Single Preview: VIMIC - In Your Shadow, Reunion show and Album release

After drummer Joey Jordison departed from Slipknot in late 2013, he shifted his focus to various other ventures. One of these projects, Scar the Martyr, released a self-titled album before disbanding, with some of its members going on to create a new band called VIMIC. 

Photo credit: Horrible Herbert

The initial lineup of VIMIC included Jordison on drums, Kalen Chase as the vocalist, Jed Simon and Kris Norris on guitars, Kyle Konkiel on bass, and Matthew Tarach on keyboards.  

VIMIC released four singles from the project between May 2016 and October 2017: “Simple Skeletons,” “She Sees Everything,” “My Fate,” and “Fail Me (My Temple),” the last of which featured Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine.

On August 8th 2025 a new single is going to be released called "In Your Shadow". Heavy Metal Underdogs has been lucky enough to hear the new track and has been blown away by it's intensity. It all starts with the dark and evolving guitar riff. Drums come in and bring the music into movement. A first climax comes with the refrain bringing the vocals to higher emotional points. "In Your Shadow" moves further with guitars performing a solo bridge that leads into a faster riffing section with the vocals keeping the tension up. A slow intermission brings the whole song a bit down before the final section blows it out with a powerful hard riff attack and midtempo drums bringing in fresh wind into this great track. You can pre-save the new music on https://ffm.to/vimic_inyourshadow

Open Your Omen is VIMIC's only album that has been completed and shelved since 2016. VIMIC will be reuniting for the first time since 2018 in conjunction with the album's release on October 3rd, 2025.  

The reunion show will take place at Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles (USA), the Joey Jordison Charitable Fund will not only honor Jordison’s memory but also celebrate the release of the album. Tickets are available from https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/090062C2BD8915A3

VIMIC will be supported by Wednesday 13 (who worked with Jordison in Murderdolls) along with some very special guests; there will be exclusive event merchandise available. 

The band’s first album, Open Your Omen, was first expected to be released in 2018. Produced by Jordison and Kato Khandwala (The Pretty Reckless, Pop Evil), progress came to a standstill in 2018. Khandwala tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident on April 25, 2018, and Jordison, Konkiel, and Simon shifted their focus to Sinsaenum, Bad Wolves, and Imonolith, respectively. Jordison sadly passed away on July 26, 2021, further delaying the plans on the album.

After years of working to secure the rights to the music, the Jordison Family Estate is releasing Open Your Omen independently to get the album into the hands of the fans that have been asking for it for years. You can still contribute late pledges to the Kickstarter campaign HERE. 

In a December 2016 interview with Shockwave Magazine, the late and famed Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison discussed the making of his other project VIMIC’s first album: "The way we wrote 'Open Your Omen', is exactly like how a garage band would do their demo tape. We went all the way back to the basics, and it was cool doing it like that because you didn't have the influence of your label, and the huge studio, and cars, hotels, and fancy dinners, all this b—---- that goes on along with being in the record industry. It was done literally in my home, organic, and we went out just to the studio not too far from my house and we just laid it down there. So, it was pretty much born in my home and then we just cruised up to the studio and just laid it down really quick."

Let's speak with...Raddar (First Melodic Hard Rock Band from Texas, 2020)

When I first heard of Melodic Hard Rock band Raddar I couldn't believe my eyes. The band released their debut album after having recorded the basics for the songs fourty years ago. "Transmission" was originally recorded in 1978 in a time when Hard Rock was doing the very first steps.

Raddar performing live. Band Photo by Brian Hubbard

The chance to discover them was like having a time machine. It brought me back to the roots of heavy music. Why did it took that long to release it? How did it all come together? And what are the guys behind the diverse longplayer with 17 blistering tracks doing these days?

More than enough exciting reasons to talk to Razar King (Bass, Guitar, Vocals) and Randee Lee (Vocals, Guitar, Organ) of the band about their Compact Disc in 2020. They kindly gave an in-depth behind the scenes look on transfering the old material, completing it and finally finding a proper way to release it physically as well as digitally.

Before continue reading make sure to open the official Raddar website in a new tab. You can listen to one full track there. It fits well in the background while reading what the guys had to say about the exciting travel back in time.

Heavy Metal Underdogs: Was there something that made you start playing music - maybe a special life event etc. ?
Randee:I actually started recording at around 6, archiving TV shows on my mother's mini Sony reel to reel tape recorder. So the recording side was there from an early age...I had a 3rd grade teacher who realized I had a gift of writing what would later become lyrics and fast forward to the teen age years when I realized all the records I was buying were for the guitar parts. That led to my desire to play guitar and of course after hearing Mountain's Mississippi Queen it was a lock! When I met RAZAR, a fellow musician endowed with the same guitar fervor as myself, a match made in Heaven was established. The rest is history!

Razar:Hearing Foxy Lady and Crosstown Traffic by Hendrix on local radio is what initially started the fire in me. Several of my friends were taking guitar instruction classes in school, so I thought I would have the same teacher show me how to play bass guitar. Everyone was learning guitar and there were no bass players. He was teaching Beatles, Monkees, Beach Boys and that sort of music, so I opted to learn about the bass from him and then go home and put on records to learn how to play the kind of music I loved. I must have played through Humble Pie's Rockin' The Fillmore and Grand Funk's On Time and Red Album a hundred times! I remember the specific event that got me on guitar-my father was listening to me play the bass and made the comment "It's hard to tell what song you are playing" and I thought to myself that it would be easier to play tunes people knew if I was on guitar instead of bass. Next thing I knew I had a '59 Gibson Les Paul and a Marshall Super Lead half stack and was hammering out the chords! I used Yesterday And Today (Y&T) and early UFO to teach myself the basics of rock guitar. Michael Schenker and Tony Iommi became my heroes and much of my lead playing still sounds like them to this day!

HMU: Do you had to fight with technical problems while recording the songs? I think studios and producers weren't familar with that style back in the 70s in the United States.
Randee: Being the archivist I was from an early age we were fortunate that I kept all of the original recordings from all those years ago. I think the problem we really faced looking back was that there was no one really steering the bus in the recording sessions. We went in and recorded all those tunes in one take live,  just as we played them but never really really finishing any of them. Strangely, the technical problems were not uncovered until after digitizing the catalog and finally taking a good hard listen to what we had. I think originally we were recording on 8 tracks which seems maybe archaic to today's standards but we might as well have been working at NASA in our minds...lol. We ultimately had to deal with all the drums being on 2 tracks and bass tracks not being recorded well at all. Fast forward to today we had the opportunity in my recording studio to flesh out, fix and complete the songs as they should have been.

Razar:Studio engineers back in the late 70's referred to our sound as "rugged" and "heavy duty" since they had never heard anything like us. I don't think people quite knew what to do with us since we weren't the watered down RNR sound that was popular in Texas during those days. Randee and I were able to get the tones heard on Transmission by playing our Marshall and Sound City amps wide open on 10 and running them through attenuators to bring the volume down. That way we had "our sound" no matter where we were recording. We weren't so fortunate with the original bass tracks. When we digitized the analog tapes a few years ago and gave the songs a listen for the first time in decades the bass guitar tracks were thin sounding and distorted. We knew we couldn't use them, so I had to record new bass guitar tracks on all 17 songs. I tried to be true to the original spirit of the songs wherever I could.

 Razar King and Randee Lee always pushed forward to make "Transmission" become a reality. Photo Credit: Jeannie King

HMU: How did Gary Priest (the drummer on the "Transmission" sessions) join the band?
Randee: I will yield to my most honorable colleague RAZAR for this one as I personally don't recall our initial meeting but I do remember rehearsing and discovering that we had commonalities in musical tastes in certain bands of the day. Very prolific drummer for those times. His chops were amazing and I'm sure they still are. There wasn't anything that we threw at him that he couldn't handle.

Razar: OK, I'm reaching way back in my memories for this one. Best I can recall, my wife was friends with a guy named Monty, and he had a brother named Phil. Phil was friends with Gary Priest, the original drummer, and word made it's way to Gary that Randee and I were in need of a drummer. Gary was the best drummer I had ever seen. He was a student of a world famous school for jazz drummers when we found him. Through much technical wizardry in mixing and mastering Randee was able to keep Gary's original drums.

HMU: Did you have to re-record parts of the old material or was everything in good condition at the time you transfered the tracks to the digital format?
Randee: I briefly touched on that in a previous question but I will elaborate a bit further. The short answer is no, not all was well when we finally dove into the material. Miraculously, the tapes themselves had survived really well. We did have to go through the whole tape baking process and we did have a great engineer (Jeff Mount) that was an awesome archivist at a studio that still had machines that could play these very old tapes. He took great care in saving the recordings and digitizing them so we could bring them back to my studio. From there we embarked on a rather long and arduous journey of taking stock of where we were at with them and where they needed to go recording and song wise to get to where we are today. In the long run some lyrics were rewritten or scrapped all together in favor of new story lines. Some guitars were updated as some songs did change along the way. As I had mentioned before, new bass tracks were added due to the original tracks being recorded very poorly and not salvageable plus, some songs changed due to rewrites. I ended up replacing the original vocals due in part to us not being able to get the original vocalist  on board, and with the new updates we wanted to have a consistent vocal presentation on the record. A tremendous amount of work went into the restoration of the original recordings to get the final product where it is now.

Razar: It was fun doubling guitar parts that I hadn't played in 40 years! As stated before, all the bass tracks were re-recorded. But, the guitar tracks transferred to digital quite nicely. Since there were some new arrangements due mainly to re-writing lyrics it was necessary to hammer out power chords here and there, and Randee and I added new solos where necessary. But, we were able to keep the songs very true to their original state and most solos are coming out of the original Marshall and Sound City stacks.

HMU: Why didn't you already release the album back in the 70's/80's?
Randee: I think RAZAR and I asked ourselves this same question numerous times during the making of this record. Unfortunately we don't have an answer except that we just never seemed to finish any of the recordings as we would now or maybe we thought they were finished as they were recorded how we played. Once again no real producer at the helm at the time and  we had a very limited budget that we were working with. No backers...lol. We just did not have access to the record business that we would have needed at the time until 40 years later when a label did come knocking after finding a long lost demo.on another band's tape. We opted to self release.

Razar: I've wondered ever since these songs were written if we could have been a part of the rise of hard rock/metal (Rods, Riot, KISS, Motley Crue) in the USA. Looking back I think if we had management with vision that could have placed us in the flow of NWOBHM coming from Europe we could have been the band opening for Priest in the states (like Kick Axe and Great White) or playing at Donnington (like Pantera in their early days). IF we had released an album in '79 or especially in '80-'82 I know it certainly would have increased our chances! Unlike self releases of today, one still had to go through "the machine" and catch a record company's attention back then. We were heavy rock and might have been ahead of our time musically for the year 1979.

Raddar finally released their material after 40 year, Photo Credit: Jeannie King

HMU: Did you also listen to psychodelic music at the time of the recordings?
Randee: I don't think that would have been my playlist during these days...maybe a bit earlier as I listened to a lot of music, very broad based in terms of genres...rock, folk, psych, prog, hard rock, metal, lots of guitar music and even early Christian rock music such as Petra. I was very into songs and bands that featured crunching guitars and organ with great vocals.

Razar: I listened to Hot Tuna and Jefferson Airplane with Papa John Creach, Iron Butterfly, Nektar.

HMU: What happened after you finished recording the "Transmission" album?
Randee: Took a break...lol! No really we just kind of took a step back and did a victory dance as we realized that we finally had the finished product in our hands. A completed project with finished songs, new art work by Nello DelOmo from italy and the physical tangible product. A great feeling.

Razar:I've heard artists say they can't listen to their finished product after being in the studio hashing out the nuts and bolts of getting the songs recorded. Not the case with me! I love these songs, not because we wrote and recorded them, but because they are really good songs that are easy to listen to AND THEY ROCK. I've listened to Transmission almost daily since we finished it, and my interest is renewed each time someone local or abroad tells me how much they enjoy it. These aren't 17 cookie cutter songs-they are different. We followed no known patterns when we wrote or recorded these songs. They truly came from our love of what we wanted to hear. After the disc was finished I immediately began contacting people and radio stations worldwide who promote this kind of music. The next release will be a bit heavier and I'll do it all over again unless we get picked up by a distribution company.

HMU: Do you still create music these days?
Randee: Very much so. I am writing all the time. I have several solo projects that are scheduled for release plus RAZAR and I already have most of a new RADDAR record in the can and ready to go with a couple more on the drawing board.  Since I have a studio I have produced a few records for other artists and logged several tunes on Texas radio with one in use by the Dallas Cowboys football team. It has been in my blood for a long time. Between RAZAR and myself we have veritable cornucopia of plectrum fueled musical escapades in storage waiting to be unleashed.

Razar: Well said! I have 360 songs sitting on my desktop waiting for their turn, and that doesn't include the songs Randee and I are working on together for Raddar. I have several recording side projects. A doom metal band, a traditional power/heavy metal band, and even a country/hard rock project. No grass growing under these feet. I've always been a metal head and never tire of cranking the amps, and I have 20 of them I can crank!

Maybe more material of the band will show up in the future. Photo Credit: Jeannie King

HMU: Where can the people purchase your music?
Randee: At this time it is only available on our website at www.raddartheband.com. We are actively seeking outside distribution for the States and overseas. We would love to hear from everyone!!

Razar: Having distribution outside the states would reduce the cost of our cd's, posters, and t-shirts to other countries, so we hope to arrive at that end shortly.

Randee and Razar: Thanks for your interest in our music and for giving us the opportunity to chat with you!!!

Make sure to follow Raddar on Facebook to keep track of the next steps of the band.

Chris Poland to release new solo album in 2020

The music that Chris Poland put out while he was playing the guitar for thrashers Megadeth has become iconic. A little lesser known is that he released a solo album in the time after the departure.This text tells the story of that time. It is a long read but all worth it - it's sort of mini-biography and holds many details unknown to me so far.

The very end of the text reveals that a brand new solo record will see the light of day in 2020. Let's have our fingers crossed that everything will turn out well until then.

Says Poland, “I was out of Megadeth, and went through rehab and had gotten clean. I had no gear, and I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to ever play guitar again. Friends started bringing me gear; guitars, amps, pedals, telling me, “you have to play again.” So, I started playing. Andy Sommers, Megadeth’s agent, heard I was clean and doing well, and the Circle Jerks needed a bassist, so I toured with them for over a year, playing bass. And while I was doing that, I was in the back of a 16-passenger van, writing the songs that would become Return to Metalopolis.”

“I didn’t have a drummer, so I asked my brother Mark to play on it. I said, “We’re gonna make a record, and I need you to play drums.” He agreed, and we started doing demos. Janie Hoffman shopped it and we got a really good deal with Capitol Records, but shortly after we did the deal, for whatever reason, we get a call from the A&R guy who says they can’t do the deal on Capitol, but they offered me a deal on Enigma. So that’s where it came out.”

Poland continues, “I just feel like it’s timeless. I don’t listen to it and think that it’s some dated 80’s bullshit. It’s not like that for me. Of course, I’m super close to it, and I love it, but I really feel like it has held up well.”

The cover of Chris Poland's "Return To Metalopolis".

The Return to Metalopolis reissue will be released on November 22nd on double CD, and digital, and in December on limited edition double LP, and Cassette, remastered with bonus material, including live tracks that originally appeared on the out of print 2007 release Return to Metalopolis Live, plus 3 brand new tracks recorded in 2019, featuring the rhythm section of Carlos Cruz and Chase Bryant of Warbringer.

Pre-order now at the following location: http://empmerch.com/?submit=&s=chris+poland&post_type=product

Note of the author of the blog: The link seems to be down at the moment. Not sure what's happening there but no other link is available right now. As soon as I have more info I'll add it here.
Update 10/30/19: The page is back online again.

After over a decade with Metal on the backburner, despite guest appearances with Lamb of God, Tourniquet, Redemption, and more, with Poland focusing his energy on playing and recording with his Jazz fusion trio OHM, which also featured late former Megadeth drummer Nick Menza, and the Chris Poland Resistance, another fusion project being released by the eclectic Modern Jazz-centric Ropeadope Records, Poland has also announced work on the long-awaited follow up to METALOPOLIS, to be released in 2020 on COMBAT.

“I never really got away from Metal, I’ve always been a Rock guy. And even the stuff we do with Ohm is really heavy and dynamic. But when I started playing with Nick (Menza) he really put a fire under my ass to write new, heavy music. I was over at his house every night after work, my wife told me I was having a “bro-mance”, but I couldn’t stop writing songs. Nick and I had hooked up with James Lomenzo (ex-Megadeth, White Lion), and we were actually going to start a band together, which didn’t work out, but I had literally hours and hours of ideas for songs that me and Nick were going to do together when he passed away. Now I’m working on putting them all together for a new solo release that will also come out on Combat.”

Darkwell give in-depth look into making of videos

Music videos have a long tradition and they have evolved from simple videos to mini-movies. But how are these clips created and what does it take to put them together? It's rare that these questions are answered. Most times you find such making of's on DVD's at the bonus material section.

Female fronted Symphonic metallers Darkwell have given us now a extensive look behind the scenes. The band made two high quality clips for the tracks "Yoshiwara" and "Moloch" both centered around the Metropolis movie theme.

Find out how the band brought the unreal world of the movie to life and what else happened in the five days the clips were shooted. Besides much work you'll also spot some funny scenes and have fine Darkwell music with it. More info on the band and purchase links for their latest album "Moloch" can be found on Facebook.

Dancehall to put out post punk on pea green cassettes

This one reminds me so much of how I got hold of my first demo tapes. I used to buy them directly of the hands of band members mostly at shows or when you meet them after school.

The inner sleeve was often handemade based on xeroxed copies made by the musicians themselves. All the music was stored on magnetic tapes that were dubbed by the creators of the music on their home equipment later on also on professionelly produced and printed cassettes.

These guys here called Dancehall have some sort of heavily distorted post punk in the pipe. The recording process came with some nice details that show how quick and raw you can keep things if you want them to. But best of all just have a listen to them while reading the making of.

Owing to the band's obsession with recording songs as quickly as possible, 'KO' and B-side 'Vitamins' were both recorded in one evening at the band's rehearsal space, Kluster Rooms, by friend, producer and co-Vibe/Anti-Vibe label manager, Christopher Smith. The band slept in the studio's live room once recording was completed, only to turn up the next day to their respective jobs unclean but accomplished.

A promo band shot of Dancehall, Photo Credit: Keira Cullinane

The songs will be self released on the band's own Vibe/Anti Vibe label. The fresh tunes will come self dubbed onto pea green cassettes and with risograph printed artwork on candy pink card sleeves for Cassette Store Day 2017. You can order them on Dancehall's Bandcamp page. Release date is October 14 2017 for the digital version, the tapes should ship on or around the same day.

Live dates

October 2017

13 - The Lock Tavern, Camden

14 - TBC, Amsterdam, Netherlands

15 - Roodkapje, Rotterdam, Netherlands

17 - TBC, Bristol

20 - Harbour Arm, Folkestone

More info of the band can be found on Facebook or Instagram.

A Place To Fall are looking for a rehearsal room

It's sad to see band's often have to suffer to find a place where they can create and rehearse their musical expressions. The same thing happend to the post Hardcore formation A Place To Fall.

They are currently looking for a new place to rent in the area of Lingen / Meppen (Lower Saxony) in Germany. If you have something to offer or know of somebody who has please don't hesitate to get in touch with the band on Facebook. Serious offers only please.

The band recorded one last video at their old rehearsal room. It's the album opener "Your Fall". Make sure to see the full video because the end has a nice making of and some funny scenes showing the moments when things didn't fit at every single note...

Corners Of Sanctuary show how Dreams sound like

Take chances when they come across in your life. At least as long as they include something good for you. That's what I would recommend to people out there thinking about this topic.

Corners Of Sanctuary recently had the chance to break out of the band's sound formula. This may sound strange for a band rooted in the traditional Metal sector but I like to see band's leaving their boundaries behind and daring to go new ways. It's impressive to hear a spectrum of feelings in it. The drums stand out a bit. It's not often that I've heard double bass drums on a slower track but here it works to my surprise. Read on and find out how that new song "Dreams" came to life and listen while reading. It's a longer read but well worth it.

"We wanted to try something different," said Mick Michaels, the band's founder and guitarist. "I had the opportunity to work with Kayla last year while producing Powerless Rise's first album. I knew she would make a great fit for the direction this song was meant to go in," he continued.

Breaking out of the routine
The song is a strong departure from the band's usual delivery of the modern classic heavy metal sound. "I think we managed to maintain our signature traditional style. It's definitely COS. We just tweaked the formula a bit to create another layer of the band's personality. You can't be afraid to take chances," Michaels added. “This is a sweet track! It actually strikes a nice balance between catchy hooks and the usual Heavy Metal sound. I think people will love it,” said Jason McGathey, President of Exquisite Noise Records regarding the new single.

The artwork of the new Corners Of Sanctuary single "Dreams", (c) by Corners Of Sanctuary, used with kind permission

Lyrics co-written with Drummer Mad T
Inspired by a friend as a challenge to do something different, Michaels wrote the music but co-penned the song's lyrics with drummer Mad T. "After the music was demoed, I asked T what he thought and if he had any ideas for the arrangement. He said he really liked it and handed me some lyrics he had already written. They fit. We did some rewrites and adjusted the arrangement... T wrote the bulk of the lyrics, I just COSified them," Michaels explained. “The lyrics were actually written a few years back,” states COS drummer Mad T. “When I heard the song, I knew immediately they would work. I’m absolutely blown away with how this song turned out. The combination of Kayla and the music. The song literally feels like a dream!” he added with a smile.

Status of upcoming album
"Dreams" comes on the heels of the band's recent completion of their "yet-to-be-released" fifth studio album, "The Galloping Hordes". The album, which began recording in late 2016, was being worked on in between the band’s hefty live date schedule and is slated to release this Fall.

"We are hoping to get the album out later this year. But there's no rush," said bassist James Pera. "We have a lot of stuff going on at the moment and when the time is right, it will be released," he added.

A promo shot of Corners Of Sanctuary done on a cold winter day, (c) by Corners of Sanctuary, used with kind permission

Song originally planned as Duet
When asked how he felt about having another singer take the lead for this single, current front man Frankie Cross quickly responded, "This band has done so much for me both personally and professionally. I am beyond grateful. For this song, we talked about doing a duet. I know that's what Mick originally had in mind for the song. But after hearing Kayla's recorded tracks, we knew immediately that having her voice as the lead was the right way to go. As a band we couldn't be happier with the way the song turned out."

In a recent interview on The Keep it Metal Show, the band talked about their consideration for releasing a video for the song in the coming months. “Some initial concept pieces have already been put together for a possible video. More so to give the song an even deeper complexity. But we will see. Like James said, we have a lot of stuff going on at the moment," commented Michaels.

“Dreams” is available on multiple online platforms such as iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify among others as well as on the COS website www.cornersofsanctuary.com/musiccatalog.html.

The song is also currently in full rotation on Digital Revolution Radio: www.digitalrevolutionradio.com.

Upcoming Tourdates
Look for Corners of Sanctuary this November as they make their way to California for The American Metal Mayhem Tour, November 3rd – 12th, sponsored by Metal Babe Mayhem.

September 22 - Coal Mine Taproom– St. Clair, PA.
(with Threatpoint)

September 23 - The New Penny – Scranton, PA
(with Threatpoint)

November 6 – The Rainbow Bar & Grill – West Hollywood, CA
(with Kantation & Taipan)

November 11 - The House of Metal at Malones – Santa Ana, CA
(with Resistance)

November 12 – C4CORadio.net – Santa Ana, CA
(In studio performance & interview)

More Dates TBA, check the band's website or Facebook page for updates.

Thrash metal opera about Poe's The Raven released by Chris Violence

Have you ever heard of a epic 34 minute long performed in the thrash genre? Neither did I. So it did more than surprise me that there is someone out there that made a attempt to do exactly this.

A collaboration of six people around the globe brought together by vocalist Chris Violence made this happen and not only did they work on the musical side of the track but he also added the epic theme of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" to the music which gives trying this out a even more thrilling touch.

It's nearly unbelieveable that he share's the song as a free download both in mp3 and also wave format available from his homepage. If you prefer to listen plus reading the lyrics all the while I've got the official lyric video here for you.

Finally it's one of the seldom times that the creator of the music gives a epic insight into how the music came together. That's something I've ever wanted to get to know and this time we can finally have a look into the making of in detail. Please take the time to read the following it's a quite long story but worth holding on 'till the very end. Just one more for all those you dislike reading: make sure to follow Chris Violence via his own blog, Twitter, Facebook or Youtube account.

"At the end of 2014 and following the release of the "American Ripper" album, Jon Du Bose and I were already talking about what was next. He had an idea for a concept album / EP that would be five parts, would be recorded as one long track and broken into five pieces later on when I wrote the lyrics for them all. Along with this five part concept idea, he recorded what would become the song "Push Button Pain".

Jon then went to work on this five part mega track. He feverishly worked away, giving me updates as he went. He was like a ravenous dog, tearing through the writing and recording process. Once he started, there was no stopping him. What he presented me in February 2015 was simply insane! It was a twisted Speed Thrash epic on a proportion I had never heard before. It was meant to be five parts that all linked together. The pieces congealed at the end bringing all the pieces back together again.

Once he handed it to me, I began listening to it. All 23 plus minutes of it. It was a beast! Speed Metal riffs to end all Speed Metal riffs. Guitar picking so precise and clean. This piece of music demonstrates once again what an amazing guitar player / bass player / song writer / composer Jon Du Bose really is. But what to do with it all? How do I digest it and find a subject big enough and worthy enough to be added to such a piece of music? Where would the breaks go? I was stymied.

The cover of the epic Thrash metal opera "The Raven", (c) by Chris Violence, used with kind permission

Next, enter Maxxxwell Carlisle (lead guitarist of Hellion). In 2015, while doing my "Traveling Damnation Show" on Metal World Radio, I interviewed Maxxxwell while he was promoting his current album. Off the air, I asked him if there was a chance he would be interested in putting a solo on one of Jon and I’s upcoming tracks. Even though I had nothing with vocals on it, I couldn’t pass up the chance to have Maxxxwell on something! I sent him a few tracks, including what was then tentatively called “5 Realms”, Jon’s mega epic. I figured Maxxxwell would pick something simple and short, but instead he went all in with “5 Realms”. At the time he was on the road with Hellion, so I wasn’t sure how or when he would get me a solo back, let alone where in the track it would be. I continued to work on other songs, still thinking of a subject that would be worthy of this massive body of music when I received an email from Maxxxwell with the track with the solo attached. I had no idea where in the song it would be, so my first listen was with open ears. He chose one of the most unlikely (to me) spots in the track. A section in the first one third of the song that is slow and moody and he nailed it. I’m not sure anyone could have found a way to blend into the expression Jon laid out, but it is perfect. In a track with so much going on, he found a way to add to it without stepping on it. Simply amazing!

But what do I do with the vocals?

Rewind back a year or so, before Jon recorded this monster…While surfing YouTube I stumbled across Christopher Walken reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”. I thought it was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard. I remembered briefly speaking to Jon about the ridiculous idea of doing that as a song. But as quickly as the idea popped into my head, I dismissed it. With Jon being in North Carolina and I in California, it would just be too huge of an undertaking and with that, the idea was gone.

Still facing a lack of subject matter, idea’s came and went. Lyrical concepts were started and stopped, started and stopped. Nothing seemed worthy of this grand masterpiece Jon had created and Maxxxwell had added too. The subject had to be as massive as the track itself. But what?

Then one night, with headphones on, listening yet again to this track for the upteenth time, hoping for inspiration, it hit me! Could “The Raven” fit on Jon’s epic? A quick google search found the words and upon first playback I was in utter shock how they fit. And they didn’t just fit “OK”, they fit perfectly!

The song you will soon hear, is complete in it’s entirety, unedited in any way. Neither the music that Jon presented me, nor the poem written by Mr. Poe in January 1845. Start to finish, it is as both pieces were written.

Over the next 6 months I recorded the poem of Mr Poe. At times I was forced to stop and google words I had never even heard before. Words that are very much out of the lexicon of 21st century man. I needed to learn not only their pronunciation but their meaning. I wanted to know what the hell I was saying and meaning in order to give the proper expression to the words in their delivery.

The process was grueling. 8 hour days, month after month. Recording and re-recording. My two biggest fears were, the song was so long that:

A) my voice would warm up and change from beginning to end and there would be a noticeable difference from start to finish.

B) the beginning’s delivery would start out “Hot” and I would run out of expressive steam and the end of the song would be dry and dead.

The challenge of keep the energy across the whole 23 plus minutes with complete continuity was one I was thinking about through the whole process. Along with the realization that I may have to go back once completed to re-record the beginning so the vocals would sound the same. Thankfully this wasn’t an issue and I had no problems with my voice through the whole process.

The truth is, Edgar Allan Poe’s poem was so strong, that the energy was easy to uphold.

Chris Violence performing live, (c) by Chris Violence, used with kind permission

In the end, the hardest part of the whole process was pronunciation and speed of delivery. The words are delivered rapid fire as Jon’s speed metal picking tears through the musical sections. Line after line, paragraph after paragraph, page after page, one thousand and eighty five words in all. At the end of the recording process I was truly exhausted, physically and mentally. For me, music is more of a “feel good” than it is a mathematical structure. If something is missing, my mind’s eye sees it instantly. Vocal alignments, corrections, whispers, echoes…all scream out to me as voids that must be filled or corrected. If one word is misaligned it cuts into me like a knife until it’s corrected. And so, many more months clicked by as these details were ironed out, one by one. Listening to the song four times to find anomalies eats up two hours of the day, sometimes to only make a few minor corrections. It was tedious work. But as the months went by, the more the continuity came into picture, the fluidity came into picture and the brilliance of it all came into picture.

Next, enter Matheus Manente, musician, composer and producer from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

I met Matheus through Jon’s Headphone Meditations radio show on Metal World Radio. Jon was playing Matheus’ music and he was also in the chatroom on MWR. We had chatted many times during Jon’s shows. Jon expressed to me that it might be possible to have Matheus mix and master our newest (August 2015) track "Push Button Pain". Matheus was kind enough to do it and the final version is the one you can download for free on my website. When "Push Button Pain" was complete, Jon told me he had spoken to Matheus again about The Raven. I was a bit apprehensive about asking him, since I knew what a beast this track was. Vocal tracks alone numbered close to twenty, plus all the instrumentation. But Jon reached out and Matheus was kind enough to accept the challenge and what a challenge it would be.

After I felt I had finally finished the vocals, it was handed off to Matheus for him to do his magic. There was a piece of me that still felt there were some holes in the song, some “empty spots”. Jon and I spoke and he assured me that if there were “holes” Matheus could fill them. And fill them he did…

The logo of Chris Violence, (c) by Chris Violence, used with kind permission

The first mixes came back only a few weeks after he had the tracks. The sound was filling in, little tiny nuances were coming into focus on the vocal side of things and Matheus heard the same things Jon and I heard, that now with the vocals in place, you could hear there needed to be some more lead guitar work. Matheus is beyond prolific in this regard and the parts he added, much like Maxxxwell, blended and added to the overall beauty of the story. The energy of the whole song was reaching full power! We worked together ironing out vocal effects that I liked, small volume adjustments, the standard fare in the mixing process.

Next enter Brazilian foley artist Danilo Battistini. As it was explained to me in an email: “He got interested in The Raven after he saw our updates on Facebook, got in touch with me and created a very nice original sound design, based on the poem, specially for us!”

Danilo created a masterful 25-30 second intro that brings it all together. In that tiny amount of time he expresses everything Edgar Allan Poe was saying in his one thousand and eighty five words. It is not only beautiful, it is also very haunting, on the edge of terrifying.

So now, after almost two years of work, by six different people from all over the globe, one of which has been dead for over 149 years this project is ready for release. There is no way to accurately calculate the man hours invested. All I can hope is that you will give it an uninterrupted listen in the highest format of playback you can."

Voyager release surprisingly different styled new video single

It's great to see bands evolve. As we all grow older and our lives and views change so does music. I can remember a time when I thought that this is boring but these days I think it's far more the normal way. Just look around you - everything changes. It's seems to be the only constanty in life.

The band Voyager, (c) by Voyager, used with kind permission

The Prog metal band Voyager have taken the opportunity to record a brand new track for the fans ahead of the upcoming tourdates in Australia and Europe. The cool thing is that the track surprised me when I heard it. It's going on the first listen on a bit different style and tonality then their previous material on the "V" album. That's cool because I expected something much different when I got the info. Let's see what you think about it.

Scott Kay-Guitarist, says
"We're opening 2016 with a bang! We're stoked to be releasing a new song, Misery is Only Company, with a video showcasing the writing process of the song! You'll be able to catch us playing the new tune on our forthcoming European run in April with Leprous and Earthside! We're loving the new track; it's a little different, but still has that distinct Voyager sound. We hope you enjoy it!"

The band are heading out on the following tour dates with the likes of Leprous, Epica and Earthside in the coming months.

TOUR DATES W/ LEPROUS and EPICA and EARTHSIDE
Wednesday 16 Mar - The Studio, Auckland – Voyager + Epica
Friday 18 Mar – Max Watts – Brisbane - Voyager + Epica
Saturday 19 Mar – Max Watts – Sydney - Voyager + Epica
Sunday 20 Mar – 170 Russell – Melbourne - Voyager + Epica
Thursday 31 Mar – Musikundfrieden- Berlin – Voyager + Leprous + Earthside
Friday 1 Apr – W2 - S’Hertogenbosch – Netherlands - Voyager + Leprous + Earthside
Saturday 2 Apr – Cacaofabriken – Helmond – Netherlands - Voyager + Leprous + Earthside
Sun 3 Apr – Poppodium Duyker – Hoofddorp – Netherlands - Voyager + Leprous + Earthside
Tue 5 Apr – Logo- Hamburg - Voyager + Leprous + Earthside
Wed 6 Apr – Turock – Essen- Germany - Voyager + Leprous + Earthside
Fri 7 Apr – Z7 – Pratteln – CH - Voyager + Leprous + Earthside
Sat 8 Apr – La Laiterie – Strasbourg - Voyager + Leprous
Sun 9 Apr – Durbuy Rock Festival – Belgium - Voyager + Leprous

Make sure to check the band's Facebook page for all further updates.

Senate of Prevail look back on the past time with new video

Memories can be sweet gifts. Sure they also can be bad and often we tend to look upon the bad those. It's so easy to forget the good things that happened in a world that is filled with problems.

Anyway, the swedish band Senate of Prevail currently is on hold after having powered all around for nearly a full year with recordings and live performances. They gathered some fans during that process including me and I've posted many of their stuff here on my blog. Just click this link to get a fast overview on those posts. I miss those days...

Happily the guitarist Peter Jonsson recently looked through the band's video archives and compiled a clip showing some nice scenes of the band's history. He also mixed a older track of Senate Of Prevail called "October Sky" and put both things together. The video shows material that has never before seen in any of the band's videos that came out during the last months.

It's well worth checking out. It's the music but also the memories that got me so quickly. My favoite scene is Anton Forsman playing the drum kit at the start of the video and looking like the "Wasn't I supposed to do this?" look at the end and then Pecka Wexell (the drummer of the band) comes rushing in with the forklift as some sort of reaction. :-) 

Enjoy these sweet memories and keep an eye on the band's Facebook page. Who know's maybe one day they'll be back? I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that!

Overkill / Cover CD for german Rock Hard megazine

Here we go with New York's finest thrashers around so far - it's time to wreck everything. ;-) Wow, this band has been around now since the early 80th's and provided their unique heavy and brutal force of thrash to their fans worldwide every since in constant quality but also never forgot to move forward by including modern elements into their sound that are dominated by Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth vocals as well as the bass guitar performance of D.D. Verni. Personally I would also add the guitars of Dave Linsk as another trademark to the sound of the band, also he joined the band shortly before millenium's change in 1999 on the "Necroshine" album. The continuity that the band provides surely has helped the band to build up a stable fan-base that often buy's their albums and shows up when the band's on tour.

By now the band is working on their upcoming record entitled "The Electric Age". It's set up for release on March 27th 2012. The band already released one song of that particular album. To me the song reminds me alot of the old stuff the band did on "Taking Over" bringing in more roughness back to the band's sound but also adding some nice surprises into the song. Let's listen for yourselfs below, hope you'll enjoy.



The band has also put out some nice video stuff showing the making of the album. They are very well worth checking out.





The next issue of german Rock Hard magazine comes with a Overkill cover CD feat. two new songs as well as four Livetracks including rare stuff like ´Death Rider´ and ´The Beast Within´. Release date is 28th of March 2012. Listen to some snippets in the youtube video linked below.



Update 2012-03-24: The band has just released a lyric video for the Song "Wish you were dead". Makes me gettin' even more interested in the upcoming record.



Finally after all do also visit the bands website to find out more about this cool band.