Former ARCH ENEMY singer Alissa White-Gluz has thanked fans for their "love and support" following the release of "The Room Where She Died", the first single from her upcoming debut solo album.

Earlier today (Wednesday, November 26),Alissa took to her social media to share some of the artwork for her upcoming debut album by the Stuttgart, Germany-based artist Stefan Heilemann, and she included the following message: "Wow. I am blown away by the outpouring of love and support I have received over the past few days.

"Times of transition can be especially intense for the mind, body and heart. I don't take any of this lightly. But, the overwhelmingly positive response to 'The Room Where She Died' has given me so much renewed energy and clarity about who I am as an artist and why I love singing and creating music.

"I am proud of the body of work I have been building for decades. After so many years of honing my skills as a vocalist, song-writer and performer; absorbing and learning with every show, every album, every video and every meet & greet, I am excited to let my solo work stand on its own.

"Here is a first look at some album aesthetics with a portrait by @heilemania

"Thank you again for everything."

The music for "The Room Where She Died" was written by KAMELOT keyboardist Oliver Palotai, while Alissa performed, recorded and wrote all the vocals for the track. White-Gluz also came up with the script for "The Room Where She Died"'s accompanying music video, which was created by Serbian video production company iCODE Team.

Alissa previously commented: "I hope you love this first offering from my upcoming solo album.

"'The Room Where She Died' is a song that feels truly satisfying to me; like I get to express myself in so many ways that have been dormant for years.

"This upcoming album is diverse; and I love the idea of opening up this new chapter with this song and video, which I wrote the script for.

"Can't wait to share more with you!"

On Sunday, November 23, ARCH ENEMY announced it had parted ways with White-Gluz, writing on social media: "ARCH ENEMY have parted ways with singer Alissa White-Gluz. We're thankful for the time and music we've shared and wish her all the best.

"Wherever there is an ending, there is also a beginning.

"See you in 2026."

Alissa added in a separate statement on her Facebook page: "After 12 years in ARCH ENEMY, we have parted ways. I am forever thankful to the thousands of amazing fans I have met along the way. Thank you, Beastlings!

"I can't wait to share what I have been working on with you all (with some big surprises in store). Stay tuned for big news in 2026 and see you very soon."

White-Gluz, former vocalist of Canadian extreme metallers THE AGONIST, joined ARCH ENEMY in 2014 as the replacement for Angela Gossow. Angela, who joined ARCH ENEMY in 2000 and made her debut on the now-classic "Wages Of Sin" (2001),stepped down as frontwoman and is now focusing on management, while Alissa took her place.

ARCH ENEMY released four studio albums with White-Gluz on vocals: "War Eternal" (2014),"Will To Power" (2017),"Deceivers" (2022) and "Blood Dynasty" (2025).

Throughout her career, the now-40-year-old Alissa has consistently used her music as a vehicle for social change, addressing pressing issues such as environmental conservation, veganism, and the ethical treatment of animals.

During a March 2022 appearance on the "Vox&Hops" podcast, White-Gluz spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for her long-in-the-works debut solo album. She said: "What happened was it was announced [in September 2016] that I signed [with Napalm Records] for a solo album. All I did was sign to do one, but I think a lot of people interpreted that I had an album that I was ready to put out. So, basically, when the news came out about this solo album, the only thing that happened at that point was that I just agreed to do one. And then I was on tour for, like, three hundred days of the year up until 2020. And so now it's done, because now I've actually been home long enough to write the songs and get them done. And it's awesome and I love it."

Regarding a possible release date for the effort, Alissa said at the time: "There's nothing holding it back — it's done — but I need to be careful with how I release it, because now there's so many releases happening that I wanna make sure that the music gets the attention it deserves. So it's not gonna come out at the same time as an ARCH ENEMY album, for sure, because that's just not a good idea, but I will find a time to release it in a way that makes sense."

As for the musical direction of her solo material, Alissa said: "It doesn't really sound like ARCH ENEMY, actually. It's still me, so it's gonna sound a little bit like ARCH ENEMY, but it's kind of different. I feel like it's kind of an amalgam of that really interesting place that you're at when you're a beginner musician, because although I'm not a beginner vocalist or songwriter, I am a beginner guitarist — I'm very bad at guitar. So when I'm writing songs on guitar, I have an approach that is probably totally wrong, and that's what, I think, makes it cool. It's different — it's an unorthodox approach. I mean, I can still play it, but it's not my main instrument, so when I'm writing riffs on a guitar, I'm writing like a vocalist writing riffs on a guitar. Some could argue that that's kind of how Michael [Amott, ARCH ENEMY] writes too, actually, because his riffs are so 'sing-songy.' But, yeah, so I wrote a bunch with Jeff [Loomis, now-former-ARCH ENEMY guitarist] and I wrote a bunch with a lot of other people, actually, which I don't wanna spoil and announce them all now. But there's clean singing, there's growling, of course, and other interesting vocal techniques with the note screaming and some operatic stuff. It's a heavy album. I don't know what genre to call it. It's totally self-produced in that sense. It's honest. It's exactly what I just felt like writing for this. So there's some prog elements, there's some rock and roll elements, there's a lot of metal in it, obviously. But, yeah, I'm really happy with it. So I hope that other people like it too, basically."

Back in 2017, Alissa said that her debut solo album would feature collaborations with a member of KAMELOT and at least one of her now-former bandmates in ARCH ENEMY.

The now-ex-ARCH ENEMY frontwoman said that the idea for a solo project came about as a suggestion from Gossow, who had been managing ARCH ENEMY's career for more than a decade and also oversaw Alissa's personal affairs.

"[Angela] was, like, 'Well, you need something. You need something that you can do, because I know you're a workaholic and you're not gonna be able to just sit there like this waiting for the next ARCH ENEMY tour,'" Alissa told France's Duke TV. "And she's totally right — I needed something else to be able to work on. And also, I have a lot of ideas that maybe don't sound like ARCH ENEMY and it would be kind of silly to just force them into ARCH ENEMY."

According to White-Gluz, her debut solo album will be released under the ALISSA banner because she wanted to "keep it simple" and "make it very clear who it is and what it is." In order to make the disc, Alissa "did a huge life overhaul," which included building a studio and investing a lot of time and money into learning how to engineer and record, program drums and improving at playing guitar. "Of course, on the album itself we're gonna have real musicians playing all of these things, but in terms of just getting the style down and the songwriting, it's something that I need to start on my own," she explained to Duke TV.

At the time of the Duke TV interview, half of Alissa's solo effort had been written, and it contained some musical surprises. "It doesn't really sound like ARCH ENEMY — it's pretty different — but I think it's pretty cool," she said. "For example, a song that I'm writing with Oliver from KAMELOT doesn't sound like KAMELOT and it doesn't sound like ARCH ENEMY, but it's members of both."

Loomis, who joined ARCH ENEMY in late 2014 and left in December 2023, didn't have any of his songwriting ideas included on the latter band's "Will To Power" and "Deceivers" albums, but will apparently play a prominent role on Alissa's upcoming disc.

"Jeff didn't write with Michael, because Michael was already writing so well with Daniel [Erlandsson, ARCH ENEMY drummer] that we just actually had too many ideas," White-Gluz told France's Loud TV in a separate interview. "But all of Jeff's ideas are really good and I've heard them and they're gonna be released, so people will hear them… Jeff is gonna be one of my collaborators on my solo project, because how can you say no to that? [Laughs]"

ARCH ENEMY played the final show with White-Gluz at the closing date of its European "Blood Dynasty" 2025 tour with AMORPHIS, ELUVEITIE and GATECREEPER on November 15 in Düsseldorf, Germany.

A rare, custom-built Gibson CEO4 guitar played and signed by METALLICA's Kirk Hammett during the historic "Back To The Beginning" concert, Ozzy Osbourne's unforgettable final performance in Birmingham this past July, has sold for $76,800 at auction. Its estimated sale price was originally predicted to be only $6,000.

In addition to playing the guitar on stage for METALLICA's cover of BLACK SABBATH's "Hole In The Sky", Hammett has also signed the instrument, which features a 24.75-inch scale length mahogany neck, a bound 22-fret ebony fretboard with Supreme style split block mother of pearl inlays, a bound open book Gibson headstock with custom model inlays, a truss rod cover engraved "CEO-4," and a mahogany body with a flame maple top finished in Ghost Burst. It includes a hardshell guitar case and Gibson CEO Cesar Gueikian's "Back To The Beginning" backstage pass, signed by Cesar, and a custom made DES guitar strap with strap locks installed.

The guitar was listed for sale via Julien's Auctions as part of its annual "Played, Worn & Torn" auction, featuring a genre-defying treasure trove of over 800 pieces of music history. The unique SG was part of the Gibson Gives Guitar Collection — a spectacular lineup of instruments benefiting the Gibson Gives charity.

The Kirk Hammett Collection was an unprecedented opportunity for collectors and music historians to acquire over 150 guitars, storied awards, and stage-played instruments that shaped metal forever.

Hammett reflected on his expansive archive and remarked: "I've had the collectors bug ever since I can remember. There's a whole troop of guitars that I've just accumulated over the years. Some are touring guitars and then there's a whole batch of rare weird stuff. It drives me crazy to see the whole bunch of guitars not being played, and that's my hope that people buy these and play them, record with them tour with them."

Although Hammett is best known for his axe-wielding inferno for METALLICA over the past 42 years, it should also be noted that he is an influential and founding member of thrash metal band EXODUS, with whom he rocked for three years. In fact, EXODUS opened for METALLICA in late '82 and '83, making a move to METALLICA seem like it was destined to happen for Hammett. Over the years, he has added numerous awards and recognitions to his name, which have included personal awards such as being included in Rolling Stone's "The Top 100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time". Hammett has an extensive collection of guitars, but is especially known for his long-time love affair with ESP guitars — a mutual love which has spawned several Kirk Hammett signature models.

Hammett's first solo release, "Portals", arrived in April 2022. The all-instrumental four-song EP was made available digitally and on CD and "ocean blue" vinyl for Record Store Day. The effort was recorded in Los Angeles, Paris, and Oahu and was produced by Hammett, who drew inspiration for the songs from horror movies, classical music, and the work of Ennio Morricone, whose "The Ecstasy Of Gold" has been opening METALLICA live shows since 1983.

Legendary SCORPIONS guitarist Uli Jon Roth will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band's "Virgin Killer" album with an exclusive anniversary show at next year's Wacken Open Air festival. The 70-year-old musician will be joined by "special guests" for his performance at the event, which will be held from July 29 to August 1, 2026 in Wacken, Germany.

"Virgin Killer" is the first of four studio releases that really defined the SCORPIONS and their highly influential urgent metallic sound. It was released in 1976 and was the first album of the band to attract attention outside Europe. The album was a step in the band's shift from psychedelic music to hard rock. For the first time in the band's career, the lineup stayed the same with Klaus Meine on vocals, Uli Jon Roth on lead guitar, Rudolf Schenker on rhythm guitar, Francis Buchholz on bass and Rudy Lenners on drums. The nine tracks were laid down with Dieter Dierks producing.

"Virgin Killer" is full of heavy songs and exceptionally, fast, innovative guitar leads by Roth. These songs are infectious and the Jimi Hendrix comparisons are endless, especially the sound of the thunder-heavy riffs and grooves on Uli's "Polar Nights" guitar solo that make it a classic.

"Virgin Killer" should have made the band superstars, but since metal was still very much an underground movement, the SCORPIONS would have to wait until the 1980s when the band cranked out their first hits. The metal is so clear cut and state of the art on this historic recording and distinctly draws the line of what was classic hard rock and true heavy metal.

"Virgin Killer" is simply essential listening; a landmark album for the genre's development that made Roth a guitar legend.

In a 2006 interview with Classic Rock Revisited, Roth was asked whose idea it was to have the original "Virgin Killer" album depict a nude, provocatively posed young girl. He said: "Looking at that picture today makes me cringe. It was done in the worst possible taste. Back then I was too immature to see that. Shame on me — I should have done everything in my power to stop it. The record company came up with the idea, I think. The lyrics incidentally were a take-off on KISS, whom we had just supported on a tour. I was fooling around and played the riff of the song in the rehearsal room and spontaneously improvised ''cause he's a virgin killer', trying to do a more or less way-off-the-mark Paul Stanley impersonation. Klaus [immediately said, 'That's great. You should do something with it.' Then I had the unenviable task of constructing a meaningful set of lyrics around the title, which I actually managed to do, to some degree. But the song has a totally different meaning from what people would assume at first. 'Virgin Killer' is none other than the demon of our time, the less compassionate side of the societies we live in today — brutally trampling upon the heart and soul of innocence. I can't blame Tipper Gore [who co-founded the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC) in 1985 with the goal of increasing parental control over children's access to music with explicit lyrics] for brandishing the cover on TV as offensive, though. She was completely right in doing so, and she's a good person anyway, although she probably didn't make the effort to check out the lyrics, which put a different slant on the whole thing. I can't blame her for that either, because knowing what I know today, I would have possibly reacted in a similar vein."

In recent years, Roth has revisited the early music of his period with the SCORPIONS, which resulted in the "Scorpions Revisited" double CD and "Tokyo Tapes Revisited" DVD/Blu-ray releases.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest guitar players ever, Uli pioneered a unique style of guitar playing which — for the first time — combined complete mastery of the instrument with an intensely melodic and emotional appeal.

From his earliest days onwards, Uli has always been a bold and uncompromising musical innovator of the first order. Being the first guitar player in rock to incorporate complex melodic arpeggio sequences, Uli Jon Roth — in the eyes of many of his peers — practically reinvented modern guitar technique almost singlehandedly during his SCORPIONS tenure, but even more so during his ELECTRIC SUN days.

Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach performed the band's second album, "Slave To The Grind", in its entirety during his solo concert this past Monday, November 24 the Forum Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. Fan-filmed video of the show can be seen below.

Bach's current touring band includes his son Paris Bach on drums, "Bruiser" Brody DeRozie on guitar, and Fede Delfino on bass.

Sebastian's setlist for the Melbourne concert was as follows:

01. What Do I Got To Lose?
02. Slave To The Grind (SKID ROW song)
03. The Threat (SKID ROW song)
04. Big Guns (SKID ROW song)
05. Riot Act (SKID ROW song)
06. 18 And Life (SKID ROW song)
07. Shock Me (KISS cover)
08. Quicksand Jesus (SKID ROW song)
09. Psycho Love (SKID ROW song)
10. Beggar's Day (SKID ROW song)
11. Freedom
12. Livin' On A Chain Gang (SKID ROW song)
13. Future Of Youth
14. In A Darkened Room (SKID ROW song)
15. Creepshow (SKID ROW song)
16. Mudkicker (SKID ROW song)
17. Wasted Time (SKID ROW song)
18. Monkey Business (SKID ROW song)
19. I Don't Know (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
20. I Remember You (SKID ROW song)
21. Heaven And Hell (Black Sabbath cover)
22. Youth Gone Wild (SKID ROW song)

Encore:

23. We Can't Be Beaten (ROSE TATTOO cover)
24. Get The Fuck Out

Back in 2021, Sebastian was asked in an interview with Rockin' Metal Revival if he ever regrets writing such high vocal parts that he now has to reproduce live on stage three decades later. He responded: "All I can tell you is that I've been singing so much in the last [few] months. My voice is the same it's always been.

"I've gotta say just a couple of things answering your question — a couple of things come to mind," he continued. "For a guy like me or a guy like Bono [U2] or a guy like — I don't know, Geddy Lee [RUSH] or somebody like that, making a record is not the same as doing a show; it's not the same thing; it's a different thing. Making a record is you standing in an air-conditioned room with water next to you and coffee and you've got the lights perfect. And you're standing as still as you can, and you get to sing it as many times as you want until it's perfect. [Laughs] Nothing can be more different than a show — unless you're using [backing] tapes. But I'm proud to tell your audience that we will not be using any tapes anytime soon, so it's a real rock show. But doing a show is more like communicating the spirit of the song and the music to the audience, and everybody gets into it. And I'm not just gonna stand there and try to be perfect. I'm gonna run all over the place and I'm gonna put on a show.

"As singers get older, I don't like changing the key of the song because, to me, that makes it sound like a different tune, and I'm not interested in that," Sebastian explained. "If I'm gonna change a little vocal part in the same key, to me that's a cooler way of doing it instead of making it into the key of KORN. That works great for KORN.

"I have to sing every day properly and do it for many weeks in order to get my voice to the top of its abilities, and that's what I've been doing. I just played and I had no problems doing all those tunes. I've got no problems — knock on wood."

Bach fronted SKID ROW until 1996, when he was fired. Instead of throwing in the towel, the remaining members took a hiatus and went on to play briefly in a band called OZONE MONDAY. In 1999, SKID ROW reformed and, after a bit of shuffling over the years, featured a lineup consisting of bassist Rachel Bolan and guitarists Dave "Snake" Sabo and Scotti Hill, alongside drummer Rob Hammersmith and singer Johnny Solinger. SKID ROW fired Solinger over the phone in April 2015, a few hours before announcing TNT vocalist Tony Harnell as his replacement. Eight months later, Harnell exited the band and was replaced by South African-born, British-based singer ZP Theart, who previously fronted DRAGONFORCE, TANK and I AM I. Theart was fired from SKID ROW in February 2022 and was replaced by Erik Grönwall, who was previously a member of the Swedish hard rock band H.E.A.T. In March 2024, Grönwall — who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021 — announced his departure from SKID ROW. He said at the time that he decided that the travel and rigors of the road were not conducive to his overall health and recovery, and he wanted to focus on a lifestyle that is more amenable for his well-being, healing and family.

2024 was a remarkable year for Bach. "Child Within The Man" — the singer, songwriter, author, Broadway star and actor's first album in more than 10 years — was well-received, with Associated Press saying "…it shows a fierce performer in prime fighting form…his vocals remain sharp and his songwriting talents as cunning as ever," while Ultimate Classic Rock noted: "Bach's voice has lost none of its rage or range, even in the highest registers…" In addition, the album's "(Hold On) To The Dream" track was included in Consequence's "30 Best Metal & Hard Rock Songs Of 2024" which described the song as "...a late-career masterpiece from the former SKID ROW singer. Baz hits some of the highest notes of his career on the sweeping ballad, an inspiring anthem about perseverance."

On the touring front, Sebastian performed a record 91 shows in 2024. The dates included two successful North American tours — one around the release of the album, followed by another leg of fall shows — and a series of overseas appearances just before the album's release.

In January, Sebastian was back on TV when he appeared on Food Network's "Worst Cooks In America Celebrity Edition: Heroes vs. Villains". In addition, last June Sebastian was the subject of an A&E "Biography: Rock Legends" special. This follows his 2023 appearance as "Tiki" on Fox's "The Masked Singer".

"Child Within The Man" has yielded the following singles/videos, all of which have impacted the rock charts: "Freedom", "What Do I Got To Lose?", "Everybody Bleeds" and "(Hold On) To The Dream" (along with the "(Hold On) To The Dream" alternate video),"Future Of Youth" and "To Live Again".

"Child Within The Man" was recorded in Orlando, Florida; produced and mixed by Michael "Elvis" Baskette; engineered by Jef Moll, assistant engineered by Josh Saldate and mastered by Robert Ludwig of Gateway Mastering. Bach wrote or co-wrote all the album's 11 tracks and sang all lead and backing vocals.

"Child Within The Man" features guest appearances from John 5 (MÖTLEY CRÜE, ROB ZOMBIE, MARILYN MANSON),Steve Stevens (BILLY IDOL) and Orianthi (ALICE COOPER, MICHAEL JACKSON) — who all co-wrote their respective tracks with Bach — and two tracks co-written with ALTER BRIDGE's Myles Kennedy ("What Do I Got to Lose?" and "To Live Again"). Devin Bronson (guitars),Todd Kerns (bass) and Jeremy Colson (drums) round out the players on the album.

Prior to "Child Within The Man"'s arrival, Bach hadn't released a full-length disc since "Give 'Em Hell", which came out in March 2014.

In a new interview with Jay Heilman of the Kingdom Builder podcast, STRYPER guitarist/vocalist Michael Sweet spoke about how his voice has changed in the four decades since he started singing professionally. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's not easy. It's not an easy road as a singer. Every musician in a band has to work hard and practice and learn the parts and all that stuff and do their job. And it's hard work. But I think singers have it a little tougher. And what I mean by that is their instrument is based on so many things other than just plugging into an amp and turning it up and playing. It's based on what you eat. It's affected by the weather outside, how dry it is, how humid it is. It's affected by sleep, if you didn't sleep well the night before. It's affected by, obviously, sickness, if you get sick. There's so many things that factor into how good you're going to sing. So it's a rollercoaster ride, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, because when you have to go out on stage and sing and you can't, there's no trip like that, man. That's a mental mind warp that you can't even explain, 'cause you're out there just grinning and bearing it, trying to get through it and struggling, and everyone's looking at you and you're trying to lead the pack, 'cause you're out in front as the vocalist, whatever, and you can't — you can't do it. And you know you're not doing it. That's hard. That is very hard. And I've been there and done that lots of times. So, it's tough being a singer. And I'm not whining, I'm not crying. I'm just stating facts. It's very tough."

Asked by Heilman if he was aware, more than three decades ago, when he was working on STRYPER's early albums that he would have to sing some of that material more than 30 years later, Sweet said: "I was not even thinking that, but I wish I had. Had I done that, I might've chose my battles a little better. I went a little crazy 'cause I could. I could hit those notes, no problem. That was like breathing to me. It was so easy. But then, as you get older and your vocal cords and folds change from getting older and from wear and tear and from — you name it — I've got all kinds of issues with my thyroid and all kinds of stuff, and it affects your voice. So I'm not the singer I once was, but I am still able to, for the most part, pull off what I need to pull off, and it works and I'm very thankful for that. I'll never sound like I did back in the '80s, but that's okay. I sound different now, but I'm still able to sing. And if that day comes when I can't, I play guitar, man. And I'll just play guitar. And then maybe I'll get a little recognition as a guitar player if I'm just playing guitar. Who knows?"

After Heilman noted that many people who see STRYPER perform live are surprised by Sweet's abilities as a guitar player beyond his skills as a vocalist, Michael said: "Well, man, that's awesome to hear, and I'm glad people realize that. And it's not about getting recognition. Who cares? I mean, it's just, whatever. But at the end of the day, it is about, like, if people only knew how hard I work, if they could come into my studio and spend a week with me and see how hard I work on guitar, working out parts, all the rhythms… I mean, Oz [Fox, STRYPER guitarist] is a great guitar player, but I invest a lot more time into these albums as a guitar player. And that's not to take anything away from Oz at all. I'm just saying. And it's always kind of been like that. And for some reason, I guess a lot of people don't see me as a guitar player. That kind of gets blocked out. It's really bizarre. And then I say to them, 'But you've seen our videos, right?' 'Yeah, yeah.' And I said, 'Did I have a guitar on in those videos?' And they say, 'Oh, yeah, you did.' I'm, like, 'Yeah.' It's just weird. It makes no [sense]… And I've talked about it in almost every interview, and there's old photos of us as a trio back in the day. I mean, I played guitar before I started singing for years. Guitar's always been number one to me. But that aside, I'm not a shredder. I'm just a guy that kind of writes solos for the song and I try to write melodically and solos you can remember and kind of sing along to. And that's always been my thing. But, man, look, does it matter? No. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter if I ever get recognition as a guitar player. It really doesn't. But, man, I love to play. I love to play, and I play a lot. So I'll leave it at that."

STRYPER released its long-awaited Christmas album, "The Greatest Gift Of All", on November 21 via Frontiers Music Srl. The 10-song effort includes five original Christmas tracks and five traditional Christmas cuts, including remakes of "Reason For The Season" and "Winter Wonderland", both of which originally appeared on a 1985 single and were also made available on the 1986 re-release of STRYPER's debut EP, "The Yellow And Black Attack".

This past July, STRYPER released the first single from the new Christmas LP, a song called "Still The Light". Just in time for Christmas in July, the track also arrived alongside an official lyric video.

STRYPER guitarist Oz Fox recently sat out the band's Latin American tour on advice of his doctor. The 64-year-old musician, who underwent a brain surgery in May 2024, was once again temporarily replaced by Howie Simon (JEFF SCOTT SOTO, GRAHAM BONNET),who previously filled in for Fox on several tours in the past.

STRYPER's latest all-original studio album, "When We Were Kings", came out in September 2024.

The band recently completed the U.S. leg of its 40th-anniversary tour, which was described as "a celebration of both classic hits and new-era fan favorites, including outfit changes and an exciting new show production."

In December 2023, Michael underwent partial thyroidectomy, the surgery to remove part of his thyroid gland. It is the most common surgery for thyroid cancer.

Formed 41 years ago, STRYPER's name comes from Isaiah 53:5, which states: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

STRYPER's other albums include "To Hell With The Devil", "Second Coming", "No More Hell To Pay", "Fallen", "God Damn Evil", "Even The Devil Believes" and "The Final Battle".

In a new interview with "Reckless" Rexx Ruger of the Pod Scum podcast, former OVERKILL and VIO-LENCE guitarist Bobby Gustafson spoke about the status of his recently announced project called PAINWARD. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Last year I did a little EP for SATANS TAINT, and that was just for fun. So I'm gonna kind of get rid of that. And I've been writing songs ever since [I left] VIO-LENCE, which was three years ago now. So I've got songs together. [I'm] just trying to find the right guys. I've been working with [guitarist] Dave Orman from NASTY SAVAGE. I've been with him the longest. And lately, I guess I'm hooking up with [ex-OVERKILL and FLOTSAM AND JETSAM and current SHADOWS FALL and CATEGORY 7 drummer] Jason Bittner. He seems like a great guy. I just reached out to him. I never knew him before, and I reached out to him after the whole thing I saw where he left OVERKILL as well. And I just wanted to make sure that he was getting what he should be. And we just became friends. We kept talking. I have four songs I sent him. He's got one song he did drums to. When he finishes up with the CATEGORY 7/John Bush thing, he's gonna come back and work on the other songs and try and get the rest of everything together."

Gustafson went on to say that he is still in process of putting together a full lineup for PAINWARD. "I've got a couple of bass players floating around," he said. "I did a lot of pre-production with my usual drummer, Jim McCourt. He helped out getting the songs together. But we're gonna try and search out a singer, I guess, once we get this demo. But these songs, they've been written for a while, and they're still strong. I still like them all. But I'm continuing to write, just in case something magical happens."

Asked if he thinks 2026 will be the year when we will get the first music from PAINWARD, Bobby said: "Yeah, I'm hoping, because I really wanted it to be '25, but this year's gone. It all depends on Jason and his availability. I've got the songs. He hasn't heard everything yet, so I'm gonna try and sit down with him and say, 'Hey, these are all the songs I have. If you're cool with these 10, or if there's one you don't like, we'll grab another one.' I've just got a whole list of songs, and that's kind of new for me, 'cause I used to just write, 'cause we had no time back in the day. I wrote what went on the albums, and that was it. There really wasn't much extra. But now I'm writing a lot and now, and I'm picking the best from them. So as soon as he can get finished up with that stuff, get into these songs with me, we can try and get a singer from those four songs. If it's quick enough, early enough in the year, we might have something out by the end of the year in '26."

Gustafson joined OVERKILL in 1982 and played on the band first four albums — "Feel The Fire" (1985),"Taking Over" (1987),"Under The Influence" (1988) and "The Years Of Decay" (1989) — before being shown the door in 1990 amid growing tension between him and OVERKILL bassist D.D. Verni.

Bobby told Metal Rules a few years ago that he was never officially asked to leave OVERKILL. "It wasn't something where they came out and said, 'Hey, you're fired!' It was more of a verbal fight between me and D.D. about doing a show where they wanted to do it strictly for money and I didn't want to do it because we had just sold out Studio 54 in New York, our biggest show, and they wanted to do a Halloween show that was kind of goofy," he claimed.

In a 2016 interview with Rock & Metal In My Blood, Gustafson said that he would "never play with [OVERKILL] again. They stole from me back then and continue to steal from me till this day," he explained. "They haven't paid me for the use of my songs for the past 30 years and now they are even re-recording 'Feel The Fire' live. I've never seen a band claim so adamantly that they don't live in the past, yet most of their set list is from the first four albums I was on. They have had so many albums after me and never play songs from them. I just can't play happily with backstabbers and liars."

Regarding the fact that OVERKILL replaced him with two guitarists, Gustafson told Noisecreep in a 2011 interview: "Some might say it was like a compliment. I would tend to agree. Plus every album after me, when they had two guitar players in the lineup, never topped what I did. 'The Years Of Decay' is still our best-selling album and I had a really short time to write it. I did it short breaks within a six-month period. D.D. had years to put together their next album ['Horrorscope']. So his opinion that two guitarists would make them heavier failed."

Gustafson joined VIO-LENCE in January 2020 as the replacement for Ray Vegas.

When Gustafson's departure from VIO-LENCE was first announced in October 2020, the band cited "logistical difficulties that weigh too heavy to function in a productive manner" as the reason for the split. He later told Into The Pit about his exit: "[The split happened] for the same reason all these bands are canceling tours. It's just gotten so expensive to do. Even within that three-short-year span, the price of plane tickets really shot up after the pandemic. They're not playing all the time — they're doing sporadic shows here and there — and to spend that much money to bring me out there, it's understandable."

Gustafson went on to say: "I thought it was pretty much a solid band when I had started. But I know Phil [Demmel, VIO-LENCE's founding guitarist] has his eyes on something bigger. So if other projects come along, he wanted to really be with something at the level he was used to, which is understandable. You get used to that level, and it's hard to go back. I wish them well. Whatever happens, happens."

Bittner joined OVERKILL in 2017 and played drums on the band's last two studio albums, 2019's "The Wings Of War" and 2023's "Scorched".

This past September, Jason told All Access Live! With Kevin Rankin about his decision to exit OVERKILL more than a year ago:  "I'm not gonna talk anything negative about my old situations or anything like that. People leave bands for their own reasons. Let's just say I was stagnant in my old situation. I was not happy with where I was in a business sense with OVERKILL. I was basically giving more of myself than I was getting in return. And after almost eight years, I had pretty much had enough of that. And when I knew that there wasn't even any negotiation aspect to anything, I'm, like, 'Okay, well, it's time to start thinking about myself.'"

He added later in the interview, in reference to his OVERKILL gig: "When you go to a job, when you start a job, do you ever go to a job — I don't care what job it is; it could be McDonald's — do you ever go to a job and never get a raise after eight years? This is not a hypothetical situation. This is a true story."

Bittner previously talked about his departure from OVERKILL during a November 2024 interview with Pod Scum. Jason said at the time: "I hadn't been happy in [OVERKILL] for, like, two fucking years. It wasn't a surprise that I quit. I'd been dissatisfied for a long time, but I'm a team player. I don't like to leave things. I love the guys personally. So I just kind of just hung in there, but I was not happy where I was career-wise, let's say, within the confines of that band. I wasn't a bandmember. And that's the main thing for me to keep doing this at this point in my lifetime. That's why for SHADOWS FALL to be back together, I'm 20 percent owner-member. I'm involved in the decisions. I just don't get told what's happening. I hate that. I'm a Capricorn. I can't deal with that shit."

He continued: "For my whole career, for the most part, even like back to the early days, all the bands either I formed or I was instrumental in getting the guys together, or it was always just a one-for-all, all-for-one thing. OVERKILL was the only band I've ever played in where I was a hired gun. The only exception was ANTHRAX, but I was only a touring member with ANTHRAX, and with PRONG — only touring. That's a totally different animal than being, quote-unquote, in the band. Even when I was in FLOTSAM [AND JETSAM], I was a 20 percent member-owner. I was involved in the decisions. So seven and a half years of that was a long time for me.

"I know Blabbermouth is gonna take this and run the wrong way with what I'm trying to talk about," Bittner added. "My point I love the guys, I was a team player, I wasn't leaving, but I was dissatisfied and I was looking for something else.

"My whole career, I had my ears always to the grindstone and I'm always just in the mix to know what's going on, like, 'Oh, hey, someone's looking for something.' Not that I want to be a ship jumper or anything, but I've had a lot of downtime on my hands in the last number of years. So anything I can play on, play with, be a part of, I'm gung-ho to do. But for a while with OVERKILL, I wasn't like that anymore," Jason admitted. "I'm, like, 'All right, this is cool. I'm not looking for anything else.; But after a while, I was, like, 'All right, I need another outlet.'"

When Ruger pressed Bittner about the exact reasons for his dissatisfaction with his role in OVERKILL and whether he wanted "more involvement in the creative process", Jason said: "A little bit. For me, more so it was definitely on just being paid fairly for my time… Like I said, there's no animosity. I just went and saw everybody last Friday. [OVERKILL] just played in my backyard Friday night. I went, I knocked on the bus, Blitz [OVERKILL singer Bobby Ellsworth] opened the door: 'Hey, you coming tonight?' 'Yeah.' 'All right. Come on in.' Gives me a big hug, like I knew he would. I gave his girlfriend a hug. I said hello to a couple of crew people that I knew. I went inside and gave everybody a hug. D.D. [Verni, OVERKILL bassist] came up, slaps me on the back. It's got nothing to do with our personal lives. It's just a business thing."

Bittner added: "For a while it was fine, but I needed to make myself available for the bands that I'm a member of. That's really what it is. I couldn't be tied to OVERKILL anymore to be their drummer and only their drummer and 'this is the schedule for the year and you have to work in whatever you do in this.' Uh-uh.

"And I know that the people are already typing away, 'Yes, but SHADOWS FALL doesn't tour the way that OVERKILL did,' blah blah blah blah. Yes, true — very true. But remember, I have another band, CATEGORY 7. Between the two, we'll be working just as much. But also, the thing to keep in mind here, too, is I can play five shows with SHADOWS FALL and make more money than playing 30 with OVERKILL."

In September 2024, Verni told Capital Chaos TV about Bittner's departure: "We kind of knew that that was coming. He had told us a while ago that he was just kind of burned out on too many things and had his hands in too many pots. So I think we kind of knew that was coming."

When the interviewer noted that "it's nice to see he left on good terms" and that there wasn't "some sort of drama," D.D. concurred. "Yeah, it was nothing like that," he said. "He didn't leave us hanging. You know, he finished out his commitments with us. He was supposed to do this European tour, but he couldn't; he ended up not being able to do that, which worked out, because we have Jeramie [Kling, formerly of VENOM INC.] now in the band... And so it it all ended up working out."

The OG Bobby G!

Posted by Jason Bittner on Friday, October 31, 2025

In a new interview with the That Metal Interview podcast, DEATH ANGEL singer Mark Osegueda spoke about the possibility of a new album from him and his bandmates, after the arrival of two new singles in 2025, "Wrath (Bring Fire)", which was first made available in May, and "Cult Of The Used", which came out earlier this month. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We have some more stuff recorded that we'll be releasing. But right now we're also writing for the full-length. We have no studio time booked to actually record it. We're still writing and doing some demos for that. So it's gonna be quite some time till a new full-length comes out. But we'll release a couple of songs here and there. But a full-length is definitely gonna happen in the future, for sure."

Asked when fans can expect to see the next DEATH ANGEL album, Mark said: "Yeah, well, it's gonna be a bit, for sure, 'cause we've got some touring to do and we've still got some writing to do and some demoing of the stuff. So I'm saying, if anything, it'd be — the earliest would be the tail end of 2026."

Earlier this month, DEATH ANGEL guitarist Rob Cavestany told Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco Bay Area radio station 107.7 The Bone, about "Cult Of The Used" and the group's upcoming tour celebrating the 35th anniversary of DEATH ANGEL's "Act III" album: "['Cult Of The Used'] is our first song that we released since 'Wrath (Bring Fire)', which came out earlier this year… It's a total DEATH ANGEL song. And ['Cult Of The Used'] was chosen 'cause it kind of, to me, will fit in our set that we do on the 'Act III' live set, where, of course, we do 'Act III' in its entirety, and then there's another act of songs that we're choosing that are not our typical songs that we normally play either. So it's been very challenging playing some harder-to-play live songs. But it's really cool and fun."

Asked which song that will be performed during the "Act III" 35th-anniversary tour is the most challenging to play, Rob said: "'Cult Of The Used'. 'Cause it's new, and it's really tricky to play and sing and do all the stuff at the same time — vocal harmonies and stuff… It fits, too, because on 'Act III', there's a lot of singing. I didn't realize until we were rehearsing all the songs that I'm singing on every song on 'Act III' — every song. And lead on some songs, and definitely a lot of harmonies and background stuff. So there's a lot of playing and singing and stuff that I haven't done for 35 years, since the last time we played some of these songs. So that in and of itself is brain splitting. So the new one is even to the next level 'cause at least the 'Act III' songs, there's some muscle memory in there that stayed for 35 years. It kind of came back kind of quicker. It was really weird. Mark said the same thing too. Mark's, like, strangely, it was really easy to bring this album back up. 'Cause we did it so much at that time, somehow it retained the muscle memory. But there's no muscle memory with new stuff. So we're getting it. It's getting better and better. But that song also has vocal harmonies, so that's why that's the one to do in the 'Act III' set. Don't get me wrong. People are gonna go, like, 'That doesn't sound like anything from 'Act III'.' I'm not saying it sounds like something from 'Act III'. Just for our new stuff, to me, it's complementary to that set."

Regarding the possibility of a new DEATH ANGEL album seeing the light of day in the not-too-distant future, Rob said: "The timing needs to be right. We need a big chunk of clearance of time to properly support a full-length album and for all the effort it takes to release a full-length album. That being said, our next album will be our tenth album, and I'll be damned if we stop short of ten. I'll be damned if we stop shore of ten. And most of it's written already… I can say that we haven't begun recording the album, but there are absolutely demos, recordings of the music and songs that are being created. And it's been happening for years. The songs that are being released, the singles that we have, they were made to be singles. So those were a different mindset from the album that has its own entirety of the collection of songs that belong together for a record. We're not rushing the process. And also just due to life and scheduling and things, the timing wasn't right. We need clearance to do the full thing going, and it just hasn't happened as of yet. And then now it was the 35th anniversary of 'Act III' this year. Next year's the 40th anniversary of our debut album, 'The Ultra-Violence'. So these things kind of like inspire us to do some live activity based on those records, because of those milestone celebrations of those birthdays."

Asked if he thinks fans can expect to see a new DEATH ANGEL album in 2026, Rob said: "Released in '26? I'd have to say that might be wishful thinking. But it's not impossible. And I'm dying, dying, dying to record these songs. So we're really trying to make it happen."

Rob also addressed the fact that DEATH ANGEL pulled out of its fall 2024 tour as the support act for W.A.S.P. because of scheduling conflicts with SLAYER guitarist Kerry King's solo band, which features Mark as the lead singer. He said :"You kind of learn to pivot instead of sit there just in anguish that things aren't going exactly how you want them to go. So, during this time I've come to evolve myself in such a way, and I think the whole band has had to, because of all the stuff. So, we're in a good space. We did have a moment there of being very antsy and kind of upset that we weren't able to do this or that, or things went this way or that… But you come to accept that. Such is the way, especially in this business. We're not the only ones that have to deal with changing circumstances. And you need to get through it, pick your sorry ass up off the ground, slap yourself around, take some deep breaths and then just see what you're gonna do next."

Rob was also asked if there are now more open communication lines between the DEATH ANGEL bandmembers, particularly since Mark publicly admitted he didn't inform his DEATH ANGEL bandmates of his involvement with Kerry's group until right before it was officially announced. Rob said: "Yes. The communication has definitely improved as of late. But again, like Gilda Radner said on 'Saturday Night Live', if it's not one thing, it's another. And damn if that ain't true. So, if it isn't one thing, it's another. So we're used to that by now. And it actually does make you grow as a person, if you utilize it the right way and keep your head together, and it does make you better at dealing with shit, because there's always stuff to deal with. And then you also realize that it's kind of weird because these things inadvertently send you down different paths. So if things didn't happen as they did, we wouldn't even be doing [a tour celebrating the 35th anniversary of] 'Act III' right now. But the idea came out of because of one thing to the other, and then so since we weren't able to deal with our new album right now, like, what are we gonna do? And then through our conversations, it came up. I must admit I was a hard sell at the beginning. It was never a plan to do this. It wasn't, like, "Eventually we're gonna do that.' It was just, like, we just move forward. I'm not trying to milk stuff from the past or whatever. But it just happened. And, actually, Ted [Aguilar, DEATH ANGEL guitarist] was very instrumental in convincing me."

As for what fans can expect to see on the "Act III" 35th-anniversary tour, Rob said: "It's [gonna be] 'Act III' [performed] in its entirety, meaning from front to back. It's the whole album in a row. So it's really exciting, to do it that way. It's cool, 'cause it sounds like the album. We're still working out exactly how we're gonna do it. And then, to be cute, we are doing it in like three acts. So there's act one, then there's a slight pause, then the second act of songs, pause, and then the third. So I don't even wanna say, because we're still dealing with how we're gonna present it. So I'm not even saying necessarily that we're starting with 'Act III'. It may or may not go that way, but 'Act III' will happen in its entirety."

He added: "Me and Mark are definitely in the idea of moving forward — not to deny your past, but we just were very adamant about not being stuck on living from your past. Like, you've got a couple new songs? Oh, well — everyone just wants to hear the song from 1980, whatever. So we wanted to make sure that our new material would be relevant and people would like it. And then we'd play the old stuff and mix it up, and you get one or the other, you get a combination."

Earlier in the month, DEATH ANGEL released the official music video for "Wrath (Bring Fire)" . The clip, which can be seen below, was filmed by Edgar Salazar during the "Summer Of Wrath Tour 2025" in Europe.

DEATH ANGEL's fall 2025 U.S. tour will feature support from VIO-LENCE (replacing originally announced support act TOXIC HOLOCAUST),LIONS AT THE GATE and MISFIRE. The trek will kick off on November 26 at the Oriental Theater in Denver, Colorado and wrap with two Christmas shows on December 18-19 at The Fillmore in San Francisco, California.

Osegueda is the featured singer on King's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", which arrived in May 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music.

DEATH ANGEL released a live album titled "The Bastard Tracks" in November 2021 via Nuclear Blast. Recorded live at The Great American Music Hall in their hometown of San Francisco on May 22, 2021, and streamed live soon after, "The Bastard Tracks" was described in a press release as "a deep-cuts collection of rarely and never performed songs from the band's catalog" that was released digitally and on CD, vinyl and Blu-ray.

In October 2020, DEATH ANGEL released a four-song EP, "Under Pressure". The effort included a cover of QUEEN + David Bowie's "Under Pressure", followed by a new track titled "Faded Remains", plus acoustic versions of "Act III"'s classic "A Room With A View" and "Humanicide"'s "Revelation Song". The EP was mixed by Max Norman (OZZY OSBOURNE, MEGADETH, BAD COMPANY) and mastered by Ted Jensen (LAMB OF GOD, MACHINE HEAD, HALESTORM).

DEATH ANGEL's latest album, "Humanicide", was released in May 2019 via Nuclear Blast. The LP saw DEATH ANGEL returning to producer and friend Jason Suecof (DEICIDE, TRIVIUM) of Audiohammer studios for the recording and mixing, along with the mastering of the legendary Ted Jensen (SLIPKNOT, PANTERA) of Sterling Sound, who added the final touches and brought it all to life, with artist Brent Elliott White (LAMB OF GOD, MEGADETH) providing the ominous cover artwork.

In March 2020, DEATH ANGEL drummer Will Carroll spent almost two weeks on a ventilator in an intensive care unit at a Northern California hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. He first got sick when he and the rest of DEATH ANGEL spent more than a month on the road in Europe with TESTAMENT and EXODUS as part of "The Bay Strikes Back 2020" tour.

DEATH ANGEL was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance" for the "Humanicide" title track. It was the group's first Grammy nomination.

Carroll joined DEATH ANGEL in 2009 as the replacement for the band's original drummer, Andy Galeon.

Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral

Lugz will launch an officially licensed limited-edition footwear capsule collection with Ozzy Osbourne this Black Friday. Featuring key Lugz boot and canvas styles, the release — which had been in the works prior to the icon's untimely passing — will be available exclusively on Lugz.com, along with Ozzy's U.S. and European merch sites.

Like his music, Ozzy's style is second to none. The Cypress II Metal boot celebrates the illustrious career and the style of an icon. This moc-toe boot comes dressed in a premium grainy man-made leather with the iconic Ozzy Osbourne logo on the tongue, heal counter and lace lock. The second boot is inspired by the iconic 1983 album "Bark At The Moon". The Lugz x Ozzy Bark At The Moon Drifter boot features modern style while giving a nod to a classic from Ozzy's discography. A tough and rugged denim boot featuring the album artwork on the hangtag and insole.

The cornerstone of Lugz's collection celebrates an iconic moment in rock and roll more than four decades later! The Ozzy Bats Joints special edition of canvas sneaker pay tribute to the legend in typical fashion. A second canvas sneaker in the drop is inspired by Ozzy's debut studio album, "Blizzard Of Ozz", which celebrated its 45th anniversary in 2025. The Lugz x Ozzy Blizzard Of Ozz joints canvas sneaker gives nod to a classic from Ozzy's discography.

Limited-edition packaging was methodically planned from lace lock, custom insoles, hangtags, and packaging making this the perfect holiday gift for any fan.

The Cypress II Metal Boot will retail for $90. The Bark At The Moon Drifter Boot will retail for $80. Both the Bats and Blizzard Of Ozz Joints canvas sneakers will retail for $60 retail.

Since 1993, Lugz has remained a prevalent force in footwear. With over 30 years of heritage, they continue their commitment with a strong focus on design, materials, and classic styles built to stand the test of time.

Lugz was endorsed by key players from the world of hip-hop, giving it the image known today. Lugz product is aggressively styled using the highest-quality materials for maximum durability and superior comfort. Lugz's footwear features premium leathers and durable construction as well. Today Lugz has expanded beyond boots and has added casual shoes, sandals and athletics to the mix.

The @Lugz x @OzzyOsbourne collection drops Black Friday featuring the Ozzy Cypress II Metal boot. Stay tuned for a look...

Posted by Lugz on Monday, November 24, 2025

Caption: Inspired by the iconic 1983 album, Bark At The Moon. The Lugz x Ozzy Bark At The Moon Difter boot features...

Posted by Lugz on Tuesday, November 25, 2025

In the six-minute video below, KISS's Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons unbox the "Alive!" 50th-anniversary super deluxe box set, taking fans on a walk down memory lane on the making of the record that catapulted the band into worldwide success.

"Alive!" turns 50 in 2025 — a golden jubilee for the iconic live album that revolutionized live albums for the music industry. Often revered as one of the greatest live albums ever by countless music journalists, "Alive!" is celebrated with a Super Deluxe 180-gram 8-LP + Blu-ray Audio boxset showcasing 120 total tracks amplified with 88 unreleased tracks. LPs 1 and 2 feature the original album newly remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original 1975 stereo analog master tapes. LPs 3 through 6 showcase two full-length concerts from the 1975 "Dressed To Kill" tour — RKO Orpheum Theatre in Davenport, Iowa on July 20, Second Show and Wildwood Convention Hall in Wildwood, New Jersey on July 23 — newly mixed by legendary producer and engineer Eddie Kramer from the original multi-track analog tapes as KISS performed in 1975, with no overdubs. Bonus tracks on LP 7 and 8 include five rehearsal tracks at the Davenport gig including an impromptu jam and an additional six songs from Cleveland Music Hall, Cleveland, Ohio on June 21, 1975, all newly mixed by Eddie Kramer from the original multi-tracks. The Blu-ray Audio disc features "Alive!" newly mixed by Eddie Kramer from the original album multi-track analog tapes in Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround along with the newly remastered stereo in 192kHz 24-bit and 96kHz 24-bit PCM stereo set to a brand-new visualizer featuring a treasure trove of unreleased live photos.

The Super Deluxe explodes further with an extensive array of bonus kollectibles including:

* 100-page hardcover book with extensive liner notes by Ken Sharp featuring new interviews from Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and many notable "Alive!"-era KISS team members plus tons of unreleased photos and rare imagery.

* "Alive!" 1975 press kit featuring

- Press Release
- Four Black & White Glossy Photos 7.5"x10"
- Marketing Slick Sheet
- "Alive!" Tour Program
- "Alive!" Back Cover Fan Banner Poster
- Album Cover Lenticular
- T-shirt Iron-on
- Four Live Color Glossy Photos
- Peter Criss Drum Head Litho
- Wildwood Concert Poster 20"x28"
- Cleveland Concert Mini-Poster 10"x17"
- Cobo Arena Concert Main Floor Ticket Stub
- Wildwood Concert Ticket Stub
- Cleveland Concert Ticket Stub
- Cobo Arena Concert Backstage Pass
- New Year's Eve – Nassau Backstage Pass
- Four Double-Sided Coasters
- Four Guitar Picks
- Bumper Sticker 8"x2.5"
- "Alive!" Die-Cut Double-Sided Mobile
- Gotham Rock City News Volume 4 Newspaper – Track-by-Track interview with Eddie Kramer of nearly all tracks appearing on the collection

"Alive!" (Remastered)

LP One - Side A:

01. Deuce
02. Strutter
03. Got To Choose
04. Hotter Than Hell
05. Firehouse

LP One - Side B:

01. Nothin' To Lose
02. C'mon And Love Me
03. Parasite
04. She

LP Two - Side C:

01. Watchin' You
02. 100,000 Years
03. Black Diamond

LP Two - Side D:

01. Rock Bottom
02. Cold Gin
03. Rock And Roll All Nite
04. Let Me Go, Rock 'N Roll

Live In Davenport, Iowa – RKO Orpheum Theatre – July 20, 1975 – Second Show*

LP Three - Side E:

01. Deuce
02. Strutter
03. Got To Choose
04. Hotter Than Hell

LP Three - Side F:

01. Firehouse
02. She
03. Ace Frehley Guitar Solo
04. Nothin' To Lose

LP Four - Side G:

01. C'mon And Love Me
02. 100,000 Years
03. Peter Criss Drum Solo / 100,000 Years

LP Four - Side H:

01. Black Diamond
02. Cold Gin
03. Let Me Go, Rock 'N Roll

Live In Wildwood, New Jersey – Wildwood Convention Hall – July 23, 1975*

LP Five - Side I:

01. Deuce
02. Strutter
03. Got To Choose
04. Hotter Than Hell
05. Firehouse

LP Five - Side J:

01. She
02. Ace Frehley Guitar Solo
03. Nothin' To Lose
04. C'mon And Love Me

LP Six - Side K:

01. 100,000 Years
02. Peter Criss Drum Solo / 100,000 Years
03. Parasite

LP Six – Side L:

01. Black Diamond
02. Cold Gin
03. Let Me Go, Rock 'N Roll

Bonus Live

Rehearsals – Live In Davenport, Iowa – RKO Orpheum Theatre - July 20, 1975*

LP Seven - Side M:

01. KISS Jam
02. Room Service
03. Strange Ways
04. Rock Bottom
05. Watchin' You

Live In Cleveland, Ohio – Cleveland Music Hall – June 21, 1975*

LP Seven - Side N:

01. She
02. Ace Frehley Guitar Solo
03. Nothin' To Lose

LP Eight - Side O:

01. C'mon And Love Me
02. 100,000 Years
03. Peter Criss Drum Solo / 100,000 Years

Blu-ray Audio – Alive!

Disc Five:

[Dolby Atmos* / Dolby True HD 5.1* / 192kHz 24-bit & 96kHz 24-bit PCM Stereo]

01. Deuce
02. Strutter
03. Got To Choose
04. Hotter Than Hell
05. Firehouse
06. Nothin' To Lose
07. C'mon And Love Me
08. Parasite
09. She
10. Watchin' You
11. 100,000 Years
12. Black Diamond
13. Rock Bottom
14. Cold Gin
15. Rock And Roll All Nite
16. Let Me Go, Rock 'N Roll

* Previously unreleased

For more information, visit shopkissonline.com.

Last year, Eddie told Guitar World magazine about his work on the original "Alive!" album: "The thing with KISS was we knew we had to get everything down on tape no matter what it took. It was hard because they were always jumping around, and we had to do a bunch of work on the album after the fact, but that's how it was. The band may deny it, but the fact remains that on 'Alive!', we had to fix a bunch of stuff."

Asked if anyone in the band had a say in those fixes, Eddie said: "They did. And the album came out bloody great because the guys in KISS were very particular about how it should sound and be mixed. We worked tirelessly for weeks to make 'Alive!' sound amazing. So, while it's not totally 'live,' it's a great creation of the live sound of KISS from that time. There were just bits we had to fix for obvious reasons, like the guys being on stage in six-inch boots, bombs going off and rockets and flames shooting to God knows where. [Laughs] It takes a lot of work to keep in time and tune while jumping up and down. They can do it now, but in those days, not so much."

In June 2025, Stanley told Justin Richmond of the "Broken Record" podcast about KISS's first live album: "'Kiss Alive!' really captured the essence of the live experience. Now, that couldn't have happened without us going in the studio and enhancing it and surrounding you with people… Live albums were boring for four hours. You didn't even know they were live until the end of the song where you heard some clapping. But for KISS, we wanted an album that immersed you, immersion in the experience, which means being surrounded by people, which means bombs going off that are deafening, which means fixing any mistakes or a broken string. Snobs or purists may have looked down their nose at that idea, but the truth is that album is still considered, if not the greatest, one of the greatest, and in a lot of circles greatest live album ever. Not because everything was live, but because it captured the live experience."

KISS played its two final shows ever in December 2023 at New York City's Madison Square Garden.

The last show, held on December 2, 2023, streamed live on pay-per-view.

KISS launched its farewell trek in January 2019 but was forced to put it on hold in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"End Of The Road" was originally scheduled to conclude on July 17, 2021 in New York City. The trek was announced in September 2018 following a KISS performance of the band's classic song "Detroit Rock City" on "America's Got Talent".

Early last year, KISS sold its entire music catalog, likeness and brand name to Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment. A biopic, an avatar show, and a KISS-themed experience are already in the works, with Simmons and Stanley playing key roles in the development of all these projects, working closely with Pophouse.

In a new interview with Portland, Oregon's KPTV Fox 12, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx spoke about the band's upcoming "The Return Of Carnival Of Sins" tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of CRÜE's groundbreaking 2005-2006 "Carnival Of Sins" tour and the 45th anniversary of the band. The 33-city Live Nation-produced trek will kick off on July 17, 2026 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania at the Pavilion at Star Lake and will feature support acts EXTREME and TESLA. Reflecting on MÖTLEY CRÜE's four-and-a-half-decade career, Nikki said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're musicians, so we make music. I'm a writer for different things — books and, obviously, all the lyrics for the band — so it's always about writing music and being creative and then taking it out to the people. It never really felt like — I don't know — it's always felt pretty cohesive. It's part of our process."

He continued: "We did in 2015 do a farewell tour. And we honestly thought that was it. We were done. Everything was cool. And then the [MÖTLEY CRÜE] movie came out on Netflix, 'The Dirt'. And I don't know how many hundreds of millions of people saw that, and [it] put us in a place where they came to us and asked us if we wanted to do eight shows. And we were, like, it's a lot of work to put a show together. And we were, like, 'We love to play for our fans, but we've kind of already wrapped it up,' and blah, blah, blah. They said, 'No. Eight stadiums.' And we were, like, 'Oh.' And then we ended up doing 138 stadiums, us and DEF LEPPARD. And it was just exciting to be back out there again."

Regarding the upcoming "The Return Of Carnival Of Sins" trek, Nikki said: "I am looking forward to this tour because it's an evening of great songs from EXTREME and TESLA and MÖTLEY CRÜE. And also, for us to go out and have to top the original 'Carnival Of Sins' tour, which was a lot of eye candy — a lot of eye candy."

Asked how he and his MÖTLEY CRÜE bandmates plan on topping the original "Carnival Of Sins" tour, Nikki said: "You top it with technology, and we're just talking about all that now. It's good to get an early start on that kind of stuff. And we have to build out video content. We just did a [Las] Vegas residency and we used some really cool software to build in some storytelling in the show. And it was just over-the-top beautiful, what you can do. So the whole idea of the carnival or what's going on behind the carnival in the 'Carnival Of Sins' is open-ended. It's not a big towering wall of metal they have to stick in a truck. It's literally — you can take people somewhere else, which is super exciting."

Earlier in the month, Nikki told Mike Hsu of the 100 FM The Pike radio station about "The Return Of Carnival Of Sins": "Listen, two of our biggest and most successful tours was the 'Dr. Feelgood' tour. And that's not to negate 'Girls, Girls, Girls' or any of that stuff, but that was a big peaking time for us and that album connected with people. And then the 'Carnival Of Sins' tour 20 years ago. That was unbelievable. It was such a fun experience. And we were just, like, 'It's an anniversary of that and that DVD and people still talk to us about that show.' We were, like, 'Well, what can you do now with technology that you couldn't do back then?' They didn't have video screens back then, and anything that you could do that would encompass and take over the imagination of all the people there. And that we had an opportunity to do that in [Las] Vegas on a couple things. 'In The Beginning', [which] starts off the 'Shout At The Devil' album, we had an amazing visual presentation of 'In The Beginning'. Mid-show, everything went dark and there's this, basically, devil talking to you, narrating that, which then led into 'Shout At The Devil'. And these are the kind of things, when you think about the 'Carnival' environment, how far we can take it — it's super exciting for us."

Regarding MÖTLEY CRÜE's choice of support acts for the tour, Nikki said: "We're really stoked with TESLA and EXTREME, because the idea of TESLA and EXTREME and MÖTLEY CRÜE is it's all about songs, however you interpret them. You can play 'em RAMMSTEIN style or you can play 'em George Thorogood style or you can play 'em whatever. A good song is a good song, and that's what I'm really excited about. We've had the best time when we look out at the fans. We did 'The Stadium Tour' [in 2022]. They were singing every Joan Jett song, all the POISON songs, all the DEF LEPPARD songs, all the MÖTLEY CRÜE songs. So this has a little feel of that. They're in sheds and stuff — they're not stadiums — which is a cool place to play in the summer outside."

Asked if the upcoming extensive tour is MÖTLEY CRÜE "putting a cap on it", considering his recent comment that leaving his family behind to go on the road was becoming increasingly difficult for him, Sixx said: "No. It's summertime. It's great to be able to go out and be with the band and the fans and not leave my family behind 'cause they're in school and all this kind of stuff. So, summers are a great time for bands that have been around for a while and have families because we can go out and play and still be able to be with our families. That's always kind of been the hardest part for me, is being separated from that. I'm a dad and a husband and a sobriety advocate and a musician before I am a rock star. Though that doesn't equate to me, but I understand that. But I'm just saying, I don't put all my eggs just in that basket 'cause it would feel very one-dimensional to me. I have a lot of dimension that I like to enjoy in my life. I have an animation company. That brings me amazing amount of creative joy, and great partners. And there's so many other things that I do as well as MÖTLEY CRÜE. So I'm really grateful, dude — really grateful."

He added: "And no, this isn't a cap on anything. And then plugging it into summertime, it just works for everybody. It's just a blast."

MÖTLEY CRÜEsaid that $1 from every ticket sold for "The Return Of Carnival Of Sins" will be donated to ASAP! (After School Arts Program) through the Mötley Crüe Giveback Initiative to fund hands-on arts programs for young people.

MÖTLEY CRÜE's Las Vegas residency launched on September 12 and at Dolby Live at Park MGM and ran through October 3. The shows had initially been set for spring but were rescheduled after frontman Vince Neil revealed he had suffered a stroke last Christmas.

In September, Vince revealed that he had actually had a series of strokes before he suffered the "big one" in his sleep last Christmas night, rendering him unable to get out of bed when he woke up the next day.

When MÖTLEY CRÜE originally postponed the Las Vegas residency, the band said it was because Neil needed a "medical procedure," but offered no further details.

In a new interview with Neeka Rogers of Metal Nation, frontman Roger Miret of New York hardcore veterans AGNOSTIC FRONT spoke about the way streaming has revolutionized how people access music but has also created significant financial challenges for independent and smaller artists. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "A lot of of people don't realize, for example, Spotify and all that stuff… Either you're with it or you're not with it. And if you're not with it, you're left in a corner. But they know that. But the musicians are getting ripped off in a horrible way. It's all CEOs making the money. They're not creating the music. They just figured out how to kind of rip everybody off. And then you have your other giant agencies, too, that do the same thing with hacking on crazy prices to a regular ticket. You wanna go see a band, and it's $15, $20, and by the time you checked out, you paid $38 — of a fee on top of a fee on top of a fee on top of a fee. It's just wild what they do. And the bands don't see that — trust me. We get [paid] based on your $15 ticket, $20 ticket, whatever. Everything else, someone's making a… There's a sixth bandmember somewhere that you don't even know about. It doesn't stop. It's continuous, and it's a monopolization of the whole music industry, the whole everything. And it's starting to move into Europe too. A lot of these companies are now huge in Europe. They're taking over the clubs. It's like taking over mom-and-pop coffee shops — mom-and-pop music venues, and they're taking them over and they're corrupting them and doing the same thing. And it's kind of sad. Leave music alone. Leave musicians alone. Leave the people alone. Instead of [charging] them another $18, let them take that money so they can buy a t-shirt, support the band and have something they really love at the end of the show, a memory of. Not a ticket stub that costs you $38. How about a t-shirt?"

Miret added: "The bands are living off the soft merch [clothing, hats, tote bags]. I'll be honest with you, as a bandmember telling you. If it wasn't for that, I don't even know. That's how bad it is. At the same time, don't let me be negative about it. And we're not even one of the bigger bands. I just saw, [Shirley Manson] from GARBAGE, she was on a huge rant in Denver. She's afraid she's not gonna wanna come back because she's over Live Nation ripping people off. She said that her band makes an average of $38 a month on Spotify, and stuff like that. It's just wild. It's wild what they do. But it's gonna stop someday."

AGNOSTIC FRONT recently released its new album, "Echoes In Eternity", via Reigning Phoenix Music.

In September 2021, Miret revealed that his cancer was in remission.

After Miret was diagnosed with cancer in early 2021, a long road of tests and diagnoses led to a complex initial surgery and lengthy hospital stay. Even though the original surgery was complicated, the results were extremely positive.

Born in Cuba, Miret fled with his family to the U.S. to escape the Castro regime. He joined AGNOSTIC FRONT in 1983, and the seminal New York hardcore group released classics like "United Blood", "Victim In Pain" and "Cause For Alarm" over the next several years.

In 2017, Miret released a memoir, "My Riot: Agnostic Front, Grit, Guts, And Glory", which documented his struggles to adapt to life in the U.S. after his family fled the Castro regime. According to the Phoenix New Times, the book delved into many facets of Miret's life: the grinding poverty of his childhood; living as a teenager squatter; becoming deeply enmeshed in downtown New York’s hardcore scene; and later turning to drug-running to support his family.

In addition to fronting AGNOSTIC FRONT, Miret has also played with ROGER MIRET AND THE DISASTERS and is a member of THE ALLIGATORS.

For the past several years, Roger has resided in Scottsdale, Arizona.

BECOMING, the visionary musical project of multi-instrumentalist Jason Hardouin, will premiere a brand-new version of their song "Wish" this Thanksgiving weekend. The video is a rallying cry for humanity to rise above hate, blame, division, and negativity — featuring cameo appearances from some of metal music's heaviest hitters and cultural icons, who took part in the original #WishChallenge back in 2022.

Originally appearing on BECOMING's 2020 album "In The Name Of God" — described as a "prayer for humanity while finding the God within, beyond organized religions" — "Wish" went further, serving as a call to action: to stop blaming or hating others and instead to wish every other human being only good things.

Since its original release in 2022, the first "Wish" video has amassed more than 15 million views across social media, becoming a global statement for hope and unity. The 2025 version reflects the current state of the world, offering a powerful message of anti-hate, gratitude, and peace during these turbulent times.

"'Wish' is about self-responsibility, taking ownership and action in your life, and not blaming others for your issues," says Hardouin. "It's about wishing everyone well and rejecting hate in a fun uplifting way — a message that couldn't be more relevant today."

The video for "Wish" also includes cameo appearances by legendary artists and cultural icons who embraced the spirit of the song through the #WishChallenge in 2022.

* "The Metal Ambassador" Jose Mangin (SiriusXM radio personality)
* Phil Demmel (KERRY KING, CATEGORY 7, MACHINE HEAD, VIO-LENCE)
* Jason Bittner (SHADOWS FALL, CATEGORY 7, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, OVERKILL)
* Doc Coyle (GOD FORBID, ICE NINE KILLS, BAD WOLVES)
* Tommy Chong (Cheech & Chong)
* Steve "Zetro" Souza (EXODUS, LEGACY)
* Otep Shamaya (OTEP)
* Andreas Kisser (SEPULTURA)
* Derrick Green (SEPULTURA)
* Corey Beaulieu (TRIVIUM)
* Bootsy Collins (James Brown, PARLIAMENT-FUNKADELIC, P-FUNK, PRAXIS)
* Chris Kontos (FORBIDDEN, MACHINE HEAD, ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT)
* Max Cavalera (CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, SEPULTURA, SOULFLY)
* Igor Cavalera (CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, SEPULTURA)

Several of these artists also contributed their talents to BECOMING's upcoming album, further amplifying BECOMING's message through music.

BECOMING's next full-length album, "Consciousness Revolution", due for release in 2026 features some of the biggest names in heavy music, a few of whom first connected with Hardouin through the first "Wish Challenge" project in 2022:

* Jason Bittner (SHADOWS FALL, CATEGORY 7, OVERKILL, FLOTSAM AND JETSAM)
• Stix Zadinia (STEEL PANTHER)
• Mike Terrana (Tarja, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kiko Loureiro, Tony MacAlpine)
• Cesar Soto (MINISTRY, MAN THE MUTE, PISSING RAZORS)
• Doc Coyle (GOD FORBID, ICE NINE KILLS, BAD WOLVES)
• James Murphy (TESTAMENT, DEATH, OBITUARY)
• Phil Demmel (KERRY KING, CATEGORY 7, MACHINE HEAD, VIO-LENCE)
• Jon Donais (ANTHRAX, SHADOWS FALL, LIVING WRECKAGE)

"'Consciousness Revolution' is about human evolution — not through politics or religion, but through awareness, objective truth, self-determination, and the power of human will," says Hardouin. "It's a sonic, self-actualizing, spiritual journey that invites everyone to raise the vibrations across the nations."

The Metal Hall Of Fame will take over the Sunset Strip for the 2026 blowout bash on January 21, 2026.

"We invite all the fans to join us in celebrating the '80s," says Metal Hall Of Fame founder/CEO Pat Gesualdo. "Get ready to unleash your inner metal spirit, and dress in leather, studs, big hair, and all the metal you can handle. Two iconic venues, one legendary night."

The 2026 Metal Hall Of Fame will be hosted by Eddie Trunk and entertainment personality Cathy Rankin.

Scheduled events:

* Celebrity Red Carpet - Rainbow Bar & Grill (6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.).

Inductions + All-Star Jam - Roxy Theater (starting at 8:00 p.m.)

* Chris Holmes (former W.A.S.P. guitarist) inducted by Carlos Cavazo
* Tracii Guns (L.A. GUNS)
* Warren DeMartini (RATT)
* Riki Rachtman (MTV's "Headbangers Ball")
* Rikki Rockett (POISON)
* All-Star Jam

This special celebration of the Sunset Strip will also include sponsorship activation from Monster Energy AMA Supercross (with some of their superstar riders),Ghost Tequilia, Koffin Krew Apparel and "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott's Blacktooth whiskey.

Metal Hall Of Fame is a non-profit organization. Legendary entertainment executives oversee all of the Metal Hall Of Fame initiatives, including Pat Gesualdo (founder of Metal Hall Of Fame/studio and touring drummer),Wendy Dio (founder, Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund),David Ellefson (formerly of MEGADETH),Jimmy Kay (The Metal Voice),Munsey Ricci (Skateboard Marketing),George Johnsen (Mammoth Vision Studio) and Brian Perera (founder of Cleopatra Records).

The annual Metal Hall Of Fame celebrity gala has included historical moments throughout hard rock and heavy metal, including Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne granting former Ozzy drummer Lee Kerslake his dying wish of receiving his platinum record awards for the "Blizzard Of Ozz" and "Diary of A Madman" albums, having METALLICA induct Megaforce Records founders Jon and Marsha Zazula, inducting JUDAS PRIEST at Wacken Open Air festival in Wacken, Germany, inducting Steve Vai, TRIUMPH, Geoff Tate, and members of KISS and IRON MAIDEN, inducting ANTHRAX at Heavy Montreal, having Paul Stanley induct longtime KISS manager Doc McGhee, having Brian May of QUEEN induct Joe Satriani.

As always, fans can vote at www.metalhalloffame.org for their favorite bands to be inducted into the Metal Hall Of Fame.

Earlier this year, Gesualdo told West Coast Leather about how the Metal Hall Of Fame came to be: "In 2016 DEEP PURPLE got inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. When the drummer's wife went up to accept the award on his behalf, the camera panned to the audience and everybody was like half asleep. Ten seconds later Eazy-E got [his] award and everyone was so excited. I was so annoyed. I said, 'You know what? We need our own show and we are going to call it the Metal Hall Of Fame.' That was in April, and that following January 3,000 miles away, we had our first show."

Asked what his favorite thing is about working with the Hall Of Fame inductees, Pat said: "We are dedicated to preserving and honoring the musicians that have worked so hard for so many decades to keep the music that we love alive and something needed to be done about that."

The Metal Hall of Fame will take over the Sunset Strip for the 2026 Blowout Bash, January 21, 2026!!

"We invite all the...

Posted by Metal Hall of Fame on Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Glenn Hughes is celebrating the 28th anniversary of his getting sober.

On Tuesday (November 25), the 74-year-old former DEEP PURPLE bassist and vocalist shared an image revealing he has been sober for 28 years, 336.03 months, 10,229 days or 245,478 hours.

He wrote: "By the Grace of God, I am living a clean & sober life . Today I celebrate 28 years, of abstinence from drugs and alcohol. I am one of the lucky ones, who surrendered, and turned my life over to my creator,& returned to the source, a spiritual being living a human experience.

"My prayers, go out to all those who are still suffering, you are not alone my friends. Sending love and comfort to you all."

He added: "25 years ago today, I married the love of my life, @gabihughes7 . I cannot imagine, my life without her, I do not think I would be here If we never had met on the blind date we had in Santa Monica.

"Honored to be your man. I love you Gab".

Hughes spent key years of his career as the beloved bassist and vocalist of DEEP PURPLE, appearing on the classic albums "Burn", "Stormbringer" and "Come Taste the Band".

A little over four years ago, Glenn was asked in an interview with "The Chuck Schute Podcast" if there was anything someone could have said to him to get him to quit drinking sooner. He responded: "Trust me, everybody that loved me or loves me told me on numerous occasions to get it together, to get it together, to get it together. I got it together when I was sick and tired of waking up sick and tired. So many times I tried to stop, and so many times I couldn't get it together. My suggestion for those out there that may have had one too many drinks, you've gotta realize that that high is never gonna last forever. You've gotta get a grip on it.

"A friend of mine right now is really struggling — really, really struggling. I pray for everyone that is having problems with any addiction, because it needs to be dealt with. You can't shove it away and brush it under the carpet. You have to deal with it, because it will take you out."

Asked if he went to rehab for alcohol abuse or if he just quit cold turkey, Hughes said: "I did [go to rehab]. Let's just say I had one too many cocktails on Christmas Day 1991, and I found myself in the ER room one more time. And I realized that I had a choice — to go back out and do it again or go into [rehab. And] I went to Betty Ford Center in 1992. I had a few relapses in the mid-1990s, and in 1997 I had my last cocktail — November 23rd, 1997. And that's when I started this full road of recovery. And it's been an incredible, incredible journey.

"Somebody said to me early on in sobriety, 'You're gonna on to make even greater songs, write better songs. You're gonna go out and sing better.' And I said, 'Well, I've already done it.' He said, 'No. You're gonna do even better.' And I think I've had a good, long run of a great lifetime of clean and sober living."

Hughes wrote about his path to sobriety in his autobiography, titled "Deep Purple And Beyond: Scenes From The Life Of A Rock Star", which came out in 2011. Glenn told FaceCulture about the book: "In the '70s and '80s, I was a very notorious drug addict, I was a very famous cocaine addict. I don't say that to be arrogant, but I was one of the first rock stars to become, 'Oh, Glenn Hughes, he's a cocaine addict.'"

"There are things that I never told anybody until the book," he explained. "Let's just say that I disappeared in the '90s for awhile and nobody knew where I was and I didn't tell anybody. People thought I was actually on a boat in the Mediterranean and I wasn't I was somewhere else. I was basically being another person under another name being completely isolated and it almost killed me.

"I wanted to experiment. I wanted to be alone and I wanted to live under a different name and I wanted to travel alone with no one [knowing] where I was. I only disappeared five or six times in three years Let's just say that I was on my journey.

"When I got sober a long time ago, and let's just say that I wanted to experiment with other drugs and other things and other people and I wanted to be anonymous," Hughes added. "I wanted to go under another name and I wanted to travel. I wanted to do it without [being] in the public eye in my hometown in the country where I live; I wanted to disappear and there is no greater city in the world to go dark than Amsterdam. If you want weird, it's here. And the fact of the matter is, it got so fucking weird that it scared the shit out of me. Let's just say that I went to the edge of the cliff of insanity. I had this clarity moment where I said, "Well, I can either jump over here and go insane' 'cause I was really, really going insane and I just turned back and became the man that I am now."

Hughes released his latest studio album, "Chosen", on September 5 via Frontiers Music Srl.

Photo credit: Leo Baron

By the Grace of God, I am living a clean & Sober life .
Today I celebrate 28 years, of abstinence from drugs and...

Posted by Glenn Hughes on Tuesday, November 25, 2025

In a new interview with "Coffee With Ola", the YouTube program hosted by Ola Englund, the Swedish guitarist, record producer and owner of Solar guitars, Mille Petrozza of German/Finnish/French thrash metal veterans KREATOR spoke about the band's upcoming sixteenth studio album, "Krushers Of The World", which will arrive on January 16, 2026 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP was recorded at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden with producer Jens Bogren. Bogren previously helmed KREATOR's "Phantom Antichrist" (2012) and "Gods Of Violence" (2017) LPs. The "Krushers Of The World" cover artwork was created by Polish genius Zbigniew Bielak (GHOST).

Regarding his songwriting process, Mille said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The thing is, it's like a puzzle. You start coming up with all these riffs that you think maybe it's a little bit above what I am able to play, but if I rehearse and if I get into practice, and if I get into the mindset, I might be able to do this at one point. Which is not when we go into the studio. But it might be when we play the first five shows of a tour. And then everything starts to flow."

Mille continued: "The lyrics, most of the time they're first. And there needs to be an idea. And when I have a lyrical idea… then I come up with the riffs. And the riffs, I don't wanna limit myself. I want them to be a little spectacular or something that not everybody can just play right away. But also harmonically, they need to be nice for my voice, for my mid-rangey kind of voice, in order to work in live situation… But in the end of the day, in my experience, it was always good to play a little bit above your abilities. But at some point, you, it makes you a better musician because you challenge yourself. It doesn't necessarily have to mean that, that there's the. The riffs have to be complicated at any cost. If they're cool and they're very easy to play, they make great songs also. So, I think you always have to find whatever's best for the song. And I think finding the riffs is only 10% or 15% of the whole composition. But it's very important, especially in metal."

After Englund noted that, for him personally, riffs constitute "90%" of the songwriting process, Petrozza clarified: "There's definitely exceptions to the rule. I don't know how METALLICA write their songs. But I think they also have the riffs first. So every band is different. So there's no formula — there's no certain formula that works for every band. And I think for my band or for my style of songwriting, it always worked quite well to have a lyrical theme or sometimes even just some chorus. I need to have something that people can sing along. I like it when people sing along. And I like it when you can remember the songs. I like catchy stuff. I'm not a 'prog' head. I love RUSH — don't get me wrong — and I love TOOL, early stuff, but I also like songwriting. And I think, for example, a band like TOOL and RUSH, they have this in between — they have great songs, but they have weird rhythms. And so it makes me, as a listener, it makes it enjoyable. But if it's just too [complicated] for the sake of it, it's not my taste."

On the topic of how the songs for "Krushers Of The World" came together, Mille said: "The way I write is I just record demos. I have a friend [Andy Posdziech] that has a great studio. He plays in a band called ANY GIVEN DAY. They're a really good band. And this time when I recorded the demos, the demos almost sounded like the album, because it was so detailed. The drums sounded great. And the way we recorded the riffs, the sonic quality of the demos was really good. So I enjoyed listening to the demos. I listened to the demos for a couple of months, really, before I even played it to anyone. That made me kind of figure out whether or not I enjoyed these songs. And I lived with it for half a year or so and then went to Jens's studio. I went there with the demos, and he would do a pre-production of the pre-production, like coming up with his ideas."

Mille added: "Everybody is different, but I think it can really help if you make a proper recording of a song that you have in mind with electronic drums and all digital stuff, but make it kind of how it's gonna sound in the end of the day and then figure out while you are — whatever — doing the dishes or just cleaning your apartment or whatever, and you listen to it in the background and if you enjoy it, it could be a good song. Like I said, it's just my way of doing things, but it helps me."

Mille previously spoke about the making of "Krushers Of The World" earlier this month in an interview with Sweden's "Rockpodden" podcast. He stated about the LP at the time: " I'm happy. I'm happy with the way it came out. It took me a while to write it, but I think we have a nice variety of interesting music and nice poetry and lyrics. Hopefully people appreciate it."

When the interviewer noted that "Krushers Of The World" sounds sonically "amazing", Mille responded: "Oh, thank you. Yeah, that's the band being very, very prepared. And the chemistry in the band, within the band is very positive. And also we worked with one of the best producers in the world, Jens. He really put his heart and soul into this production this time, and once we got into the studio, he got so involved in everything."

Mille confirmed that all of "Krushers Of The World" was recorded in Sweden. He said: "I think on 'Gods Of Violence', we went also to Örebro to record guitars, vocals and mix. And this time we did everything in [Jens's] studio because he has a nice setup now. He has a drum room, so it wasn't necessary to move studios for the drums. So, we were there for six weeks or seven weeks, and then he would go on a little vacation, and then he came back and took another three or four weeks to mix the album. [He did] really, really nice work this time."

Mille continued: "The way it's set up [at Fascination Street], you have everything under one roof. You have the mastering, the mixing, the recording, and then you have all these people working there all day. They're all metalheads. So it's almost like Disneyland for metalheads. We stayed there the whole time. We all had our rooms there. So it's very convenient, because you get up in the morning. Jens is already there. We start very early. And overall, it was a very, very focused experience, but also a very fun experience. We had a lot of laughs and really enjoyed the process of doing the album, and I think that really shows on the record. It sounds fresh."

Regarding how he and the rest of KREATOR manage to always come up with material that doesn't sound like a rehash of what they have done in the past, Mille said: "What a lot of bands tend to forget is once it turns into a routine and you just record albums in order to go back on tour or to stay relevant or other reasons, it's not natural. You have to question yourself all the time. You have to be very self-critical with your own art. You have to live with the music for a while."

Mille continued: "This time I went into pre-production on a very early stage. I did pre-production for over a year, and I wrote the songs for another year. I mean, I started writing in '22 and up to '25. And it was a process where I had time to have — me and my friend Andy from the band ANY GIVEN DAY, we would do demos that have a great quality already that people, if they would've listened to the demos, they would've already had heard a very good production. So the demos were very nice to listen to and gave me the opportunity to live with the songs for a while and rewrite stuff that I thought was weak or add stuff when I thought there was something missing. And that process really gave the album time to grow. And when I played it to the band, for me it was already old, but I was confident that these songs are great. And then the band came with their ideas and then Jens came with his ideas. So it's a very, very nice pot-pourri of creativity and passion for the music. And everybody involved gave their 150 percent."

Asked how open he is to new ideas, particularly from an outsider like Jens, Mille said: "It depends. Sometimes [Jens] makes suggestions and they're great. Sometimes we don't like his suggestions. Everything we question is for the better. Nobody that's involved wants the songs to suffer or push their ego. Like, 'This is my idea, so it needs to be on the song.' That sometimes can be a problem with producers or musicians that are thinking, 'Oh, no. I need to put this song part in there. Otherwise the song is not good.' And we were very open. And we discussed a lot. We talked a lot. And this is the third album that we did with Jens, so we kind of know each other well enough to know how we can actually take criticism or joke around if an idea's not good. So we don't get butthurt about things where we will go, like, 'Yeah, but I want my idea there.'"

Asked if he is "a hundred percent sure" that there will be another KREATOR album after "Krushers Of The World", Mille said: "Yeah. I think yes. But it's a nice trick. We could also do like this whole, 'Okay, it might be our last album.' THE CURE's done it for many years, and now I think MEGADETH is putting out their last album. It's a nice — how do I put this? — if they really feel that way, then it's cool.

"I think that I have at least five more albums in me," Mille explained. "I mean, the end is coming eventually. The physical body will disappear. Seriously, I don't really think in these categories. I think once you get on this journey, it ends when it ends. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's even more than five albums in me still, if I live long enough. Now that I'm getting to a certain age, of course, it's not like when you're 20 years old, you're, like, 'I have, a hundred percent, five more albums in me.' But I do — I think I do. But let's see — let's see what the future brings. You never know. But I'm open for whatever happens. But we'll see."

Petrozza added: "Those cryptic thoughts never come to me. I always think that, and also I think on 'Krushers Of The World', you can hear that I think music can be empowering and should be joyful. And this album, even though it has dark stuff on it, and it has like very heavy stuff on it, but it's a very positive energy that we're spreading."

KREATOR has released two singles so far from "Krushers Of The World": "Seven Serpents" and "Tränenpalast". The latter track is an homage to horror maestro Dario Argento's 1977 cult film "Suspiria", which is hailed by fans as one of the most defining genre entries of its era. While the lead melody references the film's original score by Italian prog band GOBLIN, lending it a melodic death metal touch, the lyrics mention "the three mothers," an ancient witch coven from the "Suspiria" universe. In addition, the music video created by acclaimed masters of the macabre Grupa 13 features KREATOR performing in the film's haunted ballet school setting complemented by disturbing images of said witches in various stages of transformation.

"Tränenpalast" features vocal coach Britta Görtz of extreme metal band HIRAES on guest vocals.

When "Tränenpalast" was made available in late October, Mille commented: "'Tränenpalast' is our tribute to the great tradition of Italian cinema. We drew inspiration from Dario Argento's classic 'Suspiria' and Luca Guadagnino's epic masterpiece remake. Musically, we bow to the great GOBLIN, in direct conversation with maestro Claudio Simonetti. We hope you enjoy the song as much as we do. Only love to the greats! Hail to the Hordes!"

KREATOR will promote "Krushers Of The World" with a monumental European tour across 20 countries, joining forces with fellow metal powerhouses CARCASS, EXODUS and NAILS. The trek will kick off on March 20, 2026 in Lisbon, Portugal, at MEO Arena and wrap up on April 25, 2026 in Copenhagen, Denmark, at Poolen. Highlights include shows in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Paris, Milan, Berlin, Stockholm, and more.

Petrozza commented: "We are beyond excited to kick off the new year with the release of our brand-new album 'Krushers Of The World', dropping January 16. But that's not all! On March 20, we're hitting the road to bring you our biggest tour production ever. This will be a night of unrelenting metal mayhem, featuring our brothers-in-arms CARCASS, EXODUS and the mighty NAILS. This marks an exciting new chapter for the band, and we can't wait for you to experience the new music live, plus a selection of classic KREATOR, old and new. Hail to the hordes! \m/."

"Krushers Of The World" track listing:

01. Seven Serpents
02. Satanic Anarchy
03. Krushers Of The World
04. Tränenpalast
05. Barbarian
06. Blood Of Our Blood
07. Combatants
08. Psychotic Imperator
09. Deathscream
10. Loyal To The Grave

The "Krushers Of The World" cover sees Zbigniew Bielak, renowned for his work for GHOST, art and design, offer an interesting twist to KREATOR's history. Transforming classic visual trademarks dedicated fans will recognize from "Coma Of Souls" (1990),"Out Of The Dark... Into The Light" (1988) and "Pleasure To Kill" (the font!) into a highly detailed tapestry garnered with occult symbolism, Bielak crafted an outstanding piece paying homage to a band he loves since his teenager days yet with a daring and unique flair. The cover of "Krushers Of The World" rewards everyone willing to analyze the grandiose sleeve design.

KREATOR's upcoming effort will be the follow-up to 2022's "Hate Über Alles", which was recorded at Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin, Germany. Helming the sessions for that LP was Arthur Rizk, who has previously worked with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, CODE ORANGE, POWER TRIP and SOULFLY, among others.

"Hate Über Alles" marked KREATOR's first album with bassist Frédéric Leclercq, who joined the group in 2019.

The official KREATOR documentary, "Hate & Hope", was shown on July 2 at the 42nd Munich International Film Festival and received a theatrical premiere on September 4. The 110-minute film was directed by Cordula Kablitz-Post.

Mille's official German-language autobiography, which he wrote with journalist, author and presenter Torsten Groß, "Your Heaven, My Hell - Mein Leben, Heavy Metal Und Wie Das Alles Passieren Konnte", was published on August 28 via Ullstein Verlag.

To mark the album’s 20th anniversary in 2026, Reaper Entertainment will release the cult classic
The Beauty And The Beer already on December 5, 2025 as a strictly limited vinyl edition and CD edition.

The album remains one of the absolute highlights in Tankard’s long career, featuring timeless
anthems such as “Ice-Olation”, “We Still Drink The Old Ways”, “The Beauty and the Beast”, and the legendary “Frankfurt: We Need More Beer”. A must-have for every fan of the “Kings of Beer”.



As with the successful re-releases of Kings Of Beer and Disco Destroyer, this edition comes with a newly reworked cover by Kai Brockschmidt. For collectors, the original artwork is also included – pure nostalgia guaranteed.

The album has been carefully remastered by Alexander Ecker at Pearlsound Studio, bringing Tankard’s thrash cult sound back to life in a powerful and contemporary way.

On November 16, during the "KISS Kruise: Land-Locked In Vegas" event held at Las Vegas' Virgin Hotels resort and casino, longtime band manager Doc McGhee took part in a question-and-answer session with attendees. A few excerpts appear below (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):

On whether he'd ever write a tell-all book:

Doc: "I've wrestled with the idea of a book for a long time. Everybody wants to hear the stories — the dirt, and the things that have happened over my 50-year career. As I started to write the book – and I've been doing it for years — it dawned on me that I don't really have the right to do that. I'm like Dad, and I shouldn't talk about my kids. This was between all of us, so that's why I probably won't write a book."

On Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley being perfectionists:

Doc: "They're very hands-on before the show, after the show. We sit and critique the show after the show every night. It's probably one of the very few bands that I've ever managed that was actually coherent enough after a show to sit down and talk about it, but actually wanted to sit down and go through pyro, video — we'd always have playback brought in of that show, so when we talked about something, we could play it back and see how we were going to change it."

On KISS being honored by the Kennedy Center:

Doc: "Very, very few artists have ever received this award, especially in the rock field. Usually rock bands are not talked about at [this level] — I mean, [LED] ZEPPELIN got it, but there's only been a few [rock] artists that have received it. To get that honor is amazing… Some artists say they won't play it because of the political landscape. To me, music is supposed to bring people together… Some artists are doing it even though they're not with this regime. Two of them said, 'It doesn't matter — it's not about politics. It's about music.'"

On the forthcoming feature film about KISS, "Shout It Out Loud":

Doc: "It's crazy, because [Simmons and Stanley] were probably the two most unlikely people in the world to become rock stars when you look at it. You have Chaim Witz and Stanley Rosen. One was a cab driver that had one ear and couldn't hear and was kind of made fun of, and the other one came from Israel and didn't speak English until he was nine years old, lived in a Hungarian neighborhood and learned English watching television… It's the story of the guys from inception — before the zeroes [on their paychecks], when it was fun — and the struggle to get to 'Alive!'... It's the American dream. Everybody says, 'You can be whatever you want to be.' That's fuckin' great to say, but here's an example — especially with Gene and Paul, who absolutely would have been the last people to be picked to become what they are today."

On the late Ace Frehley:

Doc: "I think Ace would have been a rock star no matter what. The guy was just crazy… Whether you liked Ace or not as far as a person or think he's a great guitar player, he's probably one of three or four guitar players in the world that actually influenced kids to pick up a guitar. You can [count] the other ones on one hand. [There were plenty of other] great guitar players, but not kids who said, 'That's what I want to be.'"

On how KISS came to enjoy cruises, and the future of the KISS Kruise:

Doc: "These guys, when they got the first cruise, they didn't want to get onto the boat. The guys left after two days. When they were off, they went, 'Wow, we really sucked. What was that?' Then they stayed on the boat [the next year], and they started to understand fans, truly. They got closer and more involved every year. They got more approachable. They told funny stories, and you actually saw a different side of Gene and Paul and the band. That made them more connected to [fans]... We're going to watch surveys and talk to everybody and see what's available for boats. Maybe it's a European thing [next time]. We don't know yet. We've never done a European one…That's something we're looking at, but there will be one every year. That's what we hope for, and we want to find the right spots."

On KISS's return to the stage in Las Vegas:

Doc: "These guys haven't played in two years. What have they been doing for two years? Über-dad. They love their families so much, but you just turn into… you're going to Home Depot. You've been a rock star for 50 years, and you're at Home Depot with an orchid. They would have come here a week early. They were really excited… I thought [the concert] was phenomenal. All the shit worked! The timing of the lights and everything else was so much better [than expected]. We spent two months trying to get it right on [the final leg of] the 'End Of The Road' tour. It was torture every day trying to get everything synced, and somehow, all the stars were aligned last night. I thought they sang well. I thought it was a little slow to begin with, and then they kind of got their [sea] legs and started to roll. It was just them playing — it wasn't that setlist of perfection that we have to do every day. They were looser. I thought it was one of the better shows I've seen."

On the forthcoming KISS avatar show:

Doc: "We didn't want KISS to fade away. Nobody knew how to do it, until I saw 'ABBA Voyage' in London. Then I went right to the company that did it [Pophouse], and I said, 'Wow, this would be an opportunity for us to take KISS into the future.' Gene and Paul, everybody gets older. Nobody wants to see [past-his-prime NFL legend] Joe Namath go out there and throw the football. They wanted to go out on top and be the best that they could be before they couldn't do it… With this, we have the ability to now introduce new generations, new songs, new elements of a new KISS. The [forthcoming full-length band] documentary is, like, the first 50 years of KISS. Then we have our next 50 years that we're about to do. I think that's the exciting part for me."

On the volatility of KISS's original lineup:

Doc: "They didn't play together for 17 years… If you have a glass of milk that's sour and put it in the refrigerator for 17 years and expect it to taste any better, I'm not sure that's what's going to happen. But they really hung in there for a while [after reuniting] before their emotions got to them and all the old feelings came out. It's sad when that happens, but that's life. It's like a marriage or a relationship. Seventy percent of all marriages fail, so why wouldn't a rock band fail? They're with each other every day of their lives, and they all have different cheerleaders in their families and friends, and 'I'm more important than him,' and 'This guy's getting more than I'm getting'... You're getting all these things that interfere, and sometimes people can't get past those things. They can't let things go, and that past kills the future. History repeats itself — it was about six years before they started to fall apart to begin with, and when I put them back together again, it was six years when we started falling apart again… That whole concept of, 'You have to stay together'? We wanted everybody to come and play this [event]. I talked to all of them and couldn't get it done. It's just, shit happens, and there's not much you can do about it."

On his first impressions of MÖTLEY CRÜE, and the lesson he learned from his years of managing them:

Doc: "They were so bad. When I went to see them in 1982, I thought I was being punked. I walked in there and they were rolling around on the floor blowing shit up and lighting themselves on fire, and I went to myself, 'What the fuck is this? This is terrible.' Then I looked around and saw 3,000 kids going ape-shit. [They] tore down every poster, bought every piece of merchandise. Then I realized that I didn't know a fuckin' thing about music. Since then, I don't watch the bands – I watch the audience, because if the audience doesn't like them, it doesn't matter what I like. Who cares what I like? I'm a masses guy. I happen to like KISS and I happen to like the music of KISS, but it doesn't matter. That's not the key. The key is, how do I continue to make you guys like KISS, and your kids, and how can I keep the connection that you guys have with this brand?... We try to do stuff like this [KISS Kruise] and take photos and do whatever you can to help the people that are here. When somebody says, 'You helped me get through this' [pauses]... I get choked up, sorry… that is such an emotional connection."

McGhee managed BON JOVI from 1984 through 1991, an era when they achieved their biggest commercial successes with "Slippery When Wet" and "New Jersey". He also managed MÖTLEY CRÜE throughout the 1980s and helped to create the Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989, which was attended by 100,000 people and broadcast in 59 countries.

In 1995, McGhee began managing KISS by overseeing the band's subsequent reunion with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, which would yield the top-grossing tour of 1996. 2025 marks his 30th year as the group's manager.

Image credit: X5 Podcast

GREAT WHITE guitarist Mark Kendall has revealed that he is battling stage four kidney cancer.

On Saturday (November 22),the 68-year-old musician, who formed GREAT WHITE in 1977 under the band's original name of DANTE FOX, took to his Facebook page to write: "Hello Friends! Just wanted everyone to know I was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer a few months ago. I wanted to wait to go public until I knew a little more about it.

"Just to give you an update the tumor has shrunk from 13 centimeters to 8, so I'm going in the right direction with my first scan.

"There isn't a cure for cancer but what I have is manageable.

"I have the best doctors in the world and one of them invented immunotherapy which is the treatment I'm on.

"I only had to do 3 radiation treatments which is a good thing! To be clear, I don't need any financial help but I'll take prayers & encouragement!

"I'm gonna fight this thing and be okay. People in my support group were diagnosed with my exact issue up to 20 yrs ago, so that is encouraging!

"Blessings All!"

Born into a musically gifted family, Kendall grew up in Huntington Beach, California. His father played jazz trumpet; his mother sang her heart out to jazz tunes before adoring audiences. His grandfather, too, was a virtuoso on the piano. Citing Jimi Hendrix, CREAM and THE DOORS as early influences, Kendall's passion and natural abilities got him hooked on guitar.

"The thing I love about the guitar is it's an instrument that allows me to express myself in how I'm feeling at any given time," Kendall said. "All the musicians that made me want to play guitar, played straight from their heart with a lot of feeling in their playing. They pour their very soul into every note. My feeling is no matter what instrument you play, do it with passion and feeling. When music is delivered in that way it creates emotions, which can even make a person cry at times. That to me is real music with a human feel that no machine could ever duplicate."

Kendall's band DANTE FOX had two singers before settling with Jack Russell. The band's 1982 performance at the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood caught the eye of record executive Alan Niven. Niven suggested the band change it's name to reflect upon the striking color of Kendall's blonde hair — GREAT WHITE.

Since 1982, the GREAT WHITE sound has captivated audiences worldwide with crushing blues-based guitar riffs and swagger that invokes an emotional high for anyone that listens. The band's core writing team of Kendall and Michael Lardie (keys, guitar) forged numerous hits over the years, and when Audie Desbrow joined in '85, the grooves hooked an amazing stride.

Best known for their Grammy-nominated "Best Hard Rock Performance" hit, the gold selling "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", GREAT WHITE has sold over 10 million albums worldwide, has six Top 100 Billboard hits, nine Top 200 Billboard albums, two multi-platinum albums, five gold records and clocked the top of MTV video four times.

Mark has been married for more than two decades years to his wife Bridget and has four children: Jonathan, Taylor, Shane and Ashley.

Hello Friends!

Just wanted everyone to know I was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer a few months ago. I wanted to...

Posted by Mark Kendall on Saturday, November 22, 2025