ZARDONIC'S UNOFFICIAL BLUE STAHLI REMIX GOES LEGIT!

After millions of plays since 2011, Blue Stahli's 'SHOTGUN SEÑORITA' - as remixed by Venezuelan Metal Drum & Bass artist Zardonic ( below ) - gets an officially-sanctioned release.

WANT MORE ZARDONIC? - Check out:

ZARDONIC'S GUIDE TO DJ-ING plus MIXTAPE

ALIEN BASS: ZARDONIC EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

ZARDONIC'S GUIDE TO DJ-ING - PLUS NEW STUDIO MIXTAPE!

Future-Rocker caught up with Zardonic between recent gigs, to get the inside scoop on touring and album production.  

''People go there to see Zardonic. And Zardonic they will hear''

It takes some balls for a DJ to compose and record his own music and then DJ it at a gig. What was it like the first time you played your own tunes at an event?

It sure does, and Zardonic has BALLS OF STEEL!! Nukemisms aside, it was interesting! Especially because when I started, I was still on that trial and error process any self-taught artist and engineer has. Monitors? I barely had some Maxell headphones and some Hi-Fi speakers. With enough time and practice, I mastered my own sound, but you don't expect to have a club-ready mix with your first few tracks. I think the very first time I played my own tunes was at some house party in the middle of nowhere. And I remember being extremely excited about it. All I wanted was to play. I didn't care about any of the business side of it. Just me playing shit out of Traktor v 2.0 on my old ass Pentium D computer. Oh, did I mention I didn't have a laptop? Yep. Me, my computer monitor, my PC tower, some old ass keyboard and mouse. No fancy stuff. Just me and my passion and nothing in between. Good old days!

What do you do onstage to your own tunes to make them different from just playing the CD as it is?

I've started to add little toys to my setup to make it all more fun and interesting. I don't really use the sync button either, as convenient as that might be, but might have to start doing so, if I want to do what I want to do - which is having a semi-live act so to say. That's why it's so easy for a lot of DJs to play four decks and market themselves as veterans. It's all in the sync button. And I'm not against it. People need to understand that being a DJ is exactly that. It doesn't make them better or worse than the next musician. It's simply a different art and a different delivery. Go ahead and get on stage and do the same shit and see if you can do it any better. And whoever knows how to do it and can deliver a powerful result whatever the method, that's perfect in my book. I don't think the main stage at Tomorrowland would benefit from having Zakk Wylde playing the guitar instead, the same way Wacken wouldn't benefit from having Calvin Harris on it. Or would it? Zardonic ft. Zakk Wylde. Hmm. I like the sound of that.

Describe the composing and recording process for the album.

Lots, lots, lots, lots, and lots of experimentation. And then some. Until I have gigabytes worth of sample-packs I designed on my own. Then I choose whatever inspires me from there, and that works as the main spark for an entire tune. "Pure Power", for example, the intro loop, that was pretty much where the song was born from. Everything else derived from there. "Raise Hell", the first guitar riff you hear. "Antihero", the bleeping loop. I try to find a midpoint between the composition ethos of an EDM producer and a Metal composer. It all starts with a loop, and then I add enough variations and things to it, so it maintains that human touch most dance music has been lacking for a long, long time.

Describe how you plan a gig. For instance, how audiences differ, and how you plan in advance.

Planning for every single crowd you play for is not something I exactly agree with. I'm not a DJ that plays what people like. People go there to see Zardonic. And Zardonic they will hear. I think that's part of the misconception of a DJ these days. I was talking to Savant about it the other day, I remember him and his manager Josh saying "Fuck being a DJ". Best quote ever right there. What we obviously mean is not to ditch the CDJs or the turntables if you will, we simply mean fuck being what people think a DJ should be. We are artists. We play our shit, we play what we like and you follow or leave. I've never cleared a single dancefloor in my entire career. I've played Electro at Drum & Bass shows, Hardcore at House festivals, you name it. It's just me and I go with the flow. Eventually you do know that some people like certain things, others like other things. Russians LOVE their hard music but don't like Hard Techno, for example. Venezuelans love it. Florida is all about the four-to-the-floor, so my Industrial Electro works better there. Holland is all about crossbreed. Atlanta is more about trap and dubstep and whatever. That doesn't mean I haven't played Hard Techno for the Russians or Electro for the Polish. And again, not a simple complaint. It makes perfect sense. If you keep the crowd grabbed by the balls at all times, there's no time for them to rest, then you burn them, and I don't mean that in a good way. If there's something I've learned in 11 years of career is that people also like to listen to music, not only dance to it, and are more appreciative of an interesting set than a bunch of drops one after another.

Any chance of a full DJ set being released on CD, such as the excellent Moscow World of Drum and Bass gig..? - You should definitely sample that Russian announcer saying ''ZAARRRDONNNNNNIIIIICCCCC'' for a future song!

AGREED!!! Dude, I fucking love those voices. They use them all over Russia. I might actually do that for next time. I'll hit them up about it! I would love for a full set to be released on CD, who knows man! That's a great idea right there for sure!

REVIEWS: ZARDONIC, BLUE STAHLI & CELLDWELLER

Rock groups can be a nuisance. They’re costly. They need feeding and watering, and constantly exercising. Occasionally they’ll piss themselves or sh*t on the carpet. Worst of all, they have a tendency to expire at really inopportune moments. Which is why, since the advent of electronic music, some musicians opt to go out alone and save themselves the hassle of sharing royalties with a bunch of annoying, sweaty idiots on a bus.

The autumn / winter of 2015 / 2016 is unique in that it has seen three acts at the vanguard of electronic rock-n-roll releasing important albums within weeks of each other. Whether it’s a bonafide musical movement, electronic rock / metalstep / MetaLectro or whatever the hell you want to call it, has garnered hundreds of thousands of diehard fans and generated a growth industry at a time when the conventional music industry is flatlining.

ZARDONIC – ANTIHERO ( eOne Records, CD / download )

Zardonic’s album ‘Antihero’ feels like both a political manifesto, as well as the soundtrack to a running street battle. Even though the album’s subject matter amounts to nothing more than an emphatic twenty-first century fight for your right to party, the politics comes from the knowledge that the DJ left a precarious existence in Venezuela to bring his singularly unique Dance Metal hybrid to the rest of the world. Put it this way – attitudinally, this album is closer in spirit to Sepultura’s ‘Refuse/Resist’ than Limp Bizkit’s ‘Rollin’. 

Opening with the sound-montage ‘World at War’, we are ushered into a futuristic soundscape of crunching metal riffs, loops, FX and crisp beats. In fact, the production as a whole stands out, having a clean modern metal vibe backed by punchy drums that are upfront and clear - as you would expect from what is essentially a dance album. On the two-disk version you have the choice of tracks both with and without lead vocals. Personally I prefer the ones with vocals, simply because they give the song context, although after a few plays, you may feel like hearing the music unadorned with vox.

This album is not afraid to shred either, as guitar solos are plentiful. Zardonic clearly does not try to anticipate or second-guess what a dance audience thinks. As he says in the interview: ‘People go to hear Zardonic and Zardonic they will hear.’’

It’s difficult to isolate a standout track, as the album works cohesively either as a collection of singles or a whole work of sonic art, but mention must be made of the fourth track ‘Vigilante’, which sounds like a 21^st Century update of KMFDM’s stomping industrial metal - with an added dash of Pantera's 'fist-skull-break!' ferocity.

A tortuous electronic loop intro opens the next track, into a Laibach-style industrial stomp-fest, before ushering in the kind of Dubstep that sounds like a 300-foot tall robot kicking over the Empire State Building. The titles give an indication of the general thrust of this album: ‘Vigilante’, Override’, ‘For Justice’ and ‘The Time Is Now’ - one gets the feeling that Zardonic knows he is in a unique place and time where pop culture taste is finally catching up with him, and he’s the one that seized the moment.

BLUE STAHLI – THE DEVIL ( Fixt Music, CD / download )

Bret Autry, AKA ‘Blue Stahli’ is definitely a musician from the ‘more is more’ school of sonic bombardment. After an atmospheric intro, opening track ‘It’s Not Over til We Say So’ assaults the listener with a Cradle of Filth-style barrage of riffs and artillery drumming, before segueing into the typical pop rock mode he’s known for. With a guest bass and backing vocal turn from four-string virtuoso Emma Anzai ( of Sick Puppies fame ), ‘It’s Not Over’ sets out the battle-plan from the get-go: Wall-of-noise rock, busy electronica, leavened brilliantly by the most insanely catchy pop-hooks you’ll hear all year. ( Although, this listener would love to hear a remix with Anzai’s bass skills brought to the fore ).

Once acclimatised to the full-speed ahead approach, the listener may be able to appreciate the cheeky humour of the composer, his skill with instruments, and the myriad sonic flourishes ( the album was produced by Celldweller mastermind Klayton, with additional mixing by industrial music veteran Rhys Fulber ), and also marvel at his facility with what we used to refer to as ‘a tune’.  

Stylistically, during the more mid-tempo parts, this reviewer is reminded of 90s industrial rock duo Filter, while in the heavier parts, the manic intensity of Devin Townsend is recalled. Throw in a nod to Muse on ‘The Fall’ ( with its layered vocal harmonies ), and a wink at Dream Theater for the wah-wah riff on ‘Shoot Em Up’, and you pretty much have Blue Stahli down. On the final stretch we get a superbly malevolent lead vocal from Mark Salomon on ‘You’ll Get What’s Coming’ which allows the album a neat gear-shift away from Bret’s customary yelp.

Subject matter on the album generally covers the gamut of fighting, shooting, and blowing sh*t up, with some spiky religious allusions thrown in for good measure. As a genre you could perhaps label it First-Person Metal - indeed it’s notable that Autry’s main job is providing soundtracks to video games and trailers for films like Iron Man. Because of this, there’s a refreshing economy in his compositions, and, like his day-job suggests, there is no room for filler – only killer. The Devil is an ideal album for people whose idea of relaxation is to watch a Jerry Bruckheimer film while bingeing on a family pack of Skittles and Red Bull. In other words, it’s loud, attention grabbing, occasionally disorientating... but also a hell of a lot of fun.

CELLDWELLER – BLACKSTAR SCORE ( Fixt Music, CD / download )

Without wanting to draw too many parallels, it seems oddly synchronous that Klayton himself resembles a cyber-culture analogue of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, and that this conclusion to his 'Blackstar' song cycle is released within weeks of Bowie's final opus, also entitled 'Blackstar'.

That aside, in terms of CD output, this is a very interesting sidestep in Celldweller’s oeuvre ( although not entirely unexpected, because Klayton has often spoken about how much he would love to score movies such as 'Tron' or 'Bladerunner' ).  Therefore, ‘Blackstar’ is a luxurious exercise in the current trend for cosmic synth-driven faux movie soundtracks.

Opener ‘Retros’ underlines an interest he has in science fiction and synth scores: It is sweeping, cinematic, and greatly reminiscent of Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy soundtrack. A very impressive opener, which is then slightly curveballed by the following track, ‘Purified’, which starts appropriately enough like a Tron remix, but very quickly lurches sideways into an innard-shaking MetalStep workout that is typical later-period Celldweller. Compositionally though, it is more like a sound-collage and not a conventionally constructed or resolved song, and that perhaps explains why it doesn’t warrant inclusion on the actual ‘The End of an Empire’ album ( review below ). Even so, one suspects it is placed to attract the Celldweller headbanging die-hards who may have wavered over buying this purely instrumental album. Following on, ‘The Possibilities of Purpose’ has a celestial choir backed a synth riff that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Jean Michel Jarre album, while ‘A Dystopian Utopia’ features an eerie choral effect similar to Ligeti’s on Kubrick’s ‘2001’ soundtrack. It is meant to convey a vast and cosmic presence, and does so superbly. ‘The Undercity’ uses a pulsing didgeridoo-stab chased by some glitch effects while ‘Lost Treasures’ brings to mind another French electronic maestro, Vitalic, from his album OK Cowboy. Revisiting favourite movies, ‘6:17’ sounds like a love theme from the aforementioned BladeRunner soundtrack, and heading towards the album’s conclusion, ‘On the Surface of Scardonia’ is particularly effective: A composition anchored by ominous electronic reverberations, with eerie eastern cadences flitting back and forth across the soundscape. Akin to waking up on the surface of a planet-sized supercomputer and feeling it think. 

The album brings you back to earth with the concluding ‘Echoes of Time’ a track that would doubtless find itself onto myriad yoga compilations - a great future market for Klayton to exploit!

Celldweller has established a neat ‘look’ to his albums, and this is no different: A very punchy sci-fi concept-art cover that will grab gamers and comic-con fans alike. It does make me wonder what a more unusual and counter-intuitive cover could have done for the ‘feel’ of the album, as the music is certainly powerful enough to stand outside the regular Celldweller branding, and attract a more crossover audience.

All in all, this is an unexpectedly strong album, and as a potential composer for future Hollywood blockbusters, Klayton / Celldweller acquits himself well. 

Most definitely not a throwaway side-project, rather, a weighty augmentation to his regular cyber rock-n-roll output.

CELLDWELLER – END OF AN EMPIRE

( Fixt Music, 5-CD collector’s edition / download, vinyl )

As a listener who prefers to digest Celldweller in an album format, it’s been a frustrating few years. Not least, because of Klayton’s very generous internet dissemination of standalone songs, as and when they’re completed. This leaves album fans trying to avoid spoilers, and praying that FIXT hasn’t given up on the CD / album format altogether.

Seemingly with that in mind, the label has put together this definitive collection of just about every iteration of track from the END OF AN EMPIRE song cycle.

DISK 1 ( album proper ) & DISK 3 ( instrumental version ).

The human auditory system has so far taken 120-million years to evolve. To completely absorb the sonic bigness of this album, we probably need another hundred million or so to grow an additional set of ears, because it is only when played out of a great sound-system do you begin to grasp the meticulous production that comprises ‘Empire’.

Window-rattling bass frequencies vie for airspace amongst crushing metal riffage, topped off with both lush and screamo vocals, and the now obligatory Godzilla / dubstep FX.

Those of you who may have already absorbed the ‘Empire’ material online may still find something of interest in the ‘instrumental version’ of the album ( Disk 3 ). With the realisation that this disk doesn’t feel like a cheap add-on, it is instead a great way to properly absorb the intricately layered sonics, and furthermore, surprises the listener by how just how complete it feels, even without vocals. In fact, it is so fully-resolved that you find yourself going back to the ‘proper’ album just to remind yourself how the vocals fitted-in the first place.

It seems that Klayton is not just a singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, but also a sound designer. Most, if not all, of the Celldweller output has the feel of a futuristic movie soundtrack, hence my mentioning the need for multiple speakers, and an enhanced human auditory system, because sounds attack you from every conceivable angle. Please, do not just listen to this streamed, or on some shitty earphones. Insist on the full fidelity.

Running the full gamut from faux-soundtrack, to stadium-chewing cyber-rock, the only time you step outside the Klayton-sphere is perhaps the track ‘Down To Earth’ whose intro is so like classic late 80s / early 90s NIN that it immediately has you YouTubing Trent Reznor’s ‘Broken / Fixed’ EPs for a second opinion. Absolutely superb, the track is a fitting nod to a much-respected pioneer.

Roughly at the halfway point, ‘Just Like You’ provides a needed respite, as it is the nearest the album gets to a conventional ballad. This is followed by ‘Good Luck ( You’re F**ked )’ crashing the listener back to earth with its jerky electropunk-metal. A couple of tracks later, and never one to miss a marketing opportunity, with ‘Breakout’ Klayton teases the listener with a nod to his other persona SCANDROID, a deliberately trad electronic act he formed with Nick Kaelar, AKA Varien. Namechecking the Scandroid side-project must mean that there is an imminent album in 2016, and that this incredibly productive phase of Klayton’s has yet to lose any traction. The final track, ‘Precious One’ sounds like a Queen vocal harmony mash-up with ‘For Those About to Rock’ grandiosity, and thus closes the album on the appropriate note of triumphalism. Job done!

DISK 2: FACTIONS

'Factions' is a rather intriguing deconstruction of the ‘Empire’ album with added voice-over parts. Re-assembled into a soundtrack album, one can assume it’s a premonition of a future concept album, perhaps in the vein of Queensryche’s ‘Operation: Mindcrime’. Although it’s probably more likely that Hollywood will hand Klayton a real soundtrack project before that. There's some interesting moments on it, and while not as solidly resolved as 'Blackstar Score', for those wishing for more Klayton soundtrack music, it's a nice diversion until he releases another proper album.

DISKS 4 & 5: REMIXES

The final two disks comprise re-worked 'Empire' tracks from notables such as Zardonic, Rhys Fulber, Combichrist and many others. Taken as a whole, the sheer amount of material in the collectors' box means that the now-customary remixes are maybe best left for a rainy day when compiling a new mixtape or playlist, or when you've played the rest of the album into the ground. Nevertheless, there are some great examples that will suit every taste, such as the aggressive version of 'New Elysium' by Zardonic ( below ).

Song-wise, EMPIRE is a huge improvement on its predecessor WISH UPON A BLACKSTAR. That second album, despite being years in gestation, felt anticlimactic and rather half-baked in comparison to the genre-busting - and much-loved - debut album. Despite the sophomore hiccup, Klayton’s skilful management of his online persona, constant drip-feed of new - and better - material, meant that now this completed album has finally dropped, there is a huge and receptive audience ready and waiting for it. It certainly does not disappoint.

ALIEN BASS: ZARDONIC'S INVASION OF EARTH AMPS-UP!

''I do like to think Zardonic is DJ music and not Metal music''

Note! Since this article was published, Soundcloud have added ads to their format. It can be annoying but hang tight the music's worth waiting for!

One of the inevitabilities of modern life is the proliferation of hybrids: People experiment with technology and cultures that previously would not be accessible. They fuse their disparate influences, and make it their own. There is no better embodiment of a cultural gene-splice, than ZARDONIC. A pan-cultural collision of dance and heavy metal ( distinct from industrial, EBM or electro-goth ), DJ Federico Agreda brings a hard-edged apocalyptic form of dance music to the world's arenas.

This is Zardonic's time. We talk to him before - and then after - a ground-breaking Sri Lankan gig, where he was the first dance DJ in the world to headline a metal festival, and on the eve of the release of his CD, Antihero.

First of all, explain how Zardonic came about. Being from Venezuela, how has your background shaped your music?

I think living in a country where bullying is the rule makes you inevitably angry and vindictive. That paired with the terrible economical and political crisis the country is facing. I left the country in July 2014 shortly after the latest riots began. Kids playing the hero / freedom fighter / terrorist role with anything and everything from burning tires to mortars, against a relentless military police. Thankfully for some, it wasn't happening all over the country. But it sure was happening three blocks from where I lived. So I couldn't even go to the yard to look at the twilight - my hometown, Barquisimeto, is known also as Twilight City because of the incredible sunsets we have - without seeing clouds of smoke, hearing all sorts of explosions, gunfire and screams. Not to mention there's been a recent electricity regulation where they have to cut the power three days a week for 2-3 hours at random times. It was the perfect scenario for all sorts of raiders to do as they pleased. And they did. And they still do.

What’s the music scene like in Venezuela?

Despite what I just told you, the scene is surprisingly REALLY good. We have all sorts of internationally acclaimed artists. Look em up whenever you want: Guaco, Los Amigos Invisibles, La Vida Boheme, Desorden Publico, Gustavo Dudamel, all of them incredibly talented and successful. When it comes to Metal, I guess I could mention Paul Gillman and Krueger in terms of popularity, but the underground has a lot more to offer in terms of composition quality. Verminous is a great death metal band to check out.

You obviously are influenced by metal, but I notice from the tracks you’ve remixed - such as Arkhon Infaustus and Anaal Nathrakh – that you have a singular taste for the more 'progressed' Black Metal that came after the millennium ( Black Metal was/is a hyper-fast form of heavy metal, originating in Scandinavia in the 90s ). Is it fair to say that this is an era that interests you specifically?

Nailed it. Post-2000 Black Metal is right up my alley. Older classics like Bathory, old Mayhem and old Sepultura are also among my favorites, but that technical touch you hear in Mayhem's "Grand Declaration Of War ( 2000 )" as opposed to their "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas ( 1994 )" is something I personally prefer. 

I agree. When Mayhem went back to a more primitive sound to please the die-hards, they were in danger of making themselves obsolete.

I don't even know what they were trying to do by forcing their old sound back. That's involution. They should have kept the path they were taking if you ask me. A lot of people keep complaining about bands changing their sound. That's like you complaining about a fifty-year-old not being able to think the same way he did when he was ten. Evolution is natural, and so should be music. You can always go back and play the old albums and enjoy them for what they are, but trying to replicate it in new music will never be the same.

Were you into the more 'electronic' Black Metal such as Thorns and Aborym?

Of course!! I'm still waiting for Thorns to release another f**king album! And "With No Human Intervention" by Aborym is probably one of my favorite albums of all time! Loved the work of Attila Csihar ( Mayhem's vocalist ) particularly on that one.

''I am not a guy trying to bring electronic music into metal - that has been done to death''

Genre-busting music is always difficult to label. For example, I’ve noticed Celldweller is often listed on dance charts, whereas it would be more accurate to call it Metal, Progressive Metal, or perhaps even Electro-Metal ( – and very distinct from Industrial, which is how his music is labelled on my iPod ). Without wanting to reduce what you do with a simplistic label...what do you call the music of Zardonic?

Zardonic is Zardonic and I do what I feel, but I do like to think Zardonic is DJ music and not Metal music. I am not a guy trying to bring electronic music into metal. That has been done to death, and Celldweller is an excellent example of it. What I'm trying to do is the opposite: bring metal to the dance arenas. I like the energy you find in dance events. People are moving, they give you so much power, and everybody is all gathered and happy. Add a bit of extra heaviness and power to that and you've got an unmatched formula. That's why my live shows are still DJ sets. It's dance music with a lot of rock metal, not metal with electronic samples. In other words, I'm a DJ that sounds like a band, and not the other way around.

What inspired you to wear the mask? Kiss, Daft Punk, or Predator?

None of them. The mask was originally conceived and it's based on my logo which is based on my own face. People keep comparing it to Predator because it has "dreads" - RCA cables, to be precise - which were a later addition. But it wasn't inspired in anything that wasn't my own. Although I do like the idea that the final result resembles all of those things you mentioned, and other characters such as Deathstroke, Fulgore, Cyrax... a guy once said it looked like the cross of a Cylon and the mask from Scream, so I guess everybody will see what they will. I see nothing but the real me. Quoting Oscar Wilde, "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

Give us your Top 5 list of classic albums, any genres.

I hate Top 5s. I always end up turning that into a Top 10, 20 or 50. So I will just throw the first five albums I can think of:

Behemoth - The Satanist

Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Sinfonia

Mayhem - Grand Declaration Of War

Dodheimsgard - 666 International

Ulver - Themes From William Blake's 'The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell'

- And I guarantee you that I could keep going, and I'm leaving a ton out of that list that I listen on a daily basis. Sixth one and I'll stop: Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects - Sol Niger Within

I definitely agree with you regarding Arcturus and Mayhem, although Ulver was a bit too soft and proggy for me. What are you listening to at the moment?

Behemoth's "The Satanist" has been on repeat for a long while. It inspires me. Gives me an energy I can't explain. That's why I mentioned it as a classic, as I do believe it is the absolute best they've released. Contemporary artists, to be fair, I have a hard time finding new music that I like. I have to dig a lot, and sometimes the stuff I find that I like is probably music that was released a long time ago but I failed to discover then. God Is An Astronaut has an amazing sound. Some of the new DevinTownsend is good. Ne Obliviscaris, Xerath. That kinda stuff. But there are very few bands that understand how to make music that sounds interesting and at the same time hypnotic enough to be enjoyable. A lot of bands are on this quest to be the most technical, the most bizarre, or the most hard hitting, and you end up with a pig-squeal-fest with a lot of noise behind it. I can hardly mention any guitar riff composers I like these days. That's what "Bring Back The Glory" ( from Zardonic's Vulgar Display of Bass album ) was about. Bringing back the flavor of the 90s and early 2000s. That, for me, was the era. But maybe I'm just getting old because that's exactly what my old man would say about the 60s and 70s. He loved Pink Floyd big time!

What famous artists would you like to produce?

None. I have no time to produce anyone else that is not me. Unless they pay big money. 

So I guess whoever brings a balance of excellent music, open-mindedness and a fat wallet.

You’ve just announced that you’re headlining a Sri Lankan metal festival – that surely must be a first – both for 21st Century music culture and the Sri Lankans!

Tell me about it! It's going to be very interesting I think. I did it already when playing alongside Dimmu Borgir in Caracas. At first I thought the metalheads were gonna throw shit at me, but it was an excellent show and everybody was cheering and heard nothing but great comments about the set. There's always the occasional ignorant person that still thinks that being a DJ is only pushing buttons. I'd like to see Steve Vai trying to do a DJ set the same way Andy C does. It's another instrument man. Whoever fails to understand that is simply being square-headed.

Who’s idea was it, and what can the fans expect?

The Sri Lankans put it together. The fans can expect a set obviously a little more brutal and metal than usual, so I will be able to give free rein to all my black metal remixes. It's been a while since I played any!

Zardonic seems to embody one of the possible futures of heavy metal. Talking of futurist speculation, are you a fan of science fiction?

Big time. I see Zardonic as an antihero in a post apocalyptic future. But I think that topic has been overdone too much, so I want to be able to portray it in a different way. Still sorting out the ideas and don't want to give much away yet.

What books do you like to read and what movies do you like?

Never been much of a reader. They call it ADD in the United States. I need a movie. Most of the time I watch thought-provoking movies whatever the genre, but I have a sweet spot for great dramas. Movies like Dallas Buyers Club or Get Low. Robert Duvall's performance was outstanding there. I feel every time I watch those movies I grow as a human being. They give me perspective, inspiration. That's what I need from a movie.

Would you ever appear in a sci-fi movie, like the guys in Die Antwoord?

Maybe. But if I do appear in a movie it has to be done right. There's a difference between doing what Die Antwoord did with Chappie and what Bjork did with Dancer In The Dark.

Any plans to release a CD for those of us that like to keep music libraries and study liner notes and artwork in the booklet?!

Yes indeed. September 18th. You will be pleased!

''No matter how metal people think Zardonic is, Zardonic is an electronic music act''

Update - ZARDONIC'S SRI LANKAN GIG REPORT:

What was the Sri Lanka gig like? How responsive was the crowd?

I can't complain about this experience man! We had a fully packed Viharamahadevi Theatre - I dare you to pronounce that! The crowd was tough at first, but that's natural. No matter how metal people think Zardonic is, Zardonic is an electronic music act. It's obviously going to work better at EDC than Wacken metal festival. But I did some special tricks by the end of the set and some live vocals on top of it, and when I least expected it I had a moshpit in front of me! I think I was yet to play such an aggressive set.

Sri Lanka seems a long way from the busy music scenes of Europe and the Americas. What's their local scene like?

The local bands were great, a few of them need to improve a bit perhaps, but nothing that good advice and practice can't fix. I heard some mad potential. My favorite was Coat Of Arms from Dubai, and Seven Thorns did a pretty interesting job. There was also Demonic Resurrection from India, as made famous by the Global Metal documentary. Excellent stage presence as well.

Great interview - thanks for your time, and good luck with Antihero!

Thank you for yours!

ZARDONIC'S NEW CD, ANTIHERO, IS AVAILABLE HERE AND WILL BE REVIEWED ON THIS BLOG IN THE OCT / NOV EDITION!

ZARDONIC ON TWITTER

ZARDONIC ON FACEBOOK

COMING SOON: BLUE STAHLI, CELLDWELLER AND SYBREED!!

The next few months is an absolutely momentous era for electronic rock n roll. As well as ZARDONIC, there are imminent albums from industrial rocker BLUE STAHLI and king of electro-metal, CELLDWELLER! To celebrate, FUTURE-ROCKER will review all of these landmarks, plus we will have an exclusive interview with Thomas 'Drop' Betrisey, guitarist and studio wizard of Swiss industrial rockers SYBREED, who will be updating us on his new band OBSYDIANS. There's all this, and more - in the next edition, which will go live in late November. See you then - but if you can't wait that long, keep scrolling and check out the fantastic brand-new release from Brazil's LURDEZ DA LUZ, below this post!