Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Gloryful Interview

Jens „Shredmaster JB“ Basten, guitar-player of 
GLORYFUL,  28.05.2013

1. Can you tell us a little bit about the band for those that have never
heard of you before?
Johnny and me started the band in 2010 as a two piece without having any 
professional aim in mind. The only thing we got in mind was to pay 
tribute to the bands which are most important for our lives, like they 
are the most important bands for a million heavy metal maniacs in the 
world: These bands are maybe Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Manowar. We 
did the "Sedna`s Revenge demo EP" which contains our very first three 
compositions. The feedback was quite nice so we had to extend the 
Gloryful line-up and to bring the band up on stages. The current line up 
is  Johnny la Bomba (vocals), Vito Papotto (guitar), Oliver Karasch 
(Bass) and Hartmut Stoof (Drums), … ah and it´s  me on the other guitar. 
We signed a record deal with Massacre Records in January 2013. Our debut 
album is called „The Warrior´s Code“. It has been released 5 days ago 
(may 24th) and we are very about that!

2. How would you describe your musical sound?
It´s not that typical european power metal with that high pitched vocals 
and keyboards. Johnnys voice is way more mid-ranged and the music is 
rather classic heavy metal with it´s own note. We play heavy metal. You 
will recognize a lot of famous heavy metal bands that influenced us, 
though we for sure never sound like a copy of one of these bands. We got 
our own special style regarding songwriting, guitar- and vocal-melodies 
and Johnny got a very exclusive sounding voice that makes a difference 
to most of the typical heavy- and powermetal acts out there. We try to 
keep things simple and integrate some nice hooklines and singalong-parts 
in our songs. Some people say we sound like early Maiden and Priest 
mixed with some Lizzy and Running Wild. But we are not compareable to 
those numerous retro-trend acts. We don`t try to be a poor copy of 80`s 
bands with a lot of silly glam-fashion, downsized sound to express 
authenticity

3. What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores
with the music?
We started writing about the saga of sedna, a story which is part of the 
inuit-mythology. You can find these themes in the tracks „Sedna´s 
Revenge“, „Death Of The First Earth“ and  „Breaking Destiny“. Besides 
that stuff it´s all about heavy metal brotherhood, and ecspecially about 
heavy metal as something you can´t get rid of once you became a real 
part of it. We are actually exploring our inner selfs. And we tell 
peolpe that heavy metal it nothing you can buy or imitate as it is a 
part of your heart and soul. Heavy metal is just more than meets the eye.

4. What is the meaning and inspiration behind the bands name?
There is no specialmeaning behind that. One day in 2010 I suddenly had 
this name along with some conceptional ideas as the inuit-mythodology in 
my head. Johnny liked the idea so we started that way.

5. What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and
how would you describe your stage performance?
One of the best shows was the show with Powerwolf in 2011 in Essen: it 
was a sold out show and half oft he audience was singing our songs 
without knowing the stuff! We was simply blewn away and that day we 
truly started believing in what we started. Another great gig was the 
show with Cicagos´ High Spirits in Hamburg in April´13.

6. Do you have any touring plans for the future?
Of course we need to support the album with a fitting tour soon. But 
nothing is fixed so far and maybe we will organize a little underground 
package tour through Germany/benelux states in late summer if nothing 
bigger happens sooner or later.

7. On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans
of metal?
The press-response on „The Warrior´s Code“ is just incredible so far. 
The sellings via amazon are suprisingly nice what no one expected. We 
got a lot of messages from people all over the world, but itßs 
impossible to draw a picture at the moment. The record was released only 
5 days ago. So far it really seems pleople diggin´ the shit.

8. What is going on with the other musical projects these days?
Surely Gloryful is actually taking the main part. Vito is part of new 
german melodic metallers Exotoxis while i work on new Night in Gales 
demo-tracks. There will be a german-romanian black metal collaboration 
called „The Wake“ later this year i will be involved in as well.

9. What direction do you see your music heading into on future releases?
There will be no other direction for Gloryful. We started Gloryful for 
what is now and it hopefully stays the same for the next couple of 
albums. Most oft he tracks for our second album are already written and 
we will record the new album this summer. There will be no bigger 
changes, we just tried to do some shorter songs as well this time.

10. What are some bands or musical styles that have influenced your
music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
I started at the age of 8 with bands like Dio, Crue, Maiden, Helloween, 
Guns n´ Roses and Wasp. We strongly believe, that the bands you listen 
to in your youth are the most important in life. And that´s what 
Gloryful is all about: You are not choosing heavy metal – metal chooses 
you!


11.Outside of music what are some of your interests?
Honestly, for me there is actually no fucking time left for anything 
besides Music and Work. If there´s some little sparetime between music 
and work, i really need that time to relax. Johnny is a lot into 
X-Box-games, comic-series and of course the whole Marvel-stuff, hartmut 
is a semi-professional table-tennis player, Olli is wearing the Karate - 
black belt while Vito is working as guitar-teacher.

12.Any final words or thoughts before we wrap up this interview?
I`d like to thank all of you real heavy metal maniacs out there that 
support us. Everyone should check out our album which will be released 
as alimited vinyl-edition on Metalizer Records in Juli as well as our 
soon to be released first official music-video for the titletrack „The 
Warrior´s Code“ on youtube and www.gloryful.net! Get in touch with us 
for booking and merchandise requests easily at facebook. Stay metal, Cheers!

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