According to Torrent Freak, Axl Rose is attempting to rid the Internet of a photo which has gone on to inspire a slew of "fat Axl" memes.

The GUNS N' ROSES singer issued a DMCA takedown notice to Blogspot and GoogleUserContent demanding the image — which shows Axl looking a little bloated during a 2010 gig in Canada — be taken down as it infringes copyright.

"Copyright image of Axl Rose. Please be advised that no permission has been granted to publish the copyright image so we cannot direct you to an authorized example of it," the notices sent by Web Sheriff, an anti-piracy company based in the United Kingdom that provides intellectual property, copyright and privacy rights protection services for clients, on behalf of the rocker read.

Photographer Boris Minkevich at the Winnipeg Free Press, who took the original photograph, told TorrentFreak he was unaware Axl had been trying to "cleanse the web" of his picture.

Even though the photograph was taken by Minkevich, Web Sheriff claims he is not the copyright holder.

"We can gladly confirm that all official / accredited photographers at [Axl Rose] shows sign-off on 'Photography Permission' contracts / 'Photographic Release' agreements which A. specify and limit the manner in which the photos can be exploited and B. transfer copyright ownership in such photos to [Axl Rose's] relevant service company," the company told TorrentFreak in a statement.

Minkevich could not recall if he signed any contracts, as suggested by Web Sheriff, but the company believes there are still grounds to have the picture removed.

"[If a photographer] was there and taking shots without permission or authority, then other considerations / factors would come-into-play as to what such individuals can and cannot do in terms of attempting to commercially exploit the resultant images of someone else's show," the company said.

At press time, Google had not yet complied with the requests to remove the images and all remain up and accessible.

https://t.co/UbTQUNFbJV Picture Axl Rose wants deleted https://t.co/UbTQUNFbJV AXL ROSE might have been blessed… https://t.co/ClZoofBp0G

— Shanna (@ShannaIDK) June 6, 2016

Sean of Q102, Springfield's Rock Station, conducted an interview with vocalist Michael Starr of Los Angeles glam-metal jokesters STEEL PANTHER at this year's Rocklahoma festival, which was held May 27-29 at Catch The Fever Festival Grounds in Pryor, Oklahoma, just outside Tulsa. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked about the progress of the recording sessions for STEEL PANTHER's follow-up to 2014's "All You Can Eat" album, Michael said: "Satchel [guitar] finished the guitars and the bass and the drums, and now all we've gotta do is have the session singer come in and sing, and we'll be done. I mean, I'm singing. I'm gonna try and do it all on my own.

"I think it's gonna come out in October, if we get it done. But we're gonna tour in between, like we always do. Last record, we actually recorded vocals on the bus, so it works out good."

He continued: "We don't have a title yet. We're not sure what we're gonna call it. We're thinking about what we're gonna do, what we're gonna call it.

"Every STEEL PANTHER song and album is from an experience that we've had, so it'll probably come from the experience of touring this year. 'Cause we've got a lot of tours lined up this coming summer and fall. We're doing an Australian tour next month, a Canadian tour the following month, then we're going to Europe to do a festival run. And then we come back and Lexxi [Foxx] is doing… he's gotta go to jail for two weeks for a DUI. And then we get back out, and then we go straight back to Europe to do our own headlining tour."

Starr recently told Metal Wani about the musical and lyrical direction of STEEL PANTER's new material: "As far as the record is concerned, the music content, it's completely different. I mean, we're singing about completely different shit; we're singing about fucking bitches and partying now. We just wanna change it up. 'Cause we were talking partying and fucking bitches [before], but now we're talking about fucking bitches and partying — just in a different order."

"Live From Lexxi's Mom's Garage", STEEL PANTHER's first full-length film featuring a live ten-song acoustic concert interspersed with comedic vignettes showcasing the band's unmatched shenanigans and debauchery, was released on February 26 on CD and CD/DVD by Open E Records via Kobalt Label Services.

New Orleans sludge metal veterans CROWBAR have been rejoined by founder bassist Todd "Sexy T" Strange.

Strange makes his return to the group sixteen years after his initial departure from CROWBAR.

CROWBAR posted an image of Strange on the band's official Facebook page, along with the caption: "Welcome back, my friend."

The group announced over the weekend that it had parted ways with their bassist of less than three years, Jeff Golden.

CROWBAR frontman Kirk Windstein explained: "Being in a band is like being in a relationship and things don't always work out.

"We want to thank Jeff for his dedication and loyalty and we sincerely wish him and his family all the best in the future."

Golden joined CROWBAR in September 2013. The 34-year-old musician hails from Bolton, Connecticut, but lived in Estero, Florida prior to hooking up with CROWBAR and moving to Louisiana.

CROWBAR's follow-up to 2014's "Symmetry In Black" album is due later in the year. The CD was recorded at OCD Recording And Production in Metairie, Louisiana with engineer/producer Duane Simoneaux.

A rock music festival in the former Soviet republic of Georgia headlined by the Swedish band TIAMAT was disrupted by ultraconservative Orthodox Christian activists Saturday evening (June 4).

According to Georgia Today, a group of people led by several radical priests tried to shut down the two-day event on the outskirts of Georgia's capital city Tbilisi 30 minutes after the concert began.

"They were yelling and accusing us of organizing a mass sex orgy," the organizer of the event, Vladimir Unanyants, told the local web site Netgazeti. "Then, suddenly, the electricity went off. From what I've been told, the owner of the venue cut it off."

Unanyants added that the local Orthodox parish in the Tbilisi suburb of Zahesi demanded an end to the concert because they claimed that the festival was desecrating a nearby cemetery.

JINJER, one of the groups that were scheduled to play at the festival, wrote on their Facebook page that their performance was canceled "due to an attack by a group of religious fanatics." They added: "Tbilisi JAM! Fest was disrupted because a nearby monastery didn't like it. The priests brought an angry crowd of extremist supporters and attacked the festival area!!! It is sad to realize that in Georgia, a country that appears to be civilized, religion has more power than the law."

The police reportedly prevented the protesters from entering the main staging area of the festival and convinced the priests to leave the premises without further incident.

Edita Badasyan, a fan who witnessed the events, posted on Facebook that the festival was immediately shut down after the power cut.

"The electricity suddenly went out and the power company EnergoPro Georgia says they don’t have any information about the cut. P.S. New information. The festival has been shut down," Badasyan wrote in her post.

In an exclusive statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET, TIAMAT mainman Johan Edlund spoke of his frustration at being unable to perform for the band's fans in Georgia and tried to reassure everyone that his group's intentions were pure.

Edlund said: "We landed in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, just today, quite late, or actually in the morning. Yesterday was the first day of a two-day festival that we were headlining. And that's the biggest rock festival in Georgia.

"Yesterday, Orthodox monks attacked and closed down the festival, mainly because of us, TIAMAT, because we had inverted crosses in our old logo type and I have written 'Hail Satan' on my chest."

He continued: "I told the promoter that they're very welcome anytime to my hotel. I gave the hotel room, anything. Knock on the door, come here and we'll discuss it and we'll find a solution. Because I lived for eleven years in an Orthodox country, and after my father's death, I tried to convert to Orthodox church myself. I've been there a billion times in the biggest Orthodox church that is my neighbor; I lived on their soil for ten years. And I didn't see why this should happen, because we really come in peace. We just want the people here that want to go to a rock festival to be pleased and happy and to have a good time. So I don't see why this should be a problem. But they haven't replied. And the organizer now is trying to set up a club show at a place that we don't know yet, because no one is allowed to know it until it happens. The monks are trying to find out what the organizers are trying to do in order to follow up on that, and it's pretty fucked up."

Edlund, who says he is religious himself, added that he doesn't "understand why religion [doesn't] just stay on that first idea that it should bring people love [and] happiness.

"I don't hate anybody. I just try to do my best, and that's something hard enough. I mean, believe me, really. I had a lot of loss in my family and close friends weeks ago, and this is not what religion is about; this is not what church is about."

The TIAMAT frontman also expressed his surprise at the lengths to which the radical priests went to get the festival canceled.

"What I heard from a band that played yesterday — we had dinner together — [was that the priests] were even quite violent; I mean, physical," he said. "They actually attacked people. And I don't really understand what that's about."

Edlund had initially hoped that TIAMAT would be able to play a club show in Tbilisi Sunday night, but by the time BLABBERMOUTH.NET had reached him, he was resigned to the fact that the band probably wouldn't perform in Georgia this time around.

"Right now, at around eight in the evening, we are just lying in our separate hotel rooms, waiting for something," he said. "But we have a flight to Poland at four o'clock in the morning, and I think it starts to feel like it ain't gonna happen. And I feel very sad for the people. It's so stupid and unnecessary.

"We just thought that, 'Well, let's go back to the hotel and do some exercises. We're ready for a fight,'" he added.

"I'm not really afraid of monks, but I think it's very sad that religion [goes] these ways."

Advocates of "traditional" values in Georgia – including nationalists and social conservatives – have become more vocal of late, with fundamentalist Orthodox Christian groups and neo-Nazis targeting venues or events that they consider to be Western cultural threats.

The Georgian Orthodox Church, whose followers represent more than 80% of the population, has long been a significant player in the country's political landscape.

According to Ahram Online, SEPULTURA's June 4 concert in Egypt was stopped by the police because necessary permissions for the show were not provided.

Police forces stormed into the villa on the outskirts of Cairo where the concert was taking place and asked the audience to leave the premises after negotiating with the organizers.

The show was originally scheduled to be held at the Nile Country Club, but was later moved to a villa in Sheikh Zayed.

A Nile Country Club representative told Ahram Online that the concert organizer, Egyptian artist/horror aficionado Nader Sadek, failed to to deliver official permissions from several official bodies, including one from the National Security Agency.

"We are a touristic location and we always have to receive several permissions. Other locations might not need all this paperwork," the Nile Country Club representative said.

After Nile Country Club's refusal to host the event due to incomplete permits, the organizers secured another location in a private villa in Sheikh Zayed and announced it to the audience shortly before the concert.

Just before the show was scheduled to begin, police entered the private villa and asked to see the permissions required for the event to go ahead. When the organizers failed to provide the necessary documents, police asked the bands and the crew to leave and remove their equipment.

It has been reported by some eyewitnesses that Nader Sadek and the owner of the villa were arrested and are currently being interrogated. A report in the privately owned newspaper Al-Watan appears to corroborate the eyewitness accounts, with the article mentioning that three people were arrested, including two of the organizers.

Also scheduled to appear at the event were Sadek and the local bands GORYNOV and PERPETUAL FEROCITY.

The matter is now being investigated by Egyptian National Security.

Dez Fafara says that he decided to shelf COAL CHAMBER and focus on DEVILDRIVER after the former group's comeback album and tour revealed "some deep-seated shit that certain dudes in the band still need to work out."

COAL CHAMBER existed for ten years before disbanding in 2003 to pursue other musical projects. They reunited in 2011 for touring purposes but it wasn't until 2014 that the band began work on a new studio album of original material, last year's critically acclaimed "Rivals". Several months of touring activity followed before Dez returned to DEVILDRIVER to make a new record, the newly issued "Trust No One".

Asked by Revolver magazine where COAL CHAMBER stands at the moment, Fafara said: "I had a lot of fun doing that record and playing shows with them again. But there were some circumstances that were not ideal and that's why that thing is not continuing as of right now. If something comes up and I have time and want to make a record and the members have their shit together, I'll do it. But as of now, there's some deep-seated shit that certain dudes in the band still need to work out. And if they work it out and want to tour or make another record, they can come back and give me a call. But right now, everyone in DEVILDRIVER is stoked. No one's fighting. And I feel lucky to be where I am."

Dez had stated in previous interviews that COAL CHAMBER's original split happened because "I did not want to be around the band's hard drug use and I realized that going onstage every night that the money was feeding their habit, so I walked to save my friends." He added that his COAL CHAMBER bandmates were "clean" as of 2012, which made him realize that "it was the right thing to walk [back in 2003]."

Fafara echoed those same sentiments in a 2015 interview with The Rockpit. He said: "COAL CHAMBER broke up due to horrible circumstances. Those guys had very negative lives and vices that took them down and I had to leave. And in doing so, I think I actually saved my friends. I watched them come around. I watched them get clean off of drugs. Meegs [Rascón, guitar] is now very happily married and Mike [Cox, drums] might as well be married with a one-year-old baby boy and he's very mature and he's sober. If Mike was not sober, I don't think we would even be together at this point and talking about having the record, and it's kind of contingent on that, is that everybody keeps their shit together."

He continued: "I just think when you have a chance to get back together with somebody that you love and make music that you love and having another shot at it, when you see and hear an evolution in the music and you see an evolution in the writing, [then] there's no reason not to do that. I feel blessed that we got the chance and I feel we made one hell of a record."

"Rivals sold around 7,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 80 on The Billboard 200 chart (which includes stream activity). The band's first CD in over thirteen years was recorded in part at Audiohammer studio in Sanford, Florida with producer Mark Lewis (DEVILDRIVER, CANNIBAL CORPSE).

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has offered more details on the medical procedure which has forced his band to postpone part of its summer tour.

Taylor announced on Facebook Friday afteroon that he had undergone a last-minute spinal surgery and was recovering. He thanked SLIPKNOT's fans for "having [his] back" and supporting him as the group postponed its trek that was supposed to start next Thursday, June 9 in West Valley City, Utah.

He later tweeted that he "basically broke [his] neck a while back and didn't realize it." He added that he had to have a disc replaced and needed some additional work on his vertebrae.

Earlier today, Taylor told the people who suggested that the surgery could be part of a more serious health problem to "calm down". He wrote: "Enough with the conspiracy theories. I quit smoking because I wanted to. I had emergency surgery because shit came up during my physical."

Twelve SLIPKNOT shows are being rescheduled for August, with the tour now kicking off on June 28 in Nashville.

SLIPKNOT is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, ".5: The Gray Chapter", which sold 132,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart.

The CD was released in October 2014 following a six-year hiatus during which founding SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray died and original drummer Joey Jordison was dismissed.

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine posted a new video on Periscope, a live video streaming platform owned by Twitter, in which he gives the viewer a backstage tour of the FortaRock festival in Nijmegen, The Netherlands where the band performed earlier today (Sunday, June 5). Check out the five-minute clip below.

MEGADETH played its first show with drummer Dirk Verbeuren (SOILWORK) on May 20 at the Rock On The Range festival in Columbus, Ohio.

MEGADETH recruited Verbeuren to play drums for the band while Chris Adler is busy touring with LAMB OF GOD.

Adler played drums on MEGADETH's latest album, "Dystopia", and has taken part in most of the band's live shows in support of the CD so far. On those shows where Adler was unable to play with MEGADETH, he was temporarily replaced by Tony Laureano (ex-DIMMU BORGIR, NILE, ANGELCORPSE), the veteran extreme-metal skinsman who has worked as MEGADETH's drum tech since 2011. However, going forward, MEGADETH will utilize the services of Verbeuren, the 40-year-old Belgian-born-and-now-Los-Angeles-based drummer who has been playing with SOILWORK since 2005.

Verbeuren was recommended for the MEGADETH job by Adler, who called Dirk "probably [one of the] top three drummers in the world."

New Orleans sludge metal veterans CROWBAR have parted ways with their bassist of less than three years, Jeff Golden.

CROWBAR frontman Kirk Windstein explained: "Being in a band is like being in a relationship and things don't always work out.

"We want to thank Jeff for his dedication and loyalty and we sincerely wish him and his family all the best in the future."

Golden joined CROWBAR in September 2013. The 34-year-old musician hails from Bolton, Connecticut, but lived in Estero, Florida prior to hooking up with CROWBAR and moving to Louisiana.

CROWBAR's follow-up to 2014's "Symmetry In Black" album is due later in the year. The CD was recorded at OCD Recording And Production in Metairie, Louisiana with engineer/producer Duane Simoneaux.

Windstein recently stated about the musical direction of the new CROWBAR material: "It's more of meat and potatoes. On the last few records, we brought a lot of new elements into the band a little bit without deviating too far from what CROWBAR's about. But this is more like… I went back and started listening to early CROWBAR, and it's more of that attitude, but more mature — every bit as angry, every bit as heavy, every bit as depressed… doomy, whatever you wanna call it. But doing it this many years later, I really like what we've got going on.""Symmetry In Black" sold around 3,900 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 68 on The Billboard 200 chart.

CROWBAR photo credit: Robin Windstein

The Belfast Telegraph has a behind-the-scenes look at the company responsible for AC/DC's Rock Or Bust stage set, which arrived at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London on Saturday (June 4th).

"We are entertainment architects and we bring rock 'n' roll into architecture and architecture into rock 'n' roll,” says a representative from the UK-based company Stufish.”

Check out video of the complete London show below:

 

SIXX:A.M. , the band featuring MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx alongside guitarist DJ Ashba and vocalist James Michael, performed a surprise acoustic version of the CRÜE classic "Live Wire" during a June 1 appearance on the "La Bande Originale de Nagui" radio show hosted by French TV superstar Nagui and broadcasted on French national station France Inter. You can now listen to SIXX:A.M.'s rendition below.

Sixx told RiffYou.com last year that he has always seen SIXX:A.M. as "totally separate" from MÖTLEY CRÜE, explaining that he wanted to make a clean break from touring with CRÜE out of the deep respect he had for all he had accomplished with his bandmates, and an unwillingness to trade on that legacy as focused completely on SIXX:A.M.

"A lot of times, I see people try and do 'the next thing' and it's just kind of the same as the other. [If that were me] I'd think, 'Well, why not just do MÖTLEY CRÜE?' But why would I do another version of MÖTLEY CRÜE? SIXX:A.M. is completely different musically, spiritually, emotionally, visually … and that gives me pride. The people who are coming to see us, are coming to see SIXX:A.M. We don't play MÖTLEY CRÜE music and we never will play MÖTLEY CRÜE music. The day MÖTLEY CRÜE plays its last show, I will never play another MÖTLEY CRÜE song again … even if it's one I wrote."

Sixx echoed those same sentiments in an August 2015 interview with Ottawa Citizen. He said: "For me, it's very cut and dry. When MÖTLEY CRÜE is done, it will be the greatest experience of my life, but it's the closing of that chapter. I will never play MÖTLEY CRÜE music in SIXX:A.M. That is MÖTLEY CRÜE's music. Even if I wrote them, I won't play them, because I don't believe I should do that in another band. We should each do what we already know how to do, which is create great music."

Four months later, while speaking with RockSverige.se, Sixx appeared to backtrack on his earlier comments about never playing CRÜE songs again after the band's "The Final Tour". He explained: "I said, 'I will never play MÖTLEY CRÜE music again,' because I wanted people to hear me. I wanted them to hear that we [SIXX:A.M.] have five hit singles right now, we have a double record coming out, we've got two years of touring. It's really not part of the plan. After seeing my own words in the press, I was, like, who knows? Maybe four or five years down the road, maybe we'll do an acoustic version of 'Live Wire' or do some interesting… But you will never see this band [SIXX:A.M.] lean on MÖTLEY CRÜE, because I don't think that's fair. I wrote the songs, so I guess I'm entitled to play them if I want. I just want some distance."

The first volume of "Prayers For The Damned", the new double album from SIXX:A.M., was released on April 29 via Eleven Seven Music.