Tag: Tim Aymar

PHARAOH: ‘After The Fire’ Debut To Receive Vinyl Release

Enrico

Ground-zero, catalog number “Cruz01” and the album that started it all for Cruz Del Sur Music, PHARAOH’s 2003 “After The Fire” debut provided an early glimpse of the label’s unflinching commitment to releasing high-quality, true heavy metal. The album also positioned PHARAOH as one of the most promising and classy melodic metal bands in recent memory, earning the band much-deserved praise both on domestic and international shores.

Now, 15 years after the fact, Cruz Del Sur is releasing “After The Fire” on vinyl on Aug 31, with a different, alternative mixing, new mastering, and fresh, updated liner notes by Matt Johnsen!

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“PHARAOH and Cruz Del Sur are still doing what we do, in our stubborn ways!” says drummer Chris Black. “How little has changed in this regard. I guess our producer/engineer Matt Crooks wasn’t yet on board, but otherwise with ‘After the Fire’, we have already included all of the same people and roles as we do today. I’m talking about the musicians/songwriters but also Enrico Leccese of Cruz Del Sur and JP Fournier, who has painted all of our album covers.”

PHARAOH, rounded out by vocalist Tim Aymar, guitarist Matt Johnsen and bassist Chris Kerns, was originally formed to play, according to Johnsen, “the kind of melodic heavy metal that was highly unfashionable when we first met.”

“Chris had SAXON and IRON MAIDEN in mind, while I was thinking about RAGE and ANGRA,” he says. “And although none of us have the same tastes, exactly, I guess they’re close enough where it counts! “Since ‘After the Fire’, we’ve all grown immensely as players and writers, but the basic templates we established for ourselves on that record have held up surprisingly well.  Our newer songs are much harder to play, but they’re clearly cut from the same cloth as the ones on our debut.”

PHARAOH has released three studio albums since “After The Fire” and are hard at work at their next full-length, tentatively titled “The Powers That Be”. But, the memories associated with “After The Fire” hold lasting impact, making the vinyl release all the more important.

“Finally having ‘After The Fire’ on vinyl will be great for our fans who cherish this format,” says Black. “It’s understandable that it didn’t happen in 2003, but as the years have passed and all of the other albums have been pressed on vinyl, it has become way overdue. But as it happens now, it’s a great way to say happy 15th birthday to the album and to Cruz Del Sur as well. A just reward for our continuity!”

PHARAOH Hard At Work On Fifth Full-Length Album

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Comments Johnsen: “We’re doing this one a bit differently, in that before we always completed the full complement of songs and then hit the studio, but this time, we’re recording tunes a couple at a time as we finish writing. Because we’re not a rehearsing band and because we all live in different cities, recording as we write makes it possible to get more done in less time; while Chris Black is tracking drums for one song, I can be tracking guitars for any songs he’s already recorded, and then when I’m ready to move onto the next set of rhythm guitars, Tim can start tracking vocals. We’re still early in the process, though; Chris only just started tracking the first tune.

Melodic metal veterans PHARAOH – featuring vocalist Tim Aymar, guitarist Matt Johnsen, bassist Chris Kerns and drummer Chris Black – are currently hard at work on their fifth full-length album, which is tentatively due in mid-2018 via Italy’s Cruz Del Sur Music. The album will be the band’s first 2012’s “Bury The Light”.

Comments Johnsen: “We’re doing this one a bit differently, in that before we always completed the full complement of songs and then hit the studio, but this time, we’re recording tunes a couple at a time as we finish writing. Because we’re not a rehearsing band and because we all live in different cities, recording as we write makes it possible to get more done in less time; while Chris Black is tracking drums for one song, I can be tracking guitars for any songs he’s already recorded, and then when I’m ready to move onto the next set of rhythm guitars, Tim can start tracking vocals. We’re still early in the process, though; Chris only just started tracking the first tune.

“We have four songs completed as far as instrumentation goes, and three more at about seventy-five percent. Then there are three to five more which are no more than fifty percent finished. In the past, the riffs to most songs were more or less written by one guy, and then fleshed out collaboratively with vocals and lyrics at the end, but this time, the majority of songs have been put together from the beginning with riff contributions from two or more members, and we expect to do more tinkering with the riffs than we usually do once the vocal lines are introduced.  Then again, maybe we won’t!”

Johnsen promises PHARAOH’s forthcoming new LP will continue in the same vein of their previous efforts; however, some new wrinkles are being thrown into the mix, namely from the technical thrash world with bands such as CORONER, HOLY TERROR, REALM and FORBIDDEN serving as inspiration.

“My arrangements involve much less repetition of riffs than is customary from a power metal band,” he says. “Lots of ‘one-and-done’ riffs, and a lot of left-field bridges and codas. At the same time, I’ve also started a couple tunes which are almost doom metal, assuming a definition of doom metal that encompasses MEMENTO MORI and early TYR. We’ll see how those pan out, but I expect at least one of them to make the album.”

PHARAOH has released all four of its studio albums with Cruz Del Sur Music, starting with 2003’s “After The Fire”, which was followed by 2006’s “The Longest Night”, 2008’s “Be Gone” and 2012’s “Bury The Light”.

Related links:

https://www.facebook.com/PharaohOfficial

https://pharaohmetal.bandcamp.com/music

NPR Radio loves PHARAOH: Top 10 Heavy Metal Releases of Year 2012

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It is with a clear feeling of accomplishment that we are about to close off this hardworking year 2012 with a great new: PHARAOH’s “Bury the Light” album on Cruz del Sur Music has appeared in the 2012 Top Ten  Heavy Metal albums chart of NPR according to writer Lars Gotrich!! Check it out here.

This is what NPR had to say about Bury the Light:”Chris Black is one of metal’s most tireless musicians, typically working in the denim-shredded realm handed down by Iron Maiden and Jag Panzer. In 2012, the drummer and songwriter appeared on three albums that span the early spirit of metal: Superchrist‘s tallboy-downin’ Holy S—, Dawnbringer‘s heartfelt, but no less hair-raising concept album Into the Lair of the Sun God (Black’s baby, so to speak), and Pharaoh‘s Bury the Light. I loved all three for different reasons, but few records this year felt as epic as Bury the Light. Not “epic” in the way that metal journos typically overuse the word, but in the way that vocalist Tim Aymar might as well be wailing an epic poem handed down generations.” Read more “NPR Radio loves PHARAOH: Top 10 Heavy Metal Releases of Year 2012”