Hugo Flores & Jessica Lehto – Factory of Dreams

Interview by Ed MacLaren

Portugal’s Factory of Dreams is not a band to rest on its laurels. After releasing three consecutive prog-metal classics, producer/multi-instrumentalist Hugo Flores and vocalist Jessica Lehto may have surpassed them all with the sublime and sonic grandeur of “Some Kind of Poetic Destruction”. An epic concept album of the highest caliber, “Some Kind of Poetic Destruction” weaves effortlessly between soaring melodies and savage riffs, tearing at the fabric of its musical universe with searing solos and breathtaking vocals. Hugo and Jessica took some time to talk to Femme Metal Webzine about the remarkable concept and development of “Some Kind of Poetic Destruction”, how to out-epic an epic album and the strange and fascinating impact of lip piercings.

Jessica: I’m thrilled that you think so! Hugo has written such excellent music for this album. Of course that goes for all albums, but this is my favourite release so far. Every single track on “Some Kind of Poetic Destruction” has that special something, a nice atmosphere, lovely instrumentation and an interesting story to tell. Continue reading »

Epysode – “Obsession” (2011)

Label : AFM Records

Review by Tony Cannella

Fans of Progressive Power Metal rejoice! The new project from Virus IV guitarist Samuel Arkan is here and he is joined by an outstanding array of talented musicians for the debut of Epysode titled “Obsessions”. For 14-songs, totaling about an hour’s worth of music, the listener is drawn into a conceptual story (which sounds like it would make a killer movie) with each singer playing a role as the story unfolds throughout the album. After the opening intro of “File 4180-1″ the next track “Silences of Dawn (Poetry)” is a beautiful minute-and-a-half piano peace featuring the vocals of Valentine and Dial frontwoman Liselotte Hegt as this segues into the majestic “First Blood”. This is a multi-faceted dramatic track featuring some cool interplay between all of the vocalists on the album, Kelly Sundown Carpenter (Beyond Twilight), Oddleif Stensland (Communic), Magali Luyten (Virus IV), Hegt and Rick Altzi (At Vance, Thunderstone) all turn in epic performances. From there the album moves forward with a lot of momentum on the equally awesome “Obsessions” featuring some more great vocal work performed by Carpenter and Luyten. “Invisible Nations” is next and features a melodic up-tempo atmosphere with Carpenter and Altzi once again taking the lead role in the vocal department. I must say, the chemistry between the two is breathtaking. This song also includes a pretty cool prog rock style keyboard section in the middle. The next track “Gemini Syndrome” – with Liselotte Hegt and Kelly Sundown taking the lead – is a beautiful piano dominated ballad that allows the listener to catch their breath before the crushing riff of “Fallen’s Portrait” should get those heads banging once again. Other highlights: “Season of Redemption”, “The Other Side”, “One Chance” , “Divine Whispers” but I could on. There is no doubt that Samuel Arkan from Virus IV is the creative force behind this project; he wrote the music, lyrics, story and produced, but he has also surrounded himself with some top-notch talent who also put their unique stamps on “Obsessions”. Doing a concept album on this grand a scale can be quite risky and the possibility exists that it could be viewed as hokey or cheesy, but thankfully Samuel Arkan and the rest of the stellar cast put a lot of care, effort and thought into Epysode. For a concept album this ambitious, “Obsessions” never comes off as overblown or overdone, it strikes the right balance between music and drama which is one of the best things about it.

Rating – 90/100

Tracklist

1. File 4180-1
2. Silences of Dawn (Poetry)
3. First Blood
4. Obsessions
5. Invisible Nations
6. Gemini Syndrome
7. Fallen’s Portrait
8. Season of Redemption
9. The Other SideShadow LordOne Chance
10. Divine WhispersMarch of the Ghosts
11. Last Sunset

Line Up

The Cast

• Kelly Sundown Carpenter – Kallon (The Profiler)
• Magali Luyten – Esh (The Soul)
• Oddleif Stensland – Yae (The Fallen / Killer)
• Liselotte Lilo Hegt – Valma (The Medium)
• Rick Altzi – Maymos (The Ghost)
• Michael – Shawn (The Child)

The Musicians

• Samuel Arkan – All guitars on the album (electric and acoustic)
• Christophe Godin – Guitar solos
• Kristoffer Gildenlöw – Bass
• Léo Margarit – Drums
• Julien Spreutels – Keyboards and piano

Links

MySpace * ReverbNation * Facebook * Twitter * Site

Interview : Magali Luyten – Virus IV

 Interview by Connie Bach

Virus IV is pure, solid, razor-sharp metal.  No axes, just swords for this band; and it is an excellent sound.  “Frightening Lanes” from the album “Dark Sun” is featured on the upcoming compilation, “Beauty and Brutality”.

Hi, Magali. We appreciate the contribution Virus IV had made to the compilation.

It’s our pleasure, thanks to Femme Metal for asking us to be part it !
 
Can you tell me a little about your history, with Beautiful Sin and other musical projects?

I got my first band when I was about 15 years old playing keyboards. One of my biggest musical meetings has been Samuel Arkan because he’s the one who encouraged me to start singing! We’ve had lots of different projects together in the past and still are a powerteam with our band Virus IV or more recently on our work for his concept album Samuel Arkan’s Origins (www.origins-nation.com). Beside of this, Ayreon or Beautiful Sin have been both wonderful experience too, just to name a few. I’m very honnored that I could work with such talents as Arjen Lucassen or Uli Kusch.

How did you become a vocal coach? What kind of instruction do you ofer and what kind of students come to you?

I started to give voice lessons about 8 years ago, actually because people asked me to… I enjoyed to help them improve and quickly felt the need to study vocal theory myself to keep on becoming a good teacher.With time and experience I’ve specialized in strengthening the voice, working on power and vocal timbre. Most of my students are into rock or metal music and very often have their own band which makes it even more interesting. I mostly give private individual lessons in Belgium and for those who live too far, we meet on Skype, works great !

Would you consider your current path as a vocalist a career, a hobby, a calling, etc? 

It’s a career and a hobby all at once to me. Not sure about the calling.. who am I to say it… But I believe there’s something magical about reaching people with a music or voice. It’s a quiet intimate relationship that we share with the listeners…. priceless feeling actually !

What about the stories behind the other band members? 

We all have roots and start from somewhere. Sam wrote and recorded with different bands. He actually contributed on the Beautiful Sin album for the bonus tracks of Europe and Japan. We’ve been working together for a long time. As I mentionned before, he’s recently recorded his concept album Origins with Kristoffer Gildenlow (Dial, Pain of Salvation), Kelly Sundown (Beyond Twilight, Outworld), Rick Altzi (At Vance, Thunderstone)… big time… but more about it soon… Renaut has been involved in bands like Vhan, Virtual or Spirittales. We’ve had played together in the past too, before we decided to gather again in Virus IV. Sam and Renaut are really complentary in their guitarplaying, when one goes rhytmic, the other becomes melodic and vice versa… François (Boom) was a member of Dyslesia for over 15 years. He toured with bands like Stratovarius, Rage, Elegy, Iron Maiden, Helloween or Symphony X… And last but not least, Christophe joined us a bit later. He and Boom are such a powerful rythm section. Chris is also member of Headline & Eradicate. Actually it’s hard to resume their each of their story… you can imagine it holds much more than that…!! We all have metal in common but with very different tastes beside of it… which makes our music quiet interesting I think…

How did Virus IV come into existence and what has the band’s path to success been like? How did“Dark Sun” and the public’s response, feed into the band’s future goals? 

Turning to “Dark Sun” itself, how was the album “born” and did it grow into what you intended? 
Sam is the investigator of Virus IV and as we already were a team, I naturally joined him to become its leadsinger. After we had played in a progressive power metal band, we just wanted to do a more straight kind of music. Renaut joined at first on bass and François on the drums. We wanted to avoide all complicated structures or rythms with the album ”Dark Sun” as a result. We’ve played a couple of gigs and realized how much we wanted to have a second guitar on stage. That’s how we’ve found Christophe and how Renaut could exchange his place from being bassplayer to guitarist again. We ended up with the best formula ever wanted for Virus IV. The album has been gently welcomed by our fans and highly reviewed. The next album deserves a much better production though. We also intend to go back to our progressive power metal roots on the new compositions…

The corus of “Frightening Lanes” runs “…let me be your eyes at night. Let us just be one for a moment, for a while”; impressive lyrics. Where did the idea behind “Frightening Lanes” come from? Why did the band choose to offer that song in particular?

Well… imagine that fear could talk to you… it would let you know how powerful it can be when you make it our ally through life. We’ve chosen “Frightening Lanes” to be on Femme Metal Compilation, as this song represents most what Virus IV‘s music is all about.

“Dark Sun” seems to be a little bit of an oxymoron. What is the story behind the title track?

Exactly…. We love to keep a little part of mystery behind our lyrics. I like lyrics to hold something when it’s about interpretating them myself…  We like to give our listeners the freedom to give a sense to the lyrics the way they feel for it. And talking about the band’s name, what we loved about it is that it relates to something negative that nobody wants… a virus !! But the “Virus 4″ can actually heal people when it’s scientifically treated. Means there’s always something good to get out of negative stuff, even where you wouldn’t expect it !

Moving on, what influences Virus IV‘s sound as far as music, culture, band members’ various life experiences, etc?

We all have our own various influences. I could make a long list of inspiring bands… as long as the music is good, if there’s groove,  emotion… if the feeling is right, it can be any style but we all gather in metal for sure !! Metal is the law, power above any others !

Where is Virus IV headed? Where do you picture Virus IV, as well as your own personal goals?

What’s typical about Virus IV is that we all decided as a band to take the right time to build something solid. More and more people heard about the virus… and we have a daily growing fanbase who help us infect the world with our music  Our goals are to bring out a powerful next album and play as much as we can in the future to share it all on stage, big time always !!

Only one more, and I would really like your input on this as well as the other band members. What value can be placed on a single lyric, or a chord on a guitar, or the beat of a song?

I don’t mean in the physical sense, although that is part of it.  What power can these things hold? This is all very personal… It really depends on our sensibility and life experiences. Music is borderless. It can be understood by everyone around the world and is a healer of the mind.

Magali, thanks for your time. I have to say, I was watching online and you offer one powerful show. 

I look forward to more.Thank you Connie, I loved your questions. We hope to come overboard for a Virus IV show in the UK in a near future ! We could have a little beer together after the show, looking forward to it

Links

Virus IV : MySpace * Facebook * Site

Magali Luyten : MySpace * Twitter * ReverbNation

Latest Multimedia

Ethernity – “Broken Memories” DEMO (2010)

Independent Release

Review By Tony Cannella

From Belgium, Ethernity play progressive power metal. Their latest output is the 2-song demo “Broken Memories”. Even though there are only 2-songs and 13-minutes worth of music contained here, it gives a perfect indication where this awesome band is headed musically. Ethernity’s last demo, “Quest of Forgiveness” was released in 2008. Sadly, this one only features 2-songs in comparison to the 8 that were represented on “Quest of Forgiveness”. Still, the band absolutely tear through the two songs, beginning with the opening title track and then ending with “Quest of Forgiveness” originally heard on their last one. The track “Broken Memories” is the more mid-tempo and symphonic of the two, while “Quest of Forgiveness” is a fast paced closer. Both tracks features some great guitar work and vocalist Julie Colin continues to be a solid voice for this band. The songs on “Broken Memories” continue in the vein set forth by Ethernity’s previous works. That’s alright by me. It would be nice to see some label step up to the plate and sign this excellent band.

Rating – 86/100

Tracklist

1. Broken Memories
2. Quest of Forgiveness

Line Up

• Julie Colin – Vocals
• Gregory Discenza – Guitar
• Thomas Henry – Guitar
• Julien Spreutels – Keyboards
• Francois Spreutels – Bass
• Nicolas Spreutels – Drums

Links

MySpace * Facebook * Twitter * Site

Ethernity – “Quest of Forgiviness” EP (2008)

Independent Release

Review by Tony Cannella

Ethernity is a female fronted power metal band from Belgium. There has been a positive buzz circulating around the Internet for a number of years and after listening to their new demo “Quest of Forgiveness” I am beginning to see what all the fuss is about. First let’s get into the introductions. The band line-up looks like this: Julie Colin (Vocals), Julien Spreutels (Keyboards), Nicolas Spreutels (Drums), Gregory Discenza (Lead Guitar), Francois Spreutels (Bass) and Thomas Henry (Guitar) rounds out the band. “Quest of Forgiveness” is a release that was made by the band using their own means and the band plans to re-record the songs for their next studio album, so not much focus should be spent on the production. Having said all that, the quality of the production is not bad at all and it takes absolutely nothing away from the songs and the strength of the material.The frenetic riff of “Shadows On the Wall” opens the CD. This is a high energy up-tempo song that is the perfect way to start the CD. When singer Julie Colin joins in the song really takes flight. Her voice soars and she has a great voice that is a perfect compliment to the classy metal that is being played. Add in the excellent guitar solo by Gregory Discenza and beautiful interplay between guitars and keyboards and you have a solid opening track. The next track “Alone” starts off slowly before settling into a nice mid-tempo number on the back of a rock solid guitar riff. Julie turns in another fine performance on the vocals as she proves that she can do more than just the classic wailing style of metal singing. She is a technically proficient singer that can do different styles. This is one of the songs that really stand out for me. I especially like the way the keyboards are used on this CD. They don’t overwhelm anything and they are perfect enhancements to the song. Keyboardist Julien Spreutels does a really great job. Next up is “Angels Are Calling”. This song begins with another powerful guitar riff and it is more of an up-tempo song than the previous track. It has a great chorus that you can imagine a packed hall full of fans singing along to. The back and forth between the guitar and keyboards make this another definite highlight. “Your Darkest Hour” is another change of pace for the band. Beginning with drums, bass and then the guitars and keyboards join in. It starts off as a slower number before speeding up a bit and just settling into a solid mid-tempo tune. The music and keyboards give this one an orchestral vibe. “Back to Life” keeps things well on track. The next song “New Horizon” is a beautiful mid-tempo number and another huge highlight for me. The next track is the classical influenced instrumental “Ex Dominatus Ad Liberatio”. It is a beautiful piece that sounds just so huge. “Quest Of Forgiveness” brings the CD to a close on a bombastic note, bringing things around full circle. A fine way to end things. To these ears Ethernity are a band that are on the verge of really making a name for themselves in the realm of power metal. Hopefully with the proper support and backing from a label, the band will make that happen. Ethernity are the type of band that I have been waiting for and from beginning to end “Quest of Forgiveness” is a solid release with beautiful melodies, cool guitar riffs, solos and strong vocals, I could go on and on, but ultimately it’s up to the listener and I am confident that the band will secure a size-able following once their next studio release is unleashed. I can’t wait to hear what they come up with next.

Rating: 90/100

Tracklist

1. Shadows on the Wall
2. Alone
3. Angels Are Calling
4. Your Darkest Hour
5. Back to Life
6. New Horizon
7. Ex Dominatus ad Liberatio
8. Quest of Forgiveness

Line Up

• Julie Colin – Vocals
• Gregory Discenza – Guitar
• Thomas Henry – Guitar
• Julien Spreutels – Keyboards
• Francois Spreutels – Bass
• Nicolas Spreutels – Drums

Links

MySpace * Facebook * Twitter * Site