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Manos Spanos

MICHAEL SCHENKER Says Songwriting Is ‘Like Putting A Puzzle Together And Never Really Knowing What Comes Out At The End’

Manos Spanos
Greg Prato of Songfacts recently conducted an interview with legendary guitarist Michael Schenker. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Songfacts: How do you find that you write your best songs? Michael: I just do it the same way over and over. I love to play. I play and discover on a regular basis, so when I bump into a great piece of something that I think, "Wow, I should capture that" — and it's usually just 5 seconds, 10 seconds long — I'll put it on the cassette recorder in its raw form and I'll just leave it there. When it's time to make a new record, I listen to what I have selected, and then that inspires me to write the additional parts to it. So I never really know what the song is going to be until the album's finished. On this album in particular, I was looking for more of a balance: Not too many mid tempos, but enough fast songs and many different elements in it that keep it going and keep it interesting. It's like putting a puzzle together and never really knowing what comes out at the end. Songfacts: How did the songwriting work in the band UFO? Was it more of a collaboration? Michael: Well, when I joined UFO, they were a psychedelic band. They were playing very different music. But I was attracted to them being British, since that's where the music that I fell in love with came from: [LED] ZEPPELIN, BLACK SABBATH and Johnny Winter. Well, Johnny Winter was American, but a lot of the music that we were listening to at that point in time when I was 15 years old was coming from there. When I toured with UFO and SCORPIONS, the guitarist from UFO lost his passport, so in order to continue the tour, I had to play for both bands. That was when I was 16 years old. I opened up with the Scorpions and then I played with UFO for a couple of days. And that's when they asked me to join them. I always told the SCORPIONS that if a British band would ever ask me, I would go just to get to a country where there was the interest for rock and roll. In Germany, it was dead. It was disco music and it wasn't very interesting what I was doing. So I was more than happy to go over there. They invited me over and I took the offer. When I got there I just laid down a riff and another one and another one, and Phil [Mogg] did his vocals to it and it just became a totally different band based on the pieces that I gave them, which every song was built on. I wrote that way right from the beginning, and it's still how I write today. But because I had just joined them, we were more in the mode of making a record, touring, making a record, touring, making a record, touring. Because we were doing everything in the short amount of time, we spent a lot of time at the rehearsal studio. Some very early songs, like "Rock Bottom", were very spontaneous. We were just sitting there looking for an additional song, and when I played "Rock Bottom", the riff, that's when Phil jumped up and said, "That's it! That's it!" So we started putting it together and putting it into form. But in general, I would always come up with some riffs, give it to the singer and he would find something, too. Then we'd go into the rehearsal studio and work on it. That's basically how we used to write. Songfacts: How close did you come to joining Ozzy Osbourne's band after Randy Rhoads' death? Michael: That was around '81. Graham Bonnet just came over and we started writing and doing things, and then I get a phone call in the middle of the night from a very devastated Ozzy Osbourne telling me what happened [Rhoads was killed in an airplane accident, on March 19, 1982]. I said, "Okay, it's the middle of the night. I'll let you know, but I have to speak to Peter Mensch" and so on. And then I had to look... I was tempted to do that, but at the same time I was in the middle of doing "Assault Attack" and it was going to be the second album with Cozy Powell. We were getting ready, and I had to look at my situation. Then I heard some crazy stories about Ozzy dragging people across the stage by their hair and stuff like that. And then some other horror stories that didn't sound too good. I was tempted to do that, but something tells me, you know what, Michael, first of all, the SCORPIONS, my own brother, he asked me to play, to help the SCORPIONS and to join them and tour with them. And I couldn't do it because I'm not made for copying people. I love to invent things, to express myself, and so my vision is a different vision. Sometimes you have to battle a little bit with your true vision and temptation. Same with AEROSMITH: It was a good thing it didn't work out, because again, I would have not enjoyed myself. I know that. At the end of the day, I said, "I can't do that." It came to the point when I stretched it for so long that I think Cozy Powell took it over and told them, "He's not going to do it." And that was that. It was a very strange situation. Read the entire interview a
05 min read

DARK TRANQUILLITY’s MIKAEL STANNE Shares Tour Tips (Video)

Manos Spanos
In the one-and-a-half-minute video below, vocalist Mikael Stanne of Swedish melodic death metallers DARK TRANQUILLITY shares his top tips for being on tour (courtesy of Digital Tour Bus). The clip was shot on February 12, 2014 in Joliet, Illinois. On its North American tour, DARK TRANQUILLITY sold a seven-inch EP entitled "A Memory Construct", which will also be released digitally in the beginning of March. Recorded during the "Construct" sessions, the single contains the two songs, is limited to 500 copies worldwide and is available on a transparent red wax. Featured tracks are the previously unreleased "A Memory Construct" and "Sorrows Architect", previously only available as a limited flexi seven-inch released with issue #106 of Decibel magazine. DARK TRANQUILLITY's tenth studio album, "Construct", was released on May 27, 2013 via Century Media Records. The CD was mixed by Jens Bogren (PARADISE LOST, OPETH, KATATONIA) at his Fascination Street studios in Örebro, Sweden. DARK TRANQUILLITY filmed a music video for the song "Uniformity" on April 13, 2013 with Patric Ullaeus of Revolver Film Company, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, IN FLAMES, SONIC SYNDICATE and KAMELOT, among others.
01 min read

EDGUY: Entire ‘Space Police – Defenders Of The Crown’ Album Available For Streaming

Manos Spanos
"Space Police - Defenders Of The Crown", the tenth studio album from German melodic metallers EDGUY, can be streamed in its entirety using the SoundCloud widget below. The effort will be released on April 18 via Nuclear Blast. In addition to the regular CD edition, the follow-up to 2011's "Age Of The Joker" will be made available as a limited digibook containing two CDs. Also available will be a strictly limited hardcover earbook collectors' edition (28.5x28.5cm) containing the two discs, a photographic history with more than 130 photos from the band's archive, liner notes, touring history, and more. In a recent interview with RockRevolt magazine, Sammet stated about the making of "Space Police - Defenders Of The Crown": "I had been doing this huge tour with my all-star project AVANTASIA, playing three continents with a 12-piece band. When I came back [home] in August 2013, it just felt great to get back in the studio and write something to the point. No sophisticated TRANS-SIBERIAN-esque rock opera with conceptual stuff and guest vocals; I just wanted to produce a high-velocity heavy metal album with my bandmates. I guess the starvation for that turned the album into the monster it has become. It is so fresh, so heavy, so anthemic, the playing and production are outstanding, I guess it was because we forced a very tight schedule upon us, so we didn't have too much time to doubt, second-guess or fix things that didn't need to be retouched." He added: "I really love the album; it's got so many beautiful details, so many smart elements, but down the line, it comes over you like a tank. I love it, and yes, I knew if we'd channel our skills, we could come up with something. This band has been existing for more than 22 years, and we still haven't reached our peak in a creative way." "Space Police - Defenders Of The Crown" track listing: 01. Sabre & Torch 02. Space Police 03. Defenders Of The Crown 04. Love Tyger 05. The Realms Of Baba Yaga 06. Rock Me Amadeus 07. Do Me Like A Caveman 08. Shadow Eaters 09. Alone In Myself 10. The Eternal Wayfarer Bonus disc track listing: 01. England 02. Aychim In Hysteria 03. Space Police (progressive version) 04. Space Police (instrumental version) 05. Love Tyger (instrumental version) 06. Defenders Of The Crown (instrumental version) 07. Do Me Like A Caveman (instrumental version)
03 min read

TRIPTYKON’s TOM GABRIEL FISCHER: ‘I Was Really Close To Losing Everything’

Manos Spanos
J. Bennett of Noisey recently conducted an interview with former HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST and current TRIPTYKON singer, guitarist, and main songwriter Tom Gabriel Fischer (a.k.a. Tom Gabriel Warrior) in Paris, France. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Noisey: The English translation of the new [TRIPTYKON] album title ["Melana Chasmata"] is something along the lines of "Deep Depressions." Is that right? Tom: Yes, it's difficult to translate exactly, but that's an approximate translation. Of course, depressions can be a geological feature or a psychological feature. In this instance, both. Parts of the album sound melancholy, but mostly it sounds angry. I think the first one is much angrier. It was fueled by hatred and frustration over the very unpleasant termination of CELTIC FROST. This new album is far more introspective and based on personal experiences — not just my own, but [those] of several of the band members. We chose the album title years ago, but since that time, certain things have happened that have made the title even more appropriate. On a personal level, it was an exceedingly difficult album to complete, and we're all very happy that it's done. Noisey: Why was it difficult? Tom: The four years since the last album have been very difficult for some of us in the band, including myself. Nothing in my own life resembles the way it was four years ago. My life has drastically changed, and most of those changes have been outside any spectrum of choice. And I'm not the only one in the band who has had dramatic changes to their private lives. We didn't know that when we started the album, of course. Noisey: It sounds like these personal changes you're talking about have been largely negative. Are the members of TRIPTYKON, yourself included, worse off today than they were on the last record? Tom: I think at this point everyone is well into the recovery phase, so to speak. Everybody is on their own path with their own issues. But I'm not trying to bring up tragedy here or anything pathetic. None of us wanted to be in this situation, and none of us had any idea that the others were going through something similar. It's a complete coincidence. We envisioned the time writing this album completely differently. But like so many things in life, we have no control. That's why the album took four years to write instead of two. In the meantime, we've accepted that at least three members have completely different lives now, and that's beyond their choice. But one of the things that has helped us through this is that we have a band and we honestly love the music we are playing and we know we are friends. I know that sounds cliché, like some kind of hippie family, but that's the way it is. Noisey: How bad did it get? Tom: I was really close to losing everything — much closer than anyone reading this can probably imagine. But if it got to the most extreme, I'm sure I could've called our bass player [Vanja Šlajh] and she would have taken care of me as good as possible. And that's the main difference between TRIPTYKON and CELTIC FROST. At the end of CELTIC FROST, I sometimes got the feeling that if I was lying on the floor bleeding, someone would still stick a knife in my back. But in this band it's the opposite. Read the entire inter
03 min read

PRIMORDIAL To Release ‘Where Greater Men Have Fallen’ In November

Manos Spanos
Irish pagan metal masters PRIMORDIAL will release their new album, "Where Greater Men Have Fallen", in November via Metal Blade Records. To coincide with the CD's release, the band will play three shows in Germany with support from Swedish labelmates PORTRAIT and Switzerland's BÖLZER. All dates include signing sessions with PRIMORDIAL. The new album will be available for purchase in all configurations at the gigs and there will be exclusive merchandise available as well. Comments PRIMORDIAL: "Time moves slowly… but it does move and the rusty gears have been grinding lately a new PRIMORDIAL album will come this year, November, to be more precise… The working title right now is 'Where Greater Men Have Fallen', and in just as we did for the last album, we have a weekend of release shows in Germany right as it hits… We will be supported by Sweden's PORTRAIT and Switzerland's BÖLZER on the three nights, all for a very healthy ticket price and there will be special releases, merch and music just for these shows." The details are as follows: Nov. 20 - Hamburg, Germany - Knust Nov. 21 - Essen, Germany - Turock Nov. 22 - Berlin, Germany - Brutz & Brakel Stromgitarrenfest PRIMORDIAL's latest album, "Redemption At The Puritan's Hand", was released in April 2011 via Metal Blade Records. The band's legendary debut, "Imrama", was released on vinyl for the first time ever in March 2013. This official version includes a remaster of the album as well as a free poster and was made available as a gatefold LP with the original artwork.
01 min read

ELECTRIC WIZARD Signs With SPINEFARM RECORDS

Manos Spanos
Visually intoxicating, uncompromisingly heavy and revered for making music and lifestyle one, ELECTRIC WIZARD has completed work on its new studio album, title to be confirmed; the effort will be the band's first release through Spinefarm Records. Formed by vocalist/guitarist Jus Oborn in 1993, ELECTRIC WIZARD — based in the U.K.'s South-West — has thus far released seven studio albums — an increasingly influential body of work recorded on vintage analogue gear with as little technology as possible intruding on the signal ("Pro Tools is for pussies!"). Result: some of the heaviest, dirtiest, most evil-sounding audio ever put to tape, and more importantly to vinyl, with both "Come My Fanatics" (1997) and "Dopethrone" (2000) being lauded as landmark releases. A cultural as well as a musical force, ELECTRIC WIZARD has left an indelible mark on a host of different genres, the likes of doom, stoner and sludge; at heart, however, they stand as an iconic British metal band, cast in the great tradition, with lyrics and artwork reflecting the hypnotic weight of the music, and subject to the same intelligence and detail. Wreathed in occult ritual and drug-culture references, with classic '70s horror an inspirational seam, ELECTRIC WIZARD is poised to turn a page; there's the new deal with Spinefarm Records, plus — after a nine-year hiatus — the return of Mark Greening (the drummer on "Dopethrone"), who completes the lineup of Oborn, American guitarist Liz Buckingham, a key member since 2003, and new bassist Clayton Burgess (SATAN'S SATYRS). Fueled by strong emotion and the harder sounds of late-'60s Detroit, the remodeled lineup — isolated by choice, giant stacks glowing red — set about crafting an eighth studio album to both rival and exceed the milestone recordings of the past, with Buckingham keeping things suitably monolithic and the band generally looking back to some of their earliest influences. Toerag Studios in London was once again charged with capturing "The Sound," and (encouragingly) words like "raw", "hateful" and "sickeningly heavy" are being traded. Says Oborn: "Our master plan is this. Real metal!! We stand for rebellion, we are with the kids; we fight, puke, smoke weed, etc... "ELECTRIC WIZARD is an entity, with its own history, its own symbols, its own iconography, and with this new album, we wanted to return to basic values. It's primitive. We needed to claw it back down to the evil core — sex, drugs, violence, revolution... to go back to being a band that hung out and jammed hard. No teaching songs, just feeling them out. "If you jam enough and you are on the same level — artistically, musically, whatever, you gotta be committed — then good music will happen. I totally believe that..." ELECTRIC WIZARD is: Jus Oborn - Lead Vocals, Guitar Liz Buckingham - Guitar Mark Greening - Drums, Percussion Clayton Burgess - Bass
03 min read

IN FLAMES: ‘Siren Charms’ Cover Artwork Unveiled

Manos Spanos
Swedish metallers IN FLAMES have set "Siren Charms" as the title of their eleventh album, due in September via Epic. The CD was recorded at Hansa Studios (DAVID BOWIE, DEPECHE MODE, U2) in Berlin, Germany. The "Siren Charms" cover artwork can be seen below. Photos from the studio — courtesy of the German magazine Metal Hammer — available at Metal-Hammer.de. IN FLAMES lead singer, Anders Fridén recently stated about working at the legendary facility where such milestones as David Bowie's "Heroes" and Iggy Pop's "Lust For Life" were created: "When I visited Hansa Studios [last] year, I got goose bumps. There is so much history both inside and surrounding the studio and I want to be a part of that. Magic has been created here and hopefully that will affect us." IN FLAMES' "Deliver Us" single was recently certified platinum in Sweden for sales in excess of 40,000 copies. (Note: On-demand audio and/or video song streams are now counted towards the threshold required for gold and platinum certifications.) IN FLAMES has released a video for"Sounds Of A Playground Fading", the title track of its tenth studio album. The clip, which is made up of concert footage, was produced by Patric Ullaeus of Revolver Film Company, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, SONIC SYNDICATE and KAMELOT, among others. "Sounds Of A Playground Fading" (Century Media) sold around 14,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart. IN FLAMES' previous album, "A Sense of Purpose" (Koch) opened with 20,000 units to land at No. 28. This was slightly less than the opening tally of "Come Clarity" (Ferret), which shifted just under 24,000 copies in February 2006 to enter the chart at position No. 58. "Sounds Of A Playground Fading" was the first IN FLAMES album to be recorded without founding guitarist Jesper Strömblad, who quit the band in February 2010 in order to continue receiving treatment for his alcohol addiction. IN FLAMES guitarist Niclas Engelin sat out a few of the band's shows last year. His temporary replacement for those gigs was Patrik Jensen from THE HAUNTED.
02 min read

ROB ZOMBIE Releases Trailer For Concert DVD

Manos Spanos
According to The Pulse Of Radio, Rob Zombie has issued a trailer for his first-ever concert home video, "The Zombie Horror Picture Show", which is due out on Blu-ray and DVD on May 20. Zombie, who directed the film himself, leads his band through longtime favorites like "Living Dead Girl", "More Human Than Human" and "Dragula" as well as newer songs like "Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga" and "Dead City Radio And The New Gods of Supertown". A photo book by photographer Rob Fenn will be published as a companion piece to the Blu-ray and DVD. "The Zombie Horror Picture Show" will feature footage filmed during stops on last year's Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival tour in Houston on August 3, 2013 and Dallas on August 4. "The Zombie Horror Picture Show" DVD and Blu-ray track listing: 01. Teenage Nosferatu Pussy 02. Superbeast 03. Super-Charger Heaven (originally by WHITE ZOMBIE) 04. Living Dead Girl 05. We're An American Band (GRAND FUNK RAILROAD cover) 06. More Human Than Human (originally by WHITE ZOMBIE) 07. Sick Bubblegum 08. Never Gonna Stop 09. Ging Gang Gong De Do Gong De Laga Raga 10. Meet The Creeper 11. Mars Needs Women 12. House Of 1000 Corpses 13. The Lords Of Salem 14. Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown 15. Thunder Kiss '65 (originally by WHITE ZOMBIE) 16. Dragula Zombie has never released a concert DVD before and told an Albany radio station that he always thought of doing one as a "huge nuisance," adding, "After the show is done, I don't care. I don't want to relive it… I never wanna hear about it again, I never wanna see it again. Like, I never watch anything — a TV show I've been on; I don't care. Once it's done, it's done. But I figured at least once we should film it." Zombie's fifth solo album, "Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor", came out in April 2013. Zombie will kick off a 12-date run of shows on April 26 in Fort Myers, Florida at the Fort Rock festival, mixing other major rock festival stops with headlining shows before wrapping it up on May 10 in Camden, New Jersey.
03 min read

VINNIE PAUL Doesn’t Think PANTERA Will Ever Be Inducted Into ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

Manos Spanos
Matt Wake of AL.com recently conducted an interview with former PANTERA and current HELLYEAH drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. AL.com: A special, 20th-anniversary edition of PANTERA's "Far Beyond Driven", which was a No. 1 album in 1994, was recently released. Is there anything you appreciate more about the record now? Vinnie Paul: Being a part of the production of every record I've ever been a part of, I really, really appreciate the fact it was recorded analog. It was before Pro Tools existed and music became simple, you could cut, paste and do that. Back then you had to play every single note that was on there, man. And you had to sing every note and (play) every drum lick and every part, and you had to be really good to get all that stuff right. I really do appreciate that more than ever. AL.com: Do you care if PANTERA ever gets inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? Vinnie Paul: Uh, I don't really think so, man. It's already been proven there are tons of travesties that have gone on with that place. How in the world did it take forever to get BLACK SABBATH in there? Honestly, I don't think PANTERA will ever get in there. But if we do, I'm going to embrace it just like anything else. I've actually been there and heavy metal is barely even represented in the place, so I wouldn't expect that to happen. AL.com: You own the Clubhouse strip club in Dallas and a string of Latino-themed strip clubs, called Chicas Bonitas. What separates an awesome strip club from a lame one? Vinnie Paul: I think there's one thing, man. Most strip clubs provide a service. That's what they're there for. My strip clubs provide a party and I want people to have a damn good time while they're in there. When they come in, I want people to be able to afford the drinks, to be able to afford the girls, I want them to hear good rock 'n' roll music and not feel like they're part of a machine. Read the entire interview at AL.com.
02 min read

Manos Spanos

Manos Spanos (Metalpaths' co-editor-in-chief), eight years in this site but still can't be characterised as a metalhead.