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MONSTER MAGNET Mainman: ‘I Never Stopped Touring, So My Perception Of Time Is Really Weird’

Manos Spanos
Joe Daly of The Weeklings recently conducted an interview with MONSTER MAGNET mainmanDave Wyndorf. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. The Weeklings: Since you broke out in the late '80s, you've survived grunge, the destruction of the old music industry, a shitload of lineup changes, and you yourself have survived some close calls. How have you survived? Wyndorf: Just duck. Know when to duck. The perception of time gets kind of skewed when you're in a band, because you're always working and traveling all the time. I never stopped touring, so my perception of time is really weird. I could easily go ten years and then look back and go, "Man, that was a tough six months!" Look at yourself in the mirror, man! It's been ten years. What have you been doing? Getting laid and traveling takes up a lot of time, and that's what I did for ten or twelve years. As soon as you get home, you realize that the whole thing is not real. You're not happy with the music that's on the radio, but there's no place forMONSTER MAGNET. In my head, we'd be on the charts with ten other bands that were likeDAVID BOWIE, or that were as cool as HAWKWIND, or as cool as THE STOOGES. That was the world I wanted to live in, but I realized that was my childhood. It ain't gonna happen. Now I'm up there with PEARL JAM. That's what I get. The bands that I like, they got to play withTHE STOOGES and HAWKWIND, I get to play with fucking PEARL JAM! That's not cool. Nothing against PEARL JAM, but you know what I mean? The Weeklings: What was your goal for the new album ["The Last Patrol"]? Wyndorf: I really didn't want to fuck around. I made a big mistake on the last one by not taking enough time to do it. I discovered the hard way that just because I can write an album in a short amount of time doesn't mean that I should produce it in a short amount of time. Anybody who listens to the last one and then this one will notice that on the new one, there's a lot more attention paid to the parts. One of the dangers of modern technology is that you can have Pro Tools and you can clean stuff up. Nothing against computers or Pro Tools, but they can be abused, and it was abused on that album, so I was like, fuck that, I'm going to do a whole psychedelic record with just the stuff that I got started on with "Mastermind", and that's all it's going to be. Also, I didn't feel like writing a record with the fist-in-the-air rock anthem on it. I'm too old for that shit. "Come on, everybody, let's rock!" Now, , "How about you rock, because I'm too tired to rock!" [laughs] I'm not going to say, "All you people, jump up and down, while I sit on a chair and have a cigarette." The new album is one of things with a psychedelic rock vibe, atmosphere, weirdness, ambiguity… that's what's important to me now. The Weeklings: So what's the plan for the album and beyond? Wyndorf: Well, the plan is the same as usual, to beat the living shit out of it on the road, except this time we're actually going to go in the States. Album comes out [October] 15th and then we hit the States and do the first full tour we've done there in ten years, and then we go to Europe and do the usual, which is play the living fuck out of it. We got to Europe like two or three times a year, for four and five weeks at a time, and then Australia. Anywhere else in the world that's buying. It's quite a busy world out there. I made the decision to ignore the States about ten years ago. Knocking on the door in the States is tough. If they're not buying what you have to sell, you could easily go broke. Or you could be a smart human and go to Europe and drink tiny cups of coffee and stay in nice hotels and rock the way God intended. Read the entire interview from The Weeklings.
04 min read

Underground: Endless Recovery – Thrash Rider

Panagiotis Karagiannidis
The Greek Thrash metal scene stands tall and proud (maybe that's a positive side effect of the financial crisis), not only by their local gods such as Suicidal Angels, Released Anger and Mentally Defiled but also by bands such as Exarsis, Bio-Cancer, Chronosphere, Fadom, Over-Throw, Domination and the band being reviewed this time: Endless Recovery.
03 min read

SEPULTURA: Entire ‘Mediator Between Head And Hands’ Album Available For Streaming

Manos Spanos
"The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart", the new album from Brazilian/American metallers SEPULTURA, is available for streaming in its entirety using the SoundCloud widget below. The CD will be released on October 25 via Nuclear Blast Records. SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser recently gave the Brazilian newspaper Diario de Pernambuco a track-by-track breakdown of "The Mediator Between Head And Hands Must Be The Heart". Check it out below. "Intro" Andreas: "Actually, the intro is the demo we did just before we went to the studio, with all the songs played at the same time! It's like you are listening to all the songs that you will hear separately on the album at once. It sounds so great, noisy and powerful and it was a result of an accident that I had on my computer. Each song had its track so when I accidentally played the tracks together they came strong and beautiful so I decided to show the guys and they all liked it!" "Trauma Of War" Andreas: "This will be the first song on the album and is one of the fastest and most brutal songs we ever did. The performance of our drummer, Eloy [Casagrande], is fantastic, it gave such an energy to the song that the guitars, bass and vocals had to top that level of brutality, for sure our strongest opener so far. I wrote the lyrics inspired by friends that went to war and came back with some kind of trauma, some kind of disturbance that they have to live with for the rest of their lives." "The Vatican" Andreas: "An ironic tribute to the conclave that elected Argentinian Pope Francis I as the successor of Benedict XVI. This track has some death metal influences. The lyric tells the story of how the Vatican was created, filled with blood, orgy, murders, corruption, adultery. It's one of the most evil and perverse lyrics I ever wrote." "Impending Doom" Andreas: "Song with a very slowed tempo, with heavy picks and a low-tuned rhythm. Its nickname was 'Puxada', because of the guitar's riff characteristic. This track is very heavy. The lyrics are Derrick's [Green, vocals]. And it talks about cursed inheritances that are left from generation to generation. What world we are going to leave for ours heirs?" "Manipulation Of Tragedy" Andreas: "Another of Derrick's lyric. Talks about collective manipulation through a culture of fear, creating tragic and drastic situations in order to justify certain decisions made by the governors, legitimizing some limitations to the society. The manufactured consent. The song was born from Eloy's double-bass drumming rhythm. It sounds very SEPULTURA, with influence from several periods of the band." "Tsunami" Andreas: "Derrick wrote the lyrics for it, part inspired by the natural phenomena and part by the 'tsunami' of information we receive nowadays through the worldwide web and the media in general. A tsunami is the most powerful force of nature, stronger than any earthquake, tornado or a storm. It simply destroys everything in its path. The result is total destruction but also total cleanup, a new beginning." "The Bliss Of Ignorants" Andreas: "Derrick's lyric. It's about the illusion created in society that we are free to do whatever we want, but, in fact, it is not like that. Freedom is limited and part of the society lives under ignorance, euphoric, without awareness of everything that surrounds us. The song opens with percussive drum, low tuning and groovy sound. Its nickname was 'Brasuca'. It's kind of a mix of 'Roots' and 'Chaos A.D.' rhythm. Ross [Robinson, producer] influenced us to explore more this Brazilian side. With participation of percussionist Fred Ortiz (BEASTIE BOYS' former drummer who plays with Derrick in MAXIMUM HEDRUM)." "Grief" Andreas: "It is a song that starts with clean guitars in a way that we never attempted before, I think it was our biggest challenge on this album and it came out amazing. I wrote the song inspired by a tragic incident that happened in Brazil in January 2013. More than 200 kids died in a fire inside a night club. The place didn't have the proper emergency exits and most of the people died asphyxiated, it was horrible. The small town at the south of the country, where most of the people were from, was in total grief. I wrote this song to honor the victims and their families." "The Age Of The Atheist"
07 min read

PRIMAL FEAR Films Two New Videos

Manos Spanos
German power metallers PRIMAL FEAR have finished filming music videos for two new songs from their forthcoming tenth studio album, "Delivering The Black": the first single, "When Death Comes Knocking", plus "King For A Day". The band states: "Great vibe and time — you will love it!" "Delivering The Black" will be released in January 2014 via Frontiers Records. The CD was mixed with Jacob Hansen (VOLBEAT, PRETTY MAIDS, DESTRUCTION) at his Hansen studio in Ribe, Denmark. 12 tracks were recorded during the new album sessions, including "two epic songs, one guitar ballad, and nine crushing metal songs with all the trademarks you know and love to hear from PRIMAL FEAR," according to the band. The effort was engineered by Achim Köhler (EDGUY, MASTERPLAN) and was produced by PRIMAL FEAR bassist Mat Sinner. "Delivering The Black" features a guest appearance by Norwegian singer Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull (LEAVES' EYES, ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY) on the song "Born With A Broken Heart". In a recent interview with Jump Metal, PRIMAL FEAR vocalist Ralf Scheepers stated about the musical direction of the band's upcoming album: "It's not so far away [from what we've done in the past], because we have our style, you know. It was hard for us to imagine… because [2012's] 'Unbreakable' was a pretty tough... and really, in our ears, pretty great album, and for us, it was somehow hard to top it. But as soon as we started to write the new songs, and as soon as I heard what Mat and Magnus [Karlsson, guitar] did in the first place — because then they sent me some stuff and I added my ideas on it — I just thought, 'Wow, this is amazing.' And in the end, it really turned out to be a better album than 'Unbreakable'." Frontiers and PRIMAL FEAR in January announced that they have renewed their partnership for another multi-album deal, which will include two more studio releases and one live CD and DVD. PRIMAL FEAR's latest album, "Unbreakable", sold around 600 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 44 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
02 min read

EPICA: ‘Unleashed’ Performance Clip From ‘Retrospect’ DVD

Manos Spanos
Dutch symphonic metal band EPICA celebrated its 10th anniversary with a one-night-only event, dubbed "Retrospect", on March 23 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. The band was accompanied by the seventy-piece Reményi Ede Chamber Orchestra and the Miskolc National Theatre Choir, playing an unforgettable three-hour best-of set. According to respected Dutch newspaper the Volkskrant, "The band wrote a chapter of Dutch metal history" this evening. Rock Tribune (Belgium) thought it was "an unforgettable show." Ten high-definition cameras captured this very special sold-out show while EPICA played in front of nearly five thousand ecstatic fans. In addition to a collection of the band's biggest hits from across the spectrum of their entire catalog, this once-in-a-lifetime spectacular also featured the live debut of "Twin Flames" and the previously unreleased "Retrospect", covers of classics by Vivaldi, Pergolesi, and Oscar-winning film composer John Williams, two guest collaborations with the venerable Floor Jansen (NIGHTWISH, REVAMP), and a very special performance of their breakthrough single "Quietus" with founding members Jeroen Simons, Ad Sluijter and Yves Huts. On November 8, Nuclear Blast will release "Retrospect" as a deluxe hardcover book with 48 pages, both as a 2DVD/3CD and 2Blu-ray/3CD version. "Retrospect" will contain the following fan favorites: 01. Introspect 02. Monopoly On Truth 03. Sensorium 04. Unleashed 05. Martyr Of The Free Word 06. Chasing The Dragon 07. Presto 08. Never Enough 09. Stabat Mater Dolorosa 10. Twin Flames 11. Serenade Of Self-Destruction 12. Orchestral Medley 13. The Divine Conspiracy ~Anniversary Edition~ 14. Delirium 15. Blank Infinity 16. The Obsessive Devotion 17. Retrospect 18. Battle Of The Heroes & Imperial March 19. Quietus 20. The Phantom Agony 21. Cry For The Moon 22. Sancta Terra 23. Design Your Universe 24. Storm The Sorrow 25. Consign To Oblivion 26. Outrospect "Retrospect" features this massive performance in its entirety, as well as exclusive interviews with all band members and behind-the-scenes footage from the show. The "Unleashed" performance clip, taken "Retrospect", can be seen below.
02 min read

ANNIHILATOR’s JEFF WATERS: ‘I Never Gave A S**t About Image Or What I Looked Like’

Manos Spanos
Robert Cavuoto of Guitar International recently conducted an interview with ANNIHILATORguitarist/mainman Jeff Waters. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Guitar International: How do you rate [the new ANNIHILATOR album] "Feast" compared to your other CDs? Jeff Waters: My favorite albums are "Never, Neverland" from 1990 and "King Of The Kill", from 1994. That one was never released in North America, but was a massive album in Asia, Japan and Europe. The tour for that record was just ridiculous and beyond my dreams. I was singing on the album, so it was even more of an unexpected thing as I'm not really a singer. So, to have me sing, play guitar and sell more records than I've ever sold, was just stupid luck. Then "Schizo Deluxe", from 2005, it was a very underexposed record. The label president at the time died in a car accident before the release of the record. It meant that the label temporarily stopped. That was a really shitty time for the label and his family. I wish everybody had heard that album. I think it's coming out as a re-release next month with the new label. And then the fourth one would be the newest one — "Feast". Guitar International: Are you content with the public's perception of ANNIHILATOR's place within thrash metal's history? Jeff Waters: I never gave a shit about image or what I looked like. Things like that were important to a lot of bands. It sounds stupid and defiant, but it's just that I never cared about it. I just play my music, and we were lucky enough to have things going so well that we didn't have to care about that kind of thing. We intentionally and unintentionally dropped out of our own country and the United States in 1993, at a time when traditional heavy metal in the ‘80s and thrash metal was literally dropped by their labels. That was back in the grunge era. Unless you were PANTERA, BIOHAZARD or SEPULTURA, or along those lines, you were done. There was nobody who wanted to book you, sign you, or do press for you. Obviously, the bigger ones kept going, but they all downgraded and ducked down in North America. JUDAS PRIEST went from playing the stadium in Vancouver to the clubs with Ripper Owens. SLAYER was playing arenas, and they went down to playing clubs in Vancouver. You really had a lot of bands being tested to see if they really had the love of their music. Do you guys want to downgrade and still put records out, or do you want to say fuck it and retire? There's a good core of these bands who said, "Fuck this; we're going to do this," and we were one of them. It's what we love to do. And SLAYER were the top guys here that took a big hit for ten years but never stopped, never gave up and just kept going. That's my favorite band for carrying metal on through to this point. There's another group of guys — TESTAMENT, EXODUS, OVERKILL — that a lot of Americans and Canadians don't realize that ANNIHILATOR are part of that group overseas. We all took a hit; we all were struggling. We all had to fight for deals; we all had ticket sales go down; we all had record sales go down, and we all had big lineup changes and frequent ones. We did not like just bail and quit and say, "Screw it" and get a "real job," only to reunite 10-15 years later when metal was popular again. The bands I mentioned to you were mid-level bands that just went through hell and never stopped. We always released records and always kept
06 min read

LIV KRISTINE To Guest On New PRIMAL FEAR Album

Manos Spanos
Norwegian singer Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull (LEAVES' EYES, ex-THEATRE OF TRAGEDY) has recorded a guest appearance on the song "Born With A Broken Heart" from the upcoming album from German power metallers PRIMAL FEAR. The CD was mixed with Jacob Hansen (VOLBEAT, PRETTY MAIDS, DESTRUCTION) at his Hansen studio in Ribe, Denmark for a January 2014 release via Frontiers Records. 12 tracks were recorded during the new album sessions, including "two epic songs, one guitar ballad, and nine crushing metal songs with all the trademarks you know and love to hear from PRIMAL FEAR," according to the band. The effort was engineered by Achim Köhler (EDGUY, MASTERPLAN) and was produced byPRIMAL FEAR bassist Mat Sinner. In a recent interview with Jump Metal, PRIMAL FEAR vocalist Ralf Scheepers stated about the musical direction of the band's upcoming album: "It's not so far away [from what we've done in the past], because we have our style, you know. It was hard for us to imagine… because [2012's] 'Unbreakable' was a pretty tough... and really, in our ears, pretty great album, and for us, it was somehow hard to top it. But as soon as we started to write the new songs, and as soon as I heard what Mat and Magnus [Karlsson, guitar] did in the first place — because then they sent me some stuff and I added my ideas on it — I just thought, 'Wow, this is amazing.' And in the end, it really turned out to be a better album than 'Unbreakable'." Frontiers and PRIMAL FEAR in January announced that they have renewed their partnership for another multi-album deal, which will include two more studio releases and one live CD and DVD. PRIMAL FEAR's latest album, "Unbreakable", sold around 600 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 44 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
02 min read

MEGADETH: ‘Countdown To Extinction’ Performance Clip From New DVD, Blu-Ray

Manos Spanos
In November and December of 2012, MEGADETH blazed hot on the band's "Countdown To Extinction 20th Anniversary Tour", ripping through their entire double platinum 1992 album from start to finish before performing other classics from their recorded catalog. Recorded and filmed at Los Angeles' Fox Theatre last December, "Countdown to Extinction: Live" is a definitive document of the acclaimed, sold-out tour. In addition to MEGADETH's blistering performance of the entire "Countdown To Extinction" album, including the essential "Symphony Of Destruction", "Foreclosure Of A Dream", "Sweating Bullets" and "Skin O' My Teeth", "Countdown to Extinction: Live" features all of the other MEGADETH classics the band performed at the epic concert, including "Holy Wars" and "Hangar 18" from 1990's "Rust In Peace", "Peace Sells" from the band's influential, platinum-certified 1986 album "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?", and "Trust" from 1997's platinum certified "Cryptic Writings". On September 24, "Countdown To Extinction: Live" was released on CD, DVD and Blu-ray via Capitol. "Countdown To Extinction: Live" track listing: 01. Intro 02. Architecture Of Aggression 03. Ashes In Your Mouth 04. Captive Honour 05. Countdown To Extinction
01 min read

Havok
Unnatural Selection

Panagiotis Karagiannidis
Dear readers, welcome to the realm of the New Wave Of Thrash metal once again. We've talked about the latest amazing albums by Gama Bomb and Evile and now it's time for another great and unique band to release something new: Havok.
04 min read