Maniacs - July/August 2012

JULY / AUGUST 2012

HALESTORM

MAKE THEM SUFFER

PERIPHERY

The best of Slipknot 1999-2012

Featuring 19 tracks tracing the journey from (sic) to Snuff

SEE INSIDE…

ANTENNAS TO HELL

IN THE ‘PARK WITH VAMPS AND SOLDIERS Linkin Park have been busy since the release of their latest album Living Things last month. They’ve penned the lead track for Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter with ‘Powerless’ and have also contributed ‘Castle Of Glass’ to the soundtrack of EA Games Medal Of Honor.

Both tracks will feature clips relating to the film and game respectively and we will be giving away some great prizes at facebook. com/LinkinParkAustralia so get online and like the page now!

BILLY TALENT UNLEASH DEAD SILENCE Canadian rockers Billy Talent return to Australia from August 9th where they will tour the east coast in support of their forthcoming new album Dead Silence. You can catch a video doing the rounds of new track ‘Viking Death March’ to get a taste of what’s to come when they release Dead Silence on September 7th. Check out facebook.com/billytalent

THE AMITY AFFLICTION GO GHOST HUNTING The Amity Affliction will release their hotly awaited new album Chasing Ghosts on Sept 7 and will be touring nationally from Sept 24. Check out the back page for all the dates and facebook.com/ theamityafflictionofficial for more info!

SHIHAD GET MEANER Shihad will release their best of The Meanest Hits on Aug 17. It will be a 38 track, 2CD package and feature hits spanning their impressive career so if you’ve ever wanted your very own slice of Shihad this is your perfect chance! The Australian version of the album features a brand new track ‘Straight Outta Nowhere’.

MUSE CREATE HEAT WITH THE 2ND LAW While MUSE have revealed a few snippets of their forthcoming album The 2nd Law online in the lead up to the September 14 release, nothing can possibly prepare you for what lays ahead! While they inspire the world’s sporting elite during the 2012 Olympic Games with ‘Survival’, you can keep up with the latest news via muse.mu.

STONE SOUR DOUBLE UP THE DOSE Stone Sour have revealed that they will release forthcoming album House Of Gold And Bones in two parts.

Frontman Corey Taylor has been sending out updates on his twitter account (@coreytaylorrock) and alluded that it will be a concept album with a comic book released as a tie in to the story. In other news Shawn Economaki (bass) has been replaced by Rachel Bolan (Skid Row).

SERJ TANKIAN COMMITS HARAKIRI If you caught System Of A Down in action at this year’s Soundwave and are left wanting more, you can grab a copy of frontman Serj Tankian’s new solo album Harakiri which features ‘Figure It Out’ and ‘Occupied Tears’. It’s an energetic listen so be prepared!

Check out facebook.com/ serjtankian

FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMPETITIONS AND UPDATES CHECK OUT FACEBOOK.COM/MANIACSAU OR FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @MANIACSAUS

THE WORD ‘GOJIRA’ IS A PORTMANTEAU OF THE JAPANESE WORDS: GORIRA (GORILLA), AND KUJIRA (WHALE), WHICH IS PERHAPS BETTER WELL KNOWN VIA ITS POP-CULTURE FRIENDLY TRANSLATION: ‘GODZILLA’. IT IS ALSO A FITTING NAME FOR THE FRENCH, METAL GOLIATHS THAT SHARE THE INFAMOUS MONIKER AND WHO WITH FIFTH STUDIO ALBUM L’ENFANT SAUVAGE ARE LAYING WASTE TO HOUSEHOLD STEREOS, LIVE VENUES AND ENTIRE MAJOR CITIES THE WORLD OVER.

of communication with a lot of partners.

When you don’t answer emails, there’s a problem right away. It’s incredible how complex the emotion of freedom can be.”

The freedom that does exist, at least that which Gojira have to express themselves, is not lost on Duplantier. Schedules and responsibilities aside, passion and belief are still what lay at the heart of the band.

There is a great responsibility for those in a position of particular influence…even when your album title literally means The Wild Child.

“We have to face a different kind of reality.”

Intones, frontman Joe Duplantier of his interpretation of ‘the album’s title. “We have to drive ourselves with no one telling us.

I’d rather live my own life and do things because I think it’s the right thing to reach what I want in life. The wild child would be the essence, like what needs to be protected.

It’s the heart : without the essence, without the soul, without the heart we’re just machines, you know what I mean? It’s about the pain we go through in life that we all experience from the second we are born. The first thing we do is cry and then the teeth are growing; it’s hard to be alive. But what I’m saying is that suffering and pain teach us things and when you don’t have a guide, a mentor, you can always count on pain to teach you things. When you refuse to see something, you will fall on the ground naked and you will suffer and then you will learn.”

Gojira have plenty of that essence, a certain burning conviction, which is reflected not only in their sound, but the causes they champion so vigilantly and the questions they pose of themselves and those around them.

“Sometimes I’m wondering like ‘why am I running all the time?’ he ponders.

“And the easy answer is because ‘I have a show tonight’. There’s a kind of obsession for freedom, really. With more success comes very tight schedules, comes a lot

“It is so precious, my god, it is so precious” he states sincerely, remembering his own early love of Metallica. “I was listening to their albums and I felt like I was part of the band, part of the music, and something, you know? So I remember this very clearly.

When fans come to us and go “hey dude, your album is part of me”, I understand so much and I think we need to be very humble with this because this music doesn’t belong to us anymore. It belongs to the fans, the people who get it, people who understand it.”

For those that saw Gojira destroy and inspire during Soundwave 2012 you probably already have your copy of L’Enfant Sauvage.

It is also available as a limited CD/DVD Special Edition so get in quick. For more info go to gojira-music.com. Check out the clip of their latest track ‘L’Enfant Sauvage’.

SLIPKNOT HAVE UNLEASHED THEIR VERY FIRST ‘BEST OF ‘…AND IT LIVES UP TO ITS NAME IN EVERY TWISTED WAY IMAGINABLE. 19 tracks that span The Nine’s 12 year history from (sic) to Snuff, Antennas To Hell features all new artwork in addition to re-mixes and the choicest live cuts. For those that like it even (sic)er, a limited edition, 3 disc Super Deluxe Edition is available that includes full live audio from 2009’s Download Festival,

mini-films directed by Clown, featuring each band member plus 20 Slipknot videos, all in a multi panel digi pack.

Slipknot have quite a history with Australia.

They just finished their fourth tour here as co-headliners on the 2012 Soundwave Festival and we were the first country to give the band a Gold album (Now platinum - for Slipknot) and the first to get an album to #1 on the chart (for All Hope Is Gone)…for two weeks straight!

So obviously, there are plenty of Maggots in Australia.

If you want to show the band what they mean to you, scan the QR code to the left, upload your photo tribute to the band and leave a comment for them. You will also go into the draw to win a pack featuring Antennas To Hell Super Deluxe Edition, all four Slipknot studio albums (Slipknot, IOWA, Volume 3 – The Subliminal Verses and All Hope Is Gone) as well goodies from our archive. These items are rare as f**k and were actually used during the official campaigns spanning the band’s career, so don’t miss your chance!

WITH THEIR SELF-TITLED DEBUT, PERIPHERY HERALDED THE COMING OF THE DJENT GENERATION, A NEW AND INVIGORATING TECHNICAL STYLE THAT GREW BEFORE THE EYES AND EARS OF ITS INTRIGUED AUDIENCE. BUT COULD THEY BACK IT UP? THE SWIFT RESPONSE IS THE RATHER APTLY TITLED PERIPHERY II AND FROM THE VERY OPENING MOMENTS, THEY LEAVE LITTLE DOUBT AS TO WHY THEY ARE ALREADY ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING ARTISTS OF THE DECADE. “We just wanted to make a sort of larger than life sound, you know?” says frontman Spencer Sotelo casually of the opulent sound they have captured on the new album.

“We also wanted to make it sound like a big rock record, not just like a metal sounding record which is the driving force.”

Spacey and textured guitar lead atop mercilessly punishing low-end riffing, back Sotelo’s melodic, vocal to full effect on Periphery II, but exactly how did they make it sound just so…BIG?!

“We wanted to branch out from the original Periphery sound. We don’t have just Misha (Mansoor - guitar) writing everything any more, now every member in the band writes.” He reveals candidly of their switch up, pay off with Periphery II. “We wanted to keep things fresh and progressing forward. Our new guitar player Mark (Holcomb - guitar) wrote a tonne, Jake (Bowen - guitar) wrote a tonne of it. I even ended up writing a song myself. Misha is obviously at the helm of it leading it. But, the lyrics, I wrote all of that. I didn’t write any two songs about the same thing. It’s all over the place and it’s dark, dark as fuck”

first. They’re going to be like ‘I thought Periphery was a djent band’. I think more people are going to start understanding that we’re more of a progressive band. And my performance in the studio was way better this time round because I wrote all that stuff and I got to let all the emotion come out. I’m a much better singer now than what I was 2 ½ years ago when I recorded that first album.”

Periphery II also twists the concepts of ‘guests’ on it’s head by featuring three guest guitar ‘soloists’ rather than the obligatory ‘guest vocalists’ : John Petrucci (Dream Theater), Guthrie Govan (Architects) and Wes Hautch (Faceless).

“I’ll start with John Petrucci, Jake (Bowen – guitar) is his nephew and he casually asked him if he’d be interested in maybe throwing a guest solo and he was like ‘yeah, I’d love to.’ Guthrie Govan has always been one of Misha’s favourite guitar players and Wes Hauch is one of the nastiest most ridiculous guitar players I have ever witnessed – that’s probably my favourite guitar solo on the whole record. Everybody has more moments of shine on this album It feels more like full band now you know? Not one person writing the music and then other people playing it, everybody’s input was on this album.”

And its not just an increased sense of ownership over the process that has upped the ante…

Antennas To Hell is out now. For more information go to au.roadrunnerrecords. com, Slipknot1.com or insidethenine.com

“I feel like a lot of people when they hear this album they’re going to be ‘like this isn’t what djent is supposed to sound like, does not compute’ you know, people aren’t going to get it at

Periphery II is out now.

For more information go to facebook.com/peripheryband.

Check out the video for ‘MAKE. TOTAL.DESTROY’

MAKE THEM SUFFER PROGRESS IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT CHANGE. WITH EVERY PASSING DECADE NEW ARTISTS ADD THEIR OWN ELEMENTS TO THE MIX, INCORPORATING AN EVER GROWING LIST OF INFLUENCES. PERTH’S MAKE THEM SUFFER HAVE TAKEN THIS TO EXTREMES IN MORE WAYS THAN MOST WITH THEIR DEBUT NEVERBLOOM, GIVING A MODERN TAKE ON SOME ESTABLISHED STYLES AND CREATING WHOLE NEW WORLDS IN THE PROCESS. “To be honest when the band started we didn’t think a whole lot about it, the sound just evolved.” Says vocalist Shawn Harmanis modestly. “We incorporated a whole lot of black metal influences and we just found a niche we were happy with - all of us are big fans of all that. Combining symphonic elements with metal, is nothing new and it’s kinda hard to put your finger on, but it’s the way that we combine them that sets it apart.”

And there are plenty of new Make Them Suffer fans out there that tend to agree.

When the video for ‘Neverbloom’ emerged earlier in the year it had already garnered 60, 000 likes within a week, the lyric video for ‘Widower’ clocking up similar numbers when it emerged weeks later.

“Australian bands are getting comments from America and people from Europe saying ‘you’ve got such a great scene in Australia’.” He adds enthusiastically. “I think its because Parkway Drive have been such an influential band all over Australia and that’s where we get the kind of core sound from.”

WHEN ASKED, MANY BANDS WILL EXPLAIN, THAT THEIR SOUND COMES FROM A WIDE RANGE OF INFLUENCES AND IS DIFFICULT TO CLASSIFY. THEN THERE’S HALESTORM, WHO PROVE WITH DEBUT ALBUM THE STRANGE CASE OF , THEY KNOW EXACTLY WHERE THEY STAND.

A core sound combined with symphonic and black metal is one thing, but Make Them Suffer have also created a rich visual element to their palette, setting the ball in motion on their debut EP ‘Lord Of Woe’ which has found its way onto Neverbloom.

“Were pretty much a straight up rock band.” States singer/guitarist Lizzy Hale without pause. “We have a lot of classic rock influences but were not dated. We play all our own instruments and sing our own songs and we don’t use backing tracks. It can be very intimate and sweet or it can rip your head off. Fun for the whole family!”

“There’s always been the character - the Lord Of Woe - and Neverbloom is just expanding on that and introducing some new characters. I love that escapism and mythical kind of stuff. ‘Neverbloom’ is about the Lord Of Woe - he used to weave dreams with Morrow (a central character introduced on the album) through the forest and Morrow left him so the forest is dying and he’s just going to wait there until it grows back. So there are some songs about the present world and then some songs that are way more conceptual.

I used to play World of Warcraft and Diablo III, so I definitely love that whole theme of this entirely separate world.”

Neverbloom is out now.

For more information go to facebook.com/ makethemsuffer. Check out the video for‘Neverbloom’.

Hale’s last comment is not as throwaway as it may seem on the surface.

“My brother and I started this band when I was 13 and he was 10 years old.” She explains of their very early beginnings. “We named the band Halestorm and we have not stopped since. Thankfully we had very crazy parents that instead of saying, ‘get a real job’ said : ‘if you don’t go for it now you’ll regret it.”

Hale’s dad even played in the band to help get them started. “Eventually we got other members and we had to fire my dad.” She adds with a husky laugh.

Even a quick spin of tracks like single ‘Love Bites (So Do I)’ lay bare Halestorm’s beloved influences.

“It’s definitely very influenced by my parent’s music, which is what we grew up on. My mum is a huge Heart fan and that song ‘All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You’ was always on in the house. My guys and I used to go to karaoke bars and they would end up signing me up to sing the song. They’d be like ‘C’mon, get us some free beer!’”

Another track earning the band beer money these days is ‘Here’s To Us’ which recently appeared on the season finale of GLEE. “That was so strange to watch on television.” She admits. “I’m sitting there scratching my head saying there’s three words that definitely can’t go on GLEE! I ended up having to re-record the track and what ended up happening is it exposed and introduced us to people that wouldn’t normally seek us out.”

For a straight up rock fix, seek out Halestorm’s The Strange Case Of instore now! For more info go to halestormrocks.com Check out the video ‘Love Bites (So Do I)’.

TASMANIA HOBART KILLAWATTS / EDGE RADIO 99.3FM

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THU 9th AUG: The Hi-Fi – BRISBANE 18+ FRI 10th AUG: UNSW Roundhouse SYDNEY LIC AA SUN 12th AUG: Billboard MELBOURNE 18+

PENNYWISE W/ THE MENZINGERS

Thu 23rd AUG: Coolangatta Hotel GOLD COAST 18+ Fri 24th AUG: Eatons Hill BRISBANE Lic A/A Sat 25th AUG: UNSW Roundhouse SYDNEY Lic A/A Sun 26th AUG: The Palace – MELBOURNE 18+ Tue 28th AUG: HQ ADELAIDE 18+ Wed 29th AUG: Metro Fremantle PERTH 18+

THE AMITY AFFLICTION

Mon 24th SEP: The Tivoli - BRISBANE AA Tue 25th SEP: The Tivoli BRISBANE 18+ WED 26th SEP: The Tivoli - BRISBANE AA *SOLD OUT* THU 27th SEP: The Tivoli BRISBANE 18+ *SOLD OUT* FRI 28th SEP: Panthers NEWCASTLE Lic AA SAT 29th SEP: Big Top SYDNEY Lic AA *SOLD OUT* SUN 30th SEP: Big Top SYDNEY Lic AA TUE 2nd OCT: UC Live CANBERRA Lic AA THU 4th OCT: Palace Theatre - MELBOURNE 18+ FRI 5th OCT: Palace Theatre - MELBOURNE U18 / 18+ *SOLD OUT* SAT 6th OCT: Thebarton Theatre - ADELAIDE Lic AA SUN 7th OCT: Metropolis FREMANTLE 18+ MON 8th OCT: Metropolis - FREMANTLE U18