In a new interview with Flying The Metal Flag, NONPOINT singer Elias Soriano spoke about the band's decision to launch its independent record label 361 Degrees Records LLC nearly five years ago. He explained (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We've found ourselves on the tail end of the major label machine. When we started, there was many major labels, and during the Napster years that really started to taper, and especially with the introduction of Spotify and Apple Music, it really flipped the model of distribution. So, we were on the tail end of that, just like most new metal bands were. And a lot of them either just have unfinished contracts with their labels, and some of those labels happened to either continue to exist or got absorbed into other labels. But we literally saw it go from, like, 12 majors to, like, nine, to six to three in our career. So it's something that after being parts of so many different teams and so many different ideas, seeing what works and seeing what doesn't work, we had an idea of what we wanted to build around us so that way we could continue to release music and continue to be successful at it."

Asked if he thinks music streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have been a positive thing for artists, Elias said: "Financially, I would say it's made things a little bit tougher. But when it comes to speed of getting the product into people's hands, it definitely is a lot less hoops to jump through in order to get the music into their hands. But, unfortunately, the value of music is what has really changed, through whether it be consumption versus traffic, especially with A.I. now. It's become artists starting to become a part of social media, but also, too, it's becoming an afterthought to the feed, it almost seems, where you can see the writing in certain kinds of songs and certain kinds of song lengths and, I guess, actual content in the music, it becomes something that you have to understand people will be listening to it while they're watching their phone or watching a movie at home while they're also to scrolling through their phone. So, missing sections of the movie becomes a little bit less important. So it's a lot of filler and things to bring you in and to just hold your attention long enough to just get your art across. And juggling that is what the industry is having to deal with because of things like streaming and social media and stuff like that. The days of wanting to sit down for an entire record from beginning to end and listening to it over and over again, those kind of listeners don't exist as much as the other type of listener these days. Because you gotta remember, when it comes to music discovery, you gotta think about age groups and when your frequency of discovery as you got older started to taper because of other things, like life and children and life insurance and health insurance and all these things, fixing the car, and all of these things that you juggle. I feel like that's when discovery starts to taper as you get older. Well, the youth, they're the main consumers of discovery where they're just looking for the next thing, and that is up against the feed more now than ever."

Back in January 2022, Soriano told "HRH Metal With Dan Chan" that NONPOINT's decision to go it alone when it comes to record labels has resulted in "less anxiety and more anxiety," adding that he has "a team" of "people that are professionals in place" to run the business for him and his bandmates.

"I'm not a neophyte when it comes to the overall scope and understanding of the music industry, but I know when to get the hell out of the way and let someone else steer the ship," he said.

Asked what he missed about having a bigger label behind his band, Soriano said at the time: "The relationships and the friendships. It's fun working with a team that you know everyone around the corner is a professional. That definitely gives less anxiety. But you see, even the staff, they feel the same kind of restriction. They wanna go harder; they wanna spend more money — you know they want to — but they have people to answer to."

As for how he balanced the business and the creative side of being in a band, Elias said: "It's not easy but we're doing it, and that's what matters. And the product that's coming out is better than ever. It's a lot of fun. It really is. I'm having fun doing this."

Soriano also discussed the challenges of running a label like 361 Degrees Records LLC in a March interview with DJ Force X. He said at the time: "Yeah, it's a workload. It's definitely a workload. You got the creative side and the administrative side and juggling it both is about putting people that you trust and putting at least some sort of plan and even a small team behind things that need to be recirculated back into the brand and checked on and nurtured, like our socials or like our merch store and things like that. So, we definitely try to get some sort of administrative plan and team behind those certain things so that way they're kind of running on autopilot. So that way, when we wanna do grand things within the label plan, it's easy for us to do and take on those projects within the label."

After DJ Force X applauded the "DIY" nature of running an independent record label with no external pressure, Elias clarified: "There's definitely really no outside influence, but I wouldn't call it just DIY, because I have to give credit where credit's due. We have people that we've brought on that we work together. We see the value in the NONPOINT brand. And where we see that we can grow and we wanna scale, we lean on professionals and get advice and get plans and get things calendared so that way we have a finish line that we try to aim at. And I think that, being smart with your team, being smart with your plan is paramount to surviving, especially today."

When NONPOINT first launched 361 Degrees Records, the band filmed the process, along with documenting the making of new music, in a docu-series titled "A Path To Independence" that can be seen on the band's YouTube and official web site.

NONPOINT has been captivating audiences with its energetic sound and passionate performances for over two decades. Formed in 1997, the band has consistently pushed the boundaries of what modern rock can be, combining heavy metal, nu-metal, and hard rock into a unique and powerful musical force. Over the course of its 28-year career, NONPOINT has released several critically acclaimed albums and garnered a reputation as one of the most exciting live acts in the industry.

Throughout its career, NONPOINT has been celebrated for their signature sound and powerful lyrics, which often tackle social and political issues. Their hard-hitting sound and emotional live performances have earned them a dedicated fanbase, as well as recognition from the music industry. NONPOINT has received multiple award nominations and has been praised by publications such as Rolling Stone, Revolver and Alternative Press.

NONPOINT is:

Elias Soriano (Lead Vocals)
Robb Rivera (Drums)
Rasheed Thomas (Guitar, Backing Vocals)
Adam Woloszyn (Bass)
Jason Zeilstra (Lead Guitar)

Legendary rocker Alice Cooper, who has been a devout Christian for many years, once again opened up about his faith during his latest interview with pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie.

Having grown up with a father who was a preacher, Cooper has always had religion in his life. But it wasn't until he quit drinking and drugging in the '80s that he dedicated his life to Christ.

Regarding why he thinks so many successful people, including many of the biggest rock musicians, quietly struggle with drugs and alcohol while seemingly exceling at their craft, Alice said in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I think if you don't have the Lord in your life, you're always gonna be trying to fill that hole with something. It's either gonna be drugs or it's gonna be Ferraris or it's gonna be houses or wives or this or that or fame, and you're never going to achieve it. Because there's that inner thing of us that when we're born of reconnecting with God that's there. And even if you're denying it, that's what you're searching for. And so they'll go to, 'Oh, the new fad is this. I'm gonna go be now a Buddhist.' 'I'm now going to be a vegetarian goat yoga person.' 'I'm gonna be this.' And they go through everything and still don't find it. And the last place they look is the Lord."

Asked why he thinks that is, Cooper said: "Well, I think because once you say, 'God, you're my God. You're my savior,' Now you have to answer to him. People do not want to give up their God self, the self that they control. I control my life. Even people that go to church. I go to church. Okay. Yeah. But you given yourself fully. And that's where the fulfillment comes from. But you can't explain that to somebody that's not searching. People are searching, but they don't want… As soon as somebody says 'Jesus Christ', they go, 'Yeah. Well, right. I'm gonna go over here.'

"The most miserable people I knew were billionaires, because they had everything and they still did not, they didn't have that fulfillment yet," Alice added. "'Okay, I'm gonna go climb Mount Everest naked.' The three biggest billionaires in the world are in space. 'I'll go into space. Maybe that's where I'll find it.' Isn't that weird? It's like a James Bond movie."

When Laurie noted that it seems to be that Cooper believes what those people are really looking for is God, Alice concurred. "If that's not your final goal, and that's should be the most important goal," he said. "Everything else is secondary, everything else is thirdary [sic].

"I always said this before, and a lot of people don't like the statement, but if I were gonna put what's important to me in order, Alice Cooper would be about fifth," Alice added. "Once you've answered that knock and once you've committed to that and once you start realizing how merciful that we've been treated and how much grace we've been given, when you look back at your life and you go, 'Wow.'"

Asked who Jesus Christ is to him, Alice responded: "He's the core of everything. He's life itself. He's the light. I mean, if we don't all revolve around Christ, then we're way out in space somewhere. He draws you in. He's the light. You're drawn to that light. And it's nothing you can explain in words. It's something that happens to your heart where all of a sudden you realize who this is and you realize, 'Oh my gosh, I'm not worthy of this.' And yet still being hung on the cross, he knew your name, he knew my name. And that made me go, 'How can I not believe in this?' He changes your heart."

Alice continued: "Now, he didn't say, 'And now that you're a Christian, you can no longer be in rock and roll.' His plan was, 'Now you're a Christian, go be in a rock and roll band. But follow me. Be Alice Cooper.' And that's what Christians don't understand. I can be Alice Cooper. And I can't tell you how many e-mails I get saying, 'You know that song you wrote, 'Hey Stoopid'? It changed my life. I was gonna kill myself. That song spoke to me.' Some of the songs that don't make any sense at all, they go, 'I turned to Christ because of that song.' And I go, 'That song?' It spoke to them differently. It said something differently. So now when I write, I always try to have some lyric pointing towards Christ, some lyric.

"At one point we did an album called 'Brutal Planet' and [another one called] 'Dragontown', and what it was talking about was — it was a heavy metal album," Cooper explained. "And then Christian kids started listening to it and going, 'This is a Christian album. It's talking about how this is a brutal planet.' And 'Dragontown' is the result of it. You get one shot; you don't get another chance. If you end up in 'Dragontown', there's no way out. But 'Brutal Planet''s pointing out all the things that point to Christ — the horrible things, but the things also that point to Christ. That album, and 'The Last Temptation', which was another album about that, it was written sort of like 'something wicked this way comes'. The circus comes to town, the kid goes to circus and they try everything to get him to join the circus. And at the end, he doesn't. [Those albums] were being sold in Christian bookstores. And my record company couldn't figure out why. They're going, 'Why are we selling records in Christian bookstores? 'Because it was Christian albums. Two or three of my songs were used in choirs — a song like 'I Am Made Of You', 'Salvation'. And these stories, it's a murder mystery, but there's a song called 'Salvation', how the murderer's going, 'Is there any chance for salvation?' Well, that's the song that, so you did all this horrible things, but, yeah, there is a chance for salvation."

Back in August 2019, Cooper told Laurie that he dedicated his life to Christ partly at the urging of his wife, Sheryl.

"Sheryl had gone — she had gone to Chicago and said, 'I can't watch this,'" Alice recalled about the moment when he accepted Jesus into his life. "But the cocaine was speaking a lot louder than her. Finally, I looked in the mirror and it looked like my makeup, but it was blood coming down [from my eyes]. I think — I might have been hallucinating; I don't know. I flushed the rock down the toilet. I woke up and I called her and I said, 'It's done.' And she goes, 'Right. You have to prove it.' One of the deals was we start going to church. I knew who Jesus Christ was, and I was denying him. I knew that there had to either come a point where I either accepted Christ and started living that life, or if I died in this, I was in a lot of trouble. And that's what really motivated me. I just got to a point of saying, 'I'm tired of this life.' And I know that this is right when the Lord opens your eyes and you suddenly realize who you are and who He is."

Cooper admitted that he contemplated changing his name after he came to faith in Christ, but his pastor advised him not to.

"I went to my pastor and I said, 'I think I've gotta quit being Alice Cooper now.' He says, 'Look where he put you. What if you're Alice Cooper, but what if you're now following Christ? And you're a rock star, but you don't live the rock-star life. Your lifestyle is now your testimony.'"

When asked if he was ashamed to say he believed in Jesus Christ, the rock star replied with a confident "no."

"People talk about Alice being a rebel — there was never more of a rebel than Jesus Christ," he said. "You wanna talk about a rebel — he was the ultimate."

The now-77-year-old Cooper has been outspoken about his religious awakening for quite some time. In a 2018 interview with New York Daily News, he said: "My wife and I are both Christian. My father was a pastor, my grandfather was an evangelist. I grew up in the church, went as far away as I could from it — almost died — and then came back to the church."

Although he struggled with alcoholism before embracing religion, Alice said that he doesn't have trouble reconciling his shock-heavy musical persona with his religious beliefs. "There’s nothing in Christianity that says I can't be a rock star," he said. "People have a very warped view of Christianity. They think it's all very precise and we never do wrong and we're praying all day and we're right-wing. It has nothing to do with that."

Cooper reportedly attends church regularly and participates in Bible study.

In a new interview with Australia's Heavy, BEHEMOTH frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski was asked if it gets "easier or harder" for him to come up with something that sounds fresh and vibrant every time he makes a new album. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Obviously, it's more and more demanding, more challenging. But then who we are to say that. Just take [JUDAS] PRIEST or METALLICA, how much of a task it is for those bands to come up with something that's gonna be… I mean, [METALLICA's] James Hetfield, he openly talks about it now. [METALLICA's] 'Black Album' was that, and then ever since it's a struggle. And 'I've never been entirely' — that's what he said — 'I've never been entirely happy with what we do.' And he said that. So, trust me, it's not an easy task. And just take, for instance, JUDAS PRIEST. But JUDAS PRIEST, last record is fucking amazing. The one before, 'Firepower', was fucking amazing. So I look up to those bands and I'm, like, 'You know what? They still can do it. If they can do it, I can do it.' But it's not easy. It's far from that. That's why sometimes I have to zero myself."

Referencing BEHEMOTH's latest album, 2025's "The Shit Ov God", Nergal continued: "Some people get it, some people didn't get that. When I gave our latest record that title, they were, like, 'Uh, Nergal, you can do better than this.' No, I can't do better. This is the best I can give you. This is the best I can give you. And if you don't wanna look into that and just see it's not just a primitive slogan or simple or whatever, it's something way more than just provocative title. It's something way more than that. And you just need to dig into that. It's not a stupid title. Just get the record, read the lyrics. It's not a stupid title. And it makes sense. You just need to make an effort as a fan to digest that, to process that and eventually understand that. But it's up to you. I did my work. Now it's up to you. And I know it's a challenging title and it's a challenging record, and it's not some Satanic chitchats. There's never been. It's a very challenging, very demanding album with the title that you may think, 'Oh, there's something wrong with those dudes. They didn't come up with something complex and philosophical.' And it's more philosophical than you think it is."

Nergal added: "But with ['The Shit Ov God'] album title, I kind of zeroed myself, because I remember thinking, 'Fucking hell.' I stole this 'Opvs Contra Natvram' title from [psychiatrist Carl] Jung, but who knows who Jung is? And then I stole 'I Loved You At Your Darkest' from the Bible… It's inspired by the Bible. And I thought it's a beautiful title, yet people were bitching about it. But I thought there's so much depth there, and let me explain you. But they're, like, 'You can't top 'The Satanist'.' 'The Satanist', that kind of title is one in the world, one in a lifetime. And there's one 'Evangelion' and one 'The Apostasy'. I mean, trying to top that, you'll fail. You must do something completely opposite that's gonna just get people off the guard, like, boom. And they're, like, 'What the fuck is that?' And that's what 'The Shit Ov God' is. So now when I zeroed myself, if you know what I'm trying to explain, now I can again build something way more sophisticated and complex, just to build the dynamics. If you analyze BEHEMOTH's album titles — 'The Satanist', then 'I Loved You At Your Darkest' — something completely different, the dynamics. It goes somewhere else. And then the Latin title that I stole from Jung, 'Opvs Contra Natvram'. And then 'The Shit Ov God'. It's, like, you have four album titles that are completely different. And that's what makes it cool, at least for me. Every one [of them] is different, and I'm not doing those to make you like them. I'm doing those to fucking confuse you. That is my main goal — to confuse the fuck out of people. And I succeeded."

"The Shit Ov God" came out in May via Nuclear Blast Records. Production on the LP was helmed by the inimitable Jens Bogren of Fascination Street Studios (EMPEROR, ENSLAVED, KREATOR, ROTTING CHRIST et al.). Working closely with the band, Bogren's deft hand underscored the band's natural sound while sacrificing none of the mayhem and ferocity which permeates the band's essence. As is always the case with BEHEMOTH, the visuals were as carefully constructed as the sound. The band tapped longtime collaborator and partner in crime Bartek Rogalewicz (BLACK.LODGE.IS.NOW) as well as Dark Sigil Workshop to make the beautifully ominous and unique cover art.

Photo credit: Sylwia Makris and Christian Martin Weiss (courtesy of Nuclear Blast)

In a new interview with RapidMetalFire, former KREATOR and current SODOM guitarist Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik spoke about his plans for the coming months. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I'm doing my solo band, FRANK BLACKFIRE. And we had a re-release party in — was it the 31st of May this year — it was kind of like a re-release party, 10 years of [my] 'Back On Fire' [solo] album, and High Roller Records from Germany, they re-released it. And [it was] the first time it came out on vinyl too and everything, and we did kind of a re-release party show with that. And it was pretty good, actually. We had an in-store before, an autograph session, at Idiots Records [in Dortmund] one day before, and I'm pretty satisfied how many people showed up. And I was really, 'Wow, that's surprise.' And then we did the show, and it was pretty good. Everybody who were there, they liked it. And, yeah, that's the thing I'm continuing right now."

He continued: "I'm trying to get shows with my band. It's not as easy as with SODOM, because SODOM has a much bigger name. But actually, I found shows and I found some festivals for next year. And I'm pretty satisfied with how it is going. Of course, it can always be more. But I'm really happy about it. Toni's [Merkel, SODOM drummer] playing with me, and, yeah, Toni's playing in another black metal band. He has to do jobs also, the same like I have to do. I'm a guitar teacher also, but I prefer playing live. And I'm trying everything to get shows and festivals. And I'm writing new material for a new album, FRANK BLACKFIRE album."

Frank also addressed the current status of SODOM, whose leader, bassist/vocalist Tom "Angelripper" Such, announced a touring hiatus on the run-up to the release of the band's 17th studio album, "The Arsonist", which came out this past summer. Blackfire said: "With SODOM, we had released 'The Arsonist' recently, like in — was it July? So, we had a new album out, and nothing happens with SODOM. And, yeah, it's a pity, though. I don't know. If you bring out a new album, I think you wanna go and play live and wanna go on tour or wanna play live somewhere — festivals at least, or something. But I don't know. Why bring out a new album and don't play live? This is kind of a waste of the album, I think. So, yeah, actually, it's a pity, though, but what do you wanna do? So, I keep being active. I'm working hard right now and trying to get shows, festivals, writing new material for a new album, new FRANK BLACKFIRE album. I hope I can bring it out next year. And, yeah, we are [in a] pretty good mood in the band. And, yeah, I'm surprised that people are interested in FRANK BLACKFIRE shows. Of course it's all a little smaller than SODOM — we play little club shows and smaller festivals — but I'm really happy. And I have to continue, because this is my earnings. I have to earn some money to survive, because I live on music. I have to make a living out of it. I'm still there. I don't wanna get a regular job or something. Nobody's gonna take me, [at] almost 60 years [old]. They're not gonna [hire me]. And anyway, what should I do? The only thing is guitar teaching, music teaching, anything like that — that's what I'm gonna do. Or anything that has to do with guitars or music and everything. Even help out for other bands, I would do that too, if it is an interesting thing. And, yeah, that's how I'm surviving right now."

This past spring, High Roller Records celebrated the tenth anniversary of Blackfire's debut solo album, "Back On Fire", with a remastered reissue featuring new artwork and, for the first time, a vinyl edition.

While Frank was living in Brazil after the turn of the millennium, he formed the band MYSTIC and recorded two demos with them, laying the foundation for an album that turned out to be a long time coming. The ten tracks of "Back On Fire" — including a thrashy interpretation of Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn" theme as an intro and a guest appearance by Angelripper — are characterized by Frank's signature guitar style and rasp.

Blackfire is a German guitarist who started exploring and listening to his father's rock and roll albums at the early age of 6. Frank picked up a guitar at the age of 15, and then, at the age of 18, joined a cover band in which he played classic songs of acts such as JUDAS PRIEST and SAXON. About two years later, Frank joined the German thrash legends SODOM and entered Music Lab Studios in Berlin to record the band's "Expurse Of Sodomy" EP, and the "Persecution Mania" album, both of which were produced by Harris Johns. "Persecution Mania" was promoted on a European tour, which was documented on the legendary "Mortal Way Of Live" live album and video. In 1989, SODOM completed another classic album, "Agent Orange", which was the first German thrash metal album to ever enter the German chart. Frank left SODOM in 1989, but as his friends from KREATOR were in need of a guitarist, he accompanied them on a North American tour. Soon after that, he became a full-time member of KREATOR, joining them on the road and making three studio albums with the group: "Coma Of Souls" (1990),"Renewal" (1992) and "Cause For Conflict" (1995).

After leaving KREATOR in 1996, Frank focused on other music genres, and also started to teach guitar playing. Between 2000 and 2006, Frank lived in Brazil, where he played with several bands in between releasing an album and an EP with his band MYSTIC. In 2007, Blackfire rejoined his former bandmates SODOM at the Wacken Open Air festival and then appeared at the Chris Witchhunter memorial concert in 2008.

In January 2018, Angelripper announced the return of Blackfire to SODOM.

This past May, Angelripper publicly discussed his decision to cut down on SODOM's touring activities for the foreseeable future. Asked by Chaoszine, bassist/vocalist Thomas "Angelripper" Such if this was a "hard decision" to make at this point in SODOM's career, Tom said: "Yes, because when you make a break or you stop something, the time is always uncomfortable, I think. The record company, they told me, 'Oh, you release a new album. You have to go on tour. You have to play festivals.' I know. But it's my decision. I'm working for the whole production, I'm working for the promotion for the new album. That's not a problem. But I wanna stop touring for a while. I need more time for my family, for my hobbies, for my good old friends or time for myself."

Tom continued: "My doctor said, 'You are in very good condition for your age, but slow it down a little bit.' And I'm still working on the band; I'm still working for re-releases. I just wanna do more home office. But I have no plan to come back. I don't wanna have any pressure. When I say, 'Okay, I come back in April '27,' whatever, I put myself under pressure. I don't want [that]. Maybe — I don't know how long it takes. I will see what happens. I don't have any plans. But I'm sure I'm coming back one day."

Angelripper previously discussed SODOM's decision to take a break earlier in May in an interview with RapidMetalFire. He said at the time: "I think you know the story of [SLAYER's] Tom Araya. Maybe you heard something about it. I think he's got the same problems, like [issues with his] neck [when performing live]. He couldn't more headbang. I can headbang. It's not so massive… But that is not the reason why. The reason why is I want to spend more time with other things. I want to spend more time with my family. I need more time going for my hunting district. I want to spend time doing nothing.

"If you are a professional musician — I'm also the manager of the band — you are busy every day," Such explained. "There is no time to breathe. There is no time to relax. I like to spend the time on stage. I like to spend the time making music, but I hate wast[ing] time on airports or hotels.

"If you're getting 62 [years old] like me, you say, 'Okay, I need money to make my [living] from [playing] music.' I know — money is a very important thing. But there is something you cannot buy with money: the freedom," Thomas added. "And that's what I told to my boys, to my group. I told them, I think two years ago, 'In this year, I wanna slow down the things a little bit,' because I can't do nothing, because I'm still working on re-releases. The only difference is I have my home office. That's the only thing. But I can tell you, I have no plan what to do. I have no plan how long I'm gonna rest. I have no plan when I restart the band, so I don't wanna live without any plans in the next times. I can't tell people I want to come back in '27 or '28, maybe '26 — I don't tell the people. When I think I wanna come back, I go."

Asked if SODOM is still "receiving booking requests" from promoters around the world, Thomas said: "I receive a lot of booking requests… I get some offers from this [and that] festival. I get some offers for making a tour with HEAVEN SHALL BURN. They were interested in maybe a SODOM tour. I get a thousand of requests [for] the 'Big Four' [of German thrash metal: KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, SODOM and TANKARD] worldwide. That is not a problem… People are still interested. It's not something bad because we have no success. I can book tours every day over the year, if I want. That is another thing. SODOM is still — we are still very much a success, I think. People are really interested in coming [to see us]… So that is not the problem. I know that people wanna see SODOM."

Elaborating on his reasons for taking a break from the road, Thomas said: "I love my fans, but I also love myself. I also love my family. I also love my old friends. Now it's time to stop [and] just [concentrate on] doing other things. That's very easy. I'm still healthy. I'm able to do it. I'm still creative. Maybe the day will come I don't know what to do, I'm not more creative, I cannot write lyrics, I cannot play bass. Then it's gone. It's just a break. But I don't know how long it takes."

Posted by JZ Stricker LIVE on Sunday, October 19, 2025

In a new interview with the U.K.'s Beyond The Vibe podcast, hosted by Ryan Vacey, STYX keyboardist and vocalist Lawrence Gowan weighed in on a debate about people using an A.I. (artificial intelligence) music generator as a tool to create melodies, harmonies and rhymes based on artificial intelligence (A.I.) algorithms and machine learning (M.L.) models. Lawrence said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "This is such a hot topic. I don't quite know yet what to think, because we don't know what it's going to… I saw a great interview with David Bowie from the '90s where he said, 'We have no idea what the Internet effect is going to be. It's so beyond…' — I'm paraphrasing what he was saying, but — 'it's so beyond what we can really envision. And it's going to have some devastating effects. It's gonna have some marvelous things [that] will happen as well.'"

Gowan continued: "Any new invention of humankind, it brings with it some of the greatest discoveries and some of the most perilous areas that we can ever weigh into. So I'm aware of that, and I'm aware that there are dangers in all kinds of areas. And so we'll stick with the arts for a moment. And I'd say that so far what I like about [STYX's recently released A.I. conceptual video for the song] 'Build And Destroy' [directed by Jay Ziebarth], what made me wanna continue to pursue it was that it was still human prompting and human kind of rough drawings that that initiated where it ultimately went. We wanted something where there was some sort of battle between nature and and technology. So that was kind of the theme of 'Build And Destroy'. We come up with great inventions and then we decide, 'That's enough of that. Let's knock it all down and move on to the next thing.' That's kind of part of the human experience. And when the little kind of battle between the bees and the birds and the people that were kind of trying to manipulate that or trying to use that to their advantage — this is the little story that unfolds in the video — I found it entertaining. And so often, so many A.I. things that I've seen fall very short of the entertaining factor. And I think that may be because there's not enough of a human directing hand behind it, because entertainment is something that it's hard for anything other than a human being to figure out what it is that another human being is gonna be entertained by.

"I'm not sure if the A.I.'s manipulating us or we're manipulating it, but when we manipulate it, it tends to bring out some results that I've found to be entertaining," Lawrence added. "On the other hand, when it's strictly A.I. generated, I find it really dull, quite honestly. And it's not giving me any kind of emotional response whatsoever. But I wouldn't put it all down because in other fields — medical, for example — there are such phenomenal things that will probably come to our benefit from it. But I could be wrong."

Gowan went on to say that it remains to be seen whether A.I. technologies will amplify our humanity or replace the skills and sensibilities that make us fundamentally human.

"There's no definitive answer to it, really," he explained. "I mean, you can say this is the worst thing that's ever happened. But people have said that anytime… I remember a bunch of old articles about when movies came out, and people [were saying], 'This is the end of live theater. This is destroying that.' And the same thing happened in the 1950s when the Mellotron, that keyboard, came out. People were, like, 'Well, that's the end of orchestras.' It doesn't work that way. At least I haven't seen… Time has not proven that to be correct. We still have those things."

Lawrence continued: "As the artist that that worked on our both videos said — his name's Jay Ziebarth — he said, 'To me, it's just another tool. It's like I'm using stock footage in this way, and for me it's another tool.' But if you're a really traditionalist filmmaker, you would be, like, 'No, I absolutely don't want that at all to enter into what I'm doing.' If you're a traditional musician, you bristle in the same way at the idea of it infiltrating what it is that you do. So I think it's when we cross fields and kind of dip into the other guy's territory that we might be able to find something that otherwise we couldn't or in some ways wouldn't even have the financial means to access."

According to Gowan, his "first introduction to A.I. in music" was when he heard artificial intelligence used to create a "new" BEATLES song. He recalled: "It's funny, when I heard it, the first 10, 12 seconds, I was, like, 'Oh, yeah, that sounds kind of like Paul [McCartney]. That sounds like John [Lennon]. I can actually hear George [Harrison]. And, yeah, that's the worst BEATLES song that could ever be composed.' It's nothing remotely like THE BEATLES, but it's got some flavors in there. It's almost like you'd be eating something that tastes similar to something you've had in the past, and yet your taste buds are not excited by it. I'm trying to use some kind of analogy like that. That's how it felt to me, in a musical sense. So I thought, 'Well, it's useless,' but it's not useless. It comes down to the application."

Gowan joined STYX in 1999, after achieving major star status in Canada as a solo artist under the name GOWAN. He has four platinum and three gold albums in his homeland. In 2003 he received the prestigious "Classic Status" award for the song "Moonlight Desires". This award is presented when a song gets played over 100,000 times on Canadian radio. With this, Gowan joined a small group of singer/songwriters from Canada, such as Neil Young, Bryan Adams and Joni Mitchell, to be so honored. Another Gowan song, "A Criminal Mind", was a No. 1 hit in Canada in 1985, and can also be found on the live STYX album from 2001, "Styxworld".

STYX's eighteenth studio album, "Circling From Above", was released in July via the band's label Alpha Dog 2T/UMe. The LP featured contributions from all seven members of the band, including founding guitarist/vocalist James "JY" Young (affectionately known as "The Godfather of STYX"),guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw, original bassist Chuck Panozzo, longtime drummer Todd Sucherman, Gowan, guitarist/vocalist Will Evankovich and bassist Terry Gowan.

"Circling From Above" was STYX's third album in eight years, building on the creative momentum of recent releases "The Mission" (2017) and "Crash Of The Crown" (2021).

In a new interview with muSiK, hosted by the husband-and-wife duo of Jillian and Jeremy, Gene Hoglan spoke about his involvement with DEATH TO ALL (DTA) — which features former members of DEATH celebrating the life and music of Chuck Schuldiner. The current lineup of DEATH TO ALL includes Hoglan (also of DARK ANGEL and DETHKLOK) on drums, DiGiorgio (also of TESTAMENT) on bass and Bobby Koelble on guitar. Max Phelps (CYNIC),who has been touring with DEATH TO ALL, is once again handling the vocal and second-guitar duties. Hoglan was the drummer on the DEATH albums "Individual Thought Patterns" (1993) and "Symbolic" (1995),DiGiorgio was the bassist on 1991's "Human" as well as "Individual Thought Patterns", and Koelble was the guitarist on "Symbolic".

When asked what he thinks Chuck would be the most proud of when it comes to Hoglan and the other DEATH TO ALL musicians celebrating Schuldiner's music, Gene said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, if Chuck were still with us, there's not to say that he might not be doing DEATH himself, even though he was beginning to definitely lean away from really being the vocalist of DEATH, the vocalist of a death metal band. And he was leaning towards — while we were doing 'Symbolic', his traditional leanings were definitely getting into just the traditional metal sort of thing, which led to [the formation of his] CONTROL DENIED [project].

"All we can do is just hope that through Chuck's family, 'cause they are definitely behind us, in our court — they appreciate what we do and they appreciate our portions of DEATH's legacy as well, our contributions to it," Gene continued. "And that is very nice to know.

"Chuck, he would always just say, 'Let the metal flow.' And that's what I think he would say about this. Like, 'Hey, if you guys are taking up the torch…' And we're all pals. Each one of us had our issues with Chuck, as everybody did, but all of us, we all had our hug-it-out moments after all that. So, I feel good about this. Stevie D. does. Bobby does. Max does. Max does an incredible job of doing Chuck, because Max does all of Chuck's voices. It's very common knowledge, throughout the eras, Chuck's voice was rising, raising during each album, and Max matches every voice. And he says 'Symbolic' is a very challenging album, because it's just in this register. It's not quite as high as 'The Sound Of Perseverance', and the lower stuff is easier to do. But Max does a fantastic job of doing everything with Chuck's voice. And sothis is a great night of DEATH music. It's a great night of metal.

"We put out a really kickass vibe with this, and the term that has been getting thrown around towards us from so many people, more so than ever, is the term 'magical'," Hoglan added. "People say this is a magical evening. This transcends just a metal band just getting up there ripping through some kickass songs. There's something about this entire night that is just really resonating with people on something much higher than just, 'Yeah, I went to a kickass show.' Me, I always say, 'It's a kickass show. Come out. Don't be the one getting the call the next day, 'Man, you missed a kickass show.'' But when people do come out, it is elevating their responses even further than we could see. So there's that involved as well. So there you go."

DEATH TO ALL recently completed touring North America as part of "Symbolic Healing", a month-long celebration of two of DEATH's landmark albums: "Spiritual Healing" (1990) and "Symbolic" (1995).

DEATH TO ALL celebrated "Scream Bloody Gore" (1987) and "The Sound Of Perseverance" (1998) across North America in 2024.

Along with the dual album celebration, each night on the fall 2025 tour showcased classics from DEATH's catalog. The tour featured special guests GORGUTS and PHOBOPHILIC.

Founded in 1984 by Chuck Schuldiner under the original name of MANTAS in Altamonte Springs, Florida, DEATH was among the more widely known early pioneers of the death metal sound, along with California's POSSESSED. Inspired by NASTY SAVAGE, DEATH was among the first bands in the Florida death metal scene. In the late '80s, the band was both a part of and integral in defining the death metal scene which gained international recognition with the release of albums by a number of area acts.

DEATH TO ALL operates as a tribute band to the original DEATH, which dissolved in 2001 following Schuldiner's passing.

"Born Human: The Life And Music Of Death's Chuck Schuldiner", the fully authorized biography of the legendary DEATH frontman, has just been released via Decibel Books.

"Born Human", authored by accomplished journalist David E. Gehlke ("The Scott Burns Sessions: A Life In Death Metal 1987-1997", "Turned Inside Out: The Official Story Of Obituary"),features exclusive interviews, contributions, stunning new Ed Repka cover art and previously unreleased, hand-selected photographs from those who knew Chuck best. "Born Human" brings life to the dramatic story of the man who blazed an iconic path in metal music, laying the foundation for generations to come.

Fans can order their copy now at store.decibelmagazine.com.

Photo credit: Alex Solca (courtesy of Adrenaline PR)

On the latest episode of Kylie Olsson's "Life In Six Strings", Kylie heads to Lawrence, Massachusetts — the hometown of GODSMACK frontman Sully Erna — where he reflects on his early days and the roots that shaped his career. Sully opens the doors to his self-described "music house" in New Hampshire, offering a look inside his creative world before the journey wraps up at GODSMACK headquarters. Guitars come out, stories are shared, and Sully shows Kylie how to play "Something Different" while walking through his personal guitar collection.

Asked if there will be another GODSMACK album at some point, Sully told Kylie (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I  think there will. I said there wasn't going to be, and at least I know there won't be with the original members," referring to the fact that GODSMACK's longtime drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola announced their exit from the group in April.

"[Shannon and Tony] have [officially retired], and very honorably," Sully explained. "And we're still really good friends. There's no drama there. I'm putting some new people in place. I'm still in some trial periods, but we have some plans coming in 2026 that we're excited about. And it's gonna be good. I mean, the band's coming into the height of our career. All these years later we're hitting another moment where we're doing our best attendance. And it's kind of come full circle."

Earlier this month, GODSMACK announced around a dozen European shows for the summer of 2026, including headlining appearances at various festivals, such as Leyendas Del Rock in Spain and Dynamo Metal Fest in the Netherlands.

When GODSMACK confirmed Shannon and Tony's departures from the band eight months ago, Sully said that Rombola and Larkin "decided to retire from the band permanently, on good terms, but for no other reason than to fulfill their desire to live a more simple and quiet life away from touring."

He added: "Their departure marks the end of an era, but it also opens the door for new and exciting possibilities. We want to assure you that Shannon and Tony will always be part of our family, and their contributions will forever echo in our music. We respect their decisions and support them wholeheartedly as they pursue their own individual paths.

"Robbie [Merrill, GODSMACK bassist] and I are also excited to explore new directions, and although we have not made any permanent decisions about who may replace Tony and Shannon, we will be continuing this journey together, and we look forward to sharing the decisions we make with all of you as they happen.

GODSMACK kicked off its 2025 European tour on March 22 at Arena 8888 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The day before the Sofia concert, Erna told Elena Rozberg of Bulgaria's Z-Rock radio station that "personal things" were preventing Tony and Shannon from taking part in the trek and explained that "a couple of guest musicians" — drummer Will Hunt of EVANESCENCE and guitarist Sam Koltun of DOROTHY — were playing with GODSMACK while he and Merrill were " trying to figure out exactly what's happening".

In a since-deleted video shared on Facebook, Larkin addressed his absence from GODSMACK's 2025 tour, saying:  "Well, there's been lots of speculation about [why Tony and I are not on the road].

"First of all, I just wanna thank everybody for the outpouring of texts, all my family and friends. I'm okay. Tony's okay. But we did quit the band last year, after lots of talking to Sully and Robbie. And they understood that we didn't wanna tour anymore — that's the reason — and we understood that they wanted to tour. And so we understood each other. And in the end, GODSMACK's out there touring and we are happily here living our lives.

"Tony turned 60. I'm 58. Look, it's not a physical thing. We wanna be home with everything that we love.

"[It's been] 40 years — think of that; 40 years I've been touring. 28 years for Rombola. And we're getting a little older, so we decided to quit it. And that's it.

"But thanks. And we love you all, the fans and everything.

"This wasn't a bad thing, and I know it looks like it, but I will talk more about it in the future. But it's all love. We're brothers for life with Sully and Robbie, and we wish Will and Sam the best. And all the fans, keep going [to the shows]. They're kicking fucking ass.

"As Sully said at the very end, all good things must come to an end. So GODSMACK didn't come to an end — it's just a new chapter for them — and it's certainly a new chapter for Tony and I. And we're already making music, and everybody's happy. So be happy, people."

Larkin joined GODSMACK in 2002 after cutting his teeth with WRATHCHILD (later WRATCHILD AMERICA and SOULS AT ZERO) before getting picked up by UGLY KID JOE in time for a taste of their zenith.

Tony had been the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for GODSMACK since the mid-1990s following the departure of Lee Richards.

GODSMACK's spring 2025 European tour featured support from P.O.D. and DROWNING POOL.

The 14-date trek ended on April 12, 2025 in Oberhausen, Germany.

GODSMACK's latest album, "Lighting Up The Sky", was released in February 2023 via BMG. The LP was co-produced by Erna and Andrew "Mudrock" Murdock (AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ALICE COOPER).

The first single from "Lighting Up The Sky", "Surrender", which arrived in September 2022, marked the first release from GODSMACK in four years, following their globally acclaimed and gold-certified 2018 album "When Legends Rise", which earned the Erna-fronted outfit a No. 1 spot across U.S. Hard Rock, Rock, and Alternative album charts.

In an October 2024 interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, Sully spoke about GODSMACK's announcement that "Lighting Up The Sky" would likely be its final collection of new material. Asked if he and his bandmates were working on any new music, Sully said: "No. There'll be no more new GODSMACK… I mean, you can never predict the future, but the decision that was made was that we're gonna go out now and start honoring the catalog of music that we created over the last 30 years and just enjoy kind of the greatest-hits moments."

When Meltdown noted that a lot of artists have "gone away from the album thing" and are focusing on releasing singles, Erna said: "I mean, it sounds like the smart thing to do these days. Nobody's really buying full albums anymore. And they make playlists of their favorite songs. So it just seems appropriate for this day and age. But again, [that's] another argument for us to kind of dip out while we're still in the world that we enjoyed growing up in, which was doing full-length albums and having artwork and lyrics and give the fans a whole experience through that body of work that you create. And I just no longer wanna put a year, year and a half of my time and effort and blood, sweat and tears into a piece of art for someone to just tear it apart, grab a couple of singles and move on. So, there's that. And then there's just the fact that we have a lot of singles right now. I mean, 27 Top Tens is a lot. That means we can't even play them all in one night, 'cause we usually average about 15 songs a night. So for us, I just think it's time that we start honoring the music and the catalog and giving the fans what they wanna hear."

Sully went on to say that he is "not complaining" about having so many hit songs to choose from for a GODSMACK live set. "I am very grateful," he clarified. "So it's not a complaint. It's just reality. And when I go to see my favorite bands, like AEROSMITH or METALLICA or whoever, I don't know. Do I really wanna hear their new album? Probably not. I wanna hear 'Dream On' and 'Same Old Song And Dance' and 'Walk This Way', and if I leave there and they're not playing those songs, I'm gonna be pretty mad. So, for our fanbase, I think we're at that level where we have to honor that."

Photo by Chris Bradshaw

In a recent interview with Czech Republic's Hovory u Grega, Billy Sheehan was asked about the possibility of MR. BIG recording new music, less than a year after he and his bandmates played what was billed as their final show. The 72-year-old bassist responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Nope. That's it. Finito. I think it's good to put a period at the end of the sentence: we're done. And also we wanted to end on a good note."

Billy continued: "My toaster, when I toast my toast in the morning, at the end when it's over, it says 'end hot'. In other words, the toaster [has come to the] end. It's toasted, but be careful, it's hot. And every time I see that, I go, 'That's what MR. BIG did. We end hot.' And we didn't wanna crawl over the finish line. We wanted to run over the finish line.

"I think it would be unfair for us to ever play together again because we told everybody this is a farewell tour," Sheehan explained. "Now I know a lot of bands, they do a farewell tour and then they come back again. But for us, we really wanted to be fair, 'cause people flew in from all over the world to every show we did. They flew in from Australia and Japan and USA. When we were in Asia, people went over there. When we were in Europe, people came from all over the world to see us. And so I wouldn't want to be dishonest to them and then we start playing again. And so that wasn't the farewell tour. So it is absolutely the farewell tour. That's it. I have nothing but high regard for everybody involved in that band. We're still all good friends, and I wish all of them well, and I'm sure we'll see each other here and there. But I think it was wise for us to just stop."

MR. BIG played the final show of its "The BIG Finale!" tour on February 25, 2025 at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. Earlier that same month, the band played three other shows: on February 14, 2025 at the Bloomverse Festival in Meghālaya, India, on February 16, 2025 at the Bloomverse Express in Bengaluru, India, and on February 22, 2025 at the Osaka Music Hall in Osaka, Japan. Asked in an October 28, 2025 interview with SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" if MR. BIG is now officially done, Sheehan said: "I believe so. And our explanation is, and as we see now, there's a lot of guys that are out there playing where the band isn't quite what it used to be. And it's tough to sing that stuff when you get up into your sixties and seventies. So the way we thought about it was, let's go over the finish line running as opposed to crawling. So, leave people with a good memory, remembering us as we were in pretty much our prime."

Billy continued: "The tour we did, the farewell tour was good. Great people came out from all over the place. We did very well. There were a couple of nights [where] we had some rough times with some of the vocals and such, but that's what happens [as] you get older. It's unfortunate. That's just the way it goes. Some people get lucky and they sing into their eighties, but not so many."

Asked if MR. BIG documented any of the performances on the final tour for future release, Sheehan said: "Well, we started the farewell tour [in 2023] in Japan. So we filmed that, but then we did a whole year of touring. Then at the end of that year, Japan said, 'Hey, wait, you've gotta come back and do one more.' So we go, 'Okay.' We ended up doing that. So from the very beginning of the farewell tour, we have a live DVD, video, album and everything. But we did film the very last show in Japan, but there's been no, really, push to release it because it pretty much the same show we did when we went there the first time [at the beginning of the farewell tour]."

Pressed about whether "everybody" in MR. BIG was "on board" with the decision to call it quits at this point in their career, Billy said: "Yeah, I believe so. I think we're all on the same page with that. And everybody will go off and do their own thing for a while and we'll always be friends and it's all cool and everything like that. But we leave on a high point, leave on a high note. And I know you've commented a couple of times on some singers that have been out there, some bands that have been out there that just don't quite have it, and it's kind of sad to see. And there are bands that I love, or players and performers I love, and, yeah, they have the right to go on and do their thing and enjoy themselves — that's great — but just for me as a fan, I wanna remember them on their prime."

This past August, MR. BIG frontman Eric Martin told "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about the band's decision to call it quits: "Well, we're no stranger to a breakup. I mean, we did this before. In 1996, Paul [Gilbert, MR. BIG guitarist] left, and thank God Richie Kotzen came into the picture [as Paul's replacement]. And then we did a couple of albums there. And then 2000 — I don't know; when was it? — in 2002 we did another one, and that was a long breakup. That was five, six years maybe. And then we got back together. So we're no stranger to a comeback. But I don't know. I feel like this is it."

Eric continued: "Romania was [supposed to be] the last show, which was last year, and then every time we wanna quit, that old saying, they brought us back for India, two shows, and then we played Osaka, and then we ended in Tokyo Budokan — again. And we said our goodbyes. And I don't know — I feel funny when you say goodbye too many times. I mean, nothing to take away from KISS or anything. I'm glad that they… Hey, first of all, it's KISS. Come back, leave, come back. I don't care. I'll be right there, right in the front row to watch you. But for MR. BIG, I think it was time. The train has left the station."

Martin went on to say that he is still on great terms with his MR. BIG bandmates even though a decision was made to no longer tour as a group. "Yeah, it's all good," he explained. "Everybody took a deep breath. We talked about it a couple of years ago with Tim, our manager, and we said, 'Hey, man. This is it.' And I balked a million times and talked too much and [I was] going, 'No, I don't want it to end.' But it was time. It was time. I mean, with [original MR. BIG drummer] Pat Torpey's passing and then different drummers — we had Matt Starr, we had Edu Cominato from Brazil play with us, and then the last drummer, Nick D'Virgilio, did great. Everything was wonderful, but the three of us — me, Billy and Paul — just kind of looked at each other and said, 'Hey, it's, it's a good time to go.' And also no animosity — I hope not. [Laughs] But I think this time we just all hugged it out.. Billy Sheehan, and I blame him for this, he said 'never say never' a million times. So, I think it's completely over, but in a beautiful way. No animosity. It's a beautiful thing."

In an October 2024 interview with Ruben Mosqueda of We Go To 11, Sheehan was asked if the band's "The BIG Finish" farewell tour was just the end of extensive touring for him and his bandmates, with plans to make special appearances from time to time, or if MR. BIG was going to become a studio-only project going forward. Billy responded: "The end is the end. It's finished. If some extenuating circumstances come up, we might do a show or two, maybe, but touring and recording… We kind of wanted to put a period at the end of the sentence. And as I've said many times, we wanted to run over the finish line, not crawl over it. And for us, a fully functional band is on tour playing live and doing the thing and writing recording, and then go out on after the record and do another tour, to do that, we've done that for 34 years, and it's been an amazing run. We have friends all over planet earth. It's fantastic. And it's probably our greatest asset, personally, for me, the amazing people that we've touched around the world. But we decided to really, 'Let's do it the right way,' and not to have some continual farewell thing that goes on for an eternity."

He continued: "Our last show was in Romania. Unusual. That's where the roulette ball fell into that as we spun the wheel. And we had a great time. And our last shows in Europe, we did a bunch of shows in Germany. Amazing. We have a lot of friends in Germany. We had big hits in Germany as well. And all over Europe and England. We got to play Ireland — Belfast and Dublin. And I'm an Irishman, so that was very nice. We played Liverpool, the Holy Ground. It was quite amazing. I had to put one little BEATLES melody in my solo at the end. Pretty cool. So it was a nice way to go out. I'm glad we did it. We did it with as much class as we're capable of. We did the final tour, and I'm very, very pleased about it."

In a separate interview with George Dionne of KNAC.COM, Martin once again admitted that he was second guessing the group's decision to stop touring after the completion of "The BIG Finish" farewell tour. Asked what "The BIG Finish" means to him, he said: "Yeah, I'm not pulling the wool over anybody's eyes. It means the touring is over. Which kind of bums me out, because I was there in the meeting a year and change ago going, 'Yep. I agree. It's time that we call it quits.'

"I didn't wanna quit for the longest time," he admitted. "I mean, this was brought up, like, five years ago. 'Should we do a farewell tour?' We've got other projects going, and it's kind of hard to keep the MR. BIG thing alive. And I was, like, 'No,' cheerleading, 'Please, no. We've gotta keep it going.' But yeah, a year and a few months ago, I was totally in agreement with everybody going, 'Yeah, this is it.' I even thought of the name 'BIG Finish'. So I put the nail in the coffin. But now I'm, like, oh, I wish I had a nice big hammer to unclog that nail. 'Cause the band's so good and so tight. The crowd's coming out. New album came out. The momentum is there. And the band just sounds so tight on stage."

Circling back to what "The BIG Finish" meant as far as the possibility of future MR. BIG live shows, Eric said: "What I mean by 'The BIG Finish' is there's no touring anymore. I would hope that we still leave the door open. I mean, I brought this up many times online. Even Nick D'Virgilio, our drummer, he goes, 'Man, we should do a residency in Indonesia or Japan or just anywhere,' like do a residency. And I go, 'Man, I just hope we can play in a few years, play four or five shows here and there, maybe play a festival with bands in our ilk.' It'd be great to keep that door open. And no response. I think also, a whole year and almost a half of touring, everybody just kind of wants to take a break. But I'm, like, 'Let's ride this wave, brother. Let's do this.' But yeah, no more touring. No more multiple dates. It's over. The big lady has sung."

In August 2024, Eric told Roppongi Rocks's Stefan Nilsson that there was no chance of him and his MR. BIG bandmates going back on their word that they would not tour ever again. "We're not the kind of band — when we say that we're gonna quit and it's over and we're not touring anymore… We may do a one-off here and there every couple of years or whatever, but we're not going to be like the MÖTLEY CRÜEs and the KISSes," he explained." And no offense to them, because the crowds keep coming to see 'em, but we're not gonna do it. We just maybe have too much pride in it."

Asked if there was a chance of MR. BIG making more studio albums in the future, Eric said: "I did an interview the other day with Billy, and… I'm not my brother's keeper. I don't know what he thinks. I know what I think, that I'd like to do albums. If we're not gonna tour anymore for different reasons — I mean, I just don't wanna tour lengthy…. This has been a year. I just can't do it. I'm too old to… Everybody goes, 'Oh, what about THE ROLLING STONES?' Yeah. What about THE ROLLING STONES? Flying in, playing one show and two weeks later playing another show. Yeah, this is back-to-back touring. Hardly any hotels. I mean, the bus will suffice, but it's like a big camping trip for older men. So, I would like to do other albums. But the interview went like this. The guy goes, 'You gonna do another album?' And I'm, like, 'I'd like to.' And Billy goes, 'No, that's it.' I'm, like, 'All right.' But he's the guy that always says, 'Never say never.'"

MR. BIG played the last show of its "The BIG Finish" farewell tour on August 23, 2024 at the Way Too Far Rock Festival in Bistrița, Romania. After the concert, Sheehan took to his social media to share a picture from the gig and he included the following message: "Romania!!! Crowd was a little bit light, but they made up for it in enthusiasm! The last MR. BIG show (not MY last show, goddammit!!).

"What a great run we've had since 1988. We made Great memories and millions (literally) of friends all around the world. My unlimited love and respect to all who listened, watched, purchased records, tickets and T -shirts. — without you we would have been nothing. Fact. Moving on now to other adventures, but never forgetting this amazing experience."

Gilbert added: "What an adventure! MR. BIG wraps up over a year of touring! Many thanks to ALL! I'll get home just in time for my son's 10th birthday. I hope he remembers who I am!"

D'Virgilio, who joined MR. BIG in 2023 as the replacement for the late Pat Torpey, commented: "It has been an amazing run with @billysheehanonbass @paulgilbert_official and @iamericmartin I've been able to rock n roll all over the world with the guys and I will be forever thankful. Big Love for MR. BIG!"

MR. BIG's tenth studio album, "Ten", was released on July 12, 2024 via Frontiers Music Srl. The LP featured 11 new original tracks written by Martin and Gilbert, along with André Pessis and Tony Fanucchi. "Ten" was produced by Jay Ruston and MR. BIG.

D'Virgilio missed most of the final European leg of MR. BIG's "The BIG Finish" tour due to his commitments with his band BIG BIG TRAIN. He was temporarily replaced on the trek by Edu Cominato, an experienced drummer from São Paulo, Brazil who has previously played with Sheehan and Martin, Jeff Scott Soto and Geoff Tate (QUEENSRŸCHE),among others.

When MR. BIG announced "The BIG Finish" tour in 2023, the bandmembers said that it was "time to mark the end of this chapter of their legacy" after drummer Pat Torpey lost his battle with Parkinson's disease in 2018. The first leg kicked off in Japan and Southeast Asia in July and August 2023, where the band performed for hundreds of thousands of loyal fans at 11 sold-out shows including Budokan in Tokyo, Japan.

MR. BIG's last-ever live album release was "The BIG Finish Live", which came out on September 6, 2024 via the Evolution Music Group.

"The BIG Finish Live" was a brand-new live album and concert film of MR. BIG's "The BIG Finish" farewell tour, where the band played their million-selling "Lean Into It" album in its entirety, plus additional MR. BIG classics.

In a new interview with Flying The Metal Flag, vocalist Jonas Renkse of Swedish masters of melancholic heaviness KATATONIA spoke about the band's latest album, "Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State", out now via Napalm Records. Asked how the record came together, Renkse replied (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I think it came together in parts pretty much, because we did a fair share of touring for the previous album, [2023's] 'Sky Void Of Stars', but I already had some music written even before that. So, when we got home from the touring cycle, I just started working immediately on the new album. And usually I just keep working until I have what I feel is a number of good songs, and I send the demos out to the other guys and they come with their input. And then that's how we usually do. So it's done a little bit in parts, writing-wise, and then we just sort of agreed to a recording date and we started recording the album October last year. So, it was a very smooth process."

After the interviewer noted that "Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State" takes the listener on a really good journey, Jonas concurred. "Yeah. And that's what we like to do always," he explained. "I mean, there's a lot of layers, there's a lot of stuff happening that you might not hear the first couple of times you listen to it. And I love that… When I listen to albums myself, I really like sort of finding new stuff every time you listen to the album. So, I think we achieved that in this record too. And I'm really happy with it."

Renkse previously discussed his songwriting process this past June in an interview with New Noise Magazine. He said at the time: "When I'm writing music, I constantly look for these little extra things: a hook, a vocal melody that I think it's helping the song so much that it's making it stand out, or sometimes it's just a sound, a keyboard sound that just makes the song pop in a way. So there's a lot of music that I throw away because they don't have that glean to them. [Those special moments are] not always about what you maybe expect, and you have to know how to look for other things that will make or break the song."

"Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State" marked the next step in KATATONIA's evolution, building upon the foundation of "Sky Void Of Stars", and also is an introduction to the band's two new guitarists. KATATONIA in 2025 is composed of Renkse, bassist Niklas Sandin, drummer Daniel Moilanen and guitarists Nico Elgstrand and Sebastian Svalland. The album was produced by Renkse, recorded by Lawrence Mackrory at NBS Audio and The City Of Glass, mixed by Adam Noble, and mastered by Robin Schmidt at 24-96 Mastering.

KATATONIA's founding guitarist Anders Nyström left the band in March 2025 after 34 years and 12 albums.

KATATONIA recently announced a 2026 North American headlining tour. The trek will immediately follow the band's previously announced run supporting fellow Swedish metallers OPETH, kicking off February 27 in San Francisco and wrapping up March 12 in Brooklyn, New York.

Photo credit: Terhi Ylimäinen

In a new interview with Strefa Music Art, former MOTÖRHEAD guitarist Phil Campbell was asked if there are any plans for PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS — in which he is joined by his sons Todd, Dane and Tyla — to record the follow-up to the band's third album, "Kings Of The Asylum", which came out in September 2023 through Nuclear Blast Records. It was PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS' first studio release to feature singer Joel Peters. Phil said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, let's say we've got about eight to 10 song ideas. Eight are kind of recorded, just very roughly jamming. So, no serious recording yet, but we've got ideas to start on and everything.

"We've been so busy all year — we get busier every year — but we have a little break now after this next tour," Phil explained. "And in January and February we will try and knuckle down and get in the studio. We're lucky that Todd has his own studio real close to where we live, so we we can go down there whenever we want. That's where I feel most comfortable and relaxed there, yeah. So there's no time pressures, [nobody] say[ing], 'No, you've gotta finish today' or 'You've gotta be out by six o'clock, because there's another band coming in.'"

Asked if that means that fans can expect new material somewhere from PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS in 2026, Phil said: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've gotta get a permanent singer yet. Joel left. We've got a great singer that's helping us out for the moment. His name is Julian Jenkins. He sings in a band called FURY. He [also] plays the guitar in a band called FURY. So he's a friend of ours. He's done a few shows with us already, and he's fantastic. So he'll be on this big [fall 2025 European] tour. Now he's helping us out. And I'm not sure what we're gonna do [after] that, but we will have a permanent replacement at some point."

Originally formed as a side project towards the last couple of years of MOTÖRHEAD by Campbell under the banner PHIL CAMPBELL'S ALL STARR BAND, the band decided to take it up a level and revealed the new name of PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS at Wacken Open Air 2016. A self-titled EP was released a few months later. Led by one of the genre’s most respected guitarists and completed by his sons Todd, Tyla and Dane, PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS emerged on to the 2017 touring circuit powered by a huge amount of good will, a smattering of MOTÖRHEAD covers and a handful of new songs that crackled with passion and swagger. Landing themselves a prestigious support slot on GUNS N' ROSES' 2017 summer stadium run, the BASTARD SONS hit the ground running.

By the time the band released their debut album, "The Age Of Absurdity", in January 2018, this honest rock and roll enterprise had organically blossomed into a pretty big deal. The album garnered widespread great reviews, picking up an award for "Best Debut Album" at Metal Hammer Germany's 2018 awards. Two years later, recorded and engineered during lockdown by guitarist Todd Campbell, the second album was just the tonic people needed. It was called "We're The Bastards" and it was bigger, better and even more raucously uplifting than its predecessor, with Top 40 national chart entries in four countries.

Campbell was a member of MOTÖRHEAD from 1984 through 2015, and for the last 20 years of the band's existence was its sole guitarist, appearing on classic releases such as "Orgasmatron", "1916" and "Bastards", among others. With Lemmy's 2015 passing, MOTÖRHEAD came to an abrupt end.

In October 2019, Phil released his first-ever solo record, "Old Lions Still Roar". The album, which had been in the works for more than five years, included guest appearances by Rob Halford (JUDAS PRIEST),Dee Snider (TWISTED SISTER) and Alice Cooper, among others.

Lemmy died on December 28, 2015 at the age of 70 shortly after learning he had been diagnosed with cancer.

Posted by Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons on Wednesday, November 12, 2025

In a new interview with Thomas S. Orwat, Jr. of Rock Interview Series, DANGEROUS TOYS singer Jason McMaster spoke about the possibility of a new album from the Texas rock veterans who have not released any fresh material since 1995. Jason said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "The calendar days are flying by, and we honestly — this is gonna make us sound really lazy — but we don't see each other very often. And so the [new] songs that we do have were kind of written by me and Scott [Dalhover, guitar] via e-mail. He records some stuff. I record over here. He gets with Mark [Geary, drums] somehow, some way, and we've recorded some vocals. And we've had to travel hours to go somewhere to be in the same room to get anything done. And that's kind of the issue. And this is truth — when we're not at our day jobs, we're losing money. And so it sounds terrible, but when it's convenient for us to get together, we're usually preparing for a couple of shows we're about to do as weekend warriors, if you will, and not necessarily recording or working on this new riff that we have."

Jason continued: "[The] Cleopatra [record label] really wants us to put together a record. We have a contract that has not been signed yet for a new record, and we have the contract. I don't think it's gonna turn to dust or anything, but we haven't penned anything on it. And we still need about probably four more tunes for us to feel, like, 'Okay, now we have a record. Now we've got 10, 11, 12 songs.' So that's kind of where we are. But, yeah, we're playing 'Hangman Boogie', we're playing 'Hold Your Horses', we played one called 'One's Too Many' recently. There's a couple of more that I don't wanna mention titles of. But there's probably six or seven tunes that I could confidently say that, whether they're done being recorded or not — there's probably like five that we have done [and] recorded."

McMaster also seemingly ruled out the possibility of releasing standalone singles, explaining: "I don't wanna release an EP. That's just me. I wanna release 10 songs, 11 songs [as a full body of work]."

On December 12, DANGEROUS TOYS released "Demolition" on CD, vinyl and limited-edition cassette via Cleopatra Records.

"Demolition" features 10 tracks, all previously unreleased and recorded during the hiatus between the band's second and third albums, 1991's "Hellacious Acres" and 1994's "Pissed", as DANGEROUS TOYS continued refining their debut album's unique concoction of Southern rock and driving metal.

Founded in 1987, DANGEROUS TOYS released four full-length albums and one live album before unofficially disbanding at the turn of the millennium.

DANGEROUS TOYS' self-titled debut album, which came out in 1989, eventually went gold (although it took until 1994),while the group's follow-up, 1991's "Hellacious Acres", failed to launch.

A few years ago, McMaster was asked by Metal Edge magazine why he thinks "Hellacious Acres" failed to reach the same levels of success as DANGEROUS TOYS' debut. He responded: "I think it had a lot to do with the whole Seattle movement. That record came out in '91, the same year NIRVANA and PEARL JAM dropped their first albums. But a lot of people got really into grunge, and that buried a band like DANGEROUS TOYS. It felt like the streets in cities like L.A. emptied, and everyone changed their wardrobes overnight. So, when I think of 'Hellacious Acres', I think about what could have been. It's an awesome record, and at the time, it boggled my mind that people weren't into it."

Asked if that is what led to DANGEROUS TOYS eventually being dropped from Columbia, McMaster said: "Absolutely. You had this new style of rock music that had all these people latching on to it, and it killed bands like us. The radio and MTV wanted nothing to do with us and refused to play our stuff. So, an album like 'Hellacious Acres' never had a chance. Couple that with the giant moguls and money-making machines throwing all their weight behind grunge and acts like DANGEROUS TOYS were essentially dead in the water. So, with Columbia, labels have to do whatever the trends say they must do for them to pay their giant rents or whatever. It wasn't a shock that Columbia jumped ship on us, just like all the other major labels did with other bands. I mean… I know they were trying their best to have some sort of ditch effort with Alice Cooper, JUDAS PRIEST, METAL CHURCH and MOTÖRHEAD around that time, but it didn't matter. If you played hard rock or metal, you were screwed. By '91, they cleaned the shelf of all that was popular in the '80s, which meant sleazy hard rock was dying, and our record and our deal died with it."

Image courtesy of Memnoch's Curse

In a new interview with São Paulo, Brazil's 89 FM A Rádio Rock radio station, guitarist Michael "Padge" Paget of Welsh metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's upcoming eighth album. Regarding the musical direction of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's next LP, he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Every album is completely different. Matt [Tuck, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE guitarist/vocalist] being sort of the main songwriter, the boss, if you will, he's dedicated to never writing the same album twice, 'cause he likes to sort of test himself and sort of expand and push boundaries and see where, the band and the music can go, et cetera. I guess that's the hunger of being a musician and a writer, I guess."

He continued: "It's definitely gonna be BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, if you will, with all the same sort of formulas. But it's gonna be well different and it's gonna be very impressive. And we've worked for a long time on this and we've worked very hard. There's so many fucking songs, man, so many different styles. There's probably about three albums' worth of music, so we have to get back home now and sort of wean out the really different ones and sort of get a bunch together, which is sort of a theme, because there's some seriously different shit on this, stuff we've never sort of dipped a big toe into. But maybe in the future that will show itself again, maybe we will sort of give a little taste on this next album, but I think we've got a good idea where we are gonna go with it."

Earlier this month, Paget told Brazil's 92.5 Kiss FM about BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's upcoming LP: "We've been writing and demoing for a probably a year now at least. So there's lots and lots of music.

"Our next album is very, very important to us," he explained. "And we take every opportunity to write and demo whenever we can, whenever we're off the road, et cetera. Matt worked really hard himself as well also; he busts his ass."

Regarding the musical direction of the new BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE material, Paget said:  "Dude, there's so many different — there's so many songs. And there's so many different styles, tunings, arrangements. We can't really define the style until we get back home and then streamline and find the theme of the album. But it goes from seven-string drop fucking G to 'Hearts Burst Into Fire'-type stuff. It's so vast. So it could mean anything, but I think we know where we're gonna go with it. But there's so many songs. We are really working hard on this one."

In a separate interview with Igor Miranda of Rolling Stone Brasil, Tuck said that the new BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE album was "still in the writing and the pre-production phase. I think January 5th, we've got to get back in to finish that, and I think around the 1st of February, we've set aside the time to actually track the album for real," he said.

Matt continued: "It's taken us a bit longer than we anticipated, but a lot of things have come up very last minute, but that's okay. I've got my guitar here [at the hotel room during BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's Latin American tour], we've got laptops here, we're cracking on in the hotel and having fun and being creative. Hopefully we'll have new music out around April, May time; that's what we're aiming for."

On the topic of what the new BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE material sounds like, Matt said: "If I had to describe what the album feels like, it's a cross between the last album [2021's 'Bullet For My Valentine'], [2010's] 'Fever' and [2005's] 'The Poison'. It really feels like it's a mash-up of all those really big moments for our band. And it's not something we've tried to do: that's just how this writing process has been. We've just kind of just gone with it. I think genuinely this album is going to appeal to a lot of people. I think it's got all the right ingredients that people have loved about BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE. Could it be the most definitive BULLET record yet? Possibly, yeah. We're excited."

At this year's Download festival at Leicestershire, United Kingdom's Donington Park, Paget spoke to Neil Jones of TotalRock about BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's decision to cut its "The Poisoned Ascendancy" tour with TRIVIUM short in order to focus on making a new album. He said: "Yeah, unfortunately, there's just not enough time. We started writing the [new BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE] album back last year, demos and stuff, which is going really, really well. To finish writing now and record by the end of the year, due to us touring what we've done so far, and then this summer run, to continue writing and finish up all the demos, then record in the studio, then process it to get new music and the album out by next year, we just don't have time. And time seems to be going so fast, so we just had to make our decision to focus on one thing or the other. And the album came first. So we chose the album, and we're gonna get stuck into that now… And hopefully there'll be new music out early next year and the album in the summer sometime."

As it pertains to the musical direction of the new BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE material, Paget said: "It's gonna be super heavy. We mess around with some crazy tuning on this one, something we haven't done before. So it's gonna be really interesting and fresh for the fans — and us. I think [we have a song in] drop G [tuning]. But, yeah, all of the usual BULLET trademarks are there. It's in our DNA, so hooks, the vocal melodies, the huge choruses, big guitars, all the standard stuff's gonna be there, but definitely different to what we've ever done before."

Michael went on to say that he and his BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE bandmates want to break some new ground on their upcoming eighth album. "We've always said we never wanna make the same album twice," he explained. "One, I think it's cop-out because we've already done it. We'll never do what 'The Poison' did for a debut album. And we like to keep it fresh for ourselves and challenge ourselves, make it interesting for the fans.

"Music changes over time, and there's classic metal, there's metalcore, there's modern metal, there's contemporary metal, this new wave of modern metal as well now coming out," he added. "So we've gotta keep up with the curve and do our thing, but our way. So, so it's gonna be interesting, but I think people are really gonna love it. It's gonna be awesome."

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE spent the first half of 2025 celebrating the 20th anniversary of its debut album, "The Poison", on tours of Europe and North America.

Released in 2005, "The Poison" propelled BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE to unimaginable heights. That year saw the Welsh metallers graduate from supporting FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND on their U.K. run in the summer, to ending the year headlining the very same venues just months later. Dropping in October 2005, "The Poison" hit number 21 in the U.K. album charts, becoming a late contender in end of year polls, placing at number seven on Kerrang!'s "Albums Of The Year" list, and since achieving gold status.

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and TRIVIUM were on the road together earlier this year to celebrate the joint 20th anniversaries of their respective albums "The Poison" and "Ascendancy".

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE released the deluxe version of its latest, self-titled album in August 2022 via Spinefarm/Search & Destroy. This extended release featured four brand new tracks, plus "Stitches", a song previously only available as a Japanese exclusive. Following the CD and digital releases, a vinyl pressing launched in November 2022.

Peter Criss has shot down reports that he is asking fans to pay $1,000 for a digital download of his new solo album.

The original KISS drummer's Bandcamp page is offering Peter's self-titled effort on vinyl for $32.98 and on compact disc for $14.98, but lists a price of the aforementioned $1,000 for the digital version of the LP. The site also states that the CD and vinyl editions of "Peter Criss" come with a download code.

"Digital purchases are discouraged," reads a note on Criss's Bandcamp page. "That's why the high price."

Earlier today (Monday, December 22),Criss shared the following message via his social media: "Hello KISS Army! Bandcamp had become an issue and I had requested Flatiron Recordings to disable the account associated with my records before the release day of my New record on December 19, 2025.

"I am not in control of the Bandcamp account. Flatiron Recordings is. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and for the misinformation and implication that I am charging $1,000 for a download of my New record - I am Not. Please contact Flatiron Recordings with any purchase questions. Please find another outlet to purchase My New Peter Criss Rock Record . There is a Linktree on my website www.petercriss.net of outlets to purchase my new record. Just click the link for my record and it will show you the Linktree . Please use one of those instead of Bandcamp.

"Thank you all!

"God Bless, Peter Criss".

Meanwhile, "Peter Criss" is currently available for digital download on the iTunes store for just $9.99.

Peter told Billboard about his new solo album: "I put my heart and soul into it. My voice, I'm still singing like a bird. Boy, am I lucky. I felt I was in control and I was enjoying myself; you can hear me laughing on the record. We all had a great time, and we all had a part in it. It was like having a dream band. You can feel it in the music. It was just really wonderful. I haven't had the experience of doing a record like that since maybe KISS's first album. I felt like I was 20 years old again."

"Peter Criss" was co-produced by Criss alongside Barry Pointer, who has worked with Ozzy Osbourne, John 5, MÖTLEY CRÜE, Steve Stevens, Pearl Aday and Dolly Parton. Joining the legendary KISS musician on the LP are Billy Sheehan and Matthew Montgomery (a.k.a. Piggy D.) on bass, John 5 and Mike McLaughlin on guitar and Paul Shaffer on piano. The record also features the talents of backing vocalists Dennis and Sharon Collins, and Cat Manning of CAT 5.

The album will be Criss's first solo release since 2007's "One For All", which arrived 13 years after his previous solo release.

Regarding the new LP's musical and lyrical direction, Criss told Billboard: "There's a little bit of everything in there. Now that I'm a senior citizen or whatever, I wanted to write a little about politics, a little good ol' rock 'n' roll. Music is so powerful, as you know. You can really pour your heart and soul into something…and I did. I hope my fans love it. I promised them I would do a rock album after 'One For All', and I kept my promise."

On the topic of the likelihood of Criss playing live shows in support of "Peter Criss", he told Billboard: "If the album really knocks the fans out, would I go out? Sure. I wouldn't mind getting back on stage, getting the guys together to do a couple shows. Why not? I'm in pretty good condition for an old guy; everything is working, maybe a little bit of arthritis here and there, but I still play the drums a few times a week. So, yeah, I hope it does get to that point. I'm just gonna let it flow and see how my fans accept it."

"Peter Criss" track listing:

01. Rock, Rockin', Rock & Roll (feat. Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
02. In The Dark (feat. Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
03. For The Money (feat. Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
04. Murder (feat. Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
05. Walking On Water (feat. Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
06. Creepy Crawlers (feat. John 5, Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
07. Justice (feat. John 5, Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
08. Cheaper To Keep Her (feat. Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
09. Sugar (feat. Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
10. Rubberneckin' (feat. John 5, Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer)
11. Hard Rock Knockers (feat. Billy Sheehan and Paul Shaffer) (bonus track)

In an interview with The Music Universe, Criss stated about his new solo LP: "Oh, my Lord. It's taken me a year [to prepare it for release]. There's some very political stuff, but I wrote a song called 'Walking On Water', which is about my beating cancer. I'm a very religious guy. I am a Catholic kid. And I got some great players on it. I got Paul Shaffer and Billy Sheehan and Mike McLaughlin, Johnny 5. So I'm pretty excited. It's coming out on the 19th, and my birthday's on the 20th. I'll be turning 80."

This past April, Peter told The Rock Experience With Mike Brunn about his rock solo album: "Yeah, I'm excited. I got great players on it. I got Billy Sheehan, Paul Shaffer, Johnny 5, Michael, my guitarist, [and] I got Piggy from ROB ZOMBIE. So it's like a dream team band. And it's a real Peter Criss album. It's an album I always wanted to do. And hopefully the fans will like it."

The first details of Criss's new rock solo album were released in April by famed KISStorian Julian Gill, who has been running the KissFAQ.com web site since the mid-1990s.

Criss had previously touched upon a new solo album back in 2014, promising at the time that the LP would be "heavier" than the stuff he had done in the past. Speaking to an audience of fans at a question-and-answer session at the All Things That Rock festival in Oaks, Pennsylvania, Criss stated about the progress of the recording sessions for the follow-up to "One For All": "I've been sitting on a record … I'd done this thing, like, five years ago and I'm still messing with it. I'm not done, because I don't wanna rush it."

Criss revealed at the time that he had been working with John 5, but added: "I wanna take my time with it. I'm constantly putting time into it. I want it to be heavier than I've usually done my stuff, and then I'll get, 'It's too heavy. You should go back and do light stuff.' Because fans are never happy. You guys aren't! No matter what we ever do, you're like, 'Oh, that sucks. I want this.' [Or] 'He's playing that ballad shit again.'"

Criss first left KISS in 1980. Since then he's worked with other bands and released solo albums. He teamed up with KISS again for a reunion tour in the 1990s and most recently in 2004. He was replaced by Eric Singer.

In addition to playing drums in KISS, Peter also provided lead vocals for a number the band's most popular and memorable songs, including "Beth", "Black Diamond" and "Hard Luck Woman".

Criss, who was known as "Catman," released his last solo CD, titled "One For All", in 2007. Peter produced the album himself for the first time, and was joined by guest musicians that included keyboardist Paul Shaffer and bassist Will Lee of "Late Night With David Letterman". The album featured a range of styles, from rock and jazz to blues and Broadway, and included covers of "What A Difference A Day Makes" and "Send In The Clowns".

Criss played what was being billed as his final full U.S. concert in June 2017 at the Cutting Room in New York City.

Peter last appeared onstage with all three other original members of KISS when the group was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2014, though he and his former bandmates didn't perform at the event.

On April 25, 2025, Criss was presented with the Legacy Award at Raven Drum Foundation's event at New York City's famed Cutting Room.

Criss and the other two surviving original members of KISS — guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley and bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons — received a Kennedy Center Honor at a December 7 ceremony which will air on December 23 on CBS.

Original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley died on October 16 after a fall at his New Jersey home. He was 74 years old. His cause of death was listed as blunt trauma injuries to his head due to a fall, according to a report from the Morris County Medical Examiner. The manner of his death was ruled an accident.

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A new live album from late IRON MAIDEN frontman Paul Di'Anno will be posthumously released in 2026. It will be the singer's last live LP, recorded in late August 2024 at the Stonedead festival at Newark Showground in Newark-on-Trent, England.

Earlier today, the following message was shared on Di'Anno's social media: "Dear fans. Less than a month ago, we announced that the last Paul Di'Anno live album would be released in 2026, recorded on his last UK tour, specifically at the Stonedead Festival in 2024, less than two months before his death.

"We would like to thank the promoter Chris Sumby who gave us the audio files for free and made it possible for this album to finally see the light of day.

"Paul's Norwegian backing band, together with the producers and the record label, is working diligently on this project, whose name and cover page we decided to reveal in the first months of 2026. At the same time, the record label will be announced, and in the meantime, Henrik Haugsnes Kaupang, Paul's drummer, made a video in which he explains their motivations for releasing this album.

"We listened to your wishes and although the plan was to release only strictly unlimited vinyl, there will also be a smaller amount of CDs for sale for fans and collectors who want it. All of Paul's rights and royalties arising from this album will, of course, be passed on to his legal heir.

"We wish you all pleasant holidays and a happy New Year. These days, the long-awaited third book from 'The Beast' trilogy entitled 'The Last Days Of The Beast' will be published, which you can order at www.maidencroatia.com."

Professionally filmed video of Di'Anno's performance at Stonedead can be seen below.

As previously reported, an official documentary about Di'Anno, "Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer", will also be released in 2026. The film was helmed by Wes Orshoski, co-director and producer of the acclaimed 2010 film "Lemmy" about the MOTÖRHEAD icon, and 2015's "The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead", about punk rock legends THE DAMNED.

On October 21, Wes took to his Instagram to write about "Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer": "I started shooting this film in 2017 and for years there wasn't much to capture. Paul was in a wheelchair, desperately waiting for surgeries that doctors in the U.K. refused to greenlight. By the time the pandemic hit, Paul's health had nosedived. And that's when everything changed for him and my film. Kastro Pergjoni, who runs the Cart & Horses pub in London (known as 'The Birthplace of IRON MAIDEN') launched a crowd-funding campaign to help Paul take control of his own destiny. MAIDEN fans around the world gave. And Croatian MAIDEN superfan/writer Stjepan Juras lobbied for Paul to seek treatment in Zagreb, where he could be treated affordably. Paul acquiesced. Without question, Kastro and Stjepan not only changed Paul's life, they extended it. My film largely documents their efforts, which were without question responsible for nearly all of the good moments at the end of Paul's life."

In August 2024, Di'Anno discussed the status of the documentary in an interview with George Dionne of KNAC.COM. Paul said: "Wes is a good mate of ours. He'd done the MOTÖRHEAD rockumentary. He'd done THE DAMNED [one] as well. And he's a great guy. We've had this in the pipeline for a couple of years now. The unfortunate part about it is we had to take our time in between when he can come over and do this. But the unfortunate thing is I'm sitting in a fucking wheelchair, which is a pain in the ass, but what are you gonna do?"

Asked by Dionne if the documentary will focus on a particular portion of Di'Anno's life or if it will cover everything from beginning to end, Paul said: "Everything. But you'll see the determination sometimes and the despair. And it goes through the whole lot of emotions and stuff. It's a bit strange."

Di'Anno added: "I trust Wes. He's got me in all sorts of weird situations. He even wanted to come in and fucking film the operation. And they said, 'No.'"

Di'Anno was laid to rest on November 21, 2024 at the City Of London Cemetery And Crematorium in Manor Park, East London, United Kingdom.

Di'Anno, whose real name was Paul Andrews, passed away on October 21, 2024 at his home in Salisbury at the age of 66.

An official statement shared to Di'Anno's Facebook page on November 11, 2024 with permission from the late musician's family revealed that his cause of death was caused by a "tear in the sac around the heart."

"Dear fans and friends," the statement began. "We have received permission from Paul's family to bring you the news of Paul's cause of death, after the results of the autopsy have been received."

It continued, "His sisters Cheryl and Michelle confirmed the following: 'Basically he had a tear in the sac around the heart and blood has filled inside it from the main aorta artery and that has caused the heart to stop.' Paul's death was instantaneous and hopefully painless. May he rest in peace."

Born in Chingford, East London on May 17, 1958, Paul first came to prominence as lead singer of English heavy metal band IRON MAIDEN between 1978 and 1981. He sang on their groundbreaking debut album "Iron Maiden" and the influential follow-up release, "Killers".

Since leaving IRON MAIDEN, Paul Di'Anno had a long and eventful recording career with BATTLEZONE and KILLERS as well as numerous solo releases and guest appearances.

Despite being troubled by severe health issues in recent years that restricted him to performing in a wheelchair, Paul continued to entertain his fans around the world, racking up well over 100 shows since 2023.

His first career retrospective album, "The Book Of The Beast", was released in September 2024 and featured highlights of his recordings since leaving IRON MAIDEN.

In December 2022, Di'Anno spent time in Split, Croatia recording an album with his new project called WARHORSE. The band was formed earlier that year by Di'Anno and two guitarists/authors, Hrvoje Madiraca and Ante "Pupi" Pupačić. The resulting LP was made available in July 2024 under the PAUL DI'ANNO'S WARHORSE banner.

WARHORSE previously recorded three songs, two of which — "Stop The War" and "The Doubt Within" — were released in May 2022 as a special DVD single along with Paul's video message to all fans who bought the single and thus helped raise funds for his knee operation.

The WARHORSE single marked Di'Anno's first music release after a seven-year hiatus due to severe health issues.

Di'Anno, who finally underwent his knee surgery in September 2022, played the first show since the operation on October 1, 2022 at the Keep It True Rising II festival in Würzburg, Germany.

In May 2022, Di'Anno came face to face with MAIDEN bassist and founder Steve Harris for the first time in three decades before the band's concert in Croatia. Also in May 2022, Paul played his first full solo concert in seven years at the Bikers Beer Factory in Zagreb. The show was filmed and parts of it will be included in the "Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer" documentary.

In a new interview with Metallerium, AGNOSTIC FRONT frontman Roger Miret was asked if he pays attention to reviews — positive or negative— once he and his bandmates have released a new album. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, it's just that — it's just a review, it's just someone's opinion. I don't put out an album and expect everybody to like it. That's just not realistic. I just put out a record, and I'm a hundred percent behind it. I love it. I like it, and I'm hoping other people like it. And if, for some whatever reason, they don't like it, okay. Maybe they didn't like it in the first time. Maybe they'll like it later. Maybe they just don't like it, and I'm okay with it. I'm not gonna sit here and comment on people liking it or not liking it. I'm just gonna present my songs live with a hundred percent behind 'em because I love them and I genuinely am behind them. And then some of those people just prefer other records or other songs, and they could just come and enjoy what we we're doing anyway. Some people just don't like us, and there's nothing you could ever do to make them happy."

Miret also talked about the lyrical inspiration for the songs on AGNOSTIC FRONT's latest album, "Echoes In Eternity", which came out in November via Reigning Phoenix Music. He said: "Well, lyrically wise, I do speak about sociopolitical stuff, which is stuff that goes around me on a day-to-day basis. I speak about overcoming oppression. So during the making of this album, we all experienced that — between [2019's] 'Get Loud!' and this album, we all experienced what you call the pandemic, and everybody lost two years of their life. Those two years of your life, you could just erase 'em. You didn't do anything. You just sat around and got on your computer and you couldn't go anywhere, you couldn't do nothing, you couldn't travel. So that's two years waste of life. I mean, during those two years I was writing little things, of course, and then I got hit with cancer, and I was writing little things, of course."

Roger continued: "I like to write, scribble stuff, and I don't write a whole song until I'm ready to write a whole song. Basically, I hear the music and I hear a line, and then I go from there. It's never deliberately, I have all these lyrics and I have to make all these lyrics fit in this song — it doesn't work that way. It has to really mean something to me.

"My guys, we're very open with each other," Miret explained. "We help each other. I don't mind anybody switching any of my vocals. I don't mind somebody contributing vocals. I mean, we're a band, we're a unit and we have a sixth member, which is our producer, Mike Dijan, who's also contributing in production. A lot of my lyrics [were] changed — [they] put some of my lyrics in this song, and this one in that song, and I was all okay with it, because we're all basically brothers and I'm not gonna stick to something. And I've had situations where people want something one way, but it just didn't feel right or something I wouldn't say or I wouldn't do. And then I have to do the convincing, like, 'Hey, I would never say this or do this. Maybe, could we word it like this?' Something like that. And it always works out. It always works out."

In September 2021, Miret revealed that his cancer was in remission.

After Miret was diagnosed with cancer in early 2021, a long road of tests and diagnoses led to a complex initial surgery and lengthy hospital stay. Even though the original surgery was complicated, the results were extremely positive.

Born in Cuba, Miret fled with his family to the U.S. to escape the Castro regime. He joined AGNOSTIC FRONT in 1983, and the seminal New York hardcore group released classics like "United Blood", "Victim In Pain" and "Cause For Alarm" over the next several years.

In 2017, Miret released a memoir, "My Riot: Agnostic Front, Grit, Guts, And Glory", which documented his struggles to adapt to life in the U.S. after his family fled the Castro regime. According to the Phoenix New Times, the book delved into many facets of Miret's life: the grinding poverty of his childhood; living as a teenager squatter; becoming deeply enmeshed in downtown New York’s hardcore scene; and later turning to drug-running to support his family.

In addition to fronting AGNOSTIC FRONT, Miret has also played with ROGER MIRET AND THE DISASTERS and is a member of THE ALLIGATORS.

For the past several years, Roger has resided in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Photo courtesy of Reigning Phoenix Music / C Squared Music

WITHERING SCORN, the new band featuring former MEGADETH drummer Shawn Drover and his brother, and fellow ex-MEGADETH member, Glen Drover, along with former FATES WARNING bassist Joe DiBiase and German singer Henning Basse, who has previously played with FIREWIND, METALIUM and MAYAN, has completed work on its second album, "Sanctum Of The Depraved". The effort will be the follow-up to WITHERING SCORN's debut, "Prophets Of Demise", which came out in July 2023 via Frontiers Music Srl.

On Friday (December 19),Shawn shared a video update on his social media in which he said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): " Hey, everybody. Happy holidays. Shawn Drover here from WITHERING SCORN. I haven't posted anything in a while, although there has been some cool stuff going on.

"What we did was we had the record pretty much done, and there was one song that Glen wasn't vibing on in particular," he explained. "Joe and myself as well liked the song — not quite as much as the others. It was a little more commercial sounding or whatever, although it's a complete metal track anyway. But Glen had this instrumental tune he was working on, and so we omitted the more commercial song and had to record and finish writing and record this instrumental track that he had. And I'm glad we did that, because it turns out to be a really cool track. It's something different for the record, and I'm really glad that we did that in hindsight now. But that pretty much cost us four or five weeks of time."

Shawn continued: "So anyway, the record is completely done. And also we had to change, with the liner notes of the artwork and all that stuff, the songtitle had to be changed and all this stuff, which took a little bit time. But the good news is Max Norman mastered the entire record. It sounds fantastic. We have all the artwork, everything ready to go. And after the holidays, beginning of the year, we're gonna send it off, which takes about, I believe, 10 weeks or so. So realistically, we're probably looking at somewhere mid to end March that we'll get the physical vinyl, colored vinyl and CD in our hands. And, of course, I'll keep you updated on that."

Drover added: "But that's where we're at. 'Sanctum Of The Depraved' is a hundred percent completely done. And if you like the first record, you're definitely gonna dig this one too. We're really proud of it. And it's taken some time, but the world's not gonna blow up if you don't get the WITHERING SCORN record in the next two weeks. We wanted it to be right, and I'm glad Glen made that judgment call to put the instrumental track on there. 'Cause now the record's even better."

"Sanctum Of The Depraved" will be released independently on vinyl, CD, and digital. To make this happen, WITHERING SCORN has launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover the costs of manufacturing, artwork and promotion.

WITHERING SCORN was formed in 2020 by Glen and Shawn, who previously played together in MEGADETH, as well as in EIDOLON. The pair teamed up once again for their latest musical offering and are joined by DiBiase, who played with FATES WARNING for 14 years on multiple records and world tours, and Basse.

In a July 2023 interview with Sleaze Roxx, Shawn stated about how WITHERING SCORN came together: "It really started with the pandemic. Since the music industry was basically shut down in terms of touring, Glen and I started to write some new songs and possibly put a new record together, so we asked our friend Joe DiBiase if he was interested, to which he was and we did the same with our singer Henning Basse. So the four of us, over the course of the next three years on and off, put ['Prophets Of Demise'] together which was released worldwide via Frontiers Records. We are really proud of the work we put into this record."

In a separate interview with Antichrist Magazine, Glen described "Prophets Of Demise" as "an old-school heavy metal album with lots of dynamics." He added: "Musically, we have never really strayed away from writing heavy metal music, so this wasn’t anything difficult to do, really."

Regarding the lineup for WITHERING SCORN, Glen said: "Well, in this situation, it worked out very well. Sometimes the chemistry is off when you put a certain lineup together, whereas in this situation, we all get along and work very well together. [I] could not be happier."

Asked how the new band is different and similar to his previous collaborations with Glen, Shawn told the "Nothing Shocking" podcast: "It's been really similar to the first band that Glen and I did years ago, which was a band called EIDOLON. We released, actually, five records on Metal Blade in the early 2000s, right before we both got into MEGADETH. And the dynamic of that was that I write most of the material. Although Glen does contribute to some of it, I usually have the main germ of ideas, and, of course, he records all that stuff. So he's kind of a studio guy. He's the guitar player, but he handles all of the studio recording affairs, and I just kind of take on the job of creating most of the music. And we finetune it — he tweaks it and kind of makes it his own in a way. But that's kind of the working relationship we have with that. Because if Glen wrote all the music, I'd basically be doing nothing, and he would have to tackle all the work on his own. So we made a decision years ago — that was back in the mid-'90s, actually, when we put out our first bit of music, before we got signed to Metal Blade — that's always been the working dynamic, is I create most of the material, and he handles all the recording affairs with that. And it's worked out quite well. So that's what we're doing this time as well."

Shawn joined MEGADETH in 2004 as the replacement for Nick Menza, who had only just rejoined the group. Drover performed on four MEGADETH studio records: 2007's "United Abominations", 2009's "Endgame", 2011's "TH1RT3EN" and 2013's "Super Collider".

Glen Drover left MEGADETH at the end of 2007 and was replaced by Chris Broderick, who previously played with NEVERMORE and JAG PANZER.

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Michael Sweet of Christian hard rockers STRYPER will release his long-in-the-works inspirational solo album, "The Master Plan", in early 2026 via Frontiers Music Srl.

On Sunday (December 21),Sweet took to his social media to write: "I'm so happy to say that my new solo inspirational album, 'The Master Plan' is coming after the new year! The first single will most likely be released by the end of January!"

Michael continued: "I can say that it's unlike anything that I've ever done before. It's a worship album but I'm calling it an 'inspirational' album, based on the fact that it really doesn't sound like any other worship album. Every song is unique and stands on its own, yet it all blends together and sounds complete.

"It's been basically sitting on a shelf for a few years due to not really knowing exactly how I wanted to release it. I thought about doing so on my own and then I decided to pass it around to labels. Frontiers heard it and loved it! Even though it's not their typical format, I'm so happy to see their excitement and commitment to the album and to everything that I do musically. It's a breath of fresh air and it will inspire you and encourage you, I promise!"

Sweet added: "On another note, the new STRYPER album is complete (writing). I wanted to get it done sooner than later due to everything going on. I'll post some audio/videos of that once we start and get into it.

"And last but not least, I really do hope that you all are enjoying [STRYPER's recently released Christmas album] 'The Greatest Gift Of All'. If you haven't heard it, check it out.

"Merry Christmas and God bless you all".

Back in September, Sweet said that he "really" believed that "The Master Plan" was "meant to be delayed" and he hoped that the record would "inspire and heal during these difficult times." He wrote at the time: "Everything is in God's hands and according to His timing/plan."

Earlier in the year, Michael stated about his inspiration for "The Master Plan": "I've thought about releasing a record like this for many years and to see it actually coming to fruition is beyond amazing. I'm a blessed man and very thankful for the opportunities.

"The goal with this album was to just make people feel good. Musically and lyrically. If someone puts it on and listens to it and feels peace and comfort, I've done my job. That's all that I can hope for. That's all that I've prayed for."

STRYPER's latest album, "When We Were Kings", came out in September 2024 via Frontiers Music Srl.

Formed 42 years ago, STRYPER's name comes from Isaiah 53:5, which states: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

STRYPER's other albums include "To Hell With The Devil", "Second Coming", "No More Hell To Pay", "Fallen", "God Damn Evil", "Even The Devil Believes" and "The Final Battle".

Michael is joined in STRYPER by Oz Fox (guitar),Robert Sweet (drums) and Perry Richardson (bass).

I’m so happy to say that my new solo inspirational album, “The Master Plan” is coming after the new year!

The first...

Posted by Michael Sweet on Sunday, December 21, 2025

In a new interview with Peter Kerr of Rock Daydream Nation, former SEPULTURA and current SOULFLY frontman Max Cavalera was asked if writing lyrics is still his least favorite part of the record-making process. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I like singing them. I enjoy singing, especially [on the latest SOULFLY album] 'Chama'. 'Chama' is a record where I came back to hitting myself again in the studio to really feel the songs. And even if you get bruised up, it's all part of the experience — scratch yourself to get the goosebumps. And I like singing them. I like singing when people write something, or the lyrics. On this album ['Chama'], my sons helped me with the lyrics. And some of their lyrics were great, they were amazing, and I really loved singing them. A lot of times I do hit some real good liners that I really like. But honestly, yeah, it feels like homework. It's tedious. It's not my favorite cup of tea. I prefer to spend time with my guitar, writing riffs. That's where I really love it, that I really enjoy it. But it's a necessary evil. You need the lyrics… But honestly, honestly talking, speaking to you, I don't like it. It's the least favorite [part] of a whole record-making [process]; the lyrics is my least favorite. And then there's other people that love it. Like my son Igor — he says he worships words. He's a writer of books, so he loves words."

Max continued: "I love when you find something that is gonna fit the song and then you go sing it and it's fits perfectly. And then you know, even before you ever play that one live, 'When I sing this live, people are gonna go off. They're gonna love it. They're gonna sing together.' It's kind of — we call it the 'hooks'. Sometimes you gotta have the hooks. They're almost like nursery rhymes, lullabies for kids. The simpler, the better. To me, songs like [SEPULTURA's] 'Roots Bloody Roots' are the simplest [and the catchiest]… I actually tried to redo it for [SOULFLY's] 'Eye For An Eye'. I tried to redo it, and sometimes that magic you only catch it once. You can try to catch it again and it's not gonna be the same as the original. The original is always the best one, the greatest one."

SOULFLY's thirteenth album, "Chama", came out on October 24 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Last month, SOULFLY kicked off the "Favela Dystopia" 2025 West Coast tour with GO AHEAD AND DIE. The 17-date trek launched on November 1 in Roswell and headed to Denver, Spokane and Fresno, among other cities, before concluding in Flagstaff on November 23.

SOULFLY drummer — and Max's son — Zyon Cavalera co-produced "Chama", which was recorded at the Platinum Underground Studio in Mesa, Arizona by John Aquilino. John has worked with Max and company multiple times before and is not only a talented engineer but a family friend. The album was produced by Zyon and Arthur Rizk. The latter was also responsible for the mixing and mastering. Rizk has not only worked with the Cavalera family numerous times before, but has also helped to shape the world of heavy metal in the modern day. SOULFLY enlisted Carletta Parrish to create the album artwork. For the album, Igor Amadeus Cavalera (GO AHEAD & DIE, NAILBOMB, HEALING MAGIC) played bass and Mike De Leon played guitar.