In a new interview with Justin Richmond of the Broken Record podcast, Paul Stanley was asked to rank his top five KISS albums. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "For different reasons, the first has to be 'Kiss Alive!'. Because '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."

Stanley's No. 2 pick was KISS's fourth album, 1976's "Destroyer", which was produced by Bob Ezrin, who had previously worked with Alice Cooper. He said: "'Destroyer', even though it didn't sound much like its predecessors, but working with Bob Ezrin was such a education, such a schooling, discipline and upping the writing and putting aside at least temporarily all the songs about sleeping with this one or this group of your parties, and it raised the bar. So many of those songs wound up in our show up until the very end — 'Detroit Rock City', 'God Of Thunder', 'Beth', 'Shout It Out Loud'."

Elsewhere, Stanley chose 2009's "Sonic Boom", which marked KISS's first album to feature lead guitarist Tommy Thayer. He said: "'Sonic Boom' was a great album by a band that recognized its roots and recognized where it came from and picked up the slack and kept moving forward. I love that album, and I love the spirit that went into it, where everybody knew what they wanted to do, and at our best. And most people's best, I think, comes from trying to make the team or the band or whatever you're involved in better, and that will make you look better than just trying to make you look better. And the team spirit on 'Sonic Boom' was really, really palpable. And a great album. Great album. And if [a song like] 'Modern Day Delilah' had been on 'Rock And Roll Over', it would be a classic. But songs take decades to gain that kind of patina or to have that life connection of when you heard that song at a certain time in your life. So, as time went on, songs could be great, but they didn't have the luster of being tied to the past. So whether it was 'Modern Day Delilah' or 'Hell Or Hallelujah' [off KISS's 2012 album 'Monster']… And I just found myself going, 'That's as good as it gets.' And it's a different time now, and people don't connect to songs as time pieces or a sonic photograph of a certain period. So 'Sonic Boom' would be in the top three."

Paul then picked 1976's "Rock And Roll Over", saying: "I like that album. It doesn't sound anywhere near what we sounded like, and that's after'Kiss Alive!' It was very elusive for us, perhaps because of some of the people we were working with. It just escaped us. We did something with real focus and clarity of what we were doing, so that's really good."

Stanley's final choice was 1996's "Kiss Unplugged", which was recorded in studio for the television program "MTV Unplugged" and released as part of a series of live and video albums. He said: "I love 'Kiss Unplugged'. That album, I just listened to some of that couple of days ago. The band at that point was just on fire. No effects, no amplifiers, no running around — us with guitars and drums and singing our asses off. And also it gave a chance to showcase the songs, because I've always adhered to the idea that a good song can be played on one guitar. If you have to go, 'Well, wait till you hear the sound effects on this song.' No. A great song can be stripped away, and it's fantastic. So to hear 'Sure Know Something' or 'I Still Love You', you hear those songs and there's a 'wow' factor just because it's that good. So 'Kiss Unplugged', I would put in there… I love the simplicity and the fact that it's undeniable. I mean, it's just four guys with their instruments."

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, which is behind "ABBA Voyage". A biopic, an avatar show, and a KISS-themed experience are already in the works, with Stanley and Gene Simmons playing key roles in the development of all these projects, working closely with Pophouse.

Using cutting-edge technology, Pophouse Entertainment Group, which was founded by ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus, will create digital versions of KISS. The project was previewed at the final KISS show.

In a new interview with Soundterror, Kam Lee, who was a member of an early version of DEATH as well as the pre-DEATH band MANTAS alongside guitarist/vocalist Chuck Schuldiner and guitarist Rick Rozz, was asked what it was like working with Chuck in the early 1980s. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We were kids, so I only knew him as a teenager. So, I can't really expand on him as an adult. I can only tell you that we were teenagers, we were 15-, 16-year-olds just having fun playing music in the garage. We never thought it was gonna become what it did, what it's become."

Asked why he left DEATH, Kam said: "Why did I leave DEATH? [Chuck] kicked me out because I tried to get him to go out with a girl."

After the interviewer noted that many people consider the early MANTAS and DEATH demos "the birthplace of death metal growling", Kam said: "Well, in DEATH and MANTAS, when we started in DEATH, I basically just started kind of mimicking a lot of what we were taking influences from, which was… We were tape trading for one. I was a tape trader, so I was getting a lot of stuff from all over the place. So you'd get tapes from like POSSESSED, of course, was a big influence. There was stuff from SACRIFICE coming out of Canada. There was stuff from Paul Speckmann [DEATH STRIKE, MASTER] coming out of Chicago, and there was stuff overseas like early HELLHAMMER. There was stuff like VENOM. It was a big influence on MANTAS in the beginning. So it was kind of like a combination of trying to like combine all that stuff. Plus being underage and 16, you're just kind of screaming and you have all this angst and anger, and I come from the punk world, so I just wanted to kind of like express it that way. Plus I was playing drums at the same time. So it was a lot of trying to do that. But then when I found the growl, it really wasn't until MASSACRE that I really started… I changed it because earlier, prior to that was more screechy-type vocals, and Chuck started to sing as well, and he took it more in a more of his influence from [POSSESSED's] Jeff Becerra and was trying to sound more like Jeff, where I was, like, 'I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna sound like somebody else.' So I tried to come up with my own thing. And I thought, what was the most primal thing that I could think of? A lot of people will always say, oh, well, there was demonic movies like 'The Exorcist', or stuff like that. But to me, it was more or less about being primal, being natural. And to me, the most natural thing that was hair-raising is — I was raised around a lot of large dogs, like rottweilers and pitbulls, and I knew that the scariest thing that I ever felt as a 14-year-old was being between four or five rottweilers during feeding time, where you had to go out and give them food. And if you've ever been around large dogs, when you bring out a bowl of food, they all begin to growl this low growl because one wants to be the alpha, wants to be dominant, and it's kind of hair-raising. And I thought, that's what I wanna do with vocals. I wanna do something that's hair raising. I want to do something that sounds primal, sounds raw, sounds natural. And I started to mimic dogs. That's literally how I got the growl."

Lee went on to say that he didn't know anybody else at the time who had adopted quite the same style of death metal growling. But he clarified: "I took phonetic enunciation influences from Tom G. Warrior, only because I heard the HELLHAMMER demo and I really liked how he phonetically spoke, even though at the time I didn't realize it was 'cause he was from Switzerland and English wasn't his natural language. I just liked the way that he phonetically said things. So I took that, and there's a lot of his nuances, like his little 'ooh' and his 'hey', and I just took that and I expanded it. Instead of just going, 'Hey,' I went, 'Heeeey.' I kind of brought it out more. So there was that influence. And just the general influence of everything coming out in that late '80s time. Like I said, everything from VENOM to Lemmy from MOTÖRHEAD, just anything that was really raspy and raw I was attracted to. So I tried to kind of take all of those influences all together and put 'em all together."

Asked what the reaction was from other people to the kind of music he, Chuck and Rick were making at the time, Kam said: "Chuck and I and Freddie [Frederick 'Rick Rozz' DeLillo] at the time, we knew we were doing something that was completely different, and everybody hated it. Everybody hated it. I remember people would say, 'This is shit. This will never last. This will never catch on. This is garbage.' And look — 40-something years later, it's one of the biggest influential music in metal today. We didn't realize we were doing something that was going to have this much impact, but we knew at the time we were doing something different because everything that was popular at the time was hair metal, everything like MÖTLEY CRÜE and that kind of stuff, and we just wanted to be the completely polar opposite of that. So we just gravitated to more underground music, and that's literally… We did our own thing. My influences, especially lyrically, came from horror movies 'cause I'm a big horror movie fan. So I loved the Lucio Fulci films and stuff like that. And Chuck too — a lot of the stuff on [DEATH's debut album] 'Scream Bloody Gore' literally comes from our love of Lucio Fulci and 'Evil Dead' and all those '80s films that just came out during that timeframe."

Back in August 2022, Kam once again weighed in on the never-ending debate on who can lay claim to being the first "true" death metal band: DEATH or POSSESSED. He said: "POSSESSED came first, because we all heard the POSSESSED demo in the tape trading. We were tape trading and we got the POSSESSED demo. And there's where you can hear the change, because we were sounding different — we were sounding very much like VENOM in the first MANTAS demo; very, veryVENOM cloning. As soon as we heard that POSSESSED demo… It was two bands, actually, that literally changed everything in DEATH — the POSSESSED demo and SLAYER's 'Show No Mercy'. Those two things right there changed everything. Because once we heard SLAYER's 'Show No Mercy', as far as the speed and aggression, and we heard POSSESSED, as far as the technicality of the guitars and the way that Jeff was singing, that's when we changed. We said, 'Okay, we need to be a combination of all three of these — we need to be a combination of the rawness of VENOM, the fast energy of SLAYER and that just evil, screechy and guitar ripping ways of POSSESSED. That literally was it. There's the three bands that are the blueprint of death metal, as far as I'm concerned."

A little over a month earlier, Kam was asked to elaborate on his comment during an appearance on "That Metal Interview" podcast that "Chuck ripped off POSSESSED. "I guess that was actually a bad choice of wording," Kam admitted to VWMusic. "Saying 'ripped off' makes it sound bad. I guess the proper wording should be 'took heavy influence from.' Although you could say that I ripped off HELLHAMMER and Tom G. Warrior, and I'm not going to get butthurt about it. I won't because it's fact. Yet some people don't care about facts. They just want to keep believing the fiction they bought into because it fits the messianic mold their 'hero-worshipping' icons have been fitted for. It disrupts their ideology and topples the tower when they hear their gods might not be as almighty as they once believed. It's that same sunken feeling when a kid for the first time is discovering that just maybe Santa Claus is not real. It hurts their feelings. Worse yet are those others out there manipulating those people who are hurt. Some people are just trying to jump on the pity party bandwagon with that one."

He continued: "I got a lot of hate from that statement, though it wasn't intended to downplay Chuck's influence on music, but rather to end the debate of who came first, DEATH or POSSESSED. Sadly, morons spun it to change the narrative, to fit their agenda, and to further instigate and cause strife."

Lee added: "Do I feel Chuck's influence is overstated? Let me put it this way — for the 'product and commodity,' his legacy became post mortem. In order to keep reselling and repressing albums, it's exactly what it's being marketed as. No, it's actually exactly what one should expect from a product sales pitch. I mean, you've got to make sure that your product is the people's choice, right? It's Coca-Cola vs Pepsi. McDonald's vs Burger King. Starbucks vs Dunkin Donuts. In the end, the company with the better commercial is always going to win over the masses."

In a new interview with PowerOfMetal.cl, former HELLHAMMER/CELTIC FROST and current TRIPTYKON singer, guitarist and main songwriter Tom Gabriel Fischer (a.k.a. Tom Gabriel Warrior) spoke about his upcoming December 2025 performance at the Chile Terrorfest where he will perform the music of HELLHAMMER with his TRIUMPH OF DEATH project and the music of CELTIC FROST with TRIPTYKON. Asked if he  ever considered going beyond performing the music of HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST with his current projects and possibly reviving either band with new material, he responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, in the case of CELTIC FROST, we are doing this with TRIPTYKON. TRIPTYKON is basically a continuation of CELTIC FROST without some of the personal problems that we had. But even on the next TRIPTYKON album, there's gonna be some music that I wrote when I was still in CELTIC FROST, and there's also new music that's very much just my music, the way I write it and the way I would've written it, even if CELTIC FROST would still exist. As far as HELLHAMMER and TRIUMPH OF DEATH is concerned, there's, of course, only two years' worth of HELLHAMMER music; HELLHAMMER only existed for two years. And yeah, we have been talking about maybe trying to write some music in the HELLHAMMER style, but I'm very careful about this. I don't wanna do something wrong. To me, HELLHAMMER is something very important by now in my life. And if you ever do this, we will be very, very careful to do it the right way. And if it doesn't feel right, we're not gonna release it. And we don't have to do it, so there's no pressure. We can do it only if it's right."

Asked what the "turning point" was that made him finally "embrace the idea" of performing CELTIC FROST and HELLHAMMER music with his current projects, Tom said: "For Martin [Eric Ain, late HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST bassist] and me, the turning point was when we reunited CELTIC FROST in 2001. Talking about the old days, and it was not just in a nostalgic manner, we really tried to revisit the reasons why we formed HELLHAMMER, why we formed CELTIC FROST and so on, and talking about this, of course, made us listen to the old music and made us understand it maybe a little more deeply than we could when we were young. When we were young, we were full of adrenaline and full of testosterone, and we were just thinking in the now, but when we reformed CELTIC FROST, we were older, we were hopefully a little more mature. We were adult men. We listened to this music and we said, 'Wow, some of this music actually has aged quite well.' And we actually began playing some HELLHAMMER songs during the rehearsals for [CELTIC FROST's] 'Monotheist' album [in 2006]. We had the intention of playing some HELLHAMMER songs on the 'Monotheist' tour. The reason why we didn't do this in the end was because the drummer we had at the time really didn't click with this music. We tried to play these songs in the rehearsal room and they just never sounded right with the drummer we had. But then I did the book about HELLHAMMER — around 2010, I wrote the book 'Only Death Is Real' with just the HELLHAMMER history — and this really inspired me to try it again, but to try it with a band specifically formed for that. So I formed TRIUMPH OF DEATH with some very good friends of mine who I know understand the music of HELLHAMMER. And that's when it happened."

This past May, Fischer spoke about TRIPTYKON's appearance at the Incineration festival in London, United Kingdom where he and his bandmates once again played a special set consisting of nothing but CELTIC FROST material. He told the Iblis Manifestations podcast: "I have to really state this because some lovable haters of mine always say, 'Stick to TRIPTYKON. Are you so desperate to play CELTIC FROST?' And there's a lot of things to say about that, which I won't do now. I'm just gonna state the most obvious. I wrote these fucking songs, and these songs are my life. Almost every single CELTIC FROST song had had a profound influence on my life, whether I liked it or not. And [late HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST bassist] Martin [Ain], too, of course. And there's no way I'm gonna spend the rest of my life without that music. I formed TRIPTYKON specifically to continue CELTIC FROST's path. And, of course, TRIPTYKON have continued as CELTIC FROST would have. TRIPTYKON is basically CELTIC FROST by a different name. I wasn't gonna be cheap and call it CELTIC FROST without Martin, but it is essentially… I'm operating exactly like CELTIC FROST. We've always played CELTIC FROST music because it's part of my life. And we also, of course, play TRIPTYKON music, because it is also part of my life."

Circling back to TRIPTYKON's appearance at Incineration, Tom said: "The show being entirely CELTIC FROST — all the shows where TRIPTYKON play CELTIC FROST only are by request of the festival, not by 'Tom being desperate' or 'Tom wanting to cash in.' Which is another issue. When people say, 'Yeah, he wants to cash in on his [history with] CELTIC FROST.' Well, if you go to work, you expect a salary — everybody. If you're a baker, yeah, you wanna cash in on the bread you sell. Oh my fucking God. It's my profession."

He continued: "I'm not justifying it. I'm simply stating the obvious because there's some people who think — I feel contempt for them. They think they have to tell me how to live my life. And I'm the last person to listen to that, but it doesn't hurt to occasionally address this. If you're loser and you're jealous about somebody else's work, maybe put that energy into your own. If I had been sitting at home in '82, '83, '84, and instead of writing demos together with Martin and recording demos and putting everything, every last cent we had, everything into musical fanaticism, if I had spent that time instead writing evil mails to people, I would be nowhere. And that's the difference. If I'd put that energy into destructive things instead of creative things."

"It was so much fun to connect with this fantastic audience over these songs, because these songs have a history not just for me, but also for the people who were there. They were singing all the lyrics. They were headbanging to it. What's wrong with this? I mean, if I'm totally honest, these are songs written, like, 40 years ago, some of them, and I've changed, of course, in these decades. I'm not the same guy that I was as a 20-year-old, totally inexperienced Tom Warrior. I'm gonna be 62 in in a couple of months, and I'm a very different person, of course. I've lived the life, I have life experience, hopefully some maturity, hopefully. And, of course, it changed me. So if I have a choice, of course TRIPTYKON is much closer to me because TRIPTYKON reflects the current Tom. But that doesn't preclude me loving these songs for a different reason, because these songs were the stones in my path, the floor plates on that road that I'm walking, and as such they're hugely important. And especially with the death of Martin, there's some songs that we performed yesterday where I have a film in my mind how Martin and I created these songs and how we produced them in the studio. And, for example, playing for the very first time ever 'A Dying God [Coming Into Human Flesh]' [from CELTIC FROST's 2006 album 'Monotheist'] yesterday on stage, it was first and foremost a tribute to Martin Ain, because I know how important this song was for Martin, and that's also why the video projection at that point focused on Martin. It's not about me. Martin can no longer come on stage, and believe me, if he was still alive, we would've asked him to be a guest in these shows. But I basically also carry his memory now. I'm involuntarily put into this position. Because I was the old one, I always thought I'm gonna die before him and he's gonna be the administrator of CELTIC FROST's legacy. But now I'm in this position. And this is part of what happened yesterday on stage. And I know people totally understand this. That's a lot of fans of Martin Ain in the audience, and you can see it."

In 2023, Tom and the rest of TRIPTYKON also played several other concerts during which they performed a set of early CELTIC FROST songs celebrating the influential Swiss metal band that he co-founded more than 40 years ago.

Ain, who played with Fischer in both HELLHAMMER and CELTIC FROST, died in October 2017 after suffering a heart attack at the age of 50.

CELTIC FROST reformed in 2001 and released its comeback album "Monotheist" via Century Media/Prowling Death in 2006. The band broke up in 2008, with Fischer going on to form TRIPTYKON.

TRIPTYKON has released two full-length albums, a live LP, an EP, a single and two box sets in its 17 years as a band.

TRIPTYKON 2025 is Tom Gabriel Warrior (voice/guitar),Vanja Slajh (bass),V. Santura (guitar/vocals) and Hannes Grossmann (drums/percussion).

TRIPTYKON's previous album releases are "Eparistera Daimones" (2010),"Melana Chasmata" (2014) and "Requiem - Live At Roadburn 2019" (2020).

In a new interview with Australia's Heavy, MY DYING BRIDE guitarist Andrew Craighan spoke about the band's decision to recruit vocalist Mikko Kotamäki (SWALLOW THE SUN) to front MY DYING BRIDE for its live appearances in 2025 after an apparent dispute with MY DYING BRIDE's founding singer Aaron Stainthorpe. Asked how the collaboration with Mikko came about, Andrew said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, he was chosen because we found ourselves vocalist-less, if that is such a word. I have to admit, we didn't know quite how deeply Aaron's solo aspirations were — let's politely put it like that — which I kind of understand. People, you get to a certain age and you wanna make things happen and you wanna make 'em happen quick. But obviously it had an effect on us. We were left without a vocalist. And we weren't ready for it. We didn't have a plan — well, mainly because we didn't know. And so we found ourselves in disarray, but we were sort of shocked at this. So once we'd got over the shock and we realized we really didn't have a vocalist — [Aaron's] got his new band, and it sounds like he's putting another band together as well to enhance his solo career — we had to find a vocalist. And I think it was either Neil [Blanchett, rhythm guitar] and Shaun [MacGowan, keyboards, violin] or the combination of Neil, Dan [Mullins, drums] and Sean, who were very fond of SWALLOW THE SUN and they know Mikko's history, 'cause I think SWALLOW THE SUN, very early in their early career, were influenced by MY DYING BRIDE. So he knows us. He knows what MY DYING BRIDE is, he knows what the ethos is and he knows what it's about. He won't have any delusions of grandeur because he knows where MY DYING BRIDE come from and where we presently are. And then the most important thing, we looked at his vocal range and his death metal's different to the way Aaron would sing it, but his vocal range is very much what we needed. So we thought, 'We'll try that guy first.' And he just said yes. And it was that simple. And then within a couple of weeks of him saying yes, we flew him across to Halifax and we had a meal and a meeting and we did some rehearsals and it was just easy. It was really quite something."

Elaborating on how Kotamäki has been accepted by his new MY DYING BRIDE bandmates and fans, Andrew said: "He's got a very dry sense of humor, a phenomenally dry sense of humor, but he is very, very professional, to the point where we, we were quite shocked. We were, like, 'Oh, fuckin' hell. We're gonna have to get professional now. This is what professionalism looks like.' We weren't ready for any of that. So, yeah, we all pulled the socks up a little bit. And it just works. We've just done three shows. We did one in Slovakia, one in Hungary, and one in Finland, in his hometown — well, not his hometown, but his home country at least — to great success. We had some equipment issues, but nothing musically or personality-wise. We all got on. We had a great time. And despite the shock of people… They knew Mikko was singing, and I'm not sure what they expected, but when he walks out on stage, they cheer. The joke in the band is that I've been in this band for X amount of years and they don't fucking cheer for me."

He added: "No, it's been great, I have to admit. But it was strange beginnings, and we weren't really sure what was gonna come out, but it's been great. So this is how we'll continue until we're done."

Last month, Andrew talked about a possible follow-up to MY DYING BRIDE's latest album, "A Mortal Binding", which came out in April 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records. He told the Everblack podcast: "We're always writing. Well, I'm always writing. We were in a little mini studio recently in Huddersfield. It's a great place called Vibration, and we put some new stuff together there just for fun. And we we're just sort of toying with ideas of where we wanna go next. I mean, it'll still be us, of course; we're not gonna be breaking out into any strange hip-hop or anything like that.

"We've nothing to lose — we've really nothing to lose at this stage — so we are kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't," Andrew explained about MY DYING BRIDE's new material. "So we're thinking of maybe even going back to, say, bringing back some of the early death metal stuff off the first album. Maybe do another '[The] Barghest [O' Whitby]' where we deliberately write a song so you can't have a B-side because it's 30 minutes long and we don't like B-sides…

"But, yeah, I'm certainly always writing, and I've got plenty of ideas," he added. "And there's some riffs that didn't quite squeeze on to the last album that for some reason just didn't make it on that we can always use those to springboard the next session of writing. So, short answer is yes, we're writing. There's nothing complete — maybe bits of three songs. But I wouldn't wanna play it to anybody right now because it's too soon."

In July, Andrew spoke in more detail about MY DYING BRIDE's decision to recruit Mikko, telling Metalirium: "Despite all the problems, the band was willing and ready to perform the remaining shows in 2024, but, unfortunately, there was no willing singer. The band only discovered this at the very last minute, which led to the cancelation. Given that the album had just been released, the band was not prepared to be sidelined. As a result, a meeting was organized to discuss the possibility of a replacement. Mikko was the unanimous first choice."

As for Aaron's current status with MY DYING BRIDE, Andrew said: "As Aaron has, in truth, distanced himself from the band, we are only aware of his activities through social media and online interviews. The band contacted him in March 2025 to enquire about his intentions with MY DYING BRIDE, but he has not responded. We first learned through social media that he was on a hiatus from MDB. Although he states online that he is still part of the band, he has not engaged with us since April 2024. So, in response to your question, the band does not know what his plans with MDB are."

Kotamäki has already played three shows with MY DYING BRIDE in Europe, at the Rockmaraton Fesztivál in Hungary, the Pit Of Metal in Slovakia and at the Dark River festival in Finland.

During a recent appearance on the Iblis Manifestations podcast, Stainthorpe stated about his current status with MY DYING BRIDE: "Well, in fact, the last thing I heard was they're writing new material as well now, which is interesting. I have not heard from Andrew for over a year. And as me and him are the only founder members left… And we never had a manager. Me and Andrew managed as best we could for years and years and years. There was only one stint when we nearly got a manager — Ronnie James Dio's ex-wife, funnily enough. That was a long, long time ago. So me and Andrew figured, 'Well, we could probably do it.' So we had a go of it, and then we had this big bust-up — I can't even remember when it was now, a year ago, a year and a half. And I thought, 'We'll let it die down a bit, and when we come to our senses, we'll get around the table, thrash out our differences and reignite the band.' And then I saw they were gigging without me. So I thought, obviously there's no communication then. So, what do I do? I'll just keep doing what I do until there is some communication. And there still hasn't been. So I'm getting on with my life. I'm not gonna sit there and stew and wait for things to happen. I'm gonna crack on and maintain a busy schedule. But I've no idea who they're gonna use in the studio, if they do a new album. I don't even know if there's a record deal anymore, 'cause everything's gone pear shaped at Nuclear Blast. I don't even know if Nuclear Blast is operating as a full record label anymore. I've heard all kinds of weird stories. And I know for a fact that the guy I used to chat with at Nuclear Blast, he's not there anymore. So over the last couple of years there's been massive, massive changes. So I don't even know if MY DYING BRIDE have a deal. And if they do, I don't know where that leaves me. I've not left the band, and I haven't been kicked out, so I don't understand where we're gonna go. I don't know what the future is. But having been a founder member and in the band for 35 years, I'm not leaving. If they wanna do things without me, well, good luck to 'em."

When Iblis Manifestations host Shayan noted that "it sounds like quite a complicated situation" in light of the fact that a legal MY DYING BRIDE partnership exists between Aaron and Andrew, Stainthorpe concurred. "Yeah. And it'll only get more complicated," he said. "I don't fully understand it. You would hope and imagine that as a founder member who hasn't left, I would have some authority somehow, but it seems not. So I don't really know. I'm probably gonna have to seek legal advice at some point. Obviously, I didn't want to, and I don't want to, but if a record comes out, a MY DYING BRIDE record comes out, and I'm not on it, but I'm still officially the singer, I don't know legally what I'm supposed to do. So at some point, unfortunately, it looks like I might have to seek legal advice, which in this country we have the musicians' union, so it's not a problem. They've got all the experts. And I do know some people quite high up in the business. So I've got people with their finger on the pulse so I can chat with them and just see what's what. But I don't want to. I would just rather keep singing MY DYING BRIDE songs. But maybe I don't have a choice with that."

Aaron also clarified that his involvement with his new band HIGH PARASITE, which released its debut album, "Forever We Burn", last September via Candlelight/Spinefarm, didn't create any issues with MY DYING BRIDE, despite fan speculation to the contrary. "Yeah, there was never gonna be a conflict," he explained. "MDB do about 15 gigs a year, and [there is] sometimes three or four years between albums. I could be in 10 bands and it wouldn't affect the scheduling of MY DYING BRIDE. I spoke to [HIGH PARASITE bassist/vocalist Danny] Tombs [Lambert] back in the day and I said, 'Here's some MY DYING BRIDE gigs. Make sure there's no HIGH PARASITE [gigs] clashing, any clashing of any gigs at all.' And he said, 'Absolutely fine. That will not happen.' And, well, it never even got that far, because we had a big bust-up before then, and the gigs got canceled anyway.

"You don't sacrifice the main band for your smaller band," Aaron continued. "That doesn't happen. Can you imagine Lars Ulrich saying to METALLICA, 'Do you know what, guys? Can we cancel those big gigs, 'cause me and my mates wanna mess around in this other band?' It doesn't work that way. It doesn't happen like that. And it would be ridiculous to even think that. 'Cause I know some people think, 'Oh, Aaron's concentrating more on HIGH PARASITE than MY DYING BRIDE. So he sacrificed MY DYING BRIDE for HIGH PARASITE.' You don't do things like that. It's utterly, utterly ridiculous. And why would I? MY DYING BRIDE has been an absolute delight for me for 30-odd years. I'm not gonna let that go. And I'm certainly not gonna let another, a smaller band batter it out the way. It doesn't work like that. Literally every musician I know is in more than one band. It's easy. Anyone can do it. It's not an issue."

Asked if he has been in touch with any other members of MY DYING BRIDE, Aaron said: "I see Neil [Blanchett, guitar] every once in a while for a beer in Halifax. But zero communication with the others. They've all got my details."

Pressed as to whether he has tried to reach out to the other members of MY DYING BRIDE since the "bust-up" happened that he mentioned earlier in the interview, Aaron said: "There's no point. There's no point because if they're not contacting me, they don't want to. So it's pointless me chasing them. They're doing what they wanna do and they clearly wanna do it without me."

Aaron went on to say that he is still holding out hope things could be ironed out between him and the other members of MY DYING BRIDE in the coming months.

"The reason why I'm not screaming and shouting is because I genuinely think it's not over," he said. "If I knew it was definitely over, then, yeah, I'd be heartbroken. But I try to remain optimistic that somehow we can work stuff out. I don't see why we can't. We're not kids. We're not a gang. We can surely work something out. Because normally when bands split up, there's normally some sort of financial irregularity, someone's run off with all the money, or there's some infidelity — 'You slept with my wife' or 'you slept with my wife.' Bands split up because of serious — something's gone really bad, really bad. We have none of that, which is why I think we can get back together. But let's see."

Asked what he would say to Andrew right now if the guitarist was listening to the interview, Aaron said: "Give us a ring. Give us a ring. It's not hard, is it?"

In a new interview with Paul Salfen of AMFM Magazine, STAIND guitarist Mike Mushok spoke about the band's return to full-scale touring after a period of several years during which STAIND was either inactive or playing intermittent shows. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think [we were] just [glad to be] able to get out there and do this again, and I think all of us just really enjoyed being able to play these songs again and work together again. And so I'm very thankful for it. I started this band a long time ago and I'm just really happy to be doing it again and [be] back working. And, listen, Aaron's [Lewis, STAIND frontman] still able to do his country career, which is obviously doing very well, and he's out all the time playing. And if we can go out once or twice a year and do some of these tours and shows and continue to make some new music, I'm happy with that."

Mushok also talked about STAIND's latest album, "Confessions Of The Fallen", which was released in September 2023 via Alchemy Recordings/BMG. STAIND's first new LP album since 2011 was produced by Erik Ron (GODSMACK, PANIC! AT THE DISCO, BLACK VEIL BRIDES). He said: "Going in to make this record, there was definitely a little bit of anxiety, 'cause we hadn't written together in over 10 years. I think that kind of started to dissipate a bit once I was able to play Aaron some of the music and he liked it and seemed to get excited about it and started bringing in his ideas. And so it just kind of picked up where it left off, really. And you just keep working until you have something at the end there that you're proud of and you think you're ready to release. And once we got done, I was definitely very proud of what we had created and couldn't wait for people to hear it."

Asked if he and his STAIND bandmates are already thinking about songs for the next album, Mike said: "Yeah, there's actually a bunch of songs kicking around that we're kind of working on. So, hopefully here in the future there'll be something else coming out. So that's definitely the plan as of now. But yeah, there's a bunch of stuff kicking around right now."

Earlier this month, Mushok spoke to Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio about the "electronic element" which was incorporated into "Confessions Of The Fallen". Asked if he thinks STAIND's future efforts will follow a similar experimental path as "Confessions Of The Fallen", Mike said: "I do think that that's gonna happen. Yeah, definitely. In fact, there's some new music kicking around, and it's definitely still kind of following that same vein a bit. So, I'm real excited about that as well. So, yeah, I definitely think that we'll continue down that path, for sure."

Regarding when STAIND fans can expect to hear new music from the band, Mike said: "I don't know. That's a great question. But yeah, there's a bunch of songs kicking around. Aaron's super busy, always out playing. So, hopefully this fall we can maybe start to solidify some of these ideas and figure out exactly where we are. But yeah, there's a bunch of songs kicking around."

Back in December 2023, Mushok told Germany's Riot Vision about the electronic element on "Confessions Of The Fallen": "Well, that was something that Aaron really wanted to explore. We had talked about it before, but we'd never really done it. So he really wanted to make that a part of what we were doing. And it was funny, 'cause I do remember saying to him, like, 'I play guitar. I don't know how to do that.' So that's where I feel like Erik played a really big part in helping make that a part of what this album sounds like. Some of those verses where you hear [and] it's like more electronic[-sounding], that's a guitar part I wrote just played on a synthesizer, [using] some crazy sound. So he was able to take some of those things that I wrote and adapt it to kind of bring in some of those elements into the music. And I think he did a great job. I like it. I'm pretty happy with it."

Asked what new musical elements he would like to explore on future STAIND albums, Mike said: "I don't know. To me, it's just really about trying to write great songs. It's really just kind of trying to take what we do and make it better. And I don't really have any kind of guidelines. If it calls for more electronics or — I don't know — a guitar solo or whatever the case may be, whatever really the song calls for, I think that that's what the best thing to explore is. But I was very happy with the process of making this record and how it came out. Some records have been really difficult to make. This one wasn't one of those. The way we did it, it took us a while, but we got there. And by the end of the day, once we got there, I was really happy with the end results."

When "Confessions Of The Fallen" was announced in April 2023, Lewis stated about the LP's musical direction: "I did want to modernize the sound and bring us up to date. You can certainly recognize the band but at the same time you can hear that we've been paying attention and understand what kind of sounds and approaches we can use that maybe weren't around the last time we did this."

STAIND has released eight albums since 1995, including 2011's self-titled effort. The band has had a number of hit songs during its first two decades, including the Top 10 smash "It's Been Awhile" from the No. 1 album "Break The Cycle". Follow-up LPs "14 Shades Of Grey" and "Chapter V" also topped the Billboard chart.

STAIND released its first album in nine years, "Live: It's Been Awhile", in May 2021 via Yap'em/Alchemy Recordings. The "Live: It's Been Awhile" album was accompanied by "The Return Of Staind", a two-part global streaming series in partnership with Danny Wimmer Presents.

Photo credit: Steve Thrasher

German rock legends, Scorpions, have shared their 1976 performance of “Speedy’s Coming” at SWR Drum. The track is also featured on the upcoming compilation, Scorpions 60th Anniversary: From The First Sting.

“Speedy’s Coming” is taken from the Scorpions’ second album, Fly To The Rainbow, released in 1974.



In celebration of their sixth decade as a band pioneering German hard rock group, Scorpions, will be releasing From The First Sting, a thrilling collection the raw energy, unforgettable anthems, and iconic moments from their illustrious career. From The First Sting is the band’s only career-spanning collection and will be available on a deluxe 2LP & 2CD bookpack and 2CD format for European and Rest of the World fans, as well as 2LP vinyl and 1CD format for fans in the Americas.

During their career, Scorpions viewed their music as a bridge between cultures. They performed in the former Soviet Union, China, and Southeast Asia, thereby fostering international understanding.

Commercially, the band are also one of the best-selling hard rock and heavy metal bands of all time – with over 120 million album sales to their name. From The First Sting is a sonic journey through the band’s timeless hits, from “Rock You Like a Hurricane” to “Wind of Change”, showcasing Scorpions’ evolution while honouring the spirit of their classic sound.

From The First Sting features two previously unreleased tracks, “This Is My Song” and “Still Loving You”, the latter of which features British violinist Vanessa Mae. The physical for fans in the Americas comes housed in a carefully crafted 2LP gatefold vinyl pressed on 180g and 1CD digisleeve, comprehensively illustrating the enduring influence of the pioneering masters of their genre.

Perfect for die-hard fans and newcomers alike, From The First Sting delivers the ultimate Scorpions experience – a blistering ride through 60 years of hard-hitting, heart-pounding rock that continues to leave its mark on the world.

In a new interview with Elizabeth Zharoff of the popular YouTube channel The Charismatic Voice, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson spoke about his 2014 throat cancer diagnosis, treatment and eventual remission. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The technical diagnosis for me was T3 N1 M0. That means that the tumor [in the throat] was ajudged to be a stage three tumor. And that's just actually more or less how big it was. And the 'N' bit was whether or not there were any lymph nodes associated with it. N1 means there was one; I had cancer in a lymph node as well. And the M bit is, has it metastasized? In other words, spread to anywhere else in your body. And luckily, the answer to that was zero.

"People go, 'Oh, you were lucky you caught it early. I went, 'Well, I didn't kind of catch it that early.' It was three and a half centimeters," he continued. "It was a golf ball living in the base of my tongue, and then there was a strawberry, a two-and-a-half-centimeter in the lymph node on the other side."

Dickinson went on to say that he recorded MAIDEN's "The Book Of Souls" album right before he was diagnosed with cancer. "[Singing with the tumor] did not feel that different," he revealed. "That was the weirdest thing about it. Maybe it felt like there was maybe a slight restriction at the top end — a slight restriction —but that was all. But I knew there was something wrong in my body. My body was giving me other signals. People, [go], 'Oh, were you losing weight?' I went, 'No, I was not losing weight.' But I was getting these weird night sweats. And the thing that gave it away, and in truth, this is what gives it away for guys, because, of course, girls get this as well. In fact, the way to think about this… When I'm talking to people, they go, 'Was it drinking and smoking [that caused the cancer]?' I said, 'No. Think of it this way: I had cervical cancer of the mouth.' They went, 'What? What do you mean? What do you mean?' I said, 'Oh, yeah.' 'Oh my God. What are you, what? What have you been up to? I said, 'I've been up to exactly the same thing that everybody else on the planet has been up to.' So if you have this cancer, you've not done something wrong. You've got nothing to be ashamed of. It's not a judgment from God. I asked my oncologist. I said, 'Why do I have this cancer?' I mean, I know what caused it — HPV16 [a high-risk type of Human Papillomavirus (HPV)], in my case. And he said, 'Fair question.' He said, 'You shouldn't have this cancer.' He said, 'Look, you're fit, you're healthy. You do all the right things.' He said, 'It's just not fair, is it?' I said, 'No, but why me?' He said, 'You know what?' He goes, 'It's just called bad luck.' And I was, like, 'Oh.' And you know what? When he said that, it made everything a lot easier to deal with because you weren't looking for somebody to blame, you weren't clutching at straws. Like, if there was somebody to blame, then maybe… No, no, no, no, no. It's just called bad luck. Stuff happens. And at that point, I went, 'Okay, I can deal with that.' So there's no point in feeling sorry for yourself. Step up to the plate, let's get rid of it and let's think beyond, if we do get rid of it.' And my chances, in truth, were pretty good. I went, 'Oh my God, stage three. The next one is stage four. And that's like curtains.' And he went, 'No.' He said, 'Don't even get hung up about that. He said, 'Because every cancer is individual, and individual to an individual, but also every cancer is different in its prognosis.' He said, 'I'd much rather have stage three of your cancer than stage one of lung cancer.' So I went, 'Okay, got it. Right. So some cancers are worse to have than others."

Regarding how he was treated for his cancer, Dickinson said: "There was no surgery involved… But I had — and this is fairly standard treatment, I have to say — I had 33 sessions of radiation, like five sessions a week for six-something weeks. And the total they administered was two grays a day, which is a pretty thumping dose. I mean, I think 13 grays is a full-body lethal dose of radiation. So I had 66 grays over six and a bit weeks, all of it in my head and neck. So that's a lot. That's a lot. And at the same time, I had nine weeks of chemotherapy, of cisplatin, which was basically to make the radiation more effective against the cancer. That was the idea. So it was a three-week cycle; I turned up every three weeks and had sat there for a couple of hours and then left. And all of this was done outpatient. So I just turned up, got on the subway, had my radiation, went for a walk in the park. And things didn't really start going weird for two or three weeks, and then you started getting fatigue and the inside of all — basically all the mucus membranes on the inside of my mouth fell off. Your tongue, you lost all sense of taste. Your tongue is stripped, so all the nerves were exposed. They wanted to put a feeding tube in. When I was diagnosed, the guy goes, 'Come in, I'll just pop a little feeding tube in.' I went, 'No. You're not.' I said, 'I'll feed myself.' He goes, 'Most people find it very difficult to feed themselves after about four or five weeks.' I went, 'I will feed myself. If I can't, you can come and put a tube up my nose,' I said, 'but I'm gonna feed myself.' 'Cause I didn't want people cutting a hole in me, and I didn't want to be in hospital. Because if you're in hospital, you are already half dead — my version of things. And so I was, like, 'I will do this. In spite of everything, I'm gonna do this on my own.' And he quite liked the combative approach. He was, like, 'Look, 50% of your recovery is mental.'"

Bruce also talked about how he was first diagnosed with cancer, saying: "The first person I went to see was like a regular doctor. And I said, 'Look, I think I have this thing. I have a lump in my neck.' Most guys find out they have head and neck cancer because they have a lump in their neck that won't go away. It might not be the original sign of the cancer, but it might be a lymph node that's hard and raised. It doesn't go away and doesn't turn into flu. And it can be misdiagnosed as, 'Oh, you've got an abscess,' or 'you've got a cyst,' or 'you've got something'. And I know a couple of guys that has happened to, and they've survived, but it took them three doctors and one of them actually had an operation by mistake. And nobody caught the fact that they actually had throat cancer. Which is scary, but there you are. So do not be afraid of going and saying, 'I think I might have this'. And you can find out in a second. I mean, I had an ultrasound for this lump in the side of my neck, and the doctor was going, he said, 'Hmm, yeah, yeah, you definitely got a lump there. The question is why.' And I went, 'Yeah.' He said, 'How are you with needles?' I went. 'Uh, you know.' He said, 'I'm just gonna stick a little needle in and just take a little bit out and have a look at it.' And wow, there you go. Bingo. Three, four days later, I got a phone call: 'You need to come straight away. We found X, Y, Z.' And I went, 'Okay, that's cancer.' And they could tell straight away. So then I'm in front of the ear, nose and throat specialist. And she has a look and she has a look and says, 'Yeah, I think I can see where the tumor is on your base of your tongue.' And so, here you go. And now — boom. And now next thing, you are in front of the oncologist and he said, 'I'm gonna get rid of this for you.' I went, 'Wow. I like the sound of that.' He said, 'I'll get rid of it for you and you won't come back.' And then he said, 'Do you smoke?' I went, 'Uh, no.' And he said, 'Have you ever smoked?' I went, 'No.' I said, 'Oh, well, when I was like, 18, 19, I had a couple of joints 'cause I was in the band and stuff.' He goes, 'No, actual [smoking].' I went, 'No, never.' They went, 'Okay, that's great.' I said, 'Well, how much difference does that make?' He said, 'Well, whatever the probability of me getting rid of it now, it means it's 20% better if you don't smoke and it means it's 20% less likely it'll come back.' That's huge. I said, 'Wow.' I said, 'That's enormous.' I said, 'So, let me guess, people, they quit smoking when they find out they've got cancer.' He went, 'Nope.' He said they'll be sat outside the radiation machine having a cigarette before they go in for their treatment. I went, 'That is so messed up.' But that's the addiction of it. It shows how powerful the addiction is. But anyway, so, I had all the radiation, and I asked him how long before my body is back, let alone my voice, but my body. And I had the start of the treatment in January that lasted about six weeks. So by the time we got to the end of February, the treatment was done. The radiation continues to work for a while and they can't do a scan to figure out if you've nailed everything until May because, as he explained to me, all they'd do if they did that was they just get a load of like radioactive hotspots. I was not radioactive, but I've been… Put some food in the microwave, nd then nuke it to death. Pull it out and you realize that it gets hotter after you pull it out 'cause you've put a load of energy into the food and it will continue to get hotter. That's what's going on with your head, except it's not microwave energy; it's next notch up. And so the radiation will continue to basically cook the inside of your head for a few weeks and then gradually diminish. Then they can take a picture and find out if it's gone. But notwithstanding that, I said, 'How long from when I start till I'm…' He said, 'Well,' he goes, 'for example, I had a Royal Air Force fighter pilot who had the same cancer as you sitting in that chair.' And he said 'it was about a year before I saw him properly back and he was back in an airplane again and doing all his stuff.' I went, 'A year, huh?' He went, 'Yeah.' I went, 'Right, I'll beat that.' And then in my mind I was, like, 'I'm gonna beat him. I'm gonna beat an RAF fighter pilot and do it better. I'm gonna go faster than him.' And so it was around 10 months, something like that, and it wasn't as easy as I thought it was gonna be. Well, I didn't think it was gonna be easy, but in my head, I was, like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It'll be done in five minutes.' I lost not as much weight as some people did, but I lost about 12 pounds. No — a bit more, a bit more than 12 pounds. 12-15 pounds and dropped 15 pounds in weight, which is good 'cause I was kind of porky when I went in. I fed myself up: 'I'm gonna eat like a pig at Christmas, because I'm gonna lose weight.' But I know some people that have a really bad reaction and they dropped like 50, 60 pounds in weight. And people react just differently."

Dickinson also admitted that he saw a naturopathic practitioner who takes a holistic approach to wellness, in order to help him recover more fully. Bruce recalled: "I said to him, 'Okay, I've got throat cancer. I'm gonna go and have all this radiation and chemo.' And I expected him to turn around and go, 'Oh, you don't wanna do that. Let's do something alternative with wheat grass or something.' And luckily, he is a sensible chap, and he turned around and he said, 'Yep. That's what you've gotta do. That'll get rid of it.' I went, 'So there's there's nothing else I can do.' He said, 'Nope.' I went, 'Okay.' He said, 'However, I think we might be able to beef up some aspects of your immune system so that you recover faster and you try and do less harm to the rest of your body during the treatment.' So he prescribed me a whole bunch of mushroom pills and this thing and that and stuff, and I took all of it to my oncologist and said, 'Hey, listen, I'm thinking of doing this alongside your treatment.' And he looked at it and he went, 'Yeah. Cool.' And I said, 'Is there anything on there?' He said, 'The only thing' — and this is not a joke — he said, 'The only thing is you must not have any heavy metals in there. And it sounds like the world's most awful pun. And I was just, like, 'You are joking.' He said, 'No, I'm not joking.' He said, 'So, iron supplements, chromium, copper, all this kind of stuff, it's a no-no,' he said, 'because that will really mess with the radiation effectiveness against the cancer.' I went, 'Okay, we're not gonna do any of that stuff.' Mushrooms, though, is okay. So, I did a bunch of research about all that stuff. And yeah, I just did kind of regular exercise and walked around like nothing was happening. And then things did start to happen. And I tried to do some singing about, I guess, probably about four or five months after the cancer treatment, and it was scary how awful it was. I asked the ear, nose and throat doc, I said, 'How long before I could try singing?' And she said probably — this was in December, and she said, 'Well, if you have the treatment and you're done by February and it's all good, maybe you could think about the end of November to start singing.' And I was, like, 'Mmmm, okay.' So, I had to consider the possibility that I wouldn't be able to sing again in the way that I do. And I was comfortable with that. I was resigned with that, because if there was some physical reason why I couldn't sing the way I do normally, there's nothing you can do about that. If things have been changed irreversibly, you have to learn to do something differently. You have to sing a different way. It doesn't mean you cannot sing, but it means you have to be able to sing a different way. And that's when the thought formed, what do I actually do in my life? Am I just a human noise generator, or am I actually telling stories? And that's when I went, 'Actually, you know what? No matter what happens, I can still tell stories.'"

After Zharoff expressed her surprise that Dickinson was seemingly at peace with the idea of not being able to sing anymore, Bruce clarified: "Everybody has a voice in the world. Everybody has a voice. And I tell people this when they say I can't sing. I said, yes, you can. You might not be able to sing like me, but when you tell your story with your voice, it's unique to you, and nobody else can tell your story, and that's authentic. Leonard Cohen does not have any kind of classical voice whatsoever, but my God, what a great storyteller with his voice. Johnny Cash — a great voice but not Pavarotti. It's the unique character of people's voices that enables them to tell the stories. And so I developed my style and it tells stories. But if I didn't have my style anymore, I'd develop another style in order to tell stories. I wasn't going there. I was thinking, that's my backstop. Let's just see what happens and wait.

"I'm the world's most impatient man, and I tried to sing after about six months, and I was shocked how awful it sounded," he continued. "It sounded like a wounded buffalo. It just made this — what is it, 'Young Frankenstein'? When the monster comes out and they're doing 'Puttin' On The Ritz', and he goes, 'Ritz.' And that was me. And I was just, like, 'Oh my God.' And I was in the bathroom doing it. I was just, 'Just stop. It's been five months. They said 10 months. Wait.' And then gradually my body started to recover, and I got energy back and I started putting on a little bit of weight. So one day I was just walking around the house, and I was feeling all right. So I went, [starts singing a few notes. It didn't hurt. And then it was there. And then I just thought, 'I wonder if I could do a little bit of [MAIDEN's] 'Run To The Hills'.' And I did. And I went, 'Oh my God, it's there. Oh my God.' And that was, like, I'm thinking, probably the end of September, October. And I thought, 'It's there.' And then I went, 'Right. You know it's there. So leave it alone. Put it back in its box 'cause you know it's going to be all right. And the longer you leave it, the more all right it will be when you want to go balls out and start pushing it.'"

Bruce previously told iNews that he wanted to cover his cancer battle in his 2017 autobiography, "What Does This Button Do?", to raise awareness of the condition, which affects people who often have no or minimal history of tobacco or alcohol abuse. The individuals with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer who undergo treatment have a disease-free survival rate of 85 to 90 percent over five years.

During a 2024 appearance on the Swedish TV show "Malou Efter Tio", Dickinson spoke about how his singing voice has changed following his cancer diagnosis 10 years ago. "[It's] a little bit different," he said. "Two things are slightly different. One is my saliva, which obviously lubricates your throat a little bit, is a bit less than it used to be. Although, back ten years ago, if I had the same cancer, I wouldn't be making any saliva. But now, I'm probably 70 percent, which is great. Thanks very much, everybody upstairs. [Laughs] And the other things is that I think that the shape of possibly the back of my tongue, which forms vowel sounds and things like that, might have changed shape slightly, because, obviously, it had a big lump in it, and the lump's gone. So maybe the surface has changed shape. So I notice a few differences. Funnily enough, the top end of my voice is maybe even a little bit better than it was before. [Laughs]"

Dickinson said that he was given "the all-clear" by his specialists following an MRI scan after a course of chemotherapy and radiology.

"I was amazed," he said. "My cancer was a 3.5-centimeter tumor in my throat and a 2.5-centimeter one in my lymph node, and that was the one that I could feel — that was the secondary one. But I did 33 sessions of radiation and nine weeks of chemo at the same time, which is fairly standard therapy for it. And it was gone. And I said to my oncologist: 'What do you mean it's gone? Where has it gone?' And he said, 'Well, your body just gets rid of it.' A body is an amazing thing."

Bruce is currently touring North American in support of his latest solo album, "The Mandrake Project", which was released in March 2024 via BMG.

During a new appearance on "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell was asked about some of the guitarists who influenced him over the years, either tonally or with their technique and musicianship. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, God. There's just too many to too many to single out. Tonally — tone's a really unusual thing, because you can line up 50 guys with the same guitar on the same amp and plug them in, and they're all gonna sound a little bit different. It's the relationship between the flesh and the wood and the metal, with the electricity running through it, and soul of the individual flowing through it. So it's so unique, and it's like a fingerprint — it really is. It's unique to them. And I grew up listening to Davey Johnstone and Lindsey Buckingham and the Young brothers and Tony Iommi and Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page. Billy Gibbons. I can go down the list. Ted Nugent. Tom Scholz, for that matter. I've taken a little piece from anything that inspires me or makes me feel good, or songs that I keep coming back to, or albums that I still love listening to. And so the dream then is the same as it is today. I wanna make something that makes somebody else feel — makes me and somebody else feel like that record made me feel when I was a kid, made me want to become a musician and make music myself. So it's hard to really boil it down to who maybe influenced me the most. There's standouts that are just like aliens to me. [Jimi] Hendrix was one. Eddie Van Halen is another. I think Randy Rhoads might qualify as an otherworldly being."

This past May, ALICE IN CHAINS canceled all of its previously announced concerts due to drummer Sean Kinney's health. The decision came after a previous gig was called off on May 8 because Kinney experienced medical complications.

ALICE IN CHAINS was scheduled to appear at a few festivals in May, including the MMRBQ in Camden, New Jersey, Sonic Temple in Columbus, Ohio and Welcome To Rockville in Daytona Beach, Florida. They had also lined up several other headlining shows, in Nashville, Tennessee and Dothan, Alabama.

Kinney had recovered enough in time to join his ALICE IN CHAINS bandmates at the final BLACK SABBATH/Ozzy Osbourne show on July 5 in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

In the last four years, Cantrell has released two solo albums, 2021's "Brighten" and 2024's "I Want Blood", and has toured extensively in support of both efforts, performing material spanning his solo career and ALICE IN CHAINS.

ALICE IN CHAINS regrouped in 2006 with singer William DuVall joining the band, and released its third LP with DuVall in the lineup, "Rainier Fog", in August 2018.

Prior to joining ALICE IN CHAINS, DuVall was a member of punk rock bands AWARENESS VOID OF CHAOS, NEON CHRIST, BL'AST! and FINAL OFFERING. DuVall's long musical history also includes COMES WITH THE FALL and Cantrell's solo work.

Cantrell befriended the members of COMES WITH THE FALL in the early 2000s, playing shows with the band on the West Coast, then enlisting the musicians to tour with him as both opening act and backing group in support of his album "Degradation Trip".

DuVall appears on the last three ALICE IN CHAINS albums: 2009's "Black Gives Way To Blue", 2013's "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" and the aforementioned "Rainier Fog".

Hard rock band Bastion Rose returns with their emotionally charged new single, “Garden Of Stone”. The track is the third single from their full-length debut album, Traces Of Gold, produced by three-time Grammy-winner David Bottrill (Tool, Rush, Godsmack).

“Garden Of Stone” delves into the complexities of human emotion and grief, with lyrical themes that explore the internal struggle between past and present, love and hatred, and life and death. The song opens with powerful imagery of breaking down “castle walls” to let in “ghosts,” suggesting a confrontation with one’s inner self and past. As the song progresses, it paints a picture of finding a unique kind of peace amidst turmoil, with the chorus proclaiming: “All my ghosts. All my angels. Just fly from my heart and make shadowplay on the walls. All my love. All my hatred. Fades away. Just like a rose. Garden of Stone.”

This lyrical journey culminates in a poignant acceptance of life’s fleeting nature, finding strength in the present moment, and acknowledging the importance of every day.

The single’s opening track, “Parallax”, is a clean, short instrumental that builds an atmosphere of suspense and anticipation. It features a haunting, arpeggiated guitar melody with a subtle piano texture and a rising percussive rhythm that gradually intensifies, creating a perfect sonic bridge into the powerful themes of “Garden Of Stone”.



“Garden Of Stone” follows the success of the band’s debut EP, Fade To Blue, which has garnered over a million streams across platforms, as well as previously released singles “Humble Me” and “Cinnamon Fire”, from their upcoming debut full-length album, Traces Of Gold.

For more information and to listen to “Garden Of Stone”, head here.

In case you missed it, Bastion Rose previously dropped a gripping music video for “Cinnamon Fire” shortly after the single’s release. Sensual, intense, and cinematic, this one’s worth a watch:

Hailed as one of Japan’s most promising symphonic/melodic death metal acts, Galundo Tenvulance returns with theiR sophomore album, Insomnis Somnia. Mixed and mastered by Finnish engineer Saku Moilanen (Before The Dawn, Wolfheart, Horizon Ignited), this 13-track opus marks a new era for the band, introducing powerhouse vocalist Sao, whose ferocious roar injects even greater intensity into the band’s soaring symphonic soundscapes.

Since forming in 2020 under the vision of guitarist and main composer Asukun, Galundo Tenvulance has carved a unique niche blending symphonic elements with the brutal precision of modern deathcore and metalcore. Early singles and EPs — including Genesis (2020) and Tenvulancy (2021) — established their signature sound, culminating in the self-produced EP, The Disruptor Descends (2022) that spread the band’s reputation both in Japan and internationally.

The debut full-length, Lunar Eclipture (2023), released through Spiritual Beast and mixed by Zack Ohren (Machine Head, Warbringer), solidified the band’s position in the global metal scene, earning critical acclaim across Europe and South America.

With Insomnis Somnia, Galundo Tenvulance escalates their sonic assault. Featuring artwork by Rib:y(uhki) (Imperial Circus Dead Decadence, Thousand Eyes, The Art Of Mankind), the album fuses epic orchestration, relentless riffing, and deeply emotive lyricism, delivering a powerful, immersive listening experience that pushes the boundaries of melodic death metal.

Insomnis Somnia drops worldwide on September 17, 2025 via Spiritual Beast. Pre-orders can be placed now at this location.



Tracklisting:

Sleepless Dreams
Abuse Of Hatred
The Skylight Above Us
The Soul To Be Punished Dwells Within Me
Sweet Suffering
One Step Closer
Till Death Reaches You
Cursed Bloodline
Noble Rot
Conclusion
Regret Never Sleeps
In The Realms Of The Unreal
Epicedium

In a new interview with Ben Jones of Virgin Radio UK, DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott was asked if it's fair to say that he and his bandmates still love touring, nearly five decades after the group's formation. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, and it's something that, fingers crossed, has never gone away. In 48 years since we formed, and this lineup's been together for 33 years, which has a ridiculous achievement, when you think about it. Through all the hardships that we've had — I mean, we lost Pete [Willis, former DEF LEPPARD guitarist] along the way, we lost Steve [Clark, late DEF LEPPARD guitarist], and Rick [Allen, DEF LEPPARD drummer] had a really terrible accident but stayed in the band. So there's been a lot of kind of odd times, but there's been so much more good times, if you like. And it's, like, well, what's not to like? I mean, we are just all on the same page, and I think that's why we like it so much. And I think that just comes from the working class background that we came from. I mean, our parents were the children of World War II, and when you've had those [Monty] Python-esque-like, 'You don't know what it's like to have to choose between a cardboard box and a pair of wellies for a Christmas present.' You never lose those stories 'cause they told you when you were a kid and you just remember 'em forever. They become more comical the older you get. But I think that that working class kind of upbringing that we had, when you get to become this, I suppose now people would say elitist rock band, we just jump on the opportunity to just keep this thing going because it's so much fun."

Elliott also talked about what keeps him and his DEF LEPPARD bandmates motivated to write and record new music. He said: "Let's be honest: DEF LEPPARD now is more known for selling tickets than albums. Albums, it's Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, et cetera. Us, yeah, we sell records. I think we just went into some — not Guinness book, but whatever — we've Top 10ed an album in five different decades, which is pretty cool. It's a great story for the aunties and uncles and stuff like that. But we still wanna make records. That's the great thing.

"When the lockdown came along, literally the day that everybody was supposed to fly into my studio, fly into Ireland, into my studio, they shut down all flights. So I got on the phone with Phil [Collen, DEF LEPPARD guitarist] and I said, 'What are we gonna do now?' And in a 40-minute conversation, he said, 'Well, we could do it remotely.' I said, 'What have you got?' He said, 'Well, I've got three [songs].' And I then explained to him he actually had four because we had this song called 'This Guitar' that we'd been sitting on for years and we've got to do it. I had three. And then we brought Sav [bassist Rick Savage] into the conversation. He had two. So in 40 minutes we had nine songs. And we decided to do what QUEEN always did. If we wrote a song and you had a start, middle and an end, that was it. No argument — we're doing it. No 'oh, can we take that bit out and put my bit in?' We just trusted each other that we'd written songs, and that's how we did the last album. It was the most freeing thing we've ever done. We had the most fun making an album where we were essentially 3,000 miles apart from each other and gluing it all together in our engineer's studio. And it sounds like we did it in Abbey Road [studio]. And we're doing it again."

Earlier this month, DEF LEPPARD announced a European tour for the summer of 2026. The trek, with special guest EXTREME, will kick off in Rättvik, Sweden on June 26 and wrap up on July 30 at the Wacken Open Air festival on July 30.

DEF LEPPARD's third Las Vegas residency, "Def Leppard: Live at Caesars Palace The Las Vegas Residency", will set the strip alight from February 3 through 28, 2026 at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. These new shows follow the band's sold-out residency successes in 2019 and 2013.

Tickets for the following 12 shows went on sale on July 25: February 2026: 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28

Late last year, DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell underwent a bone marrow transplant as part of his treatment plan for Hodgkin's lymphoma, with which he was diagnosed in 2013.

In June, Campbell revealed that he is "completely in remission" from the cancer of the lymphatic system.

This past January, DEF LEPPARD released a cover of Ben E. King's 1961 classic "Stand By Me". All proceeds from the song are going to FireAid, which raises money for those impacted by the fires that swept through Los Angeles early this year.

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

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

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

Six years ago, Campbell underwent spine surgery.

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

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

Holy Moses frontwoman / founder Sabina Classen has shared the following message:

“Yesterday, I received the sad news that my former drummer and longtime comrade Atomic Steif passed away on Sunday 31st. August, departed this world at the age of just 57.

Our history began in the early ’80s in the Velberter and Tipsy Apes metal fan clubs. We lived through nights, celebrated, philosophized, dreamed, and played countless concerts, including at the legendary Wacken Open Air.

Atomic Steiff was part of Holy Moses from 1990 to 1992, and returned to the drums from 2007 to 2011. But more than just a great musician, he was a person with whom you could laugh, have deep conversations and feel life in all its facets.

Dear Steiff, we have gone through good and hard times together as musicians and as humans. Now your soul has taken its journey to another dimension. I will never forget you. Your energy, your presence and your heartbeat will live on in me forever. You will remain a part of my story and forever in my heart.

In love and gratitude, Your Sabina.”

German a capella metal band, Van Canto, have checked in with the following update:

“After the pure joy of meeting so many existing (and new!) fans at our 2025 festival shows in Germany, Czech Republic and Spain, we came to the conclusion that we should prepare for our 20 year anniversary in 2026.

So this message is to let you know we started songwriting, producing and recording new material. We are not 100% sure what is the best way to release new material these days as nobody owns CD players anymore, but we will figure something out. If you have ideas – let us know.

For those who want to see us live, check out our German tour dates in November (6 Cologne, 7 Herford, 8 Stuttgart, 9 Aschaffenburg)

The picture captures our motivation quite well. See you soon.

Rakkatakka forever. We love you.”

Fan-filmed video of Van Canto performing at Leyendas Del Rock Festival in Villena, Spain on August 8 can be viewed below.

Acclaimed multi-instrumentalist and progressive rock visionary, Neal Morse, returns to his singer-songwriter roots with the heartfelt and introspective new solo album, Never Been Down This Road.

Available on October 31, you can pre-order the album here. Check out the single “Leavin’ California” below.



Known for his work on recent prog-rock masterpieces including No Hill For A Climber (with Neal Morse & The Resonance) and Deep Water (with Cosmic Cathedral), Morse now offers fans a more personal collection, rich with storytelling, emotion, and spiritual depth.

Written in the quiet early hours at the grand piano in his studio – a daily practice for Morse – Never Been Down This Road captures the spontaneous magic of inspiration as it comes. The result is an album that blends deeply personal reflections with narratives of people he has encountered and songs came from day to day inspiration, spanning genres from folk and pop to worship and soul.

Following in the tradition of 2024’s Late Bloomer, this new release showcases Morse’s solo artistry in full. With the exception of saxophone and backing vocals, all instruments and vocals were performed by Morse himself, further emphasizing the album’s raw, intimate nature.

“Never Been Down This Road feels like a journey through my heart, my memories, and sometimes the hearts of characters I’ve imagined,” says Morse. “It’s a quieter kind of album—less about the epic, more about the honest moment. I hope people connect with it the way I have.”



Tracklisting:

“Leavin’ California”
“New Man”
“Reach Deep”
“Open Up Again”
“Never Been Down This Road”
“The Most Important Person”
“The Heart Always Known”
“Breathe The Air”

“Reach Deep” visualizer: