In a new interview with Australia's Heavy, Brendon Small spoke about his inspiration for "Metalocalypse", the hit animated series he created on Adult Swim featuring the fictitious metal band DETHKLOK. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It started out where these characters really were a representation of celebrityism. This is how the show started, really. It's really crazy because in the early two thousands television writers were losing their jobs to reality television show, like Paris Hilton, whatever inept celebrity that you could think of. And we thought, this is crazy. I hate this. I like creative stuff, I like new, unique ideas. And this is taking that from creativity. And people are kind of more interested in watching somebody kind of fail their way through life. And I thought this is something I'd like to kind of try to study and take a look at, but what if we got to talk about something that was cool, which is heavy metal while we were kind of throwing these characters through the gauntlet of celebrityism — barbecue sauces and vanity projects and side projects and planet piss and egos and all that stuff. That's what the show was — Nathan and his ego, Pickles and his jealousy. Skwisgaar and Toki butting heads over who gets the spotlight. All that stuff is ego, ego, ego. And that's what the whole show has been about. And that's why the final episode is really the ultimate confrontation between them and their egos. And it really goes from this kind of idea of these guys who thought themselves as exalted gods to falling back onto earth. And that's the idea. And so within that, how do you make it funny? How do you make it interesting? How do you make it unique? How do you do something that you haven't seen yet? And how do you build a family that is bound by creativity? Because that's a complicated relationship… So that's what I tend to get into."

He continued: "I did a show before this called 'Home Movies', and that was also a show about a family of kids who had a creative relationship. And there's no difference between adults and kids, really. And so this one was just more brutal, more sexual, more violent, more just explosive fire, blood, tits and explosions and shit."

"Metalocalypse" is a cartoon series about a fictional death metal band called DETHKLOK that's bigger (and far more powerful) than THE BEATLES. The show ran for seven seasons, with the final episode being an hour-long rock opera, "The Doomstar Requiem".

After "Metalocalypse"'s rise in popularity, Small assembled DETHKLOK as an actual live band to play the music featured on the show, with Small himself handling vocals and guitar.

DETHKLOK's first three albums charted in the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 and the third release, "Dethalbum III", peaked at No. 10, making it the highest-charting death metal album of all time. In addition, "The Doomstar Requiem: A Klok Opera Soundtrack" made it to No. 7 on Billboard's soundtrack chart in 2013.

After several years of dormancy, DETHKLOK returned in 2023 with a new album, "Dethalbum IV" and an animated movie, "Metalocalypse: Army Of The Doomstar". It was hard fought since Adult Swim abruptly pulled the plug on "Metalocalypse" show more than a decade ago, despite its rabid following amongst the metal crowd, many of whom came to appreciate the show's regular easter eggs and voice appearances from the likes of King Diamond, Hammett and CANNIBAL CORPSE's George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher. Indeed, "Metalocalypse" may be the only quasi-mainstream show to be truly catered to a metal audience, which can explain its enduring popularity and the steady drumbeat of requests for its revival.

DETHKLOK's 2023 "Babyklok" co-headlining trek with BABYMETAL was the first DETHKLOK tour in over a decade.

Two months ago, Brendon spoke to Rashid AlKamraikhi of Australia's Sense Music Media about the various heavy metal musicians who did voiceover work for "Metalocalypse", a list which includes METALLICA's Kirk Hammett, ANTHRAX's Scott Ian, EVANESCENCE's Amy Lee and KING DIAMOND/MERCYFUL FATE frontman King Diamond. Asked if there was anyone who came in for a guest spot that really blew him away with how well they adapted to the voiceover work, Brendon said: "Everyone rose to the occasion, everyone that we had on the show. Some would start out a little bit more shy, and then the advice I would offer is, 'If you start feeling silly, you start feeling stupid, you're doing it right. Let's just break through that stupid, silly feeling and then get to the other side and have fun.'

"I remember Michael Amott from ARCH ENEMY came in, and his voice was nice and hoarse, 'cause he does a little bit of vocalization in ARCH ENEMY," Small continued. "And he came in, and his accent is kind of Swedish and English and he had a gravitas about him and he understood how to speak… And I gave him a direction and he'd take it and work with it really well. He was just a natural. So I always remember him being really great. And then we had everybody from guitar heroes of mine — Billy Gibbons [of ZZ TOP] came and did a voice, and he just, of course, is a total showman and understands how to do all that stuff. Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, they all kind of got it. Slash [of GUNS N' ROSES] came in. Dave Grohl [of FOO FIGHTERS] came in. He was funny. He's a natural. I mean, it makes sense with him. And then members from ENSLAVED, from EXODUS — all funny."

Brendon added: "Everyone's perception of heavy metal is so different than the reality because heavy metal is brutal, and it evokes a feeling and a mood that's so dark and so awesome. But everyone's got a sense of humor, everyone's got levity, and I wanted everyone to participate and become part of the joke of the show. I didn't wanna be a them-or-us thing, I wanted everyone to go, 'This is your playground. Let's give you an opportunity to be funny. What can we do? Let's play.'

"It was so cool that those guys said yes. I was trying to be extra clever when we started the show. I thought, 'If we can get METALLICA on the first episode, then I bet I can get other people, too, to come into our world of silly, weird absurdity and play with us.'"

Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett played a rendition of "La Villa Strangiato" by hometown heroes RUSH during METALLICA's April 26 concert at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Fan-filmed video of the performance can be seen below.

"La Villa Strangiato" was part of the fun and unusual feature METALLICA added to its shows on the band's recent tours: at each stop, Hammett and Trujillo have been covering songs from some of their musical heroes — often choosing songs that are far removed from the band's traditional metal sound. The "doodles," as the band refers to them in their setlists, are pared-down interpretations — just bass and guitar and sometimes Trujillo singing.

In a November 2021 interview with MMA Junkie, Trujillo spoke about his doodles with Hammett. The METALLICA bassist said: "Some of my proudest moments were with Kirk on the last European tour, playing in these massive soccer stadiums and playing songs that were sort of native to those cities or even those countries. So we would take a song and learn it by an artist from that country. I'll just give you one example. In Paris, France, [at] Stade De France, we played a song by an artist known as Johnny Hallyday. Eighty-five thousand people. Nobody knows what we're gonna play — kind of like street musicians. Lars [Ulrich] and James [Hetfield] are taking a break. We walk out there. He's got his guitar; I've got my bass. It's almost like, 'Where's the hat?' Where do they put the money? Literally like that — stripped down, naked. And we get out there and we start playing a song called 'Ma Gueule' by Johnny Hallyday. I'm telling you — people were in shock, but in a good way. And it was tears and smiles, and it made the news. But there was a lot of this that happened through all the different countries and cities throughout Europe where we would choose an artist, cover that artist and play that song — sometimes two and a half minutes to three minutes. I'm singing in the [native] language, so it gets real challenging. We're talking about Romania, we're talking Poland, we're talking Spain and Portugal and Sweden — I sang in Swedish. That, to me, was one of the highlight moments of my entire existence as a musician, especially in METALLICA, because I don't even know if I could ever do that again. Sometimes I think about it and I go, 'Man, you were crazy. Kirk and I were crazy.' That happened just before the pandemic. We were doing that in these football stadiums. Those were called the duets — these were the duets. The duet moments overseas — huge for me personally."

During a June 2020 appearance on "Drinks With Johnny", the Internet TV show hosted by AVENGED SEVENFOLD bassist Johnny Christ, Trujillo stated about how the idea for the "doodle" came about: "We were in Europe — this wasn't the last European tour, but the tour before that. We were in Amsterdam, and we had tried a couple of... There was a duet moment, where we were supposed to play a METALLICA song that's maybe, like, a deep cut, so we'd play 'I Disappear' or something, and we started noticing that we weren't getting the result we wanted. It was, like, we'd go up there and we'd start playing, like, 'Eye Of The Beholder' or something, and then the crowd's expecting James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] to come out and sing, and it's, like, 'Man, this ain't working.' They were feeling like it was a prelude moment, and I started thinking, 'We've gotta do something different.' So Kirk came out this one night, and he started playing that song by CHIC ['Le Freak'], and it totally caught me off guard. And I'm, like, 'Oh, damn. Okay, I see where he's going.' He's walking out to the front of the snake pit playing this funk jam. He got me the first night, 'cause I didn't exactly know the bass line, so I improvised it. And then the second night, I got it."

He continued: "So it kind of started there for a split second, though we were still doing the METALLICA deep cuts. And then we got to Europe, and we were in Amsterdam, and one of our management team members suggested, 'Why don't you play [a song by the Dutch rock band] GOLDEN EARRING, 'Radar Love'? Check that out.' And we were, like, 'Really?' So I started played the bass line, and then the crowd started singing, and it was, like, 'Hold on a minute. There's something here.' So then we started to kind of formulate some local bands from each city. Like, one of the highlight moments was in Prague [Czech Republic — we played a country song called 'Jožin Z Bažin' [by Ivan Mládek], which was huge. And then we played, in Barcelona, a gypsy kind of flamenco acoustic song, by an artist called Peret — it's called 'El Muerto Vivo', And I'm singing in Spanish, I'm doing my best, and the people went nuts. And we go, 'Hold on. We've got something here.' So what we ended up doing… We came out of that tour — we scraped through it; it wasn't perfect, but we scraped through it. And then when we got home, we did some U.S. dates, we did all that, but we knew we were going back to Europe where it really worked. I said, 'I'm going deep.' So I did a bunch of research, and I researched every single city, even Estonia, and I found out what cool either punk, alternative, country — it didn't matter the style — and I learned the fucking language, and I did the phonetic with the lyric, and we went out and did full arrangements. I'm talking about if there was an accordion solo, Kirk was playing it. So we did our homework, and we really, really went into it. I was going to [Kirk's house in] Hawaii to work with him on the arrangements. I spent, like, five days there strictly on the [songs]. We weren't even surfing, we were just 'boom.' So we put a lot of hard work in it. I mean, we were surfing a little bit, but that wasn't the priority. We were actually really spending time on this.

"So I would say on that last tour run, 'cause we were in these massive stadiums, sold-out shows… And every night was great, but there was a handful of grand slams where people were crying and it was this heavy… Like, you're paying tribute to somebody in, like, Moscow, who is like the David Bowie of Moscow, and people are just, like, 'Oh my god.' They don't know what they're gonna get. All of a sudden, we surprise them, and they get what they didn't expect. [Playing a song by] Johnny Hallyday in Paris, at Stade De France, [in front of] 85,000 people. So to be up there and to feel that energy and emotionally connect with the crowd on that level was special. But it was such hard work. I don't know how we [pulled it off].

"I was meeting with people, like, I would even sometimes do it by phone, and I'd be there for two hours getting the language pronunciation right. So it was a lot of work… And sometimes you'll take some beatings," he admitted. "I remember a couple of the shows when we first started doing it, man — beatings, bro; beatings… I remember, there was a couple of 'em, but there was one… It was in Pennsylvania. It was like college — it was over where Penn State is. And holy cow, man. I thought we would play like the fight song for Penn State. Man, we got, like, 10 seconds into that thing, and nobody cared. It was, like, 'Oh my god.' And I stopped playing — I literally stopped playing. I was so embarrassed. And Kirk kept playing. And then, luckily, we kind of went into a METALLICA… Like, in the U.S., we would parlay it with a local song — these are U.S songs — and then we would always kind of justify it by going into a METALLICA [track], like 'Dyers Eve' or something. Just like, 'Okay, we screwed that up, but we got this.' So it was kind of our savior in the States."

In 2019, Hammett told Cosmo Music about his live "doodles" with Trujillo: "We never really know what the response is going to be. You have to understand, we're going into a country; we're picking some song that's seemingly random and abstract to us, and we're learning this song that we've never heard before from this artist that we've never heard before, and we're taking a chance and playing it in a stadium in front of 60,000 people, and we're hoping that we make the right choice. The last, I would say, three legs [of the tour], we've been hitting it out of the park, but before that, there were some growing pains. There have been a few times we've picked the wrong song and played it and people go, 'Huh?' We'll go into a place like Indianapolis, and we'll play a song by an obscure punk band called THE ZERO BOYS, because we think they're cool... We played the hell out of it, and it was really cool, but we looked out at the audience, and they were just like, 'Huh?' Rob and I always tell each other and people don't recognize it, it's not the end of the world as long as we play it well, and they're entertaining in the way we play it, so we have that to fall back on... We were in Nashville, and we played a Loretta Lynn song... The next day, we got a message from Loretta Lynn, who said she was actually at the show with her family and was so tickled when we broke into her song. She said she might think about covering one of our songs sometime, but in the meantime, we should do more of her songs."

Not every artist that has been spotlighted in the "doodle" has been flattered by the Trujillo/Hammett version of their music. Former CELTIC FROST frontman Tom Gabriel Fischer (a.k.a. Tom G. Warrior) was not impressed with the rendition of the group's "The Usurper" that Hammett and Trujillo performed during METALLICA's May 2019 concert in Zurich, Switzerland. "They butchered it, and it was humiliating," Fischer told Rolling Stone. "Why don't they leave their millionaire fingers off it? They've long lost the ability to play true metal in my opinion. Maybe I should go onstage and do a really miserable version of [METALLICA's] 'Hit The Lights' with, like, 200 mistakes to set the balance."

LINKIN PARK kicked off its North American tour Saturday night (April 26) at Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

The band's setlist was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:

Act I

01. Somewhere I Belong
02. Lying From You
03. Crawling
04. New Divide
05. The Emptiness Machine

Act II

06. The Catalyst
07. Burn It Down
08. Up From The Bottom (live debut)
09. Where'd You Go (FORT MINOR cover) (live debut by Linkin Park; partial - first verse and chorus only)
10. Waiting For The End
11. Castle Of Glass
12. Two Faced
13. Joe Hahn Solo
14. When They Come For Me / Until It Breaks / Remember The Name
15. Casualty
16. One Step Closer

Act III

17. Lost
18. Over Each Other
19. What I've Done

Act IV

20. Overflow
21. Numb
22. In The End
23. Faint

Encore:

24. Papercut
25. A Place For My Head
26. Heavy Is The Crown
27. Bleed It Out

Fan-filmed video of the concert can be seen in the YouTube playlist below, courtesy of Erynn Halvorson. (After each song, the YouTube player automatically jumps to the next song in the playlist.)

The deluxe edition of LINKIN PARK's comeback album, "From Zero", is due out May 16 via Warner.

"From Zero (Deluxe Edition)" 2CD is a limited pressing. It features a four-panel softpak packaging with 16-page booklet and showcases three new songs, five live tracks recorded around the world and all new, expanded packaging.

LINKIN PARK launched the 2025 leg of its "From Zero" world tour on January 31 at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, Mexico.

In late January, LINKIN PARK released an a cappella/vocals-only version of "From Zero", dubbed "From Zero - A Cappellas".

The original version of "From Zero", issued last November, marked LINKIN PARK's first full-length effort since 2017's "One More Light", which was the last LINKIN PARK album before the death of lead vocalist Chester Bennington. "From Zero" features LINKIN PARK's new singer Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain, who have joined returning members co-vocalist and main producer Shinoda, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell and DJ/visual director Joe Hahnin the band's new lineup. Guitarist Alex Feder is filling in for Delson at all LINKIN PARK concerts for the foreseeable future.

Last fall, Shinoda told KROQ's Kevan Kenney about the emotions surrounding LINKIN PARK's return: "It's really complicated. For me, two years ago it was very overwhelming, and I think the best thing that we did was to just basically let things happen in the order and at the timeline that they were gonna happen, let things happen organically and not push too hard. And I feel like what ended up evolving was we just naturally kind of found each other, we found this new lineup, we found Emily and Colin in particular, and the music just kind of came into focus based on what we were having the most fun doing."

When Kenney suggested that "From Zero" "sounds almost like a return to [LINKIN PARK's] roots", Shinoda said: "I love that there's such a strong LINKIN PARK DNA in the record. It does really feel like LINKIN PARK, but I think there's a part of it that's the old sound and part of that's every era of the band, to me, on the record."

Farrell chimed in: "I don't know if I know well what the LINKIN PARK DNA is. It's kind of like when you're too close to something, you just do it and then other people tell you. They almost interpret it and then you kind of say, 'Okay, cool. I'm glad that came across.' But I think in any and all of that creation of an album or working on new music or new stuff or when there's — I don't know — interstitials or whatever you might wanna call it, for me those things are just like us doing us and figuring that out and moving forward. And in this process, one of the things that was so fun and rewarding and cool and energizing was just how when we started gradually integrating Emily and Colin, it felt like LINKIN PARK. It just felt like it fit for me and for us. And those were the coolest moments in the entire process, was just feeling like things were kind of jelling and coming together and we were having a blast doing it the whole time. So at this stage being ready to finally have the album out, having people be excited about it, that feels great."

LINKIN PARK announced its new lineup during a September 2024 one-hour global livestream of a concert in Los Angeles showcasing Armstrong and Brittain.

Sammy Hagar says that he is "so honored" to be participating in Ozzy Osbourne's farewell concert in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Taking place on July 5 at Villa Park, the all-star event — billed as "Back To The Beginning" — sold out in less than 10 minutes in February.

The concert will mark the first time that the original lineup of BLACK SABBATH — Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward — have played together in 20 years.

Also set to appear at the event are METALLICA, GUNS N' ROSES, TOOL, SLAYER, PANTERA, GOJIRA, ALICE IN CHAINS, HALESTORM, LAMB OF GOD, ANTHRAX and MASTODON.

In addition, there will be a performance by a "supergroup of musicians" including Duff McKagan and Slash (GUNS 'N' ROSES),Billy Corgan (THE SMASHING PUMPKINS),Fred Durst (LIMP BIZKIT),K.K. Downing (JUDAS PRIEST),Jake E. Lee (OZZY OSBOURNE),Wolfgang Van Halen (VAN HALEN, MAMMOTH WVH),Tom Morello (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE),Andrew Watt, Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS),David Ellefson (MEGADETH),Vernon Reid (LIVING COLOUR),Whitfield Crane (UGLY KID JOE),David Draiman (DISTURBED),Frank Bello (ANTHRAX),Jonathan Davis (KORN),Lzzy Hale (HALESTORM),Mike Bordin (FAITH NO MORE),Sammy Hagar, Scott Ian (ANTHRAX),Sleep Token II (SLEEP TOKEN),Rudy Sarzo (OZZY OSBOURNE, QUIET RIOT) and Papa V Perpetua (GHOST).

Speaking to Loudwire Nights host Chuck Armstrong, Sammy stated about his participation in "Back To The Beginning" (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, the fact that I got asked to do it almost the first day… When the word started leaking out — inside word — [the event's musical director] Tom Morello calls me and says, 'Hey, man, would you be interested?' I went, 'Yes.' He didn't even have to say what. 'Would you be interested?' 'Yes, Tom. I'm in — all in.'

"I was so flattered that I was one of the early guys on," Sammy continued. "But I had just done the [Rock And Roll] Hall Of Fame for inducting FOREIGNER, and I sang some FOREIGNER songs, and Ozzy, his induction followed my [performance at the FOREIGNER] induction. And they sat there and watched me do my thing, and I think I was just fresh on their mind. 'Cause other than that, I don't sing like Ozzy — I'm a different kind of singer. And so I've been studying. Everybody's asking, 'What do you listen to?' I'm saying, 'I'm listening to fucking Ozzy until the fifth [of July].' I gotta learn his phrasing. And his melodic structures are so unique; he's such a unique singer.

"I'm so honored," Hagar added. "And I chose to do 'No More Tears'. And Tom goes, 'Oh, that would be great. Oh, that'd be great.' And I'll do another one. And then he comes back and says, 'Guess what. Ozzy's gonna try and sing five songs, and he wants to sing 'No More Tears'. I said, 'Okay. 'Flying High Again'.' He goes, 'You got it.' So right now I'm singing 'Flying High Again'. If Ozzy changes his mind, I'll sing 'Flying High Again' and 'No More Tears'. And I offered to sing one of my songs, and I thought I would sing [MONTROSE's] 'Rock Candy' because it's from the same era as BLACK SABBATH — MONTROSE and SABBATH were from the same kind of era. So, I'm excited."

Ozzy — who hasn't played a full show since late 2018 — announced his last-ever performance on February 5.

Proceeds from the "Back To The Beginning" show will support Cure Parkinson's, the Birmingham Children's Hospital and Acorn Children's Hospice, a Children's Hospice supported by Aston Villa.

The original lineup of BLACK SABBATH last performed in 2005. Since then, SABBATH has played in partial reunions but never in its original lineup.

The legendary BLACK SABBATH frontman was diagnosed in 2003 with Parkin 2 — a very rare genetic form of Parkinson's. During a TV appearance in January 2020, the singer disclosed that he was 'stricken" with the disease which occurs when the nerve cells of the body degenerate and levels of dopamine are reduced. Dopamine is an essential chemical that is produced by these nerve cells which send signals to different parts of the brain to control movements of the body.

Ozzy's health issues, including suffering a nasty fall and dislodging metal rods placed in his spine following a quad-bike accident in 2003, as well as catching COVID-19 three years ago, forced him to cancel some of his previously announced tours.

While Osbourne's health issues forced him to scrap most of his live appearances, the musician said he would return if his condition improved.

Despite his health problems, Osbourne has performed a couple of times in the last three years, including at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August 2022 and at the NFL halftime show at the season opener Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills game in September 2022.

Image credit: Silver Stallion Videos

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, EXODUS drummer Tom Hunting spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for the band's follow-up to 2021's "Persona Non Grata" album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're moving along. Drums are done, pretty much. We're doing additional songs. And we figured we would maximize the time right now since we're all in our sixties now. So why not just maximize right now, if we can? So, I think I've tracked like maybe 17 or 18 songs on drums. [EXODUS singer] Rob's [Dukes] working on vocals. [EXODUS guitarist] Gary's [Holt] done with all of his rhythms and leads. It's like 'next man up' kind of thing. One guy gets tired and the next guy jumps in there and does some tracking.

"I don't really know how done we are, or are you ever really done?" he continued. "I don't think you're ever really finished; you just kind of walk away from the songs and just [go], like, 'Okay, this is what they are.'"

Regarding why it has taken so long for EXODUS to record the follow-up to "Persona Non Grata", Tom said: "We've taken it seriously. We started jamming on some of this music last May. And we were slated to record a bunch of times and then a tour would come up. So we were, like, 'Well, we need to work and make money.' So we would take the tours. And we went in finally March 1st of this year. And we've pretty much been working ever since. I think Gary went home yesterday morning after just being there for pretty much the whole process."

Asked how much input into the new EXODUS music Dukes, who rejoined the band in January, has had, Hunting said: "Oh, a ton. We're so happy to have him back. He's a really good dude to work with, and he is taking charge of this role. I've never heard him sing in some of the ways he's singing on this record. It's gonna blow people's minds. So, I'm excited, I'm excited for him. Happy to have him back. And just fucking awesome."

On the topic of the musical direction of the new EXODUS material, Tom said: "It's heavy, but I'm not gonna lie — there's some elements that are just straight-up hard rock on this record, which is cool with us, 'cause like that's our roots too. Hard rock, punk rock, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal kind of all lumped together. That's how our style was born, pretty much. And I think at this stage, if we wanna get weird on a song, we're gonna get weird and just do something that people don't expect. It's album number 12, so we could pretty much just like… We're not closing the book on anything, but damn — it's, like, we survived to make 12 records. Let's do what the hell we want."

Last month, Holt told The Chuck Shute Podcast about EXODUS's upcoming album: "We've set ourselves an ambitious goal on this record. We're recording two albums right now. We are a couple of songs shy from hitting our total goal of having two albums of crushing material. No filler. We figured if we have the songs, let's record 'em. And when it's time to release the follow-up, it's done, it's in the can. The chances are by the time we get to that point, I'll have new stuff that has to be included: 'Oh, this is so good.' But then we go into the studio for two weeks, not two months."

Asked by host Chuck Shute if that means EXODUS will release the first new album when it's ready and wait a while before putting out the second one, Holt said: "Yeah, we'll keep [the second new album] in the can, ready to go, and won't have any downtime. We're not getting any younger. We might as well work a little extra hard now while we can."

As for when the first new EXODUS LP might see the light of day, Gary said: "We're shooting for a spring release of next year — like late winter, spring. We were hoping to get it done this year, get it out this year, but we would have had to rush it. And since we're trying to record 20 to 22 songs and we needed the time, it's gonna be worth it in the end. And the shit is fucking phenomenal."

Holt added: "We're definitely a hard-working bunch. We're not afraid to bust our ass. And it'll save us some work down the road. In between that little break between albums, we'll be able to relax a little. Maybe I can finally go on a vacation. I've never had one."

This past January, it was announced that EXODUS had parted ways with longtime singer Steve "Zetro" Souza and was being rejoined by Dukes.

Souza joined EXODUS in 1986 after previously fronting the band LEGACY (which later became TESTAMENT). He remained in the band until their hiatus in 1993, but rejoined them for two years from 2002 to 2004. Dukes had joined EXODUS in 2005 (following Souza's departure) and remained until 2014, when Souza rejoined.

Dukes previously joined EXODUS in January 2005 and appeared on four of the band's studio albums — "Shovel Headed Kill Machine" (2005),"The Atrocity Exhibition... Exhibit A" (2007),"Let There Be Blood" (2008, a re-recording of EXODUS's classic 1985 LP, "Bonded By Blood") and "Exhibit B: The Human Condition" (2010).

In February, Holt told Shawn Ratches of Laughingmonkeymusic about EXODUS's follow-up to "Persona Non Grata": "We're just working away. The album will be done when it's done. We're not gonna rush it. The last album was fucking phenomenal. So, I'm always trying to top the last one, and this one's gotta be fucking as good or better than 'Persona', which I rank number two — it's my second-favorite EXODUS album behind [1985 debut] 'Bonded By Blood'."

When Ratches noted that EXODUS has always had strong personalities fronting the band, from Paul Baloff to Steve "Zetro" Souza to Rob Dukes, Holt concurred. "That's just part and parcel of being a frontman, I guess," he said. "I think most frontmen in metal do [have strong personalities]. From all my friends, guys like [OVERKILL's] Bobby Blitz — he's a total frontman, strong personality. He's awesome. He's a character. The rest of us are allowed to be a little normal, I guess, normal-ish. EXODUS were always a fucking band of lunatics anyway, especially in our youth when all five of us were certifiably insane.

"But, yeah, that's a hard job being a frontman," he continued. "You don't have a guitar to hide behind. You're standing there exposed. You have a microphone in your hand, maybe a mic stand, maybe half a mic stand, but that's the extent of what you've got to hide behind, kind of. So it's hard.

"All the vocalists in EXODUS have all contributed amazing shit, Baloff being the gold standard, and Zetro has done amazing work with the band, and so has Rob," Holt added. "And people will say things like, 'Well, this record is so heavy or this era because of Rob.' I write the songs the way I write them regardless of who's fucking singing… I don't write to the guy singing, and I never have. Those songs on the last album would be the same if they were written for Paul, if he was alive, or as they were written for Zetro or written for Rob. The same goes for the Rob Dukes albums. I just write the songs that are in my head at that time."

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

EXODUS will embark on a spring 2025 U.S. tour dubbed "Swarm Of Horror". Beginning directly after the "Bonded By Blood" 40th-anniversary shows (in Berkeley, California on Friday, April 25 at UC Theatre and Anaheim, California on Saturday, April 26 at House of Blues),the trek will start in Phoenix, Arizona on April 27 and visit several markets across the central U.S., ending in Asheville, North Carolina on May 13. Amid the tour, EXODUS will perform at Sonic Temple, Welcome To Rockville and Milwaukee Metal Fest.

Photo credit: Lisa Holt

Vocalist Jonny Santos of the reunited SPINESHANK recently appeared on the "Talk Toomey" podcast to discuss the band's upcoming shows to celebrate the 25th anniversary of SPINESHANK's sophomore studio album, "The Height Of Callousness", and the resurgence of "nu metal." Jonny shared insights on reuniting with original SPINESHANK members, the band's upcoming festival appearances and revealed the first details of a new SPINESHANK single, tentatively due later this spring.

Regarding the possibility of SPINESHANK releasing new music to coincide with the upcoming tour, Jonny said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "We never got a chance to really go out on a high note. And so when we first started getting ready to do all this, doing another record wasn't really even talked about. It was more of just, like, 'Hey, let's just go out and do ['The Height Of Callousness'] in its entirety' and give the band its warrior's death, if you will — going out on a strong note instead of just falling into obscurity.

"Now it's gotten to the point… So right now I'm in the studio finishing up some edits and mixing the first SPINESHANK song since 2012," Santos explained. "So we have one new song coming out. Because I think the way that we feel that we'll know is, let's see how this SPINESHANK song does. If it's accepted well and people are excited about it, if it does well, then maybe there could be another album in the works. Or if anything, maybe even an EP. Who knows?"

Referencing the resurgence of "nu metal" in recent years, Jonny continued: "It's kind of weird how — it's uncharted territory. It's, like, is this here to stay? Is this gonna be a staple in heavy music or is this just a fashion fad for kids today? So I think once we release this new song and tour for the better part of this year, then I think we'll know if we're gonna put a new record out next year or not. I would like to, but I only wanna put a record out if it's gonna matter. I don't wanna put a record out if nobody's gonna give a shit."

Elaborating on his reluctance to release a full-length collection of new material, Jonny said: "Not comparing us to the size of THE ROLLING STONES or anything, but if I was gonna go see THE ROLLING STONES, I'm not too concerned with anything that they've done post 1979. You know what I'm saying?

"I think you hit a certain point in your career as a band when you have a legitimate and constant following that people just wanna go hear the hits.

"I've noticed, I'll put music out or whatever, and people are, like, 'Oh, man, it doesn't sound like 'The Height Of Callousness'.' It's just, like, dude, me putting out the same record twice is not gonna make you young again," he said. "Because that's how it is.

"Very few bands can get away with putting the same record out. AC/DC's done it. SLAYER's done it. But it works — that works for them, and it's fucking awesome. But for me, it doesn't.

"The thought of putting a new SPINESHANK record out there, it's exciting. But at the same time, we're gonna see how this goes.

"We're going into this with no expectations. This is really fun for us to do, and I think it's a chance for a lot of people that have become SPINESHANK fans in the last decade or so that have never seen us to get to see us. And being that 'The Height Of Callousness' was by far our best-received album, I can't think of a better record to do in its entirety out of our catalog."

As for a possible release date for the new SPINESHANK single, Jonny said: "Well, here's the thing. What I can tell you is we will have rough mixes to listen to amongst ourselves here this week. So we're hoping to have the song completely mixed, mastered and ready to go in the next two weeks. So that I can say. If I was a betting man, the fact that we're going out in July, I think I could see this song coming out sometime late May or early June. I mean, don't quote me on that."

He added: "There's this thing called the SPINESHANK curse, and trust me, it's still around. [Laughs]"

Joining Santos, drummer Tommy Decker and bassist/vocalist Robert Garcia in SPINESHANK's 2025 lineup are new recruits Tommy Decker, Jr. (Tommy Decker's son) and Jason Hager (ex-CHIMAIRA) on guitar.

As previously reported, SPINESHANK will team up with THE UNION UNDERGROUND for the "25 Years Of Rebellion & Callousness" tour this summer.

This commemorative, co-headline trek, with special guests ADEMA and SICKSENSE, will celebrate the 25th anniversaries of "The Height Of Callousness" and THE UNION UNDERGROUND sole studio LP, "…An Education In Rebellion".

The first leg of the tour will launch on July 10 in Austin and will see the two bands perform their respective album in full, with a few extra surprises.

When SPINESHANK's return was first announced, Decker said in a statement: "We are beyond excited to be able to celebrate 25 years of 'The Height Of Callousness'. This is the record that defined us as a band and changed our lives. We can't wait to play all of these songs and share the memories with all of you who lived it with us."

Santos stated: "We are extremely excited to celebrate the return of SPINESHANK for the 25th anniversary of 'The Height Of Callousness' tour and get to share this milestone with the people who were there back then, and the new fans that never got the chance to see us play. Truly an honor!!!"

Garcia said: "It's amazing that 25 years later people still react to 'The Height Of Callousness' the way they do. We're excited to get out and play these songs again, see old friends, and threw down for all the new fans who never got to see SPINESHANK the first time around!"

Decker, Jr. said: "I've been on tour with these guys since I was a little kid, watching them perform every night from the side of the stage. I can't believe it's come full circle and I get to share the stage with my dad and the rest of the guys who I consider my family. I was 4 years old when this album came out and seeing all the fans still show love to this album is crazy!"

Hager stated: "I am beyond excited and honored to be a part of the return of SPINESHANK, for the 25th anniversary of 'The Height Of Callousness' tour. They're not just one of my favorite bands, but have been great friends, ever since they generously, and selflessly helped us (CHIMAIRA) out, during our early days. I'm looking forward to seeing you all, out on the road, and excited about what the future may hold."

After releasing three successful albums ("Strictly Diesel", "The Height Of Callousness" and "Self-Destructive Pattern"),performing on countless world tours (including appearances on Ozzfest and the Download festival) and a Grammy nomination in 2004, the band went on a hiatus.

SPINESHANK's fourth album, "Anger Denial Acceptance", was released in June 2012 via Century Media Records. The CD was produced by SPINESHANK guitarist Mike Sarkisyan and drummer Tommy Decker and mixed by Mike Plotnikoff (PAPA ROACH, BUCKCHERRY).

SPINESHANK's third LP, "Self-Destructive Pattern", was released in September 2003. The album's lead single, "Smothered", was nominated for a Grammy in the category of "Best Metal Performance".

In a new interview with Sylvia Alvarado of the Las Vegas radio station KOMP 92.3, FOZZY frontman and wrestling superstar Chris Jericho was asked if his experience and his time in wrestling has helped him with the storytelling of writing songs and performing in his band. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yes, and it still does to this day, because being a lead singer is being a storyteller, and you are the party host, and you are kind of the leader of the show. The ebbs and flows are dictated by the lead singer, by the frontman.

"When I first started wrestling when I was 19, 20 years old, I was not the biggest guy, but I knew I could have the biggest personality and the biggest charisma, and I took a lot of that from rock and roll frontmen — Paul Stanley and David Lee Roth and Freddie [Mercury] and Mick Jagger, always keeping that in mind of being a rock and roll frontman in a wrestling ring," he explained. "Then when we started FOZZY, I took those qualities that I had learned from rock and roll that I'd brought into wrestling and brought them back into rock and roll.

"You are playing a character when you go on stage," Jericho continued. "And you see that Alice Cooper talks about that, and Ozzy [Osbourne] talks about that. And anybody that is a pure frontman — Paul Stanley is a character on stage. So that is something I've always adapted into FOZZY as well. You are playing a character. You do go on stage with a little bit of more pomp and circumstance… Well, those the best wrestling characters, too — your own personality turned up to a thousand. And that's what people wanna see. I mean, at least I know that I do, and it never changes.

"Rock and roll is rock and roll. Same with wrestling," Chris added. "You wanna see larger-than-life characters. I always laugh when people go, 'AC/DC, they're not larger than life. They're just working-man rock and roll.' Really? 'Cause one of the most famous characters in rock and roll history is Angus Young, who's dressed up in a schoolboy suit, and the singer has a the Englishman's cap on, which that's the gimmick of AC/DC. So there is a gimmick in every rock and roll band. And you need to play that part and be, like I said, larger than life, 'cause I think that's what people love about show business, is that element. Not that you're a pompous jerk, but you have a little bit of an air to you that makes you somebody that people would wanna see on a stage… That's why I love THE STRUTS. I love Luke Spiller. He's like [David] Bowie and Freddie [Mercury] reincarnated in 2025. You want that rock star on stage. And so it's the same with wrestling too. You want the larger-than-life personalities. And I just happened to do both of those… And like I said, there's a lot of similarities between the two, because it's show business. And there's nothing like being in front of a live audience. So when you have that energy from a crowd, that's when you know if you're succeeding with your show. And you can do the most perfect rock show ever, but if the crowd's kind of lukewarm, then it's not perfect. You can go do a show where you forget the words and mess up some notes, but the crowd's going crazy. That's what you want. Same with wrestling. You could have the best match ever, or you could have a match where maybe there's not a lot of moves or maybe there's not a lot of high flying or whatever it is, but if the crowd is going crazy, that's what it's all about. That's show business."

The 2025 leg of FOZZY's 25th-anniversary tour, dubbed "2025th Anniversary Tour", features support from LILIAC and THE NOCTURNAL AFFAIR. The trek kicked off on April 17 in Springfield, Missouri and will conclude on May 12 in Wyandotte, Michigan.

The first U.S. leg of FOZZY's 25th-anniversary tour ran through October 21, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. Support on the tour came from THE NOCTURNAL AFFAIR and CLOZURE.

FOZZY's latest single, "Fall In Line", was released on April 17 via Madison Records. The track is the follow-up to FOZZY's previous standalone single, "Spotlight", which was released in October 2023 via Madison Records/The Orchard. The track was helmed by FOZZY's longtime producer Johnny Andrews (THREE DAYS GRACE, ALL THAT REMAINS, HALESTORM) and sonically refined by mixer Jacob Hanson (VOLBEAT, AMARANTHE, ARCH ENEMY).

FOZZY's most recent album, "Boombox", came out in May 2022 and featured "I Still Burn", which has more than three million views on YouTube. It also included the Top 10 singles "Nowhere To Run" and "Sane".

In the spring of 2023, FOZZY spent time on the road with UGLY KID JOE as part of the latter band's first tour of the United States in 27 years.

In January 2022, FOZZY parted ways with longtime drummer Frank Fontsere and replaced him with Grant Brooks (THROUGH FIRE).

Fontsere was a founding member of FOZZY, having formed the group in 1999 with Jericho and Ward.

When FOZZY announced Fontsere's departure, the band said that he was "stepping down to focus on his family and other projects."

FOZZY is Jericho, Ward, Brooks, Billy Grey (guitar) and P.J. Farley (bass).

Image credit: Rok-Sho

In a new interview with Igor Miranda of Rolling Stone Brasil, SLAYER guitarist Kerry King spoke about his plans for a follow-up album to his solo debut, "From Hell I Rise", which came out last May via Reigning Phoenix Music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I made up two songs since I've been home from this U.S. run [in late February]. So we keep working on stuff. We haven't played together yet, but we have stuff to work on when we get together.

"What the plan is, is whenever [the] cycle [for 'From Hell I Rise'] is done, and right now that looks to me like October, Paul [Bostaph, KERRY KING and SLAYER drummer] and I have always talked about going straight from playing live, taking maybe a week off and go right in the studio to keep your tour chops, so you're firing on all cylinders — you don't gotta practice to get good; you're already good — and get in there and record it. So, ideally, in my perfect world, it would be done this year and then just hand it to the record company and say, 'Put it in line, whenever you want it to come out.'"

Asked if he would like to "maybe explore some different influences, like going a little more into punk rock" on the next album, Kerry said: "I don't know. I think punk was pretty well covered on ['From Hell I Rise'], from 'Everything I Hate About You' to 'Two Fists', two very different punk styles. So it wouldn't surprise me if that shows up 'cause it's part of my history. And I think, overall, my thought would be just make an extension from what 'From Hell I Rise' is, just keep doing [things the same way], see what the next 10 or 12 [songs] sound like."

King also talked about his working relationship with "From Hell I Rise" producer Josh Wilbur, who had previously worked with KORN, LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and BAD RELIGION, among others. He said: "A lot of musicians say he's like the extra person in the band; he was like member number six. And he really was. His skill at the Pro Tools rig — he's so fast. He would get on his computer, and I'm just sitting there with my guitar, trying to figure out how to play something better. And he's just doing [something on] his computer, and he's, like, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. 'How's this?' I'm, like, 'I don't even know where you are.' He's so fast and so good, I don't know what he did. He would have to show me, and I'm, like, 'Yeah, it sounds great.' But I could not follow what he was doing. His mind is going a million miles an hour, and he definitely became familiar with the songs before we recorded 'em. He came in with suggestions before the last week of rehearsals, and [I] shot most of them down, but we kept one or two. It's, like, I'm open to ideas — usually I've thought of 'em, but he had a couple that I didn't. I'm, like, 'I like that. I can't believe I didn't think of that.' So, yeah, he was very hands-on, very cool guy. I loved working with him and he loved working with us. So we're hoping the windows line up to where we're both free [to make the second album together]."

King kicked off his first-ever headlining tour on January 15 at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, California. The trek, which featured MUNICIPAL WASTE as special guest and ALIEN WEAPONRY supporting, wrapped at House of Blues in Las Vegas on February 22.

Joining Kerry in his new band are singer Mark Osegueda (DEATH ANGEL),guitarist Phil Demmel (MACHINE HEAD, VIO-LENCE),Kyle Sanders (bass; HELLYEAH) and Bostaph.

All material for "From Hell I Rise" was written by the 60-year-old SLAYER guitarist. The LP was recorded in 2023 at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles.

King authored all the lyrics, mainly for logistical reasons. "I finished everything before Mark knew he had the gig," he explained. "But that's not to say he will or won't write on record two." Circumstances dictated that King sing on all "From Hell I Rise" demos. "I did scratch vocals on everything," King said, adding, "I'm not a singer. I'm a guitar player. I've got conviction when I sing, but I have no range, and I need some distortion to help me out a little bit. There was always, 'I got this if whatever we're looking for doesn't work.' Luckily, we didn't have to go that route."

Last year, Kerry said that he knew people would compare "From Hell I Rise" to SLAYER. "I'm not afraid of that because I think it stands up to anything we've done in our history, musically, performance-wise," he said. But he was quick to add: "There will be people complaining, 'Why does it sound like SLAYER?' And 'why doesn't it sound more like SLAYER? That's just what people do."

In early May 2024, the KERRY KING band performed its first live show at Reggies in Chicago. In the days following, the band went from playing an intimate venue to performing at the huge U.S. festivals Welcome To Rockville (Florida) and Sonic Temple (Ohio).

KERRY KING launched a European tour on June 3, 2024 — King's 60th birthday – in Tilburg, The Netherlands. The trek combined headline shows in the U.K., The Netherlands, Germany, Italy and Spain but also festival appearances such as Rock Am Ring, Hellfest, Tuska, Download, Sweden Rock Festival and many more.

The SLAYER guitarist's solo band played its first concert as the support act for LAMB OF GOD and MASTODON on July 19, 2024 at the Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie, Texas. The six-week "Ashes Of Leviathan" tour wrapped on August 31, 2024 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Photo credit: Andrew Stuart

SYSTEM OF A DOWN launched its South American tour Thursday night (April 24) at Estadio Nemésio Camacho El Campin in Bogota, Colombia.

The nine-show "Wake Up! South America" tour will next play in Cercado De Lima, Peru at the Estadio Nacional. The tour will move on to Chile, Argentina and Brazil, wrapping up with a run of five shows in Curitiba, Rio De Janeiro and São Paulo. The concerts are SYSTEM OF A DOWN's first visit to South America since 2015.

The band's setlist for the Bogota concert was as follows, according to Setlist.fm:

01. Der Voghormia ([traditional] cover)
02. Attack (first time since 2015)
03. Prison Song
04. Violent Pornography (first time since 2019)
05. Aerials
06. Mr. Jack
07. I-E-A-I-A-I-O
08. Suite-Pee
09. Genocidal Humanoidz
10. A.D.D. (first time since 2018)
11. Needles
12. Deer Dance
13. Soldier Side
14. B.Y.O.B.
15. Radio/Video
16. Bubbles
17. Dreaming (breakdown only)
18. Hypnotize
19. ATWA
20. Bounce
21. Suggestions
22. Psycho
23. Chop Suey!
24. Lonely Day
25. Marmalade (first time since 2015)
26. Lost In Hollywood
27. Streamline (first time since 2005)
28. Forest
29. Protect The Land
30. Cigaro
31. Roulette (first time since 2018)
32. Toxicity
33. Sugar

Fan-filmed video of the concert is available below.

During an appearance on the January 23, 2025 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", SYSTEM OF A DOWN bassist Shavarsh "Shavo" Odadjian spoke about the announcement that he and his bandmates added second shows as part of their one-of-a-kind massive stadium events this year. The run of 2025 North American shows will kick off at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey on August 27-28 with special guests KORN, as well as two night at Soldier Field in Chicago (August 31-September 1) with AVENGED SEVENFOLD and a final stop at Rogers Stadium in Toronto on September 3 and September 5 with DEFTONES. Shavo said: "Literally within a few hours we sold out every show, and it was a shock to us. But I'm very glad that the stadiums were available near those dates. We had a band conference that it sold out. My manager hit us up. He's, like, 'Dude, you guys sold it all out.' … It floored me. People are, like, 'Why should it be so surprising to you?' Everyone sees us a certain way. I still see us as that band from Hollywood. I'm not seeing us as this giant band that could sell out MetLife twice, two nights in a row. Football stadiums, bro. So, we decided, 'Let's add another show to each.' And we put it out there the next day and those sold out too."

Asked why SYSTEM OF A DOWN is only playing shows in three cities this time around, Shavo said: "We haven't played a lot together for a while. We've been doing one or two shows a year since 2017. So, the relationships were not as great as they are now. It's just everybody wasn't on the same page. We've been talking. Everything's great, knock on wood. Everyone's happy. So we decided to test the waters and play some shows. And that's what it is. There is no strategy to it, there's no plan to do the rest of the world just yet. I'm not saying it's not gonna happen; I'm not saying it is gonna happen. We told each other, 'Let's play it by ear, do these shows, see how we feel afterwards. If we don't wanna do any more, we don't do any more. If we wanna do more, we'll do more.' There's no heavy responsibility on anyone, because I feel like a lot of it is just thinking too much, overthinking what could happen."

Shavo continued: "Bad experiences have happened to certain people, and they kind of hold that as PTSD, I think. And now that things are better, we're older, we're, like, 'Dude, no pressure, bro. Let's just do it. If we like it, we do. If we don't like it, we [don't].' 'Cause you know what? Serj [Tankian, SYSTEM OF A DOWN vocalist] had a great time at Sick New World [festival in Las Vegas] last year. We had such an amazing, fun show and everyone left the stage hugging. And so he called back, he's, like, 'Dude, I loved it. Let's do more of these.' So that's where that happened. We're, like, 'Let's go.' As long as everyone is down. Daron [Malakian, SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist] was down. So we decided, 'Let's test the waters. Let's not just go full blast and start doing months. Let's just test the waters with three shows.' Those three shows turned to six."

Regarding why SYSTEM OF A DOWN chose to play in those three cities in particular, Shavo said: "We haven't been there for a long time. 'Cause we've been doing West Coast stuff a lot, because we haven't been leaving the West Coast. Like I said, we've been kind of dipping our toe in the water, testing the temperature of the water. So, we've been kind of upsetting the East Coast. It seems like we don't like going there, but we love the East Coast. We love all over. We love the entire country. It's not personal at all. So when we decided to do some extra shows, we said, 'We need to go to the East Coast. That's where this year has to be.' So that's the reason — because we the East; we really do. We talk about it every day — John [Dolmayan, SYSTEM OF A DOWN drummer] and I talk about it every day. We're, like, 'We can't wait for this.' So we're looking forward to seeing the crowd, being there and seeing the city and enjoying it with that eye again. We're playing the city again. And to play two stadiums in each city is just — it's a gift."

Asked if it is tough to ramp up a machine like SYSTEM OF A DOWN to playing at a stadium level for just six shows, Shavo said: "We can do it. Look, for the last few years, we've been doing one or two shows. And we go and we rehearse two weeks for one show. I think that's not smart. So six shows is better than one show to me. I'll take it. I'll take it, and I'm not gonna ask for more. I want it to happen organically. I think our band is that band — we can't be told what to do. The more we push each other to do something, the less we do. So I figure the less we push, the more we'll do. It should be done because we wanna do it, we love to do it, and that's why we do it."

Last May, Serj spoke to the Soul Boom With Rainn Wilson podcast about his reluctance to embrace the touring lifestyle that characterized SYSTEM OF A DOWN's early years. He said: "We've had incredible, unexpected success as a very far-flung kind of progressive metal band with our 'Toxicity' record in 2001 and touring and doing what we did. And after many years of touring, when we were making the last few records which we made together, 'Mezmerize' and 'Hypnotize' — those recordings were done at the same time, then released as two records within six months of each other in 2005 and 2006 — before those sessions, when we first started those sessions, I told the [other] guys [in the band], 'Guys, this kind of cyclical thing that we're doing with making records for a year, touring for two years at that time, doing all this promo publicity,' it was just cyclical. It was, like, 'I've gotta stop. And I also wanna do my own thing. I have other artistic adventures that I wanna get on.'"

He continued: "Part of it was we had so much creativity and input coming into the band, specifically with Daron's songwriting and me wanting to bring in music as well, because, over time, he became a better lyricist and I became a better musical songwriter, a better composer, so it became kind of like a push and pull, which is really good for bands, actually, 'cause it's a yin-and-yang kind of thing — two strong, creative forces. And it also broken up so many bands. So, before 'Mezmerize' and 'Hypnotize', I basically told the guys, 'Listen, I'd like to take a hiatus. I'm not saying I never wanna do this, but I'm saying I can't do this right now anymore. And I wanna do my own thing and also take time off and have a life, and all of that stuff.' It wasn't taken well at the time. I won't get into that. But years later, we started touring again in 2011, and it became a fun thing, 'cause it left… Nothing was totally resolved creatively, but it became a fun thing because we at least put everything to the side and said, 'Look, we're friends, we're brothers. We've known each other for a long time. We still respect and love each other. Let's go have fun and tour together.' And we've been doing that since. Not as much as they would like, let's say, or I'm not gonna speak for each and every person of the band, because that wouldn't be fair of me either. But generally I'm the least person that wants to tour. Part of that is physical, because it's tiring. I've done it for 20, 25 years, and I had back surgery a few years ago. I'm much better now and all of that. But part of it is that. Part of it is that it's artistically redundant after a while, because it's 'Groundhog Day'; you're repeating yourself. David Bowie said the first two weeks of every tour is basically — I'm paraphrasing — creative; after that, it's redundant, kind of thing, which is correct. So it's that. But I do enjoy playing with the guys, and when it's a one-off, it's actually fun, 'cause there's no pressure to do this whole rigamarang of a long tour or press or anything. You just rehearse together, make your dumb jokes, have food together, and then go and play that one show and it becomes a hoorah. So that's what we've been doing. And I'm grateful for that."

Tankian, who was promoting his memoir, "Down With The System", previously addressed how his relationship with Malakian has evolved over the years, particularly as it relates to their collaborative partnership, earlier that same month in an interview with Tom Power, host of "Q" on Canada's CBC Radio One. He said: "Well, changing the dynamic is basically years of time and the progression of the band, the success of the band, everything that happened in between the day that we met and now, basically, so 25, 30 years. A lot changes in that time. And so I think that's a part of it.

"Daron's been a lifer and he's incredibly serious about his music and he's incredibly protective of his music and vulnerable due to his music," Serj explained. "All of those things kind of go together. So it's those things, I think, that created some of the creative differences that we started finding. And it's also our progression. Listen, when Daron and I started working together, I didn't really write a lot of instrumental music — I mostly wrote lyrics; I was the lyricist; I was the singer. And he didn't write any lyrics; he just wrote music. But as time progressed and I played more musical instruments and I started becoming a songwriter/composer and he started writing more lyrics, we started kind of covering each other's territory. And I was okay with that. If he wrote lyrics, I was trying to encourage him to write more, because I believe in artistic growth. I believe in progression. I don't believe in things staying the same way, for music's sake. Otherwise the music becomes the same thing over and over again. That progression is necessary in every artist's life or in every group's life. So I was very encouraging of that. And I just wish that I got some of that back. And so that wasn't the case, and it was disappointing. And it became a creative difference over the band's path, and whatnot, over time."

Asked why he wanted to write about this in his book, Serj said: "A lot of it has been publicized in a very sensationalist format by media, music media mostly, and I kind of wanted to put it in a proper perspective and grounding perspective, but with love and with balance and understanding that these things happen. This is normal. You have a relationship and you have differences in opinion as [to] how you wanna go forward, whether it's a band or a marriage or whatever it is. And these things happen. And so I wanted to take that aspect out, I wanted to take the sensationalist aspect out of the whole thing and be, like, this is not only what happened, but this is how I see things."

Tankian also addressed the fact that SYSTEM OF A DOWN has toured intermittently since ending its hiatus in 2011, but has only managed to record two songs in the last 19 years, "Protect The Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz". Released in November 2020, the tracks were motivated by the conflict between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, with all proceeds supporting humanitarian efforts in SYSTEM OF A DOWN's ancestral homeland of Armenia. Along with other donations from fans on their social pages, they raised over $600,000.

"We haven't been making new music," Serj said. "We only put out two songs when the invasion of Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh happened in 2020 by Azerbaijan, because we felt like the Azeri trolls, the government-sponsored trolls were taking over social media and the news networks, and the victims of these attacks weren't getting the word out. So we became kind of obsessed with getting the word out, because we were seeing our people suffer. So we put out those two songs because of that and we donated a lot of the proceeds for that to the cause as well."

Asked how he balances the love and obligation he might feel toward his fans, those who love SYSTEM OF A DOWN, and the internal struggles within the band, Tankian said: "That's an incredibly smart question. It's really hard catering — when you're an artist, it's really hard catering. If you're an entertainer, catering is [what you do], but if you're an artist, then you're just creating what comes to you. You're almost unaware of what people want. Yes, if it's something heavier, you know people are gonna like it more. But if you're a good songwriter, you could do both. I do orchestral music, I do film music, I do rock music — I do it all. So I enjoy 'em all, but I know that if I do rock, more people are going to listen to it than a piano, instrumental orchestral piece of music, soundtrack kind of music. But it doesn't mean that you don't do both, as an artist. So it's hard to really cater to people's feelings. What I love is, and I know that I can speak for the rest of the guys in the band, that no matter what's going on with our creative difference or the band not making new music or not touring fully or whatever, everyone's incredibly appreciative of what we have in terms of the love that we get from our fans and the way that people react to our music and the way that we get all these e-mails about how it's changed people's lives and all of that stuff, and that is mind-blowing. It's the biggest honor. And when I meet people on the street, I'm still incredibly honored that someone would pick me out and look at me in a positive light, not knowing who I am personally, but knowing me through my music, through our music, let's say. And I think that's a great fucking honor. I feel blessed for it. But it doesn't mean that that thing should continue forever either."

In a new interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, SHINEDOWN bassist and producer Eric Bass spoke about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for the band's follow-up to 2022's "Planet Zero" album. "Two tracks are out now," he said, referencing the band's recently released two singles, "Three Six Five" and "Dance, Kid, Dance". "So, we will probably release — we're definitely gonna release more music before the end of the year."

He continued: "Look, we're assessing where we're at with the [next] SHINEDOWN record. When it's time, it's time. That's what we always say. And we wanna make sure that we have our best material for a record rather than just getting something done to hurry up and get it done. I know we've mentioned July, we've mentioned August, we've mentioned these kind of arbitrary months for a SHINEDOWN record to drop, but I don't have a definite date right now. But here's the thing: when it's done and it's out, it will be our best work, and that's what's important to us. But we are actively working on it. I was mixing yesterday. I'll be mixing some more today. So, we are definitely working on it right now."

Bass also discussed his duties as SHINEDOWN's producer, having previously helmed "Planet Zero" and 2018's "Attention Attention" album. Speaking specifically about the mixing process, he said: "Yeah, it's maddening, man. It'll make you feel like a fraud sometimes, 'cause you think you have it dialed in, and then you realize you don't have it as dialed in as you think you do. And it's a lot of work, man. A lot more goes into making a song than people think it. It's why if I hear something I don't like, I don't say that it sucks — I'll just say it's not for me — because there's a lot of work that goes into something that you think sucks that other people don't. And mixing is one of those things that's very time consuming and takes an awful lot of brain power and heart power to do. But I enjoy it at the end of the day. Sometimes, like I said, it is maddening, and sometimes it causes you to question yourself. But, man, when you land on something great, it's a lot of fun."

"Three Six Five" and "Dance, Kid, Dance" were made available on January 24 via Atlantic Records.

Bass and SHINEDOWN singer Brent Smith co-wrote "Three Six Five", and "Dance, Kid, Dance" was co-written by Smith, Bass and Dave Bassett. The songs were produced by Bass at his own Big Animal Studio in Charleston, South Carolina.

In February, "Dance, Kid, Dance" reached the No. 1 slot at Active Rock radio. The song was SHINEDOWN's 20th No. 1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and their 22nd song to reach No. 1 on Mediabase's Active Rock chart. When the song entered the Top 5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, SHINEDOWN tied with the FOO FIGHTERS for the artist with the most top ten songs in the chart's history at 32 total songs.

Recently, SHINEDOWN announced it has added the historic Kia Forum in Los Angeles to the band's already massive headline tour. The "Dance, Kid, Dance" tour kicks off on April 25, and the 36-date run is one of the largest run of shows (and venues) the band has ever put on. It will be the first time the band has ever headlined some of the country's most legendary venues, including Madison Square Garden (July 20),Bridgestone Arena (May 10),Boston's TD Garden (July 19) and more. Joining them on the tour are BEARTOOTH and BUSH (on select dates) and Morgan Wade for all shows.

Regarding the lyrical inspiration for "Three Six Five", Smith told the Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada rock radio station 104.9 The Wolf: "'Three Six Five' kind of has two different heartbeats in a lot of ways. I think the point of what 'Three Six Five' is representing is that time is precious, but it's not promised. And last year, in our band, on a personal level, we lost some family members last year that it was unexpected and it was deeply emotional for all of us. And that song was really born out of the sense of loss that we had during that time. I mean, I'll be very honest with you about it — Eric, our bass player, and also the producer, engineer and the mixer of the last two SHINEDOWN records, the producer, engineer and the mixer of the current one that's getting ready to be released, he lost his dad suddenly last year, and then he lost his father and he lost his aunt a couple of months later after that. His wife Kelly, she lost her sister. I lost my granny last year, towards the back half of the year. But in a lot of ways, I think that 'Three Six Five' was born from… You grow up with that impression that when a family member, especially a grandmother or a mother or a father, the patriarchs, if you will, when they pass away that they're gone, and that's not the case. They may be physically gone, but everything that they taught you and everything that they gave you and the time that they spent with you and how you pay it forward and who you are as an individual, you carry them with you. So they're never really gone; they're everywhere. But it is a song about that reflection of just saying, 'Man, I wish I had one more day with this person or even if I just had one more hour just to tell them what they meant to you and how much they mean to you. But you know what? You'll see 'em again. But while you're here, that song is such a deep meaning. And it doesn't even have to be somebody that you've necessarily lost. It could be somebody that you kind of fall out of touch with and what have you, but what they taught you, you keep that in your spirit every single day. And the other side about the dynamic of time is precious and it's not promised is it's a roll of the dice. And if you've been second-guessing what you want for your life or who you are or what you think you can and will be and what you can accomplish, don't have the mindset that you're not capable of going after what you really want for your life. Whatever your dreams may be, and don't focus so much on the plan B. Whatever your A plan is, go after that. It can change at any given moment. And that's the point in the song where it says a lot can happen in a year. So, quit wasting time and go after it."

As for "Dance, Kid, Dance", Brent said: "'Dance, Kid, Dance', man, we literally just wanted to write a song that you could dance to. It's a little bit more in depth from that. But it's a social commentary song about all of the things that are going on. It's a song sung from a lot of different points of views. But at the end of the day, it's met with this over… We wanted it to just be unabashed, we wanted it to be something that had an attitude, but just made you wanna move. So, that's why we chose to do the drops after the pre-chorus and then the chorus and then the solo section and all those different aspects of it. It was a four on the floor. We wanted it to be punk rock, but, again, we wanted it to have an attitude. It got the seal of approval from my son early on, which is always a good thing, 'cause he's 17 years old and he'll let me know if something's corny. So, once he gave us the approval, we were, like, 'All right, let's go.'"

This past January, Brent addressed the fact that "Three Six Five" and "Dance, Kid, Dance" are musically completely different from each other, telling Audacy Check In: "I think it definitely had a bit more tempo than maybe the last song that people were familiar with on maybe the more mainstream-leaning, pop-leaning-type songs. So we kind of bumped up the BPMs a little bit on that. And 'Dance, Kid, Dance', we just went to the wall with that."

He continued: "It's interesting. I had a friend of mine the other day say to me, 'Are you a rock band? Are you a metal band? Are you an alternative band? Are you a pop [band]? What are you?' And I'm, like, 'We're just SHINEDOWN.' We play in a big sandbox.

"We've always been a genre-bending band because we're inspired by a lot of different styles and we're constantly evolving," Brent said. "So we felt like the right move, with the first new material that people would hear from us, that we gave them kind of two sides of us."

Elaborating on SHINEDOWN's need to explore a variety of different styles on each album, Brent said: "I think along the way, people started to get pigeonholed or they started using boxes or 'stay in your lane' or 'you're only this genre'.

"When you expand your palette sonically or what have you, you're just trying to reach as much of the audience as you can. Some days you feel like you wanna throw down and rock, some days you're a little bit more emotional. But that's the beauty of music, man. It constantly evolves. And the only thing that we've ever done in this band is anybody from anywhere at any time, we wanted them to be able to know that SHINEDOWN has a lot of peaks and valleys, kind of like a rollercoaster ride. But there's something for everyone."

Photo credit: Ebru Yildiz

American thrash metal legends and genre originators EXODUS played the first of two very special "Bonded By Blood" 40th-anniversary shows — falling upon late original vocalist Paul Baloff's birthday weekend (April 25) — Friday night at UC Theatre in Berkeley, California. The concert featured EXODUS performing "Bonded By Blood" in its entirety, plus other Baloff-era songs, including early tracks "Hell's Breath", "Warlord" and "Impaler", plus "Pleasures Of The Flesh" and "Brain Dead" from 1987's "Pleasures Of The Flesh" album, both songs having originally been written and demoed while Baloff was still a member of EXODUS. Joining EXODUS on stage at UC Theatre were two very special guests: Rick Hunolt, the other half of the famed EXODUS "H-Team" who is on every studio recording from 1985 through 2004 and co-wrote some of the band's best-known songs such as "A Lesson In Violence" and "Deliver Us To Evil"; and bassist Jeff Andrews, who was a member of EXODUS from 1981 until 1983. when he was replaced by Rob McKillop.

The setlist for last night's concert was as follows:

01. Bonded By Blood
02. Exodus
03. And Then There Were None
04. A Lesson In Violence
05. Metal Command
06. Pleasures Of The Flesh
07. Brain Dead (with Rick Hunolt)
08. Piranha (with Rick Hunolt)
09. Happy Birthday To You (Mildred J. Hill & Patty Hill cover) (for Paul Baloff)
10. Deliver Us To Evil (with Rick Hunolt)
11. No Love
12. Strike Of The Beast

Encore:

13. Hell's Breath
14. Warlord (with Jeff Andrews)
15. Impaler

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

In early 2022, EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt was asked during an appearance on "Put Up Your Dukes", the podcast hosted by EXODUS singer Rob Dukes, if original EXODUS guitarist Kirk Hammett, who has been a member of METALLICA for the past 42 years, was involved in the songwriting for any of the material that ended up on "Bonded By Blood". "There were riffs that I had written while Kirk was still in the band, and he tried to adapt them, tried to change 'em a little bit — the old, 'I changed it a little bit. I'm a co-writer on this riff,'" Holt recalled. "And that was, like, two riffs, I think. And the rest of 'em were written after he left. We never used a Kirk Hammett riff, ever, until [2004's] 'Tempo Of The Damned' [album] when we recorded [the early EXODUS song] 'Impaler'."

Explaining that "the first two [EXODUS] songs finished post-Kirk Hammett were 'Strike Of The Beast' and 'No Love'," Holt continued: "The biggest talent I have, if you wanna call it a talent, is my fucking memory. I can remember fucking everything. I remember showing him… I can picture it as a film, showing Kirk the riff to 'Strike Of The Beast', and I can picture it as if I'm watching it on a film — in the jam room, me in my spot where I played him [the riff] and him wanting to change the higher note to a lower note; I remember it all as if I'm watching a movie of it. I remember all of it — every last minute of it. I remember details from fucking most meaningless shit."

The original lineup of EXODUS consisted of guitarists Hammett and Tim Agnello, drummer Tom Hunting and vocalist Keith Stewart (bassist Carlton Melson joined in 1980). Holt joined the band in 1981, while Kirk left two years before "Bonded By Blood" saw the light of day.

Back in 2018, Kirk spoke about the fact that riffs from songs by EXODUS, "Die By His Hand" and "Impaler", found their way into "Creeping Death" and "Trapped Under Ice", from METALLICA's "Ride The Lightning" album. "What I think happened was when Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] and James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] were thinking about getting rid of Dave [Mustaine], our sound guy, Mark Whitaker — who was EXODUS' manager — gave them EXODUS' demos," Kirk said. "I think 'Die By His Hand' might have caught their ears. So when they were writing 'Creeping Death', they went, 'Great. 'Die By His Hand'. Put it right there.' It was definitely not me going, 'I have a riff here in this EXODUS song, and it needs to be here in this METALLICA song.' By the way, I wrote that 'Die By His Hand' riff when I was, like, 16 years old."

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

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

Rick discussed his exit from EXODUS during a November 2021 appearance on the "Put Up Your Dukes" podcast. He said at the time: "During the recording of 'Tempo', Gary had just gotten clean a little while prior to that, and I was still using. But I've gotta say, Gary Holt — my hat's off to the man for… He never sweated me. Not once did Gary say, 'Dude, you're a piece of shit. I'm gonna fire you from the band if you don't get your shit together.' He never said nothing. He let it take its course, you know what I mean?

"I was a mess," Rick continued. "We all were, but everybody got better, and I didn't. I fell down the rabbit hole even worse, I think, because I was just so depressed. I couldn't stop. I don't know what was up… To the point where I was gonna lose my position in the band I'd been in for over 20 years — my best friends, my life. Yeah, it was dark as fuck.

"One day, after spending my life, giving everything that I had and the whole world to EXODUS, one day I woke up and I wasn't in EXODUS anymore," Hunolt added. "And that morning was, like… Dude, I can't even describe the emotions that I [was feeling]. I woke up and I wasn't in EXODUS anymore, dude. It damn near took me out, bro."

Rick revealed that he went through a particularly difficult period after splitting with EXODUS. "I had to reinvent myself at 40-plus years old, [with] two little kids," he said. "I ended up moving out of Oakland. I had to get the fuck out of there, 'cause we were living at the studio; it was bad. And then we moved in with my wife's mom and I got a job at the [discount chain] Dollar Tree and I ended up working there for, like, two or three years. I mean, I can go on and on and on. But long story short, I met a guy who knew who I was and offered me a job on his ranch. And the rest is history. He taught me how to live my life and make money."

Hunolt made a guest appearance on EXODUS's latest album, "Persona Non Grata", which was released in November 2021 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Former MANOWAR guitarist Ross "The Boss" Friedman has once again blasted re-recorded versions of the band's classic albums, saying the original recordings "should not be messed with".

A founding member of MANOWAR, Ross recorded six albums with the band before leaving after 1988's "Kings Of Metal". His work with MANOWAR included such classic LPs as 1982's "Battle Hymns", 1983's "Into Glory Ride" and 1984's "Hail To England".

Friedman discussed MANOWAR's decision to re-record its classic albums during a recent interview with the Hear 2 Zen podcast. Asked what he thinks about the new versions of the MANOWAR LPs, he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "What do I think of it? I think it's horrible. I honestly do. I think it's totally unnecessary and a waste of time, and I don't know why. I don't know why they would do that. I've gotta be honest with you. I don't know why.

"I could see re-recording those records with maybe the same personnel, the same people," he clarified. "But not with a different group and a different guitar player. I just think it sounds horrible. It just sounds horrible."

Asked if he has ever thought of re-recording a full classic MANOWAR album with his ROSS THE BOSS group, Ross responded: "Me doing it with my band? No. Never. It's a waste time. Those records are those records. Those records should not be messed with. And they have been. And that's what's really… It's heartbreaking."

Friedman previously discussed MANOWAR's decision to re-record its classic albums during a March 2022 interview with Rat Salad Review. He said: "I think the first thing that they should have done and he [MANOWAR leader/bassist Joey DeMaio] didn't do… I mean, if you're gonna do a classic old record that pretty much put your band on the map, why don't you just get the original lineup back? For 'Battle Hymns', he could have done it; he could have had the original lineup: me, Donnie [Hamzik, drums], Eric [Adams, vocals] and Joey. And having another guitar player and having detuned the songs, it's just not the same; you're not gonna recreate that same vibe, that same magic, that same chemistry that was on the first record. And 'Kings Of Metal' as well. Scott Columbus was the drummer, but we know Scott is not with us. But he still could have gotten either Donnie or Rhino. It's just not the same. And the excuse was, 'Oh, we're doing it for the sound, make the sound better.' You're not gonna get it; it's not gonna be the same. The results, it's never gonna be as good as the original — never. And I'll tell any band that. You're not gonna get the same results; it's just never gonna happen."

Asked what the reason was that he wasn't asked to participate in the re-recordings of "Battle Hymns" and "Kings Of Metal", Ross said: "[Joey and I] don't talk. I'll put it like that. They'll figure it out on Blabbermouth. All the geniuses there, the haters, everybody there, they'll get it."

Earlier that same month, Friedman was asked by Sofa King Cool about the chances of him reuniting with MANOWAR for a tour celebrating the 40th anniversary of "Battle Hymns". Ross said: "You wouldn't say that I don't have a good relationship with my old partner, but it's just not there. I'm not saying things can't magically patch up. But [Joey] doesn't want any part of me telling him what he should be doing. And it's okay. I'm happy with my band, I'm happy with DEATH DEALER, I'm happy with THE DICTATORS. Hopefully I'm gonna be very, very busy. I don't have to be in a band with a tyrant."

This was not the first time Friedman had been critical of his former band and DeMaio in particular. In September 2021, Friedman told Waste Some Time With Jason Green about the circumstances surrounding his exit from the group nearly four decades ago: "When a band gets big and the money hits, greed, avarice and evil takes place. A guy that I thought was my partner wasn't," he said, referring to DeMaio. "So he wanted me [out]. He goes, 'You've gotta go.' I go, 'Really? I've gotta go why? I've gotta go why? We're equal partners, 50 percent. Why do I have to go? Why don't you go?' The whole thing is he was so — his antics and his bullshit was so insane that I had it up to [my neck] with him. When you have it up to [your neck] with someone, you've just gotta go, 'Get the fuck outta here. I can't take this anymore.'

"[It was] ego, greed, avarice, evil [that caused me to depart]," he explained. "When [Joey] met me, I had already four major albums. He had done zero. Joey DeMaio was nobody. When he met me, I had already done four. I had no will to fight him. If I were to fight him, I would have killed him. He's just a fucking pariah… You can't live with that. My heart couldn't take it. I can't take evil. And I know people are gonna be… [It's gonna be] hard [for them] to hear that, but I'm better off now. I really am."

Ross went on to say that he had never been approached about returning to MANOWAR. As for whether he would consider playing with the band again, he said: "Well, if the financial arrangements were right. But [Joey is] the kind of scumbag that would never have that… I'll never say no, but you never know. I just called him a scumbag, so… It's not gonna happen. He's secure in the fact that MANOWAR are mediocre fucking pieces of shit right now. What they're putting out to the public [is] just terrible."

After BLABBERMOUTH.NET published Ross's comments from the Waste Some Time With Jason Green interview, he sent a short statement conveying a more conciliatory tone. "I would like to apologize to MANOWAR, the fans and Joey for the insult," he wrote. "If anyone knows me, you know that's not my style for saying things like that. I violated my own rule. Again, I am truly sorry."

Ross later expressed his remorse further in an interview with Italy's TrueMetal.it, explaining that he never should have allowed his original comments to reach the general public.

"Let me say right from the start it came out of my mouth and I take full responsibility for what I said," Ross said. "But I usually edit all my interviews. Journalists will send it back to me. Jason Green is a good guy, and he said, 'I will send it back to you and we'll go over it.' 'Cause you never know if you want it to go out to the public. For some reason, I never did that in this situation with that interview. I know part one I did, and part two I didn't, for some reason. Now, if I would have saw that, do you think I would have let that out? No. But you know something? People say things, and sometimes they just say things. And I definitely said that.

"Let's just say MANOWAR's music now is different," he continued. "I'm not gonna say what I said; I'm just gonna call it different. It's different from my six records, the band that was playing when I was in the band. That's all I'm gonna say.

"And as far as my attack on Mr. DeMaio, well, that's my business with him. And I aired it, and I shouldn't have aired it — calling him the 's-bag' word. And it was quite unprofessional of me. And I violated my own rule. My own rule being… I always knew this. My father told me when I first started — God rest his soul — he goes, 'Ross, if you don't have anything good to say about someone, don't say it. You'll do better in life.' If I didn't have anything good to say, I shouldn't have said it. And it was unprofessional of me.

"I still think that MANOWAR is different, and I have my issues with Joey," Ross added. "But as far as everything else, I do apologize for my unprofessionality."

Ross was one of the pioneers of both punk rock and heavy metal. First crashing on the scene with THE DICTATORS and with such classic albums as 1975's "Go Girl Crazy!", 1977's "Manifest Destiny" and 1978's "Bloodbrothers", Ross helped trailblaze punk rock (just to put it all in perspective, "Go Girl Crazy!" arrived a full year before the RAMONES' debut, and two years before THE CLASH's and SEX PISTOLS' debuts). By the end of the '80s, Ross had reconnected with his DICTATORS bandmates in MANITOBA'S WILD KINGDOM, which served as a bridge between his love of punk and metal, as heard on the group's popular 1990 debut, "…And You?" Throughout the remainder of the decade, Ross also played with such groups as THE HELLACOPTERS and THE SPINATRAS, before THE DICTATORS reunited, which resulted in several new releases starting from the late '90s all the way through the early 21st century. Also around this time, Ross joined forces with former of BLUE ÖYSTER CULT drummer Albert Bouchard in the band BRAIN SURGEONS. With Ross's main focus turning to metal music at this time, two additional projects were launched — DEATH DEALER and his solo outfit, ROSS THE BOSS.

Reactivated Santa Barbara-based metal/punk rock hybrid SNOT has parted ways with guitarist Sonny Mayo.

The news of Mayo's departure was broken by SNOT guitarist Mikey Doling who shared a video message earlier today in which he said:  "There's something I need to tell y'all. Sonny Mayo has decided to quit SNOT. SNOT doesn't fit into his life right now, and he just wants to focus on himself and his life. And SNOT's just too busy for him to be able to continue.

"So I'd like to wish Sonny Mayo the best of luck in his future, and I wanna thank him for all he's contributed to SNOT over the years. We love you, brother," Mikey continued.

"That being said, our very, very good friend from GOD FORBID, formerly BAD WOLVES, Doc Coyle, is going to be filling in on guitar for the upcoming shows. And we're excited to have him on board. And thank you very much, Doc Coyle."

Last month, SNOT announced a European tour for August 2025. The eight-date trek will mark the band's first shows on the continent with new singer Andy Knapp, who made his live debut with SNOT in January.

SNOT's first gig with Knapp took place on January 17 at the Parish room at the House Of Blues in Anaheim, California. The performance was also livestreamed via the band's Instagram. SNOT played a second show with Knapp, who also sings for fellow Southern California band STRONGER THAN MACHINES, on January 18 at Brick By Brick in San Diego, California.

In a recent interview with "The Garza Podcast", hosted by SUICIDE SILENCE guitarist Chris Garza, Doling and bassist John "Tumor" Fahnestock confirmed that there are plans for SNOT to write new music.

SNOT's current lineup also includes drummer Jamie Miller.

SNOT is scheduled to play two more club concerts this month, leading up to the band's appearance at the Welcome To Rockville festival in May in Daytona Beach, Florida. SNOT will also play at select European festivals, as well as at the Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival in Mansfield, Ohio, this summer.

SNOT disbanded in 1998 following original singer Lynn Strait's death, putting an end to a career that generated considerable promise but only one studio album, "Get Some". The band had been writing material for its sophomore CD and had completed 10 songs at the time of Strait's tragic passing. As a memorial to Strait, SNOT eventually decided to release those tracks, with lyrics and guest vocals provided by a host of stars from the alt-metal community. The resulting album, "Strait Up", was a fitting tribute from Strait's peers and friends, featuring members of LIMP BIZKIT, KORN, SLIPKNOT, SEVENDUST, (HED) P.E., COAL CHAMBER, SUGAR RAY, SYSTEM OF A DOWN, SOULFLY, and more.

SNOT in 2014 recruited Carl Bensley (VITIATE, CONSUME THE FIRE) to sing for the band following the departure of Tommy "Vext" Cummings (ex-DIVINE HERESY, BAD WOLVES).

According to the Los Angeles Times, Lynn died in died in a car accident in December 1998 as he attempted to drive across Highway 101 in Mussel Shoals, California. The 30-year-old singer died instantly after his 1992 Ford Tempo was broadsided by a southbound full-size pickup truck about noon. Also killed was Strait's small bulldog, SNOT's mascot Dobbs, who adorned the cover of the band's debut album, the 1997 Geffen Records release "Get Some". Strait, a Santa Barbara resident, was crossing the highway after visiting his girlfriend in the community. Lynn apparently pulled into the path of the truck, which was going about 65 mph. The impact sent Strait's car spinning into the center divider where it stopped, a California Highway Patrol officer told the Los Angeles Times at the time.

Cummings fronted SNOT in 2008-2009 before he and Mayo exited the group amid "strained relationships."

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In a new interview with Igor Miranda of Rolling Stone Brasil, Kerry King confirmed that SLAYER will perform a BLACK SABBATH cover at Ozzy Osbourne and SABBATH's final concert on July 5 in Birmingham, England.

"It's such an honor to even be thought of to play that, and I'm glad we were actually in the 'working mode' so we can get that offer," he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "It's gonna be awesome. And I drug my feet and picked our song really late, so when there weren't as many obvious choices, but the one I picked is gonna work out really cool. I worked it out with my [solo] band, so me and Paul [Bostaph, SLAYER and KERRY KING drummer] could rehearse it. So we've already got it. We've just gotta get Tom [Araya, SLAYER bassist/vocalist] and Gary [Holt, SLAYER guitarist] on board whenever — probably in June we will rehearse for that. It's gonna be killer. What we're doing is cool."

SLAYER famously covered SABBATH's "Hand Of Doom" for the "Nativity In Black II: A Tribute To Black Sabbath" album, which came out in 2000.

Taking place on July 5 at Villa Park, Ozzy's final concert — billed as "Back To The Beginning" — sold out in less than 10 minutes last month.

The all-star event will mark the first time that the original lineup of BLACK SABBATH — Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward — have played together in 20 years.

Also set to appear at the event are METALLICA, GUNS N' ROSES, TOOL, SLAYER, PANTERA, GOJIRA, ALICE IN CHAINS, HALESTORM, LAMB OF GOD, ANTHRAX and MASTODON.

In addition, there will be a performance by a "supergroup of musicians" including Duff McKagan and Slash (GUNS 'N' ROSES),Billy Corgan (THE SMASHING PUMPKINS),Fred Durst (LIMP BIZKIT),K.K. Downing (JUDAS PRIEST),Jake E. Lee (OZZY OSBOURNE),Wolfgang Van Halen (VAN HALEN, MAMMOTH WVH),Tom Morello (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE),Andrew Watt, Chad Smith (RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS),David Ellefson (MEGADETH),Vernon Reid (LIVING COLOUR),Whitfield Crane (UGLY KID JOE),David Draiman (DISTURBED),Frank Bello (ANTHRAX),Jonathan Davis (KORN),Lzzy Hale (HALESTORM),Mike Bordin (FAITH NO MORE),Sammy Hagar, Rudy Sarzo (OZZY OSBOURNE, QUIET RIOT),Scott Ian (ANTHRAX),Sleep Token II (SLEEP TOKEN) and Papa V Perpetua (GHOST).

"I've already thought about being at that show very early 'cause there's a lot of my friends that are gonna be playing SABBATH songs, and I wanna see a lot of it," King told Rolling Stone Brasil. "I'm sure the stage is gonna be a nightmare getting onto, so I'm hoping there's live feeds backstage so we can just watch it and hear it. I wanna see METALLICA. I wanna see PANTERA. I wanna see Lzzy Hale, just to name a few."

In a recent interview with Australia's Wall Of Sound, King was asked which BLACK SABBATH album he would take with him if the planet was being blown up and we were all boarding a big spaceship and he was only allowed to take one SABBATH LP with him. He responded:  "I would take… It's easy and it's hard 'cause I'm a super [Ronnie James] Dio fan. But I would take [SABBATH's sixth studio album, 1975's] 'Sabotage'. Something about the vibe on that record. It's cool. I mean, they're all cool, but something about that one. Maybe 'Symptom Of The Universe'. I don't know. It's nonstop badassery."

Back in 2017, King picked "Sabotage" as one of his 10 favorite metal albums, telling Rolling Stone magazine: "'Sabotage' is just a very heavy record. There's so much good stuff on there. As I picked these records, I picked the ones I'm compelled to play if I'm working out or driving, and 'Sabotage' was my choice for BLACK SABBATH. It has 'Megalomania', 'Symptom Of The Universe', which has definitely got attitude, 'Hole In The Sky'. And it has the instrumental 'Supertzar'. I love that one. It grips me for some reason."

Last year, Kerry was asked by Metal Hammer Greece's TV show "TV War" if he has ever had a negative experience meeting one of his musical idols. He responded: "Yeah. Only once. And I won't even tell you who, because he doesn't deserve it. But nine times out of ten… The last one that I'll say I got over the hump with, 'cause I was still such a fan, was [BLACK SABBATH's] Tony Iommi. And it was very late in our careers, but it's fucking Tony; he's the godfather of all this shit. I think it was, like, 2006, finally. And I knew him before that, but I couldn't talk to him. It was Tony Iommi; I just couldn't do it."

Kerry continued: "in 2006 I went to the Classic Rock Awards in Britain. And I was presenting Tony with an award, and I was nervous as fucking all hell. I was out of my environment. I've done metal shows, I've done the [Revolver] Golden Gods billions of fucking times, but at the Classic Rock Awards, I was out of my element. Fucking Steven Tyler's [AEROSMITH] out there, AC/DC's out there, DEF LEPPARD's out there — people that I've admired in my history but didn't know any of them. So I'm fucking shaking up there. I hit the mic when I'm talking. And I was just a fucking idiot. [Laughs] So, I get to give Tony his award, take a picture with him. Then I felt like we were bros. I was over the Tony hump, and that was cool."

King added: "I've had a lot of heroes, be it from [JUDAS] PRIEST to SABBATH and whoever the hell, [DEEP PURPLE's] Ritchie Blackmore. But, yeah, Tony was the one. I had to climb that mountain and get over it."

King's debut solo album, "From Hell I Rise", was released in May 2024 via Reigning Phoenix Music.

Joining Kerry in his new band are Mark Osegueda (vocals; DEATH ANGEL),Phil Demmel (guitar; MACHINE HEAD, VIO-LENCE),Kyle Sanders (bass; HELLYEAH) and drummer Paul Bostaph (SLAYER, TESTAMENT, EXODUS).

All material for "From Hell I Rise" was written by the 60-year-old SLAYER guitarist. Helming the sessions at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles last year was producer Josh Wilbur, who has previously worked with KORN, LAMB OF GOD, AVENGED SEVENFOLD and BAD RELIGION, among others.

Legendary punk rock band BLACK FLAG has announced a brand new lineup. Joining founding guitarist Greg Ginn are Max Zanelly on vocals, David Rodriguez on bass and Bryce Weston on drums.

The new BLACK FLAG lineup is "already in the studio and the rehearsal space — writing, jamming, and bringing fresh energy," according to a post on the band's social media.

Earlier today, BLACK FLAG released the following statement: "We're turning the page. BLACK FLAG is entering a new era — and we're hyped to welcome three incredible new members to the lineup: Max Zanelly – vocals, David Rodriguez – bass, Bryce Weston – drums.

"Alongside founding guitarist Greg Ginn, the new lineup is already in the studio and the rehearsal space — writing, jamming, and bringing fresh energy.

"Live shows are coming. New music is coming. Tour dates drop soon. Stay tuned."

BLACK FLAG formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California, and made music from 1978 until the mid-1980s with several singers, including Keith Morris, Ron Reyes, Dez Cadena and Henry Rollins. BLACK FLAG has been called the first American hardcore band.

BLACK FLAG's 2024 lineup consisted of Ginn, singer Mike Vallely, who first appeared with the band as a guest in 2003 and became BLACK FLAG's fifth vocalist in 2014, and a rhythm section of Harley Duggan and Charles Wiley (both from Seattle band DARKHORSE RISING).

In 2013, Ginn sued his former BLACK FLAG bandmates Keith Morris, Dez Cadena, Chuck Dukowski and Bill Stevenson for touring as FLAG, which he claimed constituted a violation of trademarks to the name and logo. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Ginn claimed that use of the band's logo, consisting of four uneven black bars simulating a waving flag, was an infringement and that FLAG was "a colorable imitation" that was "likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception among consumers." In April 2014, the parties informed the court of a settlement. "FLAG gets to be FLAG, and BLACK FLAG as it is presently known continues to be BLACK FLAG," attorney Evan Cohen, who represented Ginn, told Billboard.

📢 **BLACK FLAG ANNOUNCEMENT**
We're turning the page. BLACK FLAG is entering a new era — and we’re hyped to welcome...

Posted by Black Flag on Thursday, April 24, 2025

Days after what would have been his 50th birthday, the family of late SLIPKNOT drummer Joey Jordison has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds needed to get the highly anticipated VIMIC album "Open Your Omen" out to the public in September 2025.

After Jordison was fired from SLIPKNOT in late 2013, he shifted his focus to various other ventures. One of these projects, SCAR THE MARTYR, released a self-titled album before disbanding, with some of its members going on to create a new band called VIMIC. The initial lineup of VIMIC included Jordison on drums, Kalen Chase on vocals, Jed Simon and Kris Norris on guitars, Kyle Konkiel on bass, and Matthew Tarach on keyboards. They debuted their first single, "Simple Skeletons", on May 6, 2016 via SiriusXM's Liquid Metal and received high praise from Loudwire, New Noise, BLABBERMOUTH.NET and NME, among others. Norris left shortly after its release and later that year, VIMIC introduced Steve Marshall as their new second guitarist.

VIMIC released four singles from the project between May 2016 and October 2017: "Simple Skeletons", "She Sees Everything", "My Fate" and "Fail Me (My Temple)", the last of which featured MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine.

"This album wails!" Mustaine said about "Open Your Omen" back in 2017. "Joey Jordison and VIMIC are incredible. High-octane drumming and heavy, melodic songs make this band something you definitely need to check out! I dig them so much I laid a solo down on one of their songs, 'Fail Me (My Temple)'. From there, we decided to take them on tour with us down to South America where MEGADETH is massive."

"Open Your Omen" was first expected to be released in 2018 via Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) and T-Boy Records, UMe's label partnership with rock manager Andy Gould. Produced by Jordison and Kato Khandwala (THE PRETTY RECKLESS, POP EVIL),progress came to a standstill in 2018. Khandwala tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident on April 25, 2018, and Jordison, Konkiel and Simon shifted their focus to SINSAENUM, BAD WOLVES and IMONOLITH, respectively. Jordison sadly passed away on July 26, 2021, further delaying the plans on the album.

In a December 2016 interview with Shockwave magazine, Jordison said about the LP: "The way we wrote 'Open Your Omen', is exactly like how a garage band would do their demo tape. We went all the way back to the basics, and it was cool doing it like that because you didn't have the influence of your label, and the huge studio and cars, hotels, and fancy dinners, all this bullshit that goes on along with being in the record industry. It was done literally in my home, organic, and we went out just to the studio not too far from my house and we just laid it down there. So, it was pretty much born in my home and then we just cruised up to the studio and just laid it down really quick."

The following year, Joey told Revolver: "The riffs, lyrics and drums of 'Open Your Omen' will tell you a lot. We started this record when I was coming out of the acute transverse myelitis condition. It's literally what saved me and helped me get back to where I'm healthier than ever. These guys and this album pushed me to not only relearn how to walk, but how to play the drums again. 'Open Your Omen' is the rebirth of the rest of my life."

Jordison formed VIMIC in May 2016 after the breakup of his previous band SCAR THE MARTYR. The former SLIPKNOT drummer later said that he wanted to change the name of the project to "wipe the slate clean" and start afresh.

"Joey didn't do anything small," his family states on the official Kickstarter page. "We want to release this album the way he would have wanted; with the designs he was so actively involved with creating for the CD, double LP, merch, and with the support of his fans to make the biggest splash we can upon release.

"We have added personal items of Joey's to help raise the money needed to manufacture and distribute physical product, market the album and host a night to remember as VIMIC reunites to perform an event honoring Joey's legacy. An evening full of iconic drummers on Joey's drum kit, special guests, and stories you've never heard."

Five years ago, Chase told Gabriel Gignac about the status of VIMIC's long-awaited album: "I would love to answer that. We're all still friends. There is a lot of issues with our business. We started on Roadrunner, and we left on good terms with them. A lot of us had other projects, and it just never worked out with the time. And there's a lot of things that just kind of went down to make the scheduling really difficult.

"I hope that the record comes out one day, and that's always a possibility," he continued. "I just don't know. It's out of my hands, because I'm not in charge of the music and there's a whole label situation, and stuff like that. If it ever happens, great. I would love for you guys to hear the other songs, 'cause they're awesome. But as of now, that's all I can on it, unfortunately. I'm just really glad that at least we have those songs to share with people so you guys at least got a taste of what we were doing."

Despite the fact that VIMIC seemingly came to a premature halt in late 2017, Kalen said that he still had fond memories of his time with the band.

"Getting to be the frontman of VIMIC with one of my closest friends, Joey, that was such a pleasure," he said. "I love all those guys, and to be able to actually be up front on stage and not behind somebody else… We got to play in South America in front of thousands of people, and all over the U.S. And those shows were so much fun… And I'm so glad I got to do that."

In 2006, Kalen joined KORN on tour, primarily on backing vocals, and can be heard and seen in the "MTV Unplugged (Live)" release in 2007 where he was featured playing an exotic array of instruments. He remained with KORN — often seen as The White Rabbit — until 2008.

The reign of Papa V Perpetua is upon us — resplendent, commanding, and steeped in the dark pageantry that has made GHOST a force to be reckoned with. With each new era, The Clergy's unholy frontman evolves, and now, Super7 is summoning his latest incarnation to take center stage in your collection! This seven-inch scale, highly articulated Ultimates! figure embodies Papa V Perpetua's divine decadence, featuring intricate sculpt and vac metal paint detailing that captures every ornate flourish of his ever-enigmatic presence. Draped in a flowing soft goods robe with detailing approved by The Clergy and worthy of his station, he arrives with two interchangeable heads and eight interchangeable hands, allowing you to display him in all his theatrical splendor. And, of course, he comes equipped with his tools of the trade — a microphone and stand — so he can deliver his haunting sermon among your collection.

Encased in collector-friendly window box packaging, this figure is as much a relic as it is a revelation. Will you heed the call and usher Papa V Perpetua into your unholy sanctuary?

Accessories

* 2x Interchangeable Heads
* 1x Singing Head
* 1x Neutral head
* 8 x Interchangeable Hands
* 2x Gripping Hands
* 2x Open Hands
* 2x Expressive Hands
* 2x As Above, So Below Hands
* Microphone stand with removable mic
* Soft goods robe

Please note that this Ultimates! figure will not come with a packaging sleeve

* Inspired by Papa V Perpetua, from the band GHOST's "Skeletá" album era
* Figure is seven-inch scale and highly articulated
* Designed in close collaboration with The Clergy, featuring intricate sculpt and premium paint detailing, and an ornate soft goods robe
* Includes multiple interchangeable heads and hands, and mic stand with removable microphone accessories
* The perfect gift for any GHOST fan or metal music collector, collect the entire assortment of music legend figures, apparel, and accessories by Super7!

Pre-order the GHOST Papa V Perpetua Ultimates! figure from Super7 and receive an exclusive Super Pack featuring an additional interchangeable Grimacing Head and set of interchangeable Horn Hands. Available only when purchased from Super7.com.

Founded in 2001, Super7 is the premier pop-culture design house and producer of lifestyle-oriented collectibles, toys and apparel based in San Francisco. Led by designer Brian Flynn, Super7 has harnessed the graphics, aesthetics and energy of his youthful obsession with science fiction, giant monsters, comic books, punk rock, skateboarding, robots and rebellion to build a unique and innovative business that crosses all categories and is not bound by traditional manufacturing boundaries. In addition to its owned branded products, Super7 also designed, manufactured and distributed officially licensed programs for G.I. Joe, Transformers, Disney, Powell-Peralta and Peanuts as well as for music legends IRON MAIDEN, MISFITS, BEASTIE BOYS and more.

Grammy-nominated rock band DAUGHTRY has unveiled its new single "The Day I Die", out now via Big Machine Rock. Written by DAUGHTRY frontman Chris Daughtry alongside Marti Frederiksen and Scott Stevens, "The Day I Die" is a deeply personal admission drenched in Chris Daughtry's signature powerhouse vocals. The track blends raw emotion with a heavy, anthemic sound, building into an explosive crescendo that showcases the band's ability to deliver both vulnerability and intensity in equal measure. The track sets the stage for the bands next chapter, promising more of the dynamic sound that has earned them recognition as Billboard's No. 1 Rock Airplay Artist of 2024.

"This song was written during a time where I was feeling an immense amount of pressure from so many aspects of my everyday life," shares Chris. "The thought of escaping just sounded like a beautiful dream."

Today's track follows closely behind "Shock To The System (Part One)" , the first installment of a two-part project that offers a deeper look into Chris Daughtry's personal journey. Featuring standout tracks "Pieces" and "Artificial", both of which hit No. 1 on the Active Rock charts, the six-song project tells the raw story of a life torn apart by grief and rebuilt through resilience– serving as a powerful soundtrack for anyone navigating the path of overcoming loss.

DAUGHTRY is currently on the road with DISTURBED through May, taking the stage tonight (Friday, April 25) in San Antonio, Texas. This summer they will join CREED for the "Summer Of '99" tour.

DAUGHTRY, one of the most visible and best-selling rock bands of the 21st century, has sold out concerts across the globe. Their debut album, the self-titled "Daughtry", was the top-selling album of 2007 and was the fastest selling rock debut album in SoundScan history. The record was nominated for four Grammy Awards and won four American Music Awards, alongside seven Billboard Music Awards, including "Album Of The Year". Subsequent albums "Leave This Town" (2009), "Break The Spell" (2011) and "Baptized" (2013) have all gone platinum, with "Cage To Rattle" (2018) certified gold. In 2021, the band released their record "Dearly Beloved", with singles "World On Fire", "Heavy Is The Crown" and "Changes Are Coming" all cracking the Top 10. Following yet another Top 10 success with their 2023 smash cover of JOURNEY's "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" featuring HALESTORM's Lzzy Hale, DAUGHTRY ushered in a new sonic era with their debut Big Machine Records single "Artificial". The return to their rock roots scored the band their first No. 1 single in the Active Rock format, laying the groundwork for their new EP, "Shock To The System (Part One)" , out now on all platforms.

In November 2021, Chris's stepdaughter Hannah Price was found dead in her home. It was later revealed that Price, 25, died by suicide while under the influence of narcotics at her home in Fentress County, Tennessee.

Chris was on tour when Price died, and subsequently postponed a series of concert dates.

Photo credit: Dominique D'Costa

Yngwie Malmsteen has defended his onstage "gimmick" of throwing and kicking guitar picks into the audience, explaining that it's a necessity for him to be able to pull off his complex guitar licks. The legendary Swedish guitarist made his comments while speaking to Eonmusic about his new album "Tokyo Live".

Malmsteen, known as much for his flamboyant stage show as he is for his blistering speed on the Fender Stratocaster, was asked by Eonmusic's Eamon O'Neill about his habit of "firing guitar picks like bullets" during his live show, to which he replied: "It started out being out of necessity. When you play on the low strings, you will get little nicks in the pick, so when you want to do, like, a two-, three-, four-, five- or six-string arpeggio, there could be some sort of friction there. So I like to have completely new picks, and when I play those things, I just throw them out."

He continued: "Those picks I'm using are Jim Dunlop picks. I told them years ago, 'I want you to make them white for me so people can see them,' so I made it out of necessity, and I made it into a part of the show too. I don't like when they're having nicks, so why not just throw it out, or I'll kick it out, whatever. So it's not just being stupid, you know? I mean, it is kind of like a gimmick, I guess, but it's because I need to have a new pick when I play the fast stuff."

Elsewhere in the interview, Malmsteen discussed how the rise of grunge affected him in the 1990s. He said: "Well, it did in a certain way, because in America, up until the grunge wave, America was very formatted, so if you didn't sound a certain way in the '80s, you couldn't be on MTV or or radio, whatever. Then everything changed overnight with this grunge thing; if you didn't sound like that, you couldn't do it. But I would still play shows and stuff, even though the shows were not as big in America, but in Japan and parts of Europe and in South America, there was a brilliant market, and now it's completely global. I mean, I say this to everybody, like, 'Oh, you like Japan?' Yeah, Japan's great, but I could play in Wisconsin, and it'd be the same fucking craziness there, anywhere in the States, anywhere in South America, anywhere in Europe, anywhere in Asia. I am so blessed, and I count my blessings every day because I was always doing it on my own terms."

Read the entire interview at Eonmusic.

Yngwie has just released a new live album, the aforementioned "Tokyo Live", via Music Theories Recordings. The concert was recorded at the Zepp DiverCity, Tokyo on May 11, 2024 as part of Yngwie's 40th-anniversary world tour.

Malmsteen's breathtaking technique takes center stage of the 100-minute concert while being cocooned by exquisite musicianship throughout. The setlist tracks Malmsteen's illustrious career, from "Hiroshima Mon Amour" and "Evil Eye" and through his remarkable solo career with "Rising Force", "Far Beyond The Sun", "Arpeggios From Hell" and "Seventh Sign" all the way up to his most recent material taken from 2021's "Parabellum", with "Wolves At The Door", "Relentless Fury", "(Si Vis Pacem) Parabellum", not to mention rousing renditions of "Paganini's 4th" and "Smoke On The Water".

Only four of the songs on "Parabellum" featured vocals. The album title is Latin, translating as "Prepare For War".

After working with some of the top hard singers of the past four decades, Yngwie now handles much of the lead vocals himself in his own band, backed by a lineup that includes keyboardist Nick Marino, bassist Emilio Martinez and drummer Kevin Klingenschmid.

The name of Yngwie Malmsteen has always stood for uncompromising excellence. In a career that now spans more than 40 years he has proven himself to be a unique artist. You can try to categorize him in any way you wish. But the manner in which this supreme Swedish craftsman has continually developed his music makes Malmsteen sublimely transcend any definition you attempt to impose.

He now has a catalogue of 22 solo studio albums, each of which has much to commend. Malmsteen's artistry has always clearly incorporated a healthy virtuosity, but his talent goes well beyond a comprehensive control of the guitar. The man is a fine composer and, on recent releases, has also showcased a strong vocal presence and now, with only this fifth live release, it captures four decades of relentless fury and blissful artistry of one of the true greats.

During an appearance on the latest episode of "The Candid Mic With Fran Strine" podcast, SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan was asked to respond to L.A. GUNS guitarist Tracii Guns' recent comment that Bolan and his SKID ROW bandmates are leaving "millions of dollars on the table" by refusing to reunite with singer Sebastian Bach. Bolan said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's a bummer because I thought Tracii was a bud."

He continued: "[It's] really funny because everyone thinks that they're an accountant — they think they're an accountant, promoters. Everyone thinks that they know how much is coming in.

"We approached [a possible reunion with Sebastian] at one point [years ago], and obviously it imploded very quickly.

"There's not millions of dollars out there [being offered for a SKID ROW reunion with Sebastian]. I mean, as SKID ROW, we're making really good money [right now]. It wasn't much more [that we would have gotten by getting back together with Sebastian].

"But, yeah, I saw [what Tracii said about that] and I'm just, like, 'Why doesn't Tracii just stay in his own yard?' You know what I mean? … It's funny hearing him — because other people shout out numbers too; they're, like, 'They can make this and that and the other thing.' It's, like, one, no — we can't. That's totally false. And two, quality of life, motherfuckers. You wanna be happy. You wanna be happy doing what you're doing. And I'm not here to talk shit about anybody. Everyone — there's that career and there's my career. Tracii has his own career. He should worry about that and not about SKID ROW."

Guns addressed SKID ROW's reluctance to reunite with Bach during a recent appearance on "The Chuck Shute Podcast". He said at the time (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I hate to bring up SKID ROW and Sebastian because I love all those guys. I love the band — I love them together, I love them separate. But the guys in the band, their point of view is that Sebastian, to them, is a shithead. And then Sebastian's point of view is, like, 'Well, they wanted a David Lee Roth type of guy.' And my point of view is don't ever leave that kind of fucking money on the table. What the fuck is wrong with all of you? Seriously. No joke. I'm not making a joke or a funny ha ha ha . They don't ever have to even seeSebastian to go and perform live and to make millions of dollars. Not just a million bucks — millions of dollars."

Asked if he really thinks it was that much money that they missed out on by not reuniting with Bach, Tracii said: "Yes. Absolutely, unequivocally, yes. Yes. SKID ROW was a high-impact band. They make pretty decent money now. Even not having a singer, they make pretty decent money. I think the excitement for a good 200 shows over three years — no problem, man. [They would be playing] arenas, for sure."

When host Chuck Shute asked if Tracii thinks the SKID ROW guys don't like Sebastian that much, that they're willing to cost themselves millions of dollars, Guns replied: "They think they don't like Sebastian that much. When you manifest hatred based on an experience or a hundred experiences — like they say, doing the same thing another time and expecting it to be different is the definition of insanity. Well, then do it differently. You know what I mean? It's, like, then do it differently.

"I think Rachel and Snake [SKID ROW guitarist Dave Sabo], in particular, I think it's so wound up in their head how toxic Sebastian is that they've amplified it over and over and over and over and over again, and they come out in the press., 'No, we don't like that guy. It'll never happen.' Cool, man. Cool. And Sebastian's point of view — cool, whatever. But at the same time, it's the music business; it's not the 'friends' business. You're lucky if everybody's friends and you're still doing good business. But you're really lucky if you're doing amazing business and you don't have to be friends. And that's ego. That's ego just standing in the way.

"Me, I'm a little bit different because I really just wanna play my guitar," Tracii clarified. "I don't worry about money. I haven't ever. And I've been broke, I've been poor. But that's not a motivating factor for me. I get excited when we make a lot of money. I don't expect it. I'm, like, 'Whoa, we make a lot of fucking money now.' And it's great. It's a bonus.

"If L.A. GUNS was as big as SKID ROW, man — fuck, I'd give away two of my kids, and I only have two kids. [Laughs] But I'm not saying anything that nobody knows," Guns added. "It's just that I love all those guys, and if THE WHO could do it — come on, man. If THE EAGLES could do it, if GUNS N' ROSES could do it, why are you too…? You're not cooler than them.

"Like I said, at this point, they are an unbelievable legacy band from a time that — and I don't care how many snotty people are on the Internet talking shit about all of 'em. People are gonna go see SKID ROW with Sebastian Bach… But my whole ulterior motive for this is if SKID ROW got back together, then L.A. GUNS could go open for SKID ROW. But that's my whole reason for trying to get SKID ROW back together. [Laughs]"

Tracii concluded: "You can't replace Sebastian Bach [in SKID ROW]. I'm sorry. You can't replace Axl Rose [in GUNS N' ROSES]. You can't replace Phil [Lewis in L.A. GUNS]. You can't replace Bret Michaels [in POISON]. If you do, you're just changing the band. And only a couple people have been real successful at it. And it's, like, obviously AC/DC and VAN HALEN, which is debatable. But THE [ROLLING] STONES certainly could not replace [Mick] Jagger. AEROSMITH [couldn't replace Steven Tyler] — you can't do it. And while SKID ROW's done a pretty good job of it, it ain't the same."

Last month, Sabo told Scott Michael Nathan of "The Bad Decisions Podcast" about SKID ROW's refusal to reunite with Bach: "One of the things that we said at the very beginning was that if it's ever not fun, then either we'll stop doing it or we'll fix why it's not fun… I'm not gonna go out there and do it and fake it for the blank check. I've never been about that. Rachel's never been about that, and Scotti's [Hill, SKID ROW guitarist] never been about that. So we're not gonna do it. And there's been a lot of people saying, 'Oh, just do it for the money.' It's, like, man. No. I'm just not built like that, man. And I'm smart enough — we all are smart enough to make sure that we've done okay with what we've made. And look, I don't live lavishly by any stretch of the imagination, but I could take care of my family. I don't worry about the future from a monetary standpoint. And so I'm really fortunate like that. And it's because that's been my viewpoint all along. It's never been about, 'We've gotta make a buck.' It's always been about, if we do things and we're genuine and we stay true to our character, to our spirit — and this is gonna sound weird — and we are selfish songwriters. And what I mean by that is that we are writing for ourselves. We're not writing for anybody else. And then you hope that the way that you translate how you feel through music and lyrics and melodies and performance will have a positive effect on people and thus they'll wanna come see and hear this music. And that's what we've always done."

Sabo previously ruled out a reunion with Bach last May, telling The Hook Rocks podcast: "It's not gonna happen. And I say the same thing every time. I'm thankful that people have such an interest in wanting to see that happen, but I also have to reiterate that this is about being happy in the situation that you're in. So I'll speak for myself personally.

"First of all, I do need to say something too, is that the reason that this isn't happening is because there's three of us — myself, Scotti and Rachel — who've had conversations about this, and we've all been on the same page that we don't wanna go down that road again. We just — we don't.

"Rachel has taken a beating over this through the years," Sabo continued. "He's the one who's been blamed for this. 'Oh, it's Rachel's ego.' 'It's this and that.' No, that's a load of bullshit. That is not true. And I feel bad because he's really, really had to shoulder that blame and has never said anything derogatory or anything like that. But you know what? The truth of the matter is that Rachel, Scotti and myself have continually felt the same way, that we enjoy being happy in this band and we're really happy.

"It's been such a great experience for the last however, 35 years, everything, all the ups, all the downs, everything, but we just don't wanna revisit that particular aspect of our history," he explained. "I love the songs, [I] love a lot of the memories, [I am] not fond of some of the memories, but just as individuals and as a collective, that's just how we feel. So this is not on Rachel. And this has nothing to do with anyone's ego or anything like that. So that's just gotta be clear. Again, for anyone to sit there and make assumptions that this is Rachel Bolan saying 'nope,' it's not. It's the three of us, and we've all collectively sat there and just said that we don't wanna do it. We just don't wanna do it. And we wish everybody all the best."

Snake added: "We've been just ripped apart by ex-members of the band and stuff — ripped apart. Some really shitty stuff [has been] said about all of us. And we just choose not to [respond]. It's not who I am. It's not who we are. We won't go down that road. We just wanna play music and be happy. This has really never been about a monetary aspect of things because it's known that we've been offered a good amount of money to do shows together and to reunite [with Sebastian] and whatever, but it's just never been about the money, man. I choose my happiness, my willingness to continue to be a really good friend to my best friends and a really good husband and a really good dad and bandmate and person. And I don't wanna endanger that in any way. So the people that we choose to play with, those choices are made in order to keep those particular things in line for all of us."

Bach fronted SKID ROW until 1996, when he was fired. Instead of throwing in the towel, the remaining members took a hiatus and went on to play briefly in a band called OZONE MONDAY. In 1999, SKID ROW reformed and, after a bit of shuffling over the years, featured a lineup consisting of bassist Rachel Bolan, guitarists Dave "Snake" Sabo and Scotti Hill, alongside drummer Rob Hammersmith and singer Johnny Solinger. SKID ROW fired Solinger over the phone in April 2015, a few hours before announcing ex-TNT vocalist Tony Harnell as his replacement. Eight months later, Harnell exited the band and was replaced by South African-born, British-based singer ZP Theart, who previously fronted DRAGONFORCE, TANK and I AM I. Theart was fired from SKID ROW in February 2022 and was replaced by Erik Grönwall, who was previously a member of the Swedish hard rock band H.E.A.T.

Five years ago, Bolan also confirmed that he and his bandmates "were entertaining the idea" of reuniting with Bach following Harnell's departure. But Rachel shot down the possibility of a rekindling of his friendship with Sebastian, explaining: "Well… Here's the soundbite for Blabbermouth. I wouldn't say we were friends [when we were in a band together]. We were bandmates. You know what I mean? We're two very different people." Bolan added that he hadn't seen Bach "in years."

Six years ago, Bach was asked by Rolling Stone what it would take for SKID ROW to be reunited. He responded: "It would take those guys to realize that I have a lifetime manager. His name is Rick Sales. I've been with him since 2006. They don't want to deal with a guy like that. They want to give some singer who doesn't have a manager $700 to $800 bucks a week. I've got a team that's worked with me and don't allow me to get fucked around. I didn't have that team when I was 19 years old."

In response to Bach's statements about the earnings of SKID ROW's singer, Sabo told Rolling Stone in an e-mail: "I guess fact-checking isn't in his skill set… The five of us go on that stage as a band and we all get paid equally. We're in this together. There's no egos."

Sebastian went on to say that SKID ROW was "close to reuniting, but then it didn't happen. The fact that it didn't happen obviously makes me somewhat bitter, because life is only getting shorter, as the song says," he added.

"I wouldn't say 'came close,'" Bolan told Rolling Stone in an e-mail response to Bach's account of the reunion talks. "We entertained the idea. Snake and I went as far as talking with agents and promoters about money. But we quickly learned after a few text conversations, why we fired him in the first place. Nothing is worth your happiness and peace of mind."

Since the explosive release of the critically acclaimed record, Blackbraid II, indigenous black metal master Blackbraid has been diligently creating his next opus deep within the heart of the desolate Adirondack Mountains. Blackbraid now reveals the details of Blackbraid III, which will be released on August 8, 2025 independently.

The captivating album artwork was created in collaboration with Adam Burke, who handled the painting, and mainstay Blackbraid album artist Adrian Baxter, who did the illustration.

Preorders: Europe, USA.

New music will be revealed soon.

In addition, Blackbraid has partnered with Fire in the Mountains Festival to curate a special pre-release event where festival attendees will get to hear the record ahead of street date, which will be revealed along with additional details soon.

Fire In The Mountains will take place in Montana from July 25-27, 2025 at the Red Eagle Campground on the Blackfeet Nation Reserve. Artists who have already been confirmed to perform include Blackbraid, Wardruna, Old Man’s Child, Blood Incantation, and more, with additional bands TBA. Tickets are available at this location.



Tracklisting:

“Dusk (Eulogy)”
“Wardrums At Dawn On The Day Of My Death”
“The Dying Breath Of A Sacred Stag”
“The Earth Is Weeping”
“God Of Black Blood”
“Traversing The Forest Of Eternal Dusk”
“Tears Of The Dawn”
“Like Wind Through The Reeds Making Waves Like Water”
“And He Became The Burning Stars…”
“Fleshbound” (Lord Belial cover)

Rhino, in celebration of their recently released David Lee Roth box set, The Warner Recordings (1985-1994), have shared the official music video for “Night Life”, featured on the Your Filthy Little Mouth album. Watch the clip below:



The Warner Recordings (1985-1994) is available on CD, limited edition vinyl, and digital. Order/save here.

The Warner Recordings (1985-1994) features the first five solo releases recorded by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee and original Van Halen lead vocalist in one comprehensive collection for the very first time. Spanning one of the greatest runs in rock ‘n’ roll history, the set offers lifelong fans and newcomers alike the chance to experience Crazy From The Heat [1985], Eat ‘Em And Smile [1986], Skyscraper [1988], A Little Ain’t Enough [1991], and Your Filthy Little Mouth [1994] in succession.



On January 28, 1985, Roth officially debuted as a solo artist with the Crazy From The Heat EP. It crashed the Top 15 of the Billboard 200 and reached RIAA Platinum status. Plus, he logged a pair of Billboard Hot 100 hits – the medley of “Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody” vaulted to #12, while his take on “California Girls” by The Beach Boys soared to #3, replicating the 1965 chart success of the original. Meanwhile, Crazy From The Heat would later serve as the title of his New York Times best-selling autobiography in 1997.

The EP paved the way for his first full-length solo LP, Eat ‘Em And Smile. Released on July 7, 1986, it bowed in the Top 5 of the Billboard 200 and eventually went RIAA Platinum. Roth hyper-charged his sound, accompanied by an all-star band consisting of Billy Sheehan [bass], Gregg Bissonette [drums], and Steve Vai [guitar]. Together, they served up anthems such as “Yankee Rose,” “Tobacco Road,” “That’s Life,” and more.

1987 saw the platinum Skyscraper return Roth to the Top 10 of the Billboard 200, elevated by “Just Like Paradise.” Meanwhile, Roth kicked off the nineties with the gold-selling A Little Ain’t Enough in 1991. It marked his fourth straight Top 20 debut on the Billboard 200 and boasted fretwork from Jason Becker. Finally, he dropped Your Filthy Little Mouth in 1994, this time collaborating with none other than iconic producer Nile Rodgers [Madonna, David Bowie], churning out staples such as “She’s My Machine.”



Vinyl tracklisting:

Crazy From The Heat:

A1. “Easy Street”
A2. “Just A Gigolo”/”I Ain’t Got Nobody”

B1. “California Girls”
B2. “Coconut Grove”

Eat ‘Em And Smile:

A1. “Yankee Rose”
A2. “Shyboy”
A3. “I’m Easy”
A4. “Ladies’ Nite In Buffalo?”
A5. “Goin’ Crazy!”

B1. “Tobacco Road”
B2. “Elephant Gun”
B3. “Big Trouble”
B4. “Bump And Grind”
B5. “That’s Life”

Skyscraper:

A1. “Knucklebones”
A2. “Just Like Paradise”
A3. “The Bottom Line”
A4. “Skyscraper”
A5. “Damn Good”

B1. “Hot Dog And A Shake”
B2. “Stand Up”
B3. “Hina”
B4. “Perfect Timing”
B5. “Two Fools A Minute”

A Little Ain’t Enough:

A1. “A Lil’ Ain’t Enough”
A2. “Shoot It”
A3. “Lady Luck”
A4. “Hammerhead Shark”
A5. “Tell The Truth”
A6. “Baby’s On Fire”

B1. “40 Below”
B2. “Sensible Shoes”
B3. “Last Call”
B4. “The Dogtown Shuffle”
B5. “It’s Showtime!”
B6. “Drop In The Bucket”

Your Filthy Little Mouth:

A1. “She’s My Machine”
A2. “Everybody’s Got The Monkey”
A3. “Big Train”
A4. “Experience”
A5. “A Little Luck”
A6. “Cheatin’ Heart Café”
A7. “Hey, You Never Know”

B1. “No Big ‘Ting”
B2. “You’re Breathin’ It”
B3. “Your Filthy Little Mouth”
B4. “Land’s End”
B5. “Night Life”
B6. “Sunburn”
B7. “You’re Breathin’ It” (Urban NYC Mix)

Breaking Benjamin guitarist, Keith Wallen, dropped his most recent solo album, Infinity Now, last year via Rise Records. Get it here. Today, he shares the new single, “Us Against The World”. Stream/download the single here, and watch the video below.

The black and white video finds Wallen and the band in the desert, performing and cruising in a convertible. The simplicity matches the escalatation in the music and allows the emotional heft of the song to come to the forefront. But it’s not as simple as it seems. Stick around until the end for a little Lost Boys inspiration.

“Life, death, triumph, tragedy…love transcends it all,” says Wallen. “‘Us Against The World’ is a song for the fighters, the believers, and the ones who never let go.”

In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sammy Hagar once again spoke about how he mended his relationship with the late Eddie Van Halen. Prior to the guitarist's October 2020 passing after a long battle with cancer, Sammy said that the two were fortunately able to reconnect thanks to the great comedian George Lopez.

"I miss the guy so much," Sammy said. "Thank God we connected towards the end, otherwise I'd be heartbroken. I am anyway. But it was so important to me that we did connect in that last year. Eddie said to me, 'Don't tell anyone about us talking because I don't want to be answering questions about rumors of a reunion.' But he said, 'Next year, we're gonna get together — we're gonna make some noise. Let me beat this shit, and let's do it.' He goes, 'Please don't talk to anyone — not even Al [VAN HALEN drummer and Eddie's brother Alex Van Halen].' I've never said that to anyone, and I bet you Al is gonna have a fucking fit. But Eddie said, 'Don't even talk to Al about this.' I said, 'Ed, I don't talk to Al.'"

Sammy also explained his previous comment that "it hasn't been the same since Eddie died." He said: "Things aren't the same without that hope. After the 2004 tour, with Eddie being in the condition he was in, I was very angry with him. But in my heart I was hoping he would heal and would become the Eddie that I loved and knew from when I was in the band — from the good times. I was hoping that would happen and that we'd get together and play someday. And not only for the fame and fortune, which of course I've never gotten back to that level since. That was the pinnacle of my career. But more than that was the creativity and the energy we had together writing songs like 'Right Now' and 'When It's Love' and 'Love Walks In' and 'Top Of The World'. He brought something out of me that just ain't the same without him. At my age, you sit there and wonder: If Eddie was alive, could I reach that again? Now that dream is gone."

Hagar replaced David Lee Roth in VAN HALEN in 1985 and recorded four studio albums with the band — "5150", "OU812", "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" and "Balance" — all of which topped the U.S. chart.

Sammy, Eddie, Alex and bassist Michael Anthony last teamed up in 2004 for a U.S. summer tour. In exchange for taking part in the tour, Anthony reportedly had to agree to take a pay cut and sign away his rights to the band name and logo.

In his autobiography, "Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock", Hagar slammed Eddie, saying the guitarist was unkempt, hunched over, frighteningly skinny, drinking wine straight out of a bottle, missing part of his tongue (after a cancer scare) and several teeth. He told an interviewer in 2012: "What happened on that reunion tour in '04 was some of the most miserable, back-stabbing dark crap I've ever been involved with my whole life."

In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Eddie questioned an "embellished" portion of "Red: My Uncensored Life In Rock" that painted the guitarist as a "very angry drunk" during the group's 2004 reunion tour.

In November 2020, Eddie's son Wolfgang revealed that his father had contemplated a "kitchen-sink tour" that would have included Anthony, as well as vocal turns from both Hagar and Roth. There was even talk about bringing back Gary Cherone, who sang with VAN HALEN on one poorly received album, 1998's "Van Halen III".

Eddie died at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California. The iconic VAN HALEN axeman passed away from complications due to cancer, his son confirmed.

Hagar previously talked about his relationship with Eddie Van Halen during a July 2021 Instagram Live chat with Washington Post reporter Geoff Edgers. He said at the time: "When I [reconnected] with Eddie four or five months before he died, we got together and we kind of made amends. It wasn't, like, 'Oh, you've gotta apologize for this.' When I talked to him the first time after all of 'em years, I said, 'Hey, Eddie, I've been trying to get a hold of you. I called your brother.' He [said], 'Why didn't you call me?' I'm going, 'Well, it's a good point.' And I said, 'I wanted to make sure you were cool with me getting in contact. I didn't want you to call me some names and hang up the phone and stir the whole thing back up.' And he said, 'No, no, no.' He said, 'I love you, man.' And I realized at that point that he had elevated his whole thing. He had come to peace with everything. He knew he was sick. And it was so great to contact the guy when he was in that state of mind. If I had got him six months earlier, it probably would have been, 'You said this. You said that.' He was totally above it all and elevated. And, man, I'm so glad that that happened at that time, because if it wouldn't have, if we had never made peace and he would have passed the way he did, I would feel terrible. I wouldn't be able to talk to you about it. I wouldn't know what to say. So I'm so grateful that we connected. And he said, 'Hey, let's make some noise.' He goes, 'I've got a lot of work to do on myself this year. You ain't gonna believe it. I've been fighting this stuff for 15 years. And now I've got this big thing on my neck and my throat right now. I've gotta get it all straightened out. And next year, you and I have gotta make some noise. We made some great music together, and I wanna do it again.' I was just, like, 'Yes.' I said, 'Eddie, that ain't what I'm calling you about. I'm calling about to see if you're okay.' But hearing those things really made me able to handle his death. 'Cause it's still tough as hell. I miss the guy."

Hagar also discussed the musical chemistry he shared with Van Halen, saying: "We wrote all those songs together. It ain't, like, 'Oh, we wrote a couple of songs together.' We wrote every VAN HALEN song from my era, from '85 to '95, and then three more on the [2003-05] reunion thing. We wrote all them songs together. You don't write songs like that with a real musician and real musicians getting together — you don't phone that in. You don't do it by e-mail. No. We sat in rooms together, him and I, and wrote those songs and went and sang them, and he coached me through things he might hear... I miss that. There's nobody like that."

In a new interview with the "Neil Jones Rock Show" on TotalRock, Chris Goss, the singer, guitarist and driving force behind MASTERS OF REALITY, spoke about the health issues which forced him to perform while seated during the band's ongoing European tour. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I was doing great until a few weeks ago. It's been an ongoing thing. It's a spinal nerve problem, a sciatic problem, and at times it's misery. But it's not gonna stop me from playing. So, as long as I have a brain and fingers, I think I'll be okay."

MASTERS OF REALITY released its first new album in 16 years, "The Archer", on March 28 digitally and on April 11 physically on CD and LP via Mascot Records.

"The Archer" was produced by Goss and features guitarist Alain Johannes, drummer John Leamy and bassist Paul Powell.

Goss has positioned himself as one of the most important and influential producers of the last 30 years. The list of bands and artists he has worked with in that capacity is long and illustrious: QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, KYUSS, Mark Lanegan, FOO FIGHTERS, THE CULT, UNKLE, STONE TEMPLE PILOTS singer Scott Weiland, former HOLE bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, even Hollywood star Russell Crowe. He's the connective tissue which links so much modern music.

When MASTERS OF REALITY's single "Sugar" was released in May 2024, it was the band's first new music in 15 years.

Earlier this year, Goss said that the characters that occupy "The Archer" are the nameless and faceless people that one sees at times or regularly observes driving on whatever road we're both on briefly.

"Everyone has a story. And their own story is the most important thing in the world to them," he explained. "No one is special. Everyone is heading towards, or actually in, their own 'Gethsemane' moment — a New Testament narrative that exemplifies the cold realization of one's fate. Sweating blood is more common than most can imagine."

Regarding MASTERS OF REALITY's musical evolution, Goss said: "This album intentionally broke away from the heavier riff rock that we dominated for over three decades. I hope one can see Nina Simone just as powerful as a heavy blues force, in her emotion, rebellious attitude, raw presentation and not just gothicized blues riffs."

He continued: "The 'stoner and desert rock' riffing was a reason for MASTERS OF REALITY to break away on this record and present our blues in a different light for a minute. Blues isn't a three-chord riff progression. It's life itself. I can easily provide a thousand heavy riffs at the drop of a dime. But I dare any self-proclaimed heavy riff band to have the balls to throw the curve ball that we've thrown with this album."

Image credit: Wladi Lach

In a new interview with Thunder Underground, ONSLAUGHT founding member and guitarist Nige Rockett discussed his recovery after a three-year absence from the road following a long battle with illness. His first appearance back was on the 70000 Tons Of Metal cruise in January as ONSLAUGHT kicked off a year of 40th-anniversary shows celebrating the release of the veteran British thrash metal group's debut album, "Power From Hell".

Rockett endured a number of cancer removal operations, chemotherapy as well as two spinal operations — upper and lower spine — during his forced hiatus, with both conditions now thankfully in full remission/recovery and continuing to heal.

"I'm still a little way off, because of the time I was out and the nature of my illness," Nige explained to Thunder Underground. "I lost a lot of natural strength. I completely lost the use of my arms for maybe six to nine months. So, I need to get all my muscle back, get up to speed with the material. I mean, it's coming. I'm rehearsing a lot every day on my own, and things are coming back slowly. So I think once we hit a good run of shows, 'cause that always gets your fitness going again, I think I'll be okay."

Nige went on to say that he is "still struggling now" when trying to play some of ONSLAUGHT's more challenging material. "I'm up to around, I reckon, about 185 bpm, something like that, 190," he said. "I need to be up to, like, 200, 210 to play most of the ONSLAUGHT stuff. So it is just a case of getting all that muscle memory back again. It's kind of okay on the 'Power From Hell' stuff, which is not kind of as complex as, say, the material on 'VI' [2013] or 'Generation Antichrist' [2020]. So when we start to drop that stuff in, I've gotta be really sort of up on my game back for that. It's coming slowly. I'm putting the time in and it's definitely getting there."

ONSLAUGHT will release a two-disc career-inspiring album titled "Origins Of Aggression" on May 23, 2025 through the band's new label home, Reigning Phoenix Music. Disc one features a fine selection of ten re-recorded tracks from ONSLAUGHT's early days (1982-1989),while disc two presents a colorful bouquet of cover versions of punk and metal songs that lead fans through the range of bands — from the DEAD KENNEDYS, THE EXPLOITED and DISCHARGE to JUDAS PRIEST, BLACK SABBATH and beyond — defining the group's sound. Also to be found on the second part of the album will be ONSLAUGHT's adaption of "Iron Fist", originally written and performed by MOTÖRHEAD, which was the first single off the forthcoming effort.

"Origins Of Aggression" track listing:

Disc 1

01. Thermonuclear Devastation Of The
02. Black Horse Of Famine
03. Angels Of Death
04. Power From Hell
05. Metal Forces
06. Let There Be Death
07. Fight With The Beast
08. Thrash Till The Death
09. In Search Of Sanity
10. Shellshock

Disc 2

01. Iron Fist [by MOTÖRHEAD]
02. Holiday In Cambodia [by DEAD KENNEDYS]
03. A Look At Tomorrow [by DISCHARGE]
04. U.K. 82 [by THE EXPLOITED]
05. Freewheel Burning [by JUDAS PRIEST]
06. Wardance [by KILLING JOKE]
07. Give Me Fire [by GBH]
08. State Violence State Control [by DISCHARGE]
09. Holidays In The Sun [by SEX PISTOLS]
10. Emotional Blackmail [by UK SUBS]
11. War Pigs [by BLACK SABBATH]
12. Drunk With Power [by DISCHARGE]

ONSLAUGHT's contribution to the thrash metal genre cannot be overstated: from their debut album "Power From Hell" (1985),which is being honored with this new release, to their celebrated performances across the globe, they remain an untouchable force in the world of heavy metal. With over 40 years of history, the quintet has steadily continued to evolve, delivering relentless riffs and neck-breaking anthems, and cementing their place as pioneers of the British thrash scene.

The metal world can additionally look forward to ONSLAUGHT's 2025 world tour, where the band will promote "Origins Of Aggression" and celebrate the 40th "Power From Hell" anniversary — including stops in Europe, the USA, Mexico, and Australia — and expect more exciting news in the near future.

ONSLAUGHT's latest album, "Generation Antichrist", came out in August 2020 via AFM Records. It was the first ONSLAUGHT LP to feature new vocalist Dave Garnett, who replaced longtime singer Sy Keeler.

Garnett made his live debut with ONSLAUGHT at the House Of Metal festival in Umeå, Sweden in February 2020.

ONSLAUGHT announced Keeler's departure in April 2020, explaining in a statement that "some things simply aren't sustainable year after year due to the nature of the modern-day music industry."

ONSLAUGHT is one of the most ferocious, explosive and controversial metal bands ever to come out of the U.K. The group released three now-legendary albums in the 1980s — "Power From Hell", "The Force" and "In Search of Sanity" — and became a major influence for many metal generations to follow.

Since reforming in 2005, ONSLAUGHT has performed countless shows in no less than 70 different countries across the globe, earning themselves the reputation as one of the very best live acts in the metal scene today. ONSLAUGHT also has the enviable kudos of being the first international thrash band to perform in Vietnam and Lebanon.

Five critically acclaimed albums were released between 2007 and 2015 — "Killing Peace", "Live Damnation", "Sounds Of Violence", "VI" and "Live At The Slaughterhouse" — with millions of streams between them.

Produced by Grammy Award-winning engineer Daniel Bergstrand (MESHUGGAH, IN FLAMES, BEHEMOTH),"Generation Antichrist" gathered huge international acclaim, with many renowned rock and metal pundits declaring it the album of the year.

ONSLAUGHT is:

David Garnett - vocals, guitars
Nige Rockett - guitars
Wayne Dorman - guitars
Jeff Williams - bass
James Perry - drums

Photo credit: Korey Rockett and Karen George