Burst Magazine | Issue 2, February 2013

February 2013, Issue 2

DIRECTOR’S CUT Quentin Tarantino Alfred Hitchcock

BURST PRESENTS:

TUOMAS SAUKKONEN “THE PLAN IS THERE IS NO PLAN” EDDIE VEDDER THE MAN WHO ROCKED YOUR WORLD HATEBREED ”WE GET BACK TO OUR HARDCORE ROOTS”

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BURST { music magazine }

BURST MAGAZINE

THE ART OF SETH SIRO ANTON

“In my opinion, every modern movement of Art which wants to have an ‘’evolving’’ character needs to re-build and combine realistic elements from Academic – Classicism period.

pages 6-20

I have always liked Mutated hybrids works on Art, I feel that each period always needs to include elements from the past, the present, and sometimes, if possible, trying for an insight character of the future.”

pages 40-44

Tributes

pages 21-39 Interviews

Album reviews

Karolina Pacan On Voices of The Soul

ge Page The Pa Tu rn Th Turn February 2013, Issue 2

Director’s Cut

DIRECTOR’S CUT Quentin Tarantino Alfred Hitchcock

TUOMAS SAUKKONEN “THE PLAN IS THERE IS NO PLAN” EDDIE VEDDER THE MAN WHO ROCKED YOUR WORLD HATEBREED ”WE GET BACK TO OUR HARDCORE ROOTS” Cover by Seth Siro Anton taken from the upcoming Serenity album “War Of Ages” Release date: March 22nd EUROPE and March/April USA & Asia Napalm Records

BURST PRESENTS:

BURST { music magazine }

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publisher/editor in chief

Raphael Aretakis

managing editor

Spiros Smyrnis

art advisor

Aikate D.

editors

Byron S. Orestis David Garcia Eleni Lampraki Eleni Leonida Hope Vnz Korina P. Pana Apostolidou Sobieski Sisters Stathia S. Pedioti

contributing editors

Cristina Alossi Elias J. Kay Emm Den Giorgos Kotrozinis Gogo Apostolaki Jo Gogou Kalliope Tsouroupidou Matina Katsarakou Sissy Dragonfly Sophie Tsekoura Sotiris Stilianos Vana Valma Zack Papadakis

editor/proofreading

Marianna Kofinaki Matina Katsarakou

photographers

Apostolis Kalliakmanis Byron S. Orestis Eileen Von D Jo Gogou Myrto Cat Penelope Tripatzi Raphael Aretakis

int. photographer

Kalliope Tsouroupidou

special guest

Karolina Pacan

BURST { music magazine }

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@burst.gr!

Connect www.burstmagazine.org www.issuu.com/burstmagazine www.facebook.com/burstmag www.twitter.com/burstgr www.youtube.com/burstgr burstmag.tumblr.com Email us: info@burst.gr

5 BURST MAGAZINE

Divided we fall.

Do we?

You are probably familiar with the common saying and also popular Pink Floyd lyric “United we stand, divided we fall”. But does that particular saying apply for everyone? Maybe the Greeks? Ok ok, let me start with a joke.

A man dies and goes to hell. The devil welcomes him and gives him the grand tour to the underground. After walking for 6 straignt hours, they finaly reach to the room with all the boiling pots, one for each country in the world. All the pots were guarded by ruthless beasts and unnamed creatures. All but one. The greek one. The man looks at the devil and asks him: -Why don’t you guard the greeks? Aren’t you afraid that someone might get away?

And the devil says: No need to. If someone tries to get out, the others pull him back from the inside.

Now that we’ve broken the ice, let move on.

Nearly 10 years of raw compromising and unrecognizable hard work, and a young man decides to make a few baby steps on his own, only to find himself facing the barel of a gun! Actualy two guns; Society and himself. Dodging a bullet from your own self and overcoming your personal fears, I believe it’s the easy part.

Especially when you grew up on a closed suburban environment and your only wish ever since you were a teen was to break free from the chains of social oppression. Being the black sheep can pay off after all. The hard part is to overcome society’s hardcore troops disguised as friends, partners, smiles etc. This is where you get your hands dirty.

From the moment you make your tiny step to differ from the masses you will feel a warm sensation around your feet. Be alarmed! You are the poor guy in the pot who is trying to get away from the flames of a rotten society and the warmth on your feet are the hands that try to pull you back in. Well to be fair maybe they only try to step on you in order for them to get out. Either way, you can’t let that happen. All those years of your personal hard work and the work of other likeminded individuals, in order for someone else to get the credit? Not on my watch...

Well, can’t we work together?

The answer to that question can be given by someone who has tried it before. There are numerous examples of two or more individuals who tried to ride the partnership horse without considering a simple thing; There’s only room for one on a settle! Very few managed to fit on a single person settle without falling off!

And to give you a piece of advice, when you do get to fit, make sure you sit on the back, or else you’re gonna get fucked.

So what do you do?

Stand on your feet. Believe in your self and don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need to. Ask for help or a nudge but don’t let other’s do your own job or interfere with yours. Yes, united we do stand if we can live with each other, but divided doesn’t necessary mean that we fall.

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” - Bruce Lee

Raphael Aret akis

BURST { music magazine }

Written by Sobieski Sisters

6

Is it hot, or is it the warm smiles? The vivid colors, or the vibrant dance? These images may pop up in your mind when you hear the first notes of “Chan Chan”.

And there’s no way to keep your feet from dancing to the beat of «Candela»! And that’s how you enter the world of Buena Vista Social Club, this world-Latin band, consisted of traditional Cuban musicians, who were meant to make history.

It all started in the 90’s, when the Cuban musician, and later band leader, Juan de Marcos González and the American guitarist Ry Cooder decided to make a project inspired by the, back then, popular members’ club in Havana “Buena Vista Social Club”, that held musical and dance activities during the 40’s. Some of the best musicians were coming together and by playing there they became members of the original ensemble, which took its name upon this club.

1997 was the year that the first album was released, named after the band. Surprising as it may seem, no serious promotion was ever made but their label. Despite this, their work became known wordto-mouth, as anybody who listened to their music couldn’t help but falling in love with their warm rhythms. The sales of their record were increasing week by week and today stand at over eight millions globally. “Buena Vista Social Club” album won a Grammy award in 1998 and in 2003 it was listed by the New York based Rolling Stone magazine as #260 in The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. It is significant that through their long career they have released only two albums: Buena Vista Social Club and Buena Vista Social Club at Carnegie Hall. However, they were not just a flash in the frying pan, they but were established as the most popular representatives of Cuban music tradition.

A defining moment that made the band widely known was the co-operation with BURST { music magazine }

the German director Wim Wenders.

Having worked before with Ry Cooder in some of his films, Wenders, filmed a documentary, named after the band. It included some shots of Buena Vista Social Club outstanding concert appearances in Amsterdam Carre Theatre and in New York’s Carnegie Hall (1999), as well as with interviews of the members. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary feature in 1999 and it was awarded as the best documentary at the European Film Awards.

After the success of the movie and the release of their first album “Buena Vista Social Club”, people started taking more interest in traditional Cuban music and Latin rhythms. It seems that their success not only acquainted the public to their music, but also in Cuban culture in general; inspiring salsa dance classes and Cuban-themed bars and cafeterias. After 1998 many concerts were given around the world and even today arenas in main capitals are packed with fans. Except from the released albums under the name “Buena Vista Social Club”, many musicians of the band made independent projects (Compay Segundo, IbrahimFerrer etc).

Throughout the years the line up has changed several times. Some of the souls of the band kept spreading this party until the end of their lives. Today the band is performing worldwide as Orquestra Buena Vista Social Club, consisted of 13 members, some of whom were on the original line-up, such as trumpeter Manuel “Guajiro” Mirabal, laúd player Barbarito Torres and trombonist and conductor Jesus “Aguaje” Ramos.

Their live performances are not a typical music show, but an initiation in Cuban life and philosophy, transporting you in a Cuban neighborhood during a big fiesta.

If you ever have the chance to be in one

of their live shows, you’ll find out that you won’t be just a part of the audience.

You’re going to experience a colorful festival, where everyone is welcomed, no matter their age or background. The only thing that seems to matter in this party is to smile and let the music carry you away. It’s amazing how these people show their passion for life and the importance of small things in it, how everything is a chance to celebrate.

We can use numerous words to describe Buena Vista Social Club’s work and musicians. “This is the best thing I was ever involved in”. Ry Cooder mentioned himself, “These are the greatest musicians alive on the planet today”.

Adding to this, the essence is that they put their heart in their music and that’s what makes it so magical and timeless.

LA CARTA

// EXCLUSIVE SWIMWEAR //

www.argophotography.com

8

“The story and the glory wil

We are in the early ‘90’s and, to be more specific, in 1991, in Manchester. Liam Gallagher, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs, Paul “Guipsy” McGuigan and Tony McCarroll decide to rename their group “The Rain”, to “Oasis”, due to an “Inspiral Carpets” tour poster, Liam and his older brother Noel, kept in their bedroom. Noel soon joined the rest, and the now five-membered “Oasis” started their tour from anonymity to glory.

If it hadn’t been the ambiguous Gallagher brothers, probably the group wouldn’t be that important, and if it’ hadn’t been the Oasis, “Britpop” music movement would certainly not be the same. A bunch of great songs, legal issues with plagiarism and offensive behavior, sibling rivalry, “Beatles obsession”, and a couple of the greatest British albums of the last 50 years are some aspects of the story of this, very favorite band.

Let’s start with the era. UK has always been the core (at least the European one), of all the new music movements. In the early 90s, we were introduced to “Britpop”, a sub-genre of British independent music that emerged from British guitar pop of the 1960s and the 1970s and stood against the American “grunge” scene of the same period. But Britpop wasn’t only a musical genre. It evolved to a larger cultural movement called “Cool Britannia” which included music, visual arts and fashion and was also coincided with the change of the conservative government of the past decades, to the “New Labor” by Tony Blair (which also led to a tremendous growth of the British economy). UK was having its cultural renaissance. Especially when it comes to music, where we meet the term “Britpop”

Official photo BURST { music magazine }

we are firstly talking about Blur and Suede, and then about Oasis, Pulp, Supergrass, Sleeper and Elastica. At first, Oasis didn’t figure themselves as part of the Britpop movement, but on the 14th of August they released their single “Roll with it” at the same day with Britpop kings Blur’s “Country House”, which fired up a supposed rivalry between the two groups, powered by the media. In fact, Noel’s Gallagher statement about Blur members Damon Albarn and Alex James that they would “catch AIDS and die” because their single was more best-selling, didn’t help the situation. Just for the record, Noel formally apologized a while later.

But first things first.

Noel Thomas David Gallagher was born on 26 May 1967 and William John Paul “Liam” was born five years after on 21 September 1972 and they were the second and the third child of Irish Peggy and Thomas Gallagher (they also have an older brother, Paul Anthony). All three had unhappy childhood due to their father’s alcohol issues, and especially Paul and Noel were victims of domestic violence and violent

abuse. Liam was the less abused, but states that it affected him deeply and contributed to his artistic nature. Both Noel and Liam were troubled teens, they were expelled from school at the age of 15, robbing shops and stealing bicycles. At the same time Noel started to learn playing the guitar by himself, his father had left him while Liam became confident by his vocal abilities. They were influenced by The Smiths, The Who, The Stone Roses, The Kinks, The Jam, T. Rex and of course The Beatles.

So all five of them meet in 1991 and “The Rain” becomes “Oasis”, while Noel’s condition was that he would be the only songwriter (Liam and Paul Arthurs, the songwriters of “The Rain”, stood back).

Their first single “Supersonic” was released in 1994 and peaked in no. 31 in official UK charts. Their debut album “Definitely maybe” was released in August of the same year and went straight to No. 1 of the UK Album Charts. It was also very successful in the USA. It received overwhelming reviews from the critics due to its optimistic sound and themes, which were very different from the grunge dominance.

Their second album came out on October 2 1995, and it’s the famous “(What’s the story) Morning Glory”, maybe their most commercial hit album of their whole discography. A few months earlier, drummer Tony McCarroll left the group in not so friendly terms, and was replaced by Alan White. The first single that preceded the album, “Some might say” was the first to reach no 1 to UK charts. The sound of their second album was much different and much softer from their

9

ll go on” – A tribute to Oasis

mental material of the previous album. The world tour that followed was successful on one hand but on the other, it consisted of car accidents, violent nights and legal problems. In 2004, drummer Alan White left the group and was replaced by Zak Starkey but he never became an official member of the band. Oasis continued as four-membered.

At the same year, they performed for the second time at Glastonbury Festival, exactly ten years after their first performance there.

Written by Eleni Lampraki

first one, and it became the fourth best selling album in UK charts with over four million copies sold. “Wonderwall” and “Don’t look back in anger” were also singles of this album, and they became classic Britpop anthems and significant songs of their period.

On the promo tour of the album that took place from 1995 to 1996, we have to point out their two historic sold out performances in Knebworth House on the 10th and the 11th of August 1996. Their audience was approximately 250.000 people while 2.5 millions applied for the tickets. Up-to-date, it’s still the largest demand of an outdoor show in Britain.

Despite the huge success of the “Morning Glory”, their next album “Be Here Now”, which was released in 21 August 1997, it proved to be a commercial failure although it was one of the fastest selling albums in British History,. The album’s producer Owen Morris said of the recording sessions: “The only reason anyone was there was the money. Noel had decided Liam was a shit singer. Liam had decided he hated Noel’s songs [...] Massive amounts of drugs. Big fights. Bad vibes. Shit recordings”. The huge success of their previous albums and the overexposure of the group, the bad relationship between Noel and Liam, their extravagant lifestyle and the drug use created a media frenzy over the group that believed to be “the biggest band in the world”. After all that mania, along with the fact that “Be Here Now” didn’t reach neither the producers’ nor the band’s expectations, the group kept a lower profile. Later in the year, Oasis released a compilation album of fourteen B-sides, “The Masterplan”.

The year before the millennium, wasn’t a good one for the band. Two founding members, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs and Paul McGuigan left the group, while they had been recording their fourth album. They were replaced after the recording session by guitarist Colin “Gem” Archer and former guitarist Andy Bell, as the new bassist. At the same time, they formed their own label “Big Brother”. “Standing on the Shoulder of Giants” was released on the 28th February 2000 and it hit no 1 in UK album charts but it was the band’s lowest selling album.

It was followed by “Heathen Chemistry” in 2002, Oasis’s first album with their new members and although it received mixed reviews, it contained the hit singles “Stop Crying Your Heart Out” and “Little by little”.

The sound becomes again the familiar Oasis rocking style and leaves behind the experi-

In May 2005, three years after “Heathen Chemistry”, “Don’t believe the truth was released”. Noel left his producing role and his solo song-writing role as well, and like the previous one, it was a collaborative album. It was acclaimed as the band’s best work after “Morning Glory”. Of course it became No 1. The band was starting to have growing fame again. According to Q magazine and HMV, two Oasis albums were voted first and second in the 50 greatest British albums of all the time, “Definitely Maybe” and “(What’s the story) Morning Glory”. Oasis’ last album was released on 6th October 2008 under the title “Dig out your soul”, and it was followed by rumors that the group was going to split up. During their tour, on 28th of August 2009 and after a Gallagher fight backstage, the European tour was cancelled and their manager reported that the band did not exist anymore. Two hours later Noel’s statement came along “With some sadness and great relief...I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer”.

Noel continued with his own project “Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds” and Liam and the rest remaining Oasis members (Archer, Bell and drummer and percussionist Chris Sharrock, who substituted for Oasis during their last tour) formed “Beady Eye”. Whether the two brothers talk to each other or not, and despite the fact that both “Beady Eye” and Noel’s “Birds” still sound like Oasis, the Britpop and music scene of the ‘90’s would not be the same without those people.

Did you know that:

They have been accused several times for plagiarism? For their song “Shakermaker” they were accused by Coca Cola, lost the case, and they were fined $500,000.

In Knebworth Festival if all people who applied had got tickets, the band would be playing for 53 nights.

“Songbird” was the first single written by Liam and not by Noel.

“What’s the Story) Morning Glory” was voted Best Album of 30 Years at the 2010 Brit Awards The band and Liam especially, has been accused for obsession with The Beatles. They have recorded a cover of “I am the Walrus”, as well.

Noel is left-handed but plays right-handed “Oasis” name came from an “Inspiral Carpets” poster. Noel was an “Inspiral Carpets” touring member, before he joined Oasis.

BURST { music magazine }

10 Even if you are not a fan of this genre, it’s certain that you know his persona. Pretty much almost everybody has come across one of his most popular songs «Poison» on the radio or MTV. Yeah you got it!

We’re talking about Alice Cooper, one of the few rock artists that managed to stay active in the music scene after 5 decades.

Saying that all these years create an inter-

In 1975, Alice Cooper releases his first solo album “Welcome to my Nightmare”, adopting the band’s name as his, a concept album describing a kid’s nightmare.

“Alice Cooper goes to Hell” (1976) and “Lace and Whiskey”(1977) follow in a period when Alice’s alcoholism problem is getting out of hand. After some months in a sanatorium in New York, he’s ready

for Alice to work with younger groups of musicians with fresher music perspectives, in order to update his familiar sound. This process gave birth to “The Eyes of Alice Cooper” in 2003 and a couple of years later “Dirty Diamonds” followed. Last to be added to his “small” list of albums are the “Along came the Spider” (2008) and the sequel of his first

ALICE COOPER Written by Sobieski Sisters

esting story would be an understatement!

A female name that intrigued people, a dark persona that fired up many rumours, provoking macabre stage shows. Alice Cooper became inspiration not only for musicians. He is the one who introduced the theatrical element in the world of rock, on and off stage. With the outstanding number of 26 albums throughout his career-of which 19 are solo albumsnumerous appearances in movies and TV shows (like Muppet Show, Prince of Darkness, Wayne’s World, Friday the 13th, Dark Shadows etc), guest vocals in many famous artists’ albums and his own radio show “Nights with Alice Cooper”, we could say that productiveness is one of his best elements.

It all started in the late 60’s when the back then, 17-year-old Alice Cooper (real name Vincent Damon Furnier) formed a band with Glen Buxton (lead guitar), Michael Bruce (guitar, keyboards), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smith (drums). The original band changed a couple of names until they settled for the controversial name “Alice Cooper”. They struck it as lucky when they were discovered by Frank Zappa and got signed to his record label. With Straight record label they’ve released their first two albums (“Pretties for You” 1969 and “Easy Action” 1970), which were characterized by the psychedelic sounds of the era, but through their unique bizarre style.

Their third album “Love it to Death” has signified the beginning of their co-operation with producer Bob Ezrin and the famous Warner Bros label. Over the years many albums followed, such as “Killer”, “School’s Out” and “Billion Dollar Babies”, including songs like No more Mr. Nice guy and School’s Out that made massive success and hit the tops of the billboards. “Muscle of Love”, the last album with the original line up came out in 1973 and a few months later the band members took separate ways, leaving Alice to continue the project.

BURST { music magazine }

Billion Dollar Baby

for a comeback. 1978 finds Alice sober, releasing his 4th solo career album “From the Inside”, whose theme was mainly autobiographical, inspired by his rehab period.

A new decade with different sound was coming and Alice takes the challenge to experiment, adopting the New Wave musical sounds to his own style. The first half of 80’s he is very productive, releasing four albums, one after another, (“Flush the Fashion”, “Special Forces”, “Zipper Catches Skin”, “DaDa”) that didn’t make big success comparing to his past releases. Additionally, the new sounds took it all on his audience, resulting in losing part of his fan base. Warner Bros was not satisfied by his latest performance and ended their co-operation, giving Alice the chance to take a mini break from the music scene, and to dedicate himself to his family and hobbies.

After this break he came back to the music scene with the album “Constrictor” (1986) including the hit He’s Back (The Man behind the Mask), theme song for the movie Friday the 13th part IV: Jaon Lives. After “Raise your Fist and Yell” it’s time for Alice Cooper to make great success with his Grammy nominated album “Trash”. From this album comes his most popular hit, Poison, which made it to No 2 in UK and No 7 in US charts.

In the 90’s only two albums were released, “Hey Stoopid” in 1991 and a concept album “The Last Temptation” in 1994. Despite the fact that “Hey Stoopid” was a dynamite album in the terms of the 80’s sounds, it didn’t make the same commercial impact as “Trash”, probably due to the dominance of the grunge movement.

New millennium has arrived and Alice Cooper is still present in the music scene and ready to try new things. In 2000 he releases “Brutal Planet” with which he is returning to his horror-lined heavy metal style and in the very next year “Dragontown” is coming out. It was about time

solo album, “Welcome 2 my Nightmare” (2011).

Surprising as it may sounds, mid 60’s bands like The Beatles and The Yardbirds were Alice Cooper’s inspiration in music and, as he mentioned himself, his whole career was based on the 70’s movie Cabaret. Considering that when the Alice Cooper band started the peace and love Woodstock spirit was at its peak, their style made a contrast, showing a dark side under a humoristic perspective. As mentioned above, the theatrical element defined their live performances which were not just music shows but full performances with shocking acts inspired by horror movies and vaudeville. And Alice Cooper was not just a lead singer, but a real entertainer. Extensive use of fake blood, guillotines, electric chairs, boas, baby dolls and executions are just some of the elements that are turning his shocking shows in horror movies. As Alice Cooper stated in a 2000 interview in Goldmine Magazine, “The Alice Cooper Band actually changed the way people looked when they walked down the street, and we changed the way stage shows look. We had a big impact on the entire culture, and it wasn’t just the music, although the music has stood up well over all those years. I think we were at the apex of a movement.”

Proud innovator, constantly experimenting with different sounds, and styles in music and not afraid to take on new challenges inside and outside the music industry. A real veteran and one of his kind, living between his on stage dark persona, executing mannequins, and his everyday life, playing golf and spending time with his family and friends, Alice Cooper couldn’t do anything else but leave his mark in rock ‘n’ roll history.

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Photo by Mando Gonzales

BURST { music magazine }

Simone Simons

Photo by Jo Gogou of aRGo Photography

AherusiA

“As I Cross The Seas Of My Soul�

Release date t.b.a soon! www.myspace.com/aherusia

Photos by Raphael Aretakis

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14

eddievedder

Official Pearl Jam photo by Karen Loria

The man who rocked your world

by Spiros Smyrnis

Paraphrasing Nirvana’s words, I started writing these lines for an Eddie Vedder article, or should I call it a tribute?

You could tell when you read it. Let me tell you how I fell into Vedder’s music. I have been a metalhead since the age of thirteen. A proud one, defending my first music love till now. Whenever a music conversation took place I was one step ahead standing up for all the metalheads.

What the hell are you talking about my fave music? How dare you? Listen to the shitty Greek barking pop you like and leave us alone. As you may understand, I wasn’t an open-minded person, so when a friend of mine gave me a Pearl Jam album to give it a listen I was loud and clear: Who the hell are these guys?

This ain’t no heavy metal, man! This is grunge, like Nirvana and you know, I hate Nirvana. Back then I was under the stupid belief that 90s heavy metal wasn’t so popular, because of Kurt Cobain’s band.

Listen carefully my friend said and you will not regret it trust me.

Ok man, just because you finally borrowed me that Black Label Society album I owe it to you. Nine years later I still owe to that guy! He was the one who gave me Pearl Jam’s “Ten” to listen for the first time. That’s when I also first “met” Eddie Vedder. From time to time, I make lists with my ten, twenty fifty favorite albums ever. “Ten” is always on every list I’ve ever written. “Garden” and “Jeremy”?

Countless times, countless listening, priceless feelings. The man behind Pearl Jam was Eddie Vedder born under the name, Edward Louis Severson III on BURST { music magazine }

December 23, 1964. Musician, singer, song-writer and leader of Pearl Jam. Do want more? I am sure you will, so read the lines that follow.

Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, son of Karen Lee Vedder and Edward Louis Severson, Jr. His parents divorced in 1965, when Vedder was one year old. His mother soon remarried a man named Peter Mueller, an attorney, and Vedder was raised believing that Mueller was his biological father. It was at this point when Vedder, who received a guitar from his mother on his twelfth birthday, began turning to music (as well as surfing) as a source of comfort. When Vedder found out that Mueller was not his biological father, he changed his name to Vedder, which is his mother’s maiden name. He particularly found solace in The Who’s 1973 album, Quadrophenia. He said, “When I was around 15 or 16... I felt all alone... I was all alone—except for music.” In the early 1980s, Vedder worked as a waiter, earned his high school GED, and briefly attended a community college near Chicago. He kept busy recording demo tapes at his home and working various jobs, including a position as a contracted security guard at the La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla. Vedder had several appearances in San Diego area bands, including Surf and Destroy and The Butts. He joined a band back then with the name Indian Style. Indian Style’s drummer was Brad Wilk (the future drummer of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave) Vedder became an active member in the

Seattle scene. He was a friend of Jack Irons (former drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers). Irons introduce him to a band in Seattle looking for a singer and Vedder wrote three songs for them. You may know ‘em: They’re called “Alive”, “Once” and “Footsteps”. Somewhere in Seattle Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament (ex Mother Love Bone members) with Chris Cornell (singer of Soundgarden, Audioslave) had been working a project dedicated to Andrew Wood( the singer of Mother Love Bone who died at the age of 24 from heroin overdose). They named it “Temple of The Dog”. Matt Cameron (drummer of Soundgarden), Matt McCready and Vedder joined the band which released in 1991 the “Temple of The Dog” album.

Vedder and Cornell’s duet on “Hunger Strike” still mentions as one of the best duets ever recorded.

Temple of the Dog was the band before Pearl Jam as I’d like to say. Gossard Ament and McCready were the founding members. The last one recruited Vedder in the band. 1991 was an important year for them as they signed Epic Records, changed their name from Mookie Blaylock to Pearl Jam and Matt Chamberlain replaced Dave Krusen in drummer’s position. The band was about to release one of the best grunge/alternative/rock albums ever recorded. In my opinion Ten should be the biggest opponent of Nevermind.

Wait don’t shoot me yet! Alice In Chains “Dirt” and Soundgarden’s “Badmotofinger” were hard rock albums, not grunge.

Period. Let’s focus on “Ten” now. How many times has a debut album made so

15

There are not enough of such albums, believe me. “Rolling Stone” magazine put “Ten in the 207th place in its list of 500 greatest albums of all time, while “Jeremy” took the 11th place on VH1’s list of 100 greatest songs of the 90s. It is pointless to mention here the awards Ten won, or been nominated because we need a book for them. Grammys, MTV Music Awards among them… Eddie Vedder became a rock star. Million copies of Ten were sold worldwide, tours all around the world, front covers in the “Time” issue were just the beginning of an admirable career.

It was the crucial year 1993. I was in love with Dimitra, my fellow student in the second grade, but she didn’t care. It was the same year that Pearl Jam released their second album, under the name “VS”. Dimitra, now I don’t care. Sorry but I always wanna write that down. Unfortunately I was only 7 years old when VS was released to understand why this album was so important to Jam’s career.

Five weeks at number one on Billboard 200, the album with the most copies of an album sold in a week, nominations for Grammies, and songs like “Daughter”, “Leash” and “Indifference” which kissed eternity.

Vedder’s popularity was grown more and

more. Eddie attracted attention and he soon became the most recognizable Pearl Jam member. Vitalogy in 1996 establish Pearl Jam as one of the most important rock bands of our time and Vedder as one of the most talented and influential rock performers and frontmen. “We’ve had the luxury of writing our own job description...and that description has basically been cut down to just one line: make music.” Using Vedder’s own words is easier to describe his affair with music.

A strange connection which was obvious from his first steps in music and it will have been revealed at all range some years later. Vedder is a very sensitive man. His relationship with his step-father stigmatized him. (The lyrics of “Alive” are referred to Vedder when he found out that Mueller was not his real dad).

His music influences are known to his fans: The Who, Doors (to me Vedder is a hoarse Morrison) Ramones, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and Tom Waits. When you’re influenced by the best, you belong to the best. Write down my wise words: Vedder is God. Period: To be accurate these words are not mine.

Someone said it in the “Dream For An Insomniac” movie. I still remember this line even though I found the movie extremely boring. “ No Code” was another exceptional album affirmed the myth of Pearl Jam. Yield Binaural and “Riot to Act” were weaker for the first four Pearl Jam albums without losing their ability to write great rock songs. In 2006 the band

released “Pearl Jam” album an aggressive album with up -tempo rhythms and “The Who”-escque riffs. Vedder’s skills could not have been used in Pearl Jam only, so he wrote the soundtrack of Sean Penn’s film Into the Wild. A cutting-edge film ,with a heartbreaking performance from Emil Hirsh. Vedder won a Golden Globe for the “Guaranteed” song. The significance of this album mainly relies on the fact that Vedder decided to tour alone for the first time in his career. In May 2011, Vedder released his first official album with the enlightening title “Ukelele Songs” a collection of original songs and covers performed on the ukulele.” It was about 13-14 years ago. I was in a tiny row of dilapidated shops on an outer island of Hawaii with Kelly Slater the surfer (Vedder himself is a dedicated surfer). I went to buy beer at the liquor store and Kelly went to buy fish at the grocery store.

I was done first, so I was sitting there on a couple of cases of beer waiting for him when I saw this ukulele in a storefront window. It was a nice Kamaka Tenor.

It wasn’t a kids’ toy. I went in emptyhanded and walked out five minutes later with a great sounding ukulele, and had a chorus and a verse written a few minutes later. I was halfway through writing the bridge when a few people walked by and threw some money in the open case. I had a $1.50 from playing the ukulele after owning it seven minutes. I thought, “Hmmm, this has some possibilities.”

That is how Vedder described to Greg Kot the Eddie Vedder-Ukulele story.

Official Pearl Jam photo by Karen Loria

much noise? How many bands should say that their first album define a music genre, worshipped by audience and critics.

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16 I respect Vedder’s attitude so much. He stated once “I didn’t trust music that’s made without some pain and insanity” .This phrase defines him. This phrase defines a guy still fighting for what he thinks it’s worth. “This is guy is still here said Eddie pounding his chest defending his angry attitude in the early 90’s.

I know that this wasn’t a classy way to handle our fame, but you cannot be classy and delicate in a street fight. You can’t.

You just trying to stay alive out there. It is so difficult staying in the front line for so long”, as Vedder stated to rearview mirror zine. “We have been galvanized through these years.

Unfortunately, some people died.

I am not referring only to Kurt (Cobain) but to Layne Stanley and the guitarist of 7 Year Bitch, these were facts that bonded the rest of us.” Vedder is a man challenges himself, trying to evolve his band’s sound: “We’d rather challenge our fans and make them listen to our songs than give them something that’s easy to digest. There is a lot of music out there that is very easy to digest but we never wanted to be part of it.”

Jam.”He didn’t like music editors either: “I don’t mind talking to people. I don’t mind giving interviews so much, but the way it’s all organized and regulated.

That’s almost like being in the army. I don’t like rules and regulations.”

I’m closing this article with a part of Vedder’s interview in The Onion magazine, “I think that if your approach is one where you don’t want to alienate anybody, you’re going to have to

ow n k I d n rn a o b s a w I e... e. i w d o l n l k ’ I I “ that een is min etw The in bI Am Mine” dder

Official Pearl Jam photo by Karen Loria

Eddie is an activist, a man with political actions and revolutionary thoughts. I like him a lot because he hates music companies: “OK, a lot of people would like that, especially the record companies wouldn’t mind if we’d sell more albums this way.

But for us, it just wouldn’t be right.

It’s not the way we do it. It’s not Pearl

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e Eddie V

soften the viewpoint or the information that you’re offering to such an extent that it doesn’t have the power to make any difference. You have to take that risk. That’s part of creating and participating in open and honest debate.

I saw a few responses to [the newsletter] that were pretty intense, and I guess they were questioning how we could align ourselves with someone like Noam Chomsky.

I personally didn’t follow up on it, but I felt like it was misguided. I don’t know if

there’s going to be a record-burning party any time soon. I wrote a letter at the beginning suggesting that this was some stuff we found helpful when forming an opinion, and you can put it in your pipe and smoke it and see what it does for you.

Even when we were last touring—our last show was the day before the presidential election in 2000—at the beginning of the tour, I was just suggesting that people vote. We had voting tables out, thinking, “We’re not gonna tell you how to vote, just create a voice for yourself and see if you can get the politicians to respect your voice.” We just wanted to encourage a younger crowd to activate themselves.”

Eddie, I pay my respect here, cause you are still this man singing these goddamn lines: I will walk with my hands bound, I will walk with my hands bound I will walk with my face blood I will walk with my shadow flag into your garden of stone

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www.menios.gr

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20 Art, the strange restless roaming of a true conception born in the human mind, developing, challenging, forming, until it reaches its final destination –which is not only a surface or a canvas- but the inner comprehension of itself through other human beings. Greek artist Seth Siro Anton (Spiros Antoniou) handles those passageways in great skill and determination.

In 1990 Seth entered a private school on DTP, Digital Design and Graphics. Being a vivid and talented spirit he continued his art studies and attended the Supreme University of Fine Arts in Athens under the supervision and guidance of the established painter mr. Dimitris Mytaras.

He participated in numerous exhibitions while at the same time concentrated on exploring the possibilities of artistic creation using photography, digital art and other mixed techniques. He also developed another form of art, that of writing, playing and performing music as a founder/ member of the symphonic death metal band known as Septic Flesh.

The world of music sparked his interest in designing a number of cover artworks of albums for famous bands such as Paradise Lost, Moonspell, Kamelot, Rotting Christ, Draconian etc, and of course the cover works for Septic Flesh. One of the most obscure and boldly controversial images is the one he created for the album “The Great Mass”.

As the artist himself describes, the structure of this artistic synthesis forms an aggressive triangle spreading menace and drama across the whole complex of forms.

The artist intended to present “a symposium between God and Man”, in which the God figure embodies the idea of weakness and fear towards Man and his intention to devour him while reaching impulsively for the God’s heart. In this composition God is depicted in a reverse position (as Man is traditionally weak before God) tormented in a cannibalistic way by his creations. At the same time, this figure of God is pictured in the midst of a transformation, giving to the viewers a sense of transition, a stage “in between”.

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The artist puts side by side this “God that wants to die” and the realistic aspect of the frequent exploitation of people through religion.

Admittedly, Seth Siro Anton’s art echoes a rhythm of unconventionality and defiance. Apart from the digital art, his painting methods include mixed techniques using acrylics and collage on canvas.

Observing his themes one might conclude that they often contain human figures which most of the times are fragmented, with dismantled structural rendering.

Rather than featuring a typical destruction of some kind, the artist chooses to present sounds of elusive rivalry and overall defiance instead, always under the prism of waking decadence. Avoiding

‘’The Figure of the Monster’’ in Paris (France), and INFERNO FESTIVAL SWISS GALLERY, Solo Exhibition, in Lausanne (Switzerland), in 2012. Let us hope that in the future there will be the proper educational infrastructure here in Greece so as the diversity in Art to be easily accepted.

Seth’s influences derive from Sumerian and Egyptian Art enriched with the dynamism of abstract expressionism. Through Seth’s figural forms a vibrant dream net is produced. The images become the means of lifting the veil and revealing the remnants of space and time replacing the ordinary with a true mystic vision. His methods explore and gloriously present a multiple symbolic manifestation of chaotic expression which communicates its dark power to the public.

According to the artist’s point of view, he intends to emphasize in his work the crucial utmost importance of dreams.

Dreams are conceived as a vehicle of chaos, floating uncontrollably out of our limitations of Five Senses. The subconscious contains the rapid imagination, and dreams are the bridges which help to extract what is underneath.

Seth Siro Anton made a comment about his inspiration deriving from the realm of dreams:

loquacious aesthetics, the artist insists on the domain of directness using a dramatic but sincere way. Paintings like ‘Addiction’, ‘Childhood’, ‘Misery Woman’, ‘Politics’, are recognized and sold among various collectors, making Seth one of the most highly respected artists of the underground scene.

Seth participated in several exhibitions (most of them abroad) including LES TROIS BAUDETS, Group Exhibition

“I consider my art, a dark portal to things forbidden, freed from the safeguarding valve of Reason. My works are distorting dream mirrors of the body and soul. When I am painting, I am trying to emulate the conscious state of lucid dreaming. Besides, a dream is actually a canvas filled with images (and much more) from the subconscious, with responsible artist the Hyper Ego”. S.S.A. Dreams introduce themselves with persistence. Dreams always pierce our subconscious. Dreams penetrate our souls. Dreams hunt us down and there is no way out. After all, even “The Undead Keep Dreaming”…

By Aikate D.

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22 It seems to me that art found you instead the other way around… How did it all start?

I was 8 years old when I started to paint my first portraits and landscapes on small wooden surfaces. My grandfather was my basic motivation as he painted also. I used pencils, soft –tip pens and pastels.

In 1990 I started my studies in a Private School on DTP, Digital Design and my first attempts on freehand drawing. It was my first contact and approach also with Adobe Photoshop, illustrator and Quark express software.

In 1991 I had some private lessons in the Art Workshop on free Drawing with the purpose to enter the Supreme University of Fine Arts in Athens. In 1993 I passed my exams for the Supreme University of Arts and I was the 12th person accepted in Athens (also10th in Thessalonica) out of 2000 candidates.

I choose to study Painting, study from a live model and Synthesis with professor D. Mytaras. I also studied Photography, Multimedia, State design, History Of Art, Theory of Space and Architecture.

University of Fine Arts in Athens is one of the best in Europe as the competition is really strong and hard since most nominees are in High-Level.

You could study Painting, Sculpture, Printmaking, Theoretical Studies, installation, video, Lithography, Mosaic, Fresco and icon Painting etc…

What was the point of no return? An impulse to discover the secrets of the universe or a means of complicated expression?

The instincts and the archetypes are those that form the collective unconsciousness and express a regularity in form. I want to believe that art is a basic, archetype therapist of the human conscience; art is deactivated from the obvious restrictions of moral and logic. Unfortunately, our optical filter necessarily accepts whichever thing is familiar and known and decodes them as something beautiful, good-looking and pleasant.

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However, this results in a monotonous, atrophic art, since it only aims at fun and pleasure. As a rule of thumb, I’d say I’m interested in the human figure through a modern expressionistic deformity and scripture.

Through this deformity of figures in a minimalistic and abstract place and time, I need to express-transform my internal needs, impulses and repressions by finding my way to salvation, transformation into something better, something surreal, something free from religious beliefs and moral codes.

What makes you more proud about yourself: musical or visual art?

It’s a Great circle of Art, an artistic symposium and Self-satisfaction; both of them exist equally and they work united , as a Massive Mental Recorder of my vision.

There is a constant theme of decay, death and horror in your art (that including your music as well). Is it a message, or a constant nightmare?

My style is realistic with intense doses of expressionism concerning the central object of my work although the background remains clear in terms of shape and color.

A nightmarish an claustrophobic world, a plasmatic, alternative time and space, where the main figures are fighting, screaming, howling, pumping their power from the chaotic kingdom of the cosmic unconsciousness. They’re frightened, self-destructive figures seeking redemption… Images descending from the primal forces of metaphysical disorder…Disfigured faces and bodies free of moral and religious codes begging for transformation into a higher being.

Now if it’s a message or a constant nightmare, it depends of the way you decode and which filter you’re using in order to do that….

Here comes the quote from Hellraiser movie “Demon to Some..

Angel to others”

23 Following the previous questions: is your art about you or about others? Do you talk to yourself or to the world through your visions?

Again I will bring the great example of Ouroboros (Uroborus), the Circle of Life and Death , the + and - , creation & destruction and at last our personal existence with others. So there is a great connection between all of us, we need each other, sometimes we need the ‘’others’’ as a mental mirrors of our selves ,in order to explore our mental disorder though them.

So there is a dialogue between my work and others , a dialogue which is always different but with no start and ending. At the end ( again!) I will use a quote from Bane “ It doesn’t matter who we are … all that matters is our plan’’ You have tried almost every form of art (music, painting, poetry, sculpting). Any other that we don’t know of? Yet? Have you considered making a movie, or a short film perhaps, to go public?

Thanks for the description, but I have never been into poetry.. Possibly, sometimes with my art without even knowing. As for your last question...

SEPTICFLESH new album (on which I have already started working, possibly released on 2014) will be supported at last from a qualitative, artistic & avant-garde video clip. We will have a great support from our labels (Season of Mist and Prosthetic Records) so I could have all the elements, materials, figures with high end Professional equipment and cameras to create quality stuff…

Do you consider art ever evolving, or a return to the classics is mandatory?

In my opinion, every modern movement of Art which wants to have an ‘’evolving’’ character needs to re-build and combine realistic elements from Academic – Classicism period. I have always liked Mutated hybrids works on Art, I feel that each period always needs to include elements from the past, the present, and sometimes, if possible, trying for an insight character of the future.

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24 Most of your exhibitions are in France, or abroad in general. Is Greece not “ready” for such art (meaning the beautiful grotesque and horrific)?

Right now Greece needs time, time to reconstruct, recompose, change and become stronger with a new character and aesthetics. Then I am sure we could see a new chapter even on Art, a new era which accepts the Beautiful art of Grotesque, the Dark Art… In addition, education is the most crucial part, based on whose principles we seek knowledge. Greece needs to Change…

You have made the artworks for many bands around the world. Is there a band that you have missed so far and you look forward to work with?

Dead Can Dance, Diamanda Galas and Aphex twin.

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Can this kind of art be commercial?

Do you feel good that it pays off?

I work really hard, sometimes I even forget to eat as I am almost hypnotized by creating stuff, and of course it’s a great pleasure to be an artist and have an income from your creation. I don’t like commercial stuff, I work alone and I’ve never had any desire to make something bigger with a commercial character.

Who is your average customer, in paintings and Digital Imaging? Do you have regulars?

Many people, from different ages from 18 to 50, are interested in my art; and yes, I have some regular collector customers especially in painting.

Has the whole creativity process ever exhausted you? Do you take time to just relax and do nothing?

Never, even when I am relaxing I am try-

ing to learn, explore new bases for Painting and Photography, while I have to be updated from the internet on everything that has to do with Art, Digital process and generally Digital Art. So I have to combine 2 tasks which are totally different , Analogue and Digital, and recreate a new Artistic Hybrid. Art is a very important part of my life. Instead of doing sterile repetitive things, I have chosen to spend as many moments of my life as possible, doing creative things. My life is surrounded by art and I feel very happy about it. And definitely, all my artistic activities are important for me.

They say that through art one can have visions of the future, premonitions, and universal understanding.

Have you ever reached that level of epiphany? Is it possible?

That’s a really good question; I attached an interesting statistical graph…of Known / Unknown and Time. You could draw your own conclusions.

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26 Is there a light and dark side in art?

Like a side to make you messiah and a side to crown you in hell?

It always depends on how you decode Light & Dark; each human has a different Messiah , a different nightmare and salvation. I mostly use the nude human figure, which always attracted my interest, as an example. I guess because I could express myself directly and I can process the clarity of the sculpture form.

In my view there is not “ugly” and “beautiful” nude, for example a big disfigured lady with a small Pig (like a pet), can be more beautiful from a model in the catwalk. Basically this is the mission of art, to doubt, to morph the virtual reality creating a new sensual reality freed from mediocrity of the day to day realities.

The attached photo shows the Dramatic relativity of a visual content .

The first impression that you have is a nice shinny place with trees, green and generally things that make you feel calm and nice… but if you look more carefully the message is different... It always depends on how you decode things..

Other Artists you look up to? Is there a peak you can never reach?

The artists whom I admire and are great influence to me are Leonardo Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Vladimir Tatlin, Kasimir Malevich, Constantin Brancusi, Francis Bacon, Pablo Picaso, H. R. Giger, J.P. Witkins, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg.

It is actually true that I have influences from the post-war Germany and from

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U.S.A. expressionism, but basically my main influence is the work and life of the great artist and painter Francis Bacon. I could also say all the Dark artists including me have been influenced by the work of the photographer Joel Peter Witkin.

He really undresses the human subcon-

discipline of drafting, the knowledge of composition and color, can bring to life something that comes straight out of your esoteric world.

scious in a way both sweet and raw.

I’ve just finished Serenity’s new album , working on Belphegor artwork right now , Daylight Misery from Greece, then I have Dagoba and 8 more bands if I remember correctly. I am booked until May.

I usually express myself freely and as much spontaneously possible, so that neither logic can interfere and organize me nor my fear as a feeling to overpower my stand. I try to orchestrate whatever comes to the surface later within my composition. The cannibalistic and tragic figures of Francis Bacon have influenced my work. It’s very early in my career to say that I have settled in something, I am still learning and it’s very difficult to “own” knowledge. It is certain with the

Anything radical or innovative you are preparing these days?

A message for us commoners? A hint to observe art more efficiently?

I will end up with a question that I have always had ‘’ Art imitates life or life art?’’

Thanks for your interview I wish all the best for Burst Magazine. SSA Interview by Byron S. Orestis

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The next best thing in Heavy Metal. The Swedish Metallers signed to Nuclear Blast and are about to release their third official album or should I call it another heavy metal masterpiece. Time will tell. Olof Wikstrand (singer/guitarist) of Enforcer talked to Burst magazine about “Forged By Fire” Heavy Metal and their upcoming Enforcer shows in Greece.

Read that Loud! By Spiros Smyrnis

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Enforcer photos by Gustav Öhman Spjuth

30 Hi, Olof. Nice to hear from you man.

Me too Spiros So two weeks are left for the official release of Forged by Fire album.

How do you feel about it?

I feel very confident about it actually. It’s been very different comparing to the last album. For the first time I got the feeling that we have something coming up that every single note, every single word we wrote for this album we are proud of The vibe you get so far by the “Forged By Fire” album?

The critics have been overall much better than anything before. We managed to create something that is more unique this time, much more unique for being Enforcer and people seem to appreciate that. Of course there will always be people thinking that what we achieved before was better like “Diamonds” album. Overall the critics have been much better that anything we did before You wrote the album by yourself?

Yeah we did. We started recording some records a year ago in March 2012. It was a four songs demo but we decided to record some more. We decided also to do this album by ourselves. We definitely have the knowledge with Jonas and especially we know exactly what to do more than anyone else. We could have that way the opportunity to sound how we really like.

What differences could a fan listen to Forged by Fire compare it to Diamonds?

The song writing in this album was very different comparing to the other ones.

The first one we recorded it without thinking the built ups that an needs. The second one has more songs individually written from everybody. It was not so consequent that it may should have been. This time we wanted to do the total, definite Enforcer record. To take what’s very unique to us and then exaggerate a lot. Then we have to pinpoint the typical Enforcer sound, to make the sound that we do, even something more unique than before. We looked more into ourselves.

We took the melancholic, melodic sound of “Diamonds” and mix it with the speed and intensity of our first album. We also tried to bring back the roughness of the early demos to this album. I think all of us are more confident on our way of playing.

All drums are in one take to be able what’s unique in Jonas style. The same happened with the guitars.

In that way we really managed to do something unique and that happened because we recorded this album ourselves.

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wanna have an entirety in the record. We are most proud of this entirety. The basic difference is that we recorded, produced, mixed and mastered “Forged By Fire” ourselves. What you hear is Enforcer.

Nothing Else.

I’ve got heavy metal music in my blood and I tried to get it to you if I could. To me is so simple to you?

That’s quite simple and that was all about.

It delivers energy to the listener. Deliver what you have inside of you.

From Earache to Nuclear Blast records. A big step indeed. How does it feel being a member of the biggest metal label worldwide?

Some people may say that traditional heavy metal is dead. To me bands like you Grand Magus In Solitude is the biggest fuck off to these guys.

Heavy Metal is not dead. Are you with me?

That feels good. We’ve been in the label only for a month but they work in much more professional way I’ve ever seen.

Enforcer consist of four members now. Adam split his way with the band. Why does that happen and how Enforcer are affected?

Only positive I would say. It was really hard when Adam decided to drop off. But as soon as we found out that we wanted to continue, that I could play guitars instead of sing and do some rehearsals as a four member band. In fact it’s easier in a band of four. Honestly. For this album we have only one vision and when you are five members it’s hard to do it. It was a bit tough when we came for the first time with this idea but now I’m confident that we can do better with this line up. It’s much more easy to play together as four instead of five You’ve made some interesting covers in the recordings of Forged By Fire. You Can Be of Nagazaki and Bursting Out of Venom. More info please.

They are very very different. On one hand you have a melodic Swedish song, while on the other hand you have an outlet of energy. It’s fast, it’s brutal and I think that Enforcer moved between these songs.

We did not want to destroy these songs.

That’s what we think about covers. The Venom song we wanna do it our way because the first recording was poor, the same happened with Nagazaki song which has very big potentials and we thought that with our production we gonna lift it up.

Diamonds album put you in the heavy metal map as the next best thing in Heavy Metal? How do Enforcer deal with that?

To me there’s no success. To me it’s only a small step in a long road. I always have new goals in mind you know. In my mind I am already in the next step of the band.

The good thing is that there people out there who appreciate what we do and that’s a good start.

Every time I’ve listened to an Enforcer album I remember the Holocaust lyrics of Heavy Metal Mania.

There are some bands of this movement that they are great but the most of them are bad. This type of music will never die.

To me it has never been dead. That’s what I believe.

31 Tour plans. I see that on February you’re gonna share the stage with Grand Magus and Angel Witch. A hell of a tour package I have to say.

Yeah we feel very confident about this tour. Angel Witch is a great and of the past and a great band of the present. It’s always to play with bands that share the same attitude with us. Grand Magus create something out there. I believe that we share a lot of fans with Magus and it will be great playing together, 23d and 24th of February . Greek fans gonna see you again live on the stage of Eightball Club, Thessaloniki and Kyttaro Club, Athens. What should we expect?

You are gonna expect a total energy outlet. Like we always do. You gonna expect new songs, new stage show. We gonna travel down Greece with our van so we can have a huge show we’ve never done before. The show in Athens we gonna record it.

For a live album?

We gonna record it in 60 channels and if it is good enough we maybe use it somehow.

The last words are yours man.

I hope will see you all Greek fans in our shows there. Thanks for the interview.

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Matt Byrne

HatebreeD. Maybe one of the most important hardcore bands out there.

Jamey Jasta and his gang from 1994 spreading the disease of hardcore releasing great albums and giving shows you will never forget.

Matt Byrne, Hatebreed’s drummer spoke to Burst about their upcoming album: The Divinity of Purpose, their U.S.A tour with Shadows Fall, Dying Fetus and The Contortionist and their first show in Greece back in 2003.

Read that loud!

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Photo by Randy Johnson

“We get back to our hardcore roots. The last two or three albums were more metal and that’s the reason we went back to our roots.“

34 Hey Matt I’m very happy to talk to you..

Matt: Me too man The Divinity of Purpose is the title of the upcoming Hatebreed album. 25 is the release date right?

Matt: Yeah. It was a great process. We all worked really well on the studio. We play to our best potentials .The songs are great they cover a wide range of what Hatebreed have done over the years in every album. You can see influences from every

me and Zeus in the studio working one on one. That’s really good because he is very straight forward with me he knows what’s bad, he tells me whats great. He knows how to pull the best performance of me.

This is your first release for Razor Tie label right?

Matt: They are great so far. The publicity work is great, getting us a lot of great interviews with great magazines, webzines and stuff. We’ ve worked with John Franc since 2009 so we’ve established a good

ticed in the album. As far as the music go it is faster as I said. The last albums have longer songs an average of 3 minutes and thirty seconds, in this one we go to the Hatebreed formula, on average I think it is two and a half minutes. We got a little more simplicity on this album. In the last albums, since they had a metal influence, they were longer. Those I think are the most noticeable things More info about the lyrics part?

Matt: You know Jamey writes all the lyrics. We deal with the subjects we typically deal on our Hatebreed album, self empowerment taking something negative and turn it to something positive, the overall message of not letting anyone hold you down, or hold you back. Strike to be better, strike to overcome any issues you have in your life.I think that’s always the universal subject Hatebreed deal with.

Photo by Randy Johnson

The economic crisis affects music industry. How do bands like Hatebreed deal with that?

Hatebreed album. It was a great time being in the studio with the guys recording over the summer.

Are you done with the mixing and mastering process?

Matt: Yeah we’ve recorded the album over the summer.Were doing European Festivals throughout the summer. We’ve been to Europe for two weeks and then we come home and we ve been to studio for two or three weeks working on the new songs and recording. Then we go back to Europe doing a few shows and that’s how we passed the summer. So the record was finished and here we are. It’s coming out in January.

You worked with Zeus this time. I think that you have some interesting stories to share!

Matt: It’s great working with Zeus. I mean we’ve been working together since Supremacy so we have a really good work relationship, we know what to expect for each other. As far as the drums recording we have to work the two of us, so we just BURST { music magazine }

relationship with him and its good to be back on a new label, a fresh one. They have a lot of great ideas for the band.

We were looking forward to working with him again. He’s an old music lover, a heavy metal lover. We’ve talked a lot about old thrash bands or Bruce Springsteen. He’s a really related guy. There’s a lot of energy there, there’s a lot of excitement working with him. I think we gonna do really well with this album.

Divinity of Purpose sounds a little faster, than your previous works. Do you agree with that?

Matt: Yeah, I think so. We get back to our hardcore roots. The last two or three albums were more metal and that’s the reason we went back to our roots. Everything’s faster, the songs are short, we have more breakdowns. We went back to the oldschool Hatebreed formula.

What’s new on Divinity of Purpose?

Matt: Starting with the artwork, it is different than our last ones. It is more oldschool and it is the first thing you no-

Matt: I think every band across the boards have seen lower tour number, less attendance in the show hurt the promoters a little more. Less people buying tickets. As far as we handle this problem we always tour the better time of the year and we will continue to do that. I think we re experimenting more with going to different cities throughout the country that we wouldn’t play or we had years to play, smaller cities, smaller clubs, instead of going only to major cities. You simplify things. You try also to reach different crowds.

Your tour plans? You gonna share the stage with Shadows Fall Dying Fetus, The Contortionist, A hell of a package!

Matt: Yeah like I just saying. Hatebreed Shadows Fall Dying Fetus and The Contortionist. Every band is so diverse every band comes from a different genre of music. You have Shadows Fall a metal band, Dying Fetus which is a death metal band and The Contortionist which is a new up and comer band. And then Hatebreed a hardcore band. I like tour packages like that personally from a fan point. I like to go to a show where every band is different and brings something different to the show instead of going to a show where every band sounds exactly the same. I don’t wannabe on a tour like that and I don’t like to go on a show like that. I’m

35

After the U.S tour are you gonna have a European Tour. Any plans on visiting Greece maybe?

Matt: Yeah we working on that. I love Greece, I love Athen.

We’ve played three times over the years. We’re putting together that stuff now. Summer touring stuff. We’ve been confirmed to some tour festivals. Greece has not been confirmed yet. We’re looking it up but it’s all come together now Hatebreed are famous for their intense shows. Which is the one you will never forget?

Matt: It’s hard to tell, because as you said I played a lot of shows over the last ten years. In 2002 alone we did over 300 shows that year. Generally speaking I love playing Europe as a whole.

All the countries offer some great festival. All the bands are diverse from different styles of music and everybody there is having a good time. Everybody respects each others works so that’s always stick with me. Specifically some fests we played out there

like With Full Force in Germany we headline a couple of time, or touring with Slayer in U.S.A back in 2002-2003 are some shows I will never forget. How could I? Slayer is my favorite heavy metal ban. I always remember the first time we played Greece.

I specifically remember the first time we played there. The first time in 2003 we played to a small club for 300-400 people and I remember it was a mirror behind me and we cover it up with a blanket or something. We stayed at a hotel in a corner near the club, the food was really good and man it was so hot, so hot.

The crowd was great, singing every word jumping of the stage, crowdsurfing, everything, it was a really great show.

So hardcore vs metal. You are influenced from both genres.

Which are your personal listenings at this time?

Matt: I will always be more of a heavy metal fan, less than a hardcore fa. So heavy metal will always have a place in my heart.

I always find myself going back listening to the old stuff I used to listen as a teenager. Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica, Exodu, Testament. I like the early 80s thrash metal scene. I really like Whitechapel, Lamb Of God, I loved their last album “Wrath” we were friends with them and I’m looking forward to listening to The Contortionist cause I’ve heard a lot about them.

So, thank very much Matt. I hope we see you in Greece too Matt: Me too man, thank you. Hope you doing well.

Photo by Clay Patrick McBride

really excited about that, it starts January 26thfor three weeks and as I said before we doing some smaller cities and clubs, maybe we’ve been there before, maybe we haven’t. We reach new territories, and of course we gonna see again some old fans.

I never tour with Shadows Fall nor Dying Fetus before. I never tour with The Contortionist and Im looking forward to that. Im sure we gonna have some fun.

BURST { music magazine }

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TUOMAS SAUKKONEN

“

All these years I’ve been planning everything.

Now I just want to make the music, the album, mostly things I am interested in

”

“At some point I realized I was keeping the band alive without feeling right anymore. I lost the passion to make music my own way. Now that BEFORE THE DAWN is done, it’s logical for me to clean the table completely and start building something from scratch again.”

Photos by Mike Sirén BURST { music magazine }

Interview by Eleni Leonida

37 In 11.01.2013 you posted the news that you are tearing down all your band projects. Is this is an action of your need to rest or do you want to try something else? What about “Wolfheart” ?

This is the first time that I talk about BTD after all this. I didn’t hope that someone was going to make an interview about this. I didn’t want to explain things… It’s not that I’ve gotten tired of the bands and the music, but everything goes wrong like labels, etc. Other stuff gets involved when you are in a band and, basically, I just want to make music and to keep the bands; but I did the entire job like merchandising, management and I felt like an employer in my own band, than member of the band. I didn’t feel like a member any more. There wasn’t any passion and it became like a factory. And then I lost it, because of RoutaSielu and Black Sun Aeon, because I needed some inspiration to write and with 3 bands, I lost it. It’s very difficult for me to explain this.

are annoying but they are not… They’re not easy ones. I can’t say that I’ve been inspired by others in the music because I write music constantly not every day but every week and this started since I was 8 years old when I started guitar lessons. At the first 2 months of the guitar lessons, my teacher asked me to play a song that we learned in the guitar school. I played my own music, something that it’s not very common. You can see that even in this age when I didn’t know very much about guitar, I still tried to make my own music, instead of playing music that others composed. So, to me, writing music is pretty much like communicating with my own language. It is not something I need to be inspired first, it is something I do.

What instrument do you prefer for composing? And why?

You’re a multi-player right, Mr. Multiplayer?

From every tour you’ve ever been, which one was your favourite and why?

The plan is there is no plan. All these years I’ve been planning everything. Now I just want to make the music, the album, mostly things I am interested in. Probably there is not going to be any gigs this year. I didn’t have the disc ready, it is the first time after years that I don’t have a band. I only have music.

It is weird; (he laughs) seeing myself in this way, I’m not very proud. I’m not strong enough as a vocalist, because I’m better in playing than singing. I’m not interested in singing clean vocals.

There are better singers than me with very good voices, because I can only do the growling.

It depends in the structure of the band. BTD has now 18 past members. The solo guitar player is the longest member, as he is in the band for 7 years. From this coming and going I have earned many friends.

Let’s leave BTD now and let’s talk about you and your music. What are your preferences and where does the inspiration come from?

(Pause)… I would say that these questions

Really well. Really really really well. Katatonia and Amorphis are two of my favourite bands. And really I can’t decide which the coolest co-operation is. Amorphis is very good at their job, they are very outgoing and they have families. I didn’t have what we can call a “party” after the show. Katatonia is completely different.

But I really enjoy that times too.

I’ve also read that you are nominated for “vocalist of the year 2012”. How do you feel about this?

Does friendship play a big role in the vitality of every band?

What about BTD?

I’m not that of a melancholic person. The emotion comes from the music. It’s very hard for me to write a happy song, a song for happiness. Melancholy is part of me, but not that I’m a melancholic person in general.

How it is to be on stage with Katatonia and Amorphis?

Two years ago (2010), we played at China and Japan in a tour with Stratovarius. I couldn’t say that I’m a huge fan of Stratovarius but I like some older albums a lot. The whole cultural thing is completely different than the European culture. Also, we had a lot free time, a thing that we didn’t have in other tours. Asia is so exotic and is the best place to play.

So, there is another project.

Would you like to share with us something about it and your new plans?

In BTD we can see a lot of melancholy. Is this your way of viewing life?

I prefer drums and guitar. For the arrangement and the rhythm.

Is music your main job or do you have other activities?

Kind of yeah... (laughs). I play guitar, piano, drums, base.

Music is the most important thing in my life, but not the only one.

Saxophone is mainly jazz instrument. Are you interested in jazz or did you choose saxophone because you just liked the sound and generally the instrument?

I have a saxophone, but I didn’t have time to learn how to play a Saxophone. I like the sound and it is completely different from the others. Many metal bands use saxophone, like Amorphis. It’s about curiosity because it is different from the other instruments.

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38

Daniel Liljekvist

“I believe that Dead Letters is the best representation for the album. It is more progressive, more melodic, for things happening all the time. “

BURST { music magazine }

Photo by Linus Pettersson

39

KATATONIA Wow… Good question... A lot of things….

Everything I’ve wanted to do in my whole life, touring with a band all over the world and play great music. It means everything to me. It’s my dream come true. I have been dreaming of it since I was a kid.

Dead End Kings has very beautiful and emotional lyrics. What’s the source of your inspiration?

I haven’t written any music on this album, but I really like what the other guys wrote. The inspiration comes from many different things, stuff that you don’t think about. It comes from nowhere.

When you go and see a movie, you heard a song from another band, and then you get inspiration. We don’t have to be this atmospheric, dark, depressed when we write Katatonia music. We know how to write music. We know how is going to be the sound. We didn’t have to think in a depressive way, it is the way we are. We are not depressed 24 hours a day. It’s our way to express our music.

Greece is waiting for you on February 22. How do you feel about playing live in Greece again?

We love Greece and it’s always a good place for Katatonia to play. We know what to expect but always been the surprise. Everything is great! The weather and your food. Every time I visit Greece I want to go to a Greek restaurant, before the show.

So do you have fun with friends after your shows in Greece?

Yes, of course. We like to go before the show for Greek food in a restaurant and after the show to a bar to drink some beer and talk with our fans. The last 3 times we do this and I really like the rock bars.

And this time I hope for doing it again.

What exactly can Greek fans expect

from Katatonia on February22?

Hmm.. .A couple of new tracks from Dead End Kings, a lot of old tracks. I don’t think we going to play songs from old Katatonia with the growls. We are going to play some old and new songs but we are not going to change the set-list from the European tour.

Some people put you in the same category with Anathema. Do you think that your music is similar to Anathema?

To be honest, I’ve never listened to Anathema at all. I think that I’ve seen them live twice in a festival, but I never listen to them. I don’t know what to say…

And I know that our fans like Anathema too. Maybe we have the same sound, atmospheric…

Plus, I’ve read that you are going to play in Turkey with Epica on the next day after your show in Athens, on 23. Epica is a symphonic band.

How can your music be combined with the music of Epica?

This is another band that I never heard. I don’t think is going to be a problem. We play our music, they play their music. I think is going to be like co-headlining, playing the same time on stage. In my opinion I think that is better to have a different kind of bands on stage. Maybe is going to have more people!

You’re on a North American tour with Opeth. Any plans?

It’s always fun to work and to tour with Opeth. We played together with Opeth before and it will be more fun than work because we’ve been friends for so long.

Our first live with Opeth was in 2001.

Eleven years! We are more friends than just music colleagues. It’s going to be a tour with a lots of friends, fun, music, like the last time. It’s very easy to tour with

those guys. I don’t know if it’s because we are friends; in any case, they are really cool guys.

You are nominated for a Grammy award. How you feel about that?

I’ve been waiting for this nomination for the 3 past albums. I don’t expect to win, but I’m happy to be there. It’s a good competition between us, Sabaton, Witchcraft and the rest. I don’t expect to win the Grammy Award, but it will be fun.

Dead Letters is the first song that Katatonia gave to the crowd. Why? I believe that Dead Letters is the best representation for the album. It is more progressive, more melodic, for things happening all the time. Is a weird song! I like it and I hope people like it, too.

Katatonia changed the sound a lot from 1991-1998 to 1999 till now.

What in your opinion change it?

I don’t know much, but think that they get bored of the old sound, the way of writing and the show. Jonas is not doing well in growls and he always concerned with writing music, singing, playing drums and writing lyrics. But in 1999 things changed and Jonas got rid of drums and I took the role.

Friendship plays an important role in the vitality of your band, right?

Yes! Friendship plays a good role.

Because of living 3 hours away from Stockholm, we didn’t have time to hang out together every day, but in tours this is a different story. We are all together every time and have some good time. We are laughing, joking and drinking beer after and before the show. We don’t have any arguments and this is very good.

Thank you. See you on stage!

Interview by Eleni Leonida BURST { music magazine }

Photo by Mathias Blom

How is your experience in Katatonia from 1999 to 2013?

ALBUM REVIEWS

40

Dimlight - Psychosynthesis I have to admit that it was with quite mixed feelings when I had been listening to Dimlight’s second studio album entitled “Psychosynthesis”. That was why when I gave it a listen for the first time, too many different thoughts crossed my mind. If you keep reading this review you will certainly understand the reasons why.

“Psychosynthesis” is the process of “personal growth”. More or less, “psychosynthesis” (a term created by Roberto Assagioli, an Italian psychiatrist) is a comprehensive approach to self-realization and the development of human potential. The essential aim of Psychosynthesis is to help people discover their true spiritual nature and then to effectively utilize this discovery in everyday life. (http://www.willparfitt.com/whatispslong.html).

The album title describes the concept of the lyrics perfectly. Dimlight songs deal with issues like betrayal, mind games, feelings of agony, pain and disappointment, cruelty, loneliness and life itself.

There is a certain truth and even crudeness to their songs.

In my opinion “Psychosyntheis” is kind of a sequel of their debut album (“Obtenebration”). In fact, the guys and the gal took many steps forward! I guess that the blast-beats and growling parts are playing such an important and equal role as Sanna’s clean vocals, and that’s why Dimlight make the difference! I would say that the band has two different vocalists and not just a front-woman. Sanna’s clean female vocals and Invoker’s harsh male vocals play an equal role in most of the songs.

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I would also characterize their new compositions as “labyrinths”: Many tempo changes, melodic female clean vocals (not the usual female vocals though, trust me!), A M A Z I N G backing vocals, more guitar solos (some of them quite progressive for a female fronted band), many influences from “technical metal” bands. They have certainly made progress.

The piano/keys/orchestral parts are still in the spotlight but in “Psychosynthesis” Dimlight decided to reveal a very different face: the blast-beats and growling parts play an important role, too. This fact makes this record much heavier and certainly I would not call this album an “easy-listening” one. If you are searching for hit-tracks you will be very disappointed! This is not very usual for a “female fronted band” isn’t it? So, Dimlight is not “another typical female fronted band” that appeared during 00’s (like many others). No. No way! In my opinion they chose the difficult path and that’s a serious reason to admire these musicians.

The album includes 10 powerful tracks.

The opening track is entitled “Agonize” it’s quite calm and does not give any clue of what is about to follow. A rather “calm” track compared to the next tracks!

The following track (“The Quest of the Fallen”) combines some very nice oriental elements. Invoker is coming to remind us that “agony and despair is our strength”!

In “Lucid Dreams” I noticed some amazing backing and harsh vocals! “Black Hole” is the track that certainly reminded me of their early days and it is closer to their “Obtenebration” days. Dimlight invited some very good musicians to participate in their second studio album: in “Cardinal Sins” you can enjoy Seth Siro Anton’s (Septic flesh) growls and in “Mind’s Game” Iliana Tsakiraki (Meden Agan) with her haunting backing vocals gave a totally different feeling to the song!

“Stillborn Debris” is maybe the darkest track of the entire album. Apart from the dark lyrics, the piano intro, the orchestral parts and the electric violin (played by Charalampos Paritsis, Chaostar) are giving a totally spooky/thriller-like feeling to the whole song. The track features an amazing vocal performance by Sanna and also some very nice guitar solos. But the

real bomb is coming next, “Unify”! Harsh metalcore male vocals combined with melodic female vocals and some very nice orchestral parts in the background! The last track of the album is entitled “Masters of our Fate”. The song starts with an epic recitation by Sanna and Invoker and it also includes a part of Winston Churchill’s speech to the US Congress during December 1941 (Sure I am that this day – now we are the masters of our fate; that the task which has been set us is not above our strength; that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance.

As long as we have faith in our cause and an unconquerable will-power, salvation will not be denied us. In the words of the Psalmist, ‘He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.’ Not all the tidings will be evil).

But wait a second! What did I say? “The last track of the album ???” Ummm....no.

There was some more to come! Dimlight wanted to spoil us a little bit more and also included an acoustic version of their older track entitled “Absense of Light” (forget the studio version of the track from their debut, this time the band decided to perform this song in a totally different way!).

In “Psychosythesis”, the listener will experience light and darkness at the same time. And I guess that the band wanted to point out the eternal fight between light and darkness. Besides, the band’s name makes it very clear: dim-light. Darkness and light at the same time. And this is what I like about this band! One thing that really impressed me is the progress Sanna Salou did as a singer! The album was recorded during 2011 in Invoker’s home studio and mixed by Fotis Berbardo (Septicflesh) at Devasoundz Studios.

“Psychosynthesis” mastering was done by Peter In De Betou at Tailor Maid Production (Draconian, Dream Evil, Emperor, Madder Mortem, Nightrage, Septicflesh) and the artwork was created by Hicham Haddaji at Strychneen Studio. To be honest, the fact that the album was released a year after the recordings were done made me very sceptical. Oh well, without any doubt it was worth the anticipation! *And if you want to know which tracks I liked the most here you go: The Quest of the Fallen, Lucid Dreams, Black Hole, Mind’s Game, Unify.

“We are still masters of our fate.

We are still captains of our souls.”

Korina P.

41

Seduce The Heaven - Field of Dreams Every time I hear the term “female-fronted metal”, I Imagine a very beautiful girl dressed in leather trying to sing in a band which sounds like boring Nightwish/ Evanescence/ Lacuna Coil replicas. I know this isn’t right but I’ve been sick and tired of the thousands of bands out there

Enforcer - Death By Fire Having seen Enforcer in an explosive live performance and also, having nearly melted their first two albums, I was more than honoured to do a review on their upcoming third album entitled “Death by Fire”.

At first I was expecting something similar to their first two albums, which are both masterpieces of classic Heavy Metal.

Well, nothing could be further from the truth. “Death By Fire” grabs you from the throat from the very beginning and won’t

playing just like the ones I mentioned above. Luckily there some ass-kickin’ bands out there with a front woman/vocalist like Devil’s Blood, Dead Sara, Royal Thunder and the Greek experimental doomsters Universe 217. Seduce the Heaven belong to the second category and their debut album, named “Field of Dreams” is definitely worth of our attention.

Founded by Alex Flouros (member of the Greek progsters Fragile Vastness) and soprano Elina Laivera in 2009, Seduce The Heaven released “Field of Dreams” album on January 15th.

“Field of Dreams” is a very interesting mix of different metal music styles from N.W.O.S.D.M, American metalcore (bands like Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying etc.), Progressive and Symphonic Metal. We interviewed Alex and Elina on Burst.gr a few months before the album release and we are looking forward to be

give a listen to the final outcome of “Field of Dreams”. The album starred our wait.

“Illusive Light” which was available on youtube had given us a hint about the amazing guitar play of Alex and the sweet and smooth voice of Elina. The overall feeling of “Field of Dreams” is at least satisfactory.

A truly professional work recorded at Soundflakes Studios with great artwork and front cover. Let’s talk more about music now. “Baseless Addiction” is my favorite track with cutting riffs, tremendous growls from Mario and clean vocals from Elina. The big advantage of Seduce The Heaven is their composing abilities. I acknowledged that. Enchanting melodies and powerful riffology are obvious in songs like “Ignorance”, “Falling” and “Field of Dreams”. “Field of Dreams” is an album with fascinating guitar themes and a magnificent performance by Elina.

Natural, heavy, melodic, dreamy, definitely one more proof that Greek Heavy Metal scene is more qualified, stronger and inspired than ever before. Thumbs up guys!

Spiros Smyrnis

let go until you’re dead!

And Death is what this album is all about, quoting vocalist and guitar player Olof Wikstrand “The album title refers to the most horrific ways to die… all lyrics on “Death By Fire” hold the same theme throughout the record: death - in all different shapes.” The record starts with a small instrumental keyboard piece called “Bells Of Hades” which kind gets you in the mood for what is about to follow. Then all hells breaks loose! “Death Rides The Night” is a classic bangall-the-way Enforcer song. “Run For Your Life” has the perfect blend of riffs, melodies and high-pitched vocals that we love in Enforcer. “Mesmerised By Fire” is a another classic high energy song with even more aggressive vocals. During the middle of the song, there is a killer part that really adds a lot to the whole mood.

“Take Me Out Of This Nightmare” is by far one of the best Enforcer songs ever written. The whole band really giving their best self, their heart and soul really went on this one. “Crystal Suite” is a great instrumental piece, in the style of old Iron

Maiden but still, keeping the originality and freshness of Enforcer. The next song is called “Sacrificed” and it’s like the record is starting all over again. Melodies, screams and riffs all mixed together in an actual Heavy Metal Bomb! Along comes the most epic song of Enforcer called “Silent Hour / The Conjugation”. It is the only song that I will not analyse at all, I’ll only say this. It is indeed an EPIC composition and I could easily hear it 100 times in a row and not get tired of it. The record ends with “Satan” (he he he) one of the fastest songs ever written by the band. After all the horror of death that is present in the record, a scream shouting “Satan take me away…” is the best way to end it.

The album is less than 40 minutes, in the spirit of every classic Heavy Metal record, from Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, to Slayer and Manowar. It also helps the sound quality in the vinyl format, because when the duration is longer that 19 minutes on each side, the sound is losing it’s quality. That is all folks, keep an eye out for this record when it comes out, it is one of the best Heavy Metal albums of this year.

Elias J. Kay

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ALBUM REVIEWS

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Stone Sour - The House of Gold and Bones Part 1 It was a year ago when Stone Sour announced that they had started record-

ing their 4th studio album. Things were going pretty well until the news broke up that bassist and founding member Shawn Economaki is leaving the band!

He was soon to be replaced by Rachel Bulan (Skid Row). Controversial opinions began to spread about what the band was up to until the disk hit the stores in October 2012. The ‘House of Gold and Bones_Part1’ has to be endured for 43 minutes as it is an album with a fairly diverse sound while most parts of it could fit into a Slipknot’s album. The main idea of this album is the attempt of getting over traumatic experiences and finding yourself, but it mostly sounds more like a row of 11 tracks coming one after another, chaotic, not seeming to fit each other and

sounding way more heavy than what we were used to in ‘Audio Secrecy’ and their previous albums.

Nevertheless, one might say that after composing legendary songs such as ‘Snuff’ or ‘Through Glass’ it was kind of suicidal for the artist- his chances of creating something equal were quite low. All in all, the ‘House of Gold and Bones_Part 1’ is supposed to be a dark tale of a person’s inner battles, desperate but also determined to find his way, although it turned out to be a dark tale of a band looking for a new identity, maybe. Its sequel ‘The House of Gold and Bones_Part 2’ is scheduled to be released in early 2013.

Hope VNZ

realm (the credits go to Sons of Northern Darkness also known as Immortal) for a while to deliver some sexy and badass hard rock lessons. They found a tattooed vocalist who’s devoted his life to rock n roll and under the name of Audrey Horne drove us all crazy.

“Youngblood” thy name. I’ve listened to it once. Hmmm, I said. I’ve listened to it twice. Uh Uh, I said again. After that, I’ve listening to it once a day.

“Pretty little Sunshine” is a passionate rock hit, lost in the ‘80’s. “I’m out of my mind pretty little sunshine” sings Toschie and David Coverdale smiles being proud of his bastard son. Uplifting, up- tempo till the “Open Sea” this will be one of the best rock albums of 2013. “There goes a lady… with death in tow right behind” is inspired by the Greek Sirens who blessed Audrey Horne making addictive songs.

Songs that remain insane. Like the opening thunder track “Redemption Blues” with the unbelievable guitar play. I think that straight hard rock lives again. We were lucky to see the amazing ‘Apocalyptic Love” by Slash and “Choice of Weapon” by The Cult last year. Another diamond in the rust is “Youngblood”.

Fasten your seatbelt mates! This is the hard-rocking beginning of 2013.

Spiros Smyrnis

Audrey Horne - Youngblood I’ve never been to Norway. Unfortunately I haven’t had the chance of visiting this metal country, which was notorious for the Black Metal wave back in the 90’s.

Norway has a great tradition in black metal. Just let me take a pen… Mayhem, Immortal, Emperor, Darkthrone, Burzum, Enslaved, Gorgoroth are some of the leaders of the Norwegian black metal scene. Some members of Enslaved and Gorgoroth left their grim and frostbitten

David Lynch’s maniacs, as their debut album got its’ name from “No Hay Banda” quote taken from Mulholland Drive, while their band’s name is a female character in the cult TV series, Twin Peaks.

I got in touch with their work three years later when I’ve listened to “Audrey Horne” album. Oh my God. These were the word my tongue managed to utter.

Hard rock straight from the heart! So I’ve been really looking forward to their next album, which is to be released on February 5th. “In the beginning we decided: “We should be a band like Kiss with one maybe two years between albums. That wasn’t very practical. “ said Thomas, the band’s guitarist (also in Sahg)

Year of the Goat - Angels Necropolis Originating from Sweden, Year Of The Goat step forward with their debut album “Angels Necropolis”. The band moves in heavy rock rhythms with quite a few melodic elements in their music.

“For The King” the first track, fast, with clean vocals (as the whole album) and nice solos placed carefully.

Coming next, the title track of the album with the speed dropping quite a lot without losing the melody. Maybe it should be a bit shorter in length. But when we reach the middle we sort of listen to a different, uptempo song that reaches the bar the placed by the first one. “Spirits Of Fire” next, a mediocre song that is saved by the solos!

Forth in line, “A Circle Of Serpents” with the rest of the “goats” participating in the vocals that in my opinion should be a bit harsher and not just to follow.

Our managing editor told me I’ll listen to some heavy rock things.. I had to reach to the 5th track to do so. “Voice Of The

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Dragon” is the name of the supreme song by our Swedish fellows. Literary a masterpiece from the beginning to the very end!

Pentagram meet Spiritual Beggars, as we travel with the voice of the dragon.

It is acknowledged that scandinavians produce excellent albums on various levels, something we clearly understand in the following two tracks. The orchestrations of “This Will Be Mine” and “I’ll Die For You”, raise the bar once again!

For the grand finale, a 10minute tune that stands its ground along with the rest of the songs on this first album attempt.

The feeling you get listening to this record is that these guys definitely have what it takes to make it!

Zack Papadakis

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ΖΖ TOP - La Futura When you were young, you were looking for some role models, some idols you would give your soul to be like them.

Growing up this internal need still exists.

Celebrities, actors, directors, musicians, writers drew the attention more easily. Money, fame, sex drugs and rock n roll baby! Who wouldn’t want to be like them? Who wouldn’t scream for some more? However, how many rock stars out there do you respect man? Yeah I’m

Walter Trout- Blues for the Modern Daze Do you know what it means to walk alone?

And what it means to be, be by yourself?

Do you know what it means when there’s no one to bring you good news?

If you do, then you know the meaning of the blues Do you know what it means to love a woman you can’t own?

If you do, then you know the meaning of the blues.

I first gave a listen to Joe’s Bonamassa version on Bobby’s Troup classic song in 2011, when the album “Dustbowl” was released and I was stunned. I think that the lyrics above are the best way of describing what someone should feel by listening to the new album of Walter Trout.

“Blues for the Modern Daze” was released in autumn 2012 and it was included in

talking to you, the one who buy cds, vinyl records and hate downloading. You man, who go to concerts, and be proud for the 20 years old t-shirt you bought sometime as a teenager.

If you are one of these weird guys then you may understand the respect I feed to three guys from Houston, Texas under the names of Billy Gibbons (guitars, vocals), Dusty Hill (Bass, vocals) and Frank Beard (drums). Most people knew them as ZZ Top. I’ve mentioned in many reviews for Burst.gr that I love the triosbands as I called them ( I own copyright so you can use the term). There are two main reasons for that. Motorhead and mainly ZZ Top. The band which gave us “Fandango” “Rio Grande Mud”, “El Loco” and the beloved cult diamond “Eliminator” the one sold over ten million copies.

The only band in the universe, which has the same line up for forty three years.

So 9 years after “Mescalero” the fifteenth official ZZ Top album came out in stores.

“La Futura” is the name and Rick Rubin ( yes the guy who has worked with Red

Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Slayer, Rage Against the Machine, System of A Down, Johnny Cash ) is the man responsible for the sound of La Futura. Let’s clear some things out. This one is not the best album of ZZ Top. La Futura isn’t the worst album on 43 years band’s discography, on the other hand.

No you ain’t gonna hear something new from the blues Trinity. You just gonna listen to the old hard rocking blues you are into. The boogie- men strike back again!

Gibbons’ guitar sketches melodies bitter or sweet like the good old soulful blues filled my glass for so many times. “Over You” and “It’s too easy Manana” are my personal favorites with the “crying” guitar riffs and hoarse Gibbons” voice. Groove and badass like a 65 years old guy with a huge beard and some cheap sunglasses walking to a bar looking for some good old whisky and a girl to tell his story.

“It’s too easy, it’s too easy feel good” he whispered.

Spiros Smyrnis

many 2012 best albums listings, as well as in Burst list. For those who don’t know him, Walter Trout dedicated his life in blues. The man has been supporting true legends like Canned Heat, John Mayal’s Bluebreakers, Big Mama Thorton and John Lee Hooker till 1990, when he started his solo career.

rapists… Some of them are shredders; others are fusionists or great improvisators. Some of them have an awesome attitude, others have been mentioned for their big balls and the countless girls they have slept with.

He has released 21 albums so far! Impressed? Just wait till you listen to them and you are gonna be even more thrilled!

I personally learned about Walter Trout from the outstanding album “The Outsider”, which was released in 2008. So when “Blues For the Modern Daze” came out in stores, I had been looking for it every CD and record store in order to get my hands on it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t manage to find it anywhere, so I had to order it online. This was one of the wisest decisions I made last year. The album, which was nominated for best rock blues CD in Blues Foundation awards, has been keeping me company me many times in 2012.

Touching yet not maudlin this release was a blues masterpiece. Hard rocking sound like his pal Joe Bonamassa, Trout wrote some of his best song of his entire career.

I personally love guitarists. I believe that although every musician in general has a special connection with his instruments, a guitarist has a different bond with his guitar. Loners (like the Great Gary Moore once wrote), guitar lovers, six string

There are also some guitarists who put all their heart and soul to their music.

Walter Trout definitely belongs to this category. A man with social concerns who stencils in notes love, loneliness, decadences and temptations. “Saw my mama Crying” and “Lonely” are the ideal opening tracks for this albums.

Bittersweet blues diamonds hidden in the mud. “Blues for my baby” state his intentions. Blessed by the Afro-American blues of Louisiana Trout’s guitarplay has a psychedelic approach which defines its sound. “Recovery” is for me the best blues ballad written in 2012, with dark poetic lyrics. “I will always be in recovery” sang Trout for another woman, or another temptation… He knows pretty damn well what he’s doing. These magical fingers make his guitar weep gently, composing hymns like “Brother’s Keeper”, “The lifestyle of Rich and Famous” and, last but not least, “The Blues for the Modern Daze”, a deeply emotional portrait in America’s 2010’s lifestyle, seen from the eyes of a bluesman.

Dedicated to the ones who are still seeking for the meaning of the blues…

Spiros Smyrnis BURST { music magazine }

ALBUM REVIEWS

44 have passed, Kiske left Helloween who replaced him with Andy Deris (former singer of Pink Cream 69 and a great vocalist too). Around 2001, they released the best album of Deris Era named The Dark Ride, which, strangely enough, most hardcore Helloween fans hated. After that, the albums Helloween released seemed boring to me, moving to mediocrity. So I was very reluctant with the listening of “Straight out of Hell”.

Helloween - Straight Out Of Hell Ι want out (out out) to live my life and to be free. I remember myself when I was 15 years old trying to follow Michael Kiske’s voice, something impossible. The years

Let’s clear some things out first. Those who wait for an album like “The Keepers of the Seven Keys”, better stop reading. Otherwise you will be disappointed. These monuments were written once, were composed once and they enjoy their place among the other heavy metal masterpieces. Helloween

are Power Metal leaders and founders.

Period. They don’t have to prove anything to anyone. So they finally give an honest album, with modern power metal songs, played through the unique Helloween filter. This is what we want from Helloween in 2010s! “Nabataea” is the opening track with a killing chorus where Deris presents us his extremely high vocal skills.

I always appreciated the sense of humour Michael Weikath and his mates had.

“Assholes” is the indicative song in the “Straight out of Hell” album. Excellent guitar play from Weikath and Sascha Gerstner. Faster and faster, their guitars will remind you how German power metal should be played. Teutonic yet melodic with “Queen”ish (We Will Rock You) interludes like “Wanna Be God” the “Straight out of Hell” album put Helloween back in the circle. “Live now! Sing it loud” baby cause tomorrow maybe everything ends. Head banging and air guitars are necessary for the listening of Straight out of Hell. Hmm, and clear your throat first because you gonna sing it loud.

Spiros Smyrnis

EP REVIEW recorded / mixed / mastered at Septicflesh’s Devasoundz Studios. The rehearsal song “Blessed Blood” was completely done at Basement Studios through Basement Productions. The last two songs were done in Sakis’ personal studio.

W.E.B. My Storm Upon You I have to say that I consider myself a lucky person having I discovered W.E.B. (Where Everything Begun), since the early days of their career. Their musical path counts three demo works and two full length albums. I confess that I am a really huge fan of them and I own two out of three of their demos and I also have their two full length albums. Their debut album is my favorite one and I have the three copies of it (promo, first release, re-release). They have appeared in many live concerts not only in Greece, but they covered Europe as well. The “My storm Upon You” EP is the messenger of their upcoming new album. It is somehow a 10th year celebration of the birth of the band and includes works from the band’s first and second album.

WEB worked on a strange schedule among four studios. Three out of six were

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This EP was a really big surprise to me, since it expands the path of their second album “Jesus Heist” intro “blacker” and into more industrial tunes. The first track is amazing and it describes the uniqueness of their music. The “My Storm upon You” track is a 100% “Jesus Heist” descendant with groovy riffs and the familiar extreme vocals by Sakis. The second track is a cover. The thing that made me really happy, is that the song is not a “Moonspell” cover or anything similar. It is a Greek Metal cover of the song “Anubis” from Septic Flesh. WEB made an extended version of “Anubis” by adding the “Faust” song also as well. The use of operatic vocals by Androniki Skoula (Chaostar) and Niki – Rosa Frei onto this one brings the song to a whole new level.

The third song takes us back to the “Don’t Wake Futility” period of WEB. It is an acoustic version of “Full of Sadness” performed by Aggeliki Karatsamis. I always liked acoustic versions of songs because I can play them to non metal fans. Next on the list, is the first track of “Jesus Heist”.

It is not the album version though. It is the rehearsal version of the song, more aggressive, including more extreme vocals than the original. The next one starts with the best quote I‘ve heard in a metal song. “Enthron the Shepherd. Enthrone

the Serpent - Enthron the Shepherd.

Enthrone the Serpent - Enthron the Shepherd. Enthrone the Serpent”. I am referring into the Enthoned, a “Jesus Heist” song. This version is an orchestral approach that easily could be a part of a sci-fi or a fantasy movie. The last song is an industrial version of “Cockroach”. It is an amazing combination of electronic music with black sounds. It reminds me the pattern of “Necropolis” by the Greek Industrial Black Metal Band Nyne.

The new release of WEB is not only unique; it is also an experiment into the industrial electronic music, an experiment producing orchestral and acoustic versions of familiar songs. They succeeded to combine all the different elements into a solid product that can be heard by everyone. WEB fans should not miss it.

The rest should definitely listen to it. It is a good example of professionalism proving for one more time that Greece can have bands that can follow the successful path of Rotting Christ and Septic Flesh.

Sotiris Stilianos

45

Karolina Pacan To be human is to have heart and not be affraid to use it!

My dear Warriors, I have decided to write a small note, about what I saw…

A few days ago, I was walking in the town, at night, alone, when a homeless drunk man passed me by.

I heard a noise behind me, it was that man.

He fell on the ground, unable to stand up by himself, Because of the alcohol level…

I was amazed how other people showed their ignorance for that homeless man…

No one came to help him …no one…!

That man was 3 times bigger than me, but I gave him a hand, and I tried to pick him up. It took me a while, but he finaly stood up on his feet. I took him close to the wall so he would not fall again, I gave him my last tissue because he was bleeding and he looked at me like I was an alien.

I saw tears in his eyes when I picked his hat from the ground, and put it on his head.

I felt it was an honor and my duty to help.

I ask you to open your heart, and to be more sensitive for what is going on around you. Someone could say, it’s not my problem… Yes, you might be right, but if one day, you fell on the street because of lets say, health reasons, and you die there, because no one will help you? Think about it…

Lets wake up, we are humans, and we have good hearts. I truly believe in mankind.

Lets stop our inner fears, and bring a bright future with honor & dignity, “To be human, means to have a heart and not afraid to show that ‘’

BURST { music magazine }

46

e g a P e h T n Tur

by Hope Vnz

Does the noise in my head bother you?

A rock ‘ n ‘ roll memoir

by Steven Tyler “Life is short. Break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that makes you smile”, Tyler chooses Mark Twain’s words to open his memoir, and in a very Tyler-like manner adds, “…and kill all the lawyers!”

The world’s most recognizable voice is once again here to shock, provoke, unconventional, unsettled, louder than ever, but bracingly honest.

A book just as its main hero, breaking the rules, unfolding the chronicles of one of the most prominent and strangest music world’s careers. From his childhood in Yonkers and the Bronx, to an adolescence of drugs, sex and rock’n’roll, towards breakups and make-ups with fellow band members, until making peace with his own demons, now 64, a grandpa, with 10 million records sold across the globe, four children, from three different women, but yet, young and restless. At times a little bit over-detailed as you get lost while reading about places, people and events, exaggerating, over stressing. But Tyler is like that, on the stage and in life, too dressed, too emotional, too in anything he does. Steven Tyler knows what it means to be a rock star and he really enjoys it, numerous parties are listed, band fights are described, regrets and sensitive alter ego revealed.”I may be a monster”, he states, ”but I am a sensitive monster” and the “demon of screaming” makes an honest attempt to drop the mask, to leave no story untold, no score unsettled, no secret unrevealed.

If there is any emotional centre in the book, or any centre at all, it is his war-and-peace burst-like relationship with Joe Perry (Aerosmith’s lead guitarist, songwriter).It was the summer of 1969, a turning point in Tyler’s life, when a very important and complicated friendship was born together with the birth of one of the most legendary rock groups. And there are also a lot of drugs, everywhere, on almost every page, another story of a constant rise and fall, a suicidal mania he can’t get rid of, destroying people, family, himself.

What is news here is a reference to another legend, Joan Jett, the woman, who didn’t sleep with him. “In courting Joan Jett while on tour with her, I would strip bare naked, put on a robe, pull the chair from near the elevator all the way over to the end of the hall, pushing it right in front of her door. I’d then take my robe off and, sitting spread-eagled, ring the doorbell and wait for her to open it. She’d open the door and her jaw would hit the floor as I said, “I hate myself for loving you.” She gave me that look I really wanted to see and responded in her best Mae BURST { music magazine }

West velvety growl, “I’m not into the big ten-inch honey,” and slammed the door.”

There have always been a lot of women in his life, and he loves women, the attention he gets, boasting about how much women love him, but deep inside feeling a bit bitter, asking himself, was it real, is this what life is about? “…women love me because I sing good, because I am a rock star, because I am Steven Tyler.

You may say, well hell, what’s wrong with that?..... I just have no life!” And there is also regret, pain, for not being around his family enough, of not being enough of a father. “There wasn’t a woman that I had a child with that I didn’t love, but there were always two trains running, my family, my band.”

This is the life of Steven Tyler, regrets or no, he wouldn’t change a thing, because this is how he is! Tyler’s trade mark ego is everywhere, on every page as he tries to put some order in the story of his life, a Shakespearean hero, brutally honest “sensitive monster”. And yes, he may be a lot of things, but certainly not quiet! Humorously diagnosing himself with the LSD syndrome (lead singer disorder, he calls it), admitting his narcissism and ego-centrism, but nevertheless, all through the book there is a surprising self-awareness, a capacity for empathy and an ability to forgive the others and himself, and a true passion for life, what you see is what you get, “It’s hard to tell who I am… I am the Demon of screaming, the dude that looks like a lady, the rag doll that married Lucy in the Sky. But I’m also something more than the rock’n’roll junky… Sure, we’re the sum of our experiences. If you listen to that song I wrote in 1969, “Dream On”, you might get a different view...”

Does the noise in my head bother you? by Steven Victor Tallarico, the frontman of Aerosmith, pretty damn loud, but did you expect anything less from him?

47

www.in2music.gr

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BURST { music magazine }

Photo by Apostolis Kalliakmanis

49 Lesbian kisses, burning crosses, and the name of Jesus’ mother.

She’s a Material Girl and she sure is the QUEEN -of Pop. But, is she “rock”?

A quick definition to “rock” could be “the one who has no limits -among other things”.

80’s until now, many new “celebs” have tried to copy her styles but the results were... disastrous?

In many ways, it seems that the word “taboo” is missing from Madge’s vocabulary.

From her early steps to today, she experiments with almost everything: music, style, even profession!

So, is Madonna Rock or What?

by Stathia Pedioti

Just her continuous change of styles through the decades, prove that she undoubdedly deserves being on the spotlight. Whatever this woman does is tomorrow’s fashion, followed by millions. Yes, she is a fashion icon -literally.

We’ve seen her in a hippy style, in a punk/rock style, in a “virgin” style, and so on.

The list is huge -and many articles have been written about her stylistic choices. “ Madge emerged on the scene in the early ‘80s as a street-smart “Boy Toy” and, over the course of her 30year career, evolved into a fashion-forward icon whose sense of style became as influential as her chart-topping tunes.” (billboard.com) Well, I hate exaggerating, but Madonna even turned her smile into a fashion trend.

The so-called, London style.

In times when everyone tries (with the help of experts) to make their smiles look “perfect”, she quietly screams “My smile rocks”.

Same with the Big Brown Brows.

In the end of the day, she’s some kind of extremist.

She likes to provoke, but in a classy way.

And that’s how she is the Queen of all, ‘cause from the

She shocked the world when she kissed Britney a decade ago, and everyone still discusses it. Well, this may still be “hot” for little chit-chats, ‘cause she admit Spears was a good kisser -or maybe ‘cause she said she wouldn’t do that again.

Her fans were used to be shocked by their idol. And now, in her mid fifties, people are starting to ask “Do Madonna’s “shock tricks”, shock anyone anymore?” . The answer is “freaking yes”, ‘cause she might be less extreme than she was in her 30s, but -God!- she’s the woman who made the Pope give a try to boycott her. And the woman, who, a couple of years ago, “shared” her breast with the crowd (“oops, it was an accident”)!

She’s a Diva (latin=Goddess) for sure, but even if some of us expect her to live in a dreamy castle where everything is “alright”, we’re wrong. She lives in this planet, with all of us, and she seems to care. Remember when she performed for “Hope for Haiti”?

(Note : No-one “badass” and also no-one with a “it’scrazy-and-i-cannot-support-it”style, could ever be called “rock”.)

Conclusion? She might be the Queen of Pop, but as a person, as an idol, she definitely is ROCK -as hell!!

Photo by Apostolis Kalliakmanis BURST { music magazine }

Written by Eleni Lampraki

50

“Cloud Atlas” is a German drama/science – fiction film, written and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer in 2012. It was adapted by the homonymous novel by David Mitchell. The film follows six different storylines in different time and place, which are in a way connected to each other.

The narrative moves from one plot to another, making a “sort of point-list mosaic” as the author stated. One of the film’s most notable characteristic is that all characters are played by an all-star cast (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’ Arcy, Zhou Xun, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant), who have either a major or a minor part in each story. In order to understand the meaning of the movie I’m going to tell each story individually, but if you watch the movie, remember that they are mixed up.

First Storyline/ Pacific Ocean 1849: Young American lawyer Adam Ewing, has come to the Chatham Islands for a business arrangement between his father-in-law and Reverent Gilles Horrox. While having a tour to the Horrox’s plantation’s he witnesses the whipping of a slave. He is shocked by the cruelness and faints. His doctor, Henry Goose, diagnoses an nearly fatal illness and seems to cure him, only to reveal that he is secretly poisoning him in order to steal his gold. Autua, the slave who was whipped, has been hidden to the ship and saves Ewing’s life, as Ewing did before for him. In the end Ewing returns home, with a completely changed mind about human slavery and announces that he and his wife are going to fight for human rights. The notebook he kept during the journey was published is the connection to the second storyline.

Second Storyline/ Cambridge 1936: Young and joyful musician Robert Frobisher leaves his lover Rufus Sixmith in order to pursue a career in composing near the famous composer Vyvyan Ayrs. Vyvyan hires him as his amanuensis and Rufus’s talent blossoms in Ayrs’s manor. In his library he finds Ewing’s notebook (eventually only the first half) and reads it. At the BURST { music magazine }

same time he has a sexual relationship with Vyvyan’s wife, Jocasta. Vyvyan doesn’t find out but his arrogance humiliates Frosbisher and he blackmails him in order to steal his masterpiece “Cloud Atlas Sextet”, otherwise he will destroy his reputation. Frosbisher shoots him and leaves, he finishes his masterpiece in a hotel room and commits suicide. He is the narrator of his own story, reading the letters he wrote to Sixmith, which are the connection to the third storyline.

Third Storyline/ San Fransisco 1973: Rufus Sixmith, a middleaged now nuclear physicist is trapped inside a broken elevator with the young journalist Luisa Rey. She gives him his card and offers her help when needed. After watching newscast Sixmith calls her but someone kills him. Rey decides to investigate the murder and finds out the conspiracy between oil lobbyist and a nuclear reactor, run by Lloyd Hooks. Hooks is behind the murder of Sixmith and tries to kill Rey as well, but with inside help she manages to escape and reveal the conspiracy. She is assumed to write a book about this story, which is the connection to the fourth storyline.

Fourth Storyline/ United Kingdom 2012: During a press party about literacy prizes, book publisher Timothy Cavendish jumps from anonymity to fame in one night when his client, the gangster-author Desmont Hoggins murders a critic in front of the crowd and is sent to jail. When he sends his mobs to take the money from Cavendish, he has one day to find 50.000 dollars to pay them off. He asks his brother for help; his brother secretly sends him to a nursing home (while on trip, he reads Rey’s manuscript). The nursing home is ruled by tyrannical Nurse Noaks. With a fellow group of old mistreated people he makes a heroic and successful escape. In the end he writes a scenario about his journeys, which is the connection to the fifth storyline.

Fifth Storyline/ Neo Seoul 2144: In a near future clones are created in order to serve people. We watch the interrogation/ interview of Somni, a clone who escaped before her execution.

She describes her life as a fast-food servant and how she was saved by Hae-Joo Chang, a member of a rebel, almost anarchist movement, who fought for clones’ rights. Meanwhile she watched a film about Cavendish’s adventures. Chang shows her that the clones are destroyed and become food for future fabricants. She decides to make a public broadcast of her manifesto before she is executed, so people will learn the truth of their existence.

Sixth Storyline/ Hawaii 106 years after the Fall: In a not so near future, people or Earth are living again on primitive societies and worship Somni as a goddess. In a place called “The Valley” we meet Zachry’s tribe who is terrorized by the cannibal Kona tribe. Zachry’s village is visited by Meronym, a member of the Precients, an advanced society. Meronym wants to go to a specific place in the mountains, and visit an abandoned communication station in order to send a message to people who have left Earth, because the atmosphere is poisoning them. She is helped by Zachry, who defeats his own demons and she takes him and his niece with her. In the end it is revealed that it’s Zachry who tells the whole story to a bunch of grandchildren, and he and Meronym lived happily ever after in another planet.

I’m not quite sure if I liked the movie a lot. The special effects were terrific; the “play” between the actors and their roles amusing, but the plot had a few downfalls along with the interesting parts. No matter what, you can’t see this movie only once, so enjoy!

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51

Written by Pana Apostolidou

he perceives his problems as if it was his own business. With his vital help, the cynical Django (Jamie Foxx) becomes the ultimate african american punisher, charged to take revenge for all the suffering black people had to endure. The quote “I love the way you die, boy” declares his ruthless blood thirst.

He is going to punish his dynasts sadistically. The above duo is about to confront the nasty but illiterate villain, whose name, ironically, sounds like a sweet. Calvin Candie is a collector of black fighters and enjoys watching them fight to death. He is a Francophile who doesn’t speak French and naïve as he is; he uncovers the scam only when his trusty and sneaky african american servant (Samuel L. Jackson) reveals the love story of Django and Broumchilnte to him.

The main idea came 10 years ago, when Tarantino was in Tokyo, promoting “Inglourious Basterds”; he realized exactly what he wanted to do. To make a Spaghetti western film, mashed with German legends, Ku Klux Klan scenes and swag hip hop sounds. I know it sounds funny but who dares to question his nominated-for-5-Oscars mastery?

The film starts with a wandering German bounty hunter, Dr. King Schultz, who “buys” the Negro slave Django because he is the only one able to recognize three wanted bounties. After Django services are completed, Dr. King sets him free and together they decide on a collaboration. Django is going to help Dr. Schultz to “sell corpses” and Schultz is going to help the protagonist track down his beloved wife, Broumchilnte. She is a servant at the plantation of Candy Land, owed by one of the most vicious slavers, Calvin Candie.

Dr Schultz and Django are developing a special bond that leads them through plantations of the American South to a chivalrous quest, to set “princess’’ Broumchilnte free. This fairy tale is framed by the brutality coming from the slavery institution which was legally established before Civil War. We are becoming witnesses of extreme violence, Mandingo fighters are fighting to death, white Southerners are feeding black people to dogs, women are getting roughly whipped and men are playing cards using human ears for real money.

Dr. King (Christoph Waltz) is the European sophisticated, chatty, romantic type, the civilized among the uncivilized ones, carrying a dubious morality. Despite that, he approves neither slavery nor slavers. He gives Django his freedom and, simultaneously, the chance to kill his wife’s tortures. Thus he is gaining his trust. But there is more than that. Dr. Schultz represents Django’s paternal figure. Highly involved in Django’s revenge,

There are plenty of Tarantino’s elements which we expected, on a level we definitely couldn’t expect. The director is showing off his knowledge of history of cinema, with multiple cinematic references. “Django Unchained” is based on an Italian Western film, named “Django”, directed by Sergio Corbucci, starring Franco Nero. Furthermore, the nickname “Black Hercules” was taken from Ken Norton, an actor/boxer, who starred in the movie “Mandingo”. Even the protagonists’ horses, Fritz and Tony, which Christoph Waltz kept introducing to everybody, are named after some horses which belong to two silent western stars, William S. Hart and Tom Mix. Of course he did not exclude the rest of his rituals: sharp language and intense violence. The quality of splatter he uses is basically violence derived from comic techniques. But as an artist he has a mission: to creatively reform gore into life lessons of morality. He uses plenty of violence, directly on our faces in order to create a series of emotions: he wants us to feel repulsion for the actions that promote the degeneration of AfricanAmerican people or purify our souls when the final and expected bloodshed will take place.

Tarantino, as always, made an exceptional casting choice. We met TV star Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”, Jamie Foxx got his role after Will Smith passed and Lady Gaga was considered for the role of Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwilly. Some of us may observe a masked, unidentified woman making a passing through. And we do wonder. Do we know her? This is Zoe Bell, known from “Deathproof” making a cameo! Franco Nero has a small part as well and it is really interesting to watch the meeting of the old and the new Django (Tarantino’s devotion to fallen stars of his favourite movies genres, demanded that Nero should make a cameo appearance as well). To conclude with this brilliant casting, I should mention DiCaprio’s first time as a villain and Samuel L. Jackson’s sixth collaboration with the director. Now that I am thinking it more thoroughly, poor Jamie Foxx is rather outshined by the rest of the cast.

Exquisite and mature piece of art, “Django” has another heavy ally: Ennio Morricone known for the famous “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” theme composed “Ancora Qui”, one of the four original songs included in the soundtrack. The rest of them come from Tarantino’s personal music collection.

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52

Quentin Tarantino

By Spiros Smyrnis

BURST { music magazine }

53 Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a tribute to Mr. Quentin Tarantino. The haters, infidels and those who were lobotomized (the only reasons I could think for someone not liking Tarantino) better stop reading. This is not another review, another article for Quentin’s movies.

“This is just a tribute”, as Tenacious D once sang. I’m gonna share the first terrifying moments I had with Quentin.

It was more than twelve years ago, I was watching TV when I saw a man in a black suit in an old warehouse. There was another man with him, a cop. A cop bound in a chair. The Man has a nickname: Mr. Blonde. He took his suit off. He got his cuff links off and turn the radio- volume on. It was Steelers Wheels singing “Here I am stuck in the middle with you”. Mr. Blonde (amazingly impersonated from Michael Madsen) started shuffling his feet. Was he dancing? Or he just was high? Who knows… He approached the cop. He held a jackknife. He was singing Wheels lines.

He came onto the cop and cut his ear off (Tarantino’s tribute to David Lynch’s Blue Velvet).

That was it, quite a shock for me!

I compare it with the one I’ve felt when I first watched Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver”. I immediately ran to the video club next to me. Yeah, there was a time when you had to go to a video store to rent a movie you wanted see long time before down-fucking loading. So I rented Reservoir Dogs. “Who shot this film?” I asked the cute brunette in the store. “Tarantino”, she just said. “Can you recommend any other movies of his?” “Take Pulp Fiction too”, she answered back.

Twelve years later, I’m still stuck in the middle with him. “Storytelling has become a lost art. There is no storytelling, there’s just situations. Very rarely are you told a story.” In his words. That’s him: a great storyteller. He’s a great director, screenwriter, producer and actor too.

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born on March 27, 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee U.S and he’s undoubtedly “the single most influential director of his generation.” as Peter Bogdanovich, (the great film critic and Director of “Last Picture Show” once called him. His works as a director made him popular, a pop art idol; however, Quentin introduced himself in Hollywood as a screenwriter. He was an employee of Video Archives store when he started writing three scripts, “Reservoir Dogs”, “True Romance” and “Natural Born Killers”. The first one was in theaters in 1992 and left everyone wandering “who the fuck is that 29-year old guy who hadn’t graduated from a film school?”.

Quentin just said “ When people ask me

if I went to film school, I say, “No, I went to films”.

Harvey Keitel took the risk of helping Quentin by co-producing the film, of finding the necessary funds and by starring as Mr. White. The “Dogs’” success prove him right. 2012 was the 20-year anniversary of “Reservoir Dogs”, one of the most controversial and influential films of the 90’s.

“Reservoir Dogs” is not just a film about a group of criminals getting together to pull off a diamond heist. It is much more than

that because the heist goes wrong and we the viewers watch the aftermath show, speechless. Little drops of humor in a blood-shaped scenery. A violent injection to the independent American cinema, mixing Jean Luc Godard with the Belgian cult film “Man Bites Dog”. “Tarantino re-inventing the crime genre”, as Edwin Page underlines. Just Before Pulp Fiction, Tarantino wrote two scripts which came out in theaters. The first one was “True Romance” directed by Tony Scot (R.I.P) in 1993. A fucking love story, in Tarantino way. Sex, drugs, money, blood and cool dialogues. Patricia Arquette was hot as hell, while Christian Slater is the dude all men wanna be like.

“Natural Born Killers” premiered in 1994 and it was another “Tarantino love story” cause just one is never enough. Oliver Stone directed the crazy story of Mickey and Mallory played by Woody Harelsson and Juliette Lewis. Tarantino evolved his writing style by using sharp but not

delicate language, which Stone presented to the audience using his camera. I’m sure that many of you would disagree but this film is one of the most romantic films I’ve ever seen. I can compare it only with David Lynch’s “Wild At Heart”. The engagement scene of Mickey and Mallory in a bridge over America is much more romantic and aesthetic than every single bullshit Bridget Jones wrote in her diary.

A critic described in just one line what I’ve felt for that movie: “Stone’s treatment to Tarantino’s text was probably equal to the way Jack the Ripper had treated London women”. He hits the bull’s eye, man!

And now, what are you waiting for? Pulp Fiction. The movie that defined the cinema of the ‘90’s. (In my opinion, this one and “Fight Club” are the most characteristic movies of the decade). Dick Dale’s version of Nick Roubanis classic Misirlou (which means Egyptian woman in Turkish) was one of the most recognizable movies’ tone, not to mention the figures of John Travolta and Samuel Jackson played Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield.

IMDB describes the plot of the film: “The lives of two mob hit men, a boxer, a gangster’s wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption”.

We all know that Pulp Fiction is much more than that. Pulp Fiction is the pop culture mixed in a blender with tons of blood, extreme violence and hilarious dialogues.

Quotes that beat peanut butter in taste and Harvey Keitel in coolness like the one Butch Coolidge (a.k.a Bruce Willis) said to Fabienne (Maria De Medeiros) when she asked him “Whose motorcycle is this?” ;”This is not a motorcycle.

This is a chopper”; “Whose chopper is this?” “Zed’s” “ Zed’s who?” “Zed’s Dead Baby, Zed’s Dead”. The Oscar Academy acknowledged Tarantino’s skills by giving him the Oscar award for the Best Original Screenplay in 1995.

There are so many scenes in that movie you will not ever forget. If I had to choose just one, that would be the injection of an adrenaline needle straight to Mia Wallace’s (played by Uma Thurman) chest from Lance (aka known as Eric Stolz).

Most people may vote the dance competition between Travolta and Thurman as their favorite scene. Τhey should know that Tarantino was influenced by a dance sequence in Jean Luc Godard’s 1964 “Bande A part” film. Quentin loves the French Director and the choreographies used in his movies because they’ve come out of the blue as he said. Tarantino is a director who’s never hidden his influences. Many critics condemned him as a “thief” because he borrows many scenes from the movies he loved. Especially the BURST { music magazine }

54 ones he found hidden in a video store self, where he worked.

Maybe it was there, where, for the first time, he met the Goddess of Blaxplotation, Pam Grier, the leading star in “Jackie Brown”, the third film by Tarantino. Quentin had mentioned Pam in a Reservoir Dogs dialogue paying his tribute to her magnificent body and her beauty. “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown” where Pam Grier starred in 1973 and 1974 are main sources of inspiration for Tarantino who managed to cooperate in his third movie with Robert De Niro the man starring in Taxi Driver (among other film masterpieces, this one is Tarantino’s favorite movie). A critic once wrote: “I don’t know any young filmmaker who’s used his success to boost the actors and filmmakers he loves as passionately as Tarantino has”. Definitely the right words to describe Jackie Brown, which, according to the American filmmaker: “It’s a love story… A love story with older people and an older sensibility”.

We skipped the Robert Rodriguez chapter in Quentin’s directional life. His pal directed him in the cult treasure “From Dusk till Dawn” (Tarantino wrote the script and starred next to George Clooney, Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis) .

Tarantino and Clooney were two criminal brothers, who took hostage a family going to Mexico to meet some Mexicans.

In this road movie, apart from vampires, they met Salma Hayek, who gave one of the sexiest dances in the history of cinema. Tarantino and Rodriguez were also the two out of four directors of “Four Rooms”. Tarantino directed the best story of the movie named “The Man from Hollywood” and manipulated Tim Roth with prowess. This was just the beginning of the professional affair of TarantinoRodriguez Company many years before GrindHouse.

So we reached 2003, when “Kill Bill” came to theaters. The inglorious basterd Quentin dared to write in the banner before the movie “This is the fourth Film of Quentin Tarantino”. “Kill Bill” had a huge 200-page script; that was why Tarantino decided after shooting it to split the movie in two volumes. “Kill Bill” is a homage. A homage to cinema, a homage to violence. “To me, violence is a totally aesthetic subject. Saying you don’t like violence in the movies is like saying you don’t like dance scenes. Violence in real life is terrible violence in the movies can be cool. It’s just another color to work with.” , said Quentin. The story of Bride is the best way to approve his sayings. The Bride wakes up after a long coma. The baby that she carried before entering the coma is gone. The only thing on her mind is to have revenge on the assassination team that betrayed her - a team she was once a member of.

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Now it’s the difficult time to list Tarantino influences for Kill Bill. Let’s start.

The main idea of the film was taken from Toshiya Fujita’s “Lady Snowblood”, while the yellow suit of Uma Thurman is a tribute to “Game of Death” movie starring Bruce Lee. The eye patch Darryl Hannah wore has taken from the uncensored cult treasure named “Thriller: A cruel Picture” (directed by Bo Arne Vibenius, starring Christina Lindberg). The bleeding eyes scene is a dedidation to Lucio Fulci’s “City of the Living Dead” film, while David Carradine’s (playing Bill) flute is the same one he played in “Circle of Iron”, 1979. Carradine is one of Tarantino’s favorite actors and they finally worked together in the shooting of Kill Bill, while the great actor had the last important role in his career. Tarantino delivered an unbelievable result creating another pop art phenomenon.

“I don’t have to work again If I don’t want to, so I only make the movies I want to make, when it is fun. Because if you are not going to have fun, why do it?” This is the answer all critics are seeking for to understand the Tarantino phenomenon.

This guy makes movies he likes about movies he likes. Another classic example is “Death Proof”, the first half of “GrindHouse”. This one is another homage to the exploitation of the cinema of the ‘70’s (where you could watch two cheap sexy bloody b-movies thrillers in the price of one). Who’s gonna get the leading role in “Death Proof” but Kurt Russel? No one, else bitches! Another favorite actor and a point of reference of Tarantino’s; Russel gives an excellent performance.

Two thumbs up! Two separate sets of voluptuous women are stalked at different times by a scarred stuntman who uses his “death proof” cars to execute his murderous plans. Stuntman Mike is Kurt Russel, Kurt Russel is stuntman Mike. Tarantino pays tribute to Russ Meyer’s underrated cinema, while he directed one of the best car crush scenes in the history of cinema.

I don’t know what I love most in Tarantino’s cinema. His sense of humor? His writing skills? His unforgettable dialogues? His women?

Tarantino’s women!

A special chapter in his filmography. From Uma Thurman and Pam Grier to Rose McGowan, Sidney Tamiia Poitier, Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent, they are all

goddamn beautiful, sexy, funny, with a license to kill and balls bigger than most men. Unique, they were born to lose but, baby, they live to win; they put a knife into your wound just like women should (the credits for this phrase go to the song “Just like a Woman” by Black Spiders).

Three years have passed from “Inglorious Basterds”, Tarantino’s last movie, where we travelled In Nazi-occupied France during World War II. We enjoyed the filming of a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers, fully coinciding with a theatre owner’s vengeful plans. Brad Pitt proved that he is a great actor (“Seven”, “Fight Club”, “Twelve Monkeys”, “Snatch”) and Mike Meyers had a larger than life guest appearance. The “Cat people” song scene is one of my favorites in Quentin’s filmography. Drops of blood, machismo and Nazi scalps in a delicious cocktail.

I really missed Quentin stories. “I like it when somebody tells me a story and I actually really feel that that’s becoming like a lost art in American Cinema.” I totally see what he means… I’m with the greatest storyteller of our time, waiting his new film named “Django Unchained”.

An homage to spaghetti westerns I fucking love, starring Jamie Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel Jackson and the new kid on the block Christoph Waltz, who was discovered by Tarantino in an Austrian TV series giving us another reason to salute him. Every time I watch a film with his signature I remember the Bride’s words: “I roared. I rampaged. And I got bloody satisfaction”

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by Cristina Alossi

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Director’s Cut

Alfred Hitchcock

“I have a perfect cure for a sore throat: Cut it”

“Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.”

One of the biggest, most important and the pioneer of his kind. Hitchcock is a controversial personality, as he has been called misogynist, misanthropist and agoraphobic. His phobias transcribed to his characters and films and the larger struggles of man were transferred to the big screen through his camera. The master of suspense, born under the sign of Leo, “roared” and created 63 films covering a total of 6 decades. His posterity is mainly based on his eccentric behavior and the film that made him forever known, “Psycho.” The variety of stars that starred, the preference to blonde actresses, who were tortured and killed in every possible way, and his appearance as walk-on in 39 films contributed to his international success.

A “huge” director who never managed to grab the golden statue of Oscar.

Early life He was born in Britain on 13 of August, 1899.

His father, William, was a greengrocer and poultry farmer, and gave young Hitchcock, who was obese as a child, the name of his brother. Growing up with Catholic parents, who sent him to a Jesuit school, he was surrounded by fear and a feeling of terror against morality and duty. At the age of 5, he experienced a traumatic incident, which triggered his directorial talent. His BURST { music magazine }

father wanted to punish him by sending a note to the police station suggesting the police officers to lock Hitchcock up in a cell for five minutes, an event which made him having only one target: to continually

display unfair treatment, as a theme to his movies. His father died when he was 14 years old and immediately Hitchcock quit Jesuit school and started to study engineering. In 1919, the Henley Tel-

egraph published several short horror stories written by him and around 1920 he began working in Paramount pictures as credit titles manager. The opportunity to sit on the director’s chair appeared two years later when the director of the movie “Always tell your wife” got sick and Hitchcock was asked to replace him. The producers were impressed by the result and commissioned him to direct his first film, “Number 13”. But the studios were closed and the film was shut down and ran out of funds.

The same year he was hired to create intertitles for silent movies in Gainsborough pictures.

In 1925 he managed to direct “Pleasure garden”, which marks the beginning of his directorial career. In December 1926 he married his assistant director, Alma Reville, and three years later she gave birth to his daughter, Patricia.

Filmography Hitchcock’s themes and personal style were established after many experiments in the U.S. and England, with the spy movie “The man who knew too much”, in 1934. This film marks the beginning of “Hitchcockian films” as named by film critics and audience. Until his last film, “Family Plot” in 1976, his course will be marked by highlights of world cinema such as “The 39 steps”, “Blackmail”, “The Lady Vanishes”, ” Rebecca”, “Foreign

“Rope” was the first color film, in “Dial M for murder” he used 3D for the very first time and “Blackmail” was the first “talkie film”.

Correspondent”, “Mr & Mrs Smith”, “Suspicion”, “Saboteur”, “Shadow of a Doubt”, “Lifeboat”, “Spellbound”, “Notorious”, “Rope”, “Under Capricorn”, “Strangers on a train”, “Dial M for Murder”, “Rear Window”, “The trouble with Harry”, “The Wrong Man”, “Vertigo”, “North by Northwest”, “Psycho”, “The Birds”, “Torn Curtain”, “Topaz” and “Frenzy”. Even though he was from England, he made his best movies in America. The British period includes the 20s and 30s, while the U.S. begins with his arrival in Hollywood in 1939. From the mid ‘40s until the early ‘60s he created a series of excellent films, but the most fertile period were the 50s, when he shot some of his most brilliant works, “Rear Window”, “Vertigo”, “North

by Northwest” and “Psycho”. His personal favorite was “Shadow of a Doubt”.

Personal style Hitchcock was always looking for wellstructured scenarios to maintain the high interest of the audience and he was consciously avoiding pauses in the plot or slow storylines. He wanted the viewer to rest at no point in the movie, by seeking the escalating tension and suspense, until the climax and the given solution of the mystery, which was given to the audience at the appropriate time. Hitchcock was intervening in everything! He was calling the shots in editing, lighting and in purely technical issues as well. He was measuring space and distances in order to provide the appropriate atmosphere and not to waste shots. He wanted the viewer to see exactly what he needed to, and his intention while operating the camera was, in all cases, not to fool the viewers and just give them clean and clear clues on the story (except “Stage Fright”, with a pseudo-flashback in the beginning of the movie). His heroes are usually people who are unjustly accused and who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Usually this place is full of enemies and they have few allies.

His appearances as a walk-on in 39 of his movies were his personal touch.

Originally, he was popping out at the first half of the movie but when the audience started seeking him, he was appearing during the first few minutes of the film, in order not to distract the viewers. One of his favorite suspense techniques, called “MacGuffin”, was about marking an object or a character as highly important for the plot, but, actually, it had nothing to do with the end of the story. The macabre humor, the manias and the feeling that the audience is spying the protagonists, are elements of his genius talent.

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hese are bagpipes. I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. Unfortunately, the man-made sound never equalled the purity of the sound achieved by the pig.

ence has inspired generations of filmmakers such as: David Fincher, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, David Lynch, Tim Burton and many others. Concluding the tribute to the so called master of suspense and father of psychological thriller, it should be added that his life is transferred to the screen and in February of 2013 a biographical drama, with Antony Hopkins playing Hitchcock, is coming out.

The end Hitchcock died at his home in Bel Air from renal failure and his ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean, as his wish was.

Shortly before his death, his career was downwards, he was not satisfied with the scripts he had to work with, the actors were aged and his inspiring female protagonists had abandoned him.

The legend surrounding his name was deflating and in April of 1980, at the age of 80 year old, Alfred was mended never to scare his audience again. The lion may passed away but his soul and his influBURST { music magazine }

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Written by Spiros Smyrnis

I am a huge stoner/heavy/desert/sludge/ psychedelic/rock fan. Name as you like man cause labels don’t really matter.

I think that my life as a music fan has changed the days I listened the following albums: Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley, Down - NOLA, Monster Magnet - Dopes to Infinity and last but not least Nightstalker - Use. That was when I got in touch with these badass, groovy stoned rhythms I fucking love. On the other hand (as you may understand from this column on Burst) I had a special bond with Greek Metal bands. From the Glorious Hellenic Black Metal pioneers (Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia, Deviser, Kawir, Order of The Ebon Hand) and Progressive Death Metal Specialists (Nightfall, Septic Flesh, Acid Death) to Classic Thrash n Heavy Metal Defenders (Flames, Spitfire, Sarissa, Northwind, Inner Wish) and the stoner/heavy/desert/ sludge/psychedelic/rock scene (which is guided by Nightstalker).

Lord 13, Planet of Zeus, Lucky Funeral, Phase Reverse, Routes, Mahakala, Potergeist, BullDoza, Vibratore Bizarro, Beyond Perception just to name a few of them. Hmm who am I missin? You guessed right. 1000Mods were formed in the summer of 2006. Somewhere outside Korinthos, near the legendary Chiliomodi (from where they named their band). Three years later they released the BURST { music magazine }

cool “Liquid Sleep” 7” EP (In 2007 they released the self-financed Blank Reality EP). This stuff was enough for the great Billy Anderson (the mighty producer of Sleep, Om, Melvins, Los Natas, Orange Goblin and Neurosis among others) to visit Greece so he could produce group’s debut album named “Super Van Vacation” Wise decision Mr Anderson! Wise decidion 1000 Mods! “Super Van Vacation” was for me the best stoner/doom rock album of 2011. CTS Productions released the album in a slim digipack case, soon to be collectible. “Vidage” as these guys named the fifth track of Super Van Vacation, like an old van, like the one in the amazing Tarantino meets ZZ TOP in a comic sketch front cover (made by Malleus Rock Art Lab).

“Road to Burn” is the opening track. I love the smell of Kyuss in the morning (paraphrasing Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now) The Colour Haze and Karma to

Burn influences are obvious in 1000Mods music. Low pitched guitars, a gigantic bass and a fucking cool analog sound sending all those experimental computer programming samples to hell. 7 Flies has an explosive riff which gonna set new measures in the groove meter. Psychedelic themes lost in the valley of sand.

El Rollito brings a John Garcia (Kyuss, Hermano, Unida, SloBurn) air to Korinthos, while “Vidage” is one of my favorite stoner tracks ever. Tripping, satanic melodies from outer space.

The ideal soundtrack for a road trip through the American desert. Lizards creeping and coyotes hunting their prey, while the van window is opened. The air is filled with smoke and grease. There’s a man with cheap sunglasses and a long beard out there. Man he seems like Jesus! No he reminds me Dude from Big Lebowski! He is barefoot. He is digging in the sand. He’s looking for something. It is a vinyl, buried in the sand. It is broken down but you could see some letters in Red: “Super Van Vacation”

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195 million children worldwide suffer from the effects of malnutrition. In 2011, MSF treated 408,000 children in more than 30 countries.

Copyright: Francesco Zizola