Maggie Meadows of the Banana 101.5 radio station in Flint, Michigan, conducted an interview with MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson about the band's first-ever Grammy Award. On February 12, MEGADETH was honored with a Grammy in the "Best Metal Performance" category for its 2016 album, "Dystopia". You can listen to the full chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On MEGADETH winning their first Grammy Award after being nominated twelve times:

David: "It's a nice change. I've been Grammy-nominated for a lot of years, which is also awesome, but it's nice to be Grammy Award-winning, that's for sure. It's twelve times nicer to know we're now Grammy Award-winning."

On whether he expected MEGADETH to win:

David: "You always go knowing there's a chance. I think the fact you get invited, that's huge, because out of all the people who put out music, they narrow it down pretty selectively to four, five, six people/artists that even get invited. I think probably the biggest thing, there's this moment when you're sitting in your seat and they go, 'And the Grammy goes to…' That moment right there, which is very euphoric, and you go, 'Oh my God. They may actually call our name right now.' In past years, which I've gone four times now, and they say 'And the Grammy goes to… not you.' [Laughs] It's a moment that you go 'Wow! All of that build-up and coming here and the excitement, and the press releases and the travel, getting the suit, tux, and the limo… it's all gone in that moment.' This is one where it was nice where it just got better when they said 'And the Grammy goes to ''Dystopia': MEGADETH.' We are over the moon about this."

On what MEGADETH would normally do after a different winner than them was announced:

David: "It's funny, this year, yeah, we all stayed around. There was a lot of press, obviously, Universal, our record company had a party that they wanted us to come to, and walk the red carpet. The night went on forever, which was wonderful. It was like, 'Please don't let this night end.' It was awesome. It was like Cinderella at the ball. 'Just don't let this end.' In past years, I've always stayed, except for the very first year in 1993, we went. We'd been nominated a couple of times before, starting as far back as 1991, but we were on tour, so we couldn't go. Finally in 1993, 'Countdown To Extinction', our biggest record, all over MTV, people congratulating us on the way in, 'You got this. So proud of you guys. This is great.' We sit down, and it was pre-televised that year, the first year they did it pre-televised. They make the announcements, I'll never forget Mary Chapin Carpenter and Lyle Lovett opening the envelope and 'The Grammy goes to: NINE INCH NAILS.' We're like 'What?!' We love NINE INCH NAILS, they were a cool, hip new band out of Hollywood. We love Trent's [Reznor] work; he even remixed one of the tracks we may have been nominated for, 'Symphony Of Destruction'. He was certainly deserving, but it was that moment, and I remember [former MEGADETH lead guitarist] Marty Friedman, and it was me and my wife, and Marty and his girlfriend at the time, Marty was so upset and said, 'That's it. We're out of here.' We're like 'Really? You don't want to stay?' 'No, we're out of here.' The limo hadn't even parked and we're calling the guy, 'Hey, pick us up.' He goes 'What happened?' We left and went up the street and had dinner. That was a regret, to not go to the Grammys that year. Every year since then I've gone, three more times now, I made a point, 'I'm staying. This is the biggest music party in the world. We got invited. You can't go unless you are a nominee. We're still in the exclusive club, man. I'm going to take this in.' I've always loved the Grammys. They do it very well; it's awesome. You're part of the biggest club in the world. It's awesome to go."

On whether he heard the Grammy house band playing METALLICA's "Master Of Puppets" as they were walking to the stage to accept their award:

David: "We could. [Laughs] We're sitting there together, and it's funny, we're number 69, ironically in this list of 75 awards, and we get in there around 58, 59, and sat down, and a few more were ahead of us and it's moving pretty quick at this point. We're sitting there and it comes up 'Best Metal.' They read them off, and they just listed the names: BARONESS, KORN, MEGADETH, PERIPHERY, GOJIRA, and then when they said 'The Grammy goes to…' They initially, they didn't say just 'MEGADETH,' they said ''Dystopia': MEGADETH.' We looked at each other like, 'Did we not win? Who's this 'D-word' they just mentioned?' Not realizing they said 'Dystopia'. That split second, the thoughts that race through your mind at the moment are incredible, then they start playing a METALLICA song. I wondered, 'Did Dave [Mustaine] hear that?' But he didn't care, we didn't care, it was just the obligatory heavy metal backing track. We came down and it was so funny, I was talking to Brian 'Head' Welch from KORN a few days before. I said, 'Hey, are you going to go to the Grammys?' He said, 'Yeah, I'll be there.' He said, 'By the way, it's okay if you win.' I thought, 'What a wonderful soul he is.' He was the first one to jump up out of his seat and run up and hug us, and congratulate us. [KORN bassist] Fieldy came up right after him, and [KORN drummer] Ray Luzier was right after. Those guys are so kind. We took them out on their first big tour. It's great they were there to high-five us and celebrate. Even later that night, Dan Donegan and David Draiman from DISTURBED who are on tour over in Germany, said 'Congratulations. We put it up on our Facebook congratulating you guys.' [MÖTLEY CRÜE and SIXX:A.M. bassist] Nikki Sixx hit me and Dave up and said 'Congratulations. Thank you for making the Grammys rock again.' The accolades from all of our friends from so many genres all around the world was just incredible."

MEGADETH recently completed a month-long U.S. tour with AMON AMARTH, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, METAL CHURCH and BUTCHER BABIES.

DISTURBED is hoping to enter the studio by early next year to begin recording the follow-up to 2015's "Immortalized". Speaking to a German media outlet on February 15 before DISTURBED's concert in Berlin, guitarist Dan Donegan stated about the band's plans for the coming months (see video below): "Once we're done [touring], I think everybody is gonna unwind a bit. We're all gonna get home and spend some time with our families. And we'll just let it come naturally."

He continued: "I have a bunch of ideas that I'll record on my phone or in the dressing room, and I'll just save some riff ideas and readdress them later at another time, once we're all in the right headspace for it. But anytime we've written, it always has to just come naturally, when we all feel that we're ready. There's never any pressure of saying, 'We have to start writing right now.' We don't like to put any kind of time frame on things."

DISTURBED brought its nearly four-year hiatus to a close with the August 2015 release of "Immortalized", the heavy rock quartet's sixth studio album overall and first of new material since "Asylum" in 2010. The effort became became DISTURBED's fifth album to enter The Billboard 200 chart at No. 1 — a feat shared only with METALLICA and DAVE MATTHEWS BAND. The band's success was bolstered by several chart-topping singles from "Immortalized", including its massive hit cover of SIMON & GARFUNKEL's classic "The Sound Of Silence".

"There is still a lot of excitement within the band because of the success of this album, because of us returning after a four-year break, and because of the fans' reaction, because of the success of 'The Sound Of Silence', so it's definitely got us in the mindset of still feeling pumped up," Dan said. "I definitely don't anticipate us taking a long break. But there might be a little bit of time — it won't be nothing like a four-year hiatus. I think hopefully by at least, if not this year, by early next year, hopefully, we'll be in the studio again."

"The Sound Of Silence" was certified platinum last June for sales or downloads of more than one million copies, while "Immortalized", DISTURBED's fifth No. 1 album in a row, hit gold in September for 500,000 copies sold.

Geoff Tate says that a reunion of QUEENSRŸCHE's classic lineup woud only happen if all the members of the band "really needed money."

In April 2014, Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE announced that a settlement had been reached after a nearly two-year legal battle where the singer sued over the rights to the QUEENSRŸCHE name after being fired in 2012. Original QUEENSRŸCHE members Michael Wilton (guitar), Scott Rockenfield (drums) and Eddie Jackson (bass) responded with a countersuit. The settlement included an agreement that Wilton, Rockenfield and Jackson would continue as QUEENSRŸCHE, while Tate would have the sole right to perform the albums "Operation: Mindcrime" and "Operation: Mindcrime II" in their entirety live.

Speaking to the syndicated radio show "Noize In The Attic", Tate was asked if he could envision himself one day playing with his former bandmates again. He said: "I suppose so. I suppose that if everybody got in a room… The only reason to get together is for the money. That's the only reason. So, if everybody really needed money and wanted to get together and bury the hatchet, so to speak, and sit in one room and say, [adopts faux tearful tone] 'Gosh, I'm really sorry I treated you that way.' You know, maybe then we could work toward some sort of resolution, but I haven't seen any attempt by anybody to do that, so I'm not holding out… holding my breath. [But] I'd never say never. I might get to a point where I really need the money. It's nice to have that little back-up plan. [Laughs]"

You can listen to the full Tate interview below.

Tate previously described his time in QUEENSRŸCHE as "a strange, strange sort of relationship." He told The Metal Gods Meltdown: "We weren't really friends, you know — we were business associates. We had a wonderful entity that we shared called QUEENSRŸCHE, but it wasn't an equal sort of partnership as far as involvement goes. You know, so there wasn't a real camaraderie amongst everybody in the band… From my perspective and my involvement, it wasn't an emotional sort of brotherhood kind of thing that some people might think existed. That wasn't my reality with them."

Tate's replacement, Todd La Torre, told Metal Wani last September that QUEENSRŸCHE is "sounding better than it did for over ten years" now that he is fronting the band. He added: "The fans have certainly voiced that opinion. That's my opinion, and that's a lot of opinions we hear every night. And the energy of the other members of the band is way healthier, way happier with [Geoff] gone and me in the band. And that's just the facts. There's no stifled creativity, and there's no kind of leader and followers, if you will, in the band. We all talk and try to make decisions the same, and it's very democratic. I'm never gonna tell Michael Wilton that his guitar riff is too heavy, for example, and that had happened in the past. The band is way happier, and I think that it's evident when you watch a live show — not [a clip on] YouTube, but really go to a show and feel what's happening and see what's happening. These guys are happy again and they feel like it's a rebirth of the band and that those dark clouds are well behind them."

QUEENSRŸCHE has released two albums thus far with the ex-CRIMSON GLORY frontman — 2013's "Queensrÿche" and 2015's "Condition Hüman".

Tonight's (Saturday, February 18) MARDUK concert at the Oakland Metro Operahouse in Oakland, California has been canceled amid security concerns. The venue released a statement from the local police on Friday explaining that "there are groups that believe MARDUK profits off glorifying Nazi imagery and songs about Nazi SS officers and anti-Semitism." Therefore, "based on the riot that occurred in Berkeley in regards to Milo Yiannopoulos [a British journalist, author and senior editor for Breitbart News, a far-right news and opinion web site] speaking at the University [Of California], it is reasonable to believe that there would be a threat to public safety if these groups showed up to protest MARDUK."

The Oakland Metro Operahouse also released its own statement saying that "in the last week, we have read interview after interview with MARDUK spanning over the last 20 years and found no statements indicating the band are white supremacists, nationalists, or anti-immigrant. That being said, we don't want to subject our security staff, venue staff or the public to violence. Our staff is almost exclusively POC and/or LBGTQ and they have all expressed the desire to work, but as we are getting threats, we just can't risk it. So, in the interest of safety, and because the Oakland Police Department would have insisted anyway, we have canceled the MARDUK performance on February 18."

The venue added: "The Oakland Police Department has decided in the interest of public safety that the MARDUK show on Saturday, February 18 at the Oakland Metro Operahouse be cancelled. Refunds at point of purchase. We apologize for the inconvenience."

Several days earlier, a small Facebook group called Anti-Fascist Action Bay Area which claims to "relay info about the struggle against fascism and white supremacy in the Bay Area," posted a message in which it called MARDUK "a black metal band with known white supremacist ties from Sweden that profits off of glorifying Nazi imagery and songs about Nazi SS officers and anti-semitism." It also claimed that MARDUK's latest album, "Frontschwein", was written "entirely about the Third Reich. The term 'Frontschwein' (meaning Frontline Pig) refers to the nickname given to Nazi field marshal Walther Model because he preferred to lead from the front and was known for his abuse and crudity." Furthermore, the group wrote, "One of MARDUK's album is called 'Panzer Division Marduk' (referring to the Nazi armored tank division in WWII)," while "another MARDUK album, 'Warschau' (the site of a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust), uses photos of Nazi tanks rolling through the rubble of Poland as cover and booklet artwork. The album sleeve of 'Iron Dawn' and album cover of 'Here's No Peace' also show pictures of Nazi tanks. The title on the cover of 'Here's No Peace' is arranged in such fashion as to resemble an honorific cuff band, a type of distinction badge which the German Wehrmacht allowed individuals who were serving (or had served) in some elite units (Grossdeutschland division, named Waffen-SS divisions) or who took part of renowned campaigns to wear (North African campaign, assault on Crete).

"MARDUK's entire discography is full of songs like 'The Hangman Of Prague', 'Night Of The Long Knives', 'Deathmarch', 'To The Death's Head True'...etc. The song 'The Hangman Of Prague' is about Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking SS officer and Holocaust architect ('The Hangman Of Prague' was a moniker of Reinhard Heydrich — second in command of the SS — in his capacity as the de-facto Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia). They also have a song called 'The Blonde Beast' which is also a reference to Reinhard Heydrich, the infamous Hangman of Prague. The term 'Blond Beast' is often implied as referring to the Aryan race stemming from the intentional misreading of Nietzsche instantiated by the Nazis. Their song 'Afrika' is about a high-ranking Nazi general Erwin Rommel aka 'the Desert Fox' who was in charge of the Afrika Korps."

Anti-Fascist Action Bay Area also pointed to an interview MARDUK founder and guitarist Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson gave in early 2014 in which he was asked to comment on the fact that Norwegian black metal musician Varg Vikernes was convicted of hate speech against Jews and Muslims in France in 2014. "It's strange that it's illegal to dislike a religion. I find it really strange that you can't have certain views," he reportedly said.

In a 2013 interview with Metal Blast, Håkansson spoke about the accusations of associations with national socialism which have been leveled at MARDUK. "I was not shocked because I'm not shocked by anything, but I was more surprised by the stupidity," he said. "It's strange that you can sing about certain historical topics but not about others. Some big magazines tried to boycott us and were sending faxes, back in those days, to promoters telling them avoid us, but that only made us stronger."

He added: "I'm fascinated by certain historical aspects and we will continue to write about them as long as it is inspiring to write lyrics about it, and if it's World War II, it's fine with me, and if somebody has a problem with it, they can fuck off. SLAYER, MOTÖRHEAD, they have done it before and I don't see a reason why not to do it."




Heads up: The Oakland Metro Operahouse has scheduled to host Marduk, a black metal band with known white supremacist...

Posted by Anti-Fascist Action Bay Area on Friday, February 10, 2017

Dann of the "Mike James Rock Show" conducted an interview with vocalist Anders Fridén of Swedish metallers IN FLAMES during the band's recent U.K. tour as the support act for DISTURBED and AVENGED SEVENFOLD. You can watch the full chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On opening for DISTURBED and AVENGED SEVENFOLD in the U.K.:

Anders: "They asked us. We said, 'Yes.' This is a good opportunity for us to play to bigger audiences. We released an album quite recently, for us to wait too long to get here, we didn't want to do that. They are two cool bands, good guys. It's been an easy tour. We've been taken care of."

On how crowds are reacting to the band's new "Battles" album:

Anders: "We only play two new songs. We want to ease them in. I think it's going to be a long cycle, so eventually I hope we're going to play all of the songs, not all at once. But yeah, it works really well. We are enjoying them, at least. I feel when we write music, we really think how the songs will sound live."

On the band's "progression":

Anders: "We've had a long career. We never want to stand still. We want to move forward all the time. We don't sound exactly the same as we did in the early days, but we still have the same mentality. It's still about melodies, really. We're still a melodic metal band, it's just shaped in slightly different ways. Today, we can do melodies on vocals, guitars, keyboards, and so on, and in the early days, it was mainly guitars, and me screaming on top of it."

On his development as a singer:

Anders: "That's all I knew. I think I even had some sense of melody in my screaming anyway. It wasn't this death-metal-growl type of singing. It did fit our guitars, the way we wanted to have the guitars in the early days. It's really different when you play live versus the studio. Live, I tend to scream more, but it's because I have an audience in front of me that gives me that energy and brings it out. When you're in the studio, you have a microphone. It doesn't give you the same energy. Therefore, it's slightly different. I always listen to the music first, then do my part on top like it's finishing the painting. Sometimes screaming works really well, sometimes a singing type of voice is better for the song. I still like to scream my ass off."

On how much IN FLAMES will dip into their classic back catalog when playing live:

Anders: "We play more songs from the [recent] material, but we do go back, both to 'The Jester Race', 'Whoracle' and 'Colony' here and there, but it's usually just a song. When we do those songs, it feels really good. Sometimes they're the best that night. It really depends on your mood or the reaction of the audience and so on. It was a long time ago since we played something from [the band's 1994 debut] 'Lunar Strain'."

On whether there are any older songs he'd like to play live:

Anders: "'The Jester Race', since that was the first IN FLAMES [album] for me, it always plays a big part for me. Then again, I like to play newer stuff because it's new. [Laughs] It's something that feels a bit fresher, but as I said, some nights, that song from that album, the earlier albums, they are the best that night. Unfortunately, on this tour, we only have a little bit of time, so we don't go too far back into our catalog."

On whether IN FLAMES will ever do an "anniversary tour" and play one of their albums in full:

Anders: "No, because everyone else is doing it. I love where we come from. I love the days of what we had. It's not like I'm going to go back and celebrate it. It's more like 'Last year was 20 years since 'The Jester Race', cheers, and we'll continue.' Maybe one day, who knows? We have fans that tend to feel, I shouldn't say 'think,' they feel 'The Jester Race', 'Colony' and 'Whoracle', that's 'their' period, that's when they found IN FLAMES and that's what they like. Back then, we were not that big, we were doing smaller tours. In later years, we've got to reach out to wider audiences that maybe heard 'Come Clarity' first, or 'Soundtrack [To Your Escape]' first, or something else. Even with 'Siren Charms' and now 'Battles', we get new people in. We try to play for everyone, not a selective audience. We try to give them a little bit of everything."

"Battles", IN FLAMES' twelfth studio album, was released on November 11 via Nuclear Blast/b> in all territories excluding North America and Scandinavia and Eleven Seven Music Group in the U.S.

Meltdown of the WRIF radio station in Detroit, Michigan recently conducted an interview with METALLICA bassist Robert Trujillo. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below.

Speaking about METALLICA's upcoming tour in support of the band's latest album, 2016's "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct", Trujillo said: "We're doing what we've been doing. We're celebrating the energy of the new music and working up the new songs, seeing what works.

"It's an exciting time. We feel there's great momentum. This album has been embraced by the world. We didn't expect… I mean, we love that to happen; I don't know that we expected all this. And it's something that is always exciting for us.

"We enjoy playing small shows, big shows, whatever. There's the energy of the visual production, and all that stuff starts to happen, so when you see it come to life, it's pretty exciting.

"We're gonna go to some really great places on this trip. Last tour, we went to Antarctica. And hopefully we'll get to the Moon this time. [Laughs] I don't know."

METALLICA made history when it became the first and only band to perform a concert on all seven of Earth's continents after entertaining 120 scientists and competition winners at Carlini Station in Antarctica on December 8, 2013. The hour-long show, appropriately dubbed "Freeze 'Em All", saw the rock band perform ten tracks. With a Hall Of Fame-caliber career spanning more than three decades, the band earned a spot in the 60th-anniversary edition of the "Guinness World Records" book after a whirlwind year in 2013 performing concerts in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and Antarctica.

The North American leg of METALLICA's "WorldWired" 2017 tour kicks off on May 10 in Baltimore, Maryland and will hit stadiums in 25 cities before winding down in mid-August. Support on the quartet's first North American trek since 2009 will come mainly from AVENGED SEVENFOLD and VOLBEAT, with GOJIRA taking over for the latter group for the last six shows.

Each ticket purchased for the tour will come with a copy of METALLICA's new album, "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct", available as a physical CD or a digital download. Various VIP packages are up for sale as well.

METALLICA has also announced the formation of its All Within My Hands Foundation, which will raise funds through ticket sales to support national, local and Bay Area charities selected by the band members, while continuing to donate to music education programs and local food banks.

Interview (audio):

The third trailer for "Rammstein: Paris", the new documentary from German industrial metallers RAMMSTEIN, is available below.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Rammstein: Paris" will screen in around 350 cinemas internationally, including in the U.S., on March 23. The film was shot in March 2012 at the then-named Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris (now AccorHotels Arena) during RAMMSTEIN's "Made In Germany" tour, and was helmed by the band's longtime collaborator, Swedish director Jonas Åkerlund.

"Rammstein: Paris" has been picked up for worldwide rights (excluding Germany, Austria and Switzerland) by Picturehouse Entertainment, the distribution arm of the U.K.'s Picturehouse Cinemas chain.

"Concert films are always a big challenge," said Åkerlund, who has also worked with METALLICA, SATYRICON, MADONNA and THE PRODIGY, among others. "I compare it to shooting fireworks. The way I approach it is to try to translate the energy that you get in the room onto film, using every trick in the book to make as much of an impression as I can on the audience."

"Rammstein: Paris" was shot over two nights, using 30 cameras.

"That gives you a massive amount of footage," Åkerlund added."This is a two-hour-twenty-minute show, and I take the footage and cut it with the same precision that I would a three- or four-minute music video. Even with a big crew of editors, it took us over a year to nail down the edit."

RAMMSTEIN last year played a number of concerts where the band opened each show with a brand new song, presently only known as "Ramm 4". The track contains lyrics that seem to be a combination of various titles of previous RAMMSTEIN songs.

RAMMSTEIN in 2015 released a 21st-anniversary box set, a numbered, career-wide collection titled "XXI". The set included the band's six studio albums, produced by Jacob Hellner and remastered onto 180-gram heavyweight double vinyl by Svante Forsbäck, as well as a separate rarities double LP, "Raritäten", including a previously unreleased version of the track "Los".

RAMMSTEIN hasn't made a new CD since 2009's "Liebe Ist Für Alle Da".

The band's frontman Till Lindemann in 2015 released a debut album with his side project LINDEMANN.

RAMMSTEIN guitarist Richard Z. Kruspe's EMIGRATE project issued its sophomore album, "Silent So Long", in November 2014 via Spinefarm.

Dutch symphonic metallers EPICA kicked off 2017 with their most successful European tour to date. Along with POWERWOLF and BEYOND THE BLACK, EPICA played to thousands of fans every night and ended the tour with their biggest show so far: a sold-out concert at Zenith in Paris, France where the band performed in front of nearly five thousand fans.

Commented EPICA keyboardist Coen Janssen: "We had the most amazing time on our 'European Principle' run. Together with our new friends from POWERWOLF and BEYOND THE BLACK, we played the biggest venues — in front of the craziest crowds — ever!! You gave all the energy you got every night and that radiated onto the band, for sure! Fortunately, we shot some very cool images of a few of those nights, crafted into another awesome after-movie for you and us to relive this EPIC tour!"

On this tour, EPICA was joined by the video production team Panda Productions, which made a tour after-movie over multiple shows. You can now check out this stunning video below.

Later this month, the band will hit the road again and will perform full headline shows in Russia, Scandinavia, Finland, Asia and Latin America.

EPICA's latest album, "The Holographic Principle", was released on September 30, 2015 via Nuclear Blast.

EPICA singer Simone Simons recently told Metal-Rules.com about the lyrical themes covered on "The Holographic Principle": "It isn't a concept CD as the story is not in a chronological order of events from beginning to the end. Some songs deviate from the idea.

"'The Holographic Principle' is, basically, that we are living in a hologram. With the new technology and virtual reality glasses we realize reality is generated so perfectly that you can no longer tell the difference, so can reality also be a hologram?"

Simone also talked about the production on "The Holographic Principle" and how important it is get the right sound when it comes to symphonic metal. She said: "I think the sonics would be equally important to any band, not just a symphonic metal band like us. Every band wants to songs to sound the best they possibly can on the CD. That is why you have to record parts a million times in order for them to come as perfect as possible.

"When it came time for recording my vocals, our producer said that he doesn't want to overdo it as we don't want to lose the emotion in my vocals. That is something you cannot fix in editing.

"Overall, production-wise, we went bigger, because we recorded with more instruments as we had a good budget to finance it. We were in the studio for about five months recording. The writing took about a year; we had 27 songs to choose from when we were done. Then we had to narrow it down to 18 songs, which we recorded and mixed. Twelve went to the CD and the remaining six are in the corner waiting patiently to be released."

Former FLYLEAF singer Lacey Sturm recently took part in an interview and acoustic performance at the studios of the 95 WIIL Rock radio station in Kenosha, Wisconsin. You can now watch video footage of her appearance below.

Sturm's debut solo album, "Life Screams", was released in February 2016 via Followspot Records with The Fuel Music distribution.

Writing alone, as well as with husband/guitarist Josh Sturm, SKILLET's Korey Cooper and Grammy Award-winning writer and producer David Hodges, Lacey created a record that is the sonic successor to FLYLEAF's celebrated self-titled debut (which spent a staggering 133 weeks on The Billboard 200 chart).

When she's not onstage or in the studio, Sturm leads a busy post-FLYLEAF life as an author, motivational speaker and happily married mother of two.

Lacey has earned legions of fans worldwide not only through her astoundingly emotive voice and chart-topping songwriting, but also for the sheer sincerity of the uplifting messages pervading her work. Whether fronting FLYLEAF or now as a solo artist, she remains uncommonly true to herself while inspiring others to strive for better ways to live and love. "In the beginning, FLYLEAF really centered around my story and vision," Lacey explained. "This new project continues that narrative in a cohesive way."

FLYLEAF recruited singer Kristen May as Sturm's replacement and released its fourth album, "Between The Stars", in September 2014. May has since left the group.

On February 12, French daily current affairs show "Quotidien", which is broadcast on the TMC channel (part of prominent media group TF1), spent a day with GOJIRA when the band was in Los Angeles to attend this year's Grammy Awards. The group was nominated in two categories at the event: "Best Metal Performance" for the song "Silvera", and "Best Rock Album" for "Magma".

You can now watch the "Quotidien" report below (with French subtitles).

GOJIRA frontman Joseph Duplantier told the AFP news agency about being nominated for a Grammy: "We started playing pretty intense thrash and death metal and I've been mostly growling for the last twenty years, so I wasn't expecting any kind of award. I never even thought of the concept of being nominated for the Grammys."

He added that the Grammy nods would not affect GOJIRA's musical and lyrical approach on the eventual follow-up to "Magma", which was a more commercially viable effort than the band's previous releases.

"We're super excited and surprised, but it's not like God telling you you're good and the others are not good," he said. "It's the Grammys."

METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett recently praised GOJIRA, saying that they were "the best thing I've heard in a long time. I love their new album," he said. "I think it's an incredible piece of art. It's heavy, it's vibey, it's moody. It has all the things you want to hear — great complex rhythms, great drumming, great riffs, great songs."

"Magma" was released last June via Roadrunner Records. The follow-up to 2012's "L'Enfant Sauvage" was recorded at Joseph's Silver Cord Studio in Queens, New York.

Asked what the title of GOJIRA's new album, "Magma", means to him, Joseph told Kerrang!: "To me, 'magma' is the primal energy. It's the blood of the earth. It's hot. It's dangerous. It is the guts. It's this music. It's the music we play. It's fusion. It's fire. It's electricity. It's… everything that we're trying to express with this music. That's what it means to me, 'magma.'"

Joseph also talked about how he comes up with all those heavy GOJIRA riffs. He said: "I don't know if we have a formula or a secret to write some of our riffs. But I wanna say that we connect ourselves to a certain energy, we put ourselves in a certain state of mind naturally. The kind of music we wanna hear, the kind of riffs we wanna hear are intricate and heavy and spiritual and there's a part of mystery in it. So we put ourselves in this kind of state of mind. But, really, we have visions when we play. When I've got my guitar, I'm already in a certain mood, and then everything that comes out will be in that specific mood. Yeah, I guess we're really connected to all… everything that's nature… Ideas like infinity, outer space, black holes [are] very inspiring for heavy riffs."

Photo courtesy of GOJIRA's Facebook page

After Dutch symphonic metallers STREAM OF PASSION ended their eleven-year career in late 2016 with one final show, guitar player Eric Hazebroek decided to transform his plans for a possible solo album into a full-blown band. Together with Marjan Welman (vocals; also of AUTUMN), Douwe De Wilde (bass; ex-THE SATURNINE), and Jim Van De Kerkhof (drums; ex-ALL FOR NOTHING), he formed the melancholic metal band VETRAR DRAUGURINN.

VETRAR DRAUGURINN is the vehicle of Hazebroek's songwriting. On March 30, the band will release a four-song EP, titled "I", as a form of introduction. The material showcases the diversity and melancholy of the band, featuring everything from heavy, doomy and eight-string-guitar-driven tracks to fragile and delicate sorrow-drenched atmospheric songs.

VETRAR DRAUGURINN already has a full-length worth of material ready to go and hopes to be able to release its debut album at the end of 2017 or in early 2018.

A teaser video for one of the EP tracks, "Mother Of Northern Skies", can be seen below.

The EP can be pre-ordered at this location.

After a seven year hiatus, Labÿrinth, the legendary Italian Metal band, will return with a brand new studio album, Architecture Of A God on April 21st.

In the spring of 2016, the band’s founding members, Andrea Cantarelli and Olaf Thorsen received a call from Frontiers asking them to discuss with vocalist Roberto Tiranti the possibilities of a reunion with a return to their classic sound to mount a comeback for the band. After much discussion, the guys agreed to make an album and also to make a very special appearance at the the first annual Frontiers Metal Festival, where they performed their signature album, Return To Heaven Denied, in it’s entirety [said performance is being prepared for a future home video release.]

Olaf says: “This has been easily the most difficult and challenging album I ever worked on. To be honest, when Frontiers contacted me, insisting to make this reunion happen, I was skeptical and worried. We couldn't simply make a new album, it wouldn't have been honest to the fans, to ourselves. Of course, this is as easy to say as also unbelievably tough to make real: we have so many good albums out there, looking at us from their past and which people still keep in their minds and hearts. That's why we decided to strengthen our line-up, joining with nobody else but the best musicians we believed they would have fitted perfectly into our perspective of the music we were about to write.”

Andrea adds: “The making of this album has been a fantastic journey. We brought back a lot of classic elements of our music, mixing it with something new and I'm so enthusiastic about the final result.”

Roberto Tiranti makes it short: “Just when you thought you already gave everything you could, expressing every possible musical aspect of your way of intending music for a band like Labÿrinth, then comes Architecture Of A God, to remind you that nothing is impossible!”

With a new lineup rounded out by drummer extraordinaire John Macaluso (TNT, Riot, Ark etc.), Oleg Smirnoff (Vision Divine, Edritch) on keyboards, and Nik Mazzucconi on bass, Labÿrinth are truly coming back stronger than ever and have offered up a superb self-produced album. Architecture Of A God (mixed by DGM’s Simone Mularoni) is a record that encompasses all the elements the band is known for: fast power metal songs with unforgettable hooks, epic prog infused metal songs, and some great melodic numbers that compose a record which is easily going to be another milestone for the Italian metal masters!

“What we have in our hands, now, it's Architecture Of A God: by far, the most mature and complete album we ever wrote,” concludes Thorsen. “There's no will to challenge our glorious past, but I'm really confident that, once released, this album will set a new standard for our music!”

Architecture Of A God tracklisting:

“Bullets”
“Still Alive”
“Take On My Legacy”
“A New Dream”
“Someone Says”
“Random Logic”
“Architecture Of A God”
“Children”
“Those Days”
“We Belong To Yesterday”
“Stardust And Ashes”
“Diamond”

Labÿrinth lineup:

Roberto Tiranti - lead vocals
Olaf Thorsen - lead guitars
Andrea Cantarelli - lead guitars
Nik Mazzucconi - bass guitar
Oleg Smirnoff - keyboards
John Macaluso - drums

Helix has released another vintage video this time from 1990 on the Ian Gillan European tour. This video features then new guitar player Denny Blake.

Says the band, “When we finished recording Back For Another Taste in 1989 at River Studios in Fort Erie, Ontario, we then had to take it on tour. Longtime Helix guitarist Brent Doerner, who had been in the band since 1976 had left the band just after Wild In The Streets touring ended, and his shoes were big ones left to fill...Enter Denny Blake, the first and only American member of the band. We had met Denny when we toured with his band Maniacs a few years before through the eastern U.S. He turned out to be a great addition to the band with his keen sense of humor and his superior playing abilities. Eventually the touring for Back For Another Taste ended and Denny returned to the U.S., where he joined a Broadway musical featuring Billy Joel songs.

Rare video footage of Helix performing “Good To The Last Drop” in 1993 is available for streaming below.

Says leader Brian Vollmer: “This video was shot at our show in Kitchener, Ontario in 1993 at a club called Stages. On guitars are Mark Chichkan (SL) and Greg Fraser (SR). Dary is on bass, Fritz on drums, I'm singing. The song is “Good To The Last Drop”, a tune I wrote with Mark Ribler in Brooklyn, New York around 1989. The song eventually ended up on the Back For Another Taste album and became a big hit for us in Canada. I believe Phil Kates did the video for this song.”

US/Irish hard rockers Black Star Riders finally released their third album Heavy Fire on February 3rd via Nuclear Blast. This new masterpiece directly entered the charts worldwide and got the best chart results ever in the history of the Black Star Riders.
 
The band states: "We owe a massive 'thank you' to the Black Star Riders fans around the world for making this happen. Heavy Fire is a powerful expression for us and we look forward to taking it on the road for all of 2017 and beyond!"

Chart positions:
#6 UK
#11 Germany
#60 Ireland
#91 Top Current Albums US

2016 saw Black Star Riders return to the studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, The Foo Fighters, Mastodon), at his studio just outside Nashville. The resultant album is Black Star Riders most accomplished work to date. From the immediate riffs of album opener “Heavy Fire” to the instant hooks of first single “When The Night Comes In”, from the dirty bass groove of “Thinking About You Could Get Me Killed” to the familiar and trademark dual guitars of Gorham and Johnson on “Testify Or Say Goodbye”, this is an album that will further cement BSR’s reputation as one of the world premiere rock acts.

"Angst, passion, power, glory, love, truth, lies, loyalty, questions that begged to be answered. There's a guitar army coming…and it's bringing the Heavy Fire.” – Ricky Warwick (vocals)

"Not many new bands get to record three albums these days. Without doubt this is BSR'S best album so far. We had a great time recording it and can't wait to play the new songs live on tour in March." – Scott Gorham (guitars)

Following on from their critically acclaimed albums All Hell Breaks Loose and The Killer Instinct, which have paved the way for Black Star Riders to be recognized as a power force in the modern day of rock n’ roll, Heavy Fire will be once again released by Nuclear Blast Entertainment. The band have also brought in Pledgemusic, one of the most innovative and successful platforms of the modern music world, to give fans extra special product and experiences to go along with the album’s release.

Formats: Limited Edition Digibook CD (including bonus track), CD, Vinyl, Vinyl Picture Disc, Digital Album

Mail order: Limited Orange & Clear Vinyl (Order)

Tracklisting:

“Heavy Fire”
“When The Night Comes In”
“Dancing With The Wrong Girl”
“Who Rides The Tiger”
“Cold War Love”
“Testify Or Say Goodbye”
“Thinking About You Could Get Me Killed”
“True Blue Kid”
“Ticket To Rise”
“Letting Go Of Me”

The Limited Edition Digibook CD will include the above tracklisting plus the bonus track “Fade”.

“Testify Or Say Goodbye” video:

“When The Night Comes In” lyric video:

Trailers:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Norwegian black metal documentary "Blackhearts" will be released on DVD, digital and VOD on April 11 via Soundview Media Partners.

"Blackhearts" is a documentary that tells the compelling story of three die-hard fans of black metal. The hard rock sub-genre gained worldwide notoriety because of its links to Satanism, church burnings, and murders 25 years ago in Norway.

We follow Sina from Iran, Hector from Colombia and Kaiadas from Greece on their journey to Norway — the Mecca of the music that has formed their lives. What makes someone risk their life, get thrown in jail or sell their soul to Satan to make this dream come true?

Sina is the only active black metal artist in Iran, and faces a potentially life-threatening situation if he chooses to follow his dream and travel to Norway. Hector is a devoted Satanist and organizes a satanic ritual to sell his soul to the Devil in order to help his visa application. Kaiadas represents the extreme right-wing party Golden Dawn in the Greek Parliament by day, and is the frontman of the black metallers in NAER MATARON by night. He faces up to 20 years in prison after being arrested for association with a criminal organization.

Many films have documented the history and development of black metal, but "Blackhearts" looks at this infamous genre from a fresh new angle. The film recounts three very different personal stories of dedication, ambition and expectations following the journey of the main characters.

"Blackhearts" was awarded "Best International Documentary" at the Sound On Screen Film Festival 2016, and has been given much praise for its unconventional and observational approach to its subject matter. This is an unfiltered view behind the veil of imagery and myth that surrounds this genre. The scenes are at times funny and surprising, and at other times surreal and disturbing. They show the extent to which humans are willing to go in pursuit of what they believe in.

The film was awarded the Grand Jury Honorable Mention at Nordic/Docs 2016 in Fredrikstad, Norway, and also received favorable feedback after screening at IFFR - International Film Festival Rotterdam, Nordisk Panorama, Buffalo International Film Festival, Kosmorama International Film Festival, CIMMfest and Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre, just to name a few.

Bonus Materials

* "White Metal Ministry", a short documentary on Christian black metal (17 minutes)* Colombian Satanic Ritual (extended scene) (26 minutes)- "He Fought With A Bear And Lost", interview with Nocturno Culto of DARKTHRONE (9 minutes)* "It's About Looking Good On Stage", an interview with Obsidian C of KEEP OF KALESSIN (7 minutes)* Music Video: FROM THE VASTLAND - "Blackhearts" (6 minutes)* Music Video: KHONSU - "Visions Of Nehaya" (3 minutes)

To order the DVD, visit the MVD Shop or Amazon.

Fan-filmed video footage of DREAM THEATER's February 17 performance at Partille Arena in Partille, Sweden can be seen below.

DREAM THEATER is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its milestone RIAA-gold-certified album "Images And Words" on a European tour, which kicked off on January 30 in Rome, Italy. Each performance sees the iconic progressive rock band delivering an unparalleled live set of "Images And Words" in its entirety along with fan favorites from their renowned catalogue.

Asked if he had any idea — prior to the "Images And Words" release — of the success the album would eventually become, DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci told Metal Insider: "Not at all. The whole situation was very uncertain. We had put out our first album, 'When Day And Dream Unite', and we didn't do any touring or anything for that. We did some press. People seemed to like it but it just ended. We decided to switch lead singers, and we went on this very long singer hunt for like a year and a half. We weren't really crazy about the label, so we were singerless, labelless, and holding jobs down teaching guitar and doing other things. We started to wonder if we would have an opportunity to do this again as a band. When Derek Oliver from Atco expressed interest, the very first thing they did was more of a development deal. We recorded a few songs from 'Images And Words' as a demo. By the time we went to actually do the album and got James [LaBrie] as a singer, we were just ecstatic to be able to do it again. We didn't even think it was going to amount to anything, we were just incredibly grateful to be back in the studio."

Regarding how DREAM THEATER approached "Images And Words" as opposed to "When Day And Dream Unite", Petrucci said: "With 'When Day And Dream Unite', we were really young and we had just got signed, we had a very short period of time to record it. We went as a band to live together in Pennsylvania and then we would go in and record. We really didn't have any experience. 'Images' was a bit later and we had more experience, some more gear, and some more ideas about what we wanted to do. The studio we were in was beautiful. It felt like we had more time to do it. Things like that. It was still a situation where we had a producer (David Prater) who was directing the whole ship, but yeah. The experience was very wide-eyed and exciting, and it was like a whirlwind. 'Images' was more of a conscious experience when we had more time and were a little bit more grounded at that point."

Petrucci also talked about DREAM THEATER's biggest hit to date, "Pull Me Under", which was included on "Images And Words". Asked if he ever thought the song would get played on the radio or that it would have MTV success, Petrucci said: "No, we didn't think that way at all. We were into writing progressive metal. We were all big fans of YES and RUSH, but we also liked METALLICA and other bands. We came out with this stuff that didn't have the normal pop structure, the songs were long. 'Pull Me Under' was at least eight minutes. Originally, 'A Change Of Seasons' was supposed to be on 'Images', but the label voted against that. The whole nature of the album wasn't really geared towards commercial standards. After we went on tour, that song started to gain legs from requests. We had no idea what was happening. We had to quickly film a video on tour at a club because we didn't have a video and it just grew from there. It was unintentional."

DREAM THEATER recently completed the second leg of its extensive North American headline tour which found the group performing its widely acclaimed double concept album "The Astonishing" in immersive and interactive settings for a unique and unmatched live experience.

Finland's Ember Falls released a video for the track "Rising Tide" to coincide with the release of their new album on February 17th. Check it out below.

 

Former Amaranthe vocalist Jake E. recently checked in with the following update:

"In the beginning of 2017 the young and up and coming Finnish band Ember Falls will release their debut album through Spinefarm/Universal Music. I had the honor and the great privilege to produce the album as well co-write a lot of the songs. The album was mixed by no other then the Danish master producer Jacob Hansen (Volbeat, Amaranthe, Epica), and it was fun to work side by side with him once again, but in a completely different role this time."

The album tracklist is as follows:

"The Cost of Doing Business"
"Falling Rain"
"Of Letting Go"
"The Enemy You Need"
"Freedom"
"COE"
"Rising Tide"
"Open Your Eyes"
"One More Time"
"Shut Down with Me"
"The Lamb Lies Down in Sacrifice"

Righteous Vendetta have revealed another track off their upcoming full-length record, Cursed. The new song, "War Is Killing Us All" can be heard below. The preorder for Cursed is available now at Indie Merch, iTunes, and the Amazon widget below. Cursed is set for release March 17th via Century Media Records.

Speaking on the creative journey behind the making of Cursed, the band states:

"After two years of writing and recording we are beyond excited to finally release this album with Century Media. For anyone that follows us, they know this has been a long process. But patience has paid off, because we feel that we have crafted the best album we possibly can."

“We challenged ourselves and pushed our creative limits,” states frontman Ryan Hayes. From the riffy hard rock bludgeon of opening track, “War Is Killing Us All” to the radio-ready hook-fest of “Weight Of The World”, Cursed is the sound of a band moving from strength to strength. “We wrote 30, 40 songs and really figured out who we are in the process.” Add to that a non-stop itinerary of live shows where the energized five-piece ensnare new fans and followers, Righteous Vendetta are burning rubber on their way to contender status.

In addition to their upcoming record, Righteous Vendetta will hit the road next month on a US tour building up the release of Cursed. In anticipation of these dates, members of the band state:

"Along with the release of our new album we are announcing a bunch of tour dates. We are excited to get back on a heavy touring schedule and return to some of our favorite cities!"

"Weight Of The World":

Teaser:

   

Excalibur, the legendary Spanish heavy metal band formed back in 1984, have signed a deal with Fighter Records for the release of their third album, titled Humo Negro ("Black Smoke"), coming later this spring.

After a couple of demos in '84 and '87, Excalibur released their debut album in '88 under the title of Generación Maldita ("Damned Generation"), which has the honor of being the heavy metal record with the highest selling price in Spain - no more and no less than 1600 Euros! Bad luck followed this record: only 100 copies were saved from destruction, which means it's one of the most sought-after treasures of Spanish heavy metal/rock.

In 1996, Excalibur recorded their second album, Cero, which was never commercialized, remaining unreleased still today. In 2013, the band returned with a new EP, Más Duros ("Harder"). Now in 2017, Excalibur has finished what will be their third full-length album, Humo Negro, where they represent the purest and most traditional Spanish heavy metal/hard rock, and will be released, promoted, and distributed both nationally and internationally by Fighter Records, the new division of Xtreem Music devoted to traditional metal sounds.

Soon, Fighter Records will reveal more details about Humo Negro, as well as its release date.

Finland-based melodic rock band, The Nights, have released a teaser video for their upcoming debut album.

Says the band: "Well, here you go. Finally. First soundbytes from our upcoming album. Enjoy! We know it's only a teaser but stay tuned. More exciting info about our near future coming next week."

The Nights was formed in the summer of 2015 by Sami Hyde (vocals) and Ilkka Wirtanen (guitar). Both Sami and Ilkka have successful careers in music, in Finland and abroad.

Sami has been a singer for many acts and projects, including the Tony Mills Band (Shy, TNT) in 2008 which also included Geoff Nichols (Black Sabbath) on keyboards and Neil Hibbs (Shy) on guitar. He has also written songs for many artists, including The Magnificent ("If It Takes All Night", "Lost", and "Drive").

Ilkka Wirtanen is best known for his work as a producer with international acts like glam metal band Reckless Love, for whom he has produced four albums and co-written many of their popular songs, including "Hot" and "Night On Fire". He has also produced several other rock bands (Baton Rogue Morgue, Hellcity Punks) and worked as a mixer for international acts (S.E.X. Department).

The Nights was formed because Sami and Ilkka felt a common need to write songs that “make you feel good and also give tribute to our everlasting heroes in music, for example TNT and Yngwie Malmsteen.” Frontiers interest was piqued by their songs featuring a superb mixture of classic pop melodies and modern melodic rock/metal production and the band was signed.

DEZPERADOZ will release their new album "Call of the Wild" on 05.05.2017 via Drakkar, cover artwork and track list available.

"Call of the Wild":
01. W.H. Bonney
02. Hell & Back
03. Call Of The Wild
04. Silver City Shuffle
05. 600 Miles (The Escape)
06. All The Long Way Home
07. Bullets N' Bones (The House)
08. Lincoln County War (The Regulators)
09. Mexican Standoff (Interlude)
10. Thirty Silver Dollars
11. Back In The Saddle (Hello Bob)
12. Fandango
13. Smile As My Last Day Ends

Minneapolis, MN-based technical death metallists, Reaping Asmodeia, are streaming the song “Irreversible Evolution” (listen below), featured on the band’s new album,  Impuritize, which will be released on February 24th via Prosthetic Records.

The new track, along with two previous singles ("Defenestration" and "Of Talons And Teeth"), can be instantly downloaded with any digital pre-order of Impuritize from Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon or Google Play. CD pre-orders can also be purchased at this location.

The band are also excited to share the latest episode of their documentary series, RA Confidential, as they debut episode #3, Origins. Check out the story on how the band was formed in the below video. Previous episodes are also available.

Mixed and mastered by Zach Ohren (Fallujah, First Fragment), Impuritize combines sheer brutality with meticulous technicality to craft one of the finest extreme death metal albums of the year.

The album's artwork was created by Eddie Danger of Unlimited Visual (Born Of Osiris) and can be viewed below.

Tracklisting:

“The Clemency Guise”
“Defenestration”
“Of Talons And Teeth”
“Hidebound”
“Carnal Declivity”
“Irreversible Evolution”
“Virulent Exposure”
“Collage Of Toxins”
“Ritual Of Ignorance”

“Irreversible Evolution”:

Impuritize by Reaping Asmodeia

“Defenestration” lyric video:

“Of Talons And Teeth” video:

Teaser:

R.A. Confidential Part 1:

R.A. Confidential Part 2:

R.A. Confidential Part 3:

Coinciding with the new album release on February 24th, the band will play a hometown record release show at Beaners in Duluth, Minn. before venturing across the US on a headlining jaunt throughout March. Full dates can be found in the below admat:

Reaping Asmodeia linup:

Steven Lane -Vocals
Alex Kelly - Guitar
Daniel Koppy - Drums
Roman Pinter - Bass

On March 10th, American musician Nick Douglas will release his second solo album, entitled Regenerations, in North America via Metalville Records.

Most noted for his work with the Doro Pesch for the past 25 years, Douglas has recorded several albums with Doro and has backed her on stages across the globe. Throughout the years, Douglas has also lent his talents to tours and recorded works with Blaze Bayley and Chris Caffery.

Regenerations was recorded and produced mostly at Douglas’ own studio and he performed nearly all instrumentation himself. The result is a contemporary rock album featuring eleven catchy tracks with real hit potential.

Douglas says, “The songs on Regenerations were written over the course of about 15 years. I've learned and changed so much through this time and the lyrics reflect that. That's how the name of the album came about. Letting go of old ways and growing into something new.”

Tracklisting:

“Come Alive”
“All On Me”
“Before You Break” (feat. Sharlotte Gibson)
“I Need Real”
“Didn't We Try”
“My Lucky Day”
“Uncomfortable”
“The Soul You Keep”
“Blackwood”
“You Break”
“Blue” (feat. Rebecca Gowarty)

Nick Douglas is an American musician, best known for being the bass player in the band of Doro Pesch for more than 25 years. At the age of 19, he became a member of the heavy metal band Deadly Blessing from Turnersville, New Jersey, with which he wrote and recorded songs for their first album, titled Ascend from the Cauldron, on New Renaissance Records in 1988.

In late 1989, he decided to leave the band and moved to New York City. In the summer of 1990, Douglas auditioned for the German hard rock singer Doro Pesch and was chosen among many candidates. Douglas has been the bassist of Doro's band since then and recorded several albums with her, touring often in Europe as well as rest of the world.

Nick Douglas has also worked with Blaze Bayley's band Blaze for the tours of 2004 and 2005. In 2005, he also played bass for Chris Caffery on his Faces tour and at the end of the same year he participated in a reunion of Deadly Blessing for some live performances and the release of an album containing rare and previously unreleased material.

In 2007, Douglas played bass on one track on Chris Caffery’s third solo album Pins And Needles, afterwards going on tour with both Caffery and Doro. He also started making plans to release a new solo CD, to which he devoted time to in the breaks between touring.

Regenerations was recorded and produced mostly at Nick’s own studio. Nick also played nearly all instruments by himself. The result is a contemporary rock album featuring 11 catchy tracks with real hit potential. The songs were written over a 15 year period. And now Nick thought it was the right time to record them all for a solo album.

New Jersey metal act, Fit For An Autopsy, have debuted the new track, “Iron Moon”, featured on their upcoming new album, The Great Collapse. The song is available for streaming below.

“The Great Collapse is a reflection on the current chaotic state of mankind’s relationship with the world, and it’s effect both outward and inward,” says founding guitarist/producer Will Putney. “It’s a dark and unsettling record that encapsulates a variety of approaches to aggressive music, and a definite expansion of our capabilities as a band.”

The Great Collapse will be the the band's fourth full length record, continuing the momentum gained from a solid 200+ days of worldwide touring backing the buzz-worthy release of Absolute Hope Absolute Hell in late 2015, as well The Depression Sessions, a split release with The Acacia Strain and Thy Art Is Murder in 2016. “It’s going to be the strongest record in our catalog. The overall mood and atmosphere of this album feels fully realized and emotionally stirring.”

The Great Collapse is set to release on March 17th via Entertainment One (eOne) / Good Fight Music in North America, Long Branch Records in Europe, and SPV overseas. Artist Adam Burke was tapped to create the visually stunning cover art seen below.

Tracklisting:

“Hydra”
“Heads Will Hang”
“Black Mammoth”
“Terraform”
“Iron Moon”
“When The Bulbs Burn Out”
“Too Late”
“Empty Still”
“Spiral”

“Iron Moon”:

“Heads Will Hang” video:

The crushing music of Fit For An Autopsy is for any fan of extreme metal, as it’s devoid of preachy politics or grandstanding soapboxing, but its sound and fury is absolutely unflinching in purpose. The band expertly blends excessive-force fueled death metal with atmospheric groove and impassioned personal diatribes, reflecting back the dark state of current events. Their fourth album, The Great Collapse, doesn’t waste time with fantasy bullshit or cliché gore horror. Fit For An Autopsy are metal guys, to be certain, but they grew up in the hardcore scene. They embrace the responsibility to put as much devoted purpose into their lyrics and message as they do into their dense, heady, songs, forging a magnificently powerful new post-deathcore.

“When I write a song, I’m trying to feel emotionally connected to it. I really don’t like saying things that don’t matter over music that I want to matter,” says Putney, guitarist, principal songwriter and cofounder. “We’ve always addressed serious topics going back to our first album. We aren’t a politically charged band up on a podium yelling at people – anybody can relate to the aggression, anger, frustration, and sadness often communicated in our music. But we absolutely raise important questions in the lyrics. Those themes are there to discover.”

Putney’s fellow guitarist/cofounder, Patrick Sheridan, strongly agrees. He emphasizes that while the music of Fit For An Autopsy may evolve it will always be aggressive and will always have purpose. “We think it's important to carry that torch. Somebody's got to say something about the shit that's going on. If you're not using your music, which is a great platform, for something meaningful that you care about on some level, then you're kind of wasting it.”

The six-men of the New Jersey based group - which includes vocalist Joe Badolato, bassist Peter Spinazola, third guitarist Tim Howley, and drummer Josean Orta - put maximum intentionality into everything they do. They are constantly challenging themselves as musicians, adding to the band’s overall creative arsenal, connecting with audiences around the world, and supporting one another in the band as individual people.

Fit For An Autopsy is set to take part in the Carry The Flame Tour featuring After The Burial, Emmure and Fit For A King, this spring. All dates can be found here.

(Photo - Bobby Bates)

Swedish horror death metal outfit, Vampire, have released a static video for “Ghoul Wind”, a track from their upcoming second full length album, With Primeval Force.

With Primeval Force will be released on April 21st as limited deluxe CD Digipak (unfolding to cross shape) and deluxe LP (with Gatefold sleeve, 180 g vinyl and 12-page LP-booklet). The album cover is a monstrous piece of handcrafted art by renowned artist Nick Keller.

With the release of their self-titled debut album and the follow-up EP Cimmerian Shade, Vampire have made quite an impression on the scene of extreme metal with their unique mixture of harsh Teutonic thrash metal riffs, sombrous melodies and ghoulish vocals from the grave. Now Vampire will return with the worthy successor of previous deeds, With Primeval Force, offering nine tracks of furious and nightmarish death/thrash metal. Still remaining true to the path they have chosen, Vampire have further embedded a dimension of eeriness, a baleful aura that indwells every track like a black spell.

A rough mix version of the album track “Skull Prayer” has already been made available. Check it out below:

Vampire lineup:

Hand of Doom: Vocals
Black String: Guitars
Command: Electric Bass
Sepulchral Condor: Guitars
Abysmal Condor: Battery

(Photo - Anders Bergstedt)

Cult Of Luna has released a video featuring “The Sweep” and “Light Chaser” from their upcoming CD/DVD package of live recordings, entitled Years In A Day, and due for release on April 21st. Watch the new clip below.

The band states: “A few years ago we took the decision to keep touring to a minimum. The sole reason was to prevent us from burning out, to keep the flame and the passion burning. But the experiences on the road that we've shared for almost 20 years has been life changing for all of us. It has boned us together like brothers and we have been given the privilege to interact with incredible people all around the globe. So we thought it was time to release a special object related to the live aspect of Cult Of Luna and how we have progressed since the release of Fire Was Born eight years ago.”

Years In A Day will contain:

• A 2-hour DVD captured in Paris last year at La Gaîté Lyrique
• 2 live CD set from Roadburn Festival 2013 and 2016
• A 20-page booklet
• Download-code for HD video of the entire Paris show + audio files
• All combined in a stunning 10-inch vinyl sized trifold package
• Strictly limited to 7,000 copies only

Pre-orders at cultofluna.com.

Tracklisting:

DVD: Live at La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris
“The Sweep”
“Light Chaser”
“Owlwood”
“Echoes”
“I: The Weapon”
“Waiting For You”
“Marching To The Heartbeats”
“Finland”
“Back To Chapel Town”
“And With Her Came The Birds”
“Thirtyfour”
“Dim”
“Dark City Dead Man”

CD: Live At Roatburn 2013
“The One”
“I: The Weapon”
“Ghost Trail”
“Finland”
“Vicarious Redemption”
“Owlwood”
“In Awe Of”

CD: Somewhere Along The Highway Live At Roadburn 2016
“Marching To The Heartbeats”
“Finland”
“Back To Chapel Town”
“And With Her Came The Birds”
“Thirtyfour”
“Dim”
“Dark City Dead Man”

“The Sweep” / “Light Chaser”:

Trailer:

Amsterdam based metal band, The Charm The Fury, will release their sophomore album, The Sick, Dumb & Happy, on March 17th via Nuclear Blast (worldwide) and Arising Empire (Europe). Today, vocalist Caroline Westendorp and drummer Mathijs Tieken discuss how the band have progressed since their 2012 EP. In addition, offering some insight on the moments leading up to their signing with Nuclear Blast Records. Watch two trailers below.

Pre-order your copy of The Sick, Dumb & Happy here. Pre-order your copy of the album on either iTunes or Amazon and receive a download for "Down On The Ropes" instantly.

The album was recorded at Wisseloord, ICP Belgium. The mixing was completed by Josh Wilbur (Megadeth, Lamb Of God) with additional mixing by Stefan Glaumann (Within Temptation, Paradise Lost). Ted Jensen (Machine Head, Death Angel) of Sterling Sound in New York City and  Brian 'Big Bass' Gardner (David Bowie, Gemini Syndrome) handled the mastering of The Sick, Dumb & Happy..

Tracklisting:

“Down On The Ropes”
“Echoes”
“Weaponized”
“No End In Sight”
“Blood And Salt”
“Corner Office Maniacs”
“The Future Need Us Not”
“Silent War”
“The Hell In Me”
“Songs Of Obscenity”
“Break And Dominate”

Trailer #1:

Trailer #2:

“Down On The Ropes” video:

“Down On The Ropes” vide behind the scenes:

Teaser trailer:

Lineup:

Caroline Westendorp - Vocals
Mathijs Tieken - Drums
Rolf Perdok - Guitars
Martijn Slegtenhorst - Guitars
Lucas Arnoldussen - Bass

Royal Thunder's unique, genre-bending sound has been turning heads since guitarist Josh Weaver founded the band in Atlanta, GA. His songwriting, plus bassist Mlny Parsonz's soul-searing vocals, have led to worldwide critical acclaim. Now, Royal Thunder have confirmed that their forthcoming album will be titled Wick. Spinefarm Records will release the album worldwide on April 7th. The album track, “April Showers”, is available for streaming below.

"Wick is different, a bigger jump as far as our sound goes. But it's still us - it's just the sound of Royal Thunder's evolution," said Weaver.

"Out of all of the albums, Wick was the hardest one to make. It was a fight, but to hear it now, to see it finished, is so gratifying. Finally it's over, it's amazing to be done with it. I'm looking at it, going we're done, it's over, be free,” said Parsonz.

Wick will carry the band's ambition and imprint out into the world. Prepare to be moved.

Wick tracklisting:

“Burning Tree”
“April Showers”
“Tied”
“We Slipped”
“The Sinking Chair”
“Plans”
“Anchor”
“Wick”
“Push”
“Turnaround”
“The Well”
“We Never Fell Asleep”

“April Showers”:

When haunting songs at the interface between hard rock and melodic metal meet with the excellent musical skills and extensive experience of all musicians involved, the result is bound to be brilliant. The Unity are a prime example of this, all musical parameters pointing to an outstanding act with a promising future.

After all, The Unity is the new group founded by Gamma Ray members Michael Ehré (drums) and Henjo Richter (guitar). Richter has been part of the Hamburg power metal outfit for some twenty years, while Ehré’s CV includes – prior to his joining the Gamma Ray fold in 2012 – renowned names such as Firewind, Uli Jon Roth and Unisonic, to name but a few. The Unity have spent almost 18 months working flat out on their first album, scheduled for release on Steamhammer/SPV on May 5th 2017. You don’t have to be a clairvoyant to predict a bright future for this band.

After all, in The Unity the two instrumentalists and composers Richter and Ehré have surrounded themselves with excellent colleagues who not only share their artistic vision but have already played live on stage with them in other constellations: many fans have been familiar with exceptional Italian vocalist Gianba Manenti, guitarist Stef E, bassist Jogi Sweers and keyboardist Sascha Onnen since the launch of Ehré’s group Love.Might.Kill, which has released two albums to date and played shows in a large number of European countries.

The Unity debut was produced by the musicians themselves, mostly at Ehré’s own B Castle Studio and mixed and mastered by Spain’s Miquel A. Riutort at the Psychosomatic Recording Studio. The impressive cover artwork, penned by Alexander Mertsch who has worked for the likes of Deep Purple, Gamma Ray, Status Quo and Europe, also deserves a mention.

Tracklisting:

“Rise And Fall”
“No More Lies”
“God Of Temptation”
“Firesign”
“Always Just You”
“Close To Crazy”
“The Wishing Well”
“Edens Fall”
“Redeemer”
“Super Distortion”
“Killer Instinct”
“Never Forget”

“Rise And Fall” lyric video:

The Unity will be released as CD digi (incl. poster), double gatefold LP, download and stream.

Tour dates:

May (with Sinner)
12 - Wetzikon, Switzerland - Hall Of Fame
13 - Memmingen, Germany - Kaminwerk
14 - Essen, Germany - Turock
16 - Nürnberg, Germany - Hirsch
17 - Aschaffenburg, Germany - Colos-Saal
18 - Mannheim, Germany - 7er Live Club
19 - Markneukirchen, Germany - Framus&Warwick Music Hall
20 - Hamburg, Germany - Knust

The Unity CD release show:

May
27 - Nordenham, Germany - Jahnhalle (plus special guests)

Rare video footage of Canadian hard rock/heavy metal band Helix, performing “Good To The Last Drop” in 1993, is available for streaming below.

Says leader Brian Vollmer: “This video was shot at our show in Kitchener, Ontario in 1993 at a club called Stages. On guitars are Mark Chichkan (SL) and Greg Fraser (SR). Dary is on bass, Fritz on drums, I'm singing. The song is “Good To The Last Drop”, a tune I wrote with Mark Ribler in Brooklyn, New York around 1989. The song eventually ended up on the Back For Another Taste album and became a big hit for us in Canada. I believe Phil Kates did the video for this song.”