Category Archives: Interviews

Assorted one on one discussions with assorted artists, musicians and vendors.

PiercingMetal Talks To Force Of Evil’s Hank Shermann

May 12, 2005 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

Guitarist Hank Shermann has long been a powerful creative force in Heavy Metal music. For years he combined efforts with King Diamond in Mercyful Fate and brought a sense of horror and evil to the front for Metal fans worldwide. Now, working with long time collaborator Michael Denner he has formed Force Of Evil. This no nonsense act is sure to please all fans of his work. Currently their release “Black Empire” (the second CD by the group) is receiving critical acclaim and a tour is being discussed. Hank took the time to answer a number of questions and we present them to you now.

PIERCINGMETAL: Hank it is great to get the chance to talk to you about your newest band “Force Of Evil”. The first CD was a very exciting and heavy piece of music. Now with “Black Empire” being released tell me about the response you have been getting from the followers you have had over the years.

HANK SHERMANN: Everyone seems to “dig” the new piece of music, which of course makes everyone in the proud. We always do our best at the moment of recording, so positive feedback is a nice reward.
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Features, Interviews

PiercingMetal Talks To Drummer Bobby Jarzombek

May 6, 2005 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

Bobby Jarzombek. His name is synonomous with powerful drumming. It was by listening to Riot that I first heard his playing and was totally blown away. Yet my attention was really put on alarm when he joined Rob Halford’s band and recorded and toured with them. From there, he joined Iced Earth filling in quickly for the departed member Richard Christy and is now working on PainMuseum, a release from Demons and Wizards as well as a new Halford CD. When you add to this his drumming DVD you will not believe that he actually had time to answer these interview questions. Yet, he proves how ambidexterous he can be for his supporters. Enjoy these words from his mind directly.

PiercingMetal – Hey Bobby, thanks for taking the time to do this, as I know you are a very busy guy these days. For starters let me congratulate you on the position in Iced Earth as well as the new release you have with “Metal” Mike Chlasiak, and Painmuseum entitled “Metal For Life”. Let’s get started.

Bobby Jarzombek – Cool, let’s do it.

Iced Earth Stuff:

PiercingMetal – I have to say how impressed I was with how quickly you jumped into the Iced Earth drum throne. Please tell us about how you handled the learning of the tunes and the quick need to perform in a live setting.

Bobby Jarzombek – After Richard recommended me for the gig, I had a couple conversations with Jon (Schaffer) about the songs, click tracks, etc.. They sent me 2 sets/versions of CDs. The first set of CDs were the songs as they appeared on the IE CDs. The 2nd set of CDs were rough mixes of what we’re listening to in our in-ear monitors while we’re playing the songs on stage, including the click track, orchestration, cannons, marching percussion, etc.. Pretty much what the audience hears also – except for the click track. These CDs were very important because after I learned the songs I needed to practice with the click track CDs to listen for the cues, count offs, etc.. After talking with the rest of the guys, I found it surprising that everyone had the click pretty loud in their ears, including Tim. He loved it. During certain sections (of the songs) without drums, he found it much easier to sing in perfect time with the click going.
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Features, Interviews

PiercingMetal Talks To Joey Belladonna, Former Vocalist Of Anthrax (7/20/2004)

April 2, 2005 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

You might know his name best from his work with the legendary Anthrax but now Joey Belladonna is back in action as a solo performer with a new band and out to deliver you some high octane Metal. We caught him performing with W.A.S.P. as an opener not too long ago and was able to do a brief interview via e-mail where the singer talks about life, future plans and whatever else came to mind. Click the logo below to be taken to the full article on the main PiercingMetal.com site.An Interview With Joey Belladonna, the Anthrax Singer from such killer releases as “Among The Living” and “Spreading The Disease” and many more.

KP – Joey it is great to see you back out there. How has it felt to you being Back on tour and especially hitting the club scene once again?

JB – Fantastic! It’s like the Old Days. It’s what I like to do more than anything. I love having the chance to hang with the great people we meet.

KP – How do you feel about you new solo album? Is it meeting with a positive response?

JB – I feel good about the album and would like to do another. So far, the response has been really, really good and I’ve been very pleased.
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Features, Interviews

PiercingMetal Talks To Chris Caffery of Trans-Siberian Orchestra & Savatage (2/7/2004)

April 2, 2005 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

Chris Caffery is the lead guitarist for the East Coast company of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and also performed with the now on hiatus Savatage. He was preparing to record and release his first solo album when we did this interview and had drummer Jeff Plate along with him as some production on the music had been done earlier in the day. We met up with Chris and Jeff at a local bar in Astoria, Queens and talked at length about a wide variety of topics. Ken Pierce Meets Chris Caffery & Jeff Plate 2/7/04

Before I begin, let me apologize for the length of this piece. This was the first interview I had ever done and at the time I was the US Representative of The Metal Circus in Barcelona Spain. I was fortunate enough to be able to sit down with Chris Caffery and Jeff Plate of Savatage and The Trans-Siberian Orchestra. We discussed music, life and Savatage, The TSO and beyond. Instead of taking this as an interview think of it as a evening out with two great musicians as we all talk about a little of everything in a cool local bar. The empty chair at the table is for you. Sit down for awhile.

KEN – So as I mentioned to you in email, the site is primarily in Spanish, with a couple of dozen items submitted by me that retain an English translation. The goal is to move to a lot more English going forward. The readers loved the Trans Siberian Orchestra review that I did for them back in December and I was told by my colleagues that “we hate you, we hate you…..but we love you since you are able to bring us this interview”

Jeff – So how big is the site?

KEN – The Metal Circus Site is pretty big and it’s connected to a radio station that will soon be something metal fans can hear online. They also publish a magazine which I think is given away at the record shops and club shows. There is a sizable amount of CD and DVD product listed as well as concert coverage and interviews. I was contacted by their Director to be the NYC Reporter several months ago, and as result I have been hitting a lot of shows and reviewing a lot of music for them.

CHRIS – Did you see Iron Maiden a few weeks ago?

KEN – No, could not get a ticket and then the last night got cancelled, and Saturday was cut short since beer fell on a sound board.
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Features, Interviews

PiercingMetal Talks To Iced Earth’s Tim “Ripper” Owens (4/29/2004)

March 30, 2005 Ken Pierce Leave a comment

Tim “Ripper” Owens was no longer a member of Judas Priest and had moved on when the Metal God Rob Halford chose to return to their ranks. Of course the singer would not sit idly by and instead would hook up with the one and only Iced Earth and record their stunning “The Glorious Burden “CD. The powerful release found the group touring to support it and playing with Children Of Bodom as their direct support along with Sweden’s Evergrey. We caught up with the vocalist backstage at the venue and discussed a few of the recent happenings.

KP: Tim it’s indeed a great pleasure to meet you face to face and let me first thank you for taking the time to sit and talk with me on behalf of the Metal Circus

Ripper: Good Man

KP: So it’s awesome to see you in New York again, so how does it feel to be back in the Big Apple

Ripper: It’s great you know I was just doing some promotion here not too long ago did MTV and Sirius Music and a bunch of stuff but its nice to play here. We should be playing someplace a little bit bigger though I think.
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