Tag Archives: alex krull

Features, Tours and Festivals

Sonata Arctica Announces Fall US Tour

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It feels like only yesterday that I was watching the mighty Sonata Arctica tearing up the stage in NYC and as a matter of fact it was  That’s right, the Big Metal Apple was treated to the last night of the bands brief headlining tour which ended at Stage 48 in Hell’s Kitchen. It was a fantastic time and I was glad to be a part of it and also to toast to their continued adventures after the show before they headed back to Finland. Today amounted to some special news which made my own celebrations about the 11th Anniversary of the site all the more awesome because you see the band has announced that they will be returning in the Fall with support from both Leaves’ Eyes and Omnium Gatherum. Check out the full press release below along with the poster and dates and then I’ll return with some closing thoughts.

Tour - Sonata Arctica - Fall 2016

The Press Release:
Finnish melodic metal quintet SONATA ARCTICA has started to work on the follow-up album to the successful Pariah’s Child record. To top off the already great news, the band has announced they will return this fall for a 33-date headlining tour of North America. The kick-off show is slated for November 6th at The Fillmore in Charlotte, NC. Supporting the band will be German-Norwegian symphonic metallers LEAVES EYES and Finnish melodic death metallers OMINIUM GATHERUM opening for the band. Advanced tickets for the confirmed tour dates are now available exclusively at EnterTheVault.com. A limited number of VIP Meet & Greet tickets which include a poster will be available for for purchase for each show. Tickets will go on sale April 29th at all other outlets.
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Features, Giveaways

Win To See Moonspell @ Gramercy Theatre On 2/17/2014

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Poster - Moonspell at Gramercy - 2014

The Details: The Mighty Moonspell is returning to NYC and taking command of the headlining stage this time around. Yes the “America Noir Tour” will lay waste to venues around the country and lucky for us, we are going to get the bands brand of Dark Metal here at the Gramercy Theatre. The tour also finds the bands Leaves Eyes and Atrocity joining in for the fans and since neither of those bands are here all that often you know that you don’t want to miss out if at all possible. Thanks to the fine folks at Livenation, we are putting some of the PiercingMetal diehards into the venue for free. What’s cooler than that? Read more.
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Music, Reviews

“My Destiny” by Leaves Eyes

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Artist: Leaves Eyes
Title: “My Destiny” EP
Label: Napalm Records
Release Date: 7/28/2009
Genre: Symphonic Gothic Metal
Rating: 3.75

Once again the band Leaves Eyes has delivered an EP of songs for us to enjoy as a prelude to their full-length release and as in the past it offers up the albums lead track in its full format and often also presents to us an edited or remixed version. The latter is the case with “My Destiny” and while the song itself is strong, I hardly saw the need to offer a reworked version since it’s too new a song to my ears. The other great thing about the Leaves Eyes EP’s is that they are the place to find tracks that for some reason or another are left off of the full recording but instead of being swept away from the studio floor we get them here. As expected the tracks work very well with the title track and are quite good as opposed to being something that one might throw into the bin or hope is never heard again based on its being so damn bad. New tracks come via “The Battle Of Maldon” and “Nine Wave Maidens” and I had to say that I really liked the first one based on just how powerful it was at certain points. It’s a soaring track when it comes down to it. They also include an acoustic version of “Scarborough Fair” that is rather charming and a nice difference from the one that we found on “Njord” which had a much more Metal feel to it. This is one of my very favorite tunes of all time in the first place so I like seeing it done justice. “Northbound” is the only other track from “Njord” on the EP and while a solid tune in its own right I wondered what made them choose this one as opposed to something like “Irish Rain” which I felt was just a little bit better.
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Music, Reviews

“Njord” by Leaves’ Eyes

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Artist: Leaves Eyes
Title: “Njord”
Label: Napalm Records
Release Date: 8/28/2009
Genre: Symphonic Gothic Metal
Rating: 4/5

My hope is that if you are a fan of Symphonic Metal that is led by a soaring female voice that you have been long aware of the band Leaves Eyes and the majesty that their music brings to the table. If this is not the case well there is no time like the present to get caught up to speed and their latest release “Njord” is the perfect place to get your start. Formed in 2003, “Njord” comes to us as the bands third full length album, but during this relatively short career in terms of years a number of EP style releases had come out as well as a live CD/DVD. “Njord” starts with a dramatic, and ominous tone that is cut like a knife by the siren voice that Liv Kristine possesses and then it’s on with a track that makes you feel as though you are speeding across the ocean seas in search of new adventures. I’ve enjoyed the band for a number of years and am happy to see that they have not lost an ounce of the momentum that they built up on the albums predecessor “Legend Land” and even “Vinland Saga”. As you listen you will agree that there is something simply defined a “big” to their overall delivery and this is accomplished by the powerful band backing Kristine up and her husband Alexander Krull who offers the dark vocals to her clean ones.
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Features, Interviews

PiercingMetal Talks To Atrocity’s Alex Krull (3/30/2008)

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Alex Krull is the imposing front man for the German Metal band Atrocity and when he is not doing that, he shares the stage with his beautiful wife Liv Kristine in the band Leaves’ Eyes.  We saw Atrocity as a part of a Death Metal festival show back in 2005 and were blown away by their intense power so we were a little bit surprised when the band decided to release a follow up to their covers album as opposed to another mind melting Death Metal epic.   The album was entitled “Werk II” and since the group had not returned to our shores sine that 2005 we sat down at the keyboard and did an email interview with the main man of the band.  To learn more just scroll past the logo.ain PiercingMetal.com site.

Logo - Atrocity

Alex Krull is the imposing and dynamic front man for the band Atrocity and for the past couple of years he has also been a part of the growing popularity that is Leaves’ Eyes, the Gothic Metal sensation that’s fronted by his wife Liv Kristine. As a band, Atrocity has walked many different paths over the course of their career and while beginning as bone crushing Death Metal have morphed into Symphonic Melodic Death and even touched upon that which is Gothic. Capable of delivering surprise after surprise, the band followed up the epic “Atlantis” with a second volume of classic 80’s New Wave with “Werk 80 II”. We snared some time with Alex and talked about things Atrocity, Leaves’ Eyes and life as a touring musician with a family. Read on for his insight into the new album, videos that are in the making and how he manages to keep a balance with all of these exciting projects.

PiercingMetal: Before we discuss the new album, let’s talk a little about the band in the touring sense. The last time that Atrocity appeared in the States was during an Extreme Metal festival which made a stop at the now closed down CBGB’s in NYC. Since the group went over so well at this appearance, I had expected to see you performing again shortly after but it didn’t happen. Why doesn’t the band gtover to this region a little more often?

Alex Krull: Yes, you are right; the US shows we did went very well! And I have to say it’s a pity that couldn’t have the chance to come over more often with Atrocity to the states, also back in the past of the band! At least we managed to tour a couple times with Leaves’ Eyes in the meantime, and we’ll be back with Leaves’ Eyes in September and maybe we have the chance to play also some shows with Atrocity then or in the future. Well, let’s see. In the moment we are happy that we finished the album, after we toured nearly in 40 countries in the last years with our two bands Atrocity and Leaves’ Eyes and on top we had this big production with a symphony orchestra and choir for the “Werk 80 II” record! So it took all a little bit longer than expected but we are very happy with the result. Many fans allover the world asked for another WERK 80 album, so here we are and we had great fun producing it as well as it contains new ideas and elements, too!
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