Carl Begai

By Carl Begai

As first impressions go, the video for Pain’s new song ‘Dirty Woman’ is a sure sign that mastermind / Hypocrisy frontman Peter Tägtgren is still having a truckload of fun with his one time side project. Nothing says “devil-may-care” like a performance clip featuring well endowed women posing for the camera, with a drummer unleashing hell and violence on an uncooperative drum kit in the background. Flames included.

“That was my idea, actually,” laughs Tägtgren. “It was the first time I ever got involved in the concept for a video, which was really simple; a bunch of really cool guys playing the song, and then the shit hits the fan. And yeah, it was tempting to turn around to see what was going on when we were filming because all I heard was ‘Bam! Wham! Bang!’ and all kinds of shit going on behind me. I really like the end result.”

Pain’s new album, You Only Live Twice, finds Tägtgren picking up where the band’s previous record Cynic Paradise left off, but he’s twisted their trademark sound into something darker and heavier along the way. A calculated move, but when asked if the fans have become more critical or more accepting of his experiments with the Pain formula – an ongoing process since the band’s 1996 inception – Tägtgren admits he doesn’t have a clue.

“I don’t know. In the past people always said ‘Pain is just a side project…’ and they liked it for what it was. They didn’t care that I was in Hypocrisy, a lot of them didn’t even know Pain’s background; they just liked it for the music. The band’s following has been growing steadily, and I guess people are getting more picky about what we do (laughs).” (continue reading…)

As one of the members of the BW&BK family that posts news on the official website daily, I have the opportunity to promote artists that I feel are worthy of the coverage. In other words, folks that I like. The boss trusts my judgement, I’m not into bullshit tabloid reporting, our daily traffic is ridiculous, which makes it a great forum to offer some free exposure. There are things going on in the metal world to report on that don’t involve KISS blowing up a stage somewhere on tour or (insert black metal band here) being accused of offending (insert prudish social organization here), and today was no different. A buddy of mine with a long professional history of shredding up a storm let slip that he has a new project in the works, and I figured the fans would be interested in hearing about it. When I sent him the link to the news, however, he was grateful but not exactly enthused.

He explained that as much as he appreciated the exposure, the amount of trash-talking that has come his way over the last year or two as a result of these extra credit news bits had gotten to him, making the music world an increasingly lousy place to be. Basically, online talk and reports of new song ideas, experiences or projects has earned him the disdain of a small group of people that are quite happy to slag him in online forums for no good reason. I was appalled to hear this, and deleted the post without a second thought.

It sickens me to think that efforts meant as a helping hand did more harm than good in the end. Symptomatic of the psychotic digital information age we live in, I suppose, where every computer comes with a built in God complex for the user with no concept of respect. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

There was a time when Amanda Somerville’s name was merely another footnote in the metal biz. Her career as a solo artist had legs as of 2000, but in the world of greasy long-haired distortion and debauchery Somerville was a behind-the-scenes helper, credit given where it was due on a guest artist roster or in a thank you list. In 2003 she took the daring plunge into a realm that was still something of a mystery to her, creating the Aina – Days Of Rising Doom metal opera with her Gate Studios colleagues, finally putting a voice and face to her name. Since then, Somerville has become a popular member of the metal world, garnering a fanbase that follows and her work even if it may not always float their respective hull-of-steel boats. Now, after years of offering her voice and knowledge to acts like Epica, Avantasia, HDK and Kiske/Somerville, “the blonde chick” has stepped into a spotlight of her own making.

And it’s very, very metal.

“I’ve been throwing around the idea of doing this over the last few years,” she reveals. “It really kind of tipped the scales doing HDK. There’s a saying in German, ‘I licked blood,’ which is disgusting but appropriate I guess, since there’s a song about vampires on the album (laughs). I’ve always done my own thing. People know me mainly from collaborations I’ve done with and for other bands, but I started out as a solo artist and I stayed one throughout. Having done all of this stuff in the metal scene for more than a decade now, it’s only natural that it rubbed off on me. I like it, and the songs that I’ve written in the last several years have been very dark and gotten heavier. Basically, I was just going to make my next solo album more metal, but then I decided I’d prefer to keep the waters a little cleaner in terms of doing a metal project. It’s a little weird if I say I’m going to do a metal album and then throw in a jazz ballad (laughs). I don’t want to compromise, and I’ve got so much material now that I might as well do a total metal album and keep my solo stuff completely separate. That way I can do what I want and not have to apologize to anybody.”

Sounds suspiciously like a typical day at the office for former Strapping Young Lad mad scientist Devin Townsend, another prolific singer / songwriter / musician prone to switching musical gears and doing so effortlessly. Somerville is in good company.

“Yeah, like that. It’s me, Devin and Garth Brooks doing his Chris Gaines thing (laughs). It’s us funky musicians and our split personalities.” (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

For a band to return to the spotlight after a 20+ year absence and put out an album’s worth of new material that stays true to their original sound is almost unheard of. “Almost” because long gone ‘80s rock dogs Black N’ Blue have done just that, returning with the aptly titled Hell Yeah!, a record that does them proud and couldhave tipped the scales in their favour had it been released way back when. Vocalist Jaime St. James is justifiably proud of the album, and he doesn’t waste time worrying about the fact Black N’ Blue went out as little more than a footnote when things came to an end in 1989.

“It’s an awesome record, but Black N’ Blue have always been the underdogs of metal and it’s been that way for us all our lives. But, we’re good at what we do, and I guess that underdog status gives us a little bit of charm.”

When you stack Hell Yeah! up against recent albums from artists that cut their teeth around the same time – Bon Jovi, Warrant and Keel immediately come to mind – it’s more than mere charm. Their career was based on not trying to be like every other band on the scene at the time. Black N’ Blue made their biggest splash – according to the almighty MTV rating system – in 1984 with ‘Hold On To 18’ from the self-titled debut, releasing three more albums before finally calling it quits when their 1988 record In Heat fizzled.

“We’re a lot better than a lot of the bands that became bigger than us, which is a strange thing,” St. James agrees without missing a beat or naming names. “We signed to Geffen Records and they wanted to control us a little bit, so that kind of put a damper on everything. Other than that we did the best we could. When we got signed, we waited for months for (producer) Dieter Dierks because he had to finish the Scorpions’ Love At First Sting record. We waited and waited, and in the meantime we were offered the Ozzy tour. We couldn’t take it because we didn’t have an album out, so Ratt ended up getting the slot. There are all kinds of things that we did back in the day, decisions we made, that looking back on them now, I might have changed them. But, Black N’ Blue is what it is, and we’re a great band. That’s the bottom line.” (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Devin Townsend has been on and off the road for the past year pushing his “this was me, this is where I’m going” tetralogy, kicked off by the Ki album and yanked into motion with Addicted in 2009. At press time he was gearing up for the release of Deconstruction and Ghost, totalling four very different records that scared the hell out of a large part of his fanbase.

“It’s funny,” laughs Townsend. “I think of the whole process of these four records – and granted, I’m completely self-centered when it comes to why I write because I’m not catering to what people want (laughs) – a lot of it came down to confronting a fear I had of myself and my own process. I remember years ago, I was always second guessing what I did under the assumption of ‘How are people going to perceive this?’ These four records, the whole thing was saying ‘Fuck it.’ If I’m accountable to myself in terms of trying to be the best person I can be, if I let it flow naturally, there’s no more that needs to be said. What I can say about these four records is that there’s nothing on them conceptually or lyrically that I can’t stand behind.”

Which brings Townsend to the point he’s been trying to make since the release of Ki; there won’t be another Strapping Young Lad album. Talk of Deconstruction being the heaviest, craziest music he’d ever written – a claim made by Townsend and several people around him – had fans thinking it would be SYL music under a different name. Turns out it’s anything but that. (continue reading…)

In July 2007 I did an interview with a rather talented veteran musician I considered a friend. Haven’t spoken to him since, and I’m guessing it’s because he saw the blog below – originally posted on MySpace – and didn’t have the balls to call me and say “Y’know what, doodness, you have a point, I’m sorry I was a douche-nozzle.” This being the fourth anniversary of the incident recapped below, I thought I’d celebrate my ever-present righteous disdain for self-absorbed oh-woe-is-me people. Enjoy….

I recently did an “interview” with a guy I’ve known for a long time. His band is gearing up to release a new album, and because I’m a fan and a friend I elected to do a story for BW&BK. As much as I was looking forward to speaking to him again, however, I was also dreading it because during the last three of four interviews we’d done he started ranting about how the music industry has gone to hell, how the artists are getting fucked, how no one is buying music anymore, and on and on. I still have all these interviews on tape and they’re completely interchangeable because of this incessant bitching.

Sure enough, five minutes into our latest chat he started in on the industry. I tried to steer the conversation back to the new album three or four times, but he managed to turn things around so we were back discussing how the music industry is fucked. I probably should have said something, but out of respect for the man and his music I kept my mouth shut, gritted my teeth and dealt with it. It was an excruciatingly painful 35 minutes.

As we were wrapping up, however, he had the audacity to tell me he was going to email me the concept for the new album “so I could send him more questions for a better interview” because I didn’t ask him about the album concept. I said “fine, cool, no problem,” but I was stunned, insulted, and over the last week have become increasingly pissed off.

I have no problem with people criticizing me, but it seems to me that if someone would stop whining and moaning so much about his chosen profession and how the world is so goddamn unfair there might be room to ask pertinent questions. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Back in January, former Megadeth guitarist Glen Drover offered a look inside his solo debut, Metalusion, which had just been completed. The record has since been released and received unexpectedly glowing reviews. Not that odds were in favour of Drover releasing something stale and sub- par, but smart money was on a large portion of his Megadeth-bred fans being disappointed that Metalusion isn’t the full-on rip-yer-face-off metal shred record they were expecting. All in spite of Drover’s warnings it wouldn’t be.

“A few people have made comments about that,” Drover agrees, “but it hasn’t been as common as you might expect. But, in my opinion… do we really, really need another album like that? There’s so much of that out there and it’s all great stuff, but for me to do a full blown instrumental metal record with solos every five seconds, it gets boring for me after five minutes, never mind 50 minutes of it. With all due respect to the guys that are doing that stuff, it’s cool, but it’s just too much for me. With that kind of thing I almost start asking where the vocals are.”

“I listen to instrumental stuff as much as I listen to music with vocals. Me and Shawn (Drover / Megadeth drummer) did the instrumental stuff way back in the early ‘90s when we were starting to get the Eidolon thing rolling. We just had a four track, a drum machine, some guitar gear, and we did the best we could, and it turned into a metal band with vocals. This time out, I just wanted to do an instrumental album properly.” (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Even though the release of Kobra And The Lotus’ new album, Visionary, is still months away, the band has been anything but quiet. In a surprise move they issued a video for new song ‘Welcome To My Funeral’ as a taste of what’s to come without a date even being set. On top of that, they’ve been tearing up the road in the UK, and have confirmed an extensive European tour supporting metal veterans U.D.O. for the fall. Recent developments saw me doing some work on behalf of the Kobra crew, which involved hearing Visionary in its entirety, and it’s safe to say the band has evolved into something much stronger and meaner than even their most devout fans can imagine. Vocalist Brittany Paige took some time out from a hectic tour schedule to discuss where the band has been, where they’re going, and what kind of mayhem the fans are in for.

Bottom line; it’ll be worth the wait.

“After our first big summer tour in 2010, it put in perspective the main areas of improvement we needed to focus on,” Paige begins, discussing the line-up changes that have taken place since the release of their 2010 debut, Out Of The Pit. “The first step was making sure the line-up was strong enough. We needed every member to be on the exact same track in terms of commitment, vision and effort. We parted ways with Matt Van Wezel (guitars) and bassist Ben Freud. It put us in a very tough position because we had the UK tour coming up shortly after. When we came back in the winter, Chris (Swenson / guitars) and I began writing the album. This also really put into perspective the true foundation of the band. I composed some of the songs by myself – such as ‘Welcome To My Funeral’ – and together we wrote the album, so the fact that the bass and lead guitar weren’t filled concrete roles had no effect on the writing process.” (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

A little over a year ago, Japan’s low-key neo-classical outfit Area51 released their third album, Goddess. By no means was it a runaway success, but that was never the goal. The album solidified the existence of Area51 outside of their native Japan, making some valuable inroads into the Western market even though the band supposedly had the odds stacked against them. Guitarist Yoichiro Ishino and vocalist Kate Cain – the partnership that defines the band – have every intention of using the exposure as leverage when it comes time to release a new record, and they look at Goddess as being a success story on several levels.

“You’re right, we have much more international responses compared to the last album,” says Ishino. “We’re very happy about this because we’ve always considered the world as our big target, ever since we started working on Goddess. There’s always room for improvement, but positive feedback from our fans gives us great confidence.”

Area51 owes its growing international popularity – however small for the moment – to the digital age. They issued two exclusive online singles before Goddess’ official release, and Ishino is an active presence on Twitter, keeping the buzz going as best he can. Given the opportunity, however, he would gladly sign with a European or North American label to really push things forward.

“Of course, we are always looking for foreign record labels, especially since we have great feedback from listeners in Europe. We actually tried pretty seriously with Goddess, but with every label we speak with, things don’t work out because all of our songs are in Japanese. That doesn’t mean we have given up; there are many ways to reach out with the internet, and we won’t stop approaching labels in the future.” (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

I recently caught up with vocalist / guitarist / producer and fellow Canuck, Devin Townsend, to discuss the release of his long-awaited Deconstruction and Ghost albums; parts three and four of his “this was me” tetralogy. During our chat we discussed the online rumblings about new music he’s working on, currently going under the name Epicloud, and he was remarkably open about the tricks up his sleeve. Perhaps not all that surprising, however, given that he’s been living with the Ki / Addicted / Deconstruction / Ghost foursome for close to four years.

“My wife and the people around me tend to question whether or not it’s in my best interest to just keep writing,” Townsend reveals, “but the writing actually happens regardless of what I do. It’s so automatic at this point that it feels like the process has been integrated so completely into my everyday routine. For example, I wrote a full song yesterday while I wasn’t thinking about it (laughs). I went for a bike ride and I came back with this melody in my head, so while I was thinking about what I was going to do for the rest of the day I spent two hours and just wrote the song. I documented it, made the demo, made the session, so when I come back to actually making a record there are all these songs that just happened alongside my daily routine. Not only do I find that it’s very natural, but it’s also very relaxing for me to write.”

During an interview we did for BW&BK back in 1997, Townsend described a similar music-in-control writing process for his Ocean Machine album, although it doesn’t seem as intense these days.

“I think it’s the same idea, but I’ve definitely learned in my mind not to hold on to it as much as I had before. At the time I was doing Ocean Machine the ideas were so precious to me that I falsely made the assumption that if I didn’t actualize it without that level of intensity that I’d lose it. What I’ve found is that if it’s a good idea it’ll be there. The level of intensity that existed during Ocean Machine also didn’t have the benefit of the control over technology that I’ve managed to acquire over the past 20 years. So now, when it comes to putting an idea down I can get it out really quickly.” (continue reading…)