It’s been 15 proud years of Cabo Wabo Las Vegas and to celebrate, Sammy Hagar, aka the Red Rocker, received the Key to The Las Vegas Strip on October 4th. The ceremony took place at Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Cantina. Fan-filmed video can be viewed below. It was also Hagar’s 77th birthday.
Hagar: “Bringing Cabo Wabo Cantina to Las Vegas has made me feel like a local since day one. Cabo Wabo Cantina was created as a place where I could hang out and bring my friends and it has remained the ultimate spot on the Strip for rock ‘n’ roll, killer margaritas and great Mexican food. I’m grateful to the Clark County Commission, everyone at Cabo Wabo Cantina, and all of Las Vegas for this honor. My experiences here have been some of the most special moments of my life and I couldn’t be more thankful.”
Brought to Las Vegas by Sammy Hagar, Cabo Wabo Cantina blends the laid-back, beach-town vibe of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with the excitement of the Las Vegas Strip. Located center-Srip inside Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Cabo Wabo Cantina combines a signature blend of authentic margaritas and fresh flavorful Mexican cuisine created by executive chef, Tacho Kneeland. Sammy Hagar’s rock ‘n’ roll style tops off the young energetic vibe of the restaurant.
Offering a variety of experiences, guests can dine and drink in the vibrant main dining room, the lively and energetic bar, or on the Las Vegas Strip-side patio. Views from the patio at Cabo Wabo Cantina offer incredible experiences, showcasing the Bellagio Fountain and the Eiffel Tower from the Paris Hotel. From the main dining room, elevators lead exclusively to a private dining room on the second level of the Cantina.
Producer / songwriter / educator Rick Beato has shared a new interview video along with the following introduction:
“In this interview, legendary producer Rick Rubin shares insights from his incredible career, spanning decades of groundbreaking music. From his early work with Run DMC, LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys, to producing iconic albums for Tom Petty, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, System Of A Down and Johnny Cash, Rubin reflects on his creative process, collaborating with some of the most influential artists in music history, and the stories behind classic albums.”
Tears For Fears have had many different waves of success since the duo formed in Bath over four decades ago, but perhaps one of the most rewarding (apart from, you know, when you sell millions upon millions of records and become extremely rich in the process) is the phase a few years ago when a new generation of game-changing artists held them up as a primary inspiration. It signalled a seismic sea-change in how Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith were perceived by the wider world, and also how they perceived themselves. One day they were new wave, synth-pop veterans watching their crowd grow older with them, and the next they were one of the planet’s most influential acts of all time. Quite a decent turnaround, we’re sure they’d agree. Speaking to this writer a few years ago, Smith marvelled at the sheer amount of cover versions of Tears For Fears tracks out there and tried to pick his favourites.
“I guess my favourite is the Lorde version of Everybody Wants To Rule The World, because it’s so dark,” Smith said. “It’s interesting to me, because with that and actually with Gary Jules and Michael Andrews’ version of Mad World, weirdly their recordings are actually more in tune with the lyrics than our versions are. Normally what happens with us is we have dark lyrics with actually quite bright pop songs or they’re more up tempo.”
Smith said that his other choice cuts were hearing Tears For Fears songs being sampled by trailblazing hip-hop stars. “It’s always gratifying when someone uses a sample from (their 1983 debut album) The Hurting which in America wasn’t big, yet the samples from The Hurting were what Kanye picked, what Drake picked, and these are young modern artists in a different musical genre than us, picking samples from a 1983 record by two young white boys. In that sense, I find that very interesting and gratifying.”
It has got to the stage, Smith said, where some people don’t know who did the song first and who’s covering who. “My kids’ nanny came to see us play live because she was looking after the kids, she came to see us play live just outside of LA,” he recalled. “We played Memories Fade and it was one of the first times we’d reintroduced it back into the set and she came up to me afterwards said ‘you did that version of the Kanye song, that’s fantastic!’ And I’m like, ‘Actually…’!
Listen to Lorde’s version of the Tears For Fears classic here and see if you agree with Smith:
Everybody Wants To Rule The World (From âThe Hunger Games: Catching Fireâ Soundtrack) – YouTube
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Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleagues Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he’s interviewed some of the world’s biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more. Radiohead was only for eight minutes but he still counts it.
Cult Australian prog metal outfit Karnivool have been announced as the headliners for 2025’s Arctangent festival – though it’s been over a decade since they last released a record, 2013’s Asymmetry. Back then, Metal Hammer met up with the band on the road in Switzerland to look back on their remarkable rise.
“The locals believe that there is this particular black rock underneath most of the countryside out there and that it has these very strange and magical healing properties to it. It’s a very trippy place…”
Ian Kenny is describing the idyllic beachside town of Byron Bay on the most western tip of New South Wales in Australia. Named by Captain Cook in 1770, Byron Bay more recently saw the gestation and birth of Asymmetry, the stunning new album from Ian’s masterful and heavy prog five-piece, Karnivool, who recorded their third full-length in a studio just a mile inland from the area’s golden sands and crashing azure-blue surf.
“Dude, it’s such a beautiful place,” he enthuses mid-tour on a day off in Switzerland. “It’s a truly bizarre part of Australia. It’s a magnet for the left- sided thinkers, the wanderers, the hippies. It’s really picturesque, it has great surf, a beautiful coastline, and it’s totally bohemian. And there are beautiful women everywhere.”
It it sounds like hell.
“Yeah,” he grins. “It is. Total nightmare.”
The image of a potent black seam of rock lying unseen just beneath the surface of paradise is a powerful one and seems an appropriate symbol for Karnivool’s latest opus. In an era when the word ‘epic’ is overused and much-abused it can be said with some authority that it is a work that is epic in every sense. Recorded with producer Nick DiDia, who has previously produced the likes of Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen, it is dense and complex with many moods and shades.
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Here prog, post-rock, ambient and juddering metal coalesce to create a thunderous album. Like exploring a deep network of dark caves, return visits to Asymmetry continually reveal new hidden depths and subterranean spaces, each with their own unique sonic architecture. This clearly was not an album jammed out, tossed off and laid down in a hasty week in some garage somewhere.
“The subterranean metaphor totally works,” says the singer, chatting to Hammer midway through the band’s latest European tour, “because this is music that explores the unknown and is always turning a corner. You can get lost in it. I see Karnivool albums being more like books than traditional records. They are almost like those ‘choose your adventure’ novels. We’re very careful about how the music flows and how we present each songs as a collective whole. Our music reads like a novel but plays like a record. We design them to lure you in, pull you in one direction, pick you up and then slap in the side of your head. We’re about constant movement.”
(Image credit: Press)
There are certain corners of London – or indeed Paris or Amsterdam or Berlin – where, for one night only, the neighbourhood seems to be overtaken by Australians. But unlike when the Test Match is on in the capital they do not arrive clutching cool-boxes of VB and sun-block sticks. Quite the opposite, in fact. These are the Australians who prefer to dwell in the shadows, who get off not on the thwack of a leather ball on a linseed-soaked willow but deftly delivered musical tension, progressive arrangements and the dark drama that pervades when the Karnivool rolls into town.
This feature was originall published in Metal Hammer 247 (July 2013)(Image credit: Future)
“Wherever we go, our fans share common traits,” says guitarist Andrew ‘Drew’ Goddard. “There are certain consistencies amongst them. They’re all supremely passionate and they’re deep thinkers. They’re not – how can I put it? – they’re not regular people. They’re quite nerdy and they don’t necessarily fit into a certain demographic. But they’re all people we seem to be able to get along with too, regardless of where they’re from. Because they’re quite like us, I reckon.”
As their recent Download appearance and UK shows demonstrated, Karnivool might be huge at home and amongst the Aussie overseas diaspora but their fans are widespread and of all different nationalities, too. Upon its release, their 2005 debut album, Themeta, sold 32,000 copies independently back home, but it was their acclaimed 2009 follow-up, Sound Awake, that charted at number two in Australia and has now sold in excess of 200,000 copies worldwide. Booked to play a debut headline show in Mumbai, India in 2011 – where similarly progressive bands like Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree have unexpectedly large followings – the five-piece were staggered to find 9,000 Indian fans singing their songs right back at them.
“That was insane,” says Drew. “And totally unexpected, too. It was only afterwards when we went back to the hotel, sunk a couple of Kingfisher beers and watched the footage back that we looked at each other and went, ’Wait – did that actually just happen?’”
With Australia being such a massive and barely populated country whose scale is difficult to appreciate here in pokey little Britain – “It used to be really expensive just to get out of Perth,” laughs Drew – the early days of Karnivool saw the band playing on a local level initially before progressing to playing some of the more remote backwaters. Formed in 1997, it took eight years before they finally started getting recognition.
“We once did a small show in a country town called Kununurra in the far north of Western Australia,” the guitarist remembers. “I had actually lived there as a kid so was keen to do it, but before this one gig I suffered a punctured lung which meant I couldn’t fly, so I took the bus instead. It took me 60 hours to get there – and that was without even leaving the state once. I played the 45-minute show then got the Greyhound bus straight back, another 60 hours. So that was five days of continuous travelling through the Outback. That’s Australia for you. There are still a lot of bands who make their living playing just rural Australia, too. Pack up a PA and a couple of fishing rods and away you go…”
“After that, coming to Britain spins us out,” says Ian Kenny. “The fact that accents can change within just a few short miles is still hard for us to get our heads around.”
Today finds the bandmembers putting their feet up on a day off at the Greenfield Festival in Interlaken, Switzerland. Tomorrow they play an early evening slot on a main stage bill that is being headlined by Slayer and The Prodigy but right now they’re taking in the beautiful sweeping views of the Alpine foothills surrounding the area. Last night they played a support show with Stone Sour to thousands of people in Bologna, Italy. Where others bands may be showing road fatigue, Karnivool are in high spirits, safe in the knowledge that they’ve just delivered an album that looks set to only make them a bigger international prospect.
With Mark Hosking (guitars), Jon Stockman (bass) and Steve Judd (drums) joining Ian and Drew it has been a long journey – both literally and metaphorically – to get to here. Karnivool’s history is complicated and involved, with members coming and going – and that’s without mentioning Ian’s other band, Birds Of Tokyo: the anthemic alternative rockers whose recent album March Fires went to number one in Australia, putting him in the odd position of having a side-project that’s bigger than his day job. Guitarist Drew, meanwhile, plays drums in a Nirvana tribute band called Nirvanarama. “I get to live out my childhood fantasies pretending to be Dave Grohl,” he laughs.
Either way it’s a journey, they say, that has not been without its trials and tribulations.
“We only really got a break when we got lucky with some supports when we paired up with Sepultura, Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad – really heavy bands,” says Drew. “Back then there were a lot of ‘real metal’ bands around Perth at the time who would have killed for those supports and you know what true metal crowds can be like – pretty, um, passionate. We were a bit different to everyone else so there was a lot of ‘Man, this band shouldn’t be on this bill.’ Playing those shows was really tough. I still remember the feeling in my gut before we went on: let’s get this over with. But it’s par for the course for any up and coming bands. Those early years made us what we are today.”
(Image credit: Will Ireland)
Career highlights are still coming: storming India, playing to 1,500 people in Budapest the other night on their first ever show in Hungary, huge UK festivals.
“This is definitely a slow-burner of a record,” says Drew. “So while all these shows have been great we want to keep pushing onwards. We want to reach as many new places as we can, whether that’s Download or hitting all those backwater towns that I mentioned, to play for the local Aussies.”
Like the singular bands with whom they share certain similarities in approach if not necessarily in sound – and that might include the likes of Tool, Meshuggah, Radiohead, Cult Of Luna and Tesseract – Karnivool’s thinking man’s metal is impervious to both trends and commercial appeal. Theirs is a word-of-mouth trajectory and 18 years since they formed Ian says the band is right where he wants them to be.
“Did I think we’d last this long?” he ponders. “Oh yeah, definitely. We’ve got more records in us yet, too. No one ever interferes with us creatively and we like it that way.”
Asking how they would describe themselves prompts the only pause of the day from the affable and talkative frontman.
“This is music for life,” he concludes. “And as long as we remain in love with it, we will keep doing it.”
Originally published in Metal Hammer 247, July 2013
The current success of The The is a textbook case of ‘better late than never’. The band, which revolve around central member and leader Matt Johnson, had a run of hit albums in the 80s with a sound that pinballed from emotive synth-pop to experimental rock to lounge-y ballads and atmospheric soundscapes but, after a family bereavement, Johnson retreated in the 90s and halted The The altogether not long after their 2000 album NakedSelf. But, after sporadic live returns in recent years, they recently returned with a new album titled Ensoulment and over the past week they have been winning rave reviews for the euphoric shows performed on their UK tours. The The have always been a serious band, both politically and emotionally, but in a recent interview with The New Cue, Johnson said it is a different matter behind the scenes, relaying advice he’d been given in his early career by the late, great Leonard Cohen.
It was back when Johnson, now 63, was in his early twenties that he was summoned to a dinner with Cohen. “His manager was my lawyer for a short period of time, and he called him Lenny,” Johnson remembered. “He said, ‘I want Lenny to advise you’, because I’d just signed a big contract with CBS, which was Leonard Cohen’s record label as well. And so his manager arranged a dinner with us and I was a bit starstruck. I’ve never been starstruck since but I was a bit starstruck then. He was a lovely chap, very warm and humorous and charming.”
One of the things that Cohen advised him about, Johnson said, was to be wary of letting people paint him in a particular light. He said that, despite the dark nature of his music, there was always a lot of laughter in The The. “He warned me,” Johnson stated. “He said, ‘You’ve got to be careful to avoid being pigeonholed’. He was bemoaning the fact. This was obviously long before the internet but what he said was, ‘It’s as if there’s a giant computer out there and every time a journalist types in the name Leonard Cohen, up comes gloomy and depressing and it drives me mad’, and he was laughing when he said it. Of course, the same thing happened to me that he warned me about. It’s the nature of the lyrics, I suppose. But the way I compare is like you get the cliché of the comedian where they’re laughing on stage but they’re very depressed behind the scenes. Well, I’m the reverse. The music’s quite intense, but behind the scenes, we’re actually laughing.”
The The’s UK tour wrapped up at Brixton Academy last week, with the band reconvening for more laugh-a-minute backstage antics in the US in mid-October.
The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleagues Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he’s interviewed some of the world’s biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more. Radiohead was only for eight minutes but he still counts it.
Richie Kotzen has issued the official music video for “This Is A Test”, following the recent release of his brand-new solo studio album, Nomad, out now via BMG. The album is available digitally, on CD and sky-blue vinyl and can be ordered here.
In the following Behind The Scenes Of Nomad episode, Kotzen explains the origins of his song, “This Is A Test”.
While Nomad has no shortage of heavy guitar rockers, the sheer diversity of the album as heard on tracks such as “Nihilist,” “This Is A Test” and the title track “Nomad,” showcases not only Kotzen’s musical range and vocal prowess, but his fearless imagination as a producer/arranger. Already globally renowned as an extraordinary guitarist, with Nomad Kotzen stands tall as a truly remarkable all-round lyricist-producer/arranger and singer.
“My approach for the Nomad album was to imagine as if I was only offering this on vinyl,” explains Kotzen. “What songs would live together on that format and how would I sequence side A versus side B and so on and so forth. As it were the song ‘Nomad’ became the closer on side A and ‘Nihilist’ on side B as both compositions were written around the same time I felt they made perfect companions. I am very excited to finally be able to share all these compositions on the full release. I hope folks feel the music the same way I do.”
Written, recorded and produced by Richie Kotzen, Nomad features eight new tracks showcasing Kotzen’s multi- faceted musical styles with Kotzen playing almost every instrument on the album. On Nomad, Kotzen expresses his diverse techniques and influences, from hard rock to 70s infused soul and funk, jazz fusion to R&B. It’s all intertwined with his own unique playing and songwriting approach, while retaining his ever-evolving signature style.
Tracklisting:
“Cheap Shots” “These Doors”** “Insomnia” “Nomad”* “Escape” “On The Table” “This Is A Test” “Nihilist”
* Dan Potruch plays drums on “Nomad” ** Kyle Hughes plays drums on “These Doors”
“Cheap Shots” lyric video:
“On The Table” lyric video:
“Cheap Shots” video:
“Insomnia” video:
“Nihilist” lyric video:
US fall tour:
October 5 – The Arcada Theatre – St. Charles, IL 7 – Jergels – Warrendale, PA 9 – The Ridgefield Playhouse – Ridgefield, CT 10 – Iridium – New York, NY 11 – Iridium – New York, NY 12 – Iridium – New York, NY 15 – City Winery Boston – Boston, MA 17 – Tupelo Music Hall – Derry, NH 20 – The Suffolk Theater – Riverhead, NY 22 – Rams Head on Stage – Annapolis, MD 23 – Sellersville Theater – Sellersville, PA 24 – The Beacon Theatre – Hopewell, VA 25 – Backseat Bar & Grill – Winchester, VA 29 – City Winery Atlanta – Atlanta, GA 30 – City Winery Nashville – Nashville, TN
November 1 – The Haute Spot – Leander, TX 2 – Granada Theater – Dallas, TX
To read BraveWords scribe Aaron Small’s exclusive interview with Richie Kotzen, visit this location.
Two of the child actors from 2003’s smash hit movie School of Rock starring Jack Black have got engaged.
Caitlin Hale, who played Marta – aka ‘Blondie’ – and Angelo Massagli, who played the role of Frankie – aka the ‘tough guy’ – first met on the set of the film when they were 11-years-old.
Now, 18 years after the film’s release, the pair are engaged to be married after dating for a number of years.
In an Instagram post, Hale shares photos of Massagli and her – sporting an impressive engagement ring along with the caption “sneak peek”.
Massagli previously told Inside Edition he recalled being impressed by Hale’s audition for the movie, and that their spark developed later in life.
He said: “I get in there and the little blonde girl next to me, she gets called in first and she starts singing show tunes and just blows the roof off the place. It was excellent.
“We have a group chat where all the School of Rock kids, we just hit each other up whenever someone moves somewhere new or is doing something different. So Caitlin is like, hey, I’m moving down to Florida.”
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Massagli lives in Florida so they met for lunch and romance blossomed.
Since starring in the movie, the couple have gone on to have successful careers away from the limelight.
Massagli is a lawyer and Hale is an ultrasound technologist and medical sonographer.
Jack Black’s role in School of Rock is one of the more memorable performances in a successful career. It gave him the chance to merge his love of acting with his love of rock and metal.
Pop star Chappell Roan performed a cover of classic Heart track Barracuda on the recent Council Bluffs, Iowa, stop of her current Midwest Princess Tour.
And judging by the almost universal acclaim online for her performance, the 26-year-old rising pop sensation absolutely nailed it.
Watch the fan-filmed video below and decide for yourself.
Roan is described as a pop star whose sound is underpinned by “dark and unsettling” tones.
She is, of course, not the first pop artist to attempt a cover of a beloved classic rock or metal song. But not all attempts have been as successful as Roan’s take on Barracuda.
Maroon 5 once had a go at covering Nine Inch Nails‘ epic track Closer. And pretty much everybody wishes they hadn’t.
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And while The Cardigans’ version of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath by the mighty Black Sabbath wasn’t awful, they took it a little too far with a later cover of Iron Man.
But, as with Roan, when pop stars get it right, they sometimes take us all by surprise.
Tori Amos’ cover of Slayer hit Raining Blood, for example,is as captivating as you’d expect from someone with her level of genius.
Perhaps even more impressive is when rock and metal bands successfully cover songs by pop artists.
Ghost are known for making other artists’ songs their own. They’ve covered everyone from Depeche Mode (Waiting for the Night) to The Eurythmics (Missionary Man), but their version of ABBA’s I’m A Marionette is arguable the most unexpectedly great.
Step into the intense atmosphere of Bloodstock Open Air 2024 with Clutch’s live performance. On August 9th, 2024, the legendary Maryland rockers took the stage at Catton Park’s Ronnie James Dio Stage as special guests, delivering a crushing set that lit up the festival. With their standout track “Slaughter Beach”, from their critically acclaimed 13th album, Sunrise On Slaughter Beach, Clutch tore through their set, blending powerful bluesy riffs, commanding vocals, and their signature groove-heavy sound.
The band’s chemistry was undeniable, as they captivated the audience with a raw, high-energy performance. The combination of thunderous guitar work, a pulsating rhythm section, and the electric festival atmosphere made this a set to remember. Whether you were headbanging in the crowd or catching up from home, this video captures every moment of Clutch’s unforgettable set at Bloodstock 2024.
Bloodstock Festival has announced “Megadeth Week” with the following message:
“Metal fans, get ready for a treat! We’re showcasing THREE killer live tracks from Megadeth’s unforgettable headlining show at Bloodstock Open Air 2023! From October 21st through 27th, don’t miss these legendary performances”
October 21, 2 PM: “Sweating Bullets” October 24, 2 PM: “Symphony Of Destruction” October 27, 2 PM: “Conquer Or Die”
Blind Guardian recently released Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited, which includes a complete re-recording of this classic as well as a live celebration of 1992’s Somewhere Far Beyond, a landmark record in the history of the band.
The band has shared an official lyric video for “Theatre Of Pain”, taken from the album.
Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited, which was recorded in 2022 and 2023, is a refreshing and powerful tribute to one of the most influential albums in German metal history. It paved the way for Blind Guardian’s international career that is still going strong today and this re-recording impresses with all the class and quality these pioneers have been known and respected for since forming as Lucifer’s Heritage three decades ago.
Watch a live video for the revisited version of their most popular track, “The Bard’s Song – In The Forest”:
Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited is out today and can be listened to in full at any streaming service or purchased in physical form. Get it here
Tracklisting:
“Time What is Time” (Revisited) “Journey Through the Dark” (Revisited) “Black Chamber” (Revisited) “Theatre of Pain” (Revisited) “The Quest for Tanelorn” (Revisited) “Ashes to Ashes” (Revisited) “The Bard’s Song – In the Forest” (Revisited) “The Bard’s Song – The Hobbit” (Revisited) “The Piper’s Calling” (Revisited) “Somewhere Far Beyond” (Revisited)
“The Quest for Tanelorn” (Revisited) video:
“Ashes To Ashes” live at Hellfest 2022 video:
About Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited:
Right on time with their show at 2024’s edition of Wacken Open Air, Blind Guardian proudly announced the release of Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited on August 2, which includes a complete re-recording of this classic as well as a live celebration of 1992’s Somewhere Far Beyond, a landmark record for Germany’s heavy metal titans. After three albums on No Remorse Records, it was the band’s major label debut via Virgin Records and opened the doors to the Japanese market resulting in a wider availability and presence on the global metal scene. After finding the right balance of speed, heaviness, melodies, drama, and irresistible choruses on 1990’s Tales From The Twilight World, Somewhere Far Beyond honed this approach to perfection, evolving further on a conceptual level and increasing Blind Guardian’s sonic range. On Somewhere Far Beyond the band experimented with keyboards, orchestrations, and folk elements, the latter manifesting in the group’s best-known song and live staple, “The Bard’s Song (In The Forest)”, whereas other tracks like “Ashes to Ashes”, the rapid “Journey Through The Dark” or “The Quest For Tanelorn” connected well with previous mostly fast-paced albums yet offered an additional push in dynamics.
Fast forward 30 years! Prior to releasing the much lauded opus The God Machine in September 2022, Blind Guardian had been performing Somewhere Far Beyond in its entirety at Rock Hard Festival and Hellfest in Summer 2022 in front of tens of thousands of fans singing along to each track. Both shows were filmed and recorded professionally and aired via WDR and ARTE. For the limited triple-disc-edition of Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited the Hellfest material was newly edited by the band’s long-time videographer Dirk Behlau using additional multi-cam footage.
The idea of re-recording the album originated from the rehearsals for these shows as Hansi Kürsch explains in the detailed liner notes: “The original idea wasn’t to do a re-recording. When rehearsing for the anniversary gigs, corona hit and we couldn’t be certain that those shows would take place. We still wanted to celebrate the anniversary of the album and if we wouldn’t be able to include a live version, we initially thought we could at least record the rehearsals.”
Not 100% satisfied with those rough versions, Blind Guardian decided to go all in, knowing the risk of being frowned upon by fans who consider re-recordings utter blasphemy. “We tried to recapture what we did in 1992 but compensate youth with skillful experience, though in a hungry way. We never discussed any major changes but with over 30 years of experience, and our current line-up, those ingredients already add a new flavor to it.” With the basic tracks recorded in a live setting, Somewhere Far Beyond Revisited is leaner and more focused on impact in terms of guitar arrangements yet retains all the harmonies and melodies essential to the original. “We finally ended up with this cool hybrid version”, André adds. “We combined how we play the songs today, but at the same time, really tried to retain that speed metal spirit of the early 90s!”
