Was it based on personal experience or simply passive observation?

What happened in the recording studio or on stage to make one song sound different from the rest?

These are just some of the question bands and musicians attempt to answer in Line 'em Up - the newest page of The Power Of Metal.Dk.

This is where your favourite bands comment on their albums, track by track, because as someone once said, “Ideas are the building blocks of ideas”.

Enjoy!

Here’s a chance for you to tell our readers about your new album “Revenge of the Shredlord”.

But could you please start off by introducing the readers to you? 

Joe Stump –  I'm a Metal/Shred guitar virtuoso that's been releasing solo records since 1993 , I `vet also released records with power metal bands Joe Stump's Reign of Terror and HolyHell.  Two of my main influences guitarwise are Ritchie Blackmore and Yngwie Malmsteen and many people have described me as a more aggressive/heavier combination of the 2 of them. My stuff is influenced by varying schools of metal from Speed/Shred/Neo –Classical metal , European power metal and old school hard rock.

And now onto “Revenge of the Shredlord”… track-by-track, what inspired you, and what do what to express with this song etc.

01. The Ritual Begins

Joe Stump – A short highly technical/classically influenced intro piece that serves as a nice start to the record and gives the listener an idea of what to expect. I've had opening pieces on my past records and that format works nicely.

02. Man Your Battlestations

Joe Stump – This is heavy , fast double bass track containing some fierce metal riffage mixed with some evil melodic ideas.  There's also quite a bit of over the top shred/high tech guitar work on it as well.  It's no secret that Yngwie is one of my heroes and his great influence on me is quite evident on this tune.

03. Pistoleros

Joe Stump – This is one of my favorite tunes on the record, kind of a metaled out version of a Burn era Deep Purple bit . The melody is very strong and there's a ton of cool melodic ideas throughout the track. This might be one of the best instrumentals I've ever written as it all came together in this track as far as marrying strong compositional ideas with killer playing.

04. Shredlord’s Sonata

Joe Stump – This is without a doubt the most technically demanding track on the record guitar-wise, it's very classical, dark and required a fair amount of preparation and work  on my part as far as crafting the parts and making sure it came out just the way I  wanted.  It's also non stop, meaning execution-wise I've got to be on top of it the entire track.

05. Master’s Prelude

Joe Stump –  The Master I'm referring to is J.S. Bach , this is a Baroque style chordal bit that's obviously very Bach inspired. Without him I don't know where any of us would be musically. And it works as a nice intro to the ballad that  follows.

06. In the Master’s House

Joe Stump – Once again Bach `s great influence is evident throughout this ballad as the bridge section  has a section of  Bach's Prelude contained in it.  On my last record Virtuostic Vendetta I had a Gary Moore inspired ballad entitled The Beacon, this one's much more classical in nature combining my Bach, Blackmore and Malmsteen influence. I'm very proud of this track and look forward to playing it live.

07. The Black Knight’s Castle

Joe Stump –  The title say it all,  this tracks pure Blackmore, to me he's still  remains one of my biggest heroes.  The way he combined great technical playing (it was quite technical for the time period and still holds up quite well to this day) with balls and a bad ass rock attitude . I try and take that and carry the torch on as guitar playing to me has to have that element of rock and attitude to it, it's not just fancy technical bits.

08. Enter the Coven

Joe Stump – I really like Kind Diamond and Mercyful Fate , this track's quite heavy kind of like a King Diamond/Mercyful Fate meets Uli Jon Roth and Yngwie type of bit.  I know it's  abit too long lengthwise , but I was playing a lot of cool shit in it and didn't want to cut too much of it out. To quote Yngwie less is not more, more is more , I thought that was brilliant when he said it in an interview.

09. Evil Beasts Below

Joe Stump – A dark/evil sounding track with some really nice melodic bits in there and a heavy Yngwie/ Uli Jon Roth influence throughout. I had a track on one of my older records Supersonic Shred Machine entitled The Dark Gift and this one's somewhat similar in nature.

10. Strat Outa Hell

Joe Stump – This one I tried to approach like a violin type of cadenza, I love Vivaldi and Paganini  so many of the arpeggio ideas stem from their impact on me .  I like having shorter solo bits on my records as it breaks things up a bit, especially on this release since  there's some long epic material contained on it.  Another demanding track technically.

11. White Knuckle Mayhem

Joe Stump –  Another track I'm quite proud of as it contains a strong melody, some very intense classical sections  as well as some  stupidly super fast shredding solo play. Once again a nice combination of strong compositional ideas mixed with virtuostic playing , showcased in a very listenable track.

12. The End Approaches

Joe Stump - A real epic track, even though it's a slower tune I wouldn't really call it a guitar ballad .  It combines a variety of melodic ideas and there's all kinds of  inspired soloing in many sections of the tune. The main melody is a real strong theme and there's some nice classically inspired sections as well.

Tell us a bit about the artwork – who made it etc. and how important do you feel it is to have a cool artwork?

Joe Stump –  My buddy Bob Graves did the cover, he did my last one as well.  I wanted the cover to be a somewhat modern day version of the picture from the very first Rainbow album that was also used in the advertising for that record, it was of Blackmore with all the smoke and Marshalls.

Any last words you want to round this interview off with?

Joe Stump – Just a sincere thanks to fans that have supported my previous efforts throughout the years and strongly urging everyone to check out the new record  Revenge Of The Shredlord as it's a fierce slab of guitar driven metal , if you're a guitar fan you certainly won't be disappointed.

Kenn Jensen, August 2012