REVIEW AND PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

Trondheim Rock is annual rock event held, like the name suggests, in Trondheim, Norway. The festival has a tradition of having high quality performers outside of the mainstream and ongoing trends. The history of Trondheim Rock includes such artists as Def Leppard, Jon Lord, Kamelot, Whitesnake, Gary Moore, and Glenn Hughes amongst many others. This year’s edition of the event included three bands: re-united the Darkness, legendary U.S hard rockers Twisted Sister and Norwegian band TNT who now celebrate their 30th anniversary in their original hometown.

WWW.TRONDHEIMROCK.NO

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MORTY BLACK

Morty Black (real name Morten Skaget) is a bassist, best known from his long career with Norwegian hard rock band TNT. Morty recorded seven studio albums with the band, including the classics TELL NO TALES and INTUITION. Altogether he spent 21 years with TNT before leaving the band in 2004. Morty later played for many famous Norwegian artists like JORN, Terje Rypdal, and Åke Aleksanderson. He’s also been doing session work for international artists such as Mariah Carey and he’s running his own booking agency called Intro Music. On June 2, 2012 TNT celebrated its 30th anniversary by playing a concert at the Clarion Hotel in Trondheim. The band performed with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra as well as both former TNT vocalists, Dag Ingebrigtsen and Tony Harnell but unfortunately Morty wasn’t able to do the show because of his other commitments. We met Morty on following day at the Clarion hotel and discussed about his ongoing things as well as his past with TNT and other interesting topics. Read on!

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TONY HARNELL

INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS BY MARKO SYRJALA

Antony “Tony” Harnell is an American singer, songwriter and producer, best known for his work with the Norwegian hard rock band TNT. Harnell joined bands ranks in 1984 and stayed with the band for next 22 years. During that period the band toured exclusively in Japan, Scandinavia and USA and released such classic and critically acclaimed albums as TELL NO TALES, INTUITION and MY RELIGION. Harnell quit with the band for professional and personal reasons in 2006, after finishing the tour supporting album ALL THE WAY TO THE SUN. Harnell’s other credits include working bands like Westwood, Starbreaker and Mercury Train, with whom Harnell released his latest album in 2010. On June 2, 2012 TNT celebrated its 30th anniversary by playing a concert at the Clarion Hotel in Trondheim. The band performed show together with the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and Harnell, who now performed for the first time with his former colleagues since his departure from the band. On following day we had a pleasure to sit down with the man himself and discuss about his thoughts about the show as well as his future plans and of course some blasts from the past as well… Read on!

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MARK REALE

Although the New York based band RIOT was formed in 1975 by guitarist Mark Reale, they reached their biggest success in the early ‘80s with the classic release FIRE DOWN UNDER. The band then went on to release a number of albums before releasing the landmark disc THUNDERSTEEL . The now reunited, classic THUNDERSTEEL lineup consists of, in addition to founder Mark Reale, Tony Moore on vocals, Don Van Stavern on bass, Bobby Jarzombek on drums, with Mike Flyntz on second guitar. We caught up with Mark backstage at the Sweden Rock Festival to discuss some of the happenings in the past, present and future of RIOT, as well as his side venture, WESTWORLD.

INTERVIEW BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ AND JARNO HUOVILA

LIVE AND INTERVIEW PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

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Screaming For Vendera:

An Interview With Vocal Coach Jaime Vendera

Interviewed by EvilG

Questions by EvilG, HannTu, and Rick

I’m sure many of you have seen the Mythbuster episode where the metal vocalist shatters a wine glass with his voice? Well that dude is none other than Jaime Vendera. He’s been making a name for himself not only for his glass shattering vocal ability, but for his renowed vocal training and coaching. In this interview we talk about what brought Jaime into the vocal coaching world and of course all about vocals.

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Nikolo Kotzev of Brazen Abbot
Interview by Anders Sandvall
Thanks to Stefan at Atenzia Records for the help
Also thanks to Frontiers Records for providing the promo-pictures.

Brazen Abbot have recently released their new album MY RESURRECTION which is their 5th album. I had a talk with the band leader Nikolo Kotzev and asked him about Brazen Abbot, which is celebrating a decade as a band, and of course about his own career as musician and producer.

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