Noizz Eater #5 by thenoisehour thenoisehour

NOIZZ EATER ▪ YOUR FAVOURITE METAL MAGAZINE ▪ ISSUE NO 5 ▪ JAN-MAR 2010 INTERVIEWS 4

OVERKILL

EVILE

MOTORHEAD

THE POODLES

RATT

RAVEN

SACRED REICH

AT WAR

WOLF

EDEN’S CURSE

ANVIL

KEEL

ARTILLERY

RONNY MUNROE

SACRED STEEL

LONEWOLF

JON OLIVA’S PAIN

CRYSTAL VIPER

BULLET

HARDCORE SUPERSTAR

RAGE

3 INCHES OF BLOOD

Hello Metalheads!

GIRLSCHOOL

Welcome to the first issue for 2010. Thanks again for picking up the magazine and I hope you all enjoy the interesting interviews and reviews that have been put together for you. We're crazy old-school metal fans just like you, so we ask the questions you would ask and go to the shows you go to, so nothing has changed here.

STORMZONE

CAGE

OVERKILL

MOTORHEAD

ANVIL

RAGE

JOP

RAVEN

KEEL

SACRED STEEL

What has changed is that our team has grown since you last heard from us. Which means you can expect even more variety, especially when it comes to the album reviews. But we're still looking for a London based writer/photographer who would like to write reviews and interview bands playing one-off UK shows. We look forward to hearing from you!

GIG REVIEWS 44

WOLF + CAULDRON

HARDCORE SUPERSTAR + BULLET

SAXON + ANVIL

I left the most important news for the end. We're happy to announce that from now on Noizz Eater is available for free download as a digital magazine! We of course will not stop printing hard copy issues as we know there are still a lot of maniacs like us who like the traditional press format, but as this magazine is not done for profit, we have decided to do this so we can reach as many metalheads as possible. We want to further promote the best music genre ever and now you will be able to get Noizz Eater in every corner of the world, with no fees or shipping costs! So spread the news, as we want every traditional metal fan to read our magazine and support the featured bands. Times are hard, so we all need to work even harder to strengthen the scene. We are counting on you to do this with us!

MOTORHEAD + GIRLSCHOOL

Y&T + RON KEEL

ALESTORM + EDEN’S CURSE

EVILE + WARBRINGER

In metal we trust! Wojtek Gabriel

ALICE COOPER

The magazine is still developing and as you may have noticed the design looks more professional now and we hope you like the changes! If you have any suggestions that you think would improve Noizz Eater, then feel free to let us know! We write the articles, but it's your magazine, so help us make it as great as possible.

FESTIVAL REPORTS EDITOR, DESIGN, ADVERTISING: Wojtek Gabriel CONTRIBUTORS: Miguel Blardony, Patrycja Gabriel, Simon Lukic, Juan Hann Ng, Robert Williams

HARD ROCK HELL III

FIREFEST VI

WEB: www.noizzeater.com

ALBUM REVIEWS

E-MAIL: magazine@noizzeater.com

THE

METALHEADS

▪

FOR

THE

METALHEADS

INTERVIEW

NE: First I’d like to say you did a great job with "Ironbound" In my opinion it’s your best album since “Horrorscope”... Oh, thanks! We’re very proud of it. It’s got a great vibe to it. One of the things that we’ve tried to do for years is to couple the old school with a contemporary vibe to it and I think on this record it’s good old school and good contemporary at the same time. NE: You had two years to complete the record. Now that it’s finished would you say that it’s perfect in every aspect, just like you wanted it to be? You can never say that. I think that’s the reason that bands continue on. Especially for Overkill the reason we continue is that we try to reach perfection and realise that perfection is nonreachable, haha! That’s the fun thing. It’s almost like chasing a high with the drug. It did take a long time to complete and now it’s hard for me to be objective about it. I’m very excited about it and I honestly don’t know if it’s the best thing we’ve ever done or if it’s the best in ten years or if it’s not. But I do know that I’m excited when I hear it and I do think that the result was very, very positive. NE: Where did you do the song writing? At home, in the studio, on the road or

was it a mix of all of the above? It’s a mix of all. DD starts the songwriting with a riff, it’s a very simple process, you know? Riffs are collected over a period of let’s say two years, where we finish “Immortalis”, we go on the road, and the riffs come up. They come up in soundcheck, they come up in the dressing room, on the bus, they come up in hotels, they come up in his studio, they come up when we’re talking on the phone and I think it’s a collection of two years or so or accumulation of that two years to find what’s the ten that excite us the most. And those ten riffs are then taken to the next step and that’s developing the song itself. Then probably about three months before recording I really put my teeth into it, I start taking bites out of it and finishing it with lyrics and melodies. NE: You mixed this album with Peter Tagtren from Hypocrisy. He’s mostly worked with black and death metal bands, but he’s never done an old-school thrash metal album before. What convinced you that he was the right person for doing "Ironbound"? It was a really unique experience for us to work with Peter, because he’s like an old-school metal fan. It’s like getting a real objective point of view of what your work is, ‘cause this is how a fan with Peter’s skill hears this band at it’s best.

“ I’ve always believed that if I was in a card game I have to play the cards that are dealt to me.” 4

Photos: Nuclear Blast

hat can you say about Overkill? They're not just a thrash band, but one of the finest and most important bands in the entire thrash metal genre. When you look up the word “thrash” in the dictionary you should be re-directed to “Overkill”. When the first traces of news about the new album surfaced and the label announced it was going to be a real “back to the roots” release I bet most fans thought, “Sure, it's gonna be an oldschool thrash album. Not!” The band left them all with their jaws dropped, because surprisingly “Ironbound” is as old-school as it gets in 2010. “Ironbound” is an album that all the dedicated Overkill fans have been waiting for the last twenty years for. So, the guys are back on the right track now and the charismatic frontman Bobby “Blitz” Elsworth was kind enough to tell me and the Noizz Eater readers how it all came about.

INTERVIEW Obviously we had a lot of input in the mix, we had our say about the sounds, volumes and effects; but I really think the overall feeling is Peter’s... I think that’s why it became successful, that we’re objective. We’re not in the studio listening to what he’s doing, we’re hearing the mixes at the end of each day when they’re sent to us via the internet. NE: Did you have any unexpected problems in the studio or would you say the sessions went pretty smoothly? This was smooooth! Haha! This was easy. To start with the drums, we knew that when Ron came in and started doing the drum tracks, while he’s got a great, wild, untamed raw energy and we could see that the songs would be even more lively than we anticipated as we started demoing them. This was I think due to his drumming so it was a great way to start off, to say, “Hey, it’s gonna be more lively, a little bit more fast, a little heavier.” I think that with that start everything kind of fell into place. We were very organised with this one, everybody worked hard, everybody worked long hours so there was really no problems with regard to achieving any sounds, scheduling, everybody finished on time. It’s just one of these records where everything lined-up perfectly. NE: What I like about the album is that the song order makes sense. Once you’ve heard the album three or four times you know what song is coming next and the order is very logical. How did you decide on the order of songs? In my opinion this is one of the keys to having a successful record, that’s when the songs work in conjunction with each other. “The Green And Black” in our opinion was always the opening song so what to follow that and how did it work correctly develops as the songs are developing. So it wasn’t hard to figure out this running order. It was about making it feel like one record as opposed to making it feel like 10 songs. When we got to finishing the running order and D.D. and I were talking back and forth I said, “Why do you want to put ”The SRC” as the last tune?” He said, “Man, it’s old-school.” I said, “What are you talking about?” He said, “You start heavy, you finish heavy.” It made sense, haha… So, it was really a great feeling and an easy task as this went down to pick the running order because it seemed natural the way it came out. NE: When you think of the order of the songs on the album you usually put the two to three best songs at the beginning to kick the listener right in the face. So, are "The Green And Black", "Ironbound" and "Bring Me The Night" the best songs on the album, in your opinion? They aren’t. I think they’re really good songs on the record but you know, when I went to Donzdorf to Nuclear Blast a few weeks ago to hear this at a listening party and obviously I was involved in it all the way through, but this was the first time I got to listen to the record objectively. I sat down there with a bunch of journalists and I opened the beer and I lit a cigarette I said, “OK, I’m gonna relax and listen to this”. What happened to me was, the feeling I

got was the record started hitting very hard right away, but it never stopped hitting harder after that. It kept hitting and hitting and when I thought, “OK, maybe the hitting will now stop”, it just kept going all the way to “The SRC”. The point is that I left the room with bruises all over my body and very happy that we accomplished something that was not based on “These are the best three songs” but based on “This is a real good record”.

NE: Who did the additional vocals on the album like the growls in “The Head And Heart” and all the choirs?

NE: I think “The Green And Black” is the second longest song you’ve ever written. Why did you decide to open the album with a complex composition, not with two fast simple thrash numbers for example?

NE: Seriously?

Before it was called “The Green And Black” when it was on board when we rehearsed, it was called “The Opener”. So it was always thought to us as being the opening song, because it has the epic-type

That’s all me.

Yeah, it’s me. I’ve been fucking around with that death metal voice for ten years now. I usually put it underneath things, it usually doesn’t take a lead vocal position but it almost sounded like an affected voice when I was demoing them so I layered the vocals and it came out very, very thick and very anti-Blitz. It’s the other side. One of the fun things for me to do when I’m doing vocals is to create characters with my voice. My voice may be very recognisable, but certain nuances I put into the voice is what gives it interest by sounding like a different character. NE: I’d say there’s completely nothing modern about “Ironbound” apart from the production. Who decided the new album would be an old-school thrash record?

introduction, where it starts off very slow. I think the unique thing about that song is that it whispers to you before it smashes you in the head, but it does both. Regardless of its length it still felt like a shorter song. That’s really the accomplishment I think that a writer wants, it’s not to make an eight minute song feel eight minutes, but to make an eight minute song feel five minutes or six minutes. So it was a real obvious choice for us right from the beginning musically that we were going to use that as the opener, regardless of its length. NE: DD is the main songwriter, you do the vocal lines, so how much input comes from Dave, Derek and Ron, song writing wise? I would say a lot, because you can’t neglect people’s talent. I think that what you hear on this record, the energy I talked about it’s Ron. He’s got raw energy. It’s a great asset and it inspires the songs. The drum parts were changed along the way by Ron. Dave I think is really... you can’t say he’s most improved on this record, but this is probably the most complex record that he’s done with regards to guitar work and this is all his guitar work. Many parts were changed to accommodate his guitar work. The feeling we had was “Let him do the best he can on this”. He almost gives the record a progressive vibe at times. Sure, it’s a thrash record, it’s a heavy hitter, but the guitar work has a really interesting side. Dave Linsk has carved himself out a place among great guitar players in the genre. NE: Do all the band members have an equal say in the writing process? I mean, can Ron say, “Blitz this riff sucks, let’s skip it”? We are a democracy, but we do have a president and a vice-president, haha… Opinions are always welcomed but it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s the way it’s gonna go. I think another thing that we do understand is that Overkill is Overkill because of D.D.’s riffs and because of my melodies and the way I complement those riffs. Sure, we listen to whatever’s brought up but the final decision is usually made by D.D. and myself. NE: You’ve known DD for almost thirty years now. I once heard that you kept him in the band because he owes you money? Oh, that’s a rumour. I owe him money! Haha! NE: OK, seriously, would you call your relationship with DD a partnership just on a musical level or a long-time friendship rather? This works because it’s friendship. Obviously Overkill is one of the most important things in our life but we’ve grown from boys into men and we realised that there are other things important and that’s the well-being of the partnership. And if you put the well-being of the partnership first that’s from a family perspective. I think that that’s why it works for us. I think it works because we’re in a situation where we respect each other personally and have this long lasting friendship of thirty years or so now. Overkill works first on that basis and then on us getting down to work on what we like doing best.

Well, you know, it developed that way. I think one of the characteristics we have as writers is to realise and know that we have aspects of ourselves, the elements that make up Overkill. It’s a bit of rock’n’roll, it’s a bit of punk, it’s a lot of melody. It certainly is thrash but I think the songs develop according to the feeling that we’re having at that particular time. The “Immortalis” record that preceded this was a step into the thrashy direction, even though there was still mid-tempo songs on it. But we did a lot of touring last year. We did a lot of thrash touring with thrash bands, we’ve played with Mortal Sin through Europe, we’ve played with Exodus through Europe, we’ve done stuff in the States with younger bands like Warbringer. Maybe it's the way things lined up that if we’re thinking of more of the thrashy elements that it develops more into that direction. But I do think that there’s still elements, let’s say contemporary; songs like “Give A Little” come across to me as having a punky, contemporary vibe to them. But at the end of the day it’s probably still a thrash song. NE: I think you’ve heard this question a couple of times already. Many of the old thrash bands have recorded traditional thrash albums recently. I mean Testament, Megadeth, Slayer... Some of these bands have not sounded this way for years. Is that because of the young acts, that sound totally old-school and get noticed and receive attention, I mean bands like Bonded By Blood, Municipal Waste, Gama Bomb, Evile etc? They’re some great bands man. In some degree the way the record takes shape is what is happening around us. And I think what’s happening is a lot of these newer bands. I’m a fan of this newer wave of thrash, I think it’s a good thing and there’s some great bands out there that are waving the flag of hate. But the

INTERVIEW idea is that they’re the new guard and we’re the old guard and experience sometimes rises to the top. That’s what we had under the circumstances. A lot of thrash touring, a great time right now and a great scene for the thrash metal music. The fact that we’re doing a record and the label that’s gonna promote this is all over this kind of stuff, we just started walking in that direction and by the time the record was done we were in that direction. NE: “Ironbound” is going to be your first release for Nuclear Blast. They’re the biggest metal label now but let’s face it, they’ve got many bands on their roster who are much bigger in stature than Overkill. Are you sure the album will be properly promoted? You can think that, but I always think that we’re the biggest one so it doesn’t matter, haha! It’s not really ego, it’s really about a family competition and that we forgot to get excited about it. I was very impressed when I was in Donzdorf that I walked into a contemporary office and met about sixty people and all sixty of them had on metal shirts. I’m looking at the shirts, this is Overkill, Exodus, Death Angel, Municipal Waste and I think to myself, “I’m very comfortable here.” This is people who know what they do and love what they do obviously. So I don’t think you can ask for much more when it comes to the promotion and who’s number one, who’s number two. I think we have to do our job and I think we have done it and I think now it’s up to them to do their job. NE: When I listened to the album for the first time I was a bit surprised as I heard a couple of elements there I didn’t expect from Overkill AD 2009. I mean the main riff of “Bring Me The Night” or the guitar harmonies in “Endless War” and many more riffs or solos sound like early ‘80s British metal rather than Overkill. The album is very melodic for an Overkill record... I agree. I think that when I hear “Bring Me The Night” I hear influences that we have as far back as the NWOBHM and that Motorhead rock’n’roll kind of thing with a big Overkill stamp put across it. I think it’s necessary to show your influence and to be able to celebrate your influence. We obviously came from somewhere. I hear Maiden in “Endless War” obviously and I would never say I didn’t. But I do say that when the song is done it’s an Overkill song and it has an Overkill stamp on it, whether that’d be vocals or whether that’d be the speed of the song. But I do hear these elements that you’re talking about. NE: You did a video for “Skull And Bones” on the previous album. Are you doing any video clips for “Ironbound”? We’re talking about it right now. What would be your choice for the song? NE: The title track maybe?

That’s a long video man, haha! We’re talking about “The Goal Is Your Soul”, we’re talking about possibly “Bring Me The Night” and we’re talking possibly about “The Head And Heart”. NE: The New York thrash scene was always a bit different than the Bay Area scene. Can you imagine how Overkill would have sounded if you had lived on the West Coast and had founded the band there? Obviously it would sound different because the New York scene formed this band. This band was, as I’ve said in the past, I like to think about this band as a bastard child between metal and punk. We were always big New York punk fans and the bands that lived and played the New York area frequently, The Ramones for instance, The Dead Boys came from Cleveland and set up shop in New York, there was The Heartbreakers. I mean there was some great punk bands here that we saw and also some great metal bands. The punk scene turned into the hardcore scene and I think it formulated what the New York metal scene was all about or absolutely helped to do so. I think on the West Coast it was more about orchestration and different influences. Those influences came more directly from the UK or more directly from the West Coast punk scene which was a different punk scene. I think Overkill would obviously be a different band if it was geographically set on the West Coast as opposed to East Coast. NE: Do you still manage the band together with DD? How’s the business side of metal today? Well it’s different. It’s obviously changed. I think being from the New York area helps us because it makes us all more slippery, like a fish you know? Haha! I think that it’s still possible to get great deals and it’s still possible to get great tours. I think you have to be able to look at the music business a lot more abstractly than literally. And that’s how let’s say successes are made in 2010. The stranded formula of get a deal, write a record, record a record, tour the record is not always the way to do it anymore. I’ll give you an example. On this record D.D. sort of became family with the Nuclear Blast guys and what ended up happening was we made contact, we knew that we’re gonna be in the position for a new label coming. Regardless of the deal being done or signed we did the record. We did it anyway. It’s an abstract way to look at how it should be done. The way it should be done in the old days is sign the deal, wait to do the record and make sure that the record company is now hooked in. Now it was, let’s hook them in with the music. Let’s do this because it’s necessary to do this as opposed to saying “They say it’s necessary”. So I think again being abstract, the result is the music now becomes that much more powerful because the motivation of it was just strictly motivation to do a record not to count the Dollars, the Euros or the Jen. It was more about making a great fucking record so this is an abstract way of doing it. I think that because of that abstract way of doing it gave us that much more excitement from the label and that much more commitment from the label we forgot the promotion to take this to let’s say another level. NE: Are you still making your living from music or do you all have regular jobs now? Yeah, we make living from music. This is what I’ve done since ’87. I suppose it’s been

handled correctly over the years. It’s not by any means a rich life with regard to money but it’s a very rich life with regard to satisfaction.

NE: You had cancer ten years ago, but now you seem to be a picture of health and you have so much energy on stage. No more booze and cigarettes for you or do you just have some secrets on how to keep your body in good condition?

Even when I had cancer I looked like the picture of health, I guess you just never know. It’s really hard to say. I’ve always believed that if I was in a card game I have to play the cards that are dealt to me. I can’t choose the cards. I suppose the secret is to realise what happened and learn from it and at the same time I suppose it gave me a new lust for living and I suppose that’s where the energy comes from. I had other problems. You know doctors say, “I want you to take this drug. –For how long? –Well, forever. –Why? –Because it may help you.” But he says I’m gonna lose all my energy and I won’t be able to perform and I won’t be able to ride a motorcycle. “That’s the price you pay”. I said, “You pay the price! I’m not paying that price.” Haha! So I think a lot of it is attitude and obviously this is ancient history right now and the fact that I had a stroke, this is old news. Really, what’s important to me is living today and if I have one more, man I’m gonna use it. NE: You turned fifty last year. How long are you going to jump around and bang your head on stage? You know I only eat fresh foods. I never eat any of the food stuff from McDonalds. I drink in moderation. I always exercise and I have a beautiful dog that likes to take me on a two mile run three days a week and I have a gym in my own house. I don’t think anything has really changed for me. Probably, you can hear that in my voice, but obviously you see it when I’m on stage. NE: The twenty fifth anniversary of your debut album is coming soon. Have you thought about giving the fans something special like playing the album in its entirety on the upcoming tour? We’re talking about playing the first record in its entirety but in my opinion “Ironbound” is too precious and too valuable to neglect. My opinion is that if we do shows where we play “Feel The Fire” in its entirety I think it should be set aside for those shows. What we’d like to do is one special show on the East Coast in the New York area and one special show in the centre of Europe, possibly Germany, I think Germany would be the place to do it. NE: Why have you never done a proper UK tour I mean five to six dates, just one off dates in London, or two dates like in February? I think there’s really a re-opening to this in the UK now, let’s say a re-ignited interest in it. It’s good to just be there to get back into that scene and say “We’re back here”. On this one I think we have two for sure, Wolverhampton and London. Who knows what happens after that. I think in November that will be expanded upon. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. w r e c k i n g c r e w. c o m

INTERVIEW

he new wave of thrash has been going on for a while now and beneath the surface has been growing stronger and stronger. If I'm still alive in twenty years, will I go to an Overkill concert or a Testament concert or Exodus, Destruction, Kreator? No, my friends. In twenty years if you want to see a good thrash show you'll go and bang your head to Evile, Warbringer, Municipal Waste or Gama Bomb. Inevitably this will become the future of thrash metal. I caught up with the Evile guys at one of their recent shows and talked about their latest release entitled “Infected Nations” among other things. Read on for more... NE: “Infected Nations” is more technical and complex and musically is much slower than the debut album. What prompted you to take this direction? Ben: It was a kind of conscious decision to write things a little bit more structured and show our development as musicians and the fact that we have grown up a little bit since the first album. The first album was a collection of thrash songs inspired by bands we’ve been listening to throughout the years. We just wanted to have out our own CD somehow. The material from the first album was written like we were all about sixteen, seventeen, maybe eighteen. We got signed with the first album, we could get this material put out and since then we’ve had the time to sit down and think about the material a little bit more and why we’re writing songs, and it’s not just all about like sharks and death and war. NE: So do you think there was anything wrong with being a retro-thrash band? B: No, not at all. It’s just who we were at that time. We were just looking to get signed and when we got signed we realised that there was a lot of bands playing the exact same kind of stuff as us. It’s not like we tried to be a retro thrash band by any means, that was the music we wanted to play and we simply got tagged with that label. Since we wrote the second album we want to be a little bit more complex and thoughtful about our song writing. NE: Matt’s vocal style has also changed. Did you get many complaints about him sounding too much like Tom Araya? Ol: No, it was basically because on the first album he broke his voice, because he was just shouting through his throat and after the album he couldn’t sing and after shows he came off stage and he couldn’t talk. Since then he’s had vocal training about how to breath properly and sing through his diaphragm. It’s just how he’s singing now. It’s a lot more easy for him. He can talk after the shows and stuff.

Photo: Earcahe Records

NE: “Infected Nations” charted in the UK on position ninety-one. Did that take you by surprise at all? O: Very much. We were next to Stevie Wonder, haha… B: It was like mainstream pop acts and then us in the middle of it all, so it was a nice surprise. You wouldn’t think that a UK thrash band would enter the mainstream charts. NE: I like the “Infected Nations” video clip. Who’s idea was it to put the band in this box? O: Dan Fernbach, the director of the video just thought, “Let’s put you in a box and put smoke in it.” It was a good idea. B: There was a concept to the idea of the video, but I think it got lost a little bit in translation. A lot of people think it’s just us playing in a box and there’s a story behind it, but not a very interesting one, haha…

NE: Were all the songs written right prior to entering the studio? O: They were written to an extent, but they weren’t very good to be honest. We demoed them and we didn’t like them. So we wrote more and more and when we went into the studio and worked with Russ he put in many really good ideas. I’d say there was seventy percent written and then the thirty percent was just throwing ideas in. B: When you get to the studio there’s always a little bit of uncertainty about what you’ve got prepared. It’s always going to be changed, to the last minute. We went in the studio with open arms to any suggestions that Russ could make to make things better and I think it paid off. NE: Most bands have one lyricist and you guys all write lyrics. Don’t you ever argue about it? I mean do you always use whatever is brought to the table?

“You wouldn’t think that a UK thrash band would enter the mainstream charts.” and then just watched them all through and picked out a few and when we rehearsed with Joel he just stood out from anyone else. He’s a really nice guy and a great player and he just fit in. There wasn’t any doubt like, “Should we, shouldn’t we?” it was just, “Yeah, Joel.” NE: Ol, when Mike from Destruction broke his fingers you replaced him on two shows. What was it like to stand on stage next to Schmier?

O: I think on the first album everyone except me wrote lyrics, Ben wrote some and Mike did. But I think because Matt was the singer he didn’t feel comfortable singing a lot of other people’s words and he wanted to put his own words into it. I think most of the lyrics on the second album were written by Matt because he’s just more comfortable doing that.

O: There isn’t a word to describe what it was like, it was a bizarre thing. I love Destruction and some of their songs are the best thrash songs. They opened with “Curse The Gods”, one of my favourite songs and they put the CD intro on to come out to and I stood behind the cabinets and thought, “Oh it will be just fine” and when the music came on I was, “Oh no! I’m gonna play guitar with Destruction!” It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done.

NE: When you first rehearsed with Mike, what made you think that he was the right guy for Evile?

NE: You’ve toured with Megadeth, Exodus, Amon Amarth. Which of these tours was the most fun?

B: It was strange really. We tried to find a bassist because myself, Matt and Ol used to play together for a long time before we became Evile. Matt got a phone call one day for an advert he put in a local guitar shop. They went to me, we went to our practice and as soon as we started playing we kind of knew we were gonna gel. At the end of the practice Mike was waiting around for a bus to go home and I was chatting with him and everything and he was just completely nervous to be playing with us. And then a few rehearsals into it it just gelled so well that we knew we got the right person.

B: Personally, for me I’d say it was the Megadeth tour. Purely because it was our first major tour around Europe. We were on the road for like five or six weeks. We learned so much about how to conduct yourselves and what happens behind the scenes. If we hadn’t done that we’d still be quite amateurish. But we’re trying to get in our heads that what we are told to do, we do without question and play by the rules. I really enjoyed it personally. The Exodus tour was just constant drinking and partying all the time. But it was still very good.

NE: I read somewhere that a lot of bands turned him down because he was a black guy. Is that true? O: There was one band, he was meeting them to rehearse and try out. They saw him and just left because he was black. B: He actually told us at one point that this audition with us was his last attempt to join a band. He was just going to give up and concentrate on something else. I’m glad he stuck with us. NE: After Mike’s death when you were looking for a new bass player, did you get many applications? Why did you decide on Joel? O: We got about sixty, maybe eighty e-mails, pictures and videos, we just watched through them all and we widdled it down to say 10

NE: What are the plans after the European tour? O: I think that we’ll do as many festivals as we can in Europe, we’re confirmed for Wacken already. We’ll try to do Hellfest and Bloodstock. B: We’d like to do Download and Sonisphere as well if we get offered it. We’re obviously chasing them as well. The song writing is the constant thing, we’re always thinking about it. So anytime we’ve got an idea we just write it down and move on. We don’t really tend to finalise the songwriting ‘till we know we’re gonna be scheduled to go in the studio. But yeah, the festival thing is most important now. The more the merrier really. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. e v i l e . c o . u k

INTERVIEW

ith thirty-four years under their belt Motörhead has earned their place in rock as one of the most recognisable and irreverent power trios to ever burst an eardrum. Formed in 1975 by bassist, singer and songwriter Lemmy Kilmister, who has remained the band's sole constant member, the band was somehow subsequently tagged in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, perhaps for lack of a more befitting genre or quite possibly the rough appearance of the trio. However, regardless of the moniker, Motörhead still had significant success in the early 1980s with several Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom. Albums such as “Overkill”, “Bomber”, “Ace of Spades” and “No Sleep ‘til Hammersmith”, helped establish Motörhead solidly at the forefront as one of Britain's most beloved rock bands ever. Standing in the midst of it all is Ian Kilmister, or as the world knows him, Lemmy. NE: So, Lemmy, you have had a very long and successful career. At this point what keeps you motivated? Well, rock and roll is a pretty good motivator, isn't it? Look at all the bands that have been around, and have lasted. It's great music. Timeless. I mean think of what other job I could be doing? I'd probably be in jail. NE: You've moved from being a "star" or "celebrity" to being an icon. You're on TV, you're going to be on Jimmy Kimmel, and then there are the action figures. How does

this make you feel? Does it change anything? That's funny, isn't it? They actually have three action figures. Two flesh colored ones with different guitars and a gold, silver and black one. Me and the guitar are black. That's a strange one. Anyway, being an icon just means that people stop buying your albums. NE: Start buying your albums or stop? Stop. When you're an "icon" or a "legend" people perceive that

you're finished. NE: But still, you have had an impact on the careers of countless musicians. Sorry, haha… NE: At this point in your career you could basically do a "greatest hits" set, and yet you continue to add new music to your set every tour, the acoustic version of “Whorehouse Blues” for example, and people seem to respond to your newer material as strongly as they do to older tunes like "Metropolis" or "Ace of Spades". What does that tell you? Well, the last album made it into the top one hundred here in the States. We've never been in the top one hundred here before. We made it to number eighty-nine or something, and we weren't there for long but we still did it. NE: Finally! Let's talk about your influences. I did some research on you and outside of The Beatles you don't mention any influences from a bass player's perspective. Well, I don't really get much from virtuosos you know? I like bands. I like to hear the wall, not the bricks. I'm not interested in hearing everything separated. I hate that, actually, because it distracts you from the music. For example The Who were a great band, The Beatles were a great band, Hendrix was a great band. But before The Beatles there really weren't bands, you had "So and So and the What Nots". But before The Beatles my biggest influence was Little Richard. Remember, I was there in the beginning. I remember Elvis' first record coming out on a 78 (rpm vinyl record).

INTERVIEW

Photos: SPV

NE: That's funny. We were discussing this very subject on our way here. Randy Rhoads was a kid who had so much potential, but that was all. Who knows where he would have gone had he lived. Exactly. He became a legendary guitarist after he died. He was a much better guitarist than you've heard. I remember seeing him backstage playing classical. NE: And yet many of the guitarists over the years claim him as an influence. Really? I wonder how that works? NE: One of the columns I write for the magazine is called "Rock Rewind" where I take an album from 10, 15 or 20 years ago and ask "is this album really what people claim it is?" At the time it was good compared to what ever else was also current, but does it stand the test of time?

“When you're an ‘icon’ or a ‘legend’ people perceive that you're finished.” They used to melt if you left them in the sun and would break if you looked at them wrong, haha… NE: That leads directly to my next question. What are you listening to now? Well for me the best record in the past ten years was Evanescence. I really like them. Great production, great arrangements, in fact fantastic arrangements. They remind me of the later Beatles stuff with George Martin. I was very encouraged by that one. It's too bad they got labeled a "goth" band. What a silly pigeon hole. NE: Well, they say you're a heavy metal icon, but Motörhead isn't a heavy metal band. Well, they had to put us somewhere. I have long hair so I guess that makes me metal, haha… They could have focused on the boots and labeled me country, like Merle Haggard. "Thank god I'm a country boy." NE: Ok, that evokes an image! You are well known as a prolific reader. What are you currently reading? Another story of adventure and violence, you know, Clive Cussler. It's wallpaper, really. The problem is that we always seem to get into town after all the book shops have closed. NE: Well, make us a list and we'll send you a care package.

Well, there's that thing that says you have to be there when it happens to really appreciate what it was. You can't really go back and say that a record was as good as they say it was because if you weren't there you can't really judge it. Like the Beatles were just huge, you know? They just put out that vinyl box set and the Beatles now have fifteen out of the top twenty slots on Amazon. But the Beatles have been broken up for forty years. Forty years. That's ridiculous. Amazing, you know. NE: Guitar World magazine has an article this month on the making of "Abby Road". It's hard to believe that it was really forty years ago! The techniques they were using and the experiments they were doing. Wow! George Martin was absolutely the fifth Beatle. He was brilliant. If it wasn't for him they wouldn't have been able to do a lot of the things they did. McCartney came in one day and said he had seen some Bach on the telly the night before and he wanted trumpets. Trumpets! So George Martin said "Right. Bach and trumpets." and they recorded “Penny Lane”. Martin was classically trained and knew every instrument. The harmonium solo on "In My Life" was him as well. He played it half speed and then sped it up to fit the song. NE: Quite a chore prior to Pro Tools. Yeah, it can spoil you I suppose, but it can save you a lot of time, which ultimately saves money as well. Back in the old days you all had to play the song perfectly, together. NE: That is the question! What makes a band great? Like ZZ Top's “Rhythmeen” for example, which was recorded live as a three piece. A back to basics thing for them after all the synth stuff on the three previous albums. I like “Tres Hombres” as well. And “Deguello”. Great album. "I'm

Bad, I'm Nationwide" is a great tune. NE: So, how is it working out with Matt Sorum? Mickey Dee is off doing a reality show and this is a big change... It's going pretty well so far. Tonight is only his third show. NE: Has that changed the dynamic of the band? I don't know yet, haha... Matt is trying to fill Mickey Dee's shoes, which is a pretty tough job, but he's doing really well. NE: What made you decide to choose Matt Sorum? I don't know. I didn't ask him first, I asked Dave Grohl, but he was busy so I asked Matt. I needed someone who had the power to fill in for Mickey, and Matt definitely has that. NE: Mickey Dee is a phenomenal drummer, you've even been quoted as saying he's the best drummer in the world. Yeah, he is. That's why he's so hard to fill in for. NE: We were talking about this earlier. When you have such a recognisable image, or brand, like Motörhead, you end up with people, like Paris Hilton, wearing Motörhead shirts or whatever, who probably have never bought a Motörhead album. What do you think about that? I think it's really about attitude, you know. People might not know the music, but they recognise the attitude and that's what they respond to. They go "Yeah! Ace of Spades, dude!" And you have to point out that that was 1980, you know. Thirty years ago. NE: So, for the kid sitting in Iowa wanting to be you one day, what do you tell them? Well, that would be better than wanting to be Slipknot, wouldn't it? Having to wear those masks all the time. It's kind of sad, really. When you go see them, how do you know it's really them? It could be anybody under those masks. It's rubbish, really. NE: Like Mushroomhead. They replaced their lead vocalist and you couldn't tell. Just another guy in a mask. Haha, it's really bad, isn't it? They were at the Grammy's you know, we were in the same category. They had to sit there all day long wearing those masks. All day long, pouring sweat, and they didn't get it after all. NE: So, what's next for Motörhead? We'll just keep on doing it. It seems to be working out pretty well so why fuck with it? There isn't anyone else like us. When we're gone there will be a hole there that you can't fill. KIM THORE w w w. i m o t o r h e a d . c o m

The problem is that you don't know what you want until you see it. NE: True. That would be one of the many frustrations of being on the road, I suppose... So, tell us about some of your side projects, Headcat with Slim Jim Phantom for example. My side projects are just a break from Motörhead. People seem surprised that the side project stuff isn't like Motörhead, but if it was like Motörhead it wouldn't be a break, would it? Plus I love playing that old stuff, it's a lot of fun. The Headcat album was a lot of fun to make, trying to recreate the Buddy Holly stuff, which I think we did a pretty good job on. I did have to do all the backing vocals, though, which is a total pain in the ass. Buddy Holly was so far ahead of his time back then, but they dismissed him in America the same way they dismissed the Ramones. One hit or two hits and then into the trash can. Then you become "great" after you've died. It's like Randy Rhoads. He became a much better guitarist after he died.

INTERVIEW

he name The Poodles may seem funny to many metal fans, but the band has been quite successful and not only in their homeland Sweden. They easily mix metal and rock with elements from beyond these genres and they continue to reach wider and wider audiences because they simply know how to write instant hits. After the release of “The Clash Of The Elements” the band embarked on a European tour and they played a one-off show in Nottingham at Firefest, where they got a very warm welcome. After the concert I sat down with the entire band to discuss the latest release and more.

success you’ve had so far is because of songs like “One Out Of Ten” that has reached a wider audience? J: It’s a big spectrum of songs that we’ve always had, even on the first and second album. I mean if you put on a Queen album, you’re going to find ragtime, heavy metal and orchestral things. That’s the kind of music we’d like to explore more. I definitely don’t see us as a heavy metal band. We are a rock band and what we do can be expanded so much more if you do different styles. NE: But you’ve filmed videos for two of your most metal sounding songs – “No Tomorrow” and “I Rule The Night”?

NE: OK, the first question is about the title. The new album is your most varied release so far. Is that why the title is “The Clash Of The Elements” because there are so many different elements on this album?

though, I think that we’re looking for good song writing. We like good songs. So if one song leans more towards pop and another more towards metal, that’s fine with us. We’re not puritans. We don’t just want to play pure formal heavy metal we just want to play good music.

Jakob: Actually it’s taken from the signs that we are born in. We didn’t know it before we first started working on the album and chose the title, so that was great fun. We also have our own elements in the band when we actually play. Pontus: It’s about a lot of different things, about bringing different aspects of music and our personalities when together. That’s pretty much the clash of the elements. Henrik: We wanted a dramatic title for the album because we think that it’s quite dynamic and it’s got some extremes, some really laid back stuff and some very aggressive stuff and a lot in between. It’s a long album with a lot of flavours.

NE: It is your first album without Pontus Norgren. Was it any different working and recording with Henrik?

Photo: AFM Records

NE: Why did you actually decide to put in so many pop elements that are not connected to hard rock or metal? P: We love exploring and bringing different elements into our music and we have done so since our first album. I would say myself that there are pop elements, but there are definitely modern elements in there, such as loops, machines and stuff going on in the background. H: We tried to sound like Motorhead, but it didn’t work out, haha… Seriously

man. He’d just finished the AC/DC album and he made time for us because he liked what we were doing. That was a nice thing for us to get recognition from him. NE: You guys always use a lot songwriters from outside of the band. Aren’t you afraid that an album written by so many different people may have some inconsistency?

J: It’s been really, really good with Pontus too, but the development we’ve made since Henrik joined the band is fantastic, both socially and musically. It was definitely an injection of vitamins for us, to have new blood in the band. P: But to answer your question, I don’t think that the process of recording the album was that different this time, compared to the previous recordings. H: This time we got to decide everything for ourselves and that’s a big difference. We didn’t have to ask anyone. We just did what we wanted.

P: No. It’s like Henrik said before, our main concern is to get good songs on the album. It’s still us playing. When we go into the studio and record, we all put our personal touch and feeling on the recordings. We twist them into The Poodles’ songs anyway.

NE: A couple of songs were mixed by Mike Fraser. Did you work with him in the studio or send him the material?

P: Well, it’s definitely one of the reasons why Blistering came up in the discussions when we were trying to find a suitable label to help us distribute the album in Europe. But in the end, why we chose to work with them is that we agreed and we wanted the same things out of the deal. But of course it made it quite easy to get in contact since we are old friends.

J: We sent him the material. We would love to work with him. If it had been more songs we would definitely have gone there to work with him. H: He’s a really busy

NE: You’re working with Blistering Records now. Pontus Egberg played with the label boss in Lion’s Share. Why you chose this label, is it because you know Lars Chriss?

NE: You always write songs which are radio friendly. Do you think that the

J: These songs were the singles following “One Out Of Ten” and it felt reasonable since we had a chance to record videos. That’s a form of art that we like a lot, the video format. H: When you choose to do a single and record videos you look for songs that are immediate, the ones that catch people’s attention straight away. If it’s the hardest song or if it’s a ballad, that doesn’t matter. You look for the potential to catch people’s interest. It is very difficult to stand out and if it turns out to be the heaviest song on the album, that’s fine with us. C: The funny thing was that when we recorded the “I Rule The Night” video we talked to the guy who made it and he said, “Should we do one more, for another song?” And we said “Yes, what should we do?” and he said, “I don’t know, I’ll just put up the camera, so do something.” And we recorded it in like one hour. NE: As far as I know you’ve written 40 songs for the new release. What happens to the songs that don’t make it onto an album? P: It depends. We have a bunch of songs lying around at the moment and I’m sure they will be of use somehow. J: Yeah, some of the song that are on “Clash Of The Elements” were written for “Sweet Trade”. It’s a constant process of song writing. Some of them aren’t suitable for the album since they may have a “twin-song”, but next time round they may mature and fit. NE: You guys play a lot of acoustic concerts. What’s the response? P: People seem to enjoy it. It’s not our core business in any way but it’s sort of a fun thing to do. It’s something different. J: Since many of the songs are written with just a guitar or piano, to break it down to only vocal melodies, lyrics and chords is a nice thing. It suits the songs very well. NE: What are your plans apart from the European tour? J: We’re going to do a lot of TV back home now and we’re going to take part in one of the biggest Eurosport shows. H: The next thing that we’re going to release is a live DVD. We recorded two weeks last summer and two weeks this summer and we’re probably going to record something on the European tour. We have a lot of material for a full DVD. We hope to release it some time in the Spring. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. p o o d l e s . s e

INTERVIEW

Photo: Roadrunner

he US glam metal veterans Ratt played the Hard Rock Hell festival so I decided to get some more information about their upcoming album from the most reliable source, the band themselves. I spoke to the newest Ratt member, guitarist Carlos Cavazo which meant that I couldn’t ask him any questions about the band’s history or the bands upcoming release as well, since I hadn’t heard it yet. But since Carlos was the part of Quiet Riot’s success, I asked him a few questions about his previous band. So there you go, two mini interviews - about Ratt’s future and Quiet Riot’s past.

NE: The new album is coming out in a couple of months. Have you finished recording it yet? Yeah, we recorded it a couple of months ago. It’s already done and it’s coming out on April 20th. Everybody brought in songs for the new record and it’s all guitar driven rock. We’re all really pleased with it. It’s a really good record. I think it’s really going do well. NE: How did you actually get the job? Did you audition or did they just called you up and ask you to join? Both actually. I was hanging out in my backyard lying in the sun one day and I got a call that I missed. I checked it and didn’t recognise the number so I checked my voicemail and it was Warren. I thought, “Either they want a guitar player or there’s a big party in the town that he wants to invite me to.” Obviously it was the first one and he asked me if I could come down and I said, “Yes, sure I’ll come down.” I came down and worked with them for a little while and they were auditioning other people as well. So now I’ve got the gig and I’m really happy that I am playing with these guys. I’ve known these guys throughout the years obviously and I used to hang out with Robin Crosby in the early ‘80s. I knew Robin before anybody. Then I used to hang out with Stephen and I only met Warren maybe once in the ‘90s and then we became big friends just a couple of years ago. I’ve been in the band now for year and a half, a long time actually, but it’s gone by really quickly. NE: Did the new line-up work out from the very beginning? What’s the chemistry in the band now? It was good chemistry, yeah. We’re getting a lot of good feedback and I fit in really well with the band. I feel really good with these guys and they like me in the band. I think everything works great. NE: In Quiet Riot you were the only guitar player and now you’re a part of a lead guitar duo. Is it very different, especially on stage? It’s easier, believe it or not. When the end goes out there’s still another guitar player playing, haha… It’s easier probably with another guitar player. By yourself you’ve got to do it all, so it’s a bit harder.

NE: All the previous albums were recorded in LA but on the new one you worked on the East Coast. Why? Actually it was in Virginia. It’s like way out in the middle of nowhere on a beach. It was like a vacation home turned into a studio. It was really nice and very pleasant. The only thing I did not like were the bugs. The mosquitoes eat you alive when you go outside and you have to really watch it, but you’re on the beach and that was really nice because I could lay down in the sun when it was a nice summer day, and it was like, “Come on, do guitar solo”, so I went and did my guitar solo and went back on the beach again. It was really nice being away from home and to not worry about all the stuff that goes with running your house. You could concentrate on the music only; that was kind of nice. NE: You said everyone wrote some songs, which means the guys let you write as well? Oh yeah, everybody brought in about 2-3 songs, I brought in three and we compiled them all together. NE: Stephen said in an interview that the new record is a mix between the two first Ratt albums. Is it really in the vein of the early material? It’s a very old-style Ratt sounding album. We tried to stick to their old formula but with new great songs. The sound is similar but probably a little bit more modern, but not a lot. We didn’t want to change too much, you know, because that sound sold well. NE: I’ve got a couple questions about Quiet Riot now. When Randy Rhoads left, Frankie Banali wanted you to join but Kevin wanted Danny Johnson… So how did they make the decision? You know, I’m not even sure. I think Danny Johnson might not have been available. I think

Danny Johnson is a great player but I would probably have been a better choice for that band because I was younger and I would get along better with the band. Danny Johnson is a great player, he’s a good friend of mine. I like him a lot. NE: You joined Quiet Riot and within a year the band got signed. How did it feel? I was 24 years old then and it was like a dream come true, it was like winning a lottery or something like that. But even though you get a record deal it doesn’t mean you’re going to be successful. You can go out there and play and fail. So I was excited that we had a record deal but at the same, “OK, we got to kick this and run”, you know, get a touchdown with that and make it work. NE: One of your biggest hits was Slade’s cover song “Cum On Feel The Noize”. Kevin hated that number and didn’t want to record it. Were you forced to record it by the label? The producer Spencer Proffer felt that Kevin sounded like Noddy Holder, which he kind of does. He’s got very similar sounding voice, a pretty rough voice and the producer wanted us to try the two Slade songs and record them. We were big fans of Slade but we weren’t sure about doing their songs. But it worked pretty well for us and I’m glad we did it. NE: “Metal Health” scored number one in the Billboard charts. What was it like to have a number one album in the USA in the early ‘80s? It was like a dream come true. As a matter of fact we were on tour with Black Sabbath when we charted with the album at number one. I remember the tour had gotten postponed for a week because we were on the mid-west and it was snowing really badly and we all flew home for a week. So we were home and we had the album at number one and everywhere you went

people recognised you. It was a little bit of a pain in the butt at times, but you know you’re really popular when people recognise you. You know you have success, so that’s a good thing. NE: When bands like Poison and Bon Jovi appeared on the scene and made it big, Quite Riot somehow lost its impact. Why? It’s hard to say. I think a lot of it had to do with Kevin. I mean God bless his soul, but he had the tendency to shoot off his mouth and it pissed a lot of people off. I think that it had a bad backlash on the band’s success. At the same time alternative music was kind of taking over so a lot of ‘80s bands kind of went by the wayside. That’s the way the business is. Every 10 years the sounds change and that’s to be expected. You can’t stay on top forever no matter who you are. NE: When the band recorded “Rehab” you weren’t involved because they didn’t want to work with Rudy Sarzo? Yeah, basically Kevin didn’t want to work with Rudy and I told him,”Unless it’s the original band, I don’t want to do that.” I never had problems with Rudy. I had problems with Frankie and Kevin at times but Rudy and I always got along great. Unless it was the original band, I didn’t want to do that, so Rudy and I left the band in 2003. NE: Back to Ratt. The guys have played the old stuff for years now, so they’re definitely looking forward to playing the new material. What about you? I didn’t work on the songwriting of the old stuff and Warren kind of wanted me to play more solos and stuff like that. He did all the solos on the old stuff. I play a lot of leads live obviously and it’s like 50-50 now probably, but I’m looking forward to playing the new material as well. PATRYCJA GABRIEL w w w. t h e r a t t p a c k . c o m

INTERVIEW

WOBHM legend, bassist, vocalist and charismatic frontman. All of these titles aptly apply to Raven co-founder John Gallagher. Crashing, Banging and Wholloping for over thirty years now, the British metal veteran has returned to the forefront with “Walk Through Fire” the 12th studio effort from Raven, originally released through King Records as an import only album for markets outside of Japan. Headbanger's in Europe and North America can now look forward to purchasing the album domestically in March of 2010

NE: Raven have just released your 12th studio album "Walk Through Fire" this past March through King Records. With a whopping fourteen new songs plus a cover of Space Station # 5 by Montrose, this is quite an exciting time for Raven. What can you tell us about the new record? Well, we are really proud of it. We had a pretty clear vision of what we wanted to accomplish on this album, and after such a long time between albums we were able to focus on what we wanted, and work on the writing. We had many, many songs in the pot for this and boiled them down to the ones on the album. The rough idea was they all had to rip your face off, but have some variety in mood! Capture the "Raven" feel but stretch out here and there onto new ground.

complete with bonus and live tracks as well as the future prospect of digital distribution from i-Tunes. John recently took the time to talk metal with Noizz Eater recalling the early days of Raven and the NWOBHM scene, offering up his advice to today's future metal heavyweights, the long road to brother Mark's rehabilitation stemming from an injury sustained in 2001 and weighed in on the exciting new album “Walk Through Fire”.

"Bulldozer". The reaction has been excellent and the songs are great to play live which helps! NE: What was it that originally inspired you to play an instrument? Mark got a classic guitar when we were on holiday in Spain back

NE: You recorded the new album "Walk Through Fire" at Assembly Line Studios with engineer Kevin 131 who has previously worked alongside such bands as Deceased, Garden of Shadows and Dysrythmia. How did you guys enjoy working with Kevin? Was there a certain record he had produced that garnered your attention or did you just hear of him by word of mouth? Kevin emailed me out of the blue, said he was a fan from way back and that I should check out his studio! As he was only 40 minutes away I took him up on his offer - the studio was great and he played me a variety of music they had done there from folk to death metal and we just hit it off. I told the guys we should get together and demo a few songs there to see how it goes. In 2 days we did 4 songs! Kevin is a musician himself, so he's got that intuitive feel which is so important and a killer engineer. This album sounds like a million bucks or rather what you would expect a million bucks to sound. So many albums these days sound like rough demos. NE: What are some of your personal favorite tracks on "Walk Through Fire" ? Pretty much all of them! "Against The Grain", "Long Days Journey", "Walk Through Fire", "Attitude". We really captured the feel. We spent a lot of time on the writing - recorded very fast - then took time on the mixes and it worked! NE: Have you performed any of the new album live in concert yet? If you have, what was the reception like from your audience? Yeah, we've been doing "Breaking You Down", "Long Days Journey", "Walk Through Fire",

NE: If we trace the roots of Raven back to 1974 when heavy metal music was still in it's infancy, being a performer yourself, did you carry a degree of fandom in addition to your musical output? In other words, in addition to creating your metal music in Raven, did you seek out the records of other metal bands at that time? I think it would be interesting to know who were/are some of your favorite metal bands/albums? We were very lucky in that all the bands that meant anything came to play our home town of Newcastle in the UK either the City Hall or the Mayfair - and since each was relatively small you got to see up close all the best performers. That’s where we learned our trade as there were no "teach yourself guitar" DVD's - we had to go and see Status Quo, Budgie, Judas Priest, Blue Oyster Cult, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, Cheap Trick…

in 1974. We were just obsessed with trying to play. I'd tune it down and copy bass licks and tune it up and work on guitar bits too! We were crazy Slade and Status Quo fans. Eventually that Christmas our parents got us a cheap electric guitar and a bass and we were off and running! NE: Was the bass guitar your first choice? Did you learn other instruments as well? Just bass and guitar. Over the years I have dabbled with other instruments but I love being able to push the bass to the forefront using 8 string basses, trem systems on basses anything to be different I guess!

NE: What does it mean to you to be an active alumni of a movement like the NWOBHM that has such a lasting impact even with today's metal circles and a firm legacy cemented in stone? We've never really traded on that but its cool. What strikes me is that there were a lot of original bands out of that scene and every one had its own identity. We hear it now from a lot of bands that we were their inspiration to start a band. How cool is that?! NE: What are your early memories of the band's first six years of existence prior to releasing your debut single "Don't Need Your Money"?

Photos: band archives

INTERVIEW

“We do this because we love it - and as things are going pretty good so far, we'll keep going ‘till the wheels come off!” I remember it well - we used to play the working mens club circuit in the North East of England. No nonsense audiences who would bite your head off if displeased - we were pretty crazy on stage even then so they let us live! It was a great way to "pay your dues" as they say. NE: Who were your primary musical influences at that early stage of your career? Pretty much all the bands I mentioned before. We used to do half originals, half covers even from our 1st gig we just took the more "crazed" songs from other bands and amped them up! NE: At what point was it that you felt like things were really starting to take off for the band? Did you feel like that when Raven signed with Neat Records or was that small potatoes compared to things to come in your opinion? That was a big step but it was all kinda gradual. Getting to play London, to play the City Hall in Newcastle, to play Europe then the USA, getting the major deal, all big, big events. Probably one of the major steps was having Ozzy's people ask us to open up for them after he heard the "Don't Need Your Money" single on UK radio. That was a big deal! NE: You know, having the thirty plus years of experience under your belt and the years of touring and making records, you have certainly been fortunate to experience things when heavy metal was at it's peak in worldwide popularity and you've managed to remain active and survive the test of time when metal wasn't on the charts. What kind of advice if any, would you like to extend to young metal bands reading at home?

NE: Keeping in mind the great heritage and legacy of having fronted a band of such stature for well over thirty years, have you ever considered chronicling your musical journey in an autobiography or documentary style DVD? That’s something we are working on - we have a lot of footage from 1983 onwards and basically just need a narrative to tie it together in some form. We have footage from the Raven/Metallica '83 tour, studio stuff from '88, '97,'2000 and all manner of fan shot stuff plus the ultimate revenge stuff from '88 and some great footage from Japan in 1995 and from this year! NE: In 2001 your brother and guitarist Mark

Hard to say. I'm not impressed by the fourth rate "cookie monster vocal" bands and there's a 100 of them coming up every week. But even with them some of the music is great, just no songs! And no real stage presence or performers. But some of the newer bands are damn good. Killswitch, Shadows Fall etc.

He's about 80% back and that’s just 'cos we know him. Anyone else probably would not know the difference. Its a testament to his stubborn, tough nature - the doctors were not sure if he'd pull through at all. Then they were gonna have to remove his leg then he'd never walk. And he proved every one of them wrong - he's actually skiing again! So its pretty amazing! I just could not believe in Japan this year, he pulled off the kneeslide across the stage he used to do and that would freaking kill me to do! NE: Considering that "Walk Through Fire" is your 12th studio album, and Raven have been active since the mid seventies, how much longer do you think we can count on having Raven around? We do this because we love it - and as things are going pretty good so far, we'll keep going ‘till the wheels come off! We still have a lot of music in us and are better than ever live - so we'll keep kicking ass!

Basically - you have to stay true to yourself. If you want to approach music in the "lets get rich" frame of mind go be a pop star. If you enjoy what you do and do it well and communicate that - people will respond. NE: There is a pretty substantial amount of metal artists from your era that have recently portrayed a somewhat dismal outlook on the passing of the vanguard if you will, for the next generation of marquee acts. Do you share in this sentiment that in the present environment of the music industry, there is not really an opportunity for young band's to carry the torch after all of the classic metal bands eventually retire? In your opinion will there ever be bands in the future so universally praised and accepted as the monolithic metals acts of the seventies and eighties?

and a crushed left ankle. Has Mark made a full recovery in the eight or nine years since this horrific accident?

NE: I'd really like to thank you for taking the time to talk metal with me today John. Before we wrap this up do you have any last words for your fans reading at home? Gallagher sustained serious injuries to his legs, resulting from an unbraced twenty foot high wall collapsing on him. I understand that he had to be airlifted to a hospital and he had suffered some pretty gruesome injuries including a calf muscle torn from his left knee, a metal bar gouged through his left leg

I'd like to thank all the fans for their support - I think you will really like the new album and we hope to see you on the road in 2010 - all the best for Christmas and the New Year! ROBERT WILLIAMS w w w. r a v e n l u n a t i c s . c o m

INTERVIEW

ince their debut in the mid eighties via Metal Blade Records, Phoenix, Arizona's Sacred Reich has been a force to be reckoned with in the US thrash metal scene. The band having survived lineup changes has twice reformed and now primarily exists as a touring entity (the last studio effort “Heal” was released back in 1996). Sacred Reich's vocalist and bassist Phil Rind recently took the time to talk with Noizz Eater, detailing not only the history of the band, but bringing us up to date as to the more current activities of Sacred Reich. Read on as we surf past Nicaragua and into the future of Sacred Reich! NE: "Heal" was the last studio effort from Sacred Reich to date. What have you personally been up to in the fourteen years since the last album and why was Sacred Reich temporarily put on ice?

NE: When the band reunited back in 2007 your original drummer Greg Hall returned to the band's lineup. How have you enjoyed having Greg back in the band and in your opinion what are the major differences, if any, of playing with Greg as opposed to your former drummer Dave McClain who is keeping busy with Machine Head?

I have been working and supporting my family. Nothing too exciting. As far as Sacred Reich goes, at the time we split up it just seemed like a good time to put the band to bed. I think the drive and fire were gone.

NE: How has the reception been from the fans in Europe since reuniting and playing out the last several years?

Photo: band archives

NE: Sacred Reich reunited back in 2007 to perform at some European metal festivals. In the two years since reuniting has there been any talk of writing and recording a new studio album?

stick mainly to the records we recorded with Greg, “Ignorance”, “Surf Nicaragua” and “The American Way”.

It’s great having Greg back. He is an amazing drummer and a lot of fun to be around. Obviously Dave is a great drummer in his own right. What is the difference? They each have their own style. Fortunately each style is incredible and we are fortunate to have had great drummers. It makes a huge difference.

It’s been great. Better than we expected or could have hoped for. We didn’t know what to expect and we have been continuously pleasantly surprised. NE: What are your plans for 2010? Do you have any concerts booked at the moment?

Not really. We are enjoying playing some shows from time to time, but to really get back into it and make a record and tour is not in the plans.

We have a gig in Mexico City on March 6th and we play the Rock Area Festival in Germany on July 31st. I’d like to go to South America or Japan two places we’ve never been. We’ll see. We plan on being in Europe in 2011.

NE: What kind of setlist are you currently performing with Sacred Reich?

NE: Let's talk about the early days of Sacred Reich. How did you guys originally form as a band?

Since Greg got back in the band and we started playing again we

Jason started the group with Jeff Martinek our old guitarist. They got Greg in the band and I joined soon after. Dan Kelly was singing, but he was asked to leave before we recorded our demo and I began singing by default because I wrote the lyrics. Not long after we recorded our “Draining You Of Life” demo, Jeff left the band and we got Wiley who we all knew from the neighborhood and who Greg jammed with in a band before. NE: Around 1985 Sacred Reich release the "Draining You Of Life" demo that became a highly sought after cassette. What are your memories of those early days of the band's existence? It was fun and a lot of work. We were constantly playing local shows and rehearsing. It was great. NE: It wasn't long after that demo that you recorded the song "Ignorance" for the Metal Massacre VII compilation that was subsequently followed by your debut full length album of the same name. How did it feel to be a young band that so quickly gained the attention of Metal Blade? We were extremely excited to make a record. It was a dream come true. We also realized it was only the beginning and we’d better not

screw up our opportunity. NE: On the debut full length "Ignorance", you worked with the legendary producer Bill Metoyer. What do you remember about working with Bill? Bill is great. He’s very calm, funny and easy to work with. He will push you to do better. We did that record in twelve days. I can’t say enough good things about Bill. Plus he did “Hell Awaits”. Enough said.

NE: Your next release was the EP "Surf Nicaragua" that is considered by many to be the definitive Sacred Reich release. Do you share in that sentiment and what is it in your opinion that made this EP such a classic release? I like that recording a lot. It enabled us to begin touring and get out and show people who we were. It was a lot of fun to record and was a breakthrough for us career wise. NE: A nice stop gap in concert EP was issued the following year featuring tracks recorded at Holland's Dynamo Open Air festival. What was going through your head as a young American metalhead who had travelled overseas to perform in front of 24,000 screaming European metalheads? Were you a little nervous? A lot nervous. We had been playing clubs and this was our first big show. It was in the afternoon so we could see everyone. I remember watching one of the earlier acts from the side of the stage and thinking “We’ve got to go out there”. Fortunately the crowd was amazing and it was one of the highlights of our career. NE: In 1990 Sacred Reich made the jump from Metal Blade Records to Hollywood Records for your second full length album "The American Way". Looking back, do you remember why Sacred Reich originally left Metal Blade Records, and in hindsight, do you think that at that time it was the right move to make? Actually “The American Way” was Enigma/Capitol. We were approached by Sire/Warner Brothers after “Surf Nicaragua”. They came to see us and were really into the band and we were going to do a deal with them, but Enigma had first right due to the Metal Blade distribution. Warner would have been a good spot for us and I always liked their artist oriented label, but what can you do. NE: After releasing "Independent" your second and final album for the Hollywood Records label, Sacred Reich returned to Metal Blade Records for the release of "Heal". How were things going internally within the band at that point in time? After we recorded “Heal” Dave left and joined Machine Head and we didn’t have the same success replacing drummers. Music had changed and the subsequent tours were not very successful. Everything added up and it seemed like our time was over. There was never any rift in our band. It was just time. NE: Since reuniting with Metal Blade Records both a live album entitled "Still Ignorant" and a best of compilation "Surf Ignorance" have been released. Has there been any talk of doing a comprehensive DVD release? We have been working on a DVD that was shot at Wacken in 2007. I am hopeful that it will see the light of day. NE: I'd like to thank you for taking the time to talk metal with me Phil. Before we wrap this up do you have any last words for your fans reading at home? I’d like to thank our fans for supporting us for all this time. The few the proud. Hopefully someday we can do a full UK tour again. I’d like one more time around. Maybe we could do Bloodstock Open Air in 2011. That would be fun! ROBERT WILLIAMS w w w. m y s p a c e . c o m / s a c r e d r eich

INTERVIEW

Photo: band archives

t War were originally ‘80s thrash foot soldiers before slipping into a 19-year hiatus at the start of the ‘90s. Lo and behold, the trio (who are singer-bassist Paul Arnold, Sean Helsel on guitars, and Dave Stone bashing the drums) have returned this year to take on the terrorists and reclaim their legacy. With a sound that harkens to the primeval days of the thrash genre, At War pull no punches as they celebrate war and violence across the nine songs inside this stellar comeback titled “Infidel”. Taking time off from a hectic touring schedule, Paul Arnold talks about rising from the dead, broken noses, and the Beastie Boys. NE: All right, At War! You just released a very grim comeback album titled "Infidel" and have been supporting it on the road. What kind of audiences have been flocking to your shows? The interesting thing is that the crowds have been a very wide demographic. We are seeing many old school metallers and even younger thrash kids showing up all the time. It is a very diverse crowd. NE: What happened between the last album and the band coming back with full force this year? Did the reemergence of thrash metal bands such as Evile and Warbringer inspire you guys to pick up your guitars again? We had many diversions over the years that took priority and kept us from doing At War. We had been out of the scene for so long we had no idea that there was a thrash resurgence taking place. This all happened because the time was just right. We all missed what we had done for so long and missed even more making the music we loved so much. The only idea we had that something was going on in the scene was a huge increase of feedback from fans saying that they wanted to see us again. The timing of us getting back together was very much a coincidence. It just happened to be at the same time as bands like Warbringer, Evile and Merciless Death were starting a new rage. NE: What led to the dissolution of At War in the late ‘80s? It was a weird time for metal the early nineties with the sudden introduction of grunge rock. It seemed overnight that metal took a back seat. It made so much so hard for so many bands. It was also at this time I had a very young daughter I wanted to spend more time with. Negotiation breakdowns with the label on the next album didn't help either. You know, we never officially broke up, so I see this as less dissolution and more an extended hiatus. NE: Having been away for so long, did you guys have to lock yourselves in a bunker and practice for inhuman stretches of time to get your chops back in shape? It was amazing how much we remembered and even more amazing how much we forgot. It started out slowly and we steady worked ourselves into a groove and it didn't take long to knock the rust off and get it back even better than before. NE: So how did At War find a home at Heavy Artillery Records? Who introduced themselves to whom?

Dave from Heavy Artillery came to see our first show back on the scene in 2007 in Brooklyn NY and that's when I first met him. He came up to us and told us how much he dug the show. When we came back for another show we started talking about doing something together. Heavy Artillery was very supportive of what we were trying to do so we decided to go for it. It has been very cool. NE: What is the essence of an At War performance? The essence of an At War show is a commanding brute force in the form of true metal unencumbered by things unnecessary for metal. It has been described as a freight train in the face. A wall of sound that does not ask for attention, but demands it. NE: How many bruises and broken noses have you counted during an At War gig? Bare tits, perhaps? We did a gig in Detroit where the count was four bleeding or broken bodies. At least a dozen titties during and even more after the show. Pretty cool and always welcomed. NE: There must have been shitty gigs too, right? How do you get over the disappointment of gigs that don't meet your expectations? Yes, there have been shitty gigs with either a bad performance or a lousy turnout. You never dwell on these shows because you know it is going to happen from time to time. Your goal is to keep these type of shows from happening as much as possible, and just look forward to the next one. NE: Can you bring us back to the ‘80s? You know, for the benefit of those of us who weren't there to witness the emergence of the thrash genre. Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, New Kids On The Block, Beastie Boys and thrash metal. For us it was not this magical time everyone tries to make it out to be. We were just living our life playing the type of music we wanted to hear. It just so happened to be the eighties. It was the time of our youth and I guess everyone remembers their teen and early twenties with fondness. Having said that, we did know what we were doing was part of something new and we

loved it. I always loved the Beasties even back then. I voted for Reagan, and we knew it was just a matter of time before the Soviet Union would fall apart. NE: Let's now discuss your spanking new album. When you decided to name the new record "Infidel" were you concerned that dealing with the theme of terrorism those are terrorists on the album's cover would cause people to dismiss you guys as another “typical” metal band latching onto negative themes? I would argue that the message this album conveys by way of the cover art is a positive message in that it is bringing to the fore the threat that radical Islam represents to all freedom loving peoples of the world, and that there is something that can be done to protect our freedom by keeping these extremists in check. I see this as positive. The problem I see is that the people who would dismiss us because of artwork and not the music are a bunch of politically correct jack-asses anyway. NE: At War plays bare knuckle thrash metal without the nice flourishes. I can even hear the punk and NWOBHM influences in your music. But there's also a political and militaristic vein running through your songs. When did you guys decide to combine your interest in warfare with the music you played? You know it is the aggression of metal that drew us to this form of music to begin with, and the ultimate manifestation of aggression is war. Combined with the fact that we all are avid WWII and Vietnam history buffs, the merging of the two was inevitable. Incidentally, we did not name the band At War because of war. The real idea was that if you have a problem in your life... instead of bitching about it, you should attack the problem or declare war on it. Hence At War! NE: Returning to the studio for "Infidel", how would you describe the band's work ethic during the sessions? Did you guys all have a good time recording the tracks or did it get a bit stressful for those involved? Once we hit the studio our work ethic was all

business but a lot of fun as well. Songwriting for us can be slow at times because we are our worst critics. We really have to like a song before we will agree to continue with it. As a result new songs can take a while to develop. NE: One of my favorite songs on "Infidel" is "RAF". Are there any other military history themed tracks that did not make it on the album? That's one of my favorites as well. We actually wrote "RAF" back in 1990 or so and played it live for years. We sort of revamped it for "Infidel". We have no others about military history that did not make it but we do have a few ideas for the next album. NE: You also take on American politicians who capitalise on the dead. Care to name names? When I was listening to the monologue at the start of "Deceit", excuse my bad manners, but it actually brought Sarah Palin to mind. The song was really about the family, friends, and politicians who would twist the reasons someone would join the military and go fight when asked by their country. Only to have what they believed and were proud of used as part of an agenda that was not in line with their beliefs after their death. You are excused, but Sarah Palin never entered my mind in any songwriting we did or do. NE: Have you guys heard from your European fans yet? Any chance At War will be doing festivals this 2010? This is one of our major goals. Yes, we will be seen in Europe in 2010. We have already booked shows in Puerto Rico, France, and Japan for 2010. NE: I guess this is it for now. Thanks for being awesome. There will be a follow up to "Infidel", right? You are damn right!

MIGUEL BLARDONY

www.myspace.com/atwartheband

INTERVIEW

f you like old-school heavy metal and haven't heard “Ravenous” yet, it should be the next purchase on your shopping list. The new album is Wolf's most mature work so far and I know what you're thinking right now - in many cases the “most mature” releases, although most professionally played and produced, lack the real spark the bands had in their beginnings. This isn't the case with Wolf as the Swedish squad offered the metal community nothing less than a traditional metal masterpiece. The guys in Wolf not only work hard in the studio environment, but just as hard in the live atmosphere as demonstrated on their recent UK tour, which basically meant playing local shit holes for a few dozen dedicated maniacs a night. What's most important the band really enjoyed it and witnessing them in concert you had a feeling that they were performing a large arena show. Before their Glasgow gig I spoke to the band's founder, singer and guitarist Niklas and the second guitarist Johannes and the band's new album “Ravenous” was the main subject of our talk.

NE: You’ve already played two shows in the UK. Are you satisfied with the response you received? Niklas: Yeah. It was really good. London was amazing. People from Sweden, from Italy, from Germany came to see us. Johannes: And from the UK as well, haha! We were just amazed with the amount of support that we got. It was just one of those killer shows that was meant to be and we just seized the moment. It was awesome. We played some tracks that we hadn’t played for a while. There’s always a curfew in the UK for noise, sound and shit but we played some songs really fast, haha… N: It is really weird because afterwards there’s always this loud disco thing going on. J: They can play disco music ‘till three in the morning but they can’t have a show going on. N: Nonetheless we had a really good time there. We met a lot of really cool people and hanged out with them. Our roadie got in two fights in two days so we’re waiting for the third one tonight. NE: I think you’ve had the longest break between your albums now, between “The Black Flame” and “Ravenous”. Was it caused by some problems or did you just want to make a perfect album and that’s why it took so long? N: This was because our drummer quit the band and then our bass player quit the band so we had to find new members. During that time we kept writing but not like together, more by ourselves and then we put the things together at the end. Our drummer Richard, we got him a couple of months before the recording of the album. That’s probably why it took a little bit longer this time.

J: It was a little bit of both to be honest. We knew we had a little more time as well so didn’t want to rush the album. On “The Black Flame” it was like, “Oh, we’ve got to do an album in three months!” But this time we took some time, we had a few more ideas coming… N: But still, we wrote an extra song in the studio. J: Because we were more relaxed. We wanted to wait for Roy Z. to be ready so that gave us a couple of extra months. NE: “The Black Flame” was a very strong release. Was it hard to top it? N: My personal opinion is yes, it was hard, because I also felt like “The Black Flame” was the best album so far, the songs were really good. I said to Andy and Axeman that it was going to be really hard to top it and they said, “That’s bullshit!” And then we started working on it and I really think that we succeeded at doing it. Everyone has their own opinion which one is the best, but I really think that the last album is the best we’ve done. J: Yes, of course, but at the same time the band has got five albums out. People are going to have their favourite album here and there, but the people that have their favourite album, that’s the people who want to listen to you when you release a new album, because they’ve listened to you for quite a while and they know what they’re talking about. As a musician you always want to

top yourself and I know that Nik is very, very dedicated to the writing process and all that so I think it’s more of a challenge for him than it would be for me. He keeps pushing the level every time which is good. That’s why we’re such a great band, haha! N: I’ve been in the band for fifteen years and I must say that the new line-up is the best we’ve ever been. J: For me it’s the third steady line-up that we’re going through and for me it’s such a delight, because both Andy and Richard they’re such professionals. They’ve been in different bands, been touring and they know you shouldn’t take this life for granted. We know it’s not going to make us rich. It’s tough but we’re a working class metal band and we don’t mind getting our hands dirty. In the end nothing beats the satisfaction that we’re getting from playing live. NE: I think it’s quite expensive to hire a well known producer. How did you convince Century Media to pay for Roy Z’s work? N: Actually it was Roy who wrote us an e-mail and said he wanted to work with us because he was a big fan since “Evil Star”. He heard the “Evil Star” album in his friends car when they were travelling to a Robin Thrower gig and he was like, “Whoa, what is this!?” He stayed to listen to the whole album and he arrived late for the show. Ever since then he wanted to work with us. He contacted us on myspace and asked us, “Do you have any plans for the next album? I would like to get involved.” J: P.S. “Me and Rob Halford are rockin’ out to your music.” N: Yeah, that was really cool. He didn’t do it for the money, because we didn’t get more of a budget from Century Media to do it but we really worked our asses off to make it happen. He did it because he wanted to. J: He didn’t get as much as he did from Priest, but he got shit loads, more money than us, haha… NE: Weren’t you afraid that working with him you would sound like some of the bands that he’s done before? I mean with all the respect for the masters I don’t think you would like to have people saying “Oh, this new Wolf sounds like Halford or it sounds like Dickinson…” J: No. If you listen to any of the Roy Z albums, they don’t sound the same. I mean he takes the essence of the band where they are right at the time and puts that on tape. Of course, the Dickinson albums have similarities, because it’s the same band, but we weren’t afraid of sounding like that because first, we don’t use that gear and second, none of Roy’s productions ever sounded the same. N: He’s really a guy that tries to capture the band and get the best out of the band. He understood perfectly what we were about and what we wanted and we had long discussion with him before he came. J: He stayed for a week prior to the recordings to rehearse the album with us. N: He does what many producers don’t do. He has a week or ten days pre-production with the band, rehearsing the songs, capturing the whole album and capturing that energy you have when playing together in the room and get that on the tape. That’s far more important than twisting the right knobs. J: There are so many producers that just come in

Photos: NikDesign

INTERVIEW and press record and you get the same sound as the next band. N: Also he’s one of the very few metal producers that make some effort with the vocals. He thinks that vocals are an instrument and it’s really important. A lot of producers just look for the fat sound, they’re famous for the guitar sound, whatever. Roy Z. pays attention to everything and especially the vocals. That’s one more reason why I wanted to work with him. You can listen to the latest Bruce Dickinson solo album and compare the vocals to the latest Maiden album. There’s a big difference. To have a chance to work with the best vocal producer was really great. J: And a musician overall. N: He’s a killer guitar player. J: He’s got all this knowledge and dedication and he’s still such a down to earth guy. He can stop in the middle of a really important take and start talking about a cool album or riff and then get back into working again and he feels like he hasn’t been interrupted. N: A lot of musicians hate being in the studio but I loved it. He makes it fun. He makes you at ease, relaxed, having a good time... And that makes a better album.

background as us. N: He understood the music, what it was all about. He really wanted to join Wolf, because he liked Wolf. J: And Andy is such a professional bass player. I mean the stuff he does, sometimes I just want to stop playing and listen to him going nuts. N: The original bass player had his own style but when he left I wanted to play with someone that sounded really different. Andy’s style and sound was exactly what I was wanting. So we were really fortunate to get him in the band.

NE: Niklas has a home studio. Did you work on “Ravenous” there or did you write the songs at home and just meet to trade off ideas?

N: Actually that was the only goal that was in my mind. We just wanted to write kickass songs and catchier stuff. J: I think we broke down the song writing process and separated the intro from the verses and the choruses. We also thought a lot about the guitar solos, to make them more like part of the song, instead of just being in the song. N: Yeah, there’s so many skilled musicians today, so many guitar players that can play your ass off but do you remember any solo after you left the show? When you listen to the old Iron Maiden stuff or Judas Priest you remember the solos. The solos are catchy and they mean something to the song. We wanted to have that. J: I think that’s the next step we’re taking. We’re getting there. I always said that it’s like you’re trying a leather jacket and it almost fits, it’s like on this album, everything fits. But on the next album we might just see if we can get it to fit even more. I mean everyone wants to write their own “Reign In Blood” or “The Number Of The Beast”.

N: I worked pretty much in my home studio and Axeman worked at home sending me riffs and stuff and Andy also sent me ideas and I put it all together and sent it over to them. I got responses and we discussed it. We didn’t have a drummer so it was really hard this time to work more together. But we’ve been doing that for a long time so we know what works. The songs were written more or less like they ended up on the album. The week of intense rehearsal and preproduction we did together as a band. J: We think that everyone is equally as important. Like with the pre-production, the stuff that came up there was really valuable even if you didn’t write anything. You work as hard whatever you do, if you write a song or if you’re not writing a song. You might do the merchandise stuff or the endorsement stuff, whatever, so we all get credit for it. We do have the respect especially for Nik for being the backbone and putting everything together in Wolf. He’s been there since 1995, you’ve got to respect that. N: Music wise I’m like a spider in the web that gets ideas from everybody and puts it all together and then we all work on it. Everyone is equally important. I love being in the studio and writing songs, but we live so far apart, otherwise we would meet up more, sitting and playing. But we live in different parts of Sweden so it’s kind of hard to do it all the time. We would love to, but we have houses, kids, wives... NE: You are the main songwriters in Wolf. Did Anders and Richard have any input in the songwriting process? N: Richard didn’t have any input in the song writing because he wasn’t in the band when we wrote the songs. But when we arranged everything he came in with a lot of input. J: He’s been around for so long, he’s been a musician for so many years, playing drums and stuff so his ideas that came about when we rehearsed the stuff were very valuable. If we had got like a thrash drummer or a death metal drummer I don’t think we would have got the same vibe to it. He comes from the same

NE: Two of the band members left the band after “The Black Flame”. It seems strange, because it was the most successful album Wolf released up to date. What were the reasons for their departure? N: The reason why the drummer left was that he didn’t want to travel and he wanted more money. The bass player, we started the band back in the days but he just moved on in life. He didn’t enjoy playing live as much as he used to do. Sometimes it’s really hard doing what we do and finding joy in it and he lost the passion for that. I guess he’d just rather be a fan of metal music than a musician himself and I respect that. He’s got a son, he works full time as a teacher, he likes his job, he loves his family and he wouldn’t want to spend more time on the road anymore. J: We’ve never actually fired a member of Wolf. They quit because of their own reasons. NE: The style of the band didn’t change but I would say the new songs have catchier choruses and are easier to remember. Was it your goal or did the songs just come out this way?

“We know it’s not going to make us rich. It’s tough but we’re a working class metal band and we don’t mind getting our hands dirty.”

NE: You had Hank Shermann doing a solo on the title track, but you also played a solo on this song. So, was your solo first, or was it like, “Shit, now I have to record a solo which is equally as good as Hank’s”? J: Yeah, that was a trial I tell you. N: I think you recorded your solo before his. I would shit my pants, so I’m glad it wasn’t me. J: Well, I did actually. You have to do that while Roy Z is sitting there. You’ve got to try to be a musician. I thought that Hank is doing all that laid back crazy stuff, so I tried to take a few steps back and not try to be that guy. So I just went for a melody on that one. But yeah, who would have thought that when you were eleven or twelve years old that you’re gonna be on the same album as Hank Shermann. That scares you, doesn’t matter if you’re twenty five or thirty four. N: We also had backing vocals by Mark Boals. He’s one of my favourite singers. I love all the work he’s done with Yngwie Malmsteen, I like the “Trilogy” album, it’s great. He was really, really professional. He never tried to outshine me, he just tried to improve the song. He made me sound better. That’s using a voice as an instrument. He’s amazing. He’s got a great range. He also sings operas, everything. NE: The UK is home to many of the bands that inspired you, like Saxon, Priest, Maiden, but it seems that your country is in the lead now when it comes to the young acts recreating the old school sound, like Enforcer or Portrait. Do you think you may have started a kind of wave of underground traditional metal there? J: That was Maiden. They did that, haha… N: I never heard any band saying like, “If it wasn’t for Wolf…”. They know about Wolf, they like Wolf and I’m glad we were doing it ten years before those bands. There’s a huge wave of traditional metal coming back and that’s good for us. But we were doing it ten years before and we’re going to do it ten years after I guess. We never sat down and agreed on, “We’re gonna play traditional metal, that’s a good idea.” That is just the music that comes out. That’s the music we like and it comes natural for us. I remember when we started in ’95 and I met the bass player and we both agreed that the nineties sucked. We wanted to play some decent metal and we did and people were laughing at us. But we carried on. We played bars, we threw a couple of old-school metal songs in the mix and when they had a few pints of beer they went, “Yeah!” It’s timeless music, it’s classic. NE: Your music is traditional old-school heavy metal and you won’t change anything on the metal scene for sure. Would you consider changing your style if you were told that you could make a comfortable living with a different kind of music? J: Not with Wolf, not me. N: Not with Wolf. I mean if someone paid me to do a gig with another band and if I liked the music I

might consider it. But Wolf is my main band. That’s what I want to do, that’s the music I want to play. J: Don’t worry, we’re not going to go from Grave Digger to Digger or something like that, haha… I don’t think that any record label or promoter or management that we’ve ever worked with would ever tell us to do that. We’re so honest in our expression and our opinions about what we do that it shines through. You don’t have to tell us to change something to enrich that because we’re already there. That’s who we are. N: If we tried to, we would just suck big time and we would regret it. We wouldn’t make shitloads of money because we wouldn’t be any good. J: We’re not good looking either so that would fuck things up, haha… NE: The eighties were great for heavy metal, the nineties by comparison sucked, this decade has been quite good, but it’s coming to an end. Aren’t you afraid that the trends will change soon again and the fans will forget about classic metal for years? Yeah, probably. The time is right for us now, but that’s going to change and all the new wave of old-school metal will disappear like any other wave, but the few good bands are still going to carry on. The good bands from any wave that aren’t in it because they are riding the wave always survive. I’m not afraid. I don’t care. I like good music, that’s it. NE: The band is celebrating the fifteenth anniversary next year. Are you planning anything special? N: When we wrote “In The Shadow Of Steel” and “Electric Raga” for the first album, it must have been 1998, that’s when I consider that Wolf really came about to be Wolf. We did our thing but when those two songs came to us we took it to the next level. We released the first album in the year 2000 so it’s been actually ten years. J: But we’re still going to party next year. WOJTEK GABRIEL www.wolf.nu

INTERVIEW

deal with him on a day to day basis. When it came to the tour you just couldn’t escape him, it was 24/7. He’s got a lovely side of his personality which is full of stories of touring, bla, bla, bla, but the other side of it was just being extremely difficult and not being a team player. When you have a team that is operating like a machine and one cog is bent out of shape, then you take it out and you replace it. That’s exactly what we had to do. We’ve now brought in a cog that will never fail and will never let the team down. All respect to Ferdy, he’s a nice guy, a tremendous talent and he did some wonderful things for us, but you know, you move on. We wish him the best of luck, we really hope that he has a great solo career and we wish he takes Rough Silk to wherever he wants it to go. No hard feelings. M: There’s really no dirty dish. There were some personal issues and there were some professional issues. His playing was amazing on the first two records. I think he played well with the band during the Stratovarius tour and there were just issues during that tour that led us to make a business decision for the future. If the band was to continue in a positive direction something needed to be done. Nothing will stop the vision that Paul and I have. I mean I made it very clear to the people in Glasgow tonight. We will be back and we will play a headline show. It will happen. We will hopefully play headline shows all over the world at some point. This band is just getting started and one guy is not strong enough to stop it from happening, especially Ferdy Doernberg. He’s a great player and I will never say otherwise, he’s fucking great. I mean he’s stunning. An amazing talent, but it just didn’t work.

he hardworking team that is Eden’s Curse embarked on another UK tour, this time supporting the Scottish folk metal squad Alestorm. They haven’t actually released anything new since we last spoke to them, apart from the UK tour EP full of various rarities, but some interesting things have happened in the EC camp over the last couple of months (line-up change, parting ways with the label, big festival appearances) so we had to speak to them. I caught up with the two who co-created the band and share the same vision about its future - singer Michael Eden and the bass player Paul Logue. NE: How has the tour been so far? P: The tour’s been great. We’ve now played 7 shows and the band are having a great time together. Basically it’s a new line-up. It’s Eden’s Curse Mark II the way we call it, minus Ferdy. Alessandro has fitted in brilliantly, not only as a musician, but as a personality too. He’s been phenomenal and he’s a very, very humorous guy, very funny. We couldn’t ask for any more. NE: Would you say that your fanbase has grown since the previous tour with Stratovarius? M: I think that the fanbase is always gonna grow, no matter what kind of band it is or how big you are or how small you are. People come to the shows and they like what they see. They hopefully buy a CD at the venue, maybe buy a CD on-line. We’ve definitely gained fans by playing the shows with Stratovarius because we notice that some of the same faces that were in that crowd are here on the tour that we’re doing now. So we’re doing something right.

NE: But it didn’t take long until Ale joined Eden’s Curse… Alessandro Del Vecchio is a gift because it didn’t have to happen. I believe that if the stars align and everything is connected like it should, good things can happen if you work hard. And we’ve worked damn hard over the last four years. Ferdy was the guy that played on the first two records and now we’ve got a guy that wants to be in the band. He wants to be here. He loves the band. He loves the band’s music and he is a tremendous talent to the band. I told the fans tonight, it’s like Eden’s Curse has been born again and we’ve been given a second opportunity to get it right. I think we got it right with the first two records but there’s a part of me that thinks that maybe I would have done something differently. I told Paul this almost four years ago

NE: Ferdy left the band. Why? P: He was fired. Ferdy’s been in the band for 3 and a half years and in those years Ferdy didn’t really integrate as a member like every other guy. Whatever his motives were, I’m not quite sure. We had difficult times with him in the past, but we haven’t really had to

NE: Mike, isn’t it hard for you to travel to Europe all the time? I’ve been here 3 times this year. I’ve flown over to the UK and that’s a lot. It’s a lot of work, but the fans are worth it. The fans in Glasgow are worth it. Just this particular show alone makes my flight worth coming over here because these kids love this band and support Eden’s Curse. Sheffield, England was also great.

NE: Why do you use another guitar player live? You’ve got one guitar and keyboards. Isn’t it enough? P: You know, Thorsten isn’t really that great, haha! M: We keep him in the band because he attracts girls like rotten pizza attracts bugs. It’s true! P: The bottom line is, we are very particular about how our art is going to be represented and I don’t think that we could properly represent the band with one guitar because we do harmony parts. I must admit Thorsten hates me for this when I write the songs. I’m trying to stop it now because I recompose it with keyboard parts. But they’re predominantly written for two guitars, particularly the first album. Michael and myself spoke about it and I said to Mike, “I’d really like us to have two guitars even if it’s bringing somebody in” and Mike said, do you know anyone, and I said, “I’ve got a perfect guy for it, he sounds just like George Lynch.” I called Jay, “Would you like to be on board?” And he’s played the same amount of shows that we’ve played and he’s a part of the family now.

Photo: Eden’s Curse

and you’re the first person to hear this story, we were outside of an alley at a hotel in Germany and Ferdy made a couple of cooler comments to Paul and I and a smart man would have said, “bye bye” right then. We didn’t and had we done that then I don’t know if we would have been here now. So he stayed and we played some shows. We made two great fuckin’ records which I love, which I’m extremely proud of and now we have a new chance to have a new beginning with what I think is one of the most exceptional talents in the band. He’s a better singer than me and having Ale in the band is truly a gift to us, because as I told you it didn’t have to happen. We had four-five guys that tried out for the keyboard slot and to have somebody walk in the door that not only is a phenomenal keyboard player but is a much better singer than me – and there are not a lot of lead singers that would admit that, but this guy is fuckin’ shit hot. He’s got his own band Edge Of Forever and a lot of people might not even know he plays with the amazing Glen Hughes. Glen Hughes has got the voice man. So to have a part of Glen Hughes in Eden’s Curse, that’s like a gift from God. And to have a situation like this, where everybody in the band now gels perfectly on stage in front of a crowd which is where it counts, is great. ‘Cause you can do anything in the studio, you do anything you want, nobody knows, and it was Paul Stanley from Kiss that said that, beyond the singer, that’s the only thing that can’t be faked, everybody could be playing on these albums. Nobody would ever know if Paul really truly played bass, or if Pete really, truly played drums. You can’t fake a human voice, but the guys that appear on that stage play on the records. The Mark II version of Eden’s Curse is the best version that has ever been and we will not disappoint with album number three.

INTERVIEW

Live photos: Wojtek Gabriel

NE: Whose idea was it to release the UK tour EP? P: The record label’s. Basically they helped finance the Stratovarius tour, solely, which they didn’t have to do because they’re our American record company. So it was our thank you. We wanted to give them some money back. It’s just trying to generate them some of the money they’ve paid out on the tour. We went in the archives and we’ve pulled out the bonus track from the US release because a lot of people in Europe don’t have it. We’ve pulled out things like the “Angels And Demons” demo which is a completely different female singer on it, as well as an acoustic version of “Sail On” and there’s a couple of live tracks in there. It’s a good release even if you’re not a fan of the band. You can get the right mixture of first album, second album and live as well. M: And we did it exclusive with melodicrock.com for the secondary CD with extra four tracks. So it’s more bang for the buck. NE: You recorded some live material for the EP, so why didn’t you just record a full live album? P: Well, basically Mike sounds shit the rest of the set, haha! No, that is a plan for the future. What we’ve been doing is we’ve been recording the soundboards every night, but we’ve been plugging a mini-dics in and that isn’t an ideal representation of a live set. You want to get everything in separate channels and we would like to get something of that quality. We’d like to take it to Dennis Ward and have Dennis mix it properly. It lets us hear how the band is sounding live. It’s not a true representation because you’ve got what’s coming out of the desk, you don’t have the full sound from the front. In a way we felt that the material was good enough, OK it’s not polished, it’s rough in a few places but it lets people realise that Eden’s Curse isn’t a project. We’ve played live and this is what it sounds like. If you go to an Eden’s Curse concert and you’ve listened to the music on CD, you know that the band can re-produce it live. I think it’s getting better as every gig passes. NE: You played the Bloodstock festival this year. Was it the biggest event for the band so far? P: I would think so. In terms of the reputation of the festival it was big, but looking at the bill for Hard Rock Hell, I would say it surpasses it. We got treated pretty good at Hard Rock Hell and we got treated like shit at Bloodstock to be honest. That was pretty poor. The sound was the worst I’ve ever experienced during 15 years of playing music. M: We asked for things that were very simple because we’re a simple band. Water, monitors… We didn’t get monitors, we didn’t get water. We had to steal water and I had to take it from people. It didn’t belong to Eden’s Curse, but the band needed water on stage. Usually that’s the job of the festival to make sure that we have it. We didn’t have food, we didn’t have a dressing room. P: The crowd at Bloodstock I would say were probably better than at Hard Rock Hell. They were crazy that night and there was a lot of Eden’s Curse supporters there, so we had a really good gig. From the point of view of the musicians, we weren’t entirely happy with what went down. The sound on stage was almost unbearable. I’ve never been on stage and never heard the drummer at all. I couldn’t hear the beat and when you’re a part of the rhythm section, that’s kind of bad, haha… M: Honestly, the band faked it at the Bloodstock show. I didn’t hear the rhythm guitars whatsoever. If I don’t hear the guitars, forget about the lead guitars because I need the rhythm guitar to be there. P: The only way we can judge it is from the people in front of us and they had an awesome time. That fed back to us because even though it sounded shit on stage we got off on that energy. You’re kind of playing blind. You play your parts and you just see people react like crazy and that’s what makes it all worthwhile. Forget all the water and playing in the tent.

NE: Why did you leave AFM Records? M: The short version of AFM Records is that they were a phenomenal, amazing label, that has a bunch of cool bands so we can’t say anything bad about that but the truth is that they were not supportive of the band in the live sense. They didn’t want to give us money so that the band could play live, whether it was the USA or Germany or the UK. If they weren’t going to pay any money, that’s fine, but it would’ve been nice to know that when we signed the deal, to be told, “We’re never going to pay you guys to play live.” They didn’t pay and they were not really a 100% behind the vision that Paul and I have for the band. They didn’t care if Ferdy Doernberg left, they didn’t care if Jay plays a live show... They didn’t care and I didn’t either and Paul and I had a discussion and anybody that’s not part of the team effort, is part of the problem. So, bye bye, good luck, we wish you guys the very best. Sell our music because you own it for a while, the first record and the second record. Whore it out because I love a good work and I’d love that they are gonna make money even though I never made any. 200 bucks I think I’ve got so far. That’s really not enough to travel around the world like I do. As I said I’ve been here three times this year. Paul and I have plans in 2010 to put new wheels in the motion, wheels of steel as Saxon would say. The band is not stopping the way that we make records, the producers that we use, the artists that we use. The quality will remain the same, everything will remain the same. We’ve actually left all three labels. The US label is 100% behind this decision and they still will be involved in some capacity for the future. The Japanese label will probably be involved in some capacity, but as for AFM, it was time to say goodbye. You don’t pay me? I’m walking. It’s as simple as that. You know, money, tour, album, fame… I don’t get very much of the fame, and I sure as hell do not get any money, so we do it for the fans. The people that showed up tonight are why we do things like this because they make it all worthwhile. We just move on. It’s all for the future, it’s all to protect Eden’s Curse. Eden’s Curse is not just a band, Eden’s Curse is a lifestyle and there’s a lot of people that don’t get that. AFM were one of the people who didn’t get it. We wish them nothing but the best and I hope they sell a lot of records. NE: You’re already working on the new material. Can we expect you to continue on the same path you took on the two previous releases? P: It’s going to be Eden’s Curse, that’s the best way I can describe it. Big vocals, big guitars, big harmonies. M: Thanks! My vocals are finally going to be big. P: The album is going to be called “Trinity” and we’ve already got a couple of songs. Alessandro and I have worked on a tune together called “No Holy Man” which was actually on Alessandro’s audition tape. I gave people who were auditioning a kind of blank track with some ideas and a whole middle section and I was so impressed with what he brought to the table that we’re working on that. We’ve written the title track for the album so far, so I think after the tour is finished we’ll take the rest of the Christmas period to relax with our families and I will probably start getting into the writing mode even before the New Year. The next month or two will consist of firing ideas across the Atlantic to Mike to give it the rubber seal of approval. We’ve got a definite idea of what the band sounds like. There might be one of two things that are slightly modern here or there and that’s fine, as long as the majority of it is Eden’s Curse. We’ve got to remember Ale is bringing a new voice to the table. He’s a modern player with all of the classic elements as well. Ferdy was very dated in terms of sound and style and he brings a modern approach. Eden’s Curse is not going to change dramatically. I still think we’re doing Def Leppard size backing vocals – they’ll be as big as Whole Lotta Rosie’s waistband, but ultimately “Trinity” is going to sound like an Eden’s Curse album. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. e d e n s c u r s e . c o m

INTERVIEW there were situations where you didn’t want the camera to be on you? It became a non issue... We ignored it for the most part. We realised most of what was being filmed wouldn’t make it to the final cut. And in fact it didn’t. 320 hours of footage for an 82 minute movie...

t’s really hard to say anything about Anvil which hasn’t been said already, as the band has been spoken of in so many magazines, radio and TV stations they can’t believe it themselves I suppose. Well, we gave it a shot as well and not because the band is making a buzz nowadays, but because Noizz Eater is an underground old-school metal magazine and Anvil is an underground old-school metal band. Their recent album called “This Is Thirteen” is their best work in years and the crazy Canadians are already working on its follow-up “Juggernaut Of Justice” to be released in 2010. I obviously had to ask a couple of questions about “The Story Of Anvil” movie which changed their lives and enabled them to live off music at last. Here’s what Lips said. “Money has nothing to do with our friendship. Rich or poor, in sickness and in health, the metal music we create must survive!”

NE: Your 13th album turned out to be a kind of new beginning for Anvil. Most people would say that 13 means bad luck. Are you superstitious at all? Most people think that 13 is bad luck however it really means rebirth. The tarot card 13 is the death card but in death there is a new beginning. I am stupidstitious and I believe in karma... It works for me! NE: You self released the album at the beginning, which enabled you to get all the money from sales. Why did you decide to release the album through VH1 Classic Records eventually? We recouped all our expenses and couldn’t keep up with the demand and couldn’t service the public by making it easier and less expensive to buy. We make much less from each sale but at least more people will now know our music. NE: Why did you decide to use a producer after so many self-produced albums? Did you feel that you didn’t do the production the right way? Self production is never as good as having a real producer. I learned that by trying and never got there. You can’t really hear yourself objectively. In order to do so you would need years to find the objectivity you need. You would have to quickly record your songs and not listen to them until you forgot what you recorded, then listen. At that point you would hear it the way a producer hears it. NE: How was it to work with Chris Tsangarides again? Was it like 25 years passed by and nothing changed or like you met a different guy rather?

NE: Sacha Gervasi has worked with some big Hollywood names. How come that he came up with an idea of a documentary about an underground metal band? He’s been a friend from the past who came to discover that we never stopped or quit. He thought this to be extremely compelling... He was looking to make a movie no one else could ever make other than him. He found those elements in us. NE: You were followed by the camera eye for months. Wasn’t it annoying? I’m sure

Strange? Not at all... We are musicians who love to play and perform for people. I couldn’t care less whether they are old, young, country and western fans, classical music fans... The bottom line is that they are liking what we are doing. NE: Still, I would never go to see a documentary about a rap band or jazz band etc. That’s your loss if you want to behave that way and be narrow minded. The metal aspect is minuscule in comparison to the demographics this movie has. The ratio is about 10% of the audience for this movie are into metal music. This movie has helped the metal music community more than they’ll ever know or realise. It’s put a face of dignity done by hard working dedicated people as opposed to being perceived as drugged out mindless idiots who listen to and make noise they call music. NE: Did you have any influence on the final shape of the movie or did you just see it when it was done? I had say but I said nothing... Sascha did an amazing job and I don’t have anything negative to say. NE: Your bass player Glenn has been with you for 14 years now so he’s a long time band member. Why was his presence in the band omitted in the movie? There was no history with the film maker, and it detracted from the main focus and characters. This is like asking why are 99.9% of interviews with The Rolling Stones with Keith or Mick? NE: The film was screened at many festivals and won some awards. Did you meet any celebrities you always wanted to meet? We’ve met many celebrities and have enjoyed this amazing situation to the fullest degree. NE: When the movie became a big thing and you got gig offers you gave up your daily jobs. Do you still live off music now? We’ve been working as a band making a living without having to work at day jobs. NE: How’s the situation of Anvil now? I mean, the movie opened many gates for you, but it won’t last forever obviously. You’re right because we all die eventually, but believe it or not, the movie’s life will outlive me. Spinal Tap just celebrated its 25th anniversary. In 25 years I’ll be lucky to still be alive. NE: Many bands have to pay to get

Photos: band archives / Wojtek Gabriel

It felt amazing! He hadn’t changed. It was a pleasure going into record with a real bassist. All the recordings I’ve ever done, we tried to approach it as if Chris was doing it but when we really had Chris there all the opinions he had about what we were doing were so valuable and relevant. It actually exemplified how much was missing in our own productions.

NE: Didn’t it feel strange when after the movie was out you played shows for the non-metal audiences who had never heard of Anvil before?

INTERVIEW support slots nowadays. You guys played stadiums with AC/DC and did a tour with Saxon. Did they invite you personally? The level of publicity and notoriety has brought offers, the band can draw people and that makes us worthy. NE: You probably played more shows in 2009 than in 10 previous years. You’re not kids anymore. Isn’t the tour life hard for you nowadays? Not completely accurate! What was the 5 week tour in the movie then? Never mind doing that five to six times every year for 25 plus years. We have never stopped and won’t until we’re dead. We are lifers and are most comfortable being on the road. It’s sitting around doing nothing that kills you. NE: A lot of metal bands that started their careers after Anvil made it big. What would you blame for lack of commercial success for Anvil? 99.9% of bands don’t get commercial success. We never wrote songs for radio, that’s not what we are about. Expecting commercial success would be stupid. Real metal is not for radio, and we’ve been very successful at staying true to that cause. I would also strongly disagree that a lot of bands made it big. Very few did and most quit as a result. NE: You had an additional guitar player for years but now you go as a trio. It’s easy to record this way, but don’t you miss another guitar on stage?

It’s been absolutely amazing as a trio. The extra guitar clouded our sound and was a redundant aspect of our sound. It’s also easier to perform live as there are less guys on stage to get in my way!

your original idea or did someone inspire you to do so?

NE: Did the latest events and the revival of popularity influence your song writing?

I’ve never seen anyone else do this. I’ve been doing it for 30 years!

Absolutely! How is it possible to not be affected by this!

NE: How many fights with venue owners over money have you had so far?

NE: Will you be trying to top “This Is Thirteen” or are you just writing the songs and don’t care if they’re better or not?

One and it was filmed! NE: Anvil had a heavier period in the second half of the 90s but you got back to the roots eventually. Did you want to experiment a bit and keep up to the general heaviness in metal or did it just feel right at that time?

You always try to do better, but more importantly it must be a natural progression. NE: The new decade has just begun. Do you see Anvil recording and playing live at the end of it, in let’s say 2020?

It felt right at the time. Many old fans were feeling we became too heavy but that’s better than people saying we became lame! We went in the opposite direction than most bands do. Which in my opinion depicts the highest form of integrity. NE: You stopped using the dildo years ago but you brought it back again. Why did you stop using it at all? Complaints from promoters put an end to it for a while NE: You do singalongs with the audience screaming at the guitar pick ups. Was it

I have to hope we stay healthy to get there, otherwise there is no reason to stop. NE: You never made any big money. Do you think your friendship with Robb would have lasted so long if you had sold millions of albums and went really rich? NE: The new album called “Juggernaut Of Justice” is in the works. Have you completed the material yet? 20 songs ready to go.

Money has nothing to do with our friendship. Rich or poor, in sickness and in health, the metal music we create must survive! WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. a n v i l m e t a l . c o m

INTERVIEW stuff that we were excited about and we decided to share with our fans. So that was really the reason behind that, just to get together and put all that unreleased music out there for people to enjoy. NE: At the very beginnings of your career you were in a band called Lust. What kind of music did you perform with them? Lust was hard rock, like AC/DC. It was my first hard rock band and it was a great experience for me. I joined the band basically because they didn’t have a singer. They had been together for a few years and it was a great band. The drummer was singing lead vocals on their demo. They got in a battle of the bands competition and had to do a show and they had never done a show. So, they needed a lead singer. They called me every day, “We want you to sing with us”, probably because I had leather pants, earrings and long hair. I think that’s the only reason I got the gig. I said, “Nah, I don’t really want to do that” and like 3 or 4 days before the gig I said “OK” because they bothered me on the phone every day and I said, “All right, I’ll do it.” So I went on stage with them on Sunday night for the battle of the bands competition. The place was packed, it was all sweaty, people screaming with fists in the air and it was a blast. It wonder how many US glam rock/glam metal bands have rewas the most fun I had ever had in my life. We won. We took first place activated their careers recently? When I speak about and we won a record deal and a lot of equipment. All of a sudden we were re-activation, I do not mean the occasional gig, but a new album on the radio and it was just working. It was a lot of fun and I stuck with hard rock ever since. with proper touring. Keel were one of the biggest ‘80s LA bands

so it goes without saying that many old and new fans welcomed the news about the upcoming release and forthcoming live shows. Keel will hopefully grace UK shores soon, but in the meantime vocalist Ron Keel embarked on an acoustic solo tour supporting Y&T. This venture reminded fans about the band’s existence and kick started the promotion for “Streets Of Rock & Roll”. I caught up with Ron before his Glasgow show.

NE: You founded Steeler and recorded one album with the band. Why just one?

It was time to move on. We formed in Nashville, moved to LA and were right in the heart of that LA heavy metal explosion in the early ‘80s. To be a part of that was an incredible experience and it was a very magical time. At any given club on the Sunset Strip you could see Ratt, Quiet Riot, Motley Crue, Steeler, Black’n’Blue, all these great bands, NE: It’s been almost a year since the Keel re-union. great musicians and great crowds. There was so much energy in that of their own, families and so forth, so it doesn’t make sense for us How’s the chemistry in the band now? What have the scene. Steeler was very lucky to be a part of that but after Yngwie to get in the bus and go and play small venues because we just fans responses been like? left the band it was impossible to get a record deal because we had a really can’t afford to spend that much time away from our own revolving door of players. It was unstable. I couldn’t get to the next businesses. I can because music is my primary business. Marc and level so I decided to put a new band together, call it Keel and try to Brian are in the music publishing and licensing business so they The chemistry is better than ever. It’s something that we’ve always establish myself that way. Things happened very fast for me. Once I have really successful careers in that. I’ve been out playing bars wanted to do and I’m glad that we’ve waited until our 25th made that decision, I started a band called Keel and within 9 and I love it but I don’t want to put that on the guys. We want anniversary to do it and do it right. The new music is something we months we had 2 albums out. We were working with Gene every show to be a triumph, something special, something at least didn’t even expect. When we did the re-union we thought that we Simmons. We were on tour and we were signed to a major label. I as big or bigger than what we did back in the ‘80s. I’m glad we’ve were only going to have some fun, do some shows and celebrate think that was the right decision. waited until the time was right and we had the right agent, the our 25th anniversary with our fans and friends. The decision to right crew and the right people on the team to help us do it right. make a new album was something that happened pretty early on. NE: What was it like to work with Yngwie Malmsteen We started to write together and we got very creative. We wrote some NE: In 1998 Keel released a mini album called “Back In back then, when he was just an unknown guitarist? songs which we felt very strongly about so we decided to make a new Action”. Was it supposed to be a re-union that failed or album. We signed with Frontiers and the new album “Streets Of were there any other reasons behind that release? Rock’n’Roll” is going to hit the streets of rock’n’roll. It was great and it was not so great. The problem was with both of us. Neither of us would compromise. I believe that if I could NE: You put Keel on hiatus because you said you didn’t want have compromised and he could have compromised we would We didn’t actually re-unite. We re-united for the sessions but we to play bars for a few people? have met in the middle and joined our talents. It might have didn’t do any shows at that time. The reason “Back In Action” came been incredible. He was very determined to do things his way into existence was because we were doing a re-release of “Larger and I was very determined to do things my way. We did the Than Live”, the 1989 half-live half-studio album and the record Oh, I’m still playing bars. I’ll play anywhere. I’ve never stopped playing album which I think is a great blend of my songs and my and I love to sing and play music. I’ve never stopped. 250 shows a year company asked for some bonus material. We started listening to voice and his guitar playing. It was one of the biggest everything we had in the archives that was unreleased or that the pretty much through my entire life, but Keel is something that’s really independent records of all time, but when the album came fans hadn’t heard that might be of interest. We found some good special to us. All the guys in the band have grown up and have businesses out nobody was in the band that had been on the album. The day the album came out we did a record signing and there were three other guys in the band, signing copies of the album. It just couldn’t work with such a revolving door line up. I figured if we were going to have a situation where I was going to be able to achieve my goals and have my dreams come true I should put a band together, call it Keel and try to do things my way. Yngwie did things his way with Rising Force and had his success and I did my thing with Keel, so it all worked out. NE: You once auditioned for Black Sabbath. What do you remember about that audition? Did you play any shows with them? Actually I didn’t audition. I got the job on the basis of a recorded demo which I did in the studio. I was in the band for 3 days, basically a lot of sitting around and talking about what

Photos: Keel

INTERVIEW would never end. You the anchor of the band. I like being able to do it every now and then but I wouldn’t think, “I’m there, I want to do it full time. made it, it’s gonna last NE: Did you like Marc Ferrari’s acting in Wayne’s World? forever.” Nothing lasts forever. It was a big hard hit when I fell and That wasn’t acting, haha! Yeah, I’m very proud of Marc. All he had to do was to the only thing that saved play a rock star and how difficult is that? That’s the role he was born to play. me was the ability to sit NE: You were planning on releasing a DVD with video clips but I down with my guitar and play songs. It really saved didn’t find any info about it. When is it coming out? me. It might have been drugs or alcohol and who It is out. We have it here tonight. It’s the Ron Keel DVD. It’s a limited edition knows what would have and it’s got every video I’ve ever done, 20 clips from my entire career. But we happened if I couldn’t play really hope to release a Keel DVD to document our re-union at some point, the guitar and put my heart that’s our goal now. We’ve been filming everything, the concerts, the photo in that. Country music is party sessions, the recording sessions, backstage. We’re trying to take the camera music. It’s all about having a everywhere we go so we can document that for a Keel DVD. good time, flirting with girls, drinking, dancing and there’s a lot of great melody and harmony. NE: Have you got some memories about shooting a particular they wanted to do. It was a very interesting 3 days. I got It’s just a wonderful opportunity to express myself and paint the deal through Spencer Crawford who produced the video clip? Do you have a favourite Keel clip? pictures with different colours. Music is like painting. You’re Quiet Riot album which was a 10 million seller. He was the hot producer in the business at that time and he was signed creating something, its art. With heavy metal, we’re restricted to a I think my favourite was “Tears Of Fire” because we took our camera crew certain format. With country music there’s no such restriction, you to produce the new Black Sabbath album. He brought me on the road with us and they filmed everything. It was really natural. They can use basically any sounds you want, distorted heavy guitars or on board and got me the gig with Sabbath. But Spencer was captured the fans outside the venues holding the Keel banners, us on the acoustic guitars, fiddle, violin, banjo, harmonica, keyboards - all trying to turn them into an ‘80s hair-metal band, trying to bus travelling around and just playing shows. That’s my favourite. They those beautiful instruments to paint a picture with. So I really push other people’s commercial rock songs on them and are a lot of work. I always enjoy it but it’s very difficult to do and you enjoyed that. After a few years I was not comfortable with the fact that’s just not Sabbath. Tony and Geezer didn’t want to do it, have to put your faith in the people behind the camera to make sure that country music had a box too, just like metal puts you in a box, I didn’t think it was right for them either, so they parted ways they’re getting the right shots. It’s a necessary evil. I hope that we can country music puts you in a box. You can’t say “ass”, you can’t say with Spencer and it fell apart. But it was interesting 3 days. do a video for the new Keel record and kind of put everything in “damned”, you have to act in a certain way, like you’re putting on It’s nice to have that little piece of history and something to perspective – use clips from the past and use clips from the present and a mask or you’re acting a role and I didn’t like the restrictions of talk about. I still play a couple of Black Sabbath songs in the kind of put it all together in one package. that role either. I enjoyed the music, the songs and all that but it show. wasn’t home. So I put a band called Iron Horse together which NE: Where are you now with your autobiography? Have NE: You recorded an album with the Japanese metal could combine screaming metal guitars and powerful drums with you started writing it yet? band Saber Tiger. Were you just a hired singer or a great country music songs that would be played by hard rock musicians in a hard rock type of show. I did it for 6 years and we member of the band? Oh yeah, I write it every chance I get. I’m hoping to get it finished at still do a reunion every now and then. Geno, our bass player from some point and get it out next year by summer time. I’m just telling Keel was in Iron Horse with me. So that was a lot of fun to be able I was a hired gun for that project. It was a great experience and all the stories that I tell in bars, put in my lyrics, interviews with my to satisfy that creative urge as well. up until the new Keel album, it was my favourite metal album that friends and fans and other people’s experiences of me, my life story I’ve ever done. It’s very progressive, very complicated music, and all the adventures that I’ve had. I end up telling the stories NE: In the ‘80s, image was very important for the rock difficult melodies and arrangements. It was a big challenge for me. anyway. I’ve got so many stories about that the about Saber Tiger bands. Did you work with some make-up artists and hair They wanted an American singer to come over and do that project project alone, and Iron Horse. Keel of course has its own book full stylists or did you do everything on your own? with them and I went to Japan and I did the record. It was a great of stories that I can tell, so I enjoy sharing those with people and experience and it’s still one of my favourite records of all time. I they enjoy it as well. We pretty much were a jeans, leather, and t-shirts kind of band. keep hoping that maybe we’ll do another one someday. I still have For “The Right To Rock” they made us wear certain outfits, for the lots of fond memories and I wish Akihito Kinoshita all the best, he’s a NE: There were rumours about a Keel UK tour, but album cover. I had to wear red. It was in the contract that I had to brilliant talent. I enjoyed being a part of that record. It was great, you’ve come over as a solo artist supporting Y&T. Can wear red leather. It’s not spandex, it’s leather. I had to wear that killer metal music. I’m really proud of that. we expect a full tour in the near future? for the album cover, but for the shows we pretty much wore jeans, NE: You were involved in a project called Acoustic Outcast leather vests, leather jackets, T-shirts, until the self-titled album I sure hope so. We’d love to come. I know the guys in the band with musicians from Dokken, King Kobra and John Sykes. produced by Michael Wagener in 1987, when they said they were wish they were here with me. That’s one reason I’m on this Can you tell me more about it? Was it a live-only project or going to give us all the money we needed to have these custom tour with Y&T, to reconnect with our fans, people like you and clothes made for our image. We went to Ray Brown, who made did you record anything? to hopefully pave the way for Keel to come over here at some clothes for everybody, Dokken, Motley Crue, Ratt, and everybody point next year. Our record company is a European label, We did a tour in the States. I love acoustic music and there was strength in ended up looking the same. We pretty much did what we wanted to Frontiers and hopefully they will be able to put it together do except for the times when the record company said, “You have numbers. If you get me, Kelly Keeling and Terry Ilous from XYZ together and we would love to do it. If the promoters and agents and to wear this” and we just got a record deal and we wanted to we had some different people participate as well like Danny Vaughn from everybody else can take their business, we will be here. succeed so you got to do what you’re told. And then for the third Tyketto who did one show with us… It was just a chance for us to go out record they said “Here’s all the money you want, so go and get and sing together and play killer songs. It was a really good show. The PATRYCJA GABRIEL clothes from Ray Brown.” We got these really nice very expensive stage was set up like a living room with chairs, we had a little fridge full of outfits but we ended up back in our jeans and T-shirts anyway. beer and we had a TV. I would come out and start the show by myself, turn w w w. k e e l n a t i o n . c o m on TV and show videos from XYZ, Keel, whatever and I’d start the first song, NE: I know you can play open the fridge, grab a beer, light a cigarette, totally ignore the audience drums. Have you ever played and then about halfway through the first song the guys were coming out and in a band as a drummer? joining me. It was a really good tour and a lot of fun. We may do it again Would you like to? sometime. I talked to Kelly Keeling about it at Rocklahoma and we’d like to try it again but everyone’s so busy. Can you imagine a band with five lead Oh yeah. I started out on drums, singers? It’s very difficult and complicated to keep all the egos in track and to but not necessarily in a band. I’ve make everybody happy. But when we sang harmonies, it was incredible, the done a lot of sessions and jam five voices singing together it was absolutely incredible. every now and then. I did some NE: After Keel’s breakup you started playing country music. How did shows, just to have fun and keep that skill because I really enjoy the Keel fans react on that change? it, but it’s way to much work. The drummer works very hard It’s a lot more complicated than that. Actually after 3 years I put together a band and doesn’t get all the called Fair Game and it was my all female band in the early ‘90s. I mean, I was attention. The singer has just really beat up I was burned out and I needed to get back to where I started with to walk on stage and sing. just me, the guitar and some songs. I went through some things in my personal life, The drummer has a big not only the career change that happened in the early ‘90s. I mean I was a rock responsibility because he’s star, I had a nice beach house, a sports cars and a record deal and you thought it

INTERVIEW time. We never really cared so much about making videos before, but it was actually fun to do it. So we will definitely make one more. NE: You’ve had the reaper character on the last couple of album covers. What is the reaper representative of? Just trying to show that this is old school thrash, and that death is always something we all have close to us. NE: The current line-up is now 4/5 the same as on “By Inheritance” and only the frontman is different now. How is the chemistry in the band with Soren compared to how it was with Flemming?

Photo: Target Distribution

A lot better, Soren is also a good friend and is a really nice, down to earth guy. And we can play live a lot more than before. NE: Yo had some adventures in the Soviet Union in the late eighties. Can you tell me more about that?

he old-school Danish thrashers who are most known for their brilliant 1988 “By Inheritance” album went into remission for a decade, but at last have now returned to the scene, much to the excitement of longtime fans. “When Death Comes” is an album, where – to cite Simon who reviewed it for the previous issue of Noizz Eater – every song is a winner and it’s hard to not agree with that. The original guitarist Michael Stutzer recently took the time to talk about the new album in addition to covering the band's classic period.

NE: You recorded “When Death Comes” 10 years after your previous studio release " B.A.C.K." Did you keep in touch with today's current studio technology or were you surprised when you had started recording the album about how much had changed over that period of time? I personally have followed a lot of the new studio technology and I do a lot of demo stuff of my own using Cubase, but I think Carsten was very impressed at how easy it is to do many of the drum things today than it was in the earlier years! NE: Two songs on “When Death Comes” are re-recorded tunes from the 1991 “Mind Factory” demo. Were the rest of the ideas collected in 1999-2009 or were they all fresh? Songs like “Sandbox Philosophy” and “Chaos Ride” (Japanese bonus) were made in 2007 and some of the riffs from “The End” and “Not A Nightmare” go back to the “B.A.C.K.” album period. Songs like “Damned Religion” and “When Death Comes” were written in 2008 and the last ones were made in early 2009. NE: “When Death Comes” consists of a huge whopping of melodic thrash riffs, in the classic Artillery tradition. Who’s the riff-master in the band? Morten makes most of the riffs and I contribute with some songs like “Sandbox Philsophy” for example, but we all work hard in the rehearsal room to finish the songs. NE: The lyrics of “Sandbox Philosophy”

are about politicians who act like children. Do you really think that a child can be as stupid as some of the politicians are? No not really, in fact they are more honest and say things like they are. But the meaning of the song is more like some politicians really never grow up and take the consequences of what they have done. NE: “Damned Religion” is quite an aggressive anti-religious song. Why do people subscribe to deities, in your opinion? I think people who turned to their gods are missing to believe in themselves, and have to get the strength from their gods to have a meaning within their lives. People can believe in their gods as long as they don’t harm other people, but the history has shown that religion has caused so much pain, killing and wars. So that’s why it’s called “Damned Religion”! NE: The new album was released through a Polish label. I’m surprised that a metal label of bigger stature wasn't interested in picking the album up and releasing it? Metal Mind had the rights to release all of our back catalogue and after releasing the box we did the DVD “One Foot In The Grave, The Other One In The Trash”. So when they asked us to do a full record shortly after the DVD, we said yes. So we never really talked to other companies, it happened so fast. NE: The concert you recorded for the DVD at the Metalmania festival in Poland was one of the first gigs with Soren. Would

you say that he was musically well prepared to do the shoot? If we could re-record it today, we would all do it much better as it was only our third gig, but sometimes you must take the chances when you have them and the DVD really opened a lot of doors for us. So I guess we had to do a DVD more to show the shape we are in now. NE: Soren sung for many bands outside of the thrash metal realm, Crystal Eyes being the most recent. Were you familiar with his more aggressive singing approach before you asked him to join the band? We have seen him live and have heard a lot of cover songs he did very well, so we knew he could do it. We also knew he wanted to join a more aggressive band, and after only two rehearsals we decided to give it a try. NE: Weren’t you afraid that the band would lose some of its “thrashiness” when you recruited a power metal singer?

We only played five gigs out of ten in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and then we were banned and sent out of Russia.The main reason was the Russian headbangers went totally crazy and entered the stage to headbang and the Russian authorities didn’t like that and they beat up the fans. The fans only did what all headbangers do, but the Russians were not prepared for that. NE: You guys have always used a lot of guitar scales and strange rhythm changes that are uncommon for metal music. What inspired you to do so? We always tried to put originality into our music and a lot of it came from our Russian tour. We also love to do some tempo changes to make the songs more interesting. Morten also loves to play those Eastern scales and he composed many of our songs. NE: There aren’t many traditional bands coming out of Denmark. Tell me, how’s the old-school metal scene now in your country? Besides the many modern metal bands like Hatesphere, Mnemic etc. there is also a growing scene for old school thrash bands like Essence, Impalers etc. who are very young but good! So it seems like old school thrash won’t die and that’s great. NE: Do you think if Artillery had not disbanded / re-united so many times over the years you would have achieved more success? Maybe, it’s hard to say, but the chances would have definitely been better.

No not really, because he had a lot more variation in his singing than Flemming had and he can sing thrash lines as well.

NE: Please tell me that the fans won’t have to wait ten years for the next Artillery album?

NE: How is it possible that you’ve already released five full length albums and “10,000 Devils” is your first video clip ever?

I am really sure that we won’t wait ten years more, and we already have started to work on new songs so in 2010 you will see some new stuff!

We only recorded “Terror Squad” as a promo video and a “Missing Link - Lobotomized” video before, so it was great to do a real video this

WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w . a r t i l l e r y. d k

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etal Church is no more but vocalist Ronny Munroe, who has worked his ass off with the band for the last six years, is not a guy who quits easily. The direction of the solo album isn’t very different from what he’s done with Metal Church and I’m sure all Metal Church fans will welcome this release with open arms. It was recorded in Kurdt Vanderhoof’s studio and Kurdt also took care of the production, so you can expect a good traditional US metal release. I asked Ronny not only about “The Fire Within” but about his days with Metal Church as well. NE: “The Fire Within” has been out for a while now. Are the responses from the metal community what you expected them to be or are you surprised that the people like the album a lot? I’m not too surprised because I knew the songs were strong but yes, I did worry a bit before the release. You never know what the fans are going to think. It’s been very positive, like you mentioned and I am looking forward to a stronger recording next time out.

NE: How many times have you been asked a question about your reasons for recording “Man On The Silver Mountain”? Haha! A lot, but that's OK! Let's let the fans dig that info up, it’s not hard to find! NE: You had an EP out 2 years ago and one of the songs on it was “Desperate Man”. Why did you re-record this number for the debut album?

NE: “Ride Me” is totally different from the rest of the album, being a hard rock song with rock lyrics. Who wrote it and why did you put it on the album? I wrote it actually and it was something I'd had in my head that I wanted to share with the fans for sometime. I like that song. NE: At the beginning of your collaboration with Kurdt he just wanted you to join his

NE: What’s the response from the hardcore Metal Church fans been like?

NE: Do you have some secrets on how to get the crowd going or what we see on stage is just Ronny like he is in private life?

NE: What about touring with the new album? Can we expect to see you in Europe soon?

NE: Did you ask Kurdt to produce the album, or was it more like, “Hey Ronny, I hear you’re going to record a solo album, I’d like to work on it with you“?

Photo: Randy Forshey

Well, we have audio from a few shows and video as well from some of the other shows we did. When it’s done it's going to be great, but at this time, right now, I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do. Watch this space!

You heard that, did you? Hey! I recorded that with some friends back in Seattle actually, actually George Hernandez from the ‘80s metal band Panic. We are doing a demo to shop around and see what happens. I like to stay busy!

A little, but I had a bit more say so in the way things came out this time. It’s always great to work with Kurdt. We’ll see who I work with on the next one, you never know who it might be!

I wrote and brought in, in my opinion anyway, a lot more old school power and thrash metal songs this time, because that's my roots. I never tried to sound like MC but I guess you can’t help sounding a little bit like that when you’re a fan of that kind of music, right? I’m thinking about doing a Polka record next! We’ll see if that sounds like MC, haha!

NE: MC disbanded, but there are some plans for a DVD/live album release next year. What can we expect?

NE: You’ve recorded a new song called “Which Way To Madness”. Is it a song for the next album?

NE: You recorded the album at Kurdt’s studio. Was the recording session similar to sessions for a Metal Church album?

NE: In Metal Church Kurdt was the main songwriter. Now you write a lot of material, but it isn’t very different to Metal Church’s music...

I think you have to have people that want to help themselves and that was not the case with MC. I learned a lot from being in MC and if you visit my web-pages you will see that that is exactly what I’m doing now. I have a great bunch of people I’m working with and I do a lot of this on my own. You have to in this day and age to stay alive in the business.

No, man... In private life the switch is off for most of the time - I think it has to be. But when I step on a stage it’s a different world! I feed off the energy that's coming back from the crowd and the music and I believe that if you can't and, in fact, don’t get the crowd's attention as soon as you walk out there, you never will.

People are disappointed that MC broke up, of course, but that was really always going to happen. That’s been the history of MC. I have to move on and keep doing what I love to do! Who knows, maybe in the future MC will do something again but if not, I will still be out there. The fans have been pretty supportive thus far, actually!

We both actually brought it up around the same time to be honest and then agreed to work together. When you have someone like Kurdt Vanderhoof around offering to help you, you don’t turn it down, and it was a great experience, actually! Different but great!

business in their own hands and do well without any label support. Did you consider going this way?

I'd love to do it. MC always had a nice following in Europe. I have people working on it, so I surely hope so!

That song was the first song I ever wrote on guitar and the lyrical content is close to my metal heart, so it fits here perfectly! NE: Why did you record “Evil Genius”, the Rottweiler song? Did you write it while you were in the band? Yes I did, actually. I actually wrote a number of songs on that Rottweiller release. I got the gig with MC two weeks before going in the studio with Rottweiller and it was that album with "Evil Genius" that we were doing. I like that song because it reminds me of something off of Halford's “Resurrection” album.

project Vanderhoof. As far as I know it was you who kept asking him about the Metal Church re-union. Do you think he would have re-united the band if it weren't for you? If you listen to what Kurdt has actually said up 'til now, no he would not have. He has always said that MC was a lot of grief for him for whatever reasons. I’m just glad he gave me a shot and we were able to do what we did in the 6 years I was in the band. It was a great experience and I'll always be grateful for the chance. NE: Metal Church is over and you say that it was mostly due to lack of help from the outside. Many today’s bands take the

NE: Are you going to play any Metal Church songs live? Haha! Yes, I do a couple of the classics and stuff I was on! My band kicks ass! I’m very proud of the guys I have with me. No one will be disappointed! NE: What are your main goals now that you’ve gone solo? To basically continue to put out the music I love and to perform to the best of my ability, all over this great big metal world! WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. r o n n y m u n r o e . c o m

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he German heavy metallers have created another underground old-school heavy metal masterpiece. I call the album this because I’ve always belonged to the group that basically digs all of their releases. There’s also a group of haters who always complain about Gerrit’s vocals, but fuck them! You need to only hear one verse and you know it’s Sacred Steel and that’s one of the things I really like about the band. “Carnage Victory” tops a couple of their latest releases in my opinion and you can find great heavy riffs, tasteful solos and lyrical subjects dealing with war, religion (or rather anti-religion) and metal on here, as usual. Read on and learn about what frontman Gerrit Mutz had to say about the work on the album. NE: It’s the first interview I’m doing in 2010 so I’d like to ask what are your musical hopes for the New Year? Hey Wojtek, well, my hopes musically are that 2010 will be as strong as 2009. 2009 really was an incredible year when it comes to great releases. Though it would be much better for my purse if, this year, only crap would be released, haha… NE: What was your biggest musical disappointment and biggest surprise in 2009? The biggest disappointment again was Manowar. That “Father” single was so unbelievably cheesy, really embarrassing. The biggest surprise sure was the rise of The Devil’s Blood. I love that band since I first heard them but was blown away by the overall response to them in general. All hail to them! NE: Two founding members left the band after “Iron Blessings”. It’s been 5 years since the line-up was refreshed. What’s the chemistry in the band like now? We are a good team, definitely. We don’t rehearse often enough

to talk about a real magic chemistry here but we have found a cast of characters that just match and complement each other. I am really looking forward to beginning the songwriting for the next album with these maniacs. NE: As far as I know the album was ready by the end of 2008. Why did it take almost a year to get it released? There were several reasons for that. Our contract with Massacre had expired and the negotiations for a new contract took longer than expected. Then we had to mix the album twice because we were not totally satisfied with the first mix. Additionally we had to get a second full cover design for the album because we were not absolutely happy with the first draft. NE: What was wrong with the first mix? The first mix just sounded exactly like the mix on “Hammer Of Destruction”! Not that “Hammer” sounded bad but we didn’t want the same sound for “Carnage”. The songs on “Carnage” were more diverse and therefore needed another treatment.

NE: Jens and Jonas are the main composers in the band. Do you have any input in the song writing, apart from the vocal lines and lyrics? All 5 of us are free to add ideas here and there when it comes to the arrangements. This time I even contributed a song to the album entitled “Metal Underground”. Normally I don’t write songs anymore though. I leave that to Jens and Jonas respectfully, they have way, way more talent than I. NE: The lyrics are now darker and more aggressive. Have you become more aggressive as you have gotten older or did you just come up with the lyrics when you heard the music? Well, the older I get the more pissed I get. That’s for sure! By looking at the world and all the insanity around it’s not easy to stay calm all the time. Of course, music like ours also demands strong and direct lyrics. In older times the old people used to say “I got the blues”. Well, I got the metal haha! NE: On the new album you decided to speak about the Catholic Church’s dirty deeds, but to be honest you really won’t reach a wide audience with the music you play. Did you do this just to get rid of your own anger? When I came across these foul deeds while surfing on the net I immediately needed to write these lyrics to get rid of my anger, yeah. I know that we won’t change the world and I know that many people will not even pay attention to the song but, we’re in this band to please ourselves first. In my opinion the Catholic Church is a fascist pedophile organisation that is built on lies. It desecrates and ignores everything that their so called saviour Jesus ever wanted – that is if he ever existed. NE: If you had a chance to speak to an audience full of Catholics, what would you say?

Photos: Massacre Records

Where is your God now? Why do you pray to a dead man hanging on an instrument of torture? How does it feel to have an imaginary friend? Why do you listen to an old man, calling himself the Pope, who has no right whatsoever to call himself God’s incarnation on earth. I guess, I’d not talk to them at all because I’m not intelligent enough. I’d ask Mr. Karlheinz Deschner to please talk to those fools and tell them in short, why they are idiots. He has written the best books concerning that matter. NE: I asked Peavy from Rage the same question. Have you observed any changes in Germany since a German became Pope? The so called Pope is a shame to every free thinking human being! He was once the boss of the Great Inquisition. They just don’t go by that name anymore. He is the antichrist and his sign is the inverted cross, by the way. So you devil worshippers out there better think twice about whom you worship, haha… NE: In the title track you focus on the senselessness of

INTERVIEW war and soldiers who die for the wrong ideals. Why did this song in particular become the title track and why was the cover art based upon these lyrics?

NE: Do you think Sacred Steel music would convince more metal fans if you stopped using the falsettos?

War is the biggest curse upon humanity. War makes beasts of prey out of all of us. It reduces civilisation to exactly what it is - a sad dream. When we started working on that song and I came up with lyrics that were written from the point of view of a US soldier stationed in Iraq, we immediately decided that this would make a strong cover, visually. Unfortunately sometimes war is inevitable, but is should be as short as absolutely possible!

Hmm, maybe. I’ll have to stop the falsettos anyway soon because I can’t handle them anymore. Not even badly. But that won’t stop me from continuing to ruin some old songs when we play them live, haha…

NE: Who had the idea to add the little Mercyful Fate tribute? It was my idea. I was taking a shower, singing our newest song, when suddenly I caught myself singing the words “Don’t Break The Oath” in the chorus part. I was laughing, thinking that this would be silly, but giving it a second thought it just felt right. NE: There’s another tribute song on the album, called “Metal Underground” where you mention a lot of classic album titles in the lyrics. What inspired you to do so? That also was very spontaneous. I was fooling around on my old guitar when I improvised singing “Hail, metal underground” etc. along to the riffs. I somehow liked it but shelved it because the song was too much heavy metal for my doom band Dawn Of Winter and too doomy for Sacred Steel. When we discussed the material for the “Carnage” album, Matze said that we needed one more song that maybe would be a bit more like a metal hymn. I mentioned my song, not thinking that they’d go for it, but they did. NE: There’s a spoken part in “Broken Rites”. What do these Greek words mean and why is it in Greek? It’s a Greek prayer. The intention was that this was spoken by a father of a child abused. It could have also been in Spanish or German or whatever language but due to the fact that Lia is a Greek metalhead and helped us out on that part, we just took his Greek prayer. NE: “Ceremonial Magician Of The Left Hand Path” is basically a doom metal song. Since you’re a big doom metal fan, was it your idea to put such a composition on the album? Nope, that was solely Jonas’s idea. He had that kind of Candlemass inspired song and was not sure if it was too doomy for Sacred Steel. We gave it a shot though, thinking of other doomier Sacred Steel songs before like “Lay Me To My Grave”. It sounded good and so we kept it. NE: Any news about your doom metal projects? Yes! We have one new Dawn Of Winter song finished, entitled “The Stillborn Restless Ghost”. That’s fantastic news because normally it takes us about 4-5 years to even come up with a song title, haha! With the doom project I am involved in, Angel Of Damnation, we are thinking of maybe doing a full-length record this year. We’ll see. NE: I read a couple of reviews of the new album and the writers always touch on the subject of your vocals. Many of them complain about it. Since your voice is a very important part of the Sacred Steel style, aren’t you fed up with people talking about it again and again? Well, I can’t complain about them complaining really. It’s their good right to do so. I have a strange voice and I don’t like it too much myself, but it’s like complaining about my short dick. I can’t change it, haha... My voice is a trademark and you can only love or hate it. That’s not bad at all. It’s better than sounding like anybody else out there. I see myself in the tradition of singers like Scott Reagers, King Diamond, Mark Shelton, Tim Baker, Gary Golwitzer, John Bonata, Doug Lee, Zeeb Parkes or Terry Jones.

NE: Talking about vocals, you used to do some growls on your past albums and they added some spice to the music in my opinion. Why did you get back to your roots when it comes to the vocals? The last song on “Carnage” is done with lots of death metal vocals. I don’t see that we have less or more of these vocals on the new album. I just try to come up with a vocal style that best suits the song. The songs on “Carnage” were pretty melodic and that’s why there’s not too much growling. NE: When you compare your vocals on “Reborn In Steel” to “Carnage Victory” it’s clearly audible that you’ve developed as a singer and you’ve got a lot more control over your voice now. Did you work on your voice with some professionals or is it just the effect of gaining more experience?

“By looking at the world and all the insanity around it’s not easy to stay calm all the time.”

I was a pretty good singer when we recorded the Tragedy Divine album prior to the Sacred Steel debut. I was very confident and I loved my voice back then. Unfortunately I was a big asshole as well. When we started Sacred Steel I thought that real singing was gay and I started to just screech my way through the compositions. After that I struggled to find my singing voice and my confidence again. I guess that “Carnage” vocally is the best album I ever recorded along with the Tragedy Divine album and the latest Dawn Of Winter effort. NE: There’s a special edition of the new album again and a part of this is a 7” single. Will these songs be released elsewhere? You never know what the future will bring and I say “never say never”. But I’d love to just see this stuff only released in the boxset. NE: A lot of bands add bonus DVDs to the special editions of their albums as you did. Why didn’t you just release the DVD separately? It’s because the DVD was done very spontaneously and would not have been good enough to be released on its own. Apart from that, we are a small band and nobody would buy a Sacred Steel DVD. Our label would go nuts if we released such a thing on its own. NE: ”Wargods Of Metal” was the album that placed Sacred Steel on the metal map and it was also your most successful release I think. If “Carnage Victory” had been released in 1998, would you say it would have been more or less successful than “Wargods”? I’m asking purely about song writing, not the production.

I have no idea. In my opinion “Carnage” and also “Slaughter Prophecy” are better albums than “Wargods”, but that’s just my point of view. Indeed, “Wargods” was very successful back then because it was the right album at the right time. NE: Which songs off the new album do you play live now and how did you decide which of them will be played in a live setting? So far we’ve played “Charge Into Overkill”, “Broken Rites”, “Carnage Victory” and “Denial Of Judas”. These are the best songs on the album and they also rule in a live situation. When we play Sweden in about two weeks from now we’ll also include “Metal Underground” because that’s the fave song of the guy in charge there. NE: As Sacred Steel is more of a hobby for you all, will you be able to put together a proper tour to support “Carnage Victory”? I don’t know. We all have families and day jobs. We’ll do our best to play as much as possible but I don’t think that we’ll be able to put together a 2-3 week tour though. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. s a c r e d s t e e l . d e

INTERVIEW an enthusiasm I’ve not often seen and much experience gained during his Nightmare time. I learned a lot with him, and his joy to be part of a “true metal” band gave us fresh blood – and really kicked our ass. He’s a great architect so to say of what became “The Dark Crusade”. NE: On “The Dark Crusade” you’ve got the best sound so far. How did you end up working with the legendary Andy LaRocque for the mixing and mastering process on the new album? Was he almost too expensive for an underground band?

“

he Dark Crusade” is the latest release from the French true metal warriors Lonewolf and their most mature record to date. Working with an actual producer and getting Andy LaRocque to do the mixing and mastering process they managed to take the band to the next level. They have had a loyal fanbase in markets like Germany and Greece for years, but I think it’s high time for the traditional metal fans in other parts of the world to take notice and get to know the music created by these Running Wild followers. Lonewolf founder and guitarist Jens Borner brings us up to speed on the current activities of Lonewolf.

say. Bart also guided us in the way how to record, on what amps to play, saw things of the recording process directly with Mitch, our sound engineer. We learned a lot during the pre-production, all is a bit more “professional” so to say. We also took care of little things we never paid really attention before. All in all this makes “The Dark Crusade” sound more mature than our previous releases, even if I have to say that I still consider that with “Made In Hell” we made a huge step forward already. NE: That’s true. It’s easy to hear that Lonewolf made huge progress in the period between “Unholy Paradise” (2003) and “Made In Hell” (2008). Was it hard to make the new record even better sounding than “Made In Hell”? It became even more easier than ever I guess. We were in a very good mood after “Made In Hell”, which pushed us a step forward in the underground and gave us great opportunities to play some famous festivals in Europe. We also entered the Hard Rocker Management roster, which is of course a great source of motivation for us also. And I came back to Alex, who came up with a thousand ideas and like I said it was fantastic to work together. We were really excited. Another proof for that is that Damien, our lead guitarist, never really was involved in the song writing. But after “Made In Hell”, he began to write more and more and he really wrote strong things for “The Dark Crusade”. The title track, for example, is from him alone. This really surprised me, but showed me the positive atmosphere in the band. So it really came naturally.

NE: The new album seems to be the most mature album Lonewolf has ever released. Was the song writing process very different in comparison to your previous albums?

NE: I also know that your new guitarist Alex, from the French legend Nightmare has written a couple of tunes. Weren’t you afraid that letting a new guy write material would make the style turn in a different direction?

The song writing itself was not that different than the previous ones. We just play what we love, put riffs together – and then it works – or not, haha! The thing that really changed is that for the first time we worked with a producer, our manager Bart Gabriel. During the pre-production we talked a lot about the songs, arrangements, riffs etc. This was totally new for us but also very exciting. Today “The Dark Crusade” is what it is thanks to this process. It is very helpful to have an opinion from the outside from someone who knows exactly what we want and what fits to a band like us. As we were in the pre-production process, we were sometimes so into it that we didn’t see little things that could be better. There Bart has been very important, guiding us with his opinions. He’s not the guy saying “Do this like I say”, it’s rather “Try this and we’ll see...” and I must admit that most of the time his advice was very precious. I never worked with a producer before, but today I hope that we’ll work the same way for the next album after “The Dark Crusade”. It gives this little something to the songs that sometimes may have been missed in our older productions. It is even reassuring to have him at our side I must

No, not really. First, I was always behind him taking care of what would fit to Lonewolf and what would not haha! No, honestly, I already knew that he was the perfect guy before we even started to write together on some new stuff. I have known him for a few years now, and I have to say that he often made me listen to demos he made for Nightmare. The thing is that it really was real metal most of the times, but after the Nightmare albums came out, the difference between the demos I heard and the final result on CD was always huge! The producer and the other guys from Nightmare made him turn his songs into a more “current” vein, and changed many things in the studio making the riffs and songs sound more “current”. These kind of things are also part of why he quit Nightmare. I mean, Alex is a die hard Iron Maiden fan – and you can really hear that in some parts he wrote for Lonewolf. That’s also why it all worked so well: Alex feels really free in Lonewolf, as what we recorded for pre-production is very near to what the song will sound like in the end. I know he really had a pleasure in writing. He even wrote more than I’d ever thought he would – and for me it was really fantastic to work with him. He has

Our producer Bart knew him well already as he had already worked with him. So Andy was the first and only choice – honestly we didn’t even search one second for someone else, ‘cause when you have the opportunity to work with such a guy you don’t hesitate very long. No, he was not too expensive – furthermore as Karthago gave also some money. And I really have to say how happy we are with the result of Andy’s work. The first time we heard the mixes that were not even mastered it blew us away. We expected good work, of course, but not this haha! Not to talk of the honour it is to have a guy like Andy behind the sound of our album. I listened to all my old King Diamond vinyls not long ago, and I remembered as I discovered this band when I was so young and so fascinated by the albums. I must have listened to “Abigail” and “The Eye” ten thousand times... And today the guitar player makes our sound! Life can be just beautiful, haha! NE: It must have been a great experience to have Majk Moti guest on your new release? Yeah, this is just magic. Something magic like only the music can bring. I remember this day in ‘87 discovering “Under Jolly Roger”, I remember seeing Majk live during the “Death Or Glory” tour etc. And today this guy branded some piece of eternity on my album! Sometimes I still can’t believe this. And to share the stage and have drinks with him and his new band Wild Knight is of course fantastic. NE: “Legacy Of The Wild” lyrics feature Running Wild song album titles. I suppose that was your idea? Yeah, of course haha! In fact, it is the last song we wrote, and not too long before recording the vocals I still hadn’t completed the lyrics. I had no inspiration – ‘till one day I was listening a Running Wild CD. And as this is a song which reminds me of Running Wild, I thought it would be funny to do a thing like this. It’s a little tribute, to some music that changed my life. And I had the lyrics in five minutes, the problem was solved haha! And this song is really one of my faves. NE: The eighties brought us a lot of classic and timeless metal bands. Why did you decide to follow in the footsteps of Running Wild in particular? Haha, I don’t know. German metal has always been, since I discovered metal (1986) the best music for me. It’s not possible to describe this with words, it’s in the blood and soul. And considering this, I think it is normal that it is Teutonic steel that brands the riffs more than anything else. It was not a decision, it was my heart that I followed simply. I mean, I will not write a Metallica or Slayer riff just to say, “Look! We play something else!” I don’t care if we sound too much like this or that, what matters is that we have fun, and that the metalheads supporting us have fun at gigs and get what they await when the new Lonewolf stuff comes out. It’s an honour for a band when people buy and support your music, this cannot be forgotten. Our first aim with the new stuff is not to disappoint those people, and today those people really await true metal with a strong German connection when Lonewolf stuff comes out. NE: How do you feel about the Running Wild split? Don’t you think Rolf should have done a farewell tour and not just a one-off show? Yes, of course this is totally what I think. Running Wild is a band that had/still has some of the most loyal fans ever, and it would

INTERVIEW have been cool to thank them with a farewell tour through Europe. ‘Cause when the news fell that Rolf ends Running Wild and that the last show would be Wacken, Wacken was already nearly sold out! Hundreds of fans (like me!) didn’t find tickets no more. This is really sad – but it’s the heart of the die hard maniac I am that talks. Now, if I look at this being “open minded”, I really feel that Rolf was fed up – and this since a few years. I mean, Running Wild didn’t really tour since years, there’s a reason for this. And considering this, OK, I can understand. Rolf wanted to turn the page, and, all considerations put apart, what better solution to bury Running Wild than one show in Wacken? With all symbolic it has: Running Wild started in Hamburg, Running Wild ended near Hamburg. The circle has been completed. And we can only thank Rolf and all the others – Majk, Hasche, Jens, Thilo etc. for the metal history they wrote and for making our hearts beat faster. NE: Have you heard any material from Rolf’s new project?

NE: Lonewolf disbanded in 1996 and you got back together four years later. Briefly describe why Lonewolf broke up only to reunite at a later date? We broke up after having signed a bad contract with a French label that turned out to be a rip off. We re-united, well, it sounds strange but a lot of people still talked to me about Lonewolf back around the end of the ‘90s/beginning of 2000s, they spoke to me of a possible reunion etc. It was strange to me ‘cause we were of course even more underground back then than today and one day I met our first drummer ever, a guy I didn’t see for years at that time. I wanted to put a tribute band together (playing Running Wild, Motorhead, Maiden etc), nothing serious, just a way to play a bit of guitar again (I didn’t touch a guitar for four years after the split) and have fun, and asked him if he wanted to join. It’s this guy who said to me, “Why wouldn’t we put Lonewolf again together?” It took me a few days to reply, but I also thought about those people asking me to reunite and I finally agreed. But I hadn’t played guitar or sung for years, I was a bit afraid. Today I still thank him so much, haha... NE: In the beginnings of the band you recorded a full length album but it was shelved before it was ever released. Did any songs off that unreleased album ever wind up on some of your other albums? We recorded this album in ‘96, just before the split. Yeah, some songs were used on “March Into The Arena”, our first album (2002) - “Pagan Glory” and “Towards The Light”, because we really thought that they were good songs and loved to play them (“Pagan Glory” is still played live today). I can tell you – in rehearsal it can become really, really boring after nearly ten years of playing it, haha, but it’s always real fun to perform on stage. There was also “Morbid Beauty”, but with another title and other lyrics. I don’t really remember what else was on this album, I haven’t got it and I don’t want to have it. There was an old demo song, “Walpurgis Night” I guess, a song entitled “Medieval Witchcraft” (which has nothing to do with the same titled song off our second CD “Unholy Paradise”) and the rest I’m not even sure. Oh yes, there was also “Legions Of The Unlight”, the bonus track on “March Into The Arena” re-release. I love the song itself, but hate the recording, you hear that there’s no feeling, no conviction, nothing. As we recorded this “lost” album, we already knew that something was wrong with the so called label, that the album surely would never see the light of day and you feel it in the recordings. NE: As a young French band you’ve probably supported some big acts at home. Which concerts would you say have been the most memorable for you? The show I remember the best is without hesitation the second time we played in Greece at the Up The Hammers festival. We had a

NE: You’ve got German roots but live in France. Do you have any idea why the Germans have had literally hundreds of great heavy metal bands, while in contrast the neighbouring France only have a few that made it big? First thing is that in France people always look at what goes on outside of our country and don’t support their own bands, while in Germany people are proud of their own bands and support them strongly. Secondly in France there is no real musical culture contrary to Germany. Also, when you look at a French metal mag and at a German one, you have the impression that they don’t talk about the same music. In Germany, even if some bands have nothing to do with metal, but there will always be something true and pure in each issue. In France, they will soon call a rap band – if they play two guitar chords– a metal band! They say this is something “open minded” and this is cool because it has not been done before etc. It’s awful. With the exception of Metallian magazine, here in France metal magazines are more rock oriented, and this is even kind of what I say. Money rules, that’s all. France has forgotten what metal’s about, how it used to be, the way it should be. But I have to say that in the underground it boils! We now have some good true metal acts like Holy Cross, Hürlement, Resistance etc. and people go to underground true metal gigs. Without any promotion from great magazines or media, but the true maniacs are here. Such maniacs are bored from the official French scene, and know where to go and search for what we call metal. But I guess one day this will all change in France, because the underground becomes stronger and stronger, and the French underground, beside loving international acts of course, supports and is proud of the French scene! Last gig we played here for example, for the release of “The Dark Crusade”, some maniacs made a 400 km journey to come, others made a 600 km trip, we never saw this before. And this is not only for Lonewolf, I speak for our whole underground scene of course. As I said before, here we have only Metallian magazine which supports “non mainstream French underground metal”, but one day the time will come when they will not be alone anymore. I feel that France goes back to the true values of metal. Shall it be heavy, thrash, power, death but true at heart.

People here often laughed at bands like Lonewolf (spikes, leather, 80s attitude etc.) but where are they today? Their “cheesy” tralala metal bands died one by one, and we are still here stronger than ever. They made one gig in Paris and thought “We made it – we’ll be stars!”, today we played in Europe and still know that it’s great luck for us ‘cause a thousand other bands would love to do this. That’s because we have support from true metal fans – the most loyal fans on this earth! They had support from guys who thought they where “in” ‘cause a magazine talked of them and today they listen to something else. This is the simple difference. NE: The last question is: what would you say to all those rap-metal fans dressed in clown-trousers who laugh at the old-school denim and leather image? Oh, honestly I don’t really care about them. We live for something special, we really have a “brotherhood” with the metalheads supporting Lonewolf or true metal in general. The people you talk about will never know this, will never know the magic of it all. Deep inside they know this, and for me it’s more jealousy than something else. But if I had to say one thing, it would be, “Stop thinking by what the mainstream says, think by yourself – otherwise you’ll always be a puppet of the system.” WOJTEK GABRIEL www.myspace.com/metalonewolf

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

Mmh, yes. Some things I find really OK, some things – it’s a bit harder for me to listen to, haha... But I mean, it’s OK for me, as it didn’t come out under the name of Running Wild, but Toxic Taste. If it had been released under Running Wild’s name, everyone would have screamed “traitor” to Rolf! So, for me it’s OK that he wants to do something different, he had to find a new name, put a new band together and bury the legendary Running Wild. The flag was kept high for almost thirty years, and the spirit will never die.

problem with our bass player and Jan (Paragon) jumped in. As I’m a total Paragon fan you can imagine what that was like for me. The crowd was absolutely amazing that day. We honestly have a good following in Greece but none of us ever expected this – the metalheads were totally crazy. Another gig I remember is not so long ago... the Hard Rocker festival in Poland, it was the first time we played there and we were anxious to see the crowd’s reaction. It was simply fantastic! I mean, nearly every show since two years back is something to remember for us. Spain and Germany were also amazing, but concerning France there are of course some of special significance. We opened for Grave Digger (it was Damien’s first gig ever – I still remember his pale face just before our show haha! It was a good baptism of fire. Another very important gig for us was the first time we opened for Paragon here. We became friends with them, Jan even became a very close friend of mine. Thanks to Jan we played shows in Germany, like the Headbangers Open Air near Hamburg. We also opened for Dark Age, which led to the fact that Eike, singer and guitarist, mixed and mastered our previous album “Made In Hell”. But we never opened for a big band here in France. We played with bigger bands outside our country, like Pretty Maids, Tankard, Omen, Manilla Road, Wolf etc. This comes also from the fact that the kind of bands I just talked about don’t tour in France, as the metal situation is rather shitty here.

INTERVIEW

ike the maestro Jon Oliva stated in the interview you’re about to read, he likes to keep changing all the time, so don’t expect the new JOP album to be a continuation of “Global Warning”. “Festival” is much heavier, darker and more guitar-oriented, when compared to its keyboard-driven predecessor. You will find some surprises here, but those of you who love the good old Savatage style will find this album more to your liking. Welcome to the festival! NE: The main theme for the new album was based on a dream you had. Can you please explain it further? It was during the last summer festival tour that we did. I think it was in Germany or somewhere. It got cold at night and I fell asleep. I left the windows open in our hotel room and I woke up freezing cold. I closed the windows, I fell back asleep and I went into this nightmare. It was really weird. It was like a festival set-up with everything that usually surrounds it, where you can buy all kinds of stuff, but they had like torture devices. They were chopping people’s arms off and all kinds of stuff like that so it was really weird. I described it to the guy who did the artwork and sent him a little sketch of what I saw and when he sent it back to us I almost fell off the chair ‘cause it was so close, so realistic to what it was like in the dream. The idea kind of grew from there. It was exciting. It was cool and it was a different approach. On the last few records I’ve been singing a lot about shit that’s going on around the world blah, blah, blah… I figured I’d done enough of that, so I’d try to get back into some weird stuff, ha-ha! It worked and I like it. NE: Why is "Festival" the title track? Does it represent the album in the best possible way in your opinion?

Well, it sets up the album. Even though it’s the third song on the album, it sets up the mood of what the album is going to be like. That was like the heaviest dream of all of them so I wanted to make that the one that stood out. It kind of welcomes you to the record. The first two songs “Lies” and “Death Rides A Black Horse” are not fantasy type songs. Those are more based in reality. So I kind of started the dream stuff from the “Festival” song onward, but that’s just my own little thing. It really doesn’t mean anything. I mean it’s not a concept or anything like that. It’s just kind of a theme for the album so to me it didn’t really matter where I put it just as long as people knew that that was the title track. It’s in a very weird tuning. It’s just a weird song, you know? Ha-ha! We just did a lot of weird stuff on it, all kinds of weird pipe organs, horns, just the weirdest shit that you can imagine to make up the noise that is going on in the background during the verses. It’s just a really cool track, one of my favourite ones on the album actually. NE: The title track has this strange horror-like atmosphere to it. The fair music is at a different tempo than the main track... Yeah, ha-ha, it’s a weird song man. We sat down and we just did what we did. I know Howard, the keyboard guy from Morrisound. He’s a good

buddy of ours who’s worked on the last couple of records. We just started playing scales. I can remember we were just playing runs on different sounding organs, you know, Morrisound has a wide variety of keyboards. We were just playing runs and we just kind of put them in and just kind of threw them together and just saw what happened. Then we took some stuff out, but we wanted to create that kind of swirling, nightmarish kind of vibe in the background of the whole thing. It was really difficult to get it to work but once we got it to work I was like, “Wow! This is really cool!” It just sounded a little bit different and I like doing weird stuff like that. NE: I wonder, did you get any negative comments about the obvious Queen inspirations on "Global Warning?" Did that make you want to change direction now? No. People knew that when “Global Warning” came out that it was going to be a very experimental record for me. I let everybody know that before I even did the album. I said, “This next record is mine. I’m going to do whatever I want to do” ha-ha! I had a bunch of older things that I wanted to put out and finish, as well as some Criss’ stuff that I wanted to put out… That record was also a very keyboard based record. That’s just the way it came together. It’s not like I planned it that way, but I wanted to experiment a little bit. On this record I figured that on the last record I did enough of that. I also like to keep changing because I don’t want to fall into the same pattern. On this record I purposely said, “I’m not going to write any songs with piano at all.” Except for the last song which is the only one that I actually wrote music to with the piano. Everything else I wrote with guitar, most of it in the back of the tour bus last summer actually. We had a bunch of long drives on the tour last summer while doing the festivals. I got a lot of writing done on the road last year, which I don’t usually do that much. That was

really the main difference from “Global…”. “Global…” was written primarily on piano and keyboard and this record I wrote everything on the guitar. NE: So how did the songs actually take shape? Ahh, I drink a lot and then I start… Ha-ha! No. I can kind of hear it as it’s going. I don’t know, maybe that’s a gift that God gave me and if he did, thank you very, very much. I kind of can hear it. If I’m just sitting with the guitar and I’m playing some chord changes or riffs and stuff I can hear strings in the background and the drums and bass and I hear all that stuff in my imagination, I guess? I don’t know how to explain it. That’s what happens. I just kind of hear it and then I’ll try it. I usually put the guitar track down and then I put the drum track to it and then I’ll start building it from there. I demo it up that way for the guys to hear and when it sounds presentable I play it for the guys in the band and I say, “OK, what would you do different on the bass than what I did here?” and let him see what he comes up with. If he comes up with something better than I have, I’ll use it. It’s the same thing with guitars, even though I play a lot of guitar on this new album. That’s another big difference from the last album, because I didn’t really play that much guitar on the “Global Warning” album, because there was so much keyboard work to do. But on this album I play the guitar on almost every song, except for one or two. So that probably gave it a bit of a different sound when compared to the last one. NE: You have two great guitarists in the band, but like you’ve said, you played a lot of guitars in the studio yourself. Why? I don’t know. It’s just because I wrote the songs on guitar. We were going over them and my rhythm style just suited them better I guess because I wrote them. I mean everybody plays

INTERVIEW

Photos: AFM Records

on all the songs, it’s just that my rhythm guitar is dominating a lot of the tracks that I wrote, especially the ones I did in the weird tunings. I’ve got a lot of songs on this record that are in these weird tunings. That just makes you have to play differently when you play that way. It just worked out that way. Matt was like, “This sounds better, so I don’t fucking care.” Ha-ha! Whatever makes the track sound good is what we do. Their tracks are on every song as well. NE: You recorded dozens of guitar tracks. How are you going to play the new songs live? Very carefully, ha-ha! I don’t know how we’re going to do that. We’re going to figure it out. You know, there’s obviously some things that are going to be different live than they are on CD and I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t think that we’re going to choose anything that we’re not capable of reproducing live. We start rehearsals next week so we will find out really soon what songs are going to work and which ones aren’t. We’ve never played them before except for in the studio. It’s a very good question. Thank you for reminding me of that, ha-ha! NE: I think you've been asked and you will be asked this question a thousand times. Why did you put these jazz parts in "Afterglow"? Just so people like you would ask me about it, ha-ha! I had a write-out and I liked it and we had it demoed up and when I was listening to it I was going, “No, this write-out is missing one thing, something that nobody would expect.” So I thought about it for a couple of days and I tried a couple of different things. I tried the jazz thing which ended up being the idea that we used, but I tried a couple of other approaches. I had it drop off and going to something kind of Indian thing, but I didn’t like it as much as the jazz thing that just came out of nowhere. You don’t expect it and that’s what makes the music so wonderful. You never know what to expect. NE: You again used a lot of material written by and with Criss. In which tracks can we hear your brother's riffs? Well, we’ve got Criss’s music in track one which is “Lies”, his music is the verse section of that song. “Living On The Edge” which was an old Savatage demo that Matt helped me finish, he’s got a lot of pieces in that. The very last song, the ballad “Now” was actually one of the first songs Criss and I ever wrote together. He’s got a couple of other riffs in a couple of other songs but those three are the main ones that have a lot of his music in it. He’s got contributions which is great. It’s great to have something of his be a part of what we’re doing. Everyone’s very into it. NE: Speaking of studio work, what was it like to go back to Morrisound again? I suppose you feel like home there? Oh yeah. I mean those guys, they love us, ha-ha! And I love them. They are great people, I’ve known them for twenty-somewhat years. It’s a very close relationship and they really care about stuff and they work really hard. Tom and his brother Jim and all the guys on the staff there, they’re just excellent. They really make it a lot of fun because you don’t have to worry about the stupid stuff because you know you’re dealing with professionals. It’s a great room and they

have a great vibe there. Morrisound has always had that. Ever since the early days with Savatage, there was always a great vibe there and vibe is important when you’re in the studio for 14 to 16 hours a day. NE: I thought you were touring with TSO but it seems that you were stuck in the studio with JOP when the project was on tour? Do you take part in TSO live performances at all? Not on the Christmas tour because I’m just too busy. That thing has been running now for 10-12 years and it’s become like the rocket over here in America. We sell out two show 20,000 seats a day, we’re doing 40,000 people a day. It’s unbelievable. But if I did that I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing now. I have to find time to keep myself happy. TSO is like a job for me. That’s my job that pays me really well. I get to work with all the guys who used to be in Savatage - they’re all in TSO, so we still work together and everyone’s really happy. If I end up performing one day with them, if it all works out and I can do that, I’ll do it. If it doesn’t work out, I’m happy with what I’m doing now. NE: TSO is coming to Europe for the first time this year. Does it make sense financially, to fly over so many people and the production to Europe? I don’t think it makes any sense, but Paul wants to do it anyway. It’s in the planning stages. I know it’s going to happen and that’s pretty cool. I think the Europeans will really like the show. It’s a humongous production. NE: How is the Broadway version of "Gutter Ballet" going? That’s our next project actually. I’ve actually been working on that already in my studio at home, just putting different arrangements together and things like that. But we’re basically starting that now. NE: You're taking part in Tobias Sammet's Avantasia project. Are you singing or playing keyboards? No, I sang a duet. I can’t remember the name of the song because I did it a few months ago. I’m working on so many records right now. I’m producing a couple of records so my brain is total spaghetti, ha-ha! That was a lot of fun, great song and I’m looking forward to hearing what they did with my twisted voice. I got to sing a twisted part and I’m good at that stuff, ha-ha!

the balls to finally say, “OK, I’m going to fucking do it”. I’ve had it in the planning for the last 2 or 3 years and I wanted to do it but I wanted to build the JOP band a little bit bigger first. I wanted us to get to where we are at now, where we’re playing the main stage at Graspop and main stage at Bang Your Head and stuff like that. Three years ago we weren’t getting those gigs. Now we are because people have seen the band and realised that it’s basically the new Savatage, just not called Savatage. NE: A new Savatage compilation is coming out soon. Were you involved with its release? Did you pick the songs? Paul and I picked out the songs and I did the liner notes for them. We wanted to pick the songs we thought would show the versatility of the band and some highlights that what we thought represent the best work that we did. I like it. I think it’s a good way to finally say, “OK, here it is and now let’s all just move on. Let’s move forward and stop living in the past.” Savatage is never coming back. It’s just never going to happen and people have to realise that. The band theoretically never really broke up. We’ve still worked together ever since “Poets And Madmen” was done. Then we started doing the TSO stuff and we’ve never stopped working together. Everyone goes, “You should do a reunion. Do a reunion.” What reunion? No one’s ever gone anywhere”, ha-ha! All we did was just change the name of the band and expand it a little bit more. This is what we were going to end up doing if we kept calling it Savatage anyway. We would have been doing that anyway. “Dead Winter Dead”, “Wake Of Magellan” could have very easily been Trans-Siberian Orchestra records. I think the greatest hits thing is a good way of just saying, “Here you go. This is what we think is the best that each of the line-ups of Savatage did.” I call it phase one and phase two, phase one with Criss and phase two without Criss. If there’s a phase three one day, who knows, but as far as that band being put together, it’s impossible for it to happen, because they’re all part of TransSiberian Orchestra now. NE: You're planning the DVD to be released later this year. Are you going to record some open air festival show or an indoor venue concert? The main shoot is going to be October 18th in Tilburg, Holland. One of the reasons I changed it from March to October was because I wanted to utilise some footage from Bang Your Head and some footage from Graspop and maybe a couple of other places that we’re going. At the festivals,

you get a lot of people on camera. There are always a lot of bands hanging out. I want to add all that stuff too. I’m going to do a live DVD and I’m going to do it the right way. I want to show people what it’s really like to be on the road. I’ll take the camera into the hotel room and stuff, you know, to watch as people wake up 6 o’clock in the morning when you’ve only had two hours sleep, to get to the airport, ha-ha! I want people to get a kick out of seeing all the lunacy that goes on. You know, showing up and there are no hotel rooms, or they’ve only booked one hotel room instead of 7 hotel rooms. We’ll see what happens. NE: Your shows consist of 90% Savatage material with just 2-3 songs from JOP. Are you going to record such a show for the DVD as well? On some of the festivals you only have 45 minutes to play. My band guys are very confident in the band. I mean they know my history and they know that if I only have 45 minutes to play then I’m going to play what I think the fans want to hear. If it means playing more Savatage stuff than JOP stuff for that particular day then so be it. I try to put the best show on that I can regardless of what material it is because it’s all my material anyway. Whether it is Savatage material or JOP material, I still wrote the songs. To me it’s really no different. It’s all this name shit, but people can’t get over the name. I just look at it this way, I do 45 minutes of Jon Oliva music. NE: The last question. You make a comfortable living with TSO, why do you actually still do JOP? Because I love it. It’s me being able to say what I want to say and write about what I want to write about. I’m not going to live for another 50 years so it’s like, while I’m still here and still able to perform and play music, at the level that I think I should be able to, then I want to try to do as much as I can. One day I’m not going to be here anymore. I was obviously put here to make music so I’m going to make it until they plant me. NE: Will we see you in the UK soon? I hope so, I really hope so. They’re actually looking at some shows in the UK, so hopefully we’ll be there. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. j o n o l i v a . n e t

NE: Did you get inspired by Avantasia a little bit? I heard the new JOP work is going to be a 2 CD concept release? Maybe not inspired. It’s something I wanted to do, but I wanted to wait for the right time to do it. Maybe by doing Avantasia, that just gave me

INTERVIEW and Golem also need to drive for a while to get to the rehearsal room. What about getting on time? Only Tom is sometimes late because of the distance, but usually me, Golem and Andy drive to our rehearsal room together using one car so we always get there at the same time, haha!

I can actually say that Bart is like a member of the band since the very beginning. We work together like a big machine, you know. As a band we need Bart to push the buttons, but he still needs to have a machine that he can drive. For us it's very important and we're glad we have such great management in Bart's person. I guess you would never have heard about Crystal Viper if there wasn't Bart managing the band. NE: Your first album, "The Curse of Crystal Viper" was released to no small amount of acclaim a few years back. What kind of magic did you put on the new album, "Metal Nation," that makes it stand out from your debut?

oland may be better known for its death metal exports these days, but that doesn't mean the extreme stuff is the only genre enjoying a resurgence over there. Crystal Viper play Dungeons and Dragons inspired metal just as their eighties influences, so if you ever dug screaming guitar harmonies, aggressive female vocals (Warlock?), and rapid fire tempos, this talented quintet are a band to watch. Here to discuss the brand spanking new album, tour plans, and how she would decorate her own castle, Crystal Viper's own warrior princess Marta Gabriel gives us a rare glimpse into a band poised to slaughter Europe.

NE: Crystal Viper is such a kickass name. I wish I could have named my own band Crystal Viper. Do any of your fans already have Crystal Viper tattoos yet? Truly? I have no idea! But I promised to myself a few years ago that I would tattoo something connected with Crystal Viper on my arm. Maybe one day I will find the courage and do it, haha! Who knows? NE: Your songs remind me of Doro, but less hard rock in that respect and more power metal in feel. Who was responsible for establishing the Crystal Viper sound when the band was formed several years ago? I've always been the main composer in Crystal Viper, but of course our songs are also contributed to by Andy (Wave, guitar), Tom (Woryna, bass) and Golem (drums), so I would say that we are all responsible for the Crystal Viper sound. We all love to listen to old school heavy metal, we love Running Wild, Gamma Ray, Helloween, Attacker, Omen, Judas Priest... There's really a huge number of bands that influenced us all. I'm very happy that we all met each other; I mean we are very lucky that there are four people in a band that love the kind of music they listen to and play! NE: For the benefit of our readers unfamiliar with the band, how and when did the members of Crystal Viper unite to become, er, Crystal Viper? Crystal Viper has already been around for six years. Me and Bart

Gabriel - our manager, producer and my husband - formed this band back then. Almost two years were spent looking for the right people until we finally met Andy. I will never forget the moment when he first started playing for us, he was so great! He is the first serious member of the band. A few weeks later we contacted Golem through our good friend who told us that Golem is a great drummer and had no band back then, so we simply contacted him and after one rehearsal he stayed with us. We recorded our first album with our previous bass player, but he had to leave the band so we've had to find his replacement immediately. Golem knew a good bassist he played with from a previous band some time ago. So we made a call, he came to meet with us, and we play together until now. NE: With you and your husband effectively running the band, how much input do the other members have on the musical side of things? As I mentioned a while ago, I'm the main composer in the band but Andy also wrote one song for our second album (2009's "Metal Nation") and there's also one song that we wrote together. We work with music this way: when I have one song ready, I mean when there are arranged vocals, guitars and basic drums, I'll give it to the other members. Sometimes they have some good ideas that we put into a song. When we have a song ready, we start to work with Bart as a producer. NE: Does Andy get to arrange his explosive guitar solos? Not surprisingly, when he lets loose, it makes me wanna stand up and shout. Is he a funny guy in real life? Yes! He is totally amazing in this case! I'm only composing the harmonic guitar melodies but Andy composes his guitar solos himself. Is he a funny guy? Without a doubt he is! NE: Right. You all live in the same city? What happens when someone's late for practice? We all live in the Silesian area, but only Golem and I live in the same city, Katowice. Andy lives something like 15 kilometers from us and Tom has to drive almost 40 kilometers for every rehearsal. What's also very funny is we rehearse in another city than we live in, so me

Thank you very much! It's really important for me to hear such encouraging words! What did we put into our second album? Well, it's easy. We worked on "Metal Nation" with the same energy, and we put our hearts into it 100%. There was no pressure, no fighting. Only composing songs, playing them, and at the end the recording session. There is only one difference between the first and second album, that you can hear - I was a better guitarist while composing songs for "Metal Nation" so the guitar arrangements are better than on "The Curse Of Crystal Viper". I'm really glad you like it. NE: The album art has these skeleton warriors. I can't see how it relates to the term "Metal Nation" but it still looks good. Who conceptualised and executed the album art? Behind this biggest skeleton, you can see a whole army of them. It's the Metal Army, the "Metal Nation". Why skeletons? They can't be killed and they will never die, just like the music we play. They are a symbol for what's eternal and everlasting. What about finding the appropriate cover art? When all the songs and lyrics were ready, we started to look for a cover that would fit the title track "Metal Nation". Bart contacted Chris Moyen, who painted this art. We saw the finished product and loved it at first sight! NE: Crystal Viper plays metal in the vein of the classic heavy metal bands from the eighties. Will the band's sound ever evolve in the coming years? No. The songs for our third album are now ready and they are a mixture of "The Curse Of Crystal Viper" and "Metal Nation". We're still defending the same stronghold by album number three.

NE: With the band's momentum growing steadily since album number one came out, how long will it take before the whole world falls under the hammer of Crystal Viper? Have you ever played in Russia? We've never been there, as we've never played in America either. I hope to burn the stages in those parts of world, but it's not that easy. Next year we'll be playing a lot of shows here in Europe, but I of course hope to travel to more countries that are hungry for heavy metal! NE: What's the best part about traveling for a gig?

Photos: Crystal Viper

NE: From the moment the band came to be, how has Crystal Viper remained on top of the business side of things aside from your husband being the manager?

INTERVIEW While traveling for a gig there's always a kind of euphoria. The adrenaline is racing and we are all very excited. It always gives us more strength for playing and enjoying the forthcoming show. Of course there is always a lot of totally stupid and funny situations during the traveling. I believe I could write a book about this... NE: And on the flipside of that, what's the worst part of traveling for a gig? Without a doubt it's going back home! Haha! NE: Crystal Viper, from the songs to its attitude, is a band that's in its element live. At what point during a show do you just sink into a rhythm with the rest of the band and it's just one long rush?

tributes and compilations under its belt. Are there new tributes and compilations on the horizon for you guys? After recording the two latest cover songs for tribute albums - I mean for Running Wild and Virgin Steele - we decided to take a break for a while. We decided to stop a little with these kind of recordings, but for me it's funny, because I'm sure that we won't say no to another great proposal for a tribute song for a band that we really, really love. NE: Does anyone who gives Crystal Viper a bad review deserve to get their heads lopped off with an axe?

I think such cases should be handled by us a little more delicately. I mean like throwing the offending review writer to the dragon's cave for its There is no rush. We know what's needed before we supper! But seriously, enter the stage and we know that the fans expect a as far as I know we real heavy metal show. We try to prepare the best we didn't receive any can and we give 100% of ourselves from the first bad review, but of minute on! course it's impossible to NE: Care to recommend a few “cult” bands read each of them. You from the eighties who influenced Crystal Viper know, we play heavy metal, write in their own special way? music that we love to play and listen to, but not everyone is able to love it, it's normal. Even I do not like every kind There's a huge list of bands, but I'll try to mention only of music and there are some bands that I don't like to listen. We are only people, those most important for us. So... are you ready? Here each of us have our own opinions and tastes. But of course I'm glad that we have such a we go! Virgin Steele, Running Wild, Gamma Ray, big number of fans from all over the world and most reviews are really good. Warlock, Judas Priest, Crossfire, Black Sabbath, NE: If you had the money, would you like to live in a castle? I think the Scorpions, King Diamond, old Zed Yago, Phantom Blue, dungeon would make a great recording studio. What would you put in the Manowar, Dio, Warlord, Heaven’s Gate, Bathory, Omen... Oh man... There's so many of them that it's hard for me master's (or should I say mistress'?) bedroom? to decide which of them to mention and which of them to pass over, haha! Can you read my thoughts? Haha! I mean, this is a great question because a few days ago I traveled with some good friends from my second band, Born Again, to see a NE: Crystal Viper has something like a million very old castle. I was joking to them that it was my own castle and we all started

joking about the kind of great parties we could organise there! So yes, I would love to live in an old castle or palace, but my bedroom would be full of CD's and posters on the walls! Not your usual mistress' bedroom, I guess. Haha! NE: What would be the ultimate piece of Crystal Viper merchandise? Could it be a viper made of, well, crystal? You know, like as furniture? Wow, on this very moment you've just given me a great idea! Perhaps figures of band members made of crystal glass? Maybe we should think about this seriously, haha! NE: Thanks for this magical interview Crystal Viper. Speaking of magic, if you had magical powers, what would you use it for? Perhaps to multiply copies of your new album so that you can sell more copies of them?

I would use it to make heavy metal the most popular and known genre of music on earth! I'd also bring some great musicians who died young back to life. Long live heavy metal! MIGUEL BLARDONY w w w . c r y s t a l v i p e r. c o m

INTERVIEW E: Airbourne is a really cool band and I like them a lot, but with all due respect it seems that their label has put a lot of money into promotion which will make them really big, very fast. We don’t have that much money and money is power. We have to work the way we can. I saw Airbourne’s first gig in Europe I think – it was in Germany and the media and camera teams from abroad came to see the band. But our first gig in Germany, I think it was supporting Sabaton in the late 2006 or something and it was like 50-100 people. Our first gig abroad was in Holland, in a true metal club, you know with Heavy Metal Maniacs. That’s the path we have taken. NE: You warmed the crowd up for AC/DC in June last year. Did you have more stage fright than usual? Photo: Wojtek Gabriel

ullet have played just one show in the UK so far, so the support slot with Hardcore Superstar was a good chance for them to present their happy mix of Accept and AC/DC to the British crowds. As Noizz Eater readers obviously love both AC/DC and Accept, we couldn’t miss this opportunity and arranged an interview with the young Swedish true metal squad. Axeman Erik Almström and the skinsman Gustav Hjortsjö spoke to us this time. NE: You’ve only played one show in the UK before, with HammerFall last year. Did you like the Manchester show two days ago? What was the response like? Erik: The response in Manchester was really good, since we’ve been here just once before. The audience was getting into it, so it was good. Some of the guys knew the lyrics and sang along. NE: When I spoke to you after the debut album you said the Swedish press weren’t very excited about it and you got a better response abroad. What was the situation like with “Bite The Bullet”? Erik: I think it was better than the first album. I think they’re starting to recognise us and know what our music means. Gustav: I think the opinions are quite divided. Some people think it’s crap and some people who dig this kind of stuff think it’s really good. E: I think when the reviewers saw us live they changed their opinion about us. NE: You obviously haven’t changed the style, but the second album is better when it comes to the production and arrangements in my opinion. E: I think the main difference is that we produced the first album all by ourselves and when it came to mixing the second album we got help from Nicke Andersson from Hellacopters. So we kind of

let this part of producing go and he did what he could and we were very pleased with the result. NE: You charted with the second album at position 3 in Sweden. Did you expect it? E: I never have any expectations. We just do what we like to do and what happens, happens. G: We charted with the first album as well. Not on position 3 but we were in the charts. Of course we were hoping to get a better position this time. NE: How did the song writing session for “Bite The Bullet” actually go? Was it a team effort or did everyone create their own pieces? E: It was a team effort in the end, but for example, if I write a song, I take it to the rehearsal room and everyone puts their own personal stuff into it. One guys has to start the song and we all finish it. NE: There are some gang choirs on the album. Who were they? E: Most of them are our friends from the local heavy metal army. We gave them some beers and said, “Just shout.” G: For the track “Dusk Till Dawn” we wanted to create a live feel, so we needed some people to do the choirs. NE: There are no ballads on the album. Don’t you like slow songs? E: I think we’ll have some ballads on the 5th album, haha… We don’t have any plans for that kind of stuff yet. NE: The video clip for “Bite The Bullet” has a very funny plot. Whose idea was it? G: It was mostly Hampus’ ideas. He’s the one who wrote the song and he came up with it with some friends. NE: I’ve got two questions about the cover. Firstly about the one from the debut album. Did you hire the motorcycles are they your own? E: They’re ours. You know, we’re country boys.

It’s very popular to deal with cars and motorcycles. It’s the thing that we do in the country in Sweden. NE: Who had the idea to put the girl biting a bullet on the latest cover and why isn’t her whole face visible? E: She was too ugly, haha… G: She had no eyes, haha… I think I had that idea very early on and then we brainstormed it a lot and then Hampus came up with some sketches. The first idea was just a big mouth biting the bullet and then we got that girl. NE: You had a line-up change after the first album. Why did your bass player Lenny leave? G: He wanted to be an English teacher in Thailand. He got married with a young girl from Thailand and he moved abroad. E: He already said after the release of our first mini CD “Speeding In The Night” that he preferred to stand in the audience than on stage. One time I saw him in the audience with a beer in his hand and in front of me while we were playing. NE: Your first EP was released through a Polish label. Why didn’t you try to find some small label from Sweden or maybe Germany? E: The mini CD was supposed to be released on another label who couldn’t afford it. This guy approached us and we went for it. G: We were a new band at that time and any offer we could get would satisfy us. NE: Do you regret it now? G: No, we didn’t have any trouble with it. I mean it was a mini CD and we consider “Heading For The Top”, our first full length album, to be our first release. A lot of songs from the mini CD are on “Heading For The Top” and “Bite The Bullet”. It was just a fun thing to do at the start. NE: Airbourne are releasing their second album soon and they’re becoming really big very fast. What would you say that they have that you don’t have? I mean the music is quite similar.

G: I think we were more excited. It wasn’t that bad. We played a lot that summer and we did a pretty long tour before, so the gig was just like one of the gigs you do, except that you take a look out and you see 40.000 people instead of 400 people. Now we haven’t been on tour for a few months. We’ve done just a couple of gigs and we really need to think about what we do on stage. But during the tour, when you play all the time, you get it in your backbone and you just do it. I’m glad that the AC/DC gig was in that period of touring and not when we were writing songs or something. That would be more stressful I think. NE: Do the support bands get to meet AC/DC at all or do they arrive in limousines and go straight to the stage? G: No, we didn’t meet them. They arrived 5 minutes before the show with a police escort. They went up on stage and left right after the show. NE: Do you guys still have to work or is playing concerts and selling merchandise enough to make a living on? E: I’m the one who’s got a job at home. G: And I live really cheap. It’s not enough to make a living but we’re all still alive, haha… You have to live really cheap or get a job. I prefer to live cheap. NE: The album was out one and a half years ago. Have you written any new material yet? E: Yeah, we’re working on it. We’ve written like 10 new songs and hopefully we’ll start recordings in March or April. The plan is to have the new album out later this year. NE: I suppose the style is not going to change? E: Yeah, the style is the same, but we don’t have the boundaries we had earlier on. So now we just write and the songs become what they become. We’ve got songs like “You Shook Me All Night Long” to “Ram It Down”. We’ve got a big range now. NE: You’re confirmed for Bang Your Head this year. Are you working on some more big festival dates? E: I think we’ll focus on the new album. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. b u l l e t . n u

INTERVIEW

Photo: Micke Johansson

NE: You signed a 3-album deal with Nuclear Blast. Did you just send them a demo or did they see you live and liked the show? They’ve checked us out for a couple of years. Our record company in Gothenburg worked really hard for us and they wanted to promote us worldwide. If you want to do that you need a record company with muscles behind it. Nuclear Blast has really big muscles, even in the States. They wanted to have us and we wanted to be on Nuclear Blast. We didn’t send anything because they already knew about us. NE: You’ve been told how you should sound like in the past. Was it the case this time round? Since the self-titled album “Hardcore Superstar” we didn’t listed to that anymore. The record companies always want you to sound like The Hives or whatever, but you can’t say that to Hardcore Superstar because we sound like Hardcore Superstar. NE: The single from the latest album “Beg For It” went gold in your homeland. Do you still get excited about seeing your new songs do so well? You’re always happy when you sell gold. If you aren’t glad about that you can stop doing it. We are into it for the music, but of course you want to sell records. That’s the most important thing, to reach a bigger audience. NE: You’ve had some movie inspired intros on your previous releases. Why did you make a tribute to Ennio Morricone this time round? Because we like the old western movies. The cover of the album is a bit like a zombie movie poster and I think Ennio Morricone goes hand in hand with zombie movies. I think the music has a similar mystique about it. On the last album, “Dreaming In The Casket” we had a John Carpenter thing over it. I think it’s a fun thing to do. NE: Would you say that you have topped the self titled album and “Dreamin’ In A Casket” with the new one? “Beg For It” is like if the “Hardcore Superstar” album and “Dreaming In A Casket” got together and had a baby. It’s like the best things from both albums.

subject so much? I don’t write all the lyrics, we do it together, but we all write about the same thing. We like a little bit of black irony, so when people read the lyrics they can relate to it but they can also laugh at it. We write lyrics about everyday life and about people we met on tour, but we twist it a little bit to make it darker. NE: When Thomas left you in the middle of the tour Vic helped you out live. It seems that he fit in the band instantly as you didn’t look for another player after the tour? Yeah, we looked for another guitar player. We got like 250 applications, from people who wanted to be in the band. They were from Argentina, Brazil, the States, but he suited the band so well that we kept him. He also wanted to stay. NE: The new album is your first with Vic on guitar. Did he have an input in the song writing for “Beg For It”? Yeah, of course. That’s the most important thing about Hardcore Superstar. We’re like four people who write the music. This is not a solo thing or a duo thing. He did a lot of riffs and stuff. NE: On the mid 90s albums you had bigger arrangements and more guitar layers. Since the self-titled album you made it all simpler. Why? Like we spoke before, in the 90s and in the beginning of the 2000s the record company wanted us to sound like other bands. After the “No Regrets” album we did a serious tour and when we arrived in Gothenburg after the tour I felt that I couldn’t do this anymore. We toured and rehearsed and recorded albums for six-seven years straight. It was 2004 and we took 10 months off and then we had a meeting and we said, “Should we do one more record or should we end Hardcore Superstar right now?” We decided to do another record and it became the “Hardcore Superstar” album. The most important thing about that was that we didn’t listen to anyone. We wrote songs that we wanted to write. NE: Have you ever thought about having two guitarists, at least for live shows?

e last spoke to the Swedish sleaze rockers when they visited the UK for the first time in 2007 and as they happened to land on the British shores again, we thought it would be good to get an update on the band.

They have played the Download festival in the meantime and put out a new album on Nuclear Blast, so there was a lot to talk about. Jocke, the bands singer was kind enough to answer our questions.

No, never. Four is good, five is one person too much.

it was more about drugs and we don’t do drugs. We’ll survive and we’ll feel good about ourselves in 20, 30 years and not behave like these old guys do.

NE: And if Thomas told you that he’s ready to tour again and would like to rejoin, would you consider having a guitar duo? He asked me if it could be like Iron Maiden, with two guitarists and stuff. Well, they have 3 now, but like back in the old days. I said, “If we want that, we’ll call you.” NE: You’re a big fan of Steven Tyler’s. Have you followed the events in Aerosmith camp lately? Not as much that I did before, but I read that he’s back on drugs or alcohol, whatever. I tend not to listen to that, because I hate rumours. I read the newspapers like anyone else, but I don’t pay too much attention to things like that. NE: Do you think that in 20 years Hardcore Superstar may act in a similar way? No, I don’t think so. When they started in the 70s

NE: It’s your second UK tour. Have you noticed that your fanbase here has grown a bit or is it more or less the same? I think it’s grown a little bit but it’s because of the Download festival this summer. We had like 10-12 thousand people in front of stage. I think we made a statement there and people are a bit curious about seeing Hardcore Superstar now. NE: What are the plans for the rest of 2010? We’re going to do 2 shows in Greece and then we’re doing festivals this summer. We’re in the middle of writing new stuff. We’ve recorded 10 demo tracks and we have 30-40 song ideas for the new album. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w . h a r d c o r e s u p e r s t a r. c o m

NE: So what are the most important improvements you’ve made? I think we’ve become better songwriters because we all write songs in the band and we do everything together. We have definitely become a better live band and when we’re on stage, it’s like everyone always goes away from the concert with a happy smile. They can see that we’re having fun and that’s very important. NE: And have you improved as a singer? Yeah, I think I’m getting better and better from record to record. It’s because if you really like to do this and you love music so much, you want to improve yourself. NE: Your lyrics deal a lot with insanity and mental illnesses. Why do you like this

INTERVIEW NE: The lyrics for “Saviour Of The Dead” are based on a true story, about a mentally sick girl who died, because she didn’t get treatment and an excorcism was performed on her. Do you have any idea why such things happen in today’s educated Western society?

he German trio Rage are one of the most recognisable metal institutions in their home country and they have dedicated followings in every corner of the world where metal is welcomed with open arms and listened to loudly and proudly. They have delved into different styles throughout their twenty seven year long career, but whether it was pure heavy metal, thrash, symphonic or progressive material, the various band line-ups surrounding Peavy Wagner have always managed to produce above-standard collections of heavy tunes. For a couple of years Rage have been releasing more traditional sounding albums, but on “Strings To A Web” they decided to mix all the influences they've had in the past and the idea worked pretty well, because the album, despite its variety, sounds unmistakably like a classic Rage album. The leader of the pack Peavy answered my questions about the new chunk of metal they have just forged. NE: You have had many different directions and styles on your previous albums but usually the entire album stuck to one particular style. On the new album "Strings To A Web" you’ve got a little bit of everything, some power metal, some thrash, progressive riffs, orchestrations... It’s like you took a little bit from all of your previous releases and mixed them together... Yeah, you could say so. It seems like the new one is even more varied than for example the last one, but it was not planned. It just turned out to be like this when we made the songs and I think it’s a really good album. NE: “Carved In Stone” was your heaviest release so far. Was the reception for that album not as good as you had expected or hoped? Would you say that you consciously decided not to record another thrashy sounding album? The response was very good on “Carved In Stone” and I don’t think that the new one is less heavy. NE: The title song is an instrumental track. With no lyrics for me to go on as a listener, could you describe to me the meaning behind the title? It’s like a word-game. First of all it means like a typical web, like a spider web or something and you can also see it, if you compare it to the society, we’re all parts of a big web, you know? NE: The middle part of the album is a kind of separate work consisting of five parts, orchestrated and written by Victor. Why didn’t you release this piece of work as a separate EP but put it in-between regular Rage numbers? Like I said before there was no plan to do something like that. We just had this idea and in the end it turned out to be this big orchestrated song. We didn’t really see the need to release it separately from the rest of the songs. I still think that it all fits very well together.

NE: Most of the songs consist of very strong hooklines. Choruses in numbers like “Into The Light” are so catchy that if the arrangement was different, without the heavy guitars, this song could have topped the charts. How do you know if the vocal line you’ve got in mind is good enough to use in a song? Haha, I don’t know this actually. I just write from my stomach, you know, and see how the people react later. We just do it how we feel and we don’t really plan this. It’s coming out of us and we just do what feels good to us at the moment. That’s all. NE: In “Edge Of Darkness” you sing about the risk of a pending nuclear war. Do you think that the world we live in will end this way? I hope not. The song talks about the risk where some dictators like in Iran or North Korea, you know they have these mad dictators that run the nuclear weapon programs. This is quite dangerous when people like this get weapons like this in their hands. Of course I hope that nothing happens but it’s getting risky when these people have nuclear weapons.

Because religion is still so strong in the heads of some people especially in these little villages. You can see what power it still has to the people, that they can’t see reality anymore. NE: Speaking about the society and education, there’s another song with social-related lyrics, called “Hunter & Prey”. When you were writing these lyrics did you have the European society in mind or some other cultures where women aren’t truly free so to speak? Any culture in the world where women are treated like this, where paternalistic society exists. These people are living everywhere all over the world in every country. If you read it you’ll know who it is about, I don’t want to talk about it too drastically, haha… NE: “The Beggar’s Last Dime” speaks about broadening the differences between the rich and the poor. Can you think of any political system that could even these differences a bit? Not at the moment. It was inspired by this economical crisis the banks are responsible for. It’s the biggest robbery you can ever imagine. They’re robbing all the money from the society and they get away with this. They’re not even put in jail. The politicians steal our tax money behind our backs, this is so ridiculous. As long as the world works like this I don’t think that the situation of the poor can change. NE: You dedicated one song to your drummer’s newborn baby. Was it his idea? It was all of us who had that idea. It was born out of fun actually. When his wife was pregnant we were all doing jokes about the girl, that she would come out with an evil sign on her hand already and stuff like this. She got a nickname “Hellgirl” and then in a joke we just said that we’re gonna do a song about her for the new album and in the end we actually did. NE: How did the songwriting process go in general? Was it difficult or smooth sailing this time around? Did you work with Victor as a team or did both of you work on your own ideas? This time it was going very fast. Victor and I worked separately on our own ideas and then we just met for one day and exchanged our ideas and then we worked on some stuff with the other guy. Then we met, I think, two times... Only to work on the arrangements of the songs. We didn’t record any demos and we just went straight into the studio. NE: You recorded in Blind Guardian’s studio and nowadays a lot of bands have their own studios. Do you have some recording equipment as well? Actually, we also have our own studio but we always wanted to work with Charlie Bauerfeind

INTERVIEW these big, worldwide marquee acts would have ever recorded albums with an orchestra if it wasn’t for Rage? Photos: Nuclear Blast

I don’t really know. I can’t imagine that we inspired other bands to doing this. NE: Rage used to have two guitarists in the past. Now in Victor, you’ve got like ten guitarists in one, but still, isn’t it hard to work as a trio in the live setting? Not at all. We sound really big on stage. There’s no need for a second guitar player. Actually I think no one could play together with Victor, haha…

and he couldn’t get in there because he was already in the production stage with Blind Guardian. They took a break for a couple of weeks and in this break we just jumped in to record our stuff. We could have done it otherwise in our own studio but Charlie couldn’t move you know? That’s the reason why we recorded there. NE: Hansi recorded some backing vocals on the album. Was he just hanging out in the studio when you were recording? Hansi is an old friend of mine, since a long, long time. He’s not every day in there of course, because he has his commitments and it was quite spontaneous that he joined in for the vocal session, like he did already on “Unity”. NE: At the beginning of your career you played the guitar. I read somewhere that you got inspired by Lemmy and that’s why you switched to bass, is that true? I just always wanted to have this Rickenbacker bass because I thought it was so cool. I got this bass and I of course started to play on it. NE: What type of music did you perform with your first band Dark Lights? It was rock with distorted guitars. We just tried to do anything on our instruments at that time. We wanted to do some metal but it was kind of chaotic, haha… NE: You changed the name to Rage after the first album because there was another Avenger. But there was also the British band named Rage at that time. Weren’t you aware of them? No. We were not aware of them. Basically our record company Noise Records wanted us to change the name at that time like they did with all the other bands they signed. Everybody had to change their name. Kreator, Helloween, Running Wild, they all had different names before. This guy that was running Noise Records, Karl Walterbach, was weird. He always had his own ideas and always ran over the bands, haha… NE: You had a punk rock band with Jorg Michael in the mid-80s. It’s a totally different genre to metal. What got you into punk? When I was younger I also listened to a lot of punk bands and at the beginning metal and punk were very near to each other. See Motorhead, they were partly sold as a punk band. I remember when “Overkill” came out I was reading magazines that Motorhead was a punk band. It was all mixed at that time. It wasn’t separated like it is today you know? NE: I read an interview like ten years ago and you said that you broke through the wooden stage in some venue and fell down. When and where was it? Oh, it must have been in the late eighties, somewhere in Luxemburg. On some tour in the late eighties. NE: You released your first live album after twenty years of existence. Why did you wait so long? I don’t really know. It’s just never happened before. There was also no plan for this. NE: A question about Soundchaser, your mascot since '88. Why did you decide to write a concept album about it? The fans have always asked us questions about this, “Where is it coming from? What is this creature?” So, we just thought it would be funny to explain this story a little bit. NE: You are the pioneers of the metal meets symphony wave. Do you think that all

NE: When I first heard Rage material with Victor my jaw dropped when I heard his guitar work, but on the other hand I thought this wasn’t Rage at all. After all those years and albums it’s hard to imagine Rage without Victor. Did you ever get any complaints from the hardcore Rage fans about this huge change of guitar playing style when Victor joined? Well, someone has to play the guitar. Victor became the guitar player and he did and he’s going to play in his style. I don’t think it’s such a drastical change. I don’t really understand why should anyone complain about him. He’s a great guitar player. It was just a change for the better. Who wants to hear some crappy guitar, haha? NE: Both you and Victor are classically trained musicians. How much does having

this knowledge help with composing heavy metal? You know, classical music and heavy metal are pretty close. It’s just different instruments that you play on. So if you are familiar or if you have a classical education it can only help to play heavy metal. NE: You guys use symbols for the band members. What’s the meaning of your symbol, the Greek omega and the cross? It’s this Ankh cross, the Egyptian cross which is a sign for eternal life. And the omega is of course the sign for the end from the Greek alphabet. So, I would translate it that it’s the end and the eternal life at the same time. NE: You’re doing a two-week European tour in March. Will there be another European leg or that’s it? Yes, of course, we’re still booking and we want to continue this tour. I’m pretty sure that more shows are coming up. NE: You’re on the bill for Bloodstock 2010 in the UK. Are you going to play any club shows in the UK as well? At the moment I think we have to do this exclusively. We’ve signed for this show exclusively so there’s not gonna be concerts around this. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. r a g e - o n . d e

INTERVIEW Alexei after the incident and with just reason. If you had an open forum to say anything you'd like to Nigel right now, what would you want to express to him? We sent Nigel a letter after the incident and he obviously felt no ill will to the members that were not involved. Last summer, we played a festival in Spain. Saxon were on the bill and Nigel actually came and found us before they went on stage and we all had a nice little chat. He was a really pleasant and classy guy. Clearly everyone has put the incident behind them. NE: How much inspiration do/did NWOBHM bands like Saxon carry in your own personal musical development as an adolescent metalhead? It probably was the most influential “genre” of music on our band. I listened to NWOBHM bands before I joined this band and always will. NE: 3 Inches Of Blood will be embarking on a European tour alongside Black Dahlia Murder in the early months of 2010. What are your favorite things about touring in Europe?

“

ere Waits Thy Doom”, the fourth full length album from Canada's 3 Inches Of Blood was recently released this past September through Century Media Records after splitting with longtime record label RoadRunner Records. After a few lineup changes, most notably the departure of lead screamer Jamie Hooper, the Deadly Sinners return this time a little more road weary, yet still full of piss and vinegar. Cam Pipes recently took the time to chat with Noizz Eater about the new album, lineup changes, touring plans for 2010 and much more... NE: How are you doing today?

I've seen everything there is to see in America and I really haven't seen a lot of Europe. Even places I've been to before are still new and exciting to me because it's generally so unfamiliar. Always fun to travel outside of our home continent playing to people that don't know us as well as they do in Canada or the U.S. NE: After releasing four full length albums and two EP's the only thing missing from 3 Inches Of Blood's discography is an official DVD. Is that a possibility for the immediate future?

released that does not feature the screams of Jamie Hooper. Why did Jamie leave the band and did it feel natural for guitarist Justin Hagberg to take over the harsh vocal duties?

We plan on being more diligent in filming our exploits on the road. Eventually we want to put out a DVD, but nothing specific is in the works yet.

NE: What were the reasons for leaving your longtime record label RoadRunner Records and how has things with Century Media been so far?

Jamie's voice began to deteriorate after recording the previous album and it caused him pain to sing. After a couple of years it never really got better, so he made the decision to just step down from his place in the band. Justin has been singing in the interim since Jamie stopped touring, so he's just been continuing that on a permanent basis now. Justin's sang with other bands before so it wasn't a stretch for him.

NE: Former 3 Inches of Blood bassist Brian Redman died tragically this past September after being involved in a horrific automobile accident. How will you always remember Brian, your former friend and bassist?

I think there was nothing mutually beneficial about our relationship with Roadrunner anymore and both sides knew it so we parted ways. Things with Century Media have been going pretty well so far.

NE: It seems as though the new album is more of a serious musical statement than past efforts and that also shows in your cover art this time around. Was it a conscience decision to abandon the cartoonish album cover art in favor of something more open to interpretation?

We had a lot of good times with Brian and that's how we'll remember him. He was an energetic and funny guy and everyone has a story about him. We'll miss him a lot.

NE: "Here Awaits Thy Doom" was recorded at London Bridge Studios in Seattle with producer Jack Endino whose previous production credits include ‘90s grunge rockers Mudhoney, Soundgarden and Nirvana. What lead to working with Jack and are you happy with how the album sounds?

We all wanted to try something different and let a photographer interpret the album title in their own way, with a little direction from us. To us, the title doesn't have a specific meaning, we just thought it sounded good.

NE: Two 3 Inches Of Blood tracks are featured on the soundtrack for Brutal Legend the recently released definitive heavy metal video game. Are there any gamers amongst the ranks of 3 Inches Of Blood?

Doing as well as can be. Enjoying a bit of a break for the holidays.

Jack has done such a wide variety of projects over the years, he just happens to be quite well known for his grunge credits. As of late, Jack has done some good work with High On Fire, Toxic Holocaust, and Early Man, to name a few, so we knew he had some experience with heavy metal bands. We actually worked with him before, during the demos for "Fire Up the Blades", Jack engineered the four songs we did and we felt we had a good vibe with him. NE: The new album "Here Awaits Thy Doom" is the first full length you have

NE: 3 Inches of Blood recently released a video for the track "Battles And Brotherhood". Are there plans to film anymore promotional music videos in support of the new album? We're still discussing what the next video will be. There's a few tracks being considered, but we haven't made a decision yet. We'll probably film something early next year after our European tour. NE: Three cover songs were recorded during the sessions for the new album, including songs pulled from the repertoire of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Blue Oyster Cult and Zeke. Why did you choose to record these covers? We wanted to be a little unpredictable in our choices for cover songs. All three were songs that we'd played around with the riffs for and then decided we'd all learn them. NE: In November of 2007, Alexei Rodriguez a former drummer for 3 Inches Of Blood was involved in an altercation that left longtime Saxon skinsman Nigel Glocker with broken glasses and a black eye. 3 Inches Of Blood was quick to fire

Video game exposure has definitely helped us. We meet fans all the time that discovered us because of a video game. I'm about the only “gamer” in the band, I own a PS3 and spend hours a day playing it. NE: Before we wrap up this interview do you have any last words for your fans reading at home? Thanks for reading fans, drink more whiskey. ROBERT WILLIAMS w w w. 3 i n c h e s o f b l o o d .com

INTERVIEW NE: From the very first second it’s easy to hear that “Legacy” is a Girlschool release, but I’d say that you have the most modern production on it so far. Do you agree?

NE: In 2000 Enid re-joined the band after her 18-year absence and Jackie jumped on board to replace Kelly. Would you say that this gave the band the kick it needed to continuing playing?

Oh well, we’ve just progressed and we’re better players now. We’ve got a very good producer – Tim Hamill. The album came out sounding like that and we’re really happy with it. For me, personally I think it’s our best sounding album.

Yeah, probably. We had Enid back after all these years and then Jax and it gave us a new lease of life, to carry on. And that’s what we did.

NE: Inviting Motörhead to guest on the album seems quite obvious, but how did you get Twisted Sister, Tony Iommi and Dio? It was Enid’s idea to get Twisted Sister. We’ve known them for years. We just phoned them up and they said, “Yes.” We phoned everybody up and they agreed, so it was easy to get them. NE: The entire album was dedicated to Kelly Johnson, but you paid a special tribute to her with the song “Legend”. Jackie is the one who has known Kelly for the shortest time, so why did she write the song and not the old members? They ended up being very good friends and also flatmates. They ended up sharing a flat together and became really close, really good friends. Kelly was actually my best friend, but Jackie was the one who decided to write this song and we said, “Yeah, go for it.” NE: One would think that a new member wouldn’t be able to write songs in similar style to the old compositions, but it seems that Jackie knows what Girlschool is about, as good, as the rest of the band? Yeah, she fitted in straight away. She knows our music and she writes in a very similar style to Girlschool. Everything she writes automatically sounds like us and that’s why we let her write most of the songs on this album. It just still sounds like Girlschool.

NE: Some of you have played the early songs for 30 years. Aren’t you fed up with performing the same tunes for the 1000th time? Yeah, I am. I’m really fed up with it, but that’s what the fans want to hear. Otherwise we’d be playing a lot of the new stuff on this tour, but at the moment we just play one new song and that’s “I Spy”. If I had it my way I’d play the whole “Legacy” album and leave off all the old ones. NE: The current line-up has been together for 9 years now. How is that possible that 4 women can get along so well for such a long time and not scratch each other’s eye out, haha? Haha, yeah, it’s incredible, isn’t it? We’ve had our fights, but we’re like a family – you have a fight and you make up. Especially me and Kim – we’ve been doing it for 30 years and we’ve had some terrible fights, but we’ve always made up because we’re like sisters. And the same goes for Enid as well. Jackie is my best friend so me and Jackie never fight, never, but me and Enid always argue and Kim and Enid always argue, haha… But that’s what families do, you know? NE: It’s quite hard to make a living from music

he longest running all-female metal band have toured with Motörhead a lot in the past and Lemmy took the girls on an extended UK tour once again. Before the Glasgow show I caught up with one of the original members, drummer Denise Dufort for a short chat. The latest album is called “Legacy” and was out over a year ago, but it was the most convenient subject to start the interview with. C’mon let’s go! either. Me and Jackie just do music. In fact Jackie is in another band as well, she’s in a punk band called Blitzkrieg.

NE: Now tell me about a mirror ball which you had on your head once during a show. Where, when and why?

NE: The sold out shows you played with Black Sabbath at Hammersmith Odeon must have been a highlight of your career. How do you remember those events?

That was during the Uriah Heep tour. It was the end of the tour when everybody plays tricks on each other. They asked me to walk on stage during Uriah Heep’s set with a mirror ball on my head, so I walked to the middle of the stage, did a twirl and walked off. I did it and the lasers hit the mirror ball with me standing there and it was really funny. The keyboard player wasn’t impressed though and gave me a dirty look when I did that, haha…

Oh yeah, I thought it was brilliant. We also played 3 weeks in Russia with them. We played 10 days in Leningrad and 10 days in Moscow and it was great. We became really good friends with them then. But we’ve toured with them before. I think we’ve done 3 tours with Black Sabbath. We’ve toured Europe, Britain and Russia, but with different line-ups of Black Sabbath. NE: Have you heard any new stuff by the current Black Sabbath incarnation with

Photo: band archives

Actually that was Jackie and Enid, they flew out to Germany to appear on the show. But we all sang backing vocals on her album and we enjoyed it.

That was my and Jackie’s idea. We thought it would be fun and we knew that Kelly wouldn’t care and wouldn’t mind. She probably would have laughed, so we actually used her ashes as maracas.

NE: You played a couple of tours with Motörhead in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Now you’re on tour together again. How is it going?

NE: Why did you re-record “Emergency”? Isn’t the original version good enough?

It’s going great, we’re all having fun. NE: Is it like it was old times?

I think it was last year or the year before when we decided to re-do it again with Jackie on it. That’s why we did it.

Enid is into politics and everything. She had a lot to do with “I Spy.” She wrote the lyrics and Jackie wrote music.

Yeah, we’re still in touch with the Tygers Of Pan Tang and we’ve done a couple of gigs with them. We know Jaguar because they supported us years ago. We’re in touch with lots of bands because we’re old friends from the ‘80s. NE: After appearing on Doro’s “Celebrate (The Night Of The Warlock)” you took part in her 25th Anniversary show. Did you like the event?

NE: Whose idea was it to use Kelly’s ashes as a percussion instrument to make her appear in “Everything’s The Same”?

NE: You got into a bit politics in songs like “I Spy” and especially in “Spend Spend Spend”, where you directly sing about selling England. It seems that you don’t like the politics of the British government?

NE: A lot of great NWoBHM bands are still active in the underground. Do you keep in touch with any of them?

Kind of. It’s not as manic as it used to be luckily, haha... We’re all older now.

for a band like Girlschool. What do you do for a living nowadays? I don’t do anything, I just do music. Kim and Enid do bits and pieces and Jackie doesn’t do anything

Dio singing with them again? We did one gig with Heaven And Hell last year, I think in Germany and I didn’t really like it, I found it quite boring. I love Black Sabbath but I wasn’t really into the Heaven And Hell thing.

NE: Apart from the tour what are your plans for Girlschool? Can we expect a new album soon? We’ve got festivals and more stuff coming up. There are no plans at the moment to go in the studio, just some touring and gigging here and there. WOJTEK GABRIEL w w w. g i r l s c h o o l . c o . u k

INTERVIEW direction. What caused the change? The writing process within Stormzone involves the whole band, generally starting with an initial musical riff idea from one of the guitarists being developed with bass and drums in our writing studio in bassist Graham's house. Once a song has been developed musically with a basic arrangement, verse, bridge, chorus etc, I get hold of it and create the vocal melody and lyrics. Because this produced a consistent and, more importantly, new Stormzone sound it quickly became apparent that this was the real Stormzone, the music was definitely metal, no bones about it and the subject matter for my lyrics was fitting of this heavier direction. It wasn't a planned thing, very natural, unforced and we were writing material that we knew would be killer live as well as on disc. The Tesla shows were the first shows that we did featuring a set of songs that didn't include a single song from the debut! It just didn't make sense to create confusion amongst people that we were playing to for the first time, Stormzone are a metal band, the new album is a metal CD being released on a metal label.

hen I Jess Cox as heard he a couple of definitely songs from Stormzone’s debut album deserved to be (2007) I thought they were kept in the picture. Jess was brilliant and quite a good melodic rock immediately agreed that SPV would be a band. The band got a support perfect home for Stormzone. Rather than slot with Tesla on their UK that leading to the end of our association tour last summer and when I with Metal Nation it actually led to Jess heard them live I couldn’t taking over the full managerial reins and it believe it was the same band. was him that then began the process of The Irish team kicked some communications which eventually saw SPV serious ass playing an sign us. They battled the insolvency issues energetic set of hard rockin’ and came through with flying colours NWoBHM sounding tunes. When becoming partners with Sony and stronger I started working on the first than ever. This obviously took months to issue for 2010 I recalled this get through, nail-biting months for us great show and got in touch involving us waving goodbye to our with the band’s frontman Harv original plans for a summer 2009 Harbinson to ask him a few release, but patience shown by all parties questions about the upcoming has been rewarded with the imminent release. A few other things release of “Death Dealer” through SPV were covered as well. hopefully in March 2010. NE: The debut album was released through Escape music. They don’t seem to be releasing the new one. Why?

The album was ready for release in the summer of 2009 but a series of events led to the delay. We were originally going to release the album ourselves as we had secured a release from our contract with Escape Music but while we were on the Tesla tour we met Jess Cox, Tygers of Pan Tang vocalist and owner of Metal Nation records, he declared interest in working with Stormzone and asked us to consider signing to Metal Nation. We came home from the tour and after a meeting decided that we would definitely be interested in having “Death Dealer” released by Metal Nation. Everything was put in place to make that a reality, however just as we were about to put pen to a Metal Nation contract we were contacted by a representative from SPV records which really threw a spanner in the works, albeit a good spanner. It transpired that a colleague of SPV's Olly Hahn had seen us perform at last years Sweden Rock festival and he sent Olly a promo copy of “Death Dealer”. Olly Hahn really liked it even though that version wasn't fully mixed or mastered. The problem was, of course, that SPV were in the middle of insolvency discussions and their position was a little unstable at that time to say the least. Olly assured us that should things work out for SPV then we would be one of the few new acts that they'd like to sign. I collated all the information and thought it best to hand everything over to

Escape Music is a fantastic label and I have nothing but good things to say about Khalil and Barrie. They did a great job with the release of “Caught In The Act” and the promotion of that debut album, also securing it's release in Japan. Although a powerful album the debut could definitely have been regarded style-wise as melodic rock and therefore absolutely belonged in the Escape Music family. It wasn't actually meant to have seen release at all as it was self-financed and basically originally destined just to be a record of songs written over the years before deciding to enter the studio and it was a surprise when it turned out to be exactly what Escape Music were looking for! That of course meant a permanent and secure line-up for Stormzone was urgently required as the Escape Music release would then have

NE: I saw you with Tesla last year and was surprised with the new material, which is more in line with the old-school British metal

NE: When you first announced the title of the new album it was going to be called “The Secret Gateway” but now it’s “Death Dealer”. Didn’t you like the previous title? When the promo copies of the new album were being put together we called it “Death Dealer” and featured a piece of Frank Frazetta artwork that inspired the title and song featured on the CD. In fact the song “Death Dealer” is one of four songs on the album to feature the character of the same name, the four songs separate but relating to each other as a sort of an adventure. That's what Olly Hahn received at SPV and he loved the artwork and title. It became obvious though that we wouldn't be able to use the Frazetta artwork officially because apart from not being able to make direct contact with the man it would have taken a phenomenal amount of money had we done so to convince him to allow us to use any of his images. Based on that we decided to rethink things and contacted Rainer Katowitz, a German artist who was in the running for the debut album cover artwork. He sent us some of his new images and one of them looked perfect if the album had been called “Secret Gateway”. It was basically a futuristic Stargate type thing set in what appears to be an Egyptian desert. We did a mock-up of that cover with our logo etc and sent it to Olly. Photos: band archives

NE: The new album was supposed to be out in Summer 2009. What caused the delay and when will it be released?

demanded live work to promote it. That was in late 2006 and the line-up established then has been the same since. We played extensively since then and, of course, began writing as the established unit. It soon became apparent that our song-writing was taking us in a different direction to that featured on the Escape Music debut, still melodic but much darker and heavier, something we didn't think would sit well in the Escape Music camp. We talked about this to Khalil and the gentleman that he is he agreed to let us leave the company and develop our music freely knowing a company specialising in heavier music would be a better home for us. He did love the new material though and at one stage we were thinking seriously about still releasing “Death Dealer” through Escape Music.

INTERVIEW vocal chords. It seems you didn’t do that?

He liked it, but was disappointed because he really liked the idea of the album being called “Death Dealer”. He also felt that the title “Secret Gateway” and the image didn't fairly represent what was on the CD, too ambiguous, whereas “Death Dealer” allowed people to know exactly what they were in for when buying the album! I went back to Rainer, he understood the dilemma and sent us another new image which he had already entitled “Death Valley”. It's a post-apocalyptic image of a highway leading towards a hurricane (storm) featuring an image of a fanged skull in the clouds representing death. Once we saw it we knew we were onto a winner, it again suited the title “Death Dealer” and we were able to tell Olly that we were going to release the album with that title and an image that casts no doubt as to the metal contained within the CD. NE: I heard you had a car accident in Sweden last year while at the Sweden Rock Festival?

support. We had to open the show with Airrace on after us and it was uncertain as to what the attendance in the capital would be at that time for an unknown opener. Luckily the fears were unfounded as there was a big turn-out from doors open and we did remarkably well in front of a very discerning London audience. We were very well received and met some of the industries big-guns afterwards. If we achieved one important thing throughout that tour though it was meeting Jess Cox, it was a worthwhile venture for that fact alone. NE: You were a singer for an Iron Maiden and Whitesnake tribute act. Was it all just for fun or was some money involved in it as well?

Wow, you wouldn't believe the money you can make on the tribute scene. When we Yeah that Justin Hawkins guy isn't right in the head. It turned our back on it to concentrate solely was the end of a fantastic day, his band Hot Leg had on Stormzone we left the opportunity to just finished playing the same stage as us and we had make a good living, but having to make it all returned to the same back-stage area to get our bus playing another band's songs? Well I do back to the hotel. Our driver was a young Swedish girl honestly miss it a little, it was great fun and was distracted a little while reversing by the antics and we were being paid well to have it. of our drummer Davy. She was gently rolling backwards, We also had a band which specialised in and I mean gently and we in the back could see that she rock music from the ‘80s called Rock Of was destined to reverse into Justin's limousine. We Ages, so yeah, the tribute scene was a big shouted and she slowed down further but did actually tap part of our lives for a few years. I guess the long white vehicle, no more than a tap and the paintapart from the obvious the big difference work wasn't even broken. We got out more to make sure in an original band like Stormzone and the limousine wasn't badly damaged as we didn't want the tribute bands is that to play your the expense of a big paint-work job. Justin Hawkins own music, at the stage we were at opened his door, declared that everything was ok and anyway, you basically had to pay your asked us for the name of our band. We told him, wished way for the privilege, whereas being in him all the best and he left in the said vehicle allowing us a tribute band, much less credible, gives to get out of there too. Imagine then our surprise next day you the opportunity to make big to learn that Justin had been twittering away referring to money. You have to be very dedicated us as 'drunken Irish band Stormzone', claiming that we to your band and confident of it's had hit his vehicle 'at speed' and 'ruined his limo fun!' Ah future to go down the original music well, I suppose it doesn't matter now but I'm glad you road. I've certainly no regrets so far as asked so I could put the record straight. It was a bloody Stormzone has been festival, everyone, including giants such as In Flames, steadily climbing the Motorhead and Journey were all happy with festival ladder and by giving up transport but Mr Hawkins has to go and make sure he the tribute scene to comes off-stage into a limo! concentrate solely on what we think really NE: Like I’ve already mentioned you toured with matters we've given Tesla last year and I think it was one of the biggest ourselves a much better tours you’ve done? How was it for you? chance of getting the recognition and success equal to the effort The Tesla tour was excellent. We've supported quite a few big we've put into trying to acts and it's always great getting past that first initial gig or get it! two and developing a friendship and bond on the road with the headliners. The sizes of the venues varied too, from clubNE: A while ago you sized gigs such as the Cathouse in Glasgow to the O2 needed to undergo Academy in Newcastle which is vast. It's also lovely to get a some serious thank you from the headliner while they're onstage which surgery which could Jeff Keith did for us in London. The London show was great have destroy your too because we didn't have the comfort of being the only

Ireland and not in London, and those elections involve all sides of the religious divides here in our part of Ireland, and with fair representation for all and a healthy economy as a result of peaceful times the future is looking good for Northern Ireland and all who live there. Reward indeed for the 30 years we had to put up with our conflict and the waste of so many thousands of innocent lives. I’ve always tried to steer clear of involving the politics here in our music. There were punk bands and others who made a living out of promoting the ‘troubles’ here, but during the whole terrible conflict there was always unison within the rock fraternity no matter what religion you were. At gigs no questions were asked as to which part of the city you came from, it was just a matter of everyone coming from different directions and backgrounds, meeting in the one place for a drink and a laugh before a gig and then joining together in an appreciation of the music played by the few big acts that braved the reputation Northern Ireland had unfortunately aquired and came here to play for their fans. It wouldn’t then have been right for up and coming rock bands to view an opinion and alienating themselves from one religion or the other. It was the same when we then played live as we could travel to the communities of those with different religions to ourselves and get treated well. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have political views, just that I didn’t feel the escapism of rock music was an ideal place to air them!

Hmm, yeah, that was a very dodgy time for me. Prolapsed discs in my lower neck area. The pain was excruciating, chronic 24 hours a day! Basically the vertebrae in your spine has these discs between them acting as kind of shock absorbers. They're full of vital fluid to be able to keep the bones apart and if a disc bursts (prolapses) then it's bone-on-bone and pressure on the nerves etc that go between them. I had two prolapse at the same time and apart from the obvious agony I also had the misfortune to have a nerve trapped. This was a long nerve called C7 which travels from your spine down your right arm. This meant I had paralysis in my right hand and along with the fear of permanent back damage leading to me maybe having to give up singing, I was also facing the possibilty of not being able to use a pencil or paint brush. Surgery was an option, but a dodgy one because the procedure involved fusing the vertebrae together or replacing the prolapsed discs with carbon fibre discs. This had to be approached from the front of the neck area and obviously a casualty of messing around in that area would have been the vocal chords. Because I wasn't sure of the extent regarding my inability to use my right hand I decided against the surgery because apart from being shit-scared at the prospect of it I also NE: Are you planning on any shows in the UK realised that singing, however in whatever in 2010? Can we expect to see you as a pain, was my only option for earning a support act with some another good rock band living. The pain eased up over the following soon? months and what took place was a natural development between my damaged bones where the body nurtured cartilage in an Signing to SPV has opened up a lot of possibilities for us attempt to replace the damaged discs. This and we're very hopeful that the release of “Death has enabled things to return to a Dealer” will gain us the success we need to tour Europe semblance of normality over the last and further afield with some big bands, maybe from the couple of years, I still get very bad back same SPV stable. In the mean time though, prior to pain but the attacks are less often and signing to our label, we had already committed to don't last as long when they come. My supporting Winger in March and April through the whole right arm has improved a lot too and I'm UK tour. That's still very much on the cards with some of certainly able to use my art tools so the venues already having us as support on their everything is very positive after what was websites. It'll also give us a chance to team up again with originally a scary painful time. Airrace for some of the shows, much as we did while on the same bill as them and Tesla. We are also obviously NE: I always wondered if the going to want to do some album release shows, certainly religious climate in Northern headlining some gigs promoting the new album here in Ireland ever affected rock and Ireland. That'll give us a chance to do the album live in metal concerts? They say music it's entirety as well as the maybe a song or two from the unites people. debut and a surprise or two. It's an exceptionally exciting time for Stormzone at the minute, we definitely enjoy playing live and hopefully we'll get to do that as often as Belfast is very peaceful at this time and possible! has been for quite a few years now. We are in the middle of new elections for a WOJTEK GABRIEL new Government of our own so that we can make our own decisions about w w w. m y s p a c e . c o m / s t ormzoneuk Northern Ireland here in Northern

INTERVIEW consulted with Roy Z on occasion to get the process right. Were there any glitches you were afraid would end up on the final mix before it reached stores? Yes, we were worried a bit and there are some things that could have been better but overall the reaction has been great. It was Cage's first all digital CD too. None of the stuff went to tape like on all previous CDs. That created a fresh sound for us from that standpoint alone. We definitely learned a lot and you can expect the quality to increase as we go along. We are mixing the live DVD now. NE: I'm a big fan of Roy Z's work in the arena of power/heavy metal, especially the Halford albums he produced and played on. What's it like to have the guy as an accomplice on your biggest record to date? He really just consulted us for a few things and gave some listens and told us what to sharpen up and stuff. He is always super busy with projects so when we went to an NFL game together he got a chance to spend some quality time with us and listen to where we were with the record. His guidance proved very helpful on a crucial spot we were at. He is a cool dude that has a great wealth of knowledge in the studio, obviously. He really was pretty heavily involved in "Darker Than Black" and played some leads on it too. It was great tracking vocals with the guy who works with Halford and Dickinson. NE: Since you guys handled everything yourselves, did any of your professional backgrounds in business and finance help in securing the right kind of distribution for the album?

age. Do they even need an introduction these days? It would have been necessary a few years ago prior to their 2007 smash “Hell Destroyer”. Now that album has been surpassed by “Science of Annihilation”, arguably the finest example of American speed metal in recent years. Without further ado, here's vocalist extraordinaire Sean Peck… NE: With the band touring for "Science of Annihilation" and getting very good turnouts (not to mention moshpits) have you decided to incorporate more theatrical aspects to your live show since then? Cage is after all at its element live? As the lead singer I am always pretty theatrical with my presentation for sure. We always bring side scrims of the album cover or our huge “Darker Than Black” backdrop to make it look like a mini Iron Maiden show. We have the synchronized stage rocking we all do too, which the audience really loves. So yes, we try to employ the elements you need for an over the top metal show whenever possible. NE: On the cover of the new album there are bondage chicks on either side of a wicked looking knight riding a demonic beast. Will the erotic stuff continue to figure in future Cage albums? Next time you want to include hot women on the album cover maybe you should contact the Spanish artist Luis Royo? Yes, of course I know of him as I am a big comic fan. I think hot women are a big part of heavy metal and we are all sexual creatures. That is definitely part of the allure of metal, and a tribute to the testosterone involved. We may have some more of this, I am not sure, I know our video idea includes a lot of that though! NE: "Science of Annihilation" has been out for some months now and the reception has been rather overwhelming. It was actually released via the band's own label Heavy Metal Media. What kind of resources

did Cage have when you set out to start your own label? Our own label satisfies our needs primarily although we have been able to help some of our friends' bands as well. We really took a smart approach to it and thanks to our fans this has been our most profitable album to date. Because of this we are able to travel and play in places we never were able to with a label. I think bands starting out need labels and bands that have been around a while and have a loyal fan base built in do not anymore. We have kept the quality level up to our standards with great art and booklets and lots of musical content. NE: The album was also recorded in your own studio. You don't have to give exact figures, but how big an investment was it and how long did it take before the whole band was ready to give their all to the "Science Of Annihilation" sessions? Well we probably put $50,000 into our studio to start but it was a great investment as we are recording lots of other bands and projects now as well as the Cage stuff. We also are doing some guest spots on other people's records and it makes it real easy when you have your own facility. You also are not on the clock so you can make sure everything is just right how you want it and you do not have to rush or settle for less. Dave Garcia does all the engineering, I just write and arrange stuff and give my opinion on how it sounds when it comes time to mix and master it. NE: "Science of Annihilation" was also the first album you produced together with Dave Garcia. You even

No, just more of our connections we had already established over the years. Our professions allowed us to have the cash to invest in the studio, touring and all the previous records. Now we are poised to really start putting out all the stuff we wanted to do, and play around the world so that the fans everywhere can witness the Cage experience. NE: The album opens with a really cool intro titled "The Power That Feeds" and ends with an apocalyptic yarn where the whole universe literally gets flushed down the toilet (a black hole actually). How long did it take to finish the writing for the grand concept themes along with the stand alone tracks? The last title trilogy was the last song we wrote and actually came really quick to us for the grand epic that it is. This was the fastest we ever wrote and recorded an album. I think the addition of Norm Leggio on drums really inspired us and motivated us to get to work and create this shredder. I wrote more fiction on this CD than ever before and that is pretty easy for me to do. The themes and concepts came quick and really created a cosmic vibe of sorts. NE: "Die Glocke" and "The Longest Day" are two of the album's World War Two themed epic tracks. Do you watch The History Channel a lot for song ideas? On “Hell Destroyer” the song "Fire And Metal" was all about that until we later decided to go with the concept idea. I then changed those lyrics to adjust for the story. The D-Day thing came to me purely being inspired by the music of the song. I could just imagine being on a landing craft speeding towards the beaches of Normandy. "Die Glocke" was just another killer sci-fi conspiracy topic that is the perfect metal topic in my opinion. I just now saw a TV show on it but I had done a ton of research using all the names of the players involved and adding in some factual conspiracy stuff like Serum 525 etc. Only the hardcore UFO people will recognise some references like Kecksberg and some other things. My hope with these songs is that someone will be inspired to look this stuff up on the internet and discover the relevance of all the killer references I layer in. NE: What exactly is going on in the last three tracks of the album? How does the character from "Spectre Of War" and "Science Of Annihilation" get to where he is by the time the omniscient evil force at the very end asks him to decide the fate of the cosmos?

Photos: band archives

INTERVIEW

Ha! The force at the end is God, so he's not evil, just kinda part of the natural flow of the universe and the destruction and creation process. I came up with an embodiment/demi god called "the Spectre of War" in kind of a Greek God-type idea. I talk about his origin starting back in Roman times and going through the ages. I had another cool verse that we could not fit in that revealed more also. He is the manipulator of man and becomes the cause of all man's conflicts. Like any God he becomes bored with his immortality where he sends himself as far into the future as he can where he has the final confrontation with God. It is there that he is given the ultimate choice and the entire universe and album ends on that note. NE: Horror also abounds with "The Scarlet Witch", "Spirit Of Vengeance" and "Black River Falls." It's the last one that I find the creepiest. I know it's set in the 19th century, but what story is it based on? The area in Wisconsin known as Black River Falls was the inspiration of a semi famous book called "Wisconsin Death Trip". It is a collection of photos and newspaper accounts of just how crazy and harsh the winters of the 1890s were in that area. I read the entire book and made note of the more sinister events, weaving them into a fictional tale of horror that was inspired by true to life atrocities. NE: Does having King Diamond actually sing on a Cage album sound like a good idea? Yes that would be cool. We have the perfect song that we are working on now for it. If not we have communicated with some other involved persons from King's past that may contribute which is almost as exciting. You understand I can say no more on the subject of course. If King will not sing I will just continue to impersonate him in parts, ha! NE: Do you know the band Benedictum? The one fronted by the chick who sounds like Dio, Veronica Freeman? They play a more down tuned, groove oriented style of power metal. Is doing a duet with her - the same way they always do over in Europe something you look forward to in the future? I am quite good friends with Veronica and we have played with the band countless times here in San Diego. She is a great singer but always gets pissed at me for my ability to do my super high notes. Doing a duet would be bad ass, but I will have to call her. Generally I am not a big fan of chick singers in metal bit I like some female voices like Veronica, the singer from Hysterica and Crystal Viper. NE: The band got into an airport spat at some point before the short East Coast tour. What are the members of Cage like when they're angry? I am not sure what you are referring to. We missed our flight coming back from New York that cost us an extra $1000. Now that was a spat! Before that I do not know. Between Dave's muscles and golden gloves boxing record and my Mix Martial Arts training and 2-0 record with two knockouts in the metal

world people should try to keep us happy, ha! We are seriously though a band that in person tries to be super humble and friendly and appreciative. I think our line up now is virtually drama free and that is such a joy. Our old drummer had a tendency to embarrass us quite often with his rock star attitude. Now that he is gone we just have my lead singer disease to deal with! NE: You actually have a separate career in football which you balance with a day job in real estate and the band. How do you manage it all? Football is not a career because I did not make the final cut for the pro team which was very disappointing. The final tryout I could not have played better but they said I was just not fit enough which is probably true. I play goalkeeper for indoor soccer and I argued that I barely have to move around. Instead we submitted a theme song for the team which may be too heavy for them. We are still waiting to see if they will use it. If not we will probably put it out somewhere as a bonus track. The Real Estate is great because no matter where I am I can do my business and make things happen. I remember being backstage in Slovakia five minutes before we were going on, dressed in leather and studs, negotiating the final details of a five million dollar land transaction. I love it! NE: You actually told the people at ProgPower to "mosh in their minds"? That sounds pretty hilarious. What did it look like?

fans cared enough about us to bootleg some merch. We all went out and bought stuff from them. NE: Speaking of merchandise, what would be the ultimate collector's item piece of Cage merch you'd want to sell some day? Is there any chance of “Hell Destroyer” action figures where you get the giant angel from your last album plus separate weapons and movable wings? How about plastic Christ Hammers? I freaking love that idea. The “Hell Destroyer” thing had so much we were going to do. We had an actual working video game for it that we bailed out on when our Japanese deal fell through. The HD mythos included the super angel warrior group called the Hand Of God. They are drawn in the “Fall Of The Angels” page. The “Hell Destroyer” was the thumb so to speak. The comic book that we were working on was just too slow to develop but we had tons of left over artwork from it. The battle scene of the Hell Destroyer in Hell was all mapped out and story boarded it was sick. I still may put up the www.helldestroyer.com and release the rest of it. Action figures would rule! I can tell you here that we are doing a song called "Hell Destroyer vs. Metal Devil." NE: We've reached the bitter end. For my last question: If Cage will become the Kings of American Metal, what's gonna happen to Manowar, the self proclaimed "Kings of Metal?” Will you share the crown?

People loved that line. I was going to tell people to mosh but right before we went on I was informed it was not allowed at the venue so I had to modify my line a bit. The head banging was so ferocious at that show it was like a mosh pit!

We would be happy to share the crown with the original Kings of Metal themselves Manowar.

NE: When you're not busy with band related stuff, what's the best moment of the day for you?

cageheavymetal.com

MIGUEL BLARDONY

When I wake up and come out of the room my dog is there just waiting by the door, freaking out that I have entered his life for another day. He literally sits there for hours waiting for my emergence and goes nuts. To have that kind of devotion and love to start your day is quite nice. Besides that I work from home mostly so I get to be with my hot wife all day long and believe me, that is a good thing! NE: You ever drink coffee from your Mexico-bought Cage bootleg coffee mug? Ha! Yes the bootleg ones we got in Mexico City! We were so excited to see the Mexican

GIG REVIEW

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

WOLF + CAULDRON , 12 October 2009, Ivor y Blacks, Glasg ow

The Canadian trio seems to be taking every possible chance to present their material to the metal crowds. The UK fans had an occasion to catch them live just a few months ago when they supported the young thrashers from Bonded By Blood and now the band have returned to British shores to join Swedish heavy metallers Wolf. Cauldron is talked-about in the old-school heavy metal underground because they follow in the footsteps of the old ‘80s masters. The technical quality of their music is well under average, but they definitely make up for it with their attitude. If you take just one look at them you'll immediately know that they're the kind of guys who will fight for metal until their last breath.

The trio built their short set around their debut album titled "Chained To The Night" and the most memorable moments in the concert were their two known songs - "Chained Up In Chains" and a number from the first EP, called "Into The WOLF Cauldron". A handful of dedicated fans knew the lyrics and sang along with the frontman Jason and it seemed that some of the maniacs had better voices than him, but no one really cared. It was fun to watch Jason, who also plays bass and his band mate Ian pose with their axes and do Accept-like old-school choreography. The guys rounded the short set off with a cover song called "Making Noise And Drinking Beer" by Germany’s Tyrant and left the fans hungry for more heavy music. If you listen to traditional metal then you've probably heard a couple of Wolf's releases, because when it comes to the young generation of bands playing old school of metal music these

Swedes are in the lead. Having said this I must admit that I was a bit surprised with the attendance as I expected at least twice the amount of maniacs to show up at this concert. The more fans, the more money for the band obviously, but when you think about the atmosphere at metal shows, in most cases it’s not the number of fans that really count, but their attitude. The attitude of the crowd was definitely right and although there weren’t a lot of people at Ivory Blacks tonight, they gave the band the best possible reception. Wolf took the stage with the opener of the latest album, the fast and straight forward "Speed On" and everything worked just great from the very first second. The guys on stage were dressed in Anvil tees and put all their energy into the performance, so the people on the other side of the barrier responsed in only one way - they got even crazier. The sound of the band was surprisingly good and all the instruments and vocals were coming through quite clear which only added to the very positive overall impression. The guys were still promoting their recent album called "Ravenous" so they obviously put a couple of tunes from it in the setlist and all of them went down really well, which means that the crowd knew the material. The new song "Hail Ceasar" was dedicated to the deceased Evile bass player Mike

Alexander, which was a really nice gesture. Wolf threw in all the best numbers from their previous albums into the 12-song mix and they decided to close the set with two very fast ass kickers "Steelwinged Savage Reaper" and "In The Shadow Of Steel", which is the first song they wrote as a band. Half of the current line-up has changed since the previous release but it didn't affect the band's live performance and actually gave them even more power. Wolf are a really professional band, who love what they do and they deserve much more than playing small clubs. Hopefully they will return to the UK when their next album is released and fingers crossed, their fanbase will have grown a bit by then, so they get an even better reception next time round. WOJTEK GABRIEL

CAULDRON

HARDCORE SUPERSTAR + BULLET, 23 January 2010, King T ut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow

The Swedish sleaze rockers Hardcore Superstar debuted in the UK in the early part of 2008 and being a relatively unknown band they started out performing at smaller venues. Their fanbase seems to have grown a little bit since that time and more young rock enthusiasts have come to check them out this time around. If they keep visiting the British islands they have a chance to get bigger here, as the teenage audience have recently discovered that the band's eighties inspired sleaze-rock seems to be cool music. On their current trek HCSS were joined by their fellow countrymen from Bullet, who are an unholy mixture of AC/DC and Accept, so the bill looked quite promising. Bullet have only had one opportunity to perform for the British fans before, when they supported HammerFall on their one-off concert in London last year, so a proper UK tour must have been quite an inviting experience for these young rockers. Unfortunately, King Tut's stage is very tiny and when they put up their own drum kit in front of the headliner's equipment, there was almost no space left for the musicians on-stage. The singer Dag "Hell" Hofer spent the entire set on one side of the drum kit, along with the bass

I don't think anyone was surprised when they heard the Ennio Morricone inspired intro, that also opens Hardcore Superstar's new album called "Beg For It". The band are promoting this release on the current tour and fortunately they don't choose to overwhelm the fans with the recent material and they instead chose to perform only the very best numbers. "Into Debauchery", "Shades Of Grey" and obviously the title track went down like a storm with the very young and enthusiastic fans, who already knew the new songs well. The rest of the setlist was an interesting mix of older numbers and the album that was featured in the set the heaviest was the fourth, self-titled one. The band found their own style on this release and it put them on the rock map which is easy to understand, as it consists of a bunch of hits, that now can't be missed in their shows. The fans look forward to hearing the energy-loaded "Kick On The Upperclass", "Wild Boys" and "Bag On Your Head" and would be disappointed if the band didn't play these numbers. One of the memorable moments in their set was the ballad "Standing On The Verge", performed by just the guitarist and the singer in its bigger part. The encore was also quite powerful as the audience could hear the title song from the previous work entitled "Dreaming In The Casket" and the biggest HCSS song ever "We Don't Celebrate Sundays", which the band closed tonight's concert with. With regards to the performance, you really couldn't be too critical. The Swedish foursome are anything but dull and put their collective 100% into their stage show. They have a great frontman in Jocke

Berg, who not only owns a very strong and recognisable voice, but also knows how to work a crowd. He basically never stands still, apart from some ballad moments and how can you stand still yourself when you see such a tornado on-stage. The band's line-up has changed recently and by employing the ex-Crazy Lixx axeman Vic Zino they not only added a solid addition to their lineup, but another great entertainer as well. If you see a guitarist who just stands there staring at the fretboard, you get bored pretty soon. This isn't Vic's case, because he turns his axe into all possible positions, bends, knees and interacts with the crowd, helping Jocke in getting the audience going. At the beginning of the encore he even played and hummed a bit of Maiden's "Fear Of The Dark" and was immediately joined by a few dozen strong in the audience. HCSS is a modern day Motley Crue or Ratt and as the US scene is in the phase of revival right now, the likes of Hardcore Superstar are talked about a lot as well. If a band has as good as compositions as they have and if their performances are so entertaining as tonight’s was, they can look into the future without fear. PATRYCJA GABRIEL BULLET

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

player, and the two axemen on the opposite side. What was really admirable though, was the lack of space didn't stop the band from headbanging and doing their Accept-like choreography. Their short seven-song set was built around the "Bite The Bullet" album, and I can't really decide which songs to point out as the highlights, because the entire show was very even, and the band didn't let the crowd rest for even a moment. Probably the title song and "Dusk Til Dawn" from the latest album plus two earlier numbers "Turn It Up Loud" and "Bang Your Head" had the best overall reception, but Bullet have nothing but unbelievably memorable choruses in each composition, so all the songs went down pretty well. Hell Hofer screamed the lyrics with his high pitched ode to Udo Dirkschneider and the rest of the denim and leather clad band moved around as much as the stage set would allow. Apart from the music, the two things the attendees will certainly remember from this show would be the big board with bulbs saying Bullet, which was placed over the drums and the title of the latest album, written on the backs of the guitars, which the guys lifted above their heads at the end of the song simultaneously with Hell Hofer singing the words "Bite The Bullet" for the last time. The show was really enjoyable and hopefully the UK fans will take to the band and in a couple of years they will be able to headline their own concerts over here. HARDCORE SUPERSTAR

GIG REVIEW S AXON + ANVIL ,

6 N o vember 20 09, Picture Hous e, Edinburgh

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

SAXON

a while and with regards to Scotland, they didn't come to the metal capital Glasgow this time, but to the actual capital - Edinburgh. I'm sure most of the people who caught Saxon live a few months ago were hoping to hear a different set this time around and indeed, Biff and company put a couple of rare numbers in their current setlist. The opener was a powerful new track called "Battalions Of Steel" taken from the aforementioned “Into The Labyrinth” album before launching into some vintage British NWOBHM gold from the vast Saxon back catalogue. We traveled back to 1980 and the “Strong Arm Of The Law” album with the resident ass kicker of a tune "Heavy Metal Thunder", and during the stroll down memory lane we were also treated to "Wheels Of Steel", and the popular metal festival national anthem "Denim And Leather" .

It's really strange how one event can change your life. Apart from a few crazy underground maniacs the metal community has forgotten about Anvil for years and the band would have remained forgotten if it wasn't for the documentary movie about their history. That's really inspiring that this film brought them back to the fans' attention, but on the other hand it's quite unfortunate that many people view this band as another Spinal Tap now and there are few that remember that Anvil were one of the strongest names on the metal scene in the early eighties. In the end however the most important thing is that they tour again and not just play oneoff shows at summer festivals every now and then. The concert began in quite a funny way, because Lips came on stage and started setting up his equipment, like there was no crowd in the venue. The fans started shouting as soon as they spotted him, so the frontman took his axe and played a short solo, using his teeth. The other two musicians joined him after a while and kicked the actual concert off with the old instrumental composition called "March Of The Crabs", taken from the '82 release "Metal On Metal". As was expected, this album was heavily featured in the set and the maniacs in attendance were also treated to live versions of such classics like "666" and "Mothra". With regards to the latter one, it was one of the highlights of this short show, because Lips went for a couple of his trademark tricks. First he played a solo with a dildo, which I haven't seen for years and then he also shouted at his guitar pick-ups, and you could hear his distorted voice through the PA system, as he engaged the crowd in a rollicking sing-along. The band played some more classic numbers, like "School Love" and "Winged Assassins" and mixed in only one song from the current album called "This Is Thirteen", which was the title track. As the set drew to a close Robb Reiner performed a drum solo called "White Rhino" but the grand finale came in the form of the band’s biggest hit - "Metal On Metal" and obviously got the fans to enthusiastically shout along the chorus. I would have tweaked the setlist slightly and would have replaced the drum solo with one of the band’s more classic songs, but in hindsight the crowd was more than happy about seeing Anvil and you could see many ear-to-ear grins on their faces. The metal fans may have found the news about another Saxon UK tour a bit surprising as the band has already toured in support of "Into The Labyrinth". It seems that they're not writing anything right now and have some free time and what's the most amusing way of spending free time? Of course your answer should be playing a couple of shows in front of us crazy metal maniacs! The band scheduled a couple of shows in places they haven't visited for

Around this time Saxon dusted off some material that had not been performed in a live setting in what seemed like ages. We heard the token slow tune in "Broken Heroes", a ballad Biff wrote for his father entitled "Iron Wheels" and then "Back On The Streets" segued into a medley with "Solid Ball Of Rock" and the poppy "Ride Like The Wind", which Biff Byford called "A song which everybody likes but nobody admits it". Another diamond was "Dallas 1PM" but this time the charismatic frontman asked the crowd if they wanted to hear "Strong Arm Of The Law" or "Dallas" and by a grand showing of applause, the musical recollection of John F. Kennedy‘s final hours was the clear winner. It was a really rare occasion to hear all of these songs performed by true pioneers of British metal, because you can expect that when the band releases another album they will come back to a more standard setlist consisting of three to four new songs and the hits. At the end of the concert the band didn't take the crowd by surprise as the finish was unfortunately the same as on the previous tour and they played "Princess Of The Night" starting it over and over again, feeding off of the audience interaction. It makes little sense to write anything about the musicians' shape and performance, because since they regained their deserved popularity and started playing bigger venues again I can't remember them not putting their all into their performance. Biff didn't scream as much as he does at festivals, but he never screams during tours so that he can properly preserve

his voice for the next night. The rest of the lineup was basically the same as always. The fans got a nice amount of solos by Doug Scarratt and Paul Quinn, the other founding member (alongside Biff) who's still in the band. Nibbs was pointing at the crowd with his bass's neck and the skinsman Nigel Glockler was smiling from behind his kit. The band played like a fine tuned, well oiled heavy metal machine. The quality of Saxon's in concert performance is the highest you can expect from a metal band and it was no different tonight. They're one of the best old-school British acts and they just confirmed it again. WOJTEK GABRIEL ANVIL

GIG REVIEW

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

.. MOTORHE AD + GIRLSCHOOL , 19 November 20 09, O2 Acad emy, Glasg ow

It was really a shame that the longest running female-only metal band in the world were the opener of the event because the fans who were looking forward to seeing them live would only get to hear a few songs from the Girlschool repertoire and not a whole set. Still, the girls managed to squeeze in as much as 8 songs into a half an hour concert and although a lot of big hits were missing, the short set turned out to be quite enjoyable. The vocals were a little low in the mix or at least they were hard to hear up front at the barrier, but apart from that minor complaint no one would really criticise the show. Girlschool have never been about mind-melting technique, both vocally and instrumental-wise,

but about catchy rock'n'roll compositions and that's exactly what the British foursome delivered that evening. The newest addition to the line-up, Jackie Chambers stole the guitar spotlight by playing a couple of rock'n'roll-ish solos, while the other axe-woman Kim McAuliffe focused on the vocals, sharing this duty with bassist Enid Williams as usual. The musicians smiled at the fans constantly, so the crowd gave the band a warm welcome and clapped a lot after the old hits like "Demolition Boys", "Screaming Blue Murder" and "Race With The Devil", which all went down really well. We heard just one new song, called "I Spy", and although it sounded quite modern and heavy in comparison to the MOTÖRHEAD classics, the reception was still good. The girls got the crowd really going at the very end, playing "Emergency" and had a lot of fans screaming out the simple "999 emergency" chorus. Hopefully they play an extended UK headlining tour next year because half an hour with Girlschool was definitely to little for many fans. Next on the bill were the legendary punk rockers The Damned. I don't feel competent to review this show, so I'll only say, that although the Motörhead fans definitely weren't in the band's demographic, they seemed to enjoy the show. The guys were in good shape and a few punk maniacs who came to see their favourite group had a great time.

Now for the hard task. I have already written about 10 or so Motörhead live reviews and it's impossible to write anything new because the show was no different to all the previous ones, haha... The band still sell out big venues and a lot of young rockers join the Motörhead veteran-fan forces, so as long as they play live they don't need to worry about any decrease in popularity. The trio rocked the Glasgow's Academy last November and I suppose many fans asked themselves what the tonight's setlist would be. Unfortunately, it was very similar to the one last year and the encore was identical. The welcome is always the same, which is “We are Motörhead and we play rock’n’roll” by Lemmy and then the guys played many classic compositions, which they do every show. We heard the likes of "Iron Fist", "Stay Clean", "Over The Top", "Killed By Death", "Going To Brazil" etc. plus a song from their latest work called "Rock Out.” There were very few moments that would have surprised the crowd. Around the middle of the set the fans listened to one unexpected number and it was a cover of Twisted Sister's "Shoot'em Down", which sounded like a Motörhead song in any case. They mixed in two solos in between the regular tracks - first Phil Campbell shredded for a while and then Mikkey Dee presented his showmanship by beating the skins in the middle of "In The Name Of Tragedy". Lemmy's charisma stole the show obviously, although he basically didn't move for the entire set. At the end, the trio bombarded the crowd with "Bomber" and the fans called the band out for

a planned encore, which like I've already said was identical to the one last year. The band played the acoustic track "Whorehouse Blues", featuring Lemmy on vocals and harmonica, Phil on acoustic guitar and Mikkey also on acoustic guitar, plus a mini drum set (bass drum and hihat) and at the very end they performed two of Motörhead's biggest songs - "Ace Of Spades" and "Overkill". It's always great to see the guys in tip-top shape like this time. Lemmy is a rock'n'roll god and I suppose he doesn't even know how to put on a mediocre show. The only thing I would suggest would be for some significant changes in the song selection. The Motör-crowd knows most of the numbers by heart and I'm sure they would welcome some obscure tracks or maybe a set consisting of an entire album, which is quite popular nowadays. Still, we got killed by Motörhead tonight and I'm sure 99% of the maniacs will show up at the next concert to see their favourite rock’n’rollers again. WOJTEK GABRIEL

GIRLSCHOOL

ALESTORM + EDEN’S CURSE , 9 December 2 009, The Cath ous e, Glas gow ALESTORM

The Scottish metal pirates when not engaged in the studio seem to tour all the time to make their name bigger and bigger. They already played Glasgow earlier this year and also in late 2008, so you would think that the turn-out wouldn't be as good this time around, but you'd be wrong. When Alestorm play the Scottish metal capital, you can expect a packed house.

When a bunch of young Scotsmen had an idea to put together a folk inspired metal band and write songs about pirates, they didn't expect their music would do so well. They're a great example of today's music industry, where sometimes the technical abilities of the musicians aren't important, and the overall concept and imagery are what really counts in the end. People should quit talking about Alestorm ripping off Running Wild's gimmick, because they are two totally different beasts and musically have nothing in common. With regards to Alestorm's live shows, when you go to their concert with your buddies, expect nothing but a great party atmosphere. The band's compositions are a definition of cheesiness, but even if you write the kind of music they write, you need to know how to do it, to keep the listener's attention. These guys definitely understand that. Both of Alestorm's albums are filled with melodies and choruses you can't get out of your head once you've heard them. So, tonight the crowd sang along with all of these funny tunes along with Christopher Bowes, as is always the case at Alestorm shows. Bowes shouldn't be actually EDEN’S CURSE referred to as a singer, but he's a brilliant frontman and entertainer to boot. Standing bare-chested at the microphone, with the keytar on his neck, shouting the pirate songs with his gruff voice and pumping the air with his fist he gets the crowd going within just seconds and the entire band helps him bravely embark on this

mission. All his "yo-ho-ho's", humorous speeches and tons of "fucks" spill forth from his mouth and add to the positive overall experience and are the cheese flavored icing on the Alestorm concert cake. With just two albums under their belts Alestorm always choose the biggest crowd pleasers for their live set, and although tonight's show was very short due to The Cathouse's 10:30pm curfew, they still managed to squeeze in a good bunch of crowd favourites. "Wenches And Mead", "Keelhauled", "Over The Seas" and "Captain Morgan's Revenge" always work in the live setting and the biggest choirs were most likely found in the keytar driven ballad "Nancy The Tavern Wench". The concert wasn't very different to all the ones the band have played in the past. Maybe after four to five albums they started repeating themselves, but so far, with so many simple but strong hooklines they have, they pleased everyone who came to see them. Tonight in Glasgow there was no exception to the rule. WOJTEK GABRIEL

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

First on stage appeared the multinational melodic hard rockers/metallers from Eden's Curse, who seem to have grown quite a serious fanbase in Glasgow and that's obvious as the bass player Paul Logue is a Glaswegian. On the other hand if their music was crap no one would care, which isn't the case obviously. The band have written two very professional sounding albums that are full of catchy, but not cheesy tunes. It's hard to put them in any particular style and their music is suitable for both the melodic rock/AOR fans as well as heavy/power metal enthusiasts. The band know how to rock the crowd very well, they have always maintained very good contact with their

fans and are easily able to convert the people who have never seen them live before. As the opener they didn't have much time, but they delivered a solid, nine song set, with the highlights being "Masquerade Ball", "Raven's Revenge", "Fly Away" and their most well known tune "Angels And Demons" which they closed their performance with. The biggest strengths of Eden's Curse are their professional musicianship and the grandiose arrangements that incorporate two guitars and keyboards. Let's not forget about the outstanding vocal harmonies provided by the American frontman Michael Eden, Paul Logue and the newest addition to the team, the Italian keyboarder Alessandro Del Vecchio, who is a great singer by the way (he did the Pamela Moore vocal part in "Angels And Demons"). If you like stellar guitar playing, you should also be satisfied with Thorsten Koehne's frenetic fret work (I heard him play some Slayer riffs during the soundcheck). The band had a lot of fans singing the lyrics, or at least the choruses and the show wasn't maybe as good as the Hard Rock Hell performance a few weeks prior, but only because the stage, lights and sound weren't as top notch as before. The band themselves were 100% involved and didn't put any less effort into tonight's performance.

GIG REVIEW Y&T + RON KEEL , 29 October 2009, ABC, Glasgo w journey through his entire career, which included songs from most of the bands he's played with, and more. The crowd were given a rare occasion to hear the acoustic versions of Steeler's "Serenade", songs from his Fair Game and Iron Horse times, a couple of covers - Bad Company's "Shooting Star" and a bit of Sabbath's "Heaven & Hell", as well as the most well known Keel tracks. "Tears Of Fire", "Rock'n Roll Outlaw" and "The Right To Rock" completed with Patti Smith's "Because The Night" (recorded by Keel as well) went down really well and Ron even had a couple of rockers sing the lyrics along. The technical problems with the microphone headset forced the singer to stick to an “ordinary” microphone stand during the vocal parts, but still, his interaction with the crowd was great and it's hard to imagine a more interesting one-manshow.

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

Y&T

Y&T must be one of the most hardworking bands around. They haven't released any new material for years, but they seem to live in a tourbus, as they have now visited the UK for the 4th time in 4 years. What's most important is they've never put on a bad, or even an average show and that's probably why fans always come back to participate in another great hard rock party. Y&T usually let some local bands warm the crowd up, but this time they brought a special guest from the US in the shape of Ron Keel. It was announced that we would witness an acoustic show and Ron took the crowd on a 40-minute

If you read Noizz Eater on a regular basis you've probably checked out our reports on the 2007 and 2008 Y&T tours, plus some reviews of their summer festival appearances. I expected this concert to be almost identical to the others and thought that maybe putting the setlist here alone would be enough, but this concert was different. I mean, if the singer can't sing and still doesn't cancel the show, the concert must be different. So

it was, but surprisingly enough, although very short, the show wasn't any worse than all the previous ones! The band kicked off with one of their biggest hits called "Hurricane" and you immediately could hear that Dave Meniketti was in a very bad shape, vocally. He definitely shouldn't have sung that night, but he decided to put the fans before his health (which wasn't very wise to be honest) and still managed to rip a couple of best Y&T numbers out. Apart from the vocals, the tunes like "Meanstreak", "I Believe", "Lipstick & Leather" and "Midnight In Tokyo" sounded as good as any other night and the entire band was energetic and as involved as always. Unfortunately Dave's voice was getting worse and worse, so the band played a long bluesy instrumental part and then bassist Phil Kennemore took the lead for a while and sung the old classic "Squeeze" which included a drum solo by Mike Vanderhule. Phil started a funny dialogue with the crowd, where Phil screamed "Hey Motherfuckers!" and the fans answered "Fuck you Phil!" After and hour or so the guys decided to call it a night and they played the last hit for show "Forever", which was the biggest and the most out-of-key version of this song I've ever heard, as it was the fans who sang this song for the band, for a change.

understood the situation and I don't think anyone was disappointed, as the band still got a huge round of applause. Dave could do only half of his job properly (his awesome guitar-playing wasn't affected obviously), but he showed nothing but professionalism and didn't let the fans down. The band are putting out a new album in 2010 and will be touring the UK again, so hopefully next year Dave's voice will be in tip-top shape and Y&T will be able to perform a full, 2,5-hour long set. We'll be there to review the show for you, but do yourself a favour and go see it on yourself. PATRYCJA GABRIEL RON KEEL

So, the show lasted just a bit over one hour this time, but everyone

EVILE + WARBRINGER , 17 Januar y 2010, Th e Catho use , Glasg ow second album and I mean, a lot. They're better musicians and better songwriters now, so no one was surprised when the band leaned heavily on their latest release and left space for only two older numbers in their half hour set. The fans knew exactly what they came for and the band kickstarted things off with the lightning fast "Jackal" while their fans simultaneously erupted with furious moshpits in the central part of the venue. The other highlights would have been "Prey For Death" and the set's closing song "Combat Shock" (one of the two older ones) however, the band never stopped thrashing and although they have a lot of tempo changes in their compositions and some midpaced moments happen now and again, the entire set was unbelievably energetic. The band bombarded their maniacal fans with tons of fast riffs and the rhythm section worked very well, considering that the band had a deputy-bassist, who learned the entire setlist in just one day! The frontman John Kevill shouted like a madman, with a broad smile on his face and by the end of the show he came down to the pit, climbed on the barrier and finished the concert this way. The conclusion is simple: If you want to see raw pure thrash energy on stage, go see Warbringer. Having seen them you'll stop wondering why they're one of the leading bands that make up the next generation of thrash.

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

EVILE

When two remarkable, young thrash bands join forces and tour together, every thrash fanatic should take note and witness them live in concert. I have come across so many stupid comments about the new wave of thrash, that the newcomers do nothing but rip the Bay Area giants etc. that I'm a little fed up with it actually. One of the biggest and most important metal genres is coming back, the old masters of the craft are joined by dozens of really exciting young bands, and someone still has to complain. Fuck them with a dull butterknife. Let's celebrate the thrash revival at a party with Evile and Warbringer. The Americans from Warbringer don't necessarily follow in the footsteps of their older US colleagues, as their brand of thrash is much rawer and dirtier sounding than your usual Bay Area material. But whatever cult band you compare them to, be it Slayer, Exodus or Kreator, the most important thing is that these guys rule in a live setting. They improved a lot on their

The headliner's music has also changed a bit and the difference between their two albums is something of a juxtaposition between "Kill 'em All" and "Ride The Lightning" if you know what I mean. I personally liked the retro side of Evile a bit more, but you can't take anything away from the latest release as it's very mature and definitely more of an overall professional effort. The band kicked off the concert with frontman Matt Drake thanking the fans for their support in the hard times they recently have encountered and for the financial support for their tragically deceased bass player Mike Alexander's family and you could feel shivers going down your spine when the crowd started chanting "Mike! Mike!" Matt then introduced the new bass player Joel Graham and the final act of tonight’s thrash party began with the title track from their most recent album, the mid-tempo "Intected Nations". The band, unlike their predecessors focused on the earlier material and to be honest the songs from the first LP were the highlights of their set, probably because they are much faster, haha! The moshpits obviously work better during the fast songs and the crazed lunatics that turned out had a lot of fun when the band performed "Killer From The Deep", "Schizophrenia" and "Thrasher". The slower songs went down with the Cathouse crowd equally well and the band seemed to be extremely satisfied with the response, as they thanked the audience many times for such a warm reception. Although their music was far more technical and not as dirty as

Warbringer's, they easily followed the Americans and you couldn't feel any less energy from the stage. Now try to imagine not fans, but the band's crew and even the security guys stage diving, that's a snapshot of what Evile can do to your brains at a live show, haha! Their brilliant performance finished with another one of the band's older numbers called "Enter The Grave" a fast song and it definitely finished too early. You could see that the thrash maniacs in attendance were hungry for more and now they probably have to wait for another album and another tour to catch their favorite British thrashers live. Not sure what to say to close this review. It was a great thrash night with the young bands who wave the flag of old school music. If you go to a concert and leave the venue satisfied 100% as tonight’s attendees did, you really can't ask for more. Thanks to Evile and Warbringer thrash metal will stay alive for another 20 years for sure. WOJTEK GABRIEL WARBRINGER

GIG REVIEW ALICE COOPER , 2 5 N o v e mber 2009, Clyde Au dito rium, Glasgo w

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

When I recall the previous Alice Cooper indoor show I saw two years ago (Alice Cooper + MotĂśrhead tour) I remember I was not very impressed and quite disappointed back then. Having seen this extraordinary artist many times previously I thought it was the worst Alice Cooper concert I had witnessed, both in regards to overall performance and on-stage theatrics. Still, when the master of shock rock and horror metal comes to town I never miss the opportunity to see him, because even his below-average shows surpass most of the other concerts from so many other artists. My expectations however weren't as high as they used to be and maybe that's why Alice took me totally by surprise and I wasn't prepared, even slightly, for what was coming this night. Before Alice even showed up and before he brought on stage his numerous "toys" I already was impressed with the entire setting. The big letters A-L-I-C-E hanging from the ceiling and various podiums and platforms for the musicians with the biggest and highest one being for the drummer, not to mention an assortment of colourful lights placed on the sides of the stage may have given you a hint that this show would be really special.

The current tour is dubbed "Theatre Of Death" and the concerts were probably supposed to be much closer to theatre productions than ever, as all of the shows on this tour were booked in venues with advanced seating only. But when the gang invaded the stage and the crowd heard the first riff of "School's Out" the fans from the first rows ran to the stage and there was too many of them for the security staff to handle. All the other fans from the rows further back stood up to their feet and in general no one witnessed the show from their seat anyway. It was easy to understand, because there was so much happening on stage that no one would want to miss a bit of it. I'll give you a brief account of the course of events from this particular evening, mentioning just the most interesting tricks. To perform "Wicked Young Man" Alice comes out wearing a police hat. A terrorist attacks him and he kills the terrorist with a spike. The executioners come on stage and put him in a strait jacket. For the next song a guillotine is brought out and Alice gets beheaded. The ghosts haunt him in "Welcome To My Nightmare". He gets killed with a huge syringe in "Poison". A nurse brings Alice out on a wheelchair in "Nurse Rozetta" and then she shoots sparks from her belt using a sawblade. In "Be My Lover" a white backdrop is brought out and the nurse is doing a striptease behind it. She's illuminated from behind so you can only see her black silhouette on the backdrop. Alice then constricts her and sings "Only Women Bleed" with her body on his lap. The executioners show up again, this time bringing a gallows pole which they hang Alice with. In "Vengeance Is Mine" high stairs on wheels are brought with Alice standing on the top dressed in an awesome spider costume. In "Dirty Diamonds" a trolley with jewellery and coins is brought out and Alice tosses the necklaces around and in "Billion Dollar Babies" he comes out with Alice Dollars on a sabre and tosses them around again. In "Killer" he's got a child's head on the tip of the sabre and the executioners place him in a torture chamber before killing him of course. For "Under My Wheels" which rounds the main setlist off, he introduces the band and the dancer. There's just one encore song, which is "School's Out" again and Alice runs onto the stage dressed in a tailcoat and a tophat and breaks big balloons filled with confetti. When it's over you already

know why the tour is called "Theatre Of Death"; Alice brought four different killing devices known from his previous tours and got killed four times doing probably the best rock horror theatre ever. Like I've said it was just a very short account as a lot more was happening during this ninety-plus minute show and donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ask anyone who have witnessed Alice live in concert on this tour which moments in the set were the most memorable. They all were special. The whole spectacle wouldn't have worked obviously without the exceptional soundtrack that is Alice Cooper's extensive back catalogue, the same way the music wouldn't be as entertaining without the jaw dropping theatrics. The selection of songs was quite different than at many of the previous tours, because twenty-one out of twenty-five numbers were just classic hits from the seventies. The fans got to hear the biggest of the old hits, but also some obscure tracks Alice hasn't played for years such as the aforementioned "Nurse Rozetta". He was in tip-top shape tonight and his raw voice was coming through very clearly, which only added to the overall satisfaction from the audience. Although he's the master of the show, the whole team of musicians and actors and actresses did an outstanding job as well. Alice chooses not just musicians, but people with strong stage personas who are able to assist him with working the crowd into a frenzy, especially when he's backstage changing his costumes. By the way, the wardrobe designer did some brilliant work here too and some of the new costumes like the spider one, or the one looking like a crocodile skin complete with a head and tail, looked just awesome. Getting back to the musicians, the line-up has been slightly changed in comparison to the previous tour, as Eric Singer is busy with Kiss, so the fans instead were treated to Jimmy Degrasso on drums this time around. Both guitarists Keri Kelli and Damon Johnson, who returned to the line-up earlier this year and the bass player Chuck Garric worked their asses off as usual and it's hard to imagine a better team for this job. The new stage dancer Tiffany Lowe is as good as Alice's daughter Calico whom fans witnessed on previous outings and the whole team of on-stage actors seemed to be professionals too as the entire show went really smoothly, at least on the crowd side of the stage. It's hard to believe that a rocker in his sixties can still be one of the best entertainers in the genre, even if he never speaks a word to the crowd during his performances. With all the costumes, props, acting and the general atmosphere that surround his performances, he definitely is one of the greatest showmen in the business and the current "Theatre Of Death" show is one of two best he's come up with in this decade, along with the "Dragontown" theatre. I'll let myself into the fangirl writing style a little bit now and if I may suggest something, next time please bring an eighties/early nineties show with the main focus on "Constrictor", "Raise Your Fist And Yell", "Trash" and "Hey Stoopid" as these great releases are always sorely missed in the setlists. But with regards to the current tour, it's really hard to describe the genius of Alice Cooper and the brilliance of his theatre and I think Wayne and Garth would sum up the current show better than I ever could: "We're not worthy!" I wish more seventeenth century witches re-incarnated into rock musicians, to bring the joy to the rock-loving masses. But you don't need to worry about having just only one of them around now, because Alice Cooper can still entertain crowds better than a hundred of your other rock bands together. PATRYCJA GABRIEL

FESTIVAL REPORT

4-5 December 2009, Pontins, Prestatyn Korpiklaani. Over an hour later another folk squad entered the same stage and this time there were no doubts that these guys are The third edition of the Hard Rock Hell festival took place at able to play headlining tours and draw big audiences on their own. Pontins Resort in Prestatyn, North Wales, the same venue as last The British fans know the Finns very well, as they have toured the year's event. The organisers added one more day to the party and islands a lot and have built a strong fanbase here. Although their a couple of bands played warm-up shows on Thursday, so the fans music has become a bit repetitive recently, they have so many who got to Prestatyn early had a really long weekend filled to the party tunes in their back catalogue that they never are in trouble when it comes to entertaining the crowd. Actually Jonne, the RATT bands singer/guitarist is the entertainer-in-chief here, because he’s always the most dynamic persona on stage and the rest of the gang don’t move around as much and just focus on playing their parts. The forest clan’s style is quite recognisable and the rhythmical numbers, perfect for singing along to, go down extremely well with the audience no matter if it’s a festival show or a small club gig. Try to stand still, when you’ve already drunk a few pints of lager or emptied a few glasses of something stronger and the band on stage starts the show with a song called “Vodka” and sings “Drinking is good for you” haha! Some other older hits the band performed tonight were “Korpiklaani” and “Journey Man” and they played a few songs in Finnish as usual, with all these strange titles I will never be able to remember. I missed the antlers a bit which Jonne has always attached to his microphone and the band brought two small backdrops instead, but in general the concert wasn’t any different to all the other times I've seen them perform. It was equally happy, equally energetic, equally alcohol inducing and to say it simply equally Korpiklaani-like.

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

INTRO

brim with hard rock and metal music from some of the genre’s most legendary artists. The bill looked quite impressive and as usual at such a festival, a couple of shows you would like to see clashed and it was pretty hard to make a decision of who you'd rather see perform, but that’s definitely not the kind of thing one should complain about. FRIDAY Waylander were the first band to play stage two and although the actual Friday party kick-started four hours earlier, no really big names had played so far, so when the band entered the stage they saw a relatively small crowd. The Northern Irishmen have been around for fifteen years now and their three albums have been received quite well by the Celtic folk metal fans, so you would think the band’s name should be much bigger nowadays. Their style is more that of extreme metal than the style of their most popular contemporaries and maybe that’s why the fans of the genre didn’t take to it so unanimously. Waylander were given just half an hour to present their material so they ploughed through the five or six songs pretty quickly. I would say the numbers from the debut release like the partially acoustic “A Hero’s Lament” and the fast paced “Back To The Fight” were the highlights of this short set, but the more recent “As The Deities Clash”, which was introduced as a song “About the futility of organised religion” was received pretty good as well. The band sport war paint imagery and it’s always more interesting to see a band that looks like “something” and not like a bunch of “regular guys”. Ciaran O’Hagan’s black metal screams fit with their outlook perfectly. The addition of whistle and mandolin melodic parts brings some charm to Waylander's music, but in general I had a feeling that the band lacks a bit more variety when it comes to the songwriting. The opening band slot was just perfect for them.

entitled “Infestation” is coming out in a few months. I caught them live at Sweden Rock where they put on a brilliant show and I must sadly say that at this particular performance they didn’t give their 100%. Well, maybe they didn’t rock their asses off as much as previously, but still, with such a great back catalogue (the eighties albums I mean) they just couldn’t do wrong. Stephen Pearcy’s recognisable harsh voice sounded great tonight and he was obviously the most important person on the huge stage, responsible for getting the crowd going. The guitar spotlight was stolen by Warren DeMartini and if there was a better rock guitarist playing at this year’s HRH, I must have missed their show. To complement the guitar duo the band invited on board ex-Quiet Riot axeman Carlos Cavazo and the six-string department worked extremely well in unison: the two experienced musicians traded a lot of great solos and posed together on the edge of the stage. The band performed a best-of set and tonight’s versions of “Back For More” (which included Pearcy’s sing-a-longs with the crowd), “Lack Of Communication”, “Lay It Down”, “Body Talk” and the set’s closer “Round And Round” definitely brought back the memories of the golden years of US hard rock to the older fans and made the younger members of the audience think about getting into the history of the band. Like I’ve already said, I enjoyed their Sweden Rock show better, because they seemed to be a little bit less involved this time around and looked a bit tired, but still, even if it wasn’t their best day, I’d be glad if some young hard rock bands were able to play their music in such a professional manner as the Ratt guys did tonight. Their songs remain powerful, twenty years after they were written and the band are still able to kick major ass. Eden’s Curse. The multinational combo brought to life by the US vocalist Michael Eden and the Scottish bassist Paul Logue got together once again this year to perform in front of a festival audience. Arranging shows must be pain in the ass for them as they live in different countries and continents, but they somehow always work things out and please the fans with their mix of melodic rock and power metal. The band have built a serious fanbase touring the UK with Stratovarius and performing at Bloodstock, unfortunately, Monster Magnet played the biggest stage at the same time, so the attendance wasn’t really as large for Eden's Curse this time around. Still, the fans who decided in favour of EC surely enjoyed this onehour long concert as the band played an intense set and mixed the best numbers from their two albums, with tunes like “Judgement Day” and “Angels & Demons” being some of the highlights. The guys were in really good shape musically and in good spirits and Michael worked the crowd with confidence, while Paul Logue smiled from behind his funny shades and the two guitarists – Thorsten Koehne and Jay Parmar posed in unison with their axes. The band have had a line-up change recently and although Ferdy Doernberg (from Axel Rudi Pell’s camp) is one of the best rock/metal keyboard players around, the guy who took over his role in Eden's Curse, the Italian Alessandro Del Vecchio managed to even strengthen the team, because he’s also a brilliant singer, probably better than Michael Eden himself. The harmony vocals the guys did today were really high class and the live version of “Angels & Demons” with Ale singing Pamela Moore’s parts was the best I’ve

Hysterica. The young Swedish all-female combo will always be compared to Manowar, whether they like it or not. When you take just one look at them and when you hear just one of their riffs the self proclaimed “Kings of Metal” are the first band to come to mind. So I think if the girls continue going down this direction they will be forever stuck with the label “female Manowar” and will be supported by the fans who prefer old-school true metal and ignored by those who can only see the obvious cheesiness in their music and lyrics. Whether you like Hysterica’s style or not, the fact is that they’re one of the most interesting bands that have debuted in the last several years and they actually don’t have any competitors at the moment. A lot of metal fans must have noticed that a group such as Hysterica have come into existence, because the crowd that gathered to see them perform at stage two was much bigger than one would expect. The girls only have one album out, so their set was based SONATA ARCTICA solely around it and the fans banged their heads to the simple but memorable hymns like “Bless The Beast”, “The Bitch Is Back”, “Girls Made Of Heavy Metal” and the title song from the debut release – “Metalwar”. The young frontwoman Anni De Vil has a good stage presence and although she needs to work on her vocal technique, she’s already on the right path to becoming a much sought after vocalist (if she only sticks to her guns) and the entire band pose with their instruments and interact with the crowd, so it’s a pleasure to watch them on stage. To round the review off I’ll say that the guitarist Bitchie had a really good idea to put a band like this together, because they filled in a blank spot within the scene and may lead some fans to good old true metal, thanks to their female charm. What’s most important – the fans seem to like their shows, which you could easily tell watching their response at Hysterica’s Hard Rock Hell concert. heard so far. As the set drew to a close the guys played “We All Die Ratt. One of the biggest stars of the eighties LA glam metal boom Young”, a cover song known from the “Rockstar” movie which was have returned on the scene. Well, they have actually never one of the most memorable moments as well. Having seen the disappeared for long and have always played shows here and band twice before I can only say that it was the best EC there, but since they’ve not released anything for ten years we can performance I have yet witnessed and one of the festival’s say that they’re coming back now, because the new studio album highlights.

FESTIVAL REPORT Winterborn. The Finnish melodic metallers found themselves in the HRH line-up just by coincidence, because they supported Sonata Arctica on their current European trek and as the headliner played the festival, the support acts (the other being Delain) were also

fast, double-bass driven, Stratovarius inspired numbers like “Don’t Say A Word”, “8th Commandment” and “Fullmoon”. New tunes like “Juliet” and “Flag In The Ground” were OK but seemed to sound pale in comparison next to the happy and colourful older compositions. Well, Tony Kakko made his mind and he’s GIRLSCHOOL probably never going back to the Sonata’s roots so the shows will be getting more and more tiresome in the future. It’s a pity, because the Finnish gang used to seriously kick ass a few years back. SATURDAY

invited. Being given this opportunity the guys made the most of it and put on an interesting show, full of melodic riffs, keyboard backgrounds and progressive touches here and there. I didn’t know anything about this band prior to the event and I only checked them out because I saw they were labelled melodic metal and in the end I feel as though I made the correct decision. I wouldn’t say they are in the lead in their genre and I don’t think playing the music they play that they’re destined to become big stars, but they’re a very solid, professional sounding second league heavy metal band. They’ve put out two albums so far and most of their tunes seem to be mid-paced songs, like “Land Of The Free” or “Nightfall Symphony” which they performed tonight. To add some variety the guys also threw some very heavy, double-bass driven metal into the mix with “Last Man Standing” and rounded out their set with “Train To Hell” taken from their debut release that I felt was one of the highlights of their performance. I like going to see bands I don’t know and get positively surprised, which was the case this time. With more support from the label and some more work put into the band, they should make a much bigger impact in the years to come.

Tyson Dog. Tyson Dog were the first NWOBHM band which I caught on the tiniest festival stage in the bar. It's really cool when the big event organisers still care about the old bands and bring on some forgotten groups to remind the younger audience what are the roots of today's heavy metal. It's funny when you look at the bill and wonder, "Is it really the same band? Do they still play"? Tyson Dog still do play and although the line-up is different now they obviously perform all of the classics from their two mid-eighties albums. Well, they basically have no other choice, as they haven't released any new material since 1986. With Ian Swift (Satan, Atomkraft, Avenger) taking the singer duties; the Newcastle band delivered a solid set and a bunch of denim and leather dressed fans had a rollicking party with them. The guys didn't sound as retro as you might expect, but rather contemporary I'd have to say and they clearly stayed in touch with music for these almost twenty five years of Tyson Dog's hiatus because you wouldn't notice any flaws in their playing. The highlights of their set were "Taste The Hate", "Blood Money" and "Hammerhead", all driven by typical NWOBHM riffs, but as ANGEL WITCH everything they played was classic material (I think so at least as I didn't recognise some of the songs) the genre's enthusiasts considered the entire set one big highlight, I suppose. Now that you've returned guys, can you give us some new music maybe?

Girlschool. The British all-female rock’n’roll/metal institution have just completed a successful UK tour with Lemmy’s Sonata Arctica. Sorry to say this but I’m one of those who shout gang and the fans who didn’t catch them on that SA should have changed their name along with their style. The that occasion had a chance to check them out stuff they wrote for their last two albums is so different to the now at the festival. With a career spanning melodic power metal tunes they used to compose, that these two thirty years and a huge catalogue of catchy shouldn’t be called Sonata Arctica releases in any case. The good rocking hits, the girls don’t need to complain thing is the Finns perform some of their older material live and about playing to empty venues. It was no that’s basically why I went to see them again. The slot after the different this time and the area in front of stage two was quite headliner isn’t the most enviable slot, but still, I thought that many packed, also because the shows in the biggest hall hadn’t yet more power metal maniacs would turn out to see the band. The started. The girls took the stage with the sound of a siren and biggest hall was almost empty in comparison to the previous shows opened their concert with “Demolition” and then they mixed their and even more people left when the concert got seriously delayed. classic repertoire with some fresh tunes. The band got the crowd As I expected, the new album featured heavily in the set, and the going quite easily with a bunch of oldies like “Yeah Right”, “C’mon very few songs which are OK from the studio releases, definitely Let’s Go” or “Race With The Devil”. The very first song they ever didn’t work in the live setting. The concert dragged painfully and recorded appropriately titled “Take It All Away” made it to the set although it was quite dynamic and as professional as it gets (apart as well and the guitarist Jackie extended the microphone over the from the not so good sound), music wise it was just boring as all fans heads to encourage the audience to join the band in the hell in its major part. The stage set was nice, with a huge logo in choruses. The funniest moment of the show was when a pair of male pants landed on stage and none of the musicians TIGERTAILZ wanted to touch it, guess why, haha… “Emergency” and its “999” chorus announced the end of the show, which was definitely more entertaining than the tour performances, where they had time for only seven to eight songs. Now the fans finally got to hear a good amount of classic numbers and no one left disappointed. You can only wonder if the four women are able to get along when they leave for the backstage area, but on-stage they rocked like best friends and especially the guitarists Kim McAuliffe and Jackie Chambers displayed some nice choreography with their axes. Girlschool didn’t let the audience down, which you could tell seeing the ear to ear grins on people's faces. I hope the girls will do an extensive headlining tour soon and play an even longer set. the background and small symbols on the sides and the blue lights created a mysterious atmosphere, but it didn’t save the band. Now, I’m not saying this because I prefer the early material to the fresh bunch of tunes, but the songs that got the best reception were the

Marseille. The breaks on the bar-based stage didn't take long and just fifteen minutes after Tyson Dog left, the next NWOBHM heroes hit the stage. Marseille were one of the acts that helped establish the scene, enough to say that they managed to release two full length albums before Iron Maiden's debut album

saw the light of day. It's a pity that they didn't go on and after just one more album seized to exist, because they could have been one of the most well known British acts nowadays. Anyway, twenty five years passed by and the band decided it was high time to let the fans know that Marseille is still alive. They refreshed the line-up and with new singer Nige Roberts in tow, who joined the group earlier this year, they re-recorded four classic tracks for an EP release. With their Hard Rock Hell performance the band took the fans on a journey back in time and reminded us what the traditional British metal, influenced by seventies hard rock bands was all about. They also let us take a look at the crystal ball to see what the future will bring for the band and announced a come-back album to be released in 2010. The new song called "Raise Hell" sounded very promising, and it's style is exactly the same as the older numbers the band performed - "Rock You Tonight", "You're A Woman", "Walkin' Thro' The Night" etc. Nige's voice fits very well with Marseille's music, the real frontman however was the curlyhaired Neil Buchanan, who posed with his axe and entertained the crowd. It was a cool show and if all the fresh material is as good as "Raise Hell", the new album will be a must-have for all NWOBHM punters. Tigertailz. The venue was packed during the Girlschool gig, but it seems that another couple hundred fans managed to get in to witness Wales’ own glam rockers. The reason may have been similar as in the previous case; I mean, no big bands were performing at the same time at stage one, so everyone in the area decided to check the ‘Tailz out. The band brought with them two small backdrops that said “Cardiff Wales” with pictures of these funny tigers you might know from the “Banzai” album cover and put them on the sides of the stage. And then, as it was announced,

they played their best album – “Bezerk” in its entirety and in the original track listing. The highlights of the set were the hits, which the band have always played live, like “Sick Sex”, “Noise Level Critical” and of course the biggest one – “Love Bomb Baby”. Also, “Heaven” was dedicated to the band’s late bass player Pepsi Tate. The technical quality definitely isn’t the reason that draws the audience to the band’s shows, because their abilities aren’t of the highest caliber you can imagine and also Kim Hooker isn’t a top class singer in my opinion. So, what people like about these Welshmen must be their happy and catchy song writing and their attitude. When you add to it their motley image and a huge dose of energy they always beam with, you get a really combustible mixture. This time the guys had a special surprise – after “Bezerk” was over they played Motörhead’s “Ace Of Spades” and were joined on stage by the Girlschool members, which was a perfect culmination of the best Tigertailz’ show I’ve seen to date. Saracen. Another band to appear on the smallest festival stage were the NWOBHM metallers Saracen. With two albums released in the early eighties and two follow-ups which came out in the last ten years they had a lot of material to put together for a setlist that spanned all of forty five minutes, but they mainly focused on their early material. Their melodic old-school compositions sounded really impressive, and so did singer Steve Bettney, who owns a powerful pair of pipes. I would say the early tunes like "Meet Me At Midnight", "Horsemen Of The Apocalypse" and "Follow The Reaper" (not sure if this one is old as well) were the highlights of their set, but the concert was very consistent throughout and there were definitely no dull moments. The funny thing was that there was no space for the keyboard player on the tiny stage and they put the poor guy behind the PA front speakers, haha... In general the crowd seemed to be quite enthusiastic about hearing the classic

FESTIVAL REPORT QUEENSRYCHE

British music and Steve commented on their response, "You made a couple of old men very happy." Well, Saracen made the fans happy as well, and with their song writing abilities, good musicianship and superb vocalist the band could have made it really big, had they not stopped after two albums. They put on the best show from all the NWOBHM bands that played the bar stage. Elixir have recently been the most active act from all the NWOBHM bands that took the bar stage. They debuted quite late, in 1986 and before they managed to put out their second album in 1990, the whole buzz around the British wave had totally faded away. The music was good, but the timing for the band couldn't be worse, and Elixir was put on a lengthy exteneded hiatus. They woke up in the early 2000s and have released two albums since that time and you can occasionally catch them live here and there, like at the great British Steel festival organised by the band's guitarist Phil Denton. Their latest material ("Mindcreeper", 2006) sounds more modern than their early works and such is also the band's current live sound. They obviously still play a lot of classics and this time they included in their set the likes of "Star Of Beshaan" and "Pandoras Box" which they mixed in between the more fresh material - "Mindcreeper", "Iron Hawk" etc. The highlight of Elixir's set was however the last two tunes. First the band ripped out "Midnight Messiah", a song that will appear on the upcoming studio album and if the rest of the material is as good, they will top "Mindcreeper", no doubt about it. At the very end they performed the number all of the fans were looking forward to hearing, the awesome "Treachery (Ride Like The Wind)", full of Maiden-ish harmonies provided by Phil Denton and Norman Gordon. The singer Paul Taylor was in good vocal shape, so the whole band sounded really tight and professional. I'm not sure why the bar was half empty during Elixir's concert, probably because of The Quireboys playing the other stage. Those who missed the show should regret it because Elixir delivered the goods, again. Hammerhead were brought to the metal underground community's attention a couple of years ago when the Greek Cult Metal Classics label released a compilation of their early material. It was actually Hammerhead's first "big" release as they only had one demo and one single out in the late seventies/early eighties. You wouldn't expect a band that had been idle for thirty years to play live again, but they did and their short set was quite enjoyable. I mean, you wouldn't call it professional by any means as it was more like seeing your grandfathers on an occasional re-union with their buddies from an old blues band or something, and watching them on-stage you could easily guess they don't do it very often. But the guys have written a slew of nice compositions that structurally combine seventies melodic hard rock with the early NWOBHM sound, and they performed a few of those tonight. "Devil's Soldier", "Time Will Tell", "Will To Survive" all sounded good, and the two guitarists Brian Hogson and Buzz Elliot traded positions at the microphone, but I would say the highlight of the set was when a young kid named Josh appeared on-stage to join the band. I tell you, if he can already shred like that in his early teens, we'll be having another Smith or Murray on the scene in a few years. The band was forced to cut their set short and it was a major disappointment because everyone could see "Lochinvar", their best song being the last entry scribbled on their setlist. Shit happens, but in general it was a nice (very) old school show. Hammerhead closed

the NWOBHM invasion on the bar stage but they weren’t the last band from this genre to play tonight.

Angel Witch. The legendary British metallers who used to headline over Iron Maiden in the late seventies have returned home at last. You would say that with just one original member on board the band shouldn’t be called Angel Witch, but actually the band's frontman and guitarist Kevin Heybourne is Angel Witch. It’s his voice and his riffs that were the most important part of the self-titled debut album - one of the greatest NWOBHM releases ever. The band have been putting out compilations and live recordings for almost 25 years, and they have no new material written so it was obvious that the crowd would hear a setlist comprised of classics tonight and I don’t think anyone complained about it. Starting things off with a kick in the form of “Gorgon” ‘till the closing bars of “Angel Witch” the show was just brilliant. Sure, Kevin’s voice is far from what it used to be, as it’s harsher and as a vocalist he can’t hit some of the high notes anymore. Sure, the sound of the band is more up-to-date and much heavier now. But honestly, who cares if the band plays the likes of “Angel Of Death”, “Confused”, “Sweet Danger” or “White Witch”? When you’re a fan of old-school metal and you have a chance to witness such an awesome set of thirty year-old tunes you should just get to the first row and bang your head ‘till death. That’s what many of the band's maniacal fanbase did, but I don’t think only the big fans showed up as the venue was quite packed. When Angel Witch were closing their show with “Angel Witch” some fanatics went into a crazy moshpit and that only says that the band is still relevant and their compositions stood the test of time. For me personally AW’s show was one of the highlights of the festival and can somebody please convince Kevin to do a proper UK tour after all of these years? W.A.S.P. Have you noticed that W.A.S.P.’s recent shows have been much better than they used to be say six or seven years ago? On the latest tour the concerts lasted for 1.5 hours, whilst before the band rarely moved over the seventy minute mark. Also, frontman Blackie Lawless has recently been putting some more energy into his performances and the band seems to have some more wind in their sails. Keeping this in mind I expected an ass-kicking show and hell yeah, ass-kicking show it was. They didn’t bring the video screen and didn’t play the movie like on the “Babylon” tour, and there was no stage set at all, but they actually didn’t need anything, as they put their 100% into their performance which was fast, dynamic and highly energetic. There are some rules about the festivals and the band played by them, I mean they focused on the hits and the best-of set consisted of crowd-pleasers like “On Your Knees”, “L.O.V.E. Machine”, “Chainsaw Charlie”, “Wild Child” etc. I would welcome to the setlist some more new songs from the excellent “Babylon”, W.A.S.P. but the mastermind behind the band decided to only play “Crazy” this time. Blackie dressed in a “WASP / Lawless 25” baseball jersey easily ruled the crowd and he incorporated a competition called “Which side of the venue can be louder”, which worked out perfectly despite the fact that it’s totally played out. As usual, Doug Blair shredded an extended solo on “The Idol” and I would love to find out who made the axes for him – the rotating chainsaw one and the one with the colourful church-window on the body. The annoying element of the show was previously recorded backing tracks that Blackie used in concert, but the band rocked so hard that you could easily forget about them. As long as the

main vocal is live, I don’t care. When the show was nearing the end, the band performed the hymn “I Wanna Be Somebody” with the crowd’s participation, obviously, and before they left we heard “Before we go I have one more thing to say – I’m blind in Texas!” So, there were no surprises in the setlist, but it was one of the best W.A.S.P. concerts I’ve been to and I think the best show of the festival. When I gauged the audience reactions, I think many of those who witnessed the show would agree with me. Queensryche. Having no rest for the last ten hours I decided I’d close my participation in the event with the US prog-metallers show. I was hoping they’d play as few songs from their most recent release as possible and they wouldn’t make a stupid joke in the shape of the entire “American Soldier” show, because it’s definitely their worst release ever. I didn’t expect an “Operation-Mindcrime” set as well as they have totally overplayed that to death on previous outings, so the only option that was left was a best-of set, which wouldn’t be bad at all. The crew removed everything from the festival stage, including monitors which looked quite strange and the show began. The start wasn’t very promising as some technical problems occurred, which caused a delay, but when they at last managed to play the intro and the band took the stage they performed two old tunes from “Rage For Order” and everything fell right into place. After “Neue Regel” and “The Whisper” Geoff Tate announced that tonight’s show would be divided into three acts - “Rage For Order”, “American Soldier” and “Empire”. I didn’t expect it, but it seemed to have been an interesting idea. The highlight of the first part was probably “Walk In The Shadows”, the middle part with songs like “Man Down!” and “If I Were King” sounded a bit more convincing live than on the studio versions, but the last act was definitely the most powerful and the crowd’s reaction were the most enthusiastic during it. Playing “Best I Can”, “Another Rainy Night”, “Silent Lucidity” and “Empire” the band showed what Queensryche is all about – catchy compositions, complex but interesting arrangements, high quality musicianship and terrific vocals by one of the metal world’s greatest singers. Talking about Tate, I didn’t really get why he spoke so much between the tracks, walking with a glass of wine across the stage, because the band could have performed at least 3-4 more songs instead. His monologues about the band’s career and about LPs, CDs and mp3s were really an unwelcomed element of the show. Still, the second day’s headliner didn’t disappoint and when it comes to sheer quality it’s hard to compete with them, especially when they decide to play classic material. The show was brilliant in every aspect and I can’t imagine a better finish to the festival. OUTRO Hard Rock Hell III was successful on all levels. Of course the music was the most important ingredient of this tremendous weekend party, and with such a variety of bands playing the festival, everyone could find something to their liking. The event was organised flawlessly, at least from an average fan’s point of view. The catering was more than satisfying, you could buy some nice stuff at the small metal market and the venue itself was top class. Thank you HRH for this enjoyable experience. We’re starting to count down the days to the 2010 edition right now. PATRYCJA GABRIEL & WOJTEK GABRIEL

FESTIVAL REPORT

23-24 October 2009 Trent Uni / Rock City, Nottingham INTRO Firefest V was supposed to be the final edition to this underground melodic rock event, but the festival organisers paid close attention to the receptive audience and decided after careful consideration to give it another go. The fans spent two days in Robin Hood’s neighbourhood again and enjoyed listening to AOR bands whom they will not see anywhere else in the UK. Firefest VI was a bit shorter in duration than its predecessor. Instead of two full days the melodic rock enthusiasts received one evening and one full day dedicated to their favorite music. I think the general consensus from festival goers’ was that of appreciation; thankful for being given another chance to gaze upon their favorite acts in an intimate live atmosphere, rather than being disappointed with the scaling back of the event. FRIDAY Lost Weekend. It’s not an easy task to open a festival and to perform for a hungry crowd who impatiently await for the event to kick off. The British rockers seemed to not care about coming

H.E.A.T. out as the first band and they used their time to the fullest. The line-up, based around the singer Paul Uttley, consists of two guitarists and a keyboard player, so they sounded pretty thick and could implement some interesting arrangements in their songs. You wouldn’t say Paul has a very distinctive voice, but he did a good job and didn’t waste time for senseless speeches between songs. The guys played some rhythmical rock tunes like “Only The Strong Survive”, “Spirit Of Man” (which they wrote for the solo album of Magnum's Bob Catley) and closed their set with “Stone Hearted Woman” from their latest studio effort. In general, the blend of melodic AOR and seventies British hard rock went over really well with the Nottingham crowd and Lost Weekend weren’t a “necessary evil” kind of opener but rather a good band that just happened to play at the beginning. Eclipse. The young rockers from Eclipse were at the forefront of something I would like to describe as the Swedish invasion, because all of the other bands that performed after them also hail from Sweden. The regular Firefest visitors had a chance to see a little part of Eclipse last

year, when their singer Erik Martensson helped out his fellow countrymen from H.E.A.T. Eclipse made a buzz in the melodic rock community when their “Are You Ready To Rock” album was released last year and got nothing but the best reviews. As the fans might have expected, the band based their set heavily around this album and the live versions of “Unbreakable”, “Wylde One”, “To Mend A Broken Heart”, “Under The Gun” etc. resulted in waves of applause. Opening with the strong “Breaking My Heart Again” they never stopped rocking and it was really surprising to see such a young band showing so much maturity, both composition and performance wise. The Swedes really know how to use their instruments correctly and the clean and strong use of Erik’s voice only added to the overall, very positive, reception. If you mix the technical proficiency with intelligent song-writing and youthful energy, which Eclipse surely didn’t lack, you can only get the best results. Bad Habit. The Swedish team, who began their career in the late eighties had some technical problems and the start of their show was heavily delayed. To be honest, I wasn’t disappointed with this fact, as halfway through the set I felt like I was about to fall asleep, it was so boring. The band totally lacked energy and the compositions seemed repetitive and were dragging like a rancid sewerlike odor. The band broadened their sound by playing both keyboards and pre-recorded choirs back from a hard disc, which was very annoying. If you hear a huge choir and see just one guy singing, and if you hear instruments but see no one playing them, it just comes off looking stupid and you definitely can’t call it a genuine live performance. A significant part of the crowd seemed to not be as offended by all of this cheating and seemed to enjoy the show, applauding the band after songs like “Sad But True”, “Rowena” or a ballad with humorous lyrics entitled “I Don’t Want You”. For me however it was the worst show of the entire festival and the band totally failed to garner my attention. H.E.A.T. At last year’s Firefest this young Swedish sensation couldn’t show off their true quality, as their singer Kenny Leckremo underwent an intensive heart surgery and the other band members had to perform with guest vocalists and play a set comprised of cover songs. The festival organisers made it up for them and not only invited the band back again, but let them play as the second act from the top on Friday’s line-up. H.E.A.T.’s self-titled debut album is arguably one of the best melodic rock releases

of 2008, but on-stage is the place where the band truly shines the brightest. The show was perfect in most every aspect. H.E.A.T. took a banner with their logo, which was placed behind the drum kit and their eighties-like image was one of the three best at the whole festival. Last, but not least, they brought a bunch of asskicking melodic songs, which they performed with passion and full intensity. H.E.A.T.’s two guitarists Dave and Eric traded a lot of great solos, vocalist Kenny Leckremo overshadowed all of his predecessors with his range and power and the entire band played so tight and looked so professional that it was really hard to believe they’re all in their early twenties. Having just one album under their collective belts they performed it almost in its entirety with tracks like “There For You”, “Feel The Heat”, and a stunning rendition of their Eurovision number TREAT “1,000 Miles” being the highlight of their performance. The crowd called the band out for an encore and before they went into the farewell song “Stay” some random festival attendee proposed to his lady on stage and she obviously couldn’t pass up the opportunity in light of such circumstances. H.E.A.T. were the definite winners of Friday’s competition, leaving all the other bands far behind in the dust. They are on their way to the rock stardom. Keep an eye on H.E.A.T. Treat. I think the Treat guys must have been terrified watching their fellow young rockers, because to go out on-stage after H.E.A.T. and maintain the same level of energy was a seemingly impossible mission. A lot of fans left the venue after H.E.A.T.’s set which meant that they had either seen Treat many times before or weren’t interested in seeing the headliner at all. Still, many melodic rock enthusiasts dressed in Treat T-shirts stayed to witness their favorite group and they gave the band a really warm reception. Due to technical problems between the set change the Treat stage time was cut down to just 50 minutes. Although they skipped all the between song banter, they managed to squeeze in just ten tunes. The fans that came only to see Treat were surely disappointed with the length of the show, but definitely not with its quality. Robert Ernlund sounded good and seemed to have maintained his charisma. Anders Wikstrom enchanted the crowd with some skilled guitar work, drummer Jamie Borger was in very good shape and beat the skins without mercy and Patrick Appelgren got the biggest applause after the keyboard intro for the band’s hit “Sole Survivor”. The other songs the crowd heard that night were “Conspiracy”, “Get You On The Run”, “Party All Over”, and all of them shared the catchy and THE POODLES melodious choruses the band are known for. To sum up: Treat are the legend who showed their class tonight and because of their legacy they fully deserved the headlining spot, but if you take into account the quality of all of Friday’s performances, H.E.A.T. were the

real headliners of the first day of the festival, no doubt about it. SATURDAY Airrace. The band that opened the second day of the rock party, this time at Rock City were the British melodic rockers Airrace, who only released one album in the early eighties before disappearing all-together. I must say Airrace sounded surprisingly good for a band that haven’t played for twenty years and their show was nothing but professional. Having a good frontman by way of Keith Murrell (as far as I’m concerned one of two members who remained from the original line-up, along with the keyboard player) the band didn’t have any problems with convincing the crowd that they

didn’t forget how to rock. Apart from one new song called “One Step Ahead” the setlist was based around their only album “Shaft Of Light”, with “Not Really Me”, “Caught In The Game” and “Brief Encounter” being the most entertaining songs. It's really cool that this forgotten band has returned to the scene, because although many of the Firefest attendees listened to rock back in the early eighties, not many of them had a chance to catch acts like Airrace live in their heyday. As for Airrace, they were nothing less than a perfect opener of the second day. The Poodles. The Swedish team who easily mix rock and metal with many other genres were probably the heaviest band in this year Firefest’s line-up. Their music, although based on quite heavy riffs is so catchy and melodious that the band had many fans jumping and singing along from the get-go, but in general it seemed that most people didn’t know their material at all. The band kicked the show off with new song “Too Much Of Everything”, which was a strange choice, as it’s quite a complex composition and not an instant winner. The rest of the set however was compiled of rocking, energetic numbers, with highlights coming in the form of another fresh tune called “Caroline”, older numbers like “Metal Will Stand Tall” and “Seven Seas” and their biggest hit “Night Of Passion”. The band’s frontman has quite an original image and he always wears some strange coats, high tops etc.

and this time he even managed to change his outfit during the set. Besides, he was arguably the best vocalist on the second day, when it comes to overall power, range and sound. The songs lost a lot in the live translation as the arrangements and backgrounds weren’t as big and bombastic as on the actual studio albums, even still, the entire band sounded great and I liked their attitude and energy the most from all of the eight bands that played on the second day.

sure if he had a cold or he just sounds this way most days. Besides, the band had some technical problems so the keyboards that play an important role in their sound weren’t audible for most of the show. I guess there was also some problem with the monitors, because the band sounded like a bunch of random guys who knew their parts but had never played together before. They didn’t fill the high expectations on classy numbers like “Don’t You Know What Love Is”, “Hard To Hold” and “Driving Wheel” which were spoiled with the low quality of their performance.

White Sister. The other band, next to H.E.A.T. that returned to Nottingham after their show last year, were the Californians from White Sister. H.E.A.T.’s concert was obviously very different from last year and White Sister’s set was almost identical, but it didn’t stop the crowd from having a ball again. I don’t know if the guys know some secrets on how to get the audience going or it’s just natural for them. The important thing is that their 2009 show was as successful as last year’s. Having a good singer and frontman in Dennis Churchill-Dries, who owns strong and good sounding pipes and a second singer in the keytarist Gary Brandon, who jumps around with his portable instrument, the band just can do no wrong. With yet another keyboard player on board and the original F.M. guitarist Rick Chadock providing some rocking riffs and blazing solos, the guys sounded more than complete and rocked (or AOR-ed?) the Firefest crowd easily. They focused on the early material that remained powerful after all these years, with highlights being “Promises”, “Can’t Say No” and “Love Don’t Make It Right”, but also the two newer tunes and especially “Doublecrossed” bare the high quality stamp and went down like a real storm. When the set drew to an end, the Firefest organisers joined the crowd’s favorite band onstage to sing some choirs and have some fun on their own, forgetting about the hard work they had to put into preparing this event. White Sister proved all these nonbelievers wrong, who thought that watching them again play a similar setlist may get boring and to say it simply, the band kicked major ass.

Romeo’s Daughter. The fans partied with thirteen bands over that weekend, but they only had one chance to listen to some nice female vocals. Strange, isn’t it? Why do so few girls join AOR/melodic rock bands? That’s a subject for further discussion but in regards to Romeo’s Daughter, the band got one of the warmest welcomes from all of the bands performing tonight and I suppose that was mainly due to the frontwoman’s charm. Although their music lies on

Crown Of Thorns. Jean Beauvoir’s biography is quite impressive. He started his musical career some thirty years ago and has since played with dozens of bands, collaborated as a songwriter with musicians from Kiss and The Ramones among others, written tracks for movies (“Shocker”, “Pet Cemetary”, “School Of Rock” and many more) and released six albums with his own band Crown Of Thorns. You could only expect a high class spectacle from a band fronted

Photos: Wojtek Gabriel

Drive, She Said were the first American band to play at this year’s FF. Mark Mangold, the band’s keyboard player has written music for such notable pop/rock names like Laura Branigan, Michael Bolton and Cher, so Drive, She Said’s songs, which he’s composed/co-composed can be filed in a drawer under “first class tunes” obviously. Keeping that in mind and waiting for a quality show, you could only be disappointed with the band’s live performance. First of all, the singer Al Fritch sounded really awful and I’m not

by such an experienced musician and they definitely didn’t fall short of expectations. As soon as they entered the stage it became obvious that they had not come to take prisoners, but just to kill with no mercy. They were probably the loudest of all the bands performing tonight and they sounded the dirtiest, so they didn’t provide your average AOR show. A couple of eardrums may have burst out during their performance, but it was impossible to not like the show as the guys combined inexhaustible stage energy with an interesting visual aspect and dynamic hard rocking compositions. With a few albums under their belts they went for a best-of kind of setlist, but the audience seemed to like the songs from their debut release, like “The Healer”, “Are You Ready?” and “Hike It Up” the most. The band performed some stuff from the recent album called “Faith” including the title track and some ROMEO’S DAUGHTER material from their other four releases and some of them seemed to drag a little bit in places, but in general the show was top notch. The only thing I didn’t like was the rap piece by the band’s bass player, but fortunately it didn’t spoil the overall feeling. Maybe some other bands had more melodic and more memorable compositions, but still, I would say that Crown Of Thorns managed to rock the house in larger than life fashion. Honeymoon Suite. When the Canadian AOR squad entered the stage my initial reaction was that they looked like a bunch of random guys from the street. I don’t expect people who don’t live off music to still have long hair and wear motley clothes on a daily basis, but many old bands manage to look like rockers on stage which adds to the overall impression. Leaving the image aside, music wise everything was very professional and the guys surely know their chosen trade, but I would have preferred some more energy to complement the songs. The sound was one of the best I had heard so far and the technical quality of the show was very high, but if you don’t feel the power you get bored after a while. Johnnie Dee has a strong voice, but I wouldn’t say he’s the best frontman, and although the other bands that played that night weren’t as good at playing their instruments, they definitely put on better shows than Honeymoon Suite. We heard a couple of classic numbers recorded in the eighties like “Burning In Love”, “New Girl Now”, “Feel It Again” and “Bad Attitude” and all of these songs went over really well with the crowd. In my opinion however, although HS are professionals and I wouldn’t take anything from them as musicians and composers, they didn’t deserve the second place from the top on the bill.

Andy Barnett proved that the band didn’t make a mistake including him in their line-up. In general the British rockers were so happy on stage and beamed with such a positive aura that it was impossible not to join them and stand still. The band performed many of their classic numbers – “That Girl”, “Blood And Gasoline”, “Face To Face”, “Only The Strong Survive” and “Bad Luck” and a new, heavier composition entitled “Wildside”, but the last song of the encore was definitely not only the highlight of their show but one of the highlights of the entire fest. The band played their version of Prince’s “Purple Rain” and were joined on stage by Romeo’s Daughter’s Leigh Matty, two of the White Sister guys and the Firefest organisers dressed up like the eighties F.M., with wigs and full outfits, which was a hilarious and memorable finish to this two-day

melodic rock party. FM delivered a solid asskicking show worthy of headliner status and now we’re only waiting for the new album to come out in early 2010 hopefully followed by an extensive UK tour. OUTRO The Firefest VI band line-up wasn’t as good as last year, but still, the thirty-forty year-old demographic of AOR maniacs were more than happy to witness so many good bands from across the globe in one place. The organisation itself was almost perfect, because you can’t blame some technical difficulties, which can always happen. The only complaint I have would be the lack of catering in the venues, because if you wanted to eat anything you had to miss some shows. Other than that you can only say positive things about the festival. There’s no other event as big as this in the UK, so let’s hope that the Firefest guys won’t let the fans down and we will have a chance to travel to Nottingham next year once again to take part in another great melodic rock party. PATRYCJA GABRIEL

CROWN OF THORNS

WHITE SISTER

FESTIVAL REPORT the lighter side of AOR and the performance wasn’t very energetic and lacked a bit of a real rock kick, the crowd seemed to have the party of their life. The clean and serene Leigh Matty’s voice flew peacefully from the speakers and created a mellow atmosphere but the fans responded more enthusiastically than ever before. The band was idle for over fifteen years but if I hadn’t known it I would’ve never guessed, as they sounded like they had spent the last fifteen years on stage. They focused on the self-titled debut album and from the opening tune “Wild Child” ‘till the end of “Don’t Break My Heart” I didn’t notice any faults or problems, which was nice to see after the previous act. The other highlights would have been the slower “I Cry Myself To Sleep” and “Heaven In The Backseat” but actually the entire one-hour long set was so professional that even the less known songs went down extremely well with Rock City’s crowd. The birds sing about a possible actual reunion and a new album, which definitely will be a nice treat for all the AOR enthusiasts.

F.M. I wasn’t there to witness the FM’s big come-back two years ago at Firefest IV and I hadn’t seen any of their DVDs prior to the show so I was really looking forward to seeing them live for the first time. The band surely didn’t suck and I’m sure even those who had seen them previously did not leave disappointed. Steve Overland’s voice sounded good that night and he had a very good rapport with the audience. The young axeman who took over the duties from

ALBUM REVIEWS

0-10

8.5

W.A.S.P. - Babylon (Demolition)

Never mind his age, Blackie Lawless being the talented songsmith he is, WASP’s new “Babylon” cannot fail to impress. For starters, the energy coursing through this entire album, which runs at a very old school length of just nine songs, is infectious. Electrifying your crotch right away is the rollicking opener “Crazy” that’s about love of the psychotic sort. No surprise then that it checks out on all the timeless heavy metal verities: great hooks, flashy licks, a nice transition from verse to chorus, and oh, what a chorus! As for the expected guitar pyrotechnics, it’s more perfunctory on “Babylon” rather than the high-water mark of each track. Just one song down and the music takes a turn for the grim on the anthemic “Live To Die Another Day” that’s followed by the painfully redundant “Babylon’s Burning” where Blackie chants six-six-six in a feeble attempt to scare us. The hyper-charged Deep Purple cover “Burn” quickly arrives to set matters a-right and snapping at its heels is the wonderful power ballad “Into the Fire” that screams for lighters waving in midair, never mind if it has the same title as another Deep Purple classic. Packed with emotion and a tender vocal performance from Blackie, who sounds ageless on this millionth album of his, “Into The Fire” is an impassioned, tearjerking four minutes. Much to our delight, “Babylon” doesn’t loose steam halfway through as “Thunder Red” rages forth from our speakers. “Seas Of Fire” keeps matters interesting and near the end WASP unleash “Godless Run”, a sprawling epic loaded with hooks galore. Reaching back to their roots, the Chuck Berry classic “Promised Land” boils ala Elvis Presley at album’s finish before the Blackie-fronted quartet bow out with panache. Come curtain fall, you’re glad Lawless and co. are putting out material this consistent. Hot damn! [MB]

SANCTION-X The Last Day

(Metal Heaven)

Founded by vocalist Ebby Paduch (Stonefield/D.T.F./Infinitiy’s Call) and Robby Böbel (Talon/Frontline/Evidence One), Sanction-X is a formidable German metal band in the tradition of Tony Martin era Sabbath. Crunchy mid pace riffing and epic arrangements drive “The Last Day” and I’m sure that there will be many who will enjoy the CD. Picking favourites is kind of pointless, as there are so many strong tracks here, but I found tracks such as opener “The Calling” and “Reasons Why We Were Born” highlights for their dynamic hooks. Sanction-X are an experienced group of players writing a classic form of music that’s been influenced more by Rainbow/Deep Purple than Evergrey/Edguy which makes for a more authentic old school metal experience. It may not be groundbreaking, but “The Last Day” is a strong album that is to be respected. [SL]

VÖRGUS

Hellfueled Satanic Action

Most of the songs on “Hellfueled Satanic Action” are up-tempo straight-forward compositions and some of them seem to end too early, especially when you wait to hear the solo part, as it’s the thing that is definitely missing here. A metal song without a guitar solo never sounds complete, but the band decided to focus on the raw pure hellish energy, and as much as I hate no-solo stuff, I got over this pretty quickly this time around. The songs are driven by basic, traditional sounding riffs, and you immediately take notice that the compositions are very similar to one another, very reminiscent of Motörhead's songwriting style. The even better comparison would be to take early Anvil material, speed it up, heavily distort the guitars and add raw black/thrash vocals to the mix. The big advantage of the Swedes’ debut release is that doing such a short album they avoided putting any fillers on it, pretty much like Slayer did on their first couple of albums. If you like any of the old school bands whose names you can find in this review and are also a fan of dirty, furious black thrash, this album won’t leave your player for a long time. Vörgus didn’t re-invent anything and they leaned heavily on known and overdone patterns, yet the album is so sincere that you can’t help but love it from the first spin. It’s a true must-have release for all fans of the genre. [WG]

SHORTINO

Chasing My Dream

(Metal Heaven)

(Inferno)

The Swedish threesome’s debut album will definitely surprise many of those who think that the traditional eighties black metal brought to life by the likes of Venom and Hellhammer isn’t the kind of music the young metal acts prefer to play. To prove their critics wrong Vörgus took the best bits out of the aforementioned bands’ material, thrashed everything up, added some black metal elements and an occasional doom reference here and there, and created a little thirty-minute long monster.

Vocalist Paul Shortino is a well known figure within hard rock circles and his work with Rough Cutt and Quiet Riot speaks for itself. On “Chasing My Dream” Paul has worked with Michael Voss of Casanova and Silver fame to create a collection of songs that will please his supporters. Opener “Remember You” rocks hard and sets the pace for what is a rather up tempo album with the heavier “Nocturnal” and rocking “Side FX” really kicking more than a little ass (or is that arse?). With that said, there are obviously some gentler moments, with the introspective ballad “Missing” and the centre piece of the album, “Chasing Your

Dream” making quite an impact. Unfortunately the album ends on a low note with (surprise, surprise) two ballads dragging down the enthusiasm and drive of the tunes that played beforehand. A shame really considering that for the most part “Chasing My Dream” is a “heavy” album that while exactly not “metal”, rocks hard. Fans of Dokken, White Lion and the more “intelligent” side of ‘80s hard rock should seek this album out as you’ll be more than a little satisfied. [SL]

RONNY MUNROE The Fire Within

(Metal Heaven)

Ronny Munroe didn't sit quiet in the corner after Metal Church's dissolution but immediately got to work to give the metal community another old-school piece of steel. "The Fire Within" isn't actually Ronny's debut album, as he's already done an EP a couple of years ago, but it's his first proper full length release and as such, can only be praised. I suppose most traditional metal fans knew exactly what to expect from Ronny and the charismatic singer didn't let anyone down. You can clearly hear pounding echoes of his previous band in basically every composition, but don't be afraid, it's not just a Metal Church copy or tribute, as Ronny has written his own material and put a lot more of his own personality into the compositions, more than he was able to before. The music is much rawer, when it comes to both, songwriting and production, but still quite catchy and memorable, in a non-cheesy way. The album is guitar based and Ronny focused on coming up with interesting riffs, which are nicely complemented by traditional sounding solos. You can hear some keyboards here and there, but they are used for just one purpose - to fill in the backgrounds a little and they don't play any predominant role on the album. The first couple of songs hit the hardest, maybe because "Far" and "What You Choose To Call Hell" are a bit faster than the rest. Then the middle part of the album seems to be a bit weaker (but I definitely wouldn't call these tunes fillers) and at the end we again get a couple of

powerful tunes with "Desperate Man" standing out from the set. It’s a melodic riff written by Metal Church mastermind Kurdt Vanderhoof and it will haunt you for quite a while and you won't get it out of your head easily. The mid-paced "Evil Genius" is another one of the highlights of this release, along with the aforementioned tunes that opened the album. As a bonus, Ronny put an interesting version of "Man Of The Silver Mountain" on the CD which fits quite well with the rest of material. I don’t think the album appeared on the top of many 2009 end of year lists, but every old-school maniac who missed this release, made a terrible mistake. Ronny Munroe came up with a sincere and convincing traditional metal album and I hope it's not just a one-off effort because the metal world needs releases like "The Fire Within". [WG]

FAIR WARNING Aura

moments that simply lack energy and “balls”. The problem with this style of rock is that it always comes dangerously close to sounding sweet and pleasant which is the trap the band does fall into. It’s not anything to fault, but it's a direct consequence of writing this type of “pop metal”. There is talent here – how can there not be, so I hope that on their next album Geff pick a clear direction and stick with it because it will be interesting if they do. [SL]

REECE

Universal Language

(Metal Heaven)

With “Aura” Fair Warning continue to diversify their hard rock sound. The Germans are well known for their blend of AOR/hard rock and while their songs tend to lean on the lighter side of the genre, I have been known to enjoy their heavier moments. It’s those exacts moments that prove to be best with “Fighting For Your Love”, “Here Comes The Heartache” and “As Snow White Found Out” making an impression that lasts. The remainder of the tracks are ballads, acoustic based or derivative Bon Jovi like rip-offs which is a great shame because Fair Warning is a talented band capable of so much more. Helge Engelke’s guitar work is great and Tommy Heart’s vocals are as always excellent, so it’s disappointing that the band didn’t direct these strengths into better songs. Those who prefer albums with lots of light and shade should give “Aura” a go as it might interest you more than it did me. [SL]

GEFF

Land Of The Free

(Metal Heaven)

If you long for mid to late '80s melodic rock in the vein of Rainbow, Europe and Malmsteen, then “Land Of The Free” should interest you. Guitarist Ralf Jedestedt is the visionary behind Geff, but I have a feeling that his band mates Göran Edman (vocals), Anders Johansson (drums), Mats Olausson (keyboards) and Per Stadin (bass) will receive the initial attention as they will be recognisable to many hard rock/metal fans. Line up aside, the band puts in an authentic effort that really does celebrate the era. Songs such as "Xtacy", "Fool’s Paradise" and the fast paced nature of the title track and "Crusaders" recall Yngwie at his best. It’s not all good however, as there are a number of

I’ll be honest with you and say that I have had no idea what David Reece has been doing since leaving Accept back in 1991. I was aware of his work with Bangalore Choir of course but that he was putting together a solo album was news to me. Either way my ignorance has paid off because “Universal Language” is quite possibly the hard rock album of 2009. Almost everything (with the exception of the charming but, rather derivative "Fantasy Man" and average "Yellow") is played with a passion not heard of in years. David’s vocals – which drive the album, are equally as impressive and his performance here is both raw and emotive everything a hard rock singer should be. Adding muscle to this ballsy effort is the presence of former U.D.O. guitarist Andy Susemihl and former Holy Moses bassist Jochen Fünders whose heavier touch gel perfectly with David’s more melodic influences. I’m certain that if you’re a fan of Whitesnake, Jorn or AC/DC then one listen to “Universal Language” will blow you away and quite possibly make you wish the three could write in a similar fashion. All I know is that I'm looking forward to David releasing a new collection of songs under the Reece banner and hope that they will equal, if not surpass the tracks found on this debut. [SL]

WILDE STARR Arrival

8.5

(Furnace Maximus)

Wilde Starr. You just have to love the name. Sunset strip glam rock revival this certainly isn’t, so Steel Panther are spared the competition, though a touch of glamour does grace the band with the presence of female singer London Wilde and her silvery locks. Formed a couple of years back by exVicious Rumors guitarist David Starr after a chance collaboration with lady London, the two have since embarked on a heavy metal project supplemented by the percussion work of the invisible Jim Hawthorne. To the endless gratification of ears that have a taste for the melodic, Wilde Starr do heavy metal the epic way, so expect diabolical licks

ALBUM REVIEWS married to soaring vocals on each of the 10 songs here, forgiving the tedious ballad “Nevermore”. For a debut album, most aspects of “Arrival” are smoother than a baby’s bottom. On the musicianship front the pair behind this endeavour are flawless, London Wilde herself a powerful female singer almost reminiscent of Benedictum’s Veronica Freeman, except that Ms. Wilde can do the occasional falsetto without batting an eyelash. One can almost expect a Clash of the Female Titans brewing. As for her partner in crime, David Starr’s past experience in Vicious Rumors guarantees he never runs out of great ideas for juicy hooks and wicked leads. The best cuts the two unleash are the title track, the invigorating “Rise”, “Generation Next”, and the muscular album closer “The Chain”. If there are any blemishes that almost spoil this entree, it would be the bad mixing of drummer Jim Hawthorne’s beats, reduced as they are to occasionally vanishing amid Wilde Starr’s tempest. Worse, half the songs are at least partially memorable and reek of filler. And has anyone noticed how lame the cover art is? Yet despite these, Wilde Starr is worth your attention. You’re certain anything that comes after this is gonna rule. [MB]

CONTRADICTION

The Essence Of Anger

(Limited Access)

Germans. Thrash Metal. Kreator? Nuh-uh. Apparently, there’s this ugly quartet (aren’t they always?) calling themselves Contradiction who’ve been cooking up a storm in their corner of Deutschland since the early ‘90s. Considering the strength of their latest material, it’s hard to imagine why these guys haven’t found a loyal audience outside of Europe even if they sing in English and do justice to their genre. Sporting a sound firmly entrenched in their national thrash heritage, “The Essence Of Anger” begins with an audio byte from George W. Bush before the smokin’ “Perfect Combatant” steamrolls in. It’s a powerful opener churning in riffs and Herr Oliver Lux’s beastly roar. The good stuff continues to inflame our ears with the title track and the invigorating “Start The Action”. Blessed by meaty riffs, tempos for the damned, and lyrical venom that’s refreshing but familiar, Contradiction seem to be checking out on all the ingredients for timeless thrash. Too bad the momentum drags around the middle as lackluster numbers enjoy their share of the spotlight. “The Spectator”, “Walk of Shame”, and the redundant “Death Is Now” simply don’t pull the trigger like the album’s best cuts. Thank ye heathen idols then that Contradiction have enough sense to re-ignite the flame for the two-hit combo capping this humdrum sonic feast, namely “Collateral Carnage” and “Reign Of Fear”. For a thrash unit in these days of resurgence, Contradiction can count themselves among the elite. Never mind their shortcomings. Production-wise “The Essence Of Anger” has this gritty veneer that suits the musical violence inside. On the musicianship front, the two Olivers playing guitar have numerous secret weapons to unleash. As for the rhythm section, drummer Andreas

Westphal and bass-commando Christoph Zelf kill as one. The cover art: A gas masked horseman surveys apocalyptic waste. Thrash über alles, gentlemen. [MB]

MEAN STREAK Metal Slave

(Black Lodge)

Mean Streak believe that what is perfect should no longer be improved, hence their brand of classic power metal filling this “Metal Slave” debut to the brim. Beginning with a redux of “Aces High” titled “Whom The Gods Love Die Young”, the album’s pace is driven by mighty hooks and power chords, thereby guaranteeing utter catchiness throughout. More of the good stuff arrives with the Dio-esque magicry of “Battle Within” and the charm lasts well into the glimmers of WASP on “Eyes Of A Stranger”. Cousins to HammerFall and stepbrothers of Dream Evil, Mean Streak delve into wicked prophecy for “The Seventh Sign” (not to be confused with the Yngwie Malmsteen classic) then pull off a worthy KISS anthem by giving the fans a much-deserved salute on “Raise Your Hands”. Both “Rock City” and “Sin City Lights” totally reek of ‘80s excess and glory while “Carved In Stone” opens with a lick that would make the Scorpions proud. The lyrics here are hardly new, but when it’s played with the kind of energy these young-at-heart rockstars have, who cares? Iron Maiden’s stamp of approval is all over the title track, which is but among several standout anthems that make this album explode from thyne speakers. Bristling with noodly guitar play and tons of melody, Mean Streak is a blast from the past, an album that’s so sunk in the ‘80s it’s as if Norwegian black metal never happened. The references peppering this review are proof enough - you know what to expect from these Swedes. [MB]

BRAINSTORM

Memorial Roots

(AFM)

0-10

sessions a lot of ‘oomph’ got left on the cutting room floor. Sad. This results in winning tracks like “The Conjunction Of Seven Planets” and its far more dramatic counterpart “Hailed Down Dreams” not taking you to a better place. Expect the watered down mix to further dampen the aspirations of many a crackin’ tune here. The band suffers too. The drumming is weak and bassist Antonio Ieva can barely make his presence felt except for the thunderous start of “Victim” that’s supposed to crunch hard, but then again, someone turned off the ‘power’. Ugh. This is not to say the entire album is a catastrophe; its chances for greatness may have been lessened, but the appeal of such standouts as “The Final Stages Of Decay”, “Hailed Down Dreams”, and the riveting album closer “Would You” is undeniable. Never mind the uninspiring solos from the Torsten Ihlenfeld-Milan Loncaric guitar duo; pyrotechnics aren’t Brainstorm’s forte. What the quintet specialise in are tight compositions with memorable choruses; songs you’d want to play again and again. The final verdict is “Memorial Roots” isn’t a bad album by any criteria, but it’s certainly flawed. [MB]

PARADOX Riot Squad

Once the initial salvo “Suburban Riot Squad” is done cooking up a cyclone, “Hollow Peace” rolls in to batter our senses further before “Riptide” invigorates our taste for catchy ‘80s thrash equal parts Exodus and Anthrax. “Rise In Rank” and “Evolution Reset” succeed at keeping the momentum at a killer pace while the epic sci-fi tinged “Nothingness” triggers goosebumps. Between the two, it’s “Rise In Rank” that easily distinguishes itself as the album’s most peculiar offering since half its playing time is devoted to a long winded intro - the vocals only arrive past the 2:00 mark. Cheeky camp gets its time of day on the fast-paced “No Place To Survive” and “Dream Hero” proves these guys can hang with the best either Testament or Metallica (old) have to offer. Nearing its end, the bareknuckle “Planet Terror” rages for a good four minutes prior to the relentless “Psychoffical” finishing this aural dish on a numbing note. Paradox may not be the most visible band in their genre, but with “Riot Squad” they’ve certainly built a metallic monument that’s gonna stand the test of time. [MB]

VOICES OF ROCK High & Mighty

(Metal Heaven)

(AFM)

Barely a year since rejoining Deutschland’s thrash metal scene with “Electrify”, Paradox have returned to lay down the law for headbanging. “Riot Squad” is without a doubt the meatiest slab of thrash metal to emerge from Europe in years. From the preparatory bombardment that’s opener “Suburban Riot Squad” ‘till the faster than light decibels on “Psychofficial”, Paradox are in fine form throughout this muscular effort, much to the embarrassment of more seasoned bands in the same league. Paradox’s appeal isn’t rooted in just riffs, but the whole package: hammering percussion, twin guitar mayhem that never runs short of ‘oomph!’ and of course, Herr Charley Steinhauer’s vocals, which lend his band a retrogressive touch.

I remember the first instalment of Voices Of Rock getting a lot of press after its release, but having not heard it myself I have to say that I was pleased to be given the opportunity listen to its follow up “High & Mighty”. Back on board are producers Chris Lausmann (Bonfire, Jaded Heart) and Michael Voss (Mad Max, Michael Schenker) and together they’ve brought another strong collection of vocalists to sing on a diverse range of melodic rock songs they have written. As all the songs are tailor made for each vocalist, a lot of skill is needed to ensure that the album flows well, without it sounding like a compilation. So does it succeed? For the most part it does because “High & Mighty” plays it rather safe and has been carefully written to suit each singer. So when a song is sung by Rob Rock, Joe Lynn Turner, Paul Sabu, Mitch

Malloy or Tony Martin be prepared for a tune that was written with them in mind. It doesn’t all work but with a project as ambitious as this, “High & Mighty” has more hits than missies. How much you enjoy this disc depends on the line-up, but if you enjoy melodic hard rock then Voices Of Rock will certainly entertain you. [SL]

SACRED STEEL

Carnage Victory (Massacre)

Riffs, riffs, riffs. No matter if Sacred Steel make it fast and aggressive or slow and doomy, listening to their latest work you constantly get your ass kicked with powerful riff after powerful riff. Yes, the guitar work is probably the strongest point of “Carnage Victory”, but it doesn’t mean that the rest of its components don’t impress. The excellent drumming is definitely worth mentioning, as it adds to the general aggressiveness and brutality of this release and the vocal lines keep your interest throughout the duration of the listening session. Gerrit sounds much better when he doesn’t use his cheesy falsettos, but he’s done that for seven albums now and he’s not going to change it because of some assholes who spend their lives looking for an occasion to bash the band for their originality. Sacred Steel is a power metal band, but if you think about all of the melodic stuff coming out of Germany or Italy I can assure you that the new offering of these Germans will crush your average keyboard driven clean sung album with its power and intensity. To take it even further, the mastermind Gerrit Mutz came up with a bunch of interesting lyrics again and don’t get mislead by the band’s name as you won’t find any sword & sorcery stuff here. The texts would better fit black or death metal music probably, as they are full of hatred and anger in their anti-religious message. To spice up their usual mix of traditional metal songs the band threw into the cauldron a couple of surprises, like a Greek prayer in “Broken Rites” or a flamenco intro in “Shadows Of Reprisal” and a cool

HEATHEN - The Evolution Of Chaos (Mascot)

Efficient Germans to the core, Brainstorm once again make their presence felt a year after the well-received “Downburst”. But sad to say, this new opus is far from the absolute-power (excuse us Manowar). While “Memorial Roots” does offer loads of ballsy heavy metal, these guys forgot to add the aforementioned ‘power’. Listening to opener “Forsake What I Believed” get bogged down in redundancy makes you ask ‘Why isn’t the music grabbing me by the collar?’ Perhaps the overall sound is dull? You see, the chops and individual performances are just golden - singer Andy B. Franck is a god behind the mic - but at some point during the “Memorial Roots”

8.5

In 2005, Lee Altus joined Exodus – and Heathen recorded a 3-song demo, their first original material since 1991’s highly regarded “Victims Of Deception”. In the intervening five years between 2005 and now, very little was heard from the band. Lee, it seemed, was happily focused on the rigours of writing and touring with Exodus, and the demo (and the promise of a new album) soon slipped beneath the waves of the metal’s consciousness. Then, all of a sudden, Japan saw the release of “The Evolution Of Chaos” in late 2009, and Europe and the US in early 2010 – which sees the 1991 trio of Altus, singer David White and drummer Darren Minter joined by new second guitarist Kragen Lum and bassist Jon Torres (of Laaz Rockit and Angel Witch fame). Now that I’ve got all the boring intro bits out of the way, can I just say that this album is pure orgasmic thrash gold? It’s an absolute masterpiece of modern thrash. Flawless in almost every way. At almost 70 minutes long, it requires slightly more effort to get through, but rewards the listener with meticulously conceived, painstakingly crafted and impeccably performed songs that twist and wind and evolve. Progressive, melodic thrash metal, this is about as far away from 3-minute, crossover style thrash as you’ll get. Possibly many will see the highlight as the 11-minute long "No Stone Unturned" – it features an awesome intro riff that is a combination of 198488 Metallica and early ‘90s Pantera, a wonderful midpaced guitar solo that incorporates swept arpeggios, and a clean midsection that slowly builds back up into the neck-breaking main theme, bringing to mind echoes of the last two minutes of "Master Of Puppets". Heathen have upped the ante for all thrash bands new and old, returning and re-returning. This is the benchmark for modern thrash, period, even though fans may prefix Heathen’s brand of thrash with descriptors like ‘progressive’ and ‘melodic’. Sacrifice’s comeback album ended the decade of the Noughties in style, and Overkill and Heathen have struck early blows for the relevance of thrash in the new decade of Armageddon and economic turmoil. [JHN]

ALBUM REVIEWS ANGELS OF BABYLON Kingdom Of Evil

0-10

(Metal Heaven)

Consisting of former Manowar drummer Rhino, alongside vocalist David Fefolt (Hawk, Vahalla, Forgotten Realm), guitarist Ethan Brosh and David Ellefson (Megadeth), Angels Of Babylon is an interesting consortium of musicians. Brought together by Rhino, who has been waiting patiently for the right players to bring his ideas to life, "Kingdom Of Evil" is a powerful debut that will turn heads and impress many. What you can basically look forward to is a melodic power metal album minus the fluff and posturing that is usually associated with the style. If I had to compare the music, I would say that if you crossed Dio era Black Sabbath with Savatage, Kamelot or Circle II Circle, then Angels Of Babylon would be the result. There is an undercurrent of orchestration present, but nothing like Rhapsody Of Fire due to the fact that the symphonic elements here are of a darker nature, that when combined the band members traditional metal backgrounds - add extra depth to the songs. Of the 10 compositions present, I’ve yet to find one weak track and that’s simply a reflection of the talent and song writing present. We basically have a situation here where each individual serves the song and work in unison to complement the material at all times. Whether the song is of an up tempo nature, an old school power ballad – with an emphasis on the “power” or a pounding epic number, each song is full of effective riffs, well crafted hooks, mature arrangements, tasteful guitar solos and captivating vocals. More importantly, there’s nothing modern here, or any wacky progressive or experimental moments either - only 10 heartfelt anthems that scream heavy metal in its purest unadulterated form. I am seriously impressed by "Kingdom Of Evil" and only hope that Angels Of Babylon continue in one form or another because this project deserves to become a band as soon as possible. So if you’re a fan of traditional heavy/power/melodic metal then you need to get this album as soon as possible because alongside the mighty Pharaoh, Angels Of Babylon are, as of right now, one of the most captivating bands in the US. Essential! [SL] Mercyful Fate tribute song in the form of “Don’t Break The Oath”, but in general if you are familiar with Sacred Steel’s earlier works, you won’t find much novelty on “Carnage Victory”. I’d risk to say that it’s their best written album to date and it still sounds like Sacred Steel which is obviously one of the pros not cons. The guys have always received very little support from the press, yet they have dedicated followings in their homeland and other eighties metal loving countries, especially in Greece, so they don’t give a shit when it comes to all of the negative comments they might receive. They will stay true to the underground and if you enjoy traditional sounding metal, which is far from today’s mainstream shit, get “Carnage Victory” and let Sacred Steel burst your eardrums with their raw untamed metallic power. [WG]

BATTLERAGE

Blood, Fire, Steel

SLAYER

World Painted Blood

(Sony)

(Metal On Metal)

I have to say that I was quite pleased when Battlerage’s latest effort arrived, as I’ve enjoyed their music in the past and was keen to hear their new tunes. Well “Blood, Fire, Steel” looks the part with impressive cover artwork by Gonzalo Ordonez and a number of heavy as hell song titles such as "The Devil’s Wings Bring Fire From Hell" and "Die By The Power Of The Axe", so I was ready to be blown away. I unfortunately wasn’t and after repeated listens I have to say that this album lacks the raw energy of the bands earlier material. There’s a polished feel about the album that ultimately takes away from the power of the riffs and I have a feeling that the songs are going to sound much better in the live setting. "Battlefield Belongs To Me", "Black Hordes, Arise!" and "Warmachine" retain the band’s strength but the guys seem to have approached the album in a controlled manner by playing it a little safe. What I’m trying to get at is that “Blood, Fire, Steel” doesn’t sound like a “battle rage” and unfortunately neither does the band. It may just be me – who knows, but I just didn’t

find a lot to be excited by here, but fans of Grave Digger, Manowar or Omen may, so check it out and make your decision. The band states on the back of the CD booklet that "If you don’t like Battlerage, you don’t like true heavy metal”, well I do, just not this collection of songs. Maybe next time, eh? [SL]

Metallica with “Death Magnetic” last year, Megadeth with “Endgame”, and now Slayer with “World Painted Blood” – the oldies are still not ready to hang up their guitars and retire their tour trucks just yet. Any of these legendary bands’ new releases will be greeted with intense scrutiny, and, unless an album is universally agreed to be utter shite (see: “St. Anger”), will be immensely divisive, with objective criticism by any fan virtually impossible. With that in mind, I have to say “World Painted Blood” was disappointing upon immediate and repeated listens. The first thing that strikes the listener’s ear is the frankly terrible production. Both guitars sound flat and lifeless in the rhythm sections and are too far back in the mix – dominated by the drums, probably thanks to Mr Greg Fidelman, the guy who screwed up the production job on Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” by boosting and compressing everything to the point of audio clipping. Dynamics: zero. Atmosphere: zero. Presence: zero. This is one of the most sterile production jobs I’ve ever heard, and the guitars are so weak that poor Araya is left yelping and screaming into… nothingness: he’s not getting any help in the “upping-aggression” department. Once you get past the guitar sound, you run smack into the cold hard fact that Slayer haven’t written a decent riff since the early ‘90s. The riffs on “World Painted Blood”, at best sound derivative, at worst sound as if the band couldn’t be arsed to write a proper skull-crushing riff. Of course, there are some great songs like “Unit 731”, “Psychopathy Red” and “Public Display Of

Dismemberment”, but you also have unimaginative clunkers like “Americon”, “Human Strain”, the putrid “Playing With Dolls” and the godawful title track, “World Painted Blood”. The leads are predictably awful with King especially indulging in his usual whammy bar rape, while the lyrics are also no better than previous efforts. The most disappointing thing about “World Painted Blood” is that the much-maligned “Christ Illusion” had given Slayer fans something to hope for in terms of the direction of the band. And yet, they seem to have gone backward from 2006. I don’t think a single sane Slayer fan is asking for a return to “Reign In Blood” or “Seasons In The Abyss” – “South of Heaven” showed that the band could write mid-paced longer songs and still be devastatingly heavy. We want the old atmosphere that Slayer used to have: the evil, the menace, and most of all, the balls. They could start by hiring a proper producer instead of one whose CV reads “Metallica, Slayer and others”. On a promising note, the band seems to have a renewed commitment to speed, and Dave Lombardo is truly one of the all-time gods of heavy metal drumming. [JHN]

SESTA MARCONI

Where The Devil Dances

(Metal On Metal)

the albums Ronnie James Dio and Tony Martin recorded with Black Sabbath, over Ozzy’s contributions to the band. Many may consider this a sin but that '70s vibe never really appealed to me and that era is a big part of Sesta Marconi’s sound. With that said, “Where The Devil Dances” is clearly a heavy metal album, so if it sounds like something that you would enjoy, then by all means go for it. [SL]

BONAFIDE

Something’s Dripping

(Black Lodge)

The Swedish rockers who have been kicking around for four years now have returned with the follow-up to their self-titled debut release. When you put the album in the player and spin it for the first time it starts screaming “AC/DC” at you and it never stops. I’m trying to count now how many bands have recently taken this route and followed in the footsteps of the Australian giants? A lot without a doubt, but on the other hand there’s still a huge scene for classic sounding hard rock and there’s still space for the simple hard rocking boogie delivered by Bonafide. Did I just say simple? Yes, everything on “Something’s Dripping” is simplified to the limits. You can find here very basic drum bits, power chord based riffs and blues influenced solos you’ve heard a thousand times before, plus Bon Scott / Marc Storace influenced vocals. There’s absolutely nothing jaw-dropping about this release and after the first two or three songs you can easily guess what’s coming next, but this album doesn’t bore you and the band manages to keep your attention. If you’re about to throw a rock party, get a lot of beer and invite some chicks and you’re looking for an adequate soundtrack, “Something’s Dripping” may be one of your easiest choices. Like I’ve said, Bonafide have a few strong peers. Airbourne can kick your ass with far more energy, their fellow countrymen from Bullet with their metalised version of AC/DC sound much tighter and stronger, but Bonafide will definitely not get lost in the shuffle. The Swedes deliver their music with attitude and they know how to fill your head with rock. [WG]

GAMA BOMB

Tales From The Grave In Space

LONEWOLF

The Dark Crusade

(Karthago)

(Earache) Sesta Marconi is a young four piece from Italy playing a fusion of '70s inspired doom and classic heavy metal. So if early Trouble, Pentagram, Cathedral and, wait for it... Black Sabbath is something you crave, then their debut album - “Where The Devil Dances” should be on your want list. "Skeletons Party" is cool dark track driven by a hellish stomp, while "LSWD" brings the aforementioned Cathedral to mind and "At The Crack Of Dawn", well with a title like that, it has to be “heavy” right? Well, it definitely is and a personal highlight. Despite this I have to confess that while I certainly appreciate the bluesy vibe and the sinister moods found on “Where The Devil Dances”, Sesta Marconi is not the sort of band that I would listen to on a regular basis. This is the exact reason why I prefer

for giving the okay. This paragraph is dedicated completely to giving credit and praise to the two entities. In this season of crass commercialism (read: X-fucking-mas), it’s wonderful to see. On to the music now. Honestly, I’m glad “Tales From The Grave In Space” was free to download. I wouldn’t have paid money for this album. Not because it’s absolutely terrible or anything like that. It’s a good performance overall from Philly Byrne and crew, and they display a maturity in songwriting and instrumentation far beyond their tender years. They are holding their own in the world of modern thrash, when their very own label has bands like Evile, SSS and Municipal Waste on their roster, Gama Bomb do things the old-fashioned way: graft, touring and now, releasing albums with regularity. Sadly, there is nothing to distinguish “Tales From The Grave In Space” from their previous album, “Citizen Brain” (2008). Now “Citizen Brain” really showcased what this band was about: gang vocals a la Suicidal Tendencies and Exodus aplenty, a healthy dedication to speed, a good grasp of thrash riff fundamentals, a distinctly Irish sense of humour and good fun etc. While they were also shopping at Patchjackets ‘R’ Us (I can’t claim credit for this wee hilarity – a reviewer on Metal-Archives came up with that gem) like the rest of the new-old retro-metro acolytes of Noughties thrash, they also had something slightly extra. Byrne’s vocals, for a start, cleaner than your typical hoarse thrash shouter. That solo on “In The Court of General Zod” on “Citizen Brain” took me completely by surprise – sounded like something Satch would do. Little flourishes like that, y’know. On “Tales From The Grave In Space”, the only noticeable bit of progression is the subtle injection of a more power-metalish quality into both the singing and the riff stylings – Byrne sounding like a slightly constipated Rob Halford. That’s it. “Citizen Brain” fades into “Tales From The Grave In Space” rather too easily for my liking. Bottom line is, you should get “Tales From The Grave In Space” simply because it’s free. But if you already have “Citizen Brain”, well, the two albums are interchangeable. [JHN]

So, one of the biggest labels in metal has taken the brave step of releasing an album from one of their major bands absolutely free to download from their website. Both Earache and Irishmen Gama Bomb have to be given major kudos for this step: Gama Bomb for sticking to their guns and Earache

If you are crying about Rolf Kasparek’s decision to dissolve Running Wild, the French heavy metallers from Lonewolf will wipe your tears off, only to kick you in your ass a moment later. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of listening to any of Lonewolf’s albums, you should definitely start with “The Dark Crusade” as it’s undoubtedly their most mature, well produced and overall finest release thus far. The band started out their adventures on the metal fields as early as 1992, but they broke up after releasing a couple of demos and their actual career began ten years later with the release of “March Into The Arena”. They have visibly or rather audibly developed from album to album, which eventually led to the recordings of “The Dark Crusade”, a really professional piece of work, which can easily compete with and beat to death the many old-school heavy

ALBUM REVIEWS metal releases popping out of nowhere almost every day now. I remember seeing a Citroen TV commercial where they advertised their cars as “unmistakably German, made in France”. This could easily be an ad for Lonewolf’s material, because even if you leave the obvious Running Wild influences aside, you still hear nothing but eighties Teutonic music, similar to what Grave Digger, Paragon or Iron Savior have to offer. Having said this I must straighten things up; Lonewolf aren’t by any means a tribute act or copycats, as they have a lot of great ideas of their own, which just happen to sound like very good left-overs from “Death Or Glory” or “Black Hand Inn” sessions. The guys have created a slew of great riffs, a lot of twin guitar harmonies and melodic solos, plus catchy but not cheesy vocal lines, delivered by Jens Börner with Chris Boltendahl’s rawness in his voice. If you’re looking for a good melody played over double bass rhythms, you’ll find it here; if you’re looking for nice keyboard backgrounds, go somewhere else. Lonewolf’s material is guitar driven, eighties influenced traditional underground heavy metal and on their latest album it’s played the way it should be played. Rolf has officially passed the torch and “The Dark Crusade” is an obligatory position for every Teutonic metal maniac. [WG]

MOB RULES

Radical Peace

8.5

(AFM)

The German power metal institution seems to have found their own style at last. Beginning as a straight forward old-school sounding band they have evolved and experimented taking a more progressive direction on “Ethnolution A.D.” They kind of mixed all these elements on their latest offering and I must admit the mixture works extremely well. The music you can hear on “Radical Peace”, although power metal is the only label you can put on it, is far more monumental, more epic and not as fast as what their colleagues in Edguy (early), Freedom Call or Stratovarius etc. create. You won’t hear spectacular guitar work or crushing vocals here, but if you are a fan of intelligent and creative songwriting, this album is definitely what you’re looking for. Each composition has every element in the right place and it all fits perfectly. On the top of this interesting musical background, the band add equally as good vocal lines and the hooklines are annoyingly strong - as it’s hard to get them out of your head after a few listens. The band put only 7 songs on “Radical Peace”, with the middle part of the album being an extended epic work about the assassination of JFK, consisting of 6 different parts. I’d say this piece, called “The Oswald File” is one of the highlights on the album, along with the two opening mid paced tunes. The album closes with two numbers that don’t keep up to the high standard of this 18-minutes long opus, but they are fine on their own and I wouldn’t say any tune here is a filler. It took the guys three years to come up with a new release and it’s obvious they didn’t waste their time. They wrote catchy and dynamic material of the highest calibre,

which easily tops everything they’ve done before. Yes, “Radical Peace” is Mob Rules’ best work so far and if you like power metal but would like to take a break from the uptempo double kick stuff for a while, then this album comes highly recommended to you. [WG]

NOSTRADAMEUS Illusion’s Parade

(AFM)

The problems bedeviling “Illusions Parade” appear the moment you lay eyes on the cover: it’s woefully unexceptional. A frozen path leads to a darkened fortress that has the blood red heavens for a backdrop. Great concept, but it just doesn’t shine as an illustration, much less a grim fantastical landscape. Certainly not on par with Emperor’s “In The Nightside Eclipse”. Now that was creepy as hell. And evil. Despite its lackluster cover art, Nostradameus’ music is a force to be reckoned with. Their brand of power metal comes spiced with thrash and it just shines on the furious opener “Walk of Pain”. The good stuff continues to churn at “The Art Of Deception” where the fivesome’s pace takes a back seat for singer Freddy Perrson’s vocal wondrousness; the guy’s a real standout, blessed with pipes worthy of the genre’s best. In fact, as one of the album’s highlights his talent is in ample supply throughout. The Iron Maiden tinged “The Mariner” gets our epic juices flowing and it isn’t until “Eclipse Of The Sun Cult” that Nostradameus climax with a hefty dose of thrash. Unrepentant in their preference for jagged riffs and edge-of-your-seat tempos, axemen Leonard Specht and Jake Freden are a bulletproof tandem whose efforts bring to mind the best Communic, Blind Guardian, and Iced Earth. While Nostradameus have been at this game for almost a decade, a career defining opus remains far from their grasp as tedium prevails on this album’s latter half. Somewhere between “Nothing” and the title track, the music devolves into a boring muddle as the repetitive melodies sour our expectations. Just when matters appear to be on the cliff’s edge, the band pull a quick 180 and launch a slew of worthy songs beginning with “Armagaeddon Forever” and capped by the awesome finisher “Time For Madness”. Yet for all its strengths and Freddy Perrson’s impressive vocals, “Illusions Parade” remains a solid album weighed down by clunkers. [MB]

VEKTOR

Black Future

7.5

(Heavy Artillery)

Who ever thought a bunch of ‘kids’ (they’re well into their 20s now) would imbibe so much Voivod it would reflect on their own

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music? Such is the case with Vektor and this wonderful “Black Future” of theirs. Now we aren’t sure if the title is an underhanded reference to the current American administration or just corny sci-fi schtick, but you gotta admit Vektor have ‘kvlt’ written all over this new album. The cover art alone looks hand drawn and photocopied; from an aesthetic point of view, “Black Fututre's” visual representation is gold. As for the music, Vektor allegedly belong to the under-manned progressive thrash subgenre, but closer scrutiny reveals a late ‘80s death-thrash unit who really (really) like to shred and noodle around. Wait... is there a difference? Take the title track opening this brainy opus; ominous riffs that shift to raw, rapid fire carnage until singerguitarist David Disanto does the gnarly vocals across a vacuos five minutes. Apparently old school charm is very much alive and well in this quartet. The funny shit arrives when Disanto screams like a girl as if something crawled inside his panties and bit his snatch. Yet for all the grim, intricate, bloatedness of the songs here - “Forests Of Legend” clocks in at 10 minutes and closer “Accelerating Universe” stretches past 11 Vektor have the verve to perform at warpspeed. Shred they definitely do and sometimes it’s so intense, you’ll wonder where the lyrics went. Case in point: the tongue twisting “Deoxyribonucleic Acid” and the standard fare “Hunger For Violence”. You can imagine these guys wolfing down (if its possible) “Rust In Peace”, Queensryche, and whatever Sacrifice album they could get their hands on. “Black Future” is a sprawling esoteric release ideally suited for an audience with discriminating tastes. Rather snobbish, you don’t say? As fore-mentioned, the album has kvlt written all over it. [MB]

SOUL DOCTOR

Way Back To The Bone

(Metal Heaven)

With Soul Doctor, Fair Warning’s Tommy Heart gets a chance to explore his love of Led Zeppelin and even though it’s in no way

original, it’s a highly enjoyable experience. “Way Back To The Bone” is the band’s 5th studio album and picks up where “Blood Runs Cold” and the very enjoyable live album "That’s Live" left us. The songs rock hard and there’s a lot of passion on display, so much so, that any fan of bluesy hard rock would find this difficult to ignore. Songs such as "First Man On The Moon", "Can’t Stand Losing" and "Times Of Yesterday" basically sum up the band with catchy hooks, cool riffs and strong vocals being the three key ingredients of their sound. There’s no doubt that many will give “Way Back To The Bone” one listen and dismiss it as a rip off and while that’s more or less true (does anyone remember Kingdom Come?), it shouldn’t stop anyone from checking it out. A good song, is a good song and when it comes to still style of hard rock, Soul Doctor certainly have an understanding of what good is. There’s not much more to add because this four piece is playing from the heart (no pun intended) and writing songs that are memorable and entertaining. If only more bands followed Soul Doctor’s lead and did the same. [SL]

WITCHES MARK A Grim Apparition

(Heaven And Hell)

to be mined from such an organic loose sound, especially when everything nowadays is tight, metronomic and compressed to buggery. Music-wise, the hints of NWOBHM are quite clear in the Angel Witch sound, perked up with speed elements from early Helloween and with a strong American power metal stance coming from bands like Fates Warning ("Night On Brocken" era) and Manilla Road, "A Grim Apparition" is a wonderful trip back in time. And it might be just me, but I get a weird reminder of early Cathedral ("The Witchfinder General") and Primordial vibe, although I can’t point to a specific part or element to back this claim up. "A Grim Apparition" is not without its flaws. Certainly, the sound and production, while I love it, can definitely be improved. For one, the keyboards/synth could be incorporated a lot better, as it can be jarringly upfront at times. In contrast, Michael Lance’s voice could be brought to the front slightly more, although his vocals will have to improve, as they are too monotone at present. The guitar attack could also be sharpened up a little as well, although the organic looseness should be maintained at all costs, since it totally works in favour of the band’s sound. And I wish that the title track had a more natural ending, instead of the abrupt stop that currently closes the EP. At its very heart, this is an EP which shows the band’s confidence in itself and the musical path it has chosen, and from my point of view at least, this promises great things for the band. I will be waiting quite anxiously for the full-length, which will hopefully make an appearance soon. [JHN]

GRIMLORD

Dolce Vita Sath-an as

(self release) Witches Mark are understandably proud of their Texan origins, and after listening to their EP "A Grim Apparition", they certainly have the potential to stand alongside fellow Texans like Helstar, Absu and Pantera without fear of shame. Witches Mark play an interesting hybrid of old school traditional/heavy metal mixed with traces of speed metal and even throw in some atmospheres common to doom. They cite bands like Griffin and Omen as influences, and there is no doubt that sonically, "A Grim Apparition" sounds so early '80s that you wonder if the EP was recorded on 16-track and pressed on vinyl. Everything from the guitar tone to the mixing, production and engineering smacks of a band consciously harkening back to what is nebulously termed "old school". And it works, it really does. There’s much nostalgia value

The band name, album title and cover reflect a black metal band but Grimlord is a heavy power metal that recalls Bloodbound and Powerwolf, mixed with Dimmu Borgir. The black metal shouldn’t put anyone off because despite some blast beats and keyboard interludes, the music is always melodic and Barth La Piccard vocals recall Chris Boltendahl of Grave Digger. The songs

OVERKILL - Ironbound (Nuclear Blast)

The veteran New Jersey boys return with a compelling slab of unmistakably old school thrash that is tinged with a fine mix of groove, progressiveness and melody that separates Overkill from the multitudes of carbon-copy thrashers out there. This is modern thrash the way it should be played: roots in the ‘80s but with its direction and ambition befitting a metal scene on the cusp of its 30-year anniversary. Overkill’s 2007 album “Immortalis” showed a marked improvement over 2005’s “ReliXIV” in almost every department: songwriting, riff construction, lead-playing, vocals, production etc. 2010 will be a stellar year for Overkill if their performance on “Ironbound” is anything to go by. The guitar attack of Dave Linsk and Derek Tailer is blistering and tight, unquestionably their best performance in the studio over the last three albums at least. They also benefit from an ultra-modern production that really does justice to the riffing style. The same can’t be said about the drums, however. I don’t normally complain about production values but the kick drum sound on “Ironbound” is terribly thin and clicky, and is irritating enough that even I noticed. But the ever-present face of Overkill, its longest serving member besides founding member D.D. Verni, is the biggest surprise on “Ironbound”. Bobby Blitz, take a bow, you evergreen son of a bitch. Moving from his trademark constipated yelp, he explores other avenues of vocal expression, throwing in a cleaner style of singing, even embarking on a couple of power metal-ish screams. In fact, this over-arching sense of melody is even more apparent than usual, with several guitar passages in the album coming dangerously close to NWOBHM style riffing, even Maiden-ish in quality. It’s a beautiful thing to behold: while most of their contemporaries have split up or sold out, Overkill are still doing their thing, updating and improving but never forgetting where they came from. It’s only January 2010, but this is definitely a keeper for the new year. [JHN]

ALBUM REVIEWS RAGE - Strings To A Web (Nuclear Blast)

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One of the oldest and biggest German traditional metal bands have implemented so many different styles into their music over the last 25+ years that when a new release is announced you never really know what to expect from them. They've had their thrashy period, released a number of classic heavy/power metal albums, introduced a lot of progressive elements in their sound and recorded some great material with a symphonic orchestra. So what's the style of the new album? Well, it would be fair enough to say that Rage took the best bits from every period of their career and mixed them together to create "Strings To A Web". What you wouldn't expect is for it to work! There's so much variety on the album that you may feel a bit confused at the beginning but after a few spins you can really feel the album's integrity. Whether the main riffs are very heavy like in "Hunter & Prey", modern like in "Saviour Of The Dead", or driven by some clean guitars like in "Into The Light", the element that keeps all the songs together are the unbelievably catchy choruses, which have been Rage's trademark from the very beginning. The middle part of the album is occupied by a kind of symphonic suite, composed and orchestrated by maestro Smolski and although it could have been easily released as a separate EP, it doesn't break the album's flow. It makes little sense to write about the performance of the musicians on this album. Peavy's mid-range voice hasn't changed over the last couple of years and his characteristic bass lines are still there. Victor's mind-blowing soloing is there as well and I'd say that he’s taken his playing even a step further, because the album consists of a good deal of very complex riffs you didn't hear on the previous releases. The newest addition to the team, drummer André Hilgers has gelled with the band and his collaboration with Peavy is absolutely flawless. The German Teutonic scene has offered us a couple of mediocre albums recently, but there's still so much potential in that scene that you can always expect something unusual from it. The beginning of 2010 definitely belongs to Rage, so when you mix mature, quality songwriting with the world-class musicianship, you can only get a masterpiece like "Strings To A Web". [WG] themselves are energetic and powerful, with intelligent arrangements and unique hooks making for an enjoyable experience. What I did find odd is that the last 6 songs are all instrumental which means that “Dolce Vita Sath-an As” is a demo of sorts and maybe incomplete? Strange. Either way Grimlord has got something interesting going on here. The band seems to still be searching for direction but I think that what they have is pretty strong. If you’re into the idea of an amped up Iced Earth then you should check this out. [SL]

FRANKENSHRED Cauldron Of Evil

so if you like the bands I mentioned above then check it out. Me? I’ll keep an eye out and wait patiently for their next album because if Frankenshred can tighten up their approach and back up the solos with riffs of similar, if not better quality (as found on the demo tracks), then they will really make an impact. [SL]

FINNTROLL Nifelvind

(Century Media)

(Metal On Metal)

instruments; where previous albums would have been flowing at the brim with accordions, fiddles and various unpronounceable Finnish folk instruments (Skwisgard: “granny guitars”), "Nifelvind" is strangely stripped of such frivolities. There’s a fiddle on "Ett Norrskensdad" though, I’m sure of it... I don’t think fans of the band will be disappointed the way they were over "Ur Jordens Djup". In fact, I think most will be quite delighted at the progress the band has made, and with definite winners in the ‘live show singalong’ department, the fans who are still sceptical may want to catch them on tour – I think they are already confirmed to headline Paganfest 2010. [JHN]

BRUTAL HAND

Purgatory’s Rage

(Metal On Metal)

You can’t help but smile when a band name like Frankenshred comes to your attention. It’s good to see that some musicians still have a sense of humour and in today’s very “serious” metal climate - it’s something that I can appreciate. Lead by guitarist Dr. Frankenshred “Cauldron Of Evil" is the bands fourth studio album and an obvious showcase for his talents, making the band name very appropriate. Song writing wise the music reminds me '80s US Metal ala Racer X, Metal Church and Armored Saint, but I have to say, not quite as good. The reason is simply because the riffs aren’t as creative and lack the fire found in the solos - a problem always found in bands formed around a lead guitar player. "The Devil’s Eye", "Trial By Fire" and the thrashy "Pray For Your Sins" prove otherwise but tracks such "Dogs Of War", "I Feel Your Pain" and "Let The Punishment Fit The Crime" sound rather one dimensional and support my statement. Strangely enough the last five songs – which are all bonus tracks taken from what I assume is a band demo sound the best. Fronted by singer Kyran Brennan (Rich McManus does a solid job of the main tracks), the songs are energetic and feature many cool riffs and hooks. What happened in between the demo which was recorded in 2008/2009 and this album, which was completed in 2004 I can’t say, but the spontaneity and energy found on the demo is far superior. “Cauldron Of Evil” certainly has a lot to offer the traditional metal fan,

It’s been three years since "Ur Jordens Djup", and while folk metal fans have had plenty to savour between then and now (the invasion of various pirate bands, the rise to prominence of Eluveitie and Negura Bunget, the ravenous productivity of Korpiklaani), still there seemed to be a little gnawing hunger pang in the tummies of these aforementioned fans. You know, the ones who dress up in fur and battle paint and carry plastic swords and drinking horns to Paganfest... I think it’s because Finntroll have gone slightly AWOL. Well, still thy bleeding hearts and welcome "Nifelvind", Finntroll’s fifth full-length album. The mandatory Finntroll intro kicks off "Nifelvind", and, strike me dead with a furry fart! Would you believe it: trolls, growling or chanting, to a distinctly "Pirates Of The Carribbean" drum background... "Solsagan" is a folk/black metal anthem if I’ve ever heard one, and this is one for the tour. An infectious drum beat, “Lai lai hei”type chorus, a catchy riff at a distinctly dance-along-able pace; this will be an instant classic, and I will eat an entire raw moose if this doesn’t get metal audiences linking arms and shaking legs all over Europe within a year. "Solsagan" really sets the tone for the album as a whole: the drumming is fantastically catchy, the riffs are simple but powerful and with decent variation, the keyboards are pleasantly intrusive (yes, that’s right – a major part of Finntroll has always been its use of keyboards, and on "Nifelvind", Moonsorrow’s Henri Sorvali does not disappoint), and Vreth is in fine snarling voice. The only complaint a Finntroll fan may have is the decreased use of ‘folky’

Here’s an interesting band from the United States that I didn’t know about. Formed at the beginning of the decade, Brutal Hand has delivered a honest, no frills heavy metal experience that sounds like a cross between Savatage, Saxon, Trouble and Eyefear – especially where the keyboards are concerned, as they add a “prog” metal touch to the band’s traditional metal sound. The opening track “Purgatory” sums the album up as it ebbs and flows brilliantly during its 8 minute plus duration, without one lacklustre moment. Classic stuff! As you listen to “Purgatory’s Rage” – which is their third album by the way, you will soon realise that Brutal Hand are an experienced bunch of musicians who have a clear understanding of their strengths. No one really stands out as such, but each band member complements one another perfectly to create a number of very enjoyable metal tunes. Other songs to look out for are "Karma", "Blame" and "Fire Son" as they each set a mood and show that despite their name, Brutal Hand can successfully display moments of elegance and grace. Brutal Hand do not sound like Edguy, nor do they subscribe to wanting to be like Iced Earth. They have instead chosen to follow their path, by taking their influences, acknowledging them and creating

something that they can call their own. I was clearly impressed by “Purgatory’s Rage” and I have a feeling that heavy metal fans will be as well. Nice one guys! [SL]

BLAZE BAYLEY

Promise And Terror

(Blaze Bayley)

the ones who pre-ordered this CD before the tour, the band added an additional disc with four further unreleased tracks. The songs on “Condemned To Burn” are mostly demo versions of tunes known from the band’s two full-length albums, accompanied by some non-European bonus tracks and a couple of live cuts. If you’re already a fan and can’t wait for “Trinity” (coming out in Autumn 2010), “Condemned To Burn” may ease your hunger for more Eden’s Curse music. If you’ve never heard Eden’s Curse’s music yet, get the regular albums first and if you like them, you can also reach for this EP, which is a nice treat for the band’s fans. [WG]

JON OLIVA’S PAIN Festival

(AFM) Ah, Blaze Bayley. The man who will not die. He’s very much alive and kicking on this new album of his, the majestically christened “Promise And Terror”. To our relief, he’s long past the questionable stint he cursed Iron Maiden with and has now more or less established himself as a solo artist to be taken seriously. Those hankering for musical darkness, a melodic bent and epic fare will delight upon hearing such soaring numbers as “Watching The Night Sky”, “1633”, “God Of Speed”, and the mouthful that’s “The Trace Of Things That Have No Words”. Too bad Blaze’s greatest weakness - his chillingly dull voice - has the effect of dousing the ambitious songs here with ice cold water. “Time To Dare” and the quasiballad “Surrounded By Sadness” have what it takes to reach the lofty heights of metallic grandeur, but thanks to Blaze himself, they pass off as mediocre fare that keeps the album moving at a steady pace. Yet their sparkle isn’t completely murdered, as repeated listens allows us to relish their juicier morsels. On the technical front, “Promise And Terror” is a solid effort blessed with crystal clear production and a line-up of backing musicians who’ve imbibed enough Iron Maiden to do Blaze’s former band one better on rollicking numbers like “Madness And Sorrow” and “Faceless.” It’s on “Faceless” where Blaze screams “If you think you’re beaten, you will be beaten down” that one is tempted to think he’s putting on a brave face for the hordes of haters who’ve perpetually scorned his music career as a bad joke. But horror of horrors, the man just rolls with the punches and actually manages to impress. From its epic cover art to the balanced fare of speed metal and awesome tunes that lurk inside this beast, “Promise And Terror” really lives up to its title. [MB]

EDEN’S CURSE

Condemned To Burn (Metal Mayhem)

“Condemned To Burn” isn’t a regular release, but just a collection of rarities the multinational melodic hard rockers pulled out of long-unopened drawers for the occasion of their UK tour with Alestorm. The band consider this forty + minute EP a thank you and an attempt to generate some money for their US label that helped them finance their previous tour with Stratovarius. The EP consists of nine tracks, so it’s a value for money release and for

Funny observation: in stark contrast to the pared down Jon Oliva who wrote jumbo tunes and ‘do you want fries with that?’ music for Savatage, the plus-size Jon Oliva now writes hard-hitting, focused, (relatively) stripped down hard rock gems for his own band, Pain – and that’s a good thing. Even though I absolutely love Savatage, the things Jon Oliva has been doing with JOP is fantastic as well, and he returns in 2010 with the rest of the Circle II Circle crew with “Festival”. Jon Oliva has always been adept at controlling moods and flow on the albums that he has written. On “Festival”, three stomping rockers kick off the album: “Lies” has a fantastic old-school gallop to it and Oliva’s distinctive vocals; “Death Rides A Black Horse” has a bit of the old “Streets” feel to it, with the classic rock musical/Andrew Lloyd Webber specialty coming through; “Festival”, the title track starts off with carny music that steadily turns sour – the main riff is instantly memorable and fantastic Blue Oyster Cultish guitar duelling (that is all too brief, sadly), but an unimaginative chorus lets the song down. “Afterglow” does a 180, with a doom-y Black Sabbath intro seguing into a relaxed piano/acoustic guitar driven ballad, with mournful cello floating around behind the vocals, before alternating between stomping groove and soft melodies (and look out for the blues-y break towards the end!) – probably the best song of “Festival”. I have a weakness for rock ballads, and to my mind Jon Oliva wrote some of the most moving ballads during his Savatage days, so much so that I especially look out for them in any of his new material. The second ballad on “Festival” is “Looking For Nothing”, a wonderfully gentle and laidback acoustic guitar number that reminds me of the exceptional Grateful Dead song “Brokedown Palace”… while the beginning of the verse to “Winter Haven” just brings to mind Ozzy’s “Tonight”. The final ballad “Now” closes out “Festival”, and is simply magnificent: piano, soaring vocals, and massive power chords in the chorus that just bring to mind classic Savatage ballads like “Believe”, “When The Crowds Are Gone” and “Alone You Breathe”. “Festival” shows more of a hard rock edge than any of its predecessors; the theatrics are toned down and although the Savatage flair is still there, fans should expect something slightly more different. With TSO’s “Night Castle” out last year, Jon is certainly keeping himself busy! [JHN]