Alex Keskitalo is a newly minted dad. His study is a small, soundproof room within a room. Here, the singer and flutist can not only work on his songs in peace, but also conduct the Zoom interview with eclipsed undisturbed. In the process, things get almost philosophical at times.
eclipsed: The new songs are about topics like war and other crises in the world. Are the times so gloomy that you couldn't get around that?
Their 1999 debut "The Great Divide" and its follow-up "Liberation" (2001), both released on the Magna Carta label, were well received by fans of progressive music with a metal twist worldwide. But instead of simply continuing to follow the path they had successfully taken, the New York band wanted to renew themselves musically. "We wanted to get more involved with songwriting, explore other musical fields. That didn't fit with what the label wanted anymore," guitarist Jimmy Pappas says.
"After the release of our debut 'Rise' in 2006, we hit the ground running for ten years. Produced six studio albums and were basically always on tour worldwide," guitarist Paul Mahon succinctly summarizes the career to date of the Northern Irish classic rockers The Answer, which he founded in 2000. On their penultimate album, "Solas" (2016), it seemed that the band had somewhat freed itself from its blues and classic rock roots. "Yeah, at that point it felt right.
The band from Brandenburg began in 2010 under the name Stonehenge, earned a name in the stoner scene. You can already hear in the old releases that here were young savages willing to explore further musical realms and mix different things to their heart's content. "In 2020, the collaboration with Noisolution began, and we decided to change the name. The old one had such a stoner rock appeal, and our music didn't live up to that anymore," says singer and guitarist Enrico Semler.
On three albums so far, the quartet Algiers from Atlanta followed a straight path between the blues and gospel tradition of the southern states and the industrial rock of the north. On their fourth record, "Shook," they now take a completely new direction, or rather, break off in every conceivable direction at the same time. As if she wanted to rake in the history of 20th century music with a huge crowd of guests - among them Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against The Machine, Mark Cisneros from The Make Up and Samuel T.
With "Chrysalis" the Finnish quintet Polymoon has presented a convincing second album, which serves prog, psychedelic and also shoegaze fans very well. In places the album has the power and drive of Motorpsycho, but in addition contains many shimmering sounds created with the help of various guitar effects devices. We talked to singer/keyboardist Kalle-Erik Kosonen (rather reserved) and guitarist Jesse Jaksola (with a likeable Prince Ironheart hairstyle), who you immediately notice how well they harmonize with each other.
Nick van Dyk is one of those people whose energy seems inexhaustible. The interview with him takes place early in the morning, after which he will be traveling to a congress in Las Vegas. In "real life," he is a Harvard-educated top manager who was a senior vice president at Disney. Quasi on the side, he has been active with Redemption for over twenty years, leading the band to more than respectable success. "I just like being able to be creative and make music with good friends. And it's great when people recognize that," he says.
