Spanish thrashers Mordhida have issued a video for "Holycaust", the second single from their new LP, The Idiotic Principle.


The video was directed by Cristina Garcia Galietero (Pampaneo Estudios) and stars Juan Bautista Noheda Cobo.







Mordhida comments:


"We really wanted to work with Cristina, we met her during the recording of the album and we knew that she would be ideal for what we wanted with this song. Of course, she has won her wings after what we made her suffer during filming."


With the video, the band has also introduced new sticksman, Manuel Martínez "Carnacki", also drummer for the Valencian black metal band Vladek.


"It is a pleasure to finally introduce you to our new member, Manuel. We have had him hiding in the shadows for a few months, and what better time for him to make an appearance than in the video as an official presentation!"

Former L.A. GUNS drummer Scot Coogan has accused singer Phil Lewis of "conjuring up" a reason for his exit from the group.

Last month, Lewis told Metal Rules that Coogan quit L.A. GUNS because he "didn't have a studio" where he could lay down the drum tracks for the band's new album, "Checkered Past", resulting in L.A. GUNS' decision to enlist longtime engineer Adam Hamilton to play on the record instead.

Coogan, a veteran session drummer who has also played with Ace Frehley, LYNCH MOB and Lita Ford, addressed his departure from L.A. GUNS in an interview with "This That & The Other With Troy Patrick Farrell". Asked if it's true that he left L.A. GUNS because he was upset that he didn't play on the band's new album, Scot said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "No. [Laughs] Not at all. I think that's something that they conjured up, maybe through management. I never once said to Phil Lewis that I was upset about not playing on the record. Tracii [Guns, L.A. GUNS guitarist] and I talked about it, and I said, 'I can. I can get a studio. And this is how much I will charge to do the tracks.' And they decided not to do that. Because I'm not a bandmember — I'm a hired gun — so if I'm gonna record, I'm gonna charge my rate. And they didn't want to do that. So they just decided to have Adam do everything. I could have gotten into a studio. Do you know how many records I've done. And I'm not upset that I didn't play on an L.A. GUNS record — I never said that once. So that's something they conjured up."

He continued: "I didn't respond to [Phil's comments earlier] because I'm taking the high road, and I don't wanna cause any problems. I've been playing with Tracii for years in different bands and everything. But I never said that once. And then I went and did the two videos [in support of 'Checkered Past']. If I was upset about not playing on the record, why would I do the videos? [Laughs] It doesn't make any sense.

"So, no, that never was mentioned at all," he reiterated. "But that's what they came up with and that's what they said. And I'm, like, 'Well, that's fine.' They could have made up something worse. [Laughs] And Phil did say some nice things; he said, 'We took a big hit.'"

As for the real reason he left L.A. GUNS, Coogan said: "To be honest, the reason I made that decision is because I have moved on. I enjoy playing with Tiffany and Stephen Pearcy. And there was confusion about these dates that came up with L.A. GUNS. Because I was told we weren't gonna tour until New Year's. And so I had dates planned. And then they said, 'Oh, you have to do these shows.' And I said, 'I can't.' So there was all that. And then the way that that was handled — I'm not gonna say any names or anything, but the way it was handled, I just got a real bad taste in my mouth. And I said, 'You know what, guys? I'm gonna bow out and do what I'm doing now,' which is the Tiffany band and Stephen Pearcy. And I'm very happy — I'm very healthy and happy doing those two gigs right now. And I didn't want to go back and have things be weird with L.A. GUNS. So I just decided to quit."

He continued: "I told them [I was leaving] in plenty of time to get somebody [else]; it was, like, a month and a half or almost two months before. I figured this new record's coming out, and feeling the way that I was feeling about business things and stuff with the band, I decided that I should do that then. And it was a tough decision, because I love Tracii and I love Ace [Von Johnson, L.A. GUNS guitarist]. I was just texting with Ace Von Johnson. I'm out here with Johnny Martin [L.A. GUNS bassist]. It's, like, we're all family. So it was a tough decision, man — it was really tough. I was going back and forth with it. But with the business end of the way things were handled, I just decided to do it at that time before the new record comes out. And I'm in the videos now, but shit hadn't hit the fan at that point. [Laughs]"

Coogan played with Frehley for five years until 2012 when he left Ace's band to focus on other projects. He rejoined Frehley's group in 2014 and stayed with the guitarist for another four years before he was fired — along with guitarist Richie Scarlet and bassist Chris Wyse — and replaced with the musicians that played with KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons on his solo dates.

Due on November 12 via Frontiers Music Srl, "Checkered Past" marks L.A. GUNS' third album since the 2016 reunion of the band's core members Lewis and Guns. It follows 2017's "The Missing Peace" and 2019's "The Devil You Know".

This past April, a settlement was reached between drummer Steve Riley and Guns and Lewis over the rights to the L.A. GUNS name. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Guns and Lewis will continue to operate under the L.A. GUNS trademark, while Riley and his bandmates from the other version of L.A. GUNS will now operate under the new name RILEY'S L.A. GUNS.

"The Alpha" is the third single by Finnish melodic death metal band, Wolftopia. The single, off their 2021 debut album Ways Of The Pack, boasts the characteristic fast-paced melodic death metal that the band have become known for since their first release, the I Am The Storm EP, from 2019.



 
Frontman Aleksander Okhotnikov explains that the song is about the chaos of nature: the breath of the wild, the harshness of existing at the mercy of nature, the never-ending, cruel cycle of life. And listening to the song, that’s not hard to imagine. From the first of Okhotnikov’s howls to the tremolo picking and majestic chords by lead guitarist Topi Karhunen, the song breathes that chaos. The melody occupies the middle ranges — neither high nor low — which makes it difficult to interpret, and this interpretation is not aided either by the movement of the melody: it moves up and down at seemingly random intervals, fully encapsulating the unpredictability of the wilderness.
 
The lyrics tell of dominance in a wolf pack. Okhotnikov admits that the alpha male theory has long been debunked, but the idea persists in popular culture, and it’s an enticing metaphor for the cyclic nature of, well, nature. The alpha leads the pack, grows old, and is replaced by the next alpha. The cycle starts again. That notion of repeating cycles can also be heard in the music. The main melody continues into the verse, and the pre-chorus melody into the chorus, changed but still the same. And this cycle of verse, pre-chorus and chorus repeats throughout the song, too, just like the cycle of nature. The song ends with the introduction melody, but changed yet again. We are back at the start. The cycle is ready to repeat itself. But everything keeps changing. The wilderness is never predictable.
   







Tracklist:


"Hound Of War"
"The Last Embrace Of The Mother"
"Wash The Spears"
"We Are Pack"
"Predator"
"May He Sever The Shadow"
"The Alpha"
"I Am The Storm"


"Wash The Spears"





"Hound Of War"





Line-up:


Aleksander Okhotnikov (Vocals & guitars)
Tom Israels (Drums)
Tim Reus (Bass)
Topi Karhunen (Guitar)


Promo pic by Hannu Perälä (Hannu Perälä Photography)

Original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley says that he has collaborated with his longtime friend Peppy Castro on "some heavy songs."

Peppy reportedly taught Frehley how to play guitar and previously collaborated with KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons as a songwriter and performed on Frehley's and KISS frontman Paul Stanley's solo records.

Frehley shared the news of his latest latest studio sessions with Castro in an Instagram post on November 4. At the time, he wrote: "Been Recording all day w/my dear friend Peppy Castro…collaborated on some heavy songs!!!"

Earlier today, Ace offered an update on his studio activities, writing: "Been Recording all day!!! I'm thinking about Christmas & how lucky I am that I have complete creative freedom over my music, and I'm very thankful for all the gifts God has given me… I sometimes forget how good I have it, and I'm trying to act humble & be worthy of my talents & situation, considering I grew up with nothing in the Bronx!"

Last December, Frehley told Talking Metal Live that he would started recording his next all-original album earlier this year. The record will be the follow-up to "Spaceman", which was released in October 2018 via eOne. At the time, he said that had "been writing all along. Plus, I have tracks that I've already recorded that I have to revisit and decide whether they have a chance to make it on my new studio record — [if they] have to be rewritten or [they're] just good the way they are," he explained. "And I've got people sending me song ideas constantly… So, little by little, it's an ongoing process, and it evolves as it goes."

Earlier last year, Frehley told Canada's iHeart Radio that he had "only written about three songs" for his next LP, and he added they were "not finished." He said: "Now that I'm [living] on the East Coast [after moving to New Jersey from Southern California], my engineer only lives an hour from me, Alex Salzman, who worked with me extensively on this last record, and he played a lot of bass guitar as well, So it's gonna be even easier, 'Origins Vol. 3' and the next [original] record."

Frehley's latest release was "Origins Vol. 2", the sequel to his 2016 collection of cover songs that inspired the former KISS guitarist.

"Origins Vol. 2" featured cover versions of THE BEATLES' "I'm Down", DEEP PURPLE's "Space Truckin'", LED ZEPPELIN's "Good Times Bad Times", THE ROLLING STONES' "Jumpin' Jack Flash", THE KINKS' "Lola" and THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE's "Manic Depression", among others. A cover of the 1975 KISS tune "She" also appeared as a bonus track. Guests on the set included CHEAP TRICK's Robin Zander, Lita Ford and former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick.

KISS bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons co-wrote two tracks on "Spaceman", "Without You I'm Nothing" and "Your Wish Is My Command", the latter of which also features Simmons's bass playing.
























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Fan-filmed video footage of VIO-LENCE's November 5 performance at the Mass Destruction IV festival in Atlanta, Georgia can be seen below.

VIO-LENCE's August 6 appearance at Strummer's in Fresno marked the first performance by the band's current lineup, consisting of guitarist Phil Demmel, singer Sean Killian and drummer Perry Strickland, along with the band's latest additions, guitarist Bobby Gustafson (ex-OVERKILL) and bassist Christian Olde Wolbers (ex-FEAR FACTORY).

During the Fresno concert, VIO-LENCE debuted a new song, apparently titled "Upon Their Cross". The track will appear on the band's upcoming EP, "Let The World Burn", which is due in early 2022 via Metal Blade Records. The effort was recorded at Trident Studios in Pacheco, California with producer Juan Urteaga, who has previously worked with TESTAMENT, MACHINE HEAD and EXODUS, among many others. Mixing duties were handled by Tue Madsen.

In July, Killian told Ireland's Overdrive about VIO-LENCE's decision to make an EP after initially being reluctant to work on new music: "It was after [a] show [we played with SACRED REICH] in Arizona when Phil [Demmel, guitar] and I really started to talk about it because we're the guys that wrote 'Eternal Nightmare'. We talked about who would be involved and made the decision that if we do this, we've gotta be sharp, you know? We have to be tight, on it, spending time in the studio and really putting in 100%. It took some time — about eight months or so — to get things up and running with regards to schedules, but when it began to take shape, and we were vibing off each other in the studio, writing new songs, and lyrics, etc., everything felt really natural from start to finish. The album is currently in the mixing stages, and we're really happy with the way it all came out."

Regarding the recording process, Killian said: "[Urteaga] was really digging deep with all of us in order to get the best out of us. Like I'd be doing my vocal lines and he's in the booth saying, 'Come on, man. I know you can do better than that. You've gotta get more aggro. I want to you sound like you're about to kill somebody!' [Laughs] Also when we were doing the drums, we were all saying to Perry [Strickland, drums], 'That sounds great.' He [Juan] was, like, 'No, it doesn't. You can do better. C'mon. Dig deep.' He really pushed Perry a lot. [Laughs]"

In August 2020, VIO-LENCE released a new digital single, "California Über Alles", a cover version of the DEAD KENNEDYS classic. The band also filmed a music video for the song with director Scott Kirkeeng.

VIO-LENCE released three studio albums between 1988 and 1993. The group reunited soon after Demmel left MACHINE HEAD in late 2018.

The band performed its first comeback concert in April 2019 at the Oakland Metro in Oakland, California and spent most of the ensuing months playing select shows in the U.S. and Europe.

Although MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn was part of VIO-LENCE's classic incarnation and played on the band's debut album, "Eternal Nightmare", he wasn't approached about taking part in any of the comeback shows.

Killian underwent a successful liver transplant surgery in March 2018. The year before, Killian was diagnosed with stage four liver cirrhosis, which was caused in part by a genetic condition called hemochromatosis.

VIO-LENCE's last album, "Nothing To Gain", was recorded in August 1990, but wasn't released until 1993.

UNDEROATH will perform its new album, "Voyeurist", in its entirety via the "Digital Ghost" cinematic concert on December 3, in partnership with Moment House. The "Digital Ghost" event will continue to push further down the path the band blazed in the digital performance space last year with its groundbreaking "Observatory" event. "Observatory" was considered a major reference point in the evolution of livestreaming with its influence apparent in digital concerts from major artists thereafter. It was praised by everyone from Revolver and Loudwire to Forbes and CNBC for the unique way it treated fans to a raw and visceral experience with the hits they longed to see played live while being robbed of concerts during the pandemic. In addition to the enjoyment it brought fans during a difficult time, it reached a level of success where the band was able to replace the tour income they would have otherwise lost in 2020 and keep a team of over 20 live music professionals employed for a month while the industry was struggling to provide jobs.

This time around, "Digital Ghost" offers something entirely different — a chance to be part of a communal moment built around UNDEROATH music that nobody has ever heard before. "Voyeurist" is arguably the most ambitious record of the band's career, and it's only fitting that the first time fans hear it will be during this equally ambitious event.

Get your tickets now for "Digital Ghost" through Moment House and secure your spot in witnessing a pivotal moment in Underoath history.

UNDEROATH's Tim McTague comments: "When we started conceptualizing the 'Voyeurist' event, we knew that we wanted to do something different than a traditional livestream. We have done three of them and, coming back a year after 'Observatory', we knew we didn't want to just repeat the cycle. One of the biggest goals was the idea of blending narrative with the visuals.

"Threading the needle on a live performance while adding in cinematic elements was a big part of 'Digital Ghost'. The goal of 'Observatory' was never to re-create a static live performance, and I think 'Digital Ghost' is an extension of that thought. In the end, 'Digital Ghost' is an attempt to push boundaries as a band and set a new bar for what virtual live experiences can be.

"With everything we do, there is a lot of risk and some lofty goals. It's pretty special to conceptualize these projects and then watch them form in real time, especially when you have a finite amount of time and resources."

Arjun Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Moment House, said: "We're thrilled to partner with UNDEROATH for their 'Digital Ghost' cinematic concert ahead of the release of their new album. The band have masterfully embraced this powerful new medium and we can't wait to help bring their remarkable creative vision to life with their fans around the world."

Over the past few months, UNDEROATH has continued to excite fans with a cryptic release plan that has included four singles from "Voyeurist" to date. Each track revealed has been accompanied by a deeper glance into the meaning behind the new record, which functions more as a multimedia art project than a standard album campaign. At the heart of this release is the immersive web site, voyeurist.io, where visitors are able to peer in on other fans, as well as the band, begging the question of whether or not what they're witnessing is happening in real time or is something pre-recorded. This serves as a microcosm of the overall effect that a digital existence has on us all and provides some insight into the concept of "digital ghosts" that is essential to the meaning behind the record.

"Voyeurist" marks the first time in UNDEROATH's storied career that they took the recording process completely into their own hands. The result is the band's most collaborative album and, anchored in a profound respect for each other, one that left no stone unturned creatively. The band refers to "Voyeurist" as "high-def violence" — technologically advanced, but undeniably visceral. Conceptually, "Voyeurist" has several interrelated meanings, each tying back to the concepts of how we curate ourselves through social media and how that facade masks a lot of what we actually experience in life. The album is a cohesive listening experience with enough layers to provide fans with a fresh take and new favorite track on every spin. Leading up to the album release, fans have been able to discover clips of new songs in exchange for granting camera access through the band's immersive web site, voyeurist.io.

Tommy Lee's wife has publicly thrown her support behind the fat-burning technology that Vince Neil has been trying out in an apparent effort to get in shape for MÖTLEY CRÜE's upcoming "The Stadium Tour".

Two months ago, Vince revealed he was using Emsculpt Neo, a revolutionary new treatment which supposedly builds muscle and reduces fat using both radio frequency and high-intensity electromagnetic energies.

Earlier today, Brittany Furlan, who has been married to the CRÜE drummer for nearly three years, took to her Instagram to share a video of her wearing the Emsculpt Neo device strapped on to her body, and she wrote in an accompanying message: "Ok so here's my honest review of #EmsculptNeo on the tummy: not painful at all, honestly just feels like you're laying there and doing crunches (which um, I don't have to get up or move my body in any way? Yes please!) Apparently 30 minutes is equivalent to 20,000 crunches! Afterwords I felt like I definitely did a serious work out. HIGHLY recommend. Can't wait to show you guys my 38 pack".

Last year, fashion and beauty influencer and former Miss Universe Olivia Culpo also revealed she was using Emsculpt Neo as a way "to get back in shape without having to feel like you're not giving it your all."

According to Swagger, the Emsculpt Neo procedure "is done in-office, is needle-free, and does not require any downtime. The technology uses energy waves that cause your muscles to fire up to 20,000 times per 30-minute session for simultaneous deep tissue muscle building, remodeling, and fat burn."

Back in May, Neil made headlines when he struggled to complete his solo concert at the Boone Iowa River Valley Festival in Boone. Based on fan-filmed video footage of the gig posted on YouTube, the 60-year-old rocker, who hadn't performed in more than a year and a half due to the COVID-19 pandemic, began losing his voice several songs into his set, which consisted exclusively of CRÜE classics and cover songs previously recorded by the band.

MÖTLEY CRÜE's "The Stadium Tour" with DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS was originally scheduled to take place last summer but ended up being pushed back to 2021, and then to 2022, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In December 2019, CRÜE manager Allen Kovac told Fox Business that "some of" the bandmembers had enlisted outside help to get in shape for the trek. Kovac was referring to criticism of Neil for his supposed diminished singing ability and weight gain, as well as the health status of guitarist Mick Mars, who has been dealing with a chronic form of arthritis that led him to undergo a hip replacement.

Kovac explained: "Some of them are working with a trainer, some of them are working with a nutritionist to make themselves the best they can be. The greatest insecurity for an artist is: Is anyone going to care about my music? Is anyone going to buy a ticket? We were in November [2019] when the discussions were happening, and these guys were already into regimens of how they get ready for a tour."

Speaking specifically about Neil, Kovac added: "Let's see what Vince sings like and looks like when the tour goes out."

CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx also said that Vince was "killing it" while working with "trainers" and "nutritionists" in preparation for "The Stadium Tour".
























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Guitarist Gus G. (Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne) recently got together with his friends Strutter (bass) and Achilles (drums) to rehearse some of the tracks off his new album, Quantum Leap.


"We set up a few cameras and pushed the 'record' button," says Gus G. "We approached this as if it was a livestream. The video edit is done on the spot and the audio is raw with no overdubs. Engineered, recorded and mixed by Strutter at Valve Studio in Thessaloniki, Greece. Camera edit operation by Jimmy Tott."







Quantum Leap artwork and tracklisting:





"Into The Unknown"
"Exosphere"
"Quantum Leap"
"Chronesthesia"
"Enigma Of Life"
"Judgement Day"
"Fierce"
"Demon Stomp"
"Night Driver"
"Not Forgotten"
"Force Majeure" (feat. Vinnie Moore)


"Into The Unknown" video:





"Enigma Of Life" video:





"Fierce" video:





"Exosphere" video:





 

Extreme metal brutes, Feed The Corpses To The Pigs, released their full-length debut album, This Insidious Horror, in October via Horror Pain Gore Death Productions. Now, the band has issued a lyric video for “Separate”, which can be found below.


This Insidious Horror is a hook-forward LP with tales of technocratic rulers, murderous cults, and otherworldly terrors. Horror comes in many forms; the Pigs revel in them all. Feed The Corpses To The Pigs (FTCTTP) pummels and brutalizes their listeners with their mix of old-school and new-school metal styles including grindcore, crossover, black, and death metal.







Guitarist / vocalist Shawn “Death Pig” Fink comments: “For me, this album is a mix-tape to all the different genres I love. When I listen to music at home, I like to hit that random button. I’ll get a black metal track, then a punk track, then a thrash band, and so on. I think when you switch up the styles, it makes each of them pop more than just listening to an album of just one thing. I think all of our songs have our signature Pigs sound and sensibility, but I’ll follow a good song wherever the riffs and lyrics may lead me and not worry about sticking to one metal style.”





Tracklisting:


"Separate" 
"Ghost Of Winter" (ft. Rick Rozz from Death / Massacre)
"Jesus Is My Respirator" 
"The Death Of Expertise" 
"Trapped Spirit" 
"I Drink Myself To Death" 
"The Ocean Sings Of Murder" (ft. Jelly from Void Dancer)
"Out Of Sync" 
"Flashpoint" 
"This F*cking Horror"





 

My Infected Soul was created in the mind of singer songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, Brian Troch (Cyclone Temple, Shooting Hemlock, Elliott Waits For No One, Vante). A video for the new single, "Watch The World Burn", can be found below.





My Infected Soul has a very dark industrial/rock/metal/rave/djent vibe with peaks and valleys which take the listener on a very emotionally intense ride.




During the writing process Brian had to step away for a while as the subject matter was very personal and sometimes extremely painful. “After years of compartmentalizing Claude had been let out of the box” Troch stated and “a flood of emotions came with him.”


When The first single “Infected” hit the airwaves it was apparent to Brian that there was definitely a there there. My Infected Soul was originally Brian Troch and life long friend and singer songwriter Jeff Vincent. After Vincent departed producer/composer and orchestrator/orchestra leader Spencer Creaghan teamed up with Troch to help co-write, form and round out the sound of My Infected Soul. The final piece of the puzzle was Brian getting his producer/engineer Jaben Pennell of Vibehouse Productions involved. Jaben and Brian had worked together on Troch’s alternative project and full album release Elliott Waits For No One with his wife Jenny Franck and Blue Man Group drummer Jeff Tortora, as well as currently mixing another hard rock project called Vante with Brian and guitar player Scott McClellan, plus a single rock/rap collaboration with EWFNO and platinum rapper C Murder which is scheduled to be released.


The initial plan was to release a full length concept album called The Essence Of My Psychosis and all the songs for that album have been written and tracked. But as things moved along Troch changed his mind and decided to release each song as a single and then after that phase was complete the entire album in order with lyric book would be released.


This lengthy single, “Watch The World Burn”, was chosen as the first single release. The song takes you from anger to sadness/beauty/hope/destruction/finality and demise. Creaghan’s Orchestration is absolutely amazing and captured the feelings of Troch’s complex heart and mind to an absolute sublime level.





Look for more MIS song releases in the near future on DarkStar Records/Sony/Universal Music Group.

Ground-breaking, genre-defying instrumental trio, Animals As Leaders, recently dropped brand new track, "Monomyth", their first in 5 years. You can now watch a drum playthrough video for the song:





"Monomyth" comes accompanied by a high-concept music video directed by Telavaya Reynolds and featuring choreography by Tlathui Maza / NOHBORDS. Find "Monomyth" on streaming platforms here, and watch the official video below.







Speaking on the band's new release, Tosin Abasi shares, "'Monomyth' is part fever dream, part ritual. Its imagery represents man's ceaseless attempts to translate transcendent ideas into movement. The conflation of struggle with meaning. Pain with significance. The ultimate failure of distilling perceived patterns in the world into knowledge."





The band also announced that they have signed a new deal with their current label home, world renowned independent powerhouse, Sumerian Records.

Former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson has signed on to produce the recently unearthed "drum riffs" from late MEGADETH drummer Nick Menza. Ellefson will enlist "a handful of different" musicians from around the world to record new riffs and add new parts to Menza's existing riffs — an expected 13 tracks which are being touted as "the heaviest and fastest drum material Nick ever created."

In a video announcing his involvement in the project, Ellefson said: "We're actually recording some new riffs and parts to some existing Nick Menza drum riffs that he has — some parts that are brand new. So posthumously, we're actually forming a new band with Nick. I've got a handful of different people from our industry around the world participating in this. And I'm gonna be writing some new riffs and some new things."

This past September, Screaming Butterfly Entertainment announced a partnership with Ellefson and his Ellefson Films on the upcoming feature-length documentary "This Was My Life: The Story Of Nick Menza". Ellefson has signed on as a co-producer of the film, and also will provide narration to guide the viewer through the exploration of the late MEGADETH drummer's life.

In conjunction with the announcement of Ellefson's attachment to the film, an Indiegogo campaign has been launched to raise funding for the completion of the film. Fans have the opportunity to support the production of the film directly, as well as obtain some rare official Nick Menza memorabilia. These items include various touring laminates personally owned, and authentically signed by Menza himself and Ellefson. In addition to memorabilia, fans can purchase brand new Nick Menza merchandise, including hats, posters, and even Nick Menza skateboard decks. Fans can even have their names and a message added to the end credits of the film.

The campaign can be found at this location.

"This Was My Life" will be the first-ever film to memorialize Menza's legacy and celebrate his life exactly how it was. It is described in a press release as "an unflinching exploration into the life of one of the most successful thrash-metal drummers of all time, authorized by the Menza family. From his childhood all the way through to the end of his life including a true blow-by-blow account of the repeated failed attempts of the classic 'Rust In Peace' lineup."

"This Was My Life" will feature rare and never-before-seen photos and video footage from Nick's archived VHS tape collection, personally filmed by Menza himself from 1988 through 1991. Included will be exclusive content showcasing Nick working at the studio, personal home movies, casual time and party time with his fellow bandmembers, as well as other well-known artists of the era that Nick toured with. A screenshot from the film was recently released that featured an interview with former LAMB OF GOD/MEGADETH drummer Chris Adler.

Late in the evening on May 21, 2016, Nick collapsed after suffering a heart attack during a concert with Chris Poland and Robertino "Pag" Pagliari in their band OHM: at The Baked Potato in Studio City, California and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner said Menza died of hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Irish melodic death metal band, For Ruin, have released the debut single, "Wake", from the forthcoming remix of their debut album, entitled December 2021.   


Says the band: "December is our debut album and was originally released on September 15, 2007. The album contains many of the songs that featured on the band's three demo releases but the debut album was performed by the English / O' Sullivan / Myers / Murphy lineup of the band at that time. The album was recorded during March-May of 2007 but the production of the album was never what the band had wanted as it masked the quality of the songs. In the summer of 2021, John Murphy began the process of remixing the album - all of the original 2007 performances have been preserved for this remix and some additional guitar & new vocal/synth parts were recorded to strengthen the mix, before being mastered by Marko Tervonen (The Crown) at Studio MT in Sweden.







Ten tracks featured on the original 2007 release, but 15 songs were recorded in 2007 by the December lineup; the five bonus tracks are now included with this release. Some of the bonus tracks were re-recorded by the Last Light lineup a few years later, but these are the originals and have never been released until now."


The December 2021 remix will be available digitally and on limited Digipak CD (via Bandcamp) from December 2. In the meantime, here's "Wake" (2021 Remix):

RAMMSTEIN guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe has confirmed that the band's already completed new album will be released before the launch of the group's next world tour.

The German industrial metallers are scheduled to kick off the European leg of the band's 2022 tour on May 15 in Prague, Czech Republic. A North American stadium run will begin on August 21 in Montreal and end on October 4 in Mexico City.

Asked in a new interview with Spot On News if he can reveal something about RAMMSTEIN's new LP, Kruspe, who is promoting the latest effort from his EMIGRATE project, said: "The album is expected to be released next year before the tour."

Last month, RAMMSTEIN drummer Christoph Schneider said that European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet was one of the first people to hear a song from the band's upcoming album.

A year and a half ago, RAMMSTEIN postponed its 2020 North American stadium tour due to the coronavirus pandemic which is sweeping the globe. The trek was then moved to the summer of 2021 before being postponed once again, this time to the summer of 2022.

RAMMSTEIN's seventh, untitled album came out in May 2019 via UME/Spinefarm in Europe and Caroline Records in the U.S. The band's first studio disc since 2009's "Liebe Ist Für Alle Da" debuted at No. 1 on the album charts in 14 countries and was the band's tenth No. 1 in Germany. The LP was produced by Olsen Involtini with RAMMSTEIN and was mixed at a Santa Monica, California studio with Rich Costey, an American producer who has previously worked with MUSE, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and FRANZ FERDINAND, among others.

EMIGRATE's fourth LP, "The Persistence Of Memory", was released on Novembe

NHC, the new band featuring JANE'S ADDICTION members Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney alongside FOO FIGHTERS drummer Taylor Hawkins, has released two new songs. The tracks, titled "Devil That You Know" and "Lazy Eyes", feature Hawkins on lead vocals/drums, Navarro on guitar, and Chaney on bass. The songs come on the heels of the band's first headlining show at the Troubadour on November 23 selling out almost instantly.

"Devil That You Know" and "Lazy Eyes" follow the release of "Feed The Cruel" and "Better Move On", both of which arrived in September.

Hawkins and Chaney previously played together in Alanis Morisette's band in the mid-1990s and are bandmates in Hawkins's solo project, TAYLOR HAWKINS AND THE COATTAIL RIDERS.

Last month, NHC — an acronym for Navarro, Hawkins and Chaney — played a seven-song set at Eddie Vedder's Ohana Festival. The trio delivered five songs off its yet-to-released debut album and covers of QUEEN's "Keep Yourself Alive" and RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS' "My Friends".

Hawkins told Forbes about NHC's upcoming LP: "The thing I take musically from this record is a lot of times the records me and Chris made, with COATTAIL RIDERS and stuff, I had to use some form of comedy or some form of, 'This sounds like QUEEN, kind of, but it's not.' We had amazing musicians, but when you hear Dave play guitar, you're just, 'It's Dave.' And he's one of the last, dare I say, cool shredders; he can really rip. And there was a time, after 1992, guitar solos became extinct, for a long time. And they creep up now and then, [on] FOO FIGHTERS albums and stuff. And we had that, we had Dave's guitar sound to hang our hat on as far as the style of music. We didn't need to have funny tricks. This is just what it sounds like when me and Dave and Chris get together and make music. Very democratic, all the songs were written differently. Chaney wrote bass lines. But also there was none of this, 'This is my song, this is how I want it to be' bullshit at all."

Hawkins, who plays drums and sings in NHC, previously called Navarro "the best lead guitarist in alternative rock," while Dave referred to NHC as an "awakening of everything he loved about playing." He told Forbes: "Honestly, these two guys, Chris and Taylor, are probably the two best musicians I've ever met just in terms of musicianship, being able to write on the spot, coming up with just a hundred ideas, keep going, no stopping. It's amazing."

According to Navarro, NHC's debut album will contain 12 tracks. He added: "The record has such an emotional range throughout it."

This past January, Hawkins, Navarro and Chaney teamed up with SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor in a supergroup called GROUND CONTROL, which performed at "The Bowie Celebration: Just For One Day" in tribute to the late David Bowie.

Photo credit: Ross Halfin

BORN THROUGH FIRE, the new project featuring AS I LAY DYING frontman Tim Lambesis, has released its first two songs, "Reintroduction" and "Bone By Bone", via Modern Music Empire.

Lambesis recently stated about the musical direction of the group, on which he has apparently collaborated with WOLVES AT THE GATE guitarist Joey Alarcon: "The best description of the material that I've heard from a close friend who has heard it is this… It's cinematic, heavy, and modern, but it still has classic metal throwback elements at the same time."

The BORN THROUGH FIRE launch comes six months after Lambesis was sued by a woman who claimed she suffered second-degree burns when he sprayed a flammable liquid into a fire pit at his parents' house at the end of last year. Tim himself sustained burns to 25 percent of his body in the incident, which he first revealed in an Instagram post on December 16, 2020. At the time, the 40-year-old singer claimed that he was pouring gas into a bonfire when the top slipped off and the liquid ended up getting all over his clothes. He later said that he lost 20 pounds from being bedridden for almost three weeks and suffered some nerve damage. He also assured fans that his "man parts" were not harmed during the incident.

Tim was famously convicted in 2014 for his role in a murder-for-hire plot against his estranged wife.

In May 2014, Lambesis was sentenced to six years in jail after pleading guilty to paying a San Diego police officer posing as a hitman $1,000 to kill his wife. Approximately two and a half years later — on December 17, 2016 — he was discharged from a California detention facility and was transferred to the Division of Adult Parole Operations.

In June 2018, AS I LAY DYING played its first show with Lambesis in five years and released a new single. Lambesis also owned up to his crimes in a long apology on the band's Facebook page after his release.

In September 2019, AS I LAY DYING released its seventh full-length album, "Shaped By Fire", via Nuclear Blast.

MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn and bassist Jared MacEachern spent the last week Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California with producer Zack Ohren working on the band's as-yet-untitled tenth album, tentatively due next summer. According to Flynn and MacEachern, they are "making great progress on at least six different new songs, including a 10-minute-plus epic."

This past June, MACHINE HEAD released the "Arrows In Words From The Sky" single. Featuring the tracks "Become The Firestorm", "Rotten" and "Arrows In Words From The Sky", the effort was recorded at Sharkbite. Joining Flynn and MacEachern during the sessions were drummer Navene Koperweiss (ENTHEOS, WHITECHAPEL, ANIMALS AS LEADERS) and Ohren.

In November 2020, MACHINE HEAD released a new single, "My Hands Are Empty", via Nuclear Blast. The song marked the first musical collaboration between Flynn and original "Burn My Eyes" guitarist Logan Mader in 24 years.

"My Hands Are Empty" was just one in a line of singles to be released by MACHINE HEAD, which issued "Do Or Die" in October 2019, "Circle The Drain" in February 2020, and the two-song digital single "Civil Unrest", consisting of "Stop The Bleeding" and "Bulletproof", in June 2020. "Stop The Bleeding" featured guest vocals from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE frontman Jesse Leach, and was written and recorded just days after the murders of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery.

According to Flynn, all three tracks from "Arrows In Words From The Sky" single — "Become The Firestorm", "Rotten" and the title track — as well as "My Hands Are Empty", will be included on the band's next full-length studio album. "And the other stuff is just gonna stay kind of in whatever void it came out in — and probably be released on a collection of songs with a bunch of other B-sides at some point, a physical version," he told the "Behind The Vinyl" podcast in June. "But for now, these four songs, and then some future songs, are gonna make up the next record."

Asked if the "turbulent" nature of the last couple of years was a good thing for him creatively, Flynn said: "Oh, totally. I'm an impatient man. [Laughs] I want it, and I want it now. And the music business can be mind-numbingly slow at times. And certainly with the pandemic now, just the lead time to set up a record is, like, seven months. Vinyl is fucking seven months. If I turned in a record today — done, mastered, finished, artwork, everything — we're not gonna get the vinyl until seven months from now. I'm, like, 'This is fucking crazy.' And I don't wanna wait; I just wanna put it out.

"When I started in the [1980s] thrash scene, bands put out demos and fucking rehearsals and new songs every month or two," he explained. "I had every EXODUS song released just from bootlegs and from demos and stuff like that. Same with METALLICA. And it was just so much faster. And the world has just kind of shifted into this extremely slow — certainly the metal world has. And I wanted to bring it back to that… Yes, I'm not releasing a cassette tape, but yeah, I'm putting it out so that if the diehards wanna hear it, you can fucking hear it. And consistently do that — consistently put out music so that it's constantly giving the fans, the diehard fans, the Head Cases, the ones who fucking live and breathe this shit, something to chew on every three or four months. And I really dig it. I think it's amazing. And I think that we have the technology — thanks to Spotify and all the streaming services now — [so that] we can do this shit. So why not?"

Five months ago, MACHINE HEAD announced that it was abandoning plans to resume its "Burn My Eyes" 25th-anniversary tour now that the pandemic is slowing down. Flynn said that the "Burn My Eyes" tour, which saw him and MacEachern play the band's classic debut album in its entirety for the first time ever, with original "Burn My Eyes"-era drummer Chris Kontos and Mader joining in, would not pick up at such a time as MACHINE HEAD can continue touring. Flynn also confirmed that MacEachern is still a member of MACHINE HEAD alongside new recruits, guitarist Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka (DECAPITATED) and British drummer Matt Alston.

MACHINE HEAD will team up with Sweden's Viking metal overlords AMON AMARTH for a co-headline "Vikings And Lionhearts" European arena tour in September and October 2022. Support on the trek will come from THE HALO EFFECT, the new band featuring five former members of IN FLAMES: Peter Iwers, Daniel Svensson, Jesper Strömblad, Niclas Engelin and Mikael Stanne.


IN THE STUDIO PHOTOS NOV 2021. Robb and J-Mac spent the last week in the Sharkbite Studios with producer Zack Ohren ...

Posted by Machine Head on Friday, November 12, 2021

FAILURE, the Los Angeles-based trio of Ken Andrews, Greg Edwards and Kellii Scott who've been dubbed "cult heroes" by Rolling Stone and hailed for their "jaw-dropping, visceral space rock" by Entertainment Weekly, return with their highly-anticipated sixth album, "Wild Type Droid", on December 3 via Failure Music.

A preview of the 10-song collection arrives with today's release of "Headstand".

"The lyrics come from my earliest memory of spacing-out in my room when I was seven, trying to conceive of infinity and watching the dust falling through the bars of sunlight pouring through my blinds," explains Edwards. "I had heard that a lot of that dust was made up of skin cells and that really stuck with me. It's kind of a love song to those bizarre innocent moments of solitude."

"To me, it captures a lot of the new musical approaches and techniques we were going for on this album, but somehow is still quintessential FAILURE," adds Andrews. "We've been together long enough to know that some of our best ideas come directly from these experimental sessions. For this album, we simply cultivated that methodology for a much longer time than we have in the past. It brought out the trio aspect of the band. There was a feeling we could really push the individual parts further away from each other and let the more interesting and challenging combinations take center stage."

Beeple, the American visual artist whose March 2021 NFT broke international sales records, lends his "Innerspace" to the album cover.

"This feels like a good place and time to abandon the space iconography and theme once and for all," Greg states. "In a lot of ways, this album feels like a return to earth. All minds have been called back to their bodies. There's a lot to attend to right in front of us."

"Wild Type Droid" track listing:

01. Water With Hands

02. Headstand

03. A Lifetime Of Joy

04. Submarines

05. Bring Back The Sound

06. Mercury Mouth

07. Undecided

08. Long Division

09. Bad Translation

10. Half Moon

Formed in early 1990s in Los Angeles, FAILURE has released five albums: "Comfort" (1992), "Magnified" (1994), "Fantastic Planet" (1996), "The Heart Is A Monster" (2015) and "In The Future Your Body Will Be The Furthest Thing From Your Mind" (a series of EPs released as an album in 2018). The group is considered one of the era's most influential rock bands with Vice, in an all-encompassing retrospective upon the band's return, saying: "While many of their contemporaries became prolific by releasing an ungodly amount if materials, FAILURE's [initial] three-record catalog is minuscule, but just as important in terms of content, style, and music texture."

Photo credit: Priscilla C. Scott

earMusic has announced a remarkable reissue series of (almost) the entire ANNIHILATOR catalog. "Metal II" kicks off this extensive catalog campaign that will give you special editions, bonus material, exclusive and previously unreleased tunes.

And "Metal II" is only the first taste, ahead of a huge catalog campaign covering studio records and long-lost rarities. In total, 18 records are going to be released over the next few years, including the original 2007 version of the "Metal" album.

"Metal II" has been given an incredible overhaul with the one and only Dave Lombardo (SLAYER) killing the drums and lead vocals "re-invented" by the great Stu Block (INTO ETERNITY, ICED EARTH). The guest list on the album is huge: 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).

Waters passed over mixing duties to legendary engineer Mike Fraser (AC/DC, VAN HALEN) and it was remastered by Maor Appelbaum.

When Waters was asked, "Which record would you re-do, if you could and why?," with no hesitation it was "Metal". So, what we have now is a 2021 record that is called "Metal II", appropriately, featuring all the original guest tracks from 2007 with Jeff Waters at the helm.

"One of greatest engineers/mixers on the planet, Mike Fraser, was my first choice to mix this one," Jeff says. "It was a challenge as Mike was not brought in to make a record; he was simply there to mix a big mess of tracks that were recorded in 2006 and 2021 and with over 14 players on it. After this difficult mix, I promised Mike that I would do another record with him, from the ground up."

"Dave was in my favorite band ever (SLAYER)," Waters says, "and continues to evolve and play in many diverse bands, like MISFITS, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, DEAD CROSS, MR. BUNGLE and many other projects. It was an honor to be on the same record as Lombardo. And he uses the 'Reign In Blood' ride cymbal!! Yes! The ACTUAL ride cymbal we hear on that classic record."

Waters reveals that "Stu has been the vocalist that I have (publicly) wanted to be ANNIHILATOR's singer, ever since I heard him in the Canadian band INTO ETERNITY, but I never got the opportunity to get him! He is the next generation of amazing vocalists that is grabbing the microphone from such icons as [Bruce] Dickinson and [Rob] Halford. And our paths SHOULD have crossed a long time ago, but we are here now!

"So I got a hold of them both," Waters continues, "and they both loved the tunes and both said 'FUCK YES'! And I said to Stu, 'You've got three takes', so there's blemishes and warts and fuck-ups everywhere. And I said the same to Dave, 'get it done'. And watching pros do this is mind-blowing because you don't have the best sounds, but you have the best players."

Waters closes, "Although Alexi Laiho's shredding in 'Downright Dominate' and the VAN HALEN song 'Romeo Delight' were recorded a while back, adding Stu and Dave to these songs gave us all the feeling that 'Metal II' is also a fitting tribute to our two fallen guitar heroes. Ed and Alexi, R.I.P."

"Metal II" track listing:

01. Chasing The High (ft. Willie Adler)

02. Downright Dominate (ft. Alexi Laiho)

03. Army Of One (ft. Steve "Lips" Kudlow)

04. Couple Suicide (ft. Danko Jones and Angela Gossow)

05. Heavy Metal Maniac (ft. Dan Beehler and Allan Johnson)

06. Haunted (ft. Jesper Strömblad)

07. Romeo Delight

08. Detonation (ft. Jacob Lynam)

09. Clown Parade (ft. Jeff Loomis)

10. Smothered (ft. Anders Björler)

11. Kicked (ft. Corey Beaulieu)

"Downright Dominate" can now be streamed below.

Canada's ANNIHILATOR is the lifework of Waters. Founded in 1984, the band 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 all outside North America), ever since; cementing ANNIHILATOR as the biggest-selling metal act in Canada's history.

ANNIHILATOR has given the metal world a sound that is one of the clearest, most tasteful mixtures of huge, metal riffs with the idea of the perfect song and some legendary solo shredding as the icing on the cake. Waters and ANNIHILATOR have been a major influence on countless well-known metal acts and musicians around the world. In fact, countless, successful non-metal acts and musicians cite Waters and Co. as an influence in their careers.

Waters is the guitarist, vocalist and writer for ANNIHILATOR as well as a studio owner, producer, engineer and mix and mastering engineer. Waters formed the band with singer John Bates.