SNOWY SHAW is Alive! …is the title of the brand new live album with Snowy Shaw.
After more than 20 years professionally in the music business with countless bands and projects Snowy Shaw has earned a reputation as a multi talented artist and instrumentalist. As well as composer, lyricist, designer and visionarie madman in general.
It was bound to happen sooner or later, and many are the fans and followers who have waited for this one-of-a-kind character to go solo, and finally, here he is !
Starting off by delivering a kick ass show the world has never witnessed before with an unmatched repertoir of classics and hits when Snowy together his band play ”All his favorite songs – By All his former bands”: King Diamond, Notre Dame, Mercyful Fate, illwill, Dream Evil, Therion, Dimmu Borgir, XXX, Memento Mori etc…
The Snowy Shaw line up:
Kristian Niemann – Lead Guitar ( ex Therion )
Mannequin De Sade III – drums ( ex Notre Dame )
And female bassist/vocalissa Hellinor
( now replaced by Vicky Valkyria )
Snowy himself – lead vocals, drums, guitars, bass and keyboards.
This live album was captured on the world premiere showcase gig of his solo show that took place in the hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden on May 27th 2011.
For this special occasion Snowy invited some good old friends for guest appearances :
Andy La Rocque – King Diamond, Illwill, Death
Mike Wead – Mercyful Fate, Memento Mori, King Diamond,
Hal Patino – King Diamond, Maryann Cotton
Mats Levén – Therion, Krux, Yngwie Malmsteen
Kee Marcello – Europe, Easy Action, K2
Thomas Vikström – Therion, Candlemass
Snowy just recently decided due to the astonishing response and many offers from festivals promotors and booking agencies to postpone the much anticipated live DVD release with the intention of having even more material filmed and included from the upcoming shows.
Good news! This means that with a little bit of luck you might have a chance to attend one of the shows and experiencing this spectacular, incredible show of Snowy Shaw first hand., in real life.
Vinyl? Yes, there are current plans of releasing Snowy Shaw is Alive! as an exclusive super deluxe limited edition vinyl double live album in the beginning of 2012.
A very merry heavy X-Mas!
Available on Itunes worldwide just a few days before X-Mas!
Artwork by Snowy Shaw. Illustration by Andrej Bartulovic.
The brand new Snowy Shaw website & webshop will be launched before the end of 2011 : www.snowyshaw.net
ProgPower USA XII returns to Center Stage in Atlanta, Georgia, September 14th – 17th, and DREAM EVIL have officially cancelled their planned appearance at the festival. They have issues the following statement:
“First of all, we can’t describe our frustration in this sad matter. We can’t come to Progpower for the show on September 17 because we had problems getting our visas.We did all we could yesterday August 18th when we all took the day off from our jobs and went by car over five hours in the worst rain storm in years to Stockholm for a visit at the American embassy for the interview which is necessary for the visa. After waiting in the long line of people for over four hours at the embassy, they told us that we had applied for the wrong kind of visa. We asked them politely to help us change the application so that we could get the right type of visa but they told us that we had to go back and do it all over again. As the booking for the interviews are made a long time in advance, we then checked to find out that there were no available spots for new interviews until late September and that is too late. This sucks! We paid a lot of money for the visa applications and for the trip to Stockholm, all for nothing, and the worst part of all is that we can’t come to Atlanta on September 17. At this time the American embassy has blocked us from travelling to the US before September 17th, so we are not able to come to the US at all until after the festival. We’re so sorry and so frustrated and there is nothing we can do. To all the fans and the promoter at Progpower, we’re really really sorry.”
ProgPower USA Promoter, Glenn Harveston, is less than impressed and has issued the following statement here regarding the situation. It can be viewed in its entirety below:
“Unbelievable.
The basic steps involved in securing a visa:
1. Complete the nightmare known as the ‘application process’ here in the States. That is the most difficult part and is where bands are denied frequently based on background checks, etc.
2. Once approved, the band schedules their interviews via an online application.
3. They take the approval notice, complete a mundane interview process and get their visa stamps.
In ten years, I have never had a single band have a problem with the interview portion of the overall process.
Dream Evil found a way to screw things up for everyone.
The band was officially approved by the U.S. government on April 4th, 2011. I emailed a scanned copy of the approval the next day. I also mailed the actual notice the same week as well. The band received both. Everything is normal. I then check with the band on June 1st regarding an invoice for their visa interviews. I was told they haven’t scheduled them yet.
What?
Nothing I could do. They know what has to be done. I check back in July and was told they had an interview for the first week of August. That is still six weeks out so plenty of time. I check back the first week of August and was told that the interviews were rescheduled for August 18th.
What?
I emailed the agent on the 18th and was informed that three members of the band were denied visas. They evidently checked the P-2 visa type instead of the P-1 type that is clearly written on the approval notice and were thus sent to a different interview at the consul. They were then told that they could re-submit the interview application and do it again….but the next available opening was at the end of September.
Screwed.
I feel very sorry for the fans that were traveling specifically to see the band. Please direct your piss and vinegar at them, not me.I have little sympathy for them. They may have wasted a day, but I wasted a year.
Needless to say, I have been scrambling like hell for the last 48 hrs…
I’m very pleased to announce that reactivated metallers FORBIDDEN have been confirmed as the replacement. Kings of the second wave of the Bay Area Thrash scene, Forbidden were most popular during the late 80’s and early 90’s for their brand of technical thrash metal infusing odd signature timing with melodies, making them one of the most original metal bands of the time.”
Drummer/Vocalist/Bassist of Therion, Dimmu Borgir, Mercyful Fate, King Diamond & Dream Evil
Interview by Lord Of The Wasteland
Snowy Shaw is a veteran of the heavy metal wars. Since first surfacing with King Diamond back in 1989, to his tenure with Dream Evil, Therion and briefly Dimmu Borgir earlier this year, Shaw’s multi-instrumentalism and ever-broadening artistic vision have kept him busy both in the spotlight and behind the scenes. Despite his wearing many hats, Shaw has always remained a unique and interesting character.
This interview, conducted initially to showcase Snowy Shaw’s joining Dimmu Borgir, was consequently forced to change direction after the rather sudden announcement that Shaw was leaving Dimmu Borgir and re-joining Therion. This shift was even more confusing given the fact that both bands were set to release their latest CDs within days of each other.
As Snowy does his best to diplomatically explain the various moves, it is clear that there is more to the story, but we will have to wait to hear that. In the meantime, enjoy this lengthy chat with one of metal’s more charismatic personalities.
Thanks to Century Media Records for providing the promo pictures and thanks to Jenny Walroth at Century Media Scandinavia for setting up the interview.
Here is an interview I did with bass player Peter Stalfors in the Swedish heavy metal act Dream Evil. The interview was done in Lund when they stopped by to do a show as support act to Stratovarious earlier this year. It was a really long time ago since I last spoke with the band members so I had a lot to talk to Peter about. But due to the time limit we mostly talked about the new album IN THE NIGHT, the new members, the tour and of course what Peter thinks the future has in store for Gothenburg’s finest act Dream Evil.
"No Pain No Gain" as Scorpions used to sing, but the last weekend of June in the central park of Helsinki was nothing but pure pain from the beginning to the end in a good way. The Tuska Open Air metal festival has been taken place ten years in a row. The first festival took place at the Tavastia club back in 1998. As the years passed by, the festival has grown bigger and carved out its prestigious and now legendary reputation all around the world.
Traditional metal had a minor role on the roster of Tuska 2008. Extreme metal, in different forms, attracted and had drawn many extreme metal hearts. As well, metalcore bands KillSwitch Engage landed at Tuska for the first time with a massive impact. The younger audience appeared to be delighted about that. Power metal had the strongest presence as it had a dominating role last year. But booking Slayer, Carcass, and Morbid Angel were extreme brilliant achievements.
Even though the festival was sold out several months ago, the most surprising thing from the Tuska organization was to let people of the age of 70+ go in for free! All in all a few hundred metal grandpa and grandma’s were witnessed headbanging for several bands!!!
As usual, the whole three piece Finnish Metal-Rules.Com squad attended Tuska again to sense a reek of putrefaction, feel raining blood and obtain the pleasure to kill. Enjoy!!
Summer has apparently begun in the UK, but I guess someone forgot to tell Mr Rain that. The only thing that could cheer anyone up on that drizzly, cold and windy Thursday evening was a good dose of pure, uncomplicated and cheesy heavy metal. Would the Swedes deliver, or would they fall as flat as the weather did? Read on…
Thanks to Gerrit Mohr at Century Media Europe for making the interview possible Thanks to Century Media for the promo pics
It’s time for an update with Dream Evil bass player Peter Stålfors. UNITED is the title of the band’s new album. This is more of an update on what is going on in the Dream Evil camp since the last time I spoke to the guys.
Thanks to Jenny Walroth at Century Media Sweden for setting up the interview and Century Media for the promo pictures
Now it’s time to once again talk to Gus G from Firewind and check out what he’s been up to since our last talk. Firewind has recently released their new studio album ALLEGIANCE. Well let’s hear what Gus G has to say…
Thanks to Jenny Walroth at Century Media Sweden for help with the interview Thanks to Century Media for Promo pictures of the band
Gus G., guitar player and leader of Firewind, who recently released their third album FORGED BY FIRE had the kindness to answer my questions about Firewind, their new album, his appearances in Nightrage, and his previous band Dream Evil. Nightrage is about to release their follow up to their brilliant debut “SWEET VENGEANCE”.
When Dream Evil came to Copenhagen on their Scandinavian support tour together with Saxon I had the opportunity to interview the legendary drummer Snowy Shaw in Dream Evil, in both Copenhagen and in Malm?. Right now they are out supporting their new album “THE BOOK OF HEAVY METAL” and of course I asked Snowy some questions about the album but also some question about himself.
