RONNIE JAMES DIO ON HEAVEN & HELL "JUST LIKE NEVER STOPPED"
Recently, Jenny Feniak of Sun Media conducted an interview with legendary vocalist Ronnie James Dio (HEAVEN AND HELL, DIO, BLACK SABBATH, RAINBOW). Few excerpts are follows:
On his HEAVEN AND HELL bandmates:
"We're kind of like locusts. We see each other just about every 12 years. After we broke up the first time, 12 years later we got back together again. And now, this is just about pushing 13 years. But it has this cyclical thing."
"We wanted to have a little bit of a fresher approach on what was, is and always will be called BLACK SABBATH. You can disguise it and call us BARNEY'S BEANERY if you want to and they'll go, 'Oh SABBATH's in town. Who's BARNEY'S BEANERY?' I don't really care what it's called. All I know is it's going to be a great band and a great show, as it always was."
On "Black Sabbath: The Dio Years":
"I went to England on a couple different occasions and Tony [Iommi] and I wrote three [new] songs [to add to the compilation]. We were only supposed to write two, but it went so well and so easily as it always did with Tony and I, that we wrote three. And, of course, the germ of an idea came up ... that it might be good if we toured with this. It would help the album and at the same time it would make a lot of money, too, wouldn't it? After all, this is our work.
"It's a matter of doing what we're going to do and kind of securing our legacy more than anything else. It has been a long time since we played together and now we're doing it right. Not like the last time we toured with the 'Dehumanizer' album where everything fell apart. This has been planned very well."
On enjoying each other's company once again:
"It's just like we never stopped. When you work with people who are that good, when you work with professionals and you're one yourself, then it's all going to be good at the end of the day. But you know, it's funny too. We screw up, people make mistakes and we all stop and laugh at each other and point fingers like little kids again."
"The things that happened, a lot of them were very hurtful to me. I really cared a lot about that band, and some of the ways things went down I like to think were because of youthful inexperience.
"But when you get back together, three times now, I guess that means there must've been some bond there. That we didn't hate each other that much or we wouldn't have been doing this at all."
SAXON kicked of their current headlining European tour in Belgium last Saturday, March 10. Several high-quality photos from SAXON's second show of the tour, which took place March 11 at Paradiso in Amsterdam, Holland can be found on Metal-Experience.com. Support came from the Dutch hardrock band MENNEN and special guest MASTERPLAN.
SAXON's setlist was as follows:
01. State Of Grace
02. Let Me Feel Your Power
03. If I Was You
04. Killing Ground
05. Witchfinder General
06. The Great White Buffalo
07. (Requiem) We Will Remember
08. Power And The Glory
09. Are We Travellers In Time
10. Forever Free
11. Red Star Falling
12. To Hell And Back Again
13. I've Got To Rock (To Stay Alive)
14. Atilla The Hun
15. Dallas 1PM
16. 747 (Strangers In The Night)
17. And The Bands Played On
18. Princess Of The Night
19. Wheels of Steel
20. Denim And Leather
21. Ashes To Ashes
MACHINE HEAD's PHIL DEMMEL "WE'RE NOT A POLITICAL BAND BY ANY MEANS"
Recently Brandon Weiss of The Triangle Online conducted an interview with MACHINE HEAD guitarist Phil Demmel. Few excerpts are follow:
On the new album, "The Blackening":
"[It is] socially conscious album, more so than the previous records. There's a couple of political songs on [the record]. We're not a political band by any means, but that's the only common thread."
On the band's change in sound on the new CD:
"We're a different band. Originally, most of the last record — most of the main parts — was pretty much written when I joined … except for two or three songs. If you listen to those songs, you see what I contributed to, and the direction that we're going here. I follow Dave [McClain, drummer] a little bit longer; [the songs are] a lot more dynamic in structure. You'll be introduced to some more intricate riffing; we kind of just moved toward large ends and stuff like that."
On having fans come in and record a backup vocal part for the album:
"It was cool to have them be a part of what we were doing. That part of the song with chanting really needed key vocals. What better group of people than the people who are going out and supporting you, and buying the album, to give that opportunity to be a part of it?"
On the fact that the new album has already managed to make its way all over the Internet:
"It's important to note that it kind of is, in a sense, to our advantage because the album is a great album. It's getting a pre-release buzz going. There are people that aren't going to buy CDs no matter what you do. I think this will definitely get people that are more on the fence about it to go toward making the purchase."
