Sad news: The music world mourns the loss of Ray Manzarek (74), founding Member and keyboarder of The Doors, White Zombie drummer Phil Buerstatte (44) and Uriah Heep bassist Trevor Bolder (63). R.I.P.!
German Hardrockers BERSERKER will donate 18.000€ to the Berlin cancer charity for children on May 25. November 2011 BERSERKER front man Schröder was diagnosed with cancer, now he is cancer-free. In 2012 the band collected money for this charity at their concerts and will also continue to do so in the future. Slayer´s Jeff Hanneman is dead: he passed away at about 11AM on May 2nd near his Southern California home because of liver failure due to an infection after a spider bite. R.I.P. Jeff!
The Siberian Jay music video "I´m Holding" featuring Mikko Sirén from Apocalyptica on drums - we reported about the videoshoot in our "1h with" Special - can be watched here: http://youtu.be/C-hSNurZVcs
In 2006, Hannibal, the band of former Spitfire singer Alex Balakakis aka Hannibal, released their first record „This is U“. Now, six years later their second album “Cyberia” hits the stores. During those six years, the band moved from Greece to London and could add a few important points to their biography. Gigs with Whitesnake, Def Leppard and Nightwish on one hand, and on the other hand Klaus Meine of the Scorpions hand-picked them as support for their show in Athens. As support of ex-Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen, they toured through Europe and Mr. Hannibal had the chance to perform “Phantom of the Opera” together with the Grande Dame. A success story, they now want to continue, after a two year long break.
With “Cyberia” that should be pretty possible as the album has a very fresh sound to it. It´s a mixture of metal, with, however, more rock-like vocal lines, and electro-goth-industrial influences that make every song sound new and somehow ´loose´. Occasionally, these elements could be a little bit more in the foreground but all in all, Hannibal did a very good job, as he also mixed the entire record himself. The song “Somebody wake me” reminds me a bit of the colleagues of Monster Magnet, but not so much it would annoy me. I especially like the slower piece “Sacred Alphabet”, it has a very nice melody and a catchy chorus. The album gets better from track to track. Hannibal might be not the best singer of his genre but he has something special in his voice. For a second album, this is a really good and impressive result. By the way, the 24-page booklet is a real eye-catcher with its mechanical style layout. You can have a look at the design also at the band´s website.
