WARMEN, the brainchild of former CHILDREN OF BODOM keyboardist Janne "Warman" Wirman, will release a new album, "Here For None", on August 18 via Reaper Entertainment.

Comments Wirman: "Whether you know of WARMEN or are new to our music, you are in for a treat! We have put a lot of thought and energy into this release and the new album really represents what we are musically. A lot of melodic stuff and crazy soloing with brutal riffing and drumming."

"Here For None" heralds a new era. True to the motto "The king is dead, long live the king," WARMEN is not only headed towards heavier shores musically due to the band's updated lineup, but it can also be said with justification that WARMEN is taking on the musical legacy of Wirman's former band in a spectacular way.

"I will always be Janne from BODOM," Wirman says. "That's okay with me. I'm happy about it and I don't have to hide my past. I also see that as a positive thing for WARMEN."

Janne and his brother Antti Wirman and longtime friend Jyri Helko have recruited Seppo Tarvainen on drums as well as Petri Lindroos (ENSIFERUM) on vocals to make "Here For None" a true masterpiece of melodic death metal.

WARMEN will present this legacy live at select events, including a release show at this year's Summer Breeze festival. Stand by for further info on "Here For None", including preorders, to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

"Here For None" track listing:

01. Warmen Are Here For None
02. The Driving Force
03. A World Of Pain
04. Too Much, Too Late
05. Night Terrors
06. Hell On Four Wheels
07. The End Of The Line
08. Death's On Its Way
09. The Cold Unknown
10. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes

WARMEN 2023 is:

Janne Wirman - keyboards
Petri Lindroos - vocals
Antti Wirman - guitar
Jyri Helko - bass
Seppo Tarvainen - drums

WARMEN started as a solo project of Wirman, and when the keyboardist wasn't traveling the world with CHILDREN OF BODOM, he was regularly recording albums with his brother, Helko (bass) and Mirka Rantanen (drums; KOTIPELTO, ex-HEVISAURUS). After the much-too-early end of CHILDREN OF BODOM and the tragic death of Alexi Laiho, Janne, together with Antti, found his way back to music through WARMEN.

Janne comments: "After the abrupt ending of CHILDREN OF BODOM, I wasn't sure if I'll ever make music again. We did a couple of song writing sessions last year with my brother and Jyri and I realized that I still have a lot of desire for music and together we wrote an album of exciting new stuff. We teamed up with Flori and Greg from the Reaper Entertainment, as I had worked with them before with great results, and knew they understood my past with BODOM and where we wanted to go next with WARMEN."

Flori from Reaper Entertainment adds: "After all, it's an open secret that our company name was a reference or tribute to CHILDREN OF BODOM. Greg and I were big fans and attended many of the band's concerts together. In the process, we developed a great friendship with the band — but especially with Janne. When we saw on Facebook that Janne and Antti were working on new WARMEN songs, we just had to offer them our help. It's a great honor for us that Janne accepted immediately and now we can eagerly wait for the new album."

WARMEN's last official album, "First Of The Five Elements", was initially released in 2014 via the crowdfunding platform PledgeMusic, which however ceased operations shortly thereafter. Since very few copies of the album hit the market, Reaper Entertainment re-released the album to shorten the wait for the new album. The direction of the material is classically inspired power metal, but, similar to CHILDREN OF BODOM, the focus of WARMEN is on the interplay of guitar and keyboard perfected by the Wirman brothers. In addition to ten original songs, cover versions of Madonna and Alice Cooper provide surprises, and for the vocals on "First Of The Five Elements", the quartet was able to secure Pasi Rantanen (THUNDERSTONE),Jonna Kosonen and Laiho as guest musicians.

Photo by Marek Sabogal

The N.Dakota Rocks by TRH YouTube channel has uploaded video of FOREIGNER's May 6 performance at at Prairie Knights Casino & Resort in Fort Yates, North Dakota. Check out the clips below.

In a recent interview with "Real Music With Gary Stuckey", FOREIGNER bassist Jeff Pilson addressed the fact that he and his bandmates are often dismissed as a glorified cover band, particularly since founding guitarist Mick Jones no longer regularly tours with the act.

The only remaining original member of FOREIGNER, Jones suffered from some health issues beginning in 2011, eventually resulting in heart surgery in 2012. Ever since, it is never announced whether he will be appearing with the band for specific shows — it just depends how he is feeling.

Asked about criticism from some fans that FOREIGNER without any original members is nothing more than a "cover band," Pilson said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):"You know what's funny? You see some of that on the Internet, but it's not as pervasive as you think. And I'm actually amazed, because when we play, we get no negative feedback. So, sure, people are gonna say stuff like that online. It only takes one or two people to make it sound like there's a bunch.

"What I tell people is anytime anybody has a problem with the no-original-members thing, I just say, 'You know what? I get it. But come and see the band. And then you tell me whether we do FOREIGNER justice or not.' And I'll stand by what we do a thousand percent."

Joining Jones and Pilson in FOREIGNER's current lineup are Kelly Hansen on vocals, Michael Bluestein on keyboards, Bruce Watson on guitar, Chris Frazier on drums and Luis Maldonado on guitar.

After singer Lou Gramm left FOREIGNER in 2003, Jones took some time off before regrouping a couple years later with an entirely new lineup, featuring Hansen and Pilson, among others.

In 2018, Gramm revealed that he was retiring from touring as a solo artist. The vocalist made the announcement just months after he participated in FOREIGNER's "Double Vision: Then And Now" concerts, which featured current and original members of the band, including Jones, drummer Dennis Elliott, keyboardist Al Greenwood, bassist Rick Wills and guitarist/saxophonist Ian McDonald.

Gramm was the voice on FOREIGNER's biggest hits, including "Feels Like The First Time" and "Cold As Ice" from the band's eponymous debut in 1977, and later songs like "Hot Blooded" and "I Want To Know What Love Is".

FOREIGNER's farewell tour is set to launch on July 6 at Atlanta's Ameris Bank Amphitheatre. For the first leg of the U.S. Live Nation-produced tour, FOREIGNER will be joined by LOVERBOY.

In an interview aboard The 80s Cruise, Gramm was asked for his opinion on FOREIGNER's announcement that the band was embarking on its farewell tour. He said: "I think it's a good thing. At this point of the FOREIGNER career, epic career, I think it's run its course. And it's been good years for all involved, especially the band that was FOREIGNER's inception. There were changes in personnel after that while I was still in, and that was a damn good band too. And Mick's choice to keep it going after there were no original members other than himself, that's his option. I can't quite get… I know his health, he's had his ups and downs. And I don't understand how they can be touring with no original members and still calling themselves FOREIGNER and going on for years like that. I guess it's not my business, and maybe it is a business decision for them, but it just doesn't feel right to me."

He added: "Honestly, for years [Mick has] been showing up for half the show or he'd come in the last four or five songs of the set. And apparently lately he's come in for the last song and the encore, and that was it. And then I know there's been many, many shows lately where he's not there at all."

Asked if he would be interested in making a special guest appearance at any of the shows on FOREIGNER's farewell tour, Lou said: "I'm not sure. I'm so at peace with where it is now and how it's ended. And we had our 40th[-anniversary] reunion of one of the albums — the first album or FOREIGNER '4' or 'Double Vision' — we had those. We played some shows with the new band and the old band, and those have been a lot of fun. But just for me to come in and sit in with a band that emotionally doesn't mean that much to me and just play for the memories of it… If there were other members of the original band onstage, I might be inclined to seriously think about it. But to come and guest with the new FOREIGNER, that doesn't appeal to me."

When Goodman noted that Gramm had previously performed with FOREIGNER's current lineup, Lou said: "Yes, when they had the reunion tours. I have not gone to any of the shows and guested myself on stage with the new band — just me. I haven't done that. It's always been with members of the original band with me."

Last October, Gramm was asked during an appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk"what he thinks of Hansen, who has been in the group for nearly two decades. "I think he's a good singer," Lou said. "And he sings those songs okay; he sings them good. But he mimics my style right down to the ad-libs, and I'm offended by that… I just think that if he's gonna sing the songs, he could sing the melodies that are familiar, but when it comes to the ad-libs and all the little things that set me aside as a vocalist when I sing them, he should make his own up. He should have his own ad-libs that are his own; he doesn't have to mimic me."

Gramm's comments echoed those he made a little over two months earlier when he told John Beaudin of RockHistoryMusic.com about Hansen: "Kelly is all right. He's a good singer. But I think Mick [Jones, FOREIGNER's founding guitarist and leader] really told Kelly, when he first got in the band, that he had to study me, because he sings those songs with the same musical innuendos and vocal licks and ad-libs as I have. He's mimicking me. His voice doesn't sound like me, but he's singing the songs the way I would sing them.

"Some people say, 'Well, take it as a compliment, Lou.' I don't take it as a compliment," Gramm continued. "You're a singer with a big band like that — use your voice and your style. Don't hang your coat on my hook.

"I don't think he should sing the songs verbatim like me," Lou added. "Maybe sing a couple of parts. But let his own influences show — show the fans that he's the new singer now, not me."

Asked what it was like to share the stage with Hansen and other members of the current and original FOREIGNER lineup in 2017 and 2018 to celebrate the band's 40th anniversary, Lou told RockHistoryMusic.com: "It was okay. [Kelly] was bouncing off the walls. He couldn't stand still or sit still. After a song ended, I couldn't even get a word to thank the audience or tell 'em that I was happy to be part of the reunion. At the end of the song, the last song hit, and there wasn't a quarter of a second of space before he was yapping away to the audience… It was, like, 'Jeez, will you quiet down for a minute?'"

Pressed about whether it is "over now" for him and FOREIGNER, Lou said: "I think so, yeah. I don't wanna be a part of it. Well, Ian [McDonald, guitar] has passed away and Ed Gagliardi [bass] passed away, even though he wasn't part of the reunions. Two original members of the six are now gone. And Mick is in very poor health. I think when the new FOREIGNER plays, I've heard that he comes on for one song and then waves and goes offstage. [In the recent past] he would play the whole last half of the set. But then he was in the hospital again for weeks. He had some heart problems and his recovery time was very long and tedious. And I heard that he comes out for one song now — when he comes on. Most of the time FOREIGNER has no original FOREIGNER members in it."

The 73-year-old Gramm has battled health issues in recent years, including the removal of a non-cancerous tumor. He told the Democrat & Chronicle in 2018 that he was planning to retire, but still reunited with FOREIGNER for several shows that year.

Gramm and Jones's June 2013 performance of "I Want To Know What Love Is" and "Juke Box Hero" at the Songwriters Hall Of Fame in New York City marked the first time the pair performed together in a decade after Gramm left FOREIGNER for a second time. Hansen has fronted the group for the past 18 years.

On Tuesday, May 30, Attila Csihar, frontman of Norwegian black metal pioneers MAYHEM, joined PANTERA on stage for a performance of the song "Walk" during the Philip Anselmo-fronted act's sold-out show at Barba Negra in Budapest, Hungary. Fan-filmed video of Attila's appearance can be viewed below.

PANTERA's Budapest show marked the band's third live concert in Europe in 23 years — since May 2000, when the band last toured the continent in support of what would be their final album, "Reinventing The Steel".

PANTERA's current lineup includes two surviving members from the band's classic formation, Anselmo (vocals) and Rex Brown (bass),along with guitarist Zakk Wylde (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY) and drummer Charlie Benante (ANTHRAX).

Anselmo and Brown, along with Wylde and Benante, are headlining a number of major festivals across South America, Asia, North America and Europe and staging some of their own headline concerts. They will also support METALLICA on a massive North American stadium tour in 2023 and 2024.

According to Billboard, the lineup has been given a green light by the estates of the band's founders, drummer Vincent "Vinnie Paul" Abbott and guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, as well as Brown, who in 2021 said Wylde wouldn't tour with PANTERA if a reunion were to happen. It's unclear what changed his mind.

This past March, PANTERA headlined the 2023 "comeback" edition of Japan's Loud Park festival. The two-day "limited" event took place on March 25 at Intex Osaka in Osaka and March 26 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City near Tokyo.

In December, PANTERA played seven shows in Mexico and South America.

Brown was forced to leave PANTERA's Latin American tour after testing positive for COVID-19. Filling in for him at some of the shows was CATTLE DECAPITATION bassist Derek Engemann, who also plays with Anselmo in both PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS and SCOUR.

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

Vinnie Paul and Dimebag co-founded PANTERA. When PANTERA broke up in 2003, they formed DAMAGEPLAN. 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 passed away on June 22, 2018 at his other home in Las Vegas at the age of 54. He died of dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart, as well as severe coronary artery disease. His death was the result of chronic weakening of the heart muscle — basically meaning his heart couldn't pump blood as well as a healthy heart.

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Los Angeles's Grammy-nominated and genre-bending rock outfit FEVER 333 has returned with "$wing", its first studio single in three years, now available on all streaming platforms.

"$wing" expands upon FEVER 333's signature blend of rapid-fire rap cadences and visceral punk expression, coupled with frontman Jason Aalon Butler's socially conscious lyrics — this time taking aim at the sports industry's historical exploitation of people of color and the fight for agency and autonomy. Butler paints an articulate, focused picture without sacrificing venomous reproach and unbridled aggression.

"In a system that exploits the aforementioned instruments of power (the people) for financial and political advancement, we must collectively understand and redirect the dynamic once we realize that we are not powerless against it," Butler asserts before adding, "'$wing' is a sonic reminder that you are the power that they seek and you are the resource they need."

The new music comes on the heels of the debut of FEVER 333's powerful new lineup and a host of high-octane live performances. The new lineup features Butler alongside Thomas Pridgen (THE MARS VOLTA, THUNDERCAT, TRASH TALK) on drums, viral bass virtuoso April Kae and guitarist Brandon Davis.

"This new era of FEVER 333 is beyond even what I could have imagined", Butler says. "The talent, the funk, the passion, and the respect for this project April, Thomas and Brandon have already delivered have shown me, once again, that this project is something more than a band on stage".

Ushering a return to their ceremonial-like "functions" with a house party in Butler's hometown of South Central Los Angeles recently, FEVER 333 have since indoctrinated festival crowds at the highly-publicized Las Vegas festival Sick New World and are now gearing up for a string of European dates and festival appearances — including Germany's Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park, Hellfest in France and the U.K.'s lauded Download festival.

With the release of "$wing", FEVER 333 has also announced a worldwide collaboration between their label 333 Wreckords Crew and Century Media Records to release FEVER 333 music for the foreseeable future exclusively.

"I feel very lucky to have entered this partnership with 333 Wreckords Crew and the folks at Century Media for this upcoming album", Butler reveals. "I'm calling it right now — we're going to shift a paradigm, or two, regarding how this game gets played and how it tries to play us."

Tour dates:

Jun. 2 - Nürburgring, Germany @ Rock Am Ring Festival
Jun. 4 - Nürnberg, Germany @ Rock Im Park Festival
Jun. 6 - Wroclaw, Poland @ Zaklęte Rewiry
Jun. 7 - Bratislava, Slovakia @ Majestic
Jun. 8 - Nickelsdorf, Austria @ Nova Rock Festival
Jun. 10 - Donnington, UK @ Download Festival
Jun. 15 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Copenhell Festival
Jun. 16 - Dessel, Belgium @ Graspop Festival
Jun. 17 - Clisson, France @ Hell Fest
Jun. 19 - Malmo, Sweden @ Plan B
Jun. 20 - Stockholm, Sweden @ Debaser
Jun. 22 - Oslo, Norway @ Tons of Rock Festival
Jun. 23 - Ysselsteyn, Netherlands @ Jera On Air Festival
Jun. 24 - Munster, Germany @ Vainstream Festival
Jun. 25 - Spalence Porcini, Czech Republic @ Basinfire Festival
Jun. 27 - Toulouse, France @ Le Bikini
Jun. 29 - Lisbon, Portugal @ Evil Live Festival
Jun. 30 - Lugo, Spain @ Resurrection Fest
Jul. 2 - Arras, France @ Main Square Festival
Jul. 28 - Niigata, Japan @ Fuji Rock Festival
Sep. 22 - Louisville, Kentucky @ Louder Than Life Festival
Oct. 7 - Sacramento, California @ Aftershock Festival

Photo credit: Djay Brawner

Multi-platinum hard rock icons EXTREME have released "Other Side Of The Rainbow", the fourth single from their much-anticipated new album "Six", due June 9 via earMUSIC. "Other Side Of The Rainbow" shows off EXTREME's more intimate side in the vein of previous singles such as the RIAA gold-certified, Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit "More Than Words", "Hole Hearted" and "Seven Sundays". "Other Side Of The Rainbow" is one of EXTREME's most soulful journeys, taking listeners into the depths of the human heart.

"Every once in a while, we'll harness some kind of magic, and I think we did on this one," says frontman Gary Cherone. "It's a universal theme. It's about restoring someone's faith in love...we feel that it's the perfect marriage of lyrics and melody."

Citing Brian May, Eddie Van Halen and Neil Schon as particular influences, EXTREME co-founder and guitarist Nuno Bettencourt asks, "How do you play a blistering solo, making it feel like a rainbow?" He goes on to share, "It's a groove we've never done acoustically. It's got my favorite guitar solo it's an up-tempo, moving song."

EXTREME is currently gearing up to perform for audiences across the globe on its headlining "Thicker Than Blood" world tour. It stretches from August 2 to December 16 and will see the band appear across the U.S., Australia, Japan and Europe, including special guests LIVING COLOUR (U.S., Australia and U.K. only) and THE LAST INTERNATIONALE (Europe only). The tour has already sold-out dates in Hampton Beach, London, Melbourne, Tokyo, Amsterdam and more.

"Whatever you think an EXTREME album is after two or even three songs, it's not," states Bettencourt. "That goes for every record we've ever done. True EXTREME fans know to 'expect the unexpected.' I feel like we need a good old-school rock album. 'Six' is definitely modern, but you can put on headphones and go on a journey from top-to-bottom. It's like 'EXTREME 2.0'."

On "Six", EXTREME swing between unapologetic fits of fret-burning hard rock and intimately introspective balladry. For the recording of the Bettencourt-produced 12-track album, the members — Cherone (vocals),Bettencourt (guitar),Pat Badger (bass) and Kevin Figueiredo (drums) — buckled down at Bettencourt's home studio in Los Angeles to channel the electrifying eclecticism that defined their seminal output with a 21st century twist.

This dynamic affirms the iconic Boston quartet as one of rock's most unpredictable, undeniable, and unbreakable groups whose songs course through the very fabric of popular culture. They're the rare band whose music has appeared in an actual cult series a la "Bill & Ted" as well as the Netflix juggernaut "Stranger Things". They've sold 10 million records, topped the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 1, packed major venues on multiple continents, memorably performed at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in London, and regularly average over five million monthly listeners on Spotify. However, their dynamic approach hits harder than ever on "Six".

Photo credit: Jesse Lirola

STAIND has released the DJay Brawner-directed music video for the band's new single, "Lowest In Me". The track is taken from the band's upcoming album, "Confessions Of The Fallen", which will arrive in September via Alchemy Recordings/BMG. STAIND's first new LP album since 2011 was produced by Erik Ron (GODSMACK, PANIC! AT THE DISCO, BLACK VEIL BRIDES).

Asked why now was "the right time" to release a new STAIND album, guitarist Mike Mushok told Lou Brutus of HardDrive Radio: "We've talked about it, and it just seemed right. Aaron [Lewis, STAIND frontman] has been doing his country career for a while now. And we got back together in 2019 and were able to do some shows, which was great. And then we had a whole 2020 planned, but as with a lot of people, that kind of went away. In the meantime, we did that tour with KORN in 2021. And that's where a lot of the stuff for this record kind of came up; I was kind of writing every day on that and was actually able to get together with Aaron and play him some ideas. That's kind of where this all started, really, for this record. I kind of got some direction of what he wanted, what he liked, and that's how we moved forward with it."

Regarding the songwriting process for "Confessions Of The Fallen", Mike said: "I had a lot of songs, and they were all demoed. So it was basically just instrumental songs. I would take something that I liked, and I would just play it for him. Aaron would listen. And [he would say], 'Oh, I like that verse. Maybe we could try this. Maybe change the chorus a little.' So it was just really kind of getting ideas of where he was at, what music that I had that he was wanting to sing over and really kind of taking those notes, going back and reconstructing the songs, if need be, changing parts, rewriting stuff. And finally when we decided we were gonna do it, and I kind of had a pretty good group of what I thought would make up the record, and Erik ended up being the producer, Erik and I kind of went back and did the same process through the music. Kind of refining the songs, demoing them. And he'd take it to Aaron and they would work on the melody and the lyrics."

In an interview with Billboard, Lewis said that it took him "a long time to be ready to do another STAIND record. I got really burnt out on digging into the dark corners of my psyche every night to deliver those very deep, dark songs in a manner that was believable and authentic," he explained. "I needed to step away from it for awhile and do something different. It just came back together naturally."

Regarding the lyrical inspiration for "Lowest In Me", Aaron told Billboard: "Everybody has got people in their lives that don't bring out the good in somebody. Just with what's going on in the world right now, there's so many things, so many people that are like, 'You bring out the lowest in me.' There's a lot of factors out there that could fall under the 'you' category."

When "Confessions Of The Fallen" was announced last month, Lewis stated about the LP's musical direction: "I did want to modernize the sound and bring us up to date. You can certainly recognize the band but at the same time you can hear that we've been paying attention and understand what kind of sounds and approaches we can use that maybe weren't around the last time we did this." Added Mushok, "It's undeniably Aaron's voice, and same for the songs. We got together and spent a lot of time focusing on direction, and we really like how it turned out."

Last December, Mushok told the Loaded Radio podcast about the musical direction of STAIND's new material: "It's a little bit more modernized, I think. I think that was something we kind of wanted to do. There's a little bit more of an electronic element on there, which is something new for us, but I feel like everybody is kind of doing that. But I think it's cool. It's not overused. I think the songs are really good. I'm really happy with it. I can't wait for people to hear it."

Mushok also talked about his working relationship with Lewis, saying: "We've been doing it for a long time. It's great to be back and doing that… I think that we definitely respect each other. It's kind of always been that. I think that STAIND's really kind of been… For the most part, I bring some music in and he decides what he likes and what he wants to write to, and we kind of take it from there. That being said, he's come in, obviously, with some amazing songs as well. So it's been a really good writing partnership, I feel."

Last September, Mushok told Atlantic City Weekly that both he and Lewis will continue to pursue other projects — Mushok with SAINT ASONIA, the band he co-founded in 2015 with former THREE DAYS GRACE singer Adam Gontier, and Lewis with his country solo career — alongside their long-running outfit.

In 2021, STAIND supported KORN on a U.S. run of dates.

STAIND has released seven albums since 1995, the latest being 2011's self-titled effort. The band has had a number of hit songs during its first two decades, including the Top 10 smash "It's Been Awhile" from the No. 1 album "Break The Cycle". Follow-up LPs "14 Shades Of Grey" and "Chapter V" also topped the Billboard chart.

STAIND released its first album in nine years, "Live: It's Been Awhile", in May 2021 via Yap'em/Alchemy Recordings. The "Live: It's Been Awhile" album was accompanied by "The Return Of Staind", a two-part global streaming series in partnership with Danny Wimmer Presents. The series launched with STAIND's "Live: It's Been Awhile (From Foxwoods)" concert, which streamed globally on May 1, 2021. The "Live: It's Been Awhile" album and concert were recorded at the band's comeback show at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut in October 2019. The never-before-seen concert celebrated the band's reunion after a five-year hiatus. STAIND also performed its iconic multi-platinum 2001 album "Break The Cycle" in its entirety for a May 8, 2021 streaming event, exactly 20 years after the album's release. The "20th Anniversary Of Break The Cycle, Performed In Its Entirety" took place at Mill 1 in Open Square in Holyoke, Massachusetts, bringing the band back to their Western Mass roots.

STAIND played its first full live show in five years in September 2019 at the Louder Than Life music festival in Louisville, Kentucky.

STAIND and GODSMACK recently announced a 25-city co-headlining 2023 tour, produced by Live Nation. The trek kicks off on July 18 at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre in St. Louis, Missouri, with stops across the U.S. before wrapping up in Austin, Texas at Germania Insurance Amphitheatre on August 31.

EMPIRE STATE BASTARD, the extreme metal band founded by Simon Neil (BIFFY CLYRO) and Mike Vennart (BIFFY CLYRO live guitarist and solo artist, ex-OCEANSIZE),will release its debut album, "Rivers Of Heresy", on September 1 via Roadrunner. The LP will feature EMPIRE STATE BASTARD's debut single "Harvest", which was released this past March ahead of the band's sold-out U.K. headline tour.

EMPIRE STATE BASTARD also features the legendary Dave Lombardo (SLAYER, TESTAMENT, MR. BUNGLE) on drums, with Naomi Macleod (BITCH FALCON) rounding out the live lineup on bass.

As Mike candidly admits, "I set about making the most fucking poisonous vile music I possibly could, just unabridged hatred in musical form."

Simon adds, "Lyrically, it's as misanthropic and nihilistic as I've ever written."

In addition to its digital release, "Rivers Of Heresy" will be made available on the following limited-edition physical formats: CD with an exclusive 24-page fanzine; poison green vinyl and red / black marble vinyl; and cassette. The deluxe vinyl bundle adds a seven-inch single featuring "Harvest" and a non-album B-side to either album vinyl.

Up next, EMPIRE STATE BASTARD will play select international festival dates this summer, including U.K. sets at Download, Glastonbury and ArcTanGent before heading to the States for an appearance at Riot Fest this September.

The concept for EMPIRE STATE BASTARD emerged when Neil and Vennart would spend downtime on tour sitting at the back of their bus sharing the heaviest, most avant-garde and confrontational music they could find. Now, a decade on from its conception, the project is finally coming to fruition, with Vennart writing the songs and recording all the guitars, and Neil focusing on vocals and lyrics.

The two have emerged with a collection of songs which adventurously probes slamming hardcore in the vein of SIEGE; the frenetic, visceral thrash of SLAYER; the claustrophobic sludge of MELVINS; the freeform vocal dexterity of Mike Patton; and the gargantuan stoner riffs of SLEEP. It's a band that's rooted in the tradition of metal's forefathers but informed by more recent waves of leftfield aggression.

"Rivers Of Heresy" track listing:

01. Harvest
02. Blusher
03. Moi?
04. Tired, Aye?
05. Sons And Daughters
06. Stutter
07. Palms Of Hands
08. Dusty
09. Sold!
10. The Looming

During a recent appearance on "The Jasta Show", Lombardo spoke about his involvement with EMPIRE STATE BASTARD. Dave said: "Simon Neil and Mike Vennart [are] from a very popular band in the U.K. called BIFFY CLYRO. [A lot of people in the U.S.] don't know who BIFFY CLYRO is, but they're massive in the U.K. They headline Download and Glastonbury [festivals]; they headline Download the next day after IRON MAIDEN. So there guys are massive. But Simon Neil, the vocalist for that band, and Mike Vennart have a love and an affinity for hardcore music. And for the past 10 years they've been talking about this. And they hit me up during the pandemic and took a shot in the dark and said, 'Well, why not? Let's ask him. He might not wanna do it.' But they asked. At first, I fell in love with the music. I was, like, 'Wow. This is pretty fucking cool.' Odd time changes. It's a little thrashy. It has a little bit of grindcore in it. It's hard to describe. It's its own entity and it has a personality of its own. So to give it a description is really difficult. But it is in the hard music vein. And when I heard the music, I was blown away. And I agreed. And they sent me the files [for the album]. And I recorded the drums in my home studio, and I sent it back. And they were pleased. And it's gonna be out — I hope — sometime in September."

Neil previously told NME that working on other projects, including EMPIRE STATE BASTARD, got him "through not touring — just knowing I can spend the year making new music."

He added: "I like putting myself in these positions where I'm like, 'I should never be doing this, so this is what I'm going to do.' I don't just want to do the same shit. Every time between records, I want to do something that's fucked up and off the wall. It brings me back to BIFFY, and I'm more in love with it now than I've ever been."

Lombardo, who has spent most of the recent years between crossover pioneers SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, horror-punk icons MISFITS, hardcore supergroup DEAD CROSS and MR. BUNGLE, was effectively fired from SLAYER after sitting out the group's Australian tour in February/March 2013 due to a contract dispute with the other bandmembers. He was later replaced by Paul Bostaph, who was previously SLAYER's drummer from 1992 until 2001.

Lombardo rejoined TESTAMENT last year but has since stopped touring with that band.

Photo credit: Gavin Smart

During a May 25 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless was once again asked about complaints from some of the band's fans about the use of backing tracks during the group's live performances. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "About 10, 12 years ago, we did 'The Crimson Idol' the first time in its entirety with orchestration. Now, prior to that, we had just done — I call it the 'Live At Leeds' version… Because if you look at what THE WHO did with the 'Live At Leeds', which we all thought was live at the time, and we now realize there are overdubs on those as well, like most live records. We would take the bare-bones approach to doing it. Well, we decided to take an approach where we tried to make it sound exactly like the record. And we had never used orchestration or anything like that. So we went in the studio, we took all the tracks off the record as far as the orchestration, we took the background vocal tracks, we took doubles on leads — we did everything. And we took it and we tried to make it sound as much like the record as we could. I stood in the middle of the room that first night in rehearsal, and I swear to you it was like an out-of-body experience. I had never heard anything sound like that before. I had never played with a live orchestra before. And so this was the closest thing you would get to doing something like that.

"Listen, I understand both sides of the argument on it," he continued. "For me personally, when I'm up there, I'm singing my ass off. But what's wrong with having enhancement to make something sound exactly like the record? Because you're not gonna get a band like QUEEN or any other band that does big productions like that… Four guys cannot go out there and reproduce that record. It's impossible. It won't happen. So do you want it to sound like the record or do you want it to be just a general live performance? And that's a question of taste.

"If you're gonna start making records where you have a lot of orchestration and things like that going, it is impossible to make it sound like that record unless you have that," Lawless added. "And you can also make the argument, which has been going on Broadway for the last 20 years, the musicians' union has been fighting this fiercely but technology rolls on and it's not gonna stop, where they no longer have live music in Broadway productions. And the musicians' union has had a fit over that. Well, even before that happened, when you had keyboards introduced that had entire orchestras in them, you've got one guy now replacing a hundred and twenty different people. So where do you draw the line?

"Like I said, I understand if somebody wants a true, organic experience, but from my perspective, I looked at it and I said… Once I heard it sound exactly like the record, I thought, 'I cannot go back to this again.' I mentioned THE WHO a second ago, the 'Live At Leeds' approach. THE WHO used tapes for years until they started hiring all these other guys to go out with them. But even still, a lot of the keyboard stuff — 'Won't Get Fooled Again', things like that — that's all on tape."

"When I go out on that stage, I take a lot of pride in this gift that God's given me," Blackie added. "And I like to show it off; I'll just be flat-out honest with you. But I think people wanna see that or they wanna hear it. So I don't think there's anything wrong with it. If you've got a guitar player that is really, really good, people are going there to see that. But again, when I went into rehearsals that one night and I heard what it sounded like when it sounded like the record, I thought, 'I can never go back.' Like I said, it was a flat-out out-of-body experience."

Asked what percentage of the vocals during W.A.S.P.'s live concerts are on tape, Blackie said: "You mean from my lead vocals? For my lead vocals, I would encourage people to go… We did five shows where I was sitting. Go look at those last couple. You're gonna hear it loud and clear. 'Cause when we were in Sofia, I cracked a couple of times, which I normally don't do. But it was getting towards the end of the tour. I mean, it wasn't anything catastrophic, but for me, I don't normally crack. But it happens. It's part of the live experience. But when we start doing the choruses and things like that, myself and Mike Duda and Doug Blair, we're all out there singing, but we're using backups behind that too. Because when we did it in the studio, we were using three and four tracks at a time to create that. You cannot make those choruses sound huge like that with just individual vocals creating that, because when you're doing it in the studio, you double and triple tracks. I mentioned QUEEN a while ago — they were using 24 tracks of vocals to create those sounds. You cannot create those chorus sounds by two or three guys doing that. It is impossible… Unless there's 20 guys in that room doing that, it ain't gonna sound like that… If you're doing 24 tracks of vocals to create that chorus effect, a handful of guys cannot do that, even with electronic doublers. And then you can get into that argument — okay, you're using mechanical effects to enhance one guy out there. I mean, where do we draw the line with this now?"

W.A.S.P. has been criticized for the group's supposed use of backing tracks, including for Blackie's lead vocals, for at least several years, as Metal Sludge pointed out in 2019 after Lawless and his bandmates performed at the Helgeåfestivalen in Sweden.

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.

KISS frontman Paul Stanley, who has been struggling to hit the high notes in many of the band's classic songs for a number of years, has been accused of singing to a backing tape on KISS's ongoing "End Of The Road" tour.

Back in 2015, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons slammed bands who used backing tapes for not being honest enough to include that fact on their concert tickets.

"I have a problem when you charge $100 to see a live show and the artist uses backing tracks," Simmons said. "It's like the ingredients in food. If the first ingredient on the label is sugar, that's at least honest. It should be on every ticket — you're paying $100, 30 to 50 percent of the show is [on] backing tracks and they'll sing sometimes, sometimes they'll lip sync. At least be honest. It's not about backing tracks, it's about dishonesty.

"There's nobody with a synthesizer on our stage, there's no samples on the drums, there's nothing," Gene continued. "There's very few bands who do that now — AC/DC, METALLICA, us. I can't even say that about U2 or THE [ROLLING] STONES. There's very few bands who don't use [backing] tracks."

This past March, KISS's longtime manager Doc McGhee defended Stanley's vocal performance on "End Of The Road", explaining that the "Star Child" "fully sings to every song" at every concert. He explained: It's enhanced. It's just part of the process to make sure that everybody hears the songs the way they should be sang to begin with. Nobody wants to hear people do stuff that's not real, that's not what they came to hear."

When McGhee was asked to clarify if he was "actually saying there are backing tracks that [Paul is] singing to," Doc said: "He'll sing to tracks. It's all part of a process. Because everybody wants to hear everybody sing. But he fully sings to every song."

In March 2020, SHINEDOWN guitarist Zach Myers said that "90 percent" of rock artists use at least some pre-recorded tracks during their live performances. He told Rock Feed: "It bothers me that it bothers people. I'm, like, 'Why does this bother you?' It's the way it is. People have been doing this since the '80s. And we want the sound to be the best it can be. Could we go up there, just the four of us, and put on the best rock show ever? Of course. But that's not how we wanna do it."

Former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach has previously said that he is "one of the last people" who are still not using pre-recorded tracks at their live shows. "I don't know how much longer I can say to you that I don't use tapes onstage, because I don't, and I never have," he told Consequence Of Sound. "And I still don't. When I have opening bands, and they're using tapes, and then I come out and I don't use tapes… sometimes, it makes me feel stupid, because I'm like, 'What am I doing, when all these kids half my age can come onstage and do all of my moves, but they don't have to warm up for an hour before the show, or weeks, before the first show?' Sometimes, I'm like, 'Why do I even bother, if the public is so used to this other way?' It's becoming very rare to come see a good band that's actually a real band — that's not miming or doing silly moves while a tape is running. It just becomes more rare as the years go on."

In 2019, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith said that he doesn't "agree" with certain rock artists relying on pre-recorded tracks during their live performances. "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," he told the New York Post. "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."

One musician who has been open about his band's use of taped vocals during live performances is MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx, who said: "We've used technology since '87." He added the group employed "sequencers, sub tones, background vox tracks, plus background singers and us. [MÖTLEY CRÜE also taped] stuff we can't tour with, like cello parts in ballads, etc.... We love it and don't hide it. It's a great tool to fill out the sound."

In a 2014 interview, MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars admitted that he wasn't comfortable with the fact that his band used pre-recorded backing vocals in its live shows, claiming that he preferred to watch groups whose performances are delivered entirely live. "I don't like it," he said. "I think a band like ours… I have to say '60s bands were my favorite — '60s and '70s bands — because they were real, like, three-piece bands or four-piece bands, and they just got up there and kicked it up. Made a mistake? So what? Sounded a little bit empty here or there? So what? It's the bigness and the rawness and the people that developed and wrote the songs and made them and presented them. To me, that's what I really like. I mean, I could put on a MÖTLEY CD and play with it all day long. I don't wanna do that."

In a new interview with Ronni Hunter of the 99.7 The Blitz radio station conducted at this past weekend's Sonic Temple festival in Columbus, Ohio, THE PRETTY RECKLESS frontwoman Taylor Momsen confirmed that she and her bandmates have commenced work on the follow-up to 2021's "Death By Rock And Roll" album.

"We're in a great headspace," she said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "We're just having fun with it, and wrapping up the tour cycle of 'Death By Rock And Roll', with the last few shows. We're going out with [the FOO FIGHTERS] in June, which I'm so stoked about. And then new record — and it's next chapter. We've already kind of started it… We've gotten into a studio; we've stepped foot into a studio. So that's saying something for us."

Regarding when fans can expect to hear new music from THE PRETTY RECKLESS, Taylor said: "I don't know how long it's gonna take. I have no dates for anyone or any more insight other than that. But we have walked into a studio and we are super, super excited."

Last November, THE PRETTY RECKLESS released a new collection of music, "Other Worlds", via Fearless Records. The effort saw the group delivering its first proper acoustic recordings, unexpected covers and other reimaginings.

"Death By Rock And Roll" was made available in February 2021 via Fearless Records in the U.S. and Century Media Records in the rest of the world.

Upon release, "Death By Rock And Roll" topped multiple sales charts — including Billboard's Top Albums, Rock, Hard Music, and Digital charts. The record also yielded three back-to-back No. 1 singles — "Death By Rock And Roll", "And So It Went" (featuring Tom Morello of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE) and "Only Love Can Save Me Now" (featuring Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron of SOUNDGARDEN). The band has tallied seven No. 1 singles at the rock format throughout its career.

"Death By Rock And Roll" was THE PRETTY RECKLESS's first album to be made without longtime producer Kato Khandwala, who died in April 2018 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.

THE PRETTY RECKLESS formed in 2009 and consists of Momsen, guitarist Ben Phillips, bassist Mark Damon and drummer Jamie Perkins.

In 2021, Momsen — who rose to fame portraying the character of edgy little sister Jenny Humphrey on The CW's "Gossip Girl" — described "Death By Rock And Roll" in an interview with ABC Audio as a "battle cry for life and for hope."

"I think that that's something that we can all use a little bit more of, especially right now," she said. "We could always use a little more hope, and we could always use a little more rock and roll."

Image credit: concertsrock

During the second installment of his "QT With DC" video series, WHITESNAKE frontman David Coverdale was asked about a possible follow-up to his collaboration with Jimmy Page. The well-received COVERDALE PAGE set was recorded in several studios on both sides of the Atlantic over the winter of 1991-92 before it was finally released in March 1993.

"As Sean Connery said about James Bond: 'Never say never,'" Coverdale said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I have no idea. I treasure the time I worked with Jimmy. I think we got the best out of each other at that particular time in our lives. And that was the whole purpose of doing that. I'm there for Jimmy if he needs me for anything, as I hope he's there for me… But I'm not sure if that's gonna happen. But I'm wide open."

Back in November 2021, Coverdale discussed a possible reissue of COVERDALE PAGE's eponymously titled LP in an interview with 107.7 The Bone's "Lamont & Tonelli". He said: "I was very excited. Jimmy and I worked very well creatively, as you can hear, and we had another four or five songs which were unmixed. And I said, 'Jimmy, I've got all these other ideas. Let's just do a COVERDALE PAGE '2' or let's make a double album.' And sadly, his manager at the time talked him out of it, which was infuriating. However, some of those songs that I had to present to Jimmy are on [David Coverdale & WHITESNAKE's 1997] 'Restless Heart' record — two of 'em. It was 'Take Me Back Again' and 'Woman Trouble Blues'. Those were originally ideas for Jimmy and I, had we made a second album. But in 2023, it's the 30th anniversary, so look for something special. It's gonna be a lot of fun."

Coverdale previously spoke about his collaboration with Page during a February 2021 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". At the time, he said that he and Jimmy were planning a "very big, luxurious, complete box set [for] the [LP's] 30th anniversary in 2023."

As for what extra material might surface on the expanded "Coverdale Page" set, the WHITESNAKE singer said: "We've got four unreleased tracks, which just need to be mixed. But since we reconnected, I've been messing around, writing at home. And I have two ideas which could make really fun tracks — just to throw at him and 'see what you can do with this.' The way we did it before — we wrote really very potent music together.

"The other thing that I recommended to him was, 'Let's remaster the original, but I'd love you, in England, with a mixer of your choice, to do the Jimmy Page mix of the album, and I'll do the David Coverdale mix as bonus stuff,'" he continued. "And I think that'd be great. He trusts me, I trust him, and I think it would be great for the fans to get Jimmy's take on it, 'cause we did everything 50/50 on the project. It was an amazing three years together. I loved it. So, yeah, that's definitely in the pipeline."

Upon its release, "Coverdale Page" sold strongly, peaking at No. 4 on the U.K. album chart and No. 5 in the U.S. The album eventually went platinum in the U.S., despite the fact that the project as a whole was marred by the "LED ZEPPELIN clone" tag, including from ZEPPELIN frontman Robert Plant, who openly expressed his disdain for Coverdale, referring to him as "David Cover-version." Coverdale was equally vitriolic in his response, saying about the LED ZEPPELIN singer, "There's certainly no love lost between myself and Robert… I wouldn't send him cat food if he was starving."

Coverdale later apologized to Plant, saying in a 2013 interview with TeamRock Radio's "Classic Rock Magazine Show": "I hold [Plant] in the highest esteem as a human being, and as an artist, and I really would like to, you know, sit down, buy him a drink, shake hands and say: 'I'm really sorry," you know, "Can we be friends again?' I don't hold any animosity, just disappointment in myself that I took the bait and ran with some ugly things. Because it's not appropriate for somebody I respect so much."

EYE AM, the new band featuring former TYPE O NEGATIVE members Kenny Hickey (guitar/vocals) and Johnny Kelly (drums),along with Kirk Windstein (guitar, vocals; CROWBAR, DOWN, KINGDOM OF SORROW) and Todd Strange (CROWBAR, DOWN),will release its debut single, "Dreams Always Die With The Sun", on June 2 via Corpse Paint Records. A music video for the track was recently filmed by Mike Holderbeast and will make its online debut on the same day. A preview is available below.

Speaking to Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, Kelly stated about how EYE AM came together (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "That was started with Andrew Spaulding. I met him; he was a merchandiser for DANZIG. And then TYPE O went on tour after that. We brought him out and he worked with TYPE O up until Peter [Steele, TYPE O NEGATIVE frontman] passed away. And we all remained good friends and stuff. And he started an indie label; he started a small little label. And he suggested putting me and Kenny together with Kirk Windstein and Todd Strange from CROWBAR. We've all been friends — I've known Kirk and Todd for, like, 30 years at this point. So we've always been friends and we've always crossed paths and hung out and this and that but never really had the opportunity to get in a room and play together. And Drew had it worked out. We all met in Florida, like, two months ago. We got into a room, came up with that song, recorded it the next day, and that was it; it was done.'"

According to Kelly, "Dreams Always Die With The Sun" was written and recorded in less than a day. "Drew literally picked me up from the airport and drove me to rehearsal," he said. "And the guys were in the room. And I just put my suitcase over to the side, set up the kit and we started working on the song. And then the next morning we went to the recording studio, tracked all the drums. And then I was on a plane. I don't know where I was going after that, but I had to leave right after we were done tracking; I think my flight was at six in the morning the next morning. So I was there just literally for a few hours."

He continued: "We are going to New Orleans at the end of June to do more writing and recording. If we get like a whole week, who knows what can happen?"

Regarding how "Dreams Always Die With The Sun" turned out, Johnny said: "It's a cool song. I really wasn't sure what to expect. I guess the best way to compare it — on a different scale, of course — would be like Scott Weiland and VELVET REVOLVER [got together]. You take these people from these bands and you put 'em together and you have a certain expectation of it. Then you're not sure if it's gonna meet it, if it's exceeding it or if it falls way below. But I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was and how much fun it was to work with everybody."

"Dreams Always Die With The Sun" was recorded in February in Gainesville, Florida. The recording sessions were overseen by bassist Roger Lima of LESS THAN JAKE at his studio called The Moathouse.

Windstein previously stated about the track: "For me, I just love jamming and writing songs with talented people. Of course, I've jammed with Todd Strange since the '80s, so I knew that would be great, but having the opportunity to get together with Kenny and Johnny was exciting. I was a little nervous at first, but once we started putting the song together, I had a great feeling we were on to something special. I love the song, and can't wait to write some more with these guys."

Hickey added: "Well, we didn't really know what would happen when we got together. I had a few riffs and half-finished ideas, and I recorded them and sent them to Kirk and he wrote some ideas off of that. I think because we're all around the same age, it echoes the music we grew up with, which was mostly '70s hard rock and metal. It has a classic rock quality to it. I hear some Hendrix in there as well. It's really satisfying when you throw musicians and riffs into a pot and then listen back to hear what comes out of it. It's somehow less contrived sounding, I think. It could have also hit the wall and ended up a disaster, which adds an element of risk to it as well. But I think we came out with something really cool."

In addition to their work with TYPE O NEGATIVE, Hickey and Kelly had previously collaborated in a band called SEVENTH VOID, which released one full-length album, "Heaven Is Gone", in 2009, and SILVERTOMB, which issued "Edge Of Existence" in 2019.

In a 2018 interview with Rock And Roll Fables, Hickey stated about his chemistry with Kelly: "I've been working with Johnny long before TYPE O. I met Johnny probably in 1986. TYPE O formed in 1989, so we were already in a thrash band together. Basically, we grew up and learned everything the wrong way together and had to work it out over the course of the years. [Laughs] For me, it's completely natural with him. We got better at it. Dude, you do something for 35 years, I hope you're getting better at it."

Original CROWBAR bassist Strange returned to the band in 2016 for the touring cycle in support of the band's "The Serpent Only Lies" album.

Strange, who originally left CROWBAR back in 1999, stuck around for two years before departing once again to focus on his family life.

CROWBAR frontman Windstein, who also plays in the New Orleans supergroup DOWN, released two albums with HATEBREED's Jamey Jasta under the KINGDOM OF SORROW banner. Kirk's debut solo album, "Dream In Motion", arrived in 2020.

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Former IRON MAIDEN singer Paul Di'Anno says that he wishes Tobias Forge had "put a bit more effort into the vocals" on GHOST's cover version of MAIDEN's "Phantom Of The Opera".

GHOST's rendition of "Phantom Of The Opera" was made available earlier this month as a preview of the band's "Phantomime" EP, which sees the Swedish occult rockers offering takes on GENESIS's "Jesus He Knows Me", TELEVISION's "See No Evil", THE STRANGLERS' "Hanging Around" and Tina Turner's "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)", alongside the aforementioned MAIDEN cover.

On May 16, the same day that GHOST's version of "Phantom" was made available, Di'Anno — who sang on MAIDEN's original recording of the song — took to his personal Facebook page to write in a since-deleted post: "Everyone asking my opinion on the ghost cover of phantom well not that it matters but it fkn sucks". The singer, whose real name is Paul Andrews, went on to add a series of vomit emojis, as can be seen in the screenshot below, courtesy of The Metal Voice.

In a new interview with Loaded Radio, Di'Anno elaborated on his opinion of GHOST's cover of "Phantom Of The Opera", saying (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The music's great. I just don't think Tobias fucking tried hard enough vocally. He sounds a bit plain… And he changed the lyrics slightly… That was a bit weird."

Referencing his since-deleted Facebook post, Paul continued: "When I first heard it, I was probably in a bad mood that day. I said, 'This is fucking bullshit.' But I've listened to it about three or four times. [The music is] pretty damn good, actually, to be honest with you. But as I said, I just feel like Tobias didn't give it some welly [using British slang for 'energy'], as we say… Give me some fucking welly."

Di'Anno went on to say that he has nothing against GHOST or Tobias personally.

"Regardless of what you think of GHOST, I'm very happy for them," Paul said. "Maybe I was just pissed off with life [that day], as usual. The older I get, the grumpier I am. Fucking great. Once you get over 50, you've got every fucking right to say what you want.

"As I said, I just wish he'd put a bit more effort into the vocals. That's all," he added.

Forge explained his approach to covering the MAIDEN classic in a recent interview with Revolver, saying: "I think that the Papas and the Cardinal and the character that I'm trying to mimic [in GHOST] is a combination of all the dark protagonist hero-freaks that we're following in gothic literature and media — Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and all of those — but he's also a bit of Inspector Clouseau. He's a parody of a male archetype in so many ways, but he becomes funny that way. And the Phantom Of The Opera is similar. He's a cool gentleman in one way, but he's also pathetic and miserable."

Regarding his decision to alter the original MAIDEN lyrics a bit, Forge said: "The original lyrics are written in three perspectives, or at least that's how it came off to me when I tried to learn the song, which didn't make much sense to me. The Phantom is one perspective, the other was [Phantom Of The Opera protagonist] Christine, and then there was this third party. So, I reached out to [IRON MAIDEN bassist-lyricist] Steve [Harris] and asked if I could adjust a few things so I could get it down to just two perspectives. And Steve is so cool — talk about big-dick syndrome — he just said, 'Absolutely.' We had that plan with GENESIS, as well, but the problem was that we waited too long and by the time we asked, it was five hours from recording. I wanted to change the line with 'phone book' in it to a less dated reference — not Facebook, by the way — but it was too late."

Di'Anno recorded two classic albums with IRON MAIDEN — a self-titled effort in 1980 and "Killers" in 1981 — before being fired and replaced by Bruce Dickinson. He went on to front a number of other bands, including KILLERS and BATTLEZONE, and released several solo records.

Di'Anno, who finally underwent his knee surgery in September 2022, played the first show since the operation on October 1 at the Keep It True Rising II festival in Würzburg, Germany. He has since completed a Latin American tour and has a number of live dates scheduled for the rest of this year.

In December, Paul was joined by Greek guitar virtuoso Gus G., well known in rock and metal circles for his work as Ozzy Osbourne's guitarist and as leader of his own band FIREWIND, for three concerts in Greece, where they played songs from "Iron Maiden" and "Killers".

In May 2022, Di'Anno came face to face with Harris for the first time in three decades before the band's concert in Croatia.

Harris, whose group kicked off the 2022 leg of its "Legacy Of The Beast" world tour at the 22,000-capacity Arena Zagreb, came out before the show to greet a wheelchair-bound Di'Anno and chat with him for a few minutes.

After his friendly meeting with Harris, Di'Anno stuck around long enough to watch some of MAIDEN's performance before leaving near the end of the set to avoid a huge traffic jam after the show.

A year ago, Paul played his first full solo concert in seven years at the Bikers Beer Factory in Zagreb. The show was filmed and parts of it will be included in a documentary about Di'Anno, to be directed by Wes Orshoski, co-director and producer of the acclaimed 2010 film "Lemmy" about the MOTÖRHEAD icon.

The Zagreb concert was free to attend and was held as a way of thanking Paul's fans for their help during the most difficult time of his recovery. The show took place just a day before the IRON MAIDEN's gig at the Zagreb Arena.

Last year, Di'Anno teamed up with several Croatian musicians to form a new project called WARHORSE. WARHORSE entered the studio to record three songs, two of which — "Stop The War" and "The Doubt Within" — were released as a special limited-edition DVD single. A full-length WARHORSE album will arrive later this year.

Last year, Forge told the "My Planet Rocks" show on the U.K. rock radio station Planet Rock that MAIDEN has been a "massive influence" on GHOST. "Both musically and also stage production-wise," he said. "But also when it comes to work ethics and just the sheer volume of work you have to put into your job [and] in your craft has always been inspiring to me.

"When I was a kid, I was sitting with [IRON MAIDEN's 1985 live album] 'Live After Death' record and I was dead set on wanting to become a professional musician and I wanted to tour. I knew about the concept of touring, but a lot of my knowledge or my preconceived notions of what I thought touring was about was looking through 'Live After Death' and seeing all those dates that they were playing everywhere. I sat there with like a big map book and just drew out how they toured, where they played and how often you play. That record in the inner sleeve, you have a lot of information about touring life."

Forge continued: "The '90s was a little bit medieval for a lot of the '80s [metal] bands and I must say that after Bruce [Dickinson] left [in 1993], I wasn't a giant fan of the Blaze Bayley years. In the '90s, this is before Internet, this is before accessibility that way you had to invest in your records, and you had to invest time into anything that you liked.

"In 1995 when they made the first record with Blaze ['The X Factor'], I was so buried in death/black metal stuff, and I was so busy exploring what happened in 1985 that I didn't have time for following that. So, of course, I was amazed when Bruce came back into the band and they made this triumphant return. I must say that 'Brave New World', the comeback record with Bruce, was and still is an unbelievably well-constructed record… That record is actually really good from start to finish. Unbelievable.

"It's incredible that a band 20 years into their professional career were able to still add songs to their already existing and mind-blowingly great repertoire. I think that 'Blood Brothers' is a song that they are still playing at most of their shows, but they could easily play 10 songs from that record."

Paul Dianno Gives his opinion on the new 'Phantom of the Opera' Iron Maiden cover by Ghost

Quote
"Everyone asking my opinion on the ghost cover of phantom well not that it matters but it fkn sucks 🤮🤮🤮"

Posted by The Metal Voice on Tuesday, May 16, 2023

According to ALL THAT REMAINS singer Phil Labonte, the band's breakthrough album "The Fall Of Ideals" has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) for sales in excess of 500,000 copies in the United States.

On Monday (May 29),Labonte took to his Twitter to write: "I got a phone call from my manager today. He said The Fall Of Ideals is officially a gold record. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you all."

Last year, ALL THAT REMAINS embarked on "The Fall Of Ideals" 15th-anniversary tour.

"The Fall Of Ideals" was reissued in November 2021. The best-selling title features such fan favorites as "This Calling", "Six" and "The Air That I Breathe". In addition to the wide release, the band has exclusive colored vinyl variants with deluxe packaging available only at the band's webstore.

Originally released in 2006, "The Fall Of Ideals" launched a new era for ALL THAT REMAINS — finding the band moving away from the death metal of their first two albums (2002's "Behind Silence And Solitude" and 2004's "This Darkened Heart") and settling into the melodic metalcore that defined their career. "The Fall Of Ideals" also introduced fans to the band's longtime bassist Jeanne Sagan and marked their only album to feature drummer Shannon Lucas. The newcomers joined founding members Labonte (vocals) and Oli Herbert (lead guitars),as well as rhythm guitarist Mike Martin.

In the studio, the Massachusetts quintet partnered with two prominent metal artists: KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's Adam Dutkiewicz, who served as producer, and SOILWORK's Peter Wichers, who engineered the sessions. The dynamic, 11-song set found the musicians pushing their sonic boundaries, while Labonte showcased his broad vocal range — from epic, extended screams and in-your-face growls to emotive choruses. The album spawned a variety of enduring favorites, including the hard-driving "This Calling", which featured in the soundtracks to "Saw III" and "Masters Of Horror II", as well as singles "The Air That I Breathe" and "Not Alone". Other highlights included the guitar-forward "Whispers (I Hear You)" and the dramatic "Six", which appeared in "Guitar Hero II".

Upon its release in the summer of 2006, "The Fall Of Ideals" was embraced by fans, becoming the band's first album to break the Billboard 200 (peaking at No. 75) and eventually selling more than 450,000 units. The album also caught the attention of critics. Pop Matters hailed, "ALL THAT REMAINS has made the kind of stylistic leap that most bands can only wish they could pull off… 'The Fall Of Ideals' [is] invigorating from start to finish, and could very well be the metalcore album of the year." BLABBERMOUTH.NET praised, "ALL THAT REMAINS effortlessly blends thrashy twin guitar fireworks and Phil Labonte's raging vocals with soaring clean vocals and overall tunefulness…There is no denying that those guys play their asses off here and the result is immensely gratifying." Lambgoat simply declared, "The entire band executes the songs perfectly," adding that "the production…is full and crisp."

In the 17 years since "The Fall Of Ideals", ALL THAT REMAINS have built an undeniable legacy as one of this century's most consistent purveyors of heavy music with a bulletproof canon of arena-worthy anthems. Currently consisting of Labonte and Martin, as well as drummer Jason Costa, and lead guitarist Jason Richardson, the band continues to defy the odds of its genre. To date, they have sold more than a million albums worldwide, earning five consecutive Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart, and boasting more than 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify. In 2018, ALL THAT REMAINS released their widely acclaimed ninth studio album, "Victim Of The New Disease".
I got a phone call from my manager today. He said The Fall Of Ideas is officially a gold record. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you all. https://t.co/b2jnKdpUB6

— Phil Labonte (@philthatremains) May 29, 2023

ALICE COOPER guitarist Nita Strauss will release her sophomore solo album, "The Call Of The Void", on July 7 via Sumerian Records. The LP is a star-studded affair featuring guest vocals from DISTURBED's David Draiman, ARCH ENEMY's Alissa White-Gluz, HALESTORM's Lzzy Hale, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE's Chris Motionless, IN FLAMES' Anders Fridén, Dorothy, Alice Cooper and Lilith Czar.

Regarding her decision to make her second album half vocal songs and half instrumental, Nita told The Rock Experience With Mike Brunn in a new interview: "It was really just a natural progression, I think. As an artist, I think you always have to keep growing and pushing yourself. And I didn't wanna stay in the same place and just keep doing the same thing over and over again. I try to do that in every aspect of my career, so this just seemed like the natural next best step."

Asked how she decides which songs to put vocals to and which to keep as instrumental tracks, Nita said: "For me personally, the process for writing an instrumental song is so different to the process of writing a song that's gonna be for a singer. And it's really because for an instrumental song there are no rules. The song can be two minutes; the song can be 15 minutes; it can be as fast or as slow with as many key changes and as many tempo changes… It's the Wild West. [Laughs] And if you're writing for a vocalist, suddenly all of these restrictions fall into place: it can't be too short; it can't be too long; it has to be a key that's comfortable enough for the singer you have in mind to sing in; it can't be so fast that they can't sing the vocals or so slow that it's uncomfortable for their delivery. If it's gonna go to radio, it has to follow sort of a specific format of length and arrangement. All these constraints pop up. So, for me, there wasn't really any track that was, like, 'Oh, this one could go either way,' because the instrumentals I just sort of pour out and the vocal [songs] are more carefully constructed."

Earlier this month, Nita released the official music video for the song "The Golden Trail", featuring a guest appearance by Fridén.

Regarding the album's title, Strauss previously shared: "Have you ever been at the top of a high building and had the fleeting thought, '… I could jump right now?' This feeling is sometimes called 'The Call Of The Void,' also known as 'high place phenomenon.' It's not a suicidal impulse, rather the exact opposite — a subconscious decision to live your life, to step back from the ledge, and take control. As researcher April Smith aptly put it: 'An urge to jump affirms the urge to live.'

"I wanted the follow-up to 'Controlled Chaos' to be exciting, new, and fresh, to take listeners to a new place and take myself somewhere new as an artist too. We have some amazing collaborations on this album with incredible musicians, as well as the instrumental guitar music that first inspired me to play.

"Some pieces of music come into the world gracefully and easily. This album is not one of them! 'The Call Of The Void' was born kicking and screaming, a labor of love for sure, but also of blood, sweat and plenty of tears. I couldn't be more proud of the end result. Making this album helped me learn and grow so much as a musician and songwriter and I'm excited to finally unleash it on the world."

On the collaboration with Fridén, Strauss said: "When I was first learning how to play guitar, IN FLAMES were my BEATLES, my first favorite band. Anders's iconic vocal style is burned into my mind! To write a song like this and have him sing on it, as a kid who grew up with IN FLAMES posters on my walls, is an absolute dream come true."

"It was a lot of fun to collaborate with Nita on 'The Golden Trail'," added Fridén. "She's an amazing guitar player and I can hear the history of metal flowing through her fingers."

"The Golden Trail" is the fourth song Nita has released featuring a star guest vocalist, the first being the enormously successful "Dead Inside" which featured guest vocals from Draiman and saw Nita become the first-ever solo female to have a No. 1 hit at Active Rock radio. She also returned to her instrumental roots last year with the release of single "Summer Storm", a fast-paced, emotive shred-fest. In October 2022, Nita dropped "The Wolf You Feed", an epic headbanger of a track featuring the insane vocal talent of White-Gluz. This past March, Strauss released "Winner Takes All", featuring a guest appearance by Cooper.

Nita released 2018's "Controlled Chaos" to mass acclaim from fans and media alike, with Metal Injection calling it "a great debut that — as its creator intended — leaves no doubt", and Guitar World stating "'Controlled Chaos' is a panoramic view of Nita Strauss's many strengths".

In March, it was announced that Nita would return to Alice's band for his 2023 tour.

The Alice Cooper North American tour, with an all-new show dubbed "Too Close For Comfort", kicked off in late April in Michigan and will continue through late September, including a handful of August stadium shows with DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY CRÜE, followed by a co-headlining late summer "Freaks On Parade" tour with Rob Zombie.

Nita spent eight years playing with Alice before joining Demi Lovato's band last summer,

Strauss played her first full live show with Demi in August 2022 at the Grandstand at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Illinois.

Nita made her live debut with Demi in July 2022 with a performance of "Substance" on ABC's Emmy Award-winning late-night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!".

Strauss had been playing with Cooper since 2014 when she replaced Australian musician and former Michael Jackson player Orianthi. She joined Alice in time for a mammoth MÖTLEY CRÜE tour. She was recommended to Cooper by the legendary rocker's former bass player and WINGER frontman Kip Winger.

"The Call Of The Void" track listing:

01. Summer Storm
02. The Wolf You Feed (feat. Alissa White-Gluz)
03. Digital Bullets (feat. Chris Motionless)
04. Through The Noise (feat. Lzzy Hale)
05. Consume The Fire
06. Dead Inside (feat. David Draiman)
07. Victorious (feat. Dorothy)
08. Scorched
09. Momentum
10. The Golden Trail (feat. Anders Fridén)
11. Winner Takes All (feat. Alice Cooper)
12. Monster (feat. Lilith Czar)
13. Kintsugi
14. Surfacing (feat. Marty Friedman)

AC/DC singer Brian Johnson can't wait to party alongside his old pals as rock and roll royalty get pumped up about this year's Power Trip festival.

AC/DC is among the headliners on a bill of veteran rockers who will take to the stage in California October 6-8. It will be the iconic Australian band's first gig since 2016.

The much-loved frontman missed out on their last shows due to hearing loss but is set to return when the legends come together in America. GUNS N' ROSES' Axl Rose filled in seven years ago, and Johnson can't wait to rub shoulders with him and his other mates from some of the world's biggest bands.

"We decided to do this wonderful show that they've put together out in the desert near Palm Springs, near Coachella," the 75-year-old told motoring podcast "Fuelling Around". "It's all rock and roll bands. It's fantastic. I think it's just a statement to say that rock and roll is a legitimate form of music. It really has made a difference. Ozzy [Osbourne] is coming out of retirement so I'll be able to see my old pals again. The GUNS N' ROSES boys, the METALLICA boys and the IRON MAIDEN boys — all in one field. Boy, what a party!"

He added: "It's going to be in a beautiful valley, near Coachella, but I don't get involved in that kind of thing. I just like to turn up, get up and just rock my little socks off until I drop."

The much-loved Geordie has often been guarded when talking about the AC/DC's future. But he's much happier to discuss "Power Up", their 17th studio album, and how the coronavirus pandemic interrupted their desire to bring more metal magic to the masses.

"I'm so excited because three years ago we did get together when 'Power Up' the album came out," he said during the latest episode of the award-winning show, hosted by former Radio One star "Comedy" Dave Vitty and British Touring Car Championship legend Jason Plato. "It was fantastic. It went to number one in 27 countries or something and we went, 'Yeah, we're back. We're so proud of the album'. We started to rehearse in Amsterdam. Phil [Rudd] was back on drums. I had this new earpiece that we'd invented. It was fantastic. Honestly, I've never heard the band so tight. For three weeks, I think we had one day off because we wanted to be there in each other's company. We fucked up a few words, chords and just got them tight again and then our tour manager came up and said, 'Hey, listen, guys, we've got this thing. It's called the Chinese flu or some kind of shit. Just go home for six weeks and we'll meet again in London.' You know what happened there. Angus [Young] and Phil, New Zealand and Australia just wouldn't let them out for months and months afterwards."

Johnson added: "It does take a lot of time to get a band like AC/DC together again. Most of the crew were out working with other people. Trying to get those guys back together again was tough but I've got my fingers crossed — everything is going okay. The most important thing about it all is the eagerness we all feel. The juices are running again."

Last year, Johnson told Rolling Stone he didn't know if AC/DC would perform again. "I would love to," he said. "It's as simple as that. I think everybody would. There's a groundswell of people just asking. But I hate talking about the future, because, fuck, we were ready two years ago, and the pandemic came, and it screwed everything up. So I'm terrified to say what could happen and what couldn't."

AC/DC postponed the last 10 dates of its spring 2016 North American trek after Johnson was advised to stop playing live or "risk total hearing loss." The band went on to complete the European and North American legs of its "Rock Or Bust" tour with the GUNS N' ROSES frontman as a "guest vocalist." At the time, Johnson had been AC/DC's singer for 36 years, ever since replacing the late Bon Scott in 1980 and making his debut on the classic "Back In Black" album.

Johnson wrote in his recently released autobiography "The Lives Of Brian" that he has never seen any of the widely circulated videos of Rose's performances in the band.

"I'm told that he did a great job," Johnson said, "but I just couldn't watch — especially when you've been doing it for 35 years. It's like finding a stranger in your house, sitting in your favorite chair. But I bear no grudges. It was a tough situation. [AC/DC guitarist and co-founder] Angus [Young] and the lads did what they felt they had to do. That said, after the band released a statement confirming that I was leaving the tour and wishing me all the best for the future, I couldn't relax or concentrate on anything. It was just always there.

"Part of the pain of it was that I blamed myself," he admitted. "For most of my career, I'd been in the loudest band in the world. I'd flown constantly. I'd flown even when I knew I wasn't well.

"For a while, people would ask me if I was depressed, but depression is treatable. My hearing loss wasn't. What I was feeling wasn't depression. It was something closer to despair."

"Power Up" was released in November 2020. The LP was recorded over a six-week period in August and September 2018 at Warehouse Studios in Vancouver with producer Brendan O'Brien, who also worked 2008's "Black Ice" and 2014's "Rock Or Bust".

To enable him to perform live with AC/DC again, Johnson worked with audio expert Stephen Ambrose, who said he could help resolve the singer's hearing problems.

Ambrose, who invented the wireless in-ear monitors that are widely used by touring artists today, claimed to have invented a new type of ear-bud that would allow Johnson to perform without causing further damage to his eardrums. After three years of experimenting and "miniaturizing" the equipment, Johnson previously said the technology could allow him to tour again.

The "Fuelling Around" podcast is powered by Adrian Flux, one of the U.K.'s largest specialist motor insurance brokers, covering everything from classic and vintage cars to modified sports cars and much more. You can listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and AudioBoom, as well as several other podcast outlets.

PANTERA's major label debut, "Cowboys From Hell", which was released in July 1990, was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) on May 26 for sales in excess of two million copies in the United States,

"Cowboys From Hell" was PANTERA's breakthrough record, and it was originally certified platinum in July 1997. It has been praised by critics as one of the most influential albums on the metal scene in the 1990s. IGN named "Cowboys From Hell" the 19th most influential heavy metal album of all time.

PANTERA bassist Rex Brown spoke to the "Do You Know Jack?" radio show about the band's commercial success following the release of "Cowboys From Hell". "Everything was kind of changing at that point," he said. "All the hair bands and all that kind of stuff. Everybody was kind of stale. If you think about just songs in general, there were some pretty good songs that the look kind of took away from all that, 'cause you got lumped in with all that kind of crap. I'm not saying we did. But we just came around at a time that we saw a crack and we slipped through it, and we put a lot of hard work and a lot of touring [into it]."

He continued: "Those first two records ['Cowboys From Hell' and 1992's 'Vulgar Display Of Power'], we toured nonstop. We had 32 days off on the 'Cowboys From Hell' tour, and that was the total time period between 18 months on, and then directly back in the studio. We just came in at a time when people needed us. We would stay out in the parking lots until six in the morning signing autographs. I think that really made a big, huge difference between us and other bands that were just, you know, 'go on the bus and bye.' You know, you meet one guy, and he goes, 'Man, those guys were cool.' And he tells another friend, and it gets around like that."

Brown added: "We were the biggest underground band of the '90s. We didn't have a lot of MTV [support], we didn't have any radio play. Now you go to any sporting event and hear one of our songs at a football game, which is great, but they wouldn't touch it back then. So we just kind of [flew] by the seat of our pants and kind of D.I.Y., and just toured our butts off and worked really, really hard."

Guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and his brother, drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, formed PANTERA in the mid-eighties in Texas. The band recorded four independent albums before "Cowboys From Hell" introduced a heavier sound and made them a favorite with metal fans. 1994's "Far Beyond Driven" debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 without benefit of a commercial hit single. The group splintered in 2002 following the departure of volatile lead singer Philip Anselmo.

The reformed PANTERA played its first U.S. concert on May 6 at the Thunder Beach Motorcycle Rally in Panama City, Florida. The performance marked PANTERA's first live appearance in its home country in 22 years — since July 25, 2001, when the band played at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington as part of the "Extreme Steel" tour.

PANTERA's current lineup includes two surviving members from the band's classic formation, Anselmo and Brown, along with guitarist Zakk Wylde (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY) and Charlie Benante (ANTHRAX).

Anselmo and Brown, along with Wylde and Benante, are headlining a number of major festivals across South America, Asia, North America and Europe and staging some of their own headline concerts. They will also support METALLICA on a massive North American stadium tour in 2023 and 2024.

According to Billboard, the lineup has been given a green light by the estates of the Abbott brothers, as well as Brown, who in 2021 said Wylde wouldn't tour with PANTERA if a reunion were to happen. It's unclear what changed his mind.

According to CNN, Universal Music Group is in talks to acquire QUEEN's catalog from Disney Music Group.

The source added that the sale could surpass $1 billion and that the deal is "expected to close within one month."

According to Music Business Worldwide, Disney Music Group owns the band's recorded music catalog in North America. (DMG has a global distribution agreement with Universal Music Group.)

QUEEN members Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon, as well as the estate of the band's late singer Freddie Mercury — reportedly each own equal shares in the company Queen Productions Ltd, which owns the group's recording catalog outside the U.S. and Canada.

Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks and Neil Young are some of the iconic musicians who have recently sold off substantial rights to their music, whether it's just for publishing or the original recordings, known as masters. Investors, major music companies and private equity firms have poured billions of dollars into buying song catalogs, believing that the rise of streaming and growing music revenues will make song rights acquisitions highly lucrative in the long term as they can be exploited for up to 70 years after a musician's death.

If the QUEEN deal happens, it will mark the biggest artist catalog sale in history, eclipsing Springsteen's $500 million sale of his masters and publishing to Sony in 2021.

QUEEN remains one of the most popular groups in the world today, transcending multiple generations of fans, a position further buoyed by the phenomenal global success of their Academy Award-winning 2018 biographical film "Bohemian Rhapsody", which tells the incredible story of the band's historic career.

Last December, QUEEN's single "Bohemian Rhapsody" crossed the threshold of two billion streams on Spotify. The news came less than two years after the QUEEN classic was officially certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA),representing 10 million or more in sales and stream equivalents in the United States.

QUEEN was the first British band in music history to earn the diamond song award.

Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987 and battled the disease in private, telling only a select few close friends in the years which followed. He died in November 1991.

Released in November 2018, QUEEN's biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" has become the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time, bringing in more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office. It was also No. 1 biggest-selling film of 2019 on home release.

IRON MAIDEN's Nicko McBrain has shared a new nine-minute video breakdown of the drum kit he is using for the 2023 leg of the band's "The Future Past" world tour. The trek, which launched on May 28 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, is scheduled to hit North America in September and October.

In November 2019, Nicko announced that he would be playing the Manchester, U.K.-based drum brand British Drum Co. and carry the title "International Ambassador" with it.

British Drum Co. has been around since 2015, launched by drum builder Keith Keough four years after he sold his own company, KD Drums, to Premier. Premier is the company McBrain endorsed for much of the '90s and 2000s. Nicko now plays the British Drum Co. Legend Series.

Nicko has his own IRON MAIDEN artwork on all the drums in his kit. Each drum features MAIDEN's mascot Eddie and has its own story relating to the stage set and to the history of "The Future Past " tour.

Tapped to replace Clive Burr in 1982 after touring activities for "Number Of The Beast" concluded, McBrain brought a degree of finesse and technicality that was largely missing from IRON MAIDEN's early output. Whereas Burr was often lauded for his heavy-handed, punk-oriented style, McBrain was largely the opposite, playing with a degree of dexterity and flair that helped primary songwriter Steve Harris take MAIDEN down more adventurous paths. He is now the third longest-tenured member of MAIDEN, behind Harris and guitarist Dave Murray.

McBrain spent his early drumming years playing for the likes of Pat Travers and French rockers TRUST, eventually falling on to the radar of Harris and MAIDEN during the group's initial European tour.

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A post shared by Nicko McBrain's Drum One 🥁1️⃣🤘 (@nickosdrumone)

Riff juggernauts Clutch have been making rock 'n' roll look easy for more than three decades, crafting thirteen stone cold classic albums and along the way, occasionally treating fans to highly collectable, distinctive, limited editions.


Clutch's thirteenth studio album, Sunrise On Slaughter Beach, was released in September 2022 and is a slamming summary of everything that makes the band great.


Now, on Friday, June 2, Clutch will release their first ever, 7" box set. Naturally again a limited edition (just 3,000 are available globally), the box set contains all of Sunrise On Slaughter Beach on six, hand-pressed 7" black vinyl records with three bonus tracks - “Boogeyman Blues”, “Arts & Crafts”, and “Railroad Daisies” - all of which were recorded during the sessions for Sunrise On Slaughter Beach.




The special box also contains a 7" turntable mat, an 8-page booklet, and each 7" is packaged in its own album art-themed jacket.


Here's debonair frontman Neil Fallon, in his inaugural unboxing video, to reveal all about it...





Recorded at The Magpie Cage Recording Studio, Baltimore, MD, Sunrise On Slaughter Beach. was produced and mixed by Grammy nominated Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Royal Blood, Pixies) with additional engineering by J Robbins (Jawbreaker, Against Me!, The Sword).


The record introduces some “firsts” into the Clutch canon: vibraphone (from Gaster), theremin (J. Robbins), and female backup vocals from singers Deborah Bond and Frenchie Davis. The album’s nine songs are a diverse ride, destined to please long-time fans and intrigue newcomers alike. It’s a new chapter in an ever-unfolding story which means as much to the fans as it does to the band.


The band have released three official singles - "Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone)", "We Strive For Excellence" and "Slaughter Beach". Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is the natural culmination of what Clutch began as teenagers in the early ‘90s.





Tracklisting:


"Red Alert (Boss Metal Zone)"
"Slaughter Beach"
"Mountain Of Bone"
"Nosferatu Madre"
"Mercy Brown"
"We Strive For Excellence"
"Skeletons On Mars"
"Three Golden Horns"
"Jackhammer Our Names"
"Boogeyman Blues"
"Arts & Crafts"
"Railroad Daisies"


Clutch are soon to be spinning yarns, making heads bang, and toes tap, all across Europe for a number of festival performances, with their continuing US headline tour lined up for later this summer. UK fans, don't miss their set on the main stage at Download Festival on Saturday 10th June - your only chance to catch the band in the UK this year. To see all current live dates, click here.

Back in January, guitarist Barney Ribeiro revealed that the original members of Nervecell had parted ways, and that he was forging ahead with the band. Following is his statement on the split:


"As some of you may know or have noticed, things have been rather quiet in the Nervecell camp lately. Without going into much detail, let me begin by making it official that Rajeh (James) Khazaal and Rami Mustafa are no longer in Nervecell. After 20 years of being together and touring the world, we have been through all the possible highs and lows, success, stress, compromises and achievements that come with being in a full-time band. More than anything else though, together we experienced what having dreams come true felt like. And those are the memories that will never go away. I will always be grateful for the contributions both members made during their time in the band and wish them both the best in their future endeavors.


I’ve learnt that with time people change, their priorities change and inevitably their personalities also start to alter. I’ll be lying if I said I didn’t change in the way I approach being in a band today, as opposed to when I started the band in 2000. But for what it’s worth mentioning, I will go on record and say this only because I believe YOU the fans deserve the right to know. There really weren’t any musical or personal differences amongst us. But based on my conversations with both members individually, after asking all the tuff questions and initiating the way forward going into the New Year 2022, it became very evident that I was the only one fighting for this cause.




My priorities have always been of the highest order when it comes to Nervecell. I know the struggle involved, and I’ve never taken a second of it for granted. More importantly, I know why I’m still here doing it - purely for the love of it! I’m still that same kid with that same desire and fire that burns inside. So rest assured, I have every intention to continue on with Nervecell. I humbly ask for your patience, as I start to access the challenges that lay ahead, including finding the right replacements to fill in these shoes. Fortunately, I have a select few friends / musicians within my immediate network, who I’ve consulted with and who have been super supportive towards me as I take on this next chapter.


This is definitely not the last you will hear from me / Nervecell."


True to his word, Nervecell is back in action. In April, Ribeiro introduced the new band members and revealed they will hit Europe this summer for a festival run. 


Ribeiro has now checked in with the following message:


"Due to reasons beyond our control, Bachir will unfortunately no longer be able to join us on our upcoming European tour. Filling in for him to handle drum duties will be a familiar face to a lot of old-school Nervecell fans. Join us in welcoming our dear friend all the way from Perth, Australia - Louis Rando (Depravity/ Impiety / The Furor) back into the fold. For those that don’t know, Louis has been an integral part of Nervecell’s journey, especially during our earlier years (2008-2012) when we were just starting to break into the European market. We are excited and can’t wait to return to Europe with this lineup to perform for you all! Check out the tour dates below."

San Diego metalcore icons As I Lay Dying performed live at Wacken Open Air 2022 – below is pro-shot footage of three tracks – “Blinded”, “My Own Grave”, and “Nothing Left”.





As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis was featured in a new interview with Heavy New York, available below. He confirms that the band is in the studio recording a new album, discusses the future of As I Lay Dying, and talks about a new project dubbed Born Through Fire.




Lambesis on the new As I Lay Dying album with a new line-up:


"Nick Pierce (ex-Unearth) just finished tracking drums for the As I Lay Dying record a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, in modern times, that doesn't mean the record's coming out very soon, but it's in the works. We're working with Ryan Neff (bass). (Unearth guitarist) Ken Susi's doing some solos. Nick Pierce already tracked the drums. So to answer some of those questions about, 'Are those guys contributing in any way?', obviously they are. We just haven't really had a final product to deliver yet."





As I Lay Dying issued the following update via social media in May 2022:


"As we have been nearing our first tour back since the beginning of 2020, there have been several developments within AILD that we'd like to share with our fans. The past couple years off from the road with the uncertainty of how or when touring would pick up again has provided time to consider new endeavors in life apart from AILD.⁣


Josh Gilbert has decided to exit AILD to pursue other musical opportunities. Josh has been a strong contributor musically for AILD since joining in 2007 so we are grateful for all his contributions and his friendship over the years. We wish him all the best and are excited to see where this new path takes him in life.⁣


We are thankful to have Ryan Neff, of Miss May I taking on bass and vocal duties for our upcoming tours. We first met Ryan down in Mexico City, playing together back in 2012, so we're stoked to be sharing the stage with a familiar face and talented musician.⁣


Joining us on second guitar for these two tours will be our good friend Ken Susi of Unearth.  We have known Ken for almost 20 years, coming up in the scene and playing many tours together. Ken's style of guitar playing is closely related to AILD so we are excited to have a close friend and ripper of a guitar player joining us.⁣


We are grateful for our fans' continued support as we enter a new chapter of the band with newfound energy and enthusiasm. There's been a lot of moving parts but what has and will always be the main priority of AILD is creating new music. We plan to have a new song out to you shortly before completing our full length by the end of the year.⁣


⁣We look forward to seeing many familiar faces on our upcoming tours and thank you for believing in us at every step of this band's journey."


Bassist Josh Gilbert issued the following statement: "Hello, friends. After 15 years (almost half my life), I’ve decided to part ways with As I Lay Dying. Despite the ups and downs inherent, I’ll always be grateful for the profound privilege of being to able to grow up traveling the world playing music with the band. None of that would be possible without the fans of the band, so for that I sincerely thank you all so much for allowing me the opportunity. I wish the best for AILD moving forward, and I hope to see all of you sooner rather than later."


Guitarist Phil Sgrosso comments, "After two years of anxiously awaiting the safe return of live events it's finally our time to get back out on the road to celebrate Two Decades of Destruction with Whitechapel, Shadow Of Intent, Brand Of Sacrifice and Ov Sulfur. We've had enough time to fully recharge and can't wait to feel that energy of performing onstage again. We've certainly missed our fans so we look forward to reconnecting with everyone as we celebrate our 20-year milestone and get back on the road. See you soon!"

California's Split Image is announcing their latest single "Demon Hunter", which can be seen and heard via its lyric video below.





The band comments:




"We have been busy rehearsing and recording new songs in preparation for our return since our tour last year. We would like to introduce ‘Demon Hunter,’ an electrifying new single that will leave you on the edge of your seat. This intense, heavy-hitting song is a mix of crossover thrash and hardcore, making it a perfect fit for fans of both genres. The lyrics explore the theme of battling inner demons, and the raw energy of the music drives home the song's powerful message. If you're looking for a hard-hitting, cathartic musical experience, "Demon Hunter" is not to be missed. Get ready to unleash your inner warrior and join the fight against your innermost struggles with this thrilling new release."


The band's new single "Demon Hunter" follows their previous single "Prey On My Downfall" and their debut album Torrent of Illusion released in June 2022. Split Image is a gritty and powerful crossover experience that packs a punch with its fusion of old-school hardcore meets thrash assault. Belted out with passion, Split Image’s lyrics stem from the various experiences they’ve endured like the loss of a loved one, grief, and perspectives they’ve had or envisioned as well as spirituality.





With a dash of many genres, Split Image will be of interest to those who like thrash, punk, crust, and hardcore. Fans of Power Trip, Enforced, and Dead Heat should take note. 


Stream Split Image’s singles/albums on Bandcamp.

After debuting with the song “Panacea”, the Australian symphonic metal outfit Esperance shares with old and new fans the single “Heart”.


The song was written by the guitarist Nathaniel: “I wrote this song ‘Heart’ after driving home from a show one night. I ended up leaving the venue really late, which meant as I was driving and getting closer to home the sun was rising through the fields and I used that imagery for the lyrics mixed in with descriptions of the town where I grew up, Gawler in South Australia.”







Esperance is an Australian symphonic/power metal band created by the highly regarded duo of guitarist Nathaniel Lydeamore and vocalist Melissa Jubb. Together they blend and deliver a melodic yet impactful sound that has been likened to and influenced by bands such as Nightwish, Epica, and Sonata Arctica.


“Heart” was written and recorded by Esperance at Against The Grain Studios. The song was produced, mixed and mastered by Mick Taylor. The video and artwork were created by Jan Yrland at Darkgrove Designs.

In the video below from AXS TV, rock legends Sammy Hagar and Rick Springfield hit the studio to play the song they both made famous, “I’ve Done Everything For You”. Then, the two chat about Rick's role as Dr. Noah Drake on America's longest-running soap opera, General Hospital, and how he balanced life as a musician and an actor.





Watch the full episode of Rock & Roll Road Trip here.




Sammy Hagar celebrated the grand opening of his flagship Cabo Wabo Beach Club, an elevated take on his world-famous Cabo Wabo Cantina, at The Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, CA. During the exclusive event on Wednesday, May 24, Hagar and Waterfront owner, Bob Mayer, presented a $10,000 donation check to the CHOC Foundation, which will go directly to aid children and their families who struggle with the financial burdens that accompany a child’s hospitalization.


Huntington Beach Mayor Tony Strickland welcomed the addition of Hagar’s world famous Cabo Wabo brand to Huntington Beach and honored the legendary rock star with a city proclamation.


Hagar has shared brief interview and live clips from the event below.

In a new interview with Czech Republic's Backstage TV, Eicca Toppinen of Finnish cello rockers APOCALYPTICA was asked if fans can expect to hear new music from him and his bandmates in the near future. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "There's always new music. Years ago, when we preparing for the 'Cell-0' album, we kind of realized that, 'Okay, this modern streaming world gives us the possibility to do different things at the same time.' That's why we made 'Cell-0' a fully instrumental album because we knew, okay, we like to do vocal collaborations as well, but we don't need to squeeze everything in the same package. That's why we've been releasing constantly just individual songs. Since 'Cell-0', we released 'White Room' with Jacoby Shaddix [of PAPA ROACH], we released 'Talk To Me' [with Lzzy Hale of HALESTORM], we did a classical EP of [Maurice] Ravel's 'Bolero' stuff. And now the latest release is 'Rise Again' with Simone Simons [EPICA]. And we are working on another vocal song now with a European female singer. Hopefully it will come out in the summer. And then we also start to record a new album in May. It will be out sometime late next year. Because we are constantly on tour, so we are doing the album in between the tours in a couple of different periods. I can't reveal the concept yet, but it's gonna be a concept album. And it's gonna be interesting. It's been exciting to kind of prepare the material for it. But we are constantly [putting out new music]; let's say there's four releases every year."

Regarding the songwriting process in APOCALYPTICA, Eicca said: "I've written most of the original music, and Perttu [Kivilaakso] has done a lot, and Mikko [Sirén, drums] has done a few great songs as well. So it differs a little bit. I've done a lot of co-writing, especially when we're working on songs with vocals. I've been teaming up with some really good songwriters, like the top writers and stuff, to get the best result out of the music written.

"Usually when we do original music, pretty much whoever writes the music is doing it pretty far," he explained. "Of course we do the final arrangement together, but it's a pretty independent process. But now, for example, we've been working on some arrangements and that kind of stuff, and that's something that we operate usually more as a band together. So it varies. There's no general rule, how to do things. And that's actually a thing that we want to break the rules all the time, because the essence of APOCALYPTICA and the main reason why we still exist is that we are searching all the time something new — new ways to do music; not to stay in our comfort zone; not to do only what we know already… And that's why there's no formula for, basically, anything. So that kind of keeps the creativity alive and keeps making new music exciting for us."

This past March, Eicca told Matías Arteaga of Chile's Rock Legacy webzine that APOCALYPTICA's recent singles, including "Rise Again", "are all totally separate" from the band's upcoming album. "Because we realized that this modern release culture, with digital platforms, allows us, actually, to do different types of APOCALYPTICA at the same time in different formats," he explained. "So we have an album that's instrumental; then we do those singles that are vocal collaborations; and then we also release this classical EP. So we actually can do a lot of things at the same time.

"At the moment, there's no plans… Those singles are not part of the album," he reiterated. "We are just starting to work on material for the next album, which is gonna be something totally different again. And still we are going to release singles on the way before we get the album ready. So we kind of want to have continuously coming out some songs."

Accompanied by an artistic and unique music video directed by Lisa Mann, "Rise Again" was a new version of APOCALYPTICA's instrumental track "Rise", taken from the band's most recent album "Cell-0".

"Metal Classic, Classic Metal" was released last September. The effort included the focus track "Flight Of The Bumblebees", originally by Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow. "Metal Classic, Classic Metal" also contained a new version of Beethoven's "5th Symphony" as well as a remake of Maurice Ravel's "Bolero".

In March 2022, APOCALYPTICA released the "I'll Get Through It" single, which was written for the band by American award-winning songwriter Diane Warren. It featured Franky Perez — guest vocalist in APOCALYPTICA's 2015 record "Shadowmaker" — as well as Geezer Butler of BLACK SABBATH on bass guitar. The song was born out of a visit Geezer and Franky paid to their friend Diane, who had already written the track "Not Strong Enough" for APOCALYPTICA, included in their 2010 record "7th Symphony".

2015's "Shadowmaker" was APOCALYPTICA's first album to feature just one singer — Perez — instead of guest collaborators. The disc was recorded with Grammy Award-winning producer Nick Raskulinecz (FOO FIGHTERS, DEFTONES, MASTODON).

Prior to enlisting Perez, who accompanied APOCALYPTICA on the band's 2022 North American tour, the group released eight albums that melded the classically trained cello mastery of the three core bandmembers with the harder elements of the rock world, including drums and guest vocalists, such as Gavin Rossdale from BUSH, and Corey Taylor of SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR fame.

In April 2021, APOCALYPTICA released the official music video for its collaboration with PAPA ROACH singer Jacoby Shaddix on a cover version of the CREAM classic "White Room". The track was produced by Howard Benson at West Valley Recording Studios in Woodland Hills, California and mixed by Chris Lorde-Alge.

"White Room" was the first release from APOCALYPTICA since "Talk To Me", which arrived in August 2020. That song was a collaboration with HALESTORM frontwoman Lzzy Hale.

"Cell-0" came out in January 2020. The effort was the band's first fully instrumental record in 17 years.

Gravelle-Perinbam, a highly successful Canadian recording artist whose music embraces metal, rock, and progressive have released their video for their recent masterpiece “Beyond the Cage of Silence”.





The lyrics of the song are for those of us who have been put down, told to speak only when spoken to, told that our opinions are useless and our voices are not worthy of being heard. It's about breaking free of such restrictive thought patterns and overcoming the barriers!




The song features Gravelle on all guitars and keys, Perinbam on all vocals and drums, and bass guitar. The song was written, arranged, and produced by Gravelle and Perinbam.


In a recent interview with Hard Rock Italy magazine, John explained how the duo wound up recording outside of Ivory Knight:


"The COVID-19 situation here in Ottawa made it impossible to rehearse with a full band for over a year. During that time, in order to keep active as musicians, working in isolation in our individual home studios became a necessity. So that’s what we did - I released my rock ballad Picture on The Wall in late 2020, then Rob kept me busy with the covers of Suspended Animation, Private Life, and most recently Mouse in a Maze.”


“Beyond The Cage Of Silence” is available from all major streaming and MP3 downloading platforms, including Amazon Music and Apple Music.


Stream the song here.

Richie Faulkner has confirmed to Planet Rock that JUDAS PRIEST has finished recording the follow-up to 2018's "Firepower" album.

After previously stating that Rob Halford had yet to complete the vocals for PRIEST's new LP, the guitarist has now told "My Planet Rocks" host Ian Danter that the singer has now laid down his parts and the album is set to move on to the mixing and mastering stage.

"I think, if I'm not mistaken, I think we've finished tracking," Faulkner said. "We've got to mix it, we've got to master it and then we've got to manufacture the thing. It's actually got to physically be made. I think everything's been recorded. The vocals were the last thing we needed to do and I think Rob's done them."

Faulkner added: "It's sounding fantastic. It's sounding great. Obviously, I'm gonna say that, but if it didn't sound great, we wouldn't be bothering. You've gotta do something that we think is better than the last one ['Firepower'] so to speak. And if it wasn't, PRIEST don't need to do that."

Earlier this month, Richie told Radioactive MikeZ, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM program "Wired In The Empire", that the songwriting process within the band doesn't necessarily get easier with each successive album release. "Easier in some sense — you know kind of what to expect. But on the other side of things, it becomes harder," he explained. "You've gotta match what you did before. You've gotta make another record that's better songs, better production. So it raises the bar. Especially the last record seemed to connect with a lot of people around the world; it was well received by a lot of people. So how can we make a record that's better than that one? That's the goal going in. So it's harder in some senses as well."

In March, Faulkner told Canada's The Metal Voice about the musical direction of the new PRIEST material: "I've said this before, and the Internet — the sharks got hold of it… I would definitely say, and Rob said it as well, I said the word 'progressive', and the Internet tore me apart. But they haven't heard it. When I said 'progressive', I'd say it's a little bit… instead of, let's say, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo, chorus, finish, it might do verse, musical part, musical section, bridge, chorus, musical section, back into the verse. It doesn't stay on the path; sometimes it goes off and plays it a little… Like the old '70s PRIEST used to, like the 'Sinner' and stuff like that; it used to go on a bit more of a musical journey. Which I think is great — it's interesting.

"So that's what I can say. I've said it before: it's a little bit more progressive; it's a little bit more musically, not experimental, but it's got a few more riffs in there," he explained. "[There's more] intricacies, there's more solos, there's more riffs, which, I don't think that's a bad thing, as a guitar player."

In February, Halford spoke to the SiriusXM's Ozzy's Boneyard host Mark Strigl about PRIEST's musical evolution on the band's upcoming album. He said: "That's what we love about PRIEST, isn't it? I've always said we're the band that can kind of rip the skin off your face with 'Painkiller', and then the next second we can be your 'turbo lover', or we can go and 'break the law' or we can become 'the sentinel'.

"We've always had so much fun and adventure with not only the albums, but the songs within the albums," he continued. "It's part of who we are. And making these little microcosms of our personalities within the songs especially, all those names that I've referenced just, they've each got like a little mini-movie going on in your head when you think of the lyrics and the message, and then it's all supported by incredible music working together.

"That 'Firepower' record was a real pure effort on our part to do a little bit of reflection and reinforce a lot of the things that we've loved about PRIEST from day one," Halford explained. "That's not to say we went, 'Okay, let's get a bit of a vibe from 'Rocka Rolla' here.' And then, 'How about some 'Sad Wings Of Destiny'?' And 'Don't forget 'Point Of Entry'.' It was none of that. It was just really this overall umbrella of things that we've achieved in metal, and just using that in the back of our minds as we went through from song to song to song. And I wanna say it made it a little bit easier. And what I mean by that is when you have a focus and a direction and a template on which to work from, then you can keep going back to that and going, 'Okay, this is where we're focusing the ideas and the creativity,' and so on and so forth. So that's how 'Firepower' came together like it did. That album, to me, as a PRIEST fan, is as important as, say, 'Painkiller' was in reaffirming this band, and also what 'British Steel' was in reaffirming this band. And what I mean by reaffirmation is that it's like a football team or a basketball team. That team has been there forever, but you're bringing these ideas, you're bringing these moves, and then you go, 'Yeah, these are the things that make that band great.' 'These are the things that make this team great.' And because I overthink everything, that was my thought philosophy behind 'Firepower'. So you've got that in the back of your mind when you're trying to write this current album. And it can be a mind game."

Rob added: "You always wanna do better when you're in a band. Every band goes, 'This is the greatest record we've ever made,' as you should say, because that should be your logic behind whatever you're doing at that given moment in time, giving it a thousand percent so you stand by that statement: 'This is the best thing we've ever done, as of right now.'

"So what's what we're trying to do with this next one. And the substance of it is great, man. I mean, again, you've got all the things that you need from this band. And it's so difficult to talk about music, isn't it? All I can say is — you can tell by the way I'm expressing myself — there's a tremendous amount of belief and love and thought and power and riffs and crazy drums and screams. Man, it's just roaring again. But it's also got those familiar elements of some of the previous material. That's not to say that we're doing 'Firepower' Mark 2 — we're not. But we're in the home stretch. It feels wonderful. I listen to it every day. I've still got a lot of work to do myself, but the foundations of all the instrumentation are so thrilling to listen to. And it feels good.

"We wrote so many songs, like we always do — we overwrite, overwrite, overwrite — and then we curate the best things that we need to work with. So we have an album-plus worth of material, and it's roaring; it's roaring, man. It's on fire."

Halford previously about what fans can expect to hear on the band's upcoming LP in January in an interview with Metal Express Radio. At the time he said: "When you're in a band, you're always trying to better yourself; you're always trying to say, 'This is the best album we've ever made.' It's just a natural thing to do. And I'm aware of the great success and love that was given to 'Firepower'. And so how do you deal with that? Well, firstly, you have to let that go. You have to let that go, because it's like you're chasing after something that's elusive. What's the point of trying to emulate something that you've already done? We've just gotta do like we've always done with PRIEST, the way that every album has its own concept, every album has its own thing. 'British Steel' isn't 'Painkiller'; 'Painkiller' isn't 'Point Of Entry'; 'Point Of Entry' isn't 'Nostradamus'. So this album is shaping up to be its own thing."

He added: "It's great. It's a really good album, and I know our fans are gonna love it."

Last November, Faulkner told Robert Cavuoto of Metal Rules about the musical direction of PRIEST's upcoming LP: "You know what? The Internet seems to know everything these days about what the new album's going to sound like based on a couple of words that [we've] put out there [in previous interviews]. I think we've used the word 'progressive', and everyone thinks it's gonna become 'Nostradamus' [PRIEST's controversial 2008 symphonic heavy metal concept double album about Nostradamus], or RUSH, which is two different things. I've definitely used the word 'progressive' [to describe the new PRIEST material in previous interviews], purely because it's got a few musical turnarounds that 'Firepower' doesn't have. But that doesn't make it a RUSH record. It just makes it — instead of, like, a verse into a bridge into a chorus, there might be a couple of more musical passages in there to make it a bit more… interesting; might be the wrong word. I don't know. You've gotta be careful with the words you use these days. So it's not 'Firepower 2', but it's the same band a few years later, so there's obvious connections to the last record. But it's not 'Firepower 2' by any means."

Richie continued: "No PRIEST records have sounded the same, but it's got a common DNA. And you always try and make the next one sound a bit better — or whatever 'better' may be; 'better' is subjective. So, is it better written? Are the lyrics better? Does it sound better? And 'better' is always subjective. So it's hard to pinpoint, really. But it's a bit more of a musical adventure than the last one, I'd say. But then again someone might listen to it, when it does come out, and have a totally different interpretation of what it is. So it's always tough to sum up your own music without sounding up your own butt."

In October, Halford told AXS TV's Katie Daryl about what PRIEST fans can expect from the upcoming LP: "The same energy, the same vitality, the same determination, and it really is, again, another affirmation of what you love about JUDAS PRIEST. If you listen to any album from PRIEST from 'Rocka Rolla' in the '70s up to the 2000s with 'Firepower' and everything that went on between there, whether it was 'Turbo Lover' or whether it was the 'Painkiller' or '[You've Got] Another Thing Comin'', all of these pinpoints connect the dots of this great 50 years of metal, this journey that we're on. And it ain't over yet, folks, because that means another album and another tour. And we can't wait to keep pouring out the metal, 'cause that turbo power isn't gonna get turned off anytime soon."

In February 2022, Halford was asked by Remy Maxwell of Audacy Check In if he agreed with Faulkner's comment that the band's upcoming album will be more musically "progressive" than "Firepower". He responded: "Yeah, the metal is there. But here's the thing: we've tried our best not to replicate anything that we've done. From 'Rocka Rolla' all the way through to 'Firepower', each record has had a distinctive character. And it's tough because fans go, 'We want another 'Painkiller',' 'We want another 'British Steel'.' And [it's, like], 'Dude, we've already done that.'

"Fans know that we're a band that is always full of adventure and trying new stuff," he continued. "And so, yeah, this has got probably some more progressive elements that we've never really delved into before. And that's exciting, because, again, it gives us and our fans another opportunity to see a different side of PRIEST. But it's still metal. There's just more of it. There are more notes than there were before."

Also in February 2022, Faulkner told Canada's The Metal Voice about the overall sound of the new PRIEST music: "Whenever you start a record, you never know how it's gonna turn out. So you might start with an idea of what it's gonna be, and as it kind of rolls on, it comes out something different. So you don't quite know. And also it's really hard to sum up your own music, I find, without sounding really pretentious. But I think this one — it's not 'Firepower 2', I don't think. It's its own thing, it's its own animal. If anything, I would say it's a bit more progressive in places, and in places it's got a bit more of that 'Killing Machine' swagger."

Faulkner added: "I know everyone says, 'Oh, is it the next 'Painkiller'?' or 'Is it the next…?' whatever… I don't know if they'd ever done it, but I know we've never done it when I've been in the band; we've never tried to recreate an album. It's always we try to create an album that stands on its own legs. So I think it's definitely a little bit more progressive than 'Firepower' and, as I said, in places it's got a little bit of that 'Killing Machine' angry swagger attitude going on."

Two years ago, Halford confirmed that PRIEST's next album would see the band reuniting with the "Firepower" production team consisting of Sneap, longtime collaborator Tom Allom and engineer Mike Exeter (BLACK SABBATH).

Bassist Ian Hill is the sole remaining original member of PRIEST, which formed in 1969. Halford joined the group in 1973 and Glenn Tipton signed on in 1974. Rob left PRIEST in the early 1990s to form his own band, then came back to PRIEST in 2003. K.K. Downing parted ways with the band in 2011, and was replaced by Faulkner.

Def Leppard’s new album Drastic Symphonies has debuted at #4 on the U.K. Album chart. The position marks Leppard’s ninth album on the U.K. chart.


Joe Elliott says, “Wow. For us to get to No 4 in the U.K. charts with Drastic Symphonies is just very, very special. Especially as this album has us doing something very different in reimagining some of our biggest hits along with hidden gems with the amazing Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Add in two really special shows in our hometown of Sheffield – headlining The Leadmill for Music Venue Trust and then a sold out Bramall Lane to kick off the European leg of The World Tour with Motley Crüe. It’s been an extraordinary week. Thanks to all our British fans and to all those who travelled in from around the world. We are grateful and truly humbled.”


Come along as Def Leppard take to London for the release week of the new album, Drastic Symphonies. This vlog features a behind-the-scenes look at the BBC Radio 2 Piano Room, 'Definitely' book signing and Q&A, rehearsals, and more.







To celebrate the release of the new album, Def Leppard hit up HMV Meadowhall in Sheffield, UK for an exclusive signing of Drastic Symphonies. Watch the video below.





Drastic Symphonies represents a bold new approach to Def Leppard’s most loved songs. The band have deconstructed and rebuilt not only some of their most well-known tracks, but also some of their hidden gems as well. By and large, they have intertwined the audio from the original tapes and performed them alongside The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, consistently ranked as one of the world's leading orchestras. The album additionally includes new vocals and guitars that culminate in stunningly beautiful symphonic arrangements, which at different points you can hear Joe Elliott duetting with his younger self.


Vocalist Joe Elliott says, “Def Leppard has always enjoyed veering off the expected path - working with the likes of Tim McGraw, Taylor Swift & Alison Krauss for example. So, when the offer to revisit some of our back catalogue with the Royal Philharmonic was presented to us, we all jumped at it. Although we’re far from the first band to ever do this, working directly with an orchestra at Abbey Road on some of our more orchestrated songs seemed too good of an opportunity to pass up.”


The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was recorded at Abbey Road in March 2022 and is produced by Def Leppard, Ronan McHugh & Nick Patrick (producer of the following RPO/Orchestral albums - xElvis, Roy Orbison, Beach Boys and Buddy Holly), with arrangements by Eric Gorfain (Neil Diamond, Ryan Adams, Christina Aguilera).


Guitarist Phil Collen says, “When the offer of doing an orchestral album with the RPO was suggested, we were honoured. But we didn’t just want an orchestra plonked over our previous recordings. We decided to create something special where we would have something classic but present it in a brand new way that would involve making everything work in the context of Drastic Symphonies. Recording new parts, remixing previous sounds, taking some of our instruments out so the orchestra could breathe, and literally making a new album. It was an amazingly inspirational process culminating in the live recording of the RPO at Abbey Road studios in London. An absolute team effort that took a good part of a year. It’s a new Def Leppard album, it’s a greatest hits plus album with some songs rarely heard before, it’s a live RPO album and we think it’s perfect. We’re so proud of how Drastic Symphonies turned out and can’t wait to share it to the world.”





The album is available on CD, 2LP black vinyl, limited 2LP colored vinyl, limited 2LP picture disc, CD/Blu-Ray (Atmos) and digitally. Building upon elements from the album artwork, a collection of exclusive merch is now available in the band's official store, here.


- Album Order
- Hero Link (Order & Save)





Tracklisting:


"Turn To Dust"
"Paper Sun"
"Animal"
"Pour Some Sugar On Me" (Stripped version)
"Hysteria"
"Love Bites"
"Goodbye For Good This Time"
"Love"
"Gods Of War"
"Angels (Can’t Help You Now)"
"Bringin’ On The Heartbreak"
"Switch 625"
"Too Late for Love"
"When Love & Hate Collide"
"Kings Of the World"
"Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" (Vinyl and Atmos bonus track)


"Hysteria" visualizer:





"Animal" Director’s Cut video:





Trailers: