Carl Begai

By Carl Begai

It’s hard to believe, but Loudness is pushing the ripe old age of 30. Quite an achievement considering the band has had three singers, the grunge direction adopted by guitarist / founder Akira Takasaki in the ‘90s all but destroyed their credibility, the original line-up’s reunion in 2001 featured a heavier and darker sound compared to ‘80s Loudness, and the passing of drummer Munetaka Higuchi in November 2008. The band’s new album King Of Pain sends a strong message, however, that Loudness are alive and well in 2010 and nowhere close to pulling the plug. The old school edge that has been largely absent from their sound since the Spiritual Canoe reunion album is back, as is the energy that made Loudness an international success story three decades ago.

On November 25th, 2006 Loudness played their 25th Anniversary show in Tokyo, Japan., It was 25 years to the day they officially became a band. Frontman Minoru Niihara reflects on the evening and what it meant.

“I’m astonished by the fact that this band is still around after 25 years,” he says. “It’s almost 30 years now. It’s just so amazing when a metal band continues for over 25 years. We could never imagine that when we started. It was impossible without the loyal fans and we thank every one of them from bottom of our hearts. As for the concert, the atmosphere was very at-home throughout the show. We played a lot of classics and that brought back a lot of memories. It was very emotional for me when we (band and audience) all sang along together.”

Less than two years later, however, word came down that Higuchi was battling liver cancer (Hepatocellular Carcinoma). He was hospitalized for treatment on April 7th, 2008 but passed away on November 30th. It was a devastating blow for everyone in and around the band. On February 14th , 2009 the band performed a tribute show dubbed Munetaka Higuchi – Forever Our Hero. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

I recently caught up with Crimson Glory guitarist Jon Drenning for BW&BK to discuss the band’s surprising decision to carry on with a new singer (click here). “Surprising” because original vocalist Midnight, who passed away in July 2009 due to liver and kidney failure, was a defining element of the Crimson Glory sound. As far as the metal universe was concerned it could never be duplicated faithfully, with Drenning and his bandmates at the top of that list. New voice Todd La Torre has proven everyone wrong, even though he had no designs on doing so when he was asked to step up.

“Matt Laporte from Jon Oliva’s Pain and I are friends, and he told me he was doing some rehearsing with them, but it really didn’t mean anything to me,” La Torre admits. “I’d heard the name Crimson Glory before but that was about all I knew about them. Matt told me that if the guys were to hear me sing they’d shit themselves, so that night I checked out some of their stuff on YouTube. The ‘Lonely’ video was the first thing to come and I thought it was cool that the guys had been on MTV before (laughs). When I heard the first verse I though the vocals were beautiful, and I loved it. It had everything I liked in a song.”

“Long story short; when I got to the rehearsal there was a part of me that was nervous. I’d done some research on them probably two days before the rehearsal, so I was able to pick out the guys in the band from the videos (laughs). It was cool but I wasn’t really starstruck or anything like that. Sadly, and blasphemy for the true Crimson fans, I didn’t know their stuff (laughs).” (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

YouTube is known as a junkyard for vidiot disasters big and small, but there’s no question it has also proven its worth on the music front. Bands and record labels and have locked into it as an important promotional tool, and it’s the go-to source for vintage and brand new live footage from your favourite artists. In addition, musicians from all walks of life use YouTube to pass on their knowledge with instructional video clips, the vast majority of them offered for free. It’s also the primary form of promotion used by independent artists as a way of getting their music heard, and I’ve been blown away more than a few times by some of the talent that’s out there.

I was recently cruising YouTube and ended up reliving my kid years a little bit when I stumbled over the video for ‘Standing In The Dark’ by the Toronto band Platinum Blonde. A song I’d heard a billion times growing up, a video burned into the back of my eyes, yet I was instantly enthralled (yes, so much so it deserves a big-ass word). It was and is a cheesy early ’80s video, but it’s one of those signposts in my life that can’t be ignored. As the song played through, however, I noticed a clip for a cover of another Platinum Blonde hit, ‘Doesn’t Really Matter’, on the side of the page. It practically screamed “Click me!” due to the band never having made any real noise outside Canada, and remembered only by Canucks over the age of 35. So I did… and was blown away. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

During his departure-turned-hiatus from Soilwork between 2005 and 2008, guitarist Peter Wichers turned to production work and succeeded in carving out a lucrative new career. Having made his mark in 2008 with Nevermore frontman Warrel Dane’s first ever solo album, Praises To The War Machine, 2010 finds Wichers with two more critically acclaimed releases: Soilwork’s new record The Panic Broadcast and Nevermore’s surprising return to old form, The Obsidian Conspiracy. During our interview about The Panic Broadcast, he also discussed how he ended up working with Nevermore and his influences on their new record.

“The Obsidian Conspiracy was a great opportunity for me and I really enjoyed working with them,” says Wichers. “I didn’t know too much about them other than what I saw on Headbanger’s Ball when I was a teenager, but then we toured with them for A Predator’s Portrait. We learned so much from those guys and we stayed in touch, and the whole Nevermore thing came about because of Warrel’s solo record. I got involved with it, he asked me to write for it and was really happy with the end result, so I guess from that they decided to give me a shot with the new Nevermore record.” (continue reading…)

Yeah, yeah, I know it’s still June but I decided not to wait on posting this stuff. Just wait until it gets to mid-July and I’ve got more music and tidbits to yap about. I’ll actually have to get creative with the title of this column…

When Forever Dies, featuring former Scarlet Sins vocalist Sylvya NuVynska, has posted the final mixed version of the new song ‘What Have You Become? online. A great little tune featuring Syl in a rather aggressive place, backed by a band featuring (get this…) keyboardist / everyman Matt Guillory and guitarist Marco Sfogli from Dream Theater frontman James LaBrie’s solo band, Halford bassist Ray Riendeau, and drummer John Pacheco, who performed on the Scarlet Sins debut and shared the stage with Syl in Surface Underground. The track was made to sound big and fat by Rush producer / engineer Rich Chycki, who also produced the Scarlet Sins debut. Check out What Have You Become? at this location.

A full album is in the works, more news on that coming soon. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

It’s disconcerting watching my home town going up in flames. Particularly when the people running the place invited the violence and mayhem to stop by for a visit.

I’m not particularly well-versed in politics. I can name most of the world leaders that matter, I can tell you which ones have screwed themselves and / or others in assorted financial and pull-your-pants-down-and-party scandals, but when it comes to in-depth understanding of bills being passed and assorted issues being tabled I’m painfully clued out. Willful ignorance on my part, I suppose, based on a conclusion I reached long ago that the vast majority of the suits at the top put their own interests above the average You and Me. An unfair blanket statement, true, but at the moment I’m nowhere near feeling charitable.

Case in point with the G20 summit, which landed in Toronto this weekend and turned the downtown core into a battlefield. Defined as “an informal group of 19 countries and the European Union, with representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank,” the purpose of the gathering – near as I can tell – is to discuss global financial crises (a breakdown can be found here). I’m not convinced that I fully understand the purpose of the G20, but assuming I’ve wrapped my brain around the above definition correctly the morons organizing this little soirée clearly missed their own point. By a country mile. (continue reading…)

Sharlee D’Angelo recently sat down with me to discuss the new Witchery album, Witchkrieg, for BW&BK (found here). The interview eventually turned to focus on his main priority, Arch Enemy, who have spent the better part of the last year touring in support of their Root Of All Evil updated retrospective album. Given that it’s been three years since the band’s last all-original outing, Rise Of The Tyrant, the question was raised as to how long of a wait is in store for the next Arch Enemy studio record.

“It’s definitely in the planning stages” says D’Angelo. “It’s just that ever since we changed our whole organization a little bit, things are so much smoother and going so well now that we’re self-managed. So many offers have come in and we’ve been playing places we’ve never played before. It’s like, we’ve confirmed a show in the Maldive Islands this summer (laughs); things like that you can’t say no to. And there’s the mainland European festivals, of course. We’ve made a plan now, so shows after the tail end of November that we had scheduled, we scrapped all those so we can get into the fucking studio.”

The band isn’t necessarily ready to go with brand new material, however. It’s still very much a work in progress. (continue reading…)

Photo by Carl Begai. All rights reserved.

By Carl Begai

Tell a metalhead who cut his or her teeth in the ‘70s and ‘80s that a new grunge-influenced band is making some serious noise and watch them reach for the earplugs. A hair-trigger reaction for anyone that watched helplessly as metal took a pounding with the scene-altering rise of Nirvana, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam in the early ‘90s. Thus, news of an Ottawa-based alternative rock / grunge act by the name of Doll gaining momentum in the press and on the touring circuit was met by yours truly with a “So what?” reaction. Curiosity killed the preconceived notions, however, as a surprisingly painless listen to songs available online revealed grunge is only a very small part of the Doll sound. If anything its a disservice to use the term. Doll’s sound is in fact a gritty mix of indie rock, punk and metal, with only a twist of grunge here and there. Call it mayhem played at street level guaranteed to appeal to the flannel-wearing angst-happy holdovers and beer swilling rivet-heads alike. A pleasant surprise in spite of what some folks are calling it.

“It’s funny because it started off that way,” says vocalist / guitarist Christina Kasper of the self-inflicted grunge tag, “but everyone in the band likes heavier stuff and we have a lot of different influences. Over time Doll became more of a harder alternative rock band. We’re not a metal band, we’re not a punk band, and we’re not a straight up rock band, so it’s kind of good for us because we can be opening up for Genitorturers one week, the Spinerettes the next week, and Lacuna Coil the week after that. We’re able to touch a lot of these different genres at the same time, which is pretty cool.” (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

When Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson takes it upon himself to inform people that your music kicks ass, it’s a safe bet you’re on the right track.

Guitarist / vocalist Dave Reffett received just such an endorsement for his solo project Shredding The Envelope in February 2010 during a broadcast of Dickinson’s BBC 6 Friday Rock Show, who referred to the debut, The Call Of The Flames, as “a must have album for guitar fans.” A former student at Berklee College Of Music with a resumé boasting time spent working for Sanctuary Records and EMI, Reffett was and is still blown away by Dickinson’s accolades. Being able to bring in noteworthy guest performers like George Lynch, Joe Stump, Glen Drover, Michael Angelo Batio and Chris Poland was a triumph in itself, but receiving praise from the legendary frontman gave Shredding The Envelope an added boost of credibility in the eyes of metal fans that had no idea who Reffett was.

He remembers the jolt.

“Dude… wow. I emailed Bruce Dickinson’s producer and asked if I could send some stuff, and he went for it. I got an email later on saying I should check out the playback of the previous night’s show, but I had no idea Bruce had commented on the album. When I listened to the broadcast I was blown away. I was grinning for three days (laughs).” (continue reading…)