Yeah...not easy but here are my personal top 5 songs with the greatest band ever!

Ok, my top 15 albums for 2008: (I have probably forgot one or two...its not easy to remember everything at my age, lol)

1. JUDAS PRIEST - Nostradamus
Far from their best album but Rob Halford is the god of metal and thats enough for me to put this album as my no.1 for 2008.

2. AVANTASIA - The Scarecrow
Well, Tobias Sammet did it again. Excellent album!

3. DRAGONFORCE - Ultra beatdown
The guys in Dragonforce never disappoint you, fast & melodic!

4. EVAREST - Fear
Hailing from Czech republic this band took me with a storm.
Excellent debut album, great guitars, great vocals, great melodies, great everything!

5. AC/DC - Black ice
They never disappoint you...you know what you will get and its rocks like hell!

6. CRYONIC TEMPLE - Immortal
This is one of my absolute fav bands from Sweden. Well played true heavy Metal!

7. POWER QUEST - Master of illuson
One of the most intresting bands from the UK Metal scene. Very catchy tunes on this album, damn good!

8. EDGUY - Tinnitus Sanctus
Didnt have to high hopes on this one since the last album...eeh...sucked...but Edguy prooves that they are back in buisness again!

9. SERAPHIM - Rising
Mighty Seraphim from Taiwan, even if its nor officially released in Europe I got this album and its a really good one. The guitars and vocals are amazing!

10. MOTUS TENEBRAE - Souls Expression
The question is if music can get heavier then this (except for Black Sabbath of course, and maybe Candlemass)...a great follow up to their last album "Wayside".

11. METALLICA - Death magnetic
At least it sounds more like the 1980:s stuff.

12. ALICE COOPER - Along came a spider
Far from his best album and I do like the last one much better but Alice prooves that the grandad of rock n roll still can kick most of the other bands asses!

13. ZEPHANIAH - Stories from the book of metal
A band I recently got into. Good debut album and I think that they will have a bright future coming up.

14. GAIA EPICUS - Damnation
To be honest I havent heard the whole album but its not neccesary, the songs I have heard will definitively bring this album to my top 15. Norways best band in my opinion. For all melodic Power metal fans!

15. LUNARIUM - Journeys fable and lores
Just as with Gaia epicus I havent heard the whole album but who cares...the tunes I have head is damn cool! Anybody up for some ale swinging troll metal? Lunarium..s gotta be your choice!

LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2009:

SOUND STORM
The band will release their debut full lenth album in 2009 and not many bands will top this one, trust me.

GALLOWS END
Amazingly great band from Sweden. The sound reminds of the old school metal bands such as Maiden, Priest & Accept but still with a modern touch to the music and with the typical unique Gallows End sound mixed with the bands mentioned.

CROSSWIND
A band that I recenly discoverd. Very powerful music. Fast & melodic, a band that everybody who..s into power metal should check out.

NEPHWRACK
Hailing from England this band have in my opinion their own sound. Great tunes on their myspace page.

HOLLOW BREED
Very heavy band from Sweden, looking forward to hear their upcoming album.

ARMORY
Probably USA:s best "new" metal band. Their debut did kick serious ass. Hopefully the have some new stuff coming up in 2009.

SOUL SOURCE
A band from Sweden, very melodic power metal, should have a good chance to become one of the leading bands in this genre.

TIMELESS MIRACLE
A band with a unique sound in my opinion, melodic metal for all power metal fans.

CELESTIAL DECAY
A band from Sweden, see what the guys are planning 2009. Think they have a different sound compared to many other bands in the same genre. Good melodic metal.

METALFORCE (Ex Majesty)
Sadly Majesty doesnt exist anymore, good though that Tarek is working on a new band. Metalforce! For all True Metalfans out there!

CRYONIC
Melodic Metal from the north part of Sweden. Did one of my fav albums 2007. Really looking forward to hear the follow up to their debut album!

LAST KINGDOM
Power metal from Gothenburg, Sweden. Sounds very promising and it will be great to here some more from these guys.

BEST SHOW 2008:
This year I havent seen that many shows actually. But one of the few bands I did see this year was the best Metal band that have ever existed.
Of course its IRON MAIDEN I am talking about!
Maiden did an awesome show in Stockholm, and I was as happy as my kids were at christmas...

/ERNIE

OK...so I thought I was going to try to put a list on the 20 best albums for 2007...not easy, hope I didnt forget any album, sorry if I did...Here we go:

1. Freedom Call - Dimensions

2. Wasp - Dominator

3. Gamma Ray - Land of the free

4. Cryonic - Evil mind

5. King Diamond - Give me your soul...please

6. Sound Storm - Northern wilderness

7. Armory - The dawn of enlightenment

8. Bloodbound - The book of the dead

9 . Iron Fire - Blade of triuph

10. Nightwish - Dark passion play

11. Insania - Agony, gift of life

12. Freevil - Freevil burning

13. Wizard - Goochan

14. Olympos Mons - Medievil

15. Tular - Stepping stone across the line

16. Exsecratus - Tainted dreams

17. Helloween - Gambling with the devil

18. Endoras - Blood on the horizon

19. Gaia Epicus - Victory

20. Ivory Moon - Human nature

So I was thinking about the bands I´ve see in concert…..damn how much money I spent on concert tickets…

Here we go….

Iron Maiden (10 times) – Greatest live band ever and they also have the loudest, craziest and truest fans, especially the Swedes!

Black Sabbath (2 times with Ozzy and 3 with Tony Martin)

Judas Priest (4 times with the Metalgod and one time with Ripper)

Alice Cooper (5 times, best tour was "Trash")

Ozzy (3 times…or maybe 2 times….I was too drunk to remember the third so maybe it doesn't count….)

King Diamond (2 times - All hail the King!)

Wasp (3 times)

Edguy (3 times)

Freedom Call (4 times)

Metallica (4 times)

Kiss (4 times)

Helloween (6 times)

Hammerfall (2 times)

Dragonforce (3 times)

Sonata Arctica (2 times)

Nightwish (3 times)

Gamma Ray (2 times)

Scorpions (2 times)

Stratovarius (2 times)

AC/DC, Manowar, Dio, Rainbow, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Motley Crue (worthless concert), UDO, Majesty, Blind Guardian, Slayer, Storyteller, Dream evil, Lost Horizon, Insania, Heavenly, Nocturnal Rites, Sabaton, Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Carcass, Saxon, Unleashed, Tiamat, My dying bride, Paradise Lost, Gary Moore, Meat Loaf, Asia, The Almighty, Megadeth, Testament, Anthrax, Vixen, Skidrow (worthless concert), Rage, Symphomy X, Kreator, Wolf, Sepultura, Nostradameus….

And lots of other bands I don't remember for the moment……I would like to see Seraphim, Sound Storm, Motus Tenebrae, Beto Vazquez Infinity, Power Quest, Cryonic, Cryonic Temple, Lunatica

2007-01-15

INTERVIEW WITH SOUND STORM!

The  Sound Storm fanclub is proud to present a new and fresh interview with guitarist Valerio Sbriglione and drummer Federico Brignolo from Sound Storm!

Can you give us a little background on how the band Sound Storm started?

Valerio: Sound Storm was born at the beginning as a cover band. The band was founded in the far 1999 (if I can remember well) by myself, Federico, Valerio Verderosa and Davide Sini, another dear friend of ours that was playing guitar at that time. He left the band back in january 2005. As often happens, we changed a lot of different names before becoming Sound Storm! In the end we decided to keep this name 'cause it means the many influences you can find in our music. In those days the band played mainly classic heavy metal songs like Maiden, Metallica, Savatage. But we begun very soon to create our own stuff even if we were little older than children!

Federico: yes, we were very young and we tried the first own compositions, very basilar but they were the basement for the new songs, revisited and re-arranged a thousand of times!

The problem in the beginning was about finding a good singer, and when we didn't expect it, Filippo called us…we understood that he was the right voice for the band.

Now we are good friend, I know Valerio S. and Valerio V. since we were child, so our alchemy together is great!

What were your musical backgrounds before Sound Storm?

Thunders and Rain is the same theme of the following Sacred Storm. Two different conceptions of the storm: the first one is a radical change of a life, a very personal and introspective conception of the storm. The second one is the more heroic conception, a powerful storm which sweeps away the enemies. Obviously in both these case we talk metaphorically.

Queen of the Ice is a ballad which wrote Filippo and Valerio and it's not just a love song: in it resound the atmospheres and the echoes of a far place, the northern "frozenlands" we love so much. And the same theme is reprised in We are Vikings, our most famous song. We decided to re-record even this song 'cause the previous versions was not satisfying enough in quality. The same for Queen of the Ice and Sacred Storm And still now the quality is not enough for us but we couldn't do more than this..

Finally an important detail: the songs were totally performed into the recording studio! No drum machines, no midi or other technologies, the cd is totally played and recorded! And this gives a more "live sound" to the stuff and makes imaginable how it will be performed on stage

Federico: I can tell you something more about the title of the EP: "Northern Wilderness".

It represents the basement that unites each song of the EP, and it is quite obvious if you think about it!

Nordic landscapes and mythology are something that you can often find in our music and lyrics…

Valerio didn't tell you that the cover of the EP was created by a professional painter, a friend and a genius!

On the cover you can find all the elements that you can also find in each song: the iced castle of  "Queen of the Ice", the Viking warrior, the Storm behind him (is it snow or rain? maybe both), each particular was thought by our own, and perfectly painted on paper by our friend…we are so proud to have a cool cover like that!