Metallica- "Hardwired... to self-destruct" Album review

Today is the day that many people have been waiting for, for months are maybe years! Today, ladies and gentlemen, is the official release date of the tenth Metallica full-length album "Hardwired... to self-destruct"

After the release of the first single "Hardwired" on August 18, many minds have been blown! People were pretty impressed by the fact that there's a touch of the "old metallica"... if you allow me to call it so! There's indeed a huge presence of the writing style of their very first albums! A heavy and powerful track! It was simply a real "Metallica" track
But yet wise men had to wait until they check the whole thing to make their final judgement!

After releasing 2 other singles "Moth Into Flame" on September 26 and "Atlas, Rise!" few days before the Album release, I said to myself "Damn! This is gonna be a masterpiece" and they indeed didn't disappoint me!

The album was released as a double album! All of the 3 singles are on the first disc, which is heavier and stronger! very powerful riffs and drum beats! James did a great job as well in my opinion! there were some different singing style in some tracks!

The 2nd disc, which is the longer one, is more progressive! There's a melodic and an atmospheric touch,Some EPIC riffs and solos especially in confusion! I just loved the solo!
Right before the last song "Spit Out the Bone" which is the heaviest, the band made sure to pay tribute to the great Lemmy kilmister by their song "Murder One", which is one of my favorites as well!

For a 70 minutes album, I thought it'd be "boring" but not at all! every song is journey! It's indeed a GREAT album!

And as their diehard fans like to say "Welcome back masters" ;)

Interview with Greg from Allegaeon

-First of all thank you for your precious time and welcome to metalitty webzine! So let's start by a little biography of the band. And how did you come up with the band name?

Hey friend! My pleasure. Well OK lets see, the band has been around in some form or another since 2005ish. I came into the picture in 2007 when the band was still called Allegiance.  The lineup back then was James Cummings vocals, Ryan Glisan and myself on Guitar, Aaron Donahoe on Bass, and our drummer at the time was named Nick and I forgot his last name. Nick was an amazing artist and kinda got called up to draw Batman for DC comics. Of course we all said "get the hell outta here and go save Gotham!"
So we brought Jordan Belfast into the band. Around the beginning of 2008 we started getting cease and desist letters from a couple bands around the world called Allegiance. Hence changing our name to Allegaeon. Which is gibberish, and all it meant was we weren't gonna be sued for the name because it's so stupid who'd want it? HA!!  Our vocalist James was focusing more and more on his career and he ended up leaving, so we brought in Ezra a few weeks before we did our first EP.  Between the EP and getting signed, we parted with Aaron, and got a new bassist by the name of Mike Papajohn who appeared in the Cower Before Me, and Nex of Terra videos. He couldn't take off work for a tour so we got Corey Archuleta, and then signed with Metal Blade records in 2009. Fast forward a couple years and a couple albums, everyone besides Corey and myself have managed to suffer enough to still be doing this. haha

-As mentioned before, you're releasing your new album soon! Can you tell me more about it?

Sure it's our 4th album for Metal Blade, we're incredibly excited for it to come out which will probably be in September.  Its our longest record to date and has some new things on it. Still continuing with the orchestration thing we started on Elements but a little more on the epic scale. I wish I could go more into it but I'm forbidden!

-Who inspires you to write music? And is there any particular process in writing it?

We take inspiration from everything going on that interests us in music. From Dimmu to the playing of Ben Woods. It's a very wide array. we love music so if it's good we find use for it.

-Who writes the lyrics?

Well historically it's shifted around quite a bit. Ezra, Ryan and Myself split the lyric duties quite heavily on the first two albums. On Elements Ezra did most of it, and I contributed only 1 tune. This new record I think I had my hands in 5 of the 11 originals. However Riley would always kinda finish what I started after he saw how I wanted it. Riley did an amazing job.

-So this is your first album with Riley! Do you think the vocals in this album will be kinda different? I mean did Riley add his own touch to your music?

Yeah he did. We really pushed him to pull out everything he is capable of. Except for Opera I think we kinda touched on everything. Throat singing, pitch screaming, singing, gurgling death metal vocals, shrieking highs and crazy lows. We've usually only been limited to mids, and variations of those mids before, so hearing the full range thrown in is pretty amazing.

-We all know how you guys are so cool and funny, so I had to make a funny question haha! We noticed that you had so much fun in the studio with Dave Otero... what's the story behind the back of his head? Many people are really curious to know.

The joke spawned I think because all the pictures we ever see of him are from behind. I guess his girlfriend Chelsea made the comment they should count. Well that sounded like a challenge to me plus I was bored.
-Tell me more about your news and upcoming events!
Well right now we don't have anything really planned apart from just getting the record out and getting all our music videos put together. We filmed so much studio footage we need to get that all edited, plus there was a little documentary of the album we need to release. All good stuff.

-Thank you again Greg! Do you have any message to your Moroccan fans and Metalitty readers in general?

Thank you to everyone! We heart your face! Keep metal strong!

Interview with Julien from Gorod

1-First of all thank you for your precious time and welcome to metalitty webzine! So let's start by a little biography of the band 

Julien : Hello everybody ! Gorod was founded in 1997 in the region of Bordeaux. The only two founding members still in the band are Mathieu who is the main composer/guitar mastermind and Benoît, the bearded bass player who was previously playing in Voracious Grangrene with Guillaume (the first Gorod's singer I replaced in 2010). Nicolas (Arcania), the other other guitar player joined the band in fall 2010, soon after me, and Karol (Juggernaut, Hell in Town, Erlen Meyer) is our drummer since early 2014. Gorod released its first album « Neurotripsicks » in 2004, and we just released the 5th under the name « A Maze Of Recycled Creeds ». The band has been touring more and more, mostly since 2011 and now it's time to hit the road to promote our last effort !



2-You just released you 5th full length-album entitled "A Maze of Recycled Creeds", can you talk to me about this masterpiece ? 

Julien : This is a concept album including nine original songs. It's maybe one of the most technical and also the most flowing Gorod's album. Each song is really different from each other and this album needs couple of listening on order to start to get into it. It was 100% homemade. Mathieu composed the whole music and recorded it his own studio. I wrote the whole concept and lyrics and we worked with a comic books artist who lives very close to the band's area. It tooks a long time to create this piece, but it's finally done and we hope you'll enjoy it as much as we enjoyed doing it.

3-What do the lyrics deal with?

Julien : The actual main topic is that of what I call “self-indoctrination”. This phenomenon seems to affect many people, especially during hard times. In A Maze Of Recycled Creeds, I chose the example of the Rosicrucian Order in order to illustrate the main topic with a complete immersion in the life and work of a fascinating guru: Joséphin Péladan. He revitalized the sect at the end of the 19th century and succeeded in doing great things in spite of being quite a ludicrous character. Each song is a satiric piece confronting various points of view through many characters and their emotions involved.

4-"A Maze of Recycled Creeds" is your 5th Full-length album as I mentioned before! What makes different from your previous ones ?

Julien: To be honest, this new one is my favourite Gorod’s album including “Leading Vision”. This one is a bit different than all previous albums.  It is simultaneously more opened and more complicated than “A Perfect Absolution”, but it sounds like Gorod, reuniting most of the good recipes I used to enjoy when I was still not playing in the band. It feels like all the various influences are more accepted and unchained than in the past. Everything sounds more consistent and flowing in the end. Even if there are tons of informations and, this one is maybe slightly an easier listening than the two previous ones, but it's only my opinion, hehe!

5-Who inspires you to write such good music? And is there any particular process in writing it?

Mathieu : One of the biggest influence remains “latin jazz”. Classic jazz bores me most of the time, even if I can appreciate it sometimes. Traditional world music is also one the most important influence I have, and this one is particularly useful to make original music in my opinion, as it is often basic and rough in some way, and very far away from what we are used to listen nowadays. I like to start a song by picking up a chord progression or a theme from these genres sometimes. It just some kind of tributes, my goal is not to copy but just to spice the music with extra ingredients, to make it surprising and unexpected. On this last album, the Thrash metal influence is clearly hearable. There is a thrashmetal revival for some years, with new bands making the following of the 80's and 90's legends, and I'm totally into it. Bands like Vektor, Revocation, Angelus Apatrida or Municipal Waste are really enjoyable to me, because even if they are close to the older bands, they give a positive evolution to the genre. The songs “Inner Alchemy”, “Dig into yourself”, or “Celestial Nature” sound like thrashmetal sometimes. I think it's a matter of tempos. Drum patterns and guitar riffage are necessarily different at 160 and 200bpm or more. And the way of headbanging too! And even if thrash is older and maybe slower than Death Metal, it has a fast feeling and instantly dancing effect on me!

6-According to you, which is more difficult: Writing lyrics or composing music? 

Julien : It's both totally different and complementary. It's really not the same job but both need time to feel satisfied of the final result. Taking a global view is normally not an option and it needs time in the end. But I don't think that Mathieu is suffering as much as I do when he writes music, because it's pretty natural for him to compose this kind of complicated harmonies. Harmonization is by the way the a characteristic way of composing songs for Mathieu. But the fact is that he doesn't really leave room for the vocal patterns when the composition is over, it's very hard to find a place for vocals in such a rich music.

7-Tell me more about your news and upcoming events!

Julien : Next upcoming event is a Canadian tour in spring 2016. Hope there will be more tours to come. And I really hope that we'll play in Morocco someday ! As a windsurfer, Essaouira is a very famous place for me, and I'd love spending some time there, on day. We'll see !

8-Thank you again Julien! do you have any message to your Moroccan fans and Metalitty readers in general?

Julien : You're welcome ! Just hope to visit your country some day and can't wait to finally meet and hang out with metalheads in Morocco ! All the best !

Interview with Francesco Ferrini from Fleshgod Apocalypse

1-The kings of Italian technical death metal, the masters of classical music! Thanks once again FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE for taking a part of your time to talk to us and welcome to Metalitty webzine!

Wow, thanks for such an impressive presentation! Glad to be here ;)

2-As mentioned before, you're releasing your new album soon! Can you tell me more about it?

Since “Agony”, all our records have been ‘concept albums’ and “King” makes no exception.
The story is set inside an old court, where the King is the main character. He’s old and tired, but still carries on his shoulders all the integrity and devotion to old values he believes in..
He’s the only character with a strong positive vibe, surrounded by other figures (War Minister, Queen, Bishop etc) trying to affect his decisions for their advantage and often searching more power for their own, regardless of the suffering they’re going to create.
Each song is related to a specific character, so we built different atmospheres and soundscapes strongly related to their nature. For example “The Fool”, with its baroque, pyrotechnic vibe, was perfect for the Jester, while “Healing through war” recalls the violent, gloomy nature of the War Minister.

3-You mentioned before that the writing process was kinda different than the previous albums! Tell me more about it!


Well, this time we wanted a darker tone for the album and that leaves more room for the pure ‘Death Metal’ elements in our music. That’s why the songs are more guitar-driven, so to speak. In our previous albums we developed many ideas starting from orchestral parts, chord progressions or melodies. That’s because we wanted to explore the symphonic element in every aspect, treating guitars as a section within the orchestra. This time we tried a brand new approach, mostly using guitars as a starting point.
But our dense, complex orchestral arrangements are still there, playing a key role on several parts of the new songs.

4-What do the lyrics deal with?

This tale about an imaginary King’s court isn’t mere ‘historical fiction’, but it’s more archetypal I’d say. It’s out of time, it talks about human nature.
The main character represents the bravest, strongest part of ourselves, our devotion to solid values, integrity and truth, vital elements that we might have lost during our restless run towards the future. As I said, he’s the only positive figure on this story, so to speak. All the other characters in the court are depicting darker aspects of our own nature (like thirst of power, fear, egoism, vanity) that can lead us to the worst decisions in our life.



5-You're also making an orchestral version of the album! What a great idea! Did you focus this time more on the orchestral part than in the previous albums?

We’ve always focused a lot on the symphonic element of our music. Even this time, whereas most of the music was written using guitar riffs as a main guidance, the orchestral arrangements are carefully crafted and heavily layered. “King” features some of the best orchestral parts we’ve ever had! That’s why we thought about an orchestral release, and the guys at Nuclear Blast were absolutely enthusiastic about it. It’s the same album, but from a totally different perspective and I’m sure that even non-metal audiences will enjoy it.
.

6-You just released the first single "The fool" and the surprise is : the amazing voice of Paolo is back again after a little absence in "Labyrinth"! Does it mean there will
be a variety in the vocals?

Absolutely! Paolo is an awesome singer and his performance on this album is insanely good. He adds much more variety and intensity to our vocal lines.
But Veronica, of course, is still present, since the operatic parts are somehow a trademark for us at this point.
We also had different vocal guests on the spoken parts, so all the different characters are portrayed in the best possible way. We like to be musicians and storytellers at the same time.

7-Talking about vocals, after "Labyrinth", Veronica started playing live with the band! What did she add to your performances?


Veronica is amazingly talented and skilled, that’s why we decided to involve her more and take her on tour with us. Also, her presence on stage is… priceless! Performing songs like “The Egoism” or “Epilogue” wouldn’t be the same without her. She’s also taking that ‘theatrical’ aspect of our live performance to a whole new level.

8-So, Fleshgod Apocalypse found their final structure and line up that commensurate your music kind or are you thinking about adding a new member , like a cellist or a violinist?

That’s a great idea! For now we’re not planning it but… who knows? We dream of performing live with a full symphonic orchestra, but maybe hiring single players, or a small string section, would be a small step in the right direction.

9-Are you planning on making a new video?


Yes, but it’s… top secret for now! ;)

10-You guys are so creative, that's actually why I'm a big fan! You never stop surprising people! So what can we expect from Fleshgod apocalypse in the next few years??


Thanks! We always try to get the best possible result off what we do, and that involves both the music itself and the concept behind it.
For sure we’ll keep working hard and touring a lot, improving our show and our skills as musicians. I’m sure our fans will never be disappointed!

11-Thank you! Anything else you'd like to add?

Thanks to you!
Last but not least, I’d suggest listening to “King” as a whole album, and not just as individual songs in random order. That’s the best way to experience it, even if the trend is much different nowadays.




Roufaïda Lamrabet