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“Angel Blake is the name of my present musical direction.
When The Crown split up I took a heavy trip in the soulsearch
land to figure out what I wanted to do with my musical life. To stop writing
music was never an option. Simply cause I can't or want.
I came to the conclusion that I didn't want to form or join a new
band and start getting knowing new people just to be "active" as a
musician. So, I decided to go solo.
It's definitely a challenge, and most important, it's something
NEW and a FRESH breeze in my life. What ever happens with Angel Blake is up to
me. So it's both a scary and a satisfying feeling.
All the instruments will be performed by myself for the debut
album. Everything that will happen from there on is as uncertain for you as it
is for me.
I felt right away when I decided to "go solo" that I
didn't want to create an album that would compete with the Crown's history. I
mean, I didn't want to name the band "Total Satan" and ride on the
Crown's popularity and blast our Death and rock..n roll style. The Death/Thrash
we created was very fucking good in my opinion and I can't simply do as good
Death/Thrash Metal without the help of my brothers. Our sound was always
dependent of the unity as a band.
Then what is Angel Blake all about??? Well, I do have a certain
style in me that I can't get away from (not that I want to…). If The Crown was
more about speed and aggression, then Angel Blake is more about heavy
melancholic songs. There's no blastbeats here. I have always enjoyed during the
years to write these "different" kinds of songs to The Crown, songs
that weren’t within the typical death/thrash borders. For a CrownHead I would
describe the sound as somewhere in the lines of: Dead Man's Song, Bow To None,
In Memoriam, World Below, Death By My Side, Vengeance, the more heavy side of
The Crown's sound. And for someone who has never heard of The Crown, I would
describe it as influenced and inspired by bands as Metallica, Paradise Lost,
Pain, Danzig, Sentenced spiced up with some heavy Morbid Angel twists (oh yeah).
And as mentioned before, with "NORMAL" rock/metal vocals!”
Those words that were just said were the “introduction to Angel
Blake” words I wrote a few years ago.
What is the status of Angel Blake 2008?
Ok, to sum up the changes that has happened:
When Angel Blake was about to do the debut live show at the Summer Breeze
festival in Germany, I got a call from Christian Älvestam (guitars). We had a long
talk and we mutually decided that it’s better for all of us if he leaves AB and
concentrates on his other bands (Scar Symmetry being the main one, and a lot of
other bands to follow). Absolutely no hard feelings there, it was just
something that was necessary for him to do, in order to stay sane and keep his
stress level right below 99% as the rest of the metal musician’s community ;-)
But he..s not toootally out of the picture though, Christian has delivered some
guest vocals for the new material.
The first single/video “Defenseless” of the new album has some
lines delivered by Mr.Älvestam
Ok.
Anders Edlund (ex.Incapacity, Solar Dawn) was the right man to step up to the
plate to take care of the guitar duties live. Anders is no stranger to the
scene, so the rhythm foundation in AB is tight as hell.
So… We did some cool shows together, and the days went by, and I
started making plans for the next album.
Since Angel Blake wasn’t tied to Metal Blade anymore, I did some
serious demo versions of 6 songs, and then I
sent out the demo to some labels. Got several hooked up, and in
the end I decided to give my signature to the Finnish label Dynamic Arts Records.
They really seem like a cool label that handles all kinds of metal, the right
place to continue the AB journey. Perkele!!!!
When I got all the songs done and was about to enter the studio, a
decision was made that Angel Blake would continue without the singer Tony
Jelencovich.
So, Angel Blake was about to record the best 10 songs I’ve written
in my whole life, and no singer around…
What to do…
I was acquainted with the vocals of one Tobias Jansson since
months back due to mutual friends. So I got in touch with him, talked with him,
popped the question, and a few days later we were demoing some new AB songs. I
guess the simplest conclusion to that session is that HE KICKED ASS!!!!!
He managed to deliver something really extraordinary into the AB
sound that wasn’t simply there before. He definitely managed to convince me and
the rest of the AB team.
With my humble words: Tobias has a very “in you face” vocal style
that shares the honesty of singers like Eddie Vedder, R.Plant the style that
really brings forth the “honesty” in the voice. And the man’s vocal range is
something I really embrace, god damned!!! You’re in it for a real treat ladies
and gentlemen if you pick up the forthcoming album, mark my words.
As I write these words, I’m in the middle of recording the
sophomore album in my studio. 10 new songs that will define what Angel Blake is
all about 2008.
Fuck all the genres; this is Metal straight from my heart. It’s
heavy, it’s addictive, it’s energetic, it’s emotional, it’s honest and it’s
something I will proudly play out loud from a stage anywhere in the world.
And trust me; Angel Blake is ready to deliver live!!!!
The live line-up team deluxe:
Tobias Jansson - Vocals
Marko Tervonen – Guitars
Anders Edlund – Guitars
Örjan Wressel – Contrabass
Janne Saarenpää – Drums
…to be continued.
/Marko Tervonen
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