Carl Begai

(Chapter 1)
(Chapter 2)
(Chapter 3)

Chapter 4 – Cris

For guitarist Cristina Bishop, the road that led to the creation of Scarlet Sins began with the tragic death of her best friend. Partners in crime from the age of six, their sudden and senseless parting in 2003 changed Bishop’s priorities and her views on life. Working through her grief she found a sense of purpose in music. Acting on it helped her to cope with the pain, and has brought her farther than she expected.

“You know when you’re finished school and you’re ready to take on the world, and the world shits on your head and tells you to wake up? It was kind of that moment for me,” says Bishop, having made peace on some level with the sad turn of events. “It was one of those moments where I though ‘Fuck, what am I doing with my life? I don’t want to waste it partying…’ At the same time I was grieving so hard and I didn’t have anyone to talk to who had been through something like that. I just got deeper into the music and started writing, and all these songs kept coming out. That’s basically the first album (laughs).”
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Having established themselves as something pretty damn close to unique with their classic self-titled EP and weirdo cold progressive follow-up, The Warning, Queensrÿche blindsided pretty much everyone with Rage For Order. The goth-glam promo pictures did a decent job of scaring the shit out of the people who cared, first single / video ‘Gonna Get Close To You’ finished the job with its brooding Depeche Mode-metal vibe. Most folks outside Canada didn’t realize the song was a cover, Canuck metalheads (myself especially) couldn’t believe one of their own would cover Lisa Dalbello, but it had the desired effect. I, like so many others that had dismissed Queensrÿche as being too over-the-top for their own good, weighed hype against weirdness and took a chance on the album, and was pleasantly surprised. (continue reading…)

I’m not God’s gift to journalism but I consider myself a decent writer. There are lots of folks out there that are better than me, but I’ve thrown down some bad-ass prose in my time and I can look back on what I’ve accomplished with a certain amount of pride. I’ve also made mistakes for all to see and laugh at – using the word “situation” three times in a run-on sentence is my personal best – and I’ve learned from those mistakes. And while I have the whole grammar thing down pat (barring any stylistic wanderings on my part that I justify in the pursuit of creativity) every so often I see a story or review I wrote that’s gone to print with some glaring errors and think “Nice one, you dolt…” Sure, I could blame the editor, but I try not to.

With the general pace of life and all the instant messaging going on these days (and please, kiddies, keep the fucking laptop away from the bathtub!) it’s no surprise that grammatical rules have gone to hell. Blogs, text messages, Twittering, online bulletins… everyone has a voice whether they can write or not, syntax be damned. Can’t blame them, either, because ultimately it’s the message that’s important to them and the parties involved, not how pretty it looks.
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I’ve been hanging out at Suite101.com for a bit and found that it’s actually quite an interesting place. Lots of folks that write about lots of different things, business, film & television, sports, technology, the writing industry, and pretty much all points in between. Me being me, I quite naturally decided to put my own five bucks in where I figured it would fit. I recently penned a review of Bif Naked’s new album, The Promise, and a series overview of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and posted them both on the site. They’re exclusive to Suite101.

“Buffy? YOU? Mr. Metal Or Die Scream Bloody Gore? Dude! Lay off the Britney Spears CDs!”
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(Chapter 1)
(Chapter 2)

By Carl Begai

Chapitre 3 — Elie

Montreal-born drummer Elie Bertrand is the push that made Scarlet Sins move.

Taking nothing away from her bandmates of course, who recorded the debut album with the very capable John Pacheco (Fall And Divide) behind the kit as a session drummer, but Bertrand’s entrance solidified Scarlet Sins’ direction and enabled them to take their music to the next level. The fact she was a mere 17-years-old when she auditioned (in 2007) mattered very little once the band heard and saw her in action

“Well, I didn’t tell them how old I was, but I didn’t lie either,” laughs Bertrand. “They didn’t ask me at first so I didn’t say anything. I think it was Cris that finally asked me how old I was so of course I told her, and I guess the girls weren’t expecting anything from me because I was so young. I mean, John was playing drums before I was even born (laughs). But I’m here, so I guess the age thing really wasn’t a big deal. I sent the video of to them of me playing, and then I drove down to Toronto with my dad for the audition, so they never made a big fuss about it.”
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By Carl Begai

Helix frontman and founder Brian Vollmer is a prime example of someone who makes music for the right reasons. While some long-suffering veterans of the biz jump on the nostalgia / reunion train for (supposed) big bucks and other artists – old and new – bitch about how unkind the music industry is these days as they release uninspired slabs of forgettable tunes, Vollmer is busy leading the bull around by the horns. As far as he’s concerned the present day lack of big production budgets and flashy marketing that punctuated Helix’s ‘80s heyday doesn’t make his new music any less viable, and he’s out to prove it. So while he looks back fondly on the past, Vollmer is focused on the future, ready to remind people why Helix is called the hardest working rock band in Canada.

And for those who are only dimly aware of Helix, stick around. You may learn something.
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Hails,

Those of you that stop by regularly – and once again, thanks for that – may notice a very out of place, slightly blank-looking widget in the right hand column labelled Suite 101. In fact, if you miss it you should consider buying glasses. Said eyesore is a link to written works I am now submitting to Suite101.com, to be published exclusively by them. I won’t be restricting myself to metal and music, however, and published pieces will be actual news-related items (stories, reviews, the occasional how-not-to) rather than blogs (as they frown on that sort of thing). Subject matter will vary depending on my mood.

My review of the new IRON MAIDEN documentary Flight 666: The Film is currently up and running, submitted as a first step in this new experiment. Just wave your cursor over the widget and the link will pop up.

Great film, by the way. Great package. Go buy it…
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(Chapter 1)

By Carl Begai

Chapter 2 — Tanya

The induction of bassist Tanya Nicklaus to Scarlet Sins’ ranks was an important step forward, offering Bishop and NuVynska some real stability beyond their own commitment. It was a case of dumb luck working in the band’s favour – and not for the first time – as Nicklaus had added bass guitar to her repertoire mere months before Scarlet Sins went in search of a new four-stringer.

“Yeah, I was a guitar player for about 10 years,” says Nicklaus. “I was in between bands when I picked up the bass. I just decided to buy one and try to put some demos together at home on a four track. I wanted to write and I didn’t want to have the pressure of being in a band, having to come up with something right away. So basically I decided to figure out a new instrument so I could play both parts for the demos. It’s funny because Cris and I were friends and we’d get together for coffee sometimes. At one point I just asked her what was up with Scarlet Sins and she told me they were having problems with their bass player. It was like, ‘Holy fuck, you know what? I can play bass!’ (laughs). Obviously I needed to work on my chops because I’d picked it up only a couple months before, but I knew a lot of the theory from having played guitar for so many years. It was a natural transition for me.”
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By Carl Begai

Rather than trace the trials, tribulations and general misery within the Stratovarius camp that tore the band apart with painful slowness, the focus is instead on their comeback-from-a-comeback album, Polaris. Suffice to say that between 2003 and 2008 the Finnish power metal outfit provided their fanbase with more soap opera drama than anyone deserves to be subjected to (see Wikipedia for the sordid details). Blow up, shake up, make up, break up, ex-guitarist/songwriter Timo Tolkki was at the center of the internal five year battle, his personal demons transforming Stratovarius into a car crash of epic proportions that effectively killed off any hope of a return to glory. The band wasn’t as dead as it seemed, however, with frontman Timo Kotipelto, keyboardist Jens Johansson, drummer Joerg Michael and bassist Lauri Porra choosing in 2008 to move forward as a unit, albeit nameless and without a concrete musical direction. The entrance of guitarist Matias Kupiainen as Tolkki’s more than capable replacement changed all that, with Polaris as the end result. An album that shows more than mere signs of life, it puts Stratovarius back in familiar territory and on a road that isn’t going to simply end around the next curve.
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When I first moved to Germany I was surprised to discover how much the people liked their carbonated mineral water.

Not that the concept of bubbles in my drinking water was anything new. My parents had big-ass bottles of soda water delivered to our doorstep every few weeks when I was a kid. But, it seemed that the average German generally frowned upon drinking tap water, opting instead for buying half liter bottles of bubbly. It was and remains in such high demand that most companies distributing it offer up their product in varying strengths:

– Average “that tickles” bubbles

– Medium “scratch that itch” fuzzy bubbles

– Extra Strength “and you though Pop Rocks could dislocate your jaw” hydrogen bomb carbonation
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