HARD NEWS 13
Believe it or not, Zao has just now released its first official website (zaoonline.com). “The sites our fans have made over the years have been great,” explains guitarist Scott Mellinger, “and it’s nice to finally have something ‘official’ to put our name behind to complement them.” The band also debuted its new video on MTV2 recently, “The Rising End.” The band is wrapping up its tour with Dillinger Escape Plan, Every Time I Die, and Misery Signals and will spend the remainder of 2004 recording new material for the Japanese release of The Funeral of God and then they’ll head out on a headlining tour in January, with The Agony Scene and Twelve Tribes in support.
Bloodlined Calligraphy BY AMY E. HALL She is woman -- hear her roar “Just about every show,” Ally hears the same lame question. “’Whose guest list are you on?’” Some people mistake her for a groupie or a roadie. At times, she’s mistaken for the merchandise vendor. Still others, she’s mistaken for “the girlfriend.” She’s Ally French, lead vocalist for the metalcore band Bloodlined Calligraphy. Evidently, some folks don’t equate girls with metalcore. And Ally’s out to prove them all wrong. “When they automatically think I’m a girlfriend or a roadie or a merch girl, that makes me really mad,” she insists. “That heats me up pretty bad.” But mic in hand, Ally demonstrates mad skills. And she can scream with the best of them. “Most people are shocked,” when they hear her live. “They usually come up to me later and say, ‘I had no idea that you were in the band.’” Any uninformed listener would most likely be unaware of the female presence on the band’s sophomore project, The Beginning of the End, an EP on Strikefirst Records. Ally’s screaming is as brutal as any seasoned metal or hardcore male lead. Her bandmates, Eric Cargile, Matthew Todd Carter and Ryan Hampton, recognized Ally’s pow-
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erful lungs right away. She joined the Detroitbased band last winter after fronting another band. All it took was one audition and “pretty much on the spot, I got the job,” she remembers. Currently, plans are in place for a full length release on Facedown Records this spring. Though female-fronted hardcore bands are few and far between, it’s a gig to which Ally gives 100 percent. A multi-instrumentalist, she’d pick screaming over playing any day. “I like doing vocals the best,” Ally affirms. But how does a former cheerleader get her voice to sound like that? It all began during her stint with a former band, for which she originally played bass. Ally recalls “trying to be better than the vocalist in” the band. “I’m very competitive,” she admits. “I would try to sound like Josh (from the band Ludicrous) ‘cause he’s my idol. I would just practice in the car all the time.” Merch girl assumptions or not, Ally would encourage any girl who is committed to pursuing music in a male-dominated scene. “Go for it with everything you have.”
Former Zao drummer Jesse Smith’s new band, Gods, is working with Andreas Magnusson (Scarlet) on their debut full-length. Prolific songwriters Starflyer 59 have finished another album, titled Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice and are on a mini-tour (11 dates) throughout the Midwest with Pedro the Lion. Critics fav, Frank Lenz has released his second solo album, titled, Conquest Slaughter. “It’s a little less funk and a little more straight-up rock,” explains his wife, freelance publicist Lori Lenz. Ronnie Martin is spearheading his own electronic pop festival next year – Autobahnfest. Alove For Enemies are recording in the month of December for a new full-length due out on Facedown Records in April. Tentatively titled, The Harvest, it is being recorded at Trax East Studios with Eric Rachel (Hatebreed, Everytime I Die, God Forbid). The Golden Sounds will have one of its songs, “Jaded Robots,” on the Shut Eye Records Buzzlighter compilation that goes out to college radio.
11/18/2004 2:16:11 PM