Armonight – “Tales from the Heart” (2012)
Label : Ravenheart Music
Review by Tony Cannella
From Italy, the Gothic metal band Armonight formed in 2008. In 2011 their debut “Suffering and Passion” was released. The band has recently signed with Ravenheart Music and has unleashed their newest offering “Tales from the Heart”.
The narrative intro “Into The Deepest Dream” kicks things off and leads us into “With Your Knife”. Armonight also made a pretty cool looking video for this track, which can be viewed on You Tube or their official site. There is a lot to like about this band. The songs are melodic, accessible and vocalist Sy delivers her lines with a great deal of passion and emotion.
She is definitely not of the operatic variety; instead she stays in a mid-range style that compliments the music perfectly – which is always a huge plus. “Dancing With Ghosts” has an up-tempo, symphonic sound and would make a great choice for the second video, in my opinion. “Always By Your Side” starts of as a beautiful, piano dominated ballad before picking up the tempo and quickly becoming another favorite. Continue reading »
INTERVIEW: Maike Holzmann – Voices of Destiny
Interview by Ed MacLaren
Barely into their 20s, Germany’s Voices of Destiny has a musical maturity that belies their young years. With their shining debut, “From the Ashes”, Voices of Destiny is packed with massive chops and soaring vocals that match many of the premier symphonic metal bands you’re listening to right now. Vocalist Maike Holzmann joined Femme Metal to talk about the creation of “From the Ashes”.
Congratulations on the new album! With Massacre Records no less. How are you and the band enjoying the ride so far? The feedback must be excellent.
Working with Massacre and all the great people we met during the recording process is awesome. Of course, we got some positive reviews and comments on our homepage, but we can’t tell how often the album is sold by now. We will know better in a few weeks.
“From the Ashes” is a very multi-textured album that draws you in deeper each time you listen to it. There’s a lot of detail happening musically. What’s the key to maximizing the “From the Ashes” listening experience?Maybe just sitting down and listening to the album carefully and consciously. If you read the lyrics while listening this might also maximize the experience. You can interpret them and find out how they fit into your life.
What’s really impressive about “From the Ashes” is the number of potential singles: “Ray of Hope”, “Return from the Ashes”, “Apathy” and “All Eyes on Me” are all standout tracks. Each song on the album can stand on its own as well as a cohesive part of the whole album. Was that the band’s approach during the songwriting process?Yes, indeed. We didn’t write the album as a concept album. Some songs already existed for 2 years or longer. But we thought they’d fit the album as well. Every single song is good on its own but concerning the whole album they reach another level somehow.
INTERVIEW : Perseo Mazzoni & Daphne Romano – Lunocode (2011)
Interview by Si Smith
Perseo: We wanted a more personal and unique name for our band and as “Anima” was a very common name we decided to change it just before releasing the “Last Day of the Earth” EP. Lunocode is a wordplay about “Lunokhod” and “Code”. Lunokhod is the first rover to land on the moon and being radio controlled by man on Earth. I discovered that tiny rover during some personal researches I was doing on the internet and I liked the idea of this little probe exploring the unknown on another celestial body. The others too liked the idea and we started thinking about a good wordplay to transform “Lunokhod” in something more personal. In the end we found “Lunocode”, merging the Russian “Lunokhod” with the English “Code”. It sounds good and suggests something that has to do with Universe and Space, two themes that really fascinates us very much. The Russian word Lunokhod means “moon walker”. “Lunocode” could be translated in English to “lunar code” or something similar and makes me instantly think about the black monolith of “2001: A Space Odyssey”, as it was just found under the surface of the moon. Lunocode is a “new” word and has not a clear and unambiguous meaning but suggests a bunch of fascinating images and thoughts. This is the reason why we chose it: it’s a fascinating name with a strong personality and it’s definitely what we were searching for! A little curiosity: the fact that we started with Lunokhod, that is a Russian word (the machine was built by USSR), to create our monicker has something to do with our next FL too!
It is clear that the band members were friends for a long time before Lunocode ever existed. How does this affect the way the band works together as a whole? Does it come with its own problems?Daphne: I’m the last one arrived in the group. The boys have a deep friendship, strengthened in time and it has given me a pleasant sense of tranquillity since the first time I met them. They are kind and put me at my ease at personal and professional levels. This attitude, positive and constructive, is one of the things that creates the right climate to do music: it’s the ground where the expression of each personality can grow up and become more mature as a musician and as a person, through the exchange. Obviously, to be a friend means also clear honesty, then, we are free to say clearly what we think.
Perseo: I solely add that yes, we’re friends since a long time (I actually know Giordano since the early days in the nursery school so we really are friends of a lifetime, we went to school together and we live in the same little country, only a couple of kilometres divides my home from Giordano’s home and it’s really the same situation between Paride and Francesco…and Paride is my brother as well!), but we also have a common goal that goes under the name of “Lunocode” and we work together for the best for our band! So yes there are, have been and will be, here and there, some problems (and I think this is very normal for every band) but we’re strong and mature enough to rapidly solve them and our friendship is a great and unique support that helps us very much in every aspect of being together. Daphne inserted very well in the band and we’re really happy with her.
Cecilia Menghi handled the vocals on this album: Daphne, what is it like having into step into her shoes? What is your vocal background? How did you hook up with the band? (sorry, that’s a lot of questions in one, but we need to know!!)Daphne: Cecilia and me has a different singing style. She is more turned toward power metal, then, maybe, she was more at her ease than me in the old songs. My background include prog-rock, prog-metal and dark: my vocal style is oriented towards a very interpretative way. I love so much to play with dynamics like changes of vocal register and of volume. I love to feel the songs deeply in their meanings and give a special “dress” to each one. I think it’s not a question of value, but it’s a matter of feelings and of personal taste. I like to sing this way and it fits perfectly with the new style Lunocode decided to implement in future songs. How did I hook up with the band? Perseo and me meet the first time in Prato, at a rock concert, some time ago, accidentally. He was searching for a singer and then we started talking about this collaboration: it went very well just from the beginning!
The album teaser you put up on YouTube at the end of the last year began with some philosophical statements about “the need to find different meanings for the same old concepts”. How does your music reflect this concern?Perseo: I’m glad you watched the video on YouTube! “Last Day of the Earth” has a conceptual nature and the “basic theme” of the concept is about losing all the convictions and all the happiness after a tragic event. When this happens many and many questions arise in one’s mind and one could find himself searching new meanings for old concepts like pain, life, passion and, most important, death. This journey is described throughout the 4 songs composing the mini-concept and this is the reason for the statement you’ve seen on the teaser.
In 2011 the new album hit the stores. Since “Last Day of the Earth” is a type of concept album, could you tell us how the concept evolves through the main tracks?Perseo : “Last Day of the Earth” is a mini-concept album, as I said before and every song has a “job” to perform to carry forward the story behind the concept. This is made clear on the back cover of the CD-Rom version of the EP because in the tracklist each song has a “subtitle”. “Flow, My Tears”, for example is “Falling from Grace”, denoting the start of the journey: something has gone bad and we have lost certainties and convictions, everything is changed and we have no more a solid base for our life. “Universal Plan” is “transition”: after falling from grace one is generally sad and depressed and reflections start to get darker and darker and sad as well. But this is just a moment, a transition. In fact, during the song “Universal Plan”, we start from darkness but, at a certain point (I’m referring to the “special” section in the middle of the song, right after the solos) some “light” is shed upon the darkness: positive cosmic concepts are introduced (Carl Sagan, Fred Hoyle, Stephen Hawking and others are quoted here and at the end of the song with their beautiful statements about universe and man condition), something starts to evolve and the world can be re-read with different meanings for sad or happy facts of life in mind. This makes a person do the first step toward final salvation. The interesting thing is that everything happens in our minds: our approach to the Universe changes our life radically while the Universe remains the same at every moment. In “Heart of the World” (“Reflections of Autumn”, where is described the scene you can see on the cover of the cd, with the man and the tree: “I’m staring at the sunset in silence in this autumn evening, On the top of this hill sitting in the grass everything is whispering Infinity”) and “Silent Thoughts” (“Final Step (..?)”, where the concept ends…or starts again? J) this process continues and comes to an end…at least for the main character of the story, but I’ll let you interpret the end by yourselves! I don’t want to explain too much of the story ‘cause I think that, in this type of concept album, the listener should be able to build up his own vision and interpretation. What I described here are just the “basics”: in the album there is so much more and I will let you find it all!
Is the EP the beginnings of an upcoming full-length, or is it a stand-alone piece?Perseo: The EP “Last Day of the Earth” is really a stand-alone piece with its own character, story, sound, artwork and themes. It is not a preview of the FL, it’s just a “mini-concept” representing our debut!
Daphne: “Last Day of the Earth” is a “stand-alone” work, as you said. At the same time, we are working on a new EP and on a FL. The new EP will live an autonomous life with respect to the other two works, but will overlap with the FL. We’re going to enter the studio in summer and we hope to give birth to it in autumn. Surely, the FL will require more time. So, keep in touch with us!
Perseo: We’re a young band and we do essentially what we like to do with enthusiasm and passion. Rhapsody of Fire is a gigantic band with worldwide reputation and with many and many years of career: we watch them with great respect. Lunocode and Rhapsody are really different animals. Lunocode is basically just a small band but we’re very determined in doing what we do because we like it: we hope this is the key…doing just what we feel we have to do at our best!
Daphne: Maybe only in offering something simply different. It doesn’t mean better or worse, but only something else.
On the first main track, “Flow, My Tears”, Cecilia has to reach some quite high notes. Daphne, are you going to sing the songs as Cecilia did, or are we going to see a completely new interpretation of the songs?As I said before, I’ve got a different approach to the songs and my interpretation is something completely different. I will obviously maintain the melodies and arrangements but I will interpret them with my own sensibility.
“Universal Plan” contains many queries and thoughts about the meaning (or meaninglessness) of life. Do these reflect any particular spiritual or life beliefs of any band members or is it just a great lyrical subject?In “Universal Plan” lyrics starts with a quite “dark” image of someone under the rain reflecting about being a “nothing” in front of the vast Universe and about being just a “gear” without importance in the cosmic game of life and death. I can say this image is certainly a good lyrical subject but the truth is that all I’ve written in “Last Day of the Earth” is very autobiographic: I like to write about reflections that I do when I find myself alone and I use my time to think and think…and the Universe and the human condition really fascinate me. In “Last Day of the Earth” I wanted to share some thoughts of mine with people that listen to our music but I also wanted to try to drop a “seed” of peace, compassion and equality in the large World hoping that this seed could influence someone: also if it’s one person only I am just happy, because this means that the world has became just a little better. I’m an atheist and what I say is not, in any case, related to religion, I want to make it clear. But I think humankind has a natural spiritual side that is, when united with rationality and science, our real strength. To understand what I’m talking about when I say “spirituality” you can do a little experiment by yourself: search “pale blue dot” in google images and do a little research about this theme…surely you’ll get what I’m talking about if you listen to your feelings J
I see the song “Heart of the World” begins with a drum solo: nice one, Perseo!! Do you play the drums each time the same when you rehearse as a band, or is there room for “creative interpretation” within the tracks? Do you get much time to rehearse together?Thank you very much! I’m really happy I can say something about that drum solo: someone could hear a “quote” from a famous drum solo by Cozy Powell. Do you remember the solo Cozy does as an intro to the song “Stargazer” in the Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow album called “Rising”? The drum solo I do in “Heart of the World” is specifically composed to be a variant of THAT drum solo and it’s my tribute to one of my favourite drummers of all the time: Mr Cozy Powell! I love his rock-solid drumming and I wanted to pay tribute to such an inspiration for me. However the drum solo in “Heart of the World” is composed by two parts: the first is my tribute to Cozy, the second (starting when the guitars kicks in) is a much more subtle tribute to another drum legend and another of my top 3 favourite drummers: Mark Zonder of Fates Warning. The second part of the drum solo is freely inspired by the drum parts that Mark plays in the song “Pale Fire” by Fates Warning in the album “Inside Out”. Excuse me if I wanted to make public this tribute that I, with maximum respect, decided to pay to those great drummers…but it’s important for me! J To finally answer your question, as the drum solo is composed with this in mind, I usually play it the same every time and it’s the same for the majority of the other drum parts in the various songs even if there is, in some specific parts, enough room for interpretation and for having fun playing drums live. As a band we usually group together to rehearse 2 days a week and we group together in our studio another 1-2 days a week to write new material, to record demos, arrange new songs etc..normal band activity! J
It was quite brave to include a 9 minute ballad on such an EP! It seems at a listen that “Silent Thoughts” represents the end of the main part of the album, and the last track seems a bit different (not to mention short compared to the other songs). What was the intention of adding this acoustic track onto the end of the album?Yes, “Silent Thoughts” represents the end of the concept “Last Day of the Earth” (for this reason it’s a lengthy song) and “Invisible Tears” (Acoustic Version) is a so-called bonus track : Lunocode is our new monicker and the previous band monicker was Anima. With the monicker Anima we published a demo-cd, called “Birth” that contained 4 songs (I think you can find it online somewhere). The song that, in various reviews, was elected as the best song of the demo was “Invisible Tears” as so, in our debut EP, we wanted to put a reference to our past by adding, as a bonus track, an acoustic version of the best song of our old demo. We rearranged and reworked the song and put it at the end of our EP: I think it’s a good ending theme for the CD.
Daphne, no matter how great a band are musically, fans are often drawn to the front-person as a focal point for the band. Please tell us what kind of a person you are, and what are the things that interest you and make you happy?Daphne: Oh, I’m sociable and I love to laugh (Perseo can confirm it…maybe I’ve hit a new world record in knowing the largest number of quotes from sarcastic and demented films!). The things that make me feel happier are: sharing good moments with the people I love (especially in concerts), singing on stage with Lunocode and having the possibility to meet people with the band, to talk with them, to exchange opinions and emotions.
With such as strong musical opus behind you, are there any plans to bring the music to the live stage soon? If so, would it be limited to just Italy, or would you like to set your sights further afield?Perseo: Yes, we made our first show with Daphne in a small but beautiful pub called “Rock Highland” in Arezzo, Italy, last March (there is actually one video on YouTube) and we played “Heart of the World” and “Universal Plan” as well as some brand new songs. We’ll play in Rome at Pictures of Prog festival (April 23, 2011) and in Barletta (Bari, June 19, 2011) at A.Live Rock Festival : you can find all the updates on our social network profiles (we have Facebook, MySpace, Last.fm, ReverbNation, Twitter…search for us!). It would be really fantastic to play outside Italy but, as we’re working on a new EP and on our FL, we’re actually concentrating on studio work. In future, maybe, we’ll also travel outside Italy: we really hope so!
Finally, let me just give a big thank you from all at Femme Metal, and we wish you success with any new plans for Lunocode!!Daphne: Thank you so much for the occasion you gave us to talk about our experience to you and to people who read your great site. Bye!
Perseo: We thank you for this great interview and we hope you all stay connected with us because we have some news to share during next months! To all the readers interested in us: for everything about the band check www.lunocode.com. Thank you again and goodbye!
Links
MySpace * Facebook * Twitter * Google Plus * Site
Eerie Sounds Review : Rhys Marsh and the Autumn Ghost – “The Blue Hour” (2012)
Label : Termo Records/Better Place Recordings
Review by Luisa Mercier
Third release for the English Rhys Marsh and his big orchestra. Based in Norway, the band features members from a moltitude of other musical projects like The Irrepressibles, In Lingua Mortua, The Divine Comedy and many, many others. So influences are really varied and it is difficult to fit the music in just one genre. I would say that is Prog with Jazz, Ambient and Symphonic hints, so lovers of this kind of music should enjoy “The Blue Hour”. It is a record that should be listened in the quiet, at sundown. It is made of slow tempo songs with male and female vocals that entertwine. “Broken Light” is a perfect example. Expect long instrumental parts and a lot of brass and woodwinds, relaxing moments and a little bit of psychedelia. Definitely not a release for everyone, since listening to the album can result hard for a first time approach to such refined music, but lovers of this kind of music, will appreciate it for sure.
Rating – 70/100
Tracklist
- And I Wait
- Read the Cards
- The Movements of Our Last Farewell
- Broken Light
- Wooden Heart
- Further from the Truth
- The Place Where You Lay
- One More Moment
Line Up
- Rhys Marsh — Voice, guitars, piano, mellotron, pedal steel, organ, zither, & orchestrations
- Trude Eidtang — Vocals
- Jess Bryant — Vocals
- Åsa Börrefors — Vocals
- Nicklas Barker — Mellotron
- Lars Fredrik Frøislie — Chamberlin, hammond, moog, autoharp & celeste.
- Akira Rabelais — Electronics
- Timbre Cierpke — Concert Harp
- Gaute Storsve — Guitar
- Steve Honest — Pedal Steel
- Ketil Vestrum Einarsen — Flute.
- Mia Silvas — Flute
- Tuva Hatlelid Mortensen — Oboe
- Kirsti Jacobsen — Clarinet
- Henning Wien — Bass Clarinet
- Jørgen Vie — Bassoon
- Tetsuroh Konishi — Trumpet
- Hayden Powell — Trumpet
- Erik Johannessen — Trombone
- Kristoffer Lo — Tuba & flugabone
- Anna Giddey — Violin
- Charlie Stock — Viola
- Natalie Rozario — ‘Cello & orchestrations
- Jo Fougner Skaansar — Double & electric bass
- Francis Booth — Bass
- Andy Raeburn — Drums
- Takashi Mori — Drums
- Mattias Olsson — Drums, celeste, mellotron & orchestron.
- Iver Sandøy — Drums
- Martin Horntveth — Drums & orchestral percussion.
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Interview : Yaroslav Smirnoff & Tatiana Moskalenko – Lateless (2011)
Interview by Si Smith
Born on the streets of St Petersburg in 2007, this gothic incarnation of Russian musicality flies a unique flag amongst many of its fellow compatriates. With much Russian metal tending towards the folk and doom metal genres, it’s is refreshing to hear a gothic (?) band originating from this musically fertile area. Although as previously mentioned in a previous review, their music is slightly more up-beat than the average gothic release so we should not be hasty in pigeonholing these guys at all. Let us allow vocalist Tatiana and bassist Yaroslav to represent the band and explain for themselves….
First of all thanks so much for talking to us at Femme Metal and welcome from all at the webzine.
Yaroslav: Hi, thanks, delighted again for our conversation, already a lot of time has passed since our last interview, and a lot has changed.
So guys, your first release upon the music scene was the first EP “Breathe Again” which you put up on the internet for free download. How did you feel about the final product you had released at that time?
Yaroslav: No we did not have to release, we rerecorded in another studio and added
a different song. Now for the past times we look at it as an original stage of our development, many come to know us solely due to the EP.
I understand that you worked quite hard after this on promotion of your material, from radio airplay to interviews and ‘zine reviews. How difficult was it to promote other people’s interest in your work?
Yaroslav: We sent many copies of our EP to various journals, fanzines, Internet radio and concert agencies. But because of the quality of its implementation we did not get the result we wanted. In general, I must say that in Russia things are not predictable; because of this it is very difficult, and sometimes do not understand how to promote the group.
Tatiana: I guess it is always hard to introduce new things to the public. That`s why Yaroslav always does all things, connected with promotion.
Quite early on in your musical career you got to play alongside bands such as Amorphis and Norther. How do you prepare yourselves for playing alongside such heavyweight names?!
Yaroslav: Not to say that we are very prepared, it was a higher stage of our development. We opened their Russian tour. After that there were more performances throughout the year with Reflexion, Lovex and Throes of Dawn (also a group from Finland).
Your first EP rolled off the press in 2010, containing mainly the material from the first two EPs. Did the tracks change much over time as you prepared them for the new release? Or were they very much in their original form?
Yaroslav : All the songs from the first two EPs were rer-ecorded again in the studio, we worked on the first album with the sound produced, so the sound was different and much higher. Therefore, it received high praise from beating rated in one magazine even better at the time than the Leaves Eyes’ album. But I must say that our very first songs were sometimes naive, a kind of attempt at writing.
“Lateless” seems to have been a great success (our reviewer gave it 83/100). Did it open any specific doors for you? What was the initial reaction from fans and press?Yaroslav: As I wrote in the last response, it made a good impression. It showed that Russia can make a quality album, if you do everything right. Last time we interviewed you Nataly was singing with the band. How did the change to Tatiana take place? Yaroslav : Everything happened very smoothly, we knew that Nataly was to leave us because of her career at work, she moved to another city. Therefore, we started looking for her replacement. And with the new singer Tatiana, we recorded a single “Discover” and our last EP “Bless from the Heaven”.
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