EvilDead: The second coming

Note: this interview was done in 2021

“Sometimes they come back” — it’s not just a classic horror movie but also a classic of the music industry. Bands that were dead for ages get back together. Some of these reunions become successful, and bands release new albums and tour regularly. In other cases the old problems (personal clashes, music differences etc.) show up very soon. American thrashers EvilDead make the second attempt to come back. This time for real, and the album “United States of Anarchy” proves it. Rob Alaniz (drums), Karlos Medina (bass) and Robert Rangel (lyrics) explain what made the band rise from the dead once again.   

Paradox: We still have fire in us to go on

Note: the interview was done in 2017. 

The story of the German thrash metal legends Paradox lends evidence of the idea that a band’s name can be fateful. They were considered as one of the promising bands in German metal. Two brilliant albums released in the 80’s lived up these advances but the band wasn’t able to nail down this success. A paradox? A big one! Even after the comeback in the late 90’s the band continued to face unexpected twists of fate: incredible albums and cardinal line-up changes, serious sicknesses which almost sent Charly Steinhauer, the mastermind of Paradox, to skies and his wins over the Grim Reaper. One of the latest paradoxes in the career of Paradox is another line-up change after awesome release “Pangea” (2016). This time Charly decided to team up with the original members of the band and put out the sequel of the album “Heresy”. Enough reasons for an interview with Charly I guess. In the first part of the interview we spoke about the years of 2000—2016 and the second part with questions about 1983—1991 will follow!     

Circle of Silence: Reconquering the crimson throne

Note: this interview was done in 2018. 

It took 5 years for Circle Of Silence to release their third full-length album “The Crimson Throne” but it was worth the wait by any means. The new CD is perfect and the band has improved every aspect of their music: songwriting, performance, sound production, visual representation. So I decided to talk with the band closely about this masterpiece.  Guitarist Christian Sommerfeld answered the questions.  

Sanctum: Not just players but musicians

Being a metalhead is like an addiction. Once you've tatsed this forbidden fruit, you want more and more: more new CDs, new t-shirts, new albums by favorite bands, limited re-issues and of course new bands which you haven't heard yet! Thanks to metal Gods, there are labels like Arkeyn Steel, who keep on digging in metal underground and bring long gone and forgotten bands back to life. One of these bands is Sanctum. To be honest, I discovered their EP "Believers" only when it was re-released in 2020, but it excited me as much as did the very first heavy metal albums I heard around 20 years ago. So here we are talking with Ray Babula about Sanctum! 

Running Wild: Uder Jolly Roger

 Note: this interview was done in 2017

In 1987 Running Wild released “Under Jolly Roger”, the album that changed everything not only for them but for the whole metal scene. It helped the band to find its own image and stand out against the crowd of groups who sang about Satan. Years later all sorts of folk, heavy, power, death and God knows what else bands adopted piratic image too. Anyway, Running Wild managed to record an outstanding album which sounds exciting and fresh three decades later. Majk Moti (guitar) and Stefan Boriss (bass) remember the making of this gem.

The Lightbringer of Sweden: The battle rages on!

 

Almost 3 years ago these Swedes (and one German) debuted with the album “Rise of the Beast”. To be honest, it was Herbie Langhans, who caught my attention. I am his fan since Seventh Avenue’s “Tales of Tales” (1996), and I decided to give “Rise of the Beast” a spin… and was hooked immediately! So I was looking forward to the “New World Order” album. The band has strengthened its line-up with the new guitarist Carsten Stepanowicz and taken its music to the new level. To me “New World Order” is already one of the best albums of 2023! Lars Eng, the main driving force of the band, speaks about the making of the “New World Order”.

Dragonland: To the stars!

There must be something in the air in Sweden, that makes power metal bands who werent active for 10 years, come back with new albums: Freternia, Insania and now Dragonland. Last year these guys released their 6th album "Power of the Nightstar" and I contacted Elias Holmild (keyboards) and Jonas Heidgert (vocals) to discuss it in details. 

Interview with Robert Woning from Dead Head

Note: the interview was done in 2022

Vendetta: Back in black

According to Encyclopedia Metallium, there are more than 10 bands called Vendetta. But to a die-hard fan of Teutonic metal like me there is one and only Vendetta, the band that released iconic albums “Go and Live…” and “Brain Damage” back in the 80’s. Earlier this year the quintet released its new effort “Black as Coal” — solid piece of thrash metal — and I contacted singer Mario Vogel to talk about new songs, new members and all that. 

Chemical Annihilation: Out of nuclear ashes

Note: this interview was done in 2022.

The best thing about metal underground is that it is like a bottomless pit. No matter how many bands you have already heard, there are more to discover. Despite my passion to thrash metal I somehow missed Chemical Annihilation until they released "Ressurection" album in 2022. I immediately fell in love with their raw type of thrash and contacted vocalist/drummer Mike Pfau for an interview. 

Atomic Opera: The music made for eterniry

I want to begin from afar (and show off a bit). I was one of those people who approached Ed Aborn, the drummer of Siren, in 2016 for a possible interview. After a week I got an answer from Ed and that was a 65-page book about the early days of Siren! One thing led to another, and Ed rebuilt his friendship with the singer Doug Lee, they resurrected Siren, played some shows in Europe and recorded an album in 2020. What all this has to do with Atomic Opera? As you may know (or may not) the guitarist Hal Dunn played in Siren in the early days and later he and his mate Todd Grubbs joined Ed and Doug to play the abovementioned shows in Europe and record the album. Somewhere along the way they decided to bring back to life their band Atomic Opera, which Hal founded after leaving Siren in the 80’s. Glad to be in service, guys! So here we are talking to Hal and Todd about the story of Atomic Opera and the making of “Time Warp”, the band’s debut album which came out in 2021. 

Dieter Wittbecker (Pyracanda): “Fun was always important for us”

Note: this interview was done in 2018

Pyracanda is a well known band among Teutonic metal fans. Their debut album “Two Sides Of A Coin” is a nice example of high quality speed/thrash metal. Apart of that, the band was a stepping stone for guitarist Sven Fisher who later would join Rage and record with them the “Black In Mind”, “End Of All Days”, “XIII” and “Ghosts”. Although Pyracanda split-up after the second (and not very successful) record “Thorns” (later note: after the interview they reunited and played quite a few shows and currently work on a new album), the musicians carried on in Ilex and G-Reizzt. Stay Heavy had a chance to discuss all these and many other themes with Dieter Wittbecker, bass guitarist of Pyracanda, Ilex and G-Reitz.

Zeljko Knezevic: The dawn of Grinder

 

A well needed trivia. I’ve always been a huge fan of Grinder which I consider one of the finest thrash bands from Germany. Their “Dead End” pleases me more than some better known albums of Kreator, Sodom, Destruction or Tankard. I’ve done a couple interviews with Andy Erguen (one you can read here and one I’ll post soon in the blog) and in 2014 I was asked by one Russian label if it was possible to reissue Grinder’s demo “Sirens”. One thing led to another, and the owner of the label asked if Grinder’s first demo “Scared to Death” was available for reissue too. I need to say, that this demo is very rare and I had to bother Grinder’s original drummer Zeljko Knezevic and a friend of the band Timo to digitalize the demo and send it to the label. We also did an interview for the booklet of the upcoming CD. Everything was ready… and nothing happened. The label postponed the reissue for various (I suspect fake) reasons and the interview was buried on my hard drive. A while ago I managed to find it. So here is the story of the very first steps of Grinder told by Zeljko the Shellshock!

Frank Ullrich (Living Death, Holy Moses, Grave Digger): In search of perfection

For me Frank Ullrich needs no introduction, and shame on you if you are not familiar with his name! This humble man recorded some classic albums with such monsters of German metal scene like Living Death, Holy Moses, Grave Digger, X-Wild along with some smaller bands. So when I found him on Facebook, I immediately asked him for an interview. Frank kindly agreed and gave full answers to all my (sometimes unecessary) questions.