MI: First of all, congratulations on being the first winners of the Metaholic Band Contest! How does it feel to know you beat all the competition from artists around the world? Chloe: Did we even enter?
Kai: Yeah… before you joined us. The big banner on our Myspace???? Haha!
Ant: It’s really cool people took the time out to vote for us!
Kai: But yeah, it was a good feeling… were up against Cipher System in the end init... they are one hell of an awesome band!
MI: So let’s find out a bit more about you. Who are you and what do you do within the band?
Ant: I’m the drummer. I hit things, hopefully in the right order!
MI: And hopefully in time too, right?
Ant: That’s the plan!
Jae: I'm the other guitarist. I molest frets and get hyper about it!
Spencer: I do the main vox for the band.
Kai: Spencer is ever in depth!
Stephen: I be basser.
Chloe: I play keys and complete the line-up.
MI: How did you all get together? I know when you won the competition you were still an incomplete unit, but your line up has been secured now?
Ant: I auditioned for the band in May after searching for months.
Chloe: I’ve known Kai for a few years.
Kai: Yeah... we basically auditioned everyone that was interested init.....took us yonks but ‘ere we go.
Stephen: I know Jae from college, so that’s how I got in the mix of things.
Spencer: Yeah, I’ve known Kai for years myself, so like, was a good head start.
MI: You’ve not been going for that long, but you seem to have a very strong fan base already from what I’ve seen on your Myspace (and from all the votes you received). How does that feel? Was it something you expected?
Jae: Oh dear.
Spencer: Hahaha! Nah nah, we just appeal to loads of different people init.
Kai: Well, we hope we do.
Spencer: Not just one genre. Come on, you only have to look at the band for starters to realise we appeal to different types of genres like, because we are all from different musical backgrounds.
Ant: It’s cool to see that with all the great bands that are about, that people take the time to comment on our music!
Kai: Yeah man, I second that!
Ant: Cause there are so many bands around now which are only a click away so people have a far bigger choice.
Kai: People taking the time to leave us a comment... means a massive load to us… cause we aren’t just another band they just "checked out" and left!Kai: Well, me and Jae always said that we would release the current tracks as an EP, we just need to re-record them to the standard we think is worth releasing.
Jae: Yeah once tracks are re done, we release EP, and then start work on album next year!
Kai: There was talk of an album before the full line-up was made too… but we scrapped that idea as we want everyone’s ideas within an album. Expect to hear a couple of the EP tracks on the album too in future maybe.
MI: The recordings you have available on Myspace just now don’t feature Spencer’s vocals; do you think that people will notice a huge difference in your sound when you record new material?
Stephen: Yeah.
Chloe: Yep.
Ant: Think they will be pleasantly surprised at how similar they are. It’s quite scary!
Kai: Spencer is virtually identical to me!
Spencer: Pretty lucky to be honest!
Kai: Mate, you can say that again! Haha!
Chloe: I think me and Stephen should do screaming in some parts.
Stephen: Holla!
Chloe: No, like "ARGHGHGHGH" you know, girly screams.
Jae: Haha!
Stephen: Oh… I see.
Chloe: Like Mcfly are just outside the room.
Stephen: Arg, I love Mcfly.
MI: What about with all your other new members? I know that you originally recorded with just two of you (which is very impressive I must say), is it going to sound really different to what we’ve heard so far?
Spencer: Going to be uber!
Kai: The recordings now are just demos. With cheap equipment as well.
Chloe: Because we are all separate individuals doing things our own way to make it even better. Hey! These keys aren’t cheap!
Kai: With all our ideas combined... seriously good stuff to come I think.
Stephen: And the addition to bass in the recordings.
Ant: Hopefully like a beef sandwich.
Kai: With extra beef! Ant’s drumming should be sounding a hell of a lot better to in these recordings.
MI: Have you got any plans of playing any shows in the near future, or is that something we’ll be all desperately waiting for just that little bit longer?
Spencer: Soon as we get everything cracked 100% we will be gigging . The only way we can say when we will be gigging is when we have practiced everything and can play it perfectly each go.
Kai: May be a lil bit longer I guess.......we have a set sorted almost… gotta brush up on them... and get a few other things done......
Ant: It should be soon hopefully but we defo want to make sure we are ready to give people a good show!
Stephen: Haha
Kai: I ain’t heard that one! Haha!
Ant: Can we have their money? Or just their daddy’s credit card?
Spencer: I pulled a fit at that!
Kai: I heard one guy saying that we should be more like them if we want to be big...but I’m not too sure he had a very good basis for comparison to be honest.
Spencer: Some twonk even told me to sound more like Trivium.
Chloe: Well, they are tight live, as we shall be if we work hard.
Kai: Nah... his vocals are a bit weak. Personal opinion though I guess.
Ant: If we have half the fan base they do, I for one would be happy!
Kai: Yer man...that you can’t really disagree with!Ant: Think it’s a mix of hardcore and off time signatures but all in a head nodding groove.
Kai: With a mix of melody too! And I’m sure with Chloe's influence too it will have that extra zazz. But yer.... I say we’re a splice of Threat Signal/Bloodjinn.....a lot of influences to be honest…too many to pin point!
Ant: I reckon bits of Meshuggah as well.
Kai: For sure man. You can’t say Bloodjinn or Threat Signal without Meshuggah etc. Chloe...what you reckon actually...What do you hear in our own music?
Chloe: Ha...erm.....good question! Bit of Napalm Death and a bit of Gary Numan. Bit of Spence screaming, Kai singing, Jae strumming, Stephen bassing, Ant bashing them drums and me just doing my thang.
MI: Gary Numan?
Stephen: Hahaha!
Chloe: You don’t know who he is?
MI: Yes, I've got a couple of his albums and seen him live, but Gary Numan?
Chloe: Yep, ledgendary.
MI: Oh yeah, he's awesome alright, but can't personally see that.
Chloe: You will, when I put my full input in.
Ant: I think it sounds like a band for all the family... come one come all, also we are available for kids parties!!
MI: From when I first heard you, which seems like an age ago, to now, your sound has evolved a fair bit. Where do you see yourselves going now? Are you going to build on what appears to be a fantastic new sound, or are you going to shock us and go in a different direction, now there are more of you involved?
Jae: We will probably keep up the styles we have at the moment and build on them slowly.
Stephen: Yeah I reckon the basis of our sound will stay the same but progress over time (inevitably) with each others input.
Kai: Definitely have some fine tuning in there from what I can see, getting ideas in already! Had a really good one for one of our older tracks!
Chloe: Yeah New Method’s new keys track.
Kai: Sounds sick, I must say!
Kai: Well, we shall definitely be trying to get gigging so that might happen within the coming months. Re-recording of tracks will start if all goes to plan.
Ant: Lots of photos.
Kai: Yer....we like have photos every practise haha!
A big thanks to the band for the interview. If you want to check them out for yourselves, then you can either head on over to their Myspace page:
www.myspace.com/subversi0nofficial
Or their new website:
Who? Rob Pease, vocalist of Adust.
Swedish metallers, The Haunted, have completed work to their new album, which shall be released in the autumn, and will be called Versus.
Before I begin, here’s a link to the band’s myspace, so you can listen while you read: CLICK HERE
What are your general feelings on the album? (Fear Will Cast No Shadow) Are you proud of it? Does it give off the vibe you wanted it to?
Very proud of it. I think it’s the best metal CD that came out that year. Listen to the hooks. The solos, most importantly, the songs. So few metal bands these days have actual songs. You can’t write a song around a breakdown.
Who are the fans you feel you are trying to reach?
I'm not trying to reach anyone. I write for myself. I love that people like it, I really do. I'm the most appreciative cat you'll meet. ..but if no one cared what I wrote, I’d still be doing it. It was never about money fame or women.
What's your favourite thing about being lead vocalist for TAO?
To play with 4 of the best musicians I’ve ever seen.
As an artist, what is your intended destination/goal, and the things you hope to achieve on the way there?
It changed so much. This industry has made me very bitter. It’s bulls*** you know. A lot of these bands, they are f***ing phonies. I don’t name names. I guess I just hope to create good art,..and if people like it I’m happy.
And some less open questions...
What made you get into metal in the first place?
One word. Metallica.
Your myspace says you're working out for the apocalypse...if it came, could you take it?
Haha good question. I can take anything. The s**t I’ve been through in my life would make you sick. Drug abuse, violence, prison. Finding God losing God. I'm ready for anything man. I've lived the lyrics I write.
And if you got to save one guy/girl, who would it be and why?
Hmmm...I'd save my mother, because I'm Italian, and that’s what a good son would do.
For me, as a
Soon I hope. I could get into a whole thing about why we haven’t been there yet, but it would just add fuel to an already bright fire. We will get there. And we appreciate all the emails and love from our
What's your dream line-up for a gig/festival? (It can include TAO or not)
I'd love to tour with Metallica, they are still the kings in my eyes.
If you died tomorrow and had to have a lyric on your headstone, what would it be? It can be either something you've written or not.
Alfred Lord Tennyson - "All things must die"
OK then, here goes with the review. Fear Will Cast No Shadow has been out since last October, and is TAO’s 3rd album, and the first with Matt on vocals. Here’s the track by track, and again scroll to the red writing for the conclusion.
The album kicks off with the harmonic guitars and clean vocals of From Atrophy to Obsession. “Atrophy was written about the deterioration of a certain relationship in my life. When things are at their worst, sometimes that's when we realize they were worth having. One tends to obsess about what they did wrong, what they could have changed etc. Hence the title of the song. It has a lot of cool guitar in this song, and a cool sweep solo.” The chorus for the song is brilliantly catchy, driving the song forwards with skilled guitar work and Matt’s vocals. This song was the first video made from the album (see it HERE) and it's easy to see why - it's easy to get into the song without it being simple.
Next track, The Castaway “is a metaphor for being cast out, rejected and unheard. The ocean has always fascinated me, it's so massive and ominous. I love the Meshuggah type breakdown in this song and the solo is a face-melter.” The intro is heavier and this song sees some brilliant drumming, especially in the fills. Another catchy chorus slots into the song nicely before the strong solo.
Crown Yourself King “is very metaphorical as well. I tend to do that quite often. The song is a giant middle finger. The lyrics are pretty straight forward for me. The title basically means sometimes when you live for yourself, you hurt the ones around you.” A roaring beginning to the song takes the short verse into the chorus. A piano interlude leads into a good break with another impressive solo, before finishing with piano again.
Silence And Goodbye “is basically part two of Atrophy. More of the healing process though. Saying goodbye, accepting things for what they are. The song is vocal-orientated, as most ballads are. Tons of vocal harmonies on this one. I believe the line "you walked away and left me to crawl" is 5 voices.” This song is really the one for me that makes me think ‘how the f*** aren’t this band huge?’ The song sounds a bit like Dying In Your Arms, however this has intelligent lyrics (I think ‘you poisoned my life, now I take this knife’ is all I need to say – Heafy showing he can write like a primary school poet when he wants to), a better tune and better musicianship.
Following on is All That Falls Around Us, beginning with thrashier drums and a double-length verse before another sing-along chorus. Matt says it’s “the only postive thing I’ve ever written. It's an homage to my girlfriend for keeping me strong through tough times...pretty gay...hahaha. No, it’s a ripping track, very thrashy.”
A Great Distance. “Best song on the record and in my opinion of 2007. Very catchy chorus. Little known fact: Jason Suecof and myself were listening to like r n b songs when I was writing this chorus. This song just flat out rules.” Complex guitar work behind the verse leads onto a shorter ‘taster’ of a chorus, leaving you wanting more. The break comes, announced by some roaring savagery making for some great pit-fodder, and the listener is then treated to the chorus again.
The war-like intro of Your time is mine comes next. “Hmmm...I love love love this chorus. It’s like a straight outta 87 arena rock chorus. It sounds like the f***ing Scorpions or something.” Some neat ride cymballing (has that phrase ever been used before?) in the chorus accents the brilliant vocal line, and the song finishes on the chorus, fitting together beautifully.
Fear Will Cast No Shadow begins with a grunt and a verse with some nice blast beating. The partly screamed and sung chorus leads into a very ‘thrash metal’ sounding solo. It’s “probably the heaviest track the band has ever done. Pretty much straight up death metal. Awesome whammy bar solo and blast beats a plenty. Best lyrical song on the album. It’s about a man’s struggle with life and death, God and Christ. The chorus is a conversation between the man and God. A lot of biblical references here. I was a catholic school boy, and they thrived on scaring us. So this is a f*** you to them, hence the title, fear will cast no shadow.”
March Of The Clones “is about drug abuse. I love the line "I cant see the strings....yet I feel them pulling..." I did some falsetto vocal harmonies in this. Very cool stuff.” The song sounds slower than the others, and has the same brutal roar before the sung chorus again. The slowdown in the tempo is a nice change before...
The bass intro of The Wolves At Your Door. The song ploughs on as strong as any other on the album, and ends on some savage roaring effects before fading out. Matt says it’s “another metaphorical song. The wolves at your door are the monkey on your back. Be it a woman, drugs, whatever. We all have them.” A song that people can relate to.
Dystopiate – Glorious bass tones lead from a marching intro into a song that’s all screaming and brutality. The song, and album, end on an interesting and odd solo. “I combined two words dystopia and opiate. It’s about the downfall of our civilisation. The lyrics are very negative and looking back they disgust me. Great solos on the end from Tommy, Jason and Ralph Santolla.
This album is a very impressive piece of work, especially when you consider it being Matt’s first with the band, as well as there being a new drummer for this album (who has now been replaced again). It’s a lot different to their previous albums, with clean vocals making it more accessible but no less heavy. Matt's brutal roar fits perfectly over some skilled guitarwork, grunting bass and pounding drums, and when the singing starts the songs really come alive. With this collection of brilliant songs the band have proven that they have the talent and song writing ability to be extremely big, so it really is a mystery to me that they aren’t. More to come I’m sure, but for now give this a listen, it really was one of the best albums of 2007.
And a final word from Matt…
Anything more you want to add, or say to the guys/girls here who are listening?
"Be open to all music. Don't take life too seriously. Metal fans tend to be angry. It's a waste of time. Get it out in music, but take care of each other."
Cheers to Matt for answering the questions and tolerating the fact it was my first interview. Pictures are from TAO’s myspace.
FRIDAY JULY 18TH
WYKKED WYTCH
with special guests
AT ODDS WITH GOD
SYNAPTICIDE
@ CHURCHILL'S PUB - MIAMI, FL
5501 NE 2ND AVE
MIAMI, FL
305.757.
1807
18+ / 9pm / $10
www. churchillspub. com
The Welsh 5 piece’s debut offering brings only 9 tracks to the table, 2 of which are interludes. Following is a more precise track by track analysis and review, scroll down to the red writing for a short conclusion. Intro track Ghosts of Dawn builds slowly with harmonising guitars and pounding drums, leading straight into The Silent Divide. The double pedal, riffing and scream are a little reminiscent of Ascendancy-era Trivium, or Poison-era BFMV. The lyrics never seem to be rushed, yet do not drone, a quality that is present throughout the whole album. The vocals are either spoken or screamed – yet the scream is easily decipherable, not unlike Anders Friden of In Flames-fame. The Silent Divide in particular has a haunting chorus, the likes of which rarely found without clean vocals.
Dead Divine gets off to a similar, yet different, start with the band’s Scandinavian influences showing through again with a very Arch Enemy sounding break in the song, using delayed guitar effects. This song also holds some brilliant solos.
Days of Deliverance is the shortest song so far (excluding the intro of course) clocking in at just over 4 minutes long. A simpler verse riff than the previous songs’ leads into a shorter chorus. Again this song has some good guitar work – particularly listen out for the sweeping solos.
Human Hive begins with the familiar ‘yaaargh’ scream and the use of natural harmonics introduces the song nicely. A slowed down section in this song lends itself more to some groove metal bands, and a gratuitously long instrumental break and solo lead back in for some final vocals.
The seamless transition into acoustic interlude Stir of Echoes shows an ambitious attempt. Strings and effective yet simple riffs make this a good break from the loudness, and a little fret-buzz picked up is the only indication of the band’s inexperience. The track shows real promise for a future full length instrumental one.
The darker sounding chords of Seraph begin another 6 ½ minute track with an accessible chorus with riffs neither being overly complex or too simple. Whispering vocals are present here, fading the song back from a break into the outro.
The title track, This Age of Silence, starts with some odd chords compared with the rest of the album and takes longer to find its feet as a song. A beatdown appears to be preferred to an epic solo in this song, yet the solo merely has to wait til a little later – being a little slower and understated compared to those that have come previously on the album.
Anterior seem to combine the sounds of Scandinavian metal with the accessibility of more commercial bands such as Trivium/BFMV. The album is produced well, and for a debut the content is a brilliant achievement. The band are brave not to succumb to putting in clean vocals for the sake of it, nor are there wall to wall beatdowns. Uncompromising and more traditional solos litter the album, but with the musicianship on display listening to them is a pleasure.
I’m not sure if I’m gonna give ratings for albums I review on here, but if I were to with this one, I’d say 8/10.
We're in the process of wrapping up the artwork now, so we'll be sure to have some things to show soon. The coffin box will only be available through www.metallica.com, www.metclub.com, and www.missionmetallica.com and we'll keep you posted here as to when that will be (soon!) . . . not all countries will be available at the same time, so keep watching.
As usual, more to come . . . (soon!)
Taken from metallica.com
The final date for the Fight Fire With Fire Tour 2008, has been completed. You can find more information from our previous post, Fight Fire With Fire Update, which has all the other tour dates (and who's playing) as well as how to get your hands on tickets.
“Ghost Reveries” is the 8th studio album from Swedish progressive metallers, Opeth. The album was around a time of great change for the band. After the collapse of Music For Nations, Opeth found themselves without a label, but were soon snapped up by Roadrunner Records. However, I wouldn’t fully dismiss this album. It wouldn’t be the one I’d recommend to a new listener, but it does earn the right to be in any Opeth fan’s collection for the handful of good tracks which frequently appear in live set lists.
A group of dedicated metal addicts, bringing you honest, unbiased views and reviews. With a variety of different tastes, we hope to bring a wide scope on what we think is the best, and perhaps the worst, which metal has to offer!
Please feel free to add comments, if you so wish, on the different articals. We love hearing your points of view too!
Posts
All Comments
