Interviews

Despite the tragedies of 2020, musicians are finding that their creative juices continue to flow as they create new artwork for the world to enjoy. Sammi Doll is one such musician, taking this year by storm in releasing her debut solo song, independent of all of the other musical endeavors she has lent her talent to. We had the pleasure of picking her mind and diving deep into “AN OM IE.”

Just like every musician, artist, and band during this pandemic, melodic hard rockers Alter Bridge had to get creative with its normal band activity after the cancellation of their entire 2020 touring schedule. Mr. Kennedy spoke with us about the new EP Walk the Sky 2.0, his upcoming solo release, his appearance in the 2001 Mark Wahlberg starred movie Rock Star, his writing sessions with Led Zeppelin, and more.

We spoke with Robin Staps, founder and guitarist of progressive metal titans The Ocean (also known as The Ocean Collective), to learn how he and the band are doing now that they’ve released their latest record, Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic. Staps shared the writing process behind the record, the band’s plans amidst the pandemic and for next year, the inner workings of the record label he founded, Pelagic Records, and more.

Vessel of Light has been quite prolific, releasing several records in its short time of existence. On its third full-length album, Last Ride, the fearless foursome has created 10 spine-tingling, Sabbathian-esque doom metal gems. If you’re a fan of heavy, sludgy doom metal, you need to get to know this band.

The duality of beauty and evil is wonderfully captured by professional photographer Jeremy Saffer in his massive coffee table photo tome, Daughters of Darkness. The 288 full page, full color photo book features hundreds of models, celebrities, actresses, and musicians from all over the world—wearing nothing but corpse paint.

We jumped at the chance to talk with vocalists Evan Pharmakis and Chris Preece on a call together where they break down the return of the band with INSPIRIT and the journey behind dissolving Vanna in the first place, as well as how all the members came back together. The two of them give the inside story on what INSPIRIT has been up to and what they hope is to come.

Lajon Witherspoon recently spoke with us about Sevendust’s new album, the October 23 live streaming event, his long awaited solo album, and the band’s future plans amidst the ongoing pandemic.

Leaves’ Eyes continues its take on folky/Scandinavian symphonic metal on its fantastic eighth full-length release, The Last Viking, which is a concept album about Norway’s King Harald III, called Hardrada (the hard ruler), and the Vikings’ decisive last battle in England near Stamford Bridge in the year 1066.

Intense. There are a number of adjectives one could use to describe Britain’s Anaal Nathrakh, but this one just seems to fit like an iron glove. In fact, there’s been plenty of ink spilt about this duo of vocalist Dave Hunt (V.I.T.R.I.O.L.) and instrumentalist/drum programmer/songwriter Irrumator, also known by the human name of Mick Kenney.

While taking a brief break from recording his new Ellefson solo album, bassist David Ellefson was rummaging through his vast record collection one night and thought it would be a great idea to re-record some of those classic tracks. Thus, No Cover was born. Ellefson recently spoke with us about picking the tunes to cover for the album, the recording process, the significance of the album cover art, and much more.