Voros Asian tour, show with James Norbert Ivanyi, Double Dragon reunion etc

Greetings, see below for some photos and footage from the recent Voros tour in Taiwan and China. We had an absolute blast and can’t wait to go back! Check out the Voros Facebook page for more photos and footage. *Click the below photo to go to the next photo in the gallery. 

I’m happy to announce that I will be playing with Sydney based progressive metal guitarist James Norbert Ivanyi and his band on the 23rd of September in Sydney as part of the Circles Egression Tour. I’ve been a fan of James’ music for the past couple of years now so it’s great to be given the opportunity to tackle this very challenging music!

 

I’ve got some big shoes to fill with this gig, with Rob Brens (Alarum, Hadal Maw) having played the past live shows with James as well as the Melbourne leg of this tour. Drums on James’ three releases were recorded by David Horgan (Orobouros), whose drum parts display a mastery of metal drumming as well as more fusion-oriented playing.

Check out James' releases here.

 

Speaking of instrumental guitar virtuoso’s, Dyssidia will be supporting Plini once again at Fowlers Live on the 9th of September. Fresh off massive tours in Europe & North America with Animals as Leaders & Intervals, Plini and his band have brought Intervals (US) along for the ride this time.

 

Then, the day after on the 10th of September I will be playing with my old band Double Dragon at the New Dead Festival along with King Parrot, Ruins, Disentomb, Truth Corroded and many more. To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of ‘Scars of Fire’, we will be playing the EP in full along with a couple of other DD classics. It’s sure to be a huge day as the New Dead Festival has grown to be one of the biggest heavy music festivals in Australia, with many punters from interstate planning to make the trek to Adelaide for the occasion. 

Voros Asian Tour, Dyssidia recording & Be'lakor

This time next week, myself and the rest of the Voros lads will be en route to Taiwan to kick off our first overseas tour! First up we're playing Wake Up Festival in Chiayi City, followed by a headlining show in Taipei. Then it's off to China for 3 shows. 

But before I head off on this tour, I'm recording the third Dyssidia EP at Against the Grain Studio, to be released in late 2016. 

Once we come back from the tour, both Voros & Dyssidia are supporting one of my favourite bands: progressive/melodic death metal legends Be'lakor. This show should be a big one! 

To top things off, I'll be filling in with a couple of high profile Australian acts later in the year, both in Adelaide and interstate. Stay tuned for those announcements. 

Update

It's been quite a long time since I've posted on here; I've been really busy, I swear! Since my last update, Voros released our debut album, played shows in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane, as well as shows in our home town of Adelaide playing alongside legends such as At the Gates (Swe) and Psycroptic. We're back in Sydney this weekend for the Under the Southern Cross metal festival featuring some of Australia & New Zealand's finest heavy acts, and rumour has it that we may be doing an Asian tour in the middle of the year....Keep up to date with Voros happenings here. Stream the album here, buy it here.

On the Dyssidia front, we have been playing some pretty big shows since the release of the band's second EP in August. These include supports for Between the Buried and Me, Trivium & Chon from the US, Tesseract from the UK, and Psycroptic, Ne Obliviscaris & Plini from little old Oz. We'll be finally embarking on some interstate shows in the coming months as well as releasing another EP later this year. Below are the posters for the shows we had the pleasure of playing in 2015. 

New Voros album 'Diseased Deity' due for release September 4

After a tumultuous journey dealing with line-up changes, health problems and other difficulties, the new Voros album is finally complete. While the Dyssidia EP was written by the other guys in the band, I had quite a large part in writing all the tracks on the Voros album, even contributing a bunch of guitar riffs to the album, which I'm quite chuffed with! We're super proud of how this album turned out, with elements of death, thrash, prog and groove metal all coming together to create a sound which is hard to define. 

The tracks were recorded and mixed by our partner in crime Andy Kite from Against the Grain Studio and mastered by Chris "Zuess" Harris. Artwork was done by Pahl Hodgson of Beyond Mortal Dreams, one of my favourite Adelaide bands. 

Ahead of the first single and music video which will be out at the end of August, we have released a cover of 'Symbolic' by the legendary band Death, one of the bands greatest influences. It can be downloaded for free here. 

To launch the album we will be playing the following shows, with more to be announced soon including a Brisbane show in October.

4 September – Bald Faced Stag, Sydney
w/ Claim the Throne, Daemon Pyre, Rise of Avernus + more

5 September – Enigma Bar, Adelaide
w/ Beyond Mortal Dreams, Daemon Pyre, Alkira + more

10 October – Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne
w/ Dreadnaught, Hadal Maw, Malakyte, Decimatus + more

29 October – Adelaide Uni Bar, Adelaide
w/ At The Gates & Truth Corroded

 

Dyssidia release 'Children of Aether and Earth'

Last weekend Dyssidia launched our new EP 'Children of Aether and Earth' to a packed out crowd at Jive in Adelaide with support from Orsome Wells from Melbourne, as well as For Millenia and Born of Dust. The EP can be streamed for free and purchased here. 

Prior to the launch we released a music video for the first track on the EP 'Brittle Star' which can be viewed here. The video was filmed by Becky and Andy from Against the Grain Studio at the iconic Thebarton Theatre. 

Dyssidia will be playing interstate shows in support of the new release in late 2015/early 2016. 

More live Dyssidia footage from the Opeth show

Here is a 12 minute new song which will be on our upcoming EP. I recorded the drums for these tracks last week at Against the Grain Studio where I record pretty much everything. Recording for the other instruments is almost finished with mixing to commence soon!

Our next show is this Thursday the 21st of May with Voyager (WA) and Klone (France). more details here

Opeth and Dyssidia!

This week Dyssidia played with the legendary Opeth to a sold out crowd at The Gov! It was an absolute honour to meet and share the stage with our idols, and was certainly a night we will never forget. 

Next week I am heading into Against the Grain Studio to record the drums for Dyssidia's second EP which is 4 tracks spanning about 35 minutes of melodic progressive metal. This will be released in late July with a massive show featuring a couple of big name interstate bands to be announced soon. 

Our next show is with Voyager (WA) and Klone (France) at Jive on the 21st of July. You can order cheaper tickets here.

Here is a live track from the Opeth show, which is from the 1st EP "Quiet Waters". Stay tuned for video footage of new material that we played on the night. 

As well as teaching drum lessons to my regular students which is always rewarding, I have also been doing drum lessons with drummers from various Adelaide metal bands helping them with the heavier areas of their playing such as blast beats and double kicks. This has been very rewarding to see the improvement in my fellow metal band drummers and I implore all drummers who wish to improve in certain areas of their playing to contact me for a cheap drum lesson no matter what age, skill level and style you play. 

I have been teaching drums for about 7 years now and I am always happy to take on new students. Cheers!