Musica en Progreso

Italian Power Metal Saves The Day

2011-05-29T22:09:00.000-07:00

Secret Sphere has maintained a decent discography along the years and survived the Power Metal movement resurfaced during the nineties movement's second heyday.

Reviewing the later years in Heavy Metal style's own development process in its history time, few names come to the fold:

Rhapsody, Sonata Arctica, Vision Divine, Labyrinth, Wonderland, Shadows of Steel, Power Quest, Axenstar and Supreme Majesty are among the new breed of Bands that kept the style alive during the turn of the new millennium, re injecting it with new developed structures, binding both Symphonic Metal and Progressive Metal.

Today most of this  bands  are not  making  up for the style to stay interesting and only a couple of them have mantained certain exploration towards new territories, keeping the style alive.

Secret Sphere is one of a kind band, they've kept their power-symphonic roots without loosing any aggressiveness in their sound through two powerful records, Scent of Human Desire 2003 and Heart and Anger 2005. After a three year recess their intricate, technical and uplifting style shines once more in their latter and almost consecutive two albums  2008 Sweet Blood Theory and 2010 Archetype.

Sweet Blood Theory maintains a symphonic edge a theme surrounding vampire imagery and plot while the music kicks firmly based and paying homage to the film scores by Danny Elfman (Batman, Beetlejuice, Good Will Hunting, Spiderman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Simpsons).

With Archetype, S S prove themselves as musicians, composers still managing to bring a strong record with some Orchestrated arrangements, which is something they've always used in all their albums without sounding redundant, the album is full of hooking songs, atmospheric keyboard work, acoustic grand piano sounds and great lyrics.

Singer Ramon R. Messina has a powerful voice, sounding a lot like Roberto Tiranti from Labyrinth, yet also reminds me of early Ray Alder of Fates Warning, with a high pitch range.

The album takes a more progressive approach than previous efforts, with shorter in your face songs, showing again Secret Sphere's versatile edge, great control in their compositions a well balanced mix of talent and a good dose of well crafted Modern Heavy Metal, stronger and vivid than ever. 

May the Sphere to be the kings of a modern polished Power Metal.

Rodrigo Trupp 

Angel Dust : The imminent return of a classic?

2011-03-23T22:43:00.000-07:00

Border of Reality 1998 (Century Media)

"Of Human Bondage" was Angel Dust’s last known work released in 2002. Their authentic and own particular style still prevails nowadays among other acts of similar category and genre.

After a long silent recess apparently also away from singer Dirk Thurisch, in which the musician putted out one album with the band Mercury Tide in 2004 simply entitled Why? The classic German progressive-metal ensemble, is rumored to be back in the works of new material with their former front man and band members: Bernd Aufermann on guitars, Steven Banx keyboards, Dirk Assmuth drums and Christian Polhmann bass.

Heavy classic European veterans Angel Dust formed in Dortmund, Germany back in 1984 and debuted with, Into The Dark Past (1987).

I particularly now of their 4 consecutive albums after reforming in the late nineties by original, Bass player Frank Banx and Drummer Dirk Assmuth (apparently only surviving member today): Border of Reality 1998, Bleed 1999, Enlighten The Darkness 2000 and the aforementioned Human Bondage.

Bleed 1999 (Century Media)

In their last official record the group directed their music into something heavier and darker, maintaining the atmospheric piano and keyboard oriented classic Heavy Metal. The Album was a natural transition paved by the previous efforts, it has several speed metal songs, a good dose of keyboard samples and angrier-aggressive vocal lines. According to the Metal Specialized site: blabbermouth.net post from early 2010, Angel Dust started working on their next record entitled Tales from Ashes and Dust yet it hasn't been released.

In a way to classify the originality of their Music the group possess hints of progressive-metal where keyboards are used as a polyphonic complement and a lyrical content in which the voice depicts romantic-obscure palpable sentiments and refined hostility.

Rodrigo Trupp
Música en Progreso March 2011

Ronnie Dio "The Voice Of Metal" Dies

2010-05-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

Metal Master Singer Ronnie James Dio is dead, The voice of Metal has vanished.

Inspiration for hundreds of Musicians around the World and once front man for such influential Classic Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Bands; Black Sabbath and Rainbow has left this world early morning today Sunday May 16th 2010 at age 67 from Cancer.

Born in New Hampshire, USA, early in his life Ronnie played Bass and fronted several Rock and Roll Bands between 1957 and 1969, while in Elf on 1972 he was discovered by members of Deep Purple and consequently asked to tour in support of the British veterans through the US.

In 1974 his voice was featured on Purple's Bass guitarist solo project entitled, The Butterfly Ball and The Grasshopper's Feast, soon after he went to be part of Power Metal Pioneers, Rainbow along Guitarist extraordinaire Ritchie Blackmore in which was to be known as one of the most influential groups of the genre and the stronger incarnation of that band between 1975 and 1978 putting out the Classic albums; the self titled Blackmore's Rainbow, Long Live Rock and Roll and Rising besides Live in Germany 1976 and On Stage 1977.

Dio took the front man position in Black Sabbath between 1980 and 1982 releasing the classics Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules and the eponymous double album Live Evil.

Launching his solo career with Holy Diver and popularizing the Hand Horns sign, Dio stayed in top form for years and never sold out to media. Also he was the man behind the 1985 "We Stars" Hear 'n Aid project which was a joint effort from the Heavy Metal scene of the 1980s to raise money for famine relief in Africa (and a response to the pop version "We are the World") the song which featured 40 Heavy Metal artists raised $1 million within a year.

Dio re united with Black Sabbath for Dehumanizer in 1990, released 10 albums from 1982 to 2004 as solo artist. He also recorded and toured with Heaven and Hell which portrayed Black Sabbath's classic line up of his tenure with the Heavy Metal outfit until 2009 when diagnosed of the terminal disease.

His voice will be missed as one of the most charismatic, stronger and technical vocal talents of all time in Heavy Metal Music history, rest in peace Dio, because of you we cry today but also We Rock!

Rodrigo Trupp

Remembering Mike Baker (09-02-63 / 10-29-08)

2009-10-29T23:38:00.000-07:00

One of the few inspiring and original Progressive Metal Bands around with a true innovative and unique style is Shadow Gallery. Their Music has immensely contributed to the modern-metal genre. Wondering what they were up to lately, last night before going to sleep I hooked on the net
and found out very sadly that their main singer Mike Baker had died exactly one year back this day.

Shadow Gallery is an active American Band from Pennsylvania compromising a group of talented multi- instrumentalists and Sound Engineers who formed in the early eighties.

They went under the name of Sorcerer until they came up with their actual moniker. The band recorded their first 8 track demo and were signed shortly after by the specialized New York based label “Magna Carta”. Their rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Time” featured on “Moon Revisited” which contains many of the musicians signed by Magna Carta to tribute the legendary British Progressive pioneers, stands for one of the best covers I have ever heard. Their Music is as intricate as any of Dream Theater’s effort or just as powerful as any Symphony X tune, yet S G’s approach stands high in musicianship and sound. I’ve never been a big fan of either both Bands I cited before, I think of them as parodies of themselves, instead Shadow Gallery’s own characteristic sound set them apart from their peers.

With five albums: Shadow Gallery (1992), Carved in Stone (1995), Tyranny (1998), Legacy (2001), Room V (2005) a compilation; Prime Cuts (2007) and Digital Ghosts which as seen their release in Europe (Magna Carta paradoxically distributes first mostly in Europe due to the lack o interest for the Progressive movement in the US), Digital Ghosts will se the light on November 3, 2009 in America and features new singer Brian Ashland. Combining the sound of Steve Vai, the technical and classical approach of Ingwie Malmsteen and the forceful power of Iron Maiden and Queensr¥che, Shadow Gallery’s Music is such a piece of jewelry not to be missed, long songs, complex structures and conceptual story lines are given a fair treat on each of their works, Tyranny specifically its the origin of an amazing journey which was followed later in Room V.

Mike Baker died of heart failure on October 29 2008 just when the band had demoed a few tracks which were the Embryo to their recent release not yet out in the United States, his voice will be long remembered as he will be missed, another strange fact of the US Music Industry poorly distributed and handled is that despite each member have appeared on different collaborations, they are normal human beings, paying houses, attending family matters, facts in life that are good enough reason to understand why they had never performed live for a period of about 15 years until when the “Room five” album was released in 2005. I have no idea if they have after that album, consequently then, they are a “Studio Band” current original members: Gary Wehrkamp - Piano, guitars, keyboards, vocals, Brendt Allman - Guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals, Carl Cadden-James - Bass, vocals, flute, fretless bass, Joe Nevolo – Drums and Brian Ashland – Vocals hopefully will continue to make more soulful albums, we still have Carl Cadden James as a side main singer but Mike Baker shone at his own, versatile powerful and original in all senses, there’s no doubt his spirit will live on forever. Rest In Peace Mike.

Previous Album's Songs Recommended: War for Sale (Tyranny), Hope for us (Tyranny), Christmas Song (Tyranny), Destination Unknown (Legacy), Society of the Mind (Legacy), Legacy, Comfort Me (Room V), Torn (Room V), The Andromeda Strain (Room V).

Rodrigo Trupp

Zak Stevens Exclusively talks to Musica en Progreso

2009-09-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

Zak Stevens Interview 9-03-09

In 1992 Zak Stevens was brought into Savatage (a name that combines two words Avatar and Savage) to replace former creator and Master mind singer John Oliva who went onto pursue his solo career. Edge of Thorns was released and somehow Savatage was reborn soon after, unfortunately and under strange accidental circumstances Criss Oliva, guitarist for the Band died, yet the legacy was already set in the mold of one of the most influential and original bands in the History of Rock music. Interesting enough the Band formed by brothers John and Criss Oliva in Florida USA had have an earlier tenure as power Metal speed kings, in fact the band’s 1983 full-length debut, Sirens, mixed classic hard rock and metal with elements of thrash and speed metal, but they've always maintained their own particular style. Today the band has gone dormant into hiatus living us followers with the side projects of each members past and present, which includes de TSO (Trans Siberian Orchestra) that features former Savatage members Alex Skolnick, Al Pitrelli and of Course singer leader John Oliva. Zak Stevens stayed with Savatage for Four Studio recordings between 1993 and 1998. He added his own particular strength to the band's material, his well directed and original vocal lines are now immortal. As of right now Zak Stevens has a few projects going on, his legacy it's still been written but his influence is undoubtedly powerful and unique.

In 2001 Zak putted together Circle II Circle, a heavier and darker version of Savatage, with them he has released 4 albums, and currently working on a new one, toured extensively in Europe and now he’s back with one last project, the Machines Of Grace a new incarnation of his former Hard- Rock band previously known as Wickedwitch which includes former Savatage Drummer Jeff Plate and old pals Chris Rapoza and Matt Leff, bass player and guitarist respectively.

And there I was on a phone-web conversation with one of the most amazing and original singers in the history of Rock Music, who shared a few good memories past and present openly for MEP exclusively! (to post this anywhere else is prohibited)

MEP: - Hey (laughing) what’s up? 

Zak: Not too much, very good! 

MEP: - Ok let me pull out the interview for you:

Zak: - Ok!

MEP: - Let’s go straight onto this, Hi Zak how you feeling?

Zak: I’m felling pretty good a little bit tired, we had a 4 day press trip to New York City just this past weekend and we just got back just a few days ago for machines Of Grace so we got quite a few very important radio shows (pauses): some…you know like Eddie Trunk Live on Sirius XM Satellite Radio we covered that and three or four other

Stations that are up in the New York area and did some rehearsing so (pauses) we’re getting ready to play a few shows next weekend so we are trying to get our energy back from that (pauses) you know that kind of (pauses) you know a little bit of an energy draining press trip but you gotta like it, people seem to like the album a lot so we are talking about it to a lot of people, we are gonna go play some shows next weekend in Endicott New York and Brooklyn New York and then we are gonna go back and do another two shows on the 24th and the 25th of September with Stryper, Michael Sweet has invited us to open up on a few shows in Cleveland and Detroit, so we are going to go and do that, and that will probably be about it for… you know first four debut shows for Machines Of Grace ‘till the beginning of next year, but at list we have a few in and we are pretty happy about that (Laughs).

MEP: - Very interesting, man thanks to accept this request of talking to me directly, to me it’s an amazing honor…you know?

Zak: - Thank you!

MEP: - And I have a few questions here ( Pause ), you can hear me well right?

Zak: - Yes I can

MEP: - Ok, First of all Zack a pleasure to be talking with one of the most unique singers in Rock History, Your low range voice is dissimilar to the other vocalists and singers of that genre in which there were usually high pitch range voice singers featured on the Heavy Metal-Rock scene mold music particularly the time you were set up with Savatage, they are and influential and original Band and your voice fits perfectly that conception or concept of originality, can you tell me your origins as a Musician as far back as you can go, also influences and when did you start singing please?

Zak: - Yeah…(Pauses) well I was started singing when I was about nine years old, just when I started playing Drums and we have trouble finding vocalists, so they always had me doing all the vocals from behind the Drums (Laughs), so my…you know as far as early influences we are talking about…you know if you want to talk about the records that my Mom had…what I found when I was a kid, it goes back to things like; Credence Clearwater Revival, Three Dog Night (Pauses long), Chicago, (Pauses Longer)….wow, Manfred Mann…..let’s see (thinks a little bit), that’s probably the earliest things, and the first earliest records she bought me was Peter Frampton comes alive, then when I was getting started on my own, things I liked it was Kiss, you know!...first concert ever, that was the first concert ever I went when I was ten years old, the “Destroyer Tour”, well that was pretty, I  don’t even know if I have ever seen a better show since then, it’s kind of a funny thing to think about.

MEP: - Of Course!

Zak: - Now and then you know of course what really got me into Metal singing was just those early…you know like Iron Maiden records with Bruce Dickinson and Ronnie Dio and his work with Black Sabbath and his solo project Geoff Tate with Queensr¥che were all huge influences, Metallica coming along…(takes a deep Breath), you know growing up in the eighties and that’s probably you know a full range of different influences, through the years and then I had of just kind of try develop my own style like you were saying, so that’s when…all that started when I started…you know my career with Savatage and since that I’ve gotten, see I’ve done ten albums in sixteen years so it’s been pretty lucky!

MEP: - Nice! I will go straight then onto Savatage: I read that Criss Savatage's lead guitarist and long-time producer Paul O'Neill heard demos of you? (Stevens) and wanted you to sing for the band. After an initial audition, you were considered to be the right man for the job and joined Savatage in 1993. Is this how it happened do you have brief memories on this?

Zak: - Yeah well really what happened I was living in Boston at the time playing with the Band Machines Of Grace, that was the first Band that I was fronting and now we’ve come back and we’ve putted back that together again under Machines Of Grace, so I was actually playing with that Band back at that time in Boston, it was under another name Wickedwitch, was the name of the band then, so when I was playing there, that’s when I got noticed with those demos that we’ve made that early Demos from that Band, the I had to go by car, I traveled to Paul O’neill’s ( Savatage’s producer and composer ) apartment and sat there with him playing guitar and him just saying: Hey just sing me some on the couch, you know?, I’m gonna play guitar so sing me some… what do you know, some Beatles? And stuff like that, and I would go…well yeah, play something, so really that’s how the real audition went down, me singing to Pau O’neill on his couch, it’s about as intimate as you can get and the other thing that it was in my big favorite it was, Criss Oliva’s Wife at the time Dawn (Pauses), who also recently passed away, its very sad she really liked me a lot and she was really big I really give her a lot of credit on getting me the gig too, cause she kept telling Criss; this guy is the one then really do it!, she loved the Wickedwitch stuff, you know back in the time, it’s kind of funny! She was really a big fan of mine so that help me out a lot and you know the guys liked it too so. That’s kind of the way the audition process went and they finally said come and live in Tampa in the summer of (Pauses longer and talks inspired) about this time of the year right now, right at the same time in 1992.

MEP: - Amazing!

Zak: - So I stayed in a hotel for about three or four weeks when I first got there cause (pauses and Laughs), its kind of like being in like you know you are hired on as a coach of a Football Team? You don’t pick up a house right away, they gotta see if you are gonna work out for, so you stay in a Hotel to see if your really the right guy (Laughs), so luckily I was able to get a house (Laughing) soon after that and I’ve been living here for sixteen years now, I never left.

MEP: - Ok! Then you liked it a lot then (Laughing), interesting, wow that might have been a great experience then. Next I would like to name each Savatage album you sang for, and if you can please just bring up a brief important memory from those moments maybe while recording?

Edge of Thorns 93:

Zak: - That was great because we were kind of writing the songs in rehearsals soon after that we were in the studio “Morrisound” cutting the vocals I just remember everybody being very supportive Criss Oliva you know, I’ve got into working with Him for about a year and getting lucky enough to be able to, you know , performing in that album with him before his passing, him (Pauses), you know I remember him in the studio saying go for it Zak  you’re doing great, you know? And it was a lot of work we used to have many many takes of every song so, you know? It was just quite a lot of work going through that what’s Paul O’neill does he likes to get a lot of singing that he needs and then he concentrates on picking up the best performances so I just remember you know, working really hard on that one you know in that regard, that was the same way we did all the Savatage albums.

MEP: OK! 

The song Sleep has a special meaning to you, the fact that it was re –recorded for Wake of Magellan with a slight change in the Lyrics?) was it dedicated to someone in particular?

Zak: - I think it was going out to Criss, you know Criss Oliva again! That was a video actually we did on the Edge Of Thorns Album too! So that was special in regards and the fact that we made a video too that actually you can go out and find as well too, so I always liked that song, nice acoustic song.

MEP: -Yeah one of my favorites slow songs too.

A Handful of Rain 94:

MEP: - tell us about the experience recording the Counterpoint vocals on the song “Chance”, were you involved on this idea?

Zak: -Yeah, me and Paul worked together with it, he came up with the fact that we can layer this different vocal melodies, my main thing was making sure that they worked well together and the main thing I brought in was I always brought that Harmony part in the second time you know kind of bring the Harmony in there you know the second time around and just kind of keep it going while the other part starts You know and just you know my main job was saying what do I need to double here, what needs a double track, what can survive? You know with me coming through with a strong single track and mainly my part was on the technical side? He came up with the concept of what we call counterpoint vocal, but my job was mainly on the technical side of it just making sure everything worked and come up really with the cool parts so just kind of keep it going

MEP: -Awesome!

Dead Winter Dead 95:

Zak: - Hmm! Yeah that was great cause it was a concept album and we got learn about the former Yugoslavia and I just remember studying a lot, Paul handed me three large books and said: “you need to study about the history of Yugoslavia to be able to do a good job on this album” so I had to read a bunch of books where I came out pretty knowledgeable about the hole history of Yugoslavia going back way before Tito (former Socialist and politician) so it was like (laughing) Jesus we got to go way back!, buy it was great it kind of help me understand the war, it was a war that no one in America really understood, the ethnic pieces of the war, you know and the fact that the blame was throwing around when this certain aggressions happen it was such a very strange thing but I was glad to learn so much about it, and I even did a tour recently over places like Belgrade, there in Serbia, we played recently with Circle II Circle as well as Slovenia so we got to go back to those same countries and speak with the kids about their opinion about all that too, and I learn, you learn a lot more talking to the people from there that you even will in all of this so called Historical books of reference, so it was kind of cool.

Wake of Magellan 98:

Zak: -another concept album had many different kind of little stories in it, based on a shipping incident that happened with a (Pauses) I think with a north Korean vessel were there some sort of crazy things going on the boat and a guy trying to survive in this big ship were kind of like people kept just disappearing! So, that was neat too, getting the feel of been on the ocean, creating this hole ocean feel on that album so feel kind of from the very beginning you hear the waves and everything when you are kind of in the water? It was kind of neat to keep the feel of where every song that you are the captain or the first mate and you are on a boat (laughs), there was a lot of good things specially the song Wake Of Magellan with all the counterpoint voices again, so you have that, they have that recurring theme from time to time you know they are all a lot of fun a lot of hard work! But you get a lot of good efforts when you work really hard!

                               Circle II Circle

MEP: - Of course I bet there’s a lot of hard work involved when you are in a studio recording a classic album like that.

Then we’ll move on into CIIC, Tell me a little bit about Circle II Circle, you went into Hiatus for a little while right. I have just discovered the Band I had spent the whole day listening to the mp 3 samples on the official web. I’m blown away the songs Revelations and Evermore are great, very Heavy I noted Heavier riffing, sharper sound, very interesting seems a natural continuation on what Savatage was all about, but it sounds still with your signature…to put it some how! It’s not Savatage completely, maybe the first album but then the transition from one to another seems to get better and better amazing musicianship!

MEP: -Do you write mostly all lyrics to your songs, where do you get the inspiration, mostly from books maybe?

Zak: - Well some books, most of it are personal experience how I fell that day I kind of spend time kind of analyzing my thoughts and things that I see maybe stuff that I read through the paper meeting interesting people telling their story trough a song and I kind of sounds like its coming from me but is really someone else, that can happen sometimes, yeah I write all the lyrics in Circle II Circle really more of them come from personal experience then books even though there’s certain components that come from the stories that you might read in like the reader’s Digest or something like that but mostly personal introspection for the most part

MEP: - Circle II Circle will continue right?

Zak: - Yes we’re waiting and getting the word on when we can start album No 5 that kind of talking about that right now with AFM, we are just kind of waiting on the news on that

MEP: - Awesome! I believe there’s some dates booked already, for next year and you came back from a tour in May this year where and how was it? is the Band still the same personnel?

Zak: - Yeah we only had one change from Evan Christopher he was our rhythm guitar player? we added Bill Hudson a Brazilian guitarist who’s actually a lead guitar player too, so we have that strong you know both two lead players type situation Circle II Circle with Andy Lee just been a monster so the guitar situation right now is what I call a ”monster” its just unbelievable and we are gonna continue that trend on the next album and live it was really neat seeing this guys trade off on the leads and everybody performed really well we did, by the end we did sixteen countries twenty shows in twenty four days and everybody made it through Ok! and they played better every show so that’s all you can really ask, the band really jelled together it’s a strong unit and we are gonna keep Circle II Circle together and Machines of Grace and I’ll have my two bands and that’ll keep busier than I could probably and possibly wanna be (Laughs).

MEP: - that’s just awesome its awesome a lot of work! I just discover the Band as I told you before, I don’t know why I didn’t hear about it before and I like it a lot .

Zak: - Thank you

MEP: - it’s just (pause) and it’s heavier I love Heavy Music if you take a look at my blog I like all kinds of stuff!

Zak: - Yeah I want check that out I just saw that!

MEP: - Then I won’t bother (Pause) cause time is running I wanted to go trough every CIIC album but you already explained a few things about it, so what do you think if we would move in to Machines of Grace, is this Ok with you?

Zak: - Yeah that’s fine

                             Machines Of Grace

MEP: - Moving onto something more straight up Hard Rock as it is Machines of                                    

Grace your new Band how do you feel with the Band, what are your expectations you’ll be performing a couple of shows (I think we talked a little bit about this earlier) and then continue next year right? Mainly due to Jeff Plate’s commitments with Trans Siberian Orchestra?

Zak:  - Yeah! That’s true we wanted to get our show now in before he goes on with a TSO tour (pauses) you know we had pretty high expectations this was just the first group I was ever a lead vocalist with finally we just had a chance to kind of talk about: Hey! Let’s try to do this thing for real, never got a (pauses) we didn’t had the resources back then and really record the way we can do things now, so we just decided as a group, let’s come back together again let’s reform this thing under a new name Machines Of Grace let’s do it right this time and let’s show people all this great songs we had back then, this are the songs that were able to kind of get me the attention of Savatage so they weren’t weak you know? So your talking about some pretty strong material and really surprisingly its taking off pretty well looks like its gotten a little bit bigger quicker than we thought so that’s a good thing but its also a crazy thing cause we weren’t really prepared for that so we are gear up you know the records are selling quite well so we just want to keep the momentum going and this is the reason we wanted to do it, its just the first band that I was true lead singer of it is one that you want see any Savatage influences in this band because this all happened before that so that’ll be the one that it’ll be different than everything I’m doing so far even though I love the Savatage influence the way that kind of melted into CIIC I like that but this would be the one that you won’t see that in of course because all that stuff was kind of pre- Savatage days

MEP: - How do you perceive the fact that mostly everything is done through the Net and many Record Stores are gone, do you think the answer is Play live to the audiences in order to keep your Art alive, besides selling records on line of course?

Zak: - Yeah! I think so you go out a play live and you try to get the stuff played on any kind of way you can do it I mean a lot of people really prefer to have the physical product like me I’m the kind of guy I want my CD and I want to play in my truck Stereo very loud I don’t like mp 3 I don’t like things you know you’ve got your I pods and by the time you get everything downloaded you have gone down to 16 bits but you may have recorded the thing 24 bit so you loosing quality I don’t like the quality loss of all the digital downloading, so I’m kind of old school like that so I will always have my physical records so actually I would prefer to go and by a CD and play it, you know kids this days they don’t know that the quality can sound so much better if you listen the way you suppose to do it you know? (Laughs) and that’s also why we keep talking to you guys and playing some shows here and there and doing it right and stay playing out there and sell your art, records are not just like in the old days, walk in a record store and depend on the hard copy of the record to sell it’s a strange industry that’s continuing to change in mayor ways even as we speak we don’t even know the mayor changes in Music business that are happening so its very strange so we just have to be prepared to roll with whatever challenges comes our way.

MEP: - I love LP records too I’m Old School too so I understand! Do you do something on the side also not only as a musician, I read you are a Psychologist, and a Drummer how you combine this with your passion for Music?

Zak: - (Laughing) well (pauses) it’s a thought filled drumming experience No! (joking)

I think it’s a (pauses) yeah I keep playing drums to keep in shape as far as the psychologist stuff been the Music so predominant I didn’t have the chance that’s what I went to school for I never had chance to open up a practice to become a full blown practitioner I’m not that far into it all I do is use the science just to you know ad onto the other scientific thing I had to study in order to get the bachelor science degree that went along with it I love science and History so I’m always on the History channel learning about scientific breakthroughs that’s about it and that can result in lyrics and kind of helps me out in that regard that’s how those two things kind of work their way into the music I put out

MEP: - Finally can you bring back a special memory when playing Atlanta Prog Power Fest? how many times were you there performing?

Zak: - It’s been three or four times I won’t be able to go this year I was going to go this year and help Crimson Glory do a tribute to Midnight cause you know we lost Midnight just recently he died, the old singer of Crimson Glory band.

MEP: - I didn’t know that is very sad news

Zak: - Yes he passed away about a month and a half ago very recently I was going to do a tribute to him but instead we are gonna go and play those shows in NY with Machines Of Grace. As far as memories I had great memories one time I putted Kiss make up on and went out there and sang Strutter and I was surprise how much I sounded like Paul Stanley I didn’t really realize that till I came off stage and I went God! I think I sounded too much like Paul Stanley (laughs hilariously) you really have no idea but like you said with my vocal range you gonna probably have that, but there’s been good performances on pre- parties, CIIC last year playing the pre- party to maybe thirteen hundred people in this little Bar location in the facility and that show was really good and playing the one we were filming the two videos you were probably checking out that came out from Atlanta Power Fest and its been great and really good to us Glenn Harvison and all the guys that book Prog Power USA are been very good through the years to us so yes there’s been great memories from that, very well organized hope it continues we’ll see what happens in the next coming years.

Technical File

-Gear Microphones of preference, Drums:

I use Premier Drums, they have appeared in all CIIC (Circle II Circle ) albums, I only played in only two albums myself before we had Tom Drenning (Drummer), I had to play a couple of albums it was a lot of fun and kind of cool. I played Ludwig when I was a kid but I have changed to British made kits.

Microphones I use Avalex if its cord, I was endorsed with those guys in the past, if I have to go with the wireless I use Samson wireless units with true diversity receiver with a Sure SM 58 beta 58 cartridge and beta 58 that I Use when I’m corded, I will probably sing mostly corded for the next couple of shows cause we are not going to have a lot of room, we are not the headliner so we are going to have a little room in the front there’s a little bit of reason to come out with wireless mikes when I will have to move 4 feet away it sounds better with the chord you are not dealing with a radio signal? So you are dealing with the actual very clean signal directly to the mike, I probably go with the chord instead just for this shows on a big tour I used my wireless in Europe on this last 20 show Tour so if I do something extensive were we are the headliner were we are using the stage all the time then I’ll have the wireless because you work the stage a lot easier but as far as sound we are talking about old school so we’ll make a decision on that it’ll be a close call…good question!

-Five Best albums (Rock Heavy)

Iron Maiden Piece of Mind, Judas Priest Stained Class, Molly Hatchet an older southern Rock band the album Flirting with Disaster, let’s see I will go back to that Frampton comes alive I use to like him a lot when I was young, he needs to have a bite in there and Journey (Laughs).

-Five Best albums (different format)

I Can’t name the albums I would go with the Artist: David Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson he was kind of a big influence when I was a little kid, The Commodores they reached me big time I learned all their songs on drums, Earth Wind and Fire.

-Favorite Musician right now, any new suggestions?

Wow…well that’s a good one (thinks for a little while) I would say Dave Mathews I think they are all virtuosos that’s a lot of talent in one band, specially form the drums.

-Favorite Book or Movie:

Da vinci Code the book, we had that Burden of truth album with CIIC inspired by it!

-Favorite Food:

Chicken casserole with cheese.

-Favorite Drink:

V8 kiwi, beer. I can’t drink too much cause my voice would suck!

-How do you keep your voice in shape, do you practice?

As much as I can, be healthy drink a lot of water, don’t beat yourself up stay way from the Flu no crazy stuff keep natural well hydrated, warm up before the show stretching stretch out.

MEP: - Zak Thanks a lot this will be on MEP exclusively appreciate your time, do you mind if I use random pictures of you? do you have Facebook?

Zak: - yes I do I’ve got some pictures in there you can use some pictures out of my albums.

MEP: - Cool My name is Rodrigo Trupp thanks a lot! very very much you are the best, I wish you the best on your Musical Projects too and also say hello to your family,

Zak: - Thanks to you too Rodrigo we’ll talk to you later good bye!

Interview by: Rodrigo Trupp for Música en Progreso

Zak and Circle II Circle photos courtesy of Zak's Facebook albums

Midnight, the Powerful Metal Vocalist Dies at 47

2009-09-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

John Patrick McDonald more known as Midnight the powerful singer behind Speed Power Metal Pioneers Crimson Glory Died on July 8th 2009 from liver and kidney failure the Artist was 47 years old. From 1986 through 1991, Midnight fronted Florida's own Metal group Crimson Glory with his distinctive and wide range in between High Pitch and dense strong voice. With the type of Phantom Of The Opera kind of look due to the use of mysterious masks, the band explored what later on became Power Progressive Metal. With Crimson Glory, Transcendence, and Strange & Beautiful, released between 1986 and 1993 the band gain considerable respect and paved the road for other acts to follow. Midnight came back to a re-formed Crimson Glory to perform at a Festival in 2004 for an interesting acoustic set, in 2007 midnight went again his own never to return to the band again.

I remember loosing my Transcendence tape I had since back in the day and then finding it again not too long ago on a stack of used Cassettes placed in a basket at a Thrift Store without a case!, The particular songs from That work, "Lonely" (which was very close to "Take Hold Of The Flame" from Queensr¥che in mood) the opening Lady of Winter and Red Sharks stood for they technicality and clear epic sound in the Vain of Maiden meets Rush but with a style of their own.

Midnight had a hard life but will be remembered as one of the most unique Singers in Heavy Metal history. Look out for his solo albums as well as Crimson Glory's and please don't download it, I'm sure his family will appreciate this.

Rodrigo Trupp

Legendary Singer Zak Stevens and his new band "Machines Of Grace" on Tour

2009-08-28T13:22:00.000-07:00

FIRST-EVER MACHINES OF GRACE LIVE PERFORMANCES TO TAKE PLACE IN SEPTEMBER

Metalheads take note - September will see the first-ever performances from fast rising rockers, Machines of Grace. The shows will include a pair of performances in New York, as well as an additional one in Ohio.
Additionally, the group will appear the same month on several renowned radio shows, including House Of Hair, CNN's Measure To Measure program, The Chop Shop Radio Show, Tour Bus Radio, and SiriusXM Radio with Eddie Trunk.

Comprised of band members Zak Stevens (vocals, whose credits include Circle II Circle, Savatage), Matt Leff (guitars), Chris Rapoza (bass), and Jeff Plate (drums, whose credits include Trans Siberian Orchestra, Savatage, Metal Church), the Boston-based band manages to both pay tribute to their metal forefathers while also keeping a modern hard rock edge throughout their just-issued self-titled debut.

"We're excited to get on stage and play this material live," says Leff. "As Zak pointed out in a recent interview, it'll be a real trip looking across the stage and seeing us playing live together again. We've got a very short window of opportunity for shows because Jeff starts his TSO rehearsals in early October. We'll do these three shows for now and tour more extensively in early 2010."

"I feel like these are going to be some of the most relaxed, yet intense shows I've been involved with in a long time," adds Stevens. "Simply because the material is so familiar and this band represents what our initial rock and roll dreams were. My first shot at being a live vocalist was with these guys. So for me, playing with MoG is like coming full circle."

Machines of Grace has garnered glowing reviews from such esteemed online music sources as BraveWords.com (who describe the group as "A throwback to a simpler time when the almighty riff and strong melody lines ruled a la Badlands, Brother Cane and Tangier; raucous, groove-ridden soul to the max") and All Music Guide (who raved "Machines of Grace do possess an unmistakable '80s flair about them - but with a much more succinct and mainstream rock-based songwriting style"). And now, not only will you be able to truly understand what all the early buzz is about with their debut recording, but lucky fans will get the opportunity to experience it all on a concert stage.

Lastly, Plate adds his thoughts about taking Machines of Grace out on the road. "My thoughts on playing live with this group for the first time? Excited, anxious, confident... Machines Of Grace is that '71 Chevelle SS that you have been working on in your shop for years. Now it's time to take it to the strip and show it off! It has been 10 years since I performed on stage with Zack Stevens and 16 years since performing with Matt Leff, and I know it will feel like yesterday when we blast into our first tune. Chris Rapoza is new to the mix, but there is no doubt that the energy he brought to the studio is going to translate onstage as well. This is the next step in bringing Machines Of Grace to the masses. With our experience, the musicianship and quality songs that we carry, combined with our desire to win over every person at every show, I know we will not disappoint."

UPCOMING MACHINES OF GRACE TOUR DATES:

09/12/2009 12:00 PM
Binghamton Area Metalfest
Endicott, New York, USA
The Country Pines
1660 Union Center Highway
Endicott, New York

Line-Up:

THE RODS (Headliner) - CAGE (Co-Headliner) - MACHINES OF GRACE (Special Guests)
- SINNER ( Judas Priest tribute band) - ELEVATOR DEATH SQUAD - BEYOND FALLEN -
RAVAGE - CURSED FROM BIRTH - JANE EVIL - THIS CITY NEEDS A HERO

09/13/2009 08:00 PM
Club Europa
Brooklyn, New York, USA

Line-Up:

CAGE, MACHINES OF GRACE, RAVAGE, MARTYRD, PHOENIX REIGN.

09/24/2009
House of Blues
Cleveland, OH

Line-Up:

Machines of Grace opening for Stryper

For the latest information on MACHINES OF GRACE, visit their official website at
the following location:

www.machinesofgrace.net

general info. and further information on Machines Of Grace, please contact:

Chip Ruggieri
Chipster PR & Consulting, Inc.
chip@chipsterpr.com

Eduardo Topelberg: Charisma and Talent are not enough to conquer the World of Thrash Metal Music!

2009-08-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

In the early 80’s Heavy Metal Music had a big turn specifically in the US.
Taking the speed of mid 70’s classic lineups such as Judas Priest, Motorhead, Saxon and Tank, hints of what it was called The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and the movement’s Iron Maiden, Samson and also the more unknown and rough “almost Punk” power of underground sounds from Bands like; Diamond Head, Angel Witch and Tygers of Pang Tang (only to name a few). The Bay Area Movement had exploded with Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, curiously enough Metallica and Anthrax were musicians coming from a different place in the USA and not from San Francisco, place where the style took its name from and rose to their heyday.
In Chile a few thousand miles away South of San Francisco, Thrash Metal had also a significant and productive development in the hands of Bands like: Chronos, Pentagram, Necrosis, Dorso, Massacre, Tractor, Destroyer, Rust and a few others. Amazingly enough it was this Country’s own and unique Musicians whom will motivate other South American bands to continue the North American legacy.
Few of this Bands and musicians in and out and with or without their outfits mentioned, have survived the test of time, almost as if they knew that such movement would be gone underground for many years only to resurface massively slowly regaining importance and their inheritance in later days.
Thrash Metal Music is known for its complexity and more than a few words worshiping Demons, the power it has in crossing continents and cultural barriers. The fact that a few classic groups from Europe recognize the immense influence that Chilean Thrashers Pentagram had on their Music is not a mere coincidence and its been immortalized by the recent “Tour” this dudes from Santiago Capital City of Chile had just finished during July 2009.

Here’s an Interview I just did with my old friend-pal Drummer Virtuoso Eduardo (Ed) Topelberg, percussionist for both Chronos, which have just recently regrouped and are expecting to enter the studio near the end of 2009 and also Pentagram, whom have just Toured Europe ending with a stop at the Mighty “Wacken” Open Air Music Festival in Germany.

MEP: -Pentagram’s reunion it’s just not recent, when did it happen and How was conceived?

ED T: Pentagram was formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1989, then we re united in 2001, for just one show with the recording of a Live DVD and a CD, later on again in June 2009 for a Chilean and European Tour.
MEP: -Nice to see you back Playing Metal Music (Although you never quited), do you consider yourself a versatile Musician?

ED T: I Have Always played “Metal Music”, in fact In January of 2009 we putted a new record out with Chronos, we are back together and performing a lot, besides the Drums I’m singing and Yes I’m a very versatile Musician, I love playing several styles, but “Metal” is what fulfills my soul on every sense.

MEP: -How do you see the “Thrash Metal Music Movement” come back of Bands Like Death Angel, Cynic, Atheist, and so on (too many good ones to name)?

ED T: Wonderful, if there’s something that it was some how finished and it was meant to come back for good then welcome back!

MEP: -You are one of the Greatest Drummers there is Chile, as a Musician do you think times have changed and today there is better support, or it’s just a matter of Talent to be able to surge?

ED T: Thanks to the Internet and its development, with out a doubt is easier, but at the same time there’s a lot of competition, because with more necessity and opportunities, more professionals are created now, with out talent then nothing exists!

MEP: -How was Pentagram’s tour over Europe, any experiences from Wacken Open Air Germany?

ED T: Uuuff!!!!, I could write a book, I can only say it was one of the most marvelous experiences in my life, and I have to mention how good vibes the people we met had for us, the incredible audiences and overall, such great respect there is in Europe for the Musicians, that would never happen here in Chile!

MEP: -How is Chronos currently doing? How does it feel to be playing again on a pioneer Band of the Chilean Movement, How did the re union happened and When?

ED T: Well, in March of 2008, Jose Ihnen (Bass Player and Vocalist In Chronos) uploaded some Footage with Chronos from a gathering I came up with which was called Professors Meeting in Batuta’s Pub. On it I congregated mostly all the people I had played with in the Past, then Claudio Martinez (Guitarist for Chronos) got motivated to get back together once again. This way Chronos goes back in the studio to re record all classic tracks plus three new ones in September same year.

It was released commencing the year 2009 with loads of success.

It’s great to be together again, also as I said to you before, I’m liking been a Singer very much, and so it is like with Chronos, I’m so F…ckin’ happy!
MEP: -Good luck with the upcoming classic performance with Dorso and Cria Slavaje(the concert took place beginning the month of August and was a complete success), both Pioneering Rock Bands of Progressive Death Metal and Hard Rock styles respectively, such Concert too, commemorates another timeless presentation happened some 20 years ago? Maybe? There will be surprises? Perhaps one song with Rodrigo Cuadra and his Dorso dudes? (Ed Topelberg played with Dorso and recorded their immortal album Romance in 1991).

ED T: Ha Ha Ha….it would be awesome, but remember that I just came back from Europe (touring with Pentagram), so there isn’t time left for rehearsals, but it will be a great gig, also birthday Party celebration for three of us, Me Rodrigo (Dorso) and José (Chronos).

MEP: -Are you expecting to be recording something new with these Bands Pentagram or Chronos?, maybe some other Projects?

ED T: Yes, towards the end of the Year we’d like to record another new album with Chronos and some new material, with Pentagram… we’ll see and nevertheless I’m working on a very special and new Project called “Ogro”, but that’s a surprise!

MEP: -Most memorable moments in you career as a Musician?
ED T : Touring Europe with Pentagram and been a Singer with Chronos, I like singing Metal a lot

MEP: -Bands in which you have played?
ED T: PENTAGRAM – CHRONOS – LA MOLE – SARCASTODON – ARKHAM – PARKINSON -
PERROS VIEJOS – DORSO – VELOCET – LOS PECADORES.

MEP: -Do you stay on “Top” form practicing on your Instrument, or it’s not necessary anymore?

ED T: To tell you the truth I never play alone, I rehearse once or twice a week, what keeps me in shape is the “gym” and F..cking all the Chicks I could….hahaha, I’m not joking.

MEP: -Eduardo my Brother, thanks a lot and good luck with everything!

EDUARDO T0PELBERG'S PERSONAL FILE:

Instrument and Brand of Preference:
SONOR Drums , ZILDJIAN Cymbals, REMO And VIC FIRTH.

Favorite Musician: NEIL PEART

Five best albums or Bands of all time (Metal/Rock):
RAMMSTEIN, ALICE IN CHAINS , ACDC, SLAYER , BARON ROJO.

Five best albums or Bands of all time (other styles):
THE MARS VOLTA, MASSIVE ATTACK, COLDPLAY, RADIOHEAD SUMO.

Favorite Movie:
MAGNOLIA, AIRBAG, KILLBILL.

Favorite Actor/Actress:
JAMES GANDOLFINI, MONICA BELUCCI.

Favorite Food (dish):
Sea Food, lentils .

Favorite Drink: JACK DANIELS.

Interview and foreword by Rodrigo Trupp exclusively for Música En Progreso

Pictures courtesy of Facebook
Chronos Batuta by Claudio Martinez, Javier Valenzuela
Pentagram over Europe by Eduardo Topelberg

Anton Reisenegger to Replace Jesse Pintado (RIP) for Lock Up's farewell performance at Damnation Festival UK 2009

2009-08-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

Anton Reisenegger of Anglo/Chilean Precursors Thrash/Death Metal legends Criminal and also a former member for Pentagram will be handling Guitar duties for what its been said to be Grindcore's Classic Band Lock Up last Concert
GRINDCORE supergroup LOCK UP will headline this year's Terrorizer Stage in what will be their only show of 2009 and likely the band's last ever live appearance.

The almost mythical extreme metal behemoth - which will feature At The Gates frontman Tomas Lindberg, Anton Reisenegger of Pentagram and Criminal on guitar, Napalm Death bassist Shane Embury and ex-Dimmu Borgir and Testament drummer Nick Barker - will perform live in the UK for the first time in almost ten years.

And Shane Embury revealed the one-off show is set to be the last time they ever take the stage together.

He said: "LOCK UP has not played the UK since the summer of 2000 when we did a small tour with Poland's Decapitated - in fact the band has only ever done around 15 shows since we formed ten years ago."We have had so many requests over the years from fans to play again that we thought 'let's get off our arses and do this one last time'.

"So our appearance at this years Damnation Festival will be a total "7 Churches on vinyl or fuck off!" exclusive show.

"This may well be the last show the band plays, ever, so don't miss out on what I hope will be a night to be remembered!"

Nick Barker added: "Damnation will also mark the live debut of new guitarist Anton Reisenegger from the Chilean underground death metal legends Pentagram and Anglo/Chilean death/thrash band Criminal.

"Reisenegger replaces the late Jesse Pintado who sadly passed away in August 2006."

Damnation Festival will take place at Leeds University Union, on Saturday, October 24, 2009.

The line-up so far is: Lock Up, Therapy?, Destruction, Electric Wizard, Jesu, Rotting Christ, This Will Destroy You, Akercocke, A Storm of Light, Mistress, Negura Bunget, Minsk, Extreme Noise Terror, Manatees, The Gates of Slumber, And So I Watch You From Afar, Charger, Stand-Up Guy and Rinoa with more bands to be announced.

Tickets are on sale now priced at £29.50 from http://www.leedstickets.com/ , http://www.ticketline.co.uk/ and http://www.seetickets.co.uk/

For more information visit: http://www.damnationfestival.co.uk or http://www.myspace.com/damnationfestival

foreword By Rodrigo Trupp

Photos: Facebook

Danny Biggin "New Breed of Rock-Metal Musician"

2009-08-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

Next is an Interview with a new friend of mine, Dan Biggin, British Musician and Bass Player for Chilean Thrash Metal Bands Criminal and Pentagram, also currently helping is own Band Takoma Star to gain success in the Music Circuits. Here's Dan with a few impressions and thoughts (and Pictures, sorry Dan I didn't wait on an answer to use'em) on the Music movement nowadays.

MEP: Hi Danny How’s life How does it feel to be playing with Chilean Brothers on two of the Most “Brutal” Bands from South America?
-D:I love every second of it. Its a real honor to be playing in two bands that have such a long and distinguished history in the metal scene. Its also great to be touring and playing with such great friends. I consider all of those guys my extended family.

What do you think of the Resurgence of Thrash-Death Metal and how does this affects or involves you?
-D:I think its great that their is a resurgence. Its about time. I think kids are finally getting smart again and are fed up of all the fake, posing, pussy metal out there.
There are all these bands that suck with their dumb fucking image conscious look and sound and kids are starting to see through that and get back into the real metal and CRIMINAL and PENTAGRAM are the real deal. You never see Anton straightening his hair or putting on eyeliner ha ha ha.
Hopefully more kids outside South America will start to get into CRIMINAL too.

What were you doing (if Playing for a different Band), before joining Criminal, and which other Projects before Criminal were you involved in previously?
-D:I have always played music in various bands for the last 16 years or so. Most of the bands never got much further than a few shows or recording an EP.
My main thing has been my band TAKOMA STAR that I have been doing for a few years now. I think CRIMINAL fans will probably hate it because its not metal at all.
TAKOMA STAR is punk rock kinda like The Ataris or Millencolin with a bit of Foo Fighters thrown in there.
I sing and play guitar in that band and we have just released a new album which is going really well.

What memorable moments on recording “White Hell” are your favorites, also in touring Chile?
-D:The recording of White Hell is a bit of a blur for me actually. Because I was playing on it and co-producing it I was so so busy that it all kinda melted into one thing, Plus I had really bad tooth pain.
Touring in Chile I fucking love. I love everything about being in that country. The fans are fucking crazy out there. The shows always go off hard and we always have a great time. Plus you have to remember that I live in the UK so getting away from a country where its always grey and raining is great too.
We always get to play with bands we love that are good friends of CRIMINAL like DORSO, NUCLEAR and NECROSIS so we always have the best time.

Was Joining Pentagram an obvious Transition, were you expecting it?
-D:I wouldn't say i was expecting it but it had been mentioned before.
When we last toured in Chile and we played Cumbre Del Rock Chileno festival I think the guys were already thinking about doing the Pentagram tour and Topo mentioned that maybe I should do it but I didnt know what would happen.

Favorite Tunes on “White Hell”, what would you say its your contribution to the Band? besides playing Bass of course!
-D:Errr.. OK my "favourite" tunes on White Hell are Black Light, 21st Century Paranoia and Crime And Punishment.
As for my contribution to the band. Well yes playing bass is one of the things I do. As well as that the whole album was recorded at my studio HVR Recordings in the UK and I wrote a couple of songs for the album too.

Favorite Bands that influenced you somehow from past and present times?
-D:Well I guess as a kid it was bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden that were the biggest influences on me. Then Slayer, Carcass, Anthrax and Megadeth.
Megadeth were such a massive influence on me as a kid and thats why it was such an honor to go to Chile and support them. I never thought in a million years I would share the bill with a band like Megadeth.
I listen to a lot of stuff that isn't metal too. Rush, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple as well as stuff like Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr.
I was also really into Minor Threat and Fugazi as well as Bad Brains and Black Flag.

What are you listening to Right Now?
-D:FUGAZI - Red Medicine

Technical Data:

Instrument of preference (Brand “ only if possible”)
I have been lucky enough to be an endorsed artist for DEAN GUITARS for the last couple of years and I use them exclusively for all my bands and studio work. Guitars and basses

Gear (amplifier, chords, effects, picks, Strings “only if possible”)

Amps - Marshall all the way, I have just been to the Marshall factory here in the UK to look at the VBA bass rigs

Effects - Boss and MXR mostly as well as some LINE6

Picks - Jim Dunlops

Strings - Criminal are endorsed by DR who make awesome strings so I use them

Chords - Planet Waves

Favorite Musician: I couldn't chose one so err... Joe Strummer would be one of my choices.

Favorite Five Metal Albums:
Megadeth - Rust In Piece
Strapping Young Lad - City
Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
Carcass - Heartwork
Iron Maiden - Powerslave

Favorite Five Music Albums (other Styles):

OK this list changes every day depending on what mood I am in but today its

Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
The Clash - London Calling
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
NOFX - 45 or 46 songs that weren't good enough to go on our other records

Favorite Movie (or Book):
Again this changes all the time. Today its "Once Upon A Time in The West" the Sergio Leone movie

Hobbies: Swimming, Surfing (badly) and I am a real retro computer games geek.

Favorite Food: A big juicy STEAK!!!! preferably in Chile in a restaurant like Eladio

Favorite Drink: Well since I gave up alcohol I have to say Diet Coke (god thats boring right!)

Thanks a lot Dan for your time responding this questions loads of luck my friend!

Interview and foreword by Rodrigo Trupp

pictures of Dan taken from Facebook they belong to:
Wacken Germany 09-Samantha Carrington
Wacken Germany 09-Matt Davis

Les Paul The genius is gone! Rest In Peace

2009-08-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

In this Feb. 26, 2007 file photo, Guitar legend Les Paul smiles at the Iridium Jazz Club in the Manhattan Borough of New York. Paul, 94, the guitarist and inventor who changed the course of music with the electric guitar and multitrack recording and had a string of hits, died, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2009 in White Plains, N.Y., according to Gibson Guitar.

Criminal.......Root Of All Evil?

2009-08-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

Criminal White Hell Released 2009
Kings of South American Thrash Metal’s Finest Hour

Rock Music Commemorates the Rebirth of Thrash Metal in all corners of the Earth in which veterans bands like: Testament, Death Angel, Cynic, Helstar, Heathen, Whatchtower, Atheist, At War and many more are mostly re-uniting and or re-activated. In South America specifically Chile the Musical Phenomenon gets recognition with the comeback of Thrash veterans Pentagram their consequent tour through Europe, mostly recent with a stop over at Wacken Open Air, Germany’s yearly mammoth Musical Gathering and also the celebration continues with the release of White Hell 2009 from Thrash-Death Metal legends Criminal(Anton Reisenegger’s provides guitar and vocals for both ensembles).

Criminal is back and on top of their game, and this release shows it off completely. The first question that comes to mind obviously is why a name like: “White Hell”? To my own personal view is the dealing with a fucked up world in which not only now we get to see a “Black” governor in the US, but also what ever happened to the “White Man Supremacy? (Hey I’m not against Obama, it’s just that feels real Paradoxical).
The answer just like the record its complex, and this on a musical trend spectrum is basically good. The most logical explanation comes from the fact that this particular work its just “Good as Hell” then, but in between the Darkness paths contained on the CD there is too, enlightenment coming out of this new effort by South American “Hard Rockers” Criminal.

Criminal is the Brainchild of two Chileans, Anton Reisenegger and Rodrigo Contreras, both childhood friends of mine, which means it’s just not an everyday thing to be talking about some “Big time” Death Thrash Metal Band in which two of the former members are people that you know and from whom you have great memories from the past.

I was first introduced to Criminal at Anton’s house in Santiago (Chile) several years ago, my good old buddy and Musician (another Rodrigo) best known as Pera, called me one night so we end up having a few beers and cruising around the City while listening to some good old Thrash Metal and progressive Rock tunes in our car as we usually would. It was Anton’s attic bedroom our final destination that day.

There we met with two fine fellow Musicians newcomers onto Anton’s new Musical venture-project. I don’t remember if I knew this back then precisely but I remember that moment vividly, I had a chat with both Guitarist Rodrigo Contreras and Drummer Joaquin Vallejo. Right after Fallout’s demise, Anton’s previous band, he had brought this two virtuoso musicians together from a Progressive Metal Band (influenced by the likes of Watchtower and Anacrusis) together along Juan Francisco Cueto who had Play with him previously, Anton assembled this new breed of Thrash-speed metal outfit which a little later became Criminal (don’t remember the year).

The band has seen not to many changes but on the drum stool position which has seen three significant replacements through the years, being the most influential moment also, the fact that both Rodrigo and Anton moved to Europe’s England and Germany respectively a few years ago and saw themselves in a Geographical need to look out for new Musicians in order to fill in for Drummer and bass positions. Enter percussionist Zac “Human Machine” O’Neil, meanwhile Juan Francisco took the chance to record all bass guitar parts for 2005’s Sicario, done in the old continent and later on he has been replaced by Dan Biggin yet still (Cueto) plays regularly when Criminal visits their homeland Chile.

White Hell steps forward a few squares ahead as in a chess game, basically taking over from where Sicario ended, as I see it the album it’s all what you would expect from this guys, fresh, aggressive, technical and cool. Heavy as Hell, the musical ideas develop once again between Anton’s inventive lyrics about how corrupted and fucked up this society is, moving along in contrast or in connection with top notch Musicianship delivered by these amazing expertise performers.

Rodrigo Contreras hooking phrasing technical approach has the breathtaking task of entangling Anton’s manic riffing and dense ideas. Portrayed here are altogether contributions that are shaped in an innovative dynamically and well-structured constructed songs.

The record itself gives us back hints from old school Thrash Metal Music, obviously due to the early influences on Anton’s catalog of hearing bands like Slayer, Kreator and Dark Angel, to me all three early incarnations of what later became known as Extreme Metal. Such bands where fast and had extremely intricate song structures, which is the surprising and predominant factor in White Hell’s. The cuts; Crime and Punishment and Sons of Cain are extending the once used 3:00 to 4:00 minutes straight forward aggressive pieces onto longer ones, such extra space leaves Rod (Rodrigo) and his amazing fret work games to truly shine intelligently on the album.

The aforementioned cuts deal lyrically with the deepness of human behavior and it’s obscure destiny through life.

The majority of the rest of tracks take us to a journey in the vastness of a struggling Universe, the decadence of Government and their corrupted ways and infiltrated manipulated systems, the paradoxical established entities such as Religion and marketed commerce that mainly focuses on self-grow enrichment.

With Incubus and Black Light the work stands back again onto more approachable short songs with that hooking characteristic vibe; harsh singing, medieval soloing, modal scaling, the hasty isochronal Riffing and the pounding drumming that comes from Zack’s impressive skills and precise velocity.

The Deluge and Strange Ways like the longer cuts are setting the different trend that there is to “White Hell”, in which there is yet time to slow things down a bit in order to get a dissimilar mood and darker ambiance in which the writings take center stage along a few hints of keyboard work without the overuse of it.

The album picks back up in speed on the next three tracks Mobrule (my favorite), Infidel and Invasion on them the Band depict how blind can society get into reaching certain levels of stupidity by worshiping false Gods, be permissive to a reach of Power Control and the sadness of Land conflict and Holy War, the breathtaking musicianship filled with syncopated fierceness and change in metrical measurement stands as on of the finest moments in Criminal’s career.

Conclusion:
Criminal set themselves apart inside the Death Metal movement in which usually the main topics are based on Blood and Satanic themes. Still in an anti established yet straightforward trend with mature songwriting the guys have kept developing a style that sometimes stands still often due to the abuse of or lack of ideas.

They are one balanced strong voice in your face and a good dose of energy which can be still very “heavy” and scary due to them portraying the truthfulness of a real messed up world, they can easily be the politicians and corrupted people’s worst nightmare, need to say more? Buy the album, don’t download it because by doing that you’ll be against their rules and you know what happens if you do that to a “Criminal” right?

“Next comes an interview with Rodrigo Contreras and his impressions and experiences through “Criminal’s” White Hell recordings, past and present of the Band’s Work, also a few thoughts about The Metal movement and his future own plans ”

Interview by Rodrigo Trupp (July 2009)

-MEP: Why White Hell?
Rodrigo Contreras (Rod): We had several names for the CD, few went straight to become song titles, yet “White Hell” was the decision because it embraced a wider concept which covered what the ‘album Was (Musically and Lyrically). Also subjectively, it may be taken from different points of view making it very attractive as: the world of Cocaine (the Drug), An Hospital (A very bad place to be when being sick). A totalitarian and imposed white race, a Bedlam’s room, at last you can give it your own interpretation and according to me that’s very attractive, “White its a cold color, emptiness and nothingness also, something reflected on the cover too.

-Special moments and solos in particular?
Rod: I like a lot Incubus and Crime and Punishment because of the Speed melodies I Make, also Strange ways and Bastardom. Generally speaking I’m under pressure due to lack of time but on this one I had plenty. What’s important on the record is that there’s a lot of space and freedom technically and technologically to do overdubs (if necessary) while soloing.

I like a few more than others due to their improvised Nature mainly, but there’s a standard attachment flow to each song’s mood.
I’m working on compositions for a solo record, which would reflect what I could give as a guitar player and main arranger with a more varied stylistic spectrum.

-Favorite Tune?
Rod: The record in General, but favorites….Mmm?, could be the opening 21’st Century, Incubus, Black Light, Strange Ways, most Majority in the end!

-Main Differences between White Hell and Sicario?
Rod: Definitely Sicario its a more easy to digest record or “In Your Face” work with a more crude sound and less guitarist work than W.H. We had a little more time onto our last Record, reflected on a more detailed work…more complex than the previous one, yet I believe both have their different characteristics and Criminal’s personality, different engineer, different Country (Sicario was done in Germany, W.H. in the UK) it gives them a different Timbre.

-Differences between the last Record and Previous Work?
Rod: WH is our last record and in my opinion its one of the best albums we have until today. I believe our career has been a constant fight not only to get the best sound but to be as fresh and closer with the new trends of present times as we can, I mean, if a band sounds like Metallica’s …and Justice For All, will have to hear what’s sounding out there right now, which to me is much better than just following a style, you need an optimum sound in order to transmit certain messages, specifically your own.
Our first “Demo” we did in a very short amount of time and in Analog format. Victimized is a real good record but lacks a Professional Sound (we would love to re- master it in the near future). Dead Soul and Cancer are a bit Death/Thrash with their own hymns, and hints of that era of Sepultura, Slayer and a little bit of Fear Factory but with Criminal’s own apocalyptic ambient and Darker approach.

Now Sicario was the idea of having more simple cuts but effective completely in your face, no ambient, no effects, only aggression and rough sound. White Helll on the other hand its more profound and with a lot of more details, more Guitar, longer tracks, a lot of soloing, more open sound less compressed. At last our main goal its not just to be classified in one single style or genre or to sound like everybody else, we want to make Music that fulfills us that brings up for good quality and with good production.

-How was Dan (Bass Player) Brought into the Band?
Rod: Danny we met because our ex Bass Player, ex Cradle of Filth Robin Gaves, Dan helped as a roadie in a Tour over Germany, we all got along good, He loved our work and I believe he liked us too, he is a great person. When Juan Fco. Cueto (Kato) went back to Chile we found ourselves interviewing a few people and after a little bit we decided to give him the opportunity also because he was a friend already.
He saw the Material we where writing and also helped with the takes and wrote a couple of songs. He is a great friend he helped me with the recordings on my solo record. He is a quiet person compared to us but he joined in pretty good.

-What do you think about the resurgence of the Thrash Metal Movement in general and specially in Chile with the come back of bands like Chronos, Pentagram, Massacre and Necrosis?
Rod : I believe its good I mean anything that’s got to do with the genre or the scene is good, I think that new Bands should take advantage of the moment to come out and create a new movement as good as the one that already existed so it prevails in the future.

Thrash movement is at a world level rebirth, don’t know if it’s just mere nostalgia or if its just a stage in the wheel of Music, next it might be Death Metal and later on Hardcore Punk, nobody knows. For us criminal, there isn’t any changes, we just continue doing our Own.

-Which Bands from the old Death, Thrash, Brain Techno Metal school had influenced you in the past?
Rod: In my beginnings I loved Metallica, Slayer, Carcass, Morbid Angel, Fear Factory, Meshuggah. What i liked the most about this bands was their constant evolution and how other outfits came out of the styles they were coming up with, different tendencies, some more brutal, some more experimental, it was a time of creation. Also back then it was spoken a bout a new breed of young cross over the barrier people who were crushing against everything, that motivated me to follow those ideals. Since I was a kid it helped that I also listen to everything and learned Improvisation, Harmony and other stuff, also I had listen to Vinnie Moore, Greg D’ Angelo, Paul Gilbert(Racer X), Joe Satriani(Satch). I have never putted barriers in front of me to be a composer on a certain particular style, I have the necessary tools to do it and develop from there.

-Next Personal Project?
Rod: I would love to finish my new solo album before the end of 2009 and to be able to perform not only to Criminal Fans but also to other people, Metal and other taste of Music fans. This work it’s different I wouldn’t say its Metal, it sounds like it on my soloing, but its more Perfect and extended, it will have also some acoustics.
With Criminal we have plans to record another album maybe in 2010, or for the end of the year hopefully we will have enough material to go into the studio and have it released on 2011, I had been questioned about a Band parallel to Criminal, it’s something I’d like to do after recording my solo project.

Musica en Progreso: Thanks a lot Rodrigo for your time and Good Luck with everything.

Rodrigo’s Personal File.

Instrument and Brand of Preference:
Ibanez, Gibson, Mesa Boogie, Boss. I really like to get an Esp or get some vintage gear.
Favorite Musician: (s) Bach, Pink Floyd, A Holdsworth
Five best albums of all time (metal/Rock): Too many
Five best albums of all time (other styles): Far too many, this is a Planet of musicians!
Favorite Movie: Fantasy
Favorite Actor/Actress:
Favorite Food (dish): Chicken, Corma(Indian), Mongolian Meat with rice and spring rolls(Chinese). Chilean Chicken Soup, Sea food.
Favorite Drink: J D and Coke, Citron Vodka, Chilean Red Pinot or Cab.
Technical Data: (Equipment, Pedals “processor”, Pick brand/ Number. Strings Gauge):
At the moment I own 15 guitars: 2 custom Ibanez, 2 JS Joe Satriani model, 1 Gibson Goth, 2 Stratocasters, 3 IBZ RGS prestige, an english Maverick, a Paul Gilbert Ibanez etc
Mesa Boogie Dual rectifier, Marshall cab, Marshall Jcm 800 50 W,
Boss Pedals, ns2, harmonist, a GT8, tuner, delat dd3.
Morley Wha Wha pedal
Zoom 606 and 707(they are somewhere in the house..haha)
Dunlop picks
Fast fret
DR Strings only
Audiotechnica wireless system

Tuning Key for most of White Hell: C

Favorite Martial Art or Sport: I do sport in the morning with a trainer to keep fit, running, I did tae kwon do and karate, and if I had the time I would take one of them again. I like yoga as well.

Text:Rodrigo T.
Photos: "Taken from Facebook"
Criminal Chile 09-Carmen Ortiz
Criminal Chile 09 Dan Biggin
Wacken Germany 09-Samantha Carrington
Wacken Germany 09-Matt Davis

Redemption DVD+CD on Inside Out Music Label

2009-04-16T17:10:00.001-07:00

Redemption is a US Power-Progressive Metal Band. In their beginnings the group was Led by guitarist Nick van Dyk and also originally featured Rick Mythiasin from Steel Prophet on vocals, Guitarist Bernie Versailles (who toured with Fates Warning for 1997's APSOG album and also plays main role as Guitarist for Ray Alder's Engine Band) and Jason Rullo from Symphony X on drums. Mythiasin was replaced in 2003 by Magnitude 9's Corey Brown (who's voice his very much in the vain of Ray Alder and it's said to be replacing Lance King on Britain's Balance of Power).
Later Ray Alder of the Classic and Progressive Metal precursor band Fates Warning, who had sung on one track on Redemption's self-titled debut, stepped in as Redemption's full-time vocalist for 2005's The Fullness of Time work.

Recently released from Inside Out - http://www.artist-shop.com/insideout
Redemption/Frozen In The Moment: Live In Atlanta ....DVD + CD $17.99
In September 2007 Redemption played a fantastic show at the legendary ProgPower USA festival in Atlanta, GA, in front of 1200 ecstatic fans. The show was recorded for the live document that is now "Frozen In The Moment – Live in Atlanta."

Foreword by Rodrigo Trupp
(to purchase Music CD's or check album covers graphics and soundbites please visit :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

Henry Cow DVD and CD on ReR Music Label

2009-04-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Henry Cow's early performances happened as far as of 1968 supporting Pink Floyd at a concert on Homerton College, in Cambridge.
The Group started life when Fred Frith met Tim Hodgkinson on early May of 1968 at a Blues Pub. They started playing a variety of musical styles due to their affinity and open minds. Later that year other Musicians came aboard: Andy Powell on bass guitar, Dave Attwood, drums and Rob Brooks rhythm guitar. This formation would last very shortly until Frith, Hodgkinson and Powell became a trio. Powell was a Music Student at King's College and his teacher Roger Smalley, had knowledge of all diverse and eclectic new sounds coming from groups and Musicians like: Soft Machine, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa. Such Music influenced them in their writing and compositon.

The band suffered several changes int their formation till they signed contract with a new emerging Label called Virgin in May 1973, by that time the personnel consisted on: Fred Frith guitar, violin, bass guitar, piano and xylophone, Tim Hodgkinson organ, alto saxophone and clarinet, John Greaves bass guitar and piano, Chris Cutler drums, percussion and Geoff Leigh on saxophones, flute and clarinet.
On Sunday March 12 1978 Henry Cow organized a Festival in London called RIO (Rock in Oposition) Bringing on board; Stormy Six from Italy, Samla Mammas Manna from Sweden, Univers Zero from Belgium and Etron Fou Leloublan from France, the theme was: "Five Rock groups That Rock Companies don't want you to hear from!". Many Bands across Europe performed on this established event throughout the years promoting such unique styles as they were Improvisation, Progressiveness and mainly Expressionism proclaiming their beliefs against pressure from British and American Rock labels and commercial industries alike who compromised their Music.
After five albums and a couple of live recordings and extensive live work Henry Cow's last concert was held in Milan on 25 July 1978, The Band existed almost untouched until they disappeared after finishing Western Culture a little bit later in May that same year

Coming soon from ReR - http://www.artist-shop.com/rer

Henry Cow/40th Anniversary Full Box Set ....CD box set + DVD $179.99
(Boxes 1 & 2, 9 CD's, 1 DVD, 2 Boxes, 2 60 Pg Books) The 5 full-length discs in Box 1 cover Henry Cow's career from the pre-Virgin Records days up to roughly 1975. These are all previously unreleased recordings, some live, some demo, some studio, all sonically enhanced by Bob Drake's painstaking re-mastering. We are treated to everything from early BBC sessions to somewhat later live improvisations, alternate recordings with Robert Wyatt, to the full 18 minute version of "With the Yellow Moon And Half Star" (The Bacchae). There are many compositions and improvisations new to anyone who only knows the official releases; The disks also document a number of one-off projects and events and - where different or remarkable enough to justify inclusion - live versions of parts of the LP repertoire. The hefty, 60-page booklet is chock-full of historic information and exclusive photos.

The 4 full-length CD's + 1 DVD in Box 2 cover the Cow's career from roughly 1976 to the band's demise, with an emphasis on the later era. Nobody knew that this 75-minute concert broadcast of the band existed, so the DVD is a real boon, and has spectacular versions of "Beautiful As The Moon", "Living In The Heart Of The Beast", "March", "Erk Gah", "No More Songs" and a great, improvisational piece. The music discs are also excellent, and include as highlights the original version of "Joan," as well as a 12 minute, hitherto unreleased piece by Lindsay Cooper, and great versions of "Erk Gah" and "Viva Pa Ubu." There's also some immaculate improvising, including a 17 minute foray from the original RIO Festival, and Fred's "Awake Against Sleep" from the Western Culture sessions - and all that's just the tip of the iceberg. The hefty, 60-page booklet is chock-full of historic information and exclusive photos. And everything has been carefully transferred and re-mastered by Bob Drake to
the best audio quality that current technology allows without interference or tampering.

foreword by Rodrigo Trupp

Pendragon 30 Year Anniversary Concert in Poland CD/DVD

2009-04-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Pendragon along IQ and Pallas are the three bands that came right after Marillion to promote what became the New era of progressive rock in the Genesis mold and tradition, yet much more accessible at times but not least intricate or less conceptual.
With great albums such as "The World", "The Window of Life" and "Master of Illusion" which were released thorough the late 90's, it became pretty obvious that they where no a mere Clone band of the aforementioned groups. Let's not forget that among their personnel there where musicians who worked with Steve Hackett, later collaborations included: Arena, Shadowland and the more Stronger heavy acts such as Powerquest and Dragonforce.

Coming soon from Toff Records http://www.artist-shop.com/toff
Pendragon/Concerto Maximo ....double CD $18.99
Pendragon/Concerto Maximo ....DVD $18.99
Pendragon/Concerto Maximo ....DVD + double CD $35.99
Neo-prog-rock giants' outstanding come-back! Shortly after the release of their latest album "Pure," undoubtedly one of the most noteworthy prog-rock releases of the year 2008, the legendary Pendragon once more visited the Wyspianski Theater in Katowice, Poland, to celebrate the band's 30th anniversary.
With their outstanding performance, possibly one of the best the Polish audience had ever had a chance to witness, and with their line-up strengthened by the addition of a new drummer Scott Higham (also known from his past cooperation with Clive Nolan on the project Caamora), the band surely proved that they're still a formidable force on the prog-rock scene! This special limited edition digipak with 2CD features the recording of the band's outstanding performance in Wyspianski Theatre. The DVD features 150 minutes of Pendragon live. Also included are interviews and plenty of behind-the-scenes footage.

English neo-progressive rock band Pendragon, a mainstay of the genre, celebrates its 30th anniversary by performing live in Poland. Also included are interviews and plenty of behind-the-scenes footage, photo gallery and more! Also available is a special limited edition of "Concerto Maximo" DVD with 2 bonus audio CDs with songs recorded during the gig at the theater. Limited to 3000 copies.

Foreword by Rodrigo Trupp

Pain Of Salvation Music and DVD's on Inside Out

2009-04-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

Recently released from Inside Out - http://www.artist-shop.com/insideout
Pain of Salvation/The Second Death Of Pain Of Salvation ....double CD $17.99
Pain of Salvation/The Second Death Of Pain Of Salvation ....double DVD $21.99
Pain of Salvation/The Second Death Of Pain Of Salvation ....double CD + double DVD $29.99

Filmed during their successful Scarsick tour in Paradiso, Amsterdam (Netherlands), this release contains the full concert on one DVD and a documentary and picture gallery on a separate DVD. A dynamic show of one of the leading bands in the genre of Metal and Progressive Rock. The documentary marks the end and the beginning of a period in the life of Pain Of Salvation. Available as a 2 CD audio set, a 2 DVD version and as a limited edition in a high-class package with both DVDs and CDs.

Ayreon (Arjen Lucassen) Timeline DVD/CD on Inside Out Record Label

2009-04-15T22:07:00.000-07:00

Ayreon/Timeline ....triple CD + DVD $27.99

Timeline is the first retrospective release from Arjen A. Lucassen, the chart storming Dutch musical mastermind.
Packaged in a high-quality box, this release contains three CD's and a DVD, which presents both the artistic vision and continuing storyline that he has created under the artist name Ayreon. The retrospective highlights Ayreon's albums: The Final Experiment, Actual Fantasy (Revisited), Into The Electric Castle, The Universal Migrator Part I & II, The Human Equation, and 01011001. The DVD is packed full of video clips, documentaries and rarities.

Saga CD'S on Inside Out Record Label

2009-04-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

Recently released from Inside Out - http://www.artist-shop.com/insideout
Saga/The Human Condition ....CD $14.99

On The Human Condition Saga sets another musical milestone in their more than 30 year band history. A unique mix of elements from the genres of melodic rock, pop and prog. Replacing former singer Michael Sadler, Rob Moratti's voice is a perfect addition and creative input to the classic sound of the band. SAGA is well prepared for a long lasting future.
Saga/Contact: Live In Munich ....double CD $17.99
Saga/Contact: Live In Munich ....double DVD $21.99
Saga/Contact: Live In Munich ....double CD + double DVD $29.99
Recorded and filmed during the 30th anniversary tour of the Canadian rock flagship Saga, Contact: Live In Munich is also a document of the end of an era. Singer and co-founder Michael Sadler left the band after the tour to reserve and spend more time with his family and new born son - another reason why the sold out show in Munich turned into an emotional musical highlight for both the band and the audience. Once again Saga lead the listeners through all the milestones of their highly successful career, combined with material from the last studio album 10,000 Days . Available as a 2 CD audio set, 2 DVD in digipak or as a Limited Edition with double DVD and double CD in high class packaging. Bonus DVD contains a documentary, photo gallery and 6 tracks from the live show in Mannheim, recorded by Underground TV.

O.S.I./Blood (Jim Matheos/Kevin Moore)

2009-04-15T19:54:00.000-07:00

Coming soon from Inside Out - http://www.artist-shop.com/insideout

O.S.I./Blood ....CD $14.99
O.S.I./Blood (Limited Edition) ....double CD $17.99
In BLOOD, O.S.I. have succeeded in creating a fascinating album at the crossroads between rock and progressive metal. Music that alternates between atmospherically dense and aggressively demanding elements, while effortlessly transcending barriers between different styles and genres. Following its impressive predecessors, Office Of Strategic Influence (2003) and Free (2006), Blood is the third release by Kevin Moore and Jim Matheos. O.S.I. unites two exceptional composers who share their penchant for the unusual and are on the same artistic wavelength. Along with Moore and Matheos, BLOOD features Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison. There's also a guest appearance by Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) on 'Stockholm,' which the Swedish musician composed together with the two O.S.I. masterminds. Moore and Matheos took care of the album's production themselves, while the mix was done with Grammy winner Phil Magnotti. BLOOD is an ambitious album recorded by real masters of their trade, for
people with a taste for the above-average. The limited edition version comes with a bonus CD with three additional tracks totally 25 minutes and features guest vocals from No-Man's Tim Bowness.

Klaus Schulze's CD's on Ryko Music Label

2009-04-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

New Releases from Ryko and associated labels - http://www.artist-shop.com/rykodisc
Klaus Schulze/La Vie Electronique I ....triple CD $20.99
Klaus Schulze/La Vie Electronique II ....triple CD $20.99
Klaus Schulze started playing music about 40 years ago. As a young kid he had some guitar training and after playing acoustic guitar for about six years he began fooling around with the electric guitar. And then he started playing drums, first with the avant garde/free rock trio PSY FREE, then Tangerine Dream, and in August 1970 he founded Ash Ra Tempel. But, once again he felt compelled to move on and switch instruments and he started playing keyboards. In his own words: "What started as an experiment (and still is) has increased to a giant sound cosmos over the years." "La Vie Electronique" presents the listener a chance to experience this progression with rare recordings that haven't been released on his regular albums. "La Vie Electronique" was first published as a strictly limited 50 CD-Box and will be released now in chronological order in 3CD sets including some material never released before. The first set contains pieces, which have been recorded between 1969 and 1972 with
very simple tools like the Teisco Organ - but with a big vision. The second set contains pieces, which have been recorded between 1972 and 1975.

Edgard Varese "The View from the Edge"

2009-04-15T19:06:00.000-07:00

Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, also Edgar Varèse (December 22, 1883 November 6, 1965). Varese was a French-born composer-Musician who lived mostly in the United States.

Varèse's innovations to the Music specter was emphasizing on timbre(difference on sound that comes from diversity of each particular Instrument) and rhythm(metric or tempo measurement). He came up with the technical process of organizing the sound, deciding which timbres and rhythms can be grouped together. Amazingly, his surviving work only last about three hours, yet he has been cited as an influence by several major composers of the late 20th century and also he's considered the "Father of Electronic Music" due to the addition of new instruments and electronic resources on his compositions.
Edgard Varese/The View From The Edge ....CD $15.99
el - 'The View from the Edge' is about the role of percussion in modern music and is a sequel to el's previous Varese edition, 'The Complete Works of Edgard Varese Volume 1.' An important restoration of the composer's earliest recordings, the edition was greeted by great critical enthusiasm. Championed for years by Frank Zappa, this genius is today regarded as "The Father Of Electronic Music;" a man that has been described as the Leonardo da Vinci of modern music. 'Arcana' and 'Ionisation' are the composer's key works; two of the most important of the twentieth century. Leonard Bernstein's historic seventeen minute 'Arcana' with The New York Philharmonic is amongst the rarest Varese recordings. The American Percussion Society's vigorous recording of 'Ionisation' has been inexplicably out of print for five decades and the Oliver Messiaen pieces are his first official recordings ever, dating from 1946 & 1947, and originally released on 78 by Pathe. Both are beautifully performed by a
young Yvonne Loriod.

Foreword By Rodrigo Trupp

(to purchase Music CD's or check album covers graphics and soundbites please visit :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

News From Gary Davis http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm

2009-03-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

Schenker,Michael Group - One Night At Budokan EXPANDED/REMASTE $21.95

Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of this 1982 live album from the guitar great including three bonus tracks: 'Intro, with music from Wagner's The Ride Of The Valkyries', 'Tales Of Mystery' and an 11 minute Cozy Powell drum solo. MSG's first live album (and their third total) was the most commercially successful, reaching #5 in March 1982. The record has now been digitally remastered and for the first time showcases the entire set from their concert at the legendary Budokan arena in Tokyo. Many tracks have been extended and the album now stretches across two discs, three bonus tracks omitted from the original release have finally made it onto this remaster. EMI. 2009.

(to purchase Music CD's or check album covers graphics and soundbites please visit :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

Asia - Live In Tokyo 2007/2008 Phoenix tour

2009-03-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

To say a word about one of the few good bands that ever existed after the Progressive Rock movement of the 70's, it's just simple as how "Simple" their Music was described by most fans from such period. They came with a marketed product and made it big over night and as fast as they rose to the huge circuits around the World they basically vanished. Geoff Downes regrouped the Band and made a few decent albums, some heavier than others, others much more progressive than the original "trilogy" Asia, Alpha or Astra, but certainly to see that famous line up together again was simply more complicated than avoiding to come across the many bad reviews so called "Specialized" press wrote about them back in their heyday.

As I said Asia was putted together by a couple of "Record Label" experts and became a massive Radio Friendly thing that kicked out even Journey and Foreigner off the charts. To see them back playing tunes that are Immortal and to hear some songs they never played due to their turbulent personal relationship (good they decided to play Don't Cry as it is and not as an acoustic short version as they did at first in 2007 also it's great to hear some B-sides songs that never made it to their official releases) is a real treat and even as they are well aged human beings now the Music stays fresh as it was back then. On tour and reunited with an awesome Live Album and DVD Live In Tokyo 2007 entitled "Fantasia"a new album properly called "Phoenix" in their sleeves, Asia to me has always been a great solid Progressive Rock Band and only a few others from their time have been able to create such powerful Sound and Music. Amazingly enough is to know that such long gap in their career took an end with just a couple of phone calls between former members.
Asia - Live In Tokyo 2 CD SET $18.95
2009 two CD release. Recorded live on the reunited Prog supergroup's successful 2007/2008 Phoenix tour, this set was recorded in Tokyo on May 12th, 2008. Apart from all the big Asia hits and album tracks, the unique factor of this concert comes from the band members, who add solo performances of hits from their previous bands such as Yes, King Crimson, The Buggles and ELP. Features tracks including 'Only Time Will Tell', 'Heat Of The Moment', 'Daylight', 'Never Again', 'Voice Of America' and many others. Store For Music.

Tracks:
Title Composer Time
1 Daylight Downes, Wetton 6:33
2 Only Time Will Tell Wetton, Downes 5:04
3 Wildest Dreams Downes, Wetton 5:40
4 Never Again Downes, Wetton 5:19
5 Roundabout Anderson, Howe 8:32
6 Time Again Downes, Howe, Palmer, Wetton 5:29
7 Bolero Downes, Howe, Wetton 3:53
8 Clap Howe 6:47
9 Voice of America Downes, Wetton 3:51
10 Smile Has Left Your Eyes Wetton 3:42
11 Ride Easy Downes, Wetton 4:56
12 Open Your Eyes Wetton, Downes 7:11
13 Fanfare for the Common Man Copland, Emerson, Lake, Palmer 9:30
14 Without You Howe, Wetton 5:58
15 Extraordinary Life Downes, Wetton 5:44
16 In the Court of the Crimson King McDonald, Sinfield 5:11
17 Video Killed the Radio Star Downes, Horn, Woolley 4:48
18 Heat Goes On/Drum Solo Downes, Palmer, Wetton 11:07
19 Heat of the Moment Downes, Wetton 8:33
20 Don't Cry Downes, Wetton 4:06
21 Sole Survivor Wetton, Downes 5:53

foreword by Rodrigo Trupp

(to purchase Music CD's or check album covers graphics and soundbites please visit :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

John Payne and Andy Nye/The Passion

2009-03-12T23:25:00.000-07:00

To many puritans John Payne it's just the wrong tenure for which Prog-Rock Band ASIA went through between 1991 and 2004. To me he helped Geoff Downes continue Asia's legacy after several bad attempts of reformation before he Joined as lead singer for the group and their consecutive AQUA from 1991.
John Payne and Andy Nye/The Passion ....import CD $18.99
John Payne has more than paid his dues in the rock business over the last twenty five years having worked with a number of high profile artists such as Roger Daltrey singing backing vocals on Roger's album Under A raging Moon. He was also briefly the vocalist with ELO II. However for fifteen years John Payne was perhaps best know as the vocalist and bassist with British Rock Band Asia. In that time John wrote and produced seven studio albums that found success across the world including the albums Aqua, Aria, Arena, Aura and Silent Nation. He also played countless concerts with the band in Europe America, South America and Asia. Following the split in Asia he formed a new band featuring Guthrie Govan and Jay Schellen (Also from the last line up of Asia) entitled GPS and the band subsequently released their debut album Window to the Soul. This release was followed up by dates in the UK and Europe and also Japan. In 2007 John Payne joined the cast of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds
playing the part of Parson Nathaniel. Prior to joining Asia John Payne joined with former Michael Schenker keyboard player Andy Nye and formed the band Passion. The band at the time also included former Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr and former Mike Oldfield and Rick Wakeman guitarist Ant Glynne. The Passion recordings have assumed an almost legendary status amongst fans of Asia and this first official release of the original recordings made by John Payne and Andy Nye will certainly prove to be popular with those rock fans who like the AOR sound of rock performed by John Payne.

foreword by Rodrigo Trupp

(to purchase Music CD's or check album covers graphics and soundbites please visit :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

Adventures In Sound

2009-03-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

Iannis Xenakis, Karleheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Schaeffer are among few of the revolutionary Artists-Musicians who basically binded Electricity with Music during World War II. To explain this from a different angle, we may say that without them there wouldn't be "Rock" or any other form of modern methods of expansion for Music away from orthodox expressions.
Various Artists/Adventures In Sound ....CD $15.99
el - Across Post-War Europe composers like the young German, Karleheinz Stockhausen, the Romanian-born architect, Iannis Xenakis and the Frenchmen, Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry began to seek out new ways of organizing sound and looked to science for inspiration. Science and logic, after all, held out the promise of a new civilization unsullied by irrational forces like nationalism; might it not do the same for the arts? These composers constructed their music according to widely differing philosophies, systems, formulae and beliefs. What drove them on was a hunger for new sounds and new soundscapes that pointed the way towards a world in which there was simply no place for the horrors of war. And there can be no doubt that their pioneering work proved an inspiration for future generations of musicians. They too were looking to free themselves from the dead weight of convention, and when in 1967 Paul McCartney discovered how much further Stockhausen had already gone with Gesang
der Junglinge, he encouraged the Beatles to experiment with techniques ranging from the use of reversed tapes to the total abandonment of metrics and melody - most notably on Revolution 9 and the (to date) unreleased 14-minute free-for-all Carnival of Light. All of the recordings in this set are beyond groundbreaking and historic. Everything is out of print or impossible to find and as an overview of the development of electronic and electro-acoustic music in the post-war years our edition is an invaluable document.

foreword by Rodrigo Trupp

(to purchase Music CD's or check album covers graphics and soundbites please visit :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band

2009-03-12T20:34:00.000-07:00

Captain Beefheart was Introduced to me by a Friend-Musician I met first time a came to Chicago in 2001, we had a short lived ensemble in Which I played "Bass" and at same time the only thing we would do besides drinking beer and see local bands playing small Bars was to hear Captain Beefheart. This Band was leaded by North American Singer Songwriter and Painter Don Van Vliet(born Don Glen Vliet). Their Style ranges between Rock, Punk, and over all a lot of expressionism similar to Frank Zappa's eclectic sounds and experimentation but with hints of blues. The Band now extinct produced about a dozen pieces of "Jewelry" between 1967 through 1982 influencing and gaining considerable amount of recognition but not commercial success. Beefheart finished His "Magic Band" (as the group was known to people) and called it a day to pursue a successful career in Painting at his home in northern California where he lives now.

Captain Beefheart/Safe As Milk (originally released in 1967) ....CD $15.99
Rev-Ola - Rev-Ola reissues one of the greatest albums of all time! SAFE AS MILK by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band! This REALLY IS an album without which no collection is complete! With A&M junior popmeister Richard Perry, jack of all trades Ry Cooder, songwriting genius Russ Titelman, The Captain makes his first real shot at being legendary...and succeeds! One of the greatest albums ever made, INTENSIFIED in true Rev-Ola style for your pleasure. Beautifully re-mastered by the wonderful Norman Blake at studio 3! Wonderful liner notes by Kris Needs with comments from the stars of today!

foreword by Rodrigo Trupp

(to purchase Music CD's or check album covers graphics and soundbites please visit :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

Syd Barret Tribute CD

2008-10-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Syd Barrett Tribute/Like Black Holes In The Sky CD

Syd Barrett birthed generations of cutting edge artists.
Over four decade's worth of the biggest names in avant-garde metal have come together to pay tribute to this madcap genius. Featuring some of the most influential players in heavy music (including Justin Broadrick, Jarboe and Pentagram, as well as members of Voivod), this album is a hard-rocking trip through the mind of a musician the likes of which will never be heard again.

(CD's album covers graphics and soundbites at :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

Ingwie Malmsteen

2008-10-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

KOCH SIGNS DEAL WITH METAL GUITAR VIRTUOSO  YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
Port Washington, NY – September 29, 2008 – KOCH Entertainment Distribution announced today that it has signed an exclusive physical and digital distribution deal with Rising Force Records and its flagship artist neo-classical metal guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen.  
"I am truly excited that Rising Force records will be distributed via KOCH, and with our brand new release "Perpetual Flame" as well as future releases of back catalogue materials, this is a very important and exciting relationship," comments Yngwie Malmsteen.
2008 is turning out to be one of the busiest years of Yngwie's career. In addition to the release of his forthcoming new album, he will be inducted into Hollywood's Rock Walk on October 13th, a new Fender/Yngwie Malmsteen custom shop guitar will be unveiled later in the year (with a limited run of 100 instruments) and there will be a slew of CD reissues of Yngwie classics. All the while, the accolades continue to pour in: 'Roadie Crew Magazine' organized a poll in which 330 respected rock guitarists were asked to vote for their favorite guitarist of all-time. Yngwie checked in at a lofty number 3 – behind fellow legends Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.

Iced Earth CD

2008-10-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

Iced Earth/The Crucible Of Man: Something Wicked Part 2 .CD
While the 1998 album provided a general overview of the story, Schaffer has been conceptualizing for well over a decade. The saga is being fully brought to life with the release of the back-to-back conceptual albums "Framing Armageddon" and "The Crucible of Man." While both albums provide answers to mysteries the previous releases would create, the timeliness of the story in today's world is guaranteed to keep people thinking and guessing. Schaffer's ability to convey the central themes and events of the story without always revealing exactly "why" characters' decisions are made and "how" events come to pass, will keep fans of the saga coming back as future mediums for the "Something Wicked" storyline are revealed. "The Crucible of Man" is the culmination of the storyline. The absolute pinnacle of the American Metal Powerhouse's career, and happily – the full-length return of singer Matt Barlow.
(Cd's, album cover graphics and soundbites at - http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm )

Igor Stravinsky CD

2008-10-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Igor Stravinsky/Octet To Orpheus...The Neo-Classical Stravinsky .CD Of all the major composers of the 20th century, none was more warmly embraced by the world of rock music than Stravinsky. Along with Edgard Varese, he was the principal influence on the compositions of Frank Zappa, while numerous avant-garde and progressive rock bands - among them Yes, who would take the stage to the accompaniment of "The Firebird",
proclaimed him their guiding light. The obvious reasons for this are his pioneering use of powerful and unusual rhythms, his music's lack of sentimentality, its waspish wit, its anti-authoritarianism - not to mention the composer's love of good whisky - all found obvious counterparts in the rock lifestyle, even if his meticulous approach to discipline did not. If history makes Stravinsky sound like a daunting and intimidating musical figure - a composer to be approached with fear and reverence rather than any expectation of pleasure - then the gorgeous music contained here will prove a more than useful corrective. The centerpiece of
the compilation is the premier recording of Stravinsky's beautiful and enigmatic score for the ballet Orpheus. The set also includes Stravinsky's remarkable forays into film, Ode, and jazz, the Ebony Concerto, performed by the Woody Herman Orchestra. All the recordings are conducted by Igor Stravinsky.
(Cd's, album cover graphics and soundbites at - http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm )

Evergrey CD

2008-10-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Evergrey/Torn CD
In a restless world which demands permanent innovation and at the same time the preservation of tried and tested ideals, Evergrey are among the few bands who have succeeded in performing this difficult balancing act in artistic terms. Their intelligent dark melodic metal is marked by high compositional skill, their very own signature and a diversity which never ceases to amaze their audience. The songs by the band from Sweden are never one-dimensional or indeed predictable, but always accessible and based on clear concepts. As confident as we have known Evergrey for more than ten years, just as convincing do the band present themselves on their latest album, "Torn": dynamic, powerful, and always haunting.
(Cd's,album cover graphics and soundbites at - http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm )

2008-09-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

Uli Jon Roth Under A Dark Sky
ULI JON ROTH To Release 'Under A Dark Sky' In September - Aug. 11, 2008
Legendary guitarist Uli Jon Roth will release his first real rock record since 1985's "Beyond The Astral Skies" on September 23 via SPV Records. Entitled "Under A Dark Sky", the CD is the first official release in the long-awaited series of Symphonic Legends, which is a cycle of music written by Uli for his all-encompassing SKY OF AVALON project. Since the early 1970's Uli Jon Roth has been a household name, be it from his work with the Scorpions, his own band Electric Sun, composing symphonies and concertos and sometimes performing with symphony orchestras throughout Europe. (CD's album covers graphics and soundbites at :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

2008-09-13T09:45:00.001-07:00

Chastain/Mystery Of Illusion CD
David Chastain remains one of the most active guitarists from the original shred guitar scene, stemming from his multi-faceted talent and long-range career. David Chastain's sales draw from nearly 20 albums and more than 20 years as a recording artist, both as a leader and as a collaborator. There has been a resurgent interest in musician-oriented records from the Shrapnel back catalog as well as in fellow label mates Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Vinnie Moore, Jason Becker and Richie Kotzen. Mystery Of Illusion is one of those seminal records that helped to shape the emerging progressive metal movement. (CD's album covers graphics and soundbites at :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

2008-09-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Johnny Winter/Live Bootleg Series Volume 3 music CD This past year, the Live Bootleg Series CDs by Johnny Winter have brought the artist much critical acclaim and two high charting Billboard Blues albums (Volume One #15 and Volume Two #7) . For the new Live Bootleg Series Volume Three edition, the living legend has gone back into his forty-year archives and hand picked seven incredible performances which range from his hit interpretations like Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited," a nod to Elmore James with his rocking "Stranger Blues," to a stunning sixteen minute rendition of Bobby Blue Bland's "I Smell Trouble." Complete this blazing set with liner notes and rare photos from the Winter archives, and you have another winning chapter in the historic series known as The Live Bootleg Series. Produced by Johnny Winter and remastered by Joe Reagoso. (CD's album covers graphics and soundbites at :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

2008-09-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Gong/Live at the Uncon 2006 DVD
Filmed at the Gong Family Unconventional Gathering at The Melkweg in Amsterdam in November 2006 some thirty five years after its inception we have the Gong UnCon performance. The DVD includes performances from Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage, Tim Blake, Gilli Smyth, Mike Howlett, Miquette Giraudy, Didier Malherbe, Theo Travis and Chris Taylor. The UNcon was the first time that Daevid Allen, Steve Hillage, Tim Blake, Gilli Smyth, Mike Howlett, Miquette Giraudy and Didier Malherbe had all been together on stage and performed since the legendary 1977 Gong reunion in Paris almost thirty years previously. The performance captured here is not only a stunning musical happening but also historical and the cameras capture the moment beautifully.An absolute must for both fans who attended the UNcon and those who couldn’t travel to Holland to join in the celebrations. Gong Live At The UNcon will be a DVD you will want to add to your collection. (CD's album covers graphics and soundbites at :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

2008-09-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

Bruford Levin Upper Extremities/Blue Nights CD
Bruford Levin Upper Extremities/Blue Nights CD
Bruford Levin Upper Extremities is the band formed by Bill Bruford and Tony Levin in 1998. Both musicians first came together in King Crimson in the early eighties and of course had extremely distinguished careers before meeting up in King Crimson. Bruford had previously been a member of Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and led his own band Bruford. Tony Levin had previously played with Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel and also played on the sessions for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Double fantasy album. Bruford Levin Upper Extremities or B.L.U.E. as they became known recorded two albums, one self titled studio album released in 1999 and a live album entitled Blue Nights released in 2000. The band was filled out by guitarist David Torn and trumpeter Chris Botti and the music the band performed was an intriguing mix of jazz and rock. Blue Nights is the companion album to the studio debut from B.L.U.E. The album was recorded in 1998 and includes live versions of a number of songs from the debut
studio album including Cerulean Sea, and Original Sin. There are also a number of songs that appear only on this album. As a companion album to the studio B.L.U.E. album this live album completes the circle and as a memento for those who witnessed the tour is invaluable.(CD's album covers graphics and soundbites at :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

2008-09-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

Motorhead/Motorizer CD
Motorhead! "Motorizer" is Motorhead's 24th album and gives listeners the feeling that they have not yet reached the peak of their musical output. Like the band themselves have stated: 'A kick ass record – definitely one of the wider ranged Motorhead records ever released.' The album was produced by Cameron Webb and the recording took place at Foo Fighter Dave Grohl's 606 studios in Los Angeles. Motorhead is embarking on a full-scale US tour together with Heaven & Hell and Judas Priest, already being hailed as the 'tour of the year.' (CD's album covers graphics and soundbites at :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

2008-09-13T01:39:00.001-07:00

Glenn Hughes/First Underground Nuclear Kitchen CD
A living legend, Glenn Hughes is best know from his days as the singer and bassist for Deep Purple. On First Underground Nuclear Kitchen (or F.U.N.K.) Glenn deftly combines his 2 passions, Soul and Rock for an incendiary sound that can be matched by no other. Joined on this CD by Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, Chad Smith Glen once again reminds us why he is considered by many to be one of rock music's greatest singers.
(CD's album covers graphics and soundbites at :http://www.artist-shop.com/news.htm)

2008-08-29T20:49:00.000-07:00

Guitar Legend YNGWIE MALMSTEEN Unleashes First New Album in three years, 'PERPETUAL FLAME,' To be inducted into Rock Walk and Tour North America Fall 2008
The global rock guitar community will undoubtedly mark October 14, 2008 on their calendars, as this is the exact date that Yngwie Malmsteen will be issuing his latest studio triumph, 'Perpetual Flame.' The album will be the first-ever Yngwie album to be released via Rising Force Records (distributed via Koch), while the album also marks the debut on an Yngwie album by ex-Judas Priest/Iced Earth frontman, Tim 'Ripper' Owens.

Twelve tracks of pure six string metallic bliss (which stretches to almost 70 minutes total), the album was produced and engineered by Yngwie himself, and mixed by Roy Z (who has previously worked with Judas Priest and Bruce Dickinson, among others). Joining Yngwie and Ripper on the album is keyboardist Derek Sherinian and drummer Patrick Johansson (Yngwie contributed bass, additional keyboards, and vocals, as well), but on tour, Michael Troy will supply keyboards, and Bjorn Englen will be laying down the bass. A supporting tour of the U.S. and Canada is slated to run through all of October.

Single-handedly, Yngwie Malmsteen trailblazed the classical metal movement in the 1980's. During a time when the majority of guitarists were merely copying Eddie Van Halen, Yngwie was one of the few rock guitarists to create his own instantly-identifiable playing style – which has been subsequently mimicked by countless other guitarists. Yngwie is responsible for issuing some of the metal's all-time great guitar classics, especially such releases as 1984's 'Rising Force,' 1985's 'Marching Out,' 1992's 'Fire and Ice,' and most recently, 2005's 'Unleash the Fury.'

In addition to the arrival of 'Perpetual Flame' in October, another career highlight is slated for that same month – Yngwie will be inducted into the Rock Walk on Monday, October 13th in Los Angeles.

Additionally a new Fender/Yngwie Malmsteen custom shop guitar will be unveiled on November 28th (with a limited run of 100 instruments) and there will be a slew of CD reissues of Yngwie classics to soon be announced.
And the accolades continue to pour in - 'Roadie Crew Magazine' organized a poll in which 330 respected rock guitarists were asked to vote for their favorite guitarist of all-time. Yngwie checked in at a lofty number 3, only behind fellow legends Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen. Without question, 2008 is shaping up to be the year of Yngwie.

COMPLETE TRACKLISTING FOR 'PERPETUAL FLAME':

1. Death Dealer
2. Damnation Game
3. Live to Fight (Another Day)
4. Red Devil
5. Four Horsemen (Of the Apocalypse)
6. Priest of the Unholy
7. Be Careful What You Wish For
8. Caprici Di Diablo
9. Lament
10. Magic City
11. Eleventh Hour
12. Heavy Heart

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN 2008 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:

SEPTEMBER 28, 2008 SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO – CENTRO BELLAS ARTES
OCTOBER 4, 2008 SAN ANTONIO, TX – SCOUTBAR
OCTOBER 5, 2008 DALLAS, TX – GRANADA THEATER
OCTOBER 8, 2008 SAN DIEGO, CA – HOUSE OF BLUES
OCTOBER 9, 2008 ANAHEIM, CA – HOUSE OF BLUES
OCTOBER 10, 2008 LAS VEGAS, NV – HOUSE OF BLUES
OCTOBER 11, 2008 VENTURA, CA – MAJESTIC VENTURA THEATER
OCTOBER 12, 2008 LOS ANGELES, CA – AVALON
OCTOBER 17, 2008 ROYAL OAK, MI – ROYAL OAK THEATER
OCTOBER 19, 2008 CHICAGO, IL – HOUSE OF BLUES
OCTOBER 21, 2008 WILLIAMSVILLE, NY – CLUB INFINITY
OCTOBER 24, 2008 SAYREVILLE, NJ – STARLAND BALLROOM
OCTOBER 26, 2008 NEW YORK, NY – BLENDER THEATER

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT THE FOLLOWING SITES:
www.YngwieMalmsteen.com (official page)

www.RisingForceRecords.com (official record company page – will be launched soon)

www.fender.com/yngwie/english/ (information – and video clip - about Yngwie's signature guitar)

For more information or to schedule an interview, contact:
Jen Farhood
Chipster PR & Consulting, Inc.
Jen@chipsterpr.com

2008-04-21T20:08:00.000-07:00

More news from Chipster PR & Consulting, Inc. chip@chipsterpr.com.

METAL MASTERS TOUR 2008/ With Metal Legends PRIEST, HEAVEN & HELL, MOTORHEAD And TESTAMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: METAL LEGENDS JUDAS PRIEST, HEAVEN & HELL, MOTORHEAD, AND TESTAMENT UNITE FOR ‘METAL MASTERS TOUR’

WORLD PREMIERE OF JUDAS PRIEST ‘NOSTRADAMUS’ COVER ART AND FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD OF TITLE TRACK AT LIVENATION.COM

After weeks of speculation, Live Nation has put together a killer package that is bound to go down as the heavy metal event of 2008 - Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Motorhead and Testament will be touring together for the first time.

Dubbed ‘The Metal Masters Tour,’ the fifteen-date U.S. trek kicks off August 6th at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey. Tickets go on sale to the public beginning this weekend at www.livenation.com. Judas Priest will be supporting their epic concept album, ‘Nostradamus,’ arriving June 17th via Epic Records, which tells the tale of the renowned 16th century prophet. A few tracks from ‘Nostradamus’ will make their in-concert debut on ‘The Metal Masters Tour,’ but the majority of Priest’s set list will include some of metal’s all-time classics, as well as fan favorites that span the quintet’s entire career. Without a doubt, this will be one of Priest’s most powerful sets ever.

As a ‘sneak peak treat’ to fans starved for a musical taster, the first cut off the new album will make its world premiere debut as exclusive free MP3 download starting today exclusively at www.livenation.com/judaspriest.

Heaven & Hell will be supporting the release of ‘The Rules Of Hell,’ a five-CD boxed set available July 22nd from Rhino Records, which features re-mastered versions of all four Dio-era Black Sabbath albums (‘Heaven and Hell,’ ‘Mob Rules,’ ‘Live Evil’ and ‘Dehumanizer’) in a deluxe package with new liner notes.

Perennial road rats Motorhead will be offering a blistering barnstormer of a set spanning more than three decades of molar-rattling biker metal. A new studio album - the 20th of their storied career - is currently being recorded at their old pal Dave Grohl’s studio with an August release date targeted. Frontman Lemmy, named by the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper as “the nation’s greatest living Englishman,” blairs out, "Here it comes everybody, the test of your Metalness in 2008 and the years to come! Come one come all and be abused!"

Rounding out the line-up will be legendary thrash metal titans Testament, whose new album, ‘The Formation of Damnation,’ (April 29th) displays Testament as the quintessential modern heavy metal band, whose experience and accumulated skill allows them to attack with reserves of anger, energy and finesse that make them more powerful than ever. Lead singer Chuck Billy says, “Uniting these bands is the heavy metal event of generations. We are so proud to be a part of it.”

Although all four bands may represent different subgenres of heavy metal, all four have one thing in common – they have stuck to their stylistic guns through thick and thin, and have remained true to the metal form. And soon, band and fan will be united as one on ‘The Metal Masters Tour.’

“As ever, we look forward to screaming out loud with our metal maniac fans when we hit the road,” enthuses Priest singer, Rob Halford. “Thank you once again for your devotion and support. The Priest is back!”

This tour will be limited to fifteen very special engagements, and Citi cardmembers will have pre-sale access to tickets through Citi's Private Pass® Program, available to all Citi cardmembers at www.privatepass.citi.com.

Metal maniacs seeking the ultimate concert experience can access unique VIP ticket and fan experience packages that offer premium seats, meet & greets, pre-concert parties and more brought to you by the band's official websites,
www.judaspriest.com and www.heavenandhelllive.com.
VIP packages for the first events will be on sale by 10 a.m eastern time on Friday, April 25th. Also, not all VIP packages are the same, so be sure to pick the right one that suits you best.

See the official web sites for continually updated tour information and on-sale dates.

The dates are as follows:

Wed 06-Aug-08 Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 26, 10 am
Thu 07-Aug-08 Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, VA – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sat 09-Aug-08 PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 26, 10 am
Sun 10-Aug-08 Nikon at Jones Beach, Wantagh, NY – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 26, 10 am
Wed 13-Aug-08 Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, ON – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 25, 10 am
Sat 16-Aug-08 Post Gazette Pavilion, Pittsburgh, PA – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 25, 10 am
Mon 18-Aug-08 DTE Energy Music Theatre, Detroit, MI – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Tue 19-Aug-08 First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre, Chicago, IL – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 25, 5 pm
Fri 22-Aug-08 Superpages.com Amphitheatre, Dallas, TX – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sat 23-Aug-08 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Houston, TX – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sun 24-Aug-08 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, San Antonio, TX – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Wed 27-Aug-08 Journal Pavilion, Albuquerque, NM – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Thu 28-Aug-08 Cricket Wireless Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sat 30-Aug-08 Glen Helen Pavilion, San Bernardino, CA – PUBLIC ON SALE SOON
Sun 31-Aug-08 Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA – PUBLIC ON SALE APRIL 27, 10 am

ABOUT LIVE NATION:
Live Nation is the future of the music business. With the most live concerts, music venues and festivals in the world and the most comprehensive concert search engine on the web, Live Nation is revolutionizing the music industry: onstage and online. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Live Nation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol "LYV." Additional information about the company can be found at www.livenation.com under the “About Us” section.

2008-04-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

ENTREVISTA A RODRIGO CONTRERAS Guitarrista del grupo Death Metal "CRIMINAL".

“Esta entrevista fue hecha hace un par de años y la he dilatado pues he querido escribir acerca del espectacular disco que en ese entonces el mismísimo Rodrigo envió desde Inglaterra a Chicago donde vivo hace unos años con mi querida esposa y mi pequeña segunda hija Aura. La entrevista también tardó tiempo en llegar por E-mail. Acerca del mencionado disco tomaré tiempo pronto para escribir (eso espero), solo quiero decir que es uno de los grandes trabajos de metal extremo que he escuchado. Criminal es musicalmente brillante".

R.T.- Compadre, te agradezco el disco de "SICARIO" está brutal, para que decir los solitos.

R.C. Gracias por tu interés en nosotros y en el álbum, se hizo lo mejor que se pudo con el tiempo que tuvimos(que no fue mucho),,,pero estamos felices y esperamos lograr algo mejor en nuestro próximo álbum.

-Rodrigo? Cuantos años ya en Criminal?

Criminal comenzó el 91 eso hace 18 años. Algunos fans tienen esa edad, confortante ver lo que se ha hecho y lo que se ha logrado ,donde hemos tocado, discos etc..

-Como has visto la transición de ir a vivir a Inglaterra, Musicalmente como ha contribuido esto en tu Música y en la del grupo?

Yo creo que musicalmente estar acá es bueno, te abre un poco el espectro, se escucha diferente tipo de influencias, se conoce mas gente, tu standard creo que sube un poco al tratar de estar a la par con grandes bandas con quienes hemos tenido posibilidad de compartir o ver en vivo y a la hora de buscar equipamiento (amps,guitars,etc) hay mas variedad. En lo personal creo... me he concentrado mas en la parte ejecución y "set up", sonido.

-Personalmente encontré muy Innovadora esa etapa de Criminal que escuchamos juntos en Viña (verano del 2003 en casa de Lucho), con un tecladísta, en una línea a lo "Children Of Bodom" que pasó después?, como se llamaba el Músico, como lo encontraron y por qué no funcionó?

El Tecladista fue un experimento que se dio en "No Gods" (demo), Mark Royce le dio un matiz diferente a Criminal, estábamos con ganas de hacer algo nuevo fresco, el sonido fue a mi gusto un poco Industrial ,con influencias de "Strapping Young Lad" (proyecto del Canadiense Devin Townsend). Mark dejó Criminal por no aparecer para una gira. Después de la salida de el nos dimos cuenta que fue una etapa y que seguiríamos la senda antigua de "Death Thrash" sin teclados. No descartamos usar elementos externos en futuros discos en todo caso.

-Cuántos cambios en la formación desde que estás con Criminal en Europa, es fácil encontrar músicos adecuados para Criminal?, y cuán importante es la decisión de quedarse con alguien, Antón (Reisenegger, guitarrista y cerebro del grupo) y tú deciden por igual, como te llevas con Zac O'Neil?

Ya que Anton y el que escribe (RC) somos los mas antiguos en la banda como que dirigimos un poco el cuento, los 2 escribimos la música y discutimos la parte Arte, "merchandise", tours etc. Zac ha sido el único que ha sobrevivido a los cambios de los últimos tiempos, siempre nos juntamos a por una cerveza o a tocar, es un buen amigo de Mark (ex teclados) Robin (ex Cradle of Filth) en bajo ahora parchando. Kato que toco con nosotros en Chile ,después vino a grabar Sicario hizo un tour y se devolvió a Chile. Seguramente tendremos que encontrar gente si la necesitamos,,y no es fácil..

-Como ha sido trabajar con Andy Classen (productor), a diferencia de otros discos anteriores y con Kato de vuelta, por supuesto?

Andy fue muy cool, muy profesional ,ordenado ,sabe lo que hace a un nivel top. Grabamos en su estudio que como se esperaba lo maneja excelentemente. Kato es el bajista de metal por excelencia, es el Mejor, sonido , presencia , performance y Amistad por supuesto.

- Cuántos conciertos dieron en Chile (durante la gira de apoyo “Sicario 2005”) Como viste la escena de Chile y como sentiste el haber estado allá, mucha celebración y carrete?.

La ultima vez que fuimos solo dimos un concierto en Santiago, no pude ver mucho pero al parecer hay un revival de bandas Chilenas antiguas de thrash. Carrete…siii, a la chilena compadre….harta piscola!!

-Como definirías la música que está haciendo CRIMINAL en este momento, y con "SICARIO", algún solo o canción en particular preferidas?, alguna anécdota mientras se grababa el disco.?
-
Lo que estamos haciendo ahora es yo creo temas un poco mas rápidos, tenemos un par de temas lentos y pesados también. La línea va mas por Sicario y creo que el sonido será mejor. Siempre habrá solos y batería a lo Zac. En Sicario fue bueno tener a Kato, después de grabar siempre nos sentábamos con anton también a tomar Chela y a cagarnos de la risa con tallas chilenas escuchando los cd’s de Daniel Vilches y Jorgito Corona…..también Big Train y The League Of Gentleman (estudiantes de Fripp). Mi canción favorita es Rise and Fall, solos….mmm, el de Preacher of Hate y The Root of All Evil.

-Crees que se podría decir la agresividad es como un concepto dentro de la velocidad Musical de Criminal?, me refiero a una agresividad más bien interna, humana, que llega junto al mensaje contestatario y directo de las letras en este caso en "SICARIO".

La brutalidad ,la agresión es parte del concepto Criminal.

-Estás haciendo clases de guitarra, estudias a diario?

Ya no estoy haciendo clases (recuerden que la entrevista data del 05) estuve haciendo por un tiempo. No estudio como se diría a diario, pero me informo regularmente de técnicas y equipamiento nuevo. Trato de mantenerme en forma técnicamente y al tanto de que pasa en el mundo de la guitarra, pero no soy de los que escucha música de guitarristas todo el día (boring thing). Pretendo este 2007 hacer un curso en Guitar Institute (GIT LONDON) a modo de perfeccionamiento y realización personal Básicamente. También me atrae la idea de explorar sonidos nuevos ,Efectos, amp modeling, efx modeling, Guitar synth, etc.

-Que guitarra estas usando ahora y en que afinación?

En mi “Gear” tengo un set de 4 ibanez Rg,"2820prestige,1550dxprestige,2550dx prestigey rg550 dlx USA ,1Sfx agresor (made in chile by sergio farias), 1Gibson Les Paul Gothic, Fender mustang, algunas con EMG pickups, otras dimarzio. Estoy usando un Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier y también tengo un Marshall jcm 800 50W. Efectos uso Boss (gate, delay y harmonizer) y Morley (wha). Para grabar mis demos uso Yamaha 16 tracks digital Aw16g, pedaleras Zoom, Line 6 y mi "new" GT8 Boss.

-Algún auspicio para tu beneficio?

Criminal usa DR strings .

-Que opinas de la escena Británica de Power Metal y en que se diferencia a la escena de estilos mas Death de Inglaterra o Europa en General?, ambas tienen la misma difusión?

Lo único mas conocido de Power metal de la escena Británica yo diría es Dragon Force que los he seguido desde que tocaban en bares, son casi únicos ya que la escena metalera acá es extrema no melódica por así explicarlo, arto grind o experimental (muy buenas bandas), mucho “Death Metal” underground, Noise, Black. Se ha metido harto el metal core a lo Chimaira también o grupos nuevos como Trivium que tienen cerros de publicidad.

-Que sientes al haber estado en la cartelera de Festivales como "Wacken" dos años consecutivos, te topaste con algún personaje, "Músico" importante ?

En festivales grandes y teniendo "backstage pass" obviamente te topas con gente del Medio, desde Bruce Dickinson , Trey de Morbid (lo topamos en el ascensor del hotel en que estábamos), Candlemass, gente de Arch Enemy, Children of Boddom, Obituary, Napalm Death, Cradle of Filth , Six Feet Under, Chimaira , etc. Más la gente que ya he visto en los “years” tocando; Lemmy de Motorhead, Sepultura, Exodus, Slayer, Anthrax, Helloween etc….

-Como estás?, Algún proyecto fuera de Criminal?

Con el poco tiempo que me queda estoy tratando de armar un proyecto con Zac (batero). Tenemos un par de temas, es algo paralelo a Criminal pero diferente en estilo más técnico en partes mas simple en el "riff apartment", con toques progresivos, guitarras limpias en partes, sincopa, harto drum work, veremos mas adelante que sale..

-Que estás escuchando últimamente, en general, también de Chile?

últimamente estoy escuchando "you tube", bajando mp3, viendo porno, jaja.. El nuevo Nevermore, Unearth, Jhon Petrucci, John Williams (film music) y Slayer.

-Finalmente compadre, que le diría a la comunidad Metalera en Chilito, y quién encuentras es, uno de los buenos guitarristas de tu país en este último tiempo.?

Un saludo a los fans que nos han seguido durante tantos años, a todo el metal en Chile, se que allá hay gente muy talentosa a un muy buen nivel, a creérsela y darle con todo un buen 2007, esperamos verlos luego en un tour por Sudamérica!!

R.T.-Muchas Gracias hermano y un abrazo

R.C. OK

Entrevista realizada por: Rodrigo Trupp 2005-07-08

JUDAS PRIEST New Album

2008-04-17T19:10:00.000-07:00

Since Heavy Metal Music it's been my fuel for so many years and it's one of the main Music styles promoted on my own blog, is that I will take the freedom to publish an E-Mail that I just received from Chris Ruggieri of Chipster PR & Consulting, Inc. (few of the records featured here where provided by Chipster also). I'd like to let every Metal enthusiast out there that Priest is back with something unique. As many know they where one of the earliest bands to take the "Genre" in to high octane level of musicianship sound and concept.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :

JUDAS PRIEST ROAR BACK WITH AN INSTANT EPIC, ‘NOSTRADAMUS’ ON MULTIPLE CLASSIC FORMATS & A WORLD TOUR!

Think ‘Double vinyl, gatefold sleeve concept album,’ and some of rock’s all-time classic recordings come to mind. But in the realm of heavy metal, there has never been a double vinyl (now disc!) concept album that has managed to balance a thought-provoking storyline with metallic thunder. That was, until now. Metal legends JUDAS PRIEST will be releasing their sprawling double disc concept album, ‘Nostradamus’ via Columbia Records on Monday, June 16th in the UK/Europe, and a day later in the US on Epic Records.

Long in the works, ‘Nostradamus’ takes epic storytelling to a whole new level, as it recounts the life of this mysterious, world-known 16th Century French prophet. Some of the events that Nostradamus experts have interpreted as his predictions include the great fire of London in 1666, the rise of Adolf Hitler, and most recently, 9-11, among countless other renowned events.

“As in any concept piece, the lifeline needs to be of a solid source, taking the music over many levels of interest and perception,” points out singer Rob Halford. “Nostradamus’ contains new frontiers explored and defined. The sense of adventure and the journey we undertook bringing the man’s life alive with metal was a real labour of love.”

As with all new Priest releases, the group - singer Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis - will embark on a mammoth worldwide tour in support of ‘Nostradamus.’ Priest will be performing at the 2008 Download Festival - on a bill also featuring Kiss - which will serve as a ‘homecoming’ of sorts for the group, as they performed at the first-ever ‘Monsters of Rock Festival’ at Donington Park in 1980.

Since 1974, Judas Priest has been one of heavy metal’s most successful bands, issuing such all-time classic albums as 1980’s ‘British Steel,’ 1982’s ‘Screaming for Vengeance,’ and 1990’s ‘Painkiller,’ and such arena-rocking anthems as “Breaking the Law,” “Living After Midnight,” and “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’.” However, Priest’s influence goes far beyond their music - they were the first metal band to embrace the ‘leather biker look,’ a fashion that has since become synonymous with the musical genre. Additionally, Halford’s powerful four-and-a-half octave vocal range and the twin guitar harmonies of Downing and Tipton have been ‘studied’ by countless metal bands in Priest’s wake.

“The 'Nostradamus' album - above all others - is perhaps the one I'm most proud of,” says Tipton.
“Whilst in essence and character still very much Judas Priest, it has afforded the opportunity to explore areas of classical and operatic dimensions that the band normally wouldn't. As a guitarist and writer it has inspired me to greater heights and opened new doors to intrigue and passion. From start to finish, it will take you through a magical experience filled with light, shade, drama, melody and emotion that reflects this unique man and his life.”

“For me, ‘Nostradamus’ has been a musical journey without comparison,” adds Downing. “The intrigue and mystery that surrounds this revered man has expanded my perception of heavy metal to the highest plateau and enabled me to reach the outer limits of my imagination and transport unique feelings and emotions to the instrument that allows me to express myself.”

In addition to the regular jewel case double CD version of the album, collectors will undoubtedly be interested in hunting down a copy of a Deluxe Double CD housed in a 48 page hardbound book package. But that’s not all - a Super Deluxe Box-set version will also be available with triple vinyl, the double CD, an expanded booklet & a poster.

Most bands of this high stature would be happy to play it safe. But not Judas Priest, who continue to take chances and break new ground.
No other rock band could have pulled off such a grand statement, and Judas Priest have raised the bar once more with ‘Nostradamus.’

As to why they chose to make a concept album about Nostradamus, Tipton explains: “We didn't - he chose us. We feel it was meant to be!”

To get a taste of what awaits for you within ‘Nostradamus,’ go to livenation.com/judaspriest on Monday, April 21st to download exclusive free mp3 of the album’s title track, as well as view the world premiere of the album cover art.

‘NOSTRADAMUS’ TRACK LISTING:

Dawn of Creation
PROPHECY

Awakening
REVELATIONS

The Four Horsemen
WAR

Sands of Time
PESTILENCE AND PLAGUE

DEATH

Peace
CONQUEST

LOST LOVE

PERSECUTION

Solitude
EXILED

ALONE

Shadows In the Flame
VISIONS

Hope
NEW BEGINNINGS

Calm Before The Storm
NOSTRADAMUS

FUTURE OF MANKIND

For more information and tour dates please visit: www.judaspriest.com

For press inquiries, please contact:
Chip Ruggieri
Chipster PR & Consulting, Inc. chip@chipsterpr.com

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This message was launched into cyberspace to trupprodrigo@hotmail.com

Secret Sphere / Heart and Anger 2005 Avalon/Japan

2007-08-08T19:34:00.000-07:00

Another great moment in Power Symphonic Metal Music History. Secret Sphere started life in the mind of guitarist Aldo Lonobile in July of 1997. The first formation of the band had vocalist Roberto R. Messina also a member of Symphonic Speed Metal acts Avatar and Highlord, guitarist Gianmaria Saggi, bassist Andrea Buratto and drummer Cristiano Scagliotti.

Approaching the end of 1997 two new members came along: Antonio Agate (keyboards) and Paco Gianotti (guitar).

September 1998 brought their debut demo tape 'Between Story And Legend'. Drummer Cristiano Scagliotti departed right after these sessions to be replaced by Luca Cartasegna. Reviewed as top demo on specialized magazine Metal Hammer, The band secured a deal with Elevate Records. On June 1999 they recorded a concept full Length album entitled "Mistress of The Shadowlight" with Luigi Stefanini at New Sin Studios (Labyrinth, Eldrich, Domine, White Skull).

Headlining tours across Europe and Italy lead them to land a song on the tribute album Keepers of Jericho for Helloween. Heavier than its predecessor the band's second album, "A Time Never Come" was released in March of 2001. Roberto Messina And Aldo Lonobile would also perform extracurricular activities. The singer would be featured as main vocalist for French Progressive Metal act Alkemist during 2001, while Lonobile will contribute session guitar for the debut Beholder album "The Legend Begins".

Touring will include dates with Sonata Arctica.

After some gigs and promotion, 2002 brings the deal to sign for German label Nuclear Blast In 2003. Meanwhile recordings for a new record take place in Italy at Mirage and Alfa&Omega Studios, mix and mastering at the House Of Music, with producer Achim Kholer in Germany known for his work with veterans Sinner, Primal Fear and Brainstorm. Scent Of Human Desire is released and it included female soprano voices. Long time drummer Luca Cartasegna who had work with the band for the first 3 albums departs alleging difference in musical tastes. The record touches Hard Rock, Heavy Power Metal and a provision of classical music.

'Heart & Anger' was putted out in January 2005 and also introduced new Swedish drummer Daniel Flores of Mind's Eye. It contains 13 amazing songs starting with the Symphonic opening named; Endless which fusions onto Where The Sea Ends musical explosion of heaviness speed and aggressive riffing. The original idea of fast songs mixed with melody and symphonic arrangements play a very important role through the album, it includes a 50 member symphonic orchestra directed by Luigi Cociglio and supervised by Diana Tizzani and also some musicians from “Alla Scala” theatre. Speed heavy metal with a concept it's the main musical theme through this majestic masterpiece, the record doesn't gives in to lame passages, First Snake includes a duet with talented high pitch throat man Roberto Tiranti from brother band Labyrinth, consequently Loud and Raw, explicitly graphics the dramatic Symphonic measures, the next hooking and commercially embellished synthesizer packed Dance With The Devil gives us back a hint of songs like the delightfully "More Than Simple Emotions" from their previous release.

The remarkable heavy power riffing continues with Set Me Free another moment of love and magic with I Won't Say A Word, Lights On and Leonardo Da Vinci are basically what makes this hole album worth it. The powerful Choir and Orchestra and the soloing of both guitar player and keyboard man are one of the best things I have ever heard. The blend between grand pianos and the metrical riffing (the record has memorable beats all throughout) are simply enjoyable and technically outstanding. You Still Remain might as well leave hair metal power ballad makers simply in darkness. The piece astoundingly combines the strength and melancholy of singer Roberto who manages his voice between high pitch ranges low dark cadences and brilliant thick sounding deliver, in contrast with the skillfully managed hard-soft sound. This work is one of the best of it's genre, mysteriously atmospheric and pleasantly crafted. It is a bit similar in resonance and emotiveness to the miraculous "Sons Of Thunder" recorded in 2001 by Labyrinth. It's got that feel and aura, potent, plenty of musicianship yet differs in approach to Rhapsody's music and takes off away from the style known sometimes as "Malmsteenian".

The record which could have perfectly been a concept album gives us the last moments of satisfaction with the rage and quickness of Bad Blood followed by the secrecy of No Reason Why and the romantic and at the same time despondent coda-like (known as epilogue on text books) Faster Than The Storm.

The Japanese edition comes with a marvelous breathtaking slow acoustic version of "Where The Sea Ends".

Rodrigo Trupp

Vanishing Point / Embrace the Silence 2005 Avalon / Japan

2007-08-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

Vanishing Point is a Progressive Metal Band from Melbourne Australia, they are not too known, at least they weren't known to me. After getting their second work Tangled in Dream from 2000 I found myself giving the album a lot of listenings. At first their singer seamed not to fit in the music style, but after almost a year of constant spins, I started to understand that there was something different about Vanishing Point, all of a sudden the album kept growing in my brain and started making sense a lot.

Their career goes back as far as 1997 when they debuted under a German label with "In Thought" their second effort; Tangled in Dream came three years later and had such impact that finish touring partners Sonata Arctica covered the song "Two Minds One Soul".

Although the original formation has seen a few changes lately on this album there was still a classic band gathered and that was: Silvio Massaro on Vocals and composition, Tommy Vucur on Guitars, Chris Porcianko Guitars, Joe Del Mastro on Bass Jack Lukic on Drums and Leonard Kopilas on Keyboards who replaced the departed original member Danny Olding. Their music is not as intricate or explosive, yet very cohesive with a thick sound and a taste for great touching lyrics. Their style ends up being one on it's kind, spanning their influences from Pink Floyd or Arena through the heaviness of Threshold and a few hints of old Marillion.

Singer Silvio Massaro's got a voice not to easy to assimilate, a bit on the low range, and also bright he sounds at times like Fish, Marillion's first vocalist. He gives to the band a touch of mixed Darkness and Light. Vanishing Point's Music stays heavy and on "Embrace" every detail is been much more taking care of: Vocal range, guitar solos, drumming and a cohesive final sound mix.

Embrace is much more heavier that it's predecessor album, Tangled in Dream (00). It starts with the power speed influenced track "Hollow", where the keyboard leads the song throughout the piece, the emotive poetry of guitar man Chris Porcianko and singer Silvio Massaro along the well crafted music are brilliant too.

My virtue, another high point on the album leaded by piano and slow mid tempo music patterns it's a great strong number and in which we can start hearing a more developed guitar playing. This masterpiece is basically everything from what many people out there would be fighting for to come up with, fine songs and hooking writing.

If Only I and Live To Live are moments of talented fast riffing and melodic vocal lines while Embraced and Seasons of Sundays bring the balance of quietness needed at this point on the record, where the basic atmosphere of the keyboards are the pivoting center in Vanishing's music.

The uplifting pianos on Reason and the song Breath continue with the touching vibe, a close feel to more progressive songs like Bring On The Rain or The Real You From the aforementioned Tangled In Dream.

Somebody Save Me, Insight and A Life Less are a welcome back to the more energetic and hooking heavy songs on Embrace The Silence, this great record ends with a slow peace moment brought by As I Reflect.

Vanishing Point is with out a doubt a very original band, their trademark combination of acoustic guitars and background keyboards in contrast with their consistent heavy riffing is what sets them apart from other acts. With their open minded attitude they are definitely not trying to copy or to be everybody's band of enjoyment. With a one of a kind musical trend, minimalist at times, their music is a very imaginative powerful experience.

Rodrigo Trupp

Angra/Aurora Consurgens Oct 2006 SPV GMBH Steamhammer

2007-08-07T13:31:00.000-07:00

Angra nunca me dejó de sorprender con esa trilogía inicial de Angels Cry 93, Holy Land 96 y Fireworks 98, en ellos se apreciaba como estos Brasileños se codeaban con el emergente regreso del Power ,iniciado o continuado por Vinnie Moore o Tony Mcalpine desde U.S.A. a fines de los ochenta y acompañado por grupos como Rhapsody, Labyrinth, y Domine de Italia, o Sonata Arctica de Escandinava hacia el final de los noventa.

Angra es la Banda Sudamericana que paralelamente se levanta frente a todos los grupos anteriormente mencionados con orgullo e igualdad de atributos Musicales. Y si bien hoy por hoy la etapa André Matos ya es cosa pasada, Angra sigue gozando de grandes momentos de inspiración y buena Música.

Aurora Consurgens los trae de vuelta más pesados y clásicos que nunca, el disco que tal vez le faltó hacer a Iron Maiden en algún momento de su carrera?. Aurora Consurgens comienza con los motivos tribales característicos de la agrupación carioca, el sonido del instrumento Africano-Brasileño merimbao, rodeado de auras misteriosas y potencia, The Course of Nature y su etéreo comienzo nos va atrayendo hacia el lado oscuro e inexplicado de la mente humana, contrastando abruptamente con la irrupción de la pesadez misma de un agresivo ANGRA. Aurora Consurgens es un libro también escrito por Santo Tomás de Aquino, que explica algunas condiciones mentales del ser humano, y en esto es que se basa la Música de: Edu Falaschi, Kiko Loureiro, Rafael Bittencourt, Felipe Adreoli, y Aqualis Priester, mas bien conocidos como Angra en este su nuevo disco.

El aporte de cada músico fue fundamental a la hora de darle forma al trabajo, los elementos típicos como las percusiones Brasileñas, los arreglos orquestales, la inclusión de motivos españoles o árabes siguen ahí dándole el toque propio del Angra de épocas pasadas, y se nota en The Voice Commanding You, que trae de vuelta la rapidez y las sincopadas baterías.

Ego Painted Grey, muestra al versátil Edu Falaschi en este corte más progresivo que sinfónico, que se acerca a un Queensryche en sus mejores tiempos medio electrónicos de discos como el Rage for Order. Por supuesto las partes instrumentales nos pasean por estados emocionales estimulados y cargados de sensaciones grises y emotivas, las guitarras entregan de lo suyo muy experimentalmente.

Las emociones siguen con Breaking Ties, donde se ilumina y se despierta todo con un toque tropical y algo de estilo Skid Row con esta canción balada.

La rapidez se reanuda con Salvation:Suicide y los frenéticos y presurosos ejercicios de dedos a través del mango de las guitarras, muy progresivo en este corte abundan también los trucos técnicos, canción que a ratos pareciera estar cantada por Bruce Dickinson.

Window to Nowhere , trae el clásico Power Metal Malmsteen-Helloween y la genialidad instrumental destacable de Angra, donde los pasajes musicales nos pasean por lugares llenos de coloridos fuertes y las destacadas fases instrumentales nos hacen disfrutar del malabarismo genial de estos prodigios de la Música. El desarrollo estructural de la pieza viene a ser el menos ortodoxo, aunque esto es la temática en "Aurora", esta canción también posee el aura de misterio que aborda este trabajo.

La infaltable sección con instrumentos doctos mezclados con otros tribales prosiguen en So Near So Far, con este alo a entresijo marcando el punto alto del disco hacia una de las canciones más variadas y vanguardistas del álbum, muy árabe o gitana y en donde nuevamente los guitarristas nos deleitan con sus experimentos musicales expresionistas.

Passing By, continúa el estilo más progresivo y experimental que podríamos definir si escuchamos a los suecos de "Andromeda", pero con la genialidad de Angra y esa capacidad que tienen para conservar el toque latinoamericano. Sin perder el peso en los solos se refleja el uso de los "Modos", el ligado, el golpe de palanca tremolo junto a la técnica algo improvisada.

El dramático y espectacular disco empieza a acercarse al final con otro gran contestatario corte la gran Scream Your Heart Out, que también oscila entre la tecnología de los teclados, la virtuosidad de los guitarristas y la inventiva percusión, canción que se asemeja mucho en estilo a lo hecho por otros genios de la innovación, me refiero a los Italianos de Labyrinth. Cada canción pareciera ser interpretada por diferentes vocalistas o grupos diferentes y la verdad que este camino por la senda del Power Metal sinfónico no deja de ser interesante, el disco es tan sólido como el anterior Temple of Shadows, tal vez menos complejo y mas comercial y accesible pero aún así rescatando el sello Angra.

Rodrigo Trupp (este artículo está dedicado a mi hija Barbara)

Sonata Arctica UNIA Nuclear Blast Gmbh 2007

2007-06-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

No fast songs at all, that's the first Impression I had when I received "UNIA", but there is some good moments on Sonata Arctica's latest full length album. The Music is not as explicit as on previous records. Finland's premiere Power Metal band who revitalized the power metal genre back in 1999 with their classic debut Ecliptica and their follow up Silence from 2001 (to me one the best albums of all time) has returned with a more progressive work.

Nowadays things have changed and so the music genre as well, which is been injected lately with new energy and full speed by the likes of Dragonforce and Powerquest (both bands from the UK), Dragonland another great band from Sweden has also contributed to the style from lacking vigor and dynamism or to be too laid down or stocked.
On this record Sonata Arctica is giving us a lot of exercises based on intricate passages on songs like "The Harvest" in which the record lifts up a little from the rest of the content on it.

The album begins with a great song entitled "In Black and White" which reflects the title of the song and offers a little adventurous and more progressive feel on to it in general the disc picks up where its predecessor "Reckoning Night" left. The repetitive choirs here and there, to my judgment, are a distinctive support to the orchestrated arrangements. The interesting vocal lines and multilayered voices are not just there to fill in what's left unfulfilled, to the contrary they are along the lyrics part of the general concept in the album.

A much cohesive sound that all albums before, UNIA is impressive and there's great songs on it also, the uplifting and more captivating song Paid in Full, gives us back something missed since "Silence", while For the Sake of Revenge and It Won't Fade the balance is kept between Symphonic and intricate heavy passages yet with some experimentation from keyboard Man( and Kung Fu admirer) Henrik Klingenberg. The medieval touch which is something that Sonata have approached before very closely but not in totality Musically , its present on both the amazing "It Won't Fade" and the eloquently slow and heavy piece "Under your Tree" .

Caleb and The Vice are the complexity center and the following "My Dream's But A Drop Fuel For A Nightmare" mark the Peak of the record in which the three songs are the most the band have cover symphonic territories ever, manic and at the same time progressive, keeping magically their own identity the choir arrangement is another great reach.

The Harvest recovers some of the speed that is basically missing on this album and some solos from Jani Liimatainen, who is much more present with the heaviness of the metrics than as a lead player and who also shines with his acoustics on the next song The Worlds Forgotten, The Words Forbidden one the best transitional pieces I have ever heard from them.

Among the bunch of touching songs in Sonata's Career there must be a place for the closing "Good Enough Is Good Enough" in which Tony Kakko uses his great voice against orchestral arrangements.

This is a symphonic-progressive version of the band and the record is the maturity of playing constantly, compared to previous albums this contains a little of everything, although the complexity and the instrumentals in which finally we get to hear all members doing their work and their solo offerings is one great gift, keyboards are present all the time although yielding space to the "Baroque", the "Gypsy an" , the mysticism and the aforementioned Classic orchestrated parts.

I believe this is their most cohesive work since Silence, yet no better than Winterheart's Guild from 2003. I also think that there were a couple of fast songs missed, but still this might be a transition for what's yet to come....... hopefully.

Rodrigo Trupp

POWER QUEST MAGIC NEVER DIES 2005 MAJESTIC ROCK RECORDS UK

2007-04-19T10:09:00.000-07:00

Power Symphonic Metal, the musical genre, is one of the few in Heavy Metal Music that survives the test of time all over the world. Priest and Maiden are still around, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and U.F.O. members are also active. It's great that England is still providing us with great talent such as "The Darknesss"and "Dragonforce" in recent times.

Power Quest comes to life in march 2001 when keyboard virtuoso Steve Williams and bassist Steve Scott leave London Power Metal Dragonforce (by then called Dragonheart). Visionary musician Sam Totman who later went on to form part of Dragonforce, was featured on guitar parts also for Power Quest's first effort entitled "Wings of Forever" released on 2002, such album contained fast riffing, technical guitar playing and adventurous fast paced Programmed Drumming. "Wings" was mixed, arranged and engineered by two very good known Musician-producers and long time collaborators: Karl Groom(Threshold, Shadowland) and Clive Nolan(Arena, Pendragon, Shadowland).

Alessio Garavello from Arthemis is Power Quest's singer and front man since their early encarnation also Andrea Martongelli and Francesco Tresca on Guitars and Drums respectively, are part of the shape of this masterpiece called "Magic "Never Dies".

As the title suggests and the artwork (done by Toxic Angel) reflects, we see ourselves immersed in a fast and active fantastic world in which flying on spaceships its part of every day's life.
What's brilliant about this is that the music may sound innocently harmless, but it rescues the purity and imagery of a soundtrack.

Since the first steps of orchestration in the opener properly stated as "Ascension"(composed by Clive Nolan on an idea by Steve Williams), the record stands on it's own unique blend of Japanese animation Music and modern playing virtuosity.

Great musicianship yet not focused on just show off, the record brings the finest speed tracks written in a long time by a band with symphonic orientation, and instead of dramatic, medieval passages(there aren't to much), we hear old school resemblances combined with anthem-like motives.

The influences are blended, there's the particular British sound of bands like Saxon, the Irish touch of Thin Lizzy, the glam of Cheap Trick and Black and Blue are all combined with great lyrics and outstanding vocal lines, Front man Alessio Garavello can really hit the high pitch without sounding cliché or exaggerated yelling, instead he gives a balanced and powerful performance.

Find my Heaven, Galaxies Unknown(one of the fastest cuts on the album), Diamond Sky stand tall in to the fast mold tracks, with strength and hooking choruses with of course uplifting keyboard parts, speed galloping riffing and outstanding well crafted guitar solos.

The formula of "sing along song" is present on Hold on to Love and Children of the Dream, which would make them perfect for Radio airplay, the slow cut "The Message" brings to us reminders of 80's Pop music yet the rest of the songs are pure energetic Power Speed.

My favorites are Soulfire, the Japanese edition bonus The longest Night written by Clive Nolan and the majestic closing track Magic Never Dies, which is one of the best epic pieces from Power Quest.

Their music is simply enjoyable and positive, naive at times but seriously assembled by virtuosity and compromise, they are not as intricate as Dragonforce but certainly the music they make has some high level of elaborated work. Power Quest is one of the best and most original bands around.

Rodrigo Trupp

LABYRINTH 6 DAYS TO NOWHERE 2007 / Scarlet Records It.-Uk.

2007-04-18T09:16:00.002-07:00

Labyrinth's sixth L.P. properly entitled "6 Days to Nowhere" is with out a doubt the most progressive record of their career since the band's inception and their consequent album, 1996's "No Limits".

Andrea Cantarelli is now the only surviving former member, since bass player Cristiano Bertocchi also opted out to reunite with another ex member of Labyrinth, Olaf Thorsen on Vision Divine.
Roberto Tiranti now on Bass and vocals of course with "Maestro" of Percussion Mattia Stancioiu on Drums are back along with keyboard wizard Andrea de Paoli, and guitar virtuoso Pier Gonella(also known for his own project entitled "Odyssea".

This is then a different band and hardly the one it was before or the one which would be basically the upbeat background for both of Vision Divine greatest albums, the1999's band homonym's and 2001' Send Me Angel, both fronted by the great Fabio Leone on vocals. Despite contributions between both ensembles in past glories both bands seam to get away from each other's styles more and more on each new release, and on this one "The Mazers" are getting away with it again.
In past days it wasn't easy to abruptly reach the top, there wasn't a plan behind it and it was hard as it is hard today for any starting Progressive act to simply "make it" over night.

It was through times like this when the Italian Symphonic-Power-Progressive Metal made a huge impact changing the face of it. It was around1996 when Domine, Highlord, Rhapsody, Labyrinth, Athena, Secret Sphere, Shadows of Steel among others where starting to give birth to a new breed of Heavy Music, a new forged sound which would have put behind all the years in silence of such Genre.

Today things are changing, the planet is basically fucked up by selfishness and on this record the messages in the lyrics are simple, direct and raw as the music itself reflecting straightly all this issues supporting the basics for each of the songs contents written by Tiranti.

Since 2001's Labyrinth has been trying new stuff, for bad or good this last term is what characterizes and reflects their work, always heavy, mystery halos surrounding everything and this time with a perfect sound. Not in vain the album was finally mixed at Abbey Road in London, so it doesn't come as surprise a "Beatles" song covered on it, I'm talking about no other than the obscure "Come Together" which has a lot more of obscurity added to it on Labyrinth's version.

The video for the song "Lost", track number three on "6 Days", which was launched on the internet as promotion to their new effort left people thinking that perhaps Labyrinth where back in a completely different format, yet the mold is quite similar to what they're been doing. Changes are there but they are not too obvious, and once again we are in front of a great album that combines ingredients from the last two.

Classic Labyrinth on songs like "Crossroads", "Mother Hearth" and "Waiting Tomorrow" full of quiet passages mixed with hooking choruses and there is the more aggressive yet no so explicit, guitar solos on a very experimental manner, approaching expressionism at times, the guitar work on this album is excellent too, brilliant and again sets Labyrinth apart from the rest of their partners in the Heavy Prog mold.

The maturity of the band is natural, there would be no point in repeating the same formula contained on most of the self called Power-Metal Bands Records. Instead the band offers a bit of everything contained on their previous two albums Labyrinth(2003) and Freeman(2005). There is some fast heavy songs like the aforementioned Lost, also a few short speed tracks like Rusty Nail and Wolves' N' Lambs are among the more progressive and technical ones.

There is no point on comparing the material the group brought in past records with their new approach, long gone are the Symphonic anthems of such mighty albums like Sons of Thunder(2001), again this is a great work which brings upfront their unique blended style still with hints of speed and power but written in their own tentative words. I hope the band will continue with the mix of Death Speed Metal and acoustic guitars.

"Piece of Time" 2007's version of the song sung by Fabio Leone back on their debut is included here interpreted by Tiranti and even though it doesn't match its predecessor's, it’s a great track to finish the record with.

Rodrigo Trupp

LABYRINTH RETURN TO HEAVEN DENIED / 1998 METAL BLADE RECORDS

2006-12-13T15:10:00.000-08:00

Cada cierto tiempo en el desarrollo de la Música docta o popular ocurren acontecimientos que dejan una huella y al mismo tiempo contribuyen con creces a este Arte. Dentro del género Heavy conocido como Power Metal Progresivo podríamos citar como ejemplos a: Rainbow, Raising 76; Black Sabbath, Heaven and Hell 80 (con Ronnie Dio); Europe 83, Ingwie Malmsteen's, Rising Force 84; Helloween, Keeper of The Seven Keys 87 y más contemporáneamente Dream Theater con Images and Words 1989 y Andromeda con extension of the Wish en el 2000.

El grupo Italiano Labyrinth debutó con un demo llamado Midnight Resistance en 1995. En Diciembre del mismo año se editó otro corto, Piece of Time y en 1996 el larga duración No Limits. El disco se mantuvo durante meses en los mejores puestos de la prestigiosa revista Burrn. En él la música varía entre el Thrash, el Técno pop (debido a la teclados usados por Francesco Rubulotta) y el Speed. En 1998 el grupo editó su álbum número dos Return To Heaven Denied, de estilo definido y renovado. El sonido posee un acabado más profesional reuniendo además recursos modales sinfónicos, como los del guitarrista sueco Inwgie Malmsteen, Speed Metal, Progressive, (en la vena de Fates Warning y su etapa "Perfect Symmetry-Parallels") y el tecnicismo a lo Dream Theater.

El resultado, un impresionante trabajo que sin dudas está entre los cinco mejores de esta tendencia. Riffs veloces y potentes, teclados a lo Jens Johansen (Stratovarius), o a lo Tony Mc Alpine (Vinnie Moore).

Después del alejamiento de Francesco Rubulotta (Frank Andiver), conocido productor tecladista y baterista del grupo Wonderland, el rol fue a caer sobre el técnico y sorprendente Matia Stancioiu de Cydonia y Alice in Darkland (quien figura en los créditos del disco pero que aparentemente se unió una vez finalizadas las grabaciones para 'Return'). Adrea de Paoli de Shadows of Steel vendría a tomar el puesto de Ken Taylor en los teclados y en reemplazo del gran Fabio Tordiglione, vendría a cantar otro grande de Italia Roberto Tiranti.

Los puestos principales en guitarras y bajo seguían hasta ese entonces, a cargo de Andrea Cantarelli, Carlo Andrea Magnani (Thorsen) y Cristiano Bertocci respectivamente, miembros forjadores de la Banda.

Este disco magnífico muestra signos de un gran clásico abriendo con guitarras acústicas crecientes (como el Master of Puppets de Metallica), mostrándonos el comienzo semi-conceptual, de esta obra que no decae ni por tan solo un segundo de contenido y que muy por el contrario, comienza de a poco a atraer nuestra atención hacia un viaje musical mágico lleno de peso y atmósferas.

Sin perder agresividad ni velocidad, dos de las claves importantes para definir este Power Metal, son las primeras canciones: Moonlight y New Horizons. Cada una nos llevan volando a lo alto junto a esta premura musical casi eterna, como el veloz pájaro que surca el cielo y las estrellas en la noche, como ángeles que roban el corazón de una musa. La textura se siente bajo esta brillante y al mismo tiempo misteriosa mezcla de sintetizadores subliminales. Si hay algo espectacular en este disco es la habilidad de cada músico, lo genial además es lo bien que mantiene esa oscuridad, melancólica, poderosa, agresiva. Contundente en técnica; 'Return' es el trabajo que todos esperarían de una banda como Dream Theater, y aquí lo encontramos sin excesos expresionistas.

El tema central se ve reflejado en The Night of Dreams, una mezcla emotiva de música a lo "Through Different Eyes" de Fates Warning con la fuerza que imprime Roberto Tiranti, el ambiente de los teclados y el alternado sonido de guitarras limpias con otras distorsionadas.

La mística indiscutible de una majestuosa composición como Lady Lost in Time y el ruido del romper de las olas en el mar nos transporta literalmente fuera de nuestra mente, aunque la voz parece sensible, Tiranti permanece excelso y su carismático timbre vocal no decae ni se debilita.

State of Grace, aparece como la transición a continuar realizando nuestros sueños, entrelazados con la realidad, promoviendo la fe, la fantasía y las ganas de vivir.

Heaven Denied, trae el pick del Disco con el ascenso del pecador arrepentido desde el mundo de la oscuridad hacia el de la luz, elementos musicales llenos de imagen gracias a la excelente ejecución interpretativa de Magnani y Cantarelli quienes desenvuelven sus solos como un duelo a través del álbum transportándonos a estos mundos de ensueño.

Like a Thunder es simplemente una de las mejores canciones y una de las más rápidas del grupo. Labyrinth decidió abrir un festival navideño durante la gira de promoción para su álbum del 2002 con este número, el público de diversas edades, entre ellos niños, percibiendo una extraña, pero positiva energía, se dice ovacionó eufórico al grupo.

En el instrumental "Feel" se deja sentir el trabajo de "Andiver" en los sintetizadores, y sus gusto por unir el Tecno-pop, con el Metal la pieza original describe plenamente la pericia de cada interprete, donde Labyrinth queda en paralelo con grupos progresivos, sin parecer intrincado u ostentoso, pero manteniendo esta rapidez desafiante que caracteriza al disco.

Para continuar la dinámica del álbum, Time after Time es otro de los momentos fuertes del disco con nuevos cambios en la estructura de la rítmica, y cierta síncopa dentro del contexto que lleva la canción. Tiranti, por supuesto, mostrándose con todo su recurso vocal revelando lo pulcro en su técnica; un cantante hasta entonces desconocido, denota preocupación y maestría. Nuevamente en el quiebre se escucha la emotividad y ciertos motivos temáticos que se repiten indiferentemente dentro de algunos cortes durante el resto del disco.

Falling Rain otra alusión a un disco clásico como lo es Master of Puppets, aunque la letra es un tanto básica (recordemos que el idioma nativo de estos músicos es el Italiano) y aunque Thorsen, quien se pone con la mayoría de la lírica en los discos es un gran escritor, no es un gran poeta como un Tony Kakko (cantante de Sonata Arctica) por ejemplo. La canción, similar en estructura a las lentas de Metallica, de casi seis minutos y medio de duración(las canciones fluctúan entre los cuatro y siete minutos de duración en este disco) abre con los cristalinos puros e inspirados preludios duales en guitarras electroacústicas entrelazados con el solo eléctrico de Anders Rain. Lenta al principio y describiendo el estado introspectivo melancólico del personaje que aún dentro de su tristeza se encuentra con lo mas profundo de su ser, técnicamente la canción es más parecida en estructura a Heaven Denied muy progresiva con la sección de solos durante la vuelta a la calma, donde Cantarelli y Thorsen hacen uso de la perilla del volumen de sus instrumentos en aleación con el uso de ligados creando un clima espiritual e inspirado y en donde esta vez Rain es el encargado de repetir los motivos Musicales.

Die for Freedom, cierra Heaven Denied. Tal vez una de las mejores canciones épicas de la historia, con un estruendoso golpe tipo himno al principio, dando pasos arrastrados de pesadez en métrica 4/4,
para abalanzarse con estrepitosa pesadez y celeridad, dejando sentir que el final inminente se acerca. Rompiendo un poco con las estructuras la canción toma forma de Coda, repitiendo algunos de los motivos que se han sucedido durante la obra, sin dejar de lado la cinemática visualización de estos envolventes pasajes recorridos por el oyente. La sección donde cada músico se despide con un solo, incluyendo el del Bajo, sitúa el final del disco yendo también despacio hacia el silencio con el mismo motivo de guitarras limpias del principio en una suerte de concepto temático, gran final para uno de los mejores discos de Heavy melódico sinfónico-progresivo de todos los tiempos.

Rodrigo Trupp

ANGEL DUST OF HUMAN BONDAGE/2002. Century Media Records

2006-11-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

"Of Human Bondage", es el disco editado en el 2002 por esta banda germana, que como ya es costumbre ha entrado en un nuevo y silencioso receso hace ya un tiempo, aparentemente ahora lejos del cantante Dirk Thurich. Angel Dust, veteranos del Heavy clásico europeo se formaron en Dortmund, Alemania por allá por 1984 y debutaron con su estilo Thrash con "Into The Dark Past en 1987.

Este trabajo volvía a sorprender por su originalidad producto de la constante búsqueda que siempre ha prevalecido en la Banda, canciones directas, riffs potentes, letras oscuras de critica social y descriptiva temática de estados de ánimo depresivos, métrica musical que engancha, teclados y pianos con presencia. Este C.D. es la mezcla del mejor Heavy comercial de grupos como Whiplash, algo de la desaparecida banda "Omen" (quienes reaparecieron hace no mucho bajo el alero de su guitarrista original Kenny Powell) y algunos matices, también del viejo Judas Priest. Dirk Thurisch vocalista de Angel Dust suena mucho a Rob Halford, ambos cantantes poseen timbres de voz diferentes pero la interpretación y técnica vocal de ambos "Frontman" hacen que la dirección melódica de Angel Dust se acerque a la de los padres del “Speed-power”.

Aunque el disco de 1998 "Border of Reality" difiere en atmósferas de este nuevo "Of Human Bondage" igual encontramos algo del Heavy clásico de estos alemanes que vienen haciendo lo suyo desde los inicios de la famosa etapa “Thrash” del Bay Area en California desde fines de los 80. El grupo se constituía para este trabajo de los hermanos Steven y Frank Banx(miembro forjador del grupo) en teclados y bajo respectívamente, Dirk Assmuth en Batería y Ritchie Wilkison en guitarras (además del cantante ya antes nombrado).

El disco de nueve cortes originales mas un "cover" comienza con las potentes y extremas "The Human Bondage" e "Inhuman" donde escuchamos el lado agresivo y veloz de Angel Dust, luego sigue "Unreal Soul" donde el sonido de las guitarras junto a la voz de "Thurisch" y los teclados nos entregan reminiscencias del sonido metálico-experimental del "Techno-Brain Metal" de grupos como Anacrusis, Tourniquet y posteriormente Messhugah. Luego continúa la lenta y melancólica "Disbeliver", la geniales "Forever", "Unite", "Got this Evil" (sonando mucho al "Priest" antiguo), donde hasta este punto existe un despliegue perfecto de "Metal Moderno" junto a eficaces teclados ambientales de apoyo. "The Cultman" al igual que "Disbeliver", entregan el momento calmado emotivo lleno de sentimiento y visualidad progresiva, canciones cargadas de misterio peso y oscuridad, hacia el final "Fredom Awaits" sigue con la calidad de un gran disco cargado de momentos pegajosos (si es que el grupo puede a acercarse a lo pegajoso en cierta forma). Al final de este excelente disco viene un Cover del cantante de color
SEAL, titulado Killer.

En general este trabajo de Angel Dust tiene de todo; Power metal ambiental (arreglos al estilo Roberto Falcao quien fuese tecladista de King Diamond en discos como Abigail y Them), buenas letras y riffs duros. Angel Dust revivió el movimiento "Brain-Metal" que anduvo desapareciendo poco después de iniciado entre fines de los ochenta y principios de los noventa con grupos de la talla de Atheist, Beliver y también Cynic aparte de los otros grupos nombrados anteriormente, muy buen disco mucha precisión Musical y muy buen sonido.

Rodrigo Trupp

THRESHOLD HYPOTHETICAL/2001. InsideOut Music

2006-11-15T22:07:00.000-08:00

Hypothetical es el trabajo en estudio del año 2001 de esta banda inglesa de Prog-metal liderada por el destacado guitarrista Karl Groom. Groom siendo un veterano y conocido colaborador del ambiente progresivo Inglés, ha sido el hombre responsable detrás del sonido de grupos esenciales de Rock progresivo moderno como: Pendragon, Arena, y Shadowland. Posteriormente ha seguido apoyando a bandas de la corriente del Power como Dragonforce y Power Quest. Este álbum, el quinto en la carrera de Threshold, segundo junto al cantante Mac, trae una formación renovada de la banda. Encontramos junto a Gromm (producción,grabación y guitarras), a dos miembros antiguos, Nick Midson en segundas guitarras, Jon Jeary bajo, (quien cantaba originalmente en el grupo), el tecladista Richard West quien también está desde el primer disco con la banda, el baterista de color Johanne James y el cantante Andrew Mac Mcdermott (de la ex banda alemana Sargant Fury), quien reemplazó al conocido vocalista Damian Wilson desde el anterior disco "Clone", cabe resaltar que Wilson ganó el premio de la Classic Rock Society de Inglaterra como mejor cantante masculino el año 2001 y se le ha podido escuchar en diferentes colaboraciones entre otros junto a Landmark, Ayreon y Star One, ambos proyectos del guitarrista Arjen Lucassen.

"Hypothetical" es un disco que nos lleva devuelta al oscuro, melancólico e incluso romántico "Wounded Land", disco debut del grupo de 1993, aquí se nota una cohesión absoluta, un sonido brillante y una potencia a cargo de las guitarras, que hacen de este trabajo algo muy sólido y original, alejando a Threshold de la gran sombra "Dream Theater", con quienes hasta ese entonces constantemente se les comparaba. Threshold compartió escenarios con los Americanos (quienes reinventaron el Metal progresivo con su disco When Dream and Day Unite de 1989) por Europa además ambos ensambles editaron paralelamente discos importantes el año 1993. .

Threshold siempre se ha caracterizado por llevar el sonido de teclados y voces bien presentes, siendo esto el eje de sus interpretaciones. El álbum fue grabado en los estudios Thin Ice, que comparten con la banda Arena y en donde están almacenadas todas las máquinas de Clive Nolan (tecladista de Pendragon, Arena y Shadowland), usadas con toda libertad para este trabajo. Hypothetical abre con "Ligth and Space", una canción donde prevalecen los efectos electrónicos, voces duplicadas, un sonido heavy tipo "muralla" de guitarras distorsionadas, quiebres progresivos clásicos a lo Marillion y la matizada batería del genial J James. La densidad continua a cargo de "Turn on Tune In" con influencias fusionadas entre el funk y el rock clásico de Deep Purple prevaleciendo por su puesto la potencia, esta canción con sus majestuosos teclados y voces de gruesa textura, nos introduce en una suerte de viaje audiovisual, con grandes quiebres en los tiempos métricos no necesariamente sincopados. Según el propio Karl Groom: "la etapa por la que pasa la banda es conseguir que las melodías se alojen en un lugar del cerebro" (incluso algunos cineastas se han interesado en el dinamismo de Threshold para usar su música en películas). En lo personal las voces dobladas me recuerdan al Mr.Roboto de los veteranos Styx. Unos relojes dan el comienzo a The Ravages of Time que dura mas de 10 minutos, la apertura frenética de este corte estilo Days of Dearth o Paradox del antes mencionado Wounded Land refleja también la influencia de los Thrasheros de Testament en los Riffs. Solos de teclado y guitarras modales, uso de recurso timbral y lírica social alusiva a este mal logrado Planeta.

La lento-acústica y pesada Sheltering Sky, otro de los memorables momentos de Hypothetical continúa con ese sello sentimental de Karl Groom y los teclados tipo Organo Hammond. Ocean Bound remonta la dinámica conceptual del disco junto a las voces predicadoras de Mac. Long Way Home retoma el peso y la contestataria temática melódica del trabajo incluyendo algunos pianos acústicos y efectos ambientales de teclado. Keep My Head, suena extraña y diferente, pudiendo perfectamente caer en el repertorio de Elton John. De este modo se va abriendo el camino final a la gran Narcissus (nombre que tuvo la Banda en sus inicios) en donde durante 11 minutos, los Músicos se pasean por territorio firme, predominando nuevamente la clara y definida voz del vocalista, los solos de Karl Groom y los teclados de Richard West logrando el Pick instrumental del disco.

Encontramos en este disco una buena etapa de transición y las grandes características de la banda como los durísimos riffs, las atmósferas el contraste, la fuerza metálica, que Threshold ha venido a plasmar en posteriores obras consagrándose como una banda muy original.

Rodrigo Trupp

PYRAMAZE LEGEND OF THE BONE CARVER 2006 / Nightmare-Records

2006-11-12T20:31:00.000-08:00

Pyramaze es un grupo relativamente nuevo de Metal Melódico Progresivo en la vena de Maiden-Queensryche. Se forja en la mente del guitarrista Danés Michael Kammeyer entre el 2001 y el 2002. Luego de pasar meses trabajando nuevas ideas para realizar algo completamente diferente de su banda anterior, Damion, con quienes alcanzó a realizar un par de demos.
El baterista Morten Gade Sorensen con experiencia previa en actos diversos, más el Bajista Niels Kvist (ambos provenientes del grupo Aurora) rápidamente se unen en esta nueva cruzada por sacar adelante este acto de Heavy Metal Progresivo tradicional.

Desde U.S.A. y mediante la magia del Internet otro visionario, el tecladista Jonah Weingarten, quien había militado con los Australianos de Infernal Method, se acopla al embrión Musical que toma forma viajando entre maquetas, ensayos y conversaciones telefónicas de un lado al otro del Océano Atlántico.

La siguiente pieza clave fue Jacob Hansen productor de varias agrupaciones entre las que se cuentan; Manticora, excelente grupo de Death-Thrash técnico progresivo (también de Dinamarca) y Falconer de Suecia.

Enero del 2003 es el momento de grabar en Ribe, Dinamarca en el estudio de Hansen, se envían copias de formato Mp3 despertando el interés y positivas críticas de parte de la agencia Intromental, quienes sugieren el uso de un cantante con experiencia mientras el grupo comienza a ser promocionado de manera profesional, el elegido fue nada menos que Lance King, otro Americano con bastantes años en las ligas del Heavy europeo. King habiendo dejado su puesto junto a los Ingleses de Balance of Power (que ya habían prescindido de él desde el aclamado Heathen Machine 2003), dejó caer las partes vocales en el estudio de su casa en Minneapolis U.S.A.

El disco debut Melancholy Beast fué lanzado en mayo del 2004, una joya de Heavy progresivo influenciado por el lado oscuro de "Maiden" y con una agresividad espectacular, lance King explorando nuevos territorios con su potente y majestuosa voz, melancólica a ratos, y operática por sobre todo. Melancholy se sitúa como disco obligado para la gente que sigue el Género distando a su vez del estilo establecido de grupos más cliché de Power Metal.

Durante la gira de Melancholy Beast que abarcó Norte America y Europa, se incorporó un segundo guitarrista Danés llamado Toke Skjonnemand.

Legend of the Bone Carver salió al mercado a principios del año 2006 y es un disco alucinante, lo que se tardan otros grupos en resucitar, Pyramaze lo logra sin recursos lejanos, manteniendo la elegancia, la fuerza, la técnica y el matiz de sus ancestros llevándonos hacia lugares recónditos de la psicología y sentimiento humanos.

El misterio nos envuelve al escuchar los teclados emulando violines junto a la versátil voz de King al introducirnos en esta historia que parte contando como el bien y el mal coexisten predominando la oscuridad que fácilmente comienza a tomar el poder sobre todas las cosas, al momento en que un deseo prevalece hacia la búsqueda de algo o alguien que haga frente a esta era de caos.

The Birth nos introduce en este mundo donde es concebida una criatura por medio de un toque divino de luz, un concepto muy taoísta y en donde las métricas marchan con la fuerza de un piano acústico de fondo que deja sentir sus escalas ascendentes adornando las crudas guitarras y baterías sincopadas, un balance perfecto entre melodía y rudeza en donde se va contando como la naturaleza recibe a este engendro, hijo del bosque.

La historia sigue con What Lies Beyond reflejando la conversión del niño salvaje mientras este recorre los mundos percibiendo la irreversible maldad. La fuerza de las potentes arrastradas unidades métricas entre técnica, rapidez y constantes síncopas. Las baterías y la fusión de lo acústico con Heavy Metal clásico que bien podrían recordarnos un "Where Eagles Dare" de Maiden siguen con Ancient Words Within, teclados y pianos atmosféricos, consistencia, velocidad y ambiente son características consecuentes del disco, mucha emotividad y esa dupla armónica de guitarras estilo Smith-Murray. El niño deja su entorno natural comenzando la búsqueda de la sabiduría necesaria para combatir la maldad que vorazmente a terminado con la Luz.

La canción Souls of Pain queda muy bien representada por su título, las creativas líneas vocales de un cantante que merece un lugar en lo alto del Metal moderno tocan lo mas hondo del alma, la muerte acecha dejando a su paso solo huesos terminando con la vida de los inocentes.

El momento lento se hace presente con She Who Summoed Me, la negra noche clama a la luz para salvar la existente esencia de la oscuridad y así alejarla de la tristeza y el dolor. Aunque no supera a "Until We Fade Away", (corte lento del anterior Melancholy Beast) contiene pasajes instrumentales de gran sentimiento y un "Fade Out" muy a lo Fear of the Dark.

La Rapidez The Bone Carver rompe el silencio con una fantástica y mágica fuerza. Las escalofriantes vocalizaciones resuenan a Geoff Tate en discos como el "Warning" o el "Rage for Order", con un sello particularmente propio, Pyramaze nos demuestran una variedad instrumental en paralelo con los impresionantes juegos vocales de Lance King y su inigualable técnica controlada a cabalidad. El elegido lucha por llenar de vida el alma de los desaparecidos invadido de incertidumbre miedo e inseguridad, ayudado por su propia condición mágica.

Bring Back Life y Blood Red Skies siguen el concepto de esta historia explicando como el Iluminado entiende que es dueño de un poder supremo que le permitirá traer a la vida devuelta a los caídos tras desenterrar sus esqueletos inscribiendo en ellos escrituras sagradas. La música ciertamente tribal sin bajar el peso se despliega amenazadora dictatorial con teclados muy progresivos y algo de expresionismo, Pyramaze no necesita complicarse la vida, se alejan de lo que hacen Dream Theater, Shadow Gallery, Andromeda o los Pagan's Mind, pero sin dudas el virtuosismo está presente en la Banda.

El final llega con Tears of Fate donde el ejército de los que han vuelto a la vida libran batalla junto a el elegido brindando el balance necesario al provocar la muerte de las criaturas de la noche, a modo de coda la Música de a poco va desapareciendo y como al principio, King va citando la historia de como existió alguien capaz de traer paz y esperanza en tiempos de desesperación y de como este se convirtió en Leyenda.

Si bien Melacholy Beast es insuperable Pyramaze se perfila como un grupo capaz de transfigurarse de un disco a otro sin necesidad de utilizar grandes modificaciones ni tanta ostentosidad, con Música directa este potente sexteto va reconstituyendo un género Musical que esta falto de nuevos representantes.

Rodrigo Trupp

SONATA ARCTICA RECKONING NIGHT 2004 /Nuclear Blast

2006-11-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

Me costó harto ponerle las manos encima a este Nuevo trabajo de los niños prodigio del Power Metal (gracias Jimmy), y no fue en vano.

La Banda continua liderada por Tony Kakko, Voces, letras y arreglos musicales, le siguen como siempre y desde el principio, Jani Liimatainen en Guitarras y Tommy Portimo en Bateria, Marko Paasikoski en Bajo (quien remplazó desde Silence a Janne Kivilahti) y la fresca y nueva adquisición Henrik Klingenberg en teclados.

Desde un punto de vista muy personal, cuando un disco no me gusta o me cuesta digerirlo la primera vez que lo escucho, tiendo a transformar la situación en un presagio positivo, y esta no es la excepción, luego de varios días escuchando Reckoning Night, cada canción va tomando forma definida en mi cerebro, la grabación a cargo de Ahti Kortelainen y la Mezcla y Masterización finales de Mikko Karmila y Mika Jussila (colaboradores de siempre) han favorecido esta vez con creces las guitarras de Liimatainen muy por el contrario del anterior “Winter Heart’s Guild” en donde los Riffs sonaban casi sublimes.

Este discazo comienza con diez segundos de veloz y duro Power Metal en tonalidad RE (medio tono por debajo de la afinación usada generalmente por Sonata), luego de una ínfima pausa y repentino corte se reanuda la canción hacia lo que es el comienzo de “Misplaced”, en tonos y ritmos diferentes ascendentes provocados por acordes musicales mayores, las letras y la poesía nos hablan de la dualidad, de lo sensible con lo duro de la vida, en general lo incomodo que es ser hombre sin tener que demostrarlo con agresividad, hacia el coro vuelve a aparecer esa pesadez densa del principio y las voces duplicadas por cien comienzan a bajar hacia lo más grave junto a la instrumentalización intrincada, los intercambios de solo y los teclados sonido órgano de Iglesia distorsionado.

La atmósfera se da para la arrastrada “Blinded no More”, de tópico depresivo-romántico demostrando la innovadora forma de cantar de Kakko, angustiada y agresiva al mismo tiempo, harta emulación Hammond en los teclados y solos de guitarra hasta incluso bluseros.

La velocidad vuelve en “Ain’t your Fairy Tale” abriendo con el gruñido de los lobos simbólicos que a menudo forman parte gráfica en las carátulas de los discos, el inicio parece la mitad, y efectivamente durante el desarrollo de la canción uno se da cuenta que los coros están en el comienzo, aquí se habla del tema de los hombres lobo a modo de leyenda quienes hacen justicia llevando a la tumba a los despiadados inmortales.

La instrumental “Reckoning Day, Reckoning Night”, continúa con el aullido de las criaturas de la noche y un aura de oscuridad como introducción al single “Don’t Say a Word”, no tan veloz esta vez pero con teclados por todas partes como en los tiempos del “Silence” y su "intro"; algunas estrofas adelante nuevamente se escucha esta voz angustiada de Kakko y aparecen los dialogos a cargo de Nik Van-Eckmann quien también contribuyó con lo suyo en el anterior mencionado disco del 2001, en los solos destaca Liimatainen por su creatividad y sentimiento sobre la técnica, la temática nos habla del amor y sus dificultades.

Unas voces corales dan inicio a “The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Puppet” que trata el tema de los mercaderes del medio musical, una de mis canciones preferidas, inteligentes letras en donde se aprecia más lo sinfónico y lo progresivo, aquí la síncopa juega un buen papel junto a los arreglos vocales, cambios de métrica y sonidos limpios de piano.

No podía faltar esa levantada de espíritu de la que estamos acostumbrados a sentir en discos anteriores con “My Selene”(compuesta en su totalidad por Liimatainen), y la poesía hacia ese ideal de mujer, se aprecian aquí varios quiebres tonales y de altura vocal.

Las voces una vez más de Nick Van-Eckmann abren la rápida “Wildfire” tal vez el corte más agresivo y expresionista del “Reckoning” con partes que tienen algo de “Queen” y sus coros, las voces dobladas de Kakko se escuchan durante casi toda la canción.

De casi nueve minutos el tema más largo y mi favorito del disco es “White Pearl Black Oceans”, que entre sonidos de oleaje y emotividad en la “intro”, nos transporta al mundo de las leyendas, los piratas y sus historias, nuevamente las voces dobles y los coros realzan el sentido musical de la pieza y la onda bastante épica de la canción.

El final de Reckoning Night llega con los Pianos en “Shamandale” a modo de Coda aunque sin las características de un resumen, es nuevamente el sentimiento de un gran escritor y contundente letrista como Tony Kakko lo que se hace presente, en otra canción más, que toma a la mujer como inspiración.

El disco finaliza con “Wrecking the Sphere”, un Jam acústico y percutívo en donde se escucha el idioma nativo de estos finlandeses que siguen con la tónica de terminar sus discos de esta forma, simplemente disfrutando.

Musicalmente creo, el disco es bien maduro se juega harto con la variedad de alturas y melodias vocales, la grabación ayuda bastante a realzar el peso que en general tienen las composiciones, si bien es buen paso en la carrera de estos excelentes intérpretes del Power Metal moderno; pienso, le falta un poco más de aventura a nivel estructural de canción y búsqueda de sonidos diferentes. Pero el camino que se ha emprendido está muy bien enfocado, el arte gráfico está reflejado y bien representado por la Música en Reckoning Night.

Rodrigo Trupp

VISION DIVINE / The Perfect Machine King Records Japan 2005

2006-11-08T21:36:00.000-08:00

Vision Divine estuvo en Chile en la discotheque Oz junto a Labyrinth en gira con su Homónimo de 1999, este disco fue todo un suceso. En él se reflejaba todo lo que uno espera de un gran grupo de Power Metal y sin dudas que el hecho de haber contado con la colaboración de varios de los integrantes de Labyrinth le daba al proyecto un onda bastante Power-speed Sinfónico. El sucesor: Send Me An Angel del 2001, es bastante más oscuro y experimental que su predecesor lo que se refleja también en la peculiar elección del cover de la canción "Take On Me" del grupo pop Aha, a mi juicio Sons Of Thunder(editado el 2000) de Labyrinth fue a dar muy alto técnicamente y esto trajo rivalidad interna entre ambas partes.

Thorsen habiendo formado Labyrinth que en un principio se llamarían "Vision" ha trabajado como sesionista para otros Italianos cómo: Skylark, Eddy Antonini y Shadows of Steel.

Las alas de Olaf Thorsen finalmente emprendieron el vuelo y Vision Divine cuenta ahora con Timo Tolkki(Stratovarius) como parte de la producción, Michele Lupi quién reemplazo a Fabio Leone(ahora ya de vuelta en Rhapsody) en las voces, en teclados reemplazando a Andrea de Paoli de Shadows Of Steel y también de Labyrinth está ahora Oleg Smirnoff del grupo The Eldritch y Death SS(quien también formó parte del grupo del legendario cantante Pop Umberto Tozzi) en el lugar del otro Labyrinth Matia Stancioiu, quién también participó en Alice In Darkland y Cydonia, encontramos al baterista de sesión Danil Morini, un guitarrista de apoyo Federico Puleri y por supuesto los dos miembros forjadores originales, el bajista Andrea (Tower) Torriccini de Wonderland y sesionista de Shadows Of Steel y Carlo Magnani más conocido como Olaf Thorsen finalmente por supuesto en guitarras.

Si bien Stream of Consciousness del 2004 suena mucho más renovado, no es fácil de asimilar, realmente es complejo y cuenta con un sonido impecable algo aparentemente difícil de lograr en Italia. El disco cuenta con mucho más desarrollo en las letras de las canciones que es lo único que a veces les falta a los Italianos, más temática lírica y en este nuevo "Perfect Machine" las cosas continúan al mismo nivel del anterior S.O.C.

Pero nuestro trabajo es analizar mas a fondo lo último de este gran genio y su "Perfect Machine", donde Thorsen nos lleva a recorrer la historia de un biólogo, Arnaldo Mattei en el año 2043, quien sorprende a sus compañeros durante un congreso mundial de medicina al descifrar el código genético del D.N.A. y evitar la muerte de las células del ser humano, creando esencialmente, la inmortalidad y consecuentemente lo que el denomina como "The Perfect Machine".
Bajo este concepto la música se desarrolla con piezas mas bien directas y mucho mas progresivas, ya no estamos frente a una banda de Power Metal, siendo el sonido mucho mas duro y las canciones no tan rápidas.

El disco abre con la homónima "Perfect Machine" que varía entre los poderosos riffs y las geniales partes de teclados de Smirnoff, con 1st Day Of A Never Ending-Ending Day, las cosas se ponen más progresivas, debido a la inclusión de guitarras limpias a lo Fates Warning, mientras se va contando la historia de este futuro prácticamente eterno, una de las grandes canciones de este disco, con esos sonidos orquestales de fondo. The Ancestor's Blood continúa con el estilo mas duro y pesado, sin tanta rapidez pero con arto despliegue de solos e instrumentales reflejando el tema central de este conceptual disco.

Land Of Fear, comienza a levantar la segunda parte de este disco que se va desarrollando con respecto a esta aventura futurista poniéndose cada vez mas obscura, el sonido en este Vision Divine es bien denso y los músicos están mucho mas afiatados que antes, en la canción instrumentalmente minimalista God is Dead el misterio y la angustia se hacen presentes haciéndonos sentir la falta de esperanza en esta vida infinita e inmortal.

Rising Sun por supuesto trae la luz y decanta en uno de los pocos momentos lentos que se le conocen a Vision Divine me refiero a; Here In 6048 otro buenísimo corte de este Perfect Machine.
La potencia y la energía se recupera con The River aunque las líneas vocales repiten la fórmula de usar constantes cambios tonales mayores y menores, los momentos instrumentales brillan pero desgraciadamente la canción termina en un Fade Out.

Now That You've Gone recupera algo la idea musical del principio como parte del concepto expresionista, donde se aprecian motivos musicales repetidos desapareciendo inexplicablemente, dando la impresión que el disco y su historia están inconclusos, será este el propósito de concluir estos cortes del final así o simplemente se fueron acabando las ideas?.

Retomando la antigua tradición, The Needle Lies viene como un extra cover en la versión Japonesa, una muy buena réplica de la original de los ya míticos padres del Metal progresivo; Queensryche, levantando el final semi-inconcluso de este no tan perfecto Perfect Machine.

La vara está muy alta con el anterior Stream Of Consciousness, que sugiero escuchar ya que sin dudas es uno de los mejores discos de este grupo, Perfect Machine deja con gusto a más siguiendo con esta línea hacia lo progresivo de grupos como: Cydonia(donde está Thorsen de colaborador) o Andromeda en donde también la experimentación y la tecnología se van imponiendo por encima de la técnica y el Power Metal y sin dudas deja a esta banda dentro de los grupos que aventuran todo sin importar el riesgo ni las estadísticas del mundo consumista.

Aunque el arte gráfico y la historia de la carátula están como siempre de lujo en especial la versión japonesa que trae un conjunto de autoadhesivos, creo que el disco no está estructuralmente bien terminado, espero en algún momento vuelva Fabio Leone con esa mágica fuerza que contiene su inigualable voz .

Por ahora a conformarse con lo que trae The Pefect Machine que no deja de ser cuantioso complejo y novedoso, manteniendo aun la identidad propia del grupo, mejorando con creces la calidad en el sonido y mezclas del disco.

Rodrigo Trupp

TIPTON, ENTWISTLE & POWELL / 2006 Reissue (1996) Rhino Enterteinment/Warners

2006-11-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

Cuando un disco como: Tipton, Entwistle & Powell, llega a nuestras manos, nos hace pensar simplemente en otro proyecto más de Música "Blues" o de Fusión.

Rhino Records lanzó no hace mucho al mercado dos obras de Glenn Tipton; el primero una versión remasterizada de Baptizm of Fire de 1997 que contiene grabaciones de aquel período y en donde desfilaron entre otros; intérpretes de la talla de Brooks Wackerman, Billy Sheehan, Neil Murray, como también los desaparecidos Cozy Powell y John Entwistle, además de Robert Trujillo.

Pero realmente lo destacable es el material contenido en el segundo "Edge of the World" grabado antes, en 1996, cuando el legendario guitarrista de Judas Priest se aproximó a "Atlantic Records", presentando su proyecto solista que incluía nada menos que a dos grandes del Rock inglés: el bajista John Entwistle (quien casi no necesita presentación) y Cozy Powell, uno de los mejores percusionistas de sesión del Heavy.

La edición oficial del proyecto inicial fue postergada y bajo presión del sello discográfico, Tipton tuvo que reunir una camada de gente diferente dando en ese entonces fruto y prioridad a "Baptizm of Fire". Desafortunadamente y como muchos sabrán, Cozy Powell nos dejó un 7 de Abril de 1998 cuando trabajaba con Ingwie Malmsteen y hace no mucho, Jhon Entwistle fallecía un día antes de que los "The Who" comenzarán una nueva gira a fines de Junio del 2002.

Consecuentemente éste hasta hoy inédito trabajo, es una muy buena pieza y deja de ser eslabón perdido en la música. Es bien sorpresivo; no defrauda, con un sonido muy digital de baterías a lo Turbo de Priest (1986), guitarras muy afiladas y un bajo consistente, denso a ratos, a lo "Defenders of the Faith.

La voz particular, similar a veces a Alice Cooper, Kei Hansen, o Billy Squier indistintamente. Siendo mas bien "delgada", logra calzar en este proyecto de metal pop progresivo donde ciertamente existe una fusión, pero a un nivel más metalero.

Abriéndonos paso entre las canciones nos encontramos con la Intro "Unknown Soldier", muy A.O.R. con tintes de Foreigner, decantando con sonido y estilo propios en la power metal melódica. Friendly Fire, donde se dejan caer esas tremendas percusiones del maestro Cozy Powell, un sonido lleno, muy en la onda Sabbath época Headless Cross 89 o TYR 1990, en cuanto a las guitarras, Glenn Tipton se hace presente con su sonido "afilado" y solos de gran sentimiento y experimentación, Entwistle más pesado que núnca.

Este trío de veteranos del Heavy, despliega música futurista, el apoyo en teclados de otro de los grandes del rock británico, Don Airey, se hace fundamental. Recordemos que el gran Don Airey recientemente tomó el puesto de nada menos que John Lord en Deep Purple y en sus inicios como músico, formó parte de la agrupación Hammer junto a Powell en 1974, pasando brevemente por Black Sabbath en 1979 grabando Never Say Die, años después estuvo en Rainbow durante la edición de los discos Down to Earth 1979 y Difficult to Cure 1981.

La tónica visual, que imprime Don Airey, a la par con los solos sublimes de Tipton, el peso de su guitarra, y los otros instrumentos nos van enganchando de a poco en este metal más comercial que aunque suene pegajoso sube igual las revoluciones sin perder su peso.

The Holy Man, canción experimental con raíces muy rock and rolleras, nos transporta al buen rock progresivo, contrastando con Never Say Die en cuanto a estilos, pero coincidiendo en el sonido anglosajón de Queen o el de los "Who".

Resolution, es otra de las grandes del disco, con excelentes arreglos vocales corales, el bajo de Entwistle brillando y marcando siempre hasta lo "más abajo" e inesperados pasajes musicales como himnos, entrelazados junto a los metálicos arreglos del inconfundible Tipton.

Searching, inspirada y muy a lo "Rainbow", "razones sobran", contiene inteligentes arreglos acústicos en guitarra (con cuerdas metálicas) mucha influencia Purple durante la etapa Coverdale.

Give Blood se viene con el festejo a lo Kiss, cuesta creer estar escuchando algo así en manos de estos maestros, pero aún así la canción tiene una onda muy Gene Simmons y de "rock clásico" asemejándose también a Bad Company, resaltando así la versatilidad en este álbum.

Otra grata sorpresa nos llega con Crime of Passion una preciosa balada donde las desgarradoras levantadas de cuerda de Tipton, la armonía de Entwistle el peso de Powell y los suaves, pero presentes teclados nos pasean por hermosos y melancólicos pasajes, gran momento del disco.

Walls Cave In rompe entre lo opuesto de lo acústico frente al Riff metálico, mucho contraste de sonidos, diversidad de estilos y la contribución misteriosa en voz de Tipton, haciéndose presente el Western y el rock and roll refinado del Reino Unido.

Para el final la homónima Edge Of The World, otra Marcha "Heavy" a lo Priest y la excelente Stronger Than The Drug, sin sobresalir del resto, continúan con la simpleza del sintetizador y el Power Metal comercial pero bien afiatado y heavy.

Tipton el Maestro está de vuelta con algo que había quedado pendiente y aunque los tiempos cambian, el disco queda convertido en un "Item" de culto difícil de clasificar, contiene harto de vieja escuela "hard rock" progresivo a veces gracias a los teclados y matices comerciales manteniendo la constante metalera. En resumen una colaboración y esfuerzo grupal y la razón es obvia aquí encontramos a lo mejor del legado Inglés, Powell; quien pasó por Chile junto a Brian May, además trabajó a la par con el maestro indiscutible de las seis cuerdas Michael Schenker, estuvo con otro pionero como lo es Ritchie Blackmore en la clásica primera alineación de "Rainbow" entre los años 1976 a 1978; junto a Keith Emerson y Greg Lake participó en la versión Emerson, Lake y Powell, proyecto que el declaró curiosamente como un "desastre", y de ahí a Black Sabbath en su tercera etapa con el cantante Tony Martin. Powell trae consigo a otro invitado el bajista Neil Murray compañero también de los tiempos de Whitesnake y Sabbath, John Entwistle cumple con una participación satisfactoria y se deja sentir.

Aunque a ratos cueste entender a quien estamos escuchando existe una suerte de magia en este disco, además demuestra el ejemplo claro de hermandad y la unión que siempre ha existido entre ingleses por tradición. Uno de los creadores del speed power metal y dos de los más grandes del rock inglés en búsqueda de nuevas y válidas opciones musicales, algo que tristemente no se volverá a repetir, pero que afortunadamente ahora pasa a formar parte de la historia gracias la diversidad y amplitud de criterio de sus exponentes.

El dinero recolectado con las ventas de este disco va directo a una fundación contra el cáncer en los jóvenes.

Rodrigo Trupp

LABYRINTH Freeman /2005 Arise Records (Spain)

2006-11-08T20:55:00.000-08:00

Labyrinth es una de las bandas más originales de Power Metal Italiano, comenzaron como grupo en 1991, luego de cambiar su nombre original "Vision" adoptando el que todos conocemos. Grabaron su Demo inicial de 1994, "Midnight Resistance", Item que ha pasado a ser de colección entre los Fans. Después se vino el primer larga duración "No Limits" en 1995; en 1997 tras algunos cambios de personal, la banda firma para Metal Blade y lanzan el clásico "Return To Heaven Denied" con la energética y versátil voz de Rob Tyrant (Roberto Tiranti), reemplazando a la de Fabio Leone, quién partió a Athena y posteriormente a Rhapsody. El tecladista Andrew Mc Pauls (Andrea De Paoli) toma el puesto de Ken Taylor, el baterista fundador, Frank Andiver también deja la banda poco después de terminado el disco, tomando su lugar el virtuoso Matt Stancioiu (Matia Stancioiu). Los miembros restantes: el guitarrista Anders Rain (Andrea Cantarelli), el bajista Chris Breeze (Cristiano Bertocchi) y el guitarrista Olaf Thorsen (Carlo Magnani); hasta ese entonces mantenían sus puestos de manera estable.
En 1999 la sorpresa llega con Vision Divine y su album Homónimo en donde la guitarra de Olaf Thorsen se vuelve a encontrar con la voz de un viejo amigo; Fabio Leone quienes junto a gran parte del elenco Labyrinth más el bajista Andrea "Tower" Torricini emprenden una carrera en paralelo. El año 2000 trae de vuelta a Labyrinth con otra joya, Sons Of Thunder que escala rápido al puesto 52 en Japón, en Noviembre del 2002 durante las sesiones para el siguiente disco Olaf Thorsen lamentablemente se aleja de Labyrinth debido a diferencias musicales continuando con su carrera en Vision Divine. Su reemplazo se encontró en Pier Gonella, viejo amigo de Cantarelli y de, De Paoli, quien se les unió durante la gira del disco homónimo del 2003 presentándose en festivales junto a los viejos norteamericanos del grupo Virgin Steele.

Este nuevo discazo continúa llevándonos hacia terrenos visuales y expresivos, la canción que abre este Freeman L.Y.A.F.H, tiene esa mezcla de melodía y agresividad, con hartos ruidos incluso industriales debido a los arreglos de Mc Pauls en los teclados y los solos de guitarra en la mitad donde hay más sonidos desgarradores que escalas. "Deserter" parte adornada con limpias guitarras apresurándose de repente emulando el sonido "Slayer" y en donde la voz varía entre la crudeza y la claridad sónica; la tercera canción "Dive In Open Waters" definitivamente uno de los momentos altos del disco, trae de vuelta la rapidez ultra desenfrenada con teclados estilo órgano Hammond distorsionado; en cuarto lugar la canción Freeman nos lleva definitivamente al Pick del disco gracias a la introspectiva "Techno" (dentro de lo que Labyrinth puede acercarse al "Techno") creada por De Paoli con sus visionarios pasajes musicales.

El atmosférico disco continúa con la potente "M3", en donde escuchamos el uso del pedal Wa Wa en los solos y donde Labyrinth nos traslada a sus tiempos veloces más convencionales, "Face and Pay" comienza también con vertiginosa rapidez para convertirse en otra pieza clave de este disco que nos habla de la madurez de crecer y de liberarnos e independizarnos a como de lugar, de posicionarse en contra de las modas y de la manipulación política consumista y por sobre todo mental. El séptimo corte "Malcolm Grey" es el más progresivo del disco, muy lento y denso al principio con arreglos de violines se desarrolla junto a un gran piano, las voces y los coros, las cadencias musicales menores son las que se encargan de darle oscuridad, transportándonos hacia un estilo musical expresionista parecido al del grupo de culto Devil Doll.

El Metal-técnico Progresivo, si es por catalogar de alguna forma lo que ha emprendido este renovado Labyrinth sigue con la fusión del Brain-metal en: "Nothing New" y a continuación la excelente "Infidels" nuevamente mezclando texturas de teclados y guitarras de consistente distorsión con la fuerza de Tyrant y ese control vocal agudo y alto que posee a través del álbum, el final llega con "Meanings" volviendo un poco al Power Metal técnico que los caracteriza apreciándose la solidez de Stancioui, Bertocchi y De Paoli.

Las guitarras están afinadas un tono completo por debajo de lo normal, suenan súper gruesas y duras, hay menos solos, pero se produce un importante matiz con Tyrant, quien continúa en la búsqueda de nuevos horizontes junto a su trabajada voz.

El baterista Mat Stancioiu figura en la mezcla del disco que fue "masterizado" en Alemania al igual que el anterior dándole a su participación un sonido bien parejo casi electrónico en especial el de su caja y el Hi Hat. Estos Italianos formados en la ciudad de Massa hace ya más de diez años destacan por sonar diferente, dándole lo justo a las letras para formar parte de un concepto rozando lo conceptual. Algo que siempre ha abordado el grupo, también se hace presente la innovación, las ganas de crear nuevas sensaciones profundas, una línea en la misma vena experimental del Homónimo del 2003 y el tributo al "Thrash" del Bay Area de grupos como "Forbidden" y de grupos mas "Death-técnico" como "Atheist" en unión a elementos progresivos y el uso de la tecnología por sobre la técnica sin dejar de lado la melodía.

Las ideas sin dudas han madurado, y la clasificación dentro del Power Metal de a poco va desapareciendo.

Es fundamental darle unas buenas escuchadas ha este importante disco hecho por músicos que definitivamente no se apoyan en lo básico y quienes se dejan llevar por sus viejas influencias hacia lugares que perfectamente podrían haber recorrido grupos de la talla de Fates Warning que en vez de continuar cambiando se han ido a tendencias establecidas, grande Labyrinth! Up The Mazers! y en cuanto a Freeman......excelente.

Rodrigo Trupp

HEADRUSH / Locomotive Records 2005

2006-11-08T20:50:00.000-08:00

La carrera del guitarrista Alex De Rosso no es muy conocida, pero la verdad es que éste músico italiano viene dando que hablar desde los ochenta cuando formaba parte del grupo Glam italiano Hot Honey. Posterior a eso, estuvo con el grupo de metal Dark Lord. En 1995 editó su primer disco en solitario en el sello japonés Alfa Brunette, con el cual ganó el reconocimiento de la prensa especializada, posteriormente vino el auspicio con la marca ESP de guitarras como también el de las cápsulas Seymour Duncan; luego, una serie de presentaciones y clínicas como la NAMM de Los Angeles en U.S.A, La Frankfurt Musikmesse de Alemania y la Interexpomusic y el Disma Music Show en su natal, Italia.

En el 2002 después del estreno de su tercer álbum, fue llamado a reemplazar a Jhon Norum en Dokken, en el 2004 De Rosso forjó el grupo de rock-fusión Headrush junto al notado cantante Roberto Tiranti, el bajista Mauro Catellani y el baterista Dave Fini, cuyo álbum homónimo fue lanzado el año pasado y no es muy fácil de conseguir puesto que sólo ha sido editado a la fecha en Europa y Japón.

Tiranti, por otra parte, posee una agenda bastante ocupada; en sus inicios integró la banda de hard rock italiana Vanexa (grabando "Against The Sun", en 1994), además forma parte del veterano grupo progresivo italiano New Trolls como cantante y bajista, con quienes ha estado en tres trabajos: Alianti Liberi, La Storia dei New Trolls y Concerto grosso "Live". Hace no mucho, estuvo invitado a cantar con Ian Paice, junto a otro veterano del progresivo Italiano, Gianluca Tagliavini (tecladista de P.F.M.). Pero sin dudas ha sido su trabajo junto al grupo de metal progresivo "Labyrinth", de quienes es su actual voz líder desde que reemplazara a nada menos que Fabio Leone para el clásico de power metal progresivo, Return To Heaven Denied. Además de otras colaboraciones para grupos del género como Odyssea 2003 con Pier Gonella en guitarras, Secret Sphere en el disco Heart and Anger 2005, también tomo el rol de Rey Lear en el proyecto Atlhantis, aparece en tres discos de Shadows of Steel: Homónimo 1997, Twilight 1998, Second Floor 2003, representó el papel del Ramses en la Opera "Los Diez Mandamientos", acaba de lanzar su banda solista con el disco Sinceramente, y reemplazo en el bajo a Cristiano Bertocchi en Labyrinth tras la partida de éste último a Vision Divine recientemente.

Headrush es una mezcla de hard rock, con progresivo y glam-metal ochentero aunque no necesariamente en la imagen, un poco de Mr. Big y por supuesto la influencia más directa en la guitarra con mucho de George Lynch.
Lo importante aquí es que aún así el producto final es algo completamente original, pesado de rock fusión. Una base rítmica compleja, no cuadrada en la estructura de compases conocidos de 4/4 sino más bien, métricas interesantes y mucho "Feel".

Se abre el disco con las potentes guitarras de My World canción que se desarrolla entre el peso de los Riffs y la potente voz de Roberto Tiranti, sorprendiéndonos por su versatilidad y buena imaginación en las líneas vocales, se repiten el plato las siguientes, Not Just Anyone y Fooling Myself Again, con letras muy directas de la cotidianeidad y las relaciones de pareja, lo entretenido es que el grupo suena familiar, pero realmente se alejan de lo establecido con su propio estilo, guitarras limpias, efectos de Flanger, Reverb, solos con mucho recurso técnico y adornados con este sello propio que caracterizan a De Rosso, las bases rítmica y armónica de bateria y bajo respectivamente se encargan de la originalidad, inyectando la dinámica y toques de Jazz-Fusión sincopado con derivados fuertemente Heavy.

Ordinary Man es sin dudas una de las joyitas del disco, donde Tyrant revela ya un control completo de su voz, haciéndonos olvidar que su voz está plasmada en los trabajos de Labyrinth, De Rosso por su parte prácticamente se hecha al bolsillo a cuanta influencia exista, Malmsteen, Van Halen, Lynch, Norum, recursos presentes que elevan el nivel de este álbum debut.

All In A Crime continúa con la tónica hard rock depurado, con un mínimo de adornos y efectos electrónicos (no hay teclados en el disco) con despliegue de solos por todas partes y el constante juego vocal de Tiranti, las guitarras a lo "Rush" moderno entre el Funk y el Heavy en una excelente combinación de estructuras musicales mas bien expresionistas, puesto que la canción como varias otras no siguen una estructura estable.

What's Yours Is Mine, muy Lynch Mob entrega un trabajo más parejo de estructura sin bajar el nivel del disco y en donde Tiranti magistralmente demuestra su histrionismo vocal alejándose del power metal.

Catch 22 bajando las revoluciones, pero manteniendo la dureza posee el potencial de ser encasillado como "single", con cierta dirección al principio desviándose poco a poco hacia formas diferentes, melodías definidas en los coros, ideas por lo demás bastante maduras, mucho peso y el guitarrista nuevamente desafiando nuestra imaginación.

La balada, como para caer en el cliché musical comercial infaltable se hace presente con un ambiente suave y aires con tintes de power metal; imposible desprenderse del todo de esta sombra señor Tiranti, su pasado lo condena.

Young, otro de los buenos números de este brillante Headrush, viene con tiempos mas lentos y pesados, guitarras a lo Vai, algo de ambiente electrónico sin caer en su abuso, complementado con el trabajo armónico entre el bajo y la batería.

Change My Life, con una apertura y Riff de apoyo muy a lo Vinnie More, es un corte algo más pasivo que el resto y sirve de vehículo para que Rosso continúe demostrando sus trucos y habilidad a través del mango del instrumento; a su vez Tiranti nos entrega su gran dominio vocal.

Get Off The Dime, nuevamente llega con fuerza y características de "éxito" radial, Di Rosso y Tiranti mantienen fresco el corte ajustando inteligentemente la canción que se afirma gracias a los buenos aportes instrumentales, una de las que mejor suenan en el disco.

Para el final una suerte de "Outro" o epílogo corto entre la acústica de Di Rosso y la voz de Tiranti, un buen saludo de despedida, que espero sea momentánea ya que en este grupo se ve frutos hacia otros nuevos y sobresalientes horizontes.

Buen trabajo muy renovado y complaciente, para fanáticos de Labyrinth?, no lo creo, tal vez para quienes desean saber si Tyrant se la puede en otro ámbito, quien con seguridad debe estar feliz de poder explorar otros territorios despojándose del peso de un concepto, mucha fuerza y harta esperanza "HEADRUSH". Más progresivo el sonido de esta nueva agrupación que sorprende por su valentía de explorar, a veces cuando un disco no llega a convencer a la primera es por que algo hay en lo profundo, finalmente es muy probable que terminemos cautivados sin darnos cuenta, les aseguro que este disco va a causar más de unos cuantos adeptos, pero para eso hay que darle unas buenas pasadas.

Rodrigo Trupp

EUROPE / EPIC 1983

2006-11-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

En 1982 y poco después de cambiar del nombre "Force" al de "Europe", este cuarteto de Upplands, Vasby ganaba un concurso en su tierra natal de suecia, el premio un contrato para entrar al estudio y grabar su primer álbum, el disco si bien no hizo mucho por catapultar a la fama al grupo, considerando que ganó disco de oro en su país natal y vendió muy bien en Japón ha perdurado en el tiempo como una de esas rarezas dignas de alabanza y ejemplo de buena música sin compromisos.

Desde sus inicios "Europe" se definía como un grupo de rock clásico con influencias diversas y muy bien mezcladas, por supuesto la constante y ya conocida historia de la presión del medio por cortarse el pelo e incluso cantar en sueco estuvo presente durante la etapa de inicio de la banda, pero su afán por conquistar y andar de gira por el mundo fue mas grande y se dejó en claro al ganar este torneo por el cual pasaron cerca de 4000 participantes.

El rumor del gran espectáculo en vivo de este emergente ensamble que pasaba horas ensayando apoyado por una fuerte base de "fans" en Estocolmo se hizo inevitable.

Europe, el álbum hizo su aparición a principios de 1983 y de aquel disco se desprenden grandes momentos musicales que además significarían grandes influencias a nivel mundial perdurando y curiosamente re apareciendo encarnado en lo que se conoce como Power "Symphonic" Metal, en una suerte de renacimiento de múltiples bandas varios años después cuando el grupo ya había desaparecido.

El estilo reflejado en este gran comienzo de Europe, es una amalgama de sonidos establecidos en donde encontramos algo de Michael Schenker o Ritchie Blackmore, pero aun así con brillo propio en el trabajo del guitarrista John Norum que aunque se desarrolla en paralelo con el contemporáneo "Ingwie Malmsteen"(Malmsteen y Helloween debutaron posteriormente en el 84 y 85 respectívamente), posee características originales imposibles de comparar, el apabullante y armónico bajo de Jhon Léven(quién formo parte de una de las primeras encarnaciones de Rising Force junto a Malmsteen), la batería, el doble bombo (ahora existe el doble pedal) y el tecnicismo del gran e irreemplazable Tony "Nemisto" Reno (quien posteriormente formaría parte los grupos "Geisha" y "Y" entre otros con Hal Patino Y Roberto Falcao), finalmente junto a la ingenua e imitada pero nunca igualada voz de Joakim Larsson, para muchos mejor conocido como Joey Tempest, quien también figuraba en aquellos tiempos como el tecladista oficial, nos dan una impresión única de como se debe jugar todo al realizar un disco Homónimo que emprende el vuelo de una carrera musical.

Indiscutiblemente majestuosa de cinco minutos de duración, más que suficiente para la época es la partida de "In The Future to Come", seguida por la más bien Hard-rock and Rollera, Farewell, que indica la versatilidad de un grupo ya maduro musicalmente a pesar de su corta carrera por ese entonces.

Seven Doors Hotel, simplemente un corte seminal en lo que a "Power Metal" respecta, donde el desarrollo musical complejo se hace audible durante 5 minutos con 17 segundos junto al cambio de métrica central lleno de atmósferas épicas.

La originalidad la fuerza y el sentimiento se escuchan a través de "The King Will Return", con un "Tempest", dando el todo apoyado en su precaria pero efectiva técnica vocal, cabe destacar el buen dominio del idioma Inglés del cantante en una canción también larga (5 minutos y 35 segundos), estilo y tiempo de duración difíciles de encontrar en otros grupos como Bon Jovi o grupos del "Hair Metal" Californiano de aquella misma época, desgraciadamente los años venideros jugarían en contra para Europe puesto que dicho movimiento "Glam" se haría tan grande y popular que desvirtuaría la dirección musical del grupo y provocaría una significativa perdida además con el alejamiento de John Norum.

La sorpresa llega con la instrumental "Boyazont" por supuesto compuesta por Norum, donde nuevamente la originalidad de ideas, la variedad métrica, y la rapidez en los pulsos demuestran la madurez de los integrantes junto a la definida dirección específica del guitarrista y su visionaria forma de tocar produciéndose aquí la introducción hacia la rítmicamente "galopeada" "Children of this Time" un perfecto himno que paso desapercibido por la época.

El disco se pone cada vez más emocionante con "Words of Wisdom" el primer intento hacia la melancólica balada, con los arreglos de teclados llevados por Tempest, y en donde el solo desgarrador de Norum se acerca mucho al estilo Schenker, manteniendo igual una identidad única.

Nuevamente el Hard Rock y la originalidad vuelven con Paradize Bay, donde volvemos a apreciar como estos grandes músicos no se quedaban en la simpleza de un compás de 4/4.

El final de un gran disco nos trae la inspirada y elevada "Memories", con los teclados de fondo, el tiempo acelerado y nuevamente el "galope" reflejando las semillas del Power Metal fundadas a lo largo de un inmenso disco debut que logró prolongarse plasmándose en una segunda parte titulada "Wings of Tomorrow", donde el fruto del esfuerzo y el trabajo padecieron casi del anonimato comercial, aunque para los verdaderos músicos y seguidores del grupo estos dos primeros discos tienen un inmenso significado como uno de los grandes eslabones perdidos del Metal Melódico.

Hoy Europe está devuelta con Start from the Dark y preparándose a lanzar su séptimo álbum secuela sin dejar de cautivar por su originalidad y peso, estos suecos pioneros del Power Metal también se recuperan de una larga ausencia con su consecuente DVD "Live from the Dark" así la banda no hace mas que seguir consolidando su carrera que al parecer se ha reanudado con mucha fuerza gracias al reconocimiento de su gran cantidad de "Fans" al rededor del mundo.

Rodrigo Trupp

JACK FROST OUT IN THE COLD / Screaming Ferret Records 2006

2006-11-08T20:25:00.000-08:00

Jack Frost Puede ser el guitarrista de sesión más desconocido que existe, pero la verdad es que este virtuoso, quien surge como solista desde el año 2003 con "Rise Your Fist to Metal", es un verdadero veterano de las pistas del Heavy. Su banda previa "Frost Bite" debutó en 1994 con Icy Hell, larga duración que fue a promocionar en gira apoyado por los New Yorkinos de Overkill.

En 1998 tras el tercer disco de Frost Bite: "Carousel", Jack forma el grupo de Heavy Metal Clásico Seven Witches, junto a Boby Lucas en Voz y Joey Vera en Bajo, conocido por su trabajo con los legendarios Armored Saint, Fates Warning y posteriormente Engine con el cantante Ray Alder.

Con el disco debut en 1999 llamado Second War in Heaven, Seven Witches se da tiempo para donar tributos a Dio con la versión para "Shame on the Night" y a Accept con "Monster Man". En paralelo Frost interviene en la agrupación The Bronx Casket Co. (algo así como Type O Negative y Rob Zopmbie) junto a D.D. Verni de Overkill y miembros de "The Misfits". Además, Speeed con el ex cantante de Annihilator Aaron Randall grabó Power Trip Pigs.

El 2000 trajo de regreso el aclamado "City of Lost Souls" de Seven Witches cuyo trabajo de carátula fue realizado por Danny Muro (Dream Theater, Whiplash) y luego con los alemanes de Metalium se vino State of Triumph "Chapter Two". Frost entró a reemplazar a uno de los gestores del grupo Chris Caffery (guitarrista de los legendarios Norteamericanos originarios de Florida, Savatage. Irónicamente Frost reemplazó a Al Pitrelli en Savatage durante la gira de "Poets and Madmen" en el 2001, pero a mediados del 2002 es despedido sin explicación alguna, junto con el regreso de Pitrelli al grupo).

La influencia sigue manifestándose a través de aportes para discos tributo de forma prolífera: para Judas Priest "Speeed" entrega Grinder y Seven Witches Diamonds and Rust. Para Scorpions, Alien Nation, Rock you Like a Hurricane, y Another Piece of Meat junto a Metalium, con quienes también se grabó Ride The Sky para el tributo a Helloween. En el 2001 Sweet Home Transylvania se vino junto a Bronx casket Co, mientras Seven Witches prosigue donando con; Shoot 'em Down para Twister Sister y Widowmaker de W.A.S.P. En febrero del 2oo2 dicha agrupación edita "Xiled to Infinity and One" (considerado el mejor trabajo del grupo) con Wade Black, cantante que reemplazo al enigmático y Misterioso "Midnight" en "Astronómica" el espectacular disco de 1999 de Crimson Glory, banda de Culto pionera del Power-speed (Como dato importante se sabe que el 16 de Septiembre del año pasado la formación original de dicho grupo tocó un solo show abriendo para Kamelot). El disco "Xiled" incluía además el cover de Grim Reaper "See you in Hell".
Seven Witches lanza Passage To The other Side en el 2003 junto a otro Icono del metal Americano, el cantante James Rivera, de la banda Speed Power de culto "Helstar" y del grupo de Thrash contemporáneo Destiny's End, Killing Machine y Vicious Rumors. Sin perder la tradición el álbum, incluyó la canción Waysted de Def Leppard y se reincorporaron en gira junto a los veteranos británicos de Raven.

Alan Tecchio, leyenda del Metal Underground de Avant-Garde, quien fuese voz principal en Watchtower y Hades, es la nueva cara frente a Seven Witches para su último trabajo del 2006, titulado Amped; éste ha recibido halagos y rechazos, consideradose un trabajo no muy representativo de la banda. Lo cierto es que Frost es un artista incansable y además se ha asegurado la representación de compañías como: Gibson, Marshall, St. Louis Music y estuches TKL.

El duro trabajo de este intérprete en el difícil mercado americano sin dudas le ha traído frutos. A principios del 2006 su fama lo llevó a estar también junto a los Ingleses de Marshall Law, otros viejos en las filas del Heavy Metal, pero nada se pudo concretar.

En este nuevo capítulo Jack Frost nos entrega un álbum lleno de influencias, donde el desfile de luminarias comienza por: Wasting your Love con Ted Poley (voz de Danger Danger quien interviene para los cover de The Babys "Heads First" y de April Wine "Sign of the Gypsy Queen"). Otra de las originales incluye a "Hell or High Water" con Alan Tecchio en la voz y Patrick Johansson de la banda de Ingwie Malmsteen en bateria. El ex Anthrax Neil Turbin figura en la siguiente canción "Crucifixtion", "Out in the Cold" junto a Terry Ilous de XYZ, "Peter and Me" muy a lo Schenker presenta a Dale Toth, Jeff Martin de Racer X canta también el Cover de Foreigner "Cold as Ice" junto al al bajista de W.A.S.P. Mike Duday el baterista Chuck White (de Winterkill y Ion Vein). "Covered in Blood" además de Martin esta interpretada por Reverend Jones bajista de Black Symphony y Michael Schenker Group, algunos otros invitados son el bajista de Seven Witches Dennis Hayes quien a estado con el actual cantante de Iced Earth Ripper Owens en varias agrupaciones de la zona de Ohio, Jeff Curneton y Mike le pond bajista de Symphony X.

En resumen el disco a pesar de reunir tanto apoyo de la gente que ha recorrido caminos junto a Frost, mantiene la calidad gracias a los "Cover" sobresaliendo canciones como la lenta "Passage to the Classical Side" con Dale Toth en voz, "Hold on Loosely" donde canta el mismo Frost y Head First ambas en la vena de "Lynch Mob". Lo interesante de Out in the Cold es que se aleja de todo lo hecho por su intérprete principal con anterioridad manteniendo su sello acercándose más bien al Hard Clásico de grupos como Rainbow y el Glam alegrón Californiano, demostrando la tenacidad de un virtuoso que se abre camino en el difícil mercado Americano en donde aun persiste el Heavy Metal mas oscuro y tradicional de grupos como Iced Earth o Nevermore, grupos que han sabido perdurar a través del tiempo sin necesidad de perder el peso con su estilo de Música transgresora, fulminante y sin compromisos de la vieja escuela Thrash.

Por otra parte Frost debiese mantener una formación más estable en Seven Witches, con quienes a mi juicio a logrado su mejor apogeo como Músico.

El diseño de arte por Jowita Kaminska incluye excelentes caricaturas de la gente que colaboró en el Disco.

Rodrigo Trupp