NILE mainman Karl Sanders has slammed fans who insist on shooting photos and video at the band's concerts, saying that they are not "involved in the show" and are cheating other people out of a place where they could be enjoying the music.
Asked what it feels like to be looking at the audience at NILE's concerts and seeing so many people holding up their cell phones during the performances, Sanders told Metal Wani's editor in chief Owais "Vitek" Nabi during a recent interview (hear audio below): "When you are taking your phone, your cell phone, or your video camera, or whatever it is, and you're busy filming the show, you are not in the show. You are no longer a part of the experience.
"When people are involved in the show, when you're listening to the band, you're watching the band, your fist is there, you're headbanging, you're moshing, you're involved, then you are part of a singular community experience."
He continued: "All of us are focused on the same energy, and that's an incredible experience. And you can feel that — it's real — and the band and the fans, they unite, they're together… So when I see people out there, you know, with their cellphones, texting or, you know, filming the show, or whatever, they're missing out on an incredible, wonderful live experience that they could be part of. And that hurts me, that discourages me.
"What if you are in bed with your girlfriend, and you are making love with her, and she's texting?
"In fact, it bothers me so much that if people do it right in front of me, I will take their cell phones from them. If they're going to, like, stick a camera, or a cell phone camera, or a video camera right in my face, I'd say, 'Fuck you, Go away. Go twenty feet back.' Because that place right in the front, that should be for someone who really wants to be at the show, who wants to get involved. And if you are texting or whatever, you're cheating that fan out of a place where he could be enjoying music."
NILE will tour the United States once again this April and May, with 27 shows supported by three of the best local bands in every market. NILE will play a massive set with music spanning their entire prolific career, including several never-performed-before-live songs.
NILE's seventh full-length album, "At The Gate Of Sethu", sold 3,800 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 131 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD landed at position No. 2 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.
It is a great week for the Athenian metal fans, as The Vision Bleak are visiting our country for the very first time, being part of the large number of great bands who include Greece in their tour destinations. The band is about to perform in Kyttaro, supported by the Greek melodic metal band Caelestia. The Vision Bleak, as well as Caelestia, have released their latest records in the past year, and are about to present them in front of the fans this Saturday night. Let’s take a look at what happened last night, the night we partied hard with the living dead…
The show started on time, as planned, with only about the half of the fans showing up early to watch the support band (a usual behavior for the fans and a negative one too). Caelestia walked on stage and began the set of their show. For those who are not familiar with Caelestia, the band (previously named ‘Me and Myself’) is a band characterized as a melodic metal one, including gothic metal elements in their sound. The band is mostly female-fronted, but male vocals (mostly brutal) are included in their songs too. ‘Last Wish’ is the title of the debut record of the band, released in 2013, with a few important guest musicians to participate in.
Caelestia performed songs off ‘Last Wish’, as well as new ones. With a forty minutes setlist, the band performed with energy and a great mood. The members were well coordinated and tied perfectly together. At first, there was a major problem in the sound; I wasn’t able to hear the lead guitar. The problem got solved and the sound became better after a couple of songs, as the performance progressed. The ideas, which Caelestia present as a band are great, however the great minus in the live performance of the songs is, in my opinion, the large number of pre-recorded vocals. The guest musicians in the records are great, however, on stage, I feel that the lead vocals should be sang by a member of the band. That would be better for the fans and it will hopefully help the band with their live performance.
Caelestia ended their set powerfully and the time for The Vision Bleak to perform has come. Konstanz, Schwadorf and their on stage musicians walked on stage, beginning their set with Hexenmeister. We had the chance to hear a lot of songs off ‘Witching Hour’, as well as of their past releases. ‘Night of the living Dead’, ‘Wolfmoon’, ‘The Deathship Symphony’ and ‘Kutulu’ are only some of the songs we had the chance to hear yesterday. The sound was great, except the fact that Schwadorf’s microphone should be a little louder, so as to be able to sing better the secondary vocals.
The Vision Bleak are great performers. They totally surprised us with the great energy of Konstanz on stage. He can act like an actor as far as his facial expression is concerned and as a great singer as far as his voice is concerned. The band was perfectly bonded, totally shaking the stage while performing fast and groovy, as well as in the slower, doom metal parts. The fans sang along in most of the show, with ‘Kutulu’ and ‘The Deathship Symphony’ to be the best moments of their large live set.
The show ended and I felt the need that The Vision Bleak needed to perform more, despite the one hour and a half of their show. Usually, only a few bands of the specific music genre manage to deliver a perfectly version of their songs, because of the pre-recorded keyboard parts and the orchestra. However, The Vision Bleak was prepared for everything, having worked on every detail for a live performance. Closing the report, I would like to congratulate both bands about the amazing night and wish the greatest wishes for the future!
TRIPTYKON — the occult/avant-garde metal project formed by former HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST singer, guitarist, and main songwriter Tom Gabriel Fischer (a.k.a. Tom Gabriel Warrior) — will release its second album, "Melana Chasmata", on April 15 (one day earlier internationally). The CD will be made available through a collaboration between the group's own label, Prowling Death Records Ltd., and renowned metal giant Century Media Records. This is the same label partnership already responsible for CELTIC FROST's final album, "Monotheist" (2006), HELLHAMMER's "Demon Entrails" demo compendium (2008), and TRIPTYKON's debut album, "Eparistera Daimones", and "Shatter" EP (2010).
Like its predecessor "Eparistera Daimones", the album was produced by TRIPTYKON's singer/guitarist Tom Gabriel Warrior and guitarist V. Santura and recorded and mixed at V. Santura's own Woodshed Studio in southern Germany as well as at TRIPTYKON's rehearsal facilities in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2013 and 2014. Those who have already heard "Melana Chasmata" have described it as "atmospheric, dark, diabolical, and dramatic", "diverse, epic, and doomy, but on an entirely different level", "a fierce boulder of abhorrence", or "very heavy and yet very aesthetic at the same time".
"Melana Chasmata" will feature the following nine songs, at a playing time of around 67 minutes:
01. Tree Of Suffocating Souls
02. Boleskine House
03. Altar Of Deceit
04. Breathing
05. Aurorae
06. Demon Pact
07. In The Sleep Of Death
08. Black Snow
09. Waiting
Further new TRIPTYKON music has been recorded, to be released as an EP or mini album later in 2014 or early in 2015.
Among other formats, the album will be released as a 32-page mediabook (with lyrics and liner notes to every song, and with a special fold out poster), as a gatefold vinyl double album (with posters and large-format booklet), and for digital download. Additionally, Century Media is scheduled to issue a special box set, limited to 2000 copies. The box set will include the album, a TRIPTYKON silver pendant, a poster, postcards, a TRIPTYKON tote bag, and a cap.
To commemorate the unveiling of "Melana Chasmata", Century Media will release a collector's gatefold seven-inch vinyl single, featuring the songs "Breathing" and "Boleskine House". The single will be available on March 17 , and be limited to a pressing 1000 (of which 200 will be in red vinyl). "Breathing" and "Boleskine House" will also be available as a digital single (including the option for a digital booklet), and they will be streamed on YouTube and SoundCloud.
Audio samples of "Breathing" and "Boleskine House" can now be found at Amazon.com.
"Melana Chasmata" will be further distinguished by featuring, for the second time for TRIPTYKON, the extraordinary art of legendary Swiss surrealist HR Giger. Following "Eparistera Daimones", the group began to make arrangements for an entirely different cover for the second album. Completely unexpectedly, HR Giger approached Tom Gabriel Warrior in October of 2011 to express his appreciation of how TRIPTYKON had used his art on the first album and to propose a continuation of the artistic collaboration. This development thus marks the first time any musical artist has worked with HR Giger on three albums (CELTIC FROST's "To Mega Therion", and TRIPTYKON's "Eparistera Daimones" and "Melana Chasmata"), and it commemorates a collaboration that has now lasted for 30 years.
EMP Rock Invasion conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Matt Tuck and drummer Michael "Moose" Thomas of Welsh metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE when they played at Palladium in Cologne, Germany on February 10. You can now watch the chat below.
On the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's next album:
Tuck: "We've done five songs so far, and they're sounding very good. I don't know how to explain it, really… It's definitely more aggressive, edgier. It's definitely stepping back into the heavier side of what we've done in the past. And I don't mean that as in, like, a screaming way… just aggressive music, you know."
On how the band decides which direction to follow early in the songwriting process for an album:
Thomas: "It's usually… We just released [a new song called] 'Raising Hell' [in November 2013], so that's kind of like a benchmark for us to [follow]. Certain songs or certain parts of songs will catch us, and then that's the way we wanna write the rest of the record."
Tuck: "It just depends what comes out. When we're in the dressing room just writing, just playing guitar, a riff will come out and we'll be, 'Oh, that's cool. Let's continue that.' So we'll record a little bit of it. It's very natural. As soon as we get, like, two songs kind of finished, like we did with 'Raising Hell' and the other five, the wheels are set in motion; it becomes obvious where we need to go."
On the mixed response to last year's "Temper Temper" album:
Tuck: "I wouldn't change that record for anything, really. That's the record we wanted to make, and that's what we should be doing; we should be doing what we want, and we shouldn't be trying to please anyone else. If the next album we write doesn't get well received for whatever reason, then it's, like… you can't do things for other people. We've gotta do it for ourselves, and that's the only way we can stay true as a band. I think a rule that we've always stuck by since Day One was we do it our way and we do it what we wanna do or we don't do it at all. I think someone else fucking up your career is not acceptable. So if we fuck it up, at least you can sleep at night, you know what I mean? So we're extremely happy with it, and here we are today still rocking big venues around the world. So we [must be doing] something right, you know?!"
The official "Raising Hell" video can be seen below. The clip was directed, produced and edited by James Sharrock.
Thomas told Billboard.com about the direction of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's new material" "It's definitely more of a step towards our first two records."
He added: "We always like to keep changing our records and our sounds and stuff. I think you have to change, otherwise it gets boring for us and the fans get bored. Look at all the great bands through rock history; they changed on all their albums — especially METALLICA. Their albums have always changed, and they're the biggest metal band ever. So we just want to keep changing and get to another level each time out."
Tuck told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that he had no regrets about the band exploring its more melodic side on its last two albums. "The big thing that we've learned is, like, you're not gonna please everyone all the time," he said. "As long as you do what you want to do and the band is happy and you feel you haven't given away your integrity, you know, I don't really care if people go, 'Oh, it's not metal enough, it's not heavy enough.' It's like, that's not what we are."
"Temper Temper" sold 44,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 13 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on February 12, 2013 via RCA.
Interview:
