Posts Tagged ‘ Demons & Wizards ’

Best of 2020: The Albums

Saying 2020 was not a great year for music is saying like there weren’t a lot of good heavy metal bands around in 1942. Technically true, but hardly the world’s biggest concern. As per usual, the music industry reacted in the dumbest way imaginable to a crisis – let’s postpone our releases and focus on live streams! – but if that was the biggest problem of these twelve months, the world would have had nearly 2 million additional inhabitants by the end of the year.

Having said that, it was not that hard to come up with a list of the year’s fifteen best releases this time around. Yes, I’m sticking with fifteen. No, I’m not so firm in my principles that I will not expand it to twenty again when I think the year warrants it. I just wanted to emphasize that there was plenty of new, interesting music to enjoy this year if you are open to it. The top 5 probably have made the top 5 in any given year.

Interestingly, this is the first time since I started this blog nine years ago that a European release tops the list two years in a row. Congratulations Rammstein and Dool! Before I start getting too cynical and deconstruct my opinions to the point of saying my reviews are not really worth anything, let’s move on to the list. And yes, I did just give my number one away already.

1. Dool – Summerland

Gothic rock without the self-pity. Atmosphere without sacrificing tight and recognizable songwriting. Dool’s gripping blend of gothic rock, post-punk and doom metal already overwhelmed me on their 2017 debut ‘Here Now, There Then’ and ‘Summerland’ is every bit as good. Nearly nine months after its release, I still have not figured out whether I like ‘Summerland’ more than the debut, but that only serves as a confirmation of both the albums’ immense qualities. ‘Summerland’ contains slightly less doom metal, but is so full of excellent dark songs with memorable melodies that it hardly matters. The arrangements, and the amazing guitar tapestries in particular, are excellent as well. In my original review, I said that ‘Summerland’ might just be the best goth-ish album since Fields Of The Nephilim’s ‘Elizium’ and I still stand by that statement. Also, many bands in this style only have one excellent album. Dool already has two out of two now!

Recommended tracks: ‘God Particle’, ‘Sulphur & Starlight’, ‘Summerland’

2. Triptykon with the Metropole Orkest – Requiem

While I don’t want to make a habit of including live albums in a list intended for studio albums, ‘Requiem’ is not just any live album. This is the complete ‘Requiem’ suite which was started by Celtic Frost in 1987, continued in 2006 and now finished by Triptykon in 2020. ‘Grave Eternal’, the second part of the suite, was not played in any shape or form before or since, which means nearly two thirds of the album’s length consists of new material. In my review I likened it to the final movement of Mahler’s ninth symphony as interpreted by a doom metal band with an unconventional orchestra. There is a surprising amount of elegance to be found between the monolithic doom riffs, but the overall sound is dark and almost oppressively bleak. And I love it for that. Just like the new Dool album, ‘Requiem’ is simply a must-hear for fans of dark music. Not an easy listen, but a masterpiece if you give it the time it deserves.

Recommended tracks: ‘Grave Eternal’

3. Apocalyptica – Cell-0

Full disclosure: I thought Apocalyptica struck gold by writing original material and adding drums to their music, only to have that gold wasted by adding vocals. So when it was announced that ‘Cell-0’ would be a fully instrumental album, that made me hopeful that it would be their first fantastic album since 2003’s ‘Reflections’. The anticipation only grew when I heard the cinematic scope of the first songs that surfaced. ‘Cell-0’ does not disappoint. It is not ‘Reflections’ part two, however. Where Apocalyptica used to extensively run their cellos through distortion pedals and similar effects, the natural, acoustic sound of the cello is predominant on the album. I love the melancholy of the compositions, as well as the very thought-out arrangements. Through the years, I have commended Apocalyptica for their constant innovation, but I would not mind if they would explore this style a little longer.

Recommended tracks: ‘Call My Name’, ‘Cell-0’, ‘Ashes Of The Modern World’

4. Hibiki – Hands Of Providence

In a way, ‘Hands Of Providence’ is a somewhat atypical solo album for a bassist. Sure, there is a track that highlights hibiki’s immense qualities on the instrument (‘Observing Inner Space’), but if there is one thing front and center on ‘Hands Of Providence’, it would be hibiki’s incredibly keen sense of melody. The first half of ‘Hands Of Providence’ is full of beautiful neoclassical power metal tracks that are somewhat reminiscent of old Concerto Moon, just tons better than what Concerto Moon doing these days, while the second half has its focus slightly shifting towards melodic J-rock and visual kei without the record sounding disjointed at all. And if that wasn’t cool enough, it has Yoko Kubota (ex-Saber Tiger) singing. Despite being one of Japan’s most in-demand bass virtuosos, ‘Hands Of Providence’ proves that there’s one thing hibiki does even better than playing bass and that is writing songs that, despite their complexity, are highly memorable.

Recommended tracks: ‘Inside The Scream’, ‘Sonic Divine’, ‘Enter Eternity’

5. Lovebites – Electric Pentagram

While Lovebites’ sophomore album ‘Clockwork Immortality’ was notably more melodic than their incredible debut ‘Awakening From Abyss’, ‘Electric Pentagram’ is significantly heavier. At first, it felt like a bit of an overcorrection, but after giving ‘Electric Pentagram’ a few spins and the strengths of the fantastic songs sank in, I cannot conclude differently than that it is another quality European-styled power metal album. The album excels at its extremes; the intense borderline thrash metal of ‘Thunder Vengeance’ and ‘Set The World On Fire’ on one side, the elegant, dramatic majesty of ‘A Frozen Serenade’ on the other. My only issues with the album are minor productional things. This year’s ‘Five Of A Kind’ live release proved that the songs sound even better with the keyboards lower in the mix and the Finnvox mastering job is kind of exhausting to listen to for 70 minutes straight. Apart from that, I can’t see any reason for fans of heavily guitar-oriented power metal to not enjoy ‘Electric Pentagram’.

Recommended tracks: ‘A Frozen Serenade’, ‘Thunder Vengeance’, ‘Set The World On Fire’

6. X.Y.Z.→A – Wonderful Life

Hideous cover aside, ‘Wonderful Life’ was probably the most pleasant musical surprise of 2020. Of course, the presence of Fumihiko Kitsutaka made me aware of X.Y.Z.→A, though their albums tend to be fun, but inessential to me. ‘Wonderful Life’ is absolutely essential. Kitsutaka and drummer Funky Sueyoshi can write some of the best melodic hardrock and heavy metal released these days and they seem to be willing to bring the best out of Minoru Niihara’s worn vocal cords. There isn’t a single song on ‘Wonderful Life’ not worth hearing, which makes it a giant leap forward from their earlier albums, which are good, but inconsistent. Every single song on ‘Wonderful Life’ has fun, memorable hooks and of course, loads of fantastic guitar work – we are dealing with Fumihiko Kitsutaka after all. There is something delightfully unpretentious about the album, which made it one of the most enjoyable listening experiences of the year for me.

Recommended tracks: ‘Yusha Wo Tataeru Kane’, ‘Shijo No Takera’, ‘Here You Go!’

7. My Dying Bride – The Ghost Of Orion

Another pleasant surprise. Due to my love of dark music, I have always appreciated My Dying Bride, but I generally found sitting through an entire album somewhat exhausting. ‘The Ghost Of Orion’ instantly became one of my favorite My Dying Bride records, however. It strips back the gothic overtones from everything but Aaron Stainthorpe’s vocals and is built completely upon Andrew Craighan’s mournful doom metal riffs, often beautifully harmonized. Sustained single notes hardly ever sound as dynamic as on ‘The Ghost Of Orion’ and the production goes a long way in making the album sound as immersive, yet oppressive as it is. Stainthorpe, meanwhile, delivers his best recorded performance to date. His daughter’s health situation clearly influenced his work on the album – ‘Tired Of Tears’ leaves very little doubt in that regard – but I prefer him to sound as clean and melodic as he does most of the time here anyway. Excellent work by everyone involved.

Recommended tracks: ‘The Long Black Land’, ‘The Solace’, ‘To Outlive The Gods’

8. Hevig Mollestad – Ekhidna

My chief editor at Gitarist sort of threw ‘Ekhidna’ on my digital desk because he had read positive things about it. I can only agree with anything postive said about this album. The jazzy improvisations mixed with Sabbath grooves of Hedvig Mollestad’s trio are already something special, but with the fusion factor turned way up and Mollestad mostly providing intricate, yet groovy rhythm guitars, ‘Ekhidna’ is one of the greatest guitar fusion albums I have heard in many years. Mollestad is an incredible guitarist, but in these compositions of hers, she mainly leaves the virtuosity to the keyboard players and trumpeter Susana Santos Silva. The interaction between all musicians involved is incredible and I cannot believe how much life there is in such a densely arranged record. ‘Ekhidna’ could be a hard rock record with pianos and trumpet or a jazz record with surprisingly heavy riffs, but whatever you choose to call it, it is a must-hear for fans of guitar music.

Recommended tracks: ‘Antilone’, ‘A Stone’s Throw’, ‘Ekhidna’

9. Heathen – Empire Of The Blind

Heathen’s 2010 comeback album ‘The Evolution Of Chaos’ is quite likely my favorite thrash metal album of the twenty-first century. ‘Empire Of The Blind’ is not quite that earth-shattering, but it is an excellent progressive thrash metal album. Here, Heathen sounds a bit darker and a tad more progressive-leaning than before, which is not that shocking, given that Kragen Lum wrote all the material this time around. David White probably aged best out of all cleaner thrash metal singers and his voice goes a long way in making ‘Empire Of The Blind’ sound like Heathen, though Lum made sure Heathen’s trademark melodic guitar approach is still front and center on the album. Thrash purists may think that the album contains a few contemporary Nevermore-isms too much, but anyone who stays away from ‘Empire Of The Blind’ because of that would be missing out on some clever, unpredictable songwriting and a ton of fantastic guitar work.

Recommended tracks: ‘The Blight’, ‘The Gods’ Divide’, ‘Empire Of The Blind’, ‘Devour’

10. Fleetburner – Fleetburner

Give me a concept album that is both progressive and deeply emotional and I will surely give it a listen. Fleetburner is the project of Dutch guitarist Kevin Storm, who is mainly active as a session and touring musician, but this untitled debut album proves that he mas more than a few impressive compositional chops up his sleeve. What makes ‘Fleetburner’ interesting is that Storm manages to combine elements that usually are not used together. Plenty of riffs on the album would not sound out of place on an extreme metal album, but due to how they blend with the generally calmer drums and the keyboards, not to mention Ken Simerly’s intense and decidedly non-metal vocal performance, it ends up sounding like ‘Brave’ era Marillion experimenting with metal riffs more than anything else. ‘Fleetburner’ is such an impressive debut that I don’t even need to mention the high profile musicians involved to urge fans of dark progressive music to give this a chance.

Recommended tracks: ‘The Fleet’, ‘The Deck’, ‘Below The Waves’, ‘The Breakwater’

11. Mekong Delta – Tales Of A Future Past

Easily one of my most anticipated releases of the year. And I have to admit, my initial impression was one of slight disappointment. That mainly has to do with the album ending on a relatively weak note, because the rest of the material grew on me very quickly. ‘Wanderer On The Edge Of Time’ and ‘In A Mirror Darkly’ were excellent albums, the former in particular is a masterpiece, but they followed such a similar formula, it was obvious something needed to change. ‘Tales Of A Future Past’ is the most traditionally progressive metal album Mekong Delta has released to date and features more prominent synthesizers than any of their post-‘Visions Fugitives’ releases. The Russian classical music played the thrash metal way is still here, but returning guitarist Peter Lake brings a distinct contemporary progressive edge to the proceedings. Plenty of excellent riffs too. Music this complex hardly ever sounds this listenable.

Recommended tracks: ‘A Colony Of Liar Men’, ‘Mindeater’, ‘Landscape 3 – Inherent’, ‘The Hollow Men’

12. Takenori Shimoyama – The Power Of Redemption

Saber Tiger singer Takenori Shimoyama released two solo albums last year. ‘Way Of Life’ is largely in Japanese and has Shimoyama’s vocals working surprisingly well with the mostly acoustic backings, while ‘The Power Of Redemption’ is all English and full-on neoclassical power metal. Despite the rotating cast of Japanese all-star musicians, the album actually sounds quite close to what Shimoyama did with Double Dealer. Most of Double Dealer’s final line-up even appears on ‘Sun Down’. The most successful songwriting collaboration is the one with Yutaro Abe, but it is remarkable how consistent the album sounds despite different musicians appearing on each track. Shimoyama himself still sounds every bit as good as when he first joined Saber Tiger in his early thirties and obviously feels comfortable singing neoclassical hardrock and metal like it appears in spades on ‘The Power Of Redemption’.

Recommended tracks: ‘The Last Survivor’, ‘Chaos Region’, ‘Beneath The Wave’

13. Dark Fortress – Spectres From The Old World

Another album I was greatly anticipating that didn’t exactly bring what I was expecting. Dark Fortress’ previous two albums ‘Ylem’ and especially ‘Venereal Dawn’ saw the German band slowly moving towards a blend of doom metal and bleak, atmospheric black metal that I like a lot. So when ‘Spectres From The Old World’ turned out to be much faster, it initially was a disappointment to me. After a while, it dawned on me that the faster material does coem from the same bleak atmosphere as the slower, doomy stuff and I got to appreciate ‘Spectres From The Old World’ for what it is rather than being disappointed about what it is not. Having said that, my favorite moments on the album are still the atmopheric, yet crushing doom songs, such as ‘Isa’. But anyone who wants dissonant black metal chords to transport them to a different world rather than having their ear drums violently pummeled needs to hear Dark Fortress’ recent works.

Recommended track: ‘Isa’, ‘In Deepest Time’, ‘Swan Song’

14. Firewind – Firewind

‘Immortals’ was my favorite album of 2017, but the period leading up to the release of Firewind’s self-titled ninth album was fraught with difficulty. The band suddenly found itself without singer and keyboard player, the latter of which has not even be replaced. It kind of works though. While I don’t think Herbie Langhans is a better singer than Henning Basse – though to be fair, hardly anyone in heavy metal is – Langhans does very well with the slightly more aggressive, stripped down approach of ‘Firewind’. The album sounds like a guitar driven power metal band with a modern hard rock mix and I really think that blend helps it stand out. There is a risk of Firewind not sounding different enough from Gus G’s solo project, because ‘Firewind’ occasionally sounds like the stuff the guitarist does without his band, but when it is this good, that should not be much of a problem.

Recommended tracks: ‘Perfect Stranger’, ‘Break Away’, ‘Devour’

15. Demons & Wizards – III

After nearly a decade and a half of silence, things suddenly got busy in the Demons & Wizards camp. Two reissues, a tour and then there was a new album. It surprised me how consistently mid-tempo the album is. Even more so because it allowed Jon Schaffer to squeeze a little more variation out of his mid-tempo riffs than he usually tends to do. After all, that is where ‘III’ shines in my opinion. Each and every song on the album has its own identity. There is some experimenting with guitar tunings, resulting in some songs sounding a bit darker, while others have the aggression emphasized. Of course, Hansi Kürsch brings varying degrees of theatricality to the album due to how and whether or not he chooses to layer his vocals. Vocally, Kürsch has aged more gracefully than many of his peers and that certainly helps ‘III’ be as good as it is. While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of their two previous works, it is far more consistent than their second album.

Recommended tracks: ‘Dark Side Of Her Majesty’, ‘Diabolic’, ‘Universal Truth’

2021
01/01
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Album of the Week 08-2020: Demons & Wizards – III


When things went quiet for a decade and a half after the release of their second album ‘Touched By The Crimson King’, I just assumed Demons & Wizards was finished. That would have been understandable, given that Jon Schaffer and Hansi Kürsch are incredibly busy with Iced Earth and Blind Guardian respectively, but then they assembled a tour line-up and announced their third album, simply titled ‘III’. It’s also simply very good. Better than the latest releases by both men’s main bands, while it lacks the consistency issues that plagued its predecessor. Anyone who enjoyed the band before will also enjoy ‘III’.

Stylistically, there is nothing too different from the other two Demons & Wizards albums. It’s still epic heavy metal that combines the hyperspeed palm muting of Iced Earth with the theatricality one might sooner find on a Blind Guardian record. It does seem like Schaffer and Kürsch allowed the songs to unfold a little more slowly and naturally this time around. Not that the songs are much longer than before – despite the presence of three eight plus minute songs – but it feels like Schaffer is less scared of sticking to the same riff for longer than eight bars. Kürsch’s vocal arrangements add plenty of variation anyway.

One could accuse Schaffer and Kürsch of playing things safe here. ‘Diabolic’ does sound like a darker reprise of ‘Heaven Denies’ in structure, the title is even repeated in its chorus, and ‘New Dawn’ has a notable, but passing resemblance to ‘Tear Down The Walls’. Overall, ‘III’ plays around with limited parameters, but manages to squeeze out as much as possible out of them. The album has an overall dark vibe, at least in part due to the relatively subdued tempo of the material – most of the songs are actually mid-paced. Not unlike Iced Earth’s 1995 release ‘Burnt Offerings’, but with much more consistent results.

Remarkably enough, ‘III’ can remain within the mid-tempo realm without boring the listener to death. Schaffer and Kürsch really wanted to give every song its own identity, mostly by creating different atmospheres for the songs. ‘Universal Truth’, for instance, has the feel of a dark ballad, but is too heavy to be classified as such. ‘Timeless Spirit’ and the somewhat overlong ‘Children Of Cain’ would qualify, though both build up to something bigger. The former actually feels like a southern rock epic with crunchier rhythm guitars. ‘Split’ and ‘Wolves In Winter’, on the other hand, represent the more aggressive side of the spectrum. Bombast is not as prominent as on the debut, but ‘Dark Side Of Her Majesty’ and ‘New Dawn’ would certainly appeal to those who loved the debut.

Though ‘III’ is not perfect, it is much better than anyone could have expected for a project that has been dormant for fifteen years. Sure, one could wonder why ‘Final Warning’ – highly enjoyable, but a blatant ‘Dark City’ rewrite – and the particularly Blind Guardian-esque ‘Invincible’ were not saved for Schaffer’s and Kürsch’s main bands respectively, but ‘III’ is strangely one of the least pretentious albums either musician has been involved with in recent years. For dark heavy metal that doesn’t drift too far into evil territory, remaining more traditional instead, ‘III’ should be a no-brainer.

Recommended tracks: ‘Dark Side Of Her Majesty’, ‘Diabolic’, ‘Universal Truth’

2020
02/23
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Interview Demons & Wizards: “Whatever feels natural”


After nearly a decade and a half, Demons & Wizards broke the silence with an international tour in 2019. Later this week, the project of Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer and Blind Guardian singer Hansi Kürsch will release their third album, simply titled ‘III’. The album is full of the intense, yet theatrical heavy metal the fans have come to expect from Demons & Wizards. Their record label Century Media provided me with an opportunity to speak with Schaffer about the album.

Have you stockpiled any compositions in the years between ‘Touched By The Crimson King’ (2005) and ‘III’?
“Three of the songs have been written during the writing sessions for Iced Earth’s ‘Incorruptible’. Those were ‘New Dawn’, ‘Invincible’… And actually, ‘Universal Truth’ was a Sons Of Liberty song which I had already demoed with vocals. Those tracks have all been written around the same time. Once I knew I wasn’t going to use those for Iced Earth, I sent them to Hansi and he came up with some vocal ideas. I was about to go on tour with Iced Earth, but I was definitely interested in getting back to it once I got back.
This was in the summer of 2018, after which I went on a month-long hike through the desert of Arizona. A week after I got back, I flew to Germany, where Hansi and I had a few meetings to plan everything we’re doing now. When I got back, around November 2018, I started writing the rest of the album. The instrumental part of the album was done in my studio in March of 2019. The vocals were done in a studio in Germany.”
How important is it for you to make a Demons & Wizards song sound different from Iced Earth?
“There is no attempt to make it different, the same or anything in relation to Iced Earth. That’s just not the way I think. It’s just about being in the moment with the music and how it speaks to me. The only thing, from a productional standpoint, that I paid any attention to is how the kick and snare sounds related to the guitar tones. There are four different tunings on the record – standard tuning, my typical Eb tuning, C# and baritone tuning – so there are small, subtle differences when you compare the kick and snare sounds. And that was deliberate, but in terms of ‘I want the production to go this way or that way’… No. I just wanted it to feel good based on what we were doing.
I feel the dynamic range of this album is a little bigger. Every song sounds very different and that gave us the opportunity to not have the same kick and snare sounds on every track. It lends itself well to these types of variables without it ever sounding like anything else but the same album.”

Vocal melody

“Hansi has different sources of inspiration for lyrics than I have. And that’s the cool thing. If I have a piece of music and I don’t really know what to do with it vocally, I can send it to Hansi to see what he wil do with it. If I’m driven to write lyrics and vocal melodies, if I have a clear vision of what the song is about, I will almost always save it for Iced Earth. Having said that, there are three songs on this album that I wrote the lyrics for. When I have a specific task, like when I go into the studio to write an Iced Earth album, I’ll write an Iced Earth album. But my songs have to move me. And I want them to move other people. Even before the lyrics and vocal melodies are added. The music has to make you feel something when you hear it.
‘New Dawn’, for example, was a song for which I could not hear a vocal melody. After I built the Independence Hall studio and hooked up everything, that was the second song I wrote there. And I liked it, but I just couldn’t hear a vocal melody. I liked the piece of music, but I just couldn’t hear it. I played it to Stu (Block, Iced Earth’s singer). He wrestled with it for about a day and he didn’t know either. I said: you know what, let’s not force it, I’ll send it to Hansi and I guarantee you he hears something cool in it.
And he did. He came up with something. But it’s a different kind of arrangement. If you mute the vocals and just listen to it instrumentally, it’s pretty difficult to pick out the chorus. It just doesn’t have that kind of structure. And that’s fine. But as I expected, Hansi came up with a bunch of cool parts and I think the song is really cool.
In terms of production, that’s one of my favorite sounding songs on the record, by the way. And it’s also the first song I ever wrote in C# tuning. It more or less came out of left field. I’m really happy with the way it turned out. It’s just a rare example of a piece of music that I could not hear any vocals to. Generally, I do. That’s the reason why I write so many Iced Earth lyrics and vocal melodies: because I hear them. If it’s something I don’t hear, but do like the music, that’s typically the material I co-write with someone else.“

Nature of the beast

Does Hansi write anything else than the vocal melodies?
“Not really. I write all of that and send it to him. If doesn’t like something, he’ll tell me. But that never happened. He always gets a lot of inspiration from the stuff I send him. The only thing that tends to change is when he interprets a certain section as a chorus and we arrange it differently accordingly. The arrangement can always change based on what he interprets as verses, choruses and bridges. Those are the only changes that ever occur.
Usually, he sends me stuff of which the lyrics aren’t finished. Usually it’s nonsense, but it’s a way of capturing the melody and the cadence. And then we look what will be the big hook. And then it’s: alright, this is the chorus and this is what we build the song around. But generally, the arrangement is pretty close to the finished thing as is. The music almost always tells you what will be the chorus. Usually I instinctively know what it is, but always with the openness of changing the arrangement based on what I hear from Hansi.”
Has that ever bled into what Iced Earth does? I always found it interesting that Iced Earth started experimenting with bombast and layering around the time the Demons & Wizards debut was released…
“I think that was all part of the growth process. There were a lot of layers on ‘Burnt Offerings’ already. You have to realize that that was our first album with 48 tracks. If you’re given the technology, the temptation for musicians to use more tracks becomes pretty big. Of course you’re going to try and cram more ideas into it. That’s the nature of the beast.
The first two Iced Earth albums were 24-track albums. ‘Burnt Offerings’ was our first 48-track album. ‘Dark Saga’ and ‘Something Wicked’ were both 48-track albums. Then came the first Demons & Wizards album, which was part-analog and part-digital. The drums and rhythm guitars were analog, the rest was recorded digitally. ‘Horror Show’ was part-analog, part-digital as well. The next Iced Earth album was ‘The Glorious Burden’ and that one was fully digital. And that’s when the number of tracks became not an issue anymore. Then it got to: now I have the ability to do 160 tracks, woo!
You know… It can be a trap if you’re not careful, because you can get caught up in it and then you lose sight of the original concept of the song. I know I did. And I think a lot of guys get sucked into that. The fact that the possibilities are there doesn’t mean that you have to use all of it, you know?
I think it’s a natural progression that if you have the technology at your fingertips, the temptation is almost overwhelming. But for me… I’ve reached that point by getting some of those things out of my system with ‘Crucible Of Man’, ‘Framing Armageddon’ and ‘The Glorious Burden’. Those albums have so many parts… On ‘The Glorious Burden’, we had a full orchestra on ‘Gettysburg’ and all that, which was cool, but I got it out of my system. And then with ‘Dystopia’, I decided to go back and make a more straight-up, raw metal album. And then we went a notch back even further with ‘Plagues Of Babylon’, when we got even more raw and back to the roots. And I think with ‘Incorruptible’, I found a balance between the two.
I don’t know what will be next, as I haven’t started working on it yet. But after this Demons album comes out and I take a bit of a break, then I will get back to Iced Earth zone and I will do whatever feels natural at that time.“

Challenge

Speaking of layering: there’s always a lot of it going on in Demons & Wizards’ music. How difficult was it to interpret that music for last year’s tour?
“It was a small challenge. At some point, you have to focus on which is the most important part in a certain part. If there’s four different guitar parts and harmonies and what not, you just have to choose which of the parts are the most recognizable for someone who has not heard the songs before. That’s what we did when Jake (Dreyer, Iced Earth’s lead guitarist who also toured with Demons & Wizards as their live guitarist) came over to figure out the live parts. I transferred the old two inch tapes and I found the old hard drives of ‘Touched By The Crimson King’ to analyze every track. I was listening and though: man, I can’t even remember playing this at the time.
You just have to pick which part is the most obvious based on the way it was mixed at the time and which part jumps out. And from there, we move on. That’s how it goes with the vocals as well. Hansi always layers so many vocal parts and different harmonies. That is one of the reasons why we got the backing singers for the likes of Wacken, so we could make it as big as possible and still keep it somewhat realistic in terms of expenses. It was a small challenge, but not as difficult as I thought it would be. Some things of this new album will be a bigger challenge.”
Does that mean you are planning new live dates with Demons & Wizards?
“There aren’t any plans, no. The plan for 2020 is studio time for Iced Earth and the same for Blind Guardian. Iced Earth and Blind Guardian are both successful, busy bands. The biggest challenge for Hansi and me is to work around those schedules. But even if we did, there’s all these guitar tunings. Eb is the typical Iced Earth tuning and even for Demons & Wizards, but there are exceptions. That could be a challenge if we ever play these songs live with Demons & Wizards. There are four different tunings on this album and a bunch of songs from the past that are in D. If we ever have any fly dates, we’ll lose quite a bit of money on travelling with all these differently-tuned guitars, haha!”

Hotel California

Traditionally, Jim Morris plays all the guitar solos on a Demons & Wizards album. Why did you approach Jake Dreyer to do a couple as well this time?
“I would have been fine with Jim playing all the guitar solos like on the earlier Demons & Wizards albums, but there were a couple of songs that demanded something else. Jim is 61 and he grew up with Jeff Beck, Clapton and David Gilmour. And that’s great, but a song like ‘Split’ asked for Jake’s style, as it’s an aggressive heavy metal track. On ‘Wolves In Winter’, Jim tried a part and that was pretty cool, but when Jake played the same part, it just worked better.
When I asked Jake to play the Demons & Wizards material live with us, I thought it was cool to let him play some solos on the new album. He would come over to figure out the parts for the live show anyway. And on ‘Timeless Spirit’, I wanted a ‘Hotel California’-like vibe at the end from the moment we started working on it. So one late night, I recorded Jake’s solo which begins right after the heavy part at the end starts. It was just a brilliant take, so we kept it. One or two days later, I sat down with Jim and Jake to guide them through the piece.
Jake has a really cool vibrato and a good sense of melody. He can play all the shred stuff, but also what I call the ‘grown man shit’. And that’s what cool about the dueling guitars near the end of that song. You’ve got the old school dude and the younger guy who has an old soul approach. I think it’s a really nice trade-off. And then you get to the ‘Hotel California’ part where they play in harmony. That was one of the highlights of the recording sessions for me.“

 

2020
02/19
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