Voices Of Extreme
Break The Silence

I do realize that this album came out almost a year ago, but it just recently found its way to me.

Given the bands name, I wasn’t sure what to expect. There are so many terms that are used in metal, like say “extreme” that are used in a plethora a ways, and usually overused to describe things. How extreme was this actually going to be? If you couldn’t tell this is the first time I’ve listened to anything by the band, and I’m sure what I’ve mentioned above has already been brought up a million times.

The album starts off really strong, with four solid AOR/hard rock tracks. The highlight of the entire album is lead singer Don Chaffin. Although not original, these first four tracks are very catchy in their own regard. From the Chris Cornell influenced Damned, to the mid-tempo Tell Me What it Takes, to the nu-metalish Apocalypse, to the title track Break The Silence. After that however, the album falls into a generic lull. The final track Sorry is alright, but the rest in between is lacking the catchiness the first four tracks bring to the table.

Chaffin has a very strong voice; he channels everyone from the aforementioned Cornell, to Fastway era Dave King. It’s a shame that his voice is relatively unknown, even with Dan Spitz and Nicko McBrain attaching their names to the band at different points in time. I would definitely recommend checking out the first half of the album, and deciding for yourself.

Rated: B-

Tonight’s episode features an all 90s line up of hard rock and metal. You’ll hear everything from Katmandu which was fronted by current Flogging Molly lead singer Dave King, a remake by Suicidal Tendencies, some Judas Priest, bands that where in a tug-o-war between metal and grunge, some thrash, some industrial influenced metal as well. The episode debuts tonight at 8PM EST / 5PM PST on stream A of MarkStriglRadio.com. The show is followed by the 80s, and 70s specials that have debuted the past few weeks.

This episode contains the second part of an interview I conducted with former Helloween lead singer Michael Kiske, sorry for the delay. As mentioned during a previous post, he just recently put out an album with Amanda Somerville called Kiske Somerville, and is currently working on an album with the band Unisonic. You’ve read a lot of things our there regarding his thoughts on metal music, well if you’re a fan, you need to listen to both interviews to see what he really things of metal, his fans, his future with Unisonic, and his former band mates, etc.

During the episode you’ll hear tracks off of the album with Amanda Somerville, and a bunch of classic Helloween that features Michael on lead vocals.

Download MP3

Download From iTunes

Podcast: Embed

Podcast (podcasts): Embed

This episode contains the first part of an interview I conducted with former Helloween lead singer Michael Kiske. He just recently put out an album with Amanda Somerville called Kiske Somerville, and I was lucky enough to interview him regarding the album, his past with Helloween, and his current band Unisonic. This is a must listen to interview if you are a fan of Helloween as he discusses how and why he was fired from the band, why he thinks the band was never able to recapture what they did on the original two Keeper of the Seven Keys albums, and why Ingo

We also touch on a plethora of other topics, just take a look at the tags to get a rough idea of what we discussed. Part 2 should be up next week.

During the episode you’ll hear tracks off of the album with Amanda Somerville, some of his solo work (including a track that features Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith and ex Helloween guitarist Kai Hansen), a Helloween track that was retooled for a solo acoustic album, and of course some classic Helloween that features Michael on lead vocals.

Download MP3

Download From iTunes

Podcast: Embed