KISS frontman Paul Stanley underwent a shoulder surgery this past Tuesday (December 14).

Several hours after the procedure, the vocalist/guitarist, who will turn 70 next month, took to his Twitter to share a post-op photo of himself resting at home, and he included the following message: "SHOULDER SURGERY TODAY! How many show related surgeries have I had?? I lost count at EIGHT!! Was it worth it?!? ABSOLUTELY! Judge the value of what of you have by what you sacrificed to achieve that goal. This was a joy-filled BARGAIN."

This past May, Stanley spoke to SiriusXM's "Jim & Sam Video Interviews" about how his stage performances have damaged his body. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Both my rotator cuffs have been repaired. I popped my bicep tendon about a year and a half ago and that had to be surgically repaired. I've torn the cartilage in both my knees, and that's been taken care of. I've had a hip replacement. But modern medicine and science, God bless it. I'm good for another 50 thousand miles."

Stanley confirmed that KISS-related activities are to blame for his physical injuries over the years.

"Most of my doctor friends, my orthopedic surgeons say, 'There's no 60-year-old, there's no 50-year-old basketball players, football players, and you're up there on stage running around with 40 pounds of gear, running back and forth and jumping up in the air, and your body will betray you at some point,'" he explained.

In a 2013 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Stanley said that performing live with KISS was "like doing a triathlon with a guitar around my neck. You have to jump, sing, swing your arm and play the right chord. With that combination, anything can go wrong. I used to jump up in the air and land on my knees. It didn't hurt then, but it does now."

Stanley reiterated those sentiments in a 2014 interview with The New York Times. He said: "Things that didn't hurt me 40 years ago hurt me today. From 40 years ago. I've had both my rotator cups repaired, my knees. I've had a hip replacement. But I'm doing splits and everything on stage. I'm blessed. Every time I go out on stage, it is exhilarating."

Stanley, who had his first hip replacement at age 52, told U.K.'s Independent that he had no regrets about the nightly strutting in his eight-inch heels. "Every scar on my body was proudly earned," he said. "There's nothing worse than looking back and wishing you had done things, but I did 'em all. That's how life is supposed to be lived."

Stanley, who grew up half-deaf and scarred with a deformed right ear, eventually had reconstructive surgery in 1982 to create an ear using a piece of his rib cage.




SHOULDER SURGERY TODAY! How many show related surgeries have I had?? I lost count at EIGHT!! Was it worth it?!? ABSOLUTELY! Judge the value of what of you have by what you sacrificed to achieve that goal. This was a joy-filled BARGAIN. pic.twitter.com/RTEsTeTF7g

— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) December 15, 2021

Cadaveria's acclaimed debut album, The Shadows' Madame, will be reissued for the very first time on vinyl and cassette via Time To Kill Records on March 3, exactly 20 years after the date of its first release.


The Shadows' Madame - 20th Anniversary Edition will feature, besides the original tracklist, two bonus tracks: a live version for "Spell", recorded in the rehearsal room in 2001, and "VELO (The Other Side of Hate)" from 2014's Silence album.







This special edition will be available in black vinyl, blue vinyl, black cassette and violet cassette. Vinyl ordered on the band website will come with an exclusive 30x30 vintage band poster, signed by Cadaveria. Cassettes ordered on the Cadaveria website will come with an exclusive 10x7 Cadaveria vintage picture.


Pre-orders on the band website start now, here. To shop at Time To Kill Records, click here.


Promo video:

SION, the new project featuring former KILLSWITCH ENGAGE singer Howard Jones and modern guitar virtuoso/content creator Jared Dines, has released the official music video for the song "Inside The Hollow". The track is the fourth single from SION's self-titled debut album, which came out at the end of November. The 12-song effort was "almost two years in the making" and "was funded independently out of Jared and Howard's own pockets," according to a statement released by the group.

"Sion" track listing:

01. The Blade (03:39)

02. Drown (04:13)

03. More Than Just Myself (03:30)

04. The Worst Way (03:18)

05. Buried Alive And Wide Awake (03:50)

06. Skyfall (03:58)

07. Endless War (03:06)

08. A Constant Reminder (03:57)

09. Something To Live For (04:10)

10. Great Deceiver (03:50)

11. Dying Of The Light (03:25)

12. Inside The Hollow (03:49)

Speaking about how their collaboration came about, Dines told Rock Feed: "Way back [in] 2018 was the TRIVIUM tour that I filled in for that Howard was on with his band LIGHT THE TORCH. And, of course, we met and we talked and we just kind of randomly started talking [about working together]. I think Howard mentioned, 'Down the road, let's maybe talk about doing something.' And, of course, I was, like, 'Yeah, that sounds awesome.' So that's kind of where it started. And then maybe just until [early 2020], I think [he] reached out and had said that [he] had some free time, and I had some free time, so we figured why not start now and start writing some songs. So that's kind of how it started. It was just very casual, and it's just been that way — very natural, and not, like, [with] any type of real plan."

Regarding SION's musical direction, Dines said: "I think there's a lot of natural influence I have from bands like KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, AS I LAY DYING, et cetera, et cetera, because that's the era I grew up on, so that's kind of imprinted into my playing as it is. So it's very natural for me just to flow out these very, you could call it KILLSWITCH ENGAGE-sounding songs, but that's not the intent, what we were going for. But, yeah, they're going to sound, when you hear them, of course, because of Howard and because of my influence and my style, they will be similar to that sound — just naturally. [KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's third album, 2004's] 'The End Of Heartache', of course, for me, was my favorite and what influenced me the most, so I would say it's probably gonna sound more like that, as far as instrumentally. And whatever Howard wants to do with it, it's gonna sound like Howard. It's gonna sound like me and Howard, whatever that sounds like."

Jones left KILLSWITCH ENGAGE in 2012 and battled manic depression and bipolar disorder before forming a new project, DEVIL YOU KNOW, with guitarist Francesco Artusato (ALL SHALL PERISH) and drummer John Sankey (DEVOLVED). Along with bassist Ryan Wombacher (BLEEDING THROUGH), they recorded and toured behind two well-received albums, 2014's "The Beauty Of Destruction" and 2015's "They Bleed Red". In 2017, the band changed its name to LIGHT THE TORCH following a bitter dispute with Sankey, a part owner of the name.

Asked what made him get back into music after leaving KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, Howard told Heavy New York: "Honestly, I think it was because I was just kind of tired of doing nothing and I don't do much else other than music. I felt like I needed to venture out because I was basically agoraphobic for three years. It's kind of well known. I went off the grid. I didn't have a cell phone for three years — I was gone. It felt, like, 'Okay, maybe I should dip my toe in. I don't have to do it full time. I don't have to do what I don't want to do.' That's all I was thinking. I started moving, I started doing things. It was definitely a struggle, especially for the first few years. I was, like, 'What am I doing?' There's been few things in my life that has been consistent other than music. I just did it. It just took some time, then all of the sudden, the spark showed up. I fell back in love with what I was doing. I really can't explain it. It just sort of happened."

In a 2014 interview with Fishing World, Jones stated about his musical influences: "Well, just about anything I can listen to. AC/DC and KISS were the first bands that introduced me to heavy music. After that, I just absorbed anything I could get my hands on. Some favourites are FAITH NO MORE, HIM, ALICE IN CHAINS, PORTISHEAD ... My taste is kind of all over the place."

Jones makes an appearance on KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's latest album, "Atonement", contributing guest vocals to the song "The Signal Fire".

Dines has redefined the very idea of a guitar hero online. His YouTube channel boasts a staggering 2.92 million subscribers and more than 700 million views. He also has collaborated with everyone from Post Malone to BREAKING BENJAMIN. His recorded output includes "Rest", "Repose", "Daddy Rock" and "Dissimilator", to name a few. He made history as "the first YouTuber" to grace the cover of Guitar World magazine. Meanwhile, he teamed up with Music Man for a signature Stingray guitar.

In a new interview with Consequence, IRON MAIDEN drummer Nicko McBrain was asked now he and his bandmates balance MAIDEN's creative vision with the lofty expectations of fans. He responded: "Of course, we've got the best fans in the world. We got the best critics, and we got some of the most stupid critics in the world, as well. [But] I've gotta be honest, we're a very selfish, motivated band. We love our fans. When we go out on tour, that's when we think of you guys: What do you wanna see? But it's not the main motivation. Because if you get lost in that world… 'What do you think all these fans wanna see?'… You're gonna have different fans and attitudes around different parts of the world. You're all one big family, but say South America… they might want to hear certain older songs or whatever. But from an album standpoint, when we go in the studio, I'm sorry, none of you lot out there are even thought one millisecond about. Please don't get offended, any of you lot out there. We just write what we — at that time in that studio, in that circle of the sun, if you like, where we are in that time of our lives — come up with. There's a lot of pressure on the writers, but we all tend to be able to suck that pressure in. Like an atomic bomb, we've got this nucleus, then we explode within the song. Once the song is written, that's where MAIDEN come alive and we make it ours."

Nicko added: "The fans, we really think about you guys primarily when we're putting tours together and the visual aspect of it. But we are really very selfish. We do it for ourselves really. And we pretty much know what you like, so that's where you guys come into it."

MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson previously touched upon fans' expectations in a 2017 interview with Fortune while discussing the importance of playing new songs live. He stated at the time: "If you take advantage of them [fans], as in you serve up the same old thing every single tour, you can expect some of them to walk away. That is just a band becoming a karaoke band. If you're not doing new music, why bother? We don't share the idea that going and doing stadiums, playing 30-year-old songs, is a success. It's just making money."

When asked about the fans who want them to play only the classic 1980s songs, he said: "That's tough. In that case, don't come."

In a 2016 interview with The Music, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris admitted that songs from the band's then-latest album, "The Book Of Souls", weren't going over as well as MAIDEN's earlier material. "It's like any new tour with new songs; you're not going to get the reaction that the old stuff gets," he said. "It's just always like that when you're playing new stuff. Maybe one day a couple of them songs will be regarded as a massive part of the set, once people know them more. But I think it's really important to push your new stuff; it keeps things fresh."

"Senjutsu", IRON MAIDEN's first album in six years, came out in September. It was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Harris.

For "Senjutsu" — loosely translated as "tactics and strategy" — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.

"Senjutsu" bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band's early classics like "Powerslave" and "The Number Of The Beast". Nearly 90 percent of the LP's 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015's "The Book Of Souls" and 2010's "The Final Frontier", which both peaked at No. 4.

"Senjutsu" was MAIDEN's 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.

MAIDEN's first two Paul Di'Anno-era albums, "Iron Maiden" (1980) and "Killers" (1981), as well as with those recorded with singer Blaze Bayley, "The X Factor" (1995) and "Virtual XI" (1998), all failed to dent the Top 40 in the U.S.

According to Billboard, "Senjutsu" logged the second-largest week of 2021 for a hard rock album in both equivalent album units earned and in traditional album sales. It trailed only FOO FIGHTERS' "Medicine At Midnight", which debuted on the Feb. 20 chart with 70,000 units (of which 64,000 were in album sales).

"Senjutsu" topped the charts in several European countries upon its release, including in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerl

Swedish heavy metallers Freaks And Clowns have unveiled their new video, "We Set The World On Fire". The track is the first to be shared from the band's third album, We Set The World On Fire, set for international release on January 28, 2022 via Metalville Records. 





The band, founded by Astral Doors drummer Johan Lindstedt and singer Chrille Wahlgren, has dedicated itself entirely to honest, straightforward heavy metal. Catchy choruses and hooks is the name of the game.




With their new album, Freaks And Clowns present themselves stronger than ever, honoring all metal heroes of the '80s. We Set The World On Fire contains 13 hard-hitting songs that once again take no prisoners, but push forward at full throttle. Album cover and tracklisting are as follows:





"Am I A Freak Or Just A Monster"
"We Set The World On Fire"
"When Evil's Got A Hold On You"
"Hell Raising Woman"
"Scream Until You Like It"
"Dogs Of War"
"Fight Fire With Fire"
"Dance Of The Dead"
"One Last Ticket"
"Toxic"
"Children Of The Night"
"Freaks Of The Town"
"Heaven's Calling My Name"


 

Frontiers Music Srl will release the new studio album, Katharsis, from long-running UK hard rockers Praying Mantis, on January 28. This will be their 12th studio album and sees the band steadily progressing from the sonic signatures of their last release, Gravity.


Fans can get a taste of new music from the band with the release of the single and video, "Closer To Heaven". See the video below, and pre-order/save Katharsis on CD/LP/Digital, here.


Katharsis features the same lineup that has been featured on the previous two albums, with vocalist John ‘Jaycee’ Cuijpers and drummer Hans in ’t Zandt cementing themselves as part of the band's ongoing legacy. The two have truly provided a new dimension to the writing process and musical performances delivered by the band. Together with founding members Tino and Chris Troy and guitarist Andy Burgess, who has been with the band since 2008, they have been instrumental not only in the writing of the new songs, but in providing a new vision in terms of sound engineering and production.




To hear and see the band now, fans will experience both the spirit and energy of the early '80s together with a technical style that brings the band into the modern era.


Praying Mantis are now a well-established band of melodic hard rockers. Formed by brothers Tino and Chris Troy in 1973, together with bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon, and others they spearheaded the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) movement. While they did not see the same dizzying heights of success as some of their contemporaries, Praying Mantis nonetheless became one of THE most influential bands of the NWOBHM. The band has remained active over the years and still records and plays live regularly, while evolving their style from their early beginnings to a more melodic hard rock style.





Tracklisting:


"Cry For The Nations"
"Closer To Heaven"
"Ain’t No Rock ‘N’ Roll In Heaven"
"Non Omnis Moriar"
"Long Time Coming"
"Sacrifice"
"Wheels In Motion"
"Masquerade"
"Find Our Way Back Home"
"Don’t Call Us Now"
"The Devil Never Changes"


"Closer To Heaven" video:





"Cry For The Nations" video:





Lineup:


Tino Troy - Guitars & Vocals
Chris Troy - Bass & Vocals
Andy Burgess - Guitars & Vocals
John ‘Jaycee’ Cuijpers - Lead Vocals
Hans in 't Zandt - Drums


(Photo - Stefanie Gadow Photography)

Australian metalcore trailblazers THE AMITY AFFLICTION have announced a limited-edition seven-inch EP "Somewhere Beyond The Blue", with the third and final single to be released out today, "Death Is All Around".

The seven-inch title "Somewhere Beyond The Blue" is an extrapolation from a message one of singer Ahren Stringer's close friends sent him not long before he sadly took his own life, "I'll be in space."

The EP, which will include "Death Is All Around" as well as the previous two singles "Like Love" and "Give Up The Ghost", is available for pre-order in five variants.

"Death Is All Around" was heavily influenced by everything that has gone on globally over the last two years.

"We're deep into a pandemic that won't go away," says the band, "With lockdowns still happening here in Australia and no touring in sight, it's a hopeless situation and one that inspired the lyrics in this song."

Since emerging in 2008 with its debut "Severed Ties", THE AMITY AFFLICTION has served up two ARIA gold-certified albums, "Youngbloods" (2010) and "Chasing Ghosts" (2012), and earned a platinum certification from ARIA for the seminal "Let The Ocean Take Me" (2014). "This Could Be Heartbreak" (2016) marked the band's second consecutive Top 30 debut on the Billboard 200 and it went gold in Australia, while "Misery" (2018) elevated them to new critical heights and most recently "Everyone Loves You...One You Leave Them" (2020) showed the band returning to their heavier side and saw the group's total stream tally surpass 460 million and counting.

THE AMITY AFFLICTION is Joel Birch (vocals), Ahren Stringer (vocals, bass), Dan Brown (lead guitar) and Jon Longobardi (drums).