Black Absinthe's powerful heavy riffs and bass lines are reminiscent of classic thrash and new wave British heavy metal with a range of progressive to classic rock influence. Surfacing from the basement last year, the Toronto, ON heavy metal trio unleashed their debut album Early Signs Of Denial produced by Sum 41's Dave Baksh (Cross Dog, The Mahones) plus was mixed and mastered by Frank Gryner (Rob Zombie- Hillbilly Deluxe). The album was the band's first professional recording to follow their three self-recorded EPs Live At Coalition (2014), Noise Complaint (2014) and Augusta (2012). 

Taking a break from relentless touring of Ontario and Quebec during this summer, the band shot their latest video "The Wild" on the shores of Lake Ontario, inviting friends and fans to join them on a pirate ship where the outcome was rocking the boat, walking the plank and one hell of a party!

BraveWords is premiering the new video – check it out now!

The band comments on the video:

"We are excited to showcase our new video, ‘The Wild’, for fans both new and old. This song is the headbanging party track off our latest album Early Signs Of Denial and we wanted a video to reflect that intensity. So we gathered a crew of our fans and friends from the Toronto music scene, rented a pirate themed boat intended for children, prepared and consumed some pre-sailing cocktails, and played a live show for all on board. The video was shot by Toronto based videographer/photographer Katherine Kwan (IG: kawaiiathy) who did a fantastic job capturing the look and spirit of what we wanted for the song as well as showcasing some great shots of the city skyline. The day, the show, and all the people involved with the video we say thank you! And for the rest of you, turn it up, grab a drink, and enjoy ‘The Wild’!"

Upcoming shows:

November
10 – Toronto, ON – Coalition TO

Album stream:

Bristol, UK-based classic rockers with a modern roll, Tax The Heat, have released a video for “Money In The Bank”, the first single from the forthcoming album Change Your Position, due in 2018 via Nuclear Blast.

Says the band: “As promised, here's a little something we have been working on recently. 'Money In The Bank' is the first single off our forthcoming album, Change Your Position. We hope you enjoy!

Vocalist Alex Veale continues: “We are extremely excited to unveil the first single from our new album. 'Money In The Bank' combines key elements of what we do best: big riffs, big choruses and filthy guitars. We believe that an album should be seen as a snapshot in time of an artist or band, this album has captured us at a particularly exciting moment. On November 8th we hit the road with Black Star Riders and will be playing some material from our forthcoming album."

Almanac, the symphonic metallers led by ex-Rage guitarist Victor Smolski, have released a fourth video trailer for their upcoming sophomore album, Kingslayer, out on November 24th via Nuclear Blast. Watch below.

Kingslayer was recorded with producer Andreas Herr at HeyDay Studios in Wuppertal, Germany. The cover artwork was once again created by Hungarian artist Gyula Havancsák (Accept, Destruction).

"Our second strike is complete," reveals Victor Smolski and explains, that "Kingslayer is the logical follow-up to Tsar, just more compact, heavier and faster. The experience now under our belts gained from our many live experiences, including the two tours and festivals, has been fully implemented in the studio. The band have grown closer and stronger, you can feel this unified energy within the new tracks. We took a lot of time and gave our very best. Kingslayer is a crafted metal album with a lively power sound!"

Kingslayer tracklisting:

“Regicide”
“Children Of The Sacred Path”
“Guilty As Charged”
“Hail To The King”
“Losing My Mind”
“Kingslayer”
“Kingdom Of The Blind”
“Headstrong”
“Last Farewell”
“Red Flag”

“Children Of The Sacred Path” video:

“Losing My Mind” video:

Trailer #1:

Trailer #2:

Trailer #3:

Trailer #4:

Professionally-filmed video of Gojira performing the Magma album track, “Silvera”, at the 2016 edition of France’s Hellfest can be seen below:

In a recent interview with 90.3 WMSC-FM’s The Metal Teddy Bear Experience, Gojira’s Joe Duplantier tells Chris Annunziata that the band are still planning on releasing an EP in support of anti-whaling organization, Sea Shepherd.

Says Joe: “So, we released one song (“Of Blood And Salt”) that... the goal of that whole operation was to put the spotlight on Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which I think is important as an artist to put the spotlight on something more important than just being your band and promoting your band always. There are other things to promote and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are doing an amazing job at protecting the oceans. They're trying their best to save the few whales left alive. There's a few tunas, I think they're still alive in the ocean. Stop eating that please, right now.

“We like to talk about them and somehow, mission accomplished because we brought a lot of people to their cause and brought more attention to them. They told us that too, ‘We noticed we have more metal heads now subscribing and sending money’. They work only with individual donations. No corporations or anything like that. So we like also the way they do things in their etiquette.

“We recorded four songs, one was released with Devin Townsend and Fredrik Thordendal from Meshuggah. The song is called "Of Blood And Salt" and it was released in 2011. There are three other songs that were on a hard drive that crashed at the time and it was a huge pain in the butt to retract all of this. But it was done two years later. We were such on a roll with the band and we were doing an album and going on tour, that it was difficult to go back to that. But right now as we speak, I have an engineer in my studio putting all this all back together and were trying to make this happen finally. I don't want to make a statement, ‘This is the release date’, because I learned my lesson. I'll talk about it when it is ready but I'm still working on it.”

Listen to the full interview below:

The Extended Sessions EP is the follow-up release to The Four Seasons album release by Vivaldi Metal Project, which hit the shelves in Summer 2016 on CD & double vinyl via Pride & Joy Music. The album up to today is one of the label’s best sellers and now being continued with this valuable EP which will shorten the waiting time for the fans until the next full album.

The digital version of the EP will be available at the usual outlets; the physical edition digipack is limited to 300 copies and will only be available at the band’s shows, at the label’s online shop and at selected mailorders.

Created and produced by Mistheria, Vivaldi Metal Project are currently working on bringing the project onto stage with full band, orchestra and choir. During summer/fall 2017, the band played a series of unplugged shows in Finland, in Bulgaria and in Italy in advance which resulted in the idea to put some of the extraordinary material onto this EP. The Extended Sessions includes four tracks which are centred around the group’s performance at Kitee International Music And Art Festival, which took place in Kitee (Finland) on July 13th, 2017. Arranged by Mistheria, the performance at the Sleeping Sun event featured Mistheria himself on piano and Tsena Stefanova on vocals. An epic video for this track will also be available soon online.

The Extended Sessions EP opens with a newly recorded unplugged studio version of “The Four Seasons” medley which again was arranged by Mistheria who performed on this track on piano and was joined by vocalists Tsena Stefanova, Angel Wolf-Black and Dimitar Belchev plus Abigail Stahlschmidt on violin. Additionally to this track, the song “Vita” - one of the album's single - is featured twice on the EP: once as exclusive “original vocal session” as recorded by Dimitar Belchev on the first demo version of this song which impressed Mistheria at the first listening, and once as instrumental “karaoke”. Both versions are delivered with a brand new mix by Ivan Moni Bidin at Artesonika studios.

“Vita” was originally released with different singers on last year’s album. The track was arranged by Zhivko Koev and the line-up here includes Dimitar Belchev on vocals, Srdjan Brankovic on guitars, Chris Caffery (TSO, Savatage) with a guitar solo, Jeffrey Revet on keyboards, Royal Hunt’s Andreas Passmark on bass and Martijn Peters on drums.

Like the Vivaldi Metal Project's full length album The Four Seasons, The Extended Sessions EP was mixed and mastered by Ivan Moni Bidin at Artesonika Studios in Italy and produced by Mistheria. Vivaldi Metal Project is currently booking more unplugged shows over Europe and the US. Dates will be announced soon.

(Photo - Martti Rosendahl)

Gothenburg, Sweden-based rockers HARDCORE SUPERSTAR will release a new single, "Baboon", on December 13. The song is taken from the band's upcoming album, "You Can't Kill My Rock 'N' Roll", which is tentatively due in March or April 2018.

HARDCORE SUPERSTAR singer Joakim "Jocke" Berg told Overdrive that "You Can't Kill My Rock 'N' Roll" was recorded in bassist Martin Sandvik's studio in Gothenburg "so there was no stress at all during the process. Things have been going really well," he said.

Asked if HARDCORE SUPERSTAR's recently released track "Have Mercy On Me" is a good indication of what fans can expect from the forthcoming disc, Jocke said: "If you ask me, I can say that even if 'Have Mercy On Me' is a very catchy song and I like it a lot and it just seemed like the perfect track to give a sort of appetizer to what to expect, I can tell you that there are much stronger songs to come. You won't be disappointed."

"Have Mercy On Me" was released to coincide with the band's co-headline tour of Europe with FOZZY. The song is available on all digital platforms and as an exclusive, limited-edition twelve-inch vinyl single. The B-side on the vinyl single is "Next Please", a demo from the writing sessions for "You Can't Kill My Rock 'N' Roll".

John Petrucci has hinted that DREAM THEATER's next album will be musically inspired by the band's current "Images, Words & Beyond" tour, which sees the pioneering group celebrating the 25th anniversary of its milestone RIAA-gold-certified album "Images And Words".

The guitarist, who will take part in the 2018 installment of the "G3" tour alongside DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen and tour founder Joe Satriani, spoke about DREAM THEATER's future plans during an appearance on the "Trunk Nation" show on SiriusXM channel Volume.

Asked when DREAM THEATER will get around to working on the follow-up to 2016's concept album "The Astonishing", Petrucci said: "Those two 'G3' tours [in Europe and the United States] will take me to the spring of next year, believe it or not, so we won't be able to get something going until some point next year and then we'll have a release the following year. But we kind of already know the direction of what we wanna do. We're really excited. Yeah, but it won't be for a while yet."

Pressed for some "hints" and "nuggets" about a possible musical direction for DREAM THEATER's next album, Petrucci said: "I think that reconnecting with the music from the era that we're playing now and kind of where our headspace was in the early '90s and everything, it's kind of, I guess, for lack of a better word, reconnected us with the musical style of that period of DREAM THEATER. So it's been really interesting talking about how we're gonna approach the next record and everything. So, yeah, we're psyched."

DREAM THEATER keyboardist Jordan Rudess told the Venezuelan chapter of Dream Theater World last year that the band's next record would see him and his bandmates going in a different direction from "The Astonishing", which was criticized by some fans for being too ambitious in scope. "I don't think it's a question of necessarily topping it," Jordan said. "I think that this is a particular creative adventure for us, to write something that was a concept album, very much like a musical or a rock opera. I think that whatever we decide to do next will be something obviously very different. And we'll invest our energies into that when it comes to that. Obviously, it's not gonna be another concept album — I just don't think that would be necessarily the best thing to do — but it will be some creative adventure that we'll feel like we want to put our energies behind."

"The Astonishing" was released in January 2016 via Roadrunner. The CD was recorded at Cove City Sound Studios in Glen Cove, New York, with Petrucci producing, studio luminary Richard Chycki (AEROSMITH, RUSH) engineering/mixing and legendary arranger, composer and conductor David Campbell orchestrating.

Even the Helsinki Vampires celebrate Christmas! To inject some black magic and gothic vibes into the most beautiful season of the year, Finnish rockers THE 69 EYES will launch their special music video for "Christmas In New York City" on November 24. The clip was filmed and directed by Ville Juurikkala, known from his previous work with THE 69 EYES, HIM, NIGHTWISH and AMORPHIS.

"This is about the last thing we haven't done yet — so it's our time to release a Christmas song!" says THE 69 EYES singer Jyrki 69. "This is also our tribute to the RAMONES and New York which both have been our main influences.

"This is our 'thank you for a great year' for our fans. The next 69 EYES album will be on its way soon!" The Christmas rock hymn will be available for download and streaming on November 24.

The Finns are currently working on the follow-up to their 2016 album "Universal Monsters".

According to The Pulse Of Radio, A PERFECT CIRCLE frontman Maynard James Keenan has issued a brief response to fans following reports that more than 60 concertgoers were ejected from an APC show over the weekend for taking photos in violation of the band's stated policy. After a fan complained about the policy on Instagram, Keenan wrote: "No. Recording. Of. Any. Kind. For. 25. Years. Guided experience. Unplug and enjoy the ride."

Keenan has also enacted a strict ban on photos with his other groups, TOOL and PUSCIFER, but it got renewed scrutiny after the ejections that took place at A PERFECT CIRCLE's show on Saturday night (November 4) in Reading, Pennsylvania.

David Farrar, the general manager of the Santander Arena & Performing Arts Center where the band performed, said on Instagram after a fan revealed he had snapped some photos: "We tossed over 60 people last night for taking pics." He later added, "This was 110 percent the band's policy and has been for Tool, APC, and Puscifer… it's not a new policy."

Stops on the current APC tour have featured printed warning signs posted around the venue, security guards announcing the policy and a video message displayed on the venue's video screens.

A PERFECT CIRCLE continues its fall tour on Wednesday night (November 8) in Boston, Massachusetts.

The band has been playing several new tracks on the road and recently issued a single called "The Doomed". A new studio album is expected out in early 2018.

Canadian metal veterans ANNIHILATOR have released a music video for the song "For The Demented". The track is the title cut of the band's sixteenth studio album, which was released on November 3 via Neverland Music/Silver Lining Music. The effort was made available in a limited-edition digipack with lenticular cover, a jewel-case CD, a twelve-inch 180-gram colored vinyl in gatefold and digital download. "For The Demented" track listing:

01. Twisted Lobotomy02. One To Kill03. For The Demented04. Pieces of You05. The Demon You Know06. Phantom Asylum 07. Altering The Alter08. The Way09. Dark10. Not All There

"It was time to analyze what a lot of fans over the years have kept telling me," says Waters. "It was time to sit down and figure out 'why' ANNIHILATOR's early 'thrash-meets-melodic' caught the ears of so many and to try to sweep the 'fan' part of my writing/playing/singing out the door and welcome back the mostly original Waters writing that was to be the first four ANNIHILATOR albums." Waters didn't venture back alone while looking back through ANNIHILATOR's history. "I was well aware that trying to re-capture the past usually fails, or at least won't come close," he says. "So, I decided to bring in fresh ears, both musically and physically with Rich Hinks, my bassist for the last few years. And doing most all of the records by myself, including writing and playing most all on my own, as well as mixing, mastering, engineering, etc… well, it can become routine and can often hinder you from being objective and more creative. "Rich came in and co-wrote the music with me, as well as co-produced the beginning stages of the record. His background of classic thrash metal meets a newer 'math' metal style was the perfect combination for me to simply ask, 'What do you think of this?' He would most-often reply with 'not the ANNIHILATOR style I like,' so we would keep going until we both felt that core ANNIHILATOR riffing and writing style presented itself."

Jeff continues: "Bottom line, 'For The Demented' captures some feel from ANNIHILATOR's 1985-87 demos mixed with the first four ANNIHILATOR records. Back to the thrash-meets-melody but with some pure Waters guitar riffing, upgraded lead guitar shredding and vocals back to the demo days meets the 'King of The Kill' record. Lyrically, I placed a theme on the record: the human mind and all of its glory, complexity, diversity, weaknesses and insanity! Pretty much the craziness of the music is matched by the lyrics. "I think metal fans are going to hear much of what they have been waiting for from ANNIHILATOR," adds Waters. Since 1989, ANNIHILATOR have not stopped putting out records and touring the world. Despite the ever-changing climate of the metal world (and releasing a series of "different" metal records with various lineups along the way), Waters and company have consistently delivered strong albums since the band's debut, "Alice In Hell". Then there was 1990's best-selling "Never, Neverland", 1995's "King Of The Kill", "Schizo Deluxe" in 2005 and many other critically acclaimed releases up until "Suicide Society". The "under-the-radar" influence of this band, and Waters, has been felt throughout the entire realm of the metal world by a ton of well-known musicians and bands; that influence even stretching into the hard rock and instrumentalist genre. Waters, in his usual humble manner, offers this in response: "ANNIHILATOR's music has been influenced by a good hundred of my favorite bands and musicians; you can hear their contributions to what I have been doing all throughout ANNIHILATOR's catalog. It's a bonus and an honor when bands and musicians I love mention that I had something to do with their playing or songs!" ANNIHILATOR is:

Jeff Waters (vocals, guitar)Fabio Alessandrini (drums)Rich Hinks (bass)Aaron Homma (guitar)

Photo credit: Jasmina Vrcko

Alice Cooper is among the 2018 nominees for induction into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.

The Songwriters Hall Of Fame is dedicated to recognizing the work and lives of those composers and lyricists who create music around the world.

Other nominees include Mariah Carey, Tom Waits, PRETENDERS founder Chrissie Hynde, THE ISLEY BROTHERS and John Mellencamp.

To qualify for induction, a songwriter must be a published writer for a minimum of 20 years with a notable catalog of hit songs.

Eligible voting members will have until December 17, 2017 to turn in ballots with their choices of three nominees from a non-performing and three from a performing category.

Six songwriters, or songwriting groups, will be officially inducted on June 14 at the annual Songwriters Hall Of Fame gala in New York.

Known as "The Godfather of Shock Rock" as well as a heavy metal music pioneer, Vincent Damon Furnier, using the stage name Alice Cooper, wrote and recorded "I'm Eighteen" and "School's Out" — early 1970s hit songs that endure as teen anthems. Major Cooper hits include "Elected" and "No More Mister Nice Guy", and in 2011, he was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Cooper's collaborators have included AEROSMITH guitarist Joe Perry and HANOI ROCKS guitarist Andy McCoy, while prominent fans include Bob Dylan, the SEX PISTOLS' John Lydon — who called Cooper's album "Killer" the greatest rock album ever — and THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, who cited 13 Cooper songs in their song "Why Must I Be Sad?"

Swedish quartet TRIBULATION will release its new album, "Down Below", will on January 26, 2018 via Century Media Records. The follow-up to the critically acclaimed 2015 release "The Children Of The Night" will be preceded by a brand-new seven-inch EP on December 22. Titled "Lady Death", it will include the album track "Lady Death" as well as the B-side "Skärselden". This release comes adorned by beautiful artwork crafted by TRIBULATION guitarist Jonathan Hultén and is limited to 1500 copies worldwide in the following versions, available for pre-order starting today: * Black vinyl: limited to 700 copies. Available at various mailorder stores* Clear vinyl: limited to 100 copies. Exclusively available at Century Media's mailorder* Transparent-red vinyl: limited to 200 copies. Sold by TRIBULATION on their upcoming tours* Transparent-orange vinyl: limited to 200 copies. Available at various mailorder stores* Dark-green vinyl: limited to 300 copies. Available at TRIBULATION's band store via King's Road

TRIBULATION will commence its touring cycle for "Down Below" with runs across Central Europe and the U.K. supporting ARCH ENEMY and WINTERSUN, as well as dates in the East and South of Europe with INSOMNIUM. TRIBULATION comments: "More than one year has passed since we did the last tour of 'The Children Of The Night'. During this long period of silence, an intense creative process has taken place, and today we are proud to announce that our new album, 'Down Below', is recorded and ready to be released. It contains some elements from all our previous releases, but is also taking a step into uncharted waters.

"We would like to thank our producer and friend, Martin Ehrencrona, for the excellent time in Studio Cobra. We are very pleased with the results! Also, big thanks to the amazing Anna von Hausswolff who contributed with her beautiful and awe-inspiring vocal landscapes on one of the album songs as well as another piece that serves as B-side on the forthcoming 'Lady Death' EP. We salute you both!

"Now, we are eager to spread our wings again and embark on a new journey across the world. The starting point will be Europe and 12 January marks the first day of a tour together with ARCH ENEMY. Later in March we will travel further east and south of the continent together with INSOMNIUM. We are all very much looking forward to what is to come!"

TRIBULATION are currently finalizing work for a promotional video of the upcoming album's opening track and first single, "The Lament", which will be launched on November 17. The pre-order of "Down Below" will be available on the same day. TRIBULATION is:

Johannes Andersson - Vocals, BassAdam Zaars - GuitarJonathan Hultén - GuitarOscar Leander - Drums

Robert Plant has been named the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Americana Music Association UK. It is the group's highest honor and goes to a U.K. artist for outstanding contribution to the Americana genre over the span of a career.

The AmericanaFestUK show will take place on February 1, 2018 at the Hackney Empire in East London.

For a list of all the nominees and tickets to the ceremony, visit theamauk.org.

Plant's new album, "Carry Fire", was released on October 13 via Nonesuch/Warner. The follow-up to 2014's "Lullaby And… The Ceaseless Roar" was produced by Plant in the west of England and Wales, at Top Cat studio in Box, Wiltshire with additional recordings at Real World and Rockfield studios.

Plant told EW about the album: "It's been a great adventure and a departure for me." He added that his collaborators pushed him to deliver the best possible lyrics on the record. "My game is sporadic," he explained. "I have to run at it, as a singer and a lyricist. Maybe you can create a beautiful melody, but what are you going to say? I can't sing about truck-stop women and railroads and stuff — I'm British! You've gotta cut through to how you feel and what you've been observing more recently."

POISON frontman Bret Michaels has recorded and produced a contemporary version of the timeless holiday classic "Jingle Bells". This is the legendary frontman's first time releasing a holiday song.

Fans can expect the track to be packed with high energy, great grooves, and the ever-present spirit of a good time evident in all of Michaels's music.

Michaels, an iconic musician and frontman mixed modern recording techniques and contemporary grooves with traditional orchestration and feel to create a completely fresh new version of one of the most recognizable holiday songs of all time, while staying true to the original spirit of such a recognizable body of music.

Michaels says: "It was such an awesome experience that I plan to have a full-length release of holiday music next year."

"Jingle Bells" will be available to fans on Friday, November 17 via all major digital music retailers and streaming outlets, with other related and exclusive content available only at www.bretmichaels.com.

Also known as an avid philanthropist, Michaels will donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the song to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Michaels's Life Rocks Foundation will also be holding its annual fundraising drive. The Life Rocks Foundation makes donations to such causes as Hurricane Harvey Relief, The American Red Cross, military charities and JDRF among others.

Michaels, whose career has spanned over 30 years in the entertainment business and weathered the ever-changing tide of the industry, has created an unprecedented fanbase that embraces three generations. Michaels is part rock star, part reality star and part philanthropist, having incredible success in every avenue. Selling over 40 million records worldwide, Bret is the face of an entire genre. With the astonishing success of his hit reality show "Rock Of Love" that spanned three seasons and remains in syndication worldwide, Michaels became a "cultural touchdown," as described by former head of Viacom, Judy McGrath. From there, Bret went on to star in and produce several other TV shows, including VH1's smash hit "Life As I Know It" and he won season three of "The Celebrity Apprentice". To this day, the reality star is considered the fan favorite from all seasons of NBC's number one show.

Being a lifelong diabetic and brain hemorrhage survivor, Michaels has always embraced the need to help and "give back" to those in need and has been active in raising money for the cure for diabetes his entire life. In recent years, the avid philanthropist took it even further with the creation of his unique Life Rocks foundation. With Bret's foundation, you find him stepping out from his own needs as a diabetic and giving to veterans, women's shelters, animal shelters and many other causes. Bret has raised and continues to raise money and donate in hopes of making the world a better place.

Professionally-filmed footage of Metallica performing the Hardwired... To Self-Destruct album track “Moth Into Flame” on November 1st at Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium can be seen below:

“Join us as we take the stage for a 75-minute set rounding out a night featuring G-Eazy, Rancid, Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Dead & Company, and Raphael Saadiq for the Band Together Bay Area benefit concert this Thursday, November 9th starting at 5:45 PM, PST,” says Metallica. “100% of the ticket price will benefit Northern California fire relief and good seats are still available at Ticketmaster.com!

“We’ll also be live streaming the show which you can catch on Metallica.com, our YouTube channel, or our Facebook page. The show will be available to Twitter's logged-in and logged-out audience in the US via @tippingpoint and at this location as well. And let’s not forget why we’re taking the stage! Contribute to fire relief during the live stream by clicking the “donate” button on the stream or texting “TOGETHER” to 20222.

“We are so proud to be a part of Band Together Bay Area and we hope you can join us this Thursday in assisting our friends and neighbours who have lost so much. All funds from ticket sales will benefit Tipping Point Community, who have set up an Emergency Relief Fund for low-income, vulnerable communities impacted by the crisis, including vineyard workers, immigrants, displaced young people, and students.

“If you cannot attend the show and would still like to contribute, you may donate directly to Tipping Point. You may also donate to the Metallica All Within My Hands Foundation through the Foundation's Facebook page. All Within My Hands will be making a donation to Tipping Point Community, and 100% of your contribution will be included.”

For more information on the event, visit bandtogetherbayarea.org.

Originally released in 1990 and out-of-print for almost two decades, the now legendary debut album from doom godfathers The Obsessed will once again see the light of day in multiple deluxe formats. Now completely remastered with previously unreleased bonus tracks, including the highly sought-after Concrete Cancer demo, expanded artwork, never-before-seen photos, and extended liner notes from frontman Scott "Wino" Weinrich, this is the definitive edition of The Obsessed's self-titled debut, a true piece of doom history!

Weinrich comments: "This record defines the passion, the pureness, and vibrancy of youth, and the fierce love, loyalty, and dedication to this music. I am happy and proud it lives once again! Thanks to all who believe!”

"Tombstone Highway" is streaming below.

The Obsessed's self-titled reissue is due out November 17th on 2CD, LP, 2LP, and digital formats via Relapse Records. Physical bundles and digital preorders are available via Relapse Records here and streaming services at this location.

Tracklisting:

“Tombstone Highway”
“The Way She Fly”
“Forever Midnight”
“Ground Out”
“Fear Child”
“Freedom”
“Red Disaster”
“Inner Turmoil”
“River Of Soul”
“Concrete Cancer” (1984 unreleased Concrete Cancer demo cassette)
“Feelingz” (1984 unreleased Concrete Cancer demo cassette)
“Mental Kingdom” (1984 unreleased Concrete Cancer demo cassette)
“Hiding Masque” (1984 unreleased Concrete Cancer demo cassette)
“Ground Out – Feelingz” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)
“Concrete Cancer” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)
“No Blame” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)
“Mental Kingdom” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)
“Tombstone Highway” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)
“Iron And Stone” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)
“Rivers Of Soul” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)
“Sittin On A Grave” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)
“Freedom” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)
“Indestroy - Kill Ugly Naked” (live at The Bayou 4-15-1985)

Concrete Cancer Demo:
“Concrete Cancer”
“Feelingz”
“Mental Kingdom”
“Hiding Masque”

"Tombstone Highway":

“Mental Kingdom”:

“The Way She Fly”:

Austrian post-black metal band Harakiri For The Sky will make their return in 2018 with the release of their 4th studio album, Arson, which will debut on February, 16th via AOP Records with distribution from Plastichead Distribution (Europe/North America/World) and Edel (Germany/Austria/Switzerland). Today, the band has shared the record’s first new single, “Tomb Omnia”.

“This song is about one of the darkest and mournful chapters in my family’s history and the impact it had on its members, especially the one it had on myself. Sadly there are happenings and experiences far formative as its protagonist was aware of while acting. But these happenings and actions are so intangible disturbing and unsettling they wander on and keep up destroying lifes relentless in their future. Cause some things that can never be forgotten…” - J.J. (vocals)
 
Harakiri For The Sky’s initial song, “Tomb Omnia,” is an 8+ minute, crushing tale of anguish and pain that’s set to the band’s signature sound of lush, enthralling riffs that blur the line between black metal and atmospheric post-rock.
 
Founded in 2011 in Vienna, Austria, Harakiri For The Sky has created a unique mixture of melancholy and aggression, madness and meaning, and wrapped in alternately manic/mellow songs. The band was initially begun as a studio project by Bifröst member M. S. and vocalist/lyricist J. J., and has recently been expanded to a live lineup, which has gone on to perform with the likes of A Forest of Stars, Ellende, Fäulnis, Der Weg Einer Freiheit, and Agrypnie among others, encompassing over 20 countries to date.
 
The forthcoming record, Arson, was recorded, mixed and mastered by Daniel Fellner and follows the band’s critically celebrated 2016 album III: Trauma, which was featured on many critics’ “Best Of 2016” lists and received a nomination for the “Amadeus Austrian Music Award.”
 
Harakiri For The Sky will perform one exclusive album release show on February 10th, 2018 at Szene in Vienna, Austria. Additional tour dates are expected to be announced soon.

Tracklisting:

“Fire, Walk With Me”
“The Graves We’ve Dug”
“You Are The Scars”
“Heroin Waltz”
“Tomb Omnia”
“Stillborn”
“Voidgazer”
“Manifesto” (Graveyard Lovers cover)

“Tomb Omnia”:

New York City rockers, Station, have premiered their latest single, "Never Enough”, along with an accompanying music video, which can be seen below.

"I'm really proud of this song," says guitarist Chris Lane about the new single. "We've played it live a handful of times, but it really took shape in the studio. I think the process for recording this song really showed us what we can do in the studio and new ways we can create."

Adds singer Pat Kearney, "The response for the video has been amazing. Within a day, our video was shared and posted on rock blogs all around the world. Within hours of releasing the video, we were seeing new fans engage us in places like South America and Europe. It was surreal."

In addition to the video premiere, the band have announced several live dates for December.

December
1 - Philadelphia, PA - Connie's Ric Rac
2 - Cincinnati, OH - MVP's Bar and Grill
8 - New York, NY - Arlene's Grocery
15 - Long Branch, NJ - Brighton Bar

The band’s new album is tentatively scheduled for an early 2018 release.

(Photo - Steven Lane)

Iron Maiden have uploaded the video below with the tagline: “The job requirements to be a Killer Krew member stretches further than you may think…”

Warner Music will release Iron Maiden’s The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter on November 17th worldwide (through BMG in the US). This live recording comprises 15 songs captured during The Book Of Souls World Tour, which covered 39 countries across six continents during 2016 and 2017, and was seen by over two million fans. In the new video below, frontman Bruce Dickinson discusses what he’ll miss about being on the road:

The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter will be released physically in CD, deluxe CD & vinyl audio formats, with the concert film available to stream free online or as a digital download - full details below.

Produced by Tony Newton and Iron Maiden founder member and bass player Steve Harris, the album is based on this year’s set list and is a faithful record of the epic show, including six songs from The Book Of Souls, the band's most recent studio album, along with many other classics and fan favourites.

Steve comments, "We spent a huge amount of time working on this as I wanted to get it as close to the Maiden live experience as I possibly could and to represent our fans from different parts of the world. This meant listening to literally hours upon hours of tapes from every show, to select material and construct a sound that would run consistently across the whole album and capture the excitement of a new country like El Salvador alongside such regular favourites as Donington or Wacken.”

Maiden manager Rod Smallwood adds, "The Book Of Souls World Tour was a huge undertaking, not least for Bruce who started the tour singing in public for the very first time since recovering from throat cancer. He also piloted Ed-Force One, upgraded last year from a Boeing 757 to a 747 so we could go further and faster to visit some fantastic cities and fans all round the world. This year continued that excitement bringing us our most successful North American and UK tours ever. It was a very special tour in a great many ways so we felt we wanted to document it for both ourselves and for our fans. Steve has done an incredible job putting together this set from cities around the world and we’ve made sure the deluxe CD will be available in a matching book format to ‘The Book of Souls’ release.

"On top of all that the release will be celebrated by an event that is a Maiden first: a free live streaming premiere of the concert film, as a thank you to our loyal fans around the world. We hope that the global Maiden community will all enjoy coming together to watch this special event online. Many of you will be in it as there is footage from a whole host of the places we played on this momentous tour. ”

The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter will premiere on YouTube on November 11th - as a thank you to all their loyal fans around the world they’re streaming the entire concert film for free.

Says the band: “Grab some beers, hook up your best speakers and enjoy The Book Of Souls tour from the comfort of your own sofa.”

The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter tracklisting:

Disc 1:
“If Eternity Should Fail” - Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney, Australia, 6/5/16
“Speed Of Light” - Grand Arena, Grandwest, Cape Town, South Africa, 18/5/16
“Wrathchild” - 3Arena, Dublin, Ireland, 6/5/17
“Children Of The Damned” - Bell Centre, Montreal, Canada, 1/4/16
“Death Or Glory” - Wroclaw Stadium, Wroclaw, Poland, 3/7/16
“The Red And The Black” - Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan, 21/4/16
“The Trooper” - Estadio Jorge Magico Gonzalez, San Salvador, El Salvador, 6/3/16
“Powerslave” - Piazza Dell’unita D’italia, Trieste, Italy, 26/7/16

Disc 2:
“The Great Unknown” - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, UK, 14/5/17
“The Book Of Souls”- Download Festival, Donington, UK, 12/6/16
“Fear Of The Dark” - Arena Castelao, Fortaleza, Brazil, 24/3/16
“Iron Maiden” - Estadio Velez Sarsfield, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 15/3/16
“The Number Of The Beast” - Wacken Open Air, Wacken, Germany, 4/8/16
“Blood Brothers” - Download Festival, Donington, UK, 12/6/16
“Wasted Years” - HSBC Arena, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, 17/3/16

The album will replicate The Book Of Souls original formats and be issued as a limited edition deluxe 2 CD hardcase Book, a regular 2CD album, a triple black vinyl LP, and digital download in high resolution audio (48khz/24 bit) including Mastered for iTunes (MFiT) version. A digital download of the concert film will also be available to purchase following its free online premiere.

Pre-orders are available here. Below you can watch “Speed Of Light” (Live), filmed in Cape Town, South Africa and available on The Book Of Souls: Live Chapter:

Dirty Thrills recently stopped by YouTube Space London to play a couple of songs live and YouTube captured the footage. Check out a live performance of "Law Man”, lifted from their new album Heavy Living, below:

Dirty Thrills are a young, exciting and charismatic London-based hard rock quartet who play bluesy rock 'n' roll with an appealing filthy edge, churning out endless crowd pleasers that make guitar music sound sexy again. With lung-busting, powerful vocals from front man Louis James, killer guitar riffs from Jack Fawdry and solid low-end grooves from the rhythm section of Aaron Plows and Steve Corrigan, each member's wide-ranging influences also combine to produce a pool of sound similar to current rock icons such as Queens Of The Stone Age, The Black Keys and Rival Sons.

Heavy Living tracklisting:

“I'll Be With You”
“Go Slow”
“Law Man”
“Hanging Around”
“Lonely Soul”
“No Resolve”
“Interlude”
“The Brave”
“Rabbit Hole”
“Drunk Words”
“Get Loose”

“Rabbit Hole” video:

“I'll Be With You” video:

“Law Man” video:

Dirty Thrills lineup:

Louis James - Lead Vocals, Harmonica
Jack Fawdry - Guitar, Backing Vocals
Steve Corrigan - Drums
Aaron Plows - Bass

Legendary rockers Rose Tattoo will release their Tatts: Live In Brunswick 1982 album on November 24th via Golden Robot Records. The album features 14 tracks recorded at Melbourne’s Bombay Bicycle Club in Brunswick in 1982 and mastered for loyal fans in 2017.

Here’s an album that takes you back 35 years; the Australian pub rock scene was at its peak, live music was everywhere, and so was Rose Tattoo, becoming one of Australia’s most revered rock bands of all time, known for their peerless, raw, heavy blues rock, hot mix of slide guitars, and the unmistakable voice of Angry Anderson.

Featuring classics like “Assault And Battery”, “Scarred For Life” and “Rock And Roll Outlaw”, Tatts: Live in Brunswick was recorded when rock was king and Rose Tattoo - Angry Anderson, Pete Wells, Rob Riley, Geordie Leach and Dallas ‘Digger’ Royall - was at its most formidable.

Tracklisting:

“Out Of This Place”
“Bad Boy For Love”
“Assault And Battery”
“Tramp”
“We Can't Be Beaten”
“Butcher And Fast Eddy”
“Rock And Roll Is King”
“Texas”
“One Of The Boys”
“Branded”
“Revenge”
“Juice On The Loose”
“Rock And Roll Outlaw”
“Scarred For Life”

What lies ahead in 2018? Rose Tattoo will be releasing a brand new album and will be touring worldwide, with their their new lineup featuring a certain Mark Evans on bass.

The official animated music video for the song "Six Days" from CELLAR DARLING, the band featuring former ELUVEITIE members Anna Murphy (vocals, hurdy-gurdy), Merlin Sutter (drums) and Ivo Henzi (guitars, bass), can be seen below. The song is taken from CELLAR DARLING's debut album, "This Is The Sound", which was released on June 30 via Nuclear Blast. The disc was recorded at New Sound Studio with producer Tommy Vetterli (CORONER, ELUVEITIE).

Commented CELLAR DARLING: "It's the sixth of November. A good day to present you the video to our song 'Six Days', a dark and abstract story about the last man left on earth. We‘ve always wanted this special song to have a visual representation and we knew immediately that if we ever could realize this project, the man for it would be our favorite artist Costin Chioreanu. Without any guidelines, he has managed to capture the atmosphere perfectly. The video really shows what was inside Anna's head when she wrote the lyrics and recorded the first demo in the middle of the night. When we further worked on this song, we realized once more that we are not really bound to one style of music and that we have the freedom to expand our horizon even more — that's why this song will always have a special meaning to us. We hope you love it as much as we do!"

CELLAR DARLING just returned from its mostly sold-out tour with DELAIN and is preparing to embark on another extensive tour with LACUNA COIL.

When asked about the biggest challenges facing CELLAR DARLING since the band's conception, Anna told AAA Backstage: "There haven't really been many, as everything kind of fell into place and happened naturally. For us, writing the album was actually quite an easy task because we had so many ideas and so much output. But, of course, there were struggles within the realm of real life. Financially, we obviously weren't having a great time since we lost our main job in ELUVEITIE and thus didn't have any money. We're trying to get our real lives back on track, but creative things are so great and that's more important so I would say we're facing the challenges we have very well."

Murphy went on to say that "some" of these struggles are reflected in the lyrics of CELLAR DARLING's debut album. "Everyone's always subconsciously inspired by what they’re going through, but with CELLAR DARLING, I don't really want to convey what I am currently feeling or currently experiencing," she said. "I want to take those feelings and make stories out of them — completely new stories and abstract poems, so I think it would be pretty hard to tell what is going on in our lives.

"A lot of our songs deal with the end of something, like an apocalypse or a death," she continued. "It kind of represents what is going on with us because something very important ended and something very new started. You can definitely interpret some of that in our lyrics.

"When I write lyrics, it's similar to when I'm writing melodies and songs — it all just comes to me. I don't sit there and have something in mind. It's really interesting because looking at the album and listening to the songs, it's only after we realized what was going on in our lives that we started to interpret out own songs." "This Is The Sound" track listing:

01. Avalanche02. Black Moon03. Challenge04. Hullaballoo05. Six Days06. The Hermit07. Water08. Fire, Wind & Earth09. Rebels10. Under The Oak Tree…11. …High Above These Crowns12. Starcrusher13. Hedonia14. Redemption

Bonus tracks, available exclusively on the digibook:

15. The Cold Song16. Mad World17. The Prophet's Song After their split with ELUVEITIE, Murphy, Henzi and Sutter quickly realised their musical journey was far from over. What quickly developed was a unique and fresh combination of grand and heavy riffs, powerful drumming and a unique voice along with the signature folky, earthy tones of the hurdy gurdy. This, combined with classical elements as well as inherited folk influences, led to the creation of something entirely new, setting CELLAR DARLING on the path of musical innovation.

As its 2017 U.S. leg resumes with tonight's sold out show in Madison, Wisconsin, FOO FIGHTERS' "Concrete And Gold" tour is fast approaching 750,000 tickets sold in North America alone.

Since kicking off October 7 with the band's triumphant headline set before some 30,000-plus true rock believers at its own CalJam 17 festival, the domestic leg of the tour supporting the international No. 1 "Concrete And Gold" (Roswell/RCA) has played to capacity crowds in Washington, D.C.; Richmond, Virginia; Greensboro, North Carolina; Cincinnati, Ohio, and more. Among the 2017-2018 dates that have sold out well in advance are Houston, Dallas, Tampa, Philadelphia, the 45,500-capacity Rogers Centre in Toronto, and three nights in the New York area: two at Madison Square Garden and one at the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater.

The 2017 "Concrete And Gold" tour winds down with a recently announced New Year's Eve Show at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. The tour's North American run resumes April 18 in Austin, Texas and will continue through the band's July 29 return to Chicago's Wrigley Field, a July 21-22 encore doubleheader at Boston's Fenway Park, and more. Tickets for all shows are on sale now, with the exception of Chicago, which goes on sale to the general public Friday, November 10.

FOO FIGHTERS kicked off the first U.S. leg of the "Concrete And Gold" tour October 12 with an intimate show by FF standards — the grand opening of The Anthem in Washington, D.C. — a performance that USA Today noted "transformed the venue into a raucous rock cathedral." In the days since, FOO FIGHTERS have continued to storm through sold-out arenas. The first FOO FIGHTERS global trek since the 20th-anniversary tour, which placed #5 in 2015's top grossing world tours, the "Concrete And Gold" tour has seen the FOO FIGHTERS reaching new peaks of their estimable powers.

"FOO FIGHTERS keep going and going and going in epic Greensboro show," wrote the Charlotte Observer, "If there's one thing you can count on lately when you walk into a FOO FIGHTERS concert, it's that you probably won't get home until tomorrow." The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, "Having played and sung all night with a seemingly endless store of energy, Grohl noted as midnight approached, 'I'm going to feel like I was run over by a truck tomorrow.'" And the Washington Post called the Anthem opener "a rock-and-roll clinic from FOO FIGHTERS," adding "when it was time to officially open the venue... the Anthem called in the only band with the local roots and international fame that could pull it off: FOO FIGHTERS… That's exactly what Grohl and friends did, treating the Anthem like a new leather jacket: turning something that glimmers with newness and making it feel as cozy as a childhood home."

FOO FIGHTERS are Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear and Rami Jaffee.

Kirk Hammett says that he has already accumulated more than five hundred ideas for METALLICA's next album.

The METALLICA guitarist famously lost his iPhone containing hundreds of riffs in 2014. About six months later, he told "The Jasta Show" podcast that he "was crushed" when it happened, but still expressed hope that it "might turn up."

In an interview with British GQ magazine conducted before METALLICA's October 24 concert in London, Hammett said he has learned from the experience. "I went through this whole thing a couple of years ago of losing my iPhone with five hundred ideas, and I still haven't fully recovered from that," he said (see video below). "And my way of recovering from that is overcompensating… On that phone was five hundred ideas, and I have about five hundred ideas now at this point, plus. I'm sitting on a lot of really… what I feel is really, really great music that is just waiting to be developed. Every day, I'm just picking up my guitar and then thinking about those lost ideas and then thinking, 'I've gotta generate more ideas,' in the hopes that maybe one or two of those old five hundred ideas that I lost might trickle through… Maybe it'll find its way through, and I'll go, 'Oh, yeah! Eureka!' It hasn't happened yet. It hasn't happened, though."

Hammett is not credited on any of the songs on METALLICA's last album, 2016's "Hardwired…To Self-Destruct".

METALLICA frontman James Hetfield told Metal XS last December that "Kirk's riffs weren't there" when it was time to write the music for the follow-up to 2008's "Death Magnetic" record. He later seemed to dismiss Kirk's missing-iPhone excuse, telling the WRIF radio station: "That's what he claims. I'm sure he did [lose the phone], but it doesn't make sense that he wouldn't have [the music] on his computer, either. But, whatever… Yeah, Kirk had some riffs that he… I guess submitted — ['submit' is] not a very nice word to be used if you're in a band. But you know, we all submit our tapes, and we sit there and we listen to them and we pick the best stuff. There was not much stuff from Kirk. Whether his phone was lost, or whatever…"

Hetfield told U.K. radio station Planet Rock that Kirk "was not present in the studio" while METALLICA was working on "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct". "He was dealing with life," James said. "He had a lot of life things going on for himself, which he'll choose to talk about if he wants. But, you know, [it was] Lars [Ulrich, METALLICA drummer] and I steering the ship as usual, going through the riffs, creating the songs. And I got to do a lot of guitar stuff that I was missing around 'Death Magnetic' and 'St. Anger' — some of the harmony guitar things, harmony vocals… You know, a little more layering, like the 'Black' album."

Hammett said last year that losing his phone was a "devastating" experience. In September 2016, the guitarist spoke to Seattle's KISW 99.9 radio station about how the incident affected the making of the latest record. He said: "Let's just say that I had to start at zero again while everyone else [in the band] had material for songs. By the time I got a few ideas flowing and kind of formed, most of the songs were already written. I had to think to myself, 'Okay, I have stuff, but it looks like it's gonna probably make it on to the next album.'"

Despite the setback, Hammett said that he was pleased with how "Hardwired...To Self-Destruct" turned out.

"Hardwired… To Self-Destruct" debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 album chart, selling 291,000 copies in its first week of release.

The European leg of METALLICA's "WorldWired" tour kicked off in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 2 and will run through November 3. After a break, the trek will pick up again on February 1, 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal, and continue through May, finishing up in Helsinki, Finland.




Metallica's Kirk Hammett's live with British GQ at the The O2 ahead of their concert tonight. Ask him questions!

Posted by British GQ on Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Bruce Dickinson says that Ronnie James Dio was originally supposed to take part in a proposed project called THE THREE TREMORS before he was replaced by Geoff Tate.

It was announced in 2000 that the QUEENSRŸCHE frontman would be joining Dickinson and JUDAS PRIEST singer Rob Halford in the all-star group, which was slated to record an album's worth of material with Dickinson's solo guitarist and Roy "Z" Ramirez.

That same year, Tate and Dickinson joined Halford onstage at the latter's concert in London for a rendition of "One You Love To Hate" (see video below), a song written by Halford, Dickinson and Ramirez that was featured on Halford's "Resurrection" album.

But in a brand new interview with the "Trunk Nation" show on SiriusXM channel Volume, the IRON MAIDEN vocalist said that Dio was his original choice for the third-singer slot in the since-aborted project.

"I was, like, 'I am not gonna do this without Ronnie,'" Dickinson recalled (see video below). "And Rod [Smallwood, IRON MAIDEN's longtime manager] was, like, 'I don't wanna use Ronnie. He's too old.' I said, 'What do you mean too old? Are you kidding me?' I said, 'He's a legend.' He said, 'No. We should use Geoff Tate.' And then we had a meeting with Geoff Tate, and then I said, 'No. It's not gonna work.' And so that was that."

According to Dickinson, concert promoters showed great interest in booking THE THREE TREMORS before a single note had even been recorded. "I could see the money in their eyes, thinking, 'Oh, this would be great. We could sell this every which way all over the place as a package,'" Dickinson said. "And I went, 'Yeah, you could, but what are we actually gonna do? There's gonna be three of us on stage. What are we gonna do that's actually different that's really cool?'"

Dickinson went on to reveal that the title track of his 2005 solo album, "Tyranny Of Souls", was composed specifically for THE THREE TREMORS project. "[It] was the only song that I wrote for which was designed for three voices, and the demo of it, I actually did almost impressions of a Rob version, the Geoff Tate bit and my bit and split them up," Dickinson said. "And we'd go into the big chorus of [singing] 'Tyranny Of Souls', obviously all three of us would be singing together, like a big choir. And doing that song, I thought, 'Yeah, that would kind of work.' But I need another twelve songs like that to do a whole performance, 'cause otherwise it's just a novelty thing. You can't do things just 'cause of the novelty value. You should do things because musically they're real."

Before Dickinson's proposed collaboration with Halford and Tate was officially scrapped, the name THE THREE TREMORS was changed to TRINITY because "we figured they would sue our ass if we called it THE THREE TREMORS," Bruce explained in an interview several years ago.

Dickinson previously said that he and Roy wrote "about three songs" for THE THREE TREMORS during a session in Los Angeles before he "realized it was going to take us a lot longer than three weeks to write a project with three singers that would work."

He explained: "We wanted to make each song designed to be sung by three different characters as an integral part of the song, not something like, 'You sing the first verse, I'll sing the second verse, and he'll sing the chorus.' That would be a crap way to do it."

Dickinson added: "It's a bloody difficult thing to do, to try to make a song with three different voices to get the full benefit out of it. And it takes longer than three weeks, and we didn't have longer than that to do it, so I canned it in the end.

"It's a great idea; everybody loves the idea… We had marketing people salivating about the idea of a TRINITY project," he said. "But the bottom line is, the thing that is gonna sink it is if the music sucks. So I thought we should can the idea for now since we don't have time to do it. Rob was in the studio doing his album ['Crucible'] and Geoff was writing a new QUEENSRŸCHE album, so that was it. It is an interesting idea, and I'm sure the live show would be really interesting."

Dickinson is promoting his autobiography, "What Does This Button Do?", which was released in the U.S. on October 31 via Dey Street Books (formerly It Books), an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

WATCH IT AGAIN ➡ @EddieTrunk's full interview with @IronMaiden's Bruce Dickinson on @siriusxmvolume ➡ https://t.co/wM22wUfHN5

— SiriusXM (@SIRIUSXM) November 3, 2017

DOKKEN plans to enter the studio in early 2018 to begin recording its new album for a tentative summer release. Singer Don Dokken told "The Roman Show" at this past weekend's RockFest 80's in Pembroke Pines, Florida (see video below): "We've been on the road almost all year, so we're gonna shut down in January and February — [we'll only do] a couple of shows — to start writing. And [DOKKEN bassist] Chris [McCarvill] is just finishing up editing the DOKKEN video from Japan. [We're gonna] wrap that up, and then we're all gonna just writing songs and e-mailing riffs and ideas and get a new album out for the summer '18."

Asked about a possible musical direction for DOKKEN's follow-up to 2012's "Broken Bones" album, Don said: "No rules. Not interested in writing our quote-unquote DOKKEN sound; we're just gonna write what comes from our hearts. We're gonna write what we feel. And there are a lot of things going on in the world, with a crazy president. We're not lacking for source [material] to write."

Guitarist Ira Black (I AM MORBID, METAL CHURCH, LIZZY BORDEN, WESTFIELD MASSACRE) is playing with DOKKEN for nine U.S. tour dates in November and December.

Black made his live debut with DOKKEN in Houston on November 2 and performed with the group on November 4 at Rockfest 80's, to be followed by seven shows in December.

Black is filling in for DOKKEN's longtime guitarist Jon Levin, who has been with the group since 2003. Levin, who also works as an attorney specializing in entertainment contract law, as well as the occasional divorce case, is busy with his law practice through the end of the year and is unable to play with DOKKEN this fall.

Don told "The Roman Show" about Ira: "He's legendary. He's played with everybody. Jon Levin's been with us — he's our guitar player [for] 20 years — but he's also an attorney and he got pulled into court, so that was that."

The classic DOKKEN lineup of Don, guitarist George Lynch, bassist Jeff Pilson and drummer "Wild" Mick Brown completed a short Japanese tour in October 2016. A new DVD focusing on the reunion tour is tentatively due in early 2018. The set is expected to feature footage from two of the Japanese shows — including Tokyo — as well as the band's very first comeback gig, which was held on September 30, 2016 at Badlands Pawn Guns Gold And Rock 'N' Roll in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

"Broken Bones" sold around 2,600 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 173 on The Billboard 200 chart.

MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson has confirmed to "The Right To Rock" podcast that the band has begun putting together material for the follow-up to 2016's "Dystopia" album. "We're actually working on a new record," he said (hear audio below). "Working on it, meaning we're [collecting] ideas and we've been writing some lyrics — just starting to move that next process forward. And now that we're gonna come off the road — we go down to South America and play four shows [in early November] as kind of a final, last big swing down there to see our fans in Chile, Argentina and Brazil. And then we're gonna shut things down through the end of the year and into the New Year for a bit. And there's already some things that are being discussed for some performances next year, in 2018. But a big part of that is also going to be writing a new record."

MEGADETH's upcoming effort will mark the band's first release to feature drummer Dirk Verbeuren, who officially joined the group a year and a half ago.

"Dystopia" was MEGADETH's first album with guitarist Kiko Loureiro, best known for his work with ANGRA.

Ellefson told "The Right To Rock": "'Dystopia' has been out two years and we worked on it through all of 2015, and we were even writing it in 2014. So 'Dystopia', parts of this record are already four years old. So just from a creative standpoint, it's fun to be able to now start thinking about writing some music, and especially writing together with this lineup in mind. Songs aren't always written collaboratively, together, with the four of us, but when they're written, it's nice to know, like, 'Hey, we're writing it with this lineup in mind.' And what Dirk can do, what Kiko can do and what I can do, and putting it together with that in mind."

MEGADETH picked up its first-ever Grammy for "Best Metal Performance" this past February. It was the tenth time the band had been nominated in its 34-year career.

MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine told the Windsor Star in June that he was "pretty happy" with the response to "Dystopia". "When you set out to do a record, you obviously hope for the best," he said. "The peculiar thing about it is we didn't do anything different this time from the last time. It's just a matter of who you're playing with and song selection."

Interview (audio):

According to The Pulse Of Radio, more than 60 people were forcibly removed from A PERFECT CIRCLE's show on Saturday night (November 4) in Reading, Pennsylvania, according to David Farrar, the general manager of the Santander Arena & Performing Arts Center where the band performed. The concertgoers were ejected for taking pictures during the band's set in violation of A PERFECT CIRCLE's super-strict "no photos" policy.

Farrar revealed the number of ejections on Instagram when he commented on one fan claiming that he successfully snapped a few photos. Farrar remarked: "Your [sic] good. We tossed over 60 people last night for taking pics." He later added, "This was 110 percent the band's policy and has been for Tool, APC, and Puscifer... it's not a new policy."

The policy seems to have originated with singer Maynard James Keenan, who fronts all three bands and usually performs either in disguise or in a shadowy area at the rear of the stage.

Every show on A PERFECT CIRCLE's current North American arena tour reportedly has enforced a strict "no photos and videos" policy, with ejection from the venue threatened as punishment.

A show last week in Brooklyn featured printed warning signs posted around the venue, a security guard outside shouting the policy into a megaphone and a video message from the band displayed on all the venue's video screens.

The policy, while not new, still comes at a time when a number of artists, including members of DISTURBED, SLIPKNOT and RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, have spoken out against fans recording shows with their smartphones.

A PERFECT CIRCLE is next scheduled to perform Tuesday (November 7) in Camden, New Jersey. The band has been playing several new tracks on the road and recently issued a single called "The Doomed". A new studio album is expected out in early 2018.