CRY OF THE WOLF MAGAZINE

      Biff Byford, of Saxon Interview A preface. This was originally published for the Ripple Effect Magazine during the bands "Sacrifice" tour. With the new album, "Battering Ram" doing so well I thought I would re-publish this. Enjoy.        Once in a while in this music business you get to speak to a person that you admired from day one. It's a one in a million shot that you just have to breathe deep and go for.   The chance to speak with the singer from one of my favorite bands is just that. I still have my vinyl Saxon albums and I remember hanging their posters on my wall. They were "my band". The band that I discovered and brought to my metal friends. They had the coolest album covers and the best song titles. "Denim And Leather", "Crusader", "Midas Touch", "Wheels Of Steel"...the list goes on.   Anyone who knows me well, knows I count them as one of my primary musical influences. I spoke

            Off The Grid...Doing it Dylan The Charlie Daniels band Charlie Daniels has an enduring legacy that is iconic in the american music pantheon. Now his musical attention has turned to Bob Dylan. His latest album is a tribute to some of Dylan’s classic songs like,..... “Tangled Up In Blue”, “ I Shall Be Released”, and “ Mr. Tambourine Man”.   As you would expect this is some serious music making. The energy he commands is unprecedented. Powerful renditions of These songs as only charlie daniels could produce. Dylan’s legacy is a monument to a lifetime of classic american folklorish storytelling. His is the lyrical dream of backroad americana, a thought in lyrical digestion tangled up in the histrionics and the very soul of who we are collectively. Daniels takes his songs and brings them back home with his soulful country flavoring. Who better to cover the great master than the architect of modern southern country rock and roll. Each track is a brut

        “What Are You Doing Here”?  A Black Woman's Life And Liberation in Heavy Metal,by Laina Dawes, Bazillion Points Books     This was an interesting interview. Many of us have never given much thought to what it must be like to be a minority that loves heavy metal. For most of us the idea of race as an issue simply doesn’t come into play. But there are always those people who judge skin color over character. Now add into that stereotype a female minority and you have people turning their heads. This is the world that Laina Dawes found herself. Growing up as a metal outcast is one thing, surviving in a brutally real racial and gender divide is another. This book is her wake up call. It is our wake up call as well.  It screams at you the reader to change your perceptions. It is an honest and solitary journey that reveals itself in the end to be the story of us all. I found Laina to be down to earth, friendly and fiercely proud of her heritage and pure love of th

Here is my interview with guitarist Jon 5 backstage at the mayhem fest a few years ago. My second face to face interview and during our conversation, who walks by but rob zombie himself...so cool. anyway it's a little outdated but they are touring with korn this year. Jon5 Rob Zombie guitarist Mayhem fest, Backstage Comcast arena, Mansfield mass. Ladies and gentlemen, Jon5:    How is the Mayhem tour going? Tour is going great so far. I can't complain. Good shows, nice weather. We had a power outage in Scranton. Everything is going really well. Looking for more in the future. Are you happy with the production and the stage on this tour? Oh yes. So huge. It can't get much bigger. As   a matter of fact we can't even use all of it today. People are going to watch a really cool show. The album is doing great and is really an excellent hard rock album. Yeah the album. It's great. We recorded it at Rob's place and we had no distractio

The following was originally published with the ripple effect magazine. It was my first ever interview and lucky me I got to speak with the metal queen herself, Doro Pesch. I'm going through my archives re publishing relevant interview from the past and other outlets. Doro is currently on tour. An Interview With Doro Pesch      Years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Doro Pesch at the New Jersey Metal Meltdown.   She rocked that stage, sandwiched in between a host of death and new age metal bands;   she stood her ground and played from the heart. Doro is one of the metal community's shining stars. A veteran musician she has been on tour in some form or another almost her entire life. That dedication and passion comes through, not only with her music, but also her personality. She is metal.   You can hear her love for the genre in her voice as she excitedly speaks of music she has created and plans for the future.   Her latest album, "Raise Your Fist" is

                                                                        Azrael’s Bane     HIghvolmusic has unleashed a sleeping giant on the metal world. They have brought us Azrael's Bane and this is true metal for the masses. Expect big things from this band and this label.            Here we have a proper progressive metal act. These guys know how to tear it up and when to let the music do the talking. Blistering but tasteful leads intertwined with soaring vocals. In terms of getting your moneys worth this band and this album is worth it's weight in gold. You have a ton of good, solid, searing, thundering metal classics. Azrael’s Bane has released an album chock full of all the power and passion any metal head could ask for.     “Breathe”, and “Brother” are two of the strongest tracks on an album that features nothing but strong tracks. But for me, it is the cover of Savatage’s “Edge Of Thorns” which really makes this album and this band sta

                                                                      Inglorius    Let me preface this one by stating the undeniable fact that Frontiers Records is keeping the flame of both hard rock and metal alive. Here is another killer release from this giant of a label.   This band tears through your ears at breakneck speed. Not since the mighty days of Led Zeppelin has a band captured such soul searing hard rocking tones. The production is 100% superior to most albums I have heard to date. The blistering combination of melodic leads and hard rocking vocals are a testament to this bands power. Inglorius is the band of the year so far. You have to get this cd. tracks like “High Flying Gypsy” comb the depths of deep purple meets Zeppelin in perfect form. “Holy Water” offers a smooth bluesy Bad Company-esque journey through a master class of licks and melodic vocal runs. This is perhaps the best song on the album. Such dynamics captured in perfect clarity.

Before Lita Ford became an icon of 80's MTV, the guitarist was a pioneer in the all female rock band, The Runaways.        Alongside Joan Jett, Ford made a name for herself as a hard rocking, hard living musician. “Living Like a Runaway. A Memoir” takes us through her career from struggling to be recognized as a female guitarist, to a video icon and darling of the 80's hair metal scene. Ford talked about her book, her life, and her passion for music       "Looking back. It was a ride. I'm glad it's over.   Some of it was funny, some was painful, and it wasn't easy. I'm glad it's out. I put so much into what I do. I wanted the book to be real. I wanted it to be filled with a lot of things people didn't know about. It's hard to put down once you start reading it." Ford left the music scene in 1994 to raise a family and live on an island. Ford talked about her coming back to the music scene.      "It was a

     Def Leppard was the premier hair band of the 80's and MTV aired their videos almost hourly.   After almost 30 years of performing with the band, guitarist Phil Collen has assembled a side band of deep rooted southern blues enthusiasts. Delta Deep is far removed from the glam drenched arena rock that def leppard honed to perfection. This is a return to the southern delta sound of blues purists. Collen squeezed a lot of emotion and love of the genre into this disc. Collen explained how it all started. "My wife's Godmother has one of those voices. Like Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner. We would just sit around the house singing and playing and it developed from that. As soon as we got together it just clicked. We just wanted to create this sound."   Collen explained how Delta Deep compares to Def leppard. Def leppard is structured. It is such a huge production.   But the show is amazing. I love that. I wouldn't change it at all.   With delta deep w