Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based technical/progressive death metal project Equipoise recently announced the upcoming release of their debut full-length, Demiurgus. The album is set for release on March 8th through The Artisan Era. It is the follow up to the group's 2016 heavily praised EP, Birthing Homunculi, whose material makes its way onto Demiurgus in a re-worked fashion far beyond their initial form. New track, "Dualis Flamel", is streaming below.

Equipoise features an amalgamation of well-respected musicians within the technical death metal community from Pennsylvania, Illinois, Missouri, Denver, and Quebec. The band's members play in established well-known acts including Beyond Creation, First Fragment, ex-The Faceless, Inferi, Wormhole, NYN, and more.

Having banded together as a multi-national collective of renowned death metal musicians, Equipoise then undertook the task of furthering their initial vision on 2016's Birthing Homunculi into the standout new heights reached throughout their upcoming full-length, Demiurgus. The end product, while exploding with endless guitar solos and incredibly complex songwriting throughout, remains the same as when the project began, to offer a death metal experience that's both fun to listen to and memorable. Bandleader Nick Padovani comments on Equipoise as "Playing a melodic brand of technical/progressive death metal, we like to make frequent use of orchestral elements and flamenco guitar, as we feel good music shouldn’t be pigeonholed by any one sound."

Tracklisting:

“Illborn Augury”
“Sovereign Sacrifices”
“Alchemic Web Of Deceit”
“A Suit Of My Flesh”
“Shrouded”
“Sigil Insidious”
“Reincarnated”
“Dualis Flamel”
“Eve Of The Promised Day”
“Waking Divinity”
“Ecliptic”
“Squall Of Souls”
“Cast Into Exile”
“Ouroboric”

"Dualis Flamel":

"Alchemic Web Of Deceit" lyric video:

“Waking Divinity” lyric video:

Equipoise - Demiurgus Lineup: 
Stevie Boiser (Inferi, Tethys, Ashen Horde, Ex-Vale of Pnath) - Vocals/Lyrics
Phil Tougas (First Fragment, Chthe'ilist, Zealotry, Serocs) - Guitar, Nylon Guitar
Nick Padovani - Guitar, Nylon Guitar
Sanjay Kumar (Wormhole, Perihelion) - Guitar
Hugo Doyon-Karout (Beyond Creation, Brought by Pain) - Fretless Bass
Jimmy Pitts (Eternity's End, NYN, The Fractured Dimension) - Piano
Chason Westmoreland (Ex-The Faceless, Ex-Hate Eternal) - Drums




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Tora Tora will release their new album, Bastards Of Beale, tomorrow (February 22nd) via Frontiers Music Srl. Pre-order the album here, and watch a video for the song "Son Of A Prodigal Son" below. Signed copies of the album are available here.

In 2017, Memphis rockers Tora Tora were approached by Frontiers Music Srl about recording a proper new studio album and they enthusiastically jumped at the opportunity. The resulting new album, Bastards Of Beale, brings back the magic of the band’s blues-rooted hard rock sound that gained them a loyal following upon their debut in the late ‘80s. Always a far cry from their more polished mainstream peers and more spiritually connected to blue collar hard rock, the band’s return picks up where they left off, while not sounding even the slightest bit dated.

“The first draft of this song was titled ‘Rock N Roll Ain’t Dead Yet'," says vocalist Anthony Corder of the new single ‘Rose Of Jericho'. "It began with the idea of us tapping into our passion of writing together again, and getting to create new tunes, but it also opened a floodgate of memories, of our experiences with our fans. It is about finding the things that make you happy and passionate, what drives you...music, art, friends, family, inspiration, partying...even when you feel like you may lose touch with them sometimes, they are still present.”

Guitarist Keith Douglas talks about the band getting back together and recording a proper studio album, “The last studio album we did was Revolution Day, which was recorded in ’94. It’s hard to believe that was almost 25 years ago! Music in general was in kind of a weird place at that point and our fit within our label was questionable, so we just kind of stepped away to do other things for a while. We played one show together in 2001 for a special occasion, but it was 2008 before we started playing together again semi-regularly. We had always talked about trying to do a new project and just happened to come into contact with Frontiers at the right time to make that happen. So why not now?”

“The band recorded the new album at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, TN,” continues Corder. “Sam is of course recognized for his work with Sun Studios and Elvis, arguably being responsible for creating “Rock and Roll”. But after Sun Studios, he moved right down the street to create Sam Phillips Recording. He wanted to be on the cutting edge of technology with recording, while having room to expand. This building has hosted too many icons to name, but a few would be Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, and Robert Plant. While we were there, William Bell (STAX) was visiting. We were really inspired while recording there.”

Tora Tora is an American hard rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in the ‘80s. The origin of the band name is a reference to the song of the same name released by Van Halen on their 1980 classic, Women And Children First. After signing with A&M Records, they recorded their debut album Surprise! Attack in 1989. The album charted on Billboard's Top 200 at #47 and featured the singles "Walkin' Shoes" and "Guilty". The single "Dancing With A Gypsy" was on the soundtrack for the hugely popular film Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure later that year.

After a hiatus, in 2008, all four original members reunited for some performances. Since the reunion, Tora Tora has released three albums of unreleased material, Before & After, Bombs Away: The Unreleased Surprise Attack Recordings, and Miss B. Haven: The Unreleased Wild America Recordings. But fans were clamoring for new music from the band, and that is just what they will get with the release of Bastards Of Beale.

Tracklisting:

"Sons Of Zebedee"
"Giants Fall"
"Everbright"
"Silence The Sirens"
"Son Of A Prodigal Son"
"Lights Up The River"
"Let Us Be One"
"All Good Things"
"Rose Of Jericho"
"Vertigo"
"Bastards Of Beale"

"Son Of A Prodigal Son" video:

"Silence The Sirens":

"Rose Of Jericho":

Tora Tora lineup:

Anthony Corder: Vocals/Background Vocals/Acoustic Guitars
Keith Douglas: Lead & Rhythm Guitars/Acoustic Guitars
Patrick Francis: Bass
John Patterson: Drums/Percussion




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MÖTLEY CRÜE singer Vince Neil performed with his solo band on February 15 at North Star Mohican Casino Resort in Bowler, Wisconsin. Video footage of the concert can be seen below (courtesy of YouTube user "Kevin Coombs").

Neil is continuing to tour the world with his backing group, which includes Dana Strum and Jeff Blando from SLAUGHTER, along with drummer Zoltan Chaney.

Speaking to "Trunk Nation", Vince acknowledged that he is currently the only member of MÖTLEY CRÜE who is waving the flag for the band's music by performing CRÜE songs as a solo artist.

"It's a cool thing, because I love MÖTLEY CRÜE, I love MÖTLEY CRÜE's music, and I love singing, and I love the fans' reactions when they hear the songs," he said. "Whether we're playing in front of a thousand people or twenty thousand people, I can only see the front row anyway. So I'm happy for me and for the fans to be able to still hear that music after MÖTLEY CRÜE is finished."

The film adaptation of MÖTLEY CRÜE's biography, "The Dirt - Confessions Of The World's Most Notorious Rock Band", will be released on March 22. The movie, which was helmed by "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" director Jeff Tremaine, was picked up by Netflix after being previously developed at Focus Features and before that at Paramount.

MÖTLEY CRÜE recently recorded four new songs for "The Dirt" movie. Bassist Nikki Sixx described the recordings as "real and raw. Everybody is playing like mad and the songs crush," he wrote on Twitter. "[Producer] Bob Rock brought the sounds."

One of the new songs — a collaboration with rapper Machine Gun Kelly — will receive its premiere on the February 21 edition of SEX PISTOLS guitarist Steve Jones's radio show, "Jonesy's Jukebox", on the 95.5 KLOS station in Los Angeles.

MÖTLEY CRÜE's last studio album was 2008's "Saints Of Los Angeles", which was followed by a 2009 "Greatest Hits" compilation.

In 2015, MÖTLEY CRÜE completed "The Final Tour", closing the book on the band's iconic career after performing a total of 164 shows in 72 markets, grossing over $100 million.

To cement the sense of finality, the four members of MÖTLEY CRÜE in 2014 publicly signed a "cessation of touring" contract that prevents any of them from performing under the CRÜE name in the future.

A tour film about MÖTLEY CRÜE's final shows, "The End", came out in 2016.

Fan-filmed video footage of Sebastian Bach performing the SKID ROW classic "I Remember You" on February 16 aboard the Rock Legends Cruise VII can be seen below.

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 original bassist Rachel Bolan and 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.

Bach joined SKID ROW in 1988 as the replacement for the band's original lead singer Matt Fallon, who sang on demo versions of songs that were eventually re-recorded for SKID ROW's first LP.

SKID ROW's 1989 multi-platinum, self-titled effort featured the Top 10 hits "18 And Life" and "I Remember You" and was supported by a six-month tour with BON JOVI.

Following his departure from SKID ROW, Bach started performing in Broadway shows like "Jekyll & Hyde" and "The Rocky Horror Show", and appeared on television shows, including "Gilmore Girls" and VH1 reality show "SuperGroup". He also pursued a solo musical career, most recently releasing the 2014 album "Give 'Em Hell".

Corey Taylor says that IMAGINE DRAGONS has replaced NICKELBACK as the most hated musical artist.

The SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman made his comments during an appearance Tuesday (February 19) on SEX PISTOLS guitarist Steve Jones's radio show, "Jonesy's Jukebox", on the 95.5 KLOS station in Los Angeles.

After agreeing with Jones that NICKELBACK is "the scapegoat of rock and roll," Taylor added: "However, they are passing the baton to IMAGINE DRAGONS right now, and I love it."

The singer, who has lived in Las Vegas for the past nine years, continued: "They're awful, so that's cool. And they're from Vegas, so I'm gonna go home to protests. Can't show my face in this town now. Yeah, people are slowly coming back to appreciate NICKELBACK and then just turning their irksome ire towards IMAGINE DRAGONS."

Two years ago, NICKELBACK frontman Chad Kroeger had some unkind words about Taylor, calling SLIPKNOT a "gimmick" and describing STONE SOUR as "NICKELBACK Lite." Corey later responded, saying he got a swift apology from Kroeger's NICKELBACK bandmates, whom he called "super-cool dudes," and referring to Chad as "Captain Ego from Planet Douche."

In his original statements, Kroeger had accused Taylor of talking trash first — something Taylor said he didn't remember very well.

"I said something maybe, like, 15 years ago, but I was drinking then. Nobody was listening to me then," Corey said in a 2017 interview. "And I haven't said anything since. I don't even think about him. For real. This came so far out of left field that I woke up to everyone, like, blowing me up. And I was like, 'Really?!'"

Taylor will play a solo show tonight (Wednesday, February 20) at The Roxy in West Hollywood, California. Opening the event will be CHERRY BOMBS, the all-girl dance group led by Taylor's girlfriend Alicia Dove.



Took less than 24 hours...
Ridiculous... https://t.co/krbmCF4B4W— confirm: 0-0-0... DESTRUCT... 0 (@CoreyTaylorRock) February 20, 2019

"The Door To Doom", the 12th album from Swedish doom metal legends CANDLEMASS, can be streamed in its entirety below. Due on February 22 via Napalm Records, the disc unsurprisingly follows the plotline mastermind, songwriter and bass player Leif Edling established in the past years: epic world-class doom metal that relies on slow mammoth riffing.

"The Door To Doom" includes the song "Astorolus - The Great Octopus", which features a guest guitar solo by none other than BLACK SABBATH's Tony Iommi.

Commented Iommi: "CANDLEMASS are a major force in Scandinavian heavy rock and have always acknowledged the influence we had on their music. They asked if I'd contribute to a track which sounded pretty good so I thought, 'Why not?'"

Added Edling: "We feel very honored that Tony Iommi said yes to play the solo on 'Astorolus'. The song was sent to the management and amazingly enough, the master agreed to let his mighty SG sing on the track! For me personally, this is a dream come true. Tony Iommi has always been my hero and guiding light when it comes to heavy music, so to hear that he likes the song and also would like to play on it gave me chills down the spine! I'm still in shock! But kudos to him to be so cool to even listen to it. Hats off! Tony Iommi is and will always be God!"

"The Door To Doom" marks the recording comeback of newly returned singer Johan Längqvist, who recently replaced CANDLEMASS's frontman of the past six years, Mats Levén.

"The Door To Doom" track listing:

01. Splendor Demon Majesty

02. Under The Ocean

03. Astorolus - The Great Octopus (feat. Tony Iommi)

04. Bridge Of The Blind

05. Death's Wheel

06. Black Trinity

07. House Of Doom

08. The Omega Circle

Längqvist sang on CANDLEMASS's debut album, 1986's "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus", before exiting the group and being replaced by Messiah Marcolin.

CANDLEMASS's most recent full-length album, "Psalms For The Dead", came out in 2012 via Napalm Records. It was the last CANDLEMASS album recorded with singer Robert Lowe, who left the band just days before its release.

CANDLEMASS is:

Leif Edling: Bass

Mats "Mappe" Björkman: Guitars

Jan Lindh: Drums

Lars "Lasse" Johansson: Guitars

Johan Längqvist: Vocals

Photo by Anders Pålsson

The official video for the song "Speedbag" from RED DRAGON CARTEL, the band led by former OZZY OSBOURNE and BADLANDS guitarist Jake E. Lee, can be seen below. The track is taken from RED DRAGON CARTEL's sophomore album, "Patina", which was released in November via Frontiers Music Srl.

The follow-up to RED DRAGON CARTEL's eponymous 2014 debut, "Patina" marks the group's first release with drummer Phil Varone (SAIGON KICK, SKID ROW) and bassist Anthony Esposito. The band's current lineup is rounded out by singer Darren James Smith.

RED DRAGON CARTEL's new album was recorded at Esposito's Obscenic Arts studio in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania and was mixed by legendary producer Max Norman, who has previously worked with OZZY OSBOURNE, MEGADETH, SAVATAGE and LOUDNESS, among others.

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

"I think we had a great production partnership," says Jake. "He never discouraged me from trying things that were a bit outside the box; in fact, he encouraged it. His attention to detail in the recording of everything was exceptional. Much more than I alone would have toiled over. He has an incredible work ethic that kept me from lapsing into complacency. If we disagreed on how something should be, we'd find a perfect marriage of the two sides, or completely reimagine it. We didn't settle on anything unless we both agreed it was perfect. If I do another album, I'd love it to be with him again."

Another new member to RED DRAGON CARTEL is drummer Phil Varone, whose style Lee really appreciated. "Phil is a very solid and groove-oriented player, who is not afraid to turn things upside down to give the song a more unique flavor," explains Lee.

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

Lee says: "The first album was more of a piecemeal production with some of the song ideas being 10 years old and never having more than one player in the room at any time. I wanted to do this one from scratch with all the songs originating and worked on with everyone in the room, on their instruments. It felt much more organic, like the way I used to do it for the first 20 years of my career — more honest to my roots."

When asked about his musical inspirations for the record, Jake says: "My inspirations for 'Patina' are from the artists I loved during my youth. Robin Trower, Santana, BLACK SABBATH, CAPTAIN BEYOND, THIN LIZZY, GRAND FUNK RAILROAD, David Bowie… I could go on and on, but let me also say that there are also hints of SLY & THE FAMILY STONE, Dick Dale, psychedelia and even some George Benson. Don't let any of that scare you — it all makes sense!"

"Patina" is a definitive statement of Jake's unbelievable skills with a monster production from Esposito and a perfect mix, courtesy of Norman, whose relationship with Jake dates back to the guitarist's days with OZZY OSBOURNE.

The track listing for the disc is as follows:

01. Speedbag

02. Havana

03. Crooked Man

04. The Luxury Of Breathing

05. Bitter

06. Chasing Ghosts

07. A Painted Heart

08. Punchclown (bonus track)

09. My Beautiful Mess

10. Ink & Water

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

Issued in January 2014, RED DRAGON CARTEL's debut CD sold around 5,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 69 on The Billboard 200 chart.

The official video for the song "No Reprisal" from Boston's UNEARTH can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's new album, "Extinction(s)", which was released in November. For its seventh release and Century Media debut, the band worked with Will Putney (EVERY TIME I DIE, BODY COUNT, GOJIRA, THY ART IS MURDER, SILENT PLANET) at Graphic Nature Studios. Additionally, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's Adam Dutkiewicz recorded drums for the effort.

Frontman Trevor Phipps told Distorted Sound about "Extinction(s)": "It sounds like us but we've definitely taken things to a different level. There's some songs on there that dig more back into our roots, where the band came from. There's also some new directions in there as well. It was four years between records for us, so we had a lot of material. We had 24 songs ready to go and we cut those down to 14 then to the best 10. I think this is our strongest record to date. Time will tell whether that's the truth, but we all feel really good about this record. It's heavy, it's dynamic and I think the songs will translate to a live setting very well too. That was a big thing for us. We wanted to write a record where we could play the entire thing live. Our last record, 'Watchers Of Rule', that was more, not prog metal but the most progressive of our catalog, and those songs didn't really translate into our live show as some of the earlier stuff. We definitely take pride in our live performance and interaction with the crowd, high energy, so we had that in mind when writing this record."

Regarding how the members of UNEARTH continue to push themselves creatively, Trevor said: "With the four-year break between records, we did our fair share of touring around the world. I think right now, it's a really good time for music, especially metal and hardcore. It really inspired us to become fans of music again. I don't want to say we got complacent, but we definitely relied on where our roots were from and what we grew up listening to. There is so much great music out there now that we all got fully inspired again, and I think that's where the energy for this album came from. We just became big fans again of what is going on right now, and not just yesterday. We've been doing this for a long time and you have to stay hungry if you wanna stick around. We've seen a lot of our peers come and go over the years and we are still standing. We are determined to go further and further."

On March 29, Knoxville, Tennessee death metallers WHITECHAPEL will release their seventh full-length album, "The Valley", via Metal Blade Records. The official Mathis Arnell-directed music video for the latest single from the disc, "When A Demon Defiles A Witch", can be seen below.

Produced once again by Mark Lewis (CANNIBAL CORPSE, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER) and featuring artwork by Branca Studio, "The Valley"'s title is a reference to the part of Hardin Valley (west of Knoxville) where vocalist Phil Bozeman grew up. Set against this backdrop, he approaches his subject matter unflinchingly, building upon everything that came before, making it clear that he has survived that which he was forced to endure and is not afraid to confront it.

"Phil has been upfront in his lyrics in the past about hardships he endured in his life as a child, and I believe with this record we tried to paint a better picture of that," says guitarist Alex Wade, who alongside his bandmates, stands a hundred percent behind everything their vocalist has to say. "I feel our music is Phil's release from his past, being able to get it out and speak about it, and hopefully anyone who hears it that may have gone through similar experiences can find some release in it as well."

Anyone throwing "The Valley" on for the first time will immediately recognize it as the work of WHITECHAPEL, yet, as has been the case with each release, there is also evolution in play. "Sound-wise, it's all over the place," Bozeman states plainly. "There's aggression, and then you're hit with ominous and emotional guitar riffs. It's mean, but then transfers to soft and inviting. It's a whirlwind of emotions throughout."

"The Valley" track listing:

01. When A Demon Defiles A Witch

02. Forgiveness Is Weakness

03. Brimstone

04. Hickory Creek

05. Black Bear

06. We Are One

07. The Other Side

08. Third Depth

09. Lovelace

10. Doom Woods

This spring, WHITECHAPEL will co-headline the 2019 edition of the "Chaos & Carnage" U.S. tour with DYING FETUS. Support on the trek will come from REVOCATION, FALLUJAH, SPITE, UNCURED and BURIED ABOVE GROUND.

THE DAMNED THINGS will release a new album, "High Crimes", on April 26 via Nuclear Blast. The supergroup comprised of members of EVERY TIME I DIE, ANTHRAX and FALL OUT BOY recently confirmed the addition of ALKALINE TRIO bassist Dan Andriano to its ranks. He replaces Josh Newton (EVERY TIME I DIE), who hasn't been part of the band since it was reactivated three years ago. Also gone from THE DAMNED THINGS is guitarist Rob Caggiano (VOLBEAT, ANTHRAX).

THE DAMNED THINGS guitarist Joe Trohman — who also plays in FALL OUT BOY — told Kerrang! magazine that the band was originally planning to release a new EP "but then it got to the point where we just made a whole record. The more we put into it, the more we were, like, 'Okay, let's just do this,'" he said. "I hate using the terms 'organically,' because it's a pretty shitty buzzword, but it happened organically. [Laughs]"

Trohman also spoke about some of the individual tracks on "High Crimes", saying: "I originally wanted to open the record with this song called 'Storm Charmer' because it was really slow and ominous, which is probably a bad idea. [Laughs] I think I love 'Cells' — that is one of my favorite songs on the record. 'Cells', 'Omen' and 'Carry A Brick' are some of my favorites.

"Honestly, I've been sitting with the demos for nearly two years, and I still haven't got sick of any of it," he continued. "I don't listen to it in a self-serving way. I'll listen to them and think, 'When am I going to hate them?' And every time I listen to them, I really like all these songs. It's the first time I've listened to a record and found there's not a lot I would change. With making anything, I could tweak it forever, but I think with this one, the mentality was just: go in, write these songs, and when they're done, they're done. Don't overthink anything. Hopefully, by approaching it in a 'Let's make them sound really cool and not tweak them forever' stance, then they would be the rawest possible version. I though the last record was definitely a little flippant in production, and I just wanted to pull back on that."

THE DAMNED THINGS recently announced its first two live shows in seven years. The band will perform at the 2019 edition of the Welcome To Rockville festival on May 4 in Jacksonville, Florida, and at the Epicenter festival on May 11 in Richmond County, North Carolina.

THE DAMNED THINGS was formed a decade ago, when FALL OUT BOY's Andy Hurley and ANTHRAX's Scott Ian started writing music together. The band played its first show two years later and released its debut album, "Ironiclast", in December 2010. After performing a few gigs together, the members took a hiatus and returned to their respective bands.

In addition to Ian and Hurley, "Ironiclast" featured EVERY TIME I DIE frontman Keith Buckley, Trohman, Newton and Caggiano.

"Ironiclast" sold 6,200 copies in the first week of release and reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Heatseekers chart.

Last year, Ian said that the supergroup would have a follow-up to "Ironiclast" on the way in the near future.

"We always knew with THE DAMNED THINGS, it was always going to be something that we would get to do schedules permitting, because we are all in extremely busy bands," he explained.

SAMMY HAGAR & THE CIRCLE have premiered the official music video for "Trust Fund Baby", the lead track off their upcoming debut album of original material, "Space Between", set for release on May 10 through BMG.


The album, written by Hagar, unfolds like a novel with each song exploring a different chapter in a saga about money, greed, enlightenment and truth.

The "Trust Fund Baby" clip, directed by ZZ Satriani (son of Hagar's longtime collaborator and friend Joe Satriani) is an extreme glimpse into the eighth track "nailing what happens when kids are given too much money too early in life, and it becomes an affliction," Hagar explains. "All the money in the world isn't a guarantee for a good life. I'm a believer in working hard and finding purposeful work — but that comes in a later chapter." ZZ Satriani, said of the process: "We were lucky because Sammy's writing style let us create the story quite literally from the lyrics."

"Trust Fund Baby" kicks off a big year for SAMMY HAGAR & THE CIRCLE who will launch their North American tour in support of the album on April 19. Hagar has also just wrapped production on season four of his hit TV series "Rock & Roll Road Trip With Sammy Hagar" on AXS TV, premiering later this year.

Hagar told the Broward Palm Beach New Times last year about the lyrical themes covered on "Space Between": "It's about the misconception that money is the root of all evil, because the truth of the matter is that it isn't money at all. You can feed the poor, you can heal the sick, you can make people happy, you can stop a war with money, but it's greed that is the problem. That's what the whole record is about. It's what I discovered by being both rich and poor."

Hagar added that "Space Between", which will be followed by a "large-scale tour of North America," will likely be his last album, and he hopes to get a Grammy for it.

"That's my bucket list: to have one more credible musical experience in my life," he said. "I think I did it, and I hope it's as good as I think it is. I've been double-parked in the rock 'n' roll business for 40 years, and I want a stamp on my validation so I don't have to pay to get out."

Bonham told Sonic Perspectives in an interview that THE CIRCLE's upcoming disc is a "concept kind of album" that needs to be listened to "in a specific order, which kind of tells the story."

The drummer added that Hagar has "been really inspired as of late, and I think it's gonna be some of his best stuff. It's definitely diverse," he said. "As I said, when you listen to it in the order… It's gonna be an incredible… What he wanted to do was do something very different than he's ever done, which is send you on a journey, like the old days. When you put on an album, you listened to it from start to finish instead of just a song — where the placement of each [song] is vital for it to make sense."

THE CIRCLE released a concert album, "At Your Service", in May 2015. Recorded on tour in 2014, it features live performances of hits from Sammy's four decades of rock (MONTROSE, solo, VAN HALEN, THE WABORITAS, CHICKENFOOT) as well as classic tracks from the LED ZEPPELIN catalog.

Photo credit: Leah Steiger

SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist Daron Malakian's side project, SCARS ON BROADWAY, has released the official music video for the song "Guns Are Loaded". The track is taken from SCARS ON BROADWAY's latest album, "Dictator", which was released last July.

Daron told Rolling Stone about the clip: "'Guns Are Loaded' isn't necessarily about specific things, but more about a feeling or emotion. The song is about a feeling of anger, a feeling of a breaking point, or times when the world is coming down on you… The skulls and devils are symbols for parts of us within. When you're to the point when life is coming down around you, sometimes a darker side, a darker feeling or darker thoughts come out of us. When we are afraid, frustrated or angry, that side may show itself. The guns also symbolize something too: The song isn't necessarily about actual guns, but they represent the desperation of a moment."

SCARS ON BROADWAY will embark on a short West Coast tour in early March.

Confirmed dates:

Mar. 03 - San Diego, CA - The Obsevatory

Mar. 04 - Phoenix, AZ - Crescent Ballroom

Mar. 06 - San Francisco, CA – Slim's

Mar. 07 - Santa Ana, CA - The Observatory

Mar. 08 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern

SCARS ON BROADWAY, now rebranded DARON MALAKIAN AND SCARS ON BROADWAY, has undergone a complete overhaul, with none of the members from the group's 2008 debut — including SYSTEM drummer John Dolmayan — appearing on the new songs.

Malakian explained the personnel changes in an online post, saying: "Nobody quit. When I first started SCARS, I always said that it would be different lineups from album to album. Depends on the type of direction I want to take. Different musicians work for different styles. That is partly why I added my name in front of the band's."

"Dictator" saw Malakian write, produce and play every instrument — including all vocals — over the course of a 10-day recording session. The album's cover art was created by Daron's father, Vartan Malakian, who also designed the artwork for SYSTEM OF A DOWN's twin 2005 releases, "Mezmerize" and "Hypnotize".

"Dictator" was recorded in 2012 but remained unreleased until last year.

SCARS ON BROADWAY previously performed in 2012 as the opening act for DEFTONES in Los Angeles.

The group has only played live sporadically over the years: a headlining trek in 2008 was canceled, with Malakian citing his lack of enthusiasm and "his heart not being into touring" as the chief reasons behind the decision.

The guitarist later explained that he thought it was "almost too soon" for him to go on the road after SYSTEM OF A DOWN went on hiatus in 2006, also citing issues in his personal life that "made it impossible" for him to tour.

SYSTEM OF A DOWN, which has toured intermittently since ending its hiatus in 2011, has a couple of festival shows coming up in May but has not released new music in 14 years.

Paul Stanley's 98-year-old father attended KISS's February 16 concert at the Forum in Los Angeles, California.

Last night, the KISS frontman tweeted out a backstage photo of him with his dad, aloing with the caption: "MY DAD! The Oldest And Coolest Man Ever At A KISS Concert. At @theforum Saturday Night. He'll be NINETY NINE In April!"

In KISS's official authorized biography "Kiss: Behind The Mask", Stanley said that his father was born in the U.S. but "his parents were Russian-Hungarian-Polish."

Paul recalled: "My family wasn't that well off. When I was six, my father bought me a bike, which was the only thing that I was given of any value. We weren't affluent, but we survived. There were times when money was very tight. In Manhattan, the four of us lived in a one-bedroom apartment; my parents slept in the living room and my sister and I shared the bedroom. My father worked as a furniture salesman, and my mother was a teacher. Originally, she was a registered nurse, and then she taught retarded kids. Ultimately, she became a full-time housewife."

Stanley was born with a facial deformity, microtia, which prevented his right ear from forming properly and left him deaf on the right side. He later said that his parents had their own problems and did not acknowledge or provide support for Paul's difficulties.

Stanley said it took him decades into adulthood and plenty of therapy to help conquer his lack of self-esteem.

Last month, KISS kicked off its second farewell tour, dubbed "End Of The Road", which could last three years. The first leg of the global trek wraps April 13 in Birmingham, Alabama.

MY DAD! The Oldest And Coolest Man Ever At A KISS Concert. At @theforum Saturday Night. He'll be NINETY NINE In April! pic.twitter.com/hsiqsr6xvB— Paul Stanley (@PaulStanleyLive) February 20, 2019

KATATONIA, the Swedish purveyors of dark progressive rock/metal, are starting to make their first moves after an idle year of stillness.

Says the band: "We will begin our return with a celebration of our album 'Night Is The New Day', which turns 10 years now in 2019. For the album's 10th anniversary, Peaceville are set to release a deluxe edition of this classic album on 17th May 2019, and to further commemorate this dark gem, we will return to the live arena to play 'Night Is The New Day' in its entirety at six select club shows in Europe in May.

"The 10th-anniversary edition of 'Night Is The New Day' will feature new cover artwork from longtime collaborator Travis Smith, a glorious hi-res 5.1 remix created (for the first time) by Bruce Soord and sleeve notes by renowned journalist Dom Lawson."

"Night Comes Down Over Europe" tour dates:

May 20 - Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, Rockhal

May 21 - Cologne, Germany, Live Music Hall

May 22 - Berlin, Germany, Columbia Theater

May 23 - Hamburg, Germany, Gruenspan

May 24 - Vosselaar, Belgium, Biebob

May 25 - London, United Kingdom, Islington Assembly Hall

Tickets go on sale on Friday, February 22.

Back in December 2017, KATATONIA announced that it was going on a "short-term hiatus" due to "recent issues and injury."

The band's latest album, "The Fall Of Hearts", was released in May 2016 via Peaceville. The follow-up to 2012's "Dead End Kings" was recorded at Stockholm's Studio Gröndahl & Tri-lamb studio, and was produced by Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse. Mixing and mastering duties were carried out by Jens Bogren (OPETH, IHSAHN, DEVIN TOWNSEND) at Fascination Street Studios, with Karl Daniel Lidén (SWITCHBLADE, THE OCEAN, GREENLEAF) brought in as engineer.

"The Fall Of Hearts" was the first KATATONIA record to feature new drummer Daniel "Mojjo" Moilanen and guitarist Roger Öjersson (TIAMAT), who came in just in time to sprinkle some blistering solos on the album.

A&P-Reacts conducted an interview with SOULFLY frontman Max Cavalera prior to the band's February 12 show at Mod Club Theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You can watch the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the live response to the songs from SOULFLY's latest studio album, "Ritual":

Max: "It's been really good. We're doing something that we haven't done before — we are opening up with 'The Summoning'. We're not even opening with 'Ritual'. We are opening with 'The Summoning', going into 'Under Rapture', then we play some other stuff. Then, in the middle of the set, we play 'Ritual', and 'Dead Behind The Eyes'. It's cool. It's not what you expect. If you're a fan you think, 'They're going to open with 'Ritual'.' It's cool. For the beginning, it's already a surprise kind of a show, but it works really well."

On whether the eclectic nature of "Ritual" was on purpose:

Max: "It's just how the songs came about, but also really kind of like my own wish of playing the music that I listen to. It's always been like that. In SEPULTURA, it was like that; in NAILBOMB. It's a reflection of what you listen to at home, combined with other people that are involved with the project, like [producer] Josh Wilbur was very important on 'Ritual'. He came in as a producer/fan and he wanted to hear this — he was making the record like 'I want this to be my favorite SOULFLY record as a SOULFLY fan.' It was fun because he was pulling for more tribal-groove songs and I was pulling more for death metal, black metal, thrash, hardcore, the stuff I listen to on a daily basis. I think that's what 'Ritual' really is. It really is a commemoration of the styles that I like that, that I think in metal are really important and really exciting, like death metal, thrash metal, black metal and even feedback, which was a tip of the hat to MOTÖRHEAD for starting this whole thing because I think they're the pioneers of the whole thrash movement."

On whether he writes songs with SOULFLY or CAVALERA CONSPIRACY in mind, or, he has a "treasure chest" of songs to pull from for each band:

Max: "I do have a treasure chest and a lot of it is cool. Sometimes I'll go back and listen to it, but I like to write for the album itself. I get entirely in the mode of the record. It was the case of [CAVALERA CONSPIRACY's] 'Psychosis', which is one of my favorite records that I've done. It was really fun to create it. We had a really good producer in Arthur Rizk. I think Igor's [Cavalera] playing was amazing on the record. 'Psychosis' to me, was an album that could have been released after 'Arise' and it would have been okay — the fans would have loved it. So, I like to write for a specific record. 'Ritual' was really interesting because we came off the NAILBOMB tour right into the studio, so we were still hungover from the tour. I think the amplifiers were still echoing in my head when I got into the studio and that is really good, I think for the record. Somehow, it doesn't really sound like NAILBOMB, but there is maybe the energy and spontaneity of the NAILBOMB idea is in 'Ritual' somehow, somewhere. Maybe even some of the electronic stuff that we did because there's a little bit of that in 'The Summoning' and 'Dead Behind The Eyes', there's a little bit of industrial sounding stuff. It was really cool and I love that. It wasn't planned, it just happened that way. We went from touring right into the studio, but it was great for the record, I think."

On what still motivates him after over three decades in metal and dozens of studio albums:

Max: "I think first and foremost, I'm a metalhead, then I'm a musician. I never grew out of the metalhead phase. In my mind, I'm still 15-years-old in my basement in Santa Tereza [a neighborhood in Belo Horizonte, Brazil] listening to heavy records. [Laughs] I don't want to grow out of it. It's a conscious decision not to grow up. Some people maybe think that's crazy or whatever and I just don't care. I love it. I love that there's that pure instinct inside of me that's still like that. The other side is what I see on the road whenever we go on tour. The fans, the stories they tell me are so great. The other day, a guy gave me his medal from Iraq. He was in Iraq three times and was listening to SOULFLY all the time during all the missions and he gave me his medal he won in Iraq. It was cool. It's crazy to think music travels to such places. When we're making them in my house, it's very quiet, there's nobody there. In the studio, it's the same — there's no fans. Once you release it into the world, it goes to all these wild places, even like war. It's amazing. That might be the biggest motivation. I'm not really interested and I'm not really…how can I say this? My drive is not into like the Grammys and gold records, although it might be cool and I have a bunch of those at home, but it's not why I do this. I really do it for when I talk to metalheads and music has changed his life, made a difference in his life. That's so deep and powerful that it really makes me very happy and I'm not good at anything else. [Laughs] I keep making music. I don't plan to slow down anytime soon. I'm really enjoying it. To me, people talk about the golden years, the great years, and to me, in my head, although a lot of the past is really great, I'm still living the dream right now, which is live for music. That was my dream when I was in Brazil as a kid. If I can just do that — live off music, that would be amazing and I'm doing it. I'm living my dream, beyond playing with my son [Zyon] in SOULFLY, that's another dream come true. I'm very blessed in that area and I want to keep doing it. That's enough motivation for me."

"Ritual" was released last October via Nuclear Blast Entertainment.

SLIPKNOT frontman Corey Taylor spoke to the Des Moines Register about the band's upcoming sixth album, which is tentatively due this summer.

Describing the band's new music as "evil," Taylor said the follow-up to 2014's ".5: The Gray Chapter" is "going to be ridiculous. Let's put it that way."

The new disc is once again being recorded at a Los Angeles studio with producer Greg Fidelman, who engineered and mixed SLIPKNOT's 2004 album "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)" and helmed ".5: The Gray Chapter".

According to Taylor, SLIPKNOT's recently released standalone single "All Out Life", which arrived last October isn't "nearly as dark and vicious as the rest of the stuff that we have that we're working on."

Taylor said he wrote "All Out Life" in part because he didn't see others using music as a force to "take a hard look at what you believe."

He explained: "People are way too pissed about the wrong things and not pissed enough about the right things. "[The song sets] the tone for getting people to stand up and go, 'We're not gonna allow this. We're not gonna allow people to run us down for religious beliefs, for the color we are, for what we stand for. For who we chose to love.' All of these things. There's nobody doing it, man. Everybody's too worried about their pockets. Everybody's too worried about their paychecks.

"That was me, basically, drawing a line in the sand and going, 'Guess what? You don't get to do this anymore,'" he added.

Some of SLIPKNOT's new album will also deal with Taylor's depression that led to a divorce and forced him to "figure out who I was" without relapsing into substance abuse.

"All I was doing was giving and I found myself absolutely, completely tapped," he said. "You could see it in my skin. You could see it in my eyes. That's basically the journey I'm going to take people on this album … show them what happens to depression when you have no chemicals to fall back on.

"It's a pretty dark ride."

SLIPKNOT's video for "All Out Life" was directed by the band's own M. Shawn Crahan.

".5: The Gray Chapter" was released following a six-year hiatus during which founding SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray died and drummer Joey Jordison was dismissed.

".5: The Gray Chapter" sold around 132,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores in October 2014 via Roadrunner.

Gray died in 2010 from a drug overdose, while Jordison was let go in December 2013, just before SLIPKNOT began recording the last album.

"Look, I was a cab driver in New York City," KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley tells Arizona Republic in a new interview. "And I remember driving people to Madison Square Garden to see Elvis Presley. I remember sitting in that front seat thinking, ‘One of these days, people are going to be coming here to see me.' So to go from that cab to the stage was a pretty good walk."

Stanley laughs, then adds, "That first gold album meant more to me than any of the platinum albums that followed because I spent my life aspiring to have that gold album and it meant that I had climbed the mountain. But the amazing thing about life, the amazing thing about KISS is that when you climb a mountain, you’ll usually see another one next to it and then you want to climb that."

Read the complete interview at Arizona Republic.

KISS' End Of The Road World Tour lands at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California tonight (February 12th). Find the band's live itinerary here, and check out some pro-shot footage from the tour below.




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Phear guitarist Graham Stirrett unleashed his debut solo record, Masquerade, yesterday (February 19th). Order the album via the Amazon widget below, Spotify, or iTunes. The guitar maestro has again partnered with BraveWords to premiere his new video for the track “Hearts Desire”:

Stirrett says: “This epic artwork was a joint effort between Ludovic Cordelières of Rusalkadesign and Bahrull Marta of Abomination Imagery. Logo design done by Lucas McArthur. Get stoked! More videos coming soon! 

Masquerade tracklisting:
“Blood Sacrifice” 
“Heart Desire”
“Masquerade” 
“Carnival Of The Damned”
“Die Rot Burn”
“Name Your Sacrifice” (featuring Phear singer Patrick Mulock)
“Not Alone”
“Soul Searching” 
“Truth Through The Lie” (featuring Threat Signal’s Jon Howard)
“I Would”

"Blood Sacrifice" playthrough:

“Masquerade” lyric video:

   




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Current and former Dyecrest vocalists feature on the band's new The Stage Is Set EP that includes familiar tracks from their latest album, Are You Not Entertained?, as well as one previously unreleased track.
 
Are You Not Entertained? debuted as #7 on official Finnish physical album sales charts, and now the band has released a special EP that features all of the three singers of Dyecrest.
 
Listen the EP via Spotify here. Check out the lyric video for "The Stage Is Set" below.

Janne Oksanen, the singer of Dyecrest on their debut album, did the vocals for "First Born Angel". Kimmo Blom (Leverage) interprets the track "Where The Light Was Born". Current vocalist Mikael Salo sings the acoustic track "Winterblood" that is based on the fantasy novel by award winning author Helena Waris, and also the title track of the EP. There's also previously unreleased track "Truce" on the EP.
 
"It was wonderful to attend the composition for the first time with Dyecrest when we composed 'Truce' last autumn. We achieved to nail some pretty good vocal arrangements inspired by bands like Blind Guardian and Queen." 

Mikael Salo backgrounds the process and continues: "It was a true honor to share this release with the extremely talented former Dyecrest vocalists."
 
The Stage Is Set EP tracklist:

"The Stage Is Set"
"Truce"
"Winterblood" (acoustic version)
"First Born Angel" (Janne Oksanen version)
"Where The Light Was Born" (Kimmo Blom version)




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Death metal legends Incantation have announced the inaugural vinyl pressing and remastered audio of Upon The Throne Of Apocalypse, the original rough mix of the recording that became the infamous full-length album Mortal Throne Of Nazarene. Dynamic-yet-raw, brutal-yet-atmospheric, and death-yet-doomy, Upon the Throne of Apocalypse remaster features the original artwork by Wes Benscoter (Slayer, Nile, Cattle Decapitation). The remastered version of “The Ibex Moon” is streaming below:

Upon The Throne Of Apocalypse remaster is due out April 19th on CD/LP/Digital. Find preorders via Relapse.com.

Additionally, Incantation are gearing up for a busy 2019 recently announcing world tour dates including headline stops in Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand & more. Incantation will also tour North America for the annual Devastation on the Nation Tour. The band is touring in support of their latest full-length album Profane Nexus.

Dates:

March
15 - Paris, France - Gibus
16 - Mannheim, Germany - Ms Connexion Complex
17 - Lyon, France - CCO
19 - Madrid, Spain - Caracol
20 - Barcelona, Spain - Boveda
21 - Montpellier, France - Secret Place
22 - Baden, Switzerland - Werkk Kulturlokal
23 - Venice, Italy - Revolver
24 - Como, Italy - Centrale Rock Pub
25 - Prague, Czech Republic - Nova Chmelnice
26 - Bratislava, Slovakia - Randal
28 - Vienna, Austria - Viper Room
29 - Hirschaid, Germany - Braincrusher In Hell
30 - Poznan, Poland - U Bazyla
31 - Krakow, Poland - Kwadrat

April
1 - Warsaw, Poland - Proxima
2 - Berlin, Germany - Musik & Frieden
3 - Bochum, Germany - Matrix
4 - Zaandam, Netherlands - Podium Flux
5 - Aarhus, Denmark - Royal Metal Festival

(Photo - Scott Kinkade)




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Myrath have slowly but surely established themselves as one of the most fascinating bands in the current international metal scene — thanks to their incredibly personal, epic, and beautiful progressive metal and their compelling background.

The band will release the new album Shehili via earMUSIC on May 3rd.

Formed in 2001 in the Republic of Tunisia, a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa, Myrath began carving out their own unique niche in the metal world by combining progressive metal with folkloric Tunisian music. They have drawn inspiration from genre champions such as Dream Theater and Symphony X, as well as the sounds of classic European metal legends like Deep Purple and Rainbow.

Myrath's heritage and willingness to infuse their influences with the historic music of their homeland is what sets them apart. The sounds of Tunisia are that of Arabic and Asian folk music, which can be readily heard in the rhythms, segues, and choruses of Myrath's compositions.

Their last album Legacy (2016) received international acclaim and contained the brilliant and, until now, their most successful song, "Believer." The video racked up more than 10 million views on YouTube.

Shehili is innovative, yet loyal to the band's signature sound. It establishes contrasts between uplifting melodies and thoughtful, and, at times, heartbreaking lyrics. The best example of this duality can be found in Shehili's first single "Dance," the video of which was a sequel to "Believer." The "Dance" video tallied more than a million views in the first five weeks of release.

As singer Zaher Zorgati says, "The purpose of our music is to induce happiness and joy, to pay tribute to those who refuse to fall or to stop hoping, even in a world filled with hatred and uncertainty."

Shehili, although produced with extreme care, keeps a very natural and organic flavor. The recordings took place in Hamburg, Germany, Tunisia, and France to make sure every single note found its way into the mix. Shehili was mixed by three different producers, including Kevin Codfert, Eike Freese, and the world-famous Jens Bogren (who already worked on Legacy), in order to give each song the best possible treatment and make it shine.

Myrath plan to embark on their own headline tour at the end of the year. Upcoming performances are slated for huge festivals such as Wacken and Sweden Rock.

Tracklisting:

“Asl (Intro)”
“Born To Survive”
“You’ve Lost Yourself”
“Dance”
“Wicked Dice”
“Monster In My Closet”
“Lili Twil”
“No Holding Back”
“Stardust”
“Mersal”
“Darkness Arise”
“Shehili”

“Dance” video:

(Photo by: Nidhal Marzouk)




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Metal Blade Records continues to reissue the Vomitory catalogue on March 15th with brand new vinyl editions of Blood Rapture and Revelation Nausea, two of the biggest classics in the rich legacy of these Swedish death metallers.

Blood Rapture formats:
- 180 g black vinyl
- Clear-lagoon blue marbled vinyl (ltd. 300 - EU-exclusive)
- Clear tropical-green/black marbled (ltd. 200 - EU-exclusive)
- Green/red splattered vinyl (ltd. 100 - EU-exclusive)
- Clear swamp green marbled (ltd. 200 - US-exclusive)

Revelation Nausea formats:
- 180 g black vinyl
- Orange brown marbled vinyl (ltd. 300 - EU-exclusive)
- Orange red marbled (ltd. 200 - EU-exclusive)
- Red orange white melt vinyl (ltd. 100 - EU-exclusive)
- Orange brown/black marbled (ltd. 200 - US-exclusive)

Preorder from EMP or eBay.




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Erik Rutan made his live debut with CANNIBAL CORPSE at the opening show of the "Decibel Magazine Tour" on February 17 in San Antonio, Texas. He is playing with the band as the temporary replacement for guitarist Pat O'Brien, who was arrested in December for burglary and assaulting a police officer while his Florida home was in flames.

This isn't the first time these death metal powerhouses have worked together; Rutan has produced four albums with CANNIBAL CORPSE ("Kill", "Evisceration Plague", "Torture", "Red Before Black") and is uniquely equipped to fill the role — he is one of the death metal's most acclaimed guitarists and is known for his time as part of MORBID ANGEL (who are co headlining the "Decibel" tour alongside CANNIBAL) throughout the '90s and early 2000s, as well as handling vocals/guitars and production duties for his current band HATE ETERNAL.

Rutan told Metal Insider that he "found out right before the holidays" that he would be needed to step in for O'Brien. "So it's been a lot of work, obviously, to learn a headlining set with CANNIBAL CORPSE," he said. "But I've been working my tail off. I've been playing guitar eight hours a day and working with the guys. Everything's going great actually. I just learned the last song of the set, which I've learned 15 songs in three or four weeks, so I've really been working my ass off to make sure that, one, I know the songs. The good thing is, one, I've produced four CANNIBAL CORPSE records; two, I know all the records because I'm a fan of the band; and then three, these guys are like family to me. They're friends of mine for a long, long time. So a lot of the songs I already kind of knew in my head, but just not on the guitar. I just have to apply it. But I've been working my ass off because, obviously, Pat O'Brien is one of the best guitar players in death metal, in metal period, and a really good friend of mine, and all the guys are."

He continued: "I knew that when things happened that I might be needed, and if I was, I was gonna make damn sure that I was there to help the guys in every way I could, and also be the best I can to go out there and play my ass off because that's what I do. I play guitar. I've been playing guitar for 30 plus years, and I love doing this shit. I wake up. I work on CANNIBAL CORPSE songs. I go to bed thinking about CANNIBAL CORPSE songs. That's all I've been doing for the last four weeks. But I'm feeling good."

Rutan went on to say that it's "a very unique situation" filling in for O'Brien.

"Listen, if someone had said… I don't know how to describe the feeling actually, because I care about Pat and the CANNIBAL guys tremendously, and of course want what's best for them, individually, collectively, in every regard," he said. "And in this situation, I'm more than honored and proud to be able to play with CANNIBAL CORPSE and fill in for Pat, but, of course, my thoughts are on playing the CANNIBAL CORPSE songs. On my friend Pat, I will be thinking positive thoughts for him as well. It's a very unique situation for me. I'm excited, motivated, honored and concerned. There's a lot of emotion involved in this. The one thing I know is that I'm gonna go out and be at my utmost best playing these songs with CANNIBAL: touring with MORBID ANGEL, and then touring with SLAYER. It's kind of overwhelming a little bit. The whole thing is massive. I've been putting down and practicing my ass off, making sure that I'm on point. Anybody that knows me knows that everything I do I put 110 percent into it and certainly CANNIBAL CORPSE I'm doing everything I can to make sure that I'm honoring Pat O'Brien in the way he deserves to be."

O'Brien allegedly broke into a Northdale, Florida home on December 10 and shouted that "the rapture is coming" before pushing a woman to the ground. He ran toward a responding deputy with a knife and was subdued with a stun gun.

Less than half a mile from where O'Brien was arrested, a fire broke out at the house he was renting, sending flames billowing into the night sky from the roof. Fire marshals found a large cache of weapon, locked safes and potential explosive devices inside O'Brien's home.

The owner of the home where O'Brien was arrested wouldn't go on camera but told ABC Action News he thought the guitarist was hallucinating when he spoke to him and claimed "someone was after him." The homeowner added O'Brien seemed scared and at one point even hid in his closet.

The 53-year-old musician was released from Hillsborough County jail on December 14, after posting a $50,000 surety bond.

GREAT WHITE rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Michael Lardie has told the K-97 radio station that the band has begun putting together new material with its latest addition, singer Mitch Malloy. "We're working on some ideas right now," he said (hear audio below). "Nothing carved in stone as far as when we're gonna start [recording]. But the things that we've been coming up with have been fantastic, and they're very strong, and everybody's feeling very confident about that."

He continued: "We did record a live performance from the Kentucky State Fair [in August 2018] that we're hoping to release sometime in the late spring, early summer — a DVD of the entire performance. And then hopefully on that we'll tag on two or three new songs with Mitch singing."

Asked if Malloy is already contributing to the GREAT WHITE songwriting process, Lardie said: "Of course. He's a writer. He's kind of like me in that sense where he's an engineer, producer, songwriter, musician. Since I've done most of the records that we've done in our career in the studio, it's kind of cool to have somebody on that plane, so to speak, of we can geek and nerd-talk out all day long."

Last July, GREAT WHITE announced that it was parting ways with vocalist Terry Ilous and was replacing him with Malloy.

"[Mitch] is an incredible singer, artist, songwriter and engineer," guitarist Mark Kendall said at the time. "We're beyond excited to stretch our musical muscles with a fresh, new take on GREAT WHITE's catalog of hits."

Added Malloy: "I have to represent this music honorably. I respect what has come before me, and have to remind fans of where they were when they first heard these songs. I also have to be myself at the same time. When I first heard my own voice with GREAT WHITE's music, I knew something special was going on."

Ilous, formerly of '80s L.A. hard rockers XYZ, joined GREAT WHITE in 2010 after stepping in for touring vocalist Jani Lane (WARRANT).

The Ilous-led GREAT WHITE released two albums, 2012's "Elation" and 2017's "Full Circle", before Terry was shown the door.

This version of GREAT WHITE is not to be confused with JACK RUSSELL'S GREAT WHITE, which features original GREAT WHITE singer Jack Russell alongside Robby Lochner (FIGHT) on guitar, Dan McNay on bass, Tony Montana on guitar and Dicki Fliszar on drums.

The first trailer for the film adaptation of MÖTLEY CRÜE's biography, "The Dirt - Confessions Of The World's Most Notorious Rock Band", is available below.

Due on March 22, the movie, which was helmed by "Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa" director Jeff Tremaine, was picked up by Netflix after being previously developed at Focus Features and before that at Paramount.

MÖTLEY CRÜE recently recorded four new songs for "The Dirt" movie. Bassist Nikki Sixx described the recordings as "real and raw. Everybody is playing like mad and the songs crush," he wrote on Twitter. "[Producer] Bob Rock brought the sounds."

One of the new songs — a collaboration with rapper Machine Gun Kelly — will receive its premiere on the February 21 edition of SEX PISTOLS guitarist Steve Jones's radio show, "Jonesy's Jukebox", on the 95.5 KLOS station in Los Angeles. The program will also see Sixx sitting down for an interview with Jones on the KLOS Subaru Live Stage.

Machine Gun Kelly — whose real name is Colson Baker — plays MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee in the movie. "The Dirt" also stars Daniel Webber ("The Punisher") as singer Vince Neil, Douglas Booth as Sixx and Iwan Rheon ("Game Of Thrones") as guitarist Mick Mars.

Machine Gun Kelly told Billboard that he got his part in the movie after "a six-audition process. The first two, I was auditioning for Nikki Sixx, and then the last four for Tommy Lee, over the course of two and a half years," he said.

"Breaking Bad"'s David Costabile plays MÖTLEY CRÜE manager Doc McGhee in the film. "I had managed the SCORPIONS, BON JOVI, SKID ROW, KISS," Costabile's McGee says in the trailer, "but I had never been through what MÖTLEY CRÜE put me through."

Elsewhere in the two-and-a-half-minute clip, we see how MÖTLEY CRÜE was determined to achieve success in the band's early days, with Booth's Sixx declaring: "If we want to knock people on their asses, we've got to give people a show. I'm talking a stadium show in a club. The fans are dying for some anarchy, so let's give it to them."

In 2015, MÖTLEY CRÜE completed "The Final Tour", closing the book on the band's iconic career after performing a total of 164 shows in 72 markets, grossing over $100 million.

To cement the sense of finality, the four members of MÖTLEY CRÜE in 2014 publicly signed a "cessation of touring" contract that prevents any of them from performing under the CRÜE name in the future.

A tour film about MÖTLEY CRÜE's final shows, "The End", came out in 2016.

Fan-filmed video footage of OPERATION: MINDCRIME, the band led by former QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate, performing a special "old-school" QUEENSRŸCHE set on February 16 at the Metal Assault festival at Posthalle in Würzburg, Germany can be seen below.

The group's setlist was as follows:

01. Neue Regel

02. Screaming In Digital

03. Operation: Mindcrime

04. Speak

05. Spreading The Disease

06. The Mission

07. Take Hold Of The Flame

08. Before The Storm

09. I Dream In Infrared

10. The Lady Wore Black

11. Walk In The Shadows

12. Breaking The Silence

13. I Don't Believe In Love

14. Anarchy-X

15. Eyes Of A Stranger

For most of 2018 and the first couple of months of 2019, Tate has celebrated the 30th anniversary of QUEENSRŸCHE's "Operation: Mindcrime" by playing the iconic concept album live in its entirety.

The "Mindcrime" live set covers all 15 songs from the album including such fan favorites as "Revolution Calling", "Operation: Mindcrime", "I Don't Believe In Love" and the closing track, "Eyes Of A Stranger".

Geoff told the Reno, Nevada radio station 105.7 KOZZ about performing "Operation: Mindcrime" in full on tour to commemorate its 30th anniversary: "I have to say, this tour especially has been really an interesting time for me, because I kind of got to take a step back from the album, looking at it with different eyes. I've got a really young band of musicians who are playing with such enthusiasm and passion, and I'm listening to all the stories from the audience members and people who have been affected by the album over the years, and really hearing a cross-section of what the album has meant to people. It's very humbling, and I'm very grateful for all the attention the album has and how strongly people feel about it. It's fantastic."

OPERATION: MINDCRIME has released three albums over three years as part of a trilogy: "The Key" (September 2015), "Resurrection" (September 2016) and "The New Reality" (December 2017).

BURNING RAIN, the hard rock band founded by guitarist extraordinaire Doug Aldrich (REVOLUTION SAINTS, THE DEAD DAISIES, WHITESNAKE, DIO) and vocalist Keith St. John (MONTROSE, KINGDOM COME), will release its fourth studio album, "Face The Music", on March 22 via Frontiers Music Srl.

The disc's second single, "If It's Love", can be streamed below.


BURNING RAIN was founded by Aldrich and St. John. The lineup for the new album is rounded out by Brad Lang (Y&T) on bass and Blas Elias (SLAUGHTER) on drums.

"Face The Music" track listing:

01. Revolution

02. Lorelei

03. Nasty Hustle

04. Midnight Train

05. Shelter

06. Face The Music

07. Beautiful Road

08. Hit And Run

09. If It's Love

10. Hideaway

11. Since I'm Loving You

The official music video for "Midnight Train" can be seen below.


When asked why the band chose to release "Midnight Train" as the first single, Aldrich explained: "It's been some time since the last BURNING RAIN record, and we wanted to come out swinging! 'Midnight Train' encompasses the sound of BURNING RAIN. It sounds fresh and heavy. I thought it was a cool lead off track to reintroduce the band.

"People normally have different ideas about favorite songs and there are a number of tracks that could have been first, but we just went with 'Midnight Train'."


"'Midnight Train''s message, albeit fully ensconced in carnality, is about wanting something so brutally bad when you can't have it," added St. John. "The main character here is basically a deeply tortured soul during all the daytime hours. The phallic likening to the train and its track along with the blackness, the bed of nails, and the cravings of the night are meant to further fortify the extremity of sexual addiction.

"Doug had all the basic music together including bass, drums, and all when he first played me a demo of the song. I loved it immediately. The first experimental vocal track I scatted out had the basic framework for the chorus, which we both felt had good potential, but the original verse began with a higher, bluesier part that seemed to not quite fit. After I fashioned a new verse with a lower, more growly approach, we both felt it really complemented the chorus and we knew this track was in good standing!"

In an interview with the "Friday NI Rocks Show", Aldrich stated about "Face The Music": "I wanted to work it so that it was not gonna interfere with THE DEAD DAISIES at all. Because last time, when we released the last record, it was just in the middle of a WHITESNAKE album process. And as with THE DEAD DAISIES, if I'm working on an album process, it's kind of hard to promote the record properly. So I wanted to time it so that I could actually do some things with BURNING RAIN to promote the album."

According to Aldrich, the follow-up to 2013's "Epic Obsession" sounds "great." He added: "Keith St John sounds amazing. The last two records we mixed it ourselves and did everything ourselves, but this time we've got Alessandro Del Vecchio, who I've worked with on REVOLUTION SAINTS, and he is mixing it and mastering it. So it's nice to be able to pass off to someone with good ears who can hit it fresh."

As for the possibility of live shows from BURNING RAIN, Aldrich said: "I would love to do that. I think probably what will happen is… I'm actually looking at doing some guitar clinics and bringing Keith with me to where I would do a little bit of a guitar, meet-and-greet, clinic situation, and then Keith would join me for an acoustic promotion for that record in the spring before THE DEAD DAISIES ramps up. THE DEAD DAISIES has a plan that starts in May, I believe, so we'll probably just do some promotion first. And then when THE DAISIES has a break, I can book some BURNING RAIN shows. But I definitely wanna bring the guys over. It's a great group of guys and the new songs are gonna be really fun to play live."

GUNS N' ROSES bassist Duff McKagan has released a short teaser for his upcoming solo album. The music can be heard in a video announcing his first solo tour dates of 2019, which will take place this spring.

Joining McKagan at the two shows — May 31 at the Theatre Of The Living Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and May 31 at City Winery in Washington D.C. — will be singer-songwriter Shooter Jennings, who produced Duff's new disc.

McKagan and Jennings began recording the album back in March 2018. The two worked out of Station House studios, located in Echo Park, California, writing and recording in between McKagan's tour with seminal rock band GUNS N' ROSES and the release of Jennings's eponymous album, "Shooter".

The album will be McKagan's musical follow-up to 2015's best-selling book, "How To Be A Man (And Other Illusions)".

Speaking to Thomann Music at this year's NAMM show in Anaheim, California, Duff said about the genesis of his new solo record: "I've written a couple of books. And this last tour that I was just on was two and a half years [long], and we traveled around the world, like, four times. And it was a very interesting time. The last two and a half years has been interesting in England, interesting in America [and] interesting in the rest of the rest of the world as well. And I'm a history reader. All I do, really, is just read every night. I like being informed, I like traveling, talking to people and knowing what the lay of the land is wherever I go. And it's evolved over the 30 years that I've been traveling. It interests me. Instead of writing a book about that, which is what I was thinking of doing, especially the climate that we've evolved into — sort of more divided… This has happened many times before. History repeats itself, but people get pretty [worked] up not realizing this has happened before.

"So I wrote these little vignettes that were gonna be starts of stories I was gonna write about, but they became songs," he continued. "[They're] kind of observational songs… And I'm really proud of it. It's like another book for me. It's a launching of a book as opposed to… It's not a rock record, so I don't know if people will be surprised or not. But I thought it was important for me now as a father and a citizen…

"I've read so many goddamn books on history, and I still do, that I thought maybe it's time for me to just point out some things that I've observed," Duff added. "Not pointing fingers at anybody, 'cause that does no good. I feel like I have a voice that I can kind of say, 'This has happened before. Here's what happened then. It's happening again. Let's not fall for it again.'"

McKagan went on to say that he played acoustic guitar and bass on the record, with accompaniment from Shooter's band.

As for his touring plans in support of the solo album, Duff said: "I think I'm gonna do some festivals this summer — in June… It's all getting laid out. I think I'm gonna start in Washington D.C. I'm gonna play particular shows that mean something — or hope to. But the festivals we're working on right now."

When Duff's new solo album was first announced in December, Jennings said that he "felt it was a really important record that had to be heard. The songs have so much heart and are so musical that I could just hear all the arrangements immediately and I could really feel them," he said.

About his connection to McKagan, Jennings said: "I met Duff right after I moved to Los Angeles nearly twenty years ago. I was such a massive GUNS N' ROSES fan when I was younger. I'd say that they had a lot to do with me even moving to L.A. But there was some kind of magnetic force I guess that kept us orbiting each other over the years. When the idea of collaborating with him on this album came up, I was very eager to get the job as producer. I felt like the music this man made was part of the fabric of my own musical identity and that I would really love building a record with him. Once we sat down and started going over the songs he had, I instantly knew that the two of us were going to be a great fit together."

McKagan's last solo album, "Believe In Me", arrived in 1993. His LOADED outfit released "The Taking" in 2011.

Three-fifths of the classic GUNS lineup reunited in 2016 after last performing together more than two decades earlier. The "Not In This Lifetime" tour, which is now one of the highest-grossing in music history, launched in April of that year with a nightclub gig in Los Angeles.

Joining McKagan, singer Axl Rose and guitarist Slash on the "Not In This Lifetime" trek are drummer Frank Ferrer, keyboardist Dizzy Reed, guitarist Richard Fortus and second keyboardist Melissa Reese.

Photo credit: Katarina Benzova

View this post on Instagram Special Announcement! A post shared by Duff ?McKagan (@officialduffmckagan) on Feb 19, 2019 at 8:32am PST

BMG will continue its reissues series of the IRON MAIDEN catalog with the second set of digipak CD titles in "The Studio Collection - Remastered", to be made available on March 22. Check out a newly released trailer below.

Following on from 2014/2017's black vinyl releases and 2015's "Mastered For iTunes" project, "The Studio Collection - Remastered" features recordings taken from the same remasters as the 2015 hi-res digital releases. The albums supersede the previously available studio catalog and all titles will also be made available on streaming platforms.

As a bonus for collectors, one CD from each batch of releases will also be optionally available in a specially artworked box featuring a 1:24 scale figurine and exclusive patch. In the March 22 batch, this will be "Somewhere In Time".

MAIDEN founding member and bassist Steve Harris says: "We've wanted to revisit these for a long time and I was delighted with the remastering we did in 2015. I thought it was the best that our albums have ever sounded and it was only right that we made them available on CD now too."

All four albums in this second batch are available for pre-order now from studiocollection.ironmaiden.com.

The first four albums in this collection were released in November 2018.

IRON MAIDEN will continue its "Legacy Of The Beast" tour in 2019 across North, South and Central America, including a headlining show at Brazil's Rock In Rio in October. The tour opened in Europe last year, playing to over 750,000 people at sold-out stadium, arena and headline festival shows and was hailed by fans and media alike as the must-see show of the summer.

A collection of previously unreleased demos by Joe Satriani's first band, THE SQUARES, will be made available on April 5 via his own Strange Beautiful Music imprint.

THE SQUARES featured Andy Milton, who passed away in 1999, on bass and vocals, Jeff Campitelli on drums and, of course, Satriani on guitar.

"In Berkeley, California back in the late '70s, my then-brother-in-law Neil Sheehan and I decided to start a band," Satriani said. "It would be a power pop trio with me on guitar and Neil managing and writing lyrics. We sought out a drummer and a frontman/bassist, and in December of '79 we found them playing on the local Bay Area scene.

"Our lead vocalist/bassist Andy Milton was from Cleveland, Ohio. He was 6 feet tall, good looking and had a voice like a modern-day Elvis.

"Our drummer Jeff Campitelli was fresh out of high school. A local phenom who could groove like Charlie Watts but with a new ferocious energy that would help propel the band into the burgeoning New Wave music scene.

"We called ourselves THE SQUARES, or sometimes just SQUARES. There were other bands with the same name but we were determined to get to home base first and claim the name. That never happened. We were part VAN HALEN and part EVERLY BROTHERS. A mix of heavy metal, rock 'n' roll, punk and new wave. We were hard to pin down and categorize, which is most likely why we never 'made it.'

"But as we were trying our best to get a record deal and become superstars, we had a lot of good times, and we laid down some seriously good music. We were ahead of our time, which, in this case, is another way of saying we were out of step with what people were looking for back then.

"Ultimately, I left the band I started to pursue a solo career. It was gut\-wrenching to walk away from something I put all my heart and soul into, but, as it turned out, it was the right thing to do."

The demos on "Best Of The Early '80s Demos" were recorded and mixed by the band's then-sound engineer John Cuniberti. The recordings have now been restored, digitized and remixed by Cuniberti.

"We've restored the original recordings, brought them into the digital world, and with loving hands and ears, John has remixed the best of what we did in the studio," Satriani said. "They sound better than ever. John was careful to preserve the band's original intent with regards to song arrangements, sound and vibe, and in some cases, extremely creative mix ideas.

"Best Of The Early '80s Demos" track listing:

01. Give It Up

02. Everybody's Girl

03. B-Side Girl

04. I Need A Lot Of Love

05. Can't Take It Anymore

06. So Used Up

07. You Can Light The Way

08. Tonight

09. Never Let It Get You Down

10. Follow That Heart

11. I Love How You Love Me