Benedictum is a San Diego based power metal act that burst onto the scene in 2006 with their debut album Uncreation which brought them critical acclaim from metal journalists Stateside as well as abroad. I recently was given an opportunity to chat via phone with front woman Veronica Freeman about the new album Seasons Of Tragedy as she nursed a cold; she was a trooper and hung in there. As you will read, she is excited about the new album, and with good reason.  Things are looking up in the European market. Hopefully they get some love Stateside as well.  Read on.

Your new album Seasons Of Tragedy was slated for release on January 25th of 2008, but it appears that it has been pushed back to March of 2008. What was the cause for the delay?

(coughs) Excuse me, I’m really sick, so you have to forgive me for not being my usual spunky self. It’s actually slated for March 4th in the United States, but its release date was January 25th in Europe. From what I understand, the March 4th release date is still on.

I recall seeing a banner with the date of January 25th, so I was curious . . .

The release in Germany got pushed back from January 11th to January 25th. The release date in the States is still on for March 4th. I haven’t been made aware of a change, so we’re still on for the original release date in the U.S.

You guys are still signed Locomotive Records for Seasons of Tragedy, right?

Locomotive Records is based out of Spain, but yeah we’re still with them, and they’ll be putting out the new album.

Any guests on this record? Didn't you guys get Jimmy Bain to play on "Mob Rules" and you roped Craig Goldy to play on "Valkyrie Rising"?  How did you guys land those two guys to play on your album?

Oh, well . . . we have . . . I’ll start with the first part of the question. I’ve know Craig Goldy for eons. He’s a very close friend of mine. In fact he’s been instrumental in getting me into metal in the first place. He’s always been very supportive of me in whatever I have done, and he’s always encouraged me to continue down the path. This last time around when we formed the band that we have now, he got behind us. He felt that this was something that he could really get behind. Craig was the one that introduced us to Jeff Pilson. Jeff as you know took on the production so that was real fortunate. He also played bass throughout the album, and of course his production was phenomenal. He has just got done working with Jimmy Bain, and he placed a call and asked him if he was available for some recording. The label needed us to do a bonus track that somehow Jimmy wound up on the album. Craig always wanted to do something with us, and the opportunity was there for him to play on “Valkyrie Rising.”  On the new album we have even more guests! We have Jeff playing bass on “Balls To The Wall” and on another track. We were also able to get the mighty George Lynch on this album. He’s playing also on “Balls To The Wall” and on another track called “Bare Bones.” So it was great to have a mini Dokken reunion on “Balls To The Wall.” Craig of course is playing on the bonus track “Catch The Rainbow” which I don’t think will be available on the U.S. version. I’m told that will only be available on the limited edition out of Europe. And we have Manni from Grave Digger, and he shares lead guitar with Pete on the song “Burin’ Out.” There’s all kinds of people on this one.

On the last record you covered "Heaven And Hell" and "Mob Rules." On the new record as mentioned you tackle Accept's "Balls To The Wall." Why did you pick that song?  Will Benedictum include covers on future records?

You know, there’s really no specific reason why we picked “Balls To The Wall.” It’s just one of those songs that I really have always liked and I thought “wouldn’t it be great to have a woman sing this one?”  I don’t think there’s been a woman that has covered this one yet! So I brought this up to Jeff and he thought we could have some fun with this one. There was no serious thing here. We just went in and had fun with it. I get a lot of comments about it. Some people wonder why we did it, but point out that they love it. Other people call it the new female anthem and like with everything it also gets its mixed reviews, but you know I’m glad we did it.

Did you switch this one up a little bit, or is it true to the original?

A little bit of both, I think. You’ll have to hear it.

So will Benedictum continue selecting covers for future albums then?

(laughs) You know what, that might become tradition. (laughs) The truth is that on the first album there was just supposed to be one cover on that album, which was “Heaven And Hell.” And the cover of “Mob Rules” was supposed to be on the limited edition of Uncreation, a limited edition digipak for the European market only. So when the album is issued, we get the jewel case version and both of them are on there. I just about had a cow, but there was nothing we could do about it at that point. It was never our intent to have two covers on one album.

Speaking of the new album, how do you feel it compares to the debut?

I think it has a more raw feel to it. I really think that Jeff (Pilson) put more effort into the sonic quality of the album. If you’ve heard our last album, I know you’ll be able to notice the difference. I certainly can tell the difference, and there is more of a variety. The songs are . . . I wanted to show different aspects of my voice, and after hearing the final product I think I was able to pull that off. There’s this song that’s not exactly a power ballad, but it’s a slower power tune or whatever you’d want to call it, “Steel Rain.” There’s different things happening on the album where you can hear a different dimension of my voice. Pete did another outstanding job on this record . . . overall, it just sounds better.

What specifically did Jeff Pilson bring to the recording process?

I couldn’t even begin to tell you . . . but I guess I have to! (laughs) He is extremely talented. He can play everything, and he’s an absolute professional. He has such a focus, but at the same time he’s a laid-back, cool kind of person. He’s so intense and focused. I tell people that if the house is burning while he’s working, he wouldn’t even know it because he’s always listening and focused on his role in the studio. He’s the first producer that I have ever worked with that I feel really understands my voice. In the past, people would hear the music and when they found out that I was a woman, they’d have to turn things down thinking that “she’s a woman,” then I’d wind up blowing things up! Jeff has really just brought the best out of my voice and in the process he and the band have just become very good friends. We consider Jeff the sixth member of Benedictum. He just has taken so much time and care with me, and his attention to detail, and he is almost more enthusiastic about it than you are . . . so it’s exciting to work with somebody that's even more excited about the process than you are.

What is your favorite track on the album, and why?

Hmmm. I would have to say the title track “Seasons Of Tragedy.” It’s this big epic track that has all of these layers to it. I think it’s like this rollercoaster ride. It’s something a little bit different than what we have done before. It’s more on the progressive side. I think it will show the fans another side of us, and I’m very happy about that.

What are your current plans to support of the new album?  I know the last go round in the United States that the touring was limited, but it looks like you did get to Europe and did some festivals.

The past few weeks, we have been in discussions about just that, figuring out what we can do in terms of live shows. Of course, we’d love to play in the United States. I think so far we have a CD release party in April, probably in Phoenix. I think there is a Baja Metal Festival coming up, I think sometime in October. We’ll be playing a number of shows in Germany during the summer, some festivals there, and I think we’ll go back in December. So we’re currently waiting to get everything finalized and trying to get as many of the shows as we can locked in. I really hope we get a little bit better promotion here in the States. So your support is greatly appreciated. People are just finding out about us and every bit of coverage helps.

How long was the promotional cycle for the last album?

That was such a cool thing. I think it was a combination of things. We were brand new, people didn’t know us, but we began to receive consistently good reviews for the album. Our second show behind the promotion for Uncreation was on The Gods Of Metal Festival in Milan, Italy, and things just went from there. I think we did one show in the U.K. then came back, then went back and did some shows in Spain, then came back, then we went back for some festivals in Spain, then came back again. Then came the opportunity to go out on the Doro tour, which was just incredible, so we got to tour across Germany with Doro and some dates in Italy in December of 2006, then came back and started to work on the album. Then we went back last year and played Wacken (Open Air) last year, along with the Chicago Power Festival and Towerbox Festival in Seattle. A lot of great things came out of that, so we’re hoping for a similar kind of wave to come out of this album as well. We’re just really going to try to work with the label to get behind us like I’d like them to and support this album like I feel it should be done.

Do you have an estimate of worldwide sales of your debut album?

The previous record . . . we haven’t seen a penny yet. That said, for this type of music, in this day and age, I do feel that we did okay. People sat up and took notice. People began to read about us and were reading interviews that were did promoting the first album. When in Europe we had already begun to do press for the next album. So there was a wave and we hope that continues in the United States. I've been reading some good things from the tried and true fans over in Europe. They seem to be going out to buy the record, so I imagine we’ll be winning some more fans over during the promotion of Seasons Of Tragedy.

You and a couple of the guys in the band were part of tribute band Evilution. Was that a Dio or Sabbath tribute band? Is that still an active band at this point?

It was Dio tribute band. It was short lived but it was a lot of fun. We again were based out of San Diego, and we played a few shows out there. We haven’t been active for years.

What’s something that we might be surprised to find in your record collection?

Oh my God, there’s just about everything in it. I love Allan Parsons Project to Rush to Tina Turner . . . (laughs) love her! Melissa Etheridge, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, old school funk, R&B, and of course a ton of metal, European metal . . . there’s a little bit of everything in there.

What have been the highlights of your career thus far?

I’d say that there are two. The first was as I mentioned before when we received the phone call that Gods Of Metal wanted us to play at the festival. At the point when we found out about it, we hadn’t even played our first show yet. So we played our first show at a club in San Diego and the next gig was playing at the Gods Of Metal festival. Can you imagine? That was certainly cool and awesome. Then as I mentioned there was landing the Doro tour which that was an unbelievable experience.

Thanks to Veronica Freeman for taking the time to grant Pivotal Rage an interview before the rest of the American press. Remember the new album Seasons Of Tragedy comes out on March 4th on Locomotive Records. Please support metal and pick up a copy. For additional information on Benedictum, check out their recently re-launched webpage www.benedictum.net.