LACUNA COIL frontwoman Cristina Scabbia has weighed in on underdog Donald Trump's stunning upset of Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election, saying that she was "really surprised that Trump won" and expressing hope that "everything will be okay" under the new administration.

Trump shocked the political establishment and the world by becoming the 45th president in one of the biggest upsets in U.S. political history. He won with 289 electoral votes compared to 218 for Hillary Clinton. 270 were needed to win. Clinton, however, handily won the popular vote, despite losing the overall election.

Speaking to Metal Wani, Scabbia said (see video below): "I really, really hate politics. I strongly, strongly hate politics. Let's say that I hate extremisms from politics [and] religions. Especially for politics, I feel that we basically know nothing. We can be as informed as we want, but there are some things happening in the system that we will never know. So I really hate it when politics is really dividing people even more."

She continued: "I'll give you the stupidest example… I was really surprised that Trump won, because I was absolutely sure that Hillary would win, just because the polls showed she was the winner, and I would hear people saying, 'Fuck Trump! Trump will never win.' Blah blah blah. But, as it always happens, the favorite loses. So I posted on my social [media sites] — which I never do, because I never talk about politics — I just posted a black picture with [the caption] 'Wow!', because I was seriously genuinely surprised. And I also did it on purpose because I really wanted to see all the comments down below the picture, showing what people perceive from whatever you do. And that's kind of how politics works. I basically didn't say anything — it could have been everything — but some people commented, like, 'Fuck you, liberal! We won. Fuck you! Get out of the country.' And I was, like, okay, first of all, you don't even know that I'm not American. I live in Italy, and I'm okay in Italy. But you're attacking me without even knowing my political view. And it was just interesting how much hate politics in general raise, and this is what I really, really don't like about politics."

Asked if she thought Trump's win will have an effect on LACUNA COIL's touring activities in the U.S., Scabbia said: "I don't know what will happen. Hopefully everything will be okay. I honestly don't know. Because, to be honest, we always entered [the country] legally, so I hope that they will appreciate this, and I hope that they will appreciate the fact that we are still working and bringing money to the States, which is a territory that we absolutely adore. I'm there very often for personal reasons and for touring, and I love to be there; it feels like a second home to me. So I hope that everyone will be safe."

LACUNA COIL's latest album, "Delirium", entered The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 33 with first-week sales of just over 13,000 units — nearly all from pure album sales. The set follows the No. 27-peaking "Broken Crown Halo", which also opened with around 13,000 copies back in 2014.

Italy's SpazioRock recently conducted an interview with KAMELOT keyboardist Oliver Palotai. You can now watch the chat below.

Asked about KAMELOT's touring plans for 2017, Oliver said: "Not much, because we're gonna work on a new album. We have [an appearance on the] 70000 Tons Of Metal [cruise coming up] for the second time — for me, the third time; the first time I was there with EPICA — and two American shows. And so far nothing is planned. We need time for the album. Maybe a few shows coming up, but not much… We have some offers [for festival appearances], but we really don't know if we're gonna do it, because we wanna be fully immersed in the writing of the new album."

Regarding how much material has already been completed for the upcoming KAMELOT album, Oliver said: "Personally, I have finished one song, and I have a few sketches from other songs. Also, some stuff which didn't make it on 'Haven', I wanna revise that and rewrite it and rearrange it, so maybe it's gonna fit on the new record as well."

KAMELOT's latest album, "Haven", sold around 7,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD was made available in May 2015 via Napalm Records as part of an exclusive licensing deal through the band's Kamelot Music LLC.

Official performance and backstage (meet-and-greet and tuning-room) footage from METALLICA's November 5 concert in San José, Costa Rica can be seen below.

METALLICA revealed yesterday that the band's new album, "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct", is No. 1 in 57 countries, with the album going Top 3 in 75 nations and Top 5 in 105 countries.

According to music industry web site Hits Daily Double, "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct" is now likely to sell between 305,000 and 315,000 copies in the U.S. in its first full week of release.

Both of the band's previous studio outings, 2008's "Death Magnetic" and 2003's "St. Anger", sold more copies in shortened sales weeks. "Death Magnetic" moved 490,000 copies in a three-day window, while "St. Anger" shifted 418,000 copies in a similar period of time.

"Hardwired… To Self-Destruct" arrived on November 18. It consists of two discs, containing a dozen songs and nearly 80 minutes of music.

Drummer Lars Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that he believes one reason for METALLICA's continued success is the bond the band has with its fans. "The main thing really is just the fans," he said. "How do you communicate with your fans, how do you get the music to the fans, how do you offer your fans the best METALLICA experience that you can?”

Canadian thrash/heavy metal veterans ANNIHILATOR have lacerated many senses over the years with their supreme, aggressive metal mastery, and on January 27, 2017, their legion of loyal fans can look forward to a series of fresh sensory experiences as ANNIHILATOR proudly presents "Triple Threat", a three-disc collection of ANNIHILATOR's music in a trio of very different scenarios.

The main disc comprises a set of ANNIHILATOR's classics performed acoustically, with band leader/guitarist/ songwriter and vocalist Jeff Waters bringing together band members Aaron Homma and Richard Hinks, Vancouver drummer and friend Marc LeFrance plus Ottawa session player Pat Robillard. Recorded and mixed by Waters (with Marty Sobb), this quintet laid everything down live, off the floor and in single takes at Watersound Studios in Dunrobin, Canada during late May and early June, 2016, giving Waters one of the most challenging, satisfying and perhaps "electric" creative moments in his career.

The second disc will feature ANNIHILATOR's vicious set from the 2016 Bang Your Head!!! festival, a set which illustrates the very best of what ANNIHILATOR is known for — tight, sharp, technically excellent and melodic thrash metal music. It will also contain some exclusive inside-ANNIHILATOR off-stage perspective, courtesy of Jeff Waters's own camera, which captures further elements, flavors and detail of the band which fans will flip over.

"This was one of the coolest things I have done in my long career," says Jeff. "Having five people in a room, from all different backgrounds and talents, coming together to play songs from the past and to try to sound like we are one but totally live and with feel.

"This was one of the biggest challenges that ANNIHILATOR has faced, musically, but what impressed me the most was how you can hear all the individual styles each player has and how we were able to glue the playing and feel together. Done all in one take and with all the musical blemishes and imperfections that I would never normally let slide!

"This set covers some of the melodic songs, one even from 1984 (when a few of these guys were not even born!) and I just had to do this once in my life… to challenge myself and maybe show some others that it's not always just about the metal and the thrash! Rock 'n' roll and ballads are found everywhere in heavy metal.

"ANNIHILATOR are made up of a helluva lot of styles, mixed into one. That's exactly what kind of musicians I put together for this set… a mixed bag of rockers and metalheads and they made our legacy proud!

"Enjoy… we sure love this one."

"Triple Threat" will be available in several formats, including DVD/2CDs, Blu-ray/2CDs, a 2CD audio-only and digital download.

"Triple Threat" track listing:

Unplugged: The Watersound Studios Sessions

01. Sounds Good To Me02. Bad Child03. Innnocent Eyes04. Snake In The Grass05. Fantastic Things06. Holding On07. Stonewall08. In The Blood09. Crystal Ann10. Phoenix Rising

Live At The Bang Your Head!!! Festival

01. King Of The Kill02. No Way Out03. Creepin’ Again04. Set The World On Fire05. W.T.Y.D. (Welcome To Your Death)06. Never, Neverland07. Bliss08. Second To None09. Refresh The Demon10. Alison Hell11. Phantasmagoria12. Crystal Ann13. Phoenix Rising

"Gravity", the new video from ONCE HUMAN, the band featuring former MACHINE HEAD and SOULFLY guitarist Logan Mader, can be seen below. The song is taken from ONCE HUMAN's upcoming album, "Evolution", which will be released on February 10, 2017 via earMUSIC/eOne.

Mader states: "We shot this new video once again with director Ron Thunderwood, because he gives us a lot of freedom to be ourselves. He is mostly a one-man army, so the convenience aspect is awesome. We love his passion and wanted people to see his versatility and skill outside of a controlled room.

"We worked with all-natural light so we had a small window of time. The wind was so strong that we almost lost the drone and Ron had to chase it. We were not expecting the wind and the dust, but we went with it anyway and in the end it really seemed to fit with the lyrics. The lyrics and the vibe of the video are nearly the same: constantly cloudy, unexpected, messy, racing complexities of the mind, and only a moment of clarity.

"This new video also officially marks the debut of Max Karon on guitars. He's an amazing guitarist and played a big role in the creative process with Lauren [Hart, vocals] and I on our new album, 'Evolution'.

"We are releasing this song as the second single because it shows the more progressive elements within our album, has meaningful lyrics and displays Lauren's diversity as a vocalist."

"Evolution" is not just the title of ONCE HUMAN's sophomore release, it's an armor-plated declaration. Having made waves with their 2015 debut, "The Life I Remember", the band have dramatically progressed beyond the melodic death metal sound of that release into something more complex, emotional, distinct, and devastatingly heavy.

"Having been focused on recording, producing and developing bands, I had not picked up the guitar out of passion for twelve years but as soon as I started writing with Lauren, I fell in love with what we were making, and I wanted to play in the band and get back on stage," states Mader, whose name will be familiar to metalheads not only for his production and/or mixing work on records from the likes of GOJIRA, FEAR FACTORY and DEVILDRIVER, but also as the original guitarist in MACHINE HEAD, and his late-'90s stint in SOULFLY.

"Our first record was getting the ball rolling, but now it's as if we're a totally different band. We really found our sound and our identity, it's quite unique and I think what we're doing is really on fire."

Armed with this track and the eight others comprising "Evolution", ONCE HUMAN intend to build on the groundwork laid down by the two tours they did in support of their debut, and make it damn clear that this is a band to be taken seriously.

"It's only been a little more than a year since we put out our first record, but we were so driven by the new sound that we forged that we needed to get back into the studio and capture it," Mader explains. "It was also important to prove to people that this is a real band. It's not just a project I felt like doing on a whim, this is a band that's going to have a full career, and now we're really getting started."

With the lineup rounded out by drummer Dillon Trollope, bassist Damien Rainaud and guitarists Skyler Howren and recent recruit Max Karon, everything about "Evolution" makes it clear that this is a band pushing itself to deliver something that truly stands apart. "Our first record was getting the ball rolling, but now it's as if we're a totally different band," says Mader. "We really found our sound and our identity — it's quite unique — and I think what we're doing is really on fire."

With the intensity and range of Hart's roar having drastically increased, she unleashes it across complex and constantly shifting time signatures, and thick, contorted riffs that land with sledgehammer force. However, this is not only about bludgeoning the listener into submission, the violence often juxtaposed with eerie atmospherics and dark melodies to create something with great depth.

"Evolution" track listing:

01. Flock Of Flesh02. Eye Of Chaos03. Mass Murder Frenzy04. Gravity05. Dark Matter06. Paragon07. Drain08. Killers For Cure09. Passenger

Video footage of INVIDIA, the new band featuring former and current members of FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, IN THIS MOMENT and SKINLAB, performing on November 20 at The Boardwalk in Sacramento, California can be seen below.

INVIDIA has signed a worldwide deal with SPV (eOne distribution) for the release of its debut album, "As The Sun Sleeps". Based in Las Vegas, INVIDIA's style embraces everything from industrial sludge to Bay Area thrash and delivers with the musical mastery and ferocity to dominate 2017. With a target drop date of April 2017, "As The Sun Sleeps" bursts through sub-genre walls and embodies INVIDIA's multifaceted sound.

SPV's A&R Manager and head of international licensing, Gero Herrde, revealed his reactions to the partnership: "Working with a band consisting of high-level experienced and skilled musicians like these guys is not only an honor, it is also a great pleasure — and it's bound for success as well. We're really proud that it's us they picked!"

INVIDIA bassist Matt Snell (formerly of FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH) shares Herrde's enthusiasm. "Everyone in INVIDIA is beyond excited that we found a home with SPV and we are looking forward to our partnership working together," said Snell. "When you surround yourself with the right people there are truly no limits to what could be."

INVIDIA's manager Shawn Barusch, president of Music Gallery International, helmed this game changing deal between INVIDIA and SPV. "I'm so happy to be working with SPV!" Shawn said. "I feel we have found the right home for INVIDIA. With the debut release of INVIDIA's album, 'As The Sun Sleeps', in 2017, I feel no fan will be safe from this rapture."

"As The Sun Sleeps" was produced and co-written by Logan Mader (ONCE HUMAN, MACHINE HEAD). "I loved working on this album!" he said. "INVIDIA's sound has huge balls while maintaining a great sense of mass appeal with big hooks and heavy grooves. The guys are dead serious about making it all happen and very self-sufficient. Producing records like this makes my job fun and inspiring." And on the SPV deal, co-manager Mader had this to say: "We made a solid deal for the band. It took awhile to negotiate but it ended up right. Excited for 2017!"

Regarding the vibe and feel of "As The Sun Sleeps", Mader said: "I would call it hard rock/metal with big balls. It's got big choruses. It's got big hooks. It also has a serious 'metal energy,' which is where we all come from in our musical backgrounds. There are some songs that fit the American active rock radio format. There are some songs with a modern-industrial-type feel mixed with a kind of a pop sensibility and big chorus. The other end of the spectrum is more of a groove metal which draws a little bit from that classic PANTERA vibe. It gives it that sort of heavy testosterone metal feel."

In a recent interview with Rich Inzinna and Paula Noto from "The S.I.R.E.N." radio show on iRadioUSA.com, Travis stated about how INVIDIA was formed: "This all came together super fast and super flawless. I guess stars kind of aligned, really. I put something up online and Brian hit me up. He said, 'Dude, I'd be totally down t do some work together,' and that kind of thing. And I was, like, 'You know what? I totally miss singing. And I'm totally down for that.'"

He continued: "The funny thing is, everybody that's involved in this project as of now has worked together at different times except for me and Brian. So it's almost funny. It was like this circle that was just missing a piece for it all to connect. So once me and Brian got together, the whole circle came together, and within six weeks, this whole record's done, completely recorded, everybody's in place. And it's almost super ironic the way it all came together."

Travis, who still plays bass in IN THIS MOMENT, added: "We're all super excited about this project. I'm stoked to be singing again. I love playing bass, obviously, but I've been a singer for a long fucking time. I just took a huge break, so it's good to be able to kind of get back into it and kind of have my cake and eat it too, and be on both sides."

INVIDIA is:

* Matt Snell (FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH) - Bass* Travis Johnson (IN THIS MOMENT) - Vocals* Brian Jackson (SKINLAB) - Guitar* Darren Badorine - Drums* Marcos Medina (SKINLAB) - Guitar

Photo credit: Fred Morledge / PhotoFM.com

METALLICA last week visited London, England's Maida Vale Studios to lay down their first-ever BBC session. The California thrash metal veterans delivered a five-song in-studio performance for BBC Radio 1's "Rock Show With Daniel P. Carter".

The band performed the following tracks:

* Atlas, Rise!* Moth Into Flame* Harvester Of Sorrow* Hardwired* Enter Sandman

Video footage of the Atlas, Rise!" and "Hardwired" performances is available below.

The entire session can be heard at BBC.co.uk.

The session also included a brief interview with the four members of METALLICA where James Hetfield talked about the evolution of his lyric-writing approach. "I want to mature, I want to be happier in life — I think everyone kinda does — [and] at some point I had to turn around and embrace that anger that has been with me since youth," he said. "What I get to do is use it as a tool; I get to use music as a voice... to get whatever's spinning in my head out."

According to music industry web site Hits Daily Double, METALLICA's new studio album, "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct", is likely to sell between 250,000 and 270,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The SPS figure is expected to be between 260,000 and 280,000.

SPS, a practice used by Billboard magazine, stands for "sales plus streaming," which includes album sales and converted track sales plus converted streaming data.

For those interested: 10 tracks sold equal one album sale (since $1.29, the cost for an individual track, multiplied by ten gives you $12.99, a common price for an album, and 1,500 streams is equivalent to one album sale.

"Hardwired… To Self-Destruct" arrived on November 18. It consists of two discs, containing a dozen songs and nearly 80 minutes of music.

Dark Essence Records has set January 20th, 2017 as the release date for landawarijaR, the ninth full-length album from Norwegian Viking Metallers Helheim.

LandawarijaR will contain seven tracks, all of which bear the hallmarks of Helheim's traditional Norse heritage. A heritage of which they are rightly proud and to which they have remained true, eschewing the temptation to turn themselves into the Viking parodies that so many bands have espoused.  With landawarijaR, Helheim use their lyrics to express the need to include the Norse Heritage into modern life by emphasising the importance, mystery and never-changing wonder of the Runes. 
 
Just as Helheim's raunijaR followed in the same vein as its predecessor Asgards Fall, landawarijaR continues where "Heidindomr" ended. All four albums incorporate the use of timpani and horns, and the new album also has a number of artists performing guest vocals including William Hut, Morten Egeland (Narrowhead), Pehr Skjoldhammer (Alfahanne),  Bjornar E Nilsen (Vulture Industries, Black Hole Generator) and Ottorpedo.
 
With music by by H'grimnir and V'gandr,  lyrics by V'gandr and  artwork by H'grimnir, landawarijaR  was recorded at the Conclave and Earshot Studios in Bergen, and produced by Bjornar E. Nilsen (Vulture Industries, Black Hole Generator) and mastered by Herbrand Larsen (Enslaved). 

Tracklisting for landawarijaR is as follows:

"Ymr"
"Baklengs mot intet"
"Rista blodørn"
"landawarijaR" 
"Ouroboros"
"Synir af heidindomr"
"Enda-dagr"

Helheim recently announced that two songs from the album were being turned into videos by Guilherme Henriques, who is both producing and directing the videos. "Ymr" and "Baklengs mot intet" are the songs that been chosen because, as the band  explained, they are "neatly intertwined into a dualism which Guillherme will portray". The videos are expected to be debuted in the run-up to the release of landawarijaR.

A series of stills from the video shoot by the photographer Mathis Backe of Yggdrasil Photo, and featuring Helheim's lineup of Vgandr on bass and vocals, Hgrimnir on rhythm guitar and vocals, Noralf on rhythm and lead guitar and Hrymr on drums and programming , were recently published, and can be seen on Helheim's Facebook page.

 

SLIPKNOT percussionist Shawn "Clown" Crahan has told Rolling Stone that he has a plan to get together with guitarist Jim Root in early February and start writing new music — "because we want to write," Crahan added — and they'll leave the date they actually go back into the studio to record the follow-up to ".5: The Gray Chapter" album up in the air.

".5: The Gray Chapter" was released in October 2014 following a six-year hiatus during which founding SLIPKNOT bassist Paul Gray died and original drummer Joey Jordison was dismissed. Since the CD's release, several of the SLIPKNOT bandmembers, including Root and fellow guitarist Mick Thomson, have expressed hope that the group could record the follow-up effort sooner than expected, with Root claiming in interviews to have already begin compiling ideas for SLIPKNOT's next release.

SLIPKNOT has hinted that its next studio effort could be a double concept album, with singer Corey Taylor saying: "We're talking about it. [Crahan] and I and Jim have been talking about what would be next. And the idea that we had was to kind of come up with the concept and then provide the soundtrack for it. But then I told them… I was, like, 'Let's take it even further and let's make our 'Purple Rain', let's make our PINK FLOYD 'The Wall'.' With a movie — not just the album, but do the movie… like, do everything. And they were pretty into it. Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be a few years before we even get into that, but just the fact that we're laying the steps for it now just means that we're right back to where we were, which is just being five steps ahead of the game."

Taylor said in an interview with RockSverige.se that SLIPKNOT will take a "couple of years off" after completing the tour cycle for ".5: The Gray Chapter". Taylor explained, "We're gonna finish touring and then we're gonna take a couple of years off again to let everything chill. I'm gonna go do my thing, [and] everybody else's gonna go do their thing... then, in a couple of years, we'll get back together and see what happens again."

Taylor's "thing" is STONE SOUR, which released a covers EP, "Meanwhile In Burbank…, in 2015 and is scheduled to enter the studio in January to record the follow-up to the band's 2012 double concept album, "House Of Gold And Bones".

Crahan's debut as a feature film director, "Officer Downe", arrived in theaters and on-demand platforms on November 18. Based on a graphic novel, the violent sci-fi film follows a police officer who is repeatedly killed, resurrected, and sent back into the field due to a mysterious technology that essentially makes him immortal. Kim Coates from "Sons Of Anarchy" stars in the title role.

Swedish hard rockers EUROPE performed at Volkshaus in Zurich, Switzerland on November 16 as part of their special tour during which they are playing their "The Final Countdown" album in its entirety to celebrate the LP's 30th anniversary. Fan-filmed video footage of the concert can be seen below.

A few months ago, when the tour was first announced, EUROPE singer Joey Tempest explained the band's decision to perform the entire "The Final Countdown" album: "With a catalog of songs as big as ours, it is hard to devote so much of the setlist to one album. But this anniversary is special and we want to give the fans what they have asked for.

"The whole band is proud and excited to play the whole album from start to finish, especially as this, our third album, made it possible for us to fulfil our dream to become an international touring band. To make it extra special, we will try and play songs from 'War Of Kings' and other albums we haven't played before and at the same time we want to design a show that will be majestic and memorable for all of us.

While always venturing forward, EUROPE has had a great couple of years. Last year they won a prestigious Classic Rock award at London's Roundhouse and a people's choice award in Sweden called Rockbjörnen and have been touring in support of their critically acclaimed 2015 release, "War Of Kings", produced by Grammy winner Dave Cobb (RIVAL SONS)

EUROPE will head back into the studio in early 2017 to record a follow-up to "War Of Kings". The album, as yet untitled, will have an extensive tour schedule to support the release, endeavoring to take in territories not visited in some time.

Said Tempest: "We will release our 11th studio album in 2017 and are enjoying a successful second part of our career since we started up again in 2004. Five new albums, three live DVDs and countless shows and we're still feeling adventurous and creative. No doubt we have the best job in the world and our fans, old and new, are carrying us through it all."

The UDR label earlier in the year released a very special limited-edition 12-inch three-track "sparkle blue" colored vinyl EP featuring a new 2016 recording of "The Final Countdown". A digital download version of "The Final Countdown 2016" is available via iTunes.

To celebrate the launch of its new web site, the Chicago-based metal band THE BLOODLINE, which features former members of DIRGE WITHIN and DIVINE HERESY, is offering a rare free download of the acoustic version of the track "Bedside Sorrow". Check it out at www.thebloodlinemusic.net.

THE BLOODLINE is currently writing material for its sophomore album. Guitarist Shaun Glass recently said: "So far I would say the songs have a tad more diversity in the songs and focus on big grooves and huge melodies. One new song, 'Awakening', is definitely gonna be a fan fave, I would bet."

THE BLOODLINE's debut album, "We Are One", was released in May 2015 via Another Century. The CD was recorded in 2014 with producer Joel Wanasek (RIGHTEOUS VENDETTA, VINYL THEATRE).

Regarding THE BLOODLINE's formation, singer Travis Neal told the National Rock Review: "The history of the band basically came from we were all in a band together called DIRGE WITHIN. I joined the band late in the band's career. We played a handful of shows as DIRGE, and, you know, they had a record that was out. [It] cycled for a while, so they wanted to write and start getting on a new record. So we set out to write the new record. Just slowly, we all decided that the more the music came out, the more we realized it wasn't DIRGE WITHIN at all; it was a new band. You know, DIRGE had some history behind and stuff like that. So we just kind of decided to kill the band name and start fresh — start over again with a fresh slate and a whole new brand. It's kind of a bold move for a band that's already established and has a following and tours under their belt as well as two national releases. We just felt the band wasn't the same band anymore and we needed to move forward."

Travis described THE BLOODLINE's sound as "basically a heavy active rock band. We have rock and metal tinges in our music. But overall, I would say this genre is coined active rock. We definitely keep our roots as heavy musicians. We add it in there. I guess especially with the vocals, the screams and stuff like that; I try to add them in as accents."

THE BLOODLINE is:

Shaun Glass - GuitarFrankie Harchut - DrumsChuck Wepfer - GuitarMike Sylvester - BassTravis Neal - Vocals

Melodic death metal act Mors Principium Est will release their new album, Embers Of A Dying World, on February 10th via AFM Records on digipak, limited gatefold red-black marbled vinyl (500 copies), and download. A full album audio preview can be found below.

Pre-order now and choose your shop here.

The album artwork was painted by Eliran Kantor (Testament, Iced Earth, Sodom):

Tracklisting:

“Genesis”
“Reclaim The Sun”
“Masquerade”
“Into The Dark”
“The Drowning” (Bonus Track)
“Death Is The Beginning”
“The Ghost”
“In Torment”
“Agnus Dei”
“The Colours Of The Cosmos”
“Apprentice Of Death”

Album preview:

Studio diaries:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Powerwolf is surely one of the most successful German bands in heavy metal. No other band has laid down such a path to success in recent years. Founded in 2003, Powerwolf has released six albums thus far, the last of which made it to the very top of the charts. Blessed & Posessed also hit the official German album charts at #3 and their latest effort, in form of the stunning live DVD The Metal Mass - Live, hit number #1 again. 

Now Powerwolf has unveiled the re-release of their 2015 album Blessed & Possessed, which will be coming out as an opulent tour edition on January 6th, 2017. Blessed & Possessed will be available as a 2-CD Digi Pack with brand new cover artwork, and including a special bonus live CD of their overwhelming headlining performance in front of 40,000 celebrating fans at Summer Breeze Festival 2015.

Pre-orders can be placed now at this location.

Powerwolf will resume touring in 2017 with Epica and Beyond The Black; confirmed dates are as listed:  

January
12 - Wiesbaden, Germany - Schlachthof
13 - Cologne, Germany - Palladium
14 - Ludwigsburg, Germany - MHP Arena
16 - Geneve, Switzerland - Salle des Fetes de Thonex
17 - Zurich, Switzerland - Volkshaus
18 - Milan, Italy - Live Club
20 - Munich, Germany - Tonhalle
21 - Vienna, Austria - Gasometer
22 - Budapest, Hungary - Barba Negra Music Club
24 - Warsaw, Poland - Progresja
25 - Berlin, Germany - Huxleys
27 - Oberhausen, Germany - Turbinenhalle
28 - Prague, Czech Republic - Forum
29 - Hannover, Germany - Capitol
31 - Hamburg, Germany - Mehr! Theater

February
1 - Brussles, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
3 - London, England - Shepherds Bush Empire
4 - Paris, France - Zenith

 

Massachusetts metal veterans, Within The Ruins, have debuted an all new song, "Death Of The Rockstar”, streaming below.

"“Death Of The Rockstar” stems from our distaste for the current state of the music industry," says guitarist Joe Cocchi. The track is the first bit of music the band has released off their forthcoming LP. "The song is straight forward and speaks for itself. We live in an era where mindlessness and fads now trump true art and creativity. The music industry is polluted. Please enjoy."

The new track is available on all major streaming services and will be offered as an iTunes instant gratification track. Fans who pre-order the album today will get "Death Of The Rockstar" immediately as a download.

Within The Ruins will release Halfway Human on Friday, March 3rd via Entertainment One (eOne) in North America and SPV overseas. The band recorded the new effort from their own studio with producer and guitar player Joe Cocchi at the helm. Vocal production took place at Zing studios in Westfield, MA with Jim Fogarty (Killswitch Engage, The Devil Wears Prada).

"The writing process was a bit different for this album," says Cocchi. "We took a step back and kind of reviewed some of our older material. Typically we'd rush and blast out a group of songs and then hit the studio. At the time it felt right. And It had a more organic feel. Now because of a combination of maturity and honestly just feeling sick of the same old formula, we really focused on creating something different sounding."

Halfway Human will be the band's followup to the critically acclaimed Phenomena LP released in 2014. Cocchi concludes, "We went back to a more organic style of writing and production. I personally was finally able to abandon a lot of my writing habits or 'rules,' if you will. No more 'oh, that part doesn't really sound like us, have to change that,' type of bullshit. Doing that created a fresher sound. This is the most raw and extreme sounding material we've ever written. Keep an eye out for studio blogs and more updates."

Within The Ruins maintain an emphasis on showmanship but with diversity, smartly sidestepping predictable structures and contrived breakdowns. Born and bred in the same heavy metal rich Northeast soil as New Wave Of American Heavy Metal progenitors Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Unearth and Shadows Fall and weaned on the dark sounds of classic death metal, the technical melodicism of Scandinavia and the precision staccato crunch of Meshuggah, Within The Ruins have busted their collective ass to carve out a unique identity for themselves from those ingredients.

Within The Ruins are refreshingly authentic, feverishly committed and have proven that they will endure. Filled with power, deserving of utter respect, armed with concise compositions and technical might, Within The Ruins will not be stopped.

Tracklisting:

“Shape-Shifter”
“Death Of The Rockstar”
“Beautiful Agony”
“Incomplete Harmony”
“Bittersweet”
“Objective Reality”
“Absolution”
“Ivory Tower”
“Sky Splitter”
“Ataxia IV”
“Treadstone”

“Death Of The Rockstar”:

The band is heading over to Europe with label mates Fit For An Autopsy, The Last Ten Seconds Of Life and Phinehas. A tour poster can be seen below, click here for all tour dates.

(Photo - Jeremy Saffer)

Florida's Trivium have released the second video in the Ember To Inferno Origins series, in support of the upcoming reissue of their debut album, Ember To Inferno. In the two clips below, learn about early demos, first shows in Europe, as well as influences - then and now.

Trivium have spent the past decade-plus building their reputation and steadily rising to prominence, becoming one of the main torchbearers of heavy metal in the modern era. With millions of albums sold globally and numerous world tours (from Ozzfest, Mayhem, and Download to opening for Metallica, Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden to extensive headline treks), Trivium began their journey in 2003 with their debut album, Ember To Inferno.

The record quickly captured the attention of the band's earliest fans as well as the ears of A&R reps at Roadrunner Records, who rapidly signed the band and went on to release their watershed album Ascendancy in 2005. Ember To Inferno was the catalyst for what was to come and it has been out of print for several years… until now.

The band and 5B Artist Management have partnered with Cooking Vinyl to re-release the album, along with a deluxe edition that includes 13 additional tracks that have never been previously available yet have earned evasive legend status among the diehards, on December 2nd. It's a true treasure trove of material that will delight the staunchest Trivium fans and beyond.

"The purpose of this release is to show the very early beginnings of Trivium - perhaps an era unbeknownst to most listeners of the band," said Trivium vocalist and guitarist Matt Heafy. "To look back at Ember as the starting point of Trivium becoming recognized worldwide is a staggering thought for me, considering I was 16/17 years old during the writing and recording of the record.

"As a kid, I always said the 'goal' was to be in a massive metal band. I don't think I actually knew what it would mean to have fans in different parts of the world, and I still can't believe people care so much that they actually want to hear the music that pre-dates our Roadrunner years. To this day, I am still completely blown away that people are singing words to songs I wrote when I was 16 years old. It's an amazing feeling."

Ember To Inferno will be released in four configurations, with the deluxe editions containing the band's early demos "Ruber" (aka the Red Demo), "Caeruleus" (aka the Blue Demo) and "Flavus" (aka the Yellow Demo). Fans can pre-order all formats online here.

The formats available are:

- Ember To Inferno — Standard CD.
- Ember To Inferno — Standard Vinyl LP, which is the original album in a 2LP Gatefold on orange/black marble vinyl.
- Ember To Inferno: Ab Initio - Deluxe CD, which is the original album with new artwork, plus 13 bonus tracks and expanded booklet in a digipak. The 13 bonus tracks are the band's early demos - "Ruber" (aka the Red Demo), "Caeruleus" (aka the Blue Demo) and "Flavus" (aka the Yellow Demo).
- Ember To Inferno: Ab Initio - Deluxe 5LP Box, which is five coloured LPs in a special box including the original album in a 2LP Gatefold on orange/black marble vinyl, the expanded booklet, a poster, a stencil, and 13 bonus tracks over three LPs. The 13 bonus tracks are the band's early demos - "Ruber" (aka the Red Demo) on transparent red vinyl, "Caeruleus" (aka the Blue Demo) on transparent blue vinyl, and "Flavus" (aka the Yellow Demo) on transparent yellow vinyl.

Ember To Inferno Standard Edition tracklisting:

“Inception: The Bleeding Skies”
“Pillars Of Serpents”
“If I Could Collapse The Masses”
“Fugue (A Revelation)”
“Requiem”
“Ember To Inferno”
“Ashes”
“To Burn The Eye”
“Falling To Grey”
“My Hatred”
“When All Light Dies”
“A View Of Burning Empires”

Ember To Inferno: Ab Initio Deluxe Only Bonus Tracks

Ruber (On Transparent Red Vinyl for Box Set)
“Pain”
“Thrust”
“Lake Of Fire”

Caeruleus (On Transparent Blue Vinyl for Box Set)
“To Burn The Eye”
“Requiem”
“Fugue”
“My Hatred”
“The Storm”
“Sworn”
“Demon”

Flavus (On Transparent Yellow Vinyl for Box Set)
“Like Light To The Flies”
“Blinding Tears Will Break The Skies”
“The Deceived”

“The Storm”:

Trivium returns to Europe for headline dates February-March 2017. For a full list of dates, please visit this location.

AC Angry will release their new album, Appetite For Erection, on November 25th via Steamhammer / SPV worldwide. It will be available as a CD version (digipak) and a fine vinyl version - limited edition of only 500 copies. A lyric video for “I Hate AC Angry” can be found below.

Alan Costa (AC Angry) comments: "After our well-received debut record, we decided to step up the game and deliver an even better, high-explosive monster of an album. We were absolutely happy with Black Denim, but we knew we could do better and top it! We focused on stripped down, catchy heavy rock 'n' roll tunes that will stick in your head forever by the first time you'll hear them! This album gives you the attitude to kick everyone's ass at any provocation. Convince yourself, put it on in your car, hit the gas pedal and feel the rush! The dirt is back in rock 'n' roll!"

Tracklisting:

"I Hate AC Angry"
"4TW"
"No Way To Go But Down"
"I Wanna Hurt Somebody"
"Appetite For Erection"
"Son Of A Motherfucker's Son"
"The Balls Are Back In Town"
"Take You Shake You Break You"
"Cry Idiot Cry"
"Testosterone"

"I Hate AC Angry" lyric video:

"Appetite For Erection” video:

(Photo - Manuel Schmidt)

Los Angeles glam-metal jokesters STEEL PANTHER announced their partnership with VRLIVE, a virtual reality broadcast network, to offer fans a 360-degree virtual reality live stream of their concert from The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles on Tuesday, November 22. The stream will be available on SteelPantherRocks.com and for mobile, fans can access the stream on the STEEL PANTHER YouTube channel, in the YouTube mobile app. STEEL PANTHER's new album, "Lower The Bar", will go on sale February 24, 2017. For the fans that can't hold back their PANTHER urges, pre-orders are now available at the band's web site, iTunes, and Amazon with deluxe bundle packages now exclusively available at SteelPantherRocks.com.

"Lower The Bar" is STEEL PANTHER's fourth studio album and is the follow-up to their 2014 chart-topper "All You Can Eat", which debuted at #1 on Billboard's Top Current Comedy chart and #24 on their Top 200 Album chart.

To celebrate this historic moment in rock n' roll history and as a thank you their "fanthers," the band has released "She's Tight", the music video for the new album's first single. "She's Tight" is STEEL PANTHER's "sexified" version of the CHEAP TRICK song and promises the skin that was left out of the 1982 hit. Cameos in the video include CHEAP TRICK's Robin Zander, Bobbie Brown, Paris Michael Jackson (the late singer's daughter) and Tony Palermo (PAPA ROACH).

"CHEAP TRICK was one of my favorite bands when I was younger. I'm so proud to have recorded this track for our new album and also to have Robin Zander himself sing with me on the song. It's like a dream come true," said Starr.

For the uninitiated, STEEL PANTHER was formed in 2000 and is Michael Starr (lead singer), Satchel (guitarist), Lexxi Foxx (bass) and Stix Zadinia (drums). Hailing from Los Angeles, the epicenter for rock n' roll in all its debauchery and glamour, STEEL PANTHER has established themselves as the world's premier party band, melding hard rock virtuosity with parody and criminally good looks. STEEL PANTHER have three full-length albums, toured across the world, enjoy platinum-level YouTube status and have, to their name, high-profile television appearances such as "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", "Larry King Now" and "FOX NFL Sunday".

My Kingdom Music will release Welcome The Dead, the seventh full-length album from Norwegian black metallers Crest Of Darkness, on November 25th. The band has released a video for the title track. Directed by Anders Børresen for MONITORmeda, the video for "Welcome The Dead" can be seen below.

Commenting on the video, founder and frontman Ingar Amlien had this to say: "We wanted to make a video that offers a glimpse into the dark world of Crest Of Darkness. Perhaps we are just story tellers recounting a fairytale,  and the video can certainly be viewed and enjoyed at that level, but we are also  touching on aspects of life itself and those eternal questions that people ask themselves about life and death and the meaning of it all.

"We might not have all the answers, and in all honesty we don't even want to pretend that we do, but what we do want is to make people think for themselves, and find their own answers. Let's face it, we are all Gods. Each of us builds their own universe, and it just happens that the world of Crest Of Darkness is my universe.”

The new album will be available in both CD and digital formats, as well as a double LP format which will feature a special bonus track.

Recorded at the at MLP Studio by Nils H. Mæhlum, and mastered at the Kvålsonic Lab by Tom Kvålsvoll, the nine-track album promises to be the heaviest, darkest and most introspective album in the band's 20+ year history.

The artwork for Welcome The Dead features the extraordinary Zombie Foetus sculptures created by the Italian artist Andrea Falaschi.

Tracklisting:

“Welcome The Dead”
“Chosen By The Devil”
“Scourged And Crucified”
“My Black Bride”
“Borrowed Life”
“The Almighty”
“Memento Mori”
“The Noble Art”
“Katharsis”

Welcome The Dead includes a guest appearance by Norwegian actor Espen Reboli Bjerke, well known for his extensive work in films, theatre, radio and Television. Bjerke, who also won a Spelleman Award, the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammies, performs the spoken part on "Katharsis", the closing track on the album.

Amlien, whose illustrious musical history started with the legendary Concption, and includes Roquefire and Amlien's Inferno, confirms that Welcome The Dead has a particular significance for him: "I've put a hell of a lot of myself and my emotions into this album, even more so than usual. I've always felt that when we are on stage, we create a sort of magic, and this time we have been able to transfer that magic to the recordings. You could say this is my personal Black Mass".

Crest Of Darkness’ lineup of Amlien on bass and vocals, Rebo on guitars, Bernhard (ex-Pale Forest) on drums, and Kristian Wentzel on keyboards, will celebrate the release of Welcome The Dead with a show special Friday the 13th show at Retro in Raufoss, Norway, in January.

Bay Area rock outfit, Black Map, are streaming the new song, “Run Rabbit Run”, from their new album, coming out next year.

“The song is one of my favorites on the record and definitely one of the most intense,” says frontman and bass player Ben Flannagan. “It also really encompasses a lot of what the whole album is about: the damage that’s caused by just blindly following and veering from our individuality; from the elements that make each of us unique.”

The new track is available on all major streaming services and will be offered as an iTunes instant gratification track. Fans who pre-order the album today will get "Run Rabbit Run" immediately as a download.

Black Map will release In Droves on March 10th via Entertainment One (eOne) in North America and SPV overseas. The band only wrapped up production on the effort last month with Aaron Hellam at Oakland’s Hellam Sound (The Trophy Fire) and created an ambitious but no less intense sophomore set, a boundary smashing, down-tuned heavy rock slab.

Tracklisting:

“Transit I”
“Run Rabbit Run”
“Foxglove”
“Ruin”
“Heavy Waves”
“Dead Ringer”
“Octavia”
“Transit II”
“No Color”
“Indoor Kid”
“White Fence”
“Just My Luck”
“Cash For The Fears”
“Transit III”
“Coma Phase”

“Run Rabbit Run”:

After a successful run with Chevelle this year, the band will be heading back out on the road at the top of 2017 for another round. A full list of dates hitting much of the western half of the US can be seen here.

Black Map creates music driven by the pulse of their early genesis as a trio who packed itself into a rehearsal room with pure intentions, a 12-pack and a boundary-smashing lack of prohibitions or rules. Their commitment is to each other, to what feels right; to meditation on big riffs that lurch and churn, dripping with atmosphere, powering bold and evocative statements.

The band is the union of three established Northern California rock musicians, driven by a shared dedication to big riffs, big drums and powerful, straight-ahead, all enveloping rock n’ roll. Black Map consists of the versatile voice and walloping bass groove of Ben Flanagan (Trophy Fire), the wall-of-sound big riff histrionics of guitarist Mark Engles (dredg) and the unstoppable driving force and tasteful skill of drummer Chris Robyn (Far).

A few songs became a few shows and an EP which begat a debut album, …And We Explode (2014), which featured the buzzy single, “I’m Just The Driver”. The metaphorical “black map” of the band’s steadily building catalog and dedicated following led them to secure live performance spots alongside the mighty Chevelle, multi platinum rockers Bush, Circa Survive, and Highly Suspect in addition to multiple club shows as a headlining act.

Songs like “Run Rabbit Run”, “Foxglove”, “No Color” and “White Fence” are united in a lyrical exhortation toward staunch individuality in the face of soul-crushing conformity. These are songs that challenge listeners to focus on what makes them unique as people, to shake off the gloomy dystopian results of mass groupthink, to actualize and harness one’s own humanity.

As they continue forward, ever united in that original pureness of intentionality, Black Map covers bigger ground. Bursts of ambience and mellow contemplation compliment the broadly shaped melodic noise. Unafraid experimentation gives way to a strong dichotomy, to new elements, all within that original structure of Black Map’s monster riffing.

Sonic treasure hunters who study Black Map will find themselves transported to the spirit of the early 90s rock resurgence, when bands jettisoned the superficial fluff of the previous decade without wandering too far into dense pretension and delivered authentic and heavy music. Black Map combine flourishes of beauty alongside the bombast and a modern sensibility that nevertheless will not sacrifice its raw realness.

(Photo - Jen Cash/Calibree Photography)

Hevidence will release their debut album, Nobody’s Fault, on December 2nd. A video for the album track “Overdrive” can be found below.

Hevidence is the brainchild of Italian guitar player Diego Reali, founding member of prog metal masters DGM. After he left the band in 2006, he started dabbling in some different musical styles, but his heart called for him to get back to metal. Thus Hevidence were born and Diego joined up with DGM bass player Andrea Arcangeli, singer Corrado Quoiani and drummer Emiliano Bonini.

"This band is highly inspired by the classic hard and heavy sounds from the '70s and '80s, that's why we worked hard to make this album sound the most vintage that was possible,” says Diego. “We are convinced that a huge dose of improvisation during the recording sessions is needed for the success of an original product. Everyone of us has many different musical influences and they came out in a very spontaneous way within the song writing process, we just believe in the word "ROCK"!”

Hevidence offer a mature and personal vision of hard rock and metal with a style reminiscent of the classic Official Yngwie Malmsteen albums mixed with power metal and melodic hard rock influences (think early Europe). An EPK where you can learn more about the band and hear song samples is streaming below.

The band will be launching the album with a special Release Party show in Roma at the Jailbreak LiveClub on December 1st. More info here.

Nobody’s Fault tracklisting:

“Dig In The Night”
“Nobody' Fault”
“Miracle”
“So Unkind”
“Ave Maria”
“Overdrive”
“I Want More”
“Out Of This Time”
“Pack Your Bags”
“All I Ever Needed”
“Note”

“Overdrive” video:

“I Want More”:

“Miracle”:

“Dig In The Night” video:

EPK:

Hevidence is:

Corrado Quoiani - Vocals
Diego Reali - Guitars
Andrea Arcangeli - Bass
Emiliano Bonini - Drums

Fan-filmed video footage of SKID ROW's performance aboard The KISS Kruise VI, which took place earlier in the month, can be seen below.

Even though SKID ROW has been playing shows with the South African-born, British-based singer ZP Theart (DRAGONFORCE, TANK, I AM I) since the beginning of this year, guitarist Dave "Snake" Sabo has stopped short of calling him the band's official new frontman.

"We haven't even discussed it yet," Sabo told News-Press.com. "We just said, 'This feels really good and let's just do it.' It's who we are right now."

Theart's involvement with SKID ROW was exclusively reported by BLABBERMOUTH.NET on December 31, 2015. He stepped into the group following the departure of Tony Harnell, the TNT frontman who joined SKID ROW in April 2015 as the replacement for Johnny Solinger, the band's singer for fifteen years.

Sabo told News-Press.com that, Theart has been doing a great job on the road.

"He's come in," the guitarist said, "and he's a really great source of positive energy. He knew all of our songs coming in, and he knew them well. He started singing the crap out of all of them, and we were all very impressed."

Despite the fact that fans have been clamoring for a reunion of SKID ROW's most popular lineup for nearly twenty years, Sabo told The Aquarian Weekly a few months ago that SKID ROW had no intention of reconnecting with vocalist Sebastian Bach. "Happiness, to me, is my spirit and my soul is more important to me than having dollars in my wallet," he explained. "People may [not] believe that and that's okay. Anybody who knows me knows that to be true. I don't think you can place a price on happiness. We've been hit repeatedly over the years with, 'Why don't you do a reunion tour?' And you know what? I understand the question and I get it. I really do, and if I were on the outside, I'd be asking the same question, but no one feels comfortable with that idea."

Bach has publicly expressed his desire to reunite with his former bandmates, telling Loudwire earlier in the year: "I don't have any reason why not to do that. I have no animosity towards anybody in SKID ROW, and the fact that we're all, five of us, still alive in this world is a pretty amazing feat. So I would someday definitely like to hear the five guys who made those records play live together again. Yes, I would. 'Cause I'm a fan too." He added: "I'm up for it, if they are."

Southern rock legends, The Outlaws, have released a lyric video for the song "It's About Pride", taken from the new double live album, Legacy Live. You can find the video below.

The Outlaws is a band of brothers bound together by history, harmony and the road. It’s about a group that respects its own legacy while refusing to be defined by its past. But most of all, it’s about playing live, playing for their audience.

The sextet proves just how well this combination works with Legacy Live, out now via Steamhammer/SPV. Order the album at this location.

“I want people to hear this album and see our show and realize that The Outlaws are still there,” says founding member and front man Henry Paul. “Our goal is to unite the fans and bring the group back into the limelight.”

Legacy Live consists of two CDs, full to the brim with classics such a “There Goes Another Love Song”, “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky”, “Green Grass & High Tides Forever” and “Freeborn Man” as well as more recent material like “It's About Pride”, “Hidin` Out In Tennessee” and “So Long”. A total of 20 songs, every one of which proves: the gritty southern rock by The Outlaws mark 2016 is as intense and passionate as it’s always been.

Tracklisting:

CD 1
“Intro
“There Goes Another Love Song”
“Hurry Sundown”
“Hidin' Out In Tennessee”
“Freeborn Ma”
“Born To Be Bad”
“Song In The Breeze”
“Girl From Ohio”
“Holiday”
“Gunsmoke”
“Grey Ghost”

CD 2
“South Carolina”
“So Long”
“Prisoner”
“Cold Harbor”
“Trail Of Tears”
“It's About Pride”
“Waterhole”
“Knoxville Girl”
“Green Grass & High Tides Forever”
“(Ghost) Riders In The Sky”

“It’s About Pride” lyric video:

Lineup:

Henry Paul - guitars, vocals
Monte Yoho - drums
Chris Anderson - lead guitar, vocals
Randy Threet - bass, vocals
Dave Robbins - keyboards, vocals
Steve Grisham - lead guitar, vocals

Tour dates:

December
16 - Clearwater, FL - Capitol Theatre
17 - Orlando, FL - The Plaza LIVE Orlando

Dani Filth (Cradle Of Filth, Devilment) recently spoke with HMV.com and revealed some of his favourite albums as part of the ongoing My Record Collection feature. An excerpt from the rundown is available below.

The first record I ever bought with my own money was…

Dani: "It was Ultravox's The Collection, which I’ve actually re-bought since I bought it the first time as there was a different track listing in Germany. Even though I was into pop I did have an affinity for the dark side of pop. I was about 12 years old and I got my hands on a vinyl copy. They were poppy, and quite dark and deep, quite meaningful lyrics. You know when you put your iPod on and hit shuffle, well I’ll be washing the car or something and one of these tracks will come on, and I’ll just go – WOW! God this is great! It’s one of those albums that I grew up with, and when you hear it out the blue you just get a wave of reminiscing about those times."

The record I think is the most underrated of all time is…

Dani: "Don't Break the Oath by Mercyful Fate. It’s amazing but every time you see a compilation of Mercyful Fate stuff or when anyone talks about it, it’s always Melissa they talk about – and even Metallica did a medley on Garage Days Revisited and it was all just tracks from Melissa, nothing from Don't Break the Oath. When I was young I actually thought that Mercyful Fate record was made by ghosts, it was that creepy. It’s just such a good record."

The record I can't understand why everybody loves is…

Dani: "The Dark Side Of The Moon, I hate Pink Floyd. I really hate them. I just hate them – that’s the reason and its reason enough. I just find the record really pompous and you know when everybody just bangs on and on about something… like Game Of Thrones – oh Game Of Thrones this, Game Of Thrones that - it turns you off from ever watching it. Well that’s a bit like Dark Side Of The Moon for me, you hear people just wallowing in their love of it, wearing t-shirts and discussing it – and for that reason alone I can’t stand it."

Go to this location for more.

Witch County nefarious frights Devilment – led by vehement frontman Dani Filth, will released their new album, Devilment II: The Mephisto Waltzes on November 18th via  Nuclear Blast Entertainment. Dani Filth had this to say on the subject of the new record:

“Everybody in Devilment is very excited about the prospect of releasing our latest album, II - The Mephisto Waltzes, which we have worked extremely hard on. The album is definitely a step-up from our debut, featuring a more mature, dissonant presence coupled with a darker edge, yet at the same time utilizing our better musical assets to deliver a unique metal hybrid. I don't even know what to classify it!”

Dani’s crew have meticulously pieced together a second blood-spattered batch of deranged anthems that brings vastly more color, intensity and lyrical versatility to this band’s spectral palate. The second Devilmenet record makes no splintered bones about its nefarious intent, offering a bewildering torrent of disparate and demented ideas and delivering them with refined, ultra-gothic panache and several jolting doses of Dani’s trademark verbal subterfuge. Assisted by long-time collaborators Lauren Francis (keys and vocals), Colin Parks (guitar), Nick Johnson (bass) and new drummer Matt Alston, Dani has arrived at the telling moment where Devilment become a genuine force to be reckoned with.

Regarding the album’s artwork, Dani revealed: “Winner of many international awards, the artist for the new Devilment album is Elena Vizerskayaaka Kassandra, whose photography and photo-manipulation perfectly complements the mysterious and magical world of Devilment. Elena's work is sometimes compared to Dali and Magritte due to the complexity of artistic figures and the perceptible amount of layers, something to be felt and not necessarily understood, exotic dreams filled with reflections and allusion. I have been a fan of Elena's work for a long while now and had originally wanted to utilize it for the Cradle Of Filth album, The Manticore And Other Horrors as far back as 2011, which only fell through when band politics intervened and an in-house label artist was used instead.”

“In conjunction with Elena, the booklet was compiled and further augmented with illustration by Dan Goldsworthy, who has also undertaken album artwork for the likes of Accept, Hell, and Sylosis, amongst others. His contribution to the album has provided it with a minimalist dark uniformity, punctuated by slick and classically macabre imagery, the perfect balance to Elena's gorgeously vibrant photography.”

The album was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered at Grindstone Studios by close friend and long term collaborator Scott Atkins (Cradle Of Filth, Behemoth, Savage Messiah), between March and July of this year.

Dani added: “Scott has worked very closely with the band to share our vision and we are very proud of the finished result, especially the megalithic production values and the hammered-home emphasis on song writing.”

Tracklisting:

“JudasStein”
“Hitchcock Blonde”
“Under The Thunder”
“Full Dark, No Stars”
“Shine On Sophie Moone”
“Life Is What You Keep From The Reaper”
“Dea Della Morte”
“Entangled In Our Pride”
“Hell At My Back”
“The Seductive Poison” (bonus track)
“Father Dali” (bonus track)

“Full Dark, No Stars” lyric video:

"Hitchcock Blonde" video:

“Under The Thunder” lyric video:

Track-by-track videos:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Devilment recently announced an extensive UK tour which will commence this December. The run will kick off on December 6th in Colchester, taking the band through 11 UK cities - before wrapping up at eminent Southampton venue, the Engine Rooms on December 19th.

Waldemar Sorychta — former GRIP INC. guitarist who has produced a number of acclaimed albums from SODOM, MOONSPELL and TIAMAT, among others — played guitar for New Jersey thrashers OVERKILL for three shows on the latter band's current European headlining tour after regular OVERKILL guitarist Dave Linsk was unable to make the dates.

Sorychta, who made his live debut with OVERKILL on November 8 at Batschkapp in Frankfurt, Germany, told BLABBERMOUTH.NET about the experience: "Somehow they called me… well, [they contacted me] through KREATOR.... I listened to some songs and said yes, I can do it. [I had to learn] 15 songs.

"[I] got a call [on a] Friday night... [That] Saturday [I had] to search for all the songs on YouTube.... and make clear which tuning [the songs are played in] etc. and at night started to practice, but I did it.... It's what counts.

"[I] got bloody fingers... It's not only to learn [the songs]. I can do it quick, but to have them for any situation, by heart, memorized without [making a] mistake live with a band you don't even know the songs [of].... Sorry to say. I said to them too; 'That's nothing without respect, [but I] just I didnt know your songs three days ago.'

"[It's a] funny crazy story, but i did it. The first day, of course, I had to watch [my hand] many times, but [by] the last [show], I felt almost like home and then [I had] to leave.... Hahaha… But it was an] amazing, great and funny time. [I] made new friends."

OVERKILL is also once again utilizing a stand-in drummer — their soundman Eddy Garcia, who is also a member of the El Paso, Texas band PISSING RAZORS — for the tour because the band's regular drummer, Ron Lipnicki, is forced to stay home due to undisclosed family issues.

OVERKILL will release its new album, "Grinding Wheel", in February via Nuclear Blast. Singer Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth told Patch.com about the title: "When we were looking for a title, when you think in terms of the word 'grind,' you think of something that is relentless and doesn't wear down, whether it be an old stone mill or something metallic where sparks are flying through it. It's about an all-purpose tool through all time. It's a good, quality OVERKILL record."

Regarding the musical direction of the follow-up to 2014's "White Devil Armory", Ellsworth told Alternative Nation: "At the end of the day, OVERKILL is OVERKILL. Our trademark is that we are always recognizable on every release. For the three decades we have been around, we were always OVERKILL. So, sure, it is a metal record, and like always, it will have sort of a thrash vibe to it with some melody in it."

As previously reported, OVERKILL and NILE will join forces for a U.S. tour in February/March 2017.

SLIPKNOT and STONE SOUR frontman Corey Taylor says that he wants to make amends with Grammy-winning producer Rick Rubin after bashing him as "overrated" and "overpaid,' and saying he would never work with Rubin again "as long as I fucking live."

During the question-and-answer portion of his 2011 solo show, "An Evening With Corey Taylor", which featured both musical and spoken-word performances, Taylor was asked about working with Rubin on SLIPKNOT's 2004 album, "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)". He replied in part: "Rick Rubin showed up for 45 minutes a week. Yeah. Rick Rubin would then, during that 45 minutes, lay on a couch, have a mic brought in next to his face so he wouldn't have to fucking move. I swear to God. And then he would be, like, 'Play it for me.' The engineer would play it. And he had shades on the whole time. Never mind the fact that there is no sun in the room — it's all dark… I will say this: I respect what Rick Rubin has done, I respect the work that he has done in the past to get to where he is now. But… the Rick Rubin of today is a thin, thin, thin shadow of the Rick Rubin that he was. He is overrated, he is overpaid, and I will never work with him again as long as I fucking live."

A few weeks later, Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio that he didn't regret what he said about Rubin at all. "It's an honest answer to a perfectly reasonable question," he explained. "That was my take on it. Now if you asked somebody like Clown [Shawn 'Clown' Crahan, SLIPKNOT percussionist] about the Rick Rubin experience, you'd get a totally different answer. But it is what it is. It's my opinion. At the end of the day it's not scripture. I'm gonna say what I'm gonna say — I don't think enough people do. And if it gets me in trouble, it gets me in trouble. If it doesn't, it doesn't. But I'm just gonna keep walking it."

But earlier today, during an interview with Apple Music's Beats 1 radio DJ Zane Lowe, Taylor walked back his comments about Rubin, saying (hear audio below): "I'm gonna be honest: I think it was more on my end than it was on him. Because he works his way, and he always has. I was not used to working that way. You know, I was a young guy, I was also freshly sober, and being a singer and being sober, 'I need your attention, Rick! I need it!' You know? So that was me just being young, unsure of myself, needing the guidance… which i got from [engineer] Greg Fidelman. All of Rick's engineers are essentially his surrogates, so you know that when you're working with him, you should feel like you're working with Rick, because he's got so many different things going on. For me though, being selfish, being a singer... Like I said, I was unsure. I was, basically, an open wound at that point that just needed to heal and I didn't have anybody there to kind of help me. So I blamed him a lot — in retrospect, probably more than I really should have. And, you know, I feel bad about it, and hopefully someday I'll be able to make some amends with him."

Rubin has worked with numerous artists over the years, including AC/DC, the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, Johnny Cash, SLAYER, METALLICA and many more.

Taylor told The Pulse Of Radio at the time that "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)" was released that working with Rubin took some getting used to. "It was definitely frustrating at first, because Rick is kind of renowned for taking his time and, you know, we definitely took our time on this one, with six and a half months," he said. He sat us down, he's like, 'Do you realize that you can be just as extreme with a whisper as you can with a scream? The heavy stuff, you're obviously very good at, but at the same time, we're gonna break outside of this box.'"

SLIPKNOT percussionist Jim Root told Revolver magazine in 2008: "Rick was really attentive to what we needed as a band.... A lot of the guys in the band say Rick was unavailable. And yeah, he takes on a lot of projects at one time, but he also does things that are beneficial. He would listen to what we'd done, then have us retrack things that needed work. He's kind of like Big Brother up on the hill. Even though he wasn't there physically every day, he was."

In that same interview, Taylor said: "I wouldn't know what it's like to work with Rick Rubin. I only saw him about four times. Rick Rubin is a nice man. He's done a lot of good for a lot of people. He didn't do anything for me . . . if you're going to produce something, you're fucking there. I don't care who you are."

In a 2015 interview with Noisey, Taylor described "Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)" as his "second least favorite" SLIPKNOT album, and recalled how "Rubin famously told me I needed to change the chorus to [the song] 'Before I Forget', because he said it wasn't a strong chorus, and I told him that's just not going to happen. I agreed with him on a couple of occasions, but when it came to that song, I knew it was powerful enough that the chorus would carry it. And then we won a Grammy for it, so y'know. It was very strange, it was a very strange thing. Plus, a lot of things going on behind the scenes with us as far as management went that people don't even know. We were in such disarray, it's amazing it came out in seven months."

Mayhem guitarist Morten Bergeton Iversen says his life “got weird” this week when he saw the video for Metallica track “ManUNkind”.

In a post on his Facebook page, Iversen writes, “My life just got weird, Metallica copying, not only the Mayhem logo and the old Mayhem characters in their latest video, but they copied an old gig as well.”

BraveWords premiered the video for “ManUNkind” this past Wednesday as Metallica released a video for every song off their new album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.


Metallica are giving fans a chance to generate their own personalized logo. Simply head to this location, enter your name, and you’re all set!

Out today, November 18th, Metallica's tenth studio album, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, can be streamed in its entirety via the videos below.

Hardwired...To Self-Destruct is Metallica’s first studio album since 2008's multi-platinum Death Magnetic. The album was produced by Greg Fidelman, who engineered and mixed Death Magnetic, and is available for order at Metallica.com in various configurations including: CD, Vinyl, Digital, Deluxe, and Deluxe Deluxe Versions.

Check out BraveWords’ overview of the album here.

Deluxe Edition (Digital Download and CD)

Disc One
“Hardwired”
“Atlas, Rise!”
“Now That We’re Dead”
“Moth Into Flame”
“Am I Savage?”
“Halo On Fire”

Disc Two
“Confusion”
“Dream No More”
“ManUNkind”
“Here Comes Revenge”
“Murder One”
“Spit Out The Bone”

Disc Three (Bonus)
“Lords of Summer” (2016)
“Ronnie Rising Medley”
“When a Blind Man Cries”
“Remember Tomorrow”
“Helpless’ (Live at Rasputin Music)
“Hit the Lights” (Live at Rasputin Music)
“The Four Horsemen’ (Live at Rasputin Music)
“Ride the Lightning’ (Live at Rasputin Music)
“Fade to Black” (Live at Rasputin Music)
‘Jump in the Fire” (Live at Rasputin Music)
‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ (Live at Rasputin Music)
“Creeping Death” (Live at Rasputin Music)
“Metal Militia” (Live at Rasputin Music)
“Hardwired” (Live in Minneapolis)

"Lords of Summer" video:

"Spit Out The Bone" video:

"Murder One" video:

"Halo On Fire" video:

"Am I Savage" video:

“Here Comes Revenge” video:

“Now That We’re Dead” video:

“ManUNkind” video:

“Confusion” video:

“Dream No More” video:

“Hardwired” video:

“Moth Into Flame” video:

“Atlas, Rise!”:

Florida death metal veterans DEICIDE have parted ways with longtime guitarist Jack Owen and have replaced him with Mark English (MONSTROSITY).

One of the founding members of CANNIBAL CORPSE, Owen joined DEICIDE in 2004 and played on the latter band's last four studio albums: "The Stench Of Redemption" (2006), "Till Death Do Us Part" (2008), "To Hell With God" (2011) and "In The Minds Of Evil" (2013).

Owen most recently played guitar for Dutch symphonic black metallers CARACH ANGREN on their summer 2016 North American tour.

DEICIDE is currently recording its next studio album, tentatively due early next year via Century Media.

DEICIDE drummer Steve Asheim told Metal Wani back in May about the musical direction of the band's new material: "It seems like we're gonna be taking the same approach. I mean, we're not gonna fix what isn't broken, as far as what we do. You know, we've been writing heavy riffs. We're just gonna make 'em heavier as work [on] them together."

He continued: "It was weird. When we did the last record, I was, like, 'Eh, I'm really not that psyched about these songs,' and the album turned out being great. And the way the new material is, it's funny, I'm kind of, like, 'Eh, it could be better.' So we're just gonna be hashing some more stuff out and really make it intense, because we know we did a pretty good one and we're gonna have to beat it. But we're gonna work on it hard, make sure it's good."

Asked what inspires DEICIDE to keep making new music, Steve said: "Well, you know, just wanting to be heavy. We have a nice, steady band lineup that is focused, and we feel that we can really do some good work now that everyone's kind of on the same page. So as long as we focus our riffs and focus our energies on making the songs good and doing good tours, it's gonna give us another few years, another few records, and a good number of years left ahead of us to keep doing this. It still feels good, it's fun, and we'll keep at it as long as we can keep going."

"In The Minds Of Evil" sold 2,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release.

The last concert of EVANESCENCE's current U.S. tour, which is scheduled to take place this coming Wednesday, November 23 at The Paramount in Huntington, New York, will be streamed live on Facebook at Live Nation TV, Live Nation's YouTube page and on LiveNation.com.

EVANESCENCE recently debuted a previously unheard song called "Take Cover" during its North American tour. Singer Amy Lee told TeamRock about the electronic-tinged track: "We had a song in the bank and we were, like, 'You know what the fans would really love is a new song. That's all they ever ask for.' So we knocked the dust off an old song called 'Take Cover' that we had in the bank for a while and we loved it. It's one of our favorite moments every night on the tour. I think they like it a lot."

Lee has not said for sure if and when EVANESCENCE will record a new album, which would be its first since 2011.

She has hinted in recent interviews at some sort of non-traditional release, saying: "There is some new EVANESCENCE stuff that we're starting at, but it's not exactly the most traditional thing. It's not just, 'Okay, we're gonna make a new album right now'… First there's something else that's a little bit special and different and [that is] gonna take you down a different path that we wanna try."

EVANESCENCE is releasing a career-spanning vinyl box set this fall containing all three official studio albums along with the rare, early demo album "Origin". Also included in the six-LP set is a disc collecting the band's legendary bonus tracks along with the first new EVANESCENCE studio recording in years, "Even In Death (2016)", a song that originally appeared on "Origin".

Lee also recently unveiled a solo album of children's music called "Dream Too Much".

IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris spoke to Kerrang! magazine about his plan to release the second studio album from his BRITISH LION side project. Asked if BRITISH LION has been road-testing a couple of new songs on its recent tours for the upcoming disc, Harris said: "To be honest with you, we just didn't have enough material [on 2012's self-titled debut to fill a headlining set]. We had to do that stuff. In an ideal world, we probably wouldn't have done. It's weird, though, really, because years ago I had an idea that you couldn't really do now because of the Internet and that. Back in the day, I thought maybe you could have released a MAIDEN album with all-new live material. That would have been possible, maybe. But now you couldn't because obviously no matter where you go in a band, you can't get away with anything, because people film it on their cameras on their phones. It is what it is; it's a different thing now.

"I know some people have probably checked out YouTube footage of the new songs. I still don't think it's going to be as good a version as what we put on the proper album. Hopefully people will still want it. Of course, there'll be other songs as well. It's nice, like you said, road-testing them — I think it makes them better. The way we're playing the songs now is a lot better than the first album was."

Harris also talked about the evolution of the BRITISH LION sound. He said: "The band's been evolving anyway and the songs have been evolving with it, or vice versa. We're finding our feet as a band, finding more of a sense of what we are. Without analyzing it too much, I think the [new] songs are really probably going, if anything, maybe in a heavier direction perhaps. I mean, 'Spitfire', to me, sounds like really heavy THIN LIZZY. But others might think something different about it. But they're really good songs, really powerful songs, and they certainly stand up against any of the other songs, really. And some of the ones we have got up our sleeves are just as good."

BRITISH LION is recording shows on its current European tour for an upcoming live album, tentatively due next year. "We've been talking about a live album for a while," Harris told Kerrang! "We recorded the last couple of tours, and obviously we'll record stuff from this tour and get as much stuff as we can to get a good cross-section of stuff and then we'll definitely put a live album out, because I think it's important."

The band previously debuted two new songs, "Spitfire" and "Bible Black", during its summer 2015 tour.

BRITISH LION's debut album sold around 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release. The CD landed at position No. 3 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

"British Lion" was released in the U.S. on September 25, 2012 via Universal Music Enterprises (UMe). Mixed by Kevin Shirley — whose credits include IRON MAIDEN as well as Led ZEPPELIN, JOURNEY and RUSH, among many others — the CD features Harris alongside singer Richard Taylor, guitarists Graham Leslie and David Hawkins and drummer Simon Dawson.

Former SCORPIONS drummer James Kottak has thanked fans for their support after he was dismissed from the band during his well-publicized his battle with alcoholism.

Back in September, SCORPIONS announced the addition of former MOTÖRHEAD member Mikkey Dee as a permanent replacement for Kottak, who was previously said to be on break while he sought "medical attention."

Kottak, who had not commented on his SCORPIONS exit until now, has taken to his official web site to offer his gratitude to fans for their words of encouragement while he stepped away from the band to focus on his health.

The drummer wrote: "Hello to all my family, friends, and freaks. I want to send a HUGE thank you from the bottom of my heart for the thousands of messages of hope and positivity during my time of healing! I am humbled and honored by your love and gracious offerings.

"I am healthy and happy living in the now… grateful for yesterday, excited for the future.

"As one chapter of my life closes… a thousand new doors of adventure have opened.

"I have been given the ultimate gift of life with my personal REboot.

"To quote one of my fave songs, 'Tomorrow Is A Brand New Day'.

"With the support of Athena [Kottak's wife and sister of MÖTLEY CRÜE drummer Tommy Lee] and my three wonderful kids, today IS the first day of the rest of my life!

"I look forward to reconnecting and seeing you all SOON!

"Rock & Roll Forever!"

Kottak rejoined the SCORPIONS on the road in November 2014, eight months after he spent a month in a Dubai, United Arab Emirates jail in April for insulting Islam.

Kottak, who had been receiving treatment for alcohol abuse, released a statement in June 2014 in which he said "this entire incident caused me to realize that it is time to stop drinking once and for all so that I can become the father, musician, and friend that I know I can be."

For some of SCORPIONS' 2014 concerts, Swedish drummer Johan Franzon filled in for Kottak.

Dee was originally scheduled to play drums for THIN LIZZY on the latter band's anniversary shows planned for 2016 and 2017 but was forced to bow out of the dates after he was offered the SCORPIONS gig. He has since been replaced in that group's touring lineup by JUDAS PRIEST's Scott Travis.