Whether by coincidence or design, YouTube user AmericanJackassI has posted live bootleg footage of the original Ratt line-up performing in Tokyo, Japan (1989) and Hollywood, CA (1990). Both are complete shows. The clips were uploaded on January 1st, 2017 in the midst of the current Ratt reunion legal dust-up that sees Stephen Pearcy, Warren Demartini and Juan Croucier back together and drummer Bobby Blotzer trying to make a go of it with his own incarnation of Ratt featuring a revolving door of musicians.

For more information on the court case go to this location.

Tokyo, Japan (1989) 

Setlist:

"City to City" 
"Bite the Hand That Feeds You"
"Slip of the Lip"
"Wanted Man"
"I Want A Woman" 
"The Morning After" 
"The Bottom Line"
"Lay It Down" 
"You're In Love"
- drum solo -  
"Back For More" 
"What's It Gonna Be" 
"Body Talk"
"Round & Round" 
"Way Cool Jr."
"You Think You're Tough" 
"Walking the Dog"
"Chain Reaction"

Hollywood, CA (1990)

Setlist:

"Shame, Shame, Shame"
"Lay it Down"
"You're In Love"
"Scratch That Itch"
"Slip of the Lip"
"Wanted Man"
"Lovin You's A Dirty Job"
"Givin' Yourself Away"
"The Morning After"
"Heads I Win Tails You Lose"
"Back For More"
"You Think You're Tough"
"Way Cool Jr."
"Round & Round"
"Walkin the Dog"
"Top Secret"

Ratt was:

Stephen Pearcy - vocals
Warren DeMartini - guitars
Robbin Crosby - guitars
Juan Croucier - bass
Bobby Blotzer - drums

THE MANTLE, the New York-based progressive metal band featuring Max Gorelick — the son of smooth-jazz saxophonist Kenny G — has just released its self-titled debut album via Bandcamp.

Instrumental music must do more than simply entertain — it must engage, captivate, and inspire. THE MANTLE is fully aware of this necessity. While Kenny G might not be regarded as the patron saint of heavy metal, he is the patron saint of writing instrumental music with an expressive capacity that far exceeds most vocal-driven acts (not to mention that he is the best-selling instrumental act of modern time). Kenny's son Max, along with fellow guitarist and songwriting partner Jake Miller, has discovered that the spirit of his music translates incredibly well to the realm of progressive metal. Human qualities like soulfulness, delicacy, and emotion that heavy metal often lacks are seamlessly woven into THE MANTLE's music, and, when paired with the band's unmatched technical prowess and songwriting expertise, culminate in a remarkably well-defined and promising debut album.

As the band puts it, THE MANTLE can be interpreted as something that frames the intensity and chaos of the world. It does so both aesthetically (like a mantelpiece) and structurally (like the earth's molten inner layer). But the mantle (the earth's layer) is chaotic and unpredictable; it's constantly changing states, liquefying and hardening, so its form is never truly defined. Similarly, music theory (the mantelpiece) tempers chaos, but doesn't completely negate it, and the fundamental nature of good music is to use music theory to properly frame that chaos.

THE MANTLE's awareness of this dichotomy allows the band to develop unparalleled concision and cohesion throughout its self-titled debut. THE MANTLE blends the vibrancy and technicality of ANIMALS AS LEADERS with the expressibility of PLINI and the organizational mastery of DREAM THEATER. Heavy polyrhythmic grooves are tied together with imaginative, ornamented riffs and meticulous percussion. Each song is powered, but not dominated by, mind-boggling lead guitar work and chaotic-yet-logical melodic interplay. The unpredictable songwriting keeps listeners guessing with its constant ebb and flow; it's dense and rocky but surges like liquid. And THE MANTLE even includes subtle nods to myriad forms of both jazz and extreme metal in its slyness and understated savagery.

Far more than shred for shred's sake, THE MANTLE ensures that every hook is memorable and that each song will resonate long after the album fades out. THE MANTLE generates its own narrative power; no lyrics needed. From the searing dissonances slipped under major melodies to the crushing heaviness of the epic 12-minute closer "A Sense Of Scale", THE MANTLE will surely establish Gorelick and the band as some of the premier songwriters of their era — within progressive and instrumental metal, without a doubt, but also across modern music at large.

Gorelick first got some attention for his guitar chops in 2012, when MEGADETH shared a video of him playing a solo, adding, "His dad may live in your elevator, but Kenny G's kid shreds!"

AEROSMITH frontman Steven Tyler performed at the post-wedding party of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup driver Kurt Busch and his new bride, polo player and model Ashley Van Metre.

At Bristol Motor Speedway last April, Busch chose AEROSMITH's "Walk This Way" as his song for driver introductions.

A member of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and noted car enthusiast, Tyler and his band played a pre-race concert at Bristol in 2015 as part of the Irwin Tools Night Race.

The 68-year-old rocker recently joined forces with a team of celebrities to donate one of his cars to the annual Barret-Jackson classic car auction.

All proceeds made from the sale of the AEROSMITH frontman's car will be donated to Janie's Fund, the charity set up by Steven in partnership with non-profit organization Youth Villages.

Howard Leese, guitar (Heart, BadCo, Rock Vault, Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame Inductee), Robin McAuley, vocalist (MSG, Survivor, Rock Vault), James Kottak, drums (The Scorpions, Kingdom Come, Montrose) and Jason Boyleston, bass (Paul Rodgers band, Starship w/Mickey Thomas, guitar, Rock Vault, guitar) announced the formation of Brigade, a new Los Angeles based rock band.
Brigade is scheduled to perform their first gig at the Ronnie Montrose Tribute Concert on Saturday, January 21, 2017, 7pm, Yost Theater, Santa Ana, CA. This tribute show, organized by former Montrose frontman Keith St. John, is part of the weekend of live entertainment during the annual NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) convention in Anaheim, CA.
"We are all excited about this new venture, our mutual love of Rock-n-Roll and our first appearance as a band at the Ronnie Montrose Tribute Show at NAMM,” said the Brigade members in a joint statement.
Brigade will be recording live in-studio later this year.
"We all love the live in-studio style of recording music, where everything is raw, honest and hopefully one-take," said the band.
Additional information including Brigade show dates and appearances will be announced shortly.
Band member endorsements include: Paul Reed Smith (Leese), Aquarian Drumheads, Ahead, Big Bang Distribution, CymPad, DW Drums and Zildjian (Kottak).

New Jersey metal act FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY will release a new album titled "The Great Collapse" on March 17 via Entertainment One/Good Fight Music in North America and SPV overseas. Artist Adam Burke was tapped to create the visually stunning cover art.

Guitarist and producer Will Putney stated about the effort: "'The Great Collapse' is a reflection on the current chaotic state of mankind's relationship with the world, and its effect both outward and inward. 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 FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY's fourth full-length record, continuing the momentum gained from a solid 200-plus days of worldwide touring backing the buzzworthy 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," Putney said. "The overall mood and atmosphere of this album feels fully realized and emotionally stirring."

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.

"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," said Putney. "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," he said. "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.

According to Zillow, MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine has dropped another $700,000 from the asking price of his Fallbrook, California estate.

Mustaine put his house on the market in October 2015 for $5.375 million — more than five times what he paid for it three years earlier — but that price came down in June 2016 by almost a million and a half a million to $3.895 million. The property now sits at an even lower price of $3.195 million.

Mustaine and his family moved to Nashville in October 2014 after living in Fallbrook for a couple of years.

Speaking to MetalIreland.com, Mustaine stated about his California house: "Property like that, it's hidden, it's a bit off the beaten path, and we're not in a hurry to sell it. We want the right buyer too. We're obviously still quite attached to it. When we got it, it was abandoned, so we've completely restored it from the ground up. I mean, it has a vineyard on it, and that alone is worth the price of admission… It has a sort of 'Lord Of The Rings'… well, actually, no... more like 'The Hobbit' feel to it, with the thatched roof and everything."

On the topic of his move to Nashville, Mustaine said: "I've lived there four times before, because we did records there. So I've lived there for several months at a time… I want [my daughter] Electra to pursue her [country music] dreams. I can do my job anywhere, really… It's good for me, because my daughter is happy, and I think, if you love your children, you'll always want to protect and provide for them. And, like I said, I can pretty much do my job anywhere."

According to the Los Angeles Times, Mustaine's 9.5-acre country English-style home in the northern San Diego community was built in 1990 and includes vineyards, pastureland and a pond.

The 5,345 square feet of living space includes a paneled media room/den, a bar, an office, a gym, five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two powder rooms. There is also a state-of-the-art sound and recording studio, a control room, a reception room and a producer's boarding room.

Public records published by Trulia.com indicate the home was last sold in December 2012 for $995,000.

You can take a virtual tour of the estate at this location.

Check out photos of the property at Los Angeles Times.

In a brand new interview with Noisey, Lars Ulrich was asked if he still finds playing in METALLICA inspiring. He responded: "Ten years ago or 30 years ago, it was different. Like, 'Oh my god, GUNS N' ROSES. Oh my God, who are these NIRVANA guys! OASIS!' You were hearing about it, and you wanted to meet them. Nowadays, there aren't any bands that have had that impact on me. The last time where I was like, 'Holy fuck! This really inspires me,' was this band called THE SWORD, from Austin, Texas. Stoner rock, kind of a modern BLACK SABBATH. Super cool. They showed up seven or eight years ago, and I just had to bring these guys on tour. There is a Norwegian band called KVELERTAK. These bands are few and far between nowadays. This is not a black-and-white statement. I know more about film than I do about music because I follow it more. That doesn't mean if something awesome came and slapped me in the face. then I wouldn't embrace it; it just shows up less and less."

Ulrich said in a 2015 interview that he believed that streaming services were the future of the music industry — although he also admitted that they would more effective for established acts than new ones. Speaking with the BBC, Ulrich said: "I believe streaming is good for music. People sit there and go, 'I'm not getting paid very much' — but streaming is a choice on all fronts."

He added: "Streaming probably does benefit artists with higher profiles. A lot of playlists that are being made available for people seem to feature higher-profile artists… There's less and less and less and less money being put into younger artists. And there's a danger of younger artists coming close to extinction."

But Ulrich also argued that streaming or any other music delivery service won't accomplish anything if the music itself isn't up to par, explaining: "I connect less because there's less great new music to connect with. A lot of the stuff is just regurgitated — this year's flavor. It's not leading-edge like THE BEATLES, Miles Davis or Jimi Hendrix."

METALLICA has shows booked in China, Singapore, Denmark, Mexico and South America over the next three months, but has yet to unveil its full 2017 tour plans, including its first North American tour in eight years.

The band's sole North American date so far is May 21 at the Rock On The Range festival in Columbus, Ohio.

METALLICA's latest album, "Hardwired... To Self-Destruct", came out in November. The effort consists of two discs, containing a dozen songs and nearly 80 minutes of music.

Former SEPULTURA and current CAVALERA CONSPIRACY members Max Cavalera (guitar, vocals) and Igor Cavalera (drums) have weighed in on underdog Donald Trump's stunning upset of Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election, saying that the real estate mogul is "the biggest joke ever" who never should have been allowed to run for the White House.

Trump shocked the political establishment and the world by becoming the 45th president in one of the biggest upsets in U.S. political history. He won with 306 electoral votes compared to 232 for Hillary Clinton. 270 were needed to win. Clinton, however, handily won the popular vote, despite losing the overall election.

Speaking to the Impact metal channel on November 21 in Budapest, Hungary, Max said about the U.S. election outcome (see video below): "[It's a] joke. It was two weak candidates. I think the Democratic [party] had somebody [running for the presidency] who was trying to [do the right thing], but had a history of untrusting kind of stuff. And the other side [had] Trump, which is the biggest joke ever. The guy is a liar and corrupt. I don't know… He has really screwed a lot of people in his lifetime and I think he's gonna do a lot of bad stuff."

Max, a Brazilian native who has lived in Phoenix, Arizona since the early 1990s, continued: "The way the country is heading now doesn't look good. There's a lot of anger. Yeah, it's bad. I think it's gonna be some tough four years. Because I think Obama was a really good president. People don't give him too much credit, but he did a lot of great stuff."

Igor, who lived in Southern California for several years in the 1990s but eventually moved back to Brazil before recently relocating to London, added: "As a person also, I really respect [Obama]. I have no respect at all for Trump as a person. Even for Hillary, no matter how bad things got, I know she can carry a conversation with some other people, whereas this guy… I don't know… For me, the biggest mistake was letting him run. With the history he had, he shouldn't be allowed to be running for president. And look where we are right now. So it's sad times, I think."

Igor also looked back on what already feels like a truly momentous year in the history of the early twenty-first century — from the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union, to the rise of radical Islamic terrorism and the election of a man once considered an eccentric outsider as the U.S. Commander-In-Chief.

"For me, I look at it, the whole world, it's crazy right now," Igor said. "First with the whole thing with Brexit, where, it seems like it sends, for me, a complete wrong message of closing things and going a bit right wing of keeping to yourself, which, for me, that's not the way I like to look at the world. And then, of course, the terrorist attacks, it's something that we need to live with it right now. And all the way to the U.S. elections, it's a whole chaos, you know — chaos everywhere. And to add to that, in Brazil also, we have a super-chaotic situation where they [impeached] the president, they did a massive scam to get this other guy in, who's also super corrupt. So it's, like, it doesn't look good anywhere I look."

Max and Igor will embark on another North American tour in February to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of SEPULTURA's classic album "Roots" by performing the LP in its entirety.

Mariskal Rock TV's Jason Cenador recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Mille Petrozza of German thrash metal veterans KREATOR. You can watch the chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the inspiration behind the title for the band's new album, "Gods Of Violence":

Mille: "The original concept was talking about the ancient Greek gods. The ancient gods in Greece, for every human facet, there was a god. There was a god of love, a god of peace, of violence. My original concept was to write a concept album about how these icons are still relevant in this day and age. I think violence, to me, is part of human nature. To deal with this in this day and age gave me the inspiration for the record."

On what the word "violence" means to him and KREATOR's music:

Mille: "It is an idea, but it's a message of peace. Don't get me wrong: It's violence that you channel, you channel it and turn it into something positive. Like, for example, you come to a show, you go into the mosh pit, you get out and your violent in the pit in a nice way, and you get rid of the negative emotions inside of you. For example, you pick up a guitar and you start a metal band. You write the most violent riffs. You turn the negative into something positive. To me, that's the philosophy. Primitive brutal violence is wrong. It causes war, pain, terror, misery, and that's not what we want to promote. We want to promote a positive outlook. In my opinion, we should all get along and I have very much of a hippie attitude. I want the world to be a peaceful place. It doesn't work. It will never work, but I play with these phrases: 'violence,' 'death,' 'terror.' It's also a reflection of society; it's a mirror."

On the line "We shall kill," which is used in the title track of the band's new album:

Mille: "I turn it around. It was based on the Ten Commandments. One of the commandments was 'Thou Shall Not Kill.' In this day and age, it seems like people are so… angry that they kill their own emotions, they kill everything that could be good in their lives by putting shit into their minds. You lose your humanity, you lose your human spirit by replacing it with something that's not natural. That's why we have the 'We shall kill.' Kill everything that's negative, but on the other hand, 'We shall kill' is based on one commandment. It's a double meaning."

On the election of Donald Trump:

Mille: "I can only say this much: Politics have always been bullshit to me. To me, politics are always corrupt and evil. But, on the other hand, the human race needs to be told what to do. That's why we need government. I have the opinion that there's so many politicians in the world that try to make your life miserable, we should not let them take over. We should live our lives without worrying about these people. They'll always going to be there, even in the face of that new guy, or the old guys. Things are going to be okay. I wouldn't worry. There's not going to be a third World War. I doubt it."

On which KREATOR song would be most fitting for Trump:

Mille: [Laughs] "'World War Now', the first song on the record."

On what inspires his lyrics in KREATOR:

Mille: "People always expect me to be a political person. I'm not. I just take my influences from political sources because in politics, there's so many evil forces in power. That gives me a lot of metaphoric material to work with in my lyrics. To me, I'm not a big fan of politics. I don't like any politicians. I think these people, most of them, are corrupt. There are probably some good ones, but once they get into power, it's all gone. Once they get into power, they get power hungry, and it fucks with their heads."

On the band's increased use of melody:

Mille: "I think it's not something we do on purpose. These elements just come natural. Yeah, I have to admit we have a Finnish guitar player [Sami Yli-Sirniö], so he adds a Scandinavian touch to the music, even though we do anything that whatever makes a song great, we will do it. We don't set boundaries like, 'This can't be. We will sound like this or not.' People will put us into this or that category. I think the most important thing is we write great songs, no matter what. These categories and these comparisons, they come naturally because they try to give yourself some orientation."

On whether "Gods Of Violence" is KREATOR's most technical and dynamic album:

Mille: "Absolutely. It's a total guitar album. The whole thing is all written on guitar. Of course, we went into details, especially with the melodic parts, and the soft interludes, we wanted to make it even more classic metal, almost."

On if he thinks KREATOR is the most successful European thrash metal band:

Mille: "Yes. [Laughs] I think we worked hard for this. We worked very hard. Not only in years, but also investments, a lot of time investment, a lot of life investment. That's what it comes down to. On the other hand, I don't know anything else and I don't want to know anything else. This is my life. This is what I do. I try to do the best as I can."

On whether he worries KREATOR will become too old to play extreme metal:

Mille: "It depends. It's a physical thing. You have to stay in shape. You got to be able to still be this energetic person onstage that people know you for. Once I get tired, once I don't feel the power and I don't feel the anger that's necessary to perform this kind of music, and the energy, then I will quit by myself."

"Gods Of Violence" will be released on January 27, 2017 via Nuclear Blast Records. The cover artwork for the disc was created by renowned artist Jan Meininghaus, who also made the limited-edition artwork for KREATOR's last album, 2012's "Phantom Antichrist", and has lent his talents to bands like BOLT THROWER, ACCEPT and OVERKILL in the past. The exclusive North American cover was created by renowned artist Marcelo Vasco, who has previously worked with SLAYER, MACHINE HEAD, SOULFLY and HATEBREED.






North American cover (by Marcelo Vasco):



International cover (by Jan Meininghaus):

MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine was interviewed last week on the Fox Business program "Kennedy", hosted by former MTV VJ Kennedy. You can now watch the segment below.

Asked for his opinion on President-elect Donald Trump, Mustaine said: "Well, I'm hoping that the nation gets past all the bickering right now and gets back to being the nation that we're all capable of being. I've been through ten presidents in my lifetime, and traveling the world as much as I do — you know that I travel a lot — seeing all these other different places, like we've played in Venezuela, with communism, and going into the Eastern Bloc back when they just had the [Berlin] Wall go down and stuff like that. We've got it really great here. And I'm hoping that everybody comes together. I know that there's a lot of people that think I'm a Republican, people think I'm a Democrat. I'm right at the middle, man; I'm an independent."

Pressed on whether he is a "truther" — part of the "9/11 Truth" movement, which claimed George W. Bush knew about, or even perpetrated, the 9/11 attack — and a "birther," believing that Barack Obama's published birth certificate was a forgery, Mustaine said: "You know, I've seen all the stuff on [theories rejecting the mainstream version of events about the 9/11 attacks]. There's no real way to tell unless you were there. And I think that it's too risky to put your neck on the chopping block and say stuff like that, because the way that the social media is right now, people's careers end in a snap because they say something, they believe something."

He continued: "I remember I went up to Canada and did an interview up there. And I had said something that I thought was funny on Obama's birth certificate. I didn't say that he wasn't born in America, but on the bottom of the birth certificate it said 'Ukulele' [as the registrar who signed Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate], and I was, like, 'Get out!' And I don't know if that was a mock one or not, but that was the one that was on the WhiteHouse.gov site. So he goes, 'Are you a birther?' And I was, like, 'What the hell's a birther?'"

Mustaine made headlines in 2012 when he told Canadian television and radio personality George Stroumboulopoulos that he was certain that Barack Obama "was born somewhere else than America." (See video below.) He later doubled down on that sentiment, asking conspiracy theorist Alex Jones why Obama hadn't been impeached in light of "all of the proof about his birth certificate being fake." He added: "And you see the signs in Kenya that say 'the birthplace of Barack Obama.' Hello?! C'mon, guys. How stupid are we right now?"

In a November 2009 interview with a Norwegian outlet, Mustaine offered his opinion on whether the government, not terrorists acting on orders from Osama Bin Laden, destroyed the World Trade Center as a pretext for war or to expand the government's powers. He said (see video in two parts below): "Everybody has their own perspective or their own understanding of what happened [on September 11, 2001]. Not very many people know why it happened, or who did it. A lot of people think it's an inside job."

He continued: "If you look on the Internet and you look at all the information that they have around that, something's wrong — something's absolutely wrong. A plane doesn't crash into the Pentagon and vaporize — it just doesn't. Okay? And why did they lay down all brand new ground out front? They destroyed the crime scene, the accident site. There was a plane crash there, and they completely resurfaced everything in a matter of a couple of days. Why? Out of respect for the dead?"


Watch the latest video at video.foxbusiness.com

QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Todd La Torre has drawn the ire of Donald Trump supporters by posting a disturbing-yet-hilarious photo that poked fun at the president-elect's seemingly bizarre relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

A photoshopped picture shows the billionaire businessman and Putin dressed in leather, with Trump sitting down and smiling as he rests his head on the thigh of Russia's president while wearing a collar, indicating his submissive or slave status in a BDSM relationship.

After La Torre posted the picture on his Facebook page this past New Year's Eve, he was slammed by apparent Trump voters who accused him of "alienating half of [QUEENSRŸCHE's] already hugely diminished fan base" by voicing his political views. The singer then got into a heated discussion about politics in which he tried to use facts to make his points, only to be repeatedly shut down for being "disrespectful." One of those critics was former VIRGIN STEELE guitarist Jack Starr, who wrote in the comments section below Todd's post: "The picture shows a great lack of respect to our president-elect and really is not funny… Humor has its place but behind this particular cartoon was a not very veiled attack on Trump and there are many among us in the community we call heavy metal who are very happy that Trump will be representing our country very shortly and I happen to be one of them."

La Torre, who has made no secret of his disdain for Trump, responded to his critics several times below his original post, writing in part: "As for the comment that I have 'offended' a huge base, let the record show that as I type this, the data is that there are [357] comments to [658] shares. Apparently [658] people thought this was funny, nothing more and nothing less. Lighten up people, it's about to be 2017, CHEERS EVERYONE!!!! Life could use a little humor."

He added: "It's a meme, a funny meme. How one chooses to feel about that is on them. I'm not up arms in the least when I see something online or a view I disagree with. I'm all for great humor and healthy discussion however; )

"How about this perspective as a closing statement I would like share: You mentioned lines being drawn, i.e. if [you] shared that meme at work, [you] would be fired. The president-elect of the United States of America, as a public figure, goes on Twitter, disrespects those lines, offends religions and ethnicities, and had he done these things in the workplace that offend such people and crossed those lines that you have mentioned, he would have been fired due to racism and discrimination.

"I care about my country. That doesn't mean I have to respect disrespectful rhetoric or people, even the president.

"Hillary could have won, [you] could hate her, not support her even in office, and that doesn't mean you love your country less.

"I'm sure we all have more in common than not, and healthy discussion is always great!

"I'm a regular guy, which is why I don't ever feel like I'm some star or someone that can't just be a human with an opinion like anyone else.

"Being in a band doesn't and should not negate anyone from being part of a discussion.

"So to put it in perspective, the world around us shapes our perception, art is subjective, and I'm not a circus monkey to sing and dance because someone likes it or pays me to do that. I am a human being, just like you. I'm no better nor worse.

"I could easily write a song about how perception and opinions are, maybe you would love it, and perhaps I wrote it because of this dialogue and interaction. So, perhaps you shouldn't be so quick to judge what I do, who I am, etc.

"As for QUEENSRŸCHE, I speak for Todd, not the band's opinions or anything else."

Last summer, QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton revealed that Donald Trump was his forced choice in the U.S. presidential election. Asked by SMNNews whom he would have picked between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton if the presidential election were held last July, Wilton said: "You know, I'm kind of disappointed in both of 'em, but if I had to choose the leader of the world, I think I'd probably want Trump."

QUEENSRŸCHE recently completed a month-long headlining tour of the United States. Support on the trek came from ARMORED SAINT and MIDNIGHT ETERNAL.

QUEENSRŸCHE's latest album, "Condition Hüman", debuted at No. 27 on The Billboard 200 chart, having shifted 14,000 equivalent album units in the week ending October 8, 2015.

The band plans to enter the studio later this month to write and record the follow-up to "Condition Hüman" for a late 2017 release.



Posted by Todd La Torre on Saturday, December 31, 2016

In a brand new interview with The Irish Times, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance was asked how the words "President Donald Trump" sound to him, as an American. He responded: "It's a very scary phrase. Time will tell, but all I can hope for is that Americans and people across the entire world, aside from whoever is the president, do right by each other. Because, at the end of the day, all my relationships here with people from all places of the world, only I can influence those today and tomorrow. It is really up to me. That guy [Trump] can do what he pleases, but as long as the majority of people stick together and try and be good people to each other, then I think all of that will be irrelevant."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD last fall released a t-shirt featuring the band's Deathbat mascot posing at a presidential podium and gripping the decapitated skulls of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in each claw. AVENGED SEVENFOLD shared a picture of the t-shirt design on Instagram and Facebook. "Since the election is right around the corner, we decided to throw our hat in the ring! T-shirt only available on tour," they wrote.

Trump shocked the political establishment and the world by becoming the 45th president in one of the biggest upsets in U.S. political history. He won with 306 electoral votes compared to 232 for Hillary Clinton. 270 were needed to win. Clinton, however, handily won the popular vote, despite losing the overall election.

While many rock artists had been against Trump, artists like STAIND's Aaron Lewis, Kid Rock and FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's Zoltan Bathory had thrown their support behind the real estate magnate, who has no previous governing experience.

British-born vocalist and bassist Glenn Hughes, who is probably best known for his work in the early seventies during the heyday of DEEP PURPLE, has weighed in on underdog Donald Trump's stunning upset of Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential election, saying that the real estate mogul "needs to gather around him people that are smarter than him" to help him run the country and deal with the outside world.

Trump shocked the political establishment and the world by becoming the 45th president in one of the biggest upsets in U.S. political history. He won with 306 electoral votes compared to 232 for Hillary Clinton. 270 were needed to win. Clinton, however, handily won the popular vote, despite losing the overall election.

Speaking to Rock Meeting, Glenn said about the U.S. election outcome (hear audio below): "It's divided my mother- and father-in-law — Vietnam decorated war veterans, and they are Republicans — and my wife, who is a very, very, very big supporter of Hillary, and she knows Hillary. So it's difficult for me, because I live in a divided house. It's difficult to talk politics at the dinner table."

He continued: "I just think the leader of the free world, Donald Trump, has to be very, very, very careful, because I don't think he's that smart. But he needs to gather around him a [group] of people that are smarter than him and people that know about world matters: economy, global warming… I can continue and continue."

Hughes added: "We have a leader of the free world that is not a politician. In some ways, it's a good thing, because we have somebody that has broken through that maybe will be able to deal with terrorism. I think he's gonna be a tough guy. But will he able to deal with [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin? Will he be able to deal with the Chinese? Will he take a look at global warming? I'm not sure. He needs to gather around him some very, very, very smart Americans. And God help us all."

During the same interview, Hughes was asked for his opinion on Brexit, which refers to Britain's decision to leave the European Union, an economic and political partnership involving 28 European countries. He said: "Breaking away from European economy was something that I think has affected people that live outside of the U.K. It has affected me for sure, as I'm American and British. I think it was the wrong decision. It's difficult for me to comment, because I live in California for 43 years. But it's affected us economically. It's affected the people that live outside of [the U.K.] that get paid from England, like I do. So it's not good for my economy. It's ridiculous, you know. But I think it was a very foolish decision."

Hughes's latest solo album, "Resonate", was released in November via Frontiers Music Srl.

In a brand new interview with the "Mike On Much" podcast, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett spoke about how the lyrical themes covered on the band's new album, "Hardwired… To Self-Destruct", relate to what's going on in the world right now, especially with the recent U.S. presidential election.

He said (hear audio below): "Well, I've gotta tell you our album came at the right time, because, you know, with that big shake-up that happened November 8th, and then our album coming out November 18th… I'm a little happy for the fact that at least our album came out and we can bring some sort of solace to some people out there who are really upset or disappointed. And that's fine.

"For me, I'm a guy who's always angry — my anger is just always under the surface — and it just manifests in the weirdest, craziest, strangest ways. It's something that I've had to deal with all my life. And so with things like… the election comes up, and it's so weird and it's so divisive. I have to check myself and check my own anger and [tell myself that] it's not something that's gonna change my life completely. I really have to check it and just make sure that my anger doesn't just send me off into an unhealthy space."

Hammett continued: "The situation with the politics in American right now, and in Britain, it's weird — it's almost like it has to happen to give people a bit of perspective on how things could be a lot worse for us.

"But as far as that's concerned, I don't know what the fuck's gonna happen. I need to be optimistic about it, but I'm gonna wait and watch and pay attention, for sure."

Asked if he pays close attention to what's going on in the world or if intentionally unplugs from it because he finds it infuriating, Hammett responded: "Ever since I was eight or nine years old, I've been a news junkie. I've been reading the newspaper ever since I was, like, eight or nine years old — from back to back every day."

The guitarist went on to name The New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast and Washington Post as some of the sites that he regularly gets his news from. He explained: "To me, it's important to not go to just one site. It's important to go to different sites and get a lot of different perspectives."

Hammett last month spoke out publicly on political matters for the first time, breaking from METALLICA's long-standing policy of not getting involved in issues that could be considered divisive.

"The thing is, METALLICA appeals to such a wide range of people," Hammett explained. "We have people on the left, people on the right, in droves. Part of the reason why we don't consider ourselves a politically oriented band is because when you start talking about politics you draw a line in the sand, and all of a sudden [there's] division, and that's not what we want. We want everyone to be in this together, experiencing the music together. We see politics as a completely different thing. It's like music and NASCAR racing, that's how different politics are to METALLICA."

Acknowledging that music has the power to reach people and change their minds, especially young fans that hang on their favorite artists' every word, Hammett said: "That's why I've chosen my words carefully, that I — not METALLICA, but I — will take it upon myself to get involved, if there is something I see that is seriously wrong, and I really feel that it's my job to say something, and to call out people who need to be called out. I believe in fairness. I believe in equal ground for everyone. I believe in equal opportunity and I believe that everyone is equal. That guy [Trump] doesn't even believe in that! He does not believe that everyone is equal."

METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich, who has made no secret of his liberal views, said in a recent interview with Vulture that he has never "willfully had a political conversation with" frontman James Hetfield, who has described himself as being somewhat conservative politically. Ulrich explained: "The thing you've got to understand is that METALLICA is made up of four people from four different places who took four very different paths to where we are now. The one thing that unites us is the love of the music that we're playing and that all four of us felt like outsiders trying to figure out who the hell we were. We didn't come together because we were questioning this in the culture or that about politics. We came together because we were all a little lost and trying to get a sense of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. I'll sit and talk politics with you all night, but I don't necessarily feel the need to do it in an interview. METALLICA is a collective, but we've just never been the kind of band to sit down and say, 'Okay, what's our common view of the world?'"

Ulrich made headlines in October when he said that he would consider returning to his native Denmark if Donald Trump won the election.

Hetfield told BBC 6 Music that METALLICA stays away from topics like politics or religion in its music because "that just seems to polarize people even more. We all have our own beliefs, but at the end of the day, we're trying to connect with people and it seems like political views don't do that as much as music does."

The singer/guitarist continued: "There's a lot of polarization going on in the States, and I see it other places as well. But it just seems like you have to get more extreme to balance out the other extreme. We've got to find some balance in the middle here somewhere."

In a new column for Forward.com, Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French reveals how and why the band did not allow president-elect Donal Trump use their classic song "We're Not Gonna Take It" during his run for office. Following is an excerpt:

Media controversy makes for big headlines. The follow-up — not so much.

In the build-up to the inauguration with the difficulties of booking acts to play for Trump, NPR host Kurt Andersen was discussing the president-elect’s musical taste. On the show, political analyst John Heilemann sang the chorus of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” before commenting, “That song could have been the theme song of the entire campaign. I’m surprised it wasn’t.”

Here’s why it wasn’t.

Several months ago my band, Twisted Sister, was thrust into the national debate because Donald Trump was using our anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It” at his campaign rallies.

This caused an uproar that gathered volume when Dee Snider, our singer, defended Trump’s use of the song. Dee noted that Trump, whatever you think of him, is an outlier who bucks the system. So, in his own particular way he represents rebellion — the hallmark of the message that Twisted Sister always tried to foster.

What Dee was doing was attempting to express his own opinion and walk a fine line between endorsing and repudiating Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric. But because it makes for big headlines, our stance was reported in the press as “Twisted Sister Supports Trump for President!”

Our fans, on email, Facebook and Twitter (both for and against Trump), went at it.

Many of my friends who absolutely hated Trump wanted to know how I, as manager and owner of the Twisted Sister trademark, could let this happen.

I was accused, by those who hated Trump but didn’t know me personally, of being a media whore who obviously must have gotten paid “tons of money” to let this happen.

And then Trump stopped using the song.

Over the past 20 years, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” has become one of the most licensed songs in the world for TV shows, commercials and movies. But because the band’s personal political leanings have always been all over the map, we have never allowed the song to be “officially” used by any political group, left or right.

So though it has been sung at mass events in over 30 countries, the band could not allow the song to be associated with Trump’s campaign. Therefore, with the band’s full support, Dee asked, in a private conversation, that the song be withdrawn from the Trump playlist.

It didn’t need the press. It didn’t need public shaming. But our song stopped getting played and didn’t become the anthem of the Trump campaign. For one of the louder, brasher bands of the past few decades, we chose not the loudest way, not the sexiest way, not the PR dream way, to avoid that particular legacy.

We chose just the way it needed to be.

Read the complete article here.

Andrew Horn, the director of the Twisted Sister documentary, We Are Twisted F***ing Sister!, has uploaded the first ever promo clip he created for the film.

Says Horn: “This is the first promo I ever made for the Twisted Sister movie, using outtakes from the interview I did with Jay Jay for the Klaus Nomi movie and some DVDs that I made from material that Jay Jay had kicking around. How far we've come!”

The setting is mid-1970s New York City: five rockers decked in platform boots and dramatic make-up embarked on a heavy metal journey. Little did they know the impact they would make, and that, forty years later, they would still be renowned for their songs, one-of-a-kind live shows, and take-no-prisoners attitude.

We Are Twisted F***ing Sister! is the 134-minute documentary film by Andrew Horn capturing that expedition from bar band to international stardom.

Charging out of the gate with a lethal combination of grit and glitter, Twisted Sister (Jay Jay French, Dee Snider, Eddie Ojeda, Mark “The Animal” Mendoza, and the late A.J. Pero) established themselves as one of the staple acts of Glam Rock and Heavy Metal with anthems “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock.” However, “the band that killed disco” was no overnight success.

Andrew Horn, who is known for his films East Side Story (named one of the 10 best films of the year by Time Magazine), The Nomi Song, Doomed Love, and The Big Blue, said of the film: “I realized as I was working on the film, that it was really very much a story of how a band becomes a band. They are truly unique in that their overnight success actually took 10 years, so you really get to experience everything Twisted Sister went through to do it. I have to say, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced any group of musicians as ferocious...or as funny.”

We Are Twisted F***ing Sister! puts the fan in the trenches with the band from their early, hungry days in New York City onward through their legendary career. Recounted directly from the band themselves, their managers, and biggest fans, We Are Twisted F***ing Sister! is the mesmerizing, never-before-told story of the ten grueling years leading up to the band’s break out success.

3 DOORS DOWN frontman Brad Arnold has defended the band's decision to perform at President-elect Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration", saying that "it's all about America."

3 DOORS DOWN will perform at the concert on Thursday (January 19), one day before Trump is inaugurated as the new President of the United States. The event, which is open to the public and taking place on the steps of Washington, D.C.'s Lincoln Memorial, will also feature country artists Toby Keith and Lee Greenwood, the Piano Guys and actor Jon Voight.

Other participants in Trump's inauguration plans include "America's Got Talent" singer Jackie Evancho, THE ROCKETTES and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, although members of both the latter groups have expressed concern about performing at the event.

It's been widely reported that the Trump transition team has had trouble attracting A-list talent to appear at the inauguration, with artists like Elton John, Justin Timberlake and others rejecting offers.

TMZ caught up with Arnold as he was leaving rehearsal at the Lincoln Memorial Wednesday night (January 18). Asked by the TMZ cameraman about many other rockers shying away from playing the event, Arnold responded: "Man, it's all about America. We're proud to be here." When the cameraman followed with a question about what it meant to play the Trump inauguration, Arnold repeated his point, saying: "We love America, man. This is gonna be a great experience. It's a great honor to be here, and we're proud to be here."

Although other rock artists like Kid Rock, STAIND singer Aaron Lewis and Ted Nugent have voiced their support for the former reality TV star, they have been absent from the plans for the inauguration.

President Barack Obama's first inauguration in 2009 featured Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, U2, Usher, Stevie Wonder, Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks, among others.

3 DOORS DOWN released its sixth studio album, "Us And The Night", in March 2016.

IRON MAIDEN's hugely successful "The Book Of Souls" world tour will return to North America for an extensive series of arena and amphitheater shows in summer 2017. The mammoth tour opened in Florida last February playing fourteen sold-out shows in the U.S.A and Canada along with a further 58 concerts in 34 other countries around the globe.

First night reviews from Ft. Lauderdale called it "a full-throttle, devil-may-care performance that thrilled a sold-out BB&T Center" (Sun Sentinel) with Revolver magazine reporting how the band's legendary mascot Eddie dominated the Maya-themed stage: "From a walking zombie towering over band members during the set, to being featured on a host of back-drops and huge blow-up figures — the quintessential symbol was omnipresent for the entire show” including Eddie having his heart literally ripped out of his chest and hurled into the crowd by singer Bruce Dickinson!"

Support on the trek will come from GHOST. There will also be some further bands added to the show at San Bernardino.

Tour dates:

Jun. 03 - Bristow, VA - Jiffy Lube Jun. 04 - Philadelphia, PA - Wells Fargo Center Jun. 07 - Newark, NJ - Prudential CenterJun. 09 - Charlotte, NC - Pnc Music Pavilion Jun. 11 - Tampa, FL - Amalie ArenaJun. 13 - Nashville, TN - Bridgestone ArenaJun. 15 - Chicago, IL - Hollywood Casino AmphitheaterJun. 16 - Minneapolis, MN - Xcel Energy CenterJun. 19 - Oklahoma City, OK - Chesapeake ArenaJun. 21 - Houston, TX - Toyota CenterJun. 23 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center Jun. 24 - San Antonio, TX - ATT&T CenterJun. 27 - Albuquerque, NM - Isleta AmphitheaterJun. 28 - Phoenix, AZ - Talking Stick Resort ArenaJul. 01 - San Bernardino, CA - San Manuel AmphitheaterJul. 03 - Las Vegas, NV - T-Mobile CenterJul. 05 - Oakland, CA - Oracle ArenaJul. 07 - Salt Lake City, UT - Usana AmphitheaterJul. 09 - Lincoln, NE - Pinnacle Bank ArenaJul. 11 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint CenterJul. 12 - St Louis, MO - Hollywood Casino AmphitheaterJul. 15 - Toronto, ON - Budweiser StageJul. 16 - Quebec City, QC - Videotron CentreJul. 19 - Mansfield, MA - Xfinity CenterJul. 21 - Brooklyn, NY - Barclays Arena

IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris commented: "We are really looking forward to returning to North America for a full tour. We had always planned to go back there and to the U.K. as last year, due to the global nature of the tour and the period it took, we just didn't have time to cover them properly and we do still like to get to fans in as many places as possible! "So this year we're able to reach many more cities in America, including a return to places MAIDEN haven't played for many, many years like Lincoln Nebraska, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City and Oakland, California. We also welcome playing in Brooklyn for the first time. "We will, of course, be bringing the full production with us, including all the Eddies and the Maya-themed stage sets. There's been a great reaction from everyone to this tour's theme, people really seem to love it. We're still deciding on the final setlist and we'll work that out once we get into rehearsals. Most of our North American fans haven't seen the show yet so as we want to give them the same 'Book Of Souls' live experience that we took around the world, it's unlikely we'll change much. And of course we know our fans appreciate us playing a lot of the older songs too, so we will continue to do that!" Tickets start going on sale Friday, January 27 — check IronMaiden.com for market specific info. As usual, there will be an exclusive pre-sale for IRON MAIDEN fan club members, details of which can also be found on IronMaiden.com along with information on how fan club members can participate in the draw to be "First To The Barrier".

After great feedback to last year's North American trial of the concept, Maiden fans will again be able to enjoy a Trooper VIP Upgrade package that will allow them early access to the venue, a pile of Trooper goodies and MAIDEN swag, Trooper beers, food and a designated area to meet with other fans, plus the opportunity to win some great prizes. The upgrade packages are available at US$199 from TrooperVIP.com. The concert ticket must be purchased separately.

For the 2017 shows, MAIDEN will once again, in conjunction with the Promoters, be implementing a partial paperless ticketing system in as many venues as possible, which they have been successfully doing since 2010 and has worked well in lessening the ticketing scalping and drain of the prime tickets into the Secondary Ticketing sites. "The Book Of Souls" is MAIDEN's first ever double studio album and their most successful chart-wise to date, debuting at the No. 1 spot in over 40 countries around the world and No. 4 in the U.S.A.

Finnish bashers Wintersun will release their new album The Forest Seasons later this year via Nuclear Blast. The band has revealed the album’s tracklisting, which consists of four tracks, all over 12 minutes long.

Tracklisting:

“Awaken From The Dark Slumber (Spring)”
    “Part I – The Dark Slumber”
    “Part II – The Awakening”
“The Forest That Weeps (Summer)”
“Eternal Darkness (Autumn)”
    “Part I – Haunting Darkness”
    “Part II – The Call Of The Dark Dream”
    “Part III – Beyond The Infinite Universe”
    “Part IV – Death”
“Loneliness (Winter)”

The band states on their official Facebook page: “Yes, you guessed it! This album is our version of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, but it hasn´t got anything to do with Vivaldi musically or with classical music. It is 100% original and solid Wintersun material! It is something new and different. Let´s just say it has a bit more darker tone overall... 

“Next week you will know how we are releasing our new album so stay tuned for more details! Click those notifications ON in all our Facebook pages, you don't want to miss the important updates of our new album! (Because of Facebook algorithm reach limit).”

Industrial metal veterans Society 1 have announced Maxxxwell Carlisle (Hellion) as the band's new guitarist. Carlisle most known for his shredding guitar style and collaboration with world renowned cellist Tina Guo is expanding his musical expression into the realm of industrial rock. The new lineup will debut this Friday at Schecter's Annual NAMM Indie Party.

"I'm honored, really honored, to be joining a band with such a rich and storied history. Between the deep metal roots of Hellion and now the boundary pushing mentality of Society 1, I feel like I have access to a full array of methods to express myself as a musician. At this point I'm confident that I can stay committed to both bands and I look forward to challenging myself artistically and meeting new fans", says Carlisle.

Society 1 will be releasing a new album entitled Rise From The Dead early 2017.

Carlisle and Society 1 frontman Lord Zane previously worked together on the production of several music videos including Carlisle's solo release Full Metal Thunder.

Disturbed has uploaded footage performing their hit cover song of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound Of Silence” live in Sheffield, UK.

 

In another new video below, Disturbed perform “Remember” live in Quebec City. The track is from their 2002 studio album Believe.

Disturbed recently released a live video for “Immortalized”, the title track of their 2015 album. The video was was filmed in several venues across North America, Australia, and New Zealand in late 2016. Watch below:

In other news, the band have released this clip offering fans a Happy New Year. Says Disturbed: “Thanks for making 2016 such a great year for us. Wish you all the best for 2017!”

Disturbed are are nominated in the “Best Rock Performance” category with “The Sound Of Silence” (Live On Conan) for the 59th Grammy Awards, which will air live from the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 12th at 8 PM, ET, on CBS. Disturbed are up against Alabama Shakes (“Joe” Live From Austin City Limits), Beyonce featuring Jack White (“Don’t Hurt Yourself”), David Bowie (“Backstar”), and Twenty One Pilots (“Heathens”).

September Mourning have released a video for “20 Below”, a track from their Volume II album, released last July via Sumerian Records. The new clip can be found below.

Volume II tracklisting:

“The Collection”
“Angels To Dust”
“Eye Of The Storm”
“Before The Fall”
“Children Of Fate”
“Skin And Bones”
“20 Below”
“Heart Can Hold”
“Superhuman”
“Live Like You're Alive”
“Stand By Me”
“'Til You See Heaven”

“20 Below” video:

French gore-grinders, Benighted, have released a video for “Reptilian”, a track from their upcoming new album, Necrobreed, to be released on February 18th in Europe, and February 24th in North America via Season Of Mist. Pre-order the new album in various formats at this location.

Benighted deliver total brutality with their new album, Necrobreed. A relentless assault from start to finish, Necrobreed unleashes a torrent of fierce blast beats (courtesy of former Necrophagist drummer Romain Goulon), punishing breakdowns and some of the most savage vocals the genre has ever seen. Necrobreed inflicts maximum aural damage with each and every track, and establishes Benighted as the new face of extreme death metal.

Tracklisting:

“Hush Little Baby”
“Reptilian”
“Psychosilencer”
“Forgive me Father”
“Leatherface”
“Der Doppelgaenger”
“Necrobreed”
“Monsters Make Monsters”
“Cum With Disgust”
“Versipellis”
“Reeks of Darkened Zoopsia”
“Mass Grave”

“Reptilian” video:

Necrobreed by Benighted

British progressive metal forefathers, SikTh, have commenced recording their brand new studio album. The, as yet untitled third album will be their first new full length since 2006’s Death Of A Dead Day and follows on from last year’s acclaimed Opacities EP, recorded after their reunion performance at the UK’s legendary Download Festival. The new album is scheduled for a May release, with the first single and video, entitled “No Wishbones”, due to be release on Friday, February 10th.

Vocalist Mikee Goodman reveals how the recording sessions are progressing: “We’ve started recording and it is sounding really vibey so far. This album should be a lot more aggressive than our Opacities EP on the whole. A lot of slamming grooves there, also lots of intricacy and dynamics as always.”

He goes on to explain the creative process within the band “There is a formula in SikTh which works well. I always take the lead in the early stages and also I write all lyrics. But of course I am open to Joe Rosser, our new vocalist’s melodic input later on. We have not entered that stage yet. These initial steps are me laying my ideas in, since I have a great studio set up, if I do something awesome now, it goes straight on the record. That’s a great thing because as most vocalists will tell you, it’s all about the vibe and feeling. It’s all about the moment.”

The vocals are primarily being recorded at Mikee’s own studio and at Adrian Smith’s (Iron Maiden) R&R Studios; Mikee & Adrian Smith worked together previously on the Primal Rock Rebellion project. The guitars and drums will be recorded at the renowned Monkey Puzzle House studios. Dan Weller will be producing, alongside Adam “Nolly” Getgood (Periphery), handling mixing duties.

The new album is to be released via Millennium Night, the newly created imprint from Snapper Music, home of Peaceville Records and Kscope. The label imprint name, chosen by SikTh, comes from the track taken from their debut 2003 album The Trees Are Dead & Dried Out Wait for Something Wild.

Mikee explains: “We have signed to Millennium Night, which is a new division of Snapper Music; they decided they would invent a new label just for us, we don’t fit in and we never felt the need to.”

On February 24th, Dutch necromantic death metallers AntropomorphiA returns with their latest collection of gospels of the obscene: Sermon Ov Wrath. For a first preview of the album, the title track is available for streaming below.

The new record can be pre-ordered in the following formats:

- CD
- 180g black vinyl
- deep violet marble vinyl (limited to 200 copies)
- blackberry red marble vinyl (limited to 100 copies)
- clear/purple marble vinyl (limited to 100 copies; USA exclusive)

An exclusive t-shirt bundle, plus digital options are also available. Pre-order at this location.

AntropomorphiA singer/guitarist Ferry Damen comments: "This is by far our most diverse and strongest incantation to date. Sermon Ov Wrath has a veil ov our poisonous roots breathing throughout the whole album while never compromising or abiding to any limitation. We've entered a new realm and have become a different type ov beast. Beyond the veil ov wicked Dead!"

Featuring artwork by 13 Candles Tattoo/Madeleine Hoogkamer, Sermon ov Wrath was once again recorded at drummer Marco Stubbe's Aftermath Studio, and then mastered by Tore Stjerna at Necromorbus Studio, giving the album a savage, crushing sound. As their most diverse record to-date, Sermon ov Wrath contains a bewitching atmosphere, furious groovy riffs, and merciless brutality - proving that the band is not afraid to experiment within the genre.

Sermon Ov Wrath tracklisting:

“Sermon Ov Wrath”
“Suspiria de Profundus”
“Murmur Ov The Dead”
“Ad Me Venite Mortui” (Intro)
“Crown Ov The Dead”
“Sinful Rapture”
“Within Her Pale Tomb Ov Putrid Lust”
“The Blistering Splendour Ov Darkness”
“In Bestial Decadence”

“Sermon Ov Wrath”:

AntropomorphiA lineup:

Ferry Damen - vocals, guitar
Jos van den Brand - guitar
Marc van Stiphout - bass
Marco Stubbe - drums

Pride Of Lions have released a video for “All I See Is You”, the lead track on their upcoming fifth studio album, Fearless, out on January 27th. The video, directed by Greg Bizzarro, can be found below.

When Frontiers released Pride Of Lions’ groundbreaking first album in 2003, many people asked, “Is this one of those project bands that do one or two albums and then disappear - or a real band with staying power?” Now, in the year 2017 the answer to that question will be very clear as the band release their new studio album, Fearless. Additionally, their best selling Live In Belgium album and video proves to the world that Jim Peterik and Toby Hitchcock and the powerful Pride Of Lions band is not just a studio concoction, but a live force to be reckoned with, headlining shows in America and Europe.

“We are always trying to top ourselves,” states singer/ songwriter/ guitarist Jim Peterik. “This time I went back and listened closely to all the previous albums to hear the strongest assets of each record: what was working and what could be improved. I went into writing the Fearless material keeping that in mind. I feel it sticks closer to the template we set with our first release, yet goes to new places musically as well like using a Kansas- style fiddle- played by Andrew Ohlrich- on the video/single “All I See is You”."

The songs and performances on Fearless are... well... truly fearless. The title track blazes from the speakers gaining steam with every chorus. “Take the highest ground- stand and fight- you gotta be harder- you gotta be tougher- you gotta be- fearless!” This could be the new battle cry for Rocky Balboa or any common man needing to make a difference in the world.

“When I got together with Jim in Chicago to record, things just caught fire,” enthuses Toby. “I sang 12 vocals in two days! That’s how inspired I was with the new material.”

“Toby hit new heights on this one,” raves Jim. “I was sitting behind the recording console with Larry Millas just one big goose bump as Toby glided from hard rockers like “Rising Up”, classic melodic rock like “All I See Is You” to a heartfelt ode to timeless love - “Everlasting Love”.”

Future classics include “The Tell”, where the main character is giving off signals she may not even realize to the mesmerizing magic of “Silent Music” (“I can’t help it if I talk funny- I can’t express the way I feel in spoken words- hold on”) to the mysterious “Freedom Of The Night”. That last one was written with former Jimi Jamison keyboardist Hal Butler and the lyric, chord changes and melody seem to channel what Jimi might now be singing if his life had not been tragically cut short.

“The last track is one of my faves,” states Toby Hitchcock. “I think we all can relate to the often painful process of figuring out just who we are and how we fit on this planet. “Unmasking The Mystery” is not something that happens all at once - it happens over time and on our last day we still won’t have all the answers.”

The album will be supported by live dates in the States and abroad with the first show on January 28th as a part of Jim Peterik’s World Stage at Wentz Hall in Naperville, Illinois.

Fearless tracklisting:

“All I See Is You”
“The Tell”
“In Caricature”
“Silent Music”
“Fearless”
“Everlasting Love”
“Freedom Of The Night”
“The Light In Your Eyes”
“Rising Up”
“The Silence Says It All”
“Faster Than A Prayer”
“Unmasking The Mystery”

“All I See Is You” video:

“The Light In Your Eyes”:

“Silent Music”:

“The Tell”:

Documentary Part 1:

Documentary Part 2:

Pride Of Lions lineup:

Jim Peterik: Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards
Toby Hitchcock: Vocals
Ed Breckenfeld - drums
Klem Hayes - bass
Mike Aquino - guitar

METALLICA was joined by Lang Lang during the band's January 18 concert at LeSports Center in Beijing.

As expected, the Chinese concert pianist played METALLICA's classic song "One" from the "…And Justice For All" album.

Fan-filmed video footage of Lang Lang's appearance can be seen below.

METALLICA previously performed the track with Lang Lang in January 2014 at the 56th annual Grammy Awards.

In announcing its collaboration with Lang Lang at the Beijing concert, METALLICA called their joint appearance at the Grammy Awards three years ago "one of the most creative, unique performances of our career."

Grammys executive producer Ken Ehrlich told ABC News Radio about how METALLICA's collaboration with Lang Lang came about: "METALLICA's manager was in China and he met with a guy who presents Lang Lang there, and they just started talking about it. Independently, I actually had called [METALLICA's] manager and said, 'Look, we're interested in you in the Grammys this year,' and the first thing out of his mouth was, 'How about us and Lang Lang?'"

"Somehow the METALLICA team had this great idea to work together," Lang Lang told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

"The Grammys are basically a stage for synthesizing music together. It's a perfect stage for musical friends to be united."

He added: "They were such cool people and I had a wonderful time working with them.

"Now everywhere I go, particularly in America, everyone is talking about it," Lang Lang said. "Even checking into a place, going through customs, people say, 'Wow, you played really great!'"

During the rehearsals for the Grammy Awards, METALLICA drummer Lars Ulrich told Artisan News about playing with Lang Lang: "Well, I would like to think that on a broader scale that music is music. We have a tendency in METALLICA to not look much beyond that in terms of definitions. But, obviously, he's a very talented musician, he's a very dynamic musician, he projects himself very well. I mean, when he plays, he's really full of energy and he's got a lot of kind of showmanship and kind of energy that protrudes off the stage and right into people's hearts and souls. So I would like to think that it's a good collaboration."

METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett told Rolling Stone that the band's performance at the Grammy Awards was "completely insane." He explained, "Lang Lang has interjected himself into the song in a way I don't think anyone else has ever done in the course of our career. He's playing major parts of the song. He's playing through the melody."

Hammett told The Pulse Of Radio that the song's arrangement highlighted Lang Lang's playing without changing the song. "We're not lightening up the song just for him," he said. "We're still hanging onto all the heavy parts and it's gonna be amazing. He's just an amazing pianist, and at one point he's, like, weaving in and out of my guitar solo and playing parts of my guitar solo with me. That's interesting. I've never, ever experienced that ever before with anyone we've ever played with."

"One" was the first single released from METALLICA's 1988 album "…And Justice For All", becoming the first song from the band to gain substantial commercial radio airplay. It was also the basis for the first music video the group ever did.

"Sentence Day", a brand new song from Florida death metal veterans OBITUARY, can be streamed below. The track is taken from the band's self-titled, tenth studio album, which will be released on March 17 via Relapse.

Picking up where 2014's "Inked In Blood" left off, OBITUARY show no signs of slowing down as they continue to reign as kings of death metal. Recorded at the band's home studio in Tampa, "Obituary" is a ten-track tour de force of bone-pulverizing death metal that is as heavy, uncompromising and infectious as anything they've released in the group's historic, nearly 30-year career.

"Obituary" track listing:

01. Brave02. Sentence Day03. Lesson In Vengeance04. End It Now05. Kneel Before Me06. It Lives07. Betrayed08. Turned To Stone09. Straight To Hell10. Ten Thousand Ways To Die

The cover art was created by Andreas Marschall and can be seen below.

Commented OBITUARY vocalist John Tardy: "When writing records the song titles and album titles are always the last things on our minds. We know that the songs themselves are the most important thing, so with this our tenth studio album and nearly three decades as a band, we thought it was the perfect time for a self-titled release. It always helps to have a killer album cover so we worked with Andreas Marschall, gave him our ideas and thoughts and asked him to break out the big guns to create an epic logo and he delivered like he always has for OBITUARY." Added the band in a collective statement: "We could not be any more excited about this new album. We had a blast writing and recording it and having Ken [Andrews, guitar] and Terry [Butler, bass] as part of the writing process was a very cool experience for all of us.

"We really took our time with the writing process of these new songs, recording riffs and ideas as we went along and recording them as rough mixes then listening back and making necessary changes to help mold them into the songs that we are extremely proud of. "It's always a challenge in the studio to get the song ideas out of your head onto the recording the way you want but we made sure we were comfortable with the songs and the sounds we were getting before we even hit the record button and it made it a great experience.

"It's hard to believe it's been two and a half years since the release of 'Inked In Blood' and we are so excited to get this new album into the hands of our fans.

"Can't wait for everyone to hear it. Hang on to your ass!!!!"

OBITUARY will hit the road this spring as part of the 2017 Decibel Magazine Tour with KREATOR, HORRENDOUS and MIDNIGHT. The tour kicks off on March 17 in Charlotte, North Carolina and runs through April 15 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Photo credit: Ester Segarra

Seattle grunge legends SOUNDGARDEN will release a remixed deluxe edition of "Ultramega OK" on March 10 via Sub Pop. This remixed and expanded reissue is a long-planned "correction" of the legendary band's Grammy-nominated debut full-length.

"Ultramega OK" was originally recorded and released in 1988 on SST Records. While the band enjoyed working with the original producer, Drew Canulette, they soon realized they weren't quite happy with the final mix. Thus, shortly after the album's release, the band decided to remix the album for subsequent pressings. However, success intervened: the band rapidly scored a deal with A&M and began work on their major-label debut, "Louder Than Love", and the "Ultramega OK" remix project fell by the wayside as SOUNDGARDEN climbed their way to (ultra)mega-stardom.

In 2016, after worldwide success, a breakup, a reunion, and many albums and tours, the band finally acquired the original multi-track tapes to "Ultramega OK" and carved out time to dig into the remix. They handed the tapes over to longtime friend and engineer Jack Endino (NIRVANA, MUDHONEY, SCREAMING TREES, SKIN YARD), who worked with the band to create a fresh mix of the album that, for the band, ties up this persistent loose end and remedies the sound of their debut album.

While they were at it, the band dug out six early versions of tracks that wound up on "Ultramega OK". The songs were recorded in 1987 on 8-track tape by Jack Endino and Chris Hanzsek at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle, and mixed by Jack Endino in 2016. These versions feature the band in raw, powerful form — sonically closer to the band's Endino-recorded debut EP "Screaming Life" — and provide a fascinating window into the development of songs that eventually became staples of the band's set. The six songs comprise what the band refers to as "Ultramega" EP, and they are included in this reissue.

Hailed as grunge innovators, SOUNDGARDEN redefined rock music for a generation. In the '80s, the band — singer/guitarist Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Hiro Yamamoto, and drummer Matt Cameron — combined a punk ethos, brutal metal soundscapes, and Cornell's ravenous roar to capture the attention of the masses. Jagged and ferocious, their music was deeply at odds with the synth-pop and hair metal which dominated the '80s airwaves. Early indie releases, including seminal "Screaming Life" and "Ultramega OK", quickly led to a dedicated indie following as the band toured on both sides of the Atlantic. Subsequent albums, including "Badmotorfinger", "Superunknown" and "Down On The Upside", achieved multi-platinum sales and launched the band to international fame.

"Ultramega OK" reissue track listing:

01. Flower02. All Your Lies03. 66504. Beyond The Wheel05. 66706. Mood For Trouble07. Circle Of Power08. He Didn't09. Smokestack Lightning10. Nazi Driver11. Head Injury12. Incessant Mace13. One Minute Of Silence14. Head Injury (Early Version)15. Beyond The Wheel (Early Version)16. Incessant Mace (Short) [Early Version]17. He Didn't (Early Version)18. All Your Lies (Early Version)19. Incessant Mace (Long) [Early Version]

The official lyric video for "Built To Last", the title track of the tenth studio album from Swedish melodic metallers HAMMERFALL, can be seen below. The disc was released on November 4 via Napalm Records.

Comments HAMMERFALL guitarist Oscar Dronjak: "We wanted to do something simple yet effective, so we recorded this in my studio during tour rehearsals. The computer effects give the video a really cool and unique atmosphere, and we're super pleased with how it turned out!"

HAMMERFALL kicked off a European headlining tour on January 12 in Bremen, Germany. A North American trek with DELAIN will launch in April.

Drummer David Wallin recently left HAMMERFALL in order to focus on his family life. He has since been replaced by Johan Koleberg, formerly of THERION and LION'S SHARE.

Oscar recently told Distorted Sound about the songwriting process for "Built To Last": "It was difficult for me this time, because normally when we write songs for an album, I need six to eight months without anything going on. I need to able to think about writing songs, and I need to be able to have that in my head all the time. This time, pretty much every other month we were doing a tour somewhere, so that disrupted the whole process for me a lot, which made it more difficult in the end, because it was more stressful, and I never got the chance to enjoy writing songs the way I normally do. When one song was finished, I just wanted to move onto the next one rather than finishing one song and being able to savor the moment for a while — I never had any time to do that, so it was a little bit difficult, but I trusted my gut instinct that the songs that I had done were good enough, that I would like them in the end and it turned out to be really, really good. I'm very happy with everything, despite the pain that I went through to create it. I believe the saying is all art comes through pain."

Regarding the musical influences for "Built To Last", Oscar said: "It's the same things as always for me. When I'm in songwriting mode and I know that over the next couple of months I'll be writing songs, I usually try to listen to a lot of the music that I had been inspired by over the years. For example, JUDAS PRIEST are always one of my main inspirations, and I have this thing that I do where I go back and listen to their albums chronologically; I don’t mean that I put it on at one o'clock and then listen to all of them in a row, but when I listen to JUDAS PRIEST, I always listen to the next album in succession. I started with 'Rocka Rolla' and then went on to 'Sad Wings Of Destiny' and, of course, onward from there. By doing that, I see the development of the band in a different way, because the first album I'd heard by them was 'Screaming For Vengeance', and then I listened to every new album as it came out, so for me going through the albums chronologically it gives me a sense of nostalgia, but also for me it's a great way to see how JUDAS PRIEST has developed. I've done this with a number of different bands, KISS, MANOWAR, ACCEPT and KING DIAMOND as well. This is just a tool for me to find inspiration, basically."

Horror icon Bill Moseley — most notable as Chop Top in "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2", and Otis in Rob Zombie's "House Of 1000 Corpses" and "Devil's Rejects" — recently joined forces with extreme music legend Philp H. Anselmo (DOWN, PANTERA, SUPERJOINT, SCOUR, PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS, ARSON ANTHEM) for a very special collaborative release titled "Songs Of Darkness And Despair".

Due on January 20 via Anselmo's own Housecore Records, the five-track offering was produced and performed by Anselmo and Stephen "The Big Fella" Berrigan (DOWN, SYK, PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS, EYEHATEGOD, HAARP, CLASSHOLE), and mastered by Scott Hull of Visceral Sound.

"Songs Of Darkness And Despair" includes guest appearances by Kevin Bond (SUPERJOINT) on guitar, Squizzy Squires (KING PARROT) on bass and guitar, and José "Blue" Gonzalez (SUPERJOINT, WARBEAST, PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS) on percussion.

You can now listen to "Songs Of Darkness And Despair" in its entirety using the SoundCloud widget below. From preppie journalist to Satanic serial killer, Bill Moseley's taken a long and unusual road to cult stardom, firmly cementing his place in the annals of horror history along the way. Having released his "Spider Mountain" record, and collaborated with Buckethead on their CORNBUGS project, Moseley expands his musical endeavors by teaming up with Anselmo. BILL & PHIL's "Songs Of Darkness And Despair" is a brilliant trip that will give everyone a thrill. Comments Anselmo: "Working with Mr. Moseley was an awesome experience! Bill brought the lyrics and Stephen [Berrigan] and I just improvised directly on the spot, and squeezed out six tunes in three days. All the songs have a different vibe because I wanted the music to represent Bill's lyrical vision(s), and we needed to, because Bill does indeed have a unique, visual element within his choice of words and phrasing. I love Bill Moseley, and can't wait to work on the next one! Be cool and enjoy this one!" BILL & PHIL's "Songs Of Darkness And Despair" preorder bundles (including limited-edition air fresheners and face masks) are available at the Housecore store.

Additionally, you can check out a hilarious interview with Moseley and Anselmo courtesy of Little Punk People below. "Songs Of Darkness And Despair" track listing:

01. Dirty Eye02. Corpus Crispy03. Catastrophic04. Widder Woman05. Tonight's The Night We Die06. Bad Donut