Dr. Metal - June 18th 2005

Henning Pauly called into yesterday's radio show, and we talked for quite a long time about An Absence of Empathy and some of his plans for the future. Obviously, we also talked about the whole dispute with Sebastian Bach as well. You can listen to the whole show (which also featured 3 Frameshift songs) by downloading the audio archive.

I had a good time talking to Henning, whose command of the English language is pretty damn good. I always enjoy interviews that are much more like conversations, and this was certainly one of those. While I hadn't ever talked to Henning before yesterday's show, the feeling I had during the interview (and on the phone while the songs were playing) was that I was talking to someone I had known for quite some time. He struck me as a very normal, genuine person.

As far as the whole Sebastian thing goes, I certainly have an opinion about who's telling the truth that I've formed from reading about everything that took place. I'm sure that's true for anyone else who has followed this thing as it has unfolded. But I don't think anyone can know with 100% certainty who's telling the truth without hearing the rough mixes or seeing the contract that was signed. Hell, if Henning wants someone who has a reputation for straight-talking to listen to the rough mixes and/or check out the contract for this whole deal, I'd be glad to be that guy. I know that he had someone from his forum out to the studio to take a listen to the rough mixes and report back, but I can see how people could dismiss that as "Well, she's clearly a big fan, so that's why she said those things."

I'd like to make it clear as well that I emailed Sebastian last week to ask him to call into the show sometime to discuss all of this stuff. So it's not like I'm only allowing one side of the story to be heard on this site and on the radio show. I'd be glad to give him equal time to say his thing. When he gets back from Europe, I hope he'll take me up on the offer.

Anyhow, take a listen to the interview and the show, especially if you haven't yet heard any of the Frameshift album. Putting aside the questions about who deserves credit for writing what, what you have here is one hell of an album. And as I told Henning on the phone, An Absence of Empathy is without a doubt the best thing Sebastian has been on since Slave to the Grind.

I'll be back later with some more comments about the whole Frameshift thing. By the way, check out www.frameshift2.com to order An Absence of Empathy or to read more about it. If you're interested in everything Henning-related, you can check out his personal site at www.henningpauly.com.

I can also report that you can count on there being an interview every week on the show. I'm in the process of lining up someone for next week's show, but I have Zak Stevens of Circle II Circle (and formerly of Savatage, of course) confirmed for an interview on July 1st. He called into the show about a month ago, but due to a screw-up on my part, the audio was horrible and no one could really hear him very well. That was a real shame, because he had a lot of interesting things to say, which is why I invited him back on the show. The audio issues for telephone interviews have been worked out (in other words, I'm doing them the right way now), so everything should be really high-quality from now.

- Doctor Metal