Horror Pain Gore Death Productions has announced the new release from Japan's heavy/speed metal warriors Metalucifer. "Heavy Metal Ninja (American Assault)" is up now for preorder on Bandcamp and will be released July 15 exclusively on CD format.


Formed in Japan back in 1995, Metalucifer were initially spawned as a side project of legendary Sabbat vocalist and bassist Gezol. In line with such classics as Heavy Metal Drill, Heavy Metal Chainsaw and Heavy Metal Bulldozer, Heavy Metal Ninja (American Assault) is the latest metal assault from these metal maniacs, and showcases pure heavy/speed metal madness that is for true metal warriors only! Metalucifer unleash this double mini album featuring new tracks with English vocals, as well as karaoke versions of each track to rock out to, with a total playing time clocking in at 46 minutes. Gracing the album cover of Heavy Metal Ninja (American Assault) is Neal Tanaka, one of the most famous heavy metal collectors and die hard supporters of metal worldwide.







Tracklisting:


“Born To Play Heavy Metal”
“Heavy Metal Ninja”
“New Wave Of British Heavy Metal”
“Heavy Metal Bang Your Heads”
“Born To Play Heavy Metal” (Karaoke version)
“Heavy Metal Ninja” (Karaoke version)
“New Wave Of British Heavy Metal” (Karaoke version)
“Heavy Metal Bang Your Heads” (Karaoke version)


“Heavy Metal Bang Your Heads”:

Trollfest released their ninth full-length studio album, Flamingo Overlord, via Napalm Records on May 27. Put on your dancing shoes, grab your sax & enjoy this saxophone playthrough for the album track, "Overlords Have Feelings":





Flamingo Overlord begins with the insanely catchy “Dance Like A Pink Flamingo” - the unforgettable track made world-famous with the band’s zany performance at Eurovision qualifier Melodi Grand Prix earlier this year - clearing the way for the bar anthem “All Drinks On Me”, which keeps the energy and drinks flowing before venturing into “Twenty Miles an Hour”. The track continues the party with a groovy funk flavoured sound, featuring a rap and saxophone solo that will leave listeners going bonkers! “Flamingo Libre” will soon whisk you away and have you dreaming of tropical drinks and magical nights, while “Pina Colada” stands as a much-needed summer anthem best suited for blasting while convertible cruising. Flamingo Overlord closes with the mysterious “Bob Venke”, telling the unlikely story of the mighty Flamingo Overlord's quest for world domination.







Flamingo Overlord is available in the following formats in various territories:


- 1LP Gatefold Pink
- 1LP Gatefold  "Flamingo Feather" Marbled Vinyl Limited Edition (limited to 300)
- 1CD Digipak
- 1CD Digipak + Shirt Bundle
- Digital Album


Order here.





Flamingo Overlord tracklisting:


"Dance Like A Pink Flamingo"
"All Drinks On Me"
"Flamongous"
"Twenty Miles An Hour"
"The Flamingorilla"
"Flamingo Libre"
"Piña Colada"
"Rule The Country"
"The Way You Earn Your Drinks"
"Overlords Have Feelings"
"Bob Venke"


“All Drinks on Me” video:





“Flamingo Libre” video:





“Piña Colada” video:





“Twenty Miles An Hour” video:





"Dance Like A Pink Flamingo" lyric video:





(Photo - Terje Johnsen)

Cult Japanese black metal legends Sigh have announced details of their new album Shiki to be released on August 26 on Peaceville.


Shiki, an opus of dark & eclectic blackened heavy metal, shrouded in traditional eastern influences, marks the latest chapter in the Sigh legacy and includes some of the band’s heaviest and darkest material for some years; a fine hybrid of at times primitive black metal akin to early influences such as Celtic Frost amid more epic melodic heavy metal riffing and solos. It will take you on a journey through the strange and the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout their career. Highlighting that Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots.


Immerse yourself in Sigh’s new world through the first single “Mayonaka No Kaii” and the accompanying illustrated video from animator extraordinaire Costin Chioreanu.




“The song is kind of a culmination of what Sigh have been up to. Whistle scream, throat singing, Uriah Heep like vocal harmonies, vocoder, flute solo, shakuhachi solo, Hammond solo and the great guitar solo by Fred - it's got everything! Although it's only 5-minute long, it's a very dramatic song with many aspects. The title stands for ‘a strange incident at midnight’, and it's based on actual weird experience I had .. Long story short, I experienced midnight twice in one night! You can read the details at the end of the video. We have been working with Costin for a long time, so we were 100% sure that he'd be the best guy to visualize my eerie experience, and how did it turn out? You all see for yourselves!” Mirai Kawashima.


The word "Shiki" itself has various meanings in Japanese such as four seasons, time to die, conducting an orchestra, ceremony, motivation, colour. The two primary themes for the album are "four seasons" and "time to die". The concept and artwork is based around a traditional Japanese poem, and on Shiki Mirai explores how at this stage of life he himself is going through autumn, with winter coming soon, and so empathizes with the contrasting sentimental feelings from watching cherry blossoms (a symbol of spring) in full bloom.


Joining Mirai and Dr Mikannibal for this release are Frédéric Leclercq of Kreator, plus US drummer extraordinaire, Mike Heller of Fear Factory and Raven, along with an appearance by longtime member Satoshi Fujinami on bass. Shiki was recorded across multiple studios, and mixed and mastered by Lasse Lammert at LSD studios in Germany. The album utilises a whole host of instruments to give further texture and dynamics to the compositions and eerie atmosphere, incorporating traditional oriental instruments such as the Shakuhachi & Sinobue flutes.


Sigh, featuring mainman Mirai Kawashima, Satoshi Fujinami & Kazuki Ozeki formed in 1989/90 and following their initial demos, Shinichi Ishikawa was brought in, and Sigh set about recording the masterpiece debut Scorn Defeat for Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions, going on to become one of the country’s greatest and most revered metal exports.


Shiki will be released on August 26 on CD / black vinyl LP / limited edition green vinyl LP and digital. Preorder here.





Tracklisting:


“Kuroi Inori”
“Kuroi Kage”
“Shoujahitsumetsu”
“Shikabane”
“Satsui – Geshi No Ato”
“Fuyu Ga Kuru”
“Shouku”
“Kuroi Kagami”
“Mayonaka No Kaii”
“Touji No Asa” 


“Mayonaka No Kaii”:

Ex-DEATH and MASSACRE guitarist Rick Rozz has blasted his former bandmate Kam Lee as a "narcissistic revisionist" over the comments the vocalist made about late DEATH frontman Chuck Schuldiner.

In a recent interview with the "That Metal Interview" podcast, Lee, who was a member of an early version of DEATH as well as the pre-DEATH band MANTAS alongside Schuldiner and Rozz, weighed in on the never-ending debate on who can lay claim to being the first "true" death metal band: DEATH or POSSESSED. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'll admit this, and I'll say this straight out, 'cause I know there's an argument all the time, who was first — was it DEATH or was it POSSESSED? Well, I will tell you POSSESSED was first, and I will tell you why. Because Chuck heard what Jeff [ Becerra, POSSESSED frontman] was doing and Chuck wanted to emulate Jeff. I was there — I was there in the beginning.

"There was times when we were living here in Florida before Chuck moved to California, and Chuck and I both started off as tapetraders back in the day," Kam continued. "And I remember, if you go back to before we were DEATH, we were called MANTAS. If you look at some of the hand-drawn logos of MANTAS, the MANTAS logo, there's the logo with the devil's tail on it, on the 'M'. That's completely stolen from the original POSSESSED logo, the devil's tail.

"I'll say this now, 'cause [former DEATH manager] Eric Greif has passed, he's deceased, but this is stuff that he didn't want me to tell people," Lee added. "That's why I was denied ever being interviewed for the DEATH movie, the DEATH documentary ['Death By Metal']. They denied me, because they didn't want me to say these certain things, because how are you gonna sell a documentary about DEATH if I come on and tell everybody, 'Nah, that's not really how it was'? So they didn't want me on there — they absolutely refused to talk to me on there. They didn't want me to come up and say, 'Oh, yeah, I was the one that drew the DEATH logo, not Chuck.' They didn't want me to tell everybody I'm the one that created that. And they didn't want me to tell everybody, 'Oh, well, Chuck ripped off POSSESSED.' They wanted to sell it like Chuck created it, because they were selling a product. And if you've got somebody come and say, 'Well, that's not exactly how that product works.' Kind of like the [fast food chicken restaurant chain] KFC. I'm sorry, but it wasn't [KFC founder] Colonel Sanders that came up with a special recipe; some other guy came up with it. So that's really what it was."

Earlier today, Rozz took to his Facebook page to share a link to the BLABBERMOUTH.NET story about Lee's comments, and he included the following message: "SORRY CAN'T LET THIS ONE SLIDE MY FRIENDS, HMMM... BELITTLING THE DEAD, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? SO... LET ME BE BLUNT, THE REASON THIS P.O.S. NARCISSISTIC, REVISIONIST WASN'T INCLUDED IN THE DEATH BY METAL DOCUMENTARY IS... IN A PRINTED INTERVIEW HE WARNS CHUCK THAT HE BETTER WATCH OUT OR HIS MOM WILL BE SONLESS ONCE AGAIN, REASON ENOUGH? OH... YEAH... AND AT LEAST CHUCK DIDN'T GET ON STAGE AT SHOWBIZ PIZZA IN WHITE SPANDEX WITH LEPPARD SPOTTED LEG WARMERS LIP SINKING TO I WANNA BE SOMEBODY BY W.A.S.P. THAT'S REALLY DEATH METAL BARNEY, TRUE COLORS UNTIL THE END."

Although DEATH is considered to be one of the most important and influential death metal acts of all time, the Florida-based band did not release its debut album, "Scream Bloody Gore", until 1987 — two years after the arrival of "Seven Churches" by California's POSSESSED, whose bassist/vocalist, the aforementioned Becerra, is credited by some with initially creating the term "death metal" in 1983.

Becerra told Antihero in 2017 that Schuldiner cited POSSESSED as a "primary influence" in "countless" magazine interviews. But even though DEATH was inspired by POSSESSED, "they ran with it and went in their own direction and created their own vibe," Jeff said. "To go a step further: Chuck used ['80s death/thrash producer] Randy Burns, who did 'Seven Churches' to do 'Scream Bloody Gore', his first album. He also did a cover of [POSSESSED's] 'The Exorcist'."

Back in 2008, Lee was toying around with the idea of re-recording some of the earliest classics from DEATH and MANTAS with various guest musicians. At the time, he wrote in a social media post: "Like it or not... I'm as much a part of that history as Chuck was, and I wouldn't think to do anything to down play his involvement in these songs. The simple truth is that most of the songs on MANTAS/DEATH's 'Death by Metal' demo '83/'84, DEATH's 'Reign of Terror' demo '84 and DEATH's 'Infernal Death' demo '85 — and many rehersal tapes released during this time — we're both lyrically written be me, and sung by me. Yes, both Chuck and Rick wrote the guitar riffs, but I wrote the drum patterns to these songs and the lyrics to most of these tracks. That's the simple truth to it!"

The current lineup of MASSACRE, featuring Lee and bassist Mike Borders, released its fourth full-length album, "Resurgence", last October via Nuclear Blast. It marked MASSACRE's first LP to feature Borders, as well as the band's first recording in 25 years to feature Lee.

MASSACRE parted ways with Rozz and drummer Mike Mazzonetto in September 2019. At the time, Lee and Borders blamed the split on "contract infringement violations," "poor performance, incompetence, and lack of professionalism."

In September 2020, drummer Jeramie Kling (VENOM INC., THE ABSENCE, GOREGÄNG) and guitarist Taylor Nordberg (THE ABSENCE, GOREGÄNG) announced their departure from MASSACRE. A short time later, Kling and Nordberg said in a statement that "what was presented as a democracy turned out to be a dictatorship with an excruciating lack of communication."

(Y) SORRY CAN'T LET THIS ONE SLIDE MY FRIENDS, HMMM... BELITTLING THE DEAD, HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? SO... LET ME BE BLUNT,...

Posted by Rick Rozz on Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Ozzy Osbourne says that he is " recuperating comfortably," two days after undergoing grueling surgery to remove and realign pins in his neck and back.

Earlier today (Wednesday, June 15),the legendary 73-year-old heavy metal singer released the following statement via social media: "I am now home from the hospital recuperating comfortably. I am definitely feeling the love and support from all my fans and send everyone a big thank you for their thoughts, prayers and well wishes during my recovery".

Ozzy's statement came just hours after Page Six shared the first photos and video of the BLACK SABBATH frontman as he was wheeled out of a Los Angeles hospital Tuesday. In the images, Ozzy could be seen wearing a black T-shirt, black jeans and a blue mask as he stood up and got into a black Range Rover with guidance from a hospital attendant. Ozzy was accompanied by his wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne.

Sharon released a short statement on Tuesday thanking Ozzy's fans for their "love and support" leading up to his surgery Ozzy. She also said that he "is doing well" and is "on the road to recovery".

An Osbourne family source told Page Six on Monday (June 13) that there will be a "lengthy amount of convalescence" after the operation, and the legendary heavy metal singer will need a nurse at home.

The source added: "Ozzy is 73 and any kind of surgery when you get older is difficult. This is quite major. He's having the pins in his neck and back realigned from when he had a fall back in 2019.

"He's been in a lot of pain."

Last week, Sharon said that he was about to undergo a "major operation" which would "determine the rest of his life."

Sharon announced on U.K.'s "The Talk" on June 8 that she would be flying to America to be by her husband's side. She also said that she didn't know if she and Ozzy will do anything special for their 40th wedding anniversary in July. "[It] depends on everything with Ozzy," she explained.

Last month, Ozzy confirmed to Classic Rock magazine that he was "waiting on some more surgery" on his neck. "I can't walk properly these days," he revealed. "I have physical therapy every morning. I am somewhat better, but nowhere near as much as I want to be to go back on the road."

Ozzy, who revealed two 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, England. 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."

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, who turned 73 in December, 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.
Ozzy Osbourne discharged from hospital day after grueling surgery https://t.co/yYuuvMTgSdpic.twitter.com/pLp4AX1sOC

— Page Six (@PageSix) June 15, 2022



I am now home from the hospital recuperating comfortably. I am definitely feeling the love and support from all my fans...

Posted by Ozzy Osbourne on Wednesday, June 15, 2022