MINISTRY mainman Al Jourgensen has announced the launch of a new project called DUBWEISER. The project's debut CD will be called "King Of Dubs". Additional details will be announced soon.

Jourgensen has reportedly been sober since checking into a rehabilitation facility in early February to receive treatment for alcohol dependency. He has since relocated to Southern California and gotten divorced from his wife of 12 years, Angelina Lukacin (who cofounded the 13th Planet record label).

Jourgensen reportedly suffered a near-death experience in 2010 as the result of a ruptured ulcer.

Al's book, "Ministry: The Lost Gospels According to Al Jourgensen" — penned by Jourgensen with Jon Wiederhorn — came out last year on Da Capo Press. It is described in a press release as "the high-octane, no-holds barred memoir by the legendary godfather of industrial music. The book is fascinating, both ugly and captivating, revealing a character that has lived a hard life his way, without compromise."

On July 8, MINISTRY will release "Last Tangle In Paris", a CD/DVD package that documents the band's 2012 "DeFiBriLaTour", featuring live performances, in-studio, rehearsal and backstage footage, and one-on-one interviews.



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Post by Al Jourgensen.

Vocalist John Tardy and drummer Donald Tardy of Florida death metallers OBITUARY were interviewed by Rock Hard magazine at this year's Rock Hard Festival on June 7 at Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. You can now watch the chat below.

OBITUARY has partnered with Relapse Records for the release of the band's highly anticipated ninth studio album. The band's first full-length CD in over five years was recorded by the band this past April at its own RedNeck Studio in Gibsonton, Florida. The album recording was funded by an extremely successful Kickstarter campaign in late 2013.

Speaking about OBITUARY's decision to launch a crowdfunding campaign to aid the band in completing the new CD, Donald said: "It was a cool experience. It was different. The fans showed complete support, and that made us super proud. But it is a bit of a handful, and it's different enough to where a lot of people don't understand it and think we're begging. It's just 'cause it's a new concept, I think, [and] people don't quite get it, which, as a band, I don't think we quite got it either. But we went for it. We're the type of band that we're the first to try things, and we've always been that way. We're not afraid. To step outside the box is to experience the future, and that's kind of, I think, what's happening here with the crowdfunding. So it was cool to see that little bit of people raise the kind of money that they did and get some of the cool stuff that they got from us. So it was an experience." OBITUARY's next album will be the follow-up to "Darkest Day", released in 2009 via Candlelight Records. "Darkest Day" landed at position No. 32 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

Guitarist Ralph Santolla, who joined OBITUARY in 2007 as the replacement for Allen West, has not played any shows with the group since 2011.

OBITUARY 2014 is: John Tardy - Vocals Trevor Peres - Guitar Donald Tardy - Drums Terry Butler - Bass Kenny Andrews - Guitar

Interview:


New songs performed live:

Former ANTHRAX vocalist Neil Turbin has joined forces with TREASURE LAND guitarist Jonas Hornqvist in a new project called BLEED THE HUNGER. The new group has begun recording songs for its debut release.

BLEED THE HUNGER was formed in early 2014 when two friends, Jonas Hornqvist and Neil Turbin, both songwriters and musicians, who have been collaborating and writing together for ten years, started writing some dynamic, new songs that didn't quite fit into the mold of Jonas' progressive metal band TREASURE LAND or the speed and power that would fit into Turbin's DEATHRIDERS. After just completing his third master guitar instruction book and a movie soundtrack for an independent film, Jonas sent some rough song sketches and demos to Neil. When Neil heard them, he was very inspired, and said to Jonas, "This is super, melodic hard rock. Let's record them all."

"The songwriting chemistry between Jonas and I has evolved to be very intuitive, cohesive and dynamic, while still maintaining the melodic detail of our sound signature, no matter what style of song," said Turbin. "The musical chemistry is strong, and is always fun, exciting and challenging — what new, even better song we will come up with next. Staying true within the realm of what we do best, we are completing more songs as we speak, for an album, and we have already recorded enough for an EP. What we have, is inspired melodic classic hard rock that comes from our hard-rockin' roots." Jonas grew up listening to bands like KISS, DEEP PURPLE, RAINBOW and GARY MOORE, and Neil grew up going to New York City hard rock concerts in 1980 with VENDETTA, MAYDAY, STARZ, TWISTED SISTER, RIOT as well as listening in the 1970s to FREE, THIN LIZZY, AC/DC, MOTÖRHEAD, KISS, SCORPIONS, UFO, LED ZEPPELIN, BAD COMPANY, AEROSMITH, JIMI HENDRIX, JUDAS PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH, DEEP PURPLE, MONTROSE, BOSTON, KANSAS and FOREIGNER.

Said Turbin: "We thought long and hard about coming up with a name that was original and speaks for itself about the music and vibe. I can't tell you how many were shot down for months, and gave us some good laughs.

"We hope you like the tunes as much as we were passionate about making them."

Co-founding FOREIGNER frontman Lou Gramm says that he will get together with the band's leader, guitarist Mick Jones, later in the year to write new songs that will be made available on the two musicians' upcoming solo albums, both of which are expected to surface in 2015.

"Sometime in September, Mick and I are gonna get together and write some music," Gramm revealed during a June 17 appearance on "The Wease Show" (web site) on 95.1 The Brew, a classic rock station in Rochester, New York. "I'm excited about it and very much looking forward to it. I'm actually helping him with a couple of songs on a solo album that he's gonna be releasing, and he's gonna help me with a couple of songs on an album that I'll be releasing next year."

Jones and Gramm's June 2013 performance of "I Want To Know What Love Is" and "Juke Box Hero" at the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in New York City marked the first time the pair has performed together in a decade after Gramm left FOREIGNER for a second time. According to Gramm, "There's always the possibility that we'll perform together again — that's been mentioned between the two of us, and we kind of said, 'Yeah, that would be fun' — but there's nothing going on between our respective managements about, 'Oh, let's make sure we put that together.'"

The singer also commented on the recent interview with Jones in Classic Rock magazine in which the guitarist revealed that the duo, who wrote most of FOREIGNER's classic hits together, might be revisiting some of the tunes they were "writing in the '80s, but never quite finished." Jones added: "We might take time next year to bring a couple of those out of the vaults. . . It's a question of wading through them and finding a cassette machine to play them on."

Said Gramm: "It's actually the songs we were writing, working on together when we split up in 2003, so those were songs that were done at the end of the '90s and early 2000s, and they're really good. I have the demos."

When asked if a FOREIGNER reunion — which would sideline current lead singer Kelly Hansen — would be unfair, Jones told Classic Rock: "Kelly has dedicated everything to the band. He's phenomenal. So anything I do will be sensitive to that. If Lou and I do something, it'll be inclusive. No way will he replace Kelly.”

Jones was asked what shape a Lou Gramm / Kelly Hansen FOREIGNER show might take, and he explained, "Something special where the old members can be involved. That would be cool. But nothing in the immediate future."

Mick Jones told The Pulse Of Radio that upon forming FOREIGNER in 1976, he knew that Lou Gramm would prove to be invaluable with a signature voice — with the songwriting chops to match. "I knew he had written, he was a writer too, and always felt that, y'know, it was important that the singer in any band had something to do with, [laughs] obviously, creating the songs, 'cause they're gonna sing them," he said. "Lou came up with some great titles; I think 'Head Games', I think 'Hot Blooded', too. And he developed into a really good writer."

FOREIGNER kicked off its joint tour with STYX and special guest, former EAGLES guitarist Don Felder, on May 14, in Wichita, Kansas at the Intrust Bank Arena.

According to Mediaite, pop superstar Lady Gaga "mistakenly" posted a photo of the crowd from METALLICA's concert at Quebec, Canada's Festival D'été from 2011 claiming the picture depicted the audience that attended her July 4 performance at the same festival and venue.

Lady Gaga's appearance at Festival D'été reportedly drew around 90,000 people, roughly 40,000 less than the 130,000 attendees that showed up for METALLICA's gig at the same event three years earlier.

On Saturday, Lady Gaga, or whoever manages her social media accounts, posted a picture on Instagram of what was supposed to show the huge crowd of people that were present for her outdoor concert in Quebec. "Those little dots are fans, and that's our stage and lights beaming from the center," the accompanying caption read. "Unreal 90,000 ppl showed up! What a magical night #artraveQuebec"

After various blogs pointed out the mistake, the singer quickly corrected the error by taking to Twitter and posting actual photos from her show, insisting that she "was not trying to fool anyone." Inexplicably, she then used the opportunity to take a cheap shot at her rival Madonna, who famously criticized her in 2012 for the similarities between Gaga's track "Born This Way" and Madonna's own hit "Express Yourself". "Maybe the Madonna fans on your site can use a microscope to count the fans," Gaga tweeted in response to the celebrity gossip site Oh No They Didn't.





@ThePopZone you can post the real one, was not trying to fool anyone. I love my fans and am celebrating. pic.twitter.com/Wy9Ts3HRni


— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) July 5, 2014








@ohnotheydidnt here's a proper pic. Maybe the Madonna fans on your site can use a microscope to count the fans pic.twitter.com/y9BWdn2et5


— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) July 5, 2014

According to The Pulse Of Radio, FOO FIGHTERS are playing a crowdfunded and fan-organized show in Richmond, Virginia sometime in the near future and frontman Dave Grohl thinks these kinds of gigs could be how touring is done in years to come. Grohl told a South African radio station, "It could become the way that bands decide where they want to play. It's a fun thing; it sort of changes the game. For the past 20 years we always decided who we're going to play with and where we're going to play. But now, if we hear that people want us to come somewhere, maybe we'll come there."

The campaign was launched by Andrew Goldin, a FOO FIGHTERS fan who wanted the band to play their first show there since 1998.

Goldin and several collaborators set a goal of selling 1,400 tickets at $50 each, promising donors they would only be charged if the concert sold out, and that their money would be returned if the band didn't agree to play.

A couple of local businesses also got involved, donating $5,000 each and giving away all their tickets for free. Word of the campaign eventually got to the FOOs, who agreed to play the show. A date and venue have yet to be announced.

FOO FIGHTERS will release their new album in November, timed to the premiere of a new HBO documentary series called "Sonic Highways".

The series, directed by Grohl, followed the band as they recorded their new album in eight historic studios around the United States.

Grohl told Rolling Stone in South Africa — where the band will play for the first time in December — that making the series was a "complicated process." He added that he wanted to record in international studios as well, but that it would have been "financially impossible."

JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford says that one of his current favorite artists, pop superstar Lady Gaga, is the one that first brought up the idea of the two of them working together, but admits that he doesn't know if the proposed collaboration will ever come to fruition.

Halford finally had the chance to meet Lady Gaga early last month after her show in San Diego (see photo below, as posted on JUDAS PRIEST's official Facebook page). He attended the concert with Lady Starlight, Gaga's longtime friend and collaborator who supported JUDAS PRIEST on tour in 2011. During their short meeting backstage, Halford and Lady Gaga discussed the possibility of doing something together in the future.

Asked by Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone if he was the one that started the rumor of him and Lady Gaga collaborating on a project, Halford replied: "No, she said it to me. She just said, 'Let's do something.' And I went, 'OK.' [Laughs] I don't know what that means: 'Let's do something.'"

He continued: "I've gotta say, all of my metalheads out there know that metal is at the heart of everything that I do, but I love to see a big show, I love to see a big production. And I went to see her show in San Diego, and it was just great to watch. It was just a very complete presentation, as far as what a good show should be about. And I love her just because, for a singer, she's a fucking amazing singer. And then she writes all this material. She's got a live band. I was hanging out with the band afterwards, and they're all metalheads. And, of course, you look at her past and she's a total metalhead. She started off strongly into rock and metal and you've seem pictures of her with Alice Cooper or Bruce [Dickinson] from [IRON] MAIDEN and all of these other people in metal; it just shows you that she's committed to that. So I just wanted to go and check it all out, and it was amazing. And then she comes off stage, instantly, [she was, like], 'Ah, I can't believe you're here. Give me a hug.' And 'Let's do something.' And she's just a really sincere, complete person as a musician. But what we'll do, and if we do it, I don't know."

Back in May, Halford revealed to Yahoo! Music that during one of the London gigs on JUDAS PRIEST's "Epitaph" tour, Gaga was planning to appear as a special guest. "Gaga called and said, 'Can I get on the back of Rob's bike when he comes out and we'll do 'Hell Bent For Leather'?" he said. "I was like, 'Oh my God! Diva moment. Please let this happen!' But she couldn't do it. She ended up doing a shoot in Omaha, Nebraska, that took a week." He added: "If that isn't a nice affirmation that someone with extraordinary talent that isn't metal can still gravitate to the metal experience, I don't know what is."

Halford also reiterated his interest in collaborating with Gaga, saying: "I just love her. She has an open invite to anything we do. She's a total metalhead. She's really hardcore and her voice — oh my God. She has the most beautiful voice. Out of all the recent people in that genre, she is the most extraordinary, and she's carrying it all on her back. That's an incredible feat of success in today's world… Everything she does when she puts on her shows is a real work of art. She pushes boundaries and expresses a lot of love and a massive investment in everything she believes. I just think that's wonderful."

Lady Gaga previously spoke about her love for IRON MAIDEN and BLACK SABBATH, calling the experience of seeing MAIDEN for the first time a "life-changing" event. The singer also appeared in photos with Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Alice Cooper and ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante.



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Post by Judas Priest.

Fan-filmed video footage of Swedish occult rockers GHOST performing the song "Monstrance Clock" on July 5 at the U.K. edition of the Sonisphere festival at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire can be seen below.

A Nameless Ghoul from GHOST told Jägermeister about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to 2013's "Infestissumam" and the covers EP "If You Have Ghost": "Obviously, we have plans for pretty much everything. We are a very strictly planning band in that sense, that we have contingencies for basically everything. But I can say as much as there is a plan for everything, but at this point, there's still a long way to go."

He continued: "We are obviously very much in the process of making the next album, and we have come a long way with that. And we know what it's about, we know what it is, we know what the songs are, we know what the concepts are. The EP was very much a sort of a sideways step for us a little bit, with all the covers and all that, but it was a very deliberate thing to do. And it centers, obviously, around the session with Dave Grohl [FOO FIGHTERS, NIRVANA] and the time we spent with him at [his] Studio 606 [in California]. And we did a lot of different stuff there for us, whereas the next step is gonna be back to full-on, more traditional-type GHOST stuff.

"We're kind of finishing up the writing, actually. The conceptual stuff has been finished for a long, long time, so we know, basically, what we're gonna do with the next album and quite some time after that as well. So we have a very deliberate plan of doing things. But the actual album in terms of material and imagery and stage plots and everything is basically finished."

GHOST was honored in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal" category at the Swedish Grammis awards (Swedish Grammy equivalent), which was held on February 19 at Cirkus in Stockholm. The bands were all nominated for their most recent releases, all of which came out during 2013. GHOST was also honored with the P3 Guld award (for "Infestissumam") from Swedish radio station P3 in the "Best Rock/Metal Album Of The Year" category. The winners were announced on January 18 during a live awards ceremony broadcast from the Scandinavium in Gothenburg, Sweden.

GHOST's sophomore album, "Infestissumam", sold around 14,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 28 on The Billboard 200 chart.

The CD topped the official chart in the group's home country after selling nearly five times as many copies as the No. 2 album, MISS LI's "Wolves".

GHOST was forced to modify its name in the U.S. to GHOST B.C. for "legal reasons."

An audio snippet of the studio recording of MÖTLEY CRÜE's new song, "All Bad Things Must End" can be heard in the "sizzle reel" for the band's "The Final Tour" below.

"All Bad Things Must End" was recently recorded with producer James Michael, who sings for MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx's SIXX: A.M. project, but has yet to be released to radio or made available to the public. MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee told Billboard.com about the song: "It's pretty heavy, but it's really melodic. It's definitely about this time right now with the band and what the feeling is and kind of all that wrapped into a song. I hate to say it's like a goodbye, but it definitely references our time here."

MÖTLEY CRÜE's first new music since 2012's "Sex" single, "All Bad Things Must End" features the catchy, sing-along chorus "All bad things must end / All bad things must die / Even the Devil's gotta pay for his crimes / Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah," along with the lyrics: "It's been a hell of a ride / it's been a hell of a night / It's been a damn good life / This ain't farewell, it's goodbye / It's been a hell of a ride."

Sixx in January said that that it's unlikely that the band will release another full-length album of new material and will instead make select tracks available via special projects in order to maximize their impact. He told the Rapid City, South Dakota radio station 95.1 KSKY: "It's hard, to be honest with you, to spend six [or] nine months to write eleven songs — all those lyrics… everything… the vocals, the guitars, the bass, the sonics, the mixing, the mastering, the artwork… You put it out and nothing [happens], because now people cherry-pick songs. So we go, 'Why don't we write songs and find vehicles to get one, two or four songs to ten million people rather than eleven songs to a hundred thousand people. That's how we're thinking. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but that's how we're thinking."

Sixx also revealed another reason for why fans may never see a new full-length MÖTLEY CRÜE album ever again. "We've written some songs, "he said, "[but] if you're this kind of band at this stage of your career, you can't be played on Active Rock; if you've been around for more than fifteen years, you're classic rock, but classic rock radio doesn't play new music. You just think, 'Fuck man, this sucks.'"

The four members of MÖTLEY CRÜE held a press conference on January 28 at Hotel Roosevelt in Los Angeles where they announced that the band would launch its "Final Tour" this year, with the group planning to play more than 70 shows in North America in 2014 and more overseas in 2015. Making it official, the four members of the band had their lawyer draw up a formal "cessation of touring" agreement that goes into effect at the end of 2015 and prohibits the members of the group from going on the road again under the MÖTLEY CRÜE banner.

The special guest on the entire North American tour is ALICE COOPER, marking the first time that the legendary shock rocker and the CRÜE have joined forces live.

Professionally filmed video footage of California deathcore masters SUICIDE SILENCE performing the song "You Only Live Once" on June 10 at Markthalle in Hamburg, Germany can be seen below.

"You Can't Stop Me", SUICIDE SILENCE's first album to feature Hermida and their first since the tragic loss of singer Mitch Lucker, will be released on July 11 in Europe (except in the U.K., where it will arrive on July 14) and July 15 in North America via Nuclear Blast Entertainment.

"You Can't Stop Me" was produced and mixed by Steve Evetts (SEPULTURA, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN), who worked with the band not only on "The Black Crown", but also on some instrumental demos for the new CD just prior to Lucker's death in the fall of 2012.

Mitch Lucker died November 1, 2012 after sustaining injuries in a motorcycle crash in Huntington Beach that Halloween night.

"We never talked about continuing and we never talked about quitting, so it was like an unspoken thing, 'cause with some people, a tragic happening, the last thing you want to do is talk about it," SUICIDE SILENCE guitarist Chris Garza told Music Feeds.

Ultimately, Garza explained, carrying on as SUICIDE SILENCE felt like the right thing to do. "I think keeping the SUICIDE SILENCE brand going and the name going keeps Mitch alive and I think it would be completely disrespectful to Mitch and everything that he worked for if we stopped going or changed the name," he added.

Regarding the decision to enlist Hermida, guitarist Mark Heylmun told Metalholic.com: "There was really nobody else — we didn't want to try anybody out. We didn't want to call people and be, like, 'You wanna come and jam with us?' That's not how this situation seemed like it would work for us. Eddie was just a friend. Somebody that we know is extremely talented, and someone that could put the passion behind the job that it is. To not replace Mitch or be the singer of this band, but to treat the gig that it is. He's replacing an idol to so many people and he's also coming into a band that preexists, which is the other four members of it. We just knew he would be able to handle it with respect and knock it out of the park."

"The Darker Side Of Life", the new single from LORDS OF RUIN, the Orange County, California-based hard rock band featuring former DROWN frontman Lauren Boquette, can be streamed using the SoundCloud widget below.

"Lyrically this song was written about a darkness inside of me that I used to live in," says Lauren. "It was totally normal to me and I didn't see things any other way for a very, very long time. Funny thing, though, I never really knew I was even living in that dark place until one day it dawned on me that I had changed. Colors seemed to shine much brighter, the air and the ocean were alive, music, which was always magic to me, was even better and love was all around."

He continues: "After many years of feeling disconnected from this world, something switched and I plugged right into its core. I saw just how amazing this life can be and I now see a rich beauty in most things. It sounds really hippie or like some sort of religious nonsense but it isn't. It's the amazing thing called life and you only get one of them! Embrace it with all of your heart and live it as best you can. I can tell you first hand that when you step out of the darkness... life truly happens. I am grateful that I am from the darker side of life because without that, I would have never found the light."

LORDS OF RUIN rose from the ashes of SIX, which in 2009 released its critically acclaimed third album, "Between The War and the Warning". The CD featured guest appearances by Mike Clark from SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and bassist Tony Campos from STATIC-X.

LORDS OF RUIN released the "Life Is A War" album via Sullen Clothing's independent label Sullen Musik.

LORDS OF RUIN is:

Lauren Boquette (vocals) Jimmy Craig (lead guitar) Travis Dunn (bass guitar) Chico Tovar (rhythm guitar)Lagarto "Paco" Marley (drums)

Swedish all-girl hard rock quartet CRUCIFIED BARBARA will release its fourth studio album, "In The Red", on September 15 via Despotz Records. The CD was recorded at Music A Matic studio in Gothenburg with producer Chips Kiesby and engineer Henryk Lip, and is the follow-up to 2012's "The Midnight Chase".

"We've been jamming ourselves bloody," the band states, "and let our emotions flow prior to recording.

"We have always been shocked by injustice and oppression, and this time, our opinions have taken an even bigger place in the songwriting."

The group adds: "This album is the best thing we've ever done musically and it feels damn good to take a clear stand against subjects like misogyny and animal rights, topics we are passionate about, through our music." CRUCIFIED BARBARA's new video, "To Kill A Man", can be seen below. The band stated about the track: "We and many of us feel a huge impotence and rage when we hear and read about men who systematically abuse and rape women. This type of crime is something that happens every day, everywhere. "Of anger, we create music. Heavy substances and harsh riffs became the song 'To Kill A Man', a really heavy song in a double sense."

Formed in Stockholm in 1998 by bassist Ida Evileye (now-wife of MESHUGGAH drummer Tomas Haake) and Force, CRUCIFIED BARBARA plays a fiery brand of rock 'n' roll tinged with metal and lashings of punk, pop, thrash, and whatever else dares to cross their path. Ida Evileye dominates her trusty Sandberg bass, Force rocks steady on her '76 Gibson Explorer, Coldheart belts out her unapologetic vocals while riffing all over her Gibson Gothic Flying V, and Nicki Wicked pounds on her hot pink sparkle Yamaha Maple drum kit until you're splayed across the floor with a bull's-eye knock-out punch that'll make you spit your teeth out. Now you know what happens when MOTÖRHEAD mates with THE RUNAWAYS.

IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson has revealed that the band would consider opening an interactive museum at some point in the not-too-distant future. He told the Daily Star newspaper: "We've got loads of gear kicking around. I don’t want it to end up in some po-faced museum, with people in white suits saying, 'Don't touch this.'"

He continued: "I donated a jacket to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and it was locked away in a glass cabinet miles away from your eyes.

"Eddie's not that sensitive," Dickinson laughed, referring to the band's skeletal mascot.

IRON MAIDEN completed a three-year world tour with a headlining appearance this past Saturday (July 5) at the U.K. edition of the Sonisphere festival, which was held at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire.

"Tonight is the last night of a three-year tour; it's all been building to this," Dickinson told the crowd during the performance. "If we don't get it right tonight, then we never will." Dickinson also took time to thank the MAIDEN crew and team as well as the fans for "making it real," adding, "But what's coming in the next few years is going to make it more real for you guys, believe me," possibly hinting at a new studio album.

MAIDEN's 15th studio CD, 2010's "The Final Frontier", sold 63,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to enter The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 4.

"The Final Frontier" was IRON MAIDEN's fourth U.K. No. 1 album. The band previously topped the chart in 1982 with "The Number of the Beast", in 1988 with "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" and in 1992 with "Fear of the Dark".

Loudwire is hosting the U.S. premiere of "Rusted Nail", the new video from Swedish metallers IN FLAMES. The clip, which can be seen below, was helmed by Swedish director Patric Ullaeus of the Revolver Film Company AB, who has previously worked with HAMMERFALL, DIMMU BORGIR, EUROPE and LACUNA COIL, among many others.

"Rusted Nail" is taken from IN FLAMES' eleventh album, "Siren Charms", which will be released in the U.S. on September 9 via Sony/RED. The CD was recorded at Hansa Tonstudios (DAVID BOWIE, DEPECHE MODE, U2) in Berlin, Germany. The cover artwork was created by Blake Armstrong of Space Boy Comics and can be seen below. On June 10, IN FLAMES lead singer, Anders Fridén spoke to Finland's Kaaos TV about "Siren Charms. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether the recording process for the new IN FLAMES album was relatively "typical":

Anders: "I don't think we do any typical recording. Every album is slightly different, and this time was more different, because we sold the studio that we had in Gothenburg, so we had to go somewhere else. And the choice… what we picked was we went to Berlin and recorded at Hansa Tonstudios, which is a classic studio with a lot of history. I was there at the beginning of last year, and when I got home, I told the boys, 'This is the place where I wanna record the new album.' And they were all up for the idea.

"Last summer, the last show we did was Summer Breeze [festival in Germany]… We did another show in Stockholm, but the [last] official show we did was in Summer Breeze. And after that, we started writing pretty much immediately. We had a few weeks off, and then at the beginning of November, we entered the studio and recorded for six weeks. And it was hard, it was tough, because that was half the time that we had on the previous album. It was kind of intentional, because we wanted to see if the pressure could add something to the album. And we mixed the album in early January and here we are talking about it. I feel really good now that we have some distance and I'm super pleased with the result. It's a new step for IN FLAMES. People will find typical IN FLAMES, they will find something new. I think there's a little bit for everyone."

On whether IN FLAMES had a specific goal in mind for the new album:

Anders: "We don't have a master plan, to be honest. We just try to create the best possible album we can at the moment where we are in life at that point. So we never look at other bands or any genres and say, 'Oh, this is what we wanna do.' I mean, we went to Berlin for a reason, that studio, to see if we draw some energy from that studio. The pressure, especially from my end, it was… We had some ideas and structures and parts of songs, but the… The first two weeks, we put everything together, but I had nothing — I had no vocal melodies, no lyrics, no nothing. And I wanted to see if I could deliver under pressure and what that would do with me as a songwriter. So I had to draw inspiration from something, so I was watching a lot of documentaries about people in really bad situations, a lot of drug-related documentaries and so on. And from there, there's so much sadness and desperation, but there's hope as well, to get away from all the misery. There's love and there's hate, and I kind of used that. Then the title, 'Siren Charms', a siren is in Greek mythology; it's like a womanly creature who sings nice songs and lures sailors to the depths. And I used that kind of image to describe something in life that will charm you, and she has to symbolize the good and the evil part, so to speak. So it covers the whole album and all the theme of the album, if there's a theme. And all the different songs are around this topic. [They're] not very happy songs…. I think it has a sad tone or something. It was created under a lot of emotions and stress and inspiration as well, because of this time pressure, but it was supposed to be like that. I hated myself towards the end of the recording, because of this. I was, like, 'Why do you put yourself in this situation?' But at the end of the day, I'm happy I did and I got through to the other end."

On how "Rusted Nail" was chosen to be the first single from the new album:

Anders: "All the songs, for me, are great. And for the first time… 'Cause usually, I'm, like, 'OK, this is the single, this is the video, this is how everything should be and look and whatever.' And now, it was, 'I can't pick and choose. Record company, you decide.' And I guess they took 'Rusted Nail', because it shows where IN FLAMES are today, and it's a nice description of the album. It has a little bit of that and a little bit of this. To me, you could pick any song; I like them all."

On whether he considers "Siren Charms" to be a natural progression from 2011's "Sounds Of A Playground Fading":

Anders: "For me, yeah, sure. Every album is equally important. And if it wasn't for [1996's] 'The Jester Race', [2000's] 'Clayman' or 'Sounds Of A Playground Fading', there wouldn't be any 'Siren Charms'. So, for me, it's a natural progression. It's three years between this one and the last one, and this is where we are today. So, for me, it's totally natural. It might not be as natural for some other people, but that's their decision."

"Siren Charms" track listing:

01. In Plain View02. Everything’s Gone03. Paralyzed04. Through Oblivion05. With Eyes Wide Open06. Siren Charms07. When The World Explodes08. Rusted Nail09. Dead Eyes10. Monsters In The Ballroom11. Filtered Truth



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CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, the band led by brothers and founding SEPULTURA members Max (also of SOULFLY) and Igor Cavalera, has set "Pandemonium" as the title of its third album, due in October via Napalm Records. The CD was produced by John Gray, who has previously worked with SOULFLY.

During an appearance on the "Metal Hammer" magazine show on TeamRock Radio, Max stated about the upcoming effort: "It's called 'Pandemonium' and it's very, very heavy — the heaviest of all the three. I was really possessed to get Igor back to his 'Arise' [SEPULTURA] era of drumming, everything fast."

Max recently told HardRockHaven.net about "Pandemonium": "There aren't really any guests on the album. Nate [Newton] from CONVERGE plays bass and he sings one song called 'The Crucible' — it's about the witches of Salem; we did a song about that. Nate's got a great voice, 'cause he sings for DOOMRIDERS and I love his voice, so I got him to sing one song. That's the only guest. The CAVALERA album is really more about me and Igor [Cavalera, drums], the brothers, thrashing. This one is almost grindcore. I was really a dictator in the studio with Igor to try to keep him from going into the groove and tried to keep him playing fast; I wanted him play fast for most of the record. So every time he'd go into the groove, I would be, like, 'Fuck the groove! Get out of the groove! Go back to the fast shit.' And I succeeded, man. It's a really brutal album. I think it's definitely the most brutal of all the CAVALERA albums and it's definitely gonna turn some heads when people hear this one."

Gray stated about the "Pandemonium" recording process: "This is by far the fastest and heaviest record I have ever had the pleasure of working on with Max Cavalera.

"Max, Igor and Marc [Rizzo, guitar] were on the same page musically from the moment they walked in the door, and recording this album was a very smooth process.

"I had never worked with Igor Cavalera before and I was very impressed with his ability to work out the arrangements with Max and get some extremely complex drum parts done live with hardly any re-takes necessary. Marc Rizzo, as always, was spot-on and a true guitar virtuoso.

"I love to work with Marc because he always pushes himself to perfection, but he is very down to earth and keeps things light when he's under pressure.

"What can I say about Nate Newton — he killed it on the bass tracks with very little back and forth. I'm really impressed with his talent, and I look forward to meeting him some day."

Added Newton: "It was a lot of fun to be a part of this record. For me, it was a challenge to learn the songs sight unseen and record them. It was a pretty interesting look into the way Max writes songs and I am glad to have been a part of it."

Johny Chow, who had been touring and recording with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY for the past few years, in 2013 joined STONE SOUR as that band's new touring bassist.

Joining CAVALERA CONSPIRACY on stage last year for its tour of South America and Mexico was SOULFLY bassist Tony Campos.

CAVALERA CONSPIRACY released the critically acclaimed and universally praised albums "Inflikted" and "Blunt Force Trauma" through Roadrunner Records.

"Blunt Force Trauma" sold around 5,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 122 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's debut CD, "Inflikted", opened with 9,000 units to enter the chart at No. 72.

"Blunt Force Trauma" was tracked with ex-MACHINE HEAD/SOULFLY guitarist Logan Mader, who co-produced the LP with Max. Logan also mixed the effort.

Due to a production error, the release date of the reissue of MOTÖRHEAD's 21st studio album, "Aftershock", originally scheduled for July 29 via UDR/Motörhead Music, has been pushed back to August 26. The CD was helmed by longtime producer Cameron Webb (MEGADETH, DISTURBED). The expanded edition will contain a bonus live CD — also recorded by Webb — consisting of live material comprised from the band's historic appearances in early 2014.

In further celebration of the reissue, UDR/Motörhead Music has released a video for the song "Lost Woman Blues", filmed live at The Warfield in San Francisco on April 18, 2014. The show was part of the band's warm-up mini tour for the upcoming European festivals. The song's performance, verve, swagger and attitude show MOTÖRHEAD have maintained their rich ripeness and added another layer of grit and polish. The video can be seen below.

"Aftershock – Tour Edition" track listing:

01. Heartbreaker02. Coup De Grace03. Lost Woman Blues04. End Of Time05. Do You Believe06. Death Machine07. Dust And Glass08. Going To Mexico09. Silence When You Speak To Me10. Crying Shame11. Queen Of The Damned12. Knife13. Keep Your Powder Dry14. Paralyzed

Bonus Live CD Track Listing

01. Damage Case02. Stay Clean03. I Know How To Die04. Metropolis05. Over The Top06. The Chase Is Better Than The Catch07. Rock It08. Lost Woman Blues09. Doctor Rock10. Just 'Cos You Got The Power11. Going To Brazil12. Killed By Death13. Ace Of Spades14. Overkill

"Aftershock" sold 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 22 on The Billboard 200 chart.

MOTÖRHEAD's previous CD, 2011's "The Wörld Is Yours", opened with 7,000 units to enter the chart at No. 94. The band's 2008 effort, "Motörizer", premiered with 6,400 copies to debut at No. 82, while 2006's "Kiss Of Death" registered a first-week tally of 3,500.

MOTÖRHEAD canceled a handful of shows on its European festival tour in August 2013 after the band's frontman, Lemmy, suffered a haematoma (where blood collects outside of a blood vessel). The news of Lemmy's latest medical issue followed reports that he was also fitted with a defibrillator because of heart problems. The band also postponed a European headlining tour which was scheduled to kick off in November 2013.

Asked how Lemmy is doing now, MOTÖRHEAD drummer Mikkey Dee told Finland's Kaaos TV in May: "It's much, much better. He's been good for awhile. He's working hard on his health. We just did three weeks in the U.S. He's up and about. It's more to get going again. It's for the whole band. We've never been off eight months. But Lemmy's much better, and he played great when we did this U.S. leg, so I really hope that he can stay healthy. And he looks good, so that's all I can say. And he's working very, very hard on it, too, so all the best."




(Thanks: NJthrasher)

Fan-filmed video footage of DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT performing the song "Kingdom" at the U.K. edition of the Sonisphere festival, which was held July 4-6 at Knebworth Park in Hertfordshire, can be seen below.

Townsend's CASUALTIES OF COOL project was released without record-label backing. He told BluntMag.com.au about the sound of the CD: "If there's anybody who's new to what I do, who maybe heard 'Liberation' or some of the songs off 'Epicloud' and thought, 'This is really cool, I could get into this,' you're going to hate CASUALTIES. [laughs] I mean, really, it's as opposite of 'Epicloud' as 'Ghost' was to 'Deconstruction'. It's this weird, dark, not evil but verging on it, bluesy, Johnny Cash-y, strange, quiet folk record. But I love it, it's the one record that I've done over the past 10 or 15 years where I can truly say, 'This is where I am right now.'"

Devin Townsend played a special concert October 27, 2012 at the Roundhouse venue in London, England as part of a one-night-only event, dubbed "The Retinal Circus", that was recorded for both DVD and Blu-ray, and was released on October 29, 2013 in North America (September 30 in Europe) via InsideOut Music.

"The Retinal Circus" was released on several formats, including a lavish and bonkers limited edition befitting of the man himself, and which took months of hard work to put together.

Devin previously described "The Retinal Circus" as "a retrospective of my career in music to date, with the central theme being a metaphor of how life and the adventures therein are a 'circus' of sorts. The show involves a cast of characters and guests that support this theme through carnival type performances. A story about how a troubled young man dreams of fantastic scenarios (illustrated through the music of my back catalogue), which ultimately crests in the characters realization that life is all about the relationships we have with each other."

Fan-filmed video footage of the reactivated influential alt-metal act FAITH NO MORE performing what are believed to be two brand new songs — tentatively titled "Leader Of Men" and "Motherfucker" — on July 5 at the Open'er Festival in Gdynia, Poland can be seen below.

FAITH NO MORE recently hinted at the possibility of new music 17 years after the release of the band's last LP, "Album Of The Year".

The group, which made a comeback in June 2009 with a headlining performance at the Brixton Academy in London, England and has played sporadic shows for the past few years, launched a new Twitter account and one of the first posts was as follows: "The reunion thing was fun, but now it's time to get a little creative."

Speaking to IHeartGuitarBlog.com in November 2012, FAITH NO MORE singer Mike Patton stated about the possibility of the band releasing any live material from its reunion tours: "Right now, we have no plans whatsoever — live, recording or anything. We've done what we set out to do with the reunion, and it's all great, but it's just, 'Let's see what happens next.' And I think you need to take a pause to actually reflect on something like that, because otherwise we could just keep playing, and we're very conscious of overdoing it, y'know, milking material that's so old. You can only do that for so long, and I feel that we've done pretty well. The whole band's naturally came to this conclusion, so now we're just sitting tight."

According to Patton, one of the reasons the FAITH NO MORE reunion didn't happen sooner is the fact that they wanted to avoid making it feel like a nostalgia thing — like "Here's FAITH NO MORE again." "We wanted it to feel fresh and still somehow vital," he said. "It wasn't an money grab. It's funny to say, but we all kind of reconnected, and after quite a long time we all kinda looked at each other and were like, 'Man, we actually spent half of our lives together.' It's interesting to see it through that set of glasses as opposed to the ones you wore back then. I suppose, at least personally speaking, I've grown up a lot since then, and I think I approach the music differently, and I felt better about the music than I did then."

Auger3d has uploaded video footage of MÖTLEY CRÜE performing a brand new song, "All Bad Things Must End", on July 4 at the Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the band's "The Final Tour". Check out the clip below.

The studio version of "All Bad Things Must End" was recently recorded with producer James Michael, who sings for MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx's SIXX: A.M. project, but has yet to be released to radio or made available to the public. MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee told Billboard.com about the song: "It's pretty heavy, but it's really melodic. It's definitely about this time right now with the band and what the feeling is and kind of all that wrapped into a song. I hate to say it's like a goodbye, but it definitely references our time here."

MÖTLEY CRÜE's first new music since 2012's "Sex" single, "All Bad Things Must End" features the catchy, sing-along chorus "All bad things must end / All bad things must die / Even the Devil's gotta pay for his crimes / Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah," along with the lyrics: "It's been a hell of a ride / it's been a hell of a night / It's been a damn good life / This ain't farewell, it's goodbye / It's been a hell of a ride."

MÖTLEY CRÜE's setlist for the Milwaukee concert:

01. Mutherfucker Of The Year02. Wild Side03. Primal Scream04. Same Ol Situation (SOS)05. Looks That Kill06. On With The Show 07. Too Fast For Love08. All Bad Things09. Smokin In The Boys Room10. Without You11. Saints Of Los Angeles12. Anarchy In The UK13. Too Young To Fall In Love14. Guitar Solo15. Shout At The Devil16. Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)17. Live Wire18. Dr Feelgood19. Girls, Girls, Girls20. Kickstart My Heart

Encore:

21. Home Sweet Home (second stage)

Sixx in January said that that it's unlikely that the band will release another full-length album of new material and will instead make select tracks available via special projects in order to maximize their impact. He told the Rapid City, South Dakota radio station 95.1 KSKY: "It's hard, to be honest with you, to spend six [or] nine months to write eleven songs — all those lyrics… everything… the vocals, the guitars, the bass, the sonics, the mixing, the mastering, the artwork… You put it out and nothing [happens], because now people cherry-pick songs. So we go, 'Why don't we write songs and find vehicles to get one, two or four songs to ten million people rather than eleven songs to a hundred thousand people. That's how we're thinking. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but that's how we're thinking."

Sixx also revealed another reason for why fans may never see a new full-length MÖTLEY CRÜE album ever again. "We've written some songs, "he said, "[but] if you're this kind of band at this stage of your career, you can't be played on Active Rock; if you've been around for more than fifteen years, you're classic rock, but classic rock radio doesn't play new music. You just think, 'Fuck man, this sucks.'"

The four members of MÖTLEY CRÜE held a press conference on January 28 at Hotel Roosevelt in Los Angeles where they announced that the band would launch its "Final Tour" this year, with the group planning to play more than 70 shows in North America in 2014 and more overseas in 2015. Making it official, the four members of the band had their lawyer draw up a formal "cessation of touring" agreement that goes into effect at the end of 2015 and prohibits the members of the group from going on the road again under the MÖTLEY CRÜE banner.

The special guest on the entire North American tour is ALICE COOPER, marking the first time that the legendary shock rocker and the CRÜE have joined forces live.

It appears that legendary rockers Pink Floyd are set to unleash their first album in 20 years. While the band hasn’t really been active since 1995 (only officially reuniting once in 2005 at the Live 8 concert), the music for the new album, titled ‘Endless River,’ is being culled from 1994 recording sessions.
The news of the new album comes from Polly Samson, wife of Pink Floyd singer-guitarist David Gilmour. Samson tweeted out that ‘Endless River’ is due out in October, and will serve as a swan song for keyboardist Richard Wright, who died in 2008.
The music on ‘Endless River’ includes instrumental sessions from Gilmour, Wright and drummer Nick Mason (recorded around the same time they laid down tracks for the 1994 album ‘The Division Bell’), with new vocals being recorded over the last year. Pink Floyd backup singer Durga McBroom-Hudson also confirmed the new album news with a Facebook post that includes a photo from the studio.
It is unknown if the disc will feature any contributions from singer-bassist Roger Waters, who left the band in 1985. He definitely would not have been in on the original sessions, but there’s always the chance he can be called upon to work on the new material being added to the 1994 recordings. Despite their much publicized acrimony, Waters and Gilmour have shared the stage a couple of times since the 2005 Live 8 reunion.
We’ve only scratched the surface regarding the details of the new Pink Floyd album. For a much more in-depth report on the new disc, check out a comprehensive story from our friends at Ultimate Classic Rock by clicking the button below:

According to The Daily Beast, a new case study published in the medical journal Lancet has revealed that headbanging — described as violently shaking the head in time with the music, most commonly in the rock, punk and heavy metal music genres — can cause damage as the brain bumps up against the skull.

The study detailed the case of a German heavy metal fan suffered bleeding in the brain after a night of headbanging at a MOTÖRHEAD concert. The 50-year-old complained of a two-week constant headache while being treated at Hannover Medical School and told doctors that he had been headbanging regularly for years. A CT scan showed he suffered from bleeding — medically known as chronic subdural haematoma — on the right side of his brain.

"We are not against headbanging," said Dr. Ariyan Pirayesh Islamian, one of the doctors who treated the patient. "The risk of injury is very, very low. But I think if (our patient) had (gone) to a classical concert, this would not have happened."

"There are probably other higher risk events going on at rock concerts than headbanging," Dr. Colin Shieff, a neurosurgeon and trustee of the British brain injury advocacy group Headway, added. "Most people who go to music festivals and jump up and down while shaking their heads don't end up in the hands of a neurosurgeon."

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine is one of several musicians who have spoken about the harm they caused themselves by headbanging on stage. He tried to cope with the pain caused by stenosis — a narrowing of the spinal column — for nearly 10 years through acupuncture, yoga, trigger-point injections, and both narcotic and non-narcotic medication, but ultimately underwent minimally invasive spine surgery in 2011 to fuse a disc in his cervical spine. He said: "I had to have my neck fused — the vertebrae in my neck — from the damage that headbanging has done over the years. It had degenerated the discs. When they were taking out one of the discs to replace it, they discovered a big bone fragment that had broken off and was pushing against my spinal column. It was very painful."

SLAYER frontman Tom Araya underwent back surgery in early 2010 after experiencing back problems while on the band's Australian/New Zealand/Japanese tour in October 2009. The rocker initially did not want to take the major surgery route, so the specialist recommended a series of minimally invasive procedures. While those procedures resulted in some improvement, Araya continued to deal with intermittent bouts of severe pain, numbness and muscle spasms. The surgical procedure that Araya underwent, called an Anterior Cervical Discectomy with Fusion, was a relatively routine practice.

"I can't headbang anymore," Araya explained in an April 2010 interview with Noisecreep. "When they diagnosed me, they found I was herniating to the left, and normally it's to the back. That was caused by headbanging. I'm an advocate of moderate headbanging now." He told KNAC.COM a month later: "Yeah, I just can't [headbang]. With a plate in your neck, it's not a good idea to do that. The only disclaimer I can have for people is there's nothing wrong with headbanging, just do it in moderation. And understand at some point it could damage you. People are gonna do what they wanna do, and as long as they are aware that this could happen to you, then they have a choice. I'm still gonna rock out, I just won't be able to metal out. [laughs]"

Photo: YouTube.com

Rob Halford says that the recent controversy surrounding IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson's apparent condemnation of the JUDAS PRIEST singer's use of a teleprompter during live performances is much ado about nothing.

A teleprompter, or autocue, is a display device that prompts the person speaking with an electronic visual text of a speech or script, and it is usually used by singers — including Halford and BLACK SABBATH's Ozzy Osbourne — who are getting on a bit and have a large body of work to remember.

"I never realized that people were using autocues," Dickinson told The Guardian in a recent interview. "What the fuck is that all about? People pay good money and you can't even remember the sodding words."

He continued: "The daftest one I ever saw was [JUDAS PRIEST's] 'Breaking The Law'. It's on the fucking autocue. 'Breaking the law, breaking the law/Breaking the law, breaking the law/Breaking the law, breaking the law/Breaking the law' — guess what? — 'breaking the law.' It's ludicrous."

Asked by Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone to respond to Dickinson's comments, Halford laughed out loud and said: "What we British say is it was just a storm in a teacup [Editor's note: 'Storm in a teacup' is a British variation of 'tempest in a teapot,' an idiom meaning a small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion]."

He added: I love Bruce. I love Bruce. He's a great friend of mine. And he's very outspoken. [He's a] great frontman, a great singer from a great band. And, you know, these things are said in many ways, and I'm sure he didn't mean it in any other way than Bruce sometimes goes off in one of his rants. You know, it's just the way it goes.

"But, yes, storm in a teacup. Storm in a metal teacup."

In a 2010 interview with the QMI Agency, Halford spoke about how using a teleprompter helped him when he was asked to fill in for Ozzy with BLACK SABBATH for a show after Osbourne was taken ill. "[Like Ozzy], I use a teleprompter now too because I do so many things. I can't remember. I wish I was like my mate Bruce Dickinson and could do everything, but I need that safety blanket."

During the 2005 edition of Ozzfest, the traveling festival's founder, Ozzy's wife and manager Sharon Osbourne, famously cut the venue's public-address system and the main stage's power on at least three occasions during MAIDEN's performance at the tour's final stop in Devore, California because she said that Dickinson was "talking shit about my family, night after night," and was being "disrespectful" to her husband during Bruce's "nightly outbursts from the stage" by saying that "we don't need a teleprompter' (like Ozzy)."

A $1.8 million-dollar suit against San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD, their manager Joseph Huston, record label Nuclear Blast, and current bassist Jared MacEachern filed by the band's former bassist Adam Duce (pictured) was settled out of court yesterday (Wednesday, July 2). The terms of the deal remain confidential, but both sides were able to reach a satisfactory agreement.

All claims in the dispute have been dropped against all parties named, including but not limited to the $800,000 claim against the band for breach of fiduciary duty and interference with prospective economic advantage, as well as the $1,000,000 defamation claim against MACHINE HEAD singer/guitarist Robb Flynn regarding a blog he posted on the band's official web site and associated social-media sites.

The settlement between MACHINE HEAD and Duce was mediated by Gail Migdal Title, with the litigation team for MACHINE HEAD handled by Kari Keidser, Dawn Coulson and Randall Rich of Epps & Coulson, along with longtime MACHINE HEAD entertainment lawyer Scott Harrington.

In his original complaint, Duce claimed that MACHINE HEAD's 2009 tour, which included dates with METALLICA, grossed more than $2 million. A 2012 Europe tour grossed more than $3 million, he claimed.

Flynn wrote about Duce's departure in a "diary entry" on MACHINE HEAD's web site by "directly attacking plaintiff's work ethic," Duce said in the complaint.

Duce claimed that no agreement was ever made about his share of future royalties and profits. He said the other bandmembers "simply kicked him out of the band and presumed he would forget about over two decades of hard work, dedication, and effort he put into the Band." Duce also said his likeness was used on the band's web site and in promotions without his authorization.

MACHINE HEAD will embark on the "Killers & Kings" tour in the U.S. on July 8, with support from ANTI MORTEM.

MACHINE HEAD's eighth album — the group's first with MacEachern — will be released in November via Nuclear Blast.

MacEachern made his live debut with MACHINE HEAD on June 24, 2013 in Spokane, Washington.

Adam Duce photo above courtesy of FaceCulture.nl

Swedish occult rockers GHOST, who go to great lengths to keep the identities of their bandmembers a secret, have commented on the recent release of a photo that appeared to show the band's frontman Papa Emeritus II (believed to be Swedish musician Tobias Forge of MAGNA CARTA CARTEL, REPUGNANT and SUBVISION) without his trademark makeup posing backstage at a Dutch festival with BEHEMOTH's Adam "Nergal" Darski.

Speaking to Jägermeister at this weekend's Sonisphere festival in the U.K., one of the Nameless Ghouls from GHOST said (see video below): "Adam from BEHEMOTH [who posted the photo in question on his Instagram account] is a really, really nice guy; we only have good things to say about him, and we hope [he feels] the same way [about us]."

He continued: "I mean, it's… We don't really know what to say about that except for we keep our identities as secret as we possibly can, of course, but at some point it's bound to happen, some things that are not really optimal for us, of course. But the identity part is always gonna be, for as long as can take it, it's gonna be a hassle in many ways, and I think we have managed to keep it below the radar, for the most part, at least."

The Nameless Ghoul also reaffirmed GHOST's plans to put on highly theatrical performances where the members of the group dress in hooded robes with Papa Emeritus II decked out like a skeleton wearing a Pope's cap. "We're not ever gonna do it without the church and without the clothes and without the robes, because that wouldn't be GHOST anymore — that would be something else, and that's not what we're here to do," he said.

According to The Nameless Ghoul, GHOST is putting the finishing touches on the material for its next studio album, which will follow 2013's "Infestissumam" and the covers EP "If You Have Ghost".

"Obviously, we have plans for pretty much everything," he said. "We are a very strictly planning band in that sense, that we have contingencies for basically everything. But I can say as much as there is a plan for everything, but at this point, there's still a long way to go."

He continued: "We are obviously very much in the process of making the next album, and we have come a long way with that. And we know what it's about, we know what it is, we know what the songs are, we know what the concepts are. The EP was very much a sort of a sideways step for us a little bit, with all the covers and all that, but it was a very deliberate thing to do. And it centers, obviously, around the session with Dave Grohl [FOO FIGHTERS, NIRVANA] and the time we spent with him at [his] Studio 606 [in California]. And we did a lot of different stuff there for us, whereas the next step is gonna be back to full-on, more traditional-type GHOST stuff.

"We're kind of finishing up the writing, actually. The conceptual stuff has been finished for a long, long time, so we know, basically, what we're gonna do with the next album and quite some time after that as well. So we have a very deliberate plan of doing things. But the actual album in terms of material and imagery and stage plots and everything is basically finished."

Multi-camera footage of MOTÖRHEAD's July 4 performance at Hyde Park in London, England can be seen below.

Due to a production error, the release date of the reissue of MOTÖRHEAD's 21st studio album, "Aftershock", originally scheduled for July 29 via UDR/Motörhead Music, has been pushed back to August 26. The CD was helmed by longtime producer Cameron Webb (MEGADETH, DISTURBED). The expanded edition will contain a bonus live CD — also recorded by Webb — consisting of live material comprised from the band's historic appearances in early 2014.

In further celebration of the reissue, UDR/Motörhead Music will release a video for the song "Lost Woman Blues", filmed live at The Warfield in San Francisco on April 18, 2014. The show was part of the band's warm-up mini tour for the upcoming European festivals. The song's performance, verve, swagger and attitude show MOTÖRHEAD have maintained their rich ripeness and added another layer of grit and polish. The video is set to premier on VH1 Classic in July.

"Aftershock" sold 11,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 22 on The Billboard 200 chart.

MOTÖRHEAD's previous CD, 2011's "The Wörld Is Yours", opened with 7,000 units to enter the chart at No. 94. The band's 2008 effort, "Motörizer", premiered with 6,400 copies to debut at No. 82, while 2006's "Kiss Of Death" registered a first-week tally of 3,500.

MOTÖRHEAD canceled a handful of shows on its European festival tour in August 2013 after the band's frontman, Lemmy, suffered a haematoma (where blood collects outside of a blood vessel). The news of Lemmy's latest medical issue followed reports that he was also fitted with a defibrillator because of heart problems. The band also postponed a European headlining tour which was scheduled to kick off in November 2013.

Asked how Lemmy is doing now, MOTÖRHEAD drummer Mikkey Dee told Finland's Kaaos TV in May: "It's much, much better. He's been good for awhile. He's working hard on his health. We just did three weeks in the U.S. He's up and about. It's more to get going again. It's for the whole band. We've never been off eight months. But Lemmy's much better, and he played great when we did this U.S. leg, so I really hope that he can stay healthy. And he looks good, so that's all I can say. And he's working very, very hard on it, too, so all the best."

METALLICA's official YouTube channel Metallica TV has been update with fly-on-the-wall footage shot by a MetOnTour.com reporter on June 28 at the Glastobury Festival in Glastonbury, England. The 18-minute clip includes footage of a rehearsal in London on June 26 and performance clips of "Creeping Death" and "The Memory Remains" from the show.

As previously reported, METALLICA took on the haters directly with its headlining set at Glastonbury Festival, following weeks of protests, complaints and even a petition launched over the band's appearance there — the first time a metal act has ever topped the indie-leaning festival bill in 44 years. According to multiple sources, the group's first response to the backlash was selling a T-shirt that read, "Glastallica: Peace, Love & Metal” on the front, with various negative quotes on the back, including the now-famous "They're shite" from alternative act MOGWAI.

Next was a video intro before the band's set, directed by Julien Temple, which featured footage of a British fox hunt that ended with the four members of METALLICA in bear suits shooting the hunters. This was a reference to frontman James Hetfield narrating a TV series about an Alaskan bear hunt that led to the launch of a petition demanding the band's removal from the bill.

For the show itself, the band invited dozens of hardcore fans onstage with them to rock out as the group powered through a 95-minute collection of greatest hits and classics.

Hetfield told the crowd at one point, "We’re very proud to be here and represent the heavier side of music… This is dedicated not only to the crowd but to all the British heavy metal bands that have been dreaming and still dream of playing this stage here."

METALLICA will play festivals throughout Europe for the rest of the month, with the bulk of each show built around fan requests made online.

Fans attending U.K.'s Sonisphere festival on Saturday, July 5 witnessed The Great War Display Team, a group of pilots which included IRON MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson among its illustrious members, staging a spectacular 12-minute air display in the skies above Knebworth at approximately 6 p.m. This unique and audacious "dogfight" commemorated the 100th anniversary of The Great War; a 21st-Century tribute to the daring — and often downright dangerous — exploits of both the English and German pilots who ruled Europe's skies between 1914 and 1918. The show featured nine aircraft of five different types, all exact replicas of the planes used in WW1 combat. Bruce flew his very own Fokker Dr1 Triplane, the same model used by infamous German flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, a.k.a. The Red Baron. Also from the German side there was a Junkers CL1. Of the British planes in the show, there was a Sopwith Triplane, a BE2c and a SE5a. The other members of this elite team alongside Bruce were Alex Truman, Dan Griffith, Dave Linney, Ernie Hoblyn, Gordon Brander, Matthew Boddington, Peter Bond, Richard Piper, Vic Lockwood and Will Greenwood.

Video footage of yesterday's air show can be seen below.

The Great War Display Team performs re-enactments throughout the U.K. and rest of Europe and is proudly sponsored by IRON MAIDEN's very own Trooper beer. When the air show was first announced at the end of May, Bruce said: "The air show over Sonisphere is something I'm really excited about and we're determined to put on an unforgettable display for everyone.

"We're planning an extravaganza of derring-do, especially when you consider the manoeuvres we'll be performing are all based on true-life battles from a hundred years ago!

"What some of these fighter pilots achieved back then was nothing short of miraculous given the conditions they were working under and the seriousness of what was at stake.

"We hope to stage a memorable display which is equally entertaining and poignant, celebrating not only the bravery and heroics of all the pilots involved but remembering the sacrifices made on both side.

"Having been brought up on Biggles, to the horror of my English teachers, the chance to fly a Fokker triplane Dr1 was second only to owning a Sopwith Camel.

"A share in a Bucker Jungmann and a conversation with Great War team manager Gordon Brander led to a chance to buy a superbly constructed full size replica of the iconic German fighter. Built by the late John Day, I intend to display the aircraft with the team in commemoration not just of the Great war, but also as a tribute to one of the U.K.'s premier engineer/builders." Sonisphere organizer Stuart Galbraith added: "We all got very excited when IRON MAIDEN approached us with this idea. It's going to be a truly unique experience and tribute for everyone at Knebworth. We've made sure we were able to squeeze a gap into the outdoor stage program on July 5 so that it has the impact it deserves." After the air show, Bruce returned to solid ground to get ready for MAIDEN's headline performance that night, on the final date of their "Maiden England" world tour.

Impericon.com recently met up with the guitarist Mark Heylmun and vocalist Hernan "Eddie" Hermida of California deathcore masters SUICIDE SILENCE and asked them "25 important either-or questions." Check out the clip below.

"You Can't Stop Me", SUICIDE SILENCE's first album to feature Hermida and their first since the tragic loss of singer Mitch Lucker, will be released on July 11 in Europe (except in the U.K., where it will arrive on July 14) and July 15 in North America via Nuclear Blast Entertainment.

"You Can't Stop Me" was produced and mixed by Steve Evetts (SEPULTURA, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN), who worked with the band not only on "The Black Crown", but also on some instrumental demos for the new CD just prior to Lucker's death in the fall of 2012.

"The long and short of it is this," said guitarist Mark Heylmun. "Mitch left behind a set of lyrics with the title 'You Can't Stop Me'. This gave us chills, to say the least, and we knew we had the title and title track. This filled us with inspiration for writing sessions to empower us and empower you, the supporters of SUICIDE SILENCE."

Mitch Lucker died November 1, 2012 after sustaining injuries in a motorcycle crash in Huntington Beach that Halloween night.

"We never talked about continuing and we never talked about quitting, so it was like an unspoken thing, 'cause with some people, a tragic happening, the last thing you want to do is talk about it," SUICIDE SILENCE guitarist Chris Garza told Music Feeds.

Ultimately, Garza explained, carrying on as SUICIDE SILENCE felt like the right thing to do. "I think keeping the SUICIDE SILENCE brand going and the name going keeps Mitch alive and I think it would be completely disrespectful to Mitch and everything that he worked for if we stopped going or changed the name," he added.

Regarding the decision to enlist Hermida, Heylmun told Metalholic.com: "There was really nobody else — we didn't want to try anybody out. We didn't want to call people and be, like, 'You wanna come and jam with us?' That's not how this situation seemed like it would work for us. Eddie was just a friend. Somebody that we know is extremely talented, and someone that could put the passion behind the job that it is. To not replace Mitch or be the singer of this band, but to treat the gig that it is. He's replacing an idol to so many people and he's also coming into a band that preexists, which is the other four members of it. We just knew he would be able to handle it with respect and knock it out of the park."

SUICIDE SILENCE 2014 is:

Hernan "Eddie" Hermida - VocalsChris Garza - GuitarMark Heylmun - GuitarAlex Lopez - DrumsDan Kenny - Bass