Screaching towards Halloween, LORDI brings with them what is probably the most gruesome Halloween news of 2021: the Finnish ESC winners from 2006 (“Hard Rock Hallelujah”) now have their own ghost train!

All aboard The LORDI Ghost Train and experience gruelling terror in the truly unique LORDI style that is featured in the new music video for the bands 3rd single from the upcoming album “Lordiversity”.

The video, written and directed by Mr. Lordi himself, who was also responsible for the special effects, took place in that very same ghost train and can be viewed below.

From spring 2022, The LORDI Ghost Train will roll through Finland as a part of the country's largest touring carnival Tivoli Sariola.
“The ghost train is the park's original ride from Tivoli Sariola”, reveals Mr. Lordi. “It got an all new design, completely branded on us. She was quasi lordified."
It is a great honour for the musician from Rovaniemi in northern Finland. "No other rock band on this planet has had its own ghost train!"

The music video, in which the train of horror can already be seen, is the back drop for the song "Borderline" from the bands new album. The word "album" is definitely an understatement regarding the latest release by LORDI: On November 26th 2021, the band will be the first in music history to release a set of seven seperate studio albums of new music! This bold statement is titled “Lordiversity”.

LORDI
Starting spring 2022, the new LORDI themed GHOST TRAIN rattles its way through Finnish fair grounds across the monster rockers home country!

New seven-fold album "Lordiversity" will be released on November 26th 2021 – new single out now.
Screaching towards Halloween, LORDI brings with them what is probably the most gruesome Halloween news of 2021: the Finnish ESC winners from 2006 (“Hard Rock Hallelujah”) now have their own ghost train!

All aboard The LORDI Ghost Train and experience gruelling terror in the truly unique LORDI style that is featured in the new music video for the bands 3rd single from the upcoming album “Lordiversity”.

The video, written and directed by Mr. Lordi himself, who was also responsible for the special effects, took place in that very same ghost train and can be viewed here:



From spring 2022, The LORDI Ghost Train will roll through Finland as a part of the country's largest touring carnival Tivoli Sariola.
“The ghost train is the park's original ride from Tivoli Sariola”, reveals Mr. Lordi. “It got an all new design, completely branded on us. She was quasi lordified."
It is a great honour for the musician from Rovaniemi in northern Finland. "No other rock band on this planet has had its own ghost train!"

The music video, in which the train of horror can already be seen, is the back drop for the song "Borderline" from the bands new album. The word "album" is definitely an understatement regarding the latest release by LORDI: On November 26th 2021, the band will be the first in music history to release a set of seven seperate studio albums of new music! This bold statement is titled “Lordiversity”.



These seven albums are essentially the missing recordings on which the last album “Killection” was based on. "Killection" was a concept album by LORDI that brilliantly envisioned the greatest hits of the monster rock band as if they had existed since the early 70s. Two years after this "Best Of" compilation, "Lordiversity" delivers the imagined back catalog to join the bands legacy.

Mr. Lordi explains: “In the week of March 2020 after our tour had to be cancelled, I thought I would have to use this additional time that is available to me. It quickly became clear that the time was perfect to start planning another album, even though “Killection” was not even three months old at the time. Then I realized, however, that there couldn't be anything more boring than making a regular LORDI album. I had really enjoyed writing, recording and producing the different styles for “Killection”, but the idea of simply composing a second part of it also struck me as extremely boring. But since "Killection" was a fictional album based on a previously non-existent fictional back catalog of music, I had the idea: The only thing that could top "Killection" would be to record and publish the back catalog."

"Skeletric Dinosaur", "Superflytrap", "The Masterbeast From The Moon", "Abusement Park", "Humanimals", "Abracadaver" and "Spooky Sextravaganza Spectecular" all appear on the November 26th release. The complete work is called “Lordiversity”. Monster songs for the monster within us all!


LORDI is:
Mr. Lordi (Vocals)
Mr. Amen (Guitars)
Mr. Hiisi (Bass)
Mr. Mana (Drums)
Ms. Hella (Keyboards)

Follow LORDI:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LordiOfficial/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lordiofficial/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/LORDIOFFICIAL
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Lordiofficial

Order & Stream "Lordiversity": https://afm.fanlink.to/LORDI_Lordiversity

Following traditional Holiday music back to its roots, Blackmore’s Night (Candice Night and Ritchie Blackmore) approach Christmas songs with their own unique styling. On November 19, they will celebrate the holidays with the relaunch of their classic album Winter Carols, available as a high-quality 2CD Digipak Edition and digital album (earMUSIC).


Originally released in 2006, this 2021 version has been carefully remastered and contains these four tracks that were previously unavailable in this format: “Here We Come A-Caroling”, “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”, “O Little Town Of Bethlehem” and “Silent Night”. Additionally, Winter Carols includes a remastered version of their timeless Christmas single “Christmas Eve”.


A brand-new song, “Coventry Carol”, is an English Christmas carol dating back to the 16th century with additional lyrics by award-winning lyricist / vocalist Candice Night and new musical arrangements by legendary guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.




Mastering the mix of Rock and Folk elements, Blackmore’s Night have always perfected the art of creating music for family, friends, and fans to come together and celebrate. Winter Carols provides the perfect backdrop for the holiday season.





Tracklisting:


CD1:
"Coventry Carol"
"Deck The Halls"
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen"
"O Christmas Tree"
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" / "O Come All Ye Faithful"
"I Saw Three Ships"
"Winter (Basse Dance)"
"Ding Dong Merrily On High"
"Ma-O-Tzur"
"Good King Wenceslas"
"Simple Gifts (Lord Of The Dance)"
"We Three Kings"
"Wish You Were Here" (2021)
"Emmanuel"
"Christmas Eve"
"We Wish You A Merry Christmas"


CD2:
"Crowning Of The King"
"Here We Come A-Caroling"
"It Came Upon A Midnight Clear"
"O Little Town Of Bethlehem"
"Silent Night"
"Christmas Eve" (2013 Version)
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" / "O Come All Ye Faithful" (Live From Minstrel Hall)
"Emmanuel" (Live From Minstrel Hall)
"We Three Kings" (Live From Minstrel Hall)
"Ma-O-Tzur" (Live From Minstrel Hall)
"Good King Wenceslas" (Live From Minstrel Hall)

Armored Saint have released a new CD/DVD, Symbol Of Salvation Live, via Metal Blade Records, to celebrate the seminal album's 30th anniversary. For a preview, a live video for "Spineless" can be seen below:





There are many ways to celebrate the anniversary of an important release in a band's career, and for Symbol Of Salvation's thirtieth birthday - an album vocalist John Bush refers to as Armored Saint's "cornerstone record" - comes Symbol Of Salvation Live. A combination live album and video of the band playing the album in its entirety at New York's famed Gramercy Theatre during their 2018 tour, it captures the power, diversity and peerless songwriting contained within it. "I felt like showing 'Symbol' in another light was a great homage to the record itself," states bassist Joey Vera. "Also, having all the fans be there and part of that event is a way for us to say 'Thank you!' For, without them, we can't do any of this in the first place."




There is no denying that Symbol Of Salvation stands out of the band's catalogue as something truly special, something that the band recognize as readily as their rabid fanbase. "It links our past to our future," says Bush. "I believe it was the time that we honestly thought we could do whatever we wanted to musically and it would somehow work. There's a magical feeling about it and it continues to gain mystique every year." However, the band went through some adverse times while initially writing the songs that would make up the record, being without a label for three years prior to signing with Metal Blade, and in 1990 - before they headed into the studio - losing founding guitarist Dave Prichard to leukemia. This ultimately served to light a fire under the band, pushing them to deliver their very best. "Because we had lifted ourselves out of these ashes, as it were, we felt a very strong desire to make every little thing count," elaborates Vera. "It felt more important than anything we had ever done before. For one thing, we didn't want Dave's writing contributions to be in vain. Also, we were on a mission to let the world hear what we'd been working on for three years. Funny thing is, that during the separation of the metal genre between glam and thrash from '85 to '89, we kinda felt like we had to prove something to everyone else. But while making 'Symbol', we also had something to prove, except this time, we had to prove it to ourselves."


The decision to play the album in its entirety on dates in the US and Europe in 2018 was in fact quite pragmatic, the band between records and wanting to play more shows, and with the anniversary of Symbol Of Salvation on the horizon, Vera believed it would be a "fun challenge" to play it in a live setting. "We thought since the fans seem to agree that this record is a favorite, it would be well received. And as usual, it takes time and planning for a release down the road, so we jumped on that idea and did a bunch of dates before we began writing for our next record," says Vera. "It was really great seeing the reaction from the crowds when we'd play the really deep cuts. Not only the songs we very rarely played, but also the couple of songs that we had never played before. Some of these tunes took on a whole new life and it was very motivating for me, to see these songs in a different light. I would say that experience was an inspiration when I began writing for 'Punching the Sky' (2020)." The show itself was captured by a six-camera crew, Bush saying the band were "pumped up", knowing that they were filming, and as always the quintet delivered their very best from the moment they stepped on stage. They also have fond memories of the show, which remains their biggest headline show in New York to date. "The vibe in the room was so great," says Vera. "The fans made us feel so welcome, like we had come home for a celebration of sorts, and we all celebrated 'Symbol of Salvation'. It gave me chills hearing people sing along to songs like 'Burning Question', a song we never had played live before."


As an extra bonus, the vinyl and digital versions of the record contain five demo tracks from the Symbol Of Salvation writing sessions with Dave Prichard, which have never been released on that format. "They're songs that didn't make the record, however, there still is a vibe to those tunes, plus Dave's playing is on them, so that makes them special," says Bush. These tracks make for welcome additions, helping to further celebrate the record, and the band are just happy and respectful of the fact they have reached this anniversary. "If you would have told me thirty years ago that we'd be talking about this today, I would have told you that you were crazy," Vera says. "All we've ever wanted was to make our own music, to take joy and take pride in doing it. The fact that we also have very loyal fans who continue to support what we do is the best icing on this cake. I try to look at our records as objectively as possible, and when I can do that, I'm very proud that this record is a huge part of the band's legacy, and I am extremely humbled that I'm a part of that."





The CD/DVD is available to order here in the following formats:


- digipak-CD/DVD
- 180g black vinyl (EU exclusive)
- silver vinyl (EU exclusive - limited to 500 copies)
- dusty rose pink marbled vinyl (EU exclusive - limited to 300 copies)
- silver / white corona vinyl (EU exclusive - limited to 200 copies)
- crystal clear vinyl (US exclusive)
- red / black splatter vinyl (US exclusive)





Symbol Of Salvation Live CD/DVD tracklisting:


"Reign Of Fire" (Live)
"Dropping Like Flies" (Live)
"Last Train Home" (Live)
"Tribal Dance" (Live)
"The Truth Always Hurts" (Live)
"Half Drawn Bridge" (Live)
"Another Day" (Live)
"Symbol Of Salvation" (Live)
"Hanging Judge" (Live)
"Warzone" (Live)
"Burning Question" (Live)
"Tainted Past" (Live)
"Spineless" (Live)


Additional bonus tracks on the digital/vinyl versions:


"Nothing Between The Ears" (1989 4-Track Demo)
"Get Lost" (1989 4-Track Demo)
"Medieval Nightmares" (1989 4-Track Demo)
"People" (1989 4-Track Demo)
"Pirates" (1989 4-Track Demo)
"Symbol Of Salvation" (Live) [Radio Edit] available digitally only


"The Truth Always Hurts" (Live) video:





"Symbol Of Salvation" (Live) video:





This December, Armored Saint will join Black Label Society and Prong for a short run of shows in the US. See below for all dates.





Tour dates:


December
27 - Reno, NV - Virginia Street Brewhouse
28 - San Francisco, CA - Regency Grand
29 - Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern
30 - San Diego, CA - House of Blues
31 - Tempe, AZ - The Marquee


Armored Saint lineup:


Joey Vera - Bass
Gonzo Sandoval - Drums
Phil Sandoval - Guitars
John Bush - Vocals
Jeff Duncan - Guitars


(Photo - Stephanie Cabral)

2021 marks a monumental year for death metal with the long-awaited return of influential Floridian juggernauts, Massacre. Today, the band has unleashed their album, Resurgence, via Nuclear Blast. Their 4th album, in a career spanning nearly four decades, is classic, unadulterated death metal in its purest form.


In conjunction with today's record release the band has unveiled what is likely one of the most horrifying and appalling music videos ever made for their latest single "Return Of The Corpse Grinder." Watch the repugnant uncensored video (banned from YouTube), or the censored version for those with weak stomachs!, below. *TRIGGER WARNING: Brutal violation of corpse and necrophilia of charred human remains.


Commenting on the release of Resurgence and gruesome new single "Return Of The Corpse Grinder", vocalist Kam Lee states: "Well for starters… we made a video for 'Return Of The Corpse Grinder'… but it is so disgusting and foul it may be BANNED! How fucking awesome is that?!! Total Jorg Buttgereit (Nekromantik films) worship! Disgusting necrophilia and Ed Gein worship – the ONLY way to do the song justice. Anything less would have been a disservice and just wimpy!! But it’s most likely too extreme for most viewers… I feel so accomplished!!




"I hope fans do get to check it out… it’s a total complete tribute to the Nekromantik films and to Ed Gein being the influence to the original songs lyrics to begin with. And the songs music is just a perfect continuation in style and form – it really brings the Corpse Grinder saga full circle. Coming out of the gate with Resurgence and being told that video we did for the 2nd part to the Corpse Grinder may be too extreme to air is fucking brilliant!!


"I am proud of the work we did on the album, the songs and material really are the essence of O.S.D.M. style and sound, and I feel this was the best team I could gather together to make this album what it is! I realize lightening couldn’t strike twice… “From Beyond” was lightening in a bottle… and it’s not going to be beat, but I did my best to bring the proper team together to make a follow up – 30 years late – that is and proves to be the proper and correct continuation of the band Massacre the way it was always meant to be!"


Uncensored:





Censored:





Order Resurgence here.





Tracklisting:


"Eldritch Prophecy"
"Ruins Of R'lyeh"
"The Innsmouth Strain"
"Whisperer In Darkness"
"Book Of The Dead"
"Into The Far-Off Void"
"Servants Of Discord"
"Fate Of The Elder Gods"
"Spawn Of The Succubus"
"Return Of The Corpse Grinder"


"Whisperer In Darkness" video:





"Ruins Of R'lyeh" visualizer:





"The Innsmouth Strain" visualizer:





Massacre rose from the swamps of Southern Florida in the early 80's during a heatwave of groundbreaking death metal that produced some of the genre's most revered forefathers, Death, Obituary and Six Feet Under. Their legacy was founded with a string of classic demos, Aggressive Tyrant (1986), Chamber of Ages (1986) and The Second Coming (1990), before unleashing their critically praised classic debut album From Beyond (1991).


Now decades later, the band makes their long-awaited return, invigorated with the same youthful rage that brought them together at inception. For Resurgence, long-time members, vocalist Kam Lee and bassist Mike Borders, were joined in the studio by some of death's most prolific and malignant songwriters, guitarist Rogga Johansson, guitarist Jonny Pettersson, guitarist Scott Fairfax and drummer Brynjar Helgetun with additional guest performances by Marc Grewe, Dave Ingram, Anders Odden, and Pete Slate.


The record was recorded with producer and death metal icon Dan Swanö (ex-Edge Of Sanity, ex-Bloodbath) and Pettersson as engineer/mixer.

31 Years after the release of the iconic Seasons in the Abyss record, San Francisco-based Gürschach have released their version of “Dead Skin Mask”, alongside an accompanying music video for the track in preparation for their upcoming Hypnotic Disasters EP.





Underground band Gürschach has a long history with the song, as it has been a recurring cover played during their shows in the holiday season. Mixed and mastered by Zach Ohren, the band sought to make the cover as faithful as possible due to the respect they have for the track. At its heart, it keeps Slayer’s thrash metal styling through the familiar hard-hitting riffs, punchy drums, and in your face metal vocals. The single art for the track is even highly inspired by the iconic Seasons in the Abyss album art! However, the band made the decision to include screamed vocals, and re-recorded the iconic voices in the song with the goal to make it sound more haunting, while also playing guitar solos in their own style. But does their cover hold a candle to the original? Only the listener can make that call!







With the release of this track, Gürschach has also released an accompanying video to commemorate the release of this track off their upcoming EP Hypnotic Disasters, which will release on January 14th. The video brings the artwork of both the single and the upcoming EP to life, alongside of images of swirling hallways, fire, and skeletons, making it a perfect video to enjoy this Halloween season! The Hypnotic Disasters EP will include this cover, as well as their popular re-imagining of St. Anger they released last year, and three original tracks they recorded during COVID-19. The band will be playing a release show on that date and have an accompanying release tour to be announced soon.

In anticipation of the upcoming release of Restless Heart: Super Deluxe Edition on October 29, Whitesnake have released an upgraded HD video for "Don't Fade Away". Watch below:





In the wake of Whitesnake’s massive global success, the band’s founder and lead singer, David Coverdale, set out to record his third solo album in 1995. However, the plan was derailed when pressure from his record label forced him to change course and release Restless Heart under the David Coverdale & Whitesnake moniker. Despite the changes, the 1997 album was a Top 40 hit in the UK. Surprisingly, the record was never released in the US. That will change this fall when Rhino introduces several versions of Restless Heart, including a four-disc boxed set.




Restless Heart: Super Deluxe Edition will be available on October 29 and is available for pre-order now. The 4CD/DVD collection features newly remastered and remixed versions of the original album, along with unreleased demos and studio outtakes. The DVD includes music videos and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album with new interviews from David Coverdale. The set comes with a hardbound book filled with rare and unseen photos from the era.


Three additional versions of Restless Heart will be available the same day. First is a two-CD Deluxe Edition that includes the new remix plus the original album, newly remastered. Next is a double-LP Deluxe Edition pressed on 180-gram silver vinyl that features the newly remixed album. And finally, there is a single-disc version which again features the newly remixed album . In addition, all of the music will be available digitally through streaming services.


Restless Heart: Super Deluxe Edition opens with a newly remixed version of the album that’s closer to the sound Coverdale initially intended for his new solo release. It’s followed by a newly remastered version of Restless Heart, including the singles “Too Many Tears” and “Don’t Fade Away,” plus three bonus tracks from the album’s original Japanese release. Featured musicians include Adrian Vandenberg, Denny Carmassi, Guy Pratt and in addition, guitarist Joel Hoekstra and keyboardist Derek Sherinian who bring their exceptional talents to the party.


The following two discs reveal how Restless Heart evolved, starting with early pre-production versions of every album track to later takes of those songs.


The DVD features several music videos (“Too Many Tears” and “Restless Heart) plus the Making of the Album featurette. There is also a video EP featuring the three relevant songs from the 1997 live acoustic album, Starkers In Tokyo, originally only available in Japan.


Watch David Coverdale unbox the 25th anniversary edition of Restless Heart below:





Pre-order here.





Restless Heart: Super Deluxe Edition tracklisting:


Disc 1: Restless Heart: 2021 Remix


"Restless Heart"
"You’re So Fine"
"Can’t Go On"
"Crying"
"Take Me Back Again"
"Anything You Want"
"Too Many Tears"
"All In The Name Of Love"
"Your Precious Love"
"Can’t Stop Now"
"Woman Trouble Blues"
"Stay With Me"
"Oi (Theme For An Imaginary Drum Solo)"
"Don’t Fade Away"
"Can’t Go On (Unzipped)"


Disc 2: Restless Heart: 2021 Remaster


"Don’t Fade Away"
"All In The Name Of Love"
"Restless Heart"
"Too Many Tears"
"Crying"
"Stay With Me"
"Can’t Go On"
"You’re So Fine"
"Your Precious Love"
"Take Me Back Again"
"Woman Trouble Blues"
"Anything You Want"
"Can’t Stop Now"
"Too Many Tears ’95" (Live & Drunk in the Studio featuring The Horny B’stards)


Disc 3: Dancing On The Titanic (Early Arrangements & Getting Drum Tracks in the Studio)


"Restless Heart"
"You’re So Fine"
"Can’t Go On"
"Crying"
"Take Me Back Again"
"Anything You Want"
"Too Many Tears"
"All In The Name Of Love"
"Your Precious Love" (Soul Version)
"You Precious Love"
"Can’t Stop Now" (Instrumental Version)
"Woman Trouble Blues"
"Stay With Me"
"Oi" (Instrumental)
"Don’t Fade Away"
"Snakes Down South" (Unreleased Demo)


Disc 4: Restless Heart: Evolutions


"Restless Heart"
"You’re So Fine"
"Can’t Go On"
"Crying"
"Take Me Back Again"
"Anything You Want (Red Light Green Light)"
"Too Many Tears"
"All In The Name Of Love"
"Your Precious Love"
"Can’t Stop Now"
"Woman Trouble Blues"
"Stay With Me"
"Oi" (Instrumental)
"Don’t Fade Away"


Disc 5: Restless Heart: DVD-Video


"All In The Name Of Love" - Fan Video
"Anything You Want" - Fan Video
"You’re So Fine" - Music Video
"Restless Heart" - Fan Video
"Too Many Tears" - Music Video
"Don’t Fade Away" - Music Video
"Can’t Go On" - Acoustic Slideshow
"Restless Heart" - Lyric Video


Startkers Trilogy:


"Too Many Tears"
"Can’t Go On"
"Don’t Fade Away"


Behind The Scenes:


- The Making Of Restless Heart














Whitesnake and special guests Europe recently announced that together they will be hitting the road across the EU. Tickets are on sale now.


Whitesnake will tour Europe starting May 27, 2022 in Germany, and continuing through June, with more dates to be announced in the coming weeks. Confirmed shows are listed below.


“After all the extraordinary challenges we’ve been through together over the last year & a half, I am beyond excited to be able to announce the start of our 2022 EU dates!!! I pray every day we can all make this happen & once again, share unforgettable evenings together & celebrate the amazing journey we have been on for almost 50 years!!!” - David Coverdale


New 2022 Whitesnake Tour Dates:


May
27 - Arena - Oberhausen, Germany
29 - KB Hall - Copenhagen, Denmark
31 - Partille Arena - Gothenburg, Sweden


June
2 - Tjuvholmen Arena - Hamar, Norway
4 - Hovet - Stockholm, Sweden
6 - Ice Hall - Helsinki, Finland
8 - Saku Arena - Tallin, Estonia
10 - Aren - Kaunas, Lithuania
12 - Tauron Arena - Krakow, Poland (NO PRE-SALE)
14 - O2 Universum - Prague, Czech Republic
19 - Zenith - Munich, Germany
21 - Samsung Hall - Zurich, Switzerland
28 - Lorenzini - Milan, Italy





Previously Announced 2022 UK & Ireland Dates:


May
10 - 3Arena - Dublin, Ireland
12 - SEC (SSE Hydro Arena) - Glasgow, Scotland
14 - Utilita Arena - Newcastle, England
16 - The O2 Arena - London, England
18 - AO Arena - Manchester, England
20 - Motorpoint Arena - Nottingham, England
22 - Utilita Arena - Birmingham, England
25 - Motorpoint Arena - Cardiff, Wales

Sixx:A.M. have unveiled their new single, “Waiting All My Life”, from their new compilation album, Sixx:A.M. Hits, out now via Better Noise Music. Find the new clip below.


Sixx:A.M. - featuring Mötley Crüe bassist Nikki Sixx, vocalist James Michael, and former Guns N' Roses guitarist DJ Ashba - are releasing the album as a companion piece to Sixx’s memoir The First 21: How I Became Nikki Sixx, available via Hachette Books.


After 21 years of sobriety, Sixx, also a founding member of the legendary music group Mötley Crüe, is incredibly passionate about his craft and an open book about his life in rock and roll. In the memoir, Sixx fills in the earlier parts of his fascinating true-life story, telling the inspirational story of his first 21 years, how Frank Feranna became Nikki Sixx. Combining his work as a writer and a musician, The First 21 continues Sixx’s tradition of setting the soundtrack to his own life, offering multi-layered pieces of art.







In 2007, Sixx:A.M. released The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, alongside Sixx’s best-selling memoir The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star, introducing the concept of a book soundtrack into popular culture. Both the book and the album were successes upon release, with the book instantly becoming a New York Times-best seller in its first week, selling out in bookstores around the U.S. The album spawned the #1 single “Life Is Beautiful”, eventually achieving Gold certification in the U.S. Expanding this artistic signature move, The First 21 now get its own soundtrack with the Hits album.





Tracklisting:


"Life Is Beautiful"
"This Is Gonna Hurt"
"Lies Of The Beautiful People"
"Pray For Me"
"Rise"
"Stars"
"Maybe It's Time"
"Skin"
"Belly Of The Beast"
"Are You With Me Now"
"Girl With Golden Eyes"
"Accidents Can Happen"
"Gotta Get It Right"
"We Will Not Go Quietly"
"The First 21" (previously unreleased)
"Talk To Me" (Radio Mix - previously unreleased)
"Penetrate" (previously unreleased)
"Waiting All My Life" (previously unreleased)
"Skin" (Rock Mix -  previously unreleased)
"Life Is Beautiful" (piano / vocal - previously unreleased)


Waiting All My Life" lyric video:





“The First 21” lyric video:





“Pray For Me” lyric video:





"Skin" (Rock Mix):

Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) is back with a new Star One album, titled Revel In Time. The album comes more than 10 years since the previous release and is due out on February 18 via InsideOutMusic.


The album will be available for pre-order on December 17, and it will come as Ltd. 2CD Digipak, Ltd. Deluxe 3CD+Blu-Ray Artbook (incl. a poster of the cover artwork), and as 180g Gatefold 2LP (incl. the album on CD & an LP-Booklet).


CD2 features alternate versions of the same songs as CD1, but with different vocalists. Also available will be a 5.1 mix, a high-res audio version, and an exclusive, hour-long Behind The Scenes video, on the Blu-ray included in the Artbook.




For this Star One release, Arjen has decided to use a different singer for each song, and those singers as well as the instrumentalists are slowly being revealed on Arjen’s Facebook page.


Arjen has checked in with the following teaser:


"Tony Martin sings the track ‘Lost Children OF The Universe’ on CD2 of the new Star One album, Revel in Time. Check out this video to hear a part of the song. A legendary voice from one of my favorite Black Sabbath eras, a pleasure and an honor to work with Tony again!"





Arjen explains the decision to return with a new Star One album: “Ayreon is like the mothership for all my music. It contains all the different musical styles that I like to listen to and that I love to create. But I’m always looking for challenges and trying to create something new and original as well. Working within a set of constraints forces you to do that, so sometimes I like to limit myself and focus on just one style. For example, with Star One I focus on the metal-side of Ayreon. That means you won’t hear the exuberantly liberal use of acoustic instruments that are so often featured on Ayreon albums, like violin, woodwinds, cello, horns, dulcimer, mandolin, etc.”





The artwork was designed by Ayreon artist Jef Bertels, Arjen explains: “As always, Jef’s painting is wondrously labyrinthine; I can sit in front of it for hours and discover new details all the time. Now you might be thinking “Hey, isn’t Jef Bertels the designated artist for Ayreon, but not for Star One?” Of course I thought about that myself. But when I realized how much I liked this album I felt that it deserved a painting of its own and a special place alongside Jef’s other front-cover masterpieces. And anyway, I’ve been breaking rules ever since the very beginning of Ayreon. So… there you have it!”


(Photo - Rob Billingham)

KISS are streaming the previously unreleased demo of "Detroit Rock City" from Paul Stanley's personal archive. Listen here, and below. A video teaser is also available.










Celebrating its 45 anniversary, Destroyer was originally released in 1976 and is considered to be one of the quintessential KISS albums. It is the band’s first album to sell one million copies in its first year and holds the title of being their all-time best selling studio album. Packed with concert staples and KISS Army favorites including “Detroit Rock City,” “Shout It Out Loud,” “God Of Thunder” and “Beth,” on November 19 UMe will release KISS – Destroyer 45th in the form of a Super Deluxe 4CD + Blu-ray Audio box set as well as on standard double black vinyl and limited edition yellow and red double colored vinyl, 2-CD set, and digital. Destroyer 45th can be pre-ordered here.


For the recording of Destroyer, Bob Ezrin was brought in as KISS’s new producer, helping the band reach new levels, both sonically and creatively. The album also showed the band’s growth as musicians and songwriters, experimenting with new sounds which came in the form of the softer side of songs like “Do You Love Me?,” and songs heavy with orchestral arrangements including “Great Expectations” and their Billboard No. 7 hit single “Beth.” Following the breakthrough success of 1975’s No. 9 Billboard charting Alive!, Destroyer was the KISS album that brought them to the forefront of the mainstream and transformed them into global rock icons. For its anniversary, UMe celebrates this seminal album’s legacy with a staggering amount of bonus material.


CD1 includes the original album newly remastered at Abbey Road Mastering, while CD2 features 15 demos from Paul Stanley’s and Gene Simmons’s personal archives – 9 of which are unreleased. CD3 is packed with studio outtakes, alternate versions / mixes and single edits – most notably a brand-new stripped-down mix for “Beth (Acoustic Mix),” and CD4 contains an electrifying performance from the band’s visit to Paris France at the L’Olympia on May 22, 1976. For the Blu-ray Audio disc, Steven Wilson was brought in to create a first-ever Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround mix of the original studio album plus 2 bonus tracks “Beth (Acoustic Mix)” and “Sweet Pain (Original Guitar Solo)” the latter featuring Ace Frehley’s original recorded guitar solo that was not released on the studio album (this track is available on the 2012 Destroyer: Resurrected project.)





Additionally, the Super Deluxe box features an extravagant array of collectable KISS memorabilia and ephemera, including a complete recreation of the original KISS Army Kit with the original folder and following items:


- KISS Army newsletter Volume 1 – No 2 announcing Destroyer
- 2x 8”x10” Destroyer Press Photos
- Discography Sheet
- Gene, Paul, Ace & Peter Bio Sheet
- KISS Army Member Certificate
- KISS Army Membership Card


Also included in the Super Deluxe set:


- KISS logo Iron-on
- KISS Army Sticker
- “Detroit Rock City” Bumper Sticker
- Destroyer Cover Sticker
- 11”x17” KISS on Westminster Bridge UK Poster
- 4 brand new 8”x10” Band Member Photos
- 8”x12” Destroyer Foil Flyer
- 8”x12” Destroyer Canadian Flyer (super rare)
- 4x Band Member Trading Cards (newly created for this boxset)
- 16”x24” KISS Over New York Skyline Poster
- 16”x24” KISS Halloween 1976 Concert Poster
- 2x 9”x12” Destroyer Tour Stage Blueprints on Transparent Vellum (never been seen before)
- 16-page Destroyer 1976 Tour Program
- Gotham Rock City News Volume 1 Newspaper that is a track-by-track interview with all 4 band members, Bob Ezrin and crew
- 68-page hardcover book with extensive liner notes by Paul Elliott & Ken Sharp featuring interviews from Gene, Paul, Ace, Peter, then-manager Bill Aucoin, album producer Bob Ezrin, and many more about the album’s writing and production process, U.S. and European tours, photo shoots, promotional stories, band member memories from their TV appearance on The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, and an intoxicating amount of unreleased photos and imagery


The entire contents are housed in a lift top- style box and features artist Ken Kelly’s original Destroyer cover art, arguably one of the most iconic album covers in rock, making this the ultimate KISS Destroyer souvenir.


KISS is America’s #1 Gold Record Award winning group of all time in every category and have sold over 100 million records worldwide. Peerless as a live act, the band’s illustrious legacy is marked by record breaking global tours. Now, after an astonishing 48-year career, KISS - Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer - are currently in the midst of their End Of The Road tour.





Tracklisting:


Disc One: Destroyer - Original Album Remastered


"Detroit Rock City"
"King of The Night Time World"
"God of Thunder"
"Great Expectations"
"Flaming Youth"
"Sweet Pain"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"Beth"
"Do You Love Me?"


Disc Two: Destroyer-Era - Demos


Paul Stanley Demos
"Doncha Hesitate"
"God Of Thunder And Rock And Roll"
"It’s The Fire"*
"Detroit Rock City"*
"Love Is Alright"*


Gene Simmons Demos
"Bad, Bad Lovin’"
"Man Of A Thousand Faces"
"I Don’t Want No Romance"*
"Burnin’ Up With Fever"*
"Rock N’ Rolls Royce"*
"Mad Dog"
"Night Boy"*
"Star"*
"Howlin’ For Your Love"*
"True Confessions"


Disc Three: Destroyer - Outtakes, Alternate Versions / Mixes, Single Edits


"Beth" (Acoustic Mix)*
"Shout It Out Loud" (Single Edit)
"Flaming Youth" (Single Edit)
"Detroit Rock City" (Single Edit)
"Shout It Out Loud" (Mono Single Edit)
"Flaming Youth" (Mono Single Edit)
"Detroit Rock City" (Mono Single Edit)
"Beth" (Mono)
"King Of The Night Time World" (Live Rehearsal Instrumental)*
"Do You Love Me?" (Mono Instrumental)*
"God Of Thunder" (Early Instrumental Mix)*
"Ain’t None Of Your Business" (Instrumental)*
"Detroit Rock City" (Instrumental)*
"King Of The Night Time World" (Alternate Mix)*
"Great Expectations" (Early Version)*
"Flaming Youth" (Early Version)*
"Do You Love Me?" (Early Version)*
"Shout It Out Loud" (Alternate Mix)*
"Ain’t None Of Your Business" (Outtake)*
"Beth" (Take 6 – Instrumental)*
"Beth" (Instrumental)*
"Do You Love Me?" (Alternate Mix)*


Disc Four: Live In Paris - L’Olympia – 22 May, 1976*


"Deuce"
"Strutter"
"Flaming Youth"
"Hotter Than Hell"
"Firehouse"
"She" / Ace Frehley Guitar Solo
"Nothin' To Lose"
"Shout It Out Loud" / Gene Simmons Bass Solo
"100,000 Years" / Peter Criss Drum Solo
"Black Diamond"
"Detroit Rock City"
"Rock and Roll All Nite"


Blu-Ray Audio: Destroyer - *Dolby Atmos 48kHz 24-bit, *Dolby True HD 5.1 96kHz 24-bit, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 96kHz 24-bit, PCM Stereo 96kHz 24-bit


"Detroit Rock City"
"King Of The Night Time World"
"God Of Thunder"
"Great Expectations"
"Flaming Youth"
"Sweet Pain"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"Beth"
"Do You Love Me?"


Bonus Tracks:
"Beth" (Acoustic)
"Sweet Pain" (Original Guitar Solo)


* Previously unreleased


Deluxe Edition 2CD tracklisting:


Disc One: Destroyer - Original Album Remastered


"Detroit Rock City"
"King of The Night Time World"
"God of Thunder"
"Great Expectations"
"Flaming Youth"
"Sweet Pain"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"Beth"
"Do You Love Me?"


Disc Two:


Paul Stanley Demos
"God Of Thunder And Rock And Roll"
"Detroit Rock City"*
"Love Is Alright"*


Gene Simmons Demos
"I Don’t Want No Romance"*
"Rock N’ Rolls Royce"*
"Star"*


Rarities
"Beth" (Acoustic Mix)*
"Shout It Out Loud" (Mono Single Edit)
"King Of The Night Time World" (Live Rehearsal Instrumental)*
"Detroit Rock City" (Instrumental)*
"Flaming Youth" (Early Version)*
"Shout It Out Loud" (Alternate Mix)*


Live In Paris - L’Olympia –- May 22, 1976*
"Deuce"
"Strutter"
"Flaming Youth"
"Hotter Than Hell"


* Previously Unreleased


Deluxe Edition 2LP tracklisting:


LP One: Destroyer - Original Album Remastered


Side One
"Detroit Rock City"
"King of The Night Time World"
"God of Thunder"
"Great Expectations"


Side Two
"Flaming Youth"
"Sweet Pain"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"Beth"
"Do You Love Me?"


LP Two:


Side Three


Paul Stanley Demos
"God Of Thunder And Rock And Roll"
"Detroit Rock City"*
"Love Is Alright"*


Gene Simmons Demos
"I Don’t Want No Romance"*
"Rock N’ Rolls Royce"*
"Star"*


Side Four - Rarities
"Beth" (Acoustic Mix)*
"Shout It Out Loud" (Mono Single Edit)
"King Of The Night Time World" (Live Rehearsal Instrumental)*
"Detroit Rock City" (Instrumental)*
"Flaming Youth" (Early Version)*
"Shout It Out Loud" (Alternate Mix)*


* Previously Unreleased


Dolby Atmos - Streaming


Destroyer: *Dolby Atmos 48kHz 24-bit
"Detroit Rock City"
"King Of The Night Time World"
"God Of Thunder"
"Great Expectations"
"Flaming Youth"
"Sweet Pain"
"Shout It Out Loud"
"Beth"
"Do You Love Me?"


Bonus Tracks:
"Beth" (Acoustic Mix)
"Sweet Pain" (Original Guitar Solo)


* Previously unreleased


“Beth" (Acoustic Mix):





Trailer:

Jason Newsted says that his comment about no longer having the "physicality" to play with a band like METALLICA has been misinterpreted.

Back in February 2020, the 58-year-old musician, who left the San Francisco Bay Area metal giants two decades ago after a 15-year run with the group, discussed his exit from the band in an interview with Florida Daily Post. At the time, spoke about the series of shoulder surgeries on both arms that initially rendered him unable to play. He said: "The surgeries kind of set me back. I kept playing music the best that I could, and I haven't ever been able to come all the way back; I'm, like, 90-something percent full. I can't play the full METALLICA stuff; I couldn't do the show anymore like that… I know for a fact I cannot play the way that I would want to play in VOIVOD, METALLICA — any of those bands. I don't have the physicality to do that anymore."

Now, during a new appearance on Knotfest.com's "Talk Toomey" podcast, Jason said that people misconstrued his words and he stressed that he would most certainly be able to play a high-energy heavy metal show if the circumstances were right.

"This thing came out of a Florida interview — I think it was an art exhibit interview, actually — and there was something about my shoulder surgeries, and I say, 'I can't play METALLICA songs anymore,' and all this stuff," he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "And people started running with this thing. Are you sure that you listened to what I said? Are you sure that you heard the words that I said? Somebody just ran with this part and they made up this big goddamn thing.

"I want everybody to realize that whoever asked me to come and play bass, and if it was for real, then I would be there to play bass," he clarified. "And if it was METALLICA that asked me to play for that many songs or that fast or that slow or whatever, then I would go and do it. There's not a thing where I can't do that. I was saying that I'm probably not gonna go on tour and do two and a half hours every night with a band anymore; that's not something I'm probably gonna do. It's not that I can't do it."

When interviewer Joshua Toomey floated the possibility of Newsted joining MEGADETH now that David Ellefson has been relieved of his duties, Jason said: "Wasn't that kind of interesting for a minute? Just that little talk about that… I don't know if I would ever do something like that. It's just not in my purview anymore. I'm so busy with other music and I play all the time with other kinds of people. I like playing the heavy stuff every now and again, but I really enjoy the composition now — different instruments and dimensions to the songs, and three or four voices going, female background vocal and cool shit. It's way more what I'm after now."

However, Newsted didn't completely rule out playing metal again at a special one-off event. "If [SEPULTURA guitarist] Andreas [Kisser] calls and says, 'Come out and throw down half an hour of SEPULTURA with me' somewhere, I'm there," he said.

Newsted's exit from METALLICA was documented in the band's 2004 documentary, "Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster", which followed the members of the group through the three most turbulent years of their long career, during which they battled through addiction, lineup changes, fan backlash, personal turmoil and the near-disintegration of the group while making their "St. Anger" album.

Newsted was METALLICA's third bassist, following Ron McGovney and the late Cliff Burton. Robert Trujillo took over in 2003 after Newsted's exit.

Jason spoke in detail about the reason he left METALLICA in a 2013 interview with Scuzz TV. Newsted said that his eventual split with the group was over the way his then-side band, ECHOBRAIN, was handled. Newsted explained: "The management of METALLICA was very, very excited about ECHOBRAIN, wanted to take it out for me, wanted me to do ECHOBRAIN also, with METALLICA. They felt ECHOBRAIN was that good, the singer was that good, and it didn't affect METALLICA because it was a totally different kind of thing, and I was in METALLICA; that would give it its pedigree already."

Newsted continued: "They had told me, pretty convincingly, 'This is a great record, we've been playing it around the office, that's all I’ve been hearing, it's fantastic, this kid has a great voice. Let's do something with this.' That's what they told me, and then James heard about it and was not happy. He was, I think, pretty much out to put the kibosh on the whole thing because it would somehow affect METALLICA in his eyes, because now the managers were interested in something I was doing that had nothing to do with him."

Newsted told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that he never saw how ECHOBRAIN could have interfered with METALLICA. "I never felt that it was going to affect METALLICA in any way," he said. "There was no way that it could. The monster and the integrity and the legend that METALLICA's built, it would take a lot more than that to ever affect it."

Newsted added, "The people that I had counted on for 15 years to help me with my career, help METALLICA, take care of my money, do all of those things, told me, 'Your new project is fantastic, we'd like to help you with it.' James heard about it, the manager calls me back a couple of days later — 'Sorry we're not going to be able to help you with that ECHOBRAIN thing.'"

Twisted Sister's Dee Snider is featured in a new interview with Finland's KaaosTV discussing his recently released album, For The Love Of Metal Live! Snider also talks about his next solo album, which is currently in the works, and addresses the recent remark from Spotify CEO Daniel Ek that artists "Can't record music once every three to four years and think that's going to be enough..." which has drawn harsh criticism from artists around the world.

Snider: "As far as that Spotify bullet-head asshole goes, I really pay no attention. The exploitation of the artists has been going on forever - from the record companies, concert promoters, Spotify, and all these other avenues, they're just other versions. There's been the business people, and there's been the artists. And the artists are the creatives, the sensitive people, they're not very business-minded, and there's been non-talented, non-creative garbage that has stolen robbed and exploited the artist since the beginning of time, and it continues. I don't know that asshole's name; he says something like, 'Hey, you want to make more money? Put out more music,' like it's bottled Coca-Cola or something, like, 'Oh, we need more Coca-Cola. OK, step up production, make more bottles of Coca-Cola.'

Twisted Sister did not start seeing royalties from our album sales - over 10 million - until 1997. We broke up in 1987 and we never saw a penny from record sales until 1997 because we owed so much money. So this has been, and I knew this has been exploitation, it's been going on forever. So we fight, we do the best we can; hopefully, we get in a position to make a new deal, negotiate a new deal. But I don't expect business people to say, 'You know what? We got to give these creative people more money, we got to treat the artist with respect.' That will never happen."

 .

Ek recently made the following statement in an interview with Music Ally, which ignited justifiable backlash from artists and the media:

“It’s quite interesting that while the overall pie is growing, and more and more people can partake in that pie, we tend to focus on a very limited set of artists,” he said, referring to the reporting of views on streaming royalties. Even today on our marketplace, there’s literally millions and millions of artists. What tends to be reported are the people that are unhappy, but we very rarely see anyone who’s talking about… In the entire existence [of Spotify] I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single artist saying ‘I’m happy with all the money I’m getting from streaming.

Stating that publicly. In private they have done that many times, but in public they have no incentive to do it. But unequivocally, from the data, there are more and more artists that are able to live off streaming income in itself. There is a narrative fallacy here, combined with the fact that, obviously, some artists that used to do well in the past may not do well in this future landscape, where you can’t record music once every three to four years and think that’s going to be enough.” 

The artists today that are making it realise that it’s about creating a continuous engagement with their fans. It is about putting the work in, about the storytelling around the album, and about keeping a continuous dialogue with your fans.”

Check out the complete interview here.




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TRIVIUM bassist Paolo Gregoletto spoke to Mankato, Minnesota's "Midwest Beatdown" radio show about the COVID-19 "scare" he and his bandmates experienced early in their recently completed U.S. tour with MEGADETH, LAMB OF GOD and HATEBREED. "The Metal Tour Of The Year" marked the four groups' first run of concerts since the start of the pandemic.

"Right after show three in Houston, our tour manager started getting kind of a dry cough," he recalled (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "He kept his mask on a lot of the time in our dressing room, and I'm, like, 'You know what? I bet he doesn't feel good right now,' and I had a suspicion, but I didn't say anything. And I went to bed that night, got up. We were in Odessa for a day off. We all went out to dinner — crew and band — except for our tour manager; he was staying back. I figured it was for tour manager business stuff. I get a text at the end of the meal, and he was, like, 'Yup. I have COVID. We're gonna have to, obviously, inform the tour.' And so our brains are, like, 'Oh, man. We've gotta devise a plan here before we say anything.' And so we all went back to the bus. We had a bunch of tests with us. We got a couple of extras. Everyone tested. No one else was positive. We caught up our manager. We caught up the tour. We pretty much said, 'Look, we're not gonna cancel a show. Everyone's good. We're all isolated from our tour manager. We'll test tomorrow and as many days in a row as you want.' And no one ever got sick on our bus except for our tour manager. And we kept going. That was basically it.

"There was really no rule kind of set up how that was gonna work," Paolo continued. "But what we've been seeing people do is, okay, someone on a [tour] package will get sick, and they'll be, like, 'well, everyone's gonna take 10 days' or something to quarantine — whatever people are doing. And we were, like, it's not possible. There's too much at stake for a tour this size, or any tour, really. 'Cause if you start canceling shows, the margin is very, very thin with that kind of stuff; it's not sustainable. So we were just, like, 'Look, if no one is sick, the show must go on.' So that's what we did. HATEBREED's sound guy helped us out big time by filling in on monitors. Our assistant tour manager picked up the slack for the shows, and then our tour manager was just e-mailing — Zooming in; [sending] e-mails, doing all the stuff he had to do. And he came back when he was fine, and that was it. And we kept rolling."

Gregoletto added: "It was scary, obviously, but I was also kind of relieved to have that happen right away, 'cause it's, like, once you kind of know what it could be once it happens… It's kind of like Matt [Heafy, TRIVIUM frontman] when he got sick [with COVID-19] way before the tour, it's scary 'cause you've been trying to avoid it the whole time, but then, when you get through it, you're, like, 'All right. I felt bad for a few days and now I'm good.' It felt good to just have that happen, and we dealt with it, and the show went on. And we didn't publicize it 'cause we didn't wanna [create] any sort of doubt that the tour was gonna get canceled, that shows would get canceled. 'Cause it's crazy times right now. I'm sure a lot of people have seen bands are dropping from tours and stuff, and we just didn't wanna do that. So we chose this way instead."

The last three shows of "The Metal Tour Of The Year" — in Toronto, Laval and Quebec City — were postponed to spring 2022 due to restrictions in the Quebec province and international logistical issues.

TRIVIUM's tenth album, "In The Court Of The Dragon", was released on October 8 via longtime label Roadrunner Records. The record was produced and mixed by Josh Wilbur and recorded in the fall of 2020 at Full Sail University in Orlando. The album cover is an original oil painting by French artist Mathieu Nozieres.

In a recent interview with the Reel Talker web site, PUDDLE OF MUDD frontman Wes Scantlin was asked what "the chicks" are like when you are a "rock star" on the road. He responded: "I've just got this to say: when you're on tour and you're a singer, we're constantly trying to rest our voices so we can perform well. And girls, man, they will keep you up, man — they will keep you up too late, too late. And whatever things they've got in their pockets, we don't need that either. So, yeah, the best thing to do is just kind of stick with the wolfpack — just hang with your pack and do not veer away from safety. And just stay focused, stay the course.

"There's nothing wrong with women, but you've gotta stay the course and you've gotta be a professional person," he continued. "Or else you'll wake up and whatever chicks, they're keeping you up and you don't get no sleep and then you suck at singing. And then you're just, like, 'Fuck, man. What have I done?'

"Ain't nothing wrong with the ladies, but they just keep you up a little too long," Scantlin repeated.

PUDDLE OF MUDD has played a number of U.S. shows in support of the band's latest album, "Welcome To Galvania".

"Welcome To Galvania" was released in 2019 via Pavement Entertainment. PUDDLE OF MUDD's first album in a decade consisted of ten new tracks and was produced by Cameron Webb (ALKALINE TRIO, DISTURBED, MOTÖRHEAD).

PUDDLE OF MUDD was formed in 1991 in Kansas City by Scantlin, the only original member still with the band.

Wes had almost non-stop problems with the law, alcohol, finances and other issues, before finally getting sober in 2017. He and the rest of PUDDLE OF MUDD rebuilt a touring base, which paved the way to new music and a new album. Scantlin said that he ended up going back to rehab and receiving treatment "because there's really nowhere else to go." He also credited his family and fans for giving him the strength to try to get better.

PUDDLE OF MUDD broke into the mainstream with 2001's "Come Clean", which yielded three hits — "Control", "Blurry" and "She Hates Me".

According to the National Post, a heavy metal-loving high school principal in Canada will be allowed to keep her job, days after a public campaign to oust her made headlines around the globe.

Parents at Eden High School in St. Catharines, Ontario launched a petition to remove principal Sharon Burns after discovering she's an IRON MAIDEN fan.

The petition, titled "Eden High School Principal, Sharon Burns, Needs to Be Transferred Immediately!" read, "We are deeply disturbed that the principal assigned to the school blatantly showed Satanic symbols and her allegiance to Satanic practices on her public social media platforms where all the students can see them under @edenprincipal (not her personal account)."

More than 500 people signed the petition to transfer Burns after she posted a picture of herself flashing the "devil horns" hand sign with a doll of the MAIDEN zombie mascot Eddie behind her as well as a personalized license plate reading "IRNMADEN" and a handwritten note that reads "Eddie 666" on a car's dashboard.

The number 666 is used to represent the devil, and is featured prominently in MAIDEN's artwork by the band, whose classic third album is titled "The Number Of The Beast".

The petition was later updated to state that the demand for her transfer is not because of her love for metal, but for "openly displaying her own handmade sign with the 666 clearly displayed on it".

The creator of the original petition wrote: "Sharon knows full well what she did was simply inappropriate, unnecessary and not professional but has yet to publicly admit so and is willing to allow people to believe a completely different story, making very real concerns seem petty."

Meanwhile, a counter-petition supporting Burns garnered over 20,000 signatures.

"It is ridiculous that a couple of parents judge her role as a principal only based on an Instagram post. (About liking the band IRON MAIDEN. That's it.) Eden High School is a public school. Not a Christian school," the petition titled "We need Mrs Burns" stated. "She has made Eden a safe space for so many people. She spreads nothing but love and kindness."

After the complaints were aired, the District School Board of Niagara spoke with Burns and the parents who launched the petition, and the issue is over as far as the board is concerned, Kim Sweeney, the board's chief communications officer, told the National Post. No disciplinary action or policy changes were needed.

"Our belief is that taste in music is subjective and we support that both students and staff enjoy a wide variety of genres," Sweeney said.

The original petition has since been removed.


Worried parents complained that rocker's Instagram posts 'blatantly showed Satanic symbols and allegiance to Satanic practices'

Posted by National Post on Friday, October 15, 2021

Founding QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield has filed a lawsuit against the band's fellow original members Michael Wilton (guitar) and Eddie Jackson (bass), alleging, among other things, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful discharge. Metal Sludge was the first to report on the lawsuit, which was filed on October 11 in Snohomish County Superior Court.

In the complaint, which has been obtained by BLABBERMOUTH.NET, Rockenfield claims that he took paternal leave of absence from QUEENSRŸCHE in February 2017 after his fiancée experienced complications during the birth of their son and had to have an emergency Cesarean delivery. According to the drummer, his leave of absence was approved by the members of QUEENSRŸCHE and he was to retain an equal one-third interest in all QUEENSRŸCHE companies (QR Companies), including Tri-Ryche Corporation, Melodisc LTD., Queensryche Merchandising, Inc., EMS Music, LLC and Queensryche Holdings, LLC.

In Scott's complaint, he claims that "Rockenfield, Wilton and Jackson are the remaining members of the band QUEENSRŸCHE, as well as the sole or majority shareholders and members of the entities controlling the intellectual property and contractual rights of said group, to wit the QR Companies."

Scott alleges that or about October 11, 2018, Wilton and Jackson purportedly "voted to dismiss Rockenfield from the QR Companies due in whole or in part to his taking of approved family leave. Rockenfield was informed of his purported dismissal from the QR Companies in a letter dated November 3, 2018."

According to Rockenfield's complaint, since 2017, Wilton and Jackson "have wrongfully withheld from Rockenfield all sources of income from the QR Companies in violation of the various Operating Agreements and Contracts governing the QR Companies for no lawful purpose." In addition, they "have failed to provide Rockenfield with an accounting of the books, records, business and contracts of the QR Companies."

Although Rockfenfield says he has continued to receive royalties from Tri-Ryche since February 2017 for the old catalogue, he claims he has "received no payments from Melodisc since February 2017, and no payments from Queensryche Merchandising since early 2018, and no payments from EMS since February 2017."

Rockfenfield also claims that Wilton and Jackson did not include him in the recording QUEENSRŸCHE's latest album, "The Verdict", "despite his availability and willingness to participate."

During all of 2017 and 2018, Rockenfield claims, he "remained active in all aspects of the QR Companies' business, song writing, licensing options, and communications with the exception of touring.

"During his family medical leave, Rockenfield was in constant and continued communication with the band, participated in writing songs, and prepared for the band's recording schedule that was set to begin in early 2018," the complaint reads.

"In October 2018, Rockenfield participated in negotiating a new extension of QUEENSRŸCHE's 2013 recording contract with Century Media, which would add two (2) additional albums to the recording contract, and continued to work to secure seven very lucrative licensing offers on behalf of QUEENSRŸCHE," according to the lawsuit.

Rockenfield claims to be "owed compensation for lost wages and profits as, as well as an amount equal to the present fair market value of his equity interest in the QR Companies as of his wrongful dismissal, plus interest thereon."

Rockenfield's lawsuit, which also names Wilton and Jackson's wives as defendants, comes nine months after he shot down suggestions that he quit QUEENSRŸCHE or retired from playing music. In January, the drummer shared an update on Facebook in which he said that fans "have not been given the facts by any means" and implied that he would offer more details at a later date.

Scott's January 2021 comments marked the first time he had publicly addressed his status with QUEENSRŸCHE, which has used former KAMELOT drummer Casey Grillo for touring purposes since April 2017.

In May, Rockenfield launched a cryptic new QUEENSRŸCHE-centric web site that implied he was plotting his return to the music scene. A week after Rockenfield went live with his Queensryche2021.com web site, QUEENSRŸCHE singer Todd La Torre announced that he was selling one of four remaining pairs of drum sticks that were used by Scott during the drum recordings of the band's 2013 self-titled album. The following day, Rockenfield returned to his Facebook page to seemingly take a swipe at Todd over the move, writing: "As a corp brand business owner for over 40 years now, I was once asked: if an 'employee/hired hand/sub contractor/or other similar employed individual' is engaging in unacceptable and disparaging remarks towards their so called 'EMPLOYER or BENEFACTOR', then more than likely this person still needs to be educated and nurtured to gain some much needed experience and to hopefully then have some respect and gratitude".

This past February, La Torre was asked during an appearance on "The Eddie Trunk Podcast" if anybody in QUEENSRŸCHE has heard directly from Scott regarding his status with the group. He responded: "Not to my knowledge. All I can tell you is he took paternity leave, saying he would be gone for about six months, and that was four years ago. [Laughs] Casey shows up every day. He shows up to songwrite, he shows up to record, if needed, and he shows up for the live gigs. So that's all that I can tell you. I haven't communicated with [Scott] in years. So I have no idea what he's up to. I couldn't even tell you."

When DJ Eddie Trunk said that he heard from Rockenfield two years ago and that the drummer expressed an interest at the time in telling his story, La Torre replied: "I don't know what story there is to tell. People ask, but, honestly, it is literally like déjà vu. Go play the answer I gave you four years ago, because, literally, nothing has changed.

"As far as I understand, there really isn't communication [between Scott and the QUEENSRŸCHE camp]. And I couldn't tell you anything more than that. Some people think, 'They're not telling us more.' I don't have anything to say, 'cause I don't talk to him; he doesn't talk to me. Casey's been playing with us for four years — going on four years — and he shows up. The guy is doing an awesome job.

"I guess I'd revert back to you," Todd continued. "If you left your radio show saying that you needed six months paternity leave but you never communicated when you were coming back for four years, would the radio station stop running because you quit showing up to work? And keep in mind, you weren't fired, and you didn't give official written notice that you're never gonna come back; you just don't come back or communicate. Does your key still work? Is your name on the door? Or are they gonna find adequate talent replacement to keep things going?

"So I don't have anything bad to say," La Torre clarified. "I don't really have anything to say, other than he asked for paternity leave and just hasn't come back."

The drum tracks on "The Verdict" were laid down by La Torre.

Last year, original QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate expressed his doubt that Rockenfield will ever play drums again, telling Metal Rules that Scott "has a lot of medical problems and things like that now." In 2019, Tate told 88.1FM WESU's weekly syndicated radio show "Noize In The Attic" that he was "pretty sure" Scott "didn't leave" QUEENSRŸCHE of his own accord. "I can tell you that there's lawsuits involved; I know that," he said. "He's in kind of a really dark place, and I hope he gets some help, 'cause he's really unraveled, you know? In my opinion. It's too bad — he's an incredibly talented drummer, and unfortunately, he never was happy with that. It wasn't good enough for him."

In April 2014, Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where the singer sued over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being fired in 2012. Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson responded with a countersuit. The settlement included an agreement that Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson would continue as QUEENSRŸCHE, while Tate would have the sole right to perform the albums "Operation: Mindcrime" and "Operation: Mindcrime II" in their entirety l

During an appearance earlier today on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", David Ellefson opened up about his dismissal from MEGADETH five months ago, just days after sexually tinged messages and explicit video footage involving the bassist were posted on Twitter. At the time, Ellefson released a statement on Instagram denying all social media chatter that he "groomed" an underage fan. He also filed a report with the police department in Scottsdale, Arizona alleging unlawful distribution of sexually explicit images of him by unknown offenders. In the report, Ellefson admitted that he had been exchanging sexual text messages with a Dutch teenager, who captured a video of several of their virtual "masturbating encounters" without his consent and shared them with friends. (According to Ellefson, the woman was 19 at the time of their first virtual sexual encounter.) Ellefson, who lives in Scottsdale, first became aware of the video on May 9, when the claim "David Ellefson of MEGADETH is a pedophile" appeared on Instagram. Ellefson told police he was notified on May 14 by MEGADETH that the band would be parting ways with him. Three days later, he was fired.

Speaking to "Trunk Nation" about the circumstances that led to his exit from MEGADETH, Ellefson said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I ran toward the bullets and dealt with it right away. The night [the messages and video were leaked online], a couple of people said, 'Hey, don't say anything.' In particular, the MEGADETH camp didn't want me to say anything. But my legal [advisers] said, 'Hey, I think you should say something. I think some people have done some really shitty things here and made some false allegations about you, and you have every right to defend yourself.' And I did. Ultimately, that led to my dismissal from MEGADETH. But I have every right, as anyone does, to defend yourself, especially when somebody is making false allegations about you like that. So I dealt with it that night, and quite honestly, that was it — it was over, and it was really kind of done. But then, as the MEGADETH camp in particular jumped in and had addressed it — and not that they shouldn't, but they did. That pretty quickly led to them making the decision to part ways with me and to move away from it.

"We had originally talked about doing a joint statement of sorts, and, of course, that was not what happened," David continued. "So I was disappointed in probably the way it went down.

"Ironically, things are fine between [me and MEGADETH]. We parted ways, and they took their road. And there's not ill will between us, believe it or not. And I think any fights and those things, that was 20 years go — lawsuits and all that crap.

"Look, they moved forward [with 'The Metal Tour Of The Year']," Ellefson added. "I wished them well in my [original] statement to them, and I mean it. It's a group I helped form almost 40 years coming up here for the band. And the songs that are on the radio that I see come up are songs that I had a participation in, and we built a big legacy. I still consider them family, and my DNA is all over that. I don't think you build something of that size together and then suddenly you're just out and that's it."

Ellefson also talked about the statement Dave Mustaine — who formed MEGADETH with Ellefson in 1983 — released on May 24 announced the bassist's departure from the band. In the statement, Dave said: "We do not take this decision lightly. While we do not know every detail of what occurred, with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward." Asked if he was aware of any tension between him and Mustaine and whether he "felt like the ice was getting ready to break again," Ellefson said: "I did not. I think one of the things — and this probably started 20 years ago, when MEGADETH was disbanded in 2002 and then put back together in 2004, it was very clear in 2004 that it was gonna be reframed around Dave unilaterally, one hundred percent being the boss and running the show. Gone were the days of the partnership, the '90s, where it was me, Nick [Menza], Marty [Friedman], Dave — kind of 'the four horsemen ride again' kind of mentality… That day was done; it was not gonna be that anymore. And that's where we fell apart in 2004 and I wasn't with the group through those years. Coming back to it in 2010, now we're a few years older, [with] a little more maturity in the situation, realizing that we're better together, that even though it's not, on paper, a partnership, there's a kind of visual partnership — the optics of it are kind of, like, 'Yeah, this looks better as MEGADETH with me and Dave together. We're one of those bands that, although Dave is the quarterback and the quarterback still plays, the overall feeling and likability and I think everything about it just feels better when it's Dave and Dave together, because we've been together from the beginning for so many years. And I think that worked really well for the last decade. At the same time, Dave and I are grown men, and we have opinions. It's not the thing where it's just Dave and three side guys when it's me and the band. And apparently, they didn't want that anymore — they wanted it to not be that. And I can't speak for them, 'cause I don't know. I'm not trying to put words in anybody's mouth about that. But it just seemed like 'there's just too much history here, and let's just part ways now and let MEGADETH move forward on a new day with kind of a new marching order.' So rather than fight it, which is what happened 20 years ago, 'cause we were dissolving a partnership at that point, we're not dissolving a partnership [this time]. It's, like, 'Hey, we don't want you here. There's the door. Don't come to work on Monday.' So, it's, like, 'Okay. Fine.' And that's just how I viewed it, and that's how I view it today. I don't have any sour grapes over it, and I'm not bitter about it."

Two days after Mustaine announced Ellefson's latest departure from MEGADETH, the bassist released a follow-up statement in which he vowed to file a "defamation lawsuit" against the person who "illegally posted a very private video" of the bassist and made "false allegations" against him. He also said he was working with the police in Scottsdale "in their investigation into charges regarding revenge pornography to be filed against the person who posted the video. This person will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Ellefson wrote. He went on to say that he was "taking this time to be with my family" and wished his "bandmates" the best with their upcoming tour.

Ellefson laid down his bass tracks on MEGADETH's sixteenth LP in May 2020 at a studio in Nashville, Tennessee.

In July, Mustaine announced during an episode of his Gimme Radio program "The Dave Mustaine Show" that Ellefson's bass tracks would not be used on the new MEGADETH LP.

Ellefson was in MEGADETH from the band's inception in 1983 to 2002, and again from 2010 until his latest e

L.A. GUNS singer Phil Lewis was asked in a new interview with Metal Rules if the band is "in a good place now with the right people." He responded: "Well, I would like to say yeah, but not really. Everything is cool with Johnny [Martin], our bass player, and Adam [Hamilton], who is our engineer. He has done everything from playing bass, rhythm guitar, and this time [on L.A. GUNS' latest album, 'Checkered Past'] he played drums. Because of the pandemic, we needed to record with someone who had their own setup, and Adam had it.

"As much as we would have liked to have brought our touring drummer Scot Coogan in, it just wasn't possible. He didn't have a studio, and we didn't have a way to get him over to Adam. So, unfortunately, he decided to quit. Which is fine — he is a busy guy and involved in a lot of other projects. We wish him well, and I understand his frustration that we have an album coming out, and he isn't on it. So, we got Shane Fitzgibbon back on drums. He is a wonderful boy — I mean, a cool guy who played on the first two albums during the reunion. He agreed to come back and fill in for a bunch of shows. We are not sure how long he will stick around because he is committed to other projects in L.A. That's the reason he is not in the band in the first place. So, we have been in a little bit of turmoil there, finding a great drummer with a great personality. We did take a hit, and I'm really upset about it. We just have to roll with it and move on."

In a 2020 interview with SFL Music Magazine, Lewis called Hamilton "an honorary member" of L.A. GUNS. "I mean, he's been in this band three times in a different capacity," he said. "He's been a bass player; he's been a drummer and a guitar player. The only thing he hasn't done is been a frontman. He could do that too, I have no doubt."

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 guitarist Tracii Guns. It follows 2017's "The Missing Peace" and 2019's "The Devil You Know".

Written and recorded during late 2020 and early 2021, "Checkered Past" sees Guns, Lewis and company continuing with the darker lyrical tone of "The Devil You Know" and "The Missing Peace", while incorporating their classic rock influences into the mix.

L.A. GUNS performed its second album, 1989's "Cocked & Loaded", in its entirety on November 28, 2020 at the Fremont Country Club in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was livestreamed via Veeps.

In a new interview with The Aquarian Weekly, ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello was asked about all the PANTERA stories he chose to include in his memoir, "Fathers, Brothers, And Sons: Surviving Anguish, Abandonment, And Anthrax", which is due on November 2 via Rare Bird.

"These were my brothers," he said. "I still feel close to Dime [guitarist 'Dimebag' Darrell Abbott] and Vinnie [drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott] and all of the PANTERA guys, but Dime and Vinnie, specifically, were the best of the best. When I say people know PANTERA, they know the guys, but the real people that they were…. Dime and Vinnie were good-hearted people. They were the best of the best on Earth. They were just good people aside from the music stuff. They were good people that you wanted to talk with like we're talking right now, and every other word would have you laughing your ass off. The Abbott brothers were just great people from a great family.

"I remember we went on tour with PANTERA, and I don't even think I put this in the book," he continued. "We're on the road and we're having a ball, usually drinking, and it was insane. I remember we were going to have a Thanksgiving on the road. We were on tour and we couldn't all get home, so we, the band ANTHRAX, were just going to have it at some restaurant. Now, the guys from PANTERA — Vinnie, Dime, and the rest of them — put together this great Thanksgiving dinner for all of us — PANTERA and ANTHRAX, all crews and everybody involved with the tour — and it was one of the most fun times I ever had in my life because it was great food, great people, music, and it was family. That's why when I talk about PANTERA, that's family. As much as my family is, PANTERA is family because we had those times together. They made us have a specific dinner. They knew we were away from home. We were in Dallas and we had this great dinner. They're the best of the best. Top notch — nothing will every touch them. Dime will forever be known as the sixth member of ANTHRAX because he played on so many records with us."

Back in 2012, ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian stated about Abbott: "[Dimebag's] one of the few people on the planet I've ever seen that was able to drink the way he drank starting at 5 in the afternoon and then get onstage at 9, 9:30 and still rip it up. It just made him loose," King agreed. "It got him in the vibe to play."

Ian also explained why his time with Dimebag was more booze-soaked than any regular old alcohol-fueled metal tour. "My normal rules went out the window when I played with those guys," he said. "I would try to keep it to a minimum and say, 'I'm not doing more than three shots with you before I play.' But then they're walking onstage and handing me drinks in the middle of a set or pouring 'em down your throat. Any time I toured with those guys was the drunkest I've been in my life."

Ian also recalled hitting a strip club with several other metal musicians, including members of KISS and MÖTLEY CRÜE. "I do remember a night in New York where randomly, somehow Frankie, Vinnie Paul, Darrell, Tommy Lee and Gene Simmons all ended up together at [the strip club] Scores. We ended up in a private room and for three or four hours I'm sitting next to Dime with a stripper on my lap constantly. There never wasn't a girl on my lap and there was always someone refilling my drinks. I remember saying to somebody afterward, 'Who paid for that? What did we do?' And the next day in the New York Post I saw a story, 'Tommy Lee dropped 28 grand at Scores last night.' So I guess I owe Tommy a thank you."

"Dimebag" Darrell Abbott was shot to death along with three others during a DAMAGEPLAN performance at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio in December 2004.

Dimebag was posthumously inducted into the Hollywood RockWalk in May 2007 in a ceremony attended by Vinnie Paul, their father Jerry Abbott and Dimebag's longtime girlfriend, Rita Haney, along with members of ALICE IN CHAINS, ANTHRAX, KISS, SLAYER and Ozzy Osbourne's band.

Vinnie Paul died in June 2018 at the age of 54 in his sleep at his home in Las Vegas. The official cause of death was dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart, as well as severe coronary artery disease. He was buried next to his brother and their mother, Carolyn, at Moore Memorial Gardens cemetery in Arlington, Texas.

EXODUS frontman Steve "Zetro" Souza has told The Metal Mixtape in a new interview that he and his bandmates are no longer partaking in the rock and roll debauchery on the road that earned them a reputation as being "wild men" during the group's early years. "As we've gotten older, it's just that natural progression," he explained (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "Gary [Holt, EXODUS guitarist] and I are 57, so we're both grandfathers. So that's not a part of our lifestyle anymore. I haven't had alcohol in my system for years. I don't drink soda or juice or anything; I just drink water. We cleaned that up a hundred percent. So the performances are much more clear; they're much more memorable. And when you go up there, it's all about the performance now. It's not about, 'Oh, shit, man. What's going on after tonight? We've got a bunch of broads in here. I can't wait to get offstage and pop a beer and go out and mingle and have a good time.' It's not like that anymore, and I mean not even close — it's completely 180 [degrees] the other way."

He continued: "There's really nothing going on. There's definitely no parties going on. There's nobody running around girls. Like I said, we're grandfathers — that shit doesn't happen anymore. Nobody's doing drugs; we don't do drugs. So the hardest thing that's going on is a couple of beers, a couple of shots, and between a few guys. 'Cause Gary, Jack [Gibson, EXODUS bassist] and myself don't drink. Gary is just recently sober. I haven't drank since '09; Jack, I think, a little bit after that. Every once in a while, we'll be at a place and [someone will say], 'Oh, man, you've gotta try this beer,' and I'll have a glass of beer. I don't mind having a taste, but there's no way I'm gonna sit there and go, 'Dude, let's just go.' It's just not where I'm at mentally."

Last month, Holt told the "Talk Toomey" podcast that various members of EXODUS dabbling in methamphetamine was largely responsible for the band not achieving the same kind of success as some of their contemporaries.

"When four-fifths of your band — Jack being the only guy who wasn't — was spun out of their minds, it kind of tends to put up some road blocks to success," he said. "I laugh about it now. Any former tweaker will tell you this: There are some fun moments, some fun shit that happens when you're sleep-deprived. But I'm so glad [that it's behind me]. I never [wanna] go back there."

According to Gary, drugs weren't "a big problem" for EXODUS back in the 1980s. "We partied. Back in the early days, we'd get a little bag of meth and the whole band would function on it all night. It was in the '90s when we reunited with [singer Paul] Baloff, and that's when we got really fucking spun and started smoking meth," he explained. "And shit got bad then. It fucking sucked. But I laid that cross to bear on the ground a long time ago — 2002. Hell, I'm 90 days sober today. [Laughs] I'm no fun at all anymore — no more meth, no more alcohol. I do smoke a little bit of weed nowadays though. It's much better. It's only an occasional thing for me, though. My wife's a full-on stoner, and occasionally I'll join her, like, 'Hand me that.'"

EXODUS will release its new album, "Persona Non Grata", on November 19 via Nuclear Blast Records. The LP was recorded at a studio in Lake Almanor, California and was engineered by Steve Lagudi and EXODUS. It was produced by EXODUS and was mixed by Andy Sneap. For the third time in the band's history, they returned to Swedish artist Pär Olofsson to create the album artwork.

"Persona Non Grata" is the follow-up to 2014's "Blood In Blood Out", which was the San Francisco Bay Area thrashers' first release since the departure of the group's lead singer of nine years, Rob Dukes, and the return of Souza, who previously fronted EXODUS from 1986 to 1993 and from 2002 to 2004.

In a new interview with Noise11.com 's Paul Cashmere, MÖTÖRHEAD drummer Mikkey Dee was asked if it's nice to see so many musicians around the world paying tribute to iconic MÖTÖRHEAD leader Ian Fraser "Lemmy" Kilmister in the years following his death. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Absolutely. It's what it is. Most of us are just great friends out there. We love what we're doing. We have the same vision. We have the same mentality — most of us — and just trying to have a good time entertaining the crowd and enjoying ourselves along the way. That's how it is.

"Of course, when a colleague passes away, you do whatever you can," he continued. "I mean, it's so final. I remember when Ronnie [James Dio] passed away, it felt like a disaster. And then, one after the other keeps popping off this planet. And what can you do? You can just honor the person as good as you can."

Lemmy died on December 28, 2015 at the age of 70 shortly after learning he had been diagnosed with cancer.

MOTÖRHEAD had to cancel a number of shows in 2015 because of Lemmy's poor health, although the band did manage to complete the aforementioned European tour a couple of weeks before his death.

In June 2020, it was announced that Lemmy will get the biopic treatment. The upcoming film, "Lemmy", will be directed by Greg Olliver, who previously helmed the 2010 documentary of the same name, "Lemmy".

"Lemmy" will will follow Kilmister's life growing up in Stoke-on-Trent, becoming a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and a member of seminal psychedelic rock band HAWKWIND before forming MOTÖRHEAD.

A custom-made urn containing Lemmy's ashes is on permanent display in a columbarium at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood, California.

DREAM THEATER keyboardist Jordan Rudess spoke to "The Chuck Schute Podcast" about the band's upcoming album, "A View From The Top Of The World", which is due on October 22. Speaking about whether the first two singles from the LP, "Invisible Monster" and "The Alien", are representative of the whole effort, Jordan said: "DREAM THEATER fans are incredibly active — they all have opinions; they're all experts — which is an interesting space for us all, as the artists in the band, it's interesting to have that happening all the time.

"I would say that it's hard when you release a tune or two to totally know what's coming. Everybody wants to listen to 'Invisible Monster' and say, 'Oh, that's what the DREAM THEATER album is?' Oh, well, then I'll love it.' Or, 'I don't know.' But meanwhile, that's a small offering from a big work. So anybody who's listening to this and hasn't heard the album yet, know that there's a whole lot more going on stylistically than either of those songs.

"I would say that if you had to judge a book by its cover that the better cover to judge it from is 'The Alien', because that one is a little bit more open-spirited; it's not trying to be more of a concise song," he explained. "And it's a little bit more what the album is about, 'cause, first of all, most of the songs are longer. So 'The Alien' kind of tells the story — it has the virtuosity, it has the metal, it has the proggy, it has the melodic, it kind of shows you what we were going for in the bigger picture of this album. But, again, even that doesn't cover everything. It's just one song; and we went in other directions as well."

According to Rudess, "A View From The Top Of The World" is "not a concept album." "Each song is really its own thing," he said. "If anything ties it together, it's the desire that we had to make an album in a certain way. We knew we wanted to have heaviness to it; we wanted to have really good hooks. The vocal sections, we always like to be as catchy as possible. We wanted to have some really cool leads — trading off between myself and [guitarist] John Petrucci. So there's elements that kind of tie it together more than anything else. 'Cause I think every DREAM THEATER album, to a certain extent, you can kind of almost put in a particular category. Like somebody says, ''Octavarium', that's your prog album,' or, ''Train Of Thought', that's your heavy album.' It doesn't totally ring true for me — those categorizations — because those albums are deep, and there's always a little bit of everything that we do. Even on 'Train Of Thought', there's a lot of proggy stuff on there too; 'As I Am' is on that album. So you can find things that you might say [make it seem like] the 'heavy' album. But the reality is you have 'Stream Of Consciousness' — that's one of the songs on 'Train Of Thought' — that's really more prog than anything else."

"A View From The Top Of The World" marks DREAM THEATER's second studio album with InsideOut Music/Sony Music. The artwork was created by longtime cover collaborator Hugh Syme (RUSH, IRON MAIDEN, STONE SOUR). "A View From The Top Of The World" was produced by Petrucci, engineered and additional production by James "Jimmy T" Meslin and mixed/mastered by Andy Sneap.

DREAM THEATER — comprised of James LaBrie, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess, John Myung and Mike Mangini — was in the middle of a sold-out world tour in support of their last release "Distance Over Time" and the 20th anniversary of "Scenes From A Memory" when a global pandemic brought the world to a stop. The musicians found themselves at home, with LaBrie in Canada and the rest of the group in the States. As fate would have it, they'd just finished construction on DTHQ (Dream Theater Headquarters) — a combination live recording studio, rehearsal space, control room, equipment storage, and creative hive. With LaBrie in Canada, he initially wrote with the band via Zoom on a monitor in DTHQ. In March 2021, he flew down to New York, quarantined, and recorded his vocals face-to-face with Petrucci.

A cause of death has been revealed for actress Julie E. "Tawny" Kitaen, who is best known in the rock world for her appearance in WHITESNAKE's video for "Here I Go Again".

A spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff's Department in California said that the 59-year-old's cause of death was dilated cardiomyopathy. The manner of death was ruled natural.

According to the spokesman, other significant conditions included mild coronary atherosclerosis (clogged arteries); mirtazapine (antidepressant), mirtazapine metabolite, alprazolam (Xanax), acetaminophen (Tylenol), pregabalin (nerve pain medication) and hydrocodone (opioid).

Kitaen died on May 7 at her home in Newport Beach, California.

Tawny's children — Wynter and Raine Finley, whom she shared with ex-husband, baseball player Chuck Finley — confirmed their mother's passing, writing in a statement: "We are heartbroken and saddened to announce the death of our mom. We just want to say thank you for all of you, her fans and her friends, for always showing her such support and love. You gave her life everyday. We miss her and love her and we know her legacy will live on forever."

While WHITESNAKE was working on it 1987 self-titled album, the band's lead singer David Coverdale started dating Kitaen, who had recently starred opposite Tom Hanks in the movie "Bachelor Party". Kitaen soon appeared in several of WHITESNAKE's music videos, including those for "Here I Go Again", "Is This Love" and "Still Of The Night". Footage of Kitaen writhing around on the hood of a Jaguar in the "Here I Go Again" clip has been called one of the most iconic — and sexiest — video moments ever filmed.

Last June, Tawny told "Ouch, You're On My Hair" about how she ended up being featured in the WHITESNAKE videos: "Ironically, I started dating David. He was two million dollars in debt to David Geffen at that time. I was working and had more money than David at that time, so I kind of supported us a little. And when I heard the album and I was allowed to go in and help mix the album… You know how when you sing different tracks, they give you a piece of paper and you pick the word from the best track. So I was able to do that. And John Kalodner, who was the biggest A&R guy in the business, who works for David Geffen, in my 'E! True Hollywood Story' called me Yoko Ono — because I picked the album covers, I picked the single, I picked the photographer. I made the rule that no girls were allowed backstage, so the groupies must have hated me.

"I'll tell you how I came to be in the video," she continued. "Marty Callner, the director of all the WHITESNAKE videos, had it all planned out — had the girl, had everything. The night before the shoot, David said, 'Will you come with me to Marty, the director of the video's house? We have to go over the story boards.' So we went over to his Bel Air mansion, and he opens up the door, and without even saying hi or hello, he pointed at me and he said, 'You're her.' And I'm, like, 'I'm who?' And he said, 'You're the girl.' And I was already an actress. I had turned down a couple of bands from not being in their video, because I was an actress. 'I'm not gonna do a rock video. Are you kidding?' That was the mentality. But it was my boyfriend at the time's video, so I thought, 'All right, I've already helped my boyfriend on all the RATT album covers' — referring to her former boyfriend, late RATT guitarist Robbin Crosby — "why can't I help my boyfriend in his videos?' And so that's how it happened. And this poor girl got a call that she was no longer gonna be in it, and here I was."

In a 2019 interview with Consequence Of Sound, Coverdale confirmed that Kitaen was not the first choice for the female figure featured in the video. "Claudia Schiffer was supposed to be 'the WHITESNAKE woman,' when she was the Guess jeans girl," he said. "But that fell apart near the actual shoot. And I was taking Tawny out for dinner, when Marty Callner called me, and said, 'You have to stop by, we have problems.' We went to his house on the way to dinner, he opened the door, his jaw hit the floor — as you know, Tawny was an absolute beauty — and he said, 'That's her! She's the WHITESNAKE woman!' And I said, 'Marty, this is a friend of mine. She's an actress.' And she said, 'No, David. I'm happy to do it!' So, sorry Claudia — you did very well afterwards, too."

Coverdale and Kitaen tied the knot in 1989 but the union only lasted two years. Kitaen married Finley in 1997 and divorced him in 2002, not long after she was arrested for allegedly attacking her husband in their SUV a few blocks from their home. According to the Los Angeles Times, Kitaen pleaded not guilty to the charges of domestic violence, and the case was dismissed in 2003 after she attended court-mandated counseling. When she and Finley divorced, she released a statement saying she was being treated for a dependency on prescription drugs and vowed to become "the healthiest and the best mother possible" to her two daughters.

Prior to hooking up with Coverdale, Kitaen appeared in RATT's "Back For More" music video. She was also featured in several reality shows, including "The Surreal Life", "Botched" and "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew". She had several other run-ins with the law, including a charge for cocaine possession in 2006 and driving under the influence in 2009.

One of the Jaguars from the "Here I Go Again" video was dusted off for WHITESNAKE's clip for "Shut Up & Kiss Me", from 2019's "Flesh & Blood" album.

The day after Kitaen's passing, Coverdale tweeted: "Just woke up to some very sad, unexpected news… My sincere condolences to her children, her family, friends & fans…"

"How did I get myself into such a mess? You'll have to watch the new Fury music video, 'Hell Of A Night', to find out," says bassist Becky Baldwin.


"I love combining music with horror, and a good lump of comedy for good measure, too! The first single from our forthcoming album is out now. 'Hell Of A Night' is a tribute to scary movies, so we had to get it out in time for Halloween." 


"Huge thanks to Lion Island Media for producing yet another amazing video, and making all of our nightmarish fantasies come true. This was perhaps the most fun video to shoot so far, drafting in dozens of friends and fans to make horrifying appearances." 


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This past July, WHITESNAKE announced that it had enlisted Croatian singer/multi-instrumentalist Dino Jelusick for its upcoming tour. Jelusick is a member of multi-platinum selling band TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA and was previously part of DIRTY SHIRLEY (with George Lynch), ANIMAL DRIVE and recorded with many others. Dino has been singing, touring and recording since the age of five. Other than being a frontman, his main instrument are keyboards but he also plays bass, guitar and drums. He finished music academy and did theater work.

Asked in a new interview with Antihero Magazine what Dino's role will be on WHITESNAKE's final tour, the band's leader David Coverdale said: "He's going to be the way I have two guitar players.

"I've always seen WHITESNAKE as an orchestra," he explained. "I don't see it as a band-band. I don't want two guitarists playing exactly the same song, or just harmony guitars, I want two opposing… you've got the incendiary Joel Hoekstra, entirely different to the electrifying Reb Beach. And this is not to overwhelm Michele [Luppi, WHITESNAKE keyboardist]. Michele's totally secure. I adore him and what he brings to WHITESNAKE.

"In 2019, Dino's band opened for us in Zagreb, and this is very rare for me, and I went, 'Who the fuck is that?' And I was going, 'Wow, that kid's great.' And Joel said, 'Yeah, I worked with him in the TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA. He's a great guy.' And I said, 'That guy's a snake, dude.' And I said, 'Don't say anything yet. I'm going to keep my eyes and ears on him.'

"So, I think it's going to be fantastic," Coverdale added. "I'm going to have an orchestra of keyboards for a lot of songs on WHITESNAKE which are big epics, that make them even more musically orchestrated without having an orchestra on stage with us.

"I mean, the guy's great, I can't wait to sing with him. I already have three singers who are good enough to be frontman singers, with Michael Devin and Michele Luppi, and Reb Beach; they are really great singers. What's wrong with having another one? And I think he's a super guy. He has his challenges legally at the moment, but talent, belief, and courage will always win. And I can't wait for us to start rehearsals, I really can't. It's got to be exciting to me and adding another spice to an already good cocktail."

Last month, Dino told Mónica Moreira of More Than Words about his involvement with WHITESNAKE: "Well, David mentioned that he would love to fly me [to] his house and that he would love [for] me and him to write some songs for WHITESNAKE.

"I'll be playing keyboards. I'll be doing backing vocals. I'll be playing guitars on a couple of songs," he explained. "And that's as far as I know."

Asked if he is in any way a bit sad to know that this will be probably WHITESNAKE's farewell tour, Dino said: "Well, no. Every band has an expire date. WHITESNAKE has been going for 40, 50 years now. More than 40 years — since '78 or '77, when the first album came out. But I'm proud to be the last WHITESNAKE member ever. When you see the guys that played in this band. You had Jon Lord. You had Don Airey on keyboards. You had Timothy Drury, Michele Luppi and myself. It's five keyboardists of WHITESNAKE. There were a couple of more playing live — yeah, Paul Mirkovich was in 1994, playing that leg. Yeah, there were a couple of more. But, yeah, it's definitely a beautiful part of history in the making."

When Jelusick's addition to WHITESNAKE was first announced, David said in a statement: "I am absolutely delighted to welcome the extremely gifted Dino Jelusick to WHITESNAKE. We've had our eyes and ears on him since we played Zagreb together two years ago. You're going to love him!"

Dino said he has been influenced by WHITESNAKE and Coverdale from an early age.

"I am beyond honored to be part of one of my favorite bands of all time," he said. "To get the phone call from David Coverdale is something every singer and musician of my generation can only dream of; it still feels completely surreal. I cannot wait to start hitting the road with WHITESNAKE and, as the great DC said to me himself, to give a piece of my identity to the sound of this iconic band."

On October 29, WHITESNAKE will release newly remastered and remixed CD and LP deluxe editions of "Restless Heart", along with unreleased demos and studio outtakes and a DVD. The DVD includes music videos and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the album with new interviews from Coverdale. The set comes with a hardbound book filled with rare and unseen photos from the era.

Coverdale, who will turn 70 on September 22, recently confirmed that he plans to retire from touring after WHITESNAKE's next batch of concerts around the world.

Coverdale had both his knees replaced with titanium in 2017 after suffering from degenerative arthritis. He later explained that he was in so much pain with arthritis in his knees that it hampered his ability to perform live.

WHITESNAKE had been touring in support of its latest album, "Flesh & Blood", which was released in May 2019 via Frontiers Music Srl.

During an appearance on MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn's "No Fuckin' Regrets With Robb Flynn" podcast, LAMB OF GOD frontman Randy Blythe elaborated on his recent Instagram post where he urged everyone coming to see LAMB OF GOD perform to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear a mask.

"I believe in fucking science," Randy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "And I have friends who are doctors and scientists and nurses, and these are people I'm going to listen to — not someone on social media, not another musician, not a talking head on CNN, Fox News, USA Today, PBS; none of this stuff. I talk to my friends who are molecular biologists, immunologists, emergency room doctors, and I have friends who are nurses, one of whom works in a COVID ward — and someone very close to me. These are not my friends' neighbors' second cousin's buddy [saying], 'I heard this or that or the other'; these are people who are friends of mine I talk to directly. They're, like, 'This is real. This is the science. This is the data. This is what I see. These are the people I see dying.' So I'm going to listen to my friends 'cause they're a lot smarter than me.

"For me, everybody has to quote-unquote do their own research, I guess," he laughed. "My research involves talking to friends of mine who spent years of their lives pursuing degrees that cost them thousands and thousands of dollars, or who dedicate their lives to the service of others in the medical profession. And this is what these people are telling me. So I don't have to filter through all this data, through all these different media sources; I just talk to my friends. 'Are you vaccinated?' 'Yes.' 'Tell me about this vaccine. Tell me about the technology.' And I've had these conversations.

"When the vaccine came out very rapidly, comparatively, like anyone else, I was, like, 'Well, that's quick,'" Randy admitted. "But then some friends of mine explained to me, 'This is old technology. They've been working on this for 15 fucking years. It's not new. So cut it out with that.' And also, this is not just an American or one country's or one corporation's push; this is a massive international effort to get this vaccine ready — different ones ready — for distribution.

"I have a friend who works in intelligence — pretty high-level intelligence — and one of their jobs right now is helping out with COVAX, which is the international vaccine distribution arm. And he [was] talking to one of his co-workers from COVAX, and it was just, like, it's very frustrating with certain places where the vaccine is available and people don't wanna take it, and there are countries that are begging for it.

"All that aside, for me, like I said, it's a matter of talking to my friends and being, like, 'What's the deal with this?'" Blythe added. "Because these are people I trust, and they're a lot smarter than me… So I'm going to listen to them — I'm just gonna."

LAMB OF GOD's tour with MEGADETH, TRIVIUM and HATEBREED kicked off on August 20 in Austin, Texas. It marked LAMB OF GOD's first run of shows since the release of its self-titled album in June 2020.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 77 percent of Americans aged 12 years and older have been at least partially vaccinated against the coronavirus, while 67 percent are fully vaccinated.

More than 724,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the U.S.

Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNBC that COVID-19 vaccines "are extremely safe," noting that the risks of the side effects from the vaccines are significantly lower than the health risks posed by the virus. "COVID, on the other hand, is deadly, unpredictable."

Fully vaccinated people are five times less likely to be infected by the disease, 10 times less likely to be hospitalized and 11 times less likely to die because of the virus compared to those are unvaccinated.

During an appearance on the "Oral Sessions With Renée Paquette" podcast, Corey Taylor discussed the COVID-19 safety procedures and protocols that are being implemented on SLIPKNOT's ongoing "Knotfest Roadshow" U.S. tour, featuring support from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, FEVER 333 and CODE ORANGE.

"All the bands are super rad and so stoked to be back on the road," Corey said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "And we have such stringent restrictions that everybody is really, really happy about it. We're doing our best to kind of set the standard so other bands, other tours can kind of come around and follow the example.

"Basically, [we're playing] Live Nation-only venues, which require all staff to be vaccinated," he explained. "It also means that at the gigs, you can either show a vaccination card or a negative test to come in. And it basically means that you're masked at all times backstage. If someone pops positive, they're quarantined and they stay behind.

"We've only had two outside crew people test positive, and we have been lucky enough, once that happened, we have tested every day — all the crews of all the bands, all the [members] of all the bands, all the bus drivers; everyone — to make sure that we're all negative," Taylor added. "So it's an arduous process, but it's a necessary process to make sure that we keep this machine on the road. There are so many moving parts, there are so many people in so many different positions that you don't even realize that you can trace back contact with one of them through, like, six other people. You just never know — one person on the outside gets it, they have contact with three people who are close to you [and] boom, you're exposed. So it's a juggling act, trying to make sure that we keep it in check."

The "Knotfest Roadshow" tour kicked off in late September and is scheduled to wrap up in Arizona in early November.

Earlier this week, CODE ORANGE announced that it was canceling five previously announced headlining shows due to "newly enhanced COVID protocols" on the SLIPKNOT tour.

Last month, Corey said that his breakthrough case of COVID-19 produced symptoms that made him "the sickest" he had ever been in his life, and he credited the vaccine for keeping him out of the hospital.

The 47-year-old SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR singer, who is fully vaccinated, was forced to call off his appearance at a Michigan pop culture convention in August after testing positive for the coronavirus.

SLIPKNOT returned to the live stage for the first time in 18 months on September 4 at the Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, Oklahoma. The gig marked the debut of Taylor's new mask, which he had been working on for the past few months.

SLIPKNOT has spent the last few months working on a new studio album, tentatively due in 2022.

The band's latest LP, "We Are Not Your Kind", came out in August 2019. The disc sold 118,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Paul Stanley's longtime guitar tech Francis Stueber has died of COVID-19. He was only 52 years old.

The KISS guitarist/vocalist shared the news of his friend's passing in a social media post earlier today (Sunday, October 17). He wrote: "My dear friend, buddy and guitar tech for 20 years, Fran Stueber died yesterday suddenly of Covid. Both on and offstage I depended on him for so much. My family loved him as did I. He was so proud of his wife and 3 boys as they were of him. I'm numb."

Stueber has worked on all KISS and Stanley solo tours and one-off shows since 2002. He even took the stage with the band during the "Gene Simmons Family Jewels" episode where KISS performed for the troops, and was on hand when Stanley cut his 2006 solo album "Live To Win".

Stueber, who had also worked behind the scenes for HEART, THE OFFSPRING and REO SPEEDWAGON's Kevin Cronin, told Gibson in a 2007 interview: "If Paul goes out of tune, it's not his fault, it's my fault. Usually I change his guitar every four to five songs so he doesn't have to worry about going out of tune. It's pretty straightforward with KISS; Paul only plays one tuning and he plays no more than six guitars. Really the only reason I change guitars is for aesthetics."

Last month, KISS announced rescheduled North American tour dates after the band was forced to postpone five shows due to Stanley and bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons testing positive for COVID-19. Simmons later credited his vaccination for keeping his infection "minimal" and encouraged others to consider getting the COVID-19 shot. "Thanks to the vaccine, I'm really fine," Gene tweeted. He also responded to a person who seemingly mocked him for catching COVID even though he was inoculated. "Vaccine protects you about 95%. However, you can still get Delta Covid variant," Simmons wrote. "I did…But the effects are minimal, if you've been vaccinated twice. Without vaccine = hospital, pain and maybe death. Do your research. You'll come off much brighter."

In a recent social media post, KISS said the whole band and the crew members who are traveling with them on the tour are fully vaccinated. Members of KISS "and their crew have operated in a bubble independently to safeguard everyone as much as possible at each show and in between shows," the band wrote in the statement. "The tour also has a COVID safety protocol officer on staff full-time that is ensuring everyone is closely following all CDC guidelines," the statement continued.




My dear friend, buddy and guitar tech for 20 years, Fran Stueber died yesterday suddenly of Covid. Both on and offstage I depended on him for so much. My family loved him as did I. He was so proud of his wife and 3 boys as they were of him. I’m numb. pic.twitter.com/RvwUGpFt0X

— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) October 17, 2021








We all love you Fran. Rest in peace. https://t.co/EkWgqHPZRc

— KISS (@kiss) October 18, 2021