Album Review : MARZI MONTAZERI Ft. TIM “Ripper” OWENS – “THE UPRISING” [Live Videos]

Known for his groundbreaking musicianship and energetic showmanship, Marzi Montazeri AKA “The High Priest Of Distortion” is a guitarist, producer, and songwriter from Houston, Texas. Currently the guitarist for Heavy As Texas, Marzi has been the man behind the axe for Superjoint Ritual and more recently in 2010, he rejoined with Philip Anselmo to work on Anselmo’s first solo project, Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals. In 2015, Montazeri and Washburn Parallax Guitars united to co-design his own signature electric guitar series called “The Priestess”. Montazeri’s collaborations as a guest artist include Prong, Doug Pinnick (Razr 13), Defiatory, and the Judas Priest tribute record ‘Hell Bent Forever’, also featuring the vocalist on this album, Tim “Ripper” Owens.  It was through this tribute how he came to know Mr. Owens. “A while ago I was asked to play a couple of solos on the tribute album ‘Hell Bent Forever’ and the track was, “Exciter”” recalls Marzi of first meeting Owens. “When I arrived, Tim was walking out of the vocal booth for the evening. I was blown away by his performance and personality. He’s a super cool and funny dude. So when it came to this EP where I knew I wanted a powerful metal vocalist, I just made a call to him and here we are with some original music.” Tim Owens is a Grammy-nominated American hard rock singer who first gained attention as the vocalist for Judas Priest (1996-2003) and then Iced Earth and Yngwie Malmsteen. Owens currently tours the world as a solo artist and performs as the lead singer of Charred Walls Of The Damned. Also worth noting, the movie Rockstar (featuring Mark Walhberg) was loosely based on Owens’ time in Judas Priest. In 2001, Marzi released his first solo effort ‘The Need’ and after 16 years, he has come back with what could be some of his best solo work yet with ‘The Uprising’.   Continue reading

Interview With BYZANTINE Vocalist/Guitarist Chris “OJ” Ojeda!

 

On July 28th, Byzantine will release their new album, ‘The Cicada Tree’, via Metal Blade Records. Heralded as the most underrated band from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal Movement, Byzantine has slowly gained a cult-like following after releasing 5 genre-bending albums. 16 years underground, it’s finally time for the world to hear Byzantine! For a first preview of The Cicada Tree, a new video for the single “New Ways to Bear Witness” (featuring a cameo by Skeletonwitch’s Dustin Boltjes, as well as ex-Byzantine drummer Matt Wolfe) has been launched online. Directed/edited by Holly Siders, the filming of “New Ways to Bear Witness”. The band has an upcoming headlining tour as well as a nationwide take over with Sacred Reich starting in September. Continue reading

Metal Nexus Staff Spotify Playlist: September [Streaming]

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Our goal has always been to turn people on to new music and bands they may not have heard before. We have brought you reviews, interviews, concert reviews and showcased based across the globe; now we want to bring that music directly to your ears. Using Spotify our talented staff will hand select songs each month for your listening pleasure. Some of the music we have selected is quite obscure so we hope our endorsement helps the artists reach a wider audience in a similar fashion to how using a service like UseViral would. The broad-ranging taste in music of our staff is sure to give you a variety of music and hopefully will turn you on to some new tunes. Spotify is a fantastic platform for artists to share their music with the world. Are you an aspiring artist or musician? If so, and you are looking to give your Spotify account a boost, you might want to Buy real spotify plays so that more people can get the chance to discover your music. For more information, head to the Get Fans website. Be sure to let us know what songs you like and who has the best selection; but in the end we hope you enjoy it all. If you don’t have access to Spotify you might want to find out how to unblock Spotify so that you can enjoy the music you love! Ultimately, there are a few reasons why you might be blocked from accessing Spotify. For example, in some areas, there are government restrictions and sometimes an overzealous network administrator could even be responsible. That being said, one possible way to unblock Spotify is through the use of a VPN. You can learn more about the benefits of using a VPN by doing some further research online. So, which songs managed to make our playlist? Now presenting The Metal Nexus Spotify Playlist: September. Continue reading