APRIL 2007, MICK CERVINO INTERVIEW WITH ROCKNWORLD.COM

 

MICK CERVINO CHATS TO METALASYLUM.NET

 

K K DOWNING INTERVIEW WITH HEAVY METAL ABOUT.COM

 

APRIL 2007 REVIEWS:

 

CHECK OUT THESE RECENT GREAT REVIEWS ABOUT VIOLENT STORM AT YTSEJAM.COM AND THECUTTING-EDGE.NET

 

http://www.ytsejam.com/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=1175
 

www.thecutting-edge.net     (click on "reviews" issue #63)

 

KK DOWNING OF JUDAS PRIEST INTERVIEWHARDRADIO.COM APRIL 2007 ABOUT VIOLENTSTORM.

 

JUDAS PRIEST - K.K. Gets Violent!by Martin Popoff

 

Hard at work on Nostradamus? No, of course not.... Well, yes, but half of Priest's axes of evil, K.K. Downing, also took some time off to play on and executive-produce an album by consummate Yngwie Malmsteen bassist Mick Cervino and his band Violent Storm. The long-awaited Storm Warning turned out to be a smart piece of work (see my 8.5 review in our Hard Reviews archive), and even without the big shot guests - K.K., Yngwie, Roy Z... each so massive of might that no last names are necessary - critical praise of the record's eccentric metal moves would be forthcoming.

 

"Yes, I really enjoyed it," says Downing, of this unexpected resume-enhancer of a project. "I didn't anticipate getting in that deep to start with. I was just asked to play a couple of solos and one thing led to another, and when I heard the music, I thought, well, this is really cool; this new band doing this metal that I can relate to. I figure I'd see if I could help any way I could."

 

Explains K.K. about the initial contact, "Literally, we were on tour with Priest, and those guys were living down in Miami, and we were playing a gig in Miami, so we were just hanging out backstage, and that was it. I guess, maybe a year later, I was actually in Spain, and the Yngwie Malmsteen band was playing, obviously with Mick, in Barcelona. We got on a plane, because I was bored and needed some sun. I was down there, good-looking girls, good beer, loads of sun, but no metal. So me and a buddy jumped on a plane and went to Barcelona." (OK, something there doesn't make sense, but you get the picture... and quite a picture it is indeed!).

 

"We went to the gig, and we were kind of hanging around again, backstage, having a few beers I think. And I think it might've been then, Mick said he was doing an album, and would I fancy trying a couple solos? And of course, a couple beers later, 'Sure, Mick!' Anyway, he sent me a couple of songs, and that's when I first heard this and thought yeah, this is cool, and it went on from there, really."

 

Eventually, K.K. got Roy Z. involved, Roy, having worked on Angel Of Retribution, the Halford band stuff, with Bruce Dickinson, the new Priest album, and... well, now he's Metal Mike's co-guitarist in Halford.

 

JUDAS PRIEST - K.K. Gets Violent! Page 2

JUDAS PRIEST - K.K. Gets Violent! Page 2by Martin Popoff

 

"He's a great producer, definitely, in his own right," asserts Downing. "And he's an absolute whiz, obviously technically, with Protools and stuff. And I think that's how it came about. I had kind of put on the producer's hat before Roy became involved. And I said to the guys, 'Look, if we're going to do it, and we've got to do it quick. And the man to be hands-on here has got to be Roy. If he'll do it - you know, he's a good buddy - and I'll see if he'll do it.' And he said yes, he would do it. So we got the guys to re-record a lot of stuff, and as I said, got Roy to be hands-on, all the files in place, the way things work now in Protools, and he got in there and worked really hard. And while he was doing that, I was overseeing everything. Because I had already picked up, obviously, the record, the songs; I knew exactly what I wanted to do, rearrange them, and leave some stuff off the record, and add a few more tunes. And it just went on from there."

 

Adds K.K. on Roy, "No, I would say he's just great to work with. As you say, Rob Halford has worked with him prior to that, and Rob introduced him to us. But I've gotten on really, really well with Roy, because he plays guitar. Oh yes, I've gotten him to play some lead parts as well on the Violent Storm record. So there's me, and Yngwie and Roy, so it's fairly full up with guitars and guitar licks (laughs). In fact, I just spoke to him today, because there's going to be a feature with Roy on my new web site (K.K. Downing's Steel Mill - see www.kkdowning.net). We're going to be a doing a feature with Roy on that. He's got quite a little back catalogue of his own, with his own band, and so we're big guitar-crazy fans, metal fans, me and Roy, so it's going to be cool. Being in Priest all these years, myself and Glenn, and we've done a lot of co-production, with a lot of the other producers, Tom Allom and stuff, and we picked up a lot on the way. But now technology-wise, you need Protools, so you really need someone who's good at that. I actually run a music program myself, which is the European version of Protools, if you like, called Q Base VST, so I'm kind of an expert on that. But the industry gig now is Protools, so I leave that up to Roy."

 

JUDAS PRIEST - K.K. Gets Violent! Page 3

JUDAS PRIEST - K.K. Gets Violent! Page 3by Martin Popoff

 

"Working day and night, night and day," laughs K.K., asked about progress on Nostradamus. "I can't say too much about it, because it's still evolving. It's a work in progress. The only thing I can say is that if you can please relate, Martin, to all of the metal fans out there, that we're hard at work and will deliver it as soon as we can, and we're looking forward to getting on tour, and we'll be in your town as soon as we can get there. Especially Toronto. I mean, we love Canada; Canada is fantastic for us. When I speak to anybody from Canada, I give them the statistic that we sell more records in Canada pro rata, for the population, than anywhere else in the world. Isn't that interesting? I know that, because I've got the pleasure of having some gold records on the wall, and we've had more from Canada than anywhere else - how about that?"

And to pull off this bit of psychic metal majesty, the Priest boys have been dedicated students of the man-seer known as Nostradamus...

"Yes, in fact, we all kind of picked up stuff here and there. It's amazing what people have got in their collections if you dig deep enough. I think even my mother had something on him in her bookcase, which she passed on to me, which was really cool. But I think there is just so much intrigue and cool stuff going on there. And Rob does look a bit like Nostradamus these days, doesn't he? (laughs)."

 

See www.kkdowning.net for a ground floor peek at K.K.'s cool new site, and www.violentstorm.net for more on Mick Cervino's new band, album, and ensuing plans.

 

 

GREAT REVIEW FROM METALDREAMS.NET

http://www.metaldreams.net/violentstorm-stormwarning.htm


BW&BK (BRAVE WORDS & BLOODY KNUCKLES) MAGAZINE APRIL 2007 ISSUE REVIEW
Storm Warning (Gold Storm)

Storm Warning is the long-simmering, long-awaited new project conceived and whipped into shape by Mick Cervino, bassist for Yngwie Malmsteen and previously Blackmore's Night . Cervino is chief writer and unsurprisingly he fires off some torrid Yngwie-esque bass bits - he is a master, undoubtedly. Also on board is K.K. Downing, Yngwie Malmsteen and Roy Z, each guesting on two tracks. The overall production is a little mechanistic and harsh, but that slight negative melts away under the strength of Cervino's nicely various metal ploys, from power to traditional, to prog, to an interesting progressive ballad called 'Alimentary Fable', one of many tracks that exposes the true star of this album, vocalist Matt Reardon, who is rich of voice and style. 'Screaming In Your Face' is also a favourite, given its surprise twists and Rainbow-eque vocal melodies. In fact, hell, you could almost call this thing a cross between Rainbow and Demolition-era Priest, with a little fine, fine Cornerstone and Jorn-orbit thrown in for upscale measure. There's certainly no predictable urge toward being flashy and fast - Mick writes into these strong songs just what is necessary, even if the bass trademark seems exaggeratedly prominent, not in the mix or tone - that's fine - but in the extra showcase moments as well as some of the bass lines. Still, that's expected, and like I say, he's written this thing so cannily correct, like a Bruce Dickinson solo album or something, great ideas wildly different from the last coming with each successive track. Power with purpose, shade and dimension.

Rating 8.5

Martin Popoff

 

 

 

CHECK OUT THIS

GREAT REVIEW ON

VIOLENT STORM
FROM BLOGCRITICS

MAGAZINE.

 

 

                       VIOLENT STORM FEATURE IN SPAIN'S HEAVY ROCK MAGAZINE