Nightmarer is getting ready to follow up on their 2018 full-length debut Cacophony of Terror via Season of Mist later this year, and I sat down with guitarist/journalist Simon Hawemann during NAMM to learn more about this up-and-coming death metal band.
I want to dig right into Nightmarer so people can get to know more about this band. Harsh chaos and cacophony defines the sound of Nightmarer, musically, what drove you guys to what you like to call “total dissonance worship”? What is that to you?
I think it’s just something that over the years I started gravitating towards, trying to find ways to make the music sound more unpleasant. Dissonance is obviously something that lends itself to it, and using dissonance in metal is just a way to create a very tense, dark atmosphere, and feelings of discomfort, and yeah, it’s just something I explored over a longer period of time and that has formed the way I write music on the guitar for the last couple of years. I would say at this point, probably for the last ten years, I’ve dabbled in that kind of space.
With your album Cacophony of Terror, I feel there seems to be an overarching story behind it, now I don’t think it was intended as a concept album per se, but is there still some kind of connecting story behind it?
There’s something like a story behind it for sure, and it’s basically, we’re kind of playing with the name a little bit, the name is not necessarily super defined, but you could understand the Nightmarer to be an entity, whether that is an entity that kind of controls your nightmares, or it could be someone that is stuck in a perpetual nightmare, who knows? We’re not trying to define it too much, but it’s something we kind of play with, and the album itself was basically about a character that found himself stuck in what he perceived to be a nightmare, and in various ways he’s trying to escape it, to the point of self-harm and ultimately, it kills him. So it’s just a very miserable existence that is described throughout the album, and it ends in death.
In true Death Metal form.
Exactly, why not?
So what is something essential that you would want somebody being introduced to Nightmarer for the first time to know?
Honestly, I think I would just let the music speak for itself. We’re not a band that is explaining too much, we’re not super communicative, even when we play, we don’t say a word during our set. For us, it’s a very personal experience, which is great because you can really get into it when you’re not trying to entertain someone necessarily, but you’re trying to do your thing, and it either clicks with the audience and they kind of find that access, or they don’t, and that’s fine too, I don’t stress out about that. I feel like we try to just let our music speak for itself, so yeah, I wouldn’t necessarily explain too much.
I like that idea, you’re not necessarily putting yourself out there to say, “Hey, everybody, pay attention to this!”, it’s like, “I’m here, I’m going to play, I’m going to do the same thing I would be doing if I was by myself playing this, and you get out of it what you can”, that’s a cool concept, it’s different.
Yeah, for sure. I think explaining everything to the tee is kind of boring, and oversharing everything is a little boring as a band. We’re very focused on just pushing our craft out there, so that’s what we do.
You mentioned you’re from Germany, but you guys are based out of Tampa, right?
Well, I am in Tampa, our vocalist is in New York, our original drummer, he’s German, too, he was just visiting me in Tampa to write our new album. And on tour, if we have to, we have an American fill-in drummer too, who’s based out of New Jersey, and our new guitarist is based out of Portland, so we’re really all over the place.
All over the map! So how does that work from the recording side of things?
It’s not too bad, because I have a studio and so does our other guitarist, so basically, we’re able to record everything but drums in our own studio, and the writing process, or pre-production process, is done with drum programming, and then our drummer, we book studio time for him in Germany and he tracks real drums, and everything else is tracked at our studios, even the vocals are tracked at my house. So, we’re pretty autonomous in that regard, and it’s a good way of working, you have a lot of control over what you’re doing and control over your finances, so it’s good.
And then it all comes together in the end even though you’re all separated. So talk to me about what you’re doing at NAMM this weekend?
I am here with ESP Guitars, I started working with them right after NAMM last year, so this is my first year with them officially. I designed a limited model with an ESP dealer that is coming out in February, there are only sixteen units, I think three are still available, the dealer is called “The X Palace”, it’s not necessarily a signature guitar, but more of a limited run that I designed, so I guess it’s as close to a non-official signature as it gets, you could say. And I’m also here as a journalist, I write for a German guitar magazine, I’ll have to take photos and talk to some people and write an article about it.
So you’re getting both the media and the exhibitor side of things, that’s really cool, not everybody gets that dual experience of NAMM.
Yeah, not everybody gets it, but it’s fun, it’s good times. It’s a lot of work, but I enjoy it.
Good! So talk to me more about your gear setup when it comes to that dissonant sound that you love?
So, I’m playing a Baritone 7-string guitar that’s technically tuned like an 8-string guitar, I just don’t like playing 8-string guitars, it’s cumbersome and just not fun for me to play. I basically play an 8-string tuning without a high E string, and the way I typically write guitar is…you know, when I start writing guitar, just one guitar sounds very weird, and the second guitar creates the dissonant intervals, so I always kind of think in two guitars, that’s just the way I started writing a long time ago. That’s the guitars I use, I use a Kemper amp, which is a digital amp, which helps a lot with the low tunings we use…tube amps, although I love tube amps and have them in my studio, I think the convenience of using a digital amp like the Kemper helps translating our sound in a more controlled way. But I still run it through a power amp and into a guitar cab, it’s kind of like best of both worlds, I use a digital rig, but I still use big cabinets and I like volume on stage, so that’s what I’m using.
Another thing, I’ve heard that you’re big on collecting vinyl, would you say that you prefer that over other formats?
I definitely do prefer it, I mainly listen to digital or vinyl, digital out of convenience and vinyl because I do like supporting the kind of music and bands that I listen to, and I think it’s the most pleasant format, honestly. Not just the sound, people argue whether or not it sounds better, I wouldn’t really say it sounds better or worse than certain other types of physical sound carriers, but I also like the fact that the effort that is put into the artwork really shines on the 12” format and whatnot, so…you get to be a little more creative with vinyl than you do with CDs. So I think it’s just a very cool medium, as a collector and as a musician, I like getting very involved in that aspect of our process.
Now, back to Nightmarer, what do you see in the near future?
So we are about to wrap up our new album, I’m actually flying out to Portland to write the rest of the album with our guitarist, Keith, and drums are being recorded in Germany in February, so that’s what we’re mainly working on right now. I think it’s not going to come out before Fall of 2020, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not something else coming out before then. Not going to say much more than that, people need to stay tuned if they’re interested, and they will see or hear something new soon enough. And I’m sure we’re going to go get back on the road, there are plans for Europe, I can’t unfortunately today say what it is, still waiting for it to be announced, but there are plans for Europe and I’m sure we’re going to tour the U.S. this year as well.
Awesome, lots of stuff to look forward to. Thank you for your time today, and have a good time at NAMM.
Hugo Doyon-Karout has plenty to do as a young bassist, splitting his time between three bands, including Beyond Creation, Brought By Pain, and Equipoise, plus work as a tour manager. I sat down with him at NAMM for a quick Q&A on all his work in the metal world.
We’re here at NAMM, so I have to start off by asking what you’re doing today at the show.
Just having fun, hanging out with my friends in Equipoise, catching up with friends, I just performed at the Neural DSP booth, that’s been a blast. So yeah, making connections, being here to represent my bands.
Equipoise and Beyond Creation, those are the two main things for you, so first I want to ask about Beyond Creation, you’re the newest member of the group at this point, right?
Yes, I joined the band in early 2015, so new member but five years already.
So Algorhythm was the latest release from the band, which actually got a Juno nomination, how was the whole experience with the album for you guys?
It was a Juno nomination, but we actually did get an award from the Independent Music Awards, which we’re really honored to have received. Really nice feedback from the fans, we’re really happy with the response. The Juno nomination was really surprising for us, and it was really a blast for us to be there, we felt like a real band from that point on, you know? Being with the big names and doing the red carpet thing and all.
Can we expect to see any follow-up to Algorhythm anytime soon?
Yes, maybe not as soon as you think, but there is music in the works!
So let’s talk about Equipoise, now, is that the only band outside of Beyond Creation you’re involved with?
I’m also involved in Brought By Pain, a Montreal based band with Kevin from Beyond Creation, so we’re working on an album right now that’s going to be out, probably next year.
And with Equipoise, just tell me how you got together with that band, how long you’ve been with them, and maybe for someone being introduced to that band, what’s something you’d like us to know about Equipoise?
Well, it started more as a studio project with Nick Padavani’s compositions, and we never really got together until last year when we met to practice for the Algorhythm tour with Beyond Creation, so for a while, it was just a studio project, then we did an EP with three tracks and two ambient classical guitar tracks, so that was a five-track EP that came out on YouTube strictly, and then we got signed to Artisan Era, a Nashville-based label, and from that point on, it really started to get going. We did Demiurgus in our bedrooms, and then Mike Lowe from Artisan did a great job mixing it, and we’re really happy with the response we’re still getting from it. This album’s going to turn one year in March and it’s really technical, it’s fast, there’s a lot of classical influences as well, lots of solos, and it’s like a fourteen-track concept album that’s really entertaining to listen to, I would say.
Awesome, well, everybody’s got to check it out. So how did you first get started as a bassist?
I started playing bass because my brother was a drummer, and he had a band with two guitar players, so I was kind of filling the gap in that sense. Then I was just jamming with my brother, taking bass lessons, and I found since most people wanted to be guitar players, that was some kind of a unique factor, so I just kept going from there. I found that it’s fun to play bass, because it’s easy to get in bands, there’s so many guitar players and so many of them are insanely talented to a level I can’t even comprehend, so it works out for me.
Well, you’re talented yourself, you do some crazy stuff on 6-string, fretless bass and all that, did you just dive your way right into that, or did you kind of work your way up, starting with a 4-string bass?
Yeah, with 4-string fretted, and then when I joined Brought By Pain in 2012, they had a song that involved 7-string guitars, so I moved to a 5-string bass, and then for a couple of years I was playing that, and then when I joined Beyond Creation, it was requested that I play 6-string fretless, so I moved onto a 6-string. The bass was fretted at first, so for a couple of months, I was practicing with that, and then I got the bass de-fretted, so I moved on pretty quickly to the fretless.
You just kind of gradually added a string with each band, that’s cool. So what’s on the horizon for you?
Well, I’m just starting a tour with Equipoise, so we have some California shows next week, then we’re flying to Mexico for a short tour with Origin and The Faceless, and then myself, I’m going on tour as a tour manager strictly, with the band Exist and Replacire for ten days, and then after that, I have a tour with Beyond Creation in Europe, and then we have some other plans for festivals in Europe in the summer, and then we’re working on some other things to fill the rest of the year, and working on an album for Brought By Pain, and trying out new ideas for Equipoise, and yeah.
Lots going on! I wish you luck with everything, have a great rest of your time at NAMM.
Timo Somers, metal guitarist and Aristides Instruments enthusiast, was representing his favorite brand at their booth at NAMM this year, and I had the chance to speak with him about his NAMM/Aristides experience and musical ventures both in and outside of Delain.
Here with Timo Somers at the Aristides guitar booth, want to start off by asking, what’s your connection with Aristides guitars?
Well, I’ve been playing their guitars for like seven years now, and I was one of the first artists that they got, and then the brand grew so much, and then I came to be an Artist Relations Manager…which sounds very impressive, right? It’s just that I handle all the artists and endorsement requests now, and taking care of our artists. So it really grew from being an artist to working for them, so it’s cool.
So what are you doing here today at the NAMM booth?
Aristides doesn’t have dealers, so we only sell direct, so most of the people here to check out the guitars are here to really check out the guitars, because this is the only real opportunity they have overseas to try them. So I’m here to assist with that and tell them about my experience using them, and just helping them experience the guitars.
What do you feel that somebody can get out of an Aristides guitar that they don’t get out of something else?
All right, first of all, it’s a composite material guitar, they have their own material called arium, and one of the best benefits that’s subjectively the best benefit is that they’re way more stable than wooden guitars can be. Because I tour a lot, different countries, different temperatures, these guitars stay incredibly stable while touring. They don’t change, you don’t have to set them up anytime. So that’s the biggest factor, and then the sound, for me, is also the best sound, because it’s pretty neutral sounding, but it has everything that you want out of a guitar for me. Some guitarists like having bite in their guitar sound, or warm sounds, but with Aristides, it’s really like a palette to have it all, while being the most stable guitar. So that just adds up to me to be the best guitars there are. And the finishes these days are really crazy, visually they are really impressive too now, so…you can hear I like them, but they’re just, to me, the sickest company around right now.
Now, I know you are here representing them, but if not Aristides, then what? What’s your backup gear setup?
I mean, I also use Godin guitars, they’re hollow body guitars, and they’re acoustics, so that’s a cool brand as well, they also make electrics. In the past, I’ve used all kinds of things, Gibsons, Fenders, Ibanez, I used all of it. But really, I didn’t touch other guitars for the last few years, even in the studio. Sometimes guitarists have signature guitars, but in the studio, they still play a different guitar for a different sound, right? I honestly very rarely play anything else besides Aristides.
So Timo, you’re usually referred to as “the guitarist of Delain” and all that, but you actually have so much more than that going on, you’ve got some outside projects, can you talk to me about some of those?
Yeah, so, Delain is really cool, but as a guitar player, I like to branch out a little bit more sometimes. I come from like a blues rock kind of vibe originally, so I have some solo projects that I’m working on. I have a project called Arrowhaze that I’m releasing this year, it’s like modern metal meets a little more ambient…I jokingly call it like Periphery meets Pink Floyd. So I’m working on that, I’m doing fusion shows with Barend Courbois, who is the bass player for Blind Guardian, and his dad who’s like an 80-year-old jazz drummer, it’s really cool, and we’ve been family friends for so long, it’s amazing playing with them. So I’m doing that like, really guitar-intensive fusion improvised stuff. I’m working on an EDM record – it’s like R&B EDM but also with guitars involved – I like every style of music, so long as it can bring in a little bit of guitar. So yeah, that’s mainly it, I’m working on a little more solo stuff this year as well.
Sounds like a lot more than I even realized you had going on, especially the EDM side of things, didn’t even know you dabbled in that!
Yeah, we keep it on the down-low now, because we’re writing and recording it all year last year, but it will be released this year and it’s going to be pretty cool, I like it because like, it’s so out of my comfort zone. This is the kind of music where if I listen to it, I’m more like a listener than like I actually made it, you know? Everything metal or guitar-related, I listen to it from a guitar perspective, analyzing everything. But because this style’s so different, I enjoy listening to it, so that’s really exciting.
Going back into your background a bit, I’ve heard that you were actually self-taught on the guitar, so what brought on that initial spark for you to start?
So my dad was actually a really good guitar player, Jan Somers, he was in a band called Vengeance, who were pretty big in the late 80’s. But I didn’t really have any interest in guitar until I was like 12, which is fairly late to start. It’s still young, but a lot of guys start earlier. My friend burned a CD – there was no DVD back then *laughs* – with like Linkin Park songs, Limp Bizkit songs, and Korn, and all metal stuff, and I kept playing “The End” by Linkin Park, and my dad, it drove him nuts to hear that song all day, so he says, “You want to learn to play that instead of listening to it all day?”, and I said, “Yeah, sure”. Literally the day that I started, I didn’t stop. From the day I started, I didn’t let it go. Because guitar was around me all my life, I didn’t realize…it’s weird, when someone’s around you all the time, you don’t really see it, you know what I mean? But suddenly, it struck me that I could play it, and I kept going from there.
And now you’re just flying with it, you’re doing everything you can with the guitar.
Yeah, and I’m self-taught, so my dad just…it was the raw basics he taught me, but he was self-taught as well, so I really like trained my ear for improvising more than being like, a theory geek. Everything has its up and down side, sometimes I would like to know more theory, but then, I can hang and play with guys that do know it, and I can improvise, so I like being self-taught.
Do you feel like your technique developed any differently than it might have if you took formal lessons?
I mean, the technique, not really, because I was kind of good technically pretty early, probably because I’ve seen the guitar all my life, and my dad played it, right, so I immediately knew how to play just by looking at it and hearing it for so long. But the theory thing…I mean, if I wasn’t self-taught I would know more theory, I would probably write music a little differently, but it might not be better or worse, just different.
Well, you’re doing good just as you are.
Yeah, and during the years, of course I know a little theory now, you figure it out yourself, and you hang out with so many players that you pick up on it. So I feel like I know the basics now.
Now, you do venture out of guitar sometimes, especially in the upcoming Delain album, in the song “One Second”, some amazing clean vocals from you there! And clean vocals aren’t something we really hear from you, or vocals at all for that matter, so what led to you venturing out into that?
I mean, initially when I started, I liked singing as well, but…I’m a pretty shy guy for some reason, and I felt way more comfortable with a guitar. A lot of singers feel like they need to tell something with lyrics or whatever, and I always felt that I could tell it more through my guitar. But I did sing in the background, people didn’t know, but I always kept singing a little bit. And then usually, I ended up like, when I wrote demos for a band – same with “One Second”, actually – I wrote most of the song initially, and then I sang the vocals on it as a demo. It wasn’t even my idea to actually sing on it, but just to give the idea to the guys and girl. And they were like, “Why don’t you sing it? Let’s make it a duet”, and that’s how people found out. It’s cool, I like it, I like branching out a little bit. I’ve gotten more comfortable as an artist, so I’m not shy anymore about singing too much, you know what I mean? So I like that I’m doing it a little bit more now.
You definitely shouldn’t be shy, because you sound fantastic.
*laughs* Thank you so much.
Of course, so I know you’ve got a lot of stuff going on and you’ve got to get back to your Aristides work, but just to wrap things up, what do you see on the horizon for Timo?
So Delain’s releasing an album in two weeks, like February 7th, really excited about it. If you like guitars, there’s a little more guitar on it this time around, and like I said the EDM record is coming out, it’s called “The X”. Arrowhaze is coming out this year, and I’ll be focused on a little more solo stuff under my own name as well. So just keep an eye on it, and I’m excited.
Ronnie Montrose Remembered is an annual event that takes place during NAMM, one which will be celebrating its 5th Anniversary this year. The event, set for January 17th, 2020 at The M3 Live in Anaheim, CA, unites a vast and continually expanding list of musicians for a tribute concert to the late namesake guitarist of Montrose, led and coordinated by musician and former Montrose frontman, Keith St. John.
The lineup so far includes: Brad Gillis (Night Ranger), George Lynch (Lynch Mob/Dokken), Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, Ozzy Osbourne), Dave Rude (Tesla), Derek St. Holmes (Ted Nugent Band), Dave Amato (REO Speedwagon), James Kottak (Scorpions), Jack Russell (Great White), Jon Levin (Dokken), Phil Demmel (Machine Head), Brent Woods (Sebastian Bach), Jimmy DeGrasso (Ozzy Osbourne, Alice Cooper), Matt Starr (Mr. Big), Brad Lang (Y&T), Sean McNabb (Quiet Riot), Andrew Freeman (Last In Line), Paul Shortino (Rough Cutt), and many more.
Steve Harris’s extra-Maiden musical project, British Lion, is just about to release a new album, The Burning, on January 17th, right before kicking off a U.S. tour that runs until the end of February. Steve was kind enough to take the time for a phoner, discussing all the latest goings-on with British Lion, the new album, tour gear, and more.
I just want to dig right into the British Lion stuff, I’ve been listening to this record, I’m very excited about it, and I heard that The Burning is a couple of years in the making, so what made now the right time to follow up on your 2012 debut?
I know, I can’t even believe it’s that long, I don’t know where the time’s gone, it’s just mad. But obviously, busy with Maiden all the time, and we’ve done lots of touring with British Lion, with that first album – around the world really, we did a couple European and UK tours and last year we did Canada, and Japan for the first time, so that was great. And then next year, we’re going to play the States for the first time, so that’ll be great too, but I just can’t believe where the time’s gone.
So can you talk to me about the process in between the last record and this one, what led into deciding to make The Burning?
Yeah, we recorded this stuff in a proper studio, we went in straight after a tour and did most of it, and then we went back in and finished it off of another tour, so we were fresh and vibed up, and I think it really shows on the album. We tried to recreate the songs to be as much like live as possible, even the stuff that we hadn’t played live at that point, we just tried to get as much of a live feel as we could, and I think it’s got a really good vibe.
Absolutely, it’s got a great vibe, sound, really cool stuff. And you produced The Burning, not your first time producing, of course, but can you talk about that experience in the context of this record for British Lion?
That’s just it, really. The first album, was a good first step and we hadn’t played live together at that point, and then we toured a bit afterwards, but it was a whole different thing, the way we did the album – and this album, to me, was more how I would like to record an album, really. I mean, I’d love to go into the whole writing process and do like we do with Maiden, two or three months of writing, mixing, and recording all in one go, but we don’t have time to do it with British Lion, so we just do what we can. But the recording process was very much the same, just going in and recording it live, and Tony Newton, who recorded and engineered it, he’s our front sound guy for British Lion anyway.
I like that, just like you said, it gives it a very natural, live feel, just what comes out when you guys get in there together, so that’s cool. Now, seeing as British Lion in general came about long before anyone knew it, I know it used to be a band you mentored that transformed into what it is today, what was the original inspiration to pick it up and make into what we see now?
Well, because at the time back in the 90’s, I was helping them to get gigs and write, doing all kinds of stuff with them, and things all fell apart, unfortunately, but I said to Richie, the singer, “Listen, at some point, I promise you I’m going to make sure something happens with this material because I think it’s really strong songs, and it needs to see the light of day”, so eventually…fast forward quite a few years, but I’ve managed to work something out and I just said to him, “Look, you know what, the only way to do this will be to grab it by the scruff of the neck, and I’m going to be in the band. We’re just going to take it and do it and put an album out and go on tour with it”. And he was obviously up for doing that, and I’ve never regretted it. I absolutely enjoy it, and the guys in the band are really nice people to work with, they’re great writers and it’s just a lot of fun.
That’s awesome. I want to touch upon the single “Lightning”, not only does it have such a definitive bass opening there, feels like you’re making your presence known, but it’s such a great sounding track overall. Can you talk about what’s behind that one?
Yeah, we actually played that one on the tour in November I was just talking about, in Japan and South America and Canada, we tried it out live and it felt great. It’s a really strong song, and it’s one of my favorites on the album, actually, so it’s good that you chose that one to talk about. But yeah, I think it’s just a really powerful song and I like the recording we did in the studio, it’s really captured the essence of what it’s like live as well.
What you keep referring to is that “live” sound, so it’s almost like a live album in essence, that natural, organic vibe. British Lion has such a great sound in general, there’s elements of classic hard rock, but a lot of elements of modern hard rock as well. I’m wondering, do you take any different approaches to tone, or even gear for your playing in British Lion as opposed to what we normally hear from Steve Harris?
Well, I did on the first album, I sort of tried some things out, but after playing live with the band, I was just using my normal live sound that I use with Maiden. And really, that’s what’s happening now on the second album, it’s just my normal sound. The band has evolved into what it is now and it just feels better like that. And I have, just out of necessity, like when we played Brazil, for example, or Canada, we had a mate of mine, Andy Curran, Coney Hatch bass player – he was using an Ampeg rig and someone brought me this little gadget, I had this thing out, and he said, “Oh, it’s supposed to reproduce your EV speaker sound”, and I was like “Yeah, okay, we’ll see what happens with that”. He tried it in his Ampeg rig because it’s about as far away from my sound as you can get, I couldn’t believe it, it was like a miracle, it really sounded close to my sound, and I was like, “This is impossible! How can this happen through a rig like that?” but I said, “Well, can you recreate it?”, and he said yeah, so he’s done that. I just can’t believe it, so the good thing about that is that I can go to some countries – there are some places I can get EV speakers and some places I just can’t get them, and I was worried about going places and not having my sound the way it should be, and now I can do it. So it’s not just me tryin’ to flog a bit of kit here, it seems impossible to reproduce the sounds that I like as far removed from gear like that. But it just enables me to go around with British Lion to other countries and get the sound that I have.
That’s really cool, and that’s an angle not a lot of people think about, the traveling and going to remote countries while keeping your same sound, because you’re not exactly taking all the same gear with you all the time.
You can’t, it’s impossible to take it all. I mean, Maiden is different, obviously we’ve got a whole budget thing going, but British Lion, you’ve got to be more realistic, and I can’t spend a fortune working on getting my speakers somewhere, and I was worried about that, but now with this piece of kit, I can just whack it in me backpack and that’s it.
I love that! Now, The Burning is being released on Explorer 1, and also signed to Explorer 1 is The Raven Age, with your son George, who’s also toured with you before, I like the family connection with the record label, but how did you get involved with that label?
Well, basically, Paul, the CEO from the label, is a good friend of Tony who does our out-front sound, and so that’s how it came about, really. He was looking for new acts and everything like that, and we were a way forward, really, caught a breath of fresh air from older ideas and things like that, so I was really intrigued as to what they were doing with my son’s band. So we were out with the signing to North America, and so…yeah, it’s great, it’s really been impressive so far as well with how they go about things. The guys they’ve got working with him are experienced guys too, so they got lots of good ideas. So I think it needs a bit of shake-up and some new ideas, so it’s really good.
That’s good, it sounds like a great partnership to start with there, and a great record to be starting off with. Your daughter Lauren is also a musician, it’s so great that some of your children are following in your musical footsteps in a sense.
Yeah, she’s got some great material that never got released as well, which is a bit of the same thing that happened to British Lion, and I really think that that needs to see the light of day. I’m not going to join her band and go out with it, but I do want to make sure that album comes out at some point.
So getting back to British Lion, of course. You were a part of a Monsters Rock Cruise a few years ago, and now you’re set for 2020, so, any thoughts looking towards that?
Yeah, I certainly loved it. I really enjoyed it, and I’d never been on a cruise before, so I didn’t know what to expect, I didn’t know if I was going to get seasick *laughs* or something like that, I didn’t know. But I really enjoyed it, and straightaway they asked us to go back the following year, and I said, “I can’t commit to that because I’ve got commitments, but I’ll give you two years’ time”. So that’s what we’re doing, and yeah, I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve never been to Belize or Cozumel, so that’s another couple of things ticked off on the bucket list, so that’s good.
And it’s funny that it works out timing-wise with the British Lion record, since you had agreed to do it two years ago.
That’s right, yeah, but to be honest, I really wanted to bring the album out in December, because we’ve got a couple of shows coming up, and I wanted the album to come out before that, but with the vinyl backup and everything like that, we managed to get it out the day before the U.S. tour, so that’s January 17th. But I’m just pleased to get it out the door, really.
Of course – it almost works out better that way, you’re kicking it all off at once with the record, then you’re going to run right out there on the road and get everybody excited about it, so that’s cool. What’s on the horizon for Steve Harris beyond that?
We’ve got the tour with British Lion mid-January to mid-February, and then, just a few weeks later really, we start rehearsing and going out on tour with Maiden in May doing Part 3 of the Legacy of the Beast tour. That’s good as well, because we’re taking the show to Australia and Japan, it’s such a big show and everybody loves it, so we thought we should do Part 3 and take it there. Then, to top it off, we’re doing Tel Aviv – we did it once in ’95 with Blaze, but Bruce has never done it – Dubai, we’re doing again, and then we’re doing a few shows in Europe, much of the cities that we didn’t do last time.
Wow, exploring the world sounds like a fun 2020.
Yeah, it’s not a bad way to see the world, actually! It’s fantastic!
Absolutely – and this time, you do get to take your gear with you, because it’s Maiden, right?
Yeah, exactly, the rig goes with me.
Well, I appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your day to talk with me, and I’m really excited about the British Lion record. Thank you!
Sal Abruscato, Photo via Encyclopedia Metallum, The Metal Archives
A Pale Horse Named Death, the Brooklyn-based band formed and fronted by Type O Negative and Life of Agony’s Sal Abruscato, released their third album, When The World Becomes Undone, earlier this year. I recently spoke with Sal about the creation of the new album, what brought the band back from their hiatus, their European touring ventures, and more.
You’ve got lots going on right now with A Pale Horse Named Death, you just came off the Season of the Dead European tour, which you just mentioned before we started the interview, how was that run?
It was fantastic, a lot of work, we covered a lot of ground. We did over 5000 miles on that run. It was great, and we also got to perform in some places we had never been to – for example, Sofia, Bulgaria, was a great show. There was a billboard with our artwork in a shopping mall, and we were on national TV doing interviews. It was a great show, and we also got to perform in Timișoara, Romania, and Bucharest, Romania, for a festival. And these were places we had never been to, along with Dublin, Ireland, Rotterdam, a host of German shows, we were in Milan…then we finished off in the UK. The band’s bigger in Europe than in the States, and we had laid a lot more ground back in the old days over there, too. It was a fantastic run and we’re already looking at the next one *laughs*.
That’s awesome! That sounds like a lot of fun, did you have a personal favorite destination over in Europe?
There’s a bunch of places, but one day there was a travel day, and we stopped overnight in Slovenia. The town, I can’t remember the name of it, but it was just so beautiful, this little town in the mountains, it was gorgeous. I like stopping in Holland, it’s always beautiful over there. Many of the German cities, also. I’ve been going to Europe since 1990, so I have a bunch of favorites. I like the UK as well, but I’m not a fan of certain things over there either, like their plumbing structure and cleanliness. *laughs* But otherwise, great cities. But in my later years, I’m not a fan of just wandering the countryside, so going from places like Austria, traveling through the Alps, is a beautiful thing. That was always beautiful.
Traveling, playing music, seeing cool sights, good stuff.
It’s fun, but it’s a lot of work. That’s the misconception, people think you get to do sightseeing when you’re on tour, but you have no time to do any sightseeing. You just see the dressing room, the hotel…like, for example, I’ve been to Paris maybe 16, 17 times in my life, but I’ve never been to the Eiffel Tower. I’ve only ever seen it from a distance, you know what I mean? We’re in all these great cities but we never get to go to the actual monuments and sights and go see certain things that make those cities famous. So it’s bittersweet, because you’re like, “Wow, this is a cool country. But I ain’t got time, because I’ve got a soundcheck and we’ve got to build our gear. So, only on a day off. If you happen to have a day off in somewhere cool, then you might get to go around a little bit, but it’s really just the hustle and bustle.
It’s true, a lot of people don’t really think that way, they’re just like, “Oh wow, how fun and easy, just go on tour with your band”, but that is not an easy thing to do.
No, brutal. It’s like bootcamp. A lot of people would not be able to handle it, it is pretty brutal depending on your finances, what you can and cannot afford.
Like accommodations and stuff, I know what you’re saying.
Right, like, do you cram 4 people into one room, or do you have 4 hotel rooms? It’s those little things that make a world of a difference.
And the ones who are able to handle it and deal with it as it comes along are the ones who stick with it.
Yeah, it definitely takes a certain character to handle it. So it’s not for the fragile.
Music has never been for the fragile. So, I also want to dig into the making of When The World Becomes Undone, because that is an amazing album, and I’m wondering how the initial spark came about?
It started in 2014 when I was planning on trying to keep up with the scheduling of putting a record out much more often. So, I remember being in Europe somewhere watching, in 2014 there was a lot of stuff going on, as always, globally. And it was that whole rise of Isis and all this crazy terrorism, executing people, just craziness, and it was just kind of striking me as like, wow. Nobody’s learning anything in the world, the world’s falling apart. And it still is, that’s the funny thing, 4, 5 years later, this album that I sketched back in 2014 with this idea and concept and title, and I had a lot of the music written then. 5 years later, it’s no different, because the world’s nuts. So, I think I delved into a little bit of that, I delved into my usual manic depressive state that I am, touched on things that affect me, but always write it in a way that can be interpreted into anyone’s situation. And I’m glad I got it out, because it was like, the fans have been writing and waiting for something, now they’ve got something, so at least there’s a third record. But I’m already tapering on ideas and sketches on a future record, so I don’t want to take as long to do another album, that’s for sure, because time is not on our side.
Well, fans will be happy about that part of it, that they’re not waiting too long for another new album. But it’s, unfortunately, true what you’re saying, that 4 or 5 years later, it’s still relevant to what’s going on in the world, but at the very least, you can make some good art out of it, right?
That’s it. Doom and gloom, more crazy things go on in our lives than they do good, that’s the sad part is that the reality of life can be really tough on people, fitting in can be tough on people, manic depression can really be a serious disease that leads easily to suicide, and these are all real things that people battle on a daily basis. So I feel just being open and just talking about it, whether it’s through a song or just putting it into words, is a good way for those people to find a release that they, maybe, don’t have the ability to put it into words, because they are too afraid to say anything. So, I think that’s my niche, is just spitting it out there and just expressing these tones of darkness.
Of course, that expression is so important. And just like you said, some people will be able to relate to it, maybe they’re feeling, they’re experiencing certain things that they just don’t have the words or the sense to really make sense of it. But then if they can hear it in music, in lyrics that they can connect with, and say, “Yes, that’s it. That’s what I’m feeling, that’s what I experience”, that type of thing…even making just a few of those connections is very meaningful.
Exactly.
Now, what is your approach to songwriting? You said that you had some sketches for the next record, but do you have more of an overall vision first that you go in and make happen, or is it more of a natural “whatever comes out is what comes out” kind of thing for you? Or maybe a combination of both?
It’s a combination of both. I definitely have a vision of maybe, at moments, delving darker, but what also happens naturally is very important, because you don’t want to force anything. And if it maybe takes a little bit of a turn, direction-wise, well then, that’s okay, if that’s what’s naturally happening. One second, I might think, “well I want a slower song”, but then all of a sudden, something that has an upbeat tempo might come out of me that sounds like it’s out of a New Wave club, you know? And it’s dancey. So I kind of go with the flow, what it is, it is, and try to keep it as freeflowing and natural as it should be, let the song go where it wants to go, and if it wants to stop at a drop of a hat, have a deep, quiet part, then so be it. Anything goes, at that moment, what feels right is what feels right. It’s like wrangling wild horses, you just don’t want to confine them too much, you want them to have that spirit, but you do want to be able to reel them in a little bit and direct them the way you want them to go.
And it seems like you’ve got a good handle on controlling those wild horses. *laughs*
*laughs* I try. It’s hard.
Is there any one particular standout track for you on this album?
Every song’s like a bastard child, you know? I always have a hard time singling out what’s my favorite, but of course, the opening title track, When The World Becomes Undone, which is something that was written in 2014, that’s always been the calling card where I knew, this is what I want to call the record, this is what it’s going to open with, this is where we’re going. And again, sometimes I love the experimentation of having other instruments, like piano, involved in a song, sometimes it’s not required. But this was a nice, interesting track, like I don’t care about how you’re going to do it live, I just want to make the song a great song. So that’s a standout song to me, because it’s orchestrated in a way that has some very deep valleys and high hills, it’s very dynamic. And I do enjoy songs like “Love The Ones You Hate”, I always was a fan of the Goth club type of New Wave-era upbeat songs, so I tend to always gravitate toward stuff like that as well, and I like playing stuff like that as well. So I won’t confine myself to say I would never do it again. And then, “Splinters” is another one for me, “End of Days” is another great song, there’s still songs on there that we haven’t gotten around to playing live that one day we’ll get to. It’s just that we’re at a point where once you have more and more records, even just doing a couple from each record, before you know it, you have a full set. So you can’t do everything all the time. But for me, it’s a form of expression, and then I start looking ahead and moving forward, I don’t dwell on those songs. Why? Because it’s done, I did the story, and now I’m futzing with the new ideas, I want to hear new guitar parts. And that’s what I do on tour a lot of times, when we’re up on stage turning our gear on and testing stuff and soundchecking, that’s when I come up with ideas that I then have to try to remember for when I get home, maybe I can record something. So I’m already there, I’m already thinking of new imagery, new titles, “where are we going to be a year from now”, I’m already thinking about that. So that’s what I’m psyched about. I would like to start hearing a couple of new songs put together, because once you have the first couple of songs, you start also seeing the direction as well, and the concepts.
And that’s a great attitude to have, that kind of forward momentum.
Yeah, I like kind of being…prolific, is the word. I think dwelling or going back to things in the past, “let’s write like this, man”, I don’t think that works. I think when you do that, it’s contrived and it’s forced and it’s not going to be the way it should be. Just write, just let go and start jamming some riffs out. Sing some melodies and see where it goes, and that’s how a lot of the songs sometimes come out.
I want to jump back to something you said when you were describing your standout songs, you said how much you like the New Wave Gothic 80’s scene, how you always liked that and still enjoy playing that. And that brings to mind the Uncovered single that you did, you covered The Cure – the epitome of Gothic New Wave – and “Prayers for Rain”, I love that.
I thought it was cool, I never did covers before, but I was like, “well, here’s a guy that’s singing about dreary lyrics”, and it shouldn’t be that hard to maybe put a twist on it. And I never did covers, and as I was singing it, I felt like this was a good challenge, because maybe I’m in my habit of just singing what’s comfortable for me in my songs. Let me sing someone else’s songs and maybe I won’t feel so comfortable, I’ll be challenged or pushed. And I really enjoyed doing what we did to those songs and I really enjoyed hearing the end results of, “wow, here we go, we did it”. It’s a cool little collectible item for the fans, I think, whoever got their hands on the 7” will have a cool limited edition collectible, and it was great. And now we know that we can do a cover if we want.
That’s awesome, and of course The Cure’s “Prayers For Rain” makes sense for you guys, it’s dark, it’s epic, very much in the spirit of A Pale Horse Named Death. Now, you’ve got a US tour coming up early next year, and other than that, can you give a wrap-up update on what’s next for you?
I believe what else is in the works is March, we’re working on a tour to go back to Canada and some upstate stuff, and I believe mid-April to go do the places we haven’t done in Europe still, like Scandinavia, Poland, and then go to some new places like Estonia and Latvia. I think that’s all in the works, being routed and worked on. And then, I know they announced the festival that we’re doing in August, going back to Europe for about 3 weeks and doing a bunch of stuff along with festivals. Don’t know what’s going on yet in the States, we are going to try to fill up some stuff and maybe try to work in June as well. And in between all that, try to balance family, life, and work on new material to hopefully have something together maybe by the end of the year to hand over. And maybe we can have something out in 2021, that’d be great.
Lots of stuff going on there, so much already in the works!
Yeah, I’m trying, time is of essence and we’re at the point where it’s like, I don’t know, these hiatuses aren’t really going to work out too well, and taking 5 years off…it happened for a bunch of reasons, but I don’t think I could afford to do that again, you need to keep the momentum up, and that’s important.
Absolutely, well, it sounds like you’ve got some great momentum moving forward and lots for everyone to look forward to. So thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me, Sal!
Thank you for having me, Chelsea! Thanks for the support.
Silvertomb just released their debut album, Edge of Existence, this month via Long Branch Records. With Type O Negative’s Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly at the helm, the band evolved from Seventh Void and took on a new life with a slew of new songs and sounds, and the addition of three new band members with Joseph James (Agnostic Front, Inhuman), Hank Hell (Inhuman), and Aaron Joos (Awaken The Shadow). I recently had the chance to speak with Kenny about the making of the new Silvertomb album, including the ideas that went into some of the tracks, the personal touch of his life that he shows through his music, his love of Elvis, the interesting story behind the album artwork, and more.
Silvertomb, of course that’s the latest news with you, Kenny, Edge of Existence just came out the other day, highly anticipated with some great singles over the past few months. Can you start off by talking about how you’re feeling now that the record is officially out?
Like I gave to a child sideways. It’s been a long time coming, the inception of it was probably about 5 years ago, coming up with songs for it and stuff, and it developed into what it wanted to be. Then, of course, after we finished the whole recording process, which is the end of the whole mountain to climb, getting the right sound, performances, tones. And then after that, we had to obviously shop it to the record industry and get a deal, ended up with Long Branch Records. So it’s been a long uphill battle, and it does feel relieving that it’s out now. The responses have been really good, good reviews, so I’m excited about it.
An uphill climb but with some great results, and hopefully worth it in the end, right?
You know what it is, if it’s worth it or not, it doesn’t matter, I’ve got to do it anyway – I’m a musician, that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life. I’m going to keep putting music out, that’s what I do.
Well, there’s some really cool stuff going on with the Edge of Existence record, and “Love You Without No Lies” was the first official single, and when I first heard that dissonant piano opening, I felt it set the entire mood for what we’re in for with the album, ominous but also sets a groove right away, then kicks in with the entire doom-y sound of Silvertomb. Can you talk about this one?
It’s a love song to my wife, of course. She’s inspired many, many songs in me. I think it poses a question of, is love possible without lies? Without little white lies and if we were completely 100% honest and truthful to each other, could we still be loved and could we still…“get it on”, ya know? So I guess in a way it was a call out of hope to say, “yes, love is possible without lies”.
A positive message coming through among a doom-y ominous sound, I like that.
Hey, what’s more scary than sex? Nothin’! *laughs* I mean, I got two kids out of it, a house, a mortgage, and a 31-year-long relationship, it’s been up and down, but I’m still in love with her.
*laughs* Aw, that’s awesome. So another track I wanted to ask you about, “Insomnia”, I believe that was the first track we ever heard from Silvertomb, when you guys first formed the band. What I’m curious about is, has that song changed or evolved for you in any way, going from “Okay, this is the first taste of Silvertomb”, versus now in the context of the full album?
Yeah, we released that kind of in a rush. 2018, Life of Agony asked us to come out and support them on an East Coast tour and we had just finished basic tracks in, like, August 2018, and the tour was starting in September. So we wanted to get at least one song out there – nobody had heard anything professionally recorded from us, but we did some shows here and there. So we kind of crushed that down in a big rush and mixed and mastered it in a rush just to get the song out there. After that, the tour was really great for us and there was a great response to the song. But we still had a lot of tracks to do, I still had to lay down vocals, we still had to do guitar leads, overdubs, so that took the better part of the last of 2018 to get all that done. Then it went into mastering January 2019, then we went to a whole process of trying to find a home for the record, and that took another four months. That’s why the whole gap of releasing a single a year ago, and now the record’s coming out a year later, because it took all that time to put all that into place. I think that with this record, releasing singles in itself is kind of counterproductive artistically for it, because really, the record flows with one song, one experience into the other. And I think that it loses something when you pull a song out of context like that. But I think the songs we were released were a good choice, “Love You Without No Lies” was the next one, and probably the most obvious single, then the record label decided on releasing “Waiting”, which is an acoustic rock and roll song. And then “Rite of Passage”, three songs that are totally different from each other, and I was kind of proud of that. I did notice that obviously, everyone’s hammered into each genre and style of music, especially nowadays with algorithmic programming of playlists, all that stuff where you’ve got to be boxed into a genre. So it is kind of problematic if you release something that breaks out of your genre, which I thought “Waiting” is definitely not something that you would expect from us. Look – I’m going up against the grain here. The music industry in general stands to expect me to do like, Type O Negative part two, which is just not what we’re doing. So it’s been challenging, and I think rewarding too, at the same time. I’m just crossing my fingers and going with it, seeing where it takes me.
I definitely understand what you’re saying about the challenges, because there’s certainly a fanbase for a band like Type O Negative, who sees the members of Type O going on and doing something different and thinks, “Okay, so we get more Type O now”.
Right, right.
From my personal perspective interviewing artists who have been in classic bands, who do newer work, I always love to hear the newer stuff, I love to hear where the artists are going next, and I think that there is a bigger audience for that out there than a lot of people realize. That a lot of fans are genuinely interested in the artist and what you’re doing, something like the track “Waiting”, for instance, you said it’s acoustic rock and roll, nothing like Type O, but it’s still something really cool and getting great reviews.
I think that if it has some power and it’s strong, then it should be allowed the chance to get out there, make an impact and do something. I think my experience with releasing these last three songs, is that the algorithm is also limiting in a way because if you want to break out and do something crossover and fusion – the computer ain’t gonna get it. I’m not saying that I want to break out into something completely different that’s not rock and roll, not metal, but I do have a need to take my music to some other level, something further, and push back. I’ve been playing metal for 30 years…I went to Slayer at the Garden the other night and geez, there was a lot of old people there! It’s very interesting to see my generation reaching middle age…20 years from now, they’ll still be going to shows with a cane going “SLAYER!”
They will be, absolutely! And Slayer will do their final, final, Final, leg of the tour by that point, right?
Yeah, they do a “Final” tour every time they need money! *laughs*
*laughs* I do get what you’re saying though, about the genres, and while algorithms and playlists can help in a way, by exposing your songs to the people who would be interested, I see why you say it can also be limiting because it can put you in a box of a genre of what you’re creating.
Which is always done, it’s done in Hollywood, it’s done in the music industry. I get it, there are entire careers of people in the industry whose lives depend on trying to sell music to demographics of people and stuff. They have to try to refine it and focus it, to sell it the best they can. But at the same time, yeah, it does put people in a box…I’ve gotta get out of this box! I want to play Elvis! All I want to do is play Elvis covers! The hell with metal! *laughs*
Well, how do I know you don’t already lead a double life as an Elvis impersonator?
Oh, I impersonate Elvis every day in my garage along with my acoustic, you know. That’s what I do, I drink beer, play rock and roll songs, and that’s when I’m happiest is when I’m playing music just for the sweetness of it, you know?
That’s what’s important not to lose, for a lot of musicians, some get burned out, some get stuck in doing it because they don’t know anything else, but that right there is the important part to hold onto,
Yeah, that’s how it started, that’s what it was originally about. It was about enjoying, and serenading yourself. But, in the same breath, how long can I go on playing music to myself in my garage?
It’s the balance, that’s what it comes down to. You want to have the enjoyment of it, but of course, you’ve got to make a career out of it too.
Absolutely, and there’s nothing deeper and more satisfying than performing live to an audience. That electric feeling, when it’s going great, it’s the greatest thing in the world. So, I really can’t wait to get out there on the road with this and perform.
Is that on the horizon for the near future?
Absolutely, we have one of our first headlining shows at St. Vitus on December 21st of this year, and after that, in the early spring of 2020, we’re going to go out and start with North America.
I’m glad to hear you’re already lining stuff up. Now, before I let you go, I want to ask you a little more about the album, because writing the album, I imagine, was kind of a collaboration for you all, but from what I understand, it seems to be a very personal album for you specifically, right?
It turned into that, yeah, as the writing progressed. So I guess I get a little depressed sometimes – I mean, I deal with depression and anxiety all the time – and I guess having a few beers, coming up with music, and then writing lyrics, and as the stuff developed on, man, I found myself speaking more and more about what went down with Peter in Type O, and how everything hit the wall. I was also having some personal problems too, at home. So I just kind of went with it. You could consider it a confessional album.
That’s cool you’re not afraid to let that personal element out and express it in that way.
Oh, it is scary. It is terrifying, but I don’t think I revealed anything extraordinary in the lyrics. I think people…everybody’s got problems, you know? Got problems in their family, they got issues, I mean, maybe they’re not spewing them publicly like I am, but I know they’re there. You can’t hide it from me, because I know everybody’s got problems, you know? So my hope is that maybe I can connect with some of them through the subject matter of the record, you know? Maybe they can identify with it, some of it, part of it.
Absolutely, I think people already have, hearing it now that the full album’s out. Like you said, everybody’s got problems, whatever they may form themselves as in everybody’s lives, there’s always something. So that’s a big part of the connection when it comes to music, if you put it out there, they’re going to find something to connect with.
That’s the ultimate goal for me. Look, I’ve been through it all, I don’t care about fast cars and women and more, any of that shit. Been married for 30 years, I don’t want to be this hotshot rock star or some shit like that. I just want to continue using music as a medium to reach out to people, that’s really what I want to do. That’s my ultimate goal.
And that’s awesome, so keep on doing it. On another note, an interesting fact I actually read about this album, that you yourself posed for the basis of the album artwork, can you talk a little about that?
Yeah, I did. The original idea, Joe James, my guitar player, just like a lot of the flavors on the record are like 70’s classic rock, he was like, why don’t we do a 70’s van art theme for the record? I think I took it one step further because when I was a kid, 10, 11, 12, we used to cut out from school and go to my friend Tommy Fitz’s house in Brooklyn, in the garage behind his house was an old Sabrett hot dog wagon and there was black light posters all around, we used to burn incense, and smoke pot and crank Black Sabbath and Zeppelin all day, so I really wanted to catch that vibe. Take it beyond the van art and get to this black light super sci-fi 70’s vibe, so that imagery came up, and we needed a central figure. The pose is obviously taken from some famous artwork of the ascension of Christ that was done throughout the middle ages and underneath him should be all the apostles as he’s rising up to heaven, but we kind of struck them out and put a whole 70’s sci-fi theme in there. And Joe got his friend, who’s a tattoo artist, Rodrigo Canteras is his name, to do the central skeletal figure, and I remember Joe texted me going, “Well, what do you want him to do? How do you want him to pose?” And at that time, I had been hit by a vehicle last year, and my shoulder got really screwed up, I smashed my face in. And at the time we were coming up with the album art, I had just gotten out of this really complex shoulder surgery, so I couldn’t really lift my left hand. And I just stood in the middle of my living room and told my wife, “Take a picture of me, this is the way I want Christ posing”, and you can even see it in the picture, my left hand, I couldn’t spread it out because I was still recovering from shoulder surgery. So she took a picture of me and I sent it to Rodrigo, and I thought he was going to use it as inspiration, but he ended up just making the skeletal figure right over my pose of my body. So that’s how it ended up, I’m really proud of the album art, I love the way it came out.
Yeah, I guess out of that really bad situation came…some pretty cool stuff actually! It sucks you had to go through a car accident just to get cool album art, man, but you know…*laughs*
*laughs* I got a few good songs out of it too! That are going to be on the next record. Wherever I can get the inspiration, man, if I’ve got to throw myself in front of a bus, fine.
Sacrificing for the music. Now, some are wondering, did Seventh Void evolve into Silvertomb, or…?
Yeah, it did. When Seventh Void, well, it really dissolved. I put music to bed for a couple of years after Peter passed, last time I toured with Seventh Void was 2011. And I just got kind of sick of the whole thing, I was trying to reevaluate my life and say, what am I doing? I’m tired of waking up in a bus with no air conditioning and my boots on in the morning playing a local dive, you know? I was trying to, I guess, shake it, move on and try to reinvent myself in some other way beyond music. It didn’t work out. I ended up, a few years later, coming up with song ideas, and dying to play again. That’s when we brought Joe James into the band, a great guitar player, and I had a few songs written, “Point of View”, “Love You Without No Lies” is a Seventh Void song, like that whole intro with the piano was originally a guitar riff. And once we had put keyboards into the band and this whole other spectrum of instruments, I kind of retrofitted it and came up with that piano intro. So, it started with a few songs, and the real turning point was in the writing for “Right of Passage/Crossing Over”. Where the whole chorus breaks out into this whole orchestration, at the time, I heard all this stuff, and it’s like, why don’t we just go for it, you know? At the time, we didn’t have a keyboard player, and it came out really really good, and suddenly, we found ourselves in need of a keyboard player, somebody who could pull off all this stuff live, make it happen. So when Aaron Joos came into the band, he took it even further with his string and organ sounds, that are throughout the record now. So at that point, two new members, music that was way different than anything Seventh Void would have done. Seventh Void was supposed to be a really simple rock band, a heavy classic rock approach, in counterpoint to Type O, which was a very complex band. And now, we found ourselves reversed, turning this into something more complex with more musical depth and tone to it. So that’s when we ended up scrapping Seventh Void and renaming the whole thing and moving on as a new entity.
And you mentioned having songs already projecting toward the next album now, so you’re already looking toward the future with that as well?
Already got 30 minutes of the next record written, it’s unbelievable. It’s this stuff taken beyond, to the next level, so it’s a totally different sound, you’re going to feel very little remnants of Seventh Void left in it, and I mean, obviously, it’s going to be dark. I don’t know why, but every time I sit down and write something, it comes out dark. I have yet to write a happy song. Yeah, I’m very excited about the next stuff. I mean, any artist you talk to is ready to move on to the next stuff, and this stuff for Edge of Existence was written 4-5 years ago at this point. So I just can’t wait to get the next record out.
That’s awesome, I’m looking forward to it, and with 30 minutes already written, it might not be that far in the future that we hear more from Silvertomb. Loving what I’m hearing so far, and plenty of others are too. It’s been really cool talking with you, Kenny, thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me.
The video speaks for itself – the Crüe has officially thrown away the contract that was to inhibit them from ever touring together again. The band is said to have seen a resurgence in their audience, including new fans as a result of their hit Netflix biopic film The Dirt, and their time spent in the studio recording new music for the film gradually led them out of their meant-to-be-permanent touring retirement.
The internet is abound with talk of exactly what Mötley Crüe reuniting might mean for the band, and there are rumors of a potential tour alongside Def Leppard and Poison hitting the road in 2020. All of this remains to be seen, as the only official announcements from Mötley Crüe themselves have been the video seen above, and a statement that the cessation of touring agreement has officially been blown up – literally. Keep an eye on both Metal Magnitude and http://www.motley.com/ for updates, as Crüeheads wait to see exactly what 2020 holds for the legendary rockers.
UFO has been going strong with their first North American leg of the Last Orders tour, which they just wrapped up this week, but it’s not over yet – a run of 2020 dates have just been announced for February with special guest Damon Johnson (Black Star Riders, Thin Lizzy), wrapping up with the Rock Legends Cruise February 27th-March 2nd. For all the details and the full listing of tour dates, check out: http://www.ufo-music.info/.
Sons of Apollo is kicking off 2020 with a brand-new album, aptly named MMXX. Produced by Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian, the record is set to be out January 17th, 2020 via InsideOutMusic/Sony, and you can check out a brief teaser trailer for the album here: https://youtu.be/nL3YM8yKJIM. The first single off MMXX, “Goodbye Divinity”, will be revealed the day pre-orders are available, on November 15th. Mike Portnoy says of the record, “Stylistically, we have followed the same path as the debut. But we feel that it has come out stronger, simply because we know one another better. Psychotic Symphony was the first time the five of us had worked together, so there was bound to be an air of experimentation happening. Now, we can draw on having the experience not only of recording that album, but also of touring together a lot. And now there is clearly a lot more obvious chemistry going on”. Sons of Apollo also has tours lined up for North America and Europe in early 2020. Visit: https://www.sonsofapollo.com/ for all the info.
The final four Dio studio albums, released from 1996-2004, are about to get a reissue in 2020, via BMG and Niji Entertainment Group Inc. The newly reissued and remastered Angry Machines (1996), Magica (2000), Killing the Dragon (2002), and Master of the Moon (2004) will feature rare and never before released live and studio bonus tracks, with updated artwork to go along with it all. February 21st, 2020 marks the date of release. Head to: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialRonnieJamesDio/ for more info.
King Diamond’s first new studio album in 12 years, The Institute, is on the way, but in the meantime, a taste of the highly-anticipated concept record is available now in the form of “Masquerade of Madness”, the first single. You can check it out right here. Here’s some of what King Diamond has to say about the track: “’Masquerade of Madness’ is one of the first King Diamond studio songs in a long time. It will be featured on a future two album horror concept story, of which the first part is titled The Institute. The style is very classic King Diamond with lots of dynamics and limited amounts of compression to achieve very natural sounding vocals and instruments throughout the song. You’ll find some complex orchestrations, including the typical choir works you’re used to hearing from King Diamond, and a special thought process bringing vocals back to the forefront: ‘All vocals are lead vocals’. Both Andy and I are presently working on several different songs with high potential for the upcoming album; all of which are absolute killers”. King Diamond is currently on the road with Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats and Idle Hands. Head to: https://www.kingdiamondcoven.com/ for all the info.
Accept is on their way to two upcoming North American tour dates this coming week, but with a slight switch in the lineup. As guitarist Uwe Lulis recovers from a reconstructive leg surgery, the band will be joined by Philip Souse for these two dates – after which, Philip will become a permanent member of Accept, even after Uwe returns to the stage. The band will now have a triple-guitar lineup, with Philip, Uwe, and Wolf Hoffman alongside the existing lineup of Christopher Williams on drums, Martin Motnik on bass, and frontman Mark Tornillo, and Accept has plenty of touring plans lined up for 2020. Keep up with the band via: http://acceptworldwide.com/.
Killswitch Engage has just announced their plans to hit the road across North America in early 2020. With August Burns Red along for the ride, the iconic modern metallers will be touring in support of their latest full-length, Atonement, which came out this summer. The Atonement Tour 2020 will kick off on March 10th in Cleveland and run throughout the U.S. and Canada until they wrap things up on April 12th in Boston. For the full listing of dates, head to: http://www.killswitchengage.com/.
German Progressive Death Metallers Obscura have officially been signed to Nuclear Blast Records, with plans for a new record on the horizon. The band’s founder Steffen Kummerer says of the news, “Partnering with the world’s biggest independent metal label feels like the start of a new chapter for Obscura and we are very much looking forward to a great collaboration and to releasing our forthcoming sixth studio album with a great team at our side”, while Jaap Wagemaker of Nuclear Blast states, “…We have long admired the artistry of German progressive death metal masters Obscura. We were blown away by their musical 4-album-cycle that started with Cosmogenesis and ended with Diluvium complete with all the band’s signature elements plus groundbreaking polyrhythms, dramatic songwriting, and jaw-dropping virtuosity! We knew that Obscura has the potential to become one of the leading forces in progressive death metal worldwide, so when the opportunity came to work with them, there was no room for second thoughts. We at Nuclear Blast are very curious to see where Obscura’s musical journey beyond Diluvium will bring them. If you are a fan of progressive metal, you should definitely check out this band!” Obscura is set to tour their most recent album, Diluvium, across Europe in early 2020, with support from God Dethroned, Thulcandra, and Fractal Universe. Visit: https://www.realmofobscura.com/ for more.
