TAKATAK : POWERFUL CONTEMPORARY METAL FROM PAKISTAN

You saw them here first - fans of Devin Townsend, Eddie Van Halen, Architects, Gojira and Jinjer will love them:

AUGMENTED REALITY: CODE ELEKTRO - LIVE WITH GUITAR & DRUMS!

'LIVE IS WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS'

This Fall, Danish Cyberpunk Martin Ahm Nielsen - AKA Code Elektro - released his first live album Night Train Live 2020, and in contrast to his acclaimed studio albums, this time features additional musicians to make it more of a live experience.

We catch up with Martin during 2020's Covid lockdown to find out how it all went down.

Future-Rocker: What made you decide to make Code Elektro a live experience?

Live is where the magic happens. I have always played live shows but only in other bands. And sometime last year I felt that it was time to take Code Elektro live. And it was so awesome!

Is Radar a local venue, and therefore a hometown crowd? What was it like, bringing it to the stage.

Radar is a local venue here in Aarhus (Denmark). It’s a really awesome place with great sound and gear (lights etc.). So yeah it was a hometown gig – beforehand I didn’t know if that would be an advantage because when I look at my Spotify data my fans are from all over the world. Thankfully a lot showed up and it was a great night!

'You can hear the groove'

What made you want to add a live guitarist (Niels Bach Storgaard) and drummer (Mikkel Nørgaard) for the live Code Elektro?

I wanted to have the live grooves that a guitarist and drummer gives - I wanted that feel with me on stage. I think you can hear the groove in the tracks. It really gives something extra.

They give the music an added dynamic and 'urgency'. The logical progression might be to add a vocalist. Have you ever thought about it? Male or female?

Absolutely (and thanks!). I am thinking about moving into that area. Male or female is not that important…. whatever fits the song best.

Would you consider adding guitars and drums to future Code Elektro studio releases? 

YES! It really gives something to the music. Working on the computer and being a one man band is cool – but the drums and guitars really adds another dimension.  

I would love to see this music on a movie soundtrack... as a sound designer you must meet film-makers all the time. Do any motion picture opportunities ever come up?

There’s has been a few opportunities and talks about Code Elektro and soundtracks…maybe in a near future.

'I know people that have been struggling'

How has lockdown been for you? Productive, or a bad interruption?

It has definitely given me more time. Since the live show in February I have been busy working on the releases – so I have had enough to do. But I know people that have been struggling financially and with the isolation. I hope things will clear up.

I'm really intrigued about your side project Telestation Alpha. Those analogue synths sound really beautiful. What inspired the music? I love the feeling of an 'Old Future' that they evoke. In my memories we used to have a late night series of TV programs called 'The Open University' where some really crusty-looking 1970s physicists would talk about particles. It reminds me of that..!  

Thank you so much! The inspiration comes from my interest in the Cold War, spies and all that stuff. And also, the electronic pioneers from when electronic music started: Laurie Spiegel, Else Marie Pade and Edgar Froese etc.

I think I know what you are talking about regarding the physicist haha! I also got some of my inspiration from when I visited the Thule Airbase in Greenland with a band I played in. It’s an American military base and it totally had these Cold War vibes, but also reminded me of the Dharma Initiative from the series LOST.

Any plans to expand the Telestation Alpha concept? How about write an actual screenplay around it?

That would be a really awesome idea! And I have thought about it. Right now it’s just these albums that I will release from time to time. But maybe at a later point I will work on a bigger story around it.

LINKS:

OUT NOW: Code Elektro – “Night Train live 2020”

More info and Contact:

Website

Instagram

Twitter

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BONUS TRACK:

Telestation Alpha - The Number Station (Audio Drama)

SKYND feat. BILL SABER : COLUMBINE

SKYND is a Scandinavian singer who researches true crime and then uses it as inspiration for her music.

Musical influences include Die Antwoord, Korn and Rob Zombie.

ADVISORY: This brilliant video is not an easy watch... if 2020 has already pissed you off, skip this and come back in 2021..!

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OBSYDIANS NEW SINGLE : PSYCHODYNAMICS

 There is a distinct Strapping Young Lad flavour to this crushing new single from Thomas 'Drop' Betrisey and his post-Sybreed project. Featuring guests Bjorn "Speed" Strid (Soilwork) on vocals and Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, ex-Soilwork) on drums.

WITHIN CERES - CRUSHING MODERN METAL FROM INDIA, STREAMING HERE

Above: lead guitarist, Odin De Sa

India is definitely not short of metal bands - unfortunately due to the written language not many of them make it easily into Western search algorithms. Luckily one band has popped up on Future-Rocker's radar: WITHIN CERES from Goa, India.

Sounding like an epic mixture of classic European bands such as Emperor, Dimmu Borgir, and Amorphis, with a touch of Sybreed and Architects thrown in, this very contemporary sci-fi themed band could find themselves on a major European or US label metal label before too long. 

Listen and buy the SKYLESS EP, below. Scroll down for Facebook link.

Below: Limited Edition CD art

Follow them on Facebook, here.

COMING THIS WEEK: NEW ALBUM FROM THE ANIX: 'GRAPHITE'

PRE-ORDER/BUY IT HERE FROM JUNE 26TH

OBSYDIANS UNVEIL NEW ART FOR FORTHCOMING SINGLE

PRESS RELEASE:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are proud to unveil the artwork of our 4th single "Psychodynamics" once again designed by our really good and talented friend Erik Kirchner Art.

The track is featuring Björn Strid ( of Soilwork ) on vocals and Dirk Verbeuren ( of Megadeth ) on drums.

It will be available on July 17th 2020 on every digital stores.

Line up on this track :

Bjorn "Speed" Strid : vocals

Drop : guitars and electronics

Ales : bass

Dirk Verbeuren : drums

Our drummer Kevin suffered from physical problems before the recording, that's the reason why he's not drumming on this one. Feeling much better now, he will be back behind the kit for our next tracks.

Can't wait to unleash this song to your ears!

[FUTURE-ROCKER WILL BRING YOU THE VIDEO/AUDIO AS SOON AS IT'S RELEASED.
CLICK HERE FOR OUR LOCKDOWN INTERVIEW WITH THOMAS 'DROP' BETRISEY]

35 THIS WEEK! - RATT'S SONIC MASTERPIECE 'INVASION OF YOUR PRIVACY'

Is RATT's 1985 LP one of the greatest metal albums ever?

EDITOR'S NOTE: LINKS TO MUSIC CLIPS WILL BE RESTORED SOON!

Above: The infamous cover (Japanese edition) - Ratt were huge in the Far East.

Over the next few years there will be many key underground and over-ground hard rock and metal thirty-fifth anniversaries: Master of Puppets (Metallica), Abigail (King Diamond), Into The Pandemonium (Celtic Frost), Peace Sells (Megadeth), Look What the Cat Dragged In (Poison), Appetite for Destruction (GnR)...the list is exhaustive, and characteristic of heavy music’s almost total dominance of the music scene during the mid Nineteen Eighties.

However, one band that is consistently overlooked is Ratt. Contemporaries and friends with Motley Crue, they and the Crue owned the Los Angeles metal scene at the mid-point of the decade. With hot major label deals off the back of a huge underground buzz, both bands pioneered a look that became a global staple ( Ratt sported a metalized Spandau Ballet / New Romantic look, while the Crue rocked a post-apocalyptic Kiss / Mad Max look ).

Ratt’s summer 1985 album, Invasion Of Your Privacy served as a perfect example of band and producer symbiosis, to create a work that has both finesse, and most importantly for heavy metal - power.

Below: Japanese artwork for album opener and second single, You're In Love.

Pic shows (L-R): Stephen Pearcy (vocals); Robbin Crosby (guitar);

Juan Croucier (bass); Warren DeMartini (guitar) and Bobby Blotzer (drums).

The album starts perfectly with the throbbing ‘You’re In Love’ a song so insistent that anyone with a barre-chord can play the riff ( important for all the high school shredders ). Extremely catchy, the song was understandably touted as a single off the album.

However, the album really starts with the crushing second track, ‘Never Use Love’. This is where Ratt separated themselves from virtually every other LA band of the time. 

Never Use Love: The album really starts on track 2 - deep cuts only in this review!

Underpinned by a pulsating ‘My Sharona’-like bassline, the song is sinuous, catchy as hell with typically excellent backing vocals, tasteful soloing, and closes with an ominous descending riff and hanging feedback - just in time to introduce the monstrously catchy opening guitar of ‘Lay It Down’. Again, what differentiated the band from other sunset strip wannabes, was the groove. Once the song locks in, Bobby Blotzer and Juan Croucier’s rock-solid and unshowy rhythm section hold everything together, while there is still room for guitar duo Robbin Crosby and Warren DeMartini to spar it out.

Following that is another riff-savvy street-crawling classic, ‘Give It All’, and the first side ( remember this was vinyl ), is concluded with the power ballad ‘Closer To My Heart’, which after the chiming acoustic intro, is so heavy, it probably doesn’t even qualify as a ballad. 

Side Two could be a self-contained EP – it’s difficult to discern any drop in quality from the high standards established on Side One. Indeed, in these times of track shuffling, it’s notable that in whatever sequence the album is played, it still feels like that’s the best sequence. There simply are no duds.

Side 2: ‘...Coz It’s So Easy To Forget’... how bloody good this album is.

There are two things that define the ‘Ratt sound’: The aforementioned heavy guitar riffs, but also the singular and unique ‘vocals’ of Stephen Pearcy. At the time, magazines and band alike were constantly name-checking Aerosmith as an influence, and Joe Perry even stated that Ratt had helped to keep the name of the embattled 1970s superstars in the public eye during Aerosmith's less popular phase ( - until their Run DMC-instigated comeback later in the decade ). Yet it was Ratt’s appropriation of the decidedly more metallic Judas Priest sound, with Pearcy’s scratchy vocals borrowing strongly from Rob Halford’s mid-range, that gave Ratt their distinctly harder - and more contemporary - edge.

The word ‘contemporary’ may seem incongruous in a review of what many may think of as an eighties relic, yet in this instance, it is entirely appropriate; Ratt were not a ‘retro’ band. Whereas the Crue peddled a naive and more druggy version of English seventies glam, and Guns N Roses borrowed heavily from even earlier rock, Ratt’s mid-eighties sonics ( thanks to the chrome-plated production by Beau Hill ) is almost futuristic in comparison, without losing any kind of punch.

Below: Ratt's classic line-up.

The reasons this album is very rarely cited by aficionados of metal music are manifold. For one, it was preceded by the band’s own metal-pop classic Out Of The Cellar, a hugely infectious – but sonically thinner - rush of pubescent party metal. Many people even now don’t recall anything by Ratt except their enormous chart hit ‘Round and Round’, a song which is still paying handsomely for its writers today. Drug and internal band friction also took their toll, which probably affected musical output, prompting subsequent albums to be less well-received, although the band were a strong draw right up to the dawn of the nineties.

Ultimately, Invasion Of Your Privacy probably needs to be rediscovered, and perhaps their label Atlantic should have given it a proper dusting-off this year, with the producer’s supervision, that is. ( It’s difficult to tell if it would have benefitted from a remastering, the sound is so good anyway ). Compared to the annoying ‘tantrum metal’ of the nineties and noughties, Ratt’s Invasion will still be considered an LA ‘party’ album...but unlike many of their mid-decade peers, it’s one that didn’t sacrifice its hard edge for pop chart accessibility.

Further reading: Sex, Drugs, Ratt & Roll - Pearcy's tell-all autobiography (2014)

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FURTHER LISTENING:

Debut album: Out of the Cellar (1984)

Comeback album: Infestation (2010)

STATIC-X - RESURRECTED!

Industrial Nu Metal stalwarts resurrect singer Wayne Static in tribute
for the forthcoming 'Project Regeneration, Volumes 1 & 2'




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1994: DEBUT SINGLE 'PUSH IT' FOLLOWED BY 'I'M WITH STUPID'