METALLICA headlined the second night of ATLive on Saturday, November 6 at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Whiplash

02. Ride The Lightning

03. The Memory Remains

04. Seek & Destroy

05. Holier Than Thou

06. One

07. Sad But True

08. Moth Into Flame

09. No Leaf Clover

10. For Whom The Bell Tolls

11. Fuel

12. Fade To Black

13. Master Of Puppets

Encore:

14. Blackened

15. Nothing Else Matters

16. Enter Sandman

When the event was first announced in July, METALLICA said in a statement: "We're honored to be part of the second annual ATLive two-day festival — featuring two unique, separately ticketed events — this fall when we'll be hitting the stage with our friends CAGE THE ELEPHANT and GRETA VAN FLEET. Night one features country music's finest with George Strait, Eric Church and Caitlyn Smith kicking off the weekend.

"Presented by AMB Sports and Entertainment, the organization will generously be donating a portion of the proceeds from ATLive to All Within My Hands to help our foundation further its work in the fight against hunger."

The second annual ATLive feature iconic artists from both country and rock on back-to-back nights.

ATLive, a multi-genre concert series developed and promoted by AMB Sports and Entertainment, is the premier destination concert series for the city of Atlanta. The event also provides the opportunity to give back through purpose-driven philanthropic initiatives, aligning with the organization's core values. This year, AMBSE is partnering with George Strait and his longstanding partners at the Military Warriors Support Foundation as well as METALLICA's All Within My Hands nonprofit to donate a portion of the proceeds from ATLive to providing housing for wounded veterans and feeding the hungry.

Tim Zulawski, chief revenue officer for AMB Sports and Entertainment, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the idea for ATLive began percolating about five years ago.

"You have 365 days in a calendar year and yes, we want to make the stadium full every day to make money, but also because it means you're putting on great content," Zulawski said. "There are only so many pieces of content that puts 50,000 people in a building and [live music] is one of them."

Rudy Sarzo played his first show as the returning bassist for veteran rockers QUIET RIOT last night (Saturday, November 6) at The Groove Music Hall in Thornburg, Virginia. Joining him in the group's current lineup are guitarist Alex Grossi, vocalist Jizzy Pearl and drummer Johnny Kelly.

Fan-filmed video footage of the Thornburg concert can be seen below.

Rudy was one of the members of QUIET RIOT's "Metal Health" lineup. He played bass on the classic LP, which sold over ten million copies and spawned the hits "Cum On Feel The Noize" and "Metal Health" and on the follow-up record "Condition Critical".

Sarzo appeared in the most notable music videos in the MTV age and toured with the band until 1985 and again from 1997 to 2003. During his years out of the band, Sarzo was a member of OZZY OSBOURNE, WHITESNAKE, DIO, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, QUEENSRŸCHE and THE GUESS WHO.

With the move, longtime QUIET RIOT bassist Chuck Wright has graciously stepped aside to continue his recent solo efforts while heightening his role with his award-winning residency show "Ultimate Jam Night" at the legendary Whisky A Go-Go which all the members of QUIET RIOT fully support.

States Sarzo: "I'm excited to be back home and celebrate the QUIET RIOT legacy, which began 40 years ago next year with the recording of 'Metal Health', the first heavy metal album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard top 200 albums chart."

Upcoming QUIET RIOT shows:

Dec. 04 - Ridglea Theater - Ft. Worth, TX

Dec. 31 - Fremont Country Club - Las Vegas, NV

Mar. 26 - Mass Mutual Center - Springfield, MA

Apr. 01 - Clay County Fair - Auburndale, FL

Apr. 09 - Seneca Allegany Casino - Salamanca, NY

May 07 - United Wireless Arena - Dodge City, KS

May 14 - Johnson County Fairgrounds - Centerville, MO

Jun. 03 - San Bernardino Fairgrounds - San Bernardino, CA

Jun. 18 - Grand Stage Amphitheater - Urich, MO

Jul. 09 - Caesar Ford Park - Xenia, OH

Oct. 08 - Little Creek Casino - Shelton, WA

Sarzo discussed his return to QUIET RIOT in a recent interview with Adika Live!. He said: "My decision, in addition to [it] being [late QUIET RIOT drummer] Frankie's [Banali] request that I return to the band, was a decision that I had to meditate on it, because it is that important. Not meditate whether it was the right decision to make or not — no, that wasn't the point — it was to meditate about the timing of it. Because it could not be an abrupt decision that you drop everything you're doing and you change the band.

"Regina [Frankie's widow] and I, we sat and we talked about it, and we said, 'Okay, the best thing to do is to let everybody fulfill their commitments.' Because I have commitments to the band that I've been playing in for the last five years, THE GUESS WHO. And I wasn't about to tell them, 'Hey, I'm outta here, guys. Good luck.' I've never done that. So I have commitments with them. And QUIET RIOT has commitments with [longtime bassist] Chuck Wright. And we felt that the only thing that we can do, really — [we felt] that all these commitments must be fulfilled so our agreements with everybody is fulfilled."

Rudy went on to say that he has been "making the transition" and "embracing again the whole QUIET RIOT consciousness" by going "back and playing the songs" again. "And actually, it's been wonderful because, I've gotta tell you, to be able to go back to something that you did 40 years ago with the musician I am today, I'm looking at the songs a little bit different, as far as my own contributions," he said. "Of course, it's not gonna be something that is gonna turn into completely something else, but there are certain note choices that I can improve on."

As for what fans can expect to see when he returns to the road with QUIET RIOT, Rudy said: "At the core of the show is gonna be a celebration of the legacy of our bandmates. It's our responsibility as the ones left behind that we must celebrate. It's a must. So that is at the core of the show."

Wright has served off and on with QUIET RIOT for nearly 40 years, appears on nine albums, and is known as the bassist for QUIET RIOT's mega-hit "Metal Health" (Bang Your Head) and "Don't Wanna Let You Go". He was a contributing songwriter on 1986's "QRIII" and appeared in the band's video for "The Wild And The Young", among others. Wright has been one of the band's longest touring and recording members.










....Next stop: The Groove Music Hall at Dominion Raceway... !!

Posted by Quiet Riot on Friday, November 5, 2021

























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In a brand new interview with Darren Paltrowitz, host of the "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz", DEEP PURPLE drummer Ian Paice was asked if there was ever a period when he and his bandmates were worried about not having another "hit" song and not being able to sustain their longevity. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I don't think we were worried about having hits in the first place. It was a time when pop bands made singles and rock bands made albums. So long as we kept coming with albums that people seemed to like, we weren't worried about having a Top 40 hit; if they came along, it was like a bonus. Now, the only time we got concerned was towards the end of Ritchie's [Blackmore, guitar] tenure with the band, as he was losing interest and the performances from the band were not great because you need everybody helping each other out; you can't be a passenger. And we just saw the audiences getting smaller and less impressed, and that was worrying. And when Ritchie decided to leave, that was pretty traumatic, because [we didn't] know what to do then. And had we not been contracted to have to go to Japan, it might all have fallen to bits then. But we had to go to Japan, with the wonderful Joe Satriani [filling in], and it proved that there is life after even somebody as great as Ritchie is. He didn't wanna be there, but it was just as much our band as it was his. And we were still having fun. We started to have fun again when Joe turned up and just became a fifth member of the band, pulling his weight. So that was the light at the end of the tunnel."

He added: "Everybody knows to try and recapture those days of the early '70s, that's never gonna happen. The world moved on to a different place and music moved to a different place and we're different people. But it's all about having fun. And if you make some other people enjoy it with you, that's okay — that's a good end product."

Paice's comments echo those made by DEEP PURPLE bassist Roger Glover, who told U.K.'s Planet Rock in a September 2020 interview that it was a "turbulent time" for him and his bandmates when Blackmore left the group for the final time in November 1993 after a concert in Finland. "It was surprise to me when Ritchie handed in his notice and said he didn't wanna play any more gigs after Helsinki," he said. "And we were on tour at the time. It was so difficult to take in. Somehow we were determined to carry on, if he was gonna do that. Joe Satriani was a temporary replacement, which did show us the way that we could exist without Ritchie. But I felt very strongly that you can't replace Ritchie. He is who he is, and there's no way you can replace him."

He continued: "If you get someone to play like him or similar or something like that, it would have been a horrible comparison. We needed something different. And to me, the character of PURPLE always was Ritchie and Jon [Lord, late PURPLE keyboardist] as instrumentalists, and they're both virtuosos. So you've gotta have a virtuoso. There's thousands of guitarists who can play, but there's very few who stand out as being very individual and different to everyone else. And I felt Steve [Morse, current PURPLE guitarist] presented that. He asked me when we first met, he said, 'What do you want from me?' I said, 'I want you to be yourself. You can't be in the band unless you're yourself, a hundred percent.' And he said, 'So I can play anything?' I said, 'Yeah. Anything will do. We'll let you know if we want it or not.'"

According to Glover, the lineup change had an immediate effect on the band morale.

"'Purpendicular' was one of the happiest albums I've ever made, because suddenly we found ourselves writing songs we could never have written before," Roger said, referring to DEEP PURPLE's first LP with Morse.

Blackmore is a co-founder of DEEP PURPLE and wrote many of their most memorable riffs, including "Smoke On The Water", but he has not played with the group since his 1993 departure.

Blackmore previously suggested that PURPLE's manager had blocked him from joining his former bandmates onstage during the 2016 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, and he used that as an excuse for not attending the event.

Despite Blackmore being a no-show at Rock Hall, he was given several shoutouts during the induction speeches of the DEEP PURPLE members in attendance. In addition, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich, who inducted DEEP PURPLE into the institution, praised "Ritchie fucking Blackmore" for one of the most memorable guitar riffs of all time on "Smoke On The Water".

DEEP PURPLE's next studio effort will be an album of covers titled "Turning To Crime". Due on November 26 via earMUSIC, the LP will contain DEEP PURPLE's versions of great rock classics and musical jewels — including songs originally recorded by Bob Dylan, FLEETWOOD MAC, Bob Seger, CREAM and THE YARDBIRDS — carefully chosen by each member of the band.

In a new interview with the WMMR radio station, ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell was asked about the chances of his band getting inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. ALICE IN CHAINS' debut album, "Facelift", came out in 1990, which would have made the group eligible since 2015. Cantrell said about the possibility (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I've seen some of my friends and peers and mentors be accepted. And it's not something that's gonna make or break your career, but it's always nice to be recognized for your work. I don't really spend a whole lot of time thinking about it. Like I say, it doesn't make or break my career. But it is always nice when people recognize your music and your work and appreciate what you do. That's the reason why you do it — to satisfy yourself as a musician, to create something out of nothing that makes you proud and makes you feel and then give it out to the world and have people react to it and make them feel as well and make it part of their life. It becomes personal to them as well as it's personal to you."

With NIRVANA and PEARL JAM already in the Hall Of Fame, ALICE IN CHAINS is one of a couple of seminal Seattle bands, along with SOUNDGARDEN, that has yet to be inducted.

A few years ago, Cantrell, who performed at the 2013 Rock Hall ceremony with inductees HEART, told Cleveland.com about NIRVANA's 2014 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, making them the first "grunge band" from the Seattle scene to be inducted: "It's well deserved. I loved those guys." But the singer-guitarist added, "I was surprised to see them go in before PEARL JAM. They went in for 'Bleach', which wasn't a big record 'till 'Nevermind' became a big record."

Jerry previously discussed ALICE IN CHAINS' hypothetical Rock Hall induction in a 2013 interview with Radio.com. At the time, he said: "We're not in this to win awards. And that's the attitude I went there with. And I have to say, in fairness, that my opinion was a bit changed by being a guest with HEART and seeing how much it meant for them. It was a cool show, it was with a lot of respect. I was kind of moved."

Cantrell added, "I also liked what [late RUSH drummer and Hall Of Fame inductee] Neil Peart said: 'For years, we've been saying that this isn't a big deal. Turns out: it's a pretty big deal!' It was cool to see him say that."

Two of ALICE IN CHAINS' founding members, singer Layne Staley and bassist Mike Starr, both passed away.

ALICE IN CHAINS released three albums with Staley, who died of a drug overdose, before the surviving members — Cantrell, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney — brought guitarist William DuVall onboard in 2006. After that, they issued three well-received albums: the 2009 Grammy-nominated "Black Gives Way Too Blue", 2013's "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" and 2018's "Rainier Fog".

Cantrell's new solo album, "Brighten", was made available on October 29.

"Singing In My Blood", the first book by former NIGHTWISH singer Tarja Turunen, has just been made available via Rocket 88. Written and compiled over the past year of lockdown, Tarja has searched through scores of photos and memories to create a big, deluxe book about her life in music. There are contributions from friends and colleagues who've played a part in her music on stage, in the studio and at home, alongside lots of previously unseen intimate photos from childhood to the present day.

Asked in a new interview with Chaoszine why she chose not to focus on her time with NIGHTWISH in the book, Tarja said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "NIGHTWISH was a big part of my life. Almost nine years I was a part of the band. I gave for the band my voice, my soul, my face, my image. And it also gave me the whole world of rock and roll, and I'm deeply grateful. And it's always going to be part of my life. But not too many people really know what I've been doing after NIGHTWISH — especially here in Finland; I think it's really a lack of information going on. People do know what I do abroad, but not here. And that was my intention — was to really open that part of my journey and [focus on the fact I've] been doing a solo career almost double the time that I'd been in the band, so I've been surviving there alone."

For more information about "Singing In My Blood", visit tarjabook.com.

Turunen was fired from NIGHTWISH at the end of the band's 2005 tour by being presented with an open letter which was published on the NIGHTWISH web site at the same time. In the letter, the other members of NIGHTWISH wrote: "To you, unfortunately, business, money, and things that have nothing to do with emotions have become much more important."

NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen later called the decision to part ways with Turunen "the most difficult thing I ever had to do." For her part, Tarja said the way she was kicked out of the group proved that her former bandmates were not her friends. "Maybe one day I'll forgive, but I will never forget," she said.

In 2019, Turunen dismissed Internet chatter about her possible return to NIGHTWISH after her December 2017 onstage reunion with the band's then-bassist/vocalist Marko "Marco" Hietala during a "Raskasta Joulua" concert in Hämeenlinna, Finland.

"I know a lot of fans would love to see something happen, but it's a very long distance away," she told Kerrang! magazine. "Personally, I don't see anything happening with me and them, to be perfectly honest. Marco came a little later into the band; he wasn't there since the beginning. He was always a guy I was close to. Me and [NIGHTWISH keyboardist/leader] Tuomas Holopainen, however, haven't seen each other in a long time… but we have been in touch. It's not bad. The past is what it is; we can't change that. We can only change the future."

NIGHTWISH's authorized biography, "Once Upon a Nightwish: The Official Biography 1996-2006", was published in Finnish in 2006 and in English three years later.

Turunen's husband, Marcelo Cabuli, and his business partners later sued the parties behind the book for defamation. Named in the lawsuit were the publishing house Like Kustannus Oy and the author of the book, Marko "Mape" Ollila. Cabuli and his Brazilian business partners argued that the book includes false accusations and insinuations that have caused them suffering and financial problems.

The book blamed Cabuli for the events leading up to Turunen's dramatic expulsion from the band in late 2005.

In 2011, the Helsinki District Court dismissed Cabuli's lawsuit, ruling that the book — which criticized Cabuli on only a few of its 380 pages — did not detrimentally affect his work or reputation in South America. In addition, the court determined that Ollila did not maliciously portray Cabuli in a negative light.

In a new interview with "The Cassius Morris Show", David Ellefson once again opened up about his dismissal from MEGADETH six 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.

Asked if his split with MEGADETH affects only his professional relationship with the band or if it also means the end of his friendship with MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine, Ellefson told "The Cassius Morris Show" (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "My view on that is, look, relationships are never really fully done — especially one where you've had sort of a brotherhood and a professional [relationship] and friendship and all these other things. If you're in a band, it's not like, 'Dude, it's just business.' You're creative, you're friendly, there's business — all those things are intertwined; it's all part of that. So, if we're not hanging right now…

"I don't wish anybody any ill will; I wish everybody the best," he continued. "I think that's one of the ways to sort of bless it — you give it your best and you give it your best energy and not harbor grudges on anything. Instead of being sad that it's over, be glad that it ever even happened. We got to live a dream. We got to do something most people will never get to do, and we got to do it. So, if this is the sort of exit from that, or a timeout from it, whatever it is, let it be what it is.

"I just love that analogy: there's a reason the rearview mirror is very small in the car — 'cause you're not supposed to spend all your time looking at it. Look through the big windshield up front. That's where your head is, that's where your hope is, that's where your future is, where everything is.

"It's easy to micromanage stuff in the rearview mirror, but that's all meant to be behind you," he added. "The good news is, look, our songs still get played everywhere. They get played on the radio. I hear 'em around. I see people wearing our t-shirts. And it's kind of, like, cool. That's awesome. I'm proud to have been a part of all that."

Last month, Ellefson spoke to SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about the statement 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 told "Trunk Nation": "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 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.

In 2004, Ellefson filed an $18.5-million lawsuit against Mustaine, alleging the frontman shortchanged him on profits and backed out of a deal to turn Megadeth Inc. over to him when the band broke up in 2002. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed and Ellefson rejoined MEGADETH in 2010.

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






We will always be best friends.@ellefsondavid @Megadeth pic.twitter.com/kzs89sA8Vy

— Dave Mustaine (@DaveMustaine) November 2, 2017

KIX frontman Steve Whiteman spoke to "The Chuck Shute Podcast" about the band's return to the live stage during the pandemic. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "KIX was busy as hell at the end of May. We worked from May, June, July, August, I mean, almost every weekend — two, three shows a week — just to make up for all the shows that we missed through COVID. And then we got COVID, and we had to shut it down for about a month. We missed another eight shows.

"It was weird, 'cause I got it… And we were vaccinated, so nobody really was in harm's way; it was very mild for all of us," he continued. "But I would get it one week, then Mark [Schenker, bass] would come up with it the next week, then Bob Paré [guitar] got it. It spread out to the point where we had to take the whole month off and lose a whole lot of shows."

According to Whiteman, KIX decided to cancel a month's worth of concerts because "we didn't wanna infect other people. If you have it, you do not [wanna] infect people, so we followed the protocols and we all quarantined. We wouldn't fly with it, we wouldn't go to shows, 'cause you're around a whole bunch of people. Even if they're not in your band, they're still around you all the time. And we didn't wanna infect other people, so we decided to shut it down until everybody could come up with a negative test."

Regarding what symptoms he had while he was battling COVID-19, Steve said: "For me, I thought I was getting a little bit of a cold. I basically had to clear my throat a couple of times a day. I had a slight headache and I lost the taste and smell for about a week and a half."

Whiteman went on to say that he got his second COVID-19 vaccine in March and he contracted the disease in September. "[That's] just about six months, which is about the time when they tell you you need a booster," he said. "That's why the boosters are out now, because a lot of people are breakthrough cases — you thought you were safe, but the vaccine didn't last."

Last month, Whiteman told Adika Live! that would like to see as many people as possible get the COVID-19 vaccine: "We're all vaccinated [in the band], and I preach it. 'We're able to be here tonight because there is a vaccination, and I really encourage everybody to take it.' And I've had people walk out and want their money back because I tell people that I think it's really important that we all get vaccinated. And people who are offended by it, they're just some people that won't do it. And they're the ones [who are] holding everything up.

"We keep our distance," he continued. "We won't do meet-and-greets anymore. We keep our distance backstage. Traveling, you have to get on a plane, you have to wear a mask, but I'm not that worried about it 'cause I am vaccinated. And if I do get it, I don't think it'll be that bad."

Whiteman released a solo album, "You're Welcome", in July. The 12-song LP was co-produced by Whiteman along with his trusted collaborators Brad Divens, Jimmy Chalfant and Bob Paré; it was recorded and mixed by Divens at Fixintogetmixin Studio.

KIX was founded in 1977 and released its first, self-titled album on Atlantic Records nearly 40 years ago. Their breakthrough came with 1988's "Blow My Fuse", which sold nearly a million copies, thanks to "Don't Close Your Eyes". The band continued to ride the hard-rock wave until 1995, when KIX took a hiatus. Nearly 10 years later, KIX reunited and started touring regionally. A 2008 performance at the Rocklahoma festival led to more gigs and the release of a live DVD/CD called "Live In Baltimore" in 2012.

In 2014, KIX released its seventh full-length album, "Rock Your Face Off" (Loud & Proud Records), the band's first studio effort since 1995's "Show Business".

Photo credit: Mark Weiss

Last night (Friday, November 5), Sammy Hagar was joined on stage by Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer and founding member of the legendary GRATEFUL DEAD, Bob Weir, during the third night of the sold-out "Sammy Hagar & Friends" residency at The STRAT Hotel, Casino & SkyPod in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hagar and Weir performed with Sammy's band THE WABOS, featuring guitarist Vic Johnson, drummer David Lauser and bassist Mona Gnader.

The crowd erupted when Weir joined THE WABOS on stage to perform GRATEFUL DEAD classics "Not Fade Away" and "Good Lovin'", as well as DEPECHE MODE's "Personal Jesus". Fans sang along to Hagar's hits, including "I Can't Drive 55" and "There's Only One Way To Rock", as well as a rockin' rendition of Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar".

The STRAT Theater has a capacity of about 800 people. The theater was designed to capture the beach vibe Hagar's synonymous with, including elements of his famed Cabo Wabo Cantina in Cabo San Lucas, home to his epic annual birthday bash.

Additional shows are scheduled on November 6, November 12 and November 13, all at 9 p.m.

"Sammy & Friends" celebrates Hagar's career, spanning four decades, from his solo career, MONTROSE, VAN HALEN, CHICKENFOOT, THE CIRCLE, and surprise additions to the setlist depending on which of his musician friends take the stage with him.

Speaking to the Las Vegas Sun about what fans can expect from the residency concerts, Hagar said: "Nobody is going to hear the same thing twice. One night we're going to come out and play VAN HALEN for an hour, then start cherry picking. Another night, we might just play MONTROSE, which will be fun because that's only about 35 minutes of music. I want to do it with a different theme every night and really mix it up.

"The team at The STRAT has been awesome and they've really allowed us to come in and do what we want to do," he added. "That room is great and I looked at every room that was available in Las Vegas. My fans, the Redheads, they come from all over the world, and you want them to be in a place like Vegas where they can have a good time before and after the show. The experience in Vegas is like no other town. If you can't find something to do here, you're either broke or in a really bad mood."

Produced by industry leader SPI Entertainment and Hagar's manager, Tom Consolo of TC Management, "Sammy Hagar & Friends" sold out each show in under two hours. New dates will be announced for 2022.




And then Bob Weir popped in… #thegratefuldead

Posted by Terry Evans on Friday, November 5, 2021





I never thought this would be the night that we would get to see Sammy Hagar and Bob Weir, from Gratedul Dead on stage together ?

⭐️ wow ?

Posted by Dinah Faulkner on Friday, November 5, 2021





Sammy Hagar and Bob Weir LEGENDS! #VanHalen #TheGreatfulDead

Posted by Joseph Alphonso Gomez IV on Saturday, November 6, 2021

November 26 will see the release of "Volume I - Reborn", the brand new EP from Chicago, Illinois-based metal act REPENTANCE. With five tracks of aggressive, fast-paced and technical compositions, the band delivers an impressive Noble Demon debut and a perfect appetizer for a full-length to follow in the not-so-distant future. After the previously released track "Reborn" (featuring Corey Beaulieu of TRIVIUM), REPENTANCE just shared the second single, "No Innocence".

Vocalist Adam Gilley states: "No innocence is about being betrayed by someone you thought you can trust. When enough is enough and you just can't hold back anymore."

Founded in 2018 by former SOIL and DIRGE WITHIN guitarist Shaun Glass and with a critically acclaimed debut album under their belts ("God For A Day", 2020), REPENTANCE soon became known for their distinctive heavy yet dynamic sound, packed with details, groove and intensity. Playing numerous shows with high-profile acts such as TRIVIUM, DEVILDRIVER, JINJER, SKULL FIST, TOXIC HOLOCAUST, SACRED REICH and others, REPENTANCE have taken the heavy scene by storm and represent a sound, which is sure to obliterate fans of extreme music everywhere.

"Volume I - Reborn" was produced by Alex Lackner at Accelerated Sound and mixed by Chris Collier at CMC 21 Productions and is now available for pre-order at this location.

Track listing:

01. All The Misery

02. Reborn (feat. Corey Beaulieu of TRIVIUM)

03. Down In The Water

04. No Innocence

05. This Is Hell

In addition, REPENTANCE will play its first concert with the band's new lineup this Saturday, November 6 at Reggies Rock Club in Chicago, together with VIO-LENCE, WRAITH and THE GRAVEL.

REPENTANCE is:

Adam Gilley - Vocals

Shaun Glass - Guitar

Eric Burns - Guitar

Eric Karol - Bass

Brandon White - Drums

Photo by Rob Grabowski

In a new interview with Decibel magazine, JUDAS PRIEST frontman Rob Halford reflected on the fact that he is still performing and recording five decades after the band's inception.

"Most people in England are retired at 50," the 70-year-old singer said. "You put your feet up; it's the end. You start puttering around your garden and sitting in your deck chair with a cup of tea. It's true that you thought back then that rock 'n' roll was a young man's adventure, that even 50 is a stretch.

"There was a little kid at a [PRIEST] recent show. He was on his dad's shoulders, and he knew all the words to all these PRIEST songs. He was like eight years old. I brought him up on the stage and signed his shirt. And that's when I go, 'please, god, give me another 50 years, because I don't want it to end.' I genuinely from the heart do not want it to end. So these are all just glorious moments to live to the full and celebrate every day, whether you're on stage or not."

When the interviewer pointed out that Rob is "fortunate" because he can still go out and perform at a very high level, Halford said: "I am blessed. I've always said that once I start to sound like a British pub singer, just grab the mic from me [croons 'Living after mid-niiiiight']. I might end up on the Las Vegas strip in some dive bar. [Laughs] I love to get on stage. We all do, all of us in PRIEST. It's a genuine desire to make that final part, complete the journey I spoke of before, when you're playing live. That's what it's all about. That's when it all makes sense."

Bassist Ian Hill is the sole remaining original member of PRIEST, which formed in 1969. Halford joined the group in 1973 and guitarist Glenn Tipton signed on in 1974. Rob left PRIEST in the early 1990s to form his own band, then came back to PRIEST in 2003. Founding guitarist K.K. Downing parted ways with the band in 2011, and was replaced by Richie Faulkner.

PRIEST's current touring lineup consists of Hill, Halford, guitarists Andy Sneap and Faulkner, and drummer Scott Travis.

Halford's autobiography, "Confess", arrived in September 2020 via Hachette Books. Co-written with Ian Gittins, the book offers readers a compelling, heartfelt and honest look at the struggles Rob has faced with addiction and his sexuality as well as exploring his music and his many brushes with controversy.

In "Confess", Halford discusses in detail what it was like becoming the first metal icon to announce he is gay in 1998 during an MTV interview, despite knowing about his sexuality since he was 10. Although his bandmates and their management knew he was gay and were accepting, he was advised to be discreet given the macho hetero nature of the metal world. He also opens up about surviving sexual abuse, as well as his struggles with depression, substance abuse, sobriety, and the suicide of one of his former partners. He also talks about how his own suicide attempt in 1986 led him to the rehab program that saved his life.
























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Former ACCEPT frontman David Reece says that he was high on the list of candidates when JUDAS PRIEST was looking for a new vocalist to fill the massive shoes of Rob Halford in the early 1990s.

"I was in Tennessee, and I hadn't fully retired yet, 'cause I had obligations before I decided to retire," Reece recalled in a new interview with "Waste Some Time With Jason Green" (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I'm on the phone with [PRIEST co-manager] Jayne Andrews every two days. I'm in contention with Ralf Scheepers and Tim Owens. It came down to, like, three or four guys, and I was one of those guys. And in those days, I had done SIRCLE OF SILENCE and some really heavy, intense, SABBATH-y kind of stuff, and Glenn Tipton [PRIEST guitarist] went, 'That guy's got it. Let's get him over to England.' It never came into fruition, but I was still the guy people were thinking about."

Owens joined PRIEST in 1996 after being discovered when the band's drummer, Scott Travis, was given a videotape of him performing with the PRIEST cover act BRITISH STEEL. He recorded two studio albums with the band — 1997's "Jugulator" and 2001's "Demolition" — before PRIEST reunited with Halford in 2003.

Nearly a decade ago, Scheepers confirmed to Metal Kaoz that he was also being considered as a possible replacement for Halford. "The truth is that I was on the singers list for JUDAS PRIEST, but, as you all know, Tim Owens [got the gig] and it was a great decision for the band since he is a great singer," Ralf said. "In the end, we were all happy since, after all, PRIMAL FEAR started then in 1997. I was never invited to rehearse with PRIEST — that [would have been] the next step — and the name of Tim came out of the blue, so they chose him. But you know, that's life and I am also happy since I wouldn't be for long with JUDAS PRIEST since Halford has returned, right?"

Original JUDAS PRIEST guitarist K.K. Downing discussed the band's vocalist search in a 2019 interview with Noizz Eater. He said at the time: "Ralf Scheepers from PRIMAL FEAR, he was one consideration, 'cause he's great. But I think everybody thought that having somebody new was a better option, and, obviously, Tim was a great singer — still is. But it was very difficult to find somebody to replace Rob, as you can imagine."

Reece was recruited for ACCEPT's "Eat The Heat" album in 1989 following the departure of Udo Dirkschneider. Reece's higher-pitched delivery was in sharp contrast to Dirkschneider's distinctive style, and overall, the LP was a critical and commercial disappointment. Midway through the "Eat The Heat" tour, differences between the band and Reece had come to a head, leading to the altercation between the singer and bassist Peter Baltes in Chicago. By the end of 1989, ACCEPT had hung it up.

Reece has also played with BONFIRE and BANGALORE CHOIR.

ANTHRAX's Scott Ian has doubled down on his claim that EXODUS's "Bonded By Blood" is the best debut album to have been released by any of the "Big Five" thrash metal bands.

Although EXODUS rarely gets mentioned alongside the so-called "Big Four" of 1980s thrash metal — METALLICA, MEGADETH, SLAYER and ANTHRAX — the aforementioned 1985 LP inspired the likes of TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, VIO-LENCE and many others to launch their careers and is considered one of the most influential thrash metal albums of all time.

Ian discussed EXODUS's standing as it relates to the "Big Four" during an an appearance on the latest episode of MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn's "No Fuckin' Regrets With Robb Flynn" podcast. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The powers that be, like the mayor of heavy metal — maybe Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] needs to get a phone call — and he can decree that the 'Big Four' needs to officially be changed to the 'Big Five' because it always bugged me that EXODUS doesn't get the representation and the credit where credit is due. And I understand the 'Big Four' — I get it. Because maybe the four bands had more success certainly coming out of the '80s whereas EXODUS certainly had their peaks and valleys and maybe didn't have the same success going forward as some of the other bands. But the way I look at it is if you wanna look at the bands that really were there at the inception, 'Bonded By Blood' was out way before [MEGADETH's] 'Killing Is My Business…' Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader] was in METALLICA [before forming MEGADETH], but Kirk [Hammett] was in EXODUS [before joining METALLICA]. It's, like, come on.

"I'm actually not kidding," he continued. "I know this is a silly thing, but I truly believe that it needs to be [changed to 'Big Five'] because 'Bonded By Blood' was such… I mean, come on. I've gone on record — I think it's the best debut record of the five of us. It's my favorite of the five — hands down — and such an influential record. And I just think it officially needs to be changed. I just think it's something that's been overlooked. And they just deserve the credit, man — they absolutely deserve it. And every time it comes up, I say, 'You know, it should be the 'Big Five'.' And whatever — that probably opens a hundred other doors."

EXODUS vocalist Steve "Zetro" Souza discussed his band's exclusion from the "Big Four" during a 2014 interview with the Argentinian radio station Rock & Pop 95.9 FM. At the time, he said: "Personally, I don't pay attention to that necessarily. I was in the Bay Area in the beginning, before I was even a member of EXODUS, so I remember who was the forefathers of thrash. I mean, Tom [Hunting, EXODUS drummer] invented that drum beat. That [guitar] picking style was from Gary [Holt, EXODUS guitarist] — that's where the genesis of that came from.

"I think what [the media] did [when they came up with the 'Big Four'] was they took the four bands who were probably the most successful in the initial period of thrash metal — from, say, '85 or '84 to '90," he continued. "If you were to go off popularity, if you were gonna go off record sales, you would have to say ANTHRAX, MEGADETH, METALLICA and SLAYER.

"Now, when you ask me that question, this is what I say: it's 'The Big One And The Other Three.' Sorry. Neither one of those bands — and I love every single one of them… But METALLICA sits on their own. So, to say the 'Big Four'? I don't know if you can say that. You have to say 'The Big One And The Other Three.'"

"And again, I was the singer for LEGACY, which turned into TESTAMENT, so I hired everybody in that band — even Chuck Billy. So my influence, as a writer and musician starting a band, was tapered after EXODUS and METALLICA. I didn't even know, really, that SLAYER or MEGADETH or OVERKILL or ANTHRAX existed. I lived in the Bay Area, so then that band which you all known now as TESTAMENT, the genesis of that band was because of EXODUS, so…"

In 2013, Mustaine spoke to Radio.com about which band should have been included if the "Big Four" were expanded and considered the "Big Five". He said: "You know, people will say there's a whole another generation, like the 'Medium Four' [laughs], and I think there's a lot of great bands that fit that bill, too. But I think probably EXODUS, because there was nobody else at the time that had that kind of pull or that kind of importance in the metal community. Granted, it was with [late EXODUS singer Paul] Baloff, and Baloff had a voice that you had to have an acquired taste for, but you know, I liked him."

In a 2010 interview with Metal Asylum, Holt was asked if he feels the "Big Four" should have been expanded and considered the "Big Seven", including EXODUS, TESTAMENT and OVERKILL. "Well, I think it should be the 'Big Five' with EXODUS, because we were there at the start of thrash metal with METALLICA in the real early '80s," he said. "Same thing with MEGADETH because Mustaine was a part of METALLICA's birth and he also created MEGADETH. And SLAYER are SLAYER. ANTHRAX are also great and old friends, but if you listen to those first few records, they have definitely changed. TESTAMENT has every right to be part of the thrash metal legends, but it just came down to timing because they came later. And OVERKILL have been their since the beginning also. But I don't get hung up on that shit, because I know how it all started and I know where I was when the shit got created. We [EXODUS] certainly deserve to be part of the founding fathers, but you know who often gets excluded are the Germans — KREATOR, DESTRUCTION and SODOM. Everybody looks to America and forgets those guys. KREATOR, DESTRUCTION and SODOM all released records in the early '80s."

He continued: "Really, the "Big Four" is solely based on sales and the ones who sold the most. But if you compare records, I will put EXODUS' last few albums up against anybody's shit. SLAYER is always awesome; the last TESTAMENT album [at the time of the interview], 'The Formation of Damnation', was great; the new MEGADETH [2009's 'Endgame'] is one of their best; METALLICA are still finding their feet again, and their last album, 'Death Magnetic', was a step in the right direction. The new OVERKILL, 'Ironbound', is one of their best records ever; it's so good. And KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, and SODOM still make great new music. What I think it boils down to is the bands who've been doing this the longest still can do it the best. METALLICA are still a mighty force live, but they lost their way for quite a while. But then again I've never had to deal with the horrible problem of having millions of dollars. [Laughs] Maybe if I had that kind of money, it would distract my hunger for doing this kind of shit, too. But, unfortunately for me, I have to keep kickin' people in the teeth, I don't have the funds to go art-shopping. My version of fine art is a new edition of Hustler magazine. [Laughs]"

Also in 2014, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett was asked by U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine if it's strange to him how much METALLICA has eclipsed the other "Big Four" bands in terms of commercial popularity. "I try not to spend too much time thinking about stuff like that because whatever I think of is still not going to be a satisfying enough explanation," he replied. "It's just the way things are and how the chips fell.

"EXODUS in the '80s had some bona fide problems, but I think their first album ['Bonded By Blood'] is just as good as [METALLICA's debut] 'Kill 'Em All'. We were just playing the music we wanted to hear because no one else was playing it and it wasn't being played on the radio. It was only a small group of people who knew about it and it was almost elitist in that 'No posers allowed!' thing."

Famouns Underground guitarist Darren Michael Boyd has released his third solo instrumental album, Last Seen In Canada. It is now available everywhere on earth. Pick it up at this location.





The tracklist is as follows:




"There Goes the World"
"Spider Jewel"
"Melting Beneath the Moon"
"Premature Ectoplasm"
"Last Seen In Canada"
"Amphibian Rhapsody"
"Library of Lost Melodies"
"Solitary Green Witch"
"1692-1962"
"End Credits"





Toronto-based Famous Underground, featuring former Slik Toxik frontman Nick Walsh, recently released a new single "Like An Animal", taken from their new EP, In My Reflection. Check out the official video below.





Walsh acknowledges the public’s tolerance for inauthenticity has kept him singularly focused on ensuring he projects his true musical identity in every note of the five-song In My Reflection. “Fans, critics and most people can smell through bullshit. As an artist, my job is to make sure I’m comfortable creating it and presenting it,” he says.


While the musical relationship between Walsh and bassist Laurie-Anne Green Green dates back more than two decades, the former’s history in music is even more extensive, having fronted the Juno Award winning Canadian hard-rock band Slik Toxik. Following the group’s demise, Walsh immersed himself in a myriad of projects, running the gamut from owning a recording studio, working in film and television, and touring North America with Classic Albums Live.


Walsh and Green had worked on projects together in the past, and in 2011 decided to form Famous Underground. They released their debut album independently that same year, which was subsequently licensed for world-wide release in 2013. Leaning upon a veritable number of classic influences from the world of hard rock and heavy metal, Famous Underground’s take no prisoners approach to music reaffirms guitar-driven rock music is far from dead.


“Famous Underground is my passion project. It’s music that comes from my soul,” Walsh explains. “I am grateful that the band share my vision and end up owning it themselves - that's what I call real.”


Following the release of a digital 45 in 2017, the band, which also includes guitarist Darren Boyd and drummer Desche Sparboom, amassed 14 songs for a full-length album that was originally due out in 2020. Not surprisingly, the pandemic disrupted those plans, sending Walsh and Green back to the drawing board in some respects. After all, the dynamic vocalist has a unique perspective on the music business, having cut his musical teeth on the “old” model of record companies being the gatekeepers to success, through disruptors like Napster and file-sharing, up to the present day of music on demand.


“It’s remarkable to watch how technology shifts the industry so quickly,” says Walsh. “It’s so important to stay on top of how the landscape is evolving. We wanted to ensure we were going about the release of this new music in the right way, rather than dropping all 14 songs with no fanfare.”





In My Reflection tracklisting:


"The Dark One Of Two"
"Corrupted"
"Until The End"
"Ultra Mega"
"Like An Animal"


"The Dark One Of Two"





One of the most notable facets that time has brought to Famous Underground is a sense of maturity and life experience. Although those facets of life might have been missing during his tenure in Slik Toxik - through no one’s fault - Walsh embraces the opportunity to have gained valuable insights and observations over the last 30 years. It has given him a world view that could not be artificially manifested. There is a polished, intense rawness to the songs featured on In My Reflection that is both similar and dissimilar to anything Walsh has done in the past. However, he might not have arrived at this critical junction in his career without the benefit of the experiences he’s lived through.


“Back in the early days of Slik Toxik, we were singing about reaching for the brass ring, women and partying; all pretty typical stuff for guys in their late teens and early 20s,” Walsh says. “I couldn’t get away with writing about that shit now. I’m more interested in writing about the world around me and the human condition; the struggles within; duality; and the world around us. I’m a big believer in the whole yin/yang thing and how important it is to find balance in the world.”


Famous Underground is:


Nick Walsh - Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards, Programming
Laurie-Anne Green - Bass Guitar
Darren Boyd - Lead Guitar
Desche Sparboom – Drums


Touring Musicians:


Michael Wolfgang Verbeke – Guitar
Ange M – Guitar

Metalshock Finland caught up with Hypocrisy’s Peter Tägtgren to discuss the death metaller’s new album Worship and more.


Tägtgren said about Worship: “I would say my whole idea of this album or writing this, is mainly just to write better Hypocrisy songs and a fatter production, that is the goal. And I think it has all the elements you need in there – there’s a lot of sad songs, a lot of slow songs, a lot of mid-tempo songs, a lot of epic songs, you know like you float away on it. So, I hope people will be happy with it. To be honest, I really never know what Hypocrisy fans want from Hypocrisy [laughs]. ‘Cause I mean in the past, there’s been so many different kinda styles of albums, but you still have this feeling of Hypocrisy in it. So I guess it’s in my DNA when I write music, I think in a certain way and yeah, it becomes Hypocrisy no matter what. But I definitely feel it’s closer to maybe the end of the '90s albums, you know in the way of the style of songs so to speak, I would say. But still, it’s Hypocrisy today. It’s nothing I wanted to clone myself or anything with the songs, it’s just what comes up in my mind.”


“Mikael and Horgh, they contribute with a couple of riffs each as well. So I mean it’s important to write with your heart I think and not look around and see what’s popular and what is not. You know it’s this is Hypocrisy and this is how it always will sound, so take it or leave it.”




In less than a month, the newest addition to the Hypocrisy catalog, Worship, will be released via  Nuclear Blast Records. Today, the band releases the animated music video for the third single, "Children Of The Gray".


Peter Tägtgren comments, "Costin Chioreanu did an amazing job with his drawings. He illustrated my words perfectly. If we don’t take care of this planet, we will lose it to the 'Children Of The Gray'. The music couldn’t be more Hypocrisy epic feeling to it. Enjoy."





It has been eight long years since the last record, and Hypocrisy fans can feel the itch. Worship is 11 tracks of precise, ferocious musicianship. Commonly inspired by the fusion of the modern and the ancient, Hypocrisy has once more found a way to combine innovative ideas with classic sound in order to deliver something metalheads can enjoyably consume with awe and brutal vigor. As usual, all recording and mixing took place at Tägtgren’s Abyss Studio AB in Sweden while mastering was completed by Svante Forsbäck at Chartmakers Audio Mastering. Designed by artist Blake Armstrong (Kataklysm, In Flames, Carnifex), Worship’s artwork speaks to the history of the relationship between humanity and extraterrestrials.





Worship will be released on November 26 via Nuclear Blast Records. Worship will be available in the following formats:


- CD Jewel
- LP
 * Crystal Clear W/ Silver & Black Splatter (Exclusive to USA) (Limited to 600)
 * Blue/White Marbled (Exclusive to USA) (Limited to 500)
 * Transparent Blue/Black/White Marbled (Limited to 600)
 * Transparent Violet/Black Marbled (Limited to 400)
 * Black
 * Purple (Exclusive to Europe) (Limited to 100)
 * Crystal Clear (Exclusive to Europe) (Limited to 100)
- Purple Tint Cassette (Limited to 250)
- Box Set (Limited to 900)
 * Light Blue W/ Black Splatter
 * Cassette


Pre-order/pre-save here.





Worship tracklisting:


"Worship"
"Chemical Whore"
"Greedy Bastards"
"Dead World"
"We're The Walking Dead"
"Brotherhood Of The Serpent"
"Children Of The Gray"
"Another Day"
"They Will Arrive"
"Bug In The Net"
"Gods Of The Underground"


"Dead World" video:





"Chemical Whore" video:





Hypocrisy is:


Peter Tägtgren - Vocals, Guitars
Mikael Hedlund - Bass
Reidar Horghagen - Drums
Thomas Elofsson - Session Guitarist

Guitarist Paul Gilbert (Mr. Big, Racer X) recently guested on The Chuck Shute Podcast for a career-spanning interview. Topics of discussion include playing drums with Cheap Trick, having a #1 hit, being named one of the 50 fastest guitar players by Guitar World, using power drills to play guitar, jamming with Aerosmith and Bryan adams, and more. Check out the interview below.


On the future of Mr. Big


Gilbert: "We had a single called 'Next Time Around', it was actually okay. We released that and then we did a tour, and that was great tour. Then, as as it went, I don't know... I didn't feel like it by the end of it. Like, 'I don't know what else we can do.' That's not really where my writing style is going. I think one of the things for me is my current musical passion. Although I'm a guitar player, my playing is kind of taking on the role of a singer on guitar. On my last tour I did 'To Be With You' and 'Green Tinted Sixties Mind', and I played the vocal line on guitar. And I remember the last time I visited Jeff Martin (Racer X). He wanted to jam and he had a band put together, and I said 'Do you have a ratchet set?' And he said he did, so I pulled a ratchet out as a slide and and I barely played any rhythm guitar I just doubled him. I doubled all his vocal lines, and that's kind of where my headspace is like I feel more like a singer playing that role with the guitar."










Mr. Big, is celebrating the 30th anniversary of their chart-topping Lean Into It album with a remastered and expanded anniversary edition reissue, available digitally, on CD and as a highly collectible limited edition box set made up of five individual colored 7” singles via evoXS.


The 30th anniversary release of Lean Into it includes the previously unreleased track, "Stop Messing Around", fully produced by Kevin Elson, from Mr. Big’s 1990 Lean Into It studio session. Check out the just released official lyric video below.





First released in 1991, Lean Into It is the second studio album by the group, consisting of Paul Gilbert, Eric Martin, Billy Sheehan and Pat Torpey. This is the band's breakthrough album, with Lean Into It peaking at #15 on the Billboard 200 charts, while the single “To Be With You” hit and remained number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. The follow-up single, “Just Take My Heart,” was a Top 20 hit, peaking at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100.


The million-selling album also contains the popular tracks “Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy,” “Alive and Kickin” and “Green-Tinted Sixties Mind.” Lean Into It shows that Mr. Big could also strip away all the flash and 7-minute solos and simply create well-written songs with rhythm, groove and good melodies, making the band one of the iconic new wave of progressive “musician’s bands” who could play mind-blowing complicated riffs on their instruments at lightning speeds.


evoXS has remastered the album using the hi-resolution digital transfers from the original analogue master tapes for MQA-CD (2 CD), hybrid SACD, 180g Vinyl LP and Hi-Res digital. The hybrid multi-channel SACD plays on both SACD and regular CD players. MQA is an award-winning technology that delivers the sound of the studio. MQA-CD plays on all CD players. When a conventional CD player is connected to an MQA-enabled device, the CD will reveal the original master quality. The SACD has a new multi-track mix in 5.1 surround sound which provides the ultimate sound quality experience. The MQA-CD (2 CD) - Disc 1 contains the remastered tracks from the original album and Disc 2 contains the previously unreleased Kevin Elson produced tracks, “Stop Messing Around” and “Wild Wild Women,” hard to find bonus tracks and versions minus bass and guitar tracks, specially made for musicians to jam with.





Lean Into It MQA-CD tracklisting:


Disc 1
"Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Electric Drill Song)" (2021 Remastered)
"Alive and Kickin’" (2021 Remastered)
"Green-Tinted Sixties Mind" (2021 Remastered)
"CDFF-Lucky This Time" (2021 Remastered)
"Voodoo Kiss" (2021 Remastered)
"Never Say Never" (2021 Remastered)
"Just Take My Heart" (2021 Remastered)
"My Kinda Woman" (2021 Remastered)
"A Little Too Loose" (2021 Remastered)
"Road to Ruin" (2021 Remastered)
"To Be With You" (2021 Remastered)


Disc 2
"Stop Messing Around"
"Wild Wild Women"
"Just Take My Heart" (acoustic)
"Shadows" (2021 Remastered)
"Strike Like Lighting" (2021 Remastered)
"Love Makes You Strong" (2021 Remastered)
"Alive and Kickin’" (early version)
"Green-Tinted Sixties Mindv (early version)
"To Be With You" (reggae version)
"Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Electric Drill Song)" (minus guitar version)
"Green-Tinted Sixties Mind" (minus guitar version)
"Love Makes You Strong" (minus bass version)
"Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Electric Drill Song)" (minus bass version)


Lean Into It SACD tracklisting:


"Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Electric Drill Song)"
"Alive and Kickin'"
"Green-Tinted Sixties Mind"
"CDFF-Lucky This Time"
"Voodoo Kiss"
"Never Say Never"
"Just Take My Heart"
"My Kinda Woman"
"A Little Too Loose"
"Road to Ruin"
"To Be With You"
"Love Makes You Strong" (Original Japan Bonus Track)


The Lean Into It - The Singles 7” box set contains four 7” colored vinyl singles with their European picture sleeves: “Just Take My Heart (edit),” “Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Electric Drill Song),” “To Be With You” and “Green Tinted Sixties Mind,” plus the bonus single “Strike Like Lightning” from the movie Navy Seals, which has never been released on 7” vinyl. The B-sides include the original hard to find tracks “To Be With You (live at NHK Hall Tokyo 1991)” and “Just Take My Heart (acoustic).”


The box set, which also includes a guitar pick and poster, is limited to 2,000 numbered copies.





Lean Into It - The Singles tracklisting:


Single 1


Side A: "Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Electric Drill Song)"
Side B: "Road to Ruin"


Single 2


Side A: "To Be With You" (Single Version)
Side B: "Baba O' Riley" (Live at NHK Hall, Tokyo, Japan, September 26, 1991)


Single 3


Side A: "Just Take My Heart" (edit)
Side B: "To Be With You" (Live at NHK Hall, Tokyo, Japan, September 26, 1991)


Single 4


Side A: "Green-Tinted Sixties Mind"
Side B: "Just Take My Heart" (Acoustic)


Single 5


Side A: "Strike Like Lightning"
Side B: "Shadows"

Slash spoke to HardDrive Radio about the recording process of the new SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS album, "4", which will be released on February 11, 2022, via Gibson Records in partnership with BMG. "4" is Slash's fifth solo album and fourth overall with his band featuring Myles Kennedy (vocals), Brent Fitz (drums), Todd Kerns (bass, vocals) and Frank Sidoris (guitar, vocals).

"The way that we recorded this record, everything was just done live in the studio, and it's very spontaneous," he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "This is actually the most live I've recorded so far. I've always done the bass, drums and guitars live in the studio — bar none — except for when I do other people's sessions. But in any band that I've worked in, it's always been like that. But you come back and you do guitars later because you wanna get the right sound and you go into the control room and you do the guitars from there. And a lot of the reason is because you can't have the amps in the room when you're recording the drums; producers hate that, 'cause they don't want it to bleed. And I don't give a shit, but I'd never been able to find a producer that could deal with it. So you just sort of bite the bullet and you do it where you do the guitars later, and vocals are always done after that. This one was done with the amps in the room with the drums and Myles singing all at the same time. So that's how this record was done."

For "4", Slash and the band traveled across the country together to Nashville, Tennessee and recorded the new album at the historic RCA Studio A with producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, John Prine, Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile). Cobb shared the band's desire to lay down the tracks live, in the studio including guitar solos and vocals — a first for the group.

"The reason I wanted to work with Dave Cobb was because he and I had both had this fantasy about doing a rock and roll record live in the studio with everybody in the same room at the same time," Slash said. "And when he and I discussed that, he was into doing it. I said, 'Let's do this.' So that's how we hooked up with Dave Cobb. But we did in this great room, which, with all due respect to every other producer I've ever worked with, this is one of the only rooms where you can get away with having the guitars, the amps and the drums in the same room."

Last month, SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS released the official music video for the album's first single, "The River Is Rising", shot on location in downtown Los Angeles with Gibson TV director Todd Harapiak.

The band's previous albums over the last decade — "Apocalyptic Love", "World On Fire" and "Living The Dream" — have continued on an upward trajectory, all achieving Top 5 Billboard charting debuts in the U.S. and reaching the Top 10 on 12 major charts across the globe. To date, the three SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS albums have now garnered 10 consecutive Top 5 Radio singles, spawned sold-out world tours, and have earned Slash and the band the best critical acclaim of their career with their latest album "Living The Dream" (2018) singled out by the Los Angeles Times, Classic Rock, Guitar World, Loudwire, LA Weekly, and more, as their best songs to date.

The new album "4" has the added history-making distinction of being the first-ever album to be released on the new Gibson Records label, which is headquartered in the iconic American instrument brand Gibson's hometown of Music City, Nashville. In light of the 30-year partnership between Gibson and the Grammy Award-winning Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Slash, it makes sense the new SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS' album "4" will be released via Gibson Records.

SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS will kick off a North American headlining tour on February 8, in Portland, Oregon and hit 28 major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Nashville, Dallas, Austin, Houston, and more, before wrapping up March 26 in Orlando, Florida.

Christian Brady says that HELLYEAH is "not dead" despite widespread speculation to the contrary.

HELLYEAH has been inactive since early 2020 when its U.S. tour was canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the meantime, HELLYEAH singer Chad Gray has reunited with his previous band MUDVAYNE, which has just played its first two shows in 12 years, with plans to continue touring in 2022.

A few months before the pandemic hit, HELLYEAH had completed a couple of U.S. tours in honor of its drummer, Vinnie Paul Abbott, who passed away 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.

Vinnie recorded a total of six albums with HELLYEAH over a decade, including its latest, "Welcome Home", for which he laid down his drum tracks before his passing.

During an appearance on a video podcast hosted by Todd Kerns, the bassist of SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS, Brady said that no long-term plans for HELLYEAH have yet been made as the band continues to be in a holding pattern.

"Chad's doing MUDVAYNE," the guitarist said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I'm assuming that'll keep him probably busy for a minute, at least through the next year, doing touring stuff. I don't know what their plans are as far as if they're gonna do an album or anything like that; I don't know. Chad actually lives here in Vegas now; he moved out here recently. We talk often, but we just don't necessarily talk [about his plans for MUDVAYNE]. But we do talk HELLYEAH sometimes, and we're all in contact. And Tom's [Maxwell, HELLYEAH guitarist] actually been writing a bunch, man. He sent some ideas out and they're really cool. It's kind of sparking that in me again, and [in] Chad. So we're talking about doing some writing. I don't know yet what it'll turn into, but I know that we're not done. None of us have said, 'Yeah, HELLYEAH's done.' A lot of people probably assume that — 'Yeah, Chad's back with MUDVAYNE. HELLYEAH's done' — but we've never said that to each other or publicly at all. HELLYEAH's not done. We're just not sure what HELLYEAH's going to be moving forward.

"Right now, we have no label. We have no management," Brady revealed. "We cleaned house. We're free and clear. It's actually very exciting, because now we hold all the cards; we're in control. So we can write whatever we want. We can release a couple of songs at a time. If there's a demand for us to tour and it financially makes sense, then I'm sure at some point we'll find a way to do that."

Reflecting on how "Welcome Home" turned out and the way it was received by the HELLYEAH fans, Christian, who joined the band in 2014, said: "I'm proud of that record, and I know [Vinnie Paul] would have been really proud of that record. And I feel like it didn't get quite the push from certain parties that it should have. We had one single off of it — it was [the] 'Welcome Home' [title track] — and it ended up at No. 4 at rock radio; it did really well. And then, for whatever reason, a second single never got put out. And then COVID hit. We did those two 'Celebration Of Life' tours in 2019, and we were supposed to do another run in April-May in 2020, and that obviously got canceled. And so that was kind of it. But even the tours we did, we didn't know what was gonna happen after that. We just were, like, 'We need to go do this to celebrate our boy.' And that's what it was meant to be. It was never, like, 'We're back and we're doing this.' It was, 'We're gonna go tour and we're gonna do a celebration of life for our boy. And then we're gonna have to figure things out from there.'"

STONE SOUR drummer Roy Mayorga stepped in as Vinnie Paul's replacement for the touring activity in support of "Welcome Home", which came out in September 2019.

In September 2020, Maxwell told "The Ex-Man" podcast that he wasn't sure there would be a follow-up album to "Welcome Home".

"When [Vinnie Paul] died — I'm not gonna lie — my passion, my love affair died as well with him," Tom said. "I don't even know if I wanna make another HELLYEAH record without him.

Mayorga's addition to HELLYEAH was made official in May 2019. At the time, the band said Roy was the perfect guy to take Vinnie Paul's place. "These men had so much love and mutual respect for each other, this makes our transition so much easier," HELLYEAH said in a statement.

Mayorga previously played with HELLYEAH bassist Kyle Sanders in MEDICATION, the early 2000s outfit which also featured guitarist Logan Mader (MACHINE HEAD) and singer Whitfield Crane (UGLY KID JOE).

In a new interview with Japanese music critic and radio personality Masa Ito of TVK's "Rock City", DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci spoke about the initial fan reception to the band's fifteenth studio album, "A View From The Top Of The World", which came out on October 22 via InsideOut Music/Sony Music.

"It's funny. Whenever we make new music, we're not really sure how the audience will accept it or what they'll think of it," he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "But with this album, if you're a DREAM THEATER fan, you're going to like this album. It sounds very much like it's exactly what we do. But it's modern, so it sounds modern, it sounds like the band has definitely progressed and grown, but it sounds so DREAM THEATER.

"It's interesting, because some people who have listened to us for a long time, they really want that — they want us to sound like DREAM THEATER sounds — and some people want us to do something totally different," he continued. "So it's sort of strange sometimes with a band.

"We've been around for a long time — this is our fifteenth studio album — and I think that for us to do something that sounds this sort of signature of the band was a really great accomplishment and we're really proud of it."

The artwork for "A View From The Top Of The World" was created by longtime DREAM THEATER collaborator Hugh Syme (RUSH, IRON MAIDEN, STONE SOUR).

DREAM THEATER — comprised of Petrucci, James LaBrie, 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 View From The Top Of The World" was produced by Petrucci, with engineering and additional production by James "Jimmy T" Meslin and mixing and mastering by Andy Sneap.

The Phoenix Fire Department has launched an investigation into the bonfire that was started in the mosh pit at SLIPKNOT's concert in the city Tuesday night (November 2).

The band was performing at the Ak-Chin Pavilion as part of SLIPKNOT's "Knotfest Roadshow" when attendees set fire to a stack of lawn chairs, with the scene captured in various social media posts from fans who attended the concert. As a result, SLIPKNOT's performance was stopped for roughly 30 minutes in order to allow the fire department to put out the blaze. Due to the delay, SLIPKNOT was reportedly forced to drop "Duality" and "Spit It Out" from its set.

Just minutes earlier, the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to guitarist Mick Thomson, who is turning 48 years old on Wednesday, before SLIPKNOT launched into "All Out Life".

A Phoenix Fire Department spokesperson told the Arizona Republic Engine Company 40 "responded to the pavilion and found a large contents fire... possibly started by bystanders at the event."

The engine company established a water supply, extending handlines off the truck to the "for an aggressive fire attack," the spokesperson reported.

"The fire was thoroughly extinguished without any extension to the major structure and no injuries were reported at the incident. The exact cause of the fire is currently under investigation and no persons were displaced at this incident."

The "Knotfest Roadshow" tour, featuring support from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, FEVER 333 and CODE ORANGE, kicked off following SLIPKNOT's Knotfest Iowa hometown show in Des Moines on September 25. It will wrap up at Knotfest Los Angeles on November 5 at Banc Of California Stadium.




Arizona is fucking wild @slipknot pic.twitter.com/HF9DBURbH1

— AZ (@chooseazbrews) November 3, 2021








The lawn pit at Slipknot tonight is fire — literally. pic.twitter.com/IrzgddSOEU

— John Marshall (@jmarshallap) November 3, 2021

Fan-filmed video footage of BLACK LABEL SOCIETY's entire October 26 concert at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida can be seen below.

Featured songs:

01. Intro 00:00

02. Bleed for Me 00:23

03. Demise of Sanity 05:55

04. Overlord 09:32

05. Heart of Darkness 15:39

06. A Love Unreal 21:06

07. The Blessed Hellride 26:55

08. Spoke in the Wheel 33:15

09. In This River 39:23

10. Trampled Down Below 44:59

11. Destruction Overdrive 49:42

12. Set You Free 53:09

13. Fire It Up 57:15

14. Guitar Solo (with "Smoke On The Water" jam) 01:02:02

15. Suicide Messiah (with "Black Sabbath" outro 01:07:14

16. Stillborn 01:16:29

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY's 11th studio album, "Doom Crew Inc.", will be released on November 26 via MNRK Heavy (formerly eOne Music).

In a recent interview with the Morristown, New Jersey radio station 105.5 WDHA, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY leader Zakk Wylde stated about the writing process for "Doom Crew Inc.": "The way it always goes, it's always the music first and then a melody. And then I've gotta find out something I wanna sing about. So then I'll write the lyrics. That's usually always the way it goes. And then, when it's all done, then the solos go on it. The painting's all done, and the solo is the frame that goes on the thing. So you can sit back and look at the whole thing. That's the way we pretty much always do it.

"We did the box set, and then we did videos for that, and then, after that, [my wife Barbaranne] was just, like, 'Maybe you guys can do a record,'" he recalled. "I said, 'All right. No problem.' So I said, 'How long till the guys come out?' [She said], 'You've got a month till the fellows come out.' So I was just, like, 'All right. Let me get started.' So I would just have a cup of coffee and just start writing riffs. You always get inspired by — for me, it's always Mount Riffmore, which is CREAM, MOUNTAIN, [LED] ZEPPELIN, [BLACK] SABBATH, DEEP PURPLE… If you're not getting inspired by the riffs those guys have created, it's just like… So I'll just go fishing and just start writing till you get to something you like.

"What we ended up doing [was] tracking about 30 songs and then whittled it down to the 12 that we have [on the album]," Zakk explained. "It's funny, 'cause the 'Farewell Ballad' thing has been sitting around on YouTube for probably about 11 years or something like that — just that instrumental strip of music. And so I was just, like, 'You know what? Let me just get around to finishing this thing.' 'Cause we had that bit of music, the chord progression that I wrote. So then I just finished it — I just wrote a melody, I wrote a song with that intro. So we finished that thing. And then 'Love Reign Down', the piano ballad, that was sitting around. I wrote that about my mother who passed away. That was during [the making of Ozzy Osbourne's] 'No More Tears', actually. I remember noodling on the piano at A&M and I wrote that song. So it was good to actually finally put that on an album. But the rest of it is all brand new. 'Set You Free' was pretty much right at the end, when we were tracking everything else. So that definitely popped in there late at the end of the whole thing. But the album's probably almost about a year old now, since we recorded it and finished it and mastered it and everything like that. But it's just been sitting in the can until right now."

"Doom Crew Inc." will be available digitally on CD and vinyl plus a deluxe edition that includes vinyl, CD longbox, cassette and more. The 12-track album is both a tribute to the band's "first to bleed, last to leave" road crew and a salute to the legion whose support, stretching back to 1998, rivals that of the KISS Army.

The songs are odes to celebration and mourning, the soundtracks to jubilant evenings and bewildering days recorded in Wylde's home studio, the Black Vatican. On this album, Zakk trades solos and twin-guitar parts with Dario Lorina, backed by the rumble of longtime bassist John "J.D." DeServio and powerhouse drummer Jeff Fabb.

BLACK LABEL SOCIETY kicked off the "Doom Trooping Over North America" tour on October 1 in Sacramento at Ace Of Spades. The trek, with openers OBITUARY and PRONG, will run through November 28, ending in Albuquerque at the Sunshine Theater. The band will then finish up the tour from December 27-31 with PRONG and ARMORED SAINT.

IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson and DEEP PURPLE bassist Roger Glover took part in a performance of Jon Lord's "Concerto For Group And Orchestra" last night (Friday, November 5) in Győr, Hungary. Adding DEEP PURPLE tracks, the concert was performed by the Győr Symphony Orchestra together with Kaitner Z Doka (JON LORD, IAN PAICE, DON AIREY) on guitar and Bernhard Welz (JON LORD, DON AIREY) on drums. Also appearing at the event was conductor Paul Mann, a close friend of Jon's.

Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below. Also available are photos and video from BEHEMOTH's Adam "Nergal" Darski, who made his way from Poland to Hungary to see the show.

Bruce previously performed at the 50th-anniversary celebration of "Concerto For Group And Orchestra" in November 2019 at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Joining him at the event were Mann, the Quebec Symphony Orchestra (QSQ) and the PAUL DESLAURIERS BAND.

When the Quebec City concert was first announced, Dickinson said: "As many people know, DEEP PURPLE have been a major, ongoing influence in my life since I was a teenager, and down the years, I have been fortunate enough to become good friends with all of the band, most especially in my collaborations with Jon Lord."

Added Mann: "My long collaboration with Jon Lord, and in particular his innovative, genre-defying 'Concerto', has been one of the greatest joys of my musical life. Jon's spirit will definitely be with us."

During a September 2018 spoken-word gig in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dickinson talked about his friendship with Lord. He said: "Jon Lord was a wonderful gentleman, and we were close friends. And he sadly died of… He had pancreatic cancer, but he survived for a year and a half — much against what everybody had said would happen. And actually, at the end, he didn't die of pancreatic cancer — he died, unfortunately, of some terrible blood collapse that happened with him, possibly as a result of treatment. But we had all kinds of crazy plans, including me going out on tour with him, singing DEEP PURPLE songs with an orchestra, which he was planning to do; that was one of the things we were planning to do. But it all got interrupted and canceled, and [it was] obviously very sad. He was a wonderful man."

Lord died on July 16, 2012 at age 71 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Lord, who was known for his keyboard virtuosity and his reinvention of the Hammond B-3 organ sound, co-wrote such PURPLE classics as "Smoke On The Water" and "Child In Time", among others. Lord and drummer Ian Paice were the only original members to last through the band's initial run from 1968 to 1976. He was on board for their 1984 reunion and stayed on through to his 2002 retirement from the band, after which he worked primarily in the classical field.














































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Drummer Bernhard Welz has just announced a new performance of Jon Lord's “Concerto For Group And Orchestra" in Győr,...

Posted by Jon Lord on Thursday, July 22, 2021

AS I LAY DYING frontman Tim Lambesis has announced the formation of a new project called BORN THROUGH FIRE. The group — on which Lambesis has apparently collaborated with WOLVES AT THE GATE guitarist Joey Alarcon — will release its first two songs, "Reintroduction" and "Bone By Bone", on Friday, November 12 via Modern Music Empire.

A 20-second audio snippet is available below.

Lambesis recently stated about BORN THROUGH FIRE's musical direction: "The best description of the material that I've heard from a close friend who has heard it is this… It's cinematic, heavy, and modern, but it still has classic metal throwback elements at the same time."

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

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

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

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

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
























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Sweden's Fans Of The Dark have released their self-titled debut album via Frontiers Music Srl. Listen to the new single, "Dial Mom For Murder", below, and order/save the album here.


Fans Of The Dark is an exciting new band formed in the summer of 2020 by Freddie Allen, drummer and main songwriter, and lead vocalist Alex Falk. The pair went to high school together in Stockholm and after a few years reconnected recently with a vision to create a band which would mix the melodies and approach of classic and melodic rock with elements of the great metal music of the '80s. The final result is one of the most exciting things you'll hear emerging from the fruitful melodic rock in Sweden, showcasing a tight, inventive musical approach with outstanding vocals.


"I had written an album basically on my own during the pandemic," continues Freddie. ”But I had Alex in mind all the time and I knew that he wanted to do this. His voice is just an absolute monster and I thought it would be interesting to hear that voice singing on top of some really great songs driven by guitars, bass, and drums. That was the start of it."




The last two pieces of the puzzle to complete the band’s lineup were Robert Majd (Captain Black Beard, Metalite, Nighthawk) who came in on bass and Oscar Bromvall (Palace, Code Red) on guitar. Mixing and mastering was handled by Mike Palace (Palace, Kent Hilli).


"Now, all we want to do is record more albums and in the future play these songs in front of a live audience and really put on a show," says Freddie. "I have confidence in the material, and in our abilities as songwriters and performers. 2020 was the worst year in recent human history, 2021 has already been a lot more hopeful, and I know that 2022 is going to be even better. So, bring it on!”





Tracklisting:


“The Ghost Of Canterville”
“Escape From Hell”
“The Running Man”
“Dial Mom For Murder”
“Life Kills”
“Rear Window”
“The Foreigner”
“Zombies In My Class”


“Dial Mom For Murder”:





“The Running Man” video:





“Life Kills”:





"Escape From Hell":

HALESTORM's Lzzy Hale joined EVANESCENCE on stage during last night's (Friday, November 5) concert at the Veterans Memorial Colosseum in Portland, Oregon to perform a cover version of LINKIN PARK's "Heavy". The show served as the kick-off of the EVANESCENCE and HALESTORM's U.S. co-headlining tour, which will run through December 18 in Worcester, Massachusetts.

EVANESCENCE and HALESTORM first toured together in 2012. EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee later guested on the track "Break In" on HALESTORM's 2020 "Reimagined" EP and Hale lent backing vocals to the EVANESCENCE song "Use My Voice" and appeared in the accompanying music video.

"With Amy, she's an otherworldly talent," Hale said in a joint Revolver interview with Lee. "Alice Cooper once told me that you can't teach charisma, you can't teach that intangible thing that makes you great, and Amy has that, she was born with it. You can teach people how to sing, but you can't teach people that. When Amy sings, she reaches into your soul and squeezes it and doesn't let go until the song is over and you're, like, 'What just happened to me?!' For me, from a technical standpoint, it's effortless.

"It is not," Lee chimed in with a laugh.

"Now that being said, as a singer myself, I know how hard you work, but you make it feel effortless, and that obviously takes paying attention to your craft, knowing your breathing techniques and your resonance areas and how to navigate through them and also how to take care of yourself, especially on the road so you're not tiring yourself out," Lzzy continued. "That takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of discipline and getting to know your body and knowing when and where to hit it or lay back on it, how to get yourself through a show night after night after night. Both Amy and I don't mime. We're not up there lip-syncing to tracks, so there's a whole other skill set that goes with that. I absolutely admire Amy for never straying from that over the years. For me, I know I'm really proud to get up there and actually sing, to know how to use my voice every single night. Collaborating with Amy is so much fun because I know that she's on that top level and that she cares.

Lee added: "I'll put it simply, when we're singing together — our voices are different but similar in range — I end up not hearing the difference between us. We're singing different notes but when we both lock in it feels like being a part of a choir. You feel something happening and you know you're a part of it. You wonder if it'll keep going even after you stop. It's just very cool to be so in sync with a live singer. I think both of us are just used to locking in with our own vocals on a track and syncing up perfect background vocals to what we just did, but to have that happening in real time with two different voices is just really special. It's not something I get to experience often and it's just a complete pleasure.

Hale said: "It's kind of like a dance, too, we're waltzing together and we have to be listening to each other and the dynamics, the ebb and flow. Can you dance with your partner?"

Lee continued: "And that takes trust. We both trust each other. We both know that the other person has got it, so you're able to lose yourself in it."

EVANESCENCE is on tour supporting this year's "The Bitter Truth" album. HALESTORM is promoting its latest single, "Back From The Dead", which recently became the band's sixth No. 1 at rock radio.

SLIPKNOT performed its new single, "The Chapeltown Rag", live for the first time ever Friday night (November 5) at Knotfest Los Angeles. The event was livestreamed as it happened, giving fans access to both the studio version and SLIPKNOT's live performance of "The Chapeltown Rag" within only hours of its premiere.

The studio version of "The Chapeltown Rag", which was released Friday morning, was produced by Joe Baressi, who has previously worked with AVENGED SEVENFOLD, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE and CHEVELLE, among many others.

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor described the song to Knotfest.com as "a punisher," saying it documents what happens when the distortions of mass media circulate within the echo chambers of social media.

"It's classic SLIPKNOT," said Corey about the track, which is inspired by a Netflix documentary he watched about the Yorkshire Ripper serial killer who murdered multiple women in the West Yorkshire, United Kingdom suburb Chapeltown in the late 1970s. "And it's frenetic. But lyrically, it's coming from a point of talking about the various manipulations that can happen when social media meets media itself. And the different ways that these manipulations can try to pull us in different directions, in the fact that we're all becoming addicts to it, which is very, very dangerous."

Recorded during recent sessions for a yet-to-be-announced new album, "The Chapeltown Rag" barrels forward with the speed of a freight train derailing and incisively eviscerates Internet culture from the inside out with the scream, "When everything is god online…nothing is."

M. Shawn Crahan, better known as Clown from SLIPKNOT, added: "'The Chapeltown Rag' facilitates a sort of mindset that you're going to like: it's along the barnburner side of things."

SLIPKNOT heralded "The Chapeltown Rag" with a unique and innovative rollout throughout this week. Unbeknownst to visitors, key lyrics from "The Chapeltown Rag" adorned Knotfest.com — the band's online hub for news, community, and their official fan club, OT9. When users clicked on the lyrics, they landed at www.thechapeltownrag.com. Beckoning fans further down the rabbit hole, www.thechapeltownrag.com featured a series of nine eco-friendly NFTs minted under the user account "desmoines515" and hosted on the carbon neutral WAX Blockchain. New digital assets were revealed each day this week. When assembled, those assets granted the first look at the single artwork, as well as a part of "The Chapeltown Rag". Fans who collected all nine of the free-to-redeem tokens should stay tuned for various special redemption options and offerings throughout the next album cycle.

"SLIPKNOT has been at the cutting edge, utilizing technology in new and creative ways to engage with their fans," said Lee Jenkins, product manager for WAX, "and we are very excited that they chose WAX for this initiative that showcases a new way to utilize blockchain technology."

According to Knotfest.com writer Dan Franklin, "The Chapeltown Rag" chorus sees Corey experimenting with vocal approaches he had never taken before.

"I wasn't even sure if that part was going to be the chorus, to be honest," Corey said. "But I just love the way that the chord progression lent itself this weird, chromatic, minor vibe to it, which I had never really done before. I played with it on 'Vermilion' years ago, but I had never really given it a little more aggression. The harmony that I created for it was just so fucking weird as well that it just gives it that slight dissonant vibe, but it's also very, very melodic and hummable. Writing and pulling yourself out of trying to keep it in some sort of structure allows you to just fucking rip the scab off and let the wound be what it is. Then obviously, the big breakdown at the end where it just fucking goes off the rails is is so heavy, dude."

SLIPKNOT's last album, "We Are Not Your Kind", was released in August 2019. The LP 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. Furthermore, the album made an impact worldwide with No. 1 debuts in the United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia, Canada, Japan, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal and Finland, as well as Top 5 debuts in Germany, France, Norway, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and New Zealand.

SLIPKNOT has just completed the "Knotfest Roadshow" tour, featuring support from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, FEVER 333 and CODE ORANGE. The 29-date run, produced by Live Nation, kicked off following the band's Knotfest Iowa hometown show in Des Moines on September 25.

Last night (Thursday, November 4), DISTURBED became the first band to perform at the new Hard Rock Live performance venue at the Hard Rock Casino in Gary, Indiana. This marked DISTURBED's second show back since the start of the pandemic; the band headlined one of the nights of the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky in September.

Jeff Clayton, director of entertainment at the Hard Rock Casino Northern Indiana, told the Chicago Tribune that DISTURBED was "the perfect fit" to be the first act to play the venue, which can seat up to 1,916 with an overall capacity of 2,207, including standing room only.

"It seemed to align very much with the theater and the Hard Rock brand," he said. "Hard Rock serves all genres of music, this just happened to be the one we went with for the first concert. We think they represent everything we want to represent and we're very, very excited to have them as the first act."

DISTURBED guitarist Dan Donegan, who grew up in Alsip, Illinois, said that he was excited to get the call up to be the first act at the new performance venue.

"I'm thrilled because I know the fans have been waiting for this. It's close enough to home that we'll have family and friends come out," he said. "We're thrilled that we finally, finally get the chance to return."

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

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

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