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| SPEED QUEEN - … with a Bang! LP | |
HRR 1018LP, 425gsm heavy cardboard cover, insert, download code Ltd 750, 300 x black, 350 x transparent deep purple + 100 x orange / white splatter vinyl (HRR mailorder exclusive) | |
| Thomas Kenis - Vocals, Tambourine Andreas Stieglitz - Guitars, Synths Lander Savelkoul - Bass Toon Driezen - Drums | |
| 01 5 6 7 8 02 Showdown 03 I Want It 04 Eye to Eye 05 Chasing Ghosts 06 I Walk Alone 07 Skygazers 08 The World Ends Tonight 09 Time to Go 10 Fire | |
AVAILABLE | |
Speed Queen from Limburg in Belgium are not to be confused with the French band of the same name from the early 1980s. Founded in 2014, an initial demo was followed by two EPs, »King Of The Road« (Babylon Doom Cult Records, 2017) and their High Roller debut »Still On The Road« in 2020. The band consists of Thomas Kenis (vocals, tambourine), Andreas Stieglitz (guitars, synths), Lander Savelkoul (bass) and Toon Driezen (drums).
“We started as a bunch of greasy teenagers discovering our dad’s record collection”, laughs bassist Lander Savelkoul talking about the early days of the band. “Like the youngsters we were, we found out we could get free entrance and beers at concerts by playing there, and when we saw people actually liked what we were doing - shit got real!”
Speed Queen have been together for more than ten years now and have played numerous festivals (from Wacken Open Air to the Alcatraz Festival) and did some tours with, amongst others, Night Demon. “We like to think that rock‘n'roll has to be fun and invigorating in the first place,” adds Leander, “and that’s what we try to bring to the stage - a fast, energetic show with no pauses. There’s no intention of slowing down! We’re bringing a whole new live show along with this new release. It’s the sweaty shows that are the best.”
The new release we are talking about is »…With a Bang!«, Speed Queen's full-length debut album (released on High Roller Records). “This album has been cooking for quite some time,” explains the bassist. “We started working on these songs after »King Of The Road« was released and in between live shows, after a pandemic and line-up change, we are finally ready to release them to the world. Good things take time, we’re very proud of it. Also, it’s a cliché but we’ve grown as a band and you can hear that we’re more comfortable playing these songs.”
“»…With a Bang!« is very much meant to be a powerful, 'in your face' record,” continues Leander. “We worked together with Koen Keijers (Tube Driven) and Thibault Chaumont (Deviant Labs) to achieve this. The songs are different from our previous releases in the sense that they have more ‘oempf’, there is more variation and we don’t shy away from spicing this up with an extra layer here and there. Not overly complicated though, we still need to be able to play these live, ha!”
Jonny Nesta of Thunderor and Skull Fist appears as a guest musician playing some guitar solos on the record. “Like Yngwie Malmsteen said: more is more,” muses Speed Queen's bass player, “but for us it’s a heavy metal record, not a guitar record.“
“'I Walk Alone' is the band's favourite song on the album: “It’s one of the heavier songs on the record and for us, it is exactly the type of song that we wanted to play when joining up together. It’s a Speed Queen song through and through.”
The opening section of “I Walk Alone” bears some similarities to Saxon's “Crusader” … did Saxon inspire Speed Queen in any way? “We wouldn’t say that we were specifically inspired by Saxon when writing that section,” reflects Lander Savelkoul, “but I do see where you’re coming from. When we started out, we decided to jam on some cover songs to find out what direction we wanted to take the band. One of the first tracks we decided on was 'Wheels Of Steel', so of course Saxon was a big influence on us, as were other classic bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. We’re very obviously inspired by the classics. Our influences vary though; as kids, we grew up in a local scene that was mostly punk, played gigs with tons of different bands and we just love browsing through old records of different genres. You pick stuff up and make it your own, you know. Also, when we’re in our van driving to the next gig, you’ll hear a lot more than just heavy metal. We’ll leave it up to the reader to fill in what else we play then.”
According to Leander, this time around Speed Queen have been putting a lot more thought into their lyrics, if you take a look at a song like “The World Ends Tonight”: “That's a heavy, fast song and the lyrics reflect that. The same goes for our other songs, we try to match the words to the music. On the surface, we’re all about rock‘n'roll and our music reflects that, but lyrically we actually take a lot of inspiration from real life situations. Our lyrics are more serious than our music implies. For instance, if you take ‘Eye To Eye’ and ‘Chasing Ghosts’. Thomas wrote those lyrics for respectively his mother and father and his relationship with both of them. The songs are also connected to each other on the record. But if we play them live, they’re these fun, catchy singalongs. The album was written in a turbulent period, we personally all went through lots of changes but stuck together through all that. If there’s one part on the album where you can hear all that, it’s the lyrics. ‘The World Ends Tonight’ is about standing up for yourself to people who don’t see your worth.”
German metal fans already had the chance to see Speed Queen live, at Headbangers Open Air. “We absolutely love Headbangers Open Air,” exclaims Leander. “We played both the warm-up show and main festival in 2017 and have been there several times since as guests. When we played there, people started gathering very early in front of the stage just to see us, setting the mood by singing along to Andreas’ Judas Priest soundcheck. The show itself was a high energetic, chaotic, heavy metal performance by both band and crowd. It’s one of our favourite shows we’ve ever played and we would love to bring »…With a Bang!« to that stage.”
Just like Germany, the band's home country Belgium also boasts a very healthy metal scene. “Considering the size, it’s bigger than you think,” says the bassist. “We have some huge festivals and you can catch a show every weekend if you want. Every international tour hits Belgium and there’s an active national circuit where a lot of the bands know each other. Belgium has always been on the heavy metal map and hasn’t forgotten its roots. One of our first shows was at Metal Legacy with bands like Ostrogoth and Killer and one of our next shows is Heavy Sound Festival (no kidding), which is making a return with some heavy hitters on the bill. It’s a small country, which makes it easy to cross into Germany, The Netherlands, etc. We’ve played (and seen) as many shows in Belgium as abroad. The scene is very much alive in Europe and there for us to enjoy. Whether it's Muskelrock, Heavy Sound Festival, Headbangers Open Air, … we’ll be there. Will you!?”
MATTHIAS MADER