Brace yourself for an emotional journey as Evig Natt unveils their latest single, “At The End Of The Night”, the third offering from their highly anticipated album, Vaketimen, due for release via Wormholedeath

This powerful track delves deep into themes of loss, peace, and solace, offering a glimmer of comfort in life’s darkest moments. Whether the words feel like a voice from within or faint whispers from a lost loved one, “At The End Of The Night” seeks to provide emotional resonance and understanding during times of grief.

Accompanying the single is a captivating music video that narrates the harrowing journey of a young woman facing the ultimate nightmare. As she confronts her greatest fears, the video leaves us questioning: Will she overcome her inner demons, or will she succumb to the shadows?

Stream “At The End Of The Night” now on all digital digital platforms.

After an intensive touring schedule for Shock To The System, Tower hit the studio with acclaimed producer and engineer Arthur Rizk (also guitarist for Eternal Champion/Sumerlands) in fall of 2024 to record their third album, Let There Be Dark.

It will be issued by Cruz Del Sur, with the single, “Under The Chapel” schedule to hit the streets on February 21.



According to the band, Let There Be Dark was influenced by the current foreboding state of the world. The single is an ominous hymn that cascades through a nightmarish dreamscape, amplified with backing vocals by Eternal Champion’s Jason Tarpey.

“The song’s lyrics and melody were inspired by a Yiddish lullaby my grandmother would sing to me as a child,” says frontwoman Sarabeth Linden. “It always felt extremely haunting. It was really cool to use that as inspiration and also pay homage to my grandmother and my heritage.”

The 7”, and accompanying music video, will be released just in time for Tower’s return to the stage in select European cities. “These [last 4 years] years have hardened and matured us if nothing else,” says guitarist James Danzo. “I hear less rock ‘n roll influence in our music now. We went from straddling the fence between rock and metal to landing squarely on the metal side.” “I agree with James with how we’ve grown and matured as a band,” adds Linden.

“However, rock ‘n’ roll is here to stay! And the rock definitely still influences our music, at least lyrically and melodically speaking. I believe we’ve gained more confidence, especially when it comes to taking more risks in songwriting and recording in the studio.”

Tracklisting:

“Under The Chapel”
“Let There Be Dark”
“Holy Water”
“And I Cry”
“The Well Of Souls”
“Book Of The Hidden”
“Legio X Fretensis”
“Iron Clad”
“Don’t You Say”
“The Hammer”

Music On Vinyl has announced the March 14 release of Cheap Trick – The Complete Epic Albums Collection.

The Complete Epic Albums Collection is a 14 LP boxset containing all their albums that have been released under Epic Records from 1977-1990. It contains all studio albums from this period, the full 2LP live Budokan concert, and Found All The Parts EP. This is our largest boxset ever released, and the largest boxset the band ever brought forward. Under Epic Records, Cheap Trick experienced their most successful years with multiple albums receiving Platinum and Gold certifications. Their success took audiences all over the world with massive hits such as “Surrender”, “The Flame” and “I Want You To Want Me”.

The Cheap Trick Epic Albums Collection is available as a limited edition of 1,000 numbered copies on crystal clear vinyl. The package comes in a deluxe slipcase and includes a 4-page booklet.



Highlights:

• 180 gram audiophile vinyl
• 14 LP deluxe boxset containing thirteen albums
• Includes 4-page booklet
• Contains all their studio albums released under Epic Records from 1977-1990
• Also includes the full live Budokan concert and Found All The Parts EP
• Limited edition of 1000 numbered copies on crystal clear vinyl

In an interview with Greg Prato for Ultimate-Guitar.com, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal shared some of the details behind his involvement with Guns N’ Roses, particularly the making of the Chinese Democracy album. Read below.

With some rock fans regarding it as Axl Rose’s solo release, Chinese Democracy is one of the most controversial records in the genre. Not in terms of its music being subpar – which it certainly isn’t – but just the fact it took almost an entire decade to record. Released in 2008, it featured a revolving lineup of musicians, with songs technically featuring a variety of different names. Apart from Bumblefoot, the personnel on this record also included Buckethead, Richard Fortus, Robin Finck, and Dizzy Reed, just to name a few.

We recently caught up with Bumblefoot as he’s promoting his new solo record, Bumblefoot…Returns!, which came out on January 4. The guitar maestro took some time to share a few details behind the creation of this Guns N’ Roses album.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: What was it like to work with Axl Rose on the Chinese Democracy album?

Bumblefoot: “That was something! We would do like a three-month leg of touring, and then in the time in between, in 2006, 2007, we would go into either Electric Lady in Manhattan or places in the LA area, and I would be with Caram [Costanzo], who was hands-on producing. And I’d bring a bunch of guitars, and we’d have amps and just experiment. I would lay, God, like 100 layers of possibilities for songs that were very close to finished. And you want to come up with something that has value to the song, but doesn’t step on what’s already there.

“So, we would just try all different things for each song, like 14 hours a day one song, maybe we’ll get to a second one. Where I’d try something bluesy, try something little more nasty and attitudey, something more technical, something with wah, something just clean, something strummy, something single note, something melody.

“And then with Axl, they would decide what works, what doesn’t, what should be there, what should be prominent, what should be background. And they did what producers do. They did what they thought was best for the songs. And they would splice things.”

Sharon Osbourne spoke to Birmingham Live about BLACK SABBATH's upcoming reunion concert, which will take place on July 5 in the band's original hometown of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Ozzy Osbourne and the rest of the original BLACK SABBATH lineup — guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward — will perform one last time as part a fundraising event at Villa Park, featuring a host of bands they inspired, including METALLICA, PANTERA, SLAYER, GOJIRA and ANTHRAX.

The concert, dubbed "Back To The Beginning", was announced at Villa Park on Wednesday (February 5) by Sharon and Tony.

Proceeds from the show will support Cure Parkinson's, the Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorn Children's Hospice, a Children's Hospice supported by Aston Villa.

The concert will mark the first time that Osbourne, Iommi, Butler and Ward have played together in 20 years.

Ozzy, who revealed in 2020 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, will play a short solo set before joining his SABBATH bandmates for the show's finale, marking his last-ever concert.

Asked what had to happen to make the SABBATH reunion possible, Sharon told Birmingham Live: "I left that to Ozzy. He's in constant contact with Tony and Geezer. And Bill too. They talk all the time.

"Ozzy said 'I'm going to do my goodnight gig, my farewell, and would you come up and do SABBATH with me'," she explained. "He couldn't do it on his own. And they all said yes. When they heard it was for charity, it was easy."

Regarding the all-star lineup of bands that will perform at the concert, Sharon said: "I think it's the best metal gig ever. It's easy when you have such good friends and friends that support you. We've known these guys for years and years and many of them were passed the torch by SABBATH. It goes down the line. When you need them, they come."

"For Ozzy, it's goodnight to his fans," she added. "The other guys in SABBATH will go on to their various projects but for Ozzy, it's definitely farewell.

"Our friends want to come, and they know it's for charity, so it's brilliant. It's a win-win for everybody... But especially the fans."

Addressing Ozzy's health issues and how they might affect his ability to perform in July, Sharon said: "It's going to take a lot of physical energy for Ozzy. It takes a lot for someone with Parkinson's. But we feel so proud of all Ozzy has achieved, and all he's overcome. I'm proud of him, and I'm happy for him.

"He's overwhelmed. He's very overwhelmed by the response of his friends. He said, 'Wow, they're doing this for me?'

"When you've got your peers, and your friends with you, there's nothing bigger. Well, aside from fans, of course. They come first."

Earlier in the week, Ozzy discussed his health on his SiriusXM radio show. "I have made it to 2025," he said. "I can't walk, but you know what I was thinking over the holidays? For all my complaining, I'm still alive.”

"I may be moaning that I can't walk but I look down the road and there's people that didn't do half as much as me and didn't make it," he added.

On Wednesday, Sharon told BBC News about Ozzy: "He's doing great. He's doing really great. He's so excited about this, about being with the guys again and all his friends. It's exciting for everyone."

According to Sharon, Ozzy, who paused touring "for now" in 2023 after extensive spinal surgery and rescheduled his "No More Tours 2" shows from going ahead several times because of illness, the pandemic and logistical issues, will not play any more shows after the Villa Park event.

"Ozzy didn't have a chance to say goodbye to his friends, to his fans, and he feels there's no been no full stop," she explained. "This is his full stop."

In addition, there will be a performance by a "supergroup of musicians" including Duff McKagan and Slash (GUNS 'N' ROSES),Billy Corgan (THE SMASHING PUMPKINS),Fred Durst (LIMP BIZKIT),K.K. Downing (JUDAS PRIEST),Jake E. Lee (OZZY OSBOURNE),Wolfgang Van Halen (VAN HALEN, MAMMOTH WVH) and Tom Morello (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE).

"It's an endless amount of people," said Sharon. "They're going to be doing some SABBATH songs, some Ozzy songs, and they'll all mix together. Different little groups will be coming on, but they're all icons."

The original lineup of BLACK SABBATH last performed in 2005. Since then, SABBATH has played in partial reunions but never in its original lineup.

"For Ozzy right now, it's definitely: 'I love you and good night'," Sharon told Reuters.

She added that Ozzy was doing well and excited about the gig. "It's stimulated him," she said. "He's very, very excited and very thankful that he can do it."

Tickets will go on sale on February 14.

BLACK SABBATH is considered a pioneer of heavy metal and was formed in 1968 in Aston, Birmingham.

BLACK SABBATH has sold over 75 million albums worldwide and were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2006, awarded a Lifetime Ivor Novello Songwriting Award in 2015 and were presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

The band has a star on the Broad Street Walk Of Stars in Birmingham, alongside individual stars in their own right, together with a bench in their honor.

In February 2017, SABBATH finished "The End" tour in Birmingham, closing out the quartet's groundbreaking 49-year career.

"The End" was SABBATH's last tour because Iommi — who was diagnosed with lymphoma in late 2011 — can no longer travel for extended amounts of time.

Iommi revealed his cancer diagnosis in early 2012, shortly after SABBATH announced a reunion tour and album. He underwent treatment throughout the recording of the disc, titled "13", and the subsequent tour to promote it.

The BLACK SABBATH guitarist successfully underwent an operation in January 2017 to remove a noncancerous lump from his throat.

"13" was the first album in 35 years to feature Iommi, Osbourne and Butler all playing together.

Ward was on board for the SABBATH reunion when it was first announced 13 years ago, but backed out soon after. The drummer later claimed that he sat out the recording and touring sessions because of unfair contractual terms, although the members of SABBATH have hinted in other interviews that he wasn't physically up to the task.

All four original members of SABBATH were present when the band announced its final reunion in late 2011. But Ward split from the group in 2012, citing an "unsignable" contract, and Osbourne, Iommi and Butler carried on with their Rick Rubin–produced "13" LP and extensive international touring without him.

Onward guitarist, Toby Knapp, recently reactivated his speed metal project, Where Evil Follows, recruiting new vocalist Ben Riggs and signing with Stormspell Records in the process.



Where Evil Follows released one album, Portable Darkness, on Moribund Records in 2015 and was considered a darker, more aggressive spin off of his most celebrated band, Onward.

“Then I got bored and did Waxen, a solo album, Affliktor and Necrytis albums all within a year. All on different record labels. I can’t stick with one thing for too long because something always comes along and inspires something else. It’s confusing to the people who listen to my stuff ‘what the hell is he doing now’ and I have a habit of abandoning projects at the drop of a dime. I get writer’s block and switch gears or I’ll stagnate. I like too many genres of heavy metal and sometimes it’s to a fault.”

The guitarist continues: “I’ll want to do instrumental music and then it switches to black or even death metal. I’ll want to do heavy rock, progressive metal or straight forward 80s heavy metal. I’m a musical schizophrenic. This Where Evil Follows album is finished on my part, crazy melodic speed/heavy metal and my mind is already moving into a Gary Moore, Robin Trower direction for what comes next. Luckily this album is coming to fruition, along with a new Waxen album and an instrumental EP which will be a split cd with a great guitarist, Thomas Amorellio. A few exciting things are coming up which I’ll discuss later.”

Where Evil Follows vocalist Benjamin Riggs has been a friend of Knapp since the early nineties.

“He texted me out of the blue one day while I was working on this music with no vocalist in mind. Ben asked if I was interested in working together and I said, ‘actually I’ve got some music to send you right now!'”

Ben has had a long history in the metal business playing in Forced Religion with Knapp and then moving on to bands such as Arcanium (guitar), Sault and Draghoria (vocals).

Where Evil Follows sophomore album, Ruination Revelation, will be released by Stormspell Records later this year.

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, the supergroup featuring legendary vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes (DEEP PURPLE, BLACK SABBATH),guitarist Joe Bonamassa, drummer Jason Bonham (LED ZEPPELIN) and keyboardist Derek Sherinian (DREAM THEATER, ALICE COOPER, BILLY IDOL),has shared "never-before-seen" professionally filmed video of some of the band's past live performances, including at the 2024 installment of the Keeping The Blues Alive At Sea cruise, which sailed from Miami to Cozumel, Mexico from March 18-22, 2024. Check it out below.

As previously reported, BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION will embark on a European tour in June 2025. The trek will be a combination of headline shows in the Germany, The Netherlands, Austria and Czech Republic, as well as festival appearances such as Sweden Rock and Poland's Rock Legends.

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION is touring in support of its fifth studio album, "V", which came out in June 2024.

Resonating with the band's signature fusion of hard rock and soul-stirring blues, "V" stands as a testament to BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION's growth and mutual admiration, symbolizing their commitment to producing music that is authentic, heartfelt, and reflective of their shared experiences and vast musical expertise.

"This band allows me to embrace all of it," commented Bonamassa. "It's funny because the four musicians up here — everybody brings a certain thing to this that’s very specific. Every part is irreplaceable. For me, it's about playing old-style rock guitar, loud."

Hughes added: "We make music for the five of us. We make music that we love and like, hoping it registers with everyone else. We don't make it for record companies, or this guy or that guy." Sherinian credits producer Kevin Shirley for keeping the band's creative energies focused, adding, "We've got to give Kevin Shirley massive credit because he controls. He keeps it all flowing."

During an appearance on an August 2023 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", Hughes stated about the musical direction of the new BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION material: "It sounds like BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION. There's not too many left turns, there's nothing happening that's weirdly different. We followed a vibe of the first four albums, so it it's an extension, but it's really a progression, if you can call it a progression. Everybody's playing out of their skin. The vibe in the camp has never been so friendly and fun. It's a really, really great vibe in the band. And we had a great time at Sunset Sound [studios] in Hollywood. And I can't wait for you to hear it."

Bonamassa told "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about the new BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION album: "The thing about BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, whether you like the way we sound or not, when we all get together, it has a very specific thing that it does. Everybody brings a very specific thing to the table, and it's a special band."

According to Joe, he brought the BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION members back together to make the follow-up to "BCCIV", which was released in September 2017 and marked BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION's first studio effort since 2013's "Afterglow". "I was the one that kind of initiated the text, be, like, 'Hey, is there anybody interested in doing a fifth one?'" he said. "And Derek got back to me. Jason got back to me pretty quickly. And Glenn called me and said, 'I can't do anything until this DEAD DAISIES situation goes one way or the next.' And I said, 'Fair enough.' So when Glenn left THE DEAD DAISIES [in 2022], that was kind of the green light for us to get back together."

Regarding the songwriting process for BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION's fifth album and how it compared to that on the band's previous efforts, Joe said: "This was the same. I went over to Glenn's house about six times and we hashed out some ideas — pretty rough, loose ideas. Nothing in stone. And so I had a playlist on my phone, voice memos, BCC 1 through 10. And that was it. So, so day one, we just [said], 'Okay, let's start with BCC 1.' And we sat in the courtyard at Sunset Sound — they have this really nice courtyard with a bunch of chairs — and we sat out there with an acoustic guitar and a couple of things and we just bashed out the arrangement. We were, like, 'Okay, that's cool.' We went in, played it three or four times and that was it. Nobody charted anything; we just kind of memorized it and did it. And we would go into the control room, listen a little bit, maybe tweak something, but once it fired up and after the second day, we really hit our stride, going, 'Okay, the band's back.' 'Cause we hadn't played together in six years."

As for the recording process for the new BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION disc, Joe said: "There's not a lot of overdubs. I rarely double the guitars, 'cause Glenn's bass sound is so big and distorted, you know what I mean? It's, like, why do I need to double the guitar? Same thing with Derek. It's almost like playing in the band FREE. All of the sound comes from the four of us. And Jason takes up a huge amount of bandwidth; he's such a big drummer."

In a September 2022 interview with Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3, Bonamassa stated about what it is about a "band situation" that appeals to him, considering he has spent most of his career as a solo artist: "I like nothing more than to be a member of a band and playing guitar. I don't have to front it; I don't have to sing all the time. And it's a lot less pressure than being the front person. Being the person in front is a special skillset. You have to be an entertainer. You can't just sit up there and stare at your guitar and go, 'Wow. Look, I can play guitar pretty good.' That's not gonna fill the theater. You have to put on a show. And to put on a show requires being an entertainer. So being in a band, the sum of the parts is greater than the single entity. So this thing where Glenn co-fronts BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, I can just sit back and play rhythm guitar and watch him do his thing. He's a legend. And then conversely, Glenn doesn't have to sing all night; I'll sing three or four [songs]. So we kind of spread out the whole workload a little bit."

BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION's inception took place when Hughes and Bonamassa fused their styles on stage in Los Angeles for an explosive performance at Guitar Center's King Of The Blues event. With the help and guidance of Shirley, they further added to their rock lineage by recruiting Bonham and Sherinian.

In a 2017 interview, Hughes talked about the chemistry between the BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION members, especially since all the musicians have had successful careers prior to launching the group.

"This band was meant to be," Glenn said. "It was formed out of a friendship with Joe and I. We got the [other] guys to come in, and it's always been a strong brotherhood. And we're just very lucky and fortunate to have met. I've known Jason since he was [a kid]. I just think that these four guys in this band are the right guys to play in the band."

In a new interview with Tom Cridland of the Greatest Music Of All Time podcast, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons was asked why he thinks rock music is no longer as "fashionable" as it once was. He responded in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's the business and who the fans are. The people that buy rock are predominately white. Although it's still vibrant in stadiums across the world — [IRON] MAIDEN does very well live and METALLICA and so on, but these are old, old bands. We took IRON MAIDEN on their first tour. We took BON JOVI on their first tour. We took AC/DC on their first tour.

"You can't find a new big rock band," he continued. "They don't exist. Name one, if you can think. FOO FIGHTERS, it's a big band, and that's 30 years ago. And that has to do with the fans, who's buying it. So once you could get that music for free, the business model stopped working."

Asked why he thinks that favored pop and rap as opposed to rock music, Gene said: "Because younger pop fans, predominantly — there are so many great pop singers; Ariana Grande is really fabulous — she can imitate anybody, a great artist. And there's Dua Lipa, and there's a lot of them. But the fanbase are young females. So a lot of it has to do with souvenirs. I don't wanna come off like Professor Of Rock, Professor Of Music, but if you study it, there are reasons why things are happening. If you like that music, 'Oh, I kind of like that,' and then they're different business models. So you can actually sell some units if you're a rap band, because it's culture. Rap is culture, not just music. In fact, it's more culture, often racial culture, because it talks about 'us' — 'us against them' or 'the world against us'. And when culture gets into it, like a football team — football or soccer or whatever you wanna call it is not as much a sport as it is flying the colors of 'my team.' In fact, you're willing to beat the crap out of somebody who roots for the other team."

Gene added: "It is in your favor if you have a fanbase that feels like they're connected and they have the flag, like in soccer. That is tribalism. It doesn't have to be mean-spirited. It's an identity. 'Swiftie' [movement consisting of fans of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift] is a culture. They're not just fans. She stands for something. When you think about it, above and beyond the music and the lyrics and so on — 'This guy broke my heart' — and these songs that Swifties love, above that is her as the Jesus of the movement, if you see what I mean. I mean, what's Christianity as a movement, religion, without Jesus, right? So you need these leaders, these apostles at the top to encapsulate what the culture and that thing is about. So the thing that Taylor has is Swifties…"

Simmons went on to say: "[Lady] Gaga, I think, is more talented than all the others because her songs and her are, 'I was born this way.' And so the music is not just — and I don't mean 'fluff' in a bad way, because there's some wonderful fluff stuff. A lot of the British Invasion was all these great songs that you sang meant nothing. But when a song is saying [singing] 'you want a revolution', the song is about something. And so if you have a body of work that's about something, you get the beginnings of tribalism. And if you're the embodiment of that tribe, now you've got something. Yes, Gaga's fanbase is about that. And of course, she's widened her thing by doing pop, Tony Bennett, and all this stuff. She's the real deal. She's got the musical chops. She can play, sing; [she is a] chanteuse."

While rock 'n' roll has been king of the music world for decades, in the past few years, it's been unseated by the growing popularity of hip-hop. This has caused many pundits to proclaim the genre "dead" from an industry perspective, noting that it has been eclipsed in all measures by pop, hip-hop, and EDM.

Simmons previously spoke about rock's supposed diminishing status during a December 2024 appearance on The Zak Kuhn Show. Asked if rock and roll is "still dead", Simmons replied: "It is. And people don't understand how I can say that when we all have our favorite songs and we love our favorite bands — you and I and everybody else. But what I mean is that… Well, let's play a game, and I've done this before. From 1958 until 1988, that's 30 years. 30 years. So what came during that period? Well, we had Elvis [Presley], we had THE BEATLES, THE [ROLLING] STONES, Jimi Hendrix, all that, PINK FLOYD, the solo artists, David Bowie and just music that lasts forever, we'd like to think. In the disco world, you had Madonna, more heavy guitars, you had — Oh God — AC/DC and everybody else, AEROSMITH and on and on. And you had Motown at the same time. You had Prince. It was a very, very rich musical menu. It could go up and down. You had prog bands, you had YES, GENESIS, GENTLE GIANT, and you had the heavy bands, LED ZEPPELIN and so on. And from 1988 until today, it's something like almost 40 years, certainly 35 years. Who are the new BEATLES?"

When host Zak Kuhn mentioned NIRVANA, Gene said: "Stop. We are blinded. I'm a major fan. If you walked down the street and asked a 20-year-old, 'Who's the bass player in NIRVANA?', they wouldn't know what you're talking about. Or, 'Can you sing a NIRVANA song?' No, no. THE BEATLES and, to slightly lesser extent, THE STONES and Elvis, everybody knew THE BEATLES. If you hated rock music, you knew about them. By the way, I'm delusional enough to believe some market reports about how the KISS faces are the most recognized faces on the planet. And I've tried this before. You walk down the street, randomly ask people, 'Who's on Mount Rushmore?' They'll say, 'Uh, Elvis.' They won't get it, but they know those four faces anywhere you go. They may hate the band, but you can't deny that. So NIRVANA, one of my favorite bands. If you ask somebody who's 20 or something, there's a generation gap, 'Name a song,' they wouldn't be able to tell you. 'Who's the bass player?' No idea. And by the way, I know that because one of the other samples is my son, who's no longer that age when he was a little bit over 20. He saw a cute girl — he's telling me the story — he saw a cute girl, so he's trying to open up the conversation, and she's wearing a ROLLING STONES t-shirt that's got the tongue on it, and on top of the t-shirt it actually says, 'THE ROLLING STONES.' And he walks up, and his first line is, 'Oh, so you're a fan, huh?' And she says something like, 'Yeah. Of what?' And Nick, my son, says, 'You know, THE STONES.' She goes, 'THE STONES?' He goes, 'Yeah, THE ROLLING STONES.' She goes, 'THE ROLLING STONES? What's that? A band?' Nick says, 'Are you kidding? You're wearing their t-shirt.' And he was telling me she looked down — upside down, I guess, because it's facing [him] — and she goes, 'Oh, oh, I just like the shirt. I just like the t-shirt. And Nick said, 'You must know THE ROLLING STONES. You know 'Satisfaction'.' [hums riff] 'Nope. Never heard it.' He went through a few other songs. Never heard those songs. And he said, 'You've never heard of Mick Jagger?' And she said, 'Mick Jagger? Oh yeah, yeah. I heard…' What I'm about to tell you, my hand to God, is true. No exaggeration. She goes, 'Mick Jagger. Oh, yeah, the serial killer.' Anything you think is commonplace that the masses know, they don't. Very few things everybody knows.

After Simmons asked Kuhn to name two other bands that could be the new BEATLES, Zak brought up PEARL JAM and FOO FIGHTERS, prompting Gene to say: "Not on your life. Of course, I love FOO FIGHTERS. I love those bands. Mike McCready told me he was growing up with those KISS records. In fact, one of his solos … he took note for note from Ace Frehley. But that's not my point. My point is if you randomly walk down the street and you ask the first young person you meet, a 20-year-old, and you say, 'Name me anybody in PEARL JAM,' good luck with that. 'Name me or tell me a song. Hum a song.' They [can't].

"You and I are blinded because we're very close to it," Simmons continued. "So here's something the rest of the world knows, but we don't. Who's the prime minister of England? Tell me who the prime minister of France is. Tell me who the prime minister of Canada is. And by the way, next to PEARL JAM and NIRVANA, strangely, Dave Grohl has become far more popular. They may know Dave because he's done TV commercials and sort of rubbed shoulders with people outside of guitars and concerts. That's how you get to be iconic. So if I say Snoop Dogg, everybody knows who that is, but if you mention other rappers who might actually be bigger rap stars — M.C. Criminal or whatever; I just made that up — the masses wouldn't have any idea. It's because Snoop plays in media — he had a TV show with Martha Stewart, and that kind of thing. So the masses have no idea who's in PHISH, one of my favorite bands, or PEARL JAM. They wouldn't have a clue, unless you're a fan."

Circling back to his belief that everybody knows the KISS characters even if they don't necessarily love the band's music, Gene said: "Not everybody loves Jesus either. That's not the point. Fame itself is the ultimate reward. Everybody's not gonna like you, but they know you. We have a photographer who's been with us for — I don't know — 40 or 50 years, and he's done everybody — THE STONES and ZEPPELIN, everybody. And he's a real music aficionado. He collects posters and stuff. He hates THE BEATLES, always has — can't stand listening to them — but he knows who they are: John, Paul, George, Ringo. You know who Jesus is. Not everybody likes him. Even the people that hate the idea of it, they've heard of the name and they know who he is. Fame is the ultimate reward."

The "rock is dead" argument has popped up again and again throughout the years, including in 2018 after MAROON 5 lead singer Adam Levine told Variety magazine that "rock music is nowhere, really. I don't know where it is," he said. "If it's around, no one's invited me to the party. All of the innovation and the incredible things happening in music are in hip-hop. It's better than everything else. Hip-hop is weird and avant-garde and flawed and real, and that's why people love it."

More than a decade ago, Simmons told Esquire magazine that "rock did not die of old age. It was murdered. Some brilliance, somewhere, was going to be expressed and now it won't because it's that much harder to earn a living playing and writing songs. No one will pay you to do it."

A number of hard rock and heavy metal musicians have weighed in on the topic in a variety of interviews over the last several years, with some digging a little deeper into Simmons's full remarks and others just glossing over the headline.

With the song “The Final Enemy”, Carnal Forge is back with a new, violent release with a mix of fierce thrash and melodic death metal. Crushing aggression combined with melody and technical and fast aggressive riffing. The song is taken from the EP, The Fractured Process, that will be released on March 7, 2025, via ViciSolum Productions. Check out “The Final Enemy” lyric video below, or listen to the song at the digital platform of your choice.



The new EP mixes fierce thrash and melodic death metal. Aggression combined with melody and technical, fast, aggressive riffing is always in focus. But it was not obvious nor certain that anything would ever come into fruition… as a lot has happened along the way.

The follow-up to 2019’s Gun To Mouth Salvation was recorded shortly after, and was ready for release in 2020, but then Covid hit the world and put a halt to basically everything, resulting in the completion of the recording to stop and two members dropping out along the way, eager to move forward. Jari Kuusisto to form his own death band Farsoth, and Lawrence Dinamarca to join forces with Scar Symmetry. Petri becoming a father and Lars in the middle of a Cancer treatment has been slowing the process down and resulted in a number of songs being discarded but now it is time to move forward again and put the pieces together.

The band comments:

Lars Lindén: “The fact that we lost two members doesn’t really change anything negative for those of us who are left. Petri and I are used to people coming and going and sometimes visions diverge. For my part, I’m glad I’m alive, fighting cancer for nearly two years and happy that we could finally take this step, now looking forward to the writing of the next real album.”

Petri Kuusito: “I haven’t thought much about only having three songs left. Of course, it would have been nice to get a whole album out but given the circumstances I am still happy to get out what we have left. I feel that it is music that I can really stand for, I always like to combine melody with aggression and want to capture some kind of feeling, partly with the melodic but also in the more technical and fast more aggressive riffing. I have always thought that quality must come before quantity and then it can sometimes take longer, but sometimes you need a kick in the ass to get going.”

Tommie Wahlberg: “The last four years have been rough in many ways, and a lot has happened, both good and bad. It’s going to be really fun to get our songs out now that everything has settled down again. As for the lyrics, it’s about our inner torments and fears, the broken things that we’re constantly working on fixing in order to function. And the inevitable things we must face within ourselves to win. Overall, it’s fun to be back, I hope you like what we have with us.”



Tracklisting:

“The Final Enemy”
“Fragment Of Sanity”
“Ready To Burn”

The Fractured Process:

“Carnal Forge still ripping it up after 28 years in the game, super proud to have fronted this beast of a band since the formation in -97 up until 2004. The band has evolved a lot since I left 20 years ago! Just heard some new tunes with the band and I must say it’s the best Carnal Forge I ever heard, totally crushing/thrashing with catchy hooks and killer riffs, I love it you probably will too!” – Jonas Kjellgren

“Carnal Forge obviously have been really busy inside their butcher shop, chopping up another succulent serving of their most tender pieces of meat! These three new songs hit me harder than a porterhouse steak roundkick from Chuck Norris!” – Peter Tuthill

“Carnal Forge is back! These new songs are pure ‘no filler’ just killer tunes filled with all the goods you’d come to expect from the Meat Forgers. No clean vocals, no over the top schlager choruses… just the meat and bones… just the way the Doctor ordered.” – Jens C Mortensen

In an interview for the latest issue of Classic Rock magazine, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson insisted that he and his bandmates would rather "bow out with dignity" than put on a show that's not up to par. "The idea that you can turn it into the Disneyland MAIDEN by using backing tracks, a few tricks… No!" Dickinson said, according to Guitar.com. "MAIDEN has to be one hundred per cent real — and fucking fierce!"

The now 66-year-old Dickinson added that MAIDEN will continue to play its live shows 100 percent live.

"Only recently this guy, a big fan, said to me: 'It's so great to see MAIDEN still doing it,'" he recalled. "I said: 'Yeah, and we're doing it for real. There's no detuning.' This guy said: 'Lots of bands use backing tracks now…' I said: 'No! No, no! [If we use backing tracks,] that's the day I quit. Or the day we stop. If it's not real, it's not MAIDEN."

Bruce recounted the same conversation with a fan last fall during an appearance on the "Rich Roll" podcast. He said at the time: "We still play all the songs in the original key. We don't detune. We don't do anything like that on any of the songs. And this guy was saying, he said, 'Oh yeah, but you've be going around for years. All these bands now, they all detune and they all use backing tracks and they all use…' I said, 'Okay, stop right there. No. We're not gonna do that because it's not authentic. It's not real.' You start to get into the world of Disney World now. So, no. If I can't do it the way I should be doing it, I shouldn't be doing it at all."

Bruce previously touched upon the prospect of using backing tracks in an October 2023 interview with Australia's Triple M radio station. He said at the time: "We still play all the songs in the original key; we don't drop, downtune and stuff like that. We still play everything too fast, because we're all excited. We've never played to click tracks or like time code and everything else now, 'cause I see a lot of bands now, and I'm going, 'Hang on a minute. Hey, you sang that without moving your lips.' So there's all this backing vocals being flown in left, right and center and everything. But we don't do any of that. Everything is analog and real. So we are kind of old school in that respect. But I think that pays dividends 'cause the audience understand that reality is increasingly kind of rare now."

In recent years, more and more artists have been given a pass for relying on pre-recorded tracks, drum triggers and other assorted technology that makes concerts more synthetic but also more consistent. For better or worse, pre-recorded tracks are becoming increasingly common for touring artists of all levels and genres and they're not just used in pop music — many rock artists utilize playback tracks to varying degrees.

In a 2019 interview with New York Post, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith said that he didn't "agree" with certain rock artists relying on pre-recorded tracks during their live performances. Asked if he feels that a reliance on backing tracks is alarming, Smith said: "I tell you what, I see it with a lot of younger bands, and I don't think it's a good thing at all. I mean, the music is getting too technical now. You have computerized recording systems, which we use, but I think we use them more for convenience than because we need to. We've toured with a couple bands that use tapes — it's not real. You're supposed to play live; it should be live. I don't agree with using tapes … I think it's a real shame."

IRON MAIDEN drummer Nicko McBrain announced his retirement on December 7, 2024 in a statement on MAIDEN's web site and social media. The 72-year-old British musician, whose real name is Michael Henry McBrain, also said that night's concert at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil would mark his final show with the iconic rock band.

Despite the fact that he is stepping away from touring, McBrain said that he will remain closely connected to IRON MAIDEN and continue to be involved in "a variety of projects" with the band, while also focusing on personal ventures and his existing businesses.

On December 8, 2024, IRON MAIDEN announced Simon Dawson as its new touring drummer. Dawson is a former session drummer and MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris's longtime bandmate in BRITISH LION.

The São Paulo performance marked the the final show of IRON MAIDEN's "The Future Past" world tour, which began in May 2023.

MAIDEN will return to the road in 2025 for the "Run For Your Lives" world tour, which is scheduled to launch in May.

Celebrating 50 years of Iron Maiden with exclusive all-new interviews - only in the new issue of Classic Rock.

Also in...

Posted by Classic Rock Magazine on Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Guitarist Jeff Loomis and drummer Van Williams have offered an update on the return of their longtime band NEVERMORE. Bassist Jim Sheppard isn't involved with the reunion, which was initially teased on December 27, 2024 via a one-minute video containing various NEVERMORE-related imagery and silhouettes of Loomis and drummer Van Williams along with the text "Resurrecting The Dream". The teaser ended with the NEVERMORE logo along with the line "A New Chapter Rises" and the year "2025".

On December 31, 2024, Loomis and Williams announced that they were holding open auditions for the new NEVERMORE vocalist and bassist. They also defended the NEVERMORE reunion from criticism from Sheppard, who co-founded the band in 1991 with singer Dane. Dane died in December 2017 at the age of 56.

On Friday, February 7, Jeff and Van shared the following statement via social media: "The final tally is in—we've received over 650 submissions from bass players and singers around the world! We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who put in the time and effort to be part of this process. Your passion and dedication mean a lot to us.

"We're now actively reviewing each submission and giving them the attention they deserve. As we move forward, those selected to continue to the next phase will be notified. Likewise, those who won't be moving on will also receive a response. We appreciate your patience and respect for the process as we work through this.

"Stay tuned—more updates to come!"

Loomis discussed NEVERMORE's return in an interview with Seymour Duncan at last month's NAMM convention in Anaheim, California. Jeff said: "Not many people may know yet, but NEVERMORE is coming back in 2025. It's been a long time, but Van Williams and me have decided to bring the band back and find a new bass player and a new vocalist. We already have the new [second] guitar player, but we are in search of a new bass player and a new vocalist. So that's what we are doing right now."

He continued: "We're taking our time with it. We wanna make sure we're doing it right, and get somebody to honor Warrel Dane's name, but still somebody that can sing like him, but still give a little bit of their own self, or their own self-worth."

On January 4, 2024, Sheppard released the following statement to BLABBERMOUTH.NET: "In my heart, NEVERMORE will always be Warrel, Jeff and I living in a one-room apartment, slaves to an eight-track recording machine, non-stop songwriting insanity. We were driven, we were hungry... To quote Dave Mustaine, we were ready to 'smile, eat shit and ask for more!'

"True, I've been retired. I enjoy my new life in Alaska following bears with my wife Priscila, a wildlife photographer.

"My opinion of [Loomis's and Williams's] press release [announcing the NEVERMORE comeback is] Van came across self-promoting and Jeff felt very sincere; he truly wants to capture a little piece of the magic we held.

"I'm disappointed no one reached out to me concerning the name NEVERMORE, a name that means blood, sweat and tears.

"With that said, I wish them the best."

NEVERMORE effectively split up in 2011 when Loomis and Williams announced their departure from the band due to personal differences with Dane and Sheppard. Warrel later described NEVERMORE in an interview as "the greatest band that alcohol ever ruined."

Dane died in São Paulo, Brazil while recording his posthumously released solo studio album, "Shadow Work". The musician reportedly had a heart attack during the night and could not be revived.

According to guitarist Johnny Moraes, who played in Warrel's solo band, Dane had a history of addiction and other health issues. "His health was already very weak because of his diabetes and his problems with alcoholism," he said.

The instrumental parts for Dane's follow-up to 2008's "Praises To The War Machine" solo album were almost completed and he had begun laying down his vocals shortly before his death.

When Loomis and Williams revealed their plan to launch a "world search" for a vocalist and bassist for the reformed version of the band, Van addressed Jim's absence from the reunion, saying: "Some people think it's disrespectful not to involve Jim or inform him of our plans. But those who feel that way don't know the history of the band or the behind-the-scenes dynamics that led to this decision. While it may not have been the most ideal approach, the reality is that there hasn't been communication with Jim in years.

"We felt that sometimes, for the sake of a fresh start, it's necessary to move on from relationships that may no longer be conducive to growth or new beginnings. We made this decision with the intention of honoring the legacy of the band while moving forward in a way that felt right for us at the time. That said, we wish him good health and he is free to pursue whatever path he chooses. Without going into too much detail, I'll just say respect goes both ways, and certain things became irreconcilable over time for us… I wish the situation with Jim were different, but the past has brought us here."

Williams also denied that he and Loomis were reforming NEVERMORE as a "money grab", explaining: "Most musicians don't do this for the money. We've spent countless hours thru the years sweating, rehearsing, performing, and recording simply because we love it. This is what we chose to do in life because we've always loved it. That's what drives us, the passion for music, the connection with fans, and the creative process. If money comes from that, great but it has never been the focus, but we also have bills to pay like you."

For his part, Jeff defended the decision to reactivate NEVERMORE with new musicians, writing: "No one can replace Warrel Dane. Bottom line. With his interesting melodies and charisma onstage, he was a force that was a huge part of the band both lyrically and spiritually. With that being said, we aren't looking for a Warrel Dane clone. We are looking for someone that can carry the older NEVERMORE tunes in his vocal style, and someone who can add something new and refreshing to the next chapter of the band. Obviously, this won't be the easiest thing to do."

Loomis "amicably" left ARCH ENEMY in December 2023 and was replaced by Joey Concepcion.

Jeff, who was the main songwriter in NEVERMORE, joined ARCH ENEMY in late 2014, but was not involved in the writing for the latter act's last two albums, 2017's "Will To Power" and 2022's "Deceivers".

In December 2019, Sheppard launched a project called THE DEAD HEART COLLECTIVE, featuring music and lyrics inspired by Dane. At the time, Sheppard sent his synopsis of THE DEAD HEART COLLECTIVE to BLABBERMOUTH.NET in which he explained his decision to start a new project as a vehicle for Warrel to "channel songs and paintings" through him.

Image credit: Metal Eye

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MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine has offered an update on the progress of the recording sessions for the band's seventeenth studio. MEGADETH is once again working with Chris Rakestraw, a producer, mixer and engineer who previously worked on MEGADETH's last two albums, 2022's "The Sick, The Dying... And The Dead!" and 2016's "Dystopia".

Writing in MEGADETH's official fan newsletter, Dave said: "We are almost 90 days into the making of the 17th MEGADETH album, currently titled, 'Album 17'. That was a difficult choice, doh!

"So, I started working on new MEGADETH album with [producer] Chris Rakestraw from 'Dystopia' and our most recent album, 'The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!'Teemu [Mäntysaari, MEGADETH guitarist] came out to join me right after New Years Eve, and James [Lomenzo, MEGADETH bassist] and Dirk [Verbeuren, MEGADETH drummer] will be here in February.

"We are off to a good start.. A trivia tidbit: I seem to remember that 'Holy Wars' and 'Symphony Of Destruction' were some of the last songs written on their perspective albums…

"I hope you all are getting ready for Valentine's Day!"

During a December 22, 2024 chat on X Spaces, Mustaine spoke about what it has been like being back in the studio. Dave said: "It's been frustrating, because I wanna be farther along than I am right now. But that's quite all right.

"When you write original music, you've always gotta start at the first step," he explained. "And that's what I've been doing my whole career. So, before we did this, I had all four of us listen to the entire catalog — every single song; 205 songs — and I wanted to make sure they knew chord progressions, lyric patterns, all kinds of stuff like that, so that they would hear tempos and starts and stops and everything to help them be able to songwrite and contribute also. And it's been really great because Teemu is contributing, Dirk is contributing, like last time, James contributed back in the day and he's got more stuff coming on this record.

"It was funny because sometimes when you think, 'Ah, I don't really know that that riff is that good,' and then you go back and you listen to it another day and say, 'Yeah, that's pretty cool.' 'Well, you already listened to it and you didn't like it.' 'What?' That kind of thing. So, we went through a bunch of riffs over and over and over and over and over again, and so far we've got some really great ideas we're working on."

This past September, Teemu, who joined the band more than a year ago as the replacement for Kiko Loureiro, was asked by Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station about the progress of the songwriting sessions for MEGADETH's next LP. He said: "Yeah, actually, already a while back Dave started talking about making the next album and kind of starting to do pre-production. And as soon as he mentioned that, and kind of before that already, once it was clear that I'm gonna be staying with the band, then I kind of started putting my ideas down and just recording any riff ideas that I feel like could be something that could be used in MEGADETH. And by now I have a bunch of riffs and ideas that I've gathered. And then Dave told me that he likes to work the way that everybody does their riffs and then at some point we're gonna get together and then review things and see which riffs are gonna work together and then work out the parts between the riffs to kind of connect things and then that way come up with the skeletons for the songs. And I'm really looking forward to doing that and hearing how he feels about my ideas as well. But what I've done so far is whenever I have a moment to sit down, I usually just record a little video of myself playing a riff idea and then when we have a day off at the hotel, then I would record that properly and then just like have this folder of riffs that we can look into at some point. So, [I'm] really looking forward to that. And Dave has been really supportive and sounds like he wants to have all the guys' input on the next album, which is really exciting."

In August, Mustaine was asked by Chuck Armstrong of "Loudwire Nights" how the dynamic within MEGADETH has changed since Mäntysaari's addition to the band. Mustaine responded: "Well, we are a band again. It doesn't feel like me and some side players or some session guys. Not that it felt like that with any of the previous lineups, but that was one of the fears that I had. I feel like Kiko did us a really huge courtesy by helping us find Teemu because with Kiko needing to step down… I thought I was gonna finish my career out with Kiko, and when things came up with him, he couldn't tour anymore because he needed to be home for his kids. So I see he's touring again, which I'm happy that he's still playing. But he had to go home. And when he did, he introduced us to Teemu. And it was an even closer connection between me and Teemu than Kiko and I had. We'll [Kiko and I] always be friends, but this new relationship I have is — it harkens me back to the days when we had Marty Friedman in the band and the four of us actually felt like a band."

Mäntysaari stepped in September 2023 for Loureiro, who announced earlier that month that he would sit out the next leg of MEGADETH's "Crush The World" tour in order to stay home with his children back in Finland. It was later revealed that the 37-year-old Finnish musician would continue to play guitar for MEGADETH for the foreseeable future, with Loureiro seemingly having no plans to return.

Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.

Earlier in August, Mustaine was asked by Kyle Meredith what Mäntysaari has brought to MEGADETH that wasn't there before. Mustaine responded: "God, he's such an amazing talent. And as far as being a human is concerned, he's a really humble guy. He's fun to be around because he's kind of — there's this 'greenness' to him, if that's a word, greenness. He makes it really fun because he's gone from being in a band that was pretty well known to being in MEGADETH. And so everything's very new for him at this level. And for us, we get to kind of enjoy ourselves, because we sometimes forget where we're at and then you see other people that, 'Wow, the bread is round and so is the meat,' that kind of shit. And it just makes him really happy, and it just reminds you of how good you have it."

Regarding how much a lineup change like that actually alters the musical DNA of the band, Dave said: "Well, it depends on who the new player is. If they're willing to learn the parts, then the songs either, they stay where they are or they get better. And a lot of times when you have a new player, like when Teemu came in, he played everything identical to the original players. So, he's been one of the best guitar players to step in and play somebody else's stuff. I don't know what his stuff's going to sound like yet, which I'm looking forward to finding out."

This past June, Mustaine told Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece that he thinks Teemu will contribute to the songwriting process on MEGADETH's next studio album. "I think he's gonna be a great addition to MEGADETH," Dave said. "He already has. We're playing more songs now than we were playing before. And that has nothing negative to say about any of the previous lineups. It just says that he knew more about the band and understands the metal backbone of so many of these songs more than some of the other people would understand it."

He continued: "When you're a metal guy, I think you understand metal compositions more than somebody who, say for example, knows progressive rock like [former MEGADETH guitarist] Chris Broderick does, or somebody who knows bossa nova, which Kiko does, or somebody that plays jazzy, like [former MEGADETH guitarist] Glen Drover would play, maybe Al Pitrelli. These guys all have their strengths."

Mustaine added: "I've often thought, although I've never said it, I do believe that when somebody gets singled out by me, that's pretty much it for them. They've been indoctrinated into the world of great guitar players, and from that moment on, their life will change."

In early October 2023, Mustaine told Shaggy of the 94.9 and 104.5 The Pick radio station in Idaho Falls, Idaho about Teemu's addition to MEGADETH: "People are losing their minds over how things are going right now 'cause we have a really good chemistry together."

In September 2023, Mustaine was equally full of praise for Mäntysaari, telling Wes Styles in a separate interview: "He's really great. And I'm super excited with what Teemu has brought. And it's uncanny because he plays a lot like Marty. And it's really exciting. At certain times I just close my eyes during the set and I just hear these songs played, whether like Kiko in the past or Teemu now, it just sounds really magic because these guys have learned these songs and they're not just going out there and just banging their guitar around; they actually learned the solos from some of the virtuosos that I've played with over my career."

Photo credit: Ryan Chang

In a new interview with Ralph Rasmussen of Radio Bypass, former WHITESNAKE and DIO and current THE DEAD DAISIES guitarist Doug Aldrich offered an update on his health, nearly five months after he underwent a "very successful" surgery following a throat cancer diagnosis. Regarding how he is doing right now, Doug said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Everything's good. I got done with all the radiation treatments in December, and then it's just been a quick six weeks or whatever. It's just flown by. But I've been feeling good. Everything's kind of getting back to normal. I'm starting to go to the gym a little bit and work on my muscles and stuff and getting going again like that. So I'm good. I've been playing a lot. There's a few little issues that pop up — I get some swelling sometimes. After they do that surgery on you, there's some restructuring of your nasal cavity and stuff like that in your throat. So there's a little bit to get used to, but I can't complain. I'm doing really good. And after what I went through, I'm definitely feeling blessed."

Doug went on to say that he felt some fatigue as a side effect of his radiation therapy. But "it went away pretty quick," he explained. "Literally, you would do radiation every day for 15 minutes and then they would give you Saturday and Sunday off, and, man, I was just so happy when it was Friday and I could look forward to Saturday just not having to go there. And then by Sunday, I'd start to feel a little better. I mean, I was definitely taking naps every day. But after a couple of weeks of being done with it, I feel my energy is back. I've been taking it easy in the gym 'cause I don't wanna strain anything. I've done that in the past where I was getting ready for a tour and I started to do some heavy weights and I'd pull something, and it's like I got an issue for six months for it to come back. So I'm taking it pretty easy. But I'm feeling good, and, yeah, overall, I can't complain at all."

Asked if he is now "clear" from cancer, Doug said: "I don't know if I'm clear. I guess it takes five or seven years before you're actually clear, but the doctors — the surgery was really good. Everything was positive, and they fried me really good for six weeks, so I'm pretty sure everything else that was left over is gone. But I got some blood work done last week. We'll see what that says. And then I've got to get a PET scan, and that's a full body scan again to determine if everything's good."

Asked if there was any damage to his vocal cords, Doug said: "No. I think I sound pretty similar to what I did. It was on my tonsil. So they removed my tonsil on one side and then the lymph nodes on the inside of my neck — they took 30 lymph nodes. But, yeah, my voice sounds pretty similar and I can sing — not that I do a lot of singing with THE DEAD DAISIES, but I can do it."

Aldrich revealed that he will join his THE DEAD DAISIES bandmates when they return to the road next month. "We leave it about three and a half weeks," he said. "We start in Germany. We're gonna do a couple of days' rehearsal. We've got a new setlist that we're gonna do, just because the band was over there in October — October or November; I forgot. Anyways, the band was there. So we need to put together a new setlist and keep it fresh and hit some places that they didn't go when I… I was home; I had Reb Beach, actually, fill in, which was great. Yeah, so I'm excited about that. That's in March. We've got some dates in June, some festivals and stuff in Europe. And then there's talk of a few things in September and then again in November."

Aldrich previously discussed his cancer battle during an appearance on the December 16, 2024 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". Regarding how he got diagnosed with throat cancer, Doug said: "I never thought I would get cancer. It just never occurred to me. I've always been super healthy and — knock on wood — I never had a major anything. And one day, I think it was in May, I was about to go on tour with THE DAISIES and I was shaving and I saw a little lump on my neck. And I was, like, 'Well, that looks when you're sick, you've got swollen glands or something.' It was on one side. And I thought, 'That doesn't hurt at all. My throat doesn't [hurt]. Nothing hurts.' And I went on tour, and I said, 'Hey, something like that could be a viral thing. Let it roll for a couple weeks, and if it doesn't change, then make an appointment to see your doctor.' And so I went and did the dates — it was, like, three weeks of dates or something in the U.S., I believe. And I got home and got an appointment. It took a little time. As you know, to get a doctor's appointment it takes a minute. So it was another few weeks before I got in. And immediately they looked at it in order for me to get a CT scan, [and] after reading that they were concerned there was something in there. It wasn't a major concern. Then I did a little MRI of the neck, and that's when they could measure the bump, and they realized that this was really concerning. [And they told me] I should go see an ear, nose and throat doctor. And my doctor was, like, 'Hey, it could be cancer. It could be cancerous, but it could be benign. It could be whatever. Don't worry about it yet.' But already my mind was starting to get a little bit nervous. So I go to the ear, nose and throat doctor, and he goes, 'I see it. It's on your tonsil. And if you don't mind, I'm gonna grab a piece of it with the tweezers and I'll send it in for a biopsy,' which, actually, just for those people that care about this stuff, you could go get a biopsy and it would cost you thousands of dollars or insurance or whatever. The way this guy did it was old school — he just ripped a chunk off my tonsil and sent it in and it saved me a ton of money to do that. So it came back positive for HPV 16 throat cancer. Definitely not good. So, right then you start freaking out, like, 'Oh, man. Okay, what stage is it?', whatever. And it's very difficult to get definitive answers on stuff, 'cause nobody really knows until you do all these tests and all this stuff. So there's probably three or four weeks before you find out what stage it is or whatever."

Doug continued: "So that's how it started. And then I went and started going through the process. By that time, I was doing a lot of tests and stuff. I have insurance for me and my family, and I maxed out my deductible. So that was good. But insurance is a whole another thing. Doctors' bills — you get bills; every day there's bills from this and that, and you don't know what to pay and what not to pay. It's very confusing. But anyway, that's how it started. That's how it was diagnosed. And I immediately got in with… My wife got me into a doctor at UCLA Medical Center, which is close in L.A. And then my sister's boyfriend is a plastic surgeon, and he got me in with a doctor for a second opinion from Cedar Sinai in L.A. And that's the guy I went with, a guy called Dr. Ho."

Asked by host Eddie Trunk to clarify that he "had no symptoms" beyond this little bump and that he wasn't "in pain or anything", Doug said: "Nothing. Sometimes people lose weight. I had no symptoms — nothing. It was just a bump, and it was not super noticeable, but then, of course, once you see it, you can't unsee it. And another thing that's important for people [to know] is that the most important thing you can do to protect yourself is get checked. Well, this particular cancer, it usually gets discovered by a dentist. But I don't have many problems with my teeth, and a dentist is expensive. So I would be, like, 'Look, my kids, I wanna make sure they're checked, and [they have] braces and whatever they need to do. That's what I'm gonna spend my money on.' I was, like, 'I don't need to go to the dentist. I just brush my teeth and floss. That's it.' But had I gone to the dentist, he would have seen this before it… It's called metastasizing when it switches from the actual tumor to a lymph node, and that's what my neck bump was; it was a lymph node that had gotten swollen. So a dentist would have seen that thing on my tonsil a lot sooner and it would have been much easier to deal with, or my treatment would have been much easier to deal with. But it got discovered when it was already metastasized in the lymph node and then the question was, what stage is it? How big is it? How far did it go?"

Doug added: "So the bottom line is you've gotta get diagnosed of where you're at, and you need to go to an oncologist. And I would recommend [for you to] go to a big hospital in your area and make an appointment, start making appointments with whoever you can. And that's what my wife did. She reached out to UCLA because we've used them before for kids and stuff. And so she got me that one. And the guy, he had been there a long time, had a great record, and UCLA is great and everything, but he said, 'We don't really do stages anymore. It's kind of an old thing that they did with cancer. They call it stage 1 through 4, whatever.' Basically, he goes, 'I don't know what yours is exactly. It could be 2, it could be 3, it could be 1 and a half, whatever. But you're gonna need surgery.'

"When it's in your throat, you've got all these things that are connected in there. So they're looking down your nose, looking in your throat, looking at X-rays and scans and all this stuff. And by the way, around that time too, the doctor ordered a PET scan, which is a full-on body [scan] to see if the cancer has spread to like your lungs or your liver or kidneys or whatever, and that's scary. When you start thinking, like, 'When is my appointment? Oh, it's in two weeks. It could be right now growing anywhere.' And you don't know, so you've gotta get this PET scan. But, fortunately, so far and at that time, I was all clear everywhere except for that spot. So he said, 'You've gotta operate,' and he goes, 'The good thing is I'm a great surgeon. I can do the outside part on your lymph nodes, but I can't do the inside, which is gonna be a robotic surgery. I need somebody else to do that.' And then when I met with Dr. Ho at Cedar Sinai, he was younger. He had probably had more up-to-date kind of training in terms of robotics. And he goes, 'I'm gonna do both surgeries myself.' And he was very confident."

According to Aldrich, another issue had come up during that time which affected the way he went about his surgery. He explained to "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk": "There's a nerve in your neck that connects your shoulder that's involved in this area. And when they do the surgery, if they clip that nerve, then you're have a real hard time lifting your arm, which wouldn't affect my guitar playing, but I wouldn't be able to lift my arm up very well. And I'm thinking not just about playing guitar, but I'm thinking about, like, shooting a basketball with my kids or something. So I asked him about it, and he goes, 'We'll do our best. I think we can save that nerve.' And he did. So first thing [they did was the] surgery, and then after surgery, they decide what kind of treatments, whether they got it all and you don't need to do anything, or if you have to have radiation, or chemo, or both. And I had to get radiation."

Asked if he is now done with all the radiation, Doug said: "They told me that I needed radiation just to clear it up, because it had gone to the lymph nodes on my neck and it looked like it was pretty contained, but there might be a little piece or some fragments that would come off, so they need to zap them with radiation just to make sure. And I started reading about what radiation was gonna be like, and my wife did, and it's not fun any way you do it. It's basically frying certain parts of your body, and there's a lot of side effects that happen from that, so I wasn't looking forward to it. And I thought maybe because the surgeon did a good job, and I've got a lot of friends that have gone through [similar] stuff … I was hoping I could get a little bit of a less radiation than what I got. I got six weeks. But they said, 'Hey, you are eligible for a clinical trial where you could get three weeks radiation, but you've gotta get three doses of chemo as well. And it works out really well.' And I was excited about that, and I qualified for it, but the problem with the chemo when you're dealing with head and neck is it makes your ears ring and you can lose hearing. And I already got one ear that's ringing really bad with tinnitus or whatever you call it. So I wasn't a good candidate for that. So I went for the six weeks of radiation, which is five days a week. It takes 15 minutes under the microwave thing or whatever, the laser, whatever, that proton thing, and you do it five days a week. Then they need to give you two days to rest for six weeks. So I just wrapped up."

Asked if he has been given the "all clear" now, Doug said: "The biggest issue from the radiation was I'd get nauseated and major fatigue, and then little by little your neck on the outside starts to fry and my neck now is like baby skin. It's all brand new skin. And so I was lucky. I'm feeling great. I got done with it. I'm starting to think about getting to the gym. And I probably lost 10 pounds, which some people lose 40 or 50 or 100… So I just try to eat healthy and eat protein, and they just said, 'Keep your calories up.' And I've been really lucky, man, but there's a lot of side effects. There's a lot of stuff that's a pain in the ass. I still can't open my mouth to take a nice big bite of a hamburger, and then my jaw gets really tired, because… So I've got this fibrosis — it's like called TMJ or whatever — so I can't really eat; it's hard to eat, it's hard to chew. That's one thing. And then I've got no taste, because that radiation basically fries your taste buds. So that hopefully will come back. Because that's one of the things that's crazy, man, is without taste… When I got COVID a couple years ago, I didn't lose my taste, so I never knew what it was like."

"So to answer your earlier question [about whether I have been given the 'all clear'], I'm basically done with the treatment and the surgery and all that stuff," he continued. "Now I've gotta wait three months and they're gonna do a PET scan again and see if there's anything left. Chances are they got it all. If not, then I'll just deal with it, whatever it is. And you start getting freaked out about it, but there's so many people that go through various stages and things of cancer and they're still around and they're still fighting and kicking ass. And they really are warriors. The key is just to try and catch it early, if you can."

In late September 2024, Doug's wife Daniela "Danni" Aldrich said that his surgery, which she described as "five long hours of multiple steps", "went incredibly well", adding that "Doug pushed through like the fighter he is. Even the nurse called him a superhero for his strength and determination right after!" she wrote. "He is the strongest person I know."

As a result of Doug's surgery, he was not able to take part in THE DEAD DAISIES' recent European tour and was temporarily replaced by Reb Beach (WHITESNAKE, WINGER).

Aldrich played with DIO for a short period between 2002 and 2006. He was also a member of WHITESNAKE from 2002 to 2014 before leaving to spend more time with his family. The guitarist played on two WHITESNAKE studio albums, 2008's "Good To Be Bad" and 2011's "Forevermore", and appeared on several live releases, including 2013's "Made In Japan" and "Made In Britain/The World Records".

Aldrich left WHITESNAKE 10 years ago, saying in a statement that he "had several recording and live commitments," so he "needed a more flexible schedule to conclude these before going full force as normal." He added: "Unfortunately, my schedule was not workable."

SLAYER guitarist Kerry King and his solo band performed on Wednesday, February 5 at Theatre Of The Living Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fan-filmed video of the entire concert can be seen below.

The group's setlist was as follows:

01. Where I Reign
02. Rage
03. Trophies Of The Tyrant
04. Residue
05. Two Fists
06. Idle Hands
07. Repentless (SLAYER song)
08. Toxic
09. Tension
10. Everything I Hate About You
11. Disciple (SLAYER song)
12. Purgatory (IRON MAIDEN cover)
13. Killers (IRON MAIDEN cover)
14. Crucifixation
15. At Dawn They Sleep (SLAYER song)
16. Shrapnel
17. Raining Blood (SLAYER song)
18. Black Magic (SLAYER song)
19. From Hell I Rise

King kicked off his first-ever headlining tour on January 15 at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, California.

With MUNICIPAL WASTE as special guest and ALIEN WEAPONRY supporting, the tour is set to wrap at House of Blues in Las Vegas on February 22.

Earlier in January, King told Heavy Consequence's "Two For The Road" video series about the headlining trek: "We jump at the chance to tour anywhere. So, we were lucky enough to do the MASTODON/LAMB OF GOD summer [2024] run in the sheds. That was really cool because those dudes, we had a big part in both those bands' early history, so for them to reciprocate and give me a shot, I thought that was super cool and super humbling. So that was rad. But now we get to come back and headline the States."

Referencing the fact that he has been living in Manhattan for the past three years and that three of his bandmates in his solo group — guitarist Phil Demmel, drummer Paul Bostaph and vocalist Mark Osegueda — live in the San Francisco Bay Area, King added: "We haven't played in New York City yet. And that's my new hometown, so that's weird. We haven't played the Bay Area yet. So we're gonna be hitting some places for the first time in this band, which is gonna be awesome for the hometowners like Phil, Paul and Mark from the Bay area and me from New York City. And then all the places I've called home — L.A., we're playing L.A. We finish up in [Las] Vegas. So I will be seeing a lot of friends on this run, and everybody's fired up."

As for which songs King might add to his band's set on the headlining tour, Kerry said: "[I'm] still working on the setlist and set length because I don't want people to get burned out with two heavy hitters playing in front of us. I don't wanna stay up there too long because when you play thrash, I feel there is a limit to how long you should play."

King also talked about how touring has changed in the four decades since SLAYER hit the road for the first time. He said: "I've been doing this so long. When we started out, in the very beginning we had a U-Haul and maybe my van. And then when we went out on our first U.S. run, we had a U-Haul and Tom's [Araya, SLAYER bassist/vocalist] Camaro. Then we graduated to a U-Haul and a passenger van. And we were all taking turns driving the stupid thing back then. And then, with [SLAYER's] 'Reign In Blood' [album], we finally got a bus, and we had never even considered it before. We were, like, 'Oh, yeah. I guess we made it 'cause we got a bus and we can get hotel rooms and we can get our own hotel room. We don't gotta room together.' So, that was a graduation back then. And now, one of the things I didn't wanna come back too early for is because I wanted all the nonsense from COVID to go away. I wanted all the promoters and venues to get through all the stuff that I didn't wanna have to feel out again. I just wanted all that to go by before we came back."

King added: "One bad thing that people may not know and why ticket prices are so high these days is because when the pandemic came around, all that shit exploded. Everything went up [in terms of cost] — buses went up and everything just plateaued. And then when we started touring again, the buses and everything stayed expensive. So, you can curse promoters and venues all you want, but it costs money to come around, unfortunately. And it's not as cheap as it was five years ago, by far. So it's cush, it's comfortable, we'll have a good time, but it's all a means to what the poor fans have to pay at the end of the day."

King's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", was released in May 2024. All material for the LP was written by the 60-year-old SLAYER guitarist. Helming the sessions at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles in 2023 was producer Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with KORN, LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and BAD RELIGION, among others.

Joining Kerry in his new band are Osegueda, Demmel, Kyle Sanders (bass; HELLYEAH) and Bostaph.

In early May 2024, the KERRY KING band performed its first live show at Reggies in Chicago. In the days following, the band went from playing an intimate venue to performing at the huge U.S. festivals Welcome To Rockville (Florida) and Sonic Temple (Ohio).

KERRY KING launched a European tour on June 3, 2024 — King's 60th birthday – in Tilburg, The Netherlands. The trek combined headline shows in the U.K., The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain but also festival appearances such as Rock Am Ring, Hellfest, Tuska, Download, Sweden Rock Festival and many more.

The SLAYER guitarist's solo band played its first concert as the support act for LAMB OF GOD and MASTODON on July 19 at the Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie, Texas. The six-week "Ashes Of Leviathan" tour wrapped on August 31 in Omaha, Nebraska.

BATTLE BEAST's Noora Louhimo joined ex-NIGHTWISH bassist/vocalist Marko Hietala on stage earlier tonight (Friday, February 7) at Finlandia club in Lahti, Finland to perform a medley of the NIGHTWISH songs "Nemo", "The Islander" and "Weak Fantasy", as well as "Wish I Had An Angel". Fan-filmed video of Noora's appearance can be seen below.

In a recent interview with Jorge Botas of Portugal's Metal Global, Hietala was asked if he has any regrets about leaving NIGHTWISH four years ago. He responded:  "Of course. I was regretting it already when I was leaving. But it was not just NIGHTWISH. I've said this quite a few times, that I actually left everything. My trouble with depression and anxiety was constant. It just wouldn't go away and had gotten worse and worse and worse during the years. And I grit my teeth and held on until I felt that — yeah, it was when COVID was over, started to be over, and they said that, 'Okay, we got these plans for the spring and then these plans for touring' and all that. And then I kind of realized, 'I don't want to go. I'm feeling too bad. And if I go on the road, it's just gonna be a stress. I'm gonna be alone."

He continued: "Everybody's got their own survival methods [when it comes to being on tour] — they've gotta have them and all that — so I figured, 'I cannot do it.' And at the same time, I was also already looking kind of vaguely if there would be a place where I could escape to some winter months because the darkness was making the depression and anxiety worse and all that. And then I kind of realized that 'I wanna leave everything, all the responsibilities, everything. I need to find out what's wrong with me.' So I kind of came just to Spain to get away from everything, everyone I know, except for the wife and the dog. And then I was talking to psychiatrists here in Spain, there in Finland, through video and all that. And then one of them just suggested that 'you might have ADHD [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder].' I'm, like, 'How the fuck does it relate to depression and anxiety?' 'Well, it does. Read about it.' And I did. Yep. And it's that feeling of difference that you do not match the other people's capabilities of handling their daily tasks or whatever. And I was just always lost — everything was a mess and all that. And what do you know? There it is — the ADHD. And it makes you, as a social creature, a tribal creature, that kind of a thing, the social isolation, it's a slow way to death. We know that loneliness is a killer. Well, yeah, but I kind of learned to deal with it ever since I was a kid. But it doesn't really make it necessarily easier. It had its consequences. And I was like that: 'Nothing I ever do will make anything any better. Everything is grey and worthless. And I am too.' That was the thing that had been growing on me. So, when this ADHD thing came up, then I read about it, went to the neuropsychological test and all that, and yep, I got it.

Marko went on to say that he is feeling much better now. "Yeah, because now I know," he explained. "It's a relief to know that there are things in your history and in yourself that you just cannot help. That's what you are. So a lot of kind of guilt about things that were left undone or unsaid or went went straight to hell from the things you did and said, suddenly you find out that, okay, actually, no matter how much you wish you would have acted differently, you couldn't, with the knowledge you had that time… And you can forgive yourself for the shit. And then again, you can also forgive quite a lot of other people for not understanding. So, yeah, it's a relief. You get a load off your chest."

Hietala announced his departure from NIGHTWISH in January 2021, explaining in a statement that he hadn't "been able to feel validated by this life for a quite a few years now." He has since been replaced by bassist Jukka Koskinen (WINTERSUN),who made his live debut with NIGHTWISH in May 2021 at the band's two interactive experiences.

In a March 2024 interview with Brazil's Ibagenscast, Hietala was asked if he would consider taking part in a reunion of NIGHTWISH's classic lineup, either for a tour or fresh material. He responded: "Hmm, I would consider it. But I think that the organization there would have to be looked very carefully into it and some of it would have to be dismantled. Because the business side and how the people there work, they are one of the big reasons why I left."

He continued: "In all the bands that I've been [in], I found out that I'm probably the most kind of courageous person there is and therefore also I have the inner strength to be the most honest and most fair and the one who upholds the justice between the people and taking care of everyone most. And that is something that I saw, the last years, were lacking. So, these kind of things would have to be taken care of. But I mean, [NIGHTWISH] was a big part of my life and I always, always backed up the music that we did because I love to do music that is versatile and ambitious with a lot of all kinds of atmospheres of all the world, from sensitive and soft into the big and pounding metal and all that. So, musically, I have no regrets at all. I'm happy and proud to have been a part of it. But, yeah, the organizational situation and the attitudes and who talks to whom and about what, those are things that I would totally dismantle and make into a transparent situation."

In an August 2022 interview with Finland's Chaoszine, Hietala revealed that he went through a dark period in his life, which included depression, insomnia, anxiety and an ADHD diagnosis. Speaking about how he eventually came to the realization that exiting NIGHTWISH was the right thing to do, Marko said: "It was a long process. Of course, the COVID year that was there, where I had a lot of time for soul searching, it obviously gave me the last incentive that I need something else, that if I just continue with this I'm just gonna get sicker and sicker. But, of course, it's a process.

"I've been chronic depressive since 2010 [or] 2011, so I've been on a permanent medication ever since," he revealed. "Sometimes you get used to the meds [and] you will need more. We did raise [the dosage] during the years also, but it just didn't work. And now that I started to do… I had psychotherapy for over four years now, and then I also talked to psychiatrists and some doctors and did that also in Spain. Then my psychiatrist here in Finland said that I should do these ADHD neuropsychological tests, which I then did in Spain. And, okay, I got it."

Hietala reiterated that he "had been thinking about" leaving NIGHTWISH "for a while" before making the final decision. "Because I had a lot of weight. And I tend to… With the attention disorder, it tells me that when there are lots of trouble, then the disorder makes it into a real chaos," he explained. "There's a shitload of stuff coming and going and no peace anywhere. And for a year or two, I was already waking up every night at three o'clock to bad dreams and anxiety. So I'd say that the whole process probably started already with my former divorce [in 2016]. That was a very sad time when you think about your kids and your broken homes and all that. And then, when I started to get clear from that, then there were, well, all kinds of things. I don't really wanna go any deeper to what kind of things I'd gone through, but I'd gone through enough."

Acknowledging that making NIGHTWISH's 2020 studio album, "Human. :II: Nature.", was a "difficult" experience for him, Marko denied that his mental state at the time resulted in a diminished role for him on the final LP. "I think the original idea was to have that… we'll do a couple of [solo vocal appearances], or one solo for me and Troy [Donockley], and the rest Floor [Jansen], and then the harmonies; that was the idea originally for that," he said. "So I don't know if it affected. I think it was sort of as planned. But at that time I already had serious trouble with concentrating and serious trouble with a constant black cloud over my head."

In July 2022, Hietala told Finland's Iltalehti that he had not kept in touch with NIGHTWISH since his departure or followed the activities of his former band.

In May 2021, NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen said that Hietala's decision to leave NIGHTWISH "came as a bit of a surprise." He told Finland's Kaaos TV: "Marko informed us in December [of 2020 that he was leaving the band]. And even though he has been very open about his state and problems during the past years, it still came as a bit of a surprise for us. So it was a really tough pill to swallow. And for a few days, I was actually quite confident that there's no coming back, that this is it. I remember talking to Emppu [Vuorinen], the guitar player, and we were, like, 'You think this is it?' 'Yeah, I think this is it.' I mean, enough is enough. So much has happened in the past. Something that broke the camel's back, as they say. Then, after some time had passed — a few days — we started to think that it's been such a ride of 25 years, with so many ups also, that this is not the way to end it."

Tuomas elaborated on NIGHTWISH's reasons for carrying on, saying: "I think we still have something to give, and that's the main point. The music is still there. We felt that there's still so much music that needs to come out from this band that, 'Okay, let's give it one more shot.' And then finding the new bass player was really easy."

He added: "It's not like we do this just because we need to do it and there's nothing else to do. On a personal level, I feel that there's still so many stories and melodies that I want to share with the world with one lineup or another, so that's why you want to continue and keep on going.

"I've said this a million times, that a lineup change is the ultimate energy vampire, and that's how it really felt and still feels."

In June 2021, Jansen spoke about Hietala's exit from the band in an episode of her "Storytime" YouTube video series. She said: "That was a very sudden surprise that, of course, was not fun at all. But we understand — I understand — it was a necessary thing for him to do. And from there, we had to think of how to continue without him, and that also, in preparations towards the virtual show, that was a huge challenge."

Marko's new solo album, "Roses From The Deep", was released on February 7, 2025 via Nuclear Blast.

The TrulyStucker YouTube channel has uploaded video of PANTERA's entire February 3 concert at the Budapest Arena in Budapest, Hungary. You can now watch it below.

Featured songs:

00:00:00 A New Level
00:04:53 Mouth For War
00:09:26 Strength Beyond Strength
00:15:25 Becoming
00:20:03 I'm Broken
00:25:53 Suicide Note Pt. II
00:31:19 5 Minutes Alone
00:37:24 This Love
00:44:18 Flood
00:53:12 Walk
00:58:54 Domination / Hollow
01:02:44 Cowboys From Hell
01:10:07 Fucking Hostile

PANTERA kicked off its 2025 European headlining tour on January 21 at Helsingin Jäähalli (Ice Hall) in Helsinki, Finland. Joining the reformed band, consisting of classic-lineup members Philip Anselmo (vocals) and Rex Brown (bass),along with Zakk Wylde (guitar) and Charlie Benante (drums),on the trek are support acts CHILD BITE and POWER TRIP.

In a recent interview with Sweetwater, Brown spoke about the decision to tour with a reformed version of PANTERA. The lineup has reportedly been given a green light by the estates of PANTERA's founders, drummer Vincent "Vinnie Paul" Abbott and guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. Rex said: "The last show, man, I had a creepy, like a cold — something came by me. It felt like there was a cold feeling. And I've gotten this a couple of times before. When we were down recording with Charlie — me and Charlie just went down [in late 2022], put up eighty to a hundred hours of tape before Zakk [started rehearsing with us]. Zakk was still on the road. So we wanted to get the bass and the drum real tight, and we had this scratch guitar player. I felt that same chill. And, to me, they're angels. And I think you know who they are. Those guys, I think they're looking down, or they're looking around us, with us, and I think they're digging what they're seeing, man. I really do. And that's the only kind of way I can look at it, and get as close as we can with Charlie and Zakk. And God, it's getting really, really good. And there's so much more potential to get even tighter."

Speaking about the opportunity to perform PANTERA's music to new generations of fans who never saw the band before, Rex said: "There's a lot of memories in this band that are hard to put down. And losing the brothers, I just never in a million years thought that something like that would happen. Here we are 22 years later, and to see these new fans' faces. You've got one kid sitting there, or man, woman or child crying, and you have this other guy just going, 'You did it right.' It's just amazing."

In April, Rex spoke to American Musical Supply about how touring with PANTERA in 2024 is different from how it was in the band's heyday. He said: "This is a completely different thing, man. We have Charlie and Zakk now, and they're just — number one, they've been great friends of ours for all these years. We get along extra super cool. Charlie and I went down, probably put about eighty, hundred hours on tape of all the songs we were gonna do for the set, and others that we would want to do. Charlie and I worked on this for six months before we ever got into a rehearsal room. That's just how good friends we are. Charlie has been one of my best friends for years. So, this is another band. It's hard to fill the shoes of the brothers. At the same time, this has become a really tight unit. And Zakk just puts the extra… Dime was a very unique guitar player, and he was my best friend, and it's good to see those boys up on the screens and with us. And that's what this is about tonight, for me."

Regarding how he and the rest of the current PANTERA lineup have balanced honoring the band's legacy with any new creative goals they might have, Rex said: "There's many ways that we wanna keep this legacy alive, 'cause the music is still played all over. We have a whole new generation of fans that, they probably wouldn't have heard this stuff if we weren't playing out here playing these shows. And so, that generation of fans — let's say the 15-to-18-year-old kids that come out — they'll shortly have children, and that keeps that new generation alive. And Phillip even says it in the set, the parents of the '90s, which I'm a parent of the '90s, it's a very important statement in the set because it's about the gratitude.

"We're not doing this for ourselves; we're doing it for the name and the brand PANTERA," he continued. "And by God, this music needs to be heard again. It does. It needed to for a long fucking time. And that's what we're here doing tonight… It's just wonderful to be able to do this and pay homage to my music, the riffs that I wrote, or the riffs that Dime wrote, or the patterns that Vinnie played, and for what Phil came up with — tremendous impact on this music."

Also in April, Rex told Rolling Stone Australia about performing with PANTERA in 2024: "Two of our beloved brothers that just aren't here anymore man, that's life, you know? They're just not with us man. That's just fate; it's the way the ball rolls, dude."

He added: "This is no tribute band — Philip and I get to play these songs of ours that we haven't played in 23 years. And to be able to do that and connect with the enormity of what's happened is just extraordinarily fucking insane, you know?"

Regarding PANTERA's latest additions, Rex said: "We knew who would fit and who wouldn't. We knew what the obstacles were in front of us, and we knew after… I'll put it this way — Charlie and I came down in September [2022] before we played that [first] show in December [2022], and we have probably one hundred hours of tape of us playing every fucking PANTERA song that I could remember. And so, you know, me and Charlie lockin' in like that… the drummer and the bass player, that's your foundation. So when Zakk came in, there were certain things we had to go over and over and over, to get tight. And today, this band is about as tight and about as badass as I fucking want. You know what I mean, and that's all I'm gonna say on that."

"But, man, this band is on fuckin' fire, and I couldn't be happier, man," he added. "I just can't explain that as much as I need to, I could not be happier."

Rex previously told AndrewHaug.com that he was "absolutely" open to writing new music with the reformed version of PANTERA. "Yeah, I could tell you more but I'm not going to," he teased.

Earlier in the chat, Brown talked about what is has been like to go out and perform as PANTERA to a whole new generation of fans.

"You can't see it on the YouTube. You can't feel that vibe until you actually come to the show," he explained. "And we haven't been doing interviews just for the fact we want people just to come to the show. It's not about anything prior past or present that I wanna talk about today — just the show tonight.

"We're pinching ourselves over these new fans that have never seen this before, and it's a whole another generation that we either didn't know a) that were out there, b) that were still listening to us, and the turnout has just been unbelievable," Rex continued. "Of course, at first you had the naysayers and all that stuff, and as we played gig by gig, it's made us tighter. And I've been trying to rehearse this band as much as I can within schedules, and we'll just go down for no fucking reason and just jam. That's what makes a band tight."

The reformed PANTERA is headlining a number of major festivals across North America, South America and Europe and staging some of its own headline concerts. They are also supporting METALLICA on a massive stadium tour in 2024.

It was first reported in July 2022 that Anselmo and Brown would unite with Wylde and Benante for a world tour under the PANTERA banner.

Asked how it feels playing those "timeless" songs again, Rex told AndrewHaug.com: "You just said it — they're timeless. So getting to play them again is a… These were a big part of Philip and I's songs too. Of course, respect to the brothers. I think that looking down on us and giving us a big — and they're with us. It's just uncanny. That's the glue. Those guys are hanging around with us.

"Look, I'm not some crazy old man, man. I know that we're here for reasons," Rex added. "And this time he gave us a heavy load, and we have come through in spades. And I'm very proud of Charlie and Zakk and Phillip for stepping up… All of us [were very close back in the day]. We were intertwined. There was a close-knit family of friends — Jerry Cantrell and all those guys, ALICE IN CHAINS. We were all brothers and we all had each other's backs — even as fucked up as we got. We're fine now, I'll put it that way. But it's just such a different time and we're older men and can appreciate this more. And I feel 25 years younger, man. It's just insane."

Addressing complaints from some fans that Brown and Anselmo are going out and touring under the PANTERA name even though Dimebag and Vinnie Paul are not involved, Rex said: "I don't call it anything. I call it PANTERA. The show itself is a celebration of the lives of all four of us. Two are sadly not with us, and we cannot bring them back. God, do I want them back. But that's just not possible. So we're doing the best thing that we can to keep our music alive. And I think they're smiling down and saying, 'You guys are doing all right, man.' And they're with us. And I'm not shittin' you."

Asked what his initial thoughts were when he was first approached about relaunching PANTERA as a touring act, Rex said: "Philip and I talked for several months before. He got on the phone and said, 'Hey, man, you wanna do it? I didn't have — maybe a six-second… not a hesitation, but just to wrap my head around the full gravity of the enormity of it. I went, 'Okay, I've got a couple of questions.' And, man, ever since that call we've worked really, really hard to get this thing going. And we've jumped over a lot of mountains."

Up until his passing in June 2018, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo, whom the drummer indirectly blamed for Dimebag's death.

Vinnie Paul and Dimebag co-founded PANTERA. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts.

Vinnie, who was Dimebag's brother, and Anselmo had not spoken since PANTERA split in 2003. But the relationship got even more acrimonious when Vinnie suggested that some remarks the vocalist had made about Dimebag in print just weeks earlier might have incited Dimebag's killer.

In a new interview with Southeast Wreck Metal, former QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate was asked if he had any recollection of bottles being thrown at him and his bandmates when they were opening for METALLICA in Helsinki, Finland in October 1988. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Oh, yeah. I think I have a scar here [on my face] from that."

He continued: "[ QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton] did a really interesting thing [at that show]. I applaud him for his courage, really. But it was a giant bottle of vodka that came flying up on stage, and it hit the neck of his guitar as he was playing it and it shattered all the strings. So the guitar just made this horrible sound. And so he was kind of standing there for a second, and he just grabbed another guitar and he finished the solo that he was playing. [Laughs] That was amazing. He missed like — I don't know — five or six notes, but he got back on it and played the whole solo through. And because he did that, the audience just went, 'YES!' It was pretty amazing that he did that."

Tate added: "METALLICA had a huge presence in Finland at that time. And, yeah, we were the opening act. So a lot of people were just waiting for us to get off the stage. But we made them listen."

Geoff went on to admit that he wasn't familiar with METALLICA's music before QUEENSRŸCHE was tapped to open for the heavy metal giants nearly four decades ago. "I had never heard of METALLICA until we got on that tour," he said. "And then that's all I heard. After that they got huge. And it was a wonderful tour to be part of. We did all of Europe with METALLICA. And then we went to America and did two tours with them. So it was a wonderful experience, really. And we got to kind of know the band, and I got to know their music intimately from being with them every day. So, it was a nice period of my life. I have good, fond memories of it all… It was a fun time to be a young man on the road, touring, playing music. There was nothing like it. It was very unique."

During a 2009 appearance on the VH1 Classic series "That Metal Show", Tate spoke about QUEENSRŸCHE sharing the same management as METALLICA back in the late '80s and opening for the James Hetfield-fronted outfit on a U.S. arena tour. Tate said, "We toured with METALLICA during the '...Justice For All' tour when we were releasing 'Operation: Mindcrime', and that band, hats off to them — thank you, guys — they shared their stage with us every night, shared their audience with us, gave us a leg up, and I've got nothing bad to say about METALLICA; they've always handled themselves very well, I think."

When pressed for a funny Lars Ulrich story, Tate said, "Back in that day, we all partied pretty heavy, so after the show, you unwind a little bit, have a few drinks, and sometimes you'd have a few too many. But he'd always come on the bus — 'Hey, how are you, guys? How're you doing?' — he was usually dressed in tennis shoes and a robe. And he would urinate on our bus. And then the next day, the tour manager would hand him a bill and he'd pay it, and the next time he showed up, he'd do the same thing. He was like a serial urinator. We used to tease him about it — 'God, we come on the METALLICA tour and you piss on us.'"

Geoff will embark on the "Operation: Mindcrime - The Final Chapter" tour this year. The trek, which will kick off on March 18, 2025 in Tucson, will see the now-66-year-old vocalist perform the band's classic "Operation: Mindcrime" album in its entirety for the last time.

Originally released in May 1988, QUEENSRŸCHE's third studio album, "Operation: Mindcrime" is regarded as one of the greatest concept metal albums of all time. The LP was certified platinum in 1991 in the U.S. and was ranked in the "Top 100 Metal Albums Of All Time" by both Kerrang! and Billboard magazines. Rolling Stone included it on a similar list, noting that "nearly 30 years after its initial release, 'Mindcrime' feels eerily relevant."

In April 2014, Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where the singer sued over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being fired in 2012. Wilton, drummer Scott Rockenfield and bassist Eddie Jackson responded with a countersuit. The settlement included an agreement that Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson would continue as QUEENSRŸCHE, while Tate would have the sole right to perform "Operation: Mindcrime" and "Operation: Mindcrime II" in their entirety live.

Tate's replacement, Todd La Torre, has released four albums thus far with QUEENSRŸCHE: 2013's "Queensrÿche", 2015's "Condition Hüman", 2019's "The Verdict" and 2022's "Digital Noise Alliance".

Gary Holt has confirmed that Steve "Zetro" Souza was fired from EXODUS, explaining that the "marriage" between the singer and the rest of the band was "done and over".

Last month it was announced that EXODUS had parted ways with Zetro and had been rejoined by Rob Dukes.

Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza's departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.

Asked by fan on Instagram why Zetro was "let go" this time around, Gary replied: "If I told you you'd understand. I've no desire to talk badly about him. It's a marriage, being in a band. Behind closed doors, the marriage was done and over".

On Friday (February 7),Souza addressed his latest exit from EXODUS in the comments section below an Instagram post hinting that he was contributing lyrics to the next TESTAMENT album.

When one of Zetro's followers wrote, "We need a statement why you left EXODUS again", the singer replied: "Really no statement, I was let go , if you read the [band's official] statement it says EXODUS has parted ways , not Zetro has parted ways !"

After another one of his followers asked, "Why did you leave EXODUS?", Zetro replied: "I did not leave , I was let go !! EXODUS parted ways with Zetro".

When EXODUS announced Souza's latest departure on January 15, the band wrote in a statement: "We thank Steve for his years fronting the band and all the killer music we made during that time. We wish him only the best in the future and much success with anything he does.

"And please help us welcome Rob Dukes back to EXODUS! We are beyond stoked to have Rob back ripping up the stage with us and he's looking forward to crushing everything like only he can.

"Next chapter begins, new record rolls along as planned and the beatings will continue.'

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

When EXODUS parted ways with Souza in 2004, Holt blasted the singer over the circumstances that led to his departure, calling Zetro "human crap" and claiming Souza "pulled out of going to Mexico City only about twenty-four hours before were ready to leave". Gary added at the time: "If only you could have heard some of the shit that has come out of his fat pie hole over the last couple of years. Things like, 'Why does [bassist] Jack [Gibson] get the same money as me, who the hell is he anyway?' 'We should hire a bodyguard for South America,' 'If the fans want more than 12 songs out of me they should pay more money, they are getting their money's worth already!,' 'Why is Gary in the front of this promo picture, I should be in the front, that's copyright infringement!', (true! he said that!). There is soooo much more shit you wouldn't believe it. This motherfucker sat backstage and cried at Provinssirock fest in Finland like a pussy. Waaaaaah! Now you can keep your fat fuckin' ass at home and go off your Atkins diet (like it's working, lard ass!) and blow up as much as you'd like!"

In a separate posting at the time, Holt elaborated on the circumstances that led to Zetro's 2004 dismissal from the group. "It's like this," he wrote. "Who in their right mind would put up with this kind of bullshit? Yes, he did a killer job on the new album, but mainly because we did not allow him to fuck everything up with his stupid Bon Scott impersonations anymore. We made him sing more like [previous vocalist Paul] Baloff. I tried to make it work. More than you can imagine. But he was (is) the most miserable pile of crap to be around.

"I ended the band in '93 because I could not stand the motherfucker. I vowed I'd never be in a band with him again. This time it seemed he had changed. For a while. In 2002 when we returned from Europe he called our booking agent and had him send the remaining deposits to [him] and he promptly stole the rest of our money. He was paid more than anyone for our U.S. tour. These shows would have paid him, us, and helped get us caught up to him but since his ass wasn't getting all the money he bailed on us, thinking he would take his ball and go home, ending the game. Well I've got some news motherfucker. Gary Holt does not go down that easily!

"But as for Zetro, he does think he could always go solo. (I've heard him say it myself!) Well best of luck! You're gonna need it fat-ass!"

EXODUS recently announced two very special "Bonded By Blood" 40th-anniversary shows, falling upon late original vocalist Paul Baloff's birthday weekend (April 25). Taking place in Berkeley, California on Friday, April 25 at UC Theatre and Anaheim, California on Saturday, April 26 at House of Blues, the shows will feature EXODUS performing "Bonded By Blood" in its entirety, plus more hits, and each show will feature direct support from DEATH ANGEL. BLIND ILLUSION and NUKEM will open the Berkeley date, and HIRAX and NUKEM will open the Anaheim date. Special-edition "Bonded By Blood" merchandise will also be available.

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned "Bonded By Blood" LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.

Steve "Zetro" Souza has made his first comments since his latest departure from EXODUS, saying that he was "let go" from the band.

Last month it was announced that EXODUS had parted ways with the singer and had been rejoined by Rob Dukes.

Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza's departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.

Souza addressed his latest exit from EXODUS in the comments section below an Instagram post hinting that he was contributing lyrics to the next TESTAMENT album.

When one of Zetro's followers wrote, "We need a statement why you left EXODUS again", the singer replied: "Really no statement, I was let go , if you read the [band's official] statement it says EXODUS has parted ways , not Zetro has parted ways !"

After another one of his followers asked, "Why did you leave EXODUS?", Zetro replied: "I did not leave , I was let go !! EXODUS parted ways with Zetro".

When EXODUS announced Souza's latest departure on January 15, the band wrote in a statement: "We thank Steve for his years fronting the band and all the killer music we made during that time. We wish him only the best in the future and much success with anything he does.

"And please help us welcome Rob Dukes back to EXODUS! We are beyond stoked to have Rob back ripping up the stage with us and he's looking forward to crushing everything like only he can.

"Next chapter begins, new record rolls along as planned and the beatings will continue.'

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

When EXODUS parted ways with Souza in 2004, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt blasted the singer over the circumstances that led to his departure, calling Zetro "human crap" and claiming Souza "pulled out of going to Mexico City only about twenty-four hours before were ready to leave". Gary added at the time: "If only you could have heard some of the shit that has come out of his fat pie hole over the last couple of years. Things like, 'Why does [bassist] Jack [Gibson] get the same money as me, who the hell is he anyway?' 'We should hire a bodyguard for South America,' 'If the fans want more than 12 songs out of me they should pay more money, they are getting their money's worth already!,' 'Why is Gary in the front of this promo picture, I should be in the front, that's copyright infringement!', (true! he said that!). There is soooo much more shit you wouldn't believe it. This motherfucker sat backstage and cried at Provinssirock fest in Finland like a pussy. Waaaaaah! Now you can keep your fat fuckin' ass at home and go off your Atkins diet (like it's working, lard ass!) and blow up as much as you'd like!"

In a separate posting at the time, Holt elaborated on the circumstances that led to Zetro's 2004 dismissal from the group. "It's like this," he wrote. "Who in their right mind would put up with this kind of bullshit? Yes, he did a killer job on the new album, but mainly because we did not allow him to fuck everything up with his stupid Bon Scott impersonations anymore. We made him sing more like [previous vocalist Paul] Baloff. I tried to make it work. More than you can imagine. But he was (is) the most miserable pile of crap to be around.

"I ended the band in '93 because I could not stand the motherfucker. I vowed I'd never be in a band with him again. This time it seemed he had changed. For a while. In 2002 when we returned from Europe he called our booking agent and had him send the remaining deposits to [him] and he promptly stole the rest of our money. He was paid more than anyone for our U.S. tour. These shows would have paid him, us, and helped get us caught up to him but since his ass wasn't getting all the money he bailed on us, thinking he would take his ball and go home, ending the game. Well I've got some news motherfucker. Gary Holt does not go down that easily!

"But as for Zetro, he does think he could always go solo. (I've heard him say it myself!) Well best of luck! You're gonna need it fat-ass!"

EXODUS recently announced two very special "Bonded By Blood" 40th-anniversary shows, falling upon late original vocalist Paul Baloff's birthday weekend (April 25). Taking place in Berkeley, California on Friday, April 25 at UC Theatre and Anaheim, California on Saturday, April 26 at House of Blues, the shows will feature EXODUS performing "Bonded By Blood" in its entirety, plus more hits, and each show will feature direct support from DEATH ANGEL. BLIND ILLUSION and NUKEM will open the Berkeley date, and HIRAX and NUKEM will open the Anaheim date. Special-edition "Bonded By Blood" merchandise will also be available.

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned "Bonded By Blood" LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.

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THE SWEET — a five-member group which obtained the rights to use the name and perform in the U.S. and Canada under THE SWEET banner despite containing no members from the original SWEET lineup — has released a new single, "Insane" via Darkstar Records.

Last year while cutting THE SWEET's previous single, "Little Miracle", the group jammed in the studio which exemplified a fresh new approach which utilized instant spontaneity in creating and producing "Insane".

Bassist/producer Stevie Stewart commented: "'Insane' is a song that we are very proud of! We all poured our hearts into the creation of it. Everyone brought their 'A' game to 'Insane'!"

Drummer/composer Richie Onori also added: "As we started to blast into the high-power groove, singer Patrick Alan Stone directed the band with his hands flailing about, you could see he heard in his head which eventually took shape in the final heavy metal rendition. The comic strip lyric video really illustrates the well-crafted storyline that Stone created. Guitarist Jimmy Burkard blistering solo section rivals hands down the who's who of guitar heroes of yesteryear. Stevie Stewart's incredible vocal arrangements and overall production, in my own opinion."

"I wanted to write a rocker that hits you in many ways," added Burkard. "It's tough, it makes you tap your feet, it makes you sing along. Aggressive but with catchy harmony vocals, killer guitar and swinging drums. It felt good to be in a rehearsal room and write organically as a band."

"'Insane' flew into my head like a bat out of hell," said Stone. "I went into the shower without it, came out and in my head it was done. I sent Jimmy a voice memo humming the song and he sent back the sick riff on guitar the way we hear it in the recording. We shared it with the band while recording 'Little Miracle' and got so into it, Richie hammered the drums down on the spot. Working the track with Stevie in post really brought that 'SWEET sound”' that only working with Steve Priest for almost two decades can bring. The lyric 'Insane' popped out during that recording session, as well. The hook was there. After watching the movies 'X' and 'Maxxxine', a character in my head came to life and I wrote the lyrics to this half imaginary, half true love, heroine. 'Insane' really takes SWEET back to its roots of dirty rock n' roll, crazy chord changes and larger-than-life harmonies. This is THE SWEET we've been waiting for and this band is proving that the integrity of Brian, Mick, Andy and Stevie lives on in us."

THE SWEET is now tracking a song that has been in the group archives which Steve Priest wrote and played bass and sang, "Sweet Dream". SWEET's reformation started in 2007, and "Sweet Dream" was something Steve was proud of.

THE SWEET 2025 lineup:

Patrick Stone - Lead Vocals
Jimmy Burkard - Guitars Vocals
Stevie Stewart - Bass Vocals
Richie Onori - Drums Percussion
Dave Schulz - Keyboards Vocals

Three members of the original SWEET — Brian Connolly, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker — have since died while remaining bandmate Andy Scott is still alive and has formed his own version of the group, which tours the U.K. and Australia.

Andy Scott (guitars/vocals) is joined in his version of SWEET by Paul Manzi (lead vocals),Lee Small (bass guitar/vocals),Tom Cory (guitars/keys/vocals) and Adam Booth (drums/percussion).

Before he died, Priest had the right to use the SWEET name in the U.S. and Canada, whereas Scott toured a version of the group in the U.K. The pair were estranged for decades, but resumed contact in the 2010s.

The Scott-led version of SWEET released a new studio album, "Full Circle", last September via Metalville Records. According to a press release, the LP will be SWEET's final studio album ever.

Last August, Andy was asked by Metal Express Radio's Bryce Van Patten about the existence of another touring and recording act called THE SWEET which contains no members from the original SWEET lineup. Andy said: "Steve [Priest, late SWEET bassist] was an original member. Brian [Connolly, late SWEET singer] was an original member… Well, it's not something I would've liked, but when Mick [Tucker, original SWEET drummer] and I were together from the mid-'80s — '84, '85 — if Brian could have still sung, which being the singer that he was, we would've had him back in the band. But he couldn't sing. And that's what a singer needs to do. And to be frank, you just didn't know what you were gonna get. Every time I met Brian in the '80s and the '90s, he looked different and he didn't look well. And it's a difficult thing. If he'd have looked like that and was still able to sing, it would've been different because everybody ages. But you can't go back into a situation made you move away from that in the first stage. Steve did not want to rejoin Mick and I, I found out later. He turned around to me and he said, 'I hated it by the end. So why would you think I would want to come back in and do it all again?' And I went, 'Well, I thought you were doing nothing, mate.' That would have been a good enough starting point. Come back and be with your mates. But he didn't. So we had Brian, Brian on his own going to Germany to do these oldie shows, as they were called. We had 10 lead singers and had one backing band and they'd all go up and do two or three of their hits and it was like a show for oldies. And then he found a band that would back him properly, and he was going on tour with Les Gray from MUD. But Les Graywas MUD, but Brian wasn't SWEET. So he had to go on as THE NEW SWEET, and all of a sudden I'm thinking, 'Oh, we're going down this road, are we?'"

Andy continued: "In the '90s, when [Brian] was really unwell, he said, 'I don't wanna be doing this anymore.' He said, 'I'd rather just get rid of them.' I said, 'Well, it's your band. Get rid of them.' And then I suggested to him, 'If you do that, why don't we try and work something out whereby you come and do some gigs with my band. And as a bit of a surprise — it won't be a surprise after we've done it a couple of times — you come on stage for the last half an hour and you knock the audience out.' I said, 'You don't have to be the main singer, but as long as you're doing some of it, they would love it.' And I'm afraid while we were doing this, he fell really ill and died. His latest musicians that were with him went off when he was really ill and couldn't do any gigs, they were off doing gigs that were being booked. And I remember saying, 'We have to stop that.' And luckily his family dived in and they did manage to stop that. But it's a very similar thing that's happening with Steve's band. Now, Steve came back on the road, which really surprised me, in 2010, I think it was. And we only found out because somebody from the gig that he was gonna do contacted my agent in London and said, 'We need a few more details.' And he phoned me up and he said, 'You'll never believe this, but I've had a contract through from a band called SWEET doing a gig in America.' And at the end of it, that was Steve's guitar player. He'd written his name in. And so I phoned Steve and Steve said, 'Well, yeah, we are doing a gig.' And I said, 'Well, they've sent the contract to us.' And it all went a bit quiet. And I said, 'Look, if you were trying to do it on the quiet, you'll never do it because the music business isn't like that. Somebody hears something, they'll tell somebody else.' I said, 'And I'm surprised that you didn't call me so that if you wanted to do some gigs, come and do 'em with me.' Anyway, it carried on. And I now realize that there was something else going on because it's his ex-wife or his wife, should we say — I'm not sure whether their relationship was secure while he was alive, how good it was — but she's given the rights or the okay for this backing band to carry on as THE SWEET. It's a business thing. I've even heard that the drummer talks interviews as if he was the drummer on 'The Ballroom Blitz'. So, it's a Walter Mitty thing going on," he said, referencing a fictional character in James Thurber's first short story "The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty".

Elaborating on how he feels about THE SWEET — consisting of singer Patrick Alan Stone, guitarist Jimmy Burkard, bassist Stevie Stewart, keyboardist Dave Schulz and drummer Richie Onori — going out and actively touring and recording in 2024, Andy said: "If they need money, and I can't see why they would need money because they've earned as much as I have from all the recordings and everything, if that's the reason for them to still do it, I'm not sure whether it is, because I can't see that band earning the kind of money that they would need to be earning. They're not on these big tours of casinos and stuff like that. They're kind of scrabbling about. And why would anybody wanna book a band called SWEET that has nothing that ties them to the original band?"

PRIMUS has announced John Hoffman as the band's new drummer.

Four months after the abrupt exit of longtime drummer Tim "Herb" Alexander, PRIMUS bassist/vocalist Les Claypool introduced the band's latest addition in an Instagram post. "Hoffington!!! Welcome aboard!," Les wrote.

PRIMUS put out an open call for a new drummer in November, followed by over 5,000 applications and five days of an "interstellar drum derby". At the time, PRIMUS was "seeking a well-mannered, affable individual with original sensibility and aesthetic, possessing a desire to open new doors in the creative world." The band went on to say that "flashy chops are wonderful, but groove, pocket, and the ability to listen, react, and contribute to the musical conversation is a must."⁠

Hoffman, who is based in Shreveport, Louisiana, had documented his process of preparing to audition on social media, and afterwards he wrote: "Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. I came and did my thing the way I do it. It went as well as I could have hoped. Maynard James Keenan was sitting directly in front of me and watched my entire audition. He gave me this towel. It's been one of the most incredible days of my life. I love you all. We did this. #primusdrumaudition #primus".

On December 30, PRIMUS played the first concert since Alexander's departure at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. Sitting behind the drums for the show was Bryan "Brain" Mantia, who previously played with PRIMUS when Alexander originally left the band in 1996.

In light of Alexander's latest departure, PRIMUS also enlisted musicians from frontman Les Claypool's side projects, THE HOLY MACKEREL and FROG BRIGADE, to perform during last night's performance.

With Mantia, PRIMUS recorded two studio albums — "Brown Album" (1997) and "Antipop" (1999) — as well as the covers EP "Rhinoplasty" (1998) and the original theme song for the TV show "South Park".

In November, Alexander shared a letter with Rolling Stone magazine explaining his decision to leave the band.

"A lot of times, you do something you love for a long time, and sometimes the passion turns into a job, and sometimes that job doesn't feel like it's your being anymore," he said.

He reflected on the impact his decision had on his physical, mental and family life.

"When I discovered that I'm struggling with all these things, I had to sit and think about exactly what am I doing," Alexander said. "I don't think I've ever chosen my path in life, I think I've just always thought 'I'm a drummer, I'm just gonna do music,' and things came to me, accepting whatever happens."

The news of his departure was initially shared on October 29 by his now-former bandmates, who claimed that they received an e-mail from him nearly two weeks earlier saying he had "lost his passion for playing."

Alexander joined PRIMUS in 1989 and left in 1996, then rejoined when they reformed in 2003. He exited the group again in 2010 but returned in 2013.

For TOOL's "Live In The Sand" destination festival, PRIMUS will be joined by the latter band's Danny Carey.

In July 2016, Alexander revealed that he suffered a second heart attack after he previously endured a similar health scare in 2014.

A decade ago, Les Claypool's plan to reform the "classic" PRIMUS lineup — with Alexander and guitarist Larry Lalonde — was put on hold when Alexander suffered his first heart attack, a "minor" attack that resulted in the drummer requiring triple bypass surgery. To fulfill its touring obligations, PRIMUS recruited Carey to fill in for a few dates. Three months after open-heart surgery, Alexander rejoined PRIMUS on the road.

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SLIPKNOT's Eloy Casagrande has shared drum-cam video of him and his bandmates performing the song "Eyeless" on December 21, 2024 at The O2 Arena in London, England. Check it out below.

In an interview for the cover story of the January 2025 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, Casagrande was asked for his opinion of his replacement in SEPULTURA, Greyson Nekrutman, who joined the latter band at around the same time in his life as Eloy did in 2011. The Brazilian musician responded: "Yes, and when I see him playing, I can remember myself in the same spot. When I joined SEPULTURA, I was his age. That's quite interesting. He's a very good drummer. I used to watch him playing videos he posted on social media when he was playing more jazz and drum solos. He's a brilliant player and I wish him and the rest of the band all the best. I have a lot of respect for him. I wish I could talk to him more one day. Maybe we could bring all the SEPULTURA drummers together.

"Greyson came to my studio in São Paulo when he joined the band to do some rehearsals, and we had a very good talk," Eloy added. "He had just two or three weeks to learn all the songs, so I gave him some advice like, 'We used to play that song faster. Be careful with this song because we used to play it slower.' I wasn't teaching him how to play the songs because he can play anything he wants to play. He's an incredible drummer."

Asked what it was like getting the call from SLIPKNOT and how he got the gig, Eloy said: "Everything happened at the end of 2023 when I got a call from SLIPKNOT's manager asking me if I was interested in doing an audition for SLIPKNOT. That year, SEPULTURA decided to stop playing, so it was a very natural decision for me to keep playing with someone else instead of just retiring. At the end of [2023] and the beginning of [2024], I wasn't supposed to talk to anyone about that. The audition was a big secret. Nobody could know about it. SEPULTURA didn't even know, it was just something between me and the guys from SLIPKNOT. It was my decision to do the audition. I said, 'Okay, I'm interested in doing an audition because SEPULTURA is going to stop. I have one and a half years left of working with them and I'm going to be done.'

"Through the years, I have played many times with SLIPKNOT," he continued. "We shared stages when I was playing SEPULTURA, and that was the place that I always wanted to be. I grew up listening to their music, so I wanted to have the experience playing live with SLIPKNOT with a mask on my face. In my first show with the band I was thinking, 'Oh, this is really happening. Oh my god. I can't believe it.'

"Going back a little bit, before I was invited to do the audition, I took my drums to a studio in São Paulo and did a proper sound and video recording," Eloy explained. "I played six songs, and I sent it to the guys. I chose three songs and then they asked me to play three specific songs. They were 'Eyeless', 'Purity' and 'Gematria'. My flight was booked to go to the audition, so at the end of January [of 2024], I flew to Palm Springs, California, and spent ten days with them there. The first five days, the whole band was rehearsing like it was a live show. Every day, the guys came with a different setlist, and we just played those songs."

In December 2024, Modern Drummer magazine's readers voted Casagrande as the No. 1 metal drummer in the publication's 2024 Readers' Poll.

After parting ways with Jay Weinberg in November 2023, SLIPKNOT teased fans with a hint about a new drummer 11 months ago, posting a photo of a single broken drumstick online with the caption "Rehearsal."

The band explained in a statement that the split with Weinberg was a creative decision. Jay followed up with a statement of his own, saying that he was "heartbroken and blindsided" by his dismissal.

Weinberg has since joined SUICIDAL TENDENCIES and INFECTIOUS GROOVES.

Casagrande abruptly quit SEPULTURA a year ago, shortly before he was supposed to begin rehearsals for the band's recently launched 40th-anniversary farewell tour.

"February 6th, a few days prior to the first rehearsal, drummer Eloy Casagrande informed the band that he was leaving SEPULTURA to pursue a career in another project," the band said in a statement.

Casagrande joined SEPULTURA more than 13 years ago as the replacement for Jean Dolabella.

SLIPKNOT's latest album "The End, So Far", arrived in August 2022. It marked the band's the last full-length LP before the departure of both keyboardist Craig Jones, who left the group in June 2023, and Weinberg.

SLIPKNOT recently completed the North American portion of the "Here Comes The Pain" tour. The band was celebrating the 25th anniversary of its seminal debut album, "Slipknot", which catapulted the band back in 1999.

In an interview with Tone-Talk, SLIPKNOT guitarist Jim Root spoke about how Casagrande came to join SLIPKNOT and his impact on the band's overall sound. He said: "We didn't even try anybody else. Eloy's name came up. He contacted us, actually, about wanting to be a part of it and started sending a bunch of videos in. I think him and our bass player [Alessandro 'Vman' Venturella] might've had a little bit of a relationship before. I think they knew each other. They had mutual friends. And Vman's really in tune with a lot of really great, proggy, heavy musicians that are passionate about their instruments. And it just seemed like a no-brainer. And he's really respectful of the legacy of [SLIPKNOT's original drummer, the late] Joey [Jordison], and Joey was a huge influence on him. And he's so humble. The dude has so much humility. And you could tell he just lives and breathes his craft, to the point where I see his passion and it ignites my passion for my instrument. And Brazilians, South Americans in general, are so passionate about what they do. Our manager told me, he was out to dinner with four or five promoters from South America, and they were all really stoked. They're all, like, 'It's so good you've got a Brazilian drummer in SLIPKNOT now. We kind of feel like we've won the World Cup.' It's a cool feeling. And God, he just fits in so well. I don't know, man. I mean, there's a lot of things I can say about it. I'm just glad it happened when it did. And we're lucky to have him — we are really lucky to have that dude."

In a new interview with Loaded Radio, DREAM THEATER singer James LaBrie discussed the band's decision to reunite with Mike Portnoy in October 2023, 13 years after the drummer first left the progressive metal titans. Asked what it was like to work with Portnoy again on the band's upcoming album, "Parasomnia", James said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was fantastic. It was funny because within the first day or two, there's that whole familiarity of how it is to work with somebody. And whether you're working in the DREAM THEATER context or you're out working with other musicians that you've worked with before, there's that recognition on how they go about approaching compositions or putting together songs. And everyone has a signature, everyone has that certain identity and approach and ritual that they use, and their tools. And so, yeah, having him back in, it was, like, 'Oh, yeah, I remember all this.' And, yeah, his involvement was fantastic, and it definitely did help steer and create what the album sounds like, and the songs, what they are. So his involvement was extremely full-on and heavy. And that's the only way it could be. You have to be there 100%; otherwise it just wouldn't be who and what we are. So, yeah, it was fantastic having him back in. And not only was it familiar, but it was very effortless and it just felt really natural. And it was just, like, 'Okay, let's just continue off from where we left,' which was even hard to believe, though, 13, 14 years ago. It just felt very, very instinctual and natural that we fell into what we do best — get in the studio and let's create something new."

Regarding how Portnoy's return to DREAM THEATER came about, LaBrie said: "Well, I think that there were several existential things that were going on as far as you could see Mike Portnoy doing [guitarist] John Petrucci's solo album, you could see him doing [Petrucci's] solo tour, you could see him doing the latest LIQUID TENSION [EXPERIMENT] album. So there was all these things that were slowly but surely opening the door to, is that a possibility? Is that something we should consider? Is it inevitable that the band should be considering the classic-lineup reunion? And things just start to become a little more obvious as time continues and things unfold naturally in that direction. And I think after the last world tour, after we had completed that tour and we were at home for a couple months, there were already things that we were thinking about. And that kind of — without getting into it, it was just something that was just pushing us that way through conversations with one another. When I say one another — being myself, John Petrucci, Jordan [Rudess, DREAM THEATER keyboardist] and [DREAM THEATER bassist] John Myung, just kind of feeling that magnetism, like, 'Guys, I think this is our time. I think this only makes sense that we bring back Mike [Portnoy] and make something of it. Let's do this time. Life's short.It really is. And let's take it while we're still feeling great, while we're still loving what we're doing and it's not just for a money situation. It's because we wanna see this back and we wanna make the best of it.' And I think this album is a true testament to that. So, yeah, it made sense."

Asked how now-former DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Mangini took the news when he and the rest of DREAM THEATER broke it to him that Portnoy was coming back, James said: "Well, he was very professional about it. [It was] very admirable of him to have been… He took it in style and class. I mean, obviously, I think it would have been upsetting — it must have been upsetting — but he took it for what it's worth and even saying things like, 'It kind of makes sense, guys. I see why this should be happening and why this would maybe inevitably be happening. It just makes sense for the band and the amount of history that you all have together. It seems natural.' So, yeah, no, he was a class guy. Classy. Yeah."

LaBrie went on to say that he and Portnoy showed had to get reacquainted and had some stuff to work through before a reunion could take place. "Yeah, sure. Sure we did," he said.

"When we were playing at the Beacon Theatre [in New York City in March 2022], Mike had come out to see the show and, yeah, had asked if I'd be willing to see him and get together and just have some kind of a mending of the wounds, so to speak. At first it was a little startling because it came out of nowhere. And Mike and I hadn't spoken — well, at that point, it would have been close to 11, 12 years. So the whole situation, it was very calm. It was very emotional because, as we looked at one another and we hadn't been in physical presence of one another for so many years, within 30 seconds we embraced one another and said, 'Hey, I love you, man.' And then we went into my dressing room and we talked for about 20 minutes — kind of like a catharsis. You know, 'Let's just cleanse this and rid ourselves of all these demons, so to speak, or monkeys on our back, and let's move on and let's stop the bullshit and the soap opera and all this crap that we're saying about one another. Let's just put that garbage behind us and move forward and realize what we created together is something we can be extremely proud of.' And that's basically what happened. And that's another one of those situations. When that happened, that's another piece to the puzzle of, like, 'Okay, well, it's really starting to come together, eh? We're finishing the puzzle of, 'Oh, and look what it is. It's the classic lineup.' So one thing kind of leads to another. And yeah, it was just opening another door of that possibility."

The progressive metal legends played their first concert with Portnoy in 14 years on October 20 at the O2 Arena in London, United Kingdom.

The drummer co-founded DREAM THEATER in 1985 with Petrucci and Myung. Mike played on 10 DREAM THEATER albums over a 20-year period, from 1989's "When Dream And Day Unite" through 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", before exiting the group in 2010. Portnoy returned to DREAM THEATER in October 2023 after being replaced by Mike Mangini, who played with DREAM THEATER across five studio albums and accompanying world tours.

London marked the kick-off concert of DREAM THEATER's 2024-2025 40th-anniversary tour. The European leg of the trek — presented as "An Evening With Dream Theater" — ran through November 24 in Amsterdam, hitting cities in numerous countries along the way.

DREAM THEATER's sixteenth studio album, "Parasomnia", is due on February 7, 2025 via InsideOut Music. The LP marks the band's first release with Portnoy since 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings".

"Parasomnia" was produced by John Petrucci, engineered by James "Jimmy T" Meslin, and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returns once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art.

In a January 2024 interview with Chris Akin Presents…, Mangini was asked if he had any "advance notice" that Portnoy would return to DREAM THEATER in the fall of 2023 or if it was "really immediate". He responded: "Immediate. But it's like… So the fish comes up out of the water, it's immediate, but the fish was swimming for a while. Where was the fish? Whatever."

He continued: "The reason it was easy for me to deal with — very easy, actually — I was, like, 'Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Original guy back in band.' I got I got it. And I didn't have to go do through a drop-down menu; I didn't have to do it. It was just I looked at it and went, 'Okay.' And plus I don't know whether it was intuitive, instinctual [or] intellectual… but I have left so many things on the table for so many years — the publishing of more books, the classes that I wanna teach, the interaction that my own self-development comes largely from me having to teach and talk about it to people. At some point, I mean, I see the whole picture, the grid, and I know what I can't do, and that inspires me.

"But anyway, the answer to your question is, I got a call and understood the call, and said, 'Okay, let's do a joint statement,'" he explained. "And then the next day, I'm, like, 'Okay.' I'm having coffee and quite literally, at my think tank, looking at my list and going, 'How am I gonna complete this job now? I've gotta fix this or do that. I've got a lot to do.' My studio facility had construction, there was stuff that had to be fixed. I was, like, 'Let me just let all of this stuff happen and breathe and just finish these things.' So that's what my mindset was. I can't tell you anything different because that's what it was."

Asked how he managed to avoid being angry over the fact that he was being pushed out of DREAM THEATER when Portnoy wanted to come back, even though Mangini was the drummer that helped the band win its first Grammy Award, Mangini said: "Well, a) because I don't know that that's what is the full picture. I don't know that that is what happened indeed. And I don't let myself even think about it. People decide things and I respect that. It's just it is what it is."

In early November 2023, Mangini told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about his exit from DREAM THEATER and the return of Portnoy: "All I know is the decision was made and when I heard it, all I pictured was, 'Oh, this is an original guy going back to his band. Uh, okay. All right. Let's go to the next thing.' It was nothing more. I was told. It was just nothing more than — it seemed so simple to me. And maybe intuitively it's, like, 'Oh yeah, I get it.' And that was that. That's really it… So that's really the crux of it all is it was an easy thing for me to understand. And then once the news hit and it became real, which is when it set in, because once I knew about it, I just got busy. I was, like, 'Okay, I've got all these videos to finish.'"

The 61-year-old Mangini, who joined DREAM THEATER in 2010, continued: "I'm actually doing like a lot of stuff for my [recently released solo] album. I'll do some drum playthroughs. Not to yap and yap and yap about it, but I have a lot on my cork board and my lists and things to do and things to accomplish and things to complete. There's so much there I haven't been able to do. But once it hit and it became real, it was real quick for me. I'm, like, 'Okay, I get it.'"

When host Eddie Trunk noted that everything about his exit from DREAM THEATER, from the way it was handled to the fans' response to Mike's attitude about it, was "about as good as it could be," Mangini concurred. "It is as good as it could be," Mike said. "I think people are where they need to be. It's, like, there's stuff to do, there's places to be, there's people to see, there are things to accomplish and roles to fulfill and tasks to do. And that's what it is. That's really what it is.

"How lucky am I, how fortunate am I to be just a part of that history, to have all this amazing stuff happen?" he continued. "It's positive, positive, positive.

"I know I've accomplished some things with my career, and I've had a lot of struggles and a lot of things that didn't work or whatever, but for my parents to be in their 90s, to see this happen, and I'm not talking about career stuff; I'm talking about how I've treated people and how they treat me. I mean, I think that's what I want for my kids — I wanna feel well about how they are with people and how people treat them at the end of the day. I think that's just awesome."

Portnoy attended DREAM THEATER's concert in March 2022 at Beacon Theatre in New York City. It was the first time he witnessed his then-former bandmates perform live since his exit from the iconic progressive metal outfit 12 years earlier. Asked by Trunk if it was "a weird thing" for him to see Portnoy at the gig, Mangini said: "No, and you can ask him. It was like nothing ever changed. In other words, I was post-show getting dressed, and Mike, he walked up the stairs like, and, of course, my door's open. Of course, I'm basically pantless in a way. And he comes up and I really just like clothed myself. And the first thing I said to him was, I think, something like, 'Dude, your timing's off. I just have no pants on for a second.' I don't remember what I said. It was like my underwear, whatever it was. But it was like nothing ever changed from the phone calls that we made, from the time he brought me on stage with DREAM THEATER, from the time I'm at a DREAM THEATER show we would though watching ZAPPA DOES ZAPPA and talking about Vinnie Colaiuta and Terry Bozzio. I mean, what other way is there to live? I don't know anything different. So that's the truth. That's the vibe. That's your answer to your question."

When Portnoy's return to DREAM THEATER was first announced on October 25, 2023, Mangini said in a statement: "I understand DREAM THEATER's decision to get Mike Portnoy back at this time. As was said from Day 1, my place was not to fill all the roles that Mike held in the band. I was to play the drums in order to help the band carry on. My main role of keeping our live show working tightly on a nightly basis was an intense and rewarding experience. Thankfully, I got to experience playing music with these iconic musicians, as well as some fun times laced with humor. I also really enjoyed spending lots of time with the crew. And then there's the Grammy win, which was amazingly satisfying. To the fans: thank you so much for being amazing to me. I cherish the pictures I have of you all losing your minds and having fun. Finally, I really love the band, crew and management and wish them and the entire organization all the best."

Two months after the aforementioned Beacon Theatre concert, Portnoy told "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about what it was like to see another drummer play his parts live with DREAM THEATER: "I've always been the type of drummer that just flies [by] the seat of my pants in the moment. Even with my own drum parts, I don't necessarily stick to them faithfully from show to show, whereas Mangini obviously really studied the drum parts and they had everything programmed out. They're all about the precision, and that's surely their thing. And yeah, he killed it. There's no doubt he's an amazing drummer and he plays my parts incredibly faithfully."

Portnoy continued: "I feel bad for him. He and I joked about it. He's in a horrible situation where he's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't. He expressed that frustration to me, and I feel for him; it's definitely a weird position to be put into. I kind of had it a little bit when I played with AVENGED SEVENFOLD and TWISTED SISTER, coming into the throne of two drummers that have passed away, and I tried to learn those parts as faithfully as I could. When I had a hired-gun gig like that, I spent a lot of attention trying to honor the drummer that came before me — it's important. I don't wanna go into a gig like either of those and try to force my style on to it."

Mangini released his debut solo album, "Invisible Signs", on November 11, 2023. Accompanying Mangini on the LP are Tony Dickinson on bass, Ivan Keller on guitar, Gus G. (FIREWIND, OZZY OSBOURNE) on lead guitar and former EVANESCENCE guitarist Jen Majura on vocals.

Mangini joined DREAM THEATER in late 2010 through a widely publicized audition following the departure of Portnoy, who co-founded DREAM THEATER 38 years ago. Mangini beat out six other of the world's top drummers — Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer and Derek Roddy — for the gig, a three-day process that was filmed for a documentary-style reality show called "The Spirit Carries On".

Mangini made his name in the hard rock world in the mid-1990s when he played with EXTREME, before landing the gig with guitar legend Steve Vai in 1996. Nearly a decade later, Mangini took up a full-time teaching position at the world-renowned Berklee College Of Music.