Last summer Cassius King (Jason McMaster - vocals, Dan Lorenzo - guitars, Ron Lipnicki - drums, and Jimmy Schulman - bass) released their debut album Field Trip on California's Nomad Eel Records. 


A mere six months later and Cassius King grace us with a brand new single and lyric video for easily their catchiest song yet; "Bad Man Down". Guitarist Dan Lorenzo co-wrote the single with vocalist Jason McMaster. 


"I remember how long it took me to write the music to the first two Hades albums in the '80s. I literally had no music left after each album. Songwriting started to get much easier for me when I started Non-Fiction in the summer of '89, but it's never been this easy," Lorenzo said. "I'm not doing this for the money, but it's as fun or more fun than it ever was honestly. "




When asked what the lyrics to Bad Man Down mean, McMaster said, "This takes me to a place where we don't have much control. We can get cozy and feel good, because we did it all 'safe', and politically correct, etc... but, you cannot stop the bus just because you pull the chain. I am not a young man anymore, I am not trying to be, so these things we do to try and live longer, healthy diet, etc. they work, but still... the bus won't stop. Bullets fly by that were not meant for you... your doctor misses things in your visits, next thing you know... This lyric is about who's 'round the corner. I have triedto make friends with him, and the black cat crossing my path."


Cassius King plans to release ten new songs (plus you can always expect a fun cover song or two) later this year Nomad Eel in America / MDD Records in Europe. The world is in a very strangle place right now, but it's hard to keep these bad men down. Jay Bones from Space Based created the video.





 

Sabaton have released a new lyric video for "Night Witches", originally featured on the bonus version of the band's 2014 album, Heroes.


Historical fact: The story of the Russian female pilots of the 588th bomber regiment. Their nickname “Night Witches” comes from the characteristic sound of their bomb planes that was all that could be heard during their nightly raids since they set their engines to idle and would glide through the night to their target. This sound brought the enemies thoughts to the broomsticks of witches, and they called them “Nachthexen”.







Sabaton’s tenth album, The War To End All Wars, will be released on March 4 via Nuclear Blast Records. Once again, Sabaton will dive deep into the atrocities, miracles, and happenings around WWI and take the listener on an emotional and exciting 11-track ride.


Pre-order the album here.





The War To End All Wars will be available in the following formats:


- Jewelcase CD
- Limited Gold CD [Supporter Edition - various versions with translated booklets]
- History Edition
- NB Mailorder Exclusive Edition [ltd. to 1500 copies]
- Earbook [limited to 6000 copies]
- Black Vinyl
- Azure Blue Vinyl [bandshop exclusive, ltd. to 300 copies]
- Inca Gold Vinyl [bandshop exclusive, ltd. to 500 copies]
- Copper Vinyl [ltd. to 500 copies]
- Fluorescent Orange Vinyl [ltd. to 500 copies]
- Leaf Green Vinyl [Sweden exclusive]
- Fluorescent Yellow Vinyl [Ginza exclusive]
- Dusk Vinyl [Levik exclusive]
- Soft Grey Vinyl [Nordics exclusive]
- Lavender Vinyl [FNAC exclusive]
- Rosewood Vinyl [Mystic exclusive]
- Fluorescent Green Vinyl [UK exclusive]
- Pacific Blue Vinyl
- Polar White Vinyl [limited to 300 copies]
- Dewdrop Vinyl [limited to 500 copies, EMP exclusive]
- Blue cassette [limited to 100 copies, bandshop exclusive]
- Green cassette [limited to 100 copies]
- Grey cassette [limited to 300 copies]
- Red cassette [limited to 500 copies]
- Black cassette [limited to 250 copies]
- Smokey cassette [limited to 200 copies]
- White cassette [limited 100 copies]





The War To End All Wars tracklisting:


"Sarajevo"
"Stormtroopers"
"Dreadnought"
"The Unkillable Soldier"
"Soldier Of Heaven"
"Hellfighters"
"Race To The Sea"
"Lady Of The Dark"
"The Valley Of Death"
"Christmas Truce"
"Versailles"


"Soldier Of Heaven" lyric video:





"Soldier Of Heaven" video:





"Christmas Truce" animated story video:





"Christmas Truce" lyric video:





"Christmas Truce" music video:





Following a 29-date headline tour of Sweden, Sabaton will launch the March 4, 2022 release of the new album with The Tour To End All Tours, a massive five-week European trek supported by The Hu and Lordi. Complete dates and ticket information are available here.


(Photo - Tim Tronckoe)

German melodic death metal trio, Deserted Fear, have released the second single, “Reborn Paradise”, from their upcoming release, Doomsday, out March 4 via Century Media Records. Once again Mirko Witzki took over the duties for filming, directing and editing the new music video.


The video shoot was supported by Deutsch-Deutsches Museum Mödlareuth, providing the perfect scenery for a song that deals with a serious issue of the German past. Watch the clip below.


“Today we release ‘Reborn Paradise’, another new song from our album Doomsday, which will be released on March 4th, 2022. For the video shoot we went to a time that seems to be long forgotten, but should never be forgotten,” states Deserted Fear.




Deserted Fear drummer Simon Mengs adds, “We grew up in a small town in rural Thuringia. Even though we didn't consciously experience the peaceful revolution and the fall of the inner-German Wall, our socialization took place here. With the stories of the older generation, we also absorbed the spirit of the GDR and the frustration about an authoritarian state in which one thing was thought and something else had to be said.”


“For the video shoot, we delved into the history of the GDR dictatorship once again. Unbelievable how small the events were always kept in consideration of many hundreds of killed and thousands of imprisoned people. Minefields and spring guns against the own citizens, this has not been discussed enough with our generation. Moreover, a part of our society seems to have already forgotten what freedom of speech and the freedom to travel meant in the GDR...”, Fabian continued.


Mahne further states, “What happens in wars and at borders seems far away to many people in our country and it is alarming how people talk about refugees without empathy. People die at borders, on the run and in the hope of a better life, then as now!”





Deserted Fear’s brand-new masterpiece was recorded, mixed and mastered by the band’s very own Fabian Hildebrandt at Eisensound Studio.


The album’s first pressing Ltd. CD Digipak edition comes with a special drink coaster and the previously released singles “Funeral Of The Earth” and “Artifacts Of The Black Rain” as bonus tracks. The album’s LP editions comes on 180g vinyl, with a Gatefold sleeve and including an A2-sized poster. These are the available variants and limitations for the LP format:


- Ltd. Gatefold black LP & Poster - Unlimited
- Ltd. Gatefold dark green LP & Poster - 300x copies via CM Distro & Webshop Europe
- Ltd. Gatefold transp. light blue LP & Poster - 300x copies via EMP      
- Ltd. Gatefold Colored Re-Vinyl LP & Poster – 300x copies via Band


The pre-order for “Doomsday” is underway, so make sure to get your copy of the album and also listen to the digital version of the new song/s here.





Tracklisting:


"Intro"
"Part Of The End"
"Idols Of Triumph"
"Follow The Light That Blinds"
"Fall From Grace"
"At Its End"
"Reborn Paradise"
"The One Desire"
"Call Of Emptiness"
"Voices Of Fire"
"Doomsday"


"Part Of The End" video:





Starting with the release of Doomsday in March, Deserted Fear will play a run of exclusive album release shows throughout Germany.





Dates:


March
3 - Hamburg, Germany - Logo (with Nyktophobia)
4 - Cottbus, Germany - Gladhouse (with Nyktophobia)
5 - Jena, Germany - F-Haus (with Nyktophobia)
6 - Essen, Germany - Turock (with Nyktophobia)
10 - Nürnberg, Germany - Z-Bau (with Hailstone)
11 - Göttingen, Germany - Exil (with Hailstone)
12 - Wiesbaden, Germany - Schlachthof (with Hailstone)
13 - Köln, Germany - Volta (with Hailstone)
18 - Lörrach, Germany - Altes Wasserwerk
19 - Aalen, Germany - Rock It








Lineup:


Manuel “Mahne” Glatter – Vocals/Guitar
Simon Mengs – Drums
Fabian Hildebrandt – Guitar


(Photo - Manuel Glatter)

During an appearance on "Put Up Your Dukes", the new podcast hosted by ex-EXODUS singer Rob Dukes, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt was asked if original EXODUS guitarist Kirk Hammett, who has been a member of METALLICA for the past 39 years, was involved in the songwriting for any of the material that ended up on EXODUS's classic debut album, 1985's "Bonded By Blood". "There were riffs that I had written while Kirk was still in the band, and he tried to adapt them, tried to change 'em a little bit — the old, 'I changed it a little bit. I'm a co-writer on this riff,'" Holt recalled (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "And that was, like, two riffs, I think. And the rest of 'em were written after he left. We never used a Kirk Hammett riff, ever, until [2004's] 'Tempo Of The Damned' [album] when we recorded [the early EXODUS song] 'Impaler'."

Explaining that "the first two [EXODUS] songs finished post-Kirk Hammett were 'Strike Of The Beast' and 'No Love'," Holt continued: "The biggest talent I have, if you wanna call it a talent, is my fucking memory. I can remember fucking everything. I remember showing him… I can picture it as a film, showing Kirk the riff to 'Strike Of The Beast', and I can picture it as if I'm watching it on a film — in the jam room, me in my spot where I played him [the riff] and him wanting to change the higher note to a lower note; I remember it all as if I'm watching a movie of it. I remember all of it — every last minute of it. I remember details from fucking most meaningless shit."

The original lineup of EXODUS consisted of guitarists Hammett and Tim Agnello, drummer Tom Hunting and vocalist Keith Stewart. Holt joined the band in 1981, while Kirk left two years before "Bonded By Blood" saw the light of day.

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — "Bonded By Blood" inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.

Back in 2018, Kirk spoke about the fact that riffs from songs by EXODUS, "Die By His Hand" and "Impaler", found their way into "Creeping Death" and "Trapped Under Ice", from METALLICA's "Ride The Lightning" album. "What I think happened was when Lars [, METALLICA drummer] and James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] were thinking about getting rid of Dave [Mustaine], our sound guy, Mark Whitaker — who was EXODUS' manager — gave them EXODUS' demos," Kirk said. "I think 'Die By His Hand' might have caught their ears. So when they were writing 'Creeping Death', they went, 'Great. 'Die By His Hand'. Put it right there.' It was definitely not me going, 'I have a riff here in this EXODUS song, and it needs to be here in this METALLICA song.' By the way, I wrote that 'Die By His Hand' riff when I was, like, 16 years old."

Eric Clapton has opened up about his decision to drop a politically charged song called "This Has Gotta Stop" as a way of addressing his stance against COVID-19 policies. The track, which was produced by his longtime producing partner Simon Climie, came several months after he released the anti-lockdown song "Stand And Deliver" with Van Morrison.

The 76-year-old legendary musician — who previously said he refuses to play live shows that require attendees to prove they've been vaccinated — spoke about the backlash he has faced as a result of his public opposition to lockdown restrictions and vaccinations during a new interview with Dave Spuria of The Real Music Observer.

The iconic guitarist, who previously said he feared he would "never play again" following health issues after both doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, stated about his current health situation (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm feeling pretty good. I think it's been about nine months since I got sick from the thing," apparently referring the getting vaccinated, "and for a couple of months I wasn't sure if it was gonna go away, if it's gonna get worse. I couldn't play — I really couldn't play — and I wasn't sure… I had a lot of work to do, whether I was gonna get fit for that or whether it was gonna have to be canceled. Two years of work [had] already [been] canceled. And I came to the States. And that was like a trial; that was in September of last year. And I was really pushing to see if I had recovered enough to be able to stand alongside the guys I play with and hold up my hand. And I had a great time. I still have some stuff going on, which is affected by the cold or the weather or stress to, sometimes. But on the whole, I think I'm pretty much the way I was — thank God — before I walked into that."

Regarding how "Stand And Deliver" and "This Has Gotta Stop" came about, Clapton said: "My career had almost gone anyway. At the point where I spoke up, it had been almost 18 months since I had kind of been forcibly retired. And I joined forces with Van. I got the tip that Van was standing up to the measures. And I thought, 'Why isn't anybody else doing this?' And we go back; I've known him since we were kids. And I contacted him. I said, 'What do you think? What's going on?' And he said, 'I'm just objecting, really. But it seems like we're not even allowed to do that. And nobody else is doing it.' And I said, 'You're kidding. Nobody else?' And he said, 'Nobody else.' And I said, 'I'm with you. Is there anything I can do to help? Have you got any songs?' And of course, it was a silly, stupid question 'cause he writes two songs a day or something like that. And he sent me 'Stand And Deliver', which he had already… I didn't know he had already recorded it. So I thought, 'Oh, man. I'm getting an unreleased Van Morrison song.' I was over the moon anyway. And it was during the process of talking about that to another musician, and then getting me excited, and then sharing that news, and I found that nobody wanted to hear that. And I was kind of mystified because I seemed to be the only person that thought that was an exciting or even appropriate idea with what was going on. And that challenged me even more. 'Cause I'm a bit like him maybe — I'm cut from the cloth where if you tell me I can't do something, I really wanna know why I can't do it. And it seemed like I'd had a wall built around me. But I thought, 'I'm gonna do this.' But I did make concessions — I did take out lines or change lines a little bit just to pacify those that I really didn't wanna hurt, people I didn't wanna hurt or scare. And needless to say, my family and friends, they got scared, and I think they were scared on my behalf."

Eric continued: "[I thought], 'What's going on here?' I didn't get the memo. Whatever the memo was, it hadn't reached me. Then I started to realize there was really a memo, and a guy, [clinical psychology professor] Mattias Desmet, talked about it. And it's great — the theory of mass formation hypnosis," he said, referring to the idea that promoting messages encouraging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, among other scientifically validated pandemic communications, is an attempt to hypnotize groups of people to follow these messages against their will. "And I could see it then — once I kind of started to look for it, I saw it everywhere. And then I remembered seeing little things on YouTube which were like subliminal advertising; it had been going on for a long time — that thing about 'you will own nothing and you will be happy.' And I thought, 'What's that mean?' And bit by bit, I put a rough kind of jiggle puzzle together. And that made me even more resolute. And so I went from that to looking at the news stuff that was coming out in England. In the U.K., we have BBC, and it used to be an impartial commentary on world affairs and state affairs. And suddenly it was completely one-way traffic about following orders and obedience. And I felt really motivated, musically. It instigated something which really was laying dormant. I was just playing live gigs up until the lockdown without really being socially involved in any way. … I have a tool, I have a calling, and I can make use of that. So I set about it and started writing."

Clapton made his proclamation against vaccine mandates in July 2021, shortly after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that vaccine passes would be required to enter nightclubs and venues in the U.K.

"Following the PM's announcement on Monday the 19th of July 2021 I feel honor-bound to make an announcement of my own, I wish to say that I will not perform on any stage where there is a discriminated audience present," he said in a statement. "Unless there is provision made for all people to attend, I reserve the right to cancel the show."

Last November, Clapton admitted that he had lost friends and music associates due to his anti-vaccine stance. He said at the time: "My family and friends think I am a crackpot anyway.

"Over the last year, there's been a lot of disappearing — a lot of dust around, with people moving away quite quickly," he continued. "It has, for me, refined the kind of friendship I have. And it's dwindled down to the people that I obviously really need and love. Inside my family, that became quite pivotal ... I've got teenage girls, and an older girl who's in her 30s — and they've all had to kind of give me leeway because I haven't been able to convince any of them."

He added: "I would try to reach out to fellow musicians and sometimes I just don't hear from them. My phone doesn't ring very often. I don't get that many texts and emails anymore."

The clip below features Nightwish vocalist Floor Jansen performing at her solo show at AFAS Live in Amsterdam, Netherlands on September 1st, 2021.


Floor: "Performing the Eurovision Song Contest winning song of 2021, Loreen's ' Euphoria'! I was supposed to perform this song on the Beste Zangers Eurovision Song Contest special of 2021. However, around the time of recording I had to be operated on in Finland, which kept me from joining in. So instead I recorded it at home and it had great success on YouTube when it went live. It was so much fun to finally play it live with The Marcel Fisser Band!"


 




The setlist was as follows:


Set 1:


"Ever Dream" (Nightwish)
"Storm In A Glass" (Northward) 
"Nemo" (Nightwish) 
"Mama" (Samantha Steenwijk cover) 
"Sweet Curse" (ReVamp song - with Henk Poort) 
"Dangerous Game" (from Jekyll & Hyde - with Henk Poort) 
"Euphoria" (Loreen)
"Face Your Demons" (After Forever) 
"Winner" (Tim Akkerman cover)


Set 2:


"Slow, Love, Slow" (Nightwish)
"Shallow" (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper cover)
"Strong" (After Forever) 
"Élan" (Nightwish) 
"Energize Me" (After Forever) 
"Qué Se Siente" (Rolf Sanchez)
"Bridle Passion" (Northward) 
"Our Decades In The Sun" (Nightwish)
"Wolf And Dog" (ReVamp) 
"The Phantom Of The Opera" (Andrew Lloyd Webber cover - with Henk Poort)


"Ever Dream"





"Storm In A Glass"





"Dangerous Game"

John Cooper, the frontman for the Grammy-nominated Christian rock band SKILLET, spoke to "Washington Watch With Tony Perkins" about how music and his band's music in particular affects the way people think about the world. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Music is a fantastic vehicle. Music kind of — what's the right word to say this? Music kind of softens you up to hear what someone thinks about something that maybe you wouldn't normally want to listen to. Now, what we have to realize, of course, is that that can be used for bad — that can be used for really evil things or it can be used for really good things. What our young people are going through now is that they're constantly hearing this pop music… The popular music or the culture is so godless. It is lawless. It celebrates just absolute sexual revolution, I guess you would say — an abandonment, a liberation from Christianity, a specific liberation from Jesus Christ himself. It is a celebration of sin.

"A lot of people say, 'I don't really listen to the lyrics,' but the truth is that these lyrics, they get into you," he continued. "So we wanna do something that is the opposite, you see, because I don't believe that music is owned by the Devil. The Devil doesn't create music; he does not own music. Music belongs to the Creator, and so we aim to go into the culture, and through music, we bring music and art and rock music, specifically for me, back under the subjection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We bring it back under His feet where it belongs as we give glory to Him."

John added: "So I do think that there's a great place for music to change people's hearts 'cause they listen to the beat, they listen to the tune, and they go, 'I kind of dig that.' And then they turn on an interview with you and they get to hear me say what the song is about. And you never, ever know how God may use that. God does incredible things through interviews — these little seeds of truth. That's what we're praying for."

In various interviews over the years, John has said that he "always had faith in God" and that his mother was a "Jesus fanatic." He also claimed that he was willing to put his career on the line to take a stand for Christ.

SKILLET's latest album, "Dominion", was released on January 14 via Atlantic. Produced by Kevin Churko (PAPA ROACH, DISTURBED, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH) with songs written by John Cooper, Korey Cooper, Kevin Churko and Kane Churko, the LP was created 100% remotely between the band's tour dates, home studio in Wisconsin, and the Churkos' studio in Las Vegas.

Fan-filmed video of TWISTED SISTER singer Dee Snider's solo performance on Sunday, January 16 at RokIsland Fest in Key West, Florida can be seen below.

According to Setlist.fm, the setlist was as follows:

01. I Gotta Rock (Again)

02. The Kids Are Back (TWISTED SISTER song)

03. You Can't Stop Rock 'N' Roll (TWISTED SISTER song)

04. Stay Hungry (TWISTED SISTER song)

05. Burn In Hell (TWISTED SISTER song)

06. The Beast (TWISTED SISTER song)

07. We're Not Gonna Take It (TWISTED SISTER song)

08. Become The Storm

09. The Price (TWISTED SISTER song)

10. I Wanna Rock (TWISTED SISTER song)

11. Stand

12. Real Wild Child (Wild One) / Rock and Roll

13. White Christmas (Irving Berlin cover)

14. Highway To Hell (AC/DC cover)

Dee's fifth solo album, "Leave A Scar", was released last July via Napalm Records. Once again produced by HATEBREED frontman Jamey Jasta with co-production, mixing and mastering by drummer Nick Bellmore, "Leave A Scar" sees Dee continuing in the invigorated, modern direction of his previous release, "For The Love Of Metal", infusing a dose of classic heavy metal flavor that longtime fans have rushed to embrace.

In 2016, TWISTED SISTER embarked on one final trek, titled "Forty And Fuck It", in celebration of its 40th anniversary. These shows featured the band's "core lineup" of Snider, guitarists Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda, and bassist Mark Mendoza, along with drummer Mike Portnoy. The band's last-ever concert took place in November of that year — 20 months after the passing of drummer A.J. Pero.

TWISTED SISTER's original run ended in the late '80s. After more than a decade, the band publicly reunited in November 2001 to top the bill of New York Steel, a hard-rock benefit concert to raise money for the New York Police And Fire Widows' And Children's Benefit Fund.

The surviving members of the classic lineup of TWISTED SISTER — Snider, French, Ojeda and Mendoza — reunited virtually on March 20, 2021 for a special episode of Mendoza's Internet TV show "22 Now". The hour-and-a-half-long program was a tribute to Pero, who died exactly six years earlier at the age of 55 while on tour with the band ADRENALINE MOB.

Prior to last March's virtual reunion, the four surviving members of TWISTED SISTER reunited for two days and nights in November 2019 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the band's classic album "Stay Hungry".