Mixed & Mastered by Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Bloodbath, Katatonia)
Tomorrow, MONTFAUCON – the medieval era-inspired doom/death metal concept project from Uzbekistani duo Valentin Mayamsin and Michel Cadenzar – will release their six-track album, Renaissance. The album can be ordered now via Bandcamp.
Valentin Mayamsin states, “These tracks on Renaissance are restless ghosts of unreleased songs have been haunting us for many years. Now it’s time to release them and turn a new page in the history of MONTFAUCON! We’ve been waiting to release this record for many years. It’s been quite a journey, and we never thought the path would be so long and windy. We were able to overcome many barriers and are grateful for the support of friends and fans all over the globe. We put a lot of effort and thought into this piece of art. We hope you enjoy the album as much as we do!”
MONTFAUCON resonates with historic tales of violence and upheaval, exploring the implications and consequences of emotional turmoil, aggression and fear. Renaissance – which features mixing and mastering from death metal veteran Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Bloodbath, Katatonia) – is a majestic, eclectic and musically diverse portrait of darkness, desperation and barbarism that presents a new perspective on the ever-shifting landscape of extreme metal.
Renaissance track listing:
1. Prisoner
2. I Was A Warrior
3. Alone
4. Mastermind
5. Insanity
6. The Last Night
MONTFAUCON achieves a sound that’s at once brutal and beautiful, alternately direct and dizzying. Renaissance draws from black metal, progressive doom and symphonic metal influences, accented by Michel’s complex, haunting piano melodies. From one song to the next, there are hints of well-known acts such as Satyricon, Darkthone, Cradle of Filth, Death, Opeth and Pink Floyd, as well as traces of more obscure artists, including Lux Occulta, Dominion and My Dying Bride.
It’s incredible that Valentin and Michel have crafted such diverse, high-impact and intensely melodic songs from opposite parts of the world (Valentin resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, while Michel continues to reside in their native Uzbekestan). What’s even more impressive is that as forward-thinking as the songs on Renaissance are, the skeletons were written years ago, and early versions of some of the tracks were played on metal radio in Uzbekistan, and were well received by the region’s loyal underground scene.
When it was time for Valentin to start putting Renaissance together back in his home studio in San Francisco, he struggled at first to find the right gear and learn how to use it. Since he didn’t have much experience with home recording, he experienced several setbacks. To make sure the songs sounded as good on the digital files as they did when he played them in his living room, Valentin hired The Faceless guitarist Michael Keene to help him assemble a rig that would yield a high quality recording.
For metal fans who are excited to hear more, MONTFAUCON are already working on five or six new death/prog songs that will leave listeners speechless. Until then, Renaissance should be inspiring and enthralling enough to keep listeners completely satisfied.
After finishing a successful UK tour together with Meshuggah, Swedish Thrash Metallers THE HAUNTED are soon to commence recordings for their newest, 9th studio album effort, which is expected to be released worldwide by Century Media Records later in 2017.
THE HAUNTED’s guitarist Ola Englund checked in with the following status update for the new album: “After almost 2.5 years since the release of ‘Exit Wounds’, we’re finally hitting the studio again. This time around we have chosen Russ Russell of Parlour Studios to record/mix the album, so we’re heading over to UK early march to start with the drums. And telling from the pre-productions, this will be a bit more of a dynamic album than “Exit Wounds”, song-wise. I’m very excited to let the fans hear what we have in store. It’s brutality and beauty in perfect disharmony.”
Next to the upcoming tour of Central Europe supporting label mates Arch Enemy in March/April, THE HAUNTED have now also already announced own Scandinavian dates for August/September. Here is a list of all upcoming dates currently announced for THE HAUNTED (New additions marked *):
THE HAUNTED’s latest album “Exit Wounds” (2015) was highly praised as a return to form and managed to enter international sales charts upon release as follows: Germany # 64, Finland # 15, Switzerland # 100, Sweden # 32, USA # 151 Top Current Albums, USA # 5 Heatseekers.
“The GRAMMYs of Alternative Music” – TIME Magazine
CLEVELAND, OH – The Journeys Alternative Press Music Awards, Fueled by Monster Energy Drink are thrilled to present this year’s host – none other than inimitable Black Veil Brides frontman, alt-pop artist and raconteur extraordinaire Andy Biersack – more recently recognized by his solo moniker Andy Black!
Since bursting onto the national scene in 2010 as the striking frontman of rock superstars Black Veil Brides, Biersack has rapidly risen to greatness-not only topping the music charts, but weaving his way into the hearts of fanatical followers worldwide. After reaching next-gen hard rock icon status with the release of four chart topping full-length albums, various other releases and singles with Black Veil Brides, Biersack ventured out on his own – starting his alt-pop solo project under the name Andy Black. His latest solo release, The Shadow Side, debuted on the charts worldwide. Cinematic in scope, ambitious in concept, yet down-to-earth in execution, The Shadow Side is as decidedly personal for Biersack as his work in Black Veil Brides is outspoken, taking a further step outward with its intimate confessional vibe and galvanizing populism.
Biersack states, “I am so honored to be hosting this year’s fourth annual APMAs. I’ve attended every APMAs, and I’ve been fortunate to have a favorite moment every year. As host, I want to make people feel happy and create favorite moments for them, too. I want them to be stoked, whether they are attending the event or watching it from their homes.”
Alternative Press CEO Mike Shea adds, “Andy is one of the most dynamic and engaging musicians I think I’ve ever met. Besides being an amazing frontman on the rock stage, he’s also one of the funniest off-stage. Over the past year, he’s been bringing his comedic side to fans while touring with his Andy Black project, and when we heard that he was interested in hosting the APMAs, we thought that there could be some real magic here in the making. Even before we got down into the details he had already dissected other hosts’ successes and failures on other award shows and came to us with an entire analysis of what he could bring to the APMAs. We are really excited about his enthusiasm and dedication to the show and we know that music fans worldwide are going to be happily surprised to see the results!”
Last summer, after another successful year of extraordinary performances, exciting surprises, interactive onsite activities and an action-packed, star-studded red carpet, the Journeys Alternative Press Music Awards, Fueled by Monster Energy Drink further solidified itself as the biggest, most popular celebration of alternative music on the planet. In December, the APMAs announced that this year’s event would return to Alternative Press‘ home city of Cleveland, Ohio on July 17! The APMAs promises even more of what fans have come to expect from the show- huge stars and incredible performances – presented on a scale worthy of the most exciting genres in music.
Details regarding the 2017 APMAs venue, tickets and VIP packages, nominees, honorees, attending/performing artists, red carpet appearances, surrounding events and more will be announced soon via www.altpress.com/apmas.
Watch the Official Andy Biersack Hosting Announcement Video here:
Kansas City Metal Outfit HYBORIAN Brings Heavy, Retro Grooves with New Album “Hyborian: Volume I”, out March 17
Having been through so many phases and transformations throughout the years, it seems that often, heavy metal music can seem over-complicated – too complex, showy or pretentious. Alternatively, it can be too simple, regurgitated or repetitive. It’s easy to forget that putting out an accessible, quality heavy metal recording shouldn’t be difficult. Something inspired but direct, razor sharp but heavy. Truly exceptional music shouldn’t have to be too conceptually and musically convoluted or dumbed-down to push you face-first into that tingling, meditative journey that it should provide.
With replicated, simulated and easily-absorbed tracks dominating the airwaves and often showy, overly conceptualized prog-dilutions ruling the underground, it seems the ability to achieve any sort of balance of the two in metal is primarily lost. Enter Kansas City metal hybrid HYBORIAN, who illustrate a perfect equilibrium of rich concept and straightforward songwriting with their debut album, Hyborian: Volume I. The album drops on March 17, 2017 via Kansas City-based label The Company, and is available for pre-order now via www.thecompanykc.com. iTunes pre-orders will go live on March 3, with their first single, “Maelstrom”, as an instant grat track.
Volume I track listing:
1) As Above, So Below
2) Maelstrom
3) Blood for Blood
4) Dead Lies Dreaming
5) Ajna
6) Dross
As many parts stoner rock as it is retro-inspired and deliciously groovy, HYBORIAN‘s Hyborian: Volume I takes the listener on a ride that emits wall-shaking-levels of heaviness and lyrical fantasy, remaining engaging for any metal listener. Immense riffage, barrelling verses and piercing leads combine to create a sound that invites the listener to sit back and become fully-absorbed, when it isn’t summoning involuntary elbow-throwing. Lyrically, the album’s storytelling style is inspired by Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, but based on an interstellar, extra-dimensional cloaked being called The Traveller. Hyborian: Volume I tells his legends from the time before written language.
Lead vocalist Martin Bush discusses the roots of HYBORIAN‘s lyrical inspiration, “I grew up reading pretty much anything I could get my hands on, which included me raiding my dad’s book collection. He had a ton of classic sci-fi and fantasy, from Asimov and Heinlan to Howard and Cooper. Because of that, this writing style comes very naturally to me.”
He further explains, “Basically The Traveller is a being that exists outside of humanity’s understanding of space and time. He is the source of all life in the universe, but is not omnipresent. He wanders the cosmos, visiting and recording times of great strife or hardship, great suffering or great triumph. We are his chosen mouthpiece on Earth, so we relate those stories, whether from far in the past or far in the future. For instance, “Maelstrom” is the story of a mountaintop battle between a being who has just achieved a higher consciousness in the midst of a scuffle with a sentient storm. In order to defeat the creature in the storm, he expends his newfound powers and gives up his life.
We are also pretty into cryptography, so there are several hidden messages on the album from The Traveller if the listener is clever enough to find them.”
When a band says they built their sound from the ground up, they normally don’t mean it literally. Once again, HYBORIAN prove individuality in this department, as Hyborian: Volume I was recorded at the band’s own studio that they built themselves and eventually began also using as a rehearsal space. The album was then mixed by Justin Mantooth at Westend Studios (Radkey, Family, Godmaker) and mastered by Nick Zampiello at New Alliance East (The Red Chord, Torche, Trap Them).
Bush says that recording on the band’s own terms, in their own space, really helped them achieve their best product: “We decided to build our own space to record simply because it cost us about what it would have cost to track at a decent studio, but now we have a home base to make record after record after record. The art of crafting an album as opposed to a group of songs is somewhat lost, or at least relegated to the realms of people with incredibly deep pockets, so being able to really play around and do all the extra stuff that makes an album an album was really important to us.”
Since forming in 2015, HYBORIAN has performed as support for the likes of Iron Reagan, Power Trip, Mothership, Acid King, Mutoid Man, Tweak Bird, Vektor, Whores and many others. The band will once again give fans a chance to witness their live assault this March during their Midwestern U.S. tour. The run will feature varying support acts in each city. See below for all confirmed tour dates:
HYBORIAN Tour Dates:
3/16 Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room w/ Iron Reagan, Power Trip
3/17 Kansas City, MO @ Private Location Release Party w/ Keef Mountain, Expo 70, Orphans of Doom, Inner Altar (reply with inquiries)
3/18 Omaha, NE @ O’Leavers w/ Dirty Talker
3/19 Lincoln, NE @ Duffy’s Tavern w/ High Ruler, Sweats
Interview by Carina Lawrence / Dark Art Conspiracy
Can you tell us about how you came up with the name Emerald? Al: The name is taken from the Thin Lizzy classic “Emerald”. We still think it’s a cool name, even though there are some other bands acting under the same name. If you choose a name this short and catchy, there’s always a big chance that it is already taken. But back in 1995 you couldn’t just google a name and check if it was still available. So we just went with it!
You have been going for more than two decades now, how would you say your sound has evolved in that time? Al: I guess it evolved just the way any band’s sound is supposed to. The first songs were pretty simple and the abilities of each member were rather limited. Over the years the songwriting became more mature and everyone got more experienced.
Each line-up change also brought some new influences to the mix, which led to more diversity in our sound. We certainly got heavier and more open minded over the years but we always stayed true to our roots!
Following on from that, how much has the metal music scene changed, especially in your home country Switzerland since your formation? Al: The metal scene in Switzerland definitely grew stronger within the last years. Back in the mid 90s classic heavy metal was completely shut out. In our region, Emerald was pretty much the only band playing this kind of sound. In the beginning it was rather hard to find good gigs to play since the demand for this kind of music was rather small. But nowadays there is a good and healthy underground metal scene growing here in Switzerland with lots of cool bands playing all different kinds of metal and lots of small new metal festivals popping up each year.
So you are releasing your seventh album, ‘Reckoning Day’ on the 24th March, what can you tell us about this new release? Al: For us, “Reckoning Day” marks some kind of turning point since it is the first album with a whole new line-up and the first sign of life after 5 years of silence. Some might even call it a comeback album because no one heard or saw anything of us within the last years and considered us dead. It was indeed very quiet after the departure of former singer Thomas L. Winkler, but we’ve always been active, writing songs and planning our return to the surface… plotting our day of reckoning, so to speak!
What was the writing and recording process like for the album? Al: The writing process was very unusual since it was the first time that we had to write everything without having a singer in the band. We just wrote and recorded some instrumental demo songs and added some of our own demo-vocals while we were searching for a new singer.
In 2014, American singer George Call (Aska, ex-Omen) joined our band and agreed to sing on all songs on “Reckoning Day”. So we went to the Little Creek Studio here in Switzerland where we recorded all songs in instrumental versions under the supervision of producer V.O. Pulver (Gurd, Poltergeist, Destruction…). Then we sent the tracks to Texas where George was supposed to record his vocals. Since George was very busy with some other projects, it took him more than a year to finally start working on our songs. In the meantime, as we grew more and more impatient, we started looking for a new singer here in Switzerland and finally found the great voice of Mace Mitchell, who was very eager to finish the vocals on our record and become a permanent member of Emerald.
George Call still delivered the vocals for 2 songs that appear on “Reckoning Day” as well as a third song which will be used as a bonus track on the limited edition version.
As you can see, the whole process was pretty tedious. It never took us five years to put out a new record before. But now it’s finally here and we are really happy with it!
How would you say it compares to the rest of your back catalogue? Al: Well, the new album is always the best, haha! No, of course that’s always a matter of opinion! But we certainly think it is a step forward and the logical continuation of the path we chose on the previous albums. It features a much broader range of musical influences and some excellent vocal work from Mace Mitchell and George Call.
One thing that’s unique on this record is the 7 track mini-concept “The Burgundian Wars” on the second half of the album. It is based on the novel “Der Löwe von Burgund” from our keyboarder Thomas Vaucher and tells the story of the conflict between Charles the Bold and the Swiss confederates.
Oh… and the new album has definitely the best sound we ever had, thanks to the great production of V.O. Pulver!
As well as a new album you have a new band line-up, how are things going so far and how would you say the dynamics have changed following this? Al: You could say that Emerald 2017 is a whole new band! From the very first line-up only band founder Michael Vaucher (guitars) and his brother Thomas Vaucher (keyboards) are left. I consider myself as one of the “old guys” as well since I’ve been playing the part of Emerald’s drummer for already 10 years now. The rest of the bandmembers all joined the band within the last four years: Julien Menth (guitars) in 2013, Vania Truttmann (bass) in 2014 and Mace Mitchell (vocals) in 2016. All three of them brought a lot of freshness and enthusiasm into the band, which was exactly what the rest of us needed.
I think I can speak for everyone in the band when I say that we now have the greatest line-up ever! The dynamics in Emerald have never been this powerful before and it has never been this much fun to play in this band. I believe that, in this constellation, we have a great future ahead of us!
Collectively what are your main musical influences? Al: Well, there’s one band we can all agree upon: Iron Maiden! Apart from that, everyone in the band has his/her own personal favourites. That leads to a wide range of influences that includes bands from the hard rock, punk, heavy, power, prog, thrash, symphonic and even modern metal sector.
How is it to be signed with Pure Steel Records? Al: It’s a cool underground label that stands 100% behind everything we do. For them, heavy metal is not just business but a lifestyle. We’ve been part of the Pure Steel family for more than 10 years now and are very happy for everything they have done for us so far. They never treated us like just another number in their roster. They are big fans of every band they sign.
Are there any plans for a tour in support of the new album? Al: We certainly want to do another tour, yes, but so far we don’t have any specific plans.
What else has Emerald got planned for the year? Al: We already have some great gigs confirmed and hope to play some festivals across Europe this year. Apart from that we are already working on our next album and want to hit the studio again as soon as possible.
Is there anything else you would like to share with us? Al: First of all, I’d like to thank you, Carina, for your interest in Emerald and the opportunity to share my thoughts with you! I’d also like to thank all Emerald fans worldwide for their loyalty and endless support! You rock!!!
And I promise it won’t take another five years to release our next album. We are back, stronger than ever and ready for the next 20 years of Emerald!
Let’s raise our horns up high!!!
Thanks for your time!
Carina
Dark Art Conspiracy
TRACKLISTING:
1. Only The Reaper Wins
2. Black Pyramid
3. Evolution In Reverse
4. Horns Up
5. Beyond Forever
6. Through The Storm
7. Ridden By Fear
8. Mist Of The Past
9. Trees Full Of Tears
10. Lament Of The Fallen
11. Reckoning Day
12. Reign Of Steel
13. Signum Die
14. Fading History
15. End Of The World (Bonustrack)
Total Playing Time:: 62:08
Total Playing Time with Bonustrack: 67:15 min
Line Up
vocals – Mace Mitchell
guitars – Michael Vaucher
guitars – Julien Menth
bass – Vania Truttmann
drums – Alex Spicher
keys – Thomas Vaucher
Special Guests
vocals – George Call – “Evolution In Reverse”, “Through The Storm”
guitar solo – Slädu – “Horns Up”
backing vocals – Alexx Suter – “Beyond Forever”
The release date of the new VESCERA album „Beyond The Fight“ on CD is April 7th, 2017. The pre-order phase will start on March 24th, 2017 in our webshop.
The outstanding singer MICHAEL VESCERA signs a worldwide deal with Pure Steel Records, after his solo project, Michael Vescera finally has formed a real band. His new album ´Beyond The Fight´ with the EX-NITEHAWKS musicians Mike Petrone (g), Frank Leone (b) and Fabio Alessandrini (dr) will be released by Pure Steel Records!
So you will get now finest melodic Metal with US-american influences. Of course the production is superbe and supports the heavy melodic songs at its best! If you are into melodic Metal with a really heavy edge it is a must to listen to “Beyond the fight”!
TRACKLIST:
1. Blackout In Paradise
2. In The Night
3. Stand And Fight
4. Dynamite
5. Looking For Trouble
6. Vendetta
7. Troubled Man
8. Never Letting Go
9. Suite 95
Total Playing Time: 37:26 min
LINE-UP:
Michael Vescera – vocals
Mike Petrone – guitars
Frank Leone – bass
Fabio Alessandrini – drums
Dark Art Conspiracy 
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