During a recent appearance on "Whiplash", the KLOS radio show hosted by Full Metal Jackie, DISTURBED frontman David Draiman spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's follow-up to 2018's "Evolution" album. Regarding what it has been like for him and his bandmates to regroup in person after such a long time apart and once again launch the creative process, he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET) : "There's really nothing that replaces it. It was a continuing theme of conversation over the course of the week that we had together between our couple of shows we played in Indiana [in early November] and our performance over in Daytona for [the] Welcome To Rockville [festival]. There really is no substitute. There isn't. The energy and that realization when you've got something. Compare it to fishing, and you finally land a big one. [Laughs] It's incredibly, incredibly exciting. And we were on fire. [We came up with] six new song ideas, [and we have] two in our back pocket, and more potentially being worked on this upcoming weekend. We're very, very excited."

As for the musical direction of the new DISTURBED songs, Draiman said: "The material is somewhere between 'The Sickness' and 'Ten Thousand Fists' as far as where I would identify it as sonically. It's rhythmic, it's pummeling, it's anthemic, it's polysyncopated. It's meat-and-potatoes DISTURBED."

David also discussed DISTURBED's apparent decision to pursue a more aggressive musical approach on its next LP compared to "Evolution", on which nearly half the songs were either acoustic or semi-acoustic.

"It's a different sort of itch you're scratching," he said. "You can have the satisfaction that comes with, let's say, playing with your children peacefully somewhere and you can have a different sort of satisfaction in engaging in full-contact football with your buddies. It's just a different feel. They're both equally as gratifying but sometimes you just get a little taste more for one than the other. And right now we are definitely — we've got our teeth dug in to that style. We were dying to do the more aggressive stuff. We wanted to go back home. We wanted to go back to the 'groove so hard that you can't stop bobbing your head' kind of stuff. So, we're there, and we're loving it."

Prior to DISTURBED's appearance at Welcome To Rockville, Draiman told Lou Brutus of HardDrive Radio that the band will likely do things slightly differently with the upcoming release. "The way that I see it happening is we're probably not gonna put out something in the traditional full-length; we're probably gonna be doing two separate releases," he explained. "So we'll probably have one geared for release — if everything works as planned — by the fall, and then maybe something the following year as well." When Brutus asked Draiman to clarify if that means that the next DISTURBED release will be an EP, David said: "Define it what you want, but it would like five or six songs at a pop — something like that.

"We live in an environment right now and in an age where people's consumption of music has been very soundbitish and very track-driven and very single-driven," he continued. "And there's definitely some beauty towards continuing to try and [make] things like concept records and telling a long story over the duration of a series of songs — there's huge merit to that — but I think that when you write 10 songs and three of them actually get worked at radio and maybe, if you're lucky, the fans are really familiar with half the record and the rest ends up sitting on a shelf, and if you do end up pulling it out one day, it's like an obscure, weird moment during the set, and it's almost like gratuitous for yourself. I don't wanna do that anymore. I wanna make everything count. I wanna make sure that we get the biggest bang for everything we're putting out there. I think that that should be easily attainable. It seems to be where the environment is going, and it seems to be — whether we like it or not — what the digital age has funneled us into."

DISTURBED performed live for the first time in nearly two years in late September as one of the headliners of the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky.

In March 2021, DISTURBED's "The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour" was officially canceled. The amphitheater tour, with very special guest STAIND and BAD WOLVES, was originally slated to take place in the summer of 2020 but was rescheduled to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was eventually scrapped altogether.

"The Sickness 20th Anniversary Tour" was supposed to celebrate the 20th anniversary of DISTURBED's seminal album "The Sickness". On this tour, the band was expected to perform songs off the album, as well as tracks from "Evolution" and DISTURBED's extensive catalog.

In September 2020, DISTURBED released a cover version of Sting's 1993 single "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You".

Frontiers Music Srl announce the release of Finnish hard rockers Rust N' Rage's new album, One For The Road. Produced by Jimmy Westerlund (One Desire), One For The Road will be released on March 11.


Today, the band has released a new single and video from the album, "Prisoner". Watch the video below, and pre-order/save One For The Road here.


Through lots of hard work and gigging, Rust N' Rage have been starting to make a name for themselves in their home country of Finland. With energetic live shows and anthemic songwriting, this rock n’ roll-quartet is ready to introduce themselves to the world more than ever before. Be sure to stay tuned for their Jimmy Westerlund produced debut album, which will be chock full of anthemic, hard rocking, melodic tunes.




Coming from a small town in Finland called Pori, Rust N’ Rage is made up of four guys who all live for a similar cause: Rock n’ Roll. While individually practicing a lifestyle of hard rockin’ and playing their hearts out around their small town, it didn’t take long for Vince, Johnny, Jezzie, and Eddy to meet and realize they had a shared musical vision. Their musical influences originate from the '80s, with their idols being such legends as Guns N’ Roses, Judas Priest, Mötley Crüe, Dokken, and the like. Rather than merely be the sum of their influences though, Rust n' Rage concentrates their songwriting on being separate from their influences, while still maintaining those awesome hard rock riffs and high-pitched vocal screams.


In 2020, things started rolling for the band, having found a new manager and a new producer to help them get their musical vision properly recorded. Based on the strength of their newly created/recorded singles, the band caught the interest of Frontiers Music Srl, who have signed them to a worldwide deal. Signing with Frontiers is an opportunity to release their music to a global audience and to show the world what they are made of. Stay tuned for more exciting things to come from these Finnish rockers in 2022.





Tracklisting:


"Prisoner"
"Ghost Town"
"One For The Road"
"The Future Is For The Strong"
"Heartbreaker"
"Hang ‘Em High"
"Ride On"
"I've Had Enough"
"Unbreakable"
"The Throne"
"Moving On"


"Prisoner" video:





Lineup:


Vince - Vocals
Johnny - Guitar
Eddy - Bass
Jezzie - Drums

Canadian rock icon Lee Aaron, who is known primarily as a solo artist and songwriter, recently went on the podcast "Side Jams with Bryan Reesman" to talk about her new music as well as outside interests like interior design, art, special education, and neuroscience. She also revealed that she is working on her autobiography.

"I have been writing memoirs off and on for about a decade," she told "Side Jams". "But now I've actually gotten serious about putting them into a book form, and actually going back and addressing incidents throughout my childhood that shaped me to become the artist that I ultimately became. Going back and delving into some of that stuff is like therapy, it's kind of hard. My plan at this point is to have the book released sometime in 2022. But it'll be ready when it's ready. It has to be right. My husband is a writer as well. He used to write for a couple of different publications up here in Canada. He's my greatest critic, my greatest champion, and my best editor. So I've been reading him things as I go along, and he said, 'As long as your story keeps moving forward, that's the most important thing.'"

Lee revealed that before music she was enrolled at Humber College in Toronto in the early 1980s to study interior design, but then she went on the road and her music career took off. But she has maintained that interest.

"I just became very interested in aesthetic, and I guess that kind of relates to performance and stage clothes and the way your stage looks and the lighting and the whole vibe," she explained. "I gotta be honest, I don't want to talk a lot about my childhood, but I felt that there were there's a lot of things I couldn't control when I was a kid. So as I got older, the idea of being able to control my environment became extremely important to me. And so, in the '80s, I had this house in the Toronto area. I had all black leather furniture, obscure Picasso prints all over the wall, the marble table, the halogen lamps. I had this dining room table that was sort of propped up on this unique brick design with glass. Friends would come in my house and they'd go, 'People live here, right? It's not a museum.' At that point, I had no children. So what I can tell you is that after becoming a mother, all of that just went out the window. You want your house to look nice? Forget it. There's just dog hair balls and little fingerprints on everything, and so I had to really get over some of that after I had children. But it is something that's important to me. Now my daughter is kind of into it as well. I have redecorated her room four or five times. When she was a little kid, it was this beautiful purple with angel pictures on the wall. Then she got into Tinker Bell, and I literally painted this whole collage of Tinker Bell on her wall. And then she went hot pink with an Audrey Hepburn black and white picture on her wall. She's had some different things, so she's kind of like a mini-me. Then she had the surf room, all surfing stuff. Now it's just plain white with little garden lights hung across the wall."

Another one of Lee's non-musical interests is drawing and painting which she still does. Back in high school, her 11th grade are teacher thought she was talented enough to skip 12th grade art and go to a grade 13 class. (Ontario had a 13th grade for students who wanted to go to college.) Lee made the leap to the grade 13 class, but her instructor there marked her down and was unnecessarily tough on her.

"He marked me so hard," she recalled. "I was so upset. I went from getting high 90s to getting like 72. He had it in for me. He lectured me. He thought there were essential concepts taught in grade 12 that you just aren't allowed to skip. [He had] no belief in natural talent, he was a by the numbers guy. 'You need to learn this finger drawing concept before you're allowed to draw this, and you've missed that portion of it.' I found it a bit of a difficult art year, that's for sure."

She soon after got sidetracked by music, but she did draw the first Lee Aaron logo. "It's kind of cheesy, but my new logo that I had designed two albums ago kind of hearkens back a little bit to that. I said, 'Let's bring some of the old Lee Aaron vibe back.'"

Aaron was one of the first women in Canada to navigate the male-dominated waters of rock 'n' roll, pioneering the way for a significant number of artists. Her 1989 album, "BodyRock", which was certified double platinum in Canada, was proclaimed by Chart magazine as "one of the 20 most influential Canadian albums of the '80s, with artists like Avril Lavigne, Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain under Aaron's influence."

Lee's 1984 album "Metal Queen" was the first of six albums to appear on leading independent label Attic Records. Aaron's CV also includes ten Juno Award nominations and three Toronto Music Awards for "Best Female Vocalist."

Lee's latest studio album "Radio On!", was released in July 2021 via Metalville Records.

Not even a year after their third album Unlocked & Reloaded, Sainted Sinners return with their newest collection of songs under the bands own motto The Essence Of Rock N’ Roll. With their new effort, Taste It, the band continues their creative flow, powered by the great chemistry between the five internationally known and experienced musicians.


The diversity that made their previous album Unlocked & Reloaded stand out within the bands own catalogue is now further evolved on Taste It. The band has released the new single "Good Ol’ Company". Check out the official video below.







Tracklisting:


“Against The Odds”
“One Today”
“The Essence Of R’n R”
“Out Of Control”
“Never Back Down”
“Good Ol’ Company”
“Down & Dirty”
“On And On (Chained)”
“Losing My Religion” (R.E.M. cover, CD bonus track)
“Coffee, Whiskey & Rock’n Roll”
“Heart Of Stone”


"Good Ol' Company"





"Against The Odds"





Sainted Sinners are:
Jack Meille - Vocals
Frank Pané - Guitars
Ernesto Ghezzi - Keyboards
Rico Bowen - Bass
Berci Hirleman – Drums

During an appearance this past Monday (January 10) on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", guitarist/vocalist Richie Kotzen spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for the third album from THE WINERY DOGS, his power trio with legendary bassist Billy Sheehan (MR. BIG, TALAS, DAVID LEE ROTH) and drummer Mike Portnoy (DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD). He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "THE WINERY DOGS record, I would say, is probably 85 percent done. I've got all my guitars done and all my lead vocals and a couple of harmonies here and there. But basically now, what I'm looking to do, and what we're looking to do, is to get Mike to do some percussion and we want Billy and Mike to do their vocal harmonies — you know, get their voices on there. And then once they do their harmonies and whatever percussion Mike wants to do, then I'll take it back and maybe tweak a few things, and maybe I'll do a couple of overdubs here and there. And it'll be done before you know it. I think it's gonna be done pretty quick."

Asked if the new WINERY DOGS album will be released in 2022, Richie said: "That I don't know. We didn't really discuss when we're gonna release it. And the thing is, like a lot of acts, I'm sure, THE WINERY DOGS is such a touring-type thing — I think a lot of the magic with that group comes together on stage — and so we wanna make sure that when we set this up that we can get out in front of people and play. And now, obviously, it's a little choppy trying to organize all this. I think once the thing's done and we can sit back and listen to it and it's mixed and we can go, 'Okay, this thing is done and ready,' then we're gonna come up with a plan on how to release it and when to release it. But to guess at it, the soonest, I think, would be, like, the end of this year, beginning of next year. I think that's realistic — to set it up right and make sure that we have a way to get it out there."

As for the musical direction of the new WINERY DOGS material and how it compares to the band's first two albums, Richie said: "Well, you know, we never discuss direction; we just go and write and see what comes out. But in sitting back and listening to it, as it is now in its current state, it reminds me more of the first album than the second album, only because on the second album, I think, the production, we went into a few different directions. Some of the songs — I don't know — I think we explored some territory on the second record that didn't exist on the first record. And this stuff, to me, sounds a little more raw, I guess you'd say — maybe more true to what the band sounds like live, like a trio. It might be 'cause I didn't really do a lot of overdubs — it's really just guitar, bass and drums. Like I said, I don't know where it's gonna end up, 'cause there's still plenty of opportunity for me to totally fuck this thing up. Nah, I think it's gonna be good; I think people are gonna like it. I play it in my car here and there, and I like it. Like I said, it's just a matter of getting their voices on there — some harmonies — and some percussion. Maybe a couple of little guitar [bits] — maybe I'll double a couple of lines here or there; that sort of thing. But I'm trying to keep it pretty raw, pretty power trio-sounding."

THE WINERY DOGS were founded in 2012 after Portnoy and Sheehan — who initially aimed to collaborate with former WHITESNAKE and BLUE MURDER guitarist John Sykes — reached out to Kotzen, who played with Sheehan in MR. BIG from 1997 to 2002. The group's self-titled debut reached No. 27 on the Billboard 200 after selling more than 10,000 copies in the U.S. during its first week of availability. The initial sales of follow-up effort "Hot Streak" were even better, as the album debuted at No. 30 in late 2015 after shifting 13,000 equivalent album units in America during its first week of availability.

Last September, Mike told "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about the new WINERY OGS music: "I would say somewhere [between the first and the second albums]. It's hard for me to have that real perspective that anybody listening does 'cause when you're writing and recording it, it all becomes important to you. It's hard to tell; it's hard to have that perspective.

"The first album is just song after song after song — there's no moments of weakness at any point — whereas 'Hot Streak', I guess, we did some more experimental stuff, songs like 'Spiral' or 'War Machine', songs on the back end that were more kind of experimental things," he explained. "So I would say, if I had to compare it, it's probably more like the first album because we also consciously decided to stop at around 10 or 11 songs. 'Cause both the first album and 'Hot Streak', I think, had 13 or 14 songs. People like you and I, we love everything, we love music and we dig in, but for a lot of people, the attention span for a 14-song album could be a bit much. So when writing this album, we decided, let's just come up with 10 or 11 that are really super strong. Nothing too experimental, nothing too off the beaten path from what people expect from THE WINERY DOGS. So I think everything on this album is super strong from top to bott

Torn Between Two Worlds, featuring former Angtoria bandmates Sarah Jezebel Deva and Chris Rehn, have released the new single, "Transparent".Check it out below, purchase it via Bandcamp here.





Sarah recently opened up about writing the song.




Sarah: "This song was a bit of a challenge for me as this song is totally from scratch. It wasn’t written a few years ago like 'The Beauty Of Deception' was. 'All Eyes On Me' was also written a few years ago, but 80% of the lyrics lost, re-written and rearranged and the vocals recorded at my home, and “Hello” being a cover song (Adele). This is the first song lyric-wise that I have written in almost 10 years, I think, and when Chris sent me the music, I found it so difficult getting everything together. I recorded half a track and Chris and I just weren’t feeling it, so we took a big step back for a few months and let everything digest, because you can’t rush a song if you want people to believe in your music. Chris Rehn is a mindblowing composer and takes much pride in his arrangements, and for me, as silly as it sounds, I want him to be proud of the song and me. I can’t stress enough how its him that should be praised to high heaven, not me.


The song is based on fame and ego, people who take everything and everyone for granted, and takes pleasure in destroying everything and people, only to make themselves feel better. They love to take credit for absolutely everything, whilst others work their arses off, put their heart and soul into everything. Self destructive, compulsive liars who believes you are where you are today because of them. Surrounded by many for the wrong reasons, yet doesn’t actually doesn’t have much."


Check out the previously released singles from Torn Between Two Worlds below.


"The Beauty Of Deception"





"All Eyes On Me"





"Hello"

New York's Sanhedrin has issued "Correction," the first single from their upcoming Metal Blade Records album, Lights On, set for worldwide release on March 4th.





The Brooklyn power trio do metal the old school way, channeling the greats that preceded them to create something that is instantly familiar, yet with a new, modern energy to it. On this particular track, vocalist / bassist Erica Stoltz explains, "The pandemic put the unbridled excess of humanity on hold. The reference was a play on the term 'correction' as used in economics. The comparison is between the slow roll of global death by virus and other man-made instantaneous destructors like atomic bombs."




Rounded out by Jeremy Sosville on guitars, and drummer Nathan Honor, the band states, "In a time where the world around you feels like it's aflame, when our heavy metal heroes are beginning to disappear to failing health or changing social norms, we, Sanhedrin, stand here as a shining light through the dark. We are prepared to fly the flag of heavy metal in these trying and uncertain times and have only begun to show the world what we are capable of."


Lights On artwork and tracklisting:





"Correction" 
"Lights On"
"Lost At Sea"
"Change Takes Forever"
"Code Blue"
"Scythian Women"
"Hero's End"
"Death Is A Door"


Lights On can be pre-ordered in the following formats at this location.


- jewelcase-CD
- 180g black vinyl (EU exclusive)
- pale blue grey marbled vinyl (EU exclusive - limited to 300 copies)
- clear ochre brown marbled vinyl (EU exclusive - limited to 300 copies)
- orange red brown marbled vinyl (EU exclusive - limited to 200 copies)
- deep violet marbled vinyl (EU exclusive - limited to 200 copies)
- clear gray brown marbled vinyl (US exclusive)





Sanhedrin is slated for festival appearances across Europe and the US this year, with full-fledged tours in the works on both sides of the Atlantic. Details of confirmed concerts can be found here.


(Photo by Suzanne Abramson)


 

In 1993, after the Fear Of The Dark Tour, Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson left the band, leaving fans around the world standing in shock. Wolfsbane singer Blaze Bayley would eventually pick up the microphone, meanwhile the "Air Raid Siren" would go on to a very flourishing solo career, until he rejoined in 1999. In an excerpt from this weekend’s Streaming For Vengeance video interview to promote his upcoming spoken word tour, Dickinson talks to BraveWords about his solo career success and whether he and Maiden founder Steve Harris ever speak about it.


“No, we don't really talk about it,” he says. “I kind of poke some songs at him occasionally and say, 'There you go, there's half a dozen, what do you think?' And he'll go, "Don't like that, don't like that, oh I like that one!', and that was "If Eternity Should Fail" - that's how that ended up as the opening track to the Maiden album (The Book Of Souls), because it was going to be the opening track to my solo album (Tyranny Of Souls). And the same thing happened with ‘Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter’, where I recorded it with Janick (Gers). We did a complete version, and then Steve said, ‘I love that! Don't put it on the album, give that to Maiden.' And I thought, 'Oh alright, let's see what happens', and boing! It goes to number one. It was interesting, any time any song ever gets played, doesn't matter who wrote it, doesn't matter what it is, if Iron Maiden plays the song, it just sounds like Iron Maiden, there's no way of getting around it. We did ‘Cross-Eyed Mary’, and it sounded like Iron Maiden playing ‘Cross-Eyed Mary’.”







And you actually had a moderate radio hit in 1983, when the B-Side to the Piece Of Mind single, “The Trooper”, caught the ear of Music Directors in the United States.



"Right! And the crazy thing about that is that a lot of the time people think that we sit down and we plan things out, and sometimes we do, but sometimes we don't. That was one of the ones where, because me and Steve are both Tull fans, and he said, ‘Why don’t we do Cross-Eyed Mary?' And I went, 'Yeah, alright, why not?' I didn't think anymore about it, and we didn't rehearse it or do anything until they went into the studio, and they did the backing track. I went in, and I went, 'Oh, wow. Yeah.' Ian Anderson's voice is kind of a low baritone, and I'm like a high tenor. So I can't get down to a low baritone without it sounding a bit weak. But if I want to sing it as a high tenor, I've got to sing it a whole octave above where it was, you know? I was just like, 'Let's find a dominatrix that had a vice attached to both of my testicles' and away I went! I read an interview recently because I did some work with Ian. It was brilliant, I did two songs with him in a cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral it's on YouTube (see below), you know just fan footage and such, and some of it's beautiful. I did ‘Revelations’ and ‘Jerusalem’. He was interviewed about it and he said, 'Yeah, I was aware they were big fans of Tull, but I was puzzled when I heard that cover of ‘Cross-Eyed Mary’ because it sounds like the singer was in pain.' And I was!"








Bruce Dickinson also reveals more about his upcoming solo album, which he is currently working on with his longtime partner Roy Z. 


You can watch/listen to our chat with Bruce Dickinson on Streaming For Vengeance this Saturday, January 15th at 3:33 PM EST via the BraveWords Facebook page or the BraveWords YouTube channel. For more information about Streaming For Vengeance, visit this location.





Dickinson is bringing his spoken word tour, An Evening With Bruce Dickinson, on an extensive US and Canada starting next week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.


Split into two parts, the first section of the show sees Bruce taking a humorous and often satirical look at the world from his own very personal perspective, treating the audience to private insights into his drive and ambition, peppered with plenty of Maiden anecdotes, and a myriad of other experiences encompassing not just the giddy heights but also the extreme lows, told first-hand in his inimitable anarchic style, punctuated with photographs and sometimes even erupting into song a-capella, to illustrate a point.


The final section of the evening is devoted entirely to a Q&A session, with the opportunity to pose questions on any subject whatsoever. As Bruce’s answers will all be completely improvised – the more left-field and quirky the question, the more interesting and compelling the response is likely to be!





Dates:


January
17 - Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Parker Playhouse
18 - Orlando, Florida - Plaza Live
20 - Tampa, Florida - Theatre
21 - Jacksonville, Florida - Florida Theatre
23 - Atlanta, Georgia - Tabernacle
24 - Raleigh, North Carolina - Meymandi Concert Hall at Duke Energy Center
26 - Nashville, Tennessee - Polk Theater
27 - Columbus, Ohio - Jo Ann Davidson Theatre
29 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead
30 - Detroit, Michigan - The Fillmore


February
1 - Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York - Buffalo State Performing Arts Center
2 - Albany, New York - The Egg
4 - New York City, New York - The Town Hall
5 - Boston, Massachusetts - Schubert Theatre at the Boch Center
7 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The Fillmore
8 - Washington, DC - Warner Theatre
10 - Cleveland, Ohio - MGM Northfield Park
11 - Chicago, Illinois - Vic Theatre
13 - Minneapolis, Minnesota - Pantages Theatre
14 - Milwaukee-Racine, Wisconsin - Pabst Theater
16 - Des Moines, Iowa - Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre
17 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Rose State College Hudiberg Chevrolet Center
19 - Kansas City, Kansas - Uptown Theater
20 - Denver, Colorado - Paramount Theatre
22 - Dallas, Texas - Majestic Theatre
23 - Houston, Texas - Stafford Centre
24 - Austin, Texas - Paramount Theatre
26 - Phoenix, Arizona - Mesa Arts Center
28 - San Diego, California - Balboa Theatre


March
1 - Los Angeles, California - Orpheum Theatre
3 - San Francisco, California - Palace of Fine Arts
4 - Portland, Oregon - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
6 - Seattle, Washington - The Moore Theatre
12 - Las Vegas, Nevada - House Of Blues
14 - Vancouver (New Westminster), British Columbia - Massey Theatre
16 - Victoria, British Columbia - Royal Theatre
18 - Edmonton, Alberta - Winspear Centre
20 - Winnipeg, Manitoba - Burton Cummings Theatre
21 - Calgary, Alberta - Jack Singer Concert Hall
23 - Montreal, Quebec - MTELUS
26 - Ottawa, Ontario - Algonquin Commons Theatre
27 - Quebec City, Quebec - Palais Montcalm
29 - Hamilton, Ontario - FirstOntario Concert Hall
30 - Kitchener, Ontario - Centre in the Square

(Photo credit Bruce live: Thomas Mazerolles)

Swedish doom icons Candlemass have issued a pair of black & white photographs on social media, confirming that they are currently in an undisclosed recording studio, working on their 13th album.


The as-yet-untitled effort will be the follow-up to 2019's The Door To Doom. The aforementioned images can be seen below.










Candlemass will officially hit American shores in 2022. The band will perform at the Sold Out Hell’s Heroes Festival in Houston, TX on April 22, bookended by two other performances featuring support from special guests The Skull and Frayle.


Mats Björkman of Candlemass says:  “We are really pleased to finally get back to the US of A. Our fans have been waiting and have asked for shows for some years now, and with these three shows we are starting up again in North America. There will eventually be more shows - but that’s still in the works and will not be immediately happening, so come and see us in April if you can make it."





US 2022 dates:


April
20 - Boston, MA - The Middle East
22 - Houston, TX - Hell's Heroes Festival (Sold Out) *
24 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall


* - without The Skull and Frayle


Lineup:


Leif Edling - bass
Mats "Mappe" Björkman - guitars
Jan Lindh - drums
Lars "Lasse" Johansson - guitars        
Johan Langquist - vocals


(Photo - Linda Åkerberg)


 

New York stoner rock veterans Black Water Rising are kicking off the New Year with a new single and music video. The band has released a new video for their latest hard-rocking track, titled "Jokes On You". The music video was directed by Tom Flynn (Lamb Of God, All That Remains).





Speaking about the music video, drummer Mike Meselsohn says: "It was great working with Tom (director) on the video. His vision was for more of a raw stripped-down performance and I believe he really captured the energy and attitude of the song. It's straightforward while still being visually interesting!" 




"Jokes On You" is the third single from the band's upcoming studio album, which is set to be released later this year. It also features original guitarist John Fattoruso - who rejoined BWR in late 2019. The new material promises to be more melodic, yet still as riff-heavy as BWR’s previous albums; featuring hooks and catchy choruses to pull you in, all while retaining a musical identity of its own.

Nameless Grave Records presents Crest Of The Martyrs Demos, an alternate/demo version of Twisted Tower Dire’s adored third album, making the recordings available for the first time.


In the days of olde, after classic heavy metal was supplanted by extreme music and before the current reignition of interest that the genre has enjoyed, Northern Virginia’s Twisted Tower Dire tirelessly defended true heavy metal in all forms as they sought to breathe new light into a then largely dead genre. By the time their now-legendary third album Crest Of The Martyrs was written they were on top of the world, having played Wacken for the first time a couple years earlier and having released two full-lengths on The Miskatonic Foundation, run by Rich Walker of Solstice fame, as well as a wide array of EPs, splits, compilation tracks, and more.


Crest Of The Martyrs was the next step: a bigger power metal label, sleeker production, and Twisted Tower Dire’s biggest hooks and choruses yet. Underneath the gleaming power metal edge provided by the production provided by the label and studio still lurked the same triumphing true metal band, however, and for the first time Nameless Grave Records is proud to present Crest Of The Martyrs the way the band originally intended it: as a devastating, lean set of heavy metal bangers untouched by modern power metal production, and alternate studio decisions.




Old fans of the band can rejoice to have this different set of recordings available for the first time, and new fans can marvel at the powerhouse of one of America’s finest bands playing at their best. Highly recommended for fans of Visigoth, Pharaoh, and Omen.


Recorded in 2002 at Killabrew Studios, produced by Matt Crooks and Twisted Tower Dire, and mastered by Dan Lowndes at Resonance Sound Studios, Crest Of The Martyrs Demos is completed with artwork personally done for this release by guitarist Scott Waldrop. The CD version features bonus tracks not included on the vinyl, including a second demo as well as a live track from Wacken 2003, and both the CD and vinyl editions bear liner notes from the band. The LP will be pressed in a total run of 500 copies, including 300 on Black and 100 on Silver. No Remorse Records (Greece) will have an exclusive 100 copies on Light Blue vinyl.


Stream the previously unreleased version of “Some Other Time, Some Other Place” below.


Crest Of The Martyrs Demos will be released through Nameless Grave Records on March 3. Preorder on Bandcamp.





Tracklisting:


“At Night”
“Some Other Time, Some Other Place”
“Axes And Honor”
“To Be A Champion”
“Infinitum”
“Fight To Be Free”
“Transfixed”
“Guardian Bloodline”
“The Reflecting Pool”


“Some Other Time, Some Other Place”:


Crest of the Martyrs Demos by TWISTED TOWER DIRE


(Photo by: Charry Jones)

"Greetings fellow Filthlings," begins Cradle Of Filth frontman Dani Filth.


"After the glorious success of our livestream extravaganza back in May last year, we have decided to undertake a second in which we will play our legendary musical excretion, Dusk And Her Embrace, in its dark cinematic entirety, accompanied by a further bout of new album tracks and fan-favourites. ⁣


Being unleashed on March 20th 2022 - the day of the Spring Equinox - and known as The Infernal Vernal Equinox, this full live-stream ritual will also premier the incredible third single video from Existence Is Futile, plus will include the entirety of our first livestream free for your vulgar delectation. ⁣




So, Children of the Night, be expectant of horrific spectacle, big production and razor sharp Black Metal mayhem ascending your way.⁣


Warning. This one-off special performance is intended solely for those tortured souls still clinging to the last of winter’s grip. ⁣Happy f**king Spring!!!⁣"


Tickets to The Infernal Vernal Equinox, priced at $25 each, can be purchased now at this location. Rewatch will be available for 169 hours after the start of the event.





(Photo by James Sharrock)


 


 

Frontiers Music Srl announcesa fourth album, Lightning In A Bottle, from the melodic rock group, Find Me. Vocalist Robbie LaBlanc and drummer/producer Daniel Flores will release their new album on March 11. Today, the band has released the first single and video from the album, "Survive".


Watch the video below, and pre-order/save "Lightning In A Bottle" here


A delightful and massive melodic rock album, Lightning In A Bottle is chock full of mighty anthemic AOR songs featuring Robbie’s soaring vocals backed by amazing performances from Flores and his band. Sonically, this album touches on both the classic melodic rock/AOR style, while also showing influences from the new guard of the genre.  




Find Me is an ongoing collaboration between Swedish musician, songwriter, and producer Daniel Flores (The Murder Of My Sweet) and singer Robbie LaBlanc (Blanc Faces, ex-Fury) that was put together by Frontiers President, Serafino Perugino with a vision to unleash another AOR behemoth. Their partnership has yielded three absolute melodic rock gems in a row and "Lightning In A Bottle" will certainly be no exception.


"I really want to thank the band on this album, Jonny Trobro, Michael Palace (guitar), Rolf Staffan Pilotti, and the amazing voice, my friend, Robbie LaBlanc and, of course, our silent, but very vocal and important member, Serafino Perugino, for all the hard work on this release! But there is one person I really want to thank and that is Alessandro Del Vecchio, who is responsible for writing 10 amazing songs on this record. He will be featured heavily on my next work too. Yes, he likes to play!!! And is pretty lucky too! There is still one more BIG, BBBBBBBIG surprise on the album, featuring one of the best songwriters and keyboard players on earth at the moment, but I'll let the press team have that one...," says Daniel Flores.


The aforementioned special guest is Vince DiCola who plays keyboards on a cover of "Far From Over", a song by Frank Stallone from the Staying Alive soundtrack. Vince is actually a co-writer of the original along with Stallone.





Tracklisting:


"Survive"
"Far From Over" (Feat. Vince Di Cola)
"Sail Away"
"Back To You"
"Diana"
"Distant Echoes"
"Remember (It's Me)"
"You And I"
"Under A Bad Sign"
"Give My Heart"
"On The Run"


"Survive" video:





Lineup:


Robbie Lablanc - Vocals
Daniel Flores - Drums, Bass, Guitars, Keys