In a new interview with This Day In Metal, DREAM THEATER singer James LaBrie discussed the band's decision to reunite with Mike Portnoy in October 2023, 13 years after the drummer first left the progressive metal titans. Asked if it's fair to say that his face-to-face meeting with Portnoy in March 2022 "was maybe one of the last dominoes to fall before the classic DREAM THEATER lineup reunited", James said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, for sure. When Mike and I met — you're referring to our initial meeting at the Beacon Theatre [in New York City] when we were playing there and he came out to the show. But, yeah, that was somewhat the catalyst that really kind of busted the door wide open with the possibility that we could all start really thinking about. Is this something that we should be seriously considering, a reunion? And things inevitably did lead to that, but I think there were some precursors, like Mike had already done [DREAM THEATER guitarist] John Petrucci's solo album, then he did his solo tour, then he also worked with John and Jordan [Rudess, DREAM THEATER keyboardist] on the latest LIQUID TENSION [EXPERIMENT] album. So all these things were kind of just slowly but surely ensuring that he was walking through the door of being back in the fold."

James continued: "[Mike] coming back in, though, when it actually did happen, it was very natural. There was no — I don't know — feelings of whether or not, 'Hey, is this really gonna work? Is this gonna be what we remember the band as?' And if there were any apprehensive feelings, that just definitely was never a part of it. To be quite honest with you, I joke around, in some of the interviews I've said it felt like Mike went out for a coffee and he came back and we just started writing. But it was very smooth, seamless. And we were joking a few times, saying stuff like, 'Oh my God…' Because once you actually get into that environment and you start writing the album, you start remembering the chemistry that was almost palpable. And it was within the first day or two days of starting to write [the upcoming DREAM THEATER album] 'Parasomnia', we were joking around, we were laughing, it was, like, 'Oh my god. I remember that, that whole interaction, that whole analytical approach to the songs and how they slowly but surely evolve into a complete composition.' So it was all this familiarity going on, going, 'Oh my god. That's exactly the way it used to be. This is where we are today, but it doesn't seem that we've missed a step.' So it was extremely effortless, so to speak. It was just doing what we know how to do when the five of us get into the studio."

The progressive metal legends played their first concert with Portnoy in 14 years on October 20 at the O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom.

The drummer co-founded DREAM THEATER in 1985 with Petrucci and Myung. Mike played on 10 DREAM THEATER albums over a 20-year period, from 1989's "When Dream And Day Unite" through 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", before exiting the group in 2010. Portnoy returned to DREAM THEATER in October 2023 after being replaced by Mike Mangini, who played with DREAM THEATER across five studio albums and accompanying world tours.

London marked the kick-off concert of DREAM THEATER's 2024-2025 40th-anniversary tour. The European leg of the trek — presented as "An Evening With Dream Theater" — ran through November 24 in Amsterdam, hitting cities in numerous countries along the way.

Portnoy told "Coffee With Ola" about how it feels to be back in DREAM THEATER after a 13-year absence: "It feels great. I mean, it's funny because for the whole world, they're just starting to see the reunion now, but we've been together for a year behind the scenes. So it's been over a year for us behind the scenes and making the new record, but it's only now in the past couple weeks since the [40th-anniversary European] tour began and since the first music video [from the upcoming DREAM THEATER album] came out that people are actually seeing us back together again. But for us, it's, like, it's old news… It is exciting, though. And you could feel the excitement and the love and the emotions at every show. And every night James welcomes me back on from stage. And it's been overwhelming, the amount of love and everybody being so welcoming back and everything."

DREAM THEATER's sixteenth studio album, "Parasomnia", is due on February 7, 2025 via InsideOut Music. The LP marks the band's first release with Portnoy since 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings".

Regarding what it felt like to be writing and recording with DREAM THEATER again, Portnoy said: "To be back with these guys, it feels really special. It feels like family, really, honestly. John and me and DREAM THEATER bassist] John Myung have been playing together almost 40 years at this point. We formed the band when we were teenagers and met at college, the first month of college. So, for us, it's deeper than just being in a band together. We've been through life together. We met our wives together, our wives played in a band together, we ad our families at the same time, we've been to the funerals of each other's parents and siblings and things like that. So, we've been through all these life experiences together. It goes beyond just the music for us. All that being said, it also, at least to me, felt like no time had passed. It did not feel like 13 years. Once we started writing together, it felt so natural and so fresh. 'Night Terror' was the first thing we worked on, and it just came out so naturally. There wasn't much thought needed to go into it. It was, like, 'Okay, here we are where we just left off.'"

"Parasomnia" was produced by John Petrucci, engineered by James "Jimmy T" Meslin, and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returns once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art.

For the past 40 years, the Bay Area thrash pioneers, Heathen, have abided by their never-say-die attitude. The Heathen brand of intelligent yet aggressive thrash appealed not only to the genre’s core demographic but also to metal fans looking for brains behind the brawn. On March 14, the band will release their newest offering Bleed The World: Live via Nuclear Blast Records.

Bleed The World: Live features songs from each of the band’s albums, including recent tracks such as “Sun In My Hand” and “The Blight” as well as classics such as “Hypnotized” and “Goblin’s Blade”, mirroring the band’s crushing live setlist. Today, Heathen offers fans the first single with a live music video for the track “Sun In My Hand”.

Heathen comments, “We’re beyond stoked to announce the Bleed The World: Live album! We recorded both the band AND the audience at every show on our ‘Bleed The World’ tour to capture a true live experience in audio form. The most powerful performances of each song were mixed for the album and the results are incredible. Can’t wait to share this with everyone to enjoy while we get ready to head into the studio for another dose of Bay Area thrash!”

Stream “Sun In My Hand” here, and watch the video below.

Recorded in several cities across the United States during the 2023 ‘Bleed the World’ tour, Bleed the World: Live is the perfect audio representation of the Heathen live show. Produced by guitarist Kragen Lum and mixed by Zeuss, Bleed the World: Live transports the listener into the concert hall with a crystal-clear yet heavy production and captures the interaction between the band and the audience that makes every Heathen live show special.The cover artwork by Travis Smith depicts a steel Heathen logo piercing the bleeding Earth, held by a hand that encapsulates the world tour as a moment in time.

Pre-order / pre-save Bleed The World: Live here.



Bleed The Earth: Live tracklisting:

“This Rotting Sphere” (Live)
“The Blight” (Live)
“Empire Of The Blind” (Live)
“Dying Season” (Live)
“Set Me Free” (Live)
“Sun In My Hand” (Live)
“The Heathen Horde” (Live)
“Goblin’s Blade” (Live)
“Hypnotized” (Live)

“Sun In My Hand” (Live Video):

Emerging melodic death metal force Til The End has unleashed their latest music video for “Cemetery Trees”, the third single from their upcoming EP, Dark Kings, due out March 7.



Formed in 2023, Til The End brings together an impressive lineup of seasoned musicians: vocalist Antony Hämäläinen (Nightrage, Armageddon), guitar virtuoso Kostas Sotos (Mystic Prophecy, Crystal Tears), drummer Márton Veress (Orgy, Armageddon), and bassist/rhythm guitarist Nic Svensson (Slaves For Scores).

Recorded at Swede Studios by Svensson, Dark Kings captures the essence of Scandinavian melodeath with a modern edge. “Cemetery Trees” showcases the hallmarks of the genre, including galloping percussion, melodic riffs and an anthemic chorus. Earlier singles, “Dark Kings” and “Higher And Beyond,” highlight Sotos’ penchant for killer riffs and Hämäläinen’s energetic vocals.



Tracklisting:

“Higher And Beyond”
“Dark Kings”
“Cemetery Trees”
“Sip Of Sadness”
“Ur Ningirsu”
“The Sumerian”

In an interview with Metal Magnitude at last month's Metal Hall Of Fame in Anaheim, California, former FEAR FACTORY frontman Burton C. Bell spoke about his plans for the coming months. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I've released three singles in the past year and a half. I'm doing one song at a time with videos, just pushing it that way. And I've got some new music. I'm mastering a new song right now and working on vocals, recording vocals for another song right now. I have some plans, but I've got some new music on the horizon very soon."

Asked if he has assembled a band for studio work and for touring purposes, Burton said: "I have a band put together — a great bunch of guys, all local to [Los Angeles]. They're in — I wouldn't say well-known bands, but they are in very well respected bands in L.A. And I love these guys. I curated these guys for the past two years.

"So I've got some new music, working on currently," he added. "And that's how it's working. I'm very happy. It's just moving forward."

In a separate interview with Reality Check TV conducted on January 24 at this year's NAMM convention in Anaheim, Bell stated about his future plans: "I've got new music coming on the horizon under my own name, Burton C. Bell. I've got a great band behind me. I've got a new master today that I approved of. So I've just been releasing singles instead of an album — so I'm just releasing singles. And the next song is a banger, dude. It's a banger. People are gonna be stoked."

Asked about possible live shows in support of his new music, Burton said: "I'm working on some tours. I do have a tour I'll be announcing in February — not in the States, unfortunately. But I'm gonna announce a tour in February."

Regarding why there hasn't been a U.S. tour announced yet, Burton said: "I've gotta do it right. It has to be the right package to present myself properly the way I wanna be presented. 'Cause now that I am in control, I'm gonna do it the way it should be done."

Video of Bell's December 13, 2024 concert at The Regent in Los Angeles, California as the support act for GOD FORBID can be seen below.

Bell played the first concert with his solo band on June 13, 2024 at 1720 in Los Angeles, California.

Backing Bell at the 1720 gig were guitarist Henrik Linde (THE VITALS, DREN),drummer Ryan "Junior" Kittlitz (ALL HAIL THE YETI, THE ACID HELPS),bassist Tony Baumeister (ÆGES) and multi-instrumentalist Stewart Cararas.

When the 1720 concert was first announced, Burton called the gig a "historic event" and vowed to perform "new songs and classics spanning my career."

In August 2024, Bell released a new solo single, "Technical Exorcism", along with the official Don Pancho Films-directed music video for the track.

In March 2024, Bell, who released his debut solo single that same month, "Anti-Droid", was asked by Knotfest's "Nu Pod" podcast if he has an entire album's worth of material ready to come out. He responded: "No. I'm working on individual singles at a time. I do have a record's worth of music. But I'm adopting the hip-hop strategy where instead of coming up, releasing a single and then the whole album comes out a couple of weeks later, and then a couple of weeks later, when that album is out, the momentum of the single and the whole record just kind of slows and becomes sluggish and just almost crashes. So I learned watching hip-hop artists and other artists as well, [where] they would just release a single at a time, keep that momentum, keep that spotlight on them and just release a single every few weeks and just keep that momentum going."

He continued: "In this day and age, the short attention span of the masses is very apparent. There's this old saying in economics, less is more — supply and demand, less is more. So if you just feed 'em just a little bit at a time, they wanna hear more. And that's where the interest stays. They're compelled to keep listening. 'Oh, he's got something else coming out. Oh, he's got something else coming out.'"

Bell went on to tease his next single, which he described as "heavy", "groovy" and "dark. It's more uptempo. It's got more guitar in it," he revealed. "And it's gonna be awesome. I've got a couple of guest artists on this next track that it's gonna be sick. I recruited Paul Ferguson again, and I've also recruited Norman Westberg, guitar player from SWANS. SWANS is one of my favorite bands of all time and it's a band that influenced not just me but NEUROSIS — a lot of bands — GODFLESH."

"My new music is an amalgamation of everything I've ever done, and I'm gonna basically put it all together into this package and just see what happens," he explained. "And the live show, it's gonna be heavy, it's gonna be groovy. And I wanna create a vibe. I really do."

When "Anti-Droid" was first released in March 2024, Bell said in a statement: "I'm starting my solo career. I'm working with different producers and co-songwriters, making music that I love, with full control of the music and creative direction."

Bell's discography includes multiple live and recorded collaborations with BLACK SABBATH icon Geezer Butler and JOURNEY's Deen Castronovo (as G/Z/R); industrial maverick Al Jourgensen and MINISTRY; and guest vocal appearances with PITCHSHIFTER, CONFLICT, SOIL, STATIC-X, SOULFLY and DELAIN, among others. He's the vocalist of ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS and CITY OF FIRE and, of course, the co-creator of FEAR FACTORY and the only musician to appear on every FEAR FACTORY release from 1992 through 2024.

FEAR FACTORY created a sound that revolutionized extreme metal, defined in no small part by Bell's innovative scream/sing dichotomy and the influences he brought from post-punk and industrial. Songs like "Replica", "Linchpin", "Edgecrusher", "Fear Campaign", "Archetype", "Cyber Waste" and "Zero Signal" are modern metal anthems. "Demanufacture" (1995) and the RIAA gold-certified "Obsolete" (1998) are genre-redefining works heralded by fans and critics as essential albums. Orwell, Bradbury, "Blade Runner", and sophisticated sci-fi and fantasy works fed Bell's lyrics and concepts.

The band toured the world with METALLICA, SLIPKNOT, KORN, MEGADETH and OZZY OSBOURNE, taking bands like SYSTEM OF A DOWN and STATIC-X out as support acts in their early stages. After years of behind-the-scenes band member turmoil and legal issues, Bell left FEAR FACTORY in the fall of 2020.

Bell said "Anti-Droid" is "a statement about breaking free. Breaking the bonds of what I felt was a prison in many ways. Not just financially or contractually but creatively, as well. I felt constrained to this format we'd written ourselves into. The 'factory' doesn't have a capital F. It's the factory of the music industry, a certain form of business, and priorities. Being a slave to an established way of thinking is not really freedom. I am moving forward."

The 55-year-old Bell had been largely inactive on the musical front since officially announcing his departure from FEAR FACTORY in September 2020. At the time he said that he could not "align" himself with someone whom he did not trust or respect, an apparent reference to FEAR FACTORY founding guitarist Dino Cazares.

During an appearance on a May 2023 episode of the "Home Is Where The Dark Is" podcast, Bell reflected on his musical journey so far, saying: "I've had a lot of incredible ups in my career, a lot of incredible high points. I've had some devastatingly low points. But for me, this is all I wanna do.

"I consider myself an artist — multifaceted, but first and foremost I'm a musician; I'm a singer. So I wanna keep continuing that," he explained.

"I love performing on stage. I love being out in front of the crowd. I love the energy of the audience, and I miss it completely."

"I am making plans — I'm making steps to get back onstage."

In March 2023, Bell was asked by Joshua Toomey of the "Talk Toomey" podcast how it felt to see FEAR FACTORY going out on tour with someone else singing the parts he originally wrote and recorded with the band. He responded: "It doesn't affect me at all. To be honest, I haven't been this happy in a long time. More power to them, but I'm just moving forward in my own life, my own career, and I'm just trying to make a name for myself."

Asked if he has checked out any of the videos on YouTube of FEAR FACTORY performing with his replacement, the Italian-born singer Milo Silvestro, Bell said: "No, I don't. I don't care to."

Burton went on to say that he doesn't mind being asked about FEAR FACTORY despite the fact that he is no longer in the band. "FEAR FACTORY, it's what I'm known for," he explained. "And the 30 years I had with FEAR FACTORY were some of the proudest moments of my career. And everything I've ever done in FEAR FACTORY I'm very proud of. Even some of the questionable things I've done in FEAR FACTORY I'm still proud of. It was a great legacy."

During an April 2022 appearance on an episode of "The Ex-Man" podcast hosted by Doc Coyle (BAD WOLVES),Bell touched upon FEAR FACTORY's latest album, "Aggression Continuum", which was released in June 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP, which was recorded primarily in 2017, features Bell and fellow original FF member Dino Cazares (guitar) alongside drummer Mike Heller.

"I was just happy that record finally came out," Burton said. "We finished that record in 2017. By the time it came out, I'd forgotten all about it. 'Oh, yeah, I remember that song. Oh yeah.'

"There's some good songs on that record. The song 'Collapse' is a good song. The title track 'Monolith' is a good song," he added, referencing the LP's original working title, before it was changed by Cazares.

When Coyle noted that the mix on "Aggression Continuum" is "great," Bell hesitated for a couple of seconds before reluctantly agreeing. "I guess," he said. "When I finished the record [in 2017], the record was done and agreed upon and then further work was done without my say."

Elsewhere in the chat, Burton admitted that "it was difficult" for him to leave FEAR FACTORY. "Stepping away from FEAR FACTORY was not an easy decision by [any] means," he said. "But what I experienced for the 10 years before that, the lawsuits, the acrimony, that was the one that killed me. And I just had to step away to realize, you know, they can take all this stuff from me — they can take the money, they can take the royalties, they can take the trademark away from me — and I realized that didn't define me. They can take that, but I'm still Burton C. Bell, motherfucker, and whatever I have they can't take. So I'm just kind of moving forward and doing new things."

According to Bell, hardship is par for the course for most musicians, who often find themselves victims of bad contracts, unscrupulous management and, all too often, what appears to be a penchant for self-destruction.

"I knew a long time ago I wanted to be an artist — way before I was in FEAR FACTORY," he said. "When I was in high school, I was, like, 'I wanna be an artist.' To be an artist, you've gotta suffer. You've gotta understand that people wanna take from you the entire time — what you create they wanna make money off of and take it away from you and just give you a pittance. But being bitter is not my style — never has been.

"Whatever negativity has happened in the past with FEAR FACTORY doesn't even hold up to the amount of positivity that has happened," he continued. "If you think about the negative, it can weigh you down so much, but it's not really that much in comparison to what the band achieved, what we created, what we provided to the music world, and for that I'm proud and very happy.

"No one likes to talk to a bitter person at all," Burton added. "Me for one. It's, like, 'Man, just get over it and just move on.' 'Cause holding on to the past doesn't serve me anything, it doesn't serve anybody else anything. Move on and show 'em what you can do from that point forward."

Bell's exit from FEAR FACTORY came more than two weeks after Cazares launched a GoFundMe campaign to assist him with the production costs associated with the release of FEAR FACTORY's latest LP.

Bell later told Kerrang! magazine that his split with FEAR FACTORY was a long time coming. "It's been on my mind for a while," he said. "These lawsuits [over the rights to the FEAR FACTORY name] just drained me. The egos. The greed. Not just from bandmembers, but from the attorneys involved. I just lost my love for it.

"With FEAR FACTORY, it's just constantly been, like, 'What?!' You can only take so much. I felt like 30 years was a good run. Those albums I've done with FEAR FACTORY will always be out there. I'll always be part of that. I just felt like it was time to move forward."

In 2023, Bell unveiled "Paradise Found", his debut exhibition of photographic works, at the Vincent Castiglia Gallery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The photographs Bell presented were representational of his industrial and science-fiction aesthetic.

"Paradise Found" consisted of 20 original full-color photographs of abandoned industrial buildings taken in darkness and fog from 2002 to 2003. Bell's images are printed on aluminum using the dye sublimation process — an approach Bell calls "celluloid impressionism."

Bell's ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS project released its second full-length album, "Apocrypha", in October 2020 via Dissonance Productions.

Former GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Gilby Clarke made his live debut with Alice Cooper Friday night (January 31) at Bell Auditorium in Augusta, Georgia. Clarke is filling in for Nita Strauss, who unfortunately has conflicting obligations of her own. Previously, guitarist Orianthi had been planning to fill in for Strauss, but due to unforeseen circumstances, Orianthi is unable to do the tour.

Fan-filmed video of the Augusta concert can be seen below.

Remaining Alice Cooper tour dates featuring Gilby Clarke on guitar:

Feb. 01 - Cherokee, NC - Harrah's Casino Resort Event Center
Feb. 02 - Greensboro, NC - Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts
Feb. 04 - Mobile, AL - Saenger Theatre
Feb. 06 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock
Feb. 07 - Ft Myers, FL - Barbara Mann Performing Arts Hall
Feb. 08 - Clearwater, FL - Coachmen Park
Feb. 11 - St. Augustine, FL - Amphitheatre
Feb. 13-17 - Miami, FL - Rock Legends Cruise

Alice will be announcing further 2025 tour dates, with Strauss back in the fold, including the already revealed shows on at the Sonic Temple festival in Columbus, Ohio on May 9, the Boardwalk Rock Festival in Ocean City, Maryland on May 18, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at Lincoln Financial Field on August 15 with MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE.

The now-62-year-old Clarke replaced Izzy Stradlin in the GUNS lineup in 1991, during the "Use Your Illusion" tour, and stayed with the band for three years. After exiting GUNS N' ROSES, Clarke continued as a producer and solo artist, while also playing in SLASH'S SNAKEPIT, ROCK STAR SUPERNOVA, HEART and other acts.

Clarke, along with fellow GUNS N' ROSES members Slash, Duff McKagan, Steven Adler and Matt Sorum, played three "Appetite For Destruction" songs with Myles Kennedy at the band's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in April 2012 in Cleveland, Ohio, although Gilby himself was not inducted as part of the group. Kennedy, who handles lead vocals in Slash's solo band and ALTER BRIDGE, sang "Mr. Brownstone", "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "Paradise City", with "Use Your Illusion"-era member Sorum sitting behind the drum kit on "Brownstone" and the man he replaced in GN'R, Adler, pounding the skins for the other two songs.

In 2021, Clarke addressed his non-participation in GUNS N' ROSES' reunion tour, which features three-fifths of the group's classic lineup — singer Axl Rose, Slash and McKagan — during an interview with "The SDR Show". He said: "They didn't ask me to join the band; they asked me to come out and do [a guest appearance] with the band. And it just happened to be the day that I was in Chicago with my daughter. Her band was playing Lollapalooza [in July 2016]. And I'm actually her roadie. I don't think anybody would know how to tune the guitar if I wasn't there. Just kidding. But, yeah, it was just bad timing. I just said, 'Look, I think it's a great idea. I'm up for it. I just can't do it today.' And they literally asked me that day. And I never heard back from them after I said that."

Gilby also confirmed that he only had a week to learn the entire GUNS catalog when he first joined the band three decades ago. "That's true," he said. "They told me on a Monday, that 'You have the gig,' and the next week we were flying to Boston for our first show. And I literally had a week. And remember, this is before YouTube. I was glued to their records with the headphones on, trying to learn the catalog. And the last song I learned was a song called 'Estranged', which was a really long ballad piece. And if you listen to it, it's kind of one-dimensional guitar-wise — it really just features Slash. So I was listening to it, and I really couldn't figure out what I should do in that song. So I went to Dizzy [Reed, GUNS keyboardist]. I go, 'Hey, man, can you sit down with me, and let's work on 'Estranged'.' I go, 'I just wanna kind of figure it out.' And he goes, 'Oh, well, here's the music book.' And he handed me the music book. And I went, 'There's a music book? I just spent a week learning every note by ear when I could have just grabbed the freakin' music book…' I mean, I read charts — it would have taken me an hour. I was a little pissed off that I didn't ask. They could have offered it to me."

Clarke's latest solo album, "The Gospel Truth", was released in April 2021 via Golden Robot Records.

Gilby released his solo debut, "Pawnshop Guitars", in 1994.

In November 2023, Clarke underwent surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome, a repetitive stress condition that happens when a person does repeated movements with the hand and wrist.

The metal band Eternal Tears Of Sorrow, founded in Pudasjärvi, Northern Finland, in 1994, has officially announced its disbandment, according to the group’s founders, guitarist Jarmo Puolakanaho and bassist-vocalist Altti Veteläinen. The band has been on hiatus since 2023. The decision to disband was a mutual one, with no drama or disagreements involved.

As one of the pioneers of Finnish melodic death metal, the band released a total of seven albums between 1997 and 2013: Sinner’s Serenade (1997), Vilda Mánnu (1998), Chaotic Beauty (2000), A Virgin And A Whore (2001), Before The Bleeding Sun (2006), Children Of The Dark Waters (2009), and Saivon Lapsi (2013).

Over their career, Eternal Tears Of Sorrow performed in 13 different countries. The band has a dedicated fanbase worldwide, and their social media pages have been filled with nostalgic messages and heartfelt farewells from fans.

There will be no official farewell show or compilation release. Additionally, there are no unreleased songs waiting for a future release.

“Thirty years may feel like an eternity, but in hindsight, it was just a fleeting moment. We have countless unforgettable memories that we wouldn’t trade for anything. And while this band is coming to an end, the music will live on, as bands featuring members of EToS will continue releasing albums of both melodic death metal and gothic metal this year and next. We want to thank everyone who has played in the band, those who have supported us in any way, and, of course, our loyal fans for these incredible years,” says Jarmo Puolakanaho.

Eternal Tears Of Sorrow will also be featured in the Metallikausi exhibition at the North Ostrobothnia Museum in Oulu in 2026. The exhibition will highlight key Northern Finnish metal bands and the region’s metal scene from the 1970s to the 1990s.

A one-off world-exclusive performance of CANDLEMASS featuring the band's former vocalist Messiah Marcolin will take place at this year's edition of the Rock Hard Festival Greece, slated for September 12-13, 2025 in Athens, Greece.

Back in October 2022, Messiah and longtime CANDLEMASS guitarist Mats "Mappe" Björkman joined Canadian metallers ANVIL on stage at the Slaktkyrkan venue in Stockholm, Sweden to perform the classic ANVIL song "Metal On Metal". The event marked the first time in 16 years that the two musicians performed together.

Marcolin exited CANDLEMASS for the presumably final time in 2006, one year after the release of the band's self-titled album. He was later replaced by Robert Lowe (SOLITUDE AETURNUS),who sang on the band's "King Of The Grey Islands" (2007),"Death Magic Doom" (2009) and "Psalms For The Dead" (2012) LPs. CANDLEMASS's frontman between 2012 and 2018 was Mats Levén, who previously recorded and toured with YNGWIE MALMSTEEN and THERION. Seven years ago, CANDLEMASS fired Levén and rehired Johan Längqvist. Längqvist sang on CANDLEMASS's debut album, 1986's "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus", before exiting the group and being replaced by Marcolin.

Several years ago, Messiah told Metal Rules that he was "very honored" by new bands who cite CANDLEMASS as an influence on their music. "If anyone wants to be inspirited by CANDLEMASS, it is the most respectable thing what a band ever can get," he said. "I love WITCHFINDER GENERAL which are very BLACK SABBATH influenced and PENTAGRAM, which is fucking great. The first PENTAGRAM album is great, and, of course, TROUBLE is influenced by BLACK SABBATH, and CANDLEMASS is also influenced by BLACK SABBATH — the whole fucking world is influenced by BLACK SABBATH. But, I mean, CANDLEMASS made its own style — we don't sound exactly the same, but the heaviness is the same, but the music is different. We created our own style, doom metal stuff and all the other bands which have taken it after, it is a great honor."

ROCK HARD FESTIVAL GREECE

CANDLEMASS will perform with Messiah Marcolin as the frontman for an exclusive performance at...

Posted by Candlemass on Saturday, February 1, 2025

In a new interview with Reality Check TV conducted on January 24 at this year's NAMM convention in Anaheim, California, vocalist Michael Starr of California glam metal jokesters STEEL PANTHER spoke about the band's plans for the coming months. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're working on a new record right now. It should be out sometime next year. No nailed date, 'cause you can't really put a timeline on creativity, and if you do, it sounds like it. So, we'll wait until the songs are done and we'll put it out. But we're shooting hopefully for next year."

Last month, STEEL PANTHER drummer Stix Zadinia told the "Iron City Rocks" podcast about the band's upcoming seventh studio album:  "We're always writing. I mean, it's never a, 'Okay guys. Let's go write a record, let's go record a record, let's put it out.' It's a constant process. [STEEL PANTHER guitarist] Satchel does most of our writing, but we're always sending ideas back and forth — lyric ideas, song ideas. And if Michael comes up with a riff or I come up with a riff, we throw it in the pot and see what happens. So it's an evergreen process for us. And then when we feel like we have enough cool ideas, Satchel will demo some stuff up and then he'll send it over to me. I'll add my flavor. And then we send it to Michael and he adds his flavor. And then [STEEL PANTHER bassist] Spyder. And then we get to a point where the demos are really comprehensive. And then we go in, we track it, put a title on it and put it out. So I would say there are ideas floating around and we definitely would like to do another record at some point."

Asked if he thinks STEEL PANTHER would have had the  same staying power without songs that contain what some critics say are racist, misogynistic and lewd lyrics, Stix said: "No, there's no way. I think that had we come out with lyrics that were, like, typical of a band in 1983 or in 1987, I don't think it would have flown, because what we sing about, I think people latch on to the lyrics and I think lyrics matter.

"We're in a really weird time, and I think when we put our first record out, the really weird time — and I use air quotes with that — was starting around then," he explained. "But we had been grandfathered in because of what we had established since the '90s. And the '90s were not the really weird time as far as the political correctness. So we became this place for people to be able to come, have so much fun and not worry about offending people. And we just wrote songs that we wanted to write, and nothing was ever really intentional and it was all super from the heart. Now, I think an interesting question would be if we came out in 1985, how would we be viewed with the lyrics that we have? But I think it could have been insane 'cause I think our songs are just as good [as], if not better than, most of the bands back then. And I know that might sound blasphemous, but if you don't think that about your own band, then what are you doing in that band?"

Zadinia added: "I'm proud of that — I'm proud of not playing by the rules. And I'm proud of doing just what comes from the heart for us 'cause, ultimately, we get to keep playing these songs for people who wanna come see it, who listen to it, who may use it as a tool for that escapism. And I'm proud of that. I think it's more satisfying than if we were being told what to do, what can go on a record. We are our true own bosses, and it's awesome."

Earlier in December, STEEL PANTHER announced two more legs of its "Feel The Steel 15th Anniversary Tour". The first leg is scheduled for March throughout the United States and the second leg heads to Europe next summer. The U.S. leg of the tour kicks off on March 5 in Lincoln, Nebraska and wraps up on March 28 in Dubuque, Iowa. The tour will make stops in Boise, Idaho; San Francisco, California; Tempe, Arizona and Kansas City, Missouri, to name a few. The European headline leg kicks off on June 18 in Dublin, Ireland before concluding three weeks later on July 6 in Geiselwind, Germany. The band has already been announced as part of the following European festivals in 2025: Download (United Kingdon),Lisää Löylyä (Finland),Tons Of Rock (Norway) and Rockmaraton (Hungary).

Formed in 2000, STEEL PANTHER specializes in imitating and exaggerating the less flattering aspects of 1980s hair metal, with unrepentantly crude, non-PC sexual content as a favorite lyrical theme.

The group's music has been described as "VAN HALEN meets MÖTLEY CRÜE meets RATT meets 'Wayne's World', complete with operatic shrieks, misogyny, shredding guitar solos and libidinal overdrive."

Seventeen years ago, STEEL PANTHER changed its name from METAL SKOOL to its current moniker and shifted the focus of its act from '80s metal covers to originals.

STEEL PANTHER's sixth studio album, "On The Prowl", was released in February 2023.

In September 2022, STEEL PANTHER announced the addition of Spyder as the band's new bassist.

Three months ago, STEEL PANTHER's debut album, "Feel The Steel", was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales in excess of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom.

"Feel The Steel - 15th Anniversary Edition" was released worldwide on November 15. The 15th-anniversary edition features two tracks that were only released on the original Japanese import: "You Don't Make Me Feel Dumb" and "I Want Your Tits". The album was produced by Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, COREY TAYLOR).

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the album, STEEL PANTHER embarked on the first leg of the "Feel The Steel 15th Anniversary Tour". The trek kicked off in Huntington, New York on November 20, 2024 and ran through December 13, 2024 when it wrapped up in Orlando, Florida.

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman once again spoke about why he finally decided to open up about his time with the band — after spending most of the last two decades focusing on his solo career — while writing his autobiography, "Dreaming Japanese", which came out on December 3, 2024 via Permuted Press. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I lost it big time [toward the end of my time with MEGADETH], and I never really talked about this because once I left MEGADETH, I stopped doing interviews about MEGADETH completely and I made it a clause in any contract having to do with a live appearance or anything, it's, like, 'You can't mention MEGADETH in the marquee or in the advertisement or in the headline or anything.' And I did this for 23 years. But in an autobiography, that's a big part of my history, so now it's time to talk about the things that really, really happened in detail and with honesty and with respect to that period of time and respect to the people in the band and the people around the band, talk about our managers and our crew and, of course, the members in the band and my relationships with them."

He continued: "It's not gonna make me look good, I'm telling you this right now, when you read it [in my book]. I didn't leave the band on the nicest terms and I kind of — I don't wanna say 'screwed the band over,' but it wasn't a really nice thing that I did. Of course, I had absolutely no choice to do what I did, and you'll see why, but I feel really bad about the way I left the band and the situation I left them in, and you can see that in the book, why it turned out that way. And there's no excusing what I did, but it wasn't gonna happen any other way. Things happen and that's what happened. So, now you'll finally read it from the horse's mouth, so to speak."

Marty added: "I think it's interesting. It's definitely not something I'm happy about. But, of course, I'm very glad I left the band and I was able to do things that far surpassed my time in the band, and the band has done wonderful things in my absence, so I think everybody wins. But at that period of time, it wasn't nice for anybody, and I think that's what makes for interesting reading. So, I think people will — at least they'll get some closure on it; they'll know the whys and the whos and all that."

Asked if the two gigs he played with MEGADETH in 2023 — first at the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan in February of that year and then at the Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany in August — gave him some personal closure regarding his time with the band, Marty responded: "Yeah. Especially the Budokan show in Japan, that was kind of the one thing that was hanging over… I left the band, it was over and all that, and we all went on to do our own things and have our own great successes, but when you're in a band, especially MEGADETH at the level that we were at, there's a bond in there that is in some ways deeper than family, and we all knew, especially myself and [MEGADETH leader] Dave Mustaine, we all knew that the desire to play MEGADETH together, to play Budokan together, that was just something…. It's like one of those small kid-time dreams, you know what I mean? It was something that meant a lot to us at the time, and even though we went our separate ways, it was one of those unfinished-business type of things. And in the interim I had played Budokan several times in other projects in Japan and by myself and all kinds of different things but not with MEGADETH. And MEGADETH was the first time in my life and in Dave Mustaine's life that we actually had our first shot at doing it, and it didn't come to pass. And so the first time in the first six, seven times I played Budokan, it wasn't with MEGADETH. So when we both had the chance to play together, it was a big celebration. Getting there is a big deal, and they got there without me. So I was proud of them for doing that, and I was honored to be asked to play there with them. It was a celebration of what I'd done, and also a big celebration of MEGADETH's success without me. So I was their biggest supporter and glad to be there. And it was kind of a love letter to the fans and a celebration for us. So it was definite closure. That's outlined a lot with a lot more personal details in the book, but it was a moment of closure, for sure."

Friedman previously discussed his reluctance to open up about his time with the band until he wrote about it in his autobiography during an appearance on the January 21 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". He said at the time: "It's definitely true that even when I first started touring my solo music, which is quite some time ago, I made it an extreme important point within every contract that the word 'MEGADETH' or 'ex-MEGADETH' is not used anywhere, and otherwise the show is off and there's a fine. And this I took very, very seriously and still do today. It's in every single contract of everything that I do with my solo band.

"It wasn't difficult to write this MEGADETH stuff because I knew that I haven't spoken about it in years, but I know everything that happened in my life with great clarity," he explained. "I mean, as you see in the book, I stopped doing drugs when I was 17 — no drinking, no drugs — so everything is really clear in my mind, the things that happened. There's no blurry periods of time in there; it's all really clear. And so I think what kind of might have made it easier is the fact that I'd written everything after I had played Budokan with MEGADETH in 2023. I had, of course, a rough draft and manuscript of the entire book before that, but playing at Budokan with MEGADETH and meeting Dave [Mustaine] there and playing it together was a huge, huge load off both of our backs. And it was kind of a love letter to each other, a celebration of the history that we have together and a huge thank you to the fans who didn't get to see that when it was originally booked and sold out. So it was kind of very therapeutic to do that show. And it was like taking a huge dump.

"People put importance on certain things — it's only one show, but, as you know, and a lot of people who know me know, Budokan is very, very big… It's kind of a landmark in my life as a music fan and as a music player, and every time that I play there, before playing with MEGADETH and since, it's just a big deal, because it's one of those little-kid things, like, 'I wanna play at Budokan. It's my dream.' And so when those things happen, it's big, even bigger than other things that should be bigger. But anyway, having that behind us, I was able to really be straight and not pull any punches,. I uncovered everything, all the stuff that I did that wasn't so cool, and all the stuff that everyone else did that wasn't so cool. And I also said all the cool things that everyone did, which, thankfully, far outweigh any uncool stuff. I mean, you don't wanna stay in a band for 10 years if things aren't cool."

Friedman added: "I'll just go on record and say [being in MEGADETH] was a wonderful, wonderful experience, but within any experience, like MEGADETH especially, you're in a bubble and you see the bandmembers in a more intimate way than you do even your own family. You're not with your family 24 hours a day, 11 months out of the year in bathrooms and dressing rooms and hotels and gigs and everywhere, so it's a really deep relationship, so things are gonna happen, there's gonna be drama. And so it was kind of fun to think what fans are going to find interesting and put that in the book. And there's a lot of petty nonsense in there as well. And I found that quite entertaining to write, because it's not the most important things but I think it humanizes everybody — petty, little things that we would bicker about and things that blew up into big arguments and things that didn't, things that went well things that didn't go well. It's flat. There's no agenda, there's no leaning left or right on it — it's just exactly how I saw it. And I think it's a very big, long, fun part of the book and will answer a lot of questions for the fans of MEGADETH and myself in that band, because I've always been very — not necessarily guarded, but not very sparing. [There's] not a lot of private information on me out there, so it was kind of fun to think of the things that definitely nobody knows and probably the band guys all remember for sure, but not things that have been in interviews and stuff like that."

Friedman also talked about the debilitating panic attacks he was experiencing while he and the rest of MEGADETH were touring in support of their 1999 album "Risk", his final recorded appearance with the band.

"Yeah, [the panic attacks] set me off for a whole year," Marty said. "And it was after I had announced that I quit the band to the band. It wasn't announced in public or anything, but it was announced to the band, so I was gonna finish out the tour we were on and then, once the tour was gonna take a break, I was gonna leave and they were gonna find another guy. But all the gory details are in there, but to sum it up, I had this — I didn't know it was a panic attack at the time, but it was a monster.

"I'd never had any issues with any kind of mental issues or psychological issues or health issues at all," Marty revealed. "Suddenly I was in the ER and I was just freaking out completely. I couldn't move. I was screaming. I was shouting. It's out of nowhere, dude. It was just out of nowhere. I had no idea what it was. And I had to figure out a way to continue the tour in that condition. And I couldn't walk without two people carrying me around. I'm cutting out a lot of the details here because it's impossible to shorten it. But I was on so many anti-depression things and muscle relaxers and all kinds of different drugs just to keep me from going completely mad. And then I found that if I ate these grilled chicken sandwiches, that sort of helped. And the only thing other than help was staying in a hot bathtub for hours on end. So what I would do — it was such a horrible thing. And I cringe when I think about it because I put the staff, the band and everyone around me in such a horrible situation, but I wasn't going to do anything without being in a fricking bathtub all day and being shuttled around like a fricking diva. And people would take me to eat, and I would go off on the waiters and stuff. And it's so unlike me. I was a completely different person. I put this in the book. I remember I was at a Japanese restaurant. And [Carlos] Santana's music was playing in the background. And I started screaming. It was like a sushi restaurant. I'm, like, 'Okay, there's probably protein here. Good. I can eat this.' As soon as I heard some of Santana's music in the background, I'm, like, 'What the fuck is this? This is a Japanese restaurant. Why are they playing Mexican music in here? What the fuck is this?' And I was screaming this at the top of my lungs, banging down on the table. Wasabi and ginger was flying all over the place. I was just such a horrible human being to everyone around me. And it was just so out of character, but in that moment, that's what it was, dude. I mean, it was that.

"And what really sucked about this was if I did stay in the bathtub all day and eat nothing but protein things and chicken sandwiches, the second I got on stage, I was normal," Friedman added. "I could fucking play — I could play music, and then when I got off the stage, I was over the wreck again; I was a complete wreck. So the guys in the band and the people in the staff were, like, 'What the fuck's wrong with this guy? He's totally fine. He's acting like he's sick and shit.' And so they probably hated my guts and rightfully so.

"You don't wanna talk about this stuff, but it's your autobiography," Marty explained. "But that's what it was, dude. It was that. I didn't wanna cause people problems, but I was there, that was happening, and I was not a good person for the entire time. And it took me, like, eight months after the tour stopped and I got off the tour completely of completely vegging out in my house. I didn't play guitar. I didn't listen to music. All I did was, like, take these antidepressant things and sit in the bathtub and eat fucking chicken sandwiches. That's what I did for, like, eight months until I started to see a little improvement and become normal again.

"This is the first time I ever talked about that, that awful, awful stuff in the book. And I talked about the psychological reasons for that in there, which is too detailed to talk about now, but they figured out kind of what it was and I kind of made peace with it. And I got back to myself around 2001, but that whole year was just — I feel sorry for everyone around me and I don't blame anyone at all for not forgiving me. I was not a cool person and, yeah, I'm just glad I came out of it.

"I thought that I was gonna turn into one of those — you know the lyrics in the RAMONES song ['Teenage Lobotomy'] where they're talking about 'DDT', 'lobotomy' and all that stuff, and I thought I was gonna be one of those people in the rubber rooms. That's what I saw in my future. That's what I felt like. And I'm just so grateful that I came out of it, but it took a real, real long time. Real long. Crazy stuff."

Marty's latest solo album, "Drama", came out last May via Frontiers Music Srl.

Friedman's first major impact in music was in the game-changing guitar duo CACOPHONY, which he founded with equally enigmatic and now-legendary guitarist Jason Becker. He then spent 10 years as lead guitarist in the genre-defining thrash metal act MEGADETH before moving to Tokyo due to his love for Japanese music, language, and culture.

Following his move, he landed a starring role for a new TV comedy "Hebimeta-san" ("Mr. Heavy Metal") and its spinoff, "Rock Fujiyama", which ran for six seasons and propelled him into the living rooms of Japan's mainstream. He has since appeared in over 800 TV shows, movies and commercials, including a two-year campaign with Coca-Cola for Fanta, authored two best-selling novels and was the first-ever foreigner to be appointed as an ambassador of Japan heritage and perform at the opening ceremony for the Tokyo Marathon.

At the same time, Marty has continued his career in music with several solo albums in addition to writing and performing with the top artists in Japanese music, racking up countless chart hits, including a No. 1 with SMAP, two No. 2 songs with MOMOIRO CLOVER, a No. 2 with SOUND HORIZON — just to name a few.

DISCIPLES OF VERITY, which is fronted by Corey Glover of LIVING COLOUR, has unveiled its latest single, "Thread The Needle", through TLG|ZOID and distributed by Virgin Music Group. The song is taken from DISCIPLES OF VERITY's upcoming sophomore album, "Nexus", which was produced by George Pond and co-produced by Sahaj Ticotin. Accompanying the release of the single is a music video that offers a powerful visual representation of the song's message.

DISCIPLES OF VERITY drummer Corey Pierce shares: "'Thread The Needle' is such a dynamic song as it's based in the roots of pessimism versus hope in an abstract call to all of us moving into an unforeseen future."

"Thread The Needle" is now available on all major streaming platforms, and the accompanying music video can be viewed on the band's official YouTube channel.

Fueled by an insatiable urge to create and collaborate, DISCIPLES OF VERITY seeks to challenge all that they believe to be true. The band features heavy hitters such as Corey Glover (LIVING COLOUR),Corey Pierce (GOD FORBID),George Pond (NEGATIVE SKY, SWIM THE CURRENT),Mark Monjoy (SEKOND SKYN) and Zack Miranowic (SEKOND SKYN, RIVERSEND). This all-star group unleashes an onslaught to the senses with a new sound that can only be described as "a new breed of crossover metal."

DISCIPLES OF VERITY formed just over four years ago after mutual projects brought the five members together. With Pond as the common denominator, having played with each of these artists throughout his career, his songs with Corey Glover were quickly embraced by the others, which evolved into their debut album, "Pragmatic Sanction".

Over the next eight months, DISCIPLES OF VERITY feverishly cranked out eight heavy, hook-laden songs with one distinct element — their infectious, melodic grooves. Ranging from hardcore, metalcore and even active rock, the band knew that their debut would be like nothing else in the industry and brought in a veritable "who's who" of the hard rock and metal industry to up the ante.

Four years have passed since the release of their first single from "Pragmatic Sanction". However, now comes the dawn of a new age. They have been quietly working on 12 new tracks for their upcoming sophomore album titled "Nexus". The band collaborated with producer Sahaj Ticcotin, who has worked with STARSET, MÖTLEY CRÜE, RA, BAD WOLVES, and many more. This monster of a record is set to be released in 2025 through TLG/ZOID, and distributed through Virgin Music Group.

DISCIPLES OF VERITY is:

Corey Glover (LIVING COLOUR) - Vocals
Corey Pierce (GOD FORBID) - Drums
George Pond (SWIM THE CURRENT, NEGATIVE SKY) - Bass
Mark Monjoy (SEKOND SKYN) - Guitar
Zack Miranowic (SEKOND SKYN, RIVERSEND) - Guitar

QUEENSRŸCHE kicked off the European leg of "The Origins Tour" on January 31 at Kulttuuritalo in Helsinki, Finland.

The band's setlist was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:

EP:

01. Queen Of The Reich
02. Nightrider
03. Blinded
04. The Lady Wore Black
05. The Warning

"Warning" album:

06. En Force
07. Deliverance
08. No Sanctuary
09. NM 156
10. Take Hold Of The Flame
11. Before The Storm
12. Child Of Fire
13. Roads To Madness

Encore:

14. Walk In The Shadows
15. Empire
16. Screaming In Digital
17. Eyes Of A Stranger

Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.

Although QUEENSRŸCHE would score multi-platinum albums and hit singles over their career, their fans have developed an undeniable love for the group's early releases, the 1983 EP and 1984's "The Warning" album, when they helped trailblaze a style of rock that combined elements of metal and prog. And for the first time ever, QUEENSRŸCHE is performing both classic releases in their entirety as part of "The Origins Tour".

When the U.S. leg of "The Origins Tour" was first announced, singer Todd La Torre said in a statement: "We are thrilled to bring to you 'The Origins Tour'. This will be the first time in QUEENSRŸCHE's history that the EP and 'The Warning' will be performed live in their entirety."

He added: "Join us for this unique and very special experience, as we celebrate the origins of QUEENSRŸCHE. Take hold!"

Early last year, QUEENSRŸCHE completed its 2023 U.S. headlining tour with support from former MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman and TRAUMA. On that tour, QUEENSRŸCHE's 18-song set included no less than five songs from the band's sixteenth studio album, "Digital Noise Alliance", which came out in October 2022 via Century Media. The record was once again helmed by Chris "Zeuss" Harris, who previously worked with QUEENSRŸCHE on 2015's "Condition Hüman" and 2019's "The Verdict" LPs.

Stone, who rejoined QUEENSRŸCHE in 2021, contributed guitar solos to the band's latest studio album.

Since late May 2021, Stone has been handling second-guitar duties in QUEENSRŸCHE, which announced in July 2021 that longtime guitarist Parker Lundgren was exiting the group to focus on "other business ventures."

Stone originally joined QUEENSRŸCHE for the 2003 album "Tribe" and stayed with the band for six years before leaving the group.

For the past seven years, drummer Casey Grillo has been filling in for original QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield, who stepped away from the band's touring activities in early 2017 to spend time with his young son.

In October 2021, Rockenfield filed a lawsuit against guitarist Michael Wilton and bassist Eddie Jackson, alleging, among other things, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful discharge. A few months later, Wilton and Jackson filed a countersuit against Rockenfield, accusing him of abandoning his position as a member of the band and misappropriating the group's assets to his own personal benefit. That dispute has since been settled out of court.

LINKIN PARK kicked off the 2025 leg of its "From Zero" world tour Friday night (January 31) at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, Mexico.

The band's setlist was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:

01. Somewhere I Belong
02. Crawling
03. New Divide
04. The Emptiness Machine

Act II

05. The Catalyst
06. Burn It Down
07. Over Each Other
08. Waiting For The End
09. Castle Of Glass
10. Two Faced
11. Joe Hahn Solo (with Colin on drums)
12. When They Come For Me / Remember The Name (Mike solo; with Colin on drums)
13. Casualty
14. One Step Closer

Act III

15. Lost (Mike and Emily piano snippet into full band version)
16. Good Things Go (Live debut)
17. What I've Done

Act IV

18. Overflow (Live debut)
19. Numb
20. In The End
21. Faint

Encore:

22. Papercut
23. A Place For My Head
24. Heavy Is The Crown
25. Bleed It Out

Fan-filmed video can be seen below.

Late last month, LINKIN PARK released an a cappella/vocals-only version of the band's latest album, "From Zero", dubbed "From Zero - A Cappellas".

The original version of "From Zero", issued last November, marked LINKIN PARK's first full-length effort since 2017's "One More Light", which was the last LINKIN PARK album before the death of lead vocalist Chester Bennington. "From Zero" features LINKIN PARK's new singer Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain, who have joined returning members co-vocalist and main producer Shinoda, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell and DJ/visual director Joe Hahnin the band's new lineup. Guitarist Alex Feder is filling in for Delson at all LINKIN PARK concerts for the foreseeable future.

Last fall, Shinoda told KROQ's Kevan Kenney about the emotions surrounding LINKIN PARK's return: "It's really complicated. For me, two years ago it was very overwhelming, and I think the best thing that we did was to just basically let things happen in the order and at the timeline that they were gonna happen, let things happen organically and not push too hard. And I feel like what ended up evolving was we just naturally kind of found each other, we found this new lineup, we found Emily and Colin in particular, and the music just kind of came into focus based on what we were having the most fun doing."

When Kenney suggested that "From Zero" "sounds almost like a return to [LINKIN PARK's] roots", Shinoda said: "I love that there's such a strong LINKIN PARK DNA in the record. It does really feel like LINKIN PARK, but I think there's a part of it that's the old sound and part of that's every era of the band, to me, on the record."

Farrell chimed in: "I don't know if I know well what the LINKIN PARK DNA is. It's kind of like when you're too close to something, you just do it and then other people tell you. They almost interpret it and then you kind of say, 'Okay, cool. I'm glad that came across.' But I think in any and all of that creation of an album or working on new music or new stuff or when there's — I don't know — interstitials or whatever you might wanna call it, for me those things are just like us doing us and figuring that out and moving forward. And in this process, one of the things that was so fun and rewarding and cool and energizing was just how when we started gradually integrating Emily and Colin, it felt like LINKIN PARK. It just felt like it fit for me and for us. And those were the coolest moments in the entire process, was just feeling like things were kind of jelling and coming together and we were having a blast doing it the whole time. So at this stage being ready to finally have the album out, having people be excited about it, that feels great."

LINKIN PARK announced its new lineup during a September 2024 one-hour global livestream of a concert in Los Angeles showcasing Armstrong and Brittain.

Last November, LINKIN PARK announced a massive world tour across North America, Europe, Asia and South America. The trek will launch in January with three dates in Mexico before heading to Japan and a one-off show in Jakarta, Indonesia. This spring and summer, LINKIN PARK will hit a number of cities the United States and end in November with a run throughout South America.

During LINKIN PARK's fall 2024 concert in São Paulo, Brazil, the band revealed that video of the performance, which was also livestreamed in full on Brazilian broadcast channel Multishow, will be central focus of a live documentary. A release date has yet to be announced.

In a recent interview with LifeMinute, RATT singer Stephen Pearcy once again offered his opinion of the label "hair metal," the pejorative term which was coined in the late 1990s as a way to disparage acts thought to have been all flash and no substance. Asked if he was ever bothered by being called a "hair metal" band, Pearcy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "You know what? When it first pretty much started, [they] were starting to introduce our bunch of bands as that, I thought it was funny. Everybody's all uptight. And I'm, like, 'It's kind of cool,' I go, 'because you're gonna be played now on a lot of places and be identified with the '80s scene just being called hair metal. So do something with it.'

"I have a friend, and there's this band called HAIRBALL," he continued. "They dress up like Alice Cooper and they have three singers. It's like an act that tours. They're insane. So HAIRBALL, cheers… I go out there and sing with 'em once in a while. But it's funny."

The use of the term "hair metal" became widespread after grunge gained popularity at the expense of 1980s metal.

One musician who has been very vocal about his dislike of being called "hair metal" is Sebastian Bach. In July 2020, the former SKID ROW frontman said that "When I 1st aspired to be a vocalist of a band it was called rock n' roll Heavy metal Heavy Rock Hard Rock Glam metal Nobody in the 80s ever started a hair metal band."

He added: "Being labeled something that I never set out to be labeled gets under my skin. It's a pain when people try to rewrite history. Believe me none of us ever set out to be in a hair metal band that did not exist in the 80s."

That was not the first time Bach reacted negatively to the term "hair metal." In a 2012 interview with The New York Times, he famously said: "I am the man who put the hair in hair metal. I also headlined Broadway musicals. I acted in millions of TV shows. I didn't get to star in 'Jekyll And Hyde' on Broadway because of my haircut. My voice has gotten me everything in my life, not my hair."

In August 2020, TWISTED SISTER's Dee Snider addressed Bach's Twitter tirade in which the former SKID ROW frontman took issue with being called "hair metal". Dee told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk": "[I've been doing my radio show] 'House Of Hair' [for more than two decades], and it resonates with people," Dee said. "For the fans, they don't find it offensive. Whatever it is, it's just a term.

"I didn't name 'House Of Hair'. I got shit about it. But to me, I just say, you know what? You're fighting a losing battle. Sebastian's losing shit. Life's too short.

"I'm the original hair farmer. Whatever. As long as they remember me."

Elsewhere, TESLA bassist Brian Wheat said that he found the term "hair metal' "condescending. What does fucking hair have to do with the music?" he said in an interview with "The Cassius Morris Show". "Should we be called 'cock metal' because we all have big dicks? Seriously, it's, like, 'hair metal' — what does that have to do with [anything music-related]? It's condescending. It's a putdown. It's almost like saying, 'Well, the music's not valid. They just had good hair.' That's what it's like.

"I don't like it," he reiterated. "Just talk about the music, because that's what what matters. Not about the hair. If you wanna call it anything, call it '80s metal — call it 1980s rock. 'Cause that's what it was — it was rock that came out of the '80s and early '90s. THE BLACK CROWES came out a year later than TESLA, and they're not called a hair metal band.

"Why call us a hair metal band when all we were doing was imitating AEROSMITH?" Wheat added. "I think we're very parallel to an AEROSMITH. I think, personally, if you can't go see AEROSMITH and you wanna see a good version of AEROSMITH, go see TESLA. They're very similar. I mean, Jeff Keith looks like Steven Tyler; he sings like Steven Tyler."

Back in April 2021, legendary DOKKEN guitarist George Lynch told the "Cobras & Fire" podcast about the "hair metal" label: "Generally, it's not a genre that you look at too seriously. It was the one that allowed me to have a career. So I respect it in that sense; it's what got me here. There are bands from that genre that I really, really like — RATT being one; I like RATT. I love their songs, and I love Warren [DeMartini, RATT guitarist], and I just like what they do, and what they did back then. So, I don't know — there's a few things that I like about it. But generally, I'm a product of the '60s and '70s, and that's where my heroes are from — from those eras."

Tankard’s classic album The Morning After will be reissued as a deluxe Picture-LP (limited to 500 copies) by Hammerheart Records. The LP comes with an insert and a huge poster of the artwork.

The Morning After saw Tankard at the peak of their beer soaked powers, delivering a thrash assault that was as ferocious as it was fun. Following the chaos of Chemical Invasion, their third album refined their sound without losing the unhinged energy that made them stand out.

From the riotous title track to headbangers like “Try Again” and “Help Yourself,” Tankard proved they could party harder than anyone while still delivering tight, razor sharp thrash metal. Their wild energy and signature booze soaked charm were as strong as ever, but underneath the madness was serious musicianship that kept them neck-and-neck with Germany’s thrash metal elite.

Preorder at hammerheartstore.com.

Album notes:
• Legendary album from 1988 celebrating its 37th anniversary this year
• Extremely limited edition of only 500 copies world wide
• Comes in a quality sleeve with lyrics and a nice A2 poster
• Artwork by Sebastian Krüger (Destruction, Running Wild, Sodom)

British rockers THE WILDHEARTS have released a brand new single, "Troubadour Moon", the second track to be revealed from their upcoming studio album, "Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts", due out on March 7, 2025 via Snakefarm. The accompanying music video, directed by Shaun Hodson of Loki Films, can be seen below.

"Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts" track listing:

01. Eventually
02. Scared Of Glass
03. Troubadour Moon
04. Fire In The Cheap Seats
05. Kunce
06. Maintain Radio Silence
07. Blue Moon Over Brinkburn
08. Hurt People Hurt People
09. I'll Be Your Monster
10. Failure Is The Mother Of Success
11. Loyola (bonus track)

When the LP's first single, "Failure Is The Mother Of Success", was released in December, THE WILDHEARTS frontman Ginger (real name David Walls) said: "'Failure Is The Mother Of Success' is about getting back on your feet after things have gone wrong.

"There's an old saying, 'fall down three times, get up four'. It's about feeling like you're worth getting back up for, and that making mistakes is just an essential part of life, everyone does it.

"At almost eight minutes long, it's pretty brave for the record company to pick it as a single, but it's a really good taster for the album and has everything any WILDHEARTS fan could want. I hope you absolutely love it!"

Dante Bonutto of Snakefarm added: "To be honest, I really struggled to decide what the lead single should be. Whenever I was sent a new track, I thought, 'Right, that's the single!' In fact, every song could have been. But then that's THE WILDHEARTS — never knowingly under-singled! In the end, when I heard Ginger talk about 'Failure…', it became clear that this is the unofficial title track of the album, brilliantly encapsulating the triumph over adversity theme; the fact that the future remains unwritten, you just need to grasp both the nettle and the pen, possibly the other way round?!

"If you love the fact, like I do, that Ginger can feature an album's worth of song ideas in a single track, and do it seamlessly, then you're in for a treat!"

Check out the official video for "Failure Is The Mother Of Success" below.

The creatively brilliant Ginger is arguably amongst the U.K.'s best and most prolific songwriters, and his band, THE WILDHEARTS, recently signed a worldwide deal with Snakefarm/Integral.

"The songs on 'Satanic Rites…' were written during a period of transition, from extremely negative to positive," reflects Ginger. "I realized how much control I have over my mental health, and the songs came from that understanding. There's everything here — catchy choruses, proper fuck-off riffs, anger, frustration, acceptance and revelation, with plenty of insane detours. The album starts pessimistic and ends up like 'Ah, so I CAN turn my life around?' It's a hard rock album for people who love hard rock!"

"Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts" was produced by Jim Pinder (BRING ME THE HORIZON, WHILE SHE SLEEPS, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE) and mixed by Jim Pinder and Carl Bown (TRIVIUM, MACHINE HEAD, WHILE SHE SLEEPS, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, BRING ME THE HORIZON).

"Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts" will be available on colored vinyl LP, CD (with exclusive bonus track),and cassette. The LP and CD formats contain lyrics hand-written by Ginger, a painting by Ginger, plus other Ginger-related graphics.

To celebrate this release, THE WILDHEARTS will be playing eight headline U.K. shows in March, starting on March 7 at the Leadmill in Sheffield and concluding on March 16 at the 1865 in Southampton.

About the tour, Ginger said:"We'll be taking a full evening's entertainment on tour, kicking off with party-punks Dirt Box Disco, going to rock 'n' roll church with Jim Jones, then being flayed alive with THE WILDHEARTS. The party starts when the doors open, so get a buzz on and get down early. Come join THE WILDHEARTS' community gathering. We guarantee you'll leave with the spirit of rock 'n' roll firmly restored"

For three decades, THE WILDHEARTS have remained at the forefront of the U.K. rock scene, and their incendiary live shows have cemented their reputation and legacy as one of the best bands their homeland has produced, so miss these shows at your peril.

In an interview with Reality Check TV on the red carpet at the ninth annual Metal Hall Of Fame on January 22 in Anaheim, California, BIOHAZARD guitarist/vocalist Billy Graziadei was asked about the progress of the recording sessions for the long-awaited new album from the reunited classic lineup of the metal/hardcore band. He said: "I fly out tomorrow to finish it…. It's almost done. It'll be out later this year. Hopefully it'll be out before summer, but you never know."

As for whether the new BIOHAZARD album has a title, Billy said: "Yep… Can't say nothing." But he added: "It's a great fucking record."

In December, BIOHAZARD entered Shorefire Recording Studios in Long Branch, New Jersey to begin recording its new LP, due later in the year via Frontiers Label Group's new imprint BLKIIBLK.

In late November, BIOHAZARD guitarist Bobby Hambel confirmed to The Brooklyn Blast Furnace podcast that he and his bandmates would enter the studio "in a couple of weeks" to begin recording their long-awaited new album.

"After playing together — what is it? — fucking year and a half, I think we're ready to lay it down, to start puking out some more fucking stuff," Bobby said. "It's happening, too. It's heavy shit, too.

"A lot of people say — they give their opinions on what they think we should do," he continued. "And they're always asking questions like, 'Is it gonna be like this album or that album?', and I can't really answer any of that. I just can answer it's coming from the same place it always came from, and I think everybody's on point. Everybody wants it. So I think it's time. We've got a lot of shit to say."

In October, BIOHAZARD drummer Danny Schuler told Pod Scum about the group's songwriting process: "It's really all over the place in BIOHAZARD. Sometimes one guy brings in a couple of songs and we kind of go with that. Sometimes somebody has an idea and we're all together in the jam room and we kind of all work through it together. It kind of happens a lot of different ways, but all four guys are very creative, some more than others, but everybody creates and brings in stuff. So there's no one writer in BIOHAZARD. There's never really been. But we all write. And now we're getting ready to record a new record and we have so much new stuff. And it's been really cool lately — a very creative environment lately to be around with everybody writing new stuff and getting psyched for a new album. It's cool right now."

Asked why he thinks right now is the best time for a new BIOHAZARD album, Danny said: "Well, I don't know if right now is the best time. I don't think in terms of, like, 'Oh, well, let's do an album out now because now's the best time.' I don't know that stuff. I don't know when's a good time to do a record. I just know when I feel inspired and I know when I'm coming up with stuff that I feel is real strong and meaningful, and lately it's been a good time for that kind of creative process. So, for me, when the ideas are flowing and everything feels real natural, real strong, that's a good time to do a record. Business-wise, I don't know when's a good time to do a record. I'm not a businessman, in that regard with the music business."

In a separate interview with France's Loud TV, BIOHAZARD bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld confirmed that he and his bandmates were "making a new album". Evan said: "I'm really excited about it. I'm writing a lot of lyrics right now, working on some music. All the guys are writing. It's exciting."

Evan previously discussed BIOHAZARD's plans for new music in April 2024 in an interview with El Planeta Del Rock. At the time, he said: "We're working on our process on a couple of really cool songs, and when something is special enough and we are excited about it, I imagine we'll release a single before release an album, but there's a full-length album in the works. That's the mission… We wanna go into the studio and really lock ourselves down, like we used to do in the '90s, and spend some time really [making a strong album]. For us, it's not about one song, one song. Making an album is still something that we care about."

He continued: "I know it's not the popular [way of doing things]. How many people buy new albums by artists and listen to the whole album from beginning to end? Young people don't really ingest music like that so much. But BIOHAZARD is about authenticity. We do what we do, and we're gonna make the best album we can make in 2024."

The first reunion gig from Graziadei, Hambel, Schuler and Seinfeld took place on May 26, 2023 at the Milwaukee Metal Fest at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In 2022, Graziadei said in an interview that there had been "talk" about putting BIOHAZARD back together.

The group, which is acknowledged as one of the earliest outfits to fuse hardcore punk and heavy metal with elements of hip-hop, had been out of the public eye since Scott Roberts left the band more than eight years ago.

Roberts, who played guitar on BIOHAZARD's 2005 album "Means To An End", rejoined the group in June 2011 as the replacement for Seinfeld. Scott fronted BIOHAZARD for nearly five years before exiting the band in February 2016.

Photo credit: Jeremy Deputat

To celebrate their upcoming European "Hell, Fire And Steel" tour, British heavy metal legends SAXON have released the dramatic Paul M. Green-directed video for the band's new single "1066", taken from their critically acclaimed 24th studio album, "Hell, Fire And Damnation", out now via Silver Lining Music.

SAXON frontman Biff Byford says: "A totally British-themed song, the massive invasion… In fact, it was the end of the Saxons really, so I'm singing about the demise of the Saxons.

"I did a song with AMON AMARTH a while back called 'Saxons And Vikings' which was about the end of the Vikings in England and the rise of the Saxons, so I thought I may as well do a song about six-seven hundred years later when William The Conqueror comes over and nobbles the Saxons.

"We'll be playing the song on the 'Hell, Fire And Steel' tour next month, which is gonna be fantastic."

Meanwhile, tickets for the "Hell, Fire And Steel" tour are selling fast, with many of the shows already sold out, including the very first show in Bremen and more shows also running low on tickets. SAXON will be joined by their great friends GIRLSCHOOL as main support, with GRAND SLAM appearing as special guests. Very special guest Doro will join SAXON on the last show at the Mitsubishi Electric Halle in Düsseldorf.

"Hell, Fire And Damnation" is an album which sees SAXON investigate all areas of history and mystery amidst ten of their most confident and thunderously powerful songs yet.

On "Hell, Fire And Damnation", Byford delivers his richest vocals in years, Nigel Glockler and Nibbs Carter on drums and bass, respectively, lay down the rhythmic law with bombastic power, and the guitars of Doug Scarratt and Brian Tatler are fresh and fiery, a perfect complement to each other, carrying an overall energy and fury which will have fans salivating. Musically, SAXON bring it all to the table. There's a furious tribute to actual heavy metal in the denim-and-leather-coated super-sprint "Fire And Steel", a wonderful nod to the NWOBHM's birth in the electric mid-pace "Pirates Of The Airwaves", but maybe the true treasure amidst the jewels is "There's Something In Roswell", with the sort of expansive groove and embrace which deserves arenas.

Produced by Andy Sneap (JUDAS PRIEST, EXODUS, ACCEPT) and Byford, with Sneap mixing and mastering, "Hell, Fire And Damnation" strides the perfect line between confident, current power, and gloriously irreverent flexing of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal muscle which SAXON co-created.

"I think this album's one of the best he's done sound-wise, and he's done a lot of albums," Biff declared. "It has a really raw, vibrant sound... if you compress the total time making this album, it was four weeks tops… you can hear everything brilliantly, nothing's overcomplicated, nothing's over compressed. The guitar sounds are fucking immense, they're just great, raw guitar sounds. And we haven't done a lot of overdubbing on there, it's just playing. I really, really like it."

In early 2023, SAXON guitarist Paul Quinn announced that he was stepping back from touring with the band. As a result of his decision, SAXON canceled its April 2023 South American tour as well as the appearance at the Monsters Of Rock cruise. Quinn has since been replaced on the road by DIAMOND HEAD's Brian Tatler.

Brian has already joined fellow guitarist Doug Scarratt, drummer Nigel Glockler, bassist Tim "Nibbs" Carter and Byford for a number of shows in 2023 and 2024, but will continue to be a member of DIAMOND HEAD.

Byford and Quinn are the sole remaining original members in SAXON's current lineup.

Originally from South Yorkshire, England, SAXON has gone on to sell about 23 million albums and has produced such classic songs as "Denim And Leather", "Princess Of The Night", "Wheels Of Steel" and "Power And Glory".

In a new interview with Australia's "Everblack" podcast, drummer Mike Portnoy, who rejoined progressive metallers DREAM THEATER in October 2023 after a 13-year absence, was asked if he feels he and his bandmates are "stronger now as mates" than they ever were in the past. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Absolutely. I think we're just much older and wiser at this point. When I left the band back in 2010, I was in my early forties, and now here I am, I'm in my late fifties. All of our kids have grown up and gone off and left the houses at this point. So, we're very much older and wiser and we have all of those experiences that we had over the last decade and a half apart. I went and did dozens and dozens of albums with dozens of different bands, and these guys have had all the experiences they had together without me, so coming back together, I think we're much stronger people. We're just more mature, older, wiser, calmer. I think we're just better people at this point."

Portnoy went on to say that the strong bond between the DREAM THEATER members affected the songwriting and recording process for the band's sixteenth studio album, "Parasomnia", which is due on February 7, 2025 via InsideOut Music. He said: "I mean, you can definitely feel the energy. I find it similar to the energy we had with 'Images And Words' and with 'Scenes From A Memory'. In both of those cases, we were making records with a new lineup — 'Images And Words' was the first album with [singer] James [LaBrie] in the band, and 'Scenes From A Memory' was the first album with [keyboardist] Jordan [Rudess] in the band. And there was a definite spirit to the chemistry in both of those cases. And I think it's a very similar energy to the spirit of this album, just really being energized by the lineup change. It really inspired us to rise to the occasion."

Regarding what it has been like touring with DREAM THEATER again for the first time in 14 years, Portnoy said:  "It's been incredible. We did a full European leg so far and we did a full South American leg so far, and each and every show, the emotions have just been incredible. I mean, on one hand, there's a big celebration of the reunion of this lineup, and there's a lot of people in the audience that haven't seen this lineup together in so long, or there's a lot of people in the audience that weren't even born when this lineup last played together. So there's a lot of people in the audience that never saw this lineup together. So for that reason alone, there's a lot of emotions in the air, but also the celebration of 40 years and this incredible discography of songs and music to work with and choose from when putting together the setlist. I put together a setlist that I think really celebrates the full spectrum of the band's career. There's a cross section of fan favorites and deep cuts as well. So I think it's a show that the fans have really been loving."

"Parasomnia" marks DREAM THEATER's first release with Portnoy since 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings".

"Parasomnia" was produced by guitarist John Petrucci, engineered by James "Jimmy T" Meslin, and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returns once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art.

Clocking in at 71 minutes, "Parasomnia" takes the listener on a musical journey that has become synonymous with the band since the beginning of their career. "Parasomnia" is a term for disruptive, sleep-related disturbances including sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, and night terrors. Songs like "A Broken Man", "Dead Asleep", "Midnight Messiah" and "Bend The Clock" all build upon the themes brought on by the album title. The first single, "Night Terror", is a musical thrill ride captured in the just shy of ten minutes listening experience.

Portnoy co-founded DREAM THEATER in 1985 with guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung. Mike played on 10 DREAM THEATER albums over a 20-year period, from 1989's "When Dream And Day Unite" through 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", before exiting the group in 2010.

Mike Mangini joined DREAM THEATER in late 2010 through a widely publicized audition following the departure of Portnoy. Mangini beat out six other of the world's top drummers — Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer and Derek Roddy — for the gig, a three-day process that was filmed for a documentary-style reality show called "The Spirit Carries On".

DEF LEPPARD has released a cover of Ben E. King's 1961 classic "Stand By Me". All proceeds from the song will go to FireAid, which raises money for those impacted by the fires that swept through Los Angeles throughout January.

DEF LEPPARD's version of the song is featured in the Netflix film "Bank Of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger", which was released on January 10. The band can be seen performing the track before the credits.

DEF LEPPARD says: "We are very excited to share our take on 'Stand By Me' from 'Bank Of Dave 2', which you can stream today.

"All proceeds from the track will be donated to FireAid to assist in both short-term relief efforts and long-term initiatives to prevent future fire disasters throughout Southern California.

"Los Angeles, we stand by YOU".

DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott said: "Los Angeles and its surrounding area has always played a central role in DEF LEPPARD's career, from it being where some of us are based and it being our U.S. hub for rehearsals, to being the city where we played our first-ever American gig. We feel blessed to be able to dedicate this song and give all the royalties to the amazing heroes in L.A. helping those affected by the fires. No better song."

DEF LEPPARD bassist Rick Savage said: "For a time in the '80s and '90s, L.A. became my home from home. To see the devastation caused by the wildfires is heartbreaking. To everyone affected by the tragedy, our hearts go out to you all. May you find a way forward physically, mentally and spiritually. It's hard to comprehend the incomprehensible but there's a chance if we stand by each other."

DEF LEPPARD drummer Rick Allen said: "I have a continued appreciation for the L.A. firefighters and all of the first responders. I know how important first responders are in states of emergency, especially given my history, which is why in addition to supporting FireAid through the release of 'Stand By Me', the Raven Drum Foundation will be offering five signed guitars to benefit First Responders Resiliency Inc., offering free resiliency and trauma trainings for first responders and their families across California."

DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen said: "In times of devastation, standing together is more important than ever. As a resident of Southern California for 35 years, I've witnessed the impact of wildfires as they continue to ravage communities across California.

"Our cover of Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me' is a tribute to resilience, unity, and hope. All proceeds from our version will go directly to wildfire victims, helping those who need it most. Let's stand by each other and make a difference — because no one should face hardship alone."

DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell said: "Having spent most of my adult life living in L.A., it's beyond heartbreaking to see the devastation wrought by the fires. I'm familiar with each and every neighborhood affected and know so many who have lost their homes and livelihoods. Our thoughts continue with them all as they begin to rebuild their lives and communities."

DEF LEPPARD's first concert of 2025 took place on January 18 at Feria Estatal De León in León, Mexico. As was the case with the band's October 14, 2024 private show in Nashville (as part of the Daimler Truck Customer Appreciation Event),Campbell was unable to join his bandmates at the León gig due to his cancer treatment and was replaced by John Zocco, who is Phil Collen's guitar tech.

Campbell — who before joining DEF LEPPARD in 1992 was well known for his work with DIO and WHITESNAKE — went public with his Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis in June 2013.

Vivian underwent three separate spells of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, only for his Hodgkin's lymphoma to return.

Six years ago, Campbell underwent spine surgery.

Vivian and his DEF LEPPARD bandmates were finally inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March 2019 — 14 years after the British rockers first became eligible.

DEF LEPPARD's latest album, "Diamond Star Halos", arrived in May 2022 via UMe.

Photo credit: Ross Halfin