SILENT FORCE
1. Let us know about the story of SILENT FORCE
The forces of two great and talented musicians have come together to form this new band. D.C. Cooper and Alex Beyrodt found themselves in an enviable position of being match for one another, musically and personally. For almost 12 months, Alex Beyrodt devoted all his artistic power to a musical and personal vision which has now been materialized in his new band SILENT FORCE.
The guitarist – well-known to German metal fans for more than ten years as a regular member of SINNER, as a welcome tour support of PRIMAL FEAR and as initiator of THE SYGNET (unfortunately only an ephemeral side project) – succeeded in winning over one of the most charismatic and expressive metal vocalists for his current formation: D. C. Cooper.
From 1995 on, this outstanding American vocalist was a member of the Danish bombast rock band ROYAL HUNT and released his first solo album named after himself in 1998. In terms of personality and music, Beyrodt and Cooper complement one another upon the highest conceivable level; they both put into practice the classic form of teamwork and, in doing so, reciprocally inspire each other in an immensely diverse way. Drummer Andre Hilgers (ex-Vanize, The Sygnet), keyboarder Torsten Rφhre and bassist Fleisch who is certainly still known to insiders through his co-operation with Joey Belladonna, the former front man of Anthrax, are the further band members.
The first album of this magnificient new formation is entitled THE EMPIRE OF FUTURE and captivates with ten varied tracks teeming with ideas, intelligently arranged and brilliantly recorded as well as produced. From the intensive intro “The Beginning” and the dynamic “Live For The Day” via the vivid title track “Empire Of The Future” and the speedy “Tell Me Why” to the groovy “New Experiment” and the final track “I’ll Be There”, SILENT FORCE present an enormously entertaining course through the most different facets of contemporary heavy metal. In these very catchy tracks, one can find stylistic elements which exactly or similarly can be found in the works of Queensryche or Savatage. Despite all their transparency, the individual and at any time autonomous tracks comprise a multitude of nuances worth to be discovered, constantly giving acoustic pleasure to its listeners.
The Empire Of The Future was recorded in the ‘House Of Music’ in Winterbach and in the ‘House Of Audio` in Karlsdorf. Both studios are in the meantime ranked among Germany’s best addresses for ambitious metal bands. The album was produced by Alex Beyrodt himself, in close co-operation with Achim Kφhler (Sinner, Primal Fear among other bands). During the recordings of vocals Cooper closely co-operated with producer Dennis Ward. Ward, a bassist and the producer of PINK CREAM 69, moreover made a major contribution to the realization of Cooper’s solo album.
The short epoch of ‘THE SYGNET’ came to an end at the Wacken Open Air concert last summer. Alex Beyrodt started to compose and produce tracks for his new band immediately afterwards. He established contact with D. C. Cooper via his management and sent him a tape featuring 12 completely produced tracks with just the vocals missing. Cooper was dead keen on that material at once and came to Germany already in October 1999 in order to improve on the setting of vocals. His melodic voice thus provides the tracks with the adequate counterpole to Beyrodt’s virtuoso guitar-playing. The significant motto “We have not realized anything, if only revenge makes our lives worth living” precedes the album. This saying symbolizes the lyrics’ basic tenor which – by open structures skilfully varied – tells a fictitious story on life and death, on transitoriness and immortality dealing moreover especially with the perversions in warfare and scientific research.
The first reactions to “The Empire Of The Future” were outstanding. A lucrative contract was immediately offered to SILENT FORCE in Japan as well as in Europe and South America. And, what is more: other great events are already foreshadowed; a promotion tour through Japan and in September 01 SILENT FORCE was on tour in Europe with Stratovarius. After that, they worked hard on new materila and released “INFATUATOR”. With this album, the critics where fantastic and the band went on the raod again with ANGRA all over Europe and after that, with U.D.O. Also a promotour in Japan has been done….and the band finishes their “INFATUATOR WORLD TOUR” in Atlanta /USA at the Prog Power festival with Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian and Edguy….
2. Is SILENT FORCE a band, or just a project of D.C Cooper?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] Sorry, but I don’t answer this question anymore, because I always get angry. Just one short message:
Silent Force is more a band then most of the bands in this buisness!
3. The band features D.C. Cooper in vocals, is it an advantage for the possible success of the band ?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] Well, why should it be a disadvantage to have one of the best singers in this genre? If I can choose between a good singer or a bad, I take the good, right? Of course, with DC’s vocals, we are a special band…but that doesn’t means that we automaticly will have more sucess. We have to work very hard and to fight for our sucess.
4. Your latest Cd was released in 2001, would you like to talk about it ?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] Sure…..:-) We released “Infatuator” in November 2001, after that we did a worldwide promo. I went to Japan to do the personal promo. After that we toured Europe together with ANGRA. After that tour we toured with U.D.O all over Germany. Then we did some Headliner shows, then we played at the Prog Power Festival in Atlanta/USA with BLIND GUARDIAN, GAMMA RAY, EDGUY and many more.
“INFATUATOR” was the biggest sucess for SILENT FORCE so far.
5. Why did you cover JUDAS PRIEST in this CD?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] Well, DC, our singer, was almost the new Priest Singer. He auditioned for them,……so, if you have a singer who can sing like the Metal God, why he shouldn’t???? Also, “AllGuns Blazing” was always the last song of the show during the tour with STRATOVARIUS and the crowd always went totally nuts……so, it is a great song and we did it, no big deal.
But, if you listen to the CD carefully, you can hear a lot of difference between SILENT FORCE and PRIEST. We are much more neoclassical, we have keyboards, mayn choirs……etc.
6. Also, there’s a trilogy here, let us know about each part separately
[Beyrodt, Alexander] It is about the Gladiators, the Roman Empire. I’m a huge fan of this historical periode…so I decide to write some songs in this direction. The goal was to get an sound which should remain the roman periode….
7. The whole album reminds me of bands such as STRATOVARIOUS and JUDAS PRIEST, don’t you think that your music could be lost in the trend of power metal? I mean that there are many bands that have the same sound, why do you think someone is going to choose your music ?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] I totally disagree with you. I play Melodic Metal since 20 years. And, SILENT FORCE has already it’s own style. If you hear a SILENT FORCE song, you know it………..and the fans love it because it is special. I agree, there are many clowns out there who copy Priest or Stratovarius, but SILENT FORCE is defenitely not one of them…….
Do you want us to play NU Metal?….just because it is a fashion? We live and we love European Melodic Metal. This is what we can do best and this is what every musician in this band is doing all his life.
8. You have a multimedia section in your album with the video of See Beyond, have you thought of releasing a DVD?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] Well, that would be cool. Right now, we don’t have plans to do a DVD.
9. What is the band doing these days?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] We just came back from Atlanta/USA where we finished our “INFATUATOR WORLD TOUR” with Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray and Edguy at the Prog Power festival. Now, we focuse on the songwriting for the new album. There are already 20 songs written.
10. When are we going to have a new album from you ?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] Realisticly…….Fall 03
11. Any plans about touring?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] We played this year in 9 countries…..and we love to play live. SILENT FORCE is defenitely a live band and we are looking foreward to the next tour….after the release of the next album.
12. Have you ever been to Greece?
[Beyrodt, Alexander] No, but I know there are many Metal fans and I would love to play in your wonderful country!!!
