In a new interview with RadioactiveMike Z, host of the 96.7 KCAL-FM radio program "Wired In The Empire", PUDDLE OF MUDD frontman Wes Scantlin was asked to name his favorite band of the so-called "Flannel Five": NIRVANA, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, ALICE IN CHAINS, SOUNDGARDEN and PEARL JAM. He responded: "I'm gonna go SOUNDGARDEN on that, dude. They just shred, man; those guys are just amazing. I seriously walk in circles before I go into the studio trying to kind of get a vibe and sing a little bit like Chris Cornell. But he's got a really insane voice.

"All of [those bands] are all wonderful artists and just simplified music, in my opinion," he added. "And God bless Eddie Van Halen. I appreciate and I celebrate his life, but I could not play any of the solos that Eddie Van Halen did. I still can't."

As for which SOUNDGARDEN song is his favorite, Wes picked "Burden In My Hand", the second single from the band's fourth studio album, 1996's "Down On The Upside".

PUDDLE OF MUDD's latest album, "Welcome To Galvania", was released in 2019 via Pavement Entertainment.

Wes had almost non-stop problems with the law, alcohol, finances and other issues, before finally getting sober in 2017. After changing his life around and getting the band back in order, Wes and PUDDLE OF MUDD rebuilt a touring base, which paved the way to new music and a new album.

"Welcome To Galvania" was PUDDLE OF MUDD's first full-length collection of music in a decade. Scantlin stated about the LP title: "My dad measures my songwriting by the galvanic skin response, which is an electric current. It's when you get goosebumps and you feel this insane, awesome sensation in your body."

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

DEEP PURPLE is planning to enter the studio in 2021 to begin work on another album.

The news of the legendary British rockers' upcoming recording activity was broken by bassist Roger Glover during a virtual meet-and-greet with Finnish fan Anssi Herkkola.

Speaking about how he and the other members of PURPLE have been spending their coronavirus downtime, Roger said (see video below): "All this COVID situation has meant that we can't tour. We're twiddling our thumbs, really, for over a year, and the idea was to possibly go back in and do another album. And so we're just working towards that. It's so quick after we'd done the last album, [and] maybe that will spoil things, but we're gonna try and do another album at some point next year. We're experimenting with stuff."

DEEP PURPLE's latest album, "Whoosh!", was released this past August via earMUSIC. The LP was once again helmed by Canadian producer Bob Ezrin (KISS, PINK FLOYD, ALICE COOPER), who also worked on the band's previous two studio albums, 2017's "Infinite" and 2013's "Now What?!"

Glover recently told Den Of Geek about the PURPLE songwriting process: "All our songs come from jamming. We don't actually write songs, they just evolve as we play. The first writing session is usually a lot of fun. We just explore different rhythms and riffs and whatever, and then take a break to listen to them, and figure out which ones we really want to work on, and that's the second writing session. And then we go to the studio and record them, but at this point, we rarely have finished vocals or lyrics. It's usually when the album has been all recorded instrumentally that [singer] Ian Gillan and I go off on our own somewhere for a couple of weeks and we write the words. Sometimes he writes on his own, sometimes I write my own. Sometimes we write together. And that's how it comes out.

He added: "You don't go to a PURPLE session with anything like a finished song. You go with an idea, and we all work on it together. It's got to be a collective. That's the point of the band — it's a collective. So, one person couldn't write a DEEP PURPLE song. It takes five of us.

"We've always done it that way. It's a strange way to write songs, I know. Most people write the songs before they go in the studio, we write them after we've been in the studio. But it was like that in '69 when I joined the band. It's been the same ever since."

In the Den Of Geek interview, Glover also said that DEEP PURPLE has "always" been a democratic group. "It was right from when I first joined the band," he explained. "We decided that whoever writes any particular idea, we all share, because we all contribute. The way we play is almost as much a part of the writing process as what the riff or the lyrics are. So we all shared everything. It didn't last that way. When I left the band, and Gillan left the band, it changed. It changed up until when Steve Morse joined. When Steve Morse joined, we said, 'Right, let's share everything.' It takes away stress, it takes away ego, it takes away jealousy, it takes away bad vibes. And I think we all share and we all write for it. We all work our bits. So that's the way we do it, and it is a democratic band."

Legendary LED ZEPPELIN guitarist Jimmy Page has told Total Guitar magazine in a new interview that he has been using the coronavirius downtime to reconnect with his instrument.

"Under the circumstances of having a lockdown and isolating, I picked up the guitar and made a point of playing the guitar every day," he said. "Whereas before the lockdown, it had gotten to the point where I was always complaining that I didn't have enough time to play the guitar because there was all this other stuff that was going on.

"It's surprising how many things there are, even with LED ZEPPELIN, so I was not finding enough time to play the guitar as much as I would like," he explained. "It was there, but not being played. I thought, that's not going to be the case. I'm now going to play it. I don't want to make it sound like I'd locked the guitars away. That wasn't the case. But there were so many things that kept getting in the way of playing — or playing the way that you need to if you're exploring the instrument still."

When the interviewer pointed out to Page that a lot of people would love to see him play again, the guitarist responded: "That was the idea before we locked down. But — but — there'll be a time when we'll be able to play, so the thing to do is to think how you'd do it if you did do it, and have some surprises up your sleeve, you know?

"I did think about it," he confirmed. "But I thought, I better do some serious practicing first [laughs], because it's been a long time since [LED ZEPPELIN's concert at] the O2. I hope we'll meet up one day, when I'm doing this mythical show one day."

Last year, Page said that he was planning to tell his life story in the form of a book. Speaking to Uncut magazine, he said: "I will definitely do an autobiography. Every six months brings new things for me to write about or comment about. I have a number of ways I plan to approach it. But I am determined that I'll write it first and then go to a publisher, because I don't want to be held to a deadline."

In October 2018, LED ZEPPELIN released its first and only official illustrated book, "Led Zeppelin By Led Zeppelin". It was a unique collaboration between Page, singer Robert Plant and bassist John Paul Jones, who gave Reel Art Press unrestricted access to the LED ZEPPELIN archive.

ZEPPELIN last performed in December 2007 in London, with drummer Jason Bonham filling in for his late father John Bonham

JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford says that an "incredible display of love " between the members of the band is what got them through their subliminal-message trial in Reno, Nevada.

In August 1990, a judge ruled that JUDAS PRIEST was not liable for the deaths of two young men who cited the band's music as the reason they killed themselves.

Just before Christmas, 1985, 19-year-old James Vance watched his best friend Ray Belknap shoot himself to death with a .12 gauge shotgun in a churchyard outside Reno, Nevada. Then Vance pulled the trigger on himself. He survived but was severely disfigured. Vance later claimed his actions had been influenced by the heavy metal music of JUDAS PRIEST, prompting his family to sue the band.

At the heart of the lawsuit was the claim that JUDAS PRIEST's "Stained Class" album's songs contained messages that, when played backwards, said "try suicide" and "let's be dead." Lawyers said it was the song "Better By You, Better Than Me" with its subliminal command of "do it, do it, do it" that pushed the two men over the line to end their troubled lives.

Vance told attorneys that he and Belknap were listening to JUDAS PRIEST when "all of a sudden we got a suicide message, and we got tired of life." In a letter to Belknap's mother, he later wrote, "I believe that alcohol and heavy-metal music such as JUDAS PRIEST led us to be mesmerized."

"JUDAS PRIEST and CBS pander this stuff to alienated teenagers," the Belknaps' attorney argued. "The members of the chess club, the math and science majors don't listen to this stuff. It's the dropouts, the drug and alcohol abusers. So our argument is you have a duty to be more cautious when you're dealing with a population susceptible to this stuff."

Halford looked back on the Reno trial while promoting his recently released autobiography, "Confess", on "The Radical With Nick Terzo" podcast.

Rob said (hear audio below): "This, to me, was just this incredible display of love between all of us in the band. We never talked about it, 'cause that's the kind of guys we are and the generation that we're from. But that's what got us through it — loving each other and caring for each other and supporting each other, and being extremely focused on the elements of the trial.

"I've said it before, and I'll never stop saying it, those two beautiful heavy metal guys took their lives," he continued. "[It had] nothing to do with metal. They loved their heavy metal music. They were just totally locked into experience — it gave them a lot of connectivity; it was who they were as persons with the music that they loved. But the horrible side issues of what was going on with their family, plus the state of mind, which was messed up terribly that particular fateful day, with alcohol and other chemicals, it was like a ticking time bomb.

"But, yeah, we were literally fighting for our lives, weren't we?" Rob added. "We were accused, firstly, of killing somebody. How do you cope with that? But we did. And it was an incredibly strong, tough part of the life of JUDAS PRIEST that I would like to say we got through unscathed, but we didn't, because we all carry that with us, as do a lot of other people. And because of the context of the story, it's very important to have it included in 'Confess'."

Halford also talked about the fact that PRIEST returned to Reno at some point after the trial to play a show for the community which supported the group during one of its darkest periods.

"We went back to Reno some years later, as just a validation of us all getting through that and still being together, and still not having any hate," Rob explained. "'Cause hate is a horribly destructive, corrosive, mean, nasty, terrible thing to have to go through, because it doesn't have any value whatsoever — it's just pure negativity. So for us to go back and to celebrate, it was important."

Other lawsuits at that time sought damages because of violent lyrics in music, but the JUDAS PRIEST case was one of the first to claim that subliminal messages hidden behind those lyrics caused the deaths of young men.

A month ago, SYSTEM OF A DOWN released "Protect The Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz", the band's first new songs in 15 years. The tracks were motivated by the recently erupted conflict between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, the latter aided by Turkey and accountable for the greatest violence the region has endured in 26 years. Produced by guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian, who also wrote the music and lyrics, both songs are streaming now on all DSPs and are available for purchase on Bandcamp with band royalties earmarked for the Armenia Fund.

In a new interview with Dave Lawrence of Hawaii Public Radio, SYSTEM OF A DOWN singer Serj Tankian spoke about how the two tracks came about. He said (hear audio below): "I was [at home] in New Zealand and already dealing with activism having to do with the war effort in terms of awareness and fundraising. And we [the four members of SYSTEM OF A DOWN] were connecting about having SYSTEM about helping disseminate that information, which we did. And then John [Dolmayan, drums] hit us up and said, 'Listen, guys, I know we haven't been in the studio and put out music in so many years. I think it would be vital to do something for our people. What do you guys think?' And we all agreed immediately. And it turned out Daron had a song that he had written about the soldiers who defend the land, who defend their families in Artsakh specifically. And so he played it for us, he sent us the song, and we listened to it, and it made total sense; the lyrics were on the nose. And so I started working on some harmonies and stuff in my studio in New Zealand and sending it him. And then he also had another song that he had written earlier on that he wanted SYSTEM to do that we had never done. At first, I was just thinking that we were doing one song, but then it turned into two, which is fine. But it got all done in, like, three days in the studio."

According to Serj, recording two full tracks in a matter of just a couple of days is "not our normal pattern" of working. "[Under normal circumstances] we would have sat down, reviewed the music, tried different parts, tried different things and whatnot," he said. "It was more about expediting it. It was more about, 'Listen, we need to get this out next week. We need to do this for our people.' And so not only our guard was down personally, because we were doing it for a cause outside of ourselves, but we were also not very critical. We just said, 'Let's do this. Let's make it the best we can.' And I think we did. And I think it's resonating because of that. I think it has nothing to do with SYSTEM OF A DOWN and more to do with our passion for justice and helping our people."

Asked if he completed his recordings for the new SYSTEM songs in Los Angeles or New Zealand, Serj said: "I could have done the recordings [in New Zealand] for vocals, 'cause I have a little studio, but we were flying back anyway to see family, 'cause we were in New Zealand for about nine months. So I was coming here anyway, so we did it literally… I got into the studio two days after I landed. We just got in and did it and then started doing the program to get all of this out and just try to fundraise… And we just wanna keep the momentum going. And we appreciate how people have resonated with the songs and the excitement around them.

"It's great to see art open minds," Tankian said about the reaction to the new SYSTEM material. "And it's something that I've always believed in through what I've done for years with music, but it's great to see it in a very kind of non-ambiguous way and a very direct way, talking about the issues. The band has a message that you can see online about what these songs mean to us and what's going on in Armenia and Artsakh and how it's important to us. So all of that awareness is really crucial and it's really made a difference. And we're still working — we have a lot of work to do — and we won't stop until we get some justice."

The music video for "Protect The Land" incorporates recent footage of the protests and on-the-ground fighting in Artsakh, but in a very personal and aesthetic way. As he did for all previous SYSTEM OF A DOWN releases, bassist Shavo Odadjian executive-produced the music video and curated the cover and brand art for the project.

"Protect The Land" a was originally written by Malakian for the next album by his other group, SCARS ON BROADWAY, while "Genocidal Humanoidz" was penned three or four years ago when Odadjian, Malakian and Dolmayan convened for a jam session that produced several songs, only to abandon them when Tankian wouldn't commit to an album.

Within a week of their release, "Protect The Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz" landed at positions No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on Billboard's Hot Hard Rock Songs chart. "Land" topped the chart with 2.7 million U.S. streams and 5,000 downloads sold in the week ending November 12, while "Humanoidz" garnered 1.8 million streams and 5,000 downloads.

As a result of renewed interest in SYSTEM OF A DOWN's music, the band's 2001 album "Toxicity" re-entered the Hard Rock Albums chart at No. 10 (5,000 equivalent album units; up 32%) while 1998's "System Of A Down" has shot back up to No. 11 (5,000 units; up 308%).

SYSTEM OF A DOWN is planning to film a music video for "Genocidal Humanoidz" in December. "I've written out the storyline, and I've got a couple of surprises that I'm gonna be putting [in there]," Odadjian told geopolitical analyst Richard Èlmoyan in a recent interview.

Photo credit: Clemente Ruiz

LACUNA COIL's Cristina Scabbia has called out people who claim that the coronavirus is "just a flu" and that the impact of the virus has been vastly exaggerated.

Earlier today, the Italian singer took to her Instagram to share a photo of her negative coronavirus test, and she included the following message: "Nope, I'm not pregnant, sit down ;) But. I got tested and I am negative to covid-19.

"Happy? For sure. Celebrating? Nope, we are not out of this mess yet and I still think about the ones who lost their lives and others who are still fighting for it.

"Even though way more people (compared to the first lockdown period) around me got the virus, I have been trying to prevent as much as I can, wearing a mask and keeping my distance from others and so far I've been lucky.

"Please be careful out there, we all want to go back to normality and whoever thinks 'it's just a flu' should definitely visit some hospitals of simply the houses of some people I know who met this micro bastard. It's definitely no fun.

"Wish you all the best and all the health".

This past July, Scabbia blasted people who promote the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 pandemic is part of a strategy conceived by global elites — such as Bill Gates — to roll out vaccinations with tracking chips that would later be activated by 5G, the technology used by cellular networks. She also criticized people who refuse to wear a mask in public spaces to protect others from possible infection.

About 2 percent of diagnosed coronavirus cases are lethal, compared with 0.1 percent of diagnosed flu cases, according to The Washington Post.

More than 1.6 million people have been infected with the coronavirus in Italy, where LACUNA COIL is based, and more than 58,000 have died.

Italy recorded 993 COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, eclipsing the 969 peak reached on March 27, when the country was in full lockdown.
























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UK doom metal trio Godthrymm -- vocalist/guitarist Hamish Glencross (ex-My Dying Bride, Vallenfyre, Solstice), drummer Shaun "Winter" Taylor-Steels (ex-My Dying Bride, Anathema), and bassist Bob Crolla -- today unleashes brand new single, "The Vastness Silent," via Bandcamp.

The track was initially intended to appear on the band's Reflections LP, released earlier this year via Profound Lore, but was not completed in time to make the cut. The band eventually re-entered the studio with Mark Mynett (My Dying Bride) to finish the song in addition to completing an alternate version of "We Are The Dead (And Dreaming)" with cello.



Comments Glencross, "We are so incredibly proud to release these two songs and end 2020 on a positive note for Godthrymm. We released our debut album Reflections in February to great reviews, but like so many artists, have been unable to promote in the usual live arena that we love so much. However, this situation has allowed us to revisit a song that was not included on the album, and also do a new reinterpretation of a song from the album that has proven to be a firm favorite. We were fortunate to work with acclaimed producer Mark Mynett to bring you these songs, and his approach has brought a widescreen cinematic epic vision to these songs. These tracks were recorded and mixed in their entirety by Mark, completely independent of the album sessions.

Writing for 'The Vastness Silent' began before the album was recorded," he continues, "but was only completed after the album release. We always loved it musically and are now pleased to present it in this epic state with thundering bass from Bob Crolla and the additional vocals of Catherine Glencross. 'We Are The Dead' is somewhat of a signature tune for us, and is now presented as 'We Are The Dead (And Dreaming)' - retitled to reflect the grandeur of this reworked deluxe version now featuring not only Bob, Winter, Catherine, and myself, but also with the sublime cello playing of Jo Quail. We now look to the future with hope and positivity for what 2021 may bring. And we wish all the best moving forward."

Seven years after Flesh Is Heir, whose vanguard approach brought to life a mesmerizing mixture of industrial and death metal, Debemur Morti Productions announce the fourth The Amenta opus, namely Revelator. As depicted in the cover artwork, the heart of the Australian extreme metal innovators might be crooked, but full of energy and will to transcend and further expand the limits of the metal genre.

The Amenta have, therefore, used their seven-year hiatus to methodically deconstruct and reimagine their already distinctive core sound: incorporating maximalist industrial black metal ballast, disturbingly cinematic ambient / noise textures, treated violin, dread acoustics and circuit-bent electronics into a labyrinthine set of infectious hymns to societal collapse which juxtapose dreamlike moments of strange calm with sensory overload, savage discord and unease.



Tracklisting:

"An Epoch Ellipsis"
"Sere Money"
"Silent Twin"
"Psoriastasis"
"Twined Towers"
"Parasight Lost"
"Wonderlost"
"Overpast"
"Parse Over"

To celebrate The Amenta's return to the scene, a sinister as well as symbolically dense video clip was created for the song "Sere Money". Debemur Morti Productions premiered these moving pictures, aesthetically located somewhere between the spookiness of David Lynch, the grandeur of Blade Runner and the philosophical deconstruction of French post-structuralist thinkers.

Revelator will be released on CD, vinyl, tape and digitally on February 19, 2021. Pre-orders are possible now at this location.



For The Amenta frontman Cain Cressall, it was clear from the beginning that "Sere Money" needed moving pictures to accompany the tunes:

"I think the main thing why we chose 'Sere Money' as our first single was its cinematic, infectious energy which pulses throughout the track. It has a very strong 'visual' element to it that inspires the imagination and takes the listener on a ride. The opening hook grabs you by the throat takes you on a descent into deeper and deeper levels of cathartic discomfort. That 'grab-factor' just seemed to appeal to all of us as a great way to introduce our new sound to our listeners."

However, one may also understand 'Sere Money' as a necessary and conscious disruption for the listener, making sure no one believes that Revelator is simply sounding the same as Flesh Is Heir, as keyboard player and composer Timothy Pope states: "I think in some ways we chose this song to introduce the band because it is such a huge step away from what came before. If we had come back from a seven-year hiatus with something that sounded too close to a continuation of what came before, we personally would be bored and uninspired by it. I’m not sure if that is the case for listeners to our band, but for us as artists that would have just been a waste of time. Who knows if it will work, but imagining myself as the ideal consumer of our music, I would prefer to be somewhat confused by an initial song but be intrigued enough to dig into the album to try to understand it. In my experience with other bands who have gone through similar evolutions, this has been the most rewarding way to understand and appreciate their art. I hope this has the same effect for others."

Recorded by the band and mixed by guitarist Erik Miehs, Revelator is the most openly organic and crushing the band has sounded to date. Mastering has been meticulously crafted by Maor Applebaum (Faith No More, Sepultura) and the album features artwork by Metastazis (Morbid Angel, Behemoth). Graced with an incisively dynamic pummeling from drummer-extraordinaire David Haley (Psycroptic, Pestilence) and an avowedly contemporary, genre-defying performance from vocalist Cain Cressall, Revelator sees a band always dead-set on boundary-pushing reveling in a fresh sense of renewal as they combine harrowing concepts, inventively virtuous musicianship and immediate song craft into the landmark record of a lauded career.

Relapse announces the signing of Terminal Bliss (featuring members of Pg. 99, Mammoth Grinder, Suppression and more). Terminal Bliss share two new songs "Clean Bill Of Wealth" and "Small One Time Fee" for Bandcamp Friday. Listen and purchase here.

Stay tuned for more information on Terminal Bliss in the near future.

Terminal Bliss comment: “For us, being signed to Relapse is an absolute honor. We’ve all devoured Relapse bands all the way back into the mid 90’s with releases like Neurosis, Benumb, Human Remains, Disrupt, Enemy Soil, Pig Destroyer and on and on. Being very aware of their continuous contribution to extremely heavy and intense music for 3 decades opens the creative floodgates for us to explore some completely “out there” unhinged punk mayhem. We’re thrilled to move forward with Relapse as purveyors of our noise.”



“The premise is just fast, unrelenting punk rock.” That’s vocalist Chris Taylor talking about Terminal Bliss, the new band featuring his brother and guitarist Mike Taylor, drummer Ryan Parrish and bassist Adam Juresko. With a pedigree that includes Pg. 99 and Pygmy Lush (the Taylors), Darkest Hour and Iron Reagan (Parrish) and City of Caterpillar (Juresko, Parrish) the members of Terminal Bliss are a veritable who’s who of Virginia punk.

“We’ve all orbited each other’s bands forever,” Taylor says. “It’s been going on 20 years since I met Ryan - we used to live together. So we’ve been in and out of each other’s circles forever.”

Inspired by the likes of Born Against, Gauze and Void - not to mention Black Flag, Crass, Negative Approach, Disrupt, Necros, Crossed Out and Disclose - Terminal Bliss conducted their first band practice on January 14th, 2020. Just six weeks and five practices later, they were recording an upcoming full-length debut.

The name Terminal Bliss was born out of the merciless consumerism and environmental destruction that are America’s enduring legacy. “It’s very literal, and very emblematic of us as a culture and a country,” Taylor offers. “Bliss, joy, indulgence at all costs - even if it’s gonna kill us.”

Black River, the Polish blackened rock ‘n’ roll band, have signed a worldwide (ex. Poland) deal with Crusader Records (part of the Golden Robot Global Entertainment Group). Black River features Tomasz 'Orion' Wróblewski (Behemoth) and Dariusz 'Daray' Brzozowski (Dimmu Borgir) and they are joined by Piotr 'Kay' Wtulich and Artur 'Art' Kempa (Guitars) and vocalist Maciej Taff. Black River are set to release their new album Generation aXe in early 2021.

"This is a very important moment for us because we will have a chance to reach listeners all over the world with our music. This opens up a lot of new opportunities and we are already looking forward to giving you the first details about our future cooperation. We've been working hard over the years to finally have this chance, and we'll do our best not to screw it up. Times are difficult not only for our industry, but moments like this give us strength and confirm our conviction about the right course. Signing with Mark Alexander-Erber, CEO of Robot Records / Crusader in the US and Michał Wardzała, head of Mystic Production in Poland, guarantees the quality and professionalism we were looking for. Flying under the wings of these 2 labels gives us the piece of mind and Black River can fully focus on creating new sounds Look forward to new material soon." - Black River

Black River is another music band export product from Poland. The band consists of musicians from bands such as Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Vesania, Rootwater and Neolithic. Playing mean rock/metal with each new release the band gains a lot of new fans. They debuted in 2008 with the album Black River, which gained a lot of positive reviews and firmly established the band's position on the market, and not just in Poland.

After the success with their first album, they entered the studio once again in 2009 and the world saw another album entitled Black 'N' Roll. The album was released all over the world and received only positive reviews that brought the band to ever wider waters. Unfortunately, at that moment, the singer's health problems stopped Black River's activities for several years. They came back with a big bang in 2019 with their new album Humanoid and proved that they still know how one should use instruments to play Metal, the music that flows in their veins. Their music is a true and unbridled tribute to the tradition of heavy playing, on which Black River musicians grew up. Playing live concerts is their true strength where the band's professionalism and skills puts them at the top of the performers in its genre.2020 brings their new product Generation aXe that will get to know the world thanks to cooperation with Golden Robot Records.

Vocalist Maciej Taff about Generation aXe: "... one night I woke up very F***ing angry and couldn't sleep anymore, I realised that the level of this absurdity that surrounds us has exceeded all boundaries, that it is already unbearable, that this is not a world where we, our families and friends want to live. Half the world is starving, 70% of the population of known species have died out in the last 50 years, in many places there is nothing to breathe and the so-called civilisation does not deal with anything other than earning money at all costs. We met together and it was clear we all had the same anger, the same disagreement, the same fucking anger. We decided to express it in our music, to record a 3-4-track EP, vomit all this venom. We met for the first time during the rehearsal, we started talking, playing and ... after 2 weeks we were already in the studio, instead of 3 songs we wrote 11 without calculation, in full anger. I thought when we recorded it, it would "pass".... it hasn't passed...!"

Black River are:

Dariusz 'Daray' Brzozowski (drums)
Tomasz 'Orion' Wróblewski (bass)
Artur 'Art' Kempa (guitar)
Piotr 'Kay' Wtulich (guitar)
Maciej Taff (vocals)

Sebastian Bach's wife Suzanne has created a video for his guitarist Brent Woods, who was recently diagnosed with a rare type of leukemia called hairy cell leukemia (HCL). The 46-minute clip, which can be seen below, includes messages of support from a number of well-known hard rock and heavy metal musicians, including members of KISS, CHEAP TRICK, FOO FIGHTERS, SLIPKNOT, JANE'S ADDICTION, STEEL PANTHER and THE DEAD DAISIES.

In a statement accompanying the YouTube release of the video, Sebastian wrote: "It's rare in the music industry when you find a Musician whose sound is so unique that it is virtually irreplaceable. My guitar player & Great friend Brent Woods is more than those things to us. Brent is a family member. As unique as his guitar sound and sense of humor is, what is even more rare in the music industry is a musician who is loved from virtually everyone in the industry that he has ever worked with or even met. Brent is the best of the best...... at wielding guitar riffs, relentlessly, precisely, and sleazily in the best Los Angeles style and sense of rock 'n' roll.

"We love you Brent and the list of people that love you is way too long to type So my wife Suzanne made this video for you!!!! You get better soon because hey man we got Rockin' to do brother! We love you Brent see you soon please wear a mask and stay safe during this holiday season and also please find my KISS shirt!!! Love you brother".

Woods revealed his health battle in a Facebook post last month. At the time, he wrote: "I was recently diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia called HCL. Approximately 1,200 people are diagnosed every year, it's not hereditary and experts say they don't know how one gets it.

"I want everyone that reads this post to please go get your bloodwork done. I had NO idea I had this until I did. I had NO symptoms whatsoever. In fact , the only reason I got my bloodwork done was because I went to get a covid antibody test in May and my Dr. said 'It's been a while since we've seen all your bloodwork, so while you're here let's do it all'. I did and it showed a lot of my levels were alarmingly low. After months of testing, treatments and bone marrow biopsies with my hematologist, I was diagnosed with leukemia.

"I'm fortunate to have great medical insurance and I know some of you don't have insurance at all but it doesn't cost much to get your bloodwork done. It could possibly not only save your life but save you a lot of money in the long run."

According to Cancer Treatment Centers Of America, HCL is caused when bone marrow makes too many B cells (lymphocytes), a type of white blood cell that fights infection. As the number of leukemia cells increases, fewer healthy white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets are produced. This type of leukemia gets its name from the way the cells look under the microscope — with fine fragments that make them look "hairy."

Born and raised in Burbank, California, Woods started playing the guitar at the age of 12 and was a student of the legendary Randy Rhoads. He was signed to Capitol Records in 1990 with his Los Angeles-based group WILDSIDE. Brent has played and performed guitar for artists such as Vince Neil of MÖTLEY CRÜE, as well as Tony- and Emmy Award-winning actress and singer Kristin Chenoweth from the Broadway musical "Wicked". He has also worked on many films and TV shows.

Los Angeles alternative metal band GEMINI SYNDROME has released a new single, "Reintegration", via Another Century.

The band states: "'Reintegration' perfectly encapsulates the theme of the third and final chapter of our trilogy of albums. It's a fearless and transparent introduction to the idea of traversing death and being reborn; ultimately reintegrating with our true self, and being raised into the next degree of consciousness."

GEMINI SYNDROME spent the better part of 2018-2019 writing the final installment of its long-planned three-album trilogy. They retreated to drummer Brian Steele Medina's Las Vegas home studio, where they meticulously crafted song after song, relentlessly reworking and rearranging the musical arrangements until they were fully satisfied. After an exhaustive writing process, GEMINI SYNDROME relocated to Good Sounds Studio in Tempe, Arizona, where producer Matt Good would help realize the collection of songs. Medina recalls: "We absolutely loved working with Matt, and he completely understood where we wanted to take this album creatively and what it was going to take to bring the third chapter of this trilogy to light. Our actual collective blood, sweat and tears went into its creation."

GEMINI SYNDROME frontman Aaron Nordstrom adds: "This song, like much of this album, emanated from us with ease. It flowed through our beings as if we already knew the song as we wrote it, like a vessel translating it from a deeper and unseen part of ourselves. We felt truly inspired while working on this whole project."

"Reintegration" is the band's first new music since the release of their sophomore album "Memento Mori" (2016), which hit No. 1 on Billboard Heatseakers chart and spawned five singles: "Eternity", "Anonymous", "Alive Inside", "Sorry Not Sorry" and "Remember We Die".

GEMINI SYNDROME is Aaron Nordstrom (vocals, keyboards), Brian Steele Medina (drums, programming), Alessandro "AP" Paveri (bass), Miguel "Meegs" Rascón (guitar) and Nicholas Paul Arnold (touring guitar).

Norway's Gaia Epicus, who recently announced the addition of drummer Mike Terrana (Tarja, Rage, Axel Rudi Pell, Vision Divine), have released an audio teaser for their forthcoming new album, Seventh Rising.



The band recently released a home quarantine video for new song "Invisible Enemy". Watch the clip below:



Seventh Rising is the follow-up to the band’s latest album, Alpha & Omega, which was released in December 2018. The new album is the seventh studio album from Gaia Epicus and it will contain 11 tracks. Release is expected by the end of 2020.



Tracklisting:

“Like A Phoenix”
“Rising”
“Nothing To Lose”
“From Ashes To Fire”
“The Dream”
“Invisible Enemy”
“Dr. Madman”
“Number One”
“Gods Of Metal”
“We Are The Ones”
“Eye Of RA”