In a new interview with Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show, LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe, whose 2015 memoir, "Dark Days: A Memoir", focused on his ordeal in a Czech Republic prison and his subsequent acquittal, was asked how writing prose is different from writing lyrics. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, they're two different things — two very different things. I always say that writing a book makes writing an album look like going to kindergarten. It is a much more intense, much more sustained [and] much more nerve-racking extended creative effort. There's pros and cons to it, of course. And the thing that I dislike about it, just as a lazy bum, is I'm having to do it all by myself. If there's something bad in the book or it doesn't work, then I can't blame it on my bandmates. 'Cause we're a democracy — we really are a democracy — and if someone is unhappy with something, then we won't move forward with it creatively, if they're really emphatic about that. That being said, we make a lot of compromises with each other in order to work as a band. So, if there's something that I don't particularly like in one of our songs or on an album or a song that I'm not particularly feeling great about but the rest of [the guys] love the song, then I'm, like, 'Oh well. So be it.' It's part of the business of being in a band. And then if it comes out and I still don't like it, I can be, like, 'Well it was their decision, not mine.' When you write a book, if you screw up something or something's not good or something later you review and it doesn't pass muster, that's on you. So it's a bit more nerve-racking. No, conversely, that's kind of the same thing I like about it, because I don't have to bounce my ideas off of anyone else. I say exactly what I want to say without having to go through any sort of filtration process with anyone else — it's just me. So, in a way, it's a much more creative process — or a purely creative process, I would say — because it's just you and the blank page. But it is nerve-racking — it really is. And also, as I get older, I just enjoy quiet more and more and more, and writing is a very quiet and solitary activity — at least it is for me. So I enjoy that. My ears don't ring after writing a book, but they sure as hell do after writing an album."

Last July, Blythe said in an Instagram post that he was about to begin writing his second book. The now-51-year-old singer wrote: "It's been six years since my 1st book, Dark Days, came out. I've been kinda busy but I can't screw around any longer- it's finally time to write a new one. The proposal is done, the publishers accepted it, & the contract is hammered out & in the mail.

"Shit- that means I actually have to write this thing! All I'll say is: A) it's another non-fiction book, & B) I just spent over two weeks utterly consumed by writing the freaking introduction. 2,296 words in 15 days- that not a lot, but I want it to be RIGHT. Plus, I'm just stretching the old muscles, getting back in shape for the brutal long haul that lies ahead. The sustained creative heavy lifting required to write a book makes writing the lyrics for an album look like preschool finger painting. Plus, if what you're doing is turning out shitty, you can't just blame the rest of your band. (sorry dudes)

"Most books on writing of are bullshit, collections of pointless 'exercises' from people who haven't sold any other books of their own (I should know, I've bought most of them.) No book on earth is gonna turn you into a good writer. There is no magic pill. Just like playing music, shooting photos, or pursuing any other creative endeavor- the ONLY way to find out if you're any good is to DO IT. You gotta write, & the hardest part of writing is sitting your ass down to do it, & then repeating that process day after day after day. There IS a book that can help you start to do that though- 'The War of Art' by @steven_pressfield. This book (& his other books) got me through writing my last book, & it will get me through this one, goddammit. As my friend the writer Brian Pulido said when he gave me a copy 'It's like a fireman's hatchet when you're stuck in a house burning down around you.' I can't even remember how many times I've already read this book. I'm reading it again now.

"If you want to try to be a writer (or pursue any sort of art) but you're too intimidated to start, BUY THIS BOOK. I can't recommend it highly enough. Read it. Do what it says. Then sit your ass down in the chair and write- you'll find out eventually if you're any good.

"Cheers to all the writers out there- I'm rooting for y'all!"

In 2012, Blythe was arrested in the Czech Republic and charged with manslaughter for allegedly pushing a 19-year-old fan offstage at a show two year prior and causing injuries that led to the fan's death. Blythe spent 37 days in a Prague prison before ultimately being found not guilty in 2013.

Blythe's prison experience inspired two songs on LAMB OF GOD's 2015 album "VII: Sturm Und Drang": "512", one of his three prison cell numbers, and "Still Echoes", written while he was in Pankrac Prison, a dilapidated facility built in the 1880s that had been used for executions by the Nazis during World War II. It also led him to write the aforementioned "Dark Days", in which he shared his whole side of the story publicly for the first time.

LAMB OF GOD's latest, self-titled album was released in June 2020 via Epic Records in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast Records in Europe. The follow-up to "VII: Sturm Und Drang" marked LAMB OF GOD's first recordings with Art Cruz, who joined the band in July 2019 as the replacement for the group's founding drummer, Chris Adler.

Warrant / ex-Lynch Mob vocalist Robert Mason is featured in a new career-spanning interview with 80's Metal Recycle Bin. He offers some great road stories, talks about his relationship with Warrant singer / songwriter Jani Lane, singing backing vocals for Ozzy Osbourne on tour, and how he ended up joining Warrant.


On touring with Ozzy Osbourne:


"I got a call from Sharon Osbourne saying that Ozzy was going out on a tour - this was '95 Ozzmosis tour - and Saghron said he wanted to use a real singer (for backing vocals) instead of any backing tracks. Sampling at that point was keyboards firing off samples. My name had come up from a few producers as a likely candidate, so she called me. Within two weeks I was in Stockholm, the guy off stage doing all the background vocals. I did that for a year."

Canadian drum prodigy, Alexx Ponta, has joined Wildstreet. While on the Kings Of World Tour in April, Crispy Borell discovered Alexx on Instagram reels. He shared Alexx’s video link with Don Berger and Eric Jayk. The band said, "The decision to invite him was unanimous as was the decision to have him join Wildstreet."


Alexx Ponta, an English student from Montreal, QC began posting video covers of Wildstreet’s Golden Robot Records label mates Crashdiet and Hardcore Superstar which caught of the attention of Wildstreet’s guitarist, Crispy Borell. Check out this video duel with 16 year old guitarist Charlie Kash:




 

 
 

 


View this post on Instagram

 

 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 

 
 

A post shared by Alexx Ponta (@alexxponta)









The band adds, "We reached out to him, sent him the set list and booked a weeks worth of rehearsals in NYC. It was immediately apparent and unanimous in the first 5 minutes of our 1st rehearsal with Alexx that he is the drummer for Wildstreet."





Wildstreet lineup:


Eric Jayk: Vocals, Guitar
Crispy Borell: Guitar, Vocals
Don Berger: Bass , Vocals
Alexx Ponta: Drums

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL frontman Jesse Hughes says he has forgiven Islamic State group extremists who stormed his band's concert in France, claiming 89 lives.

Hughes and EAGLES OF DEATH METAL guitar technician Eden Galindo, who were onstage when gunmen sprayed the Bataclan theater with gunfire, are back in Paris to testify as civil parties in a French court. They are among the survivors and witnesses of the November 13, 2015 attacks.

The only suspected surviving member of the squad that killed 130 people at several locations, Salah Abdeslam, is accused of murder, attempted murder and hostage taking. He has denied the charges and is standing trial before a panel of judges.

On the final day of his testimony in April, Abdeslam offered his "condolences and apologies" to all the victims.

"I would like to say today that this story of 13 November was written with the blood of the victims," he told the special court of assizes of Paris.

"It is their story, and I was part of it. They are linked to me and I am linked to them," he added.

"I ask you to forgive me, I know that hatred remains ... I ask you today to hate me in moderation".

Asked earlier today if he was ready to forgive Abdeslam and the other 13 defendants in the case, Hughes said: "Yeah. It's important to forgive. I'm a Christian. And … everyone can be lost, and everyone needs to find a way. And most of those gentlemen in there do. So, I forgive them, and I hope they find the peace of God for themselves."

During his testimony on Tuesday, Hughes described the scene, saying he instantly recognized the sound of gunfire.

"Being from a desert community in California, I know the sound of gunshots," the conservative rocker, who was a supporter of former U.S. president Donald Trump, said. "I knew that death was coming."

Galindo told the court: "We were thinking that it was going to stop but it just kept coming. After a while they reloaded and a technician told us, 'next time they stop, we run.'"

Hughes added that the attackers had not taken away his love of music. "I pray today for them and for their souls, that the light of our lord shines on them," he said. "I would like to conclude with one word from singer Ozzy Osbourne, 'You can't kill rock 'n' roll! You can't kill rock 'n' roll!'"

In March 2016, Hughes apologized to the staff and security of the Bataclan for implying that they may have known about, or even been involved in, the terrorist attack at the venue. A short time earlier, Hughes gave an interview to Fox Business in which he claimed that six security guards did not show to work the night of the attacks up and others acted strangely. "Out of respect for the police still investigating, I won't make a definite statement, but I'll say it seems rather obvious that they had a reason not to show up," Hughes said. As a result, he was barred from the Bataclan re-opening concert in the fall of 2016.

The attacks in Paris led to a military response by France against the radical Islamic organization ISIS, as French jets bombed a series of targets in Syria.

The attacks stepped up worldwide concern over ISIS, as well as a debate in the U.S. over whether to accept Syrian refugees.

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL was founded in 1998 by QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE mainman Josh Homme and his longtime friend Hughes. Homme appears on all the band's albums but only plays live with them occasionally.
Eagles of Death Metal singer Jesse Hughes speaks of forgiveness, as he leaves a Paris court where he testified about the attacks at the band’s Bataclan theater concert in November 2015. pic.twitter.com/uur21mFVHZ

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) May 17, 2022

In a new interview with the "HRH Metal With Dan Chan" show, VENOM INC. bassist/vocalist Tony "Demolition Man" Dolan was asked if he and his bandmates have gotten any legal pushback from VENOM bassist/vocalist Conrad "Cronos" Lant over the fact that they are using the "VENOM" name. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The only [time] we had [an issue] was [when] we were due to go to South America, and the [promoter] was putting up the 'Black Metal' [artwork], the infamous [VENOM album] cover, so he was putting up the 'Black Metal' thing and using the VENOM [logo] from there and then they had an 'INC.' in there somewhere and you couldn't see it. And then Jeff [Dunn, original VENOM and current VENOM INC. guitarist] got a letter from the legal department at [VENOM's record label] Spinefarm on behalf of Conrad, just saying 'case and desist' to do that. So Jeff just wrote back and went, 'Okay. Show me any paperwork, any agreement anywhere where it says this is owned by one person anywhere.' And we never heard another word. 'Cause it isn't, of course. And I sent them a letter as well just to say we have not, do not use the imagery associated [with the Cronos-fronted VENOM]. We're not trying to convince everybody we're that band. We're distinguishing ourselves away from that — as being part of it, but distinguishing ourselves away, if anything. And if a promoter in another country decides to use whatever they want for a poster, you have to talk to them; you don't talk to us. So, for us, it was easy."

Dunn said in a 2015 interview with The Metal Voice that he didn't know how Cronos felt about VENOM INC.'s existence. "The fans know who he is, the fans know who we are," he explained at the time. "I don't wanna get into this whole political thing, but every band who's got a frontman who is iconic, [the fans] look at the frontman as 'that's the band.' Not true. [Cronos] was the last person to join VENOM — at my invitation. I met him at a girlfriend's friend's house. And we needed a rhythm guitarist — that's what we needed. We didn't need a vocalist; we had a vocalist. We needed a rhythm guitarist, because our rhythm guitarist had left. Essentially, we were, what? Two guitars, bass, drums and vocals — so we were a five-piece in the initial stages. So the rhythm guitarist left. I met this guy. I'd never met him before. He said he was a guitarist; he had long hair; he was into metal; he worked at Impulse Studios owned by David Wood, founder of] Neat Records. I had been there and walked out with my tail between my legs, because, at that point, me and the other guys who I had around in the band, we couldn't afford to do a demo. So it was, like, 'Hmm, that might be an inroad.' So he was invited to a rehearsal, he came in as a rhythm guitarist, and the bass player left, as bands do. By default, he took over bass, and then I wrote 'Live Like An Angel (Die Like A Devil)'. And the idea for that song was… I said to him, 'Can you sing?' And he was, like, 'I'll give it a go.' So the idea was that Clive Archer, our original singer, was gonna go off stage and do a costume change and come back on for 'Shizo'. A lot of these songs were written before he joined the band. And this is what people don't realize."

Regarding how Cronos came to use the VENOM name without either Dunn or original VENOM drummer Anthony "Abaddon" Bray, who was also in an early incarnation of VENOM INC., Jeff said: "In 2005, my mother was seriously ill and I lost her… I lost my mother at the end of that year. My mind wasn't on music, it wasn't on fucking a band's name or anything like that. And I had already made my exit. Those things went on, and I was, like, 'That's it.' And [Cronos] called me. It was something to do with a license coming back for an album, which we were then gonna pass to Sanctuary Records. And I was just, like, 'My mind isn't on this. It's gotta be on family. And I don't care. I really don't care what happens with this fucking album. Put it wherever the hell you want.' And it was during the course of that conversation [that] he said, 'Are you okay with me continuing VENOM?' [And I said], 'Yeah.' Is it a decision I regret? Yes. Because, looking back, if my head had been right, if my head had been screwed on at that point, I would have said, 'I think we should just bury it now.'"

Bray, who was also part of The Metal Voice interview, said that Lant never asked him for permission to use the VENOM name. "The name of the band, originally, was put together by the two of us," he explained. "So if he had legal standing, he's asked one person, [and] you have to ask the other person. 'Cause I would have said no. And that's why he didn't ask me, 'cause I would have said, 'No, I'm not okay with it.'"

Bray went on to say that Cronos did not have a possible legal case in wanting to stop VENOM INC. from using the VENOM name. "The only thing he's got, if we have a legal argument about it, is the recent longevity," he explained. "He's got [a period of several years] where he's been putting [stuff out and playing shows], so people know that's VENOM. And that's fair enough; we're not disputing that. None of us are disputing that. But we're saying is we have got what we've got and everybody knows what it's about and everybody understands it."

Dunn, Bray and Dolan released three albums as VENOM between 1989 and 1992 — "Prime Evil" (1989),"Temples Of Ice" (1991) and "The Waste Lands" (1992).

The classic lineup of VENOM — Lant, Dunn and Bray — is often credited with kickstarting the whole black metal movement, but is more accurately seen an early example of extreme metal.

VENOM's second album, 1982's "Black Metal", was a major influence on on the early Norwegian black metal scene.

The Cronos-fronted version of VENOM is continuing to tour and make albums under the VENOM moniker. Joining Cronos in that group are Rage (a.k.a. Stuart Dixon) on guitar and Danté (a.k.a. Danny Needham) on drums.

VENOM INC. will release its sophomore album, "There's Only Black", on September 23 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP marks the VENOM INC. recording debut of drummer Jeramie Kling, who joined the band in 2018.

Back in 2018, VENOM INC. recruited Kling to fill in for Bray on a European tour while Abaddon stayed home to spend time with his newborn daughter. VENOM INC. has since completed several tours with Kling without making any official announcements about Bray's possible return to the group.