Maniacs: November 2015

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2015

FREE!

EDFORCE ONE TOUCHES DOWN IN OZ! INSIDE

TRIVIUM / JACKSON FIREBIRD / DISTURBED / HALESTORM / and more!

& FRIENDS TAKE ON THEIR BIGGEST TOUR YET!

PVRIS tore up stages across Australia on their recent tour with Circa Survive . Check out our exclusive BTS clip at maniacsonline.com.au and pick up their album White Noise while you’re at it!

ONE OK ROCK are one of Japan’s most beloved rock bands and after winning us over at Soundwave earlier this year we can see why.

A deluxe English language version of their latest album 35xxxv is out now!

HIGHLY SUSPECT has been compared to Queens of the Stone Age, Kings of Leon, Band of Skulls & Royal Blood so if you like the sound of that pick up their album Mister Asylum out Nov 27!

You want to get your hands on the 20th anniversary limited deluxe edition of RANCID ’s …

And Out Come The Wolves .

Arguably the most important punk album of the 90’s, the 180 gram vinyl will also feature two extra tracks.

NEVER SHOUT NEVER are coming to tour in December so get their latest album Black Cat because it’s a killer!

DREAM THEATER have announced new double album The Astonishing which is expected early 2016. As gloriously ambitious as always it’s a concept album, built around a detailed story to which the album serves as a score. Check out more at dreamtheater.net.

THERE ARE 3 WAYS TO BECOME A MANIAC!

maniacsonline.com.au facebook.com/maniacsau or sign up for the official mailing list and get exclusive access to comps and special offers

PANTERA are celebrating their legacy with a new boxed set and single disc compilation! One for the xmas list!

GREEN DAY have released their long awaited doco Heart Like A Hand Grenade ; shot during the recording of their legendary album American Idiot .

COHEED AND CAMBRIA recently released their brand new album The Color Behind The Sun; their first not connected to The Amory Wars storyline. It’s still a must for Coheed fans and features the single You’ve Got Spirit Kid .

THE AMITY AFFLICTION recently dropped a brand new single – Shine On – but if you still can’t get enough Amity then grab the deluxe version of Let The Ocean Take Me (out Nov 27),LTOTM + 2 extra tracks and the 90 min doco Seems Like Forever – easy!

FEEDING THE BEAST IRON MAIDEN… A NAME SYNONYMOUS WITH NOT ONLY CLASSIC METAL BUT ALSO FOR BEING ONE OF THE MOST LEGENDARY AND REVERED BANDS OF ALL TIME. SO WHEN THE INFAMOUS UK TROUPE RELEASED THEIR 16TH STUDIO ALBUM THE BOOK OF SOULS IN SEPTEMBER IT WAS ANTICIPATED TO CLIMB TO THE TOP END OF THE CHARTS. WHAT WASN’T EXPECTED IS THAT AFTER OVER 30 YEARS TOGETHER DELIVERING MONSTER ALBUMS, IT WOULD UNDISPUTEDLY BE ONE OF THEIR BEST YET. The Book Of Souls delivers everything Maiden fans have come to hope, Eddie adorned in Aztec war paint (The stunning cover art was created by Mark Wilkinson), classic style first single Speed Of Light and an 18 minute Bruce Dickinson penned epic – Empire Of The Clouds. It’s even their first double album. The Book Of Souls was recorded in Paris with their long standing producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley in late 2014, with the finishing touches added earlier this year.

“We started working on the album in late summer 2014 and recorded it at Guillame Tell Studios in Paris, where we’d done the Brave New World album back in 2000” says Dickinson of the first entry in The Book Of Souls… “so the studio holds special memories for all of us. We were delighted to discover the same magical vibe is still alive and very much kicking there! So we immediately felt at home and the ideas just started flowing. By the time we’d finished we all agreed that each

track was such an integral part of the whole body of work that if it needed to be a double album, then double its going to be!”

Guitarist Steve Harris contributes to seven of the tracks. It’s also the first time since 1984’s Powerslave that an Iron Maiden studio album features two tracks written solely by Bruce Dickinson.

“We approached this album in a different way to how we’ve recorded previously. A lot of the songs were actually written while we were there in the studio and we rehearsed and recorded them straight away while they were still fresh, and I think that immediacy really shows in the songs, they have almost a live feel to them, I think.” Steve Harris explains.

But despite delivering on every front it was Bruce Dickinson’s battle unfolding behind the scenes that proves ‘The Trooper’ is more than just a classic track and namesake of Maiden’s bespoke beer brand. Dickinson, was recently given the all-clear from a tumour on his tongue discovered half way through recording the album. He returned to complete the album once recovered.

Dickinson will also once again fly EdForce One around the world (although this time they will be using a Boeing 747-400 jumbo) when Maiden defend their title as one of the hardest workingtouring bands on the planet. The Book of Souls World Tour, will see Maiden play in 35 countries: North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe, their first ever performances in China, El Salvador and Lithuania. Most importantly, the Australian leg is May 4th – 14th 2016.

“I’m very proud of The Book Of Souls” finishes Steve Harris “We all are, and we can’t wait to take it out on the road next year!”

The Book Of Souls is out now through Parlophone / Warner.

Check out the back page for all details on the Australian tour.

STORM BORN IF YOU HAVE HEARD RUMBLINGS ABOUT HALESTORM ON THE HORIZON THEN THIS IS YOUR ONE WARNING AND IT’S BEST DELIVERED AS PLAIN AS IT COMES – PICK UP A COPY OF THEIR LATEST ALBUM INTO THE WILD LIFE RIGHT NOW AND DO NOT MISS THEM LIVE THIS DECEMBER. Yes, the bands that all the other rock bands have been talking about is coming to Australia for the first time but with all the noise they’ve been stirring up over their career, it’s fairly impossible not to have heard something about Lzzy Hale and Co. After all, they are the only female fronted rock band to ever win a hard rock Grammy and they absolutely tramp it live.

“Into The Wild Life is an invitation to all things Halestorm.” says Halestorm front woman Lzzy Hale. “Lyrically and musically, we explored everything that makes us tick. We set a new standard for this record and gave ourselves no choice other than to be unapologetically ourselves in every way. Peel away at the onion

that is our third record if you dare and let us drag you deeper into our world.”

“On the last record, we hit all these crazy milestones,” Hale says. “All of the attention was amazing and fueled our confidence. So we decided to throw everything we were used to out the window and just go for it.”

Halestorm write songs that pulsate, pound and soar, as well as confessional, heartstringtugging tunes and everything between. Instead of recording in a major studio in Los Angeles or New York, Halestorm created Into The Wild Life in East Nashville, and when they weren’t at the studio they soaked in the musical culture of the legendary city. “I’m sure a Southern bug crawled into my ear just from hanging out there for a while,” Hale says. “There are a lot of great musicians there, for sure, as well as a lot of great classic rock. That was a big part of this album.”

Halestorm are headed to Australia to show us why they have really become rock music’s biggest buzz and if there is ever a show you should take a punt on, it’s this one. Your new favorite rock band awaits!

Into The Wild Life is out now through Atlantic. Check out the back page for all details on the Australian tour!

ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE TRIVIUM HAVE NEVER DENIED THEIR ROOTS AND YET, ALBUM AFTER ALBUM THEY MANAGE TO INJECT THOSE INFLUENCES WITH A FRESH SOUND ALL OF THEIR OWN. ON THEIR LATEST – SILENCE IN THE SNOW – TRIVIUM UP THE ANTE ONE NOTCH FURTHER AND PROVE WHY AFTER OVER 10 YEARS TOGETHER THEY CAN COUNT THEIR FAVOURITE BANDS AMONG THEIR PEERS. MANIACS SPOKE WITH BASSIST PAOLO GREGOLETTO. Silence In The Snow has a classic metal sound and clean vocals. What made you decide to go in this direction?

“We were writing for a couple months before we begun production and we really spent a lot of time conceptualizing what we wanted to do. In all honesty, our biggest songs have always been our more melodic ones with screaming inter-mixed, but mostly big melodic hooks. So, we decided that was going to be the challenge this record: to see if we can make a record such as this without the heavy vocals and if we could make it catchy, if we could make the riffs powerful. And it was a challenge; it’s not easy to do that.”

“One thing we didn’t want to have was a retro album. We didn’t want it to sound like an album that came out in the 70’s or 80’s, but we looked back at albums we love, whether it was Metallica or Iron Maiden. We really focused on how they made those records, why they’re great, why the songs are timeless. So we looked at bands we’ve always looked up to and channelled the

ideas of what they were doing with a modern spin on production and inter-mixing some of our newer influences, stuff that I would consider new like melodic death metal style riffing and stuff like that. That’s still a very big part of our sound.”

What was behind Silence In The Snow’s artwork and title?

“The title is actually a translation from a Japanese story that the lyrics were inspired by.

It’s about how this Japanese folk lord battled all over the place. We wanted the album to use this skull logo that we made last year and we wanted it to be a photo instead of just art or a drawing, so our friend made four in different matte colours. We tried a couple of variations but we settled with the white on white which we felt was the most striking of all the photos that were taken and it was an introduction of the new logo for our band.”

What’s your favourite track on the record?

“When I start to listen to the record start to finish it’s hard to really pick them but since we’ve been playing them live I really enjoy playing ‘Until The World Goes Cold’. I didn’t know how that song was going to play live and it’s actually a little different than I was expecting. It’s really been fun to play and it’s awesome to see people reacting to it.”

Can you give us any hints about when you’ll be back in Australia?

“2016 is going to be the bulk of our touring, so if it’s going to happen it’ll happen sometime around then. I don’t know whether it will be a festival or if it’ll be a headliner. I like both, so we’ll see how things pan out. We’ll definitely be down there because we don’t seem to skip it ever.”

Silence In the Snow is out now on Roadrunner Records. Read the full version of this story at maniacsonline.com.au

SHAKING THE BREAKDOWN JACKSON FIREBIRD JUST DROPPED THEIR NEW ALBUM SHAKE THE BREAKDOWN AND IT IS, IN A WORD, HUGE. BUT WE WANTED TO DIG A LITTLE DEEPER. WHAT BETTER WAY THAN HAVE THE MILDURA DUO ASK EACH OTHER A FEW QUESTIONS? THEY ARE FAMILY AFTER ALL (BEING BROTHERS IN LAW AS WELL AS BAND MATES) AND DISPROVING THE OLD ADAGE, YOU CAN’T CHOOSE YOUR FAMILY! Brendan: So Hudes, what were your first impressions of me?

Dale: I think you were about 13 or 14. Pretty sure I thought you were a smartarse punk kid that could really play the bass well. It ended up being though music that made us good mates, and we’ve jammed ever since. What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt in the nine years we’ve played together?

B: I have learnt that you should only play for your own enjoyment. You? D: Write out a setlist where the songs flow!

But above all just to have fun with it. Is there anything on the new record you’d change?

B: Not really. I feel that an album is a snapshot of a band right in that moment. I’m sure in time I will look back and go “I wish I did this”, or “I wish I did that” – but that is the ever-evolving joy of art. What about you?

D: I’d get a new drummer. Speaking of … is there anything I do in the studio that pisses you off?

B: You didn’t get your drum takes first go! Is there anything I did to piss you off?

D: You took your shoes off. Stank! Although it wasn’t nearly as bad as that time you destroyed a toilet in Brazil. It took you about a week and a dozen clogged toilets before realising that their sewer system doesn’t take kindly to toilet paper being flushed. Remember when you flooded the floor of that band room and the joint needed to be evacuated? Come to think of it, the studio toilet endured some punishment too.

Whenever we weren’t recording all the doors were left open to create some airflow. This said though, some of the best Mexican food I have ever eaten was from Austin.

B: We did get lucky with our Mexican brother Yayo from The Bubble. His father started the first Mexican food franchise in Austin and as soon as we mentioned that we had never had authentic Mexican food he was out the door. He came back a half-hour later with enough to feed an army! And f**k me it was good. Kind of wrecked it for me back home as it just ain’t the same. Did anything about Austin remind you of home?

D: The weather for sure. It felt just the same as Mildy just a bit weird being warm at a different time of the year.

Shake The Breakdown is out now on Warner. Keep an eye out for them touring at a pub near you!

Go to jacksonfirebrid.com for all the details.

B: The weather is very similar.

Mildura and Austin both have a desert climate. They can get stinking hot during the day and you can freeze your nuts off at night.

Austin has more bars/band venues condensed into a small area than anywhere else I’ve seen in the world. I wish Mildura had that.

CARVED IN STONE THERE’S A REASON DISTURBED ARE STILL ONE OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN HEAVY MUSIC. IT’S NOT JUST THE GOLD AND PLATINUM ALBUMS, THE AWARD NOMS OR THE SOLD OUT SHOWS SPANNING 11 YEARS. IT’S THE FACT THAT THEIR LATEST ALBUM IMMORTALIZED SEES DISTURBED MORE POWERFUL AND VITAL THAN THEY’VE EVER BEEN…AND STILL HITTING #1 IN AUSTRALIA. Dig deeper and there’s more. Disturbed announced their hiatus in 2011, seemingly for good, but returning with a vengeance when the time was ‘right’ with the aptly titled Immortalized and taking a huge risk in the process.

“The idea was to leave when we were at our peak, which we were, and to come back when we felt reinvigorated,” asserts frontman David Draiman of their time apart. “We wanted to give ourselves a chance to breathe…give the culture a chance to evolve.”

“We wanted to return when we collectively had that fire underneath us,” agrees guitarist Dan Donegan. “We missed it so much that we could tap into this energy and deliver the right album.

We did it on our own terms.”

So what fuelled that fire that is so evident throughout the album, something that is astonishing considering the circumstances from which it was kindled?

“We wanted to go back to where it started before the technology existed where you could create from across the country. For this album, everything was written in the same room. That became apparent in the material, whether it was the passion of the performance, the power being harnessed, or the feelings evoked. We could feel the difference.” Says Draiman.

How Immortalized was created is one thing.

What they created is another entirely and best captured most potently on first track from the album: The Vengeful One. Even the video – featuring Disturbed’s sagacious antihero ‘The Guy’ - stirred up its share of controversy being briefly pulled on air and online as a result of its graphic content.

“Basically, ‘The Vengeful One’ is the personification of The Destroyer, the Angel of Death, Gabriel, or the Hand of God looking over humanity,” explains Draiman. “In the song, it’s the End of Days. Things are getting worse, and we’re becoming more destructive. The media is playing everyone against one another and baiting the entire world. It’s judgment day.

This is that entity’s voice speaking and passing judgment.”

For Disturbed fans, the only news bigger than the release of Immortalized and its conquering bad-assery is that the band will be coming in 2016 to headline Soundwave. Check back page for details.

THE AMITY AFFLICTION w/ A DAY TO REMEMBER / MOTIONLESS IN WHITE / THE GHOST INSIDE

SAT 12 DEC - QANTAS Credit Union Arena, SYDNEY MON 14 DEC - Perth Arena, PERTH WED 16 DEC - Adelaide Entertainment Center, ADELAIDE THU 17 DEC - Rod Laver Arena, MELBOURNE SOLD OUTBRISBANE SAT 19 DEC - Riverstage, SUN 20 DEC - Riverstage, BRISBANE

TOURS HALESTORM TUE 8 DEC - 170 Russell, MELBOURNE WED 9 DEC - The Gov, ADELAIDE FRI 11 DEC - Cambridge Hotel, NEWCASTLE SAT 12 DEC - ANU Bar, CANBERRA

Don’t miss your chance to see Amity in their biggest shows yet! To make things that little bit bigger we have 2 exclusive ‘Big Ass Tour’ promo t-shirts and a tour poster as well as a CD/DVD version of Let The Ocean Take Me. To enter answer in 25 words or less what you think is the biggest thing about the big ass tour at bit.ly/bigasstourcomp

NIGHTWISH THU 7 JAN - The Tivoli, BRISBANE SAT 9 JAN - The Enmore Theatre, SYDNEY MON 11 JAN - The Forum, MELBOURNE WED 13 JAN - HQ Complex, ADELAIDE FRI 15 JAN - Metropolis, FREMANTLE

SUN 13 DEC - Manning Bar, SYDNEY TUE 15 DEC The Tivoli, BRISBANE NEVER SHOUT NEVER WED 2 DEC - The Brightside, BRISBANE THU 3 DEC - The Lab, BRISBANE FRI 4 DEC - The Factory Theater, SYDNEY SAT 5 DEC - The Evelyn Hotel, MELBOURNE SUN 6 DEC - The Evelyn Hotel, MELBOURNE WED 9 DEC - Fowlers Live, ADELAIDE THU 10 DEC - The Rosemount, PERTH

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DISTURBED, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, BRING ME THE HORIZON, DEFTONES, THE PRODIGY, NOFX, NORTHLANE, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and more SAT 23 JAN - Bribane Showgrounds, BRISBANE SUN 24 JAN - Sydney Olympic Park, SYDNEY TUE 26 JAN - Melbourne Showgrounds, MELBOURNE SEVENDUST SUN 13 MAR - Capitol, PERTH MON 14 MAR - The Gov, ADELAIDE

WED 16 MAR - Eatons Hill, BRISBANE THU 17 MAR - 170 Russell, MELBOURNE SAT 19 MAR - Metro Theatre, SYDNEY BLACK SABBATH w/ RIVAL SONS FRI 15 APR - Perth Arena, PERTH SUN 17 APR - Adelaide Entertainment Center, ADELAIDE TUE 19 APR - Rod Laver Arena, MELBOURNE SAT 23 APR - Allphones Arena, SYDNEY MON 25 APR - Brisbane Entertainment Centre, BRISBANE IRON MAIDEN WED 4 MAY - Entertainment Center, BRISBANE FRI 6 MAY - Allphones Arena, SYDNEY MON 9 MAY - Rod Laver Arena, MELBOURNE THU 12 MAY - Adelaide Entertainment Center, ADELAIDE SAT 14 MAY - Perth Arena, PERTH

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