INTERVIEW: Arch Enemy’s Michael Amott
Arch Enemy are about to embark on the last round of touring for last year’s excellent Khaos Legions. More melodic and with maybe a touch less death than you might expect from a melodic death metal band, Khaos Legions is also the last Arch Enemy album to feature guitarist Chris Amott, whose departure from the band was announced earlier this month. But mere line-up changes can’t keep Arch Enemy down: new guitarist Nick Cordle of Arsis has taken up the co-guitarist throne alongside Michael Amott, and the band has a lot to say and do before they put the full stop at the end of Khaos Legions.
You’re about to come to Australia for a very short tour. Only two shows. You know what that means for a lot of fans: heavy metal road trip!
Yeah! We’re happy that we got the opportunity to play Australia at all this year, but it’s just these two shows. We wanted to play it safe. And it’s at the end of an Asia run. We start in Japan and do four shows there, then we go round Singapore, the Philippines, Korea, various places around Asia. Then we got the opportunity with a new promoter to tack on these two Australian shows, Melbourne and Sydney. We’re just really excited about doing it. I guess it’s been a couple of years since we were there now.
The last time I saw you were was probably Gigantour.
Yeah. I think the last time we were there was ’09. We did Gigantour, we’ve done a few different things down there. This will be our fourth or fifth visit to Australia, and this will be the last one in a while. We’re obviously not going to come back this year after these shows, then next year, 2013 is going to be a year off for Arch Enemy mostly. We’ll probably put out a new album in 2014. So I don’t know, maybe 2015 we’ll be back, if metal is still around at that point! So it’s going to be a while, so if anybody wants to see us and get their dose of Arch Enemy this is the last one for a while.
Obviously the hot topic at the moment is Chris’s departure from the band. What’s the story?
Well, Chris informed us in October last year that he wanted to leave the band. Again. [Laughs]. He’s been out of the band, in 2005, 2006, 2007. Continue reading
NAMM 2012: The lowdown on the Marshall Joe Satriani amp
A lot of people want to know what the deal is with the new Marshall Joe Satriani signature amp. It wasn’t unveiled at NAMM like many had hoped, and there’s no release date yet, at least not that I’ve seen anywhere. Well let the Tone King give you the answer!
NAMM 2012: Marshall 50th Anniversary 1-watters
This year marks Marshall’s 50th anniversary, and to celebrate the occasion they’re releasing a different one-watt amp (available in head and combo versions) to represent a popular amp from each decade. A new one will be released every 11 weeks. First up is the JTM1 to represent the 60s. Next is the JMP1, then the JCM1 (think JCM800), the DSL1 (think my personal amp, the DSL2000) and then the monstrous JVM1.
Marshall buys Eden Bass Amps from US Music Corp
Wow! Very interesting indeed!
PRESS RELEASE
US Music Corp Announces Sale of Eden Bass Amps to Marshall Amplification plc
US Music Corp announced today that they have sold their Eden Bass Amplification business to Marshall Amplification plc. The transaction was concluded on December 22, 2011.
In commenting on the purchase of Eden, Jonathan Ellery, Managing Director of Marshall stated “We are very pleased to be able to add this revered brand to our business. We feel that Eden is a great strategic fit within our Marshall Amplifier line and therefore we have the opportunity to increase the Eden brand’s presence worldwide. We are prepared to invest in the development of new products and to expand the awareness of the brand.”
Barry Ryan, President of US Music Corp added, “The sale of Eden Bass Amps to Marshall will result in more resources being dedicated to the brand and that will translate into a continually improving and evolving line of Eden Bass Amp products. We are pleased to be able to continue to represent Eden in the United States as the exclusive distributor and our North American customer base will not be impacted as a result of the sale.”
INTERVIEW: Korn’s James ‘Munky’ Shaffer
Korn are one of the few bands of the Nu Metal era to have endured. Not only does their original breakthrough material still hold up despite the decade and a half of imitators, they also manage to maintain a sense of vitality in their newer material. Just look at last year’s Korn III: Remember Who You Are. It was a dirty, raw, powerful, vital album at a time when bands often become complacent. But complacency isn’t in Korn’s vocabulary. Their latest, The Path Of Totality, finds them pairing up with various dubstep and electronica producers to put a heavily neo-industrial spin on their established bottom-heavy rhythmic drive. But The Path Of Totality isn’t the only new release that Korn guitarist James ‘Munky’ Shaffer is involved in. He recently – finally – released the debut self-titled album by his long-planned solo project, Fear and the Nervous System, a band which features Faith No More bass player Billy Gould, drummer Brooks Wackerman, and Repeater vocalist Steve Krolikowski.
How did the collaborations on The Path Of Totality happen? Did you work together in the studio? Did you send off recorded parts?
It was kind of mixed up. We started out with Skrillex and we worked in the studio with him on the first track, which was ‘Get Up.’” So we were actually working with him in person. And also with Downlink and Excision. Noisia, those guys are from the Netherlands so we just send tracks through the air. They sent them back and Jonathan (Davis, vocals) was in communication with them. So it was kinda different with each artist and producer.
It must have been a cool challenge to figure out exactly where the guitar would fit amongst all the other stuff going on.
I mean, on a lot of the tracks it seemed really like ‘Where am I gonna put the guitar? Where is it gonna fit?’ And it was challenging for me. Rhythmically it was really kinda busy and I was trying to find the right space and the right notes. It’s like a boxing match – you bob and weave to sort of get your punch in there.
Hi! I'm Peter Hodgson. I write for Gibson.com, Australian Guitar, Australian Musician, Mixdown Magazine (including my instructional column, 'Unleash Your Inner Rock God,' which has been running since 2007), guitarworld.com, Tone Deaf, Beat (including their weekly hard rock/metal column Crunch) and The Brag. And I'm Assistant Social Coordinator with Seymour Duncan.
I've been playing guitar since I was 8 years old, and I've been writing for magazines since I was 18. I've also worked as a guitar teacher (up to 50 students a week), a setup tech, a newspaper editor, and I've also dabbled in radio a little bit. I live in Melbourne, Australia, and my hobbies include drinking way too much coffee, and eating way too much Mexican food.
You can check out my guitar playing at Reverbnation or on YouTube, and feel free to email me at iheartguitarblog@gmail.com