BLACK SABBATH members Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass) and Ozzy Osbourne (vocals) were presented with a platinum plaque on Friday, July 4 at London's Hyde Park for worldwide sales in excess of one million copies of the band's comeback album, "13". The CD was released in June 2013 via Vertigo/Universal Republic in the U.S. and Vertigo in all other territories.

"13" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, the first SABBATH album to ever top the U.S. chart.

The disc features Ozzy, Butler and Iommi playing together for the first time in 35 years. Their last effort together was 1978's "Never Say Die!"

"13" has sold more than 368,000 copies in the United States since its release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

A contract dispute led drummer Bill Ward to sit out the reunion, which was also marred by Iommi's cancer diagnosis in early 2012.

Iommi has said that BLACK SABBATH's massive July 4 gig at London's Hyde Park could ended up being the band's last because the touring can be tough on him. But in a recent video message, Iommi sounded more optimistic about the prospect of returning to the road, telling fans, "We'll see you on the next tour."

Osbourne and Butler recently seemed to have slightly different takes on whether the reunited band will record a follow-up to "13". Asked about Iommi's remark that the concert in Hyde Park could be their last, Ozzy told Guitar World, "If it's goodbye, we're ending it on a high note… But I'm up for another BLACK SABBATH album and tour. If we can, great. If not, I'll just carry on doing my own thing." According to The Pulse Of Radio, Butler, meanwhile, thinks that the threesome already have a head start on a new record, explaining, "We've still got four tracks left over from ['13']. So maybe we'll fill in the other four or five tracks and put out another album — if it's right. We wouldn't do it just for the sake of it, or the money or whatever. But yeah, maybe."

Ozzy added, "I never say never. I never thought after 35 years I'd [be back with BLACK SABBATH], have a No. 1 record and a sold-out tour."

BLACK SABBATH was honored with a Grammy in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" category in the pre-telecast ceremony at the 56th annual Grammy Awards on January 26 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. BLACK SABBATH was nominated for the track "God Is Dead?", from "13". BLACK SABBATH's "God Is Dead?" also picked up a nomination in the "Best Rock Song" category. In addition, "13" earned a nod for "Best Rock Album", alongside LED ZEPPELIN's "Celebration Day" and QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE's "…Like Clockwork", among others.




Here's a snap from a presentation at Hyde Park for selling over a million copies of "13" by @BlackSabbath worldwide! pic.twitter.com/SeiAcfmN60

— Tony Iommi (@tonyiommi) July 5, 2014

Legendary BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi has released a video message thanking fans for their support and hinting that the band will do more touring in the future.

Iommi, who has battled cancer since 2012, said recently that BLACK SABBATH's massive July 4 gig at London's Hyde Park could be the band's last because the touring can be tough on him. But in the latest video message, Iommi sounded more optimistic about the prospect of returning to the road, telling fans, "We'll see you on the next tour."

Said Iommi: "Hello everybody. I wanna thank you for all your messages on Facebook. It's been great. We've had a laugh, and some of them have been really great and very supportive. Thanks so much. I am at home at the moment, about to leave for Hyde Park, which we'll play [on Friday, July 4], and I'm really looking forward to that. The tour has been marvelous; we've had a great year, and you couldn't wish for better. It's been phenomenal ,and you've been phenomenal. And thanks for coming to the shows and being supportive. Thank you very much and we'll see you on the next tour. Thank you very much. Bye."

BLACK SABBATH singer Ozzy Osbourne and bassist Geezer Butler recently seemed to have slightly different takes on whether the reunited band will record a follow-up to "13". Asked about Iommi's remark that the concert in Hyde Park could be their last, Ozzy told Guitar World, "If it's goodbye, we're ending it on a high note… But I'm up for another BLACK SABBATH album and tour. If we can, great. If not, I'll just carry on doing my own thing." According to The Pulse Of Radio, Butler, meanwhile, thinks that the threesome already have a head start on a new record, explaining, "We've still got four tracks left over from ['13']. So maybe we'll fill in the other four or five tracks and put out another album — if it's right. We wouldn't do it just for the sake of it, or the money or whatever. But yeah, maybe."

Ozzy added, "I never say never. I never thought after 35 years I'd [be back with BLACK SABBATH], have a No. 1 record and a sold-out tour."

"13", the first SABBATH album since 1978 to feature Ozzy, Butler and Iommi, was No. 1 in the U.S., the U.K. and nearly a dozen other countries.

The Hyde Park show will feature SOUNDGARDEN and others in addition to the headliners.



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Fan-filmed video footage of SLAYER's July 3 performance at 013 in Tilburg, The Netherlands can be seen below.

SLAYER surprised the capacity crowd at this past April's Revolver Golden Gods awards in Los Angeles with an unannounced performance, kicking off the show with a three-song set that included the global premiere of "Implode", the band's first new studio recording in five years. Recorded in April at Henson Studios in Los Angeles and produced by Terry Date and co-produced by Greg Fidelman, "Implode" was made available as a free download as a "thank you" to the band's fans for their continued support.

Later this year, the two-time Grammy-winning SLAYER will begin recording a new album, tentatively set for an early 2015 release. The album will make SLAYER history as it will be released on Nuclear Blast Records through the band's own label imprint, closing out a 28-year relationship with Rick Rubin and American Recordings. No name for the imprint has been decided on yet. All future recordings on the band's label imprint will be released worldwide exclusively through Nuclear Blast. Joining bassist/vocalist Tom Araya and guitarist Kerry King during the sessions for SLAYER's new album are returning drummer Paul Bostaph, who replaced Dave Lombardo last year, and guitarist Gary Holt (also of EXODUS), who has been filling in for late SLAYER axeman Jeff Hanneman on tour for the past four years.

Bostaph was SLAYER's drummer from 1992 until 2001 and recorded four albums with the band — the gold-certified "Divine Intervention" (1994), the 1996 punk covers album "Undisputed Attitude", "Diabolus In Musica" (1998), "God Hates Us All" (2001) that received a Grammy nomination for "Best Metal Performance", as well as the DVD "War At The Warfield" (2001), also certified gold. In addition to SLAYER, Bostaph has been a member of FORBIDDEN, EXODUS, SYSTEMATIC and TESTAMENT.

Original SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo sat out the band's Australian tour in February/March 2013 due to a contract dispute with the other members of the group. Filling in for him was Jon Dette (TESTAMENT, ANTHRAX).

Fan-filmed video footage of PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS — the band led by former PANTERA and current DOWN frontman Philip Anselmo — performing on July 4 at the Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Denmark can be seen below.

Anselmo is currently touring Europe with his backup band THE ILLEGALS — guitarist Marzi Montazeri (ex-SUPERJOINT RITUAL), drummer José Manuel Gonzales (WARBEAST) and bassist Steve Taylor.

Anselmo's career-first solo album, "Walk Through Exits Only", sold around 8,700 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 35 on The Billboard 200 chart.

Produced by Anselmo and Michael Thompson, and recorded over a couple of years at Philip's New Orleans studio, Nodferatu's Lair, "Walk Through Exits Only" is abrasive, aggressive, anthemic and 100% Anselmo.

According to Anselmo, he worked on an estimated 15-17 songs for "Walk Through Exits Only", which was issued via his own Housecore Records (MRI/Megaforce)

"I could've put on any number (of songs) I wanted, but for me, these eight songs all together, 40-something minutes, that's my idea of a proper listening length," he told Billboard.com. "When you start to get longer, it gets a little redundant and boring, and I didn't want to bore anybody."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD's video for the song "This Means War" can be seen below. The clip was helmed by Andrew Baird (CAGE THE ELEPHANT, CARRIE UNDERWOOD) and was previously described as "a grisly street fight on the dark streets of an urban metropolis. Haunted by dark creatures and lost souls."

"This Means War", which, by AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows' own admission, bears a strong resemblance to METALLICA's "Sad But True", is taken from AVENGED's sixth and latest album, "Hail To The King", released last year and the band's second straight CD to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, following 2010's "Nightmare".

AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Synyster Gates told Music Radar about the "This Means War" track: "We wanted a really impactful, riff-based intro but one that would also feature our dual-lead-harmony approach. It's pretty cool how it fits into the slow groove of the track and just hammers through.

"This song is becoming one of my favorites. I've been really enjoying watching people listen to it because it so fits the vibe of the album. When they hear it, they start moving, and they don't stop. Sometimes, with more progressive songs, you lose that fee somewhere along the line, but 'This Means War' never quits — the energy is always there.

"All of my solos were improvised initially — I would go in and get my bearings and see what I came up with. I was hearing something chaotic in the intro, a machine-gun spray that would build into something more melodic."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD and KORN will co-headline this year's Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, which kicks off its annual run on Saturday, July 5 in Devore, California.

Other acts on the bill include ASKING ALEXANDRIA, TRIVIUM, BODY COUNT, SUICIDE SILENCE, MISS MAY I, TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION, DARKEST HOUR, UPON A BURNING BODY and many others.

Reactivated influential alt-metal act FAITH NO MORE debuted what are believed to be two brand new songs during their concert earlier today (Friday, July 4) at Hyde Park in London, England. Low-quality fan-filmed video footage of the performance 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."



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The self-titled fifth album from Anglo-Swedish modern metal powerhouse SONIC SYNDICATE can be streamed in its entirety. The CD will be released on July 4 via Nuclear Blast.

"Sonic Syndicate" will include a total of 11 tracks, while the limited edition digipak will feature no less than three bonus tracks.

"Sonic Syndicate" track listing:

01. Day Of The Dead02. Black Hole Halo03. Long Road Home04. My Revenge05. Before You Finally Break (feat. Speed/SOILWORK)06. Catching Fire07. Unbreakable08. It Takes Me09. See What I See10. So Addicted11. The Flame That Changed The World

Limited-edition bonus tracks:

12. Diabolical Work Of Art13. What We Shared14. Another Soldier Down

Commented SONIC SYNDICATE guitarist, main songwriter and founding member Robin Sjunnesson: "We decided to go with this one as a 'self-titled' release. Mainly because as an album, we have put everything we've got into it. All of our experience as musicians, the evolution of the music, the sound from all eras of the band, and also the road we have taken as people. This is us, this is SONIC SYNDICATE in all its beauty and destruction. It shows our strength, our love for melody, our scars, our energy. The cover art is a definite representation of that. In the background, a battle-torn city laid to waste, four figures emerging together with only each other to depend on in an environment so harsh, only those with a tough heart, body and soul can survive.

"The tone throughout this album is definitely darker, and as my Swedish family would say, 'with a red line running in the middle,' so we put this into the color scheme.

"We could not be more proud of this album, and we thank our fans for the support; it's because of them that we're here. This album is for you."

The video for the song "Before You Finally Break" was shot by renowned director Patric Ullaeus (IN FLAMES, DIMMU BORGIR) and features SOILWORK singer Björn "Speed" Strid on guest vocals.

Commented SONIC SYNDICATE singer Nathan James Biggs: "I'm honored to call Speed a friend.

"I've been a big SOILWORK fan for years. Those guys were a massive hand in crafting that trademark Swedish sound so it made perfect sense to ask Speed when we knew we wanted to do a song with guest vocals. Performance-wise, I think we have similar styles and execution, but at the same time we both have our own thing going on, so the voices complement each other to great effect. My idea was also to have a real battle between our vocals.

"I hate it when you have these 'featuring' songs and the guest just pops up for a chorus and then does backing vocals for a while in the verse or something. This is a real fight between us for the mic and I'm sure people are gonna appreciate that."

Added Strid: "Working with SONIC SYNDICATE is always a pleasure, whether it's in the studio, tour, or in a cool-looking abandoned car shop in the industrial area of Gothenburg.

"I loved recording vocals on this song and especially being able to do somewhat of a duet with Nathan Biggs. He's a truly talented singer and a good friend.

"Doing the video was easy, fun and pretty intense at the same time. It turned out real sick. Check it out!"

SONIC SYNDICATE 2014 is:

Nathan James Biggs - VocalsRobin Sjunnesson - GuitarKarin Axelsson - BassJohn Bengtsson - Drums

SONIC SYNDICATE's latest album, "We Rule The Night", was released in Europe on August 27, 2010 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Guitarist Mircea Gabriel Eftemie of Danish modern metallers MNEMIC has issued the following update:

"It's been over 6 months since the last update, and therefore I must humbly apologize.

"Being the last original and founding member of MNEMIC, I feel that it's my responsibility and finally time to break the silence and shed some light on the band's current situation and prospect.

"I am sure anyone who have been following our endeavors, listening to our music, or had some sort of a relation to MNEMIC, have been wondering what's in the melting pot?

"The main reason for this update is because wherever I have gone, I've met people who have been asking me: 'When are you playing live again? When is a new album coming out? What's happening with the band? Why so silent? No news?'

"Well, here is a bit of background… When we started the band, we where influenced by 3 great artists, MESHUGGAH, FEAR FACTORY and STRAPPING YOUNG LAD (plus everything else Devin touched). We had a common artistic vision for the sound and look and a common goal when composing. We were all able to communicate musically on the same level, as we all contributed with our personal signature to the greater vision. Luckily, and fortunately, we ended up releasing albums on a great and big label, touring 4-5 continents, and even ended up touring and making friends with the bands that influenced us and hey, even METALLICA asked us out! Something most bands only dream of nowadays — call us extremely f**ing lucky.

"Fact is, people and situations change, and going through multiple lineup changes, not being able to generate an income from music and struggling to survive, so did the vision change.

"I will never be bankrupt on creativity, but my personal taste in music has also changed over the years. I am not interested in sparkling clean productions and djenty polyrhythmic one-stringed riffing, flavored with melodic choruses. I have written this type of music for over a decade, and to put it simply, I am sick and tired of it. To be completely honest I really dislike the djent genre, because no matter how extremely talented these musicians and bands are, no one can write a good song, and they all sound the same — at least to me. I am also pretty sure we have regressed as a band (or musicians), if some do consider us part of the djent genre?

"In conclusive, to everyone I have met, that have been asking, and anyone else wondering, all I can say is that there are no shows planned, no new music or a new album in the making. Why? Because there is no artistic vision any longer, and my heart is no longer into this music. I hunger for raw power, simplicity, and good songs. That is also why I thrive in a new formation called BLOOD EAGLE — check it out, its death metal, it sounds nothing like MNEMIC.

"It's a dynamic world and change is the only constant, if you do not continue to innovate or shift out, you will be out of the game. In other words, so is MNEMIC, therefore this is either a hiatus or a break-up. Only time will tell if we will get back together with the old or new lineup to make music again. In the meantime I would love to hear your opinions, what you think we should do, how much we suck, how much you love us, how much you would pay us to either shut the hell up or make some new music?"

MNEMIC's fifth album, "Mnemesis", was released in June 2012 via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD landed at position No. 38 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.

"Mnemesis" was recorded at Antfarm studios in Aabyhøj, Denmark with longtime producer Tue Madsen (THE HAUNTED, HIMSA, SICK OF IT ALL). The cover artwork was created by Metastazis (MORBID ANGEL, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, PARADISE LOST, ULVER).

EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt has defended the way the band fired its lead singer of the past nine years, Rob Dukes, saying that "much time" was spent mulling the decision before the final move was made.

EXODUS on June 8 announced the departure of Dukes and the return of his predecessor, Steve "Zetro" Souza, who previously fronted EXODUS from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004.

In a recent interview with Australia's "Blood, Sweat And Metal" podcast, Dukes said that he had not talked to any of his former bandmates in EXODUS about his departure from the band. "I haven't spoken with anyone but [drummer] Tom [Hunting]," Rob explained. "Tom called me… He called me and said, 'We're gonna go on with a different singer. We're gonna be going with Zet.' And that was it. It was about a 20-second phone call. And that was really all I got. That's it."

Holt — who has been pulling double duty with SLAYER for the past four and a half years — denied that EXODUS handled the dismissal of Dukes in an insensitive manner, saying "There were the calls to Rob preceding this, [so] how long should the final call be?

"20 seconds was not all this involved.

"[While I was] in Europe [with SLAYER, I] pretty much got the rundown on everything as we went through this."

He added: ""Much time was spent on this."

Holt also shot down Internet speculation that the split with Dukes was motivated by financial reasons or that it was masterminded by EXODUS' new so-manager, TESTAMENT vocalist Chuck Billy, who co-founded the management company Breaking Bands LLC. "It isn't for the money [and] Chuck did not orchestrate this," Holt said. "There were issues behind the scenes and we came to a conclusion." The guitarist, however, refused to go into the details of EXODUS' decision to part ways with Dukes, explaining: "All will remain internal, I see no need to air the laundry for anyone."

Holt, who previously said that the decision to fire Rob and re-hire Zetro "was the most difficult decision of our lives, one the entire band made," was once again full of praise for EXODUS' former frontman, saying: "I wish nothing but the best for Rob, [and I] have nothing but love for the man. He will be a force for a long time and I am proud of him and how he went from a dude with a pink mohawk to a vicious thrash vocalist. He is a killer singer and we have total respect for him and love the music we made together."

Dukes joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four of the band's studio albums — "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" (2005), "The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A" (2007), "Let There Be Blood" (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS' classic 1985 LP, "Bonded By Blood") and "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" (2010).

Dukes has released two studio albums with his GENERATION KILL project, 2011's "Red White And Blood" and 2013's "We're All Gonna Die".

San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD have tapped Brazilian artist Marcelo Vasco (BELPHEGOR, EINHERJER, DIMMU BORGIR, THE FACELESS, NOCTEM, KEEP OF KALESSIN, BORKNAGAR) to handle the artwork for the band's much-anticipated new album, due before the end of the year via Nuclear Blast. MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn said: "We got turned on to Marcelo's work through Gerardo [Martinez] at Nuclear Blast and let me tell you… this kid has delivered some fucking glory! He took the updated MH 'Lion Crest' that Rafal Wechterowicz (we call him Raf for short) had designed with us, and added this whole other dark trip to it. We've decided to base the album package off of an old Alchemy book, with aged, sepia-toned pages on the insides, alchemy wood-cuts."

Flynn continued: "As we talked about before, one of the things we were so excited to sign with Nuclear Blast about was the next-level, special packages they do for their bands. This MACHINE HEAD setup may be their biggest yet! Just the album alone will come in deluxe CD, vinyl gatefold, and the piece-de-résistance, a red foil and leatherbound 48-page media book with CD. Some album bundles will come with a hard resin MACHINE HEAD diamond logo around the media book. There will be something akin to an 'ultra bundle' as well, which will include a completely custom Epiphone guitar (with the new lion crest artwork) courtesy of Epiphone guitars."

Tentative songtitles set to appear on the new MACHINE HEAD album include "Killers & Kings", "Beneath The Silt", "Eyes Of The Dead" (formerly "Ojos De La Muerte"), "Sail Into The Black", "How We Die" and "Night Of The Long Knives".

As part of this year's Record Store Day on April 19, MACHINE HEAD released a 10-inch vinyl single, with the A-side containing the "demo" version of "Killers & Kings". The B-side was a cover version of the track "Our Darkest Days" from one of MACHINE HEAD's favorite bands, IGNITE.

Flynn recently stated about the band's new material: "I would say… that the songs are as epic in scope [as those on 2007's 'The Blackening'], if not more so, except where 'The Blackening' was more epic in the guitar department, this is more epic in the EVERYTHING department. Strings arrangements, keyboard arrangements, massive vocal layering (one track, 'Sail Into The Black' has 40 tracks of vocals), drum overdubs, and, of course, the standard MACHINE HEAD quadruple tracking of the guitars."

He added: "I want to reiterate, I don't feel this record sounds like 'The Blackening'. It feels like we're still moving forward. If I HAD to compare it to another record of ours, it may be closer to 'Through The Ashes Of Empires' in one aspect only, the simpler song arrangements. It's still what I would just call classic metal, but we've simplified beats, simplified riffs, taken the unnecessary complicated-ness of something and made it simple. I've even applied that to my lyrics, where I've stripped out a lot of extra words ('the's,' 'and's,' etc), and invented a lyrical technique I call 'clustering,' where you cluster vowels or cluster 'plosives' ('K's,' 'T's,' 'Ch's') together to make it sound heavier, or flow better. It doesn't read all that poetically, but in the song it sounds really cool. I've also really worked hard on sharpening up my rhyme schemes, finding clever places to place rhymes, instead of the usual place at the end of a line, or even again, 'clustering' rhymes. It makes an abstract concept like 'Killers & Kings' (which references 20+ Tarot Cards, and that I'm very proud of the end result) to have a real meaning. Out of that stripped down musical landscape, we've then taken that new (to us at least) 'extra space' and added in layers of strings, layers of dark, ambient keys, layers and layers of vocals, and it sounds HUGE."

Speaking to U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine, Flynn stated about the band's upcoming CD: "It sounds like MACHINE HEAD! It's definitely moving forward, which I feel like we're probably always gonna do.

"We're not a band that ever looks back. We do our thing and try to take the life experiences that we have and the musicianship that we've evolved and try to use it. Obviously, we have our sound and we have the MACHINE HEAD patented harmonics, the downtuned riffs and I sing the way I sing.

"I think Bob Dylan said it best: 'You just find new ways to say the same thing.'"

Regarding some of the specific tracks and the lyrical themes covered on the new album, Flynn said: "I've got some pretty cool lyrics ready. There's a song called 'Night Of The Long Knives', and it's pretty fucked! It's about the Manson murders, and the lyrics are really dark and vicious.

"We've found some new twists to give to the MACHINE HEAD sound and some new fire and excitement."

Studio blog part 1:


Studio blog part 2:


Studio blog part 3:

On June 29, Kaaos TV conducted an interview with guitarist Sven Atle Kopperud (a.k.a. Silenoz) of Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR when the band played at the Tuska open-air festival in Helsinki, Finland. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for DIMMU BORGIR's follow-up to 2010's "Abrahadabra", Silenoz said: "We are still just writing individually and sometimes together. But we are not really far into the process. We just take it as it comes and we always make it when it's the right time. So I wish we could have had the album ready now, but we don't, so we just have to accept it the way it is and make the best out of it. But I think when we come with a new album, it's gonna be something that we can stand behind and which represents the band where we are at the moment."

He continued: "We always usually take two to three years between each release. Now it's been already four years. But it will take the time it needs to be great… I think it's also important not to rest on your laurels too long. I think it is gonna be what it is. If it takes another two years, then so be it, but hopefully not. [Laughs]

"It would be good to have [the album] done by this time next year, and have everything done by that time, but we'll see what happens. A lot of things have to happen before we can go the whole way."

Regarding the direction of the new material, Silenoz said: "I think what we've done so far is kind of primal sounding, maybe more simple. But that's what I felt with the last album too, because that's what you feel when you're doing in the beginning of a process. So it's hard to say. But maybe more aggressive and more simple. We'll see. It can all change tomorrow. [Laughs]"

DIMMU BORGIR's most recent touring lineup included Geir Bratland (APOPTYGMA BERZERK, THE KOVENANT) on keyboards and Terje Andersen (a.k.a. Cyrus; SUSPERIA) on bass.

"Abrahadabra", the ninth album from DIMMU BORGIR, was released in Germany on September 24, 2010, in the rest of Europe on September 27, 2010, and it was made available in North America on October 12, 2010 via Nuclear Blast Records.

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor has revealed to the "Loudwire Nights With Full Metal Jackie" radio show that the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2008's "All Hope Is Gone" is "98 percent done." He added: "I'm in the process of heading to the studio to give a listen, see if there's anything we need to touch up. But yeah, it is very close. The next step is the mix, and we're going to try to get it out very soon. There will be big announcements soon. Big things to hear, soon. That's really all I can say about it. I know we're anything, if not diligent to our plan. The plan is to just slowly but surely get people to lose their minds for the next couple of months with just little stuff here and there leaked."

SLIPKNOT's next CD will be the band's first since the 2010 death of bassist Paul Gray and December 2013 departure of drummer Joey Jordison, one of the group's founding members and key songwriters.

Asked what has been most fulfilling about working on new SLIPKNOT music that he never experienced before, Corey told Full Metal Jackie: "This one, it just feels, there's something weird about this one. Obviously this is the first album we're making without Paul.

"After everything we went through, there's a catharsis that comes with this, being able to throw all the emotion and aggression out that we've been holding onto. At the same time, getting to be creative again. Feeling that juice coming back into us. It's been a real positive experience just from an artistic standpoint, a lyrical standpoint.

"We're making an album that's not just a reflection. Let's just get new music out there. There's something very vital with what we're trying to do. There's something very visceral with the emotion we're playing with and trying to tell the story of a band that's gone through hell, and yet we're back. It's been really fulfilling."

Corey recently described the musical direction of the new SLIPKNOT material as "a great mesh of [2001's] 'Iowa' and [2004's] 'Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)'." He explained: "You've got the gorgeous melodies and the artistic direction of 'Vol. 3' and then you've got the absolute brutality of 'Iowa'. And I think people are gonna lose their minds when they hear it."

Even though SLIPKNOT's last album, "All Hope Is Gone", came out in 2008, Taylor said, "The good thing is we've always been writing, so there's a ton of stuff that we're pretty stoked on. It's exactly what you want it to be."

SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that he has high hopes for the band's next album. "That record is going to be, I predict, one of the most serious things that we will have ever comprehended that we've ever done in our life," he said. "And we pretty much say that on every record, but I really feel that when the time comes, what will be on hand is going to be something almost unimaginable."

The band is rumored to have recruited drummer Jay Weinberg to play on the new album. Weinberg is the son of Max Weinberg, longtime BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E STREET BAND drummer.

SLIPKNOT announced in December 2013 that it had parted ways with Jordison. The band has not disclosed the reasons for Jordison's exit, although the drummer issued a statement in January saying that he did not quit the group.

Heating up summer to a boiling point, Grammy Award-winning hard rock luminaries KORN have revealed the official details for their latest release, a deluxe reissue of their 2013 album, "The Paradigm Shift: World Tour Edition" (Prospect Park). The collection will be exclusively available at Best Buy stores in North America starting July 15 and available to pre-order here.

For the "World Tour Edition", the Bakersfield quintet lock and load last year's critically acclaimed "The Paradigm Shift", with three brand new songs including their just released single "Hater", plus "The Game Is Over" and "So Unfair". In addition, it's been beefed up with a bevy of live tracks recorded all over the globe and expanded artwork. It's the ultimate way to experience "The Paradigm Shift".

"Hater" invaded radio airwaves just last week and has already vaulted into the Top 30 at Active Rock. For it, the group teamed up with hitmaker/producer Don Gilmore, who also produced "The Paradigm Shift" album, as well as the group's #1 active rock radio smash "Never Never".

The song kicks into gear with the seminal grinding guitar volley of Brian "Head" Welch and James "Munky" Shaffer. Meanwhile, Reggie "Fieldy" Arvizu cranks out a throbbing bass bounce punctuated by Ray Luzier's impenetrable percussion. At the eye of the storm, Jonathan Davis delivers a haunting verse that quickly blossoms into an eerily unforgettable chorus. "Hater" is available now to purchase on iTunes.

Among the other unreleased material, Davis opens up about his young son Zeppelin's battle with diabetes on the powerful "So Unfair", while "The Game Is Over" slams with the intense catharsis fans worldwide expect from these legends..

"The Paradigm Shift: World Tour Edition" bonus disc track listing:

01. Hater02. The Game Is Over03. Die Another Day04. Love & Meth (Live from London)05. Here To Stay (Live from London)06. Get Up (Live from Moscow)07. Never Never (Live from Moscow)08. Got the Life (Live from Denver)09. Another Brick In The Wall (Live from Denver)

KORN returns to the road this summer with the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, starting July 5 in Devore, California.

Christian hard rockers P.O.D. (PAYABLE ON DEATH) have announced a pre-order for their upcoming album through their partnership with PledgeMusic. The San Diego-based band will make its new effort available on the direct-to-fan platform. The band chose to work with PledgeMusic so fans could receive updates directly from the band during the album making process, offering them behind-the-scenes access and a chance to pre-order early.

In response to requests, P.O.D. will deliver the upcoming acoustic album, which will include favorite hits "Youth Of The Nation" and "Alive" along with two brand new songs. Just for pledgers, P.O.D. will offer a number of exclusive, limited-edition and one-of-a-kind items available such as signed CDs and tour memorabilia. Celebrating five years of engaging music lovers, PledgeMusic has proven to be a valuable marketing force for bands and artists releasing music, playing an important role in driving sales and contributing to their overall achievements. Benji Rogers, founder and president of PledgeMusic commented, "We are thrilled that P.O.D., who have enjoyed a strong fanbase for years, has chosen the PledgeMusic platform to further connect with their fans to release this special collection of songs."

A special deluxe edition of P.O.D.'s latest album, "Murdered Love", was made available digitally in October 2013 via iTunes. Highlights included two previously unreleased studio tracks, "Burn It Down" and "Find A Way" (recorded with producer Howard Benson) and an acoustic version of the band's Top 5 hit "Beautiful". Additional audio tracks included an acoustic version of "West Coast Rock Steady", an alternate version of "On Fire" and their #1 song "Lost In Forever (Scream)" plus various music videos and behind-the-scenes footage from the "Murdered Love" album cycle.

"Murdered Love" was released on July 10, 2012 via Razor & Tie. The band's long-awaited follow-up to "When Angels & Serpents Dance" sees them reunited with longtime producer Howard Benson, who also produced the group's massive "Satellite" album as well as hit CDs for Kelly Clarkson, THEORY OF A DEADMAN, DAUGHTRY, THE ALL AMERICAN REJECTS and MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE. The CD cover and packaging was illustrated and designed by Invisible Creature, whose previous credits include the FOO FIGHTERS, NORMA JEAN, Chris Cornell and many more.

Former LOSTPROPHETS guitarists Mike Lewis and Lee Gaze, keyboardist Jamie Oliver, bassist Stuart Richardson and drummer Luke Johnson have joined forces with singer Geoff Rickly of the punk act THURSDAY in a new band called NO DEVOTION.

NO DEVOTION's first single, "Stay", was released via iTunes and is available for streaming below. A 12-inch vinyl version of the single — also featuring the track the track "Eyeshadow" — will be made available through Rickly's Collect Records on July 12 in Europe and July 22 in the U.S.

By now, most people — or at least most anyone reading this — know what happened to LOSTPROPHETS, the Welsh sextet whose fifteen-year career died instantly with the horrific actions of its former lead singer. What most people haven't seemed to consider, however, is how the lives of the band's remaining members were profoundly impacted. Harshly uprooted from their settled lives and careers, their own notions of trust and betrayal tested beyond measure, there was never going to be an ending in which everything could simply go back to where it was before.

"We didn't know if we would ever make music again," Richardson recalls, "if people would look us in the face. Everything felt like it was over."

There was a long period of reflection, a sort of self-preservation for themselves and their families. And then, the music did come, albeit not like before.

By the time they approached Rickly with a batch of instrumental tracks, an updated creative template had been forged and the singer's famously eclectic musical interests — which he spent the last few years exploring as both a solo artist and as a member of UNITED NATIONS — somehow perfectly aligned with this new direction.

"To be honest, I never really listened to LOSTPROPHETS," Rickly admits. "But with this music, we speak a common language. You don't really grow out of punk, you grow with it. To my mind, post-punk was about taking a more sophisticated approach to that sound, and I think we all have a shared respect for that era of modern music."

After much consideration, Rickly agreed to front the new project. In light of the recent controversy, no one believed that this was an easy request.

"I had always liked these guys in passing: they're funny and self-aware. I didn't think it was fair, what was happening to them. And, well, the music was too good to pass up," he says, simply.

Which is to say that this story is not so much about alienation as it is about connection, and it's not about redemption as much as personal reclamation. NO DEVOTION provided a vehicle for its members to become themselves again, and the two songs that comprise this, their debut 12-inch for Collect Records, were the fuel.

"We didn't know what else to do," Richardson explains. "We just wrote music. I didn't know if anyone would ever want to hear it, I didn't know if anyone ever would hear it. I just needed to occupy my brain." He pauses, then adds, "We just needed this."

Those of you that are in the U.K. will have the opportunity to catch them play their first-ever gigs at the end of July.

Finnish band STEVE 'N' SEAGULLS, which recently made headlines by releasing its dueling banjo-standup-bass-washboard-and-more take on the IRON MAIDEN classic "The Trooper", has returned with a rendition of "Holy Diver", the title track of DIO's 1983 debut album. Check out the footage below.

Originally issued on May 25, 1983, "Holy Diver" has been hailed by critics as DIO's best work and a classic staple in the heavy metal genre. The LP was certified gold in the U.S. on September 12, 1984 and platinum on March 21, 1989.

"Holy Diver" re-entered The Billboard 200 chart in May 2010 — shortly after the band's frontman, Ronnie James Dio, died of stomach cancer — at No. 149 and bowed at No. 11 on Pop Catalog (4,000; up 322%).

DIO's last release was the "Holy Diver Live" CD, featuring a performance of the classic "Holy Diver" album in its entirety, from start to finish, recorded live for the very first time in 2005 in front of a sold-out London crowd. It also includes, among others, "Heaven & Hell", "Sign of the Southern Cross" and "Mob Rules" from vocalist Ronnie James Dio's BLACK SABBATH days, "Tarot Woman", "Man on the Silver Mountain" and "Long Live Rock 'N' Roll" from the RAINBOW era and "We Rock" from his solo career.

MÖTLEY CRÜE kicked off its "The Final Tour" last night (Wednesday, July 2) at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan. According to John Serba of MLive.com, the performance was interrupted by a 10-minute delay three songs into the band's set when drummer Tommy Lee broke the head on his kick drum. After making "a decent recovery," "'On With the Show' was supposed to merge with 'Too Fast For Love', but the band stopped dead in its tracks," Serba writes. "They restarted and powered through the number, [bassist Nikki] Sixx visibly upset and off his game, and [singer Vince] Neil looking confused. Then [guitarist Mick] Mars experienced problems with his monitors and guitars. Cue another delay, and a few boos."

You can read the entire review, and check out photos, at MLive.com.

MÖTLEY CRÜE's setlist for the Grand Rapids concert was as follows:

01. Mutherfucker Of The Year02. Wild Side 03. Primal Scream 04. Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)05. Looks That Kill 06. On With The Show 07. Too Fast For Love 08. All Bad Things Must End (new song) 09. Guitar Solo 10. Smokin' In The Boys' Room (BROWNSVILLE STATION cover) 11. Without You 12. Saints Of Los Angeles 13. Anarchy In The U.K. (SEX PISTOLS cover) 14. Too Young To Fall In Love 15. Drum Solo 16. Shout At The Devil 17. Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) 18. Live Wire19. Dr. Feelgood 20. Girls, Girls, Girls21. Kickstart My Heart

Encore:

22. Home Sweet Home (B-Stage)

Sixx commented on MÖTLEY CRÜE's "The Final Tour" kick-off, writing online: "It's been a fucking crazy roller coaster ride deciding to end MÖTLEY CRÜE's career after over three decades and go out on top.

"The preparation started over a year ago and is just ending with the final assembly of the biggest show we've ever had.

"I would say this show reflects our love of being extremist.

"The new song, 'All Bad Things', sounds great in the set alongside the classics and deep fan favorites.

"The vibe of the tour is really fucking positive. It's a celebration and the band is tighter than we've been in years. It's also and honor to have Alice Cooper as our support act on this run. I can't imagine a better set of songs from the beginning of Alice to the final bow of CRÜE."

The studio version of "All Bad Things Must End" was helmed by producer James Michael, who sings for Sixx's SIXX: A.M. project.

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."

Official Metallica.com footage METALLICA's June 9 performance at the Pinkpop festival in Landgraaf, The Netherlands can be seen below. The 26-minute clip includes footage of the band warming up in the tuning room, and "Ride The Lightning" and "Wherever I May Roam" from the show.

The group's setlist was as follows:

01. Battery02. Master Of Puppets03. Welcome Home (Sanitarium) 04. Ride The Lightning05. The Unforgiven06. Lords Of Summer07. Wherever I May Roam08. Sad But True09. Fade To Black10. ...And Justice For All11. One12. For Whom The Bell Tolls13. Whiskey In The Jar14. Nothing Else Matters15. Enter Sandman

Encore:

16. Fuel17. Creeping Death18. Seek & Destroy

As previously reported, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told Metal Hammer in a new interview that the band's new song, "Lords Of Summer", is going over well with fans hearing it live on the band's current "By Request" tour. Ulrich explained, "It's fun to play. It seems like the kids are enjoying it. There was actually somebody in the 'Snake Pit' the other day with a homemade 'Lords Of Summer' T-shirt on, which was very endearing."

Ulrich added, "It's a good song. Hey, listen, who knows by the time the next record comes out whether it will be in its same shape or format. But it's fun to play. And I think it's going down well, from what I can tell, from my little spot."

Ulrich said that in the past when the band has played fresh material live, sometimes the songs have not even had finished lyrics or titles. But he remarked that "Lords Of Summer" is "a little further along in terms of it being, sort of, together, so we're quite comfortable playing it. It's kind of written for this tour."

The drummer recently told "Metal Zone" about the band's next record, "I'm pretty convinced that 90 percent of the record is actually written, it's just gotta be kind of assembled between all those riffs. It's just a matter of connecting this to this and sort of shaping it into a song."

Frontman James Hetfield said something very similar when The Pulse Of Radio asked him a while back about the status of the band's new material. "We've come up with enough material for a record, for sure," he said. "We've gone through maybe one-tenth of the material that's on our riff CDs, but we've got enough for an album. We just haven't had the time to really focus on it and dial in and start whittling at these masterpieces, hopefully."

The "Metallica By Request" tour is hitting Europe this summer, with a single North American date confirmed in Montreal. The tour features the band playing 17 songs requested online by fans in each city, with the final slot in the set list taken by "Lords Of Summer".

"Celebrating Jon Lord - At The Royal Albert Hall" will be released on DVD, Blu-ray and CD on September 26 via earMUSIC.

It was in 2006 when, once a year, a group of stellar musicians and stars of rock started meeting up in London for a night of live music. The main intent was to raise money for a charity called The Sunflower Jam.

At first the rumours about these sessions with DEEP PURPLE, Robert Plant, Brian May and Alice Cooper were too good to be true, to the point that a few thought that they were nothing else than an urban legend.

"The Jam", as it soon started to be called, quickly became a cult night. A real must first of all for the artists themselves, finally free and happy to leave their commercial thoughts outside the venue and able to enjoy playing music together with colleagues, friends and maybe even secret rivals and for the audience, who often could simply not believe their eyes.

The Sunflower Jam started as an idea from Jacky Paice, who very often could count on the drumming of her husband Ian. Who would turn down playing with him?

The first editions were mainly open to guests and music business professionals that would contribute to the charity. Later "The Jam" became too good not to be available for the public.

It is in one of the earlier SFJs that Jon Lord played for the last time with his friends with DEEP PURPLE, duetting in a peaceful "war of Hammonds" with Don Airey, who had replaced Lord in DEEP PURPLE when he decided it was enough with a life spent on the road, and after a lifetime dedicated to rock and roll, Lord left to concentrate to his first love: classical music and the combination of rock elements in it.

Lord sadly passed away in 2012. Considering the amount of respect, friendship and love expressed on any occasion by anybody who had worked, played or simply met Jon, it is not a surprise that the 2014 Jam would be dedicated totally to his music. The night turned out to be an historical moment in rock music: A full orchestra, a director — Paul Mann — crazy enough to give wonderful arrangements to a repertoire going back and forth through fifty years of music, many old friends for an unforgettable night.

All the wonderful musicians who played at the "Celebrating Jon Lord" Sunflower Jam have left a precious mark but how not to mention the 45 minutes finale by DEEP PURPLE, the PURPLE Mk III songs played by Paice with the old friend Glenn Hughes, together with IRON MAIDEN's Bruce Dickinson, Rick Wakeman of YES fame, Steve Balsamo (who sang in the late Jon Lord band and in his last studio album "Concerto"), members of THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT, ex members of WHITESNAKE, Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody, the "modfather" Paul Weller. Ian Paice remembers the "Celebrating Jon Lord" night with vivid memory considering the time all the artists had to rehearse the music for the concert (in DEEP PURPLE's case two hours the day before the show!), the resulting performance were nothing less than miraculous. A testament to the quality of the players and love for Jon and his works. "It was like no concert I have ever played," Paice said. "To a person everyone in the Hall was there for a common purpose to honour a wonderful man and a great musician. The Royal Albert Hall is fairly large venue and can be intimidating, but that evening it was more like a gathering of friends at their local,(if slightly oversized) pub than a regular show.I believe all the artists, the people in the audience and even the crew helping to make the show work, felt the difference that night."

The official lyric video for the song "The Church Of The Rat" from Northern Finland thrash metal veterans NATIONAL NAPALM SYNDICATE can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's new mini CD, "Lex Talionis", which was released on June 27 via Violent Journey Records. The disc features the band's original vocalist, Aku Raaska, and original drummer, Pasi Pauanne. The CD's recording lineup is completed by the third original member Jukka Kyrö (guitar) and new recruits Hapa Lampinen (guitar) and Niko Karppinen (bass).

According to a press release, "Lex Talionis" is a return to NATIONAL NAPALM SYNDICATE's classic thrash sound from the '80s." It is described as "old-school thrash metal with no mercy for the faint-hearted. The POSSESSED and SLAYER influences are still there, with a nice twist of EXODUS to make things a bit more interesting."

"Lex Talionis" contains two new smashing original songs and three covers. The covers are from legendary Finnish hardcore/punk bands KANSANTURVAMUSIIKKIKOMISSIO (KTMK) and VIVISEKTIO. As a bonus track, there's a cover of NUCLEAR ASSAULT's "My America", the title of which was changed to "My Pudasjärvi", an ode to the original birthplace of NATIONAL NAPALM SYNDICATE. This song is previously unreleased and is taken from NATIONAL NAPALM SYNDICATE's 1988 "FEAR2" demo tape.

"Lex Talionis" track listing: 01. The Church Of The Rat02. Planet Satan03. Oulu Palaa04. Jeesus Oli Venäläinen Kantoraketti05. My Pudasjärvi

"King", the new video from Swiss folk metallers ELUVEITIE, can be seen below. The song is taken from the band's new album, "Origins", which will be released on August 5 via Nuclear Blast Records. The cover artwork for the CD was created by ELUVEITIE frontman Chrigel Glanzmann and can be seen below. The effort was once again recorded at New Sound Studio in Pfäffikon, a municipality in the canton of Zurich in Switzerland, with producer Tommy Vetterli (a.k.a. Tommy T. Baron; CORONER/ex-KREATOR guitarist).

"Origins" track listing:

01. Origins02. The Nameless03. From Darkness04. Celtos05. Virunus06. Nothing07. The Call Of The Mountains08. Sucellos09. Inception10. Vianna11. The Silver Sister12. King13. The Day Of Strife14. Ogmios15. Carry The Torch16. Eternity

Says Chrigel: "'Origins' deals in depth with Celtic mythology, or, to be more precise, with aetiological tales from Gaul in particular. Hence we're facing strongly mythical as well as spiritual subjects on this album, topics which we have approached very scientifically and in cooperation with several scientists and diverse universities.

"Many aspects of Gaulish mythology and spirituality remain in the dark nonetheless, while others run through the theme like a golden thread — like this eminent, yet innominate god, for instance, of which the Gauls claimed to be direct descendants and which was compared to the Roman chtonic deity Dis Pater.

"Today we cannot say which Gaulish god this was exactly. But according to all we know, it's likely that we're dealing with Sucellos here. Throughout space and time he appears over and over again — from very old spiritual customs of ancient Gaulish tribes in today's northern Spain all the way to later statues in today's Switzerland, France and elsewhere.Perhaps he is this mysterious nameless one.

"The album cover of 'Origins' is designed after the hammer/club-shaped 'halo' of Sucellos, as seen on a statue, that was found in a shrine of a gallo-roman household in today's France. It was created under the scientific supervision of experts from the university of Zürich." ELUVEITIE recently announced the addition of violinist Nicole Ansperger to the group's ranks.

ELUVEITIE's last album, "Helvetios", sold 4,200 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 143 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD landed at position No. 3 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.

Technical death metallers ORIGIN will release their new album, "Omnipresent", on July 8 in North America via Nuclear Blast (July 4 in Europe through Agonia). The CD was recorded with longtime producer/engineer Robert Rebeck at Chapman Recording in Lenexa, Kansas and was mixed and mastered at Menegroth - The Thousand Caves with Colin Marston. The artwork was once again created by Colin Marks (NEVERMORE, KATAKLYSM, EXODUS).

"Omnipresent" is now available for streaming in its entirety using the SoundCloud widget below.

Comments ORIGIN vocalist Jason Keyser: "We were very happy to be able to work again with Colin Marks of Rain Song Design for the artwork of 'Omnipresent'. He designed the art for our previous album, 'Entity', which had a barren, stripped down minimalism, but for 'Omnipresent', we wanted bigger. We were looking for something that would represent the total insignificance and helplessness of humanity to the impending doom of the universe that surrounds us at all times. It's a strong running theme of the album, lyrically; how our pride and arrogance can advance us as a species in so many ways, eventually conquering the unknown reaches of space. But ultimately we continue to exist only at the whim of the cold, indiscriminate forces that could snuff our sentient spark at any moment. “The title of the album, 'Omnipresent', works perfectly with the artwork in the way that omnipresence does not come from expanding to new worlds and growing as a species, but only through being whittled down to a last living being alone in the universe. The final failed experiment of life has no comparison, it is the most powerful, only through our sentient extinction can we finally understand some sliver of godhood."

"Omnipresent" marks ORIGIN's first CD to feature Jason Keyser (ex-SKINLESS), who has being touring with the band as their vocalist since the release of "Entity".

"ORIGIN records albums in a somewhat masochistic, chaotic, and senseless fashion," comments drummer John Longstreth. "It's our best trick, and we need the best guy for our best trick, so that's why we have Jason. He's had two years of hard road work with the band and we know he's the guy.

"For those that weren't aware, ORIGIN recorded 'Entity' as a trio without a proper vocalist, so we are very excited to have Jason in to do what a proper vocalist is supposed to do."

"Omnipresent" track listing:

01. All Things Dead02. THRALL:FULCRUM:APEX03. Permanence04. Manifest Desolate05. Absurdity Of What I Am06. Source Of Icon O07. Continuum08. Unattainable Zero09. Redistribution Of Filth10. Obsolescence11. Malthusian Collapse12. The Indiscriminate13. Kill Yourself (S.O.D. cover song)

"A culmination of 15 years of technical death metal brutality, 'Omnipresent' transcends definition,” states the band. “From light speed to absolute zero it is a journey to the farthest reaches of the universe to the darkest nether of the mind. We are everywhere and nowhere. We are omnipresent."

Formed in Kansas in 1997, ORIGIN is one of the most intense and most brutal technical death metal forces to be reckoned with. Since its inception, the group has charted twice on the Billboard Top Heatseekers (with "Antithesis" at #21 and "Entity" at #20) and emerged on countless highly energetic shows across the world. In 2007, ORIGIN reached Europe for the first time in career (on tour with MISERY INDEX and NECROPHAGIST) and five years later, in 2012, reclaimed The Old Continent together with SUFFOCATION. This coming May, ORIGIN will be heading out on a headlining run in Southeast Asia and Australia.

ORIGIN is:

Jason Keyser - VocalsPaul Ryan - Guitars/VocalsMike Flores - Bass/VocalsJohn Longstreth - Drums

BABYMETAL — the heavy metal offshoot of the Japanese pop idol group SAKURA GAKUIN that performs a distinctly Japanese mix of schoolgirl J-pop and death metal — kicked off its world tour with headlining show last night (Tuesday, July 1) at La Cigale in Paris, France. Fan-filme video footage of the concert can be seen below.

BABYMETAL will support pop superstar Lady Gaga on five shows in July and August:

Jul. 30 - Phoenix, AZ @ US Airways ArenaAug. 01 - Las Vegas, NV @ MGM Grand Garden ArenaAug. 02 - Stateline, NV @ Harveys Lake Tahoe Aug. 04 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Energy Solutions ArenaAug. 06 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center

BABYMETAL will also play a headlining show at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles on July 27.

BABYMETAL became the youngest artists to ever appear at Tokyo Nippon Budokan when they took the stage at the famed venue on March 1 and March 2.

Sayuri Iwai, previous holder of the title, made her Budokan debut at 15 years old and one month. She was usurped by Suzuka Nakamoto (16), Moa Kikuchi (14) and Yui Mizono (14), who hold a mean age of 14.6 years.

BABYMETAL released its debut album on February 26 via Toy's Factory. The effort was made available in regular and limited editions. The CD includes five of BABYMETAL's singles that were released in 2011 - 2013, from "Doki Doki Morning" (digital single) to "Megitsune", their B-sides and three new songs.

"Babymetal" made it to No 3 on iTunes' U.S. rock chart and was in the Top 10 in six other countries, including the U.K. The band's video for the song "Gimme Chocolate" has received nearly 10 million views on YouTube, and BABYMETAL was featured on the cover of the U.K. weekly rock magazine Kerrang!

The band's first major single, "Ijime, Dame, Zettai", sold 19,000 copies in its first week and debuted at No. 6 in the Japanese Orion weekly singles chart.

BABYMETAL released its first-ever concert Blu-ray, "Live ～Legend I, D, Z Apocalypse～", on November 20, 2013 (the limited-edition DVD box was issued on October 19). The set contains footage of the band's performances at Shibuya O-East (October 2012), Akasaka Blitz (December 2012) and Zepp Tokyo (February 2013).

BABYMETAL last year embarked on the "Death Match Tour 2013" and was accompanied by a "full metal band."

In the spring of 2013, Suzuka Nakamoto graduated from junior high school and therefore had to "graduate" from the group SAKURA GAKUIN (which consists of girls of up to junior high). However, it was decided by the management that BABYMETAL would not dissolve and would continue their activities as a band.

BABYMETAL is:

Su-Metal - Vocals and DanceMoametal - Screamer and DanceYuimetal - Screamer and Dance

INCITE, the Phoenix, Arizona-based metal band fronted by Richie Cavalera — the stepson of SOULFLY/CAVALERA CONSPIRACY mainman Max Cavalera — will release a brand new album, titled "Up In Hell", on September 2 via Minus Head Records. The CD was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Matt Hyde (DEFTONES, SLAYER, HATEBREED, PARKWAY DRIVE) at Hideaway Studios. Production assistance was provided by Thomas Bellier and Jon Nicholson of Drum Fetish is credited as drum technician on the album.

"We live 'Up In Hell' nowadays. The world is getting crazier all the time. Nothing seems like it's getting better," states Richie Cavalera. "I felt like the song and the title perfectly encapsulated these days. We're all on our own, and we have to survive." "Up In Hell" track listing:

01. Up In Hell02. WTF03. False Flag04. Fallen05. Rightful Spot (feat. Liam Cormier of Cancer Bats)06. Rise to Greatness07. Who Am I08. Still Here09. Losing Grip10. To the Depths "INCITE was a blast to work with because they know who they are and what they want and most importantly, they have what it takes to get it," states Hyde. "I love listening to the record we did because I love great riffs and this record has the kind of riffs I would love to be able to play, plus Richie kills it on every song. And, of course, Lennon is a fucking beast on drums, which makes him every producer's best friend." With "Up In Hell", the quintet unleashes a torrent of staggering grooves, thrashing riffs, and pummeling rhythms. Richie Cavalera adds that Matt Hyde's attention to detail really made all the difference on "Up In Hell". "It was like nothing before," he said. "He really pushed all of us to get to that next level. The big thing involved performance. Matt paid attention to the smallest and most minute details. He went through everything from top-to-bottom. It meant a lot to us to work with someone who cares about our music as much as we do." INCITE will perform at the Marquee Theatre on August 15 for the 18th annual D-Low Memorial Show with SOULFLY, SACRED REICH, and more.

INCITE's sophomore album, "All Out War", was nominated in the "Best Metal/Hardcore" category at the 13th annual Independent Music Awards. The CD, which was released in November 2012, was recorded at Darth Mader Music in Hollywood, California with producer Logan Mader (GOJIRA, SOULFLY).

INCITE released its debut album, "The Slaughter", in October 2009 via I Scream Records.

Richie Cavalera has made a number of guest appearances in the studio and on stage with both SOULFLY and CAVALERA CONSPIRACY. INCITE is:

Richie Cavalera - VocalsLennon Lopez - DrumsChristopher "EL" - Bass"Dru Tang" Rome - Lead GuitarKevin "Dis" – Guitar

Photo credit: Glen LaFerman

Professionally filmed video footage of DEATH TO ALL's June 29 performance at Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium can be seen below.

DEATH TO ALL features former members of DEATH celebrating the life and music of Chuck Schuldiner.

The band's current touring lineup includes the three surviving members of DEATH's "Human" lineup (guitarist Paul Masvidal, bassist Steve DiGiorgio and drummer Sean Reinert), along with with special guest vocalist/guitarist Max Phelps of CYNIC/EXIST and drummer Hannes Grossmann of OBSCURA, performing material primarily culled from the group's first four albums as well as other DEATH classics.

In an interview with Metal-Rules.com, Masvidal stated about DEATH TO ALL's current lineup: "[Because] it's just the 'Human' lineup, it's a tighter show. We're focusing on the best of leading to 'Human' and then a bunch of 'Human' material. So it's more the early DEATH catalog, and it just feels really good, 'cause Sean and I have a lot of chemistry from playing together a long time from CYNIC and everything. And Steve, who is just kind of one of us too, so it feels like really cohesive, it feels tight and we've been able to make it the kind of show that feels like a band show versus the last one. Which I think was a little bit more fragmented 'cause there was a lot of different musicians and it was kind of all over the place. So this feels tighter."

He added: "This [lineup] is as close as you'll get [to reproducing the 'Human' era] and Max bears a slight resemblance [to Chuck] if you squint your eyes. It's kind of interesting. And he sounds like him, too. It's pretty crazy but yeah, it works, it works well."

Chuck died on December 13, 2001 after a battle with pontine glioma, a rare type of brain tumor.

DEATH TO ALL's setlist for Graspop Metal Meeting performance:

01:30 Flattening Of Emotions06:00 Leprosy / Left To Die 13:40 Suicide Machine 19:05 Spiritual Healing / Within The Mind 29:42 Crystal Mountain 35:13 Spirit Crusher42:15 Symbolic49:09 Zombie Ritual 54:23 Baptized In Blood57:37 Pull The Plug

Fan-filmed video footage of former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach performing the band's classic song "18 And Life" on July 1 at Saal in Aschaffenburg, Germany can be seen below.

Bach's new solo album, "Give 'Em Hell", sold around 4,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 72 on The Billboard 200 chart.

His previous CD, "Kicking & Screaming", opened with 6,600 units back in October 2011 to land at No. 73.

The singer's 2007 effort, "Angel Down", registered a first-week tally of 6,400 back to enter the chart at No. 190.

"Give 'Em Hell" was released on April 22 via Frontiers Records. The follow-up to 2011's "Kicking & Screaming" was once again produced by Bob Marlette, who has previously worked with ROB ZOMBIE, BLACK SABBATH and SHINEDOWN, among others.

"Give 'Em Hell" was mastered at Precision Mastering in Los Angeles with Tom Baker.

Sebastian managed to involve in the writing and recording some very special friends and guest stars, including none other than Duff McKagan (VELVET REVOLVER, GUNS N' ROSES), and not one but two top-class guitar players: John 5 (MARILYN MANSON, ROB ZOMBIE) and Steve Stevens (BILLY IDOL). Rounding out the lineup on the CD are Devin Bronson (AVRIL LAVIGNE, PINK) on guitar and Bobby Jarzombek (HALFORD, RIOT, FATES WARNING) on drums. Duff and Sebastian previously collaborated on Duff's solo album "Believe In Me".

The cover for "Give 'Em Hell" was once again handled by Richard Villa, who worked on "Kicking & Screaming". Incorporated into the album design is one of the paintings by Sebastian's late father David Bierk, who painted the artwork for SKID ROW's "Slave To The Grind", inside artwork for SKID ROW's "Subhuman Race", and Bach's solo albums "Angel Down" and "Bring 'Em Bach Alive!".

The video for the CD's first single, "Temptation", was directed by Patrick Fogarty, who has previously worked with BLACK VEIL BRIDES, PICTURE ME BROKEN and THE BURNING OF ROME.

During a recent interview with the "Bleedin' Loud" podcast (audio below), vocalist Dani "Filth" Davey (pictured) of British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH confirmed the band's split with guitarist Paul Allender and spoke about the group's plans for a new studio album, which is tentatively due early next year.

"Paul Allender has left [CRADLE OF FILTH] — which not everybody is aware of," Dani said. "We weren't planning on it, because it was the kind of thing that has been, kind of, brewing for the last year or so. Not so much on a personal level, but [him] living in America [in Minnesota] and then him doing his side project [WHITE EMPRESS] and getting kind of lost in that. I know I've got [my own side projects] DEVILMENT and, dare I say, TEMPLE OF THE BLACK MOON, but it never really came between CRADLE; I always found time to do it. For example, the DEVILMENT album, if that comes out this year, it'll come out, literally, the mirror's image of when the CRADLE [album] will come out — [the DEVILMENT album will come out] about autumn, and CRADLE's next album will come out spring next year. So the DEVILMENT and [CRADLE] won't meet anytime soon, so that's okay."

Asked about whether CRADLE OF FILTH has found a replacement guitarist for Allender, Filth said: "Well, that's the thing. We only really had one guitarist for the last two albums; Paul had a very strong opinion about doing that, and we're a two-guitar band. So that may be one of the things that kind of opened the fissure a bit."

He continued: "We were doing this [European] tour with BEHEMOTH [earlier in the year] and [Paul] had some personal issues and he couldn't do it, so we brought a Czech guy called Ashok [of Czech groups ROOT and INNER FEAR] in, who's friends with Martin ['Marthus' Skaroupka], the [CRADLE OF FILTH] drummer, and then an English guy, Richard Shaw [of English acts EMPEROR CHUNG and NG26], who lives in Derbyshire, and we thought, 'Well, that's cool, 'cause he's an English guy.' And it was such a great tour and everybody got on so well, and these two other guys knew the band inside out, so when we started writing, which we were doing on the road — not out of necessity, but just 'cause we could — it just all came together, and it was, like, 'Wow! This is great.'… Everybody was, like, really, 'Yes! That was such a great tour.' [It was] a bit short — it was only three weeks long — so when we came back [home], I was, like, 'Wow, we should usually just be halfway through the tour by this point.' So being that invigorated, everybody just started writing, which has brought the album forward by a whole year. Which will please some, and annoy others."

According to Dani, CRADLE OF FILTH's new lineup has "about eight [new] tracks" in various states of completion for the follow-up to 2012's "The Manticore And Other Horrors", and "it's sounding awesome." He previously said some of the new material is comparable to that of 'Dusk... And Her Embrace' [1996], 'Cruelty And The Beast' [1998] and 'Midian' [2000], albeit with a fresher sound." He added: "I can't define it exactly, as it incorporates a wide variety of styles and dark emotions as one would come to expect from a CRADLE record. One thing is certain, though: this next release is going to be pushing the boundaries of what the band can achieve, and with forthcoming live shows peppering the writing process, I know this album is going to be fuelled by 101% metal fury!"

CRADLE OF FILTH's tenth studio album, "The Manticore And Other Horrors", sold 4,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 96 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous full-length effort, "Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa", opened with 5,800 units in November 2010 to land at No. 99.