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
Hard to believe, but also in Switzerland the temperatures around New Years Eve reached plus 7, and the good aspect was that you could enjoy the fireworks without freezing to death. Yet me and about 800 other people decided to spend the night inside Z7 club, instead of watching the light effects outside. Amorphis were back in town after a long absence, no better way to celebrate the end of the old year.
The Man-Eating Tree were the openers for their Finnish countrymen. The Album “Vine” 2010 put The Man-Eating Tree quickly into the Top-Newcomers in the Metalscene, due to their fresh melancholic-atmospheric music and the voice of Tuomas Tuominen. Some of their songs might be a bit too slow perhaps, but with their faster songs they quickly attracted the people at Z7. The majority seemed to be unfamiliar with the band so far, but they quickly mutated into fans. The Man-Eating Tree played with a replacement drummer, and a quite well-known name: Aksu Hanttu, former Entwine-drummer, doing a good job replacing Vesa Ranta (Ex-Sentenced), who stayed with his soon-expecting wife (and congratulations to the family for the new baby). Next tour will be with Vesa on drums again. The Man-Eating Tree were once again a real highlight.
Leprous looked pretty good regarding stage presence, outfit and different characters, and the music was good, too. Yet I have to admit that it was not quite my cup of tea, and in the higher registers singer Einar Solberg stressed my ears, as those notes sounded off, and painfully. Other people in the audience seem to suffer as well, and many think that The Man-Eating Tree should have played as second act. Unfortunately it´s the financial side that decides a tour position, therefore I cannot say more here than Sorry - Next.
Amorphis Difficult to write about this band, as I have seen them so many times. And every time those guys do their job in a very thorough and professional way. This time it seems they are not having their best day. The sound leaves a lot to be desired, neither the guitars nor Tomi Joutsen´s vocals can convince, and the setlist has been better in earlier concerts, too. “You I Need”, “ My Kantele”, “Sky is Mine” or “House of Sleep” are played in the end of the set, and what strikes me is the feeling that there are 6 strangers gathered on the same stage. The usual unity is missing, perhaps only for me, and I got a wrong impression. Or they were simply exhausted because of those 5 shows they played before. Still, another great gig of those Kalevala-Rockers.
My personal highlight were The Man-Eating Tree on this last night of the old year, simply because they have a lot of fun with what they are doing, and you can see they are totally into their music. Unfortunately the countdown for the new year did not work that well in Z7, but there was plenty of pleasures to enjoy next – food, drinks and 3 more bands that played after midnight.
