Hail to all ye Brethren of the Hammer,

Well here I am on tour with the Road in Hamburg, Germany. I am hanging out In the Hotel Berlin right now enjoying some time off between shows. It has been a while since I have posted anything…as usual haha. I have been so busy lately so there is a lot of road to cover. Well let’s just get to it so fasten your seat belts.

First of all just a short time back we traveled to Portugal and Spain to do a couple of festival dates. First was the SWR festival in Portugal where we saw Pentagram the night before we played. Man it was good to see Bobby still in weird form on stage haha. But he did put on a great show and the audience was really into it. We played the next night being the next to last band and it was a great time. The audience was way cool and the promoter and crew were really cool to work with also. It was a bigger festival than I thought it was going to be…guess I’m just not knowledgeable enough about the scene being hidden away in my studio all the time. I was quite surprised with the whole thing. Then it was on to Madrid, Spain for the Pounding Metal Festival. Now this was the real big surprise for me. We headlined this festival and it was not a huge fest but it was really great because the fans were just nuts. Vicious Rumors opened up for us with James Rivera singing lead vox. Well Jeff and his bunch totally blew me away with a really hard to follow performance that lit up the audience. We had a great time playing with these guys again and they are always fun to hang out with. It was really good to see Jeff and James again. We had only played with Vicious Rumors once before but James and us have had many shows together with his band Helstar. The promoter and all the Pounding Metal Union were really great to work with and they even took us sightseeing all over the place in Spain. I am so proud to have met this bunch of metal heads and applaud their efforts to promote metal in Spain. This has to be one of the highlights on my year that is for sure. Even though it was not a huge festival the promoter and the crew were just a dream to work with. They did an amazing job and I will never forget the respect that was delivered to the Road at this event. The audience stage dove, crowd surfed and sang along with all our songs and it was utterly amazing. Great times indeed.

Next a little recap of our touring in the states.  It was a quick jaunt for 3 shows. First stop was the Maryland Deathfest in Baltimore. Man it was really nice to see such a big metal festival in the states. I know there are others as well but since we have not toured in the states that much of late we are sort of new to the American festival scene. The whole thing was really cool. Lots a great bands and a really great bunch of metal heads attending. We had a great time just checking out many of the bands and the festival crews were really good to work with. We played in front of a huge audience compared to any that we had played to in the states before and man they were excited and really energetic. We have been opening all of our shows with the Quadrilogy which is Masque of the Red Death, Death by the Hammer, Hammer of the Witches and Witches Brew. You put that all together and it comes out to Masque of the Red Death by the Hammer of the Witches Brew. The audience responded with cheers and fists in the air. Man I did not know that there were so many Roadsters that know about us here in the states. We had a mosh pit, crowd surfing and the audience singing along with most of our songs. It was an amazing experience for us all. I estimate that we played to somewhere around 5,000 to 8,000 people. Not all knew who we were but from the merchandise sales that we had I would have to say that a lot of the ones that did not know us were impressed. And the response from the crowd was really great. So we had a blast at the show and I wish to thank all of you that attended and made that day a really special one for us. Really incredible to experience that kind of response in America. Makes a man proud to be a metal head from the US. We then headed to Las Vegas and did a show at the Doom in June festival. It was a much smaller event but a good one. We opened up for The Skull which is pretty much the old Trouble band. It was not a large crowd but an enthusiastic one that is for sure. Saw a band there that I had never heard of before called Castle that were really good so you might want to check them out if you get a chance. And the Skull was in fine form also even playing some of their old Trouble songs. Eric still has what it takes on the vocals that is for sure. After Lost Wages we headed to Austin, Texas for the Chaos in Tejas festival. This was a really cool event with bands in several clubs all at the same time. We played in a place called Red 7 I believe and the crew here did a fantastic job with us and our sound. It was a really cool place sort of indoors and outdoors all at the same time. Speedwolf opened for us and man they put on a freaking great energetic show. These guys are worth checking out for sure especially if you like Motorhead…which I do. Sort of a modern version of that style of music. They really maimed it. There was another cool band right after them but unfortunately I was very busy outside the club while they were doing their thing and I missed most of their set so I’m not even sure of their name but what I heard was cool. I think their name was Satan’s Satyrs but I’m not sure. Eternal Champion also played earlier but I did not get to the club until after they had finished. Then it was time for Manilla Road and the game was afoot. The audience was great and chaotic and we had a great show and a hell of good time. Once again stage diving, crowd surfing and the crowds voices singing our choruses louder than the band. Incredible. It was a blast for all involved. So we had a really successful little tour leg stateside and I can’t wait to get back on the road in the states to do more of the same. Really quite pleased with how the scene is continuing to grow in America.

Then it was back to Wichita for 24 hours before we launched across the ocean to Sweden for the Sweden Rock Festival. Man what a huge event this was. One of the most well organized festivals that I have ever been to. I was really surprised at how well run this fest was. No bands were ever late getting on or off the stage and the audience was really huge. The day we played there were 55,000 in attendance. This was the largest festival that Manilla Road had ever played at. An amazing experience for all of us. Now this festival was not just all about the Road for me. I had some other experiences that were really exciting for me that I must tell you about. First of all KISS went on fairly soon after we played. Although they were on the main stage since they played so soon after us it sort of felt like we were their opening act so that was cool. But the real excitement for me was a couple of things. First we arrived the night before just in time to catch the mighty Candlemass live. I have been a big fan of this band for a long time and I am so proud to call Leif Edling (founder and bass player of the band) friend. They totally kicked ass even though it was pretty cold that night. They did not play until late but man even though I know how hard it is to play and make your fingers work in the cold these guys just laid down the law of Doom Metal like it should be. Not only that but when we played the next day guess who was in the front row right in front of Manilla Road? None other than Leif himself. What a bloody honor. And he looked like he was having a great time jamming to the Road. Wow. And then after the show we hung out with him and his drummer back stage and then a bit later hung out with him and his crew at one of the many outdoor bars to watch KISS. What a great time that was. I have had the pleasure of hanging out with Leif a couple of times before in years past. Once at the Headbangers Open Air in Germany very near where I am at this moment and then also in Oslo Norway when we played there with Angel Witch some years back. But this time we spent a lot of time together and found out that our likes and dislikes in music are very similar. Not really that big of a surprise I guess since we both have this sort of mutual appreciation society going on between us. But what a great time that was for me because he is so cool and such a great composer and musician. And then another really great time for me at this festival was seeing Accept for the first time and man did they kick ass. I have been a huge Accept fan for a long time and even though Udo is not with them anymore they have picked a really good lead singer to take his place. Seeing them and Candlemass for the first time was just huge for me and I can’t say enough about how great both of these bands are. Both were really great times for me and the highlights of the festival except for playing in it myself.

Well now we are resting in Hamburg before our show coming up in Itzehoe, Germany just outside of Hamburg and then it will be onto France to play in the Hellfest along with Candlemass, Accept and KISS again. Also ZZ Top, Def Leppard and a huge array of other great bands. I have been told that Hellfest is even larger than the Sweden Rock so I am looking forward to that as well.

Before I go I wish to thank all of you who have come from all places to see us on this tour. I have been totally amazed at the response we have been getting everywhere we have played so far this year. I can’t express my gratitude enough to all our supporters and fans for making this all happen for Manilla Road. We would not be doing this without your help and support. It has been a fantastic tour so far and I am looking forward to the rest of the touring that we are going to do yet this year. You can check our tour schedule on the manillaroad.net website for the rest of the dates that we will be playing this year. Hopefully if you have not seen us yet you will be able to make it to one of the remaining shows that we have coming up in the near future. Also I wish to let you all know that we have a new Manilla Road fan site that is going to launch soon out of Greece. I have seen the test site already and it looks really cool and you will also be able to keep up with the Road and all our activities on this site as well. We will let you know when it is up and running so you can also check it out. The site will be called Manilla Roadsters. I wish to thank all you Roadsters and Brethren of the Hammer for helping making this Kansas Cowboys dreams come true. I could never have made it this far without thee. To all of you May the Lords of Light be with you.

Last but not least at all let it be known that the next Manilla Road album is already written and about half of the project is already recorded. Neudi just finished his drum tracks in between our shows in the states. I’m not going to spill the beans on the theme just yet because there is still a lot of work to do on the project and it will not be ready to release until early next year I will tell thee the whole album is a complete concept. Something that we have not done since the Voyager release.

I will sign off now and hope to see you all on tour. We still have more shows coming up this year and more places to go. After this leg of the tour we will go back home to the studio and continue to work on the new album and also tracks for the next Hellwell project. Then it is on to Montreal, Canada and then back to Europe again and then Dubai. To all ye Brethren of the Hammer Blessed Be and of course as always:

Up The Hammers & Down The Nails
Mark The Shark Shelton
Manilla Road / Hellwell

Hail to all ye Brethren of the Hammer,

Shark here with a long overdue update and tales from the Road. I can promise you though that any time I am absent from the web I am locked away in the studio working on new music, rehearsing with my mates or on the road playing live. It has been a lot of hard work that has been poured into what is going on with us now days but I feel all the long nights and long airplane rides are paying off. The amount and caliber of work going on in Midgard Sound Labs is astonishing even to me right now. I have dreamed all my life of having my own studio and touring the world and thanks to all of you brethren of the hammer…Roadsters you might say, I am living that dream this very moment. My eternal thanks and love goes out to all of you. May the lords of light be with you all. Now that being said I would like to let you into the circle for a bit and shed some light onto what is happening on the front lines.

First of all work has continued on another Hellwell project and I am very happy with the outcome so far. More about that at a later date but for now I wish to talk Road matters. As you might know already, this being the year 2013, it is the 30th anniversary of the release of Crystal Logic. This album has been referred to, by many, as our most shining and classic moment when it comes to our discography. I’m not sure that I personally agree with that but it still, even 30 years later, feels like a really good album to me. I think the song Cage of Mirrors, from the Metal album, was the first breath of life into the style of epic chaos that would develop into the true Manilla Road sound. Crystal Logic is definitely the project that we started to actually define the approach though. It was the first time that we really incorporated more of a doom approach to some of the works although once again there is a tinge of that doom sound within Cage of Mirrors at times. Black Sabbath was a huge influence on us all back in those days and that is exactly where some of that style of Manilla’s music came from. Crystal Logic was sort of a defining statement from the band and definitely a look into the future of the epic style that the band would adopt. Most assuredly more headstrong and less dreamy than our earlier works like Invasion or Mark of the Beast with Metal being sort of a crossover between the two directions. Once I had written the material for Crystal Logic the quest for faster and heavier soon took over. Now the thing that truly continues to amaze me is how this band has managed throughout all of our albums to still maintain a little bit of each different style of music we have ever delved into. It has always been of my mind to experiment with music and never fall into the pit of only one style. So it fascinates me that after all the member changes and different approaches to style with our music that we still always seem to sound like no other band and are easily recognized as Manilla Road. Ok now I am babbling hahaha.

Being the 30th anniversary of Crystal Logic we decided along with some of our promoter friends to treat this year with a few special shows with Rick Fisher (drummer on Crystal Logic) doing the whole Crystal Logic album live for the first time in 29 years. So it was off to the Metal Assault festival in Germany we went. We started the show with Rick doing the entire Crystal Logic album song for song as they appeared on the original album release. We then brought Neudi on stage and finished out the rest of the 3 hour show with him killing it on the drums. We also had a very special guest singer on Flaming Metal Systems in Crystal Viper’s own Marta Gabriel and man she has one killer set of pipes. It was a great honor having her join us on the stage. And a special thanks to all of you that came to that show you all ruled the night. The other bands that played before us were all great also and it was really cool hooking up with the guys in Raven since they have been doing it since before MR by a few years. Good to see those guys still kicking up some dust. They put on a really good show. I felt for them because they were delayed on the road by bad weather and made it to the venue just minutes before they had to take the stage. I have admired Raven from way back in the day and it was great to share the stage with them. It was just simply a really fun and killer time for all of us. Oliver always puts on great festivals and all of metaldom is lucky to have him out there making events like this happen for all of us. Thanks mate. Well we could not just leave the anniversary end there so while back in the states in Wichita we decided to throw in on a show with another band called Betterlate also from Wichita. This was just this last weekend at the Port of Wichita and it was a huge success and a blast. The show was sold out and we are always taken care of really well at this club. Scotty has been a close friend for many years and thanks to him we always have a class place to play in Wichita. We started the show with an acoustic set much like the one we did in Germany before the Metal Assault Festival at our Mysterium release party. Can you believe it there was caviar there. Well back in Wichita (haha) we had some very special guests playing with us in this entire show. Gianluca Silvi (of Doomsword, Battle Ram and Jotenheim) played classic guitar. Kostas Tzortzis (of BattleroaR) also joined us during the acoustic set. Bringing a little bit of the talent of Italy and Greece to Wichita was a rare opportunity for everyone at the show. Josh Castillo also played with us and Bryan Patrick helped on back up vocals. We also had another special guest come up and play with us on the song The Fountain which was the drummer for Hellwell Jonny “Thumper” Benson on acoustic guitar. So there was a mess of us doing this acoustic thing and funny enough it actually worked out really good and sounded pretty damn good. Besides finishing off the set with Fountain we did Mystification, the first Book of Skelos, Love is Cruel, Behind the Veil and we also did a version of The Wanderer which I co-wrote with BattleroaR and recorded with them for the album Age of Chaos. It was great playing with all of those guys but the fun was just beginning and the electrics came out. First Rick Fisher joined us for the entire Crystal Logic album including the bonus track Flaming Metal Systems and a bit of a guitar solo. We then did Cage of Mirrors and Queen of the Black Coast. We finished the set with Rick with Far Side of the Sun to a packed house of avid Roadsters. But if that was not enough reminiscing we then had Randy “Thrasher” Foxe come up and play with us. Everyone had stepped away from the stage and gone outside for a smoke while we changed the drums around a bit for Randy but as soon as we started up with The Ninth Wave the club filled up to the maximum capacity again. Rick had just done a great job with us making it hard for anyone to follow but Thrasher was more than up to the calling bringing The Ninth alive like I have not heard it for ages. We then proceeded onto Dig Me No Grave and we finished up with a blasting version of Haunted Palace. Randy still has it and he proved it that night. It was a great honor to have all these guys playing with the Road. Like I said before…living the dream. It was a great night for all of us I think. Betterlate finished off the night with a great set of original progressive metal songs that are totally cool. Randy Foxe (Manilla Road), Greg Marshall (Stygian Shore), Chuck Good (Initial Impact), along with bass extraordinaire Al Sigars and one hell of a drummer Ron Gilbert make up this band and I hope they keep working on recordings so that everyone can hear this stuff. Both experiences in Germany and then the show we just had here in Kansas have been fantastic times for Manilla Road and I can’t wait to get back out on the road again because we have a lot of places to play where we have not tread yet.

I guess last but not least is that Mysterium has been out for a bit now and seems to have primarily really good reviews. And everyone seems to agree that our production efforts this time have paid off. I’m really proud of this album and there is work already being done on the next MR album. We hope to be tracking drums in May in Midgard. We have a lot of touring coming up this year so work on all these projects we have going on will be done as time permits but I hope to have some more killer stuff ready to release before the year is out. Last year was a great one for Hellwell and Manilla Road and it seems that this year is looking pretty bright also. As always a hearty Up The Hammers & Down The Nails and watch Walking Dead and Vikings they both bloody well rule.

Blessed Be
Shark

Hail to all ye Brethren of the Hammer,

Shark here with another installment of From the Shark’s Mouth where I get to ramble on senselessly but hopefully not to the point where you all realize how much of a split personality I have. I have not posted for a while so I guess I should catch everyone up to speed that is not in the know. So fasten your seat belts and here we go.

2012 was a pretty good year for Manilla Road. We did several successful tour legs in many places we had never been before and we recorded the Mysterium album with our new line up, which by the way was a great experience. It has been an honor and a pleasure to tour and work in the studio with these guys.  We played in Finland, Sweden, England, the US, Canada and Greece.  We even made a rare appearance in our own hometown with Neudi on board.  We also showed our German drummer boy what a 112 degree cowboy summer is like in Kansas haha. In the midst of all this Hellwell released it’s first debut album Beyond the Boundaries of Sin which made it in the top 30 best metal releases of 2012 on the Rhapsody charts and has been received by one and all very well indeed. My thanks. Manilla Road signed a new label deal with Golden Core records / ZYX in Europe. By the end of the year we had already started writing and recording new material for both the next Hellwell and Manilla Road projects. There were some down moments in the year. Biggest down that came was when we found out that our old friend and past sound engineer for MR, Jay Merhoff, had passed away. Even though we had not been in constant contact for some years it was still quite a surprise. Except for that 2012 was a pretty good year for the Road indeed.

Now we are facing 2013 and it looks like Manilla Road is going to come out with a big bang. Our new album Mysterium will be out in just a few days and so far the response to the promos that were sent out is great. I think there will be no contest about the production on this one friends. And to accompany the release we are doing an acoustic release party in Mannheim, Germany and then the very next night headlining the Metal Assault festival in Wurzburg, Germany along with a great line up of other bands. This show is a special 30th anniversary show for the release of Crystal Logic as well as a coming out for the Mysterium album. And to help us with the Crystal Logic part of the show Rick Fisher himself will be playing drums with us doing the entire Crystal Logic album front to back. After a short interlude and drum change over Neudi will join us for another 2 hours of pure epic metal Manilla style including the entire Open The Gates Album and some new songs from Mysterium as well as more of the loved metal anthems of the Road. It will be a night to remember and one you should not miss. The rest of the year looks really cool on the touring front as well. We will be playing many festivals this year including the Maryland Deathfest, The Chaos in Tejas festival, The Sweden Rock Festival, The  Barroselas Metalfest in Portugal (which will be our first time in Portugal) and many more announcements of shows to come will be made by the end of this month and on into the next months as well. Our management in the US and Europe is working hard to work out tour dates where ever we can right now and it appears that we will be on the road a lot in 2013. Just keep watching our tour dates page on manillaroad.net and you can keep up to date with the latest information about shows to come. I do believe we will also be doing a special Crystal Logic show with Rick Fisher in Wichita Kansas in March.

So I’m really excited about where we have been and where we are going and I can’t think of a better thing to be a part of right now than Manilla Road and Hellwell. We sure would not be in this position without the undying support of our friends and fans and now it seems that even the media is getting behind us. The moral to the story here is fortitude. Don’t give up and stand your ground and you can make the impossible happen. To think that a bunch of Kansas cowboys could ever stir up so much dust is a remarkable event from where I see things. I am writing this as I am getting prepared to get on a plane for Germany and I am feeling better than ever. So looking forward to this first tour stop of the year for us and a chance to play in the circle of light again. Hope to see you all there. Up The Hammers & Down The Nails.

Shark