National Overdrive

Hard rock served straight up and dirty, NATIONAL OVERDRIVE, comes straight out of Minneapolis with their debut EP, “Welcome to the Nation”. Bassist and founder, Michael Alan (formerly of Twin Cities’ rock juggernaut, THOUGHTCLOUD) started up a recording project with the idea to form a band around it. And it couldn’t have evolved more serendipitously. “I ran into our engineer when my car broke down”, Alan says. “He was sitting over at a convenience store and I overheard him say he had a studio. Found out his studio was right around the corner from my house and then we just started getting together recording. I put a lineup together and now we’re ready to go out and play. Our record is out there and we’re ready to fire it up and go nuts.”

An interview with Divyded

Kittie, Nonpoint, Art of Dying, Taste of Madison and Band Camp. Most bands play for years just dreaming of scoring gigs like these, yet there’s one band who have managed to scale the ranks and land those shows in just a matter of months. The immensely talented metal band Divyded has made a name for themselves by doing what so many other bands fail to do these days: Stay true to themselves. They ignore fads, trends and cookie cutter band clichés. Listening to any one of their songs it’s easy to understand why this band has caught the attention of thousands of hard rock and metal fans. Maximum Ink’s Aaron Manogue spoke with the boys in Divyded: Jason Radosevich, Drums; Chuck Wepfer, lead guitar and vocals;  Ryan Trainor, bass; and Jason Hagberg, guitar.

Kittie

Is it just me or does it seem like the biggest thing in hard rock and metal lately is to throw a pretty face up on stage and hand her a microphone and pray that the fans take notice? Record labels using the age-old sex appeal to sell records. The thing that happens then typically, is that pretty face is nothing more than just that, a pretty face. This isn’t the case when it comes to the metal shredders in Kittie. Not only do they all have that pretty face to start off, but then they leave your asses thinking, “What the hell is this? I love it!” The femme-fatale quartet are maidens of destruction on their new album “I’ve Failed You” and continue to produce high-quality, ass-kicking metal that erases the underlying notion of an all-female metal band. They’ve demolished so many mosh pits and ruptured so many ear drums that they are simply a bad ass metal band with immense talent and enviable stage presence.  Maximum Ink’s Aaron Manogue sat down with lead vocalist and guitarist Morgan Lander to talk about why they chose metal, their new album and the personal struggle purveyed throughout it.

Mpire Of Evil

The land down under’s Joe Matera caught up with former Venom and Atomkraft bassist and frontman Tony Dolan to answer questions on post-Venom band Mpire of Evil.

Maximum Ink: Can you give us some background to how MPIRE OF EVIL came to be formed?
Tony Dolan: Well MPIRE of EVIL are myself, Mantas and Antton, all former Venom band mates. Mantas was doing his project called Dryll and needed a drummer to fill in as his had broken his ankle and Antton stepped in to lend a hand. They played a local show and did Venom’s Black Metal and people started saying, ‘what if they got Tony in, what would that be like?’ The boys thought that also and then I got a call. I said yes straight away as I have always enjoyed working with Mantas. He is a great player and so tight…it’s a joy to play with him especially live. As for Antton? Well, I’d never had a drummer that good and I loved his playing on the Resurrection album so it was for me a no brainer, we began to write and here we are. Actually what was bizarre was that after a few months of talking and writing, I got up to Newcastle (I live in London) and we thought we should have a rehearsal/jam to see what would happen. We played about 6 or 7 songs, one new and other Venom songs and it was like we’d been playing them as a band for years.

MI: Tell us about the upcoming EP?
TD: Well the thoughts on an EP were that we wanted to release something pre album so we could start doing shows but that hasn’t happened as it’s taken up all our time. But we will still release the EP and then a month or so later the full album. In true Neat/Venom tradition we have placed 2 tracks on the EP that will not appear on the album release initially and we have recorded another 4 tracks for the EP. The title is ’The Creatures of the Black’ and it features 6 tracks, including 4 covers by bands which influenced us to start playing and wanting to be in our own bands:

MI: The Creatures of the Black – Reptile – Motorhead (Motorhead) – Exciter (Judas Priest) – Hell Ain’t a bad Place to Be (ACDC) and God of Thunder (KiSS).
TD: The EP will appear as a special Vinyl release through Iron Pegasus Records and the CD through Scarlet Records. People will ask why we’d do the covers but we wanted to make a statement that we weren’t attempting to be 21 again and to compete. We are what and who we are full stop. It’s not 1980 anymore but what great decades ,70’s,80’s, and what an influence on Metal/Rock?

MI: You’ve mentioned signing with Scarlett Records and a new album in the works…
TD: Yes, we have signed our deal with Scarlet and are very happy to be with Fil and the team. They will be releasing the EP first then the album which is called, ‘Hell To The Holy’ and it will feature that title track…and around 11 more…some titles include…Hellspawn - The 8th Gate – Wake Up Dead – The Circle Pit – Metal Messiah and others not yet defined.

MI: There is a tour also this summer, any plans for US dates?
TD: Yes right now we are planning the full tour for 2012, festival dates as well as 30 dates in Europe then we want to play the US and South America. We are talking to several booking agents right now. But basically we want to play as much as possible in 2012.

MI: And if so, would Madison, Wisconsin be on the schedule?
TD: It is NOW! If they want us?

MI: Will MPIRE OF EVIL be including any Venom material in the set list?
TD: Well we did speak at length about that and we are not Venom, there is a Venom out there but we all feel there are certain songs we would like to play live and why shouldn’t we? They are ones that Mantas, Myself and or Antton wrote, so yes.

MI: What music do you think kicks ass right now?
TD: Well I am into the underground so there are tonnes of acts, the list is too long. I try to help young or upcoming bands as much as possible, maybe one day I shall do the label thing myself. I am still loving Destruction, who are getting even better with age, Slayer, Rammstein but newer stuff I am really still liking some Black Metal and Death metal acts. Antton is still a huge Pantera guy and as Phil is a friend, he loves Down amongst many many others, as he is a HUGE metal fan as he always has been…and Mantas loves Machinehead, Slipknot, Zakk Wilde, As I Lay Dying…and lots more…

MI: Who is your favorite Porn star and why?
TD: Diamond Jackson hands down, why? Are you kidding me? Amazing body, amazing business mind, amazing woman and an Ebony dream - perfect! Can you hook me up? 

MI: If you could take one food item to Wisconsin, what would it be?
TD: Marmite, just to watch peoples faces when I ask them to try some.

Diamond Head

As the Seventies snorted on, the hard rock genre started bloating into the drug-fueled excesses of classic rock. Punk rock came in with its simple chords and snotty attitude to threaten metal into an early oblivion. Rockers that were into guitar solos and liked listening to men that scream like women needed a louder and faster reponse in order to save metal. Riding in like knights in leather armor, The New Wave of British Heavy Metal was that response. Bands like Iron Maiden, Mötorhead, and Judas Priest were at the forefront of the genre, eventually even gaining acceptance from the mainstream which had previously shunned the biker and fetish gear(for God’s sakes, you can buy Maiden t-shirts at Kohl’s!)

One of the most influential and important bands of the NWOBHM (as it is usually abbreviated as) was Diamond Head. Even casual metal fans have heard Metallica’s version of “Am I Evil?” (and if you haven’t, get thee to iTunes now!) and that’s probably their most famous song.

The Cervical Rock 2011

New Cervical cancer diagnoses occur in the United States over twelve thousand times a year and almost four thousand women die from the disease. Yet, it’s one of the most preventable cancers and death rates are declining due to ladies getting earlier and more regular testing. On Wednesday, August 3rd, the High Noon in Madison will host The Cervical Rock 2011, a benefit to make a difference someone personally affected by this disease. Featuring an all-star lineup of Madison hard rock, metal, punk, and indie bands, we talked to the benefit’s creator, Elicia Rocker of Extremely Rockin’ Photography about why she was inspired to get this thing going.

MI:What about your friends’ situation made you decide that you needed to help?

A: We have known each other our whole lives and she is one of the sweetest people I know and if it were me who ended up in this situation she would do the same thing. She is only 25 and works at a retail store where she does have insurance but it hasn’t covered much of her bills. She is very far in debt and scrapping by. When she came to me and told me about the bills in collections and needed some extra money to help get her car repaired, I decided enough is enough, you can’t heal when you are stressed about money or stressed at all. So I did what anyone in my position would do, I started putting together a benefit show.