Bart's Blabbermouth News Thread

[slayrrr666]

Got the official Brainstorm track listing, plus cover art:

German metallers BRAINSTORM have revealed the cover artwork for their new album, "Downburst", due on January 25 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy and January 28 in the rest of the world via Metal Blade Records. The CD will be released as a regular jewelcase as well as in a limited edition jakebox (100% plastic-free) including two bonus tracks.

"Downburst" track listing:

01. Falling Spiral Down
02. Fire Walk With Me
03. Stained With Sin
04. Redemption In Your Eyes
05. End In Sorrow
06. How Do You Feel
07. Protect Me From Myself
08. Surrounding Walls
09. Frozen
10. All Alone
------------------
Bonus tracks (limited version):
11. Crawling In Chains
12. Hold Tight

Singer Andy B. Franck previously stated about the new CD, "Together with our producers Sascha Paeth and Miro we created the most intense and diverse album in our history. 'Downburst' shows a very different side of us and on the other hand listening to the album is like meeting with an old friend. All the songs have so much power and such a deep atmosphere I really never expected it could get that far. The songs are bigger and better than anything we have done before and we stretched our musical borders even more than we ever thought. 'Downburst' is by far our heaviest but most beautiful album as well as it is the album where we discovered ourselves in a new way!"

Cover Art:



www.roadrun.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=85207

[Quorthon]

Reminds me of Assassin's Creed.

(The video game.)

[slayrrr666]

I thought it looked like a ninja video game myself, although that's not a bad thing.

[slayrrr666]

Here's something you might get a kick out of:

www.roadrun.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=86681

[Bartwald]

Alrighty, I'm planning to be there for the Maidens!

As for Brainstorm: I listened to "Downburst" three times and am disappointed so far. The single "Fire Walk With Me" is great but the rest, well, is not so catchy and not so fresh. Three times is not enough, though - some albums get to me after, like, 10 listens, so we'll see.

[slayrrr666]

Hope you have fun at the tour (heard nothing but good things about it so far, but found out about it too late to go) as it should be fun.

I know what you mean about the repeated listens to get into an album. Mine's And Justice for All. I first got it about 3-4 years ago, listened to it for a little while but didn't think much of it and put it away. I didn't even put it on my computer's media players, so I didn't really think much of it until about 5 months ago. Found it by accident while cleaning up my room, decided to give it a try and found myself really liking it. Not my favorite album but it's a lot better now with several different times to get through it rather than one or two.

[slayrrr666]

Some good Edguy news:

Metal Asylum: What steps have you taken to make "The Scarecrow" [AVANTASIA's latest album] different from "The Metal Opera" parts 1 and 2, since those are similar in sound and style? Because "The Scarecrow" clearly offers more variety and sounds.

Tobias: The answer is I really didn't want to do a copy of parts 1 and 2. Plus, there was a five- or six-year gap between "Part 2" and "The Scarecrow" and of course within that time I was writing and able to gather experience. And the motivation behind this whole thing was the same as when I started AVANTASIA "The Metal Opera Part 1", which was I wanted to release a conceptual project with different singers and musicians that had a huge influence on me. But I didn't want to accept any boundaries and I did not want the success of the past two albums to change what direction this album was going in.

Metal Asylum: After doing AVANTASIA which is more orchestrated, do you see the new EDGUY songs going in a more straight ahead maybe harder direction?

Tobias: It's hard to say, I really don't think the motivation to my writing is to do things to make them deliberately different. I think these first few songs are certainly not as funny as "Rocket Ride". I mean, I like that album but it was maybe too funny and it seems to me now as far as production and performance it's my favorite of EDGUY. But I think the songs were pulling in different directions. Some people had the impression that it was a comedy album and we were a comedy band, which we are not. I think these new songs are really heavy, not in the terms of as fast as possible but great riffs.

Metal Asylum: Would you say they are sounding like "Mysteria" or "Nailed to the Wheel" then?

Tobias: No, maybe "Tears of the Mandrake" — even heavier but anthemic, that's what I want to hear from EDGUY. "Rocket Ride" had many aspects of the '80s, yes, but I think the song "Sacrifice" represented EDGUY in a very good way, and "Rocket Ride" could have been like "Spotlight Kid" from RAINBOW, then you have "The Matrix" which sounds very modern, and then "Wasted Time" which sounds like a FIREHOUSE song, and then "Asylum" which sounds like DIO, and "Catch of the Century" had a weird vibe to that. It was like a "best of the '80s" compilation. But I still love the album but we'll see with these new ones.

Metal Asylum: Michael Kiske (ex-HELLOWEEN) has said in the past that he has tried to remove himself from doing any more metal music. How was his attitude towards doing this project then? Did he enjoy the songs or did he see this as just a paycheck?

Tobias: Well, he certainly didn't do it for free and I certainly didn't ask him to, and he certainly turned down other offers that were really good that he didn't want to do. So I think it's just a matter of what he likes. I just think he just doesn't like some aspects in the metal scene. I had no problems working with him. I think, and this is my impression, that he doesn't like the fact that a lot of metal fans preach freedom of speech, freedom of taste, freedom of being an individual and at the same time they accuse you of commercially selling out as soon as you do something that they personally don't like. I think that's what really pisses him off and what caused him to make certain statements. You have to realize that it's just a few people that have that opinion. He offended like 100% of his fans (laughs) while he should have only addressed his comments to only like three percent of the idiots. [Laughs] But we have a great working and personal relationship and he never said anything to me about not wanting to do hard rock songs anymore.

There's more HERE

www.roadrun.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=90622

[slayrrr666]

Two seperate pieces of Edguy news this morning (it's the time when all this stuff starts coming in again, so hopefully I'll be able to have more here for you):

EDGUY singer Tobias Sammet has issued the following update on his AVANTASIA solo project:

"I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for your great support. 'The Scarecrow' is an album that means a lot to me and it was quite a commercial risk to just follow my heart instead of doing exactly what people expected. But if I take a look at the chart positions and sales — it went into the album charts in 16 countries, hitting the Top10 in four countries — it seems like you appreciate my honesty! Thank you!

Now preparing for the festival summer with AVANTASIA seems so surreal. AVANTASIA has never been on stage before and all of the sudden we are headlining the biggest festivals in the world, just been confirmed for the Sziget festival in Hungary on the 13th of August, playing amongst legendary bands such as R.E.M., DIE ÄRZTE, IRON MAIDEN and the SEX PISTOLS. Amazing!

"The AVANTASIA line up will be Jorn Lande (ex-MASTERPLAN), André Matos (ex-ANGRA), Amanda Somerville, Olli Hartmann, Bob Catley (MAGNUM — not all shows), Sascha Paeth, Miro, Robert Hunecke, Claudy Yang and Frank Lindenthal who is gonna replace Eric Singer who'll be playing with KISS. Despite all rumors Michael Kiske will not be there, as he didn't wanna do it and I respect that! We'll put on a huge epic show anyway. Nobody has done something like that before and I swear, nobody will ever forget the event, neither you nor us!!!"

www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=95720

And Part 2:

German melodic metallers EDGUY are preparing to enter the studio to begin recording the follow-up to 2006's "Rocket Ride".

Commented frontman Tobias Sammet: "People think that we are quite fast but that's not the truth. I completed the AVANTASIA album last autumn, the AVANTASIA songwriting itself was completed even way back in 2006. All the new ideas I've had since then could be taken for EDGUY. In fact, this is a long time to refresh your creativity and gather new stuff. The material sounds very fresh, it embraces all the different trademarks of EDGUY, I think it is a logical continuation of 'Rocket Ride' and 'Hellfire Club'. Maybe it doesn't come across as goofy as 'Rocket Ride', but I am sure if we have fun in the studio we'll have enough possibilities to ruin the day for notoriously bitter people, haha. Yet it's more bombastic and heavier, not too fast 'cause I really don't like pure speed metal that much anymore. I like 'Lavatory Love Machine', 'The Piper Never Dies', 'Mandrake' and 'Sacrifice'. There's three fast tracks, but they are all good, not 'just fast!' We'll enter the studio next week and work whenever producer Sascha Paeth and me come back from the AVANTASIA weekends."

www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=95716

[Bartwald]

Great news! Would love to see Avantasia on tour (just a pity Kiske won't be there) and the new Edguy album sounds better and better.

[slayrrr666]

Really agree there, especially as Rocket Ride has really grown on me recently. A couple of listens has put that one up in the top of their albums, and a continuation should be awesome.

[slayrrr666]

Here, Bart, I know you're a huge Whitesnake fan (I've heard a couple songs off the new album, and they're listenable for that style, in case you were wondering) so figured you might enjoy this:

Jeb Wright of Classic Rock Revisited recently conducted an interview with WHITESNAKE guitarist Doug Aldrich. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Classic Rock Revisited: You have been with a lot of different bands. How do you write in the style of Whitesnake?

Doug: This is similar to where I started off. My first recording band was back in the '80s called LION. We were not real well known. Our singer was a huge David Coverdale fan and he turned me onto a bunch of the early WHITESNAKE albums that had not been released in the United States at the time. It really turned out to be inspiration for LION because we were like a junior WHITESNAKE. When I worked with DIO, I wasn't able to bring in the bluesy elements as much because he is more metal — and that is the way it should be. When I got the call to work with David then I knew this was a really good opportunity and that I could bring something to the party.

Classic Rock Revisited: Coverdale has even said that this album has a lot of elements of early WHITESNAKE. I think this lineup of the band has you on one guitar for the blues and hard rock and Reb Beach there for the '80s flair.

Doug: Reb can play anything; he is a master. He went to the Berklee College of Music. If I don't know what chord I am playing all I have to do is ask Reb. Our styles complement each other. My roots are in the British blues and bands like ZEPPELIN and CREAM. Later on I got into southern rock. When David got out of PURPLE, then I thought WHITESNAKE had a southern rock vibe that I thought was really cool. I love early WHITESNAKE. There is a record that I know you know called "Come & Get It" that has a bunch of great tunes on it. We are going to cherry pick a couple of those tunes to play live. We dabbled with "Love Hunter" when we did it in a medley and that was fun. We have played "Take Me with You" which is a fun song to play live. I send David emails all the time and say, "Here is some food for thought. Let's play 'Child of Babylon'." He says, "Slow down. We can't take 'Here I Go Again' out of the set. If we can fit something in, then we will."

Classic Rock Revisited: You co-produced the album. Had you produced an album before?

Doug: I had not. When the whole home recording thing came on then everybody started to do stuff at home and that kind of puts you in the production chair because you are making decisions on how the song is going to go and how it is going to sound. We kind of slipped into that production thing. The Brutal Brothers produced this WHITESNAKE CD and they are David, Michael McIntyre and myself. I would do one part of the production and if I got stuck then Michael would do it. David is the governor and he would come in and say that he liked this or that, or that we needed to do something different. It was like having three different producers. It took us a little longer to get done. We knew what we wanted it to sound like, I am not going to say that we got it 100%, but we got close.

Classic Rock Revisited: How difficult is David to work with when it comes to not compromising?

Doug: He doesn't compromise and that is what makes him who he is. I love that about him. The worst thing is when you have something and you work really hard on it and then someone just goes, "Oh, it will be find. Don't worry about it." He is all for making sure that everything is right. We were hard on each other on whatever we happened to be working on, whether it was a drum program or something we were writing. We really pushed each other. David is not difficult at all; he just wants it to be the best it can be. He has WHITESNAKE's best interest at heart and that is good enough for me.

Classic Rock Revisited: Where did [drummer] Tommy Aldridge go?

Doug: The short story is that there was a scheduling conflict. Originally we wanted to write and record the record by the end of last summer. The record took longer than expected. We needed to get into the studio to properly record the songs with the band and Tommy couldn't make it. Unfortunately, we had to move forward. We had written a lot of the drum parts with him in mind and we had to restructure that for the new drummer, Chris Frazier. We knew were going to miss Tommy but when we got in the studio with Chris then we knew we were going to be okay. Chris brings a groove like Ian Paice used to bring to WHITESNAKE. You can't replace Tommy as he is a legend but Chris brings something different. We did a couple of weeks in Australia last month and Chris was amazing. He can play this stuff with one hand tied behind his back. He is a great guy to hang with on the road as well.

Classic Rock Revisited: How did Coverdale get you away from DIO? Was it just money?

Doug: Everyone thinks that it is all about money but you don't do the music for the money. You won't be able to survive if you are just going for the quick dollar. I was wrapping up a tour with Ronnie and David called and told me that he was reforming WHITESNAKE for a 25th anniversary tour. He told me that it was going to be a couple of months long. I was free and I told him that I would do it. I have been a fan of David since he was in DEEP PURPLE and I really wanted to do it. Ronnie was cool with it. The tour went on and it was going really well and David and I hit it off. Eventually, David asked me to join permanently. It was very innocent on David's part. He wanted to put together a cool band for the tour and that is all his intentions were. He wanted a guitar player that he could envision in WHITESNAKE and I was that guy.

There's more of the interview HERE

www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=96228

[Bartwald]

Haven't read that one before - thanks for posting it here, slayrrr.

I like Whitesnake a lot - both their early, bluesy albums and the later "US metal" stuff. I never was a fan of either Doug Aldrich or Reb Beach, but I think they did very good job playing on the new album, some very good tracks there. I can't yet say whether it's going to be one of my faves from the band, but the first impression is really cool.

[slayrrr666]

I actually like their "US Metal" stuff, it's a guilty pleasure I admit and they were one of the very first bands that I knew of when I was getting into music, and while I'm probably never going to purchase of CD of their's, if I hear a song of theirs I probably won't change the station or turn it down. Along with Dokken, they're the only Hair Metal bands I can say that about.

And I feel the same way about the new album. There's been some samples I've heard and they're definitely pretty good for the style. I'm not a huge follower, but they're pretty good.

[Bartwald]

Dokken's new album ("Lightning Strikes Twice") is pretty good, too, by the way, though not as fine as Whitesnake's. I actually like Dokken's voice now better than when he was younger. One crappy ballad kinda stinks up the rest of the new tracks, unfortunately.

[slayrrr666]

I've only heard the title track on that one, so I can't comment on the album.