On this episode of ROCK TALK WITH MITCH LAFON. New interviews with KIP WINGER and M3 Rock Festival organizer - ERIC BAKER. Trixter's Steve Brown co-hosts.
Before getting to our first interview Mitch and co-host Steve Brown discuss which bands should be invited to play the M3 Rock Festival in upcoming years.
Our first interview is with KIP WINGER. We talk M3 Rock Festival, Get Jack (A Musical Thriller), the experience of writing a play, new music coming in 2020, the importance of Winger, his upcoming solo album, working with the Nashville Symphony, writing with Reb Beach, working with Alan Parsons and Bob Dylan, why did he learn from Alice Cooper, having a Grammy nominated #1 Classical album, and much more.
In our second interview, M3 Rock Festival event organizer Eric Baker discusses how the festival comes together, how bands are chosen, talks about LA Guns (approx. 1hr 09 minutes), Heaven's Edge and much more.
"Our Song "Chemicals" was written in homage to those we’ve lost and all of us struggling with mental illness. In this song I dip into the personal insanity that goes on inside your head. Because sometimes you feel like you are drowning in the whisperings of your own mind, like you are the Only One at war with your impending darkness. But really, we are all in this together. We are all battling one day at a time. We, The fighters... We are the majority. So I made the chorus an anthem, an epiphany that we are all the same, and most everyone you meet has been touched by mental illness. Let’s lift each other up. Raise Your Horns!"
German Hard Rock band BONFIRE for a couple of decades has been one of the busiest touring bands and consistently also is a regular guest at numerous big European Metal festivals. On August 4, 2018 the Ingolstadt based group once again set a highlight performance at the world’s biggest Heavy Metal festival: Wacken Open Air.
The show in Wacken was filmed and will now be released on June 14, 2019 as DVD, as CD, as LP and digital under the name “Live On Holy Ground 2018”. The main film offers a superb ‘best of’ journey through time and includes BONFIRE’s own classic hits like „Ready 4 Reaction“, „Sweet Obsession“ and „American Nights“. The DVD version with “Praying 4 A Miracle” (radio edit), “Locomotive Breath” (radio edit), “Sweet Obsession” (2019) and “American Nights” (2019) offers four bonus video clips which are also included on the CD, LP and digital as audio files. The first pressing of all three physical formats comes handsigned by the band.
Track Listing:
1.In the Beginning, 2.Ready 4 Reaction, 3.Never Mind, 4.Don't Touch The Light, 5.American Nights, 6.Give it a try, 7.Sword and Stone, 8.SDI, 9.Sweet Obsession, 10.Champion; Bonus Tracks: 11. Praying 4 A Miracle, 12.Locomotive Breath, 13. American Nights (2019), 14. Sweet Obsession (2019)
Filmed & recorded live at Wacken Open Air on August 4th, 2018
Mix & Mastering: Tom Müller (Flatliner Studios)
Produced by: Hans Ziller
Additional Recordings by Rolf Munkes at Empire Studios
BONFIRE are: Hans Ziller – Lead, Rhythm-Guitar, Backing Vocals; Alexx Stahl – Lead Vocals; Ronnie Parkes – Bass, Backing Vocals; Frank Pané- Lead, Rhythm-Guitar, Backing Vocals; André Hilgers – Drums, Percussion
Additional Musicians: Tim Breideband, Harry Reischmann – Drums; Paul Morris, Fredrik Bergh, Alessandro DelVecchio – Keyboards; Alessandro DelVecchio, Mike Gerhold – Backing Vocals
Melbourne prog band, Teramazehave announced that their new album Are We Soldiers will be released on June 21, 2019 via Mascot Label Group. To celebrate the announcement the Australian band also released a new video for their song “Weight Of Humanity” which was directed by Wayne Joyner.
Watch The Video For First New Track “Weight of Humanity”
The track is the first music released from their upcoming album. Pre-order NOW! smarturl.it/Teramaze
Teramaze founder, guitarist and producer Dean Wells said of the video “Weight of humanity was one of the first songs we wrote for this album and I really believe it captures the true essence of what Teramaze is artistically and lyrically.The song touches on the pressures of living in our times and what we choose to believe and accept what is true or lies. It’s one of my favorite songs from the album and Wayne did an amazing job of creating something visually stimulating that blends well with the theme of the song.”
“Australian prog has been around for a while mate,” said Wells on the recent explosion of progressive-minded rock bands from Australia, of which Melbourne’s Teramaze are surely at the forefront. “It was kick started with bands like Cog, Karnivool, and now there’s stuff like Voyager and Caligula’s Horse and Plini and things like that.”
“Funnily enough I don’t really feel that we’re really a part of that,” he continues. The thing with Teramaze is we’re a progressive band but we’re closer to progressive metal and not progressive rock. But sometimes it’s not progressive rock at all, it’s more like metal with big pop choruses. I mean I like progressive metal because it gives me the chance to write anything under the banner of Teramaze. But sometimes I like writing pop songs. And it does leak into Teramaze, it always has. A song like ‘Her Halo’ itself for example.”
‘Her Halo’, Teramaze’s 2015 album, and their first for Mascot Records, saw the band take a big step up from previous albums ‘Anhedonia’ (2012) and ‘Esoteric Symbolism’ (2014), with the UK’s Prog Magazine calling the album “Exceptional” and stating it was “one of the finest prog metal releases of recent years.” Four years later and Wells and Teramaze are back with a new album, ‘Are We Soldiers’, another step up for the Australian band. It’s still Teramaze – all huge choruses, crashing guitar chords, intricate time changes and swooping melodies – but it’s a bigger, brighter and even better Teramaze.
There’s change beyond the music for Teramaze with ‘Are We Soldiers’, with original vocalist Brett Rerekura returning to the fold, replacing Nathan Peachey, who’d sung on ‘Her Halo’. With ‘Are We Soldiers’, Dean Wells and Teramaze have delivered another excellent piece of modern progressive metal. One that will inevitably build upon the progress achieved by ‘Her Halo’.
With plans afoot for European and UK live dates for later in the year, Teramaze are a band that are going to be occupying a lot of your time in 2019 and beyond.
“’Are We Soldiers’ is a bit more weighty, and it’s a long album,” smiles a proud Wells. “But I make no apologies for that. I enjoy it, and I just hope other people do too.”
John O.Reilly, the world-class drummer from Long Island, NY, is probably most renowned for his keen sense of timing and his 15-year stint with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. But John has been on a remarkable musical journey since the early 1970's, playing with a multitude of bands and artists over the years including Blue Oyster Cult, Rainbow, O'2L, Richie Havens, Joe Lynn Turner and many others.
In 2018, John brought his collective blend of band and industry experience to Yuletide-rock sensations The Wizards of Winter, as he assumed the drum throne for their tour and upcoming new album. While we certainly couldn't cover John's entire career in one afternoon (though we tried!), we did chat quite a bit about some of the defining points of his long and interesting career.
"Discovery" is the title of the next GATHERING OF KINGS album set for release early 2020! The first single "Heaven On The Run" will be released the 5th of June! It will be released as a strictly limited 7' vinyl single (Blue/Transparent). 200 ex will be sold at Sweden Rock Festival June 5-8 and the remaining 100 ex can now be pre-ordered via Ginza.se.
This is a melodic hard rock gem that completely sticks to your head! And once again it's a outstanding production, by Thomas Plec Johansson at The Panic Room, Skövde. Warm yet modern and always powerful. Executive producers: Ron Dahlgren, Nina Dahlgren & Victor Olsson. Drums recorded at Nordic Sound Lab by Thomas Plec Johansson, Bengan Andersson and Victor Olsson. Artwork: Markus Vesper.
Side A: "Heaven On The Run", written by Victor Olsson, is a brand new song and the first taste from the upcoming album "Discovery" which will be released early next year.
Lineup:
Rick Altzi - (Lead Vocals)
Victor Olsson - (Guitar, Keyboards & Backing Vocals)
Nalle Påhlsson - (Bass)
Efraim Larsson - (Drums)
Tobias Jansson - (Backing Vocals)
Side B: "Battle Cry", included as a bonus track on the CD edition of "First Mission". Now the song will be released on vinyl for the very first time!
Since 2010 MelodicRock Records has been at the forefront of some of the best melodic music made available to fans.
It has been a great honor to be a part of each and every release – whether it be championing a new artist; digging something out of the vaults; or a brand-new release from an established act.
2019 sees MRR reach the milestone of 100 releases. So what better way to celebrate the milestone than a compilation of the artists featured on MRR.
This however, isn’t your average ‘best of’ affair – this compilation will feature songs that didn’t make the albums MRR released – hence the title ‘Left Off The First 99’.
‘Left Off The First 99’ will offer a range of bonus tracks featured from the first 99 releases, plus some exclusive unreleased tracks from the recording sessions that spawned those albums.
And for good measure – a little taste of what’s to come in the year ahead, with some exclusive preview tracks from upcoming MRR releases.
MRR100 is a 2CD set priced at $25 (including airmail shipping) and is strictly limited to 500 units.
