Carl Begai

By Carl Begai

In North America the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has become as traditional at Christmas as Santa Claus, coloured lights and holiday parking. Even if you’ve never attended one of their seasonal shows – which usually hits a city near you anywhere from November through January – you’ve definitely heard of them, as the TSO rock opera format appeals to people from all walks of life, to everyone from children to the elderly. Plain and simple, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra has proven for well over a decade that you don’t need to be metal to ride this ride, regardless of the outfit’s Savatage-rooted history.

Producer/composer Paul O’Neill is known for pushing the envelope with every project he devises. It was his collaborative efforts with Savatage frontman Jon Oliva in the late ’80s, in fact, that slowly but surely transformed the legendary metal band into something much more theatrical in nature, which eventually spawned the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. And while TSO established itself as a Christmas-themed project when it launched in 1996, O’Neill got rid of the sleigh in 2000 for Beethoven’s Last Night, an album telling the fictitious tale of legendary composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s last night alive. TSO finally toured for the album in North America in 2010, went to Europe the following year, and 2012 sees the band on the road again, this time supporting a fully narrated re-release of Beethoven’s Last Night.

Guitarist Chris Caffery, a long time member of Savatage and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, offered his views on the current Beethoven’s Last Night tour versus the annual winter shows during some rare and fleeting post-soundcheck downtime:

“It’s a very different vibe. The winter tour has the holiday and runaway theme to the story line, the music marries that story. This tour is the complete Beethoven’s Last Night album, and it’s not like the winter show isn’t a rock concert, but the Beethoven show has a darker feel because of the story and the theme. Beethoven is battling the devil to save his soul and his music, it’s a pretty intense story. For me personally it feels more like I’m performing a rock concert because of the way the songs and the album is structured. It’s a little bit more to where my roots were when I performed growing up. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

In a show of diva-esque conceit, I can lay claim to having locked on Lacuna Coil long before they were a big deal in Europe and less than a footnote on the North American metal scene. We go back to 1998 and the release of their self-titled EP, a venture that attracted the attention of anyone in tune with the likes of The Gathering and Theatre Of Tragedy, both of whom were in their heyday. The band did their Italian heritage proud, displaying the characteristic energy of a traditionally passionate people, excited at the prospect of being able to chase their dreams at a professional level. The band is older and wiser now, but there’s no lack of enthusiasm when discussing their newest work, Dark Adrenaline. Sure, it may be tempered somewhat by a sense of responsibility for the career they’ve created, but there’s still a sense of “I can’t believe this is my life…” in the air as vocalist Cristina Scabbia delves into the new record.

“That’s very true,” she says. “That was true especially in the very beginning, when things are happening and you don’t really know how it works. That’s when every little thing gets you excited. The things that get us excited now are different. We’ve grown up, we have a lot more experience; we’re not virgins in the music business anymore (laughs).” (continue reading…)

Lauren Harris is known in music circles as the daughter of Iron Maiden bassist/founder Steve Harris first, and as a vocalist second. If she has her way that’ll change over the next year, and she’s off to a promising start

This interview never would have come to pass if it wasn’t for a tip from ex-Megadeth guitarist Jeff Young, who suggested checking out an indie band called Six Hour Sundown on YouTube during a weekly round of “Look what I found…” They came across as a better than average ‘80s-flavoured hair band for the modern day (minus the poofy hair), and the singer was a familiar face. Quick online investigation confirmed that it was indeed Lauren Harris front and center, but Six Hour Sundown’s appearance in the ring has been so low key that most of the initial attention received is the result of genuine curiosity rather than Iron Maiden family tree hype.

“It has been rather low key,” Harris agrees, “because we were doing the Maiden thing through 2008 and 2009, and there was a lot of hype around it at the time. I haven’t really been in the spotlight for the last couple years, and I’ve started up a new band using a new name rather than using my own name again. I’ve started from scratch, really.”

Most people would agree that dropping her own name in favour of Six Hour Sundown can only benefit Harris in the end. The move was made, she says, when her touring band fell apart.

“The first album was a solo thing, but when I was on the road with the guys it turned into more of a band. It was only natural for that to happen since we spent so much time together, and we really were like a family. You hear about some bands that just don’t get on, they’re not like real friends, but we were friends. But, because of other circumstances, it couldn’t continue. Randy (Gregg/bass) was in New York and we couldn’t keep flying him over to the UK because money was an issue. And with Richie (Faulkner/guitars), well, he went off and joined Judas Priest (laughs). (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Redemption’s latest album, This Mortal Coil, can be considered business-as-usual in that it continues the band’s cycle of cranking out new music every two years. And while that may sound like a warning bell heralding a lack of inspiration on the band’s part, this is in fact a very good thing given that guitarist founder Nick van Dyk wrote the album while courting a death sentence. It was as ominous as it sounds; diagnosed with cancer, van Dyk was told in no uncertain terms that his years were numbered. Rather than accept his fate he sought out treatment, simultaneously composing music that paid homage to and built on Redemption’s brand of no-nonsense aggressive prog metal. This Mortal Coil was the end result, loaded with more riffs per square inch compared to Redemption’s previous records and bleeding melody by the bucket. Even when you’re only three songs in, there’s no doubt that van Dyk’s ultimate test pushed his inspiration to new heights.

“Absolutely,” van Dyk admits. “Not sonically so much as lyrically. Not to make the whole interview about this, but I was diagnosed with blood cancer three years ago and told that I had three to five years to live. I was fortunate that I was diagnosed by accident and had the opportunity to research the one guy in the world who thinks he can cure it. I went through a pretty intense therapy for it, but as of now the odds are very much in my favour that I’m cured. I’m on some pretty horrible medicine for the next 18 months or so, but it’s all manageable.” (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

Once upon a time, Kittie irritated the hell out of me.

It didn’t matter that I was a huge believer in and supporter of Canadian metal and assorted aggressive offshoots; the hype that surrounded their 1999 debut album Spit rubbed me the wrong way. It blew my mind that a band featuring a singer with zero vocal control was able to sell a song like ‘Brackish’, Kittie’s teen angst calling card featuring one of the most annoyingly memorable choruses known to man, woman and pub crawling beast. Any attention I paid to the band after that record was out of masochistic curiosity, and fleeting at best.

Fast forward to 2007 and a four song EP entitled Never Again dumped in my lap by management via BW&BK HQ. I couldn’t believe my ears even after repeated listens, and I was left wondering what the four women masquerading as Kittie had done with the Lander sisters. They were, after all, the creative core of the band and had proven limited in that capacity as far as I was concerned. This new material, this was music. Hell, it was fucking metal.

And singer Morgan? She’d picked up control, shred-ability, and a Flying V along the way.

Calls were made, emails were sent, and I learned that Kittie was a family affair, with Morgan (vocals/guitars) and Mercedes’ (drums) parents taking care of most of the band’s legal and promotional affairs. The interview with the sisters that followed, for the Funeral For Yesterday album, proved to me that the ladies could stand on their own feet rather than needing to rely on mommy and daddy. They were also real musicians with a clear view of where they came from and a vision of where they wanted to take their music. They turned me into a Kittie fanboy. (continue reading…)

By Carl Begai

The remaining members of legendary Toronto club band Slash Puppet, who were a fixture on the Canadian scene from 1989 – 1995, paid tribute to late guitarist Lou Garscadden on August 4th, marking 10 years since his passing. He was 36 years old.

The band issued the following statement:

“Ten years ago, Toronto, Canada, and the world lost a phenomenal guitar player and a true rock star when Louis Peter Garscadden passed away on August 4, 2001. It is truly unfortunate that more people the world over were not able to experience his obvious and overwhelming talents as a guitar player and his warmth and charm as a unique personality. A true original, and a true rock star who deserved a hell of a lot of more notoriety than he ever received. One of the best… period.”

No Strings Attached, a CD version of Slash Puppet’s 1989 demo tape known as The Demo, was issued through Sun City Records out of Australia on September 3rd, 2007. I caught up with frontman Mif for BW&BK to discuss what was an unexpected release, and during the course of the interview he addressed Garscadden’s tragic passing: (continue reading…)

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…)

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…)