In a new interview with "The Rock Is George Podcast", former MEGADETH drummer Shawn Drover was asked about the current status of ACT OF DEFIANCE, the band he launched in 2015 with fellow former MEGADETH member Chris Broderick (guitar),alongside ex-SCAR THE MARTYR singer Henry Derek Bonner and SHADOWS FALL's Matt Bachand (bass). Drover, who is currently promoting the debut album from his WITHERING SCORN project, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "ACT OF DEFIANCE really broke up because Chris Broderick got an offer to join a much bigger band called IN FLAMES, which is a great band out of Sweden. They've been around for at least 25 years now, I believe. So, that was a good opportunity for him. This was right before the pandemic; this was, like, 2018, if I remember right. So, I was all for it. We were all extremely supportive of him doing that and it was certainly a smart decision on his part. And then, really, the pandemic hit not too far after that. Obviously, we took a break between 2018 and pandemic, but I was just kind of in a lull musically and wasn't really doing anything. And once the pandemic hit, that's when my brother [former MEGADETH and current WITHERING SCORN guitarist Glen Drover] kind of reached out and said, 'Hey, let's get something going here. Let's write a batch of songs like we did back in the day and have some fun. So that's exactly what we did."

Drover quit MEGADETH in November 2014 "to pursue [his] own musical interests", according to a statement he released at the time. Later that same day, Broderick announced his departure from the group, saying that he was exiting the band "due to artistic and musical differences."

ACT OF DEFIANCE released two albums before calling it quits: 2015's "Birth And The Burial" and 2017's "Old Scars, New Wounds".

In addition to Shawn, WITHERING SCORN features his brother, and fellow ex-MEGADETH member, Glen Drover, along with former FATES WARNING bassist Joe DiBiase and German singer Henning Basse, who has previously played with FIREWIND, METALIUM and MAYAN.

WITHERING SCORN's debut album, "Prophets Of Demise", was released on July 7 via Frontiers Music Srl.

WITHERING SCORN was formed in 2020 by Glen and Shawn, who previously played together in MEGADETH, as well as in EIDOLON. The pair have teamed up once again for their latest musical offering and are joined by DiBiase, who played with FATES WARNING for 14 years on multiple records and world tours, and Basse. The potent combination of these four incredibly talented musicians joining forces has given birth to an uncompromising heavy metal record in the form of "Prophets Of Demise".

Shawn joined MEGADETH in 2004 as the replacement for Nick Menza, who had only just rejoined the group. Drover performed on four MEGADETH studio records: 2007's "United Abominations", 2009's "Endgame", 2011's "TH1RT3EN" and 2013's "Super Collider".

Glen Drover left MEGADETH at the end of 2007 and was replaced by Chris Broderick, who previously played with NEVERMORE and JAG PANZER.

German metal queen Doro Pesch played her new single, "Time For Justice", live on July 21 at the Luppolo In Rock festival in Cremona, Italy. Fan-filmed video of the performance can be seen below.

"Time For Justice" is the first single from Doro's new studio album, "Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud", which will be made available on October 27 via Nuclear Blast.

The 19-song LP is described in a press release as "the result of intensive hard work that took the incomparable singer and songwriter back to studios in Miami, New York and Hamburg, amongst others. The album presents Doro at the height of her creative powers."

This past June, Doro released a "Mad Max"-style music video for "Time For Justice", created with director Mirko Witzki (CALIBAN, ANY GIVEN DAY, EMIL BULLS).

"Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud" will arrive one day before Doro's 40th-anniversary concert at the Mitsubishi Electric Halle in Düsseldorf, Germany.

"Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud" track listing:

CD 1

01. Children Of The Dawn
02. Fire In The Sky
03. Living After Midnight
04. All For You
05. Lean Mean Rock Machine
06. I Will Prevail
07. Bond Unending
08. Time For Justice
09. Fels In Der Brandung
10. Love Breaks Chains
11. Drive Me Wild
12. Rise
13. Best In Me
14. Heavenly Creatures
15. Total Eclipse Of The Heart

CD 2

16. Warlocks And Witches (Intro) (Bonus Track)
17. Horns Up High (Bonus Track)
18. True Metal Maniacs (Bonus Track)
19. Heart In Pain (Bonus Track)
20. The Four Horsemen (Bonus Track)

In a recent interview with Canada's The Metal Voice, Doro stated about her follow-up to her 2018 double album "Forever Warriors, Forever United": "It's done. It's finished. And we plan to have four or five singles out, and four or five videos, before the official [album] release."

Regarding the musical direction of "Conqueress - Forever Strong And Proud", Doro said: "It's pretty heavy. It's pretty hard. The first five songs are totally heavy. Then there's a midtempo anthem coming on. But I think it's pretty heavy. The song 'I Will Prevail' is the heaviest, I think. And the opener I love so much. It's called 'Children Of The Dawn'. And then there's some duets on it."

Doro went on to reveal that JUDAS PRIEST's Rob Halford is one of the guest musicians on the LP, adding that he is someone she has "loved for a long time. I'm so excited. Oh my God. It is a dream come true. And he's such a great guy. We were friends forever. It's a special treat. I could die now."

According to Doro, her duet with Halford is "a fast song" and "something everybody's familiar with. Yeah, it's cool. It's a fast song and it's an anthem."

Speaking in general about the fact that she has been able to record and share the stage with so many of her musical idols, Doro said: "I was so lucky in my life [that] I could play and perform and record with the best people, people I love. It's unbelievable."

"[Rob] was a big influence," she added. "I loved Ronnie James Dio, David Coverdale, Rob Halford, Biff [Byford], Lemmy… And I was a big KISS fan. And I could work with everybody. Oh my God. It's awesome."

In April, Doro told Brazil's A Rádio Rock that fans can expect "many anthems" and "many diehard metal songs" on her upcoming LP. "Many soulful songs. And a great, great guest. A great collaboration on one of the songs. And I think this will be probably my second 'All We Are' that people always wanna hear it and sing it. And there's one song for the animals, because I love animals. It's called 'Heavenly Creatures'. And I wanna do something with this song. So that's dedicated to all these heavenly creatures."

She continued: "I grew up with dogs and horses and parrots, and I miss that in my life. That's the only thing I miss. I have no regrets whatsoever, but I would have loved pets. But it's impossible when you're on tour. So I do something else. And I just adopted two horses. But they're not close to where I live. They're actually in a different country; they're in Austria. But they're someplace where people take care of animals. It's so nice. It's a paradise — for people and for animals."

This past February, Doro spent time at Miami Beach Recording Studios laying down vocal tracks for her upcoming studio album.

"Forever Warriors, Forever United" featured 19 regular tracks and six bonus songs.

In September 2022, Doro released a very unique single — a soulful adaptation of her classic metal anthem "Raise Your Fist In The Air". The track was made possible by the new ZDF (national German TV channel) music show "Music Impossible".

In May 2022, Doro told Sleaze Roxx that she does most of her songwriting now with former SISTERS OF MERCY guitarist Andreas Bruhn. "I met him, I think, in 1986," she said. "We've always worked good together. Actually, the new bass player we have in Europe, we wrote a new killer song together so that's a new friendship. It's an anthem. It's good! And I wrote one song with my very first producer from the 'Hellbound' album. We met up again and wrote a nice song together. It's a song for the animals because I love animals. It's called 'Heavenly Creatures'. That will definitely be on the new record I'm planning on putting out next year. Next year, I have my 40th year anniversary so we want to celebrate it big."

In celebration of 35 years of the "Triumph And Agony" album from her former band WARLOCK, Doro released "Triumph And Agony Live" in various formats, including CD, vinyl, cassette, DVD, Blu-ray, and a huge box set, in September 2021 through her own label, Rare Diamonds Productions. The "Triumph And Agony" artwork centered on Geoffrey Gillespie's famous original drawing of the "Warlock" embracing the blonde rock star.

On November 24, the first in a series of box sets commemorating the life and music of one of the UK's most extraordinary and prolific musicians, John Wetton, will be released.  


The An Extraordinary Life box set contains eight newly remastered CDs, featuring the six solo albums Wetton released between 1980 and 2011. Each album now includes special bonus tracks. Additionally, two further discs are included which feature a gold mine of rare, live and unreleased material from the vaults, compiled by John's archivist, Rick Nelson.


Check out trailer for the box set below. Pre-order the set here.




Housed in a sumptuous 12” by 12” box, this set includes a 64-page book with an introduction by legendary artist, Roger Dean and contains comprehensive sleeve notes by Nick Shilton, author of Wetton’s biography, “An Extraordinary Life”, published earlier this year. The book also features a raft of photographs taken from the Wetton archive and has been designed by John’s long-time friend, Michael Inns.


This whole project has been lovingly crafted and compiled with the full blessing of John's son Dylan and his wife Lisa and is endorsed by the Wetton estate.


With a career spanning more than four decades, John Wetton's rich baritone voice and accomplished bass playing has adorned many recordings. In this “An Extraordinary Life” his extensive solo career is captured for posterity all in one sumptuous box set, making this a fitting tribute to one of the UK most loved and respected artists.





An Extraordinary Life includes:


Disc 1: Caught in The Crossfire (1980)
Disc 2: Battle Lines (1994)
Disc 3: Arkangel (1997)
Disc 4: Welcome to Heaven (2000)
Disc 5: Rock of Faith (2003)
Disc 6: Raised in Captivity (2011)
Disc 7: New Live and Unreleased Tracks
Disc 8: New Live and Unreleased Tracks





Lisa Wetton, (wife) Dylan Wetton, (son) and QEDG Management recently announced that a memorial concert will be held in memory of John Wetton  on August 3 at Trading Boundaries in East Sussex. The event will see friends and family of the late lead singer and guitarist gather together to celebrate the life of this extraordinary musician. An all-star line-up of legends, who were friends and collaborators of Wetton’s, will perform songs from throughout his incredible career.


The memorial event will be hosted by Prog Magazine’s editor, Jerry Ewing, alongside Geoff Downes (The Buggles, Asia, YES), Steve Hackett (Genesis, GTR) and artist Roger Dean.


The list of performers who wish to pay tribute to the legendary Wetton is growing by the day, but so far boasts (in alphabetical order): Chris Braide (Downes Braide Association), Roger Chapman (Family), Jim Cregan (Family, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel), David Cross (King Crimson), Chris Difford (Squeeze), Geoff Downes, Steve Hackett, Annie Haslam (Renaissance), Dave Kilminster (John Wetton, Keith Emerson, Steven Wilson, Roger Waters), Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music), John Mitchell (John Wetton, Icon, It Bites, Fr*st), Martin Orford (John Wetton, IQ, Jadis), Guy Pratt (Pink Floyd, Roxy Music) , Jay Schellen (YES, Asia), Billy Sherwood (YES, Asia) and Rick Wakeman (YES, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe) - all of whom will be supported by The Paul Green Rock Academy.


Geoff Downes commented, “I am very excited to be a part of the upcoming John Wetton Tribute. As you all know, I had a very close and unique writing partnership with John, and we were dear friends, brothers and band mates for many years.”





Wetton died on 31st January 2017, as a result of complications due to cancer. He spent his last days being cared for by the charity Macmillan Caring Locally, at the Macmillan Unit, Christchurch Hospital in Dorset. As a gesture of recognition towards his fans who supported Wetton right up until his death, John’s family and management have decided to allow this unique event to be live streamed so that it can be enjoyed across the globe. They have also identified the memorial as being the perfect opportunity to highlight the fantastic work done by Macmillan Caring Locally and to raise much-needed funds for the creation of a special hospice suite dedicated to the star.


Lin Sharp, Fundraising and Communications Director for the charity commented, “It was a privilege to care for John in the final days of his life and we are so grateful to his wife, Lisa, for her continued support. All monies raised will go to fund a room as a legacy to John, named The John Wetton Suite. A massive thank you to you all for making this possible.”


John’s son Dylan went on to say, “I am delighted and humbled that so many legendary artists who worked with my Dad over the years have agreed to come together both to honour him and raise vital funds for the charity which supported him during his last days.”


Tickets for the livestream can be purchased now with all proceeds going to Macmillan Caring Locally. In an effort to raise further funds, a special online auction will run alongside the evening’s proceedings boasting some unique lots, including a guitar owned by Wetton himself.


This promises to be an incredible, once-in-a-life time event and it is hoped that fans will support it generously by buying live stream memorial tickets as well as bidding on the various auction lots.


Dylan Wetton went on to say, “I cannot think of a better way to celebrate my Dad’s life and the incredible musical legacy he has left behind. It’s going to be an amazing night, a unique event - which is exactly what my Dad deserves.” Downes agrees “To honour John’s legacy in this way with so many of his former musicians, colleagues and family gather together, shows just what an enormous amount of love, gratitude and respect so many of us held for John and his music. It’s going to be a wonderful celebration spanning the whole of John’s amazing career. I am very much looking forward to it. See you all there.”


Livestream tickets can be purchased here.

InsideOut Music announce that it has signed Big Big Train to a multi-album deal for new studio releases. The band are currently working on a new studio album, expected to be released in spring 2024, and have recently been recording in Trieste, Italy, where lead vocalist Alberto Bravin is based.


Big Big Train bassist/founder Gregory Spawton comments: “We have ambitious plans for Big Big Train and are very pleased to have signed this deal with InsideOut. Having run our own record label, English Electric Recordings, for a lengthy period, it’s clear that the music industry has changed enormously in recent years and we believe that we are best positioned to grow BBT further by becoming an InsideOut band. Over the last decade we had received offers from various labels. When we considered the different options, signing up with the premier label for progressive music was the logical choice. We’re very excited about this new era for the band and working with InsideOut/Sony.”


Drummer Nick D’Virgilio adds: “It’s an absolute thrill for me that Big Big Train has become an InsideOut band. Over the years, previously as member of Spock’s Beard and more recently alongside Neal Morse and Ross Jennings, I’ve worked extensively with Thomas Waber and his team at InsideOut/Sony. From experience I know that there is no better label for Big Big Train to be working with. It’s wonderful to join a roster that includes the biggest names in the prog genre such as Dream Theater, Steve Hackett, Jethro Tull, Kansas, Devin Townsend and Yes. We’ve got a lot of new Big Big Train music in the works and with InsideOut’s unrivalled reach across the progressive rock world we hope to reach plenty of folks who may not be familiar with us yet.”




Label head Thomas Waber comments: "We have been in talks with the band for a while and are happy that we can finally announce our partnership. Big Big Train have been proudly carrying the flag for progressive music, and we look forward to helping them on their very bright journey ahead. We are all excited to be stepping on board this particular train!"


Check out a teaser of brand new music:





In parallel with this deal with InsideOut, Big Big Train will continue to run their English Electric Recordings label and expect to commence a re-issue campaign for previous studio BBT albums in late 2024.


The band will embark on their most extensive ever tour in August and September this year, with 17 shows taking place across 9 countries. Big Big Train will also be on board Cruise To The Edge in March 2024. Find the full list of dates in 2023 below:


August
24 - The Court Theatre - Tring, UK (warm-up show)
26 - Cultuurpodium Boerderij - Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
27 - Markthalle - Hamburg, Germany
28 - Stora Teatern - Gothenburg, Sweden
29 - Cosmopolite - Oslo, Norway
30 - Fryshuset Klubben - Stockholm, Sweden
31 - Viften - Copenhagen, Denmark


September
2 - 2 Days Prog + 1 Festival - Revislate, Italy
3 - Z7 - Pratteln, Switzerland
5 - Neuberinhaus - Reichenbach, Germany
6 - Victoria Carlswerk - Cologne, Germany
7 - Colos-Saal - Aschaffenburg, Germany
8 - Mozart-Saal - Stuttgart, Germany
10 - Queens Hall - Edinburgh, UK
11 - Town Hall - Birmingham, UK
12 - Cadogan Hall - London, UK
13 - Cadogan Hall - London, UK


(Photo - Massimo Goina)

Berzerker Legion will release their new album, Chaos Will Reign, on October 27 via Listenable Records.


Berzerker Legion was founded in 2016 by guitarists Tomas Elofsson (Hypocrisy) and Alwin Zuur (Asphyx) with a vision to create death metal of the most belligerent quality, they recruited a lineup of solid well-known musicians consisting of James Stewart (Vader) on drums, Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath) on vocals and Fredrik Isaksson (Dark Funeral) on bass to complete the Legion.


Alwin Zuur (guitars/songwriter) comments: "During the recent years Tomas and I met each other at shows and festivals regularly. Much of our conversations were about music and styles. During these meetings we found out that we really had a lot of common musical interests. Music-wise our debut album, Obliterate The Weak, displays the perfect balance between brutality, melody and harmony. Being a fan of the early 90’s Swedish Gothenburg style, with bands like At The Gates, Eucharist, A Canorous Quintet, as well as being a die-hard fan of brutal old school death metal style with bands like Bolt Thrower, Obituary, I have always wanted to write songs showing a mix of such different death metal genres.




"With our new album, Chaos Will Reign, we have further developed ourselves in our typical musical mix of melody and brutality. Chaos Will Reign sounds more professional, complete, massive and powerful thanks to Jonas Kjellgren’s production. It has become the logical successor, a huge step forward compared to our debut album, Obliterate The Weak."


Saying the album songs transpire massively produced invigorating heavy death metal is an understatement.


Berzerker Legion knock out with warlike triumphant, powerfully addictive harmonies that will turn them into an unstoppable beast in a live situation and on record.


New single/video for the song "Choirs Of Anguish" will be released in September.





Chaos Will Reign tracklisting:


"Chaos Will Reign"
"Choirs Of Anguish"
"Nihilism Over Empathy"
"Towards Oblivion"
"This Is The End"
"Damnation"
"Eternal Void"
"Worship All That Is Dead"
"Shepherds Of War"
"From The Darkness Inside" (Bonus track)
"War Chant"


Berzerker Legion lineup :


Jonny Pettersson - Vocals
Tomas Elofsson - Guitars
Alwin Zuur - Guitars
James Stewart - Drums
Fredrik Isaksson - Bass

London-based thrash metal quintet Lokust has issued a music video for a song titled "War Of Opposites", which is taken from the band's first full-length album Infidel, released July 28th on CD and Digital Download.





Featuring 11 tracks, Infidel is a creatively complex and thunderous dose of modern metal, brimming with pummelling drums and bass, shredding guitar riffs and blood-curdling vocals - although simultaneously featuring moments of dynamic introspection and poignancy throughout the album.




"We always meant for Lokust to exist on the border between old-school and contemporary - we use a lot of layering in our songwriting as well as aiming to integrate the full array of what a metal band can do these days, technically and production-wise - but our loyalty to imperfections, raw expression and humanity remains paramount," says the band about this new record.


"We've always aspired to follow in the footsteps of the bands we first fell in love with, who seemed to have a more transparent, expressive way of executing their music, rather than what we perceive as the more careful and polished approach of a lot of bands these days," they add. 





Tracklisting:


"(March)"
"The Sin Of Doubt"
"Parasitic"
"Guiltless"
"Anima"
"War Of Opposites"
"(Futile)"
"Vilified"
"Jinn"
"Eradication:One"
"Sacrosant"


"Parasitic" video:





"Vilified" video:





For further details, visit Lokust on Facebook.


 

Ghosts Of Atlantis has issued a new video for "Lands Of Snow". A beautifully inspired cinematic experience from start to finish. A masterclass in symphonic extreme metal, mythology, and storytelling.


A new Atlantean Storm approaches, and it is here that a new chapter begins. Months have passed since the fall of Atlantis, and the desecration of Lemuria, those fortunate enough to have survived the great war, now face a new challenge. In these lands, nobility holds no weight, all must walk the same path. The clans are tired, confused, hungry, and bereft of hope, for in this cold mysterious place, much is unknown. For these moments, the gods have seemingly fallen quiet, yet the essence of doubt still remains within the hearts of the people. "Lands Of Snow" is the first chapter in the new story, Riddles Of The Sycophants. Here we learn of the new challenges they will face, the extreme conditions they must overcome, and the new creatures, gods and beasts soon to be Unleashed in to this realm with the eventual opening of Pandora's Box. The story has just begun.







The new Ghosts Of Atlantis album, Riddles Of The Sycophants, will be available in Digipack CD, Gatefold LP and Digital formats, and is set for a release date on October 27, 2023, pre-orders are live now.





Tracklisting:


"March Of The Titans"
"Lands Of Snow"
"Empires Burn At Dawn"
"The Lycaon King"
"The Alkonost"
"Sacramental"
"A Maiden’s Scorn"
"Behind The Wall"
"Riddles Of The Sycophants"


In live news, catch Ghosts Of Atlantis supporting Fear Factory across Europe this fall.





Dates:


October
27 - Nottingham, England - Rock City
28 - Wolverhampton, England - KK's Steel Mill
29 - Glasgow, Scotland - Garage
30 - Belfast, Northern Ireland - Limelight
31 - Dublin, Ireland - Academy


November
2 - Manchester, England - Academy 2
3 - London, England - Electric Ballroom
4 - Bristol, England - SWX
6 - Lille, France - Le Splendid
7 - Paris, France - L'élysée Montmartre
8 - Clermont Ferrand, France - La Cooperative
9 - Toulouse, France - Metronum
10 - Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz 2
11 - Madrid, Spain - La Sala
12 - Lisbon, Portugal - Lav
14 - Bordeaux, France - Le Rocher Palmer
15 - Grenoble, France - L'ilyade
16 - Milan, Italy - Santeria
17 - Lausanne, Switzerland - Les Docks
18 - Zurich, Switzerland - Dynamo
19 - Treviso, Italy - New Age
21 - Graz, Austria - PPC
22 - Budapest, Hungary - Barba Negra
23 - Vienna, Austria - Simm City
24 - Munich, Germany - Backstage Halle
25 - Frankfurt, Germany - Batschkapp
26 - Strasbourg, France - La Laiterie
28 - Stuttgart, Germany - LKA Longhorn
29 - Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg - Rockhal
30 - Antwerp, Belgium - Trix


December
1 - Amsterdam, Holland - Melkweg
2 - Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
3 - Berlin, Germany - Columbia Theater
5 - Prague, Czech Republic - Meet Factory
6 - Warsaw, Poland - Proxima
7 - Hamburg, Germany - Markthalle
9 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Pumpehuset
10 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Valand
11 - Oslo, Norway - Vulkan Arena
12 - Stockholm, Sweden - Fryshuset Klubben
14 - Tampere, Finland - Olympia
15 - Tallinn, Estonia - Helitehas
16 - Helsinki, Finland - Tavastia


 

British metalcore, thrash and groove metal band State Of Deceit has issued a new music video and single entitled "At What Cost?". This is the second music video and single taken from their upcoming LP album, Stalked By Daemons, which will be released on October 13, 2023 via Eclipse Records. The album was produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered by Tim Hamill (Anterior) at Sonic One Studio, and the music video was directed by Aiden Thomas.


“This is a song written closely from the heart, about people and organizations exploiting the health system for profit or political agendas,” says lead vocalist Pete Scammell. “As a person with diabetes, I’ve followed the stories in the United States about massively inflated insulin prices and how that is literally killing people. Here in the United Kingdom, the situation is similar because services have been taken away from my local hospital and relocated an hour away. For many people this increases the cost and ability to receive care, so for many, it is unacceptable. Why do they do these things? For most of us, the answer seems like it is because we live in a different political area. This is why we depicted the Plague Doctor as the villain in the video. It represents the nefarious entities I mentioned above. During the shoot, we had some funny looks during the scenes of The Plague Doctor coming out of the van… with all the smoke coming out people must’ve thought we were hotboxing in there!”







Bassist Davide Santini adds, “'At What Cost?' is a mixture of punchy grooves and melody, so our director Aidan made a very dynamic video to reflect that. My concept of the plague doctor was a perfect fit to match the lyrics and the idea of having an old character to impersonate the modern national health system was an exciting contrast as well. We were very lucky with the location on the day of the shoot. Because the weather was so terrible that day, we were planning to reschedule but Aidan showed us another place that could work, and for us it ended up even better than what we expected! The day was full of surprises, and Pete almost ended up in emergency care due to smoke inhalation because the van scenes were filmed using so much smoke, thankfully he survived the shoot!”


The new album by State Of Deceit is entitled Stalked By Daemons. The riveting full-length release contains ten brutal songs, and it is scheduled for release on October 13, 2023. The album features artwork by Pierre-Alain D of 3mmi Design. Stalked By Daemons delivers the best of all metalcore, thrash, and groove, often in stylistic antithesis that is startling and ultimately satisfying. The intricate rhythm tracks are fascinating mosaics, always evolving in shape and color, and the blistering lead guitar solos paint pictures that leave scars, the aesthetic kind, like treasured ink we pattern into the flesh. The growl vocal is vicious just as the traditional, rich harmonies of the chorus-work are heartfelt and bold. State Of Deceit are the epitome of metal at its core, at its roots.





Tracklisting:


"Endure My Fate"
"Demi-God"
"Stalked By Daemons, Guarded By Angels"
"Hate Within"
"Withered"
"Mark Of The Whale"
"Scorched"
"Suffer Me"
"At What Cost?"
"Digital Tattoo"


Pre-orders can be placed now at this location.





(Photo: Josh Perkins) 


 

Atlantea, the new progressive rock project by Darrel Treece-Birch (Ten), has signed a worldwide record deal with Lion Music Record Label.


Darrel Treece‐Birch, the keyboard player of the British melodic hard rock veterans Ten, has so far released four solo albums, seven studio albums with Ten, four with the progressive rock band Nth Ascension (from whom he departed in 2021), and has also guested on several other projects including Signal Red’s Under The Radar by his Ten bandmate Steve Grocott, Tony Mitchell’s KOTG album Unfinished Business and Alexandre Santos’ Scar For Life last output Sociophobia.


Atlantea, the new brainchild by Darrel Treece-Birch, will feature a wide array of musician friends of his, both on instrument and vocal duties and promises to be a very varied album, deeply rooted on the melodic progressive rock genre.




Darrel comments, “As a solo artist I have mainly recorded instrumental material. As a song writer, I have decided upon a musical project which allows me to write in a very free way, across many styles, and is complemented by wonderful musician friends to guest on instruments and lead vocal duties. Atlantea music should hopefully tell a story and immerse the listener. The upcoming studio album is about situations, it’s about decisions we take or never make, it’s about questions and mysteries, our hopes and fears. So is it a full on concept album? Yes and No!”


Label owner Lars Eric Mattsson states that, “Lion Music is proud to announce the signing of Atlantea, a very unique project from Ten keyboardist mastermind Darrel Treece-Birch, a true legend within British prog/melodic hard rock genre. We would like to welcome Darrel and his Atlantea project to our ranks and we are hoping for a longstanding and productive collaboration with him”.


For the upcoming studio album entitled Choices, the band has now signed a worldwide record deal, the artwork and release date of which will be revealed shortly.


 

Courtesy of World Music Stream, pro-shot footage of Bullet For My Valentine's entire show at l'Olympia in Paris, France on January 31st can be viewed below. 


The setlist was as follows:


"Knives"
"Over It"
"Piece Of Me"
"4 Words (To Choke Upon)"
"You Want A Battle? (Here's A War)"
"Hearts Burst Into Fire"
"The Last Fight"
"Shatter"
"All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)"
"Scream Aim Fire"
"Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow (What Can I Do)"
"Rainbow Veins"
"Don't Need You"
"Death By A Thousand Cuts"
"Your Betrayal"
"Tears Don't Fall"
"Waking the Demon"







After hitting the spring 2023 festival circuit and a spate of headline dates in the US, UK juggernauts Bullet For My Valentine will return to North America for a proper and long-awaited headline tour this fall.


The tour kicks off on October 8 in Montreal and runs through November 10 in Orlando. Of Mice & Men and Vended will serve as support. Tickets
go on sale on Friday, July 28 at 10 AM, local time. Get tickets here.


It's the band's first full North American headline run since before the COVID-19 pandemic and is a welcome return to venues!


"After five long years, we're finally heading back to the USA and Canada for a proper headline tour," states frontman Matt Tuck. "We cannot wait to play and see you all again - it's been far too long."





Tour dates:


October
8 - Montreal, QC - Mtelus
10 - Worcester, MA - The Palladium
12 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
13 - Silver Spring, MD - The Fillmore Silver Spring
15 - Philadelphia, PA - Franklin Music Hall
17 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE
18 - Cleveland, OH - The Agora
19 - Cincinnati, OH - The Andrew J. Brady Music Center
21 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater
22 - Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre
24 - Minneapolis, MN - The Fillmore Minneapolis
26 - Denver, CO - Mission Ballrom
28 - Flagstaff, AZ - Pepsi Amphitheater
29 - San Diego, CA - SOMA Mainstage
31 - Los Angles, CA - The Wiltern


November
1 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren
2 - Albuquerque, NM - Revel Entertainment Center
4 - San Antonio, TX - Boeing Center At Tech Port
5 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues Dallas
7 - Houston, TX - House of Blues Houston
8 - New Orleans, LA - The Fillmore New Orleans
10 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live Orlando

Ted Nugent played in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania on July 27 as part of his "Adios Mofo '23" farewell tour.

The legendary rocker's headlining performance at Penn's Peak saw him backed by his current solo band consisting of drummer Jason Hartless and bassist Johnny Schoen.

Fan-filmed video of the entire concert, courtesy of the Jim Powers YouTube channel, can be seen below.

Featured songs:

01. The Star Spangled Banner - 0:00
02. Gonzo - 3:58
03. Stormtroopin' - 8:19
04. Paralyzed - 12:10
05. Free-For-All - 18:30
06. Snakeskin Cowboys - 22:25
07. Wang Dang Sweet Poontang - 29:01
08. Hey Baby - 38:11
09. Dog Eat Dog - 43:10
10. Come And Take It - 49:37
11. Good Friends And A Bottle Of Wine - 53:58
12. Cat Scratch Fever - 1:02:44
13. Stranglehold - 1:08:34
14. Great White Buffalo - 1:18:14

Encore:

15. Fred Bear - 1:25:14

In a recent interview with "THAT Rocks!", the weekly YouTube series hosted by Eddie Trunk, Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson, Ted spoke about his decision to embark on what is being billed as his last-ever tour. Regarding why he doesn't want to spend time on the road anymore, Ted said in part: "Hotels are jail. I hate jail… I will always play music. The music still has fire. I still crave it. I've got new songs. I'm gonna go in the studio with these killer musicians that are always at my side. But traveling, I tell you… A hotel room is jail… The travel and the hotels… And I don't even have to go to TSA [Transportation Security Administration]; I mean, I gave the finger to them in 2009. If somebody doesn't send a jet, I don't go anywhere. My friends are better than your friends, 'cause my friends have jets. So, I'm not TSA and I'm not gonna let somebody fondle my Glock [gun] and ask me questions about gun laws. And hotels are so painful for me… So this tour, like the last 10, I will hub out of our Texas home to play gigs around there. I'll first start in Florida. So I'll hub out of our condo — [my wife] Shemane's got a condo down there, so I can go to all those Florida dates. And then I come back to Michigan and go to Ohio and Indiana and Wisconsin and Illinois and Pennsylvania and Kentucky. And I'm able to hub, so I's still able to spend a lot of time with my kids and my grandkids and my dogs."

Ted went on to clarify that he is not retiring from playing live. "The fire, the music, it will always go on," he said. "I play my guitar every day… And I get to collaborate with the best musicians in the world. So it's always a challenge, it's always intriguing, it's always stimulating. I'm an old man — I'm 75 this year — but the stimuli factor… I hope that somebody else in this world is as stimulated by the music as I am, because it's still very much alive and well."

Asked if he will miss the audience and the live interaction on stage, Ted said: "Yes. Of course I will. But again, I won't miss it because I'll still do it… I'm not going out for months or even weeks. I'll do the occasional special events. I do a lot of corporate stuff… Yeah, I'm an energized son of a bitch, but I am 75, and I'm not swinging from ropes and I'm not wearing a loincloth and I'm not jumping off the amplifiers with my new knees. So I will miss it, but, again, I've got 12 grandkids and I don't wanna go away someday and not make an imprint on them, teach them about the important things in life. In a world that's really gone really stupid, I think my grandparenting responsibilities are more important now than ever."

Ted's concert in Birmingham, Alabama was recently canceled due to a backlash surrounding his controversial political views. The legendary rocker's July 18 performance at Avondale Brewing Co. was scrapped one day before tickets were to go on sale via Ticketmaster. The decision to call off the gig was apparently made in response to about 1,000 comments which were posted on Avondale Brewing's Facebook page after the show was announced, as well as more than 150 comments on the venue's Instagram page.

Nugent's self-titled debut album in 1975 was certified double platinum in the United States, while "Free-for-All", "Cat Scratch Fever", "Weekend Warriors" and "State Of Shock" all reached the Top 30 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Nugent has reportedly sold over 40 million albums and was named Detroit's greatest guitar player of all time by readers of MLive.

The conservative rocker, who been eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a solo artist since 2000, has enjoyed a remarkably successful and eventful musical career over the past five decades, but his music is increasingly overshadowed by his political outbursts.

Nugent's latest album, "Detroit Muscle", was released in April 2022 via Pavement Music. The follow-up to 2018's "The Music Made Me Do It" was recorded with Ted's most recent touring band, which included bassist Greg Smith and drummer Jason Hartless.

This past May, Smith, who had played bass for Ted for the past 16 years, announced his departure from the legendary rocker's touring band. He explained in a statement: "It was a difficult decision but one that I really had no choice in. With Ted no longer touring I had to accept an offer from a tour that will continue for the next several years. I tried to get someone to cover for me for the 2nd half, so I'd be able to do Ted's tour, but I was unfortunately unable to."

U.S. thrash/hardcore punk legends SUICIDAL TENDENCIES will celebrate their 40th anniversary on an Australian tour in November. The trek will include an appearance at Adelaide's Froth And Fury festival.

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES will perform its entire 1983 self-titled debut album during the "Still Cyco Punk After All These Years" tour in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

The 2023 lineup of SUICIDAL TENDENCIES includes founding member Mike Muir, alongside guitarists Ben Weinman (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, BETTER LOVERS) and Dean Pleasants, bassist Tye Trujillo (son of Robert Trujillo),as well as the band's latest addition, drummer Greyson Nekrutman.

The trek will kick off on Saturday, November 11 at The Triffid in Brisbane, before continuing at Sydney's Metro Theatre on Thursday, November 16, Melbourne's Croxton Bandroom on Friday, November 17, and Saturday, November 18 at Adelaide's Froth And Fury.

Tickets go on sale this Thursday, August 3 at 10 a.m. local time via the SUICIDAL TENDENCIES web site.

Joining SUICIDAL TENDENCIES at Froth And Fury will be THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, SUNK LOTO (playing "Between Birth & Death" in its entirety),REDHOOK, ALIEN WEAPONRY, CALIGULA'S HORSE, LAGERSTEIN and MIRRORS, among others.

Nov. 11 - The Triffid, Brisbane
Nov. 16 - The Metro Theatre, Sydney
Nov. 17 - Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne
Nov. 18 - Froth And Fury Festival, Adelaide

The 21-year-old Nekrutman is one of the most explosive young players in the drumming world, having garnered a legion of fans since bursting on to the international music scene just a few short years ago.

Greyson is featured on ALICE IN CHAINS vocalist William Duvall's "11.12.21 Live-In-Studio Nashville" CD, which came out in June 2022. Nekrutman has also performed or recorded with Bakithi Kumalo, Darren Criss, Drumeo, Pearl Drums, Meinl Cymbals and has been featured in articles by Rolling Stone, Rhythm, Rhythm And Drum (Japan) and Sweetwater Music.

In celebration of EVANESCENCE's debut album, "Fallen", turning 20 years old, the band's founding guitarist Ben Moody has reimagined songs from the LP and is in the process of uploading the results to his YouTube channel. Check out the fourth reimagined track, "Everybody's Fool", below.

"Fallen" was recently certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) commemorating sales and streams of ten million units in the United States.

Led by the smash single "Bring Me To Life", which also appeared on the soundtrack to the movie "Daredevil", "Fallen" yielded three more singles with "Going Under", "My Immortal" and "Everybody's Fool". EVANESCENCE also won Grammys in 2004 for "Best New Artist" and "Best Hard Rock Performance".

Asked in a 2022 interview with Rock Sound if there were any plans for EVANESCENCE to commemorate "Fallen"'s 20th anniversary in 2023, singer Amy Lee said: "I do have an idea. It's gonna take a little bit of work. But I think it probably won't be what everybody expects. I think everybody just is, 'Oh, why don't you do a show that's, like, [playing] the album front to back?' We've been playing so many shows, I would rather do something that, to me… I don't know. I don't wanna give it away, in case it doesn't work out. Maybe I'll do nothing. Expect nothing, and then if I do something, you'll be really, really grateful. [Laughs]"

Amy also talked about the fact that "Bring Me To Life" experienced a resurgence last summer, 19 years after its original release. The song, which initially reached No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and was EVANESCENCE's first U.K. No. 1 single, reached No. 1 on the U.S. iTunes chart in August 2022.

"It is satisfying," Lee said about the track's renewed popularity. "And it's cool now, because I remember a lot of the feeling in the beginning. It was so much about, like, 'What's next?' And, 'Are we gonna be able to make it?' And, 'Are we gonna be able to survive?' And, 'Are people gonna listen to our next song?' And, 'What about the next record?' And just getting to the next place always.

"There is an element to a song like 'Bring Me To Life' that didn't exist before, which is this nostalgia," she explained. "The song has grown live. It's something that we've added to. But part of how it's grown is with its history and with what it means to everybody in the room. It's not something new; it's just something that you already have known for so long that has a place in your heart. It's just able to be more than it would have been then. So I, in a lot of ways, love it more than I did."

The success of "Fallen" led to turmoil within the group, as Moody left in late 2003, leaving Lee as the only original member of the band.

In 2010, Moodygave a lengthy explanation for why he left EVANESCENCE while promoting his soundalike band called WE ARE THE FALLEN with other former EVANESCENCE members (John LeCompt on guitar and Rocky Gray on drums) along with "American Idol" powerhouse vocalist Carly Smithson and bassist Marty O'Brien.

Lee continued with new members, and EVANESCENCE issued "The Open Door" in 2006. While a hit, it did not equal the sales of "Fallen". Lee told The Pulse Of Radio at the time that she wasn't concerned about matching the previous album's success. "I just haven't ever looked at it that way," she said. "'Fallen' is a great record, but I don't think you can try to match the success of another body of work. I think that's only gonna frustrate you. And if, honestly if what you really care about is record sales and money, there's no way you're gonna make a great piece of art, because then you're just gonna get all confused and make something ingenuine."

In February 2022, EVANESCENCE's music video for "Bring Me To Life" — which featured guest vocals from Paul McCoy of 12 STONES — surpassed one billion views on YouTube. The Philipp Stölzl-directed clip, which was uploaded to YouTube in December of 2009, was filmed in Romania in January 2003. It features Lee in a night gown and barefoot, in her room, inside a tall building in the city at night. The rest of the band is playing on a higher floor of the building.

In March 2021, Lee told Alternative Press that EVANESCENCE's original record label Wind Up threatened not to release "Fallen" if she and her bandmates didn't add a male voice to lead single "Bring Me To Life" to make it more palatable for radio.

EVANESCENCE's latest album, "The Bitter Truth", arrived in March 2021 via BMG. It was EVANESCENCE's first album of original music in ten years.

In a new interview with Vikram Chandrasekar of Tales From The Road, DEATH ANGEL guitarist Ted Aguilar spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's next studio album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "[We're] slowly working on it. I'll, I'll say we have some [song] skeletons. They've still gotta be worked on. There's stuff there. We've just gotta work on 'em more and write more. But, of course, there's gonna be a new DEATH ANGEL album, but when? I don't wanna say it's gonna be next year 'cause you can't really predict the future. I could tell you, 'We're gonna record in April,' but something might come up where we go, 'Oh, that's a good tour. We might as well just hold off.' Until we're kind of definite and there's a date locked and we have no activity and we're going in at this time, then I could tell you a set date. But, yeah, there will be a new record. We just don't know when we're gonna start recording. And we do have some songs, but we wanna write some more. But they're all in the infancy stages."

He continued: "Ever since post-COVID, we did some touring and things have changed. So we have some stuff till the end of the year and we don't know what's going on for next year. Right now we wanna get as much touring, 'cause I don't think our latest album, 'Humanicide', didn't get enough touring behind it, and we wanna do more of it, write music and record. But we'll see what happens. Can't predict the future."

Ted also spoke in detail about the DEATH ANGEL songwriting process, saying: "Well, when it comes down to writing, it's all Rob [Cavestany, guitar]. It's all Rob. It starts with him. He comes up with a basic structure and him and Will [Carroll, drums] get together and they hash it all out and they record it. And when they get it to a point where, 'Oh, yeah, this is great,' then they send it off to everyone else. And Damien [Sisson, bass] does his parts and Mark [Osegueda, vocals] will listen to it and try to write lyrics and melodies. And I'll listen to it and I'll touch base with Rob: 'What do you want me to do here? Do you want me to play something here? Or do you want me to do something different?' 'Cause Rob has a vision and you kind of wanna see his vision. And as soon as the song comes together to where we play it quite a few times, then we could throw in our ideas, like, 'Hey, maybe that part should be a little longer,' or, 'Maybe cut that out,' or Will will go, 'I wanna do something different here instead.' So, you know, Rob has a vision, we listen, we play along with it. Then if we feel like there needs to be changes, we express our concern, and Rob is really good at, 'Yeah, let's give it a try.' So we try everything. And it comes down to, 'All right, this is what works.' So it starts with Rob. And with regarding the lyrics, every now and then Rob will pick out a song: 'I wanna write lyrics for this song.' And Mark goes, 'Go ahead.' But Mark writes all the lyrics, and what he does is with the music, he'll listen to it over and over by himself. I don't know where he goes. He goes into the far corners of the earth by himself, with the headphones and music, and he'll come up with so many types of different melodies and stuff, and then come up with the ones he's happy with and lay it down on the demo form. Then when we get into the real studio, then things start to evolve 'cause we've played it so many times or we listened to it so many times that when we get in there, [we go], 'All right, let's try this.' It's always evolving to the point where it's handing it in to get mastered. Some songs stay kind of the same from what it was, but we just put more energy into it. Some songs have been rewritten quite a few times, so it differs. Rob's the songwriter, and on the last album I wrote one song. Yeah, it's how it is. And right now I'm writing some stuff, and how it goes is I'll write some stuff, I'll send it to Rob. I always tell him, 'If it's good, use it. If not, if you find parts are good, use it. If it's not good, it's okay, dude.' I'm just throwing some stuff out there, 'cause he knows what the DEATH ANGEL sound should be. And if he likes it, he'll use it. If he doesn't, my feelings are not broken."

DEATH ANGEL released a new live album titled "The Bastard Tracks" in November 2021 via Nuclear Blast. Recorded live at The Great American Music Hall in their hometown of San Francisco on May 22, 2021, and streamed live soon after, "The Bastard Tracks" was described in a press release as "a deep-cuts collection of rarely and never performed songs from the band's catalog" that was released digitally and on CD, vinyl and Blu-ray.

In October 2020, DEATH ANGEL released a four-song EP, "Under Pressure". The effort included a cover of QUEEN + David Bowie's "Under Pressure", followed by a new track titled "Faded Remains", plus acoustic versions of "Act III"'s classic "A Room With A View" and "Humanicide"'s "Revelation Song". The EP was mixed by Max Norman (OZZY OSBOURNE, MEGADETH, BAD COMPANY) and mastered by Ted Jensen (LAMB OF GOD, MACHINE HEAD, HALESTORM).

Released in May 2019 via Nuclear Blast, "Humanicide" saw DEATH ANGEL returning to producer and friend Jason Suecof (DEICIDE, TRIVIUM) of Audiohammer studios for the recording and mixing, along with the mastering of the legendary Ted Jensen (SLIPKNOT, PANTERA) of Sterling Sound, who added the final touches and brought it all to life, with artist Brent Elliott White (LAMB OF GOD, MEGADETH) providing the ominous cover artwork.

In March 2020, Carroll spent almost two weeks on a ventilator in an intensive care unit at a Northern California hospital after being diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. He first got sick when he and the rest of DEATH ANGEL spent more than a month on the road in Europe with TESTAMENT and EXODUS as part of "The Bay Strikes Back 2020" tour.

DEATH ANGEL was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance" for the "Humanicide" title track. It was the group's first Grammy nomination.

Carroll joined DEATH ANGEL in 2009 as the replacement for the band's original drummer, Andy Galeon.

Will can be heard on the last four DEATH ANGEL studio albums: "Relentless Retribution" (2010),"The Dream Calls for Blood" (2013),"The Evil Divide" (2016) and the aforementioned "Humanicide".

COAL CHAMBER played its seventh show as the support act for MUDVAYNE last night (Saturday, July 29) at Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, New Jersey. Additional support on the 26-city "The Psychotherapy Sessions" tour, which is produced by Live Nation, is coming from GWAR, NONPOINT and BUTCHER BABIES.

COAL CHAMBER's setlist was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:

01. Loco
02. Fiend
03. Big Truck
04. I.O.U. Nothing
05. Rowboat (FLOOD cover)
06. Drove
07. Dark Days
08. Oddity
09. Another Nail In The Coffin
10. Something Told Me
11. Sway

Video of the Camden show can be seen below, courtesy of the Jim Powers YouTube channel.

The Camden concert marked COAL CHAMBER's ninth show in eight years, following appearances at the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas in May and at the Inkcarceration Music And Tattoo Festival in Mansfield, Ohio on July 14.

In a recent interview with the Loaded Radio podcast, COAL CHAMBER frontman Dez Fafara was asked about the possibility of new music from him and his bandmates. He said: "We've been discussing it. [Sigh] I take a sigh right there, and the reason is because I don't wanna rush anything. I actually said to them… We booked [festival appearances at] Inkcarceration, Blue Ridge Rock Fest and Sick New World. That's all we were gonna do this year until MUDVAYNE hit us up [about supporting them on their summer tour]. And I actually said to them about the MUDVAYNE run, 'Let's not do it. I'd rather just stay friends. Let's do a few shows.' But the point is when we're all together, I realized that any problem we've ever had is gone. To think about it as any kind of continuing problem would be wrong. So, okay, cool. Let's go do MUDVAYNE. And now, of course, talking about new music is very exciting for us."

Dez continued: "I happen to feel like if [COAL CHAMBER's last album] 'Rivals', which was released 12 years ago — something like this; 10 [or] 12 years ago — if 'Rivals' would have been released now with where the genre is and where, I would say where nu metal is at this point, that record would be insane. We were 10, 12 years too early getting back together and releasing that record, in my opinion. But I guess it's always good to preempt what's coming down the line, and we surely did with 'Rivals'. So if you're a COAL CHAMBER fan, go check out 'Rivals', if you haven't."

Regarding what it was like returning to the live stage with COAL CHAMBER for the first time in eight years, Dez said: "[It was] unbelievable. We were all backstage. Of course there's a hundred people back there with their cameras on us as we're hugging. But it was amazing. We hit the stage… They were chanting 'COAL CHAMBER', so it was 55, 60 thousand people chanting 'COAL CHAMBER', which just absolute goosebumps on my arms. We came out. We killed it. The set was short — it was only 30, 35 minutes; something like that — so it was in and out. But it was at the height of the day. People were telling us that, 'Your stage was the most packed of the day.' Of course I'm not putting myself up against the bigger bands; I'm just saying that it is what it is. And then when I got off, I said to my wife, 'What's going on? What's going on out there?' And she was, like, 'They're all singing you 'Happy Birthday', dummy.' And I was, like, 'Wow.' So it was a pretty incredible weekend… It was an amazing time, man. And I'm grateful. I'm humbled by everybody who came. And the reception that we got was wonderful."

Four months ago, Fafara told Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", about how COAL CHAMBER's reunion came about: "Unbelievable turn of events. That actually happened… I was on my way out from COVID. And my wife called [the other members of COAL CHAMBER] and said, 'Hey, you guys may wanna text Dez or call Dez 'cause I don't know if he's gonna make it through the night. He's telling me where he wants to be buried and not to sell his '78 Cadillac.' So they started to call me, they started to text me, and over a period of six, seven, eight months, we didn't talk any business at all. And we realized that, you know, why are we not playing shows? Those guys are totally different people than when we broke up. I have always been the same — I've just been solid as a rock; and I told them, 'I'm solid as a rock. If I come out of this, I would love to do at least one show with you guys.' And that's how this all started — very organically."

Dez added: "COAL CHAMBER is a very unpredictable thing, all the way from its beginning, playing with PANTERA and BLACK SABBATH, to where we were when we put out 'Rivals' to where we are now… But we're gonna take it slow and we're gonna do what's appropriate for the brand and for the band and especially the fans that have been with us for so long."

COAL CHAMBER's tour with MUDVAYNE will make stops across the U.S. in Syracuse, Albuquerque, Phoenix, and more before wrapping up in Englewood, Colorado at Fiddler's Green Amphitheatre on August 26.

COAL CHAMBER existed for ten years before disbanding in 2003 to pursue other musical projects. They reunited in 2011 for touring purposes but it wasn't until 2014 that the band began work on a new studio album of original material, the aforementioned critically acclaimed "Rivals". Several months of touring activity followed before Dez returned to DEVILDRIVER to make a new record, 2016's "Trust No One".

DEVILDRIVER's 2019 co-headlining tour with STATIC-X saw the Fafara-fronted outfit performing material from COAL CHAMBER for the first time.

Fafara painted a bleak picture of COAL CHAMBER's future during a 2016 interview with Revolver magazine. He stated at the time: "I had a lot of fun doing that record and playing shows with them again. But there were some circumstances that were not ideal and that's why that thing is not continuing as of right now. If something comes up and I have time and want to make a record and the members have their shit together, I'll do it. But as of now, there's some deep-seated shit that certain dudes in the band still need to work out. And if they work it out and want to tour or make another record, they can come back and give me a call. But right now, everyone in DEVILDRIVER is stoked. No one's fighting. And I feel lucky to be where I am."

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

FOO FIGHTERS and Alanis Morissette paid tribute to Sinéad O'Connor on Saturday (July 29) by performing a cover version of "Mandinka" during the Dave Grohl-fronted band's headlining performance at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival.

"We'd like to make tonight very special for you because it's nice to be back," Grohl told the audience before introducing Morissette. "So tonight, we're gonna do something that we've never done before, with someone that we love very much. We want an old friend to come up and sing with us tonight for a very special reason. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome, to sing a song with us: Miss Alanis Morissette."

Morissette dedicated the performance to "a beautiful woman of high intelligence and deep empathy, way ahead of her time, who is no longer with us. This is for her."

"Mandinka" was the second single off O'Connor's breakthrough 1987 debut album "The Lion And The Cobra".

Police officers found O'Connor unresponsive in a London apartment on Wednesday, July 26 just weeks after she had moved to the city. Her death is not being treated as suspicious.

The Irish singer, who infamously became a polarizing figure when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a 1992 appearance on "Saturday Night Live", was 56.

O'Connor's breakthrough single came in 1990 with the aforementioned "Nothing Compares 2 U". In total, she had released 10 albums, most recently 2014's "I'm Not Bossy, I'm The Boss".

Sinéad reflected on her rise to fame in the documentary "Nothing Compares", which came out last year. In it, she explained why she was compelled to rip up a photo of Pope John Paul II on camera.

"I had come across an article about families who had been trying to lodge complaints against the church for sexual abuse and were being silenced," she said. "Basically, everything I had been raised to believe was a lie."

O'Connor tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II after performing an a cappella version of "War" by Bob Marley. She then told the audience to "Fight the real enemy."

Although Sinéad announced her retirement from music and touring, writing in 2021 that she'd "gotten older" and was "tired", she changed her mind within days, saying, "I love my job. Making music that is. I don't like the consequences of being a talented (and outspoken woman) being that I have to wade through walls of prejudice every day to make a living."

Members of DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY CRÜE recently sat down with Tara Brown of Australia's "60 Minutes" to discuss life in the fast lane and their current joint world tour. You can watch the 14-minute segment below.

Both DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY CRÜE said that there are no plans for them to slow down anytime soon.

"No, god. I'm not even legally at retirement age, so it's not even on the horizon for me," DEF LEPPARD frontman Joe Elliott said. "But no, [retirement's] never crossed my mind. Because we enjoy doing what we do. We always have. Long may it last."

The guys from MÖTLEY CRÜE are in firm agreement, still raising their middle fingers to the world.

"I feel like our [middle] finger is about to go higher," bassist Nikki Sixx said. "I think we're kind of in the 'we-don't-give-a-fuck' phase of our career."

MÖTLEY CRÜE's setlist for the 2023 "The World Tour" has remained very similar to the one from last year's "The Stadium Tour", with "Wild Side" opening the show before Sixx and his bandmates run through a 15-song set that includes other classics like "Shout At The Devil", "Home Sweet Home", "Dr. Feelgood" and the closing number "Kickstart My Heart".

Last month, MÖTLEY CRÜE singer Vince Neil confirmed to The Music Universe that the band will embark on another stadium tour in 2024. "We're not sure who's gonna be on it, but there'll be another tour," he said.

MÖTLEY CRÜE recently went into the studio with longtime producer Bob Rock and recorded three new songs, including "Dogs Of War" and a cover of BEASTIE BOYS' "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)".

CRÜE and LEPPARD kicked off the European leg of their "The World Tour" on May 22 in Sheffield. The European trek concluded on July 6 in Glasgow.

LEPPARD and CRÜE will team up with Alice Cooper for a U.S. mini-tour this summer. The trek will kick off on August 5 in Syracuse, New York and include stops in the Midwest before concluding in El Paso, Texas on August 18. Shows in Japan and Australia will follow in the fall.

John 5 joined MÖTLEY CRÜE last fall as the replacement for the band's co-founding guitarist Mick Mars. Mick announced his retirement from touring with MÖTLEY CRÜE last October as a result of worsening health issues.

Mars suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS),a chronic and inflammatory form of arthritis that mainly affects the spine and pelvis. After years of performing through the pain, he informed the other members of MÖTLEY CRÜE last summer that he could no longer tour with them but would still be open to recording new music or performing at residencies that did not require much travel.

When Mars announced his retirement from touring with MÖTLEY CRÜE, he maintained that he would remain a member of the band, with John 5 taking his place on the road. However, in early April the 71-year-old musician filed a lawsuit against CRÜE in Los Angeles County's Superior Court claiming that, after his announcement, the rest of CRÜE tried to remove him as a significant stakeholder in the group's corporation and business holdings via a shareholders' meeting.

In a new interview with Shawn of "The Rockstar Radio Show" on 96.3 The Blaze, VOLBEAT frontman Michael Poulsen spoke about his new death metal band ASINHELL, which will release its debut album, "Impii Hora" (Latin for "Ungodly Hour"),on September 29 via Metal Blade. Regarding how the idea for ASINHELL came about, Michael said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "As you probably know, you know, I started out as a death metal musician. Back in the days, I had a band called DOMINUS and we managed to release four albums on a Danish little label back in the day. So, yeah, it goes way back to where I was tape trading in 1990s. So it's been a lot of inspiration since then. So, you know, it kind of goes like 33 years back to where I started. I was very early out playing death metal — yeah, I think I started playing death metal when I was 16, 17 or something, and I started listening to extreme metal when I was about 13. So that kind of music has been there from the very beginning as a young kid. And I knew that when I ended DOMINUS, it was because the journey I was going into was a style of a lot of different styles that I couldn't combine in the death metal music. So I formed VOLBEAT where there was not so much rules about what you could do or what you could not do. So, as you can hear in the VOLBEAT music, there's a lot of different styles, but in ASINHELL, it definitely takes you back to all the stuff that I was, and still [am] listening to, as a young boy discovering extreme metal."

He continued: "For a long time, people have been asking me when I'm gonna return to death metal, and I said, 'I have no idea,' because the time that I'm using on VOLBEAT, it's a lot of time touring. We are constantly on the road and we are writing and being in the studio. So it was very difficult for me to answer a question like that. But when the pandemic came and I wrote [the] 'Servant Of The Mind' [album] for VOLBEAT, there were other riffs that came up where I said, 'Those riffs I'll put aside and keep them for another project when there was time for doing that. And that became the ASINHELL project.

"When we did 'Servant Of The Mind', we recorded a song called 'Becoming', and that was kind of a tribute to ENTOMBED and my good friend L.G. Petrov [late ENTOMBED singer]. And we all know that story, that L.G. passed away 'cause of cancer. Some days before he passed away, he was trying to call me. And the first time he called, I couldn't pick up. I was somewhere in a supermarket at the register paying for my groceries. And then later on he called me, but that was during the night, so I never pick up my phone during the night. And next thing I hear that he passed away. And so I was really bummed about that. And we kind of just then dedicated the VOLBEAT song 'Becoming' to L.G. and we put on this amazing BOSS pedal that makes this ugly, beautiful Swedish death metal sound. And I just got really inspired by that. And I told my guitar tech if he could find that pedal and then order it on the net and then I would probably start maybe working on some riffs. And the same day we talked about that, I was about to take my morning run and my iPod, just by coincidence, starts on ENTOMBED and I'm hearing L.G. screaming [singing], 'I'm full of hell.' And for me, that was a call from L.G., and I said to myself, 'This time, you're fucking picking up, Michael.' You are starting now. This is the time. And, actually, I wanted to call the band FULL OF HELL, but I quickly find out there was another band by that name. So I said, 'Okay, well, what do I do now?' So I changed it to as ASINHELL."

As for how he recruited his ASINHELL bandmates, ex-MORGOTH singer Marc Grewe (also of INSIDIOUS DISEASE) and RAUNCHY drummer Morten Toft Hansen, Poulsen said: "I was so inspired, and I live 10 minutes away from my drummer Morten, who has a daughter that's six years old, as my daughter [is], and they are hanging out together and having a good time. And Morten, now and then, he's active in his own band called RAUNCHY. They do not play live shows that much, but he still has his drums in the garage. And I kindly asked him if he wants to put some drums on a death metal project I had in mind. And he was totally up for it when I said, 'It's gonna be in the vein of DEATH, BOLT THROWER, AUTOPSY, GRAVE, ENTOMBED.' And that was totally his alley. So, he said, 'Where are we gonna rehearse?' And I said, 'Right here where we are standing.' And he said, 'In my garage?' 'Yeah, why not? Let's imagine that we're kind of 16, 17 years old again.' We didn't have money for expensive rehearsal rooms or anything that we have now. So I said, 'Let me just bring an amp and I'll turn it all to 11. No P.A. system, nothing. Just your drums. Don't mic it up. It's just an amp, and let's just do some riffing. I've got songs at home.' And it turned out that every Friday me and Morten would be jamming for two hours, and every Friday I came with a new song, and suddenly we were just looking at each other, like, 'Okay, we actually have songs for a whole album here.' And I ended up calling my good friend up, Marc Grewe, which was the former singer of legendary German [band] MORGOTH. I always thought that Marc had the best death metal voice in the scene, together with Chuck Schuldiner from DEATH. And for many years we talked about doing something together when the time was right. And I called him up and I said, 'You know what? I actually have our whole album. Are you ready?' [And he said], 'Hell yeah, I'm ready. Let's get to it.' I did some demo vocals on some of the recordings. And I asked Marc, 'How do you want me to record?' [And he said], 'Ah, just put your phone in the garage and press 'record' and then send it to me on your phone.' I said, 'Okay, it's gonna sound like a fucking mess.' [And he said], 'Yeah. That's how it should be like.' [Laughs] He said, 'That's how we did it back in the day with MORGOTH. We just put a ghetto blaster, a tape recorder in the rehearsal room and just pushed 'record' when we did rehearsal recordings.' [And I said], 'Yeah. Okay. Then that's how we're gonna do it.' So me and Morten made a lot of noise in that garage and I was putting down some demo vocals [for] Marc to get some inspiration. So I was just screaming and yelling down in my phone. And he said, 'Yeah, it's perfect. We could even release it like that.' [And I was, like], 'Yeah. Wait a minute.'"

According to Michael, two other guest musicians appear on the "Impii Hora", both of whom will be familiar to fans of VOLBEAT.

"We ended up using Jacob Hansen, our producer, as the bass player on the record, because he was there in the studio anyway. And I said, 'I'm not gonna play the bass. Let's do it different.' And so we just asked Jacob if he was into it, and he said, 'Yeah, I would love to.' So very quickly Jacob put down the bass. And I've been knowing Jacob since the INVOCATOR days, where he was active in INVOCATOR. So suddenly, having a great lineup with Marc from MORGOTH and Jacob from INVOCATOR, Morten from RAUNCHY — it was great. And then Morten said, 'Since we have this huge inspiration from DEATH, you should hear how Flemming [C. Lund], my good friend from THE ARCANE ORDER, is playing guitar. He can do those kind of DEATH solos. I knew Flemming from back in the days when I had that DOMINUS band. So I checked Flemming out and his solos in THE ARCANE ORDER, and I was blown away. And I gave Flemming a call and I asked him kindly if he was into it. And he totally understood where we were going with this, so he was very excited about it. So, yeah, he put down those solos and, as I said before, now we have a record coming out very soon."

Michael was equally excited to get ASINHELL's debut LP released via Metal Blade, a label which has consistently been at the forefront of the metal scene, from releasing the earliest material from METALLICA and SLAYER on the classic "Metal Massacre" compilations through to seminal releases from CANNIBAL CORPSE, GWAR, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, AMON AMARTH and many more.

"Brian Slagel from Metal Blade, he heard the songs and he was very, very, very into it, and he said, 'I would love to actually release this.' And for me, that was a dream come true," Michael said. "The legendary Brian Slagel from Metal Blade — we all know the story. So that was a dream come true. I remember being a young kid, tape trading and trying to get a record deal, but then so many years after, actually then ending up on Metal Blade with a new project called ASINHELL, that's beautiful. So I'm very excited about it and very proud of the record."

"Impii Hora" track listing:

01. Fall Of The Loyal Warrior
02. Inner Sancticide
03. Island Of Dead Men
04. Trophies
05. The Ultimate Sin
06. Wolfpack Laws
07. Desert Of Doom
08. Pyromantic Scryer
09. Impii Hora
10. Foj For Helvede

ASINHELL is:

Michael Poulsen - Guitar
Marc Grewe - Vocals
Morten Toft Hansen - Drums

Photo credit: Brittany Bowman

The JD's Live Music YouTube channel has uploaded video of JACK RUSSELL'S GREAT WHITE's July 29 performance at the Rock The Dam festival in Beaver Dam, Kentucky. Check out the clips below.

In an interview with T Stone of the radio show "Sonic Boom"on Real Rock 100.3 The Fox in Rapid City, South Dakota, former GREAT WHITE and current JACK RUSSELL'S GREAT WHITE singer Jack Russell was asked how he feels about the fact that there are now effectively two versions of GREAT WHITE touring and making new music. He responded: "It's weird, man. I mean, it doesn't bother me — except when Mark [Kendall, GREAT WHITE guitarist] goes out there and starts talking shit about me. Every time he gives an interview, he goes out there and starts talking some kind of shit about me. It's, like, dude, it's been 12 years. Get over it.

"It is too bad," Russell added. "We were best friends, we were brothers for years. And now it's like the guy won't even pick up the phone and speak to me. It's horrible. It makes you feel really bad. And every time I pick up a paper or [I see] something on the Internet [where] Mark's [giving] an interview, he's always talking shit about me. It's, like, dude, talk about yourself. Talk about how great your album is or how great your band is. Leave me the fuck alone. I'm not bagging on you."

Asked by T Stone why he thinks it's that way for Kendall, Russell replied: "I don't know. Maybe he's just pissed off that I'm still doing it. I mean, the first article they did after I left the band was, 'Oh, he'll never pull it off.' And it's been, what? 12 years now?

"The way I look at it is you do what you do," he continued. "Have a good time. Be happy that you're able to do this. Be happy that you're lucky enough to be able to do this — especially when there's two versions of the band."

When T Stone noted that "it's gotta be especially tough" for GREAT WHITE "trying to do it without the actual voice of the band," Jack said: "That's the one thing, I think, that separates the cover bands from the original bands — is the voice. 'Cause that's the one thing that you need. You take Steven Tyler out of AEROSMITH, I don't care who you put in there, it ain't gonna be AEROSMITH… The only time I've ever seen it work was with Sammy Hagar — and just 'cause Sammy is a better singer [than David Lee Roth]. And they wrote some really great songs. But give me a fucking choice, I'd go see David Lee Roth [before] I would [see] Sammy. And I love Sammy; he's a great guy. Dave's a great guy too."

In June 2022, shortly after GREAT WHITE announced that it had parted ways with singer Mitch Malloy, Kendall dismissed the idea of reuniting with Russell, telling Dr. Music in an interview: "[People say,] 'Why don't you patch things up with Jack?' What people don't understand is we never even got in fights [with Jack]. In 25 years together, we might have gotten in two arguments. The thing that took him out is the horrible demons of addiction, and it's really affected his health. I just saw a video the other day where he's not even standing — he's using wheelchairs and he's sitting in a stool. So for us to go back to that, it just feels dark. I'd rather remember him… 'Cause I'm very proud of our career — I'm very proud of the past. I'm so lucky to be a part of it. And I wanna remember it like that, where he's flying around on stage and getting the crowds pumped and singing his heart out — not a sick person. So going to that…"

In November 2022, Russell ruled out the possibility of him reuniting with his former bandmates, telling All Access Live! With Kevin Rankin: "As far as the fans are concerned, for the most part they've been really cool about [there being two versions of the band]. It is what it is. Of course most of them would rather see us back together. There are a few people that, for whatever reason, like a new guy better, which I don't understand. That'd be like me saying I like somebody better than Steven Tyler in AEROSMITH. Or, 'Get rid of that Robert Plant schmuck [in LED ZEPPELIN]. Let me hear somebody else.' I don't know. To each his own. Some things just defy explanation or logic. But for the most part, I think, people would like things, to see them back to where they were, which will never happen. Those days are gone, and anybody out there that's hoping and wishing and praying, it's not gonna happen; I'll tell you right now. Both camps agree [on that]."

Russell went on to say that he chooses to stay away from speaking disparagingly about his former bandmates. "I don't jump on the drama train," he said. "Unfortunately, there are still people that do, in my other band, that still choose to pass along negativity. And I'm not gonna say anything bad about anybody. It's, like, why? We were all huge friends for years. We accomplished one of the hugest things you can ever accomplish together — something that's almost impossible we pulled off. We were on five major labels, so we did it five times. Usually you lose one and you're blackballed. And we were on five different major labels. So there's something to say for that. I never was gonna let up until I was done."

Malloy had been in GREAT WHITE for nearly four years, having joined the group in 2018 following the departure of Terry Ilous.

Ilous, frontman of '80s L.A. hard rockers XYZ, joined GREAT WHITE in 2010 after stepping in for touring vocalist Jani Lane (WARRANT).

The Ilous-led GREAT WHITE released two albums, 2012's "Elation" and 2017's "Full Circle", before Terry was dismissed from the group.

Russell sued his onetime bandmates in 2012 over their continued use of the GREAT WHITE name after Jack had taken a leave of absence from the band for medical reasons. A short time later, Russell was countersued by Kendall, rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Michael Lardie and drummer Audie Desbrow, claiming the vocalist's self-destructive behavior was damaging the GREAT WHITE name (they also alleged he was charging promoters less for his own touring version of GREAT WHITE). The parties settled in July 2013 without going to trial, with Russell now performing as JACK RUSSELL'S GREAT WHITE while the others are continuing as GREAT WHITE.

In 2018, Desbrow told ListenIowa that there was never any discussion about possibly bringing Jack back after Terry's exit from GREAT WHITE. "Not at all," he said. "We've already moved on from that. We've gone through a lot of stuff with that over the years, and the fact that he sued us in federal court for the name, and we spent a lot of time and money, you just don't return from that. People tell me that they've seen his latest shows, and it's just hard to look at because his health isn't as good as it could be. We've got a really grueling schedule, and it's hard enough for me, and I'm semi-healthy. [Laughs] I couldn't imagine someone in his condition doing what we're doing. We did shows with him toward the end, and he was in and out of a wheelchair and crutches, had to be carried up stairs, was falling asleep onstage. It just got old. It's a business, and we have families to support and mortgages to pay. You can't go to work messed up 24/7 and still be able to work there."

In October 2022, GREAT WHITE officially named Brett Carlisle as its new lead singer. Carlisle joins the band as the replacement for Andrew Freeman, who sang for GREAT WHITE for only five months.

Carlisle made his live debut with GREAT WHITE on September 24, 2022 at the Cannery Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Well DAM!

Posted by ARM Entertainment on Monday, July 24, 2023

Heavy metal titans KREATOR have announced the "Klash Of The Ruhrpott" festival, set to take place July 20, 2024 at Amphitheater Gelsenkirchen in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The concert will feature the long-awaited union of Germany's legendary "Teutonic Big Four", completed by SODOM, DESTRUCTION and TANKARD.

The one-day thrash extravaganza is a celebration of German metal, expected to welcome domestic and international fans for this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Mille Petrozza (KREATOR) commented: "I'm so happy we have an opportunity to present this package in the best way possible! It's going to be a really special day, full of love and respect…and the most extensive KREATOR set ever…prepare for some DEEP CUTS!"

Thomas "Angelripper" Such (SODOM) commented: "I am very happy to finally be able to share the stage with my old companions and friends again. A meeting with these four fantastic bands cannot be surpassed in terms of cult status. It will be a very special event for us and our fans. Until then, please stay healthy and confident. See ya soon… Cheers, Tom."

Schmier (DESTRUCTION) commented: "Oh YES — we all have been waiting for this to happen, I am excited that it finally worked out! Hopefully this is the beginning of some more to come! We are super thrilled to be a part of this. Thanks for the invitation, Mille!"

Andreas "Gerre" Geremia (TANKARD) commented: "Good things take time! Finally the four big will clash and thrash together. We feel very proud to be a part of this historical event!"

Tickets go on sale on Wednesday, August 2 at 10 a.m. CEST.

Last fall, Angelripper spoke to BLABBERMOUTH.NET about SODOM being part of the "German Big Four". He said at the time: "I love DESTRUCTION. Schmier is a good friend of mine. They have a different style of music. DESTRUCTION is more thrash metal than SODOM; we have more black metal or heavy metal influences. I'm so proud of them. They did it. They created their own style. They have the perfect singer in the band. We always talk about the [German] 'Big Four' and touring together, but it's hard to do. I think Mille is not interested in doing it. We played the Mexico Metal Fest [in September 2022], the 'Big Four', with HELLHAMMER and GRAVE DIGGER and I talked to Schmier, we had a beer with Gerre, but I didn't see Mille. He came on stage and went back to the hotel. He doesn't want to spend any time with us. I don't know why. Maybe he's living on a different planet. I don't think this tour will ever happen."

When he asked if he has always been friendly with Mille, Angelripper said: "We're friends, but I'm good friends with Schmier. But Mille…it's different. He's not more in the scene. I never see him when we go into any metal bar here in Essen. It's completely different. We'll need to talk about the 'Big Three' touring. It doesn't have to be a tour. All the bands have a packed schedule touring, but we can do a big show. This package is good for three, four or five thousand people."

KILL DEVIL HILL's lyric video for the band's fourth single in nearly a decade, "Playing With Fire", can be seen below. The song is taken from the band's upcoming third album, which will be made available later in the year via the Ohio-based Legend Recordings. The label, which was founded by artist manager Chris Bianchi, has partnered with Ingrooves/Universal to release the LP worldwide.

"Playing With Fire" follows the release of "Blood In The Water", which arrived in February, "You Can't Kill Me California", which came out in April, and "Before The Devil Knows", which was made available in June.

KILL DEVIL HILL was established in 2011 by former BLACK SABBATH and DIO drummer Vinny Appice and PANTERA bassist Rex Brown. After going through a few member changes, KILL DEVIL HILL's present lineup consists of Johnny Kelly (TYPE O NEGATIVE) on drums, Mark Zavon on guitar, Dewey Bragg on vocals and Matt Snell (ex-FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH) on bass.

Zavon commented: "It's been a while since our last release, but we've been working hard writing and recording songs for this third record for a long time behind the scenes, and are really looking forward to sharing the finished product with our fans. We are proud to have partnered with Chris Bianchi and Legend Recordings for this release and are looking forward to working with them and Ingrooves to bring these songs to our fans worldwide. It's definitely some of our strongest material, and I can't wait to get out in front of an audience and play it live."

2023 will see KILL DEVIL HILL hit the road for select festival appearances and additional tour dates.

Shortly after he left KILL DEVIL HILL in early 2014, Vinny said that the band's inability to gain significant traction with its music was a major factor in his decision. However, more recently, Vinny has suggested that he exited the group because he "couldn't deal with" the fact that some of his bandmates were consistently tardy for KILL DEVIL HILL activities by an hour and a half or even longer.

Asked to respond to Appice's comments and address the fact that the drummer's explanation for why he left the band appears to have evolved over time, Mark told "J-Bunny's Music Hub": "Well, both [of his stated reasons] are true. And he's right. And there was [tardiness]. Dewey, our singer, at the time, was kind of going through some hard times and some personal difficulties, and he did have a hard time showing up sometimes. And even when we were on tour, he was — I don't know, man — just having a little bit of trouble. He's a totally changed man now, and now he's the first guy, anywhere we go, he's the one telling us, 'Hey, man, we're gonna be late for soundcheck.' But in those days, yeah, it was a little harder to wrangle him. So Vinny was right. And Vinny, he doesn't really put up with that. He's a name guy — he's got a history and a reputation. He's a pro. He's a star. So you can't blame the guy for that. I certainly didn't. I was the first one there [for rehearsals and live shows], 'cause I was stoked to play with those guys. Are you kidding me? Vinny Appice and Rex Brown in a room, and I get to play guitar?"

He continued: "So, anyway, I wish it could have kept going, but sometimes things don't work out, and everything happens for a reason. So I try not to question it. We've got great guys in the band now, and everything happens for a reason. So I'm looking forward to putting out this new record and people hearing what we can do without those guys in the band."

Vinny, who had previously played with BLACK SABBATH, DIO and HEAVEN & HELL, left KILL DEVIL HILL in March 2014.

KILL DEVIL HILL released its sophomore album, "Revolution Rise", in October 2013 via Century Media Records.

NIGHTWISH has completed recording demos for its tenth studio album. The band will enter the studio soon to begin properly tracking the effort for a 2024 release.

Earlier today, the NIGHTWISH social media was updated with a photo of Tuomas Holopainen (keyboards),Emppu Vuorinen (guitar),Kai Hahto (drums) and Jukka Koskinen (bass) at an undisclosed location in Finland, along with the following message: "Demos for album no. 10 are now complete! We are happy, and guess what? Recording is next!"

Last December, Holopainen said the band's upcoming follow-up to 2020's "Human. :II: Nature." will be the third part of a trilogy that began with 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" album. He told Metal Hammer: "I immediately knew after getting that album ['Endless Forms Most Beautiful'] done that, 'Okay, we have to do more songs about this, because there's so much more to explore and tell the world. We're not done with this.' And the same thing happened after 'Human. :II: Nature.'; we're still not done. So let's do one more. At least one more.

"In a way, [the next album] is the third part of a trilogy, which started with 'Endless Forms…' and then 'Human. :II: Nature.' There are some major surprises there again, but it feels like a natural continuation to 'Human. :II: Nature.'"

According to Tuomas, NIGHTWISH's next LP will cover previously uncharted ground while continuing in the more cinematic style that has characterized some of the band's recent efforts..

"The wonderful thing is that we have had the demo [of the album] done since last spring. So it's been done for six months now. We really have all the time in the world to go through it all, and we have had a such great time with the band, just listening to the demo in our hotel rooms — me singing the lyrics and the melodies to Floor [Jansen, vocals]. She's recording them and then she's seeing them and throwing ideas to each other."

Last September, Tuomas was asked if NIGHTWISH's upcoming LP will once again be an exploration of evolutionary science, as was the case with the previous two releases. Tuomas said: "Yes and no. It sails on the same waters, but there's some new surprises there as well."

Holopainen went on to say that NIGHTWISH fans will have to wait a while before hearing new music from the band. "We'll enter the studio next year and the album is gonna come out maybe early 2024," he said.

In August 2022, Tuomas told Rock Sverige that he spent "about a year" working on the music and lyrics for the next NIGHTWISH album.

Asked if he got any kind of inspiration from the pandemic, Tuomas said: "Yeah, lyrically there's a couple of things that reflects the pandemic, but not in the way you would expect."

"Human. :II: Nature." was released in April 2020. The follow-up to 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" was a double album containing nine tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters, on CD 2.

In August 2022, NIGHTWISH announced the addition of Koskinen (WINTERSUN) as an official member of the band. Koskinen, who made his live debut with NIGHTWISH in May 2021 at the band's two interactive experiences, had spent the last year touring with NIGHTWISH as a session musician.

In November 2022, singer Floor Jansen revealed that she was "cancer free" after recently undergoing surgery to have a tumor removed following a breast cancer diagnosis.

This past March, Floor and SABATON drummer Hannes Van Dahl announced that they were expecting their second child. Jansen and Van Dahl already have a six-year-old daughter named Freja, who was born on March 15, 2017.

In April, NIGHTWISH announced plans to take a break from touring and will not hit the road in support of the band's next studio album. The group added, "The reasons for this decision are personal, but, we all agree, vital to the wellbeing and future of the band. Be assured that we still love working together, and this decision has nothing to do with Floor's pregnancy or our other individual projects. However, an album of 12 new songs will see bright daylight in 2024, as will 3 music videos! The band is positively hyped beyond words over this new upcoming musical adventure."

Demos for album no. 10 are now complete! ✅ We are happy, and guess what? Recording is next! 🔥

Posted by Nightwish on Saturday, July 29, 2023

Nuno Bettencourt, who has performed with pop superstar Rihanna for more than a decade, has apologized for his recent comments in which he seemingly took a swipe at one of his colleagues, GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash.

In a recent interview with Planet Rock, the EXTREME guitarist opined that many of the guitar players he looks up to, including Slash, would not be able handle the musical diversity of a Rihanna concert.

"When somebody like Rihanna reaches out to you to perform everybody thinks 'oh, that's cute. It's a pop artist, whatever,'" Bettencourt said. "Let me tell you something, what I had to do night after night… put on a reggae hat [for one song] with a reggae feel, and go into R&B, then go into some punk rock and pop rock that she did, and then club tracks. All sorts of [things], all those different feels.

"I'm sorry, most of the guitar players who I admire could not in their lifetime play that gig," he added. "I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.

"Slash is one of the greatest rock guitar players of all time but I guarantee — and he'd be the first to tell you — that if he jumps up and he's got to play a clean intro to 'Rude Boy' from Rihanna, it ain't happening."

Bettencourt continued: "I believe that if I wasn't that diverse musically and accept everything I grew up on, there's no way that I would have been in these rooms. And also being open, being an open musician in the sense of 'up for anything.'"

A couple of days after Nuno's comments made the rounds in music media, Slash's GUNS N' ROSES bandmate Richard Fortus took to Instagram to share a headline from a Guitar.com article reporting on Bettencourt's words, and he included the following message: "I have to respectfully disagree. @nunobettencourtofficial is one of the greats, for sure. However, there is very little @slash couldn't do on guitar (if he wanted to). I toured with Rihanna prior to Nuno and I've spent a lot of time playing with Slash. This gig wouldn't be a struggle for him."

Last Saturday (July 22),Nuno took to his social media to clarify his original comments as well as to respond to Richard, who played with Rihanna on her "Good Girl Gone Bad Tour" in 2008 and 2009. Bettencourt wrote: "Welp… I new this was eventually coming.

"You can't be blessed and be on multiple guitar magazine covers at a shocking 56 years old, get this much attention for your playing and new album as a rock guitarist without another guitarist stirring up some shit.

"Im responding to this not cause I give a shit about what this guitarist thinks about me but, instead, because I'd hate to think my few words offended a hero of mine, @slash and possibly fuck up my relationship with him.

"@4tus I've 'respectively' never heard you play one note in my 56 years of being alive and only know your name from the Rihanna camp and as a replacement player in GUNS.

"I'm sure you're a decent player, but did you really need to repost a headline that made me look like I am badmouthing a fellow player, Slash.

"As if I'd ever think Slash isn't capable of playing any Rihanna song in his sleep.

"Let's get something fucking straight. To me, Slash is one of the greatest rock guitarists of my generation and of all time. PERIOD. And @4tus if you knew me at all and where my heart is you'd know that what I meant in this statement was not about Slash or his capability, It was about Rock guitarists like myself or Slash switching genres and the awkwardness of playing these feels.

"No SHIT Slash can play these songs, thank you so much for pointing that out as if we didn't already know that. But for me as a predominant ROCK guitarist, Im obviously not as talented as you and found it a challenge to nail all the different pockets and guitar tones of genres like Reggae, R&B, Electronic Dance, Trap and pop.

"As far as you shining a light on my ridiculous statement that Slash would 'struggle', yes a poor word choice on my part, I personally would hope that Slash who is a peer and influence would be more mature enough to understand what I truly meant as a guitarist by that comment.

"In mentioning Slash as an iconic Rock example, I meant in general a rock guitarist would find it, NOT A STRUGGLE, but feel like a fish out of water as a player. THATS ALL I MEANT.

"I've had NOTHING but respect and admiration for @gunsnroses and @slash.

"Apologies if I've unintentionally offended anyone."

In his nearly five-minute video apology, Bettencourt described the whole ordeal as "ridiculous" and took "full responsibility" for the "stupid shit" he said that launched the entire debate.

Nuno said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's Nuno here. Just a quick, quick message. Listen, this little what people are saying there was a spat between Richard Fortus and I and comments that I made and the post that he made and the shit that I said about playing Rihanna, it's ridiculous. I'm not that guy. I don't want to be that guy. I'm not interested in this shit. It actually makes me sick. Last straw, I just got home and I see fuckin [Justin] Hawkins [of THE DARKNESS] is fuckin doing a whole post on it, an episode [on his YouTube channel] and deciphering who said what. This is ridiculous. Bottom line is this is on me. I need to keep my fucking mouth shut.

"I got asked a question about Rihanna, and my answer was ridiculous — absolutely ridiculous. I'll take full responsibility for it about playing it and how hard it was and how difficult it is for people to play different feels. I tried to make a point, and it kind of backfired on me.

"I do a lot of press, and every once in a while you say stupid shit. You get asked a stupid question. So now I'm gonna stick to EXTREME, stick to what I know, stick to what I do on guitar and what I do for EXTREME. That way nobody can fuck with me and be offended and [make] comments. Don't ask me about anybody else. Don't ask me about fucking Rihanna. Don't ask me about Slash or GUNS or Richard Fortus, who I owe an apology to,

"Richard, sorry, brother. This is ridiculous. You had a complete right to defend your bro. And even if it was in the lightest way or whatever it was, you are correct. I don't like hurting people. I don't like talking bad about anybody. And this is all coming from me, from a ridiculous Planet Rock interview, which is when somebody asked me about Rihanna, like I said, I need to shut the fuck up — you know, talking about how difficult it was. I have my own reasons of why I said what I said in the sense of what it meant to me with playing all the different feels, but obviously it came across very arrogant, it came across very offensive. People love this shit and they're feeding off of it and all it does is create bad vibes for everybody in our community, in the guitarist community, when at the end of the day, really, I have much respect for everybody. Everybody's got a lane and everybody's got a place to do what they do. Whether I had heard Richard play before, which I hadn't, it doesn't give me the right to make that comment that I hadn't heard a note he played in my lifetime, even though it was true. But it was [me] being pissed off and I think it was just me pissed off in general that I even started this bullshit. So, apologies again to Richard. He's obviously a great guitar player. He's playing with GUNS. He's gotta be amazing. And, anybody else out there that loves this kind of juicy shit, go fuck yourselves and mind your own fucking business and I'll mind my own fucking business and keep that shit to myself, whatever it is that I feel about how difficult anything is. But, like I said, man, anybody who knows me in the guitar community, all I do is have much respect for everybody that I play with and I stepped out of my lane on this one, for real. And this isn't no ridiculous apology in the sense that I'm backtracking for anything. I actually went back and read what I actually answered, and it was pretty fucking stupid, and I made it way too self-important for that gig. It was really dumb of me to even mention that stuff or especially Slash. I mean, I don't even know why even Slash came out of my mouth during that other than I was just using it as an example of us rock guitar players playing some different feels.

"Other than that, love y'all, fuck y'all, if you know what I mean. And honestly, man, it's ridiculous. Let's stop this bullshit. I hope to have a beer with Richard sometime soon and just have a laugh about it because this is just stupid. It's just ridiculous. We're all great players and there's no need for anybody to be fucking arguing about anything stupid like this. I reacted kind of hot because I probably realized how much of a dumbass I was by saying what I said about Slash and playing with Rihanna.

"That's it. Before I ramble and keep saying something else I don't wanna say, man, I'm going to check out here. But I'm excited to see you all on the road. God bless everyone. Peace. See ya."

Nuno most recently shared the stage with Rihanna when the Grammy Award-winning R&B artist took the stage in Phoenix on February 12 for her 2023 Super Bowl halftime performance.

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In a recent interview with BBC Radio 4's "Saturday Live", MEGADETH frontman Dave Mustaine spoke about what makes a song a good song. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "For me, what I'd like to leave for future generations is to know that melody is so critical to songs. Quincy Jones is a very famous producer here in America. We were making the 'Rust In Peace' record at the time and had gone to this party, and Quincy was there. And he had said to our engineer/producer that the key to successful songs was beat, melody and 10 simple words."

He continued: "So I guess the most important thing I would like to leave to future generations is to echo what Quincy had said, but to make it my own, I would say in order to be successful in thrash, you need to have a heavy beat, melody and I'd say probably 20 simple words because we sing so much faster."

MEGADETH kicked off the summer 2023 European leg of its "Crush The World" tour on July 23 at the Triple Thrash Triumph festival at Spodek in Katowice, Poland.

MEGADETH's current lineup includes guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, Belgian-born-and-now-Los-Angeles-based drummer Dirk Verbeuren, who had played with SOILWORK for more than a decade before joining MEGADETH, Brazilian guitarist Kiko Loureiro, who was previously best known for his work with ANGRA, and bassist James LoMenzo. James was MEGADETH's bass player in the mid-2000s and stepped back in as a touring member for the 2021 leg of "The Metal Tour Of The Year". In May 2022, it was announced that Lomenzo was officially rejoining the MEGADETH family.

Last September, MEGADETH's latest album, "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!", debuted at the top of the charts during its first week of sales, taking the No. 3 spot on the Billboard 200 as well as number ones on Top Album Sales, Top Current Albums Sales, Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums. "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!" was the highest-charting MEGADETH album of all time around the world, notching No. 1 In Finland, No. 2 in australia, poland, Switzerland, and Scotland, No. 3 in the U.K., and more.

MEGADETH's previous top 10 entries on the Billboard 200 were "Countdown to Extinction" (No. 2, 1992),"Youthanasia" (No. 4, 1994),"Cryptic Writings" (No. 10, 1997),"United Abominations" (No. 8, 2007),"Endgame" (No. 9, 2009),"Super Collider" (No. 6, 2013) and "Dystopia" (No. 3, 2016).

MEGADETH recently received its thirteenth Grammy nomination for "Best Metal Performance" for the song "We'll Be Back" from "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!".

MEGADETH won the 2017 Grammy Award for "Best Metal Performance" for the title track of the band's 2016 album "Dystopia". This marked the group's twelfth Grammy nomination in this category (including nominations in the discontinued "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" category).

In a new interview with Jeff Gaudiosi of MisplacedStraws.com, legendary hard rock singer Jeff Scott Soto (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, TALISMAN, JOURNEY, SONS OF APOLLO, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA) was asked about projects that he has in the works for the coming months. He responded: "Unfortunately, this interview is too soon to speak about it. There is something in the pipeline that I can't talk about. The only thing I can say is in September you're gonna know exactly what I'm talking about. Like I said, it's unfortunate I can't talk about it. I can't even hint about it now, but it's really, really cool. It's something I'm really proud of. I can't wait for the world to hear it and see it. It's not SONS OF APOLLO. It's something totally new for me. From what I hear, we're gonna be blasting throughout the world next year. So it's one of those things that we put a lot of commitment behind and I'm already turning a lot of things down for next year to make room for this… By September, when this drops, the announcement of what it is, it's gonna drop the same day that the music and the video drops. So it's all gonna happen in one day. Nobody knows about this. I'm already saying too much, let's put it that way."

This past March, Jeff heavily implied that he was the singer of the new band formed by ex-VAN HALEN bassist Michael Anthony, BON JOVI guitarist Phil X and current AEROSMITH touring drummer John Douglas.

Anthony, who is currently the bassist for Sammy Hagar's THE CIRCLE, revealed the existence of the project during an appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". When asked if he had any plans to form a new project or band once Hagar has finally retired from performing with THE CIRCLE, Michael said: "Well, I wasn't going to mention anything about it, but there is a little side project thing that I've kind of been speaking to some people, and might be doing a couple of things with. I don't wanna get ahead of myself and mention too much, but it might involve Phil X and John Douglas, who you know as [the touring drummer] for AEROSMITH right now."

Anthony continued: "I've known J.D. for many years, since he's worked with VAN HALEN… What a great guy. And we do have a singer. I don't wanna mention any names, but a really, really cool singer. And we're recording just for fun right now, some stuff. That's all I can say."

A couple of days later, Soto took to his Instagram to share a screenshot of BLABBERMOUTH.NET's original coverage of the project, and he included the following cryptic message: "Hmmm....ummm...no comment =)" When one person asked Jeff, "Who's singer?", he responded: "Read between the lines my friend".

Jeff Scott Soto has more than 60 albums under his belt along with numerous collaborations and recordings. He has established himself as a consummate professional who manages to expertly deliver with his vocal performances across multiple musical genres, from metal to hard rock to progressive rock and even funk. His career spans nearly 30 years, beginning as the vocalist for guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen before coming the frontman for bands such as TALISMAN, SOUL SIRKUS, SONS OF APOLLO (featuring Billy Sheehan, Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian and Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal),as well as an ongoing membership in TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA and a stint as the lead singer for the legendary classic rock band JOURNEY.

In 1994, Soto released his first solo album, "Love Parade", followed years later by the acclaimed "Prism" (2002),then "Lost In The Translation" (2005),"Beautiful Mess" (2009),"Damage Control" (2012),"Retribution" (2017),"Wide Awake (In My Dreamland)" (2020),"The Duets Collection, Vol. 1" (2021) and "Complicated" (2022).

GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna has publicly shared the identity of his new love, Kelly Fedoni. Fedoni is the ex-wife of Deadmau5, a Canadian singer and DJ whose real name is Joel Thomas Zimmerman.

Earlier today, Sully took to his social media to post several photos of him with Fedoni, and he included the following message: "I thought it was time for you all to meet my person.

"As you all know I like to remain fairly private, but I'm always happy to show off the people in my life I love the most. So please know that any rude or mean comments will be deleted and blocked. As I am trusting you, “my dearest fans” to be the loving people that I know you to be.

"Finding someone you Love, Trust, Respect and is your best friend isn't always easy. It takes time, (in my case 55 years) patience, lessons and ALOT of self growth to be ready for it when it arrives. So when you find it ' and you will '… never take it for granted. Be fearless, be vulnerable, and be true to yourself.

"When you're a good person, it's inevitable YOU WILL manifest the best people to compliment your life! She is as solid of a human as they come. And she is mine. So say hello to the other half of me."

Fedoni and Zimmerman reportedly became a couple in 2014 and got married in 2017, one year after a romantic proposal in the Maldives. Among those who attended their wedding was MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee. They split in 2021 after four years of marriage.

Sully has a daughter, Skylar Brook, who was born in December 2001.

I thought it was time for you all to meet my person. 🥰
As you all know I like to remain fairly private, but I'm always...

Posted by Sully Erna on Thursday, July 27, 2023

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DEF LEPPARD has shared the eleventh behind-the-scenes video from the band's "The World Tour", featuring footage from concerts in Dublin, Ireland (July 4) and Glasgow, Scotland (July 6). This episode features an unlikely dressing room, a look back at the Bellville House where drummer Rick Allen, guitarist Phil Collen and guitarist Steve Clark lived and made music in and where Rick re-learned to play drums after he famously lost his left arm to amputation following a near-fatal auto accident in England in 1984. Check out the eight-minute clip below.

Less than two years ago, Allen, who has been expressing himself in recent years through his art, spoke to Joe Rock about one of the main themes of his artwork, which is actually his right arm.

"Not too many people know this, but I broke my right arm really badly [in the 1984 accident], and during the healing process, the hospital, they said, 'There's a chance that you may lose your right arm as well,'" Rick recalled. "So when I was able to get through that horrible period in time and get all the infection out of there and then actually fix the bone and the arm, you can imagine I was so grateful. And I think that's something that speaks to that. The handprint is really, for me, a sign of gratitude, that I can still do what I do. And I put my hand through a lot — from drumming to the artwork and, obviously, everything that I do. So it's pretty symbolic. It's the only one I've got, but I'm really blessed to have it. [Laughs]"

Allen lost his arm after he was thrown through the sunroof of his car, and his left arm got caught in the seatbelt when it came undone during the crash. As a result, the arm was severed from his body. Initially, doctors reattached the arm but they would eventually have to amputate because of an infection.

After Rick's life-altering accident, he had to relearn how to play drums and drum manufacturer Simmons worked with him to build a kit. His DEF LEPPARD bandmates stuck with Allen through the difficult time and the drummer persevered through an accident that would have ended most people's careers.

Allen spoke about his accident during an interview with Modern Drummer. He said: "I remember coming around in the hospital and then realizing what had happened to me after the accident, and honestly, I wanted to disappear. I didn't wanna do this anymore. And then I started getting these letters from all over the world… I got encouragement from everywhere — from my family, from the guys [in the band], from people all over the world. And I don't know what happened, but I discovered the power of the human spirit and just said, 'You know what? I can do this.' It was really a collective thing. It was all this encouragement I was getting from other people, and then it just manifested in wanting to succeed. And that's exactly where it came from."

Rick also talked about the support he received from his bandmates in DEF LEPPARD who stuck by him through his recovery and waited patiently for his return.

"They left the decision to me, whether I wanted to go on or not, and they gave me time to grow and develop, really, a whole new style [of playing]," Allen said. "And that's all I needed — I just needed the time. I needed the time to build my confidence and realize that I could do it. Nobody ever said, 'Well, you have to make a decision now.' I think that was the most important thing — just that time that they gave me just to find myself."

After visiting the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2006, Allen dedicated himself to helping war veterans who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of sustaining injuries similar to his own.

Allen told ABC News in 2012: "I didn't know what my life would be like after that terrible day. It was the darkest time in my life… My desire is to encourage a support system for warriors, de-stigmatize PTSD, share their stories and offers alternative ways to pave the road to resiliency and health."

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, MUDVAYNE frontman Chad Gray reflected on how he first discovered METALLICA's music nearly four decades ago when he was in his early teens. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "I'm always gonna have a special kinship with [METALLICA's second album] 'Ride The Lightning', because I was fortunate enough to have older friends in high school or in whatever fucking grade I was in. I had a friend that was, like, two years older, and he comes up to me and he's got the fucking cassette for fucking 'Ride The Lighting', and he's, like, 'Dude, take this shit home and listen to it. Bring it back to me tomorrow. And if anything happens to this, I will fucking kill you.' I'm, like, okay. I took that fucking album home and listened to it and I'm, like, 'Holy shit.' The next day I bought 'Ride The Lightning'. And then, dude, I was so fucking into it. And then I like start asking around. I'm, like, 'Man, METALLICA rule.' 'Well, they got another album.' 'What?' 'They got an album called 'Kill 'Em All'. 'Oh, fuck, yeah.' … And when I got 'Ride The Lightning', it must have been closer to the end of the cycle [for that album]. So I got 'Ride The Lightning', I got 'Kill 'Em All', and then not long after that, 'Master [Of Puppets]' was released. So it was a fucking pretty small fucking window of time I had three fucking METALLICA records and I was, like, the happiest motherfucker on the planet. So I always will have a connection with 'Ride The Lightning' over the other ones, even though maybe I technically like 'Master Of Puppets' better or '…[And] Justice [For All]'. But 'Ride The Lightning' was my first one."

Gray went on to say that he had a chance to meet the members of METALLICA when MUDVAYNE opened for the James Hetfield-fronted outfit in 2003 as part of the "Summer Sanitarium" tour.

"METALLICA is literally — they're the sweetest fucking people," Chad said. "Dude, for being fucking a hundred-millionaires — like I'm sure they are — they are the most fucking down-to-earth dudes. James Hetfield, the king of fucking everything, is the nicest fucking guy. I remember one time I was in the hallway and he comes walking out of his dressing room. I just stand there, and we just start shooting the shit — you know, very small talk. I think it was the first time I talked to him. Next thing we're talking vocals and shit like that. I'm talking fucking singing with James Hetfield — one of my biggest vocal influences, by the way."

Chad continued: "What James did that I have — what a lot of us have that are under him — is what I call 'yellody'. That's what James did. He was a yellody guy. [Singing lyrics from METALLICA's 'Master Of Puppets' song] 'End of passion play, crumbling away' — that's fucking full voice. He's literally yelling those lyrics. I do that in a lot of my music or whatever. So that's how he influenced me.

"But yeah, I'm sitting there talking shop with him, man, I'm talking vocals with James fucking Hetfield. Are you kidding me? And he gives me, he's, like, 'You know, man, I use these little things, these little Pastilles. You put 'em in your mouth and you suck on 'em and they stick to the back of your teeth.' I'm, like, 'Oh, wow, I've never heard of that.' He's, like, 'Hold on a second.' He goes in his room and he comes back out and he hands me a box of 'em. He's like, 'Yeah, just put 'em in your mouth. You just slide 'em up on the side of your teeth. They stick and it creates saliva for you while you're singing.'

"He's just a fucking great guy, man," Gray added. "He's a really cool dude. And not only just being insanely fucking loaded, he is like the godfather of metal — he really is. His fucking picking hand — all the great fucking guitar players have modeled their right hand from his right hand. He is the fastest down-picking motherfucker on the planet. Scott Ian [ANTHRAX], Dimebag [Darrell Abbott of PANTERA] — fucking, you name it. People literally [focused] on his right hand. And lyrics? Lyrically, he's a fucking beast. He told stories about the fucking plague, about this, about that. And he's the songwriter, man. I guarantee you all those riffs are his riffs. Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] is, like, even with him because Lars kicks a beat to what he writes, but at the end of the day, Lars is a drummer and James Hetfield's James fucking Hetfield, and you can't touch that shit. [Laughs]"

MUDVAYNE kicked off its first headlining tour in over 14 years, "The Psychotherapy Sessions", on July 20 at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Florida. Support on the 26-city trek, which is produced by Live Nation, is coming from COAL CHAMBER, along with GWAR, NONPOINT and BUTCHER BABIES.

Previously, MUDVAYNE made waves in 2022 when they embarked on the "Freaks On Parade" tour co-headlined with ROB ZOMBIE. This 2023 tour, however, marks MUDVAYNE's first headlining endeavor since 2009.

MUDVAYNE formed in 1996 and has sold over six million records worldwide, earning gold certification for three albums ("L.D. 50", "The End Of All Things To Come", "Lost And Found"). The band is known for its sonic experimentation, innovative album art, face and body paint, masks and uniforms. MUDVAYNE is Gray (vocals),Greg Tribbett (guitar, backing vocals),Matthew McDonough (drums, synthesizer) and Ryan Martinie (bass).

Gray has spent the past 17 years fronting HELLYEAH, which released its sixth studio album, "Welcome Home", in September 2019 via Eleven Seven Music. The disc marked the group's final effort with drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, who passed away more than five years ago.