Metal Israel caught up with Metalheart, a longtime fixture of the Netanya metal scene who is now promoting his excellent act, The Afterlife, in light of their forthcoming release “Insanity.” Read it in a Russian accent and the grammar will make more sense.

MI: Yalla, quick interview, before the man who is at the computer comes back (my dad’s help). What’s the new release called?

MH: “Insanity.” A full-length album.

MI: Why did you call the album “Insanity”?

MH: Cause it’s insanity what’s going there. I mean, a lot of styles mixed.

MI: Like what?

MH: From hard rock through heavy power metal and still hardcore elements, and melodic death elements. There are ethnic music influences and melodies.

MI: Which ethnicity?

MH: Mostly Middle East melodies, Arabic melodies.

MI: It sounds great.

MH: There are female opera vocals also.

MI: Oh no. How often?

MH: On some parts. It’s not the main vocals.

MI: I’m not allowed!! Does the girl’s face show at all, like can you see her picture on the album?

MH: No. She is not the part of the band. We just asked her to do some vocal lines.

MI: Achla! It’s ok then.

MH: She did same work on Winterhorde’s “Nebula” album. I always wanted to involve female vocals on our music

MI: Your male vocalist is amazing. What’s his name?

MH: Den.

MI: He’s the one who was in Stella Maris?

MH: Yes. It was a long time ago. He is our vocalist from the first day the band exists. So about female voice, there is some parts that I just knew that we need female there.

MI: Yeah, like three years ago.. So what has happened since that fateful Rock/Burn show or whatever it was you did in Netanya three years ago? What has changed? (wuh no more female voice, i don’t want to get too into it cuz of the dosit thing)

MH: Hahahaahhah. OK. After that we did a lot of shows til April 2006. That was a last show of Splash as a band. We did the show with Acropolis, the ABBA metal tribute. After the show we broke the band cause the drummer and bassist didn’t fit for recordings, and we changed vocalist too (after Den’s leaving to Stella). So we changed the band name and started album recording session with Miko from Metal Sound Studios.

MI: Wait a minute, so Den is back? Or do you want to tell the rest of the story first?

MH: Before vocal line recordings we fired our vocalist (Lenny) and called Den back to the business. Actually, there is all this on our bio on website and Myspace page.

MI: Bah, it’s more interesting in an interview.

MH: OK. Den left in summer 2005 to Stella, and then we picked up Lenny to replace him. He was our vocalist till January 2007 when we fired him in the middle of recording session and ask Den to join us again with new power. Den joined the band again when we finished all instruments except vocals.

MI: What made you change the name of the band? It’s much cooler.

MH: There is a meaning behind the name. It’s actually “The Life After Splash”. And all our lyrics are talking about human behaviour and human existence, so “Insanity” is the part of it. We’re really not interested to sing about dragons and shit like this.

MI: Like give me some examples?

MH: Just check out the lyrics of “Insanity.”

Maybe It’s just me, Or maybe it’s my mind
Crooked mirrors on the wall, Can’t leave my fears behind
Bloody tears and frozen roses, Dry and deadly flowers
Purple shadows on my wall, Crawl inside for hours

I know it’s just my sickness
These things are not that real
But how can I escape them
Those nightmares which I feel

Madness taking over me, Every single night
Hollow eyes keep watching me, Keep me in their sight
Where can I run, how can I hide, I’m sick of spitting blood
When will it end, how will it stop, My deep and bitter flood

I know it’s just my sickness
These things are not that real
But how can I escape them
Those nightmares which I feel

I have a devil on my desk
and it awakes at night
it slowly crawls into my bed
awakes me with its bite

it whispers spells into my ears
and naughty ancient stories
its been like that for 18 years
it takes away my worries

I try to kill my demons, But they keep coming back
Black and hairy spiders, Crawling on my neck
Sickness taking over me, Every single night
Mouths keep screaming straight at me, Lick my twisted mind

I know it’s just my sickness
These things are not that real
But how can I escape them
Those nightmares which I feel.

MI: Beautiful.

MH: We’re talking about the human spirit also. The lyrics aren’t mine. Most lyrics we wrote with our friend. She is really great poet, Sindy Ribalski. Right now we sent the promos to the record labels. And we are waiting for deals.

MI: Which ones?

MH: Almost 80.

MI: Well, good luck, you deserve it, it’s great stuff. Now, let me ask you, because you know I love questions like this, do you think the scene in Israel is still segregated between the Russians and everyone else or do you think it’s mellowed out since last we spoke?

MH: Mmmmmmmmm. I have to say that when we spoke last time about it there were much more Russian bands but right now the mix of Sabras and Russians is much better I think.

MI: Do you have any following outside of Israel?

MH: There is a lot of people outside Israel who wait for this album coming up and we have a lot of fans too outside Israel. And we got a lot of really great reviews of the song even before the album itself came out!

MI: From where?

MH: USA, Latin America and Europe, and of course, Japan.

MI: Why of course?

MH: Cause Japan’s really into metal, and they are very supporting persons.

MI: Alright cool, thanks very much for the interview, and best of luck!!!!!!!