RAMzine 27 | Avatar, Festival Flashbacks, Sister Shotgun

rock & metal ISSUE #27 WWW.RAMZINE.CO.UK

SISTER SHOTGUN

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An interview with Johannes Eckerström of Avatar

“We have made our heaviest most aggressive album in quite some

Jay Brown Assistant Editor assitant.editor@ramzine.co.uk

GREAT SUMMER RELEASES 2

2020 has been the worst year on record for almost everything.

This awful global pandemic has robbed us of many things that we took for granted, especially live shows and festivals. One thing Covid didn’t take from us this year though is great releases, this summer has been one of the most exciting for rock and metal with

an incredible lineup of new records. Even if we can’t enjoy new music live, our favourite bands and lesser-known artists have managed to create some of their best work and they need your support now more than ever, so check out the new releases we’ve focused on and beyond and find your new favourite record.

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Sister Shotgun

Frontwomen Chloe Ozwell tells us what she has been getting upto during lockdown.

rock & metal WWW.RAMZINE.CO.UK 2020, The Summer of Virtual Festivals!

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RAMzine Classic

In this issue’s RAMzine Classic we take a look back at Funeral for a Friend’s 2003 classic Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation.

Ashley Crowson

As our last issue was released we were dealing with the realisation that all of our Victoria Purcell forthcoming gigs and Editor festivals were due to be vicky@ramzine.co.uk cancelled. We were left wondering how Covid-19 would affect the music industry and how long things would take to bounce back. Drive-in gigs were announced and then later cancelled due to the announcement from the government of local lockdowns. Bands and festivals alike have taken social media by storm over the past few months with virtual festivals, live-streamed performances and virtual gigs; where you can attend online as your digitally created avatar. This has highlighted the rock and metal community spirit and given us a chance to hear from bands online as some simulated festivals in their own unique ways, in back gardens and living rooms across the country.

The government has started to ease restrictions to which some feel it’s too soon, whereas some feel the rules are too harsh. The government has recently announced that socially distanced gigs can go ahead. Do you think that this will work?

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet us @ram_ zine or emails me vicky@ramzine.co.uk.

Neale McGeever

Lindsay Teske

Senior Contributor

Senior Contributor

Assistant Editor

ash@ramzine.co.uk

neale@ramzine.co.uk

assitant.editor@ramzine.co.uk

Guitarist, photographer, geek, gamer, full on metalhead and allround barfly.

An entertainment writer from the North East. I’m also big in to movies & video games.

Originally from Chicago, a self-appointed Sex Pistols expert, and lover of Led Zeppelin.

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In recent years bands like Iron Maiden have released beers, Slipknot has their own whiskey, Ghost has their own gin (don’t go there...) and now we can reveal the news of pioneering shock-rocker, Alice Cooper, will put his name to a brand of chocolate milk. This was revealed via the Ideas Collide Instagram in July. Released through Danzeisen Dairy proceeds of the drink will go towards Cooper’s non-profit organization, Solid Rock, who provides free music, film, art, and dance classes to youths in Arizona. Cooper and Danzeisen Dairy have not announced a release date or name for the milk bottle yet, but it is set to be made available later in the year.

If it wasn’t bad enough that every major festival and tour was canceled this year the proposed ‘drive-in’ tours have also been scrapped. These tours were put together by Live Nation and Utilita, featuring the likes of Gary Numan, Skindred, and Ash. The organisers put out a statement on July 15th explaining why these tours can no longer go ahead: “the latest developments regarding localised lockdowns mean it has become impossible for us to continue with the series with any confidence”. The idea behind it would be to park with a party of up to 5 people in your vehicle and getting your own space to enjoy. Imagine what Skindred’s Newport Helicopter would look like in that environment?

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Brit-nominated rockers Royal Blood have announced a scholarship with Waterbear - The College of Music.

The institution is based in the band’s home city of Brighton, which isn’t the only reason they have teamed up. Both Royal Blood and Waterbeaer believe in innovation. Royal Blood used this to cross the boundaries of genre and having success in the mainstream while keeping integrity, which is something Waterbear will encourage as they pave the way for future stars. The scholarship covers tuition fees for the lucky student who will be based on campus or via distance learning.

The course is BA Hons Career Musician. Waterbear offers the course via smaller classes, flexible courses, and one-to-one mentoring.

After a really disappointing year of festivals, gigs, and allaround normal life being canceled. It’s great to hear there is at least one UK festival going ahead. Taking place at Lincolnshire Showground, September 18th to 20th. Festival Director Raz White had this to say: I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved to date, although challenging, we firmly believe that we can present a safe festival, adhering to government recommendations whilst still retaining the friendly festival atmosphere. Everyone is desperate to deliver, from the staff to the bands, it’s what we do and now we just want to let the music do the talking”. The organisers have also made clear the event could be postponed to May 2021, if the government guidelines change. Any tickets bought from July 17th will not be valid for a refund but will rollover to May.

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With Chloe Ozwell | Collated by Neale McGeever

In this new feature, RAMzine invites a friend of the ‘zine to talk us through something different, and something they have experience in. In this edition we speak with frontwoman of rockers Sister Shotgun - Chloe Ozwell. You may have seen Chloe absolutely smashing covers of classic rock songs on social media, so here is her guide to musicians keeping busy in lockdown.

It’s been an idea thats been batted around for years …

The boys in the band have always said: “Why don’t you do covers?” I’ve never had the time or the resources… then this all happened and I was struggling to find something to keep myself occupied. So I looked up how much everything would cost, and how I could set it up and I thought it was feasible and I had the time to do it. So just do it, have fun with, and see if people want to hear it. If not, at least I’ve tried and kept myself entertained.

We’re in the starting process of doing things [for new material]…

The big problem with myself is I don’t play any instruments…

Because most of the boys are still at work – it’s me and our bassist [Tim Chambers] who is at home. So it’s working around their schedules. I feel if we were all in lockdown together, we would have had tome to sit down and write. We have already talked about what we want to do and how we want things to sound, what we are aiming for. We are going to start the writing process in the next few weeks.

It’s a totally separate venture at the moment so I have to find backing tracks and then doing something on the spot is really going to be difficult.

[Matt Heafy] plays guitar, really well, so it’s easy for him to pick up a few chords and we’ll do the next song live on Twitch, and then another. I would probably need a playlist of backing tracks to be able to do that.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the means to record my piano into the computer without it sounding a bit weird. Which is a bummer because I could be doing some live stuff. People have asked me if I could do live stuff. For the moment I’m enjoying recording these covers.

If anything [recording covers] it’s kind of confused me, a little bit...

These are really fun in a karaoke-style where I’m singing songs that I wouldn’t usually sing, and sharing them with people who haven’t necessarily heard me do that style. My heart is still in rock and metal style so I know where I want to go with it. I have a vague idea in my head where I wanted to take the new material. That hasn’t really influenced what covers I’m doing.

It will be 100% harder. It’s people from this year being moved to next year, but also adding more to the lineup…

There will be a massive, massive overlap. I like what Bloodstock has done by adding an extra day because that helps in this respect. Festivals like Download would benefit from that too I feel. Add an extra day, add extra bands. We are supposed to be doing a festival in September, not sure it’s going to happen still. We make plans for later in the year but we still don’t know what the guidelines are going to be, which is very scary, which is horrible.

It’s massively unsettling. We booked things for the end of the year, but we don’t know if its going to happen...

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We have all been itching to get on stage as soon as possible. We book it but tell ourselves not to get too excited because it may not happen. it’s super unsettling not knowing when you can jump back into it. We get paid to do gigs so we are losing a lot of income not playing. Our last show was in February. We may be taking a whole year off which is terrifying.

It’s a massive opportunity to get your music out there because people are looking for new music to listen to...

We were really successful with that and we’ve had a lot of people just discover our music over lockdown.

You need to take the opportunity while you have all this time because people want entertainment. I’ve been listening to the new stuff by Machine Gun Kelly, I’m a fan of his but the fact he has put out a pop-punk album is great. Also Beyond Unbroken, which features the Money brothers from Escape The Fate.

Honestly, though I’ve been working on my stuff a lot, I haven’t really immersed myself as much as I usually do.

We’re hoping to put out a new single, we had plans to put out a new video ….

Before all this happened! Obviously back to writing, and hopefully get

back to the studio next year and get recording. It’s all go, go, go! Frustrating we can’t do it this year.

Practice wise, I would look up videos on YouTube...

There are loads of vocal warm-ups, teachers, there are loads of great resources. Same for instruments, I’d watch people who do it. Keep at it while you have the time. The perfect opportunity to learn a new skill. It’s definitely kept my mind busy, I’ve had my down days, but I’ve been getting stuck into this project and stopped thinking I’m stuck inside for however long.

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MODERN CLASSIC FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND - C D SM RSO EI D S S RE ND C L A S S I C M AO SDUE A RL N LCY L A CE

AND DEEP IN CONVERSATION -

By Mark McConville

F U N E R A L F O R FAU N FR E IREAFNLUDNFF EU ORN RAE L AR AF LO R IRFEOA NRDF AR IFERNI D END

T

he emo circuit was fruitful and gone by, those days when drinking days. It’s a song, blistering in guitar in good health back in 2003. eased the pain of day-to-day life. For brilliance, pushing these talented Many bands circled the fire it being a debut record it is complex, musicians to their limits. Davies de- C-A S CU A AS L U LA YL LDYR D E SR S-E ESCD S AE SDU A L L Y D R E S S E D of emotion the mind a great vocal performance too, A N and D A DNportrayed EDE D P EI EN Pthrough CI ON N CV O EN RS VA E TRoffering ISAOANNTDI -Ous DNEaE-route P I Ninto CO NV E R SofA T I O N livers - Csincerity A S- UCand A AL redemption.

SL U -Y AC DL-ARL SE Y CUSADavies, D ASSR L EUL E DAwho YSLSLD EYpredominately RDEDSRSE-ESDS Cthe EA D S U A Lconveying LY DR S S E Dthrough poetic their music, is hisEthoughts A N D D EAENPD I N D ECEO AP N ID VNEADR C NESO DEANPTDVIEIEON ERNPSCA -IOTNNI O VC E N ORN-SVAETRI SOANT N I-DO N D E-E P I N C O N V E R S A T I O N These acts knew that the music inweaver of words. poignancy. dustry was on the cusp of alternation, though, and that many of them would As a technical force, Casually Dressed ‘Juneau’ is one of the most accomchange their sound to fit the market.

And Deep In Conversation is a brazen plished songs Funeral For A Friend Welsh band, Funeral For A Friend, effort. We all knew that these musihas ever produced. It is heavy; it is was a young outfit railing against the cians are masters of trickery, and on somber, and it’s a gallant push to grain of innovation, as their debut their debut opus, the innovation is scorn the enemies who are adamant record Casually Dressed And Deep credible, their instrumental value, to break you. It is also a masterclass in In Conversation, blew open the doors superb. Guitars are plentiful, tight insongwriting. ‘Escape Artists Never Die’ to quick fired popularity. This album strumentals create massive again breaks loose and is became a noteworthy tour de force, choruses and breaka track which offers and it came out of nowhere, solidifying downs. It is a wave tight instrumenthese bunch of kids as saviors of the of mastery. tals. Bridges are moment. scorched and And it may nights are Casually Dressed And Deep In Consound audadeathly. ‘She versation is an album that jostles with cious, but Drove Me youthful abandon and torn love, a this album To Daytime collection of songs which resonate relights TV’ is an far and wide, pushing the envelope of the minds. infectious, emo music. In all its cathartic glory, it It offers an chorus symbolizes hearts under strain and escape route driven song dreams pulsating to be released. Withfor many disthat describes in its core, there is songwriting that is enchanted souls the thin line intelligent, lyrics that speak softly until who can’t rest their between love and they cascade into a pit of rage. And heads, who can’t fight sacrifice.

Front-man, Matt Davies, offers his voice to have their voices heard. of reason, his pessimistic range, his These voices get stuck in the void, Funeral For A Friend’s optimism is guts and soul. the abyss where darkness shrouds shattered on Casually Dressed And hopefulness.

Deep In Conversation, but it’s one of And as a collection, it works perfectly those records of beauty trying to come well. There is a seamless line throughCasually Dressed And Deep In to the surface. What it lacks in eleout it, a line that carries the weight Conversation enlightens with many gance, it delivers in sincerity and subof the world. Raw in its delivery, the of its songs. ‘Bullet Theory’ is a dark stance, and that’s why it is a legendary album triggers the thoughts of days track which represents the darkened debut album.

Photo by Benji Walker

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By Tom Dixon

Select six songs from the seventies was the brief. A seemingly impossible task as that decade saw the growth of heavy rock, glam rock, the rise of punk and the early stages of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. It was also the decade when I heartily embraced music and beer as I entered my teens. So, rather than state the obvious Purple, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Heep, Tull, etc. I have selected six of the deserving but relatively unrecognised bands that embody that innovative and, at times, challenging decade.

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SOCRATES DRANK THE CONIUM

They took all that was good about the burgeoning underground rock scene, added quirky vocals and some absolutely delightful, imaginative and addictive riffs, bass playing and soloing that makes the whole album an enlightening experience. Their self-titled debut is a must-have and is a rock classic that should be recognised; From this album, I chose the fabulous ‘It’s A Disgusting World’ that brings Cream/ Heep/Budgie together in a blissful seven-minute treat of excellence. (Just beware the, then unknown, Vangelis contributed to their fourth album Phos and destroyed their individuality.)

JODO

Jodo album Guts is something special from a British band produced by Derek Lawrence and engineered by Martin Birch. They’re seriously heavy blues rock with a quality that will forever make me wonder how this great album only saw release in New Zealand and the US, although I managed to find a CD reissue. The track, ‘One Night Stand’, is quality rock and could easily be an outtake from Green Bullfrog.

PRIMEVIL

Primevil were a short-lived Indiana band and the brilliant ‘Your Blues’ from Smokin’ Bats At Compton is a wonderful blues workout that sounds like Free were in their minds at the time. The guitar solo is genius and it’s a shame they never did anything else.

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FUZZY DUCK

Fuzzy Duck were a London band that may have been a bit Purple Heep, but their individuality still shone through on their self-titled and only album. Difficult to choose just one, but try the fiery and expansive ‘Mrs Prout’ to experience premium heavy rock with a bit of prog thrown in.

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FLIED EGG

Flied Egg were a Japanese band with a sense of humour and their heavy rock debut, Doctor Seigel’s Fried Egg Shooting Machine (yes, really) was an understated and fascinating guitar and Hammond treat. Listen to the weird but lovely ‘Guide Me To The Quietness’ to hear a broad and entertaining pallet.

TOE FAT

Toe Fat wasn’t just a strange choice of band name; in fact, with Cliff Bennett at the helm, the band should have succeeded. The first album had future Heep and Tull members but from the second album, the brilliant ‘Three Time Loser’ was very Creamy but shows their weight and illustrates how many of us missed out.

So, here are six exceptional ideas for your Spotification (other streamers available) although (according to my iTunes) I could have listed 5,761! I hope you’ll agree that introductions to ‘new’ old bands is better than rehashing the lists so many sites and magazines seem to think add to our musical knowledge and scope.

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By Ash Crowson

“We have made our heaviest most aggressive album in quite some time” Interview by Victoria Purcell

J

ohannes Eckerström is the frontman of Swedish band Avatar who are set to release their eighth studio album Hunter Gather. The band have already been making an impact with their new video for ‘Colossus’, which has had over 1 million views in its first week of release. Avatar are like marmite to some, however, their live show is something of a spectacle whatever your opinion might be. Their shows are are fun, outlandish and theatrical.

In their earlier days, Johannes was seen drinking from a petrol canister on stage and then there was the Clown’s curtain, and the King having his own throne. Although there are no shows booked for the foreseeable future due to the global pandemic, Avatar have plans for some new elements of their live show once they are able to perform once again.

RAMzine: How have you been during lockdown so far?

Johannes: I’m very well versed in Zoom now, but this is not what I expected spending my summer doing.

One cool thing is that I’m not used to having seasons change in front of me, I’ve got very accustomed to travelling to different weathers. So it’s been a very stop and smell the roses kind of year. With spring entering summer and living in a place with enough pretty spots, under the circumstances it’s been pretty good. I’ve liked summer this far actually.

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RAMzine: It was back in 2014 that RAMzine first spoke with Avatar during Hammerfest in Wales..

Johannes: Hammerfest oh my god… in Wales with the trailers? We were watching Alien… sorry, a bunch of memories just came flooding back as it was quite memorable as it’s quite a particular place.

RAMizne:: Yes Wales is an interesting place to go (although the festival has since moved) and that festival is quite unique in the way it’s all set up. That’s when Avatar started really picking up some attention in the UK and you had already had a few albums out before then…

Johannes: Yeah and we had been to the UK a whole bunch of times before then, but you know it was lots of under the radar type things and opening for other bands. It was around that period when things started to turn around and started turning into something. I think we had our first sold-out show in London the day after Hammerfest in a venue somewhere in Camden. We premiered the song ‘Hail The Apocalypse’ there.

RAMzine: You had released Black Waltz and was about to release (what was at the time your new album) Hail The Apocalypse you told us “something clicked… and seeing the make-up awakened something

that wasn’t there before.. suddenly the music had its face”. The Clown had been born. Since then you have developed more characters through your music over time, did you envisage at that point how many albums the band had ahead of itself?

Johannes: No, I didn’t, we take it album by album. We really do everything we can to keep the mindset from Black Waltz that was ‘Ok this is our last album’. Because we were at a place in life where we felt very old at the age of 24 and felt very much like ‘Ok this is our last album, so let’s make sure that it’s everything that we want it to be’.

Now we are at no risk of this album actually being our last album unless something awful happens. So for that reason, there is still a mental exercise to say ‘If this were to be your last album, what would you want to do?’

I’m also completely open-minded to complete change, like painting my face and stuff feels just as relevant and interesting, or should I say just as accurate as a form of visualization of the music today as it did back then.

But that might change one day. It just hasn’t changed yet.

RAMzine: Interesting, that’s not something that we had considered before but we’ve seen bands do that in the past and it can work…

Johannes: Well it usually doesn’t (laughs), it must hold some kind of meaning to us.

RAMzine: It’s quite hard to envisage what that could look like, as until you have the songs, a story and the music you can’t imagine what it could be.

will be under the banner Avatar, it will always be METAL. That is also our first love in music, so for that reason, it’s most likely to remain like that but it also feels that at least with all the crazy things that we force people to do like call Jonas King for two years or whatever stuff that we demand of them whilst on this ride with us, then it feels like the bare minimum that we are promising in return is that we are going to be metal all the way!

RAMzine: That’s what we like to hear! Whilst the new album is still very much metal, it’s got more melodic aspects to it and it does sound slightly more commercialised metal, not in a bad way but more accessible.

Johannes: Yeah exactly, well Avatar as much as we are one to embrace change every time and want to evolve and not write the same song twice, the one thing that we know and the one promise that stylistically if our music

Johannes: I was thinking along a similar line, where I was thinking we have made our heaviest most aggressive album in quite some time with this one and yet I see as a side effect of it a certain commercial potential in there. I think what that is, is that it feels

well-articulated. I believe that with this album more than ever before, the songs will make people feel the way we intended for them to feel when hearing them. In that sense it feels well-articulated like the angry stuff is angry, the sad stuff is really sad, well-spoken in that sense.

RAMzine: Do you feel the Clown has matured or gained more elements of his personality since the Black Waltz?

Johannes: Well the thing is, he is me, that is something that I came very clear to terms with. I definitely know that in the beginning, we thought we had invented a character. But I pretty soon figured out that this is not a persona, there’s no stage name, it’s 100% me, just an opportunity to express myself differently then I would otherwise and to visualise and articulate something in the music, but the music is also me, us, the whole band and that comes out through that.

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So yes he has matured hopefully because I hope that I have matured over the years. But we are one and the same. Not if you ask my wife, not if you ask people around me, they still have some idea of me being in character, but it’s more if you go clubbing on a Saturday night or you sit with grandma for Sunday roast, is one of them in character and the other one not in character? I don’t think so, it’s just different times and places. Different expressions, different aspects of a person and this is an extreme version of that. I don’t believe that means that I have a more extreme duality going on, opportunities for extreme expression I guess.

RAMzine: It’s just a part of you that exists and the band is your place for it to come out.

Johannes: Exactly! It’s that space of going crazy or acknowledging a lot of stuff that is hard to find a home for otherwise. That’s the psychological aspect of writing and performing. The whole reason why the job description I want in this business is to write and perform my own material specifically.

It’s all connected to that.

RAMzine: On the new album, Hunter Gatherer, are there any tracks that you think are particularly unique?

Johannes: Well an obvious answer would be ‘Gun’, just because we had never gone that mellow before. It took 7 years to write that song, which I guess adds up to one note per month (laughs). It’s because that first little piano theme that it’s based on and one version or another of the first verse existed for the longest time but then it was just figuring out what sort of song it would become. Each attempt included a heavy power chord somewhere in the middle, so I’m like ‘Oh this is Bon Jovi now, this is a power ballad, I hate it, throw it away and start over next year’. That happened for such a long time.

I think that the turning point was the last tour before we went to the studio.

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We were meeting with Jay (producer) in Los Angeles, going through the songs and I think John brought it up saying ‘Johannas that give a boy a gun song, that’s great, just finish it, or if you can’t do a full song of it, just let it be that little piece and have it be like an interlude between songs, that would be so cool’. And my ego 3 sizes and I was like ‘Fuck you I’m not writing fucking interludes, I write SONGS!’ It’s funny because we do this all the time with songs, take a step back, what do you have, let this song be what it is, it doesn’t need to transform into something else if it doesn’t want to. Write another song that is that thing, let this song be that thing. I took a step back and kept that minimalistic approach and suddenly it was really easy to finish. [It was] a huge awesome challenge to record because I kinda started in the deep end. I started yelling a lot in this band, and have been slowly working my way towards having more and more nuances in what I do.

I think this was the greatest challenge yet in that because yeah you wanna sing pretty, you wanna sing in pitch and on time, and just nail it musically,

but then if you want to convey that vulnerability, that sense of loosing and that brokenness. Then you can’t just be super sweet either, ya know?

There’s a balance there and expression, so that was a big challenge for being a short simple song. It was a tough one to nail.

RAMzine: Will you be taking ‘Gun’ into your live performance?

Johannes: Definitely yeah! I have ordered a piano, but the delivery got slowed down due to Covid. Yeah, it’s definitely one that we want to do live because it would add so much to the live sound, it’s a nice little break in the middle.

very confrontational towards myself but then also the grander scope of us being in the way of ourselves.

Now we have a pandemic, and like every other pandemic its caused by our domestication of animals If you ask the people who know a lot about these kinds of things, this [Covid-19] was a practice round, the bad one is around the corner and it’s going to come from our chicken factories. I don’t think chicken nugget sales will go down ever so slightly in the coming years.

RAMzine: The video for ‘Colossus’ is great, we like the intro, was that something that you wrote specifically for the video?

Johannes: That was like a homage to the way that the early season to The Twilight Zone would start. The witter/ creator of the show (Rod Serling) would basically come in as the kinda host, but he would be on the set, and show up and do his introduction of the episode. So it was kinda a homage to that. It’s not on the album, it’s specifically for the video. That idea came from Ewan who asked me to do it and then I wrote it out. He acted as my editor for that text like all the sentences were way longer to begin with.

That was a nice little exercise actually, to stay concise and when you are in a topic that is kinda out there, and there’s a poetic flair to what you are presenting, it’s quite philosophical and quite tempting to empty your lungs on each sentence. I enjoyed the challenge of that as well.

RAMzine: After the intro the video goes over to the robot/humanoid… what are they doing?

Johannes: It’s an experiment, but the point is to harvest the fireball qualities of the human brain’s ability for abstract thinking and problem solving, combined with the more cold calculations of the computer brain. Its basically harvesting human potentially with

no regard for the actual individual, and therefore a very unethical experiment, reaching the next level of knowledge and dammed the consequences.

Done by these faceless scientists that are only presented in the form of a surveillance camera.

Although things like that might actually save us from having an even worse catastrophe and that is an example of us standing in our own way. ‘When All But Force Has Failed’ starts with the lyrics ‘bird carcass with a belly full of plastic, one more year and I’ll be a millionaire’; that song summarises it pretty well and that side of the conflict and the grand scope of being one’s own way.

RAMzine: Towards the end the robot lady gets quite annoyed at herself, because she did the experiment wrong?

Johannes: Yeah they need to find the right balance of the different qualities of the way she operates and a brain operates. Also trying to use her humanity too which is against her, in the sense of pushing… motivating her but through the threat of losing her little new friend.

RAMzine: So was this written as a series of stories on the album or are they not linked?

Johannes: Well this album wasn’t written as a concept album. We ended up having a red thread [running throughout]. When looking at all the lyrics there was always an aspect of standing in one’s own way on each song. That goes on a personal level into relationship stuff like the biggest problem, like… my biggest issue in this conflict is me. I am in the way of moving forward from this and becoming what I should become or taking actions that I would like to take. So it’s

With the title Hunter Gatherer, it’s all kinda looking at this whole thing of who we are biologically. We have been the same for millions of years. Homosapiens have been very much the same, we haven’t had time to evolve at the pace that civilization around us has. We are very detached and we are out of our natural habitat at this point.

At the same time with all the problems that it has caused, I don’t believe that you can go back. You can’t go outside, climb a tree and call yourself a monkey and think that things are going to be fine. The solutions lie ahead of us.

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I feel like we are very much in a hurry to choose what type of science fiction scenario we want to live in the coming decades and the choices between Terminator 2 and Star Trek. I’m voting for Star Trek despite the fact that I haven’t watched a full season of it. It’s the principle of just working out our problems here on earth, and going into space kinda idea. [Which I think] sounds more appealing than exterminating ourselves and making this planet unlivable for us.

So it’s all in this conflict of what it’s like to be a Homosapien, in this artificial, digital high-tech gilded cage, this cyberpunk dystopia, that Fear Factory warned us about 25 years ago! We are living it now and the future is here. It’s trying to shine different lights from different angles, upon what that means.

What does it mean to be us right now, or more often than not, what does it mean to be me right now?

RAMzine: So essentially the album, whilst it’s got some tracks that are quite personal to you. There’s also a bigger message behind it which is about how humans are living on earth today and the issue we face?

Johannes: Yeah or at least that is always on the backdrop because I am one of those humans and the only way for me to comfortably point fingers at a group is if that group is every single one of us, me included.

RAMzine: So if you could tell the human race one message what would you be trying to get across?

Johannes: Well right at this particular moment, like in general the message is [to] take care of yourselves and be good to yourself and take care of each other. I usually end the shows with that.

Ultimately right now I’m starting to become more explicit. But I don’t like the idea to become preachy as I’m not qualified enough and I don’t have enough answers for it. And I’m not going to go into the empathy for 16

animals thing at this stage, although it’s something that I believe in a lot. But it’s just right now for the sake of our own survival don’t be a selfish bastard and don’t eat chicken.

RAMzine: As bad of an impact that the coronavirus has had on many countries, what it has provided is time for some people to stop and think and realize their work-life balances, certainly in the UK many people haven’t been to an office in about three months and they have been able to spend time with their families. Some people are working from home and are discovering what they have been missing.

Perhaps now is a good time for people to start opening their minds to things, during this time of change.

Johannes: Yeah and let’s see if it lasts.

It’s just crazy how our economies are collapsing because people are buying less shit that they don’t need. Whereas at the time being at least, we are still able to feed ourselves and stay warm.

So for the time being ultimately, it’s crazy that our survival [depends on the economy]… that’s the scary thing once economies crash is that you can tie those numbers to real debts when things get really bad in places. Which is crazy as all the resources are still out there. We still have all those things that we need right now. But we are in this weird system which needs to always expand, it’s strange times. It will be very interesting to see what lessons we will learn from this if any.

RAMzine: Yes it will be interesting to see what things stick and what things people just go straight back to naturally.

Johannes: Yeah I think that’s in our DNA, that’s I guess a survival mecha-

nism; to forget and go back to normal.

You know, to dance again that kind of thing. I was asked ‘Do you think that mosh pits will happen and people will want to stand next to each other at shows?’, of course they fucking will, it will take a day!

RAMzine: Especially after a few beers...

Johannes: Especially after a few months of not doing those kinds of things, not having an outlet and damn the consequences. I get that and I agree with that, but I just think that it might be connected to the problem of how long we deal with outrage, and what we learn from different situations.

Do you remember Cecil the lion? It was a lion that was poached by some American dentist who shot it. It was one of those [stories] that caused particular outrage and made people go very deep into anti-poaching for a while there, I guess it was four years ago or something. No one remembers that because there was another sad thing or another little thing like that.

I guess more dentists can go a shoot more lions in Africa, so you know, without the world caring as much anymore. That’s just scary and we all do it, and I’m not saying this in a way where I intend to point fingers at anyone because I am forgetful as well. Again it’s a useful ability we have to forget and move on but we sometimes have to fight that behaviour in ourselves as well .

RAMzine: Another song that caught our attention on the new album was the song ‘Scream Until You Wake’ firstly because of the song title. I thought it might have something to do with sleep paralysis but when you listen to the track it’s not about that, what’s it about?

Johannes: I haven’t experienced sleep paralysis but I’m very well aware of the phenomenon and the similarities.

I know what you are talking about, as I’ve had weird night terrors where I’ve got up and run and thought I was

somewhere else and stuff. It doesn’t happen often but it has.

[The song] is a way of saying how to deal with yourself and your own situation and I hope to kind of feel a sense of empowerment in a desperate situation. It sometimes happens that people are victims and people should not be denied the right to victimhood when they have been robbed. I despise selfhelp literature culture that’s always like ‘just say no’ or whatever, fuck that!

That being said, there are a lot of times and a lot of places where the solution to our problem lies within. There are a lot of you know instances where we do have the power to be the change that we want to see in the world. Where we can fight for ourselves, that ultimately can be the saving grace that takes us out of our own nightmares.

online, all the power to those who want to do it but it just wouldn’t work for us. That would turn into acting and we’re not actors, we are theatrical yes but as it’s called in a movie, it’s based on a true story and our type of theatre and we can’t do that. The kind of performance that is meant to be done in front of an audience, can’t be done without the audience there.

RAMzine: I quite like the song musically as well, as it’s got the mix of melodic and screaming vocals, and a good guitar melody and a catchy beat.

Johannes: Yeah and we struggled with it. The whole song was pretty much finished, the song was pretty much the same but with completely different drums for the longest time. That is always the secret, I feel to what makes metal work. If you change the drums to ‘Iron Man’ it doesn’t matter that it’s the best riff ever written because with the wrong drums, if it wasn’t Bill Ward doing those things, then the riff would be pointless as well. We were stuck in a rut with that song and in hindsight, the solution was simple: Remove all the necessary stuff and lets just fucking rock. That made everything fall into place. Then suddenly the emotion was conveyed, speaking of being articulate before.

RAMzine: The album artwork which is essentially your mouth with a light in the middle. What does the light signify?

Johannes: Well that is the incredible potential that can lie within a person, that is unleashing what is within really.

It refers to the title, you have the idea of confronting our inner nature, of being this Stonegate naked ape that we are in this crazy crazy world. So there’s that, there’s exposing your inner nature but there’s also unleashing your potential. That refers to why 14 years old John thought that Avatar was a good name for a band, to be a manifestation of a band, a god in the skys.

What that came to mean in a very atheistic group is the metaphor, the idea of us carrying this great potential within us. We all carry incredible power within us if we learn to untap it, and that symbolises that power.

RAMzine: What do Avatar have coming up for the rest of the year, given the state of the world?

Johannes: An increased social media presence! All live shows are cancelled and we just want to find ways to continue being a band feeling like a band.

That being said we don’t feel like we want to simulate an Avatar concert

RAMzine: Yes absolutely, that’s the one thing that you just can’t truly re-create online, the atmosphere of the gig…

Johannes: If I go to a concert I expect my face to be buried in another man’s sweaty armpit at some point and I wanna see that steam coming off people’s shoulders.

RAMzine: Yeah! The band needs the crowd and vice-versa. Because it’s nice watching some online performances, but it’s definitely not the same.

Johannes: No and I enjoy some of it, I think Devin Townsend did a great job. Finding the right tone and setting for it, but it works for him. He is in a particular position as an artist for who he is and what he does and what he conveys does it make perfect sense.

To be ‘1, 2, 3 ,4 clap your hands’ by a computer just doesn’t work [for me].

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GENESIS at Knebworth 24th June 1978

By Laurence Todd

In 1978, Genesis were probably, along with Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, one of the three biggest bands in the world.

They’d survived the loss of charismatic frontman, Peter Gabriel, and had ridden out the crescendo of vitriol from Punk, which was supposedly all about getting rid of these dinosaur bands who not only played lengthy songs, but who also prided themselves on their musical ability, and were filling stadia all over the world.

The sole UK date for Genesis on their 1978 world tour was at Knebworth in front of a 90,000 crowd and, as a fan since buying ‘Trespass’ in 1971, plus having seen them several times with Gabriel, I was really up for this event.

My girlfriend, however, wasn’t interested, and neither was the boyfriend of a girl on my course, Alison, so we talked about it and we agreed… sod it, we’ll go. So, with tickets bought, transportation arranged (she was going to drive from London to Knebworth), she picks me up very early on Saturday morning, and we get to Knebworth in reasonably good time and were extremely fortuitous with where we managed to park, right by the exit, which would become a Godsend later in the day, for reasons I shall come on to explain. All the way to the site, along the A1M, the weather had looked ominous, threatening rain, but, late morning, the sun made an appearance and hung around most of the day. Ally and I made our way into the arena and parked ourselves right at the back of the crowd, near to the beer tent 18

(I wasn’t driving !) and the toilets, but still with a great view. We consume the days first beers. So far so good.

The opening acts Devo, Brand X and Atlanta Rhythm Section pretty much came and went unnoticed. Brand X were at least musically very proficient, but hearing sophisticated jazz-rock played in 17/5 time at 1.45 on a sunny afternoon didn’t quite hit the mark.

The Atlanta’s were wholly unimpressive and, while Devo were at least entertaining, sadly a few idiots down the front saw fit to throw mud and bottles at the band, all wearing white boiler suits, which meant their set having to be curtailed.

Late in the afternoon, however, came the first real highlight of the day as Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers took the stage for their UK debut gig, and they blew a hole in the place with a stupendous set and got a great reception.

Then came the days first big disappointment. Late 60’s American psych legends Jefferson Airplane had, by now, morphed into the more commercial Jefferson Starship and, when they come onstage, I looked anxiously for Grace Slick as I’m a big fan of hers (forget Stevie Nicks, Grace is the real queen of the west coast) but she didn’t appear. The Starship’s set was fair enough but it lacked the star quality Grace gives the band. In the music press the following week, it was stated she’d been sent home in disgrace for unspecified reasons. But at least west coast legends Marty Balin and Paul Kantner played.

To fill in the lengthy gap before the headline act, perennial seventies festival favourite Roy Harper turns up and played an unannounced solo acoustic set, which is a delight.

Around 6pm, Ally decides she has to use the ladies, so off she goes. She arrives back soon after, saying the queues for the ladies’ toilets are really long (surprise !!) so she’d decided to wait till the queues get shorter. They don’t. She tries again a little later, waits her turn, goes in then comes straight out again, stating the toilets are ‘absolutely disgusting.’ At 8pm, Ally was now really feeling the need to go, so I suggest she goes behind one of the many bushes around the edge of the field. She reluctantly agrees, and I stand in front to afford her some privacy. A couple of minutes later, out she comes… she can’t do it in a bush !!

Fast forward to 9pm… The days second big disappointment is about to occur.

I’m buzzing; the crowd’s anticipation level is building, the stage music has stopped, the house lights are going down, huge cheer from the crowd as 90,000 fans get on their feet; Genesis .. the reason I’m here, the band I came to see .. are about to take the stage. It’s pitch dark all around us and the stage now becomes completely bathed in a glorious white glow from God knows how many stage lights which, from where we’re standing, looks almost celestial. Genesis then bound on stage to the kind of reception only superstars get .. at which point, as the first notes of their opening number can

Ramblin Man Fair 2019 Photo Memories by Erik Damian

be heard, Ally leans into me and says, “I’m sorry, Laurence, I can’t hold on any longer, I’m gonna use the toilets at the service station on the A1M. You coming ?” It’s clear from her face, not only is she in some very considerable bodily discomfort, she also doesn’t want to leave on her own either, so I agree to accompany her. I tell her it makes sense and we leave the arena… just as Genesis are playing the intro to one of my favourite songs off their latest album .. and, as the car was parked right by the exit, we got away from the site easily, and I could hear Genesis playing in the distance, and see the gorgeous light show glowing behind the trees, as we pulled out the park and onto the main road.

Ally now drives down the A1M at a

speed Lewis Hamilton would have been hard pressed to keep up with, and we reach the service station in record time. She eventually emerges from the toilets with the most relieved smile I’ve ever seen on any woman.

There’s no re-entry to the site once you’ve left, so it’s off back home. All the way back to London, Ally looks and sounds mortified and keeps saying things like, “I’m so sorry, Laurence, I’m really sorry,” and I reassure her ‘it’s okay, no problem,’ whilst thinking ‘I wonder what they’re playing now?’

casual comment ‘Genesis are crap anyway.’

I see Ally in college on Monday and she apologises again for Saturday and offers to pay for my ticket .. but I don’t want her money. Ally had been good company and we’d had a fun day just hanging out together. My disappointment at missing Genesis had gone by now. The following Thursday, however, I read in the music press about how Genesis had played a blinder and had gone down a storm. Disappointment returns… “F**k it !!” …oh well…

Next morning my girlfriend asks, ‘So how were Genesis ?’ and I reply ‘I’ve no idea’ as I had to leave early ..

I explain why and she approves; she says You did absolutely the right thing

by Ally, and follows this up with the

I’ve long since lost touch with Ally… I think she moved back to Lancashire but our almost seeing Genesis at Knebworth day is a real fun memory of her.

I wonder if she’s been to any more outdoor events since?

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Ramblin Man Fair July 2019

By Erik Damian

Last year I got to witness Kent’s own Collateral hit the next level as they performed on the Rising Stage at Ramblin Man Fair. As the band took the stage to the excitement of the crowd, something amazing happened – what was only about a hundred or so people started growing exponentially. By the time the band were ripping into their third song, there were people as far as the eye could see all flowing down to the spot where the stage was set. It was hard to not be swept up in the moment, and it was clearly an emotional moment for the band as thousands of the rock faithful took to them and became new fans on that day. Moments like that are rare and should be cherished. I’m glad I was there on the day and that I was in the privileged position of being able to document it with my lens.

in 2017 but I will always remember the festivals I spent with him. I hope he is enjoying a pint with Lemmy and Kurt Cobain in the afterlife.

Sonisphere Festival July 2011

By Sean Rafferty

I attended Sonisphere in 2011, it was my very first festival and I was sixteen.

We were walking back from the first night having just seen The Big Four.

We just came across another group who invited my lot to sit with them.

They were all older but friendly and they let us in on their festival expertise, giving us tips and tricks that

helped us make the best of our first festival outing. We discovered we had a pack of bacon but no BBQ whereas they had a BBQ but no food – we combined forces to make the most epic bacon sandwiches that have ever been had at a festival. There was one of their group who was cooking, he was so drunk we couldn’t understand anything he said except for “I am the chef.” It was just a great night of strangers bonding over nothing but a shared love of metal. We didn’t see them again after we left that night for the rest of the weekend…. UNTIL we bumped into the ‘chef’ who had sobered up and confirmed to us that he in fact a real chef…

Download festival June 2012

By Neale McGeever

At Download 2012 my friend Liam (aka Roj) had never camped at a festival and didn’t bring any wellies. This meant he had to wear his trainers and that really hurt his feet after a while so he used a spare white tentpole, as a kind of Gandalf style ‘staff’ to help him.

When we queued for the arena, everyone there was searched, other than Liam. I asked why not and he realised he was holding a white stick and wearing shades. We went the next year but booked a B&B. He sadly passed away 20

Various Photo Festival Memories by Martha Fitzpatrick

Various HRH Photo Festival Memories by Lisa Billingham

21

PRIMAL FEAR METAL COMMANDO

ON HOLLOW GROUND BLOOD IS BLOOD

ELIMINATION

OF GODS AND BEASTS

German metal titans Primal Fear are set to release their thirteenth full-length studio album Metal Commando. Packed full of fist-pumping anthems, Metal Commando is power metal as good as it gets. Ralf Scheeper’s high, soaring vocals overlay the brilliant musicianship displayed by the rest of the band, particularly from Michael Ehré on drums. As is typical of power metal, guitar solos are abundant here and are used to great effect on the album’s opening track ‘I Am Alive’ and ‘Hear Me Calling’.

Review by Alex Chapman

On Hollow Ground deliver moments of grimacing heaviness combined with many eclectic elements to show you they’re not about to be told how to sound. Plenty of tracks feel crafted to be heard live. ‘Broken’ and ‘Even Though’ are relentlessly heavy but balance this with chants and calls. Tracks such as ‘Surviving Life’ showcase their nuanced side with a slower, grander chorus right next to Meshuggah-like riffs. Blood Is Blood might just be one of the more wildly unique releases from this wildly unique year.

Review by Sean Rafferty

UK thrash metal band Elimination have churned out a vicious slab of blistering old-school metal that owes as much to Venom and Slayer as it does the Teutonic trio of destruction, Kreator and Sodom.

There is a warm, organic feel to these three compositions, and on top of that, they are brimming with confidence and a palpable sense of energy. This EP is neither original nor innovative, but it is a headbanging delight that is as catchy and vile as it is charming and dark. Elimination release Of Gods And Beasts is out on 7th August 2020.

Review by Jens Nepper

FIGHT THE FIGHT DELIVERANCE This explosive Norwegian metal outfit has made quite a name for itself in underground circles these past few years and it is easy to see why. Big riffs and even bigger choruses, intricate melodies and clever arrangements, and a seemingly endless supply of energy and groove pretty much sum up what this musically accomplished and oftentimes remarkable record is all about. The music is layered, progressive and varied while various genres and styles of music are mixed to great effect.

Simply put, Deliverance totally slays.

Deliverance is out via Indie Recordings on 18 September 2020.

Review by Jens Nepper 23

FOOT THE BALANCE OF NATURE...

Stoner rock has been around for an age now, but it still seems to be a genre constantly giving the goods, Foot are no different. Wrapped in a blanket of desert rock from the off with hints of doom, The Balance of Nature Shifted is 46 minutes of absolute fuzz heaven, tracks are rich and basking in the sounds of Kyuss and QOSTA. If stoner music is your thing, then Foot have quite possibly written you the soundtrack to save the summer of 2020. The Balance of Nature Shifted is out via Cooper Feast Records on 31st July 2020.

Review by Ash Crowson

DARK SARAH GRIM

DEVIL’S WITCHES GUNS, DRUGS & FILTHY

FROM THE DEPTH MOMENTS

Gothic kinescopic metallurgists boasting former Amberian Dawn singer Heidi Parviainen are a surreal world of orbs and crows, beginning with the orotund euphony of ‘My name is Luna’, the protagonist in a world of dreams. ‘Illuminate’ has emotional, whooshy/dreamy vocals. ‘All ears!’ is like Maria Brink sidestepping metal to join the Laibach avant-garde for a Traviata; but also a little Japanesey, perhaps Yōsei Teikoku, yet darkly psychedelic. Grandeur meets mood-altering polyphony in an escapade of symphonious februation.

Devil’s Witches add to their list of impressive releases with the Guns, Drugs and Filthy Pictures, a two-track EP ensuring the kink/commentary of the past remains! The title track is Sabbath heavy but with a melodic punkishness. It is also very sweary with a damn good guitar solo. ‘Cross My Path I’ll Cross Your Face’ is a paradox, a country song with great lyrics, harmonies and slide guitar. It’s bloody good though and very addictive!

Check out their previous stuff for the covers if nothing else.

Review by Tom Dixon

Italians From the Depth have their second album, Moments, on release and it lives up to the first with power metal anthems like ‘Spread Your Fire’ delivered at a frantic pace but with melody and panache. ‘Streets of Memory’ is a paradox as the gentle instrumentation still has the power drums, neat! ‘Just Ice’ has a more symphonic feel and is my favourite (for the title too). ‘Somewhere’ illustrates how power metal can be subtle. This band deserves a higher place in this crowded genre.

Review by Tom Dixon

Review by Neil Mach

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BROADSIDE INTO THE RAGING SEA

THEY CALLED HIM ZONE

THE RIVEN

IF YOU’VE GOT A TASTE FOR TERROR

Lyrically imaginative and a step up musically, Into The Raging Sea is a statement of intent, their stab into the light where darkness tries to flood. It’s also poignant, and at points volatile with no clichés present - which is a rarity in these times. The moment of truth comes when the opening track ‘The Raging Sea’ becomes an infectious treat to cold ears, with brazen guitars and powerful lyricism breaking the boundaries of pop-punk. This can only be a future incentive for Broadside.

Dark rock duo They Called Him Zone have unveiled their first full-length album If You’ve Got a Taste For Terror through Eromeda Records. Combining elements of electronica, dance music, and ambient rock, the band have created their own strange and unique brand. The Bradford based double act have an unconventional style working in their favour. They Called Him Zone are already making waves in underground scenes and are certainly a group to watch for those who like unorthodox, dark-sounding electro-pop.

Review by Alex Chapman

WINDBREAKER / MOVING ON Swedes The Riven, have new EP Windbreaker/Movin’ On out to support their two previous releases. The revitalised vinyl 7” format is available in digital is still anathema to you. Both tracks blend melodic weight with Maiden like bass and an almost Lizzy guitar attack. A slight NWOBHM feeling pervades them both and spices it all up to give two solid rock songs with harmonies and solos to satisfy most fans and may even remind you of a time when music was raw, heartfelt and expressive. The new EP is out 28th August 2020 via The Sign Records.

Review by Tom Dixon

SOUTH OF SALEM THE SINNER TAKES IT ALL Bournemouth’s South of Salem are set to release their debut album, The Sinner Takes It All. At the start of 2020 the band’s first show in their hometown had sold out, but then Covid-19 struck. Shame, as these ten tracks provide rock by the galvanised bucketload.

‘The Hate In Me’ is commercial without losing weight. Another play on words, ‘No Plague Like Home’ is apt and rocks. Almost ballad ‘Demons Are Forever’ show the abilities of the entire band. This is an accomplished debut and deserves a listen if you like well structured heavy rock with a metallic tinge.

Review by Tom Dixon 26

PAIN OF SALVATION PANTHER Every genre has an artist or band who stands apart from the rest and goes its own way, and for prog this band is Pain of Salvation.

Relentlessly determined and fiercely individualist, Panther is a concept album for the 2020s based on the differences between ‘normals’ and those who are ‘differently wired.’ The music incorporates electronica (‘Panther,’ ‘Keen to a Fault’), a mandolin-based instrumental (‘Fur’), straight rock (‘Restless Boy’) and they close with the 13 minute plus epic ‘Icon’. Pain Of Salvation’s forthcoming studio album is due for release August 28th, 2020 worldwide via InsideOutMusic.

Review by Laurence Todd

LAURA EVANS RUNNING BACK TO YOU

DOKKEN THE LOST SONGS

Singer/songwriter Laura Evans has new EP, Running Back To You, that is split between blues and country. ‘Drag Me Back In’ is a cracking slice of bluesrock with her vocal apt and admirable. ‘Running Back To You’ has electric and acoustic versions, the former is very latter-day Fleetwood Mac. ‘Mess of Me’ is piano-driven countrified and beautiful. ‘Aberdare’ is all country and damnably catchy. Although I’d prefer her output to be the grittier blues, there is no doubt here’s a serious talent. The new EP is out 31st July 2020.

Review by Tom Dixon

Dokken need no introduction. The Lost Songs 1978-1981 lets you hear the development that brought the young Don to prominence on his move to Germany.

Hooks, riffs, and melodies abound with Halen (sounds on ‘Felony’), Nugent (sounds on ‘We’re Going The Wrong Way’) and pure Dokken (on ‘Day After Day’); then have a bit of melodic punk with ‘Back In The Streets’. The album is a thoroughly enjoyable insight into this rock institution and must-have for any Don Dokken fan or classic 80s rock lovers.

Review by Tom Dixon

STEVE HOWE LOVE IS Legendary guitarist with YES, Steve Howe has put together a shining collection of tunes on Love Is, the latest in his series of solo works. The album is half instrumental and features Howe drawing on his range of influences and styles to put together some very accomplished tunes, with influences ranging from prog to jazz. The lyrics of these tracks reflect his beliefs in the universal power of love, for individuals and ecology, and his message is put across with style and class. Guests include Jon Davison and Dylan Howe.

Review by Laurence Todd 27

THUNDERMOTHER HEATWAVE Despite steady-shuffling line-ups, the AC/DC template remains a constant within Thundermother’s wall of sound. This time round it’s still only rock & roll, but producer Soren Andersen’s presence is felt to good effect with more rounded arrangements, clearer hooks and guitarist Nässil’s solos given succinct purpose.

‘Loud And Alive’, ‘Heat Wave’ and others all solid slabs of rock. The sexy ‘Purple Sky’ expands upon their remit into soul-rock, and with ballad ‘Sleep’ Guernica Mancini’s voice adds a mature depth to proceedings that could take them far.

Review by Paul H Birch

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THE TANGENT AUTO RECONNAISSANCE

NEAL MORSE SOLA GRATIA

VOYAGER GHOST MILE

Andy Tilson is a musician never afraid to go his own way, and here The Tangent serves up an album heavily tinged with jazz influences, but also with prog, pop, and R&B thrown in.

‘Under your Spell’ is almost easy listening, and ‘Jinxed in Jersey’ is pure Canterbury Scene Kevin Ayers, but the album’s centerpiece is ‘Lie back & think of England,’ a very ambitious 28-minute piece with plenty of Tilson’s wry social observations about his home country. Auto Reconnaissance is released on the 21st August 2020.

Review by Laurence Todd

Neal Morse is an amazingly prolific musician, as well as one of the most respected names in prog rock, through his stints with Flying Colors, Transatlantic and his eponymously named band. His latest solo album maintains the high standard of all his other work, and with tracks of the quality of ‘Never Change’ and ‘In the name of the Lord,’ Morse continues to amaze with how he’s able to set and keep the bar high with every new release. Collaboratorsinclude Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Eric Gillette, Bill Hubauer and more.

Review by Laurence Todd

The increasing impact being made

by Australian bands is continued by Voyager. They hover midway between being full-on prog and heavy rock, and they inject high energy levels into their music. Ghost Mile is essentially the same album as their 2017 release but with the addition of three ‘live’ tracks... the eponymous title track, ‘The meaning of I’ and ‘Lost,’ with its mid-song trance rendition of ‘Danube,’ “who’s ready for some trance... said no prog fan ever,” yells singer Danny Estrin.

Review by Laurence Todd

COMANIAC HOLODOX

THE NATURAL DISASTERS

CENTRE EXCUSE

Swiss thrash metal outfit, Cromaniac, delivers a solid thrash metal that feels reminiscent of the glory days of the big four of Teutonic thrash. The record delivers grandiose harmonised thrash guitar riffs and breakneck double bass drumming, as you’d expect from this kind of record but is somewhat interesting in the vocal department as they can best be described as “an acquired taste”. Holodox boasts a great deal of variety and is recommended for fans of Sodom, Destruction, Kreator and Suicidal Angels.

Review by Dale Unsworth

Despite being heavily associated with the tone that is black, as a music subgenre goth is a bit of a grey area. Copenhagen based band The Natural Disasters fuse all sides of the coin on their new album Tormenta. This is a project by multi-instrumentalist Alioscha Brito-Egana, with guest vocalists. Although there is some great musicianship on this album, all the tracks seem to blur into one. There’s a good song in there, just spread out over eight tracks.

Some good ideas but it could have been slimmed down to a short EP. Tormenta will be released August 2020.

Review by Neale McGeever

Somewhat like what the New Romantics and New Wave bands ala Depeche Mode, New Order, and Sisters of Mercy were doing, Centre Excuse dabble in synthpop/ electro rock with Gothic undertones to it.

Well-crafted, nicely arranged, and suitably melancholic, Favourite Soul is definitely competent, but it does not offer any surprises as such. ‘Moon, Sky and Stars’ and ‘Joy Joy Joy’ are wonderfully anthemic pieces that will go down a storm in a future live setting, and despite a few fillers this is a satisfying listen. Out now via their own label, New Motion Records.

Review by Jens Nepper

TORMENTA

FAVOURITE SOUL

HÄXAN WHITE NOISE Häxan are a UK (not US) classic rock trio but with a metallic bite and new album, White Noise, is a varied, accessible and bloody good album. The three cat loving girls supply heavy, melodic and original rock but with the sound of a band of five. ‘Nine Lives’ illustrates the power and melodies that fill the album with a helluva guitar solo too; see their video featuring a post-apocalyptic demolition derby Single ‘Skeletons’ has a great comic style video to back the intelligent rock that pervades. A special debut that needs a listen. White Noise is out now, go grab a copy!

Review by Tom Dixon 29

GOBLINS BLADE OF ANGELS AND SNAKES German metal band Goblins Blade have released their first full-length album Of Angels and Snakes through Massacre Records. The album comes following the success of the independently released EP Awakening back in May 2019. The German fivepiece, formed back in 2018, take their name from a song by the American thrash group Heathen.

The band delivers an old school heavy metal sound mixed with a more traditional power metal sound.

With Florian Reimann’s vocals that sound akin to what Bruce Dickinson belts out combined with heavy riffs, Goblins Blade come out of the blocks with archetypal power metal. Unlike some power metal groups, Goblins Blade don’t rely solely on speed as a means of carrying their songs; Instead constructing engaging and powerful riffs expertly played by guitarists Jörg M. Knittel and Claudio Enzler. This is further backed up with Roberto Palacios’ basslines and the drumming of Claudio Sisto completing the outfit and building the solid base upon which Reimann’s vocals can take flight. This slower style does not hinder Goblins Blade at all, as the more aggressive, punchier style more than holds its own.

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The use of guitars is highlighted in the brilliant solos on display throughout the album, especially in the opening track of the album ‘Snakes from Above’ and again on the longest track of the record ‘When the Night Follows the Day’. On both tracks well-executed guitar solos help carry the song and pin them up as aggressive fist-pumping anthems. In the latter of those songs, the drumming of Sisto is particularly impactful indicating his work as core to the sound of Goblins

Blade. The album is closed out well by ‘Call for Unity’ for its strong sound and slow fade into silence to bookend the album.

Of Angels and Snakes is an impressive debut album and is a decent foray into the slightly more aggressive side of power metal. Whilst not being too explorative it adds an entry to the genre worthy of recognition and a listen to.

Review by Alex Chapman

STARMEN KISS THE SKY The title of Kiss The Sky may suggest a homage to the great Jimi Hendrix (there is a Dylan/Hendrix cover), and the cover may allude to a certain band known for their makeup, but Starmen are all original, in fact, they are a rock band of some quality that take ‘Snake and ‘Halen’s best bits with some of Kiss’s foibles and serve up a fresh sound at the same time. They wear makeup in the shape of stars and go by the names Red, Silver, Purple and Gold Starman… not hugely original perhaps but, the musical evidence is that they are all about good time rock and this album is a solid listen. It seems that this originally came out in 2018 and they do have another album (Welcome To My World) available but this one is out on July 24th.

Moving past that, opener ‘The Stealer’ gives the perfect meld of those three bands with a bluesy rock song that has quality riffs, vocals and solos… what more do you want? Now for the dangerous act of the Bob Dylan song that shone in Jimi’s hands: ‘All Along The Watchtower’ is a thoughtful attempt with acoustic guitar and piano introducing the deft vocals for the first verse, before swirling Hammond brings the band in at full tilt. The neat, new bridge and pedalled solo keep it

interesting and the bass lines are very clever. No, not as good as Jimi…but still a bloody good attempt.

‘A Mystery Thrill’ has eastern overtones before nearly becoming ‘The Gates Of Babylon’, so add Rainbow to the list of influences; good song too.

The title track sounds like they are playing with a couple of Hendrix riffs and then brought Coverdale into the vocals with Ozzy and Leppard doing the chorus! It is amazing and still very enjoyable. ‘Bad Tattoo’ brings in David

Lee Roth duetting with DC and Eddie adding some flourishes! The closing track, ‘A Magical Ride’ is one of my favourites as it is pure Starmen and catchy as a catchy thing with a slight 60s psyche feeling pervading.

Forget the Kiss-esqe image and all of the comparisons: listen to the songs and decide, it is a rewarding album that will be getting repeated plays in this house.

Review by Tom Dixon

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