In a new interview with Chris Akin Presents, METALLICA's former producer Fleming Rasmussen discussed the sound of the band's "...And Justice For All" album. While "...And Justice For All" is considered one of METALLICA's classics, it has been criticized almost since the day it was released in 1988 for the lack of any bass guitar on the record. Jason Newsted's playing is virtually buried in the mix — and many fans feel that drummer Lars Ulrich, who had very specific ideas for how he wanted his drums to sound, is to blame.

Rasmussen, who produced "Justice", as well as "Ride The Lightning" (1984) and "Master Of Puppets" (1986),was asked if he was mad when he first heard the "...And Justice For All" mix. He said: "Yeah, I was. Lars came and played it to me, and I looked at him and I said, 'What's that?' He said, 'It's the mix.' I said, 'No, it's not.' And he was, like, 'Yes, it is.' I said, 'What? There's no bass.' He said, 'Yeah, there it is. You can hear it. It's in the bottom of the guitars.' I was, like, 'No.'"

Flemming continued: "You're gonna have to ask Lars and James [Hetfield, METALLICA frontman] why they took the bass down, 'cause I didn't mix it. Because I came in so late, they had already hired Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero to do the mixing. And I mean, just go online, [and] you can get the story from the horse's mouth what happened. There's no reason for me to retell that. It was Lars and James. And why they did that, I'm not even sure they know themselves."

In a separate interview with Daniel Sarkissian, Rasmussen offered a different theory as to what happened in the studio, saying: "I think — but this is purely speculation — I think that they did it to get some kind of reaction from Jason. Because what they hated the most about Jason was that he was a fan. He was never disagreeing or anything, or stating his own opinion. I think they were waiting for him to kind of state his place in the band… I think they probably did it to get a reaction, and when it didn't come, that was the way the album turned out."

Five years ago, Hetfield defended the sound of "...And Justice For All", saying that he and his bandmates simply "wanted the best-sounding record" they could make. "It was not all about, 'Fuck [Jason]. Let's turn him down.' That's for sure," he said. "We wanted the best-sounding record we could make. That was our goal. We were burnt. We were frigging fried. Going back and forth [between touring and mixing the album]. Playing a gig. No earplugs, no nothing. You go back into the studio, your hearing is shot. If your ears can't hear any high end anymore, you're gonna turn it up. So we're turning the high end up more and more and more and all of a sudden, low end's gone. So I know that played a bigger part than any hazing or any ill feelings towards Jason, for sure. We were fried. We were burnt."

Hetfield also addressed some of the criticism leveled at METALLICA by one of the "...And Justice For All" album mixers, Steve Thompson. In a 2015 interview with Ultimate Guitar, Thompson suggested that Ulrich was the culprit for the lack of any bass guitar on the record, claiming that Lars wanted his drums to sound a certain way — even if it meant cutting out the bass.

"We wanted it tight," James explained. "We wanted it fucking tight. That's what we wanted. We wanted the snare, we wanted the guitar, we wanted everything up front and in your face and really tight. And we thought we got it. And, you know, we kinda know what we want to sound like. Can we sit behind a desk and make it happen? No. We ask people to do it, and they do it. So [Thompson] did his job. He's got nothing to apologize for or point fingers at. No one's to blame for 'something.' It is a piece of art. It happened and it ended up the way it is for a reason. And for reasons we were just talking about. We were burnt. We're traveling, we're playing a gig, our ears were fried. We were not sleeping. He doesn't need to defend himself. He was a part of an awesome album in history, so I think he should be maybe be a little easier on himself."

James also once again dismissed calls for METALLICA to remix "…And Justice For All" so that Newsted's contributions are more audible.

"All this [bass discussion] is after the fact, and it's, like, who gives a shit, man, really?" Hetfield said. "And why would you change that? Why would you change history? Why would you all of a sudden put bass on it? There is bass on it, but why would you remix an album? You can remaster it, yes, but why would you remix something and make it different? It'd be like… I don't know. Not that I'm comparing us to the Mona Lisa, but it's, like, 'Uh, can we make her smile a little better?!' You know?! Why?"

In a 2008 interview with Decibel magazine, METALLICA guitarist Kirk Hammett attempted to explain the lack of bass on "…And Justice For All", saying that "the reason you can't hear the bass so well is because the bass frequencies in Jason's tone kinda interfered with the tone that James was trying to shoot for with his rhythm guitar sound, and every time the two blended together, it just wasn't happening. So the only thing left to do was turn the bass down in the mix. It was unfortunate, but for some reason or another, that album is known for the low end being there without the bass being very high up in the mix. It was an experiment, too — we were totally going for a dry, in-your-face sound, and some people really like that sound. A lot of the newer-generation bands, especially, think that album sounds great. But at the end of the day, it was an experiment. I'm not really sure it was 100 percent successful, but it is a unique sound that that album has."

In the Ultimate Guitar interview, Thompson said that he spoke out because he was tired of being blamed for the lack of bass. He remarked: "They flew us out [to METALLICA's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2009] and I'm sitting with Lars. He goes, 'Hey, what happened to the bass in 'Justice'?' He actually asked me that. I wanted to cold cock him right there. It was a shame because I'm the one getting the shit for the lack of bass."

Ulrich told The Pulse Of Radio a while back that fans were extremely vocal about the sound of the album at the time of its release. "I mean, it was unbelievable, you know, '...And Justice For All', " he said. "People were saying, 'That's the worst-sounding record, where's the bass, and it sounds like it was recorded in a garage, and...' But, you know, listen, you do the best you can in the moment and then you move on."

During a press conference at this past weekend's Hellfest in Clisson, France, Tom Morello, the guitarist, songwriter and political activist who's known for his work with RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE, AUDIOSLAVE and for his solo act, spoke about why he has spent his career not only making music but also making a difference in the lives of others. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Across 21 records, there's really one message that is a thread through all of my music, and that is that the world is not going to change itself. That is up to you. And by you, I literally mean you — the people watching on your thing and your thing; that's how the world changes. And sometimes it seems like this sort of monolithic problem that we'll never be able to get past and the world cannot be changed or the worst people are the ones in charge, and they often are. But you are not witnesses to history; you are agents of history. History is not something that happened; it's something you make. Whenever there has been a progressive radical, even revolutionary positive change for the better, it's come from people who are no different than anyone in this room or any of the audiences that you're writing for or that your videos are for. Once you have that realization that you do have your hands on the wheel of history and of this planet, and if you wanna make it a more peaceful, a more just, a more equitable, a more anti-racist, a more environmentally sound place, there's no one to blame if it doesn't happen but you for not standing up."

Morello, who has repeatedly said that social change has always been his main motivation for making music, also talked about where he finds the inspiration for his songwriting in a world that is increasingly divided.

"At any given historical moment, you stand in the place where you live and you stand in the place where you were," he explained. "That's it. So some people are, like, 'You guys made RAGE records 30 years ago, and now look at the horrible state of the world.' Imagine what it would be like if we didn't make RAGE records 30 years ago. At every moment, you do what you can, when you can, where you can. That's the way that I look at it. And the arc of history is a long one, and there are very, very challenging times now certainly in my country, and I know here as well. And in part, literally the fate of the planet is at stake over the course of the next few decades. So it's time for metalheads to get their shit together."

Asked if he sometimes feels overwhelmed by everything that is going on in the world, Tom said: "It is overwhelming. And from the climate stuff to Gaza, there's a lot. But what I look at is, like, today I'm gonna do everything I can to do several things. One is to be to play the best guitar I can, to sing the best I can, to have my band, the FREEDOM FIGHTER ORCHESTRA, deliver the goods in a way that is gonna be a compelling and artistically meaningful moment. And if I do that right, the message that rides on that is gonna touch somebody. Now there's 70,000 people out there [at this year's Hellfest]. I don't know if it touches seven of them, or 7,000 of them, or whatever, but I know that over the course of 30 years, doing that, the thing I just described to you, has had repercussions far beyond what I ever imagined it could."

When one reporter suggested that there is no hope for humanity amid a barrage of global crises, with war, famine and disease threatening global peace, Tom said: "Well, first of all, I disagree with you there's no hope. I would say, though, to not be so… the one option that I might suggest is to not be so wrapped up in being pure that it stops you from acting. If you drink a Pepsi, you're not going to hell because you've supported some corporation. What is important to do, change comes from below — real meaningful change comes from below. It always has. People organize, and the world changes. These are really difficult times that we're in. The planet has been in difficult times before — sometimes as dire as, or more dire than this. And when it has come out on the right side of history, it's because people just like you, even in times when they could despair, didn't despair. That's how the world changes. This is a dire historical moment, but it is not a unique historical moment. And the way I look at it, I'm stuck being a guitar player. I'm cursed. It's my calling. I didn't choose it; it chose me. So now I've gotta find some way to win to bend this weird hobby that I picked up as a teenager and try to change the fucking world with it. And it's not easy, but wherever you are and whatever your job is, whatever your life is, whether it's standing up to illegitimate authority in your home, your place of work, your school, your country, or whatever, like I said before, history is not something that happens. It's something that we make. So I would encourage you and your listeners, or whatever, to not despair — to act."

Last week, Tom released his new solo single, "Soldier In The Army Of Love". The song, which was co-written with his "guitar wizard son" Roman Morello, was described by Tom as "a generational rock anthem from the Morellos." "Soldier In The Army Of Love" is the lead single from Tom's first-ever full-length solo rock album, due later in the year.

Tom was the sole member of RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE who attended the band's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony last November at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's Rock Hall induction came after the band appeared on six ballots.

In October 2022, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE canceled its North American tour, three months after singer Zack De La Rocha severed his left Achilles tendon, leaving a mere eight inches of the tendon intact.

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE's comeback tour, which was first announced in 2019 and then delayed several times due to the pandemic, marked the first time the reunited rap-metal quartet had hit the road together since 2011.

Reissue specialist label Madfish have shared details of 8314 Boxed, a limited-edition deluxe box set tribute to Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson’s treasured solo works. 


The package, set for release for August 23, will include:
-Exclusive first-time vinyl releases of Divinities: Twelve Dances With God, The Secret Language Of Birds (2LP), and Rupi’s Dance (2LP)
-Walk Into Light, Divinities: Twelve Dances With God and Homo Erraticus remastered at half speed by Air Studio
-Roaming In The Gloaming LP offers previously unreleased live recordings from 1995-2007
-Beautiful side D etchings on 3 of the 10 records
-96-page book with foreword by Ian Anderson, extensive liner notes by Paul Sexton and exclusive pictures







Preorder here.


Ian Anderson’s solo albums explore different sonic landscapes and instrumental line-ups, each record in this box set standing as a testament to his versatility. From the electronic experimentation in Walk Into Light and the profound narratives of Homo Erraticus, to the acoustic serenity of The Secret Language Of Birds, these albums are a reflection of Anderson's unending creativity and his ability to seamlessly blend diverse musical styles into cohesive, captivating works.





8314 Boxed 10LP breakdown:
Walk Into Light (1983) – half-speed remaster
Divinities: Twelve Dances With God (1995) – first time on vinyl, half-speed remaster
The Secret Language Of Birds (2LP) (2000), etching on side D – first time on vinyl
Rupi’s Dance (2LP) (2003), etching on side D – first time on vinyl
Thick As A Brick 2 (2LP) (2012), etching on side D
Homo Erraticus (2014) – half-speed remaster
Roaming In The Gloaming (previously unreleased live shows from 1995-2007)


“Hey, but someone has to try oddball things, don’t they? Might as well be me...” - Ian Anderson


Ian Anderson’s mind as a listener, which would mature into a lifetime of format-blurring creative ingenuity, was opened when he was a mere six-year-old. By then, already relocated with his family from his birthplace in Dunfermline to Edinburgh, he heard an old family 78 rpm disc of Glenn Miller and his Orchestra's irresistible gem of 1939, In The Mood. 


“My father had a few treasured wartime records, mostly big-band stuff,” he told Prog magazine. “I remember having an epiphany, because ‘In The Mood’ introduces you to the elements of blues, effectively. That was my first moment of thinking: ‘Hmm, this music is something special.’”


A word from Ian Anderson on 8314 Boxed:


“Since 1983, I have made a few solo albums, not as dissatisfaction with fellow musicians or the group identity but usually just to try something a bit different, whether sonically, stylistically or in terms of instrumental line-up. These records all stand out for me as being quite different from each other and in some ways demonstrate a broader depth of my songwriting. The flute instrumental Divinities record is one of my favourites to this day.”

In a new interview with Australia's Metal Roos, STEEL PANTHER drummer Stix Zadinia spoke about the band's songwriting process. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "[STEEL PANTHER guitarist] Satchel is our main songwriter. When you've got a guy like Satchel in your band who plays the guitar the way he does, and he's like genetically engineered to write '80s-style heavy metal riffs and he's incredibly talented and gifted…. When we're on the road, everybody's throwing ideas out as far as, like, someone says something funny, and we start writing stuff down. And then generally what will happen is he'll sketch out a verse and a chorus, or sometimes he'll have half a song or a whole song, and then he'll generally bring it to me next, because he and I are kind of simpatico in the music department. And if it's something that I go, 'Oh, dude, yeah, let's roll,' he'll get fired up. Once we decide what we wanna do on a record, then we go into a pre-production situation where we work out the little details so we don't spend the time and money in the studio. We'll go do pre-production at rehearsal studios, but we play so much on the road that we don't rehearse and we don't get in a band room because there's no time and it's not necessary. With e-mail, we can do ideas at home, just flip something over to the other guy and go, 'Hey, dude.' Or he'll throw me an idea and he'll go, 'Hey, what are you hearing on drums for this?' And that's kind of how it goes generally. I mean, obviously there's variations, but that's the general vibe."

He continued: "When I was young, you lived near the guys you played with. And as we get older, we moved different places. Satchel lives out in Vegas. I live out in L.A. And so to get together, it's, like, okay, well, somebody's gotta hop a flight or make a four-hour drive. So we just throw ideas back and forth."

Stix also talked about the importance of knowing the ins and outs of music business and learning how to generate profit and endure longevity.

"Fortunately, we are our own record company," he explained. "We're like the biggest DIY band ever. We're the merch company. We do it all. Yeah, we do. So we manage our band. But I have guys who are specialists. I have a merch guy who works with us. And then I have a touring guy who does all the logistics. But we oversee it all. We don't have a management company. We don't have a merch company. We do it all, man."

He continued: "I cannot express how much value there is in knowing your business and doing it yourself. Look, when we got rid of management in 2017 and I decided to take it on, I was, like, 'Hey, I know that I don't know everything, but I know specialists who know things about this lane and that lane and this plane.' So as long as you know that you don't know everything, you can find the answers. And it's done wonders for our business, our bottom line."

Stix added that "you have to have somebody in the band who's interested and halfway able to focus" in order to be a self-managed act.

"It's cool, man," he said. "We really are DIY. It's awesome."

The California glam metal jokesters recently announced the final batch of headline dates in the U.S. as part of their "On The Prowl" world tour 2024. The band will return to the road in the United States on August 23 in Buffalo, New York and continue through September 14, where it will wrap up in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The 15-date trek will make stops in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire (August 24-25); Portland, Maine (August 30); Baton Rouge, Louisiana (September 8) and Augusta, Georgia (September 14),to name a few. Additional information on all ticket and VIP packages, including meet-and-greets, exclusive merch items, early entry and more for all tour dates can be found at steelpantherrocks.com.

STEEL PANTHER recently had another career first as they have moved their brand into the world of skateboarding. The band has spent the past year designing an official skateboard deck complete with band illustration on the bottom, custom grip tape and fluorescent green wheels. The "Build A Board" bundle sells for $124.99 (trucks and bearings are not included) for the STEEL PANTHER skateboarder in your life and there is a "Wall Hanger" bundle for $74.99 for the non-skateboarder that loves bitchin' artwork.

Formed in 2000, STEEL PANTHER specializes in imitating and exaggerating the less flattering aspects of 1980s hair metal, with unrepentantly crude, non-PC sexual content as a favorite lyrical theme.

The group's music has been described as "VAN HALEN meets MÖTLEY CRÜE meets RATT meets 'Wayne's World', complete with operatic shrieks, misogyny, shredding guitar solos and libidinal overdrive."

Sixteen years ago, STEEL PANTHER changed its name from METAL SKOOL to its current moniker and shifted the focus of its act from '80s metal covers to originals.

STEEL PANTHER's sixth studio album, "On The Prowl", was released in February 2023.

In September 2022, STEEL PANTHER announced the addition of Spyder as the band's new bassist.

In a recent interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, W.A.S.P. frontman Blackie Lawless was asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2015's "Golgotha" album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We still are [working on it]. What happened was when we came back from the European tour, I had to have surgery and stuff, about a year prior to that, we had been working on a lot of new stuff. And when I came back, I've had a long time to go through those early demos, of what we have been working on. Listening to it with fresh ears, some of it's really good, but there's not enough of it yet where I would be comfortable in saying, 'Okay, this is finished, and let's go with it.' I'd like to go back and visit the drawing board, so to speak, and see what else is there. Because even from a two-year period of when we started working on that before to where we are right now, you're gonna gain so much, you're gonna grow so much."

Blackie continued: "I've learned you don't make records or I don't make records anymore that are spread out over a two- or three-year period, because the guy you are when you first start making it is not the guy you are when you finish making it. Get in, six months top to bottom, get that thing cranked out, because, like I said, if you don't, you end up running the risk of it kind of being a schizophrenic type of record where you've got one type of one thing and then the other half is something else and it has no real cohesiveness."

Asked what kind of stuff inspires him now in 2024, Blackie said: "Well, when we got ready to start this record a couple years ago, my mindset was I wanted to do a heavy, nasty, stinky rock and roll record. And that's where my heart was at. But when I started to write, that's not what was coming out. And so when you first start the process, you think, 'Okay. We'll go along with whatever comes out to begin with, but I wanna try to start steering this ship in a different direction as time goes by.' And that's just not what was happening. It was stuff that was more in-depth. And I thought, we did call 'Golgotha', that's one of those thinking man's records, and I thought, I don't wanna do that this time. I wanna do something that's a little lighter, like I said, a little nastier, stinkier old-time rock and roll, but as hard as I was trying to force it in that direction, that's not what was happening. Now, when we get done with this tour and the European tour next year, then it'll be time to start looking at that again in earnest. So who knows where we'll come out of it again? To give you an honest answer, I'd need a crystal ball right now to tell you that, 'cause I don't know."

Last November, Blackie addressed the high musical standard of W.A.S.P. most recent albums, telling Canada's The Metal Voice: "Nobody makes money making records anymore. So if you're going to make records now, you're doing it because of your legacy. And if you're going to do that, then you really have to make sure that it's as strong as it can be, because it's always gonna be measured against what you did to begin with."

He continued: "All bands, they make their bones the first five years they're together, the first five or six records they make; their whole legacy is cemented there. It doesn't mean you can't make good records later on down the line, but everything is gonna be constantly compared to that… In other words, think of whatever new record you do now as your opening act. It's always gonna be compared to that early stuff. And so for it to get an honest review or a fair shake, so to speak, that new record has to maybe be even better than the original stuff was, because people have had so many years to romance those older songs in their heads. And when you go up against people that have been doing that for a long time, it's hard to erase those memories, and you don't wanna do that anyway. But you just want the new stuff to have a chance to compete. And the only way that new stuff can do that is they have to be solid records."

2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of W.A.S.P.'s first album. To celebrate this classic metal album, W.A.S.P. will, for the first time in 40 years, play the entire album from top to bottom, start to finish, on a fall 2024 North American tour, dubbed "Album ONE Alive", this fall. Support on the trek will come from DEATH ANGEL and UNTO OTHERS.

Along with bassist Mike Duda and lead guitarist Doug Blair, whose tenures in the band are 29 and 26 years respectively, W.A.S.P. is joined by longtime drummer extraordinaire Aquiles Priester.

The 39-city run kicks off on Saturday, October 26 in San Luis Obispo, California, making stops across North America in Vancouver, British Columbia; Toronto, Ontario; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Dallas, Texas; New York City; Orlando, Florida; and more before wrapping up on Saturday, December 14 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California.

W.A.S.P. will again offer fans VIP tickets that give fans a chance to meet Blackie Lawless, get a personal photo with Blackie, autographs and take part in a very personal question-and-answer session with Blackie. VIP tickets can be purchased at waspnation.myshopify.com.

Because of the extensive back injuries Lawless suffered during the European leg of W.A.S.P.'s 40th-anniversary tour, the band's previously announced 2023 U.S. tour was canceled.

W.A.S.P.'s massive European leg of the 40th-anniversary world tour wrapped on May 18, 2023 in Sofia, Bulgaria at Universidada Sports Hall.

W.A.S.P. wrapped up its first U.S. tour in 10 years with a sold-out show on December 11, 2022 at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. This marked the 18th sold-out shows for the U.S. tour, which kicked off in late October 2022. W.A.S.P.'s performances included the return of the band's classic song "Animal (Fuck Like a Beast)", which hadn't been played live in over 15 years.

W.A.S.P.'s latest release was "ReIdolized (The Soundtrack To The Crimson Idol)", which came out in February 2018. It was a new version of the band's classic 1992 album "The Crimson Idol", which was re-recorded to accompany the movie of the same name to mark the 25th anniversary of the original LP's release. The re-recorded version also features four songs missing from the original album.

On August 2 internationally, Personal Records will release Mourners Lament's second album, A Grey Farewell, on CD format.


Formed in 2004, Mourners Lament are a doom-death metal band hailing from Viña del Mar, Chile. During their first years, they released a demo in 2004 and then an EP, Unbroken Solemnity, in 2008. Those two recordings launched the quintet onto numerous gigs within the Chilean doom scene, some of them with classic bands like Poema Arcanus and Mar de Grises. 


Lineup changes followed during the next handful of years, as Mourners Lament underwent a minor period of silence while preparing what would be their debut album. Titled We All Be Given, the band's first full-length would first be released in 2016 by esteemed national label Canometal Records, and then later the next year internationally through Hammerheart Records. Between the two editions, Mourners Lament established themselves as a considerable new(er) name in the wider doom-death scene.




After the debut album's initial release, Mourners Lament continued playing live shows in their native Chile, climbing to a higher position in the national doom scene. Later on, two new members took over drums and vocal duties, and a new lineup was established in 2019, which continues to this day. This new-look Mourners Lament brought fresh sounds and spirit to the band, resulting in the new EP Grieving at a Distance in 2022 and their first adventure in European territory that same year. 


After the Euro tour, which included an appearance at the renowned Dutch Doom Days festival, the band started the process of a new album. At last here, A Grey Farewell easily eclipses its not-inconsiderable full-length predecessor. Here, Mourners Lament erect a towering monument to misery: six songs in nearly 65 minutes, the album is an emotional and dark journey across a majestic & melancholic landscape. Undoubtedly, it's pure doom-death by definition - riffs crush and then reverberate, rhythms lumber before nearly disappearing into darkness, guttural vocals either meld with both or play counterpart, and icy, almost-sensual synths flow with subtlety and a quiet power - but Mourners Lament prove to be masterful songwriters, patiently building arcs that unfold dark drama and bittersweet emotion, and then seamlessly threading the whole experience together as one unified work that's equally spacious and suffocating. That there's a bit more polish here only makes A Grey Farewell that much better, particularly given the band's penchant for dynamic quietude.


The raw-yet-rich emotion of the earliest days of the Peaceville Three - Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema, altogether THE eternal template for doom-death metal - can still be a fertile field for inspiration. It would not be hyperbole to suggest that A Grey Farewell is perhaps one of the best modern examples of pure doom-death that imparts its own personality.


Preorder at the Personal Records webshop.





Tracklisting:


“Towards Abandonment”
“Changes”
“Ocaso”
“The Clear Distance”
“In A White Room”
“Mass Eulogy”


“Towards Abandonment”:

In a new interview with Brazilian music journalist Igor Miranda, Zakk Wylde was asked about Charlie Benante's recent comment that there has been talk of the current lineup of PANTERA releasing a live album. Joining the BLACK LABEL SOCIETY frontman and the ANTHRAX drummer in PANTERA's reformed lineup are surviving members Rex Brown (bass) and Philip Anselmo (vocals). Zakk said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Yeah, whatever the fellas wanna do, we knock it out. Let's be real — it's a live album every night. People with their phones and everything are recording it anyway, so it doesn't [matter] to me. You go up there and you play to win every night."

As for the possibility of new songs from the current PANTERA lineup, Zakk said: "No, we haven't sat and talked about, like, 'Oh, guys, let's get together and write songs,' or whatnot; there hasn't been anything like that. I mean, the only discussions we'll have is just what other new songs we wanna put in the setlist. Like when we put 'Floods' in and then we got together at rehearsals, got together over at Phil's house, we just rehearsed everything. But no, nothing like… We haven't been sitting around writing riffs and things like that."

Miranda also asked Wylde about whether he views the current PANTERA lineup as a tribute or something else. Zakk responded: "Yeah, that's what I feel it is. It's not even a tribute. It's more just a PANTERA celebration. Like whenever we go out and do the 'Experience Hendrix' [tours], which I always have a blast when I do that, it's all of us going out and celebrating Jimi's greatness. To me, this is [a] PANTERA celebration. We're celebrating all the mountains that PANTERA conquered. So that's what this is."

Wylde also addressed the fact that he doesn't exactly reproduce the parts originally written and recorded by late PANTERA guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott. He said: "Oh, yeah, even if Dime was up there playing the solo to 'No More Tears' or 'Mama I'm Coming Home', it's gonna sound like Dime playing the solo to 'No More Tears'. 'Cause he has his touch and his feels. Like when Randy Rhoads was playing BLACK SABBATH songs, it sounds like Randy Rhoads playing BLACK SABBATH songs. You listen to the 'Tribute' album [from Ozzy Osbourne], when Saint Rhoads was playing 'Iron Man' and he was playing 'Paranoid' and 'Children Of The Grave', it sounds like Randy playing BLACK SABBATH songs. It's Randy's guitar tone and Randy's touch and Randy's playing. But that's what makes it cool. Yeah, to me, it's just common sense. Dime just sounds like Dime no matter what he's playing."

The reformed PANTERA is headlining a number of major festivals across North America, South America and Europe and staging some of its own headline concerts. They are also supporting METALLICA on a massive stadium tour in 2024.

It was first reported in July 2022 that Anselmo and Brown would unite with Wylde and Benante for a world tour under the PANTERA banner.

Three months ago, Zakk spoke to Ultimate Guitar about the decision to tour with a reformed version of PANTERA. The lineup has reportedly been given a green light by the estates of PANTERA's founders, drummer Vincent "Vinnie Paul" Abbott and guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott: "I feel [Dimebag] all the time. Even when we were getting ready to do the [PANTERA tour in 2022], [the early] rehearsals, and they were just figuring out how we were gonna do this, there'd be signs all over the place, whether [it was] a license plate that would be, like, '333' [three being Dimebag's favorite number], or I'd run into like a Dimebag license plate in the middle of nowhere. It was just, like, him just pushing this thing along, willing it to happen. So he's just always around. When we were in New York, just like signs, when we just did [a headlining show at] the [Madison Square] Garden [in February 2024], my wife Barbaranne was, like, Check this out.' Something came up and it just reminded us of Dime, and I was like, 'Wow, that's crazy.' Or we would look on our phone and it would be '333'. It's just these signs everywhere. And I could see Dime just doing it, going, 'I hope these idiots realize it's me sending these signs.' [Laughs]"

In a recent interview with Sweetwater, Brown stated about touring with PANTERA again: "The last show, man, I had a creepy, like a cold — something came by me. It felt like there was a cold feeling. And I've gotten this a couple of times before. When we were down recording with Charlie — me and Charlie just went down [in late 2022], put up eighty to a hundred hours of tape before Zakk [started rehearsing with us]. Zakk was still on the road. So we wanted to get the bass and the drum real tight, and we had this scratch guitar player. I felt that same chill. And, to me, they're angels. And I think you know who they are. Those guys, I think they're looking down, or they're looking around us, with us, and I think they're digging what they're seeing, man. I really do. And that's the only kind of way I can look at it, and get as close as we can with Charlie and Zakk. And God, it's getting really, really good. And there's so much more potential to get even tighter."

Speaking about the opportunity to perform PANTERA's music to new generations of fans who never saw the band before, Rex said: "There's a lot of memories in this band that are hard to put down. And losing the brothers, I just never in a million years thought that something like that would happen. Here we are 22 years later, and to see these new fans' faces. You've got one kid sitting there, or man, woman or child crying, and you have this other guy just going, 'You did it right.' It's just amazing."

In April, Rex told Rolling Stone Australia about performing with PANTERA in 2024: "Two of our beloved brothers that just aren't here anymore man, that's life, you know? They're just not with us man. That's just fate; it's the way the ball rolls, dude."

He added: "This is no tribute band — Philip and I get to play these songs of ours that we haven't played in 23 years. And to be able to do that and connect with the enormity of what's happened is just extraordinarily fucking insane, you know?"

Regarding PANTERA's latest additions, Rex said: "We knew who would fit and who wouldn't. We knew what the obstacles were in front of us, and we knew after… I'll put it this way — Charlie and I came down in September [2022] before we played that [first] show in December [2022], and we have probably one hundred hours of tape of us playing every fucking PANTERA song that I could remember. And so, you know, me and Charlie lockin' in like that… the drummer and the bass player, that's your foundation. So when Zakk came in, there were certain things we had to go over and over and over, to get tight. And today, this band is about as tight and about as badass as I fucking want. You know what I mean, and that's all I'm gonna say on that."

"But, man, this band is on fuckin' fire, and I couldn't be happier, man," he added. "I just can't explain that as much as I need to, I could not be happier."

Rex previously told AndrewHaug.com that he was "absolutely" open to writing new music with the reformed version of PANTERA. "Yeah, I could tell you more but I'm not going to," he teased.

Earlier in the chat, Brown talked about what is has been like to go out and perform as PANTERA to a whole new generation of fans.

"You can't see it on the YouTube. You can't feel that vibe until you actually come to the show," he explained. "And we haven't been doing interviews just for the fact we want people just to come to the show. It's not about anything prior past or present that I wanna talk about today — just the show tonight.

"We're pinching ourselves over these new fans that have never seen this before, and it's a whole another generation that we either didn't know a) that were out there, b) that were still listening to us, and the turnout has just been unbelievable," Rex continued. "Of course, at first you had the naysayers and all that stuff, and as we played gig by gig, it's made us tighter. And I've been trying to rehearse this band as much as I can within schedules, and we'll just go down for no fucking reason and just jam. That's what makes a band tight."

Asked how it feels playing those "timeless" songs again, Rex told AndrewHaug.com: "You just said it — they're timeless. So getting to play them again is a… These were a big part of Philip and I's songs too. Of course, respect to the brothers. I think that looking down on us and giving us a big — and they're with us. It's just uncanny. That's the glue. Those guys are hanging around with us.

"Look, I'm not some crazy old man, man. I know that we're here for reasons," Rex added. "And this time he gave us a heavy load, and we have come through in spades. And I'm very proud of Charlie and Zakk and Phillip for stepping up… All of us [were very close back in the day]. We were intertwined. There was a close-knit family of friends — Jerry Cantrell and all those guys, ALICE IN CHAINS. We were all brothers and we all had each other's backs — even as fucked up as we got. We're fine now, I'll put it that way. But it's just such a different time and we're older men and can appreciate this more. And I feel 25 years younger, man. It's just insane."

Addressing complaints from some fans that Brown and Anselmo are going out and touring under the PANTERA name even though Dimebag and Vinnie Paul are not involved, Rex said: "I don't call it anything. I call it PANTERA. The show itself is a celebration of the lives of all four of us. Two are sadly not with us, and we cannot bring them back. God, do I want them back. But that's just not possible. So we're doing the best thing that we can to keep our music alive. And I think they're smiling down and saying, 'You guys are doing all right, man.' And they're with us. And I'm not shittin' you."

Asked what his initial thoughts were when he was first approached about relaunching PANTERA as a touring act, Rex said: "Philip and I talked for several months before. He got on the phone and said, 'Hey, man, you wanna do it? I didn't have — maybe a six-second… not a hesitation, but just to wrap my head around the full gravity of the enormity of it. I went, 'Okay, I've got a couple of questions.' And, man, ever since that call we've worked really, really hard to get this thing going. And we've jumped over a lot of mountains."

Up until his passing in June 2018, Vinnie remained on non-speaking terms with Anselmo, whom the drummer indirectly blamed for Dimebag's death.

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

Vinnie, who was Dimebag's brother, and Anselmo had not spoken since PANTERA split in 2003. But the relationship got even more acrimonious when Vinnie suggested that some remarks the vocalist had made about Dimebag in print just weeks earlier might have incited Dimebag's killer.

12 years following WINTERSUN's "Time I", the Finnish heavy metal quartet led by Jari Mäenpää has announced its new album, "Time II". "Time II" will be released on August 30 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Mäenpää comments: "'Time II' is an epic journey from light to darkness and back to light, exploring the universe and energy, contrasting dark stormy landscapes to calm and beautiful cherry blossom tree gardens with misty, snowy mountains that will leave you breathless. It has songs with furious speed of drums, guitars, and bass and beautiful melodic slower songs with a magical exotic influence. It has massive orchestrations and choirs spiced with ancient world instruments and glimmering synths. It has Jari's soaring, clean singing contrasted with his aggressive style. It is a highly detailed and complex album where you will find new things with every listen."

Our patience will finally be rewarded when "Time II" is revealed to the world next month. "It has been quite a journey," admits Mäenpää, who has been working on his expansive "Time" project since early 2004.

"Time II" includes six epic tracks with individual stories. Yet the subjects are all linked and this red line gives it a conceptual feeling. Entering WINTERSUN's universe, we are brought into the right mood with the eastern-influenced, atmospheric intro "Fields Of Snow". The first real WINTERSUN track is the metallic brilliance of "The Way Of The Fire", with fire representing the energy of stars as a source of life, which is also connected to time. In "One With The Shadows", we experience the magic of an opulence of vocal harmonies, while orchestral arrangements loom up as ornamental move. Jari has a remarkable vision on the lyrics, "Now I think it is about regret. You are living in the shadows as long as you don't turn regret into something positive to continue your life." In "Ominous Clouds", clouds are gathering as the interlude journeys towards the next exploring adventure "Storm".

"This is the heaviest and darkest track on the album," explains Jari. "It even has influences from classical music, more precisely from Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons', furious guitars and heavy drums prevail, while the tone remains chaotic."

The last track, "Silver Leaves", with an array of harmonious sounds, partly performed with traditional Chinese instruments like the "erhu" (similar to the violin or fiddle). Ending on a positive note the song tells the story of finding a calm place and state of mind after the storm, being satisfied with your life and enjoying nature around you, as reflected by the cherry tree garden on the cover. The artwork was created by Cameron Gray, while the booklet was designed by Hungarian artist Gyula Havancsák (lyrics, credits and thanks pages) and Onni Wiljami Kinnunen (band photos pages).

WINTERSUN's current lineup includes MEGADETH guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari and NIGHTWISH drummer Kai Hahto.

"Time II" track listing:

01. Fields Of Snow
02. The Way Of The Fire
03. One With The Shadows
04. Ominous Clouds
05. Storm
06. Silver Leaves

WINTERSUN is:

Jari Mäenpää - vocals, guitar, computer, programming
Teemu Mäntysaari - guitar
Jukka Koskinen - bass
Kai Hahto - drums

Photo credit: Onni Wiljami Kinnunen

Formed out of the love for classic death metal, ‘80s shred worship, and creating gory lyrics about B-horror movies, Chicago's Necronomicon Ex Mortis unleashed two EPs in 2023, (Self-Titled - March 2023) and (Silver Bullet - August 2023) and now return in 2024 with their third entitled You And Your Friends Are Dead: Game Over, released on June 28. 


To coincide with the release, the horror fiends shared a video for the record's closing track, "Jason Lives". The song is a “death/doom” retelling of the story of “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives". Check it out below.







"This EP shows Necronomicon Ex Mortis at our most versatile; proving we have multiple ways to rip your face off! We think the fans will love the variety on this release! We want to have the listener have their expectations constantly challenged on this record!" - Guitarist - Michael Nystrom Bala - Necronomicon Ex Mortis


The tracks on You And Your Friends Are Dead: Game Over were chosen specifically by the band to all be incredibly different from one another. These recordings are a love letter to death metal, but also sometimes lean on the melodic side; sometimes brutal, sometimes technical. The band hops in and out of subgenres like various seasonings over baked chicken. Lyrically, the record touches on horror murder and blood.


All the tracks on the EP tell an extreme metal interpretation of the movies they are titled after. From its opener, "My Bloody Valentine", a thrash and technical death metal collision, to "Leprechaun", a melodic metal track that’s short and sweet, just like an actual Leprechaun. "In the Mouth of Madness" is low, slow, and filled with symmetrical scales. This one takes a more mid-paced approach to death metal. This song retells the story of John Carpenter's legendary movie of the same title. "The Dead Zone", is a song based more on the ‘90s progressive death metal sound with lots of symmetrical scales, extreme dissonance, and a cool guitar moment from Manuel Barbara. And EP closer "Jason Lives", screams “guitarist, songwriter/lyricist Mike Bala has been listening to too much Autopsy." and witnesses the band down the path of death/doom section right in the middle. This song retells the story of “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.”


Preorder on Bandcamp.





Tracklisting:


“My Bloody Valentine”
“Leprechaun”
“In The Mouth Of Madness”
“The Dead Zone”
“Jason Lives”


“My Bloody Valentine”:





“Leprechaun”:





“In The Mouth Of Madness”:

In a new interview with NME, PEARL JAM guitarist Stone Gossard was asked if he thinks Donald Trump can become U.S. president again. He responded: "I guess it's possible. In a sense, Trump is a performance artist and there's people that play along with his performance because it suits them in certain ways. I think in the end, I hope that they're going to realize that it's more serious than performance art."

As for what he thinks the consequences would be if Trump does get re-elected, Stone said: "I always feel like equal and opposite energies bump up against each other and when something goes too far one way you unleash another energy that will take it back in a different direction, but you don't know exactly how that's gonna happen. I still think that's going to be part of the equation, that if somehow he gets everything he wants he's also going to be met with some force that he's not expecting and it's gonna shift it into some other direction. That's the best I can hope for I guess."

Asked if he thinks Joe Biden has delivered in his current term as president of the United States, Stone said: "I'm not an expert. I'm an armchair analyst. My guess is that when people look back on it, they're gonna say that there's some things that he did that weren't being celebrated. I think there's some subtlety to what he's doing."

This past April, PEARL JAM singer Eddie Vedder blasted Trump while speaking to U.K.'s Sunday Times < about the inspiration for the song "Wreckage", which is included on the band's latest album, "Dark Matter". He said: "There is a guy in the United States who is still saying he didn't lose an election, and people are reverberating and amplifying that message as if it is true."

He continued: "Trump is desperate. I don't think there has ever been a candidate more desperate to win, just to keep himself out of prison and to avoid bankruptcy. It is all on the line, and he's out there playing the victim — 'at least they're doing this to me, because if not, they would be doing it to you' — but you haven't falsified your tax records. You don't have classified information in your basement. So the song is saying, let's not be driven apart by one person, especially not a person without any worthy causes."

When asked if Trump's time is passing, Vedder said: "I can't wait. Most thoughtful people are going through a bit of PTSD about it now."

PEARL JAM previously blasted Trump in the song "Quick Escape" which appeared on the band's 2020 album "Gigaton". That track saw Vedder narrating a sci-fi story about a devastated planet — "The lengths we had to go to then/To find a place Trump hadn't fucked up yet" — that ends with humanity taking a bitter one-way flight to start life again on Mars.

Back in March 2018, PEARL JAM bassist Jeff Ament said that having Trump as then-president of the United States seemed "like a bad dream."

In August of that year, PEARL JAM was criticized by some Republicans for a poster that showed the White House in flames and a bald eagle pecking at a skeleton they said was meant to depict Trump. That poster was a collaboration between Ament and Bobby Brown, an artist also known as Bobby Draws Skulls.

When PEARL JAM postponed its U.S. tour in March 2020 at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the band called out the Trump administration for its lack of leadership amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

"It certainly hasn't helped that there's been no clear messages from our government regarding people's safety and our ability to go to work," PEARL JAM said. "Having no examples of our national health department's ability to get ahead of this, we have no reason to believe that it will be under control in the coming weeks ahead."

Photo credit: Danny Clinch

In the clip below, courtesy of the Ken Tamplin Music Academy, vocalist Gabbi Gun takes on the Nazareth classic, "Love Hurts".


Ken Tamplin: "When I first met Gabbi, she was 17 years old. She was in the finals of a competition in the Czech Republic, similar to our American Idol, called Superstar.


She had reached out to me because she told me she was having a very difficult time singing more than two or three songs without going hoarse and losing her voice for several days. In fact, she didn't actually tell me much of anything because she could hardly speak a word of English. So, through different translators, we began to work together.




One of the songs she had just recorded was 'Love Hurts'.


I encourage you to check it out because she did a great job. There was just one problem: the way she sang was absolutely not sustainable over time, and in her own words: 'I was losing my voice every other day from singing like this...'


In addition, this kind of singing is extremely constricting when it comes to range and true resonant power. So, Gabriela and I began to work very hard on her support system, open throat technique, vowel placements, distortion, and stamina. Combined with teaching her how to sing in English.


Today, we present to you the results of that effort."

In a new interview with Metal Hammer magazine, SYSTEM OF A DOWN frontman Serj Tankian was asked about comments from his SYSTEM bandmate John Dolmayan last year in which the drummer claimed that Serj "hasn't wanted to be in the band for a long time." Serj said: "John means the world to me. He's my brother-in-law, I love him, and I saw him just yesterday, but there are times he's got mad and said fucking shit. And look, there's times I've gotten mad and said fucking shit, too. The option has always been there for the band to move on without me, and John knows that.

"In the end, to me SYSTEM OF A DOWN is beyond the band," he continued. "It's our relationship together. And it means more to me than the band itself, or even the music itself. And that is hard for other people, maybe even other people in the band, to understand. But, as I saw from the stage at Sick New World [festival in Las Vegas] last year, the multi-generational appeal of the music we have made is mind-blowing, bro. Our music is more timeless than we ever imagined, and that is the hugest compliment for any artist."

In his recently released memoir, "Down With The System", Serj revealed that his SYSTEM OF A DOWN bandmates had auditioned a new vocalist after he had asked out of the group in 2017. Serj said that his disdain for touring led to his decision to tell his bandmates to carry on without him so they could continue living their dream. Tankian later learned that the band had begun looking at new singers, and he also shared that in "more recent years", he had pitched a close friend as a potential replacement but he didn't think the band ever seriously considered the offer.

Less than two months ago, Serj spoke to the Soul Boom With Rainn Wilson podcast about his reluctance to embrace the touring lifestyle that characterized SYSTEM OF A DOWN's early years. He said: "We've had incredible, unexpected success as a very far-flung kind of progressive metal band with our 'Toxicity' record in 2001 and touring and doing what we did. And after many years of touring, when we were making the last few records which we made together, 'Mezmerize' and 'Hypnotize' — those recordings were done at the same time, then released as two records within six months of each other in 2005 and 2006 — before those sessions, when we first started those sessions, I told the [other] guys [in the band], 'Guys, this kind of cyclical thing that we're doing with making records for a year, touring for two years at that time, doing all this promo publicity,' it was just cyclical. It was, like, 'I've gotta stop. And I also wanna do my own thing. I have other artistic adventures that I wanna get on.'"

He continued: "Part of it was we had so much creativity and input coming into the band, specifically with Daron's [Malakian, SYSTEM OF A DOWN guitarist and vocalist] songwriting and me wanting to bring in music as well, because, over time, he became a better lyricist and I became a better musical songwriter, a better composer, so it became kind of like a push and pull, which is really good for bands, actually, 'cause it's a yin-and-yang kind of thing — two strong, creative forces. And it also broken up so many bands. So, before 'Mezmerize' and 'Hypnotize', I basically told the guys, 'Listen, I'd like to take a hiatus. I'm not saying I never wanna do this, but I'm saying I can't do this right now anymore. And I wanna do my own thing and also take time off and have a life, and all of that stuff.' It wasn't taken well at the time. I won't get into that. But years later, we started touring again in 2011, and it became a fun thing, 'cause it left… Nothing was totally resolved creatively, but it became a fun thing because we at least put everything to the side and said, 'Look, we're friends, we're brothers. We've known each other for a long time. We still respect and love each other. Let's go have fun and tour together.' And we've been doing that since. Not as much as they would like, let's say, or I'm not gonna speak for each and every person of the band, because that wouldn't be fair of me either. But generally I'm the least person that wants to tour. Part of that is physical, because it's tiring. I've done it for 20, 25 years, and I had back surgery a few years ago. I'm much better now and all of that. But part of it is that. Part of it is that it's artistically redundant after a while, because it's 'Groundhog Day'; you're repeating yourself. David Bowie said the first two weeks of every tour is basically — I'm paraphrasing — creative; after that, it's redundant, kind of thing, which is correct. So it's that. But I do enjoy playing with the guys, and when it's a one-off, it's actually fun, 'cause there's no pressure to do this whole rigamarang of a long tour or press or anything. You just rehearse together, make your dumb jokes, have food together, and then go and play that one show and it becomes a hoorah. So that's what we've been doing. And I'm grateful for that."

Tankian, who is promoting his memoir, previously addressed how his relationship with Malakian has evolved over the years, particularly as it relates to their collaborative partnership, in May in an interview with Tom Power, host of "Q" on Canada's CBC Radio One. He said: "Well, changing the dynamic is basically years of time and the progression of the band, the success of the band, everything that happened in between the day that we met and now, basically, so 25, 30 years. A lot changes in that time. And so I think that's a part of it.

"Daron's been a lifer and he's incredibly serious about his music and he's incredibly protective of his music and vulnerable due to his music," Serj explained. "All of those things kind of go together. So it's those things, I think, that created some of the creative differences that we started finding. And it's also our progression. Listen, when Daron and I started working together, I didn't really write a lot of instrumental music — I mostly wrote lyrics; I was the lyricist; I was the singer. And he didn't write any lyrics; he just wrote music. But as time progressed and I played more musical instruments and I started becoming a songwriter/composer and he started writing more lyrics, we started kind of covering each other's territory. And I was okay with that. If he wrote lyrics, I was trying to encourage him to write more, because I believe in artistic growth. I believe in progression. I don't believe in things staying the same way, for music's sake. Otherwise the music becomes the same thing over and over again. That progression is necessary in every artist's life or in every group's life. So I was very encouraging of that. And I just wish that I got some of that back. And so that wasn't the case, and it was disappointing. And it became a creative difference over the band's path, and whatnot, over time."

Asked why he wanted to write about this in his book, Serj said: "A lot of it has been publicized in a very sensationalist format by media, music media mostly, and I kind of wanted to put it in a proper perspective and grounding perspective, but with love and with balance and understanding that these things happen. This is normal. You have a relationship and you have differences in opinion as [to] how you wanna go forward, whether it's a band or a marriage or whatever it is. And these things happen. And so I wanted to take that aspect out, I wanted to take the sensationalist aspect out of the whole thing and be, like, this is not only what happened, but this is how I see things."

Tankian also addressed the fact that SYSTEM OF A DOWN has toured intermittently since ending its hiatus in 2011, but has only managed to record two songs in the last 19 years, "Protect The Land" and "Genocidal Humanoidz". Released in November 2020, the tracks were motivated by the conflict between Artsakh and Azerbaijan, with all proceeds supporting humanitarian efforts in SYSTEM OF A DOWN's ancestral homeland of Armenia. Along with other donations from fans on their social pages, they raised over $600,000.

"We haven't been making new music," Serj said. "We only put out two songs when the invasion of Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh happened in 2020 by Azerbaijan, because we felt like the Azeri trolls, the government-sponsored trolls were taking over social media and the news networks, and the victims of these attacks weren't getting the word out. So we became kind of obsessed with getting the word out, because we were seeing our people suffer. So we put out those two songs because of that and we donated a lot of the proceeds for that to the cause as well."

Asked how he balances the love and obligation he might feel toward his fans, those who love SYSTEM OF A DOWN, and the internal struggles within the band, Tankian said: "That's an incredibly smart question. It's really hard catering — when you're an artist, it's really hard catering. If you're an entertainer, catering is [what you do], but if you're an artist, then you're just creating what comes to you. You're almost unaware of what people want. Yes, if it's something heavier, you know people are gonna like it more. But if you're a good songwriter, you could do both. I do orchestral music, I do film music, I do rock music — I do it all. So I enjoy 'em all, but I know that if I do rock, more people are going to listen to it than a piano, instrumental orchestral piece of music, soundtrack kind of music. But it doesn't mean that you don't do both, as an artist. So it's hard to really cater to people's feelings. What I love is, and I know that I can speak for the rest of the guys in the band, that no matter what's going on with our creative difference or the band not making new music or not touring fully or whatever, everyone's incredibly appreciative of what we have in terms of the love that we get from our fans and the way that people react to our music and the way that we get all these e-mails about how it's changed people's lives and all of that stuff, and that is mind-blowing. It's the biggest honor. And when I meet people on the street, I'm still incredibly honored that someone would pick me out and look at me in a positive light, not knowing who I am personally, but knowing me through my music, through our music, let's say. And I think that's a great fucking honor. I feel blessed for it. But it doesn't mean that that thing should continue forever either."

SYSTEM OF A DOWN played its first live show in 11 months on April 27 as one of the headliners of the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas, Nevada for the second year in a row.

"Down With The System" was released on May 14 via Hachette Books.

During a press conference at this year's Hellfest in Clisson, France, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES frontman Mike Muir was asked if there are any plans for him and his bandmates to work on new music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "When we did the last record [of all-new material], it was 'World Gone Mad' in 2016, I kind of said, it sounds bad, but I don't enjoy making records, because it's like full-on mental fuck to me and, then it's the time and the family and everything. It's difficult. But now having [guitarist] Ben [Weinman] in the band, [drummer] Jay [Weinberg] in the band…. One of the first things Jay did after we did a couple shows, he's just, like, going, 'Dude, I wanna fucking make a record.' And the way he and Ben, they said it, they go, like… Ben was, like, 'When I was 12 years old and I heard SUICIDAL, it spoke to me. And other music, I heard a lot of music.' He goes, 'I wanna do a record like that.' And that's exactly what Jay said. Obviously, having [bassist] Tye [Trujillo], Robert's [Trujillo] a son in there, Robert's, like, 'Dude, you guys need to make a record. do that thing.' And so I think that we're definitely leaning towards doing it."

He continued: "We realized that a lot of people, with music, you look around and you see what's popular, what's trendy, and we go back to what was popular and trendy when we did our first record, and we didn't do any of that and all the reviews were terrible. And so we'll do a record that people probably will not like, and I will be very happy and stuff. But I think that years from now that people will sit there, and there'll be a lot of people that are not so much into trends or genres that'll go, like, 'That's a fucking really bad-ass record.' And so that's what I want to do. As I say, I like to like people, but I don't care if people like me. [Laughs] It makes my life easier."

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES' latest album, "Still Cyco Punk After All These Years", was released in 2018 via Suicidal Records. A reworking of Muir's 1996 solo outing "Lost My Brain! (Once Again)", "Still Cyco Punk" featured founding SLAYER drummer Dave Lombardo.

Last year, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES celebrated the 40th anniversary of their debut album on a number of shows in the fall, including in New York City; Silver Spring, Maryland; Worcester, Massachusetts; and Berkeley, California. SUICIDAL TENDENCIES also celebrated the 40th anniversary of the LP on a tour of Australia.

The 2024 lineup of SUICIDAL TENDENCIES includes founding member Muir alongside guitarists Ben Weinman (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN) and Dean Pleasants, bassist Tye Trujillo (son of Robert Trujillo),as well as the band's latest addition, drummer Jay Weinberg.

Norwegian black metal icons Dimmu Borgir performed on the main stage at Tuska Festival in Helsinki, Finland on June 28th. Fan-filmed video of the entire show can be viewed below.


Setlist:


"Raabjørn Speiler Draugheimens Skodde"
"Spellbound (By The Devil)"
"The Insight And The Catharsis"
"Stormblåst"
"The Chosen Legacy"
"Council Of Wolves And Snakes"
"Dimmu Borgir"
"Fear and Wonder" 
"Blessings Upon The Throne Of Tyranny"
"Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse"
"Mourning Palace"

German black metal collective Groza has returned, unveiling details of their 3rd album, Nadir that will be released on September 20 with AOP Records. Following two releases, extensive touring in over 20 countries and a worldwide cult fanbase, Groza continues their path as one of the fiercest bands in the dark metal realm.


Conjuring a sound that melds intense atmospheric soundscapes and enraged melodic vocals with blistering blast beats and catastrophic riffs that invoke powerful emotions of anger and sadness, Groza has crafted six songs that defy boundaries and create a new benchmark for modern black metal.


The band has revealed the first of those tracks, "Dysthymian Dreams."




Preorder/presave Nadir here.





Tracklisting:


“Soul: Inert”
“Asbest”
“Dysthymian Dreams”
“Equal. Silent. Cold.”
“Deluge”
“Daffodils” feat. JJ & MS // Karg & Harakiri For The Sky


“Dysthymian Dreams” video:

German heavy metal legends ACCEPT will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2025-2026. To mark this mammoth milestone, the band will ring in the band's golden birthday with a very unique anniversary tour at the end of 2025. An anniversary album will be released early 2026.

Guitarist Wolf Hoffmann was not only significantly involved in the songwriting of every single ACCEPT song, his work has shaped an entire generation of metal musicians. As a founding and the longest standing member, Wolf has made the most impactful contribution to the band's unmistakable sound and success.

Since joining ACCEPT in 1976 at the age of just 16, Wolf played a central role in the band. His instantly recognizable and signature guitar style not only created the ACCEPT "sound" but influenced a plethora of other highly successful bands and guitarists. Because of Wolf's unflinching dedication, ACCEPT has become one of the most significantly defining bands in heavy metal. Not only did he lay the musical foundations for the band, he also carried the band through the highs and the lows that come with a long-term career — 50 years.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, ACCEPT is embarking on a spectacular world tour that will take fans on a musical metal journey through time. Fans can look forward to a unique stage show with surprise guests, all the classic hits from the band's history as well as rarely performed songs.

Hoffmann comments: "It's an incredible honor to be able to look back on five decades of a musical career and share our music with so many people. But nothing lasts forever and who knows how much longer we'll be touring… This tour will be very special because we think 50 years of ACCEPT is a GREAT reason to celebrate in style!"

In spring 2026, ACCEPT will release a special album that covers the band's entire musical history. This anniversary album will contain a carefully curated selection of the best ACCEPT songs from the last five decades, re-recorded — partly with well-known surprise musical guests and colleagues, as well as with some rare tracks that have not been played so often before.

"We wanted to create something that captures the essence of ACCEPT while offering something new to our loyal fans," explains Wolf. "This album is a tribute to our journey and to everyone who has accompanied us along the way."

Over the past five decades, ACCEPT has sold millions of albums and inspired countless musicians. Their energetic live performances and iconic albums such as "Balls To The Wall", "Restless And Wild" and "Metal Heart" have left a lasting mark on the heavy metal genre. Hoffmann's guitar style and musical vision have made the band one of the most respected on the heavy metal scene.

After a hiatus in the band's career, Wolf was introduced to New Jersey singer Mark Tornillo in 2009. The chemistry and fit between them was so remarkable, ACCEPT reformed and almost immediately rose to global success with chart-topping albums. ACCEPT continues to be celebrated for each of their new records with Mark, who is now the longest-reigning frontman of ACCEPT, placing the Hoffmann-Tornillo partnership firmly in the Metal Hall Of Fame.

For decades, ACCEPT has been recognized as a guarantee of high quality and each of their albums has reached the top of the charts, delivering energy, melodies, killer riffs and an impressively powerful stage presence for 50 years.

ACCEPT states: "Celebrate with us! We invite the world of heavy metal to join us in the celebrations of this extraordinary anniversary!"

ACCEPT's latest album, "Humanoid", was released on April 26 via Napalm Records. The LP was once again produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by critically acclaimed heavy metal producer Andy Sneap.

ACCEPT recently announced a massive European headline tour, with more than 20 shows across the continent for autumn 2024. This summer, ACCEPT will also return to some of the world's most important rock and metal festivals, like Wacken Open Air.

ACCEPT and KK'S PRIEST will join forces this fall 2024 for a North American tour. The run will begin on August 31 in Los Angeles, California, visiting a slew of major cities in the USA and Canada — such as Toronto, Montreal, New York and Nashville — before coming to an end in San Francisco, California on October 7.

In February 2022, it was announced that ACCEPT had inked a worldwide deal with Napalm Records.

ACCEPT's previous album, "Too Mean To Die", came out in January 2021 via Nuclear Blast. The LP was the group's first without bassist Peter Baltes, who exited ACCEPT in November 2018. He has since been replaced by Martin Motnik. ACCEPT's lineup has also been expanded with the addition of a third guitarist, the aforementioned Philip Shouse, who originally filled in for Uwe Lulis during 2019's "Symphonic Terror" tour, before being asked to join the band permanently.

Tornillo joined ACCEPT in 2009 as the replacement for the band's original lead singer, Udo Dirkscheider. He can be heard on ACCEPT's last six studio albums, "Blood Of The Nations" (2010),"Stalingrad" (2012),"Blind Rage" (2014),"The Rise Of Chaos" (2017),2021's "Too Mean To Die" and 2024's "Humanoid".

Photo credit: Christoph Vohler

Dizzy Reed, who is the longest-serving member of GUNS N' ROSES after singer Axl Rose, has just released a new solo single, "D.I.B.". The track, which is part of a full album that will be made available in late August, features a guest appearance by former DELTA ROSE frontman Spencer Krasch.

Reed's debut solo album, "Rock 'N Roll Ain't Easy", was released in February 2018 by Golden Robot Records. The disc featured guest appearances by musicians from W.A.S.P., QUIET RIOT, PSYCHEDELIC FURS, THIN LIZZY, NO DOUBT, THE REPLACEMENTS, QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, and more.

Back in November 2019, Dizzy reflected on his three-plus decades with GUNS N' ROSES during an interview with the "Thunder Underground" podcast. He said: "How the fuck has it been 30 years? [Laughs] Where did the time go?

"I've been so lucky and fortunate that I was ever asked to do this gig in the first place and that I'm still doing it," he continued. "As long as they'll have me, I'm gonna do it. And it's been a great run. There's been some long breaks, but those were being put to good use — writing and whatnot."

Dizzy added: "It's just been a blast. And these last three years have been fantastic. The turnouts have been amazing. And just to be a part of that, it's pretty special. And I'm so fortunate, again. I thank my lucky stars every day, man — I really do."

Reed joined GUNS N' ROSES as a touring member in 1990, during the "Use Your Illusion" era, and has played with most of the original members as well as in all the later editions of the group and the current "reunion" lineup.

In 2012, Dizzy was inducted into the the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as a member of GUNS N' ROSES.

The Pulse Of Radio asked Reed how he's managed to stay in the band for so long. "I get asked that a lot and it's really just, I just never really thought about doing anything else, you know, on sort of a permanent basis," he said. "You know, I kind of feel like I'm in GUNS N' ROSES and that's where I was meant to be."

My new single ‘D.I.B.’ is releasing tomorrow. It’s part of a full album that will be released in late August. I’m...

Posted by Dizzy F'n Reed on Thursday, June 27, 2024

The Rick Reilly and Nightrain76 YouTube channels have uploaded video of former GUNS N' ROSES drummer Steven Adler's June 29 concert at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey. Check out the clips below.

Joining Adler to bring songs like "Paradise City", "Welcome To The Jungle", "Sweet Child O' Mine", "Civil War", "My Michelle", "Mr. Brownstone" and "Rocket Queen" to life are guitarists Michael Thomas and Alistair James, bassist Cristian Sturba and singer Ariel Kamin.

"You don't bet better than Michael Thomas and Alistair James; they are two of the best guitarists in rock," noted Adler.

Thomas previously delighted music fans as the lead guitarist for ENGINES OF AGGRESSION, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES and FASTER PUSSYCAT. In addition to providing Adler with smooth rhythms, James has engineered recordings for HOLLYWOOD VAMPIRES — the supergroup featuring Johnny Depp, Joe Perry of AEROSMITH, and Alice Cooper.

Kamin was a well-known rocker in Argentina with such bands as CRIATURAS SALVAJES and GN'R tribute act SON OF A GUN when he was selected to come to the U.S. and join Adler in electrifying audiences with the music of GUNS N' ROSES. Audiences have been blown away.

"Ari Kamin is the total package. He's everything a rock 'n' roll front man is supposed to be," Adler said. "Not only does he have an incredible voice, he really connects with the audience. He's one of the best you'll ever experience."

In 2021, Adler told the M3 Rock Festival YouTube channel about how he ended up recruiting Kamin to front his ADLER solo band: "Actually, I went to Argentina [in November 2016] — my wife's from there; her family lives there — and the GN'R guys invited me to do a couple of songs. And so I had a little party at a club called the Roxy in [Buenos Aires], and he was the singer [that played with us that night]. You can go on my web site and see — the Roxy in Argentina. He was so great. I was, like, 'You're coming with me.' And the guitar player from the band that opened up for GN'R was so amazing. I told him, 'Come down. I wanna jam with you.' And he came down. I tell you, if [GUNS N' ROSES guitarist] Slash would have seen him playing, he would have been in the back, in the dressing room, practicing. That's how good he was."

Kamin replaced Constantine Maroulis of "American Idol" and "Rock Of Ages" fame, who was the vocalist for ADLER'S APPETITE for a dozen or so dates in May 2018, including an Australian tour.

Although he wasn't included in the lineup that launched the "Not In This Lifetime" trek in 2016, Adler rejoined GUNS N' ROSES at several shows on the tour, including three stops on the U.S. leg and one gig in Buenos Aires, Argentina, playing drums on "Out Ta Get Me" and "My Michelle".

In February 2017, Adler revealed that he was originally supposed to appear at more than just a handful of shows on the GUNS N' ROSES reunion trek. He claimed that he expected to play all the "Appetite For Destruction" material during the entire tour, only to be told he was out after he hurt his back during rehearsals.

Speculation was rampant that Adler would participate in at least a portion of the reunion tour ever since GUNS made it official in January 2016. The regular GUNS drummer for several years has been Frank Ferrer, who is also part of the current lineup.

New Jersey!!! We are two weeks out from our Starland Ballroom show in Sayerville!!!

We are super excited!!! We...

Posted by Steven Adler on Friday, June 14, 2024

NILE founding mastermind/guitarist Karl Sanders was forced to miss the band's June 29 performance at Hellfest in Clisson, France after becoming "seriously ill." The other three members of NILE's current touring lineup — drummer George Kollias, guitarist/vocalist Zach Jeter and bassist/vocalist Dan Vadim Von — played the show as a three-piece.

Earlier on Saturday, Sanders released the following statement via social media: "I'm heartbroken to share that I became seriously ill after Graspop [Metal Meeting in Belgium] and have been in an emergency hospital this week in Belgium. As a result, I am going to have to miss NILE's performance at Hellfest.

"This is the first time in 19 years that I, personally, have not played a show due to illness, and it's incredibly hard for me to disappoint you all.

"Over the many years of my career with NILE, I have played shows while combating broken bones, neck injuries, back injuries, hand and wrist injuries, and all conceivable varieties of tour flu and infection sicknesses," he continued. "If there were any way at all for me to make the show at Hellfest, believe me I would be there to participate in Metal. It's just not possible this time. However, in the spirit of metal perseverance, the other members of NILE — George, Dan, and Zach — will be there to play the show as a three-piece. Please show them your support as they bravely give it their all to bring you the music that we in NILE love to share. Your energy and enthusiasm will make all the difference to create an unforgettable experience for everyone. It will make me happy to see videos of epic moshing and classic NILE chants at Hellfest from my sickbed!

"Thank you for your understanding and support," Karl added. "I appreciate all of you, and will see you back on tour with the guys in September."

After the Hellfest performance, Jeter took to his social media to write: "@hellfestopenair 2024 was one for the books, to say the least. Due to illness, our brother Karl was unfortunately unable to join us on stage. As much as we missed him, the show had to go on. Alongside @georgekolliasofficial and @danielvadimvon we crushed this show as a 3 piece!

"To the Hellfest crowd, you guys were fucking awesome and made it all worthwhile. We'll be back in Europe with Karl in September for 'The Underworld' tour, see you out there!"

NILE will release its tenth album, "The Underworld Awaits Us All", on August 23 via Napalm Records. The LP was once again produced and recorded at Sanders's own Serpent Headed Studios in Greenville, South Carolina. The band then returned to "Vile Nilotic Rites" engineer Mark Lewis (CANNIBAL CORPSE, DYING FETUS, WHITECHAPEL) for mixing and mastering.

"The Underworld Awaits Us All"'s art was once again envisioned and created by Michał "Xaay" Loranc, with reference to the cycle of life and judgment at its end.

I'm heartbroken to share that I became seriously ill after Graspop and have been in an emergency hospital this week in...

Posted by Nile on Saturday, June 29, 2024

@hellfestopenair 2024 was one for the books, to say the least.

Due to illness, our brother Karl was unfortunately...

Posted by Zach Jeter on Sunday, June 30, 2024

Wolfgang Van Halen joined MR. BUNGLE on stage on Saturday (June 29) at Hellfest in Clisson, France to perform a cover of VAN HALEN's "Loss Of Control". Video of his appearance can be seen below.

Wolfgang previously played the same song with MR. BUNGLE on June 22 at the Graspop Metal Meeting in Dessel, Belgium.

Last year, Wolfgang, who played three VAN HALEN classics during the Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts in September 2022, stressed the importance of establishing himself as a musician in his own right rather than trying to to gain recognition by merely playing other artists' music. He told the "Talk Is Jericho" podcast about the experience of playing VAN HALEN songs with FOO FIGHTERS' Dave Grohl and Josh Freese, and THE DARKNESS's Justin Hawkins: "It was wonderful. It was the exception where it was, like, 'This would be the time to do it.' Taylor was such a huge fan and to get my own satisfaction by doing a direct VAN HALEN tribute for Dad, it felt like the right thing to do in that moment. I'm really proud of it."

He added: "I'm happy to be able to prove myself. The important key distinction is that I'm not doing what my dad did, I'm my own person, I'm my own musician… It's why I don't play any VAN HALEN music or have a plan to play VAN HALEN music during my sets.

"Even my dad hated doing covers back in the day. His quote resonates with me all the time when he says, 'I'd rather bomb with my own music than succeed with somebody else's.' And that's exactly how I feel about playing VAN HALEN music. I'd much rather fail on my own than succeed heartlessly by playing 'Panama'."

MR. BUNGLE's current dates once again feature the lineup of Mike Patton, Trevor Dunn, Trey Spruance, Scott Ian and Dave Lombardo.

MR. BUNGLE released "The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo" in 2020, an album that saw the Eureka, California-born band record songs from their 1986 cassette only demo. The collection's release was preceded by seven February 2020 shows (Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York). The newly revamped version of the seminal band sees Trevor Dunn, Mike Patton and Trey Spruance joined by Scott Ian (ANTHRAX, S.O.D.) and Dave Lombardo (DEAD CROSS, ex-SLAYER, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES). Rolling Stone dubbed the album "a feast of ingenious riffs… and pure manic energy," Stereogum said "MR. BUNGLE are reliving their very earliest days and kicking a whole lot of ass in the process," and Decibel declared it "one of the best thrash records of the year."

MR. BUNGLE was formed in an impoverished lumber and fishing town by a trio of curious, volatile teenagers. Trey Spruance, Mike Patton and Trevor Dunn beget the amorphous "band" in 1985 up in Humboldt County, California, sifting through a variety of members until around 1989 when they settled on a lineup that managed to get signed to Warner Bros. Records. No one really knows how this happened and it remains a complete mystery that even the algorithms of the Internet can't decode. Up until 2000, they released three albums ("Mr. Bungle" in 1991, "Disco Volante" in 1995 and "California" in 1999),toured a good portion of the Western hemisphere and avoided any sort of critical acclaim. Some argue that the band subsequently broke up but there is also no proof of this. What is true is that they took 20 years off from performing under said moniker while they pursued various other music that, in contrast, paid the rent.



Hellfest
Clisson, France

Mr Bungle European Vacation Tour couldn’t have ended on a higher note. Once again, Wolfgang Van Halen joined us on stage to perform the deep cut Van Halen classic Loss Control.
On the same stage Andreas Kisser of Sepultura joined us to perform Territory. A very special thanks to my amazing bandmates Mike Patton, Trey Spruance, Trevor Dunn, and the Malcolm Young of metal Scott Ian. The surprises were never ending. We would come up with an idea sometime in the afternoon. Discuss the idea, practice at soundcheck and perform it that evening.

Fearless genre dipping musicians!

Video by Mark Johnson
Wolfgang Van Halen MammothWVH
Andreas Kisser Sepultura
Mr. Bungle Scott Ian Mike Patton
Trey Spruance - Private page

Posted by Dave Lombardo on Sunday, June 30, 2024

In a new interview with Chaoszine, LORDI leader Mr. Lordi spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for the band's follow-up to 2023's "Screem Writers Guild" album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We recorded the new album mainly before the tour started. And that was in March, I guess. So, like 99.9 percent of the album was recorded before the tour. Then we had that one percent to record after the tour, and we did. So it's already done, mixed and mastered. And hence why we are doing the new costumes and masks now."

Asked if he and his bandmates had a clear vision of where they wanted to go with the new material, Mr. Lordi said: "Kinda. I wanted to continue on the same track, in a way, so it's clearly a sister album or brother album to the 'Screem Writers'. But some people have said that it's a little bit harder, it's a little bit more… there's a little bit more balls. It's not as 'hair metally' as 'Screem Writers'. To me, it sounds, yeah, okay. I think that's a fair analysis of that. So, there are some songs that are a little bit harder… Because I thought it's the same, but some songs are a bit harder, some a little bit more metal than any of the songs on the 'Screem Writers', I guess."

Regarding when fans can expect to hear the first single from LORDI's upcoming album, Mr. Lordi said: "I do not know that, no. I don't know. I don't know. But my guesstimate is, I would say the last quarter of the year, probably. Yeah, [and the full album will arrive] at the beginning of 25, somewhere there."

LORDI caused a sensation by winning the 2006 Eurovision with "Hard Rock Hallelujah", which in turn made the band's third release, "The Arockalypse", a hit throughout Europe. On the back of their Eurovision win, they scored a lucrative series of promotions including LORDI-branded cola, boiled sweets and credit cards; and played live at the MTV European Music Awards. A square was renamed in LORDI's honor in the Lapland city of Rovaniemi; a LORDI-themed postage stamp was issued in Finland and the group starred in its first film, called "Dark Floors".

With their monster-movie stage persona, LORDI seemed a most unlikely choice to represent their country in the Eurovision Song Contest. So you can imagine how many people were shocked when the group not only claimed top honors, but also earned the most points in the venerable event's history.

In the days following LORDI's Eurovision win, Reuters reported that nearly 200,000 Finns signed an online petition to express their dismay after tabloid magazines published pictures of the bandmembers out of their trademark monster suits.

Even though Mr. Lordi and his bandmates had asked media not to run pictures of them out of character, two Finnish tabloid magazines went ahead, sparking an online backlash from the group's fans.

Last September, Mr. Lordi was asked in an interview with Czech Republic's Backstage TV if it's hard for him and his bandmates to maintain their anonymity after all these years. The 50-year-old musician, whose real name is Tomi Petteri Putaansuu, said: "[It's] really fucking easy, actually. It's not difficult at all anymore. Here's the thing: the mainstream media is not interested in us anymore, which is a fucking good thing. Because after Eurovision for a couple of years, that was a fucking pain in the ass. But it's not difficult for me at all. Not one tiny bit, because I have never been on social media my whole life — not one second. I've never been on Facebook or fucking, what are these fucking Twitters and shit, you know, Instagrams. I'm not there and I won't be there. I hate that whole thing. So easy for me. [Laughs]"

Back in 2017, Mr. Lordi admitted to MariskalRock that he was initially comfortable about LORDI's connection to Eurovision. "There was a time a couple of years ago — well, more than a couple — when I really, really, really hated that everybody's always asking about the goddamn Eurovision; there was a time," he said. "Nowadays I have come to terms with it. It's, like, okay, I'm actually proud that we are part of Eurovision history and I am proud that Eurovision is part of this band's history. I mean, it is a big part of our awareness. Because the awareness of the band would be so different, it would be so much smaller, without that one TV show ten years ago."

He continued: "I absolutely don't regret that — absolutely not. Because I have nothing bad to say about Eurovision itself, but the problem that we have had in the years is the people who actually don't know anything else except for the fact that we were on Eurovision. And that is a big stamp to get out of — it's like a fucking tattoo, you have a fucking tattoo on your forehead that says 'Eurovision.' And that is something that really, really, really drove me nuts some years ago; I was really struggling with that.

"I have come to terms with it — it's all right; I mean, it's cool," he said. "I am proud of it. And every May, when there's a new Eurovision, I know that my phone will start ringing and people will ask my opinions and then we get requests: 'Do you wanna come to this country's semifinals? Do you wanna come here?' And for years we said, 'No, we don't wanna. We don't want to.' But now, we're, like, 'Fuck it! Let's do it. What the hell?' I mean, c'mon, it's all fun, and it's part of our history, and the Eurovision, they really want us to come there, because, let's face it, we are one of those winners that people still remember."

"Screem Writers Guild" came out in March 2023 via Atomic Fire Records.