idrummag, Featuring Carmine Appice!

idrummag is a new online drum magazine.  They combine the tried and true print format, with the added bonus of Internet video.  It makes the article truly come alive, and allows you to see and hear the artist in stunning HD. Last month featured the incomparable Keith LeBlanc in both an interview and performance with the legendary Tackhead. This month features the legendary Carmine Appice.  If you have never had the pleasure of meeting Carmine, this interview gives you some insight into his career, but also his very outgoing and friendly personality.  For a peek into the mind of a drumming icon, click on the link below!

www.idrummag.com/issue4

Click the Link for studio footage of Richard Christy with Charred Walls of the Damned

CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED drummer Richard Christy (formerly of ICED EARTH, DEATH, LEASH LAW, CONTROL DENIED, BURNING INSIDE) has partnered with Modern Drummer magazine to premiere his studio performance video for the song "Admire The Heroes". Richard filmed his drum takes while recording the band's sophomore album, "Cold Winds On Timeless Days", earlier this year at The Hit Factory Criteria in Miami, Florida. Those takes from two different cameras were edited into the video you can see below.
Christy's approach to this record was that he wanted a more organic and spontaneous sounding album. Amazingly, drums were recorded in a mere two days and the video is evidence to his ability to record the songs in an entire, contiguous take. Christy elaborates: "The drum sound on the second CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED album, 'Cold Winds On Timeless Days', turned out better than I ever could have imagined thanks to engineer Mark Lewis, the amazing drum room at Hit Factory Criteria in Miami, and all of the great equipment that I endorse like Ddrum, Sabian, Vater, Axis and Aquarian! Rehearsing the full album every day for two months straight definitely helped, too. Fortunately, I set up a couple of video cameras at the studio and filmed a lot of my drum tracking for our second album. We did three or four takes straight through on the drums for each song so what you'll see on these videos isn't necessarily what we used on the album (some of the drum fills don't match up exactly) but they'll give you a great idea of how amazing the drum room at Hit Factory is and how we were able to get a very natural drum sound on the new CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED album!"
Fans that want to read more about the album can read an article about Richard Christy and CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED in the December issue of Modern Drummer, which hits shelves in October.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXHc3GK2mrM&feature=player_embedded

Have you met.....BJ Zampa?

Bill (BJ) Zampa isn't your typical Rock Drummer. In Fact , It is more accurate to label Zampa as a "Groove-Meister ". Zampa combines Head Banging beats with funky idioms to produce the biggest Foot Stomping sound around. Known for his exceptional drumming abilities, Zampa at the age of 22 after playing New England local clubs with acts such as The Excerpts , Mad Racket , Run 21, was asked by Mike Varney to join up with Tony MacAlpine to finish up his Squwk Polygram release Eyes Of The World album .
In 1990 Mike Varney called upon Zampa again to fill the drumming spot with the band Driver which consisted of Rob Rock vocals, Roy Z guitars) later Z went on to produce Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson) , Emil Lech-Brando bass.The band toured the East Coast until 1991 and soon after disbanded. Upon leaving Driver, Zampa did a short stint with guitar hero Blues Saraceno until he received a phone call from guitar great Yngwie Malmsteen asking him to join his band and finish up his Seventh Sign North American tour.(Mike Vescera vocals, Barry Sparks bass, Mat's Olausson keyboards, Yngwie Malmsteen guitar). After leaving Malmsteen Zampa and Vescera started to put together a new band with ex Malmsteen bass player Barry Sparks and Scott Boland guitars. The band was called M.V.P. Pony Canyon picked up the band and released the album entitled Windows . Soon after the release there was a line up change and Vescera called upon Shrapnel recording artist Joey Taffola to fill the guitar spot and Jammie Scott of (Tyketto) to play bass. Zampa and M.V.P. with the new lineup toured South America supporting Quite Riot.
With South America behind him, Zampa built Father Panic Studios and started producing local New England bands, when his old pal Ted Bullet ex(Thunderhead-Son Of A Bitch guitar player vocalist) gave him a call from Germany looking to start yet another band. After Bullet and Zampa finished up some demos, German label SPV picked up the duo and requested that Bullet reform Thunderhead. Without a guitar player or bass player Zampa looked up old pal from the local club days guitar great Jimi Bell ex -(Geezer Butler- Joined Force) and Mark Franco ex (Joined Forces - Canyon)bass, to fill out the new Thunderhead lineup. One month later SPV released Thunderhead's Ugly Side. Thunderhead toured Europe with "METAL GODS" OF THE 1980's Metal Church. Back from Europe,and blown away by Thunderheads live shows Metal Church vocalist David Wayne called upon Bell ,Zampa and Franco to join him in his new project called David Wayne's Metal Church .The album was released by Nuclear Blast records and sold 30,000 units world wide topping metal charts in Japan and Europe.
With the success of David Wayne's Metal Church, Zampa decided to call ex (Malmsteen -Loudness) front man Mike Vescera to start another album this time using Thunderhead /David Wayne's Metal Church shredder Jimi Bell on guitar to create a heavier sound for the new M.V.P. album. Vescera also recruited ex (Malmsteen keyboardist) Mat's Olausson ,Chris McCarvill { Jeff Scott Soto band } on bass,"Metal" Mike Chlasciak (Rob Halford guitarist) and many others. The album is called The Altar and was released in Europe and Japan by Avalon/Marquee and once again made a bunch of noise in the "metal world".
As of 2006 Bill {Bj} Zampa can be herd on the new House of Lords CD called World Upside Down. Look for him in a city near you with the House of Lords as they start there 2006 / 2007 World Tour. In 2008 Bj was very busy, in March of 2008 House of Lords released Come To My Kingdom, The band followed up the release with a world tour.
Fresh off the successful House of Lords tour Bj was asked to fill the drum spot as a fill in for the legendary rock band Dokken on there summer tour with Poison..

Currently as of 2009 to present House Of Lords has released Cartesian Dreams and followed that up with another world tour. In 2010 Bj was called upon again by Dokken to play on there Summer tour that stretched over a span of  four months. During this time Dokken played shows with the Scorpions, Ratt, Cindarella, Tesla , Winger and many more.

2011 will be another busy year for Bj starting off with a Summer tour with Dokken,  a new House Of Lords CD titled Big Money due for release in the fall , a two song video shoot for VH1 Classic and MTV Europe in support of Big Money along with a supporting tour planned for the fall.
Bj's experience with House Of Lords and Dokken is yet another testimonial in his abilities and his sense of professionalism.

BVB + A7X = HOTTEST TOUR OF THE FALL!

Black Veil Brides Heading Out On The Road

Opening For Avenged Sevenfold

Select Headline Dates Will Be The Last for 2011

(September 19, 2011 – New York, NY) – California’s greatest exports are teaming up for the hottest tour of the Fall.  The Black Veil Brides have been tapped by Avenged Sevenfold for The Buried Alive Tour. The idea for touring together came after both bands were featured on a recent cover of Guitar World calling both bands “The Future of Hard Rock.”

“I love it when a plan comes together,” exclaims Biersack.  “We are looking forward to going out on the road with all of these guys and playing in front of their fans as well as introducing them to the BVB Army.”

The 16 city run in four weeks kicks off on November 21 in New Orleans, LA and wraps up on the west coast in mid-Decmeber.  The tour makes stops in markets such as Jacksonville, Madison and Minneapolis to name a few with more dates to be announced. The Brides will also be playing select headline dates leading in to the Avenged Sevenfold tour.  Black Veil Brides are touring in support of their latest Lava/Universal Republic Records release, Set The World On Fire, which was released on June 14.

Set The World On Fire is the follow-up to their chart-topping debut album, We Stitch These Wounds. Released in 2010, the album came in at #36 on the Billboard Top 200. The latest release sold 23,000 copies and marks over a 100% increase in first week sales and a jump of 19 chart positions since the band’s debut album that was released only 11 months ago landing at #17 on the Top 200.  As Revolver Magazine proclaims the album is “Full of breakneck tempos, crunchy guitars and shout-along melodies custom designed for an arena sized audience.”  Set The World on Fire is available for purchase in stores and online.

Gaining international recognition, Black Veil Brides were recently voted the Best International Newcomer in the UK at Kerrang! Awards and also bagged the Best New Band award at the 2011 Revolver Golden Gods. Both of these prestigious awards were decided by fan voting and the band’s devoted BVB Army played an important role in the Black Veil Brides victory.  The band has also landed on the covers of Alternative Press, Kerrang!, Music Connetion, Big Cheese and Rock Sound.

Black Veil Brides are Andy Biersack (vocals), Jake Pitts & Jinxx (guitar), Ashley Purdy (bass) and Christian “CC” Coma (drums).

Have you met.....Walker Adams?

Walker Adams is a very talented drummer, currently working with the band Miggs.  He has also done a tour of duty with Carmine Appice's SLAM!, alongside another ddrum artist, Felipe Torres, and of course, Carmine himself. In Miggs, he alternates between delivering tight rock grooves, and then switching to a more percussion-oriented approach.  He can take a floor tom and snare and create a full percussion ensemble, bringing multiple tones from a minimal set up.  The videos here feature Walker playing an open solo, and Miggs' recent new video for the song "Let The Games Begin". Be on the look out for their supporting slot on this years Candlebox tour!

Queensryche-Live, at the High Voltage Festival!

Little bit of Queensryche to start the day.  Scott Rockenfield on a Trans Black Dios M kit.

Uproar, roars into Tampa

Summer touring season keeps rolling right along.  Tampa played host to Rockstar Energy Drink's second festival tour, Uproar.  Playing counterpoint to Mayhem, earlier this year, playing the main stage was yet another ddrum artist, John Humphrey with Seether! John is a rock drummer of the highest order.  Seether takes the stage as a power trio these days, which really allows John to shine.  He anchors the band while spicing up the arrangements with well-placed tom hits and tasteful double pedal work.  The song is the number one priority, and John lays it down with authority.  The set was lean, and powerful, with radio-hit after radio hit, including the brand new single Tonight, and their previous single Country Song.  This was John's 6th show, on his all-new Dios kit.  For this tour, we custom-fitted a red cherry sparkle kit, with black-nickel hardware.  The hardware made the already rich painted finish even deeper and more intense.  John augmented his usual one rack, two floor set up, with a 14" floor tom to the left.  This added a bit of dimension to grooves and fills. Ever the explorer, John has 3 different snares on this tour.  In addition to his signature snare, he is also rocking the Dios Bamboo, and the Dios Zebra.  He choose the bamboo for this show, and it cracked through the PA like a metal drum, but with added warmth and punch, that can only be had from a wood shell.