Fugazi

Many theories floating around on the Internet... One being that there will be some sort of announcement on April 30, 2024 because the latest social posts have featured 30 cogwheels ⚙️, 4 roses 🌹 and 24 butterflies 🦋. Also, on TikTok (!) Nightwish have posted "Which album are you, based on your birth month?" https://www.tiktok.com/@nightwish.official/photo/7361467999439637792 ...with a different album cover picture for each month of the year, except for May where it says 'Our next album' and a big question mark. Are they suggesting an album release as soon as May? Unlikely, but perhaps an album name or even a single in May would be possible.

Kai: This album will be hEaVY!! 🤘💀 Nightwish:

Butterflies, roses and gears? 🦋🌹⚙️ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ad5-sRPqKKQ https://twitter.com/NightwishBand/status/1783406996143710703 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6LWOoqNLy0/

Troy confirmed to return as guest musician on EoM's second album. https://www.facebook.com/eyeofmelian/posts/pfbid0KRK1a4zTWZi7g3AuHiee65f5iyk4aB2Sp8MWq7Jnrb9GdGKC8UeHtscbEwYdk1Ebl

Omega Alive, the 2021 virtual show, is now freely available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrppEWGl_ss It's definitely worth a watch. As mentioned at the time, it's not a true live performance but a concert-length staged "live" movie, but is nonetheless a good show.

An interview with Anette about the new album on Chaoszine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys4LVOjnNQg

Interesting! A butterfly? Ancient script? I wonder if the light color theme is representative of the actual album -- would be a nice change from the dark theme of basically every album after Once.

When official band socials are useless, Kai is still our best ally... https://www.facebook.com/kai.hahto.96/posts/pfbid0L1i9yjXxkSvnGbFqD2MVgkxtkpiyjRawYPo1EQ3WnGxx42fRCbZjgRtAbH3gTsFwl Now, how soon is soon? 👀

I do hope they come back for their next album with a longer set! 8 songs go by so quickly. 😮

Yes, former Delain's singer and lyricist, but the music has always been mainly Martijn's and Guus Eikens' work. I would qualify Charlotte's solo work more introspective and experimental, and certainly less metal for the most part but this third album promises to have heavier arrangements so I'm eager to hear more. But speaking about new music... this sounds exciting: https://www.instagram.com/p/C58riB8iC8g/

Lacuna Coil – In The Mean Time (feat. Ash Costello) “In The Mean Time is a reflection on how much our society has generally ‘lost the plot’. We are living in really mean times filled with unhappy people: lonely, anxious, depressed, destructive. The pressure that crushes from the outside doesn't allow to see things with the right clarity. This song is like group therapy: not a lamentation but acceptance that once broken, it’s hard to put oneself back together again. We need to take our mind off all the inescapable toxicity and find that there’s so much more to this life… and know that in the meantime, everything cannot be aligned. We invited Ash Costello to feature on the track and we're thrilled she came on board adding exactly what we needed for this song with her warm voice and charisma.” Lacuna Coil , March 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63z4mNFXJGY -- My 2 cents: I love Lacuna Coil but I'm starting to think that they're treading water. Ever since they traded gothic, moody, quirky metal to more mid-stream, in-your-face heavier metal I think they lost some of their uniqueness and perhaps also freedom to be creative. Maybe I'm just reacting to this new single being a rehash of any of their recent work, but their only saving grace right now is Cristina Scabbia's unique voice that I can never get enough of.

"Within Temptation are this year's Dutch ambassador for Record Store Day. And for this occasion, the exclusive 12-inch EP 'The Artone Sessions' will be made available for free for the first 6000 Record Store Day customers in The Netherlands on April 20, 2024. 'The Artone Sessions' contains of four acoustic tracks that were recorded in the presence of over fifty RSD stores from across The Netherlands on January 29, 2024. This unique performance took place at Artone Studio in Haarlem, located inside of one of the largest vinyl pressing plants in Europe - Record Industry, and have been recorded direct to disc. Please see the live-registration of 'Ritual' - live at Artone Studios in Haarlem. Record Store Day is celebrated on Saturday, April 20, and takes place in 116 independent record stores in the Netherlands." Ritual (acoustic) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dul6cSpcHos We Go To War (acoustic) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2JOoRb1IvM Edit (adding the rest of the tracks): Faster (acoustic) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if7krn5xIxA Bleed Out (acoustic) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOI1nGaJz-s

Anette has released the title track of her new album, Rapture. A full video will follow shortly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAyp7H9cmAs Edit: Video

Universal is out, very catchy song, no wonder it's already a crowd favourite.

A quick word about the Xandria show (supporting Wind Rose)... It was brilliant! Despite missing their official drummer and bass player (still waiting for work visas 😖) and playing with a replacement drummer (Cooper Dustman), they gave a strong performance. First time seeing Ambre live, she interacts a lot with the crowd and she sounds as good live as on the studio tracks. The crowd -- rather young, because this was a Wind Rose show after all -- did seem to enjoy the opening band, reacting strongly to Ambre's growls and the fact that she spoke perfect French. Interestingly, as far as I could tell the songs that drew the most cheers were Reborn and Universal, the new song. And there was plenty of Xandria merchandise, many styles of T-shirts and CDs and badges and other stuff that I may have missed. The setlist: You Will Never Be Our God Death to the Holy Reborn Forevermore Universal Your Stories I’ll Remember Two Worlds Nightfall

Ever wondered about Jukka's all-time favourite albums? Wonder no more! 😁

The video for 'A Fool's Parade' is online now, it was filmed in Ukraine and I'm glad it's not another AI-generated movie. While the previous AI-generated videos (for 'Wireless' and 'Bleed Out') were intriguing and more than slightly disturbing, this first generation of crude AI imagery will probably age very poorly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBWeMivsraA

There hasn't been any announcement yet from Delain, although there seems to be a window of opportunity in September and October. This is about the same period I expect the Nighwish album to be released. If I was to guess, I would say that the release date (and track list?) will be revealed with the first single in a month or two.

Charlotte Wessels will release a third solo album later this year, and this one is significant as she will be joined by three former Delain band members. While the new album will probably not sound like Delain, this is still Delain's "other half" getting together to record and play new music. Napalm has a press release, as reported by Blabbermouth: Ex-DELAIN Singer CHARLOTTE WESSELS Explores 'Heavier Sound' On Upcoming Solo Album April 9, 2024 https://blabbermouth.net/news/ex-delain-singer-charlotte-wessels-explores-heavier-sound-on-upcoming-solo-album Charismatic Dutch singer/songwriter Charlotte Wessels is set to release her new studio album on September 20, 2024 via Napalm Records. The LP's first single, "The Exorcism", will arrive on May 16, 2024. Wessels's album promises a cohesive exploration of fear and liberation, as well as spellbinding melancholia and dark, catchy elements meeting progressive and heavier soundscapes. Charlotte and her band will bring this story to the stage on October 4, 2024 at Utrecht's TivoliVredenburg. The former DELAIN vocalist's earlier solo endeavors, "Tales From Six Feet Under" (2021) and "Tales From Six Feet Under Vol II" (2022) already gained Wessels a remarkable number of devotees, but for the upcoming release, Wessels is raising the bar significantly. While still writing and producing the songs in her Six Feet Under basement home studio and sharing their first incarnations with her patrons, now she's taking the songs to the next level with a band of her fellow ex-DELAIN cohorts Timo Somers (guitars, additional arrangements),Otto Schimmelpenninck Van Der Oije (bass) and Joey Marin De Boer (drums) as well as Sophia Vernikov (piano/hammond),contributing to the new, heavier sound. The album also features arrangements by Vikram Shankar (SILENT SKIES, PAIN OF SALVATION), cello by Elianne Anemaat, mixing by Guido Aalbers (MUSE, COLDPLAY, THE GATHERING) and mastering by Andy VanDette (PORCUPINE TREE, VOLA, DREAM THEATER). Wessels states: "This album is significant, for on the one hand, telling such a deeply personal journey — through its unintended theme of fear and obsessive thoughts — and at the same time, representing the joy of finding the song's true forms with everyone involved in the making of this record. There were moments in the studio with the band that truly reminded me of why I love making music in the first place, and I don't think I've ever been as excited about music going out into the world. This is the album I want to re-introduce myself with, and I'm so glad to do it with this amazing team." In a 2022 interview with Spain's The Metal Circus TV, Wessels was asked how she feels about the fact that DELAIN made a comeback with a new lineup. A short time earlier, DELAIN released a single, "The Quest And The Curse", featuring keyboardist, founder and main songwriter Martijn Westerholt alongside new singer Diana Leah, original guitarist Ronald Landa and original drummer Sander Zoer, plus bassist Ludovico Cioffi. Charlotte said: "I'm trying not to engage with it too much, honestly. I've seen positive responses about it, which I think is good. But I do try to keep some distance and just focus on what I'm doing rather than checking that out, because I still don't feel like that will make me happier per se." In February 2021, Westerholt announced the dissolution of DELAIN's previous lineup. At the time, he explained: "For the last year or so, the collaboration within the band ceased to work as well as it once had. Some of us were no longer happy with the current roles in the band. We all tried very hard to find a solution for over a year, but sadly we were unable to find one. As a result, we will all be going our own ways and pursuing our own endeavors. "I am very sad our cooperation has come to end, but at the same time I am very grateful for all the years we were able to work together. Together we toured the world, shared highs and lows, and met with many successes as well as times that pushed us to learn and grow. We all enjoyed meeting our fans and making new friends all over the globe." At the time, Wessels said about her departure: "I know that you might have questions about the 'why' in all of this. I fully understand and respect that. Simply put, it is the sad conclusion of more than a year of trying to find solutions to built-up grievances. Part of me feels like I'm letting all of you down, I'd like you to know that this decision was not taken lightly and I apologize to those of you who had high hopes of seeing all of us together live on stage again after lockdown. Until recently, I thought this might still be in the cards for us as well." The new DELAIN lineup made its official live debut in August 2022 at the Riverside festival in Aarburg, Switzerland.

Here's an update of upcoming Floor solo shows: Netherlands-Rotterdam-Beste Zangers Live-May 10, 2024 Netherlands-Eindhoven-Bridge Guitar Festival-June 1, 2024 Netherlands-Soestdijk-Royal Park Live-July 4, 2024 (🎟️ sold out) Netherlands- Bloemendaal-Caprera-July 6, 2024 (15:30, 🎟️ sold out) Netherlands- Bloemendaal-Caprera-July 6, 2024 (20:30, 🎟️ sold out) Netherlands-Den Haag-Zuiderpark Live-September 7, 2024

During the recent North American shows Xandria have introduced a new song called 'Universal', presumably to be released on their next album. The only recording I have found has poor sound, but no doubt there will be an official single release soon? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii4nHLnEXIE

Tarja - A Retrospective Part 4 is up. She reminisces about the making of album 'What Lies Beneath'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2DCePHMQlA

A recent interview with Kai: "If someone thinks you can play jazz, then you automatically know how to play metal - it's definitely not true!" Marika Kapanen 25/03/2024 https://metalliluola.fi/haastattelussa-kai-hahto-jos-joku-ajattelee-etta-osaat-soittaa-jazzia-niin-automaattisesti-osaat-soittaa-metallia-ei-todellakaan-pida-paikkaansa/ Metalliluola was watching Kai Hahto's 50th anniversary concert Alone – An evening with Kai Hahto at the Apollo Live Club last February . During the evening, a wide range of songs from Hahto's career was heard, and the audience filling the entire hall seemed to enjoy every moment. Hahto has also been in a hurry, because in addition to organizing the Alone gig, the calendar has also been filled with Nightwish and Wintersun's new album releases and organizing drumming lessons in Vaasa. Despite being busy with work, Metalliluola caught the man on the phone and asked about his feelings about the Alone gig and drum lessons, that is, Hahto's drum clinic. You've obviously had a busy first year with the Alone solo gig, Wintersun and also Nightwish, how does the coming spring look like in the calendar? Well, we really got that drumming teaching space in December, so that you can start doing things here. A few guys from abroad have come here for a spin, and teaching activities have now been slowly started along with all the other stuff. Nightwish's album is actually finished now. The entire package, cover art and booklets have been handed over to the record company. The album has been mastered and mixed, and there will be different versions, so they've been tweaked and of course the promo photos and videos and so on... And of course there was the Alone gig in February and quite a bit of fun. To some extent, the calendars are starting to fill up again. At first it feels like nothing is happening, and then suddenly all sorts of things happen again, and always on top of each other, and then you have to try to tear yourself apart in different places at the same time. I was watching his Alone solo gig at the Apollo Live Club in February. The whole hall was full and people seemed to be enjoying themselves. How did you feel about the evening? Well, of course, it's quite difficult to reflect on it, like the whole thing - because it was somehow so deep, and you didn't really know what to expect from such a stupid gig, when rarely has anyone done that. Of course, troubadours go to sing with backing bands or play guitar and sing, but less often the drummer goes to play alone. There was a small risk in that, of course. And really, when there was all that kind of work before that, the preparation could of course have been a little better. But he did it as much as he could, so that... it didn't leave a bad feeling, but it could have gone a little better. But I'm still satisfied and happy that I survived because there was a bit of a feeling before the gig that "what will this be?" There were so many variables that could have gone awry, but luckily it all worked out. And maybe now there was a similar idea that when NW's new album and Wintersun come out, we could do a few more Alone gigs. Not in Helsinki, but somewhere else. There has been interest in the direction of the promoters since South America, that if we were to take the whole thing to other places than Finland... Let's see what happens. In the Alone gig, the idea was also to celebrate the 50th birthday at the same time. A bit different than when I turned 40, when we just drank beer and invited friends to Vaasa and that was it. Yes, there's a bit of music playing on stage there as well. There were really funny lineups and it was fun too. But now I thought that this 50-year party would be a little different, the focus would be more on playing the music than on drinking beer. In addition to all the band activities, do you also find time to teach the drums? Could you tell us more about this drum clinic activity? Yes, now that teaching job has been done, whenever there has been an empty calendar and there has been an opportunity to teach here in Vaasa. People have been accommodated in our home before, but then last year in February we started building a 65-square-meter outbuilding. The new building has a large playing room where teaching takes place, and the adjacent room has accommodation facilities. There is a kitchen and beds, TVs, showers and toilets - such an all-inclusive service, where a few foreign students have already gathered to stay overnight. And the wife is a restaurant chef, and she has made the food for the store. So when the student comes here, he gets accommodation and food from us for the same price. So you have students all over the world? Yeah, yes it is. There are inquiries, and since the beginning of the year, I have had a German and a Scotsman visit here who attended classes, and then, of course, there have also been people from within Finland staying here who come from other places than Vaasa. So a few have been able to try this new space and have been really excited. They kind of have their own house here. What kind of students do you accept? Do you have to already have experience playing in a band to come to the drum clinic? People of all levels have visited here. Some don't even own drums yet, for some it was the very first time with drums, when we start from scratch. I don't have any level requirements, I teach people of all levels. There is no such discrimination as to what level it should be that you can get lost here. Younger friends have also been here, all under the age of ten with their parents - a father and son from Germany, for example, and one has then played the drums and the other has just been along and both have been accommodated. All ages and abilities are welcome here. It doesn't matter where you go, even if you don't even own drums, you can start playing here. And after visiting here, many people have gotten the urge to play and bought themselves electric drums or an acoustic set. A beginner metal drummer may wonder whether to get electric drums or acoustic drums, what is your opinion on which training drums should you invest in? Of course, it always depends on the space and where the drums are placed. That if you have an apartment in a block of flats, you rarely dare to get acoustic drums there so that the noise from your neighbor can last longer than half an hour. But of course I always recommend acoustic ones first, because nothing can replace it. An acoustic drum is so much harder to handle than an electric kit. There are many things to take into account compared to an electric kit, such as how you hold the drumstick, and how the cymbal sounds, while in electric drums it is synthetically through the sample that if you squeeze the drumstick a little more, it is not noticed as sensitively in an electric drum kit. Then, when you suddenly start playing an acoustic after a couple of years of banging an electric set, you might come across that: Wait a minute! Now there is a small problem here, that playing this acoustic drum set is actually not that simple. It's a bit like if you know how to play the acoustic piano, it's pretty easy to play synths after that. Or an acoustic guitar, and moving from that to an electric guitar - of course they are two different instruments, but when there is an acoustic instrument, it comes with how those instruments are treated acoustically. When you can play an acoustic instrument, then you can also play those electronic instruments with water. In 2002, you went to New York to study jazz drumming. How does metal and rock drumming differ from jazz drumming? Well, yes - actually I went there in 2002 to Nyki to learn from the jazz legends, just because I wanted to study the technical side of what those guys knew. Through that, I did get a lot of relief for my own calling, because there was knowledge of such work that is rarely found here in Finland. In other words, technical hands-on things. Ohan, playing jazz was completely different in terms of coordination, and also dynamically, than playing rock drums or metal drums. So if someone thinks that if you know how to play jazz, you automatically know how to play metal - it's definitely not true. They both have their own things that need to be taken over and understood. For example, in jazz, the bass drum and the snare drum are hit in a completely different way, so that you don't hit as hard as you want, but the nuances are more present in jazz, so you have to play quite quietly sometimes. And also in jazz, the coordination is very different from playing rock and metal. But I have also drawn philosophy from that teaching of jazz drums to teach the technique of metal and rock drums, and yes, here in Vaasa, I also have jazz drummers teaching. All kinds of guys hang out here. What are the two or three most important things for a drummer? Well, of course, when playing in a band is social, you should put your ego aside, and be more of a team player - when being in a band is like playing latke or futsal in a team. The whole is what matters, and not that your own ego is there all the time, but that you have to take others into account as well. Few people want to be with a friend on a bus or on a trip with whom they can't get along when there's too much of their own hexles banging... It's a really big deal, what kind of bandmate you are outside the concert stage for the remaining 21 hours. And then, of course, there is the fact that you have such an open and humble attitude to doing it, and dare to leave the basement there... You always come across things that you just don't know how to do and don't know, so it's pointless to stay in that basement for too long thinking that "I'm not good enough for this "However, you're never completely ready for everything, so you have to go out and try different things... I've been playing here for over forty years and I'm still practicing every day - that learning never ends. Usually that development ends in satisfaction when you are too satisfied with what you are doing and where you are going. But at least until today, I haven't felt like I could stop training. However, you have to go through the basics all the time, because with them you can maintain the skill, so that you can play well even on a bad day. Even if you're tired and haven't slept well, the difference between a bad day and a good day is pretty small. In other words, team playing and humility and openness to doing it, those are the same important things to me. And then one thing that somehow gets emphasized too much these days is that: Learn to play that instrument. No one is going to fix you playing live. Today in the studio you can tinker and fix a drum sound based on a sample and then everything sounds like a machine gun, but then the fact is when you actually play it, you know it might not sound like what you see... Honest training is important, that you learn to play that instrument and don't rely too much on it to those aids, because then when we go to the studio or play live, the harsh truth might rear its head a bit. That it's not as well packaged as we thought. I myself grew up in the time of the tape recorder, so when you went to the studio to make the first records, you realized that when the tape recorder started spinning, there is no chance to mess up. When there's a mistake or something goes wrong in that take, you just have to start the song again from the beginning and play it all the way through, you couldn't take it in pieces or take it apart, but you had to play it right on the tape and rehearse things so that when you go to the studio so there is no time to train. And that's how I still train, for example when the new NW was made, there are songs from which we took two or three takes and then it was that we chose the best one. The song could last ten minutes, so they played it for ten minutes straight and listened to how it sounded. It's a really important mentality for me to learn to play that instrument. Because you kind of think about how a record was made in the past, that the tape recorder was turned on straight in the studio and Sinatra was made to sing over the orchestra and that was it - you sometimes miss that kind of thing these days. We have too many opportunities not to play well, or not to learn to play that particular instrument. That technology is a bit too loud - for example, when singing, the autotune thing is annoying, it's gotten to the point where you can hear it within a second of using it. I can relate to that, for example, in the media these days a lot of material created with artificial intelligence is used, which takes away artists' foothold and salaries. Yes, that's right, it's basically the same thing. Artificial intelligence is starting to creep into both music and image processing, it's so black it's a bit dangerous that no matter how well it's done, it's not a human handprint, which I'm always interested in - what that person has done. Computers and artificial intelligence - they are good rings but a bit bad hosts. When you give a little too much lead to the world of artificial intelligence, I think there is always a small danger in that - for example, if you want to play songs made by artificial intelligence on the radio when they are cheaper and you don't have to pay for the artists, then I think that would be a bit of a mess. How can those interested in drum lessons contact you? The easiest way is to send an e-mail to kai.hahto@gmail.com , and from there I will answer as soon as I can and give further instructions on how to proceed. And there will also be a website for this teaching project this spring, as long as we can take some pictures of this new teaching space. How did you just become a drummer? When you were young, did you have a particular drummer or band that you admired? Yes, I did get a guitar as a Christmas present, but it seems to be gone pretty quickly... Somehow it started when I was three years old, banging pots and lids on the kitchen floor. I dragged those pots and all the jars out of my mother's cupboard and rattled them on the floor to the delight of my parents. Thus, at the age of six, I started to feel that now that drum set has to be acquired. And yes, I also played a lot of ice hockey and soccer until my early teens, but unfortunately they got out of the way of music and playing the drums... That Musa then took, and I can't really say why the drums - but that's how it happened, somehow but fascinated since childhood. Of course, when I was eight years old, I had Iron Maiden's Killers album, so the cover art was somehow so funny and forbidden-looking, that's when the whole horse business started, because there wasn't any stuff like that on my parents' record shelf, but Elvis and Kari Tapio and other stuff. Iron Maiden was the first to get that enthusiasm for heavier music. The guitar melodies and heavier sound was something that fascinated me, and that's how it started.

Something different, a reaction to the film-making of a video: Manon de Reeper - Noise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OM9zFTdpBU

Tarja and Marko Hietala: Living the Dream TOGETHER Tour 2024 Tickets: https://www.eventim.de/.../tarja-turunen-und-marko-hietala/ 08.09.2024 Berlin, Huxleys Neue Welt 09.09.2024 Bremen, Aladin Music Hall 10.09.2024 Saarbrücken, Garage 12.09.2024 Leipzig, Hellraiser 13.09.2024 Hamburg, Gruenspan 14.09.2024 Herford, Kulturwerk 16.09.2024 Groningen (NL), De Oosterpoort 17.09.2024 Utrecht (NL), TivoliVredenburg 18.09.2024 Bochum, Matrix 20.09.2024 Ulm, Roxy 21.09.2024 Obertraubling, Eventhall Airport 23.09.2024 Frankfurt, Batschkapp 24.09.2024 München, Backstage 25.09.2024 Pratteln, Z7 After a series of triumphant performances in South America, where Marko Hietala joined Tarja as a special guest for several SOLD OUT shows, the dynamic duo is now set to captivate European audiences with their enthralling collaboration. The European tour, which kicks off in September in Germany, promises to be an unforgettable experience as these two familiar voices reunite on stage once again. Tarja recently released her first greatest hits album, “Best of Tarja – Living the Dream.” The live show will feature a selection of songs from her career, also found on the Best Of, including fan favourites and her own personal picks. Adding to the excitement, Tarja and Marko recently collaborated on the duet single ´Left On Mars,´ which received widespread acclaim and further cemented their status as musical icons. Marko will perform his own songs with his band before joining Tarja on stage for a night that promises to be nothing short of memorable. Expectations are high as the duo continues to delight fans with both old and new songs, building on the success of their South American tour. Special Guest Chaoseum