George Lynch has always been a great songwriter & guitarist. Even though the first couple of Lynch Mob albums were picked apart by rock critics they all had to admit that the Lynch Mob was the real deal. Mr. Scary is at it again. Just caught up with one of my guitar idols, Mr. Scary […]
If you’re looking for something technically stimulating as much as it just sounds cool as hell, you need not look any further than Eden’s Curse. Did you see what I did there? Well, This band has been on the scene in Europe for a decade, stemming from a small Internet based multi-national project to a […]
Daring Greatly, in case you haven’t heard yet, is the new band to go see and listen to. The band was recently invited to play at the Whiskey a Go-Go in West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. Lucky for me and more than 40 other fans, Dail had the brilliant idea of chartering a bus […]
Multi awarding winning vocalist, Goran Edman, released his self-titled debut album on September 23rd and melodic rock and AOR (album oriented rock) fans should rejoice! Goran Edman, may not be a familiar artist for mainstream music fans, but if he keeps releasing albums such as this, it won’t take long before he is in every […]
The Belgian melodic power metal band IRON MASK is currently more active than ever before: after re-releasing their 2010 album ‘Shadow Of The Red Baron’ and afterwards touring Europe with Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody in January 2016, the group around band leader Dushan Petrossi didn’t waste any time and directly started the preproduction phase for their new album. The following months were used to record all instruments as well as vocals. Speaking of vocals: Diego Valdez (Helker) was introduced as new voice of IRON MASK. The result of this new collaboration is here now: ‘Diabolica’ marks the band’s sixth album release and once again guitarist/mastermind Dushan Petrossi was responsible for the entire songwriting. This 77minute behemoth of an album combines neoclassicalinspired metal with an epic touch, reminiscent of Dio longtracks from the 80’s. Valdez shines throughout the whole record and proves to be the perfect choice for the vocal spot, bringing the 12 great new songs to life. IRON MASK have never been more epic and powerful than on ‘Diabolica’. A look at the track listing provides an interesting fact.”I choose some historical figures, like Oliver Twist, Galileo and Doctor Faust, to create a story background for the music I had composed. But there’s no overall concept really“, speaks Petrossi. Mixing and mastering of ‚ ‘Diabolica’ was handled by Angelo E. Buccolieri (Wireworld Studios, Italien) together with Petrossi, while French cover artist Stan W. Decker provided the fitting optics. After IRON MASK was founded as a project, things changed after the release of their debut ‘Revenge Is My Name’. It was a different kind of approach already for the band’s second release ‚ ‘Hordes Of The Brave’, which was followed by quite some live gigs. The third album ‘Shadow Of The Red Baron’ was issued (after a more than four years long break) in early 2010, but the band was returning with the clear intention of not letting their fans wait for another release that long again. So after signing with AFM Records, already in November 2011 ‘Black As Death’ was released. Exactly two years after, the band followed up with ‘Fifth Son Of Winterdoom’. Subseqently, Petrossi became busy again with his other (also AFMsigned) band MAGIC KINGDOM, who released their ‘Savage Requiem’ album in 2015. Now the grandiose ‘Diabolica’, an album which Petrossi was working on since two years, is IRON MASK’s newest and impressive proof of work. LISTEN TO A SAMPLE OF “DIABOLICA” This is probably one of the best records that IRON MASK has ever recorded. Because Petrossi was responsible for all the songwriting, we […]
Although I’ve seen Glenn many times over the years with other bands like Trapeze, Deep Purple, Black Country Communion, Hughes and Thrall and Kings of Chaos, Glenn had never toured in the USA doing his solo work and we couldn’t have been happier to witness this epic show. It was a treat to just be […]
Earlier last month, BackStage3660 had the opportunity to witness Dweezil Zappa’s newest tour celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his father’s classic album “FREAK OUT” . Having seen Dweezil play about ten years ago, I liked his own personal style but this newest tour was special because he would be playing his dad’s album “Freak Out” in […]
I’ve never been to a festival before KAABOO Del Mar’s non-festival ‘mixperience’ appeared in San Diego last year. That decision has mainly been by choice, after the recounts and painful stories I’ve heard from friends who have travelled the distances. Horror stories about the smell of porta-johns, carnival-style fried foods, and virtually nowhere to cool […]
The Struts hit the stage right on time and from the outset it was apparent that this band was the real deal. I for one had never seen this band live but had heard their single “IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME” and their latest one “KISS THIS” from their new album EVERYBODY WANTS. What I […]
This year, as did the previous year, KAABOO featured a diverse selection of artists. One of those featured artists this year was the incomparable Orianthi. At first most people may have only been impressed by her looks. Of course that was only until they heard her amazing guitar skills. Now I’ve seen her play many […]