The Metal Mag N°30 July - August 2019 as Pdf and Printed

1/You made an album in 2008 with a band called AghonyA, is the band still alive? Did this band got you all the connections you have now abroad?

We are no longer together, and although I have personally contacted people to make connections, the work we did with Aghonya opened several doors for me and I’m forever grateful for it.

2/Are you singing in other formations? .. a cover band?

I have been working with the amazing Vivaldi Metal Project and I really hope I can keep on contributing with such an amazing and original project. Other than that, I’m currently focused on Chaos Magic.

3/How did you get the opportunity to sing for Chaos Magic?

Frontiers Records was looking for a female voice to make a project with Timo Tolkki, and since Timo already had me on his radar after I sent him my songs, he proposed me and they were happy to have me sing in Chaos Magic. This also gave me the chance to sing in Timo’s Avalon.

4/Due to the amazing voice and composition on this album, why not calling this « band » Caterina Nix? You are the most important in this amazing music…

Thank you so much! Well, it made sense that we kept the name Chaos Magic since we had already released and album under that name. Also, for me this is a space that will hopefully allow for having several guests, like an Avantasia format.

5/You are becoming a worldwide star, this band is like one of the best. How did it all started, have you been singing in Chile for a long time? have you got a career there?

I’ve been singing for a very long time, and back in high school I participated in several rock bands. But singing has always been a tool for communication for me, and I find it very emotional and moving. I have been singing metal for

Interview with Manuel Harlander 1/How did you compose this album compared to the previous one? Have you already had riffs ready?

Yes, I already had some ideas and riffs which I did not want to use it for the first album.

2/Who is playing with you in this album? The bio tells you are a one man band‌ Yes it is a soloproject, only one song (disgusting lust of madness) my girlfriend has taken a vocal part, which was very cool. For the third album maybe 2-3 guest musicians will be in there.

3/What is the theme of this new EP? Have you got lots of anger to spill around?

The ep was only a small taste from the album because the release of the Lp has been delayed. Sometimes I get annoyed already, some people do not know how to behave themselves over others...i hate it... it basically happens to much shit in this world, it would be a long story to tell about that.

4/How did you get NRT records? Have you tried many labels?

I came to the label through an old friend and no its the first one.

5/Who designed the logo and the cover artwork?

Cover and artwork designed by georgie from moonring design.

6/What message you wanted to spread with this band? The logo is close to Grind bands, the music has some thrash‌ The message about my music is the life out there, of course not everything is bad but just a lot, wars or personal problems etc. or other negative situations what happen in life.

7/Did you think you would release another album?

Of course, one of my biggest hobbies is the music and I’m constantly working on new material songs and riffs.

1. Can you tell us what happened with the band? You changed singers and now the old one is back?

Mick Michaels: Over the past couple of years we have gone through a few line-up changes with regards to the lead singer position. This includes singer Frankie Cross’ departure in 2017 and his return in 2018 among others. Currently we are working with singer Randy Stryche. We are looking to release a new EP, “What We Leave Behind,” sometime this Fall that will feature Randy on vocals. The band has a string of shows which include us supporting the Bulletboys and Grim Reaper followed by a West Coast tour in September which has us performing at the Whiskey A Go-Go with the Iron Maidens.

2. You are releasing an LP, what led you to? Are you collectors?

MM: Our album “The Galloping Hordes” was made available as a limited time vinyl release last spring. Our US distributor, Exquisite Noise Records, approached us about doing the release and we were 100% for it. The edition included a bonus track and the album’s originally intended cover artwork. All the tracks were completely re-mastered specifically for the vinyl format by our friend and LA producer Bill Metoyer.

Among all of us, James is probably the biggest vinyl collector. He has all kinds of stuff. Me…I have a very small collection, but do pick up certain things here and there…nowadays mainly for collecting autographs. The vinyl format has something that no other format has been able to offer, not just the warm sound but the overall experience it gives to the music fan… it’s really a piece of artwork in the most traditional sense of the word.

3. In your bio you tell about all your releases yet they are only two album photos to show, are they releases you are not proud of? Who’s dealing with the website?

MM: We are proud of all our releases. Our first album, “Breakout” came out in 2012 followed by 2013’s “Harlequin” and “Axe to Grind” (La Mazakauta Records). In total we have five all original, full-length studio albums plus a Holiday album, “Driven Snow”, a couple of compilations, “Declaration of Metal” and “Finding Sanctuary,” each that contain brand new music, as well as a large number of EPs. The last two albums, “Metal Machine” (Metalizer Records) and “The Galloping Hordes,” (Killer Metal Records) have been the most successful to date and are handled by respective labels each.

Several of our early releases are no longer available in physical format as limited numbers were produced. We perform a good cross section of our catalog with our live set…something from every album is included. Our complete catalog is available on our website at www.cornersofsanctuary.com.

Interview with Dan Hougesen 1/You started in 1989 yet you don’t have a website, how come ?

Skyline was not around for many years. The band was revived in 2009 for the 20th anniversary of Wacken Open Air and has been playing since.

2/There are bands with the same name you can find on facebook, haven’t you got the name branded?

No have not got the name branded 3/Have you started the band as two singers or it came with time? Why having two singers?

Since the band was revived the band has 2 singers. Actually the only original band member left in the band is the drummer «Gösy». Another original band member Thomas Jensen is today one of the founders of W:O:A. 4/Who made the band’s logo? Have you thought of changing it with time?

I don’t know who made the logo. it’s the original logo from the 80s. And yes we have been thinking about giving it a touch up.

5/You are part of WACKEN and released a two anthem single, How did you get the idea to release those songs?

We were asked by one of the founders of Wacken Holger Hübner if we could make an anthem. We made two and desided to use both :-) 6/Since you have participated every year at wacken since 2009 and the founders are members of the band, why not calling it skyline?

Skyline is a Band Wacken Open Air is a Festival, not sure I understand the question 7/How can we find your albums? Why haven’t you played wacken the earliest years?

Interview with Jane Odintsova 1/Who started the band and what was the idea?

If we are talking about Imperial Age “in vacuum”, disregarding it’s background, than I can name Aor and myself as the two founders of the band. But there is a background. I have known Aor since school (we went to the same school - the last 2 years, when he came from the UK) and he always had some music project running..The one preceding Imperial Age, was called Revelance, and it was a typical amateur teenage band, consisting of our mutual friends. I didn’t take part in it apart from hanging out and drinking beer with the guys during their “rehersals”. Obviously, all this ended up nowhere after (traditional for such bands) quarrels about money and who’s doing all the work. This is when we decided to make another band another way.

Concerning the idea.. We’ve been into alternative history, occult and stuff like that for a long time, so there were no questions about the main idea of the upcoming project. This is serious for us and we want to share this information with the others.

2/You are three singers, what led you to?

Originally Aor was the only singer and I was the keyboardist. We released our first album Turn The Sun Off with him on vocals. Then we started to use female vocals together with male which you can hear on our EP Warrior Race. While writing the The Legacy Of Atlantis album, we came to the conclusion that it is not interesting for us to write just for one voice, that it is much more interesting and it gives you musical freedom when you have several different singers.

Now we have a medium-high male, low and high female vocals. Maybe it would be even more interesting to add some low male vocals, but I think we’re not ready for a new member right now :) 3/Who did the logo ?

The logo or the symbol?

If you mean the symbol, it was invented by Aor when he was 18 years old. To put it short, it means “It’s crucial to develop yourself spiritually, otherwise you’re fucked”.

If you mean the band logo, it was designed by Jan Yrlund, as with all our album covers.

4/Why choosing this name?

Choosing the band’s name was one of the hardest things in the whole project. We spent almost 1,5 years searching for the right name.

Interview with Freddy Mazzuco 1/Qui a démarré le groupe et quelle était l’idée?

Je suis le fondateur et leader ,guitariste, compositeur du groupe Angel’s Whisper AKA (Isis Child). L’idée était de faire un groupe aux influences de ce que j’aimais le plus comme musique, a savoir le «Classic rock» AOR comme Journey, Night Ranger, Giant, Hardline, Bad English, Revolution Saints etc... qui sont mes principales influences.

1/Who started the band and what was the idea?

I’m the main founder, the guitarist and composer of the band Angel’s Whisper AKA (Isis Child). The idea was to have a band with influences with the music I love, «Classic rock» AOR such as Journey, Night Ranger, Giant, Hardline, Bad English, Revolution Saints etc...Who are my main influences.

2/Pourquoi choisir ce nom? Qui en a fait le logo?

Ce nom «Angel’s Whisper» m’est venu un peu par hasard et surtout dans l’urgence d’avoir a changer le nom suite aux événements au Moyen Orient avec ISIS car nous étions «Isis Child» pendant plusieurs années et avions signé un record deal en Allemagne avec ce nom. Je suis le concepteur du logo que j’ai fais faire par le claviériste et infographiste du Groupe Ethernity et Noveria (Julien Spreutels) qui joue aussi sur nos albums.

2/Why this name? Who did the logo?

This name «Angel’s Whisper» popped in my head like that for an urgence to change the name due to the events in middle east with ISIS as we were called «Isis Child» during many years, we had a record deal with a German label.

I made the logo who has been designed by the keyboardist who is a graphic designer and playes in Ethernity and Noveria (Julien Spreutels) as on our albums.

3/On a souvent vu des petites vidéos acoustiques sur facebook, Avez vous commencé comme ça?

Nous gardons aussi le trio acoustiques pour certains évenements au Luxembourg.

3/We often saw little acoustic videos on facebook, have you started that way?

We also keep that acoustic trio for few events in Luxembourg.

4/Comment vous êtes vous rencontrés?

Nous étions basé sur la Cote d’Azur d’où nous sommes originaires avec la chanteuse que j’ai rencontré a mon retour des USA, nous avons fait un 1er album en Français mais j’étais bien plus a l’aise avec l’écriture en Anglais et nous avons depuis pris la décision de ne faire que des albums en Anglais.

Answered by Jonte 1/Who started the band and what was the idea?

Vokonis was started in October of 2015 by Simon (guitar/vocals), Jonte (bass/vocals) & Emil (drums) with the common goal of writing and playing songs we liked and at the same time to try to take it as far as we possibly could by ourselves. We’ve always been about keeping ourselves occupied by the band, just doing things, whether it’s plain rehearsals, doing shows, photo shoots, making videos, recording songs, designing new merchandise and so on.

2/Have you always been a three members band or you tried to get another piece?

We’ve always been a three piece. It’s very handy being a trio when it comes to decision making and being able to get the band together for rehearsals or shows etc. We’ve never had those kind of problems with Vokonis, so it’s quite liberating for us.

3/Are you all in other bands?

Our new drummer Peter has another band, other than that we’re all in for Vokonis. We’re constantly doing things with Vokonis so there’s really not much time left to have another band. And if you put a full time day job into the equation, well...

4/How do you compose?

Generally Simon comes up with the riffs and we take it from there. We always do the songs together at our rehearsal space. The three of us all have to come up with our own contributions or parts to the songs, so it’s a team effort really.

We start with the broader arrangements and then go into the details as the song evolves.

5/You are mixing fast kicking parts with slow motion ones, is it your way of speaking the music story? Is it easier for you to sing?

Simon and Peter are into a lot of progressive bands, so in a way we’re writing what we like to listen to ourselves. The main thing though is story telling, putting emphasis on certain aspects of a song, trying to express a thought or a feeling that hopefully will make the listener think and feel something. Also, going full throttle all the way might drain the listener as we have songs that range between 7 to 10 minutes.

1/You are known as a bass player, yet you seem to do everything on your albums, have you learnt music in a school?

No, I never did go to music college or music school. When I was a young kid, we were poor, but I always loved music.

I would kind of thrash the sofa with my cousins drum sticks and would get a tune out of my bicycle spokes.

2/What led you to start the bass? What do you like from this instrument?

Well just have a look at Steve Harris, Geddy, and of course, Billy Sheehan… and there’s your answer.

3/How do you find the musicians to work with on your music?

Over the years I’ve used a few of my One Night Of Queen band mates, but recently I’ve just been working on my own in my little home studio with Pro Tools.

4/Do you play live shows for your own « band »?

There is no band as such at the moment. It’s very difficult to find musicians who wants to play someone else’s music.

5/Are you behind the Queen’s cover band touring the world? How did it happen and why ?

No, the band was put together by David Brockett and Gary Mullen, not me. But I was the first bass player that Dave approached and here we are 17 years later.

6/Your last album is from 2016, are you planning on releasing another one?

Yes, I guess I should. We’ve been touring with the Queen show for so long, it’s finding the time when I get off tour to write. But recently I’ve been in lock down in the studio when we’ve been off. So, who knows? It’s been long over due.

7/What inspires your creations? Are you trying to get music for movies?

What inspires me? Hmm… When I listen to John Williams, Hans Zimmer and David Arnold. I get a real lift out of listening to these guys. I’ve always wanted to write music like that. Yes, I’d love to get the chance to write for TV/films, and games. So, if anyone is reading this…. ;) 8/Are you still participating in others albums or live performances?

I’ve played on many different people’s albums. One was an all-star line-up for the Frankie Miller tribute album with

Interview led with Mark Zonder 1/How did you come up with such a project?

We have been working for years together. We were approach by a label to do a project in a darker moody style. It was when Steve Wilson was doing really well and the label wanted to have their version of it.

2/Were you trying to get a new band or it was decided to be a two members one?

We work very quickly and effectively just the two of us. We were looking for the longest time for a singer, but never could seem to find the right person to add his creative touch to the project. Just got to a point after a couple years that we really wanted to get this out.

3/Why using your names as the band’s name?

Always tough to come up with a band name. Also thought it would attract our fans that have followed each of us for years.

4/Who designed the logo?

Gary did with the help of the computer.

5/You went for a simple yet powerful photo on the cover, have you thought about it long?

Actually both Gary and I have been affected by fires with much personal and emotional loss. This pic is on the top of the hill by my house in Agoura Hills, close to Malibu were the So Cal fires tore through the area. I will not be back in my house for probably another 9 months. It has been 8 months since the fire.

6/What is the theme of this album?

Interview led with Bill 1/How did you think of this new album?

When I write a song and pen the lyrics the first line I try that comes into my head is normally what that song is about and the opening lyric ‘Is this real or am I caught in time’ it just felt right for the song and and The Court situation and fun of hanging an innocent man with jesters all laughing just seemed to fit perfectly so I based it on that track.

2/« lies » was already played live, did you have created this album two years ago?

Yes that’s correct, we had so much trouble in getting the right guitarist for the band the delay went on and on but I wanted to get at least one track out to build the interest for the new album but didn’t expect it to take 2 years waiting for the lead guitar parts, still I think it was worth waiting for as I think Dave Lear has done a super job.

3/What led you to choose this cover and how did you get it?

We wanted the cover to be different but also attach itself to our previous two albums six6six and Ashes to ashes in style.

I contacted Andy Pilkington who has done some fantastic designs for bands with the idea of the court, the hanging and being on the cover somehow and he did the rest, we couldn’t be happier with it although I wasn’t expecting my head to be served on a plate hahaha.

4/You’ve been out of the radar for many years, searching the net for « sacrilege » you can find lots and even from the UK, have you thought of changing name? Is your name branded?

We have had this problem for a while now and it’s because a thrash Sacrilege started in 1987 the year I stopped playing and without knowing about us called themselves Sacrilege, at the time in didn’t concern me as I didn’t plan on playing again but since we came back to play live we are continually being taken as the thrash band and it’s stopped us doing better than we have done so far. Festivals and promoters see Sacrilege and think thrash metal yet the festival might be NWOBHM for instance so even though we tell them who we are and what we have done etc we weren’t getting booked, thankfully it’s happening less and less now we have 7 albums out plus the compilations but it still happens.

We have spoken about adding UK to the name but really don’t want to do that as we were and have always been the

1/What happened since the last album? Have you had line up issue?

Since our last album we have had a line up change. There is only me (Mark Duffy) and Will Philpot from the line up of our last album «Awakening». We have brought in some new people that we think are more suited to the band and the band direction. We have Paul Simpson - Bass guitar, Nigel Waterfall Brown - Drums and Kenny Nicholson - Guitar.

2/How did you think this album? it’s becoming heavier and stronger than the previous one..

I don’t think the new album is any heavier than our last album but I think we have some stronger songs. I myself like both of the last two albums and think our song writing is the best we have done so far.

3/Where did you find this designer for the cover artwork? Have you asked for this particular one or chose on from a library?

The artist who has done our album cover artwork is Augusto Peixoto who our label Pure Steel Records suggested we should contact and check out his artwork which we did and liked his designs. We discussed the album title and ideas for it and Augusto came up with the album design which we think is great.

4/Is there a special theme to this brand new album?

The album does have a theme running through it, which is an apocolyptic theme.

5/What are the lyrics about and what inspired you to write them?

The inspiration for the lyrics comes from things I see around me or what I see in the news but not always believing everything in the media, I’m more of a conspiracy person ! The song lyrics cover subjects such as war, world destruction, robots taking the place of humans, loss of religious faith. All rather gloomy !

6/Have you had old songs written and modified them for this new effort or they all completely new ones?

Interview led with Jack Kirby (guitarist and main composer) Rogue Marechal (vocalist and owner of Ascent Records) 1/ Who started the band and what was the idea?

JK: I originally started the project just by having the idea of writing an album and having somebody sing on it for me but since then the idea has evolved into a full band with an album release!

RM: Yes, it certainly went further than the original plan (laughs)...

2/ You started as a two musicians formation eight years ago, how and why did it take so long to achieve this band to explode?

JK: When I first started writing and demoing the music I was only 17 so I had college and university to focus on for a few years before we could really take it any further.

RM: Also, I had myself recently rejoined ShadowKeep with the view to write an album, so it would have been difficult for me to develop another band at full speed at that time too, so in more ways than one the band only really started to take shape around 2014-15 I would say.

3/ You have an amazing band, how did you get the musicians to play as you aren’t all from the same country?

JK: It was actually quite easy since we could send tracks and files over to each other so quickly no matter where we were, which helped the album come together effortlessly. Andrea (DGM) was also very easy to work with, so yeah, it was nowhere near as laborious as you might expect.

4/ Have you learnt music in a school? What are your influences?

JK: I studied music in school and university and also taught guitar for a while. I listened to a lot of different bands growing up but my main influences were Dream Theater, Symphony X, Iron Maiden and other bands like that.

5/ How did you compose? Have you rehearsed? tell us your working ways?

JK: I actually composed this album quite differently to how I would these days. I’ve learned a lot more about music since then but mostly I will be playing guitar or piano and once I find something interesting I will take it from there and hopefully turn it into a song!

6/ Rogue, how did you know where to lead your melodies with your voice? Did you try to sound different than your previous work?