Coming on the heels of the recent announcement that DEMONS & WIZARDS will release their first album in 15 years “III” on February 21, 2020, the band is back to unveil the music video for their debut single “Diabolic.” The newest musical opus showcases the sound that fans have come to love from the band. The just released music video borrows stylistic elements from the album cover to tell the time old tale of good vs evil with Hansi Kürsch and Jon Schaffer as the main characters. Watch the video for “Diabolic”, which was created by iCODE Team below.
Kürsch states: “‘Diabolic’ for sure is a musical statement and its message is very clear and precise: we take no prisoners! We had a hard time figuring out a proper opener to ‘III’, but when ‘Diabolic’ took shape, we realized it was the perfect introduction to the album.”
Schaffer adds: “This song is a sequel to ‘Heaven Denies’ and it is dark, heavy, vicious, melodic, and totally atmospheric, everything I love about songwriting and making records in eight minutes. ‘Diabolic’ has the right attitude to make a strong statement as the first song that people will hear after 15 years.”
“III” Album Artwork
“III” track listing:
01. Diabolic
02. Invincible
03. Wolves In Winter
04. Final Warning
05. Timeless Spirit
06. Dark Side Of Her Majesty
07. Midas Disease
08. New Dawn
09. Universal Truth
10. Split
11. Children Of Cain
The “III” recording lineup is:
Hansi Kürsch / Lead and backing vocals
Jon Schaffer / Rhythm and lead guitars, bass guitar, 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals
Guest musicians on “III”:
Brent Smedley / Drums
Jim Morris / Additional guitars, backing vocals
Jake Dreyer / Additional guitars
Ruben Drake / Bass
Thomas Hackman, Olaf Senkbeil, John Jaycee Cuipers, Zakery Alexander, Jeff Brant, Todd Plant, Jerome Mazza – Backing vocals
PA’dam chamber choir / Classical choir
Kürsch told Heavy New York about “III”: “It will stand out completely. It’s 14 years [since the last album]and you can feel that. And we’re not even intending to go back and do something which will build on what we did in the past. Still, the roots are there. It’s the definition of Jon and me. This cannot be denied, not one single second on this album. But it has a very intense, modern, new feeling to it. It goes away from what we’ve done in the past.”
Added Jon: “Like he said, it’s very honest. It’s us. There’s no question about who it is, but we’ve grown as individuals and as artists. I think you can hear that. There’s a lot of big, huge dynamic range on this album, and it’s going to take people on a journey, man. For sure.”
DEMONS & WIZARDS recently released remastered versions of its first two albums on all digital platforms. Remastered by Chris “Zeuss” Harris (ICED EARTH, QUEENSRŸCHE, SANCTUARY), “Demons & Wizards” (2000) and “Touched By The Crimson King” (2005) were also released as expanded deluxe editions in June. The expanded editions feature liner notes by Kürsch and Schaffer as well as bonus material and were released as a limited-edition digipak, deluxe 2LP with etching and LP booklet as well as digital deluxe editions.
