ProgScan Interview for 'Drive' magazine (RUS) - March 2009 (N27)

- 26th January 2009 is the official date for the new Evil Masquerade’s release “Fade to Black”. Can you tell about all release's dates? What about Russia? Can we get it here?

January 26 was the worldwide date. It was slightly earlier released in Japan and that part of Asia, on Christmas Eve actually - December 24. This time we will not have a special label for Russia. Unfortunately it turned out that our previous Russian partner AMG wasn’t very reliable and made too many excuses for why they couldn’t follow the things we had agreed upon. No other Russian record label were interested in hearing the album, so I decided to let the international labels export to our Russian fans that support us and buy our albums - plus that our web shop will start playing a much more important roll in a near future. If some day a serious Russian record label shows sincere interest, I might be open for discussion.

- Evil Masquerade got a big army of your fans for the last Russian releases… Hope, they will find the new release by your web-shop… :-)

Yes, the Shop on the Official Evil Masquerade site is the absolute best place to go for the complete Evil Masquerade discography and merchandise. Earlier we didn’t put that much focus on the shop, but it will play an important role from now on - and soon it will be the obvious place to go for anything Evil Masquerade related. It will start to grow this year and more items will be added. Keep an eye on it, and get “Fade to Black” if you haven’t already.

- How is your impression about this album? Who is the author of lyrics and music for all tracks?

”Fade to Black” is a darker heavier album than our previous releases. But besides that, it is still a very melodic release that contains most of what people have come to expect from an Evil Masquerade album. I’m still composing the songs and have once again written the words.

- What about musicians? You got a new line-up for this release. Need to admit, I was wondered to hear about Daniel Flores instead Dennis Buhl on drums…

Apollo is still the singer and I must be sincere and say that I have never heard him sing this good. But you are right; we have two new faces in the band. At the time of the recordings it wasn’t possible for Dennis to fit everything into his busy schedule, since he was very busy at the time with his other band Hatesphere. So we decided that he’d take a break from the band and see what the future might bring. He’s still one of my best friends and we will most certainly do something together again, one way or another. When it was clear that we needed a new drummer I immediately came to think about Daniel who is an old friend of mine, and also a band colleague from back in the days with an old band of mine called ZooL. I have always wanted to do something with Daniel again but the timing was never right, until now. And when he heard that we were also looking for a bass player, he of course suggested his old friend Johan Niemann. They have been playing together for some 15 years, so we couldn’t get a better and more stable rhythm section than that. And besides being extremely talented, they are also really nice guys.

- Did you have any guest musicians for this album?

Yes, Tony Carey on keyboards. I think Rainbow “Rising” was, and still is, a brilliant album – so I was really happy to hear that he wanted to be a part of the “Fade to Black” album. A great honour to me.

- Now, when the album is ready, tell me, please, about Band’s plan for the nearest future. What about any gigs? Or maybe you will be focused on your studio job as well?

I have been very dedicated in the past to compose new music in my studio. I still am, but this time I am also really interested in performing live with this album and new line-up. So if there are enough interested people out there, it will be our pleasure to kick some serious ass.

- What about a new video? It would be great to see something from the new release…

We have already filmed a video to the song “Desire and Pain”, and also lots of material for a short documentary to let you in behind the camera. The video is about to be edited within the next couple of weeks, so it shouldn’t be long before it’s available.

- That is very early to ask about this... But I ask you anyway. :-) Do you have some reviews already and what about your fans\'
response for your last album?

Not many reviews have been published yet, but all of them seem to agree that this is one hell of an album and give really high scores. This seems to reflect the fans of the band as well. I am of course very happy to hear this since I have spent an enormous amount of time to make it a killer album in my taste. Now in retroperspective it was hours well spent.

- Well, I wish you all the best. Good luck to “Fade to Black” and… hope to hear this one soon! :-)

Thanks a lot. I also look forward to hear what you all think about “Fade to Black”. If everyone gets their own copy of the album, I can guarantee that we will put out more killer albums as soon as possible. See you at the Official Evil Masquerade Forum(http://www.evilmasquerade.com/forum). If you haven’t joined yet, do it now. It’s a great place with many good friends from all around the world. CHEERS!

Official Evil Masquerade\'s Site - www.evilmasquerade.com

Official MySpace - www.myspace.com/evilmasquerade

Henrik Flyman - www.henrikflyman.com

Official Forum - www. ranm187.proboards59.com