Earlier this week we learned that Jim Gillette, Michael Angelo Batio and Chris Adler were teaming up to bring back Nitro. Continue reading
Category Archives: New Album Update
Back To Work: Agoraphobic Nosebleed Plots The Future
Reclusive grindcore masters Agoraphobic Nosebleed have been downright prolific the last few years. Playing multiple special shows at festivals, and with a great new EP out earlier this year Arc (Relapse) ,the band has seen a resurgence of popularity, and as usual, unwavering respect in the underground. They will take a turn as one of the headliners this weekend at Southwest Terrorfest V in Tuscon, AZ. Ghost Cult’s Andrew Francis caught up with Adam Freisch, Richard Johnson, and Scott Hull earlier in the year to discuss the current state of the band, future recordings, and the difference in the record industry between being in a grindcore band, versus say Slayer, Iron Maiden or Tool.
Kirk Windstein Of Crowbar On The Serpent Only Lies, Fans And Much More!
The almighty Crowbar will be releasing The Serpent Only Lies on October 28th via Entertainment One (eOne). As you’ve heard from the ‘Falling While Rising’ and ‘Plasmic and Pure’ singles, the NOLA legends are as heavy as ever, and Kirk Windstein continues to write riffs that truly shake the world. I recently had the honor of sitting down with the riff lord to discuss the writing of their new album, the return of Tommy Buckley, and much more.Continue reading
Richard Christy Talks Charred Walls of the Damned, Duff’s Brooklyn And More!
Charred Walls of the Damned will be releasing their killer new studio record, Creatures Watching Over the Dead, on September 23rd via Metal Blade Records. Richard Christy, Jason Suecof, Steve DiGiorgio and Tim “Ripper” Owens have once again come together to create a no nonsense metal record, and as you’ll read in our chat, they couldn’t be more happy with what they accomplished. Enjoy my exclusive interview with the one and only Richard Christy below, and be sure to pre-order your copy of Creatures Watching Over the Dead today!
Beast Of Burden – Chuck Garric Talks Beasto Blanco’s New Album
In addition to being a long-time member of Alice Cooper’s band, Chuck Garric has his own project that he is the frontman of, Beasto Blanco. Chuck has big plans in the works for Beasto Blanco, including a forthcoming new album, major tours, and events throughout the next few years. We got an inside look at Chuck’s musical vision and what it takes to launch a band under your own banner in this day and age.
Although Beasto Blanco has been around for a few years, we first asked Chuck about his musical process for writing and how that becomes music for himself:
Chuck: As a songwriter and as a performer, we all have things inside of us that say maybe basically what we’re about for another artist. I did writing for so many years, and maybe I’ve written songs that aren’t necessarily Alice Cooper songs, or a song that wasn’t for the artist, and I thought the song was great and I really enjoyed writing them and would love to have them as part of who I am. It just inspired me to put together a band where I could come through this other person inside of me, and go out there and perform my own original music, and that’s what Beasto Blanco is. I’m in a band of real high energy, rock n roll stuff that just kicks you right in the face. You walk into a club and see a band kind of similar to like a Motörhead or Clutch, Ramones, Ted Nugent and any of those type of bands. With my history with Alice Cooper, I felt that it was important that I added some theatricality to it. It was just the way I was naturally progressing as an artist, and as a writer. It’s a good little clique we have with Beasto Blanco is that it’s high energy rock and roll with a big show feel.
We next asked Chuck about the genesis of the name and what it represents to him..
Yeah. The name basically comes from, we wanted to give our music a name. We wanted to have our sound have a name. It was something that we were faced with when we started, Being able to basically get up every morning and give it a go, work hard, and to use fear as a motivation, and use criticism as a motivation, all of those things. What better way than to just say “Hey, the music is animalistic.” It’s a beast, and Beasto Blanco just sort of came out as something that somebody had mentioned to say “Hey, this may work out.” Beasto Blanco just has a name in itself. When you’re a person like myself who works organically and I practice meditation and those types of things, it just came out as … it just felt right. The music has finally got its own personality. Once it had that, everything was just flowing naturally, and we knew exactly which direction to head with the sound, the look, the vibe, the attitude, everything. It just fell into place.
The way I think of Blanco is most anybody who has the desire to do something, or a dream, is that we all face those inner demons and that fear. We have to somehow summon the courage to move forward and conquer those things that we have. That’s exactly what Beasto Blanco is about is getting out there, and doing it right, doing it well, and not being afraid of failure, and at the same time, going out and just changing people’s lives feasibly, not trying to change anybody’s life politically or anything like that. Just giving you a chance to go out, listen to some rock and roll, forget about all the bullshit that is going on in your life if there is any, and just enjoy it just like the rest of us.
We hit upon a common ground, where we agreed that music is free therapy, whether you play it, listen to it, or rock out to it:
It really is. It’s turned out to be a job for me, but I find so much joy and therapy, and I use it daily. That exact thing is that music is my medicine.
Then we asked for a time line of the history of the band, and the new Beasto Blanco album will arrive:
We released our first music in 2012, In 2013 we released the first album, Live Fast, Die Loud. We’re about ready to release the second album which should be in October, early October.
In the run up to this album release, and with the busy tour schedule Alice Cooper keeps, we wondered what touring plans the band has:
We’re working on tour dates as we speak. Right now, we’re looking at as of late January. We’ve got the Monsters of Rock Cruise coming up in January of 2017 as well, so we’re working on dates to follow-up the release, and we’ll be touring both the United States and Europe.
INTERVIEW BY KEITH CHACHKES
LIVE PHOTOS BY EVIL ROBB PHOTOGRAPHY
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Putting In Work – Todd Jones Of Nails Talks Touring
In Part II of our exclusive chat between Hansel Lopez of Ghost Cult and Todd Jones of Nails, Todd discusses touring with the band, while keeping things stable as possible on the home front. He also goes in-depth about playing on bigger festival stages with more mainstream bands such as Ozzfest, This Is Hardcore, New England Metal And Hardcore Festival, and the possibility of another new Nails album in the works soon.
I noticed that you guys are going to be making an appearance at the Ozzfest this year.
Yeah, we’re going to be playing Ozzfest. We got asked to play. I don’t know what was the deal. We got the phone call saying “Hey, do you want to play with Black Sabbath?” I said “Yeah, for sure.” They put us on. I’m pretty psyched to play that shit.
I’ve noticed, it’s a diverse bill since it has bands like Kataklysm, and brutal bands like that. But at the same time, Disturbed and other mainstream acts. How do you think the audience are going to react to you guys? Do you think it will be a good show?
It’s a process man. It’s fucking mainstream metal. What do you expect? How are people going to react to it? I don’t know. I don’t even know if there is people there. It’s 1:50 in the afternoon, that’s our set time. I imagine people will come to the stage when we play, and we’re going to get up there and do our thing, and use it to the best of our ability. I don’t know how people are going to react to us. Like I said, I mentioned Oz Fest is fucking cool cause ongoing to get to see Black Sabbath for free.
That’s pretty much it. We’re going to go play and do our thing, and hopefully, people dig on us. If they don’t, they don’t. We’re only going to be playing for 30 minutes, so we’re not going to waste our stage time. I don’t know what to expect, and I don’t have any expectations other than I’m going to drive an hour away from my house to go play a show and then go watch Black Sabbath, and that’s pretty much it.
I’ve always understood that you guys work day jobs, but sporadically will tour across … I know you guys have a date coming up I think in Boston next month.
We tour for about 1 month to 6 weeks per year. We take time off of work here or there, just go off and play some shows from June 17th to June 26th. We’ll be going from Chicago to Raleigh, North Carolina, and just playing about 11 shows from the Midwest to the East coast of the United States. That is correct. We will be playing Boston at the Middle East, and that’s pretty much it, man. We do tours sporadically, and we do tour one week at a time. With Nuclear Blast, they didn’t require that we play more shows. When we contacted them, we told them what we were willing to do and what we weren’t willing to do, and they told us what they needed from us and what’s they didn’t need from us, and that was pretty much it. They didn’t want to change the format. It’s pretty much just business as usual for Nails, man.
Outside of the little summer tour you guys are doing, and the Ozzfest appearance, what’s next for you guys?
We’re going to go to Europe in November, and then I’m sure we’ll find our way to … We’re going to be playing This Is Hardcore Festival in Philadelphia in August. We’ll find our way around the country a couple more times before we start making another record. We’ll probably be playing Boston, I think we’ll play Boston four times, so we’ll probably get out there and play some more shows, some more festivals. They’re still doing New England Hardcore Fest (Editor’s note: New England Metal And Hardcore Festival) and if they want us to come back, we’ll definitely come back. It’s just playing shows, man. That’s pretty much it. We’ll probably start working on another record in the next year or so.
Really, that quick?
Yeah. Typically, bands put out records every 2 years. We put out records every 3 years, but who knows what will happen, man. Maybe it’ll take another 3 years to make a record, but … If our record comes out in June, and Nuclear Blast wants to try to get another record out within 2 years, that means we’ll probably have to start writing about a year from now and record. You have to follow the idea of a year. Who knows? Who knows what’s going to happen? We’re just stoked. We’re ready for our new album to come out, and we’re just ready to have fun, play shows. We’re just grateful that there’s people who want to see us play, and that’s pretty much it.
Just speaking of the writing really quick, ‘They Come Crawling Back’, which in my understanding is the longest song you’ve ever written at 8 minutes?
Yeah, that’s fair. Yeah, that’s our longest song.
That’s my favorite track off this new album. I thought it was killer.
Thanks, man. We’re going to have to play that song live because I’ve been getting so much feedback like that. We’re starting to play our songs live too much, but we’re going to have to rehearse it and get it together. I really like that song too. It’s just, it’s fucking long.
But it’s rewarding. It’s almost like for me it’s like when you listen to Godflesh and Neurosis, it’s like that crushing heavy sound.
Yeah, man. It’s like my favorite bands, and my language was referencing those 2 bands.
Great minds think alike, right?
That’s what’s up man.
INTERVIEW BY HANS LOPEZ
CONCERT PHOTOS BY EMMA PARSONS PHOTOGRAPHY
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From The Shadows – Rozamov
Boston’s sludge and doom metal merchants Rozamov are hitting the road next week with Moon Tooth on a tour that will take both bands through some new territories, surely making new fans. We caught up with the power trio recently to discuss the upcoming tour, the progress of their new album, their approach to songwriting, and that time when they saw Slayer warm up with a Journey cover:
Rozamov is hitting the road with Moon Tooth in June. What you most looking forward to for the tour?
Tom Corino: I’m most looking forward to getting to see a little bit of Canada and to play outside the country for the first time. I’ve wanted to get the band north of the border for a while, it feels great to be getting on the road again even for a short little run. It’s the first tour with Yianni so it’ll be a good way to see what it’s like to tour together with the new lineup too.
Matt Iacovelli Each tour has its own flavor and rhythm so it will be interesting to see how this group of people interact.
Yianni Tranxidis: For this short run, were most excited to visit Canada for the first time. This will be ours & Moon Tooth’s first Canada shows, so it’ll be an interesting experience to see how the shows will go.
After the tour, are you guys hitting the studio straight away, or are their more songs to write still for the new album? Can we expect the album in 2016, or next year?
Tom: We hit the studio last year and have the finished product ready to go. We recorded with Jon Taft at New Alliance East, which was a great experience. That studio is a great little room and Jon was great to bounce ideas off of. We’re working with a couple labels on different formats for release and we’re getting artwork and such together. It’s looking like an early 2017 release right now, we were hoping to get the record out this year but we didn’t want to rush anything considering how long vinyl turnaround can take these days. This way, everything will be out at the same time and no one will be left waiting around for vinyl to show up.
Matt: We are in the process of getting the artwork together.
Yianni: After this tour, we’re going to be writing more material, as well as finishing up the details for our upcoming album with Rozamov’s former drummer.
Matt: Hopefully it will see release early next year. We have some interested parties involved so things are looking good in that dept. I can’t give you any super specific details just yet.
The ‘Ghost Divine’ track from the split 7-inch with Deathkings was great, and seemed to mark a new direction for the band. Will hear more of that style?
Tom: ‘Ghost Divine’ is a lot faster than the material on the new record but the vibe from that song will certainly be present on the record. The new album is by far the heaviest collection of songs we’ve done to date, reflecting the 2014-2015 winter when a good chunk of the record was written. I know I certainly was not in a good place at that time, being buried under 110 inches of snow will do that, so it’s a pretty dark record.
Matt: Not as far as speed or delivery but maybe in feel and over all tone..Ghost Divine was a step apart from really anything we’ve done. In truth we were building a record around that very song, it got picked up by Ryan from Midnite Collective and the rest is history..but the new material is slower and more deliberate its a little more bleak, a little more doom that before.
Yianni: “Ghost Divine” was definitely a huge shift in sound for the band, as it incorporates a mixture of heavy, complex, and driving riffs, while still keeping the core of our Doom sound. A lot of dynamics, and rhythmic changes, which definitely pushed us to write something we haven’t written before. I believe that we’re a band that will always have something different to offer, so I wouldn’t be surprised if our future material will sound a lot like this, and pushing the boundaries even more.
What is the writing process like for the band? Is it a constant group effort, or do the individual members bring in their own material?
Tom: We usually write together in the practice space, it’s just the way Matt and I do best. Matt comes up with a good chunk of the original ideas for a riff and we’ll hash it out together in the space. Sometimes we bring in ideas that we’ve written on our own but a lot of those ideas either don’t fly or get dramatically changed in the room. Matt and I push each other to write stuff that’s interesting to the both of us and we can get pretty brutal on each other’s ideas. I think we both work best when we have someone to bounce ideas off of and to push someone in the right direction when they are onto something and struggling.
Matt: I think we just went for it and wrote 3 songs, as yet to be played live, they won’t see Canada this time. Every person has a personality so it will always change the vibe.
Yianni: In terms of the writing process, we all collaborate together. We’ll usually have one or two riffs that one of us have had, and bring them into the practice space, however we do a really good job at making fresh new riffs when we’re together. After that, we work on each segment, and figure out how we want to piece it all together. Being a new member, it’s always going to be interesting seeing how that will influence a band’s writing process, however when we work on riffs, we all talk about it together, and welcome ideas from all sides, so I’ve felt very welcome to bring my ideas to the tables.
You’ve had some turnover in the band the last few years, and now have a new drummer. With two longtime writing partners, how hard is it to incorporate a new person into the mix?
Tom: We try to always be writing. We were writing new material almost immediately after the recording sessions for the new record were over, before we had made the change behind the kit. Each change in the lineup has molded us and changed us as a band, and hopefully the same goes for those band mates. Yianni brings his own flavor to the band and allows us to try out ideas we’ve wanted to attempt but couldn’t before. We’re still getting used to him in a writing capacity so we’ll see where it ends up in the long run, but we’re just excited to bring a new outlook to the band.
Matt: It’s a constant group effort. I write a lot of the riffs but its a definite group deal. We are very serious about the sound and so we are brutal as fuck and… not every riff i write is good, honestly we kill more riffs than we keep.
The band has already shared the stage with some major acts and played a few large festivals. What is your favorite gig so far and the one gig to play or band in the world that is your dream to play with someday?
Tom: I’d say that my favorite show we’ve played so far was the Rubber Tracks gig with Slayer and Doomriders. I’ve been a fan of Slayer since I was in high school so to see those guys for the first time in a 500 cap room as the opening act was a dream come true. Playing with Doomriders was also absolutely great. Any day Nate Newton says your band was rad after your set is a good day in my book, and we’ve become friendly with those guys since.
Matt: Well Slayer and Pyscho (California) Fest were highlights for sure. Slayer had its own thing going, its own style and vibe. It was cool to see them sound check with some Journey….What?!
Yianni: Ever since I joined the band, we only played a couple of shows, however my favorite one was our show with Intronaut, Scale the Summit, and North, which was on March 30th at the Downstairs Middle East. That was a really fun time. I think the whole band would agree that sharing the stage with Mastodon would be a dream come true. We’re all very big fans of them, and highly influenced by their groundbreaking sound.
INTERVIEW BY KEITH CHACHKES
Mission Critical – Marco Minnemann
Marco Minnemann is a talented man comfortable wearing many hats. renowned for his drumming in many high-profile projects such as The Aristocrats, Steven Wilson, Joe Satriani, Levin/Minneman/Rudess (LMR), and countless others, Marco is one of the most respected musician in the world. His solo career has been equally fulfilling and affords him opportunities to be in total control of the creative process, playing all the instruments as well as handling production duties. His new album Celebration (Lazy Bones Recordings) has just been released, and we conducted a Q & A interview over email, to learn more about his creative process, how he deals with challenges in the studio, and the sound of the next album from The Aristocrats.
Celebration is a great title that conjures a lot to mind. What does the title mean to you and what creative frame of mind were you in when you began to write the album?
It started off as a writing process for an album with a fairly dark vibe around it, which I wanted to name ‘Above the Roses’. After re-listening I just didn’t feel that the album was complete the way it sounded like. So I kept writing songs and then basically made a selection of songs I thought would make a statement. And all of a sudden, voila. I had one album that I called ‘Celebration’, leading through aggressive, sparkling and into film music like vibes and missions. And then there’s the more vocal laden, dark song focused ‘Above The Roses’ I just finished now, it will come out as a special vinyl and download edition, but more of that later. ‘Celebration’ just got released and needs the attention now.
Since the topic is partially about Roses, in songs symbolically and in artwork, I thought that Celebration might be a good title.
Marco Minnemann, by Lasse Holie
The album is definitely diverse, but has some of your heaviest songs of your solo albums. Is that a by- product of some of your other bands you are in, rubbing off on your solo work?
That clearly would be a no, as I think that some of the material on Celebration is actually heavier than what we do with the bands I currently play in.
I mean, if we’re playing the category game, maybe then Joe Satriani could be Rock, Aristocrats instrumental Rock/Jazz, And Steven Wilson more well, prog and ambient pop/rock.
On my albums I just really compose for what is needed for ‘the mission’.
You have definitely “arrived” on Celebration as a vocalist and lyricist. Do you think this was an important step for you artistically?
Thank you. But if you look into my solo back catalogue that so far holds 14 albums, I wrote, played and sang as well. But thanks again for appreciating.
As you have become more hands on (creating, playing/tracking, producing/mixing/mastering) with each new project is it more troublesome to wear so many hats, or a relief to be able to oversee it all with confidence?
It’s great I think, because when you know exactly what you want and are able to translate it, instrumentally and production wise, then it’s a fairly seamless and rewarding process. See, my studio is pretty much dialed in to my needs. So once I have a sound in mind I really just record, then add tracks, basically mixing while doing this, and soon the ‘house’ comes together :-).And honestly, it’s so cool that meanwhile you can carry amazing production softwares in your note book. Then along with a few good audio interfaces and outboard recording gear, you can do deliver a great production, that would’ve costed a fortune about 20 years ago.
Is there a style of music you have yet to incorporate into your solo work, that you haven’t yet, but would like to try?
Hmm, I don’t really think that way. I really just do and play what I feel fits the vibe of the composition.
On Celebration, is there a single performance you can name as most gratifying to you?
Hahaha, well, I was doubling my vocals to that guitar solo I recorded on ‘How Can I Help You?’ And I’m not really a trained singer, so fuck, I was punching in numerous times in order to nail that thing. And then later I listened back and couldn’t help laughing, because it came out quite cool, and I wasn’t sure if I could pull it off at first :-). Also, I’m quite happy on how the vibe in ‘4000’ succeeded. I used the chains at the port in Marseille, sampled them and then put them in to additional reverb, undermining the vibe of these fairly ‘evil’ and dark vibes and chords in that song. I wanted to create a haunted environment. And that one came out quite intense I think, as I wanted to achieve it..
You have an intense touring schedule this year with all of your many projects. How do you keep your sanity on the road?
Girls :-). hahaha. What can I say…. well, seriously, with a good and professional organization you learn to feel at home on the road. Good and comfortable travels and schedules are important.
What can you tell us about the upcoming new album from The Aristocrats?
It’s pretty much contains compositions more focused on song structures, rather than soloing, well, hat happens of course too in places, hahaha. But Tres Caballeros is a tad different once again from the last album. Actually, the difference is that this time we have a Spanish album title and wore hats in the desert :-)).
Necrophagist is like the Loch Ness Monster of metal! Do you ever have contact with Muhammed (Suiçmez)? Do you think we will ever hear from that band again, or any other project from Muhammed and yourself?
Well, can’t say too much there. Necrophagist is Muhammed’s project/band, he’s a fiend of mine. But the rest about any release can only be assumed. And I have a lot of things going on myself here, that occupy all of this and next year as well, which is a good problem to have I think 🙂
KEITH CHACHKES
Finland Rocks! Amorphis New Album Update
Amorphis, photo by Ville Juurikkala
Amorphis will be releasing a brand new album soon from Nuclear Blast, which certainly had most fans I spoke to at Maryland Deathfest excited. Jan Rechberger has high hopes for the album and gave us a progress report of sorts and what to expect.
“It’s going good! I’m really happy with the results so far. I believe we are in the mixing stage at the moment. Some instruments are still being recorded and there is some background vocals to record next week, but I think the mixing has started. It should be ready in a couple of weeks. It’s going to be heavier than the previous stuff. More aggressive and more epic in every way I can possibly imagine. Lots of orchestration and female vocals, lot of grunt vocals, clean vocals, and pretty much every element our band is known for. I think it’s coming out in September.”
There have been quite a large list of notable bands to come from Finland, a country seemingly acting as a well oiled machine, consistently pumping out great metal music. There had to be some reason behind why Finland has become a farm of sorts cultivating band after band, all just as exciting as the next. The answer I received had both myself and Mr. Rechberger laughing but was quite insightful.
“There’s only one answer and it’s a bit cliché but it is dark and cold and depressing all the time and we have nothing else to do but fucking play metal. Its hard to say, before when we started, there were no metal bands being known outside of Finland, mainly just some underground metal bands. I really don’t know the reason besides the depressiveness and darkness but also the level of education in music is really high in Finland we have really good schools for musicians. Lots of professional musicians in Finland with good teaching going on. I guess of late more and more of these bands are making it so others believe they can make it so they keep playing metal and keep coming. I get this question a lot but really didn’t think about it like that before. I guess it’s the same in Sweden as there’s lots of Swedish bands also. So maybe the environment and circumstances of Scandinavia drives people to make metal I guess.”
Amorphis, by Hillarie Jason PhotographyWith all of these bands coming out of Finland, both metal and non-metal, Jan was able to speak on some of the local music he enjoyed, but like many, cannot seem to keep track of all of it.
“Yeah there’s a lot of rock and pop acts and Finnish hip hop. I don’t really listen to them really, nothing against them though! But I don’t really listen to Finnish bands that much. There’s a lot of metal bands really good ones and lots of good rock and classic bands from the 70s and 90s. Mostly the 70s progressive style of bands, bands that you probably don’t know really that I was into back when making Tales. But there’s so many rock bands in Finland I lost track years ago.”
Amorphis may be busy writing a new album, going out on tour, and playing the festival circuits, but there is always something to do on the down side. Jan actually keeps himself quite busy between his studio and being a father.
“My studio at home keeps me busy. I record some bands, mostly electronic music. I also have a family with two kids (aged ten and seven). Basically touring and making music takes up most of my time anyways. I do like to play football though.”
TIM LEDIN