Radio Massacre International News Update:

 

News from the RMI Camp:

Well, like many men we almost forgot our anniversary....in fact if the truth be known we're day late...but keep it under your hat....

Today we released three new Bandcamp albums to celebrate 20 years of active service as Radio Massacre International. 

http://radiomassacreinternational.bandcamp.com/album/chorlton-2013

http://radiomassacreinternational.bandcamp.com/album/the-conspirators

http://radiomassacreinternational.bandcamp.com/album/it-was-20-years-ago-today

`It was 20 years ago today' is the newly, painstakingly restored first RMI session of October 2nd 1993, and is yours to download for free. An hour of music, the starting point from which RMI began accumulating many more hours of recordings for your listening pleasure over the last 20 years. Raise a glass and head over to Bandcamp to hear where it all began. Those of you lucky enough to own a copy of `Lost In Space' will have heard edits of these two pieces, but for the first time the unedited session can be heard in all its’ glory, and it's had us scratching our heads wondering how these pieces came to be so brutally chopped. The editing technology of the time is largely to blame. 

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we have also released a fully remixed, and much improved version of our most recent UK concert at Chorlton St Clements Church, and a wild card from the archives featuring Max Noble on guitar...Radio Maxacre International.

Full details and sleeve notes are available by following the links, here's to the next 20 years.

Thanks for all your support, without whom etc etc....

Steve. Duncan and Gary

DREAM THEATER Keyboardist: 'We Feel That This Is One Of The Best Albums That We've Done'

 

Brian Giffin of Australia's Loud magazine recently conducted an interview with keyboardist Jordan Rudess of progressive metal giants DREAM THEATER. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Loud: Does releasing a self-titled album mark some sort of new beginning for DREAM THEATER?

Rudess: I think it was more that we wanted to put the stamp of a self-titled album here because we felt very strong about it. We felt like we're at this great point where we felt that people should take notice. We've been very clear — we're all getting along so well; musically we're having a great time together in the studio; and we felt that we've made a great album that we want people to know about. If you want to know what DREAM THEATER is about, check this album out, because we feel that this is one of the best albums that we've done.

Loud: What was it like reconvening to record this time with [new drummer] Mike Mangini a part of the band?

Rudess: He was really well behaved, so it was good. It was a lot of fun to have him there, unlike the previous album where we brought him in for the drum parts after the music was written. For this one, he was there the whole time. Some people know it, some people don't, but Mike Mangini is a very upbeat character. He's very funny, he's got a very good nature, he's lively and in front of the drums, he's a madman. He can play things no one else can play. So him being there personally, with his upbeat personality, and him contributing to the dynamic to the music we were writing really gave the music a real spark. So we enjoyed that quite a lot. With "A Dramatic Turn Of Events", we had a good time writing that, but this time, all being together working on the album as a band was great. We had been on tour with Mike Mangini for a year, we knew that we all got along, we knew that we were a very effective unit with each other playing music. The fans had all voiced their opinions and they all loved our shows.

Loud: Tell us something about "Illumination Theory", because that's quite an extensive piece.

Rudess: Well, I come from a Julliard classical music background, I like pieces where motifs and ideas get developed and changed and can be allowed to breathe and that track's certainly not any sort of standard pop song format in any way, shape or form. I just love the fact that we're just really going for it and there's all these kind of progressive parts where there's interesting counterpoints and harmonic changes going on, and I'm also very fond of the fact that in the middle section of "Illumination Theory", there's that whole section that really is very ambient and very electronic-soundscapey which leads into a string ensemble part which was actually done with the help my young protege Eren Başbuğ, a young Turkish arranger/conductor who took what I had composed on my keyboard and fleshed it out for a string orchestra. And then the string orchestra came into the studio and he came in and conducted them. That piece just has so much to it. I love when we get deep and it all gets a bit wild, and I also love that in the midst of all that madness, we really let that middle section to really breathe and slow down and be melodic like a movie score.

Loud: There always seems to be at least one song on every album that really shows what DREAM THEATER is all about and that's definitely the track this time around.

Rudess: I think that's really important, because a lot of the songs on this album are a little bit more concise. Believe it or not, there are two songs in the four-minute range on this album. It's like we managed to bring our music a little bit more to the point, but at the same time we thought, "Hey we're DREAM THEATER! We could do, we should do a track that goes for it and is more epic," and that's what "Illumination Theory" was more about.

DREAM THEATER: Unboxing Video Of Limited-Edition Box-Set Version Of New Album

 

Video footage of the unboxing of the limited-edition box-set version of the new, self-titled album from progressive metal giants DREAM THEATER can be seen below.

Product Description

* Exclusive artwork by Hugh Syme

Custom Box Set Holds:

* Custom 2GB Majesty symbol USB stick containing:
- Isolated stems of "Behind The Veil"
- "Take This For The Pain (Mike Mangini Audition Improv Jam)" — 30-minute documentary.
* Exclusive 7" of "The Bigger Picture" on clear vinyl, wrapped and sealed with a custom wax seal.
* Gel-skin iDots of Majesty symbol for iPhone.
* 2-disc embossed deluxe edition digi with bonus disc of 5.1 audio mix + expanded packaging.
* 180-gram 2-LP embossed gatefold vinyl with high quality FLAC files of full album.

Bundle Includes:

* Limited-edition collector's box set
* Digital album
* Digital FLAC album

The limited-edition box-set version of "Dream Theater" is available for $99.99 from the Roadrunner Records webstore.

"Dream Theater" is likely to sell between 30,000 and 35,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to industry web site Hits Daily Double. The estimate was based on one-day sales reports compiled after the record arrived in stores on September 24 via Roadrunner

DREAM THEATER's previous CD, "A Dramatic Turn Of Events", opened with 36,000 units to enter The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 8. The band's 2009 effort, "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", premiered with 40,000 copies to land at No. 6. This was roughly in line with the first-week tally registered by its predecessor, "Systematic Chaos", which shifted 36,000 copies in 2007 to enter the chart at No. 19. 2005's "Octavarium" premiered with 27,000 copies to debut at No. 36.

Speaking to Ultimate-Guitar.com, guitarist John Petrucci stated about "Dream Theater": "I think it's building on [what we did on the "A Dramatic Turn of Events" album], but taking it to the next level. One of the things I really wanted to do on 'A Dramatic Turn of Events' was to create something that was sonically very rich and high-def and powerful and I think we accomplished that. But on this album, I wanted to take that even further…. [I wanted to] get more cinematic with it and more earthy and aggressive and bigger. I wanted a bigger, more forward in-your-face kind of sound. I think that kind of dictated the sounds we went for while we were writing and recording and then ultimately how it was mixed. So yeah, it was kind of building on that, but taking it to the next level. You always need to progress and to try and do something different and kind of have a little bit different take on it and a different perspective. But hopefully make it better as you go."

The nine-track disc was recorded at Cove City Studio in Glen Cove, Long Island, with Petrucci producing and Richard Chycki engineering and mixing. It's the band's second album with drummer Mike Mangini, and the first one on which he was a part of the writing process from Day One.

In January, Petrucci said of Mangini's work: "When people hear the drumming on this album, they're gonna be pretty freaked out. On the last album, he did a great job, but he wasn't there for the writing process and he was interpreting drum parts that I had programmed. Even though he used his creativity, of course, to change them up and do his thing, I feel like now he's just Mike Mangini unleashed. It's all him. It's all his creativity, all his decisions and ideas and man, the guy's an animal."

"Dream Theater" track listing:

01. False Awakening Suite
I. Sleep Paralysis
II. Night Terrors
III. Lucid Dream
02. The Enemy Inside
03. The Looking Glass
04. Enigma Machine
05. The Bigger Picture
06. Behind The Veil
07. Surrender To Reason
08. Along For The Ride
09. Illumination Theory
I. Paradoxe de la Lumière Noire
II. Live, Die, Kill
III. The Embracing Circle
IV. The Pursuit of Truth
V. Surrender, Trust & Passion

"Dream Theater" was made available in a wide range of distinctive versions, including standard and special edition CDs, 180-gram double LP, and a limited-edition box set.

The video for the song "The Enemy Inside" was directed by Bill Fishman (RAMONES, STEVE RAY VAUGHAN). The strictly conceptual clip deals with the torment of a soldier who's struggling with reintegrating into his life back home due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Regarding the song's lyrics, Petrucci told Billboard.com: "At the time that we were in the studio working on the [new DREAM THEATER] album and I was writing lyrics, the Boston Marathon bombings happened. There was a lot of discussion of terrorism and PTSD as if affects people who witness traumatic events like terrorism, so it was just very on my mind. It linked very well with the mood of the song, and as we started to get into it, I watched some documentaries and things like that. I was like, 'This is really something that needs to be written about.'"

MIKE PORTNOY Discusses THE WINERY DOGS With France's LOUDER! MAGAZINE

 

On September 16, Louder! Magazine conducted an interview with drummer Mike Portnoy (THE WINERY DOGS, DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ADRENALINE MOB) after THE WINERY DOGS' headlining concert La Maroquinerie in Paris, France. You can now watch the chat below.

THE WINERY DOGS' self-titled debut album sold around 10,200 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart. Released in North America on July 23 via Loud & Proud Records and in Japan on May 15 via Victor Entertainment, the CD was mixed by Jay Ruston, who has previously worked with ANTHRAX, ADRENALINE MOB, STONE SOUR and STEEL PANTHER.

"Bands like [LED] ZEPPELIN and THE WHO, THE [ROLLING] STONES, and THE BEATLES, CREAM, and [Jimi] Hendrix. I mean, I grew up with that stuff," Portnoy told Voice Of America. "And, although I've been able to pay tribute to it throughout my career with tribute bands and things like that, I've never been in an all-original band that was kind of playing classic rock power trio stuff. That's how I describe this band: just a straight-up rock band."

Regarding the songwriting process for THE WINERY DOGS' album, Portnoy said: "In all cases, the music was the very first element and from there, Richie would start melodies on top of it. Sometimes the final lyrics were there, coming up on the spot, and other times he would take the melodies and write lyrics later. There were a couple of examples of Richie having something and bringing it in. In those cases, like 'Damaged' and 'Regret', we just left them. Because in those two particular cases, the songs were great as they were."

Portnoy was full of praise for his THE WINERY DOGS bandmates, telling Voice Of America: "Billy Sheehan is my favorite bass player on earth and he has been for almost 30 years now. So to work with him and make music with him for me is an honor. And Richie is someone I have the utmost respect for as an artist. I mean, he is just so underappreciated, not only as a guitarist, but as a singer and a writer as well. I think for me, the most exciting aspect of this band is for people to discover Richie that aren't aware of what a musical genius he is."

THE FLOWER KINGS: 'Desolation Rose' To Receive U.S. Release In October

 

Swedish progressive rockers THE FLOWER KINGS have had a busy year since regrouping in 2012 for the "Banks Of Eden" album, and with a new creative vigor, the band is following that with the fantastic new CD, "Desolation Rose", due out in the USA on October 29. To be issued in a digipack, the U.S. release will also include a bonus disc. The cover artwork was once again created by Silas Toball and can be seen below.

Commented THE FLOWER KINGS: "Being somewhat of a political statement, the epic theme of 'Desolation Rose' is a logical step in a time where perpetual war, famine, environmental threats, religious conflicts dominate the media and our minds.

"This is a time to wake up and the music on this album takes you on a journey where you are forced to questions what the mainstream media feed us and to rethink your whole worldview on all of the above.

"This is in many ways a typical FLOWER KINGS album, but we have also taken it into another realm where we do take chances and where you may struggle to get into the music — or the lyrics — but trust me when I say that you will be rewarded, as this may be our most involved, important and interesting album ever. "

"Desolation Rose" track listing:

01. Tower One (13:39)
02. Sleeping Bones (04:16)
03. Desolation Road (04:00)
04. White Tuxedos (06:30)
05. The Resurrected Judas (08:24)
06. Silent Masses (06:17)
07. Last Carnivore (04:22)
08. Dark Fascist Skies (06:05)
09. Blood Of Eden (03:12)
10. Silent Graveyards (02:52)

You can listen to samples of the new album by using the SoundCloud widget below.

Earlier this year, THE FLOWER KINGS embarked on a very special tour alongside Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy to celebrate InsideOut Music's 20th anniversary, playing to sold-out crowds across Europe and the U.S.