From Cincinnati Musical Beast: SOLAR FLARE - Raising the Bar with New Debut

One of the things that gets under my skin as a writer and promoter of Heavy Metal, is the fans that are let's say under 14 who state that the bands from the 70’s - 90’s are not metal. Additionally, it irritates me that the term Power Metal is the name for genres like the band I interview below. In both cases this was all we had in those days. This was simply metal in its truest form. And now it’s given a category...Power Metal. As I said before Metal, specifically the NWOBHM and its followers started very underground and it was all the metal there was. Shortly after America began to dominate a scene called hair metal. That has been ridiculed to death, and I get it. But consider for a moment. The hair metal movement always had more beautiful women than men at shows. And unless you were gay (which of course is anyone's right to the same liberties of any citizens of the country)

You had a singleness of purpose in those days that came from your basic instinct which was the strongest instinct - “BREED” and where could you find the women? At a hair metal show like say Crue, Ratt, Britney Fox, Cinderella, etc. and eventually every self respecting heterosexual metal-head ended up here at least once. So next time you decide to slam glam or hair metal as it's called, consider that without it there would be no movement with which to contrast and without contrast, phenomena are meaningless.

Certainly I love all headbangers, we are after all the most loyal group of fans of any kind. I also like all types of metal from prog metal to depressive suicide metal. It's all an art form and a great one at that. So just making a point, and I could be wrong. But I was there on the sunset strip and I gotta tell ya I have never seen anything like it before or since. I'll refrain here from the graphic descriptions of parties in West Holliwood, Studio City, ect. Just use your imagination.

Why all this Genre speak you ask? Because I had the great fortune of being introduced to a “Power Metal” Band from Cincinnati, a growing music scene. The band is Solar Flare and the indefatigable Dewar PR introduced us. Following is a Interview with Solar Flare, which will be followed by a review later in June and of course they are currently playing on GAUNTLETtv which streams from Roku - Which currently is getting close to 400,000 subscribers.


Solar Flare are:
Ethan Jackson - vocals
Mark Greene - guitars
Garian Perry - guitars
Cody Bowling - bass
Jordan Cavalaris - drums

Guest: Peter Danielsen - keyboards (“Medieval”)

MY INTERVIEW WITH SOLAR FLARE'S FRONT MAN ETHAN, A VIRTUOSO VOCALIST WITH INCREDIBLE DIVERSITY.

1) Hello Ethan! Great to have you here today. I understand you are headquartered in Ohio. Cleveland? Cincinnati? From what part of Ohio do you hail? Where are we talking to you today?

ETHAN: Cincinnati, Ohio!

2) This is Kenny from thegauntlet.com and GAUNTLETtv. Congratulations on getting this awesome debut in the can. And into the wild. Let me just say “Thank You!” for the recording. We love it! We have started it on rotation at GAUNTLETtv.

ETHAN: Awesome! Great to hear you appreciate our music! And I will have to check out your station!

3) In the band pic, as I look at the patches of bands some of you are donning I see lots of familiar metal. Many of those bands were on my bedroom wall in high school. You guys look a lot younger than than me, so tell me how you became fans of 80’s era metal?

ETHAN: In short it kicks ass! Long version is I grew up in a household where we listened to rock, Our city has several classic rock stations to choose from, and through friends as well introducing me to more metal acts. Iron Maiden's hallowed be thy name was the first metal song I truly remember hearing I immediately fell in love with it!

4) I share your love of that song. The record is dramatic in its soaring vocal crescendos, baritone, backups, dual axes that have an otherness in the way they tell the musical story, a very impressive bass bottom, great time with some of the coolest drum fills and rhythms like “Nous Somme” that doesn’t seem to use a bright snare. It has a quality that is not like say a…80’s nostalgia record. Its got elements and conventions that create a sound that fits perfectly today, and even more it sounds innovative for today. Was this a product of design or a side effect?

ETHAN: Oh! that's similar to what a friend of ours would say about us. "you guys sound like if Iron Maiden started today". Ha! I don't know if I can ascribe one way or the other I personally have some modern influences that I try to incorporate into my sound and style so stuff like that is by design however our song writing process hasn't outwardly been intentionally to have this effect as a whole.

5) The songs have emotional depth. This is a gift very few posses. What does it feel like to move feelings through your own artistic creation?

ETHAN: Oh! It's a great feeling. some of the songs on this record when recording them and getting the one thing that really makes you go "whoa! That makes this song have so much emotion now!" It makes things interesting and different it changes gears in a song right in front of people and makes them reevaluate what the song is doing to them.

6) Lyrical poetry can have a shrouded meaning, to be interpreted by the listener whatever way they feel it or they may have a deliberate intent. Which one describes your writing or both?

ETHAN: Both for sure! songs like Born to burn, and Taken to the otherside have a deliberate intent. Whereas World in my head, Medieval, and Nous Sommes have a more shrouded meaning.

7) Did you have a moment of truth sometime in your youth where you absolutely knew you would be doing this for the rest of your life? What was that like?

ETHAN: I always say seeing Iron Maiden when I was 16! It was my first concert, and just the whole show I was so overwhelmed with awesomeness that I knew I was gonna be in a band one day!

8) Does the band have a unifying ethos? Can you describe it.

ETHAN: Truly we're all brothers working together to reach a common goal. I don't think I could explain it any other way.

9) Ok, shifting gears a bit away from the mono-brow questions - do you see (any or a lot) of tattoos of your band/music out at shows?

ETHAN: No, At least not yet. If anyone wants to be the first go for it!

10) Describe your biggest Spinal Tap moment?

ETHAN: I once performed in sandles! I forgot to put on my boots! Haha!

11) Where do you go from here?

ETHAN: Where ever the wild wind blows as they say with all the crazy things going on!

12) What is the endgame for you?

ETHAN: Hopefully To be able to make a living out of doing this things that we love, and to meet fans, and visit exciting places!

13) Anything you would like to tell your fans?

ETHAN: There's absolutely no way we could have made it here without them. We are lucky to have our great fans we cannot carry on without them and their support!

That’s great, it’s been a honor to talk to you, please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you. Thanks!
Just let people know they can order our album digitally here solarflareofficial.bandcamp.com

FANs - Buy this record. If you do not like it after 3 spins The Gauntlet will refund your money!






Read More News

Tags:  INTERVIEW, Solar Flare, Power Metal, Cincinnati , Debut

Kenny    May 29, 2020