On January 31, 2022, Frontiers Music Srl made an announcement welcoming the legendary '80s hard rockers AUTOGRAPH to the label's roster. The band, at the time featuring vocalist Simon Daniels, guitarist Jimi Bell, bassist Randy Rand, and drummer Marc Wieland, was close to wrapping up work on its brand new studio album "Beyond", which the label had slated for release later in the year. Just past mid-April 2022, Randy delivered the final masters and artwork for "Beyond" and was sorting out plans for the release with the label when he received some news about his health. And then, shockingly, just a few days later, on April 26, 2022, Rand, a founding member of the band, passed away. Before his untimely passing, he shared with his bandmates that if something was to happen to him before the release plans were finalized, he wanted them to release "Beyond", his last recorded work.

And so, with bittersweet emotions, Frontiers Music Srl announces the forthcoming release of AUTOGRAPH's new studio album, "Beyond", the last album to feature Rand, on November 18, 2022. A new single and music video, "This Ain't The Place I Wanna Be", is out now. Watch the clip below.

AUTOGRAPH, whose hit "Turn Up The Radio" was a staple of the hard rock soundtrack of the '80s, disbanded in 1989, but in 2011, founding members Rand and guitarist Steve Lynch decided to meet up at the NAMM show in Anaheim, California. They rekindled their friendship first before even thinking about a musical reunion. With their personal relationship rebuilt, they made a collective decision to play again. "We approached our original singer Steve Plunkett about a reunion," recalled Rand. "He didn't have the time to join the band again due to his busy schedule. He did give us his blessing to move forward though, and that was important. We missed our fans. This is for them."

Fully embracing the future, the remaining members began a search for a new singer. They discovered some videos of singer/guitarist/songwriter Simon Daniels (of JAILHOUSE, FLOOD, 1RKO) on YouTube and instantly they sensed a connection and knew that he was the right fit for the band. "He was perfect to front AUTOGRAPH," smiled Rand. "His hard-edged, bluesy voice and massive riffing sharpen our edge. He's given us a new energy, and he impressed us immediately. We all had a euphoric feeling after the first rehearsal."

Rand said that during his long-lived career, he has only loved playing with two drummers; one is the great late Randy Castillo, and then there is AUTOGRAPH's new drummer Marc Wieland. As Rand put it: "We're heavier than before. At the same time, the melodic vocals and catchy hooks are still an integral part of our sound."

In 2019, Lynch decided to leave the group to pursue different musical styles and was replaced by international monster shredder guitarist Jimi Bell (HOUSE OF LORDS). The band didn't skip a beat and went on to record a new album, "Beyond", with this lineup before Rand's untimely passing.

AUTOGRAPH has released seminal albums such as "Sign In Please" (1984),"That's The Stuff" (1985) and "Loud And Clear" (1987). Over the course of their career, they have played shows with everybody from MÖTLEY CRÜE and Ronnie James Dio to VAN HALEN and AEROSMITH. Successfully touring again since the beginning of 2014, AUTOGRAPH has strived and shined at arenas, casinos, major music festivals such as M3, Monsters Of Rock cruise, Moondance Jam, 80's In The Park, Grand Rock Tember, Cat Club festival at Irvine Meadows, and Firefest UK, among others. In 2017, AUTOGRAPH released a new album on ex-MEGADETH member David Ellefson's EMP Label Group, hitting No. 21 on the Billboard Classic Rock sales chart, as well as placing two new singles on the top 10 Hard Rock Mediabase radio chart.

"Beyond" track listing:

01. This Ain't The Place I Wanna Be
02. Your Slave Tonight
03. Everything
04. Gotta Getcha
05. Take Me Higher
06. Run For Your Life
07. Beautiful Disaster
08. Love Is A Double Edge Sword
09. Heart Of Stone
10. Feels So Good
11. Flying High
12. To Be Together
13. Mind Of Fear (bonus track; digital only)

AUTOGRAPH is:

Randy Rand - Bass
Simon Daniels - Vocals
Jimi Bell - Guitar
Marc Wieland - Drums

AUTOGRAPH photo credit: Christopher Carroll

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, "Creatures Of The Night" from 1982 is a seminal album in the KISS catalog. It crushed fans' expectations with a huge, back-to-rock sound and has become a fan favorite and cult classic. On November 18, 2022, UMe will release "Creatures Of The Night 40" as a 5-CD + Blu-ray audio super deluxe edition, 3-LP deluxe, 2-CD deluxe, 1-LP half-speed master 180gm, 1-CD remaster, as well as a 5-CD super deluxe edition digital download + streaming and 2-CD digital download-only version plus a color vinyl exclusive. All configurations can be pre-ordered through the official KISS online store.

Having rechanneled their efforts into consciously making a return to the hard rock that they were known for, KISS — Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Eric Carr — unleashed "Creatures Of The Night" in October of 1982. In addition to a harder sound, the album is also noted for its heavier, darker mood. The single "I Love It Loud" has been performed on nearly every subsequent KISS tour, while "War Machine", the ballad "I Still Love You" and the title song also featured heavily in their live sets for a number of years. Also of note is "Killer", which featured the group's first songwriting collaboration with their soon-to-be-guitarist Vinnie Vincent. "Creatures Of The Night" received accolades in magazines such as Kerrang! and Guitar Player — which both placed the album in their Top Five end-of-year chart for 1982 — and has attained gold album status (sales of 500,000+).

Even though original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley appeared on the "Creatures Of The Night" album cover, he did not play on the LP. The guitar tracks on the effort were laid down by several musicians, including Robben Ford, Steve Farris and Vincent, who later became Frehley's replacement. "Creatures Of The Night" also saw KISS collaborating with outside songwriters, including the then-relatively unknown Bryan Adams.

During an interview on SiriusXM's "Rocktails With Ahmet Zappa" show earlier this year, KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons stated: "The 'Creatures' record was a transitioning record because Ace Frehley and Peter Criss were out of the band. You can't do it all yourself, so we brought in different guitar players, different things, and we co-wrote."

The "Creatures Of The Night 40" super deluxe boasts 103 total tracks with 75 tracks being unreleased. Newly remastered on CD 1, the original album has never sounded better. CDs 2 and 3 feature 34 demos, rarities and outtakes, including previously unreleased gems such as "Deadly Weapon (Penny Lane Demo)", "Not For The Innocent (Demo)" and "Betrayed (Outtake)". CDs 4 and 5 highlight 26 incredible, soundboard live recordings from the "Creatures" '82/'83 tour and seven super-rare tour sound effects, all recorded and archived by the "Creatures" tour sound engineer Harry Witz. The Blu-ray Audio disc showcases a first-ever Atmos and 5.1 surround mix from the original album multi-tracks plus the high-resolution newly remastered 1982 stereo mix of the original album. Additionally, the super deluxe box features an extensive array of bonus kollectible KISS memorabilia and ephemera.

MAGNA CARTA CARTEL — the Swedish band featuring former GHOST guitarist Martin Persner — released its latest album, "The Dying Option", in June via Vernal Vow Records and Border Music Distribution. The official music video for the LP's latest single, "Darling", can be seen below. The clip was directed by renowned filmmaker Claudio Marino (BEHEMOTH, WATAIN, KING DUDE). The B-side of "Darling" consists of a down-paced, undressed version of the same track, where MAGNA CARTA CARTEL makes use of its acoustic guitars and chorus-drenched electrics, along with a cloudy floor of analog synth strings. This more dreamy version of the song is taken from the upcoming "MCC Live At Nielsen Søund", a two-part live video showing MAGNA CARTA CARTEL playing old and new songs in their headquarters.

MAGNA CARTA CARTEL creates cinematic sounding themes with captivating melodies and poetic lyrics. "The Dying Option" offers a ticket into a state of mind seldom seen or heard in modern music. Here they manage to use classic rock to create an ambience beyond the regular riffs of today's rock and deliver ten fantastic songs far beyond what anyone could have expected. This 10-track album was produced by Niels Nielsen (IN FLAMES, GHOST, DEAD SOUL) along with MAGNA CARTA CARTEL and features artwork by both Claudio Marino and David M. Brinley (GHOST).

"Darling" is described in a press release as "sing-along friendly and grandiose, with ABBA-grade production. The electronic elements of the song were developed with Nielsen and are yet another variable that impresses and elevates the band’s multi-faceted soundscape to new heights."

Martin said: "This album is a collection of songs that, all in their own manner, deal with the feelings and experiences from the inner storms of unwanted changes. As much as it might come off as a sad album, it is quite the opposite. A lullaby from a place of no sleep. A manual for living in times of uncertainty. A whispering companion to the ones who wait. A suggestion for those who cannot cope. So, lend us your ears and we’ll sing you a song and we’ll try not to sing out of this world."

"The Dying Option" track listing:

01. Arrows
02. Silence
03. Darling
04. Sleepy Eye June
05. Savantgarde
06. Don't Look Now
07. Tamsa
08. Valkyria
09. Dusk
10. The Dying Option

MAGNA CARTA CARTEL is:

Martin Persner - Vocals & Guitar
Arvid Persner - Drums & Guitar
Pär Glendor - Bass & Guitar

MAGNA CARTA CARTEL was resurrected in 2017 after a nine-year period of sleep when members were on the road with GHOST.

In March 2017, Persner released a video message in which he claimed to have played in GHOST for seven years under the name Omega. He also revealed that he exited the band in July 2016, although he did not disclose the reasons for his departure.

Persner was not part of the lawsuit filed in early 2017 by four former members of GHOST against the band's lead singer and founder, Tobias Forge. That lawsuit accused Forge of cheating the musicians out of their rightful share of the profits from the group's album releases and world tours.

Photo credit: Claudio Marino

NEUROSIS's founding guitarist/vocalist Scott Kelly has publicly admitted to engaging in "the emotional, financial, verbal and physical abuse" of his wife and children. The 55-year-old has also announced that he is "100% permanently retired from being a professional musician," adding that "my sole focus for the rest of my life is on taking care of my family, allowing them safe space to heal and rebuilding their trust."

In a lengthy statement posted to his Facebook page, Kelly wrote: "Due to recent events, I feel that I clearly need to address some rumors and set the record straight.

"For the past several years I have engaged in the emotional, financial, verbal and physical abuse of my wife and younger children. When I became paranoid that people were going to find out, I found ways to keep my wife and kids from work and school and created divisions with friends and family members. I became obsessed with control and used threats, manipulation, threats of self-harm and suicide, inflicted physical damage on people and their reputations all to keep that control. When I knew my wife was going to leave I tried to convince her and others that I was crazy, and seeing things, and that I did not know what I was doing. She tried to help me with therapy and psychiatrists. My lies and deceptions fell apart in front of the professionals. When my wife finally tried to leave, I stalked and harassed her day and night and caused her and our youngest to live in a constant state of fear.

"I have lied or told half truths to so many people about so much of this that I can't keep track of them," Scott continued. "I don't want to lie about any of this anymore. I love my wife to no end. She is the best person that I know. She is intensely honest, loving and good to her core. This letter is massive simplification of the irreparable damage I have caused and the unforgivable things that I've done to her and our kids. To say more in this public forum would not help anyone. As the truth has started to leak out there have been people who have tried to blame my wife for my abuse to give me an out and people who have spread ridiculous and damaging rumors about her. This is fucked. She deserves so much better. If you are adopting this mentality or spreading these rumors you need to fucking stop.

"I have some serious issues that I am dealing with and I have separated myself from anyone who is connected with my public life so that I can focus on my own toxic shit. When my wife has been kind enough to answer questions about my absence, she has faced crazy accusations. There was a recent situation that was so fucked up that it necessitated immediate action on my part to set the record straight. My wife absolutely speaks for me in my absence and I have already said she is intensely honest. If you don't want the truth definitely don't ask her questions. Additionally it is never appropriate to approach or question our children.

"I know now that choosing to live a public life and be onstage was the worst decision that I could have made given the way that I am," Scott added. "I have hidden behind the attention and unfounded respect and adulation. I used my social position to directly and indirectly manipulate all of you and to hide the abuse of my family. I got satisfaction from my deception and perceived control of everyone involved.

"I am 100% permanently retired from being a professional musician. Some people can be in a scene like this where there is no accountability and maintain their integrity. I cannot. My sole focus for the rest of my life is on taking care of my family, allowing them safe space to heal and rebuilding their trust.

"I hope putting this out there will protect my wife from further attacks and finally allow my family some peace."

Kelly is one of three founding members of Oakland, California experimental metal band NEUROSIS. He has been writing and publishing music since 1985 with NEUROSIS, TRIBES OF NEUROT, BLOOD AND TIME and his solo acoustic project. He was also involved in a project named SHRINEBUILDER with Al Cisneros, Scott Weinrich and Dale Crover. In addition, he has guested on several studio albums by the band MASTODON.

Due to recent events, I feel that I clearly need to address some rumors and set the record straight. For the past…

Posted by Scott Kelly on Saturday, August 27, 2022

Grady Champion, who was "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott's guitar tech throughout his career with PANTERA, says that he has "signed on" for the band's upcoming tour. Grady made his comments just hours after it was announced that the influential heavy metal group will play its first shows in over 20 years in December 2022, starting with a co-headlining slot at Mexico's Hell & Heaven Metal Fest, followed by appearances at three Knotfest festivals in South America.

PANTERA will perform at Hell & Heaven Metal Fest on Friday, December 2 at Foro Pegaso in Toluca. Knotfest Colombia is scheduled for Friday, December 9 at Campin Circuit of Bogotá. Knotfest Chile is slated to take place on Sunday, December 11 at Estadio Monumental in Santiago. Knotfest Brasil will follow on Sunday, December 18 at Sambódromo do Anhembi in São Paulo.

Last month, it was announced that PANTERA's surviving members Philip Anselmo (vocals) and Rex Brown (bass) will unite with guitarist Zakk Wylde (OZZY OSBOURNE, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY) and drummer Charlie Benante (ANTHRAX) for a world tour under the PANTERA banner.

Anselmo and Brown, along with Wylde and Benante, will headline a number of major festivals across North America and Europe and stage some of their own headline concerts.

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

On Thursday (August 25),Grady took to his Instagram to write: "Ok. For all the people i've ghosted, and anyone else who is interested. I'm doing a thing. I signed on for the PANTERA tour. Rita Haney [Dimebag's longtime girlfriend] has allowed me access to some of Dime's gear and i'm bringing it for Zakk. I'm not his tech, he has a bad ass, long-time one. The plan for now is for me to run effects and help bring Dime's tone to the party. The details of the rig and stuff are still to be worked out yet.

"I started with PANTERA and I will end with PANTERA. I didn't know the 'right' thing to think, to say, to do. When I saw the headline like everyone else, I threw up, sweaty palms, heart was freaking out, I had seen that headline 1000 times in my nightmares. After it sunk in and I spoke to everyone, I felt like I would be crazy to turn my nose up and say f that. I need to be involved IF I am needed, turns out I am needed, and i'm fkn doing it.

"Thanks to my family, Jamie McAfee Champion, Garrett Champion, Landon Champion for understanding and LETTING me do this for me, for the cause, for my fallen brothers. I wouldn't be ANYwhere in life if it hadn't been for Dime and his belief in me. So I HAVE to go represent.

"Anyways, not too good with words, but heart is on the sleeve here.

"Anyone that brings up 'money grab' has no concept of reality. How much it takes from people to do this. More dedication that you'll ever see, tears, all of it. If you want to hate, don't go, I don't want to hear it. If you want a PANTERA experience, this is it. We're giving it hell, and going to give it all there is to give. Philip, Rex Brown, Zakk and Char Benante are going to bring it.

"Stronger than all".

In a 2019 interview with U.K.'s Total Guitar magazine, Champion was asked to recall his favorite memory of working with Dimebag. He said: "One thing that sticks in my head is the Monsters Of Rock show in Moscow in '91. Wireless technology was VHF and one channel at the time. I turned the rig on, and we had about 15 minutes before the show. Russian walkie-talkies were coming through the rig, very 'Spinal Tap'-like. The stage was the biggest either of us had seen and I told him he was gonna have to be on a cable. 'There is no way I am going on this motherfuckin' stage with a cable!' A pretty heated argument ensued. I was out of options. A tech for METALLICA (Andy Battye) came running up with one of Jason Newsted's back-up units and saved the day just seconds before showtime. He was a monster that gig and I get chills watching the footage."

Grady said that he first met Dimebag in junior high school. But "our friendship really blossomed when the PANTERA guys let a band I was playing in open up over 100 shows with them in the club days," he said. "The night they were basically signed was the night I became his tech. I just had to convince my parents that going on the road with PANTERA was somehow better than going to college."

Darrell and his brother Vinnie co-founded PANTERA. When PANTERA broke up in 2003, they formed DAMAGEPLAN. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag, 38, was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts.

Vinnie passed away on June 22, 2018 at his home in Las Vegas at the age of 54. He died of dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart, as well as severe coronary artery disease. His death was the result of chronic weakening of the heart muscle — basically meaning his heart couldn't pump blood as well as a healthy heart.

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Image credit: Grady Champion

Former Alice Cooper and current Demi Lovato guitarist Nita Strauss has unleashed her brand new instrumental single, "Summer Storm", with an accompanying live music video shot on her recent U.S. headline tour.

The new track sees Nita return to her instrumental roots following her previous single, the enormously successful "Dead Inside" which featured guest vocals from DISTURBED's David Draiman and saw Nita become the first ever solo female to have a No. 1 hit at Active Rock Radio.

Nita comments: "Instrumental music is where my heart is, and 'Summer Storm' might be the song I feel captures my personal style the most: cathartic, driving and emotional. While a lot of the upcoming record will have guest vocalists, I'm also so proud of the instrumental tracks and excited to officially unleash this one on the world!"

Nita made her live debut with Demi on July 14 with a performance of Lovato's new single, "Substance" on ABC's Emmy Award-winning late-night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live!".

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

Back in February, Nita told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about her upcoming LP: "It's gonna be half and half — six tracks with vocalists and six tracks of instrumental [music]. We've been doing ['Dead Inside'] live on the solo tour and it's been getting a super-good reaction from our crowds. So I think the next [single] will be instrumental — kind of go back to the roots — and then another radio single after that."

Asked if she could talk about some of the other guests that appear on her new solo album, Nita said: "Not just yet. I will say that we've got a really, really cool blend of some legacy people as well as some new singers that I'm really excited about, and some amazing male vocalists and some incredible female vocalists as well."

In early December, Nita told "The Mistress Carrie Podcast" about her decision to make the upcoming LP half vocal songs and half instrumental: "I did feel, and the label and everybody agreed, it's still important for me to keep my identity as a guitar player and not just branch off too much and go, 'Okay, well, now it's just guests.' Let me still have a little of what makes me me, which is the instrumental shred stuff. And the instrumental pieces that I've written on this record are, I think, better than anything I did on the first one — definitely more… I don't know if it could be more emotional but they're very emotional pieces of music and I think a little better crafted this time around. So I think all the songs in general are more well thought out, better put together this time around. And I do have some of my absolute favorite [singers guesting on it]. I have three amazing powerhouse female vocalists on this album so far."

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

As well as performing with Cooper, Nita has also played with R&B star Jermaine Jackson, early MTV darlings FEMME FATALE, video game supergroup CRITICAL HIT and popular tribute band THE IRON MAIDENS.

In April 2020, Nita launched "Rock Guitar Fundamentals" — a three-module online guitar teaching program suitable for learners of all levels. The course is available at www.iwanttoplayguitar.com.

Nita's solo live show is mostly instrumental in nature, combining originals with covers.

Founding MURDERDOLLS vocalist Wednesday 13 has accused the band's former guitarist Acey Slade of "stealing" the MURDERDOLLS name from late SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison.

Last week, it was announced that Slade and former MURDERDOLLS bassist Eric Griffin would take part in a signing on Sunday, August 28 at the Silver Scream convention at the Hilton Double Tree North Shore in Danvers, Massachusetts to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of MURDERDOLLS' first album, "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls". The event was slated to be livestreamed on several platforms, including YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Acey and Eric were also going to be doing a meet-and-greet after the announcement for those in attendance at Silver Scream Con. In addition, Acey and Eric launched a web site, murderdollsofficial.com, that purports to cater to all of the MURDERDOLLS alumni and their legion of fans affectionally known as The Ghoulscouts.

On Thursday (August 25),Wednesday 13 took to his social media to throw shade at his former bandmates, insisting that any merchandise being advertised using the MURDERDOLLS logos, music and lyrics is unapproved and unauthorized. Two days later (Saturday, August 27),Acey responded to Wednesday, saying that the re-release of "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls" is officially licensed after he went through a "time-consuming and expensive" process reinstating the assets from Warner Music Group which fully acquired Roadrunner Records in 2010 after first buying 73.5% of the company in January 2007. He also invited all former member of the MURDERDOLLS to "use the band as a platform for their own endeavors".

On Sunday, Wednesday 13 once again took to his social media to clarify his position on the MURDERDOLLS dispute. He wrote: "Hello everyone, I want to take a moment to explain my comments this week on this MURDERDOLLS situation.

"My issues have nothing to do with any ex members celebrating the 20th anniversary of that album. I have been celebrating the anniversary as well on my tours this year. However I have been celebrating it as Wednesday 13, not MURDERDOLLS.

"The first album released in 2002, all music was written by Joey and I. The only other member to contribute to this record was Tripp [Eisen] with a few guitar solos. All other instruments/vocals are performed by Joey and Wednesday. We assembled the touring lineup after the recording was finished consisting of Eric, Ben and Acey.

"The band went on hiatus eight years after this and returned in 2010 with the sophomore MURDERDOLLS album. This album and touring lineup did not feature any of the touring members from the first album. This was decided by Joey, as his decision to only have he and I photographed on that album.

"This was Joey's band, he invited me into this world, and I am able to do what I do today because of him and the MURDERDOLLS name, and that's what this whole situation is about.

"MURDERDOLLS trademark had lapsed. This was unknown to Joey or I as the band was inactive and no one was watching for this. However it seems Acey was watching for it, and applied for the MD trademark to take the name behind our backs. Acey succeeded in gaining the trademark. He applied for this trademark 1 year before I was notified and a year before Joey's passing. He never notified Joey about this, as he knew he would be furious and not approve.

"There's no other way I can view this other than he stole the name from Joey. He is now launching websites, merchandise, and our first album as Official MURDERDOLLS, erasing my name out of the bio/ history of the band.

"It's sad that I've had to make this a public discussion, but that's where we are. I'm not involved with this situation because I chose not to be involved with it. It doesn't sit well with me and I cannot get behind it."

After the completion of the touring cycle for "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls", MURDERDOLLS went on hiatus so that guitarist Joey Jordison could focus on his other band SLIPKNOT. In 2010, MURDERDOLLS released a sophomore album, "Women And Children Last", which did not feature Slade, Griffin and drummer Ben "The Ghoul" Graves, all of whom played on "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls".

Just a few days prior to "Women And Children Last"'s arrival, Slade gave an interview to Blog Talk Radio's "Zombilly's Horror Hour" in which he said that he wasn't invited to take part in the making of the LP.

"We waited around a long time — myself, Eric and the Ghoul — we waited around a long time to do this record. And when Joey and Wednesday said that they wanted to do it by themselves, that was a bit of a... like, 'Really?! That's not what we discussed,'" he said. "But, quite frankly, it's like, okay, well, it's been seven years. You can't hold somebody to something they said seven years ago. It's like, 'Okay, cool.'"

Acey went on to say that he didn't like the material on "Women And Children Last". "I think it sounds like all the things that the band said that we weren't gonna be," he said. "When I was in the band, it was, 'We don't drop-tune — we tune standard 'cause we're a rock band — it's all tongue-in-cheek, nothing's serious. And now it's drop-tuned, it's serious subject matter, and it's not something I wanted to be a part of. It's like, wow, we were supposed to be a fun band that pissed people off, not a pissed off band that is writing... I don't know... It sounds like DISTURBED to me. It sounds like DISTURBED with Rob Zombie vocals. That was the other thing, too. [Laughs] Everybody was, like, 'You guys are like ALICE COOPER meets ROB ZOMBIE,' and we weren't. And it seems like all the negative things that people thought about us before they heard us, the band has now become. I'm not interested in that. I have a lot more creativity than that. And those guys do, too. So I'm a little disappointed for them. But you know, hey.... whatever. I guess they're happy doing it, but it's not something that I would wanna be a part of. And it's, like, weird, the whole Joey and Wednesday... They've got pictures of just Joey and Wednesday. I think it's pretty clear that they didn't want anyone else at the party; they want it to be an exclusive thing for them, I suppose."

Wednesday 13 reunited with Griffin and Slade on stage for the first time in over a decade in August 2018 at Lucky Strike Live in Hollywood. The event, which celebrated the life of Graves, saw the trio performing some of MURDERDOLLS' classic songs.

Graves, who also worked with PRETTY BOY FLOYD and DOPE, passed away in May 2018 after a year-long battle with cancer. He was only 45 years old.

The MURDERDOLLS did a number of major tours in support of "Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls". By the summer of 2003, the tenacity of the band was paying off. Tours with IRON MAIDEN, PAPA ROACH and the FOO FIGHTERS around the world and a Top 40 U.K. single with "White Wedding" made the band fan favorite in Metal Hammer, Metal Edge, Kerrang! and Rock Sound magazines.

Wednesday 13 photo credit: Stephen Jensen at F3 Studios for Napalm Records

Hello everyone, I want to take a moment to explain my comments this week on this Murderdolls situation.

My issues have...

Posted by Wednesday 13 on Sunday, August 28, 2022

Grammy Award-nominated hard rock outfit IN THIS MOMENT has released the song "Whore 1983" from its upcoming EP, "Blood 1983".

The "Blood 1983" EP commemorates the tenth anniversary of IN THIS MOMENT's gold-certified album "Blood" (2012) and will be available digitally across all digital service providers as well as CD on October 21 via BMG.

IN THIS MOMENT singer Maria Brink said: "We are excited to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our album 'Blood' by bringing this new EP to life. 'Blood' changed our lives and shifted our career in a way we will never forget. We created this reimagined version because we wanted to give our beautiful fans something to be excited about. 'Blood 1983' is just that… We can't wait for the world to hear it."

"Blood 1983" was co-produced by Tyler Bates and Dan Haigh, and mixed by Zakk Cervini.

Bates said: "The collab between IN THIS MOMENT, the inimitable Dan Haigh of GUNSHIP and myself yielded an awesome reimagining of four of the band's classic songs; leaning into synth wave and industrial music that has inspired all of us throughout our careers in music. We love it."

"Blood 1983" EP track listing

01. 1983
02. Adrenalize 1983
03. Burn 1983
04. Blood 1983
05. Whore 1983

This past weekend, IN THIS MOMENT launched its "Blood 1983" tour with special guests NOTHING MORE, SLEEP TOKEN and CHERRY BOMBS. The tour has the group set to take over stages in major markets, including Dallas, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles and Chicago from August through October 2022.

Since coming to life in 2005, IN THIS MOMENT has presided over a diehard fan base under the watch of "mother" figure and frontwoman Maria Brink — joined by co-founder and lead guitarist Chris Howorth, bassist Travis Johnson, guitarist Randy Weitzel and drummer Kent Dimmel. As millions convened upon the group's otherworldly and unforgettable concerts, they quietly emerged as one of the most influential and impactful bands of the 21st century.

To date, in addition to the gold-selling album "Blood", the quintet has garnered two gold singles — "Blood" and "Whore" — followed by Top 25 entries on the Billboard Top 200 with "Black Widow" (2014) and "Ritual" (2017). Bringing their total stream tally well past 200 million as of 2020, "Ritual" elevated them to new creative and critical peaks as well. Between selling out headline tours coast-to-coast, the group performed in arenas everywhere alongside DISTURBED and appeared at countless festivals from Welcome To Rockville to Sonic Temple. Along the way, they assembled their seventh full-length, the aptly titled "Mother" (Roadrunner) with longtime collaborator Kevin Churko (OZZY OSBOURNE, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH).

IN THIS MOMENT is Maria Brink (lead vocals),Chris Howorth (guitars),Travis Johnson (bass),Randy Weitzel (rhythm guitar),Kent Dimmel (drums).

Photo credit: Jeremy Saffer

BUCKCHERRY singer Josh Todd and guitarist Stevie Dacanay (a.k.a. Stevie D.) will head to Nashville in three weeks to finish the writing process for the band's tenth studio album. The band will begin recording the effort on November 4 for a 2023 release.

BUCKCHERRY's follow-up to last year's "Hellbound" will once again he helmed by producer and songwriter-for-hire Marti Frederiksen, who has previously collaborated with AEROSMITH, DEF LEPPARD, Jonny Lang and Sheryl Crow, among many others.

Frederiksen previously produced "Hellbound" as well as BUCKCHERRY's fourth album, "Black Butterfly", and co-wrote "Sorry", among other songs, with the band.

"Hellbound" came out in June 2021 via Round Hill Records. The follow-up to 2019's "Warpaint" was recorded in the fall of 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee.

In the summer of 2020, BUCKCHERRY recruited JETBOY's Billy Rowe as its new guitarist. He joined the group as the replacement for Kevin Roentgen, who left BUCKCHERRY in July of that year.

In 2019, BUCKCHERRY enlisted Francis Ruiz as its new drummer. He joined the group as the replacement for Sean Winchester, who exited BUCKCHERRY after laying down the drum tracks on "Warpaint".

Earlier this year, Todd told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he and his bandmates have never had the luxury to slack off on their work habits, even during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"When you're in a band, it's like it's your business. So if you just sit around and wait for people to tell you what to do, then you're not running a good business," Todd said. "We've always created opportunities within ourselves. We have to make schedules, we have to stick to them. We have to show up and work hard. We're so used to doing that because people have written this band off many times and we have many peaks and valleys in the BUCKCHERRY career. We have come back from a lot of adversity and had a lot of success. And we only did that by believing in ourselves and working hard because no one else is going to do that except us."

BUCKCHERRY burst on to the scene in 1999 with its now-classic self-titled debut album. Hit singles "Lit Up", "For The Movies", "Dead Again" and "Check Your Head" brought the celebration back to the party scene, recalling the gritty glam impact of MÖTLEY CRÜE but with a Gen X-demanded, modern self-awareness . Later albums continued to develop their reputation for volatile, mercurial themes and infectious hooks; such singles as "Crazy Bitch", "Everything", "Too Drunk" and "All Night Long" became screaming choruses for fans across the world. With their irreverent and bawdy lyrics, delivered with Todd's whisky weathered vocals, paired with filthy guitar riffs and high-energy, throbbing bass lines, BUCKCHERRY has sustained a hard-earned reputation as a not-to-be-missed live presence with regular touring schedules alongside such legends as MÖTLEY CRÜE and PAPA ROACH.

Only NINE CHANCES LEFT to catch us on the 2022 Hellbound Tour!! While we look forward to The KISS Kruise, New Zealand...

Posted by Buckcherry on Monday, August 29, 2022

During an appearance on the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast hosted by Chris Jericho, MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine spoke about his working relationship with the band's lead guitarist Kiko Loureiro with whom he has collaborated since 2015. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Kiko has a very playful nature. He's very much like a cat, with the way that he kind of plays around with certain things. I think the differences between dogs and cats are pretty obvious. Kiko is very cerebral with his thoughts; they're very calculated. And he's very much in his — I don't wanna say 'his own world' because that sounds disrespectful. But Kiko is very happy with his life and where he's going.

"We all face challenges at every stage in our life, and this is no different than anybody else," Dave continued. "Going out on a two-month tour when you have a set of five-year-old twins [as Kiko does] is challenging. But I think that the success of the record right now is setting the stage. As things change for us with our careers, as we start to learn how to conduct ourselves as businessmen, start to put a little bit of money in the bank, start to get a car, get a house, start to save some money and plan for the future, those are things that are all happening right now with Kiko and Dirk [Verbeuren, MEGADETH drummer]. [Kiko's] been at this a long time.

"This is really great now 'cause I told [Kiko] when I first met him, I said, 'Your life's gonna change. I don't care how big you think [your former band] ANGRA is' — 'cause I like ANGRA too — but I said, 'You're gonna go from being in ANGRA to being a star in MEGADETH.' And I said, 'If you play your cards right, you'll end up being a superstar.'"

Mustaine added: "I've always tried to paint the picture, the dynamic, I think, with the band. Sometimes the success of the band is based on the makeup of the pyramid of the band. You've got your marquee player, much like in hockey you've got your goal scorer. And then you've got your B-grade players — usually your supporting cast. And then your C-grade players, your defensemen, and then D grade, which are your grinders, your utility players. Establishing that hierarchy around your franchise player is what the success of the team is built on.

"When you have a band that's got, say, four guys; we'll keep it simple. And all four guys, they just play an instrument. They're not musicians; they just play instruments. They'll never make it. They'll never make it. So you have a band of four guys and they're all musicians. Will they make it? They'll probably be a really good cover band. If you have a band and you have one star in it, will you make it? Probably. But the other guys in that band won't be there when the smoke clears. If you have several stars in the band, there's a good chance they're gonna stick together the whole time, and there's a good chance that you're gonna go on to superstardom. If you're a superstar, you don't really need a band. You want a band sometimes. You find people you really like, but they don't always keep pace. And it's very much like being a wagon train. You can't have an ox next to a horse [pulling the wagon train]. They're unevenly paired up.

"I don't know if you've had to make any of those terrible things we call lineup changes. The worst part is when you have to make a lineup change with a friend," Dave said. "Like if you are playing in a band and you put it together with high school mates and you have to say goodbye to somebody, that's always painful.

"The thing I've always said is if you get in a band with a friend, prepare to lose both. I think when you have to say goodbye to those guys, a lot of times the friendship is over. So that's a caveat for young musicians. If you hire somebody based on their ability to play, then you don't ever have to explain to anybody why you got a bad bass player? 'Well, he's dating my sister.' 'Well, great. He sucks. He can't even play 'Dazed And Confused'.'"

Dave previously floated his theory about "superstar" musicians during a 2018 interview with mxdwn. Speaking about how the metal scene has changed since MEGADETH first started back in the early 1980s, Mustaine said: "I look at it like this: there's people that know how to make music, there's musicians, there's people that are stars, there's people that are superstars, right? A guy that knows how to make music can go sit on a piano and play 'Chopsticks'. A musician can play. A star is somebody that can play the piano and you'll go, 'Wow, that guy's really good.' A superstar is somebody who you've got that guy's record in your house somewhere already. … For example, LED ZEPPELIN — LED ZEPPELIN had four superstars. If you think of a band like, say, AC/DC, [they] had maybe, people would argue, two superstars: Angus [Young] and the frontman, right? So at times, especially when you have a high school band, maybe all four of you are just musicians, but one guy's got the spark and he's got what it takes. And maybe he becomes a star. And that's why most bands don't make it, because they've only got one guy that's a star and the rest are just musicians. I think we've been really lucky because [then-MEGADETH bassist] David's [Ellefson, bass] got moments of greatness where he goes from being a star to a superstar; most notably is the riff I wrote for 'Peace Sells…But Who's Buying?' When I showed that to him, he embraced it and people fell in love with his playing and the rest is history."

MEGADETH's new album, "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!" , will arrive on September 2 via UMe.

During an appearance on the latest episode of the "Rock 'N' SeXXXy UnCensored With Amber Lynn" podcast, FEAR FACTORY guitarist Dino Cazares spoke about the fact that he is "very active" on social media. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I do answer a lot of fans back — good and bad."

When host Amber Lynn asked if he lets any of the online criticism of his music get to him, Dino said: "I look at it this way: at least they listened to it and gave it a shot. But there are people who just wanna go up there and just talk shit; that's just how they are. But the funny thing is that when they do and then I answer them back, they're surprised. They think that they're anonymous; they think that no one's gonna see it. But people do see it. A lot of artists do see it. A lot of artists kind of try to ignore it because it bothers them. Some artists just can't handle it; they're very insecure about it. But I'm, like, 'I'll give you shit back.' It's funny, 'cause they'll give me shit and I'll give them shit back, and then they'll be, like, 'Well, you're the asshole,' 'cause I responded to them and gave it back to them. So it's kind of funny."

After co-host Joe Williamson noted that you've got to have "thick skin" to be in the entertainment business, Dino said: "Correct. But [the online trolls have] gotta have the thick skin as well if they're gonna dish it out; they've gotta be able to handle it. It's so easy, 'cause somebody could try to attack you online and you just go look 'em up on Facebook, Instagram or wherever. 'Okay, this guy's got this, got this,' and you could attack them back. And people are, like, 'Oh, shit.'"

Dino has yet to announce FEAR FACTORY's new singer following the departure of Burton C. Bell nearly two years ago.

In a recent interview, Cazares confirmed that ONCE HUMAN's Lauren Hart originally auditioned for the vocalist position in FEAR FACTORY before he recruited her to front his DIVINE HERESY project.

This past February, former NIGHTRAGE singer Antony Hämäläinen, who unsuccessfully auditioned for the vocalist slot in FEAR FACTORY, claimed in an interview that the new FF frontman is "a person from Italy."

In April, Dino told "The Garza Podcast" that the new FEAR FACTORY singer is emotionally ready to handle the inevitable pushback from some fans that he will get once his identity has been revealed.

Pressed about what happened to cause Burton to leave FEAR FACTORY, Dino said: "Because we went through some really heavy lawsuits for four years, and it financially crippled us — personally as well — and I just believe that he lost interest. I think that possibly all the stuff that we went through in FEAR FACTORY was just, like… He's one of those guys, 'Fuck it. I'm out. I quit. Fuck it.' He doesn't come across as a fighter — as somebody who's gonna be, like, 'Fuck it. We went through it. Let's go through it and let's just continue.' I mean, I left the door open for him for a while to come back into the band, but he pretty much said fuck me, Raymond [Herrera, former FEAR FACTORY drummer] and Christian [Olde Wolbers, former FEAR FACTORY bassist] — everybody. Fuck everybody."

In September 2020, Bell issued a statement officially announcing his departure from FEAR FACTORY, saying that he "cannot align" himself with someone whom he does not trust or respect.

Bell's exit from FEAR FACTORY came more than two weeks after Cazares launched a GoFundMe campaign to assist him with the production costs associated with the release of FEAR FACTORY's latest LP, "Aggression Continuum".

"Aggression Continuum" was released in June 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP, which was recorded primarily in 2017, features Cazares and Bell alongside drummer Mike Heller.
Listen to "Dino Cazares, Fear Factor" on Spreaker.Rock’N’SeXXXyU thank you Fear Factory’s Dino Cazares for a great show pictured with host Amber Lynn, and Joe Williamson if you missed the live show replay on our blog at https://t.co/DGNjAaJfx7 or UNBGO Ch1 also Spotify pic.twitter.com/p08vbe8JBL

— Rock'N'SeXXXyU™ (@RockNSeXXXyU) August 26, 2022

Chuck D of PUBLIC ENEMY joined ANTHRAX on stage this past Friday night (August 26) at Coney Island Amphitheater in Brooklyn, New York to perform "Bring The Noise", the song ANTHRAX and PUBLIC ENEMY recorded together in 1991. Fan-filmed video footage of his appearance can be seen below.

Chuck D previously performed "Bring The Noise" with ANTHRAX on July 29 at the Hollywood Palladium in Hollywood, California.

During the recording of ANTHRAX's "Persistence Of Time" album, guitarist Scott Ian suggested the band — all big PUBLIC ENEMY fans — record a cover of PUBLIC ENEMY's "Bring The Noise". He loved the idea of recording a metal version of the song, of melding his guitar sound with Chuck D's voice, plus, PUBLIC ENEMY had name-checked ANTHRAX in the lyrics. Once the demo was arranged and recorded, Scott sent a cassette of it to Chuck D with the pitch for Chuck and Flavor Flav to record a version of the track with ANTHRAX. After hearing the demo, Chuck D wholeheartedly agreed. In June, 1991, the ANTHRAX-PUBLIC ENEMY collaboration of "Bring The Noise" was released on ANTHRAX's B-sides/rarities album "Attack Of The Killer B's", and then on PUBLIC ENEMY's "Apocalypse 91...The Enemy Strikes Black" album in October of that same year. The song blew up, and received a Grammy nomination for "Best Metal Performance." Then, on September 24, 1991, as part of ANTHRAX's "Persistence Of Time" touring cycle, the two bands went out on the road together, the "Bring The Noise Tour" — ANTHRAX and PUBLIC ENEMY, with PRIMUS and the YOUNG BLACK TEENAGERS supporting. The shows ended with ANTHRAX and PUBLIC ENEMY on stage together performing "Bring The Noise".

Asked in a 2013 interview with The National Student if he thinks the backlash in the collaboration ANTHRAX did with PUBLIC ENEMY helped to form any of the nu-metal music today, Ian said: "You know, people ask us, do we think we created certain genres of music that the press named after we did what we did with PUBLIC ENEMY. I never thought we invented it. It certainly opened a door, even just a window for people to jump out of. I truly believe that RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE were the band that drove a train through that door; they took the influences in their individuals and came together to make a band out of it. Whereas with us and PUBLIC ENEMY, it's not like ANTHRAX became a rap group and it's not like PUBLIC ENEMY became a metal group, we just collaborated together and did something great. We didn't then become one unit and continue to make music like that. Whereas, RAGE AGAINST were that unit and this is the music that they were creating from their souls which blew up massively on a worldwide level. So I think if anything, whether or not they'd want the credit for it, it's definitely RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE for me that created rap metal, nu-metal, whatever you want to call it. Everything that came after them showed that a direct line had to go back to RAGE. The only thing I can personally take credit for is, there have been guys in bands that have come up to me and personally told me the influence that we bring to them specifically some of the dudes from LINKIN PARK told me years and years ago that the first concert they ever saw was ANTHRAX and PUBLIC ENEMY in Los Angeles. And they left that show saying that's the kind of band we want me to make. I know the guys in RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and I know Tom [Morello, guitar] and he was a fan of ours and PUBLIC ENEMY's and what we did. I'm not saying 'Bring The Noise' was a direct responsibility for RAGE, but I know that it's something they are certainly fans of."

In a separate interview with the Cleveland Music Examiner, Ian stated about ANTHRAX's original decision to record a cover of "Bring The Noise": "By that point, there was a new audience, and we certainly reached a lot of new people with that PUBLIC ENEMY track. People who maybe weren't into what we'd done before, or who weren't metalheads. So that track crossed over for us and took us into a new zone. But it's funny, because we haven't done anything rap or crossed over since 'Bring The Noise', yet people once again still talk about it, which shows me how special it was. People still want to hear it and people still reference it all the time, and it's almost 25 years old. And sometimes we're categorized as a 'rap metal' band, when we only ever did the two songs — other then maybe screwing around with 'Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun' with the BEASTIE BOYS as a B-side — but yeah. People still talk about it as if that's what we do."

On August 19, drummer Gene Hoglan of reactivated California thrash metal pioneers DARK ANGEL confirmed to Oxygène Radio's "Metal Zone" that he and his bandmates are continuing work on new material. "Absolutely," he said. "We are writing right now. I've been writing for the last decade, really, just putting down DARK ANGEL riffs and all that. So now that we're really moving forward with DARK ANGEL…

"When we reformed a number of years ago — about a decade or so ago — it was for just a bunch of concerts," he explained. "And then we all jelled together so good, I'm, like, 'Man, let's keep this together. Let's start writing.' So [DARK ANGEL guitarist] Jim Durkin and myself have been writing a ton of stuff. So hopefully by the middle part of 2023, we hope to have a new album out. We're hoping.

"My schedule has been so crazy," Hoglan added. "All I can do is just keep working on material. So at some point before 2023, I hope to get the drums recorded and the guitars and get all the rest of the record on the road. But we're hoping."

DARK ANGEL's first CD since 1991's "Time Does Not Heal" will feature the lineup that has performed sporadic live shows since reuniting in 2013: Hoglan, Durkin, Eric Meyer (guitar),Ron Rinehart (vocals) and Michael Gonzalez (bass).

Durkin has been sitting out some of DARK ANGEL's recent gigs. He was replaced at the shows by Hoglan's wife Laura Christine.

This past February, Hoglan said during a Twitch livestream from his home that he and his DARK ANGEL bandmates were "in the process" of making a new album. "That's actually one of the reasons I can't be doing TESTAMENT stuff this year. Because, [with] DARK ANGEL, we are writing a record, we are moving forward," he said. "Just a week and a half ago, two weeks ago, I just had Mr. Eric Meyer from DARK ANGEL in this room. We were jamming it out, we wrote a new DARK ANGEL song.

"I've been moving forward with writing. We have gigs coming up, so this year, it won't be heavily, heavily, heavily DARK ANGEL, but now that my schedule's open, I can commit a little harder to some DARK ANGEL gigs," he explained. "We do intend to be in the studio before the end of this year. So I have a lot of work ahead of me, and so does Jim Durkin. He's been sending over songs, riffs, stuff like that, [which has been] super exciting. We're all of the same mindset of making this just the most absolutely kick-ass DARK ANGEL record that we can."

DARK ANGEL released two albums with Don Doty on vocals — 1984's "We Have Arrived" and 1986's "Darkness Descends" — before he exited the group and was replaced by Rinehart (after a brief stint with Jim Drabos in 1987). The band issued two more studio LPs — 1989's "Leave Scars" and the aforementioned "Time Does Not Heal" — before calling it quits in 1992.

After playing two "secret rehearsal shows" in June, the new DELAIN lineup made its official live debut last night (Saturday, August 27) at the Riverside festival in Aarburg, Switzerland. Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen below.

Joining keyboardist, founder and main songwriter Martijn Westerholt in DELAIN's current lineup are new singer Diana Leah, original guitarist Ronald Landa and original drummer Sander Zoer, along with bassist Ludovico Cioffi.

Leah answered a few fan-submitted questions via the band's YouTube channel, including how she joined the long-running Dutch metal act. She said: "It's really simple, actually. I knew they were looking for a singer so I just left a comment on their Instagram page. So a couple of days later I received an e-mail from Martijn, and we talked a bit about how I could audition and he sent me some material that I could sing on. And the rest is history."

Asked how she decided to sing in a metal band, the 32-year-old Diana said: "Well, I've always wanted to sing in a metal band. It was really my desire to do it. In fact, I did sing in a couple of rock bands, but it wasn't really heavy music, which I loved at the time. It was really hard to find the right people to form a band with and also to get along together and all that. But I've always wanted to be in a metal band. Always."

Leah also talked a bit about her background, saying: "I was born in Romania, in a city called Alba Iulia. It's in the middle of Transylvania. And then I moved to Italy when I was 15, and I lived in Italy for, I think, 10 years or something. And then I moved to Canada, in Ottawa, and I lived there for five years. And then I came back to Italy. And now I currently live in Italy, near Torino, so up north."

Earlier in the month, DELAIN released a new single, "The Quest And The Curse", featuring the band's trademark bombastic riffs, lush orchestrations, elements from film music, metal, pop, electronic, and much more mark an amalgamation of the old and new, and build the next chapter of DELAIN's history.

Westerholt stated: "The future of DELAIN looks bright!"

DELAIN is:

Martijn Westerholt - keyboards
Diana Leah - vocals
Ronald Landa - guitars and backing vocals
Ludovico Cioffi - bass and backing vocals
Sander Zoer - drums

In February 2021, Westerholt announced the dissolution of DELAIN's previous lineup. At the time, he explained: "For the last year or so, the collaboration within the band ceased to work as well as it once had. Some of us were no longer happy with the current roles in the band. We all tried very hard to find a solution for over a year, but sadly we were unable to find one. As a result, we will all be going our own ways and pursuing our own endeavors.

"I am very sad our cooperation has come to end, but at the same time I am very grateful for all the years we were able to work together. Together we toured the world, shared highs and lows, and met with many successes as well as times that pushed us to learn and grow. We all enjoyed meeting our fans and making new friends all over the globe."

Singer Charlotte Wessels said about her departure: "I know that you might have questions about the 'why' in all of this. I fully understand and respect that. Simply put, it is the sad conclusion of more than a year of trying to find solutions to built up grievances. Part of me feels like I'm letting all of you down, I'd like you to know that this decision was not taken lightly and I apologise to those of you who had high hopes of seeing all of us together live on stage again after lockdown. Until recently, I thought this might still be in the cards for us as well."

DELAIN's sixth full-length album, the Westerholt-produced "Apocalypse & Chill", was released in February 2020 via Napalm Records.

+++ Riverside Festival Aarburg was a Blast! +++Delain's first festival appearance was a great event to start with in...

Posted by Werner Steinmann on Sunday, August 28, 2022

Soundcheck time Delain Riverside Aarburg
Best birthday ever!!!🙏

Posted by Diana Leah on Saturday, August 27, 2022

On our way to beautiful Switzerland. See you tomorrow at Riverside Festival Aarburg main stage at 11PM!! 🎸🤘

Posted by Delain on Friday, August 26, 2022

Legendary hard rock singer Joe Lynn Turner joined the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra on stage last night (Saturday, August 27) at the Vienna State Opera in Vienna, Austria. The "Rock The Opera" event brought two things together that you wouldn't normally find paired in a way like this — rock songs and a philharmonic orchestra. Instead of distorted guitar sounds blaring through an amplifier, attendees got to hear symphonic rearrangements of rock classics by iconic bands such as PINK FLOYD, LED ZEPPELIN, U2, QUEEN, DEEP PURPLE and others.

After the show, Joe took to his social media to share a video from the concert, and he included the following message: "Never ending standing ovation last night at the fully sold out Vienna State Opera! It felt so good to be back! What an incredible concert we have all shared! Thank you so much for all the love, support and admiration! I love you all!"

This past week, Joe received praise from fans and fellow rock musicians for finally deciding to drop the hairpiece he has worn since the age of 14 after being diagnosed with alopecia at three years old. (Note: For the Vienna concert, Turner went back to wearing the wig.)

The former RAINBOW and DEEP PURPLE singer, who turned 71 earlier this month, went public with his new look on Thursday (August 25) in a series publicity images released to promote his upcoming solo album, "Belly Of The Beast". In a press release for the LP, Joe said that he started wearing the wig to deal with "emotional and psychological damage from cruel bullying in school."

"In a way, it's a blessing and a curse," Joe admitted. "I have nothing to prove, and I can wear a wig — or not. I am free to do what I want. I'm a grown man, and I'm getting to be an older man.

"Many men in this business eventually come to the decision to continue to 'wear hair' or shave their head which is very fashionable today. Either way, it takes a lot of personal courage. Assholes in high school trying to kick me around made me stronger and gave me the necessary motivation and strength to rise above the rest. Anger and pain are a great tool. If applied correctly, it could develop you to become the best version of yourself. Instead of running away, I was 'hiding in plain sight.'"

Alopecia areata is a disease that happens when the immune system attacks hair follicles and causes hair loss. Hair follicles are the structures in skin that form hair. While hair can be lost from any part of the body, alopecia areata usually affects the head and face. Hair typically falls out in small, round patches about the size of a quarter, but in some cases, hair loss is more extensive. Most people with the disease are healthy and have no other symptoms.

Alopecia became a topic of discussion in the mainstream media in March when actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony. Will's wife, the 50-year-old actress Jade Pinkett Smith, experienced hair loss due to alopecia and has always openly shared her struggle. The confrontation took place after Rock made a joke, calling Pinkett Smith "G.I. Jane" in reference to her bald head, which she has previously explained is due to alopecia. The shocking incident saw Will storm on stage to hit Chris following the offending comment before returning to his seat and yelling "keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth" shortly before he collected his best actor gong for his role in "King Richard".

Joe was the singer of RAINBOW between 1980 and 1984 and he sang on the album "Difficult To Cure", which featured the band's most successful U.K. single, "I Surrender".

During Turner's time with RAINBOW, the band had its first USA chart success and recorded songs that helped define the melodic rock genre.

1990 saw Turner reunited with RAINBOW leader Ritchie Blackmore in a reformed DEEP PURPLE for the "Slaves And Masters" album.

Photo credit: Agata Nigrovskaya



Never ending standing ovation last night at the fully sold out Vienna State Opera! It felt so good to be back! What an incredible concert we have all shared! Thank you so much for all the love, support and admiration! I love you all!

Rock the Opera

Posted by Joe Lynn Turner on Sunday, August 28, 2022

Grateful♥️🙏🏻

Such an incredible experience! I love my job♥️

@joelynnturnerofficial
@leanne.jarvis
@alteriaofficial...

Posted by MAKY on Sunday, August 28, 2022

Rock the Opera

Posted by Welles Hannes on Saturday, August 27, 2022



Rock the Opera 🎸

Posted by Ulrike Burkert on Saturday, August 27, 2022



Rock the Opera...🎸

Posted by Ulrike Burkert on Saturday, August 27, 2022

Former QUIET RIOT singer James Durbin played his first show under the DURBIN band banner this past Friday (August 26) at the Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco, California. Joining him on stage at the gig were Dylan Rose (lead guitar), Mike Roberts (bass), Eric James Peterson (drums) and Moksha Hartshauser (rhythm guitar). DURBIN's setlist included a cover version of the JUDAS PRIEST classic "The Ripper".

"American Idol" finalist Durbin famously sang the PRIEST classic "You Got Another Thing Coming" on the March 1, 2011 edition of "Idol". His rendition marked the first time, according to AEROSMITH singer and then-"American Idol" judge Steven Tyler, where a JUDAS PRIEST single was performed on the "Idol" stage. Two months later, Durbin performed JUDAS PRIEST's classic songs "Living After Midnight" and "Breaking The Law" with the British heavy metal legends themselves during the "American Idol" finale.

A short time later, PRIEST singer Rob Halford told FoxNews.com's "Fox 411": "It's just amazing, it really is. We've gotta say thank you to James and to 'American Idol' for putting heavy metal music into 30 million American homes week after week. He's become a hero of ours."

Halford continued: "We had no idea that [James] was covering this song by PRIEST. All of us back in the U.K. and various locations around the world, our phones [were going off] with texts. 'Can you believe what's happening?' We were absolutely thrilled."

"James is epitomizing heavy metal, because it's the type of music that we've always had to fight for, really," added PRIEST drummer Scott Travis. "So the fact that he got eliminated quicker than some people wanted him to, and he's still around and he's probably gonna have a long career. And it's the same sort of thing we've had to deal with."

JUDAS PRIEST's appearance on "American Idol" marked the band's first performance with guitarist Richie Faulkner.

Five years ago, Durbin stepped into QUIET RIOT with a head full of ideas and the pipes to match. His stint with QUIET RIOT got off to a rocky start when he had to re-record Seann Nicols's vocals on 2017's "Road Rage". From there, Durbin never quite seemed like the right fit — no matter his vocal prowess and energetic stage persona. The vocalist left QUIET RIOT in September 2019, two months before his final studio album with the band, "Hollywood Cowboys", was released.

Durbin has since fared much better. Starting with last year's strong, pure-metal foray "The Beast Awakens", the singer proved capable of writing and performing his own material. His latest venture is CLEANBREAK, another in a long line of Frontiers Music Srl-created projects that brings together veteran hard rock and metal musicians. Paired with RIOT guitarist Mike Flyntz and the STRYPER pair of Perry Richardson (bass) and Robert Sweet (drums), their "Coming Home" debut keeps Durbin firmly planted in classic metal.

In a recent interview with BLABBERMOUTH.NET, Durbin was asked if he is now "a solo guy" or if he is going to be doing "bands" more frequently. He responded: "I don't really know. [Laughs] To be honest with you, I'm going with the flow. Professionally, everything I'm doing is with Frontiers. What I wanted to do after QUIET RIOT, which is kind of where I wasn't completely satisfied creatively, is that I really wanted to be creative and challenge myself. I wanted that outlet. I put out a record when I was with QUIET RIOT, 'Homeland', which is where I was at the time creatively and emotionally. I thought that was the best way to write the songs and showcase them as clean, Americana storytelling. After that, it was, like, 'Okay. I'm going to get my singer/songwriter shit out of the way. I was singing about it every fucking night: I want to bang my head. If I was a metal band, what would I sound like? What I was going to do was write an album with other people. Then I'd go, 'I'm not a metal songwriter or a riff writer. How can I do this on my own?' I was trying to line up sessions and then the pandemic hit. So, I kinda had no choice and I became a riff writer, which was fun. I really challenged myself songwriting-wise. After the DURBIN 'The Beast Awakens' album and into CLEANBREAK, this new chapter has really been defined by the age in which we're living in and the pandemic in which we've been experiencing. It really hasn't given me an opportunity to tour it. The album was released right in February or March of 2021. People were just starting to go out, the bigger bands. I'm also at the point where the most important thing to me is seeing my kids and watching them grow and being with my wife. I'm not super gung-ho to go on tour. Let me rephrase: I would absolutely love to go on tour. I would love to. If there was a tour booked and everything was in place and all I had to was get there and sing, that'd be amazing. It's not that easy. I opened myself to the universe and allowed opportunities to come to me. I put out a general idea of what I would like and worked towards that while letting things come to me. I haven't stopped working. I've been the busiest I've been playing pickup shows with other people; 'sideman' stuff, as I like to call it, and production and all sorts of things. To be able to make kick-ass records that I enjoy and 'The Beast Awakens' and the new CLEANBREAK record and beyond — I'm working on the follow-up to the "The Beast Awaken" now. I get so much enjoyment out of that."

Introducing the lineup for the First Ever - Live DURBIN Experience, this Friday at Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco,...

Posted by James Durbin on Wednesday, August 24, 2022

San Francisco! August 26 at Bottom of the Hill with Durbin and NERD HALEN! James Durbin
Get your tickets now!

http://www.stubmatic.com/bottomofthehill/event/10487

Posted by Enuff Z'Nuff on Thursday, July 28, 2022

British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN kicked off their Brazilian tour Saturday night (August 27) at Pedreira Paulo Leminski in Curitiba. Fan-filmed video of the concert is available below.

As has been the case on all the shows of the 2022 leg of MAIDEN's "Legacy Of The Beast" world tour so far, the band opened the set with "Senjutsu", the title track of its latest studio album, and followed it up with two more songs from the same LP, "Stratego" and "The Writing On The Wall".

Other tracks aired during MAIDEN's performance included "Revelations", "Blood Brothers", "Sign Of The Cross", "Flight Of Icarus", "Fear Of The Dark", "Hallowed Be Thy Name", "The Number Of The Beast" and "Iron Maiden".

MAIDEN also played two encores, consisting of "The Trooper", "The Clansman", "Run To The Hills" and the closing track of the night, "Aces High".

The full setlist was as follows:

01. Senjutsu
02. Stratego
03. The Writing On The Wall
04. Revelations
05. Blood Brothers
06. Sign Of The Cross
07. Flight Of Icarus
08. Fear Of The Dark
09. Hallowed Be Thy Name
10. The Number Of The Beast
11. Iron Maiden

Encore:

12. The Trooper
13. The Clansman
14. Run To The Hills

Encore 2:

15. Aces High

Prior to the "Legacy Of The Beast" kick-off concert on May 22 in Zagreb, Croatia, IRON MAIDEN hadn't performed live in two and a half years — since the completion of its South American tour in October 2019.

Earlier this year, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson confirmed that the band is planning to stage a tour where it will perform its new album, "Senjutsu", in its entirety. The 63-year-old singer told the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast: "The plan we've got — it's not really a secret; I think everybody else has chatted about it — we will, I hope, we've talked about doing the entire ['Senjutsu'] album start to finish, but not this time around. And we all appreciate that that is something that really diehard fans will probably love and other people will go, 'Hmmm, I'm not gonna go see that.' So the answer is you play smaller venues so that they sell out with just your diehard fans. 'Cause it's a musical thing to do — it's a musical thing."

Dickinson went on to clarify that the 2022 leg of MAIDEN's "Legacy Of The Beast" tour, which is scheduled to hit North America in September and October, will once again focus primarily on a decades-spanning setlist of fan favorites.

"The 'Legacy Of The Beast' tour, people have all paid their money to see the 'Legacy Of The Beast' show, with Spitfires and flamethrowers and Icarus and everything that goes with," he said. "So they're gonna get all that. But the first three tracks are probably gonna be the first three tracks on the ['Senjutsu'] album. 'The Writing On The Wall' they already know, so everybody should know the first three tracks. And I just think [the] 'Senjutsu' [title track] is just such a great opening song — so dramatic. And then once you've done that — and we'll have a stage set to go with it — once you've done that, you're back to the kind of 'Legacy' world at that point. But I think 'The Writing On The Wall' is gonna be a great song — I mean, a crowd singalong song. You can imagine that. It'll be fantastic."

Addressing the fact that MAIDEN infuriated some fans by forcing them to sit through the band's then-new, 75-minute "A Matter Of Life And Death" album on tour in 2006, denying the crowd the greatest hits they'd come for, Bruce said: "Nobody has to buy a ticket. If you don't wanna go [see us play an entire new album live], you don't buy a ticket. It's gonna be plain as the nose on your face. This is gonna be what they're gonna do. So given that, don't complain that they did what they said they were gonna do."

Clocking in at a hefty 82 minutes, "Senjutsu" came out in September. It marks MAIDEN's second consecutive double album behind 2015's "The Book Of Souls" which is the longest MAIDEN album, with a running time of 92 minutes.

IRON MAIDEN's first album in six years, "Senjutsu" was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by bassist Steve Harris. It features three tracks whose running time exceeds 10 minutes each.

For "Senjutsu" — loosely translated as "tactics and strategy" — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.

"Senjutsu" bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band's early classics like "Powerslave" and "The Number Of The Beast". Nearly 90 percent of the LP's 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015's "The Book Of Souls" and 2010's "The Final Frontier", which both peaked at No. 4.

"Senjutsu" was MAIDEN's 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.

According to Billboard, "Senjutsu" logged the second-largest week of 2021 for a hard rock album in both equivalent album units earned and in traditional album sales.

"Senjutsu" topped the charts in several European countries upon its release, including in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.

KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons celebrated his 73rd birthday onstage during the band's concert in Sydney, Australia on Friday, August 26.

After KISS frontman Paul Stanley led the audience in a "Happy Birthday" singalong for his bandmate, Simmons — who was actually born on August 25, 1949 — was approached by KISS manager Doc McGhee, who brought out a cake with candles for Gene to blow out, as the crowd cheered him on.

Earlier today, Gene shared a video of the moment on Twitter and he wrote in an accompanying message: "Thank you, Sydney for honoring me on my birthday. It means the world to me."

KISS launched its farewell trek in January 2019 but was forced to put it on hold in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"End Of The Road" was originally scheduled to conclude on July 17, 2021 in New York City but has since been extended to at least early 2023. The trek was announced in September 2018 following a KISS performance of the band's classic song "Detroit Rock City" on "America's Got Talent".

Earlier this month, Gene again said that he doesn't know exactly when and where the final concert of "End Of The Road" will take place. Simmons discussed KISS's last-ever performance during an appearance on Dean Delray's "Let There Be Talk" podcast. He said: "We don't know if it's [going to be in] New York. I have good reasons why it should be, but the important thing is when it's the last show, it'll be the last show. KISS the touring band will stop. But the touring band. KISS will continue in other ways. I have no problems with four deserving 20-year-olds sticking the makeup back on and hiding their identity.

"KISS will continue in ways that even I haven't thought of," Gene predicted. "But I can conceive of… You know, the 'Blue Man Group' and 'Phantom Of The Opera' tours around the world with different personnel. There could and should be a KISS show, kind of live on stage with effects and everything else, but also semiautobiographical thing about four knuckleheads off the streets of New York that ends with the last third as a full-blown celebration, a full-on performance. Not with us. Although not a problem stepping in every once in a while."

KISS's current lineup consists of original members Simmons and Stanley (guitar, vocals),alongside later band additions, guitarist Tommy Thayer (since 2002) and drummer Eric Singer (on and off since 1991).

Formed in 1973 by Stanley, Simmons, drummer Peter Criss and lead guitarist Ace Frehley, KISS staged its first "farewell" tour in 2000, the last to feature the group's original lineup.
Thank you, Sydney for honoring me on my birthday. It means the world to me. 🤟😎 https://t.co/6LMAOi1z64

— Gene Simmons (@genesimmons) August 27, 2022

Legendary thrash drummer Tom Hunting (EXODUS) has released his first solo EP, "Hunting Party", featuring covers of some of his favorite songs.

The band includes guitarist C. Will Harden and drummer Gator McKlusky.

Darryl "DMC" McDaniels not only lends his vocals to the classic "Jungle Love" ("Purple Rain") but wrote his own lyrics for this classic by MORRIS DAY AND THE TIME.

Jack Gibson (EXODUS) lends his bass to "East Bound And Down", joining his bandmate for this classic by Jerry Reed. Jack's love for "Smokey And The Bandit" helped bring an authentic tone to this heavy remake, the official music video for which can be seen below.

Dan Lorenzo (HADES, NON-FICTION, PATRIARCHS IN BLACK) plays bass on the Stevie Wonder classic "You Haven't Done Nothin'", plus the guitar parts behind DMC on "Jungle Love", adding to that crushing original section of the track.

Jonny Rod (RETURN TO DARKNESS) takes on the killer solo for "East Bound and Down", staying true to the classic. He also kills it on bass for "Jungle Love" and "Boys Are Back In Town" by THE BUSBOYS, from the film "48 Hrs.".

James Arthur (WHEELHOUSE JUNCTION) closes the album with his vocal tribute in "East Bound And Down".

Tom worked closely with drummer Gator McKlusky, who also produced and engineered the album, to make sure everything best represented these classics.

The music video for "Boys Are Back In Town", featuring Chuck Billy (TESTAMENT) and Steve "Zetro" Souza (EXODUS) on backing vocals, can also be seen below. The clip was created by Craig Cefola.

"Hunting Party" EP track listing:

01. You Haven't Done Nothin'
02. Boys Are Back In Town
03. Jungle Love
04. East Bound And Down

Hunting underwent a successful total gastrectomy in July 2021 in his battle with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the stomach.

A GoFundMe campaign to help Hunting with medical expenses had previously raised more than $111,000 — including $5,000 from Tom's former EXODUS bandmate, current METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett, and $1,500 from FOZZY singer and wrestling superstar Chris Jericho.

The 57-year-old rejoined his EXODUS bandmates on stage last October at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California.

This past January, Hunting was asked by Niclas Müller-Hansen of RockSverige if his battle with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the stomach has changed his view on life. He responded: "Well, I definitely don't sweat the small stuff anymore. It gives you a new perspective where that's concerned, I think. Things that used to stress me out, I'm just, like, Meh.' It's just stuff that's gonna happen to some of us. I'm lucky — very lucky — that they were able to take a bad situation and make it okay. I'm walking around, I'm eating, I'm breathing, I'm playing drums. I'm lucky and the science is amazing like what they're able to do. They've done a lot of tests and they can't find cancer inside me right now so that's a good thing. I might've dodged a couple of bullets there. [Laughs]"

Hunting said that there was a short period after the surgery when he couldn't play drums. "They wouldn't let me do anything for, like, five weeks," he said. "Then I started doing pushups. Before the surgery, I was getting chemo doses, like four of them, and they were pretty massive. I did play drums a little bit, but I wasn't feeling it that well. I thought I was gonna be in the throes of getting four more outro doses of chemo, but they're not doing them. They don't need to. Right now I'm getting immunotherapy which does not really have any side effects. Getting small doses of that once every three weeks, but I have no restrictions on playing or anything, basically. They said, 'Just resume your life. Celebrate and resume your life.' And that's kinda what I'm doing."

GHOST played the song "Watcher In The Sky" live for the first time last night (Friday, August 26) at the opening concert of the band's summer/fall 2022 North American tour with MASTODON at Pechanga Arena in San Diego, California.

"Watcher In The Sky" is taken from GHOST's fifth album, "Impera", which sold 70,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. It marked the third top 10 album — and fifth top 40-charting set — for the Swedish act.

"Impera" landed at position No. 1 in Germany and Sweden, No. 2 in the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium and Norway, No. 3 in Australia, No. 5 in France and Ireland, and No. 20 in Italy.

"Impera" was released on March 11. The 12-song effort was produced by Klas Åhlund and mixed by Andy Wallace.

GHOST leader Tobias Forge told Metal Hammer magazine about "Watcher In The Sky": "It enthusiastically explains how we can utilize science to make the world smaller and to reverse scientific things. Basically a flattened Earth, which I found amusing."

GHOST's setlist for the August 26 concert at Pechanga Arena:

01. Kaisarion
02. Rats
03. Faith
04. Spillways
05. Devil Church
06. Cirice
07. Hunter's Moon
08. Ritual
09. Call Me Little Sunshine
10. Con Clavi Con Dio
11. Prime Mover
12. Watcher In The Sky
13. Year Zero
14. He Is
15. Miasma
16. Mary On A Cross
17. Mummy Dust

Encore

18. Dance Macabre
19. Square Hammer

Forge worked on the follow-up to 2018's "Prequelle" with Åhlund and Swedish co-writers Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare, whose credits include Madonna and Lady Gaga.

In March 2020, at final show of GHOST's "Prequelle" tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the new character who is fronting the act for its "Impera" album phase.

Forge performed as a "new" Papa Emeritus on each of the band's first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of "Prequelle".

Forge recently confirmed to Consequence that he has already mapped out much of the follow-up to "Impera" LP. "I have an album in my head right now that I think is going to be different from the one I just made," he said. "Both 'Prequelle' and 'Impera' were ideas that I had since six, seven years back. They were so different from each other in the sense that the 'plague album,' as I call it, was about the little person's annihilation on almost more of like a carnal or a God's wrath point of view, whereas the 'imperial record' was more of a structural demise of the mechanics of society. So they felt like two different things and the idea that I have for the next record is also a different thing from that. It's just a way for me to compartmentalize the ideas of finding new ways to inspire me lyrically and conceptually."

He continued: "At the end of the day, it's just rock 'n' roll records, 40 minutes of rock music, so it's just a way to make it interesting for me to work with, and then as a result of that, luckily for a few times now, we've been able to put that together and compile it in a way that has a lot of our fans also finding it interesting to dive into. I think that it was just luck that we just happened to release it in a matter where it seems a little clairvoyant. But these are old subjects … everything's cyclical, that's the thing, everything just goes in circles so it's not very hard to be clairvoyant, you can just look back on time and sort of alter it a little, draw on, or shave off a mustache and you have a future asshole who will do something similar to something else a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, three hundred years ago. It's always the same; it's very repetitive."

ELLEFSON-SOTO, David Ellefson's collaboration with Jeff Scott Soto, will release a full-length album, "Vacation In The Underworld", on October 7 via Rat Pak Records. The duo is joined by Andy Martongelli on guitar and keyboards and Paulo Caridi on drums.

"Vacation In The Underworld" was produced by Chris Collier and features eleven tracks and three bonus recordings.

The official music video for the "Vacation In The Underworld" title track can be seen below. The clip was produced by Jamie Brown at Smokin' Gun.

From the fiery guitar lead of the album opener "Vacation In The Underworld" to the prog-metal fury of closer "Rise To Win", ELLEFSON-SOTO's debut showcases the various influences David and Jeff have picked up over their four decades in music. Giada Jade Etro from the Italian power metal band FROZEN CROWN makes a guest appearance on "The Day Before Tomorrow". Steve Conley and Ken Mary from FLOTSAM AND JETSAM perform on the title track, "Vacation In The Underworld".

"Vacation In The Underworld" track listing:

01. Vacation In The Underworld
02. Like A Bullet
03. Sharpen The Sword
04. The Reason
05. S.T.N.
06. The Revolution
07. Celebrity Trash
08. Live To Die Another Day
09. The Day Before Tomorrow
10. Hercules
11. Rise To Win
12. Out Of The Blue (Bonus Track)
13. Lone Star (Bonus Track)
14. Writing On The Wall (Bonus Track)

To officially launch the project, Ellefson and Soto will play two exclusive concerts in September in Italy where they will perform some of the new music as well as run through various catalog highlights, including selections from MEGADETH and Yngwie Malmsteen. They will be joined by Martongelli as the musical director, as well as Caridi on drums and Valerio De Rosa on rhythm guitar.

In March 2021 — two months before the former MEGADETH bassist found himself embroiled in a sex video scandal — Ellefson and Soto announced that they had been collaborating on some new material under the moniker ELLEFSON-SOTO. The ELLEFSON-SOTO version of the RIOT classic "Swords & Tequila" was simultaneously released across all digital streaming outlets via Ellefson's Combat Records.

In a May 2022 interview with KNAC.COM, Soto offered an update on his collaboration with Ellefson, saying: "I can confirm that it's actually happening. I can confirm that it's gonna be released this year. And I can confirm that it's a full-fledged album, it's a full-fledged commitment that we both put into it. We will be doing shows and dates, et cetera. But that's about all I can give you right now."

Jeff's latest comments came seven months after he was asked in an interview with Dr. Music if the rest of the material he recorded with Ellefson would eventually see the light of day. At the time, Soto said: "I'm hoping it will at some point. I've given David, as many people have, the space and the time to kind of deal with his own things.

"We were full-on getting that thing ready to bounce and to drop, et cetera, and, obviously, things were put on hold for that reason," he explained. "And it's just better for things to just kind of go away and kind of calm down, because we don't need the kind of press that comes with it, especially the comments [from] the Internet cowboys out there. Let it go away, let it just kind of slip under the rug, and I'm sure that stuff is gonna resurface. And the idea of it will resurface and get us out there… I'm sure we'll revisit it when the time is right."

This past January, Soto shared an Instagram photo of him with Ellefson and he captioned it: "Something brewing in Los Angeles today....#davidellefson".

When Ellefson's collaboration with Soto was first announced, David said in a statement: "Jeff and I have been friends for so many years that it's great to finally collaborate on some material together. He has such a distinctive voice and perfect style for some new ideas my guitarist Andy Martongelli and I have been composing. We are excited about the progress of it all and thought this would be a perfect time to give a little sneak preview."

At the time, Jeff added: "As COVID-19 became a big negative around the globe, it actually offered many artists a chance to finally collaborate with one another that might have never happened otherwise… As I have known David for many years, I knew from our other efforts outside of our day jobs that we could come up with some badass jams…and here we are, letting you in on our cool little secret."

Ellefson was fired from MEGADETH in May 2021 after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter. At the time, Ellefson was accused of grooming an underage girl through videos and online messages. David has denied the allegation and has repeatedly said the woman in question had been a willing, consenting adult at the time of their virtual sexual encounter. Ellefson accompanied his denial with an alleged screenshot of a statement from the woman with whom he was supposedly involved at the time. In it, the woman admitted to recording the alleged intimate communications she had with Ellefson and called herself "naïve" for sharing them with a friend without the musician's permission.

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

Luminaries from rock's thriving post-punk and hardcore scene — guitarist Frank Iero (MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE),guitarist Travis Stever (COHEED AND CAMBRIA),vocalist Anthony Green (CIRCA SURVIVE),bassist Tim Payne (THURSDAY),and drummer Tucker Rule (THURSDAY) — have joined forces to create L.S. DUNES. The brand new band will release its debut album, "Past Lives", on November 11 via Fantasy Records.

Today, L.S. DUNES unleashed the LP's first single — the blazing "Permanent Rebellion".

Unshackled from the expectations and aesthetics of their already successful careers, L.S. DUNES super-charge their heavy anthems with punk energy into a sound unlike anything that has come before it. From the gripping, theatrical opener "2022" and the crunchy, frenetic earworm "Like Forever" to the pummeling, expansive "Permanent Rebellion" and the disarming album closer "Sleep Cult", "Past Lives" is an electrifying and emotional ride.

"Past Lives" was produced by Will Yip (TURNSTILE, CIRCA SURVIVE, QUICKSAND) and recorded at his Studio 4 Recording in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Going deep on issues of fearlessness, dependency, nonconformity, and impermanence, writing for the album was a collaborative effort.

After the shock of the pandemic shutdown, the close friends and mutual admirers urgently realized that "tomorrow" is not promised. "We never knew if we would ever get to play these songs together; in fact none of us lifelong musicians really knew if we'd ever be able to play music for a live audience ever again," Iero recounts. "'Permanent Rebellion' is about taking back what is rightfully yours."

Rule adds: "We wanted to do something where you can hear all our bands in it and yet, not have it sound like any one in particular. Our roots are punk rock and hardcore, and the vibe is hope for all the lost souls."

The seeds of L.S. DUNES were planted during rehearsals for THURSDAY's Christmas livestream event in 2020 which included friends and acquaintances from some of their favorite bands. The chemistry at the serendipitous, impromptu jam sessions was instantaneous. With the addition of CIRCA SURVIVE's vocalist Green, it was organically clear, this time, the music formed the band.

L.S DUNES will make its live performance debut with two shows: at Riot Fest in Chicago on September 16 and Aftershock festival in Sacramento on October 8. More U.S. dates have been confirmed, with the full list below.

"Past Lives" track listing:

01. 2022
02. Antibodies
03. Grey Veins
04. Like Forever
05. Blender
06. Past Lives
07. It Takes Time
08. Bombsquad
09. Grifter
10. Permanent Rebellion
11. Sleep Cult

L.S. DUNES on tour:

Sep. 16 - Chicago - Riot Fest
Oct. 08 - Sacramento, CA - Aftershock
Nov. 12 - Garden Grove, CA - Garden Ampitheater
Nov. 13 - San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's 365
Nov. 14 - Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
Nov. 18 - Mexico City, Mexico - Corona Capital
Nov. 22 - Toronto, Ontario - Velvet Underground
Nov. 25 - Asbury Park, NJ - Lanes
Nov. 26 - Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
Nov. 27 - Boston, MA - The Sinclair
Nov. 29 - Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg
Nov. 30 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar

KING'S X, comprised of Doug "Dug" Pinnick, Ty Tabor and Jerry Gaskill, will release its 13th studio album, "Three Sides Of One", on September 2. The LP's third single, "All God's Children", can be streamed below.

"Three Sides Of One" will be available as a limited CD digipak, gatefold 180g 2LP+CD+LP-booklet and as a digital album. There will also be a limited deluxe 180g orange/red marble 2LP+CD+LP booklet that also includes a poster and a hand-numbered print, as well as an exclusive variant of the front cover artwork.

During 2019, the members of KING'S X congregated at Black Sound Studio in Pasadena, California with Emmy Award-winning producer Michael Parnin to bring "Three Sides Of One" to life. Despite consistent touring, they hadn't cut a new LP since 2008. Nevertheless, the guys picked up where they left off. Creative confidant and collaborator Wally Farkas rolled through, and they channeled their incredible chemistry on tape.

Pinnick previously stated about "Three Sides Of One": 'When I think of it, KING'S X feels like a couple of old best friends coming together, shooting the shit, and having a good time, it's instinctual.

"When I would listen to demo tapes of Jerry and Ty for the record, it gave me a great perspective on how blessed I am to be in KING'S X. What they did on 'Three Sides Of One' sounded so good. For as familiar as it is, it's like I'm in a new band."

Ty added: "This time we sat around, listened to each other's ideas and would collectively say, 'Let's work on that.' It was the most enjoyable album I've personally ever recorded in my entire life, period."

Jerry stated: "I'll cherish what we did in my heart forever. Everything lined up perfectly."

"Three Sides Of One" track listing:

01. Let It Rain (04:28)
02. Flood Pt. 1 (03:03)
03. Nothing But The Truth (06:03)
04. Give It Up (02:59)
05. All God's Children (05:32)
06. Take The Time (03:45)
07. Festival (03:30)
08. Swipe Up (03:46)
09. Holidays (03:22)
10. Watcher (03:43)
11. She Called Me Home (03:57)
12. Every Everywhere (02:40)

Last October, Pinnick told Talking Metal about the musical direction of the new KING'S X material: "Every song is completely different than the other — mixed and sonically; everything. We took every song and tried to do like THE BEATLES 'White' album and just sit down with a song and go, 'Let's give it what it needs.' I don't have to have my Doug Pinnick gravelly tone if I need a Paul McCartney-type sound. Ty, he would fix his guitars to make… 'This is like a whatever song. Let's make it what it is but still be KING'S X.' So I think that it sounds like KING'S X but hopefully everyone will feel that we took another step forward. The whole point is just to try to push forward [while] still looking back. There's a lot of things on this record that are reminiscent of KING'S X totally, but then there's this new KING'S X, I think. Sonically, we're really excited because it's a complete analog record except with Pro Tools. It was laid down with analog — everything — and it was mastered on analog tape and even EQed with analog tube EQs to saturate the tape to get compression instead of digits. So there's no digits on this record. So when you hear it, it's gonna take you back a little bit. It sounds like you put a real record on in the '70s, sonically. It's, like, things jump out at you, and then they don't. It's, like, you go, 'Wow, the bass is huge, but I can hear everything else,' 'cause you can put your hands in it, almost. Michael Parnin just did an amazing job — a painstaking job — to get it to sound like a record that you can put on and play forever."

The new KING'S X LP was mastered in June 2021 at the Bernie Grundman Mastering facility in Hollywood, California,

In April 2021, Pinnick told Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic about the new KING'S X material: "I had some pretty crazy songs, time-change-wise, 'cause I've been listening to a lot of MESHUGGAH and shit like that. It's not KING'S X, but that flavor comes in. Imagine John Bonham playing with MESHUGGAH… But Ty and Jerry are singing a lot too. I tell people, it's like from [THE BEATLES' classic song] 'Penny Lane' to the heaviest MESHUGGAH — it's a blend of something in between there. And one song to another almost sounds different, almost to the point where they're individual pieces themselves, like PINK FLOYD used to do. We've got violins and other things in it. I've got some keyboards and all kinds of things to enhance things — piano. Nothing overboard, but just like [Jimi] Hendrix did and people like that — big things coming in and out that gives it that longevity, I would say. Things that you hear and go, 'Oh, wow. That's cool.' That little thing over there. So it's taken Michael a long time to mix it, 'cause he's got a lot of tracks."

KING'S X was sidelined by several health scares in recent years, including Pinnick's two hernia operations and two near-fatal heart attacks suffered by Gaskill.

In October 2019, KING'S X canceled all of its previously announced tour dates for the year so that Gaskill could undergo undisclosed heart "procedures."

"XV" was KING'S X's highest-charting album since 1996's "Ear Candy".

In 2005, VH1 included KING'S X in its list of "100 Greatest Artists In Hard Rock."

Photo credit: Mark Weiss

On March 13, 2007, American gothic metal band TYPE O NEGATIVE released its seventh and final studio album, "Dead Again". This year marks the 15th anniversary of the record that came out three years before the passing of bassist/vocalist Peter Steele.

Today, TYPE O NEGATIVE has announced that it is offering a limited-edition reissue of "Dead Again". The following formats are available for pre-order:

* CD Jewel
* Long Box
* Tinted Green Cassette
* LP
* Green In Bottle Green w/ Black Splatter
* Olive Black Swirl
* Mint Swirl w/ Black Splatter
* Green White Swirl
* Olive Green

TYPE O NEGATIVE's Kenny Hickey comments: The first casualty of this album was the record company — which promptly went under after its release. Soon after, Peter [Steele, TYPE O NEGATIVE frontman] passed, and then even the rehearsal studio it was written and developed in was burnt to the ground by Hurricane Sandy. As the black cloud continued its relentless path over TYPE O, 'Dead Again' appeared and disappeared from the streaming platforms for years. Now that the storm has passed, we have some slight hope of establishing a small illusion of permanence with this final release of 'Dead Again'. We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused you."

"Dead Again" was engineered, mixed, and mastered by Mike Marciano in 2006 at System Two Studios in Brooklyn, New York. The album was produced by Peter Steele and Josh Silver who also aided in the mixing of the record.

"Dead Again" track listing:

01. Dead Again
02. Tripping A Blind Man
03. The Profit Of Doom
04. September Sun
05. Halloween In Heaven
06. These Three Things
07. She Burned Me Down
08. Some Stupid Tomorrow
09. An Ode To Locksmiths
10. Hail And Farewell To Britain

Bonus Tracks

11. Everything Dies (live)
12. My Girlfriend's Girlfriend (live)
13. Black Sabbath (intro) / Christian Woman (live)
14. Love You To Death (live)
15. Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All) (live)
16. Anesthesia (live at Wacken Open Air 2007)
17. Christian Woman (live at Wacken Open Air 2007)
18. Love You To Death (live at Wacken Open Air 2007)
19. Kill You Tonight (live at Wacken Open Air 2007)

In a recent interview with the "Loaded Radio" podcast, TYPE O NEGATIVE drummer Johnny Kelly was asked if there has ever been any talk of staging a concert in honor of Steele. He responded: "Coffee talk. There was never any serious consideration, like, should we do something? Is there even a point of doing it? Or also, is it just a blatant cash grab? So all these things go through your head.

"People celebrate [Peter] all the time," he continued. "They do it daily. I see it online all the time and the impact that he had.

"Maybe somewhere down the road there may be something that's… I don't know. But I know that for me, it would have to include Kenny [Hickey, guitar] and Josh [Silver, keyboards] as well. Anything that we do, it would have to be the three of us. And there's no way you're getting Josh to do anything like that. [Laughs]"

Asked who would handle Peter's vocal parts if they ever did end up doing a tribute concert, Johnny said: "I don't know. I'd want a girl to do it. I'd want a female vocalist — like Ann Wilson [HEART] or something like that. [Laughs] But even so, that's the first thing. When you think about doing some kind of tribute show, you're just gonna get all these people… Yes, Peter was very highly regarded by our peers and stuff like that, and you'll just get a bunch of dudes up there just trying to sound like Peter. And you can't do that. And it's, like, all right, so what's the most remote thing from Peter? You'd have to do something completely abstract. And I would say get a female vocalist. I think Peter would get a kick out of… He would get off on seeing a girl sing his songs, seeing a female sing them. And it would really stress the point of doing something as a tribute instead of trying to recreate something."

Steele passed away in April 2010 from heart failure at the age of 48. Born Petrus T. Ratajczyk on January 4, 1962 in Brooklyn, New York, he stood 6' 7" (201 cm) tall, and had a low, bass-heavy voice, which was one of the most recognizable features in TYPE O NEGATIVE's music.

Before forming TYPE O NEGATIVE, Steele played for the metal group FALLOUT and the thrash band CARNIVORE.

"Going through a midlife crisis and having many things change very quickly made me realize my mortality," Steele told Decibel magazine in 2007. "And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what's after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it's a frightening thought to go nowhere. I also can't believe that people like Stalin and Hitler are gonna go to the same place as Mother Teresa."

In a 2020 interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, Kelly said about Steele: "Peter, for the most part, he was a clown. He was always joking around — sarcastic, very self-deprecating humor. Just the opposite of what the music portrayed. When we were working on music and stuff, the end result, he was very serious about what he wanted, how he wanted something to sound. Other times, he was a clown.

"I always said that he wanted to be a normal person, but because he was Peter, that was just not in the cards for him; it was completely impossible," he continued. "I bet he would love to just be able to hang out, go to the bar, have a few drinks. And we would try to do that, and the minute he would come out to the bar, everybody gravitated towards him. He couldn't go to the store by his house without something happening to him."

Asked if that was because of Peter's size, Johnny said: "I think so. He just had this very striking look. He didn't look normal. And he had fangs. [Laughs] He was six and a half feet tall, [had] long black hair and fangs. You're not gonna get the normal response when you're going grocery shopping."

TYPE O NEGATIVE photo credit: Kristina Sisti-Venzie

Ozzy Osbourne has opened up about his decision to relocate from Los Angeles to the U.K.

The legendary BLACK SABBATH frontman, who turned 73 last December, told the Observer he was "fed up" with the number of mass shootings in the USA. He also said he does not want to die in the U.S. and be among the many stars buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Ozzy and his wife and manager Sharon, who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in July, are planning to spend most of their time at their Buckinghamshire, U.K. estate.

When asked by Observer why they're coming home after so long in California, Sharon insisted it had nothing to do with Ozzy's health. (Ozzy underwent surgery in June to remove and realign pins in his neck and back from when he had a fall back in 2019.) "I knew people would think that," she said. "It's not. It's just time. America has changed so drastically. It isn't the United States of America at all. Nothing's united about it. It's a very weird place to live right now."

Ozzy added: "Everything's fucking ridiculous there. I'm fed up with people getting killed every day. God knows how many people have been shot in school shootings. And there was that mass shooting in Vegas at that concert… It's fucking crazy.

"And I don't want to die in America. I don't want to be buried in fucking Forest Lawn. I'm English. I want to be back. But saying that, if my wife said we've got to go and live in Timbuktu, I'll go. But, no, it's just time for me to come home."

Ozzy, who revealed two and a half years ago that he was battling Parkinson's disease, has reportedly applied for permission for a "rehabilitation" wing at his historic Grade II listed home in Buckinghamshire. According to the Daily Mail, the extension will feature "an abundance of stopping and sitting" spaces, "discreet grab rails and aids" and "soft non-slip surfaces" as well as a self-contained nurse's flat. There is also a "pool house orangery", "garden room" and a "health and welfare exercise studio".

Architect Lynne Walker wrote in the plans that "it is the ambition that the design creates a transition of flowing inside outside garden spaces, largely lit by natural light with folding doors opening up views."

In March, Mirror reported that Ozzy and Sharon were leaving Los Angeles and returning to their native United Kingdom due to rising taxes in California.

"We are leaving L.A.," he said. "We are a bit sad. But the tax is getting too much. I am sad because I really, really like staying and living there."

He added: "If they do the taxes better, then I may come back. I do not know. I am taking my recording studio with me. I am going to build a barn there and make my own studio at Welders. I will still be making music and my band will come over."

Ozzy and Sharon reportedly purchased Welders House from two-time Academy Award-winning special effects legend John Stears in 1993. In her 2013 autobiography, "Extreme: My Autobiography", Sharon said she purchased the home due to its "extreme" distance from any public houses nearby.

In July 2020, Ozzy said that he was still "not back to 100 percent" after suffering from several medical issues, including a fall, neck surgery and hospitalization for the flu. Ozzy also said that he was looking forward to performing again once he has regained his health and the coronavirus pandemic has subsided.

Last November, Ozzy's previously announced European tour with guests JUDAS PRIEST, originally set for 2019 and then rescheduled three times, was once again postponed. The new dates will now take place in May and June 2023.

Ozzy initially scrapped his entire 2019 schedule as he recovered from surgery to repair an injury sustained while dealing with a bout of pneumonia. The tour was postponed a second time after Ozzy continued to deal with health issues following a fall in his Los Angeles home. That fall "aggravated years-old injuries" from an ATV accident that occurred in 2003. The tour was pushed back a third time in October 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Ozzy's European tour with JUDAS PRIEST tour will now take place more than four years later than originally planned, and almost five years after tickets first went on sale in September 2018.

In May 2020, Ozzy's son Jack said that his father will "probably" retire "within the next five to ten years." But Ozzy has repeatedly said that he is not calling it quits, despite the fact that his "No More Tours 2" — whenever it ends up happening — is being billed as his last major global trek.

Photo credit: Ross Halfin

Graham Bonnet has praised Joe Lynn Turner for finally deciding to drop the hairpiece he has worn since the age of 14 after being diagnosed with alopecia at three years old.

The former RAINBOW and DEEP PURPLE singer, who turned 71 earlier this month, went public with his new look on Thursday (August 25) in a series publicity images released to promote his upcoming solo album, "Belly Of The Beast". In a press release for the LP, Joe said that he started wearing the wig to deal with "emotional and psychological damage from cruel bullying in school."

"In a way, it's a blessing and a curse," Joe admitted. "I have nothing to prove, and I can wear a wig — or not. I am free to do what I want. I'm a grown man, and I'm getting to be an older man.

"Many men in this business eventually come to the decision to continue to 'wear hair' or shave their head which is very fashionable today. Either way, it takes a lot of personal courage. Assholes in high school trying to kick me around made me stronger and gave me the necessary motivation and strength to rise above the rest. Anger and pain are a great tool. If applied correctly, it could develop you to become the best version of yourself. Instead of running away, I was 'hiding in plain sight.'"

A few hours after Joe first posted his new photos on social media, fellow ex-RAINBOW singer Bonnet took to his Facebook page to share one of the images and he wrote in an accompanying message: "Hi all. Graham here. I'm posting this photo of my friend Joe Lynn Turner because I was moved to tears today when I saw it.

"Joe exemplifies the meaning of rockstar. His bravery is staggering. This industry is ruthless (especially in our genre),particularly when it comes to hair. I still hear the tale about Ritchie Blackmore posting a guard at my hotel door to keep me from getting a haircut. BTW, that never happened, although he was so pissed when I did visit the barber.

"But I digress...... I don't know if Joe will see this but I want him to know how proud I am of him and how moved I was at his honesty.

"You have blazed a trail today, Joe. If you are reading this, I want you to know that I never realized what a beautiful man you were until I saw this photo."

Alopecia areata is a disease that happens when the immune system attacks hair follicles and causes hair loss. Hair follicles are the structures in skin that form hair. While hair can be lost from any part of the body, alopecia areata usually affects the head and face. Hair typically falls out in small, round patches about the size of a quarter, but in some cases, hair loss is more extensive. Most people with the disease are healthy and have no other symptoms.

Alopecia became a topic of discussion in the mainstream media in March when actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock at the Oscars ceremony. Will's wife, the 50-year-old actress Jade Pinkett Smith, experienced hair loss due to alopecia and has always openly shared her struggle. The confrontation took place after Rock made a joke, calling Pinkett Smith "G.I. Jane" in reference to her bald head, which she has previously explained is due to alopecia. The shocking incident saw Will storm on stage to hit Chris following the offending comment before returning to his seat and yelling "keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth" shortly before he collected his best actor gong for his role in "King Richard".

Joe was the singer of RAINBOW between 1980 and 1984 and he sang on the album "Difficult To Cure", which featured the band's most successful U.K. single, "I Surrender".

During Turner's time with RAINBOW, the band had its first USA chart success and recorded songs that helped define the melodic rock genre.

1990 saw Turner reunited with RAINBOW leader Ritchie Blackmore in a reformed DEEP PURPLE for the "Slaves And Masters" album.

Hi all. Graham here. I'm posting this photo of my friend Joe Lynn Turner because I was moved to tears today when I saw...

Posted by Graham Bonnet on Thursday, August 25, 2022

In a new interview with Goldmine magazine, Joe Elliott said that streaming music services like Spotify and Apple Music have helped establish DEF LEPPARD as "a cool legacy band." He explained: "You've gotta remember: We were one of the longest holdouts [from the digital music revolution]. We didn't announce our digital deal until me and Neal Schon were doing the promo for the JOURNEY stadium tour in 2018, in January. And then because in the past I would have to ring our management and say, 'How many copies has blah, blah, blah sold?' 'Oh, I'll get back to you in two weeks' and then have to call somebody, and they'd have to go flicking through a filing cabinet, looking for a sheet of paper. Now you get, 'Do you wanna know how many times you were streamed this morning in Venezuela?' We've got this instant information. And I was told the other day that we're almost six billion streams since January '18. I'm, like, 'Wow, this is insane!' You know, that's not Taylor Swift or Adele territory, but for us, that's pretty incredible, you know? And these things, again, they inspire you to just walk a little bit taller. And, also, you now realize that you're streaming so massively in South America, that you pretty much got the tour booked around where you stream. This was the information that was always guesswork in the past. Now it's the information highway."

Joe continued: "And between streaming and social media, which you can pretty much tie together, hand in hand, we have this unique situation of having this perpetual vehicle. You don't wait now until Thursday lunchtime for the music mags to come out, which is what we used to do in the U.K. We had Record Mirror, Disc, NME, Sounds, and they'd all come out Thursday. And they'd all pretty much have the same information, but you'd have to flick through it to see who's on tour, what songs are being reviewed, and then put your order in to buy a copy of it. It's totally different, but it's just as exciting. I don't think it's as organic, but everything else, whether it's gaming or music or news, any kind of information, the fact that it's instant, it might get blasé. But at least you've only got two or three minutes to catch what you need to catch. You don't have to wait till 10 o'clock for the news at 10 to come on, find out what's going on in the world. You can sit on the loo, grab this, it's Sky News and see what's going on. [Laughs] And so from a musical point of view, it's really helping all artists, I think, but I'm glad we held out because it made it give our back catalog a big bang when we finally announced it."

In 2012, several years before coming to terms with the Universal Music Group over digital rights for some of the band's best-known material, DEF LEPPARD began re-recording its biggest hits, including 1983's "Rock Of Ages" and 1987's "Pour Some Sugar On Me", as a way to offer its fans a digital option while at the same giving a giant middle finger to the group's longtime label. According to The Hollywood Reporter, DEF LEPPARD did this because they were at one point able to negotiate a sweetheart of a deal wherein they had approval over everything that was done with their songs — from special collections to licenses for movies, TV shows and games and their very availability online.

Elliott told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2012 interview that the fight with Universal was "about principle." But, he admitted, "I'd be lying if I didn't say it was about money because the problem we've got is, they want to pay us what we think is a ridiculously low rate. It's a well-known fact: Artists throughout the years have always been shafted by record companies. … The reason we're being so sticky about it is because two years ago, we made a deal with a gentleman at Universal who was pretty much on our side — he was a fan, a smart businessman and a fair guy — and we shook hands. Fifteen days later, somebody above his head said the deal's not going through. To an Englishman, when you shake hands, it's a binding contract, and Universal reneged on it. So we dug in our heels and said, 'We're gonna say a blanket no to anything that you ask for.'"

As a result of the disagreement, Universal couldn't "release our back catalog, we're not going to let them put a song on a compilation unless we want it there, and they'll never be able to license," the singer said. "They won't be able to do anything without our permission because that's in our contract."

Elliott went on to say that the crux of the dispute centers on the fact that DEF LEPPARD wanted "to get the same rate for digital as we do when we sell CDs, and they're trying to give us a rate that doesn't even come close. They illegally put up our songs for a while, paying us the rate they chose without even negotiating with us, so we had our lawyer take them down," he explained.

"We made a decision years ago that we would try and wrestle back control," he added. "And I think that's something to be applauded. We are just trying to own what we've done. We own our T-shirt deals, our own staging, and our own rights to make whatever decisions we want. We're not trying to milk our back catalog for billions of dollars, we're just trying to get paid a fair amount."

DEF LEPPARD's "The Stadium Tour" kicked off on June 16 in Atlanta, Georgia. The veteran British rockers are co-headlining the trek with MÖTLEY CRÜE, with support from POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS.

DEF LEPPARD's set on the tour includes some of the band's biggest hits, such as "Pour Some Sugar On Me", "Photograph" and "Rock Of Ages" — as well as songs from the group's latest album, "Diamond Star Halos", among them "Kick" and "Fire It Up".

DEF LEPPARD's long-delayed North American trek was originally planned for 2020 and later moved to 2021 and then to 2022. "The Stadium Tour" will conclude on September 9 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Thrash metal pioneers and metal icons MEGADETH were presented with plaques to commemorate the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) certification for platinum sales of 1992's "Symphony Of Destruction" and the gold status of 1986's "Peace Sells…But Who's Buying?" and 1990's "Holy Wars…The Punishment Due". The presentation was held Wednesday night (August 24) after they performed to a packed house at FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine, California as the support act for FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH.

MEGADETH kicked off its summer/fall 2022 U.S. tour with FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH on August 19 at RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater in Ridgefield, Washington. The trek, which features additional support from THE HU and FIRE FROM THE GODS, will conclude on October 15 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

MEGADETH's new album, "The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!", will arrive on September 2 via UMe. Featuring twelve new tracks, the follow-up to 2016's "Dystopia" will be made available on CD, vinyl, and cassette, as well as digitally through all online partners. There will also be a limited deluxe edition 2LP, 12-track album pressed on 180g black vinyl housed in a numbered gatefold jacket with a 12x24 lyrics/credits insert, a lenticular vinyl lithograph and a bonus seven-inch featuring "We'll Be Back" and the unreleased B-side "The Conjuring (Live)". The limited deluxe edition can only be purchased via MEGADETH's official online store, through Sound Of Vinyl and uDiscover.

"The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!" reunites MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine with co-producer Chris Rakestraw (DANZIG, PARKWAY DRIVE),who together helmed "Dystopia". The new album was recorded at Mustaine's home studio in Nashville, Tennessee, with guitarist Kiko Loureiro and drummer Dirk Verbeuren. Bassist Steve DiGiorgio temporarily stepped in to record the album. With the kick-off of MEGADETH's recent tour, MEGADETH alumnus James LoMenzo rejoined the MEGADETH family as permanent bass player.

"The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!" features a cover of DEAD KENNEDYS' "Police Truck" and Sammy Hagar's "This Planet's On Fire", the latter of which includes vocals from Hagar himself.

Photo credit: Alex Kluft

GHOST mastermind Tobias Forge has confirmed to Consequence that he has already mapped out much of the follow-up to this year's "Impera" LP. "I have an album in my head right now that I think is going to be different from the one I just made," he said. "Both [2018's] 'Prequelle' and 'Impera' were ideas that I had since six, seven years back. They were so different from each other in the sense that the 'plague album,' as I call it, was about the little person's annihilation on almost more of like a carnal or a God's wrath point of view, whereas the 'imperial record' was more of a structural demise of the mechanics of society. So they felt like two different things and the idea that I have for the next record is also a different thing from that. It's just a way for me to compartmentalize the ideas of finding new ways to inspire me lyrically and conceptually."

He continued: "At the end of the day, it's just rock 'n' roll records, 40 minutes of rock music, so it's just a way to make it interesting for me to work with, and then as a result of that, luckily for a few times now, we've been able to put that together and compile it in a way that has a lot of our fans also finding it interesting to dive into. I think that it was just luck that we just happened to release it in a matter where it seems a little clairvoyant. But these are old subjects … everything's cyclical, that's the thing, everything just goes in circles so it's not very hard to be clairvoyant, you can just look back on time and sort of alter it a little, draw on, or shave off a mustache and you have a future asshole who will do something similar to something else a hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, three hundred years ago. It's always the same; it's very repetitive."

GHOST's fifth album, "Impera", which sold 70,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. It marked the third top 10 album — and fifth top 40-charting set — for the Swedish act.

"Impera" landed at position No. 1 in Germany and Sweden, No. 2 in the U.K., Netherlands, Belgium and Norway, No. 3 in Australia, No. 5 in France and Ireland, and No. 20 in Italy.

"Impera" was released on March 11. The 12-song effort was produced by Klas Åhlund and mixed by Andy Wallace.

Forge worked on the follow-up to 2018's "Prequelle" with Åhlund and Swedish co-writers Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare, whose credits include Madonna and Lady Gaga.

In March 2020, at final show of GHOST's "Prequelle" tour in Mexico City, Mexico, the band officially introduced Papa Emeritus IV, the new character who is fronting the act for its "Impera" album phase.

Forge performed as a "new" Papa Emeritus on each of the band's first three LPs, with each version of Papa replacing the one that came before it. Papa Emeritus III was retired in favor of Cardinal Copia before the release of "Prequelle".

GHOST will embark on the next North American leg of "Imperatour" this month. The trek will see the Grammy Award-winning Swedish theatrical rock band headlining 19 arenas across the U.S. and Canada (plus an appearance at Virginia's Blue Ridge Rock Fest),kicking off August 26 at San Diego's Pechanga Arena and running through September 23 at the Resch Center in Green Bay. Support on all dates (with the exception of Green Bay which will feature support from CARCASS, and the Blue Ridge Rock Fest) will come from Grammy Award-winning band MASTODON and SPIRITBOX.

In a new interview with FaceCulture, Zoltan Bathory was asked if he thinks FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's commercial success is the only reason he and his bandmates have been so polarizing within the heavy metal community. The guitarist responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think so. It's just what it is. In the very beginning, it gets under your skin a little bit because you don't understand… I worked my ass off to be here. You have no much idea how much work this [has been]. It didn't just pop out of nowhere. This is 30 years in the making. I was 12 years old making my first guitar out of a coffee table because I couldn't afford one. It's a lot of work and you just do what you love doing.

"Ivan [Moody, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH vocalist] pointed this out the other day," Zoltan continued. "He goes, 'Did you notice this that any other genre if somebody gets a Number One hit, they're celebrated. In heavy metal, you're a sellout.' How? Maybe they don't understand what sellout means. Because I do exactly what I wanna do. I don't sit in a job I hate. I do exactly what I wanna do. Nobody is pressuring me to do something I don't want to. I play exactly the music I like. So that's actually exactly the opposite of selling out.

"So that's one thing — people just view this as if this genre should be underground and somebody owns it. And, 'No. This can't be popular.' So it's a combination of that. A lot of misunderstanding, I guess. We came up pretty quick. I'm sure that has something to do with it. Sometimes I read, 'Oh, a major label brought a bucket of money and…' Clearly [those people] have no idea. You don't know anything about the music industry if you think that's how that works. There's no amount of money I can give you and you're gonna like a band. You just like it or you don't like it. That's it. And how people invest in bands also doesn't work that way. You have to achieve some kind of success, and then you get signed because the label would see that you're achieving some success. They aren't investing in something that they don't know if people are gonna like it or not; that's not how this works. And then plus, our story, the first record, it was completely homemade, produced by us. We made it my living room — literally. So we were exactly the opposite of that — we achieved and earned everything."

Bathory added: "For a moment in the very beginning, I didn't understand [the criticism]… Like, I'm just doing what I like doing. If you don't like it, turn off the radio. Who gives a shit? Or listen to something else. It's almost as stupid as saying, 'I don't like tomatoes, so all tomato farmers should die.' … As if I'm in the way of your success or any other band's success.

"So it's weird. For a second it got — maybe a little bit — under my skin because I didn't understand 13 years ago. And then you just realize it comes with the territory. Anybody who pokes out their head from the crowd, immediately somebody's there [to shoot them down]. So now it's, like… In fact, if there's no hate, then you start thinking, 'I'm not doing something right. What happened?' You have to piss off some people."

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's ninth album, "AfterLife", was released last week. The "Afterlife" title track, which was made available as a single in April, recently gave FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH the most consecutive No. 1s on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. The song was the band's 13th total No. 1 and eighth entry on the chart in a row.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's follow-up to 2020's "F8" was once again recorded at the Hideout Recording Studio, the Las Vegas, Nevada facility owned and operated by Kevin Churko, the Canadian record producer/engineer and songwriter who has worked on all of FIVE FINGER's albums beginning with the band's sophomore release, 2009's "War Is The Answer".

"AfterLife" is FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's first album with its latest addition, renowned British virtuoso Andy James, who replaced Jason Hook in 2020. James was previously featured on "Broken World", a song that was included on the second installment of FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's greatest-hits collection, "A Decade Of Destruction – Volume 2", which came out in the fall of 2020.

Since FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's debut album, "The Way Of The Fist", came out in 2007, the band has released six consecutive albums that were certified gold or platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as well as two chart-topping greatest-hits albums. In addition, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH has earned numerous national and international awards and honors over the last decade, such as the prestigious Soldier Appreciation Award by the Association Of The United States Army, an honor bestowed upon only one other recording artist before them: Elvis Presley.

"F8" debuted at No. 1 on rock charts around the world, with Top 10 mainstream chart debuts in the USA, Austria, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and more. It produced four No. 1 hit singles with "Inside Out", "A Little Bit Off", "Living The Dream" and "Darkness Settles In". The band has amassed over eight billion streams and three billion video views to date and has sold over one million tickets between 2018 and 2020 alone.

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH has just launched a U.S. headlining tour presented by Live Nation. Kicking off in Ridgefield, Washington on August 19, the trek will span over 30 dates, closing out on October 15 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The band is joined on tour by rock icons MEGADETH, with additional support from THE HU and FIRE FROM THE GODS.