It is not the success of the early days which Lenny Wolf associates Kingdom Come with, nor earlier hits from his long-standing career. What he really cares about is the present. Is this a contradiction in view of his new album Rendered Waters (out on 28 March 2011 in Europe, 25 March 2011 in Germany, and on 22 March 2011 in the US), which features eight old and three newly recorded songs? Certainly not. All eleven tracks were cut at Lenny’s Two Square Noise Factory studio in Hamburg, Germany. In particular, the new recordings of old material show Kingdom Come’s vision of living in the here and now. “I purposely chose tracks from the very early days to show how we play, hear and feel the songs nowadays,” says Wolf. “Listening habits have changed dramatically, especially among the younger audience, which made it exciting for me to breathe new life into numbers which have not been heard for a while.”For example ‘Should I’, this time played more slowly lending it a heavier appeal.
The drums are more open and the guitars, according to Lenny, feature a more tube-oriented sound and warmer, more driving tone: “Just to give it an overall 2011 vibe. Of course, you can only change songs to a certain extent if you don’t want to lose the character and central theme of the original version.” The same goes for ‘I’ve Been Trying’, ‘Pushing Hard’ and ‘Living Out Of Touch’. None of them has been reinvented, but all three certainly have a noticeably new approach to them.
On the other hand, Lenny changed the verse of ‘I’ve Been Trying’ completely, giving it a different arrangement, just like he transported the song ‘Seventeen’ into the year 2011. “‘Seventeen’ has always been kind of a key song for Kingdom Come, yet it has never received much attention since it has a very non-commercial approach and is either loved or hated, but with the new version it will hopefully get the recognition it deserves.”Another argument against suggestions that Lenny just wanted to warm up old material is that he purposely didn’t choose to re-record former hits like ‘Get It On’, ‘What Love Can Be’ and ‘Twilight Cruiser’ which put Kingdom Come on the map on a global level. He even selected a song such as ‘Break Down The Wall’ from his pre-Kingdom Come days back in 1985 when he played with LA-based band Stone Fury, which just goes to show how timeless the material is. “It was very interesting to add new styles and to carry them into the year 2011. There are a number of songs from the Seventies. Their charm lives off the old recording technology which can’t be beaten these days and therefore should remain untouched, but re-recording Eighties songs isn’t such a sacrilege.”Let’s not forget the three brand new songs, which feature that typical Kingdom Come structure of strong guitar hook lines and Wolf’s charismatic vocals. ‘Blue Trees’, ‘Is It Fair Enough’ and ‘Don’t Remember’ once again see Lenny prove his unwillingness to pander to expectations.
Like it or not, he certainly follows his very own route. Although Lenny again recorded most of the instruments himself, Eric Förster, who contributed those ruthlessly driven guitar solos, and American-born Berlin resident Hanan Rubinstein, who mastered the CD, both deserve to be mentioned.To sum it up, here are a number of facts for history buffs: Kingdom Come were formed in 1987 in Los Angeles, USA. Besides Lenny, the only German in the group, there was also James Kottack, now playing drums with the Scorpions. The sensational debut Kingdom Come reached number 12 in the US charts, and its successor In Your Face made high chart positions all over the globe, too.
There is no end in sight. In Lenny´s words: “Kingdom Come is my calling. I either fall or rise with it. Apart from a few bad decisions, I’ve done alright. Thankful and still fully loaded, back to the future.”
LINE UP
Lenny Wolf – zang
Eric Förster – gitaar
Nada Rahy – drums
Frank Binke - bass
1988 after sending in only one demo song Axxis were signed to EMI Electrola. The debut album "Kingdom Of The Night", 1989 which was already released in Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia and the USA sold 100000 times immidiately. It became the best ever selling debut album by a Hard Rock band in Germany in 1989. "Axxis II" marked a similar huge success in 1990, followed by the authentic and energetic live release "Access All Areas" a year later. The ambitious "The Big Thrill" became a best seller in 1993.This album was a big turning point in the career of this five piece band. Produced by Joey Balin and recorded in Philadelphia, it was the first international production bythe following years AXXIS had traveled thousands of miles. One if the most impressive destinations was Japan, where Bernhard Weiss and guitarist Walter Pietsch performed a couple of acoustic live shows due to the release of the Japanese only CD "Profile". The band became known world-wide!The album "Matters of survival" was produced in Los Angeles in 1995 - the city of angels which is uncritically praised as metal-capitol by some, a city where glamour, violence and homelessness live together very closely. An impression which was responsible for the choice of the album title.
With Keith Olsen (Fleetwood Mac, Whitesnake, Foreigner, Scorpions) the band had a producer who had already worked in the biz since 25 years. Olsen had visited the band in Germany first and both together chose the 12 best song from the original 30 demo tracks and commited the arrangements. Afterwards they flew over to Los Angels where Olsen is running his Goodnight L.A.-Studio.AXXIS especially see themselves as a live band. At a perfect gig, as Bernhard Weiss once said, the own hands have to glow. "It is the best possibilty to play your music", says Weiss, "already alone because of the chance of getting so close to your fans." So, the performances at "Rock am Ring" in front of 30.000 spectators were for sure important highlights of the years 1994 and1996!
To keep on moving into new directions was a principle which this Hard Rock band from the "Ruhrgebiet" had always followed. If you have a look on KINGDOM OF THE NIGHT (..89) , AXXIS II (..91 ), THE BIG THRILL (..93) , MATTERS OF SURVIVAL (..95) oder VOODOO VIBES (97 ), the latest album by the band - they had always avoided to repeat themselves.AXXIS do of course have their basic sound, their roots are lying within the traditional Heavy Rock of the 70's and 80's, they have found their very own style which is orientated on hooks like "LIVING IN A WORLD". This song is still regarded as a hymn at every show and, as Walter says, the best example for a typical AXXIS song. Bemhard's unique vocal style is another characteristic trademark which makes AXXIS' sound unique. But the cover on this basics is very different anytime.
The permanent move can be found within the details.Axxis' major ambition is, as Walter adds, "to be a pure Rock 'n' Roll band", and to wash away any doubt, VOODOO VIBES became the most rockin' album since the very early days. The heavy guitars remind the listener a lot on the intensive Punch of the debut album.The production this time was done by the band itself for the very first time. After those great lessons in the US by highly skilled producers, Axxis felt strong enough to handle the complex studio technics alone and to take over the responsiblity for it themselves. "The idea for this was invented by our label", says Harry. "We had already produced our demos for a long time before.
And as we presented our new demo tapes to our A&R manager, he was not only convinced by the quality of our new material but of the sound of this supposedly rehearsal room recordings as well. He told us to put it on the album as it was. But the songs and especially the vocals weren't completed yet at the time and that was the reason why the idea came up to let us mix it up ourselves. Because of our demos our label gained a lot of confidence in our abilities to produce an album."Confidence which was confirmed.VOODOO VIBES, produced by Bemhard, Walter and Harry with the help of co-producer and engineer Thomas Kemper at Dierks Studios in the outskirts of Cologne, offers a straight and powerful sound from the beginning to the end which couldn't had been done better by an American star producer. The fact that those complete recordings were finished after only 18 days in the studio is a proof for the band's reliability, who according to Walter, "had a little fear to do the job right in the beginning. The band had to deal with new aspects like being responsible for a recording budget and to be judged for anything that might have gone wrong. But finally everything worked perfectly" - and it worked so well that AXXIS would like to repeat it again when starting to record the next album. This self-determination will not be missed in the future anymore...
The well-known rock-band Human Zoo from Balingen is on their direct way into the studio to publish their highly expected third studio album inclusive a video clip in 2010. The band – consisting of Thomas Seeburger, Zarko Mestrovic, Markus Ratheiser, Ingolf Engler, Boris Matakovic and the drummer Kevin Klimesch – will present their music style even more powerful and eventful on their upcoming third album.The band is a quite unusal Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band.
The saxophone player in their line-up that gives them some sort of extravagance. Rousing melodies and grabbing refrains prove that there are capable musicians and songwriters at work that could already gain experiences and success with other bands in the past (Subway, Glenmore).Thomas Seeburger (Vocals), Zarko Mestrovic (Keyboards) and Ingolf Engler (Guitars) founded the band in 2004 with a clear vision – pure rock! Markus Ratheiser (Bass), Boris Matakovic (Saxophone) and Kevin Klimesch (Drums) completed the line-up.
Their first and second album were produced by Dennis Ward (the well-known producer and bass player of Pink Cream 69) and shows that the band crosses the border of its genre in the same way as they keep it true.“Precious Time” and the second album "Over The Horizon" are very promising CD..s that have been the start of an amazing career for sure
It's the 20th band anniversary and the time is right to bring ROUGH SILK back to life – how can you do this better but with a new album!Mastermind Ferdy Doernberg (known as a band member of AXEL RUDI PELL as well) teamed up with André Hort (bass), Mike Mandel (guitars) and Alex Wenn (drums), who are young and hungry musicians from the Hanover-area to bring fresh blood and enthusiasm into the band and most important to bring back more Metal into ROUGH SILK's sound again!
So with the anniversary the new album will start a new era for the band and you can´t name it better then with the album title: A New Beginning!ROUGH SILK were founded in 1989 and have released seven studio and one best of album so far in their history. During all these years the band has defined their very unique sound which is best described by the band name ROUGH SILK: "Rough" stands for the real heavy (sometimes even Thrash) Metal influences and "Silk" for the unusual singer-songwriter elements and piano-parts, combining both to their very own brand of heavy but yet Melodic Metal.ROUGH SILK build up a good reputation as a live-act by suporting bands like HELLOWEEN , DEEP PURPLE, DIO, SAVATAGE, MANOWAR, FATES WARNING, ACCEPT, WHITESNAKE, AXXIS, EUROPE, SAXON and VICIOUS RUMORS among others.
The founding members were Ferdy Doernberg (keyboards, slide-guitars & vocals), Hilmer Staake (guitars), Jan Barnett (lead vocals, guitars), Ralf Schwertner (bass, vocals) and Herbert Hartmann (drums, vocals) but there have been some changes that created kind of different eras of the band’s history.The first era contained the albums “Rough Silk” (Vinyl LP only), “Roots of Hate”, “Walls of Never”, “Circle Of Pain” and “Mephisto” followed by a first European tour with Savatage.The second era started with the 5 th album when Barnett left the band and was replaced by Thomas Ludolphy. In this periode the band recorded the albums “Beyond The Sundown” and “Symphony of Life” and supported Savatage in Europe once more, on Savatage’s special wish. During this time ROUGH SILK brought out their first best Of album “Wheels of Time”
.In 2002 Ludolphy left the band due to personal reasons and the band decided that they would not look for a new singer. On the band´s 7th studio album "End of Infinity", Doernberg, Hartmann and Wunderlich shared the lead-vocals. But unfortunatly it became obvious that the band members had parted minds and had no common vision on this style anymore, so this finally led to the end of the era and Rough Silk was put on ice.Doernberg stayed busy playing in the studio and on stage with acts like ULI JON ROTH (ex- SCORPIONS), HOLY MOSES, DESTRUCTION, GAMMA RAY, CHRIS CAFFREY (SAVATAGE), WARREN DE MARTINI (RATT), BOBBY RONDINELLI (RAINBOW, BLACK SABBATH), ROBBIE KRIEGER (THE DOORS), GRAHAM BONNETT (RAINBOW), DON DOKKEN (DOKKEN) , ROY Z, POWERGOD, TONY FRANKLIN (BLUE MURDER / WHITESNAKE), CHRIS POLAND (MEGADETH), JEFF SCOTT SOTO, DAVID PAICH (TOTO), BRAINSTORM and many more as well as he toured and recorded again with AXEL RUDI PELL. Even though he performed his own music doing many solo-shows something was missing. So he started looking for young and hungry musicians to form a new Metal band.And as you already read he found the fitting band members and due to the 20th band anniversary now the 3rd era starts – with “A New Beginning”! Be sure it will sound heavier than ever!
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