In a new interview with Hardlore, vocalist Randy Blythe of Richmond, Virginia metallers LAMB OF GOD was asked how he and his bandmates approached the making of their tenth studio album, "Into Oblivion", which will be released on March 13 via Epic. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Much in the same way we went about approaching album number nine, number eight, number seven."

Randy continued: "I think the biggest difference with us as a band, particularly over the last — I don't know — five or six years, is we have consciously tried to shelve the ego individual members have and try and keep in mind the greater whole. 'Cause when you're a younger band — and we're five very different people — when you're a younger band, it's, like, nobody hands you a handbook, 'This is how you be a band.' But you're so passionate and it's so important to you, and what you put into the music is so personal that when someone says, 'Eh, I don't know about that,' in the band, then you're, like, [hurt]. And we were very contentious for a long time — writing was very contentious. Somehow in our old age, as we wander off into Alzheimer's-riddled legacy territory, we've learned to get along better than we ever did. So we get along great now. And it's because, I think, when we're writing, we're all, like… There's a quote attributed to [American playwright and screenwriter] Tennessee Williams: 'You must be willing to murder your darlings.' Meaning your contribution, your art cannot be so precious that if someone else looks at it and is, like, 'That doesn't serve the greater whole,' you gotta cut it. And it's painful. So for us, we've kind of learned as a group to sort of shelve the individual egos and think more about the whole."

Blythe added: "We have a saying: better is better. It sounds stupid, but it's true. And me, just as much as any of the other dudes, have certainly been guilty of, like, 'I love this, but this is how exactly it works.' And then somebody [goes], 'But what about this?' And it's a hard thing, when you care about something so much and you've put in so much time, to have someone be, like, 'Eh. I don't know.' But better is better. So we try and say that to ourselves."

Asked why LAMB OF GOD decided to change the band logo on the "Into Oblivion" cover for the first time in 27 years, Randy said: "Well, our logo, to be perfectly honest, needed changing. It's the papyrus font [that we used for the old LAMB OF GOD logo]. And had we known 20-however many years ago that we would wind up looking like a falafel restaurant menu, we wouldn't have used that. But that was before papyrus font was ubiquitous."

News of "Into Oblivion"'s March arrival was accompanied by the debut of its title track, "Into Oblivion", alongside a video directed by Tom Flynn and Mike Watts.

"For me, the album is about having the space to breathe creatively and not feeling like we have to keep up with any trend or expectation," LAMB OF GOD guitarist Mark Morton said in a statement. "It feels nice to be untethered from any agenda beyond rallying around the notion of, 'Let's just make music that we think is cool,' which is really where it all started."

Regarding why LAMB OF GOD decided to name the album "Into Oblivion", Randy said: "Because that's where we're heading. In general, the album is about the ongoing and rapid breakdown of the social contract, particularly here in America. Things are acceptable now that would've horrified people just 20 years ago."

In the months leading up to last month's album announcement, the metal veterans released a pair of blistering singles that offered listeners a taste of the album's range. "Sepsis", the band's first new song since 2022, paid homage to the early '90s Richmond underground that shaped LAMB OF GOD's formative years. Consequence, in their "Heavy Song Of The Week" feature, noted the track's fresh approach, saying "Morton's riffs are bruising at this slower pace," and adding that Blythe bellows "like a heavy metal Nick Cave." "Parasocial Christ" followed, evoking classic LAMB OF GOD with a three-minute onslaught that Revolver dubbed an "anti-tech thrasher."

Produced and mixed by longtime studio collaborator Josh Wilbur, "Into Oblivion" was recorded across multiple locations tied closely to the band's identity. Drums were tracked in Richmond, Virginia, with guitars and bass recorded at Morton's home studio. Blythe recorded his vocals at the legendary Total Access studio in Redondo Beach, California, the birthplace of seminal punk records by BLACK FLAG, HÜSKER DÜ and DESCENDENTS.

LAMB OF GOD previously announced a spring North American tour in what promises to be the heaviest trek of 2026. Joined by KUBLAI KHAN TX, FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY and SANGUISUGABOGG, the tour kicks off on March 17. Tickets and VIP packages are on sale now via Lamb-of-god.com/tour.

"Sepsis" arrived during a milestone year for LAMB OF GOD. In 2025, the band celebrated the 25th anniversary of its discography, performed at the historic "Back To The Beginning" concert and subsequently released their thunderous take on BLACK SABBATH's "Children Of The Grave", along with appearances at several festivals, including Inkcarceration and Louder Than Life, and a headlining show at Richmond's new 7500-seat outdoor venue Allianz Amphitheater during its opening season.

Randy Blythe photo credit: Travis Shinn

In a new interview with Lyndsey Marie of the 93Xradio station, THREE DAYS GRACE frontman Adam Gontier was asked if rock music has become "more emotionally honest" since the late 1990s and early 2000s. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I don't know. That's a good question, 'cause it's hard to — because there's just so much more music out there now, it feels like, anyway, there's just music coming from everywhere, especially, of course, online and stuff. And there's just so many different genres now, too — I don't know — it's, like, metalcore and all the stuff. So, I don't know. For me it's really tough to say whether or not it's emotionally as strong as it used to be. It feels like there's a whole new wave of a wave of music that's just about sounding like other bands or stuff that's successful."

After Marie brought up the fact that several artificial intelligence (A.I.)-driven acts have reached the charts over the few months opined that the success of A.I. music is "really insulting to the artistic process", Gontier concurred. "Yeah, I think it is," he said. "I think if you're legit an artist, I don't think there's a lot to be worried about. I guess it's like the imperfections that happen when you're creating music and the live show — the imperfections are what makes it really special and makes it actual art. So if everything's perfect, if every — I don't know — if every lyric and every melody is perfect, then it's just not real. So I think people will see through that. I don't think there's too much to be worried about."

THREE DAYS GRACE's 2026 "Alienation" tour will kick off in Fort Wayne, Indiana in late February, before hitting Canada and Europe and wrapping up the tour in November for the final show in Los Angeles, California. The U.S. tour dates will receive support from I PREVAIL and THE FUNERAL PORTRAIT, while Canada will see support from FINGER ELEVEN and ROYAL TUSK on select dates.

THREE DAYS GRACE's latest album, "Alienation", arrived in August 2025 via RCA Records. For the first time in over a decade, original THREE DAYS GRACE frontman Adam Gontier is back, joining Matt Walst on vocals along with Neil Sanderson (drums),Brad Walst (bass) and Barry Stock (guitars).

THREE DAYS GRACE played its first full show with Gontier in 12 years on February 25, 2025 as the support act for DISTURBED on the U.S. leg of "The Sickness 25th Anniversary Tour" at Ford Idaho Center Arena in Nampa, Idaho.

In April 2023, Gontier reunited with THREE DAYS GRACE onstage during the band's concert in Huntsville, Alabama. Gontier rejoined his former bandmates when they opened for SHINEDOWN at the Probst Arena At The Von Braun Center to perform two classic songs from THREE DAYS GRACE's 2006 album "One-X": "Never Too Late" and "Riot".

THREE DAYS GRACE later shared a post-performance photo with Gontier on social media and wrote in an accompanying message: "Soooo we did a thing."

In 1992, Gontier, Brad Walst, Phil Crowe, Neil Sanderson and Joe Grant formed GROUNDSWELL while most of the members were still in high school. That band broke up in 1995, but two years later Gontier, Sanderson and Walst reformed as THREE DAYS GRACE. Gontier left the band in 2013 and was replaced by Matt, the vocalist from another Norwood band, MY DARKEST DAYS.

Gontier initially went into rehab in 2005 in Toronto after admitting an addiction to Oxycontin. The rehab stint influenced some material which would appear on THREE DAYS GRACE's "One-X" album, including the songs "Pain" and "Over And Over".

Gontier left THREE DAYS GRACE in the spring of 2013. At the time, the Canadian rockers cited unspecified "health issues" when his departure was announced. Adam later released a statement explaining he exited THREE DAYS GRACE to pursue new projects, and not to deal with addiction.

Gontier is currently a member of SAINT ASONIA, which also features STAIND guitarist/founding member Mike Mushok. The quartet is rounded out by Cale Gontier (bass) and Cody Watkins (drums).

In a new interview with Norman "Sargento" Garcia of France's Metal Obs' magazine, OF MICE & MEN vocalist/bassist Aaron Pauley and drummer Valentino Arteaga spoke about the band's ninth studio album, "Another Miracle", which arrived last November via Century Media Records. Regarding why they decided to handle the production process themselves this time around, Aaron said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "Part of it was just — we started self-producing during COVID era when studios were shut down and that sort of snowballed into us producing a few albums, then signing a new deal where the precedent was for us to keep self-producing. But, yeah, I think long story short, a lot of it is— That's a definite plus, just having more control, and not just control for the sake of control, but being close to the art."

After Garcia noted that it's "difficult" to have a member who is recording all the bass tracks and doing all the mastering and producing himself, like Pauley did on "Another Miracle", Arteaga concurred. "Oh, man. I mean, dude, [Aaron is] a savant. He's so good at what he does. We're so fortunate to have such a talented and skilled member in the band.

"Truth be told, we had no idea, really, how deep the well was in his knowledge of everything," the drummer continued. "And I think that the self-production came out of necessity during the time of COVID. But now that we've been doing it for a while, it's really helped all of us understand more. And he's such an incredible teacher when it comes to those things that we really can be a lot more hands-on with the albums now and really kind of chisel away at the marble, if you will, on our own time.

"A lot of times when we work with producers, it's such a short period of time in the grand scheme of things, like a couple of months, whereas we've been crafting these last three albums for years," Valentino explained. "And I feel like there is no time limit to creativity when we're recording and doing these ourselves because at any moment that inspiration or creativity can strike, we can just pop on our computers, record what we wanna record, send it to Aaron. He'll juice it up and make it sound awesome. And it can be very stream of consciousness as opposed to, like, under the gun. 'Let's hurry up and do that.'

"I think it's cool, especially now that we're this deep into our careers and on our ninth album, to be able to be completely hands-on with everything, have that line of communication open at any time, and being able to be creative and do, like I said, stream-of-consciousness writing," Arteaga added. "I think that that's how we're able to not only produce and write so much music, but then in turn share it and pretty much consistently put out albums every other year. And it's because the creativity just really never stops, and there's nothing ever that can really stand in the way, because now with technology and the things that we learn in self-producing, we're able to speak this new musical language of the future that when we first started, on our first couple of albums, we only really knew how to just play the instruments that we have in front of us — bass, drums, guitar, vocals. But now with technology and computers, we can use all these different mediums to be able to be creative and draw inspiration from, that I think is really cool. And that's how we keep it fresh and have fun with it still."

Last November, Pauley was asked by the JJO Discover New Music Podcast what musical direction he and his bandmates wanted to take on "Another Miracle". Aaron said at the time: "It's funny, 'cause I feel like we never really know. We've never discussed it. I don't think we've ever sat down one time and been, like, 'Where are we gonna go with this one?' But the feedback has been that this record is one of our heaviest in a long time. Some of the songs, I think, are our heaviest songs that we've ever dropped. And then I think it sort of takes the experimental nature of 'Echo' [2021] with some of the melodic nature of 'Tether' [2023], but then it dials up the intensity."

Aaron continued: "Much like our third album… And it's funny, 'cause going back in time and looking at things retrospectively, you always glean more from it. One thing I realized about that record is it was one that we had made where we did a significant portion of the writing, recorded a little bit of it, went on tour, and then we still had that sort of stage energy fresh in our minds when we went back into the studio. And this record was very much the same thing. 'Cause we started working on this basically shortly after releasing 'Tether', because — I don't know — we're just crazy. We always just start working on new music immediately. We really like the process. We love the process of getting together and making music. So once the record's done, we're, like, 'Okay, well, let's just start making music again.'"

Asked why it was "so important" for him and his OF MICE & MEN bandmates to handle the production process themselves this time around, Aaron said: "It's just something that we really enjoy. Like I said, we really love the process. It's a definite challenge when you take the reins for yourselves. But there is also a lot of creative freedom and just freedom especially with regard to time, when it's your own project. For us, doing it all in-house, if you can't sleep one night and it's 2:30 in the morning or something and you wanna wake up and put an hour of work in, you can do that. Usually when you're working with a producer, even though you are the one hiring them, there's always this feeling, especially with regard to experimentation, like, 'Well, I don't wanna waste too much of this person's time experimenting with an idea.' Generally the feeling when you're recording with a producer is, 'Oh, I should have been more prepared so I could just come in and record my parts.' But when you're sort of doing it yourself, you're sort of left to your own devices, which then is a perfect avenue for problem solving, which is a perfect avenue for growth and learning."

Reflecting on some of the downsides of producing an album themselves, Aaron said: "For us, it's really, really important that we have deadlines because otherwise we will sit and tinker with things forever. So for us, in a lot of ways, our deadline is sort of our producer. Plus, we've been really fortunate throughout our careers to work with some of the best producers in rock and metal, from people like David Bendeth and Howard Benson and Josh Wilbur, and every single one of them taught us invaluable lessons and made themselves available to us even when we started self-producing. Just 'if you ever need anything, just let us know'-type vibes, which, for us, you this is our third record that we've done that, and it was sort of borne out of necessity during the pandemic because everything closed and we still have to make music. So we just wanted to figure out a way of doing it to where our fans could still enjoy it, 'cause, regardless, we would still…I don't know. Even if nobody was listening, we would be getting together and making music. We're addicted."

Earlier in 2025, OF MICE & MEN released "Another Miracle"'s title track which marked their first new music since 2023's "Tether" and their first since signing to new label Century Media Records. More recently they shared "Wake Up", which spent several weeks climbing the Active Rock Radio chart in the U.S. while in the U.K. it received strong support from Radio 1, Kerrang! Radio, TotalRock and more.

Photo by Carissa Dugoni

In the cover story for the latest issue of Modern Drummer magazine, legendary rock drummer Josh Freese was asked if he has gotten any clarity on why he was fired from the FOO FIGHTERS in May 2025, two years after he was recruited to fill the vacancy left by the late Taylor Hawkins. He said: "The FOO FIGHTERS are such a big, mainstream band that everything I say gets taken out of context, reposted, and blown out of proportion. People created headlines from one quick, simple comment I made on a podcast not long ago, it's crazy. I've got to be careful about what I say about it. But I've got a lot to say about it and I've been just trying to figure out how and when, to go about really articulating it."

He continued: "I have a couple small theories [as to why I was let go], but I can't really go into them right now. I did really enjoy the two years I spent with those guys however, and they were good to me… until they weren't. I liked playing with them. And I loved having [FOO FIGHTERS frontman] Dave [Grohl] as a bandleader. I truly respect him so much as a drummer first and foremost. To me, he's a drummer first and everything else is second. I've listened to him on all the great records he's played drums on more than I've listened to any FOO FIGHTERS stuff. It really was cool being in a band where the leader is a phenomenal drummer that you respect… That's really fun… We basically came from the same era too and could relate to one another."

Freese added: "I enjoyed being around those guys, they were generous and good to me… and that's what makes the whole thing even more of a mystery. I think I'm a pretty good read on people, and I did not see that coming. One day it was nothing but laughs, we're on stage and Dave's looking at me every night like, 'You're killing it, dude!!!' And then it was just — over."

Last December, Freese addressed the fact that FOO FIGHTERS hired now-former NINE INCH NAILS drummer Ilan Rubin to occupy their coveted drumming throne, while Freese returned to take Rubin's place with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in NINE INCH NAILS. Josh told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" at the time: "As far as the drummer swap thing, it's funny because it's just coincidence the way it worked out. It's not like there was a purposeful drum swap. And, actually, if Ilan, who was playing with NINE INCH NAILS, who joined the band after I left in 2009, if he left NINE INCH NAILS to go join — pick a band — MUSE, I don't know, Trent would've called me. It's not like it was an intentional swap. It's like when Trent needed a drummer, when Ilan split, he was, like, 'Well, I'm gonna call Freese.' And he called me and I was, like, 'Hell yeah.' Because I missed working with Trent and I loved working with him the last time I did it back between '05 and '09. And it just so happens to be he needed a drummer because his drummer was going to join the band that I just was let go from. So it was just completely coincidence that that that's the way that that worked. You know what I mean? It wasn't premeditated, it wasn't worked out by anybody. It was just kind of, like, 'Well, I need a drummer. Sure, I'll call Josh. Oh, how funny. I'm calling Josh because I need a drummer, because my drummer just left to work with the band that Josh just left.' [Laughs] So it'was just pure coincidence."

When Freese announced he was fired from FOO FIGHTERS in May 2025, he shared a statement on Instagram in which he said the FOO FIGHTERS called him earlier that week to let him know that they had decided "to go in a different direction with their drummer." Freese added, "No reason was given."

In a light-hearted follow-up post, Freese shared a list of the 10 possible reasons he might have been fired from the band, including "once whistled [the FOO FIGHTERS' hit] 'My Hero' for a week solid on tour" and "never even once tried growing a beard."

FOO FIGHTERS frontman Dave Grohl thanked Freese for his work with the band in an extensive July 2025 letter celebrating FOO FIGHTERS' 30th anniversary, writing that without the "thunderous wizardry of Josh Freese, this story would be incomplete."

Freese released his new album, "Just A Minute, Vol. 2", in November 2025 via PEARL JAM co-founder Stone Gossard's Loosegroove Records. The follow-up to his first installment, released in 2021, once again crammed 25 songs into 25 minutes, with every track landing precisely at the one-minute mark.

Recently profiled in The New York Times, Freese is among the most revered drummers in modern rock music today, keeping time for some of the biggest and most influential rock bands in history, including GUNS N' ROSES, WEEZER, FOO FIGHTERS, A PERFECT CIRCLE and NINE INCH NAILS. He has helped breathe new energy into legendary acts like DEVO and THE REPLACEMENTS and has played on hundreds of studio recordings spanning artists as stylistically wide-ranging as Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, THE DWARVES and Lana Del Rey.