Firewind, the band featuring former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G., has released a seven-minute EPK (Electronic Press Kit) for its ninth, self-titled studio album, which will be made available on May 15 via AFM Records.
Firewind recently parted ways with guitarist/keyboardist Bob Katsionis and singer Henning Basse. The group’s new vocalist is Herbie Langhans, who has previously played with Avantasia and Sinbreed.
With his charismatic voice, Langhans (Avantasia, Radiant, Seventh Avenue, Sinbreed) refines each and every last one of the new songs and infuses them with an expressive force that is remarkable.
Gus and Langhans got to know each other back in the autumn of 2019, when the Firewind leader was looking for a suitable replacement for Henning Basse after the tour with Queensrÿche. Just a few weeks later, the recordings for “Firewind” were a done deal, ready for Swedish sound engineer Tobias Lindell (Europe, Avatar, H.E.A.T.) to mix them in Lindell Audio Studios.
Speaking to Antihero, Gus stated about Herbie: “I just met him a few months ago. I had heard of him singing in a band called Sinbreed about eight years ago, but I didn’t know his name. I knew he was in this band called Sinbreed. I remembered how much I liked his voice, but then I never heard from that band again. When we were looking for a singer, I just turned to the record label to AFM Records, and I said, ‘Hey, this is happening. Do you have anybody to suggest to do the new record in the next tour and everything?’ They suggested Herbie, and he was a perfect fit, really.”
Asked if he had the songs already in place before he approached Herbie to sing on the album, Gus said: “Well, it was a strange situation because the album was already recorded — the music and the drums, and the guitars. Everything was done. It’s not like we could have gone back and changed parts because once you lay down drums on the record, that’s done. You have to work with that. The arrangements and everything was done. And we had vocal lines for about four songs, but not for the other eight, I think… or seven. I think I did lyrics myself for three songs, and we were missing lyrics on like eight tracks.
“Basically, we collaborated with Herbie. He came in and he wrote the lyrics for the rest of the songs and the vocal lines and collaborated with me and also Dennis Ward, who was supposed to produce the record, but he was also away. He was in the studio with Helloween. But still, he offered his opinions and helped us out with stuff and helped steer the ship.
“While it was a sort of a stressful situation, in the end, it worked out. It was the three of us working very hard for about a month and a half to complete the rest of the vocals. But yeah, it was not like the traditional way where you start with a singer from scratch and you make the demos and you completely… It was like, we did the album and then we were, like, ‘Okay, now we need vocals, because this happened.'”
Track listing:
01. Welcome To The Empire (music video)
02. Devour
03. Rising Fire (music video)
04. Break Away
05. Orbitual Sunrise
06. Longing To Know You
07. Perfect Stranger
08. Overdrive
09. All My Life
10. Space Cowboy
11. Kill The Pain
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