Apologies for the quality after a few mins. The twat of a drum tech kicked in good style. You might need to be a bit of a lip reader to appreciate the interview. Last time I agree to help a Tour Manager by turning up early!!
Month: June 2012
Wig Wam – Wall Street
Wig Wam enjoyed their major breakthrough in 2005 when they presented their single “In My Dreams” to the Eurovision Song contest, beating all rivals and going straight to #1 on the national charts, where it stayed for over 21 weeks and sold platinum!
In 2006 Wig Wam went straight from the road to the studio and recorded their follow up, ”Wig Wamania” and the band went immediately back on the road on their Wig Wamania tour, which hit Japan for the first time.
In 2009 the band released their third studio album ”Non Stop Rock N Roll”, the first ”Wig Wam” album to be released simultaneously in whole World. The album was a huge success for the band sold to Gold Award in Norway and again saw the band tour heavily in support of the release.
All in all though it’s a hit and miss affair. The hits are of high quality, and the misses (for me) are way off the mark. I would hope that existing fans of Wig Wam won’t be disappointed, but its not going to bring many new ones knocking on the teepee.
WIG WAM
Glam: Vocals
Flash: Bass
Teeny: Guitar
Sporty: Drums
Jorn – Bring Heavy Rock To The Land
Staying with the ‘if it aint broke, don’t fix it’ approach (a formula applied by many, but mastered by so few) Jorn has worked again with Tommy Hansen at Jailhouse Studios in Denmark who worked on the mix of the album, ensuring the right edge to the rich guitar and vocal sound that is now trademark to all Jorn releases. The line-up sees the return of Jimmy Iversen on guitar who appeared on “Spirit Black” but could not commit to touring for personal reasons. The pairing with Tore Moren works really well and gives Jorn sound the usual depth and solidity.
Jorn Lande’s strong and diverse voice and solid songwriting skills have now become legendary in the Hard Rock world. In a career spanning over 30 albums releases (all done in the last 18 years, a feat that would take Axl 2000 years to complete)and as frontman for Millennium, Ark and Masterplan, Jorn was recently featured on projects such as Tobias Sammet’s “Avantasia” and Ayreon.
“If you buy a Jorn album today, you know what you will get. This new album is more Hard Rock oriented than Metal I would say, but as usual it’s not just one type of musical expression all the way through the album, but a variety of landscapes within the categories of rock and metal” states Jorn Lande! You are guaranteed to get your adrenaline going, with a riveting sound that has solid roots in classic hard rock/heavy metal music, such as Dio, Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Whitesnake. Known to me David Dio-dale!
Jorn Lande: vocals
Willy Bendiksen: drums
Nic Angileri: bass
Tore Moren: guitar
Jimmy Iversen: guitar
Produced by Jorn Lande
Firewind – Few Against Many
90/100
FIREWIND – Few Against Many
Hartmann – Balance
After leaving AT VANCE he started to focus more on the song-writing for his new band Hartmann. Frontiers Records signed them in 2004 and the first album ‘’Out In The Cold“ was released in 2005. The Hartmann debut was the positive surprise of the year for many people, it received rave reviews and was rated “Album Of The Month“ in many Rock magazines all over the world. Among the most notable achievements was being elected as “Debut Album Of The Year” on melodicrock.com, the song ‘’What If I“ becoming Song Of The Year and ‘’Into The Light“ coming in 2nd on the ‘’Ballad Of The Year“ poll of the same webzine.
2008 saw Oliver Hartmann touring as guitarist/singer for Tobias Sammet’s AVANTASIA, the internationally successful DVD / CD set “The Flying Opera” documents these live events. European shows with Hartmann as support for EDGUY followed in spring 2009. In late 2009 the next Hartmann studio album followed. With the aptly titled CD ‘’3“ the band again delivered the goods with songs of their unique brand of Melodic Rock with a modern twist, including the outstanding duet ‘’Brothers“ with EDGUY / AVANTASIA’s Tobias Sammet.
During the past two years, the band Hartmann played numerous shows as support of bands such as MOTHER’S FINEST, URIAH HEEP and Y&T and in January 2012 Oliver Hartmann joined the line-up for the very successful ROCK MEETS CLASSIC tour on vocals and guitars which I was desperate to see as the line up was stupendous. The concerts showcased the impressive cast of Rock legends by the likes of Ian Gillan/ DEEP PURPLE, Jimi Jamison/ SURVIVOR, Steve Lukather/ TOTO, Chris Thompson/ ex-MANFRED MANN’S EARTH BAND and Robin Beck.
“Balance”was once again mixed by Sascha Paeth (Avantasia, Edguy, Epica, Kamelot) at Gate Studios, Wolfsburg, Germany and will be released on the 1st of June 2012 on the always excellent AVENUE OF ALLIES label.
2. Like a River
3. You Are the One
4. Fool for You
5. After the Love Is Gone
6. Save Me
7. Fall from Grace
8. From a Star
9. Dance on the Wire
10. Shout
11. Time to Face the Truth
12. The Best Is Yet to Come
Mario Reck – Guitars
Armin Donderer – Bass
Dario Ciccioni – Drums