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MAGIC KINGDOM: In the Wake of Neoclassic Metal Masters
Interview with guitarist Dushan Petrossi of Magic Kingdom by Vera in March 2011
Dushan Petrossi is a self-willed, accomplished musician. His latest achievement was ‘Symphony Of War’, the third album of Belgian symphonic power metal band Magic Kingdom. He is influenced by giants in music like Yngwie Malmsteen, early Symphony X, Bach and Händel. Like Scandinavian artists, he does not rest on his laurels and likes to be active in several constellations. Iron Mask for example. On behalf of his latest Magic Kingdom release, we contacted this talented musician and this is the result of this action!
‘Symphony Of War’ by Magic Kingdom has been released since a few months. What can you tell about the reactions by press and fans so far? (It was actually five years ago since the previous record)
Reactions are really great so far, the press and fans seems to like the album a lot! And we are very happy of course about that, it was a long and hard work till we got the mix done!
You came with a new line-up and I think recruiting Olaf Hayes was an important pro! How did you get in contact and got him into Magic Kingdom?
Via my label and I just contacted him. Limb already suggested him to Luca Turilli, so when I said I’d like to get him as our new singer they agreed of course, he accepted after hearing our second Magic Kingdom album in 2006, yeah he’s a great singer, he sings the way it should for our new stuff!
One of the strengths of the album however, is the interaction with harsh vocals. What’s the background of Roma Siadletski?
Thanks! His first appearance was on the third Iron Mask album ‘Shadow Of The Red Baron’, he’s a good friend of mine and a cool guy.
Phil Giordana (Fairyland) is another musician that caught my attention, I think you get along with him pretty well, since he’s a master in symphonic arrangements as well, isn’t it? Plans for a long time cooperation?
Yeah we’ll continue to work together with him for Magic Kingdom, he understands me fast and he knows what I need , doesn’t need to explain him too much, that’s what we need .
You did the production of the album, but to perfect the finishing touch, you worked together with Uwe Lulis (Rebellion, now ex-R). That caused a delay. What happened and did it work out fine in the end to work together with Uwe?
Indeed, in the end we finished the mix ,but I had family problems in that period of time. I also released two other Iron Mask album in between those 2 Magic Kingdom album, that was of course causing some delays and Uwe had a motorcycle crash, it was very serious, he could not walk, so we waited for his recovery also, then in the very end I reworked on the symphonic arrangements of the long metal opera and added an only instrumental symphonic intro to that song. It took also some time to achieve it and finally the song ended at more than 29 min long!
‘Magic Tragedy part 2’ is the epic masterpiece of the album. Can you go a bit deeper into the storyline of that track?
‘Metallic Tragedy Chapter 2 - The Holy Pentalogy’ is a concept, we have a four pages story line in the digi double album version of the release. It’s a very great heroic fantasy sort of story, very dramatic and epic, something easily adaptable for an epic movie! Let’s just say, evil forces kidnapped the holy children of the Kingdom who get the protecting light hidden in a sacred temple, light who protects the whole Magic Kingdom, once in Hell the Magic Kingdom army had to get them back and decided to face the devil in a single tournament, if they win they could get their children back, but the evil forces never keep his promise, so the whole end changes, so gets the album to know the end ahahaha….
Will there ever be a part 3?
Yeah of course, in the fourth album which I started to write and record, it will be called ‘Savage Requiem’…
Can you tell a bit more about the video for ‘We Rise’ and the making of?
We shot that in Germany with our photographer, Thomas Neumann, he’s a nice guy, we did that in two days in the Frankfurt area, in his studio with a green backing and in an hangar for the live performance, we had fun doing it and we drank vodka to celebrate the first reunion of the band, hehe…
Are you planning to take this act to the stage or can we consider it as studio project?
Yeah sure, if we get good proposals, we are ready to rock!!!
You are working at the next Iron Mask album. How far are you in the process?
We just finished recording drums at Hofa studio in Germany with Denis Ward at the production, now we‘ll start with the vocals and keys recordings.
What can we expect, compared to previous material?
Let’s say it’s a mix of the ‘Hordes Of The Brave‘ and ‘Shadow Of The Red Baron‘ albums, very catchy stuff but this time we have some aggressive riffs and beats, but that it is still Iron Mask trade mark of neo classical and catchy stuff.
Will there be a common theme in the lyrics?
Yeah, in some of the songs, death will be the theme… something that hurts everyone on this planet…
You can already announce a well known (second) singer for ‘Black As Death’…
Yeah sure, Mark Boals, he will do half the album, together with Carsten Shultz, Valhalla Jr. and one more I can confirm is Goran Edman. Also Richard Andersson is back for the keys solos. I am very happy with that line -up!!!
But the rest of the new line-up includes some familiar faces as well. Please introduce the musicians you are working with on ‘Black As Death’…
Yeah sure: Vassili Moltchanov on bass, Roma on some extreme vox, Ramy Ali on drums.
Any idea about the release date and the label at the moment?
No, we won’t rush that till we find the right new label, when we are done with the mix and get the master we’ll send that to some labels which are already interested in singing us in Germany; we‘ll keep you posted on our social networks and web sites.
What about live plans with Iron Mask?
Next gig is a festival here in Mons, the Power And Prog Metal fest in the Lotto Mons Expo
30th of April, be there!!!!
What are your memories on the Iron Mask gig at Graspop last year?
That was awesome! You know, we were very surprised that 5000 people came for us in a tent at 12am! We didn’t expect that at all! That really showed me that melodic metal bands really get their rights to play more at big festivals!!!
If there is anything you want to announce or share with us, please go ahead…
Thanks for the great review and for the interview, please come to our next gig in Mons
And thanks for buying ‘Symphony Of War’!!!!
Thank you very much for this interview!
Yeah sure, just come to say hello we’ll get a drink together!!!
Geplaatst door Vera op zaterdag 02 april 2011 - 18:12:26
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