MetalTalk Issue 1. May 2021

METALTALK WE PU BL IS H RO C K ‘N ’ RO L L • Vo lum e 1 • Num be r 1 • M a y 2 0 2 1 • £ 1 . 9 9

CANNIBAL CORPSE THE BEST SELLING DEATH METAL BAND of the Billboard Soundscan Era

+ GEORGE LYNCH:

“the best that dokken ever was, was on the aerosmith tour”

INTERVIEW: ALEX WEBSTER GARY MOORE• CONEY HATCH • doogie white • BLIND RIVER • the PINEAPPLE THIEF THE END MACHINE • THE TREATMENT • arielle • Marie Rottrová VOODOO BLOO • ANNEKE VAN GIERSBERGEN • MICHAEL SCHENKER • evergrey

METALTALK • MAY 2021

METALTALk Number 1 • may 2021 • Price: £1.99

METALTALK www.metaltalk.net

CONTENTS

editor: steve ritchie steveritchie@metaltalk.net management team: pete wilmott p.wilmot@btconnect.com ian sutherland iansutherland@metaltalk.net

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Steve Göldby stevegoldby@metaltalk.net Design: steve ritchie Advertising / marketing: editor@metaltalk.net GIGS: gigs@metaltalk.net Website: www.metaltalk.net this issue: Robert Adams Brian Boyle Mick Burgess Johnny Churchill Kahmel Farahani Jools Green Sara Harding John Inglis Sid Kissinger Brandon Metallicast Paul Monkhouse Sally Newhouse Miriam Ritchie Steve Ritchie Mark Rotherham Ian Sutherland Robert Sutton MetalTalk ISSN 2754-0480 71 Somers Road Welham Green AL9 7PT

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4 Alex Webster, CANNIBAL CORPSE 7 Jeff Plate 8 GEORGE LYNCH 10 Cony Hatch 13 ARIELLE 14 Doogie White 16 Anneke Van Giersbergen 18 The Treatment 20 Tom Englund 26 Album Reviews 32 Blind River 34 Ripping off Black Sabbath 36 The Pineapple Thief 38 Def Leppard - The McGonagles story 41 11 Questions 42 Gary Moore 45 Memories from the pit 46 Michael Schenker

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METALTALK • MAY 2021 PHOTO: ROBERT SUTTON

14 - doogie white

Welcome to the first edition of the MetalTalk Magazine. We’ve packed it to the rafters with interviews, features and reviews from a wide mix of bands and artists, old and new, across the Rock and Metal spectrum.

It is an exciting time to launch a new magazine, with a real feeling of positivity in the air around the UK gigs and live music scene, as a result of the successful vaccine rollout.

We are looking forward to better times ahead and are already earmarking our spots at gigs and festivals across the UK over the coming months! All of which will be covered in depth at MetalTalk.net and right here.

You can also find us on Apple News, Flipboard and the Google News app.

We are already the UK’s leading independent Rock and Metal publisher, but we are keen to continue our growth both domestically and worldwide. We are always on the lookout for talented writers, especially outside of London and around the Midlands area - home to the awesome KK’s Steel Mill - one of our favourite new venues.

If you’re interested in contributing to MetalTalk, please contact me with details of where you are based, your musical interests and hopefully we can welcome you to the team.

Here’s to better Metal times ahead. steve ritchie 3

METALTALK • MAY 2021

CANNIBAL CORPSE

ALEX WEBSTER Since their 1990 debut album ‘Eaten Back To Life’, Cannibal Corpse haVE been at the forefront of the Death Metal scene as true innovators, who have become the best selling Death Metal band of the Billboard Soundscan Era in the process.

Now in 2021, their brutal legacy continues to grow with the release of their fifteenth studio album VIOLENCE UNIMAGINED. On 16 April, the band released their fifteenth studio album Violence Unimagined via Metal Blade Records.

MetalTalk spoke to Alex Webster, cofounding member, songwriter and bassist for the legendary band about the making of the album.

MetalTalk: I am curious if you have a general process that you follow when writing songs with each album, or is it different depending on the situation?

Alex Webster: You know, lately it has been kind of the same the past two or three albums, where I get an idea “ok, I am going to write four songs for this album”, and each of these have to be different.

How can I make them different from one another? So I’ll start out by picking a tempo, usually just to kind of break the ice with the writing. Maybe 200 BPM or something, and then pick a scale I might want to start with the riff, and then pick a rhythmic idea.

Maybe the song will be in 5/4 instead of 4/4, something like that and just

kind of dig into that way.

So if that all works out, I’ll have a song written in a few weeks or whatever, and when it’s time for the next one, I’ll be sure to not use the same tempo, rhythm or scale, with the goal being to make sure that my songs that I contribute to the album are quite different from each other.

I feel like that is a key thing in making a great album, is having each song be pretty different.

Obviously, the lyrics and imagery are a big part of Death Metal in general and you are a big horror movie fan.

Were there any specific movies or anything that inspired the lyrics that you wrote?

Or is it just at this point, you have this well of movie knowledge and inspiration from other sources, that you are just sort of “well that sounds cool”?

Yeah, it is more that actually. A lot of times I will start writing something, come up with an idea and about half4

way through I will sort of remember, “oh this is kind of like this movie”.

Like for example, Surround, Kill, Devour.

I started writing that, and actually part of the inspiration for that was a pretty well publicized news story from last year. Some wolves actually surrounded an elk and ate it up at a national park.

Just the idea that teamwork, the song is not about wolves [laughs], it is about human cannibals. But just the idea of that very primitive but effective teamwork that wolves and other animals utilize. That was the inspiration for that song.

So there was that little element, “ok, this is going to be about some postapocalyptic cannibals hunting people”.

And it occurred to me while I was writing that this is kind of like The Road too.

Inspiration is not always as direct as would be assumed, I guess.

I don’t remember ever sitting down and being like “I’m going to write a song about this movie.” It has never been like that for me. There is, you know,

METALTALK • MAY 2021

CANNIBAL CORPSE

“I CANNOT OVERSTATE HOW IMPORTANT VINCE LOCKE HAS BEEN. He DEFINED HOW OUR BAND IS PRESENTED VISUALLY.” 5

METALTALK • MAY 2021 ‘influence soup’ in my head like every other artist and musician has, I guess, various different things from, sometimes, some fairly unlikely places add up to the direction you end up taking in a song.

And to tie in with the imagery, of course, are the album covers which are always very visually striking, memorable and sometimes controversial.

Vince Locke, the artist, has done the album cover for each one. I am curious to find out where the concept of Violence Unimagined came from.

Does the band play any role in the concept of the album cover or is it just sort of like “here is the title, what have you got?”

It is usually “here is the title, what have you got!” That is how it has been most of the time.

There have been a couple times where we went to Vince and we actually had a little bit of a concept or a rough idea and told him to try and come up with something coming from that direction, you know, the direction we gave him.

But we found the best way is to just let him loose and do his own thing, because he is a very creative person.

He gets gore and he gets what our band is about. You know, cannot overstate how important Vince has been for the visual presentation of Cannibal Corpse.

I mean, he is our artist. He really has defined how our band is presented visually. Like the albums, the merchandise and all things like that. It has just been perfect. It has been a perfect combination.

Now obviously with COVID-19 it changes plans when the album comes out. Normally I am sure you would launch the tour and that is not a possibility, at least immediately following the release of the album.

Has there been any talks in the band about any other ideas, in terms of maybe a one-off performance, or a live stream, or any other kind of virtual fan events?

We will see, maybe a livestream later this year. Me being over here on the other side of the country of course, creates a situation that we have to con-

6

sider, safety wise with travel and everything.

But I would think by the fall, it would be good to go for a livestream at the very least.

And hopefully, things start to get a little bit closer to normal by that time. We would like to be able to tour by 2022, but a livestream is something that we are looking into.

It is not our first choice, you know, we really just want to get back in the clubs and start playing. That is what we want to do, as do literally tens of thousands of other bands.

It will come back. It is just a matter of time. We just have to wait and do it in the safest, most responsible way possible.

So probably no live shows this year, other than maybe a livestream later in the year and then hopefully in 2022 things can start going again. We will see.

• BRANDON METALLICAST

jeff plate - alta reign

STORYOFTHEBAND

Best known as skinsman for Trans Siberian Orchestra, Savatage and Metal Church, Jeff Plate has carved a name for himself as one of the best, hardest hitting and most versatile drummers on the scene.

TSO East and TSO West performing at the same time” Jeff says. “My part was pretty simple, just playing the drums, but the technical aspect for our crew, was just amazing. We pulled it off and I was just so proud of Paul – he put in so much time and energy and money. He pulled it off.

With his new project Alta Reign, they have just released the superb album ‘Mother’s Day’. The album sees a mix of influences come to play, taking it from the big, classic AOR of opener ‘Shine’, through to the Power Metal of ‘Witness’ and beyond into touches of Prog.

“The idea of Alta Reign started many years ago when I was working with Zak Stevens, so it all began back in Boston in the late 80s. Years later there was a lot of material that had not been used.” Jeff told Kahmel Farahani for Episode 32 of MTTV. “I was a nervous because it was my first time leading a project and I am usually just the drummer! [laughs]. So we just built on riffs but the majority is all original music. The members of my band all stepped up and did a fantastic job.”

On joining Savatage Jeff says “It was

very exciting for me. I had known Zak Stevens in Boston and he left to join Savatage which was an awesome move for him. Tragically Criss Oliva died in a car accident in 1993 and I called Zak at the start of 1994 just to see how he was.

“He said Savatage was going to continue and the band liked the demos they had heard of what we had done in Boston and said they want to hire this guy. It blew me away – it was such a thrill to join Savatage.”

Regarding the Trans-Siberian Orchestra project Jeff says “Suddenly we had a hit song with ‘Christmas Eve Sarajevo’, and the bigger TSO got, the more time was needed to be focused on that. Savatage became secondary.

“TSO has become such a phenomenon over the years. It has been 20 years and I have been there for every note of it, and somehow it still gets bigger and better every year. It is just amazing and I always say I have the best seat in the house!”

Savatage and TSO performed a comeback show at Wacken 2015. “Paul O’Neill had always wanted to have 7

“When we finished that show we were thrilled but also relieved, because if any one thing had gone wrong it would have wrecked the whole thing. Paul was just so happy and I was so happy for him.”

• KAHMEL FARAHANI

PHOTO: JDPWORKS

METALTALK • MAY 2021

METALTALK • MAY 2021

THE END MACHINE

GEORGE LY Known as one of the greatest guitar players of the last four decades, George Lynch’s work in Dokken, Lynch Mob and The End Machine has captivated listeners around the world.

The guitar legend spoke to MetalTalk’s Kahmel Farahani about The End Machine’s new album Phase 2, his approach to writing music, his relationship with Don Dokken as well as his upcoming projects.

The End Machine is one of Lynch’s most exciting projects, featuring former Dokken bassist and songwriter Jeff Pilson as well as former Lynch Mob vocalist Robert Mason.

George says about the nature of the band and writing their 2nd album “The first record was a little bluesier, a little more 70’s influenced, but there was not this focused commonality throughout the last album.

“We decided to tighten all that up and make it more focused on the hooks this time. At some point you have got to give the people what they want.

“I mean musicians always want to experiment and expand their horizons and that is all well and good, but I think you have an obligation and responsibility to serve the people that have served you so well and allowed you to do what you do. We made a concerted effort to do that on this record.

“I just sit at home and practice and when I get an idea it goes on my phone and I have got hundreds of ideas saved and those all become songs.

“In the 70s I would use a cassette and

in the 80s a Sony Walkman, so it was just different methods of recording those ideas, but the process was the same.

“I was talking to Jeff [Pilson] about this and saying ‘why can’t we be like real songwriters in Nashville?’ (laughs).

“They write the melody first, not the guitar. Just put the guitar away. Maybe the argument is if it’s not broke don’t fix it. Do what you do well instead of doing what somebody else does badly.”

Lynch also told us about the highs and lows of his time with Dokken, a tenure 8

that has now passed into rock’n’roll history.

“it felt like we were ready to be a headliner. that was what we had been working towards for eight years.”

METALTALK • MAY 2021

THE ENDMACHINE

YNCH

“We were billed above Metallica, who had not quite gone over the edge yet.

The thing that I will never understand about the management, that tour and that band, was that they, in their insane thinking, called a meeting days before the tour started and informed us that Don was going to be breaking the band up and then hiring us as musicians.

“If we did not agree to that he was just going to leave and keep the name and kick us out. That was literally days before the tour started!

“Back then I operated out of a sense of commitment, that we built this thing as a family and a band of brothers.

That was really the struggle between Don and I. “Don used people as best he could, and I am not saying it in a derogatory way, and we succeeded because of him and that mentality, the way he used the world.

“I think the best that Dokken ever was, was on the Aerosmith tour [1987]” he says.

“We were trying to beat a headliner and we had been on the road for so many years everything was clicking and firing on all pistons.

“That was our peak, I think. It felt like we were ready to be a headliner and that was what we had been working towards for eight years.

“That was the last tour of its kind really [Monsters of Rock ‘88]. Kind of an end of an era, although nobody knew it at the time.

“He is able to do things that I personally could not do. I don’t know if I could live with myself, but for better or worse I cannot say, but we benefited from it.

“But it was a double-edged sword and it worked against us. We all contribute what we have to contribute, a rising tide floats all boats and we all win.

“We would have had the sense of having done it together and there is enough to go around. Don saw the writing on the wall and, with the manager’s help, decided he wanted the whole thing for himself.

“When you renegotiate your contract you want to come at it from a position of strength - now you are set for life.

“We all worked for that and we all earned that, we should have been in a really good place. Instead Don took that as ‘I’m going to take this all for myself and fuck these guys’.

“I had to go on stage every night knowing that. It depressed me and I kind of fell into drugs and alcohol and just went through the motions.

“I had some good shows, but maybe I was faking it to a certain extent. I was definitely dispirited.

“All this for this, and now I have to put on a face? I am a ‘wear my heart on my sleeve’ kind of guy and it was difficult to do. We were self-destructive”.

George Lynch also spoke briefly about his upcoming projects to look out for.

“We are writing the fourth KXM record right now and in the fall I start working on the third Sweet & Lynch record” he says.

“Then I have got a solo instrumental record called Seamless coming out this summer and I have got this industrial project that I have been working on for years called The Banishment with Tommy Victor from Prong. There are a lot of things in the pipeline.”

• KAHMEL FARAHANI 9

METALTALK • MAY 2021

interview

coney hatch Canadian Rockers Coney Hatch played their first internet gig last year at the legendary El Mocambo in Toronto.

Releasing three albums in the 80s, the band were on the fast track to success, including forty appearances on Iron Maiden’s Piece Of Mind tour and slots with Judas Priest.

They were hotly tipped to be the next big band from Canada and secured a deal with the same record label that signed Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.

Problems during the mid-80s saw the band collapse and it took Carl Dixon’s recovery from a bad car accident to spearhead a reunion. This saw the release of the album ‘Four’ in 2013, with several live dates in the intervening years.

MetalTalk spoke with Andy Curran about the band’s impressive early history, its collapse and how time heals all wounds.

At the time when you were at your peak, in the mid-80s, on the journey to that point there were a few other great Canadian bands around and you were up there with the best.

Was it a competitive scene?

Especially in the early 80s the noises around the band seemed to be so positive.

The scene was really thriving and I don’t think we ever felt it was competitive because we had a really good following and built a fan base with relentless touring. So we never really looked over our shoulder.

Carl found an itinerary from 1983 and we played 120 shows that year, so there was no time to even won-

“Priest were a machine. amazing every night. there was not a bad show for them” 10

der who was chasing us. We just kept ploughing on. Bands like Anvil, Sheriff, Helix, Goddo, Killer Dwarfs and Brighton Rock, these guys were our friends and we were happy for their success and, I think, vice versa.

How was the Piece Of Mind support tour in ‘83? Maiden were building up a lot of steam. Do you have fond memories of that time? Any special stories?

That was an incredible tour to be on.

Maiden were peaking at that time and they treated us so well. I think we played 30+ shows with them and became fast friends, with lots of extracurricular social hanging after the shows.

Days off, tennis games, drinking late into the night. Silly British humour fun stuff. I love those guys and still hang with them when they come to Toronto.

The very last show we did on the date, we had planned to pie them on stage during their set.

Our road manager warned us not to, so we left them in our dressing room and when we took to the stage the Maiden

METALTALK • MAY 2021

ANDY CURRAN

“The very last show we had planned to pie iron maiden on stage. it backfired on us big time!” guys found the pies and ended up assaulting us on stage with our own pies - filled with cat food. It backfired on us big time!

You did a Judas Priest tour too?

Yes. The year before Maiden in ‘82, we were special guest on the Screaming for Vengeance Tour, again playing close to 30 shows with them in Canada and the US. We quickly learned what it was like to have to earn your place on their stage; their fans were hard core and that tour made us a much better band.

Priest were a machine, amazing every night. There wasn’t a bad show for them, that I can recall. They were extremely polished and consistent, same with Maiden.

The album ‘Friction’ came out in ’85.

Dave Ketchum had left by this point.

Was that the album you were hoping was really going to smash the charts?

Perhaps, with hindsight, it could have been heavier?

There was a ton of label management pressure on that record. I was told to take a back seat and let Carl be ‘the voice’ and changing drummers completely changed the dynamics and chemistry of the band.

I wasn’t a happy boy and the sound had strayed so far from my vision on record number one. That’s what happens when you let your label and management dictate the rules for success.

andy curran: “Maybe we were just spoiled by how accommodating Priest and Maiden were.”

We were too young to realise it’s not something you can cook up on paper.

11

METALTALK • MAY 2021 You either have the right songs or you don’t and we certainly had some ‘friction’ going on within the band. That record led to the break up for sure.

Can you talk about what lead to the band finishing after ‘Friction’?

The tours we did with Accept and Krokus exposed some real big problems, with personalities in the band not jiving. When you’re with people 24/7 and the record wasn’t taking off, etc, so within the Hatch camp, the day to day was the exact opposite of the Maiden and Priest tours.

Accept were very kind to us and even though I was a Krokus fan back then, I have to say now they made zero attempt to socialise with us, which was a drag. Maybe we were just spoiled by how accommodating Priest and Maiden were.

Coney Hatch out to be special guests on the British Lion dates. He said let’s do it up like old times. It was a blast!

Sean, Kelly and Carl are old friends, and he is the young kid in the band.

It’s really nice to have that energy in the camp.

Steve Harris is legit a Coney fan and would watch our set most nights side stage. It was really flattering to see that.

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COLD STEEL ON THE ROCKS A day after their historic concert on the Caribbean island of St Clements, heavy metal band Cold Steel are heroes. Now, all they have to do is stay out of trouble and enjoy a wellearned holiday until they start work on their next album.

“time heals all wounds and it was like four brothers coming home.”

NATURE IS CALLING At any rate, things came to a boiling point on that tour and Carl announced he had had enough. I was fed up and didn’t try to stop him, so we just went our separate ways. It was strange.

It just fizzled out and there was no attempt from management or label to patch it back up, as I think everyone was on the same page to walk away.

Then, after a very long break and with the car crash which nearly killed Carl, as far as Coney Hatch is concerned, it was back together. Dave was back too. Was it better with less pressure, after the break?

Time heals all wounds, and it was like four brothers coming home. We rallied around Carl and supported him in his recovery and yes, there was zero pressure.

How do you see the band now? Is it a case of picking and choosing what and where you want to play?

Just to have fun with it and see where it takes you! We are weekend warriors, with no stress.

We all get along great and are lucky enough to have promoters in Canada and Europe invite us out to perform.

So we all feel lucky.

It’s like a paid holiday, minus the beach towels and sunscreen! Plus were not trying to change the world anymore.

Just to take people through the ’80s and back again. Remember - play loud!

It was all about the hang and the brotherhood, all the drama (or most of it) was gone!

• Steve ritchie

The album ‘Four’ was released in 2013. Sean Kelly joined for the tour, where you played with Harris’ British Lions. Was that Harris connection made because of the past?

Yes. As I mentioned, I’m still in touch with Steve and consider him one of my best friends. He called me to invite 12

With friends and enemies in the most unlikely places, events unfold in a way that could only ever happen to Cold Steel.

Available from all good booksellers

METALTALK • MAY 2021

ARIELLE DAVIDSTONE

Analog girl in a digital world If you have not come across Arielle yet, then you are in for a treat.

Her new album Analog Girl In A Digital World has been slowly drip-feeding spoilers online.

If you have not come across Arielle yet, then you are in for a treat. Her new album Analog Girl In A Digital World has been slowly drip-feeding spoilers online.

Analog Girl In A Digital World was written and recorded pre-COVID-19 and the irony of the world flicking over to digital to stay in touch is not lost on Arielle. “Yeah, it’s funny, when I wrote the album, it was pre-covid, so I did not see any of this coming, that’s for sure” she says.

However, when you hear about the details of the recording process and hear the result, we can all be pleased it happened before any lockdown.

The album was recorded part analog, part digital, with a lot of thought and time put into the details. “It’s pretty clean cut in terms of the analog/digital split, because I recorded it in two different studios” she says. “Digital World, Piece of Mind, Living in a Fortress were all analog and then the rest

were digital.

“It was supposed to be 100% analog and then a friend of mine who owns a studio in Austin said ‘Arielle, it’s not just analog’s the best way and you can’t replicate the energy and vibe from it, you have to understand it’s not just what platform you’re using, it’s also the who’s playing on it, how you record it, what you record it with’. I wanted him to prove me right - and he did!”

Listening to the songs, you would be hard pushed to determine which bits were which, and the attention to capturing the analog techniques and styles paid off.

She has released videos with some insight into the recording space, which offers a glimpse of how the magic happens.

Arielle told us “We used vintage gear; amps, guitars, and microphones and we recorded like people used to do without the crutches of digital. So all recorded in one take, very little over13

dubbing, no click track.

“We used digital technology in an analog way so we could still capture that sound, and it stayed very warm I think”.

‘Think’ is an understatement, as that is exactly what was managed to be harnessed here. The groove and togetherness of a band playing together, bringing the heart into a process which in the modern world can suffer from a cold digital feel at times. You can easily imagine how Arielle would sound live from these recordings, which again is not the case with every band you hear.

This is a phenomenal album with a warmth, professionalism and careful attention to detail and love that is greatly missed in the modern world.

“I take and protect those principles inside my music”, says Arielle, a true heroine of real sound.

Analog Girl In A Digital World is out 7 May. • SID KISSINGER

METALTALK • MAY 2021 PHOTO: ROBERT SUTTON

DOOGIE WHITE DAVIDSTONE

as yet untitled THE DOOGIE WHITE SOLO ALBUM ‘AS YET UNTITLED’ FIRST SAW THE LIGHT OF DAY IN 2011. WITH A RE-ISSUE FEATURING TWO NEW BONUS TRACKS AND A NEW WHOLE SECOND CD OF COVER VERSIONS, METALTALK FINDS DOOGIE STILL FIGHTING THE FIGHT AND PUTTING OUT AMAZING MUSIC. MetalTalk: As Yet Untitled is a re-issue, with benefits. I did not hear it the first time around, but I have now and really like it. But for those that are new to Doogie White, what can they expect from this release?

Doogie: It was released eleven years ago, after I left Yngwie’s band. Derek Sherinian suggested I did a solo album as I had a lot of songs lying around.

So I asked many of the friends I had made over the years of touring. Tony Carey did the keyboard intro to the opening track Come Taste the Band.

I wanted something like the beginning of Tarot Woman to kick the album off.

There were to be thirteen songs.

I asked Ritchie Blackmore and Yngwie to contribute but that did not work out.

The songs are all varied in style, all with different people, recorded over different times.

I wanted to get the Rainbow connection out of the way at the start of the album, which is what I did with the first track.

The rest of the album is an exploration with different writing partners, different rock musicians. I also added two new songs just for fun.

The album cover has DTW, I’m guessing it’s your initials. What does the T stand for?

Trustworthy or Trouble, I can be both. (laughs). It’s actually my Mother’s maiden name, Thomson. That’s a tradition in Scotland for the first born. The first track on the album is Come Taste the Band.

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You were in Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore was in Deep Purple, and Come Taste the Band was a Deep Purple album. Coincidence?

No, it was a deliberate thing. Come Taste the Band was the first Purple album I heard, back at the Motherwell church youth fellowship.

I would take in my Bowie album, which I had saved up for a month to buy. At the fellowship, there was badminton, table tennis, darts. The girls would listen to Donny Osmond, but the boys would bring in ELP, Bowie and Deep Purple.

Come Taste the Band came in and it was amazing, I loved the voices, and I soaked up all the Purple stuff. Years later when Ritchie phoned me up to audition for Rainbow, he needed something new from me, so I went away and wrote some songs with my old mate

METALTALK • MAY 2021 Alex Dickson. Come Taste the Band was one of them.

Ritchie knew it was the name of the Purple album he had not been on, and we also mimicked the mark four line up. He thought I was a cheeky young Scotsman and it worked, I got the job.

Much is made about the influence that Ritchie Blackmore had on Yngwie Malmsteen and his playing.

Having worked with both, do they have more similarities than differences, or the other way around?

They are completely different. Ritchie was an influence on Yngwie initially, on looks and performance. Especially with those things that, at the time, we could only imagine.

Back then, there were no concert videos or YouTube, you only had the odd photograph. Of course they both use Strats and Marshalls, but they are brilliant in completely different ways. Yngwie is an astounding player, in that neo-classical style he created.

UFO was never really on my turntable, a bit like Zeppelin. I grew to appreciate them later. I was into Purple and all the off-shoots: Whitesnake, Gillan, Rainbow, plus AC/DC, who I saw for 50p.

Van Halen, Sabbath, that was my kinda place.

When Blaze left and Bruce came back, I thought things had returned to their natural order.

What do you prefer, playing live or recording?

After Midnight Blue split, I was unemployed and back then you had to go to Re-Start at the dole office every 3-4 months.

I love the live stuff. I only record so I can get out and play live. This is the longest time since 1984 that I have not played a gig or been on a plane. And we are all in the same boat. I am looking forward to when we can do all that again.

Alcatrazz should tour in the late summer with Girlschool, I have also got an orchestral tour in Russia and Ukraine with Graham Bonnet, Uli Jon Roth and Marco Mendoza.

It will be great if it comes off, but it depends on the vaccine and people’s behaviour. So who knows?

There is a story that one time you were selling hot dogs at Hammersmith Odeon?

The woman at the dole office asked me what kind of work I was looking for. I said “entertainment”, so she got me the job at the Odeon selling hot dogs, popcorn and soft drinks.

I had to buy my own uniform with money I did not even have. I quit when Extreme or Mr Big were playing Hammersmith.

The Great British music press bought popcorn from me and then started lobbing the stuff at me, so I quit.

The next time I was there I was singing in Rainbow.

Neither him nor Ritchie hammer on or fake their notes. They both pick every string, as does Michael Schenker.

With the incredible list of musicians you have worked with, is there anyone missing that you want to work with?

They also had no booster effects, it is pretty much a guitar going through a delay and that was it. They get that sound through a bit of overdrive and delay and the magic in their fingers.

Earl Slick. He is a great guitar player. He was in Dirty White Boy. He is a magical player.

I remember playing on stage one time with a guitarist who had the biggest pedal board, bigger than a 56 inch TV!

How did you get to the audition with Iron Maiden? Are you in the running if Bruce ever gets a full-time job with British Airways?

It took up half the stage. And that’s all fair enough, and for them it works. But the guys like Angus Young, they just plug in and go for it.

In 1993 I was in Belgium recording an album and I got a phone call. A friend said “Bruce has left Maiden, you need to send in a tape.”

On the second CD, there is a lot of Nazareth and UFO. I’m getting that they were big influences on you?

I did, but I heard nothing for ages, then Dickie Bell, production manager for Maiden, turned up at my door and I had a weekend to learn 20 Maiden songs and audition.

Nazareth were the first band I ever saw, in ‘72 or ’73 and it was by mistake. My brother’s mate’s grandma thought Nazareth was a show about Jesus.

She saw their hairy faces in the Motherwell Times and panicked. We got her front row tickets and it was great.

I auditioned, I spoke with Steve Harris, they invited me back, but Blaze Bayley got the gig. He did a great job and they made two brilliant albums, but I felt that the sum of the two camps was not as good as the whole.

15

Also Tony Iommi. As a rule I don’t look for a gig if someone else has already got it, that is bad form.

Tony Iommi did call me just before Heaven and Hell got together. He said he had a bunch of songs but was not sure if he would do them with Ozzy Osbourne or Ronnie James Dio or someone else.

We chatted and he ended up doing Heaven and Hell with Ronnie, which was the right thing to do.

I have met him a few times since and we chatted, and then he went back and did the Sabbath thing.

I guess I missed my chance there, but that’s life.

• MARK ROTHERHAM

METALTALK • MAY 2021

Anneke van Giersbergen

STORYOFTHEBAND

The Darkest Skies virtual album release show From her beginnings as lead singer with The Gathering and their melancholic Metal sound, Anneke Van Giersbergen has seemingly effortlessly moved from solo acoustic shows to the sweeping, epic grandeur of The Gentle Storm with Arjen Lucassen, and from solo albums both upbeat and with darker edges, to adding colour and light to some of Devin Townsend’s work.

With the creation of progressive Metal outfit Vuur in 2017 and the successful album and extensive touring which followed, we could see the direction this hugely talented musician would be heading in for a while.

However financial pressures and personal issues put her in a more reflective frame of mind.

As an artist who invariably follows their inner muse, Vuur was put on hold and Anneke headed to a small house near her hometown of Eindhoven with an acoustic guitar and some basic recording equipment to write and record her feelings about the world and her place in it at the time.

The result was her latest solo album ‘The Darkest Skies Are The Brightest’, released 26th February this year. Of course Covid means that like the rest of the music world, the mercurial Ms van Giersbergen cannot pack her suitcase and head off around the world to promote the album, so the only option right now is an online event.

Billed as a virtual album release experience, this was more than the standard kind of live acoustic broadcast we music fans have got far too accustomed to see over the last year.

ALL the nuances of that gorgeous voice and her often overlooked acoustic guitar were there to be heard.

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There was a mixture of pre-recorded live acoustic songs and music videos, and a variety of tickets available, ranging from access to the broadcast for a few days, to bonus songs and even an online chat with the star herself.

A year of watching live music sitting in my living room has left me weary of the format, so I was a little nervous tuning in to the initial live broadcast to see if this was something that Anneke’s famous charisma could overcome. There was a short spoken intro and then we were straight into new tune ‘Soul Knows’.

Comfortably settled in a pretty, faux living room set, the stripped-down nature of this performance worked beautifully.

The sound was wonderfully well mixed so all the nuances of that gorgeous voice and her often overlooked acoustic guitar playing were there to be heard.

The format soon became clear that each song would be introduced with a quick screenshot of the title and presented almost as little vignettes. Each

METALTALK • MAY 2021

AnnekeVANGiersbergen of the new songs fitted the format well with the highlight of those being a version of ‘Losing You’ where she got backing from her sixteen-year-old son Finn. The look between them during his nicely executed solo was just joyful to see.

The other acoustic performances included tracks from her extensive back catalogue, like a marvellous ukulele backed rendition of The Gathering’s ‘Strange Machines’ and an unexpected rendition of ‘Mental Jungle’ from the ‘Drive’ album.

This talented lady can turn her hand to any kind of music it seems, so the enchanting cover of Audioslave’s ‘Like A Stone’ is something I have heard her do before, but King Crimson’s ‘Starless’ was a left turn I did not expect at all, and a fabulous turn it was. Stunning stuff.

Alongside the acoustic performances, videos of songs from ‘The Darkest Skies...’ were included, though I think only ‘The End’ was not already available to view on YouTube.

As this was a pre-recorded event, I saw that Anneke herself was able to interact with fans on the accompanying chat feature, which I thought was a nice touch.

The hour-long show finished with a spoken outro from our host. She is a brilliant exponent of the live acoustic performance, one of a rare breed who can hold your attention with just a guitar and a voice.

This event reached out through the screen here, so that I definitely felt engaged and that I doing more than just watching a computer.

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Once again Anneke van Giersbergen has shown that she is simply one of the best live performers in Rock music, even when limited to the virtual world.

She is unstoppable.

• IAN SUTHERLAND

METALTALK • MAY 2021

the treatment

Hard Work, Good Luck and Rock ‘n’ Roll Not many people can say that they’ve been backstage in an enormous American arena, watching motoring show Top Gear with Gene Simmons of KISS sat next to them wearing his full stage gear.

Treatment. Has it been a different way of working during lockdown?

ally natural process and happens more through jams.

From day one we just worked and when we came out with the first lockdown, we were straight into Rockfield.

The Treatment guitarist Tagore Grey can, and this one of many memories he has as the Cambridge quintet have toured the world relentlessly after first forming in 2008.

I wouldn’t say it was specifically a different kind of style of work to what we usually do because Laurie [Mansworth – manager] is our producer as well and the guys in the band all live in the same house. The bones of the songs were all here and Laurie started working straight away with us. It was a really quick process.

When we went to Rockfield we captured a magic that we haven’t quite been able to before. What you hear on that record is guitars with very minimal overdubs, and I think it tells because with rock and roll it’s an essence, you’re not trying to capture perfect, you’re trying to capture magic.

Constantly recording or being out on the road, the band are always doing things the hard way and never afraid to get dirt under their fingernails.

It seems as if a global pandemic and recently losing long time bass player Rick Newman can’t slow the band down, recently releasing their strongest set of songs yet on new album Waiting For Good Luck.

Lots has been happening with The

Lead single Rat Race had touches of Def Leppard, Lightning In A Bottle had elements of Aerosmith in it and Hold Fire could have been on AC/ DC’s Power Up. With your classic rock style, how do you go about writing?

They really will start with an idea and we work as a full band on it. It’s a re18

It’s also a legendary studio. You’re sitting there, the grand piano Freddie Mercury played Bohemian Rhapsody is two foot away from the room and you just go “how the hell did I get here?”

The album is called Waiting for Good Luck. Was it based on that whole thing waiting for the right time, for the lockdown to finish so you could actually get in the studio?

Yeah, this whole business caused by

METALTALK • MAY 2021 Covid of waiting for a bit of good luck to get out there and get touring again, but a lot of it’s that we are waiting for good luck in The Treatment.

We just need to breakthrough and get that one song that people love. It was just the right title for us.

You’re constantly touring and when not headline shows, you have opened for Alice Cooper, Slash, Status Quo, WASP, Motörhead, Thin Lizzy, Steel Panther and the giant KISS / Mötley Crüe US tour.

mortgaged his house to be able to finance you to go to the States to do the KISS / Crüe tour.

He took on the debt and without him there was no chance we would have been able to get out there.

There were some hair-raising moments initially because there was a lot of upfront costs - our visas, flights and the tour bus.

That’s why we have such an amazing relationship with him.

I’ve got some of the best memories I’ll ever have. We’ve had incredible luck with the bands we’ve supported with the stories and memories we’ve made on the road.

He really is the sixth member of the band because he bleeds rock and roll and he’s just as much a part of The Treatment because he’s put everything in from day one.

pend on it.

That KISS and Crüe tour was huge. It was amazing. We were doing things like playing mini golf with Gene [Simmonds] and for Matt’s 21st birthday Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx came in and they were pouring vodka down him and hired two strippers.

I heard that at times you were practically living off the rider on the KISS/Crüe tour, using that to get you through the rest of the day because things were tight?

What it feels like is a brotherhood bond as well and there’s just a great feeling when we get up and play together.

We have done some legendary stuff too since, the Quo tour was absolutely unreal. Seeing those guys get back together and the magic in them! They just know how to rock man.

They hadn’t been together or playing together in years and it was just incredible, and the loyalty of the fans was one of the things that I loved seeing the most. I really hope that our music does that for someone one day.

Having heard some stories about Alice Cooper I was wondering if he’s got this stage persona separate from the man himself?

Alice is something else because you would picture this quite rebellious kind of guy and he is just so not. He is a true gentleman.

I remember, we were talking to him one night, asking what do you do to unwind and he goes, “well, I can’t drink anymore, what I do now is sometimes I get a bag of crisps and I stamp on them on the floor, and that’s me releasing my energy”.

I remember reading that Laurie re-

We have had many occasions where that has gone on, but on that tour we were treated like gods!

Normally it’s just Meal Deals and whatever, this though was the first time there was actually a chef who was cooking whatever you wanted.

There have been other times where it wasn’t very good. Once at Brixton our rider was eight bottles of water, the tour manager came in and said “sorry, I need a few of those” and we ended up with four bottles between the nine of us.

There’s always your obvious love of the music and because of that it comes over as very natural.

It’s an interesting thing with The Treatment as you can only be in The Treatment if you love being in The Treatment.

With anyone who’s left it’s because they don’t enjoy doing it anymore.

That was the thing with Rick. He had a frank conversation with us and just said for him it was too much to do. The next day we just said “we absolutely wish you the best man because it’s not for everyone”.

We were there the time Rick lost his virginity, that’s how far back we go.

I’ve seen you at venues ranging from a Cambridge pub to big festivals and irrespective of the size of show you put everything into it.

We were brothers and we still are. It is a very hard industry to be in and you’ve got to be dedicated. You can’t put 99% in, it needs 100%.

Honestly, that’s what it is about. It does not matter if it is one person or if it’s a hundred people because we actually love playing.

What next for The Treatment?

Whether it is ten people who have paid to see you or seventy or five hundred that’s what we love and how could you ever let someone down who’s done that for you? It’s such an important attitude and we feel it doesn’t matter who’s there, we play like our lives de19

We all just want to get out there to make some music and play some shows together for our fans. It’s what I live for.

• paul monkhouse

INTERVIEW

METALTALK • MAY 2021

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METALTALK • MAY 2021

TOM ENGLUND EVERGREY The day has been a fraught one for Tom Englund, Evergrey’s polymathic frontman.

An excessive amount of snow has fallen in the region of Sweden that he resides in and this has caused huge problems with the internet connection.

Not the best scenario when you have endless global interviews lined up to promote your latest album.

His last scheduled call, a journalist from Brazil, had cancelled on him last minute, leaving him to lose time needlessly on an already testing day.

Not having immediate success but something that steadily grows is good... I am happy with what I have got, so it is great 21

To make things even worse, the internet had then threatened to crash entirely.

With scheduling issues for us both having delayed our chat some weeks already, this latest obstacle almost ground things to a halt altogether.

Fortunately, by sheer force of will, we were able to catch up.

, METALTALK • MAY 2021

Were you pleased with the response to the album?

Yes, absolutely. We ended up in a lot of the Top Ten lists of the year in a lot of Metal magazines which wasn’t at all expected as we figured a lot of the Metal audience wouldn’t accept us at all.

I’m mind-blown to the response to all of this.

How did you tie up with Vikram [Shankar – keys for Silent Skies] initially?

I saw him on YouTube because he had done a cover of an Evergrey song called ‘Missing’ where he played on the piano and played all the vocal lines on piano too.

With his highly acclaimed work, not just with Evergrey but with side project Silent Skies and also as a member of American Prog Metal kingpins Redemption, the perpetually working Swede is a force of nature.

Friendly, genuinely charming, witty and with a razor-sharp mind and real emotional depth, he is the sort of easy and enjoyable company that makes him a pleasure to spend time with.

We sat down to chat about the stunning new Evergrey album ‘Escape of the Phoenix’, his other musical endeavours, mental health and Gene Simmons, along with various other famous faces.

MetalTalk: How are you - apart from having a bad day?

Tom Englund: [Laughs] Other than that, just peachy.

I am doing good, just long ass days of interviews but that is a great sign that people are buy-

ing your music.

How are things in Gothenburg?

I am actually on the west coast, as about as far as you can get to the west in Sweden, a bit north of Gothenburg, hence the connection out here isn’t fantastic.

You are doing the promo with the new album, but you always seem so busy.

Yes, I am, it’s a lifestyle I chose.

I do so many different things as well but at the same time I get to do what I want. Having a Swedish band and American band and a duo with Silent Skies, it’s keeping me busy.

Silent Skies ‘Satellites’ album came out at the tail end of last year but was my favourite release of 2020. A beautiful album, full of melancholy but uplifting too.

Oh wow, thank you so much. It’s an album I’m extremely happy with as well [laughing]. I had a good last year.

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I had never seen anything like that, how he had interpreted it and had the same feel as how I had when I was singing it. I was extremely intrigued by him and checked out other stuff that he had done, so I then sent him an email saying “hey, we should do an album together”.

He told me he was a huge Evergrey fan, that I influenced his music writing since he was a kid and that makes writing for Silent Skies a unique thing, since he also writes with the sort of language of melody and approach to mood and atmosphere which is great. It is amazing.

He hinted that there is so new material coming soon from Silent Skies.

Yes, this Silent Skies album was mixed, mastered and done three years ago so we are quite eager to get on with it.

We have some stuff coming up and are launching a Patreon site, trying to involve our audience a bit more.

I mean it is also very evident to me that I am starting a new thing, so it is not as easy launching new stuff as it is with Evergrey.

METALTALK • MAY 2021

cal guest spots for people and production. It must seem like the phone is constantly ringing and emails pinging through.

this year I had an amazingly bad tax debt in the midst of having a pandemic so it was a horrible year for me in terms of how the hell am I going to survive?

With Evergrey we have a lot of stuff going for us, I wouldn’t say for free, but we have working it in for twenty years, but with Silent Skies we have to start from scratch, which is humbling in a way but also tiring as hell [laughs].

And, of course, you work with Vikram in Redemption as well.

I actually brought him into Redemption. Nick, who is the band leader of Redemption, has been a friend of mine since twenty years back and when I joined the band I said we should get a keyboard player for the live stuff and I have the perfect guy.

So, Nick went out with him and they sat down and wrote some music together and I understood that he was the perfect guy for the job. That turned out really well.

So, when Ray [Alder- vocalist] said he was leaving Redemption, were you the first and most obvious choice to bring in?

I don’t know, I might have been the tenth on the list [laughs] but I told Nick ten years ago that “if you ever run into a problem or encounter a situation where you need someone to sing your music, I’ll be there for you.”

He called me up basically and said “dude, it’s that time now” right in the time when I have been the most busy in my life [laughing].

But it’s great, I’m so grateful to be able to participate in people’s music and stretch my own branches into many other branches of music - it’s a blessing.

I reviewed the live album [‘Alive in Colour’] and it is a great release with Ray guesting on it and Chris Poland, ex Megadeth, appearing too. It is a different beast from Evergrey isn’t it?

Yes, it is a totally different thing, and I am grateful for that, as not having to be the main writer or captain of the ship, more or less being an instrument. I am following the lead that someone else takes and following their vision.

It is a cool experience as it is quite rare that you get to be both in a way. I get to lead my own ship and I get to travel with other people on their journeys as well. Again, it’s a blessing.

I know that, in at least the past decade, you have done so many vo23

Yes, it is quite a lot, but this year I had an amazingly bad tax debt in the midst of having a pandemic so it was a horrible year for me in terms of how the hell am I going to survive?

I think came up with the idea that I should at least offer my services to my fans and to people wanting me on whatever project they want. Of course, I am charging them, but it’s a win/win situation as they get what they want and I get some money for it.

I think I participated on something like forty different songs, on albums and all kinds of great stuff. I did something for a UK guy called Adam Sayer and he didn’t even have a band, he just wrote the music and I wrote the melodies and vocals for it.

During the process he named the band Devoria because he is from the south of England and I think we made ten tracks. I just received an email from him today saying that he wanted to do a single for the next album [laughing].

Yes, it is all great. I mean, now I am aiming on setting a new world record by participating on as many people’s recordings as possible in a year [lots of laughter].

Do you think that because we had a global pandemic and you therefore weren’t able to do what you may normally have done that enabled you to do these other projects? That and the technology we have now?

Oh yes. It’s almost like if I had been religious, which I’m not, that the Universe forced me to think in new ways and develop new ideas to pay the bills basically.

I have an academic degree as well, but at the same time my

METALTALK • MAY 2021

passion is to make music and if I can do that while making other people happy and I am doing what I’m happy doing, why not do that?

It’s like people thinking that I do it and it’s only giving for the people I’m singing for but no, I learn just as much as they are learning by having new harmonies coming into my life and you know, approaching music in different ways and just being a tool or an instrument. It’s very rewarding.

Oh, and the technology we have - that’s why you have stocks today in digital communication because, all of a sudden, the world understands that you don’t need to travel that much. You don’t have to sit on a Jumbo Jet back and forth to New York five times a week. At the same time though I’m afraid that it will make us a bit more less social.

I think you’re absolutely right and that when things do go back to ‘normal’ it is going to be a shock for some people and will take a bit of adjustment.

Yes, for sure, and I am not that certain that things will go back to how they were. There is certainly going to be a before and after.

What I am worried about is the effect it will have on psychological health in the long run.

Kids are being brought up in the context where death is very evident, close by and that will affect world health in different ways, but also in good ways.

So, with Evergrey, last year was the 25th anniversary since forming the band?

I actually think I formed the band in ’93 to be honest, but the record label likes this twenty five years anniversary idea, and in two years they are going to say “oh yes, it’s the 30th year…”. It’s a long ass time for sure.

Did you ever envisage that things would go on for so long?

Was there a long-term plan?

I would say that it has changed over the time. In the beginning I always believed that I would sell ten million albums, that was the initial dream. Then, growing up and not doing that changed your perspective on things.

It did not change the dream and it still hasn’t changed the dream, but we have become a bit more realistic, coming of age as well [laughs] but the dream remains.

When we did the tenth album I thought that was it, or maybe the ninth [thinks]. ‘Glorious Collision’ [actually their eighth studio album], after that I was ready to leave all of this because I was not happy doing it and it did not go very well at the time due to a bunch of changes that I did not enjoy either.

But then we did the ‘Hymns for the Broken’ album and I found some new energy.

All of a sudden you start selling more albums than ever, growing bigger and bigger. ‘The Atlantic’ [their last studio album from 2019] is the most commercially successful thing we have done.

It is insane that you can still do that after twenty-two years back then or whatever. That is the advantage of being a smaller band: we are still growing [laughs]. The band is going to make it [more laughter].

I think you have a fanbase that are incredibly passionate about you and that just keeps growing.

I am so grateful for that too. Not having immediate success but something that steadily grows is good. I would not say that it is something that I would prefer because I would not know what the opposite is like - like the Def Leppard story where you are selling one billion albums, 24

but I am happy with what I have got so it is great.

Bands come and go but Evergrey is forever.

Yes, hopefully [laughs]. It is quite an accomplishment to say that you can still say that you release contemporary music that matters, twenty-five, thirty years after the fact that you started the band.

I made myself a promise back in the day that when I was looking at myself in a video and looking old and slow headbanging that I would quit, but it has not happened yet - I hope [laughs].

The run of recent albums ‘Hymns for the Broken’, ‘The Storm Within’ and ‘The Atlantic’ were classed, conceptually, as a trilogy weren’t, they?

Is the forthcoming ‘Escape of the Phoenix’ a new chapter where you are not as constricted so write about what you want, or is there a central theme?

Doing this whole trilogy thing we were not really sure we were going to be able to accomplish it, so didn’t discuss it heavily during the process. When we did ‘The Atlantic’, which was about me going from one place in my life, to divorce, to the aftermath of divorce, and even though ‘Escape of the Phoenix’ is not like a fourth album of the story, it is still where I am today, so in a sense it is.

It is way more loosely tied to who I am, because it also involves how I view the world and how I viewed myself as a kid. Instead of painting this huge DaVinci painting, we have painted ten different postcards, which I think has added a freshness for ourselves, a revitalised vibe to approaching and writing an album and I think it sounds energetic and hungry.

If you can say that it sounds uplifting then maybe it is this al-

METALTALK • MAY 2021

It is about recording the music but even more about travelling, meeting different cultureS, something we have been doing for a quarter of a century now. bum, it brings that energy.

For me, it’s a very emotional album. Tracks like ‘Run’ are incredibly powerful and moving but also uplifting. Similar to Silent Skies, there is melancholy but there is also hope.

Yes, hope is one of the key words here. I think I have discovered the best way to describe, in that if you look at how I have written

about solitude and loneliness, it has always come from a perspective of desperation, sadness and sorrow.

But if you look at how I have written on this album it comes from a perspective of strength, self-esteem and power and that is the difference.

I still write about the same thing, about feeling and being an outsider, but it is not something that holds me down and makes me a smaller person as it did before. It is something I am proud of and brought me to become a Metalhead and where I am today basically.

Of course, the opening track and also first single from the album, ‘Forever Outsider’ is a declaration.

Absolutely. It is my declaration about who I have become, or at least who I am today [laughs]. I am not saying much about who I might be next month [more laughter].

There is a lot to absorb in ‘Escape of the Phoenix’ and new material is difficult to play on the road when everyone wants to hear the older tracks that they know and love.

Especially when you have done one hundred and forty songs, it is getting a bit tough.

There were a lot of people who knew every word of every song by the end of the first day that the album was released.

I hope so man. Like I said, it is why we do this. It is about recording the music but even more about travelling, meeting different cultures, something we have been doing for a quarter of a century now.

When we don’t get to do it, it rips half of our hearts out - it is really what it is.

• paul monkhouse

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METALTALK • MAY 2021

ALBUMREVIEWS

liquid tension experiment - lte3

Liquid Tension Experiment came about back in 1997 when the then Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy was given carte blanche to assemble a Progressive Rock instrumental group.

to great acclaim, quickly followed by ‘Liquid Tension Experiment 2’ in 1999. Then it ground to a halt through a few reasons, the biggest one being the various members schedules with their “day job” bands.

He approached his bandmate, guitarist John Petrucci, bass maestro Tony Levin (King Crimson / Peter Gabriel) and Dixie Dregs keyboard player Jordan Rudess. Liquid Tension Experiment was born.

The debut LTE album was, in effect, an audition for Jordan Rudess, who impressed Portnoy and Petrucci so much that he was offered the keyboard slot in Dream Theater.

All members of LTE had been asked constantly if there would ever be a third album. All had said they would love to do another if their schedules permitted.

The band’s first self-titled album was released in 1998

2020 and the planet is crippled by the Covid pandemic.

All touring is cancelled, and the world is in limbo.

The feelers went out to see if the members of LTE would like to do another album, given they did not have much else to do – apart from Portnoy, who continues his quest to play for every single band in existence.

Social media photos of individual members wearing face coverings appeared, with each member sporting a different character – L, T, E and 3.

Could it possibly be happening? It only could you know!

A studio was booked in summer 2020 and the members of LTE gathered together for the first time in 21 years. The results are to be found here.

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METALTALK • MAY 2021 The album kicks off with ‘Hypersonic’ and, as statement of intent, it is pretty convincing. The opening forty seconds or so literally fly by in a flurry of notes.

is just incredible.

The band had performed this cover version live and now we all get to hear it in its complete majesty. ‘Shades Of Hope’ is a quite beautiful instrumental ballad and is all the more remarkable when you discover that it was an improv jam.

The unasked question of “can you shred on a drumkit or keyboard?” is answered convincingly here. Yes, you can!

There are many musicians who can play lightning fast, but these guys are on a different level.

The album closes with the epic thirteen minute plus ‘Key To The Imagination’. This could be the answer to the question of “What do Liquid Tension Experiment sound like?” It has everything and covers a myriad of styles and tempos.

As well as speed, we have precision and most importantly, soul. Let’s not forget that the members of LTE are not young whippersnappers – bassist Tony Levin is 74 – and to be still playing with this much speed, style and virtuosity is mind blowing.

Was ‘LTE 3’ worth the 22-year wait? You bet it was!

‘Beating The Odds’ and ‘Liquid Evolution’ are up next and showcase the breadth of LTE’s musical palate.

• ROBERT ADAMS

A cover of Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody In Blue’ is included and

hot breath rubbery lips Brought up on a diet of dirty rock’n’roll, it is no surprise that Swedish hellraisers Hot Breath pour all that passion and fury into this, their fiery debut album.

Despite the popular misconception that the nation is as clean-lined and precise as its global image presents, there are few countries who so happily and wholly embrace loud guitars and attendant hurly burly as the Swedes.

After that it is straight back to business with the roar of ‘Adapted Minds’ while ‘Turn Your Back’ and ‘One Hit (To The Body)’ are shot through with a grimy 70s Glam Rock fire.

This then has provided the perfect breeding ground for an ever-growing number of bands who are determined to show there is so much more to their homeland than ABBA and IKEA, and Hot Breath are a very welcome addition to this pantheon of talent.

There is a snotty punk attitude stretching the seams of the roller coaster ride that is ‘What To Do’ and the four to the floor rock’n’roll of ‘Bad Feeling’ closes things nicely.

There is a joyous and youthful energy at work here that drives the music that fills this ten-track release, which ranges from the sugar rush of whisky and beer soaked riffage of first number ‘Right Time’ and beyond. The band wear their hearts on their sleeves, loud and proud of who they are and determined in where they are going.

The heads down attitude of the band as they plough their way through this full-length opening salvo should see them going a long way, their armoury of riffs matched with a well-crafted and astute collection of material that shows that they are much more than a one trick pony.

While the band may have a particularly quirky name, their style is one that should draw universal attention and ‘Rubber Lips’ is certainly a very strong and promising start to this latest particular wave of the Swedish invasion.

Second track ‘Magnetic’ revels in its dark and dangerous edge, a land where AC/DC and Guns ‘N’ Roses meet in an alley behind an all-hours bar, switchblades at the ready, while the curiously named ‘Last Barang’ is a psychedelic motor bike ride, all roaring engines, speed and hot Metal.

Young, hungry and full of passion, Hot Breath are out for blood.

The band know when to take their foot off the gas though as perfectly demonstrated in the gorgeously addictive ‘Who’s The One’, with its perfect pop sheen that brings to mind a hybrid of the popular girl groups of the 60s mixed with 70s glam rock; singer Jennifer Israelsson’s vocals drawing you inexorably in.

• PAUL MONKHOUSE 27

METALTALK • MAY 2021

CANNIBAL CORPSE VIOLENCE UNIMAGINED Since their 1990 debut album ‘Eaten Back To Life’, Cannibal Corpse has been at the forefront of the Death Metal scene as true innovators.

This album catches their classic sound while simultaneously pushes the music forward in terms of heaviness and at times technicality and even hooks.

The album rips from the start, opening track and latest single ‘Murderous Rampage’, sounds brutal, heavy, and fast. The pummelling drums of Paul Marzurkiewicz drive the music forward and the classic growls and screams of George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher rip through the brutality of the riffs.

The band is not playing it safe, instead they find ways to push the line of where their musical boundary is without ever going over that line.

With the heaviness and at times technical aspects of the music, not to mention the controversial horror movie inspired lyrics and imagery, Cannibal Corpse have never played it safe and they are certainly not starting now.

Violence Unimagined is filled with soon to be classics.

• Brandon Oberkrieser 28

METALTALK • MAY 2021

ALBUMREVIEWS THE END MACHINE PHASE 2

WODE BURN IN MANY MIRRORS

The End Machine boasts some seasoned masters who have created more than their fair share of smash hits.

When it comes to Black Metal the UK is very fortunate in the quality and quantity of bands, and undeniably up there with the best of them is Manchester’s Wode.

Led by former Dokken legends George Lynch and Jeff Pilson, The End Machine is completed by Steve Brown on drums and Robert Mason on vocals. This, their sophomore album, is a far more focused and powerful album than their debut.

Back, four years after their previous album ‘Servants of the Countercosmos’, they continue to go from strength to strength with their third full length and best to date, ‘Burn In Many Mirrors’.

With big guitar driven and hook heavy sounds that will surely have Dokken fans grinning from ear to ear, The End Machine have crafted a modern twist on a much-loved classic sound.

Wode told MetalTalk: “We are just as excited about the new record now, as we were when writing it. ‘Burn in Many Mirrors’ is the best realisation to date of where we are coming from and marks a new chapter in our saga of chaos.”

The key to this album and The End Machine in general, is that they are not simply a group of legendary musicians reiving past glories. Rather, they are a group of world-class musicians producing excellent and reassuringly familiar music for their fans old and new alike.

‘Burn In Many Mirrors’ is brutal, driving, dark and engaging, thanks to their trademark meld of the most ferocious aspects of 80s Thrash with an element of Death Metal all blended together with a hearty measure of dark, sinister and utterly engaging Black Metal.

Phase 2 is an impressively strong and consistent record – bring on Phase 3!

This is an album which will have huge appeal to fans of bands such as Sacramentum, Dissection, Watain, Uada, Absu or Necrophobic.

• JOOLS GREEN

• KAHMEL FARAHANI

WARD XVI Metamorphosis

THE OWEN GUNS OUT OF TIME

Ward XVI prove without a shadow of a doubt that they have both the chops and the material to bring their crawling and sinister vision to life.

This latest instalment is another foretaste or forewarning, depending on your perspective, to their upcoming ‘EP 2, Electric Boogaloo’.

This is an immersive and theatrical experience; the music painting pictures more vivid and personal than any film or book could.

There is a whole lot jammed into this two-minute slice of brutality and, as a result, it makes an exhilarating listen that is catchy as hell, while making a valid point in the process - we love it.

As impressive as the central concept is, it is the execution that leaves the biggest impression. The performances genuinely thrill and are aided by a sparkling production that sees the whole hit exactly the right stylistic notes.

Sean told MetalTalk: “This one is our attempt at a balls to the wall hardcore song. It was written about the inept politicians on all sides of the political spectrum. It is a political choice between dog shit and cat shit.”

Disturbing, unsettling, grand and exhilarating.

• PAUL MONKHOUSE

• JOOLS GREEN 29

METALTALK • MAY 2021

ALBUMREVIEWS BUSHIDO CODE THE RONIN

THE OFFSPRING let the bad times roll

‘The Ronin’ tells the story of Da Shi, a Ronin Samurai who has travelled through time, looking for a warrior worthy enough to help him achieve the most honourable sacrifice - death. However, no demon or saint has been worthy enough yet.

I have been blessed to have filmed with The Offspring from my Headbangers Ball days at MTV, to that legendary performance at Reading Festival. So I was bloody happy when the So-Cal punk dudes announced that they were back with their tenth studio album ‘Let the Bad Times Roll’.

The album manifests as an up-tempo, thrash rich, nine track, twenty-nine-minute listen that utterly engages.

After releasing two standalone tracks in 2020 – the over-the-top cover of Joe Exotic’s [of Tiger King infamy] ‘Hey Kitty Kitty’ and a rendition of Darlene Love’s classic ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ – the band is finally ready to plant their punk rock flag in the sand once again.

Lyrically, it is very powerful and profound, and there is clear definition to the rugged gritty vocal delivery. The crunchy riffs meld with haunting melodic segments and opening track ‘The Ronin’ is an utter beast in that department, encouraging you to listen further.

With the help of mega producer Bob Rock, Dexter Holland describes the album as “the most cathartic thing we have done. The messages might be dark, but at the end what is left is that communication is important, working through feelings is important and most of all, hope is important.”

With the tracks sufficiently varied in pace and well convoluted in construct, the result is hugely engaging and enthralling, holding your interest to the very end.

As far as favourite tracks go it is a hard choice and I thought I knew the answer, but when I took a further listen to try to refine my decision, I realised I could not possibly choose.

For me this is an end-to-end winner.

• JOOLS GREEN

This is an absolute classic slice of Offspring – that is what I love about this band, their songs are all different, but you know exactly what you are getting. Let the bad times roll for now. I am going in for another listen. • SARA HARDING

ENDseeker mount carcass

lynyrd skynrd live at knebworth ‘76

German Death Metal band Endseeker return with a vengeance with their third studio album ‘Mount Carcass’, using, as many Metal bands have also wisely done, the down time due to the pandemic to create their latest offering.

Florida’s Lynyrd Skynyrd arrive at Knebworth House in ‘76 like a wrecking ball giving the waiting Jagger and co something to think about.

Thousands witnessed the finest Southern Rock band on the planet, who to some were still a curiosity, pull off a display still inspirational forty-five years on.

For this release they have aimed to create something rawer and more organic than previous album ‘The Harvest’, with songs that are quite straightforward with a slight Crust Punk feel alongside the old school Swedish Death Metal vibe. Melodic, but stripped back with no excess, the result is definitely a catchy and easy listen that is hugely engaging.

What followed no doubt left an indelible mark on this famous venue and its inhabitants.

This is a hugely engrossing live album and concert film and for obvious reasons, an emotional one.

Overall, a superb and essential listen.

• JOOLS GREEN

• BRIAN BOYLE 30

METALTALK • MAY 2021

ALBUMREVIEWS feculent THE grotesque arena

durbin the beast awakens

The Grotesque Arena is the debut offering from Australian Metal extremists Feculent, who feature current members of Shackles, Snorlax, Resin Tomb, Descent, Siberian Hell Sounds and Idle Ruin.

James Durbin’s first album with Frontiers Music, ‘The Beast Awakens’, is currently shaking the hallowed halls of Valhalla to their very core, with twelve tracks of triumphant Classic Metal.

It is not a listen for the faint of heart or the frail of stomach, I am delighted to say.

If, like me, you love 80s Dio, Maiden and Judas Priest then you need to hear this album. It is an unexpected gem of a record, which teases and delights with hints of Classic Metal moments while retaining its own fresh identity.

What it is, is a filthy and brutal meld of Death/Doom that delivers a good dose of ugly, messy, jarring and dissonant riffs with a “black as the hobs of hell” undercurrent that is heavily steeped in the stench of rotting corpses.

I think the reason it works so well is because it is written by a true Metal fan with a great understanding of the sound and feel of the classic 80s Metal period. Durbin’s awareness of old-school Classic Heavy Metal shines through in his lyrics and composition, amplified by his superb Rob Halford-esque vocal range. And trust me, this guy can sing.

Six tracks span a mere nineteen minutes, but you do not need any more than that to satiate your fetid desires.

The unstoppable drive that fuels this album is ‘Weaponization Of The Amygdala’ with its stunning blackened undercurrent that oozes between the spewing vocals and riffs which jar your senses and set your teeth on edge.

That Durbin wrote all these tracks himself is exceptional.

This has been a grim and depressing year so far due to the pandemic, but this album has really lifted the gloom and just put the most enormous grin on my face.

Delightfully brutal, this is a filthy Death Metal delight.

• JOOLS GREEN

• JOHNNY CHURCHILL

SMITH & KOTZEN SMITH & KOTZEN

alta reign mother’s day

Their respective passion for Classic and Blues Rock has brought about an intriguing looking union, and right from the off the chemistry between the pair is glaringly infectious.

Jeff Plate has carved a name for himself as one of the best, hardest hitting and most versatile drummers on the scene.

This new album looks to add another chapter to the legend and it is full of the high-end musicianship and solid writing that speaks of a life at the top of the tree.

While you can label this as a Classic Rock album, they are by no means trying to recreate the past. With two heavyweight guitarists locked and loaded with an arsenal of head spinning virtuosity, some may reckon this collaboration may just be an exercise in displaying respective six string ploomage.

Sure, the performances are masterful, but the main focus is always the song.

There is a real European feel to the tracks, bringing the best of all worlds into one gloriously loud and insistently catchy melting pot. Plate’s Alta Reign is never less than impressive and looks to be utterly unstoppable.

• PAUL MONKHOUSE

But not for a single chord does it give off a scent of fretboards at dawn. Sit back and enjoy a collection of tunes that inject new life into the New Wave Of Classic Rock.

• BRIAN BOYLE 31

harry armstrong

BLIND RIVER Blind River and King Creature have joined forces for a UK tour starting this May, which marks one of the first sets of gigs post Covid-19 lockdown and is a marker for everyone’s wish of a return to normality.

The Guildford five-piece Blind River released their excellent album ‘Made Of Dirt’ last year, while Cornish Rockers King Creature served up the impressively stylish ‘Set The World On Fire’.

It is certainly a paring to whet the appetite and MetalTalk caught up with Blind River vocalist Harry Armstrong to find out how the guys are transitioning back to some kind of normality.

Gig alert! It must feel pretty great to be able to announce a tour, even a socially distanced one. How excited are you for this?

It’s NUTS!! We’ve spent a whole year going out of our fucking minds here.

The effect this shit has on our health is insane. I am generally a happy camper, but shit is always going on all around the world and humans are generally idiots.

But hey – there is a gig tonight, or a festival this weekend. Or even a jam tomorrow, so fuck it.

A whole year without that release has pretty much transformed me into a miserable alcoholic. It is more than excitement for this tour. It is going to be like being able to breathe again.

It is going to be a goosebump moment when you guys climb the stage in Southampton for the first gig. Have you had to work at keeping your vocals up to your usual level, or is that something which happens naturally for you?

We have been starved of what we do for so long, shit is going to kick right off!

32

We have a warmup gig the night before in Gravesend, so we will see how well everything has held out then. It is pretty tough on the vocals. You can practice everything else either acoustic, or unplugged, but there is no replacing the blast of air I need to get to hit those long, loud higher notes.

If I practice that at home the neighbours will probably call the police. We had our first jam in months this weekend just gone. I was getting scared of how it would go, but thankfully there was no problem. Just a very sore throat and a touch of tinnitus the next morning.

It has been a really tough enforced period for bands and artists. How did you guys cope in general with the enforced break?

Thankfully we finished ‘Made Of Dirt’ just before the first lockdown and immediately decided to push on with the album release. That kept us busy for a little while, but since then, it has been weird. Personally, I found it pretty tough. I am what is considered a key worker, so I have not done anything else other than work and drink.

PHOTOS: STEVE RITCHIE

METALTALK • MAY 2021

METALTALK • MAY 2021 blast on this tour. There will be a few complaints from cheap hotel bar occupants for certain.

And I think our styles are different enough to make for a really cool gig.

Something for everyone.

Any news on plans for another album?

Have you all been sharing ideas during lockdown?

And to be honest, my drinking got a little out of hand. I am usually pretty strong willed, so I have reigned it in a touch. But if we get another wave of this, I may not be seen again!

MetalTalk marked ‘Made Of Dirt’ as “a step up in class for the Heavy Rockers”.

I was certainly impressed with it. How has the reception been for the album?

It has been really positive, but the most important thing is seeing what reception the songs get live. We have played most of the album live, by dropping a new song in our set here and there before COVID-19 came along, but now half the set will be made of, well - dirt!

This is like our meditation. It cleanses the soul. I think we are only in danger of being TOO ready!

Have you played with King Creature before? I was impressed with their ‘Set The World On Fire’ album also. Given both your pedigrees, this is shaping up to be one fucking fantastic set of gigs.

Yeah, we got smashed with them at Ramblin’ Man festival a couple of years ago, so we know we are gonna have a

We cannot wait to see how it mixes in with the old stuff and how people react to it when we are back on the road.

Looks like we are about to find out!

With the tour coming up, how are the band preparing? Do you think there will be some ring rustiness, or is getting back on stage for you all like the proverbial “riding a bike” and you never forget what to do?

The jam we had over the weekend went so well. I was amazed. But we all love doing this. There is no one in this band that is doing it for any other reason that fun and that makes us all really disciplined when it comes to knowing our respective roles.

Everyone turned up at the studio straining at the leash. We blasted into the first song and spent the next few hours grinning at each other like morons. I came home that night feeling the most relaxed I have felt in over a year.

33

We certainly have. It is one of the few things that has kept us sane, swapping riffs across the internet. There is easily an album worth of half recorded ideas splattered over our various hard drives.

We can now start the process of coaxing out the gems.

This tour is going to show us at the hungriest we have ever been. We have been starved of what we do for so long, shit is going to kick right off. It is going to be something different and very unique. Join us!

• STEVE RITCHIE

METALTALK • MAY 2021

marie rottrová

other words, ramblings about not very much at all.

But it proved exceptionally difficult to gain approval. The majority of songs and even entire albums were blacklisted and consigned to large safes never to see the light of day.

But, while illegal to possess, there was an appetite for Western rock music and when Marie Rottrová’s version was approved, the era of the Czechoslovakian cover version phenomenon had arrived.

The song lyrics have the singer walking alone on the same route that she walked with her new lover the previous day.

Translated Lyrics: It is raining and I’m walking in the rain.

I’m walking in the town which I know.

And I’m trying to find yesterday’s steps.

I’m going the same direction, And I remember.

And everything seems nicer and nicer.

ripping off black sabbath in communist czechslovakia A fascinating glimpse into the subterfuge and danger of consuming Metal in the Eastern Bloc.

‘Lásko, voníš deštěm’ (Eng: ‘Feels Like Rain’), is the 1981 Czechoslovakian smash hit single “written” and performed by one of the greatest Czech singers Marie Rottrová.

Having managed to bring the album back home (an action not without personal risk), the ballad style of ‘She’s Gone’ stood out for her as a track with some promise and she made plans to record a version of it.

Rottrová’s elegant chanson style lends itself beautifully to the song and her version is still a staple of radio and TV in both Republics today, even appearing on a recent TV talent show.

At that time in communist Czechoslovakia, Black Sabbath and all West European and American bands were banned. Rottrová asked her lyricist to write politically appropriate Czech lyrics, the song was recorded and then presented to the Validation Commission.

That the song is a version of ‘She’s Gone’, originally on the album ‘Technical Ecstasy’ by Black Sabbath, would have even escaped the attention of Don Arden at the time.

In the seventies and eighties, all musicians (including live-only bands) had to have their music and lyrics approved by a local Validation Commission.

Rottrová was in Ljubljana airport, in the former Yugoslovia in 1979 and spent her last dinar on the vinyl LP as a present for her sons.

The requirement was that the music was appropriate, and the song lyrics had the correct political profile. This meant pleasant stories, no sex, drugs or alcohol, no politics, no resistance. In 34

My love, you seem like a rain.

It was here when you said this I remember it was bit breezy.

You took your coat off.

It was too big for me, But I felt warm JIRI SCHELLINGER Jiri Schellinger, a Czechoslovak hard rock rebel, was disliked by the Communist regime and his untimely death, in Bratislava on 13 April 1981, still invites debate and conspiracy theories.

Schellinger was only thirty when he died, but even today he is talked of as a hard rock legend and his music is very much still alive.

‘Báječní Muži’ (Into The Void) was the first Sabbath track, and album title, of Schellinger’s debut solo release – a 1975 collaboration with František Ringo Čech.

Despite Schellinger’s rebellious nature and his differences with the leaders of the day, the album was approved and helped to cement his influence on the early Czechoslovak rock scene.

METALTALK • MAY 2021

JIri schellinger

While ‘Into The Void’ talks about leaving Earth to Satan in its closing lyrics, the theme of the ‘Báječní Muži’ is of hard working airplane pilots who are transporting passengers and food to/ from the Czechoslovak Republic.

the Underground transport system in Prague and how this great traffic solution makes life easier for workers.

lenge” to jump into the Danube, led by taunts from the unknown man.

Metro, dobrý den (Eng: Underground, Good Morning)

Husak survived the jump, but Schellinger disappeared.

The inclusion of Moscow in the lyrics helped to gain approval for the song.

The train is noisy in the nice warm morning And I’m travelling in the dark or light.

The train is going from end to the end People are laughing, that I’m traveling from here to there. I don’t mind.

If someone is not happy with this, they should find a different type of travelling.

I want just the Underground. It is a magic to me.

Hey tube, good morning. Can you imagine how easier it is traveling is now?

How easier it is to come to hospital and factories to work.

Schellinger’s body was found one month later, but the body was never formally identified by a family member or close friend.

The autopsy report suggests the body had tonsils, while Schellinger’s were removed when he was younger.

Fabulous Wonderful Men (Into The Void) Fabulous men are flying here, to us The engines bring to land. I’m clapping They have sweaty foreheads, never mind Still they are going to work, everyday.

Just like you.

They are wonderful as you know They’re flying in the nights, while you are sleeping They’re flying in the storm While passengers have a pleasure flight London, Moscow, Paris, Bombay, Rome.

A further album followed, which included their song ‘Metro, dobrý den’, based on Black Sabbath’s ‘A National Acrobat’.

This song describes the excellence of

Untimely Death On 13 April 1981, Schellinger was in Bratislava for a TV recording. In the evening, he was dining with the TV crew and a young female singer.

Later joined by an unknown man, allegedly going by the name Husak, the drunken evening ended with a “chal35

Furthermore, the colour of the dead body’s eyes differed and there was a five centimetre discrepancy in height.

While many believe this was a Regime-ordered assassination, we will never know the truth as many documents were shredded following the Velvet Revolution of 17 November 1989.

A statue was erected on the thirtieth anniversary of Schellinger’s death in Prague.

• MIRIAM RITCHIE

METALTALK • MAY 2021

the pineapple thief

STORYOFTHEBAND

versions of the truth show was something very special Neo-prog stalwarts The Pineapple Thief played a very special online show to make up for their tour cancellation due to “that pandemic.”

to be able to perform the new album ‘Versions Of The Truth’ live for everyone.

Photos: Greg Holland

“So being able to do this film, especially under the circumstances, was invaluable.

September 2020 saw The Pineapple Thief release album number thirteen, ‘Versions Of The Truth’ to rave reviews.

Due to the new normal, the band could not tour to promote the release. Main Thief Bruce Soord certainly kept himself busy during lockdown by recording solo acoustic versions of both his own solo work and The Pineapple Thief material.

Look out for the four disc ‘The Soord Sessions’ box set coming out soon containing all of those lockdown recordings. The Pineapple Thief obviously wanted to play some of the material from ‘Versions Of The Truth’ live, but how to go about it?

Bruce Soord told MetalTalk: “I have always said that The Pineapple Thief is equally about the studio and the stage, so it was obviously disappointing that we have not been able go out on tour, especially as we were excited

“We all knew we did not want to shoot a film of us standing on stage staring at an empty room. We wanted something special, something ‘cinematic’.

“So, together with George Laycock (from Blacktide Phonic/Visual who has filmed all our recent music videos) we

“we ended up making something very, very special that I am proud to have been a part of.”

hatched a plan. It was a lot of work for one show. But it was worth it.

“And it was great to be playing in the same room with the band again. We ended up making something unique and something very, very special that I am proud to have been a part of. I cannot wait for people to see it.”

Instead of setting up their show on some soundstage playing to a bunch of camera and sound operators, they chose a more intimate format.

Setting up in a studio with warm auburn lighting, flowers scattered around the feet of the musicians, spare guitars and an unused reel-to-reel tape machine beside Bruce Soord, The Pineapple Thief played what would have been their set on the ‘Versions Of The Truth’ tour.

Vocalist/guitarist and main songwriter Bruce Soord was in the centre with a circular dolly track, with slowly rotating camera around him. Drummer extraordinaire Gavin Harrison was around ten feet in front of him.

Directly behind Soord was second guitarist George Marios, who pulled off

36

METALTALK • MAY 2021

THEPINEAPPLETHIEF

some insanely tasteful solos throughout the show and also provided some backing vocals. Perched either side of Soord was keyboard player Steve Kitch and bassist and harmony vocalist Jon Sykes.

It was a wonderful set up and everyone was at the very top of their game throughout.

The highlights were too numerous to mention in the space provided here, so I will just say that the whole show was incredible from start to finish.

Six out of the ten tracks on ‘Versions Of The Truth’ were played, alongside PT classics like ‘Someone Pull Me Out Of Here’ and a beautiful version of

‘Wretched Soul’.

You do not go to or watch a Pineapple Thief show expecting to jump around like a lunatic for the duration. They are masters of understated, melancholic beauty and use power when required.

Hopefully this stunning performance will be made commercially available.

For the lucky ones who managed to see this live, or even on playback during the four days it was available online, we all knew we had witnessed something very special indeed.

• ROBERT ADAMS

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METALTALK • MAY 2021

vivian campbell joins def leppard - 29 years later

the mcgona In a perfect world Vivian Campbell would not be a member of Def Leppard.

On 8 January 1991, while on a sixmonth sabbatical from the group, their much-loved guitarist Steve ‘Steamin’ Clark succumbed to his addictions and died as a result of a cocktail of alcohol and prescription drugs, leaving the band facing yet another personnel dilemma.

But as Leppard have proved in the past, especially in the aftermath of Rick Allen’s near career ending accident, they have always returned a stronger animal.

Having only laid down demos for the upcoming ‘Adrenalize’ album, the other half of the ‘Terror Twins’ Phil Collen took sole guitar duties, of which he said learning Clark’s parts was “like playing along to a ghost”.

But since their inception Leppard have always traded as a five piece and especially a twin guitar harmony sound, so the hunt was on to fill one of the most sought-after vacancies in music at the time.

Massive rumours began floating about when Collen was spotted with former Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy man John Sykes at Heathrow Airport, during the Adrenalize sessions, but Joe Elliott was insistent that Sykes did “diddly squat” on the album.

He did eventually do a “informal” audition, but to no avail.

Iron Maiden’s departed guitarist Adrian Smith also tried out, which might

have seemed a complete mismatch considering his Metal association.

That said, he is a very melodically conscious guitarist, so it might not have been an odd appointment after all.

tious relationships with Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale and Adrian Van-

A little known Birmingham guitarist named Huwey Lucas was given a run out, but his vocal ability just did not make the grade, which is a must with Leppard’s harmony packed catalogue.

viv: “i was excited, but i was’nt at all nervous. that show was absolutely steaming.”

The answer to their problems lay in the wizardry of Northern Ireland’s Vivian Campbell, a man whose scintillating talents graced such bands as Dio, Whitesnake (the nut bursting spandex version) and Thin Lizzy. Despite frac38

METALTALK • MAY 2021

archive

agles story Elton John and Liza Minnelli for his troubles.

But five days before that six hundred lucky Dubliner’s (including yours truly) got to witness his very first live blooding at the gloriously shabby McGonagles, a venue Campbell had graced before with one of his fledging bands Sweet Savage.

What follows is my experience of a very unique night.

I’ve witnessed Def Leppard in some strange concert situations over the years.

The first one was in 1986, while on holidays in a seaside resort called Ballybunion, on the south west coast of Ireland.

The Leps were doing a live rehearsal tour of the country in preparation for a series of Monsters Of Rock shows. denberg, his time with Def Leppard thus far has been quite the opposite, or in Campbell’s words “we have a squishy vibe going on”.

He had to wait till 1996 to mark his studio debut, that was on the very left field ‘Slang’ album, which was more like a baptism of fire considering the very mixed media reaction.

His first worldwide introduction with Leppard came four years previously when he stepped out in a shocking red jacket in front of 72,000 people at Wembley Stadium at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, rubbing shoulders with Robert Plant, David Bowie,

And also to get drummer Rick Allen back up to speed after his horrific car accident.

They played the local hotel; a rundown little dump called the The Atlantic.

This place was a complete throwback to the 70s, with a nicotine-stained glitter ball swinging precariously from the roof.

The second was a year later, on the opening night of the Hysteria world tour. This time the venue was a local bingo hall on the north side of Dublin, called the SFX. Nothing special, just four beer and piss-stained walls and a gaping hole in the roof.

Fast forward five years, it is Wednesday, and I am in work getting lacerated with paper cuts. I get a phone call around noon, it’s my buddy.

“Guess what”, he says, “Def Leppard are playing McGonagles tonight.” F**k off I say. “Tickets just went on sale”, he continues.

“We haven’t a f**kin hope”, I say, defeated. The four hundred tickets sold out in point four of a second.

The band were doing a warmup show

it was very strange in fact, because i did’nt expect it to be that comfortable, especially since we were replacing a guy who dies, not one we fired and all hated or something” - joe elliott (1992) 39

METALTALK • MAY 2021 for The Seven Day Weekend Tour, in support of their latest album Adrenalize. It was also Vivian Campbell’s first gig with the band.

ly, had. That was until Lep’s manager, Peter Mensch, walked in my direction.

I greeted him like a long-lost friend – he looked at me like I had bubonic plague.

After the encore of ‘Photograph’ and ‘Tear It Down’, the band exited and the house lights came on.

Despite my embarrassment it confirmed to me that this was no hoax, this was very real.

Bar witnessing the birth of my two children, this was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

Despite not having tickets, we meet that evening anyway and make our way to the venue, with the faint hope of scoring tickets outside.

I was in hard rock heaven. 1987’s comeback single ‘Animal’, was followed by a blistering version of Queen‘s, ‘Now I’m Here’, due to be performed with Brian May at Wembley Stadium the following Monday.

I have yet to be at a gig that had as much energy and intensity. I actually saw Ozzy at the same venue a couple of years later, great gig, but not a patch on Leppard.

Let me describe McGonagles for you.

It is a legendary club on South Anne Street, just off the very posh Grafton Street, on the south side of Dublin.

New guy Vivian Campbell, on home soil, fitted effortlessly into the band.

He traded licks with Phil Collen like he had been in the band 20 years.

It had hosted bands like Nirvana and U2 in their infancy, and was a wellknown venue for up and coming Thrash Metal bands.

Joe Elliot gave him a “welcome to the family” introduction, much to the delight of the sweat soaked crowd.

He was replacing long time guitarist Steve Clark, who sadly passed away the previous year. Vivian was to be presented to the world the following week, at Freddie Mercury concert, in Wembley Stadium.

And the interior, well, it was like a large toilet, with a hole in the wall for a bar and box for a stage. It smelled of damp leather and Spanish onions.

Two hours to doors and we get approached by a suspicious looking character. But he was a suspicious looking character, with tickets.

This guy had a massive scar from his neck to his cheek with one eye facing north and the other facing west.

His breath smelt like he had been French kissing a chain-smoking camel.

With tickets at £8 face value, we offer £15 each. “Ah! Will ya f**k off lads.”

“Dirty, dirty” (he meant thirty), was his response.

After about a half hour of this, we eventually agree on £50 for two tickets. And he even had the good grace to escort us to the ATM. The word “forgery” crossed my mind as we approached the door. I nervously hand over my ticket, and just as I was preparing myself for the worst, there it was, stub ripped off and I was in.

Everything looked normal, drums, amps, lights, but I still had a nagging suspicion we had been, monumental40

And that was it.

Sadly, McGonagles has since been demolished.

I like to think that the wrecking ball that was Def Leppard, on that Wednesday in April, cast the first blow.

• BRIAN BOYLE

METALTALK • MAY 2021

11questions rory mcdonald voodoo bloo

Best gig you’ve ever been to?

King Gizzard, when they played at Desert Daze in 2018.

Which three adjectives best describe you?

Nonsensical, delusional, content.

What was your most embarrassing moment?

2001-2021.

What is your most treasured possession?

My Takamine D Series semi-acoustic.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

Never forget how strange it is to be anything at all.

What keeps you awake at night?

Everything that I ignore during the day.

What is the worst job you’ve ever had?

Eeeek. I better not talk smack on a governmental department, even though it was a few years ago, I may have to run ahead.

What is your guiltiest pleasure?

Putting off everything to do absolutely nothing.

What has been your closest brush with the law?

Probably the hard time I spent after getting a ruthless speeding ticket, though the hard time was just figuring out how I was gonna pay the fine.

What is the closest you’ve come to death?

I mean nothing specifically has really made me question whether I was going to die, though I did navigate through the Hong Kong protests with my father while blackout drunk. So maybe something happened then?

Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?

Craving a McChicken.

41

METALTALK • MAY 2021

A musician’s musician, Gary Moore was seemingly chameleon-like in his ability to adapt to different musical styles, always striving to stretch himself.

From the jazzy prog rock of Colosseum II, the incendiary time he spent in Thin Lizzy, the full-on hard rock and Heavy Metal attack of his solo career and onto his late renaissance playing blues and everything before, after and in between, he always dazzled.

While it seemed almost effortless, due to the natural talent he was born with, Moore was constantly striving, seemingly never settling for anything less than his very best and only being truly happy with a six-string in his hands.

When he announced in the late 80s that he was stepping away from hard rock and making a blues album, there was a lot of commotion from both sides of the equation.

Some Metalheads accused him of selling out, whilst blues purists felt that Moore did not have the necessary feel to do the genre justice.

Fortunately, the great strength of 1990’s ‘Still Got The Blues’ silenced the critics and showed that here was a man who certainly had the chops to truly make it his own, focusing more on the emotive heart, than the flash and volume he was labelled with.

Barring his unexpected and short-lived dip back into heavier territory with supergroup Scars, blues became his sole focus for the next two decades, right up until his tragically early death in 2011.

Compiled from unused material over that twenty-year span, ‘How Blue Can

neil carter: “i think he needed a complete change, which is certainly what he got” 42

You Get’ brings together eight tracks that cover the Irishman’s love affair with the music, ranging from the raucous to the pensive. A visceral version of the Freddie King classic ‘I’m Tore Down’ opens the proceedings, its live feel adding a rough charm and spark.

Moore is on fine form both vocally and in his playing and follows this with the hard knock ‘Steppin’ Out’, his fretwork turning Memphis Slim’s piano led standard into something that has a real Stevie Ray Vaughan flavour.

Ballad ‘In My Dreams’ comes from the same mould as both ‘Still Got The Blues’ and ‘Parisienne Walkways’, so much so that key figures are echoed in its delivery, the similarity to the aforementioned favourites possibly the reason that it did not see the light before now. It is in no way a bad track, the guitarwork as excellent as always, just a little too near to these other selfpenned tracks for comfort.

There is a rough-edged feel to Moore’s take of BB King’s ‘How Blue Can You Get’, the titular track having somewhat of an unpolished vibe that you will either enjoy for its spark or make you skip to the next track as a missed op-

gary moore

portunity to produce a diamond.

‘Looking At Your Picture’ sounds like a coda slotted in at the end of an album, the spaced out and experimental, earthy feel shimmers in a desert heat and feels like an initial sketch during a jam, while ‘Love Can Make A Fool Of You’ takes the bonus track from the 2002 reissue of ‘Corridors of Power’ and makes it a towering slow blues, the guitarwork stunning and keys exemplary.

The strutting ‘Done Somebody Wrong’ adds Moore’s own cocksure playing to the lively groove of the Elmore James number and the sublime and stately paced ‘Living With The Blues’ closes things very nicely indeed.

While the tracks lack a uniformity of production, emphasising the scrapbook nature of this compilation of previously unheard cuts, there is no doubt that the eight pieces display the wildly original and passionate talents of this much missed figure.

A worthy addition to any collection, it may not be a vital release, but very few people could touch Moore, even on days when he was not on the best of form, his constantly evolving career taking the guitarist wherever his next challenge led him.

‘How Blue Can You Get’ proves once again that here was a master with his instrument, the Belfast boy still a standard bearer of what can be achieved if you have the drive, talent and laser-focused determination to follow entirely your own path.

As the album illustrates, it seems that Moore was happiest when he had the Blues.

For the last words on the subject, Metal Talk spoke to Moore’s long-time friend, bandmate and songwriting partner Neil Carter (Gary Moore, UFO, Wild Horses).

A key figure in Rock, keys and guitar playing polymath Neil had shared stages all over the world with Gary, their partnership leading to the re - lease of four classic studio albums and two live sets together and a fruitful collaboration that saw the pair pen some of the 43

PHOTO: JESSE WILD

METALTALK • MAY 2021

METALTALK • MAY 2021 guitarist’s most popular tracks, including the international smash ‘Empty Rooms’.

With rumours abounding that Moore came to very much dislike playing the heavier material, we asked about the Irishman’s somewhat controversial shift from hard rock to blues and if this had been something a long time in the making or a whim as he sought his next Everest to climb.

“I was always certain he was comfortable with the 80s material, although not always in the theatre of it.

“He did not like the ‘hair’ bands and I do not think the songs we were playing were like that at all and indeed there was more diversity in them.

“The blues thing was meant to be a side project and first mooted on the ‘After the War’ tour.

“He later said he hated what he was doing in the 80s and indeed said to me, mid 90s, that rock was ‘dead’.

“There was a lot of blues jamming at sound checks in 1989 which I slunk away from as it truly is not my thing, but the blues album came out later in the year and it just flew.

“I had made it pretty clear it was not for me, but I thought he would come back to rock at some point.

“On reflection, I think he needed a complete change which is certainly what he got.

“It was ironic the final tour was all the rock hits (plus two blues numbers!) and to this day I am not sure why he decided to do it.”

That question may never have an answer, but what we do know is that very few guitarists had the talent or left the mark that Gary Moore did.

While he may have been snatched from us a decade ago, his musical legacy through some jaw-dropping fretwork and his influence will be with us for many more years to come.

• PAUL MONKHOUSE

44

METALTALK • MAY 2021

memoriesfromthepit MetalTalk photographer Sally Newhouse looks back at a Black Metal Pagan Folk evening in Camden.

sally newhouse

Equilibrium, Heidevolk, Finsterforst Camden Underworld 3 October 2016 I’d never been to a gig quite like it.

These scary hairy Viking type who gave Steve Göldby and I such a warm welcome were teddy bears in disguise (I am sure they would hate me for saying that).

We hung out chatting backstage and did some selfies.

The atmosphere of the gig was awesome, especially by the time Equilibrium came on. The audience joined in with the singing - they really worked the crowd - and there was a mosh pit for Equilibrium’s ‘Wall of Death’ which I caught on video from the side of stage.

I was glad I was able to stand at the side and get a good view.

I nearly missed the last train back home - and was buzzing all the next day. It was my first experience of a Black Metal pagan folk night and I made Steve promise to hire me for the next one which he did.

Read the full story of the gig and see Sally’s video interviews and more photos at this link: www.metaltalk.net/201601113.php It’s A Big Folk You To The Unbelievers At The Underworld

45

METALTALK • MAY 2021

in his own words

not compete, I do not compare, I do not look for money, I do not look for success or fame.

Everything that happened to me in my whole fifty-year career just happened, simply because I wanted to be Michael Schenker.

Michael Schenker spoke at length with MetalTalk in February 2021 about his new album Immortal and his illustrious career.

Being described as old-school: Well, the thing is, first of all I am not old-school, I am Michael Schenker. I get my musical inspiration from the infinite spring of creativity, the inner world. I do not take from trends - if anything I created the trends.

I created something that most guitarists in the 80s copied, because it was unique. The reason it was unique was that I was not taking it from trends, I always go to the inner infinite spring of creativity, come up with something fresh and then inject it into the trend, otherwise the trend would have been dead long ago.

Basically, I am like a kid in a sandbox – just play and discover, having fun. I do

PHOTO: MICK BURGESS

So, I explained to Kirk Hammet why I play the Flying V and how I developed, because of the Flying V, and he said “Get out of here!” [laughs].

Working with UFO in the 70s:

You know, Kirk Hammet told me that when heard me playing, he had never heard anything like that before! So that is why I say it is not really old-school, it is just Michael Schenker music.

Phil Mogg was not a Metal singer, but the good thing about Phil’s singing was that, combined with my guitar playing, it created a unique style that was not there before.

Of course, I have been inspired by the old-school like Leslie West, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck then Rory Gallagher.

Of course, Pete Way on his bass with that charisma he had, and Andy Parker on his drums, a very fluent player. Paul Raymond, the fantastic colouring of those keyboards and of course Ron Nevison our producer and sixth member, as I always called him because he was so important.

They gave me this jump start, but early in life I realised there was something in myself. I knew who I was and what I wanted to do, to play and give people goosebumps and be happy!

michael schenker

they copied it.

Influencing a whole generation of guitarists: Well, it was guys like Dave Mustaine and Kirk Hammet and James Hetfield and Slash. I never knew I had such an impact on them until Kirk and Dave Mustaine explained it to me.

I mean, I must say that when I joined Nuclear Blast records, the head of Nuclear Blast, Markus Staiger, said to me “Michael, if you would have never been, he would have never been. Thrash Metal would never have existed”. I said “What? You must be joking” [laughs].

Now journalists are telling me that without you, Thrash Metal and Death Metal and all that, would have never been and by them telling me that, I kind of started to realise only then, that what I did with UFO was sort of Metal music, or at least something that did not exist that way before.

What I am trying to say is that if you take away Phil Mogg’s voice from some of those UFO songs, you can hear a lot of that Metal inference.

I mean I have always been a fan of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and those guys, but it was still a new step for the next generation.

They found it so unique and that is why 46

So it just had some chemistry, something you cannot learn from a book.

It happens or it does not, and it happened with UFO because of the unique combination.

If I would have stayed with UFO, they would have been one of the biggest bands in the world, but I had to go my own way. I was not chasing what they were chasing, fame or money or any of that stuff.

Remembering Pete Way: Pete Way was the most lovely guy I have known. We did a tour with Scorpions and UFO when I was sixteen and my dad invested in this huge PA system with twenty cabinets as a support band! So when we got to the venue for soundcheck we saw three UFO guys coming in and the first one that really stuck out was Pete Way. He jumped up, ran towards us and started greeting us all – what a lovely guy!

He was dressed up like an Indian, so much charisma and so friendly and sweet. I ended up playing as they did not have their guitarist, because he lost his passport and was looking for it in England! The crew had already left, so we were all stuck there at the venue in Germany.

METALTALK • MAY 2021 So, what shall we do? Cancel or ask Michael to play with Scorpions and UFO in the same night. I was very good at copying in those days and learning quick.

Today I’m useless, I can’t even copy my own music [laughs]. So we went into the bathroom, Pete told me their hour long set and I learned it with Pete – he was the one.

He was always a sweet person with so much rock’n’roll! He looked like a comic book figure; he was so naturally Pete Way. He was not the greatest bass player, but he had taste and the warmness of his playing and his charisma just enchanted people.

Unfortunately he went downhill, you know. Over fifty years I always tried to help him every three or four years.

I teamed up with him and tried to help him to move on. At High Voltage he was playing with us, but he just went down, he lost it.

I even had his doctor’s phone number to help, but I could not help Pete, he was too stuck in this pit and I felt so sorry he ended up there. I think it happened because he was such a vulnerable person and people took advantage of him. I think within himself he could not deal with it, he had to look for escapes and numb himself.

On The Scorpions and Lovedrive: They had a problem with the Lovedrive album, so they asked me to help them out. I actually wrote a song in 1976 when I was just twenty-one and it became a hit in America.

I got scared and ran away because I thought now this business is going to try and put me in a box to create hits.

Pete Way eventually convinced me to carry on with ‘Obsession’ and ‘Strangers In The Night’, then I was gone and Rudolph found out.

You have to remember they were about seven years older than me – imagine a three-year-old boy standing next to a ten year old [laughs].

I mean I started Lonesome Crowe that had ‘In Search of the Peace Of Mind’ which was my very first musical com-

position that I wrote by myself.

When I saw the credits it said “Michael Schenker music and lyrics, Rudolph Schenker lyrics” – how could we have written the lyrics when we had zero knowledge of English?

But, you know he tricked the people in America and I gave him a free run. I did not know it at the time, but I found out in 2015 when they approached me for The Scorpions box set and I heard the Lovedrive story, the lie they created, and it opened a can of worms.

Complete misinformation – it should I was so disappointed in Rudolph and have said “Michael Schenker music” from that moment I was shocked. Then I found out so much, because in my and whoever did the lyrics. middle years I went back because I I was being taken advantage of already. wanted something small. I found Gary They credited themselves for writing Barden - little ego and great voice - and the whole Lonesome Crow album with he joined me in the sandbox and we me when they never wrote any music! just had fun.

They did not know how to write, and Rudolph learned everything from me, So I gave Rudolph a lot of space to do and he carried on later when I left and all these tricks and distortion and they joined UFO. And then copied every- actually managed to make it [laughs].

I always said “more power to Rudolph” thing UFO did. because I was in my middle years folAnyway, I helped them out. I had a con- lowing my own vision, experimenting tract with them to do the album, just for with acoustic instrumentals and cover the love of Rudolph and Klaus, to help versions with great musicians. them because Matthias could not do it.

I could never have done that with UFO When America found out about it, they or The Scorpions, Ozzy Osbourne, Deep went nuts! I mean the management, the Purple, Motörhead, Phil Lynott or any promoters, the record company, every- of the guys who approached me. one went completely nuts and Rudolph It was tempting, but I had to do what I knew that – he was more of a manager had to do. I stayed true to myself. than a musician.

Is there hope for the future of Rock He always used me as a tool and be- and Metal? cause I was seven years younger, he had power over me and persuaded me Absolutely! Gene Simmons does not! to go his way. When I was fifteen or six- “Rock is dead” [laughs]. But not for me! teen I told him “why don’t you do what It is only just starting [laughs]. you want me to do yourself?” [laughs].

I opened the doors to America and they Actually UFO toured with Kiss near the left my picture out on the ‘Lovedrive’ beginning. The funny story is, as they are disguised and looking like puppets, album. after UFO and Kiss played this gig in I had a contract and they did it on pur- Chicago everyone was hanging out. pose.

So there was this guy with curly hair, They wanted to keep me in The Scorpi- and he said to me “Hey Michael, what ons to break through in America, but I do you think of Kiss?” I said “Oh bloody could not do it. I tried a couple of times rubbish!” He knew I did not recognise and I even had Rudolph crying on the who he was. It was Paul Stanley! phone, begging me “please stay” and I said “Rudolph I tried, I tried twice, I’m So later, when Scorpions played with Kiss in Munich, Rudolph saw Paul come sorry I can’t do it”. in and he called out “Paul! Nice to meet They were very angry with me and, as you! My brother thinks you guys are the a result of that, Rudolph adopted my greatest”. Paul said “Bullshit! He hates black and white Flying V, he has the us!” [laughs]. name Schenker, he looked a bit like me - he ended up distorting my image by creating a double [laughs].

• KAHMEL FARAHANI 47

PHOTO: JOHN INGLIS

METALTALK • MAY 2021

next issue - tracii guns

www.metaltalk.net 48