Category Archives: Features

Parent category for all our assorted feature narratives. Each is filed under its proper theme.

Features, Interviews

PiercingMetal Talks To Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer

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Artist: Jon Schaffer
Interview Date: 5/20/2005
Label: SPV Records

Jon Schaffer has been a busy man for a long time. Most noted for his excellence in Heavy Metal as the Founder of Iced Earth, the guitarist has just completed the DVD “Gettysburg” which is a great companion to the CD “The Glorious Burden”. This CD has received a large amount of critical acclaim and features Tim Owens, from Judas Priest as Vocalist. In addition to this, Jon has finished the latest epic from Demons & Wizards, a Power Metal project with Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian. Thanks to SPV Records I was able to sit down with Jon and discuss these and other matters of Metal. Below is the transcription of our conversation.

PiercingMetal: Jon it’s a great honor to sit with you and cover a few topics today be they Iced Earth or Demons & Wizards and some other stuff that’s on your mind. Let me start it all by asking how your health has been these days, especially your back as we know you had all that stuff going on with the surgery and all.

SCHAFFER – Yeah It’s better than it had been in awhile in fact I guess when we were touring which was the wrapping up of the first leg of the “Glorious Burden” tour I was really suffering and by the end of the American Shows and doing the European Festival that we did it was really bad so I did have another surgery back in November of 2004 and I have had a lot of physical therapy and I think we are on the road to recovery here. It’s just it’s a long process and it’s (pauses) one thing to say it’s not that performing on stage makes it bad but it’s everything you have to do to perform onstage makes it bad . You know, traveling in a bus and bouncing around all night in a bunk and it’s not very restful. It never is when you are on tour doing that kind of stuff so you know that’s the problem is that this stuff always seems to inflame it when we go on tour and it makes it harder. But I think what I’m doing now and the kind of therapy that I am doing is the right thing and this all is obviously not related to my neck. That was a different problem from when I injured it back in 1996 back in Berlin and I had surgery in 2000. That actually has been doing really well and I’ve been doing pretty well with that. The low-back thing started a few years ago and it has just gotten progressively towards a pretty serious problem. Yet it seems like we’re on the right track. I’ve had a couple of months here where I’m in more comfortable than I have been in a long time and that’s a good thing. So we’ll see I just have to keep up the therapy.
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Features, Interviews

PiercingMetal Talks To Force Of Evil’s Hank Shermann

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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

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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)

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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)

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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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