HEAVY Magazine - Issue #66 - March 2019

DEVIN TOWNSEND E E R F HEAVY DEVY’S BACK... AS HIMSELF!

PHIL ANSELMO AN AUSTRALIAN EXCLUSIVE

ISSUE #66

ARCHITECTS

HAKEN CIRCLES 1000MODS NE OBLIVISCARIS ELUVEITIE

JUDAS PRIEST

Rob Halford speaks on NWBHM, Ozzy and Download Fest.

DREAM THEATER “...a conscious effort to write a very classic, heavy album.”

SEVENDUST Ready and raring for WAR!

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EDITORIAL TEAM

Contents March ‘19

EDITOR & ART DIRECTOR Carl Neumann

SUB-EDITORS Matt Innes

WORDSMITHS David Griffiths Kris Peters Neil Vance Rod Yates

PRINTING & DISTRIBUTION Eyeball Media Enterprises Howard Duggan

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Architects

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Haken

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Circles

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DREAM THEATER

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Eluveitie

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Devin Townsend

SEVENDUST 9 Sevendust + Fresh Flesh

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1000MODS

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Ne Obliviscaris

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EDITORS WORDS

Hello heavy music fan and welcome to this March edition of HEAVY. There’s so much fantastic music coming out at the moment--not that there’s been a lull by any means, but it seems that 2019 is taking bands back to their roots and producing albums which have an early era quality. Case in point, Dream Theater’s Distance Over Time and Queensryche’s The Verdict. Even Dave Mustaine says this year’s Megadeth album will be “a lot heavier than Dystopia.”

But what of all these new acts popping up? There are more and more coming across my desk every day. The Internet certainly has changed things since the days of finding eager young artists demo cassettes in the mail or on my doorstep. We have the world at our fingertips and just a search away could be another great band.

I highly encourage old-school metal fans to spread their musical wings and take the time to listen to some new artists and branch out into different genres a little. There are so many hybrids and genre marriages that defies pigeonholing. Metallica fans could easily fall in love with Parkway Drive’s Reverence or In Flames’s I, the Mask [soon to be released] or, Architects Holy Hell even Polaris’s The Mortal Coil. Sure, these guys are screaming but so was Hetfield in ‘86.

Looking from another angle, one can easily see old fans of rock, classic metal, thrash and even hair metal, nodding along to Caligula’s Horse, Voyager, Karnivool and Audio Reign or getting a little more elastic with newbies, Red Hook.

There’s nothing wrong with revisiting your old favourites but for the love of music, venture out and discover new bands, new sounds--the joys are plentiful!

A great way to stay in touch with the big names and discover new artists is to SUBSCRIBE for free to the weekly HEAVY Digi-Mag and to visit the HEAVY Gig Guide on our website regularly. \m/ Stay HEAVY, Carl Neumann

1000 Mods

The band rose from Greece in 2006, a region that is not universally known for churning out rock music. Rather than let history dictate their success, Labros says that the e have wanted to visit Australia for many years,” band has always been one of those projects that has felt drummer for 1000mods Labros G declares ahead bigger than the sum of its parts and attributes a strong of the band’s first-ever venture Down Under. friendship base as being the backbone of their success.

“The guys from Beats Cartel - who also do the “Back then we were all in our early 20s,” he recalls.

Mojo Burning Festival in Brisbane - contacted us some “Music was our passion and we had all been friends since months ago and we actually said ‘yes’ immediately and childhood. We have known each other since we were five started planning the whole Australian tour from April.” or ten years old and our passion was always music and 1000mods will be performing at Mojo Burning as well as listening to music and attending concerts and watching doing a headlining tour through other capital cities, and our favourite bands live. We started playing as a band just according to Labros the band are enjoying the different to have fun and recorded our first demo back in 2006. possibilities and challenges that each of the two offers.

Since then we have tried to play as many gigs as possible “We are looking forward to both the festival and our in Greece and then as many gigs as possible in Europe, own shows,” he says. and now as many gigs as possible “It will be nice for the first time in globally”.

Australia to be playing at a festival.

With their debut album Super Van It always helps playing with a lot of Vacation in 2011, 1000mods took bands but we also can’t wait to go to all the first steps towards that goal. of the capital cities and play our own However, Labros says that rather shows and try to find our own fans in than try to make an immediate each city.” statement with that first album, Although being strangers to this Words by Kris Peters it was more a case of putting all country, Labros says the band have of their collective work into one always been fans of the musical neatly-packaged product that output of our bands and artists. could give the band themselves “We know that Australia has an an indication of how far they had amazing scene,” he says. come.

“I think it’s one of the places “Back then we didn’t think too around the globe where rock and much of the impact or how the roll is still alive. To be honest, there people were going to receive it,” are so many bands from Australia he says. that we are really big fans of. If you “It was just our music that we start with AC/DC of course, but had been playing for five years. you also have Wolfmother, Tame We were lucky enough to work Impala and big rock bands from with producer Billy Anderson our generation. We are also big fans (Sleep, Neurosis) who produced of the bands we are playing with at all of the heavy American bands Mojo Burning like The Vasco Era from the ‘90s and ‘00s, and when and Seedy Jesus.” he produced us it was an amazing While it appears 1000mods have experience. It was something new done their research on us, Australand I think back then our main thoughts were just to have ian fans have little idea of what to expect from the band a good album.” aside from what they see on the internet, with Labros While that album and the music on it served its purpose smiling when the question is posed. at the time, Labros admits that the band has come along “Usually we try to play as good as we can at every gig,” he leaps and bounds musically since. laughs.

“First of all we’ve gotten older, so I think maybe we are “I mean, it doesn’t matter if we play in Athens in front also a little more mature - just a little bit,” he adds with a of 3000 people or a small club in Germany in front of 100 laugh. people. For us, it’s all the same. We try to play our best gig “Back then it was more about getting in a room for every night as heavy and as loud as possible, and have a hours and jamming the same riff as much as possible, nice party with all the people attending.” and new ideas and solos and 1000mods are a band with a plethora of labels placed on effects would come out of them. They have been referred to as stoner rock, heavy that. I think now we still jam rock and psychedelic rock, but at the core of the actual of course and we enjoy that. style of music they play, Labros says the simpler version is We’ll never stop jamming, but more accurate than the general consensus.

I think now it’s much more “We use all these kinds of genres as labels,” he says. “It’s orientated around the music. easier for people to communicate with such things.

“We want the music that we “For me, our music is a mixture of different kinds of ‘70s write to make sense, not just early rock and heavy rock coming from Black Sabbath, be repeating the same thing Jimi Hendrix, Cream, all those bands that influenced rock without a reason. We try to fomusic globally, and also a mixture from the ‘90s grunge cus on every riff and every new and stoner rock era. All of the bands from the desert and thing that comes in a song has Seattle combine for a mixture of those two decades to to be varied. It has to work to form 1000mods.” make the song better.”

“We know that Australia has an amazing scene”

8 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

Sevendust Words by Kris Peters

F

ew bands have encapsulated the feel of disenchanted youth more in their formative years than Sevendust.

Exploding out of Atlanta in 1994, their self-titled debut album spawned the ferocious songs ‘Bitch’ and ‘Black’, and when they emulated that feat with the even more impressive follow-up Home in 1998 - raising the bar even higher with tracks ‘Denial’ and ‘Waffle’ - the seeds of discontent had officially been sewn.

Here was a band that was exceedingly heavy but with the capability of a vocalist in Lajon Witherspoon that could actually sing to get his message across rather than just bludgeon the listener into submission.

While highly-respected today and classed as a genre-defining album, Sevendust’s debut offering hardly set the music world on fire at first, selling poorly in its first week. Rather than let that dampen the young band’s spirits, Witherspoon says that the members were largely oblivious to the fact it had failed to ignite.

“No way, no way!” he reiterates when pressed if it was an issue.

“Not for me. I was 21 years old, I had a record deal, we didn’t care about the numbers. I don’t even... not even today. It’s still just an honour to be relevant in the music business when it’s so crazy and you can be here one minute and then you’re gone, so for me it’s that same feeling of I’m still here, you know?

“I just felt ‘wow, we’re signed, we’re touring the world and going to places we’ve never been before’ and people were singing our songs back to us! We were on Ozzfest all of a sudden with Ozzy [Osbourne], and Lemmy from Motorhead was my buddy. That was what I was thinking about back then, that and getting back in the studio and making another album. Back then we didn’t care about what was going on in the business, we just cared about the art.”

In 2004 Sevendust put out what was at the time a groundbreaking release from a metal band. They recorded and packaged a live DVD/CD set named Southside Double-Wide: Acoustic Live from a show recorded at the Georgia Theatre in Athens.

It was ambitious, innovative, and risky, showcasing a softer side to the band and their music that ran the risk of alienating their diehard metal fans. It was a sign of a band at the peak of their powers, unafraid to bare their musical soul, and the release became a worldwide hit with both hardcore fans and those seeking something a little fresh and adventurous.

“A lot of the time a song starts with an acoustic guitar in the jamming stage,” Lajon says, “and it was really cool to show people we could be under the microscope and jam and still bring the same energy to the acoustic set that we bring to the live set.

“We did another acoustic album years later, and it’s something that we feel is important, especially for me because doing this allows me to showcase more of my vocal ability, and to sing more and not necessarily sing over the guitars and the loudness.

It brings it down. We’re still doing a heavy song but you can hear it,” he laughs.

9 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

That same year original guitarist and backing vocalist Clint Lowery left the band to play with his brother Corey in Dark New Day. Although the split was amicable and Lowery was to return four years later, Lajon admits that musically the adjustment was difficult.

“That was a weird period for us”, he reflects, “because that’s our brother and for me, I loved writing with Clint but for us, I think... we continued. It was something that made us work harder and we had our brother Sonny Mayo from Snot there for a while and it was a great opportunity, but like anything I think when you leave home sometimes you’ve gotta come back and I felt that was what happened.

“When Clint came back to the band, for me it was the missing link that we needed back, even though we didn’t stop. For me, this band is the original band - the guys that started it and are still here. There’s a certain air about it when we’re all together in a room writing music that is like no other.”

One of the strengths of Sevendust, particularly in the live arena, is the passion and emotion exuded by their enigmatic frontman. Lajon not only gives voice to the songs that have nurtured Sevendust, but he also feels them. It is not uncommon for him to be seen on the brink of tears during their performance, unashamed to let the essence of the music shine through in his actions.

“Oh man, it gets emotional just thinking about it when you ask me the question,” he manages, obviously choking up at the thought.

“It’s my serenity. When I’m onstage, it’s a place where I go and feel from the soul. I feel the energy from the people and I get emotional because I can look out and there can be one person in the crowd that is looking at me and I can see the effect and what’s going on, and maybe it’s even something going on in their lives.

“You can feel that pain or that energy. It goes both ways, anytime. You never know what can spark emotions and it’s a rollercoaster ride of happy, sad, exciting - it’s every emotion that you can possibly feel and fit in your body on that stage for me and I love it every time I go on it.”

Sevendust return to Australia this April on the back of last year’s album All I See Is War, an album which many critics believe harks back in sound to the early days of the band.

“It’s crazy,” Lajon enthuses, “because the first thing the producer said when he came in was ‘listen, you guys don’t need any help so let me know if I can do anything’ and it was just like he was policing things. He said ‘I want you guys to just be Sevendust.

Let’s go back to the old sound, let’s not get crazy’, and that’s what we were able to do with him.”

ARCHIT

After the death of guitarist Tom Searle, British metallers Architects fought the biggest battle of their career to keep going.

Words by Rod Yates

ITECTS

Building Their Future

When Architects’ founding guitarist Tom Searle passed away from skin cancer in 2016, his bandmates - including his twin brother, drummer Dan - were naturally devastated. Despite the fact he’d been diagnosed with the condition three years prior, there was still no preparing for that final moment.

“When you lose someone in that fashion, it’s long and drawn out and you know it’s coming, but when it hits it’s like a surreal period of purgatory,” Dan says, speaking from his home in Britain in midFebruary.

It was during that period of purgatory that Architects found themselves in Australia three weeks after the guitarist’s passing in support of 2016’s All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us. The country has always been a happy hunting ground for the quintet – completed by vocalist Sam Carter, bassist Alex Dean and guitarists Josh Middleton and Adam Christianson – but touring so soon would presumably have been incredibly difficult. Instead it acted as a coping mechanism.

“Without a shadow of a doubt,” Dan reflects.

“You want to say it was difficult but the truth is it wasn’t. It was almost a feeling of relief that we could step into something that was so familiar and normal. It was a very effective way to cope.”

However, the grieving process was long and hard, and continues to this day. It was also compounded by the fact that Tom was the band’s sole songwriter.

At a time when Architects were enjoying their greatest critical and commercial success since forming in Brighton in 2004, their career hung in the balance.

“Tom wrote everything and essentially was and always be Architects,” Sam Carter says, speaking from his home a day later. “But throughout [the All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us] tour, just seeing

what the band meant to all of us, we realised we had to do this for Tom. And to not do it would be a real shame.”

Indeed, doing it for Tom proved to be one of the motivating factors during the creation of Architects’ new album, their eighth, Holy Hell.

Tom had provided a few sketches prior to his passing – “Two weeks after All Our Gods was finished, Tom sent the first demo for Holy Hell,” explains Carter – but the singer says “essentially it was like [making] our first record”.

Dan speaks of being “very driven, almost dangerously highly motivated” to make an album that did justice to Tom’s legacy, the process of which was “a massive mountain to climb”. He stepped into his brother’s role of being the driving creative force, taking on lyric and co-songwriting duties.

“I wanted to make the record work for Tom, and that’s a dangerous thing,” he says. “That’s a lot of pressure you’re putting on yourself. And tied into that was [the fact] I’ve never done anything else, and I built this from the ground up with Tom since I was a kid. I don’t want to do anything else, I love doing this. So there was a lot rolled into it.”

It was after he and new guitarist Josh Middleton (who toured with the band while Tom was ill, and became a full-time member in 2017) wrote their first song together that he had a sense they could continue on. Dan declines to name the track, as they’re trying to keep the particulars of who wrote what on the album in confidence so as not to prejudice people’s attitudes to any of the songs that Tom co-wrote.

Of all the tasks Dan had to come to grips with - training his ear to write melodies, and understanding what it takes to write a song - he struggled most with lyric writing.

“Tom wrote everything and essentially was and always be Architects”

“It’s a totally different skillset to everything I’ve done,” he admits. “There’s no part of drumming that’s helped me write lyrics. And when I first started I was reading Tom’s and looking at mine and thinking, ‘these are shocking,’ But again, it just took practice and a lot of work and time and persistence.”

Not surprisingly, Holy Hell is a harrowing listen, fusing the band’s uncompromising brutality with lyrics that veer from the heartbreaking (“Death Is Not Defeat”, which Dan has said is a conversation with his brother where he lets him know it was okay to die) to the devastating (the sub-two minute belch that is “The Seventh Circle”). One of the most difficult moments of the creative process was when Dan showed the lyrics to Carter, the man charged with bringing them to life.

“Dan is one of my best friends, we’ve been through everything together,” Sam says. “So to see him be so vulnerable was extremely painful, and I really had to bottle up a lot of it and almost not confront it: ‘Okay, I’m going to work, I’m going to get through this record.’ Then at the end of the record I started going to grief counselling. I wasn’t aware of how much everything was affecting me at the time, but at the end I was a mess.”

The hard work paid off, with Holy Hell debuting in the Top 20 in Britain and number eight in Australia upon release last November. In January they played the biggest headlining show of their career at London’s Wembley Arena.

“I’m very proud of what we made,” Dan says, “but I’m also really proud of everything I’ve learned. So I’m excited about the future too.”

In August the Holy Hell tour will wind its way to Australia. Despite the album’s subject matter, Sam says the gigs will retain a celebratory feel.

“I think because we’re quite fun people, and we love what we do every moment we’re doing it; it’s pretty easy to just have fun with the majority of the set,” he says.

“But it’s important for people to know, especially with grief, there’s so many stages of it. And I think the show kind of captures that in the sense of, there are a lot of highs and a lot of fun within it, but there are also points where you’re being confronted with something that’s really painful. But if you didn’t go through that pain, you wouldn’t really understand what feeling really good felt like. There’s something about having those contrasting emotions next to each other.”

One of the set’s most emotional moments comes during album closer ‘A Wasted Hymn’, which contains Tom playing on a backing track, enabling Dan to play along with his brother.

“It feels like very much a moment of collaborating with Tom again,” he says, “and mentally that part of the set is a moment for me to really think of Tom and be present with him.”

“I’m very proud of what we made.

But I’m also really proud of everything I’ve learned. So I’m excited about the future too.”

Holy Hell is available now at unfdcentral.com.

Architects are touring Australia in August.

Judas Priest by Kris Peters

usic seems to be an ageless medium, particularly for Judas Priest, a band still in peak form as their career draws closer to the inevitable conclusion, a long way from their uncertain beginning.

It is a lesson rammed home even further when your peers and one-time contemporaries start falling ill, affecting their performances; a lesson that makes even legends of the industry question their own musical mortality.

“We love Ozzy Osbourne to death,” vocalist for Judas Priest, Rob Halford proclaims when talking about Osbourne’s recent health scare.

“He’s a remarkable man with a remarkable career. All the things he’s done for rock and roll and metal... he’s touched so many millions of lives and we’re really, really happy that he’s recovering. Life is life, you do what you can to deal with the adversity that puts itself in your path.”

“Glenn (Tipton, guitar) is going through that himself with his battle against Parkinson’s and he’s a wonderful example - a really strong and powerful example - of striking back and pushing back and still living an active life with his challenge. Glenn comes out and joins us when he can.

He’s still an active, full member of Judas Priest.

“If he’s not able to make Download he’s with us in spirit in the songs that he’s written and he’s up on the big screen so yeah... it is what it is. We’re all getting on but we’re also determined and keep going and live our lives in whatever shape and form that happens”.

Judas Priest entered the music world in the early 1970s to a climate that was at the time competitive and rudderless. Music fans were restless for change and something which they could claim as their own. At the time, heavy metal was just one of many genres competing for a foothold.

“It was an amazing period”, Halford smiles in recollection.

“It was amazing because back then I went and saw Hendrix and bands like The Who play at the Isle Of Wight Festival, and all of these bands that were roaring were an incredible springboard to bands like Judas Priest to leap up to. Metal was still in its infancy. People today reflect [on] Priest as one of the originators of the metal sound but we had our inspiration from other bands from

that period.

“The music was getting heavier, stronger, louder and more adventurous with a lot of blues and a lot of electric rock - out of those basic components came the root of the heavy metal sound here in Birmingham [England]. I think that Priest would have been a different band if we hadn’t been surrounded by the music we grew up with and while we were fledgling musicians”.

In those early years, Judas Priest looked and sounded completely different to the band we know today. Their music was less metal and their stage outfits consisted largely of hippy-style clothing, with Halford agreeing that at that stage the band was still searching for both its musical identity as well as its image.

“I remember one of the early times we brought the bike out onstage was around the time we refined the look,” Rob recalls.

“You’ve got this big, heavy sound and you look at yourself and you go ‘nah, it’s not really quite connecting, is it?’, so a simple thing like a black leather bike jacket worked wonders.

That’s been around since Elvis,” he laughs.

“Some of that - Rob Halford imagery was at the core of rock and roll music as well. It was new music and we were already searching for those bits and pieces to put it all together to give it a solid look and sound that Priest co-ordinated at that time.”

Another concept that Halford incorporated into Judas Priest’s music was the twin lead guitar assault that is now the cornerstone of the band’s sound. At the time it was relatively untried and unproven, but Halford reveals that when he happened upon the sound one day he knew instantly that it was something which his band could successfully integrate into their music.

“I was driving back from Warwick Castle and I was listening to a really inspirational programme on rock,” he recalled.

“Wishbone Ash came on the radio and that was really the first time I can recall that I heard two lead guitars playing together. They were something of a catalyst to the way Priest began to explore that twin lead guitar attack. That is a very important part of the sound of Judas Priest, the lead guitars both playing together in harmony or whatever it might be. It makes for a more interesting experience on a guitar level and adds an extra

“We spread the gospel of metal

by Judas Priest.”

14 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

SUBSCRIBE Join Australia’s largest online and printed heavy music publication by subscribing to the weekly digital magazine. dimension to what we do.”

Their seminal 1980 album British Steel allowed Judas Priest to break away from the promising pack that was forming in heavy metal and announced the band as major players in a movement that was gathering more traction with each new band. Featuring shorter songs and mainstream radio hooks while still retaining its heaviness, the album was a noticeable departure from previous releases.

“British Steel was very important, and one of the main aspects of that was the songs were able to be played on the radio for the first time,” Rob says.

“We had always wanted to spread the word of Priest and that album gave us a great chance - particularly in certain parts of the world where radio at that time was very important and was invaluable to the band’s growth.”

Rob believes the strength of British Steel lies in the elemental simplicity of what they were trying to achieve with the instrumentation.

“British Steel stands alone as a unique record and was a great experience for us as musicians to see if we could really cut and clip and edit the proportions of a song down to the main direct components,” he says.

‘Breaking The Law’ is a wonderful example of that: it’s just riffs, strong melodies and a great beat, and all of the different pieces coming together made a strong statement at three minutes and change.”

Now approaching half a century as one of the most influential bands to emerge from the birth of metal, Rob says Judas Priest refuse to rest on reputation and promise Australian fans a performance worthy of their standing.

“We still fly the flag of heavy metal,” he says with an air of defiance. “That’s what we do. We spread the gospel of metal by Judas Priest. That’s our life, that’s what we live for, even now.

“There will be metal maniacs at those shows that have never seen Judas Priest before. They may know our music but have never witnessed the performance of Priest live on stage so that’s us.

I think all metal bands live for that. We love what we do. We’re all in the same game together and sharing the great moments together.”

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Dream Theater

[Words: Dave Griffiths]

he almighty Dream Theater are back with their fourteenth studio album Distance Over Time, having endured a big hit after both fans and critics didn’t exactly accept their last album for what the band intended.

But of course you don’t throw away a thirty-year career over some negative press, and now with Distance Over Time it seems like the band are as excited and rejuvenated as ever. When HEAVY Mag catches up with vocalist James LaBrie he is full of pure excitement.

It was pretty obvious to the entire heavy music community that Dream Theater were going to have to do something very special with this album. The band were coming from a position that they had never been in before: they were going to have to deliver an album that would win back the naysayers after their previous album The Astonishing [2016] wasn’t received quite the way the band would have hoped.

“Coming off that two-year tour for The Astonishing it was quite evidently clear to us, and we had been talking about it for a while, that we wanted to get back to doing a classic heavy album a classic heavy Dream Theater album while still maintaining the progressive side to us but making it something more concise,” James says.

“We wanted to make something where the songs didn’t necessarily have to be epic in length or even the showing or arrangements. We just wanted something that was very defined, something that was undeniable in its statement for each song. We knew that we wanted to write an album that would be under an hour so it was just a very conscious effort to go and write a very

classic, heavy album while keeping it a Dream Theater album.”

The one thing that the band did have when putting together Distance Over Time was time itself. Not only did they have an open slate with no touring but uniquely the band moved in with each other so even when they weren’t recording they could be talking about the album over meals etc.

“We all live together, so we were all around each other and were able to close off the rest of the world and just be very focussed on what we were doing,” James explains.

“That made for quite a prolific experience because things were happening quite quickly; I would say that it was a spirited effort and it was very cohesive from the beginning, things just seemed to be gelling.

“Ideas were numerous and plentiful and so I think we were just feeding off each other’s energy, one another’s commitment and it was just a great time – not to mention you have to remember that when we were not in that studio writing we would be outside cooking together and just constantly talking about the music, which is why I think it ended up coming out the way it did.”

James go on to explain how the band’s close proximity during the process led to more meaningful conversations about the themes and significance of the album, particularly its lyrical content.

“...a very conscious effort to go and write a very classic, heavy album...”

18 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

“I think all of these things helped to shape how this album turned out,” he says.

“When I say that I mean how the songs turned out, the album itself and right through to the whole vibe of the album. When it comes to the title we often take

them from lyrics on an album, but here we had conversations all about society today and how we are inundated and the world reflects the technological aspects that every day our President lies.

“I think that had a big influence on us looking at ‘what is our human element’ and the Distance Over Time is looking at the very beginning, the inception of the homo sapien species to where we are today – a time where we are walking a very fine line between technology and who we are. And hopefully, we don’t get lost in the shuffle where one takes over the other, or are we starting to lose that sensitivity and profoundness of what makes us who we are?”

When the discussion turns to how the band feels with the album about to be released to their fans, LaBrie laughs: “Well you always anticipate the release, right?” he says.

“I think we are all very excited about the release...

I mean if we didn’t get excited about the release any more then we are either dead or we should stop doing what we do. We are all very psyched and I would like to say to our Australian fans we hope that you are going to be completely enthralled and enamoured with this album.”

With Distance Over Time now out in the world, only time will tell just how fans and critics react to this latest labour of hard work from a band that, in this writer’s opinion, have little to prove to anyone in the first place.

“We are very excited about it and we feel that it is another tour de force for Dream Theater,” James states.

“Once again make sure that you listen to it from beginning to end and enjoy the ride because we are pretty excited.”

Distance Over Time is out now

by InsideOut Music

Devin Townsend words by Neil Vance

Prolific album creator, Devin Townsend, is considered to be one of the most astonishingly creative musical geniuses of our time by many of the heavy musically minded individuals, musicians and fans alike.

Hearing his latest album interestingly titled Empath for the first time the only adequate way to describe it is: One needs a process to digest and take it in as a whole listening experience, the same way Deconstruction [2011] was.

Townsend profoundly begins explaining Empath, “If I had any sort of business sense whatsoever or any kind of agenda when it comes to what I do professionally that was separate from a compulsion to do what I feel is necessary to do, I would imagine that my back catalogue would be half of what it is now.”

Detailing it further he continues, “The reality of the work that I do is it’s intrinsically tied to where I find myself as a person in life and that identity shifts from year to year. I have no choice in my mind but to follow these things where they lead. When you have an environment that encapsulates not only middle age, which is where I’m at now but also the sheer chaotic insanity that is the world lately. Writing from the vantage point that I just described, I am at the behest of what wants to come out. Empath was [written during] a period in my life that required me to not only interpret all of the information that I had absorbed from the media and my own midlife predicament with those in mind; I needed to analyze my relationship with my past.”

“I looked disparately at all the albums that I had made, whether they be Strapping [Young Lad] or Ziltoid and analyzed my relationship with them.

Which ultimately led to writing Empath which acts in a lot of ways as a crossroads for me not only creatively but my life in general” Townsend has documented his path on his creative processes of writing and recording Empath by releasing several videos on YouTube. During one of those clips, 20 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

while working with the Elektra Women’s Choir, he commented that through Empath he wanted to make something that represents the experience of being alive-expanding on that brief summation and expanding on where he is now to being where he was ten years ago, he elaborates. ”Well, the experience of being alive includes not only the beautiful parts of life but also the fact that life is fundamentally full of the unknown. The chaos that comes from trying to make any sort of peace between being a single human in this herd of humanity versus the fact that we are all cursed with these egos that force us to interpret our environment as either hostile or beautiful.”

Looking further Townsend continues to reflect on his past, “I have come to realise that over the last ten years that because Strapping Young Lad was a period in my life that ended in a way that was unhealthy for me that I have neglected to consciously make decisions not to write anything that has to do with the darker parts or my humanity. But upon making the decision to analyze myself, and that again comes quite heavily with my middle age particularly for a lot of us, I felt it was unavoidable that I have to make peace with those dark sides of myself. To fear yourself or your anger or even your fears is inherently something that leads us to avoid our thoughts about intrinsic parts of our nature that leads us to chase our tails creatively, personally or professionally. So, ultimately my goals in life are to get closer to whatever it is that’s my truth.”

Leading back to Empath Devin specifies an aspect further, “I wanted to create something that tries to represent my life, and that includes all sorts of things and some of those things I was really uncomfortable with. That included spending so long pushing back on myself which resulted in personal suffering that could have been avoidable if I had just surrendered to it.”

After putting in all the creative work, writing, adding and recording all of the layers that

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Empath is out worldwide, March 29th via InsideOut Music

collectively make Empath, one is naturally inclined to sit back and wonder what it was like for Townsend to hear it as a whole for the first time.

“Frightening is the best way to describe it. When I heard Empath, and I recognized that that level of intensity emotionally is within me. It is something that I have been trying to represent from my experiences with moments that are greater than ‘I’. Initially, after hearing it, I was like ‘WOW!’ that is truly ‘ME,’ but then there was a sense of depression that it would never be what I want it to be.

Ultimately the first time I heard it I was overwhelmed, and then ten minutes later I was thinking about dinner!

[Laughs]” Breaking it down further he explains, “The beauty of Empath and what I am trying to achieve is filtered through my own trip, bias, ego and insecurities.”

“I want people to understand this record is meant to represent to me” “Its intent was through the chaos and fear and through the storms there is a profound beauty in the experience of being a human, and being alive, but it doesn’t come without the juxtaposition of ugliness and darkness. ” The first song Townsend has released thus far from Empath was “Genesis”. There has been a lot of social media discussion from fans about of the song.

Clarifying his motivation for choosing “Genesis” he defines, “It is a very strange song. I wanted to start from the top of Empath. I want people to understand this record is meant to represent to me--more so than trying to convince people to love it.”

Concluding he finishes by revealing, “I guess that’s what Empath is meant to represent when I described it as ‘Empath representing LIFE!’”

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conversation with Ben Rechter, frontman of one of Australia’s progressive heavy elite Circles, he starts with giving us the background of Circles for the uninitiated.

“Circles have been around since 2010 and have been self-producing all their own material,” Ben says.

“The EP The Compass - which is where I first heard them - did really well; [it] got them signed and the opportunity to do a European Tour. Then came Circles’ first full-length album Inifintas, which also got a great response and touring opportunities.”

Having seen Circles recently perform live for the first time at this year’s Progfest, I enjoyed the show so much I wrote in my live review of the event: “...I’m not gonna lie readers, the second Circles hit the stage their big gears were shifted for today. Featuring songs from their latest album The Last One, Circles were the turning point for most. We were held in the palms of the four musicians present on stage. Circles play a perfect blend of heavy groove and emotionally-charged prog rock; all the while their hometown crowd moved, pulsated and gratefully embraced them.”

Up to this point in the band’s career, Ben had not been a member of Circles. Not being the original vocalist, he discusses how he came to be a part of the band, “My old band did the Melbourne support slot for Circles, so Ted [Furuhashi, guitar/backing vocals] and I got talking because we were fans of each other’s bands. Their old guitarist Matty left the band and I was asked to help write material for their next album,” he explains.

“Coincidentally the demos he was playing me were songs that would appear on The Last One, all of which I heard [and] I thought it was sick. I toured with them for that lineup, which included Perry their original vocalist.

“Perry left the band so Circles needed a singer,” Ben continues.

“I had been helping write lyrics and they knew what I sounded like, and then I was asked to sing. Initially, I wasn’t sure I was the right guy for the vocal role. After gigging as a four piece for a year now we have been really well-received.”

With a slight shift in members’ roles within the band, Ben says Circles have transitioned into a more proficient live unit, Progfest being a case in point.

“With Drew [Patton, bassist] taking over the screaming vocals, which I can’t do for shit, overall we’ve been able to make Circles work as you see and hear us now. When you saw us at Progfest that was probably the best time to actually see us as we are now because it was when we have felt at our most comfortable when that tour rolled around.”

Having slotted so organically and seamlessly into Circles, and considering the quality of last year’s album, Ben can confidently discuss the underlying message and themes prevalent in The Last One as well as what he and the band are trying to convey to their listening audience. “[The theme] didn’t become apparent until we had completed the album,” he explains.

“Most of the songs initially were pretty bleak and isn’t the most positive sounding album. As a whole, the songs came from different places all of which the whole band were part of writing and contributing to.

“All of the songs on the album deal with dissatisfaction in some way whatever that may be… getting ready to have the rug swept out from underneath you. But every time we get to the end a song we always hope to find a positive spin on the bleakness because we do smile and we do enjoy life and we do want to convey a little bit of hope to whatever the situation might be.

“Overall, the message in The Last One is that whatever is going on, the protagonist can’t control what is going to happen but can control what they do to react to it. You are where it starts and ends, and you have the power to direct your energy in whatever way you choose. Life’s too short to not smile and see a small glimmer of hope, right!”

Speaking of that glimmer of hope, Circles have announced details of their upcoming The Winter Tour.

“We haven’t done a proper headline tour since I’ve been in the band which is now three years,” Ben says.

“We are just happy to be able to do a longer set and play songs that our fans want to hear that we’ve previously been unable to due to shorter sets and time restraints. It is also my first headlining tour being the front man for Circles, which is daunting but also awesome.”

HEAVY Magazine, Bear Parts Music & Wild Thing Presents

THE ‘WINTER’ TOUR A U S T R A L I A

&

N E W

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with special guests

Circles

words by NEIL VANCE

THU JULY 4 - VALHALLA - WELLINGTON • +

SAT JULY 13 - OXFORD ART FACTORY - SYDNEY

FRI JULY 5 - GALATOS - AUCKLAND • +

FRI JULY 19 - THE ZOO - BRISBANE

SAT JULY 6 - CLUB TAVERN - CHRISTCHURCH • +

SAT JULY 20 - BADLANDS - PERTH +

THU JULY 11 - JIVE - ADELAIDE

FRI JULY 26 - THE BASEMENT - CANBERRA ••

FRI JULY 12 - MAX WATT’S - MELBOURNE

FRI AUGUST 2 - SOOKI LOUNGE - BELGRAVE •• SAT AUGUST 3 - KAROVA LOUNGE - BALLARAT ••

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22 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

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+ Ebonivory Not Appearing

HAKEN written by Dave Grittiths

you are a fan of prog rock and prog metal then chances you are you have been following the career of British outfit Haken over the past few years.

While the band have been around since 2004, they seemed to explode onto the Australian scene after their 2016 album Affinity was followed up by a tour in 2017 that got everybody talking.

Of course, it was like Australia was catching up to what the rest of the world already knew. By then the band were already being mentioned alongside their own personal heroes King Crimson, Genesis, Yes and Rush.

Then Affinity was likened to the music of Dream Theater: the band’s keyboardist Jordan Rudess admitting his love for the band and saying they had “pretty much blown my toes off.” More praise came from the Dream Theater camp when former drummer Mike Portnoy commented: “You know, they are all incredible musicians individually and as a band. I think Haken is this new generation’s prog metal super-band. They kind of remind me of what I used to do with Dream Theater, but a modern-day version.”

Since that 2017 tour, Haken have taken another huge step forward in their career with the critically acclaimed Vector, an album that saw the heavier side to the band come out and play.

“We’ve always had a heavy influence, but it was obvious from the riffs that were naturally coming out of us early in the writing process that this would be a more metal album. These are some of the most riff-driven songs we’ve ever written,” Haken guitarist Charlie Griffiths replied when he was asked about this newfound heaviness.

The result was the band soon finding themselves being compared to the likes of Devin Townsend, Sikth 23 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

and Periphery while they also received more praise from Portnoy via social media when he said “Is it too soon to call Vector Prog Album of the Year?? ‘Veil’ is the Prog EPIC of the year & ‘Nil By Mouth’ the sickest instrumental since…well, ‘Opus Maximus’!”

Now Australia’s love affair with Haken can continue as the band have just announced a set of Australian tour dates, and they couldn’t wait to tell their fans that the masterpiece that is Vector would soon be gracing our stages.

“We’re thrilled to be bringing our ‘Vector Studies’ to Australia,” they said.

“We had immense fun visiting Australia in 2017 where we received warm receptions and wildly enthusiastic audiences. We are also very much looking forward to performing in New Zealand for the very first time.

“On this tour, we will be focusing on performing tracks from our new album Vector along with some live favourites of ours. For your health and wellbeing, the good doctor prescribes you some live Haken.”

So you’ve heard what the doctor has prescribed, now it is time to take your medicine and head along to check out Haken as they visit our fair shores again.

Haken are touring Australia in June.

ELUVEITIE words by Kris Peters

“T

o be honest there was some development with this album,” admitted Chrigel Glanzmann, the founding member of Swedish folk metal exponents Eluveitie, speaking about Ategnatos which will be released on April the 5th.

“Probably for the first time in our history all of us worked together geographically. Some of us locked ourselves in for a couple of months and worked together which was a different approach to we had done in the past, but in the end, I would say the album is basically the result of creating the lyrics for the album. Lyrically it’s a very intense album that contemplates the ancient parables of Celtic mythology, but it doesn’t do that on a strictly historical level. Of course everything is completely founded and correct, but we contemplated these ancient words from the viewpoint of our everyday lives, and we did so not just as a band writing lyrics, but we did it as though we were doing it for ourselves and that was a pretty intense, you could almost say a spiritual experience”.

The album has an underlying theme of rebirth that resonates through the title track and recently released single, with Chrigel explaining that the accompanying video clip for the song encapsulates the overall essence of the album. “’Ategnatos’ is the opening track to the album so on a lyrical level really opens the whole universe to the listener,” he offered.

“The album is contemplating these ancient images, parables, allegories and archetypes of the Celtic anthology but all of these images can be looked at. They are all in some way connected to the thought of rebirth, and not rebirth in a hedonistic way in the sense of an afterlife but in an allegorical way. That’s one crucial thing in all of this, and it’s a very simple thought [laughs]. There always must be a death before being reborn, and this is basically what the song deals with. In one of those parables, there is this crucial moment that shows you that you actually do have or get a chance to choose. In everybody’s life, we all go through these things, but you get a chance at some point where your life leads you into situations where if you went there you would break, and your whole life would fall apart. And, you would lose a part of yourself 24 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

or a part of what your established life has been would slowly die away and get lost. That would be your chance.

The song deals with the question are you brave enough to jump off the cliff or to go to that place where you actually die and get the chance to become something new?

Do we dare or do we remain where we are out of being afraid of losing”?

Blending melodic death metal with traditional Celtic instruments, Eluveitie has carved their own slice of the music market, seemingly effortlessly layering the sounds together in such a fashion that none are buried by the other.

“The music just happens out of intuition,” Chrigel surmised before stating, “It’s not like we decide the sound for a complete album when we are writing songs. The lyrics are always first which doesn’t necessarily mean that the lyrics or particular words are written out already but I know what a song is about and what a song is supposed to express lyrically. I’m not a fan of having random songs and then telling something completely different in the lyrics. The instrumentalization is something that arises and grows with the song writing process song by song”.

Eluveitie has always used ancient Celtic mythology with their lyrics, but Chrigel says that now more than ever the similarities between this long forgotten culture and modern day society are coming to the fore.

“That was what made us write an album on this topic,” he said, “because we believe these ancient words--some of them are nearly 3000 years old--but we believe that none of them have lost any of their significance or importance. I mentioned before that at some points it was

a rather intense experience and what made it so intense was a lot of times we realized that these ancient words described what is actually happening today. We don’t know why people thought it was needed to write these parables to tell people something, but if you look at our world today, that’s what we do now. We are still dealing with the same shit that people were dealing with two and a half thousand years ago”.

Eluveitie are touring Australia in May.

NE OBLIVISCARIS words by Kris Peters “We’re all kind of related but different,” clean vocalist and violinist for Ne Obliviscaris Tim Charles laughs when discussing the line-up of bands assembled for their upcoming Australian tour. “Caligula’s Horse are obviously one of Australia’s best progressive rock metal bands. Their last album In Contact was just phenomenal.

Allegaeon have a new album coming out in April, which I’ve been lucky enough to get an advance copy of and I think it’s the best thing they’ve ever done. “Beyond Creation are again a phenomenal live band, super technical but melodic in their own way and a great bunch of guys as well, and Rivers Of Nihil put out one of the most surprising albums of last year. Every band is a little bit different but they all kind of fit together.”

When Ne Obliviscaris first burst onto the Melbourne music scene in 2003, it is fair to say they were a breath of fresh air on a scene that was starting to choke. They refused to follow a set blueprint and instead set about forging their name in their own image, albeit it one which drew

nature had reached the ears of the mainstream and was met with appraisal, a significant moment in Australian progressive metal music.

“That album was our first real attempt to create,” Tim recalls.

“It was really something different to what a lot of people were expecting, so there was a lot of people that either loved it and thought it was fantastic or they just didn’t get it at all, which is fine as well,” he laughs.

“It took us nine years to release that first album and it was difficult to just make it that far in the first place. There were so many times in the band’s early career where we almost broke up.

Our lead guitarist Benji [Benjamin Baret] is from France and his Australian visa got denied back in 2010 and he was deported, so the band was basically on hiatus for 18 months.

“A few of the guys were talking about quitting the band but thankfully we managed to get Benji back to Australia, the band got back together and we released the album. When it did well it gave us the faith of ‘hey, it’s taken us nine years to get here but maybe all the struggle has been worth it’.”

influence from some of the heavyweights of the time.

Most bands would be content to plagiarize their own “It was probably not too long before that I discovered successful formula on their sophomore album, but not Ne Opeth through their Blackwater Park album, Enslaved Obliviscaris, who decided to add more jazz and flamenco came out with an album and Dream Theatre had not elements to 2014’s Citadel - a move that only served to long before come out with Scenes From A Memory,” solidify their growing reputation.

Tim reflects.

“We don’t really know any other way, to be honest,” Tim “The idea that you could be an extreme and really heavy says. metal band but at the same time be melodic and have “We try not to overthink it. We just write and we really beautiful elements to your music was inspiring. Those don’t care what people want us to sound like but we have bands that were doing that opened our horizons to the the confidence that we can write good music, so the bar fact of let’s not have any barriers when we write music. that we set is for us to be happy and “Let’s just write music and if we think it’s good it doesn’t for us to think that it’s great music. matter what genre it is. If it’s metal or acoustic or prog or “If it’s different, all it will mean is classical or jazz let’s not care. Let’s just try to write good maybe some people won’t like it music and not give a fuck what anyone thinks we should as much but if it’s good then new sound like, and that’s how we came up with our sound.” people will discover you and that was With their debut album Portal of I in 2012, Ne our same approach on [2017 album] Obliviscaris created a masterpiece that not only resonated Urn as well, which was different, and with the fans but also had mainstream media singing the next album we do I’m sure will their praises. It was one of the first times music of this probably be different again.”

25 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

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Phil Anselmo Writen by Kris Peters

h man, everything happens for a reason,” Phil Anselmo laughs when pressed on why he has not brought himself or any of his projects to Australia in more than five years.

“I’m surrounded by a great group. Oh God, I love ‘em, I love ‘em, I love ‘em, and just making music with them has been a journey. I’ve been in so many different bands but [The Illegals] is probably the most comfortable I have been in for a while, man.

“We’ve grown together and everybody’s always busy with writing and bouncing ideas off each other... it’s awesome; a great environment. We don’t mean to let Australia hang, man. We’re happy to be coming over with King Parrot, it’s gonna be a blast!”

While it has been half a decade since Anselmo last graced our shores, the ‘Thrash, Blast & Grind’ tour starting in March will mark the first time ever his current band The Illegals have toured here. As such, Australian fans have rallied around the cause, snapping up every remaining ticket at a number of the shows.

“The Illegals stuff itself is crazy and bizarre and extreme, and I guess for a specific audience,” Phil says.

“But this past year has been pretty rough as far as the Pantera camp goes and with Vinnie’s [Paul, drummer] passing I figured why not put in some of the old songs that

“Integrity and all that shit, I think if you’re happy and you’re doing what you love... shit, that’s all the integrity you need” - Phil people wanna hear and have been asking to hear for a long time, so that’s been a different spin on the set.

“Once again, I can’t say enough about my guys around me because really at heart they’re an eclectic bunch of musicians, but to ask them to do the Pantera stuff was big, man, it was really big.”

While playing songs from his former band may seem to fans as a welcome addition to the live show, Anselmo admits he still has bittersweet feelings about recreating that turbulent period of his life.

“When I’m on stage it’s all good, but I will say there have been some bizarre moments,” he confesses.

“What really freaks me out is the younger audience. Those clowns grew up as Pantera fans and now they’re in the house! It’s amazing to see the youngsters come in and go bananas, it’s inspiring, man. There are definitely strange feelings here and there but overall the payoff’s been great.”

Phil was still in his late teens when he joined the musical juggernaut that was to become synonymous with everything heavy metal in the ‘90s. Pantera’s legacy and contribution to music is undeniable, and Phil recalls that even from the outset he knew there was a ferocious spirit within him that needed to be unleashed.

“By the time I was in Pantera or gearing up to move to Texas, all I wanted to be was a heavy metal singer,” he smiles.

“As I grew up I absorbed so much awesomeness around me as far as music goes. I can’t think of a generation of music 28 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

that I dislike. There’s always something to learn and something to listen to. Oh man, I guess the older you get the more you wanna branch out and try different styles and do different things, but at the end of the day I’ve always been loyal to heavy metal. “ I’ve never really done too many different styles. I’ve touched on hard rock with Down - even with Pantera we did stuff with the clean guitar and acoustic guitar - but really it’s been heavy metal. Whether it’s old-school, newschool, whatever. It always inspires me.

“I have always chosen extreme metal sounds and brought something different to each project that I do,” he continues.

“With the Illegals it’s chaotic enough but I think each Illegals album has its own sound and identity. The first record is ugly and herky-jerky and is an ugly sounding thrash record but that’s what I wanted at the time. A lot of this too is what mood I’m in, you know? Mood plays a big part.”

Throughout his musical career Anselmo has steadfastly stood behind every move he has made and each word he has spoken, both on stage and in the public arena. At times he has been vilified for his beliefs but despite public criticism and backlash has never wavered from his selfbeliefs. While this can, and has, crippled many careers in the music industry Phil exudes an air of defiance and arrogance that almost dares you to come at him.

“I think as long as somebody’s doing what they feel and they are happy doing it then everything else is just a gauge,” Phil affirms. “It’s a thing that is very tough to gauge because once an artist has carved out a certain section of the audience people will listen to them,” adding with a laugh, “and basically I guess I am talking about myself.

“I know that each little band that I create is not going to appeal to... Pantera fans aren’t gonna like Superjoint Ritual and vice versa. I understand all of that but that’s what I dig about it. I know each band puts me in a different-sized room and I love those intimate shows in tiny death metal clubs. Bands like Down will play theatresized places and in the good old days it was stadiums by comparison, but personally I like all of them, big or small.”

With an assortment of creative guises at his disposal and at this stage of his extensive career in heavy metal, Phil is comfortable that his integrity and standing with both audiences and detractors is merely relative.

“The integrity of music is all in the eye of the beholder,” he says.

“People can look at me and I can be Phil from Pantera or I could be Phil from a lot of different bands, and people can look at my body of work and say ‘I hate this’, ‘I love this’ or ‘I don’t care about this’ but it’s up to them, man.

Integrity and all that shit, I think if you’re happy and you’re doing what you love... shit, that’s all the integrity you need.”

Thrash Blast Grind tours nationally 21 March-5 April.

Red Hook Words by Dave Griffiths

T

he start of 2019 just keeps getting better and better for Sydney outfit Red Hook.

The band has seen in 2019 waking almost every day to new rave reviews of their single ‘Turn Up The Stereotype’ while preparing to hit the road with one of the most popular bands in Australia at the moment Hands Like Houses.

Now things are about to get a whole lot bigger for them as they have just been announced to play alongside Def Leppard, Slipknot and Tool at Download in the UK. HEAVY Mag decided to catch up with Red Hook frontwoman Emmy Mack to find out how this all happened.

“I know it such a cliché to say but it still feels so bloody surreal,” she says with excitement in her voice.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet; it is like this very vague concept that we are all like ‘oh that’s very nice’, but the reality is we are going to be jumping onto a plane and playing at one of the biggest rock and metal festivals in the world... and that is crazy.”

“It’s funny actually,” she says, recounting the moment that the band found out they were being asked to play at the epic festival.

“A lovely man who books the festival and works for Live Nation over in the UK, after we released our latest single ‘Turn Up The Stereotype’ he just kind of slipped into our PMs and started saying ‘I really like your sound, I want to help you guys get started out in the UK’.

“Then he wanted to jump onto a call so we jumped onto a call with him and he just said ‘hey, I book Download Festival and I want you guys to play it’. I think he discovered us through Triple J Unearthed, which was really nice.”

When asked what it means to the band to be able to play alongside some of the biggest bands in the world at Download UK, she replies with a laugh.

“I don’t know how to answer that question,” she says.

“What it means to us is absolutely everything. I mean we were so excited to be playing these shows with Hands Like Houses, that to us felt like an achievement in our career so I think that is how you go about it – you treat each step like it is another step in your career.... but also to keep rehearsing, just keep rehearsing the crap out of your set and just make sure you are ready for it.”

Red Hook performs at Download AUS 9 & 11 March & UK, 14-16 June.

U

pon leaving Progfest this year, there was a lot of excited talk about one of the bands on the bill that hailed from Ballarat in rural Victoria. Twenty-one year old’s, Ebonivory.

For some, they were not a new experience as their 2015 album The Only Constant is now approaching cult classic status locally. For newcomers to the band though this was a pivotal moment – they discovered a band that promises to be a staple on the national and international scene for a great many years to come.

While working on new music, Ebonivory are gearing up for two tours as they support Dead Letter Circus and Circles.

“It was unreal,” founding member Charlie Powlett says as he reflects on Progfest.

“I can remember when Skyharbor released one of their first albums, it really gelled with me musically. It was such a great blend of physicality and accessibility so being in the same venue and playing on the same day as them was just unreal... especially because we come from Ballarat where there isn’t much opportunity to play with international acts, so yeah it was kind of surreal. But then you realise that big acts like that came from being smaller bands and working their way up to there, so that made it really inspiring to share the stage with them.”

Talk turns to what it is like for Ebonivory to play before bands like Circles and Dead Letter Circus, and how it is a great opportunity for them to introduce even more people to their music.

“The main aim is to impress people that are there and hopefully they make a connection with us and search us up afterwards and try to listen to our back catalogue of music and hopefully it will gain us some really hardcore fans. We’ve been rehearsing a lot more, practicing smart.

We rehearse like we would play live and have made sure everyone has the sample tracks of our songs.

“We have just been trying to recreate what it is like on stage at our rehearsals. To our fans though I would just say come see us live and come out to see us just to hang out with us. We all love music and we all love to hang out; we’re all extremely personable… we want to give an absolute kick-arse performance.”

You can experience Ebonivory on tour with Dead Letter Circus and Circles during 2019.

Words by Dave Griffiths 9 HEAVY Magazine / www.heavymag.com.au

Ebonivory