Earlier this month, Swedish death metal veterans UNLEASHED entered the studio to begin recording their fifteenth album for a tentative summer 2025 release.

In a recent interview with Chile's iRockCL, UNLEASHED frontman Johnny Hedlund stated about the upcoming LP: "Well, I can't give you any songtitles or stuff like that because I haven't… We need to speak to the record company first about when that should be done. But I can, of course, tell you that it's gonna be in the same style as the previous album, as [2021's] 'No Sign of Life'. It's gonna be in the same style.

"There are no big surprises when it comes to UNLEASHED, really," he added. "We do the same music and the same type of lyrics, and that's how it is. We don't change that much."

Hedlund also talked about UNLEASHED's longevity and how he has managed to keep the band's current lineup intact for three decades. He said: "Yeah, I think that we… well, we started up very early, like in the end of the '80s. First of all, I think we were just really good friends. And there are also two things that I think was very important. We spoke very long and hard about what UNLEASHED should be, and also what the band should not be, because, along the road for so many years, you will have a lot of questions, a lot of opportunities, let's say, and we spoke real hard about what the band really should be, and not change too much. So, everybody that was going to be in UNLEASHED needed to really understand that this is a death metal band, and these are the type of lyrics that we write and we're not gonna change. Because if you change that, and all of a sudden you start making other styles of music, then it's not UNLEASHED anymore. So, this is the first thing we spoke about, and that works today as well. Also, we spoke a lot about that everybody that's in UNLEASHED has to help out. Because if you're four guys in the band and there's just one guy doing all the work, it's not gonna last long. So I think these are the two key things, really — and, of course, three things, because apart from being good friends, but I think that's essential."

In addition to Hedlund, UNLEASHED's current lineup includes drummer Anders Schultz and guitarists Tomas Måsgard and Fredrik Folkare.

In November 2021, Johnny told Time For Metal about how UNLEASHED has managed to keep a steady lineup for all these years: "Well, we have since long been very good friends. We all help out in the band with all things in UNLEASHED. And we have also that long agreed on what to do and what not to do with the band. We also know pretty well what we want to play and what we do not want to play. So I think these are things that really play a key role in keeping the band in a strong and solid shape for a long time."

Hedlund elaborated on UNLEASHED's longevity in a 2021 interview with Metal1.info. He said: "There are a few things that I think need to be in place. First of all, you have to be very good friends in the band. Second, you all need to help out with things so that it doesn't become a one-man show. And, you need to agree on what to do and also, what not to do. Especially when it comes to what to play, and what not to play. It also helps out a lot if someone in the band is good with finance. I took my degree in finance in that time frame between 1999 to 2001. A really good time for a break."

In a recent interview with Chris Akin Presents, KROKUS frontman Marc Storace was asked if some of the material on the two solo albums he has released so far — 2021's "Live And Let Live" and 2024's "Crossfire" — would have been made available under the KROKUS banner if the legendary Swiss rock band was actively making new music. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, it's very difficult to say, because if KROKUS were to write a new album, which we haven't done since a long while, unfortunately, it would have been me working with Fernando [Von Arb, guitar] — mostly he comes up with the riffs and arrangements — and Chris [Von Rohr, bass] is also there with ideas for lyrics and also arrangements and stuff. And then I throw in my piece and I come up with the vocal melodies and take it there to as many levels as I can. But still, yeah, it's something that didn't happen and I don't see it happening."

He continued: "There's never any words lost about a new album with KROKUS. But I'm glad KROKUS is back, since [2023]. [In 2024] we played a lot of festivals and enjoyed doing it. There's a new, refreshing, fun aspect within the band. Even the crew we have, we've had them since years. It's like one big family, and it's really something admirable, also considering how long we've been doing this, the age of the band, myself being the eldest, [at the age of] 73. But I think age is just a number, when you have the passion and the physical ability to follow it up. So it's a matter of taking care of yourself and not overindulging — in the music as well as other things."

Storace went on to say that he is not thrilled about the fact that KROKUS hasn't made an album of all-new material in more than a decade.  "I'm not too happy that KROKUS doesn't wanna do a new album, sit together and write new songs," he said. "For me, this creative thing is very important for my soul. My heart and soul goes into the songs that we write, and then it goes into the songs when we perform them. So it's the birth of what we create, and that's kind of stopped. We're feeding off old material, which is great — I love singing KROKUS songs, and [I'm a] sentimental guy anyway and nostalgic, and all that stuff, and, as I said, we've become more like a team again. So, never say never, but at the same time, that's the situation, how it is. So I enjoy doing the gigs with KROKUS, but I enjoy the creative and the fight for [my solo project] STORACE. It's a big fight. We don't hold out the platter, and nothing comes in raining from heaven. [Laughs]"

KROKUS's latest studio album, "Big Rocks", came out in January 2017. The disc saw KROKUS paying tribute to bands and artists like LED ZEPPELIN, QUEEN, THE WHO, STEPPENWOLF, Bob Dylan, THE ROLLING STONES and many more by presenting their very own versions of classic tracks such as "My Generation", "Tie Your Mother Down", "Whole Lotta Love", "Quinn The Eskimo", "Born To Be Wild" and others.

KROKUS's last collection of new music, "Dirty Dynamite", was made available in February 2013 in Europe via Sony Music and in North America in March 2013 via The End Records.

Five years ago, KROKUS postponed what was supposed to be the band's last-ever concerts in USA and Canada due to the coronavirus pandemic that was sweeping the globe.

Formed in 1975, KROKUS has sold over 15 million records, toured the world, and received gold and platinum discs in the USA and Canada. KROKUS was also the first Swiss band to sell out Hallenstadion and has received a diamond disc for selling one million albums in Switzerland alone.

In the course of its career, KROKUS has rocked over 2,000 shows on five continents, countless cities, unique locations, crazy gigs, and loyal fans.

English rock journalist Malcolm Dome quite rightly said: "If you look at the long-term output of this band, KROKUS is clearly one of the best hard rock bands of the last 40 years."

During an appearance on a recent episode of "The Jasta Show", the podcast hosted by HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta, former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach spoke about the criticism he sometimes gets from people on the Internet for not reproducing his vocals from his albums in a live setting. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The Internet is so hilarious. You can relate to this. When you're doing show after show, night after night, some nights better than others. That's just the way it is. Unless you wanna use tapes — that's your only option to do everything perfect. We're human beings. So if you don't sing exactly like the record, you might read a comment like, 'Oh, he doesn't sound like the record.' And I'm, like, there's a difference between not being able to sound like the record and not giving a shit. I hate to break it to you, but if you're at some dumpy club on a Tuesday night in the middle of nowhere, and you're just not feeling it, you might not give your ultimate performance of your fucking life that night. Maybe you will, but maybe you fucking won't, because you're not inspired. Human beings are emotional people, and sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't."

Referencing JOURNEY frontman Arnel Pineda, who was panned for his performance with the band at the 2024 edition of Rock In Rio festival in in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, Sebastian added: "Did you watch [Arnel's 2012] movie, 'Don't Stop Believin'', which details his rise? Well, there's a hilarious part in there where he does his first show with JOURNEY and he's running around like a madman and he's going crazy, jumping, and he comes on stage and they're all looking at him. They were, like, 'Dude, what the fuck was that?' That's the story of my life. And I'll tell you why. There's a saying, when you're making a record, you're playing for your audience. When you're doing a show, your audience is playing you. That is the most spot-on…

"I was thinking about this last night," he continued. "My job is to be as excited as I can be at the same time as being as calm as I can. How the fuck is that [possible]? Because if I'm too excited, I suck. I have to remember what I'm doing, because when I look at Arnel, he's just caught up in the crowd. He's in front of a hundred thousand people and he's in the pit, and he's, like, 'Look at this shit.' He's not making a record. He's jumping in the pit with the security guards.

"When you're making a record, you're standing in an air-conditioned room, and you can try it as many times as you feel like it and get it perfect," Bach explained. "That is not what a rock concert is. A rock concert is like going to battle. Well, to me — I don't know why it's like that, but I feel like it's a fight, it's like a fucking boxing match."

Sebastian Bach's latest album, "Child Within The Man", came out last May via Reigning Phoenix Music. The LP was recorded in Orlando, Florida; produced and mixed by Michael "Elvis" Baskette; engineered by Jef Moll, assistant engineered by Josh Saldate; and mastered by Robert Ludwig of Gateway Mastering. Bach wrote or co-wrote all the album's 11 tracks and sang all lead and backing vocals. "Child Within The Man" features guest appearances from John 5, Steve Stevens and Orianthi — who all co-wrote their respective tracks with Bach — and two tracks co-written with Myles Kennedy ("What Do I Got to Lose?" and "To Live Again"); Devin Bronson on guitars, Todd Kerns (bass) and Jeremy Coulson (drums) round out the players on the album.

"Child Within The Man" has yielded five singles/videos, all of which have impacted the rock charts: "Freedom", "What Do I Got To Lose?", "Everybody Bleeds", "(Hold On) To The Dream" and "Future Of Youth".

JOEY BELLADONNA CLASSIC ROCK!, the new band featuring Joey Belladonna, six-time Grammy-nominated lead vocalist of the legendary thrash metal icons ANTHRAX, and members of the Dutch classic rock act THE CLARKS, played four shows in The Netherlands in December;

Dec. 19 - De Nobel - Leiden, Netherlands
Dec. 20 - Patronaat - Haarlem, Netherlands
Dec. 21 - De Pul - Uden, Netherlands
Dec. 22 - Neushoorn - Leeuwarden, Netherlands

Fan-filmed video of the Haarlem concert can be seen below.

The setlist was as follows:

* Doctor, Doctor (UFO)
* Can't Get Enough (BAD COMPANY)
* Here I Go Again (WHITESNAKE)
* Tie Your Mother Down (QUEEN)
* Man On The Silver Mountain (RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW)
* Still Loving You (SCORPIONS)
* Summer Of '69 (BRYAN ADAMS)
* Smoke On The Water (DEEP PURPLE)
* Eye Of The Tiger (SURVIVOR)
* What Is And What Should Never Be (LED ZEPPELIN)
* Honky Tonk Woman (THE ROLLING STONES)
* All Right Now (FREE)
* Catch The Rainbow (RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S RAINBOW)
* Highway To Hell (AC/DC)
* Radar Love (GOLDEN EARRING)
* Rock And Roll (LED ZEPPELIN)
* Jumpin' Jack Flash (THE ROLLING STONES)
* Twilight Zone (GOLDEN EARRING)
* Won't Get Fooled Again (THE WHO)
* Born To Be Wild (STEPPENWOLF)

Joey Belladonna, six-time Grammy-nominated lead vocalist of the legendary thrash metal icons ANTHRAX, doesn't sit still when not recording or performing with his main band.

JOEY BELLADONNA CLASSIC ROCK! takes you on an exciting — and unique — journey through the golden ages of classic rock.

With his extraordinary powerful, dynamic vocals and charismatic stage presence, Belladonna pays homage to the great bands and their songs from the 1960s through the 1990s.

Joey teams up in his new project with THE CLARKS, who are, for decades, the most successful rock and roll cover band from The Netherlands, with TV performances and live shows under their belt in all over Europe, USA, India, Indonesia and South Africa.

Belladonna performed by chance with THE CLARKS at the 100th-anniversary event of bus and coach company Royal Jan De Wit on December 8, 2023 in Haarlem, The Netherlands, and they had an instant sensation which brought them together in JOEY BELLADONNA CLASSIC ROCK!

JOEY BELLADONNA CLASSIC ROCK! made its live debut on August 3, 2024 at the world-famous festival Wacken Open Air in Germany.

In the past, Belladonna had played drums and sung for a classic-rock covers band called CHIEF BIG WAY. The upstate New York-based group performed versions of songs from JOURNEY, AC/DC, ZZ TOP, BOSTON, CHEAP TRICK, FOREIGNER, PINK FLOYD, VAN HALEN, COLLECTIVE SOUL, THE WHO, THE DOORS, SHINEDOWN and BON JOVI, among others. Belladonna has also played sporadic shows with his JOURNEY tribute band called BEYOND FRONTIERS.

More than a decade ago, Belladonna was asked by Tricia Weight whether singing different styles of music in his side projects is good for him, almost acting like "exercises" to keep his vocals in shape. He said at the time: "Yeah, it [is]. I mean, now I've got more projects than I've ever had. Even at home I sing to records, that's how I learned to do it anyhow, I used to pull out the coolest records and sing to 'em all day long, before I went out [on stage]. And I do it now, even [on the way] to the gig. If we've got an hour drive tonight — I'm rocking the stuff on the iPod all the way there!"

JOEY BELLADONNA CLASSIC ROCK! feat. THE CLARKS are:

Joey Belladonna (Vocals)
Jan Becking (Guitar)
Serge Naberman (Guitar)
Peter Van Rhijn (Drums)
Johnny Eijkelhof (Bass)

BLACK VEIL BRIDES frontman Andy Biersack as defended MÖTLEY CRÜE's poorly received 1997 album "Generation Swine", calling it "fucking awesome".

Released in June 1997 via Elektra Records, "Generation Swine" dipped its toes into techno and is widely considered CRÜE's most experimental and most diverse album, with "Beauty" described by one critic as a track that "sounds nothing like MÖTLEY CRÜE."

On Thursday (January 2),Biersack took to his account on X (formerly Twitter) to write: "I've been wanting to say this since I was 6 years old, and I think it's finally time to tell you once and for all that the 1997 album 'Generation Swine' by MÖTLEY CRÜE is objectively fucking awesome, and if you don't like it, you are, regrettably, incorrect."

When asked by one of his followers why he waited so long to share his thoughts, he responded: "It's like they always say; sometimes it takes 28 years to defend a late 90's outlier grunge record."

CRÜE began recording "Generation Swine" with John Corabi as lead singer, but ended up bringing original vocalist Vince Neil back into the fold and releasing the record with Neil's vocals.

Last April, Neil told the "Outsider" podcast that he was not a fan of "Generation Swine". "I hated that record. I still hate that record," Vince said. "[There are] no good songs on it. And I told 'em, I go, 'This record sucks.' 'No. We love it. We love it.'"

Asked why he reunited with MÖTLEY CRÜE after stepping away from the band for four years between 1992 and 1996, Vince said: "Well, when MÖTLEY went out [on tour with Corabi as the band's singer], their tickets stopped selling. And I was doing pretty good. But I wasn't selling out places. I was opening for guys. And so their manager called me up and said, 'We'd like to meet with you in New York.' So I flew to New York and sat there and talked to 'em.' And it took a while for me to say 'okay.' But I finally gave in and went to the recording studio where they were making 'Generation Swine', which was at [MÖTLEY bassist] Nikki's [Sixx] house. And… I don't know. It was bad for a while, 'cause I didn't wanna be there."

During an August 2024 interview with Joshua Toomey of the Talk Toomey podcast, Biersack reflected on the "cringe-inducing" experience of opening for MÖTLEY CRÜE more than a decade ago. He said: "We toured with MÖTLEY CRÜE in soccer stadiums in Europe, and I thought, 'This is the greatest thing that's ever gonna happen to us.' And I'll never forget, the first show was in [Warsteiner Hockey Park in Mönchengladbach, Germany in June 2012], and after the first song was done, it wasn't booing, it was total silence, like strong, arms crossed, angry silence. And you'd almost prefer them boo at that point, because if it's 20,000 people and you can see them all be dead silent, it's more unnerving than hearing at least some noise. So it would happen after every song. And so I'm the singer, I'm the M.C., I've gotta like, I got to say something. So I just started saying to our drummer C.C. [Christian Coma], I go, 'Just go into the next song as soon as this one's over.' We basically played a medley of our songs because we would never stop between the songs 'cause it was too cringe-inducing to have to deal with the silence. We were coming off stage early every night on that tour, which a lot of times the production people for those big tours love it. So at the very least they liked us."

Biersack previously talked about BLACK VEIL BRIDES' tour with MÖTLEY CRÜE during a 2021 appearance on the "Drinks With Johnny" podcast. He said at the time: "I've always said one of the tours that, I guess, it didn't surprise me 'cause I didn't know what to expect, but it certainly didn't go the way that I thought or that I had dreamed or imagined was we opened for MÖTLEY CRÜE in soccer stadiums in Europe — this is 2012 or something — and we were really excited. We had become friendly with Nikki [Sixx, MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist] and Mick [Mars, MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist] and a few of the guys and we were just so excited to do it.

"We were used to playing festivals or things where people would be upset that we were there," he continued. 'I had never experienced such a level of just crushing disinterest where we'd get done with a song, and my job as the vocalist is to be, like, 'All right, everybody,' and then there would just be just a soccer stadium full of silence and people just looking at us with their arms crossed — not mad, just not interested in the slightest. And then you're stuck with that weird thing of, like, 'All right, well, here's the next one.' And you're just trying to get through the set so that you don't have that really awkward time in between."

In May 2024, BLACK VEIL BRIDES released the title track from their "Bleeders" EP, inspired by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's "Sweeney Todd". The band paid tribute to the classic musical with a music video for the title track that is inspired by the musical's 2007 Tim Burton-directed film adaptation.

Released in June 2024, the three-track EP, which included "Bleeders", a cover of "My Friends" from the Sondheim classic, and a cover of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday", was BLACK VEIL BRIDES' first release for Spinefarm.
I’ve been wanting to say this since I was 6 years old, and I think it’s finally time to tell you once and for all that the 1997 album ‘Generation Swine’ by Mötley Crüe is objectively fucking awesome, and if you don’t like it, you are, regrettably, incorrect.

— Andy Biersack (@andyblack) January 2, 2025


It’s like they always say; sometimes it takes 28 years to defend a late 90’s outlier grunge record.

— Andy Biersack (@andyblack) January 2, 2025

Indian rockers Girish And The Chronicles, featuring The End Machine vocalist Girish Pradhan, performed "Killer Of The Night" live in Darjeeling, India on December 22nd. The song is taken from from The End Machine album, The Quantum Phase, released in 2024.


The End Machine features Pradhan, former Dokken members George Lynch (guitar) and Jeff Pilson (bass), and Steve Brown (drums).







The End Machine's new album signals a notable change in personnel. Singer Robert Mason has officially parted ways with the group, paving the way for Girish Pradhan, the rising superstar vocalist known for his work under the moniker Girish And The Chronicles and, more recently, with Joel Hoekstra’s 13. The addition of Pradhan to the band is a testament to the keen discernment of Serafino Perugino, president, and founder of Frontiers Records. Perugino, who serves as the executive producer for The End Machine, recognized the incredible talent and potential in Pradhan and brought him to the attention of the band.


Established in 2018, The End Machine released their eponymous debut album, The End Machine, in 2019 bringing early acclaim for not only contemporary production and a modern attitude, but also their perfectly crafted songs, paying homage to their roots and the music that they love. This attitude and talent was equally on display with their 2021 sophomore album, Phase2.


In delivering 2024's The Quantum Phase, The End Machine has not only surpassed expectations but has penned the record of their lives! With each note and lyric, they have exceeded their own artistic aspirations, collectively crafting the album they always wished they had written. This monumental work stands as a testament to The End Machine's evolution, showcasing not only their musical prowess but also their unwavering dedication to pushing the boundaries of their creative expression.

In a recent interview with Rockaxis TV, U.D.O. members Udo Dirkschneider (vocals),Sven Dirkschneider (drums) and Fabian "Dee" Dammers (guitar) spoke about a possible follow-up to the band's "Touchdown" album, which came out in August 2023 via Atomic Fire Records. Dee said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think we have had some talks about it, that obviously, why not do more music? But I guess that's plans for after the DIRKSCHNEIDER tour; we're gonna have some intense touring with the 40th-anniversary [of 'Balls To The Wall'] tour. And maybe after that, there's time for some new music. We're always ready to create new music. I mean, Sven already said, the cool thing about us is we have all the generations here combined, and, for example, [fellow U.D.O. guitarist] Andrey [Smirnov] and me, we look at music so differently, and sometimes it's like close to being like a fight but then we take the advantages of everybody and just combine it to create something new about it. And I would love to continue that for sure."

Added Sven: "And wherever you go, they [Dee and Andrey] have their studio set up anyway; they're playing guitar the whole day. So, we have some ideas, but it's nothing written in stone yet when the next studio album will be."

Udo chimed in: "And also, what will be interesting, I think, is now Peter [Baltes, former ACCEPT and current U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER bassist] is also involved in songwriting. I know Peter songwriting-wise — I mean, when I was in ACCEPT a long time — but that will be very interesting. So I'm really looking forward also to the next U.D.O. album now."

"Touchdown" was crafted with producer and mixing engineer Martin "Mattes" Pfeiffer at Redhead Studio in Wilhelmshaven, Germany and mastered by Stefan Kaufmann at ROXX Studio in Solingen, Germany. The record includes a guest appearance by violinist Stefan Pintev on the closing track, and bass tracks were recorded by Baltes. Artwork was provided by Martin Häusler who was also responsible for shooting band photos in support of the album campaign.

In April 2023, Baltes officially joined U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER, the two bands fronted by Udo Dirkschneider. The former ACCEPT bassist had been playing bass for U.D.O. since September 2022, initially as a temporary replacement for U.D.O.'s then-bassist Tilen Hudrap who was hospitalized after the band's show in Munich, Germany.

DIRKSCHNEIDER is the name of Udo's band which performs ACCEPT material exclusively.

Although Udo announced 10 years ago that his initial DIRKSCHNEIDER tour would mark his final time performing ACCEPT songs, he has continued to play select shows under the DIRKSCHNEIDER banner.

Heljarmadr, the vocalist for Dark Funeral, has checked in with an update on his new EP, which was released on January 1st.


"Thank you all for the great appreciation you have given to A Poison To The Firmament! We will continue to defile the heavens after the strike of midnight, when the second song (which concludes this EP) is unleashed on all platforms, surely one of the first black metal releases of 2025.


There will be a physical CD-single in a great looking, luxurious digipack, but it's been delayed by the printing company. I'll open for orders when we have them in hand and can approve the quality.

American Musical Supply has shared video of former Danger Danger guitarist Andy Timmons performing "The Loner" by Gary Moore this past New Year's Eve. Check it out below.





The Reddcoats, featuring Matt Bissonette, Gregg Bisonette, Andy Timmons, Mike Medina, Wally Minko, and Ron Pedley, returned in 2024 with a new studio album, titled The Reddcoats 2. Watch a lyric video for “All For Me” below.




Matt Bissonette shares, “The Reddcoats has been a labor of love for the last five years, and we are so happy to be done with our second album with the extra thought out title The Reddcoats 2. What a blast to be playing challenging, fun music with our friends.  They are like family, and the good thing is they don’t live with us! I love this band…”


Ron Pedley offers, “Matt and I met right after high school in college at North Texas. We became fast friends and had a mutual love of both jazz and rock music. This music is genre busting, super creative and extra original. I’m proud to have played my small part.”  


Mike Medina adds, “Ron Pedley and I went to school back in the late 70s at the University Of North Texas. I remember him being a part of a select pop group called The Zebras. He was into the synthesizer thing very early on.”


Drummer Gregg Bissonette states, “Andy Timmons is an incredible musician, singer-songwriter, friend and human! I first heard about Andy years ago when he was playing with Danger Danger.  I then heard about his phenomenal playing from every great guitarist I knew.”


Guitarist Timmons shares, “Wally Minko is an incredibly gifted keyboard player that brings a lot to the table with his wealth of music knowledge. And he’s a snappy dresser!”


Matt Bissonette adds, “Mike Medina is a ten trick gift shop! He does it all, not only is he mixing and co-producing The Reddcoats, he plays bass, drums, guitar and the flambazoid.  And, most importantly he is a great humanoid!!!”


Lastly, Wally Minko offers, “Gregg’s a very nice fellow, and he’s starting to sound pretty good on the drums. But the really cool thing about him is that every time he opens his mouth, he sounds EXACTLY like Winnie the Pooh. It’s shocking, actually.”


Boasting one of the most powerful collective pedigrees in rock ‘n’ roll, the have individually logged thousands of shows alongside history’s biggest icons, millions of records sold, and dozens of awards between them. After circling each other for years, these five musicians came together in 2020 releasing a self-titled independent EP. This new album continues to build on the vision these five players set in to motion over the pandemic. While they individually navigate multiple on-going commitments creatively apart from one another, the spark that started to burn has only become more intense versus fading. This lead track “All For Me” exhibits a musical collaboration that is just beginning to build and broaden the potential of prolific setting that has no boundaries. Representing a confluence of influence and experience, they manage to surprise on each and every track.


“When I go see a concert, I typically want to hear something different after a half-an-hour,” explains Matt. “I always thought it would be interesting to have a band where everyone gets the spotlight and does his own thing. I love funk, heavy metal, jazz, bebop, and Latin, and you’ll hear all of that. It can be really earthy and greasy one minute and heavy the next. Since everyone is so proficient, it’s like we’re always switching the radio and reaching for the next level. The instinct is to do something that will stick in your head.”


As the story goes,

In a new interview with Andertons Music Co, SLIPKNOT guitarist Jim Root was asked about his songwriting process and whether he is "a riff player" or someone who constructs songs with more of "a theoretical approach". He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm still trying to figure that out. I think that's the eternal [thing], because [with] writing, there's no rule book. You can do it however it comes to you, whether it's noodling around on the couch and then something comes to you or it's sitting in front of the Pro Tools rig or if it's at a band rehearsal and then the drummer plays something and then you just happen to play something along with it and somebody's, like, 'What was that?' And then it can evolve into a song.

"You hear a lot of people say a song will write itself, and sometimes that happens, and when it does happen, those tend to be the really good ones," Jim explained. "Or it could be a song that you just work on for years and it just stays in demo form and then you just keep revisiting it. And maybe a year after you started working on it, you hear it differently, and you're, like, 'Oh, wait a minute.' And then, all of a sudden, something unlocks and then it comes together better that way. That's why, I think, a lot of the times in the movie industry, they say they never finish a movie; they abandon it. And I think that rings true with what we do, too, in the studio. It's, like, how deep in do you wanna go, or can you go? And you could infinitely work on things until you're… you can drive yourself crazy and end up cutting your ear off or whatever, you know what I mean? It's hard… At some point you just stop.

"When we were working on [2019's] 'We Are Not Your Kind' [album], that was kind of the deepest we were able to go into a record," Root revealed. "I mean, I started working on that record a couple of years before we even got together to do pre-production for it. And we had so many songs that it got to the point where, sitting with Clown [percussionist Shawn Crahan] and [singer] Corey [Taylor] and [producer Greg] Fidelman, we were just trying to figure out, like, 'Which ones are we cutting?' 'Cause you know, the money's cutting off at this time and the studio time's cutting off at this time and there's a deadline and there's a schedule and there's a budget, and you've got these five extra songs that we need to figure out which ones we're focusing on. And it's, like, 'Jesus, how do we figure this out?'"

Asked if having less money and time in the studio inspires greater creativity or if he prefers the freedom to go longer while making new albums, Root said: "That's hard to say because we haven't had a chance to do either enough times to figure it out. It's, like, how many times are you gonna make a record in your life and in your career? You're playing shows constantly — you might do hundreds or thousands of shows — but you're only gonna be in a studio six or seven times in your career, ten times maybe, depending on how long your career is. Some people twice. So, that's one of those things where there's always gonna be a learning curve. But I think we work really well under pressure in some cases, in most cases. There are exceptions to that rule, of course, but I think if we know there's a clock ticking over our heads, it'll inspire us to really dig down in deep and find what it is we're looking for."

Root also talked about his songwriting and playing chemistry with fellow SLIPKNOT guitarist Mick Thomson. Asked if he feels it's his role to embellish what Mick's gonna play, Jim said: "It depends on the song, the writing process, whether it's something that I came up with at home, whether it's a band situation or whether it's one of those things where somebody hears something and then we start working on it off of that. But if I'm at home, and the only reason I'm talking about this is because it's what I'm most familiar with, I always write thinking about what not just Mick is gonna be doing, but what Clown or [percussionist Michael] Pfaff or any of the other guys are gonna be doing, and I always think about leaving space. The only question is, what's Corey gonna do? So if I write a four- or five-minute-long arrangement and I've got it set up so there's an intro and then there's a verse line and then a pre-chorus and a chorus and then a middle eight section or a breakdown and then it all repeats or whatever, I might give it to him and he might wanna sing a chorus over what I thought was a verse or he might take this little pre-chorus section and want that to be the verse. So I have to be real free with what I write so that I don't get married to how it is in my head. That way, I'll send it off to Corey first and see if it's… And sometimes he'll just write over what I give him and we won't change anything. And other times it's that evolution. And then, as far as guitar parts, like I'll always do a left and right guitar track. And even in the studio, Mick and I will do hard left and right tracks. But there might be songs where, if it happens to be a song that I wrote at home, he might wanna be, like, 'That rhythm's really cool, but I have this idea and I'm gonna play this.' And that's great 'cause it adds a whole another new dimension to the song that I wouldn't have thought of, which is great. When you become so attached to something and you're so in your head with it, you can't look at it objectively, but you give it to somebody like Mick and he hears it from a totally different standpoint and a different style of playing even, and he does something that wouldn't even occur to me. And then all of a sudden that's the thing that takes the song and lifts it to where it needs to be."

SLIPKNOT recently completed the North American portion of the "Here Comes The Pain" tour. This year the nine celebrated the 25th anniversary of their seminal debut album, "Slipknot", which catapulted the band back in 1999.

SLIPKNOT's 14-song set consisted of nothing but material from that LP, including two tracks which hadn't been performed in almost 25 years.

"Nothing you will hear tonight was written after 1999," Taylor has been telling the crowd at all the shows, which normally open with "(sic)", "Eyeless" and "Wait And Bleed", and include "No Life" and "Scissors", neither of which had been played live since 2000. Other rarely performed songs include "Get This" (played for the first time since 2019),"Me Inside" (first time since 2015) and "Only One" (2012).

As has been the case with all of SLIPKNOT's shows in 2024 so far, the band adopted a classic look, bringing back the 1999 red jumpsuits and elements of their early masks into their modern versions, tying into the fact that SLIPKNOT is celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Produced by Live Nation, the "Here Comes The Pain" tour's highlights included Los Angeles's Intuit Dome, Austin's Moody Center and more with direct support from Kentucky's young and vibrant hardcore/metal forerunners KNOCKED LOOSE. ORBIT CULTURE and VENDED provided support on select dates.

Finnish epic metallers Wintersun have released a statement on their plans for 2025 and a new album is “about 80% complete.” The band finally released Time II in August 2024. 


Wintersun states: “Wow! What a year 2024 was! The year of the dragon! 🐉 We finally released the long-awaited Time II album and other material in our Time Package Indiegogo pre-order campaign! Once again, thank you to everyone for supporting us! ❤️ We hope you've enjoyed all the content! 🤘 What's next?


“Next, work continues on the upcoming Wintersun album, which is about 80% complete. However, the remaining 20% still presents challenges. Rest assured, we will overcome the obstacles! Thanks to all the audio technology innovations, the album already sounds fantastic. And thanks to you guys for providing us with the resources to upgrade and take our production to the next level!




“The funny thing is that all the Wintersun material you've heard so far is quite old. The Forest Seasons album is the newest material you've listened to from Wintersun, written around 2014-2015 and released in 2017. TIME I & II albums were written around 2004-2006. So, hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, you'll be able to hear something ‘fairly fresh’ from Wintersun. Until then, please stay patient! We are working as fast as we can!”


“We wish everyone a great New Year! 🎉🥳 May the flames in the darkness reach the stars and ignite the passions of your heart!”


12 years following Wintersun's Time I, the Finnish heavy metal quartet led by Jari Mäenpää released their new album, Time II on August 30, 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records. Check out a lyric video for 13-minute album closer, the sterling "Silver Leaves" is streaming below:





Check out the previously released lyric video for 12-minute "Storm":





Jari Mäenpää on Time II: "Time II is an epic journey from light to darkness and back to light, exploring the universe and energy, contrasting dark stormy landscapes to calm and beautiful cherry blossom tree gardens with misty, snowy mountains that will leave you breathless. It has songs with furious speed of drums, guitars, and bass and beautiful melodic slower songs with a magical exotic influence. It has massive orchestrations and choirs spiced with ancient world instruments and glimmering synths. It has Jari's soaring, clean singing contrasted with his aggressive style. It is a highly detai

WITHERING SCORN, the new band featuring former MEGADETH drummer Shawn Drover and his brother, and fellow ex-MEGADETH member, Glen Drover, along with former FATES WARNING bassist Joe DiBiase and German singer Henning Basse, who has previously played with FIREWIND, METALIUM and MAYAN, is continuing work on its second album. The effort will be the follow-up to WITHERING SCORN's debut, "Prophets Of Demise", which came out in July 2023 via Frontiers Music Srl.

On Thursday (January 2),Shawn released a video update about the upcoming LP, in which he said: "Right now I'm working on song eight, the epic song. We don't have a songtitle for it yet, so we have fake names for these songs. This one's the epic one, because it's a long song. I'm working on lyrics. I just started tonight. It's proving to be a bit of a bitch, but I enjoy the challenge. So I'm excited about that. Joe is, I believe, finishing up this song for bass. Glen is done with the guitars. I'm done with drums. And once Joe is done and I'm done with lyrics, we'll send it to Henning."

He added: "Again, we're really excited. These songs are really sounding awesome. We're super proud of 'em. So we can't wait for you guys to hear them, hear this record later this year."

WITHERING SCORN was formed in 2020 by Glen and Shawn, who previously played together in MEGADETH, as well as in EIDOLON. The pair have teamed up once again for their latest musical offering and are joined by DiBiase, who played with FATES WARNING for 14 years on multiple records and world tours, and Basse.

Shawn previously said about "Prophets Of Demise": "The four of us have been musicians most of our lives. At this point, we are pretty honed in as to what we want to do musically, and that is to create a 100% uncompromising heavy metal record, which is exactly what we have done. No punches pulled, no holds barred... just flat-out HEAVY METAL!!!"

In a January 2021 interview with the "Nothing Shocking" podcast, Shawn stated about the new project: "We've been talking about doing something. Glen owns his own studio up in Canada, so why not utilize the fact that we don't have to go and pay huge studio costs and et cetera, et cetera, and get some friends together that we admire and that we respect and work on a record. And that's exactly what we're doing.

"We have Glen and myself, of course, and we have a bass player named Joe DiBiase, who was in a band called FATES WARNING out of Connecticut for years and years and years," he continued. "A great player; a friend of ours. So he's gonna play bass on it. And we have a singer from Germany who was in a band called METALIUM for a number of years, and his name is Henning Basse, who is a fantastic melodic singer.

"It's a slow process, because life gets in the way," Shawn added. "We all have things that we deal with, so we do that. But when we have the time, we work on it, and so far it's turning out to be really exciting. We're pretty happy with the material we've done so far."

Asked how the new band is different and similar to his previous collaborations with Glen, Shawn said: "It's been really similar to the first band that Glen and I did years ago, which was a band called EIDOLON. We released, actually, five records on Metal Blade in the early 2000s, right before we both got into MEGADETH. And the dynamic of that was that I write most of the material. Although Glen does contribute to some of it, I usually have the main germ of ideas, and, of course, he records all that stuff. So he's kind of a studio guy. He's the guitar player, but he handles all of the studio recording affairs, and I just kind of take on the job of creating most of the music. And we finetune it — he tweaks it and kind of makes it his own in a way. But that's kind of the working relationship we have with that. Because if Glen wrote all the music, I'd basically be doing nothing, and he would have to tackle all the work on his own. So we made a decision years ago — that was back in the mid-'90s, actually, when we put out our first bit of music, before we got signed to Metal Blade — that's always been the working dynamic, is I create most of the material, and he handles all the recording affairs with that. And it's worked out quite well. So that's what we're doing this time as well."

Shawn also talked about the status of ACT OF DEFIANCE, which he formed in late 2014 with ex-MEGADETH guitarist Chris Broderick, former SCAR THE MARTYR singer Henry Derek Bonner and SHADOWS FALL's Matt Bachand (bass).

"It's certainly in limbo," Drover said. "Chris joined IN FLAMES a couple of years back, which is a great gig for him. They're great guys, a great band, and he fits with those guys like a glove. So he's quite happy and content to be doing that. With that said, he was so busy — he basically was gone for pretty much a year touring in support of their latest record they put out — and now with what happened in March of [2020]," referring to the coronavirus pandemic, "everything came to a screeching halt.

"Honestly, I don't know what the [other] guys are doing," he continued. "I talk to Henry and Matt a little bit here and there, but it's more just, like, 'How are you? I hope you're doing well.' We really don't talk about music a whole lot; none of us do. But we're all still friendly. Actually, Henry has released a couple of things — different kinds of music — on his own, which makes him happy, so more power to him. For me, I wanted to do something with my brother again and create some new music. And, like I said before, with the situation we are in, why not utilize that and create some music. So that's what we're doing."

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

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

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Kręcioła TV has shared pro-shot video of Electric Callboy's entire August 1st show at Pol'and'Rock Festival 2024 in Broczyno, Poland. Check it out below. 


Setlist:


"Tekkno Train"
"MC Thunder II (Dancing Like a Ninja)"
"Spaceman"
"Hate/Love"
"Everytime We Touch" (Maggie Reilly cover)
"Castrop X Spandau"
"Arrow of Love"
"Hypa Hypa"
"Parasite"
"RATATATA"
"Hurrikan"
"MC Thunder"




Encore:
"Pump It"
"Mindreader"
"We Got the Moves"





Electric Callboy recently shared the following message with their fans:


"The wait is over – we‘re hitting the road with our new tour!


Every concert on this tour will be a massive celebration, and we’re so pumped to make each one unforgettable. We’ve been working hard on new music and some cool surprises, and we’re ready to make this our biggest, most electrifying tour yet.


Tickets are available now! Make sure to grab yours before they’re gone."


The band has followed up with a tour trailer, which features a sneak peek of their new single. Check it out below.





Tour dates:


November 2025
1 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Royal Arena
5 - Stockholm, Sweden - Hovet
12 - Antwerp, Belgium - Lotto Arena
14 - Prague, Czech Republic - Forum Karlin
15 - Leipzig, Germany - QUARTERBACK ARENA
16 - Dusseldorf, Germany - PSD Bank Dome
17 - Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg - Rockhal
19 - Zurich, Switzerland - Hallenstadion
20 - Stuttgart, Germany - Schleyer-Halle
23 - Krakow, Poland - Tauron Arena
24 - Budapest, Hungary - MVM Dome
26 - Munich, Germany - Olympiahalle
27 - Frankfurt, Germany - Festhalle
28 - Berlin, Germany - Uber Arena
29 - Hamburg, Germany - Barclays Arena


January 2026
17 - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Ahoy RTM
18 - Paris, France - Zénith Paris (La Villette)
20 - Lyon, France - Radiant
22 - Barcelona, Spain - Sant Jordi Club
23 - Madrid, Spain - WiZink Center
25 - Lisbon, Portugal - Sala Tejo/MEO Arena





There is a lot to celebrate for Electric Callboy these days. Two years after the release of TEKKNO (2022), their label Century Media Records, their agency CONTRA Promotion as well as their management Exact Management surprised the band in Cologne while being a part of one of the biggest TV shows in Germany.


After multiple awards for their singles "Hypa Hypa" and "We Got The Moves" in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, the TEKKNO album has reached Gold status in Finland. Furthermore, the album has surpassed half a billion streams worldwide and the music videos for their singles are close to a quarter billion views. With over 250,000 tickets sold for their TEKKNO World Tour alongside playing in front of millions of people headlining festivals all over the world, this has been the most successful tour in the band's history. Their amazing live energy was also honored by Heavy Music Awards in the UK, winning an award for the third year in a row and the second time as "Best International Live Artist".

In a short interview with Tommy London and VIXEN's Britt Lightning conducted during the New Year's Eve special on SiriusXM Hair Nation, SLAUGHTER frontman Mark Slaughter spoke about the status of the band's long-in-the-works documentary. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We are embarking on this biopic, and it's hard to herd cats. This is like herding cats, making this all work, but we're getting there, and we're on our way with that. So that's the key thing that we're doing in between the shows. So our days are getting shorter just by trying to make all that happen. But it's gonna be really good. And we're really excited about it."

Asked whom he wants to portray him in the biopic, Mark said: "Well, in the biopic side of it, it's more of a bio. I think it's writing the story. I don't know if there's anybody who's gonna play us by any means. I think it's just a storytelling and getting all the other artists that we've played with and just talking about what it's been like over the years, of what the band's been about and, obviously, the passing of [original SLAUGHTER guitarist] Tim [Kelly] and just all the stories all the way through."

A year ago, SLAUGHTER bassist Dana Strum told White Line Fever TV about the band's documentary: "We are in the process of working with two major companies that you guys would know well that I don't wanna say because they both shouldn't know that. But they both have crazy interest in it. And one of them wants it tailored a little bit to them, and we've said we want it to be honest and real, and that may call the cards, because the real story is really true.

"For people that are listening that their parents either encourage them to play music or to do a podcast or to pursue their dreams, whatever they may be, Mark Slaughter's father was really the one that I spoke to, and he has a great role in this thing, because in the end, if Mark's dad didn't love his kid and encourage his kid, I would have never met Mark. I actually spoke to the dad, just playing around and joking around, before his dad ever admitted to me, 'I want you to come see my son. You may be a guy that could just bring my son and squeeze him through this.' So it was really a story of this guy loving his son, and he appears in and out of the thing, because he got to see his kid go from a very small one-bedroom-type rehearsal environment to playing Madison Square Garden on the KISS tour. And not many parents quite get to see quite that."

Asked if the SLAUGHTER film will be "more documentary than a biopic," Dana clarified: "There's people that portray the younger versions, and watching some of that going down is interesting, because you're, like, '[It's] pretty fucking close.' Some of it is amazing. Some of the people study early footage and, I'm, like, 'Look, dude, the guy's got every fucking move you've made.' It's like seeing that QUEEN [biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody'], that guy [Rami Malek, who played Freddie Mercury] was so good, and they were all so good."

Dana also brought up one particular incident that will be covered in the SLAUGHTER film. He said: "It's important to us to bring those funny moments out, where a manager came in once to the studio and said, 'It's really too bad that [SLAUGHTER's classic power ballad] 'Fly To The Angels' doesn't have a chorus, guys. If it only had a chorus, it could be a big song.' 'Fly To The Angels' currently has about 44 million views on YouTube, unpromoted — very naturally. And every night we play it, people are crying, singing and relishing. But that's the truth. Now, if you listened to that manager guy at the time, you could have taken it into a whole another direction. And I looked over and I said, 'You know what's great about opinions? They don't really matter.' He just stared at me. He just stared at me, like, 'I'm gonna fucking kill you.' And I said, 'Well, either you're gonna kill me or you're gonna be thankful I stuck to my guns.' And [there were] many moments like that."

Asked if there is already a finished cut of the film that is being shopped to interested companies, Dana said: "There's not a finished cut, but the story and the interweavings of the story have been worked on for a good while. It's like a good movie — if you don't have a great story… Or a good song. If you don't have a good song, you can be a greatest band in the world, but people may not be able to hear you. So, it's that kind of thing. But the story, I think, is a really, really good story."

SLAUGHTER formed in 1988 from the ashes of Slaughter and Strum's previous band, VINNIE VINCENT INVASION, which featured former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent. The group's double-platinum debut, "Stick It To Ya", featured the hit singles "Fly To The Angels", "Up All Night", "Mad About You" and "Spend My Life". The band issued four additional full-length albums over the course of the rest of the decade, but it has not released any new music since 1999's "Back To Reality".

SLAUGHTER's current lineup consists of Mark and Dana alongside Jordan Cannata (drums) and Jeff "Blando" Bland (lead guitar, backing vocals).

Kelly was killed in a car accident in 1998.

In 2023, Mark credited SLAUGHTER's uplifting lyrics with contributing to the band's longevity.

"[During] the grunge era, there was some depressing stuff in there, and our music is a light and love and of a different mindset," he told the San Bernardino Sun. "I don't slag any of the alternative bands that came forward because they have their place and sound, and quite honestly, I enjoy them just like the next person. But I think that life should be celebrated, which is the key point with the span of SLAUGHTER. We're all about the celebration, more than getting caught up with what's wrong with the world."

Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess has shared a 2024 recap video.


Rudess says in the video description: “2024 was a wild, beautiful ride—creating the new Dream Theater album, touring the world, releasing Permission To Fly, and sharing unforgettable jams with legends like ‪SteveVai‬ and ‪MatteoMancus


“From diving deeper into my guitar journey to exploring incredible instruments, it’s been a year of inspiration, growth, and chaos.




“Here’s to the next chapter!


“Thanks for joining me on this incredible journey! Wishing you all a happy and prosperous 2025!”





Rudess recently shared a new performance video, which can be viewed below.


"Rio de Janeiro, a quiet hotel room, and my JR Sorcerer brought this to life. 'Echoes Of The Mar'—a melody for the sea, carrying a whisper of Octavarium!"





Rudess released his brand new solo album, Permission To Fly, back in September via InsideOutMusic.


No stranger to experimentation, Rudess is known for leading the charge in pushing creative, sonic, and technological boundaries. His latest endeavour, epitomizes this ethos, delving into the complexities of human existence within our multifaceted world. While some of his previous releases were true solo pursuits, this time, Rudess assembled a core group of musicians to support and elevate his vision.  The album features Jordan alongside That Joe Payne on vocals, Darby Todd (Devin Townsend) on drums & Steve Dadaian on guitar, as well as guest guitar solos from Bastian Martinez.


Jordan comments: “Permission to Fly is here! This album is a dream come true and features an incredible team of collaborators. My vision has turned into reality, and I can’t wait for you to join me on this journey.”


The first single released from the album was titled "Embers", and you can watch the official video for that track now, filmed earlier in 2024 on Cruise To The Edge:





With the music in capable hands, Rudess wanted to make sure to give the lyrics their proper attention. For that, he turned to a source close to home, his daughter. "All the lyrics on the album were written by my daughter, Ariana. While I enjoy writing lyrics myself, my primary focus tends to be on the sonic quality of the words. For this album, I wanted to delve deeper and offer something that resonated on a more profound and cerebral level. Ari did an exceptional job.”


Permission To Fly is available as Limited CD Digipak & Gatefold 180g 2LP (both incl. bonus material), as well as digitally. Order here.





"Shadow Of The Moon" video:





"The Alchemist" video:





Renowned as the "Best Keyboardist of All Time" by Music Radar Magazine, Jordan Rudess stands out as the extraordinary keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist for the platinum-selling, Grammy Award-winning progressive rock band, Dream Theater. Embarking on his musical journey as a classical prodigy, Jordan initiated his studies at the illustrious Juilliard School of Music at the age of 9, laying the

UK prog rockers, CIRCU5, will release their second album, Clockwork Tulpa, on March 7. The album is now available to pre-order here.


Clockwork Tulpa is CIRCU5's first album release as a full band, with Tin Spirits frontman Mark Kilminster and drummer Lee Moulding joining founder Steve Tilling. "Apart from a few guest spots, the debut album was a solo effort – and quite a lonely experience," says Steve. "With Mark and Lee in the band, CIRCU5 can now establish its own unique identity. I'm excited about where we can take the band next."


The 10-track album comes nearly eight years after CIRCU5's eponymous 2017 debut. The extended gap was due to Steve contracting Long Covid and committing to projects with ex-members of UK rock band, XTC. "The songs reflect life's ups and downs during that time. But I learned a valuable lesson: don't be swayed by the plans of others. Stay true to yourself and your goals."




Clockwork Tulpa continues the story of 'Grady': a troubled character moulded from birth by the mysterious CIRCU5 organisation. "It's not just storytelling," says Steve. "It's a reflection on how people navigate the trauma of tough childhoods without falling prey to isolating belief systems. But ultimately, it's about making the best songs we can."


Along with the new album, pre

Serbian metal force, Claymorean, are announcing their new studio album, which will be released sometime in spring 2025, on CD via Stormspell Records, and on vinyl via GoldenCore Records.





The title of the album, Eternal Curse, as well as the artwork theme, is something Vlad (founder and guitarist of Claymorean) had on his mind for more than three decades.




Says Vlad, "I was always fascinated with horror themes, specifically the vampire stories depicted in the Hammer Horror movies. However, the main theme of the album is focused on the battles and struggles, on the very nature of humankind - fighting to survive in the great scheme of the universe, and that's what this eternal curse is all about. I also love metal albums with blue artwork, from King Diamond to Dissection, so I must thank our label manager Ior

Step into the heart of human despair with Damon Systema's “Harvest Of Tears”, the first lyric video from their debut album, Ate.


Drawing from Aeschylus’ "The Persians", the song channels a lamentation born of hubris, weaving crushing riffs and haunting melodies into an epic confrontation with loss and retribution.


With its evocative lyrics and cinematic visuals, the lyric video plunges listeners into the emotional depths of Damon Systema’s mythological narrative, blending the timeless themes of the Greek cycle - Hybris,

Coimbra, Portugal-based progressive thrash/death metal band, Destroyers Of All, is proud to release its new single, entitled “Ritual”. The track is taken from the band’s forthcoming album, In Darkness We Remain, whose release date has not been revealed yet. “Ritual” is accompanied by an official video, which can be viewed below. Stream/download “Ritual” here.





“Ritual” takes you on a dark odyssey of occult and mysticism, blending the groovy essence of the band's early sound with their unrelenting modern aggression, creating a visceral, unforgettable experience that bridges past and present.




Destroyers Of All is a Portuguese progressive thrash/death metal band founded in 2011. The band’s sound blends diverse musical influences from various styles ranging from thrash, death, and even black metal, to hard rock and progressive metal.


In 2013, the band debuted with the Into The Fire EP, which was very well-received by the specialized press. In 2016, they released their first LP Bleak Fragments, which received critical acclaim for its progressive and technical approach to the sound.


In 2019, Destroyers Of All released the second LP The Vile Manifesto, featuring a

Avantasia continues with track-by-track description of a new song from the upcoming Here Be Dragons album. Magnum’s Bob Catley stars on “Bring Me The Night” – a tribute to the late Tony Clarkin.





Sammet writes: “Track by Track: ‘Bring On The night’ was written on the evening of July 6th, 2024 within a few hours as a heartfelt tribute to Magnum and the late Tony Clarkin. I dive deeper into the background story in the Artbook version of the new album, but in brief words: the song came to me within minutes in an almost spiritual way, and I just had to capture it and turn it into an Avantasia tune. 




“I wanted to do it justice and used the sounds and keyboards played on classic ‘80s Magnum records, and of course there would be only one singer in the world, who could sing that song with me, the undisputed king of magic, the storyteller on a storyteller's night: my dear friend and partner for 25 years now, Birmingham's finest: Mr. Bob Catley. It's such a wonderful song, anthemic, melancholic, quite a bit ‘80s... or better: timeless. This kind of approach and the magic you feel when a piece of music is given to you out of nowhere and it all comes together, those are the sacred moments in music that drive me. 


“Bob had tears in his eyes when he sang it, and I was trying to hide mine behind my goggles when I was sitting next to him. It's just so beautiful. Bob, I love you for rocking my world and being the friend and inspiration you are, I can't wait until March to hit the road with you again!”


Sammet on "Everybody's Here Until The End" with guest singer Roy Khan:


“Track by Track: ‘Everybody's Here Until The End’! When the album was almost done I felt that we had a lot of furious and fast material, and I thought that I was still in need of a grand finale for an epic ending, something conciliatory and big, and I sat down on my piano and started to play a ballad which would eventually grow from a piano piece into a monumental power ballad. It's a very personal song but eventually I wanted a duet partner who would add more depth. And I reached out to an old acquaintance to the Avantasia family, the mighty Roy Khan (ex-Kamelot) to help me shape this song to an amazing finale of an enchanting album. I think it's one of the most moving and emotional, and yet biggest ballads I have ever done.”


Sammet on "The Moorlands At Twilight" featuring Helloween's Michael Kiske:


“Track by Track: ‘The Moorlands At Twilight’ is a really rampant speed metal anthem with my lovely brother in Avantasia since the early days, Michael Kiske delivering a killer vocal performance. I guess that type of music is just in my DNA and even though it's a classic Avantasia song I think that the atmosphere is different to anything we've done before. I can hear some early Helloween influence in there, even though the song is very unique with its playful neo-classical elements and wild approach. Also, the lead guitars are extreme and quite virtuous: Sascha Paeth and Arne Wiegand have delivered an extensive, fast and hymnic axe battle that made my jaw drop. When ‘power metal’ is done like that, I absolutely love it!”


Sammet previously described "Here Be Dragons" featuring Geoff Tate:


"Track by Track: ‘Here Be Dragons’ is the longest song on the album and features a great duet with my good friend and one of my vocal heroes since his early days in Queensrÿche, Mr. Geoff Tate, who’s outdone himself on the track. It’s a groovy mid-tempo song with enchanting melodies, orchestral elements, big keyboard passages and a powerful guitar riffing driving the main parts of the song. Even though you can hear some classic Dio, Queensrÿche and even Marillion elements in there, it’s a typical Avantasia song and a very unqiue one. It has two different choruses and a very emotional and big sounding mid-section. The song wasn’t meant to be that long, but there isn’t a single note I would change or leave out if I listen to the final result now.”


Rock and metal flagship, Avantasia, will release their 10th studio album and Napalm Records debut, Here Be Dragons, on February 28. They recently unleashed the energizing first new single, “Creepshow”.


The new track is one of the catchiest songs of Avantasia’s career so far, and it arrives with an exciting, cinematic music video. The guaranteed future hit rings in a new era of Avantasia and will be an integral part of Avantasia’s spectacular live shows.


In their 25 years of existence, Avantasia has become one of the biggest leading forces in metal, boasting nine successful previous albums (such as the #1 charting Moonglow), worldwide sold-out arena tours and headline shows at all of the most important metal festivals. Here Be Dragons is sure to exceed all expectations as the most powerful Avantasia album so far.


Tobias Sammet on the single and video: "'Creepshow' is a perfect single. It’s short and catchy, and it emphasizes a facet of my work that has taken a backseat in my music in recent years. It’s light-hearted and the opposite of melancholic. And it's fresh, boisterous and unabashed - a straightforward kick-ass anthem. Also, even though it may seem like a reminiscence of my earlier writing, I think we managed to turn the whole thing into a trademark Avantasia tune, as we accentuated with the music video. We rented a haunted castle in North England and celebrated a night in the world of spectres and undead creatures. This is the most vibrant and eccentric music video I’ve ever shot in my entire career, not dead-serious, but certainly of serious quality! I can’t wait to play 'Creepshow' live on our tour next year, I can already see the whole venue jumping up and down and screaming along!”


Watch the official music video for “Creepshow”:





Featuring absolute Avantasia essentials such as spellbinding choirs and theatrical symphonic metal elements, multitalented mastermind and frontman Tobias Sammet also surprises fans old and new with plenty of intriguing fresh soundscapes. Here Be Dragons gives the celebrated Avantasia sound that has been carefully crafted over a quarter of a century an exciting and powerful spin. The new album is the most consistent and concise piece of art that the band has ever crafted.


Avantasia is not showing any signs of slowing down - soon after the release of Here Be Dragons, the band will head out on an extensive arena tour across Europe, promising to deliver fans an immersive experience with their biggest and most epic production ever.


In grand Avantasia tradition, the new full-length is rich in vivid storytelling and cinematic atmospheres, not to mention the highest level of musicianship. Opening track “Creepshow” is without a doubt one of the catchiest songs in their career. The energizing future hit truly welcomes the listener into the new era of Avantasia and will be an integral part of the band’s spectacular live shows. In contrast, the incredible title track “Here Be Dragons” is a classic Avantasia song, and at almost nine minutes, is by far the longest on the album. The cinematic dark soundscapes of “The Witch” captivate and support the song’s storyline perfectly. Emotional, multifaceted vocal performances mesmerize on “Avalon”, while the heavy metal number “Against The Wind” serves as further proof of the versatility of Avantasia’s sound. Remaining well-balanced and cohesive, Here Be Dragons is undeniably Avantasia’s most powerful album so far.


The 10-track offering was written and composed in its entirety by Tobias Sammet himself, produced and recorded by Tobias Sammet together with Sascha Paeth, mixed by Sascha Paeth and mastered by Michael Rodenberg. The stunning cover art was once again created by acclaimed British fantasy artist Rodney Matthews. Here Be Dragons marks another masterpiece in the Avantasia catalog, leaving both fans and critics speechless and proving the band’s standing as a main force in the world of rock and metal!


Here Be Dragons is now available for pre-order in several exciting physical editions, with bonus albums included in select limited formats, like a 3CD hardcover artbook with 96 pages, over 160 pictures, drawings of Rodney Matthews and extensive stories to accompany the music and pictures. 





Here Be Dragons will be available in the following formats:


- 3CD-Artbook – large format, hardcover book incl. 96 pages, over 160 pictures and extensive stories and liner notes
- 3LP Vinyl Box incl 72 Pages 12" Booklet – strictly limited to 500 copies
- 1LP Glow in the Dark Vinyl incl 12'' Booklet – strictly limited to 300 copies – Napalm Records Mailorder exclusive
- 1LP Yellow/Orange Marbled Vinyl incl 12'' Booklet – strictly limited to 300 copies – Napalm Records Mailorder exclusive
- 1LP Blue/White Splattered Vinyl incl 12" Booklet + Poster + Slipmat – strictly limited to 500 copies – Napalm Records Mailorder exclusive ROW
- 1LP Orange incl 12'' Booklet     
- 1LP Black incl 12'' Booklet         
- Tape – strictly limited to 100 copies – Napalm Records Mailorder exclusive           
- 2CD Mediabook              
- 1CD Digipak       

During an appearance on the latest episode of "The Mistress Carrie Podcast", British guitar sensation Sophie Lloyd spoke about how legendary Eddie Van Halen changed rock guitar, from popularizing "finger tapping" to modding out his guitars. She said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It was what no one had ever really heard before. I guess when I was growing up, there was other artists that were doing kind of what he was doing. I'm sort of maybe a bit too — I was a bit too young or I was born too late to like experience the true, like, when it first came out. But even now, and that's just a testament to how amazing he is, his technique is still so unique and no one can get it exactly like he could, and get the feel exactly like he could. So I think that's why he's such a staple. It's stood the test of time and still inspires new guitarists today. They still kind of have that moment of before Eddie and after Eddie, even though there's people that do similar things, but he's still just so unique in everyone's eyes."

Regarding where she thinks a guitarist's tone comes from, Sophie said: "That's a good question. I think, for me, it's not even so much from the guitar or the equipment. It's from your hands and from your fingers and how you do different things. My vibrato is completely different to B.B. King's vibrato or something like that. The stylistic is so different and you do develop your little nuances — you develop licks that you that you know inside out, so they always sort of pop up in your playing in some way or another. Everyone kind of develops these things that are so unique to them, and I think that's the sign of like a really successful guitarist, is when they can kind of pick up anything — literally you could pick up some broken guitar off the street and start playing and it sounds like you. If Steve Vai probably picked up any old guitar, if he picked up B.B. King's guitar, he could sound like Steve Vai, even though it's on a [Gibson] 335 [guitar] or whatever. So I think that's really where it comes from, is your own expression of how you decide to form the licks, of just your little micro nuances that you have that make your playing really specific."

Asked who the women were that she saw playing the guitar that taught her it was possible, Lloyd said: "I think a big one for me was Orianthi. It was just after the 'This Is It' documentary with Michael Jackson. We went to the cinema and saw that, 'cause my mom was a big Michael Jackson fan, so we went to the cinema and saw that. And that was kind of the first time I'd really seen a woman that looked kind of similar to me as well just absolutely kind of rocking out, playing the craziest solos on such a massive stage with a massive artist and just absolutely owning it. And she was almost the star of the show. And that was a really unique moment where it was just so special to see. And then I got really into her and started listening to her music. And, yeah, her career has just been so inspiring, and the fact she's still just absolutely killing it, still playing live all the time, releasing incredible music. And she's just, yeah, an absolutely massive inspiration for me."

Sophie released her debut full-length album, "Imposter Syndrome", in 2023. The LP saw Lloyd teaming up with some of rock's biggest names and her own personal heroes to create a stunning collection of work spanning a variety of genres from the rock and metal world. Released totally independently via her own Autumn Records, the album debuted at No. 3 in the rock charts and 11 in the indie charts, receiving rave reviews in the press.

Last October, Sophie played her debut headline show at a sold-out London Underworld. Sophie also announced a concert at the Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood, California on January 16, 2025.

"Imposter Syndrome" featurea blazing singles and guest collaborations like "Judge And Jury" (featuring THEORY OF A DEADMAN's Tyler Connolly),"Fall Of Man" (featuring TRIVIUM's Matt Heafy),"Do Or Die" (featuring Nathan James),"Lost" (featuring Cole Rolland),"Runaway" (featuring STEEL PANTHER's Michael Starr),"Hanging On" (featuring Lauren Babic)", "Imposter Syndrome" (featuring HALESTORM's Lzzy Hale) and "Let It Hurt" (featuring BLACK STONE CHERRY's Chris Robertson).

Rock Duck Radio producer Mark Christopher Garrett has shared a compilation of "forgotten" Savatage songs. Check it out below.


"Savatage has a lot of classic hits; these are not them. These Savatage songs are the lost and forgotten songs discarded in one way or another from their intended release album. Some have been released on special or limited edition album runs, others are alternate takes on familiar Savatage songs that were released. Either way, here they are in one place, Savatage: The Forgotten Songs."


Tracklist:




"Criss Oliva Guitar Intro"
"Target"
"Living On The Edge Of Time"
"Lady In Disguise"
"Before I Hang"
"Stranger In The Dark"
"Fighting For Love"
"The Message"
"Metalhead"
"Larry Elbows" (alt. take)
"Jon Oliva Rap"
"Criss Oliva Guitar Outro"





The legendary Savatage (Johnny Lee Middleton - bass, Chris Caffery - guitars, Al Pitrelli - guitars, Jeff Plate - drums, and Zak Stevens - vocals) have announced tour dates across Europe for summer 2025, with a mix of festival appearances and headline shows.


Says Zak Stevens: "As you can imagine, there are so many special things about these shows that are racing through my mind. We get to play a series of headline shows for the first time in over twenty years that will put us right back in front of all of the unbelievable fans who have given us so many unforgettable memories over the last three decades. Here’s our chance to directly give back to everyone who’s been there supporting us all these years! All the great festival shows are going to be off-the-charts amazing. It’s even hard to imagine the scale of excitement that’s going to take place with those shows."


Savatage mastermind Jon Oliva expressed his disappointment at not being able to join the band for the shows, but shared his excitement, stating: "I am very excited for the guys to be doing some shows. Unfortunately, due to health issues, I will not be able to join the guys for this run. Hopefully, this is just temporary. I will continue working in the studio on new music for the future. These shows will be awesome and I will be working with them to get it all ready for you. I know everyone is going to love it!!! Me and the guys are very excited and ready to kick ass! So from me, thank you all for the support for all these years and we can’t wait to rock you!"


For further details, including ticket/festival links, head to Savatage.com. Find a video trailer below.

SNOT guitarist Mikey Doling has taken to social media to share a video message in which he once again explained the reason for the band's decision to not reveal the identity of its new lead singer prior to the reunited band's first comeback show, which is scheduled for January 17 at the Parish room at the House Of Blues in Anaheim, California.

SNOT has announced five club shows in January, February and April 2025, leading up to the band's appearance at the Welcome To Rockville festival in May 2025 in Daytona Beach, Florida. SNOT will also play at select European festivals next summer.

In addition to guitarists Doling and Sonny Mayo, bassist John "Tumor" Fahnestock and drummer Jamie Miller, SNOT's 2025 lineup will include the aforementioned new singer.

Mikey said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "Hey, what's happening? Mikey here. I wanted to come on here while I'm driving to Las Vegas. I'm doing a lot of thinking and thinking about how grateful I am to have SNOT back.

"I'm so fucking excited to get out there and start playing again with my brothers, the original lineup of SNOT, with our new singer, of course, who y'all will know who he is after the January 17th show at the Anaheim House Of Blues Parish room.

"I wanted to let y'all know the reason that we haven't let you know who the singer is, is strictly because social media can be brutal and they would just go right to his — I don't know; his Facebook, Instagram or whatnot — and start scrutinizing him before he even got on stage with SNOT.

"I'll tell you this: he's no one you know, he's not some big famous rock star or vocalist, because that's what I'm hearing a lot of people are thinking. They're thinking that's the reason we're keeping it a secret. It's not. We found a guy who's extremely talented, extremely cool people, and he just does it right. He's incredible. I am very confident that y'all will be very happy once you see what he does with SNOT.

"Anyway, January 17th at the House Of Blues, Parish room, Anaheim, and then the next night, January 18th, at San Diego, Brick By Brick. There are still some tickets left for that show, if you wanna come out. We'd love to see you there. Get those tickets before it sells out, 'cause it's gonna sell out. And then, February 8th, in SNOT's hometown, Santa Barbara, at SoHo. That show is already sold out.

"So, yeah, looking forward to getting on stage and kicking some ass for y'all. And I wanna thank you so much for your support. And let's have a kick-ass 2025."

Upcoming SNOT shows:

Jan. 17 - Anaheim, CA - House Of Blues (with ADEMA, SICKSENSE)
Jan. 18 - San Diego, CA - Brick By Brick (with ADEMA, SICKSENSE)
Feb. 08 - Santa Barbara, CA - SOhO (with SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET, PETMEDZ)
April 25 - Denver, CO - HQ
April 26 - Colorado Springs, CO - The Black Sheep
May 18 - Daytona Beach, FL - Welcome To Rockville
Aug 8-10 - Kortrijk, Belgium - Alcatraz
Aug. 14-17 - Carhaix, France – Motocultor

Asked in a recent interview with The Kevin Powell Podcast how SNOT plans to announce its new vocalist, Doling said: "Let him come on stage. That's it. And figure out who he is on your own. If he says his name, great. But the last thing I wanna do is go on the Internet and put his name out there, and then people go to his social media and whatnot and start scrutinizing him before he even gets on stage. Because that's what will happen. I mean, you're living in the shadow of the great Lynn Strait [SNOT's late vocalist]. So it's gonna be a rough road for him. He's gotta prove himself on stage first. And, we're giving him that comfort. 'Cause like I said, if I said his name right now, we'd have a lot of people just going right to his social media.

"But he's awesome," Doling continued. "Let me just say when he sent me his audition reels, tapes, recordings, I was blown away like I've never been blown away since [the demise of the original SNOT lineup]. And I sent it to Tumor first thing, my right arm, my bass player from SNOT. He usually doesn't like anything. He's very cynical. He's the greatest guy ever, he's my brother, but he's a cynical person at times. And he called me right away and just said, 'Holy shit balls.' That's a quote. 'Where'd you find this guy? We found our dude. We found him.' And that's how it went down. Then, of course, I sent it to Jamie and Sonny, and they both agreed he's the guy. And here he is. We got him."

SNOT disbanded in 1998 following Strait's death, putting an end to a career that generated considerable promise but only one studio album, "Get Some". The band had been writing material for its sophomore CD and had completed 10 songs at the time of Strait's tragic passing. As a memorial to Strait, SNOT eventually decided to release those tracks, with lyrics and guest vocals provided by a host of stars from the alt-metal community. The resulting album, "Strait Up", was a fitting tribute from Strait's peers and friends, featuring members of LIMP BIZKIT, KORN, SLIPKNOT, SEVENDUST, (HED) P.E., COAL CHAMBER, SUGAR RAY, SYSTEM OF A DOWN, SOULFLY, and more.

SNOT in 2014 recruited Carl Bensley (VITIATE, CONSUME THE FIRE) to sing for the band following the departure of Tommy "Vext" Cummings (ex-DIVINE HERESY, BAD WOLVES).

Reflecting on SNOT's original split and 2014 comeback, Doling told The Kevin Powell Podcast: "Un-fucking-fortunately, our singer Lynn Strait, the great, mighty Lynn Strait, who I miss and love so much, he passed away in a car accident and it put a halt to SNOT. We just couldn't go on without him at that point. And so we stopped for many years. And then we kind of got back together with some friends, and it wasn't real serious — [we] just [played] some shows. I don't really wanna say their names right now, but they're cool people and they helped us out."

As for how SNOT's latest reunion is different from the band's 2014 comeback, Doling said: "This one, it's serious. We're back-back. We got the booking agency. We got high-level shows and festivals. This is the real deal for us. We're back right now. And, yeah, that's where we are right now. And we're hungry to do it again. I'm very excited about it."

Doling previously discussed SNOT's reunion during an appearance on an episode of the "Talk Toomey" podcast. Regarding how the band's comeback happened, Mikey said: "Well, let's see. About a year ago, I was seeing the festivals that were coming in 2024, and I was noticing there were so many bands out there from our genre. You have the COAL CHAMBERs, the MUDVAYNEs and just so many bands out there killing it. And I'm sitting there thinking, 'Man, SNOT, it's time that we get on board with this.' So I talked to the dudes. We didn't even have a singer at that point. So anyway, so I reached out to the band and said, 'Hey, man, I think we should find a singer and play some festivals and have some fun.' And they were, like, 'Yeah, well, we're in if you can find us the right singer.' So, I looked around for a while. I had no luck. But I kept looking. And then I reached out to Alex Gilbert over at TKO — it's our booking agency — and I asked him, I said, 'Hey, man, I'm currently looking for a vocalist. And if I put all this work into putting SNOT back together, would you be interested in booking some shows and festivals for us?' And he said, 'I'll put the feelers out there and let's see how it goes.' So, a year went by. I didn't hear anything back. I kind of thought, 'All right. No interest.' So about three months ago, Alex called me. So I'm looking at my phone, like, 'Whoa, it's Alex from TKO.' I answered and I asked him how he's doing. And he said, 'Hey, man, I'm getting a lot of interest for SNOT. It's a lot. Everybody I talk to wants the band.' So I told him, 'Look, man, we're into it.' I didn't even let him know we didn't have a singer yet at that point. And I said, 'Let me get back to you. I'll talk to the guys.' So I instantly jumped on social media for a little something about looking for a vocalist for SNOT. And I got a lot of response. I got, like, eight videos and audio of dudes who just didn't fit. What they did is they would sing with the album, 'Get Some', and it just didn't fit. So I almost kind of gave up. And so right there at the end, before I threw the towel in on the whole thing, a friend of mine from Santa Barbara hit me up, texted me and said, 'Hey, I found the guy for SNOT.' And, I was, like, 'Yeah, sure,' in my mind thinking, 'Yeah, yeah. Right. Right.' So I jumped on the phone with him — let's say it's a girl, with her — and she said, 'I saw a guy. He has a band. And he reminded me of Lynn. It was goosebumps,' she said. And I said, 'Cool.' And Lynn is one of his favorite all-time singers. So, she put me in contact with him. And, again, I asked him, I said, 'Look, we're looking for a singer. Do me a favor. Set up a camera, microphone and sing along to 'Get Some', our album. And so about three or four days go by and then I get some videos on my phone. So I'm watching the video, and immediately it just punched me in the face how good it was. I was, like, 'Wow, this is the guy.' What he did is he set up in front of his — he has a little rehearsal spot, drums and amps, and he put 'Get Some' through his P.A. system and he wrapped the cable from the microphone around his arm and laid into it as if he was doing a show. He did, like, five songs and he was absolutely incredible, nailing it. He looks right. He's got the whole punk vibe that we're looking for. And he just nailed it, man.

"Singing like Lynn Strait is not easy, man. And he absolutely fucking rocked it, to the point where I had to sit down; I was so blown away. And so I immediately contacted Tumor, John Fahnestock, bass player for SNOT. And Tumor, [he is the] best guy in the world, but [he] hates everything. I sent it to him, and he called me right away. He was, like, 'Dude, holy shit. You found our guy.' That was the first thing he said. 'Who is it? Is this real?' I was, like, 'It's real.' So then I sent it out to the rest of the guys, Jamie and Sonny, and, and yeah, boom, it's there."

Doling added: "So, I talked to the [singer] guy, which I'm not gonna give up his name yet. I'm gonna keep that on the DL [down low] right now for a while until we start doing some shows. People can figure it out on their own. I don't want them knowing too much yet. I wanna keep it tight for now. But anyway. So then I contacted Alex at TKO and he started talking to promoters and we're just getting 'yes', 'yes', 'yes' all over the place right now. And we're gonna start doing some shows, man."

According to the Los Angeles Times, Lynn died in died in a car accident in December 1998 as he attempted to drive across Highway 101 in Mussel Shoals, California. The 30-year-old singer died instantly after his 1992 Ford Tempo was broadsided by a southbound full-size pickup truck about noon. Also killed was Strait's small bulldog, SNOT's mascot Dobbs, who adorned the cover of the band's debut album, the 1997 Geffen Records release "Get Some". Strait, a Santa Barbara resident, was crossing the highway after visiting his girlfriend in the community. Lynn apparently pulled into the path of the truck, which was going about 65 mph. The impact sent Strait's car spinning into the center divider where it stopped, a California Highway Patrol officer told the Los Angeles Times at the time.

SNOT's most recent U.S. tour, during which the band performed "Get Some" in its entirety, kicked off in late November 2014 in Palm Desert, California and wrapped in late December 2014 in Pomona, California.

Cummings fronted SNOT in 2008-2009 before he and guitarist Sonny Mayo exited the group amid "strained relationships."

https://www.ticketweb.com/event/snot-with-special-guests-at-brick-by-brick-tickets/13930953?pl=brickbybrick

Posted by Snot(Band) on Thursday, January 2, 2025

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DELirNjSJuO/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Posted by Snot(Band) on Sunday, December 29, 2024

Former SANCTUARY guitarist Sean Blosl has died at the age of 58. According to a brief obituary on The Chronicle, Blosl passed away on August 26, 2024 in Seattle.

Blosl formed SANCTUARY in 1985 with his cousin, fellow guitarist Lenny Rutledge. He played on the band's first two albums, 1988's Dave Mustaine-produced debut "Refuge Denied" and 1990's "Into The Mirror Black".

On Tuesday (December 31),Rutledge shared the following message via the SANCTUARY social media: "It is with a very heavy heart that I have to announce that Sean Blosl passed away earlier this year. He was involved in a vehicle related accident in Seattle.

"I have struggled with posting about this news. I am not a fan of the social media death announcements, but I realize that even though I think this is a private family matter, Sean was also a very important part of the Seattle music scene.

"Sean was my cousin, but to us we were much more like my brothers. We had a musical dream when we were kids that became a reality. Without Sean by my side I don't know if I would have had the opportunity to make this musical journey.

"It is very difficult to sum up a lifetime of love, memories and experiences but I will always remember Sean as an inspiration and a teacher.

"RIP Brother. I will see you on the other side."

While touring in support of "Into The Mirror Black", Blosl left SANCTUARY and was replaced by Jeff Loomis.

Shortly after, pressure from Epic Records to fit in with the flourishing Seattle grunge scene caused disagreements between bandmembers regarding their musical direction. In 1992, SANCTUARY officially disbanded.

After SANCTUARY split up, singer Warrel Dane, bassist Jim Sheppard and Loomis formed NEVERMORE in 1992. NEVERMORE recorded seven studio albums before going on hiatus in April 2011.

In 2010, four of the founding SANCTUARY members — Dane, Sheppard, Rutledge and drummer Dave Budbill — came together for a few select reunion performances. At first, it was just going to be a handful of shows, but the response and chemistry on stage was so overwhelming that they decided to reunite permanently.

SANCTUARY's third studio album, "The Year The Sun Died", was released in October 2014, about three years before the passing of Dane. The singer had died in December 2017 of a heart attack in São Paulo, Brazil, where he was recording his second solo album.

SANCTUARY toured North America with ICED EARTH in February and March 2018 as a tribute to Dane, with WITHERFALL vocalist Joseph Michael filling in on vocals.

It is with a very heavy heart that I have to announce that Sean Blosl passed away earlier this year. He was involved in...

Posted by Sanctuary on Tuesday, December 31, 2024

DOWN, the long-running heavy metal supergroup featuring vocalist Philip H. Anselmo, guitarists Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein, drummer Jimmy Bower and bassist Pat Bruders, has entered the studio to begin recording its new album, tentatively due later in the year. A couple of photos from the studio can be found below.

In a recent interview with That Metal Interview, Windstein stated about the status of DOWN:  "I've been in DOWN world [for the last few months] kinda, writing with DOWN and finishing up the writing for the album that's [gonna come] out [in 2025] at some point… We've got 10 new songs, man. It's awesome."

In April 2024, Windstein, who is also the frontman of CROWBAR, told Concrete Spew about the musical direction of the new DOWN material: "It just sounds like DOWN. I mean, it sounds refreshing because we haven't done it in so long, gotten together with me and the guys and done it in — fuck — 12 years or something. So it sounds like DOWN, I think, to me, it sounds more old-school DOWN. And the reason I say that is I think we got to a point where… Like, the 'NOLA' record is so simple, and it just wrote itself; it was so simple. And that's how this is coming about, which is great."

He continued: "We're not overthinking it. We're not trying to make things too complex. Phillip's not trying to write so many lyrics and things. We just kind of got away — I hate to say 'got away', 'cause anything we do is DOWN, but, to me, we kind of got a little bit… We needed to go back and look at each other and just go, 'Let's just get in a room and do it like we did from the beginning.' And that's what it feels like to me. It's very magical. The ideas and the working together, just bounce off of one another, it's a natural thing."

DOWN played its rescheduled concert at Inn Of The Mountain Gods Resort And Casino in Mescalero, New Mexico on September 27, 2024. The band was originally supposed to perform at at Inn Of The Mountain Gods on June 20, 2024, but the show was called off due to a pair of rapidly growing wildfires which were converging on a village inside a tribal reservation in the state. As a result of the postponement, DOWN played two pop-up shows in Louisiana — on June 20, 2024 at Southport Hall in New Orleans and on June 21, 2024 at Varsity Theatre in Baton Rouge.

When DOWN's concert at Inn Of The Mountain Gods Resort And Casino was first announced in April, the band said that Windstein would sit out the show due to his commitments with CROWBAR. Filling in for him at the June 2024 gigs was former DOWN guitarist Bobby Landgraf. Windstein was able to rejoin his DOWN bandmates for the rescheduled Inn Of The Mountain Gods Resort And Casino show.

Prior to Southport Hall, DOWN's last concert took place in September 2022 at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival in Alton, Virginia.

DOWN made a handful of rare live appearances in the spring and summer of 2022. The band launched a three-date U.S. run of shows in May 2022 at the Welcome To Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, Florida. After playing in Atlanta and Dallas immediately after Rockville, DOWN took a three-week break before regrouping for three European festival appearances in June. The aforementioned appearance at that year's Blue Ridge Rock Festival followed in September 2022.

In August 2021, DOWN took part in a very special in-person live and virtual experience. "NOLA Town Throwdown" was held at the Fillmore in New Orleans, Louisiana and featured fans attending the show in person as well as watching it in real time from the comfort of their living room.

In August 2020, DOWN celebrated the 25th anniversary of "NOLA" with a special livestreamed event. Dubbed "The Quarter Century Throwdown", the high-production, multi-camera event took place using cutting-edge streaming technology to create a one-of-a-kind virtual concert experience.

A founding member of DOWN, Windstein left the band in 2013 in order to focus on CROWBAR and his family life. He was replaced by Bobby Landgraf, DOWN's former guitar tech who was previously in GAHDZILLA MOTOR COMPANY, a 1990s outfit also featuring Jason McMaster (DANGEROUS TOYS, WATCHTOWER),and HONKY.

Windstein announced his return to DOWN in 2019, with the band confirming a number of festival appearances for 2020 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "NOLA", all of which were later canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic which swept the globe.

Prior to the August 2020 livestream, DOWN's last live appearance took place in August 2016 at the Psycho Las Vegas festival in Las Vegas.

The supergroup hasn't issued anything since the arrival of the "Down IV – Part Two" EP in May 2014.

"Down IV – Part Two" sold around 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release in May 2014 to debut at position No. 23 on The Billboard 200 chart.

The band's previous EP, "Down IV Part I – The Purple EP", opened with around 12,000 units in September 2012 to land at No. 35.

"Down IV – Part Two" was recorded at Nodferatu's Lair — Anselmo's home studio — and produced by Michael Thompson. It was released via Down Records/ADA Music.

DOWN will support DANZIG on a string of live shows on the U.S. West Coast in late March 2025. Additional support on the trek, which will include cities DANZIG has not played in many years, will come from ABBATH and CRO-MAGS.

Photo by Tomoko Inoue (courtesy of Earsplit PR)

Kirk and Pep laying down some magic today 🤘

Posted by Jimmy Bower on Friday, January 3, 2025

Pep and I laying down some Down Guitars!!!

Posted by Kirk Windstein on Friday, January 3, 2025

Arizona thrash metal veterans SACRED REICH are preparing to enter the studio to begin recording the follow-up to 2019's "Awakening" album.

The band's recording plans were revealed on December 31 in a New Year's Eve social media post by SACRED REICH bassist/vocalist Phil Rind. He wrote: "Bring on 2025! We are headed into the studio to record a new record. We are planning for a late August release. We can't wait for you to hear it.

"Lots of touring in the works with some killer bands. Looking forward to getting back out on the road in '25 & '26 after spending most of the last year working on new music.

"We hope you all have a killer New Years and we'll see you on tour in 2025! Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year filled with peace and love."

In June 2023, SACRED REICH guitarist Wiley Arnett spoke to The Meista - Brews & Tunes about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to "Awakening". He said: "It's been an amazing process. We didn't do a record for a long time for several reasons, but one of the biggest is the well had kind of run dry. We lean hard on Phil for a lot of the writing — a hundred percent of the lyrics and almost as much music. And if he's not feeling it or inspired, then there's really nothing for us to say. And after a long time sitting away and then coming back and starting to do the reunion shows, we got a taste of it again. And then a crazy world — our kids are getting older, moving out, graduating high school. It was easy to talk yourself out of getting busy in a band over the years. So between a lack of inspiration, no new ideas and a sense of, 'We should be at home doing important stuff,' we definitely did part for a while. But 2007, we got back out. We went nearly 10 years just banging out old songs — 'Surf [Nicaragua]', 'The American Way', 'Death Squad', 'Independent'; all the old stuff — having a blast. Every show felt like a high school reunion for us, seeing guys with the wizard stripes, just like us, and just reminiscing about all the great times or that time they saw us in New Jersey in 1989 or '91 or somewhere in France. And it's been so cool to go back and reignite those connections. And it was just inspiring. And then global events.

"We've always been a political band," he continued. "I think when you look at 'Awakening'… Some people were, like, 'Oh, Trump came around. All of a sudden they were inspired again.' If you look close at 'Awakening', there's a little splash of it, but it's really not the theme these days. We certainly reserve the right, 'cause we're so motivated that way to try to make people who might not hear those messages actually hear 'em through metal.

"But it feels good. It feels inspired. It doesn't feel pushed. It feels natural. It would have been ideal for us to record or release something by the end of this year, but we felt pressure for that, and we resisted it. We were, like, 'No.' It's not the best strategy on paper, but it's just gotta come when it feels right. We play the songs we love. We enjoy our most success when we're pleasing ourselves and then we find the people who agree with us. So we're kind of figuring out our stuff. 'Awakening' was a great start. We've got two more records on our current deal. And, obviously, we're not writing the third one just yet. But the second one, I think we've got six or seven songs that are all the way there. We'd like to see 10, 12 songs. Of course, we never get that high. But that's a goal. And we don't really write songs for throwaway. We're not one of those bands who do 20 [songs] and pick their favorite 10. We just write until we feel like we've got a record, and then we book studio time. So we're moving right along. We're feeling pretty inspired.

"We got pretty busy [in 2023]," Wiley added. "It's been crazy. We started off in March in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, which was quite the adventure. We'd never been to a couple of those spots, like Bangkok, Thailand; Singapore, Vietnam — we'd never been to any of those places. So it was pretty frickin' amazing. And then [we] came home and did the U.S. tour and now we're preparing to go [to] Europe. So that can stifle creativity. We're not one of those bands with the headphones in the backstage [or] in the basement in a club writing the new record. It seems to happen when there's time off. The smoke settles. We calm our thoughts and be creative. So we're just coming off about a month of that. It's been a crazy time. But we can feel the momentum picking back up."

"Awakening" was released in August 2019 via Metal Blade Records. The LP was produced by Arthur Rizk, who has previously worked with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, POWER TRIP and CODE ORANGE, among others. The album marked SACRED REICH's first release since the return of drummer Dave McClain.

"Awakening" was described in a press release as "a timeless collection comprised of blistering thrash, crushing grooves, killer solos and socially conscious lyrics that demonstrate a true understanding of everything that matters most in the world today."

"Awakening" was engineered by John Aquilino and was mastered by Maor Appelbaum.

Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral

Bring on 2025! We are headed into the studio to record a new record. We are planning for a late August release. We can’t...

Posted by Sacred Reich on Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Swedish rock quartet THUNDERMOTHER has released a new single, "Bright Eyes". The track is taken from the band's upcoming album, "Dirty & Divine", which will arrive on February 7, 2025 via AFM Records.

THUNDERMOTHER comments: "This song has the quintessential THUNDERMOTHER sound, and the vibe people associate with us, and we're super proud of the recording and the outcome of the song that we really worked on hard in the studio!"

A blistering onslaught of loud, proud and gritty hard rock, "Dirty & Divine" marks the start of a new era for THUNDERMOTHER. This album showcases the THUNDERMOTHER recording debut for both frontwoman Linnea Vikström Egg and drummer Joan Massing. "Dirty & Divine" also welcomes bassist Majsan Lindberg back into the fold.

THUNDERMOTHER have always been committed to the electrifying euphoria of real, organic rock 'n' roll. Over the course of 15 years and five widely acclaimed studio albums, they have firmly established themselves as one of the most vivacious and vital hard rock bands around, with a never-say-die spirit and collective charisma that underpin everything they do. These women are rock 'n' roll diehards, and "Dirty & Divine" takes that ethos up a notch. The sixth THUNDERMOTHER album crackles with gritty authenticity and unstoppable passion. For guitarist and founding member Filippa Nässil and Linnea, their newly forged partnership has been an unequivocal success.

"We've been working on this a long time, maybe a year and a half," says Filippa, who was pregnant during the "Dirty & Divine" recording process and is now a "thunder mother" for real. "As soon as Linnea came into the band, we started sending demos to each other, and we did loads of writing, which was great, because she's a fantastic songwriter. I was sending her the music and she was sending me these amazing lyrics and melodies. It's been fun to work with someone that good! On the last album we had outside songwriters because we didn't have that kind of synergy in the band. Now I send Linnea music, and then just kick back, because it is guaranteed she'll send lyrics and melodies that just crush the song."

"Dirty & Divine" illustrates perfectly all that is new and improved for THUNDERMOTHER. As the first two singles already made clear ("Speaking Of The Devil" and "I Left My License In The Future"),every one of the album's ten, sweat-soaked songs are dripping with potential to saturate and satisfy rock fans. Meanwhile, the decision to record the new material live in the studio has reaped its own rewards. "Dirty & Divine" is the sound of a kickass rock 'n' roll band doing it for real, and loving every raucous second.

"There is still that genuine THUNDERMOTHER feeling, with my guitar playing and all of that," says Filippa. "It's still got a '70s vibe, but the melodies are catchier and the vocals are obviously different. We're always evolving, never standing still. I think this is the best album we've made so far, and I'm very picky! [Laughs] We recorded it in Copenhagen, with Søren Andersen producing again, and we recorded eight songs in four days. So this was the quickest recording we've ever done, and the best outcome."

In support of "Dirty & Divine", THUNDERMOTHER will embark on an extensive European tour, kicking off in Hamburg, Germany in early 2025.

"Dirty & Divine" track listing:

01. So Close
02. Can't Put Out The Fire
03. Speaking Of The Devil
04. Feeling Alright
05. Take The Power
06. I Left My License In The Future
07. Dead Or Alive
08. Can You Feel It
09. Bright Eyes
10. American Adrenaline

THUNDERMOTHER is:

Linnea Vikström Egg (vocals)
Filippa Nässil (guitar)
Majsan Lindberg (bass)
Joan Massing (drums)

The new THUNDERMOTHER lineup made its live debut on April 20, 2023 by playing a "secret" show at Pub Anchor in Stockholm, Sweden. The latest THUNDERMOTHER incarnation played its first "official" concert on April 22, 2023 at Ski & Rock in Sälen, Sweden. They then kicked off a series of European shows as the support act for the SCORPIONS.

In February 2023, it was announced that singer Guernica Mancini, drummer Emlee Johansson and bassist Mona Lindgren were exiting THUNDERMOTHER and were forming a new band together. At the same time, Nässilrevealed that she would continue with a new THUNDERMOTHER lineup.

In early 2023, Mancini, who joined THUNDERMOTHER in 2017, gave several interviews in which she described her time with the group as "six tough years" and "a very bumpy ride". She also said that Filippa decided to fire her from the band without consulting the other members of THUNDERMOTHER, a move which they perceived as "very disrespectful towards them, being that they believed that we were a democracy and that we had a say in these things," according to Guernica.

In March 2023, Mancini, Johansson and Lindgren announced that their new band would be called THE GEMS. They have since signed a worldwide deal with Napalm Records and have issued their debut album, "Phoenix".

Photo credit: Mats Vassfjord

In a recent interview with Podpokas, original AC/DC frontman Dave Evans was asked how the band got its name. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we were happy rehearsing [in late 1973], and a guy that wanted to manage us called Alan Kissack, he said, 'Hey, guys, I've got a show for you coming up in a few weeks. And he said it's New Year's Eve, 31st of December [of 1973], at the famous Chequers nightclub, the number one nightclub in Australia. New Year's Eve at midnight, and it was the best gig in Australia. And we had to get a name because it was only in a few weeks. So we went, 'Oh, okay.' So we were a band, but we didn't have a name. So we started tossing names around between us, but no one could agree. I had some really great names, but they didn't like them. Anyway, so we didn't know what to do. So, what we said is the next rehearsal, which was the next night, that we'd all come with three names each, and we were gonna put them in a hat and we'd pick one out. And whatever it is, that's what we were gonna call ourselves. 'Cause we needed a name quickly. So we said, 'Okay, okay.' So, the next rehearsal, I came with three names in my pocket… But anyway, it didn't matter. Because what happened was when we all arrived together, [AC/DC's founding rhythm guitarist] Malcolm Young said to us, 'Look, my sister-in-law' — [his] older brother George's wife — 'has suggested a name.' And we said, 'Okay, what is it?' And Malcolm said, 'AC/DC'. And I thought quickly, and I thought it's an easy name to remember, AC/DC. And it was on the side of a lot of electrical appliances. AC/DC means alternate current and direct current. Alternate current means batteries. Direct current, plug it into the wall. And I had a portable record player, which had AC/DC on the side. So I could go to the park and just do it by batteries, then go back to the house and plug it in. AC/DC. Yeah, a lot of appliances were AC/DC. And I thought, free advertising — free advertising everywhere. I thought, 'Wow, free advertising on the side of all these appliances, and it's easy to say, and it means power.' And so it all went through my head very quickly. And I said yes. I said, 'Great. I love it. I love it.' And then [then-AC/DC drummer] Colin Burgess, the famous Colin Burgess, he said, 'Yeah, I like it too.' And then [then-AC/DC bassist] Larry [Van Kriedt] said, 'Okay, I like it.' And so Malcolm looked at us and said, 'Well, shall we call ourselves AC/DC?' And we all put our hands up, and it was unanimous. And so we said, 'Okay, we are AC/DC.' And we all shook hands. And we were AC/DC. And those three names [that I came up with], I went home and threw them away."

In the past, it had been reported that AC/DC got its moniker when Malcolm and his brother, AC/DC lead guitarist Angus, were hunting for a catchy name, and their sister Margaret saw the letters AC/DC on either her sewing machine's power adapter or on the back of a vacuum cleaner. The Young brothers reportedly thought it was a good name for their band, because "it had something to do with electricity, so it seemed to fit".

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

Evans discussed his time with AC/DC in an interview with Brazil's Guarda Volume podcast. Speaking about the way his time with the band ended, Dave said: "We were very young — we were all very, very young. And our ambitions were forever. I didn't go, 'Oh, I'm gonna be in a band.' No. I had my whole career, my whole life to sing. I've been singing since I can remember. It ain't gonna stop because of a band I was with, I split from. I was in bands before AC/DC, of course. I was with bands before AC/DC. I split. VELVET UNDERGROUND [not to be confused with Lou Reed's group] I was with, a top band. AC/DC, Okay, I kept going. RABBIT, my own career. I never thought about splitting or stopping to sing. It was just another band I was with, but a very successful band. We had a hit record, 'Can I Sit Next To You Girl' was named as the best Australian group record of the year. First up. Great. Fantastic. It was a hit record. And to have a young band, first record, against all the other bands in Australia, [named] the best Australian group record of the year. That was fantastic. But there were different reasons why I split from the band, mostly because I wasn't getting paid any money."

He continued: "The manager was the third manager at that time. We weren't getting paid for the shows, and we were doing the biggest shows in Australia. The Sydney Opera House, the famous Sydney Opera House, Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, Festival Hall down in Melbourne, all the shows. Where's the money? Show me the money. No money. We toured with Lou Reed from the USA. [We played] the biggest venues, sold out — all sold out. How about some money? No money. So in the end, I couldn't stay with the band, because I was paying off my car in Sydney, paying my car off, my flat, and I'm working hard. So we had a bit of a meeting one night and had a few drinks and stuff. And the manager was there. And he was making money because he was getting money off the top. The rest of the money, I don't know what happened to it. We didn't have any. So, the manager, nice new permed hair, new jeans, bell bottom jeans, leather valise, flying around the country, us in trucks. He had the money. We had no money. So at, I said to him, 'What's happening here?' I confronted him. We were all bitching about it. And he got up and smart-mouthed to me. So I got up and bang, knocked him down. And the other boys got me and pulled me off the manager. So it was decided that when that tour we were on finished that this had to be resolved. This had to be resolved. I said, 'If I'm not getting paid, I am not gonna go on tour again.' So I said, 'I'm not going.' Who would? I'm not stupid. So at the end of the tour, no resolution. They weren't gonna give me what I wanted. So I split from the band. I said, 'Well, that's it.' I said, 'Okay. See you later.' I wasn't gonna take it."

Elaborating on his reasons for walking away from AC/DC, Evans said: "It's like any job. If you're a carpenter or you're a teacher or something, and they don't pay you, what are you gonna do? 'Oh, it's okay.' No. How are you gonna feed your children? No children for me, but if you had children, how would you feed your children? How would you pay your car off? You can't. And you're working hard. [AC/DC founders] Malcolm and Angus Young lived at home with their parents. They lived at home with their parents. They didn't have to pay any money. I did. I had my apartment in Sydney, so I had to pay. Otherwise I was gonna lose it. My car, they'd come and take it away. But Malcolm and Angus, [they had] no car. And they lived at home with their parents. So it didn't matter so much to them, but it mattered to me. And I wasn't gonna take it. So I stood up for myself."

Regarding the iconic singer who replaced him, Dave said: "Poor Bon Scott. Bon Scott joined the band and he went through a lot of crap too. And he ended up dead. He was working, working, working, working, working, working. And he was depressed, sad. He looked happy, 'cause he was drunk all the time. Bon Scott drank all the time. Alcoholic. You see photographs of Bon Scott, he's always got a bottle or a drink all the time. Sad. Sad. But it killed him in the end. But he was going through a lot of hell, too, with the band.

"I spoke to Bon Scott after he joined [AC/DC]," Evans revealed. "We had a private conversation about things, which will remain private. And so when I found out what happened to Bon Scott, when I read about it, and I spoke to his wife about it too — I saw his wife who told me what happened and stuff — I wasn't surprised. I was not surprised."

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

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

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

Earlier in 2021, Dave was asked in an interview with The Rocker Diaries if he thought "that would be it" for AC/DC after Bon's death in 1980. He responded: "No, not at all. I mean, we all keep going. And AC/DC has had that many players through [the history of] the band. I don't know how many. 20? And three singers, plus a stand-in singer as well.

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

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

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

In a recent interview with Switzerland-based videographer and photographer Alexandra Hernandez, former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson shared insights into his relationship with the bass and how his approach to the instrument has evolved over time. He also discussed what brings him happiness, his thoughts on the evolution of music as well as his view of metal as a subculture and his perception of the metalhead community. Finally, he offered valuable advice for young musicians aspiring to create music and build a professional career. You can watch the chat in three parts below.

On the topic of exploring new musical things and what drives him, Ellefson said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The truth of it is I'm an explorer. It's why I get on a plane, get on a bus and just go explore the world.

"Music is a representation of people. That's why when people call me to put a track down, which is how [Ellefson's] DIETH [project] started…

"Nothing makes me happier than to just see people in the audience be happy to be there and [to be] on stage entertaining them, performing for them, 'cause it's their night; they're the ones who paid for it. Us on the stage, we're the product they paid for. And so it's our job — kind of like a jukebox: you put the coin in and you select the song, and people go dance or drink and they do what they do. And it's the same thing with live music."

Ellefson went on to say that heavy metal fans are always among music's most passionate devotees.

"I've seen so many clubs. I remember the first time I saw it, I think it was 2001, MEGADETH, we were on a tour for 'The World Needs A Hero' [album]," he recalled. "Right after we played, they flipped the club over, and a DJ came in, [with] one cable plugged into his turntable, and they let a whole bunch of nicely dressed yuppies in and charged them all the same amount of money and sold them more drinks. So they had the metalheads and the rockers all day, and then they had the DJ. And it just happened to us on this tour. It was up in the U.K. It was kind of, like, 'Okay, let's get this heavy metal thing done so we can flip it over and turn it into a rave.' And I'd like to think that what we do is maybe a bit more artful than that. It's got a bit more injection into society and into people's lives than just to sort of, as the old hippie thing.

"I think that's one thing about metal music for sure — metal, jazz. There's certain eclectic kind of subcultures, and metal is not a mainstream music; it's a subculture," Ellefson continued. "And it's not meant to be mainstream. It's had its mainstream moments, but for the most part, it's a subculture, and people come because they're into it and they know the songs, they know the people involved in it, they know the words, some of them are musicians. I feel like maybe there's a bit more of an intrinsic connection between us. Even if it's rowdy and it's fist in the air and it's stage diving and it's rocking, it's a very interactive community. And for me it always has been. From the very early days of MEGADETH, when we started that band, the fans, it was as entertaining for us to watch them as it was probably for them to watch us because of how engaged and how rowdy they were, with pits and stage diving and all that stuff. So it brought out this very primal thing in people. That's been a fun thing to be a part of my whole career. And even we see it every night after night with [Ellefson's] KINGS OF THRASH [project]. It's fun to see that hasn't gone away. That's still part of who we are and what we do."

Last week, Ellefson unveiled a year-end holiday treat in the form of a fresh and dynamic rendition of the 1980s classic "Ah! Leah!" by legendary singer-songwriter Donnie Iris. The track features an impressive lineup, including vocalists Chip Z'nuff (ENUFF Z'NUFF) and Stephen Shareaux (KIK TRACEE),along with Drew Fortier (THE LUCID) on guitar and Paolo Caridi on drums.

This updated version of the radio rock favorite is now available on all digital platforms.

Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH by Dave Mustaine in May 2021, just days after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter.

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

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

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