Bloody Times brings back former members of Manowar & Iced Earth

In many metal megazines you can find from time to time articles about past members of well known bands. Where are they now ? - that's what the main question is all about.

These days I got a info that one former member of Iced Earth picked up the microphone to help a new project to grow further. "Bloody Times" was basically a one man project of Simon Pfundstein on bass guitar supported by Raphael Saini (ex Iced Earth) on drums. John Greely joined the combo already in 2015. He is known for his vocals on the "Night of the stormrider" record of Iced Earth.

The cover for Bloody Time's upcoming single "Alliance"

Guitars on the track "Alliance" will be provided by no one else but the well known Ross The Boss, ex member of Manowar  who can be heard on the first six albums of the true metal icons. Here's a first sneak peak on the upcoming single "Alliance" taken of the upcoming full length "On a mission".

How does the rest of the track sound like? 
While the song “Alliance” starts very softly and calm, after about a minute the hard and heavy sound kicks in. Again, Raphael Saini is supporting the act with his pounding drums. A short while into the song, John Greely starts his performance with an impressive heavy metal scream. He is proving once again the wide range of his vocal spectrum like he did many years ago with Iced Earth during the memorable "Night of the Stormrider" era. High tunes or low tunes, hard or soft, John Greely can do them all. Today, better than ever, he sings for his own band Seventh Servant and is the main singer of Bloody Times since 2017.

The single is exclusively available for pre-order / registration on CD (limited edition, including two bonus tracks). A digital release has not been announced yet - this possibly makes it even more "old school".

Follow the project further on Facebook.

Interview with Eternal Voyager (2015)

Introduction

Eternal Voyager came to me as a sort of good surprise. Being someone who grew up with the old classic bands from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal I always loved the old style that these bands represent with their classic songs. Just think of Judas Priest with their Screaming for Vengeance album or Iron Maiden's Piece of mind.

Of course times have changed ever since. It's good to see things evolve - these days productions sound very different, much brighter, heavier and often brutal. But it's always running through my head that I still love the old way of doing records.

Eternal Voyager seems to be the answer to what I am longing for. They keep their traditionell Power Metal in the old fashioned way of songwriting and production. For example there are songs on their album "The Battle of Eternity" that repeat the theme that is presented at the beginning of the track at the very end of it again. I instantly had to think of the old Omen albums again.

Eternal Voyager 2015, (c) by Eternal Voyager used with kind permission

I gave the album some spins and was so curious to find out more about them that I asked the band for a interview. I am glad guitarist and vocalist Brian Blake took the time to answer my questions in a very extended way. Get to know more about how the album came together, the myterious man on the front cover of the album and what they are going to do next.

The Interview

Heavy Metal Underdogs: 
The production on the CD sounds very oldschool. I love this, today's albums are often overproduced in my eyes/ears. I grew up with the old sound so I prefer it. Was the old-school production form something you had clearly on your mind as you went into the studio or how did it all come together?

Brian Blake:
It was a natural thing that happened it wasn’t really planned but it came out that way because of the producer’s style. I too enjoy the old school sound and production to albums. But this time around it was not planned out this way. Of course there are a lot things I would like to change but it captured the songs well enough.

The band underwent a lot of line-up changes and is already around since 1998. How did you manage to keep up the motivation?

It went through a lot of lineup changes for various reasons mostly because many people just didn’t make the cut or ended up with life and musical differences, which is a natural thing that happens. It has never been easy because I have been the original member having to carry the weight of the band through all of it and it was very hard; there were many times that I wanted to give up but I kept going. This new lineup has given me a newfound hope and positive outlook on the future of this band. The album itself finally getting recorded was very motivating and gave me more confidence because prior to that we never had the right people all of those years and I was never successful in getting a good professional recording done.

Did the fans maybe also took part in this by constantly requesting new shows or recordings?

Yes there were a few that followed us somewhat distantly through the years but we made a lot more new fans when the album came out because it was a solid recording . For about 4 years before the making of the album we had a big gap of silence due to lineup complications and member issues.

As for the lyrics of "The Battle of Eternity" - does it have a concept behind it? Is there also a relation to the cover artwork?