Let’s make one thing clear – if after seeing the name Dee Snider, you were just expecting to hear another standard, classic sounding, mid-late eighties Twisted Sister record, then you might want to take a moment before diving in. There are no callbacks to big hair and garish warpaint here, no ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’, or ‘I Wanna Rock’ bouncy bubblegum rock songs, and there’s absolutely no campy “Twisted Christmas” seasonal type fun. Hell, this is barely even a Dee Snider solo album in the classic sense, so you can also forget about him repeating the likes of Never Let The Bastards Wear You Down (Koch), his Desperado album Bloodied But Unbowed (Destroyer), or even his previous solo release We Are the Ones (earMUSIC).Continue reading →
Dee Snider is fast approaching the release of his new solo album next week. For The Love of Metal, produced by Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta comes out next week, July 27th, via Napalm Records. Watch the lyric video for the new track “I Am The Hurricane” now. Continue reading →
Howard Jones, the second and most successful frontman of Killswitch Engage has been in the studio recording a new song with the band, and their original and current front man, Jesse Leach. In a photo posted to Leach’s Instagram, you can see Jones, Leach and KsE guitarist/producer Adam D in the photo sharing the news. Jones has a new album out with his band Light The Torch. KsE is recording a new album, the follow-up to 2016’s Incarnate (Roadrunner) album. Continue reading →
Revival, huh? That seems a bit on the nose, don’t you think, Devil You Know? I mean, Light the Torch. See, it’s a Revival (Nuclear Blast), because it’s the first album since Devil You Know was forced to change their moniker due to legal troubles with a former drummer. Fucking drummers, man. Also, it’s a revival of sorts because Light the Torch is taking their sound to novel and interesting places. Continue reading →
Light The Torch, the band formerly known as Devil You Know, will be releasing their new album, Revival, on March 30th via Nuclear Blast. The guys just shared their new ‘Die Alone’ single online, and as you’ll hear below, even though they have a new name, their sound remains the same. Continue reading →
For a band that’s been around longer than I’ve been uselessly kicking around this earth, Prong still has plenty of juice. I enjoyed both Songs from the Black Hole and X – No Absolutes (both SPV/Steamhammer) just fine, but the vibe is different on album twelve(!), Zero Days (Steamhammer). Seems like Tommy Victor has been busy putting together a late career resurgence, not unlike the lads in Machine Head.Continue reading →
Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta‘s side project, Jasta, was recently added to the Anthrax, Killswitch Engage and The Devil Wears Prada tour, and to get fans more excited for the upcoming dates, he’s released a brand new song. Continue reading →
Massachusetts metalcore legends, Killswitch Engage, are back with another solid release, Incarnate (Roadrunner). This is the second album released since Howard Jones left the group and original singer, Jesse Leach, stepped back into his vocal duties. While I will avoid the Jones vs. Leach debate, I will say that this work may be the most mature work from Leach-fronted Killswitch. The Westfield, MA natives continue to tinker with their sound to make the heavy, heavier and the melodic, more emotional and memorable, but do not stray too far away from what they know works. In no way would I call this an experimental album, but neither is it a safe one.
Incarnate is one of those albums that gets stronger the farther down you go. While some of the opening tracks are good songs, the second half of the album avoids the “more of the same” sentiments that I am sure many metalcore deserters would use. ‘Embrace the Journey…Upraised’ kicks off the second half of the album which showcases the Killswitch sound the best. Thunderous verse riffs with harsh vocals that lead into a hardcore pre-chorus followed by an uplifting, memorable chorus. The bridge/breakdown builds off of the pre-chorus parts to bring the track together. ‘It Falls on Me’ is one of the tracks that broke the mold a bit and borrowed some post-metal influences (The Ocean certainly came to mind, specifically the Pelagial album). The bridge of the track brings some of the ever emotional, yet catchy tremolo guitar work with a nice delay effect to create a spacey feel. The outro of the song reminds the listening that this is Killswitch Engage with a breakdown and harsh vocals to complete a very Jekyll and Hyde track. ‘We Carry On’ might be the best track written by the band since The End of Heartache era. This track brings together all of the elements present on Incarnate and then blend them together into one epic ballad. Heavy guitar riffs, catchy melodies, uplifting lyrics with both harsh and clean vocals, plus a little more of the spacey guitar effects seen on ‘It Falls on Me’ are all eloquently mixed. The closer, ‘Ascension’, is a return to the norm and wraps up the record perfectly. This is certainly the most “hardcore” track on the album and leaves the listener with Jesse Leach shouting “This is fair warning…your time… will… come!”
With so much music coming out the past couple of years, and mostly on the extreme side, it is always nice to return to the middle of the spectrum. Killswitch Engage once again has pulled me back to my youth with this release. My hometown heroes came through and then some on Incarnate.
Within a band in modern times, musicians often maintain a larger role than originally expected. Logan Mader discovered this upon forming his latest musical venture Once Human, and aside from being the band’s guitarist and songwriter, he wears many other hats than the ones just mentioned, and explains about where his motivation comes from.
“I’ve been juggling my workload, as a freelance producer and writer – you kind of have to multitask a lot. I’m also managing the band Starset. That also takes up a lot of time as well. They’re quite busy. I just make it work. I don’t sleep. I’ve had to shift my schedule around a bit to make some time for Once Human. Even still, I’m producing albums and before we go on tour I’ll be producing this record during the day and then rehearing at night, in between hanging out with my kids a little bit and go to the gym.”
“I’m managing the band Starset and I can do that from anywhere as long as I have internet connection and a phone. I’m managing Once Human as well. I have a partner and his name is Steve Hutton from Uppercut Management. He and I are partners on the band Starset and Once Human.”
Being someone unafraid of new challenges, Mader took on the role of producing the band’s debut music video. He discovered that he thrives on working under pressure and finds a way to turn that into a positive.
“It’s a little overwhelming I’ve gotta tell you at some point and I helped produce our music video (‘You Cunt’). I’ve never done that before. I’m taking on a lot of workload and day to day interaction. It’s challenging and there’s a lot of prepping involved. I like the challenge and I usually work good under pressure.”
“Sometimes I want to run away from it all but I never do. I always chip away and make it happen.”
He explained what Once Human is all about and his reasons after bowing out of the touring life for the past 12 years and entering the studio world to returning to a world he once was a part of.
“Once Human is my rude awakening as an artist for me. It involves little bits of everything that I’ve learned throughout my experiences from the beginning. I’ve been doing music for 20 years and that’s all I’ve done. I’m wearing a lot of hats but not just a guitar player but a producer and manager. It’s a pure passion project that I feel inspired about it as I did when I first started playing in Machine Head. There’s something real here. I’m really excited about this. We’re gonna go with this and the fact that I can do it all, I can do this as well. I don’t have to just be behind the scenes in the studio. I can do this as well because I miss it. I like adrenaline and there’s only one way to get that is to do it.”
“I’ve tried other things like I do extreme off shore sport fishing. That’s when I have time. That’s a big adrenaline rush to catch a big 100 pound tuna. I get a similar type of rush from that. I play in poker tournaments and I get that adrenaline rush out of that. There’s nothing like playing at Dynamo Open Air Festival in 1995 in front of 110,000 people. Nothing can beat that, but it doesn’t even have to be 110,000 people. It could be 100 people. It could be 500 people. It could be whatever. That’s something I really love and makes life better to experience those things.”
Photo Credit: Lauren Cohen
The band just completed their debut US tour supporting Fear Factory and completed their first ever live shows during this tour. Despite never playing a live show together as a band, Mader understood what he was getting himself into and was up for the challenge.
“Well for me it’s fine because I’ve played over 700 shows in my life. For me as an individual, I’m ready to go. I know how to ride the bike. As a manager, I know real talent when I see it. I put together a band that could do this. These are people who are able to do what we need to do. We’re ready to go. Give it a little time. Any new band has to play a couple of shows before that real magical chemistry starts to naturally occur and build. Any band has to go through that, whether we play a local show or a couple of tours. It will develop in a live setting on a live setting over a natural course of time. But I know the foundation of raw talent is here. I’m confident about the fact we haven’t played a show yet and we’ve booked our first tour and we’re going to start touring in roughly a month from now. Especially the way we rehearse – we rehearse as if we’re performing. We’re pretty much rocking out in our practice room, like we would on stage.”
“I know it’s like the difference of a flight simulator and actually flying a plane. It’s about exactly the same but you can see that the energy and the live and the ability to do it live for real.”
“We just did our first video for the song ‘You Cunt.’ My singer Lauren [Hart] wrote the video and directed it. We’re really happy with the way it came out. It looks amazing. It’s a great story and narrative, and good acting in it and cool live performance. I think it turned out real good, considering for the budget what most people work with for a music video these days. The budgets are so small you’ve got to be resourceful and creative.”
On the subject of touring, he spoke about the possibilities of doing seminars on recording, and already had ideas brewing within his head about the subject.
“It’s funny you say that because I’m thinking about starting to think about doing some workshops for production, songwriting, recording, and editing. I’m working with Blasko. He’s producer managing me now. We just started it. He thought it was a cool idea.”
Lastly, he shared a story about going fishing with Devil You Know (and former Killswitch Engage) vocalist Howard Jones. The two shared a love of sport fishing and ventured out together to fish. Mader explains from there:
“I didn’t introduce him to fishing. When I was producing the first Devil You Know album, I looked at his laptop when we were writing lyrics. He had a picture of him holding a big fish. I asked him ‘do you fish?’ He said ‘fuck yeah I fish.’ I was like ‘Me too.’ We bonded on the sport fishing thing.”
“When we finished the recording I took him out on an overnight fishing trip in Mexican waters on my friend’s boat. It was a fun trip. First thing we know I overrun a 100 pound Blue Fin Tuna, a really good sized tuna. The conditions were bad. We were fighting the fish for over two hours. It wasn’t just me. I was handing it off because I wasn’t able to get it and it was kicking our asses so bad because we had a lighter rig and the fish was too big for the rig so we had to release it or the line would break.”
“It was kicking our ass for two hours so Howard broke the bad line. We were like ‘here you want to pull on the line for a little while?’ He was like ‘sure OK’ and then grabs the line and then within ten seconds the fish broke off and it got away. We felt bad. We were devastated. It wasn’t his fault. He felt bad about that one.”
“Later on that day we caught some other fish so it was all good. It was an epic battle and we will never forget that one.”
Devil You Know have completed pre-production for their sophomore release with producer Josh Wilbur (Lamb of God, All That Remains, Killer Be Killed), and will begin recording in early June.
Howard Jones (vocals) states:
“Hey everyone, so we are all really excited as 2015 is going to be a huge year for DYK. I think spending quality time together sweating on stage and holding hands in vans, buses, planes, boats, trains and submarines has helped us become a true unit, and it’s definitely showing in the new tunes. Josh Wilbur is super talented and he has a proven history of bringing out the best in bands, so we are excited to say the least. Now it’s time to stop showering and shaving so we can transform back into metal mode and get to work! More news to follow in the coming weeks people… It’s on.”
Howard Jones (Ex-Killswitch Engage, Blood Has Been Shed) – Vocals Francesco Artusato (All Shall Perish, The Francesco Artusato Project) – Guitar John Sankey (Devolved, Fear Factory, Divine Heresy) – Drums Ryan Wombacher (Bleeding Through) – Bass Roy Lev-Ari – Guitar
