Stormwarrior will release their new album, Norsemen, on November 29 via Massacre Records. New single and lyric video for “Odin’s Fire” is streaming below.

Norsemen was mixed and mastered by Piet Sielck at the Powerhouse Studio in Hamburg, Germany. Renowned artist Andreas Marschall is responsible for the impressive cover artwork. 

Tracklisting:

“To The Shores Where We Belong”
“Norsemen (We Are)”
“Storm Of The North”
“Freeborn”
“Odin’s Fire”
“Sword Dance”
“Blade On Blade”
“Shield Wall”
“Sword Of Valhalla”

“Odin’s Fire” lyric video:

(Photo by: Lars Hoese)




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Wilderun has unveiled a lyric video for the song "The Tyranny Of Imagination" from their upcoming epic, progressive metal masterpiece Veil Of Imagination.

"The album as a whole has a lot of peaks and valleys through light and darkness, and 'The Tyranny of Imagination' is probably the deepest valley," explains vocalist/guitarist/pianist Evan Berry.  "Whereas our previous single 'Far from Where Dreams Unfurl' explored brighter, melodic territories, we wanted this song to focus more on guitar work, atmosphere, and the darker textures of the orchestra. Lyrically, this song is a sort of submission to the power and oppression of an overactive mind.  Up until this point on the album, the 'main character' has been battling his own inability to live in the real world, attempting to find ways to perceive reality as it truly is.  This is a song of defeat, and of going inward to the point of no return."

With elements of progressive metal, folk and orchestral music providing a dynamic backdrop, Veil of Imagination takes listeners through vivid, emotional landscapes, while the lyrics weave tales that are simultaneously fantastical and personal.

Berry says, "Lyrically, this album is a bit of an uncomfortable look into my own neuroses. Not so much its manifestations in real life but more of a third-person perspective on the mechanics of a brain trying to interpret the world through reason and understanding...and usually coming up short."

Formed in 2012, Wilderun has previously released two albums, 2012's Olden Tales & Deathly Trails and 2015's Sleep at the Edge of the Earth. With this slightly different approach to creating music, Veil of Imagination transforms and expands upon Wilderun's already indefinable style, resulting in an album that is at once beautiful and fierce. Clean vocals transform into deathly growls as the band alternates between exquisitely-composed orchestrations and savage metal, all executed with technical prowess.

Veil Of Imagination is a stunningly epic, emotional and whimsical odyssey through landscapes of earth and mind.

Veil Of Imagination was recorded at More Sound Studios in Syracuse, NY, during February and March of 2018. The album was produced by Wilderun, Justin Spaulding and Andrew Greacen. Veil of Imagination was mixed by the legendary Dan Swanö and mastered by Jens Bogran.

Information on pre-orders is forthcoming.

Tracklisting:

“The Unimaginable Zero Summer”
“O Resolution!”
“Sleeping Ambassadors Of The Sun”
“Scentless Core (Budding)”
“Far From Where Dreams Unfurl”
“Scentless Core (Fading)”
“The Tyranny Of Imagination”
“When The Fire And The Rose Were One”

"The Tyranny Of Imagination" lyric video:

"Far From Where Dreams Unfurl":

Wilderun has scheduled select live dates around the release of Veil Of Imagination:

November
1 – Rochester, NY – The Montage Music Hall
2 – Baltimore, MD – The Depot
3 – Philadelphia, PA – Connie’s Ric Rac
7 – Hamden, CT – The Cellar on Treadwell
8 – Florence, MA – 13th Floor Music Lounge
9 – Cambridge, MA – The Middle East Upstairs 

(Photo by: Karen Jerzyk)




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Northern Ireland's epic metallers Terminus have released a new song from forthcoming sophomore album A Single Point Of Light. Stream "Harvest" below.

A Single Point Of Light is the second full-length album from Terminus, one that continues their exploration into science fiction realms. The album will be released November 9 on Cruz Del Sur Music.

The Terminus/Cruz Del Sur relationship stretches back to 2013 when both parties were tossing around the idea of releasing the band’s The Reaper’s Spiral debut. While the idea didn’t come to fruition then, there is no better time than the present — Gillespie says Cruz Del Sur is a “natural fit” for Terminus since their friends in Ravensire, Argus, Atlantean Kodex, Lethean, Gatekeeper and Lunar Shadow already call the label home.  

Terminus ceased to be a live entity in late 2017 after triumphant appearances at Keep It True, Up The Hammers, Pyrennean Warriors Open Air and Ultimate Revenge in Helsinki, enabling the band (now a two-piece featuring vocalist James Beattie and Gillespie on instruments) enough time to focus on new material. According to Gillespie, the goal with A Single Point Of Light was to “evolve enough so that a second album was not a redundant exercise while still remaining true to our core sound.” 

“As the principal songwriter, it was self-imposed pressure to prove — to myself — that I wasn’t a one-off and that I could write another record of equal or superior quality,” he continues. “Hence, we did not simply poop out an album in 18 months, but took our time.” 

Like its predecessor, A Single Point Of Light is a deep dive into the realms of epic and progressive metal, with bountiful guitar harmonies, complex song arrangements and the controlled, but emotive delivery of Beattie. It results in an album that is a comfortable step forward for Terminus while not reneging on the core tenets that initially brought the band together in 2012. 

“The obvious thing is that we haven’t turned into a Sisters Of Mercy tribute band or anything silly like that,” says Gillespie. “The new album is in the same vein and we have retained our ethos — which seems to have become strikingly popular of late — that the album should fit on one side of a 90-minute tape and should split evenly and sympathetically across both sides of a 12-inch LP. Some elements of the sound have been dropped, some have been focused on and there are a few new textures in there to keep things fresh.” 

A Single Point Of Light again finds Terminus exploring lyrical themes off the traditional heavy metal path. Instead, the band continues their approach of interpreting classic science-fiction tales alongside stories of their own telling.

“We have always been antithetical to the rest of the subgenre, lyrically,” wraps Gillespie. “Our songs are not about heroes and their deeds. They’re about cowards, deviants, deceivers — the scum of the universe, really. There are no heroics and no victories to be found in our world.”

Tracklisting:

“To Ash, To Dust”
“Harvest”
“As Through A Child’s Eyes”
“Flesh Falls From Steel”
“Mhira, Tell Me The Nature Of Your Existence”
“Cry Havoc”
“Spinning Webs, Catching Dreams”

"Harvest":

"To Ash, To Dust":




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Seattle, Washington-based Blackqueen, founded by life-long punk/metal scene veterans having played with Assück, Wormwood, and more, has completed their new LP for release this fall. The newly-completed The Destructive Cycle features guest vocals and art/design contributions from Assück's Paul Pavlovich and Leviathan/Lurker Of Chalice's Wrest, and will see release on multiple platforms, the initial digital and CD release to take place in November, with the LP to follow in early 2020.

Blackqueen's The Destructive Cycle is written based on Taoist five element theory. The band always strives to write music that creates dark and powerful soundscapes while at the same time embracing the deep esoteric knowledge of many cultures, from the powers of the known universe, into the unknown beyond; a musical representation of the powers of nature being channeled through a human host, and of the fear born from its misunderstood creative and destructive elements.

The Destructive Cycle was written by Pete Jay, performed by Pete Jay, Brandon Fitzsimons, Rob Beebe, and Patrick Fiorentino. Recorded and mixed by Brandon Fitzsimons at Airport Grocery, and mastered by Scott Craggs at Old Colony Mastering with additional engineering by Jeremy Davis, the record features guest vocals from Paul Pavlovich (Assück) on "Needle Grinding Well," "Infinitesimal," and "Calefactorum Occulta," and Wrest (Leviathan, Lurker Of Chalice) on "The Sorcerer's Jian." The album is completed with cover art by Wrest and the LP version features design by Pavlovich, who will release the vinyl on his own Roman Numeral Records, the CD to see release by Super Sargasso, and the digital via handled by Blackqueen.

The Destructive Cycle will see CD and digital release on November 22, with the vinyl to see release in January. Preorders on Bandcamp.

Tracklisting:

“The Destructive Cycle”
“Feed The Worm”
“Needle Grinding Well”
“Infinitesimal”
“Calefactorum Occulta”
“The Sorcerer’s Jian” 




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Fan-filmed video footage of HAIL!, the project featuring ex-LAMB OF GOD drummer Chris Adler, EXODUS vocalist Steve "Zetro" Souza, VIO-LENCE/ex-MACHINE HEAD guitarist Phil Demmel and former MEGADETH/BLACK LABEL SOCIETY bassist James LoMenzo, performing earlier tonight (Friday, October 18) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates can be seen below.

Prior to the tour's launch, LoMenzo stated about the latest version of HAIL!: "We're back! In always creating that once-in-a-lifetime experience for all our fans around the world, HAIL!'s newest lineup for this tour will feature Chris Adler, Steve 'Zetro' Souza, Phil Demmel and myself, James LoMenzo."

Demmel, who played with HAIL! in 2010, said: "I am so stoked to jam with all my bros Zet, Chris and James in HAIL! and bring our brand of metal insanity to the lunatics overseas. Strap in, you maniacs, it's going to KILLER!!!"

HAIL! creator/manager Mark "Abba" Abbattista added: "Although we've laid low the past few years, we never went away, nor will we ever. We were waiting for the right time to re-unleash our onslaught and now is that time. In keeping with our tradition of bringing the best in metal to some far-off places, we are thrilled to announce the first leg of our upcoming tour:"

Zetro said: "I'm absolutely excited to head to some places I have never played to bang my head with such loyal metal fans, and I'm honored to be surrounded by such heavy hitters like Phil Demmel, Chris Adler and James LoMenzo. HAIL!!! To anyone coming out for this metal onslaught — buckle your seatbelts, your lives will never be the same! HAIL!!!"

Adler agreed: "I'm looking forward to meeting the fans and exploring all of these off-the-beaten-path locations, and I'm psyched to be doing it with three of the coolest and down-to-earth guys I've met over my career. HAIL!"

HAIL! said: "We have been doing this for over 10 years and played in almost 30 countries. The appeal of HAIL! is timeless and universal because it's pure and it's real. Our reason is simple — we love to play songs we love to fans who love hearing them!"

This past July, LAMB OF GOD officially parted ways with Adler. His replacement is Art Cruz, who has previously played with PRONG and WINDS OF PLAGUE, and filled in for Adler on several LAMB OF GOD tours in the past year and a half.




Posted by Metal East Records on Friday, October 18, 2019

Metallica have released the video below, featuring the band's performance of "Seek & Destroy" from Twickenham Stadium in London, England on June 20, 2019.

Danny Wimmer Presents recently announced that Metallica will exclusively headline all five of the premier independent producer’s hard rock festivals in 2020 in a unique collaboration unprecedented for any American festival promoter or band. Metallica's 2020 US festival press conference is now available for streaming below.

Says Metallica: "You know we love a challenge, so when Danny Wimmer Presents invited us to headline all five of their Spring/Fall US rock festivals, that sounded like great fun. But play two separate sets on two nights in the same weekend? Definitely count us in! In another Metallica first, we’ll be playing at all five of the Wimmer rock festivals in 2020 with two separate sets, one on Friday night, one on Sunday night."

Recently named the world’s biggest all-time touring act by Pollstar, Metallica will - for the first time ever - perform two separate headlining sets at all of the following events in 2020:

- Epicenter (May 1-3) at its new location at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC
- Welcome To Rockville (May 8-10) at its new location at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, FL
- Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival (May 15-17) at MAPFRE Stadium in Columbus, OH
- Louder Than Life (September 18-20) at Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center in Louisville, KY
- Aftershock (October 9-11) at Discovery Park in Sacramento, CA

These events will be the only chance to see Metallica at a US festival in 2020. In addition to two appearances at each festival, Metallica will also deliver a unique set list for each performance, resulting in 10 different shows over the course of the year.

“Metallica isn’t just another headliner. When Metallica takes the stage, it’s an event. It’s an experience. That’s the same standard we’ve set for every DWP festival – from the first band to the last band, and everything that happens in between. I can’t wait to bring the biggest band in the world to the biggest rock festivals in America,” says Danny Wimmer, founder of Danny Wimmer Presents, the largest independent festival producer in the U.S. “Metallica paved this road that we travel. How many artists on the bill at these five festivals first picked up an instrument, or first started a band, because of Metallica?”

Buy tickets at MetallicaXX.com or the Epicenter, Welcome To Rockville, Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival, Louder Than Life and Aftershock websites.

Watch the official DWP 2020 festival announcement trailer below:

For each ticket sold through November 19, Danny Wimmer Presents will donate 25 cents to Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation. AWMH is a non-profit, philanthropic organization created by the members and management of Metallica, dedicated to creating sustainable communities by supporting workforce education, the fight against hunger, and other critical local services. 100% of donations go directly to local organizations that the Foundation supports. Please visit AllWithinMyHands.org for more information.

To further celebrate this historic collaboration, Danny Wimmer Presents invites fans to enter the Golden Ticket contest. One lucky person will win an all-expenses paid trip to any DWP festival of their choice to see Metallica play 2 different nights and 2 different sets over 1 incredible weekend. The prize package includes rock star accommodations, exclusive festival access, opportunities to watch the show from the legendary Metallica Snake Pit, meet and greets, amazing memorabilia and more.

Fans are automatically entered to win by purchasing a Weekend GA or Weekend VIP pass to any of the five Danny Wimmer Presents US 2020 rock festivals featuring Metallica, by signing up for the Fifth Member Fan Club or by subscribing to any of the five Danny Wimmer Presents US 2020 rock festival newsletters. Offer only valid on purchases or signups between October 10, 2019 and November 19, 2019. Winner must be at least 18 years old by May 1, 2020. For more information visit MetallicaXX.com.




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U.S. black metal icons Abigail Williams have revealed more of their fifth record, Walk Beyond The Dark, with new single "Ever So Bold."

The black sheep of the black metal scene, Abigail Williams, returns with their boldest and most diverse offering to date, Walk Beyond the Dark, available November 15 via Blood Music.

"It's been four years since the last album," says Abigail Williams leader Ken Sorceron. "That seems like quite a long time. Life, death, countless other musical endeavors, and all sorts of distractions kept getting in the way, delaying its completion again and again. Over that time, I wrote over 20 songs that I was actually pretty happy with. When it finally came time to record, I narrowed it down to the seven that appear here, as they seemed to fit the best together and make the statement I wanted to make here and now."

Equal parts introspection and extremity, Walk Beyond the Dark is a testament to the band's journey across the years - all the miles they've travelled, all the trials endured, all the mud thrown at them, all to keep doing what they love, on their own terms and without compromise.

Throughout all of these storms and tribulations remains band leader and songwriter, vocalist and mastermind Ken Sorceron. In so many ways, Sorceron himself is Abigail Williams, its heart, mind and spirit. Deftly wielding the forces of light and dark in skilled measure. Icy guitars and bleak atmospheres encircle. Rapturous bursts of string accompaniments penetrate the melancholic futility of shadow and despair. Powerful guitars shift between slithering rhythms, contemplative grooves and all-out assaults.

Songs like visceral opener "I Will Depart" and the torrential "Into The Sleep" take aspects and elements from each of the band's previous iterations - the gleaming metallic riff-work of In the Shadow Of A Thousand Suns, the seething rage of In The Absence Of Light, the grim grandeur of Becoming, the moody melodic menace of The Accuser - and weave them together into something that's far more than the mere sum of its parts.

The studio lineup for Walk Beyond The Dark also features Bryan O'Sullivan on bass and Mike Heller drums, along with featured artists by Chris "Kakophonix" Brown (cello), Andrew Markuszewski (guitar), Justin McKinney (guitar) on select tracks. The album was mixed by Lasse Lammert (Warrel Dane, Alestorm, Gloryhammer).

Says Sorceron, "Mike Heller and Bryan O'Sullivan killed it. I couldn't have asked for better people to play on this album, and they really took things and brought them to life. Chris Brown added the extra flourishes on top, with the string parts that really accented the haunting nature of it all and contrasted with the extreme stuff perfectly. Then all of that got put into Lasse Lammert's hands and he mixed and mastered it all into perfection. It's been a long road, but it turned out better than I imagined and I'm stoked to finally get these songs out there."

The CD version of Walk Beyond the Dark will come as a six-panel, fold-out digipack, featuring the haunting otherworldly artwork of Mariusz Lewandowski. For the vinyl version, a heavyweight 180+ gram double LP, mastered specifically for vinyl and cut at 45rpm for maximum audio fidelity, will come inside a 350gsm heavyweight board single-pocket jacket, sleeved in poly-lined black inner sleeves. The vinyl edition will be available December 13. Pre-orders for both versions are available via the Blood Music site.

Tracklisting:

“I Will Depart”
“Sun And Moon”
“Ever So Bold”
“Black Waves”
“Into The Sleep”
“Born Of Nothing”
“The Final Failure”

"Ever So Bold":

“I Will Depart”:

(Photo by: Hannah Lund)




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Fan-filmed video footage of TESTAMENT's performance aboard the inaugural Megacruise can be seen below (courtesy of Alex Vigil).

Megacruise, hosted by metal veterans MEGADETH, departed from Los Angeles on October 13 on a round-trip voyage to San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico.

TESTAMENT frontman Chuck Billy recently confirmed to DJ Valentino of the WSOU radio station that the band has completed work on the follow-up to 2016's "Brotherhood Of The Snake" album. Asked if the plan is still to release the new LP in January, Billy said: "That's the window. We're still talking with [TESTAMENT's record label] Nuclear Blast [about] the exact date. But I think now they're leaning towards end of February, beginning of March. So it's probably looking like that. But it's all done. We just finished the mastering this week and [we're] finishing up all the artwork in the next couple of weeks. The label should have all the parts. And it's a matter of just kind of waiting then."

As for the musical direction of the new TESTAMENT album, Billy said: "This one definitely has some different elements. I think Eric [Peterson, guitar] definitely stepped back into little of his — I don't know — maybe, MERCYFUL FATE shoes. There's a lot of MERCYFUL FATE kind of stuff. Eric does some black metal stuff. There's some blast beats, which he's kind of mixed in there, which that's not the norm for us. So it's a little different again. I think all the songs definitely have their own identity and stand on their own."

According to Chuck, the writing process for TESTAMENT's new album was challenging but it resulted in moments that some of the band's fans may find musically surprising.

"It definitely was a process of creating it, especially when you're trying to — at this point, you're writing song 120," he laughed. "You're trying to come up with something and keeping it fresh and trying new things. I guess the good thing on this one is also Eric actually chose some chords and notes that aren't typical TESTAMENT, I guess, that we've used, so they're actually different and more challenging for me. And when I first actually heard them, I was kind of, like, 'I don't if I feel that.' And I kind of shied away from it. Then, as the process developed and I really kind of focused on the song, it ended up being those songs that ended up being some of the better songs and stronger songs. And it's just so weird — the ones that were easier and came together quicker [laughs] now aren't my favorites. So it's just kind of weird, the whole process of writing a record. And this one, again, was no different than the last one. [It's got] a different vibe."

Asked if it's more difficult than ever to trying to come up with something fresh when writing a new TESTAMENT album, Chuck said: "I vibe off of Eric, what he gives me, and I basically set the tempo, if it's gonna feel like a melodic vocal song or a death metal vocal song or just straight death — I kind of see where it's gonna lead me, I guess, as we approach each song as they come. And a lot of this one had a lot more moving chords on it to where it made me feel a little more, I guess, melodic on this one; I'm using definitely my melodic tone of a voice and less of a death metal voice. It's just kind of where the songs took it. There's a song on here that was kind of one of the last ones that came around — it's one of the slower-tempo songs. And I kind of was shying away from it 'cause the pace of the rest of the record was pretty quick, so I wasn't sure it was the right fit. But in the end, once we wrote it and finished it, it turned out to be a great song. But I'm doing some stuff on there — I've never sang a three-part harmony on a TESTAMENT song ever. And on this one, there's a situation where I tried it and did it, and it sounds really cool for the song. So it was just something different — challenging again that was different notes to use and different challenges, and I kind of dug it. And it actually was cool, and it actually made the experience on those songs, of creation, just kind of fun."

Billy went on to discuss two of the tracks that will appear on TESTAMENT's new disc, saying: "On this record, there's a song called 'Children Of The Next Level', and that's one that really came together, musically, and came together lyrically. There's another one on the record that, actually, the first time I heard the song, I kind of mimicked the vocal pattern and actually we wrote it the next day. So that was a song that was, like, 'Wow!' I got inspired and laid down the first gut feeling of what it felt like. And it ended up being a keeper, and we ended up molding it right into a killer song. And lyrically, the timing, the melody, the lyrics — everything just really kind of fell into place."

TESTAMENT's new album was once again recorded with Juan Urteaga and mixed by veteran British producer — and current JUDAS PRIEST touring guitarist — Andy Sneap.

TESTAMENT will team up with EXODUS and DEATH ANGEL for "The Bay Strikes Back 2020" European tour. The trek will kick off on February 6 in Copenhagen, Denmark and will hit 25 cities before concluding on March 11 in Hannover, Germany.

Following yesterday's (October 16) worldwide exclusive premiere on SiriusXM Octane, horror-inspired metal act ICE NINE KILLS has shared its brand-new chilling single "Your Number's Up" in the below lyric video. The track, a tribute to Wes Craven's classic 1996 self-referential slasher "Scream", will be included as one of many bonus features on the band's upcoming deluxe release "The Silver Scream: Final Cut", due out just in time for Halloween on October 25 via Fearless Records.

"The bloody mark that Wes Craven's 'Scream' left on the horror genre cannot be overstated," shares vocalist and horror aficionado Spencer Charnas. "I saw the movie in theaters when I was 11, but I can remember the experience as if it were yesterday. Although I had already been a big fan of slashers, this was the first time I had ever seen one on the big screen. I was hooked from the opening sequence and watched in awe at the devilishly sharp self-referential dialogue that cut through the screen like a knife. The film single handedly revitalized the slasher/horror movie craze in '90s, and it will forever remain a crucial figure in the genre. The time has come for us to give my favorite film the INK-horror treatment it deserves, and I couldn't be more excited for the world to experience 'Your Number's Up'."

"The Silver Scream: Final Cut" is now available for pre-order and will also include the Billboard Active Rock-charting critically acclaimed album's groundbreaking original 13 tracks in addition to four haunting acoustic renditions of previously released cuts and a cover of the iconic hit song "Thriller". Notable figures in the horror and metal community alike will be seen featured as guests including Grammy-nominated musician Matt Heafy (TRIVIUM), horror icon Ari Lehman (the original Jason, "Friday The 13th"), Chelsea Talmadge ("Stranger Things") and Sam Kubrick (grandson of Stanley Kubrick who famously directed "The Shining").

In addition to the CD, "The Silver Scream: Final Cut" will include a DVD of the full-length feature horror film "The Silver Scream, Ice Nine Kills" created with director Daniel Hourihan ("Manchester By The Sea", "In Your Eyes") that injects their own narrative into the movies the tracks on "The Silver Scream" pay homage to.

Pre-order options for the "The Silver Scream: Final Cut" include a copy of the deluxe CD and "The Silver Scream" film on DVD in a custom VHS slipcase. Bundles offer merch options including an exclusive poster of the album's cover art, INK horror themed enamel pins, an INK beanie, and several exclusive t-shirt, raglan and hoodie designs for both genders.

"The Silver Scream: Final Cut" track listing:

01. The American Nightmare

02. Thank God It's Friday

03. Stabbing In The Dark

04. Savages

05. The Jig Is Up (ft. Randy Strohmeyer of FINCH)

06. A Grave Mistake

07. Rocking The Boat (ft. Jeremy Schwartz)

08. Enjoy Your Slay (ft. Sam Kubrick)

09. Freak Flag

10. The World in My Hands (ft. Tony Lovato of MEST)

11. Merry Axe-mas

12. Love Bites (ft. Chelsea Talmadge)

13. IT Is The End (ft. JR Wasilewski & Buddy Schaub of LESS THAN JAKE and Will Salazar of FENIX TX)

14. Your Number's Up

15. Thriller (Michael Jackson cover)

16. A Grave Mistake (Live from SiriusXM)

17. Stabbing In The Dark (Acoustic ft. Matt Heafy)

18. SAVAGES (Acoustic)

19. Thank God It's Friday (Acoustic ft. Ari Lehman)

ICE NINE KILLS recently wrapped up its headlining "Silver Scream" world tour with a an almost completely sold-out stretch across the U.K. and mainland Europe. The band will next be seen headlining across the U.S. on the "The Octane Accelerators Tour" from October 29 to December 1 with special guests FIT FOR A KING, LIGHT THE TORCH, MAKE THEM SUFFER and AWAKE AT LAST. ICE NINE KILLS will also perform a special recorded acoustic show on Monday, November 4 in Estes Park, Colorado at the infamous Stanley Hotel, the source of inspiration for Stephen King's bestselling novel "The Shining".

Fan-filmed video footage of ANTHRAX's performance aboard the inaugural Megacruise can be seen below.

Megacruise, hosted by metal veterans MEGADETH, departed from Los Angeles on October 13 on a round-trip voyage to San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico and returned on October 18. The at-sea music experience featured additional performances from QUEENSRŸCHE, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, DEATH ANGEL, TESTAMENT, DRAGONFORCE, OVERKILL and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, among others.

Official cruise hosts Eddie Trunk (VH1, SiriusXM, AXS), Jose Mangin (SiriusXM) and Lüc Carl (SiriusXM, Ozzy's Boneyard) moderated question-and-answer sessions and activities specially crafted for this voyage.

Megacruise offered fans a variety of events and activities that put cruisers up front and center with metal icons from fan and artist photo experiences to intimate morning coffee jams, music clinics to fan and artist sporting competitions and more ways to interact with the lineup.

ANTHRAX is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, 2016's "For All Kings", which was called by some critics the band's strongest album to date. Its arrival followed a five-year period during which the group experienced a rebirth of sorts, beginning with ANTHRAX's inclusion on the 2010 "Big Four" tour with METALLICA, SLAYER and MEGADETH, and continuing with the 2011 release of comeback LP "Worship Music".

Members of MEGADETH, ANTHRAX, TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, QUEENSRŸCHE, DORO, HELLYEAH and BUTCHER BABIES are among the musicians who took part in an all-star KISS jam aboard the inaugural Megacruise. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be seen below.

Megacruise, hosted by metal veterans MEGADETH, departed from Los Angeles on October 13 on a round-trip voyage to San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico and returned on October 18. The at-sea music experience featured performances from ANTHRAX, QUEENSRŸCHE, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, DEATH ANGEL, TESTAMENT, DRAGONFORCE, OVERKILL and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, among others.

Official cruise hosts Eddie Trunk (VH1, SiriusXM, AXS), Jose Mangin (SiriusXM) and Lüc Carl (SiriusXM, Ozzy's Boneyard) moderated question-and-answer sessions and activities specially crafted for this voyage.

Megacruise offered fans a variety of events and activities that put cruisers up front and center with metal icons from fan and artist photo experiences to intimate morning coffee jams, music clinics to fan and artist sporting competitions and more ways to interact with the lineup.

MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine did not take part in this year's Megacruise after he was diagnosed with throat cancer earlier in the year.

Fan-filmed video footage of LAMB OF GOD's performance aboard the inaugural Megacruise can be seen below (courtesy of YouTube user "Joel Steele").

Megacruise, hosted by metal veterans MEGADETH, departed from Los Angeles on October 13 on a round-trip voyage to San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico and returned on October 18. The at-sea music experience featured additional performances from ANTHRAX, QUEENSRŸCHE, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, DEATH ANGEL, TESTAMENT, DRAGONFORCE, OVERKILL and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, among others.

Official cruise hosts Eddie Trunk (VH1, SiriusXM, AXS), Jose Mangin (SiriusXM) and Lüc Carl (SiriusXM, Ozzy's Boneyard) moderated question-and-answer sessions and activities specially crafted for this voyage.

Megacruise offered fans a variety of events and activities that put cruisers up front and center with metal icons from fan and artist photo experiences to intimate morning coffee jams, music clinics to fan and artist sporting competitions and more ways to interact with the lineup.

LAMB OF GOD's latest studio album, "VII: Sturm Und Drang", was released in 2015 to global critial acclaim. The band has since issued the celebrated "The Duke" EP in 2016 as well as the cover album "Legion: XX" under its original name, BURN THE PRIEST, in 2018.

The official video for the song "Animal Eyes" from THE NEPTUNE DARLINGS, the collaboration between Mina Caputo (LIFE OF AGONY) and Ryan Oldcastle, can be seen below.

"Animal Eyes" is the opening track of THE NEPTUNE DARLINGS' melodically adventurous sophomore release, "Principium Sequentia".

Mina told Revolver magazine about THE NEPTUNE DARLINGS: "It's a complete honor to work with Ryan, both in my solo band and here. He's a complete visionary: incredible artist, songwriter, guitar player.

"This is a special project, because it's just the two of us. We're free to detach, and get our heads inside this eclectic, exotic anti-music exploring the desolation of rock and roll."

THE NEPTUNE DARLINGS' second record in seven years, "Principium Sequentia" is described by Mina as "a true departure from the first: It gives off weird, strange, fucked-up, but a stellar night-drive record. A true psychedelic's delight."

Parlophone Records will continue its reissues series of the IRON MAIDEN catalog with the fourth and final set of digipak CD titles in "The Studio Collection - Remastered", to be released on November 22.

The albums are "Dance Of Death", "A Matter Of Life And Death" (standard/collectors), "The Final Frontier" and 2015's double album "The Book Of Souls".

"The Studio Collection – Remastered" follows on from 2014/2017's black vinyl releases and 2015's "Mastered For iTunes" project and features recordings taken from the same remasters as the 2015 hi-res digital releases. The most recent studio album — "The Book Of Souls" — was released that year in the same quality audio, but is appearing in digipak for the first time.

The albums supersede the previously available studio catalogue and all titles will also be made available on streaming platforms.

As a bonus for collectors, one CD from each batch of releases is optionally available in a specially artwork designed box featuring a 1:24 scale figurine and exclusive patch. In the final batch, this will be "A Matter Of Life And Death".

All four albums in this set are available for pre-order now from

studiocollection.ironmaiden.com.

IRON MAIDEN has attracted rave reviews on its mobile game-inspired, three-month "Legacy Of The Beast" tour across North, South and Central America with Rolling Stone calling it the "pinnacle of heavy metal escapism" and a "pure multi-media spectacle." The tour included a headline performance at Rock In Rio — which NME described as "brilliant" — with all 100,000 tickets sold in less than two hours.

The "Legacy Of The Beast" tour returns to the U.K. in June 2020 with headline performances at Download festival (Donington) and Belsonic (Belfast), which will be the band’s only U.K. shows of next year.

According to Billboard, AEROSMITH's "Deuces Are Wild" residency has grossed $31.1 million and sold 151,837 tickets since opening on April 6. The legendary rockers have played 24 shows at the Park Theater in Las Vegas, plus a few shows at other MGM locations around the country (three at The Theater at MGM National Harbor in Oxon, Maryland, and four at MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts).

The residency has averaged $1.002 million in grosses per show, with the band's run from September 21 to October 6 generating $6.5 million and selling 29,805 tickets.

AEROSMITH recently extended its Las Vegas residency with 15 more dates in early 2020 due to "extraordinary demand." "Deuces Are Wild" at Park Theater at Park MGM will return for more shows in January, February, May and June next year.

AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry told "The Eddie Trunk Podcast" about the "Deuces Are Wild" shows: "We really didn't know what to expect when we came in here [to Vegas]. We were talking to different people who have done it. I know that rock bands have come in and done two or three weeks, a month maybe, and what we saw was most bands would just kind of strip down their regular live show, bring in a little bit more production. And then we also saw… We looked at a lot of different shows — everything from 'Love' to David Copperfield to every other choice of acts on the [Las Vegas] Strip. And we decided that if we were gonna do this, we were gonna make it be not just if you wanna see AEROSMITH, but if you wanna see a rock and roll band and have that kind of music. It's like if you wanna go to see the 'Love' show and see THE BEATLES stuff taken apart and put together in a really amazing way, you go to that. If you wanna see magic, you go to see David Copperfield. If you wanna go to a Cirque Du Soleil show, there's a number of 'em you can go to see. So we wanted it to be a little more than just for AEROSMITH fans. We wanted to have it so that even if you just had heard of us, maybe you'd come and you'd be entertained"

AEROSMITH enlisted THE BEATLES archival producer Giles Martin, who co-designed the sound for Cirque Du Soleil's THE BEATLES "Love" show, to supervise its sound in Vegas.

"I think the whole thing is the learning process," Perry continued. "We wanted to keep the thing real rock and roll, but put on a big show. And so when that was being put together, there was always a rub, because there was a lot of computerized stuff, because there are so many moving parts. And there are probably four or five different areas of people running things, because there's so much just moving parts, lights — all that stuff — and you just can't run it like a regular show. But we did study some of the pop acts and things like that, and since we don't have 16 dancers up there, and we probably never will, we thought that we would try a few things to bring up the level of the music itself. And we realized the best thing we could do is just keep it stripped down to AEROSMITH. And we filled in a few things — we have a percussionist and another background singer to help fill it out, just something that we wouldn't be able to do on a regular tour. But what we realized during the first run was that the more of the real essential AEROSMITH we could give, the better the show was inside of the production around it. And playing some of the songs in that setting made it that much more entertaining, and more entertaining for us, 'cause we realized that we could be a lot looser — probably closer to how we would do an afternoon gig at a club. That kind of loose."

In 2017, AEROSMITH announced a run of dates called "Aero-Vederci Baby!", but stopped short of calling it a final tour.

AEROSMITH hasn't released a new studio album since 2012's "Music From Another Dimension!"

Southern California band Fake Figures, featuring members of Atreyu, Hotwire, and Scars Of Tomorrow, will release their new EP, We Are the Dead, on November 15 via War Against Records.

The EP will be issued digitally and via splatter vinyl, which is available for pre-order here. Fake Figures has premiered the new song and video for "You're Distant." 

"When we were in the conception phase of ideas for this video, we wanted to scale things back and make more of a performance video that used hard lighting that paints two sides of each of us, using angles that are reminiscent of early '80s action movie posters," explains singer Rus Martin. "The short narrative ideas were hashed out between me and the director, Brad Alexander, and we had this really massive idea of capturing someone who is slowly deteriorating and going through this transformation with emphasis on inner voices."

But things came together a bit different than originally planned.

Martin continues, "Ultimately, we decided to keep it simple and focus on something that people might commonly deal with, more than this grandiose visual of changes throughout each scene. What we captured was being alone in a small living space, dealing with your emotions alone, and having these moments that seem like they'll never disappear. The narrative has a scene with the character, played by me, using the sink to throw water on his face, essentially waking himself up from the bigger issues in life."

With We Are the Dead, Fake Figures are confident that they have truly crafted their signature sound. 

"I think we captured something here with these songs that we missed the mark on with our past releases," says Martin. "We Are the Dead sounds like what we set out in 2010 to make Fake Figures sound like. Our debut Hail The Sycophants was like us saying, 'Hey, we have some really cool ideas about how we want to do something different with heavier music.' Meanwhile, our sophomore EP, They Must Be Destroyed, was like, 'We want to get really experimental now and try more intricate ideas and see how it sticks with what we're used to doing.'" 

"With WATD, the release is like, 'Hey, we got this now,'" Martin furthers. "There's a certain sense of confidence you gain growing as a band when writing stuff and you just learn to trust each other with their special qualities, and we all depend on each other to come to the table with. I think this release tells a story about a band that finally found themselves sonically, but still trying to find themselves in life when it comes to the relationship with the world music provides."

The five-song EP also features an appearance by singer-songwriter Jonah Matranga, who guests on the title track.

Tracklisting:

"Hole In The Sky"
"You're Distant"
"Bury The Hatchet"
"Gone Again"
"We Are The Dead" (feat. Jonah Matranga)

For further details, visit Fake Figures on Facebook.

 




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Meshiaak and Mascot Records / Mascot Label Group have announced the global release of a new studio album, titled Mask Of All Misery, on November 15. The song, “Tears That Burn The Son” can be heard below.

Danny Camilleri shared, “"Tears' is the deepest song on the on album for me personally, very close to home, my heart is in it.. "

It has been three years since the Australian quartet’s debut album Alliance Of Thieves dropped, which married dark undertones, heavy grooves and sophistication whilst retaining old-school metal values. Now, the band are back to continue the story and have a new member and renewed energy.

Formed in Melbourne, by 4ARM’s Danny Camilleri and Teramaze’s Dean Wells with bassist Andrew Cameron, they have recruited drummer David Godfrey who replaces Jon Dette, following his departure due to logistical reasons with him being based in the US and the rest of the band in Australia.

Mask Of All Misery is an album that journey’s through a maze of toxic influences and the masks the exponents wear. “The album deals with a lot of personal reflection and issues as well as attacking or addressing much broader issues concerning perhaps the ignorance of society in regards to what's going on around us all,” explains Camilleri.

The album walks through a number of tough subject matters and it’s something the band refuse to shy away from. The opening song, the instrumental “Miasma” sets the scene and tone for what you are about to expect. Miasma comes from the ancient Greek word for “pollution” and the miasma theory was a theory that held diseases such as cholera, chlamydia or the Black Death were caused by a noxious form of “bad air” or “miasma.” “It’s a theory that has been around for many years,” elaborates Camilleri. “It’s about how the air we breathe is being poisoned intentionally, and we are all subjected to it. There is no greater good in regards to any government or authority. Especially when they are responsible for the deployment of systematically spraying chemicals and spreading airborne diseases in the very air we breathe.”

The title track was the first song written for the album and is based on responding to toxic situations or people, identifying their behaviours and the rationalisation in response to their thought process, projections and intentions. Because “they” wear the mask, it doesn't mean you have to too. “Bury The Bodies” continues to delve into the sense of being trapped with personal demons and solitude in your own thoughts. “It’s the war we feel inside. Some of us chose to engage in that war and better ourselves and find our truth through it and some of us chose to pretend it doesn’t exist,” says the singer.

“City Of Ghosts,” “Face Of Stone” and “In The Final Hour” run full force through heavy metal riffery with anthemic muscle. “Doves” deals with showing great resilience and strength in the face of hopelessness, whilst they tackle dark subject matter on “Adrena.” The song takes its name from the word Adrenochrome, which has been found to occur naturally in human blood. Theories suggest that it is used as a drug for the elites, and that it is harvested through the experience of terrifying individuals, mostly children to the brink of fear and extracting their blood to give the elites an adrenaline high, at the expense of missing or lost children. Adrenochrome, it has been suggested was also used by the CIA during Project MKUltra and during secret Cold War experiments. The album closes with the 7 minute and 21 second epic “Godless,” another personal song dealing with manipulation and severing the ties between an empath and narcissist to take back control back of your life.

The album barely takes a breath through the ten songs and deals with personal struggles and the inner-strength to pull yourself through as well as burrowing into the dark underbelly for an album of uncompromising heaviness. However, the band have an ability to sprinkle light, adding visions of hope lyrically and strong sense of melody throughout the unrelenting power and musicianship of the four members.

The album was recorded and produced by Dean Wells at his Wells Productions studio in Melbourne with the songwriting partnership of Camilleri and Wells. Talking about the recording process Camilleri says, “We generally have an idea of how many songs we want for an album, we aren't the kind of band that writes 20 tracks and picks the best 9 or 10 to go on the album, if something doesn't grab us early we tend to just throw it in the bin and work on something that does! We demo every track to almost album quality before even looking at officially beginning recording, then we'll sit on it a bit and let it digest.”

Expanding on how the writing relationship works he explains, “We don't designate or anything like that, either Dean will come up with something cool or I will, we'll work on it from that point until it evolves into what we envisioned in our head, though a lot of the time the song will take on a completely different face than when we first began work on it, but that's one of the most enjoyable parts about the writing process with Meshiaak. We never stop pushing the boundaries for ourselves and seeing where we can take something. I love the creative part of it all.”

With a record you can put it on and hear it, feel it even. But sometimes you really need to listen, take it in as a whole, process and think about it. Mask Of All Misery is one of those albums. “People will take what they chose to at the end of the day,” ponders Camilleri. “But, I've found by talking with a lot of fans that they do pay attention and really digest the content of our music. It's an amazing feeling when someone connects to it through hearing it and then gets even deeper because they can connect with the content as well.. goes to show you that you are never alone.”

Tracklisting:

"Miasma
"Mask Of All Misery"
"Bury The Bodies"
"City Of Ghosts"
"Face Of Stone"
"Tears That Burn The Son"
"Doves"
"In The Final Hour"
"Adrena"
"Godless"

"Bury The Bodies" video:

(Photo - Karina Wells)




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For fans of Deep Purple, Queens Of The Stone Age, Black Keys, and Kyuss, Black Mastiff's new album Loser Delusions is a blizzard of distortion that will be experienced this coming Friday, October 18, 2019 via Grand Hand Records. Before the album officially drops, the Edmonton riff masters have teamed up with BraveWords for its exclusive full stream premiere.

Ready to put listeners into a fuzzy mood with their signature groove with their new album Loser Delusions, this latest release from Black Mastiff explores new territories, with distinctive, thick sounds and soulful vocals that are immediately recognizable.

Loser Delusions is much more eclectic than their previous record, Music Machine, and shows the band is comfortable stepping outside of the expected. With Loser Delusions, the band is inviting fans on a musical journey that passes through all things rock ‘n’ roll, from garage to prog, there are many influences that Black Mastiff has not previously tapped into that are present on this new album.

The band adds: “Loser Delusions is a realization of who Black Mastiff was meant to be. This riff ladened rhythm explosion of an album will make your body shake like a Jell-O pudding cake.”

Preorder the album at this location.

Tracklisting:

"Downed By A Sound"
"Bike Club"
"Machines"
"A Tangle"
"Other Kinds"
"Star Base 77"
"Paddle"
"Mind Vibe"
"Spastic Rhythms"
"Stranger"

"Downed By A Sound":

Black Mastiff is currently on the road to promote the new album for the Tourgether At Last with label mates Calgary's Chron Goblin.

Dates:

October
17 - Montreal, QC - Turbo Haus 
18 - Toronto, ON - Hard Luck 
19 - Windsor, ON - Dominion House 
20 - Hamilton, ON - This Ain't Hollywood * 
21 - Sault Ste. Marie, ON - Six Two Oh! * 
25 - Edmonton, AB - Temple 
26 – Red Deer, AB - The Vat 

November 
14 - Kamloops, BC - The Kami * 
15 - Kelowna, BC - Fernando’s * 
16 - Vancouver, BC - SBC * 

*Black Mastiff only

(Photo - A.Kalinowski




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Swedish experimental black-metal band, Ofdrykkja, has returned from the bleak abyss to release their third full-length album, Gryningsvisor, on November 29 via AOP Records.

Formed eight years ago out of necessity to cope with agonizing depression, debilitating addiction and endless pain, Ofdrykkja has seen the light amongst the darkness for their latest record, which translates to “Ballads At Dawn.” After years of self-inflicted turmoil and suffering, the trio has found solace in healing and self-reflection which is heard on their latest evolution, Gryningsvisor.

Today, the band has unveiled the record’s first new track, “The Swan", which can be heard below.

Commenting on the track, vocalist/gutiarist Drabbad says, “This song symbolizes many different things for me. It symbolizes beauty and sorrow, life and death. Ever since I was born, I have always felt lonely, that I don't belong in this world. I have also always appreciated the immense beauty that can be found in melancholy. When I wrote this song I was heavily influenced and fascinated by the ancient belief that swans sing only once, a beautiful song, just before they die. I myself have been lost most of my life, I haven't had much to say. This song represents change to me. I have grown a lot since I wrote this song. I let my old self die, so I could be reborn. In a way, this is my swan song.”

Pre-order the new album in Europe, or North America.

Gryningsvisor tracklisting:

"Skymningsvisa"
"The Swan"
"Swallowed By The Night"
"Ensam"
"Wither"
"In i natten"
"As The Northern Wind Cries"
"Herr mannelig"
"Våra Minnenas klagosång"
"Köldvisa"
"Grey"
"Gryningsvisa"

"The Swan":

Eight years ago, three darkness consumed men seeked to ventilate their seemingly endless struggle through addiction and mental illness conjured their first album "A life worth losing". Drabbad was gunned down by police and spent a three year prison sentence, with most of the songs on their second album written from within the prison walls. Having hit rock bottom, the band sought a way out of that dark wilderness, releasing "Irrfärd" (which translates to 'Aimless journey'). Following the release the band went their separate ways to pursue personal journeys that eventually led them to find peace in sobriety and awakening purpose, and ultimately to their forthcoming record, Gryningsvisor.

Drabbad adds, “Ofdrykkja has always been an instrument of therapy for us, and therapy exists to help one evolve. It would serve us no purpose to walk in old footsteps, and neither would it be authentic to force it. We hope you appreciate our evolution, both personal and musical.”

Lineup:

Drabbad -  Vocals, Guitars, Acoustic guitars, Electronics, Bass, Drums
Ahlström - Backing vocals, Guitars, Bass, Acoustic guitars, Electronics, Celtic lyre, Violin
Pessimisten - Vocals, Horn on Herr Mannelig

Guest musicians:

Miranda Samuelsson - Vocals
Nylonwings -  Acoustic guitars and digital cello arrangements

Credits:

This album was recorded in Studio Cave by Pontus Ekwall and in home studio between January 2018 and August 2019. Mixed & Mastered by Ahlström. All artworks included were painted by Alessia Brusco and digitally edited by Drabbad.




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MACHINE HEAD played its new song "Do Or Die" live for the first time during its concert Wednesday night (October 16) at Gasometer in Vienna, Austria. Fan-filmed video footage of the performance can be seen below.

Released last Friday (October 11), "Do Or Die" has been described by some fans and media outlets as a "diss" track aimed at MACHINE HEAD's detractors, in particular those who have been critical of the band's last album, 2018's "Catharsis".

On Wednesday, MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn took to his Instagram to discuss the lyrics for the new song and to explain how he has managed to keep the band going for nearly three decades in the face of at times seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Robb wrote: "If you're an angry person, then you know what it means when there's a fury inside you that simmers just below the surface. For me it's a rage that can fill my mouth (and in the past, my fists) with bile and I'm not satisfied until that bile's reached its victim. ⁠⠀

⁠⠀

"I, like so many of us, am fucked up in the head. I've felt as if the world was against me from the day I was born. My upbringing, like millions of others, was fueled by an uncontrollable rage. So those like me, we learned to put on a happy face for society, a laugh here, a smile there, but deep down that rage never goes away.⁠⠀

⁠⠀

"That same rage has helped guide me through 33 years in the music business. You don't last this long in this business being 'happy.' Happy is contentment and that's never been me. You last in the music business due to a hatred inside. A hatred that burns a fire so bright, that it can only be extinguished by music.⁠⠀

⁠⠀

"It's made for some beautiful hate filled songs...⁠⠀

⁠⠀

"However, living with that fire inside comes with consequences. ⁠⠀

⁠⠀

"It is a gift and a curse.⁠⠀

⁠⠀

"I write songs for a living, but I also write songs to live. ⁠⠀

⁠⠀

"Some people love them and connect with them beyond my wildest dreams, some people hate them and wish they never heard 'em, and that's okay too. ⁠⠀

"I've taken my lumps, I'm still standing and I'm never going away. In fact, I'm coming back hard as fucking nails.⁠⠀

⁠⠀

"This is 'Do Or Die'."

"Do Or Die" was produced by Flynn and Zack Ohren (FALLUJAH, ALL SHALL PERISH) at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland, California. It was mixed by Russ Russell (AT THE GATES, NAPLAM DEATH, SIKTH) at Parlour Studios in the United Kingdom. The mastering was handled by Gene Grimaldi at Oasis Mastering in Burbank, California.

The "Do Or Die" cover artwork was created by Marcelo Vasco.

"Do Or Die" was recorded last December by Flynn, bassist Jared MacEachern and WARBRINGER drummer Carlos Cruz.

Cruz stepped in to play on "Do Or Die" following the departure of MACHINE HEAD's longtime drummer Dave McClain.

"I had just been wanting to make music, and so right after we got done with the last tour, I was, like, 'I've gotta make music,'" Flynn explained during an August Facebook Live session. "I had all these fucking songs written for months now, since April [of last year], and I wanted to go and write them and record them and jam them with the dudes. So my engineer Zack arranged for Carlos Cruz, who is the drummer for WARBRINGER. He played in POWER TRIP — an awesome new, modern thrash band. Sick-ass drummer — awesome drummer. Young guy, really cool. He came up and jammed with Jared [MacEachern, bass] and I. [He] just fucking killed it. It was awesome playing with him. And it really inspired me, kind of brought me out of my funk. I'd been really wanting to write new music for a while, and it was just right place, right time. The dude was amazing, and I can never be grateful enough for everything that he brought to the table. Awesome dude."

Flynn previously told Metal Hammer magazine that he wrote "Do Or Die" in August 2018, before McClain and guitarist Phil Demmel announced they were leaving the band. "Two days after that announcement on Facebook Live, I was back in the studio and working on ideas and lyrics," he said. "I guess I was really just pissed off that day. After all the haters and all the negativity, all the bullshit. It's vicious!"

MACHINE HEAD kicked off the first leg of its 25th-anniversary tour for the band's classic debut, "Burn My Eyes", on October 5 in Freiburg, Germany.

Building on the band's previous "An Evening With…" format, the "Burn My Eyes" anniversary show is described in a press release as "a three-hour musical extravaganza," comprised of two parts: part one consists of a battery of MACHINE HEAD's modern classics, such as "Imperium", "Halo" and "Locust", featuring Flynn and MacEachern performing alongside new recruits, Polish guitarist Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka (DECAPITATED) and British drummer Matt Alston (DEVILMENT, EASTERN FRONT); part two features "Burn My Eyes" played in its entirety for the first time ever, with original drummer Chris Kontos and guitarist Logan Mader joining in.

Oranssi Pazuzu and Nuclear Blast Records announce a worldwide partnership for the band’s upcoming albums.

The band in their own words: “Greetings from the US! We’re currently on the road with our first North American tour going smoothly, in large part thanks to our superb crew, Nanotear and the amazing Insect Ark.

Meanwhile, the new Oranssi Pazuzu album is currently being finalized and will be complete during the next few weeks. There will be a high dosage of psychedelic alchemy on this one. The new sonic realms feel simultaneously natural and fresh to us and we look forward to serving them to your hungry ears. We are also playing some of the new stuff on the ongoing North American shows.

While we have your attention, we’d also like to take this opportunity to announce the new partnerships. First, we have signed a management pact with FlyingFox AB. We are thankful for receiving the mega-level advisory skills of Erin Lynch, who has already proven herself a worthy companion.

Secondly, we are psyched to announce that we have signed a recording deal with Nuclear Blast Records, who will be handling the worldwide release of the new album in 2020! Special thanks to Jens Prueter (Head of A&R, Nuclear Blast Europe) for understanding and respecting the band’s identity.

Thirdly, from now on, our show booking in Europe will be handled by Doomstar Bookings. If you want to book Oranssi Pazuzu, get in contact with Zoltan!

On top of all this, we are massively excited to announce that we will be doing a very special show at Roadburn Festival 2020, as part of James Kent’s (AKA Perturbator) curation. We are humbled to have been asked once again to return to this great festival, in which we will play the new album in its entirety, live, for the first time prior to its release!

And in case you missed the news yesterday, we’re also confirmed for Inferno Festival in Oslo, Norway!

In the meantime, catch us at one of the North American shows that we are touring right now. Thanks for your support!“

Find the band's tour itinerary here.

Since birth, Oranssi Pazuzu, The Demon of the Wind with the Colour of Cosmic Energy, has never been satisfied to stick with a formula. Each album has seen the band expand upon its previous incarnation and then, like a supernova, blow it up and transform again into something recognizable but completely new.

The band was formed in 2007 by Jun-His (vocals, guitar) and Ontto (bass guitar), who started jamming with Korjak (drums), and Evill (synthesizers, organ, effects) in order to travel into uncharted musical territories. During its initial months the band wrote songs collectively, fusing together various influences from space rock to black metal, to capture different states of mental cosmos. These early songs were recorded in Korjakʼs family cabin in the late summer of 2008 and released as Muukalainen Puhuu in 2009.

In 2009-2010 Oranssi Pazuzu played shows around Finland and continued to write music that twisted towards more metallic and aggressive moods. In September 2010 they played first concerts outside Finland in Germany and the Netherlands.

Kosmonument, their second full length album, a concept album about a drifter lost in the void, was released in October 2011, followed by various European festivals in 2012, including Roadburn Festival and Hellfest.

A year later the band decided to work with Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Paradise Lost, etc.) and traveled to his Orgone Studios in London to record their third album Valonielu in 2013 which was presented live on their first full European tour shortly after.

Oranssi Pazuzu returned in 2016 with the mind-bending Värähtelijä; an album which continues in the vein of their previous album, giving the band much more room to diverge and explore the vast regions of hypnotic progressive psychedelia and the nebulous outer limits of Scandinavian black metal. Pitchfork wrote: “Four albums into their career, the Finnish quintet Oranssi Pazuzu may have at last sidestepped the confines of the tag ‘black metal’. Their latest 69-minute opus folds in Krautrock, electric Miles Davis, stoner, thrash and more, finding the band lost—wonderfully, strangely—somewhere between heaven and hell.” Spin called it “one of the most exciting, least predictable metal albums in recent memory” and also Decibel honored it with a 9/10 review: “Oranssi Pazuzu’s psychedelia is grim, foreboding and intensely original, like if Set the Controls -era Pink Floyd took a wrong turn during an LSD trip and ended up in an uncharted Hell dimension.”

In 2018 Oranssi Pazuzu and their Tampere cohorts Dark Buddha Rising, known for their grandiose slug-paced ritualist doom metal, recorded a new album, which was released on Svart Records on April 5th, 2019. The amalgam of these two entities was melted as one on Syntheosis, and released under the moniker Waste of Space Orchestra. “Syntheosis” is based on a commissioned work for Roadburn Festival and was performed live in April 2018 in front of over 3000 people.

The journey through space and time continues.

Oranssi Pazuzu is:

Jun-His - The Voice, Guitar
Ikon - Guitar
Moit - Deep Space Guitar
Korjak - Drums
Evill - Synthesizers, Organ, Effects
Ontto - Bass Guitar

(Photo - Rainer Paananen)




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Rock legends, The Who, have released the new video below from their Moving On! Tour 2019, stating: "If you've been to any shows on this tour you may very well have heard some very amusing repartee and banter from Pete and Roger in-between the great songs. We've assembled some of the best bits for you from the Tampa, FL show of September 22, 2019. See this and more on Brian Kehew's Backstage Blog on TheWho.com,

"All This Music Must Fade", the opening song of The Who's upcoming new album, is available for streaming below.

The Who have one of the greatest rock legacies in music history, they’re one of the all-time great live bands, have sold over 100 million records world including nine US and ten UK top ten albums and 14 UK top ten singles in a career spanning six decades.

Now 55 years after they made their first recordings, The Who are back with their first new album in thirteen years, entitled WHO, due for release on November 22 via Polydor Records. Pre-order WHO here.

The eleven-track album was mostly recorded in London and Los Angeles during spring and summer 2019 and was co-produced by Pete Townshend and D. Sardy (who has worked with Noel Gallagher, Oasis, LCD Soundsystem, Gorillaz) with vocal production by Dave Eringa (Manic Street Preachers, Roger Daltrey, Wilko Johnson).

Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend are joined on the album by long-time Who drummer Zak Starkey and bassist Pino Palladino along with contributions from Simon Townshend, Benmont Tench, Carla Azar, Joey Waronker and Gordon Giltrap.

The artwork for WHO (see below) was unveiled last night in New York at the opening of the brand new eight-storey Pace contemporary art gallery where the band also performed a short acoustic set. The album cover has been created by famed Pop artist, Sir Peter Blake who first met the band in 1964 at a taping of the legendary TV show Ready Steady Go! Sir Peter designed and contributed a painting for the sleeve of The Who’s album Face Dances in 1981.

The songs on WHO cover a myriad of subjects including the Grenfell Tower fire, musical theft, spirituality, reincarnation, the power of memory and ‘an old rock star that has lost his marbles’. Singer Roger Daltrey rates it amongst their strongest “I think we’ve made our best album since Quadrophenia in 1973, Pete hasn’t lost it, he’s still a fabulous songwriter, and he’s still got that cutting edge.”

Pete Townshend: “This album is almost all new songs written last year, with just two exceptions. There is no theme, no concept, no story, just a set of songs that I (and my brother Simon) wrote to give Roger Daltrey some inspiration, challenges and scope for his newly revived singing voice. Roger and I are both old men now, by any measure, so I’ve tried to stay away from romance, but also from nostalgia if I can. I didn’t want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Memories are OK, and some of the songs refer to the explosive state of things today. I made new home studio demos of all these songs in the summer of 2018 using a wide collection of instruments old and new. We started recording as The Who in March 2019, and have finished now in late August just in time to make some vinyl... maybe even some cassettes... ready for release in November.”

Tracklisting:

"All This Music Must Fade"
"Ball And Chain"
"I Don’t Wanna Get Wise"
"Detour"
"Beads On One String"
"Hero Ground Zero"
"Street Song"
"I’ll Be Back"
"Break The News"
"Rockin’ In Rage"
"She Rocked My World"

"All This Music Must Fade":

"Ball And Chain":

The Who are to play a 10-date UK and Ireland tour in the spring of 2020. Dates below:

March
16 - Manchester Arena
18 - Dublin 3 Arena
21 - Newcastle Utilita Arena
23 - Glasgow SSE Hydro Arena
25 - Leeds First Direct Arena
30 - Cardiff Motorpoint Arena

April
1 - Birmingham Resorts World Arena
3 - Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
6 - Liverpool M&S Bank Arena
8 - London SSE Wembley Arena

Tickets on sale at livenation.co.uk.




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KING'S X has canceled all of its previously announced tour dates for 2019 so that drummer Jerry Gaskill undergo undisclosed heart "procedures."

The band broke the news of the cancelation in a Facebook post earlier today. They wrote: "On October 14th, during a recent check-up with his cardiologist, Jerry Gaskill was informed that he had some issues with his heart that needed to be addressed, and as a result, he will need to have some procedures to help rectify these issues.

"Jerry is feeling positive and is looking toward the future, He wanted to make sure that his feelings were truly expressed, on how awful he feels about having this happen. He and the band were looking forward to playing these upcoming shows, especially knowing that they were selling out. Jerry is determined as always to do whatever he can to get back out and see all of the fans, and as his focus is turned inward we all ask that you keep FAITH HOPE AND LOVE during this process."

Gaskill added: "It is with great sadness and sorrow that we must cancel and reschedule these upcoming shows. I thought of every possible way that I could actually get out there and do this. I was very much looking forward to it. But I realized in the end that it just would not be wise. Yet, I am determined once again to come back and be better than ever. Thanks for all the love and understanding."

KING'S X and its representatives have rescheduled these dates for April 2020:

April 16 - [to be announced]

April 17 - Hazard, KY - City of Hazard Hal Rogers Center

April 19 - Nashville, TN - The Basement East

April 23 - Austin, TX - Come and Take It Live

April 24 - Dallas, TX - Canton Hall

April 25 - Houston, TX - Warehouse Live

KING'S X was sidelined by several health scares in recent years, including frontman Doug Pinnick's two hernia operations and two near-fatal heart attacks suffered by Gaskill.

Earlier this year, Gaskill told Tom Leu of Sound Matters Radio that he was "doing better than ever. I feel like I understand my body better," he said. "I've learned how to listen to my body, which is something we all can do, we all should do. Our bodies do tell us what it wants and what it doesn't want, and if we listen, we'd find out we can be a lot better. Our bodies were made to move, and they're made to rest. Those things are all very important. We have to watch the things that we eat... I've learned that from the experience of dying. I say 'dying,' because I actually did die. If I had been alone when the first heart attack happened, there's no way I could have possibly recovered. I have no recollection of even going down, but I went completely down. My wife was there; she saw. I have no recollection, and she'll never forget it. I'm moving on better than ever, but she still, in the back of her mind, sees me dying, so she's always concerned with everything even though I know I'm doing better than ever... I'm working out — I'm working out six days a week. I get up every morning; I go to my basement [to exercise]. I also see a personal trainer who completely changed my life. He taught me how to listen to my body. He taught me how to move my body properly, which is important."

According to Jerry, he is living a cleaner lifestyle today that he did in the past. "I drank a bit there for a while, but I never felt like I was too out of control," he said. "But I drank more than I should, and that will take a toll on your body. That's what I'll say to younger people — we have to watch the alcohol and the drugs, because when we're young, we don't realize that anything's going to harm us. We don't realize it's harming our bodies, because our bodies are very resilient. If we continue with that, it's going to catch up with us, and there will be a time when it could possibly be too late. As soon as we can possibly start taking care of ourselves by listening to our bodies, the better off we'll be."

Asked how he has changed from his near-death experiences, Jerry said: "I very much just try to stay away from stress. I see no purpose in stress. It doesn't matter, because most often, the things we stress about — the things we worry about and fret about — never happen to begin with, and it causes more problems to worry about things than it does just to do things. Just life your life, because those things are part of life. I think it's just a matter of [changing] how we deal with things."

KING'S X recently completed recording a new album, its first since 2008's "XV". It will mark the band's debut LP for Golden Robot Records. An early 2020 release is expected.


A letter to the Fans,

On October 14th, during a recent check-up with his Cardiologist, Jerry Gaskill was informed that...

Posted by King's X on Thursday, October 17, 2019

Agnostic Front are back to the scene with their twelfth studio album, Get Loud!, which will be released on November 8 via Nuclear Blast. Today, the band discusses writing the album in this new video trailer:

Get Loud! was produced by Roger Miret while long time friend Paul Miner handled the recording, mixing and mastering of the record at Buzzbomb Studio in Orange, CA. For the artwork, the band returned to 1986's Cause For Alarm​ artist Sean Taggart. It features the iconic CFA​ characters combined with a modern freshness

Get Loud! is compiled of 14 tracks that are nothing short of classic, home grown, New York hardcore, but still includes some thrashy and punky variety.

Get Loud! will be available in the following formats:

- CD Digi
- Vinyl
* Black Vinyl
* Picture Vinyl
* White ( Limited to 300)
* Blue Vinyl ( Limited to 300)
* Gold Vinyl ( Limited to 300)
* Green Vinyl (Limited 200)
* Red Vinyl
- Red Cassette
- T-Shirt
- Long Sleeve Bundle
* Includes Long Sleeve Shirt & CD

Pre-order Get Loud! in the format of your choice here. Pre-save the album on Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer, here.

Get Loud! tracklisting:

"Spray Painted Walls"    
"Anti Social"
"Get Loud!"
"Conquer And Divide"
"I Remember"
"Dead Silence"
"AF Stomp "   
"Urban Decay"
"Snitches Get Stitches"    
"Isolated"
"In My Blood"
"Attention"
"Pull The Trigger"
"Devastated"

"Spray Painted Walls" lyric video:

Find the band's tour itinerary here.

Bridge Nine Records will release the Blu-ray edition of The Godfathers Of Hardcore, the critically-acclaimed, Ian McFarland-directed documentary, on November 15. The film is available digitally here.

The Godfathers Of Hardcore film is an intimate portrait about two of the most influential men in underground music - Roger Miret and Vinnie Stigma of the iconic New York hardcore punk rock band Agnostic Front. For over 35 years, the duo has shared something inside they couldn't scream loud enough. Something they couldn't play hard enough. Something they couldn't stop, even if they wanted to. Agnostic Front is the combined roar from the hearts of two guys who have fought their whole lives, and whose pain, passion, and power helped ignite a movement.

Starting in the '80s on the streets of the Lower East Side, Agnostic Front rose to play a key role in defining, shaping, and establishing the sound and code of conduct for a still-thriving, now-worldwide culture. Today, Roger, 54, and Vinnie, 63 remain the very embodiment of hardcore, representing endurance, perseverance, brotherhood, strength against oppression and the will to keep going-obstacles be damned.

The Godfathers Of Hardcore has been on the festival circuit since November 2017 where it premiered at the DOCNYC 2017 Film Festival. It has been featured at over 15 festivals worldwide, selling out the majority of those screenings and winning multiple accolades and awards along the way.

Godfathers made its US/Canadian broadcast premiere on Showtime in December 2018 then on SKY in The UK in July 2019 and both networks are currently streaming and broadcasting the film. The film was released worldwide on iTunes, Google, Amazon, Vudu, and Vimeo On Demand, and in the first week of its release the film quickly rose to be #1 Music Film on iTunes and held that position for nearly two weeks.

The Blu-ray edition of the film features eight different language subtitle options and will be available in a standard case as well as a special version housed in a gatefold 7" jacket cover, with a bonus, seven song live recording from the Agnostic Front show Berlin that is featured in the film.

Tracklisting:

"Blind Justice"
"Last Warning"
"Crucified"
"Paulie the Beer Drinking Dog"
"For My Family"
"Friend Or Foe"
"Victim In Pain"

(Photo - Joerg Baumgarten)




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Music Theory Recordings / Mascot Label Group recently released Flying Colors’ third studio album, Third Degree. Mike Portnoy performs the album track "Geronimo" in this new drum & vox cam video:

Third Degree is available as a CD Digipack, limited edition 2LP 180 gram blue vinyl in a gatefold sleeve (w/ download card), a 2LP 180 gram black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve (w/ download card), and a limited edition box set featuring CD, 40 page photobook, two coasters, and a bonus disc with six tracks. You can order the album here.

The first sessions for Third Degree took place at Steve Morse’s studio in Florida in December 2016, wherein seven songs were written. From there, the band members had to scatter back to their other personal and professional obligations, eventually reconvening two full years later in December 2018.

Portnoy agrees the future of Flying Colors looks quite bright indeed. “Our mission statement when we came together is still the same now,” he affirms. “It’s the same five guys with extremely different musical personalities and backgrounds coming together into a giant melting pot where it all comes out on the other end with music that’s accessible, melodic, deep, and colorful. That’s always been the goal of this band, and so far, I think we’re three for three.”

With Third Degree, Flying Colors continue to fire on all cylinders - and, in the process, they also handily prove the third time’s an unquestionable sonic charm.

 
Tracklisting:

"The Loss Inside"
"More"
"Cadence"
"Guardian"
"Last Train Home"
"Geronimo"
"You Are Not Alone"
"Love Letter"
"Crawl"

Deluxe CD bonus disc:

"Waiting For The Sun" (Unreleased Bonus Studio Track)
"Geronimo" (Alternate Instrumental Arrangement & Mix)
"You Are Not Alone" (Alternate Instrumental Arrangement & Mix)
"Love Letter" (Alternate Acoustic Arrangement/Mix)
"Last Train Home" (Alternate Instrumental Arrangement & Mix)
"Crawl" (Alternate Instrumental Arrangement & Mix)

"The Loss Inside" video:

"Love Letter" video:

“You Are Not Alone” video:

"More" video:

Flying Colors will make the following appearances in 2019:

October
17 - St. Charles, IL - Arcada Theater

December
11 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7
12 - Cologne, Germany - Essigfabrik
13 - Tilburg, Netherlands - 013
14 - London, England - Shepherd’s Bush Empire

(Photo - Karina Wells)




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In a recent interview with Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3, Jonathan Zazula, known the world over as Jonny Z, executive producer of METALLICA's debut LP, "Kill 'Em All" and founder of Megaforce Records, shared his memories on working with the legendary metal band. Zazula is slated to release his "Heavy Tales: The Metal. The Music. The Madness. As Lived by Jon Zazula" memoir this October. You can listen to the entire chat via the SoundCloud widget below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On his personal relationships with the members of METALLICA prior to the recording of "Kill 'Em All":

Jonny: "Cliff [Burton, bass] was a great guy to me. At night, he even read storybooks to my daughter when I wasn't home so she could fall asleep with all the noise that went on in the living room with three bands being there. James [Hetfield, guitar/vocals] was very quiet, kept to himself. Lars [Ulrich, drums] was a rager, but a brilliant one, and always able to focus no matter what. Dave [Mustaine, lead guitar, later of MEGADETH] was to himself and did what he did. I spoke not that much to Dave, but Lars and Cliff were the people I communicated with the most, who were, I would imagine, grounded the most."

On whether he was involved in the creative process for "Kill 'Em All":

Jonny: "The only job I had was to make sure they went into the studio and walked out of the studio with something better than 'No Life 'Til Leather', a very hard task. Unlike what was happening with record companies on the West Coast who were putting out demos and calling it 'records,' I wanted to put out a well-produced, polished-yet-realistic, non-compromising record, which 'Kill 'Em All' was."

On whether he could have predicted the massive success METALLICA would go on to have:

Jonny: "It was quite wonderful, because it sold 5,000 relatively easy. I remember sending another 2,000 out to the distributor and manufacturing another 2,000 at a time, at a time, at a time. What was funny was METALLICA wasn't the biggest seller after a while on Megaforce. Believe it or not, RAVEN, 'All For One', had outsold 'Kill 'Em All' in the first, let's say, six months of 'Kill 'Em All' being out. It was very interesting that it wasn't my premier band in record sales, METALLICA, at the beginning."

On whether he was concerned the musical jump METALLICA made from "Kill 'Em All" to "Ride The Lightning" would lead to bigger and better things for the group and leave him out of the picture:

Jonny: "Things started to fade when they were recording the album [in Denmark] and I was back running the company, which had grown so fast and so big in America. In those days, you didn't have cellphones or telephone deals with the phone company for long-distance deals, and calling Denmark and calling Sweden, basically, cost a fortune. So, I didn't make that many calls assuming everything was going great, but in that time, they were talking, they were thinking and they were realizing that maybe the grass was greener on the other side, and they made the choice that they made when they came back [to sign with Q Prime Management and Elektra Records]. But it was the distance between them going to Europe and me not communicating, which was a very bad move. I should have gone to Europe with them, but you know what? What happened, happened."

"Heavy Tales: The Metal. The Music. The Madness. As Lived by Jon Zazula" is scheduled for release on October 29. "Heavy Tales" is the detailed, never-before-told story of how Jonny Z founded legendary New Jersey-based label Megaforce Records with his wife, Marsha, and built a dynasty unmatched by others — forever changing the scope of heavy metal.

The ebook version of "Heavy Tales" will be released on Black Friday, November 29, 2019.

Finnish melodic metallers AMBERIAN DAWN have released the official lyric video for their new single, "United", The clip takes the listener to a futuristic world of the '80s and synthesizer music, mixed with familiar metal sounds. "United" and its detailed lyric video reflect the deeper meaning of the concept of AMBERIAN DAWN's upcoming album, "Looking For You". The song combines elaborate arrangements with glorious, majestic melodies, while the lyrics proclaim an unambiguous statement: "We're all together and we are standing tall. United we stand, divided we fall."

"Looking For You" will be released on January 31, 2020 and enter a new, but still familiar sounding, musical universe, mixing the best of both worlds into a new genre: "ABBA metal." The new album is packed with well-polished and immaculate songwriting full of catchy melodies and epic keyboard parts that immediately send shivers down your spine.

The multi-faceted and emotional lyrics provide a suitable background for soaring guitars and elegant classical interludes: a highly addictive cocktail that is being topped off by a cover version of ABBA's "Lay All Your Love On Me".

Since the band's music changed from power metal to symphonic metal over the last years, AMBERIAN DAWN is now navigating into yet another new style, which is even more melodic, keyboard-driven and influenced by the Swedish band ABBA. Therefore, they've been working closely with award-winning Finnish artist Kebu for over a month, to create the ingenious keyboard sound that can be heard on the recording.

AMBERIAN DAWN is:

Vocals: "Capri" Päivi Selo

Guitar: Emil Pohjalainen

Bass: Jukka Hoffren

Drums: Joonas Pykälä-aho

Keyboards: Tuomas Seppälä

Legendary singer-songwriter and keyboardist, Gregg Rolie, has released a music video for the song “What Above Love”, the debut single from the two-time Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame inductee’s long-awaited first album in 18 years, Sonic Ranch. The video can be seen below.

As directed by Rolie’s musician-producer son, Sean, who served as the main producer for Sonic Ranch, the fast-paced, rollicking, and, at times, wondrously psychedelic video features concert performance and studio recording footage of Rolie and his band, and it’s the perfect visual accompaniment to the hard-charging, instantly memorable sing-along epic track.

“In addition to being a really talented guitarist and producer, Sean is also a naturally gifted filmmaker,” says Rolie. “He’s been directing videos for years, starting with his own band, so when he came to me with the idea of making the clip for ‘What About Love,’ I didn’t hesitate to say yes. He intuitively knew what to do, and the process of making the video was very much like how we create music. You just react to the moment and take off. When I saw the video, it was everything I had hoped for - it was fun and exuberant, really fresh and exciting. It fit the song beautifully.”

When you’re a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, you don’t have a lot to prove. But legendary singer-songwriter and keyboardist Gregg Rolie, who holds that rare distinction as a founding member and original lead vocalist of both Santana and Journey, and who has also been a mainstay of Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band since 2012, demonstrates that he’s at the top of his game with the release of Sonic Ranch, out on October 11 via Megaforce Records, his first feature-length studio album in 18 years.

“I didn’t plan on taking so long to record a new album,” Rolie says. “The simple fact is, I’ve been working. I’ve been writing songs over the years, and we recorded half of them by 2013. Then I got busy touring with Ringo, and I took part in the Santana reunion, Santana IV. Everything took time. Finally, when Santana IV was done, I could get back to finishing the record.”

Rolie recorded the album at several studios in Texas: RMG Studio and Arylyn Studios in Austin, and the Sonic Ranch in Tornillo (the latter of which inspired the record’s title). His son, Sean, served as the main producer, with addition production handled by Chris “Frenchie” Smith and Daniel Sahad.

A wide range of Rolie’s illustrious musician friends contributed to Sonic Ranch - among them are his onetime Santana mate Michael Shrieve on drums, as well as bass extraordinaire Alphonso Johnson. And he features not one, but two guitar heroes: Steve Lukather, who plays on the gutsy blues rocker “They Want It All” and the stunning album opener, "Give Me Tomorrow,” and fellow Journey alum Neal Schon, who appears on the soulful ballad “Breaking My Heart” and the sinuous groover “Lift Me Up".

Sonic Ranch’s first single is “What About Love.” The thunderous sing-along epic sees Sean Rolie displaying his own formidable guitar chops. “The song inspired by Ringo Starr and his message of peace and love,” Rolie explains. “I had started writing it, and I would and play around with it at soundchecks with Ringo. It sounded really good, so I took it home, found the bassline, and Sean produced and engineered it. There’s 15 lead vocals on it. Sean played the guitar solo and said, ‘It’s a little out of tune.’ I said, ‘It’s perfectly out of tune. Let’s go!’ He’s such a great player.”

Rolie wrote all of the 13 tracks on the album, with the exception of “They Want It All,” which he penned with Andre Pessis and Kevin Chalfont, and the piano-driven show stopper “Look Into The Future,” which he co-wrote with Diane Valory and Neal Schon - the song originally appeared on Journey’s album of the same name in 1976. “I always liked that track and was waiting for a chance to re-arrange it and record my own version of it.”

In addition, Rolie re-images Elvis Presley’s classic “Don’t Be Cruel” as a mid-tempo gospel tune, and his spine-tingling vocal performance would draw a nod of approval from the King. “I used to play it in the same manner for encores with my quartet, and it always went over beautifully, so I decided to end the record with it,” Rolie says. “I’ve got the same group of guys on it - Alan Haynes on guitar, drummer Ron Wikso and bassist Sticky Lopez.”

“I’m pretty fortunate to have such good friends who are also some of the best musicians on earth,” says Rolie. “These songs mean a lot to me, and I’m very proud to be putting them out. To have such amazing players helping me to make them a reality is an amazing thing. The album wouldn’t have turned out so well without them.”

“What About Love” can be streamed at Spotify. Sonic Ranch can be ordered at iTunes and Amazon.

Tracklisting:

"Give Me Tomorrow"
"Breaking My Heart"
"What About Love"
"That's The Way It Goes"
"Only You"
"They Want It All"
"Lift Me Up"
"Us"
"You"
"Look Into The Future"
"Rockit"
"If I Went Home"
"Don't Be Cruel"

(Photo - Maryanne Bilham)




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Italian death metal outfit, Hour Of Penance, have released a a pixel art music video for the new single, "Blight And Conquer" from their upcoming studio album, Misotheism, set for an October 25 release via Agonia Records. Pre-order here, and watch the new video, created by the skilled Bristol artist Harry Sussams, below.

Says the band: "We gave a lot of thought about how to do something different from anything else seen before and show you a unique video clip. Video games have always been one of our biggest passions alongside music, and titles like Dark Souls and Bloodborne and their peculiar imagery and storytelling have been a huge source of inspiration for us: so we've decided to come up with a 2D/retro animation created by Harry Sussams, an amazing professional in illustration and pixel art. We worked hard together on every scene and detail to give life to a cryptic and gruesome narration tied to the themes of wealth and corruption dealt with in the lyrics of 'Misotheism', with the iconic tower of the artwork making its appearance into the video. Check it out!"

Set in motion in Rome, in 1999, Hour Of Penance travelled a long way to find itself standing strong as one of the most intense, talented and striking death metal acts to emerge from Italy. At the same time, their eighth instalment, Misotheism, cloaks the same verve and mindful perfection, that led to the band's uprising in the first place.

"Like we did with our past records, we’ve started working on this one with the same passion and focus as if we were about to record our very first album", says the group. "We’ve never took anything for granted, not only by keeping in mind the standards our fans are expecting, but also pushing ourselves to try perfecting our sound".

Their excitement for death metal didn't wash out their careful attitude towards tying up all loose ends, either: "We never thought that we would have come this far with our career, and while we didn’t feel any pressure writing this record, we definitely put some extra care this time. In fact, the album was recorded in three different studios and handled by three different sound engineers."

What we receive in the end is far better than what some may have been craving for: Misotheism is a pitch-black and delightfully brutal death metal soundtrack to a collapsing universe. "It pushed Hour Of Penance to a new level of creativity. We’re confident that you will enjoy the new album as much as we do", adds the band.

Misotheism was worked on in three different locations. Drums were tracked at Bloom Recording Studio (Italy), where the band "took advantage of the huge recording rooms and endless choice of microphones". On the other end, we have the Kick Recording Studio (Italy), where guitars, bass and vocals were recorded with Marco Mastrobuono, who also worked on Regicide (2014) and the last album, Cast The First Stone (2017). Finally, the band drove all the way to Poland, where the album was mixed and mastered at Hertz Studios (Behemoth, Vader, Decapitated).

As the band reports: "Working with the Wiesławscy brothers was like putting the icing on the cake and thanks to their mastery we managed to achieve the perfect sound without making any compromises."

The cover for the album was handled by a Hungarian artist, Gyula Havancsàk (Accept, Annihilator, Destruction, Ensiferum). "He perfectly captured the overall feel of the album", comments the band.

Formats:

- jewelcase CD
- box CD (feat. slipcase, patch and flag)
- black LP
- transparent smoked LP
- red with black splatter LP
- t-shirt

Tracklisting:

"Mass Crucifixion Of Kings"    
"Blight And Conquer"    
"Fallen From Ivory Towers"    
"The Second Babel"    
"Lamb Of The Seven Sins"    
"Flames Of Merciless Gods"  
"Sovereign Nation"   
"Dura Lex Sed Lex"    
"Iudex"    
"Occult Den Of Snakes"    

Limited edition bonus tracks:
"Misconception"    
"Slavery In A Deaf Decay"    
"Hierarchy Of The Fools"  

"Flames Of Merciless Gods" lyric video:

Album trailer:

Lineup:

Giulio Moschini - guitars
Paolo Pieri - guitars and vocals
Marco Mastrobuono  - bass
Davide Billia - drums




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Punishment 18 Records will reissue Eyehategod's third album, Dopesick, on November 29. The album was originally released on April 2, 1996 via Century Media.

Tracklisting:

"My Name Is God (I Hate You)"
"Dogs Holy Life"
"Masters Of Legalized Confusion"
"Dixie Whiskey"
"Ruptured Heart Theory"
"Non Conductive Negative Reasoning"
"Lack Of All Most Everything"
"Zero Nowhere"
"Methamphetamine"
"Peace Thru War (Thru Peace and War)"
"Broken Down but Not Locked Up"
"Anxiety Hangover"




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