Nouvelles et Découvertes de Métal International – 8 novembre

•  Je sais pas pour vous, mais moi j’adore Zakk Wylde, ce qu’il dégage… c’est du métal pur!  Il parle ici de Randy Rhodes et de l’influence que celui-ci a eu sur la carrière du chanteur de Black Label Society:

Rock Cellar Magazine: Did you feel welcomed into the heavy metal family when you first joined Ozzy‘s band in 1987?

Zakk: Oh, totally, and still do today. Even those very first shows, everyone was rooting for me because they knew I was on the team, and loved Randy Rhoads as much as they did. They could see I playedRandy‘s stuff exactly his way, and had the highest respect for what he did. There’s no way you can fill his shoes, so you just have to give respect to his music and play it accurately. You have to, because this is the house that Rhoads built. And without Randy Rhoads, there never would have been a Zakk Wylde.

Rock Cellar Magazine: What influence did Randy‘s playing have on you, having played his songs countless times around the globe for over 20 years?

Zakk: One of the biggest things I learned from him is construction, and where you can go with a solo by playing Randy‘s music. He was a brilliant soloist who had such a melodic sense — there’d be a beginning, middle and end, as he could tell a whole story in a song. He had « feel, » which is something only the greats have, you know what I mean? When I listen to Randy, I feel every single note as his solos are like gold. It doesn’t matter how many times you listen to Randy‘s music, you’re waiting for those incredible moments that were all part of his tremendous arsenal. The testimony to Randy‘s greatness is the fact that we still all remember him, and see his image on magazine covers, in books, and posters everywhere. He’s a legend for what he accomplished on those first two Ozzy records, and I’ve always considered it the highest honor performing Randy‘s music all those years playing live with the boss.

“Not to excuse my actions, but at least to explain the situation:

This PSMS tour has been VERY difficult on all of us in terms of gear and production. The only way we have been able to make it to such far away places such as Manila, Russia, Israel, Indonesia, etc (where it is normally VERY expensive to tour unless you are a “name” band that has been around for many years) is we’ve have had to make concessions by using supplied gear and local techs at each show.

Granted, WE agreed to these terms and are willing to make it work – however, on at least a half dozen occasions on this tour we have been incredibly frustrated to arrive at the venue only to find the band’s gear requirements were simply blatantly ignored (wrong keyboards, wrong amps, Zildjian cymbals, etc) AND were not setup and ready for us as was supposed to be the case and what the promoters had promised.

We have been as patient and understanding as we possibly can be…but when you get 4 guys who haven’t slept more than a couple of hours every night in order to fly to these shows without sleep…sometimes our patience can wear thin.

In the case of the Manila show, we arrived hours before the show to find out the drums weren’t setup, cymbals were missing, Billy‘s amp was wrong (again) and Tony had a buzz on his gear that would not go away…but we forged ahead because we were VERY excited to play for the fans!

At the start of Stratus (where the video on youtube is from) – my snare drum mic fell off and I motioned for the tech to come put it back on the stand/drum…and instead, he comes up to the drum kit and takes the mic away…leaving me playing with NO snare mic!!! (you’ll hear I begin playing the high tom instead of the snare)…realizing he had no idea what was going on or how to fix the situation, I stopped playing and did my little “rap” while they fixed the situation and we wouldn’t have to play the whole song with no snare in the mix.

In the video, you can see I was at least making a joke out of it and wasn’t maliciously trying to hurt anybody or storming off in anger.

Moral of the story: WE ARE HUMAN! And sometimes frustrating circumstances create frustrated behavior. I’m not saying I was right in stopping the song…but if you see a video from later in the show, you’ll see I explain to the audience that I’ve been waiting my whole career to play in Manila and I wasn’t going to let ANYTHING ruin my night or their show!!
And we carried on and everybody had a great night…

And I look forward to returning…
(although this may be the last time I tour without my own kit and my own drum tech…hahahaha!!!)”

• Après avoir annoncé en juillet que c’était fini pour Abigail Williams, le band semble avoir changé d’idée, car ils viennent d’annoncer un album pour 2013 sur leur page facebook.

• Meek is Muder est un band de Brooklyn, NY qui joue du grind/metal/hardcore/experimental.  Leur nouveau EP « Into The Sun » est sorti la semaine dernière… Essayez ça ci-dessous!

• MetalSucks a publié une entrevue intéressante avec un des anciens membres de The Haunted qui a récemment quitté la formation, Anders Björler.  En voici deux extraits:

You and Per have left The Haunted. I’m not sure if this was expected but I can’t say I’m surprised. I feel like with the first Haunted album all the way up through Unseen there is not much more you could possibly do with The Haunted name, musically. Do you agree?

You might be able to do more of course, but personally I felt like moving on to pursue other things. We have always been a very progressive band in the sense that we try out new ideas for each album. That’s something that maybe was frustrating for the fans, not knowing what to expect for each new album. I guess that experimentation is what kept me going through all the years of writing albums. We never took the easy way and just re-used the formula of the previous albums. We have had our share of line-up changes through the years, and especially vocalist changes. I guess the singer is the hardest member to replace since he/she is the center of attention and normally the spokesperson for the band. It’s also the instrument most sensitive to personal taste. When Peter left earlier this year my first thought was to move on and try to find a replacement, but having had some time to think and reflect on the situation I felt that it would be better to call it a day.
I look back at what we have accomplished with great pride and a sense of fulfilment.

There’s no doubt that your former vocalist Peter Dolving has been very vocal about leaving The Haunted in the past few months. Have you read any of the words he has said about the band, and about you and your brother in particular?

I was pretty sad he had to blame me and Jonas for everything. There’s no need going into details or to throw shit at Peter. I am just not that kind of person. I just hope people are smart enough to make up their own minds and think for themselves. There’s not just one side to this story. There are five.