BLASTING YOUR SPEAKERS!!! (playlists for month June)

From now, you can leave as a comment your playlist for every month. Choose up to 5 albums that have been loaded to your player the most times, the running month.

INTERVIEW: GREGOR MACKINTOSH (Paradise Lost)

Interview by Thanasis Mpogris.

Paradise Lost is one of the 3 most influential bands of the last decade, for the heavy metal sound, with Dream Theater and Pantera. Shortly after the release of their new masterpiece “In Requiem”, we had the honor to talk with the lead guitarist and music composer of the band, Greg Mackintosh.

Thanasis: Greetings from Greece, Gregor. I'm Thanasis from Hall of music blog/zine. Please accept my congratulations for your new masterpiece. It's gone short time since the release of "In Requiem" album. How do you feel about it?

Gregor: Very happy with it. It turned out exactly how we wanted. The record label seems to be doing a good job too.

Th: The new material, sounds to my ear as a return to the 1992-1994 era of the group. Heavy/doom riffs, dark atmosphere and melancholic mood. Was that return, a decision or something that came natural?

Gr: I can draw comparisons with older albums like Gothic, Shades of God, and Icon, but I think that's because the same people played on all these albums. With In Requiem we wanted a more raw sound. We have done a lot of experimenting
and it just feels fresh for us to do an album like this right now.

Th: I believe that the new album is the best that you released since "Draconian Times". Do you agree with that?

Gr: I think it depends on your perspective. A lot of our records are quite different and i believe they are all strong in different ways. In Requiem is the heaviest and most organic album we have done for quite some time though.Th: The sound of the new album is incredible. How it was to work with Rhys Fulber and Mike Frazer? Does Rhys tend to be what Simon Efemey was for the band, in mid '90s?

Gr: Rhys is involved like an outside view of the songs. He honestly tells us his opinions on things and we trust that opinion, even though sometimes we don't agree. We approached the production of this album very differently. There is a big trend in music to completely edit your music within programs like pro tools, to achieve a perfect sounding album. We deliberately did the opposite. We wanted an album that was not perfect, but retained the energy and life that happened when the songs were first written. The drums were recorded in a day and a half and not edited. Same with the bass and so on. I think Mike Frazer, who mixed the album has done an amazing job. We wanted a big symphonic sound, but also a very live, organic sound. Not an easy thing to achieve but I think he did it.

Th: From the beginning, Paradise Lost made a progress from album to album and every time you appeared a new face, without losing your identity. What kind of progress do you feel that you made on the new album?

Gr: On In Requiem we took the more movie score approach, and less poppy less commercial song structures. This makes it probably less immediate than our last 2 albums, but hopefully it makes it more interesting to listen to.

Th: Some days ago i watched the "The Enemy" videoclip. Amazing work. Very "doomy", in many ways.

Gr: Thanks

Th: I would like to made you a question not so relevant with the new album. Which is your opinion about the music downloads from internet? Do you believe that the whole thing, can work for a band of against?

Gr: Great for exposure, terrible for sales.

Th: On July 8, you gonna be headliners for the Gagarin Open Air Festival, here in Greece. Which is your memories from past live shows in our country, and which are your expectations for that day?

Gr: We have always loved our visits to Greece. We have lots of friends there and the shows have always been great, thanks to the fans. If the next show there is anywhere near as good as previous shows we have done there, it will be great.

Th: I wanna thank you Gregor for the interview. It was such an honor for me and "Hall Of Music" to talk with you. I wish you the best for the future. Take care.

Gr: Thanks.

10 KILLER METAL CONCEPT ALBUMS, Pt 2

1. BLIND GUARDIAN – NIGHTFALL IN MIDDLE EARTH (1999)

J.J.R. Tolkien is one of the most influential writers for several heavy metal bands. Blind Guardian’s 6^th studio album is based exclusively on Tolkien’s “The Silmarillion” book, a book with a large collection of tales from the First Age of Middle-Earth. This album is probably the most mature of the band, with many fresh elements inserted into the band’s music, without at the same time, the band to lose its identity. All the band’s members are giving a recital, each one on their own position. The folk character of the songs helps at the maximum the listener to create pictures at his mind and functions for a poetic, romantic and medieval atmosphere.

2. NEVERMORE – DREAMING NEON BLACK (1999)

The story behind the concept of this album is based on a loss of a beloved person of Warrel Dane, who is the vocalist of the band. Dane's old girlfriend left him when she joined a religious cult and was never heard from her again, and he began having nightmares of her crying out to him as she drowned. This has been confirmed by Warrel himself in an older interview. Here we have to do with the tale of a man’s slow plunge into insanity, after his girlfriend’s death. The pain, the sorrow, the rage, the desperation and the fear are sung through the lyrics of the songs. The heavy, the thrash, the death, the power and the speed metal are all combined to a very successful way, with an amazing outcome.

3. PAIN OF SALVATION – BE (2004)

Daniel Gildenlow (vocals/guitar) is the mastermind of the band. Almost whatever that someone can find on Pain Of Salvation’s albums, all are his creations. He is a genius of our days and it’s dead sure that after some decades he will be praised for this reason. “Be” is the 5^th album of P.O.S. and also their most ambitious album, both musically and lyrically. The concept of the album is a story that is a collage of several theories around the creation of the humans by God. God created people feeling the need to understand better his own nature. Continuing, we, the people, are creating several small things trying to explore our nature, and a circle is going on. We have to do with a philosophical concept with many extensions. The main idea behind all this is a big WHY, and not HOW, we have been created by God. If someone wants to find out some more things about the concept, can visit this link. Musically the album is a church, were the folk, the avant-garde, the progressive, the soundtracks and the rock elements are married, with every single moment to make the listener to hold his breath.

4. EVERGREY – THE INNER CIRCLE (2004)

This is the band’s 5^th album and maybe their most mature one. The concept has to do with a man who decides to follow a heretic cult, with the hope to change some things to his life. Slowly, after entering the cult, some problems are appearing to his family, and as he is trying to explain his wife and his child about his decision, finally he falls out with them. He tries to understand if he has chosen the right way and sometime the people who are leading this cult, are trying to persuade our hero to bring also his child to this cult, in order to proselytize him from young age. Then he realizes the dark side of all these and tries to escape from the cult, but its leader don’t let him go away and encourages him to commit suicide. On the music section of the album, we have to do with very emotional songs, which are following the mood of each moment of the concept and enhance the cinematographic character of this dramatic story.

5. BRUCE DICKINSON – THE CHEMICAL WEDDING (1998)

The big return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, to the metal music has been made a year ago, with the “Accident Of Birth” album. But on 1998 they created an amazing concept album. The lyrics of the album are all inspired from texts and poems of the famous English poet, visionary and painter, William Blake. The lyrics are containing stories of alchemy and mystery, that lead the listener to think about different subjects, all dressed by heavy and atmospheric music. The final result is monumental and the “Chemical Wedding” is more than a classic heavy metal album.