In May, Absolva roared back with Justice, a ferocious seventh album bursting with melodic power, guest firepower, and the grit of true British Metal. With an appearance coming up at Maid of Stone Festival, a headline slot at SOS Festival, and several dates announced around Europe this year, it was high time that we caught up with frontman Chris Appleton.
“I’m excited about Maid Of Stone because I didn’t expect it,” Chris Appleton told MetalTalk. “We made quite a lot of friends there when we played there with Blaze last year. So, to get invited back for Absolva to open up the main stage was really, really cool.
“We thank them for that. We’ve done a lot down in those areas, but we’re tapping more into the European audiences for a few years. We kind of feel like we’ve had a reawakening in certain areas and certain audiences, so it’s gonna be a great opportunity for us to open up at Maid Of Stone.
“I’m really hoping we can reconnect with some of those people. When we did some Michael Schenker tours as a special guest, so being on the Michael Schenker day is really cool for me.
“We’re really looking forward to it. We’ve just got our fingers crossed on the weather.”
With Justice, MetalTalk’s Brian Boyle wrote that Absolva have never sounded more focused or more deserving of the spotlight. Chris says the reception to the album has been “absolutely fantastic.”
“It’s been a while since our last studio release,” he said, “so we really wanted to focus a lot on the songs and the production. When we were writing the songs, we didn’t want to veer off too much from the classic Absolva sound. But at the same time, we wanted to explore some different subjects to sing about and a slightly different approach to the sound.
“I think it’s worked. I’ve got Luke back absolutely 100% full-time with me now. So, every single song was worked on together, the pair of us, which I think shows in the songs.”
Like most bands, when a new album is released, there is always part of you biting your nails. “What are the hardcore fans gonna really think of the album? Of course, you don’t want them to hate it. You want them to go, ‘This is as good as the last album, if not a little bit better.’
“The response we’ve had from everybody’s been amazing. The addition of all the guest singers and all the different bits and pieces. We had some gang vocals, which we haven’t done since the first album to quite this extent. We put six voices around one microphone and then double-track it and double-track it again to give it that massive Bon Jovi kind of massive vocal thing. So all these different elements, I think, have contributed to it.
“Fire In The Sky, the last album, we did deliberately strip it all back to basics. That was more of a sci-fi kind of thing. The subject of this album, with all these different elements, we’ve made a cowboy western-themed thing, which again was a risk. We based it on Tombstone, you know, the old Kurt Russell movie. It’s worked out really great. The fans love it. We are really enjoying playing the songs in rehearsal at the moment. We’re having a great time, so I think we chalk it up as a success.”
With the likes of David Marcelis, Stu Block, Ronnie Romero and one Blaze Bayley guesting on the album, it’s a really nice touch. “It was Luke’s idea,” Chris says. “I was putting it off for years because I said it sounds like a lot of work. I’m always producer and the engineer for the last few Absolva albums.
“When I’ve been working with Blaze, and we’ve had singers and choirs and different musicians to guest on an album, I just know how much of a nightmare it can be. So, in the end, Luke was really pushing me.
“I said, who would we get? Luke said, ‘Ronnie’s up for it. He says he’ll do a song for us.’ I’m like, oh, well, maybe let’s try that. Then Luke’s mate, Stu Block, who he knew from the Iced Earth days, got in touch with him on WhatsApp.”
That was two in the bag straight away. “Obviously, we were touring with Ronnie Romero, so there was a connection there. David [Marcelis] from Lord Vulture and Thorium, we’ve known him for a very long time from Belgium. He helped me out quite a lot in the early Absolva days to tap into a lot of new European venues. So I’ve always remembered that with him. He’s a really nice guy. For Blaze, it was you’re doing this, mate. We’re not gonna ask you. We’re just gonna tell you.”
With guest vocalists, from a non-musician perspective, does this mean more work around mastering or the actual quality of the recording, getting the right melodies so it all fits in?
“It’s more the logistics,” Chris says. “You’re not gonna have any of these musicians in the room with you, so you have to send a track in a demo version. I send a guide vocal. I want you to sing it like this. This is the lyric, and this is the melody. So this is what we would like you to kind of base your vocal around. Then they have to record it somewhere else and then send it back to us, and then I take the vocal off.
“It’s quite a simple process, but logistically, we’ve got Stu in Canada, Ronnie lives over in Romania, David in Belgium. Blaze was a little bit easier to manoeuvre because we could just go round to his house. But logistically, getting all the timing right in everybody’s other touring and working schedules can be quite tough.
“But surprisingly, Ronnie was actually the first guy to come straight in. I sent him the track, I think, on Friday. He then went to the studio Saturday morning, and then we had the tracks by Saturday night. He was an absolute true professional. He did a great job on the song Find My Identity. The first one to come in.
“As soon as I put it in my studio, I was like, oh, we might be onto something here. This is gonna be really good. So when all the other songs and all the other singers started bringing everything to the table, it was great to actually hear that we’d not actually picked a voice that was similar to mine.
“Everybody has a completely different voice to mine. So as soon as they start singing on the album, you go, oh, who’s this? It’s a different singer. That was another good element that I didn’t particularly think about putting together.”
Atlas (War Between The Gods) is one of the stand several standout tracks on Justice. It was obviously easy peasy with Blaze.
“Yeah, it was just straightforward,” Chris smiles. “It was kind of like business as usual. He was like, ‘I’m guesting on your album for a change.’ [laughs]. It’s working this way around.”
Thrill Of The Chase and Hero In Your Life sound like tracks that are absolute shoe-ins for the live set. Is that a consideration when writing?
“Absolutely,” Chris says. “The whole dynamic of writing an album in the past, I’d say even the past five years, has changed compared to how it was 10 years ago and 15 years ago.
“We’ve got this new thing where you have to write an album and everybody expects it on digital release, CD and now vinyl. Probably since COVID we’ve been working on albums to fit on a single vinyl. So it’s almost like going back to 1980.
“But as soon as we started doing that, we thought, right, well, we’ve got to make sure the song is interesting enough without it being really long and drawn out. But what I’ve also said is just because we’re doing it this way on an album doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be exactly the way it is on the album when we get it into a live setting.
“We can do whatever the hell we like once we get it on stage. We can have an extended intro. We can have an extended outro. I might want to introduce a special message halfway through the song. That’s something you’d never do in a studio, for the uh for the listener.
“So it’s kind of the difference between a book and a movie. You’ve always got to listen to the different elements, the different melodies, how catchy is your chorus when you get it on a CD. It might not always translate well when you get it into a room or on stage, so we’re very, very careful about these kind of things.
“I’m also a lot more careful on how I’m stretching the voice nowadays. I don’t want a Thunder And Lightning Thin Lizzy paced verse [sings], and then by the time it gets to the chorus, suddenly it’s an Aces High chorus.
“[My voice] is not gonna last two shows. We’re a lot more careful nowadays about where the vocals fit in and where everything’s pitched. Those days where we have got, you know, eight or nine shows in a row, we can get through that.”
The Street Fighters Of Blackford Bridge has that real classic intro, then that riff, then the wah-wah solo, and then bam. It is a really cool way to finish the album. With Tom Atkinson on guitar now and Luke back on bass, how is Tom fitting in with the dual guitar role?
“It’s just back to business as usual, really,” Chris says. “He was last properly with Absolva 12 or 13 years ago, on the Flames Of Justice European Tour. The birth of the whole Absolva twin guitar attack was me and Tom. When Luke came back from the Iced Earth thing, he went onto the guitar because we already had another bass player.
“But now Luke’s back on bass, it’s reawakened an even older kind of thing that I’ve forgotten about, which was back in the Fury UK days. It’s rekindled this massive rhythm section, which is Martin [Mcnee, drums] and Luke. So even though Luke’s been in the band for ages, he’s not been on bass.
“I think I lost sight of what an absolutely monstrous bass player Luke is. So that’s the rhythm section. Then me and Tom, even though the four of us have worked together for years, we’ve never actually been in a lineup together. We’re actually rehearsing this evening, and this is actually the first Absolva lineup that’s been 100% Mancunian as well.
“So it’s amazing because I’m always pushing we are a Manchester Metal band, but there’s always been an outsider in the lineup. So this is the first time in 13/14 years that the Absolva lineup is 100% Mancunian.”
Blackford Bridge is obviously a contender for the live set, too. If you listen to the twin guitar call and answer parts, it is electrifyingly exciting. “The guitars on this album were a little bit of a tip of the hat to Flames Of Justice, the first album, which was just absolutely covered in massive guitar stuff.
“Big riffs, trading off the guitar solos, then coming together for the big Thin Lizzy, Iron Maiden harmonies and everything. So there was a lot of going back to that. What did we use to do on the first album? How did we approach it back then when it was kind of all fresh and new.
“It’s like, well, we’ll stick another guitar solo here after this chorus. There was a lot of that kind of thing. I mean, Blackford Bridge is probably gonna hit the live set. Most of the album’s probably gonna end up hitting the live set throughout this year and next year for the touring.
“We’d love to get Against The Odds into the set, which is the Stu Block song, which is kind of more of the ballad or the big anthemic kind of song. It’s got a lot of mileage. I think we can really make something explosive out of that song.”
This weekend’s SOS Festival and then Maid Of Stone, present an opportunity to get in front of people who have not seen the band before. “Absolutely,” Chris says. “We’re 13 years down the line with Absolva, which is amazing, really, to say it. Because I know some bands can’t even get through two at the moment.
“We feel like everything’s very fresh because we’ve got this new album, and we’ve got this new launch of this new lineup. But everything seems very settled because, like I said, we’re four people, we’ve worked together for a very long time, we’ve known each other for such a long time.
“But we’re all professional, so we’re all having a laugh one minute, but then we need to get down to business. We need to get into rehearsal. We need to work on this verse. We need to work on this instrumental section. What are we doing here with the vocals? Let’s get these vocals sorted. It almost feels like we’re a new band again.”
So, fun in the studio, too?
“Fun in the studio and fun in the rehearsals,” Chris smiles. “Everything’s building up to this relaunch of the new lineup and the album launch at SOS Festival. We’ve got a lot of crazy stuff planned for that. So once that happens, then we’re at Maid Of Stone opening up the Sunday on Michael Schenker day, which we’re really looking forward to. Then we’re back out to Germany and Belgium and business as usual out in our European home from homes.”
SOS Festival, this Saturday, will find Absolva officially launching both Justice and the new lineup. There will be a special version of Never Back Down, where the video screen will be playing and a dedication slideshow titled Fallen Brothers & Sisters, which will include MetalTalk Founder Steve Göldby.
SOS Festival has a great lineup again and has a fantastic reputation for showcasing British rock and Metal bands. “It was created for bands that couldn’t get on Download or any of these massive festivals. Then it’s just grown and grown and grown. It’s capped at about 500 people now purely because all the volunteers and all the workers and sound guys and crew have reached the limit.
“Pretty much everybody from the first year of SOS Festival is still involved today. That’s 16 years ago or something. The bands and the audience are really what make it because the audience will see a band that they have never seen before, but they will pay attention. They’ll really look at them, then go and have a look at the merch.
“There are bands that have been playing for 10 years plus and old school bands that have been going for years. That’s the demographic for the whole thing. You can find a fresh new young British band, and then you can still see those classic British bands that have been going for years.
“But the audience are very receptive to all of it. They are not very one-dimensional. It’s a very big family as well and we get audiences from all over Europe. Regular people that make it their summer crusade from France and Switzerland, Hungary, Germany, Belgium.
“It’s a good feeling and of course, a real good selling point for some of these British bands. ‘Oh, we’re playing to people in France. Suddenly, we’re getting listened to and selling CDs to people in France and Germany and everything.’ It’s a solid thing that happened in Manchester.”
Absolva are one band that have worked hard with their European audiences. “We’ve always done well in Belgium,” Chris says. “That’s been our stronghold. Then we’ve built up really well over the west side of Germany, Düsseldorf, Krefeld and coming down to Mannheim and Balingen.
“We have a very strong fan base in France, and we’ve just been working across all the time. We always get asked back to a lot of independent festivals. We’ve been very persistent with it from the word go.
“I love the UK. I love playing British venues and independent venues. But I always said from the beginning we’ve got to tap into Europe. We’ve got to make sure when we release an album, we’re not just selling it to Glasgow, Manchester and London. We’ve got to be selling to a European audience as well.
“We’ve been very strict and very persistent with that, and it’s really paid off for us. Thirteen years on, we’re still independent. We’ve not really struggled with that. It’s been tough at times, but you know, 13 years on, and I can say we’re earning money, and we’re 100% independent. It’s a good thing.”
Europe beckoned for a tour supporting Ronnie Romero in March. “He’s pretty criminal, really, Ronnie Romero,” Chris smiles, “because he’s got this amazing voice. He’ll sing ten shows in a row, and by the end of show ten, he’s still singing as good as he was at show one.
“Then you talk to him, and he’s a ridiculously nice guy as well. So there must be something wrong with this [smiles]. He’s got one of the best rock voices in the world today. I really do believe that.
“The shows were great. All his band are wonderful people. Mainly Spanish, and we got on with those guys like a house on fire.”
Early on the tour, coming off stage with “everyone going crazy,” Chris tells how Ronnie came up to him full of praise, saying they can do an extra five or ten minutes the following nights if they want to. Do an extra song. It is no problem.
“I’ve never done a tour with anybody who’s turned around and said, if you want to play longer, you can if you want,” Chris says. “It’s usually running a real strict clockwork. So that was the camaraderie we were having all the time on tour.”
Given the relationship with Blaze Bayley, has America ever been in Absolva’s thoughts? “I did two tours in America and Canada with Blaze,” Chris says, “and it was very tough. I’ve always thought if it was tough with Blaze, it’s gonna be five times harder with Absolva. It’s just a completely different world over there.
“I always look at our style of Metal, and the epicentre of that is Germany and surrounding areas. Then, of course, you kind of times 10 [for America]. If we’re playing to a certain amount of 100’s of people with Absolva or Blaze, you can times 10 on that if you go play South America.
“Germany, everything’s Metal. There is a lot of small independent Metal festivals are in Germany. You go to America, and everything is dumbed down. It’s a percentage down. I speak to guys from Accept and Udo and KK Downing. It’s great once you tap into it, but it’s really hard building it up again.
“I mean, I’d love to go back to America, but absolutely, we have to make sure the circumstances are correct to build there again. So, my foreseeable with Absolva is I’m just trying to explode in Europe as much as I possibly can.”
For Absolva, there is much more in the pipeline for 2025/6 that is yet to be announced. “I’m just trying to piece together the touring correctly,” Chris says. “I’ll probably announce more after SOS. I’ve got more things planned in the UK, Germany and everything.
“We’ve got a couple more festivals, and then I want to piece together a really cool tour for the beginning of next year as well. We’re not too far off looking at starting to write some more songs for the next album. I said to Luke, I don’t want to leave it three or four years again before the next album.
“I want to really push another one out as soon as possible. Especially considering we’ve got this new lineup and everything. So let’s enjoy it whilst we are enjoying it. Let’s enjoy being in the studio and being on tour together.”
You will find Absolva at the Cart & Horses in December, and the plans are to make that gig the MetalTalk Christmas party. It should be a fine end to the year as Absolva continues to showcase how Justice is a Metal album of major league quality that deserves to be on everyone’s playlist and everyone’s radar.
“Thank you very much, everybody, for all your support,” Chris says in a final message to the Absolva fans. “Thanks for believing in us, and keep going. We will keep going as long as you keep following us.”
Catch Absolva at this weekend SOS Festival. Full details are available here.
Maid Of Stone: A Festival That Rocks
Now in its third year, Maid Of Stone has firmly established itself as a must-attend event for rock fans. With a wide variety of music styles covered, their festival’s reputation continues to grow.
Set to be a highlight of Festival Season, MetalTalk will have more news very soon. All our coverage for 2025 will be found at MetalTalk.net/maid-of-stone.
Tickets Available Now. For full details and to grab your tickets, visit MaidOfStoneFestival.com.
MetalTalk’s Maid Of Stone 2024 coverage can be found at https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/maid-of-stone-festival-2024.
For MetalTalk’s Maid Of Stone 2023 coverage, visit https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/maid-of-stone-festival-2023.
