Swedish death metallers AMON AMARTH have announced the addition of Jocke Wallgren as the band's new permanent drummer. Jocke has been sitting behind the kit for all shows on the group's current "Jomsviking" world tour.

AMON AMARTH comments: "We are happy to have Jocke with us as a permanent band member. He has done a great job for us on the current world tour, bringing excellent drumming with a positive attitude and great personality, something that will definitely benefit AMON AMARTH for years to come."

Says Jocke: "I'm super excited to jump aboard the unstoppable AMON AMARTH longship. My predecessors have inspired me greatly throughout the years and I will do my best to honor the legacy that is AMON AMARTH."

In a recent interview with EMP Rock Invasion, AMON AMARTH vocalist Johan Hegg stated about the departure of drummer Fredrik Andersson and AMON AMARTH's decision to enlist a session drummer, Tobias Gustafsson (VOMITORY, CUT UP), during the recording sessions for "Jomsviking": "Tobias was helping to write the album and record the album. We asked him to help us write and record the album, 'cause we didn't wanna go out and find a complete replacement, start working on a new album and then realize halfway through that, 'All right. This is not working out. We need to find someone else.' That wouldn't have been good at all. So we decided to work with someone we know really well. Tobias is an old friend and a great drummer. I mean, he's been playing for years in VOMITORY and now, obviously, he's in CUT UP. I think he contributed a lot to the end result of the album. I think it would not have turned out as great as it did without him."

AMON AMARTH's tenth studio album, "Jomsviking", debuted at No. 19 on The Billboard 200, having shifted 21,000 equivalent album units in the week ending March 31.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

In terms of pure album sales, "Jomsviking" opened with 20,000 copies.

"Jomsviking" was released on March 25 via Metal Blade in North America and Sony Music internationally. The first concept record in AMON AMARTH's storied career tells a tragic tale of love and revenge, backed by the Swedes' trademark melodic, anthemic metal, which was produced and mixed once again by Andy Sneap (MEGADETH, TESTAMENT, ACCEPT). The epic original story is set in the world of the Jomsvikings, the legendary order of mercenary Vikings.

Photo credit: Scott Uchida

"If You're A Star", the new animated video from Amy Lee, the Grammy Award-winning co-founder and lead vocalist of the rock band EVANESCENCE, can be seen below. The song is taken from Lee's children's album, "Dream Too Much", which was released via Amazon. The LP, which features 12 newly recorded songs, including seven originals and five popular covers, was made available for Prime members in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria and Japan starting on September 30 to exclusively stream and enjoy on Prime Music, at no additional cost to their membership. In addition, the album is available for all customers to purchase and download in MP3 format in the U.S., U.K., Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain and Japan.

Joining Amazon's growing library of original children's and family music exclusively streaming on Prime Music, "Dream Too Much" is a collection of 12 songs that encourage children and families to sing along together. Inspired by Lee's son and her own musical upbringing, the album features guest appearances by several family members, including backing vocals by her siblings, and instrumentals by both her father and uncle.

"Our focus when developing originals is to provide unique collections that Prime members can't find anywhere else," said Steve Boom, VP of Digital Music for Amazon. "Amy Lee's versatility as an award-winning rock vocalist gave us an opportunity to rethink traditional children's music and create an album that can be enjoyed by every member of the family. We can't wait for Prime members to listen."

"This album is very personal to me," said Amy Lee. "My husband and I had our first baby in 2014 and he has been the center of the inspiration for this children's album. Every song on this album has a story — whether it's an original for our son based on his favorite things or a song my dad used to sing to me when I was a little girl. I can't begin to tell you how fulfilling this project has been and how proud I am to unveil it to listeners on Prime Music."

"Dream Too Much" track listing:

01. Stand By Me02. Dream Too Much03. Bee And Duck04. I'm Not Tired05. Little Bird06. Alice07. Rubber Duckie08. Hello, Goodbye09. Donkey And Chicken10. The End Of The Book11. If You're A Star12. Goodnight My Love

"It's not about pulling from the depths of my soul and finding a secret place that I can only describe through music," Lee told MTV about her songwriting process. "I feel like a lot of what I do with EVANESCENCE is on such a deep level, and it's so important that I get all of myself across. This wasn't about all that crazy emotion. We were allowed to just be musicians and be free and have fun with it."

METALLICA made its "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" debut last night (Thursday, September 29), performing their new song "Moth Into Flame" for the first time on national television. While backstage at "The Tonight Show", James Hetfield, Robert Trujillo, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett shared road stories about tour hygiene, a close call with Ozzy Osbourne and more. Check out a web-exclusive clip below.

"Moth Into Flame" is taken from METALLICA's tenth studio album, "Hardwired...To Self-Destruct", which is scheduled for a November 18 release via Blackened Recordings. The long-awaited follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic" consists of two discs, containing a dozen songs and nearly 80 minutes of music.

"Hardwired...To Self-Destruct" was produced by Greg Fidelman with frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich. The band recorded the disc at its own studio.

Instead of a previously announced bonus disc of demos, the deluxe edition of the album will now feature a number of cover songs that the band has recorded over the past few years, including a medley of Ronnie James Dio songs, IRON MAIDEN's "Remember Tomorrow" and DEEP PURPLE's "When A Blind Man Cries".

The deluxe version will also feature a live set recorded at Rasputin's in Berkeley, California on Record Store Day 2016 and a live version of the new song "Hardwired" recorded last month at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

METALLICA will next appear at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, California on October 22 and October 23.

PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS (formerly PHIL CAMPBELL'S ALL STARR BAND), the band featuring MOTÖRHEAD guitarist Phil Campbell alongside his sons Todd, Dane and Tyla, plus vocalist Neil Starr, will release its self-titled debut five-track EP on November 18 via Motörhead Music.

The official lyric video for the song "Big Mouth", taken from the EP, can be seen below.

Produced by Todd Campbell at the band's own Stompbox Studios in Wales, U.K., and mixed by MOTÖRHEAD producer Cameron Webb, "Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons" loudly shoves you head-first into its raw, gritty, classic and instantly accessible rock 'n' roll charms. Whether it's the speedy biker-charged refrain of "No Turning Back", the crunchy catchy jump of "Big Mouth" or the beautiful-yet-bombastic balladry of "Life In Space", "Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons" brings uniquely organic life and verve to every last riff and stomp, with Starr's sensational vocals ensuring this EP will be the surprise of the 2016 rock 'n' roll release calendar.

Neil Starr recently told Kaaos TV about PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS' debut EP: "The reason it's an EP is we can get that done quicker. We wanted to give people some music to hear that was our own music, some music of our own that we can play live as well. So the idea was to get something done as quick as possible. It keeps the fans interested in the band, because there's new songs to keep it fresh. And it's great for us, 'cause we get to write more songs all the time. Todd, who's in the band, has his own recording studio, so it's really easy for us to just go in and do what we wanna do whenever we want, which is great."

Regarding the musical direction of PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS' original material, Neil said: "You know what you're gonna get, because Phil Campbell is the riff god. So you hear these MOTÖRHEAD riffs; Phil wrote a lot of those songs. So there's elements of that gonna be coming through in the music. Obviously, personally, I wouldn't ever want to try and be like Lemmy and his style that he does, because that's one person who does that, and that's him. You don't try and do that. I bring my own style to the band, but, obviously, yeah, there's lots of really great riffs in the songs, like you would expect from a band that's got Phil Campbell in it. It's just rock and roll music, I guess."

"Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons" EP track listing:

01. Big Mouth02. Spiders03. Take Aim04. No Turning Back05. Life In Space

DIRKSCHNEIDER, the band fronted by former ACCEPT and current U.D.O. singer Udo Dirkschneider, will release a live album called "Live - Back To The Roots" on October 28 via AFM Records. The effort, which was recorded on April 2 at Kaminwerk in Memmingen, Germany, will be made available as two-CD digipak and gatefold three-vinyl in four different colors (black, gold, silver and clear).

You can now listen to the song "Breaker" from "Live - Back To The Roots" below.

Dirkschneider's "Back To The Roots" tour features him performing ACCEPT songs one last time before he closes the chapter for good. The trek was recently recognized with a "Sold Out" award after 31 of the 48 European shows were sold out.

"It's unbelievable, " says Udo. "I never expected this tour to be so successful. It's beautiful to see how many people walk with me on my personal way of saying goodbye to the ACCEPT chapter."

He added: "It's still so much fun to sing these songs live, they are a part of my biography, but nevertheless it's about time to turn that page.

"There was so much talking and speculations about me and ACCEPT, so this is kind of a musical statement from my end — which seems to be very interesting for the fans who came to these shows."

To those fans that still want to experience the classic ACCEPT songs performed live, Udo has this message: "There is a band called ACCEPT. And please, if you wanna hear these songs, please go then to [see] ACCEPT. [Laughs] So that's the only thing I can say. Now you'll have the chance [this] year to hear it with the original voice, but Mark [Tornillo, current ACCEPT singer] is doing a — I would say — really good job on it, so please go there and listen then to ACCEPT and U.D.O. is then U.D.O."

Regarding what makes the classic ACCEPT songs so special, Udo said: "I don't know what is special. You never can tell it, really. Like [DEEP PURPLE's] 'Smoke On The Water', in a way, something like this. Sometimes there's a song that, in a way, that stays forever."

"Live - Back To The Roots" track listing:

CD1

01. Intro02. Starlight03. Living For Tonite04. Flash Rockin' Man05. London Leatherboys06. Midnight Mover07. Breaker08. Head Over Heels09. Neon Night10. Princess Of The Dawn11. Winterdreams12. Restless And Wild13. Son Of A Bitch

CD2

14. Up To The Limit15. Wrong Is Right16. Midnight Highway17. Screaming For A Love-Bite18. Monsterman19. T.V. War20. Losers And Winners21. Metal Heart22. I'm A Rebel23. Fast As A Shark24. Balls To The Wall25. Burning26. Outro

Recording lineup:

Udo Dirkschneider - VocalsSven Dirkschneider - DrumsFitty Wienhold - BassAndrey Smirnov - GuitarKasperi Heikkinen - Guitar

Dan 'The Doom' Franklin from The Quietus talks to legendary death metal mainstay turned heavy progressive rocker, Mikael Åkerfeldt, about death, rebirth and creative regeneration.

When I call Mikael Åkerfeldt to discuss Sorceress, the twelfth studio album by his band, Opeth, I don't realise yet that I'm speaking to a dead man. A dead man doing housework: "I'm vacuuming up banana fly!"

On Sorceress Opeth consolidate a left turn they took with 2011’s Heritage. Before then, they built a cult following as a progressive heavy rock band whose medium was death metal. Their albums were ornate, high-contrast works; they juxtaposed brutal force and intricacy with a mellow lightness of touch. They made bludgeon that was intrinsically beautiful. They dug deep: circuitous journeys into the underworld perfected on 2001’s Blackwater Park (taking its name from a German prog band that lifted it from the gothic mansion in the novel The Woman In White).

With Heritage, Opeth’s songs no longer plumbed the depths, but fanned out. Åkerfeldt dropped his death metal roar entirely – to the consternation of a portion of their audience – and queered the pitch further with an assortment of advanced mid-70s prog sounds, ‘difficult’ arrangements and textures. Its follow-up, Pale Communion (2014), though a continuation, was an altogether less bamboozling record: more subtle and introverted, and occasionally exhibited a grittier edge again.

What marks Sorceress out is the hard rock backbone that runs through it – the songs still flirt with fusion, jazz, funk and pastoral folk but cleave to a stripped-down melodic centre. In short, it’s a punchier, hook-driven album that pits Jethro Tull’s Aqualung against King Crimson’s Red while Ronnie James Dio makes ringside interventions. It also contains some of the band’s heaviest material since they departed from extreme metal.

For a band with such a storied discography, It’s tempting to read Sorceress as the third album in a trilogy. Åkerfeldt does not: "That would’ve been cool if it was meant as part of a trilogy but it's just a record. It's easier to connect the three records because a lot of people think we made a massive change with the Heritage record and this is the third album since which is kinda similar, meaning there is slightly less extreme metal influences – the vocals, of course: I'm not screaming on these three records. But they're not meant to be connected in any way, really."

But nevertheless the albums lend themselves to groupings don’t they?

"It's in retrospect really. If I look back at the discography maybe ten years from now I'd [see] these three records as a trilogy but now it's not meant to be. If you follow the evolution of this band there's a couple of records that are connected more than others. I think the first two for instance [Orchid, 1995 and Morningrise, 1996], I see them as one record in a way. And number four and five, meaning Still Life [1995] and Blackwater Park, I see them as connected for some reason too: they're similar to me. Ghost Reveries [2005] and Watershed [2008] I also see as connected. And that doesn't necessarily mean they were at the time – there wasn't an actual plan to connect records in the discography."

I’m struck by the persona of the Sorceress, a figure to be in awe of and to fear. More specifically, Opeth take Persephone – daughter of Zeus and queen of the Underworld – to encapsulate the album in the primary sense of the word: beginning with ‘Persephone’, a melancholy Spanish guitar instrumental with a female voice warning, "A wicked deception I am creating’ and concluding the record with ‘Persephone (Slight Return)’.

"The whole Persephone thing – that was a love affair with Hades, or rather by his choice, and that was something that I just stumbled upon more or less. I think I saw the name first (it might seem weird) but I think from the band Kula Shaker – they had a song called ‘Persephone’ on a record I liked [Strangefolk released in 2007]. I saw it there on the record and said 'What's that? it sounds interesting', and I wasn't too into Greek mythology or anything like that so I had to look it up. It stuck in my head that it was a nice little story and it could make this album feel like a concept record, framing it the way I did with the intro and the outro. The reason being that some of the lyrical content dealt with tragic love, in a way."

Persephone’s presence recalls Melinda, the central character of Still Life, for whom the hero returns with catastrophic consequences. Still Life is a death metal classic principally because it dismembers the form and infuses it with a multiplicity of colours and shades. It is a thrilling, boundary-breaking journey from the opening epic panorama of ‘The Moor’ through the revelatory blossoming of ‘Godhead’s Lament’ and the jazz-tinged ‘Face Of Melinda’ itself, bringing into focus the object of the narrator’s doomed love. Melinda is a highly romanticised heroine who is also harshly besmirched: a "harlot of God upon the earth" for whom "No joy would flicker in her eyes". "Harlot" is also a term used in the title track of Sorceress. Still Life showed a strong storytelling sensibility and improved on the musical and lyrical ambition of My Arms, Your Hearse which preceded it in 1998.

Although markedly different from those albums, Sorceress has something of the mood and tone of that work, driven by Åkerfeldt’s personal experience, including a recent divorce, more than a reflective, authored distance.

"Well that's right. When you're comparing it to My Arms, Your Hearse, that was a type of ghost story. I was struggling to write lyrics in those days. I didn't have anything to say. Like today, still, I feel like I don't have anything to say lyrically. So that was a way for me to have some lyrics that meant something. I was inspired by King Diamond so I wrote the lyrics to [that album] as a concept record and the same with Still Life which is also kind of a love story you could say. I hadn't really thought of that. That's probably been the case for years in our discography that there's a couple of lyrical themes that deal with lost love or those types of topics. This one, it's not a concept record in that sense, like those previous records. It's more that I've been going through some personal type of problems in my own private life and have been writing those kinds of lyrics. That's all it is. It's also not autobiographical in anyway it's the thoughts that happened to come out on paper when I was writing the lyrics."

Understating as he does his lyric writing and musical ability generally, I should be clear that Åkerfeldt is one of the outstanding rock musicians of his generation with a voice, guitar tone(s) and styling that is unmistakably him. And by extension, despite the musical evolution, unmistakably Opeth.

A less sprawling sonic journey, Sorceress touches on other periods in the band’s history. One of the pre-released tracks, ‘Will O’ The Wisp’, returns to the bucolic folk of Blackwater Park’s ‘Harvest’ but the vocal confidence and melody is even keener. The singing doesn’t drift on the tide of the music but leads or provides counterpoint. In short, Åkerfeldt is getting very good at writing strong verses and big choruses, both ‘The Wilde Flowers’ and penultimate track ‘Era’ hang off the latter.


"I'd like to think it kicked in naturally but I wanted that I think. I'd been writing a lot of songs that just had layers of stuff basically. Sometimes I haven't achieved a coherent type of feeling to the musical content. Sometimes I've been meaning to but never succeeded. I was deliberately trying to find a few kind of spots in the songs that the listener could cling on to, that they would recognise. I was probably thinking more in that sense of classic type songwriting. I can write a song that's meandering, going nowhere and all of sudden it's finished but it feels good anyway. I wanted – especially for this record and to a certain extent the one before – strong vocal lines, strong passages. I wanted the vocals to carry the song a bit more than how it's been in the past, so I made a deliberate effort to have a few of those types of songs and few of those types of parts in the songs. That one [‘The Wilde Flowers’] was actually nicked from an Aerosmith song. It's the chord progression I heard on an Aerosmith record I don't even have: Night In The Ruts, from the late seventies [1979]. Not considered to be the best Aerosmith, but there's a song on there called ‘Mia’ that I heard this kind of chord thing and a vocal thing that I thought, 'Mmm that's interesting.' (I shouldn't say these things but y’know!) ‘Era’ was not stolen from anywhere – I thought, 'Fuck, that sounds really nice', like a classic type of chorus. But then I heard people saying that it sounded like Cutting Crew, ‘(I Just) Died In Your Arms tonight’! But that was just a coincidence."

What stood out on ‘Cusp Of Eternity’ from Pale Communion was Åkerfeldt pushing his clean voice to a more gravelly, salt-of-the-earth classic rock vocal. He’d previously spoken about aspiring to big Scorpions-style power ballads with Watershed’s ‘Burden’ and it’s on Sorceress that the promise is fulfilled.

"There's more confidence. I've been doing this for a long time. You have to bear in mind that I never identified with being a singer. I never wanted to be a singer. When we formed the band [he has previously claimed in a sauna, but certainly in Stockholm in 1990] I just wanted to play guitar. I was pushed into that position. So gradually after X amount of years, I felt I became more confident and that it was something I really needed; that I could progress and improve as a singer. I needed that type of confidence and that's been escalating ever since. Only now in recent years have I come to accept that, yes, I am the singer in this band. After 12 records."

This new clean-voice confidence was an approach he’d honed also in his previous choice of covers: David Coverdale-era Deep Purple track ‘Soldier Of Fortune’, Alice In Chains’ ‘Would?’ and most pertinently Robin Trower’s ‘Bridge Of Sighs’, which boasts a godly James Dewar vocal.

"My idols are those types of guys and I've never been able to sing like that so I have high aspirations when it comes to my vocal tone, so to speak. I want to be a good rock singer, classic rock-type singer: like Paul Rodgers, Coverdale and those kinda guys. I know I won't arrive at a place where I feel I am as good as them but it helps me to advance to work towards a goal musically that is completely out of my league. It really helps me to develop I think."

For an album that coheres together as effectively as Sorceress it actively seeks out diversity in its tracks. This is most explicit on ‘Sorceress’ and ‘Sorceress 2’, the first a morose, down-tuned sledgehammer and the second an ethereal, wraith-like acoustic track. The former caused both relief and consternation on its unveiling, it showcasing a simpler, straightforward bludgeon for a band predicated on lightness of touch.

Its main riff is almost atavistic: "That came straight out of stupidity I think. I didn't have any better ideas. I was noodling around with that part that opens the song, the more fusion-esque sounding bit. I just had a little lick I started playing on the keyboard, a kinda swinging little piece. I thought maybe there's something I can do with this and I recorded that first section and then I went, 'What now?' I was sitting there for fifteen, twenty minutes and I couldn’t come up with anything that felt natural and I guess – I can't remember if the song would technically be in A from the beginning – I just tuned down the guitar much more than I've ever done before. I just tuned it down to A and I realised, 'Fuck, I have two A strings: is that good or bad?', and started playing this shuggah-shuggah part. And I thought, 'Why not', you know? As soon as I tuned down the guitar I came up with that riff. It's very simple but very effective. And it has that type of classic quality to it which had me continue and I finished that song the same day pretty much."

In deliberate contrast, ‘Sorceress 2’ is the band at their most Floyd-ish – there’s a detachment and sparseness to the arrangement that immediately made me think of ‘Us And Them’. Built around a simple acoustic motif it could have been lifted from Opeth’s 2003 Damnation album (a companion to the none-more-black Deliverance from 2002), which saw the band step into full-on MTV Unplugged songwriting mode, and has an emotional authenticity that the archness of their recent guise has somehow lacked.

"I wanted something like that because I was singing in a falsetto voice. When I wrote that there was the first verse and I came up with that little guitar thing and I started humming along in a falsetto voice and I wanted to keep that kind of feeling because that sounded very fragile and it also didn't sound like anything I'd written for this record. I wanted to keep the very nice, calm, fragile piece of music pretty much. And there was no aspiration to have the drums kick in or anything like that. It was one of those from the get-go: one of those withdrawn tunes. I can't remember listening to anything else really, but I felt for the guitar chords that I'm playing on the verse it had a really nice ring to it which reminded me of an Ozzy Osbourne song called ‘Diary Of A Madman’: the acoustic part at the beginning had that type of ring it. I can't really say it sounds like it but it had something interesting which made me continue.’

Typical of Opeth that one song recalls both Pink Floyd and Ozzy Osbourne. It also made me wonder whether the band have learnt to deliberately play within themselves.

"Of course. I never considered us to be a virtuoso-type band. If you leave me out of it, the other guys are fucking great musicians. They can play circles around me and a lot of other musicians on the planet I think: they're fantastic. But I've never really been interested in that. I've always valued the quality of a song more, at least what I deem to be a quality song. So I don't think we ever gave in to the temptation of songs with showing off parts. Some parts are a bit show-offy but I've always felt that there's been something else to those sorts of parts too that I think adds value to the song, if you know what I mean. I can't remember a single part that I've written that is meant to impress people in that sense of, 'Oh fuck, these guys are great musicians.' I think of us more as a collective and once you do that you automatically think more of the quality of the song, as opposed to exposing each individual as a fantastic player. I mean, they are, but we never flaunted that."

That said, the masterpiece of the album is ‘Strange Brew’, a liquified concoction of full-throttle individual performances that shouldn’t mix together, but the melodic consistency of the band at this point and Åkerfeldt’s arrangement pulls it off.

It opens and returns to a haunting two chord refrain, which guitarist Fredrik Åkesson had brought to him: "That song was a long time in the making. I mean Fredrik actually came in with a thing that he'd written. I felt it was very interesting, we can do something with that, and I started kind of dismantling his demo basically and it was just one part on there. I took away the drums and the bass and there was an acoustic part. I made some type of swell instead. It's always a bit sensitive when you're working with something which somebody else wrote. But he came up with what I consider to be the verse – that soft thing that starts the song. And I basically stripped it clean of pretty much everything the original version had and made it the swell thing instead and that also gave me a nice vocal line, and some nice little twists. But I didn't really know where to take it. I ended up going along a pre-made path with that song. I felt like I wasn't doing anything interesting with the song for a long time. I kinda let it be for quite some time and then I picked it up at the very end of the writing sessions and remade everything again. And pretty much started from scratch and said, 'OK, this beginning part is nice' but I wanted something crazy to happen. And it was by mistake that I came up with this keyboard lick."

Yes, that keyboard passage is positively explosive – the band playing out of their skins before wrenching open space for Åkerfeldt’s cry of despair – "There's a chasm between you and me."

He says: "It was weird because I was gonna record drums and I have a little pad thing – because I play drums for the demos, I play them manually on the pad basically – so I was gonna play drums but I had the recording on the wrong track in my studio so I started playing what I expected to be drums but instead it was electric piano. And I just started playing really fast, thinking I'm gonna play drums, all I heard were these keyboard notes – du-be-didi – and I thought, "That's interesting."

So it was by mistake, and I ended up finishing that part, played it to Joakim [Svalberg, keyboards] and he said, "That's insane, that's gonna take a lot of practise from me" because it was really long leaps on the keyboard to play it perfectly. But I came up with that part and then once that was in the song the rest of it wrote itself pretty quickly. And I made a return to the opening part and reworked it into a doomy heavy rock section that finishes the song. And everything in between were just like layers. I thought that this song doesn't necessarily need a bridge or a chorus, anything like that. It's got strong vocal parts but it's not coherent if you know what I mean: it's an all-over-the-place kind of song. I love those kinds of songs. At that point I had already written a bunch of songs for the record that had a bit more control so to speak, so I felt there was space for a song that was out of control, which was ‘Strange Brew’ basically.’

At this point I have to bring up Gentle Giant with Åkerfeldt. Of all the progressive bands mentioned as bearing a relationship with Opeth, it strikes me that on this record more than ever that they are also operating in a similar space, poised between intricate, neo-medieval progressive arrangements and a hard-blooded heavy rock found on Gentle Giant’s first two albums.

"I absolutely love them. When I think of progressive rock sometimes I forget about them. You automatically jump onto King Crimson and Yes and Camel, those types of bands that I love too. And I tend to forget Gentle Giant, but once I think of them I'm like, fuck, they're actually the best of the bunch. And whenever I listen to them it's so ahead of its time I think. They have that type of sensitivity that a lot of those other bands don't have. Or at least it's not as apparent to me. I mean they had Kerry Minnear who has a beautiful voice and is just a genius of a musician. I think for some of the stuff he wrote, or what they wrote collectively, its time hasn't come yet. And certainly for the time those records came out in the seventies they were too complex and good for the scene then, even if they were quite popular in those days, so it feels like we haven't arrived at a time when everybody would understand them yet. There was actually talk of doing a cover of Gentle Giant for this record. The song ‘Aspirations’ from the album The Power And The Glory which is so beautiful. It's a Kerry Minnear piece but I'm kinda relieved we didn't do it because it's so difficult.’


Opeth are carrying that torch forward. Their progress has been steady and assured, from their showpiece gig at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2003, released as Lamentations on DVD and just this year reissued on vinyl and to download, through to the live albums recorded at the Roundhouse and Royal Albert Hall, the latter partly a homage to the likes of Deep Purple and Camel. A gig at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane last year for the tenth anniversary of Ghost Reveries has set up the big one: playing Wembley Arena on 19th November, splitting two sets between Sorceress and then the Deliverance and Damnation albums which constituted the vast majority of the Lamentations set.

I was at that gig in 2003 and saw a band in the ascendancy but also one that was incredibly nervous. Does he recognises himself and that band now?

"That’s a good question. It's odd that you would ask me and mention that show because I was just checking out some clips from that show today, a few hours ago. And I haven't watched any of it since we edited the film. I watched it because there are a couple of songs that we haven't played for a long time that we are going to play again and I was like, 'Fuck, I've forgotten how to play them!' So I checked out the younger me, what the hell I was doing, to rehearse basically, to relearn those types of songs. What kinda struck me when I saw that footage – I was fatter in those days, and there's also something about all of us… I mean Peter [Lindgren, former guitarist], I met Peter the other day. I did an interview at Spotify. Peter is a consultant at Spotify. It's really weird. Martin Mendez, looking at him: fuck, he's young and he's got hair! When I think back on those days the only thing I can say is I recognise the songs, and I feel both detached and connected to those songs. Because I wrote them so I kinda recognise them – it's odd, I can't really explain it. But when I think back to the band I feel completely detached. Like they're not the same guys. I am not the same guy. To the point that I'm wondering if that guy passed away and I'm an imposter. When I was young there was talk about Mötley Crüe and Nikki Sixx dying around the time of Shout At The Devil or Theatre Of Pain, or something like that. And that they brought in a lookalike Nikki Sixx. And you knew he was an imposter because he was slightly shorter than the guy that passed away. And that's how I feel sometimes. When I see pictures of me from those days, when I see what I saw today: is that really me? Because I can't remember how I was back then. And I see some similarities when I look myself in the mirror but it really feels weird, I feel detached from those days. But I also know it is me and I wrote those songs. And I know that's me playing."

This is a fascinating insight, that Åkerfeldt would consider that musician dead, the discarded chrysalis in his evolution. All the members of Opeth who played that gig are no longer part of the band, apart from bassist Martin Mendez. But don't be fooled, they were a very special band indeed with an all-Uruguayan rhythm section and Swedish frontline. The band’s performance is shaky at first but nothing less than exceptional.

But within a year or two, something changed Åkerfeldt onstage for good – gone was the apologetic bag of nerves and instead there was a quick-witted, sardonic raconteur. His self-effacement started to come from a place of strength rather than weakness. What happened?

"That’s because that guy died! I am still incredibly nervous. The only thing that connects me and the dead guy in Opeth is that we're both very nervous. And I am still quite shy and nervous to this day. But there was something that happened. I should tell you exactly what happened actually. We went on a tour [Sounds Of The Underground in 2005] – there was 18 bands on the bill, we were touring for about eight weeks in America. It was a festival tour with shitloads of bands. One of these bands was Strapping Young Lad. I'd never heard them. I'd heard about Devin Townsend and I knew who Gene Hoglan was [he subsequently filled in live for a period on drums for Opeth for the absent Martin Lopez]. I wasn't particularly interested in their music, I wasn't particularly interested in any of the bands on that bill to be honest. But I really connected with Devin: me and him became friends. He was troubled at the time, quite troubled if I remember, for several different reasons. But we sat down and talked a lot between the shows about life in general: about stuff, music, became friends basically. I saw him perform onstage and he was similar to how he was backstage: he's a funny fucking guy. He was cracking jokes and we thought he was funny but an introvert offstage. But when he got up onstage he was backstage but a bit more and sometimes a lot more. He transformed, yet he didn't, if you know what I mean. And he was saying things like what we'd talked about a couple of days before. He was saying things, talking to the crowd like he was talking to me to a certain extent. I'd never been comfortable, I never knew how to talk to a crowd before and I'd never been comfortable doing the whole kind of metal manner type screaming, 'Fuck yeah!' type thing. I've never been able to do that because I think it's fucking ridiculous to be absolutely honest. I find it a bit stupid and a bit below me. It's very effective, the crowd love that stuff, but I can't do it with a straight face. So instead I was that shy guy who you saw at Shepherd’s Bush. But after meeting Devin I gradually started talking about what we had for dinner or whatever it was. 'I shat myself' – stupid things, just because I felt like it, and what happened was not only did the crowd seem to like it but I relaxed once I talked to them like they were friends. It was very helpful to me as a frontman and since then people say, 'Oh you're so fucking funny, tell us a joke' or whatever, and I say, 'I can't tell jokes!' I'm not telling jokes from the stage, I'm just talking about... stuff. What makes it funny is that I'm supposed to be this rocker-type guy saying, 'Show us the fucking horns!' And I'm talking about warts, or whatever, anything. That really helped me to calm down and ultimately perform better. And since then I'm not as nervous when I go onstage, or for a few minutes I'm nervous, but after the first time I say something to the crowd I calm down. I'm a bit more nervous when we're just playing. I can't wait to say something to the crowd because that will help me calm down."

The transformation is in evidence on two outstanding live albums recorded during the period that shortly followed that tour: The Roundhouse Tapes (2007) and side project Bloodbath’s The Wacken Carnage (2008). Not only do they find Åkerfeldt strutting and pretty full of it ("Hush, hush my children" to quieten down the crowd, for example) but they represent the pinnacle in his guttural abilities, which have understandably weakened over time and certainly play a part in the development of his clean singing skill-set.

But only Lamentations has a live recording of the song ‘Deliverance’ which Åkerfeldt describes during the set as one of the top three heaviest tracks the band had recorded, a position it has retained down to its outright malignant atmosphere, and obsidian beauty. Does he regard it as a classic?

"Not sure. It doesn't really matter. I never figured that we had classic songs. I'm not sure what determines a classic song. That song was never a single, of course it never could have been a single [it’s nearly 14 minutes long]. If it was a single it surely wasn't played much. But it was a good song at the time it was finished. And it quickly became a crowd-pleaser, a song which pretty much everyone in the crowd would like. But we were also wary about playing the same songs over and over again. We've been struggling for years over what to play. 'OK, we’re going back to Houston. We played Houston two years ago: on the setlist I seem to recall we played ‘Deliverance’ so we can't play it now.' We always mix songs around so we don't play the same things, which is honourable or whatever. But this last couple of years I've been talking to the guys in the band: 'Why shouldn't we play ‘Deliverance’?' People love that song every night, most people in the crowd get into that song. Why shouldn't we play that song? Don't we have the ‘Breaking The Law's and the ‘Paranoid's? So maybe it's a good idea to keep at least some of those songs in the set. But when I play it, it's fun for that reason I think. It's fun to play that song because I know it will go down well. I rarely listen to it – it's a completely different thing for me to play a song and to listen to the song. If I were to sit down and listen to ‘Deliverance’ on the stereo, I'd probably go, 'Mmmm... next.' But when I'm playing it’s fun every night. It's a completely different thing."


And how about for the syncopated ravages of its last few minutes – surely a contender for one of the best metal moments of all time?

"For me, listening to that part and playing that part to a certain extent is a bit naive because I know where it came from, I know why I came up with that type of riff. I'm thinking it feels a bit old to me. But the crowd loves it and that's all I need. When I'm up on stage, I'm not necessarily a creative person – there's no need for me to break down everything I've done. It's fifteen years old, I'm not going to say it sucks because it's old. It's part of our discography and I enjoy playing those songs live. I'm not necessarily a creative person onstage. For lack of a better word I'm more of an entertainer. I want people to leave feeling happy and that they had a good time. As opposed to forcing my new creativity into them. I've learned with time how to separate those things. I care a lot about the creativity of this band and musical direction that we’re taking next. When I'm writing music I don't really think in terms of crowd-pleasing at all. But when I'm onstage that's all I think about."

Expect ‘Deliverance’ at Wembley then. I recently watched footage of their performance at the Monsters Of Rock festival in Helsinki from July this year. Åkerfeldt introduces ‘Demon Of The Fall’, a centrepiece of My Arms, Your Hearse (and also the extra track they performed at Shepherd’s Bush when they’d turned the cameras off). In doing so he makes the point that the nineties are the new seventies. This is an interesting framework to view the history and development of the band, where "the nineties for death metal is like the seventies for classic rockers. When I think of the nineties it's still fairly recent to me but it's a long time ago: it's twenty years ago pretty much since I wrote ‘Demon Of The Fall’ but it's like it’s just yesterday or a couple of weeks ago." He recognises that the band belongs to a cluster of death metal bands in the nineties that constitute the classic generation of the genre.

The other Mikael Åkerfeldt might be gone, but the current embodiment is not afraid to wear the death metal mask of his band. This situates Opeth in a compelling and somewhat uncomfortable position where they refuse to fit conveniently as a straightforward metal or a purist rock band. They hold each countenance up to face the other in front of now sizeable audience that continues to grow and grow. Opeth is dead; long live Opeth.

Helloween recently brought their My God Given Right tour to Japan. They performed at Namba Hatch in Osaka on September 21st; fan-filmed video from the show is available below.

The setlist on the night was as follows:

"Eagle Fly Free"
"Dr. Stein"
"My God-Given Right"
"Steel Tormentor"
"Mr. Torture"
"Waiting for the Thunder"
"Straight Out of Hell"
"Heroes"
- drum solo -
"Where the Rain Grows"
"Lost in America"
"Power"
"Forever and One (Neverland)"
"Halloween / Sole Survivor / I Can / Are You Metal? / Keeper of the Seven Keys"

Encore:
"Before the War"
- guitar solo - (Sascha Gerstner)
"Future World"
"I Want Out"

October 21st will mark the release of Eye Of The Soundscape, a complementary instrumental album by Polish prog act, via InsideOutMusic. The release features cover artwork by Travis Smith and includes 13 experimental and highly atmospheric compositions, which showcase Riverside's ambient electronic side. The release's opening track, "Where The River Flows", is available as of today online as first single via the streaming / digital download outlet of your choice or it can also be checked out below:

Eye Of The Soundscape compiles all the special instrumental Riverside tracks previously used as bonus material for the Shrine Of New Generation Slaves and Love, Fear And The Time Machine albums, alongside rare cuts as well as four new songs ("Where The River Flows", "Shine", "Sleepwalkers" and “Eye Of The Soundscape”) into a massive playing time of 100-plus minutes, which will be available as 2CD-Mediabook, 3LP (With both CD's as bonus and an etching on Side F!) or Digital Download.

 
The full track-listing for the release is as follows:
 
CD1:
“Where The River Flows”
“Shine”
“Rapid Eye Movement” (2016 Mix)
“Night Session - Part One”
“Night Session - Part Two”

CD2:
“Sleepwalkers”
“Rainbow Trip” (2016 Mix)
“Heavenland”
“Return”
“Aether”
“Machines”
“Promise”
“Eye Of The Soundscape”

The album's physical formats are available to pre-order from the InsideOut Shop as of today, including limited editions of the 3LP on white vinyl (100x copies) and on light blue vinyl (200x copies). Pre-order here.

Sky Of Forever, the Helsinki-based melodic hard rock group featuring musicians from Stratovarius, Tracedawn and Helsinki City Theatre, have released a lyric video for their new single ”Carry On”, featuring legendary KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick. The song is taken from their upcoming debut album, due out on October 14th.

Sky Of Forever singer/songwriter Laui Hannola states: “We wanted to get to the heart of the song when thinking about the possible guest artist. We were rotating some names of the best rock guitarists and finally decided to contact Bruce’s management. Bruce liked the song and decided to jump in.”

Sky Of Forever’s debut album will be released via Mighty Music / Target Group on October 14th.

Tracklisting:

“Carry On” (feat. Bruce Kulick)
“One Of These Days”
“Wild Heart”
“Tomorrow”
“Vagabond”
“Summer Rain”
“Divine”
“Sky Of Forever”
“Under Everlasting Sun”

Teaser:

METALLICA performed its new song "Moth Into Flame" on last night's (Thursday, September 29) edition of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon". You can now watch video footage of the band's appearance below.

"Moth Into Flame" is taken from METALLICA's tenth studio album, "Hardwired...To Self-Destruct", which is scheduled for a November 18 release via Blackened Recordings. The long-awaited follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic" consists of two discs, containing a dozen songs and nearly 80 minutes of music.

"Hardwired...To Self-Destruct" was produced by Greg Fidelman with frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich. The band recorded the disc at its own studio.

Instead of a previously announced bonus disc of demos, the deluxe edition of the album will now feature a number of cover songs that the band has recorded over the past few years, including a medley of Ronnie James Dio songs, IRON MAIDEN's "Remember Tomorrow" and DEEP PURPLE's "When A Blind Man Cries".

The deluxe version will also feature a live set recorded at Rasputin's in Berkeley, California on Record Store Day 2016 and a live version of the new song "Hardwired" recorded last month at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Ulrich spoke with Rolling Stone in a recent interview about the lyrical themes on the "Hardwired...To Self-Destruct". He revealed: "There's a lot of dark stuff about relationships. Not just with other people, but the hidden personalities within."

Hetfield told The Pulse Of Radio which songs on the new record contained some of his favorite lyrics. "You know, for me, lyrically some of the favorite, 'Moth Into Flame', I like 'Am I Savage?' and boy, I really like 'Dream No More', which is also kind of another Cthulhu reference but in a very different sense. [Laughs]."

Ulrich also said about the disc's musical style: "Most of the songs are simpler. We introduce a mood and we stick to it, rather than songs we've done where one riff happens and we go over here and then over there and becomes a journey through all these different soundscapes. The songs are more linear."

Hetfield talked about how some fans online are already giving the new record a thumbs-down before hearing it. He said, "Yeah, you get different versions of it now online, with all the haters and the people that have some bone to pick. We don't give a crap. We love what we do, and we're doing it because we love doing it, and we're making music we wanna hear. We're artists, and it's as simple as that. And you can judge it all you want, but we're gonna do what we feel is right for us."

METALLICA will next appear at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit in Mountain View, California on October 22 and October 23.

Occult / pagan black metal quartet Bornholm is now part of the Massacre Records family, and will release a new album this winter. Primaeval Pantheons will be issued on December 2nd; the cover art, created by Peter Sallai, can be seen below.

 

Together since 2000, Bornholm has already released three full-length albums as well as several EPs. In live news, they've shared the stage with Skyforger, Thyrfing and Skogen. After a few lineup changes, Bornholm now features: vocalist / guitarist Sahsnot, guitarist Attila, drummer D and bassist Carrion (ex-Tormentor).

 

 

On September 14th, 96-7 KCAL Rocks hosted a live acoustic breakfast with The Dead Daisies in front of a handful of lucky listeners at the brand new KCAL Secret Studios in Redlands, CA. Here are the videos of the six songs the band broke out for fans to enjoy.

"Long Way To Go"

"Join Together"

"Something I Said"

"You And I"

"Song And A Prayer"

"Honky Tonk Women"

Catch The Dead Daisies live on tour:

October
9 - Loud Park 16 - Saitama, Japan

November
4-9 - Kiss Kruise - Cozumel, Mexico
12 - Lemon Tree - Aberdeen, United Kingdom
13 - Classic Grand - Glasgow, United Kingdom
14 - Corporation - Sheffield, United Kingdom
15 - Riverside - Newcastle, United Kingdom
16 - Picturedrome - Holmfirth, United Kingdom
18 - Diamond Live Lounge - Doncaster, United Kingdom
19 - Academy 2 - Birmingham, United Kingdom
20 - Concorde 2 - Brighton, United Kingdom
22 - Waterfront - Norwich, United Kingdom
23 - Electric Ballroom - London, United Kingdom
25 - Tivoli - Utrecht, Netherlands
26 - Biebob - Vosselaar, Belgium
28 - Z7 - Pratteln, Switzerland
29 - Magazzini Generali - Milan, Italy
30 - Backstage Halle - Munich, Germany

December
2 - Planet Rockstock - Trecco Bay, United Kingdom
3 - Knust - Hamburg, Germany
4 - Paradiso Nord - Amsterdam, Netherlands
5 - Matrix - Bochum, Germany
7 - Colos-Saal - Aschaffenburg, Germany
8 - Le Trabendo - Paris, France
10 - Sala Caracol - Madrid, Spain
11 - LA2 Apolo - Barcelona, Spain
13 - Omega Live - Toulon, France
14 - Transbordeur - Lyon, France
16 - New Age - Treviso, Italy
17 - Container - Grottammare, Italy
19 - Szene - Wien, Austria
20 - Bluesiana - Velden, Austria

After a brief hiatus, and the initial success of their first release "1973", Angels In Vein Is back with a brand new single, "Trip Of A Lifetime". 

While "1973" was a straight up balls to the wall rocker, "Trip Of A Lifetime" clearly underscores the heavier more aggressive side of the band's nature. Check out the newly released video below.

Original Angels In Vein band members Chris VanDahl (vocals), Todd "Taz" Anthony (guitars), Stacey Blades (guitars), and Troy Patrick Farrell (drums) have been joined by Adam Kury (Candlebox) on bass. Visit Angels In Vein on Facebook for further details.

 

 

U.K. rock outfit AS LIONS will release its debut EP, "Aftermath", on October 14 via Better Noise Records. The EP will be available digitally in the U.S. and physically in Europe. In conjunction with the announcement of the EP, the band has also unveiled the title track and first single, "Aftermath". Watch the visualizer below.

Comprised of vocalist Austin Dickinson (son of IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson), guitarist and keyboardist Conor O'Keefe, guitarist Will Homer, bassist Stefan Whiting and drummer Dave Fee, AS LIONS is the evolution of British rock. Standing by their mission to create "the biggest, baddest hard rock we could, and on an almost cinematic scale," the band has worked with award-winning producer David Bendeth (OF MICE & MEN, PARAMORE, BRING ME THE HORIZON) and Kane Churko (FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, DISTURBED, IN THIS MOMENT).

The EP's four dynamic tracks are a study in contrasts, mixing thick, grinding riffs and rhythms with majestically sweeping strings, stately piano tinklings and a hefty dose of atmospheric electronics, all shot through with Dickinson's soaring vocals and introspective lyrics. "Aftermath" has Dickinson asking: "What have we created / what have we become?" as guitars churn and crash around him. "Conceptually it's about trying to navigate your way out of disaster, be it personal, collective, or in the case of the video, a war zone," Austin says. Another track, the crushing "Deathless" targets the Internet culture's obsession with image.

"Aftermath" track listing:

01. Aftermath02. White Flags03. Deathless04. World On Fire

AS LIONS has played sold-out shows in the U.K., performing with TRIVIUM, and making festival appearances this past summer at Camden Rocks and Download. AS LIONS is now gearing up to bring "Aftermath" and its explosive live show to the U.S. during their arena tour with FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, SHINEDOWN and SIXX:A.M.

AS LIONS was formed after the breakup of Austin's previous band, RISE TO REMAIN, which released one album, "City Of Vultures", in 2011.

Professionally filmed video footage of metal supergroup METAL ALLEGIANCE's entire performance at this year's edition of the Bloodstock Open Air festival can be seen below.

METAL ALLEGIANCE's lineup for the August 14 appearance at Catton Hall in Walton-on-Trent, England included TESTAMENT's Alex Skolnick on guitar, DEATH ANGEL's Mark Oseguda on vocals and ANTHRAX's Charlie Benante on drums.

Benante was filling in for regular METAL ALLEGIANCE drummer Mike Portnoy, who was on tour with TWISTED SISTER and was unable to make MA's Bloodstock show.

Joining METAL ALLEGIANCE on stage at Bloodstock Open Air was SLAYER/EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt, who performed cover versions of MOTÖRHEAD's "Iron Fist" and ACCEPT's "Fast As A Shark".

METAL ALLEGIANCE released a special EP, titled "Fallen Heroes", on August 12. The band united to pay homage to the three legends — Lemmy Kilmister, David Bowie and Glenn Frey — who impacted not just their lives but the world as well.

Recorded at Conclave Studios in New York City, "Fallen Heroes" was produced by Mark Menghi and Alex Skolnick. The album was mixed by Jay Ruston in Los Angeles, California and mastered at Sterling Sound in New York City by Ted Jensen. The initial sketch of the artwork was created by Mark Menghi and Stephen Thompson (ANTHRAX) and was later finalized by Marcelo Vasco (SLAYER).

METAL ALLEGIANCE's self-titled debut album was released on September 18, 2015 via Nuclear Blast Entertainment.

Brought together by METAL ALLEGIANCE principal partner Mark Menghi, the project's original material came together from the creative minds of David Ellefson (MEGADETH), Mike Portnoy, and Alex Skolnick, alongside Menghi. The four writers then reached out through their metal rolodexes to a diverse lineup of performers, each adding their own personal musical stamp to the collection of nine original songs.

STEEL PANTHER, the glam rock band known for capturing the hearts of girlfriends and wives around the globe, announced today while on tour in Munich, Germany that their new album, "Lower The Bar", will go on sale February 24, 2017. For the fans that can't hold back their PANTHER urges, pre-orders are now available at the band's web site, iTunes, and Amazon with deluxe bundle packages now exclusively available at SteelPantherRocks.com.

"Lower The Bar" is STEEL PANTHER's fourth studio album and is the follow-up to their 2014 chart-topper "All You Can Eat", which debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top Current Comedy chart and #24 on their Top 200 Album chart.

To celebrate this historic moment in rock n' roll history and as a thank you their "fanthers," the band has just released "She's Tight", the music video for the new album's first single. "She's Tight" is STEEL PANTHER's "sexified" version of the CHEAP TRICK song and promises the skin that was left out of the 1982 hit. Cameos in the video include CHEAP TRICK's Robin Zander, Bobbie Brown, Paris Michael Jackson (the late singer's daughter) and Tony Palermo (PAPA ROACH).

"CHEAP TRICK was one of my favorite bands when I was younger. I'm so proud to have recorded this track for our new album and also to have Robin Zander himself sing with me on the song. It's like a dream come true," said STEEL PANTHER lead singer Michael Starr.

STEEL PANTHER is currently on a European headlining run, with dates in Austria, Italy, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands and the U.K. (Wembley Arena), followed by national U.S. tour through January 19, 2017.

For the uninitiated, STEEL PANTHER was formed in 2000 and is Michael Starr (lead singer), Satchel (guitarist), Lexxi Foxx (bass) and Stix Zadinia (drums). Hailing from Los Angeles, the epicenter for rock n' roll in all its debauchery and glamour, STEEL PANTHER has established themselves as the world's premier party band, melding hard rock virtuosity with parody and criminally good looks. STEEL PANTHER have three full-length albums, toured across the world, enjoy platinum-level YouTube status and have, to their name, high-profile television appearances such as "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "Larry King Now" and "FOX NFL Sunday".

REVAMP — the Dutch band led by former AFTER FOREVER frontwoman and current NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen — has officially called it quits.

The group says in a statement: "After two great albums, it is unfortunately not possible for the founding front lady Floor Jansen to have a band next to NIGHTWISH. Projects perhaps, but a band deserves a 100% devotion, which is impossible to deliver to two bands at the same time."

Adds Floor: "I am proud of the two albums we made together! REVAMP has such talented and great musicians that I wouldn't want them to wait any longer for me to find the time and the passion it needs to make another album. I also don't want to give fans false hope.

"REVAMP lived a short and bumpy but exciting life, but now it's time for new bands and projects to start. I thank everyone involved for the love and dedication!"

REVAMP's second album, "Wild Card", was released in August 2013 via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD was recorded at SandLane Studio in Rijen, The Netherlands with Joost van den Broek (ex-AFTER FOREVER) and features guest choir parts by Marcela Bovio (STREAM OF PASSION) and Daniël de Jongh (TEXTURES).

Jansen told About.com Heavy Metal about the songwriting process for "Wild Card": "When AFTER FOREVER stopped, I didn't want to first find a band, then see if I could write with them, figure that whole thing out, then record an album. Instead I worked with people I knew would be good songwriters out of an idea how I thought it would sound like. So I worked with a German guitar player (Waldemar Sorychta) and Joost van den Broek from AFTER FOREVER. We wrote the album and played on it and hired a drummer. That's basically how it was done. Then I formed a band with the current lineup. The ambition was to continue as a band and start writing. The cool thing is that it worked. Mainly the guitarist Jord (Otto), keyboardist Ruben (Wijga) and myself came up with all the ideas. Joost became the supervisor of the whole songwriting process and producer of the album."

Jansen revealed earlier in the month that she is four months pregnant. The singer, whose partner is SABATON drummer Hannes Van Dahl, is expected to welcome her first child next year while NIGHTWISH is off the road for the band's previously announced year-long break.

REVAMP guitarist Jord Otto and bassist Henk Vonk are about to release an album with THE BLACKEST GREY. Jord is also working on an album with MY PROPANE. Meanwhile, REVAMP keyboardist Ruben Wijga is composing and working on different projects.

An audio snippet of the song "Get Your Fight On!" from Venice, California crossover thrash/hardcore punk legends SUICIDAL TENDENCIES can be streamed below. The track is taken from the band's new album, "World Gone Mad", which will be released on September 30. The follow-up to 2013's "13" disc will be the band's first to feature former SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo and guitarist Jeff Pogan, who replaced Nico Santora in May.

"World Gone Mad" track listing:

01. Clap Like Ozzy02. The New Degeneration03. Living For Life04. Get Your Fight On!05. World Gone Mad06. Happy Never After07. One Finger Salute08. Damage Control09. The Struggle Is Real10. Still Dying To Live11. This World

Lombardo recently told Metal Wani about ST's forthcoming CD: "I think it's very typical and very traditional SUICIDAL TENDENCIES. It's that style. It's [SUICIDAL TENDENCIES frontman] Mike Muir and he was a very special style in which he writes his music and his lyrics and his structures. And I love it; I love it. It takes me back to how it all started, which was that punk attitude. I'm very happy to be a part of his organization. I feel very welcomed. I feel very much appreciated, and there's a lot of respect amongst the musicians, and camaraderie. We have a really good time together. We hang out as a band, which is important; I feel it's very important."

In an interview with Jump Metal, Muir stated about Lombardo's musical contribution to the upcoming SUICIDAL TENDENCIES album: "It's interesting, because a lot of people, obviously, associate [Dave] with the SLAYER sound. On some of the SUICIDAL songs, it's different musically, and you can see how really a tremendously diverse drummer that he is. I think some of the songs, obviously, people that love his drumming, they're gonna hear it and they're gonna really, really, I think, enjoy it. He's really excited about it. He's getting to play some different kind of things, and it just brings a whole different intensity and rhythmic feel to the band. And he's definitely got the Cuban thing going on, that Latin flavor, where he gets to do a little bit more in SUICIDAL than he did in SLAYER. I think you hear it and you definitely know it's Dave, but it definitely takes us to another level."

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' last album, "13", came out in March 2013. The band's first studio CD in 13 years sold around 3,200 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 187 on The Billboard 200 chart.

EXTREME's "Pornograffitti Live 25: Metal Meltdown" DVD will be released on October 14.

A performance clip of the song "Money (In God We Trust)", taken from "Pornograffitti Live 25: Metal Meltdown", can be seen below.

Last year marked the 25th anniversary of EXTREME's classic multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated "Pornograffitti", the definitive album of the band's career. To mark the anniversary, "Pornograffitti Live 25: Metal Meltdown" will be released by the production company Rock Fuel Media in association with Loud & Proud Records as part of their four-part "Metal Meltdown" DVD series. The concert film captures the Boston band performing the album "Pornograffitti" in its entirety. Directed by Brian Lockwood (BON JOVI, METALLICA, MÖTLEY CRÜE), the "Pornograffitti Live 25: Metal Meltdown" package includes a Blu-ray, DVD, and audio CD of the complete concert that was filmed on May 30, 2015 at The Joint at the world famous Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas. Mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound, it also features "Rockshow", a bonus documentary that takes fans through EXTREME's story, with exclusive interviews, '80s archive footage, and an exclusive photo gallery.

"It was a great thrill to perform 'Pornograffitti' in its entirety," says singer Gary Cherone. "Some of these songs were never played live before so we had to go back and relearn them for the tour. The album was a watershed moment in the bands career…it's when we came in to our own and it will always be special." Guitar virtuoso Nuno Bettencourt adds: "The band always prided itself on its live performance. Over the years, some of these songs have evolved where the band actually plays them better now than when we had recorded them. Hope you enjoy it." Producer Barry Summers of Rock Fuel Media commented: "It was a real privilege to produce 'Pornograffitti Live 25: Metal Meltdown' in celebration of 'Pornograffiti', to have the opportunity to work first-hand with such high-caliber musicians and audio purists. Over 25 years after this iconic album was released, we captured the band at their very best. Watching Nuno Bettencourt's off-the-charts guitar solos is simply mind-blowing, as confirmed by QUEEN's Brian May and AEROSMITH's Steven Tyler, whom we filmed paying homage to the Guitar God himself in the 'Rockshow' documentary. One of the highlights of the documentary is a moment where Gary and Nuno are sitting on the doorstep of Gary's childhood home, and they perform a spontaneous version of 'More Than Words'." "Pornograffitti Live 25: Metal Meltdown" track listing: 01. Decadence Dance02. Li'l Jack Horny 03. When I'm President 04. Get the Funk Out 05. More Than Words06. Money (In God We Trust)07. It's A Monster08. Pornograffitti09. When I First Kissed You10. Suzi (Wants Her All Day What?) 11. Flight Of The Wounded Bumble Bee 12. He-Man Woman Hater 13. Song For Love 14. Hole Hearted 15. Play With Me*16. Cupid's Dead* * Songs do not appear on the audio CD.

Rob Rush, the evening host on Long Island, New York's 94.3 The Shark radio station, recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On his long-awaited autobiography, "18 And Life On Skid Row", which will now arrive on December 6 via Dey Street Books (formerly It Books), an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers:

Bach: "I've been working on it for about four years, so it's been a very big, overwhelming project. And it's quite crazy. And it's a very long book with lots and lots of pictures. So I think you'll dig it."

On being asked about the reunion of SKID ROW's classic lineup:

Bach: "I get asked that all the time, and I totally understand, because all five guys from the first SKID ROW record are alive, so, obviously, if you've been listening to that record for decades, which millions of people have, they would be, like, 'Hey, why don't these five dudes get back together?' It's very obvious. So, yeah, I get asked that a lot."

On what the music scene was like back in 1991:

Bach: "Well, it was a more creative scene, because there was this whole thing where you'd put out a new record and you'd go to the radio station and they'd play the new record and you do an interview about it. Then you go to the next town and you do it again. That whole thing doesn't exist anymore. So it's really about playing live all the time, and that's what it is. And there's good things and bad things about it. You know, the music of a band like SKID ROW or MÖTLEY CRÜE or BON JOVI will always be reintroduced to younger fans, so we're always gonna be playing gigs somewhere. The thing is, for me, when I started out, that's not really why I [got in it]. I got in it to make albums and make songs and put them out and be proud of my album and all that stuff, and that kind of thing is, at this point in time, not so prevalent as live touring is. But everything is like up and down in showbiz and rock and roll. If you could have told me ten years ago that in 2016 I would be a rabid vinyl collector, I would have looked at you like you were nuts. I'd be, like, 'Are you crazy? Vinyl? What are you, nuts?' But things come and go. I mean, if vinyl can come back, so can making records. It's kind of like the same thing."

Bach's last solo album, "Give 'Em Hell", was released on April 22, 2014 via Frontiers Records.

Interview (audio):

Rob Zombie and legendary director John Carpenter have "buried the hatchet" after Carpenter blasted Zombie for allegedly "lying" to him about Rob's 2007 remake of Carpenter's 1978 horror classic "Halloween".

According to The Pulse Of Radio, Carpenter said at the New York Film Academy last April that he disliked Zombie's "Halloween", adding that Rob was dishonest when he said that Carpenter never gave him his blessing to tackle the remake in the first place.

Carpenter explained: "He lied about me. He said I was very cold to him when he told me he was going to make it. Nothing could be further from the truth. I said, 'Make it your own movie, man. This is yours now. Don't worry about me.' I was incredibly supportive. Why that piece of shit lied, I don't know."

Carpenter said about Zombie's film itself: "I thought he took away the mystique of the story by explaining too much about [serial killer Michael Myers]."

On Tuesday, September 27, Carpenter tweeted that he reconnected with Zombie and that the two have made up. He wrote: "To everyone fascinated with the JC/RZ feud, old news. We spoke Sunday, we buried the hatchet. Let's move on."

Zombie's version of "Halloween" was reviewed poorly by critics but made nearly $60 million at the box office, leading to a Zombie-directed sequel in 2009.

Zombie said that he had to rush to finish both "Halloween" films to meet a studio release date. "The post-production was so short, because with those movies being big studio pictures, they locked in a release date that I had to meet," he told The Pulse Of Radio. "But the release date was so insane, where, 'Okay, you're gonna start shooting in February and we want it in theaters in August.' And you're like, 'Ai-yi-yi,' you know."

Meanwhile, Carpenter himself is executive producing yet another reboot of "Halloween", although further details on that have yet to be unveiled.

Zombie's latest movie, "31", recently premiered on digital outlets and VOD and will begin a limited theatrical run on October 21.

The film follows five carnival workers who are kidnapped and taken to an compound where they are forced to participate in a violent game and survive 12 hours against a gang of sadistic clowns.

The movie stars Sheri Moon Zombie, Malcolm McDowell, Jeff Daniel Phillips and Meg Foster.

To everyone fascinated with the JC/RZ feud, old news. We spoke Sunday, we buried the hatchet. Let's move on.

— John Carpenter (@TheHorrorMaster) September 28, 2016

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is pleased to announce, to the delight of fans all across the world, the release of The Ghosts of Christmas Eve as an audio package. In addition to the tracks already familiar to and loved by TSO fans from the 2001 multi-platinum DVD and long running PBS fundraiser of the same name, this new album version contains a special bonus track, “Music Box Blues (Daryl Pediford Tribute New York 2004).” Additionally, to more closely mirror the tale as presented on tour, The Ghosts of Christmas Eve also contains “Christmas Dreams” and “What Child Is This” from The Lost Christmas Eve.
 
The enchanting rock opera follows the journey of a young runaway who breaks into an abandoned vaudeville theater seeking shelter from the cold on December 24. Once inside, the teen is discovered by the theater’s caretaker who uses the ghosts and spirits from the building’s past to turn her life around.

 
The Ghosts of Christmas Eve, which will be released on CD and as a digital audio album via Atlantic Records/Rhino Entertainment on October 21, plus on vinyl in November to coincide with TSO’s 2016 Winter Tour.
 
TSO recently announced plans for its 2016 Winter Tour, also based on The Ghosts of Christmas Eve, which is set to hit 61 cities across North America beginning on November 17 and concluding, after 105 shows, with special New Year’s Eve performances in Seattle and Cleveland (click here for a full itinerary).  Debuted last year to rave critical and fan reviews, the rock opera features such enduring fan-favorites as "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24”, "O’ Come All Ye Faithful”, "Good King Joy”, "Christmas Canon”, "Music Box Blues”, "Promises To Keep”, and "This Christmas Day”. 2016’s tour will see an all new second set containing some of TSO’s greatest hits and fan-pleasers. TSO is pleased to announce that each concert ticket purchased online will include a digital audio copy of The Ghosts of Christmas Eve with the bonus track: “Music Box Blues (Daryl Pediford Tribute New York 2004)”.
 
TSO’s record-setting “rock theater” tours sell out venues year after year and have solidified the group’s tours as must-attend, multi-generational, holiday traditions. Since 1996, TSO has cemented itself as one of the world’s biggest rock acts, by playing approximately 2,000 shows for nearly 13 million fans, with tour grosses of more than $580 million, and selling in excess of 10 million albums and DVDs. In 2009, Billboard magazine placed TSO at No. 25 on its “Top Touring Artists of the Decade.”
 
2015 was another landmark year for TSO, with their hit tour and the release of the chart-topping new album, Letters from the Labyrinth (TSO’s third Top 10 album debut in a row, it spent six weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock Chart). 2015’s tour hit 60 cities across North America and played to more than 850,000 people while grossing more than $41 million in just 45 days.
 
As in all previous years, $1 to $2 of every ticket sold benefits select local charities. To date, in excess of $13 million has been distributed to worthy charities all across North America.
 
The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve tracklisting:
“O’ Come All Ye Faithful/ O Holy Night” (Instrumental)
“Good King Joy”
“Christmas Dreams”
“Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24” (Instrumental)
“Christmas Canon”
“What Child Is This?”
“Music Box Blues”
“Promises To Keep”
“This Christmas Day”
"Music Box Blues Live (Daryl Pediford Tribute New York 2004)” - Bonus Track
 
For more information on TSO’s Winter Tour, visit this location.

 

Legendary melodic metal act, In Flames, have released the fifth official video trailer for their twelfth full-length studio album, Battles, out November 11th via Eleven Seven Music in North America and Nuclear Blast globally excluding North America. Watch below:

Recorded in Los Angeles, the 15-track album sees the band taking a new approach while staying true to their vision and encompassing their unique, signature sound. In Flames brought in Grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson (Papa Roach, My Chemical Romance, The Used) as a collaborator on Battles, creating an album that speaks to all In Flames fans alike.

“I think being in California really affected this album in the sense that we had a studio in the house that we were staying at and the vibe was really relaxed which lent itself to productivity,” says vocalist Anders Fridén. “It really helped having a producer who could make us focus on what we needed to accomplish and keep us on track,” he adds. “This was a very new approach for us because we’ve never let anyone else in the way we did with Howard,” says guitarist Björn Gelotte.

“The Truth” video:

“The Truth” lyric video:

“The End” video

“The End” lyric video:

After the departure of their longtime friend and drummer Daniel Svensson, the Swedish heavy music institution In Flames was looking for a new rhythm master - now their search is finally over and the new fifth member of the band is Joe Rickard.

The band has issued the following statement:

"As you know — our longtime drummer, friend, and brother that is the almighty Daniel Svensson has left In Flames to pursue other dreams. He is still with us in spirit when we write our music, in our lives, and someone whom we will cherish forever. We are truly grateful for the nearly 20 years that Daniel devoted to In Flames. Because of each other, we’ve grown exponentially as musicians and brothers. Our 12th studio album is the first we will release without Daniel since 1998, so entering the studio this time around was a bittersweet moment. At the time, we didn’t know who could even replace him, and making new music without him felt strange. We were missing a piece of In Flames."
 
"From February to April of 2016 we recorded our newest album, Battles, with legendary producer Howard Benson. Howard and his team pushed our boundaries and kept our energy high every day while navigating us through a new process. Suddenly, we felt at home. Howard introduced us to one of his trusted and so talented studio drummers, Joe Rickard. Joe had formerly been a member of Grammy nominated RED, toured with numerous bands such as Islander and RED, and has played drums on many successful albums for artists such as RED, Vamps, Starset, Brian 'Head' Welch  and our very own Battles. Joe had such natural talent behind the kit; it seemed effortless. Once we witnessed him laying down drums to our own songs with parts we couldn’t have imagined better ourselves — we knew we had to have him join In Flames.  

During nearly two months recording in Los Angeles with Howard Benson, Joe quickly became not only a musician that we highly respected, but also a friend. We are proud and excited to finally announce that Joe Rickard will be taking over the drums for In Flames. We feel by adding such a talented and pure musician to our band and brotherhood that we are doing Daniel a great justice in ensuring his hard work and talent will continue on.
 
Daniel, thank you for your incredible talent and time dedicated to this band and family that is In Flames. We are so honored to have had the privilege of playing music with you all of these years and we couldn’t have achieved so much without you.
 
Jesterheads, please welcome Joe Rickard to In Flames and make him feel welcome! We will see you all out on the road very soon."

Meet Joe in this newest webisode, where he speaks about his first meeting with In Flames and gives a little guided tour through the studio where Battles was recorded:

In Flames and Hellyeah have announced their 2016 co-headline Forged In Fire Tour of North America, kicking off November 12th in Orlando, FL. Spanning 28 cities across the US and Canada, the heavy metal tour of the fall will be supported by new bands From Ashes To New and Source on all shows (except Orlando FL).

Forged In Fire tour dates:

November
12 - Orlando, FL - Kink Music Fest (no openers)
14 - Silver Spring, MD - The Fillmore
15 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE
16 - New York, NY - PlayStation Theater
18 - Binghamton, NY - Magic City Music Hall
19 - New Haven, CT - College Street Music Hall
20 - Boston, MA - House of Blues
22 - Montreal, QC - Metropolis
23 - Toronto, ON - Danforth Music Hall
25 - Detroit, MI - The Crofoot
26 - Fort Wayne, IN - The Hub
27 - Cleveland, OH - Agora Theater
29 - Cincinnati, OH - Bogarts
30 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues

December
1 - Kalamazoo, MI - State Theater
3 - Saint Paul, MN - Myth Live Event Center
4 - Green Bay, WI - The Sandlot
6 - Lincoln, NE - Bourbon Theatre
7 - Denver, CO - Summit Music Hall
9 - Los Angeles, CA - Belasco Theater
11 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom
13 - Seattle, WA - Showbox Sodo
14 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
16 - Edmonton, AB - Union Hall
17 - Calgary, AB - MacEwan Hall
18 - Spokane, WA - Knitting Factory Concert House
19 - Portland, OR - Roseland Theater

In Flames will be performing a string of dates in the UK alongside Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed.

Tour dates:

January (with Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed)
10 - Glasgow, UK - The SSE Hydro
12 - Newcastle, UK - Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
13 - Birmingham, UK - Birmingham Genting Arena
15 - Sheffield, UK - Sheffield Arena
16 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Arena
18 - Nottingham, UK - Motorpoint Arena Nottingham
19 - Cardiff, Wales, UK - Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
21 - London, UK - Peninsula Square O2 Arena

Italy’s Secret Sphere will release their first live album, One Night In Tokyo, on October 14th. The band has just launched a video for “The Scars That You Can’t See”, which can be seen below:

Secret Sphere are without a doubt one of the most well known metal bands in Japan, with a solid fan base there since their inception in 1997. All their albums have been released in Japan and in fact, it is the only country where you can find Secret Sphere’s very rare, original debut demo tape, officially released as a special edition item there. That says a lot about the respect and affection that the fans in the Land of the Rising Sun have for Aldo Lonobile’s band.

During the band’s last Japanese tour, in support of the Special Anniversary Edition of the band’s signature album, A Time Never Come, Secret Sphere had the chance to record their show in Tokyo in its entirety, which included all the band’s major hits: “Legend”, “Under The Flag Of Mary Read,” plus the melodic metal gems taken from the latest album, Portrait Of A Dying Heart. Featuring vocalist extraordinaire Michele Luppi (now also keyboard player with Whitesnake), the show was one for the ages.

The result is a genuine performance in a very warm atmosphere, a night to remember, where the band played all their classic songs with true passion. The same passion that you can expect from the band's next release, currently in the writing stages.

Aldo Lonobile says: “Since I started the band, the idea of recording our first live album in Japan, was the ultimate goal! All my musical heroes described their experiences in Japan with a happiness and a warmth that you could almost feel. That was the truth, among the most loyal fans in the world, and I am 100% happy that Frontiers liked the idea to release our first live album!”

To enhance the celebration, the band agreed to the label’s suggestion to release a brand new version of “Lie To Me”, featuring an outstanding duet between Michele Luppi and former Nightwish singer Anette Olzon. Released originally on Portrait Of A Dying Heart, the video reached almost 1M views and this new version shows a depth and a reach that makes it even better compared to the original.

One Night In Tokyo tracklisting:

CD1:
“Intro: A Journey Through Time”
“X.”
“Healing”
“Union”
“The Fall”
“Lie To Me”
“Wish And Steadiness”
“Legend”
“Under The Flag Of Mary Read”
“The Scars That You Can't See”
“Eternity”

CD2:
“Mr. Sin”
“Leonardo Da Vinci”
“Lady Of Silence”
“Dance With The Devil”
“Lie To Me” (Studio Bonus track – Duet with Anette Olzon)

DVD:
“Intro: A Journey Through Time”
“X.”
“Healing”
“Union”
“The Fall”
“Lie To Me”
“Wish And Steadiness”
“Legend”
“Under The Flag Of Mary Read”
“The Scars That You Can't See”
“Eternity”
“Mr. Sin”
“Leonardo Da Vinci”
“Lady Of Silence”
“Dance With The Devil”

“Legend” video:

“X.” video:

Trailer:

Lineup:

Michele Luppi: Vocals
Aldo Lonobile: All Lead and Rhythm Guitars
Andrea Buratto: Bass
Marco Pastorino: Rhythm Guitars and Backing Vocals
Gabriele Ciaccia: Keyboards & Piano
Marco Lazzarini: Drums

These days Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” is such a ubiquitous rock anthem that it almost seems as if it has been out there forever. Yet the story of how this most famous of metal tracks came into being is shot-through with chance incidents, any one of which could have seen the recording stifled at birth, leaving music writers to scrabble about for another “best riff of all time” contender (and five hard-working musicians considerably less well-off.)

Incredibly, although the backing to “Smoke On The Water” was the first track laid down for the Machine Head album (while the Swiss Police hammered at the door at 2.00 AM to try and get the noise stopped), in the ensuing chaos of being evicted from their temporary studio and washing up in the corridors of the Grand Hotel (where they built a studio in the corridors using old mattresses and egg cartons for sound-proofing!), the tape was almost forgotten – until an engineer pointed out that they were one track short of an album. The band only roughed it out as something to play to their Montreux host and hero of the fire, Claude Nobs, who told them it was far too good to leave in the can…

Fire In The Sky is a new book which looks in detail at this important period in Deep Purple’s history and the making of their break-through album Machine Head.
While the fact that a fire destroyed their original recording venue is well known to most music fans, the book detours to look at the cause of the blaze, talking to people who were at the show, and gets to the bottom of just what were Frank Zappa’s last words when he dashed off the Casino stage as the roof burst into flames? And in these times of economic hardship, isn’t it inspiring to know that punitive tax rates back home were responsible for Deep Purple being in Montreux in the first place?

This book looks back at the events which led to Deep Purple’s bizarre and Heath Robinson-esque Machine Head hotel recording sessions in the winter of 1971. And as for that “hit to be”, Smoke On The Water was not even tried out on stage, and might never have been played live at all were it not for a request from the BBC for a radio session. It went on to sell 12 million copies and is probably the only gold disc ever made to actually be presented to a city. And yes, there really is a music shop in London which threatens to fine budding guitarists should they dare to try out the riff in-store.

The story takes in the subsequent debilitating American tours where Machine Head quickly became a massive selling album, even as the relentless gigging pulled the band apart. Memorabilia and many rare and unseen photographs illustrate the story, including remarkable images of the Casino fire and aftermath and Ian Gillan with his notepad writing the lyrics in the studio. The music, gigs and lyrics are covered while appendices include tour dates and a discography, as well as a map showing the important sites for any future visitors.
Several myths are also laid to rest, many fans trekking to Montreux visit the wrong Grand Hotel altogether, while down the road the wealthy owners of luxury apartments sit blithely unaware of the music history made in their living rooms.

This book follows Easy On The Eye’s previous Deep Purple book Wait For The Ricochet, which told the story of the band’s formation (and sold out the first print run in weeks). As before it is written in a way which will appeal both to the casual rock reader as well as the more informed fan.

Fire In The Sky - The Story Of The Making Of Deep Purple’s Classic Album Machine Head And The Worldwide Rock Anthem Smoke On The Water is due out next spring via Easy On The Eye Books.

Red Tide Rising have released a new lyric video for the track "The Sound of Voices Screaming", taken from their Voices EP. Produced by Drowning Pool drummer Mike Luce, Voices was released in May 2016 via Vanity Music Group. 

Regarding the track, guitarist, Andrew Whiteman says, "The 'Sound of Voices Screaming' is about making yourself known and showing the world who you are. It's a call to arms to stand up together for each other. It's definitely a highlight in the set for me."

The band spent the month of August on the road in the United States and Canada with Sevendust and Crobot. They are making plans to head back into the studio in early 2017 with the intention of recording a new full length album set to be released in summer.

For information and updates on Red Tide Rising go to this location.

Vocalist Biff Byford of British heavy metal legends SAXON spoke to EonMusic about the progress of the recording sessions for the band's follow-up to 2015's "Battering Ram" album. He said: "Yeah, we got about nine drum tracks laid down. We're running two studios at the same time, so we're writing in one, and recording in the other, and we're tripping backwards and forwards when we're working. We've got a lot of ideas already; me and Nibbs [Carter, bassist] have got shitloads, and we’re just working through ideas with the band, really."

Asked how long they will spend in the studio working on the new SAXON album, Biff said: "We'll be in until the end of this week, and then we're off to Sweden to a festival. Then we come back in about a week before the tour, and we spend a week recording, and then we go straight on tour on the 28th October. So yeah, we'll have a three-week break in the middle, but I'll probably be writing lyrics and doing melodies then. I usually do that on my own."

SAXON's new album will include a song called "They Played Rock And Roll", dedicated to MOTÖRHEAD.

"Yeah, that's on its way," Biff said. "I've finished the lyrics for that, and it will make the album. It's about the eighties, really. It's about the 'Bomber' tour, and 'Ace Of Spades'. That's when we first met them; on the 'Bomber' tour, we supported them, so it's about that, and the album 'No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith', and the subsequent '80s scene."

"Battering Ram" was released last October in North America via UDR Music. The album featured Byford alongside Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt on guitar, Nibbs Carter on bass and Nigel Glockler on drums.