Meshiaak release "Sin City" styled video

I'm often of the opinion that it's the small things that make life beautiful. We all don't have much in life so we need to make the best of things.

Meshiaak have come around with a brand new video for the song "At the edge of the world". The small thing that makes this one a special clip is the fact that the band let's it rain while they play the track and also use only few color elements in the black and white styled promo video. Both are things you may remember of the "Sin City" movie.

A cut-out of the album cover and the band logo, (c) by Meshiaak, used with kind permission

But for me it's far more that this. The song itself has a topic with a meaning behind it. Also it's more of a darker kind I like to hear that the music comes along in a cool style. It breathes a deep meaning- and thoughtful atmosphere. Two elements that may have become lost in this fast living world. Plus there is the vocal performance of Danny Camilleri who put's in variations and haunting parts which I love so much. The drum performance of Jon Dette is hard and you can feel the push of the beat as he plays the drums.

The reason behind this outstanding performance is easy to see. The vocalist breathes his own experiences through the lyrics as he makes clear in a statement about the lyrics: “It’s the kind of song that would speak to people on a lot of different levels, something that most people would be able to connect with fairly easily. It’s a song that is very close to me personally, especially when it came to the lyrics. It’s where I’ve found myself in the last three years and my moments of doubt, trials and frustrations concerning experiences I’ve had to go through over that time.”

The album "Alliance Of Thieves" is out now via Mascot Records/Mascot Label Group. Make sure to connect to Meshiaak via Facebook.

Let's speak with...Malice (2016)

Malice came around to me as sort a positive sign of the truemetal side of the Heavy Metal genre. I can remember a couple of years ago when I used to listen to more bands of this sidearm of our beloved music but somehow things changed as they do ever so often in life and I began to listen more to other bands.

This band and their debut album "Triumph and Glory" brought back a lot of the good memories to me of the old days so I started to wonder who may be behind this band and what their intentions are to bring on music in such a subgenre of metal that is not heard too often these days when a lot of bands tend to go into the metalcore direction.

Gladly "THE METAL WARRIOR" Rayman James, Bassist and founder of Malice picked up my questions and gave a good insight into what keeps him motivated and how music influences the day to day life as well a a memory of his time on stage.

The cover of the Malice album "Triumph and Glory", (c) by Malice, used with kind permission

 Q. )How did the band come together?

A.) Like Magic it just happened.   I was trying to get it going for a while then the pieces all just fell into Place

Q.)Which sources do you use as inspiration for writing new songs?

A.) Inspiration is all around, in other music, or books and movies different stories will inspire things or certain moments in my life will inspire me to write something.  Its really in everything

Q.)Do you feel that writing and performing music helps you to push on further with your own personal lifes?

A.)  Well music kinda is my own personal life.  If anything writing and performing kinda hurts the social life and dating life I guess.  But i write or try to write more inspiring and empowering music so in that way It keeps me strong in my day to day life I would say cause I cant write about something I dont live or believe myself.   As far as the personal life and dating life goes it does hurt that. 

Q.)Social media surely plays a big role in the communication between a band and their fans. Do you feel that fans contact you more or less personally at gigs these days?

A.) well at gigs it just depends on if we are around before we play or how long we are able to hang out after we play.   We always have a few fans able to catch us and chat a bit, and we do enjoy talking to them as well and knowing they had a good time.   It just dont always work with our schedule to be able to stick around and chat.  Lot of times after we finish its very late and the venue is closing and we have to pack our stuff up and get going. 

Q.)Do you still prefer releasing music on traditional media like LPs, CDs and the like or do you feel the same satisfaction when putting out music digitally?

A.) I still prefer to have a hard copy of everything, if I buy music I buy a cd, I am an old timer I guess.

Malice live on stage, Photo credit: MtLProductions.com, used with kind permission

Q.) Have you ever experimented with other styles over the years and thought about changing?

A.) is there other styles?  I am who I am and write exactly what I think and believe.   I like this style and genre so this is what I play I couldnt have it any other way.

Q.) Did you come along points where you thought about leaving it all behind? If you reached that point: how did you keep the motivation up to move on?

A.) Never give up never surrender.  Music is my blood, my oxygen my life.

The Malice band logo, (c) by Malice, used with kind permission

Q.) What was the funniest story that came along your way when you performed live? Or did things happen that you would have never thought of to occur (not only at gigs but maybe anywhere else as well)?

A.) Oh well there are many things I guess for me the first thing that comes to mind is that I ran onto stage and busted the laces on my leather pants.   These were side lace pants and the spread started to go further down my leg and I started to fall our of my pants.  So I was attempting to still play the guitar while holding my pants from coming open and trying to signal my stage manager to come help me out.   Soon as the song ended I was able to fix the problem but that first song we play is MALICE and lasts a little more than 7 minutes so yeah it was a bit of a situation for me there.

Make sure you'll keep a eye upon Malice. Take a look from time to time on their homepage or give their Facebook page a thumbs up.