Interview with Ronnie James Dio

Interview and live pictures by Luxi ?Holy? Lahtinen
Interview session pictures by Niko ?Diver? Karppinen

Sauna Open Air festival (see -> http://www.sauna-open-air.fi/news.htm) was held in Tampere, Finland for the 2nd time in the beginning of this June, and this year the organizers had expanded the festival from last year?s one day festival to 3-day festival by gathering together three big names for the festival (Slayer, Dio and Megadeth) that made to move our lazy asses to Tampere for three days, making it overall the kind of festival to any metal dude or dudette who wanted to enjoy some quality acts playing there this year. 

Our main plan was to interview Slayer at the Sauna Open Air ?festival (both of us being huge Slayer ?fans), but since their management had told that there?s no point for the Slayer -guys to get interviewed this time by any press people  - having no new album out yet or anything, we changed our plans just at the very last minutes and asked a possibility to interview Mr. none-other-but Ronnie James Dio instead.

We got something better than what we originally ordered. Namely the whole band arrived to the backstage area to do the press thing, sat down on the other side of the table, getting ready for an interview and looking amazingly relaxed and comfortable. We put the tape recorder rollin? and started bombing with our questions mainly directed to Ronnie... and here?s the result. Enjoy folks.  

HATE ETERNAL/KRISIUN/INTO ETERNITY
Thursday, July 7th, 2005
The Red Room
Vancouver, BC  Canada

***Live Review & All Photos By Lord of The Wasteland

BILLY IDOL
Tuesday, July 12th, 2005
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Vancouver, BC  Canada

***Live Review & All Photos By Lord of The Wasteland

Interview By Lord of The Wasteland

Transcription by Duke

***Pics courtesy of Metal Blade Records, Roadrunner Records, King's official site & Metal Rules staff.

One of the great things about this job is getting to speak with the legends of heavy metal.  Despite being online for ten years, Metal Rules has never spoken to King Diamond himself (a conversation with guitarists Mike Wead and Andy LaRocque was done in 2001 and may be read here), so when the opportunity came up, I was on it like flies on stink. 

Calling from his home in Texas, King is a dream interview subject as he loves to talk and is also one of the nicest guys in metal today.  I could have spent hours and hours talking to him but during the course of our 50-minute conversation, King discusses his latest offering, DEADLY LULLABYES LIVE, new stuff from Mercyful Fate in 2005, the possibility of turning to movies, and loads of other things, so sit back and enjoy this interview with the one, the only?KING DIAMOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interview with Manntis Vocalist Jake Sirokman

***Interview By Lord of The Wasteland

 ***Photos coutesy of Century Media Records and Manntis.com

The latest golden boys of Century Media Records are Riverside, California?s Manntis and deservedly so.  Packing a lethal dose of aggression behind a guitar tandem that isn?t afraid to lay down some serious solos and riffs, Manntis? debut album, SLEEP IN YOUR GRAVE, was just released on June 28th, 2005 and is sure to be a staple of many year-end favorite lists.  The band first struck a chord during the summer of 2004 as they participated in MTV?s THE BATTLE FOR OZZFEST program with the winner landing a coveted spot on Ozzfest 2005.  Although Manntis came in third (out of thousands of bands), the track they recorded for the competition??The End?s Where It Begins??is an integral piece of SLEEP IN YOUR GRAVE, showing the band?s diversity and dynamic nature.

I recently conducted an interview with Manntis vocalist Jake Sirokman (AKA ?Jake Daniel?s?) and he tells his side of being reality show stars, landing a major indie label deal and specific instructions on how to play ?beer pong.?