Carl Begai

As I get older there’s a growing tendency to dismiss the younger generation as a collective of superficial, lazy, clued-out morons. I’m talking about ages 13 through 30, who in my estimation are for the most part a legion of spoiled X-Box / Playstation brats that take too many things in life for granted.

Mobile technology. Music in your grubby eardrums at the click of a button. Research and plagiarism made possible without having to go anywhere near a library. Print-’em at home concert / movie / hockey tickets. Not having to risk life and at least one hand scoffing Dad’s copies of Penthouse (again) thanks to Bill Gates products in the privacy of your own room.

Good for them. Pass Junior another Happy Meal, then try to get him out of the fucking house. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Audrey Dujardin’s rise as an in-demand photographer is proof that taking baby steps towards a career pays off. It helps, of course, when each step taken lands like a steel-soled Doc Marten rather than a tap shoe.

Dujardin’s work speaks for itself, but trying to slow her down long enough to pick her brain was a welcome challenge. Following is a revealing look through her lens and behind her eyes… (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Earlier this year Stratovarius issued what has been viewed as a cash grab. Dubbed a Special Live Edition of the band’s 2009 comeback album, Polaris, it features new packaging and a 14 song live “bootleg” bonus disc featuring recordings from their recent world tour, but it isn’t the half-hearted hackjob so many of these productions tend to be. Along with some of Stratovarius’ most popular songs – ‘Hunting High And Low’, ‘Kiss Of Judas’ ‘Father Time’ and ‘Speed Of Light’ – the package includes four tracks from Polaris and some unexpected gems from their catalogue, clocking in at a high quality press-repeat 75 minutes. Take it as you will, but for the fanatic diehards a live Stratovarius album was long overdue, with the one and only official on-stage showcase, Visions Live, having been released in 1997. Polaris Live is a surprisingly solid outing that doesn’t disappoint in spite of the fact original guitarist and visionary Timo Tolkki isn’t involved in any way.

“It’s been a while,” laughs frontman Timo Kotipelto. “As you know, though, this isn’t a ‘proper’ live album. We had to leave out a lot of songs, but this was always meant as something special for the fans rather than an official release. I think maybe in a few years we’ll do an actual proper live album.”

That said, the bonus album was never meant as a way to line the band’s pockets. Chance are good it’s drumming up some business after all… (continue reading…)

Following is an excerpt from my recent interview with guitarist Michael Amott about his new Spiritual Beggars album, Return To Zero. An exclusive interview with Amott about his recent island-hopping escapades with Arch Enemy will be available exclusively on this site soon:

Return To Zero is trademark ‘70s-flavoured Spiritual Beggars, but the announcement prior to the recording sessions that vocalist Janne “JB” Christofferson had been replaced by Firewind frontman Apollo Papathanasio suggested this wouldn’t be the case. Up to this point Papathanasio has been known as a power metal singer, all bombast and polish, making his performance on Return To Zero a pleasant surprise. Amott says bringing him on board was indeed a case of getting past preconceived notions and hearing Papathanasio in a completely different environment.

“Apollo is a local guy, which is weird because everyone thinks he’s from Greece. His parents are Greek, but he was raised in Sweden. I’ve been aware of him forever, long before Firewind. When it became clear that JB couldn’t sing on the new record I was really disappointed and I seriously began thinking maybe that was it. Ludwig called me and suggested Apollo because the two of them play in a bar band doing cover songs. Apollo had in fact offered his help to get the ball rolling, get the songs done, rather than stepping in as a full time vocalist. I thought no, he’s too metal, but I thought ‘What the hell…’ and asked him to learn a few songs, then come down and jam.” (continue reading…)

Blind Guardian have always been hit and miss with me. I’ve often found them to be too ambitious for their own good, creating epic orchestral-metal productions that beat the listener into submission with their supposed greatness. Nothing wrong with that so long as a band is still capable of writing a “typical” full-on metal song minus the smoke and mirrors, which in Blind Guardian’s case I’ve doubted for years. It seems the band has returned to their early day balls-and-brawn sound on new record, At The Edge Of Time, which is welcome change from their outings over the last decade. Following is a portion of my interview with frontman Hansi Kürsch conducted for Metallus Maximus:

“We had the impression that there would be a wide variation of songs on the album, so we just had to fill in the gaps,” says Kürsch. “But again, there was no pattern, so we could have gone onto the wrong track at some points. Luckily, we had very open discussions about how the songs were progressing and where they should go, and we followed that line all the way through the production. I’d say that in 90% of all cases we were very successful. Once we came to a decision we went for it. That wasn’t necessarily the case with albums like Night At The Opera or A Twist In The Myth.” (continue reading…)

I’m an experienced traveller. I actually hate flying, but I’ve made the trek between Toronto and Germany (via Holland or Paris) dozens of times, jetted to various parts of Scandinavia, continental Europe and the UK, even risked my sanity journeying to the US, all without any major drama. Sure, there have been the occasional delays, lousy food, drink-spilling turbulence, screaming kids accompanied by their idiot “parentin’ izn’t fer us rednecks” parents, but nothing that put me into a state of wanting to cause bodily harm to the nearest airline employee.

Not until this year’s highly anticipated return home to Toronto.

Folks that know me are painfully aware of how much I love coming home. It’s my annual respite from all the things that piss me off about Germany – and there is definitely a book in there – a return to the people and places that make me feel like me. With that in mind, I’m inclined to brush off the general chaos and stupidity that’s bound to crop up on an overseas-with-a-connecting-flight trip and focus on the awesomosity that awaits me in Toronto. I realized this year, however, that when the airline loses your luggage and takes its sweet time in recovering it and getting it to you, no matter how much fun you’re having the questions of “Where?” and “When?” and “What if?” have a tendency to dampen one’s mood. Not a good thing. (continue reading…)

Since I don’t trust myself to post much of anything on the site while I’m back home in Toronto, I’ve decided to yap a bit early about homeland noise currently massaging my brain.

James LaBrie of Dream Theater fame is gearing up for the release of his new solo album, Static Impulse, on September 28th. No question, it smokes. Fans of his 2005 outing Elements Of Persuasion will be pleased to hear that guitarist Marco Sfogli and keyboardist Matt Guillory are still on board and shredding up a storm. LaBrie’s band also inclides Halford bassist Ray Riendeau and Darkane drummer Peter Wildoer, the latter being particularly significant in that he does a fair bit of kicking and screaming throughout the record. The song ‘One More Time’ is currently available for streaming here and… let’s just say some of the diehard Dream Theater fanatics are going to need a sedative. A full-on review is in the works but has to be held back until the beginning of September due to certain promotional requirements. As in, I don’t want to bite the hands that feed. Suffice to say LaBrie has made some ballsy decisions on the album and turned out a killer piece of work. (continue reading…)

Folks that visit this corner of the blogosphere are aware that I recently did an exclusive interview with new Crimson Glory vocalist Todd La Torre (found here). On the same day I interviewed the band’s founding guitarist, Jon Drenning, to discuss the events leading up to La Torre’s induction into the band. We also talked about Crimson Glory’s forthcoming studio album, which is due to be conceptual piece in tribute to former vocalist Midnight.

“I was shocked, yeah,” Drenning says of the similarities between La Torre’s and Midnight’s vocals. “It came as a complete surprise because we were preparing for the ProgPower X tribute show to Midnight, organizing these metal singers from around the world who had graciously offered their time and talent, so we really didn’t need another singer. Matt Laporte from Jon Oliva’s Pain dedicated his time as well to play guitar and dulcimer on the night because he and Midnight had been good friends, and he mentioned to me that he knew a drummer who was an aspiring singer. He said ‘I think he might be your guy.’ I told Matt there was no way. There were people from all over the world interested in auditioning, there was no way I was going to find a singer for Crimson Glory in my own backyard. Finding one Midnight was special enough. Finding another singer with those qualities in my own backyard again… what are the chances of that?” (continue reading…)

Quite possibly the ultimate hit and miss band, My Ruin have been slugging it out for over a decade, gaining a small but loyal following while leaving most of the distortion-loving masses scratching their heads over who and what My Ruin is all about. The former can be blamed on crap international distribution, the latter on the band’s stunning penchant for crossing between the old school and nu-skool without breaking a sweat. Ghosts And Good Stories – My Ruin’s sixth official full length album – is their strongest outing since A Prayer Under Pressure Of Violent Anguish from 2000, with vocalist / wordsmith Tairrie B. and guitarist-turned-multi-intrumentalist Mick Murphy having locked into and refined a definitive sound. The record is bookended by two shots of doom, ‘Diggin’ For Ghosts’ and ‘Deathknell’, contrasting Tairrie’s now-trademark spoken word elegance against a Black Sabbath-painted canvas. Second tune in, ‘Long Dark Night’, sets a death punk tone for the album that persists even when the songs drop to a half speed groove, and regardless of tempo Ms. B’s performance is always in your face. Her full-on screech was second to none before Pro-Tools screwed up the industry, and her performance on Ghosts And Good Stories (‘Excommunicated’, ‘Suicide Tuesday’, ‘Abusing The Muse’) serves notice to lovelies like Maria Brink (In This Moment) and Candace Kucsulain (Walls Of Jericho) that delivery is everything. And in this case, brutally effective. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Thirty years ago Sarcofagus guitarist Kimmo Kuusniemi would have died laughing in the face of predictions that Finland would become a focal point for the international metal community. This year he released documentary offering a look into why this is indeed the case, and nobody is laughing at a job well done.

When exactly this small Northern nation began spitting out high quality metal is up for debate. Suffice to say that when Kuusniemi left his native Finland almost 20 years ago for the UK it was because his band Sarcofagus and the music he loves were viewed as nothing more than a joke by the people around him. His documentary Promised Land Of Heavy Metal – put together with partner in crime and life Tanja Katinka Karttunen – showcases Kuusniemi’s journey home to a musical climate far different from the one he left behind. It explores how and why the “new” Finland ticks as loudly as it does, and allows him to say “I told you so” to the people that dismissed metal as a joke.

Kuusniemi: “In the Sarcofagus days a lot of the press people treated me well because I was a reasonable person, so they didn’t want to put me down, but the people that had classical training in music saw the whole metal thing as absolutely ridiculous and stupid. They didn’t even consider it music, saying it was just a phase. We were up against a small country mentality: ‘If you don’t do things the way we do them, we’re all against you.’ That’s why I left Finland, because it was so negative. When we returned to make the film I found the people were much different because of the European union. The borders were open. In the old days all the bands were sort of like enemies; there was competition. That’s changed a lot, and all the bands and artists we met were really nice. There were no ‘stars’, unlike the ‘80s where a lot of these musicians were full of themselves even though nobody knew them. These Finnish bands now are so down to earth that I feel Finland is a much better place than it used to be.” (continue reading…)