Russell Allen of Symphony X

The Paragon Music Magazine staff sat down with Russell Allen, singer of Symphony X, for a bit before his show at Starland Ballroom in NJ in February 2011.  Russell discussed everything from the theme behind Iconoclast to his present views of the world, social media, NJ-based reality TV, and other fun topics. 

Always a great guy to interview, we have had the pleasure of talking with Russell in the past, so longtime fans of the magazine will remember previous interviews we have done with him. 

Check out the interview here, and feel free to share it with your friends.  And for more on the band, visit http://www.symphonyx.com/

Colin Davis of Vile

In our second interview with Colin Davis of Vile, he discusses his latest album, Metamorphosis, and how it differs from past releases, as well as his view of the world today, how he has personally matured and hopes others will do so too, and plans for the future of the band.  Fans who admire Colin's outspokenness about society will appreciate the responses he gave during this interview. 

For more on Vile and to purchase their music (buy the CD for the booklet of art and lyrics that comes along with it), visit: http://vilemetal.com/ 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lisa Selvaggio: Metamorphosis is your latest release, and it took you over two years to create it.  How is this album similar and/or different from your past releases?   

Colin Davis: I guess it’s similar in that I am always very involved in the songwriting and creation of the music, but this album was really a solo effort on my part.  Since the band members are spread out all over the place, I took the opportunity to make this album exactly what I personally wanted, to take my time and to not compromise my personal goals for the album.   

LS: Many of the songs on the album are geared at awakening, consciousness, and awareness.  In what aspects of life do you think society really needs to accomplish being more conscious? 

CD: Well, there are a lot of spiritual concepts in the lyrics but it’s the kind of thing that mostly people on a personal path will recognize and be emboldened by.  What matters is that people allow their true selves to mature and manifest and that they follow their bliss because not doing so leads to extreme confusion.  When you do what you know to be right for you personally from deep inside, then nothing else matters, you have a grounding point, a place where the real “you” actually exists and manifests from and can be relied upon, always.  When this real you is found, explored, and honored, then personal consciousness evolves.  The more people come to know themselves, the more society matures as a whole.  Actually, every new civilization is a new way of seeing ourselves differently, and with each experiment we learn more about who and what we are.  

LS: You’ve always had a strong political stance, calling on people to realize the system in America is flawed and false.  You carry that message into Metamorphosis.  Do you feel anything has changed in the past few years, particularly since your last album? 

CD: Wow.  Yeah, New Age of Chaos was like the other prior albums where I left the lyrical content to Juan Urteaga, the vocalist.  And that last album was sort of an Islamic war/horror theme.  But all of our albums had some sort of lyrical horror theme.  Personally, I never felt that stuff myself.  So when I had the chance to do it myself, you see what comes out.  And even though the lyrics on Metamorphosis are very different and are personal creations, they represent how I was thinking when they were written, which was mostly 2007-2008.  My mind changes so often on these subjects.  They are snapshots from a certain place in time.  

LS: What is your reaction to new legislation that seems to keep being passed---or at least trying to be passed---in America that would inhibit our free speech?  I ask this to you especially because of the content of your lyrics.  You even address the N.W.O. in your liner notes.  Are you unnerved, fearful, or confident that the citizens will not allow these kinds of freedoms to be taken?   

CD: I was actually quite worried about it all at one time.  I used to blog about it on Myspace and study things like the 9-11 false flag events and related true horror stories and conspiracies, but right now, I am really past all of that type of fear.  You have to go through it to understand it though.  Those subjects are very worthy of exploration because they bring you to a new level of understanding. You have to face some fear to understand its source.  The source of the police state legislation is a part of our culture which has not been effectively addressed and purged, and the way we have put together our society has a lot of negative by-products.  These are psychic or psychological byproducts.  It’s left over from our Judeo-Christian heritage and the way we used to think about ourselves.   We have patriarchal concepts like revenge, and punishment, duty to god, and we use fear to control people and we arrange society into hierarchical structures for perceived efficiency.  It’s a way of seeing our world and our place in it.  The thing is that this time is ending and we are developing new ways of organizing and new ways of seeing ourselves.  The police state measures our unconscious reactions to that shift because for many who make the shift, those old tools don’t work on them anymore.  And that’s what happened to me, I lost the fear because I moved out of that way of seeing the world.  The only remedy for this is to raise personal awareness of the nature of reality up and out of that level of thinking.  It takes time and practice though. 

LS: We are currently going through the Republican Primaries in the U.S.  Ron Paul is running and his message seems to have reached a much larger number of people than ever before, yet he is still very far behind the other candidates despite their in-fighting and corrupt pasts.  Why do you think someone like Ron Paul isn’t doing as well as would be expected during these times? 

CD: If he was not being cheated left and right with polling and voter fraud and was given fair airtime, the response would be even greater.  But this is the game, it’s a rigged casino game and you can’t get a mafia boss to stop rigging the card tables, that’s what they do.  It’s all part of the awakening process, so it’s all good.

LS: In addition to your call to rise and change things, your lyrics allude to astrology and ancient spirituality.  What are some of the other influential factors or teachings that helped you write the songs on this album? 

CD: Those are the books and subjects I like to study.  Like you said, there’s stuff about astrology and astronomy, Mayan science, there’s Jungian psychology, mythology, etc.  I listed some of the influences that applied to the music and lyrics in the liner notes so people can look them up. 

LS: Because your message is so strong, do you get any resistance from listeners?  Do you receive negative feedback on, say, your social networking pages or in your email from people who don’t agree? 

CD: No, but honestly I think most people are getting the music online and are not getting the lyrics, and those that do buy the CD often don’t read the lyrics!  That’s just this style.  It’s mostly guys who don’t read lyrics that much.  I never did before.  But maybe some of the topics are too far out for people to criticize!   

LS: What are your future plans for Vile?  Are you planning any 2012 tour dates?  Do you foresee more albums in the future as well?

CD: I do foresee some touring, but probably not a whole lot.  We’re waiting to get something that is not going to break us financially and also is not terribly uncomfortable and long.  I just don’t care for those long grueling van tours anymore.  So we may do some shorter things in the U.S. and definitely a European tour or maybe two over time.  If we can get some stable offers from South America and other places we haven’t visited yet, I would be interested.  It just has to be the right package.  I may or may not make anymore formal albums; we will see how it goes.  Perhaps releasing music online is a more reasonable way to do it, we will see over time.  A live DVD is something I do want to do though. 

LS: How do you see the future panning out?  Do you think people will finally learn, or will the materialism of this country continue to distract? 

CD: The future will be like the past in that societal growth is different everywhere.  As far as America is concerned, it’s probably going to crash hard and that will be the wake-up call that a lot of folks need to have, but it will be ugly for many and it already is for many.  But I have a lot of optimism for people who are awake, doing personal work and developing new ways of seeing the world and themselves.  Many of our problems have been solved.  The question is who will commit to them and make them mainstream?  Also, it’s about our stories, like I was saying before.  We live inside stories or myths, which give us a map for life.  For many societies, the old myths are losing their power.  So now is about finding the new story for our time and making our lives in accord with that new story.  When that story is strong enough, a society will have stability. 

LS: Anything you’d like to add for our readers that we haven’t already discussed? 

CD: As always, thanks to those folks who have followed the band all these years.  It’s been a pleasure and I hope everyone enjoys the new album.  I recommend people listen to it a few times in different moods because it’s a concept album and it needs time to grow on you.  And, of course, follow your bliss.  That’s where the treasure lies!  But there might be a dragon guarding it, so be prepared.

Steve Bello

Steve Bello, famous for his instrumental guitar chops and several independent releases, sat down with us to discuss his latest, Go Berzerk.  What's unique about this video interview is that you can also get a glimpse of his playing in between his answers.  You'll see very quickly why he has garnered a lot of respect from the Metal community worldwide.

In our interview, he discusses what it's been like working as an independent musician, the success he has found with Go Berzerk, what it's like working with others in the music community, as well as DR and Ibanez, and more.

Edward Douglas of Midnight Syndicate

For our special Halloween interview, we caught up with Edward Douglas, half of the Goth/Horror Instrumental duo, Midnight Syndicate, whom we've featured a few times in the magazine in the past.  It's always great to reconnect with Ed and discuss not only what he's been up to but what his plans for the future are as well.  We sat down at NJ's Chiller Theater, a horror convention Ed attends every year to connect with fans and make new ones, and talked about everything from their latest CD, Carnival Arcane to their work in horror films and what's in store for 2012. 

Rob Acocella (DIGImmortal Photo) had a lot of fun editing this one, giving it an old movie reel treatment and adding in his own photo of a carnival scene (buy it here for yourself) to go along with the theme of the new album.

Watch the interview below and be sure to support independent music by finding Midnight Syndicate online at www.midnightsyndicate.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

Also, please support independent media like Paragon Music Magazine.  We are now offering banner and video ads, so please get in touch with us for more details if you are interested.  We are also accepting donations in order to finish our new website for www.paragonmag.com and get all of our back issues up again, among other new features.

Myke Hideous of The Empire Hideous

As part of October Halloween-themed interview series, we sat down with Myke Hideous (The Empire Hideous, Spy Society 99, The Misfits) and discussed his latest, and final, release The Time Has Come.  Questions include why he is no longer going to release new material, what it's like working as an independent musician, Peter Steele's (Type O Negative) influence on the new record, what happened to the Goth music scene, and why he dislikes social media, among other things. 

Check out our review of The Time Has Come here.

Check out the interview here (or click the image below) and leave comments on the Youtube page or right here on our blog, and feel free to share with your friends.

Mitch and Kal of American Fangs

We met up with American Fangs last month out on Long Island at Vu Du Studios. The band came out here to cut some new tracks and invited us out to hang and take some photos. We did an interview with Mitch and Kal, and hopefully this will help you all get to know them better. They're really talented, hard working musicians, and genuinely nice people as well.

Vinnie Hornsby of Sevendust

Sevendust, who is currently touring on the Uproar Tour, recently hit NJ on a day off to play a headlining show at the Starland Ballroom. We chatted for a bit with Vinnie and discussed a few things like a new record, an acoustic tour, the rumors about them calling it quits soon, and other topics. Check out the video to see what he had to say.