Welcome back, my dear El Soter newsletter subscribers. 1. News 2. Ministry on Metal Camp 3. Freak Show ............................ 1. News There are two things that happened during these two weeks regarding El Soter: - Appletree of Discord album is now available in US also by Indie Rhythm (http://www.indierhythm.com) - an interview with me made by Crying Puppet webzine. Here's the direct link: http://www.cryingpuppet.com/interviews.asp?interviewPos=1&NID=141 2. Ministry on Metal Camp From July 3rd to July 9th this year there is Metal Camp festival in Slovenia. This is a camp in Soča valley gathering metal heads from all over Europe. It's for the 5th year now and I've been there almost every year, since there are every year at least one band that is important to me whether an influence or just some recall from my younger days. http://www.metalcamp.com This year there were announced two acts that have an important place in my musical preferences: Celtic Frost and Ministry. Celtif Frost were canceled. Reason: "Celtic Frost singer and guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer has left Celtic Frost due to the irresolvable, severe erosion of the personal basis so urgently required to collaborate within a band so unique, volatile, and ambitious." So, they split again. Too bad. Too bad indeed. http://fischerisdead.blogspot.com Oh, well. There's still Ministry. If you think of an industrial rock band that had the greatest impact on the world, here we are. We talk about Alain Jourgensen and his Ministry, where his music often explores drugs addiction and his political views. He clearly states his opinion about Bush government and he never uses double meanings while talking about it. Back to Metal Camp. For the cause of a heavy rain their performance was moved to 2.15 AM. I was pretty tired after whole day of heavy metal by seeing ten performances in the afternoon, but still wanted to see the great 50 years old Al in action. 2.15 AM and the rain stopped. Ministry take the stage and it is memorable. Their aggression, power and energy is so strong that they leave me breathless. Sound is excellent. Despite Al was so drunken that he had to fight severely with the gravity, he didn't miss a shot. The concert was WOW and it will stay in my mind for a long time. Despite great show I am still concerned (always been and always be) why the heck musicians dare to go drunken, stoned (or even worse) on stage. Do you go drunken to work? I really hope that you don't. Few years ago I was filming interview with Kerry King (Slayer) and his opinion on the matter was: "People are working hard to pay themselves a ticket to our concert. The least we can do is play professionally, therefore sober and clean." http://www.ministrymusic.org 3. Freak Show Fourth track on the album. I was always amazed how "different" people are treated. Might be ignorance of the mass leading to xenophobia or just plain evil. It can be an autistic kid, weird scientist or just someone acting out of ordinary. Times when we used to burn this folks are over. Luckily. Over is only burning - judging is still very present. This is what Freak Show is based upon and only after releasing the album I realized that I already wrote a song with similar content on my 2nd Amateur God album (Army of Optimists). Musically I was working on this song in a slower tempo and harsher guitar sound while experimenting with triple guitar solo to achieve more psychedelic effect. This song is something that started buzzing in my head long ago and I was able to finally record it several years later. Well, to conclude: if there were no weird people around how would you know you're normal? And if there were no exceptions in human history, we would hardly have invented a wheel by now. Right? Thanks for staying with me. Should you have any questions or comments, please feel free to write me an email. I'd like to hear from you. All the best, Blaz Erzetic ---------------------------------- Official El Soter's page: http://www.elsoter.com Order album here: http://www.elsoter.com/order.html ---------------------------------- You can check previous newsletters here: www.neversun.net/elsoter/freestuff.html ----------------------------------