ISSUE 2
MAY - JUNE 2013
Members from: SAVATAGE TOKYO BLADE BURNING STARR
he 'Tao Zhong' is one of the earliest bells casted in Primitive China 4,000 years ago. It's an instrument that was used to call labors to have their recess after work. It was also used afterwards by the Benedictine monks to call people for prayer, social and religious gatherings 500AD. Later, this idiophone instrument has strongly become successful and used for many other purposes. We chose “Metal Bell” as the name for our magazine to symbolize what the BELL represented throughout the history till our present days; an instrument of “Call for Gathering”. To gather our Rock and Metal scenes, to unit under the same Bell Call. Furthermore, to gather artists and create a society that supports, shares and spreads the news, to follow them and keep you updated all the time. The “Metal” represents the material that is mostly used to manufacture bells!! But the main reason behind choosing it is that the main editors of this magazine are Metal heads \m/. This magazine will be the number one online magazine to support the “Lebanese and Middle Eastern Metal/Rock Scene” alongside all kinds of underground forms of art. This will be the first and most important aim for this magazine.
p. 4 jeff hanneman - chapter closed p. 6 egypt metal assault p. 8 art and culture lounge p. 12 enviro-metal p. 14 musicians only p. 16 reverence p. 22 weeping willow p. 27 local news p. 34 local releases anuryzm - interview p. 38 international news p. 40 international releases p. 42 metal-bell.com
The Odyssey is still at its beginning
I am writing this letter and my heart and mind is with the Lebanese Army and our fallen heroes, so first let me tell you this: Us, rockers and metal heads, as being humans support every army that defends its country and its citizens. And as Lebanese rockers and Metal heads we support our Lebanese army and we salute them, specially our fallen soldiers in the recent tragic events. Our condolences go to their families, may their souls rest in peace, and may God protect the Lebanese army and Lebanon from every harm. Having said that, it was a hectic 2 months period of preparing this coming issue, the team is getting bigger and bigger and so is the responsibility held to us. Because of life and obligations, regular jobs, and/or studies, we decided to release an issue every 2 months. I am hoping after the next issue we will be able to publish on a monthly basis.The magazine design is evolving bit by bit with every publication, the website is being updated every while and soon, more new features will be uploaded to be able to support the local scene in the best way we can. Seven months have passed since our first release, and here is our third publication [Issue 2] with a bigger team and a better result. I have always believed in the “Snow Ball Effect” when things start small and get bigger and better with time. The progress we made from our Issue 0 (pilot issue) to Issue 2 was remarkable, for that I want to thank all the readers, all the bands for their support, cooperation, patience and professionalism while dealing with the magazine, thank you for the great feedbacks and criticism we got from all the artists \\m//. This Issue is full of news from the Lebanese, Middle Eastern and international scenes. We have interviewed our first international band REVERENCE, a new band that released last year their debut album and they were really humble and cooperative, the members from legendary bands like Savatage, Tokyo Blade and Burning Starr told us lots of interesting stories about the band so check them out on Page […]. As well as giants from the local scene THE WEEPING WILLOW that sat with Ashley Jor for a little chat and told us about their early days and new projects. Page […]. Lots of news from ABSOLACE new video to POSTMORTEM’s new name and not to forget KIMAERA’s exclusive to metal bell on page […]. With every Issue the material is getting richer by the minute; our scene of today is richer and more active than any time before. Keep up the good work guys and please give me a lot of stories to write about :D
Cheers and endless head banging moons \\m// T.P. Editor-In-Chief
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"Why don't we start our own band?” Jeff asked. These were the words that set light to the creation of one of the biggest four thrash bands, Slayer. Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King met in a tryout session in 1981, where King was auditioning as guitarist for a band. Jeff and King started jamming, playing Iron Maiden and Judas Priest Songs, which set the sail to a 30 year successful journey with slayer. For those who don't know, Jeffrey John "Jeff" Hanneman, born January 31, 1964 in Oakland, California, was raised in a family full of war veterans from whom he acquired the fascination with warfare. His father is German, but fought for the ally side of WWII. Moreover, his brother fought in Vietnam, making warfare a common conversation topic among the family, which was reflected in many lyrics later on with slayer. Having been influenced by punk music, he could create faster and more aggressive music with Slayer. Jeff had some side projects that had never seen the light.The punk music influence and his side projects led to slayer's cover album Undisputed Attitude. Hanneman married Kathryn in 1997, whom he met in the early 1980’s, and never had any kids. Kathryn has toured with the band only twice in twenty years as Jeff preferred she stayed home, that way when he returns she’s “all brand new again”.
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In 2011, Hanneman contracted necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease; doctors believed it might have been caused by a spider bite he claimed to have received while in a friend's hot tub. This kept him on hiatus from the band since the incident, with Gary Holt (Exodus) and Pat O'Brien (Cannibal Corpse) filling in as the band decided to continue touring without him. Until May the 2nd, 2013, the metal world was shocked by Slayer's statement, Jeff Hanneman died of liver failure at the age of 49. This news not only left us in tears, but also devastated us with rumors about the future of the band, especially after Dave Lombardo's dispute. Doctors revealed that the reason of death was alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver. "While he had his health struggles over the years, including the recent necrotizing fasciitis infection that devastated his well-being, Jeff and those close to him were not aware of the true extent of his liver condition until the last days
By: hussein shehady of his life," Slayer wrote on their website. It was clear that Jeff's last two years were the worst on Slayer and his own life, only who knew they would be his last? My approach to slayer is more like every metalhead's love story, the love for metal for sure. I first listened to "Raining Blood" years ago, and only God knows how hard Ihead banged, it instantly became one of my favorites. The more songs I listened to, the more I loved this band and the more I got attached to their music.
And like every die hard slayer fan around there, I was fascinated by this music, and left in complete addiction only wanting more. Not knowing back then that most of slayer's iconic masterpieces are Jeff's creations,writing both lyrical and musical content of the iconic slayer songs "South of Heaven”, “War Ensemble”, “Raining Blood”, “Angel of Death” and many others. It was a real surprise to know that he was the man behind it all since among the rest of slayer's members Jeff was the member who mostly stayed out of the spotlight and rarely did interviews. So, the greatest man in Thrash metal who gave the generations one of the best songs in the history of metal, died. I didn't want to believe the news; I couldn't accept the fact that I might never listen to another slayer album, and though Kerry announced that slayer will continue, I am afraid it will never be the same. However, legends never die, rather live forever. And Jeff will forever stay among us through his music that not only became iconic for metal music, but also influence lots of other bands to keep metal alive. And as Jeff's riffs shall forever blast through my speakers, we know that right there, in south of heaven, hell awaits us all.
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egypt metal assault
An event that was created by Mahmoud El-Kady, and shared by BLAAKYUM on their FaceBook page about Egyptian Metal Heads calling to free Shady Khaled who was still held in prison after releasing around 15 other metal heads from behind the bars. Interested in the story and with Kady’s help we interviewed Safy Averse, Jihan Faisal, Ahmed Hashim, and the hero Shady. By: Nathaline Deuvletian
“We didn't get arrested for being metal-heads ... but for wearing black t-shirts... the police took us as a group of the "black bloc group" for wearing black ...” says Brutal Mitch, one of the arrested metal-heads in Egypt, two weeks ago. It has always been a cruel world to all those who appreciate Metal music after being ignored and chased by humanity labeling the metal- heads as a cult worshiping the Satan. Metal music has been a controversial topic in the hands of those who appreciate music but not Metal, and by that I mean isn’t it a bit wicked? An Egyptian metal band has brought to you a slice of an assault, haunting their identity. S a f y Averse leaves home on Friday wearing his Slayer t-shirt as a tribute to the soul of Jeff Hannman’s previous day death, picks up his fiancée and heads to Maadi, to adopt a dog. On their way, they drop in Ali Café where all his metal- head friends gather every once in a while. It was lunch time and the guys ordered some food while discussing work, bandissues and music. The hot topic was interrupted when Safy’s attention was disrupted by a couple of policemen running towards them, attacking the guys and throwing their food away.What surprised the metal-heads was the arrest
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of a pass-byer, who ran to their help and got chained with the metal-heads with no excuses. The reason for the assault was told to be that all the guys were insulted, not because they were metal-heads, but because they were all wearing black. The policem e n assaulted the bunch of Metalh e a d s including S a f y Averse, Brutal Mitch, Ahmed Hashim, Mahmoud Haggag ,Jihan Faisal, Shady Khaled and many others. The guys were chained, dejected and pushed into a minivan and driven to the El Mosky police statio
a rotten place where nobody could reach them as they were being sentenced to imprisonment for being members in the Black Block Society. The policem e n vanished all the I D s , money and cell phones of the victims, beating the hostages and forcing them to wear scarves and black sunglasses, taking pictures of them and insulting them that the metal-heads were in the Black Block Group -a new rebellious anarchy in Egypt, whose members are of a brotherhood against religion,
imposing violence and protesting against the law. The members of the Black Block Group are well known for their unique style. Black clothes, black sunglasses and black masks are their dress code. What made the policemen arrest the metal-heads as members of the counter group was the common ground of dress code, the black clothes. The metal-heads were divided into two groups, each transferred in different department in a police station prison called Tura, sentenced for 15 days of imprisonment.
The group met 21z other metal-heads beaten up in the same prison for the same reason under the same supervision which are still kept in the prison till now, and from the guys were Walid, Islam El Foly, and Adb El Rahman (Mano).
Even though the metal-heads were vanished into a place where no one can reach, their friends knew about their disappearance and rebelled against the policemen through social media. Facebook played the biggest buzz medium to spread the poisoned news of the arrestment of the metal-heads under false accusation. What triggered the easiness of their freedom was the well known regulation, stressing that no one can be kept in prison for more than 15 days without being sentenced in Egypt.
This law became the most efficient hint to push people to defy against the unfairness of arresting the metalheads. The metal-heads saw their highway home after being sentenced innocents, independent of all the accusations made against them. They are back to the field of work, making new music and still wearing black. As the golden quote states: “Never judge a book by its cover�. Appearance never shows the exact reflection of the person. Metal-heads wear black because they are mysterious musicians, a dress-code that acts as barrier between the self and the outside world. They have their own world of power, good taste, passion in music and power. A cult whose members are not of a brotherhood against religion, laws and government, but a brotherhood of similar taste of music and lifestyle.
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art and culture lounge direction
Fares sokhon
When we first decided that Jay Wud will be the cover story of our first issue, it was an automatic reaction to interview Fares Sokhen. As a result this is the first Interview we ever made for the magazine T.P. & Chana Fares Sokhon is an artist who always has something to say about everything and the world in his own imaginary way. Before even starting his studies in communication art at LAU he was working the arts field. This made his studies more familiar to him and easier to absorb. He worked at LBC, the TV station, and being an art director made the transition to directing music videos of rock, hip hop, and even Arabic much much smoother, easier and natural. Already being behind a camera, photography was the second natural thing to do; he interpreted his vision of how he saw people and things then translated them through the still lens of the camera for people to see. This was reflected in near surface cover album. Since the director takes in all things; behind and in front of the camera, the images Fares Sokhon worked on had to have the imprint of his own view of things, so fashion, was another area he dabbled in. His work as a fashion director in Rag Mag came into place and it surely paid off. His experience in fashion was reflected on the looks in music clips and movies he worked on, by having his say concerning the wardrobe. Fares had a vision and knew exactly what or which look would be better. Directing was his life’s purpose, what he ultimately wanted to do. His latest works were Jay Wud’s “Incomplete Heart” and Alan Azar’s “Into space” and he has many other projects on the way… 1-
Why did you choose this path? Was it your dream?
Growing up in a mountain like Qartaba, full of poetry, beautiful landscapes, and artists in the family, it was a certainty to me to become one. I started painting since I was 5 years old; Paintings on how I saw things around me. It was always a dream of mine to get to a point where my paintings and what I see could become something that moves, in every meanings. I couldn’t and wouldn’t choose my life to be any other way. Being an artist was what I dreamt of being. I never tried to do anything else, even if it is something very hard to be in Lebanon.
2You have worked as Actor, Art Director, Set Designer, Director, Fashion designer and Photographer. Where do you find yourself more? And why?
I have worked wherever I have seen the subject of interest to me, regardless of the title, I’m in. However, I find myself more as a photographer and director, being a music fan myself, directing music videos for artists I see potential in, and in which I feel that the music can be translated my way. As for Photography: I can never stop translating my imagination on still pictures, it just gives me great pleasure for endless glimpses.
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Does your personal life take a place in your career?
My work, ideas, imagination and how I see things move around me, is in many ways a projection from my personal life.
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Who/What inspires Fares Sokhon?
All my inspiration comes from music and nothing else. Music is what moves you, what makes you feel, your imagination burst and of course your ears hurt sometimes. One of my biggest inspirations is Tom Waits, with the way he thinks, the way he acts, his music, and his beautiful twisted mind.
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5You have acted as “Mike” in “abdo w abdo” Lebanese sitcom. Tell us about this experience and was it your first in this field and did this help you to launch your uprising career? Acting in “Abdo w Abdo” was the first time for me as an actor. It was fun and a good experience. It has nothing to do with my career, since I took a different direction than acting.
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How do you compromise between your life and your career?
I try my best to separate between them both.
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How do you describe your work?
My work is a clear projection of my mind and how I see the project in question.
8What kind of music do you listen to and how much music affects you, and/or your work? Music is endless to me; I listen to all kinds of “good” music. My favorite kind of music though is blues and rock. It has a huge impact on me and my work; it inspires me in all possible ways.
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Are you living your dream? Or do you still have to achieve more?
It is what I always wanted to do, and there’s a lot more to achieve…
10Tell us about your experience with Jay Wud, a brief about the concept of the video clip? Jay Wud’s incomplete heart is a song that talks about a break up and the eagerness to be left alone and start anew. With that kind of subject the ideas can tend to be a bit cheesy, I thought differently. I wanted to create something a bit surrealistic with an old school rock edged video in a modern way.
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Why Jay Wud? And how was working with him on this video?
Jay Wud is my old time friend who had always my full support in his music. He was easy to work with and professional when needed, with a bit of fun of course between friends.
12After Jay Wud – Alan Azar. What can you tell us about Alan’s “Into Spave” Video?
Alan Azar is a very passionate musician who knows very well what he wants and doesn't stop until he gets it. He has his own input on the video concept and everything. “Into Space” is only instrumental, which works better for me to go freely with my imagination and go with Alan on a trip into space. You are not limited with lyrics here, so we did not follow any story line but instead worked on the mood and visual. Damoun Ghaoui did a great job in the lighting and more and gave me exactly what I needed. We wanted the video to be like a band show, so that people would have a chance to know Alan better, to show his guitar techniques a lot more than focusing on a story. Alan’s playing can take you on his space trip alone, and his feelings in music lead the whole mood, the general idea and all. I can tell you that I loved working with Alan and I would be more than happy to work with him again on anything he does.
13Other than directing you have been involved in several other works with many rock bands like Near Surface, can you tell us about it and a bit about the concept of the album art?
When I first listened to Near Surface music, I felt I was diving nonstop; it was a continuous, great dive. And when they told me the name of the album, boom! It was like that, the nonstop dive, and the landings that don't have an ending. With the name of the band and the album it was an instant idea that went great with the band's energy. I wanted it to look surreal and not just something that you see for a band, I always like to grab people's imagination in my work and here I hope it worked! It speaks for the band’s music and their energy and how different they are from anybody else. My next projects started with the headless bass player photo shoot with the one and only Michel Labaki Labex, posted on his website, page and profile. I'm working with him and his endorsements Fodera, the best bass guitar brand in the world with Labex signature bass and Gruv gear for all the great guitar equipment. We started off with that only to prepare for his new album cover layout that we hope will blow you away. I am also working on some videos with one of the best musicians in town, who I will let you know about in time.
14You have worked in commercials, Arabic, electronic, Rap and now Rock Video clips. Which of these in the directing world do you prefer to work in? Which makes you feel more like yourself and more creative? It all depends on the concept, if I’m interested or not. However, I see myself more in rock and hip hop videos.
15Thank you for your time. Anything you like to add for our readers to read? Thank you Metal Bell Magazine for your interest and support, keep up the good work.
Check out Fares’s work on his fan page: www.facebook,com/pages/fares-sokhon/244232902261698 and be ready for many upcoming projects
Since its dawn, Heavy Metal had always been a rebellious music with themes that passed the limit of pop love songs into political, religious and social criticism. The high political profile that was bound to global warming and climate change among other environmental issues, and since Metal music and its lyrics are highly controversial, environmentalism got a definite attention from Metal bands such as, Testament, Annihilator, Megadeth, Gojira and many others. Some suggested that the songs “Hole in the Sky” (1975) and “Children of the Sea” (1980) of Black Sabbath are to be considered environmental related, but the lyrics of both songs keep this identity as blur. It was not until the early 80’s when Metal bands became seriously interested in the environmental subject. Iron Maiden’s lyrics of “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, from Power Slave album (1984), were inspired by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", the poem that explores the violation of nature and its resulting psychological effects on the Mariner.
On the other hand, Testament was one of the first metal bands that called for an attitude change concerning pollution and global warming, as they released their
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song “Greenhouse Effect” in August 1989 from “Practice What You Preach” Album. The song clearly calls to a stand up against political corruption and crime against Earth. "It's time to take a stand / Our only hope to breathe again / To stop the madness closing in / What will we do when all is lost / Environmental holocaust"
The cause was adopted by many bands since then. In 1989, Nuclear Assault released "Handle with care" where the whole package from lyrics to album cover, which depicted the planet from space tagged with "Handle with care" across its surface, created a full environmental awareness album. “Critical Mass” from this album states the ugly pollution reality from all its angles.
By: T.P. & ELLE
"Toxic wastes destroy the seas/ While poison gas pollutes the air/ A waste of life, when no one cares/ The Earth becomes a giant tomb"
Jumping to the 90's, an era that was rich with “Green Metal” songs. Annihilator released their single “Stonewall” from “Never, Neverland” album, which brought the environmental damage subject up by those words: “Qualities soon to exhaust as man's greed poisons the land / streams, once fresh, were centers of life for so many a creature / beauty without defense, polluted, never to replenish"
Followed in the same year by Megadeth with “Down Patrol”: “Pretending not to notice / How history had forebode us / With the green house in effect Our environment was wrecked”
One of the lyrics that are highly significant and really need to be highlighted is the lyrics for D.R.I’s Acid Rain. This song addressing the ignorant generation with lyrics of stimulating anger:
...But one band reigned the thrown of environmentalism in this century, it is the French technical death metal band Gojira. They have embraced the environmental theme with every single detail from the lyrics, song titles, album covers, website graphics, and even during their stage performances by which they encourage on recycling among many other things.
"Will our children look back / With hatred or despair / At a generation of idiots / Who just didn't care / About the fossil fuel fumes / And the aerosol sprays / That put holes in the ozone / And let in the rays / That can cause cancer in humans? And what is it all worth / Heating up our globe / Destroying our own Earth? What will they think / Of us with no concern / About the seas of shit / And radiation burn?"
All of this creates a fully devoted environmental "case" successfully sustained by Gojira. The band released “O Green World” and “Every Planet We Reach Is Dead”, when they were still known as Godzilla, and they released many other songs as Gojira like “Embrace the World”, “Clone”, “In the Forest”, “Flying whales”, “To Sirius”, “A Sight to Behold”,
The 90's continued to produce more EnviroMetal songs like " Countdown to Extinction" by Megadeth (92), "Obituary" by World Demise (94), and " Paradise" by Stratovarius (97). The twenty first century, wasn’t at all less rich than the 90’s. Many bands like Stratovarius with “Mother Gaia”, Sonata Arctica with "Wrecking the sphere", Nuclear Assualt with “Third World Genocide", Sepultura with "Convicted in life" and "On the Brink of Extinction" by Napalm Death, and many more cried Earth...
“Global Warming”, “Ocean Planet”, “World to Come”, and “Toxic Garbage Island” "Take this pestilent destruction out of my way/The great pacific garbage patch is exhausting And the world is sliding away/in a vortex of floating refuse/ With the sacred one you have lost Plastic bag in the sea". Lyrics from Toxic Garbage Island-Album: “The Way of all flesh”. (2008)
All this collection develops definitive evidence on the crimes done by the human kind towards our nature. And the defense body is presented by the famous Metal Bands around the world who are aware of consciously carrying their EnvironMetalism message through generations.
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Fodera Bass Guitars Monarch 4 Deluxe - Labex Signature “In my opinion, there is no bass in the world that could be closer to my personality as it’s a signature bass custom made for me. The bass not only reflects my emotions and feelings through the sound it produces, but it also characterizes my personality as its unique build portrays my background being the only bassist endorsed in the Middle East region by Fodera.”
michel “labex” labaki about the monarch 4 deluxe The connection between this bass and I is very imminent. However, I don’t really consider the bond between my bass and I as a connection. The bass is a part of me. After going through multiple basses, from Fender to Yamaha to Modulus, I realized that there is a strong
sense of refinement and attention to detail when it comes to Fodera basses. The company Fodera specializes in basses only and many of the world’s most renowned bassists, such as Victor Wooten
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for example, have their own custom signature Fodera bass. It all comes down to one’s opinion in the end, but when I picked up my first Fodera bass [Yin Yang Standard #10]; I just knew that I wasn’t going back to anything else.
What makes my bass special from a tonal standpoint is the use of Korina as a body wood paired with an Ebony fingerboard. The Korina that was used for it was harvested in the late 1950's and has been in the Fodera workshop since the late 1980's -- making it extremely dry, stable and resonant. In the electronics department, I employed an active EMG P-PUP in the neck position and a passive Lindy Fralin
lateral humbucking J-PUP in the Bridge position. Hence, the tone is well-rounded, articulate and powerful. There’s plenty of growl on the bridge PUP and lots of rich, deep low-end from the neck PUP. Playability wise, the neck was carved to be "thin and fast" to allow for some blazingly fast solo runs as well as using an extra deep lower cutaway for complete access to all twenty-four (24) frets.
Ebony
Body Wood top Wood
Fingerboard Wood
Korina Buckeye Burl (Solid)
Dovetail
Pickups Preamp
Neck Wood
3-pc. Hard Rock Maple
Neck Joint
EMG P Neck Pickup, Lindy Fralin Lateral Humbucking J Bridge Pickup
Fodera / Pope Custom Shop, 3- Band (modified)
Scale Length
Strings
Custom Monarch Layout
Control Layout
34"
4 (19.0mm spacing)
FB Inlay
Abalone Dots with Motherof-Pearl Custom Inlays
24 (Large)
Frets 15
by: Carmina Khairallah We have all heard of “super groups”, those bands in which each member is already loaded with musical experience, thus creating a combo of perfectly skilled musicians for some close to flawless results. The idea, behind one of those, hatched in November 2009 in the mind of Bryan Holland, best known as lead guitarist for NWOBHM legends Tokyo Blades and Arrest, who dreamt of “a versatile soaring vocalist” and “some unstoppable riffs, screaming leads and crushing rhythms”. Starting from there, the ideal buildup for this dream band appeared before his eyes. At first came Todd Michael Hall, packed with a 4 octave range and a history as the vocalist for Jack Starr’s Burning Starr. Then, Bryan’s good friend Steve ‘Doc.Killdrums’ Wacholz, founding member of Savatage and Crimson Glory, was an obvious choice when it came to drums: both musicians had been dreaming of playing together for a very long time. All the existing members at that time were unanimous about who they wanted on the bass: Ned Meloni, was also a member of Jack Starr’s Burning Starr as well as Funny Money. And finally the set was complete with Pete Rossi, an ex-colleague of Steve’s in the music department, on guitars. Thus in early 2010, this new upper level Power Metal band was born in the heart of Detroit, Michigan, and in 2012 their debut CD “When Darkness Falls” was released.
Coming from a band with such lengthy past experience, you wouldn’t expect the technicality of their work to have anything wrong with it. And you’d be right. From the album art, to the lyrics, to the music itself, everything is done in an extremely professional fashion. Upon looking at the cover of “When Darkness Calls”, one is immediately brought back to the era when Heavy Metal was the latest trend to observe. This impression is fortified upon listening to each track, but a little modern “Power Metal” twist can also be clearly spotted. The lyrics are as strong as any Metal lyrics should be, but also each carries individually strong meanings, from the figuratively graphical images of “Bleed for Me” to the soft touching words of “After the Leaves Have Fallen”. Music wise, all the songs have a very similar feel to them, to Reverence, but each of them carries a striking uniqueness carried by loud, heavy riffs, catchy melodies and powerful vocals ranging from a low taunting to a high pitched yelling, all wrapped in an aura of heaviness that can only leave you head-banging, with only very slight monotony to it during some parts, that are nevertheless quite hard to get bored of. Overall, “When Darkness Falls” is a jewel for any old or new Metal fan to check out right away.
Hello, thank you for granting us at Metal Bell the chance to ask you a few questions. Bryan: Absolutely, I appreciate your giving us an opportunity to speak with you and giving us a forum to reach out to metal fans everywhere. Todd: T.P. and Lady K - Thank you for the chance to do this interview for Metal Bell. We really appreciate the support and the chance to let people know more about our music.
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To Bryan Holland: Was there any specific event or thought that made you come up with the idea behind Reverence? My tenure in Tokyo Blade ended with our last tour through Europe and Scandinavia in the fall of 2009. I came home and spent time over the holidays deciding what I wanted to do and finally I decided that I wanted to forge ahead, building a new band in the vein of classic Judas Priest, Queenryche and Savatage. I had a specific direction I wanted to go in musically but finding like minded band members can be difficult, but I was very fortunate in partnering with Todd and the rest of the guys, they all were very much in favor of the direction Todd and I wanted to take the band towards. With our first album 'When Darkness Calls' out now and gathering some really great feedback from both fans and media alike, I'm really looking forward to taking the band on the road to Europe in September and a US tour in November. Until then we've already begun writing for the next album.
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More generally, each member of the band has quite the history of heavy rocking behind them. Do you sense that the audience is expecting a lot out of you because of that? If so, do you feel ready to meet those expectations? In the back of my head, I knew there might be some that may hold us to the history of our past bands which is to be expected to a degree. In general, during the writing, I tried hard to focus on what 'we' wanted the band to sound like versus what others might be expecting. I'm sure some were disappointed with the final results but I believe strongly with the reactions we've received from the press and fans alike that we are able to stand on our own musical merits. I think only time can tell how Reverence stands against our past bands, that’s for the fans to judge not us.
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Judging by the description of your band on your website, it seems like each of you fits perfectly in his role. Adding to that your respective years of experience, did that make it possible for you to avoid the countless quarrels every band goes through regularly? I would agree; everyone in the band fit very well together. Once Todd and I hooked up and began writing and building the band we just called in our friends to fill the ranks. With each of the members having been around the block with our previous known bands, it definitely helps in the fact that everyone is very professional and gets along well with very little egos. I can't say that we don't have differences from time to time but that’s just the nature of being in a close relationship, it’s just bound to happen but we all have what’s best for the band at heart. In the end having been in our past bands has definitely given us some insights of how to avoid certain pit falls; experience is a key in almost all situations, so with that we've been pretty fortunate.
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The cover art of your album "When Darkness Calls" is quite elaborate. You gave the artist Jobert Mello the delicate task of taking care of it. What made you think of him for the job? When you asked him for it, did you know exactly what you wanted or did you let him choose what it'd be? I had actually worked with Jobert during my time with Tokyo Blade; he had done some artwork for us for t-shirts, promo, etc. I was always very happy with his work ethics, his amazing talent plus he's very easy to work with, so he was the first one I approached to try to capture the band’s sound visually. When I first approached Jobert, I only had a very basic black and white drawing of the 'Priest figure', I didn't have any other details in mind other than I wanted him to bring this figure to life, to make him more realistic looking and 3-d, what you see in the final cover was 95% completed within the first draft he showed us, we made a few tweaks and suggestions but no huge changes. When I first saw it I was totally blown away, unbelievable really, I'm very excited to work with him again on the next album too.
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Who would you say your music is aimed towards more: the "old school" Heavy/Power Metal fans that have been at it for years, or the "new generation" Metal heads?
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We tried to write the style of music that we grew up loving and seemed to be missing in today’s music, so I guess you might call that 'old-school' power metal style. It does seem there is a definite resurgence of that style within the new generation of metal bands and fans, probably from the younger metal fans that missed the hay day of the 80's. As far as how we fit into that, I feel that we fit into that pretty well. I think we're a bit more mature sounding in many ways but that simply comes with the subject material we choose to write about and comes with the territory of who we are and the previous bands we were previously a part of. Some bands take on topics about ancient warriors or dragons, a lot of mythology and fantasy. That’s all good and I'm not putting those kinds of bands down, I personally like some of those bands and songs but it’s just not who we are, we tend to be a straight up metal band and write more about the present and what’s happening in our lives than about a fantasy world. Many young musicians who form Metal bands are often encouraged by their peers to not take their work seriously as it is obviously "just a phase". What would you answer to that?
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I believe you should be who you are, "phase" or not, we were all young once and had certain things and reasons that drove us in certain directions and interests, some of that may fade over time as we change but I think if you love something you should be who you are no matter what anyone else says. As long as you’re not hurting anyone else, live your life, be who you are. You should only take it as serious as you want too, work hard and play hard...but be the very best that you can be. Your music is quite heavy with really powerful riffs and vocals. Do you believe that Metal music should be "violent" in order to achieve its purpose?
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I don't think it needs to be violent , obviously metal music tends to hold that description simply because of its nature, and it’s an aggressive style of music that is meant to be a release of energy and emotions. I think you can do that in a positive way without having violent topics and lyrics which we tend to shy away from. Todd does a great job in trying to do a bit of storytelling while keeping the topics with a positive message. With living in our world today, with so much stress and anxiety, I'd prefer fans vent it through our music or metal in general than to actually act upon those violent feelings. Music or all genres are an emotional release; ours just happens to allow people to vent any pent up darker or angry energy. The media tends to make metal out to be this dangerous and scary thing, and I suppose some of it can be, but for the most part metal gets a bad rap and is nothing more than a release of feelings. - If you showed up to a venue where you had a huge concert planned and there was just one person in the audience wearing a shirt with your band's name on it and looking overly excited, how would you react?
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Initially, I might be a little bummed that we could only draw one fan, fingers crossed that it never happens, haha...but even with just a single fan I would treat that person with a lot of appreciation simply for making the effort to come out and support us. We would give them a great show regardless of how many people were in attendance. To Todd Hall: Upon describing how you wrote the lyrics for each song, you seem to imply that the words just popped into your head after listening to the music. Isn't there any actual process you have to go through? I might assume that the process of writing lyrics for a song is different for different people. For me, I believe the songs actually sing to me. I have had instances (not in working with Bryan so far) where I tried to write lyrics for a song and I did not get the vibe and just could not really write anything. If the song is good though, it does sing to me. The vocal melodies start to come first and there often are no words at all. For some reason it seems that the chorus tends to hit me first. The chorus usually suggests a topic and then I write the rest of the lyrics to suit the topic and the vocal melodies I have been hearing in my head. I am sure that subconsciously, there are things I am thinking about
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that tend to dictate the topics, but very often I have no title in mind when I first start listening to the song. On the WDC album, Devil in Disguise, Too Late, Gatekeeper, The Price You Pay, Monster, and After the Leaves Have Fallen were all song titles that came after I wrote the lyrics. All of the others were titles suggested by Bryan (or Dirk on Phantom Road). Bryan normally suggests a title for each song when he gives me the music, but as you can see, the songs do not always sing that title to me.
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After each of you have experienced the music writing process with several bands, would you now say that each member of a band should be in charge of writing what's related to their own instrument or that there should be one person in charge of everything and each member would just add their own touch? It is pretty difficult to write a song as a group, unless you are just jamming as a band in a room and everyone is throwing in suggestions and a song evolves. I wouldn't think that all of the lyrics would come in a session like that, but maybe a chorus. In general, it seems to me that the seed of a song (the music, I mean) generally comes from one person and then the other instrumentalists add their touches, which helps bring the song to life through performance. If a bass player writes a cool bass line to go with a song someone else wrote, does that mean the bass player co-wrote the song? It is kind of tough to say, but it seems most people think not. The credit for writing the song goes to the person that wrote the main structure and/or progressions. I don't think it is necessary or even practical to have everyone write the basic song, but it is definitely nice to get their thoughts and input when determining exactly what each of the particular instruments will be doing. On the lyrical side of things, I usually have something to say and prefer to write them myself, but I do like it when people suggest a title for the song, even though I might not end up using that title.
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Jason Baker was in charge of directing the videos of your songs "Bleed for Me", "Too Late" and "After the Leaves Have Fallen". Who is exactly Jason Baker and how did you end up working with him? Jason Baker and I actually went to high school together, but he was a year behind me and there were 605 kids in my grade alone, so I do not really remember him from high school. I found out we went to high school together after I hired him to work as a graphic designer for my family business [Glastender, Inc. - we manufacture bar and restaurant equipment]. Jason is now in the Position of IT Supervisor and he heads all things computer and media related at our company. Jason is a very creative and capable guy. The kind of guy that can do about anything he puts his mind to doing. He just finished making his own acoustic guitar. In addition, he is quite creative. He took drama classes in school and was always into music as well. He took some classes in video editing in college and had created a couple of product videos for my company. When I mentioned that we wanted to do some videos for our songs, he was really excited to be involved, because he had always wanted to create a music video, but never got the opportunity. We shot all of Too Late, Bleed, and the band sections of Leaves in two days one weekend last May. It was a lot of work, but we had some great help from friends. Considering our lack of experience in creating videos, I was really happy with the end results.
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You say "After the Leaves Have Fallen" was originally written by Bryan Holland at the passing of his father. How would you relate the strikes in the video of that song to the meaning of the song itself?
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As I mentioned, Bryan normally suggests a song title when giving me the music. ‘Leaves’ is certainly a melancholy song and Bryan had suggested the title What If and said that the music had him thinking of his father. The song was actually just a snippet at the time. It was just guitar and bass and we had no plans for any drums, a heavy section, or a guitar solo for that matter. All of that was suggested later on by Pete and Doc, who wanted us to turn it into a real song. The original music that Bryan gave me, just a short little piece with guitar and bass on it, sang the phrase "After the leaves have fallen" to me almost immediately. It was uncanny how well that phrase flowed with the music. I am not even sure why those particular words came into my head, but I believe I was thinking about my youngest daughter, Liana. I was most definitely thinking about my children when I wrote the rest of the lyrics for the song, which actually came to me quite quickly. Although the song made Bryan think of his father, I wrote the song thinking about how each generation grows up wanting to "change the world", but then as we get older, we settle into life and the pursuit of happiness and end up making a lot of the same short sighted decisions as our forefathers. In my mind, the song is about love for our children and future generations and it is asking the question, what will you think of the job I did after I am gone? There are probably quite a few different areas where humans have made short sighted decisions over the generations, but pollution seemed like an obvious candidate, so we chose that as the topic to be visually expressed in the video. Also, to Todd Michael Hall, who is the little girl sitting on your lap in the video? My wife and I have been married for over 13 years and all of the children in the video are ours. The oldest is my daughter Evelyn (9), then my son Brennan (8), and lastly, the little one on my lap at the end of the video, Liana (2). - Finally, we would really like to know; what are your future plans regarding the band? We most definitely intend to write more music. We all have day jobs, so we cannot put full time effort into the band, but it is a great passion of ours, which is why we do what we do. We have a few live shows booked in the US in November and have some confirmed shows already for a tour of Europe in September. Is there anything else you'd like to tell our readers? Thank you very much for taking the time to read this interview and for supporting metal music. I hope you give Reverence a listen and like what you hear. Thank you
Reverence, looking forward to hearing from you in the future, best of luck for what's to come.
Cheers and Endless Headbanging Moons \\m//
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A Level Up to The Lebanese Death Metal Scene biography by Ashley Jor
W
ith over 15 years of friendship, music, and life together, Weeping Willow had plenty to share with me when I sat down with them for a chat about their band’s history.These guys are the coolest I’ve met in the Lebanese metal scene. They’ve been going strong, and with the looks of things, they aren’t ready to give up just yet. They started out back in 1996 under the name “Opposites” as a Black Metal band with a lineup that consisted of Garo and Clement on guitars, and Geno as vocalist. Since then, several members have come and gone, but the band has remained on top of things. In 1998, the band had a change of band members and at that period of time they were developing their original material.
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Review By Mayathustra & Maurice semaan
The line up back then was as follows: Marco on keyboards, Khalil on bass, Pierre on drums and Farid as second vocalist.The year 2000 was the band’s turning point. With another change of band members, they discovered their true calling and went on to reflect their love for Death Metal. Marco moved to bass, Rafik was added as drummer, and Farid, Pierre, and Khalil left the band.In 2001, they released their demo album, Garden of Misery, which presented the bands talents in the best way and was recorded with Ralph Khoury on vocals.After that, the band faced some new problems with Rafik and Marco being drafted into the army, lack of funding, and the constant ‘censorship’ of the music scene in Lebanon. It wasn’t until late 2003 that Weeping Willow returned to the studios
to put down their new tracks.Thatled to the band releasing their second album, Mentally Decayed, which brought the band even greater success and a heavier following. The Third Portal, the band’s third studio album, was recorded in 2006 at IQ Studios. This album was released in July 2007 and was sold at Virgin Megastore and even internationally on iTunes. Now, Weeping Willow have finalized their lineup for the time being with GaroGdanian on guitars, Elias Njeim as the lead guitarist, Marco Ghorayeb on bass, Geno as vocalist, and last but not least, the newest addition to the band, Bachir R. as drummer. Impale is their fourth recording as a band and it was released most recently. The release event was a success and their music still has that heavy feel that all their fans love.
Some amazing performances have highlighted Weeping Willow’s musical career. In 2001 was their opening performance for Theater of Tragedy. In 2006, they opened for Apocalyptica and then went on to perform alongside Macbeth. Throughout their life as a band, they have come up against many obstacles, but they were able to overcome it all.
They aimed at musical heights and they reached them by the way of group work. During our chat, the members insisted several times on the importance of their close ties with each other and the family atmosphere they have created throughout the years. Like every normal family, they have their fair share of conflicting ideas and opinions,
but one thing’s for sure, they don’t let things get between them. From composing their music to time spent outside the studio, these guys are always close. Bachir, the band’s drummer who joined them in 2010, said, “I was a fan of the band back then, and I still am you know, but now I’m a part of it. It’s good to do that; it’s something big for me.”
Another thing Weeping Willow were insistent about,is the fact that they are super proud to be a Lebanese Death Metal band and that they love performing locally. To them, their origins are what made them, and their local fans and friends
are what brought them this far, so their stomping grounds are their focal point. “What’s the point of having an international fan base if you don’t have your local fan base anymore?” Of course, performing internationally would be a great
step forward, but as Bachir reassured me, “It’s not a plan… if it happens it’s cool, if it doesn’t happen, fine, we’ll keep doing what we do.” However, Geno chimed in to say, “We are planning something, we hope it works!”
Weeping Willow is a local band with a heavy following, yet they don’t host many gigs. I asked them why that is and they told me it’s all about getting the fine tuned details together. “We like to take care of the basics like securing the proper PA system, make sure the venue is good to fit people, make sure the venue is legal…” They love giving their best to their fans and friends! It’s known that metal music is highly censored in Lebanon, and the authorities have even taken some people into custody due to
anti-religious accusations, illegal drug use, and other unlawful matters. Weeping Willow, as all the other Lebanese bands, is proud to be clean and sure of it. To them, and as most believe,their music can be a lifestyle, and that lifestyle can still be clean and respectable. Their Death Metal vibes and aggression felt in their music are just a way to get their feelings of day to day frustration and annoyances out. Weeping Willow is one of the first bands to expose the Lebanese metal scene to an international audience.
Their music has reached metal fans all over the globe via iTunes,MySpace, and other social media networks, and it’s just getting better with their latest release available online as well. With everything Weeping Willow have achieved so far, and everything they have seen and been through, they deserve immense appreciation and recognition. These guys are one of the metal pioneers in Lebanon, and they are continuing on in the struggle to be a talented, well-known band in our modest metal scene.
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Impale Review It's time for the Death metal band to rise and be glorified! The Weeping Willow have released their 4th album, after a long 4 years wait which gave the opportunity for their 3rd album "The Third Portal" to make its way internationally and expose their brilliant musicianship, and also for the band to explore their abilities, resulting in what I think is their finest and most professional album since. The band has experienced some lineup changes over the years, and while this change usually ends up with a “different� band, so to speak,
the Weeping Willow have managed to remain unchanged, concerning their own Willow sound, which distinguishes them from other death metal bands, locally and internationally. To be honest, I was disappointed with their last album "The Third Portal", because I felt that there was something missing, something I couldn't quite put my finger on, but I cannot say that I rest my case, for my soul was revived. Their 4th full length album entitled "IMPALE", released in February 2013, is a kickass album, that really did "impale" my ears, but oh so sweetly!
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What first attracted my attention was the groove in the album, taking you on a long journey in a whirlwind, combined with beautifully constructed solos and steady riffs. I could hear a lot of progression through the songs, where heavy grinding attacks turn into a somewhat softer, more musical expression I'm not sure how much advice I can offer about the album I'm pretty certain the more you listen to the album the better – repeated exposure to music sharpens your opinions.
Which songs on "Impale" are worth repeated listens? Check out the track-by-track breakdown of the highlights below done by Maurice Semaan. 1. VALUED AND HATED Backed by the crackling wall of drumming and prodding guitar thrash licks, the band allows their fully bloomed personality to carry the song, and belting the chorus without abandonment. 2. THE LAST MOURN This song is a pretty unusual way to describe the depth of one's emotions, with shout-outs and some fierce statements. It reminds us with some old beautiful metal classics. 3. ENSLAVING THE BLIND A well-written piece of personal chest-thumping over a death progression beat. With an oscillating guitar riff, unrelenting kick drum and drum breakdown during the finale chorus 4. MORTUARY Delicate outro probably would have hit harder if the album didn't have such a multitude of thrashing, delicate outros, but the job still gets done. 5. PRIMITIVE URGE This song offers a rare moment when their song is built around the instrument, and uses it as a foundation for a somber tune about desperation and devotion, with a more progressive influence. 6. IMPALE (ALBUM TITLE) My heart sank a little when I heard this one. What else was I expecting from "WEEPING WILLOW"? It’s elegiac, mournful, emotive, and subtle and has so much detail. 7. WITHIN A SPELL The chord structure line actually sounds more SLAYER LIKE METAL. It is a highlight of the album so far, especially for more purist metal heads. 8. LYCAN It is one hell of an ending to one hell of a journey. The song takes you through meandering riffs, hectic drum fills and crashing cymbals. At times it’s metallish, at times it sounds like Dark, until a breakdown ends the album. What a lot of people love in metal bands, has to do with the concept of paying dues -- a rite of passage we love to see bands earn. "WEEPING WILLOW" has been fighting the good fight since 1996. The album is a very good blend and deserves a positive point of view, I love it.
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Also known as "Sakr Kourish", Mahmoud Sakr, a metal vocalist from Egypt died 2 months ago. Mahmoud joined the band "Worm" as a replacement for their former vocalist Ezz. Worm, founded 2003 in Alexandria, is considered one of the oldest active Egyptian metal acts. The band, with Sakr on vocals, recorded the demo 'The Codex' which received a good reaction in the underground scene. And though the band were never as active as they used to be in their past times, they were recently featured on an in-depth report about metal in egypt at Norient.com. This, for sure, is a loss for the Egyptian metal scene that despite the death of Mahmoud will continue its way into the metal world.
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a postmortem damage rite
After a few years of Absence, the Lebanese thrashers “Postmortem”, founded in 2003 by JM Elias, had to change the name to DAMAGE RITE, after finding out that there is a German Death Mzetal band with the same name.
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They changed it in order to be able to release their debut album, and “as much as they loved the old name” they had to change it to somethingthat suites them best. JM is the only survivor from the original line up, since Camil, Riad and Maroun had to leave the country to live abroad. The current lineup is as follows: JM Elias : guitar/vocals ChadyMaalouf : guitar Michel Maalouly : Bass Ziad Alam : Drums
“The dehumanizing factor” is a 10 track debut album that was recorded by the original lineup JM, Camil ,Riad and Maroun. The recording took place between JM’s home studio and Mixdown Studio while the drums were recorded at the previous drummer’s studio.
There is no label involved yet with DAMAGE RITE’s debut but JM stressed that “we're currently in the process of establishing communication and we'll see where that leads”. DAMAGE RITE just lunched their Facebook page at the end of the month of May; with photos from a photo shoot by Hsein Kazma a professional photographer and a personal friend of the band. “A great guy and very easy to work with” said JM.
by: T.P.
M e a n w h i l e , waiting for the album to come out, you can still enjoy their only released single in December 2008 through MySpace “Whispers of Ages”. DAMAGE RITE published a studio report of the drum tracking process on their YouTube channel and page, will also be releasing another one in the next couple of weeks. Moreover they are preparing for their first official Damage Rite gig… but don’t tell anyone keep it Husshhhh!!
follow damage rite on their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/DamageRite
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busy kimaera
exclusive
A New Deal, A New Album, A Tour, A Video and more
KIMAERA has come a long way from the streets of Lebanon where it was born in 2000, after being discovered by Stygian Crypt Productions the Russian label company due to releasing their self produced single God’s Wrath, and signing a management deal in 2012 with one of the most reputable agencies in Europe, “The Flaming Arts”, who have worked with many metal veterans such as ‘Behemoth’, ‘November’s Doom’ & ‘Sepultura’. Having become an international name and sharing stage with artists from all over the globe in festivals like Masters of Rock in Czech Republic, Festivale Mediteranneen de la Guitare in Tunisia, Unirock in Turkey, and MHM in Ukraine, where they performed alongside BLAAKYUM. This year of 2013, the band: the Lebanese Ambassadors of Doom, signed with "Eternal Sound Records” from Germany for the worldwide physical & digital release
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of their third studio album "The Harbinger of Doom", and consecutively with "Heavy Space" as their new booking and management agency. After the release of their third album “The Harbinger of Doom” on the 6th of September 2013, KIMAERA will be hitting the stages with their “Doom Upon Russia” tour, which will kick off in St. Petersburg- Russia on the 13th of September 2013 and will end by supporting Amorphis in KIEV - Ukraine on the 21st of September 2013.
KIMAERA having already shot the video for "Lost Control", the Anathema cover, inside the recording studio, is now working on the second video for “Ancient Serpents” the opening track of their soon to be released “The Harboring of Doom” album.
by: T.P. & Joya For the video of “Ancient Serpents” the band promised us something “extreme and unforeseen in the Middle East.” That is why they worked with Sam Andraos, for the second time after already collaborating with the director on the video for “The Taste of Treason” from their second album “Solitary Impact. The background/set location in the video will be an animated clip for which they used a green screen studio; this will definitely be interesting to watch. Adding to our exclusive news to Metal Bell Magazine, the Turkish experimental metal drummer Erce Arslan joined the band permanently after replacing the long time band drummer Simon Saade. Erce will be featured in the already shot video of “Ancient Serpents” and here is an exclusive photo from behind the scene as a treat. Arslan will also take part in their Russian tour."
Confirmed for Metaldays! BLAAKYUM haven’t stopped with their dedication to their music and by bringing big news to the local scene, after making a really positive impact on the crowd, media and organizers; when they played the second stage in METAL CAMP last year. This year BLAAKYUM will go back to Slovenia to participate in “METAL DAYS 2013” (previously Metal Camp) but this time on the main stage with names like Hypocrisy, Iced Earth, IN FLAMES, OVERKILL, Sonata Arctica, Metal Church, Meshuggah,Candlemass, King Diamond, Mayhem, Annihilator and many more. BLAAKYUM will perform on the first day of the festival, the same night with Ensiferum, Overkill and In Flames on the 22nd of July 2012.
ANURYZM first show in Lebanon So far, 2013 has been a busy year for ANURYZM after they headlined Dubai Rock Fest with Yngwie Malmsteen, Dark Tranquillity, Epica, and Myrath. Now, they bring us yet bigger news with the announcement of their first performance ever in Lebanon. They will be supporting NIGHTWISH, one of the most important and prominent symphonic metal bands of the decade, at the Byblos International Festival on 4th of July. Also, the band has been working on their sophomore album which will be released later this year and will feature a couple of international artists.
Elyes Bouchacha to guest in Amadeus Awad new project In an Arjen Lucassen lookalike project, Amadeus Awad continued to add names on the list of the collaborations announced to be part of his new project, and his last was the Keyboardist Elyes Bouchoucha from MYRATH, the Progressive Metal Band from Tunisia that co-headlined Dubai Rock Festival alongside ANURYZM on the 7th of June 2013, at Dubai World Trade Center. Awad previously announced a couple of international names to participate in his upcoming project Amadeus Awad’s EON “The Book Of Gates”, like The vocalist Russel Allen (Symphony X), vocalist Amanda Somerville (Trillium/Avantasia), Guitarist TimoTolkki (Ex-Stratovarious), and keyboardist Keven Moore (OSI). Following the footsteps of Mood Yassin, who left the band few months earlier, the drummer Patrick Stephan, also decided to depart from the band due to differences between him and what is left of the original line up (Elia Monsef,samer zouein, and Amadeus Awad). The project is now more shaped into a Awad solo project rather than a band project. More news is promised to be announced soon about Patrick’s replacement. While Mood’s place is being filled with foreign collaborations.
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Zix will Feature Iron Maiden, ManOwaR and Metal Church For the past month ZIX has been announcing a league of legends that will collaborate with the band in their debut album. So far three guitarists will guest on the album, Mr. JACK STAR (ex-Virgin Steel, Burning Starr), DAVID SHANKLE (DSG and ex-ManOwaR) and the legendary ManOwar founder ROSS THE BOSS will play on zix debut album too along with the drummer KENNY 'RHINO' EARL, also ex-ManOwaR, who will record the full drum tracks on the album. Big news is yet to come! In the all-star song “Metal Strike” which was originally released as a demo -as a part of the Lebanese metal revolution against the false accusations agaisnt the metal heads- which featured a pure Lebanese collaboration with bands and artists from the local scene such as Kaoteon, Blood Ink, Bandage, Dany Deaibess, Philipe Hage Boutros, and Fadi B.K. is taking on a different direction where the band will re-record the final version of the song (as a bonus track) with international legends: BLAZE BAYLEY and PAUL DI'ANNO from the biggest band on Earth IRON MAIDEN, alongside the great RONNY MUNROE from Metal Church. The song will also feature secondary guests vocalists from the womb of the Lebanese scene: MALEK BOU HABIB, BASSEM DEAIBESS, TONY GHANEM, and WALID WOLFLUST, and guitarist HABIB AOUN. The album will be produced by Bart Gabriel (Sacred Steel, Crystal Viper, and Jack Starr's Burning Starr) and will be mixed by Mariusz Pietka (Mortician, Sabaton, Lonewolf) at the MP Studio in Poland. The mastering will be conducted by Maor Appelbaum (Rob Halford, YngwieMalmsteen, and Lita Ford) and it is set to be released in September. Stay tuned as Zix have more to announce soon.
Middle East’s Voice of the Soul with their 4th mature album Voice of the Soul one of the Death metal bands in the Middle East is working on the songs for their first full length album, they should be ready and in the studio by next April. After extensive discussions they have decided that “The studio” will be a mobile one since not all the band members live in the same country. The band has released 3 EPs already; the fact that Voice of the Soul is very excited for this album is because it shows that they have matured further as musicians, while it has kept their identity with the heavy and melodic tunes as their previous albums. By the time the album is finalized and released the band thanks the fans and promises to keep them posted on any and all updates through social media.
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From Egypt with love “This is gonna be huge. We are really excited about this. We've been working for over a year on the new material and any fan of melodic death out there will not be disappointed” with those words AL-AZIF, the Egyptian Melodic Death Metal band, told us when we asked them about their somophore Album yet untitled. Already in the final composition stages the album is set to be unbleached within June. Without any label or any production, the band’s manager and lead guitarist Mafia Sherif is the one that will take charge of all the expenses and “do the heavy lifting” for this album too. Described as their “biggest musical project yet to come , very long very enhanced musical experience” the band hopes that everything will go as planned and they can avoid the mistakes they learned from their previous experiences in the process of the making of their first album “Claiming the sand throne”.
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5grs Scores at Arm Rock Fest After attending the “Arm Rock Fest” that took place in the capital of Armenia, the Iranian Heavy/Thrash Metallers 5GRS , won 2 prizes: BEST SCREAM SINGER BEST DRUMMER In the post where the band expressed their gratitude: “5GRS WOULD LIKE TO SAY: WE ARE PROUD OF YOU GUYS.” They also announced that Soheil Olfat joined 5grs as their new Guitarist.
Grieving Age Album in the Making It is rare to see a Doom Death Metal band based in the K.S.A. but GRIEVING AGE in particular is a determent one. “You can expect an overdose of real heaviness! This album is darker than the previous one and shows the ugly face of Grieving Age.”All the tracks have already been recorded and they were sent to Germany for mixing and mastering. The album is planned to be released in the mid of august but no dates were set yet.
Chopstick Suicide and MHM Chopstick Suicide founded in 2008, a Turkish mathcore band has their second full length album “lost fathers and sons” out. They are participating in the Ukranian MHM (Metal Heads Mission) Festival, along with their compatriots Listana, Moribund Oblivion, The Exile, Decimation, and Rave Woods. The festival will take place from the 1st to the 3rd of August, in Eupatoria, Crimea. Bands such as Dying Fetus, Artillery, Morgoth will also be gracing the stage.
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Memories from Algeria. RiverGate’s upcoming EP, “Chains of Memory”, which will be released on July 1st, is meant to be “a mirror of the current world’s political situation transposed in a futuristic context.” Reflecting such things through music may seem a little bit far-fetched, but the band is aiming to make it possible through meticulous work, taking their time to make every detail perfect at their own personal studio, from the music to the different artwork conceptions that have been brewing through their minds. As a slight reminder: although solo work is possible, it can be quite expensive in time and energy, and having no official cooperation the band is currently actively seeking a deal. Stay tuned for more info on RiverGate, soon!
“Skinless Agony”
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There’s something boiling in Tunisia, and it’s not just the scorching weather, but the raw anger in local Extreme/Death Metal band Brood of Hatred’s veins.”Brood of Hatred, as the names suggests, is a band that came out to express a lot of anger, frustration, and also a meditative look to the sick and sad state that our world is in.”, clarifies band’s front man Mohamed Melki. After quite a few months of preparation, the band will hopefully be ready to release its upcoming full-length album “Skinless Agony” by July of this year, and it will comprise the following track: 1. Deconstruction 2. The mind that Emerged 3. Technological Genocide 4. Cacophony In The Creation 5. The singularity is near 6. Skinless Agony 7. Predestined Suicide 8. Obsession 9. Disbelief Grows After a great deal of trial and error spiked by some determined thorns on the road, the band has finally managed to make the recording of the album happen at the “Marsh Prod” studio in “La Marsa”, a suburb of capital city Tunis. The mixing of the tracks is outsourced to Poland, and will be done by the band’s contractor Widek. As for the album’s artwork, it will be done by Moroccan designer “H-Hich”. When the band recorded their EP “New Order of Intelligence” in 2012, they already had their preferred sound in mind - a mix of a rich atmosphere and the raw power of Death Metal – and they’re planning to establish their upcoming full-length as a good foundation for it. Lyrics of the album’s tracks are “intentionally ambiguous and obscure”, lying on the border between a world of Myths and Magic and a world of Science and Reason, with inspiration that comes from the band’s fascination with “the past, current and future state of [their] civilization and the place of Men in the Universe”, leading the listener through commonly thoughts of subjects while staying vague enough to enable them to come up with their own interpretation of what exactly the songs might be about. The band isn’t sure yet if they’ll be signed with a label by the time their album is released, but whether they will or not, let’s wish them the best of luck!
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Alpha.Kenny.Buddy
The Self titled EP by the U.A.E. based band ALPHA.KENNY.BUDDY, was released on the 17th of May, 2013, during the Alternative Rock Festival hosted by Rock Nation Dubai. This EP consists of four tracks that definitely define the NuMetal/Alternative style of the band. The tracks were specially chosen also to address a certain message of rage from the band to society. The EP was recorded/Mixed and mastered by Shahin Mohammadi. And after all the time and hard work that was spent to finalize this EP, we can simply say this album is really worth listening to, it is groovy, heavy and juicy, a really professional work. So don’t hesitate to check the EP that is uploaded on Reverbnation for free online streaming. http://www.reverbnation.com/alpha kennybuddy
Chalice Of Doom Shaheed released
Released on May 7th,2013 on YouTube, Shaheed ()ﺷﻬﻴﺪ, the Arabic word for “Martyr”, is the first single from CHALICE OF DOOM’s upcoming full-length album "Into Hypnagogia".
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The album that is set to be out in the market on June 2013 by the Spanish Doom Metal label MEMENTO MORI. The band dedicated the song to “all those who've lost their spirits for the sake of peace during the last events in the Middle East / during the war against injustice." Music, Lyrics, mixing and mastering were done by Azmo Lozmodial. The album artwork was designed by the famous Polish horror and gore designer Nagrobek.
Wasted Land’s Wasted Land
The Saudi Melodic Death Metal Band WASTED LAND has released their debut self-titled albumon the 3rd of April, 2013, only in its digital form on the most famous digital stores such as iTunes Amazonmp3, and Spotify. “We are planning to release a physical one soon”. The artwork was designed by Niklas Sundinthe guitarist of the Swedish Death Metal Band DARK TRANQUILLITY, while the logo was made by Elias Tsatsaris. The album was recorded in Libra Studios - Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and was mixed and mastered by Diya Azzoni, the guitarist from their Saudi colleagues GRIEVING AGE. The album took the band a long 7 years to be completed and finished, due to “lack of studios and sound engineers for example who's into metal music in general” among many other factors. The album is a completion of a demo that was released back in 2005 entitled "The Beginning", it was a 5 track demo on which the band re-recorded these tracks and added 4 new tracks to it. Hence the birth of their self-titled album "Wasted Land".
Bader Nana’s Return with Anthology
Anthems Of Isolation After the release of his first debut album in 2010, Wormwood; the Lebanese musician BADER NANA has returned with Anthology, his second album, after 3 years of absence. Maybe this absence is due to the fact that the artist wanted to go for something a bit different this time “something darker, progressive, heavy but still soaked with layers and melodies all around”. These were his words about his work. Personal and fictional tales have inspired him for this album, which features 8 songs that show the artist achieved what he set out to do when he intended to create something different from Anthology. To get this result he personally took full charge of the instruments. Some of you might hear his influences when listening to the album, influences such as Dream Theater and Symphony X who have left their mark on the artist. To keep up with Bader Nana’s news check out his Bandcamp, Facebook page, YouTube, Twitter, and Blog.
An Algerian Memory
Promoting their upcoming EP “Chains of Memory”, RiverGate the Algerian Progressive band released on YouTube, on May 14th, 2013; their first single, “Tears of the Machine “, that featured Amine Acyl from the band Acyl as a guest Vocalist, as well as playing on two of the traditional Algerian instruments Bendir & Karkabou, giving the song an amazing Algerian feel around the middle of the song.
After releasing their demo "Once... I Lived", in the summer of 2012, through the French label Le Crepuscule Du Soir, the Iraqi Funeral Doom/Drone Metal band ANTHEMS OF ISOLATION has released its new EP entitled "Illusions" on mediafire.com for free download. All the music has been arranged by Lord Erragal while the lyrics and the vocal were done by Karam Endzeit.
A Middle Eastern Black Metal Gathering
AL MAWTIN AL-ASWAD Released on the 10th of June, a compilation album entitled “Arabian Inheritance” of 17 tracks. Gathering several Black Metal bands from 8 Middle Eastern countries. Bands featured are EULEN, ODIOUS, IMMORTAL SETH, SMOULDERING IN FORGOTTEN, LAGRIMA, LAXSID, AL-LAT, AJRIS, DARK PHILOSOPHY, HATECROWNED, QAFAS, DESPAIR, ORDUM, RAVEN LEGACY, ABIDETHEREIN, FLAGELLATION, ZATREON. Each band is putting its own touch with one track, and the best thing is: this album is FREE TO DOWNLOAD through mediafire.com. This compilation is a proof that the Arabian community has its own place in the Black Metal world.
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Absolace
They Are and They Will
Themed around the concept of chaos theory, "Fractals" the sophomore album of Absolace, that was released last year considered as a landmark and a successful turning point for the band, is now being promoted by the band's first video ever "I AM so I WILL". “I live only one time so why must I waste my life?” The song pulls you in with this sentence, and as you hear the bass and drums louder you involuntarily start bobbing your head to their beat. Like a marching song or an anthem, the song continues its pull on you with the guitar jumping in every once in a while. Your Heartbeat matches the rhythm. Anyone and everyone can identify with this song, we all have one kind of chain or another we want to break free from. “It’s my life”: a subject a lot of artists have sung about before Absolace takes it a step further, tells you that not only it’s our life but that we should live it fully freely, diving and immersing into life of our own free will. It is our decision what we want of our lives, and we should make that decision. You continue your journey with the bass and the drums until you reach this semi psychedelic state, you are floating with the beat in the background, the marching song; and then abruptly you wake up, a bit lost. The ending is too sudden and quick. Unexpected; you are left a bit dazed; it could have
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gone on for a little bit longer, Song review: Maggie Varbedian with a smoother finish where Video Review: Eddy hanna you are gently put down back on Earth. The song has a enriches the song with the familiarity, you feel like you music's dazed mood. The video motion is know it already. It is neither shaky nor static, yet personal. Initially, the video it is coherent with the moveportrays the song's intimate ments of the musicians which feel as the singer is are synchronized not only surrounded by only with each other but also with darkness, and it moves with the music itself. This is indeed respect to the song as the a sign of precision, grit, and photography. drummer comes to view professional when the drums kick in. This Similarly, the facial and instrudarkness elevates to a mental close-ups successfully slightly brighter background provide an additional sense of with optimized lighting visual accentuation to the effects to the song's progres- mood expressed by the sion from its introduction. singer and musicians. MoreoNot a poor effect as the ver, the montage conserves music itself expresses a the musicians' choreography. need of liberation from dark The fact that all these factors confines. The room, generally are in sync, illustrates the dark, with its brighter, more purity of what this band does saturated and colored back- not fail to portray. Personally, I find this ground walls on which the lyrics appears as they are music video as expressive sang successfully generates and attractive as the song's emotional a rather echoing emphasis provocative of the singer's confined senti- essence. The post-production ments, in addition to the light effects of this video, once shed on part of the musi- again, leave no doubt that it cians’ faces as they play. was not made on low budget Occasionally, with close up and was enriched with profeson the vocals, the back- sionalism and quality. ground appears as a follow absolace on their facebook page: hypnotic rotating circular or www.facebook.com/absolace rectangular pattern, an and on their website: effect which indeed www.absolace.com
We rockers and metal heads, as being humans support any army that defends its country and its citizens. And as Lebanese rockers and Metal heads we support our Lebanese army and we salute them, specially our fallen soldiers in the recent tragic events. Our condolences go to their families, may their souls rest in peace, and may God protect the Lebanese army and Lebanon from every harm.
interview with
Being one of the most known and achieving progressive metal bands in the Arab world and after opening for Avenged Sevenfold last year, ANURYZM headlined Dubai Rock Fest supporting big names such as Yngwie Malmsteen, EPICA and Dark Tranquillity. Before the concert Chady Khairallah dropped an interview with the band’s vocalist Nadeem Bibby. 1. Hello ANURYZM and thank you for giving us at Metal Bell the chance to ask you a few questions. Nadeem: Hi Chady, it’s our pleasure, thanks for your time. 2. What was your reaction when you knew about your participation in DRF? Nadeem: I was happy because we’ve kinda’ve been laying low working on our new album, the follow up to 2011’s “Worms Eye View”and I’m getting quite antsy and wanted to do a show, so perfect timing. 3. After opening for A7X last year, do you still feel nervous that you are performing on a grand stage among legendary names such as Yngwie Malmestein, Epica and Dark Tranquility? Nadeem: Not really, it’s quite hard to play our music. At least it’s challenging for me so I’m more focused on my performance
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onstage. People deserve the best ANURYZM that they came and paid to see. Probably after our set, I’ll feel the festival atmosphere and go say hi to everyone etc… 4. We know that it is a mission impossible to get sponsors for rock/metal bands in middle east, do you think that these kind of events will open the eyes of the sponsors to help rising, talented and local bands such as ANURYZM? Nadeem: I guess, I hope so. Some metal and rock bands work hard
Chady Khairallah and are easy to deal with so it’s definitely worthwhile for sponsors to help bands out. I would love to get sponsored by unconventional brands like a potato chip company or whatever, maybe a martial arts clothing co. 5. You mentioned in a previous interview for"metalityuae.com" that the financial burdens and your full time jobs forbade you from going into international festivals. But don't you think that the exposure you might get from those festivals that you turned down, could bring more attention to your band through international magazines like (Metal Hammer, Terrorizer)which will give you a bigger chance to get sponsors and put your music as your all-time career? Nadeem: You gotta pick and choose your battles my friend, not all festivals offer any kind of
support towards flights, backline, accommodation etc….. Although I must say it was awesome of GRASPOP to add us to their band database without us even fucking knowing! I guess our music is slowly reaching the right people. It was also really nice to be featured in Metal Hammer and Terrorizer on more than one occasion.
6. After DRF is over, what's the next step for ANURYZM? Any plans for a tour? Nadeem: Maybe one more special show this year but nothing else, we are trying to get that new record out there. I don’t see any kind of tour in support of it till 2014 7. When will your next performance in Lebanon be and when will we be able to enjoy listening to ANURYZM tunes in Lebanon? Nadeem: I can’t wait to play in Lebanon, any venue, any slot, and any time. My mom is Lebanese and I’ve visited Lebanon a few short times, awesome country, awesome food, super fine honeys, cool people who like to kick it. I’m excited; I just hope that all that political bullshit chills out. Give Lebanon back to the Lebanese, fuck divisionary tactics. 8. Any news about your next album? Nadeem: I would like to tell you more, but I simply can’t right now.
10 tracks is a lot more linear than “WEV” darker in themes but also uplifting. I think John said it best when he said it was the natural progression of the signature Anu sound. By all means stay tuned to our websites for updates. 9. Martin Lopez (drummer of: Soen, Opeth,AmonAmarth), Uridijk (keyboadist of: Textures and Etheral) were your collaborator artists in your debut album.... are there any new international artists on your mind for the next album? Nadeem: Maaaaaaybe
10. What defers Anuryzm from any other progressive metal band worldwide? Nadeem: From the angle of hard work and continuous self-improvement, we are exactly the same as any other hard working person/musician/band on the planet. The most important difference is that we make music that can be categorized in a lot of different ways including progressive metal and rock, but let’s be honest, the term “Progressive” gets tossed around a lot nowadays. 11. In a band you have ups and downs, funny moments. Can you tell us about them? Nadeem: I’ve known John all my life, and we still fight like kids all the time.
It’s so annoying, but at the end of the day we work really well musically and he is my bro. I once took a cab (didn’t have a driver’s license) at the time to the rehearsal spot with a baseball bat to bash John’s head in, but when he came outside looking all tough, we both burst out laughing and went inside to jam. That was around 1998 I think. 12. Before hitting the grand stage of Dubai on the 7th of June, what would you like to say to your fans and our readers. Nadeem: I wanna say thanks for all the support and for this nice interview. I hope you guys check us out either online or at our shows. We never half ass anything and we work really hard, so if you are a fan we think you’ll really enjoy our next album coming soon!
stay connected with the band through:
www.anuryzm.com
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International News JASON NEWSTED Knocked Offstage In New York City After releasing his first EP entitled “Metal” for his new band named “NEWSTED” after his last name, Jason former Metallica and OzzyOsbourne’s bandbassistwent out on a US tour to promote his album. While performing onstage at Highline Ballroom in NYC, on May 21st during a rendition of “whiplash”, an overexcited fan seemingly thought it was cool to do a stage dive and include Jason in it. Jason was knocked off stage, and could have been seriously injured. Security helped him get back up to continue his performance. He was unharmed, but a bit disoriented. It took him a few minutes to get back to the reality of continuing the concert, with the concert goers screaming at the “diver” and calling out Jason’s name in encouragement. The “overexcited” fan was escorted out of the venue by security while Jason replacing his ear monitor, knocked out by the fall addressed the crowd and jokingly said "You know, no matter how many shows I've done, that just happened for the first time. I trust my brothers here to take care of it. Anyone get a good look at that motherf---er? Don't kill him - just bruise him up a bit." Proving Freddy mercury was right when he sang the show must go on, Jason continued his performance.
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Carcass new LP With Nuclear Blast Surgical Steel is Grindcore/death metal legends, CARCASS’ first studio LP since 1996’s Swansong. For this comeback album they signed with Nuclear Blast. In their statement Carcass said “we are pleased to announce that we have found the perfect home for ‘surgical Steel’”… they also thanked Nuclear Blast owner and founder Markus Staiger for his enthusiasm and belief in what he heard. As far as Markus Staiger, he mentioned: “one of my all time favorite UK Metal Bands signed recently to Nuclear Blast, it feels like a dream come true.” Two weeks into mixing the project’s producer, Collin Richardson, quit the project, and the CD was mixed by Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Accept, Exodus, testament) it is due in stores this fall, excluding Japan. RIP Ray Manzarek
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Ray Manzarek was the reason The Doors survived and were living legends, now The Doors will be just that: A legend. The devotion and persistence of the deceased Doors keyboards player, kept the band going and at the beginning of this century the band regrouped and performed. To document the life of The Doors and Jim Morrison, Manzarek worked closely with Oliver Stone in the beginning stages of the film, “The Doors”. After receiving news about Ray’s death due to Bile Duct cancer that he fought over the years, Robby Krieger, Doors guitarist, said in a statement “I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of my friend and band mate Ray Manzarek today, I’m just glad to have been able to have played Doors songs with him for the last decade. Ray was a huge part of my life and I will always miss him.” John Densmore, Doors Drummer, said as well “There was no keyboard player on the planet more appropriate to support Jim Morrison’s words, Ray, I felt totally in sync with you musically. It was like we were of one mind, holding down the foundation for Robby and Jim to float on top of. I will miss my musical brother.” Many more tweeted how much Ray Manzarek had meant to them and had influenced them.
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Guitarist Allen West and Meth Former Obituary, Six Feet Under and Massacre guitarist Allen West was arrested for methamphetamine production and possession. West, currently in jail has had problems with alcohol abuse over the years, and in 2007 was arrested and imprisoned after his DUI offense.After he called 911 to report that two males broke into his house, the responding deputies noticed a strong acidic odor coming from the bedroom. They discovered items commonly used in the manufacturing of methamphetamine.West’s residence was searched by the Special Investigation Squad. The lab for producing methamphetamine was dismantled and West was held on $40,000 bond.
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As I Lay Dying member arrested and accused of attempted murder Tim Lambesis, As I Lay Dying frontman, was arrested for trying to have his estranged wife killed. He has pleaded not guilty, and faces up to nine years in prison if convicted. If he posts bail, he will have to surrender his passport and wear GPS device. He was also ordered to stay away from his wife, and their three children. Several of Lambesis’ family members, friends, and some of his bandmates, appeared at the hearing. Many of them submitted letters to the judge showing their support of Tim. It is said a recording exists of Lambesis giving cash and information, and requesting his wife be killed while he is with their children. Also that he had extramarital affairs and emailed his wife to tell her he had fallen out of love with her and that he had stopped believing in God. As I Lay Dying has released a statement saying: “To our fans, as we post this, the legal process is taking its course and we have no more information than you do. There are many unanswered questions, and the situation will become clearer in the coming days and weeks. We’ll keep you informed as best as we can. Our thoughts, right now, are with Tim, his family, and everyone affected by this terrible situation, and with our fans, whom we love and draw strength form. Thank you for understanding, and as always for your support of As I Lay Dying. Jordan, Nick, Phil, and Josh.”
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Steven Adler’s “sobriety” causes for tour to be postponed “Adler” the band was to be on tour this summer, but Steven Adler, former Guns ‘n’ Roses drummer checked into a rehab center to continue working on his sobriety.The band announced: “We regret to inform everyone that the Summer tour and European tour has been postponed. Steven has checked into an undisclosed rehabilitation center to continue working on his sobriety. We appreciate everyone’s support and understanding. We hope to make the dates up soon. Jacob BuntonAdler’s front man apologized to the fans and promoters for not doing the tour and said that Steven’s health was most important and that they will make it up to everyone when Steven recovers.Dates of the tour in the U.S. are being rescheduled for Fall.
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As I Lay Dying member arrested and accused of attempted murder Craig Gruber recently joined heavy metal band “Raven Lord” as their recording and touring bass player.Gruber posted on Facebook “Great news today! I’m signing on with ESP Guitars for the Summer Festivals and the 2013/2014 Raven Lord World Tour. I’m playing the black LTD Thunderbird 1004!! The RAINBOW shines on.” In Rock N Growl Promotions news, they said that new bass player Craig Gruber has been endorsed by ESP Guitars.The band is confirmed for R Mine Metalfest 2013 and is scheduled to play main stage on Saturday the 22nd of June 2013. Summer shows will be announced soon.
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international releases Artist: Bring Me The Horizon Album: Sempiternal Release date: April 1st, 2013 Length: 44:11 Style: Metalcore. post rock Label: RCA Records
Artist: Killswitch Engage Album: Disarm the Descent Release date: April 2nd , 2013 Length: 40:40 Style: Metalcore Label: Roadrunner Records
Artist: Ghost Album: Infestissumam Release date: April 5th, 2013 Length: 47:47 Style: Heavy Metal, Doom Metal Label: Loma Vista Records
Artist: Volbeat Album: Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies Release date: April 9th, 2013 Length: 58:29 Style: Rock Label: Vertigo, Universal
Artist: Phoenix Album: Bankrupt! Release date: April 19th, 2013 Length: 40:35 Style: Alternative Rock Label: Glassnote
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Artist: Rob Zombie Album: Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor Release date: April 23rd, 2013 Length: 38:45 Style: Alternative Metal Label: Zodiac Swan Records, T-Boy Records, Universal Music Enterprises
Artist: HIM Album: Tears on Tape Release date: April 26th, 2013 Length: 40:56 Style: Rock Label: DoubleCross (UK( ( Razor & Tie(USA), Universal (EU
Artist: Deep Purple Album: Now What?! Release date: April 26th, 2013 Length: 60:04 Style: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal Label: earMusic (UK, part of Edel Group),Edel (Germany)
Artist: Rob Stewart Album: Time Release date: May 3rd, 2013 Length: 50:10 Style: Rock Label: Capitol records
Artist: Hugh Laurie Album: Didn't It Rain Release date: May 6th, 2013 Length: 56:26 Style: Blues Label: Warner Bros.
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Artist: Joe Satriani Album: Unstoppable Momentum Release date: May 7th, 2013 Length: 44:58 Style: Instrumental Rock Label: Epic Records
Artist: Escape the Fate Album: Ungrateful Release date: May 14th, 2013 Length: 39:36 Style: Metalcore Label: Eleven Seven Music
Artist: 30 Seconds to Mars Album: Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams Release date: May 17th, 2013 Length: 44:50 Style: Experimental Rock Label: Virgin, Universal
Artist: Alice in Chains Album: The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here Release date: May 28th, 2013 Length: 67:16 Style: Alternative Metal Label: Capitol Records
Artist: Children Of Bodom Album: Halo of Blood Release date: May 28th, 2013 Length: 41:40 Style: Melodic Death Metal Label: Nuclear Blast
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Artist: Megadeth Album: Super Collider Release date: June 4th, 2013 Length: 45:14 Style: Thrash Metal Label: Tradecraft
Artist: George Benson Album: Inspiration: A Tribute to Nat King Cole Release date: June 4th, 2013 Length: 40:50 Style: Jazz Label: Concord Jazz
Artist: Barenaked Ladies Album: Grinning Streak Release date: June 4th,2013 Length: 44:46 Style: Alternative Rock Label: Vanguard Records
Artist: Black Sabbath Album: 13 Release date: June 10th, 2013 Length: 53:18 Style: Heavy Metal Label: Vertigo, Universal
Artist: Skillet Album: Rise Release date: June 25th, 2013 Length: 48:11 Style: Christian Rock Label: Word, Atlantic
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