Interviewer : Gisela
Published on: 1996
After a long time of abstinence there is finally something new from the "Kings Of Metal". "Louder Than Hell" became a kind of album that not only I've been waiting for a long time. To me it's the best one that Manowar have released so far. Because of the promotion the whole band was in Cologne to answer the questions of the press. I was able to make a good and funny interview with Eric Adams and the new guitar player Karl Logan, cause Eric is simply unstopable when he's talking. Let it surprise you.
In our last interview, about 2 years ago Eric told me that the next release was to come in about a year. But nothing happened. Why did we have to wait so long?
Eric: I knew you'd ask me that question. So, the first reason is sitting right beside me. As Dave decided to go back to school to study the classic guitar we had to find a new guitar player. But we could not take just some guy, cause he had to be in the condition to play the old material as well as the new one, so he could take the band to a higher level. Our choice was, after we listened to all the tapes, Karl Logan. We also asked for pics, and the picture of Karl was so good that we said to ourselfes, him or noone. After he even impressed us live, it was clear to us that Karl belonges to MANOWAR. It was like magic. The second reason was that Scott came back to the band. And its good to have him back in, cause he's our brother.That's why we started the songwriting so late.
Karl Logan, the new guitar player is pretty unknown. What have you been doing before your time with MANOWAR?
Karl:I just played in local bands that played along the coast. I was looking for a bigger and more famous band for 12 years. Before my time with MANOWAR I played about 1500 gigs.
It must be a great feeling for you now to be a part of MANOWAR.
Karl: All I can say is, it was a dream come true. It's like a typical Hollywood story that I was allowed to be part of. I was accepted as a friend, even as a brother. That's a great feeling. I never experienced such a friendship like the one in this band.
"Louder Than Hell" is filled with hymns. Where is the difference from your point of view between "The Triumph Of Steel" and the new album?
Eric: The albums are in fact different. The songs from "Triumph Of Steel" were pretty different from their sound. There was a song on it which was over 28 minutes long. On "Louder Than Hell" for example there are two instrumentals, which never happened before in the history of MANOWAR. With these songs we wanted to support Karl's guitar playing skills. I would say that the songs on "Louder Than Hell" are typical for MANOWAR. But there are also parallels between the two albums, for example "Brothers Of Metal Part One". You could listen to Part Two with "Metal Warriors" on the "Triumph Of Steel".
Why now Part One?
Eric: This song is an older one and at that moment the time has come for "Metal Warriors". We rearranged "Brothers Of Metal" together with Karl. We also tried out many versions of "Brothers Of Metal" with different lyrics and different guitar riffs.
Karl: I think there were about 56 different versions. We could record 3 complete CDs with that song.
Eric: It was so hard to work on that song, but we wanted to be satisfied with it.
Karl (laughing): There was "Brothers Of Metal", "Sisters Of Metal", "Cousins Of Metal"...
So you made a song for the whole family.
Karl:For all generations of a family.
Eric just talked about the 2 instrumentals. Was this idea an idea of the whole band?
Eric: No, not really, but we wanted to give Karl the chance to show people his potential.
Karl: The 2 songs are different in style from the other MANOWAR songs. They are not "straight in the face"-songs, as usual for MANOWAR songs, they are very emotional and you can relax listening to them.
Eric: We played the new material in front of a small crowd in Orlando. And then as we played the instrumentals all were just standing there listening devotional. Then when we played the more powerfull songs it seemed as nobody was sure what was going on. We pulled them out of the trance they were in. That's just what we wanted, we wanted to surprise the people and we managed to do it. It is really a "Kick Ass Fucking" Album.
Metal was labeled dead.What's your opinion to that?
Eric: There´s just one thing for me to say, when MANOWAR get back on the road again and kick some fucking ass, metal ain't gonna die. To all the people out there who say metal is dead, come and see a MANOWAR show.
I can only agree with that, it's worth watching a MANOWAR concert, not at least because of the crystal clear sound.
Eric: This is exactly what MANOWAR stands for. The show has to be powerful and we care a lot about the sound. We owe this to our fans.
When are you going to present your material live?
Eric: We are going to go on tour on the 14th of november in South America, which will go till Christmas. But we are not sure now. Next year to Japan, Korea and South East Asia to start our tour in Europe in February. There is a lot of stuff to do.
I can't wait to see MANOWAR here.With such in album,there is nothing that could go wrong.
Story Gisela
