Daniel Lioneye Out on First Tour Opening for Cradle of Filth

Daniel Lioneye, the side project from HIM guitarist Linde Lindstrom, is currently out on their first ever North American tour.

The band is opening Cradle of Filth's Creatures From the Black Abyss tour along with Turisas and Nachtmystium.

Daniel Lioneye started out as a tongue-in-cheek side project for HIM back in 2001 which allowed Lindstrom to try some new things.

The band's original album, The KIng of Rock N' Roll, featured Lindstrom on lead vocals and guitar and fellow HIM members Mige Paananen on vocals and guitar and Ville Valo on drums along with The Skrepper's vocalist Hiili Hiilesmaa on keyboards.

The album featured hard rock with blues-driven guitar solos throughout and was received well overseas and had some moderate success in the U.S. with the title track becoming the theme song for the MTV show Viva La Bam.

Due to HIM's busy schedule the band never ended up touring and was suspended until last year when Lindstrom decided to pick the project back up and record a new album.

This time around, he decided that he wanted to move in a heavier direction and put together the black metal album Vol. II, which was released back in April.

For the recording Lindstrom was joined by fellow HIM member Emerson Burton on keyboards and Enochian Crescent's Bolton on drums.

However, once Lindstrom's tour hopes were realized, he put together a full band with Burton staying on and Paananen returning to play bass. The band then added vocalist Manu from the UK's Under Blackened Skies and drummer Seppo Tarvainen who was practicing in the same studio where Vol. II was recorded and caught Lindstrom's ear.

The Creatures From the Black Abyss tour made a stop in Detroit at rock club Harpos on Friday night.

Before the show, I sat down with Lindstrom, who was a bit frustrated with the disorganization that the venue was showing and the venue's freezing temperatures.

When a guy from Finland has to go dig for a scarf to put on, you know that there is something wrong!

The entire show was delayed and sound checks were missed as Harpos had random bands playing on a second stage area with no rhyme or reason, "I'm not sure what is going on right now. It's crazy. We've had no sound check so we will just have to see what happens." explained Lindstrom.

So far during the tour the band has had some sound issues and Lindstrom spoke about the fact that with this being their first tour they were still feeling their way around and learning what does and doesn't work, "We did 3 or 4 dates in Finland before the tour began but that was our only warmup. It's been interesting trying to get things going. The other night in Pittsburgh the power went out and the show was cancelled. The four bands did not get to play so that was hard. We still did our meet and greet but we were like all right we're ready to go on you know? At the shows where the sound is not working out we have been just going out and doing it the old fashioned way "

Despite the problems, he said that the tour has been going great and that the eclectic mix of bands has made things interesting.

When asked if there is a song that he enjoys playing the most, Lindstrom said that their closer "Neolithic Way" is the most fun because the audience seems to really enjoy it and it's epic sound.

Daniel Lioneye is sharing their tour bus with fellow Finnish band Turisas and Lindstrom says that so far everyone has been getting along well, "It's a great tour and great audiences. A weird mix you know? It's all good and the meet and greets have been lovely. It's nice to meet the fans."

Lindstrom says that the band will be heading into the studio after the tour to work on some new music and possibly to re-work some of the songs off of Vol. II now that he has the lineup he wants.

After that, the band hopes to continue touring. They will be playing the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin in March.

When asked whether he prefers playing in Daniel Lioneye to HIM, LIndstrom said that his tastes change constantly so it's nice to have the different outlets, "I'm loving this right now and definitely want to continue with it."

He said that metal music has always been one of his inspirations and that it is guys like Iggy Pop and Devin Townsend who are his heroes and who he would love to someday tour with, "Watching them is just amazing you know?".

He went on to talk about being on the Sonisphere festival in March when a storm hit and the stage collapsed right before Iggy Pop was about to go on stage, "For him to head to another stage and do a acoustic set, it was really something to see!"

After I shared that Iggy and the Stooges would be playing a upcoming show in Ann Arbor, Lindstrom said maybe he'd get his chance to tour with them after all.

After being asked what people should expect from their upcoming set at Harpos Lindstrom laughed and said, "We'll see won't we? Always interesting! Not sure what is going to happen out there."

In the end, he had nothing to worry about as Daniel Lioneye came out and performed a short but fantastic set that proved that the band has some staying power.