. As far as the fans of doom/ black metal sound, come closer guys and welcome the new boss of your town.

Spiros Smyrnis

their post- Clayman period) are the main references and influences you can keep in mind in order to understand Rabble of Heaven’s music.

The album opens with “Screaming Dead”, a well-constructed song where melodies balance with the triggered drums and guitar breakdowns. There is a battle between melodies and brutality that runs the whole album. Two fighters standing in the ring of “It’s time to pay your blood” punching each other till the final round. In my opinion, “Breathe one last” is the signature song of the Iranian metallers, because the singer’s growls are supported by the groovy riffs and the stable basslines. I think it’s time to pay them with our blood.

At least a few drops of it. Spiros Smyrnis

a continuous summation of advice, rather than a song.

“Real Temptations” for me is one of the most characteristic song of the album, showing the talent of Marios in High Notes, the heavy riffs of Jimmy, the stable rhythm on drums by Renos, the special sound of keys by Johnny and the sound of bass by Alex. “General Autopsy” was a pretty good song but theonly thing I noticed was the High note in the end.

The “In Vitro” revealed us the name of the album and gave us reasons to wave our heads in the rhythm of Jimmy. In my opinion, in the album, the voice of Marios goes a bit higher.

Eleni Leonida

Burst { music magazine }

ALBUM REVIEWS

52 Thrash Metal Trinity. Two years ago, Tom Angelripper and his gang celebrated 30 years on stage and the Epitome of Torture is the cherry on top of their birthday cake, or, to put it that way, their last bullet in the chamber. “My Final Bullet” is the opening track which welcomes us all in their show.

Sodom - Epitome of Torture S.O.D.O.M rising from the dead, S.O.D.O.M running through my veins, S.O.D.O.M we’ll blow the night away, S.O.D.O.M set the world on fire. The lines of the second track of Epitome of Torture are the best prologue to present the new album of Trash metal masters SODOM. For more than 30 years Sodom has been the most unholy member of German

And Sodom surely know how to use it.

The new album is a thrash metal holocaust from the band, which once gave us the ultimate treasures of “Agent Orange”, “Percecution Mania” and “M-16”. Paying tribute to their roots, Sodom are enraged, full of hatred for the unbelievers, ready to destroy everything in their way. Armed with venomous riffs and bombastic drumming they will mark the battlefield with their blood. Cannibal will rip your skin off and eat your flesh ravenously. “Tracing the Victim” as well as “Shoot Today, Kill of the band from Thessaloniki would be so tasty. Let’s share with you some things about Spine Chilling Breeze from Thessaloniki. The band formed in 2011 and the year after that and after a 2-songs promo, they released a full length demo under the name of “Milky Way”.

Spine Chilling Breeze - Milky Way Milky Way! Holy Shit! Man there was a chocolate, named Milky Way I used to eat when I was a kid. I think that someone can find it even these days in super markets. When I first saw the title of Spine Chilling Breeze’s demo I remembered my childhood and I wished that the attempt

I personally like them, because they were loud and clear about their music style, when they sent us their official press release, including a download link. Stoner rock! So simple! Milky way is another album proving that Greece has probably the hottest stoner/heavy/sludge rock scene in the world, releasing each day another album that she is proud of. In “Milky Way” you are going to get in touch with all the beloving stoner basics. The Kyuss spirit tation’s career “turning point”.

Within Temptation - The Q Music Sessions Within Temptation started back in 1996 and since then they have changed many faces. They used to be a gothic metal band and then they switched to symphonic metal style which was actually founded in early 90’s. In 2011 they released their fifth studio album The Unforgiving which had been labeled as a “symphonic rock” album and it was characterized as Within TempBurst { music magazine }

During 2012 the band decided to perform their 15th anniversary concert which was called “Elements” and it took place on the 13th of November in Sportpaleis Antwerpen, Belgium. In order to build up the anticipation for “Elements”, the Dutch radio station Q-Music invited Within Temptation to choose and perform one famous song in their own musical style every Friday for 15 weeks in a row. “Within Temptation Friday” was part of Q-Music’s “De Ochtend Show” and the band declared that this special radio program would be a musical adventure but also a great way to do something special for their beloved fans.

The public acclaim of those special radio shows was beyond their wildest expectations and the band decided to compile

Tomorrow” have an obscure, true heavy metal approach that captivates the listener, even by the first notes.

Thumbs up for their choice to “sodom-ize” the Russian classic by the name “Katjuscha”. Merciless and full of blast beats, the fourteenth album of German thrash metal pioneers will be the ideal soundtrack of cheering you up, making you raise your fist in the air and scream: “Thrash till death motherfuckers!” The guitar themes are fast like a tornado, while Angelripper’s figure stands there undefeated by time.

Sing with me now: S.O.D.O.M rising from the dead, S.O.D.O.M running through my veins, S.O.D.O.M we’ll blow the night away, S.O.D.O.M set the world on fire!

Spiros Smyrnis

dances slowly around you, banging its head every minute, the whole time.

The Monster Magnet ghost is the one that haunts the listener, especially in those spacey, Hawkind-ish guitar themes. Let’s focus on the tracks that stick out. It’s impossible not to refer to “Old Man” where I was captivated by the 1000 Mods riffintroduction and “Sweet Heresy” where even the crows get stoned ( God Bless Anselmo’s gang Down) and the hilarious, yet spicy “I know you like it Dirty”. Spine Chilling Breeze are going to lift you up, and trip you in their world. I would like the vocals to be a little bit rougher in some songs, but “Milky Way” deserves your attention. Spiros Smyrnis

a selection of these covers on an album entitled The Q-Music Sessions. They reworked some very well-known and popular songs like Bruno Mars’s Grenade, Lana Del Ray’s Summertime Sadness, David Guetta’s Titanium, The Passenger’s Let Her Go but also some classics too (Crazy

by Gnarls Barkley, Behind Blue Eyes by The Who, The Power Of Love by Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Apologize by One Republic). It should be noted that they had only one week to get each song done and they really managed to give a totally different vibe and vein to these tracks. I am really happy that this band managed not to lose their enthusiasm, vision and nerve through the years. Keep your mind open and check this great album!

Korina P.

53

Tristania – Darkest White When I was younger, Tristania was one of my all time favorite gothic metal bands.

After Vibeke Stene’s quitting, I was pretty sure that the band will split. Plus, some more bandmates left before the release of their sixth studio album Rubicon. Practically, nowadays Tristania is a totally dif-

Joe Satriani - Unstoppable Momentum ‘Unstoppable Momentum’ is the fourteenth studio album by guitarist genius Joe Satriani, released via Epic Records.

Three years after his predecessor, ‘Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards, Satriani

ferent band with different members and a totally different music style.

Darkest White has nothing to do with Tristania’s early days and, in my opinion, it is quite different from their previous album as well. The band stated that they really wanted Darkest White to sound brutal, intense and full of energy and it actually sounds that way. Mariangela Demurtas gives some breathtaking vocal performances! Plus, this time all the lyrics were written by Ole Vistnes (bass and vocals) and, to be honest, I consider them rather exceptional! All the guitar parts were recorded digitally in a home studio and according to the band this was the first time they spent so much time in testing and experimenting with different guitars and tunings. Furthermore, for the first time in Tristania’s history, there are

not any acoustic guitar parts in Omega White.

comes up with an 11-track brand new musical masterpiece!

extreme technique and great skills, but also his very own playing style, in other words a music legend. He certainly knows how to get your attention with his marvelous melodies from the very first till the very last second of each of his songs.

Although I am not very keen on instrumental music, there is something in Satriani’s creations that draws your attention to every single note he plays! It is not surprising that ‘Unstoppable Momentum’ reached position No1 in U.S. Billboard Hard Rock Albums. With his fascinating guitar riffs, along with the amazing background music we can definitely say he has come up with a divine result! To be completely honest, the album lacks some fascination in songs like ‘Lies and Truths’ and ‘Three Sheets to the Wind’, where the main riff keeps continuously repeating on a stable background drum rhythm. Satriani is a guitarist, demonstrating not only dor, i.e. dispenser. What a dark, dramatic and heavy title? Well. It is totally fitting.

Rob Zombie is a really weird character, I mean the guy officially changed his name to ‘Zombie’ and this fact cannot be hidden in his music. “VRRV” was created at the same time as his new film The Lords of Salem, which I most definitely will watch, and thus shares the same glam horror stimulants and triggers.

Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor As an ardent Rob Zombie fan I was excited to listen to the new album “Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor“. Wait, what was that? Let’s break the title down: venomous rat, i.e. a rat bearing venom (not poison!) regeneration, i.e. renewal, ven-

I was a bit reluctant to embrace it at first and I could not help making comparisons between the opening track ‘Teenage Nosferatu Pussy’ and one of his biggest hits ‘Living Dead Girl’ as I was cringing internally. However, it sets the tone for the typical Zombie sound, raunchy, rabid and ultimately dirty. What is notable is that Zombie uses anonymous voice re-

In Darkest White Ole Vistnes and Kjetil Nordhus perform all the clean male vocals, Anders Høyvik Hidle all the harsh vocals and of course Mariangela Demurtas all the female vocals. All the 4 vocalists are totally different and all of them did an awesome job. I had been listening to this album for a quite long time and every time I had the same feeling in the end: every single part was in its right place. Let’s face it, Tristania and their producer Christer André did a great job with this album!

Last but not least, the artwork created by Eliran Kantor is lovely and it totally represents the whole atmosphere the music brings out. A great comeback for Tristania! Korina P.

The most striking thing about ‘Unstoppable Momentum’ is the fact that although Satriani still concentrates on rock music as it is, he dares to experiment in different styles and grooves that seem to match every song perfectly. One thing is for sure, he never runs out of creative ideas! An influential and all-time ‘electric magician’, a ‘guitar god’, Satriani is bound to light up an extraordinary musical path and an even brighter musical future! Hope VNZ

cordings as intros for the first four tracks, and throws his own speaking voice here and there in other tracks, perhaps to give it some urgency or directness as his style is known for his theatrical exaggerations.

What stands out is the ‘Theme for the Rat Vendor’ which is a minute long sitar sounding tribute to the eponymous regenerator of the venomous rats. And yet, as I was not (at first listening) impressed with the start of the album, I have four favourites which are back to back on the album, and which I can hardly favour one over another. As an honorable mention, ’Behold, The Pretty Filthy Creatures!’, I believe has struck commercial value instantly as it could easily be a radio and rock bar hit.

Weird, theatrical and horrific. Rob Zombie signature all over. Helen Marie Joyce

Burst { music magazine }

ALBUM REVIEWS

54 Black Star Riders - All Hell Breaks Loose A few months ago, when we saw Thin Lizzy live here in Greece, many of us complained about the band’s name because it is strongly associated with Phil Lynott. Now Scott Gorham and his crew released a new album, titled All Hell Breaks Loose, under the band name Black Star Riders. And guess what? The stuff you are about listening to is so fucking Thin Lizzy! “Thin Lizzy is a known situation, but with Black Star Riders we’re moving into uncharted territory and that’s pretty damn exciting. I’m having more fun playing right now than I have in years.” Scott Gorham stated and I couldn’t agree more with him.

On the other hand the one and only Ricky Warnick (ex The Almighty) the man who has the difficult job to fit in Phil Lynott’s shoes said that: “Black Star Riders allows us to move forward with passion and integrity, but in saying that it was always going to be a continuation of some kind. You can’t take the Thin Lizzy out of Scott Gorham - and why the hell would you want to?”. The characteristic Thin Lizzy style runs through the whole album, while Warnick did an excellent job on vocals. There are times when you close your eyes and it feels like the Phil Lynott himself sang again.

I have the feeling that the entire album is a compilation of Thin Lizzy’s b-sides, rarities and unreleased tracks. “Bound For Glory” could be Jailbreak’s b-side, while “Hey Judas” will remind you the “Bad Reputation” atmosphere. The proud sons of Ireland, country which is present throughout the whole album and especially in the introduction of “Kingdom of The Lost”, delivered a tasteful hard rock album the listener will enjoy, while the signature Thin Lizzy guitar-play will bring up memories of all the classics Phil Lynott and his gang gave us once.

Spiros Smyrnis

Children of Bodom Halo of Blood Rock-solid punch in the face. That’s the most sincere thing I can say about the new Children of Bodom album, entitled Halo of Blood, which is set for release via Nuclear Blast Records on June 6, 2013 in Europe and June 11 in North America.

The eighth studio album by the melodic Finnish death metallers, consists of 10 tracks that will give you a 40’+ orgasmic head banging. Behind the production, the experienced, twisted mind of Peter Tägtgren has once again worked magic, adding a strong character to the 10, already firm, compositions.

Halo of Blood This album does not have a sound you’ve never heard before in COB discography. However, there is a darker ambience floating in their tunes, something I’ve missed, to be frank. Enough melodies in the air as well, plus two exceptional ballads (“Scream For Silence” and “Dead Man’s Hand On You”) giving a graceful yet strong surprise in the listeners’ ears. Although Halo of Blood has a bit more down-tempo compositions than the usual COB we know, the overall balance has been kept, and we are definitely dealing with an interesting album, which is a worthy descendant of records like “Hatebreeder”and “Are You Dead Yet?”.

I believe we can effortlessly consider Halo of Blood as a classic COB album, full of power riffs, dark atmosphere and vocals and materialized by means of a strong, professional production. My advice to those who listen to this band for the first time would simply be to purchase the rest of their discography, gather their friends under a Bodom Blue Moon and let the Dead Man’s Hand do its magic.

Raphael Aretakis

as a new-born Christian making some at least unfortunate statements. However, Megadeth’s thirteenth album with the simple title “Thirteen” was a very good album, plus Dave Ellefson’s return made the Mega-fans can’t wait for the new Megadeth album.

Megadeth - Super Collider As a sworn Metallifan, I used to treat Megadeth with a little bit of suspiciousness because we are “metal opponents” if I could use the term. However, it was impossible for me not to recognize and love albums like “Peace Sells… but who’s buying”, “Rust in Peace” and “Countdown to Extinction”, by banging my head like a maniac. In the 2000s Megadeth disappointed me, with Mega-Dave Mustaine Burst { music magazine }

Although “Super Collider” is the title of the fourteenth Megadeth album,unfortunately is not as killer as the title implies. Dave Mustaine is still a riff-master and “Super Collider” has some inspired riffs. However, the songs don’t have the “guts” expected from Megadeth by a metal fan. You should not judge a book or a music album by its cover but the disjointed front cover of “Super Collider” might give us a hint.

Despite some inspired riffs I mentioned above, “Super Collider” has a “rock” philosophy and yes, take that as a compliment.

Less fast and angry than the previous

Megadeth albums, “Super Collider” seems to be “shiny and clean” in order to hide its weaknesses composition-wise. Repetitive down-tempo guitar themes with nothing new to add in the historic and awesome Megadeth discography are present in the entire album. I listened to the album very carefully, so nobody could say that I was biased against Megadeth; In any case, except for “Dancing in The Rain” featuring David Draiman (Disturbed, Device) on vocals and “Forget to Remember” all the tracks don’t have any interesting insight to offer.

Bands which define the heavy metal like Megadeth don’t need to release a new album every one or two years, but only when they have the right “material” to do so.

Spiros Smyrnis

EP REVIEWS

55 Wastefall – Meridiem (EP) After the band’s split-up in 2008, Wastefall were reactivated in 2013 and recorded a five track EP entitled “Meridiem”, which was released on April 12th, 2013. “Meridiem” highlights a powerful comeback of the Hellenic progressive metal band Wastefall. The opening track “Recycle The Elite” is as catchy and

as progressive as I consider Wastefall to be. However, I must say I was a bit disappointed with the second track “Hearts In The Gutter”, since it sounded extremely similar to Pain of Salvation.

“Vulturnus” is a quite complex track, consisting of melodic and metal elements alike: To be more precise, it’s a mix of classical piano tunes accompanied by clean and aggressive vocals. The track I enjoyed the most was “The Poetics of Flight” since it combines catchy riffs with melody and passionate vocals. It’s a very good effort, especially given the fact that the band was in hiatus for 7 years. Although I expected something completely different from Wastefall, the outcome wasn’t disappointing. On the contrary, it’s a high-quality EP with great production.

Sissy Fanouraki

Greek, music portal www.in2music.gr

Burst { music magazine }

56

er n r o C Pop

ntoulas ris Tsa ssi it im D By tina Alo & Chris

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE The Midas of Pop

Starting from The Mickey Mouse Club and the famous boy band ‘NSYNC, to all singing and dancing solo works, no-one could really imagine Justin would have made such a significant career for himself.

Justin Randall Timberlake was born in Memphis Tennessee on January 31st 1981. He grew up in a musical environment as his father was the choir director for a local Baptist church. Justin spent his childhood in Millington, a small town just north of Memphis. Justin showed himself ready to become performer from a very early age, at 10 he was already singing on the stage of the world-famous Grand Ole Opry with his characteristic now singing and dancing style which is greatly influenced by Michael Jackson, and Justin was often called by music media as the new King of Pop. Justin’s first professional deal came in 1993 when he was 12, when he sang on stage with the Disney Mickey Mouse Club TV show. Along with other future pop stars such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and JC Chasez his future bandmate in NSYNC... which proved to be a major turning point in both his professional and personal life, especially with his strormy relationship with Britney Spears. When his Mickey Mouse Club appearances came to an end in 1995, Justin asked JC Chasez to join a new all-boy singing band his close friend Lou Pearlman was forming with musician Chris Kirkpatrick. Joey Fatone and Lance Bass filled the quartet, which soon came to be known as ‘NSYNC. With Johnny Wright, former manager of the legendery boy-band “New Kids On The Block” and music producers Kristian Lundin and Denniz Pop and Max Martin, the success came rapidly basically at the teenage market.

‘NSYNC released their first single in 1996, and hit the big time in US 2 years later, spreading their music via a tour of American rollerskate rinks. Once they got going, it seemed as though NSYNC were virtually unstoppable, and in the year 2000, they released the fast-selling album of all time, called “No Strings Attached”. In 2002, however, the demands of fame began to take their toll. After completing the tour to promote their new album, “Celebrity”, and the release of “Girlfriend”, the third hit single from the album, the group decided to take a break from their exhausting schedule. But Justin wanted to keep right on performing and decided to pursue a solo career. He began working on his first solo album and was keen on changing and breaking away from his old boy-band look, becoming more mature in his music choices influenced by R&B, thanks to his new producers, the Neptunes. Justin’s first solo album was out on 5th November on the same year, it entered the Billboard 200 Chart at Number 2, and sold nearly half a million copies in the first week! The album featured several tracks that were originally intended to be released on Michael Jackson’s Invincible album, but never made it to the final selection.

Justin took a break from his singing career and decided to try his luck in acting. He’d already had a few cameo roles early in his career, included playing a male model in “Model Behaviour” (2000), another part in “On The Line” (2001). He played a jour Burst { music magazine }

nalist in the thriller “Edison Force” (2004), he also appeared in “Alpha Dog”, “Southland Tales” and “Black Snake Moan”, while he gave his voice in “Shrek the Third” (2007) and even appeared as a young Elton John in John’s promo video for the song, “This Train Don’t Stop There Anymore”.

During this small success in acting and his TV appearances Justin found the time to launch his own clothing line as well his own record company, JayTee Records. Despite his love for cinema, Justin still felt that music is his biggest love and in September 2006 he released his 2nd album FutureSex/LoveSounds. The album went straight to Number 1 in the Billboard chart by selling 904,000 copies, with also receiving the biggest number of preorders ever recorded on iTunes.

Meanwhile, Timberlake never stops producing films and following an even more successful acting career. In 2009, he starred in ‘The Open Road’ while the following year appeared in the hugely successful movie “The Social Network”, which received favorable reviews from critics that listed it as the “movie of the year”. In 2011 starred in 3 films, in the comedies “Bad Teacher”, “Friends with benefits” and the sci-fi “In time”.

Timberlake, despite his success on the big screen and his longtime hiatus from singing, is still making music but not as successful as before. However he definitely remains the absolute pop star. We cannot really say whether he is the most talented person or artist in the world ever; in any case, whatever he decides to do has proven to be right and successful, plus he always manages keeping the entire show-biz industry busy, which he seems to be doing for a long long time.

57

KATY PERRY The new virtual Pop Star

The Singer, songwriter and musician was born Katheryn Hudson on October 25, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California. The singer who dared to write about sexual exploration grew up in a very conservative family, with both of her parents being pastors, who refused to let her listen to any kind of music except for gospel.

Perry started taking up singing lessons at the age of 9 and learned to play the guitar at the age of 13. She soon became interested in pursuing a career in music. Her talent attracted the attention of rock veterans from Nashville, where she signed to a Christian music label named Red Hill to record a gospel country album, the selftitled “Katy Hudson”, which was released in 2001 with no success though.

As a teenager, Perry introduced herself to other musical styles, as one of her influences was the rock band Queen and Freddie Mercury, a great inspiration for her on her theatrical style, which is not hard to notice with her famous over-the-top fashions, her extraordinary outfits and quirky stage props on her shows.

After Perry got her GED she decided to leave school and try her luck in music by

Christina Aguilera

She’s 32 years old and has already gone through three different stages in her career. The “diva” singer of pop Christina with the velvety “black voice” has transformed from a blonde pop singer like a genie in a bottle meaningfully looking at the camera, into Xtina” a totally sexy mistress and from that into a “now vintage Pin up girl form with a taste of 20’s and a Marilyn Monroe look, calling herself “Baby Jane”.

This turn to more quality music, influenced by Jazz, blues and rockabilly was so much more than her rock fans’ hopes and dreams.

In 1993, Christina Aguilera started starring in the TV show The Mickey mouse club alongside Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, where she got the nickname “The Diva” due to her unique voice, a gift she possessed from a very young age. Her parents divorced when Christina was only six, due to her father’s attitude, who psy-

moving to Los Angeles, where she met and started working with producer and songwriter Glen Ballard, well known from Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill”, produced back in 1995 with an extremely huge commercial success. Perry was only 17 years old at the time and being on her own proved tough for her while was facing several disappointments before she gets to her big breakthrough as she and Ballard were unable to find a record company willing to sign them on. After having 3 unsuccessful record deals, from which she was dropped out, Perry finally signed with Capitol in 2007. Soon Perry released her first single “Ur So Gay” a song which gained Pop superstar Madonna’s mention by calling it as one of her favorites at that period. Perry’s songwriting inevitably drew comparisons to the one of Lily Allen’s, another singer known for her provocative, quirky and cheeky lyrics. Still her career did not fully take off until the release of her next single “I Kissed a Girl,” which topped the charts during the summer of 2008. With that song’s huge success, her debut album “One of the Boys” released a month ago, made it into the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

The song also earned Perry a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop

Vocal Performance while followed several hits out of her debut with her career to be launched for good in the conscience of music industry and the audience.

In 2009 Perry appeared in her own acoustic special on MTV. The soundtrack from the show titled “Katy Perry: MTV Unplugged”, was released around the same year. In August 2010 she released her 3rd studio album titled “Teenage Dream”, which was an instant but thunderous commercial success out of which she managed to have 5 number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart becoming the first female artist in history to achieve this. First album that achieved that was Michael Jackson’s legendary “Bad” (1987).

The young pop star has great ambitions for her future; she stated she wants ultimately Katy Perry to be as much of a household name as Madonna. With a signature perfume and film role opportunities heading her way, one could say she has just made all her dreams come true by being constantly on the spotlight during the last few years, which she definitely deserves it with her wide talent and unique style.

Baby Jane please come back!! chically and physically abused Christina and her mother alike. Till today, Christina has absolutely no contact with him. The traumatic childhood she’s been through made her even stronger and she gave her entire self into fighting in order to reach where she wanted, topping the charts as she well deserved.

to quality by always maintaining her pop style at the same time went on to her next album, featuring songs with more electronic beats. Collaborations with huge names of the electronic scenes, such as M.I.A, Santigold, Peaches and Nicki Minaj complete the musical picture of her album “Bionic”.

With the album “Back to basicks”, she managed to get home another Grammy award for the best pop female voice. Her singing performance in “It’s a man’s man’s man’s world” during a tribute event for James Brown made everyone’s hair stand on end and was simply breathtaking, once again proving her charismatic voice. One year after, maternity knocked on her door and the sum she collected for the publication of her child’s photos was immense. Her appearance alongside Mick Jagger in a Martin Scorsese documentary followed, finding both artist performing a duet of “Live with me”. Auguilera’s turn

Although considered by many musicians and singers as one of the best voices alive, unfortunately her choices in her latest album “Lotus” make you think it’s such a shame such a voice being “consumed” in such meaningless songs. She could have become the new Nina Simone, having possessed a voice that gives you a chill and aims straight to your heart, bringing out countless feelings and making you dream away. The Marilyn Monroe with the “black blues voice” could conquer the entire world if she took a more rockabilly path.

Burst { music magazine }

58

e g a P e h T n Tur

by Hope Vnz

Electric magician and electric musician “Jimmy Page-Magus Musician Man” by George Case “Guitar heroes. Millionaire gypsies. Technical troubadours of the dawning information age. Shrewd and sensitive professionals, yet self-destructive artists trapped in a cocoon of indulgence and excess; adult tastemakers in a lucrative and coldly competitive industry, living out juvenile fantasies for an obsessive following. Legendary compositions, classic albums, and anthems for an entire culture. Thunderous concerts given in gigantic stadiums; the envy of and examples to whole generations. Emperors. Eccentrics. Addicts. Enigmas.”

I have never been a crazy fan of Led Zeppelin, nor a role-model follower of Jimmy Page. All I did was admire and respect, most of the time not really understanding, but admitting and bowing to the great talent. When suggested the book by a friend I was really reluctant to venture into the turbulence and the details of a long gone era in music. But somehow the enthusiasm of my friend, his constant urge to listen to the music he knew, but needed to hear and understand, the ray the ghostly figure of Page shed on his being, made me pick up the book and accompanied by the arpeggio of songs and sacraments coming out of the speakers of my computer I engrossed into the world of one of the greatest ever bands of our time, Led Zeppelin.

Jimmy Page, Magus, Musician, Man- An Unauthorized Biography by George Case is a compilation of facts, myths, rumours, and long-gone memories concerning the legendary guitarist of Led Zeppelin, unveiling his personal and artistic dimension on the background of the age and the music world of the time. A writer on music and a musician himself George Case unfolds his devotion to Page and rings a bell, reminding us why millions of people fell in love with Led Zeppelin in the first place. There is really no man in the world interested in music who does not know the general outline of the life and work of Jimmy Page, and almost everyone on Earth has listened to his hymn of hope, Stairway to Heaven, but there is much more in this book. Case adds as well some facts and details, information and clarifications on the little publisized life in “swinging London”, Page’s career as a studio sideman, his years with Yardbirds, his friendship with Clapton, his relationship with Jackie Deshannon, Charlotte Martin, Lori Mattix, and other groupies of the time, his interest in different music from the world, folk symbolism, love for antiques and engrossment in occultism. This is book is not only a detailed chronological revelation of the rise and fall of Led Zeppelin and its resurrection, but also a deep insight into the music and its development as such.

You can find almost anything in the book, from the formation of the band, through their years of glory, madness, excess and success, the death of Bonnam, information on Aleister Crowley, Burst { music magazine }

facts about the Firm, Van Halen, the Black Crows, Coverdale, Puff Daddy, reunions and co operations, and of course his guitars, amplifiers and equipment and innovations, technical and artistic. The book is so excessively full of information that every time you read it you feel the need to re-read as your appetite for more knowledge grows and grows.

Sublime, excessive, humble, enigmatic, divine, satanic, a Lucifer, a Mephistopheles, a Prometheus, and Angel of heavenly music, a groupie heartbreaker, alleged Satan worshipper, “Jack Daniel’s chugger”, drug criminal, heavy metal idol, an inventor, a pioneer, a sinner, a leader, an inspirer or experimenter, whatever label you try to attach to Jimmy Page, you are bound to be mistaken.

One thing we can all agree on is Jimmy Page is a charismatic genius who generated overpowering music and has earned his rightful place on the throne of Gods in the Kingdom of Music.

Fan or not of Led Zeppelin, follower or hater, you should read this book. It will be an unbelievable journey, a quest in the misty world of Jimmy Page and his contemporaries, a voyage in the sea of sounds you will want to experience again and again.

59

Karolina Pacan Before they are gone

My dear friends and Warriors, today I wanted to write about a special subject that has touched many of us already.

Nobody lives forever; we all will pass away one day. But many of us don’t realize the chance we have right here and right now.

Only when death comes to take our closed ones, do we realize that we had a chance ‘’before’’ it happened, but you know what? We are too late…

How many of us have said ‘’oh! I wish I could tell him/her, this or that....’’, but when people are still there we maybe wait for special ‘’moment’’ for the ‘’right time’’…

I guess we might not know how to say things, but the more we wonder, then the more time we lose…

Instead of thinking, go and say to

your mother, father, aunty, friend, how much you appreciate them, if you have been in a fight, and you really want to make a peace, then go and do it!

Even if they won’t be listening; you will be in peace with your self, that you did something to make it better.

Life is too short to keep anger inside, if a situation is worth repairing, then do it.

Remember nobody lives forever, break your ego, and go say things you really want to say, Give a hand; don’t wait for the last moment, because the last moment won’t be yours.

Be the one who has the last word, not Death…

Now go, and let your heart shine.

Love and Peace.

Burst { music magazine }

60

Neil Gaiman The Sandman!

Written by B|S|Orestis

Burst { music magazine }

61 “There are only two worlds - your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy.

Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. These worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power; provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters. ” ― The Books of Magic I always believed that everybody has the right to live in his own big, fat world. I used to have a lot to choose from, but it was this comic book that made the decisions for me. The simple question within the texts of that comic made all the pieces come together: Does Magic has a will of its own?

Neil Gaiman is the fantasy philosopher behind all these. A multi award winner novelist (including the Carnegie Medal) with a repertoire of hundreds of graphic novels, comics, short fictions, even films, he is a subconscious mentor for artist all around the world. I remember watching a teaser of the Harry Potter movie and wondered: could this be Timothy Hunter? I am convinced that mrs Rowling was inspired by his work, but you Bursters will have to wait for an interview to actually find out…

Born on November 1960 in Britain, he has been receiving awards since the 90’s, and his most know work is “The Sandman” series. The “Books of Magic” series and “Death” are my favorites. He is a master in tranforming common characters to protagonists of fantasy worlds. Reading his works will bring to mind the wardrobes of Narnia and the heroism of Frodo, with the cunnings and resourcefulness of Batman, trying to find his way out of the rabbit hole!

Even though you will find resemblances as above, at the same time it will feel like you have never read anything similar before. He evolves its character through dialog, unraveling mysterious past experiences, making all people (and other creations!) within his worlds significant to the plot. He is heavily inspired and influenced by the works of Alan Moore (you think you don’t know him, those who don’t: remember John Constantine?) who I believe made him infiltrate the Comic Book world.

“One of the joys of comics has always been the knowledge that it was, in many ways, untouched ground. It was virgin territory. When I was working on Sandman, I felt a lot of the time that I was actually picking up a machete and heading out into the jungle.”

His amazing worlds have inspired also the film industry as well. The movie “Stardust” of 2007, the CG movie “Beowulf” and the stop frame animation of Tim Burton “Coraline” of 2009 are among those. He was also the one to make the script adaptation for the famous anime movie “Princess Mononoke”.

The list is endless so I urge you to look up his Wikipedia page, or even better go to a local bookstore and find his works. Reading will give you ideas to form your own world and find the answer to everyone’s mind: What is it that will keep my world together? Could it be Magic?

http://neilgaiman.com/ https://www.facebook.com/neilgaiman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Gaiman

Burst { music magazine }

62

Burst { music magazine }

63

Burst { music magazine }

64

Feeling Numb?

Coming soon...

Burst { music magazine }

65

Stallone

An ode to

Adriaaaaaaannnnn! Adriaaaaannnnn! There’s a man standing in the ring. Correction: There’s a man trying to stand on his feet. Both his eyes are bruised. He is in blood. People were screaming his name. Rocky! Rocky! Photographers took pictures of him but he tries to get to the mic, just to scream Adriaaaaaannnnn. This is how I first met Sly. I was 10-11 years old when I saw Rocky on TV for the first time. I was very impressed by the man who played Rock, the Great, Great Mister Sylvester Stallone, Sly, as most of his friends and fans used to call him.

By Spiros Smyrnis

This man isn’t the most talented actor/screenwriter/director in the history of cinema.

On the contrary many critics claim that Stallone is one of the most overrated actors in the history of cinema. What would Rambo have said about that? Fuck off Okay? Because real men, like John Rambo are not afraid of a bunch of critics. His black ribbon is full of sweat. Rambo ties it behind his head. He is a veteran from Vietnam, a war machine. He’s badass. He hates small talk and talk is cheap. He is a hero and real heroes don’t die. They just reload. Someone tried to push him; even Rambo warned him: Don’t push it or I will give you a war you won’t believe. He is a real warrior, he never gives up. “You know what you are. What you’re made of. War is in your blood. Don’t fight it.

You didn’t kill for your country. You killed for yourself. God’s never gonna make that go away. When you’re pushed, killing’s as easy as breathing.” His words wake us up and we, Sly fans will be devoted to his cause.

Because Sly is the man. He is a “Specialist”, that’s why Sharon Stone likes him. He is the Great Marion Cobretti, also known as Cobra. If you were a disease, guess who would be the cure! Where law stops Cobra starts suckers! Write that down. He doesn’t like scumbags and lousy shots. “You wasted a kid... for nothing. Now I think it’s time to waste you!” Be careful ‘cause Cobra is a man true to his word and bad for your health; that’s why city angel, also known as Brigitte Nilssen, likes him. Sly is the long-haul truck driver, wanting to become a champion arm wrestler. His name is Lincoln Hawk and stands Over the Top. He is the prisoner under the name Frank Leone in Lock Up, the one that blows the mind of Donald Sutherland up. He is Tango, Cash’s buddy (played by Kurt Russel) and he tosses a grenade down a bad guy’s pants. Why’s that?

Because that was Tango’s contribution to Birth control.

Sly shouts that “I am the Law” on Judge Dredd film and the rest of us obey. He is also the deaf sheriff in Cop Land, where he gives a stunning performance (probably the best in his career) starring with actors like Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. He is Gabe Walker, the man who rapes the Cliffs in Cliffhanger and Kit Latura in Daylight. A frozen version of Sly is available on “Demolition Man” where John the Spartan started a fight with Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes). A few minutes later, he ate a rat burger, but he didn’t throw up because he is just…Sly. He is a maniac sent to catch another maniac and he is so much better live than on laserdisc. The line Spartan said to Simon Phoenix stays as a cult monument in the history of cinema. “You gonna regret this the rest of your life, both seconds of it”. He is also “The Dean” the notorious, undefeated card player on Shade, where he smokes a cigar like only Sly could. He is Jack Carter in the remake of the classic Mike Hodges film (starring Michael Kaine) by Stephen Kay and the hired assassin Robert Path in Richard Donner’s Assassins. He is the most expendable of Expendables and this is a title to be proud of, but to me is that figure in the ring screaming Adriaaaaaannnnn, the Italian stallion, Rocky Balboa with the Burning Heart, the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night, the one he is watching us all with the eye of a tiger. Long Live Sly!

Burst { music magazine }

Written by Eleni Lampraki

66 “A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman” is a 2012 animated 3D film, based on the life of English actor, writer, comedian and Monty Python member Graham Chapman. First published in 1980, the film is based on the book entitled “A Liar’s autobiography, Volume VI”, the autobiography of Chapman (with a comedy/sarcastic tone).

It was again republished in 1991, 1999 and 2011.

In June 2011, it was announced that the book was going to be adapted into an animated film. Although not a Monty Python movie, all but one of the remaining Pythons are involved in the project or as they state in the teaser in the film contributed “five Pythons including the dead one”. The film is mostly written and narrated by Chapman himself, using the audiotapes he recorded, reading his autobiography soon before he died. John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam voice over all the other characters that come on dialogue with Chapman (including Cameron Diaz’s voice as “Sigmund Freud”).

The film is both in 2D and 3D format and it used 14 animation companies and 17 different animation styles, each one telling a small chapter of Graham’s life from 3 to 12 minute length.

thon perform their “Flying circus”. While on stage and performing Wilde, Graham has an accident and is abducted by aliens.

At the time he is kept on spaceship he starts narrating – in an unorthodox way – his story. He was born in Lemington in 1942, he studied at Eton and he was a bookworm from a young age. In 1960 he met John Cleese and they made a professional writer duet. He went to Cambridge to study medicine, he loved rugby, he was afraid of physics and he took part in Cambridge circus. In 1964 he discovers his homosexuality (according to his own survey he is 70% gay) and he meets his lifetime partner David (David Sherlock) in Ibiza. He throws out a coming out party and at the same time he performs with other Pythons the “Flying Circus”. At that time he has to deal with his alcoholism and with his obsession with Hollywood parties.

The film follows the general storyline of Chapman’s life, pointing out some major facts and habits as his pipe-smoking, his preference in gin and his academic and celebrity life. Of course it’s not a complete autobiography or a fully realistic film; it’s just in the spirit and the humor of Monty Python regardless. Some animation features are better than others but, as quoted in the trailer, “The best film I’ve been in since I died. Graham Chapman”. Totally unsuitable for children and people with no sense of humor.

Written by Eleni Lampraki

At first, the film takes place in 1976 in New York, were Monty Py-

Probably one of the most promising films of the year. “The Great Gatsby” is a tribute to the “roaring twenties”. Based on the “Great Gatsby” book, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, it follows the life of Jay Gatsby, a millionaire with an extravagant lifestyle and his fellow company in the fictional town of West Egg, Long Island, in 1922, living the American Dream. F. Scott Fitzgerald, part of the same life-style himself, was inspired of the parties of that era, the jazz music, the flapper culture and wrote down a complete memoire of that time. However, his death in 1940 contributed to the ignorance of the masterpiece and the classic his novel became till today. The 2013 movie is not the first film adaptation, but the sixth, not including an opera composition. Till today the most famous version is the 1974 starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow. In the latest version, Leonardo Di Caprio is Jay Gatsby and Carey Mulligan his passionate love interest, Daisy Buchanan. The film is directed by Baz Luhrmann (“Romeo and Juliet”, “Moulin Rouge”) and co stars Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher and Jason Clarke.

The film stars with the narrator, Nick, a Yale graduate and War World I veteran, kept in a sanatorium and memorizing a man called “Gatsby”. As he starts writing down his thoughts, we are introduced to the protagonists of the film. In 1922, Nick moves to Burst { music magazine }

New York and rents a small house in West Egg, near the manor of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who holds extravagant parties. While on dinner with his cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom, he is introduced to Jordan, who soon becomes his girlfriend and informs him about Tom out of marriage affair with an also married woman called Myrtle. Nick will meet Myrtle and her husband George after a little time, and he will attend a bizarre party with unpleasant ending. At the same time he will receive an invitation to Gatsby ‘s next party, where he will meet his famous and secretive neighbor. Jordan once again will reveal to Nick that Gatsby and Daisy were one time lovers and Gatsby is still mad about her. Daisy and Gatsby will meet again and renew their relationship, but Tom will find out and the consequences will be disastrous.

Just like Gatsby’s parties, Baz Luhrmann once again makes a sparkling bubby movie, with great music, theatrical feeling, and extravagant scenery. However, he probably misses the core of what was the 1920s about. In any case, ultimately Luhrmann’s movies are always my favorite ones because of that fresh and retro mixture. As for the film in question in particular, the power of the image fits nicely to an American classic tale.

Written by Pana Apostolidou

67 “The Place beyond the Pines” tells three stories, a triptych on different men, with different life qualities, different temperament and different destinations.

The first part is dedicated to Luke, a poor man coming from a broken family, living the life of the loner stunt rider without any interest in life whatsoever. His turning point is the discovery that one of his occasional girlfriends has given birth to his son.

Feeling the responsibility of fatherhood and the jealousy of another man growing up his baby, he resigns from his job and he is looking for a more profitable profession: he is extremely good at riding his bike and robbing banks. This decision will engage him with a cop, Bradley Cooper, living in a parallel universe, also having a newborn son. In the second part of the film, Cianfrance is focusing on the cop’s relationship with the corrupt police force and his personal collision with his rich father. The third part is the aftermath of their meeting, meant to change dramatically not only their lives but also those of their sons, whom we watch fifteen years later. The third part of the story is underlining that nobody can escape his destiny. As you move from sequence to sequence, the movie genre seems to change from drama to crime and from crime to drama again.

ling decided to work together once more. Once again Gosling is the mysterious guy with the dirty past; however, this time he reaches this kind of character to the perfect level, almost as perfect as it was in “Drive”. Eva Mendes gives me the impression that she wants to turn to another acting level after “Holy Motors”, which is –of course- good news! Anyway, she seems to manage it pretty well.

Acting is a very powerful asset of the movie: stylized and terse dialogues give an essence of a cold and distant universe, in which characters cannot control their lives. Someone else is weaving their master plan. I also appreciated Dane DeHann as Jason in the third part; his acting kinda balances with the weakness of the plot. Some awkward moments may exist, such as the conventional concept and the abrupt transition from part to part, indicating flow problems in the narration. In turn, the weakness of the plot balances with the superiority of the directing.

Beautiful landscapes are showing off their majesty, as we follow the camera following Grosling driving his motorbike. Gloomy atmosphere, shaky camera moves, puzzling, dark faces which, in combination with Sean Bobbit’s marvelous photography and colors, create a compulsive but yet nostalgic atmosphere.

Last but not least, the seductive soundtrack (served by names such as Mike Patton and Ennio Morricone) fits perfectly to the images, evoking haunting feelings.

Written by Aggeliki Rouska

After 2010’s “Blue Valentine”, Derek Cianfrance and Ryan GosThings changed in the Marvel film industry after the Avengers. Joss Whedon raised the bar too high, as we are talking about one of the greatest super hero movies of all times. He put the foundation for the characters, reformed their stories, recreated them (e.g. Hulk) and gave them a new path to follow. These characters are not standing alone anymore, but are bound together and their stories have continuity.

Shane Black graciously embraces this and shows it many times during the third installment of Iron Man. We can even say that the main idea of this movie is based on the Avengers. Tony Stark passed the gate, tripped for a while to the other side, dimension actually.

This changed him. He didn’t lost his sense of humor, the sarcasm nor his ego. No, till now he remains the irritating, Mr. Know-itall billionaire who saves the day. However, this time he seems to realize what it really matters and cannot risk it. So, in this sequel Iron Man is more man than iron. Not only this, but he has also to face a terrorist, Mandarin.

getting a glimpse of Ben Kingsley as a villain, who looked amazing… but why not in the film?

At this point let me clarify something. There are those who have read the comics and know the story of Mandarin and his background and then there are those who just do not have a clue. I belong to the second group. So, there was this amazing trailer and I expected to watch something extremely awesome. Did I watch it? Definitely not! Although I do not want to give any spoilers, let me tell you that there is a major twist and having above in mind you either gonna love it or hate it. For me it just didn’t work. After this turning point the story became so uninteresting to the point of dull. It just ended to be one casual super hero movie with the usual villain and your ordinary good guy.

Shane Black presents a smart idea and criticizes successfully the matter of terrorism in USA, however it doesn’t have any effect.

There are no characters to support the story because in the end there is no story. Even Robert Downey Jr isn’t such a joy to watch anymore, because you have seen his character way too many times.

I went to the cinema to watch what it was promised to be the most breathtaking, changeover movie for Iron Man and I came out totally disappointed, with a feeling that I’ve been cheated and with no Iron Man at all.

Mandarin is the usual, Bin-Laden look alike terrorist, ready to teach USA president a lesson. A terrorist we mostly see through live broadcasted messages, not interacting with almost any of the characters. Having watched the trailer you could feel the awe by Burst { music magazine }

68

Burst { music magazine }

69

Director’s Cut

Emir Kusturica Written by Pana Apostolidou & Spiros Smyrnis Photos from the official facebook page of the director

“The most difficult part of making movies is to keep making them. Maybe, you could make the biggest hit in the world, but then the big problem is what to do next and how to maintain devoted to a certain instinct that I have about films”.

If someone asks who the most-known and recognizable Balkan director is, Emir Kusturica will probably be the most common answer. Definitely justified cause Emir “Nemanja” Kusturica marked once and for all the European Cinema with his work, winning twice the Palme d’Or at Cannes (for When Father Was Away on Business and Underground films). Kusturica has won dozens of awards. Besides Cannes Festival, he was among the winners in Karlovy Vary for Guernica, Venice Festival for Do You Remember Dolly Bell, Berlin Film Festival for Arizona Dream and César Awards, (2005) for Life is a Miracle.

“I am a convinced enemy of “films de genre”. The genre films are done in countries with huge cinematographic industries. The political films can be done only in these countries, not in ours, which produces about thirty films per year. I framed men and women, who love, who suffer and who are sad. They also have a smile from time to time…” Kusturica stated once.

Burst { music magazine }

70 (“Sjecas Li Se”), “Dolly Bell Do you remember Dolly Bell”. The first film of Kusturica shared with us the story of a young man who grows up in Sarajevo in the 1960s, under the shadow of his good, but ailing father, and gets attracted by the world of small-time criminals. They hire him in order to hide a young prostitute and he falls in love with her (the plot is taken from Imdb). The viewer could see through this film the famous Kusturica’s style, even it’s far from the one that the Serbian/Bosnian filmmaker established in Underground and Time of the Gypsies. Kusturica isn’t cruel with his heroes, despite the fact that are men living in the underground. On the contrary he treats them with respect and love. “Do you remember Dolly Bell” is a nostalgic film about the lost childhood. A gang of 5 adolescents met with crime and got mature, finding love as long with their inner self. A very sweet movie, homage to those childhood memories we cannot live

I leave, at the end, in the space”. I could try to philosophize, to think about it, but I refuse to do it… this take-off is perhaps an escape…” (taken from the interview from the press kit of When father was away on Business, as it was published in www.kustu.com) Kusturica takes all the characteristics of his first films and hands them in such a way so that he could deliver. The young Moreno D’E Bartolli gives an outstanding performance, which seems to him easy as breathing: another sweet movie from the Balkan filmmaker, combining child’s fantasy with the cruelty of the adult world.

without.

another masterpiece about the life of the gypsies in Yugoslavia. I firmly believe that this movie established him as one of the most important filmmakers of the 90’s: Emblematic story, charismatic direction, one of the best soundtracks in the history of cinema. Kusturica framed grandiose scenes with a clear objective and honest narration, while Bregovic composed some of the most impressive songs ever written.

“Ederlezi” and “Kustino Oro” will always remain in my memory, ever since I was a child and my mother was watching the film. Images and music are blending into harmony, allowing the viewer to purify his soul. Don’t judge me for being overemotional before you see the movie!

On Otac na sluzbenom putu (When father was away on business), we see some great historical events taking place in Yugoslavia, Tito’s break up with Stalin, which has a significant effect on the life of thousands communists. Malik’s father is imprisoned so this Kusturica’s film tells the young boy’s story and his family efforts to cope with those unfortunate events. At the end of the film we were left wondering, where Malik went. Kusturica himself answered that “I will simply answer you that the action leads towards the departure in the sky. I don’t know, finally, where he goes. A certain order on the ground was disturbed, and became too complicated for him: the only possible exit to this family tragedy was this take-off… this must be taken, of course, as a metaphor. Moreno De Bartolli recently said to a journalist: “what I preferred in the film, is the moment when Burst { music magazine }

“Time of the gypsies” (Dom Za Vesanje) is an insuperable cinematic experience, which every true cinephile should watch.

It involves a boy with telekinetic powers and his passage from childhood to manhood. Kusturica –thankfully- cannot leave his obsessions behind and gives us yet

Arizona Dream is the only film that Kusturica shot for Hollywood. Quoting the plot from Imdb “An Innuit hunter races his sled home with a fresh-caught halibut.

This fish pervades the entire film, in real

and imaginary form. Meanwhile, Axel tags fish in New York as a naturalist’s gofer.

He’s happy there, but a messenger arrives to bring him to Arizona for his uncle’s wedding. It’s a ruse to get Axel into the family business. In Arizona, Axel meets two odd women: vivacious, needy, and plagued by neuroses and familial discord.

He gets romantically involved with one, while the other, rich but depressed, plays accordion tunes to a gaggle of pet turtles.” I think that this is Kusturica’s most “dreamy” film. Although he used to choose a marginal guy to be the hero in most of his movies, Arizona Dream is among the most poetic ones. The Serbian filmmaker, accompanied by Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, Faye Danaway, Lili Taylor and Vincent Galo creates another touching portrait of a man chasing his dreams. The notorious “American Dream” is under Kusturica’s microscope, giving Johnny Depp the chance to impersonate a dreamer who

talks about life and death, meets strange people, beautiful women, with whom he fells in love. The amazing soundtrack composed by Bregovic gives a Balkan essence while “In the Death Car” by Iggy Pop is at least blood-curling. New York is a city of contradictions. On one hand there is the famous lifestyle, full of junk food, TVs, Cadillacs and other expensive fast cars, on the other there are the classic movies we like, starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, the North by Northwest references and Jazz music. Kusturica combined both contradictions, capturing some unmemorable shots with his camera. ”Films have to be bigger than life” Kusturica said, that’s why we love the films of “The magic child of the Yugoslav cinema”.

“Underground”, an all-time classic, also known as “Once Upon a time there was a country”, turned the nightmare of the disintegration of Yugoslavia into an allegory:

71 An epic movie, successfully covering almost 50 years of history in its darkest period, capturing the grim reality of the Balkans and the temperament of the Balkan people through endless symbolism. Don’t think it is a boring historical case. On the contrary, the Bosnian-Serbian director managed to explore the causes of this disastrous war through his favorite recipe, a surrealistic fairy-tale. Some workers in an underground weapon factory in Yugo-

“Every time I’m shooting a movie I want to kill myself.

Because I don’t see the light in the end of the tunnel” slavia decide to stay underground to find a shelter during World War 2. Their only contact with the outside world is a trafficker who forgets to tell them that the war is over, leaving them there for 50 years!

When they decide to come out of the rathole they find themselves into the Civil War: Kusturica’s satire at its best. He put History itself to feed the characters with lies, wine, terror and frenzied Balkan music, until it tears them into pieces. Still, they are standing on their feet again, resisting in a sort of ritual way, willing to find the light of a better life. But History won’t leave them alone. It is repeating in vicious circles… Kusturica was accused for propaganda in favor of the Serbs. I would just say it is an ode to peace…

After award-winning “Time of the Gypsies” and “Underground”, Emir Kusturica gives us a third masterpiece taken out from the same cinematic universe. “Black cat, White Cat” (Crna macka, beli macor) -my personal favorite- is moving towards the “bright” side of Roma life and a grotesque wedding framed by the scenery of postwar Yugoslavia. Jobberies, mobsters, entangled love situations, recurring images of a pig devouring metal and the two cats. Kusturica’s frame is never empty, or to say it better, it is always crowded with people, animals and motion. Gypsy music fills and overemphasizes this chaotic and charming composition, a pattern often used by the director. Kusturica’s humor is prevailing, sometimes carefree, sometimes stochastic but always based on the gypsy lifestyle.

“Life is a Miracle” (“Zivot je cudo”) is showcasing Kusturica’s main sources of inspiration: Balkan landscapes, animals popping out and claiming their own active space in the movie, people having fun in all sorts of crazy ways, an orchestra wandering around the scenes of the movie. In this film, the director is focusing on a love story growing under adverse conditions: the political situation is leaning towards the end of the united Yugoslavia. Ignoring

the news talking about military conflict, a Serbian engineer designs a railway in a village in Bosnia, hoping it will become a tourist attraction. The war is breaking out, his wife leaves him and he falls in love with a Muslim, which the Serbs are about to exchange for his captive son.

“Promise me this” (“Zavet”) is a story about a kid living with his grandfather somewhere in the Serbian countryside.

His grandfather assigns him with an eccentric mission: he must go to town, sell the cow, buy a picture of St. Nicholas, get a souvenir and find himself a bride! The kid follows those instructions indeed, goes to the town, befriends some curious types and ultimately deals with everything. Yet one more time we see the motif of a child who is forced to grow up fast through dangerous circumstances and take life in his own hands. Although the film is not Kusturica at his best, it is typical Kusturica,

adorable, funny and worth watching.

Kusturica is a multi-talented individual.

Apart from director, actor and musician, he is also a film and football fanatic. So he was the best choice to direct a documentary on the one and only, the greatest football player ever lived, Diego Armando Maradona. He named the documentary Maradona, sketching the profile of the rebel, legend, artista, Argentinean who changed the history of football once and for all. Maradona is the man, for whom a church it was built, so that the millions believers in the world have a place to worship their God. I wish I could be Maradona, just to live only few minutes of his fucking life, a friend of mine used to tell. He was right because Maradona was so much more than a football player. He wasn’t perfect, like Pele, but an idol, who’s both risen and fallen. Kusturica is only one of the famous guests in this documentary about the Argentinean football play-

er. Fidel Castro, Manu Chao, Hugo Chávez and Evo Morales, all bow down before Maradona. Kusturica puts under the microscope Maradona’s interesting, eccentric and ambiguous personality, by using rare footage like the intense scene where Maradona sings a song written about him.

We, the rest of us, felt blessed cause “la mano de dios” (meaning the hand of God in Spanish) saluted us. Venceremos!

If you have never watched any of Kusturica’s movies, try to imagine something between a circus and a surrealistic magical happening. You may think that all this organized chaos is more chaotic than organized and that luck plays a major part in the creation of these poetic and unpredictable movies, full of metaphors and symbols, yet intensely realistic. Kusturica has, as a starting point, the mystical vitality of the Slavic soul. Maybe it is the way he grew up in the streets of Sarajevo, contacting

people full of energy and nosiness alike.

Or maybe he just creates extravagant and exuberant situations coming out of fairytales.

Above all, however, he has realized who he is, where he is coming from and how this experience can be translated into cinematic language. His country’s recent history and drama, which accompanies him throughout his life is the main source that gives his art a form. As for me, I will present my personal –and humble- opinion, meaning no offense to anybody: all his movies contain an essence of the Balkan Ego, a libertarian behavior pattern. His characters, carrying a certain cultural identity, wounded by sociopolitical circumstances, are totally allowed to find the most lunatic ways to live, to have fun, to deal with the daily routine. Besides, that’s the way they roll…

Burst { music magazine }

72

Written by Spiros Smyrnis

Well, well, well… Another Burst issue, another it’s not Greek to Me. This time I present you the band with the coolest and more badass name you’ve ever heard of: Ladies and Gentlemen here come the Druuuuuunkkkkk Motherrrrrfuuuuckersss!

Drunk Motherfuckers kicked off in 2005 as “The Drunk Earth” and continue so far with a completely different line up, mood, philosophy AND OF COURSE NAME! “Returnable Bottle” was the first tape EP of the Drunk Motherfuckers. In 2012, the Athenian band released their debut full length album, using the cunning title: “… And Alcohol for All. Methysmenoi Kargiolides (this is the band name in greeklish) created their own front cover version of Metallica’s classic And Justice for All album. There, the statue of Liberty is a red-haired punk rockerm smoking weed and drinking beer. As you might have already imagined, we gonna review a band with a strong sense of humour. Don’t misunderstand them, they are not clowns. On the contrary, they take their music very seriously, that’s why they gave us a fine example of stone rock, titling … And Alcohol for All. As we mentioned above, the album was released in 2012 by Casket Music Productions. It features 8 tracks, of a total duration of 48 minutes and it is so goddamn cooling like a cold beer. The album opens with the 3-D track (check immediately the band’s ultra-sexy plus funny official video, which is available on youtube) a groovy song that pumps up my whole room. The next one, “You Want Me Dead” is my favourite; the song was written for the soundtrack of the film “Fertilizer Factory” and it is definitely the album’s hit. Fast, heavy as shit and sing along this song is written to be played on stage.

The alcoholic poetry of Father W. is a mix of John Garcia (Kyuss, Unida, Hermano e.t.c) and Layne Stanley (Alice in Chains), while the guitars are bred with the touch of American South. Drowned in a sea of beer, the rhythm section goes hand-in-glove with the stoned melodies and gets you high. So we moved to what I’ve already called “the drunk trilogy”: “Drunk and Wasted”, “The Earth was Drunk” and “Baptized in Alcohol” are three songs, three stories, three chapters of the alcohol saga dedicated to the God that runs through our veins and calls himself many names: Beer, Whiskey, rum, vodka, gin. He answers back to all these names but he prefers alcohol. So, alcohol thy name and heavy rock and roll thy game. There are no rules, no lies, no prohibitions. There is only the goddamn will to have fun get drunk and wasted.

If you are looking for breaking codes or making experimental improvisations and stuff like that, Drunk Motherfuckers are not your cup of tea, comprente? The rest of you who are bored of routine and reality, you don’t need your weed, but a dope of “And Alcohol for All”. This is what you need to “win the bet and move ahead”. The lines are taken from “Tricking the Devil”. For those who want some more, let’s cheat that bastard. Cheers mate and do not forget: Stay Drunk, Motherfuckers! Keep it Wasted!

Burst { music magazine }

73

Absinthe Cafe

location: Herakledon 19, Thiseio tel: +302103424224 www.apsenticafe.gr info@apsenticafe.gr

Burst { music magazine }

74

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

Burst { music magazine }