The reunited expanded classic lineup of German power metallers HELLOWEEN will release a new live album, "Live At Budokan", on December 13, 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music (RPM). The colossal effort immortalizes HELLOWEEN's September 16, 2023 performance at Tokyo's legendary Nippon Budokan.

"Live At Budokan" will be available in a plethora of formats: 2CD-digipak and 3LP vinyl in trifold with the first print run of both coming as "deluxe edition" including embossed cover artwork, as well as Blu-ray, DVD and digital. Each version is meticulously crafted to suit the metal community's diverse tastes, ensuring every fan can relive the raw, unfiltered energy of HELLOWEEN in their preferred medium.

To tide fans over until "Live At Budokan" arrives, HELLOWEEN has launched the first single, "Best Time". This electrifying live version of the hit single and most streamed track (more than 11 million streams on Spotify) from HELLOWEEN's self-titled reunion album can be watched below.

Guitarist Sascha Gerstner comments: "'Best Time' captures the energy and the moment when everything fits together perfectly and you leave everything negative behind. For me, this track is an anthem for all those nights when you're heading towards the future. That's why it conveys exactly this mood in concert, as if you were living in a single great moment that lasts forever."

This release celebrates the grand finale of HELLOWEEN's epic world tour from 2022 to 2023. Spanning over 30 countries on three continents, the tour was nothing short of a triumph, drawing massive crowds and showcasing the band's undying appeal, the sold-out concert in Tokyo is the crowning glory of the cycle. Known for their explosive stage presence and high-voltage performances, HELLOWEEN's shows are fueled by the unique chemistry among the band members. Triple lead-guitar attacks from Michael Weikath, Kai Hansen and Sascha Gerstner alternate with goosebump-inducing duets from vocalists Michael Kiske and Andi Deris, occasionally supported by Kai Hansen, the band's original singer and third voice. He also takes the spectators on a journey back in time with a medley from the band's early days, returning to the origins of their sound — HELLOWEEN, the godfathers of melodic speed metal.

Choosing the Nippon Budokan for this live recording was no coincidence. A venue rich in musical history, it has hosted countless legendary concerts and is an accolade for every music group that has played there. HELLOWEEN is the first German band ever to record a live album in the Nippon Budokan, and for the members it was a dream come true.

Kiske described the show as "surreal, with the electrifying fan energy creating a magical atmosphere." Bassist Markus Grosskopf spoke of the venue's profound personal and historical significance, expressing how humbling and inspiring it was to perform in a place that shaped their own musical journeys.

The live recording's technical brilliance is another highlight. With 29 cameras capturing every nuance, the production team ensured that each moment of the concert is preserved in stunning detail. This attention to detail means the Blu-ray and DVD versions offer an immersive viewing experience, making fans feel like they are right there in the front row.

The setlist of this live album is a treasure trove of surprises, contains the entire 2-hour+ show and offers a fresh experience compared to previous releases like "United Alive" (2019). This thoughtful song selection honors both the die-hard fans craving something new and the band's rich musical legacy, showcasing their evolution and expansive repertoire.

This live album is more than just a concert recording; it's a celebration of HELLOWEEN's enduring impact on the metal scene. It promises to bring the magic of an unforgettable performance straight into fans' homes, offering a piece of music history that embodies the spirit and energy of a legendary band at their peak.

"Live At Budokan" track listing:

01. Orbit
02. Skyfall
03. Eagle Fly Free
04. Mass Pollution
05. Future World
06. Power
07. Save Us
08. Kai's Medley [Walls Of Jericho, Metal Invaders, Victim Of Fate, Gorgar, Ride The Sky, Heavy Metal Is The Law]
09. Forever And One (Neverland)
10. Best Time
11. Dr. Stein
12. How Many Tears
13. Perfect Gentleman
14. Keeper Of The Seven Keys
15. Drumokan (*on Blu-ray/DVD only!*)
16. I Want Out

Artwork by Martin Häusler

Earlier this year, HELLOWEEN signed with Reigning Phoenix Music for the release of its next studio album. The band was scheduled to enter the studio this past summer to begin work on the follow-up to 2021's acclaimed self-titled effort, with plans to issue the LP in 2025.

HELLOWEEN's recent "United Forces" world tour took the band to 26 countries on three continents, bringing together more than 800,000 fans. The trek included sold-out headline shows in Los Angeles, New York and São Paulo, as well as highlights like the show at the Prague O2 Arena, the Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, or in front of 14,000 metalheads in Santiago de Chile and HELLOWEEN's first-ever sold-out concert at the iconic Budokan in Tokyo, Japan — the Holy Grail and the ultimate accolade for every rock band. Without a doubt, there were tears in everyone's eyes at the bombastic Hell & Heaven festival in Mexico City, which closed the tour.

In March 2023, Kiske told Canada's The Metal Voice that Kai had already sent him a demo of a song that he was working on that "I was very happy about, because it's not what you would expect; the song was a bit outside of the box, which I am always grateful for," Michael said. "I always thought that was exciting about HELLOWEEN. When you check out the 'Keeper [Of The Seven Keys: Part] I' and 'Keeper [Of The Seven Keys: Part] II' records, now they're classics, but when they came out, it was very different to what the 'Walls Of Jericho' record sounded like. But we had the balls to do it. And I think that's why I'm still here, because those records had an impact because of being pretty fearless. And it is always the benefit of the youth; most of the time, the younger people are very fearless.

"What I like about WeikiandKai, they can't fool themselves. They just write songs. They don't function in any other way but just making the song, and whatever it is, that's what it is. And that song was a bit QUEEN-like. It had a lot of piano parts in it — very operatic, with big choirs. And then it gets rocking again and stuff like that. It's another Kai Hansen sort of symphony. But I really liked it. And I'm glad that he does something like that. I just hope the rest of the band has the balls to do it. I would do it."

Asked if he will be contributing any musical ideas to HELLOWEEN's next effort, since he didn't write anything on "Helloween", Kiske said: "I don't know. I'm not so much of a metal songwriter. I was when I was a teenager. But these days I just don't write metal songs; I just write songs on acoustic guitar somehow. And if I have something where I feel like the band could make a HELLOWEEN song out of it, of course I will present it to them, and then if they get a kick out of it, something's gonna happen. But we have so many songwriters in this band now. And they're all really capable of writing that sort of material that everybody loves, and that's mainly Andi, Sascha, Weiki and Hansen. And I think that's more than enough. If I have an idea, I sneak it in. But I don't really push myself."

As for whether the rest of HELLOWEEN has also begun composing music for the band's next LP, Kiske said: "I know that Andi has songs, and I know that Kai has a whole bunch of songs. He was a bit lazy last time; he only had that one great song, [the 12-minute] 'Skyfall', which was maybe good for three songs, and that's why it's justified, but I would have wished for even more from him. And I think this time he will be presenting a whole bunch of songs more. At least that's my impression, the feeling that I have — there might be more coming from him this time. Andi is always in the game. Andi has this gift; he can just sit down and write 10 songs. He can just do it. I don't know how he does it."

In August 2022, Kiske told Chile's Radio Futuro that the overwhelmingly positive response to "Helloween" "was pretty unexpected. I was expected it to do good, but it was, like, perfect.

"It is very difficult for you, when you're involved in an album, to have an objective view at what you're doing," he explained. "You just do what you do. You always try to make the best out of every song. And obviously the spirit within the band is very good, which helps, but you never know how people hear it. So the best thing you can do is fade it all out, not think about it, and just try to make every song exciting for yourself; that's the best thing you can do. The less you think about success or how critics might see it, the better for the album. It's not easy, but you've gotta have that discipline to kind of fade it out and not let it get to you.

"I was surprised how well it was received, but, of course, it was a very welcome motivation, especially [in 2021]," Kiske added. "We released it right in the middle of the whole pandemic crap, and that was a positive lift, doing the interviews and seeing how people reacted to it."

Regarding how HELLOWEEN had managed to pull off the seemingly impossible by splitting vocals on the album between returning singer Kiske and longtime frontman Deris, with added contributions from Hansen, Michael said: "It was actually great. It was very easy. I was kind of expecting it to be difficult, but it wasn't, because there was no ego fights going on between me and Andi. We were just there on Tenerife meeting up almost every day.

"Before we started recording, we had Dennis Ward making a rough draft of what he thinks could work in terms of splitting: 'This sounds like Andi. This sounds a bit like Michael.' And that was how we approached it. It was some kind of pre-draft of how we could do it, but was nothing written in stone.

"One day I came to the studio and the evening before Andi was recording something, or had recorded something, and he wasn't feeling so happy with it. He came and said, 'I was trying this and that. And maybe you should give it a try too.' And then we figured out what sounds the best for the song.

"There are a whole bunch of songs where you can hear right away, 'That's an Andi Deris song. He should sing that.' Or, 'That's a typical Kiske song. That sounds great [with Kiske vocals].' It's like 'Angels', for instance, it was very clear that that was mostly a Kiske song, and Sascha [Gerstner, guitar] had written it with my voice in his head. But there are other songs, especially when Andi writes his own songs, usually it sounds best when he does it unless he wrote it with my voice in his head, like he did with 'Fear Of The Fallen'. 'Fear Of The Fallen', he was writing it with both singers in his mind, and that works out.

"But it was very easy," Kiske repeated. "Because you just try it out, and you very quickly hear what works best. And I would say, like, 70 percent of the time we knew before that that would be sounding better with him or that would be sounding better with me. Or even with Kai — there were even spots where we thought he should do it."

Upon its release in June 2021, "Helloween" landed in the Top 10 in more than 10 countries, including Germany, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and Austria. The cover artwork for the LP was painted by artist Eliran Kantor, who has previously worked with HATEBREED, SOULFLY, TESTAMENT, ICED EARTH and SODOM, among others.

Produced by Charlie Bauerfeind and Dennis Ward, the latest HELLOWEEN LP was recorded in part at the H.O.M.E. Studios in Hamburg (where everything started in 1984). The same recording console used for such HELLOWEEN albums as "Master Of The Rings", "Time Of The Oath" and "Better Than Raw" was utilized to record the band's new material. The effort was mixed at the Valhalla Studios of Ronald Prent (IRON MAIDEN, DEF LEPPARD, RAMMSTEIN).

"Helloween" saw the legendary German power metallers going "back to the roots," with the band recording fully analog and Daniel Löble playing the drum kit previously used by HELLOWEEN's original drummer, the late Ingo Schwichtenberg, on the legendary "Keeper Of The Seven Keys" recordings.

The "Pumpkins United" tour marked the first time Kiske had played live with HELLOWEEN since 1993. Hansen, who departed HELLOWEEN in 1988, had been joining the band onstage on various tours and festival appearances throughout the years. The set featured several duets with Kiske and his replacement, Deris, along with many rarely played songs, including "Kids Of The Century", "Rise And Fall" and "Livin' Ain't No Crime". Hansen — who fronted HELLOWEEN until late 1986 — sang a medley of several early HELLOWEEN classics, including "Ride The Sky", "Judas", "Starlight" and "Heavy Metal (Is The Law)".

In 2022, Deris told the "Metal Command" podcast that he "strongly" hoped the reunited expanded classic lineup of HELLOWEEN would eventually make another album to follow up "Helloween". "I mean, as long as the vibe is great, chemistry is great and everybody's having fun with each other, it would be a crime not to do so and not to plan for a future together," he said.

"'Pumpkins United' is not only the name for the last tour, I think that's something like a brand," he continued. "HELLOWEEN 'Pumpkins United', that's something like a band — a new or something like [that] growing from the old band."

On the topic of how HELLOWEEN has managed to maintain internal harmony with so many members involved, Andi said: "I just can tell you getting along with each other, I think it's rooted in the matter of fact that we're finally too old for the other shit. [Laughs] From a certain age on, you let other people live and you don't take everything personal. Talking for [myself], whenever somebody told me something that could be looked at in a negative way, I took it the negative way. Even though when you look at it from the positive side of you, you could say, 'Well, man, maybe it was even a compliment, because have you seen it from that side?' 'No.' That's what happens when you're getting older — you don't take everything on the negative side: 'Oh, he's attacking me' or 'he's meaning bad' or 'he's meaning to annihilate you or intimidate you' or whatever. Everybody in the band, even together now with seven people, I have to say everybody is old enough to not always look at it from the negative [point of view] but also try to realize who's talking. So I cannot imagine that the boys are meaning bad if they speak about me in a sense that I could take negatively, but because I like everybody, I personally think, 'Well, I don't think they're talking negatively.' So I try to find the sense in a positive way, and most of the time — 99.9 percent [of the time] — it's exactly that. It's nothing negative; it's positive. But back in the day, everything I took was negative — when I was in my 20s and 30s. Then when you get [to] 40, it's getting better. [Laughs] Or maybe it's just you don't give a shit anymore."

Singer, poet, songwriter, visual artist, film producer, activist and author Serj Tankian, lead singer and lyricist for the Grammy Award-winning rock band SYSTEM OF A DOWN, has released the official music video for "Appropriations". The track is taken from "Foundations", his latest EP of new music, which came out in late September worldwide via Gibson Records.

"Foundations" track listing:

01. A.F. Day
02. Justice Will Shine On
03. Appropriations
04. Cartoon Buyer
05. Life's Revengeful Son

"Foundations" mines music and lyrics from previous decades and reframes them in a hard-hitting, intensely focused collection. Like all of Tankian's work, the five songs that comprise "Foundations" encompass a wide range of sounds and styles. It is music that traverses multiple eras and vast swaths of emotions. It is also very much a rock album — "music of rebellion," says Tankian.

"Foundations" kicks off with "A.F. Day", a raging, heavy-riffing track that sounds like classic Tankian. The origins of the song date back almost three decades, to his earliest days with SYSTEM OF A DOWN. Tankian never brought it to the band to record, and when he happened upon "A.F. Day" more recently he "felt it should finally be released." In doing so, he retained much of the original music, including his vocals — a decision that was partly pragmatic: "My voice has naturally changed over time," Tankian explains. As the lyrics demonstrate, his attitude has not. "Medieval educators locking horns at the playground at 5 / Real live police crime shows submission of the population at large," he rails, expressing disgust with indoctrination and blind deference to authority at every turn.

"A.F. Day" is followed the album's most anthemic track, and also its emotional centerpiece: "Justice Will Shine On". Another song whose compositional roots date back to the early SOAD days, the impassioned hard rocker is nonetheless instilled with a message that is as hard-hitting and vital today. Over potent riffs and pummeling rhythms, Tankian grapples with the atrocities of the Armenian genocide experienced by his grandparents firsthand. He addresses their suffering in jarringly personal and direct terms, singing, "Can you tell me dear grandfather of your childhood so far away / You can see the death of laughter in his teared eyes disarray / Can you tell me dear grandmother of your childhood from hunger and pain / Of the orphans you called brothers in her teared eyes disarray." As the song launches into its soaring chorus, Tankian declares that his grandparents' torment, and the anguish experienced by all Armenian victims, will not be in vain. "We are the children of all the survivors / Justice will shine on!"

Elsewhere on "Foundations", "Appropriations" (an older song I've 're-appropriated' to modern times," he says) juxtaposes a snake-y, arpeggiated verse with a crushing chorus in a clash of eastern and western modalities, as Tankian unspools lyrics that play off complementary sounds and contrasting sensibilities: "Resignation, provocation, segregation… imagination and creation," he croons. And "Cartoon Buyer", which dates to a period just prior to Tankian's first solo record, 2007's "Elect The Dead", begins in hushed, almost folk-y mode, and gradually builds — both in intensity and actual tempo — before exploding in sonic and spiritual catharsis. Throughout the track, Tankian scrutinizes the divides within humanity ("You see me without emotions / I see you across the oceans," he intones) before ultimately declaring our oneness: "California to Argentina…Saudi Arabia to Tunisia…Armenia to Australia…Israel to Indonesia / They are us and we are them."

Finally, "Life's Revengeful Son", originally recorded prior to Tankian's 2010 "Imperfect Harmonies" album, incorporates a variety of instrumentation, including acoustic and electric guitars and dramatic orchestration, into an epic closer with unmatched imagery: "The final revolution will occur when the arms of the clock fall," Tankian sings. "Jesus seen in the streets, dragging a car axel instead of the cross."

A true creative tour de force, Tankian recorded "Foundations" primarily at his own Serjical Strike Studios in L.A. He wrote, performed, orchestrated and produced all the material, as well as contributed the artwork — an original piece titled "Sunburst" — that adorns the album cover. Additional instrumentation on the record was provided by Dan Monti (guitars, bass and drum programming) and, on "Cartoon Buyer", by bassist Mario Pagliarulo and SOAD drummer John Dolmayan.

"Foundations", Tankian says, is "a retrospective of songs from different eras of my life, meant to complement the memoir," and caps what has been an incredibly prolific year for Tankian, from the release of his memoir The New York Times bestseller "Down With The System", to the massive, sold-out SYSTEM OF A DOWN headlining show at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco with over 50,000 fans. But even as he is now revealing his "foundations," Tankian is already looking ahead. "The next record will likely be a record of covers, collaborations and collages," he envisions.

Credit his restless, ever-curious creative spirit. "I'm always moving in different directions," Tankian says. "Repetition is boring, and the death of art."

As previously announced, on November 1, Tankian will release a diverse selection of limited-edition variants of the "Foundations" EP on colored vinyl with an etching featured on Side B of every package. The "Foundations" vinyl package includes a red-and-black starburst vinyl available on Tankian's own official webstore, and an opaque purple version only available in U.S. record stores nationwide.

In celebration of Tankian's fall 2024 Revolver magazine cover story, an exclusive and limited-edition vinyl in a striking dark blue marble, is bundled with a special edition of the cover story wrapped in a one-of-a-kind photo slipcase.

Legendary thrashers SLAYER played their second concert in five years Thursday night (October 10) at the Aftershock festival in Sacramento, California. As was the case with the band's September 22 performance at the Riot Fest in Chicago, the band ran through a 20-song set that included opener "South Of Heaven", "Seasons In The Abyss", "Angel Of Death", "Hell Awaits", "Raining Blood" and the title track of SLAYER's final album, "Repentless".

SLAYER's setlist was as follows:

01. South Of Heaven
02. Reborn
03. Blood Red
04. Postmortem
05. Repentless
06. Payback
07. Temptation
08. Jihad
09. Seasons In The Abyss
10. Born Of Fire
11. War Ensemble
12. Hate Worldwide
13. Disciple
14. Dead Skin Mask
15. Hell Awaits
16. 213
17. Mandatory Suicide
18. Raining Blood
19. Black Magic
20. Angel Of Death

Fan-filmed video can be seen below.

SLAYER was also scheduled to play at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky on September 27, but that performance was canceled due to severe weather.

Five years after SLAYER played the last concert of what was being billed as the band's farewell tour and just weeks after SLAYER guitarist Kerry King unveiled the details of his solo project, Kerry and his longtime bandmates announced that they would play at Aftershock, Riot Fest and Louder Than Life.

The lineup for SLAYER's comeback is the same as the one which last toured in 2019: King and bassist/vocalist Tom Araya, along with guitarist Gary Holt (also of EXODUS) and drummer Paul Bostaph.

In a recent interview with Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco Bay Area radio station 107.7 The Bone, King stated about SLAYER's stage show for the reunion shows: "There's some things you've seen before, things you haven't seen before. It's definitely the biggest SLAYER show that I've ever seen on paper."

Kerry went on to say that although he "liked" the stage production on SLAYER's farewell tour in 2018 and 2019, "this is still bigger. But we're headlining big-ass festivals, so we've really gotta show up."

Asked how he will go about choosing a setlist for the upcoming SLAYER reunion shows, Kerry said: "I think I've already got it. It's tough. I worked on it — I probably made, like, three or four different ones before I landed on the one that I sent to everybody."

Asked if the setlist is something where SLAYER will "give everybody what they want, but still trying to have a couple surprises," Kerry replied: "That's fair [to say]. There's definitely a few songs I still have to learn, so… ['Cause] I haven't played [them] in a while."

Last month, Kerry, who has spent the last few months touring with his solo band, told the Los Angeles Times about the SLAYER reunion dates: "I wasn't ready to hang it up, but there's really no point in going on with someone that doesn't want to do it anymore, because then you've got a half-hearted person onstage," referencing Araya, who was the bandmember most anxious to retire from the stage. "We won the Super Bowl and we left. That's pretty cool. Now we've got these three anniversary shows. Will there be more? I don't know. Will we ever record again? Definitely not. Will we ever tour again? Definitely not. But a show here and there to make some people happy, I'm not against that."

Bostaph said he was surprised when the reunion dates were lined up. "I'm, like, 'You're kidding, right?' I really put that to bed," the drummer told the Los Angeles Times. "When something like that ends, I'm not going to do that to myself: Gee, someday it'd be great to get back together again. Life is life and this is how it is, and I'm moving on to whatever the next thing is. I put that to bed and then all of a sudden the call comes.”

Last month, Kerry told Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio about the fact that SLAYER is playing shows again five years after the completion of the band's final tour: "Yeah, at the end of the day, it wasn't bad blood. Tom was just done. And when Tom told me he was done, I went, 'Okay, well, I'm not gonna try to talk you into it,' because if you're trying to talk somebody into it, their heart's not in it. So it was over for me. And, of course, a month after we were done, offers come in because people think you're done. So what we retired from was touring. We never said we were done playing. We said, 'This is our final tour', and I don't think three shows constitute a tour. So if you wanna get technical, I think we're in the ballpark of being truthful."

In July, King spoke to Metal Injection about the fact that SLAYER's reunion shows were announced just weeks after he told Rolling Stone magazine that a SLAYER comeback was unlikely. He said: "I turned [SLAYER reunion offers] down for the longest time. You can imagine we've been turning down offers since December 1st, 2019. And at that point, I thought, 'No, we're never gonna play again.' Tom retired. So it's written. And then offers keep coming, offers keep coming, the money goes up. And this one came around and it was when we were booking shows from my [solo] band, and I go to my manager. I'm, like, 'Are we talking about my band or SLAYER? What are we talking about here?' He's, like, 'SLAYER.' And I'm, like, 'Yeah, but that's done. We hung that shit up. I dropped the chains. Done.' But then it started getting to where this is really gonna be the five-year anniversary of [SLAYER's] last tour. And I went, 'That's kind of cool. Three shows, five-year anniversary. Okay.' That's about all I thought about it."

King continued: "The funny thing about this story is I didn't tell anybody in my [solo] band [that the SLAYER reunion shows were happening]. I'd never been in that situation. And the news dropped that we were doing three shows and everybody blows me up. I'm, like, 'Goddamn it.' 'It never occurred to me to tell you guys.' Never fucking occurred to me. It wasn't a secret. They can keep secrets. I know that. And I felt so bad. It never occurred to me. Paul knew, of course. But poor Phil and Kyle [Sanders, bassist in Kerry's solo band] and Mark [Osegueda, vocalist in Kerry's solo band], they all texted me and blew me up. I'm, like, 'I'm so sorry, man. It never occurred to me. This is what's up. This is what's gonna happen. If it happens again, it's gonna be the same thing. We're never gonna fucking make a record. We're never gonna fucking tour. This is my band.'"

Kerry went on to say that he doesn't rule out more SLAYER shows in the future beyond the three festival appearances this summer and fall. "I'm trying to be real and definitely say, hey, we're not gonna tour again," he explained. "And we're certainly not gonna record again, 'cause I have a means of doing that now with my band. [We're doing] three shows for now. And I say 'for now' because I know Europe's gonna come knocking, 'Hey, man, you guys played America. Come see us.' So it wouldn't surprise me if something like that happened, but it's certainly not on my books right now."

Earlier in July, Kerry told Guitar World magazine that he "was very surprised" when Araya agreed to play three SLAYER shows this year. "I made my comments [about SLAYER being finished] based on [Tom] not wanting to play anymore. As far as I was concerned, we were done and never going to play again. To be honest, I don't know what switched.

"We've been turning down offers to play shows for at least three years. So, one came up that, I guess, enticed Tom to the point where he wanted to roll the dice and try a couple. I don't know, but that's all it is."

Kerry added that he would be open to more SLAYER gigs in the future.

"There could be an instance where there's another one-off,” he said. "It just has to be the right offer at the right time, maybe someplace everybody loves to go. But touring, no, I don't see touring. But, you know, who's to say a one-off can't happen again?"

King previously told Total Guitar magazine about SLAYER's reunion shows: "It caught me off guard too. Do I wish the timing was different? Absolutely, but that's completely out of my hands."

King went on to say that fans shouldn't get their hopes up about a full-scale SLAYER reunion.

"Everyone thinks SLAYER are getting back together, but that couldn't be further from the truth," he explained. "We've been turning down gigs ever since we stopped. This one came and I thought, 'If we're ever going to do one, this could be cool because it's the five-year anniversary of our final tour.'

"We're not going to record anymore," he added. "That final tour was definitely our final tour. This is just a reason to have some fun the guys, play a few shows and then jump back in the coffin…"

In June, King was asked by Jonathan Clarke, host of "Out Of The Box" on Q104.3, New York's classic rock station, about how SLAYER's reunion shows came about. He responded: "I'll put it in the perspective everybody can understand. We've been turning down offers since beginning of 2020, pandemic and all. And then it started getting near the five-year anniversary of us stopping playing, so I'm, like, 'You know what? This is a three-show package. I think it would be fun to do.' It's kind of a five-year anniversary of our last tour. We're never gonna tour again — it ain't gonna happen. We're never gonna record again; that's not gonna happen either. But to do commemorative shows, I think that's kind of fun. I don't have to be married to it for a long time. Kids don't have to worry about it coming around on tour because we said we wouldn't. There's not a whole lot of weird diabolical shit going on here. I think people have just gotta say, 'Hey, it's anniversary celebration shows.' That's gonna be the end of it."

Kerry also discussed the SLAYER comeback in May in an interview with Andrew Daly of ClassicRockHistory.com. Asked for about his outlook on the reunion shows, he said: "It's not really much different at all. It's the same heads, same cabs, same pedals, same guitars. You know, there will be a lot of fire when SLAYER plays, and I think, yeah, those shows will just be fun. It'll be fun to play with Gary Holt for a few gigs; I haven't seen him in almost five years, so that will be cool. And it'll be cool to get together with Tom Araya and spit some hate out at people, but don't get used to this being a yearly event."

Earlier in May, King was asked by SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" if he thinks SLAYER's reunion dates will have a positive or negative impact on the promotional efforts for his debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", which arrived on May 17 via Reigning Phoenix Music. He responded: "I see it both ways. We've [SLAYER] been turning down [reunion] offers for the last four years. Unfortunately, when the right offer came around, this one, it was right as my project was releasing. So there's certainly people, like my management and booking agents, who say, 'Oh, that's great. It's gonna boost your solo thing.' And I'm, like, 'Well, I don't know the business side of it, but it is what it is.' And every time I talk about it to journalists and magazines and stuff, I say, 'Listen, SLAYER is not gonna make another record. SLAYER is never gonna tour again.' May SLAYER do a one-off here or there? Maybe. I told my [solo] band when [the SLAYER reunion shows] came up, I'm, like, 'Listen, this is a blip on the radar to me. This isn't a solo project that's gonna recycle musicians every record cycle. You guys are with me till you don't wanna be.'"

Asked if he envisions SLAYER as the type of thing where the band will do one or two shows a year when a great opportunity comes up, Kerry said: "I'm not even talking yearly. I'm, like, every two years, every three years, every five years. I don't know. 'Cause I'm gonna be super busy with [my solo band] once 2025 rolls around."

Elaborating on his belief that SLAYER's comeback shows will not lead into a full-fledged reunion for the legendary thrash metal act, Kerry said: "The way I look at it, and when I tell you this, it puts it into perspective for a lot of people, I see it as three five-year anniversary shows of our last tour."

King also talked about the SLAYER reunion while speaking to Revolver magazine about "From Hell I Rise". Asked if he had known about these shows well before they were officially announced, King said: "If you ask promoters, they're going to have another answer. If you ask booking agents, they'll probably have a third answer. But to me, it kind of came out of nowhere. Have we been getting offers the past few years? Yeah, we turn down offers every year, probably every month of every year. These three festivals are right around the five-year anniversary of our last tour, which I thought was kind of cool. So, I thought this might be the right time to test the water. It will be great to play for the fans again."

Regarding whether the SLAYER reunion shows will steal some of the thunder away from the touring his solo band will do in support of "From Hell I Rise", Kerry said: "Well, time will tell, and my answer would be, 'hopefully not'. The funny thing is, it never occurred to me until the day the SLAYER announcement came, but Demmel said, 'Dude, is this real?' And I'm, like, 'It's just a few weekends and that's it.' Of course, Paul knew. But I didn't tell Phil, I didn't tell Kyle and didn't tell Mark — and I said to the guys, 'There's no master plan here.' I didn't want anybody to start getting cold feet. I said, 'This is a little moment in time, and yeah, KERRY KING is going to be touring, you know, hopefully later in the year, as well. But SLAYER is an entity and I'm just a person.' But hopefully, we drive on with the solo project."

King also spoke about the SLAYER reunion in an interview with U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine. Admitting that the announcement of SLAYER's comeback "was not my favorite timing", Kerry said that the SLAYER reunion "is not going to translate into recording and it's not going to translate into touring. For me, it's three shows marking five years since our final shows, a fun, 'Hey, remember us from before the pandemic?' celebration."

Days after SLAYER's reunion was announced, Tom Araya's wife wrote on social media that she "harassed him for over a year" before he "agreed finally" to play more shows with the band. "We shared that news with SLAYER's awesome managers and they did the rest!" she explained. "So yes without Tom it wouldn't have happened.. without me BUGGING HIM it wouldn't have happened."

Both Gary and his wife Lisa Holt were among the hundreds of people who "liked" Sandra's Instagram post, with Lisa sharing three heart emojis in response to Sandra's message.

In a statement confirming SLAYER's return, Tom said: "Nothing compares to the 90 minutes when we're on stage playing live, sharing that intense energy with our fans, and to be honest, we have missed that." King added: "Have I missed playing live? Absolutely. SLAYER means a lot to our fans; they mean a lot to us. It will be five years since we have seen them."

The same day that SLAYER's comeback was announced, Holt's wife Lisa Holt took to her social media to write: "Yes, it's true..and an exciting adventure for the band and fans !

"To all the people saying 'they are liars' 'they must have ran out of money' 'its not SLAYER without so and so' ..I have an idea for you all...DON'T GO.. and for all the people who did go to the final tour dates and enjoyed it...awesome!!

"This isn't a 'TOUR' it's some dates..and GREAT NEWS!!!" she added. "And everyone that thinks they know all the inside info..you can't possibly know. so just enjoy the fact that this amazing band will play some amazing shows this year...go or don't..nobody cares!!!!!"

SLAYER played the final show of its farewell tour in November 2019 at the Forum in Los Angeles. One day later, Kerry's wife Ayesha said that there is "not a chance in hell" that the thrash metal icons will reunite for more live appearances.

SLAYER's final world tour began on May 10, 2018 with the band's intention to play as many places as possible, to make it easy for the fans to see one last SLAYER show and say goodbye. By the time the 18-month trek wrapped at the Forum, the band had completed seven tour legs plus a series of one-off major summer festivals, performing more than 140 shows in 30 countries and 40 U.S. states.

All material for Kerry's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", was written by King, who was accompanied during the recording sessions by Bostaph, Demmel, Sanders and Osegueda.

Sodom’s cult 1992 album, Tapping The Vein, may have been the bands heaviest offering yet but as the band remembers, the album really offered something new, there were more punk influences in it and the track "Wachturm" wears that influence on its shoulder.


Tom Angelripper recalls how the song came together: “Andy (Brings - guitarist) is a big Ramones fan, which Chris (Witchhunter – drums) and I also liked. Chris was the metal advocate in the band, whereas I was more into punk and Motörhead. It was the combination that made it work.”


Andy adds: “Chris wasn't averse to punk either, he was a big fan of Die Toten Hosen for example. At that time we actually considered covering their song 'Liebesspieler' for Tapping The Vein but in the end we composed our own punk song, 'Wachturm'. Even though the German lyrics of the song sound humorous, they have a serious background. They are based on some very bad experiences Chris had with the Jehovah's Witnesses. His girlfriend at the time joined the sect and left him because of it.”




Watch a video for the remastered version of "Wachturm":





32 years is a long time in anyone's book. Way too long according to Sodom fans worldwide. But if you ask Tom Angelripper and Andy Brings, those 32 years since the original release of Sodom's sixth album, Tapping The Vein, went by in the blink of an eye. With prices for the original vinyl LP skyrocketing in the collectors world and heated online fan discussions whether the re-release will ever see the light of day, the time has finally come to breathe new life into what appears to be everybody's favorite album by Sodom, alongside Agent Orange and Persecution Mania.


“At the time it was just another album for us,“ says only original band member Tom Angelripper, but the Sodomaniacs all over the world made it a cult classic. It's just sad that Chris Witchhunter is not here anymore to celebrate with us.” Guitar player Andy Brings, who was 20 years old and still in school when he joined the band in 1991, who wrote and recorded his first ever album with Sodom adds: “Bands don't determine what becomes a cult, the fans do. It just happened, and we are very proud of it. 18-year-olds come up to me these days and tell me how much they love that album.”


Not only was Tapping The Vein the last album with original drummer Chris Witchhunter hitting the skins more fiercely than ever before, but it was also a brutal statement from one of the originators of thrash metal, in a time when many bands strayed from their original paths, became too sanitized or caved in to newer trends. Sodom went in the opposite direction and put out what many fans call ‘Sodom's death metal album’, although no one in the band actually listened to death metal at the time. Angelripper: “We just did what we did, not paying attention to what was happening around us. Andy joined the band and we just hammered out these killer songs in no time. It all happened very fast. There were no distractions, just the music.“ Brings: “Tapping The Vein is the result of pure inspiration. I was young, hungry and full of energy and had ideas and that resonated perfectly with Tom and Chris, wanting to show everybody who's really in charge of thrash metal, in an era where not many bands stayed true to their original vision.”





So here it is. Sodom's ‘blue album’ revisited (like any true classic, it can be referred to by only mentioning the color of the artwork, just ask Metallica, Weezer and The Beatles), and the package could not be more complete. With the original album remastered, it also features a complete remixed version done by Andy Brings with some additional alternative takes of three album tracks, plus three live concerts: Tokyo 1992, Düsseldorf 1992 and Cologne 1992 (Chris Witchhunter´s last show with Sodom) in the super deluxe edition. Andy: “We fought and worked very hard for this re-release, I can only hope that  it was worth the wait, but I'm pretty sure it will fill every Sodomaniac´s heart with joy.” Tom: “The fans mean everything to us, and this is really just for them. Working on Tapping The Vein again brought back so many memories, both good and bad, but this is who we were 32 years ago. An amazing trip.”


Tapping The Vein is the story of youth, life, death, friendship and loyalty. It's also testament to a time in your life, when everything was new and exciting, and bands and their music was all you had. When metal was pure, raw and wild. You thought that time would never come back. Until now……


Sodom’s deluxe, expanded reissue of Tapping The Vein will be available via Noise / BMG on November 15th, 2024  in these formats:


- Super deluxe ‘blood filled vinyl’ edition. Triple LP, double CD deluxe 24 page bookpack (limited to 100 copies via the Noise Records store only)
- Deluxe triple LP red & black swirl vinyl and double CD deluxe 24 page bookpack
- Double, gatefold transparent red vinyl.
- Triple CD digisleeve with 24 page booklet


Pre-orders of the deluxe bookpack edition will come with a limited edition reproduction 1992 gig poster signed by Tom Angelripper and Andy Brings from the Sodom and Noise Records stores, while stocks last!


Deluxe Triple LP & Double CD Bookpack Edition Tracklisting:





Tapping The Vein (2024 Remaster) (Disc 1) 
"Body Parts"
"Skinned Alive"
"One Step Over The Line"
"Deadline"
"Bullet In The Head"
"The Crippler"
"Wachturm"
"Tapping The Vein"
"Back To War"
"Hunting Season"
"Reincarnation"


Tapping The Vein (2024 Redux) (Disc 2) Previously Unreleased
"Body Parts"
"Skinned Alive"
"One Step Over The Line"
"Deadline"
"Bullet In The Head"
"The Crippler"
"Wachturm"
"Tapping The Vein"
"Back To War"
"Hunting Season"
"Reincarnation"


Live In Toyko 1992 (Disc 3) Previously Unreleased
"Sodomy & Lust"
"An Eye For An Eye"
"One Step Over The Line"
"Deadline"
"Agent Orange"
"Skinned Alive"
"Shellfire Defense"
"The Crippler"
"Bullet In The Head"
"Wachturm"
"Body Parts"
"The Kids Wanna Rock"
"Body Parts" (Alt. Remix Version)
"Wachturm" (Alt. Remix Version)
"Reincarnation" (Alt. Remix Version)
 
Live In Düsseldorf 1992 (Disc 4) Previously Unreleased
"Sodomy & Lust"
"An Eye For An Eye"
"Skinned Alive"
"One Step Over The Line"
"Exhibition Bout"
"Ausgebombt"
"Remember The Fallen"
"The Saw Is The Law"
"Wachturm"
"Bombenhagel"


Live In Cologne 1992 The Final Witchhunt (Disc 5) Previously Unreleased
"Sodomy & Lust"
"An Eye For An Eye"
"Agent Orange"
"Skinned Alive"
"Better Off Dead"
"Ausgebombt"
"One Step Over The Line"
"The Crippler"
"Bullet In The Head"
"Wachturm"
"Bombenhagel"


Triple CD Edition Tracklisting:





Tapping The Vein (2024 Remaster) (Disc 1)
"Body Parts"
"Skinned Alive"
"One Step Over The Line"
"Deadline"
"Bullet In The Head"
"The Crippler"
"Wachturm"
"Tapping The Vein"
"Back To War"
"Hunting Season"
"Reincarnation"


Tapping The Vein (2024 Redux) (Disc 2) Previously Unreleased
"Body Parts"
"Skinned Alive"
"One Step Over The Line"
"Deadline"
"Bullet In The Head"
"The Crippler"
"Wachturm"
"Tapping The Vein"
"Back To War"
"Hunting Season"
"Reincarnation"
"Body Parts" (Alt. Remix Version)
"Wachturm" (Alt. Remix Version)
"Reincarnation" (Alt.

In a new interview with The Vinyl Guide podcast, Jerry Cantrell was asked when a piece of music he is writing becomes an ALICE IN CHAINS song and when it becomes a Jerry Cantrell solo song. The ALICE IN CHAINS guitarist/vocalist responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Basically, it's just who I record the song with. I mean, ALICE can do pretty much anything, as we proved doing 'Facelift', 'Sap', 'Dirt' and 'Jar Of Flies' and so on, many albums that have a mix of all different kinds of music that the band played. And people accepted that we took those chances musically and it's become part of our identity. So there's nothing that we couldn't do. So if I'm recording a song with ALICE IN CHAINS and all the other guys dig it and we wanna record it, then it becomes an ALICE IN CHAINS song. If I'm writing a song that I've recorded with other musicians, it's obviously not going to be an ALICE IN CHAINS song because ALICE didn't record it."

Asked if he stockpiles riffs and then pulls them together for a future project, Jerry said: "I'm always just sketching. I don't really have an intention for what I'm writing or what I'm gonna use it for. I just write, collect cool ideas, little phrases, melodies, riffs. I don't write all the time. Writing, to me, is a cyclic process. There's a writing period, a recording period and then a touring period. And that really takes up about two or three years, if you put all that together. So that's a good chunk of time, to be able to complete the process, to be able to try to do it well and capitalize on the work that you've done and take it around the world and play it for everybody. So when that's over, I generally don't wanna just jump right into another three-year cycle. I wanna take a little bit of time to reflect and to heal up and just rest a little bit, 'cause it's a hell of an effort and a commitment. I think it's very healthy for me to walk away from music once in a while, to take a break from it, And then when you pick it back up, it's new and it's fresh again. And then once you feel that creative urge again, then you start, 'Okay, let's whip out the tapes. Let's start going through all this stuff.' And you're, like, 'Hey, that's cool. That's really fucking cool. Holy shit. I forgot about that.' And then you just start getting into the demo process and go. And then once you get into the creative process of actually sketching up some of these ideas, you'll stumble across other things or things will happen in the moment, new songs will arise and you're off to the races again."

Jerry's new solo album, "I Want Blood", is due on October 18 via Double J Music. The LP, co-produced by Cantrell and Joe Barresi (TOOL, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, MELVINS),was recorded at Barresi's JHOC Studio in Pasadena, California. The album features contributions from bass heavyweights Duff McKagan (GUNS N' ROSES) and Robert Trujillo (METALLICA),drummers Gil Sharone (TEAM SLEEP, STOLEN BABIES) and Mike Bordin (FAITH NO MORE),and backing vocals from Lola Colette and Greg Puciato (BETTER LOVERS, ex-THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN).

Cantrell's tour with BUSH concluded last month, with the North American outing wrapping up at the iconic Greek Theatre in Los Angeles on September 15.

"I Want Blood" is the follow-up to "Brighten" which came out in October 2021. That LP was Jerry's first project without ALICE IN CHAINS in 19 years.

Jerry's career outside of ALICE IN CHAINS has consisted of two other solo albums and contributions to major film soundtracks. Cantrell's first solo album, "Boggy Depot", was released in 1998, followed by his second album, "Degradation Trip". In addition to his solo artist work, Jerry has released music on soundtracks for several films, including "Spider-Man", "The Cable Guy", "John Wick 2", "Last Action Hero" and "The Punisher".

ALICE IN CHAINS regrouped in 2006 with William DuVall joining the band, and released its third LP with DuVall in the lineup, "Rainier Fog", in August 2018.

During an October 7 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", TESLA bassist Brian Wheat spoke about the band's plans for the coming weeks. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we're playing some more shows next month in November, and then November 29th, we're releasing a limited-edition EP, 'All About Love', which will have a brand new track that we've been playing live for a few months and a few other versions of it and a couple of surprises on it. So there'll be a brand new TESLA EP coming out."

Wheat went on to say that TESLA has been performing "All About Love" for "probably four or five months, actually, which is kind of reverse to what we used to do in the old days. In the old days, we used to record the song and then go play it live," he explained. "So we played it live and then recorded it."

Asked if the "All About Love" EP will include the "Cold Blue Steel" and "Time To Rock!" standalone singles, which were made available in August 2021 and August 2022, respectively, Brian said: "No. There's two other tracks that aren't 'All About Love'. And I don't wanna give it away, 'cause it takes a little bit of the surprise away, but there'll be four different versions of 'All About Love' and two new tracks. There'll be the live version, the studio version and two kind of other alternate versions… It'll be something real nice for the fans. We worked real hard on it, and I'm excited to put it out there. It'll be cool. It'll be a nice piece for the fans to buy."

This past August, TESLA singer Jeff Keith spoke to Joseph Suto of Rock Show Critique about the band's plans to release new music. He said: "Now, at this point, after COVID and everything, we're just releasing singles 'cause people can download them. And from what I understand — they explained it to me, 'cause I don't go on the Internet, but they explained to me, 'Jeffrey, in today's world, you can release a single for people to download, and it's just like back in the '40s and '50s when people would put a little 45 record with a B-side.' So from what I understand, the last two songs we released was 'Cold Blue Steel' and then 'Time To Rock!' And it's all getting worked up, and I forget what the release date is for a song called 'All About Love'. We've been playing it live, but it's going to be officially released and a limited supply on vinyl."

Wheat and TESLA guitarist Frank Hannon previously talked about "All About Love" during an appearance on the April 12 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". Brian said: "We just recorded [it] a couple weeks ago. And it's done and we're playing it live and this summer we should have it out."

Frank added: "It's actually the first song that J.K. [singer Jeff Keith] and myself wrote after a dry spell of writing songs during the COVID lockdown. And the first lyric of the song is, 'I wanna get back to where I started.' That was influenced by how we were feeling during COVID. So we chipped away. We made a little demo of it, and then we just kind of shelved it for a while, 'cause I always knew that I wanted the band and BDub [Brian] to produce it and make it sound rocking. And the original demo was really chill and almost sounded like AIR SUPPLY. It was mellow. And I knew, and I told Brian, I go, 'I love this song, but it needs to be rocked out TESLA style.' So that's what we did. And we worked on it over the past six months at soundchecks during the gigs, practicing it and really developing it and turning it into a rock song."

Asked if the plan is for TESLA to release a full-length album after issuing "All About Love" as well as the two previously released singles "Cold Blue Steel" and "Time To Rock!", Brian said: "No, not particularly. Because it takes too much time. Here's the thing. It's no secret, we're getting older. Jeff is 65, 66 years old… In order to do an album, it takes so much out of the band — time and energy. And right now, I think we're all on the same page that we'd rather take that time and energy and go around and play while we're still able to play at the level we play at, because we still play very well. Jeff Keith still sings very, very well. And we can address making an album where you can be in a studio and you can do things 26 times and all that thing, if you have to, later. But to sit there and make an album right now… Frank told you, we've been working on this song ['All About Love'] for six months."

Frank added: "It's different now. See, what people don't realize, for a band to make an album that's really great, you have to get locked in a room for about a year and really hash it out and argue and make demos. And then what you're doing is you're fabricating 10 songs, and you'll usually have two great ones and then the other ones are kind of half-assed written unless you spend that time doing it. And that's what we did on the first four albums, or all of our albums that we did up to this point. Now what we're doing is creating singles and touring and playing live and getting them out while they're fresh."

Continued Brian: "Plus there's the whole economic thing about it. We're not a independently multimillionaire wealthy guys. It's a matter of we have to take the time off. We are a working band. Trust me, if we were millionaires, multi-millionaires, and we could afford to take two years off, we maybe would, but we can't. We have to work. We're a working band."

Wheat added: "Look, I would love to go make a record, but like Frank says, I think the songs get compromised because you don't… We spent six months on 'It's All About Love', and I think we got this one right. Honestly, I'm really, really proud of it. It's what I think a TESLA fan would expect from TESLA — right down the middle. Jeff sounds great. Frank's doing classic guitar licks again. But it took six months. We just didn't pull it out of our ass. We worked on it. And to do a 10-song album, even if it's two months a song, that's a year… And quite honestly, you've gotta look at things for supply and demand. Like, how many people want a new TESLA record, a whole new album?

"I'm a statistics guy," Brian said. "And if you wanna get into this, I can go people buying records versus buying tickets. And there are way more people that are buying tickets than are buying records. And they wanna hear all them hits. And then there's the hardcores, which is a much smaller percentage, and you have to go, you have to look at it realistically and go, 'How much gas is left in that tank?'"

Some fans criticized TESLA for adopting a 1980s-style polished production for its latest album, 2019's "Shock". The follow-up to June 2014's "Simplicity" was helmed by DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen, whose own group is no stranger to slicked-up, glossy-sounding recordings.

In September 2023, TESLA released the official music video for its cover of AEROSMITH's "S.O.S. (Too Bad)". The song is a bonus track on TESLA's live album, "Full Throttle Live!", which arrived in May 2023. The LP includes the band's "Time To Rock!" single, plus other songs, all recorded in August 2022 at Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis, South Dakota.

In September 2021, original TESLA drummer Troy Luccketta announced that he would "take a little time from the road" to spend with family and friends. He has since been replaced at TESLA's gigs by Steve Brown, the younger brother of former DOKKEN drummer Mick Brown.

TESLA's debut album, 1986's "Mechanical Resonance", went platinum on the strength of the hits "Modern Day Cowboy" and "Little Suzi". The 1989 follow-up album, "The Great Radio Controversy", produced five hits, including "Heaven's Trail (No Way Out)" and "Love Song", which hit the pop Top Ten.

In a new interview with the X5 podcast, Dee Snider explained how he came to write and "own" every song in TWISTED SISTER. He said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I joined TWISTED SISTER and I joined the band that existed. They were all older guys. They're a few years older than me. And they were all from New York City, the Bronx. They had that New York attitude. I was a suburban rube. So I was younger than them. I came in the band starry eyed. I had a voice and they treated me like I was the kid. And it really alienated me from the guys. I love them all now — I mean, we're friends — but at that time, starting out, it really made me feel like I wasn't in the band. So I didn't feel like I was a part of the band for a long time."

Dee continued: "I tried to write with them and they didn't write with me. So I wound up writing and became very by myself and alone and working on these songs and I never felt like this was something I shared. I'd go in and say, 'This is the guitar part. This is the drum part.' And I would tell everybody what to do — not solos and stuff, but I very much was coming in as a loner with my songs. So I never felt the compunction, like, 'Oh, I should be sharing these songs with these guys because of all the hard work they're putting in.' Nope. They were out partying and having a good time while I was not getting high and working on song after song after song after song."

During an April 2021 appearance on "Waste Some Time With Jason Green", TWISTED SISTER guitarist Eddie Ojeda was asked how it came about that Snider was credited with writing all the music and lyrics in the band and no one else seemingly contributed to the process. Eddie responded: "[Dee] wrote the melody. He would sing the thing to me, and I would work it out with him. He would kind of have a rough version of the chorus. He could play guitar a little bit — a little bit to show the direction — and then I would kind of refine it. I think I worked well with Dee; he could vocally communicate something to me, and I could bring it out.

"All my guitar solos — I mean, I wrote a lot of theme solos. And those are my solos that I wrote; Dee didn't write those guitar solos. Like on 'Burn In Hell', the whole beginning to 'The Price'. Dee's even admitted it. I mean, he has said, with 'The Price'… At one point, he wanted to give me half of the publishing, but it just never worked out. I didn't put up a stink about it. [My attitude was], 'Okay, we're doing this.' I did my best, came up with parts and never got any writing credit for it.

"Every band is different," he continued. "Like, Eddie Van Halen used to write 90 percent of the songs [in VAN HALEN], but he shared everything 25 percent with everybody in the band. Some bands just do that; some bands don't. And Dee was very diabolical, in his own words, as far as putting 'All words and music by Dee Snider' on every album, which I didn't think was necessary, because it just wasn't true. Yeah, he did write all the lyrics and he did come up with the melody. And at the time, he said, 'Well, the guy who writes the melody is the songwriter.' I did talk to him about, 'Well, what about all the stuff I came up with?' … There's a lot of things I came up with that I never got writing credit for… Just a lot of these little guitar bits that I came up, and a lot of the theme solos, which are melodies; they're not just some guy playing Chuck Berry riffs. They're, like, singable solos with their own melody…

"Dee knew how to kind of roughly put out a chord," Eddie added. "He was good at singing it to me, so I could translate it into whatever it needed to be.

"I think there should have been some writing credit; it should have been spread out a bit. Because, like I said, I wrote my solos. I came up with these theme bits for the songs. I came up with little parts here and there — certain progressions during the solos. There's a lot of little stuff that I added to the songs.

"I think nobody cared. [We didn't make] a big stink about it, because we all said, 'You know what? We're going to do well, so it doesn't matter.' At the time, you don't realize how important it is to fight for that. You don't wanna cause bad vibes. It's one of those things [where] you just go with the flow."

In 2015, Snider sold his Snidest Music music publishing catalog of 69 songs — including the classic TWISTED SISTER rock anthems "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock" — to Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) for what he later said was "a lot of money."

TWISTED SISTER rose to prominence from the New York club scene in the early 1980s. Their biggest album, 1984's "Stay Hungry", contained "We're Not Gonna Take It" and "I Wanna Rock".

In 2016, TWISTED SISTER embarked on one final trek, titled "Forty And Fuck It", in celebration of its 40th anniversary. These shows featured the band's "core lineup" of Snider, guitarists Jay Jay French and Ojeda, and bassist Mark Mendoza, along with drummer Mike Portnoy. The band's last-ever official concert took place in November of that year — 20 months after the passing of drummer A.J. Pero.

TWISTED SISTER's original run ended in the late '80s. After more than a decade, the band publicly reunited in November 2001 to top the bill of New York Steel, a hard-rock benefit concert to raise money for the New York Police And Fire Widows' And Children's Benefit Fund.

Metallica have released the official live video for the 72 Seasons album track, "You Must Burn!", filmed at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, Mexico, on September 27. Watch below:





Videos for "No Leaf Clover" and "Of Wolf And Man", from Metallica's September 27 concert in Mexico City, can be viewed below:










Pre-orders are open for the recordings from Metallica's September 27 and 29 concerts in Mexico City. It was their second round of shows following the September 20 / 22 No Repeat Weekend.





Says Metallica: "Relive the September 27 & 29 concerts from Estadio GNP Seguros with the ultimate souvenir... an official live audio recording on CD. Both shows are available now for pre-order in the Met Store individually and as a bundle. And in case you missed it, both shows from the previous weekend are available for pre-order, too!


Thanks again for four amazing shows across two incredible weekends in Mexico City. We hope to see you all again soon!"


Live CDs and bundles are available via the official Metallica online shop here.


Expected availability date is November 29.


"We’re kicking off year three of M72 with 21 North American shows across April, May, and June of next year," begins a recent M72 2025 update from Metallica. "This leg will stop in 14 cities with 18 shows in the round, plus two festival stops, seven No Repeat Weekends, and seven one-night-only stops.


"We’re continuing the M72 tradition of unique support acts - a mix of Pantera, Limp Bizkit, Suicidal Tendencies, and Ice Nine Kills - and setlists for each No Repeat Weekend show. The Snake Pit will remain in the center of the stage for all in the round (non-festival) stops. And we’ll be sure to have plenty of extracurricular events planned for the Metallica Family to stay busy around the shows.


"Enhanced Experiences ranging from access to a meet and greet, production and stage tour, food and beverage in the “Black Box” lounge to early entry into the venue and the aforementioned Snake Pit will be available. The I Disappear Ticket is back for the fan who wants to run away with us for all the shows. And new to M72, travel packages, including hotel, ticket, and shuttle options, will be available for most locations.


"North America is not our only stop in 2025, as this year, we will return to Australia and New Zealand after far too long away!!! Stay tuned for the full announcement coming VERY soon."

Pioneering American thrash metal band, Nasty Savage, has just released the official music video for their latest single, “Witches Sabbath”, from their new album The Jeopardy Room, set for release tomorrow via FHM Records.


In a special collaboration, John and Donald Tardy of Obituary joined Nasty Savage on the re-recording of “Witches Sabbath”, a track originally featured on Nasty Savage’s 1983 demo but never released on an album until now.


Reflecting on the collaboration, frontman Nasty Ronnie shared: "When I knew we were doing a new Nasty Savage album - the first one in 20 years - I wanted to re-record 'Witches Sabbath', the only song on our original demo that didn’t make it onto an album. I wanted to make it special; I wanted to bring the past back to the future. I wanted to have John and Donald Tardy be a part of this history. They said yes! Donald playing drums and John's unique killer vocals just blew us all away. They helped turn a classic song from 1983 into an epic song in 2024! I'm excited to see where it takes us in 2025, because you never know... For me, it was an honor that we were able to work together. I have so much respect for these guys. They truly know the business of longevity and success through hard work and dedication."




Adding to this, John and Donald Tardy of Obituary stated: "It has long been known and well-documented that early in Obituary’s career, we drew inspiration from local bands in the Tampa area, and none more than Nasty Savage. Not necessarily for the music style but for their 'never hold back' approach with over-the-top live show performances, and the opportunity to follow their lead with album recording at the legendary Morrisound Studios. We were very fortunate at such a young age to be able to have conversations with Ronnie Galletti about the local music scene and follow in his footsteps on how to ‘promote’ our band along with guidance on what to expect from the music industry. To this day, we remain close friends, and having the opportunity to re-record one of their all-time classics, 'Witches Sabbath', with them was a lifelong fantasy and dream come true for us. We had a blast with the band recording it, and having Jim Morris mix it was just the icing on the cake!"





Produced by Jim Morris at the legendary Morrisound Recording Studio in Tampa, Florida, The Jeopardy Room marks Nasty Savage’s triumphant re

Black Sabbath legend, Tony Iommi, has reissued the two albums he recorded with Glenn Hughes - The 1996 The Dep Sessions and Fused, available via BMG. This is the first time the albums are available on vinyl.


You can order the titles here, and listen to the official audio for the Fused tracks, "What You’re Living For" and "Face Your Fear", below.








The 1996 Dep Sessions tracklisting:


"Gone"
"From Another World"
"Don’t You Tell Me"
"Don’t Drag The River"
"Fine"
"Time Is The Healer"
"I’m Not The Same Man"
"It Falls Through Me"


"Time Is The Healer":





"I’m Not The Same Man":





"It Falls Through Me":





"From Another World":





"Gone" lyric video:









Fused tracklisting:


"Dopamine"
"Wasted Again"
"Saviour Of The Real"
"Resolution Song"
"Grace"
"Deep Inside A Shell"
"What You’re Living For"
"Face Your Fear"
"The Spell"
"I Go Insane"
"Slip Away" (Bonus Track)
"Let It Down Easy" (Bonus Track)
"The Innocence" (Bonus Track)


"What You’re Living For":





"Face Your Fear":

American death metal legends, Massacre, preview their upcoming album Necrolution, due out November 8 via Agonia Records, with a new single, "Death May Die", accompanied by a music video filmed by Niuvis Martin. Watch below:





Necrolution is a retrospective, nostalgic album, that turns back time to the late 80s and early 90s era of death metal. Recapturing the essence and style of death metal that was the original formula. Recreating the aesthetic feeling of something from the original style and sound to represent to these modern times. It’s purposefully meant to sound dated as it represents an era of early death metal music. It purposefully does not mimic the band's own original style but rather reflects the styles of many early era bands that influenced generations in death metal music.




Commented by Kam Lee: "With Necrolution the idea was to evolve the band's sound by devolving it. Unlike many bands in death metal that attempt to modernize and update their style and sound to emulate many of the modern contemporary death metal bands, we wanted to go back to the origin. The original sound and style. We wanted to make an album that sounds like it could have come out of the late 80s. The entire concept was to create something that was a de-evolution of the death metal genre and go back to an early style reminiscent of the past. Going back 40 years into the past to immolate the style of death metal that was predominantly influenced by thrash and heavy metal bands of the era. Lyrically it’s still entrenched in the horror genre and influenced by HP Lovecraft stories. We even have three tracks directly dedicated and influenced by the director Stewart Gordon, the filmmaker who was directly responsible for bringing Lovecraft films to horror movies in the 80s. The overall idea was to bring a 1980s aesthetic to the music that’s influenced by 1980s music as well as horror movie genre at the time. My hope is that fans find a unique experience when listening to Necrolution that not only encapsulates the feeling of 80s nostalgia but makes them appreciate the way the era influenced the death metal genre at the time."


Necrolution was recorded at DOA studios, Full S Studios & Gojiden Studio in Florida (USA) and mixed and mastered by Jonny Pettersson at Studio Unbound in Sweden. The cover artwork was painted by Timbul Cahyono of Bvllmetalart. Mark Riddick (Arch Enemy, Autopsy, Morbid Angel) created the merchandise designs.


The recording personnel for the new album - much of whom have been with Massacre since the Resurgence era - comprises, aside from Kam Lee, original Massacre bassist Mike Borders, returning guitarists Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Rib Spreader, Megascavanger) & Jonny Pettersson (Wombbath, Heads for The Dead), and new drummer, Jon Rudin (Just Before Dawn, Heads for The Dead, Dehumanaut). The band features a separate session lineup for live performances, which consists of Carlos Gonzalez (Grim Reality) on guitars, Elden Santos (Druid Lord) on drums and Tim Wilson on bass.


Formed in 1984, Massacre started out as a heavy/power metal band, but changed its style to death metal with the joining of Allen West and Kam Lee; the latter is often credited for inventing the "death growl" - first heard on the band’s 1986 demo Aggressive Tyrant - and is considered an influential pioneer as far as the death metal genre is concerned. The group went through several personnel shifts and disbandments over the years - with its early lineup toggling between Massacre, Mantas (early Death) and Death - to a triumphant return in 2021, with their last studio album Resurgence.  





Formats:


- Jewel case CD
- Slipcase CD
- Tape
- White LP
- Transparent green LP
- Purple LP
- Yellow w/red splatter LP


Clothing:


- Long sleeve
- T-shirt


Pre-order here.

Riding the triumphant success of their 50th Anniversary celebration, Blue Öyster Cult is rolling into the release of 50th Anniversary Live - Third Night, the final instalment of the live album celebrating the band’s 50th Anniversary.


This electrifying performance, which includes the band’s third album Secret Treaties performed back-to-back, is set to hit the shelves on December 13, and promises to be a spectacular follow-up to the band's historic three-night stint at Sony Hall in NYC.


In September of 2022, Blue Öyster Cult enthralled fans with a unique trilogy of sold-out shows, each dedicated to one of their first three albums. Founding member Albert Bouchard made a special appearance on all three nights, adding a nostalgic touch to the historic milestone.




For nearly three hours each night, the band delivered a spellbinding set, weaving through the entirety of their now-classic initial trilogy of albums and treating fans to a mix of favorites, deep cuts, and classic hits. The atmosphere was electric, and Frontiers Music captured the magic, releasing each night as a special individual package.


Blue Öyster Cult's legacy spans over five decades, captivating fans with intelligent hard rock loaded with classic songs. Hailing from Long Island, NY, the band is renowned in the hard rock and heavy metal scene for their pioneering work, earning both critical acclaim

When an album hits a big milestone like its 30th anniversary, it gets the usual remasters on the usual formats. But "Dookie" isn't a usual album. That's why GREEN DAY and Brain collaborated to create "Dookie Demastered": the album that exploded the format of punk rock, re-exploded on to 15 obscure, obsolete, and otherwise inconvenient limited-edition formats, now available for purchase.

Instead of smoothing out its edges and tweaking its dynamic ranges, this version of "Dookie" has been meticulously mangled to fit on formats with uncompromisingly low fidelity, from wax cylinders to answering machines to toothbrushes. The listening experience is unparalleled, sacrificing not only sonic quality, but also convenience, and occasionally entire verses. It's "Dookie", the way it was never meant to be heard.

All 15 formats can be played at dookiedemastered.com. Enter the drawing for your chance to buy one. Drawing ends on Friday, October 11 at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET.

"Dookie Demastered" comes on the heels of GREEN DAY's massive sold-out "Saviors" tour, which hit stadiums worldwide this summer. The band played "Dookie" and "American Idiot" in full, along with cuts from their latest album "Saviors", and the tour received widespread critical praise.

"Demastered" formats:

* Burnout - Player Piano Roll
* Having A Blast - Floppy Disk
* Chump - Teddy Ruxpin
* Longview - Doorbell
* Welcome To Paradise - Game Boy Cartridge
* Pulling Teeth - Toothbrush
* Basket Case - Big Mouth Billy Bass
* She - HitClip
* Sassafras Roots - 8-track
* When I Come Around - Wax Cylinder
* Coming Clean - X-Ray Record
* Emenius Sleepus - Answering Machine
* In The End - MiniDisc
* F.O.D. - Fisher Price Record
* All By Myself - Music Box

"Dookie"'s influence remains downright inescapable. It has sold a staggering 20 million copies worldwide and stands out as "the first punk album to be certified diamond by the RIAA for North American sales in excess of 10 million." Out of four 1995 Grammy Award nominations, it notably garnered "Best Alternative Album." Rolling Stone touted it on the "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" and Pitchfork retrospectively christened it "one of the greatest teenage wasteland albums of any generation." The Daily Beast remarked on "How Green Day's Dookie Defined The 1990s And Changed Music Forever." Speaking to its sustained impact, it has generated billions of streams to date. To put it in perspective, "Dookie" has lived through five presidential administrations, Y2K, social media, a global pandemic, and the birth of countless acolytes. However, there's still nothing like it after all of this time.

Formed in 1986 in Berkeley, California, GREEN DAY is one of the world's best-selling bands of all time, with more than 75 million records sold worldwide and 10 billion cumulative audio/visual streams. The five-time Grammy Award-winning Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees released their breakout album "Dookie" in 1994, which sold over 10 million and achieved 10-teimes-platinum diamond status, is widely credited with popularizing and reviving mainstream interest in punk rock, catapulting a career-long run of No. 1 hit singles. Entertainment Weekly calls GREEN DAY "The most influential band of their generation," while Rolling Stone attests, "GREEN DAY have inspired more young bands to start than any act this side of KISS, and that doesn't seem to be changing." In 2004, GREEN DAY released the rock opera "American Idiot", which captured the nation's attention, selling more than eight million copies in the U.S. alone and taking home the Grammy Award for "Best Rock Album." Mojo declared "It's exhilarating stuff, the kind of record that sets new parameters as to what is possible from a punk rock'n'roll band in the 21st century." In 2010, a stage adaptation of "American Idiot" debuted on Broadway to critical and commercial acclaim.

In a new interview with Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show, JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford was asked what's on the horizon for him and his bandmates at the moment. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's just this wonderful, wonderful renaissance going around, not only for PRIEST, but for metal in general, for bands that were there from the start. Our good friends SAXON, who we worked with recently in Europe — we were selling out places all over Europe because people not only are the fans of the band, but there are also people that were maybe on the outside looking and going, 'I've gotta check this out. What is this happening now? Why is there such a buzz about these bands?' And so we're thriving on that, we're thriving on that."

He continued: "We're so grateful and honored and humbled to be in this place all these years later and still have this thing called relevance. We're a relevant heavy metal band that's not living on their past glories. And there's nothing wrong with that. But we've always felt that who we are and what we're about is representative of what we're doing and saying now. So to have this glorious experience with [PRIEST's latest album] 'Invincible Shield', and it's not dissipating. There's still tremendous love and interest for that particular album and this band. And so we're just out there roaring away, giving you all of these moments from PRIEST right from the beginning of our metal lives to where we are right now with 'Invincible Shield'."

JUDAS PRIEST recently kicked off leg two of its "Invincible Shield" tour with special guest SABATON. The all-time greats are taking over new markets in North America this fall with an additional 23 performances. Produced by Live Nation, the tour launched on September 13 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec and makes stops in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Omaha, Nebraska; Spokane, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Los Angeles, California; Phoenix, Arizona and more before wrapping up with three shows in Texas on October 22, 24 and 26.

JUDAS PRIEST launched the spring 2024 U.S. leg of the "Invincible Shield" world tour on April 18 at Toyota Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, Connecticut.

"Invincible Shield" entered the U.K. chart at No. 2, just behind Ariana Grande's "Eternal Sunshine".

Prior to "Invincible Shield"'s arrival, PRIEST's highest U.K. chart achievement was with 1980's "British Steel", which reached No. 4.

PRIEST's 2018 album "Firepower" entered the chart at No. 5.

"Invincible Shield" was JUDAS PRIEST's fifth Top 10 album, after the aforementioned "British Steel" and "Firepower", as well as 2014's "Redeemer Of Souls" (No. 6) and the 1979 live album "Unleashed In The East" (No. 10).

"Invincible Shield" landed at No. 1 in Germany, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, as well as No. 5 in France, No. 8 in Italy and No. 16 in Australia.

Progressive music titans DREAM THEATER will release their sixteenth studio album, "Parasomnia", on February 7, 2025 via InsideOut Music. The LP marks the band's first release with drummer Mike Portnoy since 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings". The news on this latest album comes on the heels of the recent announcement of the tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of the band.

"Parasomnia" was produced by guitarist John Petrucci, engineered by James "Jimmy T" Meslin, and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returns once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art.

From the opening track "In The Arms Of Morpheus" to the closer of "The Shadow Man Incident", DREAM THEATER returns with a collection of songs that showcase what has earned the band a loyal following for four decades. Clocking in at 71 minutes, "Parasomnia" takes the listener on a musical journey that has become synonymous with the band since the beginning of their career. "Parasomnia" is a term for disruptive, sleep-related disturbances including sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, and night terrors. Songs like "A Broken Man", "Dead Asleep", "Midnight Messiah" and "Bend The Clock" all build upon the themes brought on by the album title. The first single, "Night Terror", is a musical thrill ride captured in the just shy of ten minutes listening experience. A music video for the song — directed by Mike Leonard — is now available and can be seen below.

The track listing for "Parasomnia" is:

01. In The Arms Of Morpheus (5:22)
02. Night Terror (9:55)
03. A Broken Man (8:30)
04. Dead Asleep (11:06)
05. Midnight Messiah (7:58)
06. Are We Dreaming? (1:28)
07. Bend The Clock (7:24)
08. The Shadow Man Incident (19:32)

Portnoy co-founded DREAM THEATER in 1985 with guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung. Mike played on 10 DREAM THEATER albums over a 20-year period, from 1989's "When Dream And Day Unite" through 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", before exiting the group in 2010.

Mike Mangini joined DREAM THEATER in late 2010 through a widely publicized audition following the departure of Portnoy. Mangini beat out six other of the world's top drummers — Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer and Derek Roddy — for the gig, a three-day process that was filmed for a documentary-style reality show called "The Spirit Carries On".

Asked by Brazil's Marcelo Vieira and Matheus Ribeiro if DREAM THEATER's upcoming LP picks up from where the last DT album he played on, 2009's "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", left off or if it's a different thing entirely, Portnoy said: "If I'm being honest, I think it picks up right where 'Black Clouds' left off, to be honest. There's a certain style that the five of us have when we write together. And if you listen to the album with this lineup from 1999, '[Metropolis Pt. 2:] Scenes From A Memory', through 2009's 'Black Clouds & Silver Linings', if you look at that string of five or six albums, that's the sound and style of these five people. So I think that's a good indication of what you can expect with the new DREAM THEATER album. It definitely sounds like classic DREAM THEATER."

In a recent interview with U.K.'s Devolution magazine, DREAM THEATER keyboardist Jordan Rudess talked about the band's upcoming sixteenth album. Regarding Portnoy's reunion with DREAM THEATER, Rudess said: "I'm really excited because welcoming Mike back is a really emotional, really beautiful thing to his home, where he really should be. He's been so wonderful and very respectful of all of us in terms of — he was gone for a long time. And he has all these skills beyond drumming. So he asks, 'Do you mind if I get involved with this? Is it okay if I get involved with this?' And we're always, like, 'Yeah, man, come on, bring it on. All the stuff that you do, all the Mike Portnoy stuff is important.' And I am so happy because, you know, when I listen back to the music that we've been creating, it's got his stamp on it. You know that some of the stuff is coming from his brain."

Jordan added: "Let's say it kind of like it is. DREAM THEATER survived for 13 years without him. We did fine. We won a Grammy. We wrote a lot of good music. We had a fantastic drummer. All that's good. But he came back, and now you will feel it in the music, you will hear it in the songs, you will see it when we're going out and playing live. It's unmistakable. This guy, he's who he is. He's a big character. He's very, very talented. Great drummer. Really great thinker about all the different elements that go into musical-visual creation. And this album we're working on just emits that. Everyone will know as soon as they hear it. So I'm really super excited about it, and all of it it's great."

In July, Rudess was asked by Chris Akin Presents how the upcoming DREAM THEATER album compares to the rest of the band's discography. Jordan said: "Well, let's put it this way. There's this undeniable, almost unexplainable or inexplainable, whatever the word is, type of thing that happens with drummers. We survived beautifully in the 13 years that Mike Portnoy was not there. Mike Mangini was a supreme drummer, just incredible. And that said, all the albums with Portnoy, all the albums with Mangini, they have different flavors, because there's something about the back beat, if you will, of a band and the drummer that just gives an energy to the whole thing. And a lot of people speak of that. It's kind of hard to pin down. But you really notice it. Like on this new album, I listen to it and I go, 'Okay, I feel the Portnoy energy back there.'

"I would say what I'm hearing personally is classic kind of DREAM THEATER, whatever that means to anybody that's listening," he continued. "You'll have to wait and see. Think of it this way: the core band is back together again. It's classic DREAM THEATER. I also like to point out that we are a bunch of guys that we take what we do very, very seriously. We put every ounce, every bit of effort, energy into everything we do. We care so much about it, each and every one of us.

"The other day, I was talking to John Petrucci in the studio when I was doing my keyboard parts. And we were really deep and working really hard and spending long hours and just getting things to where we feel they're really, really right. And I said to John, I said, 'John, look at what we're doing. We're here late. We're working like crazy. Why? We could have been making pop music. Why are we doing this?' Just to really understand, because a lot of people don't put the kind of effort, I guess, especially these days when there tends to be a different kind of work ethic around, and maybe we're kind of like old school in that way. But to produce a product, to make something that's gonna last, that is gonna be shared with a large number of people, that's just gonna live on, in a way, forever, that, to us, is a really serious thing. And as artists, we're trying to make a statement."

Circling back to Portnoy's influence on the new DREAM THEATER music, Jordan said: "One of the beautiful things is Mike has brought with him all his incredible skills. He's not a guy who just plays the drums really well. He also understands this business. I always like to say that he's got kind of like a film director's mentality, he's looking at everything from a conceptual point of view, and he has skills that the rest of us don't. I mean, yes, we survived fine [without Portnoy], we did really well, we won a Grammy [while he was out of the band] and all that, but there's a magic there that we now have back. It's cool — it's really cool. We're super excited."

In a new interview with Tone-Talk, legendary rock guitarist Jake E. Lee (OZZY OSBOURNE, BADLANDS, RED DRAGON CARTEL) was asked if he ended up getting surgery on his hands after it was reported earlier this year that he was suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I did not. I thought I had carpal tunnel. I went to a neurologist, and they poked the needles in me and then zapped me. They said I had carpal tunnel. So then I made an appointment with a wrist surgeon, which took a while. I went there. She asked to see some X-rays, which nobody had ever done. She said, 'Well, before we talk about surgery…' She took X-rays, came back and said, 'You don't have carpal tunnel. You don't have it. If anybody had taken an X-ray of your wrist, they would have seen you don't have carpal tunnel.' And apparently I don't have any cartilage left in [my right] hand. She said I have very little in [my left hand], but [my left one] doesn't bother me. So it's all bone on bone, rubbing against each other, and that's agitating it. So, right now, I'm getting cortisone shots in the wrist — lots of fun — and physical therapy to get the muscles stronger around it, do a lot of stretching. It's about pain management now. It's either that or fuse the bones together, which I think Steve Morse did. And it will change your playing style. If you get this fused, now it's all elbow — maybe fingers, I guess. Then I'll get tennis elbow. So she said she recommends pain management. 'Let's see if we can get you playing without fusing the bones together,' which sounds pretty radical. And it is better. I am playing again. For four or five years, I just really didn't play that much, unless I had a song idea, which always happens when you're falling asleep. And then I pick the guitar up and put the idea down. So I do have a bunch of ideas. I've been playing. It doesn't hurt as much. I feel like everything's getting better, so I'm not gonna get surgery. I'm just not. I'm not, I'll learn how to play more from the elbow. But I still have that option with the wrist and manage the pain. But I am playing again — I have been for about two months maybe — and I wanna go out and do a tour. I wanna finish doing the 'Patina' tour, which got canceled because of COVID. I would like to go out and do that [with] RED DRAGON CARTEL, focus on the 'Patina' record and do some more recording. We'll see where that goes."

"Patina", the second offering from Jake E. Lee's RED DRAGON CARTEL, was released in November 2018. The follow-up to RED DRAGON CARTEL's eponymous 2014 debut, "Patina" marked the group's first release with drummer Phil Varone (SAIGON KICK, SKID ROW) and bassist Anthony Esposito. The band's most recent lineup was rounded out by singer Darren James Smith.

RED DRAGON CARTEL's latest album was mixed by legendary producer Max Norman, who has previously worked with OZZY OSBOURNE, MEGADETH, SAVATAGE and LOUDNESS, among others.

In addition to being the bassist for RED DRAGON CARTEL, Esposito co-produced the album alongside Lee.

"Patina" marked a change of style from the debut RED DRAGON CARTEL album, featuring a more bluesy hard rock direction as opposed to its predecessor's heavier leanings.

Back in September 2015, RED DRAGON CARTEL was rejoined by Darren James Smith after a period of several months during which the band played shows with a number of other vocalists, including former JONES STREET frontman Shawn Crosby, Canadian singer Paul D'Eath (CITIZENS UNITE, MUSHROOM TRAIL),Chas West (Jason Bonham, LYNCH MOB, 3 LEGGED DOGG) and Michael Beck.

Lee, who was tapped by Ozzy Osbourne to replace the late Randy Rhoads in the singer's solo band, played on two Ozzy records: 1983's "Bark At The Moon" and 1986's "The Ultimate Sin".

SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET, the new band led by SYSTEM OF A DOWN bassist Shavo Odadjian, made its live debut on Monday (October 7) at the SiriusXM Garage in Los Angeles, California. You can now listen to the performance in the YouTube video below (courtesy of Victims Of A Down).

Setlist:

01. Paradise 00:01
02. Cry 03:01
03. Float 06:45
04. Radiance 10:51
05. Abandon 14:35
06. Alive 17:18

Encore

07. Sunrise 20:23

SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET will release its self-titled debut album on October 11 via the Sumerian Records imprint 1336 Records. Shavo is joined in the group by vocalist Taylor Barber (LEFT TO SUFFER),WINDS OF PLAGUE guitarist Michael Montoya (a.k.a. Morgoth Beatz, a producer and songwriter who has previously collaborated with Travis Barker, JuiceWrld, Lil Xan, Jonathan Davis, ISSUES and many more),guitarist/backing vocalist Alejandro Aranda (a.k.a. Scarypoolparty, "American Idol") and drummer Josh Johnson (WINDS OF PLAGUE).

SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET has released three singles so far: "Alive", "Paradise" and "Radiance".

Shavo recently told RIFF Magazine about how SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET came about: "It was funny. My number's 22, so that's why I have the [cannabis] brand 22Red. So on February 22nd, 2022, we threw a party and the day of the party, I did a live radio show on KROQ here in Los Angeles. And that evening, we were throwing the party for 22Red, but I did that show before and I invited the host to the party. He asked me if he could bring a friend. I said, 'Sure.' He brought his friend. It was Morgoth Beatz who ended up being the producer and now my rhythm guitar player in the band and co-songwriter in some of them songs and stuff. So he and I decided we can write music that day together. So we exchanged numbers and we got together like a month later, wrote a song, and then we did another one a week later. And then it just became this thing where it was gonna be like one song we were going to sell to another artist, 'cause that's what he does; he writes a lot of music and he passes it on. But it became this thing. And he mentioned, he's, like, 'Man, why don't you do a Shavo record? Like something with all of the songs that you wrote instead of just one or two songs. These are coming out great.' And at that point, I wasn't really thinking about doing my own record like that, 'cause I've done so many other projects. And another thing is I've never done heavy music outside of SYSTEM. It's been heavy, but never the same genre. I've always tried to stay against the grain, and I've done EDM, I've done hip-hop, I've done rock-metal shit, but I haven't really just focused on that, which actually is my forte. I close my eyes and it just happens, which is how we did this."

Shavo continued: "So I was at his studio. I have my own studio. I gave him the key. I said, 'Come through. We're gonna start working on this record.' And a year and a half later, we have a full record, plus another half a record for album two. We have a full band. I started my own label and I signed it to Sumerian, who has worldwide distribution to Virgin, which is amazing for me. That's what I kind of wanted with the control. I've been doing this for 30 years, so I kind of knew how I wanted it, and I'm building it. And that's how it started. And that's where we're at right now. It started off as a passion project [and it] became my thing."

Regarding how the songwriting process for SYSTEM OF A DOWN was different from how he approached his previously projects, Shavo said: "Yeah, usually I'll write at home and then I'll bring it to the band. Or my other projects, I've just written at home and then brought it to the rest of the guys. This one, I would just have him play a beat that he made, or even just a 4/4, or even a loop or something, and then I just kind of… I mean, I just started strumming and the music just came out of me. So we just recorded everything I did. And whenever something was amazing, we knew it. I was, like, 'Okay, make that a thing.' So we highlighted that moment. And then afterwards I wrote a part that goes with that, and then kind of arranged it, wrote it all in the studio. So artistically it was really refreshing. There was no boundaries, no law, no rules. I just did it. It just came out so organically. Everything about it has been organic and not planned. And that's what the beauty of SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET."

On the topic of how he came up with the name of the SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET, Shavo said: "He [Morgoth Beatz] wanted to call it SHAV or SHAVO, so people know it's me, and I wrote 95 percent of it. But still, I always like a unit, I like a band. I think it's cooler. And plus he helped me a lot. These guys, they came in and did their part, and it just works perfectly. So I like the collaboration. I've never had the ego, where it's, like, 'me, me, me.' I've never done that. I've never said that. So I like it. It's us. And it became a band. And SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET, the acronym, is S.H.A.V. So that's cool. So they got what they wanted and I got what I wanted. I got a band, the cool name mysterious, but it also has a meaning, but I'm never gonna explain the meaning. It's kind of one of those things. There's many meanings you can think of what 'Violet' is — it could be a female, it could be a thing, the color, an event, it could be anything, and it's kind of cool. So there is some deep meaning to it and maybe one day we'll explain it, but at the moment, I like it where we are."

Shavo also talked about the first single from SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET, "Paradise", which was made available in June. The release marked the launch of Shavo's new joint label venture 1336 Records in partnership with Sumerian Music Group.

"That's one of the heaviest songs on the record," Odadjian said. "I have a few really heavy ones. But I wanted to release something brutal first, 'cause… I don't know… I just kind of like the heaviness of it, and I think the world needs to hear really heavy music from me right now. They've heard a lot, so I kind of wanted to drop that first. I feel like after that we can move into the other stuff, because it does have the melodic, it has the grooves, it has the heavy, heavy stuff."

Regarding the other members of SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET, Shavo said: "My singer, Taylor Barber, he comes from the world of deathcore and the growling. His voice is an instrument, and he's a wonder. He's like the new wonder of the world that no one knows yet that's there. He does have a following and he comes from another band called LEFT TO SUFFER, which is a grindcore band. But he sings like a canary as well. His range is so huge. He's the perfect member. He's the perfect singer that came in and can do all the parts. And then also we got Alejandro Aranda, who, he is just this musical genius who came in. He was the last member, and I didn't even know I needed that member, but, now it's, like, of course I needed him. Of course he fit perfectly. He does side vocals. He sings along with Taylor perfectly. So it's like a two-vocal band now, two-vocalist band. And we got Josh Johnson on the drums, and he's amazing. He hails from a band called WINDS OF PLAGUE; he used to play with them. So he's talented as hell. So, yeah, I'm honored and lucky to have these guys around me and for us to be able to do this music together."

SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET will next perform at this year's Mayhem festival, set to take place on October 12 at the Glen Helen Amphitheatre in San Bernardino. "And we are gonna do some shows around it, and then we do have some outside-of-the-U.S. stuff already planned," Shavo explained. "So, yeah, this will be a touring band. 'Cause that's kind of the purpose why I put the band together the way I did. The original idea was to make the music and then have like a DJ Khaled kind of album, but rock and metal, where I have features, guest vocalists coming on; each song has somebody else. But when the songs started developing, I was, like, 'This should be a tour. This should be a touring road band as well.' But you could never do that with guest vocals, so we needed someone to be the singer. So that's why we went ahead and searched for the singer. And that's how we got Taylor. So, yeah, we got the Mayhem coming up. That one's announced, but we are booking a little U.S. thing around it. 'Cause you don't wanna just do one show, but that would be the big one. We're on the main stage. I can't wait. And then we've got some outside-of-the-U.S. ideas too. So yes, more coming."

The music video for "Paradise" is a collaborative effort with creative direction being overseen by Shavo and Adam Mason, who also shot the video. Editing was handled by Arben and Kuj Durollari of BOND, who are also working with the band to design their creative assets.

When the universe aligns, magic happens. This was certainly the case when Odadjian, the legendary bass player of SYSTEM OF A DOWN, crossed paths with platinum-selling producer, songwriter and guitarist Morgoth at a party on 2.22.22. Their initial sessions were a spontaneous combustion of creativity, transforming from a potential solo venture into a full-fledged band. Shavo recalls: "We wrote a song right away. It wasn't like any writing session I had been part of before; riffs were just flowing out of me without me even having to try. Every time I felt like I couldn't write anything. Morgoth would hand me a guitar and say, 'Go, go, go'. I needed that, you know? I needed someone to push me when I wasn't pushing myself. "

As music continued to pour out in torrents, with Shavo writing and performing all the guitar and bass parts and Morgoth producing and providing the beats, atmospherics and FX, Morgoth suggested they turn it into a Shavo solo project. However, with his eye now firmly set on the live arena, Shavo decided to create a full band.

Finding the right vocal talent to complement the musical landscape created by Shavo and Morgoth was crucial. Morgoth's recommendation of Taylor Barber from LEFT TO SUFFER was a game changer. Shavo was blown away. "He was singing in falsetto one minute and growling the next — it was ridiculous," the bassist states. "He became the singer because he knocked every song out of the park."

With Shavo on bass and Morgoth on guitar, the band also brought in Morgoth's WINDS OF PLAGUE bandmate Josh Johnson on drums and Alejandro Aranda, known for his solo project SCARYPOOLPARTY and as runner-up on "American Idol", as lead guitarist and backing vocalist.

Once the new music was complete, mixed by Zach Jones and mastered by Maor Applebaum, Shavo partnered with Avildsen to create 1336 Records, with SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET being the first signing.

SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET is:

Taylor Barber - Vocals
Morgoth - Guitar, Production
Shavo Odadjian - Bass
Alejandro Aranda - Guitar/Backing Vocals
Josh Johnson - Drums

Photo credit: Max McGuire

SEVEN HOURS AFTER VIOLET x SIRIUSXM! We went live, baby! Many FIRSTS tonight. First SXM LA HQ live broadcast for Liquid...

Posted by Mike Jakubow on Monday, October 7, 2024