Lita Ford says a full reunion of iconic seventies rockers THE RUNAWAYS will probably never happen.

Speaking on Daily Mail at the Las Vegas F.A.M.E Awards last month, Ford outlined in great detail her relationships with former bandmates Joan Jett, Cherie Currie, Jackie Fox and Sandy West and the previous attempts to get the band back together.

Lita said: "Joan Jett is very much in 'Joan Jett land,' I guess you could say. Will she ever come out of Joan Jett land? I don't think so. I think her [longtime] manager [Kenny Laguna] controls that and it's really up to him and her. It seems to me like Joan Jett's manager just runs her life in every way, shape, or form. He's very controlling and he has a real problem with me. He has a real issue with me. He sees me as a threat, which is ridiculous, because she's like my sister and I love Joan. It's ridiculous, it's uncalled for, and it's caused a little bit of rivalry between her and I, which is totally uncalled for. It's his fault."

Ford claims that Jett's manager has prevented her from even talking about a RUNAWAYS reunion with Jett.

The hard part is just trying to communicate with Joan without her manager involved," she added.

"We had dinner a couple of years ago, what was supposed to be a girl's night out, and she brought her manager with her.

"So it's like, "Dude, answer the question. I'm trying to ask you a question. Are you interested in putting THE RUNAWAYS back together?' She never answered the question."

Although Ford admits to feeling "pissed off" at not having been able to speak to Jett alone about a RUNAWAYS reunion, she denies being upset. "I have my own life with her or without her, with THE RUNAWAYS or without THE RUNAWAYS," she said. 'I have my own life and I will continue on with my own life, because I have a kick-ass life, but it could be great too with THE RUNAWAYS, you know? Why not?"

Currie told the "White Line Fever" podcast in 2016 that RUNAWAYS came close to reunining more than two decades ago. "Lita had reached out to us to convince us, me and Joan, to do a RUNAWAYS reunion. And we did, with Kenny Laguna basically at the helm, he secured a tour and Lita, she just basically doesn't get along with Kenny and she just walked away from that."

In a 2015 interview with with the WHMH (Rockin' 101) radio station, Lita explained that she decided against a possible RUNAWAYS reunion in the early '90s because "NIRVANA was just kicking in, and it was really bad timing; it wouldn't have worked. People would have just turned their nose up at it."

A movie about THE RUNAWAYS' brief history, starring Dakota Fanning as Currie and Kristin Stewart as Jett, came out in 2010.

Photo credit: Dustin Jack

On February 15, 2019, MEGADETH will reissue two of its iconic records, 2001's "The World Needs A Hero" and 2004's "The System Has Failed", through BMG.

MEGADETH's ninth studio album, "The World Needs A Hero" was originally released in May 2001 and was critically acclaimed as a return to a heavier musical direction for the band. It charted at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and received positive reviews across the music press.

Track listing

01. Disconnect

02. The World Needs A Hero

03. Moto Psycho

04. 1000 Times Goodbye

05. Burning Bridges

06. Promises

07. Recipe For Hate…Warhorse

08. Losing My Senses

09. Dread And The Fugitive Mind

10. Silent Scorn

11. Return to Hangar

12. When

13. Coming Home (CD Bonus Track)

The full album has been newly remastered by Ted Jensen (GUNS N' ROSES, MASTODON, MACHINE HEAD, TRIVIUM).

* Includes rare live bonus track "Coming Home" on the CD and digital versions.

* First time ever on vinyl in North America.

* CD has been out of print for five years.

MEGADETH's tenth studio album, "The System Has Failed" was originally released in September 2004. Following the direction set by its predecessor, "The World Needs A Hero", it headed further into the bands thrashier past and was a hit amongst fans and critics alike. Debuting at No. 18 on the Billboard chart, the album received positive reviews across the board stating it as vital and solid.

Track listing

01. Blackmail The Universe

02. Die Dead Enough

03. Kick The Choir

04. The Scorpion

05. Tears In A Vial

06. I Know Jack

07. Back In The Day

08. Something That I'm Not

09. Truth Be Told

10. Of Mice And Men

11. Shadow Of Deth

12. My Kingdom

13. Time / Use The Man (Live) (CD Bonus Track)

14. Conjuring (Live) (CD Bonus Track)

* The full album has been newly remastered by Ted Jensen (GUNS N' ROSES, MASTODON, MACHINE HEAD, TRIVIUM).

* Includes rare live bonus tracks "Time/Use The Man" and "Conjuring" on the CD and digital versions.

* First time ever on vinyl in North America.

* CD has been out of print for five years.

THE NEAL MORSE BAND — Neal Morse (lead vocals, guitars, keyboards), Mike Portnoy (drums, vocals), Randy George (bass), Bill Hubauer (keyboards, vocals), Eric Gillette (guitars, vocals) — will take fans on "The Great Adventure" with its latest double concept album, due out January 25, 2019 on Radiant Records via Metal Blade worldwide. It will be available in three formats: a two-CD package, two-CD/DVD special edition featuring behind-the-scenes video clips of the making of the album, and three vinyl LPs.

The official music video for "The Great Adventure" title track can be seen below.


The follow-up to 2016's critically acclaimed "The Similitude Of A Dream" will be the ninth studio album with Morse, Portnoy and George, and the third as a true collaboration with this current lineup. Together, Morse and Portnoy have launched four bands, but the one that has endured the longest and thus with the most musical output has been THE NEAL MORSE BAND.


"Let the great adventure now begin…" The closing line of "The Similitude Of A Dream" has proved to be strangely prophetic. The new album is exactly that: a perfect companion piece to "The Similitude Of A Dream"'s partial retelling of John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress". It has everything that fans would expect from an album by THE NEAL MORSE BAND, and more: rock, metal, classical and jazz elements appear throughout, as well as some killer melodies, all played faultlessly by some of the greatest rock musicians on the planet.


s Neal Morse explains: "This band continues to amaze me! I have to say it was a little daunting to follow up 'The Similitude Of A Dream' as it was such a special album and it delivered every night at our concerts, but I believe that 'The Great Adventure' will have a tremendous impact as well. This new double album is everything that I hoped it would be! I listened through last night and I was in tears at the end!"


Mike Portnoy emphatically agrees. He says: "How do you follow an epic double concept album??? Well, create another epic double concept album!! Hahaha. I always knew topping 'The Similitude Of A Dream' was going to be difficult, if not impossible, as I held it in such high regard, but alas, I am absolutely blown away with what we achieved here! We've created what is the ultimate companion to 'The Similitude Of A Dream'."


"Sometimes there are things that you just can't mess with," Randy George continues. "On 'The Similitude Of A Dream', we tapped into something special. I was sure that the follow up should be something quite different, but you have to follow your heart and follow the music where it wants to go. 'The Great Adventure' is nothing short of a miracle. It's similar to 'Similitude' in concept and form, but yet it's tougher and deeper in its tone! This is a powerful work and I look forward to playing it live!


True to the album's title, the creative process was indeed a "great adventure." Unlike many previous Morse albums, which have often been written and arranged within weeks, this time around these prolific and world-class musicians spent almost a year working on the end result, producing an abundance of top-quality material. This meant some ruthless decision-making: some already completed songs and characters had to go, and — with studio time running out–new links and ideas were being composed and recorded up to the eleventh hour. "A lot of work and re-work has gone into this," says Morse, "but I know that some of the most successful and far-reaching albums I've been involved with have been just like that. 'Sola Scriptura' and SPOCK'S BEARD's 'Snow' album come to mind."


Another key question that had to be addressed in the studio was how to pull all the ideas together into a coherent whole. In the end, what unlocked this "adventure" for Morse was the realization that 'The Great Adventure' needed a new voice and perspective. This time, it is that of the Pilgrim's abandoned son, a younger, perhaps angrier, voice than was heard on "The Similitude Of A Dream".


THE NEAL MORSE BAND will bring "The Great Adventure" to fans worldwide with a new round of headlining tour dates, which begin February 2, 2019 in Nashville at City Winery.

Photo credit: Robert Smith

Century Media Records has announced a partnership with WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM and the band's label Artemisia Records to release their upcoming albums in the world outside of North America. The Olympia, Washington-based group just finished an U.S. tour with BEHEMOTH and its new labelmates AT THE GATES and will conquer Europe with the same package in early 2019.

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM comments: "Century Media has brought forth so many killer albums over the years and it's inspiring to become a part of this legendary metal label. We are writing what will become the seventh WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM album now! We have complete faith in Century Media to deliver our music to our beloved European Wolfcult. Onward!"

Jens Prüter, head of A&R at Century Media in Europe, comments: "I'm a fan since I first saw them at the Roadburn festival in 2008. I love how they have developed their own identity of Cascadian black metal. The Pacific North West of Cascadia might bear similarities to the Norwegian origins of black metal but they went their own path to create a musical vision beyond genre definitions — which earns them my biggest respect. I am looking forward to accompany them on their future endeavors!"

Tomas Lindberg (AT THE GATES, THE LURKING FEAR) also wants to welcome his new labelmates. "WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM is a band that I have always respected and held in high regard, due to the amount of ambition that goes into their work," he said. "I feel a real kindred spirit when I dive into their albums, this melancholic desperation that carries a heavy weight of honesty is right down my alley. Having shared stages with them all across North America this winter just made me more of a fan. They put so much effort into everything they do and are very sincere in their art. I was super happy to hear that we have now also become labelmates here in Europe! That means that they are in good hands and also that I can keep easier track of their doings. Congratulations WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, congratulations Century Media Records Europe!"

ounded in 2002 by the brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM re-imagines black metal as an ode to rain storms, wood smoke and the wild energies of the Pacific Northwest. Their first studio album, "Diadem of 12 Stars" (2006), was a genre-dissolving classic that created a melancholy and psychedelic Cascadian atmosphere. Since that time, they have become one of the most potent and highly regarded bands in extreme music. The listener encounters crystalline metal riffs and ritualistic laments that sing of endless rain falling upon ancient cedars. Their music is a doorway into a mythic ethereal heathen landscape entered through music, magic and dreams.

At the dawning of their latest album "Thrice Woven" (2017), longtime touring guitar player Kody Keyworth was welcomed as a full band member. The album received high praise from the press and the band received the 2018 Metal Hammer Golden Gods award for "Best Underground Band."

WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM is:

Nathan Weaver - Guitar, vocals

Kody Keyworth - Guitar, backing vocals

Aaron Weaver - Drums

Drummer Jeremy Spencer has announced his departure from FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH. After sitting out the fall leg of the group's recent co-headlining tour with BREAKING BENJAMIN, Jeremy underwent a second back surgery and will need a significant amount of time to recover; the band fully supports his decision.

Spencer said in a statement: "It's with mixed emotion that I share with you the following news: I regret that I've decided to step down as the drummer of FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH. This decision has been weighing on me for months. Now the time has finally come. I've been playing drums since I was six years old. After years of the physicality leading to surgeries, I feel it's best to step down.

"As with professional athletes, when the body and mental state don't achieve the standard required to meet the rigorous demands necessary to perform at a high level, the choice is clear. I feel fortunate that my body has provided me with several decades of doing what I love: playing double-bass and shredding the drums. However, the rigorous physical wear and tear has worn down my body to the point where I feel I can no longer deliver a performance you great fans deserve and one that brings me satisfaction and joy. In addition, I feel the band deserves to get someone with fresh fire and energy — capable of delivering DEATH PUNCH music the way fans deserve. I'm confident they will! Like you, I will be cheering on the band to continue making great music as they tour the world and bring exciting shows to all our cherished fans.

"Personally, I have a number of future projects I'm excited about — all of which require that I be physically able to move fluidly and without pain. I hope you'll continue to be part of the next chapter of my life.

I sincerely wish nothing but the very best for my brothers in DEATH PUNCH family. And I encourage our fans to continue supporting whoever replaces me.

"We decided early on to do everything possible to make you fans feel special. As a result, we've always had the most supportive and dedicated Knuckleheads. I know I speak for everyone when I saw we're grateful beyond words. Personally, you have made these years the highlight of my life. Thank you for helping make this dream a reality. Please know I am eternally grateful. Thank you for everything."

For its fall tour with BREAKING BENJAMIN, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH was joined by drummer Charlie Engen.

The 33-year-old Engen, who was previously identified only as "a drum prodigy" called "The Engine", played his first show with FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH on November 6 in Wichita, Kansas.

The Saint Paul, Minnesota-based Engen has been teaching drums for more than 15 years and currently offers private and Skype lessons at his home studio, along with playing in the bands SCALE THE SUMMIT and IDEOLOGY.

In 2014, Jeremy released his autobiography, "Death Punch'd: Surviving Five Finger Death Punch's Metal Mayhem", which hit the Top 10 on the New York Times Celebrities Best Sellers list.

Spencer told The Pulse Of Radio a while back how his book came about. "I decided to clean myself up and I went into rehab a few years ago, and the day I got out I basically just started writing my whole life as a therapeutic kind of exercise," he said. "I was writing about a thousand to two thousand words a day. I would do it on tour, in the tour bus, wherever we were, and it started to shape up into something kind of interesting."

Spencer said at the time that he'd "received dozens of messages sharing how my story has inspired others to seek help or stay clean."

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's latest album, "And Justice For None", debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart back in May. The set launched with 71,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending May 24, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 60,000 were in traditional album sales.

OPETH vocalist/guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt recently spoke with Owais "Vitek" Nabi of Metal Wani. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On how he's been enjoying OPETH's apparent time off:

Mikael: "I don't think, in retrospect, that I took so much time off, because we went off tour in November last year, and after Christmas, I was already in the studio working [on] new music. I didn't get the break I wanted to have, but it was more or less self-inflicted, because I decided to go down to the studio to see what happens. Since then, we've been working, and we've been putting together this live DVD ['Garden Of The Titans: Live At Red Rocks Amphitheatre'], so it's really not so much rest, even if it's been away from the touring scene since November [of 2017]."

On the motivation behind releasing "Garden Of The Titans":

b>Mikael: "I'm not the biggest fan of live albums myself, especially not our own, so I'm not sitting around every day playing the live album, like, 'Oh, I'm so good.' But I'm hoping that there's OPETH fans out there who want to hear this and see the DVD and all that stuff. It's our fourth [live] album, and I think it's relevant because it features songs from the last three albums which we haven't recorded before. That's one of the reasons why we decided to put it out — that and the fact that we have been away since the last tour. We wanted to put something out just so people wouldn't forget about us."

On playing Red Rocks Amphitheatre:

Mikael: "I thought [of] U2. That was the first thing that popped into my head when somebody mentioned Red Rocks — 'That's where U2 did the 'Under A Blood Red Sky' album.' Not that I'm a big U2 fan at all, but I knew about the place. There's certain venues around the world that you've heard about, and Red Rocks was, I would say, in the subconscious, I think it was on the bucket list that we wanted to play. It was also one of those unreachable venues because it's so special, and I figured they would never let a band like us play there — but that's also what I thought about the Sydney Opera House and what I thought about Radio City Music Hall in New York, Royal Albert Hall in London. This was one on the bucket list, and I was really happy that we were given the opportunity to play there, and also to make a recording of that night. It was a special night, and I'm really happy that we have it on film now, like proof that we've been there."

On the DVD's visual presentation:

Mikael: "To me, it's almost like live DVDs or TV shows these days, it's like they're made for children with ADHD. There's so many cuts. It's so much information all the time — so many angles — and I'm used to, like, '60s, '70s films where there's long camera takes, that type of stuff. That's my personal favorite. But seeing that we are not one of the more animated bands on stage — we basically just stand there playing the songs — you have to kind of make it a little bit interesting, so I figured maybe that's a good way to make it not as dull. Also, because it was a windy evening — it was freezing cold and windy — I think it makes it more exciting, and it makes it look more turbulent, exactly as it was and how it felt for us."

On the evolving perception of the band's decision to move away from their progressive death metal roots:

Mikael: "I can't dictate the rules of what type of music is good or what type of music people should listen to, but you have to also put it in reverse. Even if we've got fans who like a specific record or a specific string of albums that we've done, they cannot in turn dictate the rules to us of what we should do, because we just do what we want to do. I don't want to compare myself to any other artist, but the artists that I like the most are the ones who developed. I'm not the same guy that I was when I was 19. There are many similarities, but I'm not the same. I've gone through the motions with my own consummation of music and I've developed and widened my taste in music, and it would be strange if I didn't let that infiltrate the sound of the music that I write. In retrospect, I think some of these albums that we put out that got a lot of criticism — bad criticism, like [2011's] 'Heritage', for instance — with time I have met people and you see when we play songs from there now, it's different to what it was when we played it back then. When we played 'The Devil's Orchard' when the album had just come out, people were like, 'What the hell is this?' Now, it's just a song that they like. Some people — I understand not all of them, but some people have embraced 'Heritage', while in the beginning, maybe they thought that they would never play that album again. What happened in the end is that we have fans who come to the show from all fans of life. It's not just metal fans — it's rock fans, prog rock fans or whatever. Some people like this era of the band; some people like that era of the band; some people like everything. That's a good position to be in for me. That's how I am. There was a point in my life where I figured I will never listen to soft music — I will only listen to extreme grindcore, and that's it. Obviously, that wasn't true, because in the end, I discovered Joni Mitchell, and I discovered classical music and jazz music, and now, it doesn't matter what genre it is. If it's good music, I like it. I want to be in a band, in a musical environment that pushes for that — that pushes for musical expression regardless of the genre, and musical freedom. That's how I perceive things, and ultimately for me, as a musician, I am the best judge of what I should do."

On the status of OPETH's next album:

Mikael: "I don't want to rush things. I want to make sure that the music that we have is fantastic. I don't want to [settle for] anything less than fantastic. Once we feel, 'Okay, this is a great, great album,' then we'll record it."

On whether OPETH plans to commemorate the upcoming 20h anniversaries of "Still Life" and "Blackwater Park":

Mikael: "I know that fans love those things, and our manager loves those things, because those shows are a good financial thing, to be honest. I'm going to be completely honest — I don't like those kind of things. We've done that stuff, and I'm not saying I disliked it, but I don't like the idea of going out and playing an album. I'm sure we're going to do it again, and if you go to one of those shows, you might look at me thinking, 'Maybe it looks like he doesn't like it,' and part of that is true, but once I'm up there, it's okay — it's always okay. But it feels a bit like a nostalgia act, and I want to be relevant. I want to play those old songs, but I don't only want to play old songs. I want to play from all the albums."

"Garden Of The Titans: Live At Red Rocks Amphitheatre" was released on November 2 via Moderbolaget Records / Nuclear Blast Entertainment.

OPETH's latest studio album, "Sorceress", came out in 2016.

Swedish rockers BACKYARD BABIES will release their new album, "Sliver & Gold", on March 1, 2019 via Century Media Records. The disc will contain 10 sizzling new songs following the exact same recipe that has made BACKYARD BABIES one of the most consistent rock bands of our time: a perfect balance between sleazy, punky, all-out party rock 'n' roll on the one hand, and decidedly mature, thoroughly melancholic tunes on the other.

While catchy sing-a-long smashers like the first single "Shovin' Rocks", album opener "Good Morning Midnight", the anthemic "Bad Seeds" or "44 Undead" will have you fist-pumping and foot stompin' along with your left foot in a cowboy boot and your right paw in a Chuck Taylor sneaker, the beautiful ballad-like album closer "Laugh Now, Cry Later" will cause you to shed a tear or two into your Jack and Coke.

"Sliver & Gold" track listing:

01. Good Morning Midnight

02. Simple Being Sold

03. Shovin‘ Rocks

04. Ragged Flag

05. Yes To All No

06. Bad Seeds

07. 44 Undead

08. Sliver And Gold

09. A Day Late In My Dollar Shorts

10. Laugh Now Cry Later

he official music video for "Shovin' Rocks" can be seen below.

According to BACKYARD BABIES guitarist Dregen (real name: Andreas Tyrone Svensson), the "Sliver and Gold" title is a play on words.

"It is going to be a bit like if you cut yourself with a piece of sliver," he told Metal Casino. "It's a bit like our career. It's been golden moments, but it's also been kind of rough times. It's going to be hopefully the greatest BACKYARD BABIES album [yet]."

Regarding "Shovin' Rocks", Dregen said: "Since we're celebrating thirty years together as a band, the single is a bit like... it's kind of like a statement about how it is to play in a band in a three-minute song, which is kind of hard," Dregen said. "I think that the whole next album is going to be like the gold watch then you're at a [job] for a long time. It's going to be our own kind of, like, celebration — not just to our own band, but to the music form of rock 'n' roll."

Dregen said that the group approached the album's recording sessions in an unfamiliar manner. "We've done it for the first time after thirty years in a different way," he said. "Before, we've been writing the whole album, and then when we're ready with the songs, [we] choose the songs, enter the studio and start recording it. Now, we're writing songs, but when we have three or four songs that we think are great, we're entering the studio, we record these three or four songs, and we mix the songs and master the songs and they are, like, totally ready. Then we go back into writing, and we write new songs. We record, like, four EPs, and then we put it together as an album."

He added that he prefers the abbreviated studio sessions to more traditional album-length recording process. "Sometimes when you go into the studio and you have, like, 14 songs, it gets a little bit industrial," he said. "It's almost like going to work — it's like, 'Okay, drums for this song, next...' You lose kind of the heart of the song, because it gets very mechanic [sic]. Recording three or four songs, I always like. I love recording EPs or singles, because you have full control over what you do."

BACKYARD BABIES officially reunited in 2014, five years after they announced that they were going on an "indefinite hiatus." A new album, "Four By Four", arrived in 2015.

BACKYARD BABIES is:

Nicke Borg - lead vocals, guitar

Dregen - lead guitar, vocals

Johan Blomquist - bass

Peder Carlsson - drums

SOTO, the modern heavy metal / hard rock group featuring vocalist Jeff Scott Soto (YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, TALISMAN, JOURNEY, SONS OF APOLLO, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA), has signed a new worldwide deal with InsideOut Music.

Soto commented: "I am proud to have SOTO working with the great InsideOut Music and their partners at Century Media Records and Sony Music. Having seen what we did together with SONS OF APOLLO, I am thrilled to see what we'll do to further my own vanity band SOTO into the future. It's a very exciting time in our lives and career."

Jeff formed SOTO in 2015 as a way to return to his heavier roots. So far they've released two albums, "Inside The Vertigo" (2015) and "Divak" (2016), taking a short break while Jeff embarked on the supergroup SONS OF APOLLO, alongside Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian, Billy Sheehan and Bumblefoot.


A new SOTO album is currently being worked on and its material will continue to expand and move the band towards new heights while following up with their brand of power rock.


b>SOTO also recently announced the newest member of the band, bassist Tony Dickinson, who coincidentally also replaced the late David Zablidowsky in the TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA. Jeff explains: "It was the one and only natural choice for us after losing our brother David in a horrific accident in 2017. Tony wrote and played on two singles for the first two SOTO albums, 'The Fall' and 'FreakShow'. He is phenomenally talented and a great friend. He'll fit right in with us and I cannot wait to showcase more of his contributions as we move the band forward."


SOTO, which is rounded out by Jorge Salan (guitar), Edu Cominato (drums) and BJ (keys/guitar), will be touring throughout 2019 following the release of the still-untitled new album.


SOTO is:

Jeff Scott Soto - Vocals

Jorge Salan - Guitar

Tony Dickinson - Bass

BJ - Keys/Guitar

Edu Cominato - Drums

Phoenix-based thrash metal veterans SACRED REICH have announced the return of drummer Dave McClain.

McClain was a member of SACRED REICH from 1991 to 1995. He played on the "A Question" EP (1991) and the "Independent" (1993) and "Heal" (1996) albums before leaving to join MACHINE HEAD.

SACRED REICH bassist/vocalist Phil Rind comments: "It is with great pleasure that we announce that Dave McClain is once again a member of SACRED REICH! This was the best-case scenario that we could have hoped for. Dave is the best! A great drummer and a great person and we are beyond excited to welcome him back to the band. We're headed into the studio in February and can't wait for you all to hear our new record due in the summer of 2019!”

Dave says: "I'm so excited about rejoining my brothers in SACRED REICH. To have the opportunity to make and play music with one of my favorite metal bands was always something I hoped could happen. I can't wait for everyone to hear the new album that we're recording in February and to come see us out on the road in 2019-2020."

b>McClain left MACHINE HEAD last month after completing the band's "Freaks & Zeroes Tour".

Earlier this year, SACRED REICH recruited drummer Tim Radziwill as the temporary replacement for Greg Hall.

Hall announced his departure from SACRED REICH in January, explaining in a statement that he was fired "rather abruptly and by phone."

Formed in 1986, SACRED REICH is part of the second wave of thrash, along with TESTAMENT, DEATH ANGEL, DESTRUCTION and DARK ANGEL. Over the years, SACRED REICH has produced a catalog of politically charged aggressive songs that have stood the test of time.

SACRED REICH's last studio album, "Heal", came out in 1996. The band broke up in 2000 and remained inactive until 2006 when they received offers to play European festivals.

Since coming out of retirement more than a decade ago, SACRED REICH has almost exclusively played the European festival circuit every summer. But that changed last year as SACRED REICH celebrated the 30th anniversary of its classic album "Ignorance". To commemorate this milestone, the band brought its "30 Years Of Ignorance" tour around the world.

Photo credit: Stephanie Cabral

Video footage of Philip Anselmo performing three PANTERA songs — "Slaughtered", "25 Years" and "Strength Beyond Strength" — with his SCOUR project on December 15 at Whisky A Go Go in West Hollywood, California can be seen below.

SCOUR, which also includes members of CATTLE DECAPITATION and PIG DESTROYER, released its second EP, "Red", in November 2017.

Anselmo spoke to Australia's Heavy magazine about his decision to play a number of PANTERA songs during the recent North American tour with his solo band, PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS.

"This past year has been pretty rough as far as the PANTERA camp goes," he said. "So, with Vinnie's [Paul, PANTERA drummer] passing, I figure, this past year, why not play some of the old songs that people wanna hear and have been asking to hear for a long time. So that's been a different spin on the set, man. And once again, I can't say enough about my guys around me… Mike DeLeon, my guitar player, is really a death metal player, and Blue [José Manuel Gonzalez], my drummer, he comes from death metal roots, and everybody expands, but to ask them to do this PANTERA stuff, it was big, man — it was really big. So, big props to them, man."

sked if performing classic PANTERA songs brings up good memories or bad memories for him, Anselmo said: "When I'm onstage, it's all good. And I will say there have been some bizarre moments. What freaks me out is the younger audience — the kids whose parents grew up as PANTERA fans in the house. It's amazing. Seeing the youngsters come in and go bananas, man — it's inspiring, man. Yeah, you know, strange feelings here and there, but overall, the payoff's been great."

Up until his death this past June, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo, whom the drummer indirectly blamed for the death of Dimebag, who was his brother.

Vinnie Paul and Dimebag co-founded PANTERA. When PANTERA broke up in 2003, they formed DAMAGEPLAN. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts.

Swedish metallers HAMMERFALL will enter the studio on January 7, 2019 to begin recording their new album. Titled "Dominion", the disc will be released on August 16, 2019 via Napalm Records.

HAMMERFALL's last album, "Built To Last", was released in November 2016 via Napalm Records.

Lat year, drummer David Wallin returned to HAMMERFALL — nine months after he left the group in order to focus on his family life.

HAMMERFALL guitarist Oscar Dronjak told Music Life Magazine about Wallin's decision to come back to the band: "[David] had some problems with being away from his kids and stuff, just different things at home that made him not being able to be on the road for as much as we wanted him to be. So he had to step down. We got Johan [Koleberg, formerly of THERION and LION'S SHARE], but we felt kind of like we missed David, because he was such a great fit, and he brought so much life into the band when he came into to replace Anders [Johansson] that we kind of asked him, 'Would you like to come back? Or is there any way [we can make it work]?' And I think he kind of missed it too, because he realized that this is an opportunity for him, of course. Plus we do a lot of tours, a lot of big things that he would like to be a part of. Of course, we pay him well. So, you know, he's just getting taken care of. But for me, more than anything else, it was the connection of five people getting together because HAMMERFALL has never sounded anything as good as we do right now."

b>HAMMERFALL released the 20th-anniversary edition of its second album, "Legacy Of Kings", as a 2-CD/DVD box set on December 7 via Nuclear Blast.

We'll just leave this here. Merry Christmas!
We'll just leave this here. Merry Christmas!Posted by Hammerfall on Tuesday, December 18, 2018

The official lyric video for the song "Heaven And Hell And Fire" from Greek extreme metal veterans ROTTING CHRIST can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's new album, "The Heretics", which will be released on February 15, 2019 via Season Of Mist. The artwork for the disc was created by Greek artist Maximos Manolis.

"The Heretics" track listing:

01. In The Name of God (04:14)

02. Vetry Zlye (03:13)

03. Heaven And Hell And Fire (04:52)

04. Hallowed Be Thy Name (05:06)

05. Dies Irae (03:46)

06. I Believe (03:42)

07. Fire God And Fear (04:50)

08. The Voice of the Universe (05:23)

09. The New Messiah (03:07)

10. The Raven (05:23)

With "The Heretics", ROTTING CHRIST is opening a brand new chapter. Sakis, in collaboration with his brother Themis on drums, achieves a perfect balance of amalgamating the band's classic and unique style of riffing and rhythm with exciting new elements sprinkled in to keep its material exciting and fresh. The experience is enhanced by Jens Bogren's equally clear and transparent yet also massive as well as sombre mix and mastering at his widely renowned Fascination Street Studios (AMORPHIS, BORKNAGAR, MOONSPELL, DEVIN TOWNSEND).


ith more than 30 years, 13 studio albums, a dozen EPs, singles and split releases, as well as more than 1,250 shows under their belt, 2018 marked the year of ROTTING CHRIST's "Their Greatest Spells", where the band musically revisited its exciting legacy to connect its past with the present.

Asked in an interview with Pavillon 666 if he thought ROTTING CHRIST would last 30 years upon the band's 1988 formation, Sakis said: "It's a full life. No, of course [not]…you don't start the band to exist for 30 years or to be famous or rich or whatever the fuck. We just started the band because I wanted to sound like my idols back then. I wanted to play only one show and now I'm in a position where I've played 1,500 shows. And, no, I didn't expect something like this, but the spirit remains the same, even if I'm not that young. I still have the spirit and the hope that if we are in good health to keep playing with the band until our death. If health permits, of course. It's not up to me. If health does not permit, then I will not serve."

ROTTING CHRIST is:

Sakis Tolis: vocals, guitar, keys

Themis Tolis: drums

George Emmanouil: lead guitar

Van Ace: bass

On January 25, 2019, UMe will release "Kissworld - The Best Of Kiss" on CD and digitally, with the standard black vinyl and limited-edition color vinyl being released on March 29. The collection was previously made available in the United Kingdom in 2017.


KISS, America's #1 gold-record-award-winning group of all time in every category, has a stunning catalog of rock 'n' roll classics. The release of "Kissworld - The Best Of Kiss" comes in time to mark the anniversary of the band's first show ever performing on January 30, 1973 to no more than 10 people in attendance at Popcorns, a small club in New York, as well as celebrating the global superstar band as they launch their 2019 "End Of The Road" final tour at an 18,000-seat major arena on January 31 in Vancouver. "Kissworld" brings together 20 of KISS's best-loved tracks together on one album. Iconic fan favorites such as "I Was Made For Lovin' You", "Rock And Roll All Nite" and "God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II" alongside top 10 U.S. chart hits "Beth" and "Detroit Rock City" on one huge collection.


KISS is one of the most iconic and influential rock acts of all time. The band have released 44 albums and sold over 100 million records worldwide. Consummate live performers, the band's illustrious career is marked by record breaking global tours.


Now, after an epic and storied 45-year career that launched an era of rock 'n' roll legends, KISS announced that they will embark on their final tour ever in 2019, appropriately named "End Of The Road". Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer announced their plans on NBC's "America's Got Talent", which sent the Internet into overdrive with fans hoping their city would get one final KISS show.

b>"Kissworld - The Best Of Kiss" track listing:


01. Crazy Crazy Nights

02. Rock And Roll All Nite

03. I Was Made For Lovin' You

04. God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II

05. Detroit Rock City

06. Beth

07. Lick It Up

08. Heaven's On Fire

09. Tears Are Falling

10. Unholy

11. Hard Luck Woman

12. Psycho Circus

13. Shout It Out Loud

14. Calling Dr. Love

15. Christine Sixteen

16. Love Gun

17. Shandi

18. I'm A Legend Tonight

19. Modern Day Delilah

20. Hell Or Hallelujah

"Freeze", the new video from the Los Angeles based post-metal group DAWN FADES, can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's self-titled debut album, which will be released on February 8, 2019 via Metal Assault Records.

Metal Assault has worked with DAWN FADES for a couple of its events in the L.A. area this year, and the band's live performance was mesmerizing and magnetic every single time, striking an unimaginable and often unattainable balance between ferocity and finesse, and always exhibiting a wide spectrum of musical expressions within the finite 30-minute duration typically allotted to it as a support act.

"Dawn Fades" will be made available on limited-edition vinyl (black and gold color variations) and all digital platforms.

Track listing:

1. Lean (5:06)

02. Conceal (6:10)

03. Ashes (5:36)

04. -(pause)- (0:40)

05. Shackle (5:25)

06. See (4:07)

07. Freeze (6:56)

DAWN FADES will celebrate the album's release with a performance at 5 Star Bar in Los Angeles on Saturday, February 16.

DAWN FADES is:

Sam Sherwood (vocals)

Adam El-Gerbi (guitar)

Markus Erren Pardiñas (bass)

Scott Quist (drums)

Nate Hertweck (guitar)

Photo credit: Elizabeth Gore / Lone Wolf Productions

Fan-filmed video footage of MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson's December 14 appearance at Shovelhead in Longwood, Florida can be seen below (courtesy of YouTube user "hvymtlmom").

The Longwood gig was part of Ellefson's "Basstory" tour, which combines solo bass performance with David's celebrated brand of storytelling, as he recounts intimate details of his struggles and triumphs in the name of rock 'n' roll. "Basstory" also includes special VIP meet-and-greets, exclusive merchandise, and more.

"Basstory" is also the launching pad for Ellefson and partner Thom Hazaert to announce the formation of their new booking agency, ETA — Ellefson Touring Agency — with veteran agent Keith Rowley personally booking the trek.

Prior to the start of the tour, Ellefson said: "I have always done clinics, and a few years ago did an amazing spoken-word tour in Australia to support my book 'My Life With Deth', and have always welcomed the opportunity to be able to meet and connect with fans on a more intimate level. These important parts of my professional life converged to create 'Basstory'. Not only will fans get to hear some of their favorite bass riffs, but the stories behind them. It's not often I get to get into small, intimate rock clubs, the way this all started, and I'm excited for fans to get to experience this show."

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Work has commenced on a forthcoming autobiography from SICK OF IT ALL vocalist Lou Koller and guitarist Pete Koller, to be called "The Blood And The Sweat: The Story Of Sick Of It All's Koller Brothers". Former A&R man and author Howie Abrams ("Finding Joseph I: An Oral History Of H.R. From Bad Brains", "The Merciless Book of Metal Lists..." ) will be compiling the book along with the Kollers. Publishing is scheduled for fall 2019 by Post Hill Press.

In its thirty-third year as a band, SICK OF IT ALL recently released its twelfth album, "Wake The Sleeping Dragon!", to critical acclaim and fan adoration alike. With so many unique experiences under their belts, Lou and Pete, born and raised in Queens, New York, felt the time was right to tell their collective, as well as individual, stories.

This is not a tale of the streets and broken homes similar to that of, say, AGNOSTIC FRONT or CRO-MAGS. It is, however, a tremendous account of struggle and perseverance by any means necessary. One of working-class blood brothers reared on aggressive music; catching the wave of early New York City hardcore and riding it with an unparalleled anger and fury across the globe for nearly three and a half decades — together and separately enduring all of the turbulence which comes along with carrying the flag for disenfranchised youth anywhere and everywhere they were welcome... And even many places they were not.

Lou and Pete have encountered all of it side by side. Decisions each has made throughout their journey has had an effect on the other for better or worse. They've won some battles, and have lost many. In 1992, they were faced with the aftermath of a mass shooting in Massachusetts, carried out by a shooter wearing their tour shirt, and the misguided blame game which followed as their band name was plastered across mainstream media outlets worldwide.

egardless, Lou and Pete Koller have achieved unparalleled success (in hardcore terms), and have taken the volatile sub-culture with them to locales previously assumed unfathomable. The brothers have made the hardcore family larger and more united like no other. To do so, there was certainly a lot of blood and sweat, but to this day, never any tears.

Left to right in photo above: Pete Koller, Howie Abrams, Lou Koller

In a recent interview with the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast, ACCEPT guitarist Wolf Hoffmann spoke about the band's mindset while creating "Fast As A Shark", considered by some to be the first true thrash metal track ever recorded.

"I clearly remember how we wrote the song and how it all came about," Wolf said (hear audio below). "It was really the drummer, Stefan [Kaufmann], who came up with the crazy idea of playing double bass, double kick, all the way through. And we had never done that [before]. So he came up with that basic idea, the concept, and we sort of had the riff — that was fairly easy — and then I wrote that weird middle section for it. But then, at the very end, we wanted to have an intro for it, or something. And I thought about it, and I came up with the idea to put on a record that's completely the opposite of what's about to happen, just to fool people into thinking something else… I thought everybody who buys the record [would think] that they might have bought the wrong record. That was the idea — you go to the store, you buy the new ACCEPT record, you put it on and say, 'What the hell? Somebody put the wrong record in the sleeve.' That was the idea. And I thought, 'Maybe we'll use an opera part,' or something. And then we already had recorded the basic tracks and we were looking for any intro to use, and we went, actually, through the record collection of the studio owner's mother. We recorded at Dierks Studios, where the SCORPIONS used to record and all that, and there was [Dieter Dierks's] mother; she had a record collection. And we [asked her], 'What kind of records do you have that we can possibly steal and abuse, scratch out?' Because we wanted to rip the needle off. And she had some children's records that Dieter Dierks, as a kid, actually sang on. So there was all these German traditional folk songs that everybody heard as a kid. And there was the one song — it's called 'Ein Heller Und Ein Batzen' — that had this middle section where there's no lyrics. Because we thought, 'German lyrics? Nah.' We don't want that. Because we didn't really wanna sound too German; we wanted it to be international. And that little segment is 'Hi De Hi Do Hi Da,' which… that's what we used. So we borrowed that album and put it on and ripped the needle off and kind of destroyed the record for Mama Dierks."

ANTHRAX's Charlie Benante has been vocal about the influence "Fast As A Shark" had on his early drumming style, telling Reverb earlier this year: "At the time [of the song's release in 1982], it was like the fastest double kick that there was. And for me, they set the standard."

ACCEPT has just released a live set, "Symphonic Terror - Live At Wacken 2017", via Nuclear Blast. It features a unique ACCEPT show, shot on August 3, 2017 at the legendary Wacken Open Air festival, where the band played the biggest and most extraordinary show of its career in front of 80,000, on top of thousands more fans watching via a live stream.

ast month, ACCEPT's founding bassist Peter Baltes announced his departure from the band. A replacement bassist has not yet been revealed.

Philip Anselmo spoke to Australia's Heavy magazine about his decision to play a number of PANTERA songs during the recent North American tour with his solo band, PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS.

"This past year has been pretty rough as far as the PANTERA camp goes," he said. "So, with Vinnie's [Paul, PANTERA drummer] passing, I figure, this past year, why not play some of the old songs that people wanna hear and have been asking to hear for a long time. So that's been a different spin on the set, man. And once again, I can't say enough about my guys around me… Mike DeLeon, my guitar player, is really a death metal player, and Blue [José Manuel Gonzalez], my drummer, he comes from death metal roots, and everybody expands, but to ask them to do this PANTERA stuff, it was big, man — it was really big. So, big props to them, man."

Asked if performing classic PANTERA songs brings up good memories or bad memories for him, Anselmo said: "When I'm onstage, it's all good. And I will say there have been some bizarre moments. What freaks me out is the younger audience — the kids whose parents grew up as PANTERA fans in the house. It's amazing. Seeing the youngsters come in and go bananas, man — it's inspiring, man. Yeah, you know, strange feelings here and there, but overall, the payoff's been great."

Up until his death this past June, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo, whom the drummer indirectly blamed for the death of Dimebag, who was his brother.

b>Vinnie Paul and Dimebag co-founded PANTERA. When PANTERA broke up in 2003, they formed DAMAGEPLAN. On December 8, 2004, while performing with DAMAGEPLAN at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, Dimebag was shot and killed onstage by a troubled schizophrenic who believed that the members of PANTERA were stealing his thoughts.

Vinnie Paul died of dilated cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart, as well as severe coronary artery disease. His death was the result of chronic weakening of the heart muscle — basically meaning his heart couldn't pump blood as well as a healthy heart.

Vinnie was buried on June 30 next to his brother and their mother, Carolyn, at Moore Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Texas.

German industrial metallers RAMMSTEIN are tentatively scheduled to release their long-awaited new album in April 2019. The follow-up to 2009's "Liebe Ist Für Alle Da" is being mixed at a Los Angeles studio with Rich Costey, an American producer who has previously worked with MUSE, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE and FRANZ FERDINAND, among others.

RAMMSTEIN guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe spoke to Heavy Consequence about the band's upcoming disc while promoting "A Million Degrees", the third effort from his EMIGRATE side project.

"Everything with RAMMSTEIN takes forever, because there are six people, plus an engineer and a producer, and we all have opinions about it," he said "It's just going very slow, and it's very time consuming, and sometimes frustrating. Eventually, I think it's going to be an album that has a certain kind of potential that RAMMSTEIN hasn't achieved yet. For me, one of the reasons to step back into making records with RAMMSTEIN was to balance the popularity of the band as a live act with the actual music. With RAMMSTEIN, people tend to talk about the fire and all the live stuff. I thought, 'I don't want to be another KISS,' where people talk about makeup and stuff like that and no one talks about the music."

Regarding the musical direction of the new RAMMSTEIN material, Kruspe said: "I wanted to do a record that stands out even more than our past records, and I kind of find when I listen to the [new] record, it's like RAMMSTEIN 3D, if I can summarize it. We're happy to work with my good friend Olsen Involtini, who also worked on EMIGRATE records. He a great friend of mine, and he brought certain kind of harmonies into the world of RAMMSTEIN, which I like."

s for when fans can expect to hear RAMMSTEIN's new album, Kruspe said: "We're finishing up the last mixes, and it's going to come out probably in April of 2019."

RAMMSTEIN recently announced a batch of summer 2019 European tour dates. The run of stadium and arena shows will kick off on May 27 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany and end of August 23 in Vienna, Austria.

In 2016 and 2017, RAMMSTEIN played a number of concerts where the band opened each show with a brand new song, presently only known as "Ramm 4". The track contained lyrics that seemed to be a combination of various titles of previous RAMMSTEIN songs.

In a brand new interview with Sweden's RockSverige, ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello was asked if he can see his band going on for another decade or longer, especially in the wake of SLAYER announcing its retirement earlier in the year. He responded: "Well, first off, I hope so, and I don't think about it that much. The reaction that ANTHRAX has had for the last two records, I think we're in a good place, writing-wise, and I think we're in a good place with people coming to our shows and our fanbase is growing. It's a really postive thing in ANTHRAX. Let me tell you something, in the band ANTHRAX, we are hungrier now than ever. We have a writing session in January and I can't wait to get into the studio and start writing heavy songs with these guys. I'm looking forward to the next page."

Asked if there has been a time when he felt he wanted to walk away from it all, Bello said: "I've always wanted to play music. I remember when the grunge era happened in the '90s, and that was a rough era for metal, let's face it. It was a rough period and those were tough times, but at the same time, I couldn't wait to play, so I don't think there's ever been a time I didn't wanna play. I enjoy the experience of connecting with people with music. It's why I'm here. I need that energy."

ANTHRAX's latest album, "For All Kings", was released in February 2016. Its arrival followed a five-year period during which the band 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".

ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE, the project featuring Bello and MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson, will release its debut album, "Get It Out", on January 18, 2019 via Megaforce. The follow-up to ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE's 2014 self-titled EP was once again produced by Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER, STONE SOUR), with Jeff Friedl (A PERFECT CIRCLE, ASHES DIVIDE) returning behind the kit.

Former JOURNEY singer Steve Perry has released his cover version of "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", a song written by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, and first introduced by Judy Garland in the 1944 MGM musical "Meet Me In St. Louis".

Perry said in a statement: "This has been a big year of firsts for me. In keeping with that spirit, I thought I'd record a little Christmas card song and send it out to you to thank you for all of your kindness in welcoming me back. Have yourself a merry little Christmas. I hope you enjoy it."

Perry's first solo album in more than two decades, "Traces", was released on October 5 via Fantasy Records (a division of Concord Records/UMG).

Perry reunited with JOURNEY for the first time in years as they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in April 2017. The iconic singer appeared onstage with his former bandmates as they each gave speeches, but did not perform with the group later in the event.

uring his speech, Perry praised each of JOURNEY musicians as well as the band's current singer, Arnel Pineda, who was not being inducted into the Rock Hall.

Perry's final full concert with JOURNEY took place in early 1987. He later rejoined his bandmates for a brief performance in 1991 to honor late concert promoter Bill Graham. He also appeared with JOURNEY when they received a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in 2005.

METAL CHURCH guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof has praised GRETA VAN FLEET, saying that the Michigan outfit has "the right influences" and doesn't rely on backing tracks to perform its music.

Despite the fact that GRETA VAN FLEET has managed to sell out shows all over the world, the four-piece has been criticized for channeling a sound uncannily similar to LED ZEPPELIN, with some music fans accusing singer Josh Kiszka of copy-and-pasting Robert Plant's vocal style.

Asked by Sweden's RockSverige for his opinion of GRETA VAN FLEET, Kurdt said: "I think it's wonderful. Of course they sound so much like LED ZEPPELIN and people get kind of, you know… the plagiarism is a factor, but then at the same time, I'm, like, well, at least they're playing and at least they have the right influences and they're being a rock band, they look like a rock band and they're doing something. They're young and obviously they've gotten into their parents' record collection and listened to it and figured it out. If you give the kids a chance, they will figure it out, because there's a generation of kids that are out there going, 'Where's our swaggering rock star guys? We don't want to listen to Eminem complain about Trump. Where's our cool rock stars?' They don't have them, so they have to beat them and figure it out for themselves, and they are."

According to Vanderhoof, GRETA VAN FLEET's success "is a good sign that if people actually do it… if you build it, they will come. It's obvious," he said. "It's organic. Even in this day and age, and even when it sounds old and they think this isn't hip and this isn't cool and… Rock and roll is rock and roll, and people like rock and roll because of what it means and what it's supposed to be."

arlier in the month, GRETA VAN FLEET scored four Grammy Award nominations, one for each major rock category — "Best Rock Album", "Best Rock Song", "Best Rock Performance" — and a "Best New Artist" nod.

The band's debut album, "Anthem Of The Peaceful Army", debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart in July despite earning a lukewarm 53/100 score on review curation site Metacritic.

METAL CHURCH's 12th full-length studio album, "Damned If You Do", was released on December 7 via Rat Pak Records. The latest disc is the follow-up to 2016's "XI", which saw the return of legendary frontman Mike Howe.

In a recent interview with the "Music And Me" podcast, Glenn Hughes confirmed that his dispute over the royalties to the DEEP PURPLE material that he co-wrote while a member of the band more than four decades ago has finally been cleared up. "As we sit here speaking, it's three months ago, it's all been resolved," he told music journalist and presenter Kylie Olsson. "It's taken a long time. It's not really something I've spoke about in the press.

"People, of course, always ask me: 'How come you didn't write on 'Burn'?' And I don't really go out of my way to give the definitive answer, but the fact is I was signed to another company," he continued. "And if you look at [THE BEATLES'] George Harrison and [LED ZEPPELIN's] Robert Plant, they were off a couple of records too — Robert being 'Led Zeppelin I'. It's the same scenario. I decided I'd leave my name off to… take care of business, if you will. At a young age as well — I couldn't believe I did that."

According to Hughes, he doesn't harbor any bitterness toward the DEEP PURPLE camp over being inappropriately compensated for his work on the four albums he appeared on: "Burn", "Stormbringer", "Come Taste The Band" and "Made In Europe". "I never hold a resentment," he said. "Because the resentments are about people who are no longer with us. Let's just say that I was mismanaged — young and mismanaged — and I was promised things that… Being an only child living with his mum and dad up in the north [of England], I was offered a handshake, and I took it.

"The thing that's kept me alive is I've never held a resentment against anyone," he explained. "Never. Resentments would kill me — it would take me out drinking, it would take me out cavorting. I never held a resentment. And now, 44 years later, it's been resolved. It's a long time."

sked if he got back payments, Hughes said: "I'm getting paid, yeah. It's going back. But more importantly, I'm getting paid going forward. But there are some things I'm getting paid for, like film stuff and sync rights and streaming and stuff from lately. But there are other ways to go about it, which I can't talk about.

"I am right now… never been so healthy, and my mind is in a good place," he added. "As you know, mind can take you down. If I wake up in the morning and my mind goes, 'It's gonna be a crap day today,' it will be. So I do meditation at the bedside before I hit the floor and I go into a good place."

Hughes was with DEEP PURPLE from 1973 until the band split up in 1976. As bassist and co-vocalist, with David Coverdale, he helped steer the legendary rock group in a slightly more progressive direction, while touring the world for three years.

Hughes was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2016 along with fellow DEEP PURPLE members Coverdale, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Rod Evans, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and Ian Paice.

In addition to DEEP PURPLE, Hughes has, during his six-decade career, been associated with more than a handful of bands, including TRAPEZE, a short-lived collaboration with Pat Thrall (HUGHES/THRALL), a brief stint with BLACK SABBATH, and, over the past decade, the ill-fated CALIFORNIA BREED, and the recently revived BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION. As a solo artist, he has collaborated with everyone from Joe Satriani and RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS drummer Chad Smith to KLF and Gary Moore.

Italian happy metal five-piece, Nanowar Of Steel, released their new album Stairway To Valhalla on November 30th. Today the band unleashes the new video for the song “Heavy Metal Kibbles”.

The band commented: "Heavy Metal Kibbles is our second 'shooted' videoclip taken from our latest full length album Stairway To Valhalla. The song is an anthem to the nutritional properties of a crispy and fenilalanineous brand of dry catfood. It is an 'in-your-face', Judas Priest-like rain of sharp riffs and high pitched screams which will pierce your ears while making you think that eating kibbles is not such a bad idea after all."

In "Heavy Metal Kibbles", Nanowar tell the tale of a new brand of catfood that transforms tender kittens into merciless war machines. Its marketing is however allegedly linked to an unexplained series of deaths, which the police is investigating. When the truth will be found, however, it will be too late...

Stairway To Valhalla features world-class guests such as Fabio Lione (Angra, Rhapsody), Alessandro del Vecchio (Edge Of Forever, Voodoo Circle), and Mario Draghi (Goldman Sachs, ECB). This record spans over a wide range of unusual music styles and genres, from Brazilian Samba to Damaged Dream Theater CD’s (yes, that's a music style), from Liechtesteinische Volksmusik to Dubstep, with a touch of sincere idiocy.

Tracklisting:

"Declination" (Intro)
"Barbie, MILF Princess Of The Twilight"
"The Call Of Cthulhu"
"Heavy Metal Kibbles"
"Il Maestro Myagi Di Pino" (Interlude)
"L'Opelatole Ecologico"
"Images And Swords" (Interlude)
"In The Sky"
"...And Then I Noticed That She Was A Gargoyle"
"Tooth Fairy"
"Vegan Velociraptor"
"Another Drill In The Wall" (Interlude)
"Ironmonger (The Copier Of The Seven Keys)"
"Bum Voyage" (Interlude)
"Uranus"
"The Crown And The Onion Ring" (Interlude)
"The Quest For Carrefour"
"Hail To Liechtensten"

"Barbie MILF Princess Of The Twilight" video:

"The Call Of Cthulhu" video:

"Tooth Fairy" video:

Lineup:

Mohammed Abdul (Valerio Storch) - Guitars, vocals
Potowotominimak (Carlo A. Fiaschi) - VocalsMr. Baffo (Raffaello Venditti) - Vocals
Gatto Panceri 666 (Edoardo Carlesi) - Bass

Finland's Children Of Bodom will release their tenth album, Hexed, on March 8th via Nuclear Blast Records. Today, the band unveils the guitar playthrough for the first single, "Under Grass & Clover". Watch below.

COB frontman, guitarist, and mastermind Alexi Laiho comments, “'Under Grass And Clover' is the sound of COB on fire and has been my favourite song since it was written. It’s fast, melodic, heavy and dark but also short and sweet. Someone told me that it’s kinda like old school Dimmu Borgir and AWK and that’s pretty damn cool in my books so we must’ve done something right.”

For this album, the band enlisted Denis Forkas to create the album artwork. Bassist Henkka Blacksmith commented on the cover, “For some years already I have wanted to try a different approach with our cover art. We are so used to digital art so that is really hard to do something else. Doing it all the way with computer is somewhat safe and convenient. This time we all agreed to try it old school. We found this cool dude and gave him simple instructions. The cover has to be purple and the reaper has to be central. Half a year later we got his work, and with little tweaking, we have the cover of Hexed. It is very different from what we are used to, even the Reaper looks different, but at the same time very spooky."

Hexed will be available in the following formats:

- CD Digipak
- Pink w/ Black splatter vinyl - Limited to 300
- CD Digipak + T-Shirt + Poster

Pre-order here.

Hexed tracklisting:

"The Road"
"Under Grass and Clover"
"Glass Houses"
"Hecate’s Nightmare"
"Kick in the Spleen"
"Platitudes and Barren Words"
"Hexed"
"Relapse (The Nature of My Crime)"
"Say Never Look Back"
"Soon Departed"
"Knuckleduster"

Bonus tracks:
"I Worship Chaos" (live)
"Morrigan" (live)
"Knuckleduster" (remix)

"Under Grass And Clover" video:

(Photo - Marek Sabogal)

MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine says that he is "fighting" to get another heavy metal category added to the Grammy Awards.

In an effort to continuously evolve its Grammy Awards process, The Recording Academy announced in April 2011 that it had restructured the Grammy categories across all genres and fields, bringing the total number of categories to be recognized at the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012 to 78 from 109. As a result, instead of separate "Best Metal" and "Best Hard Rock" performance prizes, there is now a single "Best Metal Performance" award. In addition, "Metal" remains one of the 70 or so categories that aren't televised during the performance-heavy broadcast.

Mustaine, who landed his first-ever Grammy back in 2017 when he took home the trophy for "Best Metal Performance" for the title track of MEGADETH's latest album, "Dystopia", told the San Francisco's 107.7 The Bone radio station that heavy metal "deserves" to have another category at the annual event. "I joined the Grammy chapter out in Nashville to address that exact thing," Mustaine said (hear audio below). I joined the Grammy chapter because we have one metal category and I think they've got a dozen polka categories. I stopped going to the Grammys because you'd have to sit through, like, 30 Latin jazz records, and then you'd have to sit through another 30 jazz Latin records. And it's, like, 'What?' So a couple of years ago, the guy that produced our record 'Th1rt3en', Johnny K, and a couple of other guys at the Grammys tried to get another [heavy metal] category, and they were so close, but it failed. And I called them up and I said, 'We're doing this.' So 2020, we're fighting — we're getting all of the metal labels that we know, we're trying to get them all together to petition the Grammys to give us another metal category."

He added: "My record was one of the Top 25 records of the year worldwide for Universal. Don't tell me that we don't deserve another category."

b>MEGADETH's "Dystopia" nod marked the band's twelfth Grammy nomination in the "Metal" category (including nominations in the discontinued "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" category). Even so, Mustaine told The Columbus Dispatch in a 2017 interview that he won't be fully satisfied until he has a Grammy with his own name on it.

"As crazy as I am, I was thinking about the Grammy the other day and [how] it was given to MEGADETH," he said. "I was thinking it would surely be a lot better if it was given to Dave Mustaine and not to MEGADETH. I guess you've got to keep the fire burning."

MEGADETH is currently working on the follow-up to "Dystopia" for a 2019 release.

The band will support OZZY OSBOURNE on the next North American leg of the BLACK SABBATH singer's "No More Tours 2" in May, June and July 2019.

Female-fronted rock and metal band, Upon Wings, has been hard at work in the studio creating new music, and in the spirit of the holidays, the group is releasing a Christmas single as a free download.

The song features vocalist Anne Autumn Erickson, guitar work and production by Kevin Jardine (Uplift Productions) and mastering by Grammy-nominated Glenn Brown (Kid Rock, Spinal Tap). Stream the song below.

Download the song - an angelic, acoustic version of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel / God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" - via uponwings.com

"We wanted to release something as a gift to thank listeners for their continued support," Erickson said. "In the spirit of the holidays, we crafted this single and put a new spin on the traditional Christmas songs, 'O Come, O Come, Emmanuel' and 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.' We're excited to release the holiday song and more new music ahead."

Upon Wings' debut EP, 2013's Afterlife, features guest vocals and production by Brett Hestla (Dark New Day, former Creed), guitars and production from Jardine, drums by Peter Tzaferis and mixing for the song "You Are My Weapon" by Corey Lowery (Seether, Saint Asonia). Recording sessions for the EP took place at Johnny K's Groovemaster Studios in Chicago, Jardine's Uplift Productions in Canada and beyond.

Upon Wings' "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel / God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" will be available as a free download through Christmas. The track will also be available for purchase and streaming via iTunes, Amazon Music, Spotify and other digital outlets soon. Soli Deo Gloria.

"Get ready for new Upon Wings music soon," Erickson added. "Happy holidays to you and yours."

DEF LEPPARD has released an official music video for its new Christmas single titled "We All Need Christmas". A delicate acoustic ballad, the track proves fireside-ready with its uplifting, hopeful spirit and sense of seasonal soul.

"We All Need Christmas" is featured on DEF LEPPARD's brand new greatest-hits collection titled "The Story So Far - The Best Of", which was released on November 30. It is available in multiple configurations: a 2-CD set comprised of 35 tracks, 1-CD set comprised of 17 tracks, 2-LP vinyl, and digital. Among a blockbuster tracklisting loaded with timeless smashes, all four versions feature three new songs, including "We All Need Christmas", "Personal Jesus" and "Rock On (Remix)". As a bonus for collectors, the first-pressing vinyl copies of "The Story So Far" feature an exclusive seven-inch single of "Personal Jesus" and "We All Need Christmas".

As previously reported, DEF LEPPARD will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame next spring. The honor comes after the British rockers got the most votes in the Rock Hall's online fan poll.

One of the top-selling rock acts of of all time, DEF LEPPARD has been eligible for the Rock Hall since 2004.

he 34th annual Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony will be held March 29 at Brooklyn, New York's Barclays Center. HBO will broadcast a truncated version of the ceremony later in the year.