Paul Stanley has pushed back against claims that having to take multiple doses of the COVID-19 vaccine is unusual or unprecedented.

The KISS frontman, who tested positive for COVID-19 in August, took to his Twitter on Monday (December 27) to point out that certain childhood vaccines that have been used for decades, like the diphtheria vaccine and the polio vaccine, require four or more doses to complete immunization.

He wrote: "Just Some Vaccine Information For Those Who Question The Current Validity Because Of The Amount Of Doses, FYI… POLIO-4 Doses; CHICKENPOX-2 Doses; SMALLPOX-4 Doses; MEASLES-2 Doses; DIPTHERIA/TETANUS/WHOOPING COUGH-5 Doses.

"Share your opinions here but no 'education' thru rudeness".

Stanley went on to say that he has been testing negative for COVID-19 despite the fact that he took to his Instagram on Sunday (December 26) to share a photo of what he called his "Omicron face" and to reveal that his "entire family" has contracted the highly contagious variant.

"I AM NEGATIVE FOR COVID," he wrote on Monday. "If you have any doubts about your Home Covid Test results, get tested through a lab. I have had Covid and 3 shots. With my antibodies there’s little chance of me contracting it now. Thanks for all your concern."

Omicron has quickly become the most common form of the coronavirus in the U.S., accounting for 73% of all cases, according to federal officials.

Based on early studies, those who are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines are far less likely to be admitted to hospital with the omicron variant than the previous delta strain. However, the higher transmissibility of omicron means the risk of health systems being overloaded during the winter period is still quite high.

"It is clear that if you're vaccinated, particularly if you've had a booster, omicron tends to produce milder infections," Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, told NBC News.

"What we haven't seen yet is a substantial body of information about what omicron will do in unvaccinated people," he added.

After Stanley contracted COVID-19 in August, KISS was forced to postpone a string of shows. A few days later, KISS announced that bassist Gene Simmons had also tested positive for the virus. As a result, the band postponed four more concerts.

Back in March, Stanley told AXS TV's "At Home And Social" that he was "so excited and so thankful" to receive his second COVID-19 vaccine. "I'd like [to see] everybody just get back to a normal life," he said at the time. "It's been devastating for so many people. For us who are inconvenienced, it's minor compared to what some people have gone through."

Stanley also criticized people who were defiantly skeptical of mask wearing, saying they were posing a risk to themselves and to all those around them.

"Part of the problem is that we haven't adhered properly to what should be common sense restrictions," he said. "And as long as there are people who are negating what's being told to them, this [coronavirus crisis] is gonna extend further.

"We're supposed to be a community. And if there's the slightest possibility that it would be the right thing to do, shouldn't you do it?" he asked rhetorically.

Last month, Simmons blasted people who are skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines, calling them "delusional" and the "enemy" and saying they are posing a risk to themselves and to all those around them.

In October, Rolling Stone magazine published a story in which a group of KISS roadies suggested that the lack of COVID protocols enforced on the band's "End Of The Road" farewell tour led to the death of a longtime guitar tech, 53-year-old Francis Stueber. Stueber died of coronavirus in his Detroit hotel room on October 17, just two days after being quarantined. The crew members claimed the tour didn't take strict enough safety measures, including not testing everyone regularly. In addition, some crew members allegedly disguised their illness and/or faked vaccine cards.

In a statement, the KISS members said that they were "profoundly heartbroken" by the passing of Stueber, but added, "We are now aware there were crew members who attempted to conceal signs of illness, and when it was discovered, refused medical attention…. Furthermore, it has recently been brought to our attention that certain crew members may have provided fake vaccination cards which, if true, we find morally reprehensible (as well as illegal), putting the entire tour in harm's way."




Just Some Vaccine Information For Those Who Question The Current Validity Because Of The Amount Of Doses, FYI…

POLIO-4 Doses

CHICKENPOX-2 Doses

SMALLPOX-4 Doses

MEASLES-2 Doses

DIPTHERIA/TETANUS/WHOOPING COUGH-5 Doses.

Share your opinions here but no “education” thru rudeness

— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) December 27, 2021








I AM NEGATIVE FOR COVID. If you have any doubts about your Home Covid Test results, get tested through a lab. I have had Covid and 3 shots. With my antibodies there’s little chance of me contracting it now. Thanks for all your concern.

— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) December 27, 2021

During an appearance on the "White Line Fever" podcast, former EUROPE guitarist Kee Marcello spoke about how his 1980s Swedish glam-rock band EASY ACTION was forced to take legal action against POISON for allegedly "stealing" the chorus to the EASY ACTION song "We Go Rocking" for the POISON U.S. smash-hit "I Want Action". EASY ACTION was said to have been awarded a financial settlement in the case.

Kee said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I got [in] contact with the producer of POISON's album ['Look What The Cat Dragged In'], Ric Browde, and he told me he brought the EASY ACTION album and the HANOI ROCKS album to the studio when he did the POISON album, and he put on 'We Go Rocking' and suggested the band make a cover out of it. And they said, 'It's a fucking Swedish glam band. Who's gonna know?' And they just ripped us off. And this is Ric Browde personally saying this. So it's so fucking obvious that it happened.

"If it would have been me doing such a mistake, I would say, 'I'm so sorry. I fucked up. Man, I took your song. I'm so sorry. I'm gonna make it up to you.' [But] to this day, believe it or not, they completely bluntly deny it," he continued. "When POISON played at Sweden Rock Festival, they had a press conference, and somebody asked — a lot of people asked — 'What about Kee Marcello? What about EASY ACTION? What about 'We Go Rocking'?' And they said, '[We] never heard of any of those.' And that was the end of it. Then people tried to go on, but they just bluntly denied it. And it's so ridiculous. At least agree you're wrong sometimes.

"So, I don't know. I don't wanna see those assholes."

Regarding how EASY ACTION ended up receiving a financial settlement in the case, Kee said: "The publisher [for 'We Go Rocking'] is Warner Chappell Music. I'm [listed as the] hundred percent [writer] of the music, and there's three of us [who are credited for] the lyrics — the singer, the bass player and me — in 'We Go Rocking'.

"The thing is I was so busy when this happened, I didn't sue [POISON]; it was Warner Chappell Music that sued them and threatened to take them to court," Marcello explained. "It was really a dumb deal. I wonder why they didn't do that. Instead they made a settlement out of court. But as you know, when you do a settlement, they don't have to [publicly admit] that they [did anything wrong]. If we would have taken them to court, I would have been a co-writer on their song, which I think would have been fair. That's how you admit you've been doing something wrong. Because [if I had been listed as a co-writer on 'I Want Action'], every time they do a best-of POISON album and the song is on there, some money goes to me. It doesn't now. We just got this sum of money, a settlement out of court. If I would have been more plugged into the whole thing… If there's one regret I have, it's not dragging their sorry asses to court."

EASY ACTION was formed in the early 1980s and was a pioneering band on the Swedish and Scandinavian glam rock scene. When singer Tommy Nilsson joined the group in 1986, they moved towards a more adult radio friendly sound. The album "That Makes One" attracted global attention but its momentum came to a quick halt when Marcello left the band to gain worldwide success as the new guitar player in the band EUROPE. Nilsson went on to become one of Sweden's biggest pop stars, scoring several huge domestic single hits. Following a number of successful years with EUROPE, Kee released solo albums and a biography as well as performed in the musical "Rock Of Ages", among other projects.

An earlier incarnation of EASY ACTION, featuring Zinny Zan on vocals, had reunited in the past, but in 2019, the "That Makes One" lineup of the band makes its first comeback since 1986 exclusively at the Sweden Rock Festival. The show marked Nilsson's first return to the world of hard rock in 33 years. The lineup also included guitarist Chris Lind, bassist Nalle Påhlsson (TREAT, THERION) and former EASY ACTION live keyboard player Jörgen Ingeström.

Earlier this year, EASY ACTION released a video for a new song "Dazed", which was written about the wave of populistic propaganda that has reshaped the world in recent years.

During an appearance on a recent episode of the "In The Trenches with Ryan Roxie" video podcast, legendary vocalist/bassist Glenn Hughes reflected on his time fronting BLACK SABBATH in the mid-1980s. Regarding how his collaboration with the Tony Iommi-led outfit came about, Glenn said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Tony was going to make a solo album in 1985. Myself, my dear friend Ronnie James Dio and Rob Halford were all gonna sing a couple of songs each. I was the first guy to go down to Cherokee Studios in Hollywood to do a couple of songs with Tony. And I wrote and sang a couple of songs in the first night. And he asked me to come back the next day, and it kept going and going and going, and I ended up being the only singer on that solo album. On the last song, Don Arden — Sharon's [Osbourne] father — who was managing Tony at the time, suggested, with Warner Brothers, that we should call it 'BLACK SABBATH featuring Tony Iommi.' So it wasn't a Tony Iommi album anymore; it was a BLACK SABBATH album called 'Seventh Star'. It was a time for me where I was changing lifestyles, if you will. So it was a difficult time for me."

Hughes added: "Being in BLACK SABBATH was not something I wanted to do. I was trying to help Tony out, doing his solo album. But I enjoyed working with Tony. I've made three albums with Tony now. So, long may that continue."

Hughes previously discussed his SABBATH stint during a 2017 interview with Cat Unwrapped of the "Collision" radio show on Australia's Voice FM. He stated about the experience: "It was a little different, because number one, some of those songs were not written for me, kind of, to sing in the way I sing. It was a very dramatic change for me to be in a band that had this huge fan base of really cult, kind of, you know, metal kind of, dark, kind of image. Let's be clear, because Ozzy [Osbourne], Geezer [Butler], Tony and Bill Ward, like, were all my family — we all grew up together, so I know these guys personally, but their catalog is very dark and sinister, but they're not, you know. And for me to wear that cloak and dagger, mystery thing, was a little bit strange for me.

"I really did enjoy making 'Seventh Star', and I made another album called 'DEP Sessions' with Tony, and [then] we did 'Fused', so I've done three records with Tony," he continued. "But it was a little bit different for me singing in BLACK SABBATH. It wasn't quite who I am. I've always liked a challenge, you know — I always like a challenge — but I think Ozzy's voice, and Ronnie Dio's voice, is perfect for that band, although I did enjoy working with those guys."

Hughes confirmed in a 1995 interview that he got into a fistfight with BLACK SABBATH production manager John Downing four days before the start of the "Seventh Star" tour. The injuries he obtained affected his ability to perform live, and vocalist Ray Gillen was subsequently recruited to complete the tour.

Originally released in 1986, "Seventh Star" saw Iommi recruiting the skills of Dave "The Beast" Spitz and drummer Eric Singer (later of KISS) and for the first time the position of a keyboardist became a visible credit and long-serving back-room operator Geoff Nicholls was finally brought to the foreground as an official member. "Seventh Star" was somewhat of a departure from what was expected from the BLACK SABBATH name, and the songs on "Seventh Star" were more blues inclined and in the case of the single release "No Stranger To Love", an altogether more radio-friendly breeze was adopted.

Hughes is currently a member of THE DEAD DAISIES. He is joined in the band's lineup by Doug Aldrich (DIO, WHITESNAKE) on guitar, Tommy Clufetos (BLACK SABBATH, OZZY OSBOURNE) on drums and David Lowy (RED PHOENIX, MINK) on guitar.

THE DEAD DAISIES' latest album, "Holy Ground", was released in January. Recorded at La Fabrique Studios in the south of France with producer Ben Grosse, the LP is the band's first to feature Hughes, who joined the group in 2019 as its new bassist and vocalist, replacing John Corabi (MÖTLEY CRÜE) and Marco Mendoza (THIN LIZZY).

Photo credit: Oliver Halfin

HELMET frontman Page Hamilton has confirmed to the "Thunder Underground" podcast that he is working on material for the band's first album in more than five years. "I have some scraps. That's about all," he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I'm writing a piece for this high school in Memphis called the Christian Brothers. It's their 150th anniversary. It's the oldest high school orchestra in the country. So I have to finish that. I have some time — [I have to complete it] by 2023; I have a year.

"I've kind of started to organize my shit," he continued. "I'm doing a session next week for an Austrian series, this TV series. It's like an HBO kind of thing — this six-part thing. And that's not writing — that's just [me being] a hired gun. But they're writing the music around my guitar. And none of it sounds like guitar. [Laughs] He texted me today. He's, like, 'This sounds like church bells. I never knew you were religious.'

"But, yeah, the HELMET stuff, I think realistically, once I get back from New Year's Eve, from [being] in New York, I'm gonna sit down and buckle down," Page added. "So I'll do my days where I try to divide it into the orchestral writing thing, this Christian Brothers piece, which is mostly brass and woodwinds and percussion, and then the HELMET stuff. 'Cause if you're just beating the pavement on one thing all day every day, I think it can get stale — for me anyway. First thing I do every day is play jazz guitar. So that keeps me excited and happy.

"When I produce bands, I have a whole routine. I have coffee in my hotel room and I play jazz for an hour, an hour and a half. Then I can go and listen to a rock band for 12 hours. If I didn't do that, I might hang myself."

HELMET's first official live album, "Live And Rare", was released on November 26 via earMUSIC. It was made available on heavyweight black vinyl as well as a CD digipak edition and digital.

Although HELMET disbanded in 1997, Hamilton revived the band in 2004, and the group has continued to tour and record.

HELMET's latest album, "Dead To The World", was released in October 2016 via earMUSIC. The effort was produced by Hamilton and mixed by Jay Baumgardner.

Earlier this year, HELMET released a cover of GANG OF FOUR's 1981 song "Into The Ditch". The track was recorded for a tribute album to GANG OF FOUR's guitarist Andy Gill, "The Problem Of Leisure: A Celebration Of Andy Gill And Gang Of Four".

Having cut his teeth playing with avant-garde guitar icon Glenn Branca and indie stalwarts BAND OF SUSANS, Hamilton launched HELMET in 1989, and the band released its debut album, "Strap It On", on the independent Amphetamine Reptile label the following year. HELMET soon became the subject of an unprecedented major-label bidding war, ultimately signing with Interscope and releasing "Meantime" in June 1992.

Even while the band was absent from the spotlight, HELMET continued to exercise considerable influence on multiple generations of bands. Their songs have been covered by the likes of CHEVELLE, DEFTONES, FAITH NO MORE, PIG DESTROYER and SOULFLY, and the band inspired a 2016 HELMET tribute album titled "Meantime Redux". HELMET has also been cited as a key influence on such bands as GODSMACK, KORN, MARILYN MANSON, MASTODON, PANTERA, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, SEPULTURA, SLIPKNOT, STAIND, SYSTEM OF A DOWN and TOOL.

Zakk Wylde says that he had "no problems" with the recent "Dio Returns" tour, which featured a hologram of legendary metal singer Ronnie James Dio performing alongside a living backing group consisting, in large part, of Ronnie's onetime DIO bandmates.

The Dio hologram was created by a company called Eyellusion and made its debut at the Wacken Open Air festival in August 2016 in front of more than 75,000 fans.

The Dio hologram production used audio of Ronnie's live performances from throughout his career, with the DIO band playing live, consisting of Craig Goldy on guitar, Simon Wright on drums and Scott Warren on keyboards, along with Bjorn Englen on bass. Also appearing with them were ex-JUDAS PRIEST singer Tim "Ripper" Owens and LYNCH MOB frontman Oni Logan.

In an interview with the "TODDCast Podcast", Wylde stated about "Dio Returns" (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think it's great. All it's doing is keeping our favorite artists' memories alive — whether it's seeing cover bands or anything like that. And put it this way: if you go and see it and we all have a great time, all you're doing is celebrating Ronnie's greateness and how awesome he was. I don't see any problems with it. It's entertainment. If you go see it, and if you love Ronnie James Dio, and we all do, you have a great time. It's no different than when I see any of my friends that play in cover bands. I've got my buddies that play in ZOSO and everything like that — they're an amazing [LED] ZEPPELIN cover band, and every time we go see 'em, we have a great time. It's just awesome. I think it's just a celebration of your favorite bands and your favorite artists. So I think it's awesome. I have no problems with it at all."

This past September, Ronnie James Dio's former wife and longtime manager Wendy Dio said that she decided to pull the plug on the hologram of the legendary metal singer because she "wanted to see real Ronnie." Speaking about how her reaction to the hologram evolved over the years, she said: "When I first saw it, I cried. Then I got used to it because it wasn't Ronnie. And then we took it out [on tour]. The first [version] was not that good. The second one was a lot better. But I decided that I don't wanna do it anymore; I decided I want real Ronnie. So we're working on a stage with the DIO band, which will be going out in March [of 2022]. Instead of having a hologram, it will have film of Ronnie with the live band playing and with special effects and everything else. So that's what we're working on. We're working on it with Paul Dexter [who was Ronnie's lighting designer and stage designer for years] and a bunch of other people. And also the Eyellusion people, who did do the hologram, are doing a bunch of special effects for us with it."

Wendy continued: "I never say never [about bringing back the hologram], but technology gets different every day, every day, every day. And I just decided that I wanted to see real Ronnie. … QUEEN does [something similar, using footage of Freddie Mercury]. Ours will be a little bit different to that because we have all these great effects, 3D effects. It's almost like going into — what's that ride at Disneyland, when you go through, and it's like a 3D effect? That's what we're working on right now."

Two former DIO guitarists have publicly expressed their doubts about the Ronnie James Dio hologram. In December 2019, Tracy "G" Grijalva, who played for DIO from 1993 through 1999, said that the hologram "looks creepy" and resembles "a puppet." Nine months earlier, Doug Aldrich, who was in DIO between 2002 and 2006, told XS Rock that "Ronnie would probably not" like the hologram. "He would probably be, like, 'This is not what I signed up for.' A hologram? It's not really what he would want to be. I'm just guessing, you know, that it's something that Wendy thought about and she decided that Ronnie would be fine with it. But I knew Ronnie well enough to know that he was very particular and he would prefer for them to let him just die and be in peace."

After the "Dio Returns" tour's initial seven-date run was completed in December 2017, Ronnie's hologram underwent some changes before the launch of the 2019 leg of the trek, which took place in May and June of that year.

The "Dio Returns" 17-song set consisted of seven tunes sung by the Dio hologram — the rest featured Owens and Logan separately or together — and encompassed material from Dio's lengthy career, including his earlier days in RAINBOW and BLACK SABBATH.

A few years ago, Wendy told Patch.com that critics of the Dio hologram were "entitled to their opinion. I just ask that people come and see the show first before criticizing," she said. "We got a lot of flak in the beginning but I think more and more people are getting used to it. It's for the fans. It's for the fans who would love to see Ronnie back up on the stage and the ones that never got a chance to see him. I think Ronnie would approve. If anybody saw the 'Sacred Heart' tour in 1986 we tried to make a hologram then. We had Ronnie in a crystal ball hanging from the stage talking through it. Also he was an innovator in music, so why not be an innovator in technology."

Last year, TESTAMENT guitarist Alex Skolnick, who toured with Ronnie on two separate occasions a decade and a half apart — in 1992 when Dio fronted BLACK SABBATH and again in 2008 when Ronnie was the singer of SABBATH offshoot band HEAVEN & HELL — offered his opinion on the Dio hologram on Twitter, writing: "I don't believe in those hologram shows. It would be one thing if the artist was still alive, chose not to tour for whatever reason, gave his or her approval & maybe even had a hand in the process. But Dio had no say." Skolnick also added a thumbs-down emoji as a way of voicing his disapproval.

DISTURBED frontman David Draiman said in a 2016 interview that he had mixed feelings about concerts featuring the Dio hologram. He said about the prospect of seeing a holographic version of Ronnie: "It makes me sad. I'm always happy to hear any music from anybody that's left us, that we've lost. But I don't know… The hologram thing, to me, it almost isn't letting the dead be dead." He added, "It just seems weird... Is there a difference between a hologram and a guy dressing up like Ronnie James and doing it?"

In a new interview with V13, guitarist Bill Steer of British extreme metallers CARCASS spoke about the band's latest album "Torn Arteries", which sees them once again combining the breakneck intensity that defined their earliest years with the vastly tighter and more polished tone that characterized their later efforts.

"We've always been quite stubborn and just done what we wanted to do at any given time," he said. "And sometimes that means you're gonna be out of step with the prevailing trends at that time. But it's definitely better to be honest about where you're at and what you're into, 'cause if you go chasing an audience, you end up making a clown of yourself, really.

"We don't really analyze it," Steer said about CARCASS's unique sound. "All you've got is your gut instinct, I think, with music, in terms of the direction it's going. I guess the primary motivation is the same that we've always had, which was to make music that we wanted to hear. Obviously, when you start a group, you set certain parameters for yourselves, stylistically, and some of those elements are still there in our music now; it's just we've managed to broaden our scope over the years. But, yeah, I just tend to feel like if you try and guess what listeners will make of it, you're already a bit lost. And you've just gotta complete it to the best of your ability, craft it until you feel like you can stand behind the thing, push it out there."

"Torn Arteries" was released in September via Nuclear Blast Records. Drummer Daniel Wilding did session work in Sweden at Studio Gröndahl with David Castillo while guitars were recorded at The Stationhouse with James Atkinson in Leeds, England. Eventually needing some form of residential location to finalize vocals, bass, and other guitarwork, the band headed back to Studio Gröndahl in Sweden to continue work in a very relaxed atmosphere with Castillo.

The "Torn Arteries" title references an old demo created by CARCASS's original drummer Ken Owen back in the 1980s.

In February of 1999, Owen suffered a near-fatal brain hemorrhage, leaving him in a coma for over 10 months. As a result, he is unable to play the way he used to. When CARCASS reunited in 2007, the drum stool was filled by Daniel Erlandsson and later Wilding.

Ken reportedly gave his approval to Steer and bassist/vocalist Jeff Walker to continue with CARCASS and was supportive during the recording process of the band's 2013 comeback album "Surgical Steel".

CARCASS played its first pandemic-era concert on November 6 at the Damnation Festival in Leeds, U.K.

ANNIHILATOR leader Jeff Waters has opened up about his battle with COVID-19, saying that was left "terrified" and feared for his life for more than half a year.

The 55-year-old guitarist/vocalist, who moved to the United Kingdom from his native Canada back in 2018, discussed his recent health issues in a new interview with Bringin' It Backwards.

He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "When we went to this COVID disaster, I took stock of a few things because I got COVID, my wife got it and the kids got it. And I got it really bad because I am older, I was an ex-smoker. I don't drink alcohol for three decades but I'm still not an exerciser. I didn't drink a lot of water. I intook a lot of fast foods.

"Basically what it was was the pandemic hit [and] I got COVID bad," he continued. "I had the thing where the elephant was sitting on your chest for two weeks and I was wheezing like a crackling fire. That's how I explained it — whether it was in or out breath, it was a crackling fire. And you were told not to pop asthma medication 'cause that could make it worse."

Waters added: "My oxygen level got tested and they said, 'You should probably be in the hospital. If your oxygen level gets any lower, you need to be in the hospital.' And my wife watched me all day and night in another room and made sure I was okay. I isolated 'cause I was scared — we were all terrified over here [in the U.K.], like everywhere. And I recovered partially in about two weeks. I woke up and the elephant was gone. So it was, like, 'Okay, he's not sitting on my chest anymore.' But it took six to seven months. And now I understood what I thought was such a goofy term — 'long COVID.' I was thinking, 'Oh, it's another political bunch of bullshit.' And then I understood it that that was real — COVID was real, but that was real. Because it took over six months. And then I woke up one morning and went, 'Oh, the other half of my lungs are back.' So I went through six and a half months of, 'Oh, shit. Did I just damage my lungs? And is my career, and maybe even life, done here.' And [then] I was back."

earMusic recently announced a reissue series of (almost) the entire ANNIHILATOR catalog. Kicking off this extensive catalog campaign is "Metal II", which has been given an overhaul with Dave Lombardo (SLAYER) on drums and lead vocals "re-invented" by Stu Block (INTO ETERNITY, ICED EARTH). The guest list on the album iincludes: Willie Adler (LAMB OF GOD), Alexi Laiho (CHILDREN OF BODOM), Steve "Lips" Kudlow (ANVIL), Dan Beehler (EXCITER), Jesper Strömblad (IN FLAMES), Angela Gossow (ARCH ENEMY), Jeff Loomis (ARCH ENEMY, NEVERMORE), Anders Björler (THE HAUNTED, AT THE GATES) and Corey Beaulieu (TRIVIUM).

In total, 18 records are going to be released over the next few years, including the original 2007 version of the "Metal" album.

Founded in 1984, ANNIHILATOR took the metal scene by storm with its debut 1989 release "Alice In Hell", upped the ante with 1990's "Never, Neverland" and has continued a non-stop career-pattern of releasing records and touring with many of the biggest bands in the metal genre (mostly outside North America) ever since; cementing ANNIHILATOR as the biggest-selling metal act in Canada's history.

Ozzy Osbourne has announced his first foray into the crypto industry with the launch of Cryptobatz, a collection of 9,666 non-fungible tokens.

The collection is a nod to his infamous bat-biting incident. On January 20, 1982, Ozzy bit the head off a live bat during a concert at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa. He later claimed he thought it was a toy thrown to him by an audience member.

Osbourne told Rolling Stone that he decided to launch his own NFTs after his wife and manager, Sharon Osbourne, talked him out of buying a Bored Ape.

"I've been trying to get in on the NFT action for a while so when I asked Sharon for a Bored Ape for Christmas after several failed attempts of buying my own, and she said no, I decided to create my own," Ozzy said. "Cryptobatz is a fucking mental project for NFT collectors and fans. The design pays tribute to one of my most iconic onstage moments and is a chance to acquire a rare piece of art history. I love it!"

Cryptobatz comes with a twist: owners will be able to create new NFTs called "MutantBatz" by "mutating" Cryptobatz with other collections.

NFTs are a type of digital asset where ownership is recorded on a digital ledger blockchain. Each NFT is unique and can be viewed as a collectible that cannot be duplicated, making them singular and potentially valuable. NFTs can represent digital files, such as art, audio, videos, posters, album art and other forms of creative work.

Most NFTs are a part of the Ethereum blockchain, meaning that they are bought and sold using Ether, a major cryptocurrency.

Other notable heavy metal musicians who have dipped their toes in the NFT market include MEGADETH, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, SLIPKNOT's Clown and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Ozzy's bat-biting incident was the focus of an episode of "Myths And Legends", a TV Land original television series in which celebrity and expert panelists discuss popular myths surrounding American television, music, and motion pictures, promise answers to these and other great and not-so-great Hollywood stories.

Asked by the Los Angeles Daily News how he wants to be remembered, Ozzy said: "It's not the way I want to be remembered [but] I know I'll be the man that bit the head off the bat. That will be my epitaph. It won't be, 'Here lies Ozzy Osbourne … he did a bit of good …' It's going to be 'The bat-biting lunatic,' which … I don't ca

In a brand new interview with Loudwire, AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows spoke about the band's seeming reluctance to return to playing live shows without having a new album and a new stage production to go along with it. "It's not that we don't want to [book dates]," he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "It's just that we have to be very careful about getting everything going, building a whole new stage set, hiring everybody, renting buses and then having one person get sick and the tour gets canceled and we get to be on the hook for everything. And it's not that we don't wanna do it.

"People compare us to bands that are going and playing clubs," he continued. "It's not the same thing. Getting an arena tour going and playing these festivals, it's just not the same thing. And also we wanna be mentally ready.

"These are all gonna sound like crazy excuses, but these are real. We have a huge stage that we wanna get built. We can't get people to work. We can't get the supplies we need to build it, which there's a supply chain problem as well. Go look at the Long Beach, at the port right now, and these boats are just stuck out there. And so we have all these things going on where we're not gonna come back on stage and have the stage from 'The Stage' record and then just go, 'Well, same show four years later. Sorry, guys. The record's not done 'cause we couldn't finish it.'

"So, I would just say starting in January, we are gonna put our nose to the grind and we are gonna finish this [new AVENGED SEVENFOLD] record," M. Shadows added. "And then we're doing a couple of shows in Europe. And then I would love to — and I don't wanna step on [festival organizer] Danny Wimmer's toes here — but I would love to start at [the] Aftershock [festival in October 2022] and then book a tour out from there.

"So, we're gonna be doing stuff. But, yeah, it's just kind of making sure we're mentally there and we put our best foot forward when we do come out and make sure that it's all good."

Back in February, M. Shadows told the Minneapolis, Minnesota radio station 93X that "70 percent" of the follow-up to "The Stage" was "done." He said: "We're working on stuff. We have some things we can't finish right now 'cause of COVID — string players, et cetera. We know Andy [Wallace, AVENGED SEVENFOLD's longtime mixer] doesn't wanna travel, or his management doesn't want him to travel because of COVID. So there's just a lot of things going on."

Also in February, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance told Detroit's WRIF radio station that he and his bandmates have done "lots and lots of writing — at a lot slower pacer than usual" — during the coronavirus pandemic. "Now that we are a little bit older, we move around a little bit slower, but [we've done] tons of writing," he said. "We've gone to the studio. It was kind of a weird time to do anything in 2020, but that's when we felt like it was a good time to go out there and start tracking all the stuff that we had in us.

"But, like I said, we're doing it at a slow pace, so we're still in the process of recording," he explained. "We're taking it really, really slow, making sure everything is the way we like it. We're not in a big rush to get anything out, mainly 'cause we wanna get on the road, and we wanna be able to bring it to life. We wanna tour, we wanna travel, we wanna play songs that people wanna hear; we wanna expose them to some new stuff. 'Cause I just feel like rushing to put something out right now and letting it dissipate because of the void, while people are worried about where their next meal is coming from or the paycheck, the last thing in the world on people's minds is, 'AVENGED SEVENFOLD's gonna put out a new album, and that's gonna be the saving grace for us all.' And I feel like we'll take it slow, let the world get a little bit back to normal, and when people are ready, we'll know — we have a good sense of that. We'll slowly finish it up, and then unleash it when the world's ready."

Last December, M. Shadows told Kerrang! magazine about the musical direction of the new AVENGED material: "The [new] record sounds nothing like 'The Stage' — it's a completely new direction, and it sounds nothing like anything we've done. That's all I'll say about it: it's over the top, and it's very eclectic and wild."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD kept a low profile during 2019. A blood blister on M. Shadows's vocal cords forced the band to cancel a summer 2018 tour with PROPHETS OF RAGE and THREE DAYS GRACE.

"The Stage" was surprise-released in October 2016. The release of the disc, which was announced the night it went on sale, earned the lowest sales of an AVENGED SEVENFOLD album in 11 years. It sold 76 thousand copies in its first week, 73 thousand of which were physical.

"The Stage", AVENGED's debut for Capitol, sold less than half as many copies in its first week as the group's two previous efforts, 2010's "Nightmare" and 2013's "Hail To The King".

AVENGED SEVENFOLD recently announced the Deathbats Club, a new level of connecting with fans based around non-fungible tokens, or NFTs — digital assets (free tickets for life, free meet-amd-greets for life, airdrops over the course of each year, drum lessons, guitar lessons, golf lessons, giveaways, skip the lines at shows, poker nights, movie nights, etc.) that can't be replicated. After an initial drop of 101 free NFTs to whet fans' appetites, they released 10,000 at the end of November via avengedsevenfold.io, with everyone who buys one becoming part of the community.

During a recent appearance on producer Rick Rubin's "Broken Record" podcast, punk rock icon Henry Rollins discussed his decision to stop making music 15 years ago after spending well over a decade recording and touring with ROLLINS BAND, his alt-rock powerhouse. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The smart thing I did as a younger man was one day I woke up in my bed and I went, 'I'm done with music. I don't hate it. I just have no more lyrics. There's no more toothpaste in the tube.' I called my manager at the time and I said, 'I'm done with music.' And 15 percent of that was a good thing for him. He was, like, 'No. No.' I [was, like], 'Yes.' And so luckily, I had enough movies, voiceover, documentary work, writing, talking, where that just filled in, and now I'm busier than ever. But I walked away before I had to start saying, 'Hey, kids, remember this one?' So I didn't have to put it on and go up there and put on the dog and yelp for my dinner.

"I've had gentle discussions with major rock stars," he continued. "I [go], 'You go out and you play those same songs every night for the last 40 years.' And one of these people, who I love dearly, said, 'Yeah, that's what people want.' I go, 'You wanna give 'em what they want?' 'Yeah.' He's an older-school guy — even older than me. And he said, 'Yeah. You wanna make people happy.' I'm, like, 'You do? Huh. I never thought of that. That never once occurred to me.' And he went, 'What do you do?' I go, 'Just what's on next.' And he went, 'Huh. How's that treating you?' I'm, like, 'Well, I need bus fare to get home.' [Laughs] But just two different schools.

"His whole thing is you put on the show, everyone goes 'yay,' you play what everyone wants to hear and everyone's happy. And he said, 'You're not?' I'm, like, 'No, not necessarily. If they happen to like what I'm doing, cool. If they don't, they can bite me.' And I'm sure in the last few years he has sung that one, that one, that one and that one for the five hundred and seventy millionth time. And 50 thousand people went 'yay.' That's just not for me. I'd rather take the risk."

Rollins previously discussed his decision to retire from making music in a 2011 interview with Valley Advocate. At the time, he said he called it quits with ROLLINS BAND because "I could not find any way to do it differently. There was nothing new about it for me, so I decided to do other stuff. Too many people in my age group have been making the same record over and over. It might suit them, not me. When I see Mick Jagger still singing 'I can’t get no satisfaction,' I have to conclude that he's either very stupid or not being truthful."

Rollins has toured the world as a spoken-word artist, as frontman for both ROLLINS BAND and BLACK FLAG and as a solitary traveler with insatiable curiosity, favoring road-less-traveled locales in places such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Siberia, North Korea, South Sudan and Iran.

When he's not traveling, Rollins prefers a to keep a relentless schedule full of work, with gigs as an actor, author, DJ, voice-over artist and TV show host to name a few of the roles that keep him occupied.

As a spoken-word artist, Rollins regularly performs at colleges and theaters worldwide and has released a number of spoken-word recordings. His album "Get In The Van" won the Grammy for "Best Spoken Word Album" for 1995. As an actor, he has appeared in "The Chase", "Johnny Mnemonic", "Heat" and David Lynch's film "Lost Highway".