Hail to all ye Brethren of the Hammer,

Well here I am on tour with the Road in Hamburg, Germany. I am hanging out In the Hotel Berlin right now enjoying some time off between shows. It has been a while since I have posted anything…as usual haha. I have been so busy lately so there is a lot of road to cover. Well let’s just get to it so fasten your seat belts.

First of all just a short time back we traveled to Portugal and Spain to do a couple of festival dates. First was the SWR festival in Portugal where we saw Pentagram the night before we played. Man it was good to see Bobby still in weird form on stage haha. But he did put on a great show and the audience was really into it. We played the next night being the next to last band and it was a great time. The audience was way cool and the promoter and crew were really cool to work with also. It was a bigger festival than I thought it was going to be…guess I’m just not knowledgeable enough about the scene being hidden away in my studio all the time. I was quite surprised with the whole thing. Then it was on to Madrid, Spain for the Pounding Metal Festival. Now this was the real big surprise for me. We headlined this festival and it was not a huge fest but it was really great because the fans were just nuts. Vicious Rumors opened up for us with James Rivera singing lead vox. Well Jeff and his bunch totally blew me away with a really hard to follow performance that lit up the audience. We had a great time playing with these guys again and they are always fun to hang out with. It was really good to see Jeff and James again. We had only played with Vicious Rumors once before but James and us have had many shows together with his band Helstar. The promoter and all the Pounding Metal Union were really great to work with and they even took us sightseeing all over the place in Spain. I am so proud to have met this bunch of metal heads and applaud their efforts to promote metal in Spain. This has to be one of the highlights on my year that is for sure. Even though it was not a huge festival the promoter and the crew were just a dream to work with. They did an amazing job and I will never forget the respect that was delivered to the Road at this event. The audience stage dove, crowd surfed and sang along with all our songs and it was utterly amazing. Great times indeed.

Next a little recap of our touring in the states.  It was a quick jaunt for 3 shows. First stop was the Maryland Deathfest in Baltimore. Man it was really nice to see such a big metal festival in the states. I know there are others as well but since we have not toured in the states that much of late we are sort of new to the American festival scene. The whole thing was really cool. Lots a great bands and a really great bunch of metal heads attending. We had a great time just checking out many of the bands and the festival crews were really good to work with. We played in front of a huge audience compared to any that we had played to in the states before and man they were excited and really energetic. We have been opening all of our shows with the Quadrilogy which is Masque of the Red Death, Death by the Hammer, Hammer of the Witches and Witches Brew. You put that all together and it comes out to Masque of the Red Death by the Hammer of the Witches Brew. The audience responded with cheers and fists in the air. Man I did not know that there were so many Roadsters that know about us here in the states. We had a mosh pit, crowd surfing and the audience singing along with most of our songs. It was an amazing experience for us all. I estimate that we played to somewhere around 5,000 to 8,000 people. Not all knew who we were but from the merchandise sales that we had I would have to say that a lot of the ones that did not know us were impressed. And the response from the crowd was really great. So we had a blast at the show and I wish to thank all of you that attended and made that day a really special one for us. Really incredible to experience that kind of response in America. Makes a man proud to be a metal head from the US. We then headed to Las Vegas and did a show at the Doom in June festival. It was a much smaller event but a good one. We opened up for The Skull which is pretty much the old Trouble band. It was not a large crowd but an enthusiastic one that is for sure. Saw a band there that I had never heard of before called Castle that were really good so you might want to check them out if you get a chance. And the Skull was in fine form also even playing some of their old Trouble songs. Eric still has what it takes on the vocals that is for sure. After Lost Wages we headed to Austin, Texas for the Chaos in Tejas festival. This was a really cool event with bands in several clubs all at the same time. We played in a place called Red 7 I believe and the crew here did a fantastic job with us and our sound. It was a really cool place sort of indoors and outdoors all at the same time. Speedwolf opened for us and man they put on a freaking great energetic show. These guys are worth checking out for sure especially if you like Motorhead…which I do. Sort of a modern version of that style of music. They really maimed it. There was another cool band right after them but unfortunately I was very busy outside the club while they were doing their thing and I missed most of their set so I’m not even sure of their name but what I heard was cool. I think their name was Satan’s Satyrs but I’m not sure. Eternal Champion also played earlier but I did not get to the club until after they had finished. Then it was time for Manilla Road and the game was afoot. The audience was great and chaotic and we had a great show and a hell of good time. Once again stage diving, crowd surfing and the crowds voices singing our choruses louder than the band. Incredible. It was a blast for all involved. So we had a really successful little tour leg stateside and I can’t wait to get back on the road in the states to do more of the same. Really quite pleased with how the scene is continuing to grow in America.

Then it was back to Wichita for 24 hours before we launched across the ocean to Sweden for the Sweden Rock Festival. Man what a huge event this was. One of the most well organized festivals that I have ever been to. I was really surprised at how well run this fest was. No bands were ever late getting on or off the stage and the audience was really huge. The day we played there were 55,000 in attendance. This was the largest festival that Manilla Road had ever played at. An amazing experience for all of us. Now this festival was not just all about the Road for me. I had some other experiences that were really exciting for me that I must tell you about. First of all KISS went on fairly soon after we played. Although they were on the main stage since they played so soon after us it sort of felt like we were their opening act so that was cool. But the real excitement for me was a couple of things. First we arrived the night before just in time to catch the mighty Candlemass live. I have been a big fan of this band for a long time and I am so proud to call Leif Edling (founder and bass player of the band) friend. They totally kicked ass even though it was pretty cold that night. They did not play until late but man even though I know how hard it is to play and make your fingers work in the cold these guys just laid down the law of Doom Metal like it should be. Not only that but when we played the next day guess who was in the front row right in front of Manilla Road? None other than Leif himself. What a bloody honor. And he looked like he was having a great time jamming to the Road. Wow. And then after the show we hung out with him and his drummer back stage and then a bit later hung out with him and his crew at one of the many outdoor bars to watch KISS. What a great time that was. I have had the pleasure of hanging out with Leif a couple of times before in years past. Once at the Headbangers Open Air in Germany very near where I am at this moment and then also in Oslo Norway when we played there with Angel Witch some years back. But this time we spent a lot of time together and found out that our likes and dislikes in music are very similar. Not really that big of a surprise I guess since we both have this sort of mutual appreciation society going on between us. But what a great time that was for me because he is so cool and such a great composer and musician. And then another really great time for me at this festival was seeing Accept for the first time and man did they kick ass. I have been a huge Accept fan for a long time and even though Udo is not with them anymore they have picked a really good lead singer to take his place. Seeing them and Candlemass for the first time was just huge for me and I can’t say enough about how great both of these bands are. Both were really great times for me and the highlights of the festival except for playing in it myself.

Well now we are resting in Hamburg before our show coming up in Itzehoe, Germany just outside of Hamburg and then it will be onto France to play in the Hellfest along with Candlemass, Accept and KISS again. Also ZZ Top, Def Leppard and a huge array of other great bands. I have been told that Hellfest is even larger than the Sweden Rock so I am looking forward to that as well.

Before I go I wish to thank all of you who have come from all places to see us on this tour. I have been totally amazed at the response we have been getting everywhere we have played so far this year. I can’t express my gratitude enough to all our supporters and fans for making this all happen for Manilla Road. We would not be doing this without your help and support. It has been a fantastic tour so far and I am looking forward to the rest of the touring that we are going to do yet this year. You can check our tour schedule on the manillaroad.net website for the rest of the dates that we will be playing this year. Hopefully if you have not seen us yet you will be able to make it to one of the remaining shows that we have coming up in the near future. Also I wish to let you all know that we have a new Manilla Road fan site that is going to launch soon out of Greece. I have seen the test site already and it looks really cool and you will also be able to keep up with the Road and all our activities on this site as well. We will let you know when it is up and running so you can also check it out. The site will be called Manilla Roadsters. I wish to thank all you Roadsters and Brethren of the Hammer for helping making this Kansas Cowboys dreams come true. I could never have made it this far without thee. To all of you May the Lords of Light be with you.

Last but not least at all let it be known that the next Manilla Road album is already written and about half of the project is already recorded. Neudi just finished his drum tracks in between our shows in the states. I’m not going to spill the beans on the theme just yet because there is still a lot of work to do on the project and it will not be ready to release until early next year I will tell thee the whole album is a complete concept. Something that we have not done since the Voyager release.

I will sign off now and hope to see you all on tour. We still have more shows coming up this year and more places to go. After this leg of the tour we will go back home to the studio and continue to work on the new album and also tracks for the next Hellwell project. Then it is on to Montreal, Canada and then back to Europe again and then Dubai. To all ye Brethren of the Hammer Blessed Be and of course as always:

Up The Hammers & Down The Nails
Mark The Shark Shelton
Manilla Road / Hellwell