Incoming! Black Nazareth

 

Dutch Metal Rockers BLACK NAZARETH have signed a licensing deal with Wormholedeath for their self titled album "Black Nazareth", due for release on July 8th, 2022. After releasing all of the songs as singles, the band felt it was time to gather all of the singles into a mini album, along with a previously unreleased song. Black Nazareth's self-titled "Black Nazareth" is a masterpiece of pure and adrenaline-pumping rock!   It was in 2017 that Menno Gootjes approached Henry McIlveen with some ideas for a metal/rock album. As they previously worked together successfully in Threnody it was like a coming home to start writing together again. Even though this new project seemed far away from the pioneering progressive metal they made with Threnody it was experimental in every way. With the passing of every session slowly the focus of the project started to shift in a more rock-oriented approach. It was time to find some vocals! End of 2018 Daniël de Jongh joined the team. Daniël past experience with progressive metal heroes Textures and other rock projects gave him a fitting profile for where the music was leading. The road to completion was a long one. Menno’s engagements with the progressive rock veterans of Focus kept him on the road for extended periods. It wasn’t until end of 2019 that Martijn Spierenburg joined the band. The sound needed something more and Martijn’s experience with the hit scoring symphonic metal band Within Temptation gave that much extra. We had a line-up! The name Black Nazareth is related to the city, Schiedam, where we started. The nickname of Schiedam is “Black Nazareth”. Schiedam is a city in the west of the Netherlands. It is located in the Rotterdam metropolitan area, west of Rotterdam and south of Delft. The city is known for its historical center with canals, and for having the tallest windmills in the world. Schiedam is also well known for the distilleries and malthouses and production of jenever (gin) so much so that in French and English the word schiedam (usually without a capital s-) refers to the town's Holland gin. This was the town's main industry during the early Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th century, a dark period to which it owed its former nickname "Zwart Nazareth" or "Black Nazareth”. It is uncertain what the real origin is from this name but legend has it that the city was blackened of all the coal, the citizens where drunk of the alcohol fumes and god had forsaken the town. "What good can come from Nazareth?" (John 1:46). The band realised that releasing music during a global pandemic wasn’t most ideal, but waiting for another year was also not an option, so the group decided to release a song every month for the time being, and every release was to be followed by a video-clip. January 2021 the first video for Rivers Run Deep was out. Next releases followed up to end of August 2021. And writing sessions still continued even during lockdowns, remote writing meetings work too. November 2021, a drink was presented named after the band; Black Nazareth No.3, Genuine Dutch Genever. Originally crafted in Schiedam, Holland and infused with the best elements to make a legendary drink. This genever is traditionally distilled by Serious Bee Distillers with the finest ingredients: malted barley, rye, corn, wheat, juniper berry, ginger, clove, raspberry leaf, elderflower, honey and vanilla. End of 2021 the band entered into an agreement with Wormholedeath Records from Italy. A mini album with all singles up till now including one new unreleased song. Black Nazareth are: Daniël de Jongh – Vocals Martijn Spierenburg – Keys and programming Menno Gootjes – Guitar Henry McIlveen – Bass "Black Nazareth" album cover & tracklist

	1. The Rallying Cry 2. Ride 3. Cold As Stone 4. Drops Of Sorrow 5. Thrive 6. Waiting For Tomorrow 7. Heroes 8. Rivers Run Deep

To celebrate the occasion, BLACK NAZARETH proudly present their single & video for "Drops Of Sorrow"!

	DROPS OF SORROW single available on all digital platforms HERE Download the MP3 HERE

Watch "Drops Of Sorrow" [Official Lyric Video] The song is about the loneliness of goodbye, about realising you are left behind. After a person passes, after a pet dies, after a loved one leaves, after your partner leaves you, after your friend disappears, the moment you realise you are now alone. The grief hits you, the loneliness embraces you, and tears fall. You think about the moments passed, the moments missed, and the time taken for granted. Mourning and lament is mainly in the little things everyone knows, no big drama, it is in the details that amplifies the sadness of everything you miss. You look at the past, the memories hit you. You cry out their name, while you sit here in the rain BLACK NAZARETH ONLINE blacknazareth.com black-nazareth.com blacknazareth.bandcamp.com www.facebook.com/blacknazarethofficial soundcloud.com/blacknazareth www.instagram.com/blacknazarethofficial twitter.com/black_nazareth www.patreon.com/blacknazareth www.youtube.com/c/BlackNazareth www.tiktok.com/@blacknazarethofficial

Incoming: Pathos & Logos

 

For guitarist Kyle Neeley and drummer Paul Christiansen, celebrating Art as a system of spirituality and Magick was a way of life long before they formed Pathos & Logos, the band opening up new avenues for exploring these themes. The instrumental progressive duo create complex and involving pieces, dropping their debut Glory To The Order in 2020, and returning in 2022 with Cult, which is a far heavier release, but contains all the energetic peaks and valleys integral to their unique sound, delving deeper into that which they are channeling. "'Cult' is laden with lots of ideas," says Christiansen. "There's a recurring melodic theme that appears throughout the recording, and it's also our initial foray into working in some of our Magickal concepts. The Magickal/spirituality work that we do is also recorded in books that we make. One of them, 'The Sanctum Innan', has a section with sigils [symbols considered to have magical power] that we created, which we then assigned specific rhythms to. By incorporating these rhythms into the songs, they're vested with the energy of our intentions. Even the keys of the songs carry certain meanings and energy for us. It's safe to say that 'Cult' has several layers of meaning for us, and that is absolutely by design."

Formed in Denver, Colorado in 2018, Neeley and Christiansen had worked together in numerous acts before, ultimately finding that in their case, less meant more, working as a duo allowing them to keep the pace they always wanted. With a goal of creating the most compelling music they could in as round and holistic a way as possible, they draw from a lot of different stylistic influences, exploring these sounds in their fullness. At the same time, it was important to go beyond this, bringing in the ideas they had been sharing prior to the band's inception. "Countless artists since time immemorial have treated Art as a religion, and we decided that we were going to fully embrace and codify this idea for ourselves with our own language, scripts, iconography and rituals," says the drummer. They have realized this more fully than ever with the four tracks comprising Cult. Exploring a lot of sonic terrain, they kick off with the sublime "Initiation", which is awash with ethereal sounds and grows steadily in intensity, this markedly different to the thunderous, juddering "Novitiate", the urgent "Regnum", and the both melancholic and agitated "IVDEX". Every song explores a variety of moods, and they are gripping throughout, never wasting a moment, everything having meaning and purpose. "We try very hard to highlight our individual personality as a band. Kyle and I created a proprietary system for writing authentic Meshuggah-style riffs, which we playfully refer to as 'Wisdom Parts', so that's aligned with a lot of modern prog material, but we try to focus heavily on the melodic component. Every track has a bold, singable melody in it somewhere, and any shred-guitar material is metered out very carefully."

Written over several months - with "Initiation" going all the way back to the drawing board at one point - Pathos & Logos honed every track to make sure the EP was as compelling as possible. Titling it Cult was a bold step, partly designed to counteract some negative accusations that have been leveled at the band due to their focus on spirituality and Magick. "Some people have been accusatory and suggested that we're involved in some kind of negative pursuit, that we mean to do harm or that we're trying to recruit people for a cult. Naturally, we're not doing any of those things. We are trying to encourage people to explore their own path on their terms, and we have also developed a way for people to interact and participate in what we do, if that's something they want, but we're not out to tell anyone how to live. The name 'Cult' is almost like a reclamation - trying to take ownership of it and make it mean something better than what's been suggested about us." Though instrumental, every song has a narrative behind it, each one having its own dedicated artwork in which there are instructions on how to participate in what the band refer to as 'The Order'. This is a term they use to refer broadly to individuals for whom Art is a serious or meaningful aspect of their lives, and more pertinently to this recording, the people who like what they are doing as a band. "The song 'Initiation' refers to the different ways people can enter The Order according to their participation in Art, while 'Novitiate' explains the gifts an Initiate receives for participating. 'Regnum' refers to the cultivation of inner agency and control, and 'IVDEX' references mastery of one's fate. Naturally, this is all in the spirit of creativity and enjoyment; it's not something anyone has to do. At the end of the day, we're a band and we wanna promote our music and just connect to people."

Tracked at Augminished Studio in Littleton, CO, the band worked with good friend Nick Pelc, who has been recording them there for a long time, in multiple projects. Additional instruments, mixing and mastering were all done in Neeley's home studio, the guitarist also an accomplished engineer who has worked with - amongst others - The Black Dahlia Murder, God Forbid and The Human Abstract. Keeping with the artistic nature of the record, they have also come up with a unique form of presenting the CD format, this coming packaged in what they have named 'The Codex'. "We devised this for several reasons, one of which is the nature of compact disc consumption has been changing pretty intensely for a while now. People are using their devices - phones, tablets, etc - to consume music much more than CDs, so The Codex is in part a response to that. It comes in a book format and also as individual cards. Each song on the album has a Tarot-like format that has Art on the front, the name of the song, and a brief statement at the bottom explaining the steps for participating in The Order; the back has QR codes that take the user either to a play-through video of the song, the merch or the tour dates portions of our website. Another reason why we decided to create it was just to do something new and creative that people haven't seen before. This band, its music and its meaning are a long time coming for us, and we really want to do everything we can to make a mark."

Pathos & Logos online:
https://www.pathosandlogos.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pathos.logos/
https://www.facebook.com/pathosandlogos/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS7lhs9MmsbHIXrl35p184w/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2oPLvTLiDvOPpsRB3vQnty
 
Email / Booking: Pathosandlogosloveyou@gmail.com

Bio by: Dan Slessor

Incoming After Evolution

 Female fronted symphonic metal discovery AFTER EVOLUTION have signed a licensing deal with Wormholedeath for their album "War Of The Worlds", which is due for release on June 17th, 2022

You may ask, "who are they? where did they come from?" and the answer is simple. we came here to the earth from far away, to tell you the story about our world and how we have been born in this one. the each of us have been reborn in different year, different time, under the different star, moon and sun to connect our destinies in one. We are the storytellers, ancestors, wanderers of the universe and time, the artists carrying bond between the melodies of the dark and light, death and life, hope and despair and fire and ice ... We are the After Evolution. The way of finding each other was not easy at all. Everything started one day, when Nikolette met Michael. They knew their meeting meant much more but for the whole reveal of the truth they needed to find the remaining two reborned. It was the year of 2013 when Nikolette and Michael started with collecting the shards of memories before the big reborn. Piece by piece and part by part of single memory has been written into melody and poetry connected in one. Nikolette and Michael met a lot of souls astray but neither one was the one of the reborned. So after some time they just went by their own path of life. When the year of 2016 appeared, Michael and Nikolette decided to reveal the part of their threnodies to the world. People loved their melodies accompanied with ancient stories of the other world so they continued with writing more and more of their story. Also by the end of the same year Nikolette with Michael found the third reborned named Adam, so they continued they journey side by side. The melodies of past have been spread really fast so a lot of big and well known collectors of great ancient stories, art and melodies wanted to help to the After Evolution on their path and spread their stories to whole the world. So Nikolette, Michael and Adam with another soul astray agreed and decided to travel to the great Italy to imprint their story connected with dark melodies and ancient power into memory of the world forever. It was the year of 2018, the hot summer days, when After Evolution finished the big reveal of the truth and with last drop of the ink on the paper they finished the last note in the big part of their story and their past. Unfortunately that soul astray was not ready for the journey of the After Evolution, so he left when he saw the path and went his own way. The path got really complicated. But they didnt give up and continued on their way even if it was full of thorns and pain. They followed their destiny. On their journey to imprint their story written in melodies to eternity of the world, they met a brave traveller named Ilya, who helped them to finish the rest of their journey and fight the monsters along the way. At the end of the path, he went his own way and After Evolution went on the expedition to find the last lost reborn. The missing piece of the After Evolution. Later that year of 2018 the fourth lost reborn, vitek has been found and continued his journey along with the rest of the reborned, After Evolution and their destiny have been fulfilled. They were able to connect all the shards of their memories and finish the story of the ancient world they came from. They found out who they truly are and about their true abilities. With the time going by, there were a lot of thieves of ancient art who wanted to steal some of their magic and treasures they had, but it never really happened, the things got just a little bit complicated during the protection of their secrets. After Evolution finished their whole story and they have collected and connected with their ancient power all shards of memories together. All that creation was so exhausting for them that After Evolution fell into the deep rest and recovery to gain the energy again and summon all the power and inspiration back to them. When ​the dark times dissapeared, After Evolution, with clear mind and full of energy were ready to accept their destiny and share their story with the world and spread the enchanting melodies again. With year of 2022 they shared with the world the story about the big war from the ancient world and the war of the worlds chants floated by the world     Music inspiration : My inspiration is in epic orchestral music like movie or game soundtracks for example - Two steps from hell, Audiomachine, Hans Zimmer, Ivan Torrent etc. I was fascinated by Evanescence, Nightwish, Within Temptation and Epica because they connected the orchestras and the metal elements and I really liked that. So I knew I wanted to play symphonic metal but more symphonic, more like epic orchestral metal, so every instrument like guitars, drums and also vocals are composed on the orchestral base not the opposite. Concept : Everyone was asking us "what does AFTER EVOLUTION means?" and I didnt know why they are asking me that to be honest bcs I have never saw asking someone Nightwish what their name means. But I told myself „okay, I will give my band the meaning“ and I created a whole story about who we are and what is our music about. I love fantasy stories and most of my time I am in clouds with my head so why not. So I started to creating a storyboard and slowly connecting the story with the music. Development : I created whole the story in about 2 weeks and then the music work was next on the list, so I have separated the parts of the story to 11 sections to create 11 music parts for the album. I stopped at each section and imagined the feelings of the main character, the enviroment and what is happening and I tried to feel everything as if I was there to match the music and orchestras with that feeling of the story. When I have created the orchestras I had already in my head the melody of the vocals and some idea how the guitars and drums should sound. When that was ready I came back to the paper sheet where I have written what is this part about and I’ve started with writing the lyrics. It is really my favourite part because I love writing in contrasts if it is possible and some poetic riddles to think about for example : „red roses are falling down on the cold white snow“ means in my style of writing : falling blood on the ground – I really love making that kind of texts if I have a space for that. Some texts are just describing what is happening and the story and some are more poetic, it really depends on the mood of the song. So that is how I am developing and making the music and its concept etc. Line up: Nikolette Olsson : Singer, Composer, Piano Michal Matzner : Guitars Adam Bittó : Bass Vic Janas : Drums     "War Of The Worlds" cover & tracklist

 

1) War Of The Worlds 2) The Path 3) Cursed 4) Liber Fortitudinis / The Book Of Destiny 5) Once Upon A Time 6) The Final Hope 7) In The Chains 8) Dark Side 9) Infinity Flames 10) Nothing Left But Pain 11) The Victory

 

"War Of The Worlds" album teaser

Live review: Geoff Tate plus support, Robin2, Bilston, 12 May 2022

Live review.

Geoff Tate at Robin2, Bilston on 12 May 2022.
Plus support from mark Daly & The Ravens and Electus

The evening in question didn't exactly get off to a good start. Due to travelling delays, Geoff Tate and his band of guns for hire were late meaning sound checks were gonna be a quick affair at best. 

Openers Electus (local boys) seemed to suffer the most from this. Over-load and distorted, the set was, at times, hard to figure out. Songs that I know seemed to be played too dark, too heavy and perhaps Russell and the guys were trying a lit' too hard?

With a short set, Electus had to cherry pick of course from their 3 albums  including single "Ticket to Nowhere" but did give us a new song from their forthcoming album (lips are sealed on this one though kids so can't put it on YT just yet). Maybe this just wasn't their night but as an opener act they did okay. Just not the polished rockers we know and love round these parts. 4/10

Next up was Mark Daly, replete with backing band that featured much of Geoff Tate's mob. A strange animal indeed. Part new-country, part grunge, part rock. Songs were catchy enough but Mark's rough, deep growling voice seems at adds with the music at times and it wasn't musical or pleasant to hear. The band played well enough and in the heavier moments really gave it their all. Daly's popular song "Gotta Run" was well receieved and shows potential for a man who has talent, just an unsure direction. 5/10

Now, then, on to the meat of the meal. Geoff Tate.

On this tour he's performing both albums "Rage for Order" and "Empire" in their entirity. Thats 2 classic Queensryche albums live for the price of one. Quite a double-whammy!

Considering his late arrival and lack of lengthy soundcheck, the sound from Geoff and the band was amazing. The Robin2 did him proud tonight. Queensrcyhe music is complex and a bitch to mix so I was very impressed by tonight's show. Geoff's band of minstrals performed every song as if they'd be playing them for years (bar the odd miss-note) with energy, passion and dedication. Geoff grinned all night. He was a happy bunny. Good to see.

His fans were also VERY happy tonight. Let's face it, other than "Operation Mindcrime" what more could ya want from a Ryche gig! Every well known hit was here - Silient Lucidity, Jet City Woman, I Dream in Infrared, I could go on.  It was a treat to hear these classic albums played through. Empire has not been played completely since it was originally toured following that massive Mindcrime tour.

I truly think Geoff is in a happier place now. Playing to true fans, up close and personal. He sang so well tonight. His voice is lacking some of its old range but considering Geoff's age it held up well. 

Twin guitars attacks, smooth synth lines, great drumming and a killer bassist. The band kicked ass too and the two guitarists were getting off dualling throughout, pushing each other and working the crowd. Love it!

Two encores treated those who stayed on too " Take Hold of the Flame" and b sider "Last Night in Paris" (now on the Empire CD reissues kiddies) and the night was over. Roll on another tour. Come on Geoff treat us to some of the later stuff from Promised Land and Q2K! 10/10 CAG