And now, for Glenn's interview with guitarist John Shaeffer of Century
Media Recording artists ICED EARTH (part 1)...

THE KOFFIN: Can you tell us who's in the band this time around?

JOHN SCHAEFFER: The only different person is the drummer. His name is Mark
Prader. He's a session drummer at Morrisound Studios. Dave did the record,
but Dave is getting married tomorrow. He quit the band after he did the
recording because he wants to start a family. He's over 30 now and kind of
out of the music
scene. What we have now for a rhythm section is from a band called Oracle
(from
Jacksonvile Fl.), Brent Smedly. The other guy who played bass is James
Mcdonna. These guys are contracted right now (hired rythm section) but,
the're really good, and have a really good shot of being in the band.

TK: Any reason why you keep changing band members?


JS: It's a hard busniess man, you know? A lot of bands are changing
members,especially when they're a struggling financial act, you know? Iron
maiden changed tons of members in the early years, so did Priest, it
happens you know?

TK: Yeah, it seems like everyobody's going from one band to another nowadays.
What was the reason you kept Matthew this time around?

JS: Matt's here for the long run. We finally found the right guy for us.

TK: I was happy you kept him because I think he's a great vocalist.

JS: He is man. He's awesome, and a very good person too. He's my best
friend.

TK: How did you hook up with Matt?

JS: He played in a band called Cauldron, in Sarasota. It was he and
his brother's band. He didn't feel like it was going anywhere. It was kind
of
a death/ thrash thing. We hired Matt for his personality, not his voice, and
he's developed his voice incredibly over the last year. I'm very happy he's
in the band. His voice was good on "Burnt Offerings" but it wasnt exactly
what I was hearing when I was writing the songs. I was kind of dissapointed
at the overall of the outcome of the record, but there was a lot of bad years
behind
that album. I think now we're heading back in the right direction where Iced
Earth needs to be.

TK: Why weren't you happy with "Burnt Offerings"?

JS: The overall writing and the performance wasn't there. With several
negative years of shit behind us with Burnt Offerings and "Stormrider", I
was pretty bitter about the whole music industry. It affected my writng. I
sit back and listen to that album now, and it's defintley not the direction I
wanted Iced Earth to go in.

TK: That's funny because that's one my overall favorite albums.

JS: Alot of people feel that way. You have to understand that, being the
writer of the band, it's something that I won't deny(our past). It's not
anything I'm ashamed of. I just don't want to stay like that, because it
was a bad feeling for me. It was a bad period of my life. I don't want to go
backards, I want to go forwards.

TK: Is that why the album lyrically, is so dark and deperessing.

JS: Definetly. It's always a reflection of the way I'm feeling when our
songs come out.

TK: How did you hook up with Todd Mcfarlane?

JS: We actually met the director of promotions. His name is Al Simmons. We
hit it off with him really well at a comic convention and I've been a big
fan of Spawn for a long time, so when I heard that they were doing a live
action
movie and a HBO animated special, I wanted to offer up my services to do
song writing for the soundtrack, and then one thing led to another. He
decided to do our album cover, and I decided to do a concept album.

TK: Now the album cover, is that going to be cover for a Spawn issue or
stricly for your album?

JS: It's artwork from Spawn #50. Not the cover art, but artwork that's in
the book.

TK: How long have you been into the character?

JS: About three years

TK: Can you tell us anything about some of the songs on the album?

JS: I think if anyone knows the book, I'd say that the song "I Died For You"
is kind of the ballad that's the basis of the story of him selling his soul
for his wife, and giving up his afterlife to come back to earth to try and be
with her. It's a really dark love story and a tragedy. I think we captured
it well.

TK: Are there any other charcaters in the album?

JS: "Violate" is about one of the demons, the violater, that comes after
him. "The Hunter" is about Angels that are sent from Heaven that come down
to
try and destroy him. He's a good guy in a really bad situation. He alwyas
has all this fucked up shit happen to him.

TK: What is "Vengeance of Mine" about?

JS: It's a story about a child molester named Billy Kinkade and Spawn just
kicks his ass and kills him, whatever.

TK: How hard was it to write the album?

JS: Oh it was great man! It was easy. I wrote the whole record in five
weeks. I was so happy to be a part of that. I was just freaking out.

TK: I heard Todd Mcfarlane wrote the lyrics to "Depths Of Hell"

JS: No, Al Simmons did. I offerd Todd a chance to write some lyrics. First of
all
he said, "I'm not a songwriter, and I also don't have the time". He's a very
busy man, all he does is work.

TK: I hear a lot of Kiss influence in you, is that right?

JS: A lot people have said that and I think that's because of some of the
tones in
Matt's voice. The thing is, I was very much influenced by Kiss as a kid and
Mattt never was. He thinks they're cool and shit, but they're just not a
part
of his life. So to say that Paul Stanley's an influence on his vocals is
not
really true, it's just a coincidence. Between Kiss, 'Sabbath, 'Priest, Iron
Maiden and all this shit we grew up with you can hear elements of that in all
of our music.

TK: Can we talk about "Stormrider" for a few minuutes?

JS: Sure

TK: Was that a concept album as well?

JS: The story that I came up with was about a guy chosen to come to earth
and to bring destruction upon the planet. It was kind of like an
anti-christ
story. He was betrayed by religon, and felt bitter and very angry and was
in the sense chosen to be the one to bring down the earth. In the last song
"Travel In Styginas", he doesn't fucking regret anything that he's done, all
the terror and destruction that he's caused. It's a bad ending, not a good
ending.
I'm glad you like it man, it's the most popular of ours for sure in the
catalog.

TK: How are you selling in the states?

JS: It's small sales. We've never toured. The kind of music we're playing
here is just not popular and the States are a very trendy market.

TK: Unfortunately...

JS: Yeah, I know. But we sell very well in Europe and Japan and that's where
we concertrate our energies on.

TK: Are you planning on touring for this album?

JS: We'd like to try and tour the states, we wanted to do that for a long
time. We're talking about doing some stuff with Savatage...

TK: Oh wow!!! Like when?

JS: Like maybe this fall, or the winter. We just did some festivals in
Europe with them and we're going back to do our headline tour in August in
Europe for 5 weeks. Maybe when we get back John and I will talk about doing
some stuff together in the states, and maybe together again in Europe in the
spring. We developed a good bond with those guys so, we'll see what happends.

This concludes part 1 of our interview with ICED EARTH. Don't miss part
2....blah, blah, blah....you know the rest.....
---------------------------------------------------------------

*Night of the Dead Living(Koncert Reviews...)*

CRISIS
CANDIRIA
Tune Inn
New Haven, CT
7/19/96

Even though I've often said I'd never set foot in this shithole again, I
don't mind coming off as a liar because seeing the mighty CRISIS perform live
is well worth bearing the title. This show was billed as the first of a
three-day 'Hardcore Fest', but ended up as 'Crisis destroys New Haven'.
According to vocalist Karyn Crisis, several of the acts scheduled to perform
that day had cancelled, but I did catch the most of the interesting ones.
First up were Too Damn Hype recording artists Candiria, who are decent
enough, especially with sound provided by Crisis producer Steve McCallister,
who did an excellent job with the club's tinkertoy sound system. Candiria
hail from Brooklyn, N.Y., and manifest many aspects of that city's famed
hardcore genre. While hardcore is far from my favorite music, these people
have the riffs and the energy to produce some worthwhile material. My
biggest criticism of this band is that either their bass player is invisible
to the naked eye, or they just don't have one. Bad move. When Crisis took
the stage, all bodies in the club moved forward. No one left the floor
during the band's set, and no one made any stupid gestures toward the band in
an effort display any kind of narrow-mindedness(which the patrons of this
place have a tendency to do...). All eyes were aimed at the band as they
opened the show with the doom-laden "Working out the Graves", followed by the
riveting cruncher "Wretched"[my favorite song by the band-K]. Also included
in the sadly short set were several songs off of the first Crisis CD "8
Convulsions", including the track "Sweet Thing"[Available on the 'Metal
Massacre XII' compilation from Metal Blade Records-K]. Despite technical
problems with guitarist Afzaal Nasiruddeen's amp, Crisis delivered their
tunes with a minimal number of flaws, as they have every time I have seen
them. Look for this band on tour with the genius band Voivod starting August
3rd, and check out The Koffin's home page for photos of CRISIS in concert...
-Keith-


METALLICA (at Lollapalooza 1996)
U.N.O. Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana
July 23, 1996

OK, let's get a few things straight right off the bat. I don't watch MTV. I
don't listen to those pretentious, flavor-of-the-month "modern rock" radio
stations. And I refuse to jump on the latest musical bandwagon simply
because it's fashionable to do so. Having made those disclaimers, I admit
that I attended the Lollapalooza festival at its recent New Orleans stop.
This being an underground METAL publication, I'll forego reviews of Rancid
(sloppy, but enthusiastic), Ramones (respected 'em in a simplistic,
old-school punk sort of way)[That's o.k., nothing wrong with the Ramones!-K],
Waylon Jennings (next), and Soundgarden (they played "Outshined" and "Jesus
Christ Pose" -- nuff said). Before reaching the headliner, however, I must
make a quick plug for Rage Against the Machine, who appeared as the "mystery
guest" at this gig. RATM roared through an intense 50 minute set marked by
searing anger, strident political commentary, heavy grooves,
out-of-this-world guitar effects, and focused aggression. You haven't lived
until you've been in a cathartic mosh pit in 95 degree heat and blistering
sunshine, surrounded by thousands of people collectively ranting "Fuck you, I
won't do what you tell me" repeatedly at the top of their burning lungs. I
really think that open-minded metal fans would get a lot out of RATM, despite
their popularity and their present status as trendy MTV/corporate-radio
darlings.

Digressions aside, the real reason I attended Lollapalooza was to investigate
whether
Metallica can still deliver the musical goods in a live setting. Like many
true defenders of the metal faith, I've accorded Metallica's new album and
new image a fairly frosty reception. But that was all forgotten as the boys
hit the stage and tore into "So What?". Much to my delight, "Creeping
Death"and "Whiplash" made early appearances in the set (though the cool
audience chant of "Die! Die! Die!" in the former tune was strangely absent
this time around). Other highlights included such time-honored chestnuts as
"Fade to Black", "One", "For Whom the Bell Tolls", and "Master of Puppets".
And I was thrilled that the 95-minute set concluded with a high-energy
rendition of Motorhead's monstrous 'banger, "Overkill".

Fortunately, Lars & Co. saw fit to subject us to only three new songs ("Ain't
My Bitch", "King Nothing", and "Until It Sleeps"), which were delivered in a
competent, workmanlike (though decidedly unspectacular) fashion. I just
can't help but wonder how they can place a song like "Until It Sleeps"
alongside a classic like "For Whom . . ." in the set list, and not recognize
how limp, how hopelessly inferior the new tune sounds in comparison to its
awesome forefather. However, this is not the forum to whine about
Metallica's new sound, so I'll spare you a tirade on that subject for the
time being.

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the gig was the band's surprising
willingness to avoid Hollywood gimmicks and let their music do the talking.
James' stage patter was kept to a minimum, there were no annoying solos or
two-drumkit shenanigans, the stage production was less gaudy than on the last
few tours, and pyro was reserved for the intro to "One". As I wandered out
of the venue, I was forced to admit begrudgingly that, stupid haircuts and
boring new songs aside, Metallica can still put on a helluva show.-Kit-
---------------------------------------------------------------
Part 1 has returned to the depths of darkness. Fortunately, part 2 has now
awakened....