ALBUM - Zephaniah MLP HRR 268, ltd 300, 200 x white vinyl + 100 x black vinyl, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, cardboard lyric insert Winfield Dray - guitar + vocals Jason Hopkins - bass + vocals Josh Hopkins - drums Andy Conrad - synthesizer -Prologue -Shout of the Warrior -Ballad of Zephaniah -When Nations Collide SOLD OUT!

Album are a relatively new band from Rogers in Ohio. They formed in 2007 and have already released a self-titled album through a small label called Nice Life (from Columbus, Ohio). Album is kind of a family affair as drummer Josh Hopkins explains: “Jason and I are brothers and Winfield, who only lived three minutes away, was a friend of ours. When we decided to start playing music together we figured we would just play for fun, but in our first practice we learned three covers and wrote two original songs. About a month or two after our first practice we had our entire first album, 'The Album', written. We also began playing shows about a month into the band forming. When we were asked to play our first show we didn't even have a name yet. The rest is pretty much history. We have been Album for five years this fall.” So Album have been pretty busy from the word go. Songwriting is one of their strengths and numbers like “Slam the Hammer”, “Death by Eagle”, “Strange Thinkin'”, “Mother Earth” and “Thrash City Brawlers” do indeed sound very unique. Josh comments: “'Slam the Hammer' and 'Death by Eagle' are both on our first album. 'Strange Thinkin'' is a B-side from the first album. The version on our myspace/facebook of 'Thrash City Brawlers' is just a home recording of the song; that song will actually be on our second full-length album. And 'Mother Earth' is an incomplete song. When we were doing some home recordings we figured we would record it for fun, then we ended up just putting it online for something different and new to listen to. And actually 'Zephaniah' has been written for about three to four years, so it is not our most current material, we are just lucky enough to finally be able to release it, on vinyl, the way we original wanted. We have an entire second full-length album ready to record. We are always writing new songs, and planning them for upcoming albums and EPs that we may never actually put out.” The current High Roller mini album will include “Prologue”, “Shout of the Warrior”, “Ballad of Zephaniah” and “When Nations collide”. Josh Hopkins is proud of Album's new material: “We recorded the first album and the EP at two different places. And for the EP we were able to have it professionally mastered, courtesy of High Roller. With the new 'Zephaniah' mini album we were more prepared going into the studio and knew exactly what we wanted out of it. 'Zephaniah' is a mini-concept album that goes along with the book of Zephaniah. The first track on the album is a Prologue, as books in the Bible usually have. Then from there it pretty much goes along with the Book; three songs, three chapters. The music spans from Sludge to Thrash, classic Heavy Metal and even a hint of Country & Western. We always try to stay out of any sort of genre. People started calling us 'Stoner Rock' so we started playing Thrash Metal. Then we noticed our live sets were mostly heavy and thrashy songs, so we started to slow down and play more mid-tempo sounding songs. We always try to play something new, always trying to surprise the audience.” It is indeed quite hard to describe Album's style but what I do hear is a bit of pre-”Ride the Lightning” Metallica, early Mercyful Fate in the guitar department, some 1970's influences (first and foremost Black Sabbath) and some hints of Danzig (concerning the vocals) … Josh confirms: “We are definitely big fans of Black Sabbath, early Metallica and Danzig.” He continues: “And I am personally a big King Diamond fan. We all bring our influences in, and our influences are always changing - but we don't forget about our past influences either. We have always felt that Heavy Metal can be commercial too - it was in the 1970's and 1980's, why can't it be now? We feel that it is time in the world for real music to be important again - the music industry makes us sick, and we have always tried to make it our mission to be the revolution. We've never played with a band that sounded like us, or that puts on a show like us. We make our live sets a solid block of musical entertainment - playing Thrash songs, Heavy Metal songs, blues jams (with or without extended guitar solos), and Grand Funk Railroad sounding songs. We want to put on the kind of high-energy Rock 'n' Roll show that hasn't been put on since 1974. We have always tried to follow the Manowar way: we're going to turn up as loud as we want, play the kind of music we want, and we're not going to feel bad about it, in fact we're going to have a real good time doing it. Sometimes we're having a better time than the crowd we're playing to.” Album are not only a busy band in the rehearsal room, they also love to get out on the road and play: “Yes, we perform live often. We went on a week tour last year, and this year we have been spending a lot of time practising and writing new songs, playing shows as they come along. Our live show is a combination of Sabbath circa 1974 and Grand Funk circa 1970 - it's a high-energy show, giving the crowd a chance to headbang, mosh, and even dance; good times for men and the ladies. Our live mantra is 'ALBUM Good Time Party, Yeah'.” Matthias Mader