SAXON’S CALL TO ARMS PUSHED BACK TO JUNE. NEW TRIVIUM SONG FROM NEW ALBUM HERE. MORE NEW MUSIC: HAMMERFALL VIDEO!
Packing an armory of steel-coated riffs and songwriting swagger, British hard rock legends SAXON will release their 19th studio album titled “Call To Arms” via Militia Guard Music, UDR and EMI on the following dates:
* Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Norway: June 3
* U.K., Finland, Denmark: June 6
* Greece, Poland: June 8
* France: June 10
Recorded at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, U.K. and Brighton Electric Studios in Brighton, U.K., the 11-track album was co-produced by singer/songwriter Biff Byford and Toby Jepson (LITTLE ANGELS). Featuring Byford on lead vocals, Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt on guitars, Nibs Carter on bass and Nigel Glockler on drums, “Call To Arms” is bang on-the-money brilliant SAXON music, a confident embrace of the aura and writing values from their early years married perfectly to a modern SAXON crunch.
“This is probably the best album we’ve written and recorded in the last 20 years,” states Biff Byford unapologetically. “I know a lot of bands say that, but ‘Call To Arms’ really does feel like that to me. It’s the perfect embrace of our past with a great modern edge.”
Between the furious riffage of “Hammer Of The Gods” all the way through to “Ballad Of The Working Man”, SAXON also found time to invite fans to sing on the nostalgic stomp of “Back In ’79” thanks to a Byford brainwave the night before recording.
“We put something up on our website 24 hours before recording the track in Brighton, and funnily enough we had exactly 79 people show up on time to sing on the song. It was a fantastic result which is a direct tribute to ‘Denim & Leather’ where we did the same exact thing.”
There is also a guest appearance from keyboard legend Don Airey (RAINBOW, ELO, OZZY OSBOURNE, DEEP PURPLE) on “When Doomsday Comes”.
“We were at the American embassy in different lines queuing for our visas and by the time we’d got them, Don had agreed to come and play on the song,” chuckles Byford.
It will also feature alongside the rack “No Rest For The Wicked” in the forthcoming movie “Hybrid Theory”, a sci-fi thriller which follows a group of British soldiers who find themselves in a life or death battle with an enemy far beyond their wildest
nightmares. The film is directed by James Erskin, who made “One Night In Turin” about England at the World Cup in 1990.
“We’ve done our darker albums, our full-on metal albums, we’ve been to those spaces and experimented with them and people came on the journey with us,” says Byford, “and with ‘Call To Arms’ you have the culmination of those 10 years and the 20 years before it. I love this album. I love the songs. I love the sounds. It’s right on the money.”
“Call To Arms” track listing:
01. Hammer Of The Gods
02. Back In ’79
03. Surviving Against The Odds
04. Mists Of Avalon
05. Call To Arms
06. Chasing The Bullet
07. Afterburner
08. When Doomsday Comes (Hybrid Theory)
09. No Rest For The Wicked
10. Ballad Of The Working Man
11. Call To Arms (orchestral version)
“In Waves”, a brand new song from Florida metallers TRIVIUM, can be streamed below. The track comes off TRIVIUM‘s new studio album, which is tentatively due on August 9 via Roadrunner Records.
TRIVIUM‘s follow-up to 2008’s “Shogun” was recorded at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida with the production/mixing team of Colin Richardson (MACHINE HEAD, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, SLIPKNOT, FEAR FACTORY) and Martin “Ginge” Ford, along with engineer Carl Bown.
During an appearance on last week’s edition of the Metal Injection Livecast, TRIVIUM guitarist/vocalist Matt Heafy stated about the forthcoming CD, “We’ve been writing this same record for a year and a half. We demoed it for eight months. . . [but] when we actually started the record, it took us about three months or so of tracking and it’s gonna take maybe two months to mix, and Colin and the team are working on that right now.”
On the new album title and artwork:
“We’ve been working on the album’s art almost for about a year now with… There’s a bunch of different people involved with all the different
stages of the art. But we’re not releasing yet. We have everything, yes, but we can’t give any of it out.”
On which previous TRIVIUM album the new CD sounds most like:
“It’s hard to say which one it sounds most like, but I can say, to date, my favorite one that we have ever done is ‘Ascendancy’ [2005] — that’s been my favorite. There was a lot of experimentation on ‘The Crusade’ [2006] and ‘Shogun’ [2008].
‘The Crusade’ was the opposite of everything ‘Ascendancy’ was and ‘Shogun’ was kind of pulling elements from every single record. Whereas
this one, nothing sounds like any of the other ones at all, but with this record it sounds more like us than ever. ‘Cause with the other records, you could go, ‘OK, maybe this sounds like this kind of music’ or ‘This sounds like this kind of band,’ or maybe ‘It pulls from here or there,’ whereas this is just definitive ‘our’ sound; there is nothing that really deviates from the past; it’s all in the realm of itself. I know that’s really broad and it doesn’t really answer too much of it. It’s a whole new thing. It’s not like anything we’ve done before… again.”
On the lyrical themes covered on the new TRIVIUM album:
“With ‘From Ember To Inferno’ [2003] and ‘Ascendancy’, they’re both kind of in the same realm; they’re both a lot of personal stuff, a little bit of social things, things that I saw around me.
With ‘Crusade’, it was a lot of sociopolitical [commentary], maybe drawing more from specific current events and a couple of other bits here and
there; there are obviously some things that are personal. With ‘Shogun’, there was a lot of mythology influence, there was a lot of Japanese history influence. With this new record, the long answer, or the short answer, is basically is that there is no right or wrong answer on what anyone’s gonna perceive of what the lyrics mean to them, but I will not be saying what they mean to me at all. Because I really want people to come up with everything… Everything down to the music to the visuals to the art… because we’re recreating everything with this new record.
There’s a new TRIVIUM logo, there’s a new style of art, there’s a new look, there’s a new feel, there’s new kinds of videos and everything going on. And I really want it to be up to the ear and the eye of the beholder of what they feel it means to them. So whatever it means to you is gonna be right. I don’t want people to go into it with a preconceived notion of what I feel like it should mean where it could mean something else to that person and to that listener.”
In an interview with U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine, Heafy stated about the songwriting process for TRIVIUM‘s new CD, “When we did [2006’s] ‘The Crusade’, we were in a very weird time as a band; we weren’t talking very much, it was very tense. I used to hate going to band practice and used to hate touring because it was always such a weird environment… so tense. Now everything is just fun. There are no limits to creativity now.
“[Bassist] Paolo [Gregoletto] has really stepped up as an integral songwriter on this record. Most of the music we started with on this record was brought to us by Paolo. He has really created this new soundscape for this band that’s kind of mindblowing.
“The last record was our ‘super-long-song’ record. This one doesn’t have as many long songs as [2008’s] ‘Shogun’, but they are there when it’s appropriate to do so. Some of the songs are the most to-to-point and best songs we’ve ever done that’s not about technicality.”
“Having our four brains and all our ears together for eight months, we have learned what each person is supposed to do in the band, like what we each bring to the table, what each person can offer a song. I truly believe it sounds more like us than ever.
“Some of the songs are the most intense technically and maybe melodically. It’s such a broad spectrum [of sounds], but it really feels like it all fits. There are things on here we’ve never done before.”
“The whole concept of this album has been thought out for a year, so it’s not just music, it’s a whole package, enhanced and realized. We’ve had the album art done for awhile now and there are days when I just sit and stare at it and listen to the music we have and write lyrics. Even now I
don’t know what the picture of of, though. When I ask [the artist] what it is, he just smiles and says, ‘It is what it is.'”
Regarding what TRIVIUM‘s latest addition, drummer Nick Augusto, has added to the band’s sound, Heafy said, “This is the first time Nick has ever been in a proper studio. He’s a sick drummer; he can play technical death metal, extreme death, he can play blast beats at a million miles a minute, double-kick faster than kids who need triggers. But he’s also learned to rein it in as well so we can bring in extra dimensions. People questioned whether he could play groove drums or simple rock things. He really can and it’s incredible.”
TRIVIUM‘s last album, “Shogun”, sold just under 24,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 23 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD followed up “The Crusade”, which opened with 31,000 copies in October 2006 to land at No. 25.
“Shogun” was released in North America on September 30, 2008 via Roadrunner Records. The CD was mixed in London by Colin
Richardson, with Jeff Rose and Martin “Ginge” Ford assisting on engineering duties.
The first tune from Trivium’s upcoming fifth studio album is right here:
“Send Me The Sign (Live In Studio)”, the new video from Swedish melodic metallers HAMMERFALL, can be viewed below. The clip is taken from the bonus disc that was made available with the band’s new album, “Infected”, which came out in Germany on May 20 via Nuclear Blast
Records.
“Infected” will be released on June 7 in North America via Nuclear Blast Records. Laying down the foundation themselves in their own studio in Sweden, the members of HAMMERFALL then traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to finish it up with acclaimed producer James Michael (MÖTLEY CRÜE, SCORPIONS, MEAT LOAF). He also mixed the album, giving it a decisive updated edge without losing any of the essence of the band’s sound. “James helped us create something that was new and exciting while still in the line of our heritage”, Oscar Dronjak, guitar player and founder of the band, explains.
The album consists of eleven songs, and the limited first edition also includes a bonus DVD with unreleased video material of five of the “Infected”
tracks.
“Infected” track listing:
01. Patient Zero
02. Bang Your Head
03. One More Time
04. The Outlaw
05. Send Me A Sign
06. Dia De Los Muertos
07. I Refuse
08. 666 – The Enemy Within
09. Immortalized
10. Let’s Get It On
11. Redemption
The “One More Time” video was directed by Patric Ullaeus of Revolver Film Company, who has previously worked with DIMMU BORGIR, LACUNA COIL, IN FLAMES, SONIC SYNDICATE, EVERGREY and KAMELOT, among many others.
On April 6, Nuclear Blast Records released a limited-edition picture seven-inch version of “One More Time” from HAMMERFALL‘s upcoming album “Infected”. The vinyl is limited on 500 copies and sold through the Nuclear Blast mailorder only. On the B-side of the single there is a live version of “Hallowed Be My Name” recorded at the Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2009. The digital version of the single contains an additional instrumental version of “One More Time”.
Send Me A Sign video:
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