Scorpions, Germany's most successful international music export, are poised to "sting" once again and are planning a frontal attack on the musical artery of rock fans all over the globe with their new album, Humanity - Hour 1. Thirty five years after the release of their debut album, Lonesome Crow, Scorpions believe they have reached a new creative high in their impressive career. They plan to prove it with the release of album #21 on August 28 (New Door Records/UMe).
Smashing Pumpkins singer/guitarist Billy Corgan makes a special appearance on the album as a featured guest on "The Cross."
The band - Klaus Meine (vocals), Rudolf Schenker (rhythm guitars), Matthias Jabs (lead guitars), James Kottak (drums) and Pawel Maciwoda (bass)- enlisted acclaimed songwriter/producer Desmond Child (Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, KISS) and producer James Michael to work behind the boards on the album, which was recorded at several Los Angeles studios. "Desmond is a fabulous visionary who took us to musical levels we had never reached before," declares lead guitarist Jabs.
The fruit of this extremely productive collaboration is an album that melds the classic hard Scorpions sound with modern elements of today?s musical style. Humanity - Hour 1 is a mature concept album, with lyrics that are often provocative and deal with the dark sides of the world we live in. Such is the case with the timely first single, "Humanity," a song filled with the band?s renowned melodies, big guitars and global awareness. A video for the track can be found on the band's official website and on YouTube.com.
"At the same time, though, we are sending our fans a positive musical message, telling them not to let the insanity going on around us every day get them down," explains Meine, who considers Humanity - Hour 1 to be the most powerful album since the global success of Crazy World in 1991. "The new album will feature the great power-rock ballads, of course, but we have been and we remain a rock band, and people who go for hard but melodic songs will love this album."
"As exciting as it is to work on new songs in the studio, when it comes right down to it, we are a die-hard live performance band that really shifts into overdrive when we hit the stage," says Schenker. "Direct contact with our fans is our biggest source of inspiration," continues Meine.
And that's one significant factor explaining why the band's calendar is already quite full for this year. "Humanity World Tour 2007/2008" will take Scorpions through Europe, South America, and Asia. They land in the U.S. starting September 4 in Sault Ste. Marie, MI. Dates through September 30 are being confirmed and will be posted on the band?s official website in the coming days.
Scorpions - who've sold more than 70 million albums worldwide - still fill the biggest stadiums in the world each year, performing in front of hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic fans. In early March, the band returned to Moscow to give a concert in the Kremlin at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin - an honor granted to relatively few Western artists. For decades, their power-packed live shows have been among the few events that broke records for sold out shows in the USA, Canada and many European countries.
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