It was once again time for the music instrument business’ biggest show of the year and the 2012 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA Jan. 19th-23rd did not disappoint!!! This year’s show proved to be the biggest attended show ever and as usual the Krank booth was packed all four days with many artists, vendors, distributors and music store buyers stopping by to see the latest and greatest in gear as well as some outstanding booth performances.

This year’s artists performing at the booth included some old and new faces. Jeff Duncan and Phil Sandoval of Armored Saint once again proved to be a huge attraction at the booth, performing a medley of the Saint’s tunes, and this year also marked the first ever Jeff Duncan solo performance, playing a very cool Gary Moore-ish slow blues piece. Another returning performer was Australia’s Michael Katselos. Michael’s band Segression is one of the cooler metal band in Oz and he’s also an accomplished instrumentalist which was on full display in two different booth performances. Also returning was Trixter’s Steve Brown, rockin’ an unaccompanied jam that displayed his sizable trick bag of guitar licks. New to the booth this year was renowned shredder Toshi Iseda who also performed twice, showing off his technique that has garnered him quite the reputation amongst guitar fans. And last we were happy to introduce one of the brightest young players to come along in quite some time, Jordan Ziff of the Phoenix, AZ based rock act Age of Evil. Ziff possesses a deep maturity for a player of just 20 years old with skills reminiscent of John Sykes and Nuno Bettencourt. Ziff along with bandmate Jeremy Goldberg rocked a medley of Age of Evil’s music that had countless people walking into the booth to ask “Who is that?!?!”. All the performances were played through the new Jr. combos which are now available for preorder!!! Check out all the videos below!

Also as is the norm at every NAMM show a who’s who of the music industry walked the halls and swung thru the booth including Pete from The Adicts, Blasko Nicholson of Ozzy Osbourne’s band, Jeff Loomis of Nevermore, legendary a&r man Tom Zutaut (scouting the aformentioned Jordan Ziff), Michael Wilton of Queensryche, Brian Wheat of Tesla, Jose Mangin of SiriusXM and there was even a walk by by the legendary Steve Wonder! All in all a great time and a killer show! Enjoy the videos and photos below!

NAMM 2012 VIDEOS:

Age Of Evil

Armored Saint

Jeff Duncan – Solo

Michael Katselos of Segression – Performance One

Michael Katselos of Segression – Performance Two

Toshi Iseda

Steve Brown of Trixter

Jose Mangin of Sirius XM talks Krank!

PHOTOS:

Plexiglass sound booth this year!

Krank Tech Patrick Flanagan telling us all what he thinks!

Backside of the booth

Krank’s Jeromy Graves by the Jr. jam station

NAMM attendee rockin’ the jam station

Krank’s Chris Catero getting ready for a bass demo

Krank’s Troy Bolton on the performance stage with a new Schecter 7-string V

Crowds packing into the booth

More crowds and the Krank sign that can be seen from space!!!

Krank’s Troy Boltom with Russian distributor Dmirti Navarenko

Krank’s Chris Catero with Jose Mangin, programming director and jock for Sirius XM’s Octane and Liquid Metal stations

Pete from The Adicts jamming in the sound booth

Segression’s Michael Katselos lighting up the booth!

The next generation of Krank Addicts!!!

Krank’s Chris Catero and Trixter’s Steve Brown

Krank’s performance stage with the new Jr. combos…btw they’re ready for order folks!!!

Krank’s Jeromy Graves and Patrick Flanagan with guitar tech and brother Brian “Shine” Abell

Krank’s Chris Catero with Nick Sterling of Sebastian Bach’s band

KRANK GEAR USED: Rev+, Rev cab, Dirty Valve D-800, Basszilla cab

Black Metal Box was formed in 2007 by Guitarist Kevin Mantooth and is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Front man Sully, Guitarist Andrew Bulock, Von Munzinger on Keys, Bassist Larry Myers and Drummer Jim McKelvey complete Black Metal Box.

In mid 2007, the band recorded the self-titled three song EP, “Black Metal Box”. In October of 2008 the song “Fallen” was entered in “Our Stage .com” in the “METAL” genre for best new music, and out of 415 bands was able to take 1st place. This EP was co-produced and engineered by Larry Elyea of Minds Eye Studios. In 2009 the self titled album “Black Metal Box” was recorded at Minds Eye Studio, done by Larry Elyea. The tracks were handed to Saltmine Studios and were mixed and mastered by John Grey.

The bands influences include; Metallica, Killswitch Engage, Static X, Disturbed, Chevelle, Breaking Benjamin, and many more. The music has a “Dark Crushing Sound” that will keep you entertained throughout the songs. And their live performances will bring immense energy and great crowd interaction.

Black Metal Box is currently performing at live venues throughout the Phoenix Metro area and was opening act at the Rock Solid Pressure Industry Showcase in September 2010.The band also will be presented with the award for “Breakthrough Album of the Year” at the Phoenix Music Awards in Hollywood in November. We are endorsed by Krank Amplification, have 6 national Street Teams and one in the U.K. Additionally, Black Metal Box has received frequent radio play on KWSS 106.7 FM and has been played on KUPD 97.9 FM. We were 5th most requested on Pure Rock Radio in 2009, and placed first in the one shot competition for Rock Solid Pressure. We won the Playdio Homeless for the Holidays in 2008 And opened for Trapt at the Tempe Market Place. Our MySpace page sports over 5,056,061 plays. Our music is available on Amazon, itunes and other Internet music retailers.

Black Metal Box has a mission to succeed and bring people together to create an enormous ball of energy. Promoting shows, selling merchandise and pounding the pavement is just some of the footwork that is done. This band has drive, motivation, and determination and will steamroll anything in its path.

To check out more on Black Metal Box go to:
http://www.myspace.com/blackmetalbox
http://www.twitter.com/Black_Metal_Box
http://www.facebook.com/blackmetalbox
http://www.reverbnation.com/blackmetalbox

MUSIC:
“Freight Train” – Black Metal Box
“Separate” – Black Metal Box

VIDEO:

Krank’s first entry into the bass cab market, the Basszilla, is an 8×10 sized cab but with 2×12 in the top chamber, 4×10 in the bottom, with each chamber capable of being run full range or individually! The Basszilla has an extremely punchy yet crystal clear tone by combining an air moving 4×10 lower chamber with a crisp and cutting 2×12 top chamber, adding brilliant clarity to your bass tone in even the most dense rock mix. Constructed of a 13-play Baltic birch shell with a maple baffle board for increased high end response, the Basszilla cab features four premium Eminence BP 102 10” and two 12 LFA 12” speakers giving the cab a 4 ohm load capable of handling over 1600W!

Basszilla in Album Mix: “What I Say” – Razer

Krank’s long-awaited line of bass amps, Dirty Valve series, finally arrives with their first entry into the bass market, the monsterous D-800. A hybrid head featuring an all tube preamp coupled with an 800W Class D power section, the Dirty Valve D-800 takes our high gain approach in making amplifiers into the realm of bass and creates a powerful yet diverse rock bass amp. Loud and toneful, players can achieve warm clean sounds to fat, overdriven tones and everything in between! Features include a master volume, gain, 3-band eq, Krank’s unique “Sweep” parametric eq function that allows players to dial in and fine tune punch frequencies, a Fat Growl that adds in a deep, wide fuzziness to the tone, Girth for extra low end, a Midpunch that revoices the amp into a classic, “dirty” rock tone, and a Brite function for added upper end. Other features include fx loop, lineout with level control that’s tapped directly from the preamp to send out “your tone” to the front of house or recording gear, dual speaker jacks, ground lift and worldwide voltage selector.

Dirty Valve In Full Mix: “What I Say” – Razer

Krank’s long-awaited line of bass amps, Dirty Valve series, finally arrives with it’s first entry, the monsterous D-800! A hybrid head featuring an all tube preamp coupled with an 800W Class D power section, the Dirty Valve D-800 takes our high gain approach in making amplifiers into the realm of bass and creates a powerful yet diverse rock bass amp. Loud and toneful, players can achieve warm clean sounds to fat, fuzzed out tones and everything in between! Features include a master volume, gain, 3-band eq, Krank’s unique “Sweep” parametric eq function to dial in frequencies, a Fat Growl that adds in a deep, wide fuzz to the tone, Girth for extra low end, a Midpunch that revoices the amp into a classic, “dirty” rock tone, and a Brite function for added upper end. Other features include fx loop, lineout with level control, tapped directly from the preamp to send out “your tone” to the front of house or recording gear, and worldwide voltage selector. The D-800 is a rock bass player’s dream being very loud and clear while having the ability to achieve many of today’s coolest rock tones in one amp!

The D-800 is a perfect match to the Basszilla cab, Krank’s first entry into that market as well. The Basszilla is an 8×10 sized cab but with a 2×12 top chamber and a 4×10 bottom chamber with each one able to be run individually, making it possible to just use one chamber or even run separate heads to each chamber! The cab is 13-ply baltic birch shell construction with a maple baffleboard, providing a thick, deep wood tone from with top end brightness. The cab is loaded with Eminence speakers and is wired at 4 ohms, and also features that patented Krank look with a removable metal grill! Very punchy and articulate, the Basszilla has a clearer response in a dense rock mix with the 2x12s providing a nice piano-like tone while the 4×10 pushes the low end. Guitar and bass frequencies clash far less while each being able to be as loud as players like to be!

The Dirty Valve D-800 debuts at the 2010 Winter NAMM Show in mid January and will hit the market sometime in February, street price only $1299! And the Basszilla cab is available now, street price $1199!

KRANK GEAR USED: Dirty Valve Head, Basszilla Cab

Chris Catero became a bassist years before he actually touched the instrument, being “ruined” as a child after seeing Gene Simmons of Kiss, pretending to be the God Of Thunder and playing a mean tennis racket! Music is in his blood with his mom being an award winning soprano and his dad a pro rock drummer in the 60’s and had many different styles of music playing around the house while growing up. Early on he fell in love with heavy metal music and was heavily drawn to the basslines of Steve Harris of Iron Maiden and Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath. It wasn’t until age 14 that he got his first instrument, a Sears guitar as a Christmas present, that he sold within a couple months to buy a Ibanez Destroyer bass and started his love of the low down.

Having played in various cover bands while putting himself thru college at New Mexico State University, he formed his first original band called Wardog with Tom Gattis, the ex-Deuce and Tension guitarist. Wardog’s self-titled EP got them noticed and the band went on to sign a worldwide deal with Metal Blade Records that produced two records, “Scorched Earth” and “A Sound Beating”, earning critical acclaim and mainstage appearances at both the prestigious Wacken Open Air and Bang Your Head festivals (including having Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson sit in to sing “Flight Of Icarus”!). It was also early on during this period Chris met guitar god Marty Friedman of Megadeth fame, who had played with Gattis in Deuce in their youth. Friedman had recently moved to Phoenix, AZ and the band followed suit upon all the members graduating college. Wardog broke up after supporting the “A Sound Beating” record but Marty and Chris remained good friends with Catero tracking or helping Marty track numerous projects at Friedman’s home studio.

After the demise of Wardog Chris along with bandmates Paul Sullivan and Eric Bongiorno formed Razer and recruited longtime friend Jeromy Graves as second guitar. Catero was the original defacto singer of the band but wanted a singer to match the music they were creating and finally found ex-Shift singer Chris Powers. Powers is the voice on Guitar Hero III’s “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” and his powerhouse vocals completed the band. Also around the same time Friedman asked Chris to join the touring line up for his solo band and has served as his touring bassist since. You can hear and see his bass playing on Friedman’s “Exhibit A: Live In Europe” cd and “Exhibit B: Live In Japan” dvd. The newest Razer cd, “Dark Devotion” hit stores the end of November 2009 with the first two singles “Superpaun” and “What I Say” being in full rotation daily on Sirius XM Octane as well as “Cold War” off the album now spinning in spike rotation.

Catero is also a member of the Krank Amplification team, directing artist relations and domestic sales as well as overseeing marketing and product development. He was integral in the design of Krank’s first bass head, the Dirty Valve D-800, created the Rev Jr. cab 1×12 cabinet (originally as a recording tool for his home studio), and designed the Basszilla bass cab after having the idea to combine his touring setup of a 4×12 and an 8×10 into one cab… Chris is also the spokesman for the company, appearing in most of the company’s official videos and interviews.

Check on out more on Chris at:

razerband.com
myspace.com/razer
reverbnation.com/razer
martyfriedman.com

MUSIC:
“What I Say” – Razer
“Dark Devotion” – Razer
“Fuel Injection Stingray (Live)” – Marty Friedman
“Distortions” – Steve Conley of F5, recorded bass

VIDEOS:
“Superpaun” – Razer
Superpaun

“Salt In the Wound” – Marty Friedman

Epiphone Thunderbird Pro V Bass – Chris Catero from Epiphone Company on Vimeo.