New Firewind Album 2012 – Interview with Gus G
New Firewind Album 2012 – “Few Against Many” is set to hit the top of the European Metal Charts this summer. When Gus G isn’t blasting out riffs with Ozzy Osbourne he can be found thrashing it out with Firewind. God only knows how he manages to fit it all in but with 7 albums now under his belt and the latest Ozzy tour to keep him busy he is one ultimate multi tasker! In a recent interview with Chad Bowar he discussed the new Firewind Album “Few Against Many
New Firewind Album 2012
Marcus Jervis: Congratulations on the new album – you must be pretty pleased it’s done and ready to roll?
Gus G: It actually comes out in Germany today, the rest of Europe on Monday and America the day after. I am genuinely very pleased with it. I feel it’s our best in terms of things like songwriting and development. We really paid a lot of attention to the little details this time.
The new album seems very focused in that it brings together all the classic power metal elements with great hooks. Was that something you set out to achieve?
We always tried to do that. We’re not a band that does too many obscure songs and we really pride ourselves on having catchy choruses and riffs. If you take a song like ‘Losing My Mind,’ it’s quite epic – not in its musical style, but the way it keeps developing and building almost to the very end. The other thing about this album is that there’s a lot more guitar and a lot less keyboards. I like keyboards and Bob (Katsionis) is one of the best in the world, so the keyboards are there, but with a lot heavier, distorted sounds. I just wanted to make a really good guitar record and that just comes from jamming and coming up with riffs.
Gus explaines how a lot of the writing for this album took place whilst on tour with Ozzy. As they had a lot of down time the riffs and lyrics came together easily and he simply sent it off to the rest of Firewind for approval.
Obviously, you are a very busy man, not least with your Ozzy commitments. Does it become difficult planning for Firewind touring and recording?
It’s not too bad, really. The only thing is you never know what will change. Like this summer, I wasn’t going to be with Ozzy because of the Black Sabbath tour, but with Tony Iommi sadly getting sick, the whole “Ozzy and Friends” thing came up and, of course, I was going to be part of that, so now I have six weeks touring with Ozzy. It’s not that hard, the business is like that and as long as you’re always ready for something to change, you’ll do OK.
You have some pretty intensive touring lined up, including shows in Taiwan and China. Have you visited that part of the world previously?
I went to Taiwan about six years ago, but I’ve never been to China, so that should be interesting.
What can fans expect from the live shows?
It’s starting to get harder now after seven albums to know what to play. I’d like to do a lot of new material and probably at least four new songs, but it will be a balanced set with a lot of the older songs too.
And to wrap up, any final words for your fans out there?
I hope you give the new album a chance and come see us on tour. Keep checking the website for dates and we’ll be coming to a town near you.
via Firewind Interview.
New Firewind Album 2012 - Few against Many
The New Firewind Album 2012 – Few Against Many
is out now and can be picked up at amazon either as hard copy or download. It’s definitely worth a listen with great melody and rhythm sections without the guitar being too overpowering. 10 tracks in total make perfect length in my opinion. Check out the promo on the featured video to your right!
If you would like to write a review of the album giving your opinion then leave a comment below.
