Tag Archives: snowy shaw

Metal Blade Records To Release More King Diamond Classics In May

Just over a week ago, I shared the news about Metal Blade Records releasing two of King Diamond’s earliest classics. If you missed that announcement just click HERE to be up to date. Earlier, the label announced four more and you can read all about it down below.

king diamond logo

The Press Release:
Next month, King Diamond will release CD and LP versions of the classic albums “Conspiracy” (May 1st), “Them” (May 1st), “The Eye” (May 15th), and “In Concert 1987” (May 15th) via Metal Blade Records. The vinyl editions feature spined sleeves with an insert and download card; the CDs contain a mini-LP CD-insert with a small fold-out poster.

King Diamond adds, “These are not remasters. These are the albums as they were originally done in the old days from the original production masters. They retain all the original dynamics that were captured at the time. It’s very exciting to present these to fans as they were originally released.”

album covers, king diamond, king diamond album covers, metal blade records
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ProgPower USA XVIII Day Four Musings (9/9/2017)

Contributor Steven Stolper was on point enjoying the findings at the annual ProgPower USA Festival that takes place in Atlanta, Georgia at the Center Stage Atlanta theater and as already noted in one of the earlier chapters, PiercingMetal has NEVER been to the event despite the occasional interest. Fortunately, Agent Stolper was sending a final transmission to the Metal High Command from the field about this mission. Here now are his transcribed views bout the fourth and final day of ProgPowerUSA XVIII.

ProgPowerUSA XVIII Day 4: 3 days of nonstop music and parties take a toll on the body and the mind, so difficult choices had to be made and some sets were skipped. Pain and Amaranthe namely. All of the Day 4 bands except the opener were from Sweden, a testament to the country’s great contribution to the genre and popular music in general.

Seven Spires (USA):
Australia’s Teramaze was originally scheduled to perform in the opening timeslot, but unfortunately had to cancel a few days before due to health issues. That was upsetting because Teramaze was one of the bands I was looking forward to the most. Their latest album, Her Halo, was a really tasty slab of melodic prog metal. Boston’s SevenSpires answered the call and rushed to Georgia to bring their brand of metal to the masses. Seven Spires play aggressively melodic euro power metal with a female singer named Adrienne Cowan, who does both clean and extreme vocals equally well. Their video single, Cabaret of Dreams, sounded true to its name live, like a metallized groovy cabaret number. Other songs were more traditional, with many pounding harsh voiced numbers. The band had a very energetic stage presence and did a good job whipping the somewhat sleepy audience back into fighting shape.
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“Satan’s Tomb” by Denner/Shermann

Artist: Denner/Shermann
Title: “Satan’s Tomb”
Label: Metal Blade Records
Release Date: 10/2/2015
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 4/5

Denner/Shermann is the latest Metal project that comes care of the creative energies of Michael Denner and Hank Shermann who you probably know as the twin lead guitar fire of the legendary Mercyful Fate. Upon Fate’s second hiatus the pair joined forces and delivered two excellent Metal albums under the moniker of Force Of Evil and the band seemed to be everyone in Fate except The King. It was really great stuff and if you have never heard that band yet please do yourself a favor and seek it out as you should be able to find it in bins somewhere or on Amazon.com but I digress. This new band finds Denner and Shermann once again handling the guitar assault and the incredible sonic vocal register of Sean Peck who worked with the band Cage from 1992 on. The rhythms come care of the great Snowy Shaw who is playing drums on this one with the bottom end held up nicely by Marc Grabowski. “Satan’s Tomb” while only an EP is a powerful introduction of the good things to come from the band (or is that “bad things” based on the context of the writings?).
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Therion @ Highline Ballroom (11/1/2007)

Therion is always an interesting musical experience and their return to NYC was highly anticipated. The show also featured Aesma Daeva and took place at the Highline Ballroom. We made sure to document the proceedings for your Metal viewing pleasure so scroll past the logo to learn and see more about the show.

Logo - Therion

Artist: Therion
Venue: The Highline Ballroom (New York, NY)
Opener: Aesma Daeva
Date: 11/1/2007
Label: Nuclear Blast Records

For much the world’s Metal community, the band Therion is the primary reason that the whole Symphonic Operatic Metal genre started in the first place and when you listen to their music its easy to see how this could be the case. Originally begun as more of a Death Metal band they began to introduce orchestrations and choirs into their sound about fifteen years ago and when you listen to how their albums progressed over time it becomes quite an interesting Metal study. Had they not undertaken this approach in their composition I think that we would have seen a very different Symphonic Metal genre or one that did not begin to manifest itself as early as it ended up doing with their input. Therion had only visited New York once before and the appearance was at B.B. King Blues Club. It would be the full band along with a four member choir and a soprano vocalist. The show was quite good but the band was a little restricted in movement based on the number of players and the space available amidst all their gear. This evenings show would be at the recently opened Highline Ballroom and given the venues larger stage would make this a lot more interesting in my opinion. Therion would also bring with them the band Aesma Daeva from Minneapolis.
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