Recently I reviewed their heavy ass album Born Under a Bad Sign and e-mailed these guys some questions. Turns out, they know more about music than I do and love the blues! Check it out!



For those who never heard of Black Cloud Halo, introduce yourself!

'Black Cloud Halo has been around for three years now, in its current formation. We started out playing mostly hardcore, but over the years we focussed more on rock and old metal. This happend because the bandmembers jave different musical backgrounds. A few months ago, our first full-length Born Under a Bad Sign came out, which shows what we�re capable of.'

Where does the name for the album come from and is it related to the Cream song in any way?

'The album title absolutely has something to do with the song, which by the way isn�t a Cream song originally. It was written by Booker T. Jones en William Bell en was performed for the first time in �67 by Albert King. Cream covered the song in �68 on their Wheels of Fire album. That is a great and well known version of the song. We chose to use this name, because it reflects the atmosphere and contents of the songs quite well. There also is a lot of blues on the album, because we listen to blues a lot so I guess there is another link. The last song on the album is the title track, in which we used the original lyrics.'



How long did you work on the album?

'Pretty long actually! From the first plans of making a new record and consulting with WTF Records until the final release, must have taken us at least a year and a half. The actual mixing and recording took us about 14 days, spread out over 4 months. Also, the last details like artwork and such took a lot of time.'

What is your favourite song, and what song do you love to play live?

'My personal favourites are �Day Of The Damned�, �Clouds� and �Jaded Past�. Everyone has his favourites within the band. Live it�s fantastic to play a song like �Firestorm� loud and tight!'

What gear do you guys use?

'We all collect cool stuff, but here�s what we use live;
Han: Gibson SG standard, Marshall DSL 50
Cas: 70�s Gibson Les Paul Custom, �79 Marshall JMP mkII
Jaap: Fender Precision, 70�s Ampeg SVT stack
Roland: Ludwig drumkit + zildian cymbals'

Stones  or Beatles?

'This is, of course, the classic rock question, which no-one can really answer. The raw rock attitude and the sound of The Stones are more our kind of thing. The Beatles were musically more innovative and interesting, though they have a couple of songs that match or even surpass The Stones in rawness. No choice is the right one here.'

Which are your favourite bands?

'To name a few:
ACDC/Agnostic Front/ Blood for Blood /Black Sabbath/Bad Brains/ Crowbar/Cro-Mags/ Down/Downset/ Electric Wizard/Earth Crisis/ Fu Manchu/Fury Of Five Gluecifer/Gang Green/ Hanoi Rocks/Hatebreed/ Iggy Pop/I-Reject/ Joe Coffee/Judge Kiss/Kickback/ Leatherface/Length Of Time/ Motorhead/Madball/ Nashville Pussy/Negative Approach/ Obituary/One Man Army/ Pantera/Path Of Resistance/ Q-B and the Blizzards ;)/Quicksand/ Rancid/Ramallah/ Slayer/Sheer Terror /Turbonegro/Terror/ UDO /Urban Conflict/ Venom/Vietnom/ W.A.S.P./Warzone/ Zeke/Zero Mentality.

Besides this a lot of blues artists like Mississippi Fred McDowell, Muddy Waters en Booker T and the MG�s.'

Where can we see Black Cloud Halo in the near future?

'Check out the MySpace for songs and tourdates!'

Do you guys have anything to add for our readers?

'Black Cloud Halo gives you the soundtrack for the darker side of life, with a thunderous blast in yo� face!'