Multi-platinum rock band THEORY OF A DEADMAN has released the official music video for its hard-hitting new single "Dinosaur", directed by Tony Corella. The release of "Dinosaur" last month marked the chart-topping quartet's first taste of new music since 2020's acclaimed album "Say Nothing" and a return to form stylistically. The hard-hitting, riff-heavy track, produced by Martin Terefe (Jason Mraz, YUNGBLUD),is currently impacting Active Rock radio nationwide, where it's already hit No. 25 on the chart, and is featured on various rock playlists across DSPs, including Spotify's Rock Rotation and Top Of The Rock, Apple Music's The New Rock and Breaking Rock, and Amazon Music's Rock Arena and Fresh Rock.

"This was another fun video to make with director Tony Corella, who we also worked with for the 'Blow' video," says frontman Tyler Connolly. "We felt it was important to lead off with a lighthearted video that is sure to have you smiling as you rock out to the track!!"

"'Dinosaur' takes us back to our roots with this riff-driven rocker," Connolly previously said. "To me, it feels like it could fit on any of our albums, but I will say if you like the old THEORY OF A DEADMAN, you'll love the new THEORY OF A DEADMAN."

"Rock is where we made our bed for all these years," added guitarist Dave Brenner. "It's been a while since we had an up-tempo in-your-face track like this — and it felt good."

With sky-high hooks, riffs as thick as a 2x4, rumbling grooves, and a razor-sharp sense of humor, THEORY OF A DEADMAN — Tyler Connolly (lead vocals, guitar),Dave Brenner (guitar, backing vocals),Dean Back (bass),and Joey Dandeneau (drums, backing vocals) — have quietly persisted as an unapologetic, unbreakable, and undeniable hard rock force with major multi-platinum hits and countless sold-out shows in each of the past two decades. Jamming together in basements throughout high school, the band burst out of their small hometown of North Delta, British Columbia with the self-titled "Theory Of A Deadman" during 2002. In addition to the double-platinum breakthrough album "Scars & Souvenirs" (2008) and gold-certified "The Truth Is…" (2011),THEORY OF A DEADMAN have notched a procession of hits, including the gold-certified "All Or Nothing", "Bitch Came Back" and "Lowlife", platinum-certified "Angel", "Hate My Life" and "Not Meant To Be", double-platinum "Bad Girlfriend" and triple-platinum "RX (Medicate)". As the biggest smash of their career thus far, the latter hit, off their 2017 album "Wake Up Call", marked their third No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and garnered a nomination for "Rock Song Of The Year" at the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Their impressive catalogue has also logged two Top 10 debuts on the Billboard 200 and amassed more than one billion collective streams on Spotify alone and over 675 million views on their official YouTube. In 2020, the award-winning band's seventh studio album, "Say Nothing", landed at No. 2 on the Billboard Alternative Albums chart and No. 3 on the Rock Albums chart. Plus, the album, featuring the chart-topping and powerful single "History Of Violence", earned praise from American Songwriter, Billboard, Alternative Press and Classic Rock magazine which awarded it four out of five stars.

Photo credit: Jimmy Fontaine

Over the years, Magnus has accomplished two Gold Records with Hammerfall, several Grammy Nominations, Euro Awards and Artist of the Year Nominations. 


He has been given The Save the Earth Prize a Rotary Award for fine commitment and is honored with a Cultural Scholarship by the Adlerbertska Scholarship Foundation. 


Magnus has engaged himself with cultural events beyond the usual. He has played with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra as well as with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Furthermore he played on his solo base in a ballet performed on the Gothenburg Opera. Magnus is also the creator of the recognized project Culture Meets Industry. 







The Base In My Heart will be released in February; preorder now and you receive a Gift Card and a free CD with the solo album Set Me Free from the year 2007 when Magnus left Hammerfall. Finally it will be relived why Magnus left the band.


The Base In My Heart is so far written in Swedish – it´s an autobiography about Magnus Rosén's life as a rock musician. He has traveled the world several times, open-heartedly experiencing different Cultures mostly with Hammerfall but also as a solo bassist. 


In his book, you can read about how Magnus became a Jute Ambassador. The time when he played in La Paz – Bolivia, 4200 meters above sea level where oxygen was offered due to the thin air. Or when he participated in a blues festival in the Himalayas and ended up on a full page in the Himalaya Daily News with the word success in the headlines. 


Magnus is a pioneering and unique rock musician and artist. Unstoppably curious to explore different music genres with his solo base making new art. In his book, Magnus shares the good and the dark experiences from the music world. 


Read about the murder of their manager Lelle, who suddenly disappeared in the middle of a concert. And also according to Swedish Criminologist and Author Leif GW Persson - who the likely killer is.


(Photo - Bengt Persson / www.artphotosweden.se)

In a new interview with Brazil's KazaGastão, former MORBID ANGEL frontman David Vincent spoke about the fact that the city of Tampa is still considered by some to be the unofficial capital of American death metal. Asked if there is anything special about the Florida town that makes it such a breeding ground for the most extreme subgenre of heavy metal, David responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I don't think so. What happened was [legendary recording studio] Morrisound Studios was there. It's almost like people think that there's something in the water; there's not. People romanticize all kinds of stuff, they say, 'Oh, man, maybe I can go to a bar and I can see MORBID ANGEL and OBITUARY and ATHEIST and all these people at the same place. We were all friends, but it's not like you go to one place and it's like a clearing house for extreme music. Morrisound Studios recorded a number of these records, MORBID ANGEL among them, and it just kind of got known as a hub for this kind of stuff. I don't think it has anything to do with the city; I think it just has to do with — happenstance."

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the suburbs of Tampa Bay and Orlando became the first death metal "hotspot" and produced such bands as DEATH, MORBID ANGEL, OBITUARY, DEICIDE and CANNIBAL CORPSE (which migrated to Tampa from their native Buffalo).

MORBID ANGEL is widely acknowledged to have one of the best-selling death metal album of all time, 1993's "Covenant", which has shifted more than 130,000 copies in the United States.

Morrisound, a recording studio established in Tampa in 1981, had been used by countless metal bands over the years, including SEPULTURA, DEATH, ICED EARTH, DEICIDE, OBITUARY, CANNIBAL CORPSE and MALEVOLENT CREATION.

Vincent is currently the frontman of I AM MORBID, in which he is joined by fellow ex-MORBID ANGEL member Pedro "Pete" Sandoval (drums),and guitarists Bill Hudson (NORTHTALE, DORO) and Richie Brown (EXMORTUS, THE ABSENCE, TRIVIUM).

I AM MORBID's spring 2022 European tour marked the first time Sandoval and Vincent played together in 12 years.

Sandoval, who now lives his life as a born-again Christian, was forced to leave MORBID ANGEL in 2010 after undergoing surgery for a prolapsed disc.

Vincent left MORBID ANGEL in 2015. He has since been replaced by a returning Steve Tucker, who previously handled bass and vocals on MORBID ANGEL's "Formulas Fatal To The Flesh", "Gateways To Annihilation" and "Heretic" LPs.

In a May 2019 interview with Jorge Botas of the "Metal Global" radio show, which airs on the Portuguese public TV and radio broadcaster RTP, Vincent said that he had every right to perform MORBID ANGEL's classic songs with I AM MORBID.

"Times come and life works the way that it does," Vincent said. "And there are times when… It's like a marriage — sometimes they don't always work forever. But that doesn't mean that the children that we've had together, that I don't still love my children. Although Trey [Azagthoth, MORBID ANGEL guitarist and sole remaining original member] and I have some irreconcilable differences, that doesn't in any way preclude me from still having the love and the passion for all of my children."

Asked what he has to say to people who insist that he should not play MORBID ANGEL's early material without the other members of the group's classic lineup, David said: "There's examples of this very situation… I mean, when Ozzy [Osbourne] left BLACK SABBATH, that didn't stop him from playing 'Paranoid' every night, even though he didn't write the song. All of the songs that I'm singing I wrote. So I don't really understand that. But different people become attached to different things. And they have their opinion and I have mine. And I don't really consider this kind of negativity. I don't have it in my life."

In 2019, Vincent released "Something Wicked Marches In", the debut album from his supergroup VLTIMAS, also featuring guitarist Rune Eriksen (formerly of MAYHEM) and CRYPTOPSY drummer Flo Mounier. Two years earlier, Vincent issued his debut country single, "Drinkin' With The Devil".

In a new interview with Metalshop TV, Rob Caggiano spoke about how he went from his previous gig with ANTHRAX to producing the VOLBEAT album "Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies" to joining the Danish band as their guitarist. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I decided to leave ANTHRAX back then because I kind of felt like… At that point I had been in the band for a long time, and I kind of felt like my role in the band ran its course, so to speak. And I just kind of felt like I was hitting my head up against a glass ceiling a long time. And it just felt like I needed a change. I wasn't feeling inspired. Don't get me wrong — I love those guys and I loved every minute of my time with them. It was such an amazing, wild ride. But I just felt like I needed to do something else at that time. And the VOLBEAT thing just happened, and it was organic, and it felt right. So, here I am."

Regarding what it was about VOLBEAT's music that appealed to him, Rob said" "I think for me, the thing with VOLBEAT, it's like a mixture of all the sounds that I like. [Laughs] It's a lot of stuff that I grew up listening to all wrapped into one package. When I first VOLBEAT, I heard the MISFITS, I heard METALLICA, I heard a little bit of the RAMONES… There's some SLAYER-vibe riffs. There's just a lot of different stuff. And it's all fun — it's a lot of fun; the music is a lot of fun. And it definitely connects with a lot of people. That's why I do it."

Caggiano previously talked about his split with ANTHRAX in a 2014 interview with Ultimate Guitar. At the time, he said: "At that point when I decided to leave those guys, I just felt like I needed a change. The thing is the band was doing amazing. ANTHRAX was on top of their game. We had just come off the 'Big Four' tour and all this awesome stuff happened. But the bottom line was I just wasn't happy and my heart wasn't in it.

"The main thing was it was never a creative outlet for me," he explained. "That's something I'd been thinking about for a while — for years. It didn't happen overnight. I know to the public and to the fans it seemed like, 'Wow, this came out of left field,' but it really didn't. I'd been talking to those guys and I had many conversations with them over the years, so they were definitely not surprised when it went down at all. Yeah, it's just something I needed to do for my own sanity.

"In ANTHRAX, my role was, 'You're playing the solo.' [Laughs] It's like, 'All right, cool.' Don't get me wrong, I love playing solos. It's what I do. I'm a lead guitar player. But there's definitely so much more I can do and I had way more to say musically than what I was doing with ANTHRAX. That's basically it."

Asked if he actually brought in song ideas that didn't get listened to, Caggiano told Ultimate Guitar: "It would never even get to that point. It's cool. That's their thing. They have a system and they have a way of working and they've been doing it like for ages. I totally respected that, but after a while it just got to the point where I felt like I was going through the motions. I'm not the kind of person that can do something unless it's 100 percent. I needed to make a change and I needed to move.

Rob went on to say that he "never understood" why the rest of ANTHRAX wouldn't even entertain his ideas. But then he clarified: "I do understand it, but at the same time, I was with those guys for a really long time. You would think at some point along that journey, we would have collaborated on something. But it's totally cool. It is totally cool. I'm very proud of all our accomplishments, and I'm so proud to be part of the ANTHRAX legacy. We braved a lot of storms, and there were a lot of dark periods and great periods throughout that whole time. So I'm really proud of it."

Caggiano replaced former VOLBEAT guitarist Thomas Bredahl, who was given his walking papers in November 2011.

Richie Sambora says it's a "possibility" he could reunite with BON JOVI for an appearance at a U.K. festival next year.

The 63-year-old guitarist/vocalist addressed a possible renewed collaboration with his former bandmates while speaking to Metro on the red carpet of The Music Industry Trust Awards at The Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Monday (November 7). Asked about the chances he will get back together with BON JOVI for a headlining performance on the Pyramid Stage at next summer's Glastonbury festival, Sambora said with a "cheeky smile" on his face, "It's a possibility. We're talking a bit."

Two years ago, Sambora opened up about his controversial decision to leave BON JOVI in 2013 in an interview with People magazine, saying that he wanted to spend more time with his daughter Ava, now 25.

"It wasn't a popular decision by any means, obviously, but there was really almost no choice about it. I had a lot of conscious work to do around [my personal life]," the guitarist said.

"We've been through a lot of things together. That was a time of psychological maintenance for the family. You know, I ain't no angel. But I realized, Ava needed me to be around at that point in time. Family had to come first, and that's what happened."

Sambora, who spent time in rehab in 2007 and 2011 for alcohol and prescription drug abuse, added that the rock and roll lifestyle eventually took its toll.

"My lord, when I look back and start to list the tours ... 18-and-a-half months of being on the road, 52 countries," he said. "It's like, Wow. It was really time for a break. We did that 14 times over a 31-year period."

Two months earlier, Sambora told U.K.'s Daily Mail that he wasn't opposed to one day rejoining BON JOVI, provided that the circumstances were right. "It would have to be a special situation for me to go back, but I'm certainly not counting it out," he said. "I have no malice toward that band."

Richie's comments came just a couple of weeks after Jon Bon Jovi told Germany's Rock Antenne that "there's not a day that goes by that I don't wish that Richie had his life together and was still in the band. And yet, in a weird way, it's because of his inability to get it together anymore that we went on and wrote 'This House Is Not For Sale'."

Addressing Jon's remarks directly, Richie told Daily Mail: "When people say I don't have my life together — are you kidding me? I'm the happiest dude on the block."

Sambora, who joined BON JOVI in 1983 and co-wrote most of the group's iconic hits over the following three decades, hasn't performed a full show with the band since he left the "Because We Can" tour seven years ago. He later said he thought BON JOVI "should have made more strides to become a band" and not turn into "Jon being the front guy and nothing else." Jon, in turn, claimed Sambora's "choices" had "led him astray."

Sambora rejoined BON JOVI on stage in April 2018 at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland, marking his first performance with the band in five years. Also appearing with the group was bassist Alec John Such, who hadn't played with BON JOVI since a one-off performance in 2001. They performed several crowd favorites, including "Livin' On A Prayer", "You Give Love A Bad Name" and "It's My Life".

BON JOVI's latest album, "2020", was released in October 2020 via Island Records.

W.A.S.P.'s headlining concert at Amplified Live in Dallas, Texas Saturday night (November 5) was reportedly shut down by the Dallas Fire Department just prior to the band taking the stage as the almost-2,000-seat capacity venue was allegedly oversold by almost 1,200 tickets. Support at the concert was scheduled to be provided by the MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP and ARMORED SAINT.

Earlier today, the responsible promoter for W.A.S.P.'s concert in Dallas released the following statement via the band's social media: "After the dust settled in Dallas we wanted to make a clarifying statement letting everyone know that Amplified Live did not intentionally over sell the show. There was a clerical error on the venue capacity certificate that didn't include the entire outdoor venue space. When they rebranded the venue they were issued a new certificate with this omission. While that area is clearly venue space, the Dallas Fire Dept had no choice but to shut down the show because of that reason and the venue will be having a new certificate issued ASAP. Again we are sorry for what happened".

On Sunday, W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless said in a statement that the Dallas Police Department advised him and his bandmates and crew "to leave the venue immediately because they said they could not guarantee our safety." He went on to say "promoters didn't think this band could sell tickets in the U.S. anymore. Well, it goes to show the absolute dedication of our fan base has here in the U. S."

No makeup date has been set for this show, but Blackie promised: "We'll certainly be back. You can bet on that."

All those in attendance will be issued a full and complete refund.

W.A.S.P.'s first U.S. tour in a decade coincides with the band's 40th anniversary.

Speaking to the "Appetite For Distortion" podcast, Lawless explained why he and his bandmates were absent from U.S. shores for so long. "The fans did this," he said, referencing the band's current trek. "I've never seen anything like that. Promoters didn't think this band could sell tickets anymore. We were being offered stuff that wasn't very good, and we didn't wanna do that because the production that we wanted to do was way bigger. And so I just started telling the truth. I said, 'Hey, it's down to promoters.'"

He continued: "Any band — and I don't care who it is — any band will go anywhere if a promoter gives them a decent offer, and that's true. And so I told the fans, I go, 'Hey, let your local guy know [to hit us up with a decent offer].' It was almost like a passing thought — you know, 'This will never happen in a million years.' Well, a couple of hundred of 'em literally got together and started petitioning, and then that grew into thousands of people, and they started literally rallying to petition their local promoters. And it brings us to where we are now. But I've never heard of anything before or since that was like that. So I guess it goes back to the old adage: don't let people tell you that you just being one person won't make a difference, because it did. That's the absolute truth. I've never seen anything like this before."

W.A.S.P.'s first live performance since December 2019 took place on July 23 at Skansen in Stockholm, Sweden. A week later (July 30),W.A.S.P. also played at Skogsröjet festival in Rejmyre, Sweden.

W.A.S.P. recently postponed its European 40th-anniversary tour, originally scheduled for spring of 2022, until the spring of 2023. The new dates will take place in March, April and May of 2023. All tickets previously purchased for the 2022 tour will be valid at the rescheduled 2023 shows.

Lawless has led W.A.S.P. as its lead vocalist and primary songwriter since its beginning. His unique brand of visual, social and political comment took the group to worldwide heights and sold millions of records alongside a legacy of sold-out shows across the globe for four decades. He is joined in W.A.S.P.'s current lineup by bassist Mike Duda and guitarist Doug Blair, whose tenures in the band span 26 and 18 years respectively, along with drummer extraordinaire Aquiles Priester.

Update from the promoter in Dallas, TX: "After the dust settled in Dallas we wanted to make a clarifying statement…

Posted by W.A.S.P. Nation (Official) on Monday, November 7, 2022
The Dallas, TX promotor oversold tickets for the show tonight at Amplified Live. The Fire Marshall showed up & informed the promoter that the show would not happen unless they removed 600 people from the venue. The band deeply regrets the issues brought on by tonight’s promoter. pic.twitter.com/LYpTgDchhP

— W.A.S.P. Nation (@WASPOfficial) November 6, 2022

Former Accept/Bonfire and current Iron Allies vocalist, David Reece, has lent his instantly recognizable voice to synthwave project Ion Pulse, their new Children Of Snake Mountain EP is available now on all streaming sites.


While this is musically new ground for David, both his loyal hard rock fanbase and fans of the fast growing retro-orientated synthwave genre alike will surely find much to enjoy, as the EP takes the listener back to the mid to late 1980s, combining a dramatic dark synth-driven atmosphere with the more traditional elements of late 80's styled hard rock.


Ion Pulse mastermind Mike Morphett states: "Ion Pulse was born from a love of the music and films of the 1980s; from Mr. Mister to Megadeth, from Teen Wolf to The Terminator. On this latest EP, Children Of Snake Mountain, the guitar crunch and pulsing synthesizers of their action-movie-styled anthems is joined by the soaring voice of vocalist David Reece (Iron Allies, ex-Accept)... Join the Ion Legions and storm the slopes of Snake Mountain!”







The EP brings together a total of five songs, including a cover of Dio's classic track, "Rock 'N' Roll Children". Purchase via Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp.


Children Of Snake Mountain by Ion Pulse


(Photo - Kommodore Johnsen)

UK bashers Cradle Of Filth performed a special Halloween show on  Saturday, October 29th at London venue Indigo at The O2. Fan-filmed video of the entire gig can be viewed below.


The setlist was as follows:


"Existential Terror"
"Nocturnal Supremacy"
"Summer Dying Fast"
"I Am the Thorn"
"Crawling King Chaos
"Nymphetamine"
"A Gothic Romance (Red Roses for the Devil's Whore)"
"Scorched Earth Erotica"
"Us, Dark, Invincible"




Encore:
"Venus In Fear"
"Desire in Violent Overture"
"Necromantic Fantasies"
"Gilded Cunt"
"Her Ghost in the Fog"

Bassist/vocalist Thomas "Angelripper" Such of German thrash metal veterans SODOM has confirmed to Agoraphobic News that he and his bandmates have commenced work on the follow-up to 2020's "Genesis XIX" LP. He said: "We are still working on new material for a new album. We have three [songs so far]. I can tell you this will be the heaviest SODOM album ever.

"I don't know when it's gonna be released — next year or 2024 — because I wanna work on it without any pressure," he continued. "It's very important. When the songs are finished, everything is fixed, we can talk to a record company to get an option to release. That's also the business.

"But, yes, we are always active," Tom added. "During the corona times, we had more time for writing songs and recording an album. That was the only positive in these times. But 'Genesis XIX' was a wonderful album 'cause we spent more time recording it."

SODOM's 40th-anniversary album, "40 Years At War - The Greatest Hell Of Sodom", arrived on October 28 through Steamhammer/SPV. The LP includes one song from each of the previous studio albums receiving a re-recorded treatment from SODOM's current lineup. The CD and vinyl double LP with their martial cover artwork penned by Eliran Kantor (KREATOR, TESTAMENT, GWAR, among others) contain 17 tracks, all newly recorded by Such, Frank Blackfire (guitar),Yorck Segatz (guitar) and Toni Merkel (drums).

"Genesis XIX" came out in November 2020 via Entertainment One (eOne) in North America and Steamhammer/SPV in Europe. The disc was recorded by Siggi Bemm and mastered by Patrick W. Engel and comes shrouded in the cover art of Joe Petagno of MOTÖRHEAD fame.

Angelripper previously described "Genesis XIX" as "one of the toughest and most diverse studio recordings that SODOM have ever released."

SLIPKNOT's latest album, "The End, So Far", was released on September 30 via Roadrunner Records. The follow-up to 2019's "We Are Not Your Kind", it is the band's final record with Roadrunner after first signing with the rock and metal label in 1998.

In a new interview with NME, SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan said he was "in love with the idea of having no restrictions". He explained: "I always thought, 'What would it be like if SLIPKNOT was big enough that we weren't held to albums?' Let's say Clown could convince you, 'Hey, instead of waiting two years for 12 songs, I'm gonna give you one song every month.' So in reality, I'm shaving a year off for the same thing.

"You have to go with me on this journey, but what I promise you is, there's artwork that goes with it, there's utility that goes with it, it's cheaper than what a normal individual song would be… And it's gone through all the filters — it's gone through the band, it's gone through [singer] Corey Taylor, it's gone through a professional mixer and masterer — no avenues have been chopped up, it's all business as usual. And we want to do this because I think it's time for you, our fans, to get everything."

Crahan went on to say that being unrestrained by the confines of a traditional album will make it possible for him and his bandmates to explore different musical avenues that they wouldn't have been able to in the past.

"I've always thought it would be interesting for our fans to know more about us," he said, "So if the Clown and Corey Taylor and [guitarist] Jim Root were all interested in playing with the Number One sitar player on the planet — and we would be because we're artists — and we brought this person to our location, and this person adorned us with their craft and taught us about the sitar… If we got to sit in and listen, and partake, and touch and smell and feel that vibration… Wouldn't it be interesting?"

He continued: "Let's say that sitar player's on a label and they have management — well fuck it, I'm going to call them up directly and they're only going to have to talk to their label, and their label's going to have to talk to my management. It's not going to be my label and their label, and my management and their management, and then me and the artists. [When it's like that], we never get to work together; we never get to make this piece of art. So being free, in that sense, gives us the freedom to explore deeper, more surreal opportunities to hone in with our craft; it's a win-win for everyone.

"The philosophy is for the fans to be sucked into thought, rather than just heavy metal, record labels, video channels, radio… No, it's the love of music — you love us as artists, you love our band, you know we have our own filter… Look at what we can do when we are free to dip our paintbrushes anywhere."

Last month, Taylor told NME that SLIPKNOT's relationship with Roadrunner deteriorated over the years due to changes at the record company.

"It's such a different label than it was when we first signed with it," he said. "Once you're in the hands of people who don't care, it's just a fucking business. And that's what happened."

"The End, So Far" entered the Billboard 2000 chart at position No. 2. The LP shifted a total of 59,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release, 50,500 of which were traditional album sales.

Prior to "The End, So Far"'s arrival, SLIPKNOT had a three-album streak of No. 1 debuts with 2008's "All Hope Is Gone", 2014's ".5: The Gray Chapter" and the aforementioned "We Are Not Your Kind".

Sabaton guitarist / Majestica frontman Tommy Johansson has shared a cover of the Twisted Sister classic, "The Price", taken from the 1984 album, Stay Hungry.


Johansson: "Video recorded during the North American tour with Sabaton and Epica 2022. Recorded in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Graceland, Camden, Montreal CA, Minneapolis, Detroit, Richmond, Las Vegas, LA, Hollywood, Boston to name some of the places.


A big thanks to those who helped me film this video: Pablo Christlein, Jens De Vos, Matt Teixeira, Johan Bengs, and thanks to Hannes Van Dahl for your expertise!"







Sabaton recently released a new lyric video for the Carolus Rex album track, "1648". Watch below.


Says the band: "This song is about The Battle of Prague, which was the last major clash of the Thirty Years’ War. The Swedes took the opportunity for a last assault on Bohemia to loot Prague Castle of its art and valuables – fascinating story."





With their fascination for the stories of World War I and two dedicated studio albums filled to the brim with stories from this conflict, the band from Falun have decided to dive even deeper into this topic with their newest release: The EP trilogy entitled Echoes Of The Great War.


This new EP trilogy features new songs specifically about World War I, coupled with topically related catalogue music. You read that right; Sabaton has been busy in the studio recording some new music for their fans. With this WWI collection, the band aims to present this music in a different way, enabling the listener to familiarise themselves with these incredible war stories, while simultaneously quenching the thirst for metal music.


Commenting on the new project, Pär Sundström states: “This trilogy complements our two studio albums The Great War and The War To End All Wars. We were definitely not ready to close our World War I chapter. We wanted to continue the journey and let it echo a little longer in the hearts and minds of our fans."


The first in the series, Weapons Of The Modern Age, is out now. In times of conflict, science is very much linked to the war system. The First World War witnessed some of the biggest leaps in scientific evolution, weaponizing land, sea and skies in ways never witnessed before. This EP sheds light on the powerful and devastating tactics used to fight the war, and kicking off this release is SABATON's new track, "Father".


Sharing his insight on the track, Joakim Broden declares: “Our new song, 'Father', is a dark track about a very controversial person. Fritz Haber, the man who weaponized lethal gas, is responsible for about 4 billion people being alive today thanks to the Haber-Bosch process that he won a Nobel Prize for. It takes some serious thought to wrap your head around his story. Things aren’t always easy to understand or simply black and white, but rather all shades of grey. 'Father' really forces you to think a bit more than the average song you hear on the radio."


Weapons Of The Modern Age is available at all streaming platforms found here. Watch the "Father" lyric video below.





Tracklist:


"Father"
"The Red Baron"
"Dreadnought"
"The Attack of the Dead Men"
"The Future of Warfare"
"Stormtroopers"

Original AC/DC singer Dave Evans says that he has no regrets about his split with the group.

Dave recorded AC/DC's first two singles, "Can I Sit Next To You Girl" and "Baby, Please Don't Go". But in October 1974, less than a year after AC/DC's first gig, Evans was out of the band. He was replaced by Scott, who sang on AC/DC's first six studio albums and became a legend himself after his death in 1980.

Evans discussed his post-AC/DC career in a recent interview with Argentina's Urbana Play 104.3 FM. Asked if he has any regrets about the way his time with the band ended, Dave said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I've had a fantastic career. I kept rocking with RABBIT and DAVID EVANS AND THUNDER DOWN UNDER, and I'm traveling around the world now, still recording. So as far as my career is concerned, I've had a fantastic career; I'm still having an amazing time. Bon Scott joined the band, but he was there about five or six years, and he's dead. So it was bad luck for him.

"You can't have regrets," he continued. "I'm having the most incredible life. I travel the whole world. And I'm a solo artist, of course, so I don't have to take a band with me. I have musicians in all different countries. I go wherever I want to go. And I see all the countries and I do what I want to do, not what the band has to tell me to do and that kind of thing. So I have freedom to be where I want to be with the people I wanna be with. And at the end of the day, it's all about freedom — life is about freedom; freedom of choice and being with people that you really love. And I'm lucky to do that."

Evans previously talked about his exit from AC/DC in a 2021 interview with DJ Grant from New Zealand's Galaxy 107 FM. At the time, he said: "You've gotta remember that Bon Scott did a lot of the songs that I already did, like 'Baby, Please Don't Go', we already did that. That's the song that I got Angus [Young, AC/DC guitarist] up on my shoulders, and, of course, he used to watch us doing our show, so he copied that. I understand that he copied what I was doing. And the songs too, and re-recorded them and re-wrote the lyrics to some of the songs that I had already put down. But he was told to do that. I know that he was under instructions to do this, so I don't really hold it against Bon Scott for that, because when he joined the band, he was washed up at the time, and he got a great chance to do something, and he did too. He did a great job, but his lifestyle just let him down."

Evans also talked about the enduring popularity of "Can I Sit Next To You Girl", which was originally released as a single in July 1974 and featured drums by Colin Burgess and bass by George Young (older brother of AC/DC co-founders Malcolm and Angus Young).

"It's one of those songs, I play it around the world — I still do, of course, every show I do — and people love the song," he said. "And it's amazing how many people say to me that's their favorite AC/DC song. I can't believe it. [AC/DC has] 'T.N.T.' and all those great songs, 'Highway To Hell' and all these other great songs, and fans come up to me and say that that's their favorite song."

Earlier last year, Dave was asked in an interview with The Rocker Diaries if he thought "that would be it" for AC/DC after Bon's death in 1980. He responded: "No, not at all. I mean, we all keep going. And AC/DC has had that many players through [the history of] the band. I don't know how many. 20? And three singers, plus a stand-in singer as well.

"We were always ambitious when we first started," he continued. "We always wanted to be the best in the world — all of us. And after me, Bon Scott got his chance. He did great with the band. And when he died, I just thought, 'Who are they gonna get?' I never thought [I would be approached about it] myself, because that's water under the bridge. And I was busy with bands as well at the time, and doing my own music and recording. I was just wondering who it would be. I had heard of [Brian Johnson's pre-AC/DC band] GEORDIE — just the name GEORDIE. I'd never heard of Brian. And then Brian popped up and, of course, the 'Back In Black' album came out, which was a massive album around the world, and they were off and running with Brian. But if Brian quit, they'd get another singer, and another singer. [They've gone through] different bass players [and] different drummers.

"The drive was always Malcolm Young," Dave added. "I remember Malcolm when I first met him. He was such a driving force. Just a tiny little guy — just a little touch over five foot tall — but, boy, he had a big heart and a big personality. And he was tough, too — Malcolm was very tough. And no matter what, he was AC/DC through and through. And, of course, once he passed away, which is very sad, AC/DC, of course, will never, ever be the same without Malcolm. How can it be?"

In May 2021, Evans released a new compilation album called "BADASS Greatest Hits". The effort contains "20 massive hits on one album," including Dave's version of "Rockin' In The Parlour", the song that originally appeared as the B-side of the "Can I Sit Next to You Girl" single.

Daniel Fawcett, who played guitar for the Canadian hard rock band HELIX between 2002 and 2004, was found murdered early Sunday morning (November 6). He was 52 years old.

HELIX frontman Brian Vollmer confirmed Fawcett's passing, writing in a Facebook post: What a sad day... Yesterday Dan Fawcett, who played guitar for HELIX around 2000, was found murdered in a North London park. Dan was a sweet guy-always smiling-and a great guitar player as well. No details have been released yet, so there's little more I can say here. All I can say is that both [my wife] Lynda and I are in shock."

According to Global News, Fawcett was found unresponsive around 6:45 a.m. near the bottom of the Grosvenor Street hill leading into Gibbons Park in London, Ontario, Canada. Emergency crews began life-saving measures. However, Daniel was pronounced dead a short time later, police said.

Fawcett appeared on HELIX's 2004 album "Rockin' In My Outer Space".

Daniel's longtime friend and fellow musician Tim E. Hendry told Global News: "We played in so many different bands together for years and years. I think every band I ever played drums in in London, Dan at one point had to be the guitar player. He was the lead guitarist in my Elvis show up there, TIM E. & THE YES MEN. He could play that chicken pickin', beautiful, James Burton, Telecaster-clean sound, and then the next night he can go and play Ozzy Osbourne or go play for HELIX or something like that."

Hendry described Fawcett as like a brother to him, adding: "Dan was loved so much beyond his incredible talent on the guitar. He was just one of the sweetest guys you'll ever meet, and we just can't fathom why anybody would do this to him. He wouldn't hurt a flea. He was just so kind-hearted, and all he cared about was his friends, his music, and his especially his beautiful daughter. What a tragic loss for such a beautiful soul to be taken away way too early."

Former Slayer drummer Jon Dette recently kicked off his planned series of Big 4 playthrough cover songs. Check out his performance of the Anthrax classic "A.I.R." below.


Dette: "I played through the track pretty much how I performed it live with the band on tour."


Dette is best known for his time in Slayer and Testament. Over the years, he has also been chosen to fill-in with Anthrax, Heathen, and Iced Earth. 







Dette previously covered Metallica's "Blackened.

Consequence is reporting that after living in Los Angeles for decades, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are moving back to England. And while much has been made about the couple’s exodus from the States, the Prince of Darkness would prefer to “stay in America.”


Ozzy is the subject of Consequence’s latest cover story, published Monday, November 7. The metal legend discusses a wide range of topics, including his new album, Patient Number 9, and his recent health battles.


The Osbournes’ move back to the UK will be the subject of a new BBC reality series titled Home To Roost, premiering next year. But, as Ozzy tells Consequence, he never wanted to leave the States.




“I’m getting a bit of flak from people,” Ozzy tells Consequence of the move. “To be honest with you, if I had my way, I’d stay in America. I’m American now.”


The iconic singer blames Sharon’s ousting from the daytime TV show The Talk as the straw that broke the camel’s back, suggesting the couple no longer feels safe in America.


“When my wife got called a racist on [The Talk], she is absolutely not a racist,” Ozzy declares. “Her friend is Piers Morgan [who made disparaging comments about Meghan Markle]. She didn’t say, ‘I agree with him.’ She just respected his ability to have freedom of speech. That’s all that she said. And she got a lot of flak from that, so we actually had to have fucking armed guards and all that.”


Sharon, meanwhile, points to the safety of Los Angeles, in general, telling Consequence, “When I first came here, I thought I was in heaven. In the ’70s, if you loved music, this was the place to be. It’s not that hub anymore. It’s not exciting anymore. It hasn’t gone sideways, it’s gone down. It’s not a fun place to live. It’s dangerous here. Every big city’s got crime, but I don’t feel safe here. Neither does Ozzy.”


Still, Ozzy seems pretty adamant that his personal preference is to stay put in L.A.: “To be honest with you, I don’t want to go back [to England]. Fuck that.”


Read more at Consequence.


Decentraland, the world’s largest user-owned and operated virtual social world, previously announced the sophomore edition of Metaverse Music Festival (MVMF), including confirmed talent, new types of metaverse experiences, and more. This year, MVMF returns bigger and bolder from November 10-13 with 100 confirmed artists (more to come) across uniquely curated community genre stages, and with newly-created, Web3-enabled, immersive music experiences. Presented by digital asset platform Kraken, MVMF is free for all to attend, no VR, ticket or headset required.


Part of the Metaverse Music Festival includes the iconic global touring metal festival OzzFest, which launched the careers of countless new bands including Slipknot, Disturbed, System Of A Down, Incubus, Lamb Of God, and many others.


Acts confirmed include: Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeth, Motörhead, Black Label Society, The Raven Age, and Skid Row.





This year, Decentraland is doubling down on music in the metaverse. MVMF will showcase the latest metaverse technology that presents listeners with truly unique experiences only available through a virtual world. Decentraland’s unique Emotes feature enables any creator worldwide to create custom moves and gestures that bring your avatar to life, and will be a central part of how concert goers have fun through dancing and self expression during the festival. New motion capture technology will also be demonstrated on this global stage from Move.ai which enables motion capture with no suits and Kinetix.tech that aims to empower creators to make emote NFTs using only a phone camera. Presenting partner Kraken will also drop a series of NFT wearables exclusive for festival-goers, unveil a pop-up NFT gallery as well as host a special festival after party.


Whether it’s promoting an album release, supporting an NFT strategy, experimenting with metaverse performances, or looking for new ways to share their music with new audiences, Decentraland’s MVMF supports artists in a myriad of ways. New fan engagement models - such as wearables, NFT gated-experiences, and exclusives - have gained momentum over the last year and are being taken to another level this year. The artists playing at MVMF have worked with community designers in Decentraland to create one-of-a-kind swag options and soon-to-be-announced specials.


For this year’s festival, superstar producer, songwriter and DJ Dillon Francis has collaborated with Vegas City to bring a state-of-the-art Dillon Francis mega club to Decentraland. Dillon will open the festival with a very special set that will be projected on several screens throughout the mega club all weekend, making it a right of passage of sorts for anyone who comes to the festival at any point. Attendees will also be able to play Smash the Piñata with Dillon's infamous piñata sidekick Gerald and chase him all throughout the venue.


The Decentraland Festival District is showcasing an array of new experiences and exciting performances including a Jerry Garcia Acoustic Stage, MultiNFT Techno Parkour Stage, an epic pop-up nightclub by web3 music network Moda Dao and importantly the OG stage featuring Decentraland's most prolific musicians and event promoters.


Last but not least, Decentraland will introduce a variety of new metaverse experiences for users to attend when their ears need a moment of rest, such as the Portaloo experience to the Follow the Rabbit to the Take the Blue Pill experience. Other experiences are geared towards creators and community organizers looking to develop more embedded experiences, showcased through the MadMax Decentrally race, a community dance contest using the first generation of Emotes, and the Backstage Pass Quest.


Join Decentraland at the next instalment of Metaverse Music Festival by pre-registering here.

KINGS OF THRASH, the new band featuring former MEGADETH members David Ellefson (bass) and Jeff Young (guitar), recently entered the studio to begin recording the first of four original songs. The group, which also includes drummer Fred Aching as well as guitarist/vocalist Chaz Leon, along with the occasional guest appearance by another former MEGADETH member, Chris Poland (guitar), just completed a four-date West Coast tour which culminated in a sold-out gig at the legendary Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California. All four shows saw KINGS OF THRASH performing MEGADETH's classic albums "Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good!" and "So Far, So Good… So What!" in their entirety.

Speaking to Ralph Rasmussen of Radio Bypass about KINGS OF THRASH's recent shows and future plans, Ellefson said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That was a thing where… Of course everybody knew our names — me, Jeff Young and Chris Poland. We advertised we were gonna play the 'Killing Is My Business' and 'So Far, So Good… So What!' records. And as it turns out, we ended up playing, like, half of 'Peace Sells' too. That's probably the most frickin' muscular setlist I've played since probably [MEGADETH's] 'Rude Awakening' [live album and DVD], when we filmed that in 2001 and I was 20 years younger. So we turned up the gas; there was no screwing around on that one. And it was great. It was super cool. It was super fun. It made me just realize how cool those songs are, how the detail and intricacies… It was a very different era, too. The songs were written under much different pretenses. There was a real innovation in those records, the stuff of the '80s, back then, that we were doing."

He continued: "We picked four cities. We said, 'Let's just go out and fire this off, kind of a proof of concept, show everybody what we've got.' I think the first night, when we played in San Diego, the fans right away got it. They were, like, 'Oh my God. Holy shit. We've been asking for this and wanting this for years. And oh my God. There they really are. Those are really the guys that played on those records. This is it.' And our drummer Fred and our singer Chaz, they got it in their hear as younger guys, so they get it and were excited to be there with us doing it. So, yeah, it really was just a moment in time for that to fire off like that so well. And now as a result, look, we've got live recordings, we've got more stuff coming up here in the New Year for that. So, yeah, that was just the beginning; that was just the first firework we blew off. There's definitely gonna be more after this."

Last month, Young told Ghost Cult magazine that KINGS OF THRASH's first original song was being recorded at a North Hollywood studio previously used by legendary producer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix). As for the musical direction of KINGS OF THRASH's original material, Jeff said: "It's got the vibe of MEGADETH — it's on that playing field, but it's got all of its own stuff and all of our influences and some SOUNDGARDEN/TOOL vibes in maybe the music and melodies."

Jeff was also full of praise for Aching and Leon, saying: "We really feel in a way how Ozzy [Osbourne] must have felt introducing Randy Rhoads to the world with these young two guys we have, both half our age and both so composed and mature musically for their age. And we've just been having a blast. And it's great that they're fans of the music and they've really studied it. Chaz, the singer/guitar player, plays in a MEGADETH tribute and fronts a SOUNDGARDEN tribute. So he has some of that Chris Cornell huskiness… So it's really cool to hear him sing these songs with a bit more huskiness and that young exuberance that he has. I think the kids are gonna love him 'cause he has that Dimebag Darrell kind of likability."

In a separate interview with Thomas S. Orwat, Jr. of the Rock Interview Series, Young was asked if he, Ellefson and Poland have gotten any reaction to the tour — either in the form of a blessing or an angry rebuke — from MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine. Jeff responded: "We're really not concerned. I don't pay attention. I haven't really paid attention or followed MEGADETH since, I think, I heard the 'Rust In Peace' album a couple of times, and then what you might hear on the radio or in the press.

"For us, this isn't about any spite or retaliation; it's a celebration of the music that we were all a part of, that we helped create," he explained. "And it's fun for us to do this.

"People said, 'You should do this.' And we said, 'Hey, yeah, you're right. We should do this.' It's a win-win — it's a win for us, and it's a win for [Mustaine], because any performance royalties, anything… If we did include live tracks, he would make money off that. It's promoting albums that hopefully fans will go back and buy, which is putting money right in his pocket. Especially 'Killing Is My Business', I think a lot of people are gonna go back and wanna rediscover that album after this tour.

"For us, it's all about positivity," Young added. "We're all in this moment — we're living in the moment, and we're not looking beyond. We're not reading any of the comments on Blabbermouth or any of the stuff. Because we know what our intent is, and intent is everything. And our intent's positive. We like playing together. We know we're crafting original music. We're not relying on this; we don't need to ride the coattails of this. This is just something that the fans wanted, and you wanna give fans what they want."

Ellefson told Yes! You CAN Play Guitar! that the intention behind KINGS OF THRASH is not to stick it to his former bandmates. "This is a celebration, not a retaliation," he explained. "This is a good moment. This is a happy moment, to celebrate these songs and these tracks and these records. So we go at it with just fun… It's, like, 'Wow. Wouldn't it be fun if we went out and played these records?' And we're doing it. So it's meant to be this celebration and bringing people together. And honestly, that was kind of always my role in MEGADETH. Dave [Mustaine] always called me 'The Ambassador', and I was always that guy, and I am that guy. So it's, like, let me just continue that role in our community and have one of good will."

Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH a year and a half ago after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter.

David was in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest exit.

In 2004, Ellefson filed an $18.5-million lawsuit against Dave Mustaine, alleging the MEGADETH leader shortchanged him on profits and backed out of a deal to turn Megadeth Inc. over to him when the band broke up in 2002. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed and Ellefson rejoined MEGADETH in 2010.

Young's entire career with MEGADETH was spent recording and touring in support of the band's 1988 platinum-selling album "So Far, So Good...So What!"

Jeff made headlines in December 2009 for accusing Mustaine of, among other things, "dissing, exaggerating and just plain lying on some level about nearly every talented musician that has passed through his dysfunctional little ensemble." He also disputed Mustaine's claim in an interview that Young's drug problem led to MEGADETH's 1988 Australian tour being called off and the group being "banned" from performing in the country.

Poland was a member of MEGADETH from 1984 to 1987, during which time he performed on the band's classic albums "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!" and "Peace Sells... But Who's Buying?" He is also a featured soloist on the group's 2004 album, "The System Has Failed".

Back in 2004, Poland and/or his management and attorney filed a lawsuit against Mustaine regarding the use of the three "Rust In Peace" demos on the album's reissue without Chris's permission. Chris eventually settled for $9,500 and thereby ended a professional relationship with Dave and MEGADETH.

For the past couple of decades, Poland's main musical focus has been the fusion band OHM:, which has released several full-length studio albums to date.

Halifax, Canada's Kilmore create a brand of soulful psychedelic stoner rock as a yearning for expression and escapism. Their musical endeavors see them unearthing the realities of life through sounds and wanting to create something new. Featuring magnetically emotive passages contrasted against assaults of groove-forward aggression, the band conveys themes surrounding rebirth, love, hate, frustration, understanding, and the search for truth to permeate their darker-edged sonic palette.


Today, the quartet unveils their latest single “Tempest" accompanied by a music video, which will be featured on their forthcoming EP From The Inside, which follows their East Coast Music Award-nominated 2015 EP City Lights, and 2018 LP Call Of The Void, which won the "Loud Recording of the Year".







Vocalist and guitarist Heather Harris explains the single:


“We planned to have six tracks on our next EP, and ‘Tempest' was one of the most unyielding to nail down, it took us a while to get the groove of it. To me, it sounded transcendent but chaotic, like a tempest rising. We thought it would be a good first introduction to ‘From the Inside’ as it has a groovy progressive feel."


“Tempest" is about someone coming into your life like a hurricane. Harris experienced this while welcoming her son into the world, a world that seemed so disrupted at the time. The song speaks of a vigorous figure finding its place in a hectic world while shining brightly through the darkness.


“Tempest" is one of many songs that Kilmore had worked on over the past couple of years while being locked down during the pandemic.


"We have grown a lot musically with each record we have released. ‘City Lights’ was more rock-influenced, ‘Call of the Void’ swayed more in the metal, stoner rock realm, and our upcoming EP 'From The Inside' brings both elements." adds Harris.


Artwork by Stephen MacDonald:





From The Inside will be a form of groovy, psychedelic rock with metal components. Lyrically, it was written at a time of disarray around the world with internal struggles as well. During its writing process, Heather Harris became a new mother and was searching to find her place in a new reality, which speaks loudly in the vocal and lyrical emotions on the EP. Fans will find themes of destruction while others of hope, each song has its own substance and identity.


"We worked with producer Jon Landry (The Stanfields) who is a seasoned songwriter himself and he really brought in a unique perspective to the songs. We recorded the whole EP in our basement studio which gave us the time needed to craft each song and bring life to the recordings. Musically, some songs came out easier than others, and some needed more time to capture the essence we were looking for. When I wrote the lyrics, the themes were formed from the emotions I felt from the music. This was an intense time for me with the world seeming so unpredictable and disorganized, there were a lot of feelings brewing inside. This comes across in the lyrics and artwork for the album,” says Harris.


More songs will be revealed in lead up to the 2023 release of their EP From The Inside.


(Photo – Kayla Macaulay Photography)

Epic/power metal act Arrayan Path is ready to return with a new release. Thus Always To Tyrants will be released on December 9 via Pitch Black Records.


The album’s 13 songs – including two bonus tracks available on CD – stand out for their great songwriting quality, from all points of view. Nicholas Leptos’ immense vocal performance, the refined melodic research, the variety of riffs and drum fills, place Thus Always To Tyrants among the most convincing power metal releases this year.


Thus Always To Tyrants is also the band’s first “true” concept album and the tracklisting follows the story in chronological order. The story is that of King Evagoras, the ruler of the Kingdom of Salamis in Cyprus. 




Frontman Nicholas Leptos and the band’s driving force comments:


“We decided to address a great moment in the history of our country, Cyprus, and tell the tale of King Evagoras (one of the most important figures in Cypriot history). He was the ruler of the Kingdom of Salamis (not to be confused with the island of Salamis in Greece) and a brave warrior, politician and admirer of Hellenistic culture at the time (end of 5th century B.C. to beginning of 4th century B.C.).


“The chronicle covers the origins of the story, the King’s life, death, wars, achievements and a short aftermath. There will be Usurpers, there will be Persians, there will be Spartans, battles and sieges, there will be blood!”





Thus Always To Tyrants was recorded at Take Away Studios, produced by Slava Selin. Mixed and mastered at Domination Studio in San Marino by Simone Mularoni. The artwork is by Giannis Nakos of Remedy Art Design.


First single “Of Royal Ancestry” is streaming below:

Cypher16 make their return with "Another High". The video showcases the band's first live show since the pandemic, at Rockfest in Finland, coupled with footage of them recording their second album in Sweden, Denmark and England. Cypher16 would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the process, which ended up stretching from 2018-2022.


Frontman Jack Doolan has this to say about the release: Well, it’s been a LONG time coming! We actually finished this record off in December 2019 at Abbey Road in London with a view to get it out in 2020, and then the world got turned upside down. As a result of the pandemic and various other things that I won’t go into right now, we’ve had some lengthy time away from music and some internal changes take place. We’re so grateful to everyone who continues to be around Cypher16, past and present and right now the vibe is the best it has been for a long time. We had A GREAT trip out in Finland over the summer playing our first show back (Rockfest), so now it’s time to start the engines up again and get on with the job!


“Moving on to address ‘Another High’ - It’s a pretty dark song just touching on some of the personal challenges some of us have faced, and continue to face, every day. We very nearly lost people in Cypher16 over the last couple of years, and it’s safe to say the situation is still pretty dangerous right now. We hope people who struggle can identify with some of the stuff mentioned. Our door is also always open to anyone who wants to get in touch to talk. We all know who, and what, we are,” says Jack Doolan.







The second album It’s A Long Way Back (From This Road) releases in early 2023 via Constant Evolution Records.


(Photo – Linda Florin)

Canadian black metal outfit Wormwitch has released their second standalone single of the year, “Exhumed From Flaming Stars.” A brooding black metal dirge with a driving punk edge, the track is streaming below.





Notes vocalist/bassist Robin Harris of the track, "'Exhumed From Flaming Stars' is an homage to the legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien, namely the tragic tale of Turin Turambar and the fell sword Gurthang, the Iron of Doom..."




Adds guitarist Colby Hink, "This song was the fourth of four tracks recorded this past summer; the other three have yet to surface. We've furthered our foray into live recording, hoping to capture the energy of a live performance on our recordings as much as possible."


Recorded at LRS Studios with engineer Michael Kraushaar and produced by the band, “Exhumed From Flaming Stars” is currently available across all digital download and streaming platforms.





November
15 - Vancouver, BC - Red Room*
16 - Seattle, WA – Funhouse*
17 - Portland, OR - Dante’s*
18 - Sacramento, CA - Café Colonial*
19 – Ventura, CA – Gigi’s
20 – Los Angeles, CA – Charged Noise Fest
21 – San Diego, AC – Brick By Brick
22 – Las Vegas, NV – Backstage Bar
23 – Phoenix, AZ – Underground
25 – Denver, CO – Lost Lake
26 – Salt Lake City, UT – Aces High
27 – Boise, ID – The Shredder


*supporting Bewitcher


(Photo – Lucien Cyr)

Progressive metal band Hollow Hour, hailing from the outskirts of Copenhagen, deliver a curious mixture of heavy, progressive guitars and majestic drum rhythms combined with melodic and catchy choruses. With their modern and distinguishable sound, the young quartet now present their brand new single, "The Canyon". Watch the accompanying music video below.


“'The Canyon' tells a personal story of betrayal. I tried to put into words how much I needed forgiveness in order to process this feeling, which seemed like a never-ending canyon to climb”, vocalist Jonas Larsen explains.


With roots in the small, Danish town Køge, three of the current band members united in 2015, playing club shows and writing demo material under the name Mosaik. With an ambition of solidifying their sound to a broader audience, the quartet changed their name to Hollow Hour. In 2022 the band has been releasing a string of singles while finishing up recording their coming debut EP with producers Claudio Andersen and Chris Kreutzfeldt (Cabal, Møl, Ghost Iris).




The new single "The Canyon", is available on all streaming services.

California sludge veterans, -(16)-, return with their heaviest and most devastating record to date, Into Dust. The new album, a collection of cautionary tales of survival and redemption, is set to an amalgamation of sludge, punk, metal, hardcore, and stoner riffs that could only be built through thirty years of commitment to their dark sonic craft, which -(16)- continues to improve upon.


Today, -(16)- share the third single, "Lane Splitter”, off Into Dust. Watch the full video below:







Into Dust is out November 18 on CD, LP, and digital formats. Find physical pre-orders via Relapse.com here, and digital downloads/streaming services here.





Into Dust trackisting:


"Misfortune Teller"
"Dead Eyes"
"Ash In The Hourglass"
"The Deep"
"Scrape The Rocks"
"Null And Eternal Void"
"The Floor Wins"
"Lane Splitter"
"Never Paid Back"
"Dirt In Your Mouth"
"Dressed Up To Get Messed Up"
"Born On A Barstool"


“Scrape The Rocks” video:





"Misfortune Teller" video:





In conjunction with the release of Into Dust, -(16)- has announced a US headlining tour this November. Main support will be provided by Doc Hammer.





-(16)- lineup:


Bobby Ferry - guitar, vocals
Alex Shuster - lead guitar
Barney Firks - bass
Dion Thurman – drums


(Photo - Chad Kelco)

In the video below from AXS TV, Sammy Hagar heads on down to Cabo San Lucas, where he visits his infamous Cabo Wabo Cantina. There, he takes the stage with bandmates from The Circle - including musicians like Van Halen's Michael Anthony and drummer Jason Bonham - to play "I Can't Drive 55".





Sammy Hagar & The Circle recently released their new album, Crazy Times. In the track-by-track video below, the band discuss the song, "Be Still":




A message from Hagar states: "The kind of singer I am I have to relate to the lyrics that's why I've always written my own lyrics 99% of the time. But when I read these words it was like the song I hadn't written yet I felt that close to the lyrics so the music came easy. I love this song."





Crazy Times is available via UMe on CD/Digital. It will be issued on vinyl on October 28. Order the new album here.





Tracklisting:


"Intro: The Beginning Of The End"
"Slow Drain"
"Feed Your Head"
"Pump It Up"
"Be Still"
"You Get What You Pay For"
"Crazy Times"
"Funky Feng Shui"
"Father Time"
"Childhoods End"
"2120" (bonus track)
"Father Time" - Acoustic Demo (bonus track)


"Father Time" video:





"Funky Feng Shui" video:





"Crazy Times" video:





"Pump It Up" video:

Volbeat have released the Official Bootleg video for “Becoming”, live from Minneapolis. Watch below:





Volbeat previously released Official Bootleg videos for “Wait A Minute My Girl” and "Shotgun Blues", live from San Diego. Watch below:










Volbeat’s Servant Of The Road Tour is underway. Tickets & VIP packages available here.

JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford joined country legend Dolly Parton on stage last night (Saturday, November 5) at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony to perform her classic song "Jolene". Also appearing with them as part of a "super jam" performance were some of the other Rock Hall inductees, including Pat Benatar, Annie Lennox and DURAN DURAN's Simon Le Bon.

Video of the performance can be seen below, courtesy of the YouTube channel Jrodconcerts Media.

Back in February, when PRIEST's third nomination for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame was announced, Halford told Billboard that, "I must do a duet with Dolly Parton! … If Lionel [Richie] and PRIEST get in, I think we'll both be dancing on the ceiling together."

Halford had previously revealed he is a huge fan of Dolly, and had planned to take a photo with her at the ceremony.

"I'm going to force her to, even if she doesn't know who I am," he told Metal Crypt in June. "I'm going to see what table she is sitting at. I'm just going to run to the table and do the devil's horns thing. Tongue out, horns up, behind Dolly Parton's head. It's the only way to do it. I can't smile sweetly. I've got to stick my tongue out and my horns up."

Halford told Rolling Stone earlier in the year that he had no issues with Dolly being inducted into the Rock Hall.

"If you look at everyone in the Hall, it makes perfect sense to have Dolly Parton in there," he said. "I think it's just this 'rock and roll' thing. Should it be called the Music Hall Of Fame? I don't know. It started out with rock and roll, and roll and roll is everything and anything. It's just a phraseology."

Rob also talked about the possibility of sharing the stage with Dolly at the end of the night, saying: "I was onstage last weekend with Larry The Cable Guy! [Laughs] It was at Alice Cooper's blast for his great institution the Solid Rock Foundation. If I could stand alongside my buddy Larry and sing 'roll, baby, roll' [from THE DOORS' 'Roadhouse Blues'], I can certainly stand next to Dolly Parton on my left and Lionel Richie on my right."

PRIEST received the Musical Excellence Award at the event, which honored Eminem, Parton, DURAN DURAN, Richie, Benatar, EURYTHMICS and Carly Simon in the Performers category.

Queen recently announced the November 18 release of The Miracle Collector's Edition. 33 years later Queen deliver the long lost original LP cut of the classic 1989 album. The 8-Disc Box Set: Vinyl LP/5CD/DVD/Blu-ray is available for pre-order here.


The band have released a remastered video for "The Invisible Man", as well as a new lyric video for the song, both of which can be viewed below:










Watch Brian May unbox The Miracle Collector's Edition below:





Widely recognized as Queen’s strongest album of the 80’s and one of their most inspired, the 1989 released The Miracle was a global success reaching No. 1 in the UK and several major European markets, even re-establishing the band in the US where it delivered a gold album. Brian May has often cited the title track as his favourite Queen song of all time.


The hugely prolific sessions for The Miracle began in December 1987 and stretched out to March 1989. It was to be one of the most consequential periods in Queen’s history. Fifteen months previously, on August 9, 1986, Queen’s mighty Europe Magic Tour had ended on a high, before an estimated audience of more than 160,000 at Knebworth Park in Britain. As the band left the stage that night – toasting the flagship show of their biggest tour to date – they could hardly have foreseen that Knebworth marked a line in the sand. This would be Queen’s final live show with Freddie and the first in a chain of pivotal moments that would lead towards a lengthy separation for the band.   


It would take 15 months and a radical restructuring of internal band dynamics before Queen regrouped in London’s Townhouse Studios on December 3rd, 1987, to start work on their thirteenth studio album. For the first time, Queen would share songwriting credits equally, regardless of who conceived each song, a consensus of opinion that was to have fertile results. “Splitting the credits was a very important decision for us. We left our egos outside the studio door,” says Brian, “and worked together as a real band – something that wasn’t always the case. I wish we’d done it 15 years before.”


Said Roger: “Decisions are made on artistic merit, so ‘Everybody wrote everything’ is the line, rather than ego or anything else getting in the way. We seem to work together better now than we did before. We’re fairly up-and-down characters. We have different tastes in many ways. We used to have lots of arguments in the studio, but this time we decided to share all the songwriting, which I think was very democratic and a good idea.”


This show of unity was elegantly conveyed by band art director Richard Gray’s cover for The Miracle, which depicts Queen’s four faces merged into one. “The cover art represents the unity of the group at the time: a seamless merging of four people becoming one,” May has said. “We were also dealing with Freddie’s deteriorating health and pulling together to support him.”


While Freddie could no longer tour, Queen remained a band of staggering creative resourcefulness. As John Deacon implied, they instead channelled their live chemistry into the studio: “In the first few weeks of recording we did a lot of live material, a lot of songs, some jamming, and ideas came up.”


‘Party’ and raw rock ‘Khashoggi’s Ship’ “evolved naturally, straight away,” said Freddie. Inspired by something Anita Dobson would say, and later adopted for anti-apartheid protests, the massive ‘I Want It All’ was – though written before the band went into the studio – a forceful expression of Queen’s concert-honed heavy-rock powers. “We were never able to perform this song live with Freddie,” said May. “It would have become something of a staple core of the Queen show, I’m sure, because it was very participative – designed for the audience to sing along to – very anthemic.”


Says Roger: “Lots of the [Miracle] tracks have first-take stuff in them; we tried to preserve that freshness. We tried to capture all the enthusiasm that we had from playing together as a band.”


Queen’s writing also reflected their personal circumstances. The torn-from-the-headlines drama of ‘Scandal’ was May’s personal swipe at the press intrusion into the bandmembers’ respective personal affairs. Singled out by Deacon for praise, Freddie’s soaring album closer, ‘Was It All Worth It’, has in retrospect been interpreted as a reflection on the singer’s health.


One further ingredient in the mix was David Richards, who had worked with Queen since his billing as assistant engineer on Live Killers. After further credits on A Kind of Magic and Live Magic, Richards stepped up to co-produce The Miracle, praised by May for his “whizz kid” technical prowess.


The months in the studio birthed 30-plus songs, more than Queen could possibly need for one album. Ten tracks were selected to form the release, with others later appearing as B-sides or solo tracks, or carried over to the Innuendo and Made in Heaven albums. Five hit singles supported the album.


Says Brian: “We had all these bits and pieces of tracks, and some of them were half-finished, some of them were just an idea, and some of them were nearly finished, and it sort of happened on its own really. There are some tracks which you always want to get out and work on, and so they get finished, and there are some tracks which you think, ‘Oh that’s great, but I don’t really know what to do with it at this moment’, so they naturally get left by the wayside.”


Most of these left-over session tracks remained undisturbed in the Queen archives for the past 33 years.





For the Queen hardcore, meanwhile, one of the most highly anticipated elements of the new box set is The Miracle Sessions CD featuring original takes, demos, and rough takes of the full album plus six additional previously never before heard tracks including two featuring Brian on vocals.


Tantalizing enough that this hour-plus disc offers the first official airing of such near-mythical songs as "Dog With A Bone", "I Guess We’re Falling Out", "You Know You Belong To Me", and the poignant "Face It Alone". Add to that, the trove of sunken treasure spanning from original takes and demos to rough cuts that signpost the album The Miracle would become.


But perhaps the real gemstones of The Miracle Sessions CD are the spoken segments that bookend the musical takes. As the studio tape keeps rolling in London and Montreux, the four members are caught at their most candid, giving listeners the uncanny fly-on-the wall experience of standing amongst Freddie, Brian, John and Roger as they banter, debate, swap jokes and show both joy and occasional frustration.


With the band arriving at the studio with scarce mapped-out material these sessions found Queen at their most inspired and impulsive, and that atmosphere is mirrored in not just the music but the familial exchanges that punctuate it. As Freddie said: “I think it’s the closest we’ve ever been in terms of actually writing together.”


Find complete details here.





Queen recently released the rediscovered track, "Face It Alone", featuring the band's late and legendary frontman, Freddie Mercury. The digital/streaming single is available now, with a 7” single set for release on November 18.


Listen / pre-order here, and watch an official music video below:





Watch a lyric video for "Face It Alone":

Lords of black metal, Imperium Dekadenz, raise darkness from the depths of southwestern Germany’s Black Forest once more and proudly announce their new album, Into Sorrow Evermore, to be unleashed on January 20 via Napalm Records. Immersed in the void, they approach themes of depression, death and desperation, luring the listener into their sorrowful reality of existence. True to the beginnings of the genre, Imperium Dekadenz stick to their roots and leave their own haunting mark on the genre, claiming their rightful place in the upper echelons of black metal.


Today the first single "Memories... A Raging River" is released along with an official video. The song acts as a brutal and atmospheric exclamation mark showcasing Imperium Dekadenz’s unique style. Inspired by the Norwegian second-wave black metal bands of the 90s, the band has developed their own ambient sound with a strong emphasis on melodic structuring in their songwriting that immerses their compositions into grim and desolate soundscapes.


Imperium Dekadenz on "Memories... A Raging River": “A look at a time that left no traces and was irretrievably swept away as if by a raging stream. Brachial guitar lines meet melancholic, filigree melodies, shaken by poignant, touching cries from an endless abyss. Resolutely we step into an approaching darkness.”




Sink into darkness and watch the video for “Memories... A Raging River” below.


On their new album, Imperium Dekadenz continue their unique journey with dark, ambient sounds, luring the listener into suffocating spheres of black metal. Opener and title track “Into Sorrow Evermore” starts off with classic tremolo-picked black metal guitars and hard-hitting drums, building a gloomy atmosphere with the thrilling sound of vocalist Horaz spurring the album’s immersion. “Truth Under Stars” lures with pummelling blast beats accompanied by tragic guitar melodies as deep growls complement them to envelop the signature grim mood of the band. “Aurora” showcases melancholic pianos, accompanied by trudging drums as icy guitars swoon with a distorted but lush melody, building up to a serene guitar solo that cries its sorrows to the sky. The influence of various metal genres can be witnessed in songs like “Elysian Fields” and “Awakened Beyond Dreams”, while in between, “Forest In Gale” ensures characteristic style devices in mid-tempo speed, inducing a shift before delivering drama and dynamics. “November Monument” is a gloomy, slow doom inspired piece with steady drums that march on and guitars delicately plucking chords heavy with emotion, capturing the feeling of the approaching winter when November arrives. Imperium Dekadenz closes the album with "Memories... A Raging River", rightly encompassing all vicious vibes of the album into one final song. The album’s flow mimics life itself, beginning with high energy that slowly fades into melancholy as it lives on.


Imperium Dekadenz state: “In the dark and cold season, in a world that threatens to sink into its rising shadows, our new album ‘Into Sorrow Evermore’ rises from the fog of uncertainty. Melancholic, powerful, poignant, a reflection of the isolation and upheaval of recent years, but also a shadowy dream of what may come. Once again, we are happy to share our world and fill hearts. Into the darkness we strive, guided by our dreams, driven by the relentless time!”





Into Sorrow Evermore will be available in the following formats:


- Wooden Box Edition: 6 Page Digisleeve, Bonus Demo CD “Promo 2005”, Coverflag, Pendant, Patch (limited to 300 worldwide)
- 2 LP Gatefold White (limited to 300 worldwide)
- Tape Edition - GREY with gold print (limited to 100 worldwide)
- 2 LP Gatefold BLACK
- 6 Page Digisleeve
- 6 Page Digisleeve & Shirt
- Full Digital Album


Pre-order here.





Tracklisting:


"Into Sorrow Evermore"
"Truth Under Stars"
"Aurora"
"Elysian Fields"
"Forests in Gale"
"Awakened Beyond Dreams"
"November Monument"
"Memories... A Raging River"


"Memories... A Raging River" video:





Lineup:


Vespasian - Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards
Horaz - Guitars, Keyboards, Vocals


(Photo - Benedikt Walter)

Extreme metal pioneers, Venom Inc., performed at the 2022 edition of the Bloodstock Open Air festival. Watch professionally-filmed footage of the band performing "Black Metal", "To Hell And Back", And "Buried Alive" below:





Watch "Teacher's Pet", "At War With Satan" and "Sacrifice" from the same show below:













Venom Inc. recently released their new album, There’s Only Black, via Nuclear Blast. Almost 40 years after their inception, the revitalized 1989 - 1992 Venom lineup of guitarist Jeff “Mantas” Dunn and vocalist/bassist Tony “Demolition Man” Dolan, and the new addition of drummer Jeramie 'Warmachine' Kling have returned with one hell of a follow-up to their acclaimed debut, Avé, and show no signs of slowing down.


Order/save the new album here.





Tracklisting:


"How Many Can Die"
"Infinitum"
"Come To Me"
"There's Only Black"
"Tyrant"
"Don't Feed Me Your Lies"
"Man As God"
"Burn Liar Burn"
"Nine"
"Rampant"
"The Dance"
"Inferno"


"There’s Only Black" lyric video:





"Come To Me" lyric video:





"Don't Feed Me Your Lies" lyric video:





"How Many Can Die" lyric video:

In a new interview with SiriusXM's "That Eric Alper's Show", JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford spoke about how becoming the first metal icon to announce he is gay in 1998 during an MTV interview served as an inspiration to fans who were struggling with similar emotions.

"You know, I've become a dad," Halford laughed (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I am a dad. My kids… Glenn [Tipton, JUDAS PRIEST guitarist] always used to call the fans the kids; he still [does]. I'm, like, 'Glenn, they're as old as we are.' He goes, 'No. They're still kids, because we are all kids at heart.' It's important to find that child inside of you, to keep that nurtured.

"You become a dad," Rob continued. "You go to your dad about stuff. And I love that. That suddenly happened when I started to connect on social media. 'Cause I come from a place where that didn't even exist, folks… So, all of that great stuff started to happen. And then it's the Spider-Man thing: 'With blah blah responsibility comes blah blah.' And you have to take it very seriously, because words used incorrectly can be terribly destructive and hurtful and painful. So you really need to get into this philosophy, if it is at all possible, and it is — think before you speak; think before you tweet; think.

"We're all running on emotions, more now than ever. 'Cause the place I live in now in 2022 is nothing like the place I lived in in the '50 and the '60s. So this business of talking about sexual identity, talking about bullying, mental health and anti-Semitism and anything that is dark and destructive and painful, we all need somebody to be able to reach out to, and that's what we should do.

"That's what happens when you're in this beautifully blessed place, whether you're a musician or a sports personality or a movie star or whatever, these things come to you, and you have to be able to be ready to deal with them," Rob added. "You can't push it away; you can't push away these important questions. So I welcome them, and I do as much as I can to let that 14-, 15-. 16-year-old, 50-year-old person that is in the closet or going through a transgender transformation, whatever… First and foremost, it's your life. You live by your own rules; don't let anybody tell you how to live your life. A simple statement like that to somebody that's hurting can be very useful. Because you're in a ball in a corner; you can't let anything in, you can't let anything out. But if it's somebody that you admire because of their music or because of their basketball talent, you can listen to them.

"This is the great thing about music. When we were kids, we hated our mom and dad and school and friends and blah blah blah, but we loved our music. Our music was our only friend. Our music spoke to us. Our music was the one tangible emotion that we could relate to, and we could say, 'Yeah, that song is about me.' Or, 'I know how that song feels like.'"

Halford is promoting his new book, "Biblical: Rob Halford's Heavy Metal Scriptures", which arrived on November 1 via Hachette Books. In the follow-up to his 2020 autobiography "Confess", Halford runs his lively eye over all facets of the hard rock history and the heavy metal world via bite-sized reflections, opinions, and memories in scores and scores of areas, all linked by a biblical theme.

Several months ago, Halford publicly revealed that he battled prostate cancer during the pandemic. He previously mentioned his cancer battle in the new chapter added to the updated paperback edition of "Confess". In "Confess", Halford revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer after experiencing symptoms for at least a couple of years.

In July 2020, Rob underwent prostatectomy, an operation where the entire prostate gland is removed plus some of the tissue around it, including the seminal vesicles. After more cancer was found last year, he went through radiation treatments in April and May 2021 and eventually got then all-clear in June 2021. He also had an appendectomy after a tumor was discovered on his appendix.

"Confess" arrived in September 2020 via Hachette Books. Co-written with Ian Gittins, the book offered readers a compelling, heartfelt and honest look at the struggles Rob has faced with addiction and his sexuality as well as exploring his music and his many brushes with controversy.