REVIEW AND PICTURES MY ARTO LEHTINEN AND MARKO SYRJALA

The masters of progressive metal Dream Theater are known for having fallen in love with Finland as evidenced by their visits to the northernmost country on every tour since 1995. In 1995 the band played here for the first time in a small club with Fates Warning supporting. Some time has passed by since those days and many things have changed. The band has released a bunch of albums, the latest one DRAMATIC TURN OF EVENTS came out in the fall of 2011, and Dream Theater is now playing in arenas. There are also some changes in the line-up as the core and founder Mike Portnoy is no longer in the band. As it is widely known Mr. Portnoy left the band in late 2010 to pursue other interests and he’s now replaced by new drummer Mike Mangnini.

Read the rest of this entry »

DREAM THEATER

DRUMMER MIKE MANGINI

INTERVIEW AND PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJALA

Mike Mangini is an American drummer, and the current drummer for the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Mangini joined band in 2011 after the departure of founding drummer Mike Portnoy. Later on that same year the band released its latest opus DRAMATIC TURN OF EVENTS. Mangini’s earlier playing credits include Annihilator, Extreme and Steve Vai among others. He’s also well known for his work as a session musician and lecturing for years at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Mangini has also written two books titled Rhythm Knowledge about his unique drumming techniques, a practice method for deconstructing and simplifying complex poly-rhythms and time signatures. Dream Theater opened their 2012 European leg of “Dramatic Tour of Events” from Helsinki in mid January. It was at this tour stop that we had a pleasure to sit down with Mr. Mangini and discuss the current state of Dream Theater and some older stuff as well. Read on!

Read the rest of this entry »

Interview with vocalist Dave Padden

INTERVIEW BY ARTO LEHTINEN AND MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

Long time Canadian thrash metal icons, Annihilator, are known for being the soul and mind of the guitar wizard Jeff Waters who has navigated the band throughout the years. However, the guitarist/vocalist Dave Padden has become an essential part of the Annihilator camp within these past seven – eight years. Annihilator has visited Finland a couple of times before as a support for Judas Priest in 1991 and Trivium a few years back. It was clearly time for them to have the headliner slot here. The Tavastia club was entirely packed when Waters and company got on the stage. Before the four piece thrashers stormed onto the stage to wake the fury, we had the privilege of having a chat with the vocalist of Annihilator Dave Padden who talked about the on-going tour, the re-issued albums, and several other interesting issues about the mighty Annihilator!

Read the rest of this entry »

JEFF WATERS

INTERVIEW AND LIVE PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJALA

TRANSCRPTION BY NEIL BATTY

Canadian thrash band Annihilator is the lifework of guitarist Jeff Waters, who founded the band in Vancouver in 1984. It took almost five years and numerous line up changes before band released their 1989 debut, ALICE IN HELL, which was an unqualified triumph and epitomized the state of the art in terms of thinking man’s thrash metal in every aspect. Album was a success but more changes followed. Original singer Randy Rampage decided to leave and he was then replaced by Coburn Pharr who recorded album NEVER NEVERLAND with the band. Album was again very successful and band did a lot of touring across the world with such names as Judas Priest. Third album SET THE WORLD ON FIRE was released in 1993 with Wayne Darley being the only remaining member alongside with Jeff Waters himself. That album was a way different compared to older albums, it was much more oriented into pop/rock but it still did quite well during the time when grunge invasion was about to come. In 1994 band lost their record contract and they broke up but it wasn’t too long when Annihilator resurfaced with another line up. Band released a series of albums: KING OF THE KILL, REFRESH THE DEMON and REMAINS where Jeff handled vocal duties by himself while but Annihilator never again enjoyed anything similar to their original success � despite Water’s’ retreat to thrashier terrain. In 1999 band did another attempt to re-find their glory days when they re-united with their original singer Randy Rampage. Band released album CRITERIA FOR A BLACK WIDOW but reunion didn’t last too long until Randy was out again because of his drug and alcohol problems. It was time of another singer and then Joe Comeau stepped in. Annihilator released two high quality albums CARNIVAL DIABLOS and WAKING THE FURY with Joe before he was surprisingly out after the release of live album DOUBLE LIVE ANNILIATION in 2003. Canadian native Dave Padden replaced Comeau and he�s been in the band since then. Annihilator has lived though many ups and downs in their career but what�s most important, band has always survived and now they�re once again back with their 12�Th studio release called �Metal�. Band visited in Finland, for the first time in sixteen years, on last April while they were on tour as a special guest for U.S band. I had an opportunity to sit down with Jeff Waters in Helsinki before their show in House of Culture and here are the results of our lengthy discussion� ENJOY! 

Read the rest of this entry »