All Bands
Midnight Realm Interview “The new album is going to be called ’The Rebuild’.”
I must say the word “faithful” exists for the amazing 6 pieces band from UK. I was curious about their thoughts for the beautiful EP “Polarissima” and the upcoming full-length and they gave those incredible answers one by one to my questions.
First of all, I would love to ask you about the brilliant EP Polarissima. Together with the artwork of the EP, the name “Polarissima” reminds me naturally to the spiral galaxy “Polarissima Borealis (NGC3172)”. What is the meaning of Polarissima for the band?
Liam: The name “Polarissima” was already established when I joined the band, so I had no part of choosing it for the EP. Still, my first impression on the name was that it commanded power. I love astronomy too, so there was a bonus!
Dan: I began writing the EP with our previous keyboard player Alan Woodham. We wanted to create a concept of a world like ours, but make it just that little bit different so we could add that aspect of fantasy in there. I used to read a lot of papers on astronomy when I was back in college and the name Polarissima kept cropping up. I thought it would be an excellent place to stage the storyline that the EP tells.
As I mentioned above, the beautiful artwork of the EP also gives me some imagination of the cosmos. Whose idea was it?
Dan: That was my idea again! Haha. Space and planets have always been big inspiration of mine and to incorporate those images into the music just seemed natural for me. As we have progressed though we’re moving away from the whole ‘solar’ theme and actually getting into the storyline. Our concept imagery is now based more on the world after the destruction and the rebuilding of civilization. Dystopian society is a really powerful image and something that we’ve been using a lot in the writing process for the new album.
Liam: Yeah, it was a good call – like I said, I love anything to do with astronomy so it was a huge inspiration, particularly when Dan and I were writing the lyrics to the songs. Writing in line with such a concept has been fantastic.
Ste: We initially thought of Colin Marks (www.rain-song.co.uk) to do the artwork as we had seen a lot of his album art for bands like Scar Symmetry, Xerath and Nevermore and we really liked his whole style and vision. We think he really captured what we were trying to say perfectly.
Every song in the EP sounds very atmospheric, progressive, aggressive and melodic, and the lyrics includes some huge themes about the human race. They are not of a personal nature, right? Can you describe the songs one by one?
Ste: Think I will leave this up to Liam and Dan as they did most of the song writing etc for the EP!
Dan: The lyrics to the songs aren’t personal in any way really. The EP tells the story of a moon that is heading toward the planet, and a girl who keeps seeing visions of the world’s demise. The whole thing is about her coming to terms with the oncoming extinction of her race and reflecting on what impact her species has left on the planet. I suppose it can mirror is some ways conceptually what we are doing to our own planet, but hopefully our moon wont be falling on us any time soon!
Liam: To me, they’re only personal in terms of encapsulating some views that I hold on us as humans; both as animals and as members of society.
For example, Abstract Connections talks about how our way of life is taken for granted and how our earth is exploited in order to quell our greed, impatience and materialistic “needs”… not to sound like a tree hugger or anything, you wouldn’t catch me dead in a Prius! For me, its just about being aware.
John: Polarissima is a very natural intro. We needed something that started small and built to a huge crescendo to set up the album. It’s very filmic, and flows straight into Abstract Connections
Abstract Connections has very strong guitar leads, so they keyboards needed to sit behind that but still give it the atmosphere set up by Polarissima. The sustained strings that build up from the bridge into the chorus allowed that to happen.
Liam: Solaris is about living in a world that’s gone to shit… whether it was our doing or not, we’ve paid the ultimate price and the world (and us) is on the cusp of extinction. The end chorus however suggests a glimmer of hope that we may turn the tables if we are willing to change. Will we? Who knows?
John: Solaris was actually the last song we wrote for the E.P. It has a rather staccato feel in the guitar line, so when writing the keyboard parts, it was clear that it needed a strong backing line. The huge orchestration of the previous tracks needed to continue, so we took the opportunity to write a segue between the intro and first verse and the outro, which features harp, strings, piano, choir, French horn and a bassoon.
Liam: Enlightenment is always associated with positivity, but Mystic Revelations is about the sudden realisation of bad things to come and the desperate struggle to find a solution. The verses speak of a struggle to come to terms with what appears to be inevitable, while the chorus shows a cry for help – a need for all of these events to get turned around.
John: The song features a choir and harp as its main orchestration. The title already sounded very ethereal, so the backing needed to be very choral, with strings giving it some depth. The harp lead also accents the entire song, playing melodies over and with the guitar.
Liam: Requiem is all about renewal. For me it’s very much a positive song, despite the current concept allowing plenty of room for depression and gloom. Rising through the ashes of the planet we once had and still holding bold aspirations of success and positivity? Hell, its smiles all round!
John: Requiem was the song that changed the least (keyboard wise) from its inception to its recording. It’s the most progressive song on the record, but it also has a very thrashy feel to the verses. It also features two smooth synth leads, giving it a very Soilwork-esque sound. The song finishes with the synth lead, which I think hints nicely at the change of the world in the album, from its heavily orchestrated introduction to its thin electronic outro.
I’m also paying attention to the band’s name. I mean “Midnight Realm” sounds very mystic for me. Do you have any point with the name? Who gave the bands its name?
James: When I joined the band "Midnight Realm" was already its designated title, as it started off as Daniel’s project. I think each one of us perhaps has a different view on the meaning behind the name. I believe it to be a description for what the EP collectively stands for. When the world has wasted away we enter a realm of darkness.
Dan: I took the name from a project our old keys player Alan started. We thought it sounded different to what everyone else was calling their bands at the time and we have never looked back! I’ve been writing under the name Midnight Realm for about 4 years now, but as a complete band we have only really been together the past year or so.
The official music video “Solaris” is totally impressive, especially for your fans in the world who have never seen the band at gigs (like me). You succeeded to express the Universe of the Polarissima with the dismal location and the white dressed girl. Can you tell me any episode of making the video - behind the scene?
Liam: FATIGUE! Never had such a bangover in my life, it took about three days for my spine to return to normal! I can’t think of anything gossipy to share, but it was the first time I’d ever been with the guys in such a serious “we’ve got a job to do” situation. I believe that we were 100% efficient and that as a group, we could tackle different, more challenging scenarios – such as naked car washes, ABBA themed weddings and politics.
Dan: The music video was shot by Richard Slater, a friend of mine at an abandoned industrial works in Hartlepool, about an hour from where we live. We shot the video on two separate days.
John: We wanted to replicate the artwork, but on a tight budget creating an apocalyptic wasteland is rather difficult. The first weekend we travelled down to film all the scenes in which our friend Alex, playing the girl from the cover of the album, was walking around trying to make sense of the world.
Dan: when it came to shooting the band live they had fenced off the whole industrial estate and told us we couldn’t record on the land. It was a bit of a nightmare but we found a location nearby and finished the video there. I think Richard did a really good job of making it look like the actress was the last girl alive, and we are going to be using him again for our next music video!
Ste: The only downside was that in getting up at 5am in the morning to prepare for it, the last thing I thought about was sun cream as I was just praying it wasn’t going to rain (it is England after all) – so by the time we finished up I suddenly realized that I was burnt to a crisp….
James: The wind made it seem like we were cold but we were actually slowly sizzling in the sun after every take. Stephen and myself were both totally burned by the end of the day, if I remember rightly you looked like a beetroot by the time we had finished shooting, isn’t that right Steve?..
Ste: SHUT IT!!!! Next question!?
By the way, you guys replaced the permanent drummer already, right? Can you tell me the history of the band? Please introduce current members.
Liam: Yeah we got a new drummer! He’s not bad, not bad at all!
Dan: Steve Cross our last drummer was working with us on a session basis till we found someone closer to home. He lives about 4 hours away from where we practise and getting up to us on a regular basis was becoming really difficult; so we felt it best to start looking for someone full time in Newcastle. Patrick got in touch with us shortly after we posted up an advertisement for a new drummer and we’ve just clicked. Learning the drum parts played by Alex Rudinger (the drummer who played on our EP) is no easy feat but Paddy has done an excellent job, and our new material is sounding even better!
Ste: We have been through a lot of members in the past for various different reasons, either musical incompatibility or people just generally not fitting into the fold as well as we hoped. The line up as it is now will be the one we push forward with and we are all very happy with the way things are. Patrick has filled that space we were looking for and things are going really well with him.
Patrick: Having drummed for a couple of local acts around Newcastle I was on the look out for something a bit more serious to focus on. By chance I saw that Midnight Realm were after a new drummer and felt the songs were suitably challenging enough to excite me and I already vaguely knew John so I sent him a message. The ball just started rolling from there and I'm looking forward to the future of Midnight Realm.
James: Our line-up is now: Liam Posselwhite on vocals, Daniel Russell and Stephen Traut on guitars, myself (James Carter) on bass, John Dalziel on keyboards and Patrick Deans on drums.
Dan: Alan Woodham our old keys player is always helping in the background too with the orchestra. He’s very much our ‘man behind the scenes’!
I’m already eager for your first full-length CD. Do you have any specific plan for it at the moment?
Liam: METAL! SO MUCH METAL! But not too much… just the right amount.
Ste: The plan for the moment is just to crack on with the writing and recording of the new album. We are already well under way with a good 5-8 tracks nearing completion. We don’t want to jinx anything but we are hoping to have it released some time in the first half of 2013.
James: The new album is going to be called “The Rebuild”. We'll have some sneaky surprises and previews for you all near the winter months. Until then I’ll just say it’s going to be heavier, it’s going to be faster and your going to love it!
John: It’s going to be huge- imagine the E.P with more orchestra and more groove.
Dan: Conceptually the album begins in the aftermath of the EP. The world has all but been destroyed by the impact of the planet and civilization is living in a dystopian chaos. The album follows the rise and fall of ‘The Architect’, a man who has a utopian vision and will stop at nothing to make it happen.
Patrick: We have just about enough material to make a full length now it's just a case of putting the songs together into a coherent order. My main goal is to incorporate as much cowbell into the songs as possible.
Well, Polarissima is also available at famous Japanese CD stores called “disk union” and “Amazon Japan”. I got some positive feedbacks from the people who checked it out already. How do you feel about it? Do you have any message to Japanese metalheads?
Liam: I honestly can’t tell you what that means to have fans that are so far afield! It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling in my….
Dan: Now now Liam! It really is an overwhelming feeling to know that people all over the world listen to and support your music. We honestly can’t thank you all enough, and we WILL be over to play to you. We will find a way!
Ste: We are all so happy that the Japanese people have had the chance to listen to the music through you Kumi. We love you for what you do and your passion for metal! – It’s inspiring!
James: I still cant get my head around it, we have fans so far spread over the globe. It’s incredible. I just want to thank every one of you who has supported us!
Patrick: I had no idea it was on Amazon, that's awesome! Can't wait to play in Japan hopefully someday soon.
John: We’re so glad that people enjoy the CD, I never imagined that it would make it all the way to Japan! Thank you to everyone who has bought it, and has spread the word about Midnight Realm. Don’t forget to stop by our facebook and say hi!
Midnight Realm on Facebook: www.facebook.com/midnightrealmband
Midnight Realm on Facebook: www.midnight-realm.com
Midnight Realm Official Online Store: midnightrealmstore.bigcartel.com
Midnight Realm Official Music Video “Solaris”
The Last Hangmen – “We need your help for making 500 copies of the upcoming album!”
As a pure metal supporter, I would love to post this blog. Just a short note to let you know that you can visit the link below or check the ad on the right and donate to The Last Hangmen for making the production of their second album possible:
It seems to me that their new challenge is absolutely pertinent: They are trying to avoid exploiters in the music industry and believe their fans only!
As you know, nowadays many metal bands are struggling with the awful situation of how to produce their own music or simply finance their band because of less income through exploiters like labels or some brokers as well as illegal downloads and piracy. So, I’m happy to know that one of my favorite Melodic Death metal bands The Last Hangmen didn’t give up in their tough situation and decided to believe PURE Hangmen FANS only.
If you want to get a copy of their second album "Executing Empires" and listen to it when they finished it with your financial help, please visit the site https://www.startnext.de/en/thelasthangmen and show your passion. It doesn’t matter how much you’ll donate, it all adds up. So, don’t be shy! Love and support the kick-ass melodic death force!
I’m already eager and hyper for their upcoming new album and I’m sure they will rock the world again very soon!
The Last Hangmen on Facebook: www.facebook.com/thelasthangmen
The last Hangmen: Studio Report # 2 - The Drums, Bitches
The last Hangmen Live @ SachsenRockt 2010 - LittleEase
PARASITE INC. interview about the upcoming new album!!!
Well, I know you guys are just working hard for the upcoming album. How is the recording process going?
Kai: Hey Kumi, thanks for asking. Yeah, recording time is always quite a tough time, but so far everything worked well. The mountain of tasks is shrinking slowly but constantly. The guitars have been done already, drum tracks as well and most of the bass parts too. At the moment we are working on the vocals, keyboard and effects stuff and after that we will have to work on the album cover, the new website and stuff like that.
Benni: Well, Kai summed it up pretty well. I just can say that he is spending an incredible amount of time on the new album. You know, he is quite the perfectionist. But I totally agree on that. I mean, this will be our first album released by a label!
Can you tell me any details about the new album?
Kai: Sure. After we signed with our label GoodDamn Records we wanted to release the new album as fast as possible, but we soon realized two problems: first of all we weren’t able to write about 10 to 12 new songs in such a short period of time. Well, writing so many songs maybe wouldn’t have been a problem, but writing so many really good songs which also would have fit and felt like Parasite Inc., that was the problem!
We also felt that we were not completely done with the existing songs yet and that they simply don’t have the sound they deserve. That was the second issue that bothered us and that’s why we decided to re-record all the existing songs again and get the best out of them this time.
Benni: Yes, you know, we played the old songs live for quite a while now and constantly improved subtle things. And after Kevin joined the band his playing style and especially his tightness added even more character to the songs especially to the rhythm parts. That’s another point why we finally decided to re-record the old songs, too.
I should also add that we were on a very tight budget with the last album. We didn’t have much money to spend on the recording and mixing process. Hendrik did a good job with first album given this tight budget. But we feel that with the better equipment and the experience we have now, we get much closer to the Parasite Inc. sound we have in mind and want the album to sound like this time.
Kai: Yeah! Anyway, back to the album details: the album is called “Back For War”. I think the name fits pretty well because of two reasons: in the last years we struggled a lot to keep the band running. Changes in the line-up as well as personal throwbacks made it sometimes very difficult to bring the band forward. But well, the band still exists, we’ve got some kickass new songs and last but not least we have a label now and we are ready for our first official release! And here is the preliminary track list for you:
1. Intro
2. Back For War
3. Time Tears Down
4. Chaos Inside
5. Function Or Perish
6. Armageddon in 16 to 9
7. Pulse Of The Dead
8. The Scapegoat
9. In The Dark
10. Unmeant Outcasts
11. Hatefilled
12. End Of Illusions
Kai: Oh and we have planned some surprises as well but obviously I can’t tell you more about it right now, wouldn’t be much of a surprise otherwise wouldn’t it?
Wow, cool. As far as I saw the list, there’s four new songs plus the new intro, right? You mean, the new material has the same atmosphere as the rest of the songs in the list?
Kai: Well, I feel the new tracks have a darker and more aggressive atmosphere but without losing the focus on melodies. It’s more directly into the face. Anyway I am not sure if someone who doesn’t know the old songs would hear a big difference…
Benni: …since the new ones still sound typically Parasite Inc.
I’m curious about the sound of the production. Do you think the new album will be more killer-sounding than the first release - “Parasite Inc.”?
Kai: Let me see… damn yes! When we worked on the pre-production of the new songs we also tried some of the old songs with the new sound and I can tell you that even the sound of the pre-production already was SO MUCH better hahaha.
Benni: Yeah, I definitely agree here. I think Kai especially nailed the guitar sound this time! I can’t wait to hear the final master when everything is ready! Oh by the way, that’s something we are looking into right now: since we are doing the whole recording and mixing ourselves this time, we definitely want a fresh pair of ears for the mastering process!
Kai: I've already bought a soap for your ears hahahaha :D
Hahaha. As you mentioned above , Hendrik (metalmixer.de) is an awesome sound producer and actually I don’t have any unsatisfied feelings with your first product “Parasite Inc.” but you guys are trying to aim more higher class, I’m happy to hear that :) Do you feel any pressure with it?
Kai: I am not sure if I would call it pressure, maybe rather a natural development that every band has: You try, you do, you learn, you grow. With the old recordings I would say it’s a feeling like “Okay it, was the best that was possible at that time and now we give our best again and bring it to our new limit”. We just do what we did from the very beginning: Just put all our passion into the music and try to make it as good as possible until we are satisfied with it.
Benni: Yes, definitely. You know, for us the sound of the recording is very important to make the songs sound and feel like Parasite Inc. It’s a not easy to explain, but even in the pre-production we work with sound as a big part of the songs. That’s why the pre-production almost sound the same as the final recording, just a bit more sloppily played. I think you’ll understand it best with this example: take Hatebreeder by Children of Bodom. By today’s production standards it’s not a very good production: it has relatively thin guitars and thin drums, still in my opinion it’s exactly how it should sound like. I think with this typical modern metal sound the songs on this album would lose a lot of their feeling. Well and whenever I listen to Hatebreeder I get a certain COB feeling. You know, what we try to archive is a certain Parasite Inc. feeling whenever you listen to our songs and of course whenever we are listening to them, too. And for us it’s simply not quite there with the old recording.
This is the first recording with Kevin. Is everything good with him?
Kevin: Well he is the best guitarist in the world and got the biggest balls =D
Kai: Haha. Kevin is such a modest guy as you can see, that’s what we all like about him. Yes, everything is great! We just got a new medicine from our psychotherapist that helps us bear with him :P. But seriously again, the recording with him was relaxed. He is a great and involved guitarist with great ideas and I often was amazed how exact his playing is.
Benni: Yes, definitely. As I already mentioned, his way of playing the old song was one of the reasons we wanted to record them again. He fits Parasite Inc. perfectly and we are all happy to have him in the band. On the other hand, maybe it’s just the medicine Kai mentioned ;)
This time, the album will be released by GoodDamn Records as you mentioned above. How do you feel about it? What will change with it?
Kai: Oh, I would say we still feel good with our decision. Jürgen (the founder of GoodDamn Records) is a very nice guy and we really want to thank him for his patience with the album recording so far! Actually we were supposed to have the album finished by March, but well, the delay will be really worth it you’ll see.
Okay, you mean, we don’t need to wait such a long time for listening to your new album Back For War anymore? :)
Kai: There is still much to do but we’ll work hard on it in every free minute and we don’t call our album “Time” ;). So I am sure we will be back for war very soon.
Benni: Haha, I think it’s save to promise it will be released before the new Wintersun album and definitely before the next Guns and Roses album!
Hahaha, as long as you cite Wintersun as an example, I can never feel relieved about the release date, haha. *joking* Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you guys!
Parasite Inc. official web site: www.parasiteinc.de
Parasite Inc. Facebook: www.facebook.com/ParasiteInc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOw2A3NznwU
ALL WILL KNOW interview about “Contact.”, about the band – pt.2
If you didn’t read the interview pt.1 yet, check it out: ALL WILL KNOW interview pt.1
Could you explain about all songs from “Contact.” one by one shortly?
Jan: Ok, so let’s start with “The Weakest Spot”, our album-opener. It’s funny because this song originally was written on a nylon guitar, guess that’s hard to imagine ;) While arranging the song two aspects went different as usual: Felix composed guitars in the verse and I did the keyboards for the pre-chorus.
“Static” was written by Danny and a friend of him and is one of the ‘We Are Guilty’ songs which Steve and Danny wanted to play with ALL WILL KNOW too. Steve wrote the lyrics with a nice recitative in the bridge of the song.
“Static” has been a feature on a few sampler-CDs here in Germany and even on the compilation of Germany’s “Legacy” and “Orkus” print-magazines.
“Feeding The Aftermath” starts with a nice idea from the rhythm section before Mo starts singing in a Symphony X-like style. That was the last song to be finished during our recordings and is one of the songs Steve and Mo wrote the lyrics together. The bridge is maybe one of the parts most people would call progressive.
“The Rise And Fall Of…” is the orchestral introduction, made by Felix, to “A Dying Heart” which was written by me. That song will also be featured on our label’s Deafground Records-Sampler “Brutal Visions Vol. 1” which will be released at the end of May. Did you notice that nice siren-part before the last chorus starts?
As I said before “How Far Would You Go” is a very personal song composed by Felix. Mo did the lyrics and describes the darker times of a relationship. That song has been released as a digital single some weeks before our album via Noizgate Records.
For “Mental Takedown” we invited our good friend Jagger of DISBELIEF to sing a duo with Steve. Mo has a break and so I think this is the heaviest song of ‘contact.’ for which again Steve wrote the lyrics.
“Counting Stars” is one of my songs with a strong hook-line and a quite progressive verse. Mo did a nice sing-along-chorus and you’ll hear a very nice melody in the guitar solo. This is one of the more groovy songs which make people banging their heads in live-situations.
Last but not least “Devolution” is one of Danny’s songs with another guest-singer: Frank Nordmann, the longtime Agathodaimon singer. This time it’s all three singers contributing their parts and therefore maybe it’s one of the most versatile songs on the album.
Did you get any positive feedback from listeners about the album already?
Jan: Oh yes, we received quite a lot reviews from many magazines and different countries. Most of them were very enthusiastic about our debut and the three big print-magazines in Germany, “MetalHammer”, “RockHard” and “Legacy”, gave us good grades! Of course there are always some mags who didn’t like what they heard but that were not many - and after all it’s a matter of taste of course. In our concerts we nearly always get positive feedback and people say they enjoyed the show very much, as well as discovering the band.
Please tell me about your plan for this year as much as possible.
Jan: Well, at the moment we’re right in the middle of our release-tour. Currently sitting in the tour-bus heading for our concert in Saarbrücken. There are four concerts left of the tour which ends on the 11th of May with our release-party in Darmstadt. Our good friends from Soulbound are with us that evening, as well as in Würzburg and Bielefeld during the next weeks and we think this will be a very cool evening!
After the tour we have some concerts confirmed too and our fans will also see us Open Air on some festivals, for example the Trebur Open Air at the beginning of August. Please check our homepage www.allwillknow.de or facebook www.facebook.com/ALLWILLKNOW for the exact dates and more information ;)
“Contact.” will be at metal CD stores (disk union) and Amazon in Japan very soon. I’m sure it will be some day before the release day of this interview on my blog sites. How do you feel about it? Do you have any messages to Japanese metalheads?
Jan: It’s great that our CD is available in Japan, THANKS A LOT to you, Kumi!! We hope to see you and the Japanese metalheads someday and will be able to play a concert in front of you! Til then we say thanks to all the fans of our music and everyone who supports us! Horns up!!!
Thank you so much guys! We love All Will Know! - Kumi666
ALL WILL KNOW first album >>Contact.<< teaser
ALL WILL KNOW music video The Weakest Spot
ALL WILL KNOW interview about “Contact.”, about the band – pt.1
Hi! I’m happy to have an interview with All Will Know, thank you!
Jan: Thanks, the pleasure is ours ;)
Well, I’m kinda extreme metal fan, so, after licking some music teaser of yours when I knew the band, I thought your music is a bit softer than my favorite type but actually I’m totally into the album “Contact.” since I played it at the first time! That’s brilliant and addicting! So, I’m feeling your music is very unique with the combination between much aggressive elements and extremely melodic parts. How do you describe about your music?
Jan: First of all, thanks for the interview and your kind words! I think our music is a mix from all metal styles, mostly containing Melodic Death Metal and Metalcore elements.
Your musical history fascinates me so much. For example, Agathodaimon are well-known even in Japan. Why did you guys start the new band? Could you introduce each member to us?
Jan: When Felix and I left Agathodaimon in 2010 both of us had written a lot of songs which should be released on the next Agathodaimon album. We thought it would be a pity if that stuff wouldn’t be released. So we started searching for musicians to create a new band. That went really fast because we knew most of the guys for a very long time and had some other projects with them. When Steve and Danny joined us and finally ‘We Are Guilty’ fused with us we were complete and could start working as a whole-piece.
To introduce the members let’s start with Sebastian our drummer and live-motor. Then there’s Ivi on bass keeping a solid fundament of our sound. Felix is doing the keyboards and sound-designs, Danny and I are playing guitars. The clean vocals are handled by Mo and Steve is doing the shouts and some harsher clean vox too.
I really like Steve’s dynamic shout vox, and of course Mo has a wonderful clean voice, but I couldn’t imagine well that kinda diametrical two vocals could grows into one very well like that ‘til I knew the band. Do you feel any difficulty for making those different vocals as a perfectly united one?
Jan: Thanks for the kind words (: Yes, Steve and Mo spend some time to complement one another in that way you hear now on CD. Now, after 30-40 concerts, they even live goad each other very good and are often called something like Laurel and Hardy in the band ;)
My favorite songs in the album “Contact.” are “Static”, “Mental Takedown” and “Devolution”. Which song do you like best? I would like to hear about it from each member of the band and the reason why.
Jan: Ah, I see, as you said you’re more into the extremer kind of songs and therefore I think you like our guest-singers on “Mental Takedown” and “Devolution” too. On “Mental Takedown” that’s Jagger from DISBELIEF and on “Devolution” it’s Frank, the former Agathodaimon-singer. Well, I think everybody has his own personal song. For Mo it’s “The Weakest Spot”, our album-opener. Steve would say “Static”. I'm very addicted to “A Dying Heart” and Danny likes “Mental Takedown” most. Felix has a very personal story about “How Far Would You Go” and the rhythm section of the band of course likes groovy songs like “Feeding The Aftermath” (Ivi) and “Counting Stars” (Sebastian).
Why did you name the album “Contact.”? Do you have any concept or theme for the album?
Jan: As I said before the founding of the band went quite fast and shortly after we found ourselves in the studio to record our first album. So the name occurred in our minds as it describes our personal contact as seven individuals as well as the first contact with the public. In ‘contact.’ we have no concept which connects every song of the album for example in the lyrics. But that may be a nice idea for our next releases. In musical ways our only maxim was to keep it very variable, we didn’t want to focus on a special style of (metal) music.
to be continued…
ALL WILL KNOW - The Weakest Spot from the kick-ass album Contact.
ALL WILL KNOW Official Web Site: www.allwillknow.de
ALL WILL KNOW on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ALLWILLKNOW
GERMAN EXTREME METAL Live at B-hof Würzburg
On 14th April 2012, finally this amazing show German Extreme Metal (organized by Hakan Gülsem) came true! It means those four kick-ass band – PARASITE INC., BLEEDING RED, ALL WILL KNOW and SOULBUND from my support bands shared the same stage at that night! Kai from one of those awesome bands PARASITE INC. showed me how it was… Thank you so much Kai for your efforts! So, here we go!
Well, how can I start now? We (PARASITE INC.) were looking much forward to that gig in several ways. First it was a honor for us to play in Würzburg with some bands we really like and listen to and that are also supported by you. Personally I was eager to see SOULBOUND and ALL WILL KNOW live and to share the stage with BLEEDING RED again after a long time.
Okay, we reached early at the venue (a really cool youth centre by the way) and first we met there was Johnny (SOULBOUND). First words of him were some greetings from Hendrik (SYRANIC) kinda like “you fuckers still haven’t sent your CD to me”. Hendrik I am sorry and hope it reached you meanwhile :).
After having a look at the venue and saying hello to some guys from the bands I wanted to hang out in a castle park near the venue but didn’t recognize the closing times. So, once I wanted to get back to the venue I was imprisoned there and couldn’t get out anymore… Uh-oh, I was in trouble, haha. Luckily a guy found me and opened the gate for me again, so I was back right in time for the show of SOULBOUND.
What can I say about SOULBOUND on stage? Beside that they are really friendly and relaxed guys(like all other people at this evening btw.) their show looked totally professional and motivating. Oh, and the songs are punching much more than on CD! Only problem for me, the show was too short ;).
SOULBOUND
Actually I feel sorry that I can’t say much about ALL WILL KNOW. I only was able to listen to the first 2 songs with a great show but I had to prepare for the gig behind the stage and couldn’t recognize much of them. Too bad coz I really like their songs and I hope I can see them once again with their complete line up.
Note: For some reason, Mo(on clean vocals) couldn’t join the show at that night.
ALL WILL KNOW
Well, how can I say about our gig? It’s always hard to describe a gig of yourself coz you don’t see it like the audience sees it, of course. So I only can speak about my personal impression and for me it felt rather as a messed up one… Kevin used my wireless transmitter and already after the intro he started losing it over again. (Dude, you jump too much hahaha ;) ). I remember Benni also dropped his sticks and personally I felt like cursed with the show: First I got electric shocks from the microphone over again, then I dropped my guitar pick over again during the songs, got nervous and messed up with playing. That never happened to me before lol. What a mess. Remember: Pick holder have their sense. However I hope the people could enjoy it anyway a bit :)
PARASITE INC.
I was relaxing then with another great show of BLEEDING RED. There’s nothing more to say about it: Great is just great! And it was really cool to share the stage again after years now :)
BLEEDING RED
After the end of the show we joined the organizer with the other bands to a metal club not far from the venue and hung out there for a while with talking, drinking relaxing and playing table football. @SOULBOUND: You have to practice ‘til our next meeting to beat Sammy ;)
All in all it was a great evening with great people and I think I can speak also for the rest of the band if I say: Thanks to you all for the awesome time and we are looking forward to see you again. Also thanks so much to Hakan for the great organization.
Stay Heavy \m/
The blast photo of guys from SOULBOUND, BLEEDING RED, PARASITE INC. and ALL WILL KNOW! (Unfortunately, Mo and Danny from ALL WILL KNOW couldn’t join in the photo. But all you guys are always on my mind!)
The comment from SOULBOUND about this photo:
At this point greetings and thanks to Hakan and Kumi (Japan) for their energetic support of that quadripartite team. (Kumi, thanks a lot for all your effort and for all your support during the last years for all of us! - this show was for you!)
PS: As you maybe know we are still recording our album and I can tell you that the guitars are almost done now as well as many parts of the drums. We start with bass and vocal recordings soon then, so be prepared for the upcoming weeks with some news about it.
Thank you so much all guys from PARASITE INC, BLEEDING RED, ALL WILL KNOW and SOULBOUND. I really love you all! You guys rules! Kumi666
Check out the bands official facebook pages:
www.facebook.com/Bleedingred
www.facebook.com/ParasiteInc
www.facebook.com/ALLWILLKNOW
www.facebook.com/MusicSoulbound
BLEEDING RED – Timo interview at Rock It on March 24th part.II
If you didn’t read the interview part I, check this out first: BLEEDING RED – Timo interview at Rock It on March 24th part.I
The original German interview is on Metalnews.de. Thank you so much again to Sammy for sharing it!
Sammy: As someone reads your lyrics there can be recognized: You are a band that takes care of the content. What’s going on inside you when you write that lyrics? What do you want to achieve with it?
Timo: From the beginning it was clear for me: I don’t want to write scrap lyrics. I want to produce something awesome and attach great importance to a sense into lyrics. And then people come to speak about it automatically. It shall be a cause to start thinking for the one who listen to it. I never want to instruct someone. It shall raise questions.
Timo: We can chose “thoughtcrime” for example: “thoughtcrime” is a term that was characterized in George Orwells roman “1984”. But for me it is a term that is up to date today. It can happen that you are out of the game If you think about or speak out something. Also as a band. Personally I admit myself “thoughtcrime”: I scrutinize things that are tabu.
If I would speak it out honestly the newspaper would say “what a wicked band”. For myself it’s a “thoughtcrime” to scrutinize what is not allowed to be scrutinized in the society. If 95% or 99% don’t scrutinize things because they are tabu then I think: There has to be something behind it and something is going wrong. Therefore a “thoughtcrime” is really important for me, coz I love to commit thoughtcrimes and I am proud of it. I only can advise: Do a “thoughtcrime”. Screen a tabu theme. It’s fun and enhance your horizon.
Sammy: Meanwhile you have gone a bit further than the average underground band. What do you think is your secret of success.
Timo: Yesterday I have discussed with a friend about it. We are doing it, because we want to do it but even we are doing it really good, it could be that everything breaks down and nobody wants to listen to it. I think right now we hit the pulse of time somewhere. With the lyrics, with the music. But that’s not all. We have Flori our 5th man that is standing behind us. He is doing the promotion work with his full heart and soul. Then we find an awesome artwork and thereto a really awesome layout. It are always people that love to do it and have fun with it. There’s nobody that earns much for it.
Or our buddy Hirschi from the MetalManiacs Ebnat: He is doing the homepage and likes to do it for us and with us. I think that’s what we are living of: The people around us. Just Metal: We like to make Metal and the people around us like to do something for metal… and then it runs and something awesome is rising.
All live pictures by Jürgen Ilg
Sammy: Thank you for the interview. The last word belongs to you…
Timo: Thanks to all the people who put their heart blood in our purpose. Like I said, nobody earns something with it and it’s important to have you. That’s awesome.
BLEEDIND RED are．．．
BLEEDING RED very first full-length “Evolution’s Crown” is available now!
BLEEDING RED – Timo interview at Rock It on March 24th part.I
Awesome band is just awesome! Bleeding Red’s very first full-length “Evolution’s Crown” is out now. Sammy (the manager of Parasite Inc.) had an interview with Timo at the CD release party venue Rock It Aalen on March 24th! The original German interview is on metalnews.de:
Thank you so much to Sammy for sharing it! Okay here we go!
Sammy: The Show is over, how did it go?
Timo: Yes, super awesome or? It was an awesome show and what is very important: The audience was super wild. And if the audience goes crazy, I go crazy too. If the audience is lame, I become lame somehow, too. But if it is like today and the audience freaks out, then I also freak out. And then it becomes a really awesome gig. And so it was today!
Sammy: With “Evolution’s Crown” your Label debut is released now. Almost 2 years ago the demo was there. How has the label search been proceeded? Are you glad to be accommodated?
Timo: The search of a label was rather slow. Over and over we got offers, partially also from famous labels. But in the end it never came to a result and nobody of them dared. But now a small new label has dared: Rock Road. Our album is the second CD that will be released there. Well, they are really new and fresh and it’s going to be worth for them. So far we are really satisfied and can do there what we want. Because we are really independent with promotion stuff, the label gives us a free hand. That’s cool.
Sammy: You have been in the studio for the 3rd time now: EP, demo, album. Is there already a kind of routine?
Timo: No, not a bit. Until now there never was any routine. Always something new, always new tasks and problems that you have to overcome. You always learn something new but to speak from “routine” it is really too early.
Sammy: The album is out. What’s next? After it was relatively silent the last year, does it continue with live gigs now?
Timo: Well, maybe relative quiet but we had several gigs though. But also this year we don’t have any big plans. Quite cool gigs we already have: Next week in Böblingen (city in Germany) at Casa Nostra (youth center) for example. Already that sounds awesome somehow. We play on the Maniacs Of Rock Festival, on the Crowfield Festival in Schwäbisch Gmünd (city in Germany). It’s a very new festival with different music styles: On the first day “dance-floor” , on the next day “metal” . But I have to say: Last year we have been on more festivals. We don’t have planned anything with touring. So far there are confirmed 7 dates but if the album should hit, there will be the one or another festival for sure. For that we hope at the moment.
Sammy: 2012 – It means 5 years band history…
Timo: Manu (guitarist) maybe would say now: 6 years. But something in between is right. It depends on what you count. We started in 2006 but as a pure cover band. We were not called Bleeding Red and we have not written own songs. In the end of 2007 we started for real.
Sammy: Well, how do you see the career of the band at the moment when you think about the last 5 years?
Timo: At the moment it means for me: Since 2007 it was only going plane but anyway upward all the time. And now after 5 years it pays off then anyhow. You also can go within a half year to the top or somewhere else. For us it was plane but continuously. Always a bit more, always a bit larger. And if you look at gigs like today, where 240 paying guests (270 guests overall) stand in front of you in that small “Rock It” (club), it is really awesome. Then it is worth all the shit you have to take on. Well, we have experienced much crap in that 5 years but in the end it is worth it.
All live pictures by Jürgen Ilg
To be continued to the next week!
BLEEDING RED
the first full-length
Evolution’s Crown
out now!
..and the album is also available
in Japan! Check it out!
BLEEDIND RED on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bleedingred
The Official Site: https://www.bleedingred.com/
BLEEDING RED “Evolution’s Crown” CD release show on March 24th 2012
Leviathan – The Recording Diary at Big Easy Studio
Did you guys check the dramatic and philosophical fabulous progressive melodic death album - Beyond The Gates Of Imagination pt.1 already? They are just in the middle of making the new one and Tobi from the band showed us their recording process, so here we go!
Tobi: This march we returned to the Big Easy Studio to finish our work on "Beyond The Gates Of Imagination Pt.2".
Tobi: On these pictures you can see the cabinets and the amplifiers that we used for the recordings. It's very funny, in every area of modern life digital equipment is taking over, but when it comes to creating a great guitar sound the best thing still is to use a real tube amplifier. That is why Jonas and me still rely on an ENGL / Digitech Racksystem and an ENGL Powerball.
Tobi: On the side of guitars, Jonas and myself we usually use our main live guitars that we use on stage also in the studio. Jonas used his Jackson RR24, that is now featured on every of our releases.
Tobi: …and I recorded all my parts with the brand new Fernades Vortex guitar that I just got right before the release of "Part 1" in September 2011.
Tobi: On this picture you see the recordings for the slide guitar solo. This was kind of an interesting experiment. On one hand it's not very common in metal and on the other hand I also had mostly played slide guitar for fun and never with the intension to record something that way. But everything worked out very well and it will give the new record another taste and a wider range of musical variability.
Tobi: Talking about the record in general, it is going to be also something surprising for all of you. It still has the typical Leviathan sound, with a lot of keyboards, guitar riffs and Jonas screams. But we tried to again expand our musical universe and this new CD will show you the most dark and heavy parts that we have ever written as well as the most melodic and catchy melodies that we ever recorded.
The latest statement from Leviathan about the recording process:
“We are done now with all instrument recordings!! We finished all acoustic guitars today and now we are having about one month off from the studio. In that time Jonas will write the vocals as well as all orchestrations and in May we will return to the Big Easy Studio to finish the new CD!!”
Check out more on LEVIATHAN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeviathanMDM
The photo-report from Musikmesse Frankfurt 2012 by Kai from Parasite Inc.
Kai: Hi guys and gals,
have you ever heard about the "Musikmesse Frankfurt"? It's one of the biggest music fairs in the world (maybe THE biggest). 2011 almost 1500 companies from 47 countries have presented their products there and it's kinda a Mecca for a musicians :) So, this year was the first time I was able to go there and I can tell you it was more than impressive. Started from the entrance I had problems to keep my mouth closed coz I was getting a "Wow"-feeling that stayed for the upcoming 8 hours.
the entrance
the venue
Kai: The fair takes place in several halls , so there is one hall for recording equipment, one hall with guitars, one for drums and percussion and so on… Beside the recording stuff of course I was very stoked with the guitar section. Tons of guitars and amps and most of them you can try out by yourself. Well, maybe I should stop to write too much about it and you should just have a look at the pics to get a small insight of the fair ;)
guitars, tiny usb guitars and an usb drumikits
impressive stand of EMG-pickups
Tommy Bollin (當墓林)
guitarists at the Gibson lounge
left: Jim Marshalls business car / right: guitars for In Arcane :p
left: 7-string basses / right: spacy guitars with glowing strings
ESP guitars
drum kits
spacy basses and more glowing guitars
the guitarists dream house :D
funny hair style
left: real heavy metal music instrumens / right: guitar handbags
left: the fair tower / right: a hare straight in Frankfurt
tips for a new interior?
spacy lightshows
Kai: Btw. After 3 hours I had a first cramp in my mouth haha *joking*. Honestly, it’s almost an overload of impressions if you try to go through the whole fair in one day and keep everything in mind what you see. Visit it on 2 days would be more relaxed for sure. So I took a longer rest at a sunny yard inside the venue and just relaxed a bit. After 8 hours of walking and music noise I was happy anyway to just sit in a car and get back home to continue with the Parasite Inc. album recordings. We are still inside the recoding process but we are one step closer again to be “Back for War”. So, see you soon with some news about it and since then stay heavy!
Thank you so much Kai, you rock!!!
BLOODSPOT vs SOULBOUND round.II － SOULBOUND interview
Check out the round 1 at first, if you didn’t try it yet. Bloodspot VS. Soulbound Part 1
Me: How have you guys been these weeks?
Mario: Actually pretty well, thanks! We took a little time off to concentrate a little more on playing gigs and getting new songs together, we really needed that. All this organization stuff is getting pretty dull after a while and it’s kinda nice to get your creativity going for a change. Times like these give us new energy and motivation to carry on and to remember ourselves: Fuck yeah, this is awesome!
Me: I had an interview with you guys about the new CD "Towards The Sun" already, so this time I would like to hear about your gigs those past months. How was BAD SANTA RETURNS tour on last Dec? How were the gigs with Bloodspot guys? I heard Bloodspot are the great live band! Is that true?
Mario: The gigs we played just after putting out our new CD were pretty amazing, the first ones we played were all set up for the Bad Santa Returns Tour 2011 with our mates from Bloodspot and Hope Dies First. We had such a fuckin’ amazing time touring with them and we also got to sell a whole bunch of copies from ‘Towards The Sun’! It feels really good to see people who don’t know us appreciate what we do and buy our CD after they saw you on stage.
Me: How do you think about Bloodspot’s new songs?
Mario: Holy f**k, all we can say is: Thrash- /death metal at its finest! Doesn’t matter if you’re listening to their CD or their live performance, it’ll blow you away. Buy this CD; you won’t regret it, cross my heart! They’re such talented guys and they can manage the one thing that very few bands accomplish: They sound even better live than on CD!
Me: Now a bunch of "Towards The Sun" CDs are available in Japan. How do you feel about it?
Mario: First of all, thank you, Kumi, for making this possible! Of course, it’s fuckin’ awesome to know, that a few thousand miles away your own CD is being sold in 3 of the biggest Stores in Tokyo! We just couldn’t believe it until you showed us the picture! (laughs) Right now, we’re pretty curious about how the Japanese people will react to our music; we can’t wait to find out!
Me: As you told me, you guys signed with the record label and "Towards The Sun" will be officially available in Europe on this March, right? Do you have any plans for the official CD release day? Will you guys have a release party or so? Do you guys get any nice reactions about the CD from the listeners already?
Mario: That’s right! We’ll play a few concerts with our friends from All Will Know, great guys, check them out! We’re not planning to do an actual CD release party, the release date is just the date from which you can purchase the CD in digital online stores, like iTunes and so on. Yeah we did get a lot of feedback and we were really surprised about them, since this is our first CD and we were not really sure how people would react but all in all, people who bought our CD were pretty stoked and of course we were, too!
Thanks so much Mario!
Check out Soulbound’s very first CD “Towards The Sun” !
SOLBOUND Facebook: www.facebook.com/MusicSoublound
Soulbound’s professional music video from Towards The Sun – Halloween
References: All live pictures of the band "Soulbound" by Rune Fleiter. www.rune-fleiter.de
BLOODSPOT vs SOULBOUND round.I － BLOODSPOT interview
I had interviews with BLOODSPOT and SOULBOUND on February, wanted to ask them about the tour together on last Dec, wanted to know what they think about each other. Okay, here we go with BLOODSPOT this round!
Me: How have you guys been these weeks?
Howdie: Well, last week we renovated our rehearsal room to make it more soundproof. Until we finished the construction works, we do our rehearsals in another room which is not that comfortable than ours. You have to know that it is very cold in Germany right now, so we are freezing all the time while working and rehearsing.. more or less anyway we are writing songs for the next album right now and as far as I can say, they are getting very brutal until now!
Me: Congrats for your success for Embrace The End tour 2011. You guys played in some other countries, right? How was that?
Howdie: Yeah, the whole tour went very well and besides Germany we played some shows in Slovakia. That was a very amazing experience! Maybe even the greatest experience in our whole band-carrier so far! We just had such a fantastic time together with our Slovakian brothers in Mandragora. They took very good care of us, making us feel comfortable, checking the hostels, getting us to the next club and just being very nice people! You absolutely have to check their music out !!! (https://www.facebook.com/mandragora.sk) If you want to get some impressions of our time in Slovakia, just check out our YouTube-channel and the "Embrace The End Tour Diaries". BLOODSPOT YouTube channel：https://www.youtube.com/user/BloodspotHatesYou
Me: I also would like to hear about BAD SANTA RETURNS tour on last Dec. How were the gigs with Soulbound guys?
Howdie: Just a month after finishing the Embrace The End Tour we had the possibility to hit the road again and it did simply blow our fucking minds! We met the guys of Soulbound for the first time and after being a bit unsure about what we should think of them in the beginning, it turned out to be a real and familiar friendship! We had a lot of fun together on this tour and we really enjoyed watching those fuckers going crazy on stage! We will definitely stay in contact and share the stage again!
Me: How do you think about Soulbound’s new songs?
Howdie: I'm not quite sure if they played some new stuff, which is not on their new record. But to talk about "Towards The Sun", I think it's a fuckin’ great record! After Felix of Soulbound showed it to me the first time it hit me right away! I listened very much to it after we finished the tour. To be honest, some parts are a bit to soft for my taste... but anyway... they did a really really good job on this. Although there are a lot of different styles in their music, it sounds absolutely uniform! they build up great song-structures and show that they know how to write great songs! besides catchy hook-lines and great melodies you'll find a very heavy and fast riffing to it! On stage they present the songs even more brutal and powerful!
Me: The album “Embrace The End” is the real kick-ass one and it’s one of my top albums in 2011. Did you guys get a lot of positive reactions directly from listeners in the world already? As you know the album is also available in Japan. How do you feel about it?
Howdie: Great to know, that you like the album so much! We got all kinds of different reactions from "newcomer of the year" to "disappointment of the year". But overall the feedback is very positive! Seems like some people out there really like what we are doing. Most of them are from Germany, but we also got reactions from different countries like Austria, Slovakia, United Kingdom, Indonesia, India or USA and it makes us feel really happy and proud. It's the same with Japan, we are absolutely excited about the matter of fact that our album made it into your record-stores! So we want to sent you a big kiss and say THANK YOU for your great passion supporting German underground bands! We are very honored to have the possibility to be a part of all of this!
Thank you so much Howdie!
The kick-ass of kick-ass album “Embrace The End” is available now!
BLOODSPOT Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloodspotmusic
