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Interview by Arto Lehtinen (with additional questions by Jani Koskela)

Death Metal used to rule the earth in the late 80′s and the early 90′s when several brutal bands emerged from the abyss to spread their own lethal stuff. Although bigger names were rolling all over the metal map, the underground scene was  huge and vital. Demos were traded and underground magazines published articles and interviews of several brutal death metal bands. One of the underground pioneers of the death metal genre was definitely Asphyx hailing from The Netherlands. The band’s raw, brutal and above all nihilistic music appealed to a number of death metal freaks. The band got more attention when the former Pestilence growler Martin Van Drunen joined for a couple of albums. But the inflamed chemistry and disagreements led to the premature demise of Asphyx. However the core members of Asphyx didn’t give up and went on to form Soulburn by recruiting Wannes Gubbels from the mighty Pentacle. After all the name was chosen to Asphyx. After the last Asphyx disc, ON THE WINGS OF INFERNO, Asphyx was laid to rest. In 2007 Asphyx has returned to crush the cenotaph again. Therefore it was an excellent opportunity to have a chat with both Wannes Gubbels and Bob Bacghus about the reunion and other topics…

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Head Cat (featuring Lemmy)< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Double Door, < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Chicago

May 14, 2007

Review by Tim Shockley

Photos by Ann Leitel

It would be perfectly understandable for some longtime Motörheadbangers and metal heads in general to be more than a little hesitant about Mötorhead’s legendary Lemmy’s 50’s covers side project, Head Cat. After all, “Ace Of Spades,” it isn’t! Well, those who chose to stay home on this beautiful Monday night in Chicago truly missed out on a possibly one-time, and, perhaps even more importantly, LOUD, special event!

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Drummer Shannon Frye

Interview by Luxi Lahtinen

Avenger of Blood from Las Vegas, provide more proof of the resurrection of old school Thrash Metal that many new bands wave the flag for these days. COMPLETE ANNIHILATION, Avenger of Blood´s debut album, was released on a the small JCM Records in 2005. It was relatively well-received by old school Thrash Metal maniacs all over the world – and now the band´s follow-up album, titled DEATH BRIGADE, is already lurking behind the corner.

The band´s drummer Shannon Drye, who also made a short visit to the legendary Vengeance Rising during 2000-2001 behind the drumkit, talks about Avenger of Blood´s forthcoming 2nd album, how they got signed to Heavy Artillery Records – and overall enlightening us a bit more about all the plans they have for the future of the band  - plus, I couldn´t avoid inquiring Shannon´s involvement in Roger Martinez´s Vengeance Rising either… ;o)

I hooked up with bandleader and master maniac Marios of the Swedish-Greek act Nightrage who just released their third album. The band has gone through a few member changes as well as label changes and on the new album it’s once again a new line-up.   

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Dying Fetus, Skinless & Cattle Decapitation
with War From a Harlot’s Mouth

The Underworld, Camden, London, England
21st May 2007
Review and Live pics by HannTu

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Dimmu Borgir

Thursday April 26, 2007
Nokia Theater
New York City, NY

* Live review and photos by Shaq

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BLAZE BAYLEY

BLAZE BAYLEY is best known as the man who, at their darkest hour, infused IRON MAIDEN with new passion and enthusiasm and bestowed his voice and songwriting talent to THE X FACTOR and VIRTUAL XI albums in 1995 and 1998 respectively, as well as the track "Virus" on the "Best of the Beast" compilation in 1996. Blaze’s career did, not begin nor end with IRON MAIDEN. The debut album, called LIVE FAST DIE FAST, of his first professional band, WOLFSBANE, was released in 1989. A second album, DOWN FALL THE GOOD GUYS, followed in 1991 and finally, after a live album called MASSIVE NOISE INJECTION in 1993, the band put out their final, selftitled, album in 1994. After diverging from the ranks of IRON MAIDEN, Blaze forged on with a new band simply called BLAZE and released, against great adversity, three studio albums, SILICON MESSIAH in 2000, TENTH DIMENSION in 2002 and BLOOD AND BELIEF in 2004, as well as a live album called AS LIVE AS IT GETS in 2003. By the year 2007, BLAZE has been transformed into BLAZE BAYLEY with the summer seeing the release of the very first DVD from the band. Hopefully later in the year a new studio album, as well as an extensive world tour, will also be forthcoming. Read on to learn what Blaze Bayley has to say about his ordeals and endeavours, past, present and future.

INTERVIEW BY MARKO SYRJALA AND JARNO HUOVILA

PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJALA

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Masterplan
Special Guest to Saxon
Hellfueled
Support act

Kulturbolaget
Malmoe
Sweden
11/5 – 2007

Reviewed and pictures by: Anders Sandvall

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Interviewed by Anders Sandvall

Thanks to Stefan at Zink Music for setting up this interview
Thanks to Frontiers Records for the promo pictures

Daniele Liverani has finished off his rock opera trilogy with the third part of his Genius album. For those of you who are not familiar with the Italian musician and songwriter here is an interview that mostly focuses on his latest Genius opus. 

Vindex – Ronnie König
Interview by EvilG
All pics courtesy www.vindex.sk

One of the great things about being a reviewer for Metal-Rules.com is exposure to new bands that would otherwise slip under the radar. Thus we have an obligation to bring the same to our readers with new bands that are not on a big label, not getting big push from some PR company etc. Such is the case with this nice surprise from Slovakia in the form of Vindex. The band has been around for almost 7 years now and NO MIDDLE GROUND is their first for the Slovakian label Street Production. Their previous release, POWER FORGE, was from 2005. The style of metal found on NO MIDDLE GROUND is something fans of Grave Digger and Accept will love right away, especially for the vocal style. In this interview we speak to band leader / bassist Ronnie König about the band, what it’s like playing metal and trying to break out of Slovakia, and lots of other interesting stuff.

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Sigh – Mirai Kawashima
Interviewed By Hanntu

Japanese metal band (I can’t tell you what category they fit in, because honestly, there’s no genre name that’s wide enough for them.) Sigh are set to release their 7th full length studio album, HANGMAN’S HYMN, which should be released this summer. I caught up with Sigh’s frontman, keyboardist and founding member, Mirai Kawashima, who gave his eloquent and deep thoughts on the new album, crappy record labels, religion and tomato sauce.

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Greek World Thrash Domination

 

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Interview by Arto Lehtinen

The Italian horror rock metal outfit Death SS (Death Of Steve Sylvester) have had a long road since the late 70′s till now. The most recent output titled THE 7TH SEAL is for obvious reasons their seventh release in their long history. Even though the newer material sounds more modern oriented, there remains the recognizable Death SS magical spirit on each album. The band’s frontman Steve Sylvester gives his own viewpoint on the new album and tells more about their famous styles in the following interview.

Leaves’ Eyes
Vinland Saga European Tour
The Rock
Copenhagen
Denmark
30/4 – 2007

Reviewed by: Anders Sandvall

Pictures by: Anders Sandvall

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