INFOS : webzine@femmemetalwebzine.net
Webzine dedicated to the metal band fronted by girls. We also like ambient,darkwave,rock & electronic music.
INFOS : webzine@femmemetalwebzine.net
Webzine dedicated to the metal band fronted by girls. We also like ambient,darkwave,rock & electronic music.
Excellent news for who likes Tobias Sammet +Avantasia Official project - his longtime musical enemy AKA Arjen Anthony Lucassen from the Ayreon project confirmed to be one of the guest musician, click on the link below for read the statement…. (via ARJEN LUCASSEN To Guest On New AVANTASIA Album « Femme Metal Webzine)
(via NEWS: SHADOWSIDE To Support HELLOWEEN And GAMMA RAY In Europe « Femme Metal Webzine)
Interview by Robin Stryker
Amanda, a warm hello to you and a belly-rub to Blitz! Thank you for returning to Femme Metal for Somerville Part Deux.
Thanks so much! It’s nice of you to have me, and Blitz is pleased, as well.
We are thoroughly smitten with “Kiske - Somerville”, your new album with Michael Kiske. Duet albums are rare creatures in the world of metal. Who was the mastermind behind the idea of recording an entire album of duets?
Why, thank you; so am I! It was actually Serafino’s (of Frontiers Records) idea. It seems that Michael has the boss of a record company as a huge fan and a musician couldn’t wish for anything better, I suppose!
When and how did you first learn about the project? What was your reaction?
It was sometime in the spring of last year, I believe. Mat Sinner called and asked if I’d be interested in doing a duet album with Michael Kiske and I was very flattered that I was on their list of prospective singers. I thought it would be great to finally be able to work and sing directly with Michael after a long time of kind of indirectly working with him on projects like Aina and Avantasia, so I was thrilled!
“Kiske/Somerville” has a stellar line-up of musicians. My doodle of who worked with whom and on what projects ended up looking like a diagram for a microchip. Would you introduce your cohorts, and tell us which of the gentlemen you have collaborated with before?
Certainly! Mat Sinner (Sinner, Primal Fear) was the creative mastermind behind the project as the producer and principal songwriter. I’d never worked with him before, but it was really a great experience because he’s very competent as a musician/producer/songwriter but he’s also a very laid back, nice guy. After we did the recordings, it went so well that he asked if I’d like to go on tour with him with another project he was overseeing called Rock Meets Classic and that was also a lot of fun.
Magnus Karlsson (Starbreaker, Primal Fear) did some great guitar work and songwriting for the album, as well. I’d never worked with him before this and haven’t had the chance to meet him in person yet, but I’m sure I will.
Jimmy Kresic (Voodoo Circle) co-wrote some songs and performed keyboards and did an excellent job. This guy is a freak, and I mean that very positively!! He was on the Rock Meets Classic tour with Matt and me and totally blows me away as a musician and as a person. He’s quite the character!
Martin Schmidt is a great drummer and all-around good person. It was in his studio that we recorded my vocals for the record and he did the engineering. He was also on the Rock Meets Classic tour and we had a blast together.
Sander Gommans and I had worked together already back in his After Forever days and he and I also did the HDK project together. We wrote 3 songs for the album and he also played some guitar parts on the project. He’s also quite a talented guy and has become an even better musician and songwriter since I first started working with him back in 2003.
Was this your first time working with Frontiers Records? Was it a good experience?
It wasn’t really my first time because I’d helped Oliver Hartmann out with a few things for his albums while he was still signed with Frontiers, though it was my first time being really involved with them. And yes, it’s been a very good experience.
Mat was originally slated to write the entire album but you and Sander ultimately wrote three of the tracks – “Arise”, “A Thousand Suns” and “Set Afire”. How did the switch come about?
After Mat had asked me to be a part of the project and sent me some songs, which I liked, I called him back to ask if there was any room for getting involved in the creative side of the music. He said they were open to ideas, so Sander and I got busy and wrote 4 songs for the album initially but one was too heavy on the metal side, so 3 made it onto the album, which is cool. I’m just as much a songwriter as I am a singer, so it was really great that I was able to add to the creative side of things on this album, as well. It makes my connection with the project even closer and more personal and it’s like my baby, too. :-)
Considering that you all live in different cities, what was the song writing and recording process like?
Well, I’m not sure how Mat, Magnus and Jimmy went about their songwriting and recording exactly but nowadays with the internet, it’s so much easier to collaborate from afar. I like to do my songwriting one on one, if at all possible, so Sander and I wrote and recorded the songs we did in his studio (Eternia) together in the Netherlands. Michael recorded his vocals in his own studio in Hamburg and I recorded with Mat and Martin in Martin’s Audiospezialist studio in Stuttgart.
A quick detour before getting back to the music. I laughed myself silly reading your recent twitter post: “You know you’ve made it when girls are taking their clothes off to your music. Yep. Strip clubs are playing my songs.” In your wildest imagination, did you ever think your music would be the soundtrack for the thong-and-stiletto set? As a public service to, errrmmm, stimulate the global economy, are there any particular tracks that really make those dollar bills and Euro notes fly?
Haha!!! I’d never really given it much thought, to be honest, although I always could picture “Get Me” in a movie soundtrack set to some sexy club scene. Once a couple years ago, a woman who gives lessons on how to strip actually asked me if she could use that song in an instructional video she was making, so that was already the start of it. Apparently, “Get Me”, “Inner Whore” (surprise on that one, eh? ;-) and “Out” are favorite choices.
The other completely random thing that caught my eye was the jingle you wrote and recorded for a swine flu vaccine. What was your inspiration while writing the song – rashers of bacon, piles of pork chops, endlessly watching the movie Babe? And where, oh where, can we get a hold of it?
Oh, man, this is funny! Yes, it was truly one of the weirdest things I’ve done in my career, but I still think it’s so cool. I mean, it was for a vaccine against this sickness that caused diarrhea in pigs and the ad campaign had a huge pic of a little pink pig butt. How hilarious is that? I’m extremely silly, so I didn’t really need any big preparation for writing this but I’ll tell you what: it was the hardest singing job I had because I could not stop giggling while I was singing! And seriously - you cannot sing well when you’re laughing. As far as where you could find it, I really don’t know. Only my family (it was a huge hit with my nieces) and the company I did it for have it. Perhaps that’ll be a Somerville Rarity that I’ll include in some compilation at some point!
Okay, back to more serious things. The first single “Silence” and its music video were released on 20 August 2010. Why was this song chosen to introduce fans to “Kiske/Somerville”?
I think it’s a great song but it’s also a good “middle road” pick to sum up what people can expect from the album. It’s one of my favorites that I didn’t write.
It was interesting to read that, despite having worked on albums together previously, you and Michael met for the first time while shooting the videos for “Silence” and “If I Had a Wish”. How was it to finally meet him in person?Links
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Label : Limb Music
Review by Tony Cannella
Italy’s Ancient Bards issued their debut album “Alliance of the Kings” in 2010 and caused quite a positive impression in Symphonic Power Metal circles, now the band returns with their second effort “Soulless Child”. The band has drawn favorable comparisons to Rhapsody of Fire and bands of that ilk. Their lyrical subject matter stays in the realm of fantasy and musically they still command quite a presence with their fast paced, up-tempo sound. Oh yeah, there’s the singer Sara Squadrani – who in my opinion is one of the best of the new breed of femme metal vocalists - She sounds as good as she did on the first album. After the intro “Struggle for Life”, Ancient Bards absolutely tear into the 7 ½ minute “To the Master of Darkness”. With their up-tempo power metal sound intact, Sara’s vocals soar and those elements combined gets “Soulless Child” off to a dominant start. After a symphony laced intro, “Gates of Noland” picks right up where the previous song left off, with a catchy chorus and a memorable melody. Musically and lyrically “Soulless Child” picks up where “Alliance of the Kings” left off. The speed riffing and blast drums introduce the next song “Broken Illusion”. Other highlights include: “Valiant Ride”, the 9-minute “Soulless Child”, “Through My Veins” and the 14 ½ powerhouse of an epic “Hope Dies Last” which closes the album. This song has enough tempo changes to insure that it never becomes boring and I can’t think of a better way to end “Soulless Child”. I really liked their debut album and “Soulless Child” continues in the same vein. Fans of Blind Guardian, the aforementioned Rhapsody of Fire and “Keepers” era Helloween should definitely give Ancient Bards a listen and enter their epic, fantastical world of “Soulless Child”.
Rating - 86/100
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Label : Frontiers Records
Review by Tony Cannella
“Kiske/Somerville” is the long awaited collaboration between (ex-Helloween vocalist) Michael Kiske and Amanda Somerville. When two ultra talented singers come together it has the potential to be obviously very good. I’m happy to say that Michael Kiske and Amanda Somerville have hit a bull’s-eye. First of all, Michael Kiske has always been one of my favorite singers and to pair him with such a great female voice, like Amanda Somerville, is a “can’t miss” event. The songs run the gamut of blazing, guitar oriented hard rock, to symphonic rock, to some truly, melodic and catchy numbers. The opening song, “Nothing Left to Say” even has a “Keepers…” era Helloween vibe to it and gets the CD off to a great beginning. “Silence” follows that up and is the video track for the CD. “A Thousand Suns” is a great mid-tempo, ballad track that sees both Kiske and Somerville singing their hearts out. “Rain” is a bouncy up-tempo number. On this 12-song, 53-minute release, the vocals are split pretty evenly between the two singers as they duet on all of the songs. Other highlights include: “If I Had a Wish”, “Arise”, “End of the Road” and “Devil in Her Heart”. You cannot discount the contributions of some of the other musicians, who helped in the creation of this CD, people like Mat Sinner of Primal Fear, Magnus Karlsson and ex-After Forever guitarist Sander Gommans. On “Kiske/Somerville” two great singers have come together to create an excellent piece of work. It remains to be seen if this just a one off, or we will see more music from this duo. Whatever the case, if this is just a one shot deal, “Kiske/Somerville” has left us with a pretty good album. The song writing, musicianship and vocals are inspired all the way through!
Rating – 90/100
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Label : Frontiers Records
Review by Tony Cannella
Issa is the name of a 26 year old vocalist from Norway. She plays hook laden, arena ready Melodic Rock and has just released her debut “Sign of Angels” via the Frontiers label. On “Sign of Angels”, Issa was helped out by some big names in the world of metal. Ronny Milianowicz of Saint Deamon was the producer and Helloween drummer Uli Kusch lent his considerable talents on drums and add in the impressive vocals of Issa and you get 12-songs and 47-minutes worth of extremely catchy, big sounding melodic rock. The opener “Angels Crying” shows you exactly what to expect from this point on. The vibe is up-tempo, and kind of happy sounding. “I’m Alive” keeps the hard rocking pace going, before giving way to the first ballad, “Give Me a Sign”. Next is “River of Love” another up-tempo number, which is followed by the mid-tempo, “What Can I Do”. Other highlights include: “Closer”, “Flying High” and “Following Angel”. There is something extremely like-able and endearing about this CD. Maybe, it’s because it is impossible to be sad or angry while listening to “Sign of Angels”, there is an upbeat, positive vibe running through the songs. With “Sign of Angels”, Issa has produced a solid hard rock record and one that should appeal to fans who love their music with a lot of melody.
Rating - 83/100
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Label : Fono LTD
Review by Tony Cannella
From Russia, Ghosthill plays great, straight-ahead heavy metal. Their debut album is titled “Embrace of a Chasm” and their style is along the lines of Crystal Viper, Germany’s Backslash or even going back a few years (okay, more than a few) classic Warlock. Not a bad lot to be compared too, but Ghosthill also puts their own stamp on things and delivers a powerful debut. The intro “A Billion Years of Torments” segues into the bouncy, “Keepers” era Helloween vibe of “The Last Dimension”. This song also features its share of crunchy, headbanging parts and Mira’s strong vocals; at times she reminds me of Marta from Crystal Viper or Heike from BackSlash. “Cyclonic Death” keeps up the frenetic energy and pace, with some cool riffing and guitar leads. “The Mist” is up next and has a dark, eerie feeling to it. Some cool sounding keyboards and mixing different tempos drives this number, and helps to make it an instant favorite, and shows that Ghosthill are capable of more than just headbanging music. If the band ever does a video, I vote for “The Mist”. The pretty sounding piano starts off the ballad “Silent Night”, before the rest of the band joins in and helps to make this song an effective ballad. You prefer the heavy stuff? Fear not. The band picks up the pace once again with the almost thrashy “Titanic Heroes”. Ghosthill returns to a darker vibe on the next track “Down the Dark River”. This is just a beautifully melodic track that is hands down my favorite. The classic European metal style of the title song is next. The final two tracks “Stronger Than Fire” and “Vigilant Forest” brings the album to a monstrous conclusion. Overall, I loved “Embrace of a Chasm” by Ghosthill. It is great to hear a band like Ghosthill, still flying the flag for traditional metal and playing the music that they love with such energy, power and conviction. “Embrace of a Chasm” is one of my favorite albums to come out in 2010 and Ghosthill is a band that I eagerly await to hear more music from in the future.
Rating - 93/100
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Label : Limb Music
Review By Tony Cannella
Make no mistake about it, Italy’s Ancient Bards are a Power Metal band, plain and simple. With their ambitiously crafted “The Alliance of the Kings” the band set out to tell the story of “The Black Crystal Sword Saga” and this is only part 1. The band have drawn favorable comparisons to fellow countrymen Rhapsody, but I also hear some similarities to “Keepers…” era Helloween and maybe a little bit of Manowar with their big choir-like choruses. The thing that sets them a part, obviously are the female vocals provided by the talented Sara Squadrani as her vocals soar along with the fast paced, up-tempo metal that is being displayed by the band members. “The Alliance of the Kings” features 10-songs and 58-minutes worth of great, conceptual Power Metal the features it’s share of epic numbers, as well as symphony inspired musical parts, big choir-like choruses and intricate musicianship.The opening intro track “Prelude” sets the table for the story that will be told, it is a narrative piece that features some classical backing music and leads into “The Birth of Evil” (which the band also filmed a video for - you can check it out on their my space profile).The vocals of Sara Squadrani are energetic and fits right in their with the music. “Four Magic Elements”, “Only the Brave” and “Frozen Mind” keep the story moving right along. Other highlights include: “Lode al Padre”, the epic “Daltor the Dragonhunter” and “Farewell My Hero” before the almost 9-minute “Faithful to Destiny” brings part 1 of “The Black Crystal Sword Saga” to it’s conclusion. “The Alliance of the Kings” is a gloriously majestic Power Metal epic that I am sure will become a welcomed edition to any self respecting fan of the genre. Hopefully Ancient Bards have more stories to be told in the future. Can’t wait for part 2!
Rating - 90/100
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Label : Inferno Records
Review By Tony Cannella
From Bulgaria, Rampart are a band that play no-nonsense, pure, true heavy metal à la early Warlock, Crystal Viper and Running Wild. With their debut release “Voice of the Wilderness” the band features 9-songs and 42-minutes worth of passionate and powerful metal with an energy and enthusiasm that is quite contagious. The opening number “Under Control” proceeds to get things off to a rousing and headbanging beginning. Track 2 “Warriors” starts off slow in tempo, but soon shifts gear into just a great straight-forward metal track with some cool vocals put down by Maria, with her voice reminding me a bit of Kai Hansen from his early Helloween days, this song also features a cool chant along style chorus. I would never say that the songs on “Voice of the Wilderness” are dated, but they provoke memories of metal as it was from about 1981-‘84, when I was just getting into bands like Accept, Saxon, Manowar and the aforementioned Warlock and Running Wild, the material on this CD has that same feeling and vibe flowing through the songs. The songs feature some crisp and clean guitar work from the duel axe attack of Yavor and Victor, the leads are especially impressive and one of the best things about the material on this CD. This is a pretty powerful CD for the most part, as songs like, “Voice of the Wilderness”, “The Flood” and the powerhouse closing number “Stay Aside” will attest to. Maybe Rampart won’t appeal to the nu-metal crowd or to fans who just jump from trend-to-trend, but for those of us who miss the denim and leather days of the early to mid-80s, than “Voice of the Wilderness” will no doubt become a welcome addition to our collection. It is always great when a band plays what they want and doesn’t bow down to the trends of a certain period or time and for that reason, I will always have a soft spot in my heart for a band like Rampart. In my opinion, this style of metal will always be timeless.
Rating - 90/100
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Label : Red Rivet Records
Review By Tony Cannella
The Spanish band Quelonio were originally founded way back in 1996. After numerous line-up changes that saw several members come-and-go, their current line-up was completed in 2008 when Teresa Broseta joined the band as their new vocalist. With the addition of their new vocalist Quelonio were allowed to put the finishing touches on their second full-length release (their first was released in 2002), titled “Vicio y Virtud”. The music that can be found on “Vicio y Virtud” is melodic power metal, with the strong female vocals of Teresa out front and some great melodic moments. Album opener “Dame Placer” simply blasts through the speakers. A great opener that showcases the great talent of this band. The first thing that you’ll notice about Quelonio is the fact that all of the lyrics are sung in Spanish. Great music is universal and Quelonio are living proof of this, as the songs are just so well crafted with a definite emphasis on heavy riffs and melody. “Ave Fenix” is another song that packed a lot of power into the almost 6-minute duration of this track. The title song has a definite classic power metal aura surrounding it and is another highlight - it kind of reminds me of “Keepers…” era Helloween. The whole thing is pretty consistent and there is really nothing that bogs down the flow of the CD, other songs that are proof of this fact are: “V”, “El Grito de la Realidad” and the epic “Cima de la Eternidad”. I really liked this CD. There is a lot of musical diversity contained on “Vicio y Virtud” and plenty of virtuosic moments as all of the musicians are very accomplished in their own way. The fact that all of the lyrics are in Spanish is in no way a hindrance to the overall enjoyment of the CD, it only enhances it and adds to the overall experience of this great CD.
Rating - 90/100
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